Rite of Passage

My oldest daughter will turn 13 in December and I have been thinking about a "rite of passage" for her. Things got a little mixed up when we moved to Georgia 2 months ago but here is what I came up with.

Since we are training our girls to be self-sufficient I figured the best rite of passage would be for her to use the home-making skills she has learned. So, for the next month she will be doing things like meal planning and shopping, cooking (breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week), laundry (sorting, washing, drying, folding), cleaning her bathroom, sewing, knitting, changing the batteries in the smoke detectors, and other household duties. We feel that it will be good for her to know that at the age of thirteen she is completely capable of running a household. So far she has been pretty excited and feels good about her accomplishments in the home.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Program

Casey (the angel) & Cody saying her verse

Casey (in the middle)

The girls were in the choir Christmas program again this year, and again, it was spectacular. All of the kids were adorable and there is so much talent in those young people! They sang, danced and acted wonderfully, it was a joy to watch them all!
Cody stepped up to the microphone and said her verse, right on cue. Casey knew her lines, her song and dance number and her solo - she was the "Hipp. She was also beautiful as an angel in the last scene.
We are very proud of our girls and SO blessed to be in such an amazing church that helps them fine tune their talents while teaching them that those talents are God-given and should be used to glorify Him!

New Tradition

This year we have started a new Christmas tradition at our house. We bought a small pre-lit tree and put some very special ornaments on it. All of these ornaments belonged to either my maternal grandmother, my paternal grandmother, or Joe's maternal grandmother. As we hang the ornaments on the tree we tell the girls about our grandparents and other Christmas memories we have from our childhood. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see that our grandmothers had some very similar ornaments. The girls enjoyed it this year and we hope this is a tradition that they can continue when they have children of their own!

New Chapter

Well, we have entered a new phase in our lives. Our oldest daughter now has a cell phone.
We wanted her to have one for emergencies and found that it was cheaper to add a phone to our account than it would be to get a pre-paid phone, which we had originally considered. Now that she is a middle-schooler and is doing more things on her own we felt it was finally time.
We are approaching it as a test for her. As long as she is responsible and follows our rules, (actually we are going to write up a contract) she will continue to earn more responsibilities. She is only allowed to call the people WE have programmed into the phone and is not allowed to send or receive any text messages. We are thinking of it as a rite of passage for her good behavior, good grades, and general helpfulness lately.
We think she is ready and feel comfortable with the boundaries we have set. Still a little nervous about it though!
I will keep you posted!

Field Day

Last week the girls attended the area wide homeschool Field Day. There were a couple hundred kids and lots of family and friends there. The girls had so much fun and always look forward to it.
The things I love about it are:
FRIENDS! (Mine and the girls')
Kids who did not know each other were pairing up for team competitions
I heard NO bad language at all
Kids were cheering for each other
I did not see anyone making fun of anyone else
Lots of good sportsmanship
Lots of fun and good exercise!

Casey won 1st place in the 3-legged race with her friend Addison,
she won second place in the back-to-back with her friend Alyssa,
she won third place in the girls team relay with Addison and a girl she did not know, and she ran a mile.

Cody won a first place ribbon for participation,
second place ribbons in the 1/4 mile run,
backwards run, girls team relay with her friends Camille and Prairie, the frisbee throw, the hula hoop, and a third place ribbon for the short yard dash.

Good Friends!

It was fun and exhausting and we need an entire year to recover and be ready for it again next year!

Guest Writer

My husband posted a funny story on Facebook and I thought I would share it here as well.
Enjoy.

Starlings and the Dryer Vent Love Shack - or - Bye, Bye, Birdies... (Your choice, but personally I like the first one.)

Yesterday upon arriving home from my dungeon of a dead end job my girls said, "there's something making weird noises in the laundry room." The Dad Man (that's me) springs into action. I walked into the laundry room expecting nothing and thinking that they were hearing things. To my surprise I did hear a faint scratching in the vent. I left Casey in the laundry room with instructions to turn on the dryer on my command. I went outside and raised up the little door on the dryer exhaust vent to told her to turn on the dryer. Immediately I was plastered in the face with a wad of freshly cut grass. Beautiful... at least I have learned to keep my mouth closed while looking up! After wiping all the grass off my face, blowing the dirt of my glasses, and reminding myself to control my tongue I stomped back inside to the laundry room. After a brief moment of dragging all the laundry room stuff into the hall I wrestled with the dryer. It lost, and inside of five minutes I was headed back out the door with the dryer vent hose in hand. Back inside two little girls were pouting and saying, "what about the baby birds Dad?" I stomped my way across the back yard and out the back gate all the while muttering to myself, "no darn Starling nest is gonna cause my house to catch on fire no matter what!" (Before everyone gets fired up about baby birds... Starlings were not native to North American and were imported by an European immigrant. I'm not a fan of non-native avian species.) (OK, everyone breath now and stop looking up the number to PETA.) I proceeded to dump the rest of the grass, that did not land smack in my face, out of the vent hose. To my girls delight, no babies and no eggs. Apparently my sacred dryer vent was just a tunnel of love at that point. Well, one thing lead to another and I ended up getting everything back together. All was well and the Love Shack was closed.

