Ahh, the joys of Spring!

I love this time of year. Having the windows open, sending the kiddos outside to play, seeing Luke bringing me the heads of flowers (not the stem, just the top of the flower) - it's a great time of year. It's also the time that I (knowing my type A personality) make final curriculum decisions for the next school year. To help in making those final decisions, I made a trip yesterday to the Homeschool Gathering Place in Raleigh. Talk about a kid in a candy store! I looove going there! The funny thing is that the kids love going too. Rachael said yesterday that she loved looking at new school books. She also loves all of the used books they have for sale. Rach always comes home with a stack of new books to read when gets to visit that store.

Anyway, I was able to look at many different math books (that's what I've been struggling with for Rach this year) and I decided! Yay! That's such a hump to get over. We decided on Saxon Algebra 1 (how can she possibly be old enough to be in Algebra 1?!?!) with the DIVE cd. That will allow her to get the lesson taught by someone who knows what they're doing (it's been a loooong time since I was in an Algebra class) and then I can check it. This will also allow her to stay with this curriculum until she goes to PCC for 11th & 12th grades. That was one of my goals - I really don't want to change her math curriculum for the next four years.

While we were looking through other materials, we found the Further Up, Further In study. It's a literature unit study based on the Chronicles of Narnia. She and Alex will do some of it together, but Rach will do all of it. I think she's looking forward to that.

In talking with Elliotte last night, he wants to do the kids History. So, we decided to start Mystery of History together as a family! I am so excited about this. I've wanted to do this program for a while, but haven't been able to organized it on my own. I just spend too much time each day putting out 'brush fires' and can't get to a good history program that we can do together. So, starting in a couple of weeks, we are going to begin Mystery of History book 1.

The kids will have testing during the last week of April - and we will be done for this school year. And we are all looking forward to it! We'll take the month of May and some of June, then we'll get started back - probably with a 4 day week. I've gotta leave time in there to take some trips to Kings Dominion! We are going to use our Christmas money (thank you Auntie Lois!) to cover most of the season tickets! The last time we did this was the year Elliotte started grad school - 2006 - and we haven't been able to since. Until this year I didn't think I could take the kids with me alone, so with Elliotte in grad school, it wasn't going to work to get tickets. But, this year, we can go a lot and we'll have my brother and family to go with, as well as some good friends! We are all looking forward to going - the kids are bigger now and can ride many more things than three years ago. Rachael is taller than me, so she can ride anything she wants to. Alex and David can ride most of the rides, where last time they really could only ride kiddie rides and some with a parent. In 2006, Luke could barely ride the kiddie rides, since he was only 15 months when we started going. Now, he and Brinlee (his little friend!) will be able to ride a bunch of rides together! It was a shocker looking at a scrapbook from our visits in the summer of 2006 - the kids have grown so much! I'll have to post some 2006/2009 comparisons once we go to KD in April.

We are loving our time at Open Door Ministries. It's been a time of resting (over the last year), getting to know new friends, learning and growing. We have a small group with two other couples - together we're learning more about marriage. I'm glad God has given this opportunity to us. We have a heart to see other couples have a better marriage - not just one to settle for. There's so much that we've been through and have come out the other side closer, more connected with each other and with God.

Our kids 4-H accomplishments!

Luke kept asking when was it his turn to go up on stage! Luckily for him, I kept offering him cookies to be quiet!










I just had to share the kids accomplishments from the Pitt County 4-H Achievement Banquet that was held this evening.

The Pearson kids were recognized for:

Rachael won:
Vice President of the Year 2008
County Champion for Health Project book
County Champion for Photography Project Book
County Champion for Community Service Project Book, then sent to district competition
Expressive Arts Project Book was sent to District competition
Won a trophy for two project books going to district for 2007














Alex was recognized for his 2008 Photography project book. Kids aren't in the competitive range until they are nine in 4-H years (as of January 1st of that year). So, his wasn't judged against other kids work. but he did get great marks from the judges on his project book!













David also was recognized for his Photography project book. He did a good job, and got excellent marks on his book as well!











Our club, The Whiz Kidz, is pictured above on the right side of the plaque, won:

Co-Club of the Year (for the 2nd year in a row, we tied for club of the year with the Mane Challengers)
Community Service Club of the Year
Awarded Emerald Seal for our club
Recognized for the club with the most winning project books

It was a banner night for our club and our kids. We were excited to see them doing so well. One of the reasons that we love 4-H is that it helps us to round out the kids education and gives them great opportunities to share what they've learned, sometimes in a competitive environment. They learn great life skills and become better citizens because of what they experience and learn.

Coming to the end of the week. . .

