I was recently working with Sarah to write her thank you notes to her sweet girls friends who came to the spend the night. I talked about how important


it is to send thank yous and what to say: " Thank you for coming to my spend the night. Thank you for the gift that you gave me." Thinking that I had given enough explanation, I asked her how she would like to say that... he reply was : "In Chinese." I tried.

Sweet Sarah

MY SARAH!

Our sweet Sarah had her birthday party this weekend! She is now 5 1/2ish! Sweet Sarah's official Birthday is in December, actually, 3 days before Christ's! So, that she doesn't get lost in the fast paced holiday stuff, I held off for her real birthday party! AND SHE LOVED IT!

Being 5 1/2 ish she could have her 1st spend the night! She invited 2 little ladies from church and CBS to celebrate!

She chose hot dogs for dinner! Nate grilled them! EASY!

She picked out a watermelon cake with the cutest ants crawling on it from W+++++++. Easy!

She picked a spend the night! I had to do no entertaining! EASY!

She picked to color! I had all those supplies! EASY!

She picked to have 2 WONDERFUL+PERFECT little girls over! EASY!

They played with the balloons! EASY!

The best thing was that I got to read them a good night story: We acted out Chicken Little! Then they listened to a book on tape: "I DON"T WANT TO GO TO BED!" Then, Do you know what they did?!? THEY WENT TO BED!!!!

This morning up they were up and had chocolate chip muffins and then...

Then they went outside to play with the cats!

A sweet sweet birthday party for a SWEET SWEET BABY GIRL!

Our Saturday & Sunday

Yesterday was BUSY! N went to a buddy's birthday pool party! It was great! It was a total surprise to the young lad and he was such a good sport! I went to guitar orientation for N, while he was at the pool. I brought C a friend to play, um hang out with while I went back to the pool for N. They had a great time. Very trustworthy ladies. They even cleaned the kitchen like I had asked! (Maybe I should do that more often...) When I returned I had another friend in tow! The girls were multiplying ! They congregated in C's room and did make up and hair! They had hot rollers, REAL make up (which just blows my mind! Are they really that old? Old enough to be powdering their faces and glossing their lips? Of course they aren't! That would make me old!) They all wear makeup lightly and beautifully. In our house the motto is "Less is More!" Less gunk on the face shows the true beauty that God created.

C is thrilled that she has a curl! Something rare for her!

We had a busy Sunday. Up at 6:30! Okay, okay.. I hit the snooze once or twice! Off and running! We had nursery at 9. We had 4 little boys, all loud and fun loving. The smartest thing I ever did for my nursery day is take them outside equipped with balls and bubbles! Our church has a great, flat, grassy area for such a thing. Our youth sometimes get out there and play "ultimate Frisbee." It is really fun. I play too! I SO embarrass C! (N can't wait to be 11 so he can go to youth! Just so he can play the game!!!)

Okay back to my day, Jerome had parking duty for second service, while I rushed home to let everyone in for Small Group Sunday (SGS). Normally we don't have all these duties all one day. They just all kind of happened this month, because of this or that. SGS lasted til 3:30. I RUSHED to nap. All morning I sat at the kitchen table, during SGS, and watched my hammock rock in the wind, calling my name. I was so ready to run to it and relax! But the Good Lord had other ideas for my napping place. HE SENT RAIN! A good soaking rain that lasted for an hour or so. It was wonderful to hear the thunder in the distant and the clouds roll in. I'm hoping my tomato plants will take off now and grow 10 feet high! (Tomatoes are one of my favorite foods of the summer, fresh off the vine. )
I am so easily sidetracked! Nap was disturbed by C knocking on the bedroom door, with the plea, "I have 45 min. to get to youth!" J drug himself out and drove her there in time.
Now they have all returned home and we are preparing for the evening rest. I still hear the thunder rolling in the distance. MORE RAIN TO COME! Grow Tomatoes! Grow!

I'm getting the point across to Nate! His hard head cracked the bell!
I'm working on my idea for the video that we are to do for Agape. I'm not sure where to begin after so many years of schooling at home! I remember the day the book shelf fell with a crash in the basement, the day that Sarah scrubbed the toilet with Nate's toothbrush, Chloe sleeping till noon and us rushing to ballet, Sam scribbling all over my lesson plan book! The days of getting started with school around lunch and then ending at 7pm are countless and the days of loading the van at day break for field trips to the great beyond are great in comparison and the days that I get to just sit are very far apart! My life has become consumed with my children, their education and the great endeavor to instill in them the great love of our Lord. My daily life is almost always never the same! I'm tired, I change my mind daily, hourly. My days are lost without my plan book and calendar! But the Lord refreshes me every morning and gives me only what I can handle and gives me the strength to handle the rest! He has called me to take on such a task as this and there is no other place that I'd rather be, except maybe on the beach.



Today, we started school at 7:45 accomplishing Bible, History, writing, health, and some science and math. Watched a movie on Rudyard Kipling's: How the Rhino got his skin. Lunch was actually at 12 and we ate a Russian potato salad that Nate made for a study of Russia. We actually liked it considering it had salmon, boiled egg, boiled potato, sauteed onion and mayo. S & S are still trying to clean up the toy area ( for a good hour now, I guess it would be faster if I wasn't sitting here) and C & N are listening to CS Lewis' The horse and his boy. I only hope this afternoon goes as well. We still have a little math and Lang. and geography left.

Thank you Jesus for a good day.

Interesting Fact:

Interesting Fact:
Did you know that Walgreen's will refill your ink cartridges for like half of what you pay to buy a new one! Yes! I just did it! AND there is a 50% off coupon on the box for next time!!! Go to their photo department and just ask!