Today we had our annual Chicken and Corn Roast. Our entire church comes to our house and we play games and eat:-)

We had a smaller crowd this year, because two families couldn't make it. :'(

The food was delicious! Mrs. Carr brought my favorite thing in the whole world! I'm not sure what they're called, but it's jalapeños with all the seeds taken out, filled with cream cheese, and wrapped in bacon. They are awesome!!!
(Thank you:-) )

Mom marinated the chicken in Italian dressing all night, so it was all juicy and sweet! Dad, Mr. Bruce, and Josh grilled the chicken and the corn.

We also played kickball. I don't have any pictures of that because I forgot. (sorry)

I was all-time pitcher because kickball is my least favorite sport. The last time I actually played, was the time I broke my ankle:-)  So, we had a lot of fun and we won!!
Of course, I always win because I'm always all-time pitcher. :-)

Here's some more food......

After games and lunch, we cleaned up. The boys had a lot of fun trying to dump the left-over lemonade on each other:-)  Then they took the big thing of ice and played basketball. That didn't go so well:-)

~The End

CarissaFaith:)

Things have been moving v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y over here. Or at least they feel that way to me:-)

About the Christmas music...........doesn't everyone listen to Christmas music in August?!?!

Yeah, neither do we. Don't ask me why it was on; I wouldn't be able to answer that right now. Try me in December:-)

The rest of the peaches are ripe.

That means we have to freeze them.

*Sigh*

We start school on Tuesday!! I cannot wait! I think summer gets a little boring after a while.(Someone remind me that I said that around December.) :-)

Homeschooling grades for this year goes as follows:

Josh: He's 18 and doing college classes, but still at home. He's a senior, I think:-)
Autumn: She's 16 (soon to be 17) and a Junior
Melody: She's 15 and a sophomore
Carissa: I'm 14 and also a sophomore
Timothy: He's 11(soon to be 12) and in 7th grade
Stephen: He's 10 and in 4th grade
Serenity: She's 8 and in 3rd grade
Mercy: She's 5 (soon to be 6) and in kindergarten
Charity is not in school yet though:-)

On Saturday, we have a Chicken and Corn Roast at our house! If anyone wants to come, they are very welcome to!!  :-)

Oh, and the Mars and Moon thing? Yeah, that was a hoax. Apparently, it happens every August on Facebook:-) Did anyone else fall for that?

CarissaFaith:)

Yesterday, we froze peaches.

Lisa, a lady in our church, gave us three buckets full of peaches from their farm. Coupled with the peaches from our tree, there was a lot!

We decided to freeze them because it would be easier than canning. There were different stations for each job. Scoring, boiling, ice water bath, peeling, and lemon juice. Autumn, Melody, Mom, and I scored all of them then boiled them. After they were boiled, we put them in ice water, then peeled the skin off. It was soon realized that the ripe peaches were way easier to peel then the unripe ones!

For the second batch, we decided to take the non-ripe peaches out, and freeze only ripe ones. So, we'll have more peaches later:-)

It just goes to show that God does care about the little things in our life. My mom had prayed for peaches, and a week later, we had them.  And they were free. Free is always good:-)

On another note, I got my rat in the mail a couple of days ago! Don't worry, he's dead. I get to dissect him in Biology.

Melody decided she will not dissect but just watch:-)

Also, something is going to happen tonight that won't happen again until 2287!
There will be two moons in the sky, but only one will be the moon. The other will be Mars!
I hope the skies clear up over here so we'll be able to see it:-)

Happy Tuesday!

CarissaFaith:)

September 15, 2013 starts the official new Sunday school year for Lighthouse! We now have separate adult classes for men and women, separate teen classes for boys and girls, and a new Sunday school system for the elementary.

On Wednesdays, we have Truth Trackers, a discipleship program for kids.

So, if you're in the area, join us on September 22 for our Open House!!!

CarissaFaith:)

Today we're making raspberry cobbler....

We found this awesome recipe online. So, here it is!

