Me and Nanny

Abby and Nanny

Mama and Nanny

We had a good visit today. We hated to leave her. We love you Nanny!

The kids and I visited with our Nanny today.

Last Night We Had Abby's Birthday Dinner plus Branden and Abby Take Their Vow of Purity

Last night we celebrated Abby's 12th birthday with yummy grilled hamburgers and french fries, one of our favorites!  We also had chocolate cake, with chocolate icing and chocolate chip ice cream...yum yum yum. 

Abby got a pretty new pink outfit.

She also got a new cross necklace. 

I think she likes it. 

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Along with Abby's birthday dinner, Abby and Branden signed purity contracts.

 

This is a contract promising they will stay "pure" until they marry. 

Abby signing her purity contract

Abby opening her new purity ring - It says "True Love Waits"

Abby showing off her new purity ring

Branden signing his purity contract

Branden showing off his purity ring - It reads 1Thess. 4:3-4

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We had a great night, needless to say! 

God Bless you all!  Thanks for continuing to follow our story. 

The Robertson's

I just love this new pic of us. I love this man so much.

Harley's New Dog Tag

We got Harley's registration in the mail today! Cute blue doggy tag! Harley Boo Robertson.

A Horsey Lesson in the Neiggghhhhborhood

The beautiful horse and his owner that we got to visit with this morning! His name was Winddancer. The kids just loved it! What a great lesson this on a cool Thursday morning!

Pretty Blooms

Pretty blooms on our crape myrtles. We bought these last year on clearance for 2.50 each. We definately got our money's worth. We have a total of 8 and all survived and are looking great this year. It's like rescuing animals that no one wants anymore and nursing them back to life. Except these are plants! Lol

Our Pond Out Back

Our goldfish and koi pond. We have about 30 fish. The waterfall is so therapeutic.

The Toes Got Some TLC - Thanks Abby!

Piggies are painted.

Abby is now a member of the World Outreach JV Infinity Middle School class!

Abby moved up to the JV Infinity class this week at church and she got this cool new shirt!

We've Been Playing Hooky for the Last Three Weeks =)

Received an automated call from the school yesterday telling me that my child needs her shot.  Ha.  Well, it occurred to me, that maybe I should call the school to make sure they have withdrawn my children from their files.  Well, lo and behold, our kids are still active and on record as being absent for the last three weeks.  =)  They say they haven't received a records request from the homeschool.  I say thank you and I'll get back with you.  Called Homelife and spoke with a nice gentleman who informed me that not only have they requested records, they have requested them twice.  The fax number they have is correct.  He kindly tells me that he will call them himself and make sure our childrens' records are withdrawn and transferred to Homelife right away.  I like them.  I really do.  Yay Homelife!! 

I had read this summer about a family that got harrassed by the truancy courts because of this very situation.  I wish they would show up at our door.  Would just love to mess with them.  "What are you talking about sir, we don't have any children."  LOL  It would be funny.  

Shots anyone?

As if our kids don't get shot up enough (well not ours anymore), there will always be more... One of the very reasons we decided to homeschool.

Click the link below to listen to the following msg that I received from the Rutherford County School automated system today.  Yea right.  You will not touch our children with another poisonious vaccine. 

School Messenger

Brotherly Love (Family Photos at Gregory Mill Park in Smyrna)

Brotherly love. =)

The boys swinging (Family Photos at Gregory Mill Park in Smyrna)

The boys swinging. We played in the splash pad afterwards. The kids had fun!

(Family Photos at Gregory Mill Park in Smyrna)

We had family photos taken today at the park in Smyrna. This is just one I had one of the kids take with my phone. Can't wait to see all the pics!

Such a cutie!

My customers grandbaby that we got to hold and visit with last night. He was so cute. I really needed that.

Melons

Eating our first watermelon from the garden.

Branden making a presentation

Branden's presentation of his paragraph on his love for the Tennessee Titan's and football.

