Rolling through

I was leading the music in Relief Society today, and at the end of the third verse I thought we were through. Too bad there was a 4th verse! So, I only missed a couple of beats and we finished up the song. I was just kind of laughing to myself when I sat down. My friend beside me laughed with me and said I had handled it well. It made me think that this situation wasn't nearly as big of a deal as the time I started playing the wrong hymn on the organ during Sacrament meeting. Or the time when I was playing the organ and the lady leading the music leaned on the music stand and it fell over. She got up, brushed herself off, and said, "I'm okay," and kept on leading. I guess after enough situations like that you kind of learn to just roll with things. If you need to feel a little better about yourself, just follow me around for a couple of days and you'll be amazed at how graceful and well put-together you feel! We will have had plenty of laughs, too! I'm so glad I can laugh at myself. Sister Hinckley said something like -- sometimes you can either laugh or cry, and crying gives me a headache. I love that!

Beach in November

Yes, Natalie, that smile shows how I felt about our trip to see Emily, too.

My cousin moved to the beach a few months ago. Once she moved she no longer had a wall to hang a mirror that my mom and dad used to have hanging in their living room, so she offered it to us. I'm so glad I have a wall to hang it on, and I absolutely loved being able to visit with Emily for a little while last Thursday and Friday. She is so fun to be around!

We drove out to see the wild horses in Corolla, but they weren't cooperating that morning. The kids thought it was pretty cool to be driving on the beach, anyway, so it didn't matter that we didn't see any horses. Then we stopped at the Currituck lighthouse on the way back to the house. I have a picture of the last time I was there taken in this exact same spot in this exact same pose. In it I am holding Hannah who was just about this same age as Natalie. Now she's taller than me and there are three more people in our family! Wow!

 

 I think they tried really hard not to go swimming, but in the end they just couldn't resist the water. It was a beautiful day, but I was glad it wasn't my pants that were soaking wet! We even saw some dolphins.

The beach is so therapeutic for me. It seems so easy to feel God's presence standing on the shore listening to the waves, feeling the breeze and the cool sand. I love the beach in the fall when there are no swimmers. It's deserted and peaceful. Wonderful!

On the way home, we drove through Edenton and stopped for a tiny bit of time. We drove by the home I grew up in on Paradise Rd and Grandma and Granddaddy's house, and I showed them my piano teacher's house that was just a mile down the road. I still can't believe Mary passed away this past year. What a gift she gave me during all those years of piano! Then we drove to the cemetery and walked around for a while. I enjoyed telling family stories and wished I had paid better attention every time my grandparents would talk about family history. I was really surprised at how interested the kids were in the people whose graves we were visiting. Even Ryan paid really close attention and asked some questions. We also had a great discussion about death and resurrection. I was so happy to be able to tell my children that while my parents' bodies may be buried in that spot, their spirits are not there. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, one day they and all of us will be resurrected, and we will be reunited with them. What a beautiful doctrine! After the cemetery we drove to the waterfront and saw the cannons and the old courthouse and green and Barker House. We had been driving for a while, so I let them play on the playground that I used to play on as a little girl. It has been improved quite a bit over the years, though. The flat metal slide that got burning hot in the sun was thankfully replaced! Then we drove out of town past Grandma Bass's house. I wish we could have had more time to stop and see Aunt Ruth and more sites, but I was glad for what I got. It was a great trip, and I really enjoyed being able to share it with my children.

1st Meet of the Season

Today was Nikki's first gymnastics meet of the season. All of the girls on the team did really well, and I'm so excited the season has started. I thought Nikki was beautiful as always. I never get tired of watching her, so I'll share my enjoyment with you. Here she is:





It seems like I always miss her mount on the beam when I try to video her. And the move she fell off on is a front walk-over twist that is really cool. She stuck it all through her warm-up! So, hopefully at her next meet we'll get a video with all of her greatness. :)

My kind of science lesson

Another way to eat an oreo ... or 8.