Yea, right... My dear wife of almost 17 years calls me at 7:15am. She had been bounced out of bed at 6:15am to a horrendous noise. Needless to say no one at my house was singing "Kum-ba-Ya" early this morning. The Love Shack was open and the band was rockin'. Apparently this one went up to 11! (Shameless Spinal Tap reference.) She ran Mr. and Mrs. Starling out of the vent pipe and then proceeded to tape the little flappy door shut with electrical tape. (Yup, that's my girl. She sure showed those amorous avians.)

Yet, The Dad Man's job is never done... So again, I spring into action. With 1/2" expanded metal, a plasma cutter, two vise grip clamps, a piece of angle iron, two different hammers, a wire feed welder, and a little galvanizing spray paint the permanent closure sign was posted on the front door of the Love Shack.

Now we can sing "Kum-ba-Ya". Mr. & Mrs. Starling were pretty torqued, but I'm sure that found someone else's dryer vent. I'm feeling good that my drier vent hose won't be catching on fire anytime soon. The girls were glad that, "no animals were harmed in the making of this story". And hopefully my Mrs. will get to sleep a little longer in the morning.

Chicklets

This is for those of you old enough to remember Chicklets. We used to get them when my parents would go through the Drive Through at the bank.

Joe: "Cody, we have GOT to pull that tooth, it looks like a Chicklet hanging there!

Me: "Joe, they don't even know what Chicklets are!"

Cody: "Yes I do!"

Me: "No you don't, you've never even had one."

Cody: "So, I know what it is!"

Me: "No you don't!" (beginning to laugh)

Cody: "Yes I do.....it's a baby chicken!"

All: HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER

Easter Traditions

Every Easter we do some of the same things that a lot of families do, we dye eggs, have an egg hunt, and read about Jesus.
Some other things we do are a little more unique!

1. We fill the girl's Easter baskets (yes, we tell the Bunny that we like to fill them ourselves) then we hide them so that in the morning they have to first find their baskets. They LOVE doing that!

2. They normally get a new set of summer pajamas in their baskets.

3. We go through our set of Resurrection Eggs that tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

4. Easter Eve we "egg" a few people's houses - no, it's not what you are thinking - we put filled plastic eggs in the front yards of a couple of people we know, changing families each year. This was actually started by a neighbor of ours who did it to us a couple of years ago. The girls LOVE secretly putting eggs in their friend's yards. Oh, we always leave one large egg that tells the family who did it so they won't freak out about letting their kids eat treats from an unknown source!

5. When we come home we make Easter Story Cookies (recipe can be found at http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/recipes/drop/easterstorycookies.htm).
As we make the cookies we read Scritpure about Jesus' death and resurrection that correspond to the ingredients going into the cookies (meringues actually).

6. And, of course we head to church in the morning after eating a cookie or two!

7. After church we have lunch and then our big Easter dinner in the evening with our china and crystal. Now that we are vegetarian we do all of the side dishes that we did before, but we don't have ham like we used to! Our menu this year is: sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing (Joe's grandmother's recipe), crescent rolls and chocolate pie. Actually, that is the basic menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas too with a couple of variations!

We always want the girls to remember that Easter is about our Savior and are always looking for new ways to do that. Any ideas?!

P.S. I will try to post Easter pictures tomorrow.

Toothy

Cody just lost her first tooth! (With the help of her dad!)
Oddly enough it is a top tooth. Most kids lose their bottom 2 before their top 2, but that's our Cody - doing everything in her own special way!
It makes me sad when they lose their first baby tooth, their toddler smiles are gone and it, in some strange way, is the beginning of really growing up.
But, it has to happen and we are happy that it finally came out! She was beginning to look a little like Nanny McPhee with that one tooth sticking out farther and hanging down lower than the others! She would even walk around the house saying, "Hello, I'm Nanny McPhee." with the accent and everything!
Her new smile is beautiful and she had a great time showing it off to all of her friends and teachers at our homeschool co-op!

Flashback Friday - My Kids

Locks of Love

Last month Casey made her second hair donation to Locks of Love. This time she gave over 12 inches of her hair! She had been growing it out for a year and a half and finally decided it was time. We had a bad experience last time with the salon that we went to so I cut it myself this time. She LOVES her new haircut and can do so much more with it. I love that she did this, it shows that even a child can make a difference in someone else's life. She is learning that sacrifices are good and that she can give just as much as any adult, sometimes more.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

She's Black?!

