Farkles, Fableeus, and Fragilous

Maiden: "Oh look, I have a farkle!"

farkle [fark uhl]
–noun
1. one of the small, brownish spots on the skin that are caused by deposition of pigment and that increase in number and darken on exposure to sunlight; lentigo.

Duchess: "Mom, you look fableeus."

fableeus [fab lee uhs]
-adjective
1. extrememly pleasing; wonderful.

Duchess: "My brain is fragilous."

fragilous [fraj uhl uhs]
–adjective
1. easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail.

Wordless Wednesday

Ten More Weeks of School!

We have ten weeks of school left before summer. We figured out how many pages of math to do each day in order to get through the entire book before Memorial weekend. I think it can be done, if we don't get sidetracked along the way. Speaking of math....

Friday was Pi Day. Did you celebrate? If not, there is always next year. March 14th...my friend Rapunzel is such a math freak, not only did she go into accounting, she got married on Pi day. Talk about dedication to numbers!

How did we celebrate? Well, I read this book to the Royal Students. We had fun measuring the circumference and diameter of any circle we could find. At first they didn't understand, but after reading the book and doing a few measurements, it finally clicked. The circumference of a circle divided by the diameter is 3-1/7. Or, the distance around a circle is 3-1/7 times the distance across. Pi is explained in the book as, "the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, usually expressed as a decimal number 3.14159....the part to the right of the decimal is about a seventh."


Then we had meat and potato pie for supper. (Hey Chris, remember this...my mom used to make it for you every time you would sleep over. She only made it because you told her it was so good. But the truth was that you didn't like it at all, you were only being polite. I laugh at that memory every time I serve it to my family.)


I also spent hours baking Kuchen, all in the name of math. (Circular shaped.) I used my husband's grandmother's recipe. I makes TWELVE kuchen! Four each of plain, rhubarb, blueberry and peach. (That was a good multiplication lesson too.)



Scribe was so impressed with the book we read that he had to read the other books in the series. If you have never heard of the Sir Cumference books by Cindy Neuschwander, I highly recommend them. I wish I would have had books like this read to me as a child. Maybe I would have understood some mathematical concepts a little better.


For History/Geography we are learning about South America. We are working on learning all of the countries and their locations. When we did North America, the fastest way they boys learned the countries and locations was through a game we made and played. I am in the process of making a game for South America too.

We read a book about Nate Saint, one of the five missionaries killed in Ecuador by the Auca's in 1956. The boys were mesmerized by Nate and his story. They were very sad to find out at that he was killed by the very people he wanted to introduce to the Gospel.

The biggest impact on the boys was that the missionaries were all killed because of a lie that one of the members of the tribe told to the others. He told a story to cover up the fact that he, an unmarried man, had spent the night alone with an unmarried woman. Many times after reading the book, the boys talked about what would have happened if the lie had never been told. We had a very good talk about how many people could be affected by a lie...in this case, all the families, children, parents, grandparents, and friends of the deceased. I don't think lying will be very easy for either one of them after this lesson.

We rented End of the Spear for the boys to watch. They told me they were happy I had read the book to them first so they knew what was happening. I had forgotten about all the subtitles in the movie, but they both seemed to keep up with it.

The next two NetFlix movies we have coming are the documentaries, Through the Gates of Splendor and Beyond the Gates of Splendor. Both the boys are extremely interested in the story of Nate Saint, as well as the other four missionaries, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming. They requested the documentaries to finish up their study of Nate Saint.

I overhead them talking with another homeschool friend of theirs. He was telling them that he had learned about Greek Gods in school. One of my boys proudly piped up and said, "Our mom reads us stories about missionaries for our school." I didn't realize they liked this year's approach to History/Geography until that moment. Yeah!


The King is also reading Bruchko to the boys. This is the story of Bruce Olson, a missionary to a murderous tribe of South American Indians. This is a fantastic book. It is not uncommon to hear the boys plead, "Please, just one more chapter dad." (And me, I'm begging right along with them.) Once we finish Bruchko, and get a handle on the locations of South American countries, we will then begin to study Europe.

