Interesting Day

Our day started out as most Saturday's do these days...with a soccer game. Brian brought Rachel to her game while the rest of the kids and I stayed home. We had planned on an afternoon of caching. I packed snacks, extra clothes, water bottles and our caching packs.

After a quick lunch, we headed out for the cache of choice. It was a multi, which means there are more than one part. It is a very interesting idea. The parts of this cache are pictures of birds that can be found around the area with choices of their Latin names. You have to find each multi (they were hidden in small bottles with screw tops and taped to tree branches with camo duck tape), identify the bird (a bird book is a must) and pick the right Latin name, which gives you the coordinates to the next part. It is along a walk/bike trail on the Mohawk River. It is a beautiful spot and was fitting nicely with our science study of birds.

All was going well, we set out, but while searching for one of the multis, we found a woman's purse scattered about. I was a bit nervous, hoping we wouldn't find the owner as well. We gatherered it all up and headed back to the van. Brian called the police. After a few calls and getting the right police department (we weren't sure which town we were in), a very nice young police officer was sent.

There was no money or credit cards, but there were a lot of gift type cards, driver license, SS card and what not. We found a few receipts and it looked like it had only been there a week or so. I kept thinking that maybe this would save this poor woman some bother if she got it back.

The police officer took all our info and we showed him where we had found it. He was going to look around some more in case we had missed anything. He was very nice and Gabe was extremely facinated with him. At one point Gabe whispered to me...is that a gun? I said, yup, the real McCoy. He was quite wide eyed and all the way home said he wanted to be a policeman. The officer did tell us that there were no reports of missing persons or anything, which I was glad of.

It was getting too late to finish the cache, so we packed it in and headed home. We made a stop at KFC to pick up dinner and a quick stop at Michael's to pick up the last skein of floss I needed to finish a cross-stitch block I am working on.

After dinner, everyone had a shower and we set everything out for church tomorrow. The day didn't go quite as we planned, but I was glad we were able to find the purse and report it. Maybe it will bless someone.

Postscript on Kite

After the sun started going down, the wind dropped. The happy kite ended his day of adventure and came back to earth. Brian and Gabe were able to retrieve it with no damage and only a minimum amount of string loss.

Sunny Afternoon

The rain stopped around 1pm and the sun came out. The temp dipped into the low 50s.

Brian decided to try and get the pool closed up. It had a ton of leaves in it and the pump was seized up. He netted out most of the leaves and took the pump apart and got it running again. Bessie asked if she could take a dip...now remember..the temp is only in the low 50s. The pool water temp was 62. I said sure...go ahead. She got right in. I just love her adventurous spirit. I wish I was more like her. She will try anything, go anywhere, eat anything (at least once) and basically has a tremendous zest for life. She actually stayed in for about 15 minutes.

Bessie takes a polar bear swim

Gabe got his kite out as the wind was really blowing today. We had it up and going in no time. It was very easy to keep up there today.

Gabe takes a leisurely approach to kite flying

Unfortunately, he lost hold of the handle. Brian tried to reach it in time, but it flew up and up. The handle caught in the tops of the trees and the kite is still happily out there dancing in the wind. I'm not sure if we will be able to get it our not.

The kite enjoys a solo flight

Rainy Friday

Yesterday was one of those do nothing days. Dan had nursery school. We played outside. Brian came home early to work on one of our vehicles. It needs to be inspected and has a broken rear spring. It is such a blessing that he can fix cars and that most of the time he actually enjoys it. We had three soccer games. I brought the kids so Bri could finish up the car. After the Littles were in bed, Gabe and Bessie watched a movie and Bri and I brought the car up to the garage.

Today is a very wet day. Lots of rain and lots of wind. Brian had taken the day off in hopes of having a caching day. I guess that won't happen. Hopefully the rain will end and we can get something done. We still need to close up the pool.

Bessie took care of the four youngers this morning and Bri and I slept in. It was so nice to snuggle and chat. Bessie is such a blessing to us and has a wonderful servants heart.

Brian and the boys get in a little Jedi training

Bri worked some in the garage. He is trying to clean out one bay so he can put his little car in this winter. Our van is too big to fit.

The Joys of Fall

We had a fun afternoon. The kids played outside and I stitched. I just love fall.