Zoo

Before heading to Chimney Rock, we spent a day at the zoo. I'm just realizing that Nate must have a lot of pictures on his phone from our fall break because this is all I can find from the zoo. We love the playground they have.

This girl spends more time with her feet off of the ground than on it! :)

Isn't she beautiful?!

On the way to the zoo, Hannah mentioned that she was seeing spots. Sure enough a few minutes later she started to have a headache. We stopped at a gas station and got some medicine but she definitely had a migraine coming on. We pushed on and got everyone in the zoo and I sat with Hannah while she laid down on a bench with my jacket wrapped around her eyes to keep out the light. Nate took the other kids to see the animals and after about an hour Hannah perked up. I actually enjoyed the break because we were sitting on a bench where I could see the giraffes, ostriches, and zebras. It was really cool to be able to observe them for almost an hour. I wished I could have done that with several of the animals.

Chimney Rock

 Nate took a week off of work during October when we had our fall break, and we spent the week doing lots of great things together. We ended it with a trip to Chimney Rock in the western part of North Carolina. We were hoping to see the fall leaves in all their glory, but they didn't turn for another couple of weeks after our trip. It was beautiful anyway.

 The view from Chimney Rock.

 I think some of us were wondering if we were going to make it up there!

 He was a trooper on the hike up, but he didn't mind taking a rest on a bench when one was available.

 Even I made it!

 There was a neat little hike in the park that was geared towards kids and had spots along the way teaching about the wildlife that lives on the mountain. We all enjoyed it. Such a fun trip.

Halloween pics

Halloween is a month-long affair in this house, but somehow I didn't get a lot of pictures of the things we did this year. Maybe that's because most of it was squeezed into lunch breaks and weekends. I think Nikki was pretty frustrated that we didn't get to everything we had planned. But we had a great time with everything we did get around to accomplishing. Here's a snippet of it all.

 Ryan painting his pumpkin with a cute baby watching in the background.

 Hannah thinks cleaning out pumpkins is gross, so she found her own solution.

 Thanks for doing the hard part, Dad.

 I thought they each did a great job designing their pumpkins this year.

 Mummy pizzas. He patiently waited for me to take the picture so he could take off the olives!

 Well, since they wanted caramel apples, I decided we might as well do it right, and I used the recipe of a friend at church who sells these. They are really that good. Of course, hers are a lot prettier, but ours didn't hang around long enough to really look at them.

 This little pumpkin enjoyed trick-or-treating.

 Woody had a pretty great time, too.

 The girls got so many comments on how creative their paper doll costumes were. I had to laugh because the fact that they cost $0.50 each was the main reason I cheered this idea on. They did a great job designing and cutting them out all on their own. I wish I had a better picture of Hannah's dress -- the bodice was an intricately designed pattern that was really pretty.

Dinner on Halloween was Ghost's shepherd's pie and these apple bites. It was a lot of fun to have our friends come for dinner and then more friends came and added to the pack of trick-or-treaters. Lots of candy and lots of fun.

What?!

I guess crawling isn't good enough for her. She's pulling up on things now, even the stairs.

Stuck

She thought she was on the fast track to get those puzzles and didn't count on getting stuck on the chair! She is going places these days!

10 Things I Learned From My Mom

Tomorrow would be my mom's 65th birthday. There is no telling if I will get a chance to think about blogging tomorrow, so I wanted to go ahead and post this while I have a free minute. I wish I had started thinking about this sooner because she is the reason for most of who I am today, but here are a few things I learned from her.

1. If you want to have fun, make it fun.
2. Always pay your tithing, and pay it FIRST.
3. Pack a set of clean underwear in your carry-on bag when traveling. (What if your luggage gets lost?!)
4. Faith is an action word.
5. Excuses aren't good enough.
6. Time spent with family is time well spent.
7. Duct tape and haywire are the main tools needed for keeping your car pieced together (especially with teenage drivers).
8. Work hard so you can play hard. (This one actually sounds like Chuck, but I think she lived it, too.)
9. Always leave the house clean when heading out on vacation.
10.  The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is true!

