~Butterflies~

I asked for butterflies... I can't remember now if I got them for my birthday or Christmas, but my guys got me a net and a mail in coupon for 5 caterpillars.

I finally remembered to order them a few weeks ago.  They arrived on Thursday.  I wasn't sure if they were dead or alive!  They don't move very much! 

Friday

I can tell they are eating though! The food at the bottom is certainly being eaten.  Within three days you could tell they had grown too!  I can't wait to watch them!!!

Monday

~Birthday~

It was Jordan's 15th birthday on Saturday.  We had our normal race day at the track.  He even won his race this week!

 When we got home, we enjoyed his favorite dinner... Cheese steaks and potato salad.

He didn't really want anything, so he didn't get any gifts this year... yet.  I'm sure we will come up with something at some point.  It will probably have something to do with racing ☺  

~My Non Napper~

She fights naps... quiet time in her room consists of asking every five minutes if she can wake up.  I have to either set a timer for her to come out or promise I will open her door when it is time to get up to get a quiet hour.

Yesterday, I was crazy busy and really wanted her to be quiet.  Her hour was up so I finally gave up and let her out of her room.  She pitched a fit about something and fell asleep right at the bottom of the steps.

I'm not sure if I won or if she won...

~Fun Friday~

I worked hard last week to get a day off on Friday.  My parents took Aaron, Eric, Nathan and Kiersten to Dutch Wonderland for their birthdays.  I took Jordan and Jared to Cabela's.

It was fun to have just my big guys for a change.

We got home and packed up for a fellowship at church.  I retrieved my younger children who were exhausted, but had a wonderful time.

I spent the evening playing volleyball and frisbee football.  Frisbee football is so much fun!  The first time I played I had no idea what was going on and ended up just walking around:-)  This time I did a little better.

I crashed into bed Friday night!

~Guys went Racing~

I was with family on Saturday with Kiersten and Nathan... but the rest of the guys went racing.

Jared was having major car issues.  He started the race, but lost the key... they kind of fixed it but he just blew it out again.  Jordan was having an issue with bearings.  Aaron was happy to take the win this week!

Eric placed 2nd again... he is fairly consistent to finish in the top!

~Family Time~

I skipped out of racing this weekend to spend some time with extended family.  My Aunt & Uncle and two cousins were in from Michigan.  I haven't seen one of my cousins since we were in high school.  It was so neat to meet his wife, Melinda, and three children, Nate, Maddie and Autumn.

Nathan said on the way home... "Mom, I made some great friends today." 

The kids played and colored fairly well together.  Some of us played Bocce Ball.  Melinda and I have a lot in common with our homeschooling and were able to swap some ideas.  Caleb showed us some time lapsed videos he took on vacation in West Virginia.  Grandma made a very nice lunch for us and sat and watched the commotion.  More than one person was sleeping at any given point in the afternoon.  It was a very nice day!

On the way home we spotted this hot air balloon landing!

I have did 9 hours of driving last week... that is a lot for me!  I'm ready to stay home this week and catch up on things around here.

~Road Trip to see Val~

Gregg took two days off to clean out gutters, work on engines, and do some other misc jobs.  I asked him if I took Kiersten with me, if I could take a road trip to see a friend who lives 3 1/2 hours away... he, of course, said yes.

We left last Monday morning... made one pit stop and one throw up stop.  Kiersten evidently gets car sick.  She did great traveling otherwise.  She didn't want to listen to songs or stories, she wanted to talk to me.  That was a lot of talking!

The gang heading to the Flight 93 Memorial

 The Memorial

Pappy Larry took us all out for ice cream Monday night

We just did a lot of hanging out on Tuesday.  It was more fun than going somewhere.

Gracie gave Kiersten a mani and pedi - they also played dress up for a few hours

Will, my lego buddy - this boy has energy!

I taught Anna how to make a bracelet.  Val said she has already made another one.

Gracie and Kiersten making bracelets

The whole gang.  I had so much fun hanging out.  

I am thankful for friends who are striving to honor the Lord in their lives and in their family.  It was such an encouragement for me to see other kids just being kids... my kids are normal kids... making normal messes.  It is always good to get cooking and cleaning tips, exchange school ideas and blab about whatever pops into your head.

Thanks Val! I had a great time... your children are treasures and your home is a haven!

~Baby Blanket~

I don't get to make baby blankets for all the babies I meet... but I like to if I have the time!

My mom's cousin's son's wife is having a baby soon... and I couldn't resist trying this chevron pattern.  I really like how it turned out.  I used Red Heart Soft yarn and a size G hook.  I tried using a bigger hook but the chevron didn't look as nice.

It should be soft, warm and washable.  I really enjoyed the pattern.  There were comments that it was hard to understand, but I didn't think so.

Finished on Tuesday and gifted on Saturday... just in time!

~Race Day~

I spent this Friday night at a friend's house and got up crazy early to attend a local craft fair ~ but that is a post for another day☺.  I met up with my family at the race track just in time to sign everyone in.

Eric went from 4th to 2nd in his heat... in the very first lap!  He also did very well in the feature.  Jared's car was really smoking so I'm sure the guys will be busy this week looking into that.

 Gregg's dad joined us this week and brought his dog.  The kids really enjoyed her.

Jordan pulled off another win in his class!

Only one more month of racing!

~Nathan's First Race~

Jordan's car is having problems so he didn't race last Friday night.  The guys decided to go to Williams Grove last minute while Kiersten and I did a little shopping (like Old Navy $10 jean deal!!!)  Nathan has been too young to go to these big night races (he is too sleepy and needs to go to the bathroom too much) but Gregg thought he was ready now!  What an excited boy!!!

He did a great job and really enjoyed it!

