Jesus--the Light of the World!

We've been studying this in Bible this week. Our Scripture Memory verse is:

"I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 8:12

Yes, we made 2. Caleb needed his own. We are lighting these at suppertime each night this week.

David's Woodworking

These are some of the things that David's been working on out in the shop since he's not had any framing work....

This is the stump of a Willow Oak that David sliced into several pieces like this for table tops. He created the table so that the two pieces butted together would be like a mirror image. The legs of this table are Sassafras.

This is a little side table made out of cedar. I love the look of the cedar. It's beautiful! And....who do you know that has a side table like this??

These are some snowmen that he's been turning. He's playing......Aren't they cute?!

Forgive the background mess, please. It is a shop, you know? :0)

We are doing a craft fair in Bell Buckle on October 17 & 18. Hopefully, we can sell some things and maybe get some custom orders.

Another Hat Finished

Well, this one did not turn out as well as I would have liked. It is what it is. It's a little bit bigger because I added an inch so it would cover David's ears. I tried to use a different yarn for the ribbing. It did not work so well. It's a very loose knit on the ribbing. Then I doubled it with the same yarn as the first hat--this I like because it added more color into the hat. But, it sure made it harder to decrease as I knitted it.

I like the multicolor.

Looks funny, here!

The ribbing kind of curls under. Probably because it's not the same weight yarn.

David's excited because he can keep his head warm now that it's cold--60's at night here and I'm loving it. He wears a hat to bed...go figure!

Let's Invite The Deer For Breakfast

This is too cool!

Finished!

The hat is complete!

I hired a model so you could see how well it turned out--hehehe.

I'm very pleased for my first hat! I'm going to try it again with the ribbing in a different color and maybe I'll get the ribbed stitches right this time. That means I'll have to work on it while the kids are in bed.

Look What Caleb Found On Our Back Walk

Caleb's dialogue......"Look Mama! I found a turtle!"

"Oh no you don't. You can't get away from me!
I'm trying to feed you some watermelon, silly!"

"Where did his feet go? See Mama, he doesn't even care if I hold him upside down!"

"He's not afraid of me, he's just showing me how he can hide! I'm gonna keep him forever!"


From the turtle's point of view......

FREE AT LAST!! Now, if I can just escape from that wild animal that had hold of me! Gotta hide for a minute so, he won't see me. Phew! That was a close one!

This Simple Woman’s Daybook

For Today... I’m thankful to be at home with my kids. Homeschool is a blessing and I love it! We learn so much together!

Outside my window...There is sunshine! Yeah! It’s been several days in a row of rain. We’re loving the beautiful sunshine. Thank you, Lord.

I am thinking... How am I gonna get it all done today? So many things I need to do and so many things I want to do.

I am thankful for....God’s presence in my life. His gentle correction and the Holy Spirit’s illumination of my sin. Without that, I wouldn’t know how rotten and filthy I really am. We are all as filthy rags! So true, and I’m thankful the Lord will show me my filth when I ask, so that I can work to clean it up.

From the learning rooms...Hannah has both online classes today. Where in the World? Geography class. They will be talking about landforms. We had to send in a picture of a landform near where we live. Her Literature class is reading Johnny Appleseed. She’s excited about that. We are making a Jesus Window Poster in Bible. Hannah has her spelling pre-test today on Lesson 3.

We are studying air in science. Studying Jamestown, Captain John Smith and Pocahontas in History, along with reading a book about Squanto. She’s making geometric shapes in art and studying vocabulary in Spanish. She’s working on review in math—more than and less than.

From the kitchen…My kitchen is finally clean. Last night’s dishes were all on the counters, table and sink—ugh! And the dishwasher needed emptying—my most dreaded chore. I planned to do it after church last night, but I came home with a lovely migraine after our trip to Wal-Mart. So, it was waiting for me when I got up this morning :0). But, it’s done and will stay that way because……we will eat supper at Nanny Boo Boo and Poppie’s tonight! Yeah! We LOVE Thursday nights!

I am wearing...shorts and a t-shirt.

I am creating.... a knitted hat for David and it’s to the point I need to move the project from the circular needles to the double points and I’m a little afraid to do it. Don’t want to mess it up!!

I am going...to the bank today and nowhere else.

I am reading...Homeschool books and that is all except for my Bible.

I am praying…that David will get some work and that the tables and woodworking he is doing will be a profitable venture for him. He loves this kind of work! Also praying for a friend, Miranda and her daughter Shaylin who is in and out of the hospital since heart surgery in June. They need a special touch from the Lord, complete healing and strength to endure.

I am hearing...Hannah make her lunch and the birds chirping outside and the windchime, chiming.

Around the house... Dakota is working on his homework and he just finished vacuuming for me—Praise the Lord! David is in the shop making a table and some wooden snowmen. Hannah is doing schoolwork, online classes and making lunch. Caleb is all over the place making messes and tearing things up. Right now he’s banging on the metal trash can lid in the shop singing “Jesus is awesome!”

