Friday Funny

 Amazon has everything!  Well, like toys and stuff, not love, but you probably know that.  That comes from God.

A Bit Lately

 We’ve had a lot going on around here!

Gabby and some friends played with makeup! 😮. She’s been working with some friends on both the Pet Care and Money Management badges with some friends. After they finished up one evening, they had some fun.

Lucy was spayed.

Our family was able to light the first Advent candle at church.

We learned about Purim and made cookies to share with our friends.  We decided our friends live entirely too far apart, as we were dropping things off all over creation!

Ellie was asked to walk Brandy (the dog) down the aisle at a friend’s wedding next fall.  Brandy, who was originally socialized to be a seeing eye dog (but was not able to pass some of the requirements), so she is such an amazing dog, will be the ring bearer.

And these gals were asked to be bridesmaids.  They are so excited.

Ellie lit the joy candle in Children’s church.

We looked at the planets by telescope

I took Ellie out for cocoa and to have the Santa talk.

There were lots of unusual activities, like outdoor Christmas parties this year.  Masked events.

Ellie picked out a dress for the wedding, and had some fun with photo editing.

A puzzle over our Christmas break.

Thankful for (in no particular order, mostly)

Jesus

 A house full of people I love

Our extended family

Our church

Our small group (which we’ve been with for eight years!)

A puppy (who likes me best)

Home schooling before this mess of remote school started, so it wasn’t so challenging for us

Tapestry of Grace

Genuine ‘thank yous’

AHG

Trail Life

Food to eat

Clothes to wear

Heating and air conditioning

Giggles 

Books

Coffee

Fuzzy blankets

Flip flops

Smiles

Photographs, to freeze moments 

Health

Half Way Through the TOG Year

 ...not to be confused with halfway through the school year.

We are in Tapestry of Grace year one, for the second time.  If you aren’t familiar with classical education, there is a four year cycle of roughly: ancients, Middle Ages, early modern, and modern.  Then children are divided by grade/ability in Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric.  Each child would, if beginning in first grade, make their way through each rotation three times at different levels, gaining more depth each time.

I’ve found we could combine a couple of the weeks this time to give us more flexibility in our schedule for field trip or project days later.  So last week we reached the end of TOG week 18.   87 days of school, then.

In high school we’ve read Egyptian literature, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.  They’ve all read Greek myths, studied the ancient cultures of Sumer, Egypt, The Maya, China, Israel, and Greece.  We’ve written poetry, labeled maps, and learned to write reports of various types.  Katie studied essay tests, Nate studied outlines, and Gabby covered persuasive essays.

Poetry Tea

With their own poems to read.

Drama masks

Overseen by Gabby & created by Nate and Ellie

A salt map of the Near East by Ellie & Gabby (FYI, while it might look like icing as it dries, it doesn’t taste like icing)

Gabby & Ellie reading about King Solomon

I do love ancients!!

Eleven

Happy Eleventh Birthday to our only boy!

He loves adventure,

Making things with his hands,

Reading, especially if it isn’t assigned,

And being outside.

He is rough and tumble (climbing before he could walk—ack!),

Takes care of Ellie,

And is a great companion.

Love you always, Nate!  And love seeing who you are becoming.

Fall is for Camping

 In the fall we generally have two campouts, one for AHG and one for Trail Life.  This year we got the two rainy weekends in October!

For AHG, with thunderstorms moving in for Saturday night, we packed up on Saturday afternoon, so we wouldn’t be stuck hiding at the bath house for it to pass.

Ellie helping set up a friend’s tent

The older two wrapped up their outdoor cooking badges:

Gabby with our one pot spaghetti dinner

Katie with dessert: peach dump cake

Little gals praying on Friday night

My crew

The fellows, however were at a multitroop event that Justin coordinated without the lightening, just a never ending drizzle, so they stuck it out.

The theme for the boys campout was Highland Games.  They had stone putt, hammer throw (which I believe was cast iron skillets), caber toss, and catapults!  I hope someone sends out pictures at some point, since Justin didn’t get to take any.

Here are some of the prizes he put together:

The Barbie for the ‘prettiest’ catapult, Elijah Ghost Pepper sauce very for the highest shot (since Elijah was taken up), and leather bookmarks for the Robbie Burns Award (best presentation at the campfire, which ended up rained out).  The ball was used in the catapult.

I did get a picture of them loaded down with all their gear plus all the things to run the event.  They were packed full!

The girls had hoped to attend, but with numbers limited, they gave up their spots a went ‘glamping’ instead.

The last things are almost dry now.

Thirteen

We are celebrating Gabriella’s 13th birthday today!

She loves her friends...a youth event

Loves books and is great at writing

Is super funny—she’s even been writing the AHG skits lately.

Loves the outdoors

Is learning new things all the time

 She looks for ways to help.

Happy 13th year Gabby.

Lately

 

Naps with the puppy

Katie, Gabby, and friends celebrating Katie’s birthday with an odd merger of Hamilton and The Lion King

Lucy ‘helping’ with math, right before she stole the pencil stick.

 

Katie pretending to be a Tenderheart (early elementary girl) asking questions about troop camping

Outdoor cooking, dutch oven style

Their pot pie 

Nate’s rain gutter regatta

Visitors

Joy of joint reading (Doctor Doolittle)

Katie’s last photo with braces

Her first photo without!