I just don't belong.

Have you ever sat in a crowd of people and known that you were peculiar? That happened to me last night when I took our oldest daughter to soccer practice. The parents sitting around got off into the troubles their children and children of their acquintance are having in public schools. I did add some comments when I just couldn't take any more. The comments had to do with the "process" of math as compared to getting the right answers. I finally piped up that I wanted my car mechanic to get the right answer to the problem and I really didn't care about the process he uses to get there. My car mechanic was in the crowd and seemed to get a big kick out of that. Now we have our reasons for homeschooling and some people might agree or be agin them. That is all fine. This whole conversation bothered me extremely because the teacher in the group made the point that since they switched to the new math they didn't have any discipline problems anymore. As a disclaimer, I am all for switching curriculum if it doesn't work for students. We have done that three times now with spelling. The underlying thing seemed to be that answers don't matter as long as we are all happy on the way. What if we applied that to our medical professionals, car mechanics or law enforcement? What if the dr. couldn't diagnose your cancer or do anything about it, but you both enjoyed the process and felt good about it? What if your car mechanic fixed the wrong part of your car and you and your family were in a horrible accident because of it? What if the police came and arrested you because they thought you were a horrible criminal, but if they had made the right connections it would have been your neighbor? I mean seriously, we don't apply this logic to real events. Why do we apply it to classroom logic. We have a whole generation of children we are just raising to be another brick in the wall. Days like that and I am so aware that we are not bricks in that wall. We are strange and peculiar. That is okay because we are being built into the temple in which God will dwell.

Well, I tried.

I did try to upload a video on our blog. I don't know what I did wrong, but it didn't work. It is a really cute clip of the Ole Daddy Rabbit rockin' out with one of his little groupy babes:) I wanted to post it for his birthday entry. Oh well. Maybe I'll get it figured out one of these days.

Anyway...

The Ole Daddy Rabbit celebrated his birthday on the 11th again this year. The family got him the Ligonier Regional Conference. He and his brother-in-law are there right now. He called me last night from the book store. I could hear the saliva hitting the phone as he drooled over the clearance rack. They even had John Piper stuff there! I know the menfolk will have to return home when they finally close the doors:) I am sure they will be energized by the great teaching and the wonderful stuff they bring home. I know both families will benefit. What a blessing that my sil and I have men that get more excited than little boys with their first set of army men about John Piper and R.C. Sproul. I don't think they will ever recover. I can live with that:)

We also got to see a wonderful wedding this past Sunday. Two of the young people in our church committed to becoming one flesh during our church service. One of the most beautiful things was their first kiss. That was sweet, but I think even more beautiful was when Ole Daddy Rabbit turned to me and said, "Our kids could have that too." That was so wonderful to me. What a thought! We have been through so much, but God willing, our children can be the benefactors of us struggling through sanctification. I do pray that one day we can witness our beloved children savoring their first kiss like we witnessed this couples'. We also had a lot of fun. It was potluck. Lots of good food-I was stuffed when I got home. The Ole Daddy Rabbit was pretty funny. He is quite witty. He made me laugh a lot that day. They even played a worship song that we played in our wedding. Ah nostalgia!

We also have dear friends hit with a tragic providence. Those of you that know-lift them up in prayer. I don't know what is harder; enduring personal tragedy or watching a beloved endure it.

This past week or so has brought much to celebrate, congratulate, and mourn for. All of it to be brought before the Sovereign Lord of the Universe's throne in prayer. The longer I live the more I find that life is so bittersweet. I also see how much I depend on the Lord for everything. I heard of one believer accused that he just used God as a crutch. He replied that God was not his crutch, but his wheelchair and oxygen tank. How true!

Happy Birthday!

Back to School

It is that time of year again. The time when the school bus rumbles down the street.
Every morning at 7:30a.m. or so I remember how thankful I am that I don't have to have my kids dressed and ready to get on that bus. There are so many reasons that I am thankful to homeschool. Most of them are not so shallow. We did officially start the book education part of homeschooling this Monday. In the wider scheme of things we never quite homeschooling. We also don't have an age that we "begin" with either. We have six children and we homeschool them all. From the moment they are born they are learning from us. The challenge is for us, their parents, to be learning from God the lessons He has for us. The biggest thing we can teach our children is a relationship with Jesus. One day our children will graduate from "school" just as we did. Hopefully, they will learn that there is always further and deeper to go with the Lord. That lesson begins at birth and extends on into eternity. So Happy Homeschooling to all of us that are on that path.

