We have made a mad dash to Michigan this morning and will be here until at least Wednesday night, maybe Thursday night. Dave’s grandfather suddenly passed away last night from a heart attack. This is hitting the family VERY hard. Please keep us in your prayers over the next few weeks.
Also, those who know me and Dave’s family well, trial starts one week from tomorrow for his cousin. Please pray for us over this and remember to seek God that His Will be done! Thank you so much.
Isaac got a really neat toy for his birthday from a friend of his. We opened it up a few weeks ago now that the weather is nice and it was an instant hit with both the kids and Dave and I! We love it……it is the Playskool Tag Tails. You put on the belt which is an animal (lion, monkey, zebra or Tiger) and you chase each other and try to get the other players tails! The best part about this toy is that no one is always it, everyone is it all the time and everyone is chasing everyone!
In our home we play like this….one person says GO! Then everyone runs all over the yard chasing each other….then if you get someone’s tail you say I GOT YOUR TAIL, the person’s whose tail was taken says OH SHUCKS YOU GOT MY TAIL. Then you replace your tail and continue to play.
Today we had 2 other kids over and the kids loved the game! Another great thing is that you get a lot of exercise yourself if you play with your kids. Enjoy.
For Owen I have been loving some of these things: Owen is almost 9 months old
These bibs are the BEST! They are very long, but are cut in near their arms so they can reach for food.
We love the new line at Kohls called Jumping Beans for his clothes. You already know that Children’s place is my all time favorite store, so I won’t link that one. They also have some great things for Isaac and Grace as well!
For Grace: She is 2.5 years old
She loves her My First Doll House and so do I. She can make the people stand on their own and the pieces are simple enough for little hands.
For Isaac: He is 4 years old
He loves everything Bibleman right now! He loves the movies and is learning scripture so well from them. It is awesome for little boys! I love how it gives them adventure and excitment that they need and crave!
For the two of them we love:
Our bunkbeds from IKEA are great (click over to the 6th bedroom set in the middle of the page; the blue room). They rock! We have it in the loft position and then we have a mattress underneath for Grace to sleep on, which will become Owen’s bed later this year. It is really awesome! The top over it is great for a younger sleeper or for an older child to have their own space (which is how we have it). Dave put in a little book rack on the wall of each of their beds giving them a little special space. We also put in these baskets on the wall next to their beds giving them their own space for special things.
I just wanted to give you a list of something we have been enjoying in our home.
Owen had his surgery this morning and it went great. A good friend of mine kept Isaac and Grace and it was such a blessing. She even came over at 6:15 am, got them dressed and off to her house to get her own kids ready for school. How awesome is she?
Owen did great at night until he woke up. Once he woke up he wanted to EAT! He was not so happy to only get his paci. He did great going to the nurse to be taken off to surgery. He even gave her a little snuggle. Then he was off to see Dr. Grouge.
After he woke up they came and got us. He nursed for awhile and then he started crying. The crying lastest the whole time we were there and almost the whole way home! He had a really hard time coming out of all of it. He is a great little boy, but he was very confussed.
He has slept already 3 times for a total of 5 hours worth of naps. He is getting it all out of his system.
His one ear is bleeding quite a bit. It looks like they said it might.
Now we pray his hearing comes back to normal over the next few weeks! Thank you for praying for our little man, God is so good all the time!
Okay, the truth is only one person probally was really wanting to know and he already knows :-). I got the job!!!! Yeah, God is so good. This looks like it is going to be a really good fit for my family. I will do 2-3 shifts a week and NO Sundays!!!!
Thank you to everyone that kept us in your prayers.
1. I had my interview at Applebee’s and I got a second interview on Thursday night!! Thank you to anyone that prayed for me. It is looking very positive. I will be meeting with the head manager on Thursday night.
2. Owen had his ENT appointment today and they have scheduled him for surgery on Monday morning. The checked his hearing and said that he can not hear anything lower than 50 decimals (sp ?). That means that anything half as loud as a lawn mower he can not hear. My poor little baby! His eardrums are bulging with fluid they said.
3. We had the kid’s pics done and they came out amazing. At the top of the header is one of the 127 that they took! We got 7 poses and they look awesome. I can’t wait to go and buy the frames for them.
That is all right now. We are having beautiful 60’s right now. The kids are napping after a great morning at the zoo. Have a wonderful day everyone!
Here are a bunch of crazy little things:
1. I have an interview at Applebees to be a server on Tuesday night at 8 pm. Please keep me in your prayers. Dave and I want all our debt and school loans paid off before he graduates in Dec. with his MDiv. This way we don’t get any interest on the school loans. So I am getting a job working at night while the kids sleep and Dave studies. Hopefully this will work for our family.
2. Owen goes to the ENT doctor on Wednesday at 9:30 to talk about tubes! I am actually really scared about this. We have never had a problem with the older two with ears so this is new ground for us.
3. The kids are getting their Spring pics on Tuesday afternoon and we will be doing our first family pic with our baby Owen. I got the kids all matching outfits from Children’s place. This is Owen’s Here and Here. This is Gracelyn’s Here and Here. Isaac is wearing a baige suit with this (but in the blue and green) and a tie that is baige and blue. The boys also have these matching hats that I found for 50 cents each at the Children’s Place outlet last summer! I am so excited. I am sure I will have a new heading this week after they get them taken! Thank you mom for the Easter money you sent the kids!
4. We are really ready for spring! The kids are going crazy in this cold weather.
5. Homeschooling is kicking along. I think we are getting a good hang of it finally. Now next year will be really hard because we really want to get a more overview type curriculum. Any mamas out there that would like to give a little review of what you used in the K-2 grades, please do!!!!
