Starting Christmas A Little Early

My husband has had the last two weeks off of work and we have enjoyed spending so much family time together.Here in Rainy Washington the fall weather tends to be dreary and wet.This fall though has been great!Tons of sunny dry days. Today wasnt one of those days though.So we decided it would be a perfect day to put up the Christmas tree. Since the hubs may be deployed for Christmas this year we decided to put the tree up before the turkeys even been cooked ;0) Here are some pictures!

Family Time

We took up the whole swing set and it wasnt even all the kids!

Our family came out for a week long visit last month. Four adults and 10 kiddos all under one roof!It was a fun,crazy,awesome week!The kids were so happy to have their cousins here to visit.Our only regret was that they couldnt stay longer!

Having fun at the Seattl Aquarium

Everyone snuggled up together ;0)

The best compliment

We all like to recieve a sincere compliment.It makes us feel good when others notice say, our clean home, our tasty meal or any number of other things.But the #1 sure fire way to make a Homeschool momma happy is to compliment her children.
My favorite compliments are the ones I get from people who have known my kids for a while but didnt know we homeschool! A friend recently spent some time at our house and told me just how smart our oldest is. "He is just so smart!" She gushed. My homeschool momma heart swelled with pride :0)

Chore Charts

I have NEVER been one to make a chore chart. I am usually a "take it as it comes" kinda lady. If the washer buzzes and I am in the middle of making lunch I'll call out to one of the kiddos to switch it to the dryer for me. If their are crumbs on the table (usually centralized in front of a particular childs chair) I'll call someone over to clean up the table. Of course this sometimes means that mom is doing the majority of the cleaning on her own, because the kiddos arent specifiallyc assigned any particular chore on a regular basis!
Of course in life sometimes things change ;0) With our new,larger home also come more to clean! We have been in the new house for all of 3 days now and I already could see just how exausted I would be if things didnt change.Or how messy the house would become if I was feeling less than energetic!
So I hopped on the computer to look for an easy printable chart I could use to make the kiddos a chore chart. I found tons of great things and these are the ones I thought I'd try out this week!

http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/chorecharts4-10.htm

This website has all sorts of chore charts,reading charts,pet care charts,etc. I gotta be honest though, the thing that drew me to these charts was that each one had a different character at the top that I knew my kids would like ;0) Hey its the small things in life!
So for Hannah its Cinderella,for Isaiah Lego Yoda and for Justin Batman!
I'll post again the end of the week how the chore charts worked for us.An in the meantime if anyone has any tips or suggestions I am totally open to them!

Remembering Nevaeh and talking to our children about the hard stuff

This past week has been a sad one for us.Some dear friends of ours lost their daughter to cancer.Our daughters were born just a few months apart and every time I look at Hannah I think of Nevaeh and what her parents must be going through right now.
We have shared with our older children this journey that Nevaehs family has been going through.Praying and fasting together for them. Whenever something like this becomes part of your childrens life they start to have questions.
Some of the questions my kids have had are:
"Why did God let Nevaeh get cancer?" "Why hasnt anyone cured cancer yet?" "Why did Nevaeh die even though we were praying for her to be healed?"

These are HARD questions.Questions that I have asked myself at times. I think its so important to share with our kids that we too have questions when life is hard.Its ok to tell them when we are wondering about the answers to questions too.
I also think its important to search the scriptures WITH our kids.Pointing out the wisdom and answers that we can find there.
Times like these in our lives can shake our faith and our childrens faith but we can also draw near to God through regular worship,family scripture study and prayer. In everyones life trials come.Its how we learn to get through those trials that is really important.

A new Home

This weekend has been a really LONG one.It has included packing,picking up trucks,moving a lot of heavy furniture and lots of cleaning.All while juggling the kiddos!All of thats been worth it though for our new home!

We live on an army post in Washington state.Housing here is a bit different than in the civilian world.We are only "allowed" to have a certain number of bedrooms depending on the number of kids we have,their genders and ages. Now that Isaiah has turned 10 we FINALLY qualify for a four bedroom! To be honest the extra bedroom really isnt the big deal for me. Our two boys and two girls still share bedrooms.Its all the extra living space that came along with that extra bedroom!

Now its time to relax,hang a few pictures and settle in!

The Homeschool Mothers Journal

I found a great new blog this week and decided to write a little post and join in on the Homeschool Mothers Journal link up.To link up yourselves go check out The Homeschool chick @ http://www.thehomeschoolchick.com/ .So here goes!

In my life this week…

Some serious prayer and faith coming into play. Its been discovered that my newest dear nephew Mason(still in his mommas tummy) has some physical issues that were unexpected.Been praying like crazy ever since.

In our homeschool this week…

We have been really enjoying our study of medieval times. Knights and castles, crusades and the Magna Carta, what fun!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing..

We have been to the library 4 times in the last two weeks,no joke!The librarians know us by name!There are just so many good books to be read!! ;0)

The most important person we will be seeing this week is Daddy!Yay! He will be home from his month long desert training tonight!

My favorite thing this week was..

Recognizing that we are so blessed in our homeschool.Watching all the public school families get ready for back to school always makes me a bit sad. I just cant imagine breaking our family up to spend hours on end apart all week long.That would just stink!

Question/thought I have…

Has anyone read “Uncle Toms Cabin”?If you have what did you think of the book?

I’m reading…

“Uncle Toms Cabin” I have never read it before and decided to pick it up at the library. I honestly don’t know if I’ll finish it though. I find that whole period in history fascinating BUT I cant stand to read a sad or depressing book right now!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

My quote this week us a scripture that has really lifted me up this week.

Deuteronomy 31:6

“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

Have a great weekend everyone!