We have been so busy around here! We are making many needed improvements around the house, so between that and school, there is no time to blog here!

I am already working at planning for next year. I think we will be changing things around quite a bit. Once we have decided, I will post an entry about our plan.

We had a zoo day last week - it was a lot of fun. We have been attending volleyball and football games at the local high school. Makes me appreciate homeschooling so much more!!

I hope you are having a blessed fall. If you want more frequent family updates, join me at http://www.xanga.com/wewinnow.

Blessings to you!

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We had a nice week off last week and now we are back at it. We are still covering early ancient history. We have 6 more weeks before we begin studying Ancient Egypt. We are really looking forward to it.

The big activity of this week is weaving - should be quite interesting.

Have a wonderful week of schooling!

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 43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:43-45

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This is our week off school. We are using a 4 week on, 1 week off schedule this year. We aren't just playing, though. We are using this time to declutter and simplify!

The year has started well, but we already have some changes. We switched the boys back to CLE math, and we are waiting for dd's to get here. We were not happy with the math I chose. I don't know why I try to fix what isn't broken, but I do. NOT AGAIN. Lesson learned. DH just smiled when I asked why he let me change things. His comment? Sometimes my changes are for the better. Okay, just not this year!!

Have a wonderful week.

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Titus 2

 1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,

 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

 9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;

 10 Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

 15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

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8:30-9:15 Math
9:15-9:30 Daily Grams for 5th & 7th grader, First Language Lessons for 2nd grader
9:30-9:45 Spelling for 5th & 7th grader
9:45-10:00 Spelling for 2nd grader
10:00-10:30 Free time to play with littles
10:30-11:00 Lunch
11:00-12:30 Relax time for all
12:30--1:00 Language Arts for 7th grader
1:00-1:45 History for all
1:45-2:30 Reading for all
2:30-3:15 Science
3:15-3:45 Bible (We do Bible now because dh is home and he handles this subject)

If someone finishes their work early, they can move on to the next subject. We are on a schedule of 4 weeks on, 1 week off. We started school on the 12th, so next week is our first week off.

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Romans 15
 1We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not 
to please ourselves. 
 2Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 
 3For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches 
of them that reproached thee fell on me. 
 4For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our 
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might 
have hope. 
 5Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one
toward another according to Christ Jesus: 
 6That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 7Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory 
of God. 
 8Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the 
truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 
 9And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, 
For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto 
thy name. 
 10And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. 
 11And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. 
 12And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that 
shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. 
 13Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that 
ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 14And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also 
are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one 
another. 
 15Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some 
sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, 
 16That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the
 gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being 
sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 
 17I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things 
which pertain to God. 
 18For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not 
wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, 
 19Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; 
so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached
 the gospel of Christ. 
 20Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, 
lest I should build upon another man's foundation: 
 21But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: a
nd they that have not heard shall understand. 
 22For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you. 
 23But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire 
these many years to come unto you; 
 24Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust 
to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, 
if first I be somewhat filled with your company. 
 25But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. 
 26For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain 
contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. 
 27It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles 
have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister 
unto them in carnal things. 
 28When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, 
I will come by you into Spain. 
 29And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ. 
 30Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love 
of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; 
 31That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that 
my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; 
 32That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you 
be refreshed. 
 33Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

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It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High: To shew forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night,  Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.  For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work: I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.  O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep.

Psalm 92:1-5

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We are back to school! It is so nice to be back on a schedule. I have a 7th grader, a 5th grader and a 2nd grader (plus 2 toddlers and a baby) this year. We are taking a more classical approach and studying the ancients. I have written our curriculum for the year - it was a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

The 5th and 2nd grader are using MCP Math this year. We have been using CLE and will probably return to it next year. My 7th grader is doing a short pre-algebra workbook and then will move on to CLE 9th grade algebra. The 7th and 5th grader are using Daily Grams, while the 2nd grader is using Rod & Staff English 2. All three are reading from The Christian Eclectic Readers and using Webster's Elementary Spelling. Most of our history is spread throughout many books. We are using Streams of Civilization as a spine for the younger two and Rod & Staff grade 7 history for the oldest.

This year will find us reading many novels and doing many activities. We are looking forward to staying very busy.

I hope you are having a blessed week.

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I promised a picture of the birthday cake, so here it is!

It was a Red Velvet Cocoa Cake and it tasted great!!

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Yes, my oldest ds is now 10! Where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday he was being born - without pain meds! He was born too fast for that! He hasn't slowed down since.

He has wanted to be an entomologist since he was 3. Imagine the look on the face of his doctor when, at 3, he said he wanted to be an entomologist. The doc asked if ds knew what that was and he stated yes, someone who studies bugs. That is still his goal 7 years later. This is the child who taught himself to read and wants to figure things out himself if at all possible. I have no doubt he will become an entomologis if that continues to be his goal.

I will post a picture of his cake later. He received a butterfly pavilion, ladybug land and an experiment kit for his birthday. He will be busy for a while!!

My ds is a wonderful blessing from God!!

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They really don't have anything to do with each other except that they were both in our backyard!

This cute little fella was in one of our trees. We figure the dog scared it, though I have a different theory. I figure the groundhog and our dog are working together on an escape route. Our dog loves to run around the neighborhood if given the chance (she escapes). I think she convinced the groundhog to dig a hole under the fence for her. The groundhog was in the process of doing so when my children headed out to the compost pile. The dog and groundhog thought they had been caught, so the groundhog headed up the tree to pretend the dog scared it. Once up there, it realized it had no clue how to get down! We put the dog inside (thinking she had scared the 'poor thing'). DH and ds (10) went to get the BB gun to help the poor thing decide to climb down. In the meantime, the groundhog decided it better hightail it out of there before we figured out the plot. No clue how it got down or how it got out of the yard (repeating to the dc that there are no flying groundhogs - they are much heavier than the flying squirrels - plus they are named GROUNDhogs for a reason), but we haven't seen it since.

