The Alamo Revisited...

As I was scurrying about the house,
cleaning here and there,
I noticed Will playing at the dining room table.
When I asked what he was playing,
he informed me that the castle was The Alamo
and how it was under attack.
Will loves history and can frequently be found
reading one of his favorite history books
for the umpteenth time.
Today it was The Alamo
and he was excited to play out this story
after giving me a little preface as to what was going on.
I just love hearing them tell me stories
and I was delighted to hear of his creative play...


The Alamo... the men at their stations...



Colonel James Bowie (the taller one in the pic)...



(l)William Travis (a.k.a. Buck) and (r)Austin
under the Colonel's command
(also, an unnamed captain in the center)...



General Santa Anna (president of Mexico)
and his army ready to attack...



Holding the fort... ready to defend...



The inevitable... Santa Anna enters the Alamo...


The rest is... well... history.

Tuesday's Tidbits...

I didn't have time to share our day yesterday
but wanted to share some photos of our visit to the beach.

Last year, at our previous station,
we enjoyed a lot of beachschooling.
The beach we had there was a natural beach
with lots and lots to learn from.
Since we've moved here,
we've only visited the beach once or twice, perhaps.
This beach is mostly for swimming
and we avoid it during its busy season.
But since the local schools and such
have started back up we decided to give it a try
and the children were thrilled when we announced
that we were going to the ocean with friends. ;o)

On our way, we decided to pick up lunch
and then enjoyed our lunch
at the picnic tables when we arrived...





Afterwards, they were eager to go enjoy the water...


Carolynne is intimidated by the ocean
so she would not go without holding a hand
which is okay... ;o) and Ally was happy to oblige...



Will and Beth enjoyed the fun...





Ally was eager to borrow some clothes from her friends
and join in the fun, too.
Here they are having fun...







Beth liked to run from the waves...





Will really enjoyed himself, too...









It was a real blessing to see Ally having so much fun, too...







She posted more photos on her blog entry. ;o)


Carolynne had fun, too,
and started getting a little braver
towards the end of our visit...






It was a delightful and exhausting time. ;o)
Here were some views of the ocean... such beauty!













After the beach, we came home and took baths.
Then we left to vacuum all of the sand out of the van
and treated ourselves to supper out. ;o)

Today we've been trying to pick up the house,
catch up on laundry (including the sandy items),
catch up on emails, make misellaneous appointments, etc...

Now we're off to make an 'extra supper'
for a couple that has been visiting our church...
they just had their first baby.
I can't wait to see the precious one.

Then we look forward to being in God's house
and with God's people.

Hope y'all are enjoying your week.

He Made It...

My beloved made it safely back to Iraq! ;o)
He emailed me this morning to let me know
and I just wanted to share.
Thank you all for praying!


"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation." ~ Psalm 68:19

Count Your Blessings Monday...

For "Count Your Blessings Monday"
I'd like to praise the Lord
for sweet, like-minded sisters in Christ!

What a blessing it is to have those special friends
that the Lord has purposely put in our lives.
As I mentioned in my previous post,
it is such a blessing to have a friend/friends
that we can pray for and with,
have like-minded fellowship with,
encourage one another in the Lord,
grow in the Lord together,
praise the Lord together,
labor together, eat together,
weep together, laugh together,
sing together, read together,
to bless one another with that friendship.

Thank you, Lord, for the friendships you have provided.
Thank you, Lord, for the Friend we have in You.


"A friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity"
~ Proverbs 17:7

"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly:
and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
~ Proverbs 18:24

"Iron sharpeneth iron;
so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
~ Proverbs 27:17

"Two are better than one;
because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow:
but woe to him that is alone when he falleth;
for he hath not another to help him up."
~ Ecclesiastes 4:9,10

"Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends."
~ John 15:13

Monday's Musings...

This morning a dear friend greeted me,
at my home, with a delicious cup of coffee.
She and her children came to spend the day with us.
Isn't it a blessing to have friends, sisters in the Lord,
that we can pray for, fellowship with, encourage,
and even work with? ;o)


After spending some time, relaxing on the couch,
sipping our coffee and chatting,
we tackled the bookshelves in my reading room.
What a task!
There a 5 full-size bookshelves in our reading room
and they were filled with books
(praise the Lord for His goodness!).
Our task was to organize the mess of books
into some sort of system that would benefit us.
We decided to shelve by subject (mostly).

First we started taking books off of the shelves
and setting them into piles. phew!
When lunch time rolled around,
we had a little 'picnic' in the midst of our mess...



Afterwards, we got back to work.
It was an enjoyable time of laboring together
(despite the dust... lol).
Here's a view of some of the piles on the floor...


The books seen were, mostly,
science, history, and literature.
The literature and history
were placed on the empty bookshelf (in the picture).
The top two shelves were literature
(classics, poetry, read alouds, fiction, etc...),
the next two are history
(living books, unit studies, geography, social studies, etc...)
and the bottom shelf is for art,
artist study, music study, handicraft, home arts, etc...

The bookshelf to the right in the picture was as follows...
Top shelf - this year's 'will be using' 'school books'
Second shelf - Bible/Bible study tools for youth
Third/Fourth shelf - Science, nature study, nutrition, math
Bottom shelf - books for the children to use freely

Across from the last bookshelf mentioned
is my 'old books... pretty books' shelf...