Gabe on top of the monkey bars

Bess, Dan and Gabe
Rachel on the mini tramp
Hannah and Bessie

Bessie had piano late this afternoon and then a babysitting job. Brian took Rachel and Gabe to mid-week church club. He likes to attend the mid-week service. It is very laid back and informal.

Settling In

Another glorious fall day. It has been so nice. A bit windier today, but also warmer.

We had a good morning. I'm trying to work with all the kids at once (well the older four). This keeps everyone on task and doesn't create hard feelings because one or two are playing in the other room, while some are working. Dan likes to sit with us and as long as he is quiet, he stays. If he gets too noisy, he has to go play in the other room. Rachel and Hannah are working on their basics...number recognition, colors, shapes, letter/sound recognition and handwriting. Gabe is continuing with his 2nd/3rd grade work. We have added SWR (Spell to Write and Read). We are continuing with the living math type activities, but I have to admit to throwing in more worksheets this year. He is okay with this as long as they aren't to long.

We throw in science and history when we can along with the extras. Bessie does her work independently except for some science stuff and discussion. We bought the DIVE cds this year and they are helping out tremendously. It was hard for me to help her understand because I have a math brain and often couldn't understand why she couldn't understand (It made perfect sense to me!). If she is having trouble, she just watches the DIVE. She has had many lightbulb moments this year in math.

I am hoping to add more of the hands on activities from our TOG (Tapestry of Grace) book. There has been a lot of talk on one of the on-line yahoo groups I belong to (SHS) about lapbooks. We tried this several years ago and Bessie didn't like it. I recently showed her the one we made and she commmented, why didn't we do more! In light of that statement, we might try them again.

What a beautiful fall day it was today. Blue skies, puffy white clouds and a breeze ushered in the day.

Dan had nursery school. I'm not sure if we are going to like this or not. He always comes home way more aggressive than when I drop him off. I know there is one or two other high energy kids there and unfortunately, they seem to be having a negative effect on him (and perhaps him on them). We will give it a bit more time and see how it goes. It is nice to have that 1.5 hours to get some solid work done with the girls while he is gone, but I'm not sure it is worth it at this point.

After lunch, Gabe wanted to try flying a kite. I wasn't sure how it would work as we usually fly them across the road in the corn field. They haven't harvested, so that was out. The breeze was also somewhat sporatic. We have a large yard, but there are a lot of trees. We gave it a go and had great success. After I got it up above the tree line, the kids had a great time taking turns holding the kite-string as the kite danced on the wind. We got it caught in the trees once, but were able to extract it without mishap. We have a new larger double handled kite, but will wait to try that across the road.

The little guys spent the rest of the afternoon outside. Bessie finished up some school work and I was able to sit and work on my cross-stitching.

Bessie has been doing a lot of cooking recently. She made chicken pot pie with biscuits lastnight and homemade mac and cheese tonight. She is becoming a very proficient cook. She really enjoys it and what a help to me.

Bri was suppose to fly tonight, but the flight was canceled, so he was home for dinner. He took Hannah to her soccer game. Bessie and I finished up the bins of clothes that we had started on this weekend. We were able to cut the amount in half. I'm hoping to do the same thing with all the other sizes we have saved.

Today was a quiet day. It was raining this morning and very dark. I just wanted to crawl back in a bed and get a bit more sleep. Dan and Hannah are trying very hard to not wet at night, so they are getting me up 3-4 times to go to the bathroom. Lastnight, they both had accidents, so I was up changing bedding and clothes.

I worked on math cards today...skip counting by 2s and 3s for Gabe and number recognition cards for Hannah and Rachel. I'm trying to come up with several different math games/activities for each of the kids.

We took a run to the Post Office this afternoon, dropped off some library books and went to the pharmacy.

Brian took Bessie to her soccer game this evening and brought Rachel and Dan with him. Hannah and Gabe stayed home with me. Usually we all go, but I was feeling tired and enjoyed the time at home with just the two.

Brian had to unexpected go into work today, so the kids and I went to church and Sunday School alone. There was a missionary family speaking today. It was very good. I thought I was in the nursery today, but I mixed my weeks up. I really hate doing nursery but it is sort of a requirement if you have your child in there to take a turn every month or so. I was glad that I was able to hear the speaker.

