Thanksgiving Vacation

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go.

We had a great time, as usual.

Horses, 4-wheelers, fishing, gardening

All with Nana and Pop.

Love it!

 The first thing to greet us when we drove up.

A powerful reminder NOT to eat too much.

If  I can still see my feet, I didn't eat too much, right?

 4-wheeling!

Loving on Sadie!

Sierpinski's Triangle out of candy corn.

Fishing with Pop.

Hanging of the Green with Nana.

Last but not least, a nice creepy black widow.

(RIP)

Clay-Mation

Judson's First Attempt at Claymation

(just because)

Girlapalooza

Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta descended upon Six Flags today.

Randy took Ansley as a father-daughter thing.

All I can say,

A great time was had by all.

Smiles abound.

Happy National Adoption Month

Did you know that?

It is.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/01/presidential-proclamation-national-adoption-month-2012

Obviously, my family is pro-adoption.

But you might be surprised to know that we support efforts to keep families intact.

Because we believe children should be able to be raised by their birth families whenever possible.

Yes, even if the families are poor.

Yes, even if they will not be raised Christian.

Yes, even if....

But there are times when that is not possible....

Do you know the numbers?

In America, there are approximately 500,000 children in foster care.

Of those, about 1/4 are available for adoption.

According to the latest UNICEF numbers I can find,

there are 163 million children worldwide who have lost 1 parent.

18+ million have lost both parents.

Many more children have been placed in orphanages due to poverty or sickness or societal norms.

We, personally, believe everyone should help orphans.

 

No, we don't believe everyone should adopt.

 

But some can foster.

Some can offer respite to those who do foster or adopt, 

especially in situations where the children are medically fragile 

or have other special needs.

 

Some can offer financial support.

Organizations like:

Reece's Rainbow

Help raise awareness of kids worldwide with special needs

Many other wonderful organizations also help with this

EAFS

Help orphans in Ethiopia and also help families in danger of breaking up stay intact.

Connected in Hope

Helps women to have a source of income.

This helps in so many ways.

AWESOME!

 

There are hundreds of wonderful organizations,

here and abroad that could use your help.

Find a cause 

Get involved.

 

Yes, if you want to adopt.

I encourage  you to.

Soul search and figure out what you and your family can realistically manage.

Find out facts.

Search the internet for good agencies.

BUT 

I BEG BEG BEG YOU.

Do not go to an agency and say:
"we want a little girl, as young as possible and healthy"

If your agency does not run from that,

you should run from that agency.

You will be the reason one more country's adoption program is shut down due to corruption.

So Happy Adoption Month. 

Blessings of adoption have been flowing through our family
Long before we adopted our two.

Trick or Treat

We did things a bit differently this year.

Instead of a neighborhood party

We went to a Trunk or Treat up the road.

Everyone had a good time.

Sawyer was a bit of a challenge

But

We persevered.

This is the first time we've really done 'theme' costumes.

But when Sawyer said he wanted to be the Tin Man,

I made everyone else pick a character.

Ansley refused to be Dorothy or the Wicked Witch.

But she was cool with being Glinda.

In case you like the B&W best

Or the colorized version

Happy Halloween!

We Survived!

October is almost over.

Last thing on our list:

HALLOWEEN.

Here are some highlights from the last few weeks.

Soccer.

Coaches and his new buddy, Shaaz.

Love the coach on the left.

Have seen him in action in basketball and soccer.

He is WONDERFUL with the kids.

So happy he donates his time to this cause.

Birthday.

My little man is growing up.

I have seen quite a few positive changes in him over this last year.

(Don't get me wrong, he can still throw down with the best of them but....)

Swimming.

Last night of class was water safety.

Happy to report that both A and J passed

Level 1 and Level 2.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get them in Level 3 next session.

Duet

I apologize for it being all wonky.  I will keep trying to 'right' it.

A little back story:

Dad taught Judson how to read music and where the keys are

Judson taught Turner which keys to play

Plus 

Turner just spends hours just picking out sounds
They picked out the music and started playing

Catching Our Breath (Hardly)

The past two weekends have been busy ones.

Soccer

and

Boy Scouts

Mostly

One weekend was scout camping

One weekend was scout forestry badge

There's a person in those trees!

Then we have soccer

2 practices plus 1 game per week

Notice that Michael Jordan'ish mouth hanging open.

He really enjoys soccer and has begun to get the hang of it,

even scoring some goals!

This Saturday is the last game.

They have a potluck afterwards.

Yeah, I'm a loser.  

