Menagerie

Well, our brood has grown. There was a day, actually MANY days (sorry, Jarrett) , when I said there is no way I would allow these into my house. Too much work, too hard to maintain, too scaly....

But here we are:

These two friends doubled the number of creatures we have in the house--that is, if you don't count whatever turtles, frogs, snakes, or caterpillars the youngest is currently toting around.
They are actually pretty cool. These are bearded dragons, which apparently are the most docile of the reptiles. Joshua likes to hold them--and we let them walk around the living room when we were cleaning and fixing up their home. They don't creep me out, but I'm still not quite sure how I feel about being a home with pet lizards....you know, THAT type....

For now, we'll stick with it. They eat crickets and vegetables. They take long naps in the heat of the lamp, and the kitten is pretty interested in checking them out.

Come on over and see them for yourselves. We're not charging admission for our zoo....yet.

Our favorite Tarheel hits the big time

We were excited to see this commercial this weekend:

Looks like Tyler Hansbrough is making his way outside of Chapel Hill! National Championship, Player of the Year, All-time leading scorer, cover on Sports Illustrated, and just last week was named Sporting News' College Basketball Player OF THE DECADE (!!!) but he still seems like our small-town boy who is more comfortable in a quiet gym by himself than with all the attention.

Go Tyler!!

p.s. notice the Chapel Hill landmarks in the background?

Star Wars math

Assignment: make up a some/some more (aka: addition) story and show it to mom.

Result:
2 clone troopers went to Kashyyyk to fight. 3 more troopers came to help them. "hey, man, what's up?" "nuthin. How YOU doin?" "What's up, double G?" " 'Sup."
There were 5 troopers on Kashyyyk.

Of course, there was much head nodding and posing during this little one-act play. You would think this kid was raised in Philly or something. And I don't think the number of clone troopers was quite as important as the dialogue between them.

I can hardly wait for times tables....

Nick update

Thanks so much to all of you who have emailed or commented to check on Nick. We are now tooth day +2 and he is doing really good! He is pretty sore and is experiencing some swelling, but is in good spirits. His biggest issue right now is hunger! He can't really chew so getting the number of calories he is used to consuming is difficult. We've done a lot of ice cream smoothies, soup, muffins, and even some soft pasta.
We're trying to be quiet in the mornings so he can get some sleep. He has been waking up a lot at night so rest is an issue for him.
We were impressed that he was able to go to the church dinner last night--he couldn't eat but had a nice time reconnecting with the Ross family, who are missionaries to the Native Americans in Arizona, and to whom the youth group went to minister this summer.

Thanks again for praying for him!

Last meal....

The boy you see here is enjoying his last meal for awhile......

Tomorrow Nick is having all 4 wisdom teeth removed, so pray for him if you think of it. We had a big dinner of lasagna, string beans, parmesan-olive foccacia bread and brownies for dessert to get ready for the big day. He can't eat or drink anything after midnight tonight so hopefully his stomach is full.

We'll update with progress reports on him tomorrow night or Wednesday....

Sleepy Saturday

I'd say this was a waste of a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but it's just too cute...

Merrily we roll along....

and roll along....and roll along.....
Yesterday Joshua had his first-ever piano lesson. He absolutely loved it! He is so musical, always singing and humming. Miss Jen is a great teacher and she has really cool stickers. I think piano will be a perfect fit for him.

He's been practicing ever since we got home and hurried downstairs to practice again this morning as soon as he woke up. No more sleeping in around here! :)

Church Search

We are in the process of looking for a new church in our area. It's been a difficult and sometimes frustrating search.

We hit pay dirt with Joshua this past weekend, though! We visited a church that he absolutely loved. They had a special band in for the day, who played almost an hour of incredible praise music. They are called Four24 and here is their website. After they finished Joshua said, "This church is awesome!"

Then things got even better! Outside they had a lunch catered by Red, Hot, and Blue (yummy barbecue!) and all kinds of fun things to play on--blow up slides and obstacle courses, laser tag, and a rock climbing wall. Now THAT is the kind of church he is looking for!

I wonder how disappointed he'll be next week when we visit again and all that stuff is gone....

Spirit of America

Saturday night we had the opportunity to go see the Army's Spirit of America show in Fairfax, VA. It's a travelling show put on by the ceremonial units of the Army, including the Army Band, the Old Guard, the Fife and Drum Corps, the Army Drill Team, and several others. There were reenactments of historical battles and moments in US History as well as traditional military music. It was particularly meaningful that we got to see it on the weekend of 9/11.

We had an awesome time--the show was incredibly professional, inspiring, and educational. We spoke to some of the soldiers afterwards--one in particular made a great impression on us. He's just 19 years old, enlisted a year ago and went right into the Old Guard. He does burials at Arlington the rest of the year, goes to the field like everyone else, but spends part of his time training for this show. He was incredibly eloquent, polite, and a great spokesman for the Army. I didn't get a picture of him but he was one of the Korean War soldiers in the show.