It was pouring when we got out...really pouring, one of those sideways downpours. We were soaked by the time we got to the van. The kids thought it great fun to splash in the huge puddles that had formed. I wasn't thrilled with getting my good clothes so wet.

Brian was home when we arrived at noon and had lunch all ready for us. He is so sweet. We all changed out of our wet duds and had a nice lunch.

The kids played nicely and Brian and I looked at boats on-line (a favorite pasttime of ours).

The rain finally stopped mid-afternoon so Bri and I took a walk. Bessie was making apple crisp and she kindly watched the youngers. It was nice to get out and walk, just the two of us. That doesn't happen very often anymore.

After our walk, we booted all the kids outside. It had gotten warmer and the sun was nice. Bessie, Gabe and I went and did some caching near by. These were quick, easy caches, but still fun. One was a magnetic cache on the back of a guardrail. It was fun trying to be inconspicuous while you are searching the back of a guardrail on a busy road. The second one was our first virtual cache. It was the site (it is marked) of a murder in 1930. This brought up quite a discussion started by Gabe on what is murder and how we thought it happened. I'm going to do a search and see what information we can come up with about the event.

Bessie and Gabe at the murder site

I had put a roast in the crock pot this morning before church so we had a nice hearty dinner followed by Bessie's wonderful apple crisp. After the "Littes" went to bed, the four of us watched the end of a movie we started lastnight. A very nice day.

Rachel and Gabe had a game this morning. It was raining hard, but they played anyway. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as it has been. Brian and I took turns sitting in the van with the other kids and watching the game.

Our afternoon was spent catching up on some chores. I did a few loads of laundry and Bessie and I sorted clothes. I'm trying to cut down on the amount of clothes everyone has. I do wash almost everyday and we really don't need as much as we have. We have very little storage and with three extra kids now, we have a lot of clothes.

The rain let up and the sun came out later in the afternoon. Brian was glad to get some outside things done. This time of year we start thinking about winter and all the things that need to be done before cold, snowy weather...wood to be gotten and stacked, chimney cleaned, furnace cleaned, the gardens to be picked up and made ready for spring planting, pool closed up, leaves to rake, camper winterized and covered...the list seems endless.

It was one of those days where I felt busy all day, but don't really feel like I accomplished too much.

The last few days have been sort of blah. The kids were fussy and just "off". Not sure why. Maybe it was because Brian was away, maybe it was the weather.

It was a beautiful fall day today. It was only 36 degrees this morning, but warmed up into the 60s.

After getting some schoolwork done this morning, we headed over to Mom and Dad's after lunch. Great Aunt Colleen is visiting from Alaska. It is always so good to see her. She is 84 and still a wonderful traveler. Her granddaughter Marcie and her friend Andy came up from Florida to see her. It was a very nice visit. Theresa, my sister-in-law, and two of her kids, Zeb and Abbie also came down.

The kids had so much fun playing out in the yard and Marcie, Theresa and I are a good match in the chatting department.

Dad wasn't home as he is on his way to New Foundland on a moose hunt.

Brian worked on the car this afternoon, replacing the muffler system. I am so glad that he knows how to fix cars. He saves us so much money and allows us to keep our old vehicles much longer.

Okay, so I like Mondays, but have decided I do not like Tuesdays! They seem like such a let down for some reason. It was a pretty blah day! Everyone was a bit off and quite intolerant of each other. Lots of short tempers.

Dan had nursery school. He didn't want to stay and fussed when I left. His teacher said he did great a few minutes after I left. He did have a run-in with one of the other kids and almost got bitten for his trouble! We were able to get some things done this morning at home, but not much. Some bad attitudes and needing to stop for correction slowed us way down.

After picking up Dan, we stopped at the Post Office (two new books from PBS came in!) and both libraries. The "Littles" were not being cooperative, so Bessie and Gabe went into the library to get our books. They did take the time to pick out some fun picture books which made the new kids happy...for a bit anyway.
It poured this afternoon , so we were stuck inside. The temp also took a dive. It was quite warm and humid this morning, but cleared off later this evening and has gotten quite cool again. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. Days like this I think I should just bag all our regular stuff and come up with something else to do. Trying to slog through our usual routine just doesn't work.

