My Thanksgiving Day baby turns nine this week.

Nine.

Next year he'll be in double-digits.

To quote Brogan, "Where have the years gone?"

Here's a look back:

Brogan's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Brogan! We love you and we thank God for giving you to us!

The Dreaded "Blue Screen of Death."

Last week we awoke to our computer displaying the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death." (left)

We didn't lose too many things, thankfully, as M. backs up the computer fairly regularly.

What we *did* lose we can work to re-create. But when it comes to schoolwork, we've been handed a boatload of chaos. I use a computer program to create the boys' assignment sheets, and had the next two weeks' worth of work all planned out.

Braden is at a crucial point in the debate season and lost *everything.* He was supposed to participate in his first debate round yesterday, and we'd lost all of his evidence and his entire case! Providentially, he'd sent a draft of his case to a friend to look over. The friend was able to e-mail it back. But all his other work has been lost.

Hopefully the computer techs who are in possession of our dead computer can resurrect it. The BSOD was apparently caused by one of the weekly Microsoft Windows automatic updates. (Thank you, Microsoft!)

I'm very tempted to buy a Mac next.

Welcome to Mornings at My House.

I am a morning person. Especially when I've gotten a good night's sleep.

Well, pretty much only when I've gotten a good night's sleep.

I find that I am the most productive in the mornings, and love the quiet in the house before the boys are up.

The boys sleep 11-12 hours every night. (In bed at 8:00-9:00, and up at 7:30.) To me, that seems like an adequate amount of sleep for growing boys. Yet no matter how much they sleep, they never "pop" out of bed, excited to start the day. They're not grumpy, exactly, but they are definitely not cheerful until they've been up awhile.

This video makes me laugh, and (I think) accurately depicts the emotions/attitudes of our weekday mornings.


The boys aren't old enough to drink Folger's, and I am still in search of a healthy alternative.

Have a Happy Morning!!!

Happy Anniversary!

17 years ago today M. and I were married.

He was 23 and I was one day short of turning 21.

Those are perfectly acceptable ages for considering marriage, but 21 and 23 seem so young now!

Since 1992 we've had 3 boys, lived in 7 cities and in 12 different residences, bought 5 houses, sold 4 houses, and spent countless hours in the car between all these places.

We have shared both joy and heartbreak, but through everything we have seen God's faithfulness and His lovingkindness. I am so thankful He brought us together in California all those years ago.

Happy 17th Anniversary, M!!

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(NB- At the end, the video says "15 years," because I made it 2 years ago. I have no way to change it, and I think my next project will be to update this video.)

This performance by "King's Firecrackers" at a Navy basketball game is fantastic. I've never seen anything like this!

The boys and I watched open-mouthed through the whole thing.

I loved the shots of the crowd; all these big tough Navy guys on their feet cheering!

Hot Tub!!

See this?



We spent four and a half days on this houseboat in Spetember. We sailed up and down the Mississippi River near M.'s parents' house. This past winter M.'s parents celebrated their 40th anniversary.

Last fall they decided to celebrate by renting a giant houseboat for nearly a week and invite all their kids and grandkids to sail with them. It was an anniversary/Christmas present rolled into one.

We piled 14 people on that boat

We sailed upriver, parked on a sandbar that looked friendly, and spent the night. The next day we'd do the same. It was a wonderful, relaxing vacation!

Of all the things to do on the houseboat and the sandbar, this was by far one of the favorite hangout spots:



The hot tub was a hit! Especially since we sailed at the end of the summer, so the weather wasn't scorching hot. In fact, the river water was pretty cold. But the hot tub was the place to be.

This top picture was taken before breakfast, I think. It was foggy until about 10 am each morning. The kids would get into the hot tub the first thing every morning.

After lunch they'd re-visit the hot tub.




And in the afternoon, hey! Why not get into the hot tub?



I had a hard time not thinking about Eddie Murphy and his "James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub" sketch from Saturday Night Live in the 1980's.

Does anyone remember that besides me? I kept trying to explain it to people, but no one seemed to remember it.



James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub



Yeeeeoooooowwwww!

Too hot inna' hot tub!

It's much more fun to watch it, than to listen to me try to explain it.



Hey, Brogan!!

How's the hot tub?

Open House- Grade Eight

Eighth grade.

Hoo boy!

This one's a doozy! Each year seems to get more and more challenging. So far, though, we're enjoying 8th grade a lot!

Math - Last year, we began Algebra 1 using Saxon Math. After a rough first semester, we indulged in a brief flirtation with Singapore's New Elementary Mathematics, but decided to return to Saxon after a couple of months. While we're happy with the return to Saxon Math, the departure cost us a few months and Braden ended up not finishing the book last year. So this year the plan is to review and then finish the text, and follow up with Algebra 2.

Science - Braden's using Apologia's "Exploring Creation With Biology." He completes the reading and daily lessons on his own, and then twice a month meets with a group of high schoolers to complete the labs and take the exams. A biology professor at the local college conducts labs on campus. I'm so thankful she's willing to do the labs with them, and the kids can benefit from her knowledge and use the lab's equipment. This past week they examined pond scum under the microscopes.

Latin - This is, what, our 4th year of Latin? And Braden's second year with Henle Latin 1. The Henle book is designed to be sompleted in 2 years, so this will be our last year in book 1.

Grammar - We're continuing on with Rod and Staff grammar. I can't say enough good things about this curriculum: thorough, methodical, a solid grammar foundation.

History - Braden's studying history from Napoleon through Theodore Roosevelt using the "Tapestry of Grace" history curriculum. I'll be honest - he doesn't love it. It's an awful lot of reading, and it reminds me of the volume of reading I had to do for my Western Civ. class in college. But he's learning a lot. By the time we have our discussion on Friday over the week's material, he knows it. It's odd having conversations with a young man forming his own ideas about historical events. It was just a couple of years ago our discussions were mostly simple recall. But I'm enjoying the back-and-forth.

Speech/Debate - Braden has joined a speech/debate club in the big city. This is his first year and has a love/hate relationship with the classes. He can tell that he will love it once he knows what he's doing. But there's such a lot to learn, that simply learning how everything works takes a lot of work. He's willing to do it, though, with the knowledge that next year will be a lot more fun!

Spanish- We're finishing book 1 of "So You Really Want To Learn Spanish" from Galore Park. He's at the point where we can have short converstions in Spanish now. They're not really grammatically correct, but he's feeling more comfortable generating simple thoughts and sentences in Spanish.