Today Dippy is five years old, so now he is a Big Dipper.  My darling foxy husband was kind enough to take me home and end my camping nightmare.  I was going to try and stay from Sat to Weds.  I made it till Monday morning, so that's not too bad.  I even accidentally had fun.  And… get this…. while we were up there we totally felt a real live earthquake.  I need to tell my friend Debi Large.  She lives in Florida and I always tease her about hurricanes, and she teases me about earthquakes. This is the first earthquake i've ever actually felt since I've lived in Ca. So it was a true adventure. Oh, plus both my legs fell asleep in the middle of the night.  That's never happened before. weird. 

June 27th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Ok, it wasn't really that bad — and i only had to stay for two nights (two FREEZING nights) and I learned a few things. 1) There is no point in packing extra pairs of underwear if you never bathe or change your clothes  2) Sleeping bags are not meant for sleeping in  3) My husband is a FOX when he doesn't shave or brush his hair (pictures to come)  4)  I am NOT a fox when I am camping (pictures were destroyed in a freak avalanche accident)  5)  Skin burns badly with prolonged exposure to the sun  5) Two extra large bags of marshmellows are still not enough to satisfy a family of eight  6) Having greasy hair is a far better alternative than having to dunk your head into ice water to clean it  7) Wood is hot when it is on fire  8) Outhouses always smell badly, but they smell the very worse in the middle of the day when everything starts to heat up 9) There is nothing so sweet than to have nothing at all to do except spend time with your family  

June 22nd, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Yipppeeeeeee.  We're leaving tomorrow for our camping trip (instead of today).  That's one less night that I have to trek thru the cold, dark wild-animal-infested campground to the outhouse.  I'm not saying that I *hate* camping.  It's just that I don't *love* it (x's ten).  Anyhow, I decided today that I was going to become a hermit because people are so psychotic.  And psycho's (especacially psychos who claim Christ) are depressing and bothersome.  And then I decided (still today) that I wouldn't be a hermit because being depressed and bothered is completely irrelevent to what what God has planned for me.   I mean, as surprising as this might seem, the world actually does not revolve around me (can you believe it?) Being bothered, depressed, moody, irritated etc is nothing but a distraction, because all it amounts to is me taking extra time to focus on myself and my precious little feeeeelings — or more specifically…. focusing on others who may be making me bothered, depressed, moody, etc.  So here is my assignment for today “Stop thinking about myself and simply live for Christ”.  That's all I'm required to do today.  I'm not meant to save the world, to change peoples' minds, or to even convince other people that I'M not the psycho (they are).  No, none of those things should be taking up my time.  This week I'm simply called to: love God, love others, be kind, not slander, not gossip, not be bitter, hope in all things, serve the body of believers, tend to my children, smile at my husband and eat chocolate marshmellow goo (i'm sure the Lord spoke to me and told me to eat at least 17 s'mores).

June 19th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I feel bad for my family because I do *not* camp well.  I tell you what; it is a golly-good thing that the 'Y2K catastrophe' didn't hit and spriral us into the 1700's because I'd have been done for.  Holy moly.  We have to leave tomorrow and I am not a happy camper.  I mean, I DO like some aspects of camping…  roasted marshmellows, s'mores, hot dogs, hot chocolate, cozy cold nights.  No; scratch that.  I don't like camping at night.  It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to get up (at least twice) and trek 300 yards  in the FREEZING cold to the smelly outhouse in pitch black. sick.  I know a lot of people were pretty disappointed when Y2K didn't change life in America as we know it.  What about you?  Were you a Y2K nut ? Could you 'rough it' for more than a week or so?

June 18th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I was wishing my head off to find the list of movie videos that had been compiled to help teach different subjects.  Our family loves watching a good video together — especially if it is is good movie and educational.  So my great friend, Anonymous, was kind enough and post the link into my comments:

http://www.teachwithmovies.com/indexes-main.htm

Thanks Anonymous!  And if anybody else has any great sites that they love to use for teaching, I'd love to hear them!

June 16th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

My son, Dippy, was jumping all over the living room (catapulting over his sister's head) last night. He looked like a little anorexic squirrel.  The kid is 5 years old and weighs the same as my 2 year old.  So anyways, as Dip was spinning around, coie tried grabbing him (he's so twerpy that he just slips right through your fingers). As Dippy filtered thru her grip, she called him “SKINNY Dipper”. It took me a minute to get — Coie actually got it before me and just laughed her freckeled face off.  Just think of the rumors that will spread when people hear a memeber of my family is a *skinny dipper*. 

June 15th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

My friend was telling me that she found this big old list of movies that can be used for homeschooling.  I thought that was interesting and I'd like to see the list.  Anybody know anything about that?  We recently watched Ghandi and it was really interesting from a historical standpoint and it opened up a lot of discussion (Were Ghandi's principals 'Christian' principals — was Ghandi a Christian?  Were the people of India treated fairly by their British rulers / lawmakers. etc)  Another movie that Geoff and I watched (i wouldn't recommend it for children — but we're going to get the older version filmed in the 30's with Jimmy Stewart and try that one) was Flight of the Phoenix.  It was a remarkable story of engineering.  And then of course the movie Luther was superb — our family loves that movie… SO well done and so educational.  What movies have you used in your schooling? 

June 13th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Ok technically Spunky http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/spunkyhomeschool said she 'tagged' me “About Books'; but since this tagging requires brain work it's a bit more painful than a simple 'tagging'. 

Before I start answering the questions, here are my taggies:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolTalkRadio

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/RosesareRed

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/tn3jcarter/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/underthesky/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/TOSPUBLISHER

and

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/leebenvic/

Here goes: 

June 11th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Who knows, it could be that i'm just tremendously hormonal lately, but golly i cannot believe how rude/mean/ungracious/unkind/impatient/uncaring/ungrateful/expectant/ people are.  Women in particular.  Christian women to be even more specific.  It's so disturbing.  I deal with many many people on a daily basis who claim Christ and it has been overly disheartening lately at the attitudes and actions of some of these ladies who claim Christ.  It makes me sick and sad, and offended, and then mad… and then a tempation to become bitter starts to set in.  My friend said that Christians are absolutely no different than the world…. we are all fallen, shameful sinners who simply rely on the grace of God.  And we all fail and we all offend, and we all act ungracious, or pharisaical or unkind or self-righteous during our lives.  Man i DO NOT want to be that.  My husband says that these ungracious women usually seem to see themselves as very spiritual and even “find themselves too godly to let their sinful husbands control or lead them”.  He says most of the time you can trace a connection between controlling women who won't follow their husbands as women who are generallye unpleasant (at the least) and downright intolerable to be around (as the norm).  One of my biggest fears is becoming one of these bitter, self-righteous, ungracious women.  Within my walk over the last 12 years have I been a nasty ungracious offensive woman to someone or other?  I imagine I have.  How I hate my sin nature.  But do I hate it enough to truly follow Christ with discipline and obedience?  Lord help me.  It is impossible on my own.  I want to be remembered as kind, slow to anger, one who isn't easily offended, willing to help, patient, gentle and stable.  Do you struggle with this?  Do mean people ruin your day, or are you able to just walk ahead without it dragging you down?  The power people have to “discourage” or “encourage” is pretty amazing.

June 10th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I'm on a yahoo homeschool group list and right now and there is a long string of discussion about TV.  I'm surprised at how many homeschoolers do NOT watch TV at all.  Is this normal for most homeschoolers?  Do your kids watch TV? Do you and your husband watch TV?  If so, what do you watch and do you let your kids watch with you? 

June 9th, 2005 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments