Johnston Family

Christmas Part 2

2011-12-29T12:45:00.003-05:00

I am clearly having issues with the new blogger format. If anyone can give me any tips on dragging pictures, I would appreciate the help!! Here are a few pictures of early December to backtrack. We made a cardboard castle while studying castles. We started advent with our doughnut advent wreath tradition. We started the Jesse Tree telling the family history of Jesus from Adam and Eve through the Bible to the coming of Jesus. We had snacks for some of the ornaments we put on the tree like Adam's sparkling cider for the story of Adam and Eve.

We celebrated St. Nicholas day and started our Nativity with just animals this year. For St. Nicholas day, the kids got gold coins (because St. Nicholas left gold in secret for people who needed money), candy canes for the bishop's crozier (because he was a bishop in the 500's). They also got notes, sticker nativities, and a little play nativity.

We celebrated early with my family this year. Here is Grace opening her gift from us which was a small diaper bag my talented friend made for her. My brother and his wife from San Diego were there, my brother and his wife from Charleston, and my sister's family. One brother that just moved from Chicago to Seattle was not there but we skyped while opening presents.

These pictures are of the nativity at church which is too big to get a picture of. Brianna is in front of the elephant and wise men. The castle is slowly getting colored. The girls were angels and Sam was a sheep at the Christmas pageant at church. They always enjoy that. Before going to church, we went to Heath's parents for a Christmas Eve dinner and presents. The kids have so much fun with their cousins.

Christmas

2011-12-29T11:38:00.008-05:00

We had a great Christmas this year. My parents spent Christmas with us which was a huge help and made it even more fun. The girls got a special Christmas visit from their best friends that moved to northern Ohio in October.

They got a cardboard castle from Heath's sister which has been hours of entertainment.

Brianna only asked for elephants this year and all 3 of her santa gifts were elephants. The kids were all kind to Santa this year and he spent very little on any of them. The most expensive gift was the FAO Schwarz elephant Brianna has which was only 24.99. Leah got a lego castle from my aunt and uncle. No one even knew that we have been studying castles in history this year.

Leah got this large duck, duck pillow pet, and fur real duck. This big duck was less than $15!! Alex got a lego tractor from my aunt and uncle.

Katelyn had been saving for this American Girl doll since the summer and finally earned enough to be surprised with her on Christmas Day. I didn't think she was going to have enough but we had a little last minute Christmas Eve money from Great Grandparents. All of the other kids emptied out their piggy banks and gave her some because they really wanted her to get it. Those moments make parenting so rewarding, especially when I didn't even suggest they help Kate.

They got some notecards in their stockings and Sam got a Playmobil St. Nicholas which he loves!!

Here are our pictures after Christmas Eve mass.

Sam didn't feel like posing but Alex did!

They also made cookies with Grandma.

Celebrating Advent

2011-12-02T12:56:00.004-05:00

Most people start to celebrate Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Some love Christmas so much that they go up in October. The lights, trees, and decorations, go up. The kids start to make lists and wait, wait, wait for gifts. I love advent and many of the ideas that my friend Erin and I have found to help celebrate advent and stress that Christmas does not come until Dec. 25th. Somewhere the true meaning gets lost. We did a presentation at church last night but I thought I would share some of the ideas that all Christians can use to help the kids focus on preparing our hearts instead of just waiting for gifts.

No one knows exactly when advent began but we have early church documents around the 2nd century that list Christmas as December 25th. This was a time when Catholic Christians were still persecuted. The Council of Tours in 567 established advent as a time of fasting and preparation and the twelve days of Christmas from the 25th to the 6th on Epiphany (when the wise men came). The advent wreath came about in the Middle Ages. The 3 purple candles symbolize penance and the pink for joy, at the halfway point.

Some ideas for celebrating advent are:
1. The Nativity:
My friend Erin gave me this idea which we are starting this year. We put our nativity on the mantle with only the animals. Mary is on our TV cabinet with the angel as she tells Mary that she will have a baby. Joseph is elsewhere and will be visited by the angel next. The 3 wise men are on a bookshelf and will begin moving toward the mantle Christmas day. The shepards will begin moving the last week before Christmas. Baby Jesus is hidden and will be put out while the kids are sleeping on the night before Christmas or first thing Christmas morning. This focuses them first on Jesus before gifts. It also uses the nativity to act out the story.
2. The Jesse Tree
The Jesse tree can be a small tree, a branch, a poster board cut out of a tree. An ornament is placed on the tree every day except Sundays during advent. The ornaments can be bought or made. The kids make a small one for our tree representing each Bible story from creation, all through Jesus' family tree. The first ornament is a world for creation, the second is a man or woman for Adam and Eve, next, an apple for the fall of man, next, a rainbow for Noah's ark, this continues with a Bible reading and ornament every day. We have also started doing a snack to go with it. Adam's sparkling cider for the apple, animal crackers for Noah's ark, etc.
3. Sacrifice Manger
We put out a small manger made from Popsicle sticks, shoebox, or anything else that would work. The kids add a piece of yarn, hay, or yellow strips of paper for each good deed they do. This encourages good deeds and kindness and helps to put the focus back on preparing our hearts for Christ's coming. While we prepare our hearts, we also prepare a soft bed for Jesus, who will come on Christmas day. We have a little baby doll that we put in it on Christmas day.
4. St. Nicholas
The whole reason we have Santa Claus is St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in the 3rd century. He was known for his generosity and good deeds. Many legends surround him including one that said that a father did not have money for his 3 daughter's dowrys so they were to be sold as slaves. He did his good deeds in secret so different legends tell the story of him throwing money down the chimney or in the window with the gold coins landing in the stockings hung on the chimney or in the shoes laid out. St. Nicholas' feast day is December the 6th. He also looks remarkably like Santa Claus. The word Santa means "Saint". We celebrate by the kids putting their shoes out. The morning of the 6th they are filled with gold chocolate coins, money, candy canes (which look like a bishop's miter or shepard's staff and symbolize the white purity of a sinless Jesus and the red for his blood shed). We will be adding by putting out a kids nativity and a book about St. Nick.
5. For Catholics, there is a great free program called Holy Heroes Advent Adventure where the kids have 2-3 short videos explaining parts of the mass, activities to do during advent, and they act out or do on a felt board the Jesse tree reading for the day. There are also crosswords, coloring pages, word searches and more.

These were just a few of the ideas we had. I can't include the whole presentation. These ideas have helped our family slowly prepare and build anticipation so we are not tired of Christmas by the time it gets here. It also focuses them less on gifts and more on the true meaning. I will try to go back and add pictures to this as I can. I have learned all of this in the last few years and it has helped me and our family so much! Hope this helps a little!

All Saints Day

2011-11-26T19:54:00.003-05:00

We celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st. This is our first year having an All Saints Party. Hopefully it will become an annual tradition. For non-Catholics, All Saints Day and All Souls Day the day after were the root of Halloween. We do not worship saints. Just as prayer is talking to God, we also pray, or talk to saints, who we believe are in heaven. As we ask our friends here on earth to pray for us, we believe that we can also ask saints to pray for us. We do not think they answer our prayers, God does, but as people who are in heaven with God, they can pray for us. We learn about historical figures like George Washington, why not learn about people who have lived their faith in extraordinary ways. Many saints were martyred for their faith all lived faith filled lives we can aspire to. I personally have had many prayers answered through the intersession of the saints.

We played all saints bingo, dressed as saints, did a saint cake walk, and ate saint related foods. Leah and Cecelia dressed as St. Therese and St. Clare. Brianna was Mary "queen of all saints", Katelyn was Kateri Tekawitha, Sam was Saint Nicholas. Sam is very excited about bringing everyone presents this year!

Tellus and mom and dad visit

2011-11-10T12:29:00.006-05:00

My mom and dad came for a few days which is always such a help! My dad and Heath built these stairs going down our deck. Now we can actually go out the back door and access the back of the house. We took a mid-week break and went to the Tellus Museum while Heath was working.

Thanks so much for your help Mom and Dad. It is so much less stressful when you are here.

Halloween

2011-11-10T12:26:00.002-05:00

For Halloween, we had zorro, a unicorn, spiderman, an indian, and a fairy. We went to a lot of houses and have way too much candy around!