Abby's Globe for Geography

Abby constructed a model of the earth with paper mache made with newspaper, flour/water mixture and paint. I'm proud of her. She did very well!

Remembering my angel today...Julian was due this Friday...but came too soon on April 7, 2010. We love you, sweet angel.

"I feel life is a blessing, no matter how long or short we are allowed to live it here on earth. But the true blessing is being able to go home...our real home...back with our heavenly Father. There are no tears, no pain, nothing but happiness and eternal joy. I have to remember that while my little one is not here with me now. He will always be happy and innocent and pure. None of us here on earth can say that. We have all sinned, we are all sinners. I have a perfect little angel waiting for me in heaven. I miss him terribly so and it's hard to think that by now, he would have been here in my arms. But he is in Jesus's arms instead and those arms are far more precious than mine."

Love these boys!

Tag team Spongebob watchers. My youngest Chase and my handsome husband JR.

One smart little fella!

Chase working on his one's.

Fall Ball is 'Falling' quickly out of my good graces

Just a few hits on this Fall Ball experience.  So far, not a good one, financially anyway.  First off, we paid more for signup for the fall ball season, $70 instead of the regular season $60.  Apparently Barfield/Murfreesboro league is paid more than Christiana, cuz that didn't go very far as far as benefitting the team.  That got the team a shirt and a hat each.  The kids did not even get to choose their own number, so #18 is now #9, for the fall anyway.  That also did not include a name on the shirt.  The family's are responsible for supplying the pants, socks and belt too.  That particular leaque does not even include a trophy for their fall ball teams.  Yea, that was another $10.  On top of all of that, they may have mistakenly paired us with the traveling kid pitch leagues which will slaughter us in the games.  One because this is our first time playing kid pitch, this last regular season was still coach pitch.  We decided as a team we would do the fall ball so the kids could get some early practice at the kid pitch as most were moving up to 9/10 year olds.  The players that we may be up against are mostly 10 year olds that have played kid pitch already.  Something similar happened last year, two mismatched level teams, and two kids ended up being taken away in an ambulance.  So needless to say, I'm not too happy with this whole fall ball experience.  The Cub's first game is tonight, Tuesday, at 7:15pm.  We'll see how it goes.  Please keep our team in your prayers.  Go Christiana Cubs #9!! Woo hoo!! 

Even though I was innocent, her expression was clear

        The kids and I went to the library today to update our membership and start getting familiar with the idea of borrowing books and then taking them back in their original condition.  We'll see about that.  Nevertheless, we had a slightly enjoyable time picking out a book each.  Branden and Abby picked out a chapter book in which they will use for their Reading book for the week.  Zach and Chase picked out a just for fun book.  I got an explorers reference book as that is what our Social Studies is focusing on right now, Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, those old guys.  Well now to the peculiar part of our visit.  After checking out, which if I may stop here and say the checkout process is way cool, we started out the door.  A lady with a handful of books was walking in the door as we were coming out.  She apparently made the beeper thing go off, so naturally we stop and look over to the desk for clearance.  We get the go ahead and start out the door.  Well the natural smart alec in my oldest's son's character said, (in a I'm telling on you kind of tone)"Oh, Mommmm, the beeper went off, you must have taken a book.  You're going to jail now."  All this while a big grin plastered on his face because he was obviously being silly.  Well not according to the lady that was ahead of us. 

She had already charged me with the crime. 

