Ben's bowling alley

For some of us there is something neat about play dough. We are never too old to create and shape... Some of the kids had the play dough when Ben ( age 18 and a half) came home from work. He quickly got to work on his bowling creation.. pretty good too.

Eating the last of the candy...What monsters

I just love these turkeys.... ;)

This was one of our crafts this week...I am getting very excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas... more so than ever before. I am thinking of decorating next weekend... and I never have been like that...not ever. I am like a kid this time though. I am loving all the holiday things out and love just walking around looking at them. I have been looking for our turkeys as well.. I buy 2 ever year... the biggest ones I can find... which are usually 24 to 26 lbs each... and we don't have much leftover turkey. This year I can cook both turkeys at the same time thanks to my kitchen redo....

This is some shiner that Isaac has.... or not

I came home from the library today to this... Isaac came running up to me as I opened the car. He had a bag of ice on his eye. At first I was like... "waahat happened? " Then as I looked I saw his lips smile... and knew that they had gotten me... Now if I don't have enough to watch or figure out... the kids now try to "trick" me... This was after a not too positive day at school. Usually I take a 15 passenger full of kids to the library but today I only took 3. All the others had some major issues with their writing that was just plain lazy effort and so most of my kiddos get no movie or electronics until next week and they could not go to the library with me. When I came home... this is what I saw... funny kids aren't they ? At least it was just makeup and they had a good laugh but I think sometimes I must be crazy... I sure do love them.

Ava discovered the charcoal from the fire...

She got caught playing with the fireplace shovel... and this was after she tried to clean herself up . She has such expressive eyes :)

Reading...You gotta love it :)

I have written about reading before... but it is something very important to Paul and I. It is also something that we love to do and we try to share that love with our children. How...by reading ourselves and sharing about what we have read with them... by taking them to the library every week so they can pick out their own books,having magazines and newspapers for them to read ( a variety of reading materials), by making reading a priority in our school ( they read a minium of 1 hr a day), and by reading aloud to them books that we all enjoy. I have a collection of holiday books for each holiday that we bring out for those times. I buy at least one book that I read aloud during our Bible time in the evenings during the holidays- I am so looking forward to bringing out our Thanksgiving/Christmas collection... I love even children's books. I will often sit down with a pile of them beside me to read... we also do not watch much tv which encourages them to read other than the 1 hr time...some of our kids I have to "make" stop reading and do other activities :) Makes me smile to see them enjoy something that is so enriching and available to us for free... and we can dream, travel and learn so much from the books that we read.. not to mention the great vocabulary and ESL skills they learn thru reading... but most important is to love to read....developing that love for reading is something we value...each one of our children has their own Bible and they do their own private devotions in the am as part of their school... and they all read their Bible and journal...Reading words for yourself and letting the Holy Spirit into the words as you read your Bible are all part of growing as a Christian... actually reading the very words of God in the Bible is more than just seeing the words- They have a power to transform lives... and many of our children have already made that step of faith...praise God !

Last nite we built our first fire... and we enjoyed it. It was in the 20's here. In the am there is frost all over the yard and the kids always say," Look at the snow, mom." They are hoping for lots of snow...but after that week in Feb. of almost 5 feet in one week I can ease into the winter. Actually I love snow - just not 5 ft at once. I would rather have snow any day than ice though.