our Christmas tree

I don't know why we thought a real Christmas tree
would be such a great idea this year. The vacuum
cleaner has gotten clogged from all the pine needles,
all of the bottom ornaments have been pulled off and
eaten or broken, and the tree itself has been pulled
over twice. Christmastime with toddlers is so much fun!

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a boy and a mouse

Simeon's destructive side got the best of him again
yesterday when he found a mouse, a rock, and a big toy
truck. The angry neighbor came over to tell me that he
had smashed dead mouse guts all over her back porch,
and that he and her son couldn't play for the rest of
the day. After we talked about it a bit, he was SO
broken and crying. He said, "Mom, I'm so mad at
myself. I don't know why I do things like that!" I
said it's because he's a boy. God made him to hunt things.

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impossible requests

For Christmas, Liesel wants a "real horse", and Jude
wants a "real Barney". The only one who MIGHT get what
he is hoping for is Simeon, who wants a BB gun.

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Jude's question

Tonight as I was telling Jude a story about when I was
a little girl, I explained that I lived with Opa and
Oma, and they took care of me......He asked, "Why, did
your parents die?"

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great kids

I realized tonight just how great my kids really are.
Right in the middle of their karate class (the 3
oldest kids are in the same class), a kid vomited all
over the gym floor. I, the kid's mom, and the karate
instructor all ran to get paper towels, buckets, and a
mop. While I was cleaning up the mess with paper
towels, ALL 3 of my kids came over and asked me how
they could help. It was a proud moment. I told them
some kids would be grossed out or making fun of the
sick kid. But not Liesel, Simeon and Jude. (Jude
himself was gagging as he was trying to "help")

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a sock puppet

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of a sock
puppet eating the Cheerios off of Hope's high chair. I
really married a great man!

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Santa Claus

When Liesel was sitting on Santa's lap, she asked,
"Are you the REAL Santa Claus?" His elastic beard chin
straps were so obvious, and yet he said, "I am the
real thing!"

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fire drill

When reviewing our family's house fire drill rules,
Jude says, "It would be so cool if our whole house was
on fire, because then we could roast marshmallows!"

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Santa Claus vs. Jesus

On our way home from the "Winter Concert" (they're not
allowed to say "Christmas" anymore), we explained to
the kids how some people have gotten colleges and
schools to stop saying the word "Christmas" because it
refers to Christ, and some people don't believe in
Christ so they have influenced the schools to broaden
their audiences. From the back seat, Liesel said,
"Well, Michael believes in SANTA CLAUS". I asked
Liesel if SHE believes in Santa Claus too, and she
said, "No I believe in Jesus, but I DO LIKE Santa
Claus because he brought me some toys one time."

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Jude......again

Tonight we attended the Tulsa Community College's
"Winter Concert" (They aren't allowed to say
"Christmas" anymore I guess. Between songs, when there
was DEAD silence in the auditorium, Jude says, "Mom, I
don't want to listen to this anymore, this is
ANNOYING, it's hurting my eardrums."

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Jude's prayers

After reading in Proverbs about following wisdom, not
folly, Jude prayed. He said, "Folly, get out of my
heart, or I'm going to get in a bulldozer and run over you!"

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Simeon almost 8

I mentioned to Simeon the other day that he was almost 8. Instead of the usual reaction of "I can't wait until my birthday", he said, "I know, Mom, I'm sad". I asked why he was sad, and he said, "Because I don't want to grow up and leave you and Dad."

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Liesel's letter to Santa

Liesel's letter to Santa:

 

Dear Santa Clause,

Please tell me more about Jesus. And please give me a horse and a spanking chart and a necklace. Love Liesel

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power peanuts

This morning, I asked Jude to help me unload the
dishwasher. He was scooping peanuts up off the table
with his tongue. I asked him again later to help me,
and he said, "MOM, I'm getting power!"

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a new toothbrush

Liesel got to open a Christmas present early last
night. Her toothbrush accidentally got flushed down
the toilet when it got flung across the bathroom just
as someone else was flushing the toilet. She got to
take it to Christmas show-and-tell today and tell the story.

