School 2010

I need to make a video of the 09-10 school year. A success! Just below is a picture of EVERYONE at the table with one seat open for teacher.

The video below needs a little explanation. Almost everyday I do a little schooling with the "Littles". They write, color, paint, mold clay and build with blocks. We've also made it a habit to watch Between the Lions at 11am. Every one of them gets a kick out of singing the theme song as loud as they can.

This year has been the best out of the four years we've been homeschooling. I feel like everyone has learned a lot. It's just been a successful year all around. It's been hard work and a little stressful, but I can look back and say I'm proud of the progress we've made.

A couple of weeks ago we did a school field trip to the zoo. It was a great trip! I would say the Grizzly Bears were my personal favorite.

Tristan's Vocabulary

Ugh! I ate right before bed last night and my body is telling me, "Don't ever do that again!" So, instead of running around cleaning and helping everyone with school work, I thought I would sit for a few minutes and write a blog entry.

Tristan is going to be 20 months in just a few days. I'm so glad I still have little ones. I pray that God will help me gracefully go through the seasons as they grow because, right now, it's heart-breaking to think there won't ever be another Terry baby learning to smile and walk and talk. These stages are so precious.

Tristan still has that little baby walk. He is so cute the way he waddles around and then tries to run. I need to take more video of that. He doesn't say much, but he does have a few words and, of course, they're as cute as can be.

His first word was, "Momma". When he first started saying it I was sure he was using it for nursing. Whenever he wanted to nurse he would say, "Mom, mom, mom, mom" over and over. Now, I know he's referring to me.

He says, "Dadda" on rare occasions, but most of the time he refers to Vance as "Momma" as well. I think Vance gets a tiny bit discouraged about this :).

He shakes his head for "yes" and "no". You can tell he still doesn't have the greatest control over his huge noggin and really has to think about it when he nods. He says "ook" for both "look" and "milk" and lately he has started to point a lot for things he wants. He says "bop" for "stop" and he kind of breathes the short "a" sound for "what's that?". That's pretty much all he has for now. He says "un" for everything else. I never know what "un" means.

I have to see if I can take, edit and post more video. Our computer is fixed (we got the "Blue Screen of Death" about a week ago), but it's running kind of funky. So, I'm going to try to find some time to do video editing on the laptop. We'll see how that goes.

Bye for now...

If you get the chance, go back and take a look at last Easter's post.

Easter 2010

We didn't go to church this Easter. Are you gasping? I am. I talked to Vance about several options. My favorite was New Life. We talked about going to our church Saturday night or even a new church that had it's grand opening Easter weekend at the end of our road. I would have liked to see Vance's parents sing in the choir at their church. Vance just wanted a quiet weekend home (if that's possible).



Vance has been working a lot lately. More than he's had to work in almost two years. It's the economy. Work is slow, so we can't afford employees that we have to pay $15-$20 per hour and the ones who make less are not capable of running things alone. Vance is doing almost everything himself. Like he did when we first started.



Easter morning Vance started up all the vehicles that have been sitting over the winter. The mustang started right up, the van didn't. The lawnmower started, too. Vance hooked up the little trailer and Ryan gave everyone a ride around the property. Easter Sunday was the most beautiful day we've had yet this year here in the Springs.



Here are some more pics...

This will be the last year Ryan gets to hunt. Next year he'll be a hider.

That's all for now...kids gettin' into trouble.

A couple of weeks ago we had a huge snow storm. In fact, I got stuck driving home in it which turned out to be the worst nightmare. Never have I been so scared driving. But, that's not what I wanted to write about.

The boys made two snow forts. The picture above was Glen's (just to show you how much snow there was). The picture below is what was left less than a week later. And today, April 7, 2010 it is snowing again. I see some blue sky now, but there are still some flakes coming down and we have almost four inches. I don't mind it, but I am looking forward to summer. You can't complain when the weather is so unpredictable - it makes life interesting and not boring. There's always something to talk about - ha!

Grandma's Birthday

It's been two weeks now, but on Sunday, March 21 we got to celebrate Grandma's birthday with the traditional and very yummy ice cream cake. How will we ever be satisfied with just the regular birthday cake? Grandpa and Grandma brought the cake (even though it was her birthday:). The Terry family absolutely loves it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit - with or without cake.

