Does this ever happen to you?

Ever have one of those nights when you wonder if the preacher is EVER gonna finish the sermon and your eyes are getting heavier and heavier and your head keeps bobbing to the side and it is taking everything you have to keep your focus on the preacher and concentrate on the verse he is preaching about until you just can't hang on any longer........

If so, Keslee and Kalysa know just how ya feel!!!

More Hieroglyphics

Our next lesson in hieroglyphs called for us to make up our own pictures to represent words and write a sentence. Kenyon and Jacinta thought this was an impossible task until I showed them an example of just how easy it could be. They did not even need a key to determine what I was saying....

I love you.
You love pizza.

That was simple enough and they jumped right in to make their own.


Kenyon wrote "I hate school". That is ok. To hate it so much, he sure jumped into this project quick and didn't even have to think long about what to draw. He hates school so much that 3 nights last week I noticed his bedroom light on way after bedtime and found him working ahead on school (once on math, twice on language)-but anyway.....I will let him keep believing that I still believe that, for now. He was done with this picture before anyone else and then moved on to do another one. Granted, the second one said about the same thing but he went back to the chart in our book and drew each letter out.



Jacinta made a key to her words using paint but decided to go with markers for the sentence because they are so much easier to control.




I thought she did a great job. In case you can't read her key-I have two awesome best friends named Kaylie and Lizi.

The girls missed out on the paint the first time and sure did not want to miss out again. They wanted to know exactly what we were making and why. I went over the chart in the book with them and explained that these pictures were how the Egyptians wrote things down. They immediately got their own paper and got started as well.





Keslee decided to write her name using the key in the book. I thought she did a fabulous job considering she had to draw a lion for the L.


Kalysa did not get into the "ancient language" as much and decided to just paint a picture of mama with a heart.

I just really LOVE homeschooling!!!

Be thankful!

Just want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving!
Hope you enjoy this day That God Made,
and you spend it with friends and family That God Gave You,
eating lots of good food That God Provided.
Remember to Thank Him for all He has done throughout this year and all He will continue to do in the new year. Enjoy His presence.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hieroglyphs

In our studies on Ancient Egypt, we have been learning about their languages. Any time Kenyon or Jacinta complain about having to do any writing, I now just have to remind them that they could be doing it all in hieroglyphs where every letter or sound was a picture and there were over 700 pictures used. That should make us all a little more thankful for our 26 letter alphabet, even with all of it's confusing and complicated rules. To have a small taste of the Egyptians written language, they each had to write their names. We used this chart from our book Ancient Egypt as a guide.

The writings we saw pictured in the book all were written from top to bottom instead of left to right like we are accustomed to. This is K*E*N*Y*O*N.

The chart does not show a picture for the letter J or the letter S. Since J and H make the same sounds in several languages, we decided Jacinta would use and H and then use and S for the C. J(H)*A*C(S)*I*N*T*A. She was really nervous about having to draw birds for the letter A, especially when I pointed out that she had 2 A's in her name, but I thought she did great. She did, however, discover one of the problems I am sure the Egyptian's encountered often-having the space to write the complete word. She made her first A way to big but was able to salvage the picture by scaling down for the remaining letters.

Writer in the Making

As you may have read before, Kenyon and Jacinta have several writing assignments this year. Up to this point, they have not been all that excited about that. I am convinced that they will develop a love of writing. They are already doing better and beginning to enjoy letting their own creativity flow. We have a great time making up and talking about the stories. We laugh and giggle as we each add our own silly parts to each new story. Now Kenyon and Jacinta are working on getting those thoughts onto paper, keeping their thoughts going to create a whole story instead of just a sentence or two.
This week I gave Keslee and Kalysa their own spiral notebooks just for school. I have written math problems and memory verses and personal information for them to copy. They were so excited to have their own spiral. Keslee finished all the pages I had prepared for her and then asked if she could write a story. I set her down with a word list from one of her workbooks and she wrote her first, and second story.

Her story: Once a girl was lost in the woods with no trees with Bananas. What would she do? All a suddenly she found a bus stop. All a sudden a people. WHAT?