The top shelf are the more 'delicate' books,
then there are a couple of 'handsome' resources
and, also, a few 'book sets'.

To the left of that shelf are built-in shelves...

The top three shelves are for
encyclopedia sets and a set of resource books.
The bottom shelf is photo albums.

On the other side of the doorway
is the other built-in bookshelf...

The top shelf are
a couple of nature study resource books,
Charlotte Mason books, etc...
Second shelf is miscellaneous homeschool helpfuls.
Third and fourth shelves are for miscellaneous
Bible study books, parenting books, etc...

And I even had a stack to add to my
'time to part with' book bin...


It was a very productive day!
I still have shelves in other rooms to tackle
but we were satisfied with all we got accomplished.
And we did have a lot of fun.

"Two are better than one;
because they have a good reward for their labour"
~ Ecclesiastes 4:9


Also, today, the children discovered a sparrow
that was stuck in our neighbor's birdfeeder.
We were all sad for this little bird's suffering
but we were delighted to be able to help it.
We rejoiced that we were albe to get its head unstuck.
And they were tickled to touch it and see it up close.
A word of caution...
Be careful what feeders you buy for your backyard feeder.
This poor little fellow got his head wedged into
that little hole of the birdhouse-type feeder
and couldn't get its head out without help.
We were thankful the children noticed it. ;o)
I'm sure they'll always remember the day
that we helped the little sparrow in its time of crisis.


Hope y'all enjoy your week!

He Knows My Fiery Trail...

I sang this song during the morning service.
What a blessing the words were to me!



Tho' He should slay me I'll trust in Him.
His way is never wrong.
In darkness I will praise His name.
He is my strength and song.

(Chorus)
For He knows my fi'ry trial;
He knows the way I take.
His glory shall be seen,
And He makes no mistake.



God sees my ways and counts my steps.
He hears my silent cry.
My heart is fixed; I trust in Him.
I need not ask Him why.

(Chorus)
For He knows my fi'ry trial;
He knows the way I take.
His glory shall be seen,
And He makes no mistake.



My faith and hope are in the Lord,
My refuge and high tow'r.
In quietness and confidence,
Shall be my strength this hour!

(Chorus)
For He knows my fi'ry trial;
He knows the way I take.
His glory shall be seen,
And He makes no mistake.

words by Mary Lynn Van Gelderen

You can listen to a sample of this song
by clicking here

photos courtesy of allposters.com

A Camping We Did Go...

As I mentioned in my previous post,
I wanted to share a little about our camping trip
that we took with Daddy on Thursday.
It was very difficult to choose which photos to share.
I had taken a total of 415!
Though I'm not sharing all 415 photos,
I did select almost 40 to share,
so if my blog is slow to load,
I do apologize. ;o)

The campground we visited was about an hour away.
We were originally going to share a smaller cabin
but decided that, with two toddlers,
we should upgrade to one with an indoor bathroom. ;o)

Here is the cabin we stayed in...


It was a cute one room cabin.
All of the beds (2 bunks), a small table,
and a small kitchenette were in the one room
with a small bathroom connected...
so small that you had to be careful not to hit your head
on the shower door when you used the commode. ;o)

For us, though, it was perfect!
We loved sharing the one room together.




We enjoyed exploring the grounds, too...

... heading to check out the campground store.


Taking a walk to the pier...


Never a dull moment... lol...


Like father, like daughter...

LOL...
Her tongue is blue from her blue raspberry slush. ;o)


Arrived at the pier...









Then we headed back to enjoy the playground...

Beth and Carolynne enjoying the slide



Will and I playing tetherball

Daddy and Ally played with the chess set
that all of us were excited and amused to see...


The pieces were quite big...

We, also, enjoyed the giant checkers game
that you can see in the background.


Later, we started preparing for supper.
The lil' girls helped me with the potatoes...


The children were happy to help and watch Daddy
fire up the grill, too...


Making supper...




While waiting for supper to finish,
the lil' girls collected sticks for the firepit...


Will was given the privilege to use the camcorder
and discovered that he really likes it!


Supper time...

Mmmm!

After supper, we cleaned up and played outside.
Closer to dusk, Daddy started up the fire in the pit
and the lil' girls were excited to help...


Meanwhile, Ally challenged Will to a chess game...



Then it was time for Smores...




After eating Smores and cleaning up,
we sat on the porch and sang songs together...


Then we turned in for the night.
We enjoyed sharing the one room together. ;o)

In the morning (Friday), after breakfast,
we were eager to go fishing.
So Daddy got the poles ready and we headed out...


We had lots of fun fishing together...














A few hours later, we packed up and headed for home.
On the way back, however, we stopped in a nearby town
at a cute little cafe for lunch... a cow cafe...

Everything cow... even clever menu items.

After our meal, we enjoyed some ice cream
('homemade' at the cow cafe)...


We enjoyed eating in the room they had available
for families to enjoy.
The room was painted in a complete farm theme.
Cows, mostly, were painted on the walls
but there were also a horse, cat, dog, sheep,
a pig in a blanket (lol),
oh yes, and ducks...

lol

The children, also, enjoyed playing in the 'corral'...



It was such a cute little cafe. ;o)

We had such a wonderful time with Daddy!
We're already talking about
our next 'camping trip' with him. ;o)