Cutest T-ball player ever

I am having so much fun watching this kid play T-ball. This is his first year, and he has learned a lot in the first couple of weeks. For instance, only in the first game did he let two girls from his team pass him before he took off running from second base. Isn't that the greatest smile? He might be having just as much fun as I am. 

 He will talk to anyone and everyone while he is on the field. If he makes a good play, I get a kick out of watching him tell the closest coach all about it. If no one is listening, he'll just talk about it to himself. When he is at the pitcher's mound, he gets to know the umpire -- or the umpire gets to know him!

 

And the team snack after the game just might be the best part of the night.

Laundry

I am so excited that I actually have a few free minutes before bedtime tonight. Lately I feel like I am always running a step behind and trying to catch up. Tonight I'm going to sit here and breathe. I will ignore the unfolded laundry and celebrate the fact that the clothes are clean, and I can fold them tomorrow. Nate has been gone for the last week and a half on a business trip, and I was trying to find a silver lining in that fact this morning when I noticed it was time to do laundry. As I was sorting the clothes I realized that his clothes probably account for a third of our wash. Those long legs of his require pants that fill up a laundry basket in no time. So, there is something good in having him travel after all! I had less laundry to do today. And I can promise I won't complain one bit when he brings his suitcase home and dumps it in a waiting laundry basket.

Help when it's needed

Nate was visiting another congregation this morning to fulfill the responsibilities of his calling, so I had all the kids at church by myself. I have such wonderful children, and I am so grateful they are the ones sitting on my pew every Sunday. How could I do it with any other children? The Lord just knows how to make everything work out just right. Anyway, after church we had choir practice, and I had to stay since I play the piano for our choir. But Natalie doesn't really like to sleep anywhere except for her crib. She fell asleep in my arms in Sunday School for a while, but by the time church was over she was done. Hannah is singing in the choir now, so that left Nikki trying to watch Natalie. Natalie would have been okay if Nikki could have walked around with her until she fell asleep, but the baby is just a little too big for Nikki to hold her comfortably for that long. Thankfully, there was a sweet lady who was waiting while her daughter was singing who went over and held Natalie for Nikki. I so appreciated her helping when I couldn't. Then, the next time I looked up Nate was standing in the back of the chapel holding Natalie and gathering Ryan and Nikki and all of our stuff to take them home. I was so thankful he came to church to pick them up instead of just going home. He didn't have to do that. In fact, I'm sure it would have been easier for him not to. He still had to pack for a business trip he needed to leave for in a couple of hours. I'm grateful for a husband who serves the Lord and serves his family.

Learning

Over the last 2 weeks, Hannah has learned to draw the United States from memory and label all of the states and capitals, as well as a list of about 15 major land features (including the 5 Great Lakes, which I can never keep straight myself). She has been studying algae and protazoa, fungi, and wildflowers. She has written an essay on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She has learned about the first declension of Latin nouns, the first conjugation present tense of Latin verbs, and a list of Latin vocabulary and rules. She has been reading and discussing a couple of books about the logic behind the Christian faith (the fallacies of evolution and the Big Bang theory, etc.). And math, math, math! We are going to be great mathmeticians in this house! She may think math is difficult now, but one day all of this hard work is going to pay off for her.

Nikki and Ryan are memorizing events on a history timeline, and they learned about Charlemagne and William the Conqueror. They are learning the parts of speech and what they do. Nikki has learned the 112 different classifications English sentences can be when their structure, purpose, and pattern are combined. She is memorizing more about verbs than I ever heard during all of my years of schooling. They learned about the seven biomes and the three different kinds of consumers. They drew the five basic elements artists use to draw and played with symmetry. Memorized the Latin endings of the first conjugation, present tense. In math, Nikki is working with fractions and Ryan is learning to draw his numerals and skip count by 2s, 3s, and 4s. Ryan is studying phonograms and learning to say and write them. Nikki is learning to use a thesaurus and dress up her writing with better words than go/went, say/said, etc. Ryan is learning to point to the continents and oceans and some bodies of water in Europe, while Nikki is tracing and drawing the maps. Nikki also has spelling, dictation, and penmanship, and she is reading Anne of Green Gables. Anything else? Probably. And yes, this has just been the first two weeks.

