Critters abound!

Today I was reading outside when I saw another one of those giant spiders I've been seeing around the yard and basement.  I've never taken a close up look so today I got my camera and started snapping shots in hopes to zoom it on my computer screen.  I'm pretty sure it's a taurantula, but I'm waiting for confirmation from the MDC.  Can you see all the hundreds of babies covering this momma's back?  By the naked eye, I wasn't sure what it was, but I think it was more a matter of disbelief with what I was seeing!  When I zoomed the photo on my camera, I wanted to drop the camera it was SOOOOOOOOOOO creepy!!!  Anyway, by this photo, I could see what I believe to be claws which would determine that it sis in fact a taurantula.  One website said that the bites hurt like h-e-double-hockey-sticks, but the venom is less than a bee sting and harmless.  I don't know how that is possible.  I know the shock of being bit by a taurantula would traumatize me for life, forget the chunk of skin!  Tomorrow I'm going to buy an arachnid identification book.  Maybe a spider bite survival kit, too, and pull out my post-traumatic stress disorder books to have ready just in case.

On a much sweeter note, here is a nest inside a birdhouse in our yard.  It is home to 6 Tufted Titmice babies plus parents.  Sophia has made this her science project and Thursday she made a lapbook for school about the Tufted Titmouse using photos I've taken the past couple years put with research she did about them.  She did a great job and has thoroughly enjoyed observing the parents' daily activity.

Amazing Cave Adventure!

BATS!

Since using this different camera that my mom gave me and since Blogger has changed so much, it takes about 45 minutes to upload ONE picture!  That's why pictures are so sparce on our blog these days.  I'm about to drop the blog altogether and just lengthen the family newsletter.  Still deciding.  Nevertheless, I want to put up some more pics from the Bat Festival because the little critters are just so A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!  Have I mention how interesting bats are?

 This is the world's largest species of bat.

This is the "Big Brown Bat" as opposed to the Little Brown Bat.  You see how massive it is.  Hardly the size of one finger.  These are the ones we saw in the cave. 

Bat Festival

Coming from a baseball loving family, you might think we're talking about Louisville Sluggers. But coming from a homeschool family, you would be correct in assuming we are talking about the critters that fly around in the night nesting in your hair and sucking your blood. Except none of that stuff is true about these ADORABLE marsupials.  As part of U-Haul's unveiling of their new Missouri Supergraphic on their trucks and trailers (which is a bats of Missouri picture found at http://www.uhaul.com/), they sponsored a free event for schools and then to the general public whereby students could attend two presentations and then a 1/2 cave tour all focused on bats and their habitat here in MO.  U-Haul gave free t-shirts and informational packets with coloring books and other cool things. 

We went with a homeschool group and Ryan took a 1/2 day of vacation to come with us.  It was absolutely spectacular and I hope to post a few pictures on here including these here that I took of the kids. We went to the gift shop and got a few things before the program started.  Sophia and Ethan got mood rings with bats on them which shows their body temperature changing with the cave temperature.  Josiah got an LED flashlight.  He LOVES flashlights and this one was awesome for the cave adventure.  We used it to scope out the bats which was an excellent learning experience.  And it was all FREE, minus the $100 for food and educational materials.

All this took place at Onendaga Cave State Park where they have camping and hiking and even a river for swimming, so we picked out our camping spot which we will reserve this summer.  This cave beats everything about Silver Dollar City's cave.  Very cool!





First installment of very slow-loading pictures

To be continued....

More from Cavalia

We couldn't take pictures of the show, but we could take pictures of anything else in the tent.  So Sophia and I had fun photographing ourselves having sweet fun together.  She and I both cherish our mommy daughter dates.  We have a special bond as you see here. :-)

Cavalia... been there, done that!

All the fences were made of printed screens with the horses that are in the show.

We learned that there are 48 horses in the show.

17 stallions and 31 geldings. No mares!!

That's a bummer that this is sideways.

Hold you tongue just right and tip your head counterclockwise.

Cavalia!

Performing Arts and Equestrian Arts combine to make Cavalia!