She turned around and looked at me with the expression of, 'I heard your kid, I know you took that book.  You're not getting away with it.  I know you did it.'  It wasn't just one look and she's gone.  She kept turning around and giving me that look like, 'You better take that book back, you thief.'  Wow!  If I ever thought I was unreasonably nosy, she just trumped me by about 10,000.  Just the accusatory glance she kept throwing my way made me sooo mad I was pretty ill by the time we got to the vehicle.  She made me feel as if I had really done something wrong.  I actually stopped in my tracks and took out my receipt to make sure I had checked out all my books, which I knew I had, because I double check everything and did before we even left the library.  I was not pleased with my son and let him know it.  But the audacity of that woman...just gets me cranking how people will judge you quicker than anything when they probably have their own set of problems to deal with.  My reaction to something like that would have been, if she took the book, the Lord knows and she'll have to answer to Him, no sense in me getting involved.  Just makes me so ill how some people think they are high enough to persecute someone else before they even know what's going on.  After careful consideration, I will make it part of our bible lesson tomorrow as a teaching tool.  Because I don't ever want our children to think they are better than anyone else and that they won't be held just as accountable as everyone else one day when the Lord come backs.  Lastly, I would like to thank God that I was able to keep my cool and not let the redhead in me come out.  Because she wanted to...really bad.  LOL  Have a good night all! 

Our Little Athlete

Zach's fall ball uniform. Go Christiana Cubs! Zach's normal number is 18 but we had to settle for 9 for the fall. But as one person told me. It's not about the number. People don't remember the number, they will remember you for what you did and whatever number you are, they'll remember that. So proud of our Zach!

Beautiful water area outside of the Murfreesboro library.

Drivers Ed

See those trees flying by the window?

 Yea that's Branden driving my truck. He's pretty good.

Zach and Branden taking off.

Chase jumps off the diving board.

Zach's dive

Abby doing laps.

Branden doing laps.

The pool to ourselves. Yippee!

1st Day of 2nd Week...Not Too Shabby.

We done good.  We started straight away at 9AM, finished up about 12:45...with 15 minutes to spare.  I'd call that a good start to the week.  Eh?  Well I must admit, the hours of preparation this past weekend really helped alot.  The kids were not sitting around waiting on what to do next.  I was handing them the next assignment before the last was complete.  I was on my game today.  Let this continue throughout this year!  Here, here!  We are spending our PE hour at the pool, doing timed laps.  Then we'll play for a little bit.  Off to the pool we go!

Making french toast before class starts. Yum!

What have I done....

My son, Branden has been begging me to get him Xbox Live.  Well, I caved and got it for him this weekend.  We had to move the Xbox into the classroom since that is where the internet router is.  He hasn't left the classroom yet!!  (Exagerating a bit) 

Branden!  Hello Branden!  Can you hear me??

On a side note, I have restricted xbox play during school hours.  =) 

Birthday Art

Abby bought some paint and stencils with some of her birthday

cash and we had an art filled evening.  Take a look.

~~Our Art~~

~~Abby's Art~~

~~Mom's Art~~

Girl Time

Girl Time - Abby and Mom

Abby and me having some girl time with our

java chillers about to go into the dollar tree!

One of the cute dresses Abby picked out for her birthday! 

(Little Janice, as my mom calls her LOL)

The other one..so cute! 

We had so much fun!  We never get to hang out, just us girls. 

Abby said, "We have to do that again!"

FREE Online Bible Lessons

Found yet another wonderful online resource.  This site offers FREE bible lessons for kids.  Just click the topic and there is a PDF file of an entire lesson with all kinds of activities pertaining to that particular topic; example Creation. Check it out!
http://children.calvarychapel.com/site/curriculum.htm

Guess I'll sleep...

Was busying printing away and then my black ink cartridge pooped out on me...or in other words, it's out of ink.  That means a visit to Walgreens is essential tomorrow, as their cartridge refills are only $10.  Guess I'll sleep since there is not much else I can do this evening...or rather this morning (12:19AM).  Gotta get back to a school hour routine.  This late to bed, early to rise thing just won't work any other way.  Goodnight everyone. 

Off to see the sights of today...at the Murfreesboro Greenway. Ha, I'm a poet! =)

Ever been to the Greenway in Murfreesboro?  It is a great place for exercise, quiet time, exploration, dog lovers and nature lovers!  We are heading out now to visit the Greenway and see what we find.  Here is a googled pic of one of the waterways along the trail.  So beautiful. Enjoy!  We are! 