These get-togethers always make me think though...our house isn't the most peaceful place to visit. I know it's a season and having so many young children can stress everyone out. One reads so many Christian books and blogs about how we should strive to have peaceful and comforting homes. That's not what you'll find here - no matter how hard I try. Don't get me wrong - I'm not giving up by any means. I will continue to "fight" for peace and tranquility and a clean home and will do my best not to get discouraged when all is not perfect. Hopefully, all our friends and family can look past the imperfections because both Vance and I agree; we love having all of you over!

Grandma, I hope this is the best year yet!

Rachie skiing!

Part 5

I have about 7 minutes. The rest of the ski week just went so well, more skiing for me, more playing at the park and then the highlight of the whole week; date night. On Friday night Vance and I go to the old Irish Pub. This is the third year in a row we've done it. It's about a 5 minute walk from the condo. So, we leave Glen and Ryan in charge (usually after the babies are in bed) and we head out.

I absolutely love this place. We order the corned beef, mashed potatoes, cabbage and peas plate. It's huge and we share it with a Caesar salad. The guy Johnny Motambo always plays live with his guitar. He's very funny and about every other song or so a group of people come up to do shotski. It's this old ski that holds four shot glass and four people count to three and then drink. Johnny Motambo usually does this really loud shotski song. It's a ton of fun. Vance and I have never done it. But, this time there was a girl named Becky and she was with two of her friends and she said she would pay if we'd do it with them. I can't handle liquor at all so Vance did it. She told him to choose the drink and he chose rum. She took pictures and told me she would email them to me, but she hasn't done that yet. We'll see if she ever does.

It was a very fun night.

Saturday, the boys and Vance went skiing for the last time and I tried to start packing everything up. Usually, we have to check out by 10 am and we never make it. This time we did. Checked out by 10am and drove home in a snow storm. It wasn't bad. Of course, when we arrived home we didn't feel like unpacking anything. The house smelled so good walking in. It just smelled fresh, kind of woodsy and a little like Hobby Lobby. Vance said this it what it smells like when we're not here to stink it up :).

Here are a few more pictures.

agh...for some reason I can't load the pictures. Look for the next blog entry :)

My Perspective

Yesterday, I posted on my Facebook status about how much I loved the movie Avatar. I didn't get too many responses. In fact, when the movie first came out I didn't hear much chatter on FB or elsewhere about the movie. At least in my personal circle, which is mostly Christian.

I had a conversation with my dad today and he had seen the movie back in December on opening night. He liked it, but had some issues with worshipping a tree, etc. I have a feeling this is how most Christians feel. Christians tend to blast movies such as Harry Potter and praise movies such as Lord of the Rings and yet both have many of the same elements.

Since I liked this movie so much it became a topic of conversation at Vance's Bible study this morning. There was a sense that if a Christian was all she was supposed to be she wouldn't enjoy a movie so much with such a message. Vance and I discussed this when he returned home this morning and agreed that it all comes down to perspective. Yes, Avatar was written and created by an extremely pagan man and I'm sure he meant to send messages such as: the military is made up of testosterone loaded, mindless warmongers, we (especially Americans) are destroying our planet and the real god is mother earth.

I'd like to share what I saw...

Every human is a creation of God. He knit us together in our mother's womb, he knows us inside and out and even knows the number of hairs on our head. Therefore, I believe that we were all created to give glory to Him. If we choose not to love Him there will always be something missing, there will always be a feeling that everything isn't quite right, never completely content, etc. But, we were still created for His glory and maybe James Cameron didn't mean to give glory to God, but He did - granted with some mistaken ideas.

On the way to the theatre the boys and I were talking about heaven. Just dreaming what it must be like. I told them I had been thinking a lot about heaven lately. Many times I think about a time in my life that was so good that I get these overwhelming feelings of nostalgia, wishing I could relive this time in my life. But, recently, I had the simplest thought - the best time of my life doesn't lie behind me but in front of me. No matter how good that time of my life was it cannot compare to heaven. I saw this in Avatar.

The main character, who is a paraplegic, gets a new and improved body, a body four times his regular size, a body so agile he can run and jump among the branches of trees hundreds of feet in the air. The Bible says that in heaven we will have new bodies...