Natalie and I are hanging on for the ride. She is learning to crawl and eat table food. I think we could all just spend our entire day staring at and playing with her and be perfectly satisfied. But I'm so glad we're doing more than that. I am so tired by the end of the day, but I feel like we are all getting a fabulous education. A friend introduced me to Classical Conversations, and Hannah participated in their grammar and writing program last year. We absolutely loved it, and since I was pregnant this was our saving grace. If she didn't have to go to class every Friday and show her work, I know nothing would have gotten done last year! Since it went so well, and we all learned so much, we put all three kids in their program this year. We go to school on Tuesday every week where they have a tutor who introduces the new information they will be learning over the next week and review the work from previous weeks. I love how they make it a point that the mom is the teacher and I have the final say over assignments and work required. Their tutor is simply a resource. It is such a fabulous program!

When I first started homeschooling, I kind of thought talking about philosophies of education wasn't very important. I knew I didn't want to unschool, but for the rest I just wanted to make sure my kids knew what they were supposed to for each subject. The longer I do this, though, the more I realize what a product of public education I am! I did very well in school growing up, including in college (when I went to class), and I thought I had a pretty good education. Now I am learning how much I don't know! I must say the more I learn about the classical model of education, the more it makes sense. Proverbs 24: 3-4 states, "Through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches." Leigh Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations, connects the learning stages of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom with how to teach our children. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that I'm finally catching on to the importance of a theory, and it is affecting how I want to teach my children.

Homeschooling is certainly not a path that I thought I would take, and after failing at it once when Hannah was in 1st grade, I certainly didn't think I would be traveling down this road again. It is not easy. I am exhausted, and I feel very inadequate. However, I can also honestly say I am so grateful that I can do this for my children. I have heard so many people say they could never homeschool. I'm not going to say they are wrong. Every family has their own path to take, but I don't believe any mother is incapable of teaching her child. They are learning from us all the time, maybe even when we don't want them to be. I don't feel capable of doing this either, but I also love Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." For my family, I feel called to educate my children at home, and the Lord is being so kind in guiding me in this path.

A little August catch up

 Natalie turned 5 months in August. I haven't figured out how to turn off the red light on my camera without completely turning off the flash, so she is always frowning in the pictures I take lately because that light shines in her face. Anyway, in reality she is a very happy girl. She loves people and thinks anyone who smiles at her is the greatest. She has been trying to crawl this past week, and we all get a kick out of watching her because she doesn't really know what to do with her arms yet. She gets up on her hands and knees and then launches herself forward like a frog jumping, but she doesn't catch herself with her arms -- she just faceplants. Love this baby!

This little guy is so excited to be 5 years old. Just ask him and he'll tell you all about it. He continues to be the most talkative and energetic person in our family. He's always looking for someone to play a game with him. I am amazed when I look at him and see how grown his is. He has his first T-ball practice this coming Saturday, and he is counting down the days.

Recording Blessings

I have been thinking about President Eyring's message from last month's Ensign about keeping a record of the Lord's blessings in our lives. It's not the first time I have heard him give this counsel, but I want it to be the last time that I need the Spirit to give me such a strong reminder to follow it. After all, the main reason I have a blog is to keep a record of what happens in our family. Lately, the pace of my life has picked up and I have used that as an excuse to not blog, when that really means I have more to record. What I need to work on is prioritizing how I use my time. So, here is a first post to get me started.

I have a sweet friend at church who loves babies. She's a baby whisperer. She put Natalie to sleep during Sunday School and then fed and played with her through Relief Society as well. I so appreciated being able to sit through the lessons without holding a squirmy worm. What a great service she offered to me!