Bri called and they are hopefully heading back tomorrow. He sounded stuffy on the phone. I guess he has gotten Gabe's head cold.

Monday's are one of the few days we don't have anywhere to go. The libraries are closed, so we don't make any runs there. We have no planned activities. We like Mondays.

It was beautiful out. The temperature rose to 80 today. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. It is hard for me to shift gears from pants and sweaters back to shorts and t-shirts.

Brian had an unexpected trip out of town, so he won't be home tonight, hopefully he will be back tomorrow. I think he was heading for Florida, but I'm never totally sure where he will end up until I hear from him.

We had a good morning of school. We got our core work down quickly, which left us lots of time for science today. We are doing Apologia Zoology I this year, which is about the Fifth Day of Creation. We jumped ahead to the insect lessons so that we would have a good supply of insects to work with before cold weather hits us.

We put one bug in the refrigerator to see how temperature effects their mobility. It is fun to watch science in action. We put two other bugs in our killing jar and will look at them under the disecting scope tomorrow to see the different body parts.

After lunch we took a nature walk. We went to a friends pond down the road. We caught several to bring back to the house to draw, but by then, the kids had lost most of their interest...oh well. We did see quite a few. There were a lot of different dragon flies at the pond, along with butterflies and water bugs.

Hannah enjoys the bug book

The boys look for dragon flies

Gabe made a "bug snack" out of crackers, peanut butter, raisins and carrots.

Gabe's bug snack

The kids wanted to go over to the river. There are some pretty falls there. I'm always very leary of taking the kids there as the drop off is quite sharp. Bessie and I took tight hold of hands as we enjoyed the view.

The kids near the falls

Hannah and Bessie had soccer games tonight. Then it was home, quick showers for everyone and finally kids in bed. Well, almost all of them. My night owl, Gabe is laying here on the floor by the computer. He woke up and doesn't like being upstairs without me.

I didn't get much sleep lastnight. Gabe was up with a severe stuffy nose that was really driving him crazy. He hates to try and sleep when he can't breath through his nose. He finally let me put in some saline drops that helped to clear it out some. Dan was up every hour all night. He had a low grade fever and I'm not sure what really was bothering him, but he would wake up and call for us. I took him to the bathroom a couple of times, but mostly he just seemed to wanted to see one of us. At times like this, I wish we had an extra room that I could sleep with the sick child. I think Dan would have slept better, and me too, if he could have had me right with him.

We didn't make it to church this morning. Brian and I were very tired and Dan was fussy. Staying home just seemed the prudent thing to do. I'm always torn on these Sunday mornings and find myself rehashing all the different church experiences....home church, family church, large church, small church. Most weeks I really enjoy our church service, but some Sundays there is so much stress and pressure before we even get to church that it makes it hard to be in the right frame of mind for good worship. Many Sundays when I stay home with a sick child, I'll listen to one of the many sermons I have on my MP3 player, sing along with some worship music and spend some good time with my Bible and feel so energized and refreshed. Anyway, just some random thoughts.

Bessie made some biscuits this morning, a family favorite with jam. Dan was her helper.

The bakers

We did decide to go ahead and do some caching this afternoon. The boys were still feeling a bit low, but I figured some fresh air and sunshine would do them as much good as hanging around the house all day. We packed up water, snacks and the dog and headed out. We didn't tackle the multi-cache as that would have taken a longer time and a lot more hiking. We did an easier one. It was still about 2 miles on a woods trail, but the kids did great. Brian packed Dan and at one point carried Hannah too, but she walked most of the way.

The "packmule"

We found the cache without after a little searching. Gabe traded for a Chinese finger puzzle. Bessie added a few items to make the cache more interesting.

Looking through the cache

The woods were lovely today with the leaves just starting to turn.

Lots of rocks to climb

There were lots of red-spotted newts and we saw one small garter snake. There were loads of colorful mushrooms out.

Gabe thought this one looked like

a hamburger bun with sesame seeds

After dinner we went over to the church again. Gabe is getting good with his roller blades and Dan was working hard at learning to peddle the tricycle. It was so nice of the church to have thier parking paved for us!

