Happy Birthday to our ten year old!

Happy Birthday to our precious B!!  This is one of my favorite toddler pictures of her!

This is B and Mommy before a special mommy/daughter tea several years ago.

Today, for her birthday, Stef made B a mickey mouse pancake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to our precious girl!  As is our custom, she does not have to do chores or school on her birthday, so she has dressed up with her sister as princesses and queens, and now they are doing crosstitching together.  It is fun to have little girls!

Happy Birthday Bonnie!

Stefanie just pointed out to me, that today is Bonnie Blue's one year birthday! Happy Birthday to our very special border collie. And yes, Bonnie, I don't mind if you lick my toes...unlike SOME people (you know who you are!) :)

Introducing...FairOaks

We took Stefanie to see FairOaks on Thursday.  We heard back from the appraisal and everything is a green light!  So it is time to begin packing in earnest.  We close in a week and a half, Lord willing!  Stef took more pics of the house when we went Thurs. so I am posting her blog post here....

Yesterday we all went to meet the Realtor at the new house to take measurements, decide who got which room, and so I could see it for the first time.

FairOaks - the house that will become home next month, Lord willing.

The back view of the house.

The barn. I tried exploring, but didn't get far, it wasn't the right kind of place for walking around in flip flops...

Jenny's parents and the Realtor, Cecile on the front walkway.

The children on the porch steps.

The front porch.

Pocket doors between the two living rooms.

The beautiful kitchen - I know I'll enjoy working in here:-)

This picture doesn't show it, but the kitchen was so nice and bright. I love lots of big windows.

Cool little drawers under the kitchen cabinets.

Almost every room has a fire place.

I like the mirror over this fireplace.

The stairs.

Looking down over the railing.

One of the bedrooms - I forget which one.

Another pretty window.

The upstairs hall. The doorway you can barely see to the right opens into what will be the schoolroom, the middle one will be mine, and the left - the boys.

My room - the door leads out onto the balcony.

The fireplace in my room. The house I spent most of my growing up years in, up in Culpeper County, VA was built in the 1800s and the bedroom Becky and I shared had a fireplace as well. It was always fun to decorate the mantelpiece.

Another view of the room that will be mine - the reason I'm including pictures of different angles is that I've asked a couple friends for advice on what I want to do with it.

The balcony that opens off my room. For some reason this is making me think of the story of Romeo and Juliet - there's your random thought of the day:-)

The view from the balcony.

The huge old oak in the back yard.

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So there you have it folks...for the next few weeks you can find me somewhere buried in boxes..very happily, I might add.  :)

Friday Happenings

It's fall time, and with fall you have to do some "autumny" type things.  I realize that it is good for my children to have a break up from the same ole' day in and day out of life.  So this is what we are doing today..

Yup, it's a ten acre corn maze!  Now there is also a mini-maze, hayride, petting zoo and active bee hive.  Not to mention we are going with the V family, so there is sure to be lots of playing, laughing and just plain old fun involved. 

Tonight we are going to watch Robin Hood as a family.  We have been waiting since it's release to watch it, but clearplay was delayed in putting out their filter.  Clearplay makes it "family friendly" by taking out any unnecessary blood, bad language, etc.  It's finally out and so, much to the delight of the boys, we are watching it tonight. 

I have not even told the children yet, that we are going to Stewart Farms to go through the maze...in a few minutes I think there is going to be some excited youngsters around here! 

Mt. Willbek and Mt. Confederate

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have recently been studying Mt Vesuvius

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Here is W and B making their volcano.

The others are making theirs as well.

Here we go...

Eruption!

I am glad we don't live at the bottom of that mountain!

Now for the second volcano...

Whoa!

Fun for all and alot of learning going on too.  As D said it "Thanks mom, for letting us experience that!"

A "Perfect" Home

 One of the blogs that I follow is A Wise Woman Builds Her House.  These are portions of two posts today that encouraged me.
 As I dream of setting up my new home and the perfect order I am going to establish there (smile) this is a good reminder of what really matters.  Enjoy!
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What I want you all to know though as we embark upon this wonderful journey is that this section will not be provided so that we will become discouraged in not having perfect, beautiful homes or perfect homemaking skills--it is here so we may learn from one another and apply our knowledge to richly enhance our own homes. We must understand that being a domestic artist is an entire life's journey--a progress in the making just like everything else.

True homes are made with love, centered with Christ and are focused upon the people that live there. We must be wise when we look to the world's definition of homes when we are bombarded by glossy images of perfect, immaculate homes with all the trendy furniture and latest decor. Those things are certainly nice and desirable but that is not what ultimately makes up a home. We need to keep a balance--striving for an orderly, peaceful and comfortable home but not falling prey to our desires for perfection or pressure from the outside world.

