Another summer winding down...

Gosh it has been a crazy, whirlwind of a summer...

We started off our summer at the end of May... Our daughter and I flew to my parents home in MD. We had a terrific 11 day stay that was planned around my Mom-Mom's 80th Birthday Party!! It was a terrific party where I was able to see lots of faces of family members that I have not seen in years. Mom-Mom seemed to be completly surprised and she had a great time that day!





The boys were able to spend about 3 weeks with their grandparents in MO during this time. They had tons of fun, from going to the skateboard park, to Silverdollar City, Kanakuk Camps, and even a plane trip to their Aunt and Uncle's home in TX!!


Upon the return of our whole family... we switched to baseball/softball/t-ball mode! June was full of games here and there almost every night during the week.



The middle of June we made a trip to IL to Grandma's home. Grandma fell and broke her hip and was in the hospital for several days. We were able to help around the garden, yard, and inside the home making room for a wheelchair to be able to get around. The kiddo's just loved being on the farm!!




We finished June with baseball and softball tournaments... Brekyn's team took 1st place!!

The last few days of June and the start of August found Griffin at church day camp. He had a terrific time each of the three days! He looks forward to a couple more years when he gets to stay a whole week just like his brothers and sister do.

We had a good time July 4th with friends from IL visiting and helping out with our churches kid's carnival games. We saw the parade in the late morning, followed by another parade in the late afternoon. The rains really put a damper on the parades, but they still took place. The evening brought dry weather for a beautiful July 4th fireworks display!!

Sunday we received a phone call just as we were leaving church... A call that still shocks me to this day! My Mom-mom died in her sleep the morning of July 5th. We made an emergency trip to MD leaving at 3am Monday morning and arriving back home at 5:15am Friday morning. I think of Mom-mom often, but I still don't think it has truly set in. I will miss my Mom-mom dearly!!!

We went straight from MD into our 4-H fair week. The kiddo's are very involved in 4-H, so we had a very full week of projects, judging, showing dogs and hamster, and just lots of fun doing the many fair activities! The boys (only our three oldest are in 4-H due to age requirements) did awesome! Sean had one project considered for state and it made it to state!! Sean showed Gumbo, his dog and won 1st place in Agility and he took the Showmanship trophey for the intermediate age group. He also won a trophey for reserved champion in the pet show with his hamster, Buck (short for Tim-buck-too). Corben had two projects considered for state, but neither went on to state. Sean and Corben did a working exhibit, showing how to make dog tug toys and they took 1st place and get to go to state with their working exhibit!! Logan got Jr. Honorable Mention for 2 of his projects which is the highest you can get as a 4th grader.





We will be onto the state fair in August... Sean and Corben will be showing their working exhibit and Sean will be showing Gumbo, his dog in the open dog show :-) Good luck boys!!


This past week ended VBS for our church. I was in charge of the crafts. We had a wonderful time and 60 boys and girls were reached in some way with the Gospel of Christ!!

This coming week Brekyn will be enjoying church camp... her first year!! She is excited about all the things that she will get to do!!

Then comes school... It is so hard to believe we have been through a whole summer already, but it is coming to an end. We still have many plans for August fun... but school will intertwined with it all :-)

The Human Body Co-op class..

This 2nd half of the school year our local homeschool group started a co-op on The Human Body... Basically during the two hours we are together we do Vocabulary words (Thanks Nancy!!)... it is really neat the way we are doing them. The word is given and then the definition is given with a few missing words in the definition. The kid's write in the missing words as we go over what the words means and maybe what it does or where it is located. I think the kid's have learned a lot from the words.

Each child is putting together a Human Body lapbook. They are turning out really neat! I am teaching that and it has been a learning experience. Ya know it is rather different doing a lapbook with my own children at home in our leisure with homeschooling here and doing a lapbook in a group setting... The lapbooks with be a neat addition to their science for this year.

We then typically take a break... the boys go watch a brainpop video while the girls have a snack and then they switch places. The brainpop video's are like 2-5 minutes long and they go so well with the topic of the day, be it respiratory system, digestive system, skeletal system, etc.

We are also putting together a life size human body. Each kid traced their body on a piece of newsprint and then they have added the skeletal parts to one side and muscular system parts to the other side. There are organs and skeletal pieces throughout the center. They turned out great! The kid's finished them today and were able to bring them home. We will try to get pictures tomorrow of my kid's with their body beside them :-)

Also, we try to do some sort of activity to go along with the topic of the day. Many times it just depends on the time left. Today they had a memory game, ya know the kind with the tray full of about 10 items and you see those items for all of 10 seconds or so and try to remember everything on there. Our topic today was brain and nervous system.

My favorite activity was the digestive system, where Michelle went through the steps of the digestive system using a typical lunch pbj, chips, apple, water. Everything was placed into the mouth (blender) and chewed up. Then it was swallowed and went to the stomach (bowl). From the stomach, the acid was mixed in (vinegar) and it was placed into the intestines (nylon stocking). It would normally stay there for about 4 hours or so... the liquids were sqeezed out and the remaining stuff was squeezed out through a small cut in the corner of the nylon to enter the rectum. It gave a VERY thorough "picture" of the digestive system!

