It's Sammy's birthday and he needs a Jesus Storybook Bible .. can you help, PLEASE??

Ok, that was a little tricky ... not my Samuel ... he actually has a Jesus Storybook Bible

But there are many, many, many more Samuel's in Ukraine that need a bible!!!!

Would you like to help???? 

 

Then celebrate with us!!!!!

 

Orphan Sunday and Samuel's Birthday are just a few weeks away.

 

In honor of Sammy's birthday and in celebration of Orphan Sunday 2012,

we would like to raise

$1,000.00 for Bibles for Orphans.

 

They are planning to print and distribute

30,000 Jesus Storybook Bibles to orphans in Ukraine during

Easter 2013.

 

 

 

Celebrate Sammy's million dollar smile!!!

 

 

 

 

Celebrate his fashion sense!!!!!  

 

 

 

.... with a donation in his honor  ....

 

PLEASE?!?

 

Do you have $5.00, $50.00, $500.00 to spare? 

 

THREE DOLLARS will provide one bible. 

 

Surely most of my friends and relatives have $3.00 to spare  ... 

$3.00 is a super small price to get the story of Jesus into some one's heart. 

Think of what your $3.00 seed could harvest!!!!!!!

BIBLES FOR ORPHANS

You can help place God’s Word in
the hands of orphans in Ukraine!

$3	FOR $3 YOU CAN GIVE A BIBLE & HOPE TO AN ORPHAN

Partner with Christians in Ukraine to print the Jesus Storybook Bible in their language and distribute it to 30,000 orphans.  Believers will personally deliver the Bibles to these children through a network of over 100 churches and 30 Christian organizations already working in orphanages in every region of the country. 

The Jesus Storybook Bible will be a valuable tool for churches and believers, equipping them to minister more effectively to orphans who desperately need to hear the gospel message of a loving Father who sent His Son to rescue them and bring them into His family. 

 

 

You can donate by clicking the link below and making a contribution directly to Bibles for Orphans ... these donations are tax deductible.

 

Or you can give/send your donation to us and we will make one large contribution after Orphan Sunday. Giving the donation to me, will not get you a tax deduction, but I believe, it will store up a treasure in heaven ;) 

 

If you send a direct donation, would you send me a note telling me you did so and if you are comfortable sharing the amount you donated, tell me that too.  I'd like to keep a tally of donations made in honor of Samuel.

Donate online to Bibles for Orphans at Razoo

Vikings!

In our first week of My Father's World Adventures we studied the Vikings and as a fun craft we made Viking Hats.

 

 

 

 

 

Signing for Chocolate!

How do you get a girl to talk????

 

Pull out the chocolate!

 

And she is a signing maniac!

 

 

 

A New Plan

I am trying something new.

 

Last night we cooked about 30 eggs in the rice cooker.  If you did not know, you can hard boil eggs in the rice cooker.  I have this three-in-one rice cooker, it is a fabulous kitchen tool.  I would really like to have two of them!  I use it for all sorts of things ... including non-soaked small white beans in 45 minutes.  Anyway, I digress ...

 

We go to the early service at church and are home by 11:30ish.    I love the amount of "stuff" I can accomplish after church.  Today's plan was to make lunches for the week.  We walked in the door, everyone had marching orders.  I set to making lunch for the day and for the week.  And now am writing this post.

 

 My plan is to rotate between tuna and egg salad sandwiches with raw veggies and fruit. The idea is that the kids will grab the egg/tuna salad and someone will make sandwiches out of them.  They will also grab one tomato and one carrot container to be entirely consumed at that day's lunch.  If they want them, they can have the apple slices too.  I tried a trick I read on pinterest.  The apples are soaking in soda.  They are soaking in Hansen's Ginger Ale.  It is a natural soda, so I am hoping it does the trick of keeping them from browning.  If it doesn't, I will throw the whole batch into the crock pot and make applesauce.  If it works, I have a lovely time-saving new trick.

 

All of the foods can be served on paper plates, so the only dishes we should generate are cups and knives from making the sandwiches.

 

 

SOUNDS GREAT IN THEORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am really hoping it will work. 

 

I have a helper here 4 days during the week.  This past week as school ramped, some mornings she helped get kids dressed (it takes us f.o.r.e.v.e.r for meals and breakfast is no exception)  she helped wrangle babies, kept our laundry caught up and helped clean up after lunches so I could go back to the school room. 

 

In this picture you see our lunch for the week.

 

 

I gave the food it's own shelf ... let's hope my grab and go plan works!!!!

