All I do is Update anyway...

After some thought, we decided to disconnect from our internet and go to cell phones only. This will save us a fairly significant amount of money each month and considering our rural phone company doesn't have competition (other than cell phones), prices aren't cheap on internet service around here.
It is with deep regret that my blogging days will be very few and I'll probably just be updating when I can (no deep posting, to my regret) until we decide to reconnect with the world wide web again (if a good deal becomes available).
So, for a smallish update....
We had a very busy summer, and a fast one at that. We thoroughly enjoyed church activities such as youth camp and our annual campmeeting, both held at our church. We gardened this year, as usual, having a nice harvest of corn, a reasonable harvest of green beans and even a successful bout of tomatoes (although not enough to can or make sauce). We even took a nice vacation to the beach at the end of August and had a great time (maybe next time I can upload some pictures of our vacation/summer).
At the beginning of summer we announced to our family/friends that our FIFTH baby was on the way! After some complications (the loss of a twin) and some worries, I am now great with child (in my 25th week) and it looks like another 10 pound BOY will join us late December.
The kids are all doing great, in their 3rd week of school and we are honestly having a great school year. The Lord has really helped me to be able to plan our days effectively and given me a sense of peace about the rest of our days happenings. The two littles play and manage well while we do school. I'm really enjoying it and am managing to stay pretty organized with our schooling. Maybe it's the pregnancy? :) I'm already nesting...cleaning out my fridge top to bottom, cleaning out WAY overdue kitchen cabinets, decluttering (nothing like a successful yard sale to motivate one to declutter again). :)
We have just planted a few things for the fall--turnips, collards, kale, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, and a few fall flower seeds to the mix. :) Maybe, just Maybe my 2nd trimester energy will hold through until the third.
My littlest just turned TWO last week and she is such an absolute JOY! I figure I will end up with 15 kids because I just enjoy each child at each stage so much that I sure dread the day when I have no more two year olds!! :) I will try my hardest to update a picture of my sweet two year old mess! :)
Well, that is all for now. If I still have readers/commenters (can't blame anyone for leaving), I will try to blog once weekly if possible. :) I learn so much from my blog friends and feel you are a vital tool to my spirituality and general well being. :)
God Bless richly!

All in A Day

I’m happy to be participating in a new series, I guess you could say, which focuses on what life is like in a large family. Now, my family is probably still on the small-ish side, but I do have four children under the age of eight, so life is a bit busy and full.

Here are the others who are participating:

Carrie @ Our Full House <http://www.ourfullhouse.com/>
Elizabeth @ Yes They <http://yes-theyre-all-ours.blogspot.com/> 're All Ours
Kathy @ Kathy Mom of <http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com/> Many
Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage <http://www.homemakerscottage.org/>
Lori @ Happy Busy Mama <http://1happybusymama.blogspot.com/>
Renee @ Bakers Dozen <http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/>

Please feel free to link up if you would like to share your full life with us!

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If this is your first time visiting, let me introduce myself. I am Natural Mama, which I use because I still can’t get used to using my real name on the internet. :)

I am happily married and have been for 2 years which translates to 12 years (where has time gone?). I have four children, two boys and two girls, ages 8, 5, 3, and 1.

We live in the South and in the country. I have always lived in the country and absolutely would loathe city life. I just know it. We have an old house that we are remodeling (slowllllly) and it gets a bit drafty in the winter and a bit, hot, in the summer. We have lots of romping grounds on which our kids can, romp, stomp, and just be country kids.

We have chickens and we hope to add a few more small scale livestock to our farm as time progresses. I lived on a farm as a child, but sadly, I could have been found inside with a book most days (which translates as I don’t know as much as I should about raising animals).

