"Up From the Grave He Arose"

Kendra and Vannan are totally fascinated by sign language. They love the Signing Time videos and have helped teach Joel dozens of words. Kendra just seems to absorb it. I wish she had more chances to practice.

But ...

Easter Sunday they "performed" with Katie and Allison - during the song service.

It was'nt 100% sign language - quite a bit, Kendra just made up.

But you can see that they put their all into it!

And the small congregation enjoyed it.

Matching Colors

I was inspired with this idea after seeing similar ideas on Chasing Cheerios and I think Make and Takes.

They put the paint samples onto clothes pens and a cup and let them match it that way. I didn't have that many clothes pens. I tried to find a swatch for each of the 12 colors we are working on in preschool.

So Joel enjoyed catching the colors and putting them into a bag while I cut them out.

Then we put them out for him to match. Color side up for now. He really enjoyed it, but this corner was a little dark, so he had trouble with many of the colors. The next day I caught him playing it on the table with Kendra, and he was getting the colors connected much easier ... what a big difference a little light makes.

But lights on and sun coming through the windows will increase the temperature of this trailer anywhere from 4 - 10 degrees. And 80 degrees is much preferred to 90, and much easier to get cool later in the evening. Plus the girls room will be another 4 - 10 degrees hotter still because their is only one AC vent to their room - and the dryer vent was cut out of the AC tube to accommodate the dryer vent! So they end up with a lot of cold or hot and dust in their room - and humidity.

But still, it is better than our arrangements 5 years ago. We just need to do more decluttering!

Random Thoughts

Before I forget, I was reading another blog and they pointed out a geneology website that sounded interesting - especially since the girls are suppose to work on their geneologies this summer. It was called Geni.com. So I signed up. And got this message...

Geni Requires Flash & Javascript!
We've built a brand new way to view your family tree. Unfortunately, it seems that you don't have Flash and Javascript installed or enabled, which means you won't be able to see your family tree.
Please install Flash and make sure your browser has JavaScript enabled. If you like, you can try viewing the site anyway.

But I can't run any of that on this computer. Hmmm..... I was showing Tim why I was so frustrated trying to work on the internet ... that little issue above along with problems with Netzero, disappearing dll files, pages that time out too quickly, some problems are because of our dial-up, but most are my computer memory and processor. After a few minutes, he said, "Maybe a better computer is what you need."

I can't believe how much computers have changed in only 5 years. It took 12 years for my first computer to become completely obsolete.

Well, if anyone else wants to try out Geni.com, let me know how it goes. I saw it connects to facebook too.

It has been a LONG week. I'm beginning to wonder if I ever have any other kinds anymore. It's been interesting to have Tim home - normal but strange. The kids were just settling into a new routine with earlier bedtimes and stuff. But how quickly they reverted to staying up later and I've not been able to get out of bed before 8:30 all week - and that was a huge struggle. And it's been harder to get the girls out of bed. I just let Joel sleep, he is usually up by breakfast anyway, and has given up naps.

Tim has 2 new job nibbles. That's about all I know.

I'm now nearly 19 weeks along. The baby is moving (or I'm feeling it) more now. Usually I'm more aware of the baby far sooner than this ... I don't know if the baby is sitting differently or just quieter than the others were. We moved up the next midwife appointment to this Tuesday. Pray for my blood pressure. We are still trying to get the 12 week blood work completed and plan to schedule a sonagram ... we are trying to take advantage of the insurance while we have it. We did pay for it. I told Tim he should try to use the dental one too while we had it, for him and maybe for Vannan to get her 2 baby molars pulled that are wedged between permanent teeth and won't come out. I don't know what our co-pay would be or if we can work it all in by the end of May though. Maybe we can get me some reading glasses too. It's hard to be a reader when you can't see enough to read.

Kendra has been cruising right along this week. She has almost finished her Spelling book - just has to work on a few words to get them off of her list. Right now, she in only 2 months behind in most subjects, and only HomeEc, Polished Cornerstones, and English are WAY behind. She needs to find somebody to sit down with her for a day or two and help her finish her sewing unit. Everybody is so busy, and I don't have room to really get ours out and BOTH of us sit down at it ... not that I'm a very good sewer either.