Zoo

2011-10-09T21:32:00.008-04:00

We went to the zoo recently. The library has a program where we put our name on a waiting list and then have 24 hours to pick up the video whenever our name is up. Then we have 7 days to watch and return it. We get free passes for 2 adults and 2 children and 7 more days to go to the zoo from the date we return the video. Our name finally came up after over 6 months on the list and luckily we were able to go. We only had to pay for 2 kids and we went on a Thursday so the zoo was not crowded at all which was great!

The pandas were very active. The last time we went, the baby had just been born and was only on video. The other pandas were asleep. This time the mom and baby were interacting a lot. The baby was playing on the hammock and even started to fall off the edge. The mom caught it and pulled it back over the edge. The kids loved watching it.

All the kids enjoyed the petting zoo but this is the closest Alex got to petting anything.

Brianna's favorite is the elephant. We only got a tiny glimpse last time we were at the zoo so we were excited to see them closer this time.

Kate's favorite animal is the giraffe. A new baby giraffe had just been born in July so Kate was excited to see the baby, Lily. Overall a great visit to the zoo!

Camping

2011-10-09T20:45:00.010-04:00

We took the kids camping with Heath's parents last weekend for a 3 day weekend. It was pretty cold that weekend getting into the 30's at night but we still had a good time. We brought his parents canoe and old pop-up camper and his parents recently bought a very nice newer camper that they brought. Heath wants to go tent camping soon.

Leah loves ducks and was very excited to feed some.

Heath's grandma sent some light up balls with his mom and they played with those all night.

Alex riding in the canoe in the gravel.

Alex loved walking and playing with Miles, Heath's parents' dog. Sam learned to skip rocks and was the only one to do it several times. The other kids weren't as interested.

Heath's mom got them bug catchers. They each caught a few and then filled them with dirt the rest of the time. Look how dirty Kate's pants are!

Crystal, this next picture is for you! Our pine cones are not as big as the ones you found camping in California.

Heath's parents also made them a rock climbing rope.

The 3 girls spent the night in the nice camper but Heath's dad realized in the middle of the night when the propane alarm went off that the stove had accidentally been nudged and had been on most of the day. It is way too easy to nudge on but now we know to watch it. We were lucky no one was hurt.

Everyone got to experience camp showers that night after getting marshmallow in hair and dirty head to toe.

Here is Heath cooking in cast iron outside, one of his favorite things to do while camping. He cooked chili and grilled cheese. Yum!

Lake, School and my birthday

2011-10-04T20:27:00.009-04:00

We made models of the moon with oreos. We are studying Earth Science and Astronomy this year in science and medieval times in History.

We got some hand-me-down clothes from neighbors and the girls picked this out for Alex. Bribe pictures for later in life.

We went to my parents lake house Labor Day weekend because Joey and Crystal came in from San Diego. My pregnant sister in law Samantha and my pregnant sister and her family also came. Lots of new grandkids coming! It was weird to not be the one having them though. When I woke up, the kids were already in my parents room where my dad is usually entertaining them.

Martin and Sam were explorers on the rocky shore and Alex went back and forth between Daddy and Grandpa "rampa my buddy". Kate and Brianna enjoyed playing little mommy to Grace.

For my birthday, my sweet friend Erin, had a birthday cake made for me. It had a B on the front and then I went out to say good bye to her and her 3 girls who had come over to play. When I got back, the B was gone and some fingerprints were all over parts of the cake. Anyone who knows our family well knows that Leah was the culprit.

Our neighbor, Kim, also had a birthday lunch for me and invited our other sweet neighbor, Karen.

Chattanooga and other random pics.

2011-09-30T17:26:00.010-04:00

We have been pretty busy and had a few things to share that we have been doing. Here is just a cute one to start.

We were writing with ink (grape juice concentrate) with a feather that we found like the monks in medieval times as they copied books including the Bible by hand.

My sister and her family came to our house for the weekend and we went to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga.

Here are some random things we have been doing this school year. We did egg yolk paintings outside mixing egg yolk with berries or chalk. I am using a new art book that features an artist a week with a "copy" type activity for the kids. Sam got a bible for starting kindergarten this year along with his other books so for a few weeks he tried to look like the pictures of Jesus as much as possible, even down to the crown of thorns he made himself.

We made a model of the earth with a gumball covered with a large marshmallow, covered by a rice crispy treat, covered by chocolate. Messy but yummy!

Apple Picking

2011-09-25T22:24:00.011-04:00

Here is what the kids looked like last time we went apple picking. Leah was in a sling. Last time we went with Heath's parents. This time was with my family. We met my sister and parents in Ellijay at Hillcrest Orchards. There was even more to do since the last time we were there but expensive. It was $6 per person including toddlers, then food, apples and other things were extra so a lot for our family to spend but it was a really fun day.

First they did the trike races.

Then the jumping pillow. This was the kids favorite.

Then the big slide. My niece, Grace, didn't like the jumping or the wagon ride but she loved the slide.

Next, they sat on a bull. Alex and Grace did not want to do it but everyone else did. This bull does not have horns. We learned that certain breeds don't.

Finally, we picked milked the cow and picked apples.

Grandpa got them each an apple cup filled with cidar which Alex was trying to drink as he fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot.

New York/ New Jersey Part 1

2011-08-08T09:20:00.003-04:00

This begins the New Jersey trip. We started out at 4 AM on a Saturday. We made it about halfway through Virginia before stopping in Harrisonburg. The next day, the kids were excited to see all the big beautiful pines and huge rocks to climb on. We arrived at my Aunt Barb's house at about 1 on Sunday.

The above picture with my cousin Julia was shortly after we arrived. On Monday, we had a day in Manhattan. The above picture is in New Jersey with New York in the background. We rode the PATH train to New York and then took the Subway to get to the Museum of Natural History. My uncle worked in the World Trade Towers until 9/11 and was luckily out of town on business that day. He works in New Jersey now but still goes into the city for work sometimes and my aunt was a fashion designer and lived in Manhattan so luckily, they knew how to get around easily and knew the city amazingly well.

Sam was very excited about riding the trains. The Museum of Natural History was very crowded but amazing to see. Here are the kids in an oyster shell, Brianna in front of an elephant tusk, Kate in front of the giraffes, Sam with the panda, the dinosaurs, and meteorite. It had so much to see I think we only scratched the surface. Next, we went to Central Park, had dinner in the city after walking through the city and then continued walking to FAO Shwartz. Those pictures will be in Part 2.

New York/ New Jersey Part 2

2011-08-07T22:06:00.010-04:00

Here is a park inside Central Park that we walked to after the Museum of Natural History. Then off to the famous statues. We have a picture of my brothers, sister and I in front of the Alice and Wonderland statue when I was little. We called my brother, Chris, the Mad Hatter because he wore hats constantly so we got a picture with it on one of our trips to New York. Sam was asleep at this point but we got a picture with all the kids and the statue.

Then, we were off to dinner after lots of walking through 5th Avenue and all the famous stores, we were having trouble finding food. We finally walked far enough to find a very yummy place to eat dinner. After dinner, we walked to FAO Schwartz which was not far. We could have spent much more time there but after only 15 minutes or so, they announced that they were now closed. We didn't even have time to see the top floor or let the kids play on the big piano that Brianna wanted to see. We did quickly get their picture on it but it was closed.

We got pictures with the Barbie fashion show, their favorite animals, and the incredible lego statues and dinosaur. To top it all off, we took a taxi back to the PATH train, really 2 taxis because there were so many of us. The kids were so impressed, train, subway, taxis. I don't know how any tourists do the city without a tour guide. Just our one day was hectic and I would never have been able to get around without Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike. The girls also didn't complain about the walking because they were holding Julia's hand.

We spent the next day (Tuesday) relaxing after walking so much the day before. Then Wednesday, we were ready to go to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The kids weren't too crazy about Ellis Island. I remember wanting to leave while my dad was busy reading things as a child too so we didn't stay long.

They loved the boat rides and then we went to the Statue of Liberty. Our tickets were actually for the ride and the base of the statue but we didn't go inside. They were content to see how big it is and play on the grounds. We had a great time. My aunt bought each of the kids a mini Statue of Liberty that they are so excited to show everyone.