I like this quote Mrs. Chancey shared recently and I am sure many of you will share a sigh of relief upon reading it:

"Clutter is the poetry of our homes. It is an intimate view that is not always perfect--a few dishes in the sink, books piled next to the bed. Everything in its place may give a certain satisfaction, but a lived-in room exudes comfort and warmth." ~ Mary Randolph Carter  


And it also exudes that wonderful fact that a family lives there! This is how I want us to truly look at our homes. Imperfect but yet eternal artwork that is about to be unfolded. A wonderfully exciting place where hearts are knitted and everlasting memories are made. Homes that are lived in by real people!
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...before we can say that we have realized the ideal of a true Christian home, we must prove its spirit. What impression would our home and its like make upon a pure and simple-hearted child?

We may build a palace of marble. We may fill it with the rarest beauties of art. We may adorn it in the most luxurious fashion. We may furnish it in the most costly manner. It may be perfect as a gem in all its appointments, a piece of art in itself. Then our home-life may be as stately as royalty itself. There may be the most perfect order, the loftiest courtesy, the utmost precision of movement. Each member of the family may fulfill his part with unfailing promptitude.

Bring in the child and ask it what it thinks of your home. "It is very beautiful," responds the little one. "It is very grand. It is a palace. Does a king live here?"

You turn away disappointed. You have failed to make such a home as you wished. You have piled up grandeur; you have made a splendid piece of art; you have succeeded in setting up a model which all will admire; but you have not made a home of love, of tenderness, and of praise.

You begin anew. You do not seek this time for grandeur. You build your home with taste and thought. You put into it as many lovely things as you can afford. You set up your household life and fill it with the spirit of prayer, of love, of gentleness, of unselfishness. Again you call the child. She moves up and down, in and out. She sleeps under your roof; she eats at your table; she tastes of your pleasures; she mingles in the life of your household. You ask her what she thinks of your home and she replies, "I think Jesus lives here!"

It is not the grandeur that impresses her now, but the spirit that dwells within; not the stateliness, but the affectionateness, not the courtliness, but the sweetness. She finds love everywhere---love that shows itself in tone, in act, in look, in word and in countless little manifestations of thoughtfulness and unselfish tenderness. It impresses the untaught feeling of the child as a home like that in which the Master would live.

This is the true test of home-making. It matters not how little or how much of grandeur, of luxury, of costly adornment there may be. Money and art can do many things, but they cannot make a home. There may be more of the spirit of a true home in a lowly cottage or in the one room where poverty finds a shelter, than in the stateliest mansion.

--JR Miller, The Family

History Lesson

Today we had a productive lesson in history on the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii and the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.  I wish there was a way to insure that all of these important facts and lessons stick in my children's brains because it really is so useful, as well as fascinating.  One of the things I love about Mystery of History is that I can do it with all my precious students at one time.  Even H gets into it sometimes...straining to see and wondering if that is where the fire comes out of the volcano.  After our reading lesson, I went to my computer.  What a resource we have nowadays!  I found a virtual tour of Pompeii, and a discovery channel short documentary given from the perspective of a young survivor of Pompeii.  We also saw some videos of volcanoes erupting.  I am looking forward to getting into our new home (Lord Willing) where we will have no download threshold for our internet, so I can utilize even more fully these teaching opportunities on the web. 

So there is your history lesson for the day!

Pictures of the house

I thought that I would post a few pictures of the new house for those of you that were interested (especially my Grandma!)

This gives a nice view of the front porch.  Just waiting for some rocking chairs, don't you think?

The master bath

Kitchen

This shows the side portico...where the carriages used to pull in and drop off people.  I think I will put a table and chairs under it.

Every room has a fireplace..this is going to be the formal room ...

or Mommy's "parlor"

The front hall staircase

This shows you some of the bedrooms upstairs

 

 

 

 

We are still waiting on a couple things...the appraisal has to be done by the end of the week, but we may not hear on it till the beginning of next week.  This is teaching me patience, patience.  :)  I am slowly beginning to do some packing.  Can't wait till it is all in full swing.  We are going back in the house to do some measuring, etc on Thursday.  Stefanie will get a chance to see it then, too.

In other news...
E had her second round of dental work done this morning.  They sedated her this time, but it was still pretty traumatic for her.  She is doing ok though, and going to take a nice nap this afternoon.  I can't get her full though.  After not eating or drinking all morning, she has now had second helpings on ice cream, 2 applesauces, 2 scrambled eggs and 2 packages of instant oatmeal.  :)


Must run for now!