Birthday, Butterfly Garden, and Swimming Lessons

My intent in the last post was to get it all done in one post, but I had to change my course of action, b/c after the last image I posted, I was unable to write anything below! 

So continuing on...

Jaden William turned eight this month.  He's wanted to take a flight in a plane for a long time now, so we made it happen for him on his birthday.  He'd been up for a short helicopter ride with my father two years ago for the latter's 50th birthday.  This was Trusten's first flight, though, as he went with William.  So did Nathan, because Nathan had never been up in a private plane before, whereas I have many times.  They all enjoyed it, and I'm so happy William finally got to fly.  :-)

Whereas Nathan got Trusten his first bike on his birthday, he gave William his second but first new one.  He loves it!  I got William a lot of books--some Hardy Boy mysteries, a godly science fiction book, and a whole set of new graphic novels on inventors and their inventions--as well as a Light Wedge, which is one of those things that fit over the pages of a person's book and lights them up in the dark.  JW loves reading in his bed at night; now he no longer needs to use a flash light.  He loves this, too. 

We finally planted our butterfly garden, the plan of which was shown in a previous post.  I had to get seeds for all but one of the kinds of plants, of which I got two (for the tops of the butterfly antennae).  I planted a bit late, but I'm pleased that I did it, and even if it doesn't turn out to be the best I wanted, I'll be content if some flowers come up, and the butterflies come.  We have a lot of butterflies, anyway, and hey, the butterflies like just the manured dirt I used.

We reviewed seeds, roots, and other plant parts, as well as the importance of earthworms, which included reading some of our favorite books we have (worm book was posted in a recent post):

The Organic Farm by Shawn Frost and What Do Roots Do? by Kathleen Kudlinksi

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and The Organic Adventures of Tucker the Tomato by Ray Ortega

We haven't worked much on JW's spelling and math practice, because he and Trusten have had swimming lessons, and there's been plenty else to do after we get back home.  Soon we'll get to really working on the plant project.  Here are some pictures of things on our nature walks:

Just beautiful!

Found this to be quite a blessing

Deptford Pink

I love these red wildflowers...wish there were more!

And a couple more pictures:

Queen Anne's Lace...my sweet Trusten picked this for me

William had loaded up bark from where a log pile was in the yard, strapped it in his dump truck for plans to haul off

Until next time...

Pentecost and Birthdays

Okay, I'm going to bunch everything together quickly in two posts for the sake of catching up, b/c otherwise I likely never will!  This will be like the last main post with mainly pictures and less words. 

Both my boys had their birthdays this year.  Will turned eight; Trusten turned four.  I love that we take our children on trips on their birthdays, because I believe it's a great opportunity for them to experience new things from which they can both learn and enjoy.  Trusten kept talking about tigers.  He wanted to see tigers and get a stuffed tiger.  This wasn't hard, because we live near Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, a habitat for tigers, other big cats, and even bears and other creatures (like monkeys) that have been rescued from neglectful, abusive, or deceased or elderly owners.  We'd been there once, back in late 2005 as a therapeutic family outing shortly after our second-born son died, nearly two years before Trusten even came along.  Some pictures from Trusten's birthday:

The wrapped gift beside the bike was bought by Will w/ his allowance money and wrapped by him...so sweet!

Beautiful cat!

Lovely flower...couldn't resist snapping a picture!

Majestic cat waiting for his time to go to the natural habitat area, outside of the cages

We got to see this tiger splash around in his bath.

And of course, Trusten picked out a stuffed tiger in the gift store.

NEXT came Pentecost.  Funny story this year, though.  I got a double Pentecost, because I was so messed up with everything going on that I miscounted my weeks in my planner calendar!  Consequently, my bigger celebration was on June 5, rather than June 12, the latter of which was the correct date on the Roman calendar this year.  We had a great feast of barbecued brisket, macaroni & cheese, salad, and punch.  I always fix punch on Pentecost, because I like to use it as symbolic imagery in teaching my children about God "pouring" out his Spirit upon those he begets. 

Pentecost gifts for the boys...always biblically-based gifts on this holiday

Delicious pineapple punch! 

I enjoyed a great deal of time in meditation to reflect on what a blessing it is to be a begotten child of God.  I went through my list of self-compiled scriptures I use for Pentecost for the boys' lesson, plus briefly went over the plan of salvation as pictured by the seven feasts of God, as is my custom to do each holy day.  I always use the feast map that was made by someone in the United Church of God:

Feast map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FREE Math Book & Accompanying Lab Book and 2-Minute Mysteries Book

Free with free shipping.  First come, first serve.

First a Miquon Orange Book (math, first grade level), new condition but missing the first sheet (first 2 pages) and the book that accompanies all the Miquon books, Lab Sheet Annotations, which I bought in good used condition.  We just never did use Miquon, although I did buy Cuisenaire rods and use them.