Our present body is only a "tent" which we will put aside. 2 Co 5:1-3, 2 Pet 1:13-14
God, through Christ, will deliver us from this present "body of death" (which is the sinful nature). Rom 7:20-25
God has prepared us for the purpose of being clothed with our heavenly body. 2 Cor 5:4-5
Although we do not know exactly what our new bodies will be like, we know that they will be like Jesus. 1 John 3:2-3
Our new bodies will be like Christ's glorious body. Phil 3:20-21, Rom 8:28-30, Ps 17:15, Ro 6:5-8, 1 Cor 15:49, 2 Cor 3:17-18

When the main character learns how to connect with the beasts of this world it made me think of the passage with the lion and the lamb and how it must have been with Adam and Eve before the fall.

When all the tribes came together to sing and worship it made me think of how every tribe and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and how day and night we will be praising Him.

James Cameron was created by God and even though he has chosen in His heart (for the time being) not to serve Him, in my eyes He has unwittingly brought glory to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

When we left the movie theatre it was as if we had just awoken from a dream. Have you ever had dreams about heaven, about being able to do something that would be impossible awake? I have and there were so many things in this movie that reminded me of these dreams. So, whether or not this movie was created to have people look down on the human race as a whole and how terrible we are - I CHOOSE to see something different and can't wait until I get the chance to see it again!

Quick thought

I've been procrastinating all day, but I had to write down this one thought before I forgot - and then I'll start cleaning :)

The other day Rachie had an accident at nap time so I had to wash all her blankets, including her favorite blanket which she can hardly sleep without. So, that night it was still in the laundry and I told her she couldn't have it. Oh...and when she goes to sleep with her blanket she always gets a corner and puts it in her nose. It's the strangest thing, but it's her comfort - I guess it's better than sucking her thumb. So, when I told her she couldn't have it she said, "Oh, I'll never get to put a blanket up my nose again."

If I hadn't been so perturbed I would have LMAO :) I'll have to remember this one for a good laugh ten years from now.

Part 4

I'm already out of time for today, but I wanted to post something that I thought was super cool in school today. For history, we were studying the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Get this, the Bill of Rights was ratified on March 4, 1789 - exactly 221 years ago TODAY. This has happened a couple of times and the boys and I always find it really cool when we study an important event in history and it happens to be the same day currently.

This is Tristan in the zero entry pool. He got quite comfortable after a few days and it was even hard to keep him from walking into sections that were too deep. I have another child with no fear. I think the only one who has any caution is Kael

Even though Wednesday was a day filled with lots of work (i.e. teaching Rachie to ski, keeping the babies occupied, etc.) we still went to the pool after dinner. I think everyone slept like rocks that night.

Thursday was Vance's turn again. They left early and came back as late as possible. I cleaned the condo, re-organized the food, dressed everyone in their snow clothes and went to the park. We made a snowman and I think they played long enough and hard enough to get all the cabin fever bug out.

Part 3

I've got about 5 minutes before everyone starts getting themselves into trouble again. Glen, Ryan and Will are all doing Math. Tristan is taking a nap and Kael, Morgan and Rachie are watching Word World.

I left off on Tuesday, a great day for me because I got to ski with the boys and it really was a beautiful day. My favorite type of skiing is when the snow is well groomed and the sun is shining. Of course, that evening I took everyone to the pool again. Vance doesn't usually go, but since Glen and Ryan do pretty well helping me, it's usually not too hard.

Wednesday we decided to take everyone up. So, I packed a huge lunch and got all the babies dressed and we took a small stroller and skis for Glen, Ryan, Will and Vance took his snowboard. It wasn't too hard getting on the bus, but you should have seen the looks on the people's faces. We had to take two buses to get to the top because the Gondola wouldn't have held our whole family. When we switched buses, Vance left Will's ski boots on the bus. So, I continued with everyone and Vance had to got back and find the bus we took and get the boots. Ugh! What a hassle that was.

This ended up being a great day, however. I taught Rachie to ski. This was the first time we put her on skis. We didn't get to the mountain until about lunch time so I rented skis for her half day. $15. It was worth it. She did so well. I was surprised.

Glen and Ryan worked with Will. He skied for the first time last year, but needed a little refreshing. After a bit of practice Glen and Ryan took him up on the Gondola to the top of the beginner hill.

Vance and I took turns watching the "littles" and trying to keep them from getting too bored. We bought them some hot chocolate, walked around a lot, played in the snow a little and what was really great is that every day about 3:30pm people dressed as chefs come out with a plate full of freshly baked cookies and hand them out to anyone who is around for free. The kids loved this. Once we found this out, we made sure we were at the bottom of the hill everyday around this time. It's amazing how much of a crowd these "chefs" draw - some people can be very rude.

