PHYSICIST FISHERMEN

by Robin

When we don't fish, we're hard at work in our school books. This year has been such a challenge with going the co-op for homeschoolers. It has pushed us well beyond our comfort zone, right into high school work.

Much to my pleasant surprise, Simon Peter is meeting that challenge and loves his physical science class. This past month, the former chemical-engineer mom has been teaching the class. I've really enjoyed sitting in and seeing her advance the class. (Pray for me.... my time for teaching is next!)

Normally, Simon Peter does his work independantly, but he was stumped with this one. This problem.......... oh did it kick our rears!




It has been so many years since I even saw or thought about Newton's Laws of Motion. I had to peek into the teacher's answers and work back from there. Eventually, we drew enough pictures, kept turning our characters around & changing direction and then got it right. Wow.




I don't know if I'm more proud of me or him. I thought giving birth and raising kids had fried my brain, but come to find out, it's still there.

Btw, I highly recommend Apologia for your high school science needs. They are very thorough.

Art Lessons

by Robin

Ok, enough bragging on Simon Peter & friends. Andrew says it is time for him.

I've been sending him to art class since the end of August. I'd like to show you pictures of him instructing me how to draw from a 2-point perspective.





Oops, I made this picture too small. Anyhow, you can see my progress (faintly).


If nothing else, this class has been very good for all of us to learn new techniques. I've always enjoyed art, but never had any training in it.

God bless!

CELEBRATION

by Robin


Every good victory deserves an awesome victory meal.

Jack made Red Snapper & Mahi, yellow squash and egg noodles. Oh yummy. Topped with some Sparkling White Grape Juice to make the toasts.

I couldn't decide if I liked sepia....



or the colored- painted look. The malt vinegar & sparkling juice bottles add great color. Very Italian.



Either way....... it was a delicious victory meal.

WOO HOO!!!!!

by Robin

I'm going to let the pictures speak a thousand words tonight. I'm doing my best to fight off Andrew's virus & fever.


















Last run... every point counts. It looks pretty good.


RoboSharks had a pretty good run too.









Congratulations guys!! You earned it!!!

KLEENEX ALERT

by Robin

I've been holding off posting because I've been looking for a video. We saw this on Sunday night as we joined THOUSANDS of others at First Baptist of Orlando for a Haiti relief effort. The New Missions team was down there handing out Christmas shoeboxes last week. Because their team had Melony McKay, from z88.3 radio and Christina Webb from Ch 13 news on the teams, everything was being documented.

They are in the middle of an interview when the earthquake hit. Get your kleenexes out. Get your checkbooks out. New Missions lost 50% of their buildings. They've been in Haiti for 27 years. They love the Haitians, having clothed, fed and educated them through two generations.

Here is Tim DeTellis speaking about their ministry back in 2008. This is a set up to the video below.



I cannot find this on YouTube as of yet. The only place it is posted is on Facebook. This is the video we saw that ripped my heart out. Do you have your kleenex ready?

A Friend

by Robin

These two crack me up. He's 10. She's 7. Put together because us parents' lives are intermingled through a couple different ministries at church. They have spent many hours, of what is probably boredom for a child, together while we adults rehearse.



Now, she homeschools too and so they see each other more and more. While each has their own same-sex friends, he definitely watches out for her.



He makes sure she get ahead of him in line. He's like a big brother and he has adopted her as a little sister.


And then, last Sunday morning, we all met in the freezing cold, at the crack of dawn, for rehearsal. My boys and Pink Petunia, I'll call her. The threesome all bring their Nintendos and sit in the front pew, linked up in a game. Petunia's Mom and I stand together and sing, while Daddy plays the piano. We ladies look down and happen to see Pink Petuna rest her head on Andrew's shoulder. It was adorable. It was almost as if to "try on" that emotion, for just a moment. We moms could see a little smile from her. Then, she popped her head back up.

A few minutes later, I noticed somebody, not me, had placed Simon Peter between the two kiddos. There were no more future incidents of resting a head on a shoulder.

FORT CHRISTMAS - part 2

by Robin

I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of the outside of the Fort. Duh. Anyhow, it was very small - less than a quarter acre in size. On two corners of the fort, there were 2-story buildings with small look-out holes to shoot from. This first picture is from a storage house inside the fort. It is now a little museum of tools & barrels.


Weapons & maps were in one of the corner buildings. I took lots of pictures but did not downsize them for the blog. The other corner building housed every day items from quilts to photographs to spectacles to Indian artifacts to coins to family photo albums. Simon Peter did not appreciate the mannequins in period clothing.



They even had a loom in one corner.


Must run. God bless!! We're off to see Tim Hawkins tonight. He's a singing comedien. He's on YouTube if you're interested.

FORT CHRISTMAS

by Robin

We're having Christmas again!!!