Secondly, a duplicate copy of Still More Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald Sobol.  I got this copy as a child as a library give-away book.  It's the book I picked out.  It was a library book, so it was quite used when I got it, but it's still in fair condition, not falling apart, no marks, etc.  I thought this was one of the books that came up missing from my childhood collection, so when I went to buy the other two books in the series for my son Jaden William, I bought this one as well.  After the fact, I realized we still had my copy on the shelf.  Great book for crime-solving minds!

Comment on this post if you want something, and I will contact the first ones who post for their address(es).


Thanks in advance for taking these off my hands!

Flowers, Floodwater, Snakes, and Worms

Throughout spring the boys picked bouquets for me.  Well, mostly Jaden William picked flowers for me, but Trusten picks flowers, too, so he added to the arrangements.  I've been needing some more flower vases for awhile, and I finally got some at the thrift store.  Now I don't have to have my flowers in a Coca-Cola glass that a relative gave me from McDonald's.  Here are some pics of the beautiful bouquets my sweet boys picked for me:

Some pictures of some unidentified, never-seen-before types of mushrooms on our property (anyone know?), a picture of what my red honeysuckle looks like this year, and a couple pics of the latest snake he caught (Western Ribbon Snake, a type of garter snake):

Now for a picture of the boys hanging out together on the hill off our back deck before it was covered with the summer weeds,  a picture of Liv in the shower after one of her mudfests, and some pics of all three kids playing in their much-beloved spring yard flood:

Earthworms!

In the next post I'll talk about Trusten's 4th birthday and the last of God's spring feasts, Pentecost.  After that, I'll talk about JW's birthday and our butterfly garden.  Next week starts the boys' swimming lessons, and also JW turns eight.  We're planning to take him for a flight in a private plane.  He'll get some new books and other things.  He's read all of his Cul-de-Sac kid books and only has three of his historical graphic novels left, so he'll get some more of the latter.  It's cool how much he reads about and then tells me.

He asked me not too long ago who William Clark was.  I said, "Wasn't that Lewis' travel partner when they explored up and down the Mississippi River?"  He said he thought so.  I told him we could look it up in the encyclopedia.  We've done this with several things recently, but this is the example I remember.  It gives him practice on looking up things in reference books.  I do this with dictionary skills, too, when he asks about words.  Anyway, I guided him through looking up William Clark, and I told him to read the entry.  He read part of it, enough that we confirmed that is who it was.  I asked him how he knew about him, and he said he'd read about him on Poptropica.  That's an online game he play sometimes.  He sometimes interacts (to an extent, as you can choose things to say from options, not just type whatever you want) with other kids, asking them to play certain activity competition games on there, etc.  He also reads and learns things on there. 

Well, this is it for now.  I included mostly pictures, little typing, as I'm so behind. 

Until next time....

Flooding, Planting, Emigration, Oh So Much!

We have been BUSY!  So much has happened since my last update, which is why this update took longer for me to get around to doing than the last one did.  There is no way I could possibly cover close to everything, but I don't want to share nothing.  (Of course, I'm not sure how many actually keep up with this or care one way or the other, but nevertheless I keep this blog for my own records, anyway.)  I actually plan to do this post and then soon do another one or two, rather than fit everything I decide to cover in one post.

I found out on April 15 that I was pregnant...six weeks and a day pregnant at the time.  Wow, this is my sixth pregnancy, and that was the latest in the pregnancy I've ever been before realizing I was pregnant.  A BIG surprise, to say the least.  We thought we were done.  I had given away nearly all my baby stuff, so I'll have to buy most everything again.  I'm just now getting over my shock and denial, because as bad as it may sound, I really didn't cope well with the news.  All will be fine, though.  :-) I'm starting to feel much better about it.

I kept Passover on the evening of April 17.  I usually include the children in the footwashing, but it was all I could do to even participate in anything myself.  I was so tired and a bit down about a lot of things.  I solemnly partook of some unleavened bread (homemade tortillas) and unfermented grape juice this year, since I don't like to drink any alcohol during the first trimester of pregnancy.  The next afternoon--the afternoon part of the Passover when Salvation died for our transgressions--the boys and I watched a movie that I bought about Salvation's (Jesus'/Yeshua's) life.  I was so disappointed to discover that it was the exact movie that I did not want to see (The Greatest Story Ever Told).  It was the movie we'd rented online last year, and I HATED it.  It had so many things mixed up.  Very misleading.  I figured I may as well get The Passion of the Christ.  I did, and so we watched that about a week later, but I didn't let Trusten see the violent parts.  WHY does everyone have to portray Christ with long hair, though?  Anyway, we kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread all that week, through 25th.  I even made unleavened muffins a couple days for breakfast, and though they were small, they were tasty.  The kids thought they were fun.