Our First Princess

On September 4, 2001 we were blessed with our first girl. We try to make each child special and do something personal for their day. Our Butterfly Princess and I went shopping and out to lunch. She picked where we ate. She got to pick out a comforter for her bed in her new room. We made a pit stop on our way out at our midwife's house. She has the cleanest bathroom in the county, I think:) Our midwife, Laura, gave the birthday girl ten dollars. She also let her make a necklace and bracelet. Butterfly Princess picked out a new Barbie (we do the "princess" Barbies, but the short-skirted, red-light district ones are out). She wants to take it to our appointment tonight to show Laura what she purchased with the money.

Last night our birthday girl picked chicken, potatoes, corn and carrots for dinner. Each child gets to pick the menu (within reason) for dinner on their birthdays. Our girl got an air-soft pistol. She also got a beautiful wedding dress from Oma. The top photo she is sporting both. The Ole Daddy Rabbit had to remind her that she doesn't get married unless he says so:) The poor man has four daughters (so far). I don't know how he will survive their courtships and weddings. I bet Steve Martin won't have anything on him.

What a special day. What a special girl.

The Sunrise Princess

Four years ago on the second of September we had a baby daughter born just as the rose. She looked like a china doll. She has added to our lives so much. For her birthday she got to pick a movie(The Twelve Dancing Princesses) from the video store. She picked hot dogs and fruit salad for her special birthday dinner. She wanted cheesecake instead of regular cupcakes. She got a new quilt and heart-shaped pillow from Oma. The family got her a little view master with Charlotte's web and some princessy one slides. She also got a bunch of girly-colored play-do. She was ecstatic. We managed to video tape a good deal.

So Happy Birthday Precious Girl.

The New Kiddo Picture

Heath Kids

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

It is finally finished! Okay, there is a little bit more to do like add some trim and such. The girls' room is finally finished though. It is done enough for the potty trained ones to go up there. We are hoping that it will also act as a carrot for the one that is dilly-dallying about the potty training thing. The room is all pinks and purples and whites. Sigh. We are thankful because most of the room furniture was free or picked up at a yard sale. It is definately "princessy" and the girls are so pleased.

The Absolutely Cool Zip Line.

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And they are off! The Ole Daddy Rabbit put up the zip line a little bit ago. Here are some of the first slides down that thing. It is quite popular. Even adults up to 250lbs. can ride on this thing. It gets low at the bottom so you have to pull your feet up at the end:) Everyone tried it except the pregnant mama. I just looked on with envy. I will go down it in a couple of months.

Recovering...

We have been hither and thither and now we are home again (jiggety, jig).

The best news is that 6 weeks today the Ole Daddy Rabbit kicked the chew habit. So very awesome. He does seem to be eating a bit more recently. I wonder if the two things are related. HMMMMMMM? He is still more handsome than on the day I married him and he was pretty fine that day!

We were blessed with being able to attend a Love and Respect conference the last weekend in July. We received great teaching (good enough that the Ole Daddy Rabbit bought the series to share with our church too). We got to know new friends. We also got to make friends out of computer acquintances. The Engstroms put on the conference and made us very welcome. We knew they had to be great people because they like John Piper:) Unfortunately the head of their house was called away to work so we didn't get the pleasure of his company. Our kids played with their kids and had a wonderful time. We came home feeling very blessed by the Lord.


We turned around and went camping at the beach. The kids had a blast. I am finally able to clean the lint trap on my dryer without sand flying everywhere. I am beginning to think that I am not a camping person. I think I am with my mom and roughing it is slow room service. I think I will send the kids and such, but I think I am going to stay home close to indoor plumbing. We also got to implement some our Love and Respect stuff. Always good to practice.

We had a great anniversary. Twelve years on the twelfth. He got me a wedding ring that fits (six and a half kids later the old one was pretty tight). He also took me out to Applebee's. I wrote him a letter that I read to him in church. It was great-we were both embarrassed:) He got an air compressor from me. We then got a new computer for us. Wow! We are not usually big time spenders and shoppers like that. I feel so overwhelmed with new stuff. Oh and I bought some new curtains for the dining room. With the center piece decorations that I made and the beautiful, hand-quilted wall hanging my mom made our dining room looks pretty cheerful and classy (at least I think so).

Next week we need to start looking at school stuff so I am familiar with the new material. We also need to start getting on a good schedule. We seem to do so much better with a schedule.

There I think I am caught up.

Two Weeks and Counting.

The Ole Daddy Rabbit has had a nicotine addiction for twenty-five years. Today marks two weeks that he quit! We are so proud of him. We put up streamers and drew pictures so when he comes home he will see how proud we are of him. Now he can see on our blog too!

Following the trail of smoke...

Our good friend, Steve, once said that if we wanted to know where Fireball was then just follow the trail of smoke. That is what happened today. Days like today makes one wonder how many times you can call the Poison Control hotline without being reported to CPS. In a quick amount of time our Fireball got a hold of her daddy's gun-cleaning kit. I found it strewn all over our bed along with the silica gel packet from it. The nice poison control lady said that the beads are not poisonous, it is like eating sand. So if she did ingest any she will be all right. We cleaned it all up and our bedroom door now has one of those nifty safety locks on the doorknob. You know...the kind adults even have problems opening.