New Jersey/ New York Part 3

2011-08-07T20:13:00.010-04:00

Our last 2 days in New Jersey, we just relaxed. We went to the pool and a really cool local playground. My aunt originally had a packed schedule of activities for the week but then heard the gospel story of Martha and decided to drop some activities and just enjoy us being there. While all the activities sounded fun, the vacation was a perfect mix of relaxing and getting to the main tourist activities we wanted to do. Heath and the kids had never been to New York and I think they got the New York experience. Heath and I also had time to read, time to talk to each other and to Barb and Mike, and even time to go to lunch by ourselves. On our way home, we decided to take a route that was one hour longer making the trip 15 hours and go through Washington D.C. Here are some pictures of that.

Lots of random people came up to us asking to take our family photo so we actually have several of those.

We saw the Washington Monument, the front and back of the White House, the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and much more from afar. The kids were complaining about walking so much this time. The pool in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument was all torn up and a big mud hole. That is your tax "recovery" dollars at work. It was really neat though and the kids kept posing with the promise of each of them making a trip scrapbook.

We were on the way home and stayed in Bristol, VA on the Tennesse/ Virginia border. We get up to our room of the hotel and Brianna looked out the window and said, "Look there's the Statue of Liberty". So we looked out the window and you could see this statue. Our hotel is the one in the background. There was also a Brooklyn Grill we passed after church at St. Ann's in Bristol and it also had a statue of liberty in front of it. What an appropriate town to stay in!

Sam's 5th birthday

2011-07-18T22:56:00.009-04:00

Sam had banana cream pie on his actual birthday because we still had panda cake from the party. That is my favorite dessert and my mom's old recipe so I didn't mind making another dessert. :)

We gave him a bin of legos I got on ebay and a panda hat also from ebay that he wants to wear for Halloween this year. He also got a new small fur real panda because his old one can't be machine washed and is beyond hand washable. He decided to keep the old one though so they could be "brothers". Here are some pictures from his party on July 9th.

Here are some pictures from the panda pool party. Then, we had a small family celebration on his birthday. We made one panda pinata and bought another. My mom made cute panda jammies for Sam and his panda. Most of the pictures are on facebook but here are a few for the blog.

Stone Mountain Weekend

2011-07-18T22:43:00.006-04:00

We went to Stone Mountain with our friends, the Goodrows, and my sister and her family this past weekend. The kids all enjoyed seeing each other. They were all shy with our friends at first as we rarely get to see each other and then they warmed up quickly.

Aren't Alex and Emily the cutest!!

And of course the rest of the kids were cute too! Brianna loves playing with Elena and the new baby, Everett, is a very cute, very well-behaved baby to sit through the laser show!

Thanks Jenny for letting us visit and spend time with your family and thanks for meeting us at the laser show and letting us spend time with your family, Goodrows!

Alex's 2nd Birthday

2011-07-01T17:12:00.007-04:00

Alex's 2nd birthday was on June 29th. He had a cow cake. The kids put on green sprinkles for grass and his plastic cow. He was so excited. He was saying, "My put cow on cake" over and over. He sang Happy Birthday with us and I wish I had gotten it on video. He says his name as "Axe" right now. Then our neighbors came over for cake and brought him a gift. He got cleaning supplies from them which he squealed over and loved and legos and a little panda from us so he will stop taking Sam's panda. I love this age because of all the cute things they say. They are still cuddly but don't need to be held all the time. I love being able to fully enjoy this age without another baby in the house as well.

Kate's 6th Birthday

2011-06-12T17:13:00.005-04:00

Kate turned 6 on May 31st. She loves lemon bars and wanted those instead of cake. So I didn't want to put icing on it. I used yellow colored sugar to make some sort of giraffe. She got the Katelyn doll from Target and the game Guess Who. The doll comes with a book about Katelyn and her name is spelled the same so she decided she didn't want to save for an American Girl Doll yet. She liked this one better.

Tim and Lauren's Wedding

2011-06-12T16:04:00.013-04:00

Tim and Lauren and my brother Joey and my mom

below is Ruthie and Sarah (my cousins) with my kids who adore them

Kate was closest to the bouquet when it hit the ground so she got it.

The cake has pictures of everywhere they have been together.

We went to my youngest brother, Tim's, wedding in Nashville the weekend of May 21st. Tim is the last brother of the 5 of us kids. I am the oldest and felt like my little baby was getting married. Several people who have known us our whole lives made that comment at the wedding, that I must feel like it was my baby in a way too. Now my mom did way more than I did in raising him but I was almost 8 years older than him and at the time, loved being a little mommy to him. We were inseparable for a long time. I remember the day he was born and the teacher coming and telling me at school and I remember him sitting on my lap in a bean bag chair as a tiny infant and talking to him constantly watching the other kids play. I changed his cloth diapers, sang him songs, and read him good night stories. I loved every minute of it. I even got made fun of by some friends because they said I talked about him too much. He made me a heart cookie in front of his friend when I came home from college. On the way there, we stopped at a Children's Museum in Murphesburo, Tennesse. The kids had a great time.

Here are all the cousins at Vanderbuilt University before the wedding and some at the reception. Leah was a flower girl with her cousin, Grace and I read the 2nd reading so with that and all the other kids, we didn't get pictures at the ceremony :( So here are some from the reception.

My brother Chris and his wife Samantha

Homeschool Pros and Cons

2011-05-04T11:27:00.004-04:00

I have talked with several people lately who have been asking me what the pros and cons are for homeschooling. Lots of people are considering it but just not sure whether or not it will work for them. I have only been doing this a short time so I do not consider myself an expert and I certainly have a lot of kinks still to work out. I would love for other homeschooling parents to add their advice, pros and cons, and comments in the comments section. I love to see what other homeschoolers are doing as it inspires me to do more and continually improve. Here is what I have noticed as benefits or downfalls for me personally. I am sure it is different for each family.

Pros

Kids seem to stay young longer- they are not as influenced by the outside world they are more influenced by their own interests and what I introduce them to.

They seem to think of new ways to learn and activities to do without prompting. Kate found some colored circles and decided to make a pattern without any prompting from me, she made several patterns. I am sure public or private schooled children do things like this too but, I find we have a lot of time to expand on what learning things they do.

We can study what we want, when we want. If they develop an interest in tornadoes, like
the ones that came through our area, we can suddenly explore that for a while. I love choosing how to do things. I like studying history in the order things happened, using lots of hands on manipulatives, and re-learning myself while they are learning.

We can include religion as much as we want their education and government cannot influence us as to how and when we learn.

I can adapt to their ability level. Kate was reading chapter books by age 4. I can give her lots of time to read and not have to move her to a different class or program to teach her at her level.

We can take vacations or breaks at any point and set our own schedule.

I know what they are studying so we can talk about it all the time and apply it to what we see and hear. They are frequently asking me questions about things we are studying on the way to ballet or at random times through the day.

Cons

They seem to work better for other people. Brianna in particular fights me at every step of the way. She complains even when we are doing things that I consider to be fun activities. She does it for chores as well and I have a hard time breaking the complaining habit and keeping her on task. I know she would not complain for her teacher at school.

It takes a lot of work. I am constantly planning, thinking of ideas, and trying to improve and I don't have a planning period like I did as a teacher. They are always with me (this can be good and bad) but it can be stressful! Planning can be fun and they can help too, especially as they get older. But to save money, I make a lot of my own curriculum and it is a lot of work.

I am frequently stressed by the magnitude of what I am undertaking. English is not my strong subject, as you can see by all my misspelled words and run-on sentences. I want them to be educated in correct English. But, I also went through school, public and private, and I don't think I learned proper English. I am trying to form every part of who they are. Not only is their behavior due in part to my decisions, their education falls on me as well. I frequently feel as though there are not enough hours in the day and though I am not doing all I can do to maximize their education.

Well, I may add to this more as I go along. It will be a work in progress. Please feel free to add to it as much as you like so the people who have asked me to do this can further benefit by your ideas.

Brianna's Birthday

2011-04-26T09:46:00.006-04:00

This picture didn't turn and I don't have time to figure out how to edit so anyway, it is Brianna's brownie cake. The kids are into animals and M&M cakes this year. Brianna loves elephants. My kids only get a friend party once every 5 years but we let Brianna and Kate have a sleepover with their best friends this year. They were in heaven. Their friends are in school and they don't get to spend as much time together anymore. They have known each other since they were 8 months and 1 1/2. They spent 24 hours together and wanted even more. I had 7 kids for most of the time and time went by so quickly.

