‘Tis the season….
of campfires,
marshmellows,
the tv set up outside,
teke torches ( I have no idea how to spell that)
and football!!

Our oldest son is a running back and I’m so proud of the way he jukes his way through a field of offending tacklers!!!

Here he is at a recent game….
Oh, and I guess it would help you if I told you he’s the one with the ball #23



For some reason "You Can’t Catch Me I’m the Gingerbread Man" runs through my head when I watch him run.

You go son!  Mom and Dad need all the scholarships they can get to send you guys to college!!!

While I was taking photos at the football game the other night Baby Girl was doing the same thing with my miniature Fuji I keep in my pocketbook. 
I find it so interesting to see things through their eyes when I download them onto my computer.

Here are things through the eyes of a 5 year old on a football evening….
L-Man must have taken this one

No doubt she was the camera holder here:

Let’s see how we look at arm’s length:

Oh and here comes Mom.  Doesn’t she have a beautiful expression on her face.  And notice that fancy orthopedic shoe!!  She’s hot I tell ya!

From Baby Girl……
Bye

This school year has started off with a boom!
I can’t believe how busy life has been.
Football season has also started which makes me and my hubbie fall into the bed EXHAUSTED at the end of every day.
Here’s C-man

And J-Man

And baby girl


And L-man showing off his candy colored teeth….

Here’s the beginning of a hard fought game in which we lost.  Losing is a bummer when it happens over and over again.  That’s C-man again #8!  He’s my main man during kickoffs!

On the homeschool front Language Arts is challenging to say the least as we’ve begun Classical Conversations this year.  I love it though.  It’s great and I can not say enough good things about it.  We go to school on Tuesdays at a local church where all the kids do History, Art, Science, Latin, Geography and a little Math.  Then the older two boys do LA after lunch.  I travel between all the rooms helping support the tutors and learning myself.  Then all  week long we work on the material they were taught plus add Math and Reading.  Our days are longer especially with Baby Girl in K5 now.  Thankfully her work is simple and she is an eager learner.

I’m hoping by the Holidays all will be calm and smooth sailing as we adjust to a new year with different curriculum.

I got a clean bill of health from the orthopedic surgeon today concerning my foot.  The bone has healed and even tho my foot swells he believes I sprained my foot when I broke it and it will just take some time to recover from that.

I return to the dr.  next month to have CA125 blood test and ultrasound done again.  I’m praying the cyst on my left ovary is gone and believing God for a normal test result.

That’s about all going on here (as if that’s not enough)
We’re also on day 2 of one week without TV.
My kids are already behaving better.

IN HIM ALWAYS….

For all of you waiting to hear.  My biopsy was normal yesterday.  My blood test CA125 was elevated above the normal of 35.  Mine was 42.3.
Will retest in one month.
Praying and believing they will be normal then.
More later.
IN HIS HANDS ALWAYS…

I awoke again this morning before any of the kids.  I just couldn’t sleep anymore.  The house is quiet.  I love a quiet house.  It’s noisy all day long, which is okay too with my four plus one more tromping around, but the quiet.  Oh how I love the quiet.  Sometimes I stay up too late at night just because it’s quiet.  It’s the time my soul rests, no one is pulling at me and I can just be me, with God and my cup of coffee.

So, bye for now.
No photos to post today.

We’re doing something different with school this year.  I’m excited and a little nervous.  We’re participating in Classical Conversations this year.  But I’m also super excited that my sister is homeschooling her youngest (who really isn’t young and can drive for pete’s sake)!

But my heart is still longing for the beach!!!!

She isn’t a baby anymore.
She’s growing up.  She fights with her brothers.  She wants to wear her hair in a pony tail if I’m wearing a pony tail.  She wants her sunglasses if I have mine.  She broke her arm.  I broke my foot.  My mom and dad say she’s the spitting image of me at that age.

She’s opinionated.  She knows what she wants.
She very much like me.

God gave us Danielle because Daniel was a prophet in the Bible.  She is named after him.
While I was pregnant with My third born son God told me my daughter would sing for him.  So I naturally thought I was carrying a girl.  Silly me. 

She came last.  She is the 4th born in our family.
But she sings all the time and she loves Jesus.  Her prayers will hush the loudest of rooms.

She’s not a baby anymore but she’s still my baby girl and I love her.

…so you know we’re not at the lake.

But we’ve had lots of fun there this summer.  Two days at the lake are enough to make me want two days at home to recover, sleep in my own bed, not deal with sand and not have as many stinky dirty clothes to wash.

Big news at our house this week…..Baby girl got a new (handed down) bike with training wheels and she’s riding away.  I’ve not taken any pictures of her yet.  The heat outside has been horrible and they usually ride in the evenings when my broken foot has begun to throb.

The older boys have begun a few short non-practices as they call them.  I think it’s just an excuse to get together and throw the football.  But before long I’ll be sweating while I watch them play.  Come Fall Come!

What began as beautiful spring grass that needed to be cut almost every other day has turned into nongrass with brown spot.  It happens every year.

The crepe myrtles haven’t bloomed yet.  We have late bloomers.

My stitches are out.  I’m still wearing what we call my Darth Vader boot.  Two more weeks of that and then back for another xray.  My foot still swells a lot and there is no walking without the boot.  Sometimes on my heel a bit but that won’t carry me far.

God continues to bless our family as we have been able to take advantage of one part of the economic stimulus package……a 35% Cobra payment.  Yippee!!  All the rest is scary but I’ll take what I can.

More later from the sunny and hot south.

I don’t watch the news.  It depresses me.  It makes me want to control all the things I can’t control.  It makes me angry.  It scares me.
So I don’t watch it.

But I am in the know enough to know about Michael Jackson, Farrah Faucette, and the Pitchman passing away this week
So I’m not completely out of the loop.

But I choose to remain mostly out of the loop.
I like it here.
It’s my quiet place.
And tonight I’m so thankful that my Jesus lets me be in this place.
I’m so thankful he’s here with me.
That he loves me.
Just like I am with all my flaws and all my quirks.
And I’m glad I have friends that love me that way too.
They’re “Jesus with skin” to me.
And I just needed to say tonight how grateful I am to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  I love you one and all.
Thank you for loving me.
I have so many wonderful people in my life.
My sister, my friends, my hubbie, my kids and there are times I feel so blessed I could just pop.  I hope that I share that blessing with others and that what The Father gives to me I pass freely onto others.

I wanted to share a family tradition with you tonight.  You saw these photos a year ago too if you read my blog back then.

One of my kids favorite things to do each night while we are at the beach is to go ghost crab hunting.  They always bring home a bucket full of those creepy, crawly critters and each night we say “Wow, that’s the most yet!”

It’s a blast.  I’ve gone with them a few times but I love watching from the deck.
I see little headlamps shining up and down the beach running after crabs.  It’s a hoot to watch from afar.  And my husband has such good netting skills.  If there’s ever a need for ghost crabs we’re your family.

So here’s the crew after a night of “ghosting”