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innocent inquiry

At the Outdoor Adventure today, put on by the Boy Scouts for prospective Homeschool members, there were many activities to participate in: archery, stardome, BB gun range, zipline, among other things. One of the stations was a reptile display, featuring boa constrictors, rattlesnakes and other reptiles. The two pimply teenage boys who so thoroughly gave us a full explanation of different types of snakes, their habitats, and their eating habits asked the children if anybody had any questions. Jude was the first one to raise his hand and ask:

"What are those red spots on your face?"

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Miss Broken Arrow

eating mushrooms

Last night on our way home from Life group we saw a
Lifeflight Helicopter landing at the hospital. So we
decided to stop and watch for a learning experience
with the kids. We watched as the pilot, EMTs and a
doctor and a nurse lifted an old man on oxygen onto a
gurney and wheeled him into the hospital. We were all
speculating as to what could be wrong with him. After
several guesses.......heart attack, COPD...etc, Jude
said, "I think he ate a mushroom."

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Jude's gymnastics skills

When John and Liesel were talking about the
appropriate time to use her karate skills...(if her
boyfriend was mistreating her and she might have to
use a karate kick or punch). Jude was listening to
this conversation and he replied, "Yeah, and if my
girlfriend is mean to me I'll just do gymnastics on her!"

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albino plants

Today we learned that in autumn, the trees stop making
chlorophyll or food, so the "green" of the leaves
disappear, making the leaves slowly die and leaving
behind the existing orange and red and yellow colors.
Simeon asked me if there are such a thing as albino
plants......I don't know....are there albino plants?

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the milk machine

Tonight we stopped at Walmart to get some milk. Jude
said, "Mommy just use the milk machine" (the breast
pump). He must think there is an endless supply there.

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lost cell phone

We spent all last Saturday looking for John's cell
phone. We had the kids looking and even offered a
bribe to whoever found it. The whole time we were
looking for the cell phone, I kept wondering what the
thump-thump-thump-thumping sound was that was coming
from the dryer. Guess what! The cell phone was ruined
in the dryer!

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Simeon is sad

Simeon asked me this morning why we have to grow up?
Expecting him to say he just loves the fun of being a
kid and not wanting the responsibility of being a
grown up, I asked him why he didn't want to grow up.
He answered, "Because when you grow up you have to get
married and move far away from your parents, and I
just want to live here forever".

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up dad's sleeve

Yesterday I told the kids to hurry up and get ready
because Dad had "something up his sleeve for tonight".
After driving out to Ft. Gibson Lake, having hot dogs
and marshmallows over the fire, watching the sunset,
the stars, satellites, Liesel asked, "Dad can we have
our prize now?" Dad said, "What prize?" She said "The
one you have in your sleeve"!

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Math fun

Liesel wants to keep up with Simeon in math. I get
alot of mileage out of that. Today we played "Math
War", an idea that I got off an online group. Each
player has a stack of cards #1-10, and they slap the
card down and see who can add them together the
fastest. Then we played "make 10". I slapped a number
down and we raced to see who could guess which number
we needed to make 10, then 9, then 8. It was lots of
fun. Then we read some stories and were done with
school for today.

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Jude's burrito

Yesterday for snack Jude wanted a frozen burrito.
Because I was in the middle of a rushed conversation
with a friend, I agreed and popped to frozen burrito
in the microwave. When it came out I cut it into 3
pieces to cool. You would have thought I killed his
pet by the way he cried and wailed and grieved over
the loss of his "whole" burrito. "Why did you cut my
burrito? I didn't want you to cut my burrito!" I
deferred the situation to Dad when he came home. So at
lunch today, when I set the WHOLE burrito on his
plate, Jude says, "Mommy can you cut my burrito?" Go
figure!

