Moments

See this face?

This is the face of a son for whom I am constantly on my knees before the Lord in prayer. He's my "strong-willed child."

Which makes times like this so much more special to me.

He wrote this on our mirror the other day as a surprise.

God is going to do great things with this son of mine.

The Great Artist

On a recent drive to Reno, we had the privilege of seeing this sunset.








It looked like the mountain was on fire.

Thank You, Father, for sharing this with us.

Another Use For Rice Fields

A few weeks ago we went out to the rice fields for some fun target practice. Not only do the boys enjoy shooting, but the mud, critters, and rocks provide hours of entertainment as well.

LM with his favorite .22

The firing line.














Mr.T!
















D didn't really want to shoot, so he made designs out of the ammunition.

















But we did have him shoot his new Christmas present.















This one is LV's favorite.


And this smile that tells you just how much fun we had.


The boys also played in a huge mud pile before we left. It started with LM climbing up and getting his boots stuck. Then his brothers had to come to his rescue. All 3 of them had to pull their feet out of their shoes, then pull their shoes out of the mud! They all ended up calf deep in the mud with their socks on. They did manage to get out, but we all had a good laugh. And H and I wondered why we never bring extra clothes and plastics bags. Maybe one of these days we will learn.

Woodland Museum of Biblical Archaeology

On February 4th we went on a field trip with Creation Works to the Woodland Museum of Archaeology. I had no clue we had such a museum close to us! It was fascinating! Pat Roy, from Creation Works did a presentation about dinosaurs and the Bible with half the group while Pastor Morgan did a guided tour of the museum with the other half. Then we traded. Pastor Morgan is also and archaeologist and travels to the Middle East once a year to dig. He told us that they are pretty sure they have found the remains of the city of Sodom. The location is just right, and the archaeological evidence is there! How exciting! In fact, he has a roofing tile from the dig site that the kids got to smell, and it smells like sulfur (the fire and brimstone that God used to destroy Sodom).
Pastor Morgan showing the kids a sling stone from the time of David.

D holding the sling stone.


Pastor Morgan holding an ancient oil lamp.

Egyptian mummy mask.

Cananite dagger blades.


Cuneiform tablets.




A model of King Herod's temple.
The whole crew!
(and because I wasn't in the last photo...)

HSBA swap

I had the pleasure of participating in a swap over at HSBA post recently. It was a first for me and I highly recommend it! It was so fun to meet another homeschool mom (of boys) and get a box of goodies in the mail. And my boys even enjoyed getting in on the action and helping to select items for her boys! My swap buddy was Chris from Mothers of Boys, and she did a great job getting this package together.The treasure: Nerds, Skittles, and Hot Tamales (which came just in time to enjoy during the
Super Bowl)
Punch Balloons
A cute "Family" frame
red chipboard letters
2 magazines
cardstock
folders with a fun design

A big shout out to Chris. Thank you!!!

This was so much fun! Meeting another homeschool mom, a package of surprises, putting a goodie box together for someone else... Loved it.

Wanna give it a try? Head on over to HSBA post to to find out more details.

To the Bridge and Back

Pinewood Derby and Dyslexia

Now what do those 2 things have in common?

Wednesday night was LM's and D's Pinewood Derby. Honestly, I have gotten to the point where I just don't enjoy it anymore. We usually put the car assembly off until the last minute, which stresses me out, and our kids have never really had very fast cars. In fact, a few years in a row I had 2 of 3 boys get last in their dens. Add to that, the last 2 years H was out of town and missed it altogether. So I was not real thrilled about this year's race, which was LM's last (he's a Webelos II).

I was struggling even more with my attitude after finding out that H had not gotten the boys' cars cut before he left on his mission trip to Mexico, so as of Tuesday morning, the day of check-in and weigh-in, my boys still had nice blocks of wood. H arrived home Monday night, spent Tuesday morning recovering, and finally started cutting 2 pinewood derby cars around 2pm! He told me to bring the wheels and axles and pick him up at the shop on our way down to check-in. When the boys and I arrived at 6pm this is what we found.



(excuse the blurry photo)

Yep. That would be 2 pinewood derby cars in front of a heater trying to get the paint to dry in time to leave! I didn't panic, though I wanted to!

While the paint was drying H gathered up supplies for installing the wheels and weights when we checked in. Then we were on our way!

We arrived right on time for the Webelos to check-in and H installed the wheels and weights for LM's car. Added a little graphite and to said wheels and LM was off for a test run or two. Everything went smoothly, except LM didn't like the color of his car. He had asked H to paint it black, but for some reason H was sure he had said purple! After a little bit of gentle prodding I convinced him to be happy with his car, purple paint and all, and go check it in. By that time D had the wheels and weights on his car and took it for a test run down the track. Everything looked good so he checked it in.

Now here is where the dyslexia comes in. Both H and LM have dyslexia. So when my mom gave me a flier about a free dyslexia presentation with Susan Barton, H and I both wanted to go. But of course it was the same night as the Pinewood Derby. We prayed about it and knew we needed to go hear Mrs. Barton. And we were so blessed! We gained a lot of valuable information which could help both my husband and my son! My parents were willing to go to the big race.

When H and I walked in my parents door we were greeted by LM saying, "Dad, I won the pinewood derby. And I got best sportsmanship too." I was in shock! And D pops up with, "And I got 2nd!" Again. Shock. We missed it. The year we procrastinate the longest and miss the entire race our boys shine! Ahh well... at least my mom took a few pictures for me.

So here is LM chugging the milk (he doesn't even like cow's milk).



The 1st and 2nd place finishers.


The Champion!



I am so proud of both boys. This is the 3rd time in the last 4 years that one of them has been awarded best sportsmanship.

And I will add, I'm sorry I missed it. But I was truly blessed learning how to best teach my son to read, write, and spell, which will be far more reaching than a pinewood derby win.