Friday, March 20, 2009

Micah being Micah


This is a video Justin took of Micah at dinner a few weeks back.  He is such a ham.  Justin has taught him to show his muscles and show which direction the beach is (like a muscle man showing off his muscles to the babes on the beach).  It is hard to believe that Micah will be two on Sunday.  He is such a little miracle and blessing from God!

Snow in March?!

So, we wake up on Sunday morning and look our our window to get the weather report (this is generally more accurate than those fellas on TV) and realize that we have 4 inches of snow on the ground and it is coming down HARD!  I love the snow no matter when it comes, so I did a little snow dance in front of the window and called for the boys to let them know there was snow.  You can tell we have had a lot of snowy days this winter because their response was a half-hearted "I know" when given my exciting report about the weather.  I took a few pictures on our way to church.  I was just amazed at the amount of snow coming down so fast.


This is near our house on Glenwood Rd.  Notice the amount of snow on the hood of the Excursion.  By the way, Justin was excited for the snow if only for the excuse to drive the Excursion to church instead of the Volvo.  Boys and their trucks, gotta love it.


This is right on the water in Gorst.  We couldn't believe that it was snowing so hard even right on the water.


About midway on our drive to church.  Still had not seen a snow plow at this point.  It was interesting that we saw only one car off the road, I think people are finally getting used to driving in the snow considering how much we have had this year.

 This is looking out at the church parking lot.  You can kind of see that it is still snowing.  I was trying to capture how large the snowflakes were.  It was such a wet snow that the flakes were bigger than I have seen in a long time, if ever.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Homeschooling!

I have really been enjoying homeschooling Isaiah this year. There are definitely challenges, and my house is not as clean as I would prefer, but when I get a glimpse of how much he is learning and see the learning process taking place-I am so thankful to be a part of the process. His reading has taken off much faster than I ever anticipated. We go to the library once a week to check out new books. We are loving the library, as there is no way I could afford his reading habit without it. Well, for that matter, I could not support my own reading habit without the library! Currently he is in to reading Magic Tree House books and is on number #22. He will sit down and read one in one sitting!

Last month his language curriculum wanted him to write a letter. It gave us the perfect opportunity to write a Thank You Letter to Grandma for the $5 she sent for Valentine's Day. I am very proud of the hard work he put in to it and how much he has improved his handwriting since the beginning of the year when he could not form most of his letters at all.

As I am writing this, he is in his room, laying on the floor, reading Pilgrim's Progress for the 4th time. He just told me he does not want to do school today. I love that he does not see reading as school. It takes some effort to motivate him in other areas of our school day, so I am thankful to not have to work to get him to read.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Africa!



I had updated my status on Facebook to indicate a trip to Africa this summer and received a few responses asking about it, so I thought I would take the opportunity to share what this trip to Africa is all about.
Justin and I will be going with a group of 7 others from our church this summer to a small country in Western Africa called Togo. We will be in the northern part of Togo that is pretty close to the Sahara Desert. It is bordered on the North by Burkina Faso. We will be working with a missionary that our church supports. Two years ago a team from our church went to southern Togo and built a church building with this same missionary. He and his wife then relocated to the northern part of the country to start a new missionary base to work with the people in this area that are mostly muslim. They are going to be establishing a hospital, which is what they had done previously in the southern part of Togo. We will probably be helping with a latrine system, as there is very poor latrine conditions in this area and much disease is spread from human waste.


Justin and I will leave on June 26th and come back on July 12th. This is a very long time for me to think about leaving the boys, but my parents have graciously agreed to watch them for us. We would all appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this trip as well as while we are in country.