L.E.N.S. Challenge - Corner

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Loving this challenge because it's allowing me to post one of my favorite pictures ever.  Do you all have pictures that no matter what has happened that day, put a smile on your face?  This is one of mine.  It's a couple of years old of my girls and two of their cousins.  And an unhappy little man in the corner. 

 

Apparently he was not delighted that this was to be a pic of just the girls.  I intended to crop him out and then saw the pic when I uploaded it and his FIT just makes the pic!

I'll be linking up with Home is Where You Start From today, so feel free to hop on over and see other "corner" pics!

Weekly Wrap-Up

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I see I'm back to the every couple of weeks weekly wrap-up.  Awesome.  Oh well, it is what it is!

First of all, the little one's preschool class is raising money for a project in Haiti.  One of the girls in his class got the idea to do this; how awesome!! 


That is the little one's class in the video.  :)
They did a bake sale to kick off their fundraising:

Then we had a geography fair at our homeschool co-op.

We, of course, did Japan.  Again.  I think next time we are going to have to branch out.  ;)  It was very neat though - the girls focused their report on the earthquake and tsunami.  The little one, because of what he has learned about Haiti knew what that was and was interested to learn more about it.

After co-op, we took off!  We decided to spend a couple of days in Galveston and call it our family vacation.  We're planning a big vacation next year and want to try to save up money for that, so it's a mini vacation this year.

What's gonna work? Teamwork!

Woot, dolphin!  I can call this science, right?

Watching a B-25 take off!  (And WOOT, I believe this is called HISTORY!)

Then we came home and went to a concert.  Learned something here.  The oldest?  She loves concerts.  I'm sure that is no surprise to those of you who know her.  The middle one enjoyed it as well.  The little one pretty much hated it.  I think the noise, lights, and still recovering from a head injury worked together to just make him miserable.  He cried that his head hurt, then went to sleep during the first song and slept through the entire thing.  Here are a few pictures:

First, Natalie Grant:

Then, Brandon Heath:

Then, Mercy Me! I'm supposed to point out that the oldest took this pic.  :)

So, all in all, it was a fabulous week!  Back to the old grind next week though; final push to finish out the school year!  Eight weeks left!

I will be linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers today.

Vacation Preview!

Pin It I have way too many pictures to go through and we are way too low on groceries around here for a real post, but this was one of the first pictures I took, and I love it, so here's a vacation preview!

More to come ... after grocery shopping.  And all the other stuff we have to do today. 

The Prize

Pin It We've had some interesting discussions at our house over the past couple of weeks, mainly revolving around marriage and what our plans are for our children as one of them is growing up so quickly. It's been interesting talking with her and seeing where her heart is in this.

I would love for my kids to just bypass all of that dating garbage. I would love for them to dream of marriage and to be able to enter into that relationship with no regrets and no baggage from previous relationships. I would love for them to build friendships and see where the Lord may lead those friendships. I would love for them to seek the Lord in all of their steps.

I'm still trying to cement my thoughts here, but as my mind has been dwelling on this topic, and on how to direct my children as they're getting older, I remembered (with the help of my mom) a discussion with the middle one a few years ago.

Mom had taken the girls shopping and let them pick out something. The middle one wanted a bridal gown. She was so cute, and of course mom bought her what she wanted. We were talking with her about it and she was telling us all about her wedding. I asked her what music she would choose.

She said that her song would be ...

Here comes the prize.

Mom and I just about died. So absolutely precious and absolutely hysterical, and if you know my middle one, so very her.

But you know what? She IS a prize. Right now, she is my prize. One day, I'm sure, some young man is going to take her away from me, but for now, she's all mine.

Here comes the prize!

1000 Gifts - 171 - 180

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I am feeling so thankful right now. So many blessings!

171. For a great visit with my parents and nephews last weekend. It was really nice to visit with all of them!

172. For Long John Silver's. Also on this list should be the fact that there is no Long John Silver's around here. It isn't so fabulous for the diet. It sure is great when there is one around and I can go get a piece of battered and fried to death piece of fish!

173. For children who really are obedient. Messy but obedient. haha We shoveled cleaned the girls' room this weekend. I don't think anybody was really happy about it, but when it got down to it, they were obedient to get in there and get it done. This has made me dwell a little on how obedient they really are, and how I would take that over spotless clean. :) (Although I'm not going to lie - I'd love to put here in a couple of weeks that their room is still clean!)

174. For a little boy who usually does keep his room pretty clean. Even if clean to him means that everything he loves resides on the bed. And he loves everything. Sometimes it's hard to find the boy in the bed.

175. For mini-vacations. :)

176. For some fabulous grown up conversations with the oldest, and just the realization that she really does have a good head on her shoulders and a sweet heart. And realizing that she picked up a couple of bad habits and thoughts directly from me, and for grace from her when I noticed it and talked to her about it.

177. For Sertino's sugar free mochas ... and for breakfast with the oldest (which would be when the above referenced conversation took place.) :)

178. For confirmation that a decision I've made is the correct decision.

179. Cadbury cream eggs. 'Nuff said.

180. This. And for the awesome privilege of being a small part of it.

I will be linking up with A Holy Experience today.

L.E.N.S. Challenge - Read

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My son is a big fan of maps. I had a hard time choosing a picture for this! This one is from almost exactly a year ago, as we were planning our trip to Disney World. I was all about getting the kids as excited as possible, so of course we ordered the maps and let each child participate in the planning. The little one STUDIED these maps. I mean seriously studied them! I should not have been surprised. I have a sweet picture from the year before of him studying the Sea World map.

I'm linking up with Home Is Where You Start From today, with their weekly LENS challenge! Feel free to hop on over and see the other entries. This week's theme is READ.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011 - 5 Minutes for Moms

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I decided to jump into this blog party this year! Looks like fun, and I LOVE reading blogs so I'm sure I'll find some more to add to my list this year! :)

About me ... I'm Melanie, married to Jim for nearly 15 years now. (WOW.) I'm a homeschooling mom of two and a half - one goes to preschool for another couple of months, and then he will be at home too. I have a seventh grader and a fourth grader. We enjoy homeschooling most of the time, and it seems that my blog revolves around that a lot of the time.

I also love to post about books I'm reading, what the Lord is doing in my life, how I'm being challenged, and there's an awful lot of just plain silliness around here too. I love to take pictures of my kids, and join some photo contests here and there. I am not a photographer, I am a mom with a camera, and I love that too.

I think that's me in a nutshell. I'm glad you're here! Be sure to leave a comment if you're a new visitor! There are a ton of blogs on the blog party list, and if you like my blog, I will probably like yours as well and wouldn't want to miss it!

Have a fabulous day!