A Living Education

I am currently in the process of starting another blog: A Living Education (You may click on the link over on the sidebar to visit also). I'm not sure when it will be completely up and running so feel free to visit often, if you are so inclined. 8-) The purpose of that site is to focus on providing our children with a quality, LIVING education. What does that mean exactly? Well, you'll have to stop by to find out.

Going Home

We will be leaving tomorrow A.M. to return home to Zion for Robb's wedding. I hope to post pics from the trip upon our return. 8-) Congrats to Robb and Amy on their big day!

Curious?

3rd Party Debate on CSPAN Live Tonight at 9 EST,
8 Central

Speed Wash

So, here I've been struggling for the past 5 or so YEARS trying to keep up with our ever mounting laundry problem. (Before we moved it was bad because Dave and I both worked full-time and I couldn't do the laundry when I was pregnant - which was pretty much always, since it involved going up and down the stairs which I couldn't do. Now there's just a lot of us with a lot of clothes to keep up with. Add in about a month ago the drain pipe broke so we were without laundry capabilities for roughly 5 days - x 7 people- x the laundry that was already waiting to be done....you get the picture) I was so frustrated when we moved, that I just found a big box that I labeled "SOCK NIGHTMARE" and threw it in the moving truck. Needless to say, that box was never opened, but at least now (7 months later) the nightmare remains contained in one location and is out of sight...somewhere....hmmm.....maybe it went to Goodwill???

Anyhoo, I have been working on getting caught up on our laundry and it just never seems to happen, as soon as I think I'm done an ENTIRELY FULL, NEW, HAMPER APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE!!!! Sigh. But yesterday I had an epiphany. Almost to be paralleled with Columbus' discovery that the world is indeed round, or possibly Franklin's discovery of electricity in lightning! What is this amazing discovery????

MY WASHER AND DRYER EACH HAVE A SPEED CYCLE!!!!!!! OH BLESSED WONDER OF TECHNOLOGY!!!! And yes, I've had these same machines since we moved in March, but let's not talk about the fact that the buttons have been staring at me for 7 months and I just now took the time to actually read them....8-)

Now each load is taking at least only 1/2 as long and I may actually see our laundry completely caught up by the end of this week! (for only the 2nd time in the last 7 months.....!!!!) For some of you this may not seem like a big deal, but to a household of 7 people (+ cloth diapers on 2 of those people) this is a HUGE VICTORY!

THANK YOU MAGIC SPEED WASH BUTTON! (and the wonderful folks at GE who made them!)

I was in birthday overload.

Kailie's 7th birthday was last Saturday, 10-11. Due to posting for Lauren's, Emma's, Mom's and Uncle Bill's birthdays all in that same week, I suffered serious birthday-blog overload and thus am late in posting my well-wishes and joyful thankfulness for our precious oldest daughter (and that was a very long sentence....)!

Kailie is in 2nd grade this year and doing wonderfully with her schoolwork. She is my little shadow (literally) and is eager to do whatever she can to please Mommy and Daddy each day. She has been such an immense blessing and help to me in caring for her younger siblings that I can't even imagine how I would accomplish many of my daily tasks without her here (namely: showering!). Her sense of humor is really starting to mature and it's fun to listen to her comments on life, the older she gets the more I see traits in Dave and I coming out in her as well and it's always surprising! She's a tremendous joy and a very beautiful little girl and we're thankful every day to the Lord for providing her to our family.

This was so cute, she was helping Daddy build the swingset, but had to wear her pink snowboots for some reason....8-)

First lost tooth.

Teaching Isaac to dance!

1st day of 2nd grade. 8-)

Happy Birthday 'Cle Bill!

Today is Uncle Bill's birthday and we here at the Blockhome want to wish him a very BLESSED BIRTHDAY! We are all looking forward greatly to seeing you and Cai at the wedding in a couple of weeks, but we wish we could see you (you too, Cai) more throughout the year...maybe someday. 8-) In the meantime, know you are much loved here by all 7 of us!

Happy Birthday Emma!!!