Tortillas, ugly but very tasty

Delicious tortilla in the skillet

I don't have much recorded from then until a few days into May.  At some point during that time, I got Jaden William a spelling curriculum--Sequential Spelling.  This is one of those things I really need to go give a good review on.  I LOVE it!  I've not seen any spelling curriculum with which I've been happy, so I've not been using such.  The so-called Natural Speller book I have is anything but natural, in my opinion.  I've pulled it off the shelf to give it a look several times, trying to see what people like so much about it, but I just failed to see it.  I was a super speller in school, and still I'm the one my husband asks when they need to know the spelling of a word.  It was my mother who always asked when I was growing up.  Well, William just hasn't been a good speller.  He excels at reading, though, so it's been confusing for me.  SO, I was flipping through a Timber Doodle catalog one night, and I came across Sequential Spelling advertised as being perfect for those who excel at reading but struggle with spelling.  William! I thought.  I found quite a deal on Ebay for the whole set brand new, and I can't be happier that I bought them.  It makes sense!  It teaches spelling the exact same way I would do so.  I actually used such a method before with William years ago, myself, but it was too soon for him to grasp.  Sooo, if anyone reading this has a child with the same issue (or ANY child), I highly recommend this set of books.  We've done fifteen days on it, and I've already been amazed at how it's working for him.  It uses bases then includes words that all have the same base.  JW writes the word in his workbook first, then I write the word, keeping the base in one color and the beginning, the prefixes, and suffixes in another color.  He then corrects any mistake he may have made.

Sequential Spelling

I also got a language arts book called Language Lessons.  I got the book 1.  So far I've been pleased with it.  He's analyzed one picture so far, used logic to answer questions about it, wrote something about it, and the last few lessons he's done copy work, which is a poem.  After that's finished, he'll learn about poetry, and then I'm not sure what.  But eventually, there is another picture, and then the process is restarted to learn something else.  It's pretty neat.

We've been working on JW's math almost daily.  Right now we're doing addition and subtraction flashcards to help his memory and speed and working through his Grade 2 word problems book by Evan Moor, and he's almost finished with it.  I'll then have him working on more worksheets I'll print off the Internet for more practice on 2- and 3-digit addition and subtraction, including borrowing and carrying and play School House Rock multiplication songs for him to learn those.  After he's got that down a lot better, I'll start him on the Grade 3 word problems book we have.  It's designed for a problem a day, but we do three pages a day, which usually equates to at least five word problems a day.  Then there's the everyday life things, like learning measurements in the kitchen.  He loves helping in the kitchen.  :-)

We've started taking our nature walks, though for awhile I felt so tired and nauseous that I didn't want to do anything.  We'll soon make it a regular thing again, and we'll start back up the plant project, adding more plants to our binder, and we'll be louping things, too.  LOVE the loupes!

JW has asked about many things, as usual.  He took apart a broken calculator one day and asked about the colored wires, which led to a discussion on positive, negative, ground (neutral), electrons, etc.  We talked about static electricity and rubbing off electrons, etc.

We're considering now heavily moving to South America, probably Uruguay, possibly within the next couple of years.  Nathan and I have talked on and off about moving out of the U.S. for five years or so, but lately we've talked about it more seriously.  So we've been learning about other countries, and the boys are included in some of the learning.  Nathan and I also took a week's long trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands (where we'd not live, but it was a nice getaway).  We visited St. Thomas and St. John.  Here are just a few pics of the things that I told the boys about so that they could learn:

The ocean view from our hotel on the beach (our room had the only balcony)

A Laughing Gull

Hermit Crab

Neat rock Nathan found in the ocean, with various fossil and life features

Woven hats and baskets; we saw the guy working on one nearby

The hotel garden

An iguana lizard who lived in the tree in front of our hotel balcony

Coconut retrieval (early to harvest for its nutritious water)

Man chopping open coconuts

Some coral, shells, rock that I collected and brought to William

I have many other pictures, and William was delighted to see (as I knew he would be) that I took a picture of brain coral that was growing in the ocean.  He learned about brain coral from one of his Reading Rainbow dvds.  We all also learned that the people drive on the left side of the road in the VI, as they do in Britain.  (They also drive crazy.)  Most of the people are very friendly there, though, unlike what people as a whole have become here in the States. 

The last thing I'll mention in this post is the flooding we had.  We recently learned about earthquakes, as you may remember.  Now we talked more about flooding and witnessed it firsthand.  The creek in front of our house flooded badly twice this spring.  The last time it got so bad that Nathan did not make it back across when he came home from working.  As a result, his truck was totaled. 

The creek that borders our property on one side

The road in front of our house and the view of where the creek crosses it

Nathan's truck in the flooded creek

I also have videos of the floods we've had this year.  They can be found at the following links:

Second Flood, w/ the Truck

First Flood, High Water (Silent Audio) 
(not as high as when the truck didn't make it)

First Flood, Lower Water (Sound Included, Longer Video)


Well, there's SO much more to cover, but I'll try to make another post to cover the rest sometime next week.  :-)