As I put in the Easter post, Brianna had been saving since Christmas for an American Girl doll so she finally got one and she wanted the same one Emma has. Her favorite meal is Cincinnati Chili spaghetti and everyone loved it. Then we had brownies and rasberry simply lemonade (pink). For breakfast, whole wheat pancakes with homemade whipped cream with a little real maple syrup in the whip cream.

Alex loved holding their baby sister Eden. He cried when we took her away so you can see the tear rolling down his cheek after he happily got to hold her again. So sweet!

I am so glad Emma and Myah were on spring break for Brianna's birthday and got to spend the night. She had such a special birthday and was so excited the whole time. Thanks Erin for letting me borrow your sweet girls for the night!

Tons of pictures, Easter 2011

2011-04-25T19:56:00.016-04:00

We went to my parents lake house for Easter this year. We had an egg hunt that our neighbor did for the kids, one at church, one in my parents town, and my dad did one in the back yard.

Brianna is really enjoying posing for pictures now. Kate and Brianna both got the mini-American girl dolls. We celebrated Brianna's birthday with my parents and they gave her money for her American Girl Doll and my mom sewed her some matching jammies. They have elephants on the fabric, her favorite animal. We told her we were not getting her the American Girl Doll because no one in our family spends even close to that much money on a gift so she has saved her money since Christmas and earned enough by her birthday thanks to my grandparents, Heath's mom, my mom, and our neighbor, plus her money from chores. She got very little else for her birthday and didn't care one bit. She loves this doll!

Sam got the book, "Sam Panda and the Thunder Dragon". The book is so-so but he loves it and the panda's name is Sam so what could be better. Leah and Alex got golf clubs which they were so excited about!

And we went strawberry picking at a nearby farm. They had alpacas and sheep. Alex insisted the mama sheep (who had just had a baby a few days earlier) was a lion, roooaar! It was the only non-shaved sheep.

At the Easter egg hunt in my parents very small town, they have tons of eggs all empty except for 100 that have numbers. They call the numbers in random order for the kids to pick prizes. Those who do not get a number are given a prize. My kids got very few eggs and 3 of them got no numbers but Brianna did get lucky and get the special egg which was for the special prize - a bike. She acted like she didn't care and wasn't excited even though she got her picture in the local paper, until we got back to my parents house. Then she was very excited.

pre-Easter

2011-04-16T16:19:00.005-04:00

Our neighbor across the street did an egg hunt for the kids, did I mention we have the best neighbors? They really enjoyed it!!

Here is a picture of Alex helping daddy fix the fridge. He loves to wear hats now and loves to copy everything daddy does. Here is Sam with the panda pictures Heath's mom gave him. We had to hang it up immediately when we got home from their house. He changed into his "panda outfit" when I told him I wanted to take a picture of him with it.

Here is our path to lent calendar which we are doing this year along with Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure and our bean jar, in which we put beans for sacrifices that turn into jelly beans at Easter. And I was going to include this one with the pretzel pics. in the last post but it was getting long. Don't you want some pretzel?

Long Update on School

2011-04-10T19:35:00.011-04:00

First, I have been getting a little more lazy toward the end of the school year and felt we needed a fun activity so this is one I used in my classroom. We made 3 dimensional figures out of marshmellows and toothpicks. Then we charted how many vertices and how many faces. They also had some time to make animals or whatever they wanted. I was very impressed that Sam who is almost 5 was able to make all of them without any help.

Leah made this duck by herself and I thought it was very creative. She only had a couple marshmellows because she shoved them all in her mouth before we even began. That is Leah :)

Brianna's is ... can you guess ... an elephant.

This is our new toy. $89 after a coupon at Lowes and the kids are really enjoying cutting the grass. Plus, save on gas, get some excersize, and I can mow while watching the kids because it is quiet and I can stop and start easily. Our yard is not well maintained and we like to do as much without fertilizer or chemicals so here are the kids who wanted to pick all the weeds instead of riding bikes or swinging to see how full they could get this! This is an older neighbor helping. She is in several pictures as she also wanted to mow and help with our aquaduct (in later pics.)

Sam drew a baby panda and adult panda. Brianna drew herself cutting the grass.

Here is our Roman aquaduct.

Here are our lenten pretzels we make a few times each year during Lent. We preach Christ crucified. 1 Corinthians 1:23 They make both crucifixes and Easter crosses every year.

Brianna holding her cross and making eggs, her new favorite thing to do. She loves to cook and watched a friend's daughter cook eggs (Thanks April!) and wanted to do it too so now she makes them at least once a week.

Here are our chalk drawings of favorite animals measured according to the encyclopedia's dimensions. They get a feel for how big they are. We did a panda, giraffe, elephant, and several types of whales (like earlier in the year). The duck is not to scale.

Alex and Leah's favorite thing to do with oats, they eat them, tons of them and then start throwing. I can't leave these on the counter or on a low shelf or this is what happens.

Here is another history project. They went tiger hunting like ancient Indian royalty. They made the crowns and drew tigers for me to hide. Then found them as they cleaned their rooms.

Princess Ball

2011-04-10T19:08:00.005-04:00

Here are the girls practicing twirling for the Princess Ball at our church. They went for the first time last year and couldn't wait for this year. It is a father-daughter dance. Heath took just the older 2 girls last year so Leah has been so excited that she got to go this year too. Here they are with Heath and the last picture with the balloons is after they got home.

More Chattanooga

2011-03-23T15:52:00.003-04:00

Here are a few more pictures of our fun in Chattanooga before we went to the wedding shower. Heath got some cute shots of the kids.

Random pics and Tim and Lauren's shower

2011-03-20T17:41:00.005-04:00

I am starting off with a random picture of Sam from our mall. Everyone knows he loves pandas. Then a couple pictures of our anatomy aprons. We finshed animals and started on the human body.

Then this past weekend, we went to Chattanooga for my youngest brother, Tim's, wedding shower. He is getting married to Lauren in May and will be the last of the 5 of us to get married. It was so much fun to spend some time with them in Chattanooga and go to the shower. Lauren has the nicest friends and family and we can't wait for the wedding. Here is preview of her cake that the cake decorator made for the shower. And Brianna, who fell off her bike as she skidded into the back of the neighbors bike coming down a hill the day before this picture. She is skinned head to toe and was glad she had her helmet on.

A couple pictures from the shower. The kids table had masks on each plate or other fun items like kids jewelry. Alex wore the frog mask for a long time and here he is peeking over the table.

Here are Tim and Lauren and the kids with masks on.

They were having a bank promotion in Chattanooga, so the kids got free kites and pictures with an owl.

Alex eating lunch at a pizzeria before the shower and Lauren's brother, Brad, who the girls loved.

This is the carousel in Coolidge Park in Chattanooga. They had an elephant and giraffe but no panda. :( Sam managed to find another animal to ride.

Random bits

2011-03-15T13:19:00.003-04:00

We finsihed up studying animals this year and will now study the human body for the remainder of the year. We follow most of the Well-Trained Mind's curriculum. They sang our animal songs with their favorite animals on their heads. We also just finshed the play of the Three Little Pigs. For Leah's birthday, my mom made her a nightgown that matches her baby's nightgown. Our friend also made her a diaper bag with an "L" on it. She fell asleep hugging it and didn't want to take off the nightgown the next morning. What talented friends and family we have!

Leah's Birthday, 3 years old!

2011-03-01T10:48:00.004-05:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Leah!! All the kids were so excited to see Leah open her presents and the day was dragging by with all the thunderstorms. They asked when daddy would be home every few minutes. Leah got an Annabell baby like her big sisters and a walking dog with a leash.

She wanted a m&m duck cake so this is the best we could do. The cake was breaking and hard to work with for some reason but she was happy with it.

Leah is definately stubborn and a big challenge sometimes but she can also be very sweet and loving. Birthdays are so much fun and we had a great day! Love you Leah!!!

More Lake 2011

2011-02-28T12:43:00.003-05:00

Here are a few more pictures from our lake trip in January. This is very late but there were a couple cute ones on our other camera. Here is my brother Chris and Sam in their "panda" shirts.

