More pictures....

Some black and white pictures from today. Julia looks thrilled, lol.

Homeschool day....

Working on schoolwork today....Colton needs to catch up with his electives (Consumer Math & Spanish I). He has been working on history and literature alot. Also need to get busy with math. Carlina loves history and is studying the war of 1812. Julia is working on a report about ballet. She is studying fractions in math.

Oranges...

They are in season now in Florida. The trees are literally dripping with them and trailers are parked outside orchards filled to the brim. They are so tasty fresh off the tree, too. Some older orchards are abandoned and you can pick fruit (not the prettiest) that is extremely tasty. I picked some tangerines yesterday that were so sweet. They were tiny but very easy to peel. Here is a cool website about oranges....
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=37

Budgets

I am really struggling with my budget. We are very tight and I am having a hard time. I pray that God leads me to make the right decisions with my spending. We find that getting our groceries at Super Walmart saves us a lot of money. I have cut out quite a bit but still have a ways to go. Anything extra like eating out, movies, treats have got to go right now. I hope this summer Jesse is able to have good sales and I can put some money away for Fall homeschool supplies. Julia also needs new pointe shoes and is going to try and save for them herself.

New church

We have started going to a new church, a Calvary Chapel plant and really like it. It is very small, but the pastor is good. I love the way Calvary Chapel goes through the Bible, scripture by scripture. We are studying in Phillipians. Such a wonderful message on grace versus works! The pastor said we all need to really know Jesus (the Lord had given him a message that we know Him but don't really Know Him) and after Phillipians will go through the book of John. I can't wait! Here is the website for this church:
http://harvesteastorlando.com/

Colton's research...

When doing research for a paper, Colton found a group of people who actually believe the earth is flat. They are called The Flat Earth Society. They think the Earth is a flat disk surrounded by ice. I thought it was a joke but checked it out and they are sincere (I think). Colton is infiltrating the message board and trying to understand why they think the way that they do....bizarre!!!! This is a picture of him first discovering this strange group of people.

Julia

This is Julia with her pointe shoes one. She is really doing great, but finds the class to be very challenging. She tries to practice alot at home and is also "almost there" with her splits. In the second picture she is posing with Kumquat in her room. Kumquat is a skinny little cat without much fur in the summer but in the winter he grows a huge, fluffy coat.

Katie

This is Katie this morning before school. Today is a short day, they get out at 1pm. They also have Friday and Monday off. Katie has been going to the dentist frequently. She has had 3 fillings and has one more to do. She is a little trooper about going. She is already looking forward to her birthday in April. She wants to learn to ride a bicycle and wants a new bike for her birthday. She also wants a bottle pop girl doll.

What is your favorite kind of dog?

Here is the newly released top 10 breeds in the U.S.......
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/bulldog-muscles-into-top-10-dogs-list/20080116132709990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

My 3 favorite breeds did not make the cut:( We don't have a dog right now but here are pictures of the dogs that I would like to own one day.

A collie is number one on my list. I miss Emma, our gorgeous and sweet collie who was with us for 12 years:(

Next comes my beloved Saints. We had two of those when we lived in Iowa. I love their gentle nature and large stature.

Finally, though I have never owned one, I would love to have an Irish Wolfhound. They are so majestic.

They're here!!!!

Katie's caterpillars, that is. 5 tiny little buggers in their own little home, food and all. It has been 7 days now and they have grown alot! They are producing lots of silk right now and we are waiting for them to turn into a chrysalis. This is what they look like right now. Will keep you posted on their progress!!!

The House of the 7 Gables...

Sounds like an intriguing place to visit. I just recently returned from this place (via reading the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic). Salem, MA is the town where this is known to be located and I actually found the "house" that you can visit....
http://www.7gables.org/tour_gables.shtml

I really enjoyed the book, (for some reason I missed reading this in High School or College). It took me a bit to get"hooked" into the story, but I loved the characters and the somewhat eerie background themes. The story had a neat & tidy ending, too. I am looking forward to reading "The Scarlet Letter" again. You may want to look up a daguerreotypist before you begin the stoy, lol.

Terrible Two's

Thomas is going through them early! Recently he has been strengthening his vocal cords by screaming at the top of his lungs (usually with glee). He has also discovered how to hit and winds his arm back behind his head to get good power. Then he says "ouch". He is also pinching which is very painful. Besides the bad things he is really growing and changing and learning. His vocabulary seems to increase every day. He loves to point at the moon and say "moooon". He also likes to make animal sounds, so cute!!! He now has 9 teeth. He went from 4 to 9 almost overnight it seemed. Those molars just popped in as did one of his eye-teeth. I think that contributed to a lot of the crankiness lately. He is so full of energy and mischief. He can use his toes like a little monkey to scale furniture and reach formerly unaccessible places. He is definitely giving me a run for my money. Garrett got his 4 year old immunizations on Thurs and that was miserable for him. He was very sad and cried as soon as we went into the room to have shots. He was sick for two days after and one of his arms (he got 5 shots , 3 in one arm, 2 in the other) is very red and sore. I haven't taken him to the dentist yet, but I know he needs to go. He is asking me about going to school next year and I am thinking about sending him to pre-k. I am not sure yet. I want a program that is a couple of hours for a few days a week, but I may not be able to find one like that. Colton, Carlina, Julia and Alicia all went to "Come-n-Play Preschool" in Lawton, Iowa. That was Tues & Thurs for 2 hours. It was more a social thing and not as much school work, it was really perfect. Katie did not go to preschool at all. Well, I better wrap this up....more later:)