A good start to our school year so far

Our school year has been great so far . . .

The workbox system I shared about in an earlier post is working out well.  In fact, when I forget to fill them, my littles quickly remind me to do so!

The workboxes are helping to keep us all on track throughout the day, and my children love to see what I have loaded in each drawer.  So happy about them.

Still loving our "chalkboard" door - very easy to use.  Now my dining room is a nerdy school teacher's dream!  That would be me (the nerdy school teacher), and I love it!  :)

Elijah and his goofy face doing school work.  See the boxes in the background??

Philip on his harmonica before the start of the school day!   :)

Eli's first day at preschool.  He was so excited to go and had a wonderful first day.

Our first field trip of the year - a day at the home of President Benjamin Harrison's home

Listening to the speaker at the Harrison home -

Mary Rose came home the same time Philip did, and she and Sophia are from the same province in China.  Mary Rose claimed Sophia as her best friend even before we brought our daughter home.

So very sweet!

Playing on the lawn where President Harrison's family used to play.

While on the tour of the President's home, I saw a picture of on "older" Benjamin Harrison with a little girl.  I asked about the picture, and our guide replied that was Harrison and his youngest child.  Then he smiled and said, "Yes, he was old enough to be her grandfather!"

I looked at my friend Kathy, grinned, and said that I knew something about that!  Both Kathy and her husband and Kevin and I are "older" parents, too!  Made me realize that we had something very special in common with one of our past presidents!  :)



Attending our homeschool co-op's family picnic.  The children were enjoying a water fight on a hot day!

Lest you think that everything has been sweetness and light, let me reassure you that we have had our fair share of getting adjusted to school time and times where things just don't go according to plan. 

But overall, we are enjoying our time together.  Loving that Kevin and I are able to provide this kind of education for our children.  What a blessing to be free to do so.



Dunk Tank fun!

This is Kevin in a dunk tank at a friend's church's

"Back to School Bash"

This is the line of people waiting to dunk him!

Many are former students who, I am sure, have waited for such a time as this!  :)

Three were our own children who thought this was absolutely the most fun they had ever had!!



This was Kevin after Philip hit the button with his throw!

Nice work Philip!!

Gearing up for another try.

Sophia giving it a try as well!

And Elijah excitedly anticipating his turn, too!

What a fun evening it was.  The family who pastor this church do so much for Kevin's grade school, and their daughter just happens to be adopted from Ch*na.  In fact, the pastor's wife was the one who gave us the name of our adoption agency many years ago!  Thanks Kent and Amy for living out a life in Christ for others to see!

Happy first "Gotcha Day" Sophia Yilin!

One year ago we met a scared, timid little girl . . .

One short year later . . .

Just look at her now!

Oh my,

Look what love can do!

Sophia absolutely lights up our lives.

She is a priceless treasure to us all!

:)



Let the games begin!

Just had to post a picture of our "new" and "improved" homeschool area.  Kevin painted our dining room/kitchen a very pretty shade of green, hung a bulletin board at the end of the room, and painted our door to the garage with chalkboard paint.  The new chalkboard is my favorite part!  Very cool! 

Here is the finished product!  The children and I can hardly wait to begin our homeschool year.  Notice my new "workboxes" too!  I got the idea from "Confessions of a Homeschooler" and purchased Sue Patrick's book.  They are loaded and ready to go for tomorrow morning.


Now if I can just get myself on school time instead of vacation time and get to bed for a good night's sleep!  Don't want a grumpy teacher in the morning!


Update:  Here are a few pictures from the first day of school this year!  :)

My Animoto Video

Below is a link to see the video we made sharing our team's week at Shepherd's Field Children's Village and Agape Family Life House this past June.  It was such an amazing time seeing people who are the hands and feet of Jesus ministering to orphaned children half a world away. 

My Animoto Video

As David Platt writes in his book Radical, " Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names.  They are easier to ignore before you see their faces.  It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms.  But once you do, everything changes."

Our teams' hearts were touched so.

The beautiful children - we know them by name now.

Their beautiful faces - we will always see them in our minds.

The memory of holding them in our arms and telling them we love them and that Jesus loves them - it will stay with us forever.

We are changed, forever.