Settling in.....

We are settling in this nice big house, here in South Dakota. The snow comes about once a week. But it never melts from the week before. Snow boots are a must every day.

Going out to the van we all track snow in our car. And the next day we get in to go somewhere and the snow is still in the floor, never melted. It seems so strange, so different from Georgia. We had snow there in the past but it always melted the next day.

Its beautiful here. I never get tired of looking out the window. Everything is blanketed in white. Pure clean and quiet. A stray cat goes by once in a while, but not much activity outside. The boys want to play in the snow so they get all bundled up and go out but can only stand the cold for 20 minutes or so.

It's not icy like in Georgia. It's light, fluffy snow like baby powder. So light it wipes right off the windshield, 6 inches thick, with one swipe of the wipers. They are so good about cleaning off the streets here. Salting and sanding every day and scraping with snow plows all day long.

Jacob rides his bike to get the mail every day at the post office. The ground is too frozen to put in a mailbox. So we are using a PO box for now. He enjoys his bike ride but is always glad to get back inside and get warm.

No more trips to the store every day or two. Chris takes our only vehicle to work so we just stay home and do school. We have been going to get groceries on Saturday's.

I have never really liked coffee but I am drinking more and more hot tea now trying to stay warm. Bedroom slippers and robes are a must for all of us now.

The people at the church here have been so good to us. Going above and beyond to make us feel welcome. God has provided all our needs. Our church family in Georgia has gone above and beyond to take care of us also. We are so unworthy of all of this but we are thankful God is using us for His Glory!

The Potter knows the clay...

When God has another plan...

 I started packing things in our house 2 weeks ago. Just 4-5 boxes a day then we decided to take apart Jonah & Justus' bed to use their room for storage until we moved.

 We picked up the Uhaul Jan 4th so we could begin loading it.

 It was HUGE and barely fit down our driveway. We loaded as much as we could until more help came that night. We gave away our washer and dryer and sold our refrigerator.

 Our last night at home we slept in the floor. Not the best idea but we survived.

 So the road trip began Wed. Morning Jan 6th. Two boys road with Chris in the truck and I followed behind in the van with the other 2 boys.

 Stopping for gas meant someone wanted to switch vehicles and stretching our legs once in a while.

 We drove 6 hours to Dublin, KY to visit with some friends and stayed overnight in a hotel. We got up Thursday morning and finished the trip. What we thought was going to be 13 hours turned into 20 hours.

 The snow on I-29 north in Iowa was so thick I couldn't see and felt like I was smothering. After 45 minutes of HEAVY snow (going VERY slow), a lot of praying and some crying....the snow stopped.

Then we got on I-90 west and the roads quickly turned to a sheet of black ice. So we proceeded to drive 20-30 mph. the rest of the way here. We arrived at 2:30am Friday. After getting some sleep (in the floor) men from the church came over and helped us unload the U haul. We were able to return in that same day. Praise the Lord for a good church willing to help.

 The snow is beautiful here. Everything is covered in white.

 Every room was full of boxes and I wanted to unpack SO bad. But after day 1 up and down the stairs 100 times my calves were KILLING me. So I had to take it easy on Saturday.

 I am just not used to stairs so its going to be an adjustment. We are not comfortable living in such clutter so we got the dining room and kitchen cleaned up and organized first. The bathrooms are done and the laundry room is completed.

 Our van (Pearl) is not used to all this cold weather or being so dirty. But if we wash her now when the temperatures are below freezing she will come out of the wash frozen shut. So a bath for Pearl will have to wait until it warms up a little.

 Our back yard is beautiful.

 The temperatures Sunday were below zero and barely got above zero the entire day. But it was not unbearable. We all bundled up good and took the hour drive to the closest Walmart for a few household items.

 Our first service was a blessing we had 25 in attendance. God has been so good to our family and we just want to give Him all the glory for getting us here safely and providing all our needs.

 The people in the church all pitched in and bought us groceries so our pantry is full!

 I put together my desk and bookshelf yesterday. Slowly getting organized.