Belated Christmas at the lake

2011-01-23T12:56:00.009-05:00

Here are a couple pictures of our second snow of the year. The girls didn't like the first one on Christmas day much but Leah was the one who didn't like it this time. We could barely keep the older girls in the house. Alex loved it both times.

Here are the girls with their matching girl and doll dresses they bought with Christmas money and earned from doing chores. They were half off at Kmart and the girls love them!

We celebrated Christmas with my family the weekend of January 15th this year at my parents house. I am the oldest of 5 and it is hard to coordinate schedules. So all but one of my brothers and his wife (who live in San Diego) were able to come and it was so much fun. I love my big family and we always have so much fun and laugh the whole time we are together.

My brother Chris and his wife Sam and Brianna and my sister's daughter, Grace.

Kate and Sam with my sister's son, Martin and Leah with my brother Tim.

Leah and Grace and all the cousins with Tim and Lauren

All the cousins with Sam and Chris, they are tired of pictures at this point! Kate and Sam sleeping at my parents house on the floor with his new pillow pet from Tim and Lauren and he doesn't seem to mind Kate's hand on his face.

My dad built Sam this panda cage and he painted it when we got home. He painted one bar for each person in our family in their favorite color. My parents went to Egypt in Nov/Dec this year so this is a shirt for Katelyn that has her name in Egyptian and below is Brianna with the head scarf. We enjoyed seeing all their pictures and had so much fun playing family fued on Dad's new wii we got him for Christmas. So lucky that Heath and I have the best families that are so much fun to be around!

Ballet 2011

2011-01-23T12:30:00.003-05:00

Brianna and Katelyn had their first of 2 ballet performances this year. It was wonderfully done. My mom, our neighbor Kim, my brother Tim, and his fiance Lauren came to the performance. Tim and Lauren are now headed back to Chicago and we can't wait for their wedding in May.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-31T19:21:00.007-05:00

Sam's obsession with pandas continue. The singing pandas he wanted from Mimi and Pops (Heath's parents) and the big panda from Santa along with the little panda he got for his birthday in July.
We are having a great Christmas this year. Here are a few pictures:

The girls each got a new Madame Alexander 18 inch doll that they LOVE.

We had a White Christmas. These were at the beginning of the snowfall. The younger ones actually liked it more than the older ones who kept complaining their hands were cold.

Presents from our old neighbors who the kids really miss. All of our new and old neighbors are the best!! We even had an early Christmas dinner with our next door neighbor complete with presents for the kids.

Our cinnamon rolls were our individual birthday cakes for Jesus as we have way too many sweets in the house. So the kids blew out the candles.

Dolls from Mimi and Pops (Heath's parents).

Sam's garbage truck he really wanted. He kept driving it around saying, "Here comes Tonka the garbage truck". Santa asked him if he wanted stinky and he said no, so he thought this ones name was Tonka.

Alex's gift from his godparents.

New Years with my parents. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Happy 2011!

Advent, School, and more

2010-12-16T15:32:00.007-05:00

Well, I haven't blogged in a little while due to computer issues. We finally had to buy a new one which I didn't want to spend money on but oh well, these things happen. First, St. Nicholas visited our house on the 6th. Last year I took more pictures and did a better job. St. Nicholas is a Catholic Bishop who lived a long time ago and there are lots of stories about him helping people by putting money they needed down their chimney or in their shoes. He remarkably looks an awful lot like Santa Claus which is where the idea comes from. Here is last year: http://johnston4in4.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-2009.html The kids got some candy, fruit leather, and money.

Next, for the last month or so we have been reading the little house books. We started with Little House on th Prarie which I never read or watched but the girls loved. Then, they wanted more little house books and we just finished Little House in the Big Woods (which is the first book before the prarie). We did some prarie crafts and got some other little house books the girls have been reading. They sewed their own bonnets from the directions in a little house craft book we got from the library. The dimensions were pretty big and the bonnet fit me but it was a fun, easy sewing project. Sam sewed a pillow for his panda instead. They made bonnets for their babies afterward. They have all been calling me "Ma" for the last month or so.

We started worm composting. We have been composting since before Brianna was born but now started under the sink worm composting.

We are getting out Christmas decorations.

We celebrated the start of advent 3 weeks ago. We celebrated by making donut advent wreaths although I couldn't find purple candles anywhere. We also had green rice (cheese rice with pureed spinach) for lunch and they used the candles for the donut and the rice.

Other things we have done for advent are a sacrifice manger in which they put a piece of string for sacrifices they make and by Christmas, it makes a nice soft bed for baby Jesus. We also have a Jesse Tree we made of green poster board with about 12 Jesse tree ornaments the kids have made so far. We are enjoying Holy Heroes Advent Adventure and re-learning all the Bible stories from the old testament and making ornaments for important ones.

We also celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe with some friends. Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico and left her picture on his tilma made of cactus fibers as a sign to the bishop that she had appeared to him. She also filled his tilma with roses that were not normally found growing there. When he dropped the roses, they saw the picture of our Lady. Hilary Clinton was visiting Mexico and asked who painted that beautiful picture and the Bishop said, God did. Scientists cannot figure out what it is used to paint it or why the tilma made of cactus fibers has lasted so long without fading or disintigrating. Anyway, I am sure there are way better explinations of this story elsewhere but here is our celebration.
tilmas cut of tortillas that my friend Erin made with ham roses and a cheese picture

ritz cracker and cheese sombreros

Tepeyac hill guacamole with tomato "roses" and our lady

the fiesta, we also had "sun" dip because he said she looked like she was clothed with the sun, mexican hot chocolate, praying hands sandwitches, and a few other things...

paper bag tilmas with our lady and roses

Sam loved this and insisted on dropping his roses over and over and making me call him Juan Diego. Here is the gingerbread (graham cracker) church built on that hill in Mexico City that still stands today. I am sure that this looks nothing like it but it was fun anyway.

We are so lucky to have such great friends to get together with. Erin is amazing at finding ideas and we are so lucky to be able to steal them from her and get together with them for these fun religious parties. She has the best ideas on her blog http://mommyerin.blogspot.com/ and here is he better explination with pictures of the feast. http://mommyerin.blogspot.com/2010/12/our-lady-of-guadalupe-celebration.html

We made cookies with the girls best friends the other day and our neighbor came over today to make gingerbread men with them. We are way too sugared out but I feel so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives!!!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-03T13:42:00.008-05:00

No, this isn't Thanksgiving but I'm starting with pictures of the girls and their best friends, a rainbow over our house, and Brianna losing a tooth. She has since lost a second one on the bottom too.

Here is where the pictures of Thanksgiving begin. We went to Heath's parents on Thursday for Thanksgiving and then again on Saturday to see his brother and his family. They live nearby so it is nice to go as much as we can.

Here is Heath's Aunt Susan and cousin Jason and his brother's youngest daughter who was feeling pretty miserable the whole time. The kids missed playing with her. Instead, they just followed their older cousins around.

Here is Heath's brother, Bryan and his wife, Pam. Their oldest, Austyn with her cousin, Katelyn, who followed her around like a puppy dog.

Here is just one of the hundred silly pictures of Austyn we got on Saturday. I promise she is really sweet and normal! :)

Above is the one of Heath's brothers 6 kids and our 5. Makes a long line of grandchildren.

And here is the whole bunch. Heath's brother and his family, his parents, his sister and our family.

And here is crazy Austyn showing us what her uncle does to make them laugh. We have about 20 pictures like this.

Heath and his 2 cousins.
Another fun day at the Johnstons!

Puppets and sleeping

2010-11-23T20:47:00.006-05:00

I know sleeping doesn't exactly go with puppets but here are some random things.

Here is Leah's most recent place to sleep. She has fallen asleep numerous times on the floor, at the table, even across the barstools in the kitchen. Here is the latest.

Sam's obsession with Pandas continue.

We made puppets the other day. I helped draw the shape for them to cut and they did the rest. Sam copied Kate and said he wanted a giraffe. He did all the sewing himself and then later decided he wanted a Panda so he made another one. They are all better at sewing than I would have thought and they just used a regular needle.

The girls did Leah's with her and I helped a little more with Sam's panda because he was very insistant that it look like his little panda and was getting frustrated.

Weekend Fun

2010-11-16T11:44:00.000-05:00

Here are the kids after we got home from our zoo trip. They all dressed like their favorite animals and came down. There are 3 blog posts in the last 2 days so you might have to go to old posts to see more.

