Week one of school is complete

Well, we started off the school year with a light week and will add more next week. This week we focused on our new curriculum Tapestry of Grace and began our studies with a look at creation through the flood. We talked about the 6 days of creation, then moved on to look at the genealogy leading up to Noah and yes, we created a genealogical chart (CKB even commented on it when he saw it on the wall and said I must've been utilizing my Dad's genealogy chart training ;) ). The girls especially enjoyed our studies this week - Mr. E did well also. Mr. Baby didn't understand what all the fuss was about and just wanted everyone to go play in the den with him instead of sitting in his highchair for short periods each day. Today we wrapped up the week by making a 'creation book' to help the children remember their week and will work on a model of the ark later today w/CKB's help. We've greatly enjoyed our first week of school.

Next week.....we rejoin our old friends, Handwriting without Tears and Math U See.

All of our reading this week was from our Bible, naturally :) We did have one "supplement" on hand, while it did have some merit and was much closer to the truth than most accounts I've read, I don't know that we'll use it again and instead will just stick with the Biblical account and let our imagination paint the pictures. The illustrations are beautiful, but as is to be expected, there is error and speculation throughout. Here is the cover in case you're interested, but read with a grain of salt if you do look into it.

We especially enjoyed the informational illustrations relating the size of the ark to train cars :) That was something Mr. E could really wrap his head around. We will be going out to mark off the size of the ark possibly this weekend. Should be fun and, of course, educational!

I stand corrected

In looking through some boxes this morning (yes, we still are in boxes to some degree and probably will be for awhile), I found some of Miss E's old menus and found I had misremembered the name of her restaurant...so I have corrected the title on the blog, but the URL will remain the same :) Don't you just love how creative children are? Miss E made this when she was about 3.5 years old. (she's 6 now, and when I showed it to her this morning, she laughed and commented about how she spelled "special" wrong ;) )

School Starts Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow marks the first day of the new school year here in our household. Miss E is so excited to start that she didn't want to lie down and go to sleep :) When I mentioned we were starting tomorrow, she sat straight up, swung her legs over the edge of her bed and just sat there beaming with excitement :) I asked her if she was ok and she said, "Mama, I'm just so excited we're starting school tomorrow!" What a blessing! Miss A and Mr. E are excited as well - pray for us as we embark on a new year of "formal" learning!

Spontaneity

Ok, well the spell checker says I spelled that right, so let's get on with it.

Some may say we're a spontaneous bunch around here. I'd have to agree and I'm glad of it!

Sunday a.m. when I woke up I didn't know where we were going to be going for worship services. CKB didn't have an appointment and we hadn't decided the day prior. In the course of getting ready to go, we decided to go up near Whitesboro to the Dixie Primitive Baptist Church.

Anyway, we had a nice drive out there and enjoyed the country sights. CKB was blessed to preach on Remembrance (and probably some other things I missed while trying to keep 4 children under the age of 6 still AND quiet on our pew).

As a sidenote, there are times when CKB will have the same "subject" on his mind for many weeks in a row. We may or may not be at the same church houses many weeks in a row (usually aren't these days), but the "subject" will remain on his heart. There have been times he's commented that his wife might be getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, but as all of you with small children WELL know, we mothers don't hear everything every Sunday a.m. due to our efforts to educate the children on how to behave during services and trying to keep them from distracting others. I've often replied to my dear husband that I don't mind at all when he preaches on a similar "subject" for a few Sundays in a row because sometimes it's not until the 3rd or 4th time that I feel like I'm really HEARING what he's preaching. Now, maybe it's just me; those of you with less "distractions" (ie, children) that hear every word, God bless you, but I, for one am thankful for hearing the same things over and over and over sometimes for without the multiple "hearings" I surely would miss a lot! I'm sure that all could have been said more eloquently, but hopefully y'all get the point :)

Again, I digress.
Where was I......ah yes, spontaneity...so, after services we headed off. On our way to the church house that morning we'd decided we wanted to head up into OK (that's Oklahoma, just in case you were wondering) for the afternoon, so off we went. We found a Sonic along the way, got our standard fare of corn dogs, grilled cheese and slushes for the children, a couple of hamburgers for CKB and I and off we went. It was such a wonderful feeling to just GO - nowhere in particular that we had to be, nowhere in particular that we wanted to be, except just to all be together. CKB was in charge of the map and I was driving. We headed north, naturally, and soon realized we need to just get an OK map since we live so close to OK now and our TX map just isn't detailed enough for the part of OK it shows. Still, we were able to navigate quite well as CKB is an excellent map reader...unlike myself :) We all have our faults and failures, eh? :)