 

The living room is arranged on the beautiful white carpet. Our bedrooms need some more work so I'll post pictures of them later. One day at a time, I am trying not to over do it.

Assumptions

Assuming how someone else feels by the look on their face is not a good idea. But we all do it. I have been accused of being mad or stuck up even when I have said nothing at all. I guess it's the expression on my face.

I have also done the same thing to others. It is very hard to read a persons body language if they are not talking at all. I am usually a very outgoing person. So when I get around quiet people its hard to read them. Sooooo....

We assume we know what they are thinking or how they feel. Just because someone is skinny doesn't mean they have an eating disorder. They might be sick or on chemo. And when we see an overweight person we should not assume they are just addicted to food. There are some diseases that cause uncontrollable weight gain. And when you see a person crying never assume you know whats wrong. We don't know what kind of battle they might have faced that day. If you see someone walking down the road don't assume they are homeless. Maybe they just don't have a car. If we notice a child getting disciplined, don't assume anything. We do not know what happened.

Our appearance doesn't always reflect how we think and feel inside. Our clothes DO make a statement about our personality. But every day is different and the challenges that come our way do not change the fact that we are still human and we still have emotions. Life is hard! Be considerate.

 "And of some have compassion, making a difference" Jude 1:22

God made us all so different and we should be thankful for that. If everyone was like me the world would be boring. So until we get to know a person we should not assume we know anything about them.

I am still learning this myself. Its a hard thing to do when you see a person wearing a bathing suit in walmart. I am trying to see them as Jesus sees them. A SOUL with a body. The soul is what matters most. Are They prepared to meet God? Do they know Jesus as their personal savoir? Appearance matters but people don't care what you know until they know that you care.

How you make others feel about themselves says a lot about you.

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.

The ugliest thing I have ever seen is a human being without compassion.

Moving on Up....

We have been praying for God to send a buyer or a renter for our home in GA so we can get out to South Dakota. We repaired our badly rotting back deck with the help from a man at church.

We painted the outside of the house and the shed to make it more presentable.

We have found what looks to be a good candidate for renting. Just praying for the financial support we need to make the move. So if all goes as planned we will be packing everything we have accumulated the last 13 years of being in the house and moving out to South Dakota. It's going to be quite a big job to pack and drive 1300 miles with 4 boys & a U Haul. But we know God will provide. Chris has a job out there, but its a pay cut. We are just trusting God will provide the rest. We have seen Him do too many things for us over the years so we are not going to doubt Him now.

Please remember us when you pray. They have already gotten snow in South Dakota and we will be driving out in there the first week of January.

Sunday Funday!

 The boys love getting dressed up for church on Sundays. We found Jacob a suit that fits him perfectly at the Goodwill.

Homemade cookies are the best kind!

When I'm Gone

Before I was a mother I always thought I would die before my husband. I am not sure why but I just know. Maybe it's because I have so many headaches and he doesn't have any medical problems. I am not sure the root of these thoughts or why I feel this so strongly but we have....

Holy Ghost v/s Devil

This is an old post but a day I will NEVER FORGET:

I got up one December Monday morning in 2005 to take Jaron to NYU for another NAM adjustment. We changed our return flight to stop in Boston before coming home. I wanted to meet the surgeon there and see what he thought about Jaron's mouth. Needless to say it was a long day and I was exhausted. I had a headache and was starving. Our flight from Boston back to Atlanta was delayed but the flight leaving 1 hour before was allowing some passengers to get on with them right then. I RAN to the

When I don't feel good enough....

Being a mother is a very hard job and sometimes I feel like I'm not doing it right.
Well---most of the time I feel like I'm not doing it right. I feel like a failure when my children don't behave. I feel like I did not teach them good manners and I blame myself for more things than I probably should. maybe it's just me being really hard on myself and I want everything to be perfect but that is impossible so I need

Summer Fun & Birthdays

 A silly time lapse video from our hotel stay in August. Jonah learned how

Geography Fair

We joined the other homeschoolers in our county for the first Geography Fair.