Sophia made her decision about her money.  She decided she wants to go on a date with Mommy to see Cavalia!  We pooled our birthday money together and came $20 short of what it cost us for tickets and parking.  Our household budget can cover the rest.  Sophia and I are ecstatic and can’t wait for next Sunday, April 1^st at 2:00 when we will head to the bigtop in downtown STL.  See what all the hype is about: www.cavalia.net. 

Blurry party pictures

Turkish Delight, anyone? 

Yes, we actually found a recipe and Ryan made Turkish Delight straight from Narnia.  It was a hit too!  Interested?  See http://www.hookerycookery.com/xmas039.htm for the recipe we used!  And you didn't think Narnia was real!

The party table.  The castle was filled with goodies for the kids -- Armor of God shields and stickers, crowns, gems to decorate cups, and other fun stuff the kids played with.

Other decor included a snow theme with silver and white throughout the house -- hanging snow flakes, silver table covers, white sheets on the furniture, and campfire marshmallows to eat as a reminder of the snowball fight the Pevesies had when they first entered Narnia through the wardrobe.

The Prince Caspian and the Pevesies cake. 

Uncle Mike, Baba, and Tanner who was afraid of the storm and found a still lap.

A funeral, a broken printer, and a rained out party

A rained out party:
Yesterday was our annual birthday BBQ and we had lots of people who came.  We had just enough food even though the big veggie tray was rotten when I opened it. Stunk up the whole house but we managed to ventilate it and dispose of the tray in time. 

The rain moved in around 12:30 and only got worse and worse.  The lightning was horrendous and we feared sitting by windows because it was so close and all around.  At one point the electricity went out and I could hear the energy being sucked out and spit right back in when power returned after the enormous crack of thunder.  I bought a canopy for covering outside, but that didn't help in this downpour.  It hailed at least twice too. 

Nevertheless, our darling daughter reminded us that life can be good and bad all at the same time and we must enjoy the good just as much as we grieve the bad. 

Sophia has been totally showered for her 7th birthday.  Can you believe she's 7?!  We started our family blog when she was born!  (Formerly known as "Letters from Gilead".)  Mimi and Papa gave Sophia $50 to "spend on her wishes."  Sophia has said a few times, "I can't believe they said to spend it on my wishes!"  She's not going to be too hasty in spending it all, but she has been saving her own money for just such a shopping spree.  I promised her enough dates to get her cash all spent.  Sophia did receive other money as well and she laid it all out in front of her last night.  Then she picked how much she wanted to put in the "save" slot of her bank and how much she would put in her "church" slot.  There's still plenty to spend on her wishes and she feels so blessed to have had enough to share with others. 

It was even one of Sophia's birthday wishes to give her brothers a gift.  She gave them each a stocked toolbox -- Josiah's were plastic tools and Ethan's were real.  She literally squealed with delight when she watched them open their treasures! 


A broken printer:
I got EVERYTHING done before Sabbath except printing off the boxes of cards that Sophia pre-sold. 
*Some of you blog-followers don't know that Sophia is doing a fundraiser to raise money to go to horse camp.  She's almost there!*
I figured the cards could print by themselves without much effort on my part and thereby justified the fact that it was on Sabbath.  I learned my lesson though when our printer broke one card short of half the quota!  DOH!  I had been pushing my luck anyway though because of the computer being on during a lightning storm.  I really needed to turn it off and the broken printer was what it took to get my attention that enough was enough.  My mom left early anyway without her orders to take back and we were able to exchange our two unopened ink cartriges for a new printer today.


A funeral:
I went to move Ryan's car over to make room for the party guests yesterday and took my typical percautionary measures so as not to run over a cat.  Well, after I rolled back, I saw Cami, right where the tire had been.  She didn't get up and I knew I ran over her.  BUT, although I did run over her leg, that's not why she didn't get up before the car moved.  It was because she was suddenly dying from Leukemia!  Just before guests arrived, I took Cami inside to my bedroom so she could rest.  She was SO sick and got much worse throughout the day and into the evening.  By evening, I was giving her human medication to ease her pain and speed up the dying process, i.e. benedryl and tylenol.  Judging by the rigor mortis, Cami passed away around 5:00 AM this morning, maybe a little later.  Ryan already dug the grave last night before dark and we had our little family graveside funeral before church this morning.  That's not enough time to grieve so Sophia, Ryan and I were all still quite sad at church and I cried on the usher's shoulder.  Most of you think that's pathetic and it probably is, but it's still my precious kitty and my memories and my loss and my grief to bear.  When cats die in our family, we lose a family member.  It doesn't alter our family structure but it's something we grieve together and it's something we do recover from soon. 