What you need:
1 cup flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups raspberries(or any other type of fruit)
1tbs flour
3/4 cup white sugar

Directions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place butter into a 9×13” baking dish. Place into the oven to melt while it is preheating. Remove from the oven as soon as the butter is melted. In a medium bowl stir together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and baking powder. Mix in the milk until well blended.  Pour batter over the melted butter in the baking dish. Do not stir.
.

Step 2: Place cherries into a bowl and toss with the remaining ¾ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour. Distribute cherry mixture evenly over the batter. Do not stir

Step 3: Place into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

You can use any type of fruit you want. So far, we've used cherries, apples, peaches, raspberries, and strawberries. And it tastes great every time!
Since, my sister Autumn is allergic to all things dairy, we also use soy milk and a type of dairy-free butter.

And, the finished product! Or what was supposed to be. It got eaten:-)

If anyone has any yummy recipes to share, feel free to post them in the comments section below!

Carissa Faith:)

For some unknown reason, every time I go to edit a post, it puts it on the home page. So, I'm very sorry if you keep seeing the same thing over and over again:-)

Happy Sunday!

CarissaFaith:-)

Everyone says it's important to have one on one time with each child. Therefore, my guilt factor is huge because sadly, it is a rare occurrence.

Then comes days like yesterday and the opportunity of spending special time with that one child comes unexpectedly...

Yesterday morning mercy and I went to the dentist.

No... Let me back up a little farther than that!

I got up later that normal, raced to get a quick shower, shovel food down my 5 little ones, woke up my 4 teens, and told them I was leaving the littles while I went to the dentist.
After grabbing Mercy's shoes, she and I rushed out the door and drove the 35 min to Zanesville. We got there not a minute to soon.

Mercy did great! No cavities!

I however, ended up with more than I bargained for...

My front tooth had cracked because I clinch and grind my teeth at night. And I needed several fillings.

And hour and a half later, my front tooth had a new smile and my fillings were finished. But because of the novacaine my smile was a little crooked! :)

I felt just a little shaky from the numbing AND I really didn't want to rush home to noise and work. :) sooo.

Mercy and I had a date with a Wendy's cheeseburger in the van.
We sat there eating enjoying the quietness of the can and each other.

I must have left the key on in the ignition because when I went to start the van.. Nothing!

Thankfully I have State Farm road side assistance who came to rescue us with a jump start.

During that 25 minute wait, I really enjoyed a quiet time with my 5 year old.

It's not often that it is just her and I.

What started out as a rushed morning ended up with a quiet little time together in the afternoon, just she and I!

Returning home with clean smiles, full bellies, and an unexpected girl time made the day perfect in my eyes.

Ever had an unexpected unwanted incident turn into a meaningful experience?

Cassandra

After we came back from organizing the Holloway's house, we saw so much that could be done with ours! First, we rearranged the school area. We don't have a room to do school in, but we have a large basement/school room/living room/playroom.

This is after we moved everything. My desk is first. I'm fourteen and a sophomore. Melody's next. She's fifteen and also a sophomore. Autumn is last. She will be seventeen and she's a junior.

This is Josh's desk. He's taking some college classes, but he will also be doing things at home.

We moved Timothy from his original spot and put him beside the bookcases. The bookcases are filled with grade books, fiction books, nonfiction books, reference books, and any other book a homeschooling family could need. (except for that one book. I think its called 66Zebra. Or maybe it's 99Zebra. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's 77Zebra. Anyway, we don't have it:'( )

The desk's above  Stephen's(he's ten and in fourth grade), Serenity's (she's eight and in third grade), and Mercy's(she's almost six and in kindergarten).
Charity doesn't do school yet, but she can count up to ten with a little help and up to three with no help at all. She also knows her basic colors and her favorite one so far is purple!:)

We also reorganized the laundry room. Since I'm in charge of the laundry, I wanted a place to fold everything without taking it out to the couch. We took the tables we had been using for school and used them in there.
Melody also does a lot of sewing and she wanted a place to put all of her stuff. We put one of the tables in there for her and used an old dresser for all the sewing needles/thread/ect.