Heath had off Friday because he had worked the previous Saturday so we took off to Atlanta to meet some friends. My friends Joel and Julie also homeschool and have a girl the same age as Brianna (I have mentioned them before in a post about Cystic Fibrosis). They also have 2 adopted children the same ages as Leah and Alex. It was so cute to watch them play and find out all they had in common. Elena would say, "I'm homeschooled" or "I'm 6 1/2" and Brianna kept saying she was too. They were even missing the same tooth they lost a week apart from each other.

Then we were off to Jenny's house (my sister) and to Stone Mountain on Saturday.

Sam pretending to be a bear in his cave.

Stone Mountain! We hiked up the mountain with our 5 and my sister's 2 kids with minimal complaining. Alex was asleep the whole way down but wanted to walk himself part of the way up.

And here is the Atlanta Zoo. We went for $5 Wal Mart family days and it was so crowded!!

Here are the kids favorites, Brianna:the elephant, Kate: the giraffe, and Sam: the panda.

And Alex doing the sign for bird while watching flamingos. He loved watching the animals.

More homeschool

2010-11-15T18:49:00.000-05:00

Here are our clay, sand, and grass bricks molded in milk cartons. This was to show how people built their houses in Mojeno Daro (India).

We celebrated St. Therese's feast day and the feast of the Archangels. For non-Catholics, we celebrate saints feast days just like we celebrate George Washington or someone who did something great for our country, we can celebrate those who set a good example in their quest to follow God. We do not worship saints, we only ask them to pray for us, just as you might ask a friend to pray for you or talk to someone who has passed away. Many of these people were martyrs who led exemplary lives. The more people we ask to pray for us the better and who better to ask than those who were close to Christ and are in heaven with Him.

These are from our Mouse and the Motorcyle party after reading the Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, and Ralph S. Mouse. I'd love to hear suggestions for other good chapter books!!

These were our plaster frescoes the kids painted for our ancient history unit.

School time

2010-11-15T10:31:00.003-05:00

A few random pictures of Alex to start. I was taking pictures of the kids and what they do for school and he has to get some attention too!

Here are some pictures of our circle time. That is how we start the day. We do prayers and circle time songs, write the date on the calendar and the boards, do some money counting and clocks, and they do some math or lang. arts practice on their boards. Here are them doing: I'm a turkey big and fat, I spread my wings and walk like that, My daily corn I will not miss, and when I talk I sound like this Gobble, Gobble, Gobble. Some are religious, some are fun, and some are informative. We did some good Christopher Columbus ones last month but the favorite is always the silly one. Alex and Leah both know most of one from last month. Alex learned the words and motions for knock and open and Leah recites the whole thing for this one:

Knock, Knock, sounds like more, trick or treaters at my door, I open the door and what do I see, A silly, silly ________ looking at me. They each had a turn filling in the blank.

After circle time, we do page work (one page math, one page lang arts or other, and journal). Then chores, science or history, and reading depending on when Alex sleeps. We also play some sort of game in the afternoon while Alex is sleeping. Before bed we do religion and/or daddy does some social studies. Right now we are reading Little House on the Prarie and enjoying it. Some days it is hard to fit it all in with all the other errands and stuff I have to do and I would love for them to read to me more. I'd love to see what other homeschoolers do and hear suggestions.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T12:21:00.006-04:00

The kids had fun trick or treating this year and I am already so tired of Halloween candy!!! Leah is screaming for it most of the day, trying to sneak it, and feeding some to Alex who still doesn't eat much regular food. Brianna and Kate were going to be Ariel and a fairy until the day before trick or treating when they decided they wanted to match and use their monkey costumes from their last years ballet recital. They decided everyone was an animal: 2 monkeys, a bat, a bunny, and a "robin". Sam has been asking questions non stop for a few weeks about Batman. Does he eat this? Does he wear his hair like this? Does he sleep? Does he help people? He is a very good helper. The other day he was trying to surprise me taking all the laundry out of the dryer and he said, "I'm going to do this again when that load is done so you don't have to do anything at all today". He is sweet like that sometimes. I let them watch a little of the old batman and robin and he was so excited to be something with Alex. Thanks to my sister in law for the hand me down costumes.

The girls took care of most of the pumpkin work this year. They drew faces to carve and got out all the seeds and goo. Last year I was stuck doing most of it myself.

I wish we had gotten a picture of all of them in their costumes together but this one turned out okay.

Chattanooga

2010-10-31T14:21:00.012-04:00

This boat was docked here and we got to hear one of my dad's stories about how in college he did a paper on the Delta Queen and took lots of pictures of the inside and got an insiders tour of the boiler room etc. and here it is many many years later. It would be neat to see it all but unfortunately the professor kept it.

This past weekend my parents came for a visit. One of my brothers, Joey, was in Chattanooga for a wedding so we went to see him and spend a fun weekend in Chattanooga. He lives in San Diego so visits are few and far between. We went to the Creative Discovery Museum, Aquarium, and downtown with these neat animal fountains. The Nina and Pinta were also in town. We saw them but didn't do the tour.

Heath's Birthday! 37!!

2010-10-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

Heath is an amazing husband and father and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. I couldn't ask for anyone better. I was just watching some movie where they said, "it doesn't matter if he's perfect, no one is, it just matters if he is perfect for you". Heath is perfect for me. He is so easy going when I am not and so respectful and supportive of me and my beliefs. Not to mention what a great dad he is to our kids. I am so thankful for him every day. Happy Birthday Heath!!

Nature Study

2010-10-13T17:09:00.008-04:00

You might be able to see these better if you click on them. I didn't have time to turn all the pictures. This is the worksheet I made on the computer for our nature notebook.

I decided to make a nature notebook so we could add pictures of all the things we find. We have been classifying them and adding them to our notebook. Now all the kids want their own notebooks so we now have tons of bug pictures in each notebook and I made a worksheet to write all of our information.

Katelyn is getting much more brave about holding things!

Check out the praying mantis at the top of our street sign!

We found this on a walk and Heath brought it home and cut it open. Leah is the only one who would hold it.

This first picture above is a praying mantis eating a bumblebee. It was hanging upside down with one half in each arm looking at us as it finished the meal!

We have had some beautiful butterflies in Heath's garden along with lizards, spiders, and lots of other things. We have identified most of our butterflies, caterpillars, and spiders. We have found each of the 3 kinds of praying mantis' that are in the U.S. and are having fun identifying lots of species!

2010-10-13T16:57:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures from today's homeschool field trip to the fire station. We joined a kindergarten group from another school and went with one other homeschool family. The kids had a great time and learned lots of fire safety tips! Gotta love free field trips!

Natural Family Planning -Why do I?

2010-10-02T19:52:00.003-04:00

I have thought about doing this for a while but I don't want to get too political or religious on my blog and this one is very personal. People for a while now have thought we are crazy for having so many children in such a short period of time. I just thought this would be an explanation for those who want it detailing our decision. We have never used artificial birth control which even my obgyn's office thinks is nuts. Some of this is taken from www.nfpandmore.org which I highly recommend. Any questions are quickly answered by a very nice couple and there is a free online book with all the details for anyone interested in learning. We did not use NFP to prevent our 1st 3 pregnancies and I had a little trouble sorting it out during breastfeeding but this site helped so much!! NFP costs $7 for a basal body thermometer and that is it. I think we have good reasons for it so for anyone who is interested, here are our reasons:

Why do we use Natural Family Planning?

1. Because it is in the Bible. In Genesis the sin of Onan was to spill his seed. Right after he spilled his seed it says, “what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also" (Gen 38:10)

The traditional teaching that contraception is a serious sin has a firm biblical foundation, but in recent years there has been a concerted effort to deny that the traditional teaching has this basis. The revisionists want us to think that the sin of Onan was only his selfish violation of the Levirate. This effort fails for three reasons, two of which are very apparent to those of us who are not specialists in the Hebrew text.

First, it is clear that there are three people who are all guilty of violating the Law of the Levirate: Onan, Judah by his own admission, and Shelah. Only one of them, however, was killed. Justice requires that we ask what Onan did that the others did not do. The answer is obvious. Only Onan engaged in the covenantal sexual act but defrauded it by his contraceptive behavior. The Levirate-only interpretation makes God to be arbitrary and unjust.

