So Where Have YOU Been?

WOW! It only took me an entire year to get back to blogging. Hopefully, I will be more diligent, but I can not make any promises right now. :)

So where have I been...

Well, that is a long story. One that started nearly a month after my last post. The biggest reason for my absense has been that we started homeschooling our oldest 4 children in August of last year. (My plan is to share the whys and hows as I have time.) Of course, what first year of homeschooling would be complete without its share of drama? Not only did we begin homeschooling, but my hubby worked out-of-town and lived at home on the weekends for the first 5 months of our adventure. As soon as John returned home, my Mom had her second hip-replacement and she lived with us for the 5 weeks of her recovery. Finally, Grandma was feeling better, but all of sudden, I was not! We, then, found out Baby #7 was to be expected in October. Whew! Just typing that wears me out!!!!

Our school year offically ends tomorrow and it has been a good year. I am very thankful! John is home, our children are still happy and healthy, my Mom is walking well and even quit smoking(!!), Baby 7 is a girl. My due date is October 19th. God continues to bless us abundantly!

I hope to share more in the coming days ahead, but for now I will leave you with our Easter picture of the children

Chores and Schedule

I have been asked to post the chore list for my children as well as our summer daily schedule. I thought it would be easier to post it all here. This is what works for us and helps me alot. We have learned to be flexible, but try to stick as close to the schedule as possible with hourly adjustments if needed. John and I do not give allowance or rewards for this list of chores. It is done to help out the family. We do have extra chores as needed that can be done for money. Our prayer is that our children learn to help their family (especially Mom), learn to work hard, and learn to work together to accomplish tasks. Note: we have our big cleaning day on Monday and can accomplish Monday and Tuesday chores in an hour.

Daily Chores (all children)

put clean laundry away

clean room - make bed

straighten living room

recycles and trash (boys)

load/unload dishwasher (girls)

Monday:

Ernie (10) - wipe down upper kitchen cabinet fronts and appliance fronts

dust walls for spider webs

dust top part of tv cabinet

vacuum living room and study

Abby (8) - vaccuum couch and chairs,

clean window sills in living room and study

dust blinds in kitchen and bedroom

Emma (6) - dust lower part of tv cabinet and railing to upstairs

dust blinds in kitchen and bedroom

Jonathan (4) - dust living room table

wipe down lower kitchen cabinet fronts

Christian and Isabella help where they can. Give them a rag and they will clean anything. They love to help fold and put laundry away too.

Tuesday:

Boys - clean baseboards and doors in living room

Girls - clean baseboards and doors in kitchen

Wednesday:

Boys - take out all trashcans from all rooms

Ernie also vaccuums living room and living room rugs

Girls -

Week A - clean windows in living room and study and clean kitchen chairs

Week B - clean their bathroom (I clean it on week A)

Thursday:

Everyone - clean up the yard and the yard toys

Friday:

Everyone - clean up the basement toy room

Abby vaccuums living room

Daily Schedule:

7am - breakfast, devotions, Bible memory time,

teeth, dressed (has started taking longer than 45 minutes, so we adjust)

7:45 - clean bedrooms, then play in basement

8:30 - chores

9:30 -play

11am - lunch

12pm - naptime for younger 3

reading the older 3 (45min - Ernie and Abby / 30 min for Emma + 15 min of worksheets)

We read a book together 1-2 chapters a day (currently reading the Crown and Covenant

series by Douglas bond)

Math Games (Right Start Math)

2pm - outdoor/indoor play (or maybe a movie)

2:45pm - straighten living room and bedroom as needed

John usually returns home by 3:30 - 4pm and bedtime is around 7/7:30pm.

My Boys

Aren't these fellas gorgeous!

They wanted matching shoes.

Ernie is a great big brother and the littler ones just adore him. They are always playing ball of some sort, running around and rough housing.

It's so hard to say goodbye...

I received a Boppy when Ernie was born. It helped me through the nursing of Ernie, Abby, Emma and Jonathan. As a baby, Jonathan became attached to it. He always had it with him and it became his pillow in his crib and big boy bed. (Thankfully, when I was expecting Christian, the sweet ladies at Community Bible Church gave me a shower. Along with many splendid gifts I received the one thing I really needed ... A NEW BOPPY)

Jonathan's Boppy has seen him through good dreams, nightmares, many hours of peaceful sleep as well as illnesses and not much sleep. It made it through many washing cycles, but all good things must come to an end. Boppy developed a hole that could no longer be fixed. We took many pictures so Jonathan will never have to forget his Boppy.

Abigail turns 8

Precious Abby turned 8 on April 9th, 2010.

What a gift we received from the Lord! Abby is our easiest child at present. She is extremely helpful with a servant's heart. "Lil' Momma" is her nickname and sometimes Christian and Isabella choose her over me. Caring, sweet and a hard worker. Abby finished 2nd grade this year with straight A's and the "Ant Award". She loves art, gymnastics, and Irish dance.

May God always be glorified in your life, Abby! We love you!

Abby's birthday found us, once again, at Cracker Barrel for dinner.

Picture below is of the gift she received from Gram and Grampa Dickmann. It is a purse with other little goodies that once belonged to Great-Grandma Lehr who went Home to Heaven a year ago. The loss of Gram Lehr was rather hard on Abby. She still cries when she thinks about dear Grandma Lehr. Abby loved this gift!

Kara made Abby's birthday cake

Abby with our wonderful former neighbor, Judy.

Tea Party

The girls decided to dress-up and have a tea party...

on the jungle gym.

Izzy did not want to miss out on the fun.

Egyptian Feast

2nd Grade at PCCA is the Egyptain Festival.

My beautiful Egyptian girl, Abby.

Mrs. Doyle had the wonderful idea to mummify a chicken and this is the result: King Cluck I. (No it does not smell.)

Abby's encomium on the Biblical Egyptian midwife, Shiphrah. (Never too early to get teaching my girls about midwifery.)

Mrs. Doyle and the children did a fabulous job. The food was yummy and the decorations were perfect. Yay Ann Hatfield.