Emily's First Grade Year

We'll be starting up school soon. This year, I have one in High School, one in Junior High, and Emily just starting out. She is so different from my other two. She loves workbooks and is one of those kids who makes the mental leap from basic phonics to reading. I honestly don't know how she did it, but she'll take on any picture book we have and start reading getting it mostly right! She also doesn't like to play by herself much, so being with us and having more school work to do will probably be a good thing. Here's what we're hoping to study this year.

Bible: Long Story Short by Marty Machowski - We'll go through this as a family and work on memorizing the book of Philippians. Then while I work with Evan on some English, Amy will read to Emily some of the great Bible devotion books we have for little ones starting with God's Mighty Acts in Creation.

Math: Saxon 1- I love Saxon for grades 1-3, we already have the teacher's book and all the manipulatives, so this was a no brainer choice for me. Emily loves the Kumon books though, and we have several on math subjects, so we'll probably supplement with them as well.

Language Arts:
-Phonics: She finished up Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons last year and just loved it. I'm going to follow it up this year with Phonics Pathways just to make sure she doesn't have any gaps in the phonics and to help her with the more complex words.
-Grammar: We love First Language Lessons. Evan can still chant the list of helping verbs and linking verbs that he learned from this book.
-Handwriting: We'll continue with the Italic series.
-Writing: We're going to try Peace Hill Press's Writing With Ease book 1. I like having a lesson all scripted out for English so I bought the workbook as well.
Spelling: I bought Spelling Power for Evan then realized that it would be perfect for Emily too! She has been asking how to spell out words, so I think she's ready to start a spelling program.

That looks like a lot of language arts for a 6 year old! But most of the lessons are super short and we'll just keep working a little at a time. That's the plan anyway. If God has a different one, we'll change it up.

Science: Amy is studying Biology with friends using Christian Kid's Explore Biology. I'm going to have her follow along and do the coloring pages and experiments with Amy and her friends. If I was just homeschooling Emily, I'd go back to the section in the Well Trained Mind for first year Biology. I loved looking up a different animal each week, studying and reading about them. But I don't thing with everything else going on, that I'll really have time to do that. Plus we already own the CKEB book.

History: We'll be going back to The Story of the World. I loved going through it with Evan and Amy when they were little. Amy was so little that I doubt she remembers much. She'll sit in on it too, and then do some additional work that's more challenging. But I'm hoping that Evan and Amy will sit down with her and read library books about the ancient world.

Fine Arts: She'll be going back to choir and piano lessons. She loved both of them this past year. And we'll keep reading through The Gift Of Music and listening to Classical music. I'd like to have the kids do some painting this year. Since I have no training in that area, I'm not sure yet what book to use. Emily I'm sure would be happy just to paint wooden boxes! She loves to get out the paints.

Emily's Music

Last week Emily started Piano Lessons and this week she started Choir! She's going to have a musical year.

We are also reading together as a family, "The Gift Of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence." Each chapter is on the life of a composer, his story and influence during his lifetime and afterward. The author gives suggestions for pieces to listen too. I've been able to get some CDs from the library that correlate with each lesson. Every Tuesday after lunch we read a chapter and listen to some samples of the composer's music. I let the CD run while we do our art class. I just love this book, written by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson. Ms. Smith had been an opera singer before she got saved and moved to L'Abri in Switzerland. While not a complete overview of music, the stories are interesting and give a good glimpse at the composers lives. This is my favorite quote. "The more we acquaint ourselves with that which is truly great and beautiful, the more we will dislike and turn away from that which is shallow and ugly." Listening to classical music in this way helped our day be more cheerful. And when Emily noticed the bust of Mozart on Jenn's piano and found out who it was, she was so excited that she knew him and had heard his music. She especially loves "The Magic Flute" and the Queen of the Night.

A Big Week for Emily

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;" Romans 10:9

Emily confessed Jesus as Lord this week, praying for forgiveness of sins! We were sitting in the kitchen and she just out of the blue started asking what it meant when people say "Jesus died on the cross". So we talked about sin and how it separates us from God. I got to share the gospel with her and pray with her. She was so excited to be a Christian! I was even more excited for her. I told her that we had the date Amy became a christian written down somewhere. Emily said, " I don't think she's a christian all the time; sometimes she's mean to me." Yikes! So right away I got to explain, in 5 year old words the difference between justification and sanctification.

She also recently learned to shoot the pink daisy BB gun. Every time she shouted, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!" and then shot the gun. I'm pretty sure aiming was optional in her mind. It was all about the yelling.