 

 

If you think about it, we could use prayers. We have grueling therapy/dr appt schedules right now.  Praise God, many of them are in home and my helper is currently helping me manage his speech sessions ... BUT ...  This week we are adding hippo therapy back into our therapy regimen. 4 kids are getting hippo therapy. Obviously, we are going to the ranch for that. It will put me out of the house for three hours one afternoon a week ... prime school time ... I am hoping to come up with a really smart plan ... as to how to make up that time ... I am bouncing some thoughts around in my head, but cannot see the big picture yet .. so it is a work in progress. 

 

We are also praying about adding two additional speech therapies a week for Seth.  We feel he could really benefit from more speech sessions.  We are working on the rehabbing an injured player theory, more is better right now, work, work, work ...

 

  Here is a screen shot of my week ...

 

 

WHEW!!!!!

Still Ramping

We are working our way back into a full school schedule.

 

Today, we brought the whole crew back together for bible.  We started by singing This is My Father's World.   We will sing that every morning ... or so ... through out the year.

 

Don't they look thrilled??/!!!

 

 

 

 

Then we read today's Proverb and colored a page to go along with it.  The whole crew was coloring ... check out Gloria's grip on the crayon!!!

 

Then, I sent them all packing ... and worked with Faith.

 

Here she is working on her creation time line and creation book

 

Hope is moving right along ... look at her writing her name :)

 

 

CHECK THIS OUT .... Seth got this toy and played with it appropriately!!!!! That is the first time he has gotten a toy and then played with it. 

 

Can you see in the picture the red puff above his eyebrow ...  he is hitting himself A LOT ... it started on Sunday and he has not recovered ... he also chewed up one of the cables for his cochlear coil today.  This is really, really bad.  Advances Bionics has been absolutely amazing to work with, but somehow I don't think "kids chewing up the pieces" is covered by warranty.  OY!

 

 

My Kindy Girl

I can hardly believe that my sweet Faith is in Kindergatern.

She will be my 4th to teach kindy to.  Should be a piece of

cake, right?!

 

 

She was very excited this morning!

She wrote her sign with just a bit of help

forming the k and the 2.

 

 

 

Today's number was 1!

 

I did not get a picture of her making

her creation folder.  We are studying

creation for the next 9 days. 

 

So excited!  She loved me reading from

the bible and kept telling me what God

was going to do next.

 

Faith will be using My Father's World Kindergarten,

Explode the Code, Handwriting without Tears, and will

be learning math facts through song and dance.  We

will actually be using a variety of different medias to

master addition and subtraction facts.

 

 

The big kids have been schooling with math and

spelling through the summer.

 

Tomorrow, well actually, later today they will start adding in more subjects.

I have been frantically planning ... and planning  ...
and planning and installing software and updating operating
systems and call in Dell customer service.

I am almost ready for the big kids!  They will ramp into their
new curriculums over the next three weeks. 

This is what I looked at and worked on for a good part of the day.

I ran into a glitch trying to mount and ISO file as a virtual CD/DVD drive.
AHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH .... can't get it to work!

 

I am excited to be back in the school room!

The big kids are using some combination of the following ...
it would be too confusing to list by kiddo ...
My Father's World Adventures
Teaching Textbooks
SOS LA
SOS Bible
Explode the Code
Wordly Wise B & C
Penmanship
First Language Lessons
Writing With Ease
Horizon Phonics
Sequential Spelling
I Can Do All Things
English From the Roots Up
The Complete Book of Time and Money
Pathway Readers "for fun"


I have the first 12 weeks planned ...

 

Getting ready for the new school year ...

Why does it get worse .... before it gets better???

I am working on the school room and some how create piles of messes.  If I don't know what to do with it at the moment, I put it in this area.

 

 

 

 

Who knew lesson planning could be so much fun?!

 

 

 

We got all of our books for Adventures shelved ... and divided with pages

 

 

 

Then we stickered and number the books according to which week they would be used.

 

 

Neatly sorted math blocks that we are not utilizing this year.  The puppies are hidden in a high cupboard.  They are nearly as bad a leggos.

 

 

Seth likes listening to the piano!

She puts her sister's shoes on her feet

Gloria is rockin' her ADL skills!!!  Check her out!!!! She put shoes on all the time.  She has also started putting pants on and taking everything off.  I am not sure how impressed I am with the undressing part!

 

 

 

It is our anniversary!!!!! We need presents!!!!!!

EDITED TO ADD -

THE GOAL WAS MET ...
 
THEN IT WAS REVISED TO DOUBLE

AND THAT GOAL WAS SURPASSED!