If you live near Providence, RI, or Columbus, OH, and can get out to see this either this weekend or next, I HIGHLY recommend it. You will love it! You can find out more details here: Spirit of America. George Washington at Valley Forge:Reenactment of D Day, complete with weapons firing:This was really neat. They had soldiers exhibiting the various uniforms worn over the past 200+ years. That part up in the front was so cool--if you look closely, you can see that they are modelling the exact poses of the soldiers at the Korean War memorial and the Vietnam memorial from the Mall in DC. Those guys held those exact poses for a LONG time.

The guys loved seeing all the soldiers in the halls afterwards. 2 other things I didn't get pictures of were the Drill Team and the Fife and Drum Corps. Those were both incredible! I was too engrossed in the show to remember to take a photo. The drill team did all kinds of, well, drills with their weapons and bayonets. And I could have listened to the Fife and Drum Corps all night! I was incredibly impressed by the amount of precision movement they had while playing such elaborate pieces. Very cool evening.

First Day of School

As promised, here are pictures from our first day of school. I love the beginning of school, when the pencils are sharp, the notebooks are neat, and everyone is excited!

This year we borrowed an idea from my friend Sheri here and made a big brownie to celebrate the new school year. Joshua loves to bake and since he began learning fractions in school last year he was able to read the recipe this time, too!

We had a sweet friend over to help us kick off our school year.

This is a snack I made--I thought it turned out adorable. I have to admit, though, that no one ate them--well, except the Bugles. Oh well, even Martha Stewart isn't always successful---right?

For those of you interested in what the kids are studying this year:

Joshua's main studies are:

Saxon Math

History Odyssey-early modern times

Apologia Science-sea creatures

Sing, Spell, Read, and Write Level II

We're doing lots of hands-on activities this year to keep his busy hands occupied. Things like History Pockets, Copybooks, and a book called Science Around the Year, which has seasonal science projects (like why do leaves change color? and what do pinecones tell us about weather?)

He is taking P.E. Computers, and a recycling class at a co-op up at Fort Meade, which he is very excited about starting tomorrow!

In addition to all that, he starts piano lessons next week and the week after that his Dad and Nick will take him to his first-ever Cub Scout meeting!

Nick's 10th grade year includes:

Chemistry

Algebra II

BJU English 10

Spanish (w/ a family friend from Costa Rica as his tutor)

American Sign Language

US Govt (taught by a homeschool dad at a co-op)

New Testament History

Art History

Nick will be working towards his Eagle Scout rank this year as well as playing baseball and basketball with the varsity homeschool teams. He's going to volunteer with Joshua's Cub Scout den whenever he can as well.

Here is a belated picture of Alyson's first day of school 2 weeks ago. It turned out blurry but I didn't notice at the time because I wasn't quite used to rising at such an early hour! She still looks pretty, though--even when blurry.

Alyson's 11th grade year looks like this:

German III

AP Statistics

Pre-calculus

Physics

Human Physiology

AP Language

AP US History

Alyson is involved in a service organization called YouthRise at her school and also joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She'll be running and jumping again for indoor and outdoor track, as well as continuing to coach the level 6 gymnastics team at her old gym and babysitting every Saturday for a dear friend whose husband is deployed.

They have a lot going on this year. It's exciting to see them taking leadership roles and choosing activities that are both interesting to them and that benefit others. Sometimes I can't believe Joshua is old enough to be joining all those things but I remember that it's been 4 years since we left Germany! Time just flies--

If you ever need to reach me, I'll be at home teaching during the day and driving all afternoon and evening. Maybe I should raise the minutes on our cell phone plan! :)

YouTube - 100 Years of Carolina Basketball

YouTube - 100 Years of Carolina Basketball

One last bit of summer fun

We had a terrific Labor Day weekend in North Carolina!

Warning: if you do not care about college basketball, the Tarheels, college football, Chapel Hill, or Michael Jordan, then you may want to wait for tomorrow when I post our first day of school pictures. :)

But, for the rest of you, here you go! Start with this:

Yes, that is Michael Jordan, sitting next to two legendary coaches--all 3 of them members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The game we went down for was a kick-off to the 100th year of Carolina Basketball. The link above will take you to a great video they showed on the screens in the Dean Dome, commemorating the last 100 years. I haven't figured out how to embed a youtube video into the body of the text so you'll just have to click the link.