Ryan said this morning, "Death is so disorienting."  I couldn't agree more!  You think you're living fully in reality and then death creeps into your home and something you've lived with IN time suddenly passes OUTSIDE of time right out of your hands.  It leaves us shaking our heads and wondering, "How could this be?" 

So that's how things went this weekend.  I've come to accept that this blog has taken a back seat to living. Especially without a non-blurry camera, I have had to reprioritize this blog.  It has dropped down a few notches.  At the same time, I know we are communicating to friends and family across the entire continent so it has not dropped off the priority list altogether.  I just choose to blog about the most pressing issues rather than all the mundane funnies of life.  Rest assured, our lives are still blog-worthy, which is why there's no time to blog about it.  I wish there was.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Gathered around the Matey (Argh!) for ice cream before dinner.

Party goers watching Soul Surfer.

Today is Ryan's birthday.  Saturday we will have our annual birthday BBQ.  Last Friday Sophia had her first slumber party.  Great fun!  She got the surfer theme she wanted at the slumber party and she'll get a little Narnia thing going this coming weekend.  This party stuff gets expensive!!! 

You've noticed that the blog has taken on a different personality in some respects as a reflection of how our lives are changing.  I am teaching the feast days class again this year but in a totally different way.  I'm doing it online to reach beyond the homeschool crowd.  This class requires a lot of prep work.  I'm also doing DC4K which is the best semester yet for me personally.  Then there's the book blog and I seem to be writing more on there as I seem more inspired lately with brief articles.  We do school when we can and where we can since Josiah is SUCH a handfull these days.  Ethan is learning how to read the Ethan way...... by himself.  Bill has been working on our bike shed and the kids love to help.  Ryan is getting ready to start a bible study with a couple guys based on the Fathered by God material from John Eldredge.  He'll be doing that on Monday nights, archery on Tuesday nights with Ethan (after the kids' music lessons), and then my DC4K on Wednesday nights.  I am studying something every night I can, but this week and last have been used more for preparation for the birthdays and for fighting spiritual battles.

Oh yeah, "What did Ryan get for his birthday?" you ask?  Shirts.  He needed new ones as we have been cleaning out the old and bringing in the new.  Except Ryan was the only one not getting new shirts because he's at work while I'm spending the money on new wardrobes for the kids.  So he got 6 new shirts tonight (3 from the kids and 3 from me), plus facial hair trimmers that he's wanted for a while now. 

So there you have it!  We're getting back into the swing of things since Ryan's job change.  Soon we'll be back on track financially and into our new groove.  Not sure where this job will take us into the future but we thank God every morning when Ryan walks out the door that he has a job to go to and we are not going hungry.  Praise Him for the blessings!

Daily life (captured on cell phone)

Busy beavers.  Yes, beavers took out these trees and more that I couldn't fit in the picture.  This is at the lake in our subdivision.

Bill and I took the kids for a walk down to the lake in the neighborhood yesterday and went across the dam and up the hill into the woods to play.  Sophia and Ethan are constantly learning about how to interact with fellow humans just by playing with each other day in and day out.  Our days are full of the good, bad, and ugly dealings with each other and in the end, they mostly still love each other. <3

Wednesday I took the kids to a maple syruping demonstration at Rockwoods Reservation.  There were about 100+ homeschool kids with their families and Bill and Scarlett rode separately and got to enjoy it with us.  The Conservation Dept. had stations set up throughout the woods and we split up with different tour guides who told us all about the process and history and gave us samples. 

After it was finished, the kids and I ate lunch at a picnic table and then played in a creek for 2 hours.  It was such a beautiful day and the kids had such a great time. 

