Happy Birthday Joshua!

Happy Birthday my precious Joshua!  Can it really be 11 years since you entered our lives? I remember well the night you arrived.  It was my easiest birth.  It was all that I could have hoped for - and ending it with a beautiful baby was all that mattered anyway.  I remember your chunky thighs as a toddler.  Oh, I loved all those rolls!  Hard to imagine now that you were once chunky!  Look at you now! 



He has always been sensitive - sometime in ways much beyond his years.  I remember that he was the one to comfort me on the due date of a child we had lost to miscarriage.  He was just 3 years old and I knew didn't remember that date - no one really did.  I think it is one of those things that a mom never forgets, but is often something that only she carries.  We were driving somewhere and I was pondering that I "should have been" doing something much different on that date.  I was missing the little one that we had longed for and talking with God about it.  I was sharing with Him how hard it was to have a date that meant something to me - and that nobody else really remembered it.  From the back seat piped up a little voice - Joshua - asking me about our baby in heaven.  Talking with me about the fact that the baby was with Jesus.  God used our little boy to show me that He remembered.  He knew.  I was comforted and stunned. 



Joshua has always been curious.  He asks questions.  Lots of questions.  He wants to learn about so many things.  His interests are varied and many.  He frequently surprises medical staff when he wants procedures explained and processes defined.  I think that they appreciate that he wants to know and understand what is going on with his body.  His questions can at times seem a delay tactic - especially at bedtime.  It's hard to stifle that creative mind - but a boy does need to sleep!  LOL

He is also brave.  He has endured a lot over the last year and learned more than a little boy should have to about needles, pokes, blood sugars, carbs, lows and more.  I'm proud of him and the way he is learning to care for himself.  I hope and pray he will continue to make good choices with his life. 



Joshua loves to read.  He often has his nose in a book.  I love it!  I learned to love reading at an early age and it delights my heart to see my children following the same  path.  There is so much to learn and explore between the covers of a good book.

Joshua also loves to play outside.  There is much to do in the woods and in the backyard - especially in the company of siblings and friends.  Joshua also has a fun sense of humor and loves to make others laugh.  He enjoys being silly - especially if it results in laughter. 

He has his own sense of style and self.  He wears his fedora every day.  It's his "trademark" .  I love that he is comfortable in his own skin.  I pray for my children that they will realize that they need approval from One and that this will allow them to be the person that He created them to be.  I know God has a purpose for each one of them and what a treat it is to watch them grown and learn and start developing the skills and talents they will need to follow the path God has for them.



One of the things that Joshua has been wanting to do - is to play airsoft like his big brother.  To be honest, it wasn't high on my list for him, but then I'm not a huge gun person either.  Joshua was delighted to receive an airsoft gun for his birthday.  I do think that it's a fine things for the boys to do - at the right age (with supervision when needed) and with safety rules in place.



We allow our children to choose what they will do on their birthday.  Joshua said that he wanted to play football and airsoft.  We invited over a family with a bunch of boys and they all headed to the backyard to play.  They stopped for awhile for a dinner of hotdogs, hamburgers and fixings and then headed out for more play time.  We were joined by some neighborhood friends too.  It was a fun day.

I'm thankful for this special child and all that he has brought to our family and our lives.  I prayed for him long before he arrived - often wondering if there would be a 3rd Nelsen child.  What a sweet answer to prayer.  Thank you God for blessing us with Joshua.  Thank you for the gifts and talents you have given him.  Help us to encourage, challenge and nuture him in the way that You have planned for him.

I love you Joshua!



Love,

Mom

Beyond Co-op Betsy Ross #2

Well, I thought I'd blog more over the last week while we were on vacation - but it didn't happen.  Our connection was very limited so I just stayed off the computer.  Not a bad thing to do while on vacation either.  I'll be playing catch-up for awhile though.  Here's a look at what we've been up to.  (Pictures to come!).  We left last Friday afternoon for an out of town volleyball game in Fayetteville.  (They won!)  We went from there to the beach.  Wonderful weather!  We arrived home last night about 1am. 