Today Emma turns 5! We are richly blessed daily by Emma's creative and artistic talents, she is a very loving and caring big sister to the younger 3 and best friend to her big sister Kailie! Emma loves to draw, paint, color, sing, dig in the dirt, play with her dolls and cook with Mommy whenever she can. She is truly a beautiful blessing from the Lord to our family. Happy Birthday Emma, we love you!!!

This is Emma on a typical day! 8-)

We met another Emma Katherine this summer!

One of Emma's favorite pasttimes by far, decorating cardboard boxes!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is celebrating her birthday today and I wish we could be there to celebrate with her. In the last few years we have watched her patiently endure many trials and hardships with her health. Only 3 years ago I stood with my husband in her hospital room watching over her body which had lost all resemblance to the woman I had known all my life. She had been on life support for several weeks and was in the operating room where she suffered terrible internal bleeding which the surgeons were unable to cease. Her doctors had requested the family to come and "say our good-byes". Dave and Robb were with me in the room. I remember that I actually told them, "If I didn't know whose room we are in, I would never know that this is our mom."

How great is our God, who spared her life from that tragedy and brought her home to us a couple of months later. How great is His mercy in allowing her these last 3 years which have brought her 4 more grandchildren to love and snuggle! 8-) We're thankful also for the developments in medical technology which allow her to "speak" even though she had to have her vocal chords removed during this trial. I am thankful for my dad who has stood so strongly alongside of her throughout this whole battle and for the living example he has been to my children of what it means to "have and to hold....in sickness and in health".

Mom, I know you struggle with this battle. I know you wish you could have your voice back. I know you wish you could sing again. I wish it too. In the words of your oldest beloved granddaughter, "Mommy, I love grandma. I know Jesus does too. One day He will make her all better and then Grandma can sing to Him again. Someday when I'm in Heaven I'll hear Grandma's voice again too."

We're so glad you're here with us.

Happy Birthday!

For All the Saints (listen here)
1. For all the saints, who from their labors rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,

Thy Name, O Jesus,be forever blessed.

Alleluia, Allelu...

2. Thou wast their rock, their fortress and their might;

Thou, Lord, their captain in the well fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.

Alleluia, Allelu...

3. O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,

And win with them the victor's crown of gold.

Alleluia, Allelu...

4. The golden evening brightens in the west;

Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.

Alleluia, Allelu...

5. But lo! There breaks a yet more glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of glory passes on his way,

Alleluia, Allelu...

6. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Making Babies

And no this doesn't have anything to do with Dave and I, ha! Kailie is studying American History this year for school and we found this idea in one of her craft books. Basically we were replicating the doll making process for girls who lived during the "Pioneer" era in the US, ala Laura Ingalls Wilder. Enjoy!

1. Take a new pair of men's tube socks and soak in water.

2. Wring out water.

3. Boil 12 tea bags in a large pot of water.

4. Soak your socks in the tea until achieving your preference of color.

5. Hang to dry.

6. Cut off the toes and calf section of the socks. Save the calf section for later. Stitch toe section closed, stuff head and stitch around the neck area, pull on the thread to tighten stitches and knot off.

7. Add stuffing to body!

8. Stitch body closed.

9. Using the calf section you removed earlier, cut it into four equal parts. Stitch 3 sides together on each piece, fill with stuffing and then stitch closed. Sew onto body for arms and legs.

10. Stitch on 2 buttons for eyes.

11. Braid yarn color of your choice for hair and sew to head.

12. Add a smile!

13. Create a bonnet and dress (and apron but it's not in the picture) from whatever scraps of fabric you happen to have around.

Ta-da! Meet Mary Kailie's first homemade dolly!

Baking Cookies

We recently attempted to make multicolored leaf shaped sugar cookies in honor of the Fall season....well, the first problem was that I don't actually OWN a leaf shaped cookie cutter (this was news to me of course) the second problem was that we ran out of the red and yellow colors pretty fast and then ended up with just large green blobs of dough by the end. Ha! The cookies still tasted delicious and here are some shots of our baking fun.

Out for a walk.....

She is her mother's daughter. Emma didn't want to step on "THAT THING!"