What We've Been Up To.........................

Soccer season started. Our oldest 5 are all playing, so we'll be spending LOTS of time at the field. Rahel had her first practice yesterday. It is the first time she's had to do anything by herself since she's been home. We've always paired her up with one of her siblings for everything-church, art class, even dentist appointments. She really relies on them and is more comfortable that way, but the soccer league has strict age guidelines, so she has to play in her own age bracket. I really think it will be good for her to branch out a little. She was a little nervous, but she did great. When we left, she asked when her next practice would be--she can't wait to get back.

Our kids started their co-op classes. They're taking art, PE and American Folk (which is a history/dance combo class--I know, sound like a totally weirdo home schooling thing to take, but it is actually one of their favorite classes-lots of fun).

We built the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria

We learned about the wind and air around us.


And did some dancing to the itsy bitsy spider. Here's the great thing about having kindergartners and 4th graders in the same class--Rahel had the most fun of all with this song (because all of my other kids have already heard it lots of times before). If she were in a regular 4th grade class, she'd probably never learn that song (at least not at school, not that it's essential, just kind of one of those songs that everybody knows--everybody born here that is), but because her sisters are learning all of the common poems and sing alongs right now with their curriculum, she's also getting a crash course in American culture.






We've also added a new pirate to our crew. We found out that Meron has a "lazy eye" (we had to laugh a little when we found out a she's our least motivated worker around here-so the fact that she had a lazy eye was pretty fitting :-) We have to keep her good eye patched for the next month to encourage her brain to start using the right eye. It should correct itself (that's what we're praying for) and be just fine.



Aren't they the cutest little "twins"?







Those are some of the highlights (and don't be fooled-things aren't always this blissful around here, I'm just working on focusing on the positive these days and enjoying our kids). There's power in postive thinking--throw in some prayer and you're on your way to a great day.