reflections on a monday

I have made it my goal to read through the Bible again this year. I did not make it through last year so I started today to give me some extra days for sick children or whatever the enemy decides to throw my way. It is funny how the seasons of a mothers life go. You have that crazy time when the children are little that you pray in the shower, while nursing, anywhere just so you can get that time to chat with God. Then the children reach a stage of independence that you get back you regularly scheduled study time and it feels so good. I am so very thankful for all the seasons God has given me thus far, even though some of those seasons have been full of tough "weather" and some drought. As I turned another year older this year I realize once again just how much God has brought me through. I stand amazed at the love and mercy of my Savior.

when it snows be prepared for the big outing..

When it snows here everyone wants to go outside. It can be be pretty crazy to get mittens, hats, snow boots, scarves, snow pants and jackets on everyone so I thought I should post some pictures of the aftermath and what I do with all that "stuff".

let it snow, let it snow....

Wow, 26 inches of snow is a lot of snow. The children were busy playing in it and I really thought Iwould have some quiet time while they were out but noooo... the phone rang, Garrett wanted food for himself and the rest of the fire department guys and then the endless, my boot came off, I have snow in my face, my glove is coming off, I am getting cold... you get the drift. So much for quiet time. I am so glad God knows my crazy family and the trials it entails. I will post pictures tomorrow of what snow time is really like in our big family :) May God continue to wash us all "whiter than snow" !!

after a looonnngg dry spell...

I finally got back to my blog. I had some migraine issues and then finals for college but now that is all behind. On to the new season and the pictures I promised. The first picture is of our Jesse tree. I plan to make a set of ornaments for each of the children starting in the new year. I will be a large undertaking but an important one for me personally. The next couple pictures are of the organizing ideas that I promised.
The weather was horrible today with lots of freezing rain so we made cookies and I am planning to set down tonight and work on our annual cookie list. I also want to work on some knitting. I finished Hannah's fingerless gloves and I want to finish Noah's hat. The grand babies' sweater is underway and I would like to start one more project.
We are officially on Christmas break for 2 whole weeks and I have so much that I want to do but we shall see what God has me accomplish.

The Jesse tree is up and it is beginning to look a little like Christmas

I had a tough time finding a tree branch this year to use for the Jesse tree so I just decided to get a skinny, country looking artificial tree and use that. I will post pics tomorrow to show what it is already looking like after just a few readings. I finally finished cleaning the "son" room. That room is always the worst as we spend most of our time there with school, toy area and computer area. I managed to muster the energy to retrieve the Christmas decorations so tomorrow is the official starting date of decorating. I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Oh I will also post some more pic tomorrow of some more organizing ideas which include shoe storage, coat storage and backpack storage. We have a very old house with little to no closet space so I had to be a little creative. Note the little in that sentence.

A Great day of Thanks and more

Our Thanksgiving was again a blessed event. We had 16 at our table with 3/4 of them being my own family. The afternoon was lit with laughter, good food, everyone telling what they were thankful for and just a great time of fellowship.

Cleaning is almost finished for the season and I am ready to move on to my favorite time of the year... celebrating Christ's birth!!! Today is the first day of advent and we again will be setting up our Jesse tree. I think the book to read this year will be Tabitha's travels.

May everyone have a blessed advent season.

Thanksgiving Day is almost here!

Cleaning the house during break has been great. I promised a few pictures of some of our school room and organizing ideas so here you are.

I included a cabinet my gifted hubby made that stores our Betty Lukin felts, a storage shelf for toys and such that is label friendly for little ones, and a picture of some of the desks we use for formal schooling time.

I pray all my family and friends have a Thanksgiving full of memories, blessings, family and the love of Christ.

highlights of the weekend

This was a good weekend for finishing things, catching up and starting our Thanksgiving vacation off on a nice note. Friday I started my Fall cleaning because I really do not want to spend my entire week off from school cleaning! Quiet room (aka the livingroom) is completed along with the diningroom. It took most of Saturday but it really gave me a boost mentally. I took a break on Saturday and Tom and I took the children to the library for a craft day. They made cute little teepee's and turkeys and had a great time. Tom was formally introduced to glue dots (which almost made me hysterical at one point to see his big man hands trying to manuver very sticky little glue dots all while holding his tongue and temper as they stuck to everything but the project at hand) and I gave him an A+ for being such a great sport about it all. He will probably think twice about volunteering to go again! I am posting pictures of our crafts we made. Tommorrow I will post some pictures of some organizing ideas we came up with to help with the big family order.
Have a super week everyone as mine has already started off with much feeding from the Lord!!

Unit was great fun and we did lots of projects like building ziggurats, cunieforms, and making frescos.

Finally had the time to set up

I had a blog over on homeschool blogger but it was so cumbersome to keep up with that I dediced to just move my whole blog over here. This is so much easier to work with so hopefully I will be able to keep up with it all.
We are still Weaving in homeschooling and are presently on Volume 3 unit 4. I added some pictures of our wall building yesterday. This volume has been a blast.
We have next week off for Thanksgiving holiday and I hope to get some painting done along with some scrapbooking.
Knitting is still going strong and I only have one of Hannah's fingerless gloves to go. I went ahead and started Destini's socks just for a change of pace.
I will be posting pictures of ziggurats, our cunieform and working on our fresco's.
Enjoy

Here is a pic of Hannah's fingerless gloves.