Early this morning (Thur), we had a field trip and picnic lunch.  Quick run to the grocery store.  Laundry.  Made a large fruit salad to take to a banquet for tonight.  Christopher was inducted into the Homeschool  National Honor Society.  Tomorrow we leave very early for another college tour.  We'll be gone for the day while Roger is home with the rest of the gang.  Saturday, Christopher is taking the ACT and Rebecca and I are going to the consignment sale.  Next week we have a birthday - and I need to get busy planning a party!  Just a few of the highlights.  :-)

Now, on to the co-op from last week.  We spent this co-op on the next 4 chapters of the book (5-8).  We picked 3 topics and it was really too much.  Two topics really seems to work better in this format.  Each person can take a topic to focus on.  It also helps to have one before and one after snack.  We observed this in the past and this was a good reminder.  It was fun - but we went over on our time.

Our first topic was flags from chapter 5.  We had a formal presentation on the flag from two Civil Air Patrol members.  The children were fascintated and loved watching them display the flag. 





They learned about flag etiquette.



They also learned that each fold of the flag symbolized something important to our country.



Each child was asked in advance to prepare a short presentation on another country's flag.  They each brought a picture and stood to tell something about the flag - what the colors or symbols meant or something interesting about the country.





They also looked at various pictures of the US flag over the years.  They each held a small picture of the flag and noted its appearance and then lined up in the order each flag flew for our country.  (No pics, sorry)

Next it was time for a snack.  We had similar foods to last time and also played a quiz to guess the foods.  This time, the quiz was based on the health properties of each food.  (I can post specifics if anyone wants them.  They just aren't on the computer that I'm currently using.)



Our next topic was Benjamin Franklin.  I covered a lot of information on him in last year's co-op and so this time we decided to focus on his weather experiments.  We demonstrated different weather measuring devices like a weather vane.



A thermometer.



Then the children made their own barometers to take home.



Our last topic was  Physical Conditioning.  We had talked some before our snack on eating healthy and now it was time to talk some about exercise.  I explained briefly the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge.  There are 5 catagories in which you must compete in order to earn the award.  There are also 3 different levels or challenges.  Each of the levels is based on age and gender.  This is open for students ages 6-17.  We demonstrated and had the children work in 4 of the 5 areas.  (We did not do the 1 mile run.)

The first was a curl-up (sit-up). 



The second was a shuttle run.  You had to run 30 feet and pick up one block.  You ran back and place the block outside the line.  (No throwing!)  You did this a second time to finish the task.





The third area was either push-up, chin-up or flexed arm hang.



The last was a v-sit (stretch).


For more information, you can visit their website.  

It was a full and fun morning.  I love this style of learning!  Looking forward to our next meeting - next week!  I'm off to sleep now as morning is going to come wayyyyyy to early tomorrow (5am!).

Have a fun day!

Leslie

College Visits

I'm not sure that 17 years ago, I knew that this day would come quicker than I wanted it too.   I remember those early years so well.  These have been full years - many memories and much to be thankful for.  I know that the future will be different - but can also have many sweet memories and much to be thankful for.  I'm not sure I'm ready to enter this new chapter.  I guess I don't have to be ready yet.  It's close though.  And it does bring tears to my eyes to think too much about it.  So I try not to dwell on it, but there is still much to be done to get Christopher prepared, especially over the next couple of months.  Praying for God to guide us, prepare us and to show us His path.

We have visited 2 college campuses over the last week.  Christopher didn't want me taking photos.  (Imagine that!)  He did take a few photos.  Creative - and definitely not the ones I would have taken.  Care to guess where we've been?  Can you recognize anything familiar?



This is the second campus.



This one might you give more of a hint at the second campus.  I know, it would help more if you could actually see the writing!



We have one more visit next week which will make 4 total that we have visited.  I'm not sure if we'll be going to more or not.  At this point, these are his top choices.  He is looking at 4 Universities.  Three are in-state and one out-of-state.  Three are public and one is private.  They vary in size from 12,000 to almost 25.000. 

It has been interesting to me to see the varied receptions we have received as homeschoolers.  At some, they don't really blink an eye and the expectations are really no different.  At one, we were encouraged to do a lot of additional work to prove what he had learned as a homeschooler. 

This is a lot to take in.  It's a big decision.  It is by far one of the biggest decisions he has had to make yet.  It ranks only second (in my opinion) to choosing Jesus as His Saviour.  I'm not sure that that decision though was as difficult as I think this one may be for him. 

He is planning to take the ACT and the SAT one more time each in the hopes of bettering his scores.  We are both hopeful that perhaps he will get scholarships, grants and aid to help finance his education.  Again, it will be interesting to see what things look like once everything is turned in and the decisions are being made.  I'm hoping that we will be able to apply early to his schools of choice.  A busy next couple of months.

