DH and Monkey are away on mission again. They left on Saturday for the Czech Republic for 12 days. We miss them alot but are trying to get alot done and have a bunch of fun ourselves while they are gone!

I usually send too much school work with Monkey when he goes as they are quite busy really. However, he does have to sit at the back alot as the team take some lessons in the high schools each day. They involve him where they can but there is alot of waiting around for him too.

This year I decided to let him off lightly, sort of. He always has to journal each day about what they did, ate, where they went, etc. To keep up his writing skills and help him develop them as well as having a great record of his adventures!

I had him take his sketch pad and pencils so he can draw quietly too. The only other ‘school’ I sent with him was a chapter book to read. He can read. He just doesn’t really find it fun yet. He also finds it hard work at times as he has been late learning to read and didnt’ take off quite as swiftly as McGee did once he ‘got it’.

He asked to take a Cars 2 chapter book that he had for Christmas but still hadn’t even picked up. I changed my plans and agreed, thinking that if he was asking to read this book he might actually manage to finish it in 12 days.

When I first told him he had to read an entire book while gone so he can do a book report on it when he gets back he went nuts!!!! ‘I can’t read a whole book while I’m gone!!! It’s too long!!! I can’t do it!!!!’ He has read several whole books so far actually. Not huge volumes but 15-25 smallish chapters. They just usually take him FOREVER to finish as there is always something (anything) better to do than sit and read!! LOL!

Well, this Cars 2 book has 23 chapters in it and he was convinced that it was impossible.

I got a text from DH this morning to say that he has finished the book!! (just hang on a minute while I pick myself up off the floor please!) (OK. I’m back now!)

Now DH is worried about how he is going to keep him occupied for the next 9 days!! Hehehehe! I’m just so thrilled that I don’t really care!!

Of course I did also remind him of the journal, drawing and the MP3 player full of long stories being read aloud (thanks to librivox!) so I’m sure he will be ok. I’m just kind of sorry I didn’t send 4 or 5 books along.

So this is a real reading breakthrough for Monkey and I’m soooo proud of him! Also hoping we can keep the enthusiasm going when he gets home.

Yippy! Two avid

Last Sunday in church our pastor preached on Luke 18. The first story she shared was the story of the persistent widow.

Verses 4 and 5 say:

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ “

I started giggling in church! DH leaned over told scold me and I pointed to the verses. Then I whispered the name of the man we are dealing with at the head of SS!! He just smiled and nodded!!

This seems to be exactly what this man is saying! So….. I guess that makes me the persistent widow then huh? Don’t worry. DH is strong and healthy! It is just fun to see God working things out and also to see that He has done this all before! Please join with me in praising God as well as continueing in prayer!! – Deedee

Today I heard something I almost never thought I’d hear. Someone in Social Services agreeing with us that just about everything that happened last year never should have happened!!! (SHOCK! GASP!)

I’ll update more detail in a password protected post, but suffice it to say that we are cautiously optimistic at this stage. They admit there were HUGE mistakes and things done completely WRONG as far as what was in every-one’s best interest.

However, some of the mistakes have NEVER been made before, so he is totally unsure of exactly what can actually be done to rectify it. He has to have another meeting on Monday with someone and get back to us on Tuesday with where we go from here and what the next step is.

Please continue to pray as this is a really crucial time and we need things to keep going forward with no one along the way trying to put up roadblocks on the progress.

I’m very emotional tonight. (understatement extrodinare!) I’ll post more when I’m thinking more clearly. Thank you again for all the prayer and support. Please just pray that God brings our girl home where she belongs…..as soon as He can.  – Deedee

Sorry to have gone so quiet lately. We have been busy with life! I’ve got some projects that I’ve finished to share as soon as I upload some pictures to show you.

Also sorry to have left this sooo late but this has been a crazy week and quite a last minute development as this meeting was only scheduled a couple of days ago!

For anyone who gets this in time, could you please pray for DH and myself this afternoon at 3pm GMT or 10am EST? We are having a meeting with the head of Social Services regarding our formal complaint to see what they can do to resolve things! HA!

He has requested this meeting, so ball is kind of in his court to do something to set some of this right or else we will take things further. We shall see how seriously they are going to take us now that we have a report (that they commissioned) stating that they did MANY things WRONG! (like we didn’t already know that, but it is nice to have an independent social worker confirm it)

I’ll try and let you know how things go. Thanks for the prayers. (and no, I haven’t made this password protected as I’ve not shared any specifics just general details for prayer) – Deedee

With the financial strain on our family caused by various events of the past year some of the things we enjoyed doing as a family for fun have had to be changed. One thing is going to the cinema.

It is simply too expensive on our budget at the moment. However, we have discovered that two different cinema chains now show really cheap films on Saturday and Sunday mornings for kids!! Of course we are at church on Sundays, but we have made several films on Saturday mornings in the past few months.

At £1 or £1.50 per person (adults too!) this makes it less for the whole family to go than for one adult ticket usually!?!?! The catch……the films are ones that came out months before. No biggie! We haven’t seen them anyway. We are happy to wait at these prices. Actually, I don’t think I’d ever bother seeing them full price again!! (except for Narnia films. We have a family tradition of going to see the latest Narnia film on opening night – no matter how late it is!! )

Last week we went to see Dolphin Tail for Dh’s birthday. It was soooo good!! Actually I can’t believe that I’ve heard virtually NOTHING about his film on any blog sites or anywhere else! Has no one gone to see this film???

It is the third film in recent years that I’ve seen that actually didn’t put home schooling in a bad light! (the others being Nim’s Island and Soul Surfer) There are basically two kids in the film. One is bright, cheerful, confident, friendly, intelligent AND home schooled!!

The second child is grumpy, withdrawn, anti-social, angry at the world, failing all subjects, has a lousy self image AND is main stream schooled!

During the film, the homeschooled young girl befriends the schooled boy and brings him out of his sullen shell, teaches him loads of things, encourages him to try new skills and rejoices at his successes.

OK. School and Home school was not the topic of this film. Rescueing an injured dolphin was. However, I was really impressed at this underlying bit about the kids. It unobtrusively shows home schooling in a positive light and that is a refreshing change!

 This is a great family film! It is fun, full of adventure and sealife. Even better, it is based on a real life story and at the end you get to see some footage of film of the ‘real life’

While at the natural history museum in NYC last year we got some interesting things to try out when we got home. A couple of months ago we got around to trying them.

This one was called ‘Popcorn rocks’.

We put these normal looking rocks into a container with some vinegar and then waited. Slowly over the days the wet rock suddenly started to ‘grow’ all these white crystals that grew up in the rounded form of popcorn.

We studied the crystals as they grew, examining them with magnifying glasses. They all looked slightly different and each stone we did grew a different formation.

This one actually grew larger, more interesting formations. However, the green eyed monster arrived and added to a bit of sibling rivalry, he broke these crystals off the rock when no one was looking.

You can see though, the large white crystal pieces in the bottom of the container next to the rock.

We also learned that you don’t want to grow these things in Mom’s good kitchen ramekins as the crystals also grow on the glass – AND DON’T COME OFF!!!  *sigh* Live and learn.

At least I got some nice new blue ramekins for my kitchen! LOL! – Deedee