The boys chose their location and researched it themselves. I bought the boards and they decorated them with information all about their place. Jacob chose 

Mt Carmel Baptist Campmeeting

For the last 3 years we have attended the Mt. Carmel Baptist Campmeeting in Hendersonville, NC the 3rd week in September. Our boys enjoy playing with friends every day outside and we all enjoy the morning and evening church services. There is always lots of great singing and preaching and praising the LORD!

 

 

The weather was great this year. No rain and a little cooler at night. We are thankful for all God did for us at this Campmeeting!

Accepting God's Plan for Our Lives

Sometimes we don't understand what is happening in our lives. I think God allows things in order to see how much faith we have or maybe to see if we are going to follow Him.

When we were first told about the church in South Dakota in Sept. 2014 we never imagined we would move out there. Over several months so many people had approached us about the need out there. So Chris flew out in May on a survey trip and preached for them. After coming home

When the bathtub leaks....

 Our bathroom floor was feeling a little warped in some places around the toilet so we called a company to come out for a free estimate. When they found the leak and saw some mold in the

Road Trip to South Dakota

Last week we made a road trip out to South Dakota and it was Beautiful! Our boys had never been out west and neither had I.

 We put our two suitcases on top of the van to make more room in the trunk and covered them in plastic. That was not a good idea. The plastic ended up getting shredded from all the

Adventures in Boston

Jaron and I got home yesterday from his clinic visit in Boston. We flew up Friday and went to straight to the hospital. His appointment was at 1:00pm.

We met with the dental team first to look at the position of his teeth and they reviewed his x-rays sent to them by our local dentist. We discussed a palate expander for Jaron and then Dr. Padwa came in to talk more about his bone graft surgery. She said

No place like home

There really is no place like home.

No awkwardness

No uncomfortable feelings

No one is being shunned

No critical looks

No judgemental whispering

No favoritism

Just because I don't react

Homeschool for FREE

Administration: Library Organization: Elementary Printable Library Organization System

Administration: Planner Software: Homeschool Tracker

Administration: Planners, Info, Lessons (K-12): Donna Young

Administration: Planners: Homeschool Scheduling with Printables

Administration: Printable DIY Planner: 7 Step Planner

Administration: Online Planner: My Mardel Homeschool

Bible: Free Lesson Plans: Future Flying Saucers

Bible: Online Games and Activities (K-6): Adventure Bible

Fine Arts: Art History (3-12): Timeline of Art History

Fine Arts: Art Lessons (K-6): Art Projects for Kids

Fine Arts: Art Lessons (K-6): Video Art Lessons from Deep Space Sparkle

Fine Arts: Art Prints (K-12): Art Prints

Fine Arts: Artist Study (K-6): Printable, grade level art lessons from Concordia Univeristy

Fine Arts: Classical Music (K-8): Classics for Kids

Fine Arts: Music Theory (3-12): Music Theory Web

Fine Arts: Piano Lessons (K-12): Hoffman Academy

Fine Arts: Preschool Music (Pre-K-1): Musical Zoomy Lesson Plans

Foreign Language: French (K-6):  Just for Kids French

Foreign Language: German, French, Spanish (K-12) Video Lessons with Printable Lesson Plans from KnowitAll

Foreign Language: Japanese (9-12+) Japanese 1 with Video Lessons

Foreign Language: Latin (3-12): Headventure Land

Spanish/ESL (5-6): McGraw-Hill

Health: Health and Safety topics (K-12): Kids Health in the Classroom

Heath: Health Workbooks (K-6): Harcourt Health and Fitness (to use with these low cost textbooks- buy used)

History: American History (3-7): Mission US American Revolution Interactive Website

History: American History (K-12): US History

History: Ancient History (K-6): Mosaic Maps, Myths, and Marvels

Kindergarten: Lessons (K-1) Kindergarten Themes Monthly Lessons

Language Arts: Aesop Stories and Lessons (K-6): Aesop Stories

Language Arts: Audio books (K-12): Librivox Audio Books

Language Arts: Daily Grammar (K-12): Daily Grammar Lessons and Quizzes

Lists (K-4) Sight Word Vocabulary Lists

Language Arts: Early Reading (K-3) You Can Read Sight Word Program

Language Arts: Early Reading- I see Sam (K-2): I See Sam Downloadable Readers

Language Arts: Grammar (K-6): Scholastic DoDEA Workbooks

Language Arts: Grammar and Spelling  (?) National Treasures Grammar and Spelling Workbooks