Online Worksheet Generator

Yet another wonderful online resource that I googled upon.  The internet is loaded with so many helpful tools, if we would just look...or in my case, google.  =) 

http://www.softschools.com/

Zach wanted one of his pictures posted too.  This is part of a bible story book he is making. 

Chase's M Illustration from today..he had a little help from Abby with the cutting.

A bunch of scaredy cats

I feel like Sophia on the Golden Girls about to tell a story...

Picture it. Middle of class. Door closed. Everyone in the classroom busy doing classwork.  I'm standing giving a lesson.  All of a sudden, a slight knock at the classroom door.  You could have heard a pin drop, everyone got so still.  Quickly, the thought ran through my mind, 'Did JR say anything about getting off early?' 'No, of course not.' Plus he would have busted right in to try and catch us goofing off or something.  Another knock, not just any knock, this little tiny eerie knock.  There was so much tension now that I almost laughed from being so scared.  Who in the world was knocking at the classroom door?!?  Next thought, how to not fall into the pond right outside the classroom window when we try to escape.  Then slowly, the door starts to open and before I could hurtle myself in front of my kids, there stands who else....but my rotten mother and my equally rotten nephew, Jayden.  A wave of relief swept over the kids and myself.  Then hilarity took over!  We laughed until our sides hurt.  I am not even kidding when I say, we were sitting in this classroom frozen like a bunch of scaredy cats.  I can't quit laughing, just thinking about it.  My mother of course, scolded me for leaving our back door unlocked.  I don't keep the house locked up 24/7 like Fort Knox like some I know and I still live back in old world times, when you could leave your windows open and your doors unlocked and not worry too much.  But this day, I really should be more aware of keeping the house more secure though, especially when we're home alone without JR.  So the kids are not the only ones who learned a lesson today!  LOL  

Discovered a fabulous online resource

Just have to share this website I just recently discovered.  It is called Head of the Class.  It provides free Ebooks for grades Kindergarten through 4th grade.  Soon, they will have 5th and 6th and by the Spring, 7th and 8th.  Wonderful resource!  Hope it may be of help to other homeschool families! 

http://www.theheadoftheclass.com/SplashPage/SplashPage.aspx

First day officially in the books... =)

I still have the sound of Chase humming the tune to one of our favorite songs, Here I am to Worship by Jeremy Camp while the other three tell him in unison to be quiet, for they were trying to concentrate.  I just shook my head and smiled.  This reminds me that each one of our children learn in a completely different way...hence just one of many challenges that I am sure to face this year.  It doesn't frighten me...yet.  Ask me again in a couple of weeks and that might change.  LOL.  All in all, today was very good.  We worked in all subjects, therefore we went a bit over by about 2 hours. I feel like as time goes on, I may cut some lessons to two or three times a week instead of everyday, like Science and Soc. Studies.  Just have to get a feel of what works for us.  The kids did not mind that the day was long, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, alot.  I seen lots of smiles and laughing.  Something I rarely seen when discussing their day when they were in public schools just last year.  Well, maybe not with Zach, but he could get along with a grizzly bear.  He's such a sweetie.  Chase was whipping right through his work and kept interrupting me and saying, "Can I have something else to work on?"  Umm, well yes sir!  (In reviewing the blog post this evening, even after the day was well passed over, Chase comes up to me and says just now, "Can I work on something else?"  Now that's dedication! LOL) I knew he was going to be smart and is already advanced, so I feel like we might be bypassing 1st grade next year and going right into 2nd.  He gets that from his mommy.  ;) 

Branden and Zach making a journal entry

Their journal entry this morning was what do you want to be after you graduate.  Branden is going to play for the Titans, Zach is going to play for the Braves, Abby is going to be a veterinarian and Chase is going to be a teacher.  Dreams that we will continue to encourage them all to shoot for, even if they change over the years.  Looking forward to what tomorrow brings!  Now I must sign off and grade papers.