I still think the groundhog would have fit nicely in my roasting pan!

The cucumbers (also found in my backyard, but not as devious) are our first ever. The larger is for eating as is, the smaller is a pickling cucumber. The bad part is that the pickling cucumbers are not all arriving at once. This makes the process of making pickles somewhat difficult since cucumbers do not last very long! The dill is all ready, too! Guess I should have checked my timing better - live and learn!

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Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. Psalm 119:36-37

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So I was sitting outside the other day while the olders bounced on the trampoline and the littles played in the water (baby was on my lap) and I discovered why you see Southern ladies with fans. It has nothing to do with keeping cool - really doesn't help much to move the hot, humid air. The reason they have fans is to keep the gnats out of their faces!!! I don't own a fan, so I grabbed the nearest thing - a frisbee - to keep the pesky bugs away. If you have never experienced the fearless things, you cannot imagine how awful it is! They fly into your eyes, hair, ears, and every other part of your face! They swarm around your head - don't dare to look up! Now I know God created them for a purpose, but don't you think they should just stick to that purpose and leave us humans alone???

The other day (okay, it wasn't day - it was very early morning during a feeding) I was thinking about how dh and I want to lose weight. I started thinking about the reasons people should lose weight. We want to be healthier, more able to do things, look better, etc. While pondering this, I began to consider how our house is much the same. It needs to lose weight as well. Things have gotten very cluttered and we just have too much stuff. We spend all our time cleaning up and putting away. It is unhealthy because the dust settles on everything. We can't do the things we want because we are too busy keeping up. The house would look much better with less in it. God loves order, so our house should have order, too. We should not be slaves to our stuff. We can't hear God if there is chaos! Therefore, we are putting our house on a diet. This is a drastic, no mercy diet. I am getting rid of at least half of the stuff in our house. We will give some to the local thrift store and sell some. If we make some money off the stuff we will put it aside for our larger van. The children are going to help with this, too.

Today we started the diet by cleaning out all the clothing we had stockpiled. I had the children bring up all the stored clothing (picture to come soon). We went through it and got rid of lots. We saved things that tend to cost more to replace (remember, we can pass clothes down). These are items like dresses (hard to find the longer, modest ones), sweatshirts, long sleeve t's and pants for the boys. We separated the big pile into girl and boy clothes. Then we categorized by size. What a job! But it is great to have much less. Not sure what we will tackle tomorrow - maybe the playroom??? Stay tuned...

Oh, and as for dh and I losing weight? Eating healthier and exercising will take care of us (I don't do diets). Dh has been riding his bike to work - a little over 12 miles each way. The children and I will be going walking.

Does your house need to lose a little weight? Look around and see if there are some pudges that could use reducing!!

Have a blessed day!

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Here is a picture of the cake I made for dd (3). It turned out pretty good, considering it is the first doll cake I have ever made. It is all pink because dd loves pink - not because I can't use other colors .

I hope you are having a blessed day!

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3 years old today! How the time flies! We had cake and presents Monday. Tonight is her favorite dinner - meatloaf!

I will post cake pictures soon.

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The baby is one month old today! The time has gone so fast! She is so alert and loves to look at new things. She is a wonderful blessing!

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We only have a couple more weeks before our school year ends! We are almost done with all the work and everyone is looking forward to having 2-3 weeks off before we begin our new year and new adventures.

I am busily trying to get next year scheduled. This is proving somewhat difficult because I am REALLY TIRED by the time evening comes. It will get done, though.

We will be studying the Ancients when we start up. We will cover Old Testament, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. There will be lots of activities and a lot of reading. I think the children are looking forward to the activities most of all. This year was mostly workbook learning and I wanted to give them a year of exploring their creativity.

I hope your summer is going well. Blessings to you!

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I am still trying to recover from this third c-section. Recovery is not fun. Recovery is painful and frustrating. I want to be able to do everything right now, and I just can't. I want to clean the house, do the laundry, do the dishes, mop the floors, scrub the bathtub and pick up toys. I want to be able to lift my littles and carry them around if they need it. I know that in another 3 weeks I should be pretty fully recovered, but it seems so far away!!

The recovery does seem to be going well. I don't think I have any problems. DH says the incision is looking good (hooray - I usually end up with infections). He checks it because I don't want to see it - yuk! I am not taking much medication now. I gave up the strong Motrin dose because if I didin't take it every 6 hours I got a terrible headache. Don't need that!! I will take a couple Tylenol every now and then - especially if I overdo things. Yes, I do try to do it all!

I am so happy to have this wonderful baby girl to hold and cherish, though. I would do the whole thing over again! All the pain and frustration is worth it!

Have a blessed day!!

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We have been so busy! It is always an adjustment when you add a new blessing to your family, and we are no exception. I haven't touched the computer for almost 2 weeks!! I had way too many emails to read!

Baby is doing very well. She had dropped to 7lbs 15 oz after birth, and at her 2 week appt, she is at 8 lbs 15 oz and 20 3/4 inches! The doctor said she certainly isn't failing to thrive!

Things are calming down a little now, and we are finally back to school this week. We are in the final month of our school year. We will end the last part of July, and start again the second or third week of August. I have a lot of planning to do before that! I will post more about that later.

I hope you have a blessed week!

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