Thanks Michelle for setting up the Human Body co-op and planning it all!!!

Gym time with out homeschool group...

We (Thanks Brian & Michelle!!) started a gym class with our homeschool group this year. It all began after the 1st of the year and the kid's seem to enjoy it so far (other than the typical problems that can come in when things get into the competitive arena!). Thus far they have played kick ball, dodge ball, hockey, hockey with tennis balls, basketball, jump rope, capture the flag, and more...

FUN = A Four Wheeler, A Sled, and Children; Big and Small :-)

Well, if any of you live or have ever lived in the midwest, you know about that white fluffy stuff! Some years we get lots, other years we barely see any! This has been another SNOW fill winter here in the midwest! You know you have had lots of snow when the children stop asking to go out and play in it with each new snow fall :-) This past weekend, we found some spare time (a very rare occasion for our busy family!!). Daddy got out the four wheelers and everyone loaded on the winter outfits! They had a great time playing in our yard!! Our yard doesn't look all too pretty out there now, but the snow will melt and the grass will grow and all will be "normal" soon enough!!

I can't get these video's to cooperate, so when Ed has a chance, maybe he will get things figured out for me and I will get to show you our fun in the snow!

Unfortunate Events with Vehicles...

Well this past Monday while daddy was on the way to work, he broke down :-( In discussing what the best method of taking care of the situation would be, we decided he would go on to work (getting a ride from a friend) since he was only another 12 miles or so to work. I would get the part needed and pick him up at lunch time and he would hopefully have things taken care of over lunch.

I picked up a serpentine (??? I think that is what it was?) belt and picked up Ed at work at noon. Then back to the van where Ed, Sean, and Corben proceeded to remove the obviously broken belt and replace the new one. Ed was back on the road after about 45 minutes or so....

FOR ONLY 6 MILES...

Something was still not right, so after more phone calls to work and decision making, off we went to town again to get another part, this time an idler pulley (?? again I think :-). Also, another new belt was needed as that 6 miles didn't fair well for the new belt. Back to the van we go... Sean was a great helper this day, it was cold, so Corben chose the good van with the rest of us. Another 45 minutes or so into the job and Ed was off and running again!! This time, all was well, PTL!!

It was a great learning day for the children, but also a long day! I got a lot of reading done while sitting and waiting :-)

Here are some pictures of our mishap, God certainly supplies ALL our needs!!!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is having a SALE!!

Have you all heard about The Old Schoolhouse magazine?? They are having a great deal on their digital edition of the magazine. They offer all kinds of stories on homeschooling, curriculum choices are throughout the magazine, it is just a great magazine for homeschoolers... If anyone is interested... The information is below!

Please note the link to this page:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs093/1101381905269/archive/1102415709495.html


The Old Schoolhouse Magazine® is celebrating the one year anniversary of their digital edition!

It's the same great content as their print magazine, but in a fun, digital format! It's instant, it's interactive, and it's affordable!

If you subscribe before January 25th, you'll pay only $1O.95 and receive 5 FREE E-Books. Each week until February 8th, the price goes up and the number of FREE E-Books goes down. So, HURRY!

Take a look at the 5 FREE E-Books HERE. (link to:
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But, HURRY, the price goes up each week and the number of FREE gifts goes down! Here are the details. (Link to here:
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If you are looking for a magazine, give The Old Schoolhouse a try!!

More video's... of wrestling..

I am still experiencing problems trying to post these video's, so I will just move along with a few more pictures... sorry!

Here we have each of the boys in the position that they got this past weekend. Logan received 2nd place, while the other three (Sean, Corben, and Griffin) all received 3rd place.

Wrestling, just for your entertainment...

Here we have a few pictures from the tournament this past weekend. You will see all the kiddo's during an off time for them as they sit in the bleachers filling their minds with gameboy games :-) Mona (Lane's wife) is sitting in this picture also!! There is a picture of Ed and 4 of the children sitting on the corner of a mat watching someone wrestle. Then Ed is talking with a good friend Lane that helps coach our children. In that same picture is BJ another coach in the background (wearing the dark blue sweatshirt). Brekyn is sitting up on a "perch" where she can see just a bit better :-) Last of all is Griffin taking a break, laying down on the bleachers.

I thought I would post a few video's of the boys wrestling this past weekend. Sorry for the moving, or shaky hand of videoing the boys... I only do it to go back through and see any good or bad moves they may have done, and to have memories!! I had lots of problems getting the computer to put the video's on the blog... so I will post this one and keep trying with the other boys...
This shows where things went bad for Sean...

Freezing Temps make for fun Science...

This past week we were amidst our coldest temperatures thus far this year. We were below 0 and with wind chills... we were way below 0!! Our children had some fun in the outdoors, in very quick time frames :-)

They put two bowls outside to see if hot water or cold water froze the fastest and how quickly in below 0 temps.

They went outside and threw water up into the air to watch it fall basically already frozen.

Then, as shown below in the pictures, they blew bubbles to see them freeze and watch the results.

It was nice finding some fun times in such cold weather!!!