We love music in our family, have a singing group (with our best friends) and sing a few dates out of the year. I have played piano since a small child and now currently play at my church. My husband is a songwriter and has written songs for a few Southern Gospel groups. He is an awesome singer, in my opinion (and everyone else’s who knows him) but is truly humble about his ability. We really, really love to sing and play music. I teach piano to 6 students once weekly and he teaches guitar during that time. It gives me some extra money to help decorate our home! :)

We homeschool 3 of our children and I hope to share with you soon about our homeschooling days. I taught school for almost 5 years and felt very convicted to homeschool our children both through reading material God lead me to and as a result of my teaching experience. I also felt convicted to stay at home with our children and have been a stay-at-home-mom for 3 years. I would rather have no earthly calling.

My husband works in Environmental Heath and has a nice state job. He also taught school for a couple of years, but the Lord opened this (way) lower stress job for him and we are so thankful. Thankfully, our environmental disasters have been few and far between since he has been working in this field.

I love to read books, especially books that I feel will help me be a better wife and mother. Second to that, I love to read books about farming, gardening, herbs, crafting, and natural living.

We cook with whole foods, try to eat organically when possible, use natural medicines.

Some of these things I share in past posts, so be sure to surf through my archives.

All in all, I am a woman like you, trying to please God with how I raise my family, trying to keep us unspotted from the world in how we live, act, and dress, and bringing God glory in all we do. We try, we fail, and try again. I am inconsistent a lot of days in bringing God glory, but with God’s grace, I will not quit trying.

For now, I’ve got one who can’t find the Peanut Butter and is most distressed, one who is crying, “Help Me” because he is falling off of the chair, and my two girls are calm as can be. For now.

Welcome.

PS. If you would like to link up to this post, for now, do so using the comments. I forgot to mention in the introductions that I'm not really great with computers.

Journaling in your homeschool

Having your kids keep a journal everyday is a great way to inventory their writing skills and note improvements. It’s also a great outlet for them to express themselves via paper and pen. Even if your children are not yet writing, you can have them narrate or dictate to you what to write and you can do it for them.

I recently started implementing journal writing with my homeschoolers and it is so much fun to see what they will write/narrate to me. It is way neat to see the different ways they each communicate and to also see the improvements in writing from one age to the next. It’s a great way to evaluate for sentence structure, grammar usage, thought patterns, etc.

I thought I would share with you, my dear readers, excerpts from each of my children’s journals. And, in so doing, I would encourage you to have your children to journal. I don’t give them a topic, it’s just free writing. I suppose you could give them a topic occasionally and teach them to stick to that topic (I’m sure I’ll do this some this year and most definitely next year).

Here’s an excerpt from my 3 year olds journal:

Alligator. A Donkey. Belly of the Whale. Jonah is in the belly of the whale. I like to ride a cow. I mean, I like to ride a little cow. I want to ride a donkey. I want to ride a hee-haw. I like soccer ball. I want a cow.

Isn’t that so much fun?? :) What a silly boy. :)

5 year olds:

I wish I had a kitten. I would sleep with her every night. I won’t let the dogs eat her within and without the light.

I love to ride my bike. If I could, I would ride it in the dark.

I’m gonna get a horse for Christmas and I want it to be a quarter horse.

I used to like pigs, but now I like horses better than that.

I often like to fish, but sometimes play with the kittens at Nana’s. They are so cute. I have one of my own there.

I wish I had a room of my own. I have to sleep with my brothers every night and I don’t like that.

Halloween days are fun and I like candy all the time. I like to paint pumpkins.

Okay, so she’s a little conversational…lol. Free Christmas horses, anyone? Do you think we have a veterinarian in the making??

7 year olds:

The Kittens

I like the little kittens, there cuddly and soft as mittens and there allways very, very good. and there allways in a good mood, and its a very good reason too…Beacause……its the end. (for the kittens?? :oP)

Typed exactly as written. :) I do believe he was trying to rhyme. There are so many differences between the age groups and it is so neat to see the writing/conversation improvements, isn’t it? The 5 year old was more articulate, it seemed, in conversation, but the 7 year old titles his writings, sticks with a topic, and even tries to rhyme.