Sometimes (Usually, actually!), I leave out the less desireable moments of an otherwise wonderful day such as this one at the Reservation.  So I'll throw in one of the funnier less desireable incidences.  This week I decided to make Josiah go without a pull-up when we're out in public, which we've done up until now simply because of my own fears and insecurities.  I've been sure to ask often if Josiah needs to go potty.  This particular day, we had just started the trek into the woods and weren't far into it so I figured I could take him back to the outhouse if he had to go.  I asked him if he had to potty and he said, "Um, yeah.  Right here!" and he dropped trou at the back of the line!  Only a few people turned around to investigate the hold up.  I was almost embarassed, but by the snickers, I quickly felt the love and good company of my fellow homeschoolers.

Yeah, it's a cheap piece of plastic, but it will get us through the birthdays coming up. 

I had a $10 coupon for Office Max and got this on clearance today to hold us over.

It may be purple, but we have a strictly business relationship. No friendship attachments whatsoever.  Promise!

Goodbye old friend....

Hi, All!  The end of the Canon PowerShot A630 era is upon us.  I wanted to have a memorial service for my faithful friend, maybe pay tribute with a gallery of photos it produced for the past 6 1/2 years of family life.  Maybe share memories with everyone who received a homemade card with the exquisit touch of personal photography.  Maybe display my book with the only illustration being my own photo on the front cover. So sad to see it go.  So sad.

What's equally sad is the fact that we have no camera now except the lousy thing on our phones.  Without a camera I'm like a surfer without a board, a skier without skiis, Steve Jobs without an Apple, Evil Kineival (sp?) without a bike, Michael Jackson without a groove.  THIS HURTS!  My lense on life is gone.  We've had so much loss over the past 4 months.  To most of you, a camera doesn't mean squat.  To me, it's a straw to break this camel's back. "This Scud's for you, Lisa!"

Want to see what I've had my eye on in the dying process of the A630?  When looking at all the cameras available out there, I've narrowed it down to two choices -- the one I really want but could never afford ($399 in Sam's stores), and the one I could afford if I save my pennies for another hundred years ($179.88 on sale).  Funny thing is, I wasn't looking at the brand name.  I was only looking for something I liked and thought I could work with most easily.  It just so happened that the two I like are both Canon's and both are PowerShot style (built in lense).  Hmmm, I sense a pattern.

 http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod4380395&navAction=push

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod4380405&navAction=push

A quiver full

 Ethan at the archery range.

Ethan last night at the range.

These two kids are cousins, Nikki and Nicholas, but they look like twins!  They befriended Ethan the very first night Ethan came.  Nikki is 9 but she is real sweet on Ethan and helps him with EVERYTHING she can find to show kindness to him.  Nicholas is a good big buddy too.  The range owner put out dollar bills on targets last night and Nikki shot one so she gave the dollar to Ethan.  He was a happy camper! :-)

(Why in the world did this one tip over like this?)  Friday nights at Sabbath dinner, the kids love to "help" with clean-up duty.  Here Josiah has his apron and is ready to work.

Up to 37 inches and no good

Of the 4 pictures here, this is the only one of Josiah awake. And when he's awake, he's into trouble. I'm sure he dreams about being in trouble too. He's one of those kids who can take you on the ride of your life emotionally and at the end of the day you want to thank him for the privilege.  How does that work anyway?

Sacked out!!!

These two were taken last night after 10:00 PM!  Josiah was in bed until Ryan got home with Ethan from archery.  Then he got riled up and had to wind down for bed all over again.  Then he got up a few more times to see if he was missing any good stuff.  Ryan and I turned out most of the lights in the house and barricaded ourselves in our bedroom to take away the excitement that lured him out of bed.  After a while of silence and then the sound of snoring, we opened our door and found THIS on the floor!  How do you like the pink slipper too?

party pix

More Shelob's Web.  Ethan sure did enjoy getting sprayed.

Silly string has become a traditional party thing for us.

No party is complete without silly string.  Maybe at the next

party we'll have to tell everyone BYOSS.

More River Anduin.  At one point, Josiah brought over a shovel

to dig with in the pool.  He is a master critical thinker when

it comes to problem solving skills.  He knew his hands were cold

and figured out that the water would make him colder than

he already was, so he found a tool for the job.