This is the end of our first week of school, and it's been a good one. Rachael has gotten a dose of what 7th grade is like, and she dominated! I thought it was going to be a shock to her system, but she actually finished her work in three days...so I've already threatened to add more work to her schedule! I do realize, and so does she, that its really just review from last year, so the math and english isn't really hard yet. In a few weeks we'll add a Geography Co-op to our schedule - studying Asia. The kids will do the research (working together) and put together a presentation. Last time the kids learned how to do Powerpoint, and we'll probably use that method again this year. In addition to the presentation, all the families who participate in the co-op prepare a food dish from their particular country and we all feast! It's a lot of fun to try different things that we wouldn't normally try!

For the next few days, Rachael is farm-sitting. Yes, farm sitting! My friend is out of town, and has asked Rachael to take over feeding and watering her animals. She has goats, chickens, one lonely duck, and two kitties. When we pulled up to her house tonight, we saw that one of the boy goats (about the size of a small dog) on the *outside* of the fence! Argh! So, we set to luring, pleading, chasing and herding this little goat back into his cage. I bet anyone riding by would have been really, really entertained by that sight! While my oldest children chased the goat, my little Lukie had spotted the tiny kitten named Luke (all the animals are named after friends and this one is my Lukie's namesake). So, he proceeded to hog the kitten, and not let any of the other kids have a turn holding him. He toted him all around, holding him with one hand. I don't think Luke (the kitten) was really unhappy with the situation, but I did see him run away from Lukie a few times. Then Lukie, the boy, would chase down Luke, the kitten, and catch him again. It was very funny! Just before we were getting ready to leave, Luke, the kitten, had hidden himself under the car just out of the reach of Lukie, the boy. It frustrated Lukie and he was very upset that he had to leave the kitten behind and go to our home, which has no kitten... Life is always an adventure!

My dad and stepmother came by tonight and we sat outside and had a very nice visit. The weather was pleasant and the conversation entertaining.

Tomorrow we will spend part of the day with friends we only see about once a year. All the kids will be together and will spend the day in and out of the pool. That will give us grown ups time to catch up with each other's lives.

Just a note about Independence Day - I am so thankful for our country, and the freedoms we have! It's awesome that God placed me in this country when he chose me to be born. We have the freedom to worship our God, freedom to homeschool, freedom to choose our career, and our friends. I'm thankful to all those who have served in the military (including my husband) to defend our freedom against all those out there who would like to dominate us. I will be ever thankful that I serve a God who is, above all, in control!

The first day of school

I was greeted this morning at 6:50am with Rachael by my side, grinning, telling me that she was dressed and ready for schoool. (I told you that they were excited!) I encouraged her, and she left the room. Very shortly thereafter, Alex and David came in and told me that they were ready. David told me he was ready by silently appearing at the side of my face (my eyes were closed and I had fallen back asleep) and saying "See, I brushed my teeth. Doesn't my breath smell good?" and breathing heavily on me. I laughed and said, "Yep, you brushed 'em."

As soon as I walked down stairs I was bombarded with questions about the schoolwork Rachael needed help with and the younger kids asking to start thier work and Luke asking to play his Dora computer game. Aarrggghhh! I told them all as calmly as I could I needed some coffee and a minute to breathe before I jumped in to the day. I got the boys started decorating pages for the front of their schoolwork notebook (to make it 'thiers') and then fixed some coffee and a bagel (thank you Pastor Aaron).

On a different note, Ferrell Galloway was at Open Door yesterday and God moved in an awesome way in me. It was a great service and I really enjoyed hearing about what God was doing all over the country through The Call. But he shared a word about God calling us back to pray... To fast and pray for the root of those things that really pings in our heart. Not to do 'exploratory prayer' where we try to cover as many topics in our prayer time as we can. But to deeply pray and seek God's face for our nation, our body of believers, our city, and our own struggles. To believe that God *does* hear us, and that He will answer, according to His will. I so terribly want to linger in God's presence...to talk with Him intimately...it's hard to make the time for that at this stage in my life (and my family's life).

Alrighty, I'm off to begin educating my kiddies for a new school year... Let's see how long they stay excited. . .

Oh, by the way, these postings are originating from my blog (see my profile on Facebook for the address) but are being imported to Facebook. So, if you want to comment, visit the actual blog on blogspot...

I started a new blog!

I decided to let my other blog go and try blogspot. What I'm hoping is that I'll blog here about our life, our adventures in homeschooling, and any other things that we come across that are a little bit interesting!

Also, Elliotte has discovered an interest, and seemingly, a talent in photography. I've been impressed with what he's learned in a short time with his graduation present - a digital SLR camera. So, I plan on posting some great pics here of the kids and maybe even some of Elliotte and myself.

As Elliotte finishes grad school in the next three or so weeks, and as we get started back to school, we'll all be on a path to discovering what "regular" life is for us (and expressing that here).

All I know is, that we are blessed - blessed to be called children by the living God, blessed to be healthy, blessed to all be together, blessed to have God provide Elliotte with so much favor with his job and school, just blessed. . .