Horses and the Creek

Last week we had the adventure of a life time according to Sara.  Why?  Well it all boils down to friends and horse riding.  One of the dear families in our church have a wonderful country home that sits near a small creek bed.  My friend Marty and her children, Lucy and Jay as well as our gang were invited out to the farm.  The kids had a WONDERFUL time exploring the creek where they found crawdads (crawfish) and greater sirens (mud puppies) and a salamander too. After the adventure in the creek bed we stopped to have lunch.  While Marty, Christie and I ate lunch and talked the kids went out to play.  Kris and Jaron came running back in saying they saw a snake. That really got our attention!!!  I HATE snakes.  Knowing the area has had copper heads really scared me.  But it turned out to be a black corn snake.  Thank goodness for that!
   So after lunch we headed to the barn where the horses were.  Sara was so excited.  Christie taught the kids how to groom the horses, talked about the care and feeding of them and gave them a great lesson!  The best part was getting to ride the horses.  The kids LOVED it.  All but Jaron got on.  Not sure why he didn't want to ride but the others love it!  Warning...it's always hard for me to decide which pictures to post! :)

Kris was so nervous but Ruby was great with him.  It was if she knew that Kris  is autistic.

Kris learning to clean the hooves.

Sara never stopped smiling.

My friend and sister Marty

Goodness, I was a hot mess.  It was a hot day!

A Day at the Pond

One of the benefits of living here in KY are my best friends...college roomies to be exact.  Many years ago God gave me a word that I would go away to school and would meet my life long friends.  Well that prophecy came true the year I moved to KY in 1994 to attend Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky.  Two of my best friends are Angie and Marty.  They are my life lines and have been with me through many things.  I couldn't live without them in my life.  No kidding!  They keep me sane, pray with and for me and just let me be me with no "make up" to hide the flaws.  Not many people can say they have those kids of friends.  My only hope is they feel the same about me....the being able to be a no make up kind of friend that is.
   Anyway a few weeks ago, Angie invited us to go up to her fathers place in Stanton and visit a wonderful little pond that is loaded with tadpoles.  It was a great family field trip again.  I am so happy that Sean was able to go with us.  It was great getting to know her father and  step mom and just get to spend time with the kids (her son Cameron too).  The kids had a ball catching tadpoles, newts and seeing all the different kinds of dragon flies. It was about a mile hike to and from the pond from her dad's place and it was a wonderful time.  LOVED being on top of a mountain and the view we had of the pond and the surrounding area was wonderful!

My Blessings

                                                  This was taken on Mother's Day 2013.

I am so blessed!  I realize this for many reasons.  One of my dear friends was adopted as a child and she is searching for her father.  She has gone through a lot and you can read about it her journey here.   Through this time of reading about her personal journey I have realized just how blessed I truly am.  You see I was born my mother had the option of putting me up for adoption.  My mother was very young, 14 to be exact and although my father was 22 he too  could of said I don't want this.  But my parents went against the flow back then and fought to keep me.  They got married before I was born and chose to start their family at a young age.  So many other young girls were forced by their parents to give the child up.  I am so glad my parents fought to keep me.  My mom sacrificed a high school education to keep me.  She went back when I was in High school and got her GED and went to school for cosmetology.  I am very proud of all my mom has accomplished in her life.  She not only went back to school, but she raised 5 children, owned her own business and is now semi retiring and if anyone deserves it she does!  I love my mom!

My Mom and Dad

Not only have I been blessed with the best parents ever but also with 6 wonderful kids.  I have two in heaven, Seanpatrick who had a cord accident the day he was born and another who I miscarried a year later.  I don't talk about the baby I miscarried, I was only 6 weeks along, I just haven't let myself go there yet.  I do however have 4 wonderful energy filled kids that keep me very busy and  I love very much!  Blessed beyond measure for sure!

A Day at Fort Boonesborough

One of many field trips that were spur of the moment.  We headed to Fort Boonesborough and just took a day to explore the river bed, the original spot where the fort was placed and just had fun.  We were surprised to find on the memorial stone Yelverton Petyon and Ann Peyton written on it.  After some research  we believe that we may actually be related to this couple.  This truly excited the kids and gave us a weeks worth of unexpected learning.   This summer we are hoping to take my parents there and actually tour the fort as well as bring my father here to see this wonderful memorial.

The diaperheads are not so small anymore!

I love this man!

