Isaiah

Thought I would post some pictures of my adorable grandson Isaiah.

Uncle James & Isaiah

Auntie Adah & Isaiah

The adorable man himself in all his sweetness.

 Grandpa Steve & his first grandson.

Mama Sarah & her baby boy.

 Grandma & her first grandson.
          


In his hat that Meredith crocheted for him.

Daddy Nathan & his little man.

Grandma & Grandpa Steve at Isaiah's by his first Christmas tree.

My little model

My little character

Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning!

I recently decided to get a hold of my house by trying to get ahead of it instead of it getting ahead of me! So I came up with a system that seems to be working. Now some of you need to remember that I have many hands in my house and I am not doing all this work by myself. Many hands make the mess, but many hands also clean the mess. There is nothing wrong with making your children help with maintaining the cleanliness of your household.  Below is my schedule for this month. We'll tweak it at the end of the month once we've done everything once and see how it goes.

I took my calendar and decided to tackle one big chore a day. Here's how I've broken it down.

First Monday-Sort socks (you know the ones that end up without their mate)
First Tuesday-Clean baseboards and deep clean the little girls room.
First Wednesday-Clean doors & dust
First Thursday-Clean Walls & dust (if dusting didn't get done the day before)
First Friday-Vacuum Couch and go spider web hunting

Second Monday-Clean blinds & Window sills
Second Tuesday-Vacuum under and behind beds & Dust if needed
Second Wednesday-Organize Girls ethnic hair products, deep clean bathrooms & wash shower curtains
Second Thursday-We have classes so no cleaning
Second Friday-Mop (we have a floor that you cannot tell if it's dirty or not :-) )

Third Monday-Clean little girls room AGAIN/Clean fans and light fixtures
Third Tuesday-Clean inside & outside of kitchen cabinets, linen cabinets & bathroom cabinets
Third Wednesday-Clean fridges/freezer
Third Thursday-Clean laundry room, includes counter & washer/dryer
Third Friday-Maybe a seasonal chore

Fourth Monday-Clean & organize book cases
Fourth Tuesday-Put away and organize home school supplies/books
Fourth Wednesday-maybe clean windows
Fourth Thursday-Classes again
Fourth Friday-Mop

So far my house looks spic & span. Just cleaning the doors, walls & baseboards made a big difference. What I've been doing is assigning certain doors, walls, and such to each child. The job doesn't seem so insurmountable that way. Today when we cleaned blinds I had my ten year old clean the ones in the kitchen because they're a little lower than other ones in my house. One bedroom doesn't have any so I had one of the boys clean three blinds in my room. I still need to do the two by my tub, but that seems easy knowing all the others are done.

With home schooling, family, meals, and ministry it seems the house suffers. I'm hoping this helps us keep on top of the dirt. :-)

Visiting Sarah

Sarah at 38 weeks

My girls

Vikki, Sarah & Steve

Daddy loves his girl

The crew minus James

Our "current at home" family

                                      Mom, Sarah, Anna & Adah

Isaiahs' dresser

                                                   Love it!!

Visiting Sarah

Hi all,

This week we're in the sunny area of Phoenix, Arizona, visiting our oldest daughter Sarah. Her husband is based at Luke AFB which is actually where we are staying while we're here. He's able to get us on base and we rent a three bedroom house in the temporary living quarters area. Sarah is due in a few weeks and we wanted to see her before she has baby Isaiah. Please pray for a safe delivery for baby and mommy.

The kids spend their time playing Guitar Hero at Sarah's and swimming in the pool at her condo. In the morning before we head over we spend about twenty minutes reading in A Beka readers. I watched Joe's Bob Jones University DVD's to get a feel for the long-distance learning program. Joe is coming back to full-time home education and we're using the BJU DVD's to actually teach the lessons.

I talked to Jesse yesterday and he's doing well. Lots of math in school. He's having oral surgery sometime in the near future. Pray for him that his surgery and the healing goes well.

We head home tomorrow and back to the soccer grind on Saturday.

Isaiah's blanket

This is for my grandson Isaiah who is due within the next month or so. I did five inch squares with 1/2 inch seams, eight squares across and thirteen down.


Giraffes, letters, numbers, frogs, Little Buddy...........