Nate and I spent an evening away on Friday to celebrate our 14th anniversary coming up next week. We are only about two weeks into our new school year, and I already needed a break! I'll write more another time about our homeschool, but for now I'll just say that I'm excited for all that my kids are learning. And I am excited to be learning along with them. Speaking of school, it's a bit ironic that I was telling Nikki last week that we don't start a sentence with a conjunction, but I think I've done it at least twice so far in this post! I write my blog like I'm talking, so I guess maybe I should work on my speech and then my writing might improve. :) While school is going to be great this year, I think we are going to work harder than we have ever worked in our homeschool. I'm excited, nervous, and worn out just thinking of it. Anyway, it was so nice to get away even for one day with Nate. With both of us being so busy these days, it takes a greater effort to just spend time together. I love him, and I love being with him.

On a side note, as I have been writing this post Nate has been playing a card game with the kids on our bed. They started fighting with each other, so I heard him say they needed to quit playing and read scriptures. Then they weren't listening to him, so he made them recite the scriptures after him. They thought his voice inflections of the people speaking was silly and started paying attention and giggling. Somehow, he turned a contentious moment into one where they are now happily reading scriptures together. He is such a good man, and I really appreciate the few minutes he gave me to myself this afternoon.

Dod boarding

Nate signed us up on a dog boarding website to host dogs while their families are away. I'm trying to decide this is a good idea. It does sound nice to have someone pay us to keep their dog rather than for us paying to get a dog. The kids like dogs, and I think Nate was thinking this would be a good way for them to earn a little money. Well, too bad. The money is going in MY pocket. They may play with them, and I'm sure Nate would take care of them if he was home, but it turns out that this is my second job (or is it third or fourth?).

Anyway, we have our first dog over the weekend. Jessie just came this morning, and she is a sweet girl. She's a coon hound, I think? She's just big and sheds a lot! Nate had already been planning on taking the big kids camping tonight, and I am really fine being left with my little one and a dog. Neither one of whom can talk to me! I'm actually happy to have a big dog sleeping in a crate downstairs while Nate is gone. See, I can talk myself into liking this.

Sunday afternoon activity

There are so many things in this video that make me laugh. I love Hannah's pose for the camera, I guess I didn't tell her I was taking a video. I completely missed Ryan sticking the knife on his nose and then back into the peanut butter because I was laughing at Nate so hard. And this video is also why we had a family night lesson last night about kindness.

Jordan Lake

I love Sherrie's set up to avoid sunburn! I didn't get many pictures this day. Nate spent his time in the shade with Natalie, and I was on the boat for quite a while -- just the way the both of us like it. It was a fun and exhausting week with the family. I didn't get any pictures the last day we were together. We stayed at Mike's house and fished and played games and visited with Billy & Jill and of course ate great food all week long. We have a great family! Thanks for a fun week!

Water Slide

The kids LOVED the water slide Mike & Sherrie had. The girls even woke up sore the next day from the hours of fun they had on it. Ryan and William spent the most time on it, though. They were in heaven.

This is my kind of vacation -- relaxing in the shade!

JW & Robin -- Robin, did something fly in your drink? :)

I even got this great shot of Robin coming down the slide! It's a good thing they didn't get my picture when I came down -- I went flying out and rolled halfway down the hill!

Who let Mike play with fire? Here he is lighting sparklers for the kids.

Games on the 4th

Robin planned some fun games for us to play on the 4th. Here's Nikki trying to find the chocolate pieces hidden in whipped cream.

We had an egg race.

 I'm pretty sure it's not fair for me to be going up against Nate's long legs!

Here is Ryan blindfolded trying to shoot everyone with waterguns.

Hannah's turn

Nate did a good job keeping Natalie out of the sun. That is one cute baby. (He is, too.)

Trying to throw marshmallows into their partners' mouths.

Hannah doing a little dance with Cousin Nate's horse head mask!

Spencer looks a little concerned.