Yesterday was a lazier day for us. We didn't have any place to go until after dinner. We got school done in the morning and then hung out. I caught up on some things and the kids seemed to need some down time after a busy week.

Brian was home by mid-afternoon. He wanted to start closing up the pool. He cleaned it up some and ran the filter to clear up the water. He likes it nice and clean when we close it up, as it makes for an easy start up in the spring. Bessie still wants to get one more dip in. It is a tradition for her to take a last swim on the day we close up the pool for the winter. The water temp is only 64 degrees...brrrr, way too cold for me. We'll see if she gets in or not before we put the cover on.


Bessie had a soccer game. It sprinkled some, but not a rain out. This is only her second year playing and she is really doing well. The coach has been really impressed with her progress.

Today was a busier day, but good. We got a lot down. Rachel, Gabe and Hannah had soccer games in the morning. Noona and Papa came over to watch the games and had lunch with us after. Dad brought over a load of wood.

This afternoon, Brian and I went to work on the garage. It is amazing how much stuff is in there. This spring Brian took one bay of the garage and closed it off and put up shelves along one wall. We are working on weeding the stuff down to a more reasonable amount. We have boxes from our last move (10 years ago) that haven't been opened. I'm thinking we probably don't need whatever is in them. We have a lot of baby stuff that I am now willing to let go of. We found the better backpack for Dan, so Brian was pleased. It will make hiking a lot easier.

Gabe gives little brother a lift

We made a nice hardy beef stew for dinner and then went over to the church to get in some biking and roller blading on their nice paved parking lot.

Gliding along

Crashing
Dan gives big sister a little help

Hannah is very pleased that she can ride her trike

Dan and Gabe are both feeling a bit under the weather. Dan has been running a fever since yesterday and Gabe has either the start of a head cold or some allergies kicking up. They both did well today despite not feeling great.

We are hoping to get some geocaching in after church tomorrow. It is suppose to be a nice day. There is a multi-cache that we have not been able to complete that is just nagging at us to finish.

It was a dark, rainy day today. (That sounds like the start of a murder mystery!) Not as cold and it feels like the temp is actually rising. I have to admit that I was glad for the rain... no soccer game tonight. We have had games everynight this week.

Dan had his second day of nursery school today and he wasn't as eager to stay as day one. He was fine after I left, but was a bit clingy when I had to leave him. This is such a good sign for us. The new kids are bonding well and are finally starting to realize that we are their family.

We had a good school day at home. I'm working with the girls together which has simplified things quite a bit. I had thought that Rachel would be ahead of Hannah, but that has not turned out to be the case. We do very basic work with them in math, handwriting and phonics and then they listen in when I do Gabe's TOG and science. Their attention span is much shorter, so I let them play while we read.

We are using a fun art book this year called "Art Through Children's Literature". It uses children's picture books as a jumping off point to learn different art techniques. The kids had fun with it and it is very doable for me. Art has always been a weak area for me.

I had choir tonight. It was a smaller group than usual, but it went well. Fall is tough for people as there are so many early back to school activities.

All was quiet when I got home. Brian had the three little ones in bed. He was finishing his reading with Gabe. He is such a terrific dad and hubby!

The rain is steadily falling outside. I love the rhythmic sound on the roof and trees.

We are settling in pretty well with a good morning routine. Dan was a bit fussy today, probably tired out from his full day yesterday. He would easily still take a nap, but then he goes down hard at night, so I opt for keeping him up in the day and an early bedtime.

Bessie had her first piano lesson of the fall season. She enjoys this very much and I am so glad for her that we found a teacher she really likes. I dropped her off and Brian picked her up on his way home. They made a quick stop at the farm store for crickets and dog food.

Rachel and Gabe had a game tonight. Gabe has been feeling a bit queazy the last few days, so he didn't want to play tonight. Brian brought Rachel. They won tonight. Brian said Rachel was pretty sluggish. I'm going to have to make sure everyone gets to bed earlier.

Tonight was the the kickoff night for Olympians at church. Gabe did want to go to this, so I brought him up and Bri met us there with Rachel after her game. Brian stayed with them and I headed back home. They had a great time. This is a mid-week Bible club for K-6. They use material from Word of Life.