A few plans for the rest of the week... Tomorrow we have some friends coming over after homeschool. Bethany is my knitting teacher, so we will be knitting and getting to know each other better. Her kids Moshe and Gwynne are in classes with Hannah at our co-op. So, they’ll have fun playing outside together. Her younger two, Lucy and Zeke will have fun playing with Caleb.

A picture thought I am sharing with you…We took a hike on our property yesterday to the other side of our hill and beyond. We found the tree that is growing out of a huge rock. We took a pic of it for Hannah’s geography class for a landform.

I'm Knitting A Hat!

I started my hat during co-op, yesterday. After dinner last night, I sat on the couch and knit, knit, knit! I got the beginning of it all twisted around on the circular needle, so I had to take it all out and start over. So, this is what I did last night and then today while Sandy and I were homeschooling Hannah and Mackenzie.



By the way, this hat is for David. The color in the pic does not give it justice. It's kind of a burnt orange color.

I'm at the decrease point. It needs to be taken off of the circular needles and moved to 3 or 4 double point needles. I'm a little bit intimidated to try to do this. May try it late tonight after church....so afraid that I'm going to mess it up!!

Gray/Buckner Family Reunion--2009

We had a family reunion last Sunday. It was a great time for catching up with all of the family that we do not see on a regular basis.

This is Nanny Boo Boo (Esther's) side of the family. She was a Buckner before she married into the Gray family. The Buckner side was represented by: Carl, Esther & David (all siblings). David was not able to stay, but his former wife A. Ellen was there.

Orval & Esther (Buckner)Gray & their children:
Kevin Gray (family in CA--did not attend)

Mark Gray (Mark attended, but his family did not)

Jeana & Randy Lewis & their children:
Josh & Liz Morgan, Daniel & Alex
Chris Morgan
Paul Morgan
Bekah Lewis
April (foster child)

David & Dawn Gray & their children:
Nick
Dakota
Hannah
Caleb

Carl & Georgia Buckner & their children:
Randall & Patrece (Buckner) McCrary & their children:
Aubrey (not able to attend)
Will

Steve & Laura Buckner & their children
Ryan
Greg

Dan & Jennifer Buckner & their children
Allison
Jerrod
Max

A. Ellen

We had a great time playing games and visiting and best of all---EATING!!

Sailing Ships

We've been learning about Christopher Columbus in history. Yesterday we made 3 ships out of aluminum foil, straws, and paper. Whoda thunkit? They will actually float. Daddy and Nanny Boo Boo came up with the ship design.

The Nina and the Pinta

The Santa Maria

I just got Caleb out of the tub in this picture and it was like a Tsunami for the poor ships, because he was mad to have to get out of the tub (he was fully clothed).

The Nina and the Pinta banding together to survive Caleb! Columbus and his men thought they had it bad trying to survive the weather! :0)

Another Dishcloth Finished

Here is another finished project. It looks pretty rough, but I did learn a lot from all of my mistakes on this one. I made a loop at the top of it. As you can see it's pretty colorful and I like that. It is supposed to be the seed stitch. Seed stitch is one row of the knit stitch and one row of the purl stitch. I kept forgetting which row I'd just done and kept messing up. But, I kept messing up in a sort of pattern, so Bethany showed me how to continue on like that.


Mistakes are good tools for learning. So, I'm hoping I've learned a lot and will be able to keep from making so many mistakes on my next project.

I'm going to begin a hat! Can't wait!

We Learned About Fire Safety At Co-op

Kids listening attentively!

Explaining about Fire Safety

Telling the kids how they can be safe at home

Firetruck!

Putting on their gear

Getting help putting on their gear

Letting the kids climb onto the truck

Showing how the firefighters hang onto each other when they are searching for people trapped in a burning house or building

Power Up Kidz Crusade!

We are having a kidz crusade at our church this week! It's pretty awesome. We had many children ask Jesus into their hearts last night. Here are some pics of the set and the family that is ministering to the kids:

Elmer the Puppet

Praise and Worship

Sam--leading Praise and Worship

Memory Verse--word pictures on the t-shirts. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world, but they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. (2 Cor. 10:4)

Foam Machine

Carl--Daddy, Granddaddy of the group. He runs the ministry.

Rachel and Jaron doing the motions to some of the songs.

Spelling

For our first list of spelling words, we made word catchers so the girls could have fun while practicing their words.

Here are some pictures.....these were really popular when I was in Elementary school. I don't know if everyone did these or not.....sure brings back memories.

The outside flaps are colors and the inside flaps are numbers.

Under the number flaps I wrote the list of 12 spelling words.

You ask "what color?" Then "pick a number", then "pick a number again" and at the last number you lift the flap and ask the person to spell the word or words under the flap.

Here are Hannah & Mackenzie practicing their spelling words.

Here is what it looks like while you hold it.

They worked really well this week. Both girls made 100 on their spelling tests on Friday!!