Our Kitty Meow

This is Lily's kitten, Kitty Meow. He fell asleep in my bag. It was sooo cute!

ME(ASHLEY) AND KELSEA!!!! =))))

Kelsea came down!! It was sooo MUCH FUN!!! In THIS pic we were laying in the road!!! bahahahahaha!!!!! We almost got hit by a CAR!!! lol ppl down here r soooo RUDE!! LOL JK!!!

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KELSEA AND ME!!! OMG LOOK AT HER "PIMPIN" classes bahahahaha they theyre sooo AWESOME and they glow in the dark!!!! PIMP!!!!! We went to the mall!!  It was sooo much fun!! then we got candy!! but she couldnt eat that much!!! GHETTO!! We had soooo much FUN though!!!

MY BUS RIDE BY LACEY

I RODE   ON   THE   BUS  WITH MEADOW.  IT   WAS  WHITE.   IT WAS   FUN! I  DROPPED MY SODA AND IT       SPRAYED     EVERYWHERE! 

Operation Saturation

Saturday, October 16 was our first Saturation Saturday at The Rock United Pentecostal Church. Our goal is to so totally saturate this town with prayers, invitations, door hangers, fliers, and business cards that there will not be a single person in Burkburnett that doesn't know who we are. And we began our mission last weekend. I spent the last week or so making up door hangers to put on doors.  I made up 100 door hangers. It seemed like a lot to me. We met up at the church Saturday morning. Me, Ashley and Bro. Mark went one way and Bro. Davis and Sis Theresa went the other way. We passed out all hundred hangers in 45 minutes! That is a lot of publicity. Our plan is to do Saturation two Saturdays a month. So Monday I ordered 2,500 more door hangers! I also ordered 1000 business cards, 8 car door magnets (one for each driver in our church), and 250 fliers to pass out at Holiday Hanger.  Operation Saturation is well underway! We are excited about the work that God is doing in the church so far. Shane has been preaching some awesome messages, of course I may be a little prejudiced. I do love to hear him preach!

Poems by Shel Silverstein

A certain family member who will remain nameless recommended these poems by Shel Silverstein.

My Robot

I told my robot to do my biddin'.
He yawned and said, "You must be kiddin'."
I told my robot to cook me a stew.
He said, "I got better things to do."
I told my robot to sweep my shack.
He said, "You want me to strain my back?"
I told my robot to answer the phone.
He said, "I must make some calls of my own."
I told my robot to brew me some tea.
He said, "Why don't you make tea for me?"
I told my robot to boil me an egg.
He said,"First- lemme hear you beg."
I told my robot, "There's a song you can play me."
He said,"How much are you gonna pay me?"
So I sold that robot, 'cause I never knew
Exactly who belonged to who.



The Former Foreman's Story

We had to demolish the Johnsons' old house.
I brought in the bulldozers, shovels, and cranes.
We tore off the shingles, we banged in the walls,
We knocked down the chimney, we tore up the drains,
We smashed in the windows, we ripped out the bell,
We cut down the rafters, we sawed up the floor,
We dug up the basement- then somebody yelled
"Hey, the Johnsons don't live there- they live next door."
(Maybe that's the reason I'm not foreman anymore.)

Any guesses whose favorite poems these are?

My new job

After a good bit of praying, I decided to get a job. It's a part time job. I will be doing light housework, cooking, and running errands.Things I am definitely highly qualified to do!  I was so nervous applying! But I think the extra money will come in handy and it is very flexible. I told the person hiring that I needed a job that I can basically work when I want to and say no when I don't. And he said no problem, he would put me on PRN! So praise the Lord! So far I have one regular client. I will work for on Thursdays and if something comes I need to reschedule it shouldn't be a problem. I would really love to get 3-5 more clients. So all my family and friends please pray with me about that.

My kids are so easily amused

A little neighbor girl and her mom came over the other day to invite the kids to church. The little girl is very sweet, she comes over and plays with Lacey and Lily sometimes. I have only met her mom a few times but I really like her. I would love for them to come to church. So they invited us to church (the little girl rides a bus to the church, the rest of the family doesn't go). I figured why not? It is a good way for us to meet some new people in town and I thought maybe Ashley would like the youth group, meet some new friends. Toni (the mom) picked us up and drove us to the church. Then she decided not to stay so I told her we would just ride the bus back with Meadow (little girl). She offered to come back and pick us up but I knew the kids would get a kick out of riding the bus. Lacey and Kyle were so excited! O the class was fun and there was a bunch of kids, but all that was nothing compared to the fact that they were going to get to ride a bus! So after class we all filed on the bus with about 40 other screaming, yelling kids. I don't think I have been on a bus since I was 12 or 13.  Ahh... the memories. Lacey sat with Meadow and she looked so small. I thought no way I could put her on the bus by herself. Kyle and Lily sat with another little girl behind them and Me and Ash sat across the aisle. Even Ashley hadn't ever ridden a bus before. Of course she was considerably less impressed than the little ones. And boy were they impressed!  Once we got home they kept telling me thank you and talking about the ride. Lacey informed me she was going to ride the bus every week with Meadow. Yep. Easily amused.

