Useful Educational Tool

Recently, I purchased the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD for my 4 year old son, Tommy. He has had a hard time learning his alphabet. At first, he wasn't that excited to watch it, but now he is even asking for it. The exciting thing is that he is really learning his letters now! We are also using Rod & Staff's Early Learning Workbooks. I highly recommend the Letter Factory and these workbooks for your little one. Tommy loves to color and the workbooks have a lot of that. I find that Tommy needs more review with each letter and number, so I make my own worksheets for this. Gluing beans to each letter is a fun little activity Tommy likes. If you have an Aquadoodle mat you can practice writing letters over and over. I hope this is helpful to someone! I wish I had had this video with my older kiddos.

Picture thoughts

Max is without front teeth as of yesterday!

Eden discovered swinging this week...

Yesterday...

Yesterday began like "one of those days." I got out of bed because I could hear Eden "singing" on the monitor. Joshua was still asleep in his crib in our room. I get to the kids' hallway and I smell the lovely odor of pee. Tommy comes out and says, "Mommy, I'm really sweaty." "Son," I say, "that's not sweat." By the time I get him in the shower, strip the bed, and get the laundry started, Eden is screaming she wants out of her crib, Joshua woke up and was crying for a bottle. I am glad today was better. Celeste watched the younger set and I had a quick lunch with Stuart. Just us.

On a good note, gas here is down to $2.42/gallon! I was able to fill up my Suburban ALL THE WAY for the 1st time in at least a year and a half!!! (I have a 44 gallon gas tank. It's a '99 and in 2000 Chevy reduced the tanks to 32 gallons.)

A glimpse of home

Here are a few pictures from around the house from now...midnight. I didn't clean up...but it actually doesn't look that bad.

This is our homeschool room. It seems the table is always cluttered which doesn't leave much room for actually getting work done there!
This is my family room. I feel like I live in a daycare...haha! Joshua sure does have lots of equipment. I nearly tripped over the exersaucer which was beneath my feet as I took this picture.

My sink area. Not too bad. I just need to load the dishwasher and it will be ship shape.

Okay, this is my side of the closet. 2/3 of the closet is unseen and a mess. (Not pointing fingers, but someone I share the room with is a packrat...) Keep in mind that more than 50% of these clothes are maternity or too small for me to wear!

Our fridge. Seems kind of bare for a family of 9. We just cleaned out all the leftovers for dinner tonight. We went through 3 bags of apples last week!

It's a Gator Holiday

I hear little ones in their cribs, so this has to be short...

Today is our local holiday. It is University of Fla's homecoming weekend, so the whole town is off today. (Well, all the schools are closed.) I have 2 kids off and we're taking a homeschooling break, too. Will we do anything special? I don't think so. There's a parade, but it's 100% chance of rain today--it was just raining a few minutes ago. Jamie is having a friend over and Celeste is babysitting this afternoon. I think I'll try to get caught up on the laundry and maybe clean up in a hot spot.

In other news, the political front is heating up. Please get out and vote on November 4th! You can bet I'll be voting. I'm not voting for someone who associates with known domestic terrorists and supports killing babies. Watch Fox news at night and see what's being reported.How can someone, in good conscience, elect a man that has such an obvious Muslim name after the 9/11 attacks? Also, he believes we should "spread the wealth." That's socialism. I think this nation has lost its mind. I am praying for the election. God is sovereign and He will allow what He will allow. In the meantime, my vote is for McCain/Palin.

Great Loss

Celeste and Jamie lost their Grandmother, Loray Dailey, yesterday. She was a wonderful lady and will be greatly missed. We know she is dancing with Jesus now! She was a wonderful mother-in-law when she was mine. Please cry out in prayer for peace and comfort for the Dailey family. Thank you.

Love.Life

Recently, my daughter came to me and expressed her desire to help the Pro-Life movement here in our community. Let's save God's precious little ones. Her goal is to raise awareness and garner support for our local organizations that help women make the choice of a lifetime. Here is a link to her intro web page. She named it Love.Life139. Those who are interested in contacting love.life in order to offer support, please see the email link at the website. If you live locally in the Gainesville area, I implore you to go to The Women's Resource Center website and make a donation. During these challenging economic times, they are in need of your support. No donation is too small. Go there and tell them Love.Life139 sent you!

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Matthew 25:40

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:13-16

Revelation

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Rev. 7:16-17

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21:4

Two good songs that inspired me today: No More Pain by Point of Grace and Lean on Me by Kirk Franklin...

Fewer words

Me babywearing Joshua.
Josh peeks out of his sling.

It has been a busy week here. What week is not? There's been football games, church events, homeschooling, appointments, but best of all is a ladies' fun night tonight and I get to be with the big people. Yay! At times I just need a break. Tomorrow I'm going to do some scrapbooking, too. Life is...well, life--right now. Not too much I can say about that. Phil. 2:14 says, "Do all things without complaining or arguing..." That pretty much sums it up and it's what I'm trying to do. So, lately, I'm a woman of fewer words. Life is challenging. Thank goodness there's Jesus!