I loved it! She explained that being in the woods with no trees with bananas meant that she had no food. Of course, what would a girl do with no bananas? Good thing she found that bus stop full of people! Keslee then decided to write her second story. Since the first one was so serious she decided to go a little silly with this one.

2nd story: Once a boy and a girl was home picking their nose. Only the boy. Then their mom came.

She makes me laugh. In case you missed it, the boy is the only one picking his nose, a girl would never do that. She had so much fun writing her stories and even more fun reading them and explaining everything that she is not yet able to put into words on paper. I am so thankful that she was not in public school long enough to get the love of learning sucked out of her. It is so wonderful to see my little girls have so much joy even in "school time." I am so saddened by the fact that my son no longer has that same joy. We have our moments when he is having so much fun learning that he forgets we are doing school. I wish our days were filled with more of those moments for him. I pray that I did not keep him "institutionalized" to long for us to get that back for him. I will do whatever I can to ensure that my girls do not loose it and that my son will someday find it again.

I love homeschooling!!

Christmas presents in the making????

My friend, Paul....

who also has a paper route and is the brother of a friend from church, stopped by our house the other night with a treat for the kids(his niece and nephews were here also). He had been to some garage sales and bought himself 2 bunnies.


They were the cutes, softest things ever and the kids were THRILLED that he brought them by.

Of course they all wanted one. He was not even sure if he had bought males or females but upon closer inspection discover he had one of each. He promised the kids they could have a baby if he ended up with any.

After we learned the sexes, they needed some names. It ended up to be Romeo and Juliet. This is Juliet with Kenyon. Romeo has a gorgeous big fluff of hair right on top of his head and more color than Juliet

The kids carried them and brushed them and-although I did not catch it-I later learned they also dressed them up in doll clothes. They were so gentle and sweet. I jokingly told Monty that Paul had gotten the kids a rabbit and he was actually ok with it. He always accuses me of trying to make this place a zoo but I guess since Jasmine (the guinea pig) has passed on and Jefferson (the Tom cat) has disappeared he would be ok with a new pet. It is a good thing since Paul just let me know that Romeo and Juliet heard the kid's requests and have now started working on that ;) .

Cousins and Birthdays-YAY!!

A few weeks ago we went to the Tulsa area to My brother's house.

Chris' daughter's birthdays are 1 month apart, October 13 and November 13, so they combine their party since it is easier for some to make one trip instead on 2 within just a few weeks. Here are some pictures of our fun.....

Brooksey-12 and Sheyenne-9 opening presents

Cousins catching up!

Of course there was cake :)

Lots of running and playing and jumping on the trampoline

There was even bowling.

This is my sister, Chastanie, with were 2 year old twins-Ashlynne and Ashton. Ashton was not very happy about having to stop for a minute for a picture.

Chris borrowed a go-cart with the intention of taking all the cousins for a ride. The birthday girl-Sheyenne-got the first ride which ended up being just to the end of the drive way before the chain broke canceling the go cart rides.

Or so Chris thought!! My kids had him push them around for a while since this would be their only chance to ride.

Cousins-Kalysa and Alyssa

My sister has 4 kids. Obviously the twins are fraternal since they are a boy and a girl. I think it is pretty neat that Ashton looks like his oldest sister Alysa and Ashlynne looks like her other sister Aliyah(seen here).


Ashlynne was to busy to stay looking directly at the camera for long but here you can see the resemblance between her and Aliyah.

My brother is a truck driver and he happened to have his truck at the house. The kids got to each take a turn checking out the inside of the semi.

I love to see all the cousins together. I have such fond memories of a childhood filled with cousins and am so thankful my kids will have the same. There is nothing better than a day filled with fun and family(and cake!!)!!

Pyramids

Since we have been studying Egypt, we have learned LOTS about the ancient pyramids. It has really been VERY fascinating and we have done several different things in our study of the shape and stability of a pyramid. Here is one example of the difference between a square structure and a pyramid.

Before the earthquake...


after the earthquake....

Really makes me want to live in a pyramid house. Although we do not have many earthquakes here, they are still sturdier in tornadoes-which we do have often.