If you are a homeschooling parent you need to read this! I found this on albertmohler.com. He is the president of the Southern Seminary that my husband attends. He wrote on the decision this week that will make homeschooling illegal in the state of CA! This can not go past our radar and needs to have our attention so that those of us that have chosen to homeschool will stand up for what we believe in.
This is what Albert Mohler had to say.
A Bolt From the Blue — A Homeschooling Decision in California
Like a bolt from the blue, a California appeals court has ruled that the state’s parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their own children. In a flash, a child welfare case that no one had noticed has become a flash point of controversy in the nation. Will homeschooling be ruled illegal in California?
Here is how The San Francisco Chronicle introduced the story:
A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.
The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.
“At first, there was a sense of, ‘No way,'” said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. “Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation.”
From The Los Angeles Times:
Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California’s home schooling families. Advocates for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands, home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in the nation. “This decision is a direct hit against every home schooler in California,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which represents the Sunland Christian School, which specializes in religious home schooling. “If the state Supreme Court does not reverse this . . . there will be nothing to prevent home-school witch hunts from being implemented in every corner of the state of California.”
The court’s decision states that California’s compulsory education statute does not allow for parents to teach their own children as an exemption. Instead, the only teachers qualified to teach children under the law are those with official teaching credentials.
The decision is sending shockwaves across the homeschooling movement nationwide. In California alone, over 160,000 families homeschool their own children. Some believe that the number is actually far higher.
In an event, the requirement of teacher credentials has long been used by the public school systems and teacher unions as a ploy to shut down competition.
In the most important section of the court’s ruling, the 3-judge panel ruled that California parents have no constitutional right to educate their own children. As the decision reads [see full text here]:
The trial court’s reason for declining to order public or private schooling for the
children was its belief that parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home. However, California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children. Thus, while the petition for extraordinary writ asserts that the trial court’s refusal to order attendance in a public or private school was an abuse of discretion, we find the refusal was actually an error of law.
The words, “parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” is nothing less than explosive. Even as the court’s decision is expected to be stayed pending appeal, some parents are already making clear that they will move their families from the state if necessary.
As The Los Angeles Times reports:
Glenn and Kathleen, a Sacramento-area couple who requested that their last name not be used for fear of prosecution, home school their 9-year-old son Hunter because their Christian beliefs would be contradicted in a public school setting, Glenn said. He is troubled by the idea that his son would be exposed to teachings about evolution, homosexuality, same-sex marriage and sex education .”I want to have control over what goes in my son’s head, not what’s put in there by people who might be on the far left who have their own ideas about indoctrinating kids,” he said. If the ruling takes effect, Glenn vowed to move his family out of state. “If I can’t home school my son in California, we’re going to have to end up leaving California. That’s how important it is to me.”
This is a controversy that demands the attention of all parents. After all, if parents have no constitutional right to educate their own children, what other aspects of the parent’s choices for their own children lack protection? This question reaches far beyond educational decisions.
End of post by Dr. Mohler, you can always find more at albertmohler.com.
Little Owen turned 8 months yesterday. It is hard to believe that he is so close to a year! The time is going fast, but we have been working very hard to enjoy every moment of it! Isaac and Grace couldn’t be more proud of him, they take such great care of him. Isaac is always saying to him, “Owen, you are my bestfriend.”. It is so sweet seeing brothers love eachother so much.
A little about him: He sleeps about 11-12 hours at night (with one waking at 5 am on most days, sometimes two on a bad day), then 2 hours after waking he take an 1.5-2 hour nap. Then he is up for about 2-2.5 hours and is back down for another 2 hour nap in the afternoon. He is in bed about 7:30 or 8 everynight. He only nurses 1 or 2 times at night and 2 times during the day. He eats a lot at each session, so he doesn’t need as many.
He has another double ear infection and we are going on Wed. to the ENT to talk about tubes. This is my first baby with ear infections so we are in a whole new land of parenting! Hopefully everything works out great and he is fine within days!
He is such a happy baby and is saying 2 words. He says “da da” and “hi”. He sometimes even puts them together to say “Hi, da da” and waves his hand. It is so cute! He signs “more” and “milk”, but only when he really wants to!
He is such a doll baby and I will change my header to a new pic next week. We are heading for Spring pics next week!
After taking a wonderful class called Hospitality (a class at the Southern Seminary for woman) I have always kept a tried and true quick recipe on hand at all times. In this class our teacher Mrs. Mary Mohler talked about how you should be ready for guests at all times. You never know when someone will drop by or your husband will call home with an “I am brining a friend over for dinner”.
I searched my recipes and found one that is easy, I can keep all the ingredients on hand and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Easy Chicken Parmesan
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (26 oz.)
6 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese
6 small boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
Pre-Heat oven to 375 degrees, pour sauce into 13×9 inch dish. Carefully stir in 4 Tbsp. of Parmesan cheese, add chicken, turn to coat. Cover with foil.
Bake for 30 mins. Uncover. Top with mozzarella and remaining 2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese; continue to bake 5 mins. or until chicken is cooked through and cheese is melted.
I serve with some spaghetti noodles and a frozen veggie for a very quick meal at any time!
For dessert I always try to have a box of brownie mix. This way I can have an entire meal with dessert ready in less than 45 mins. with almost no notice…..now how the house looks is another story 😉 This is also great for if there is an unexpected meal that needs to be delivered to someone (death of a loved one, birth of a baby, bad day etc).
Servant for Him 
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