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...
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...
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.
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
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.
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)