If you have any good books pertaining to missionaries in Europe, let me know.

Blessings!

Naughty Curls

This past weekend my girls had their annual ice show. They loved getting all dolled up and into costume. Duchess seemed to let the 'beauty' go to her head. After getting ready for the first show, she starting making comments about herself that troubled me. I had to give her the 'beauty comes from within talk'. She seemed to understand, especially after I threatened to wash out the glitter spray and curls if she couldn't be more humble.

When I was curling her hair for the third and final show, Duchess started to cry. "No more curls mom. They make me naughty." I was amazed that this five year old had wisdom beyond her years. Deep down, she knew that this prideful spirit in how she looked was not right. I felt a little bad. Maybe I had been too harsh when we had our talk the day before. Maybe she liked how she looked with curls and thought that liking how she looked was making her naughty. I told her that I could tell she was no longer being prideful about her curls and that I was proud of her for seeming so humble. "Don't worry", I said as I continued fixing her hair, "I don't think you are being naughty."

She looked at me like I was growing a horn out of the top of my head. "Mom, please, no more curls. It hurts when you brush my hair with curls, they make my hair knotty."

Wordless Wednesday

Look Who's Driving Now

Look out world, Jester has his permit!

(I'm not kidding when I say look out...trust me on this.)

A Busy Weekend

We had a very busy weekend. Jester performed in his school musical, Honk!, the story of The Ugly Duckling. He had dress rehearsal Monday through Wednesday, and then performances Thursday through Sunday. He also had to attend two cast parties. Apparently the cast parties are one of the biggest reasons for being in a play. We were only able to see him perform once this year, on Friday night. He is in the brown bomber jacket in the center.
He was a goose in the geese squadron. Doesn't he make a good goose? It was a cute musical, and Maiden couldn't stop talking about it.
He was also cast as a frog in the froggie chorus (on the far left). Don't you think he makes a handsome frog? Needless to say, he came home today after school and crashed. He said he was totally exhausted.

The girls were also busy this weekend. Thursday night they had dress rehearsal for their skate show--a three hour production.

Then they had three performances, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Add daylight savings time, primping, compliments, photos, flowers, oohs and ahs from spectators, and the result was two very spoiled and tired little girls by Sunday evening.

Here are the girls with one of their skating instructors. She is a senior in High School this year and will not be returning to teach next year. According to Duchess and Maiden, she is the coolest teacher ever, and also the best skater in the whole world! They searched high and low to find her for this prize photo.

Saturday is also our day to visit Jouster. The King and all four boys went to see him since the girls and I were at skating. He seems to be doing very well. His restriction time (for running away) is nearly over and we will be able to receive phone calls from him again this week. I still miss him terribly. He is so enjoyable and fun to be around now that I am very disappointed when I am not able to see him on visitation day.

Fortunately I got a bonus visit with him earlier this week. On Wednesday he had an orthodontist appointment here in town. I was able to spend a few minutes talking with him before and after the appointment. The staff person that brought him was very kind and did not rush him out the door afterward. Jouster said it was good to be back in town and see some familiar sights again. I was so thankful I was able to see him, especially since I knew I had to miss on Saturday. He had just gotten a haircut so his hair was even shorter than in the photo above. I can't believe my boy keeps shaving his head! Click here to see how he wore it for so long. Big difference huh?

Q & A Part III

Hmm, this is a hard one. I'm going to ask you the question people ask me all the time.Do you want more children? How many children do you want? Are you insane? (OK, you don't have to actually answer that one.)--Julie
Actually, I'd love to adopt again...and The King would love another tiny baby in the house. We'd gladly welcome more either way. We have no intentions of fixing that which is not broken. Am I insane? Well, the guy who unhooked my straight jacket to type this says I'm getting better all the time. They finally took me out of the padded room.