Casey babysat 2 sweet, sweet kids last night at our house. The little girl who is 5 began telling me about our new President. She informed me that he is an African-American (in case I did not know!). As we began discussing how far "black-skinned" people (as she put it) have come in America and the equality they have acheived my 5 year piped up, "I don't think I have any black friends." Knowing full well that she does I said, "Baby, yes you do! Trinity is your friend, you play with her every week and she is black." (Technically Trinity is mixed but she has the beautiful brown skin, dark, dark eyes, and crazy cool curly hair!) Cody replied, "She is?!"
Then Casey said, "Oh yeah, and Addison is African-American too! I don't even see her as black, I forget that she is because she's just.....a friend!"
So we begin talking about all of our friends and neighbors who are African-American and they keep saying things like, "Oh yeah!" and "I always forget that!"

So here are 2 things I learned last night:
1. That I don't want my kids telling people that they don't have any black friends, because they do!
2. That it is AWESOME that they don't see their friends as black, white, Hispanic, Latino, Chinese, Armenian, German, Liberian, Russian, Panama Indian, or Native American, they see them for who they really are.....friends.

SNOW!!!

I love snow. I love everything about snow, the ways it feels, the way it smells, and they way it sounds under my feet.

Last night I forgot all of those things as I made my way home from Franklin in the snow. Normally, it is a 25 minute drive. Last night, 2 and a half hours. TWO AND A HALF HOURS! People were either driving 50 miles an hour on the wrong side of the road or 2 miles an hour causing everyone to stop and go, stop and go. Some people were sliding off the road while others, it appeared, just randomly drove off the road on purpose. There was a lady behind me at a stop sign. I turned right and stopped because all of the traffic in front of me had stopped. All she had to do to turn right was follow my tire tracks in the snow. But no, she decides to make a really sharp right turn immediately after the stop sign (maybe thinking there was a shoulder there?) and she bails off into the ditch. Her car is at a 45 degree angle, in the ditch! I have no idea what some of these people were thinking last night, we only had an INCH and a half of snow!

Anyway, this morning I woke up with a much better attitude and my renewed love of the snow. The girls have been outside already, throwing snowballs, ice skating in the coul-de-sac, making snow angels and a tiny little snowman. We laughed and played and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the snow crunch under my shoes. It is beautiful, the sun is shining on the snow and it is perfect!

Birthday

Monday was Casey's 11th Birthday and it was a really good day! We had cake and ice cream and she received gifts that she absolutely loved! A digital planner, a Nerf Target game, $50, a gift card to Target, and a gift card to Marble Slab.
What more could an eleven year old want? (Other than a cell phone which is not happening quite yet!).
I am excited to see her grow and mature, she is such a cool kid! And I am a little sad to see her grow up so fast, she is already looking forward to driving and college - slow down a little!
Most of all we thank God for giving her to us and all of the special times we get to spend with her.
Happy Birthday Casey!

Cow Hearts

As you may know, both of my daughters are homeschooled.
Yesterday at our homeschool group they got to experience something really cool. In their Zoology class they were able to pet a pig and a goat since they had learned about them that week. They have both milked a goat and fed baby goats with a bottle. Cody learned, through hands-on experience, that pigs have hair and that goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Goats also chew their cud, or as Cody says - they swallow their food, then spit it back up then swallow it again.
Casey had the chance to dissect a cow's heart in her class. She thought it was awesome. She also thought it was cool that she was not grossed out, but some of the boys were! Evidently, dried cow heart fat looks very similar to Feta cheese. Who knew?
Overall, yesterday was another great day of homeschooling!

HAT TRICK!

Our 5 year old, Cody, is the tiniest girl on her soccer team. She is also generally the smallest girl on the entire field during games. However, she has an advantage she has Super Speed (she will tell you that is her super-power). And she is right. Those little legs can run!

During today's game she scored 3 goals. Not three accidental goals either, these were dribble the ball down the field, around the other teams' players, to the middle, shoot and score goals.

It was fun to watch her go!

October 31

Casey & Cody

Beaver & Snow Princess

Our family walked around the neighborhood last night with a bunch of our neighbors, many we had never met before. The girls had fun and it was cool to get to know people a little more. One neighbor friend of ours was giving away free hot dogs and drinks and their driveway became a great gathering place. That was the point. To get neighbors together to meet each other.

We normally don't "do Halloween", but it was a wonderful opportunity to get out and visit.

Photography

Casey is really into photography. This is a photo she took last Spring in our backyard bluebird box. This photo was one of 10 winners in the Nashville Public Television's Kids photo contest! We were told there were hundreds of entries.

She won a free trip to the zoo to take close up pictures of animals there and received an enlarged copy of her picture.

Below are some pictues she took last week, hope you enjoy them!

Special Offer for Casey

A cool thing happened 2 days ago.
I received a phone call from the girls' choir director at church. She would like for Casey to be in a choir teacher training video. The teacher could only choose 4 kids from a choir of over 100, and she chose our Casey! She is SOOO excited, partly to be chosen, and partly because she will get a little paycheck for participating that day.