Language Arts: Grammar Sentence Diagramming (K-12): Parse a Sentence 

Language Arts: Grammar Handbook (3-8): Zaner Blosser GUM Workbooks

Language Arts: Grammar- Mad Libs (K-12): Kids MadLibs

Handwriting (K-6): Donna Young Handwriting Worksheets

Language Arts: Handwriting , D’Nealian (K-2) Editable Handwriting Worksheets

Language Arts: Handwriting help (K-2) Handwriting Helps and Information

Language Arts: Handwriting: Copywork: Copycat Books

Language Arts: Literature (K-12): Manybooks

Language Arts: Literature (K-6): Classical House of Learning Literature

Language Arts: Phonics (K-3) Progressive Phonics Phonics Readers

Language Arts: Phonics (K-3) Reading Bear

Language Arts: Phonics (K-3): Reading Games with Printable Worksheets from Starfall

Language Arts: Picture Books (K-4): Read On-Screen Picture Books from We Give Books

Language Arts: Reading and Grammar (K-6) Scott Foresman Reading Workbooks

Language Arts: Reading, word families (K-3): Word Family Printables

Language Arts: Spelling (K-12) VocabSpellingCity Free Spelling Games

SightWords (K-3) Free Resources for Teaching Your Child to Read

Language Arts: Word Families (K-3): Lots of Printables and Lesson (scroll to the bottom for the Freebies)

Life Skills: Financial Literacy from the Actuarial Foundation (9-12) High School Finance Curriculum

Mathematics: Algebra from Purple Math (9-12) Algebra Video Lessons

Mathematics: Mathematics Enhancement Programme (K-6): MEP full printable curriculum

Mathematics: Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (K-6): CSMP full printable curriculum

Mathematics: Explorations and Fun with Math from the Actuarial Foundation (grades 3-8) Real World Math Units 

Mathematics: Games (K-12): Learn with Math Games

s (K-12) Xtra Math Fact Drill 

Mathematics: Games from Big Brains (multiple grades) Big Brainz Games

Mathematics: Living Books (K-6) and Ancient History Living Math 

Mathematics: Virtual math manipulatives from Utah State University (multiple grades) Virtual Manipulatives

Multiple Subjects: BBC (k-12) BBC Educational Videos

Multiple Subjects: CM curriculum (K-12) Charlotte Mason Help

Multiple Subjects: Free Textbooks, mostly science and math (9-12) CK 12 Textbooks

Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (K-12) Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool 

Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (K-9) Guest Hollow Little Otter’s Lesson Plans

Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (Pre-K-5) Head of the Class

Curriculum: Teach with Me

Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum program from Ambleside (multiple ages) Ambleside Online

Multiple Subjects: Games (K-12) Family Games Downloads

Multiple Subjects: Games (K-6): Educational Games by Grade Level

Multiple Subjects: Lapbooks (K-12) Homeschool Share Lapbooks

Multiple Subjects: Lesson Plans (K-12): Lesson Pathways

Multiple Subjects: Montessori (ages 3-6): Full 40 week Montessori Lesson Plans

Multiple Subjects: Resources and Lessons (K-12): Teachers Pay Teachers Freebies

Multiple Subjects: Resources and Lessons (K-12): SAS Curriculum Pathways

Resources (K-12): Learning Page

Multiple Subjects: Topic Links (K-12) Usborne Topic Links

Multiple Subjects: Unit Studies (K-9) The Homeschool Mom Unit Studies

Multiple Subjects: Units (K-12) School Express Free Worksheets

Multiple Subjects: Videos and Lessons (3-12): Khan Academy Video Lessons and Math Help

