McKinley Point Academy

• Aug. 31, 2008 - Help with setting goals for our children

• Jul. 17, 2008 - God and Squirrels

I was reading some older blog posts and realized I didn't blog my follow-up to the squirrel story.  Here is what I wrote on June 16. **** The squirrels have annoyed me for the last time - I hope!  About 2 months ago, I bought a window bird feeder and we have really enjoyed it.  Then the squirrels found it.  They come up on the deck and climb my window frames or the French door frame.  I tried using the red pepper powder but they still eat it.  So I moved it to another window in the family room, away from the deck.  Well, the squirrel jumps off the deck railing and most times makes it.  Today he knocked down the feeder just minutes after I had filled it. It is now on the window over my sink.  I don't think he can jump from the railing.  I will not be able to reach the window from the outside unless I use a ladder.  However, since my windows tilt in for cleaning, I should be able to refill it from inside the house.  We will see.... Otherwise, I may have to use a second story window - except we are not up there enough to enjoy the birds... **** So it was up there about 2 days when it got knocked down - again.  Now they are jumping from the other deck railing.  I thought about putting it on the window one further away from the deck railing, but didn't get around to it.  The following Sunday morning I was reading and praying when I heard this awful noise in the kitchen.  The squirrel was on the window I was going to try next, looking around for the food. I had been doing a study on listening and obeying God.  It talks about taking everything to God, so I did.  My prayer went like this - Dear Father, I am so frustrated by those squirrels.  They keep eating all my bird seed.  I really enjoy seeing the birds and Lord, what am I going to do about those squirrels?  The birds are your creatures Lord and I love them.  Then I waited.... Then the answer came - Beverly, the squirrels are my creatures too.  So the feeder is back where we started.  The squirrels can get to it without knocking it down.  The birds can reach it.  I can reach it... And yes, the squirrels come, but the birds do too.  Thank you Lord for helping me to see that you care about all of your creatures.  Just as you care about all of your people, may I also care about everyone as you care about them. The feeder...

Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jul. 11, 2008 - Recent Updates

On July 4th, we had fun with friends.  My friend Mandy and her family were there.  Mandy and I enjoyed trying to take pictures of the fireworks, the kids, and the lightening.  I love how Mandy's pictures look on her blog and may have to redo my blog soon. Mei and two of Mandy's sons enjoying the show. This was a pretty funny scene.  There was a storm coming in and the young men were trying to capture the lightening on their cell phones and cameras.  Notice, there is no picture of Mandy and I trying to do the same thing. Well, the boys (including dh) made it home safely last Friday.  It was really good to have them home.  After some catching up on sleep on their part and a huge, huge mountain of laundry on my part, we were back to normal. Mei had her first Brownie Try-It this week - a water safety one.  She really enjoyed it except for the part where they jumped in full dressed.  The water was deeper than she was used to and the extra clothes upset her.  But she recovered fine.  I would like her to take swimming lessons, but she says she is not ready yet.  (Thanks to Christine for taking the picture.) I completed my first week of housekeeping on my new schedule!!  Yay!!  It really wasn't that hard or time consuming.  And hey, my light switches are clean!   I looked at a lot of different plans for cleaning and could not find one that worked like I wanted to work.  So I copied the list of tasks from 3 different places to make my own list and schedule.  To manage it all, I entered it into Homeschool Tracker, under a student called Housekeeping.  Since I like to have a laundry day, a kitchen day, a bathroom day, etc. it was easy to create repeating tasks.   I created a "lesson plan" for each day of the week and then put the task list in the Description field.  If I can figure out how to upload a file so you can see it, I will do that.  Now each week, I just print out my weekly schedule of cleaning. I am still planning school lessons. I am getting closer to being done.  I just received the new art books, so I need to read and plan those lessons.  And guess what?  My close friend is adding Music this year - but not art.  Since I am adding art, but not music, we might try getting together for Friday afternoons of Art and Music.  My kids are excited. When dh and the boys were gone, I stayed up to 3:30am three nights and up to 1am one night.  I found a new toy...LibraryThing.   See my books on the right?  My dh loves it too!  So we will be getting a lifetime membership and entering all of our books.  We are also thinking of creating one for our church library so that the list of books is accessible to our members online.

Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jul. 3, 2008 - Boys at Camp

The boys are at Boy Scout camp this week.   It is Paul's last summer camp because he will be 18 in April.  It is Mark's first summer camp.  Since this is the only time they will be there together,  my dh James went too.  Mark is taking swimming, leathercraft, and a beginning scout program.  Paul is taking rifle shooting and I am not sure what else. Mei and I painted two walls in her room blue this week.  I had painted a faux lavender color before we adopted her.  So now it is lavender and blue, which matches her quilt.  We also rearranged the furniture and pictures on the walls.  Now to sort through all those accumulated toys, papers, and assorted stuff .  I am hoping most of it goes to live somewhere else.  Mei and I went bowling today with a friend and her mom.  It was Mei's first time and she loved it!  She played three games with the bumpers up.  I don't remember all her scores, but she got a 83 on the first game.  That was better than my first game without bumpers - a mere 57 I think.  My second game I used the bumpers too and scored a 118. We have a cookout to attend tomorrow and then the boys come home on Saturday.  I hope you have a wonderful July 4th holiday.  Happy Birthday America! My boys at camp: And dear husband: Mei's new look:

Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jun. 25, 2008 - Wedding Pictures

Finally, as promised.  Here is our wedding picture.  We were a young 23 and 22 years old.  Want to hear a funny story about my first husband and my second husband? Way back before the big day, James and I were both living in Kentucky.  We wanted to have our wedding in Michigan.  Of course, the requirements for wedding licenses were different in the two states.  Michigan required blood tests and an exam by a doctor.  After some searching, we found someone in Ky. willing to give us the proper blood tests and send them to my childhood doctor in Michigan.  In talking to my doctor, he said that he examined the bride but only talked to the groom.  So he really didn't need to see my dear hubby-to-be.  So I went to Michigan a week before the wedding (a 6 hour trip).  I was to see the doctor on Monday, take the forms to the court house for the license, pick it up on Friday, and get married on Saturday.  James was driving up with friends on Friday. So Monday, the doctor does his thing and as he is signing forms he says: wait, I can't sign James's form because he has to sign it front of me.  Well James is in Ky with no way to get there - a friend driving up from Georgia to be his best man was picking him up.  So there is no way to get a license before Saturday.  I call the minister that is to marry us and explain the situation.  I beg him to marry us anyways, because after all - who is the true authority of marriage - God or the law?  He agrees to marry us without the legal paperwork with the promise we will get married legally later. James arrives late Friday afternoon.  We have rehearsal on Saturday morning, play mini-golf in the afternoon, and get married that evening.  Everything goes off as planned.  Sunday afternoon we load up the car with the gifts and drive back to Ky.  Monday morning we go the court house to apply for a marriage license (there is a 3 day waiting period).  That afternoon we head off on our honey moon - a camping trip through the mountains of Ky and Tenn. The following Monday we pick up our license and after work we go see a Justice of Peace.  One of our friends that was unable to go to the wedding comes along as a witness, The Justice's wife is the other witness.  The guy has glasses as thick as the bottom of Coke bottles.  James and I are laughing the whole time.  We take our wedding rings off - hand them over for the ceremony and then put them back on.  Poor Justice.  We did not explain what was going on to him.  We just stood there and laughed. And oh, James forgot to tell his parents about it.  A friend of his rode home with his parents and on the way, casually mentioned that wasn't it a shame about our wedding not being legal?  I can't imagine how the rest of that trip went... So I married my first husband on June 11 and my second husband on June 20.  We celebrate the 11th.   James enjoys joking about my first husband.  He has been a wonderful husband to me for 25 years. Wanta know one of the coolest things about him?  I can't sing - I have no idea if I am on pitch, on key, etc. Not once in 25 years has James ever said anything to me about my singing.  James can sing.  Now that is something to endure!  So here we are 25 years ago: And here we are just 2 years ago.  James was tickling me when Paul took the picture.  This is one of my favorites of us.  Sorry, our recent pictures have not been as good.

Comments (2) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jun. 22, 2008 - Lavender and the Stare Down

A couple of Saturdays ago, my friend Lois and I visited a lavender farm.  Mei went too.  I didn't know much about lavender but learned a lot that day.  I also came home with 2 little plants of my own.  Maybe next year I can cut lavender from my own plants.  Lois and Mei cutting some to take home. Another visitor to the lavender. My dear husband noticed the Stare Down.  It went on for quite awhile.  The bird won.  Domino gave up, jumped down from the railing, and laid on the porch instead.  The house finch stayed in triumph and then flew away.  They like to make nests in my flower pots.

Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jun. 16, 2008 - Update

• Jun. 12, 2008 - My Homeschooling Scriptures From Step 1

• Jun. 9, 2008 - Frogs - One of God's Wonders

We set our frogs free today except for the smallest one.  We are going to keep her for awhile. Mei named it Mei so it must be a her.  They really seemed ready to go. Jump! Jump! You are free! Last Friday, we attended a dance recital that several of dear friends were in.  My dear friend Jill has two daughters that participated.  This past January, her daughter Erin asked for prayer in guidance in picking a song for a dance solo.  It was right after I had asked God what it meant to glory him.  He answered by saying this next song on my MP3 player was how.  It was "In Wonder" by the Newsboys.  I almost cry every time I hear it now because I know it is from God.  I suggested it to Erin.  I could just see her twirling to the song in my mind. Her dance was accepted and she danced it for me and the audience on Friday night.  It was so beautiful.  Erin came up with the dance herself.  Her sister helped her with the closing movements, which Erin forgot - so she made up her own movements for the end.  That is my favorite part because it seems more worshipful and personal.   I was quite a way back in the audience so I got some heads in the pictures, but here she is... A wonder of God...  Thank you my dear sweet sister in Christ.

Comments (4) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

• Jun. 5, 2008 - New Laptop!