The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing; but in our culture we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture.--Doug Phillips

From Mike and Katie: What advice would you give to a mom with boys ages 11 and 13? I'm certainly not the expert. After all, our oldest has totally humbled me in the parenting department. Work on training their souls and pray...a lot. Let them be boys/young men. Send them out with dad. Keep them physically active. Make them work, and work hard. And remember they are quickly becoming men. With my oldest, I really struggled. We butted heads, especially when my husband was travelling. I realize now that through most of our struggles, he was trying to be a man. He was trying to step into his God given role as leader of the family because dad was not around. At the same time, I was trying to keep him a submissive child, struggling to hold my spot as the leader of the family due to the absence of my husband. We were fighting for the same position and it caused much heartache.

Does your Sister-In-Love read your blog? If so tell her to visit or blog! She does, and I will.

I also wonder about the Kings older brother and wife, too. They are doing good. We don't see them as much as we used to. It probably has something to do with the seven grandchildren they now have. We were supposed to go with them to Costa Rica this winter, but due to the situation with our oldest, we had to put our trip on hold. Maybe next year!


From Kimmie: What is your favorite way to spend free time (without kids). If I could, I would send my whole family away for a day or a weekend--after they've cleaned the house for me, and then sit alone in my exceptionally clean and quiet house, soaking in a hot bubble bath while reading a good book. But since my house is rarely empty with me left behind, I prefer to spend my free time wandering through fabric and book stores. Am I boring or what?

What is the book (besides the Bible) that has influenced your life?


Now this is a hard question, because so many books have left some sort of imprint in my life.

I'm going to go with two. Stepping Heavenward by Elizbeth Prentiss and A Full Quiver by Rick and Jan Hess. A Full Quiver--the title alone is quite self explanatory.



Stepping Heavenward is a fictional story/journal of a young woman's life and spiritual growth. I recommend this book to other women as one of my "all time favorite reads". I first read this when I only had boys. I am so excited that I now have girls. I plan to read it aloud to them one day.

I'd (too) love to hear your testimony. I posted that in my first Q & A session.

Do you live in a castle in fairy tale land? Yes, I do. Here she is, all 2500 square feet of her. This place costs about as much a month to heat as a castle would. She needs a lot of work. It was, when we moved in 8 1/2 years ago, and still is, a fixer upper. At the time, I was so excited about getting out of town and onto the nine acres of land, I hardly noticed all the work that needed to be done. The King did notice....and was a little more reluctant than I to take on such a task. Even with all the work and money this old shack has consumed, we are so thankful that God led us to our little piece of paradise.

I still have a few more questions to answer. I'll quit boring you for today and post more later.

Last Ski Day of the Year

Remember last month when The King took the boys to the Homeschool ski day?

$20.00 for a day of skiing, equipment rental and a lift pass?

He couldn't resist taking advantage of the great deal one last time.

This time he took some family and friends.

The King waiting in line with our boys and children of King's Twin.

King's Twin and three of his four children.

The King with two of our seven. He had to be the best dressed skier on the slope in his Carhartt's.

Our friend, Mr. Erosion Control with one of his four.

The three men who made it all happen for the happy children.

They went skiing too. The result?

Sore muscles for King's Twin. Chiropractor visit for Mr. Erosion Control.

And The King? No problems noted. Not even a sore muscle. I believe it is due to the fact he has so much physical activity with his job. (Rolling around the office in his chair, getting searched while going through airport security, and entering and exiting his car at each and every Starbucks along the way.)

More Q & A

An in-person question: Who is Frazzled Farmwife?
She is my second cousin, Chris. (Here she is pictured with her daughter, Courtney.) We grew up near each other and our families got together often. Chris and I are two months apart in an age. We went to school together from 1st through 12th grade...and we got into a lot of trouble together. (I'm sure I had nothing to do with it.) Her and her siblings were like first cousins to us because our only first cousins lived half a country away. We rarely saw them. We were so happy to have cousins living close by. Chris was one of the people I missed the most when we moved from South Dakota 17 years ago.

From Frazzled Farmwife:

What has been your favorite date with the King? I haven't had it yet. Once The King believes he's achieved the goal of a favorite date, he may not think there's any reason to keep taking me out. I'm not going to risk it. I've grown quite fond of our weekly dates.

