It's been quite some time since I have been on this blog, alot has been happening though, we are adjusting to homeschooling this year, and so far it is going good except for what I am completely inadequate to teach Emily (math)help anyone. Both Collin & Jesse are doing pretty good doing their work on their own, in the beginning I have to admit I was going out of my mind with back & forth between them. I think they finally realized that I'm not going to do the work for them. We had a busy Christmas break with family get togethers, 3dyc and just hanging out. This was my first year to go to 3dyc, a district youth conference with Emily this year, I have to admit it can be fun hanging out with a bunch of teenagers, except for the fact that they don't let you sleep much. Fred got either 4 or 5 deer this I lost count, what a blessing to fill up our freezer, and make sausage sticks out of one, he has went on a hog hunt also, so we have lots of sausage.

This is the group that went to 3dyc


This is Emily, Collin & Jesse tearing up the yard
they were out there a total of 4 hours today, they had alot of fun.

Emily BEFORE

Emily AFTER
Collin



Jesse

My new Ice Cream Maker

What could be better than homemade ice cream I never could understand all the fuss over it, I like the store boughten stuff any time, never was one for homemade until I came across this website thefamilyhomestead, I absolutely love the site she makes just about everything from scratch and she is always making home made ice cream so I thought I would try it with her recipe, it just so happen Wal-mart was having a clearance on the one I wanted so I bought it. So far we have had Vanilla & Chocolate, it makes a gallon, a little more expensive but a whole lot better for you I mean if your gonna splurge on fattening stuff why not have the real stuff. Last week they had spartan ice cream for $1.99 that I think is a pretty good price and I would have bought it and I happen to think spartan ice cream taste good but I just walked away knowing I would feel guilty if I gave that stuff to my kids, have you ever looked at the ingredients in ice cream some of the words I can't even pronounce. I'm not saying I would never buy the stuff again but for now I'm enjoying homemade.

Mackinaw camping

We had one of the most beautiful weekends ever to go camping. We left Thursday & stayed up at Mill Creek up in Mackinaw right next to the water. This picture is right across the street from our camp.






These two pic's are of the sunrise, it was awesome to watch it come up over the water.


No one ever goes hungry, Fred will always make a big breakfast, see our cool looking 3 burner, it has been used a lot, it's also great for canning on in the garage.



Look they even gave him his own little resturant



This is all us over on the Island we went with Beth & Eric and there family.



The kids like the ferry ride, on the way over there we where on top, & it got a little cold, we rode inside on the way back



Of course I had to stick this one in, this is the store I worked at one summer after high school it still looks the same.



It doesn't matter how many times I have gone over this bridge, it still scares the gee willes out of me., I tried to take a picture of it at night when it is all lite up but it wouldn't turn out.



It was a great little vacation making memories with my family.

Homeschooling 101

This year will be our first year to homeschool, a big change for our family. We are starting on a new adventure. After much prayer and a peace within we all feel this is what we want to do. The first week was quite the adventure, between appointments and having not a cule what I'm doing as far as a schedule we did alright. We have a cirriculum I think is great, the kids just do so many pages a day out of each subject and then they are done with the main stuff. Emily pretty much does it all on her own, Collin & Jesse are more hands on which I have been learning right along with them, that is one thing that I have found is I know exactly what they are learning and I can be more involved.

We went to our first back to school, homeschooling party,we met new friends and saw others their that we new and all the kids had a great time. We are planning as a big group to do field trips and some group activities together, so far their are around 35 kids ranging from preschool to high school.



I think their was over 20 kids in the pool.
It's great that we do have lots of friend and my kids are excited they got to know more.



I really am amazed how God is dealing with our family and how our lives are changing only for the good. I'm a firm believer in the verse Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have you," declares the Lord, "plans to give you hope and a future."
God is shaping our lives into a future he has designed for our family, all we have to do is trust and obey when he ask us to do something, A long story short God asked me to give him this next year to homeschooling my kids, He has been speaking to my heart for awhile, but along with that he has been speaking to the kids as well. It was the kids that approached me and said we want to be homeschooled. It was just a mixture of different events that has brought us to this point and I'm going to cheerish each day I have with my kids, they are my life and I enjoy being with them.




just a randome picture of Emily, Jesse, Aaron and Jessica

Birthday gifts

I absolutely love to bake, cook and have fun in the kitchen. A couple of months ago someone gave me this Sunbeam mixer and I thought it was the coolest thing, except when I used it I had to sit there and help the bowl spin around, but it still did a great job whipping up stuff
.
Of course everyone likes something new and I have been pricing a kitchen aid, (holy moly they are not cheap) so when Fred asked me what I wanted for my birthday jokingly I ask for a kitchen aid, but I really couldn't see spending that much money on something and I have been wanting a air popcorn machine also, so I asked for that instead after hearing about all the bad things about microwave popcorn I really couldn't bring myself to buy that stuff anymore and my kids are always asking for popcorn & making it on the stove was not exactly what my kids like, plus it was getting to be a drag standing in front of a stove and burning it half the time, so we are trying it out tonight (can't wait)


So after getting excited over that, then Fred walks in the house with this


Isn''t it pretty
You can't imagine how excited someone can get over something that makes you work in the kitchen, but for me I'm thinking about all the stuff I can make in this just today, I absolutely love it and the color is awesome I have a red kitchen so it looks great on my counter. Fred found it at a great price, so I'm not feeling guilty that he spent a lot of money on it. I have to admit he sure did surprise me (I love birthdays)

Baptism

Emily got baptized today, I'm very proud of you Emily

This is before the dunk


This is after the dunk


It was really awesome I got to be right there with her I thought I was going to cry, I usually get very emotional.

Brown City Camp

10 days of family, prayer, worship, ice cream, muddy roads (one day of that) awesome preaching, commitments, friends,(making new ones) carmel popcorn, funfair< that's just a few of the great things we experience every year at this great camp, I started going 14 years ago, and it is a high light of our summer we consider it a little taste of Heaven on earth, it's a place where we have tons of fun but also most importantly it's a place where God does a whole lot of heart && soul changing. I thought I would throw a few random pictures in the top one is Fred and the boys walking to service you can see the big tabernacle way up top, then comes some boys with wacky hair for the day,
I am so proud of Collin we did the 5k together it was his 1st one he didn't even train for it he did very well, we came across the finish line together.
This was our home for 10 days,I love my camper it was a gift from God,
the next picture is a few of Emily's friends and of course her brothers and Noah
Fred eating a whole lot of ice cream, the last night they really pour it on to get rid of hit(he didn't finish it) The next one is the 1st-6th grade kids about 300 of them singing on childrens night of course you can't see all of them, they fill the whole stage across the picture
only shows about 1/2.
All ready planning for next year.........