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lost lizard

I felt very foolish last night, in my front yard with
me and the kids with flashlights looking into bushes
for our lizard, Elvis. I had left the gas stove on for
over an hour, and there were fumes in the house. While
it was clearing out, we played out front. I "rescued"
the animals too, setting the lizard down in the grass
to hunt for ants or crickets. Well I forgot all about
him until bedtime when one of the kids walked past his
empty cage...So there we were all outside, with
"roaring" lion and tiger flashlights that belonged to
the neighbor kids. Just as we were about to give up,
to my childrens sheer delight, Elvis was FOUND.
Hurray! No more tears being shed!

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platelets and white blood cells

Yesterday I found a scab on Jude's head. When I announced what it was, Liesel said, "I guess his platelets are working".

 

Today Jude cut his finger. When I tried to clean it and put a bandaid on it, he said, "It's OK Mom, the white blood cells will clean it for me".

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stories about the Bible

I was so blessed last night. John made a fire on the back porch, the kids all sat in the porch swing while John and I sat together on the bench. Liesel said, "Daddy would you tell us a story? A true story....from the Bible". It blessed me so much that she would naturally want to know more about the Bible, with no prodding or forcing from us.

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immune system

This week we learned about the immune system. We took Hope to the dr. to get her one year shots, and thought about what life would have been like in the "old days" before Edward Jenner discovered the small pox vaccine, and Alexander Fleming discovered that the penicillin in mold could be used as an antibiotic. Louis Pasteur helped us understand the relationship between germs and diseases, and Joseph Lister found that using antiseptics in surgery help reduce infections. So we went through the house and used every antiseptic we could find, to make a point. We looked at our neighbor's small pox vaccination site on his arm, and he told us his memory of getting it at about age 5. The kids were the most fascinated with the story of the Black Death that affected millions of people in Europe in the 1400's and how they didn't understand that it was self-inflicted by their own filth. We read the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and sang Ring around the Rosy. We were very thankful this week to be living in the age of vaccinations and antibiotics.

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homeschool first weeks

We are starting a new curriculum called KONOS this year. I like it because it incorporates all ages in the subjects of Bible, Science, Social Studies,History, Art, Music.Our first weeks we have been studying Cooperation (it's a character based unit study), and focusing on the human anatomy and physiology ( how the systems cooperate).

 

For skin we examined our skin cells, made ourselves sweat, examined our hair roots and fingernails, talked about our friend Pablo who was born without epidermis and how that affected his short life (he died at age 9).

 

For bones we drew pictures of people without bones, and made clay people with no bones, made a skeleton out of magnetix using joint magnets. Really fun.

 

For muscles we examined steak and did an experiment involving paper towel rolls, rubber bands and balloons.

 

For digestive system (our favorite) we did eating experiments, observed our saliva and timed our digestive process by eating Captain Crunch dye cereal (too gross to explain but use your imagination). We "digested" mashed potatoes through a balloon esophagus attached to a straw (the small intestines). We took rope and measured 30 feet of intestines and placed them inside our shirt to image how compact our intestines really are.

 

For circlulatory system we made the arteries and veins out of clay and attached them to a clay heart, with aorta, vena cava, lungs and all. We found out that if you attach every blood vessel in your body, it would circle the earth 2 1/2 times!

 

For respiratory we did some balloon experiments and we checked our respiratory and pulse rate at rest and exercise, to understand the relation between our circulatory/respiratory system and the demand for oxygen from our muscles. We (mom) also donated blood and the kids got to be a part of that.

 

We studied Antony Van Leewenkoek, the Dutch sailor who first saw microscopic life. We understand the importance of his discovery. Before the microscope there was no way to diagnose many illnesses. We have been having fun with our microscope, and we examined pus yesterday. The cells we think we saw were red blood cells, white blood cells, skin cells and bacteria. Next week we will collect pond water from Uncle Bob's pond and look for amoebas or paramecia or other types of protozoa. That should be fun!

 

Check back periodically to find out what else we are doing.