Park day in Burkburnett

I love the homeschool group in Wichita Falls but I don't love driving into Wichita several times a week. Plus we are trying to be mindful of the gas with Shane working 70 miles from home! I thought maybe some of the other homeschoolers in Burk felt the same way and so I invited them to the park. It was a lot of fun. Six moms and about 15 kids were there. We decided to make it a weekly event, at least while the weather is so nice. I am trying to get out into the community and get known. Bro. Landtroop (our pastor back home) said that we (the church) should be the leaders in the community- the head not the tail and I thought made a lot of sense. If we are going to reach Burkburnett for Jesus we aren't going to do it by letting all the other churches, businesses and organizations lead everything. So I am looking for ways to lead. We are really excited about everything the Lord is doing. We are still praying for singers and musicians. But at our Fellowship Sunday (eating meeting LOL) we had six visitors! So we are encouraged that God is dealing with people and stirring hearts. We plan to do some outreach October 16 and 23rd. I made up some flyer/ door hangers to put on doors. And we plan to sell peanut brittle in November at Holiday Hanger. I know it is a fund raiser but I look at it as a way to get our name out into the community. I am making up some brochures of the church to pass out with the candy. So please keep praying for us and the church.

What We Are Strewing

Strewing is a term that unschoolers use to describe what interesting things they are leaving around for their kids to discover. That definition is provided by Sandra Dodd. You can read more about strewing here . So I have been strewing. We bought an ant farm a couple of years ago which the kids found the other day. We filled it with sand and caught some ants to put in it. We wanted a queen ant and some eggs. If you order ants you only get worker ants. So we got out our Pets in a Jar book and looked up how to catch ants. We didn't get a queen ant but we did get some eggs. Lacey, Lily and Kyle helped catch the ants. We watched the ants build their tunnels and carry the eggs to a separate nursery. Lacey and Lily spent a lot of time looking at the ant farm with a magnifying glass. A couple of times we were even able to see a little black dot inside the egg that we believe to be the little baby ant. I checked Kyle out some books on drawing and bought him a calendar that he can color and make. We started reading Little house in the big woods. We built a diorama of a jousting tournament (something else I had bought years ago and never got around to doing). I took Lacey and Lily shopping. We went in flower shops and looked at flowers, we spent a good bit of time in an old antique store here in town, we visited a pet store and talked to the owner about her different pets. The antique store was especially interesting, we looked at old kitchen utensils and farm equipment. Then I picked Kyle up and we all went to the library. At the library I showed Kyle where the joke books and dinosaur craft books were and he spent a long time reading and then telling us all jokes. I also checked out some books on Native Americans to leave laying around. No interest in them so far. My Aunt and Uncle just started a blog about building their house so I showed the blog to the kids and we read it together. It was pretty interesting, so far we saw how a foundation is built. Kyle really like the pictures of the trucks and crane. We created a family blog. I left colors and alphabet coloring books around and I found an old electric calculator that the kids have all had a ball playing with. We found their felt board in the garage and made felt pictures together. Its been fun.

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Lily is finally potty trained

Yeah! My last ( pleeease Lord!) baby is out of diapers. She is on her 4th night in dry panties. We are very proud and happy, especially since we will be saving about 40 bucks a month in diapers!

What You Learn By Ditching School

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to decide what to do about school. Should I keep unschooling? Or go back to school at home? Or maybe somewhere in the middle? While thinking and planning and praying I made a list. I found the list yesterday while flipping through my notebook and thought I would post it here. My list.

