Sick kiddies

Yep, we have sick kiddies at our house. This is not the same ones from last week, but a new bunch. This time, it's our 8, 10, and 11 year olds. Same symptoms-fever, very sore throat, just a general feeling yucky. They spent the day lying around, sleeping, reading, resting. It hurt to swallow any food, so I did a run to the store and picked up some nice cold ice cream for them. Of course, all the non sick ones had to have it, too! Fortunately, it only lasts 2 or 3 days and then they seem to be on the mend. Tonight after dinner, our 5 and 4 yo fell asleep on Dad's chair. Surprisingly, they're not among the sick ones, just tired! Here they were, snoozing away!


A little while later, a slight change. Notice brother's arm?


I thought it was so sweet-like he was comforting her. Definitely a cute moment. And it definitely overshadows the incident later on in the evening when he pushed her because "she was in my way." Ahhhh...siblings.
At this point, I think we only have 2 that haven't gotten sick yet, so likely this illness will be moving on soon. As long as Mom and Dad don't get it, I think we're okay.

Creative fun

I am not naturally a creative person, though I truly admire those who are-instead, if I want to make something, I just find directions for it and teach myself! No, my creations don't turn out perfect like the pictures, but I do enjoy learning new things and I'm pretty decent at following directions. My little girls like anything crafty and I do wish I spent more time doing those types of things with them. It is hard when you're busy chasing babies and toddlers around!

My 7 yo wanted to do some sewing, so a couple of weeks ago, she decided to make a blanket for her doll. She did very well and was quite patient, too! We only had a few times where we had to use the seam ripper, but that's okay! It's a good tool to have, in my opinion. Here she is showing off her new blanket...

The past few days, we've been trying to get gifts readied for our neighbors. I am truly blessed by the neighbors we have and like to do something nice for them around the holidays. This year, we decided to do gifts in a jar. We made up all the jars, covered them with some cute christmas fabric and tied on the recipe. Very cute and even my 4 yo was able to help with parts of it. My 2 yo kept pointing to the jars and saying "Chocolate chips! Chocolate chips!" The kids are excited to deliver them.

After doing some fun projects like this, I think I need to get back to a set aside time each day to work on some crafty stuff. It seems to have fallen by the wayside, in order to deal with the more urgent. It is so much fun, but busy life just seems to crowd it out! Maybe our Christmas school break will be a good time to do some of these things.

Studying Africa...

We have been studying Kenya in our homeschool for the past couple of weeks now and have found it quite interesting. Kenya is one of those countries I never knew anything about, so I was happy to start this unit. Sometimes I feel so ignorant to what the rest of the world is like-and that is not a good thing! Kenya has over 33 million people-not small by any means, but it's amazing how little most of us know about it. I didn't know that it is just slightly smaller than Texas-and also that the average life expectancy is only 48 years. Wow-that is very short compared to the United States. We have done a few projects during our studies- here are the kiddos showing off the african necklaces they decorated for an art project.

One day they made a mural of an African grassland. Their job was to color it and cut out and paste on pictures of animals that would live there. I got a kick out of this one-if you look closely, you can see a few animals that just DON'T belong! A polar bear on the left, a chicken in the middle----hmmmm...I just don't think they should have been in THIS picture, do you? Apparently, we need to review this part of the unit.

Next week we will be trying our hand at making some Kenyan food. Hopefully we do not have any major accidents as we did with the German cooking. I don't think we will-something tells me their food will be fairly simple.

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Another round of birthdays!

At our house, birthdays can be a full time job! December for us is exceptionally busy. As if Christmas alone is not enough to be concerned about, we also have 3 birthdays for my girls. The ages? 10, 7, and 4. They decided to do a combination birthday party with a dog theme. We give our kids a certain $$ budget for their parties to do with what they choose, and they realized long ago that it was made good financial sense to pool that money with a sibling who has a nearby birthday! They invited many of their friends to come to our house and take part in some fun and games. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead :-( which I didn't realize until the games were already underway. I was able to charge it slightly and get a few pictures, though, later on. Here are some of the kiddos having lunch. We stuck with the puppy dog theme and had corn dogs, animal crackers, puppy chow chex mix, bone cookies, etc. They gobbled it up!

Here is their cake I made for them. Don't know why it will only upload the picture sideways, but oh well, you get the idea. Dog themed, remember?

Here's my little sweeties getting ready to blow out the candles!

Of course, there were the presents. What a blessing their friends were to them today-they are so very generous and caring!


Finally, the big surprise at the end. Mom of one of the guests brought over their real, live dog! This is a very big deal for us since we don't own a dog. My kids just loved it-especially my 2 yo! She's an animal lover!

What a great time we had today. Now, onto Christmas...then we get a whole 3 month break until the next birthday bunch!

Let it snow!

Yep! It's snowing here in Houston-can you believe it? I think people move here to get away from all that stuff, don't they? Well, it started out light this morning, turned heavy by lunchtime, and moved out by late afternoon. Since we don't see snow here as often as we used to in Oklahoma, my kids really liked seeing it again! (Not me, I could do without it, really). At noon, they piled on their scarves, gloves, and hats, and headed out to make some snowballs. Or....some snow boulders!

Pretty big, huh? Took 'em a while to roll it all up. Then, of course, there had to be a snowman. My 9 yo worked hard on this one. That snowman (or snow-woman?) color coordinates so well!

Here is a shot of our front yard, taken by my oldest. This was well after it had stopped, so I think some of it was starting to melt.

After everyone was done playing, they came in for a nice cup of hot chocolate-yum! Okay, enough cold, heavy jackets, and soggy shoes-I'm ready for those 70 degree days to come back! :-)

An encouragement to my heart

The kids and I just finished reading the biography of George Muller in our homeschool. I knew briefly about him and his wonderful work he did with orphans, but I had never read his life story quite like this. I always assumed, given his strong faith in the Lord, that he had always been a strong believer. That couldn't be further from the truth! As a matter of fact, he started out as a rebellious, thieving, lying young man who was only interested in himself. Even while attending college to become a pastor, his mind was only on making a good salary and taking advantage of the gullible people in the congregation. In fact, he didn't even own a Bible and had to go purchase one for himself so people would believe he would be a good candidate for pastor. Doesn't sound like the George Muller I imagined! Once God got a hold of his heart, though, things changed dramatically. From becoming a missionary, to feeding the hungry, to opening several orphanages, George Muller truly had a heart to serve God. Not only did he serve God, he trusted Him with all his heart. Every need, big or small, was met by God. He vowed only to trust in God to supply his needs, nothing else. Because of that, God did some amazing things. At times in reading the story, I'd get goosebumps. I wish I could have just one-tenth of the faith that George had! What encouraged me so much, though, was the realization that God can change anyone's heart, no matter where they are in life. I often get discouraged when I see my child following down the wrong path, choosing not to follow God. In my shallow thinking, it can feel like nothing will ever change! Sadly, I underestimate what God can do. If he can change George Muller's heart-why would I ever believe he couldn't do the same in my child? I feel like He put this book in our school at this particular time for a reason-it gave me hope at a time when I needed it. That being said, if you're not familiar with the life of George Muller, you can visit this website to read more about him. Amazingly, more than 100+ years after his death, his work is still going on. What an inspiring story.