More updated moments

I cannot believe Scott has been home for over a month already! This time with him is going sooooo fast! It seems there is always something happening or something to do! For this last little while we have enjoyed another long walk while the kids rode bikes on Centennial Trail. The day was gorgeous and we ran out in the sunshine to catch some while it was still out there. Our goal now is to somehow find free or very inexpensive bikes for Scott and I so we can ride with the kids. I told him I want mine to have a seat like that of a barcolounger. No teeny weeny seat for this tender hiney! :)

It is times like these that I am thankful we take our time about using gift cards given to us. If I was smart, I would always save them for lay offs. Because of our procrastination, we were able to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2 today. Very cute and kept us giggling! We smuggled in some super cheap Twizzlers, thanks to my couponing habit!

Speaking of couponing, that is something Scott and I are doing together now as well! Not all the time, but we have been out on some adventures to snag up really great priced things together! We have also been selling on Ebay, that has been an adventure as well! We are doing quite well so far, thank you Lord! We even sold our Wii system, we decided to use that money to get us to our annual conference this year. And it was just enough. We are so thankful to still be able to go and pay cash as well!

In related news, the Lord has continued to show His amazing provision for us in an abundance of ways! This week I have two cleaning jobs coming up thanks to my sweet friend Michelle. She always has work for me just when we need it. I am so thankful. In addition, Scott received a call from his former employer (and our neighbor) asking him if he could come to work on a part time temporary basis. This works perfect for us since we are enjoying the time off together, however this will "bank hours" with the union so our benefits continue for us. AMAZING! Just what we needed! I also have to mention that during that phone call I received one from another, most generous friend who said her husbands company is going to be looking for someone temporarily to help out on a job coming up! So, if he is interested to give him a call! Opportunities are pouring in from everywhere!

Scott is now in physical therapy. We truly feel this is incredible timing, the layoff, so Scott can get his body back to feeling good. He will be heading off to PT two times a week for now. His MRI scans showed some tendinitis as well as some arthritis in his left shoulder. The physical therapist feels he can really help Scott through exercise. We are praying this is so. We have also had the added blessing of sweet friends offering us advice on diet changes he can make to help him feel better as well. We are very hopeful that by the time he goes back to full time work, he will be ready both emotionally and physically!

So, as to our adventures lately....our latest was going to The Farm in Snohomish for a bbq dinner and play time as well as having the opportunity to take a look at the acre of land we will be working on to help Harvest for the Hungry. We had the opportunity to work this land last summer in conjunction with a local church. It was a great experience for us, and we are looking forward to doing it again this summer, only we hope to have daddy with us as well! You might be wondering what we do there, basically we come in and help weed and take care of the vegetables growing and later in the season we begin harvesting and the fresh food is donated to our local food banks. Last year the farm donated over 15,000 pounds of food! AMAZING! The added blessing is we are able to glean from the harvest as well. This will come in quite handy for our family this summer. :) The additional blessing of this particular adventure is we are able to see where our food comes from. How difficult it really is to bring forth food and the biblical lessons are innumerable. I love the lessons God gives us as we are working on the farm. Truly, we gain more from this experience than I feel we give.







Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day! Our family has found hiking to be a much loved outdoor activity so we decided to head out to Wallace Falls for the day, sadly everyone else apparently had the same great idea. The place was PACKED! There was no parking anywhere near the falls, it would have been a hike just to get to the entrance of the trail. :( We decided instead to head to the nearby Skykomish river. Big Eddy is a beautiful area with river access, rocks to climb and if it is warmer, much, much warmer, you could wade in the water. As for us, our feet in the water for more than a minute caused our bones to ache, that day was just far too cold for wading. Our dogs on the other hand thought the temperature was lovely! We enjoyed our picnic lunch together sitting on rocks and being this was also the sabbath we spent some time in prayer and bible study. I don't believe there is a more appropriate place to read God's word than sitting in view of some of His most amazing creation. It was a most memorable day. Scott thought it would be fun to take the scenic route home, which after 45 minutes of meandering through side streets and county roads we ended up a back on the highway an entire block from where we turned off! Hilarious! So, here are some pictures of our adventures at Big Eddy.







