First Friendly Friday!

Guest blogger: Aaron

This Friendly Friday we went to Living Water in Borger. I helped pass out groceries to people in need for Thanksgiving.
First, as people came in I took pictures and Benjamin passed around coloring books for the kids. Aunt Becky made sure everything was running the way it was supposed to. Matt & Sheri Cox led the music. They also led the music in my camp two years ago! Uncle Andy preached a sermon about how to be saved. Then we went out back and put groceries on the the table to give to the people. Mr. Gib kept bragging on me to other people. I liked working with him.
It felt good to help others. Their faces looked very grateful for our help. I loved it, it was so much fun! We plan to go back at Christmas time and help again.


Guest blogger: Benjamin
"It was fun. I didn't find very much kids, but there were some. I passed out books and crayons. And there were some kids though that I handed out books to and some were too small to be coloring but I didn't care so I just handed them coloring books with the crayons. When it was time to go it was very cold. When we got into our car my Mom decided to give Becky some books back and all that stuff. I hope you go to heaven so I can meet you there and know your name. Live happy. I hope you believe in Jesus." :-)

Friendly Friday!

Over the last few weeks I've seen several blogs with these cute (and some not so cute) daily and weekly blogs - such as "Flashback Fridays" (really cute) or "Days of Decluttering"(the not so cute one - ha!) and even a blogger who is cooking with a crock pot every day for a year. As I've perused these blogs, I've thought to myself, "I want to do something like that - something fun!" I considered the decluttering piece just to have a way to be held accountable and get my house in order. (I may still do this later!) I contemplated a weight-loss blog but that was a little too real for me right now and cooking, well, I'll have to get my oven and/or crock pot repaired first. I know I'm not a great writer, but I've enjoyed blogging and wanted to expand my horizons.

So...(drum roll, please!) I finally came up with an idea! It hit me right after our Veteran's Day project. We enjoyed that project so much that we decided to make it a weekly affair in home school. EUREKA! Why not blog about that? Aaron named it "FRIENDLY FRIDAY". We plan to do something for someone else each Friday. It may be as simple as sending someone a card or something much more involved when we get inspired. Who knows, maybe we'll start a new blogging trend. A really great thing about this is that I can use it in several different ways in school: Bible study, creative writing and English grammar (making Aaron a guest blogger at times), art (Benjamin and Aaron making cards or other crafts), math (measuring ingredients when we cook, doubling recipes, etc.), and history (Veteran's Day study, Thanksgiving study, etc.- to prepare before the "project"...). The biggest plus is that it will hopefully teach us to reach out to others, be more grateful for what we have, be more aware of other's needs, and have a better work ethic. So, there you have it - Friendly Fridays! Stay tuned!

Mark's Favorites

Becky and Amy both "tagged" me to list some of my husband's favorite things, so, here I go!

First and foremost is : GOD

(and I won't attempt to get HIS picture.)

OUR KIDS - all 5! (and I hope I'm included SOMEWHERE in here!)

His favorite SCRIPTURE passage is Jeremiah 29:11-14

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

MUSIC - Contemporary Christian and Classical are his favorite types of music. He plays trumpet and french horn.

Radio Station: America Family Radio

One of his favorite T.V. channels: The History Channel

MOVIE:

FAVORITE FOOD:

CANDY BAR:

His favorite DRINK is Vanilla cream Dr. Pepper:

(Pour a 16 oz. bottle D.P. over ice and add 3 Tbsp. Half & Half and 2 Tbsp. vanilla syrup)

COLLEGE AND MEMORIES:


SPORT: Baseball
SPORTS TEAM:

VACATION SPOT: The mountains!

FAVORITE PLACE HE'S BEEN: Ireland



BOOKS:
"Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy and "The Walking Drum" by Louis L'Amour


and finally, his favorite HOBBIES are reading, shooting, camping, fishing, computer and sleeping!

I Love you, Mark!

Whew! I finished! Now, I tag Sue.

Our Veteran's Day

One thing I've discovered about homeschooling is that it pushes me to do things that I should have been doing all along....like teaching about patriotism and gratefulness...

The traveling Vietnam Memorial wall was in town for the week of Veteran's day, and the boys (Nathan, Aaron and Ben) helped clean the grounds with their Tae Kwan Do class.
They liked the wall so much that we made several trips to see it.

The last day I finally thought to borrow Scott's camera and get a few pictures.

On the day before Veteran's day we made flag and star shaped cookies. (Thanks for the idea, Amy!)

We even tinted them red and blue!

Here is the finished product.

Aaron drew cards that said "Thank you for our freedom" and we delivered cookies to a couple of our favorite veterans.

The one pictured above sat down with Aaron for about an hour and told stories of being in Okinawa Japan.

Unfortunately, by then Ben was sick and Nathan was in school, so they didn't get to help deliver cookies. But the vet pictured above was teary-eyed when we came. He showed up at our house yesterday morning to bring the boys flag pins to "help you remember all veterans" and to thank the boys. He said, "You touched my heart that I was remembered on Veteran's Day by fine young men." How sweet. We should have done this years ago!

Look, Mom!

Benjamin came running in the house one day before his birthday yelling, "Mom! Come watch me!" A neighbor boy had let Ben ride his bike so that he could try riding without training wheels. Ben jumped on and just started riding... So, he used all the money he got in gifts for his birthday, and bought a Spiderman bicycle...

and a helmet.

This is almost as good as when he decided to potty train himself!
(Don't tell him I said that!)

Homeschool links

I've added a list of links that I use from time to time for homeschooling. Some, like Danielle's Place, I use almost daily and others I listed to remind myself to look at and maybe use. I'd love for you to comment and let me know what websites you use! I know that there are a few out there who are "lurking" on my site, so feel free to "de-lurk" (is that a word?) and leave comments. I'd love to hear from you!

Pine boxes

While reading Lindsey's blog on Kid Talk, I was reminded of a conversation in our car this week. Let me first explain that we live near a cemetery and have had several interesting conversations because of that. My kids really aren't as morbid as it sounds!
Aaron: "Someone is about to have a funeral - they're digging a grave."
Ben: "Mom, what is it called that they put them in?"
Me: "A cockpit?" (ha! he was playing with a lego plane @ the time and he had been talking about it first.)
Ben: "no, what do they put the bodies in?"
Me: "OH! Do you mean a coffin?"
Ben: "Yeah! What is a coffin?"
Me: (stating the obvious)"It's a box that they put the bodies in"
Ben: "WHY?!!?"
Aaron: (putting his two-cents worth in) "to keep the body protected from detoriating quickly and to keep the worms and bugs away from it"
Ben: "Why"?!!?

Good question Ben! WHY?!!?

Later.....
Ben: "I feel sorry for the bodies in the ground - not for the people, I know if they believed in Jesus they're in heaven and in a better place, but still, I feel sorry for those bodies!"