Out of time...will continue tomorrow.

Part 2

Well, it seems to be that time again. The kids are eating lunch and watching Curious George. Yesterday, I put four frozen chicken breasts and a carton of chicken stock in a crock pot and today I have an extremely delicious lunch. I didn't have time to do anything else with it so I just chopped up some raw veggies and served it. It's a hit! Amazing!

So, yesterday I left off on the Monday of our Trip. As is our tradition, that evening we went over to the Community Center. They have the best indoor pools complete with a lazy river, a big water slide, climbing wall and diving board and the best part, a zero entry pool for the little ones with some cute little animal fountains and slides for their size. We stayed from 6 to almost 9pm. This is one of the best parts of the trip because the "littles" can't ski so they usually stay inside all day and then their only outdoor activity is the pool. It tires them out so they sleep soundly.

Tuesday was my turn to ski. Glen, Ryan and I went up about 10am (I was kind of lazy that morning). It was a gorgeous day. I'm going to see if I can post a video. I think it worked.

Beaver Creek is awesome because it has lots of jump parks for all skill levels and the boys (especially Glen) are getting really good at jumps and slides. I was having a blast. The snow was unbelievable. I called Vance at lunch time and told him it was almost like the snow was skiing for me. I've been working out a lot so I felt so much stronger this year than last year so I was jumping and sliding and doing black diamonds like never before. Definitely, the best time I've had skiing in years! The boys kept saying, "This is such a great day, Mom!" "That was the best run of my life!" Good Stuff!!! (this video is actually from last year, but a lot of the same stuff applies :)

Ski Week Part 1

I have another few minutes as the kids just finished lunch and are watching Curious George. This has become a daily tradition. However, it's a short show so...

I wanted to write a little story about our recent ski week as I think it was the best one we've ever had. We've been going every February for the last 11 years to Avon, CO at the foot of Beaver Creek Mountain. We purchased a timeshare there and have used it every year since...

This trip started off a little rocky. First, it seemed I was a little more stressed than normal getting everything packed and loaded. We got out earlier than usual - about 4:30pm. We made it to Denver to stop for gas and when we tried to leave the gas station we couldn't get the van into gear. We played with it for about 30 minutes then started calling AAA and tow companies and any auto place that would be open on a Sunday. No luck.

Vance got the idea to call our neighbor Randy. Randy got on the computer and looked up the make and model of our van along with the issue and found out that if your turn the key in the ignition to just before the lights come on you can pass the fail-safe mechanism and put the van into gear. You have to put it into neutral and then you can start the van. IT WORKED! You should have heard Vance thanking Randy. Randy said to thank Bing (a search engine - for all you non-computer types :).

We would have arrived at our "vacation house" before 8pm if all had gone well, but we arrived just before 10pm. Everyone was really tired, but really excited. The first thing all the "littles" did was take of all their clothes and hop in one of the jacuzzi tubs. The first thing Glen and Ryan did was turn on the TV because there was cable. We finally got off to bed and it was a good night sleep. Everyone slept well - even Tristan.

The next morning we decided that Glen and Ryan should try skiing by themselves. They have the 5th and 6th grade school of shred which allows them to ski for free. So, they took the Gondola and were gone all day. They said they had a great time. This was the first time they've ever done anything like that. I was amazed.

I had decided that instead of packing up our whole house that the previous week at home I would try to use up as much food as possible so I could do our "regular" grocery shopping up in Avon instead of having to pack it and take it with us. So, I spent Monday shopping at the local Kroger store then went to Burger King to brought it "home". I also had some other errands: post office and Sports Authority. I felt like a regular local.

When I got back to the condo I put all the groceries away, unpacked all the clothes and got everything prepared for the week.

I think that enough for part one...look above for some pictures from our ski week.

I've got a few minutes as I have fish sticks, tater tots and corn dogs cooking in the oven for lunch. Today is Wednesday and it's the first one I've had off in several weeks (not including the ski week, but that's not necessarily time off). I can honestly say that it feels weird to not have anything to do tonight. It makes me feel so much more free.

To add to this great day, Vance is around as well. He's been working down in Pueblo so he usually leaves at 6:30am and doesn't return home until 8pm. Today he has a small job here in town that should only take about 3 hours and he and his friend Kyle from Double Diamond Homes are starting on a huge renovation for our pastor today - felling trees. They're even going to let one fall on the garage - which they're demo-ing anyway. Hopefully, we can get some video of that.