I was trying to take pictures, and Gunner just insisted on standing right here, this is my view from where I was...he is such a funny dog!
Forgot to mention all the wildlife we saw while enjoying our outdoor day! Check out the snake we saw in this tree, the color is amazing! ;0)
And a day out in the northwest would not be complete without a bear sighting! This little guy was quite friendly, so friendly in fact, we decided to bring him home.
My sweet family....I am truly blessed beyond my wildest dreams. ♥

Updating our moments

So I am sure you have been wondering what we have been up to since Scott has been home. Honestly, we have been super busy! Having daddy around full time does not leave us a lot of down time. We don't know when he will be heading back to work, so we try to squeeze a lot of fun into this precious time.

I believe my last post was about Atira's birthday. What a wonderful memory that is! Since then we have celebrated Shavuot, which for us this year was a family day. We headed out to Centennial Trail and took a walk for a couple of hours, enjoying God's amazing creation. We went to The NED Show with our homeschool group, which was wonderful fun! We know the presenter, who is a good friend of ours and it was such a delight to see him "in action"!

Scott and I have spent some time discussing and wondering why this layoff came about so soon after our answered prayer of work. Scott feels that this is all in God's timing. As he has been suffering with quite a bit of pain in his shoulder and hands and chiropractic, acupuncture and massage were not giving him relief, he now has the time to pursue the care he needs to get back to feeling good again. We now have the results of two MRI scans done to the shoulders and neck area, Praise God no problem in his spine! However, it does show some issues with his left shoulder and a bit of arthritis in there as well. The doctor has given him a shot of cortisone to figure out the origin of his pain and now that we know it's the shoulder area, he is off with a prescription to the physical therapist. And thankfully, he is feeling much better because of the shot as well. Although that is not an answer for us, it is only a step in the right direction. Scott now takes a regular regimen of herbals each day to help with inflammation and he will be contacting a physical therapist next week. Prayerfully when it's time to go back to work, he will be feeling MUCH better! :) In the meantime, it's great to have him around.

One of our amazing adventures, where we remembered to capture some pictures at was a day spent out at the Western Heritage Center . If you live in the Northwest, you should really check out this amazing, volunteer run museum.

Jordan is using a lathe for his first time.
Our new friend, Jerry (who runs this museum) is showing the kids equipment that was used for milking cows.
Jordan is learning how rope was made, this was really a very cool hands on project, amazing how quick and easy it is!
Atira learning how water used to get into the house!
This stove is just beautiful, it needed a spot on my blog just because appliances today have none of this kind of artwork and beauty in them.
Atira driving a tractor with her dad!
ACK! He is DRIVING by himself!!! He really did enjoy this hands on exhibit, let me tell you! They do not normally let everyone drive them, but since Jerry and our family clicked, he asked if the kids would like to take these for a drive, um YEAH!!
Scott & I with Jerry up on a steam tractor. Jerry is an incredible man, he really does deserve a blog post of his own. He has gone to Africa (Malawi, same place as Scott's family went) to teach them how to farm there. What a heart of love he has for God's people! He is precious!
Scott & Jerry working the steam tractor.
Jerry & the kids working on the steam tractor. What a fun day this was. We learned so much about the Northwest and it's history in farming, mining and lumber. We will be back for sure, even if it is just to get a visit in with our good buddy, Jerry.

Our next adventure was our anniversary. Scott and I celebrated 22 years this year! It's amazing, in so many ways it feels like the time has just flown by, but in others, I cannot imagine my life before him. This year we were not sure what we were going to do, money is tight but we wanted to have a memorable experience. We knew about a conference coming up in Canada the weekend of our anniversary, and since it is not too far, we figured we could make a long day of it. We wrote our good friends who live up there and told them we would like to come up and celebrate our anniversary up there with them and at the conference they were helping with. Their fellowship decided to bless us with a complimentary entrance to the conference as well as our friends having us stay at their home so we could stay the weekend up there! What an incredible blessing that was!! Although it might not be the most conventional of anniversary trips, it was certainly memorable and special in it's own way. We are so thankful to the Bondservants of Elohim for giving us the opportunity to join them.

