Baptized!

Our youngest got baptized today!  She is 7 years old, and she decided to follow Jesus in August.  Almost right away she asked about being baptized all on her own.  So when our church announced the first baptism day since then, we signed her up.  She went to a class to make sure she understood that it wasn't being baptized that saves you, only Jesus can do that.  But it is an outward symbol of becoming a Christian, and obedience to God.  So here are a couple of pictures.

Going down....

 Coming up, a new beginning!

Seven Years

I have been a Mom for over 14 years now.  A young mom recently asked me if it gets easier.  It  made me realize just how much my family has changed.  In the first 7 years, I had 5 babies. By the time our youngest was born, the children were 7, 5, 3, & 2.  I changed diapers constantly for almost 10 years.  I was either nursing or pregnant for 10 years!  We started our homeschool. 

2002:

Look at that mischievous face! Still the same after all these years!

In the next 7 years, we moved to another area.  We bought our first house.  We have 5 kids in school.  We have a highschooler!  The kids are now 14, 13 (there have been a few birthdays), 11, 9 & 7.  Wow. They are a huge help around the house. They are becoming more independent and are learning a lot.  And they love the Lord. We all still have a lot to learn, but we are learning together.

 In 7 more years, they will be 14 - 21!  So I am going to enjoy them more than ever.  When they are young, it feels like we will be a mom of littles forever.  Even now, I can't imagine life without them in my home.  But the time will come when they move on and get their own homes and families.  I can hardly bear the thought.  But with God's help, I will continue to train and prepare them for that time, so that they are strong in the Lord and ready for what God has for them.

Here they are last summer, 2009:

Horse Therapy

My 9yo son has low muscle tone.  For the past few years, he has received hippotherapy, that is, therapy on horseback.  This year he has graduated to "vaulting".  Vaulting is when they do various moves while the horse is moving.  It is really neat to watch a trained vaulter!  Here are some pictures of my son.  He is just beginning, and a bit scared, but he is getting more used to it every time.

Turning around:

Tadaa!:

Sunset at the Beach

We went to the beach in August.  It was cold and foggy, but oh so nice to get out of this heat (it was 101 on the first day of fall).  We stayed three nights and each night my 9yos wanted to go to the beach to see the sunset. But we knew that with the fog  we would not get much of a show.  On the last night, he asked again.  And it happened to be 5 minutes before sunset according to our handy dandy tide book.  Everyone thought it would be too foggy, so just my two youngest and I went.  And this is what we saw.

Well, I couldn't pick just one!  Isn't God awesome to give us this for our delight? To Him the glory!!

Introducing...

Chase

Our newest addition to our family.  Chase is a Tibetan Terrier, probably mix.  We expect his hair to grow long, though we won't know for awhile.  We got Chase at the SPCA a few weeks ago.  He had had a hair cut, but we took him to the groomers to get it professionally done and he looks great.  He could really use some training, as he has been chewing on certain clothing items! 

After a trip to the groomer:

 

School Year 2009-10!!

A new school year has begun!  We started on August 3.  People ask me why we started so early.  Let me explain.  We live in a not so big city that gets very hot in the summer.  Like over 100 degrees for at least a month.  We took 7 weeks off for our summer break.  We don't have a pool, but we did go swimming at a friend's house several times.  Being that we have moved here from the mild climate of the Bay Area in No. California, the heat is hard to get used to. I get so drained just being out there for 10 minutes!  So we spend a lot of time indoors.  We did go camping, and plan to again next week, to the cool beach, and a few other fun things.  But after awhile, the kids start to go stir crazy and need more structure.  But the biggest reason is that I want to take plenty of time off in the cooler months.  Maybe we will actually go hiking in the mountains, or go for a bike ride.  We school for about 36 weeks, that leaves 17 weeks off in the year.  We plan to take 2 weeks off in Oct, 1 in Nov, 3 in Dec, 2 in Feb/Mar, 2 in Apr.  Then another 6  in the summer again. 

We also changed our daily schedule a bit.  Instead of doing math right after Bible, we are doing spelling, then English, then history or science.  We do math and the other subjects after lunch.  This is a great change and it's so nice to be able to mix things up again to keep it interesting!  We also changed up our school room.  We got rid of the too slow kids' computer and gave that desk to our new high schooler.  She loves having her own place for her books and studies.  Here are a few pics of our first day.

I decluttered the tops of the bookcases using those baskets I got from the .99 store and it is so much better now.  I just have to remember to dust up there now and then!

 

 

The eager high schooler!

8th grader:

6th grader:

The 3rd grader:

The eager 2nd grader:

Note: the 3 boys in the middle pics got haircuts today, so they look like boys again! 

Just One Watermelon

We had planted 3 watermelon seedlings in the spring.  We had a few tiny watermelons, but they died before getting very big at all.  We ended up only getting one but it was a good one.  We had no idea when it would be ripe, but it had stopped getting bigger.  The leaves were starting to turn brown/yellow.  So we picked it and it was nice and red and juicy.

The only things left in our garden are tomatoes, mostly cherry, and lots of peppers.  So, lots of salsa for us!