Time....slipping away

Well it seems as if time has slipped away and I haven't written anything since April.  Honestly when I started this blog it was for family to stay up with the goings on in our family because we live so far from both sides of the family.  I don't think any of them have ever read the blog and if they have they surely have not told me.  That's ok, it's still nice to write out what is going on.  I am sure one day my kids will want to check it out themselves and read it to their children.  Maybe.  Who knows.
    So much has happened so I will try in the next few days catch up with the activities of our home schooling family.  I do have to say,  "YAY FOR SUMMER!"  As I write this my three boys are out in the pool and I am sure they are wrestling and eventually someone will come in complaining that someone else has gotten to rough.  Oh the life with boys!  My precious little girl who is not so little anymore is next door hanging out with her best friends.  I am SO THANKFUL that we live where we do and she has friends to play with.
   I am so pleased at how this past year of homeschooling has gone!  Eli was able to not only master 2nd grade skills but also was able to master 3rd grade.  He still struggles with reading but we are working on that this summer.  Kris who was way behind in math has excelled this year and is now on task and ready for 6th grade.  Sara has moved forward and has already started 4th grade math.  She really seems to love it and figures things out so quickly.  I just can't figure out how or why they were holding her back in the math skills in public school.  She was seriously told you aren't allow to do multiplication because you are not ready and yet she master it and I mean 3 digit multiplication within 12 weeks.  But according to the public school she wasn't ready for multiplication.  YEA RIGHT!!!
   Don't get me wrong I have many friends that are teachers in the public school setting and I appreciate and respect their profession.  But they will even tell you their hands are tied as to what they can and can not teach. Most will tell you they are teaching so the kids will pass state tests.  BOO!  That doesn't promote learning at all!
  So in the fall we will have an 8th grader...oh Jaron...my boy is becoming a man in every sense of the word. he has grown 3 1/2 inches since Aug., his body is changing his voice is squeaky and what's with the hair on the lip.  YIKES!  Not sure I am ready for this but holding on cause here we go!  I want my little toe head lizard loving baby boy back!   So in the fall 8th, 6th and 4th grades will be covered.  Where oh where is time slipping by to!    I miss those toddler days when I didn't know what was up from down.  I miss my babies!

Today's My Birthday

Today is my 43rd birthday!  Yes I am 43 and to be honest there are days I feel like I am 18 and there are days that I feel like I am 81!  This year I hope to do some soul searching and changing.  I want to be closer to God, I want to do more and be more, if that even makes sense. I want to be, I want to see, the person God sees when He looks at me!  Am I even close to being that person?!  I don't know but I want to be!

I'm 43 years old and this is what I know for sure...

1. Life happens when you aren't watching!
2. Time really does fly by!
3. My family is EVERYTHING to me.
4. It really doesn't matter what happened in High School or what didn't!  Heck it really doesn't matter what
     happened or didn't happen in college!  Make the best of every day you have!
5. My parent's mean the world to me. I appreciate their sacrifices even more now that I have children.
6. When my kids say or do things that I did as a child that hurt my feelings, I now realize how it must have
    hurt my mom when I did or said the same things.
7. "If you can't say something nice don't say nothing at all!" is more understood as an adult than as a child!
8. Money may not buy happiness but it sure does take some stress off your shoulders.
9. Do what makes you happy!  Only one you need to please is God! Be real! Be true! Fake is not good!
10. Most important....God is everything to me!

I am sure there are other things I could share and maybe I will but right now those are the top things on my mind.

RIP Pip

Last year Kris was chosen by his teacher to become the owner of the class pet, Pip, a gerbil.  Three weeks ago Pip died and we had a very sad little boy.  Kris was very heart broken.  Being that he doesn't talk about emotions or feelings and sometimes has a hard time showing the appropriate reaction to things. I wasn't sure how this was going to affect him.  Last year two weeks before he got Pip his little turtle Rocky died and getting Pip helped greatly.  This time around we allowed Kris time to mourn over Pip before even suggesting a new little buddy. 
    Well he decided rather quickly that he needed a new buddy to love and care for and so we set in action our plan with a friend to find him a Holland Lop Bunny.  Welcome Kris' new buddy, Bugz!

Kris and Bugz

He is very curious about our guinea pigs and they all get along great!

He apparently didn't like all the pictures we were taking. LOL!

Bugz is a great little bunny.  Everyone loves him, including our two dogs.  Kris still misses his Pip and we have told him that is normal.  Of which he tells us that he doesn't like missing him. He is taking great care of his bunny and loves him greatly.  I am thankful we chose the right pet for him.  It helps him to express love even thought he doesn't tell us he loves us he does tell Bugz and we know eventually one day he will express his love for us without us prompting him.

Game Day

Sometimes you have to go off road, do things differently, add a little fun to the day.  That is exactly what we did today.  Actually I have noticed that the kids have gotten sucked into the technology world and despite doing school work, reading books for 30-60 mins a day they spend quite a bit of time playing games, mainly Minecraft on the computer.  It has bothered me a lot lately so we made the decision to spend some money on some board games.  We bought quite a few of the classics such as Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee, checkers/chess, Jenga and then added Clue, Blokus and Doctor Dreadful Scabs and Guts ( a science game).  So today instead of doing the typical school work we had planned we had a game board day.  We played Monopoly (math), Scrabble (spelling), Doc. Dreadful (science) and watched a video about President George Washington.  Three hours of Monopoly was enough for me but the kids had a great time today.  It helps to change things up not only for them but for me as well.  We were all learning new things about the human body while playing Doc. Dreadful.  What a neat game that is!

    I believe we may make one day every couple of weeks a board game day.  We spent a total of five hours playing different games to day and all of them had a great time and it was a fun way to learn as well.   Try it with your kids some time!