Not so smooth sailing

Since Kalysa had her surgery, her healing has been moving right along as planned. Actually better than we all expected. That is until last Tuesday evening. Kalysa came to me and said "mom, something is kinda hurting." I looked at her leg and saw this....

(sorry if you get a little queasy over things like this). It is just what it looks like-INFECTION! My first instinct was to pop that sucker and get all the poison out and then doctor it up but since it is on the scar of a recent surgery, I decided to be a bit more cautious. I called the Shriner hospital and talked with her surgeon's nurse. She told me to take her to her local doctor and be sure they do a culture and get antibiotics. If things got worse they would bring us back to Louisiana. It was almost 5 pm so I called her local doctor and made an appointment for the next morning. The doctor had to pop it in order to do a culture and that is exactly what Kalysa did NOT want to happen. She started screaming at the top of her lungs as soon as they laid her down-before actually touching the area in question- and did not stop screaming until it was drained and cleaned and a band aid was applied. I can't believe it really hurt as much as she was letting on because it was so ready to pop they just had to poke the top with a tiny needle and everything came right out. She got a sticker and a sucker (supposedly for being so brave but since she was not very brave I have to believe it was more of a bribe so she won't hate the doctor :) ) and a prescription. The culture came back and it was just a regular run of the mill infection and not some scary MRSA or any other deadly thing-PRAISE THE LORD! Just about a week later it is back to looking like this....


It was a bit of a scare for a moment but now things are back to normal.

When I say I'm a Christian

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

I got this email from my sister this morning. I have no idea who wrote the poem but it so beautifully explains some of the misconceptions people have when we say we are Christians. I just had to share it here!


When I say that 'I am a Christian,' I am not shouting that 'I am clean living.'
I'm whispering 'I was lost, but now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far too visible, but God believes I am worth it.

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say 'I am a Christian,' I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner who received God's good grace, somehow!


Update: I have found out that Maya Angelou is the author of this beautiful poem

A Fall Afternoon

What are a couple of girls to do on a beautiful fall afternoon of an unusual 80*?

How about sit on the back porch amidst the constant flow of falling leaves and separate the dog food!


Because everyone knows, dogs don't want the bone shaped pieces in the same bowl as the circle pieces!


Sorting-that counts as math for the day, right?!

Egyptian Pharaohs

This year Jacinta and Kenyon are studying history from creation to the Greeks. We are learning about the ancient Egyptian civilization and it called for a few dramatic reenactments.

First there were 2 Pharaohs. One ruled over lower Egypt (in the red crown) and the other ruled over upper Egypt (in the white crown).

Before you can really rule over anything, you better know exactly where your kingdom is! Interestingly-Lower Egypt was in the north and Upper Egypt was in the south. Menes, Upper Egypt's ruler, united Upper and Lower Egypt to become the first great ruler of all of Egypt.

In order to unite the two kingdoms, Menes had to first conquer Lower Egypt and overtake their Pharaoh. (You know they LOVED this part of the act!)

Menes then combined the two crowns and all of Egypt had one ruler.

In case I have never mentioned it....I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!! So fun!

Leaving the "Treats" up to God!

If you have been with me here in blog land since the beginning, maybe you remember our last Halloween. If you have not been here the entire time, surely you have gone back and read EVERYTHING I have written-right?!? Well anyway, you can always take some time tomorrow to catch up on all that..hehe..but for now, back to my story. As halloween was approaching I started to get a little nervous. Our convictions were so strong but now that we have had an entire year to forget the power of our decision, how would we pull off the no halloween thing? Thankfully our children are not in public school and therefore not completely surrounded by halloween, halloween parties, teachers asking everyone what they would dress up as on dress up day at school, and hundreds of kids all feeding off each others excitement to go out on one night with the purpose of getting a free bucket full of candy. They were not surrounded by it and therefore did not even think about it. I started thinking the day may pass without anyone ever even noticing. Well that was a little bit of wishful thinking. I mean, Kenyon IS 11 and has trick or treated every year of his life. About a week before halloween, when the kids started noticing neighbors putting pumpkins and scarecrows out on the porch, the conversations started. Keslee was concerned that maybe I had forgotten that I "promised" we could make caramel apples and popcorn balls at home. She took every opportunity to remind me that we had not bought the supplies to do so. As the day got closer and closer, Keslee started thinking maybe she wanted to go down town and "just watch" the other kids but she did not want to trick or treat herself. Kenyon was the one that was still struggling with the idea of free candy being handed out and him not being in line to receive it. The discussion began with...