Vannan has been cruising along. I'm hoping that she is doing alright. Mom has been helping me grade her work - some of the answer keys I can't see well enough to grade anything! Today, she is treating Joel (with Tim) to an afternoon at Kid Station. She got free tickets to go last year at the library reading club. I hope they have fun! The house is SO QUIET.

We are again without electricity in the outlets of the livingroom and total out in the Master bedroom and bathroom. The kids LOVED taking baths by candle light last night.

Tim is working on the driveway - it's water bogged because the road drain ditches are not draining anymore. The girls are working hard on their little garden. It's growing nicely. I'll post some more pictures later. If I can keep this connection (a good one for a change) then maybe I'll catch up on the backlog of pictures!

We are also giving much thanks to God for helping us find the 3 lost library books! Before they had to be turned in for good - we had a week left on 2 of them - they've been missing for nearly 4 weeks! One was found wedged into the foot of Joel's bed, and the other 2 were on his bookshelf. Whew.

Well, I did hear from at least 4 people who do read my blog. So, I'm feeling much less depressed. Thanks for the encouragement.

Verses of the Day

I'm on this "Verses of the Day" mailing through ArcaMax - I'm behind right now by a few weeks, but opened this one up today. It seems fitting considering ....


Trust God
Even when you feel weak and powerless... Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV

__________________ "For affliction does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble sprout from the ground, For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward. But as for me, I would seek God, And I would place my cause before God; Who does great and unsearchable things, Wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth And sends water on the fields, So that He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety. Job 5:6-11 NASB __________________

Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:1-3 KJV

Peg Board and Pegs

Joel had asked to do more sequence patterns, but was frustrated with the small number of cats.

We got several pieces of old peg board from Freecycle, cut them down to useable pieces, and put them behind the couch.

But a few weeks ago, we were able to do an errand day. At the Knowledge Nook, I found a small bag of colored pegs, and we bought them. They look like a cross between a nail and a golf tee.

Joel loves playing with them - and even uses them to add and subtract. He loves numbers and patterns.

Pretty soon, he turned to his second favorite thing to do ... write his name.

He asked for a lot of help - mostly I just talked him through it.

He had so much fun writing his name with pegs.

Can you see it?

When Vannan was finished with her kitchen chores, she sat down to help. They wanted to know how many of each color peg was in the package of 100 pegs. There were 6 colors. They arranged them by rainbow colors.

I don't remember what the finished board numbers were - but they were quite pleased with themselves.

Playing School

Vannan had sat on the bed like this with Joel the day before and completed her Math assignment out loud with Joel.

Joel was laughing and giggling the whole time - and I think Vannan learned more "teaching" it to Joel.


So the next day, Joel brought Matthew along.

Esther tagged along.

They learned some new measurement terms, and giggled a lot.

And Vannan got her math done in record time.

Rope Burns

It's been a hard decade. I'm exhausted holding onto this frayed rope.



I won't even go into the details of it - one bright spot - we had Joel.

We thought we were getting to climb to a better location with Tim's new job - but our climb was short, and we find rope burns on our hands as we slide back down.

What happened?

Tim was denied security clearence at his new job ... now ex job. Because we have a bankruptcy on our records - remember I said it's been a terrible decade.

So after a year of no job, and 5 weeks with a job, here we are again. Tim did sign us up for insurance - so that will pay for tests and a few other things on this pregnancy, and hopefully Vannan a trip to the asthma doctor ... but still, add all the costs and it doesn't add up to what we paid for that insurance. It never does. .... But Tim now does qualify for unemployment again - that had just ran out when he got the job. But who wants to live forever on uneployment? There is still the absolute slimmest of chances that he can be placed elsewhere in the company (but probably in another state) or that the job will not fill and the longer investigation will clear him, but ...





So, we tighten our belts again. Somehow, I think the faster internet, new computer, and other luxuries like a weather proof house will remain pipe dreams. So this blog will remain a sub par and patchy thing. I do my best, but I wonder if anybody even looks at it most of the time. Not for the first time, I wonder if it is a waste of my time? If none of the family I do this for takes the time to look ... then why do it?



I better quit talking ... pray for us - because we sure do need it.