Dan had his first day of nursery school today. He was so excited. He has discovered pockets and loves it when he has pants on with pockets. He was strutting around this morning just as happy as can be with his hands in is pockets and a smile on his face. Add a backpack to the equation and life just doesn't get any better as far as Dan is concerned.

Dan all ready for nursery school

It worked well for us to have 1.5 hours of time to work while he was at "school". He is not really too much of a bother, but he always wants to be doing what the other kids are doing, so he is somewhat disruptive at times. I need to plan out those 1.5 hours really well to make the most of his time away.

After we picked up Dan, we went to the Post Office (got a new PBS book) and the library. We had quite a few of our TOG books come in. We have a terrific library system and are able to get most of our books for school. The librarians are wonderful and it is a no-shush library! We can keep our books for four weeks at a stretch and can renew if no one else is waiting and they don't charge overdue fines.

We finished up some work after lunch and then the kids played outside. We have had glorious fall-like weather the last few days. It has been very nice.

Brian had to fly tonight, so the kids and I went to Hannah's soccer game. She is just too cute out there on the field. Everyone gets such a kick out of her. The two men who coach the team are so sweet and patient with her.

We had 37 degrees lastnight and it feels like it might get that cold again tonight. There is definately a nip in the air and fall is just around the corner. This is such a wonderful time of year and I love it....cool, clear, bright blue sky, sunny days and very cool nights.

Everyday brings us a little more structure and organization. I actually had all four of my "schoolers" working at one time today! Rachel and Hannah are working pretty much at the same level, so that makes it a bit easier. Bessie works independently and Gabe can do quite a few things on his own now that he reads well. It is just a matter of coordinating it all. I am finally feeling like I might be able to do it.


Dan starts his nursery school tomorrow. He is very excited and I know he will have a great time. A friend of ours runs the school and her daughter is one of Dan's Sunday School pals. Her name is Joanna, or JoJo for short, but Dan calls her YoYo! His speech is coming along, but ever so slowly. I think I am going to pursue getting him some speech therapy. He falls under our school district now being over three. They have sent us all the info, we just need to take him to get evaluated. I'm just not sure how much he would actually "talk" for a stranger.

Rachel and Gabe had a soccer game today. Bessie stayed home with Dan and Hannah, so Bri and I were able to watch the game alone. It was almost like a date! LOL Their team lost, but did very well.

Today was a relatively quiet day. Brian had his duty weekend, so he was working. The kids and I went to Sunday School and Church. I have to say that today was one of the most relaxed, no hassle, quiet getting ready for church days we have had in a long time. Everyone was up, fed, dressed and ready to go on time, with no major stress issues. It was wonderful!

The rest of our day was spent relaxing at home. It was a beautiful day...very fallish...blue sky, cool breezes and lots of sunshine. Bessie made cornbread and I made chili for dinner. It is that time of year for more baking and soups and stews.

I went back to church this evening for a missions meeting. I am hoping that our church will set up an orphan ministry. This is one area where I think the Christian church and Christian's in general are failing. We watched a DVD from an orphanage in Haiti and I passed on some literature from FamilyLife.

We survived our first full day of soccer games. Brian had to work, so I was riding solo. It was a beautiful morning...sunny and warm. It wasn't bad at all and the children always surprise me with how good they can be.

Hannah had her game first and she was so funny. She would run back and forth and smile and smile. All the spectators were ohhing and ahhing over how cute she was. I'm not really sure she had a clue what she was suppose to be doing, but she did get a few kicks in and looked like she was having a great time. Rachel, Gabe and Bessie had to leave to warm up half-way through the game.

Rachel and Gabe are on the same team. They had their game the same time as Bessie had hers. I watched the first half of theirs and then moved to Bessie's game for the second half of hers. Thankfully, all the games are in the same field complex.

The weary warriors

Dan was a trouper and did well. I brought him some simple toys, snacks and a water bottle. He even cheered and clapped. Of course, sometimes it was for the other team...he was caught up in the excitement of the crowd.

After the games we headed to a local Diary Bar that was offering coupons for 50 cent cones if the kids came in their team shirts. The ice cream cones were huge and Dan and Hannah could not even begin to finish before they were totally covered. Oh well.