"if WE don't believe in the spirits and other un-Godly parts of halloween but just get the candy, that isn't so bad is it?" Well son, if we participate with everyone else how would anyone know that we do not approve of ALL the parts of halloween.

"What if we dress up like Bible people and tell people about Jesus WHILE we get the candy." In all the running around and excitement of getting candy you forget to even say "thank you" at lots of houses so how are you really gonna remember to stop and tell every person about Jesus?

"But we can MAKE halloween about God for us." You know some people do try to make halloween about God and they use the day to pray for people that have already died but they pray to saints and not even to God. "WHAT? Why are they praying for dead people? They are already dead so what is the use in praying for them now? And why would anyone pray to a saint when only God can hear and answer our prayers?" See son, TRYING to make something about God when it is NOT about God does not work.

"Well if they make a holiday that IS about God that lets us dress up in NOT evil, gory costumes and get candy but it is NOT on halloween and it really IS all about God THEN could we do it?" IF they make a holiday like that then we will talk about it when it happens son.

We finally got the caramel and the apples and some popcorn and were all prepared to make treats together on halloween day. The day was a typical lazy Saturday with Monty watching some football, me catching up on the laundry and the kids playing in the falling leaves outside. Kenyon came in and said that Mrs Barbara, our neighbor, asked them if they would be trick or treating and they told her that we don't do that anymore. She let them know that she had gotten some candy just for them and Kenyon wanted to make sure it would be ok if they had it. I let them know that because Mrs. Barbara loves them, she got candy especially for them and was going to let them have it if they were trick or treating or not so it was perfectly ok for them to have it. Of course this news brought lots of smiles and they realized they did not have to participate in halloween just to get candy. Candy is always available. As they night went on and the sun went down, I got a phone call from my mom. Jacinta was with my aunt and she just saw Soffie. As I am sure you remember, since you have gone back and read ALL my post, Soffie is our most favorite cat. Our cat that is so beautiful that people often try to steal her. The cat that my kids have prayed for since she has been missing (this time) for over a year. Kenyon and I hopped in the car and headed across town to the area Jacinta described. I thought I saw Soffie so I stopped at the end of the block, got out and called her name. The cat jumped off a porch about 2 doors down and ran straight to me-IT REALLY WAS SOFFIE!!! We picked her up, got in the car and headed home. Kenyon ran into the house and called the girls in the living room and said "GIRLS! WE ALL DECIDED NOT TO DO HALLOWEEN BECAUSE WE WANT TO HONOR GOD, RIGHT?" yes "WELL LOOK WHAT GOD JUST DID!!" and with that he opened the front door to reveal me standing there holding our long lost Soffie. The girls were ecstatic and Monty got a big 'ol smile on his face as we all took turns loving and petting our cat. She purred and rubbed on us all and then took off to get reacquainted with her home looking under every bed and table and dresser and toy box.



Once again, God has done an amazing thing for my children. They struggled with following through with a conviction but persevered and God rewarded them immediately. Once again God has shown them that He does hear and answer prayer, in His time. Once again He has shown us all that when we love and honor Him, He will give us the desires of our heart.


What an awesome, AWESOME God we serve!!!!!



oh-and we still haven't made our caramel apples. They just didn't seem as important anymore

CAST FREE!! :)