Scott and I posing for a picture to help us remember our fun weekend in Canada.
A photo I took of the worship dancing, what an incredible time I had worshipping with this group of people! Our good friend Gordon is a fantastic leader and teacher of the dance!! We look forward to seeing all of these wonderful people again soon!

Scott and I have been also enjoying some late nights together, watching television shows on Netflix and just having some quiet time together. It is very special and something we don't get often when he is working. The kids are loving having a daddy home in the morning to lay on in bed when they first get up. Can you put a price on that? I really don't think so. I think that brings everyone up to date on our latest adventures. I will hopefully check back in within the next few weeks with more pictures and updates on our latest adventures!

Birthday Moments

Oh what a day! Atira has just turned 11....I cannot believe it. Our kids are growing so incredibly fast. I remember people telling me how fast it went....but you just cannot believe it until you live it.

What an adventure this year was picking what to do for her birthday. What a sweet, indecisive child she is! :) Finally we hit on bowling...and she wanted to think about it. Thankfully we found a a bowling alley that offered glow bowling and she loved the idea, so I booked it almost before she agreed to it! WHEW! Check that decision off the list!

It was a FABULOUS time! I want to go back! The birthday girl had a blast and I think her friends did too. The alley was so wonderful as well! They are very family friendly, the music was appropriate, the staff was incredible as well, so helpful and accommodating. The kids had pop and cheese pizza and Atiras choice of birthday cakes? Red velvet!! Can you believe it? Can I just say, Costco makes an amazing red velvet cake! It was incredibly delicious.....ummm...cake.....

**let's focus!**

So, let's back up a bit...the morning started with her grandma Sheila coming over for breakfast. Birthday girls choice was waffles made by daddy smothered in fresh strawberries and whip cream from a can. It must be from a can. That's the only way you can spray it directly into your mouth and get that cool sound. And the fun of having a mouth full of whip cream. :)

Then the birthday girl spent some time out in the beautiful sunshine with her dad playing ping pong and then throwing the baseball around for a while.

This was a very special birthday, it was a great day filled with family, friends and wonderful memories. We are blessed.

Unexpected Moments

Sometimes something surprises you so much it practically knocks the wind out of you. Sometimes you go along in life, thinking you have it under control and your current plan is working just as you imagined, or at least pretty close. And sometimes God has another plan for your life and thankfully He has it under control and His plan is working just as He imagined.....however we know that does not always make the shock of unexpected change any easier.

We knew going into the union years ago that a life in the trade industry would involve layoffs. We were warned and expected them. We have been blessed to have only had a few in Scott's long career. We have also been blessed that through this economic downturn Scott has had work when so many others did not. When he recently got laid off from one company, he was picked up by another very quickly. Things slowed down for the new one so they "loaned" him back to the first one...with the intention that they would want him back soon. Which they did, they hired him on with a guarantee of 1 year of work, it was truly an answer to prayer....but God had another plan. On Monday Scott shot me a quick text, "I just got laid off". It came as a complete shock. So much so I wanted to get off the road and park so I could talk to him. In the past the smell of layoff would meander through the air a few weeks before, not this time. It was completely out of the blue for us, and for all the other men laid off from this job site.

Last week was a bit of an adjustment, but thankfully, God has shown us that this time is precious and holds far more value than the amount we are losing in income. We are having time together as a family. Our children have their dad home all day, he can participate in our homeschool time. Praise God, we already own the materials to add on to our deck, so Jordan and he will be building a deck! He has time to just relax and enjoy his family and home.

As I have said God is good. He has already shown that He has plans to provide for our needs. I was already working a small cleaning job on Sunday mornings and that will continue. I have a friend who will be giving me the coupons from her newspapers (which she gets 2!) so I can do some serious coupon shopping! I have the possibility of working for Weight Watchers very part time, but it will bring in a little extra income without a huge time commitment! In addition, we have already had some amazing memories all together! This week alone we have gone to a museum, ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant (gift card!), gone swimming, heard a speaker at the holocaust survivor forum, enjoyed brunch with some amazing friends, gone to a concert and of course Atira's recital performance! I am so excited to see what is next!