As if that wasn't enough...
I called to check about soccer camp for our oldest daughter. While I was on the phone for maybe five minutes Fireball struck again. She came running in the kitchen and I couldn't figure out why she was wet. When I entered the bathroom, I found out. She had gotten her brother's canteen and shoved it underneath the faucet in the sink. She probably couldn't get it off. After it filled to the brim it then made a huge geyser, shooting water all over the walls and the floor. It only took every dry towel in the house to clean up.

I am in need of some time off and some chocolate, I tell you!

Birthdays and Things

It has been an exciting couple of weeks. I celebrated my 34th birthday. The Ole Daddy Rabbit gave me a great birthday BBQ. He also got me a gun. Not just any gun...it is a double-barrell,side-by-side, 410 Stoeger shotgun with two triggers. It is a beauty! I have shredded a Wendy's cup and quite a few leaves so far. I am itchin' to use it on some clays. They deserve to die, you know:) I do like knowing how to load it and do everything on it myself. I need to learn how to clean it, but I will. It beats the heck out of fireworks for my birthday.

My mom had a surgical procedure done recently. The last time I was in that hospital, I was on the surgical side and not on the waiting side. It is still amazing to me what can be done these days with medical science. The staff is also very nice at St. Peter's. They have a place called the Sunshine House right next to the hospital that friends and family of patients can stay for a nominal fee. They have a lending library and videos. They even have a kitchen that is supplied with coffee and various edibles. I was extremely impressed.

While we were gone the kids went to stay with relatives. The boys caught fish. Our SamBoy caught his first! It was a nice-sized trout. Since last night was cool enough to cook, I was honor bound to cook up their fish for them. I don't particularly care for fish. The rule is that if you catch it, you eat it though. So I vailiantly cut off the heads and tails and cooked 'em. The kids were thrilled. Thankfully there weren't enough for all so I ate a hot dog:)

Now until the beginning of Aug. we can breathe a bit easier. Then we have a bridal shower, camping, the company BBQ or family camp (I am not too sure which yet), and a plethora of birthdays, anniversaries and weddings. Yeehaw!

It was the best of times and it was the worst...

Watch Out! It's Bug-girl!


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Our Lil' Firecracker checkin' out the tent.


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The Menace Twins when it was still fun camping.

Okay, I have weird markings after my comments on the pictures that I can't get rid of. Oh well. I guess we will just have to deal with them:)

We went camping this weekend to celebrate our son's birthday. We live in the sticks so where did we go camping? That's right! Right outside of Olympia! The day we got there was really nice. We picked up groceries on the way there. We got to the park. We set up camp and the other family members that were camping with us showed up. The weather was just right. The kids played with rope and swung from the trees in our camp site. The guys took the kids on a walk and I sat and read my Bible and relaxed in an "easy-chair." It was quite lovely. We had hamburgers and enjoyed camp food. We had friends come visit us over from their camp site. We ate S'mores. We finally all went to bed. Then the trouble started. The baby didn't sleep well, we had some constant trips to the bathroom and about 2:00 a.m. it downpoured. It didn't just sprinkle, it actually puddled in our tent. It didn't let up the rest of the morning. We finally packed our sodden stuff up and took our rumpled selves (in body and in spirit) home. It was one of those trips that you learn a lot from. Either that or you allow it make you bitter and you never want to go camping again. We are going with the former. Our tent and camp chairs are sitting in our front yard, drying out. I put all of our pillows in the dryer yesterday when we got home so everyone would have dry ones to sleep on.
I learned that next time we will take some tarps, the port-a-crib and the port-a-potty!

Birthday Boy

Here he is! Our SamBoy is now eight years old! We had a good party at Oma's house. Friends and family came for cupcakes, some incredible homemade ice cream and to play in an extremely cold pool. The kids played in the pool while the adults watched from the sidelines. We remember wanting to swim badly enough as children to risk hypothermia, but these days it doesn't look as inviting. Our birthday boy received some nice things that day. He got a handmade quilt from Oma, a CD/MP3 player from the fam. and birthday money from the extended fam.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMBOY, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Just wanted to put a quick post on here for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to the Ole Daddy Rabbit. He got a new shirt. Unfortunately, I have been running a little behind and didn't get all the kids to hand print it like I have in years past. We will have to rectify that soon enough. It has started to be a tradition to get a new shirt with all the current children's names and handprints on it. Each year we seem to be running out of room. I am going to try my hand at ironing on a picture this time. At least he has a cool shirt to wear today. It says,"DAD, a boy's first hero and a girl's first love." It will be even cooler when I get the picture on there:)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads in our life as well!