Finally, it's been a year now since we took Emily off wheat. Since then we've discovered that she is extremely sensitive to gluten which is also in barley, rye and spelt. She may even have celiac disease. I don't know because we didn't have her tested. But when when we challenged her by adding wheat into her diet she had severe flare ups. Now we know that she is sensitive enough to have a reaction even from eating something that was processed on the same equipment as wheat. Going gluten free has been an adventure, but a fun one. And she is growing like never before.

So spiritually and physically, this has been a milestone week for her!

Chicken Coop Condo

For their birthdays this year Amy and Emily asked for chickens. Yes, chickens. Not a Barbie or a My Little Pony, but chickens. Problem was, the chickens needed a place to live. Backyard construction projects are Sean's forte. He likes to build. He needed to build quickly because baby chicks don't stay chicks for long.

Sean designed a big sturdy coop. It took him several weekends to build. Evan added muscle to the heavy lifts. They even added power so that the heat lamp and cooling fans could be plugged in without runing extension cords from the barn.

The result of their efforts is our new "home addition" to house our new "babies."

We selected a small pasture near the barn so that the chickens would be safer (we saw a bobcat out there two nights ago!).



Sean framed up the chicken coop on 4x4 posts. Its heavy duty.



The finished project has eight little doors on the end to make egg collection easier.



There is a cute little door for the chicks and another service door for the little people to take care of the chicks.


Our new additions. There are four Buff Orpingtons, three Golden Campines, four Andalusians, and one that might be a Sussex - but we don't really know. Amy can tell the 12 chicks a part and knows them all by name.


Last week we adopted four grown hens and a beautiful rooster to the mix. They are separated from the chicks for now because, well........ chicks are food to chickens. So the chicks need to grow so they won't be food. The hens are already providing big brown eggs for our family.


We are looking forward to the added eggs once the chicks become hens and lay their own in about five months. I'm sure there will be extras to go around!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

I've been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series to the girls at night. Yesterday we got to live out a scene from one of the books. Laura helped her Pa make hay by trampling it down while he pitched it into the wagon. Haying was a two person job. Well, we actually buy hay for our horses. But our city has a regulation that our weeds have to be cut down so many feet around our property and our house. Evan is out of town, and it's a two person job! So the girls and I helped Sean as best we could. After cutting down so much grass we figured we could at least feed it to the horses. I'm sure glad we don't have to do this in order for our horses to eat. It's a hard job!

The Kid's Bathrooms

The girls are very happy with their muted purple bathroom. It's actually the same paint that we had at our old house in the guest bath. We had a bit left over and this way they can use all my old decorations.

And we got a few new ones as well. I found the cute green accordion hanger at a garage sale and the flower print at a different one.

Evan went for the more sophisticated jungle theme. A friend of ours had the same cute jungle theme in their bathroom so we gave them our towels and bath rugs.

The jungle stuff that we had in the kids bath at our old house from Africa goes really nice with the new updated theme. And lucky for Evan, jungle is really popular right now so it was easy to find new towels that went well and were a little more masculine.

Sean found this great bamboo screen for the window.

We put the mirror from Emily's bedroom in his bath. I think it looks really good!

Up next, the dining room...

Happenings...

*I started this post last Friday, but never finished it because Sean and the girls spontaneously wanted to go camping in the yard. (Evan was away at Yosemite with the Boy Scouts.) Then Emily woke up with a fever and I've had sick girls since! Sorry that this is a bit random. I had intended to write about what happened for that day. Then I didn't finish, and it seemed wierd. But it was already written and I needed a new post!

Sean is off for a week and a half. Since he doesn't get holidays or weekends off, he gets random vacation times. This means that we won't start school officially until September 21st. In years past, this would have bothered me and worried me greatly. God has shown me that it is indeed sinful to worry and strive against my husband's lead. Regardless, we make plans for the year, but God sometimes has very different ones! So I have peace. We will have to hard charge with school a bit this fall to finish strong, but I'm trusting God that He will provide in that area as well. Evan proved last year that he was able to, and we're praying that this will be the year for Amy as well.

We flea-bombed the kitties' room (otherwise known as the Tack Room). They did not like being placed temporarily in the pet carrier. I used it as an object lesson to teach the girls that sometimes we have to do things that kitties (or little girls) don't like, but that we know are good for them.