I made a good breakfast of cream of wheat, toast and fresh oranges then we started school. Glen started with Algebra. My absolute favorite subject. It took some time, but he got used to the idea that "x" is actually a number and you need to go through all these rules and steps to figure out what "x" is. Ryan is reading (and still reading) Acts 3 and 4 and answering questions about the passages. He's been working on this assignment for two days. Today I told him he will be sitting there until he finishes.

After Glen was finished with Algebra I told him to find the Presidents book and choose one to do a research paper. He chose Theodore Roosevelt. He read about three pages of summation on President Roosevelt and stopped about every five minutes to say, "Mom, guess what..." I'm glad he's excited about it because he wasn't when I first told him the assignment.

Glen was really emotional today. I think it was because he couldn't get the math right away. He excused himself and said he had to go to the bathroom, but when he came back I could tell he had been crying. I asked him why he was upset and he said he didn't know. He said, "I don't know why I cry when I talk to you and Dad. It's so stupid. Even now I can't keep the tears back. I don't understand why I'm so sensitive." I told him that God made him sensitive and he said that he didn't like the way God made him. I said that sometimes I didn't like the way God made me either, but He knows a ton better than we do. Truthfully, I think it may be more than just sensitivity. Glen is 12 and already showing signs of puberty.

While all of this was going on I did an exercise for all the "Littles" plus will. We started with stretching. Then, I showed them how to do push ups and sit-ups. Then we did a song called Shake Freeze where you shake until the music stops then freeze. We Will Rock You was clapping and marching to the beat. Pollywog in a Bog was squats (that looked like frogs). I we ended with Fireflies - kind of a cool down - walking all over the living room pretending to be fireflies.

I felt like is was a productive morning and I wanted to remember it.

A few weeks back, Vance picked up a young dog that was about to get squished up off of Hwy. 83. It was snowing and his poor little face was all covered with icicles.

We don't normally pick up strays because we always hate it when someone picks up our dog and takes him 20 or 30 miles out of our way when he probably would have just come back home, but this was a special case.

We called him Eli and he stayed with us for a week. He's a beautiful German short-haired pointer and he had a great personality, loved the kids and obeyed very well. So much so that it made us all start to think that we wouldn't mind if the owners never called us.

They did, however. I think poor Glen was the most disheartened. He really wants a dog of his own. Eli stayed with us for about a week and when the owners came to pick him up they gave us a $100 gift card. We'll have to pick up strays more often - HA!

Pictures

New Year

The last couple of weeks have been the most abnormal in quite some time. My sister and her husband came for a visit and...I have to say things have changed a bit around here.

Actually, I should probably go back about 6 weeks or so. We started with a visit to the assisted living place. I took all the kids for a visit. I don't know what it is, but the elderly in these places absolutely adore children and it was great to see their faces brighten. Then, when I went to California with Tristan I watched as my sister and brother-in-law made it their mission to be missionaries wherever they went. My heart was stirred. Then, when they came here for a visit, we went to the streets downtown, to the tent city, talked to just about every pastor and homeless shelter in town, made videos to give people ideas how to serve their community such as "Laundry Love" where you go to a laundr-o-mat and pay for every one's laundry, shovel snow for people in your neighborhood just to show Christ's love and maybe open a door to talk about HIM. It seemed as though everyday they got up and asked, what can we do for the Kingdom today?

I still home schooled. I still cleaned the house. I still made dinner. I still did all my other jobs. What hit me hardest was that it wasn't that hard to take a few extra steps from my regular walk.

You know what the amazing thing is? I've been hearing stirrings of people doing or wanting to do this kind of thing all over the place. This week we had IMPACT meetings everyday at our church. New Life Church did the same thing. Every where I'm hearing people talking about changing the way people think about Christians and about church in general. For years the unchurched have thought of us as hypocrites, people with too many rules, we don't do anything for the homeless or for people in need. Our divorce rates as Christians are the same as non-Christians - what makes us different than the people who don't call themselves Christians? What I'm hearing is that Christ followers want to change that. What good are we if we've lost our saltiness?

For anyone who read this, go to www.forgottenchurch.com. Watch the videos, make some calls, get some people together, go do some ministry downtown, or some laundry love or just start a conversation, ask questions you never know what God is going to do.