~Spring Cleaning & School~

The dining room gets a good "spring cleaning" near the beginning of August.  Most of our school stuff is kept in there and I just don't like cleaning it until I can get rid of the old books and get out the new books.

Our race was cancelled on Saturday because of the rain... again.  I spent most of the day working on the dining room.

It looks so much better!  Yay for new supplies!

Our school for this year...

All the boys will be getting their Bible and memory work from their Wednesday night clubs.

All the boys will be using Teaching Textbooks for Math.  Jordan needs to complete Alg 2 and Geometry this year.

Jordan, Jared and Aaron will be using The Grammar Key again this year for grammar, Spelling Power for spelling, and Rosetta Stone for Spanish.

Jordan will be doing electronics for science and Truth Quest for history.  I have not used Truth Quest before but it looks like a good base for learning through literature.

Jared, Aaron, Eric and Nathan will all be using "The Prairie Primer" for school this year.  A friend of ours is going to study along with us and join us in projects and field trips.  I'm really excited about it!  We will be reading through all 9 Little House books and doing studies from there.  In the first two months we will make butter, dissect owl pellets, learn gun safety, butcher a chicken, take a field trip to make cheese, make rabbit stew, take a field trip to a mine, learn about poisonous plants,  how bee stings work, what our blood is made of, make bows and arrows, crack nuts (learning about levers), make maple syrup candy... and the list goes on!

~A New Friend~

Gregg and I were greeters in church on Sunday.  We make sure visitors get our information pack, make them feel welcome and get them to any classes they need for their children.

I enjoy meeting people and normally like this job.  I greeted two couples today that have attended before but that I had never seen.  It can be awkward when you welcome them and they tell you they have been coming for a few weeks, but if you go about it in a way that "we have never met" and you introduce yourself then find out if they are new or not you normally don't offend anyone. Most people thank you for greeting them even if it is after they have been attending awhile.

Anyway, I had the privilege of greeting Josh on Sunday.  By the way he was looking around he had obviously never been to our church.  I asked him if he was from the area and his answer immediately made it clear he was not.  Josh is from Australia!    I had a nice little chat with him and invited him to go in and find a seat.  He asked something about where was a good place to sit when Jordan walked up to me.  I introduced him to Jordan and they sat together.

Always one for an adventure, I asked Gregg about inviting him over for lunch.  It is beyond me why we would invite a complete stranger... and why he would come, but we did and he did!  And what a great time we had!

He has been traveling the states for a month with a friend.  He is now on his own heading to Indiana for college (He is going to college for teaching).  He has no plans and no timetable for the next week or so.  He just happened to stop at the turnpike exit by our church and decided to attend this morning.  He is a young Christian but he has certainly been studying.  He came to Christ because of a girl he met.  He wanted to date her but since he wasn't saved, she wouldn't date him. After several months he found that Jesus was the only way to eternal life and after several more months he got back in contact with his now girlfriend.  Her family has been instrumental in his growth.

We talked about sports, animals, education, families, travel, speed limits, food... what a great time! We had a simple lunch of sandwiches, applesauce, veggies and dip and chips.  He laughed when he saw the bag of chips. Evidently, in Australia their bags are much smaller.  He was very happy to not eat another fast food meal.

He said he was startled when a deer crossed the road in front of him... had it been a kangaroo, that would have been normal! haha!  He also couldn't believe the boys didn't know what a wambat was.  They have crazy animals but he admitted we have crazy plants.  They don't have poison ivy in Australia!

He told me he was sponsoring a child in a Cambodian orphanage.  I thought that was really neat because I'm still reading through my book on Cambodia and enjoyed exchanging the information.

I am so glad God allowed our paths to cross.  I know my kids benefited, Jordan was a good host at church and road in the car with Josh to our house (Josh is used to driving on the other side of the road!).  Dinner conversation was out of the ordinary.  We ask questions, you ask questions... I like that my kids can see that... there was actually no awkward silence moments either.  Aaron and Eric packed him a snack bag for his travel out to Ohio tonight. (So much for unsocialized homeschoolers☺)

I hope we made his first church service in America memorable... and that he enjoyed his time with a "typical" American family (we are so not that!)... but mostly I hope he saw the love of Christ.

~Thrift Shopping Score~

I made this curtain shortly after we moved in... almost 11 years ago.  I've been wanting to replace it for a  while but regular curtains cost so much and the one I wanted would cost more because  it needs to be lined.

I really didn't want to make one either.

Kiersten and I hit our local thrift store and found these!

Yay!  I was so excited.  They were brown, grommet panels, the right size, and there were two panels!  I have seen some that would have worked before but could only find one panel or they had a pattern I didn't really care for. The best part is I only pad $6.00 per panel.  They are double that per panel on ebay. and four times as much new!

~Fun Times~

Last week was crazy busy... and, well... so was this week.  It is always nice to sit and look back at photos and think of the fun we had.  It is so easy to forget the fun times when you are up to your eyeballs in work!

Here are a few fun pictures from the last two weeks.

Jordan has been having technical issues with his car.  He was running it at home to check something and his siblings enjoyed rides.

I was playing memory with Kiersten and Nathan.  Little kids have a hard time keeping the memory tiles in nice orderly rows.  It makes it so much harder to play when they are everywhere!  River is to a game like a cat is to fabric.  It wasn't long before she laid down right in the middle.

Kiersten found the boy's guitar.

Nathan found the Lincoln Logs.

Eric found some paint cans and made a really cool sword and shield with some wood and cardboard.

Aaron found himself in a patch of poison ivy.  He doesn't get it as bad as Jared (thankfully!) but he was rather uncomfortable.  He and River were resting.

I only took one of these photos.  I love that the kids pick up the camera to record memories!  Of course, there are about 37 Lincoln Log photos to edit or delete and several other "what IS that photo!" photos☺

~August~