Happenings...

Just wanted to get something on here to update about what's been going on...

Anna Ruth:

Anna Ruth's hair is in a headband braid

She is getting so tall and grown-up.  Everyone keeps saying it wherever we go.  I can't believe she's going to be seven years old in December.

She is a voracious reader, and is already reading American girl books and other small chapter books.  Because of the AG books, she has gotten into dolls, and we have joined an American Girl club with our homeschooling support group.  It meets once a month (with a different doll theme each time), and the girls bring their dolls, they learn about the time period from the stories, do a craft, and have snacks.  This month the doll is Molly, whose story is set during World War II.  She has read 3 of the Molly books, watched the Molly movie, and has gotten a doll to bring to the club.  It is not an AG doll, since they are so expensive, but it is the same size and style of them.  Hers has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is named Lily Anna.
I love doing her hair, and she usually has good ideas of how she wants it done.  Now that she has a doll, she usually requests for me to make her doll's hair match hers.
Anna Ruth likes to put on music while she works on her handwriting in the morning.  Lately, she does not want to choose "kid music", so she has been looking through my CD case and putting on Indelible Grace music.  It takes me back to RUF days!  She's so funny about wanting to be like an adult now.

James:

James loves to fight off all the bad guys

He is a big fan of Anna Ruth, although he might not admit it.  He copies everything she says and does, and they actually play together pretty well, because he's willing to listen to her and do what she says.
He is quite the climber.
He was running around the train table the other day saying, "I'm a race car!"
James stood on the toybox and performed the Doxology for us.  It went like this: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow! (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" (a step higher) "A-men!"
He is doing really well with school.  We are learning the sounds of the letters, and practicing writing the letters.  He is pretty close to being able to write his name.
He also has begun to draw stick figures; they even have details like eyes, noses, mouths, hair, and tummies.  And he stays in the lines on coloring pages if he wants to.
He is still into dinosaurs, and is requesting a T-Rex birthday party when he turns four, which is not far away--November 14th!

Josiah:

Josiah posing in his new Mexican shirt

This boy is into EVERYTHING!  I never had to put cabinet locks on for the other kids, but they've been oh-so-necessary for him.  He gets into drawers, plays in the toilets, grabs whatever may be slightly hanging off the side of the counter, rips up paper, finds pens and writes on walls and couches, etc.  You get the idea!
He is extremely active and likes to climb.  If I had a nickel for every time I got him down from some place he shouldn't be up on, I'd be a rich woman.
He is a pincher and biter.  Ouch!
He is a sweet boy, though, and is a little talker.  He jabbers on about all sorts of things, especially getting excited when Daddy gets home.  He runs to the door, shouting, "Dah!  Dah!"  Rich loves it!




Liv and Rich:
I am enjoying homeschooling this year.  I am re-learning things I had forgotten about history, singing songs about nouns that I still remember from the 1st grade, and even learning lots of new things!  It is so fun to have this time with my children.  It is hard, and there's not much down time, and I'm usually exhausted by the end of the day, but I really do feel fulfillment in doing what God has called me to do right now.
I am about to start Women's Bible Study next week, and we are reading a book called The Praying Life.  I think it is a timely study, from which I will profit much.
Rich has been reading a lot more lately.  After we started listening to The Chronicles of Narnia with the kids, he got excited about fiction again, and read ahead in those books as well as reading some fiction by G.K. Chesterton.
Rich is happy about at least one of his teams doing well this football season.  The Citadel is having a great start to their season, and we are going to our first football game as a family on Saturday.  He has been practicing the CI-TA-DEL...Goooooo BULLDOGS!!! cheer with the kids so that we can spur our team on to victory.