Hagar the Horrible

The kiddos have started a new unit at their school. They will be learning all about Vikings and have asked us to send our pizza boxes in with them to school so they can use them to make shields. Darn! Does that mean I have to have pizza this week? Oh, such a chore! Anyway, their art teacher showed them step-by-step how to draw Hagar the Horrible today and they turned out so cute, I had to share them with you.

                                             Ike's Hagar

                                                  Izzy's Hagar

Big Day

We had a big day today! The kiddos started their new school and came home exhausted but full of chatter! They love their new teachers and evidently all of their new friends are very sweet! They will be going one day a week and will cover a bunch of hands-on activities in Science, History, Language Arts, Art and one called Physical Movement (I call PE). They started a new unit called Invention Convention and will be doing all types of inventions, discussing patents and creating commercials for their inventions. I am so excited and they seem to love it! There is about 10 kids in each class, all of which are homeschooled 4 days a week and attend Options School one day a week. At home we are now doing a computer curriculum by Alpha and Omega called Switched on Schoolhouse and couldn't be more pleased. They remind the kids at the beginning of each unit to seek God daily (and I cried), incorporate verses into each lesson (and cried some more) and even have a separate subject called Bible where they study and learn about the Bible and memorize verses. YES! This was a big decision to leave the school we have been with for 6 years but so far has been a HUGE payoff!

Christmas is 'acomin

We finished up our first semester today! Whew! I was beginning to wonder if we were going to make it! And while we were hard at work finishing up school, MacGyver jimmied up some brakes for the 4-wheeler since we haven't been able to find them anywhere. Strap on some 'ole chains and we might just be unstoppable! I still don't think the kiddos are old enough to run free all over the property, with or without brakes, much to their chagrin! So, in celebration of having a productive day and completing a successful semester still alive and breathing, we went out to dinner and drove through some of our "local" neighborhoods checking out some of the houses that were decorated for Christmas. We actually had to drive about 30 minutes away since the mountain folk (us included) all think there is no point in decorating your house if there aren't more than 10 people that pass their house to enjoy it. Driving around looking at lights is one of our favorite parts of Christmas, though, and we just couldn't miss out. We could definitely tell which blocks were competing for best/most decorated! Some of them even lit up their entire backyards! Way cool! Tomorrow's plan: run, read my Bible, put house back in order, watch a Christmas Veggie Tale with the kiddos, make a grocery list for Christmas dinner, run the dogs, work the colt, meet with G about him being gone over Christmas, and be thankful for a week off of school and that all my Christmas shopping and shipping is D-O-N-E, done!

Moving In

We are finally getting most of our stuff moved in. We still have a lot of work to do, but, it is nice to be in a home. The phone company finally decided we needed SOME contact with the outside world and the propane arrived after much waiting and watching so now we can actually cook and take long, hot leisurely baths and catch up on some of that school work (since our kids are on-line homeschooled). We also bought a fridge so now we can stop using the camper's icebox, of sorts. Clawfoot tubs and high-speed internet. This is where the 19th century meets 21st century! God is so good to us!