So, we decided on a course and off we went, north on 377 up through Madill, OK, then on farther north on 177 up to Sulphur, OK. At Sulphur, we headed west on 7 to meet up with I35 and start our trip back home and boy, are we glad we did. Going along on 7 we happened to pass through just a small part of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area and it was beautiful! We immediately agreed we would have to make another trip up that way just to go there and spend a day exploring. Upon reaching I35, we headed South, back into Texas. Before reaching TX though, we passed by the exit to Turner Falls in the Arbuckle Mountains which is beautiful as well. We stopped off at the welcome center on the TEXAS side of the OK/TX border for a quick break and as an unexpected blessing ran into some folks from the New Boston Primitive Baptist Church that we had seen recently at the meeting we attended at the Paris Primitive Baptist Church. You just never know who you'll see and where!

I don't have words to describe this day except to simply say it was a wonderful day. Peaceful and relaxing; full of the beauty of God's creation; simply wonderful.

Gigantic Spider Web!

Destination: Lake Tawakoni State Park


Well, the other day...Friday, I believe, CKB read a news item about a HUMONGOUS spider web found in the Lake Tawakoni State Park. See here before you continue:

http://sciencemode.com/2007/09/02/huge-spider-web-attracting-the-curious-in-texas/

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iczi846SZROJfAb4muCH1LyvDRIA

and DEFINITELY see picture here:

http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2007/aug/spiderweb540.jpg


Ok, so we thought this would be a good way to start off our school year - with a field trip :) So, being as CKB works from home and can take a little time off during the day and work later that night to "catch up", we pile into the van and take off to Lake Tawakoni....after a fun drive whereupon we follow yahoo map instructions and end up on some interesting roads (and I'm being nice here in that description) we finally make it to Lake Tawakoni State Park. Not much fanfare getting to this park....I think we came in the back way...not a single brown highway sign to let us know we were on the right path....again, I think we came the back way....envision partially completed roads....mud covering pavement roads....roads with NO street signs to tell you if you're even turning onto the right road....fun fun :)

So, as I was saying, we made it to the park and told the lady at the gate we were there to see the big spider web. She gave us a park map and said, "well, I don't know how much is left after all the rain and wind we had earlier today". Hmm. Ok, we said and proceeded on.

We drove on to the area where we were supposed to get out and walk from and headed on....wisely leaving the stroller in the car since due to the earlier rains, the paths were a tad muddy.

Here we are on our way to find the spider web(s):

Miss A: Where IS the spiderweb?

Mr. E: It's down this dark, creepy path...come on!


Miss E: I'm not too sure about this Daddy...

CKB: Come on, it'll be fun!

Mr. Baby: As long as I have my handy sippy cup, it'll be FINE!



..about 1/4 mile in, we found the right area, but sadly the storms had wreaked havoc on the massive web. We knew were in the right area as there were spiders EVERYWHERE - shudder - but it was still pretty neat to see what was left - the web was not gauzy and white, but BROWN, no doubt due to all the creepy crawlies who met their demise in it - and yes, it stunk pretty badly, but still, pretty neat to see different kinds of spiders virtually everywhere you looked. Somehow we made it out alive...er...I mean without anyone getting stuck in webs or having a spider fall on them :) Below are a few pictures from our trek....you never know where you might end up in a day, ya know? :)


We saw little spiders:




BIG SPIDERS:


interesting egg sacks and all sorts of little critters crawling around the webs:



Here is what was left of the web

close shot: (you should be able to click on this and any of the other pics for a larger/better view)



Notice how far away the wise photographer is from this haven of spiders galore! He he he. Seriously, it wasn't so bad :) and I was right there in the middle of it too...for a few moments ;)

On our walk back to the car, I think Mr. Baby's expression sums it up for us:

Mr. Baby: I do NOT ever want to see or smell that thing again!

Where's my sippy cup?!

(isn't that little hand on Daddy's back just precious?!) :) 'til next time......