Second, there is another biblical text - Deuteronomy 25:5-10 - that clearly describes the penalty for a man violating the Levirate. The aggrieved widow could accuse him before the elders, spit in his face and take off his shoe-presumably quite embarrassing, but far from the death penalty

Third, Biblical scholar Manuel Miguens has shown that the key Hebrew verb generally has been mistranslated. The word "shichet" doesn't mean "spilled" but means "to act perversely." So the real meaning of Gen 38:9-10 is that Onan was punished for an act that was perverse in itself, not just for his selfish intentions. You can find more on this in Birth Control and Christian Discipleship and Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality. Both of these are shown on the Home Page of www.nfpandmore.org.

2. Even Protestants have been against contraception from the very beginning. In 1873 every protestant church was against contraception. John Calvin and Martin Luther both spoke out against contraception. In 1930, the church of England was the first to accept contraception. Here are what other religious leaders have to say about it:

Mahatma Gandhi

It is an insult to the fair sex to put up her case in support of birth-control by artificial methods. As it is, man has sufficiently degraded her for his lust and artificial methods… will still further degrade her. I urge advocates of artificial methods to consider the consequences…Birth control to me is a dismal abyss.

Martin Luther

How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature! How many girls are there who prevent contraception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God! Indeed, some spouses who marry and live together…have various ends in mind, but rarely children.

John Calvin

The voluntary spilling of semen outside of intercourse between a man and a woman is a monstrous thing. Deliberately to withdraw from coitus that semen may fall on the ground is doubly monstrous. For this is to extinguish hope of the (human) race and to kill before he is born the hoped for offspring.

3. I do not understand how something that comes from God would create so much evil. Since the start of contraception, there has been a dramatic increase in STD’s, unwanted pregnancies, premarital sex, the objectification of a woman, and sexual misconduct in society. You would think it would be the other way around but when a baby is no longer the likely result of the act, it becomes selfish, wanting each other for pleasure alone and not for love out of which a product of the love may be formed. With NFP, you have a close relationship with your body and can often identify hormonal and other problems because you are so in touch with the way your body functions. As a couple, there is respect of the body and everything that comes with it. Also, if the pill does not prevent the egg from getting fertilized, it kills the fertilized egg before implantation. Once an egg is fertilized, it is human and has all the genetic makeup. This is abortion.

4. It is bad for the environment. The 2006 British Environmental Agency released a report indicating that fully a third of the male fish living near water treatment plants in the U.K. are changing sex and producing eggs because of the presence of contraceptive hormones that are present in the rivers and not removed by water treatment. The same hormones in the water have caused human male sperm count to fall by 30 percent in the last 13 years leading to 1 in 6 couples struggling with infertility.

5. Natural Family Planning makes a marriage better, this is just my opinion, but those I females I know who use NFP never complain about not being in the mood, etc. and my friends who do not use it frequently do. When you abstain from something for a week to 10 days, when you are able to do it again, it is better. Think about separations and then the time you were reunited. We do that every month without having to be apart. I don’t feel on call or used. The pill is known to reduce sex drive and condoms do as well. I read somewhere that the secretions in an ejaculation cause a woman to want it more the next time, a condom would block that. Also, I do not choose to subject my body to the side effects of artificial hormones. Look at the long list of side affects and still husbands have no problem subjecting their wives to increased risk of all kinds of things just to be able to have sex without consequences. I have so many friends that have had terrible side effects. I think that shows a lack of love and respect for our spouses. We feel the need to control everything in our lives and less and less are giving our control to God.

Racing for Cystic Fibrosis

2010-09-21T14:02:00.005-04:00

Brianna ran a race this past Sunday in Kennesaw for Cystic Fibrosis. The daughter of 2 of my very good friends from high school has Cystic Fibrosis. Elena is the same age as Brianna. We ran/walked 3-4 nights a week for a month leading up to the race so she could see how long a mile is and not be the last one to finish. Only twice did she run the mile without walking and most of the time she complained about something hurting while she was running even though she said she wanted to go running when we started. She ran very fast during the race as Brianna is VERY competitive.

At night before going to bed, she would frequently pray, "Thank you God that we get to run the race to help Elena." I am hoping to raise more money next year and make it a yearly event for us. We just asked family for money this year, but may expand to do more fundraising next year. Our neighbor who frequently watched Brianna run offered to donate as well. So thanks Miss Kim, Dad and Mom, Jenny and Eric, Joey and Crystal! We raised enough between all of our donations to win a Nintendo Wii. I didn't think we would get anything. All I had to say to my family was something about Joel and Julie and they said, "who do we make the check out to." Joel and Julie are awesome parents. They have adopted 2 more children since each child they would have would have a chance of having cystic fibrosis and go through great lengths to fight this disease. They started the rosebuds race for kids and I admire them a lot! We forgot our camera to bring to the race but here are some pictures. The kids can't wait for next year! Here is a link to some pics of the race on Julie's blog http://goodrowgang.blogspot.com/2010/09/rosebuds-elena-ran-her-first-full-mile.html and a link to learn more about Elena and Cystic Fibrosis http://www.elenacfupdate.blogspot.com.

More School and Butterflies

2010-09-13T14:43:00.005-04:00

Here is a little about what we have been doing in school thus far. We are on day 33 of school and are doing pretty good. Here are the kids with a pyramid we built while studying Ancient Egypt. We also made some pots and hyrogliphs while studying Ancient Egypt. We are really enjoying the story of the world which Heath reads the girls a chapter a week. We also are using the Usborne book of World History and covering history from the beginning of the world to present day.

We have finished studying the plant world in the Usborne Illustrated Book of the Natural World and finished up with mushroom week. We picked some out of the yard to compare with our store bought. The kids also found this dead butterfly down the basement and we discovered it is a Tiger Swallowtail. Then Heath found 2 caterpillars eating his carrot plants in his garden. We looked them up and they were Black Swallowtail caterpillars. We discovered that they eat parsley (it didn't list carrots but they were eating ours) so we gave one some of our parsley and it became a crysalis within a couple days of catching it. It was in the crysalis for a week and a day and then turned into a butterfly. We were excited that we didn't even have to order them

Family get together at lake

2010-08-25T16:19:00.004-04:00

On the way home from Myrtle Beach we stopped for a family get together with Tim and his fiance Lauren, Chris and his wife Samantha, Jenny and her family Eric, Martin, and Grace. We missed Joey and Crystal but had a fun time at my parents lake house. Here is swimming off of their dock. There are 4 new posts between yesterday and today so if you want to see our beach trip or Centennial Park you might have to go to older posts.

Leah, worn out from the beach and all the travel and Leah floating on her back.

Brianna on their trampoline and Kate jumping off the dock. Kate has made major improvements this summer with no swimming lessons or anything. She wouldn't jump off the side or put her face near the water at the beginning of the summer and now loved the waves, jumped off the dock, swims underwater without a floatie. I hope it doesn't take her most of the summer to warm up again next year. Brianna, Sam, and Leah are all good swimmers and pretty fearless.

Myrtle Beach Part 2

2010-08-24T15:16:00.008-04:00

Here is part 2 of the beach trip. Here is Alex on the last night there, he fell asleep sitting up in the chair.

Here is my incredible grandma. We just love her! My dad has more with her and the kids on his camera. This was on our last day there after my dad had already left.

Here is another of Sam's fake "smile" pictures.

And these two, who taught my daughter to pose like this and why does she think she is a supermodel!!! I have no idea where she has seen anything like this or why she wants to pose like this but I am scared. She is only 6. I almost didn't post them but it isn't like she is in a bikini!

These last 4 are of our stop on the way there to see my friend Jenny who was a bridesmaid at my wedding and my roommate in college. She lives on the way there and was nice enough to get her kids up early and drive 25 minutes to meet us at this great Chick fil a at 9 in the morning. Thanks Jenny!!

Myrtle Beach part 1

2010-08-24T13:33:00.011-04:00

We have had a busy couple of weeks. We went to Centennial Olympic Park last weekend to see Joey and Crystal (see post below) then went to Myrtle Beach to visit my grandma, then to my parents lake house with my other 2 brothers and sister's families. So lots of pictures and posts to come. We have tons of beach pictures so I will do a couple posts. Katelyn was the least fearful of the beach which surprised us all since she is normally the most timid. She loved the waves and didn't want to get out.