Little Buddy

The finished product

School pics

Addis-7th grade (13 years)
John-6th grade (11 years)
Abi Mulu-4th grade (9 years)
Anna Mihret-Preschool (4 years)
Adah Derartu-Preschool (4 years)

I Love My Hair!

Last Night's Awana

This year I'm the Awana secretary. I like to get to church/club early and get a grasp on things before other people get there. Two of the kids have soccer practice so after I drop them off I head to church to set up and open the doors and turn on lights.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting with one of my Cubbies from over twenty years ago when she brought me a pizza oven to sell towards our adoption fees. Our church has a photo album that I started way back then, it must have been 1986, because Jared was in there and he would have been three in 1986. She was in the photo album as well as our current Sparky Director. The kids are cute as can be, but now they're grown with families of their own. I can't even fathom that over twenty years has passed. Unbelievable! Where does the time go?

On a different note: James and Joel received Clubbers of the Month. Joel received it for the Truth and Training Club (the old Pals/Pioneers) and James received it for Trek (jr. high). Both of these boys spend hours going over their verses and studying their Bible. A certain someone who didn't receive it is up and studying his verse/Bible this a.m. in hopes to earn it next month.

That certain someone could have stayed in T & T or gone up to Trek. I chose to push him up to Trek so that instead of being a leader he was a follower. Different thinking but in this case it is needed. He has his older brother and kids that put time and effort into their study of God's Word. In T & T he was the top dog and wasn't pushed at all. Now he has higher goals and he's not the leader of the pack in the younger club, thus freeing the younger kids to rise to a higher goal than he was giving. It's a win-win in this situation.

It's a little harder for Addis & Mulu because of the language barrier and the length of the verses. They're getting it though!

Here's to Awana!

Sarah's further along

Sarah went to the doctor yesterday and found out Isaiah is 4 1/2 lbs instead of 3 1/2 lbs. The dr. thinks she is two weeks further along and gave her a new due date of November 18. Big babies run in our family so he could just be a big baby. My brother was 11.7 lbs. I've had 10,9.9,9,and two 10.10 babies. My 9 and 10.10 lb babies were not c-sections. I've been given the go-ahead to be in the delivery room. Time to study up on the birth process!

The beginning

30+ Years of Love

Wedding Anniversary

In the jungle in Puerto Vallarta

A few days ago Steve and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going on a cruise to the Mexican Rivera. We spent a glorious week together relaxing, exploring, eating, and enjoying one another.

Last year at this time I knew I wanted to do something big, something I/we hadn't done before to celebrate my 50th birthday and our 30th anniversary. I told, yes told, Sarah last year that if she wasn't due with a baby I wanted her to babysit for us while we went on our cruise. She agreed! She is pregnant but not due for another nine weeks. Perfect!

We decided on the Mexican Rivera for a few reasons. One, it was about the least expensive and two, it was on our anniversary which was really a blessing. We drove up to San Pedro early Sunday morning after enjoying a bite to eat at IHOP. After the surprise of the freeway being closed, the very one that we wanted to take to get us to the port, we finally found our way, somehow. We don't know how we got there, but we did. We went through all the customary things we had to do to get on the boat, and then the fun began!

This was like a sailing city. Incredible! We found our way to our room which was the greatest. We had a nice king bed with a sliding glass door which led out to the balcony where we could sit and enjoy the scenery of the ocean. Gorgeous!

The view off our balcony.
The staff on board the boat were all very nice. The stateroom attendant made up our room twice a day. The waiter and asst. waiter were attentive and very helpful. I'm just a girl from Kearny Mesa/Santee/Lakeside not La Jolla. I eat out quite a bit, but I don't go to fancy smancy places. These meals were the kinds where there are lots of silverware, plates and cups. Can we say "learning experience?"
Below are some pictures of our adventures.

Our boat in port at Cabo San Lucas
Waiting for our adventure on the dock at Cabo
On the boat
This is in Matzaland. We kayaked around that island. As we were coming to shore we tipped over. It felt good to get wet. I just wasn't expecting it!
Overlooking the water from the hill we climbed-yes, we hiked. It about killed me, but we did it.

In the jungle in Puerto Vallarta
In Matzaland