If you already do journaling with your homeschoolers, I’d love to hear from you.

And now, my Journal writing must come to an end for the day is beginning around me. So far, the birds are the only ones I hear stirring, but it won’t be long and our household will be going full force. What a blessing to be able to keep my children with me and teach them in the ways of the Lord. Isn’t He wonderful?

What a Blessed Weekend!

Good morning, readers friends! I trust that you had a wonderful weekend filled with God’s blessings upon your family. No doubt, you did, because:

Every good and perfect gift is from above. and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Thursday night was my first ever Piano Recital and it turned out great! The weather was awful and I thought that would surely hinder our crowd, but we had a turnout of about 35 people, I’d presume! My students did splendidly:

my older students…one is missing due to being out of town…

My youngest student, with lil sis admiringly looking on…

one with my only male student :)…and the refreshments

A close-up of the cake….yummy…made by my Aunt :)

Then Saturday night, lo and behold, we were invited to a Sweet 16 fancy-smancy birthday party! I could even bring a date! See who I brought…

He’s been my date for 14 years now! :) Oh, and he was in mid-song during this picture. He is so known for his singing ability and to be able to find an appropriate song for every situation/occasion. :)

Oh, but here is the Birthday Girl (yes, she is pictured in one of the above photos):

Our best friends who sat at the table with us:

My childhood friend married my husband’s childhood friend….:)

Sunday morning found us in front of the opened freezer door, trying to get some relief for my crouping daughter. Ella and I stayed home with her from church. Erin spent lots of time resting (i.e. watching Dora..ha) and I straightened up the house a bit. Before the ‘men’ came home, she and I made a pizza for lunch.

working on the crust….

Puttin’ on the toppings…

More toppings (the peppers are fresh from the garden)…..Bellpeppers, olives, peps, banana peppers, portabella shrooms….

Ready to go in…..

There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of making and eating your own homemade pizza! It was really good, even if I did forget to put the salt and oil in the crust. :)

Before the kids napped, I read to them a little out of our current Read-Aloud,

During their nap, I worked on a project that I will unveil in a separate post tomorrow. I also started to work on organizing the kids’ rooms. I feel like that is a project that I need to revisit every month for it to stay organized! Anyway, I sorted blocks, littlest pet shops, animals, small trucks, baby toys, baby dolls, magnetic toys, etc…into separate bins. I even broke a sweat and I’m not so sure I rested enough for a Lord’s Day. :/

While the men went back to church for Evening Worship, Erin settled back in front of Dora (I never let her watch that much Dora, or anything for that matter, but, I digress…we did swing for awhile). Once I noticed she seemed very lethargic and her cheeks were flushed. I decided I’d better check her temp. It was 101.8. I thought I would wait a little before I gave her medication so the fever could do its work. I made some cookies, Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies (for you, Amy, j/k) and then worked some more on my organizing. Erin’s fever seemed to get worse, so I told her to get in the bathtub and then I would take her temp after her bath. It was 103. I gave her Tylenol and within minutes her fever was completely gone and she was playing. I told my husband that someone was praying for our little girl. I have never seen temperature go down that fast!

Here she is…doing a quiet activity before bed …making a clock…(she loves to sleep in her slip)

Here is Evan playing with the newly organized small trucks:

I’ve got to take more pictures of Emory…he is practicing the guitar and taking lessons from his Dad now. I will have to get a picture of him playing. He really does look like a natural.

Well, today has begun. The children are awake and it’s time to begin our day! May you be blessed. :)

PS. Check out our Garden Tour in the post below!

Thank you for your comments. They are so encouraging to me. Honestly.

This & That

I guess I have been in a sort of blogging funk for a couple of weeks, but I think it mainly boils down to my not getting up early enough to blog and not taking the time to blog during the day.

My best times to blog are in the early morning when all is quiet. If I blog any other time in the day, it’s stolen time. Time from my housework duties or time from being teacher/mom.