PreK) Free Montessori Printables

Science: Anatomy (5-12): Anatomy Arcade

Science: Animal Science (K-6): National Wildlife Federation

Science: Archeology, Dinosaurs and Fossils (3-12) Earth Science Lesson Plans

Science: Astronomy (K-12): NASA Lesson Plans

Science: Biology (9-12) Quarks and Quirks High School Biology

Science: Chemistry (grades 3-6) ACS Inquiry in Action Chemistry Curriculum

Science: Chemistry, Periodic Table (K-12): Periodic Table Videos

Science: Coloring Pages (K-12): Science Coloring Pages from Home Training Tools

Science: Computer Programming (6-12): CodeAcademy

Programming (K-12): Kodu Programming

Science: Computer Programming (K-12): Scratch Programming

Science: Computer Science (K-12): Computer Science Unplugged

Science: Elementary Science (K-5): Discovery Education Free Resources

Science: Elementary Science (K-6): Howard Hughes Medical Center Resources

Science: Engineering (K-12) Teach Engeneering

Science: Engineering (K-12): Engineering Games 

Curriculum from McGrawHill (grades 1-6) McGrawHill Science Texts, Activity Books and Labs

Science: Games (K-6): PBS Kids Science

Science: Games (K-6): 24/7 Lawrence Hall of Science

Science: Geography (K-6) Gutenberg Primary Geography

Science: Geology (K-5): AGI GeoSource

Science: Life Science (1-6): Mr. Q Printable Life Science Course

Science: MIT courses (9-12): MIT OpenCourse

Science: Multiple Subject Curriculum (K-12): Science Mate Science Lesson Plans

Science: Multiple Subjects (K-12): Science Lessons

Science: National Geographic (K-6): National Geographic Kids

Science: National Geographic (K-9) Teacher Lesson Plans

Physical Science, various ‘ologies’ (K-12): American Museum of Natural History ‘Ologies

Science: Physics (K-9): Physics, and yearly free PhysicsQuest science kits

Science: Projects (K-6): PBS SciGirls

Science: Satellite Earth Science (K-12): NASA Weather Adventures 

Science: Science Journal (4-8): Natural Inquirer

Science: Videos (K-12): The Happy Scientist Freebies

Science: Virtual Museum (K-12): Virtual Museum

Science: Zoology Links (K-12): National Zoo Homework Helper

Social Science: American Folklore (K-12): Famous American Folklore

Social Science: American History (3-9): History of US

Social Science: American History (K-3): Mind Fires Academy

Social Science: Current Events (3-12) Time for Kids

Social Science: Current Events (3-12): YoungZine

Social Science: Current Events (K-12): Smithsonian TweenTribune

Social Science: Geography (K-6): World Maps

Social Science: Government (K-6): Ben’s Guide to US Government

Social Science: Greek Myths Flashcards (3-9): Greek Myths Flashcards

Social Science: History Unit Studies (2-12) Learning Through History

Social Science: History, National Archives (3-12) National Archives Teacher Lesson Plans

Social Science: Human Trafficking from Free the Slaves (grades 6-12) Free the Slaves

Social Science: Mythology (3-9):  Myth Web

Social Science: Narrative History (K-12): Macrohistory

Social Science: Talking Pyramids (K-9): Ancient Egyptian Games

Social Science: US History Timeline (3-9): History Timeline

Social Science: Vikings (K-9): Vikings Lessons from BBC

Social Science: World History (K-12): World History for Us All Lesson Plans

Social Science: World History (K-6): Little City Kids

Supplemental Resources: Information (K-12):  Free Lesson Plans

Supplemental Resources: Maps (K-12): Printable Maps

Supplemental Resources: Worksheets (k-12): Printable Worksheets

Supplemental Resources: Logic (7-12th): Self-Taught Logic

Baseball Season

So Jacob and Jaron played baseball this spring and they had so much fun! Even though it got rained out a couple times they made up for it with double headers. In the beginning of the season it was cold and as the weeks went by it got HOT!

 

The teams were split up into age groups ages 9-12 on one team. So they got to be together on the Oriels.