Jay's Ordination Service

Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 3:00pm Jay became an officially ordained pastor. Our church held a special service to ordain both him and Dan. There was a lunch for all of us and then Jay and Dan met with a special council for a question and answer session then this was followed by the service.

It is hard to believe he has been serving at the church almost two years already. When Jay was hired on he always said he wanted to be known as a worship pastor not "the music guy". He has a passion for helping and serving people and our Lord. It has been an amazing two years for me serving beside Jay in his ministry we have had our ups and downs, highs and lows but watching God work through it all has been amazing. God is so faithful! Pastor Dan, Pastor Don and Pastor Jay

A special highlight and blessing of the day was that Pastor Byron Banta came to the service. He actually joined us for church, was part of the council and stayed for the ordination. Pastor Banta was Jay's pastor when he was a child and Pastor Banta also performed our wedding ceremony.

Here are some more pictures of my brother and nephew with the kids after the service.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

My Brother Came to Visit

I haven't seen my brother in over FIVE years!! He and his family moved to Ohio five years ago. The last time I saw him was when he held Savannah as a newborn in the hospital. So needless to say I was excited that he was coming out. My kids don't even really know him but they were excited none the less. Him and Kiefer (my nephew who is all grown up now! ) flew out for a long weekend. They came in on a Thursday night and came and stayed with us. They didn't get in until 10:30pm and the kids just HAD to stay up and wait (and drive me crazy).

I would say they warmed up right away! (hehehe) They hung out with us Friday and then went over to my sister's and dad and mom's. Saturday we all got together over at my sister's to visit and then on Sunday Donny and Kiefer came out to our church for Jay's ordination (see next post). After that it was time to say good-bye after an all to short visit. We are planning some driving trips next summer and hopefully we can get to Ohio to visit all of them.

My sister, brother and I. I should try and find a picture of the three of us as little kids and put them together.

Us with my mom and dad. I think the last time we had a family picture my sister was an infant!!

Uncle Donny and Jadon

Since the Joshua and Devin's birthdays were coming up and we were celebrating, Uncle Donny and Kiefer got the boys each a really cool Star Wars lego set.

Dad and mom with 12 of the 14 grand kids

What's in the Workboxes

I am loving our workboxes this year and they are keeping us on track and organized! They don't change that much so I think I will just post once or twice a month about what is in them for that month.

The girls always love using the dot a dot paint/markers. I happened to get mine through Oriental Trading. I know you can also purchase them at Michael's. The page above was their letter of the week and I put it in a box with the markers.

Alexa, Savannah and Joshua each have their own devotional Bible. They are more in story format with activities and/or questions to go along with the story. So each day their Bible is placed in a workbox. I read a page or two a day and we keep track by using a book mark. This has worked really well. They get some time with me and God's word every morning.

This is another letter G activity using alphabet letters, Savannah has to find the correct letter and put it in the right place. This is from our Letter of the Week curriculum that I got from Confessions of a homeschooler.

This is another G sheet. For this one the girls have pompom magnet that they place on the correct places. The paper is on a cookie sheet so the magnets stick. Natasha has gotten really good at these.

So those are some things found in our workboxes this past week.

Bird Hunting

It's dove hunting season here and Jay went for the first time (since we have been married I think). He really enjoyed it and I lost track of how many mornings he went. LOL. Most of the time he went with his friend from church and then a couple times he took Joshua and Anastasia with him. The whole process was great science/life lessons for the kids and I just stayed clear!

The mighty hunters getting ready to go!

Can you see Joshua? He wanted to hide and blend in with his camo shirt. Hahaha...

Within two days we had enough for a meal for our family.

The first day Jay brought birds home, this was Joshua's reaction

The feast. We wrapped them in bacon and grilled them. They were very good!

WARNING!!! If you are squeamish you might not want to see the next few pictures. This is something a little "extra" that Jay caught one day.........YUCK!

Yes, it's a rattler snake. It was very, very close to Jay and he was lucky he didn't get bit! He shot it's head off and then of course brought it home! (by the way Anastasia took these pictures...LOL) Did you know you can find anything on You Tube??? Jay looked up "how to prepare a snake to eat" and sure enough there were a lot of videos on it.

The rattle!

Jay the mighty warrior with his trophy!

My Birthday

It's my birthday and my family spoiled me today. Usually birthdays don't bother me and I look forward to them but this year I had a hard time with the fact that 40 is just around the corner! Wow! I tried not to think of it to much and just enjoy the day.

First we all went out to breakfast at the Golden Corral

My kids (and me) love breakfast. So when we went to Golden Corral and they realized it was a breakfast buffet they were in heaven!! We enjoyed our breakfast and the kids gave me a gift certificate to go get a pedicure. They even used their own money! What a great gift!!! We came home and took a nap and relaxed and then got ready for our afternoon.....

First we went by Lakeshore Learning (one of my favorite stores) and then we met my mom and dad for dinner. They were treating us to dinner at Benihana's (go to their website and you can get a $30.00 gift certificate to use during the month of your birthday) It of course also tied in with our learning about Japan. ;) The kids loved it they had never been before.

The kids out side with grandma

Our waiter

The birthday girl! :) Fried Rice

Grandma and Anastasia (I love this picture)

Jadon and his chopsticks

The critics....this restaurant passed with flying colors.


After a great dinner we stopped by Krispe Kreme Doughnuts on the way home for a free dozen!
My family spoiled me this special day and I really enjoyed spending it with them.

Workboxes Work for Us

We have been back in school about two and a half weeks now and I thought I would share what has been in the kids workboxes. Check out this post to see our initial set up this year. I must say work boxes have been working great. It is keeping me and the kids organized and on task. The first week there was a lot of extra time for me in the school room managing the set up each night but it is going quicker and falling into a routine and it is so worth it.

For the most part I don't rearrange boxes completely each day, for example for Savannah, math is always in box one. I have found the younger ones like this consistency, however it is Anastasia who wants things mixed up. :)
They each have their basic curriculum mixed in with fun learning activities. On the front of their workbooks I have a sticky note that I write down what pages are to be done that day. Then each night I cross it out and write the new ones. When the sticky is full I will use another one.


Extra activities that the kids really like are: story on cd, Roll 'em (I have some giant foam dice I bought from oriental trading. I made up some addition, fact family and multiplication sheets and laminated them. So in the box is 2 dice the sheet and a dry erase marker.), bead and shape sorting, Hocus Focus- This is from the Sunday paper I have had these from years ago. You have to find the difference between two pictures. I copied them onto overhead sheets so they just mark on it with dry erase markers.

Next week I will take pictures and let you know more of what's in the boxes. I love seeing others blogs about workboxes and getting ideas as well.

Muffin Tin Monday

The first two weeks of school we have had "Muffin Tin Mondays" for more info and to join in the fun go here . My kids love when we do this for lunch. Anastasia always helps and the others aren't allowed to peak until the tins are at the table. The themes at MTM have been ABC's and numbers.

Our first picture is our muffin tin for ABC's. That week our letter of the week was "B". So all of the foods began with B....broccoli, banana, bacon, black berries, bell pepper, and bagel.

This week was numbers so each kid got 1 hot dog, 2 slices of pear, 3 Hershey kisses, 4 carrots, 5 pieces of string cheese and 6 grapes.

I love checking out the website and seeing all the neat ideas. I am hoping to get a bit more creative and ours will be once again "Muffin Tin Tuesday"since our co-op is on Monday's and we will be starting back on September 13.