Bessie is babysitting this afternoon, Gabe is vegging out with a Star Wars DVD and the "Littles" are playing. I think all the exercise took some of the energy out of them.

We had a quick thunder storm move through. Dan and the dog huddlde right by me. I have my doubts whether Dan is really that nervous, he just likes to sit in my lap.

Ugh! Who had the bright idea of signing the kids up for soccer? Oh...that would be me! We now have four kids on three different teams and we are getting into Brian's busiest traveling season of the year. Tomorrow there are three different games. From now until mid-October, we have games almost everynight of the week and many Saturdays. I'm tired already just thinking about the logistics of it all. Oh well, the kids have fun.

Hannah and Bessie had practices tonight. Gabe and Rachel stayed home with Brian. Gabe seemed to need some daddy time. They went down to the river. Brian said that Gabe fell in...well at least the first time, after that I'm not so sure. They caught some minnows and crayfish. They let the crayfish go, but we added a few of the minnows to our 1/2 tank. We'll see if they survivie.

We made our weekly library run today. There were lots of books for our TOG (Tapestry of Grace) study. We are doing the Crimean War period. I love all the reading that TOG suggests. And I love being able to work on the same topic with all the kids. I'm hoping to add more of the hands-on activities this year.

We had a mixed-bag of homeschool days this week. I think we are finally working some of the bugs out of our schedule and things finished on an upbeat note today. One of the main things I had to do differently this year is make our schedule much more flexible. I started with my usual time slots for subjects, but threw that out quickly. It was just too hard to stay on task with so many kids. I reworked my schedule and we are using chunks of time now for certain things. This gives me much more leaway to fit things in. I still have some organizing to do to make things run more smoothly, but we are getting there.

We were able to get more accomplished today. I guess everyone will settle in and do okay this year. I still need to work out how to keep everyone moving forward while I'm working with each individual and keep Dan occupied and not making too much noise. I try new things, some work and some don't. We were able to add a few more things today and we did them in less time. Additudes were better and that helped a lot. I think the new kids are still waiting for the day they have to get on the bus and go to school. They haven't quite figured out this homeschooling idea.

Hannah had soccer practice tonight. It was pretty funny. She is totally clueless as to what she is suppose to be doing. The two coaches were very patient with her and she did warm up some by the end of the evening (when she wasn't picking grass). Gabe came with us, which was a big help. He went out on the field with her and the coaches let Gabe practice right along with her. I don't think she would have done it without me if it wasn't for Gabe. I was able to sit on the sidelines. I'm sure it gave her more confidence. Bessie stayed home with Dan and Rachel. We have been "experimenting" with letting her watch some of the kids. It doesn't work with all of them, but one or two and things go pretty well. She does great with other peoples kids, but that sibling thing doesn't always work very well.

We had a bit of excitement lastnight. I was loading up the dishwasher and getting ready to go to bed, when I noticed Gracie the dog sniffing at the floor in front of the frig. (The only light on was over the sink.) I walked over thinking she probably had a fly (she loves flies). I was in a few inches and my brain finally registered that is was much larger than a fly. I jumped a few feet and yelled, "There's a big rat in the middle of the kitchen floor". To my credit, I did not scream, but my heart sure was pumping. We live in the country in a very old house and this summer we have had quite a few rats. I have gotten quite a few under out birdfeeders with the .22 and Brian has gotten a lot out at the chicken coop, but they where getting ahead of us, so Brian set out poison last week. This rat was pretty weak looking, but still gave me a fright. Brian caught him in a trash can and dispatched with him quickly. We have not heard or seen a rat in a few days, so hopefully this was the last one for a while.

Today was our first "official" day of homeschooling. It was a mixed bag of success and failure. Schooling with five is so much harder than with two. The new kids are quite a bit behind, so I'm still trying to figure out how to teach concepts to a 5 and 7yo that you would normally teach to your preschooler. Daniel (age 3) doesn't do school, but he does need to be kept occupied while I work with the other kids. I knew this would be a slow start up week and I wasn't disappointed there. I was dissappointed by some bad attitudes that needed to be corrected before we could accomplish much. All in all, it wasn't as good as could have been, but not nearly as bad either. I need to keep looking at the little victories and not dwell on our failures.

