Tile!!

Tile in the kids' bathroom!  It's cold here too!  We had a heater set up but it didn't do much to heat---we had to revert to our layers of clothing!!! Do you see the little bits of grass growing?  It's only to keep the mud from washing out.  It's winter grass---till we plant in the spring!

House pics---just a dusting...like our White Christmas!

 Piano room

 sitting room off of our room

 our fan and below is the hall light--how exciting!

Just a few more pics...more coming.  John is still putting down tile and it's 9:22pm!

Secret Servants

It's December, and I've been thinking through the reasons we do what we do around this time of the year.  Ok, first of all, if you aren't one of those "thinkers"--you know the personality of the melancholy one...they aren't always the depressed ones, but the thinkers-- then count your blessings.  Thinking too much can be a curse.  But, it CAN be inspiring!
Some of things I think of...
----Why do we have a Christmas tree?
----Why do we do stockings?
----Why did we decide on Dec. 25th to celebrate the miraculous birth of Christ?
----Why do so many people "do" Santa?
----Why are gifts such a "huge" or main(even if the gifts aren't big) part of most people's Christmas, even whey they "say" that Christ is the reason for their season?  and how do you reverse this if you started this way and want to change it?
Thankfully, I have my Matthew say something like this---when we set up our nativity scene,  Ah, the real reason for the season.  Priority, yes!
I've done my research on most of these things...and have decided to focus on Worship this Christmas for me and my family.   The hard part is the remembering of the focus!! The girls are playing Christmas songs on their instruments and we are doing a few things to focus on others this season.

 This Christmas, we are doing Secret Servants.  We draw names every Sunday and we "do" things such as, pray for each other, serve each other, give to each other, encourage each other, give back scratches, help with chores, etc.  I have made a word document of these types of actions and printed out multiple words saying these things.  The red heads cut them up for me and we have them in a box under the stockings.  When one of these things are done for our "person" that we drew, we put that word in their stocking.  Last year, we did this with out the words, but with "straw" for the manger  and sometimes the other person didn't notice if their bed was made for them or not.  So, this year, we are making a sort of record of it; not a specific record, just a general one.  Yes, this may be some sort of tooting your own horn, but I hope it's not like that but more a way to show how much we care for one another.

So, I'm biased...Beautiful Niece Esther!

Sweet little Esther is my niece!  She's a beautiful baby!  My younger brother's first wee little one!  Isn't she adorable!  I loved holding her(especially when surrounded by pillows!), babies can get your arms a little tired!  We love our new niece!

Baby Naomi!!!

Naomi is one of the sweetest babies that I've seen!!  She is our good friends' first little one.   The best part, for my girls, is the holding!!  They love baby Naomi and when Naomi opens her eyes, we hope she grows to love the Bulls!

Field trip time

We went to the East Texas Oil Museum(the 6-8th grades) and they reviewed what they learned a few weeks back.  I'm not a big fan of field trips, never have been---even with home schooling.  Usually, I am glad that I took the kids and went, but the first part--planning and going is not my favorite.  Even after this one, I can't say I'm glad I went.  It was a great museum, but without a guide, it was not much other than visual.  I wish I had learned it all over again!  It was neat to see the history of East Texas though.

Painting...

 John wanted the boys and girls to pick out their room colors...so we ended up with spider-man red and blue and....lime green!!!

Brick is all done!!

This is the back view of the porch...and the steps down into the backyard.  The brick we picked is so different than we expected.  (We had a house here in Long-moo picked out---asked the brick companies about it, and they told us what brick it was---well, evidently, if the brick we have is the brick that we saw on the house---the brick varies A LOT!--which is highly likely with this brick) The mortar was wrong also---don't know how that happened either, but it's like God used these mistakes or differences to create a new look and we love it.  When life deals you lemons, rest assured, you can make lemon pie!!!
Texture on the walls is done!!!  Painting begins on Friday!  I cannot believe it's really happening!!
The kids are picking their colors.  Wait for it...lime green for the girls, spider-man red and blue for the boys.  Oh my!  

Science Cell projects

One of my classes that I teach is life science.  These are some of my student's cell projects...they just amazed me.  One of the requirements was they do these without parent help(except if they had to get supplies.).  I encouraged them to use what they had...one of them made a cake cell, one used toothpaste in her project, my own daughter made a duct tape cell.  All but one of the projects were for sure student done...one of them, I don't know for sure.  The questions about why the student made the grade they did tipped me off to maybe some special interest from a parent involved in the project.  But, I could be wrong!!!

More brick!

 I know it's a mess in front of the house, but the brick is up!!

The brick ledge on the front porch was the highlight of my day!  Teaching this year has been interesting.  It's more work than I could ever imagine and the emotions that go with teaching...unbelievable.  I've had a roller coaster week, but I am grateful for a lovely house and a great family.

Matthewism...

Matthew came in after cleaning a room and said, "I have two ideas!"...I had to take a picture!!!

Exciting---Brick and Dry wall!!!

Our brick!!!  mortar may dry lighter(or so I've been told)...I love it!!!  Brick is called Old River, I think.

our room---or at least the ceiling!

our fireplace and built ins!!

our living room...
That's all for now...I didn't go in many rooms...they were working hard and I was told that if anyone got in the way, they probably would be hit by dry wall.

Baby Girl!!!

My new niece!!!  How I wish I could be there for her birth!!!  Our class voted on whether she was going to be a boy or a girl...the girl votes won!  We didn't know the sex of the baby, so this birth was extra exciting!!!  Mom's doing well and I think Dad is proud to be a papa and proud of his wife!

Mark is turning 9!!

 Snuggled in mom and dad's bed!!! 

Mark is turning 9 on Monday, so he had a few people (2 cousins and 2 friends) over to celebrate!

Mark opening presents...

Mark wanted a lego man/Batman cake...so here was the end result.---he told me how to decorate it, and I did it...my ears heard a bit different than he meant, but he was so grateful...it was sweet to watch.    Notice the dead lying down lego---and the robber next to him...Mark's idea!!!  I made some candy lego men...some multi colored, some yellow, red, green....they were tasty and cute!