As we heal from the shock of this layoff, we look forward to many fun memories as a family. Scott has never had a summer layoff before and we look forward to some fun days hiking and spending time outdoors, as well as checking off the many projects on our to do list. We pray the Lord gives Scott work in His time and not ours and that we walk in peace on this journey. I plan to post more about our fun family adventures during this precious time! I know there are lots in store, so stay tuned! :)

Moments in the spotlight

This last school year Atira decided she really wanted to try an instrument. Scott and I thought this was a great idea since she is so very musical. It was a great decision. My friend Chloe is a Kindermusic teacher and she decided to put together a class for older students (she usually teaches preschool and lower elementary grades) that would focus on learning about classical music, composers and learning to read sheet music while playing the recorder. These were all things that interested Atira very much! What a blessing! Atira attended this class once a week for the entire school year and loved it. She has learned so much and astounds us regularly with her ability to recognize composers and their music when watching television, a movie or just our and about when she hears the music. She also mastered the recorder beautifully! The culmination of this class was a little recital today. What a precious time! Each of the four children chose a piece from their repertoire to play as a solo, Atira's choice was Amazing Grace.

The event started with a fun silly song and one of the students then introduced us to one of the composers studied, then we would have the joy of listening to a solo, Atira was up last. Finally we got to her piece and she played beautifully! It was such a sweet, proud moment for her family! We have learned just how much she loves music and has a passion for it, something we look forward to encouraging in her in the future. Our hope is to move her to piano lessons.

I hope in a few days to be able to perhaps put some of her performance up on my blog....but that is only if I can figure out how to get it from the camcorder and into this computer!

We are so proud of our little musician! She amazes us with her God given talents everyday!

Excellence in Writing Review

Let's start this review for the Institute for Excellence in Writing by saying "WOW". What an incredible program, it is so unique from every other writing course we have ever tried...and there have been more than a few! I homeschool two children, our son is 15 and our daughter is 10. Our son is what I would call a reluctant writer, while my daughter enjoys writing stories just for fun, their differences continually amaze me...and force me to be a more creative homeschool mom!

I am blessed I had the opportunity to review IEW, we received the Student Writing Intensive Group B. It looks like this:


We received a binder and inside are tabbed sheets with each section pre-labeled for us.. We also received a manila envelope which contained the instructions for the curriculum as well as the lesson plans and student handouts. In addition we received four DVD's that would be our classroom as we journeyed through our lessons.

I used this curriculum with my son, as my daughter is too young for this particular series of lessons. We both absolutely LOVED Mr. Pudewa! He is an incredibly engaging instructor, funny, kept our attention and at the same time WE WERE LEARNING! He truly opened my eyes to some amazing insights into the teaching of writing. I was always under the impression that children had to always come up with their own ideas, that my help would not be beneficial, I was very wrong! He started the lessons with ideas and allowed the children to write based on that. He would even give hints and encouragement along the way, it is all apart of the learning process and that made my son so much more at ease when it came to working on these papers.

Classes are held on the DVD, it is a classroom or seminar feeling as you sit and watch in the comfort of your own home. There is a chart in the lesson plans that tells you when to pause, I found this a bit difficult as I would forget to be watching the time (and my DVD does not have the count running on the screen all the time), so I found we frequently went over a class....which did make my son feel like some of the classes were way too long. That was not the products fault but my own. I did find this a bit confusing at first I do admit.

So, does my son now love writing? Honestly, no. He would much rather sit and have a conversation with you about a topic, it is just his particular style. Did this program help our family, YES! I would also highly recommend Institute for Excellence in Writing to any family looking for an outstanding curriculum for their homeschool!

The exact program I used can be found here: Student Writing Intensive Group B
This particular program retails for $99.00 and you have the option of purchasing additional binders and packets for more than one student for just $18.00 each.

IEW is a full language arts curriculum resource, in addition to writing they also offer lessons in grammar, literature, poetry and spelling.


Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

I can study Esther Review

Greek 'n' Stuff offers a variety of bible studies as well as Greek and Latin studies as well. I received "I can study Esther alone with God" written by Karen Mohs for review. The study is designed to encourage children in independent bible studies. This series of studies is geared toward children in upper elementary grade levels.

As for my opinion....well....I like the layout of this book, but that's because I really do enjoy a good workbook, and thankfully so does my daughter. However, I have a son who does not like workbook style learning, so in my home this works for one but would not work for the other. I like that it is training the child to pray before reading the Word, the study has a weekly memory verse from the passage being studied. And it offers little tidbits of extra information to help clarify parts or just give interesting insights into the portion being studies. I should also mention there are questions with bible verse references so the child can find the answers easily. All you need is this workbook and your bible!

Those were my likes....now for my not likes so much. Let me preface this by saying, my family is Messianic, so we have a little bit of a different view on some passages of scripture and Esther it appears is one of them. My dislikes are really about theology in this particular case. I disagree with the interpretation given of this book. Which leads me to my second dislike, I think when we study God's Word, we should be careful not to allow centuries of tradition to interpret God's Word for us, but allow His Holy Spirit to guide us. In my opinion, this study would have been better had it allowed the child to interpret what was going on and kept some of the prompts on the sidebar down to factual information only.

I will say, I kind of knew going into this particular study that there would be a difference of opinion, but with all of that said, I do think this is a very nicely laid out study as well as thoughtful.

This 13 week study guide can be purchased from Greek 'n' Stuff for just $8.95 and you have your choice of King James Version or New International Version.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. As such I have received this product free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion and review of this product. I have not received any additional compensation for my review.

Hiking Moments

We have been very busy lately. Over the last few months we have gone through a job change, I started working part time on Sundays cleaning an doctors office with my son and friend, we helped to bring the second regional conference for the MIA to our area, Passover came (which means a full spring clean of the house) and then we ended all of this with helping to host a Passover seder at a local church. Jeepers....I'm exhausted thinking about it! Between all of that, we of course had our weekly fellowship gatherings, which are lovely, but a break is nice too. Last Saturday we chose to take advantage of the beautiful weather (finally!) and head out as a family to enjoy some time in God's amazing creation. We hiked for nearly 3 hours, spent some time on a lookout taking in the mountains and valleys. Absolutely gorgeous. We ended our evening with the 1940's party, it was such a wonderful family day and very much needed by all of us. I am so thankful for days to just enjoy our family, I feel truly blessed.

1940's Moments

What a fun family photo! We were invited to our friends daughters 16th bday party and she chose a fabulous theme of 1940's. LOVE IT! So, we came decked out in some fun outfits and Atira and I sported some fun hairdo's. We had this great photo taken of our family, I added a bit of grainy sepia to it and voila! Old time photo! :)

Nancy Drew day 4

This is Nancy vintage, or as close as we could come! Pretty good likeness to the cover though I think!

Nancy Drew day 3

We are playing Nancy Drew catch up as we have had a very busy week! So here ya go! :) I think her shirt and jacket are especially Nancy!

Nancy Drew day 2

Hi! It's Atira, I'm the one who is doing the Nancy Drew Fashion week! Here is my outfit for today. Today I decided to go with vintage Nancy. My outfit is based on the book: The hidden Staircase. I have on a blue polka-dot dress, dark pink leggings, and shoes that resemble penny loafers, and a pink and white cardigan.

It's NANCY DREW Fashion WEEK!

SO CUTE! Atira will be doing this particular fashion weeks solo...so I will just be the mom behind the camera! Atira feels todays outfit is a good possibility of what Nancy would dress like in modern days. Super cute outfit, mostly thrift store acquired, however the long sleeve green shirt she bought herself at The Children's Place. She chose to read a Hardy Boys book just to mix it up!

STAR WARS!

What a fun day! We had a free day, so we decided to take advantage and head downtown to the Science Center. We were really looking forward to not only the science parts, but they had a wonderful exhibit showcasing costumes and props from the Star Wars movies. So, this is more about the pictures and less about the talk...so enjoy!