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our tooth fairy

Simeon has come to the conclusion that we must have a really sorry tooth fairy, as he or she has forgotten to come about 4 out of the 8 teeth he has lost. When I told him I actually saw the tooth fairy, he asked me to describe him. I looked over at his dad, and said he was tall, good looking, MALE, and had an orange shirt and no wings....and I kissed him! He was very disappointed

Fwd: Simeon

Simeon filled his cheeks up with juice and spit it in the bathroom sink (and all over the bathroom mirror in the process) and yelled, "Help! I'm bleeding!" He was required to clean it up of course.

Fwd: Elvis

We were telling stories last night of our lizard and how many times he's been lost. There were only 5 times that he was SERIOUSLY lost. Once we found him up in a tree, once in the garden, once, high up on a bookshelf (?!), once hanging onto the back of the mane of the little wooden rocking horse, and another time he got left outside all night in freezing temperatures. He was stiff as a board but he thawed out nicely under running water.

Food For Jesus

While sitting at the table, Jude said, “Momma, we are eating food for our heart, so Jesus can eat too.”

He realizes that Jesus lives in his heart and that He may get hungry from time to time.

New Words...

Hope can now say:

 

“Ah Oh!”

 

Irresponsible Tooth Fairy

After waking early the other morning and eagerly looking under his pillow to see what might have been left there, our 7 year old, Simeon was quick to ask “Why has the Tooth Fairy forgotten 4 out of 8 of my teeth?

Charissa asked him if he wanted us to hire a new one since the one we have is doing such a horrible job. I guess 50% just isn’t good enough for him.

$12.95 A Bushel

I eagerly jumped at the chance to purchase 1 bushel of good old July corn on the cob. The kids had been talking about how good the corn was just a few days before.

Well, today they said, why do we have to eat corn for every meal Mom? I guess they didn’t like it as much as I thought.

I guess I lost my fresh fruit market hunting job.

Liesel's honesty

After a short experiment withholding sugar from our children last week (no positive results noticed) the kids enrolled in Vacation Bible School. So last night Liesel was crying in her bed and I went to ask her what happened. She said she was sad that all the other kids got to eat snacks but she didn’t. I asked why didn’t she get a snack. “Remember? Daddy said we can’t have sugar?” Come to find out, she had turned down snacks offered to her, telling everyone she is not allowed to eat sugar. So dad went and got her a popsicle to reward her honesty.

Big News

Hope crawled up the stairs today!

Jesus in the sky

Looking out the back seat window, Jude commented that he could see Jesus up in the clouds, and that Jesus was waving to him. When I asked him what he was saying, Jude said, He said, “Jude, can I come live in your house with you?

 

Liesel showing honor

Two weeks ago I put a new rule in place to limit the amount of sugar intake for all the kids. Well, only 1 kid took me seriously. Liesel.

 

On our way home after the second night of VBS, Liesel was crying and we couldn’t figure out why. After mom investigated and asked all of the right questions she found that she didn’t get a special cookie at church. Mom asked, “Why?”. Liesel replied, “Mom, don’t you remember? Dad said we can’t have any more sugar”

 

She had been faithfully denying sugar for 2 days in the midst of a sugar invested environment. She made me proud. I ended up giving her a popsicle stick to show her how much I appreciated her faithfulness.

Sunday School Teachers note...

As reported by Judes teacher:

 

-        He liked playing with play dough

-        His disposition was cheerful and Mischievous

-        Very nice but made dog poop a lot with playdough

Wal-Mart 2

It was another hecktic day and time to go to the store and get some groceries. Once again, Jude proves to be the guy cracking all the good ones.

This time, at the checkout was a rather large lady that had large fore-arms. One glance at the lady, and Jude says real loud, "Wow mom, that lady has big muscles, right?"

Wal-Mart 1

We were at Wal-Mart. Our 3 year old had just had a good talking to about not commenting on people's weight. Well, wouldn't you know it, the only check-out line available has a rather large person working the cash register.

So, Jude leans over to mom and says in a voice loud enough for all around to hear, "She's big, right?"