After playing with Soliel and grooming her, Amy was in need of a shower. Emily had just sat in the dirt making cakes and was filthy too. She decided that she wanted a shower as well. So today she took her first shower. At first she cried because she didn't like it, then she cried because she didn't want to get out! She's giving up naps and we're adjusting. So she has been crying a lot lately!

Amy put on a t-shirt and laughed. Her belly button showed! Since we're not into the Brittney Spears look around here, she put the shirt in the outgrown box. I think the country life is agreeing with our kids. They are growing like weeds!

For lunch we had leftover soup I made last night. Inspired by this recipe, I made use of what we had: homemade chicken broth, chicken (from the same bird), 3 carrots, a potato, a bag of leftover cooked green beans, two kinds of kale from our farmers market and CSA basket, a handful of chopped parsley, a small piece of grated ginger, one bay leaf, and my secret ingredient a tablespoon or two of sweet wine (I used port). It was so good! And I love that it has a lot of calcium from the kale and homemade broth (since I used the bones, not the whole bird).

We are trying to develop better habits in the kitchen. My new motto is: The dishes aren't done until the stove is wiped down. Thanks for your motivaton in that, Paula!

In my quest for healthier cooking and specifically gluten free cooking to help Emily I've discovered a couple of new blogs that I love! They are on my side bar under Cooking Blogs. Enjoy!

Update...

Evan came back from camp taller. He's outgrown all his shoes, so he said I could have his Teva's and we'll buy him some shoes instead!

Amy's math book arrived. Poor girl, she'd much rather just ride horses all day! Yesterday some friends came by and helped us set up a Picadero (a square pen used for horse training). Amy should be able to work with her horse a bit more independently in the near future.

Emily definitely has some allergies going on. We're looking into getting her tested. Because I'm pretty sure her food allergies are delayed, the regular skin prick test might not show much. But she responded really well to going off of wheat. And I found a great lotion. Thanks, Jess.

We're still working on meal plans, but Sean did find a way to get all three trash cans up to the road!

Weighting....

Emily: "What's this mom?"

Me: "It's a weight bench."

Emily: "Oh, to wait your turn?"

Happy Anniversary, Sean! I hope you like your new workout room! One more project complete!

Enjoying Life in the Country

Driving new toys...

Baking cakes...

Decorating cakes...(With a neighbor's flowers)

Painting fences...

Shooting squirrels...

Before...

Evan's "pink" bathroom. Eventually, it will be replaced with a wild African Safari theme. We already bought the zebra stripe towels at Target and my mom brought some cheetah skin fabric to cover his window seat. We laugh that he got such a girly bathroom.

The girls room, which we promptly painted a lovely shade of pale pink. The rest of the house has very interesting and expensive Venetian Plaster on the walls. But for some reason the previous owner decided to paint over it in this room with Laker colors. Bizarre. The girls have a bathroom off their room too, but I don't have a picture of it.

Our bathroom. The toilet and tub are around the corner. It's huge! Apparently the original owner liked pink. The tile is high on Sean's list of things to improve.

This is the guest room. Our room looks pretty much the same.

The upstairs loft in between Evan's room and the girls room.

Evan's bed room.

The kitchen. It's so much bigger than our previous one. I love that. I'm also really enjoying the double wall oven that Sean bought me for a birthday present! The cabinets are really nicely made but it's a bit too much oak for me. Painting them an antique white and adding some hardware is high on my list of improvements.

The mud room. There is so much storage here, it's really nice. And there is a bathroom off the mudroom. It's the only one with a functioning toilet. So realistically, no matter how much we dislike the pink bathrooms, or the oak cabinets, they will have to wait. Getting things up and running will probably take the better part of a year.

The dining room. This is my favorite room in the house. I love the tall windows, the Spanish tile and the color of the walls.

Our two story fire place in the middle of the living room.

Looking down from the loft on the fireplace. I really like that the loft is open with a half wall.

The view from our back porch looking out at the back pastures. The little building in the distance is a shade structure of sorts for horses. The fence behind it is our property line.

Our back porch. Emily has been having a lot of fun playing here. And Evan is having a lot of fun shooting squirrels from here.

It will be a while before I post any after pictures. Things are still pretty disorganized. But we're having lots of fun while we work hard!

When Emily Sneezes...

She lets out a big sigh, and says, "Whew, that was a big God bless you!"

It's really cute.

Red Hats

My parents came down for a quick visit this weekend to see Amy perform with her choir. My mom brought down these red hats she found for a dollar. The girls loved them! They put them on at breakfast and Emily even picked out a red dress to wear to church so she could wear her red hat!

Our Little Ballerina