Robin Hood

As you saw from the pictures in the previous post, we gave Ethan a real bow for his birthday.  It came with the promise that Ryan would take him to the archery range in New Haven where kids shoot free on Tuesday nights from 6-8 PM.  So they did just that last night.  Ryan and Ethan found their new passion.  There were lots of other kids there, all of which showed great safety skills and respect for the sport and each other.  Ryan was just as impressed with the crowd as he was with the facility.  Reports indicate that Ethan was beaming from ear to ear and had so much fun that his self-esteem even skyrocketed.

Then there's the job front.  Well, Ryan is two days into it and he still doesn't known who he is, what he's supposed to be doing, or why he's there.  They didn't either when they hired him, but we assumed they needed the help or they wouldn't have paid competitive wages for 3 new engineers.  We're not going to express in detail our initial impressions here, but suffice it to say that so far Ryan is BORED.  He's been dreaming for a few years now about starting his own business of doing routine maintenance and repairs on existing transformers.  The only thing holding him back has been the money issue.  He would start it with another guy at CG.  In his need to occupy his mind the past two days, he's been daydreaming about this other pursuit. 

We are definitely going through A LOT of changes in our lives.  We are anchored in the Lord who sustains us and gives us a hope and a future.  Praise Him!

Happy 5th Birthday, Ethan!

Monday the 16th is Ethan's official birthday.  Today was his official birthday party. It was a Lord of the Rings theme, which was tricky since it's not the "IN" thing at the party stores.  Even the one online LOTR store discontinued their party product line.  But in my searching, I found a website that was a collection site for party ideas.  I don't remember the address, but I read one mother's post about the party she gave her son for a LOTR theme.  I used two of her ideas, one was modified for our purposes.

We pretended Ethan was Frodo and anyone with a can of silly string was Shelob, the spider that binds Frodo in a massive web.  I think the cans were half empty because it didn't last very long.  Nevertheless, it was fun for the kids and Ethan surprisingly enjoyed being sprayed to death. :-) 

The second game was to search for the ring by the River Anduin, replicating the wrestling match between Smeagle and Deagle in the battle for the ring.  For this game they had to fish with their hands for a golden ring in a swimming pool full of dirty water.  The winner got to keep the ring and received an inflatable crown. It took a lot longer than expected and all the kids were frozen by the time Sophia found the ring.  I used luke warm water but it was barely above freezing outside. Sophia gave the crown to Faith who was pretty upset about not finding the ring herself.  Gotta admire her motivated spirit. The kids were all so fun to watch as only a few adults braved the cold to cheer them on.  I've never tried to do games at a party before, but this was fun! 

When the kids first arrived, we decorated plastic golden cups with adhesive gems.  That was my idea for royal cups.  It was a good way to keep track of whose was whose and the kids really enjoyed expressing themselves in such creative ways.  I don't do party hats since they are so humiliating, but each kid got a cardstock crown to wear while they decorated their cup.  This too, went over well.

We eventually went to the games and then we came in for cake and ice cream and presents. It was great fun and a good time was had by all!  Ethan is a truly happy boy today. :-)

We're looking forward to the next party in 8 or 9 weeks. That's the big birthday BBQ for the triple birthdays in March. In the meantime, Ryan's last day of work at CG Power was yesterday.  It has been a whirlwind of emotion in letting go and letting God.  He begins his new job on Monday and the joy will soon follow.

I bought this cake from Sam's Club and ordered it with brown/chocolate border frosting.  Then I ordered the cake topper from ebay online.  It was so exciting to find the perfect cake topper and it came just in time!  With some creativity, these little details all worked out great!

The trash bags were an original idea to keep the kids relatively dry and mud free. 

Worked well so as not to make enemies with the parents. 

Would have been a fun activity in the summer time.

Who gave that boy a bow and arrows?!