I signed up for chips!

Ansley also started back with the Emory-China group.

She is with the older girls in their Mentoring group.

Their first meeting she painted pottery.

LOVED IT!

We are also getting ready for Halloween.

We are doing a theme this year for the first time.

Can you guess?

Notice behind Sawyer.

(NO, not the sewing machine on the floor)

Ansley is snapping beans.

One of our neighbors has been very kind to Judson

(Judson helped him gather a whole truckload full of food for an organization this man works with)

He offered to let Judson pick beans in his garden.

Judson picked about a bushel of beans!

Ansley probably snapped half of them by herself.

Surprisingly, Sawyer snapped quite a few.

BONUS

The man offered Judson part of his garden plot next year to plant!

 

 Now if Randy makes it through FEDERAL jury duty the next 4 weeks

(IF he is selected)

And he survives his marathon this coming Sunday

We'll be home free!

Things We R Doing

Still Busy

BUT

The month is winding down

And so will our busy-ness.

We are taking the time to take care of the important things:

and

Haircuts

but 

I don't have a picture

We are learning how to swim

Getting plenty of fresh air and sunshine

Still home schooling and scouting 

Still doing therapy (Sawyer)

Still doing art classes (Ansley)

Still doing home school co-op (Judson)

Still doing soccer (Turner)

Well visits

and even jury duty

Mom's even taking time to get a haircut since it's been over 2 months since the last one!

It's all good!

Grocery Store Day

In Sawyer's world there are 7 days.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Grocery Store Day

Saturday

 

What are the only 2 things on his grocery list?

Donut

Coke

Sleep Over, Soccer and Baseball, Oh My!

Just an average weekend.

Sleep Over.

Soccer Game.

and 

The Braves Last Regular Season Game.

Our buddy Alex spent the night.

Turner's feet are in there somewhere.

Turner, burning it down field.

Protecting the goal!

Brothers!

No baseball pics, yet.

Game still in progress.

Chipper's last regular season game.

End of an era.

Expanding Our Horizons

When we started home schooling, we did so because we didn't think the public schools had enough to offer our family.  Sadly, we still feel that way.  We also knew that would continually evaluate and tweak our little school to get the most out of it for each child.

As with most kids, our home schooled kids sometimes think they are missing something by not going to 'real' school.  And to some extent, they are.  However if you had a balance sheet listing pros and cons, I think you'd see that the scales still lean heavily towards more pros for home schooling.

That being said, we have another consideration.  In our state there is a scholarship program. I do not know all the ins and outs of it, nor do I know if it will still be in place by the time my children are of age to use it.  Still we must do due diligence to make sure our children are in position to use that scholarship as well as others.  So we began the search for accredited home school programs.  (Now this issue can/could be solved by using a k12 online program which is our safety net)

We found one that we hope will solve both problems we seem to have, being the kids need to experience 'real' school and our need for an accredited academic program. We are going to try a 'trial' run for the rest of this school year in their 'arts' program, for Judson only.  It meets 1/2 day a week and they study the arts.  No academics and no grades.  If we like it, then we will begin the academic program next fall which would meet 1 full day a week and the rest of the time we'd be on our own.  (best of both worlds!?!?)  At some point, we'd start the other kids.  I don't really think they need to begin until late elementary/middle school.

There are pros and cons to this choice.  It is small. Which I like.  There are 12 kids in the 4th-5th grade class.  They mix ages to some extent.  (again, I like that)  They use a Bible based curriculum.  Not sure if that is a pro or con.  I have found that sometimes this type of program can be watered down and if it is not 'your' flavor of doctrine, can be offensive or at least cause confusion.  However, since it's only 1 to 1.5 days a week I think we can handle both potential issues.  I like the limited days.  The other 3.5 - 4 days they will have home work but it will also give us time to beef up any deficiencies we see and still give us 'home school'.

So, stay tuned.  Time will tell if we like it or search for other options.  The way cool thing about home schooling is there are so many options.  I am optimistic that we will find something that fits our family.

First Soccer Game

All I can say is,

Bless the coach's heart.

He is definitely a candidate for sainthood in my book.

(Fifteen 4 and 5 year olds, most with the attention span of a fruit fly.

Yes, I include T in the 'fruit fly' statement.)

Happy First Day of Fall, Y'all!

More Vacation Pics (In no particular order)

Since the other 2 were not tall enough to drive their own carts,

Randy and I drove them around.  Hence, not pictures as I was zipping around the course at lightning speed!

New Echota