What I learned-
1. Kids want to learn- it really is true kids do want to learn. The may not want to learn what I want to teach them but they do have a desire to learn.
2. Everything is learning, even when it doesn't look like learning-I learned maize is corn. I learned that from watching the movie grown ups the other day. I also learned that it is almost impossible to go a whole day, let alone a whole week without learning something. And It doesn't have to be working fractions on a piece of paper to be math, it may just be realizing that if you have twelve crayons you and your two sisters can each have four.
3. My kids want some structure to their learning- Okay not all my kids but Ashley definitely does. And Kyle and Lacey like workbooks. Especially if they can do them when they want to.
4. Learning should come from as many real experiences as possible- Life really is the best teacher. Just letting them live life, surrounded by people, going shopping, visiting friends, playing on the computer, going to church, cooking or doing chores, all these things teach them how to really live in the world.
5. Don't think more is better, often less is best- Its better to focus on a few things that they really enjoy or love than dabbling in several things that they don't care anything about. I think we (teachers, parents, society ?) have gotten the idea that information is power and that we may leave out some vital piece of information that is going to somehow prevent kids from living a productive life. So we try to cram as much information as we can into their heads, hoping that we can give them that one magical piece of knowledge that they need to be happy, useful adults. But I don't know what they are going to need as adults, will they choose a career in science? Or maybe one requiring mathematical knowledge? So how can I predict what they need to know? Maybe it is better to help them develop their interests and help them learn to find the information they need as they need it.
6. Leave plenty of time for play- sometimes they do their best learning while they are playing. And Besides they are only going to be kids once and for such a short time. I need to give them time to play, to dream, to wonder. They have a lifetime to think about jobs and bills, relationships and responsibilities, but only a few short years to build a fort, fight monsters and dragons, be a princess or hang out with friends. I want to nurture their childhood and enjoy it- it passes so fast.

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Can A Week be Busy And Relaxed?

Man! Today was busy! We started our morning running. I got up early (for me) at about 8:30 and me and Shane and Kyle did a real fast sweep of the house. Once the house was reasonably straightened the kids ate a bowl of cereal and we rushed out the door to our Enrichment classes. I wanted to get there a little early so I could visit with some of the other moms and check out the share table. I am glad I did, I was able to get video about Rembrandt tHat looks pretty interesting. I also got the kids a couple of vhs movies. After our classes we went to Jacksboro ( about an hour drive) to pick up Ashely's friend Kelsea. She is going to spend a few days with us. Ashley is very excited, she has really missed her since we moved. And I had a nice visit with my friend Suzanne (Kelsea's mom). After we got back from Jacksboro I woke Shane up and talked to him while he ate. Then we ran some errands (read that as we made up an excuse to drive around awhile just the two of us) and then we sat outside on the patio for a little while. After Shane went to work a cleaning bug bit me and I cleaned the house. It really needed it! I mopped floors and dusted and swept, folded clothes and even swept the driveway! I really do love a clean house. While I was doing all this Ashley's friend Sara came over to spend the night. After giving the little ones a bath and a snack we watched Survivor and The Modern Family together. And now I am sitting here writing my blog, all the little ones are asleep and I can hear Ashley and her friends laughing in her room. It is very, very nice.

Tomorrow I am meeting my friend Dee ( Sara's mom) at the library and then we are all going over to their house for a little while.

Wednesday a friend from our church and a friend of his are coming over to play some board games or maybe Who's the man with us. Ashley and Kelsea want to go to the mall so I am going to try to drop them off there in the morning for an hour or so while I go to the library and go get the oil changed in the van.

Thursday we have our first Burkburnett Park Day! Yeah! Very excited about that. We will meet at 10:30 and right after park day we will drive Kelsea to Decatur (hour and a half away) to meet up with her mom and at the same time we will pick Donna up! I can't wait to get her home. I miss her so much.

Friday no plans that I can think of. Rest maybe lol.

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Pictures of Donna

Ashley's Pictures

Ashley and Kyle

Ashley and Sara

Ashley, Sara, Eden and Sasha ( Sara's sisters)

Lily started shaving!

Lily started shaving! That's right, Lily. Our 3 year old. What did she shave? She shaved her head! Yep, her head. She came out of the bathroom all covered in shaving cream. It was all in her hair, all over her body, in her ears and up her nose. She really went to town with the stuff! I cleaned her up and didn't really pay any attention to her hair. It honestly never occurred to me that she was actually shaving! In fact it took me several days to realize what she had done. When I tried putting her hair up I would think hmm... Lily is really having a bad hair day. No matter how I tried to do her hair it just didn't look right. I tried several different hairstyles. I thought her hair seemed shorter, maybe it is falling out? Boy, that's weird. And the back of it looked really thin, it had been getting really long. I couldn't figure it out. I thought of all kinds of reason for her bad hair. Maybe its the water here in Burk? Maybe I should change shampoos? What could it be? Then I found the razor in the bottom of my closet and it snapped to me just why Lily's hair looked so weird. So I am assuming that she just randomly brushed her hair with Shane's razor and thankfully it was pretty dull. The top of it and the sides are pretty short and awfully choppy. Luckily she left some in the back. I cant believe it took my so long to realize what she had done! I am the most unobservant mom in the world. I wonder what else I miss around here?

This isn't the best picture but its the best I could get. You can see how short it is on the sides, but at least the back is still long.

by Betty