Funny Kids

I took some pictures so I could send one to my dad for Father's Day. This is the one we thought was the best. It is definately a good view into their personalities. I think they look pretty cute.

Keeping it up

I need to post something so I remember to keep our blog spot up. So here goes:

Fri. night the boys had a baseball game. They went out early for batting practice. The other team never showed up. They went to the wrong place (even though our coach gave them his cell phone number and directions). I feel badly for those parents. They drove an hour for their kids to not play. I am not sure if we are rescheduling or if they just forfeited. We will have to see. If they forfeited then we have a tournament this weekend and baseball is done.

Mon. the boys also had a piano recital. They both did very well. The oldest really surprised us. Their teacher is really amazing. She gets children to really learn to play. She is worth so much more than we pay her. I am glad to have her for such reasonable rates though. So they are done with piano for the summer.

I ordered school books and such for next year. I love getting new books. We ordered from the Timberdoodle company. They had it here in three days. I was so impressed. They also include a free book with every order. We received Boyhood and Beyond. It looks like a wonderful book. I think all of our boys will get a lot out of it.

I had a wonderful English teacher in high school. He had a sign posted in his classroom. The sign had the word "alot" on it with one of those red circles with a slash through it. I always remember that a lot is two words and not one because of that sign. That was half my life time ago. It is funny how some things stick with you. That could be another post; sayings that stick with us. If I had a bigger readership I might take a poll:)

The Ole Daddy Rabbit shot our problem raccoon early this morning. He took no pleasure in killing it. Unfortunately, the animal had gotten to be a problem. It had taken to appearing at all times of the day and night. It was getting bold enough to take on our cat, rabbit or maybe even one of the small fry. It got taken out with one shot (pretty impressive really) so it didn't suffer. Thus ends the chapter of raccoon watching at our house.

Next time I will think up funny sayings.

IN PRAISE OF BUCCA

I have a really good friend that my children affectionately call "BUCCA." When she comes over my children can sound like a bunch of chickens,"Bucca, bucca, bucca!" She did leave me high and dry for a week to camping with her family. During that time while she was enjoying the outdoors and valiantly protecting people from dastardly varmints, I had to soldier on with school and the loneliness that comes with husbands involved in household projects. How did I ever survive? Some how I managed and she is now back. I did get to talk to her on Monday as well as winning a contest. She is a good listener, smart and witty, has hair that I have paid way to much money to try to have, but never got and for at least 6 weeks I had more children than she:) She loves her husband and family, is a good example when it comes to hospitality in her home and against any sane reason seems to like me. She also has commented on our family blog, some of which has inspired this post. Happy Wed. Bucca!

Cookies and Other Excuses

I had started blogging again with every intention of keeping up with it. I was doing well until I hit a problem with our cookies on our webspace. Since I don't even know what a cookie really is I used the old stand by my mother taught me. She used it with appliances. When something was on the fritz she believes in praying over and leaving it alone. If you leave it alone the appliance will usually heal itself. (That is a joke for the humorily impaired) It seems to work with blog stuff as well. I didn't even attempt to follow the instructions from Blogger in order to fix the problems. Lo and behold! My husband tried to log-in today and it came up with no problems what so ever. Guess my mom was right.

Our weekend started out with a baseball game. The boys won! That is the first game they have won this season. It was a bittersweet victory since the opposing team has never won a game at all. We sure were glad for our boys. It is still hard to see those little guys on the opposing team trying with all their might to be good little sportsmen. They all did a good job.

Sat. The Ole Daddy Rabbit had to go help his buddy break in his new shotgun. They both killed a good number of clays! That'll learn 'em. We also tried to put up one of those Easy Set pools up at Oma's house. It claims to be ready for water in 15 min. Whatever! Maybe for the super gifted, but it took us a bit longer. Then we had technical difficulties that had to be smoothed out with brute strength. Ah well! It is up now. We BBQed on Sunday after church and the kids got blue lips trying out the pool. It is quite funny that they can be shaking all over, quivering lips and all, and claim to not be cold so they don't have to get out. We remember doing the same thing, though.

Mon. the oldest boy went off to do his testing, as required by homescool law here. I jumped on the computer to check e-mail and a couple of my favorite blogs. I got a lovely surprise: I won some books from one of my favorite bloggers of all time. Carmon at Buried Treasure usually has something thought-provoking to say. Her blog is often subject for conversation at our house. She usually stands on the same side of the fence we do on many important subjects. She has a great way of addressing controversial issues. She does that so well, I figure to leave that all in her domain. We mostly post our family news and such here. Carmon just celebrated 6 years of faithful blogging. In celebration of this event she was giving away books to some one that left a comment for that post. Mondays aren't always bad:)