So now we're just working on installing Switched on Schoolhouse and Teaching Textbooks on our computers. Wait, Josh just asked me to install Algebra 2 on my computer. Perfect timing!

OK, I'm back:-)
I'm technically supposed to be doing geometry this year, but since I think algebra is pretty easy, I might do an average of two per day. I'd get done in one semester and could start on geometry if I wanted to.

And now, just because I'm being so generous, I'll end with a lovely picture of the snow that I stole from my brothers iPod.

No, it's not snowing here(though it actually is possible because of the cold air current coming from the north. It just has to get colder first!). I just can't wait for winter. So many exciting things happen then. Christmas, Winter camp, school. I do like school. Really!

CarissaFaith:)

14 years ago Joshua and Autumn started violin lessons. It was a a tremendous help for our energetic 4 year old little who struggled with standing still and paying attention. He thrived at the discipline of learning to pay attention, follow instructions, and be rewarded with music coming from his bow!

At the age of 3, Autumn took to her violin right away and learned very quickly all the twinkles and a few of the first couple songs in her brother's Suzuki book. Both children had great teachers who made learning fun.

After moving from Wisconsin to Ohio, the children only had 2 years of violin under their belt.
Meanwhile, our family of four expanded to five and my husband took on the Pastorate at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Ohio.

My heart was for all the children to learn to play some sort of instrument. I found another teacher for Joshua and Autumn for a year. Then they had the opportunity to be in a Suzuki program about an hour drive from our home at Dennison University for 2 years.

I was able to enroll Timothy in that same program on the Cello . He was four at the time and loved it. By the end of the year, he was halfway through the first book.

Meanwhile, we also had a young lady in our church teaching piano to Carissa and Melody for a year when they 6 and 7 years old.

That year, I felt my dream for my children was being fulfilled...that each would have some musical opportunity.

Then came sickness...

That was the same year Autumn had her surgery. Life somewhat fell apart with the music lessons and focused more on surgery and a year of healing.

Our piano teacher moved, we had to leave the Suzuki program at Dennison because of finances and gas, and our family now had 7 children under 11 with one on the way. This  made it difficult to travel long distances AND I began to homeschool 5  students Kindergarden to 6th grade.

The Lord paid for lessons for Autumn and Joshua for a year at Muskingum University  in 2010, but for the last 3 years none of my children have been able to take lessons.

Now, I'm not complaining, I'm not whining... Because I know that God knows my heart and God knows what is best for my children.

But sometimes I look at Joshua and Autumn and feel like they are on a treadmill going no where musically. In other words, only playing at the level they know and nothing else. Many of the friends that we knew who were with my two oldest in violin are FAR more advanced and play so much more beautifully.

I remind myself to trust God  for He indeed has His plan for my children that far exceeds my own.

For example:  This summer, Melody expressed a desire to play the piano again and take lessons. I have wanted this for years, but it just was not financially in the budget. Melody and I sat down and prayed for God specifically to allow her to have piano lessons. And would you believe it? Not two weeks later we received a phone call from a dear couple who wanted to pay for Melody to have lessons for a year.

Neither of us had expressed that desire to anyone expect God....

I am convinced that God does care and is working.

My children may not have all that I dream for them, but God has HIS plan for them which is so much better.

Joshua and Autumn still play their violin in church for the glory of God,  Melody gets to have piano lessons for a year, and through this experience, Serenity and Timothy are getting piano lessons for at least one semester.

Autumn is going to start teaching Stephen and Mercy what she knows on the violin.

What about Carissa? She enjoys science, loves to write, and has a beautiful voice. Her dream? Voice lessons.

God is so good to us. I am excited to see what God's plan is for our children this year.

What about you?

Has God given you a dream for your children? Continue on! I know through experience that He truly is in control and has a wonderful plan.

Cassandra