I found myself humming "Near the Cross" all day long. We sang it in church on Sunday and it has stayed with me. I looked it up in the Hymnal and the words are so appropriate for my days.

In the cross, In the cross.
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

It is so important for me to stay right near the cross, always looking to Jesus and his sacrifice and love for me. If I keep my focus on him, things don't seem to be quite so heavy on me.

One highlight of the day was a Walking Stick bug that we found. They are so interesting looking. Everyime we find one, all I can think of is "A Bug's Life" when Slim shouts..."I'm the only stick with eyeballs!".

Gabe and his "Walking Stick"

The new kids are quite timid of bugs (I'm sure there were some large ones in PI), but Gabe loves them. He was very excited to have found it. We kept it in our Monarch aquarium for the day, but let it go this afternoon. We have one Monarch still in a cyrsalis and two more caterpillars still eating away at the milkweed.

We spent the morning catching up on chores. I did a couple loads of wash and the kids and I folded four more! Brian taped the ceiling in the family room. I am starting to see this room as getting finished.

It was quite cloudy today and windy, but we were optimistic about it not raining and after lunch we went out to do a couple of geocaches.

The first one was near an old fire tower. The tower is 60 ft. tall. Brian, Bessie and Gabe climbed to the top. Chicken momma stayed on the ground with the "Littles". Bessie said the view was spectacular.

The Dickinson Fire Tower

The second one was near a very pretty reservoir. We found both caches easily and the kids traded items. We took two travel bugs. Hopefully we'll get out again soon and move them along.

The Martin-Dunham Reservoir

We all enjoyed the hiking and it is always nice to get everyone outdoors, exercising. It is a great outlet for their high energy levels.

Brian goes back to work tomorrow. He has been off for 2.5 weeks. What a treat having him around all the time. He enjoys his job, but I sure wish he could work at home.

It poured all day Saturday and was quite windy. It was a lazy day for me. I spent a lot of time working on my blog, but not much of anything else! :-p It was fun trying to figure out how to add things.

Brian on the other hand accomplished quite a bit. He got all the walls spackled in the Family Room. He'll have to sand and recoat and sand again, but the first coat with the taping is always the most time consuming.

The kids were going a bit stir crazy and that resulted in a major wrestling match, even Dan and Rachel joined in with Bessie and Gabe. Hannah did not think it looked like fun and watched from the sidelines.

"Hog Pile"

I took the "Littles" to Sunday School and church this morning. Bessie wasn't feeling well so she stayed home with Bri and of course any chance Gabe has to not go to church, he takes it! :-( We have missed the last two Sundays because we were traveling. It was nice to get back. There were quite a few people missing. I guess people were taking their last vacations before school starts this week.

We made it to the fair today. It was a beautiful day, sunny and cooler.

Brian brought the backpack for Dan. He enjoyed the ride, it was easier to keep track of him and he could see better. He is three, but only weighs in at 28 lbs., so he still packs easily.

Dan enjoys the backpack

We visited all the 4H animal barns, the petting zoo, the craft barns and of course the small engine area (a favorite of Brian's). The kids loved the circus. It is a small circus, but they had a juggler, magician, acrobat, a really fun act with housecats and a trained elephant act. The best part, as far as Gabe was concerned, no clowns! Bessie's only request was for fried dough, so we took a break and shared a few.

Bess and Hannah look at the rabbits

The Petting Zoo

In the circus tent
One of the highlights for me...we got to watch some of the tracter pulls. Dan was a real trooper and didn't seem to might the incredibly loud noise they made.

Hannah, Gabe and Rachel watching the ducks

We met Mom and Dad there. We knew they were coming but didn't know if we would hook up with them or not.

Dad and Brian love the small engine area. Gabe and Dan look a little bored.

Later that afternoon we took a trip to the parent/teacher store. It was very crowded. I guess all the teachers were prepping for next week. Gabe collects Papo figures, which they sell there. He got a couple more knights and a dragon this time. We also picked up a new floor puzzle. Bessie and I ran into AC Moore and picked out a few fall items for my secret sister.

It was a very nice day and the trip to the fair was even better than I had hoped. Each time we try something new with the kids, we are never really sure how it will be. They have been surprising us and doing extremely well. They were pretty pooped after several hours at the fair, but they held up well.