Thanks for any prayers you offer for us.

Blessings,

Leslie

Some catch-up on our past week - Volleyball, Lentil, Science

Rebecca continues with volleball. She is really having fun.  Its nice that she has a couple of friends from our FIAR group  playing with her.



They had an unexpected game this week.  One of the teams had their opponents cancel and they wanted to know if we would fill in.  We found out just one day in advance that they would be playing.   The middle school already had a game scheduled and the JV team would now be playing a game in a different gym at the same time. 

They arrived an hour early to warm up.



Oh, they were playing in an unair-conditioned gym.  It was hot, but not as bad I had thought it might be.



Rebecca plays for the JV team.  The team that they were playing against is a Varsity team.  We all wondered how it would go.  They lost the first set and it wasn't pretty.  They rallied in the second set though to win!



They were playing the best 3 out of 5.  This is how it works for Varsity.  We typically play the best 2 out of 3 for JV.  Well, much to our delight ... they won the next 2 sets as well!!!  Go Lady Stars!  It was a very exciting win - perhaps because we didn't really expect it.  I'm so proud of the way that they played.



If anyone has tips on taking photos at a game - I would love to hear them.  It's low light so my sports setting doesn't work.  I am getting a lot of blurry photos on the other settings due to the action of the game/ball.  I know about the expensive lens that helps you to get more light.  It's just not in the budget.  So, with all that in mind - any tips?!  I would appreciate it.

Several of us went to see the UNC v Penn State volleyball game.  It was neat to see the level of play!  Penn State was #1 last year.  I think I enjoyed it more since I understand the rules and how the game is played.  I hope we'll be able to go back and see another one.



Last week, we rowed Lentil.  I have not been good about getting a lot of pictures.  But here are just a few.  We of course had to try lemons to see if it made our mouths pucker like the characters in the story.





He bent his head, but I think you can still see the pucker!



Eliana came up and joined us and I asked her if she wanted to try a lemon too.  She told me yes.  (Love having her answer my questions!)



This picture is dark, but still just made me giggle.



We rolled out our lemons to make the juicier.



After squeezing them, we made fresh lemonade.  Yum!



Daniel really enjoys the food activities.  I need to find more ways to tie this into his days to see if it will continue to help him in trying to eat new foods.  We also made homemade ice cream in baggies.  This wasn't a new activity, but it was funny and tasty nonetheless.



My oldest two are both doing Apologia Science this year.  We do labs with friends (as we have for years now).  The girls are doing Physical Science and the boys are doing Physics.  This is one of their experiments this week.  Love it when they work just as they are supposed to!



Thats a quick peek at some of what's been going on here.  More to come.

Blessings

Leslie

Our first field trip

We had our first field trip with our homeschool group last week.  I'm just in one group - our Five in a Row group.  It's a smallish group (about 25 - 30 active families) and it has been a great support for our family!

Our first outing is always at a park.  It's just a fun way to reconnect with people you might not have seen over the summer.  It's also an easy environment for the new folks to come in and get to know some of the other moms/children.  I also think it's really important for kids of all ages to have time to play.  We all need time like this no matter what age or stage.  I know I enjoyed it as much as my children did.

We met at Harris Lake County Park.  A really fun park with lots of place to play!  There are trails, a lake, fields and a playground area.



I enjoy seeing the big kids and small ones all playing together.



I really love seeing my biggest and my smallest playing together.  Warms my heart!



Tried to take some random photos of the day, but didn't get as many as I would like.





Some of the older girls.



I got the boys to be still for a minute or two.  LOL



Can you guess why I didn't get many photos taken?  Here's a clue.



She was busy, busy, busy.  On the move much of the time.  I wanted to stand still a little more so I could talk with my friends.  I did have one precious friend walk around with me while I followed Eliana so we could talk!  :-)

The boys enjoyed some of the art at the park.



One of the blessings of having a big van - we had room for bikes and two additional children to come with us!



Unfortunately the trails were closed and so Christopher wasn't able to go on the longer ride he was anticipating.  We'll have to go back sometime soon!  Everyone would enjoy that.



We played for a couple of hours, ate a picnic lunch and then played some more.



It was a fun (and not too hot) day.  I love field trip days.  I look forward to our next outing!

Hope you are having a fun week-end wherever you are!

Blessings

Leslie