New Series at Elevation

GIVE.ME.FAITH. opening video from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Three Years Old

Brotherly love...

I just got this email from Andrew's mom describing the conversation her husband had with Joshua this afternoon when they were all out playing.

Steve: Josh, do you want a popcicle?
Josh: No, I've had enough sugar for one day
Steve: Well, can Caleb have one?
(Caleb gets really excited here...)
Josh: No, he's not allowed to have one either.
Steve: Did your mom say he can't have one?
Josh: No, but if I can't have one, he can't have one.

ps. For those of you who are feeling sympathetic toward my poor son for being deprived of a popcicle, he had just had an ice cream cone prior to going outside...an hour before dinner I might add.

Back to school

Well, I have to confess, contrary to popular opinion, I'm really excited about school starting up again & getting back into a daily routine. I've been spending the last few weeks preparing, planning, & organizing which has just fueled my excitement about all we're going to be learning this year. Joshua will be studying early American history as we read stories about the first pioneers & pilgrims. We've already started reading Squanto this week which is the first thing he asks to do every morning and complains when I stop reading. I love seeing him excited about learning! Caleb wants to get right in on the action. It's going to take a little creativity on my part, but I'm hoping to discover along the way how to include him in what we're doing. For example during our geography lesson, Caleb searched for all the A's on the map while Joshua pointed out all the continents. It wasn't what I had "planned" for him, but it worked & he felt like he was "doing school" with big brother.

Joshua was excited about starting school too, but for one reason and one reason only: the Owl Pellet.

What is an owl pellet you ask? An owl pellet is what your 6 year old son decides he wants to buy when you give him extra money to buy "anything he wants" while mom is gathering curriculum and supplies at the local homeschool store. An owl pellet is NOT an interesting book about space (his favorite subject). Nor is an owl pellet a fun math or phonics game, an interesting puzzle, or anything else from the myriad of educational findings you would expect him to chose from. An owl pellet is "a mass of undigested remains of a meal that is regurgitated by an owl after consuming it's prey; mostly consisting of bones and fur" The goal of this activity is to dissect the owl pellet, remove the bones from the mass of regurgitated fur & compare them to the chart provided, thereby concluding what type of animal this owl consumed. Now those of you thinking, "This is NOT the Joshua I know and love, who demands a paint brush with his finger paints & won't touch dirt without a shovel, never fear! He is still alive and well. As you will see in the following pictures, even though it didn't stop the dissection, he was quick to ask for safety gear i.e. gloves, as soon as he opened that enticing little foil package.

Warning: the following images may not be suitable for those with weak stomachs.

Here he is seperating out all the bones and matching them to the pictures on the chart to identify the prey as either a rodent, shrew, or mole. It was actually pretty amazing to see how many bones he found. Below you can see the skull he uncovered. Looks like a rodent! Awe, how cute!

Here are some pictures of another favorite activity of the week.

Joshua completed his tee-pee with a fire pit. :-)

They spent the rest of the day playing "white men & indians".

And here are some pictures of our comic relief:

So that's a small glance at our first week of a new year on the homeschooling front. There are already kinks to work out, chores to be rearranged, and plans to be tweaked. But I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for us this year. As hard as it is to see them grow up, I'm so thankful I'm able to be right in the middle of the process! I was so encouraged by my friend, Amy's blog post today. You can read it here. Regardless of the fact that she is my "homeschooling hero", you don't have to homeschool to appreciate her thoughts on our children. You may want to grab a tissue! And if you have a daughter (I'm still getting used to that one!), please read this. It's beautiful. What a blessing to be entrusted with these precious lives!

She's got legs!

The highlight of our first week back in school! Science - check.

The Great Star Wars sleepover part II

I'm letting Alison do the work for this one. Click here for scenes and hilarious commentary on Joshua's fun filled evening with his "best buddy" and his "best, best buddy".

Trip highlights

So after two years, we were finally able to make it home to Texas. Even though we could have done without the 100+ degree heat, it was a great time with family and friends. You can read about the first few days here. Here are some of the highlights from the rest of our trip:

-Pool party and dinner with precious friends.
-Celebrating my sister in law, Kelly's birthday with her.
-Enjoying a family reunion & amazing fish fry with Aunts, Uncles, & cousins (& meeting our newest family member, Dax)
-Throwing my beautiful sister a baby shower to celebrate their first little miracle. I'm going to be an aunt!!!!
-Going shopping with my mom & sis. (The men were there too, but their job was childcare - yay!)
-A couple of days of golf for D (before 7am so it wasn't quite 100 degrees yet)
-Going to the flight museum with Grammie & Granddad. Afterward, Joshua built a model airplane with Granddad of the B25 Mitchel, the plane Joshua's Great Granddad flew in WWII.
-Getting to go out for a quiet evening with my hubby while Grammie & Granddad babysat.

So those are the highlights. You can see the plethora of pictures here. There were a few snags along the way: Joshua throwing up in the back of Aunt Kelly's car (we love you, Kel!) The 100+ heat (did I mention that already?), both boys getting car sick in Grammie & Granddads RV, & Caleb getting a nasty burn on his arm that required a week of gauze dressings. But hey, what would a vacation be without a few stories to tell. I may be a Nuzum but I still have certain Peek genes that are specific to vacation disasters. Oh, it's true - just ask my parents. It's a miracle we're all still alive to laugh about it...and laugh about it we do.

We did come home to a wonderful harvest of tomatoes & cukes from our garden (thanks to our precious neighbors who kept it watered for us - thanks Al!) We've been eating salad every night & Joshua gets so excited to go out & pick them each night for dinner. We didn't have a perfect garden. We lost our carrots, broccoli, & lettuce, & got bugs on our pole beans. But for our first time, I would have been excited about one tomato! The best part was planting it with Joshua and watching his excitement grow right along with the garden!