No seriously, we had a field trip with our homeschoolers from our church to a tiny city called Christmas, FL. It was established on Dec 25, 1937 when soldiers arrived to make a fort close to the St. John and Lucie's rivers. They were working their way down the state of Florida. I'll let you read the sign yourself.




We had a large crowd for the tour, so we split into youngers & olders. I stayed with Andrew & the younger group. That's why you'll see more pictures of him on this post.

We were here on a cold day, but our tour guide explained that because of all the holes in the walls, mosquitos were awful at night, hence the mosquito netting. The whole family slept in one room which had a fireplace on the other wall. Mother Yates did all her cooking & feeding of the kids on the porch.



The Yates drove cattle and one year Mr Yates died of measles while on a drive. The older Yates boys added on this kitchen for their mother after that time.



The smokehouse was off a ways. In December, Ft. Christmas has "Cracker Days" and so they had recently done a lot of smoking in this house. The kids complained of the smell.



Each child was given a chance to pump water. Then, they watered the nearby tree. They also enjoyed seeing the chickens and the garden.



Around the other side of another, more modern, house, they children listened about 19th & early 20th century food.


They created fresh butter & tasted it. They also enjoyed cane syrup and beef jerky. I suggest that you don't have some of both in your mouth at the same time. That was disgusting.



Tomorrow, I'll post up the pictures of the Fort itself.

RESOLVE!

by Robin

No fancy pictures today. Just a quick comment.

Today was Jack's first day in the gym with me. Last time this happened was over 17 years ago. LOL I'm praying that he sticks with it. I wanna be able to whoop him one day in 21 pt basketball one day. (We played this after the workout.)

Exercising sure is much more fun with a partner to keep pushing you & keep you accountable.

Have a great week!

SLEET

by Robin

Who would have thought, with global warming & all, that we'd get some sleet half way down the state of Florida?

You have to look hard. This isn't Buffalo or Canada......





This is the most snow/sleet I've seen since moving to this area 7.5 years ago.

My Dad tells me that a polar bear was spotted in TN eating a person.


Robin
PS: Do you get my joke?

FROST CHALKLINE

by Robin

Yesterday.... the guys didn't see the frost in my little visual aid. Gee, I don't know how they missed that slight bit of frost on the green grass.



So I let them take a stab at it. This is what my smarty-pants kids came up with...

Simon Peter's


Andrew has frost WITH a sun. (One track mind)


That all looked like fun, so I tried it too. Unfortunately, my dead person looks more like a frog taking a leap. It's one of those optical illusions because I'm such an awesome, creative genius (bwaahaaa). I see a dead guy with head twisted & ear sticking out, but I also see a frog with webbed feet, making a jump.


Well...... I wonder what other distractions we can get into in order to avoid homeschooling.

(Daddy's home so he can watch the National Championship game. Roll Tide!! )

FROST!!!

by Robin

Last night, we pulled our few grapefruit off our young 4H tree. They're pink grapefruit on the inside. Not too tart!!

We went down to 28 deg before 9pm, so I knew it would be bad.



We woke up to frost on the grass. (Trust me, it's there)



And ice in buckets, but not the pool.



Captain is confused as to how to lick that.

The bad news is that I've probably lost my garden. Many of my tropicals are brown. Bushes in the front look bad, bad, bad. Banana trees are black. This can't be good.

Stay warm everybody!!

17 YEARS!!!

by Robin




Seventeen years ago, I was a scared young bride. The word forever scared me to death but I knew I wanted to be with this man. I was unsure what "forever" felt like. I was unsure if people, in general could ever really love each other for the rest of their lives. Were they satisfied sixty years later like they were on their wedding day?

Thank goodness, God put something in our hearts. We were head over heels in love with each other. Inseperable, pretty much from the 3rd date on. I knew I could make it if I took one day at a time. I knew how much I loved waking up and having him in my life and hearing the phone ring for me and it was his voice. He proposed on week 3 and we set the wedding 5 1/2 mo after we met. Most everyone thought we were crazy. (I was thankful to have a boss who married his long-time wife 10 days after they had met. He was a great encouragement to me.)

I let each line of the vows we made to each other sink in. When I said them, I said them outloud to my sweetie, but in my heart, I said them to God as a promise that He would make it all work out for richer or poorer, sickness and good health, and in better and worse times. Trust me, we've had all 6 of those experiences and each time, the knot held because HE held it together for us with that same desire in our hearts. No matter how many hard times we faced either with the world or with each other, we'd look up through the tears and the other would be there.

Love is much better 17 years later than it was on my wedding day. It is deeper, more-patient, more enduring than young love. And fishermen know, the curves & twists of a knot becomes permanently fixed over time, while weathering daily elements & storms. Eventually, the knot is impossible to undo. Marriage knots are the same.

I can only guess that being married to Jack will be even more satisfying after 60 years than was on our wedding day.

Happy Anniversary Honey!!