This game was a pro-alumni game--UNC alumni, who are currently playing professional basketball, went through a mock draft and came out on blue and white teams to battle for bragging rights. The game was fun-we got to watch an incredible dunk by Vince Carter, and see a bunch of other big NBA names like Jerry Stackhouse, Antawn Jamison, and Sean May. One of our favorites was getting to see the boys from last year's NCAA National Championship team reunited. It was great--I won't belabor the point. :) We were cheering and yelling and laughing and having a ball.

At halftime they unveiled the 2009 NCAA Championship banner alonside the other 5 Championship banners in the rafters.

Our favorites: Roy Williams, Michael Jordan, and Tyler Hansbrough (who may be familiar to you if you followed this blog at all during last season)Saturday the kids and I went shopping at our favorite mall down there while Dave took the van in to get a leak in the tire repaired. I think he was secretly relieved he didn't have to go to the mall....

Afterwards we went back to Chapel Hill for the tailgating prior to the first football game of the season. It was another gorgeous day. We climbed to the top of the Bell Tower, got a drink from the Old Well, listened to the marching band play, ate some barbecue, Joshua played on the blow-up slide, we got lots of free stuff covered in the UNC logo (band-aids, chapstick, buttons, etc.) We ended up watching the game from a restaurant in Chapel Hill which was lots of fun.

Sunday we went to our church. It was so fun bumping into people we hadn't seen in 2 years and reconnecting. And, given the difficulty finding a home church up here, it was very nice to be back someplace we felt we belonged.

After lunch at another favorite restaurant, we drove down to Fort Bragg. Fayetteville has a new Airborne Museum and it is awesome!! Lots of static displays and interesting exhibits, following the beginning of the Airborne in WWII all the way up to the current War on Terror. To enter the hall you walk through the body of a plane. They had a full-size glider as well, a couple different movies playing, and lots of great examples of uniforms, weaponry, and basic daily life of the Airborne soldier. It made me want to come home and watch Band of Brothers again. :)

We drove home late Sunday night, sorry to have to leave, but filled with memories of a great weekend.

break

No blogging until next week because we are heading to sunny Chapel Hill, North Carolina to watch the North Carolina Tarheels!!!!
We'll be back with pictures on Monday!!

Choosing my master...

The other day someone whom I had just met announced that she could tell I was a “control freak” just like her. I smiled politely and deflected the comment by saying that I believed all the women there (we were at a casual military function) were, to some extent, in control of most situations. After all, to be a successful career military spouse one has to be able to take on many, many responsibilities that, without a sense of order and a consistent level of control, could be overwhelming. Throw in homeschooling and I need to be ready to handle anything!

Since that day, though, I have been giving that comment a lot of thought. Where is the line between being a responsible, supportive wife and mother and being a micro-manager who frets over every little decision and wants to be the one who has the final say in every situation? The first one is a role ordained for me by God. Proverbs 31:10-31 gives a model of the ideal woman, led by God in every act. “….a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” The second one brings to mind the woman in Proverbs 21: 19, that says, “Better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.”

Am I truly fearing the Lord in my every thought and action? What is my motivation? I want my house to look nice; I want my children to be well-behaved and happy; I want my husband to be proud. But am I allowing God to be able to work in my home and in the lives of my family or am I standing in His way, scooping up the pieces before they have time to be glued together by the One who really knows what He is doing?

I know from experience that trying to be perfect and fix everything is impossible. It leaves me frustrated, angry, irritable, and feeling like a failure. I worry about what I should be doing, what I should have done, and what everyone else should be doing, too! I become focused on the little details-the ones that seem easier to control. The Bible tells us to “not be anxious over anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:4) In Matthew 6 it says “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

One blessing that comes from releasing myself from the need to be in control of every situation is that I am also releasing myself from the burden of guilt. I am able to forgive myself for the times in the past where I feel I could have done better as a wife and mother. When I take on the duty of managing every single decision, situation, and emotion, I also bear the enormous weight of the failures, conflicts, and sorrow. Letting God handle some of these things frees me to see things in a different light. I don’t have to condemn myself for what I could have done, and God is able to work in each situation as He sees fit. That’s something pretty incredible to accept—knowing that He is the only perfect parent makes me feel so much better about who’s in charge!
Isaiah 54:13 says, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.”

Control has its way of becoming a master. I need to make the decisions because if I don’t, who will? My husband might have to deploy, we may have to move suddenly, my children may not feel comfortable deciding for themselves, I have to control every homeschooling decision-after all, I am the teacher. I crave the feeling of success I have when things work out the way I planned. I love those rare times when everyone else capitulates to my will. But it can be a cruel master-filling me with dread at having to make every decision, giving me anxiety over not adding up to what my “ideal” is. Matthew 6: 24 says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

What a blessing it will be if someone I meet says to me, “Something is different about you. Why do you seem to have such a peace?” and I am able to point them to my compassionate Master, who brings peace beyond understanding and love beyond measure.