My grandma had a stroke a couple months ago so my dad came to help here out and facilitate our being able to see here and spend as much time with her as possible. She is doing much better than a few months ago and is starting to be able to read and communicate better. She is still unsteady so she couldn't come to the beach but took us out for dinners and ice cream. She is still amazing for an 86 year old but was playing golf, bridge, and walking on the beach before the stroke so this has been hard for her.

We always stay at the Long Bay which has a submarine, lazy river, pools, etc and we don't have to spend much on outside entertainment.

Our camera kept fogging but I like this picture anyway. Alex is almost as fearless as Leah and kept walking out of the submarine with no one there to get him.

We thought these looked like right out of a musical. He bought a rake and helicopter with his spending money.

Leah wandered off on the beach while Heath and I were messing with cameras. She was still close enough to see but it took us a minute to find her and she gave me a heart attack. After that Sam was holding her hand and watching out for her.

Alex thought sticking his head in the water and throwing sand were a blast!

Brianna insisted on doing beach ballet in this picture and found a dead fish to show off. Part 2 will be coming soon.

Centennial Park

2010-08-24T11:34:00.008-04:00

My brother Joey and his wife Crystal now live in San Diego but were in town for the weekend for a wedding. They were busy Fri. and Sat. as Joey was the best man but were free on Sunday so we met them at Centennial Olympic Park. It turned out to be a lot of fun and pretty good weather. My sister Jenny's family, our family, and Joey and Crystal met at the CNN center and then went to the fountains. There were a couple really cool parks near the fountains as well. The kids had a blast. They really miss Joey and Crystal!

This was the coolest park and a really fun slide.

Here is our attempt at group shots.

Leah was acting like a crazy person bouncing around and dancing in the water.

Here is my sister's daughter Grace.

Alex kept walking right in the water and didn't like it in his face.

Here is Martin, my sister's son, in the water and Crystal in the water with our kids.

Random Pictures

2010-08-06T11:54:00.004-04:00

On our anniversary, we went to a Baseball Game with Heath's parents. This was also about an hour after Brianna cut her finger.

Here is Brianna's finger injury several days later. It took 3 days to stop bleeding and still looks swollen and nasty but is getting better every day. Alex is getting to be such a big boy now. He likes to take hats on and off.

Here is a blanket we made from a piece of cardboard and yarn. The girls learned how to weave on our cardboard loom. We also did a celery experiment. We are trying to do one history project and one science experiment each week. So far school is going very well and we spend very little time on it but I am still worried that they will not learn all they need to learn in school.

Alex loves to ride behind Sam on this trike. He usually holds onto Sam's shirt or the back of the trike and they speed around the driveway. He also loves getting his hair brushed.

Just liked these pictures.

Here is Leah after getting her hair brushed.

Sam's Birthday

2010-08-05T13:01:00.007-04:00

Here are some pictures from Sam's 1st birthday. You can see some similarities between him and Alex at age 1. His 1st birthday cake was a train since he LOVED trains and apparently still does since he asked for a train cake this year. This year wasn't as elaborate though. He wanted to make the trains out of blueberries and m &m's. He got a camera from my parents that he is so excited about. He is still taking hundreds of pictures. He also got his Thomas shed from our neighbor who took him on a birthday lunch. He got a fur real panda, some trains, and a couple other things from us. Our computer has been broken again so this is late. He turned 4 on July 14th. He is becoming such a big boy!

2010-07-13T14:17:00.001-04:00

Alex had his first haircut on his birthday. I had trimmed the back and sides twice so it wasn't over his ears but never a full haircut. It was hard to cut off the cute little curls but he looks more grown up now.

Fountains

2010-07-13T14:09:00.001-04:00

We went to our local fountains with friends a couple weeks ago. The kids had a blast and we are going to attempt to go tomorrow for Sam's birthday with my parents as long as the rain holds off for us.

Cow Appreciation Day

2010-07-13T13:51:00.003-04:00

We all dressed as cows (me too) on July 9th for cow appreciation day at chick fil a. The kids had a blast cutting out and taping spots and making ear headbands. We each got a free entree, side, and drink for free. What a deal. We went with our friends Caroline and Cecelia.

These last 2 pictures are copied from my friend's blog. Our camera was not working right and she was nice enough to get some group shots for us. More here: http://mommyerin.blogspot.com/2010/07/cow-appreciation-day.html

Alex's 1st Birthday!

2010-06-29T12:38:00.005-04:00

So today is Alex's 1st birthday! He is the sweetest little boy just like his older brother! His favorite toy to date is any ball he can hold. He throws them all over the place and even makes baskets in our little basketball net. This has been a busy year at our house. We closed on the house we are in now on June 24th of last year and then finished moving everything out of our old house on the 28th and then along came Alex on the 29th! We also finished our 1st year of homeschooling so it has been a challenging year. I hope the next year of his life is a little less stressful for me! I have been at least a couple months pregnant by each of my children's 1st birthday parties and I am happy to have broken that tradition this year (I took a test this morning just to be sure I made it! ) We had a small birthday party Saturday with Heath's parents, sister, and my sister and her family.

Heath's mom usually makes the kids a tshirt with their picture for their birthday. It is so cute and they are all saved in their special boxes.

Alex did not like his cake. He isn't eating much and didn't like the feeling of icing on his hands.

Some facts for Alex:

Alex has 6 teeth in and 2 more breaking through.

He loves peek-a-boo.

I have trimmed his hair twice.

He has been walking really good for a while now but sometimes still prefers to hold my hand.

His favorite food is watermelon which he is eating lots of today! :)

Lake house

2010-06-21T11:17:00.005-04:00

I'll try to add more to this later. The kids had the best time with my cousins Seth, Paul, Ruth, and Sarah. We only see them once a year and they talk about it for the rest of the year. We are always so impressed with their family. They are such well behaved helpful kids. My kids adore them and they are great role models. All the girls do ballet so they were putting on shows for us. They went tubing with grandpas boat and enjoyed swimming off his dock. It was a great 4 days and always makes us sad we don't live closer.

Butterflies

2010-06-06T21:34:00.005-04:00

We had planned on getting caterpillars this summer but I forgot until I saw my friends blog (thanks Julie). Here are some pictures of how they looked when we first got them, them hanging upside down, and then in the crysalis. All 5 made it to butterflies but 2 were much slower than the other 3 so we waited until all 5 were out and then when Heath got home from work and we had planned to let them go, 4 were mating with each other. We decided to them them go anyway since we had been feeding 3 for about a week and they seemed anxious to get out. They were not happy we were disturbing them but flew away still attached to each other. I thought it might be neat to see them lay eggs but they seemed so ready to fly in open space. I read after the fact that this is not the best for the environment because they can spread disease to other populations and throw off the balance of populations so I don't know if we will do it next year. We may try to catch our own and put them in a cage with the plant that they enjoy eating. It was a valuable experience for the kids and I thought it was pretty neat too so I would like to do some variation of it next year. Any suggestions?

These are the butterflies mating on Sam and the one solo butterfly we had (poor loser had no mate and he/she was ready to get out of there).

Here are 2 frogs we found in our yard. They were so tiny and cute I had to put them in here too.

Here is one pair mating and the solo butterfly on Brianna's silly bands.

Kate turns 5

2010-06-06T21:20:00.003-04:00

Kate's birthday was May 31st. We had lemon bars which are her favorite instead of cake since she had that for her friend party. She got her stroller and doll which she LOVES and were both bought on after Christmas Clearance. I am so glad that she is not to the age yet where she cares if it is an American Girl doll or not. She takes her new doll everywhere and was so excited about it.

Bon Voyage Joey!

2010-05-28T13:13:00.003-04:00

My brother Joey came to visit us for the weekend. His wife Crystal came about a month ago. They are moving to San Diego. Crystal already moved and is anxiously waiting for Joey to get there. He will be leaving this coming week so he came to see us before he left. The kids were SO EXCITED! Even though Leah isn't acting like it in the above picture she kept saying, "I love Crystal and Joey" all weekend. The other kids were very excited too. They were all over Joey the whole time. Not a restful weekend but so nice to see him before he goes. We went to the park and went swimming. It may be Christmas before we see them again and we will miss them! :(