THANK YOU FRIENDS!



Will you help us celebrate our anniversary??? 

Will you buy us a present?

We have been married 22 years!!!!!

Copper is the "present" for a 22 year anniversary. 

Would you give us some copper?  1200 pieces of copper?  1200 pennies ... it sounds like a lot.

But it is just $12.00.

We need diapers .... no, we are not that old, but we are getting there!!!

Actually, my babies need diapers.

No, not the babies in my house.

The babies in my heart. The babies with special needs that don't get out of their cribs often.

The ones on the other side of the world. The ones laying in perpetual wetness.

The ones that live in the orphanage that Seth, Sammy and Gloria lived in.


If I told you I needed $12 for my babies because they had a rash and I did not have enough diapers to change them often   ......   Would you GIVE me $12.00?  I am pretty sure most of you would.


My friend is adopting a little girl from there. and  will be returning shortly and would like to bless the children with diapers. 

I'd love to blow them away. 

I'd love for her to have to make multiple trips to deliver all the diapers. 

I'd love for the orphanage workers to know these children are worth diapers ...

This is another chance for us to show Jesus. 

To show the nannies and all of those at the orphanage, that these children matter, that they are valued, that they are loved by a bunch of radical Americans that love like Jesus does.

Friends, I am asking you to give like it was Noah or Gloria or Samuel or Seth laying in the same diaper for a 12 hour shift.  Please!

We donated the money we were going to use to pay for an overnight trip to celebrate and have a small break from life while Aunt Sissy watches the kids.  Instead, we bought diapers.  I am not asking you to send your vacation money, just your Starbuck's or McDonald's money. 

Please friends!

You can donate through the chip-in on Lyla's mommy's blog  The chipin has ended - thank you!

Make sure to send a note that you are celebrating with us by giving diapers to orphans.

I honestly can't think of a better present!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Sissy

We celebrated Aunt Sissy's birthday today!

We are so blessed by Aunt Sissy. 
No one can compare to her! No one! Ever!

First, we sang to her!

Then we found some money to buy her presents.

Then, we went to Costco.  I did not take any pics, sorry.

But, I can assure you a good time was had by all and

the kids earned churros for their good behavior!

Next, we cooked

And cooked some more

And yet some more ...

We set the table - with REAL dishes .. again!!!

We sang again!

And opened presents ....

I am not sure Aunt Sissy got to open any of her present,

she had many helpers!

Crazy Schedules!

This is my crazy August calendar.  If you count, you will see we have 42 Dr/therapy appointments this month!  Thankfully, a good portion of them are in the home. 

As we are gearing up for full time school, I am attempting to regain control through the use of an hourly "routine" chart.  We'll see ... it's kinda working ... a little, maybe :)

We have schooled all year and did not take a break for the summer, we just downsized the number of subjects we were doing.  In two weeks we will be in full swing with another grade added into the mix.  I will have two 3rd graders, a 2nd grader and a kindergartner.  How it will all fit in, I am not sure, but it will work somehow!  I do have to admit, I feel quite overwhelmed when thinking about all we will have to do in one day!

The kids that are responsible for chores, all have responsibility sheets.  The idea is they are laminated and they check off their responsibilities as they are completed.  We tried them out for a week and there are many tweaks that need to be made. We are going to work them one more week before I reprint and laminate new charts.

A close up of the chart.  In a perfect world, everyone will participate in the bedtime routine activities, so everyone has that on their chart.  

Funny Friday Girl

Stylin' Sam

And before you ask ... yes he is wearing his sister's shirt and yes, it is inside-out.

Super Seth!!!!!

Super Seth, he has flower power! Don't mess with him!

A little help for my friends

As many of you know I have been hosting a blog auction for my friends, The Sharps.

Today is the LAST day and we still have items without bids.  Ack!!! Help!!!  Please!!!!!

Please click the link and see of there is something you would like.

Sharp Auction!!!

Can you help us out???  Please????

TWO BABIES need to come home!!!!

Dinner with Friends!

It feels like a million years since we have had friends over for dinner! 

This week we had old friends over for dinner.  The kids think that Roy and Jackie are their grandparents.  It is so funny.  Roy was our pastor for many years and is now "retired."  It is fun to  have our kids experience the richness of older generations.


The occasion called for real plates!

I made a yummy roast, potatoes, carrots and corn.

The kids made fresh squeezed lemonade.

Roy and Jackie brought cookies for dessert.

Gloria hated the cookies.

Here, Grace is telling all about the Olympics.

My favorite little guy!