If you get blown down, stand up again!

Help, my pictures are doing weird things. The order is all wrong. There is two of the same. Oh, this is so frustrating.

Well, here are a few pictures of the kids and the house. The first one is from this past fall. They look the same, except Christopher is growing a mustache now. Ahhhhh! They grow up to fast.

The second one here is the new vanity we put in last summer. I love it because it has 7 drawers. There is one for each of us and one big drawer at the bottom for other stuff. This bathroom could really use an overhaul but we shall leave that for later.

We went on vacation last month up to Mt. Hood. We stayed in one of the lodges and had a great time swimming in the wonderful heated pool. We were able to swim many times a day, read our Bible, Pray, and have devotions. We took this time to concentrate on family and had a wonderful time. Richard and his girlfriend Caitlin came up Thursday night to stay with us. Pa, Dick Bob, and Christopher went night skiing and had a wonderful time. The kids all had a wonderful time on Friday snowboarding too. pooh did a smashing job for her first time. She knew everybody on the tow rope by lunch time and was trying to help other kids snowboard. We all came back refreshed.

We moved Pooh Bear upstairs, moved the boys to Dick Bob's room and moved Dick Bob downstairs. Pooh Bear never adjusted to having to come down stairs, she is much happier upstairs. She does however, want all the windows taken out of her room so no one can see in. She doesn't see the need for natural light! I have put a picture of her room here too. It turned out so cute!

We have much to do on the remodel of our bathroom as we have just begun, so I won't say much ado yet. I will say that I am looking forward to 10 steps to the potty rather than 110 steps every night. I think I have established just how long a person can go, without actually getting up to Go, if you know what I mean. I wait til the last possible moment because I hate the long treck across the basement, up the steps, through the kitchen, living room, and hallway before I actually get to the bathroom.

As for homeschooling, I shall never homeschool the traditional way. I am doing more unit studies. Christopher is into airplanes and electricity right now, Eyore is into woodworking and legos and robotics, Pooh is into butterflies. Did you know that the largest butterfly is 14" wide? Me neither. We are also doing a large block of our time developing a family unit that is tight and relies on God for everything. I like the idea of tea time for our daughter but so far we do our hour or so reading and memorizing verses each day. I can't believe how many verses we know now. We were memorizing 1st Peter 3:8-16 and then we have been memorizing weekly verses from Kids Kollege and Christopher's youth group. Part of our schooling is that everything is done together. If the bathroom needs cleaned, we do it togetherj. If there is dinner to make, we do it together. I am developing a relationship between all the kids and me. It is proving to be one of the best things I have ever done. They are starting to rely on each other rather than on outsiders or their peers. Our saying is "Families don't treat families that way." They no longer are arguing at every turn. They are learing more and more that if they are struggling to pray about it and pray together. We are praying with 3 other homeschool families each week and are seeing the kids come alive in their spiritual walk. Well, at first I wasn't sure wether I saw that but then we had a prayer and praise time Sunday night a church. My children were the only 3 children there. The kids felt a little akward at first but soon became involved. We would sing a few songs and then pray a little. The first part was just saying a Thank You to God. Pooh and Eyore said a short prayer. The second part was praying over our pastor and his wife. Eyore prayed for them. The third part of prayer we split into groups. The boys found their own group to pray in. I came away from there so moved, I was crying. Each one of the younger 3 kids prayed. Thanking him and asking for prayer for themselves and their siblings. It was then that I saw all that God is doing. It was then that I saw how awsome God Is. It was there that I saw a glimpse of God's love for us. I am amazed at their growth and mine too.

Speaking of that, we found the most wonderful youthgroup for Christopher. They have daily, weekly reading and memorizing they do. He say's he likes what he gets out of it. I love the tender heart he is developing. He recently deleted some songs of his mp3 player because he decided they weren't appropriate. It was a big step for him. 13 is such a tough age. He is working towards a missions trip to California this summer. He has to have memorized all the verses every week and then be able to say them all before the missions trip. Pretty cool~

Dick Bob goes to our church youth group. We have a new youth pastor and we all like him. Dick Bob is ready to graduate already. He plans on taking a couple of summer classes and fininshing up within his first trimester of next year. He will still graduate with his class next June. He has a great job and has been rebuilding his engine on his pick-up. He tends to be a little frustrated with it but with lots of prayer, he should be done in the next 2 weeks or so. He is having to refit the houses and wires to a new engine. He forgot to label the parts when he took the engine out.

Some ask me about my mother and her husband. Yes, we still have them here with us. God is teaching me much patience and understanding through this. I believe my mother is begining to loose some of her memory. It is hard to leave the kids with her now because she does strange things. She accuses Eyore of lying. Just out right lying. She gets upset at Pooh Bear because she took 16 ounces of a drink when she should never have more than 8 ounces, more like 7 ounces. She is angry most of the time now. Right now she is ranting to the kids that they always help me and never her. She needs only ask, but no way will she! Her health is so poor now she can barely walk and needs a hip replacement badly. She doesn't have insurance though, so we have to wait. How does one help their mother out when she doesn't want help. She recently went to my sisters house for a day visit. She told her how horrible it was living with me. I am so decieving and I lie and I have never, ever, ever, mopped my kitchen floor. She told her that people may think I'm nice, but I'm really not. The stuff she said went on from there. It is so far fetched that even I don't feel to bad about it. It was so unrealistic! My sister told her she should move out. Nooooo, if my mom wasn't here to take care of the house and the chores and the kids, who would do it? I'm not doing, you know!!!! So, as you can see, I have a lot on my plate right now.

Any prayer my way would be appreciated.

Well, I must go for now, my mother thinks it's horrible that she is cleaning the garage when I'm just typing! Who would ever dare defy their mother? Oh, that's me! Ta Ta for Now!