Winter Greetings

Bright moon, clear night, and an arctic front makes for some chilly evenings--- but it is beautiful!

It's perfect soup-making weather-- too bad I've never made my own-- going to have to give it a shot in a few days :) The family just LOVES it when I try something new!

Snuggle up and have a cozy weekend!

Am I smarter than my 3rd grader??

We've been practicing some standardized test questions with the children to give them some test-taking practice. Elisha's been working on the third grade level and does a little each day. A few days ago I had to look up the answers to some of his questions-- I did not have a CLUE as to the right answer. He marked the correct answer...... and thus 'Are you smarter than your 3rd grader?' Uhhh, NO! How's that for confidence in homeschooling your child? :)

A highlight of our day was a visit with Carrie- who homeschools as well-- and it is SO refreshing to find that Elisha might just be 'normal' when he can sit for HOURS and not get ONE thing accomplished regarding school.

These pictures belong on Carrie's blog- but I stole them- LOL! Isn't her daughter the most beautiful little thing? Elizabeth and Lydia scarfed her right up to play with their girly stuff. Jacob kept trying to give her all of his little cars and tractors. Thanks for the visit!

Time to get some studying done so I can be SMARTER than my child!

Update

We're all finally getting back into the post-Holiday, post-Texas groove. Back to the books, lessons, running here and there--- and all the fun stuff that goes along with 4 little ones~

It was great to enjoy some beautiful sun over the weekend because now the winter has set in. This is not my favorite time of year- one of my neighbors summed it up very accurately- I'm a winter-wimp! When the time is right- I'll be one of those snow-birds headed somewhere in the sun-belt ;) I'll try my best not to complain too much during the next few weeks/months...

Elisha and Mark were in a karate tournament over the weekend. They did well, although there wasn't much competition in Mark's age-group. Elisha placed 2nd in Kata out of 6, and 3rd in sparring out of 6. He was proud- so is Mom because I can remember how far he's come from his first class. I threw in some picts from a cozy winter evening at home. Elizabeth and Jacob were coloring on the floor- Jacob was quite excited because he was using markers- and Mom didn't know Daddy said 'NO markers' because he gets them everywhere. That explains his over-excitement ;) How do you resist a face like that--- what's a little marker here and there??? Off to karate practice...

little kids alone on the plane

We were talking about our recent trip to Texas. On one of the flights, our seats were split up leaving Elisha and Elizabeth to sit together. I asked Elisha how he liked it. He said "It was great- there was no one to tell me I couldn't have Coke to drink. And the flight attendants brought us chocolate when we asked for some."

I asked him what he and Elizabeth did-- his reply -"mostly argue."

Ahh to be little :)