Which pregnancy was the easiest? The hardest? The first and second were the easiest. Then as I got older they got harder. The last one (Prince Charming) was tough. I started contracting at about six months and my ankles looked more like thighs than ankles. The swelling was so bad, I lost feeling in my feet. It took months after the delivery before the numbness went away. Then there was the sciatic nerve pain that crippled me from time to time. All I can say is...I'd do it again, he was so worth it.

But even with all of that, I must say that the adoption 'pregnancy' was by far the hardest. Two years is way too long to wait for a baby. The emotional roller coaster was much harder to bear than physical discomfort.


What has been your favorite vehicle you have owned? My Suburban. I miss my Suburban. Someday I hope to have one again. Not many of them are large enough for a family of nine!





What is your favorite kitchen gadget? I wouldn't want to live without my garlic press--on the top. But one little gadget that is so amazing is the one on the bottom. I don't know what it's called but I use it in the early summer months to hull strawberries. I freeze many quarts of strawberries and make jam. This tool makes the job so fast and easy. Then I use it again later in the summer to core out the stems of tomatoes when I am canning. I actually have two of them so I can have help with those tedious and mundane tasks.

What do you miss most about your mom? What don't I miss? I would have to say I miss her voice and her touch. She had the softest hugs in the world. I would love to be able to pick up the phone and talk to her. I wish she could have been here to see my younger children. Even though she's been gone for nearly four years, the thought still crosses my mind that I should give mom a call and tell her something that the kids do. My heart falls when I realize I can't. I wish she were here to guide me through the situation we are having with our oldest. I still can't believe she's gone. She would have been 60 years old tomorrow.

Here's a video thank-you she e-mailed me for the gift I made and sent her for her last birthday. I worked so hard to make that little quilt. She taught me to quilt, it was a hobby we shared. I didn't know if she'd see another birthday, so I was determined to make her something. Little did I know she'd only have it for 41 days. She was too young to die. I still needed a mommy. I miss her so much.



I'll post more Q & A's later. See you soon.

I Love You

Jester: Mom, you make the best Sloppy Joes.

Me: Is that your way of telling me you love me?

Jester: Yep.

First of the Q & A

Why can't I find my socks unless I first ask you my Queen?--The King

I often ask myself the same question, my love. I don't understand why you ask me a lot of things like, "Where is my drill?" "Do you know where I put my gloves?" "Have you seen my black dress pants?" "Where is the coconut?" "Did you find a new place for the ketchup?" "Didn't you know I used the last of the coffee yesterday?" I think it is because you long to hear my lovely voice. Or you like to irritate me. I think I'll go with the lovely voice answer.

I would like to know more about your Christian testimony, and I always like to hear about the church people attend.--Dawn

I grew up in a Lutheran church and never knew what a personal relationship with the Lord meant. When I was 16 I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior (at a Lowell Lundstrom Crusade). I didn't know what to do with my new found faith, and did not keep in contact with the person who was assigned to disciple me. I soon forgot about what I had done. My husband and I were married three years later. Neither one of us was living our lives for the Lord.

My husband became a believer while I was in Desert Storm, but I was not convinced it was what I wanted for my life. After struggling for a number of years, I realized that I had a renewed interest in the Lord, and longed to know him more. (I am so thankful God did not quit pursuing me and that my hubby put up with me being a pain in the hind end for so many years.) I always thought you had to know the day and the time you knew you believed. I guess I could say it was when I was 16, but one could not see any fruit of that decision for nearly ten years.

As far as church, we attend a home fellowship. Our group has grown immensely in the past few months so we no longer fit in a home. I believe we are ready for a split (or two) so we can get back to the intimacy of a home gathering. The men are the spiritual leaders in the family as well as the ones who teach on Sunday mornings. There is no separate Sunday School time or nursery for the children, so as a family we worship together, learn together, and pray together.

Our group always shares a meal together at the end of our worship time. The time of fellowship is a time where we can get to know one another on a more personal level. It has been wonderful for our family.

Why do you buy pop and candy and hide it from us Queen Mother?--Squire

Because I'm the mom, that's why.

I'll post more questions and answers tomorrow. Stay tuned....