Once lost, often found

I got a call this morning around 8:30 saying, "Hi, my name is Callie and I think you have my dog."  Her name was Daisy.  Daisy was rescued as a pup from the Humane Society raised on a farm her first 2+ years.  She is now 3 1/2 and living in a neighborhood, so she escapes off her collar when she can to frolic in the city park with children and families who feed her pizza crust and picnic leftovers.  She was so happy to return home this morning!  I told Callie to keep my number in case she wants to give Daisy to a couple of horse farmers with 200+ acres.  She said she'd do that.
Interestingly, 6 years ago we fostered a Hurricane Katrina dog (from the Humane Society) for exactly 18 hours before we had to take her back due to severe doggie PTSD.  We named her Daisy.  Also interesting is that one of the 5 "found" signs I put up last night was smack dab in front of Daisy's house!  They saw it this morning when the man left for work.  That is exactly why I went out last night to put up the signs instead of waiting till AM. 

Never underestimate possibility.  Asume nothing.  And always do what's right even in the face of adversity.  Be the kind of person you admire.

Our latest rescue

Good morning, World!  We start another day with our stray dog rescue of yesterday.  We met her at the park in Washington as we played in the very gorgeous weather.  She was SO friendly and well trained and energetic (very young).  Even though she appeared to have an owner (no collar though), she stood in the middle of a busy street and looked around in circles as though she were unsure of which way to get home.  She was very drawn to children so she started towards the Montessori school across the street.  This just wasn't going anywhere good so I made some phone calls to ensure a home for her if I took her home and could not find her owners. 

Having taken reasonable precautions, I posted her on Craigslist and went back last night to put up laminated signs around the neighborhood next to the park.  If we cannot find her owners, we will probably give her to our friends at the horse farm.  I took her over there last night to introduce everyone so they can form an impression while we're waiting for the owners to call if they're going to. 

So without further adeui, The Princess!

The eagle has landed

We've been flying around in employment limbo for more than two months now.  Today Ryan accepted a job.  It's at http://www.h-jenterprises.com/.  We prayed that God would open the right door and close (not clothes - LOL) all the others.  Well, one door never opened.  Another door opened and then closed.  And this door opened the day the other door closed.  Ryan had an interview on Tuesday this week and they made the offer later that day.  Today he received the salary offer and clarified any other questions about benefits.  With what we'll be paying out of pocket, it all equals about the same salary as he's making now.  Nothing spectacular, but we didn't go into this pursuit for money in the first place.

It is going to be interesting and I'll of course be checking in here on the blog with how things are transitioning along.  In the meantime, he has off work until next Wednesday.

Farewell Hanukkah

Here's what Ethan bought with his gift money.  Now he can play Lord of the Rings with Sophia.  Josiah is stilll usually the Orc presence.  With his (Josiah's) money, however, he bought a wooden rolly car thingy that gives him the giggles and he bought a Radio Flyer beginner scooter (Razor style) yesterday.  This weekend I plan to fix up Sophia's first bike (12 inch) and paint it red for Josiah.  That way he'll have a new scooter and a new bike.  He wanted both with his money. 

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah.  How do you like the reflection of light behind Ryan's head? :-)  We were going to get more doughnuts but we are all greased out!  So I got some super fancy, super delicious brownies and sparkling juice to close out the festival.  We also played a bedtime game of Hanukkah Bingo which was fun and easy for everyone.  We all learned some valuable lessons this year and hope to live better in the coming year because of these lessons. 

On a different note, I love after Christmas and end-of-season sales! I found some Swiss Army shoes for Sophia and Ethan yesterday for $12.50 each at Target!  For those who don't realize it, that's cheaper than WalMart's trashy junk! I don't call WalMart stuff "trashy junk" unless it really is.  Kids shoes are truly trashy junk there.  I only buy them when I have to, but they never hold up to the abuse of a child's feet.  Children's feet are busy, they go places, indulge adventure, climb, jump, kick, run, pedal, splash..... You get the idea.  It's tough being a child's shoe so the shoe has to be tough too.  This is why I was so happy to find good shoes that were affordable.  I also stocked up on all the other kinds of shoes I could find at the sales this weekend -- 80 cents for flip flops, $7 church shoes for Josiah, fleece crocs for $2.50, black sparkle sturdy church shoes for $8 for Sophia.  Plus a few other super cute clothing things for under $4.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some foam blocks to play with in hopes my youngest will join me.

~Lisa