Just checking in to make sure everyone has my new blog bookmarked.

I'm kind of assuming no one checks this site anymore...hee hee! Just thought I'd check!

the NEW and IMPROVED...

His Mercy is New

www.hismercyisnew.com

(Ok, so much for a grand entrance...for some reason homeschool blogger isn't letting me put in a link, I guess because it's the same title as this blog...so you will have to copy and paste! Sorry about that!)

Posted in Family

Posted in Family

I guess you could say another sign of spring in my neck of the woods is going to Dollywood! We have already gotten our season passes and been 2x so far this year! The girls are excited because they have grown tall enough to ride a few more rides this year! They have gone on their first "grown up" roller coaster...and loved it!! (almost as much as mommy!)

Here are some pictures from our day there today! Thanks to Nana and Papa for keeping Caleb so that we could each ride the rides with a girl and not have to stand around waiting so long! The girls had a blast today! You know, ordinarily I would not be a huge proponent of spending money on theme parks just for the heck of it...but I must say, as we spun around in the air...hearing my children's laughter...it was so worth it in my opinion. While you are up there in the air on these rides, laughing with your child...all your worries just melt away. I felt like a child again...and truly enjoyed hearing my girls laugh. and laugh. and laugh. Laughter truly is good for the heart!

The ferris wheel with daddy!

The "kids" veggie tale roller coaster!

The swings with mommy!

We all had fun riding the bumper cars for the first time! Daddy especially!

Carosel time!

Emily on the carosel!

The girls on the bumblebee

Just in time for our study on eagles (and birds last week) we saw lots of birds today!

Mr. mean looking hawk

Owl

Another owl

We also fed some ducks!

The girls had their eyes on these big suckers all day long...so at the end of the day, they got their yummy treats!

Posted in Spring

Here are a few more signs of spring from around our house! It has been beautiful this week!

Our neighbor's beautiful flowers!

Our dogwood tree

We have had several juncos (I believe) in the last 2 weeks! I love this picture because you can really get a good look at this little guy's legs!

The lawn mower -- a picture of my newfound hobby! hee hee! If my brothers and/or dad happen to be reading this they are probably laughing about now. You see, with 2 brothers I never had to mow the grass! I did not actually mow the grass EVER until I was an adult. So, imagine my surprise (and that of everyone who knows me) when in the last month I have really ENJOYED mowing our yard! Thankfully our yard isn't too big, I can get it done in under 2 hours, but it has been something I enjoy and with it being so pretty outside, the kids just play out in the yard while I mow. (and I can't hear them fighting with each other, HA! maybe that is why I enjoy it!)

AND...just in case you are wondering...I did take these pictures on my new camera! Hip Hip Hooray!! I ended up with a Canon Powershot SX100 IS. Thanks to my friend, Michelle, who let me look at hers and play with it, I decided on this one. It has more of a zoom than any other camera in this medium price range. The zoom is 10x. And zoom is probably one of my top priorities. I played around with a few slr cameras and decided I just wasn't really wanting that...they are too heavy for me to use multiple times a day, and for my nature shots and kid shots, this is really very sufficient! And I think it takes great pictures! (and it's on sale right now at Circuit City, actually $30 cheaper than Best Buy if anyone is in the market for this camera!)

Posted in Family

Are boys more imaginative than girls? Or is it just the difference between my particular boy and girls? It is the cutest thing...Caleb takes ANYTHING you hand him and it immediately becomes something else. Then there are other things he just pretends about, I love hearing him talk!

*I handed him a slice of apple and he said, "it's a police car...wooo woooo woooo..."

*I handed him a chip and he said, "it's a cross! Mommy, look!"

*At the restaurant, the rolled up utensils in the napkin became a sword tonight.

*Today I was laying on my bed with him at naptime and all of a sudden he rolled over with big eyes and said, "mommy! My bear is on fire, I have to go get the police car!" So, he jumps off the bed, runs to his room and gets his police car, comes back in the room making the noise of the policemen coming...woooo, wooo, wooo. I was trying hard not to laugh! After a few minutes, he looked at me very seriously and said, "mommy, my bear is dead. He will have to just sleep right there." (he'll have to sleep on the floor as opposed to up with Caleb.)

*He must have a big bear, a little bear, a dog and a moose to go to sleep. Sometimes the airplane is added to this. And usually, he is under a pillow and a few animals as he falls asleep.

*He sits and pretends his airplane is taking off to go to Alaska probably everyday. He rolls the airplane on the floor and then slowly it starts ascending and up in the air it goes!

Oh my, this boy is just too cute!

Posted in Book Units (other than FIAR)

This coming week we will be continuing our study on birds, but we will be focusing in on the EAGLE! There is so much to learn about this wonderful bird! So many things that I did not even know! (did you know the eagle's nest might be 6 feet in diameter?)

I have noticed that there are not too many children's books out there on eagles! But, I found a few...here are the ones we will be using next week!

Activities, lessons & craftts

**most of our work this week will be on the lapbook as well as finishing up the bird facts and activities we didn't finish from last week! There are just SO many wonderful bird things to do and learn!

*watch this LIVE EAGLE CAM -- this is super exciting! Right now there are several babies in the nest, the girls and I just watched them being fed.

*we will be doing most of this free lapbook on eagles!

*we will listen to what an eagle sounds like HERE

*color and read this page on eagles

*Isaiah 40:31 will be our Bible lesson and copywork for the week.

*still looking for the perfect eagle craft...any ideas for me?

Isaiah 40:31 ~ Those who HOPE in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like EAGLES, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.

Posted in Books

Wow, 2 book posts from me in a row! But you all knew I loved to read already, didn't you?

I am about to start an online study for this book, Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe by Todd Wilson. I am very excited about this book! I read the "original" book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and this one looks to be just as wonderful for us homeschoolers!

Here are just a few of the lies mentioned in this book: everyone else's kids are better, everyone else's home is cleaner, everyone else is more capable of homeschooling than me...and the list goes on. Like I said, I'm very excited about this study, I can relate to those lies, what about you?  And as the study progresses, I hope to post my thoughts on my blog, as well as link you back to the Heart of the Matter, where this study is taking place. Here is the first entry on this study that was posted earlier this week. I think if you wanted to get a book quickly you could still participate!

(By the way, have all of you checked out The Heart of the Matter yet? It is a fabulous online magazine for homeschooling moms!)

Posted in Books

Have any of you read this book? I have read 5 chapters to far and it is very good. Very thought provoking. The author, Donald Miller,  is brutally honest about how selfish we are as a people and a culture. It is a very different book...it isn't fiction, so it's not telling a story, yet there are many analogies and shorter stories within the main theme. I'd love to hear what some of you thought if you have finished the book!

Here is the description from amazon:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.