Ella has been in a thing where she is in bed with us every morning during the time I would get up, nursing away. I know this phase will pass soon enough, probably sooner than I will want it to, really.

More and more I find that I am becoming content with the current size of my family. I honestly believe this is the right way for us in determining our family size. I haven’t felt this way with any of my babies (and not that Ella is a terrible baby or anything—she’s absolutely wonderful), but normally I would be already thinking about the next baby. Nowadays, it seems my thoughts are more focused on getting my family raised. Getting them raised right. Helping them grow up in the ways of the Lord. Enjoying them. My current children.

Well, I haven’t put my baby clothes in a yard sale or anything and I haven’t said we won’t have number 5, but I’m more content than ever with my family. And I’m more than happy to let the Lord lead me in that area just as good as any other area of my life. :)

Well, I said this would be This & That, so topics will be very random, I’m sure.

Our Garden is coming along hugely, I mean, nicely, and I have taken some pictures to show you in a Garden Tour post for the future. We have several rows of peas, corn, one really long row of potatoes (we already have our first pickins’), string beans, okra, tomatoes, and even banana peppers. I really love gardening and while tasks like hoeing are very time consuming, I love harvesting and even shelling peas and putting them up. This year I am going to put up more canned items..Fig preserves, Muscadine Jelly, Pear Jelly/Relish, etc…

My Piano Recital is tomorrow night and I’m really looking forward to my first Piano Recital. My students have been practicing hard and I can’t wait for them to shine. Each student is playing two pieces and I have five participating (one can’t come…), so it shouldn’t last but maybe 30 minutes. I am having a small reception for them afterwards. We are taking the summer months off from piano lessons/guitar and I’m really looking forward to having free Thursday evenings/nights. I know I’ll be ready for the extra money to start back up in September. ;)

We are still doing school. We didn’t start until mid-late Sept because of Ella’s arrival, so we are late finishing up. Last week, I had Em double up on Math and this week we are supposed to be doubling up on Language, but so far because of the things mentioned in one of the below paragraphs, we haven’t done any Language this week.

Speaking of school, I know I have mentioned before, but we love reading here at our home. We love to read aloud to the children and enjoy the books as much as the kids do. A few years ago, I discovered this website of book recommendations: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html. I ordered the first 2 or 3 books on the 4-6 reading level and read them to the kids. This was pre-Emory-reading. The other day, I discovered that book list in my Home Management Binder and I got excited about reading some of the books on the list. I ordered, The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck, Bright April by Marguerite de Angeli, and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Brink. We have finished The Big Wave and I’ve started on Caddie Woodlawn with Erin (she begs for more chapters—think “Little House” series). Truly one of the great parts of Homeschooling for me is reading great literature together. What are you currently reading aloud in your home?

We’ve had a bit of sickness in our home lately, but God has given us strength to make it through it. I had two bouts of Mastitis, then I have had 2 sinus infections within a month. Monday evening, Evan woke up with a really high fever, complained with a sore throat, and vomited before bed. Ella woke up in the night with a high fever. I very rarely take my kids to the doctor (I have my reasons for avoiding the dr.) but I knew Evan had Strep Throat from his symptoms. I wasn’t sure about Ella, but if she had it, I knew things wouldn’t be good with her being so little. She checked out okay, but is still running fever this morning. I guess she is just fighting off getting strep? Anyway, I know things could be worse, but I am ready to be well.

Overall, life is happening. I am busy trying to keep my home tidy, washing/hanging out clothes, cooking, & caring for little ones. All with trying to give my honey some attention, but not really the amount he deserves. :/

I’ve been enjoying reading your blogs. My current favorite blog from my blog list is Katy’s from Country Blossom. She has such a sweet spirit and I love to read about her days. She has some good archives too. Check her out.

May your day be filled with God’s love and your daily life be led by His Spirit. :) :)