Ok, so I am a little late on getting this up-Kalysa has been cast free for a week now. Last Sunday we headed back to Shreveport. The day started kinda rough. Right as I was finishing up the paper route(about 5:45 am) I got a flat tire. As often as I go through tires on the paper route, it is hard to keep a spare and my donut tire is just about shot so Mom came and got me and ran me home as fast as she could. I took a shower and took Monty's car to get to the city to catch the Shriner van by 7am. Luckily, my dad was in town and was able to take Monty back out there to get my van later that morning. We made it to Shreveport just fine and got the customary phone call from Keslee...."Are you in the same motel? Is it the same room? Is there 2 beds or 1? Is there a microwave? Is Kalysa still awake? Does it have a big tv? Does Kalysa have her Pajamas on yet? Is there a coke machine? Did you get ice?......" About 10 pm I got another call from Keslee saying she wanted me to be home. I told her I would be back the next day and she would be fine spending some time with daddy. Through tears she tells me, "It's just not the same when you are not here. Daddy doesn't listen to me as much as you do." I had to giggle. Poor daddy had probably had his entire day filled with Keslee questions and stories and he is not as used to "listening" for that many hours to the thoughts of a seven year old girl. hehehehe Maybe it will help him appreciate having to listen to the thoughts of a thirty blah blah year old girl more. :) Anyway....we had a free dinner at CiCi's Pizza and then got a good nights sleep in the motel. Monday morning we headed to the hospital and Kalysa got her cast removed. When the cast was almost off, she started to cry. The nurses and I were asking her if something was hurting and she finally let out a whisper..."i'm scared". I asked what she was afraid of and she said she was afraid to see the cut. We assured her that she did not have to look at it if she did not want to but she could not resist. She was quite concerned about the fact that there was a long stitch about 3 inches long sticking out each side of the incision. The stitches throughout the incision had all dissolved and the nurse cut the extra off and Kalysa felt better. There were still tape strips across the cut and Kalysa was very concerned they would hurt when they came off but they did not have to come off right then. A few baths after we got home solved that problem.

Personally, I thought it looked great! I was surprised the cut was so high on her calf since the muscle they operated on was the heel cord but what do I know about these things? After the cast was off we were told to go back to the waiting room and we would be called back to get her new splint. Kalysa was excited to have some time to play with some of the toys and video games in the lobby. A "foster grandparent" set up a table for the kids to paint so Kalysa got to paint a little train figurine. After about 2 hours I walked over to the department that we were waiting on to see what as taking so long and everyone was busy. Kalysa and I went to the cafeteria to get a snack. All the other patients riding on the van were already finished with their appointments and were just waiting on us. After out snack, we went back to orthodics and found out that the reason we had not been called is because they did not have her scheduled. They had her scheduled to pick up her splint the week before-which would have been impossible since she still had a cast on. They pulled up her information and got her right in. After her splint was cut down to fit her foot we had to go back to the waiting room and wait to be seen by a doctor to check the splint. The splint she had before had a lift on it since her left leg is 1/2 inch shorter than the right and the new splint did not so the doctor sent us back to orthodics to get a lift added. They do not put lifts on the splints but on the shoe so we had to leave her left shoe and they will mail it to us when it is fixed. We finally left the hospital about 2:30 pm which got us back to the city around 10:30 pm and home around 11:30. It made for a really long day but I am so thankful for the fact that I did not have to drive and was able to sleep some on the van.

The design for the splint Kalysa picked out has pink and blue butterflies all over it. It is really cute and the most girly design they had available! I knew exactly what she was gonna pick as soon as I saw it. She picked it out when we were there for her surgery and she had the mold made.

Since her tennis shoe is still in Shreveport, she has been wearing her house shoes. The splint is hard plastic and is very slick so she has to have something over it or risk slippin and slidin all over the place when she walks.

She loves wearing her splint now just as much as she loved the last one. It will keep her foot at a 90* angle and prevent the newly repaired muscle from contracting and tightening up again.

Even without the splint, she can easily stand with her foot flat on the floor. Of course we knew there was a problem since she always walked on her toe and her muscle was so tight but it never slowed her down. She would run and play and dance and spin and jump around with all the other kids. Sunday night, after church, I watched her running and playing outside with the other kids and could really tell a difference in her gait. It looked so much more natural and "normal". It amazed me to see how much the surgery has changed her movements when I never really noticed her movements not being "normal" to begin with.

After a few baths and lots of vitamin E oil, the tape strips finally came off. The scar looks really great. I bet after a little more healing time it will be hardly noticeable at all.


As for now, we do not have any more appointments scheduled for Shreveport but I know she is supposed to be seen a year after surgery. The Shriners will continue to provide any future care she may need until she is 18. I am just so thankful that the Lord provided this opportunity for my little Glori-Bell.