Cheery Tulips Today

It isn't spring, yet we made tulips today. It was actually a project from Calvin's phonics curriculum for the letter 'T', but I thought all of the younger kids would enjoy doing it. Cecily received a substantial amount of assistance, but the other three traced, cut, and glued all on their own.

Do I Look Different?

Guess what?!! We are now picture-able again! I was starting to get pretty itchy to start posting pictures again, so it worked out at a good time. :) First to welcome you back is Cecily. She's first because she's the one whose behavior and words daily remind us that she is growing up. She got a little haircut and I've been wanting to update the grandmas on her new look. Her 2nd birthday is less than a month away and I guess she's having a growth/development spurt. She's talking so much more. She said her first sentence. (Even if it was, "This is unders.") And her comprehension is amazing.
She's showing you that we removed the side of her crib to turn it into a toddler bed. She's doing very well adjusting to her new freedom to get out of bed on her own.

B17 Flying Fortress "Sentimental Journey"

A couple of days ago Samuel came into the house from playing outside and said, "I just saw a B -17 Flying Fortress fly over our house." Hmm...we weren't sure what to make of that claim. But sure enough, the front page of the newspaper the next day had a picture of the World War II plane and a brief explanation that it was visiting the Morgantown Airport for two days, tours available. We made our way out to the airport this morning, not knowing what to expect, but giving it a try since it was our last chance to see this restored plane. The picture above is one I found on the web. This is the same plane we saw, but there weren't this many people there. In the end, we didn't get a tour inside the plane because they were preparing it for a flight. They allowed people to see it from the outside though, for free, and Samuel walked his brothers, sisters and I through a marvelous, informative tour of the outside. I had NO idea he knew so much. I think I enjoyed hearing all of the information he knew more than seeing the plane, but the plane was truly amazing and interesting to see.

Samuel:
The B-17 is over 74 feet long and has a wingspan of 103 feet. It is also bristling with offensive armament. The latest B-17 model carried 13, 50 caliber machine guns, and could carry about 8,000 pounds of bombs. This model carried one major attribute not found in the others; it had a Chin Turret. This is located under the front end. This was added to protect the plane from head on attack.

This is the same model.

Mom: I see so much in the above picture that I never would have noticed before. Notice the ball turret on the bottom, dorsal turret on top, chin turret below the nose, all with guns sticking out, not to mention the tail guns, the waist guns in the middle and the cheek position guns. There are 13 machine guns sticking out in every direction to protect this plane. It makes it so interesting to walk around it and see all these positions where the gunners would have perched. The bombay doors on the bottom of the plane were open and we could walk underneath and look up into the compartment where the bombs were stored. Just in case this is at all interesting to you, I'm including a link to a picture slideshow tour that shows the inside from nose to tail.

B24

Mom: Above and below are blueprint pictures for a different plane, the model that my Grandfather, Frank Vernon, flew in and loaded: B24 Liberator. We did a little comparison to see the differences.

Samuel: The blueprints above are for the kind of plane that was more commonly flown in the Pacific theatre. Grandpa Frank probably would have been more likely loading something like this. It has a wingspan of a 110 ft. and it's length is 66 ft. It would have been very well armed with about 10 guns and 8,800 lbs. of bombs.

This plane looks a little less graceful than the B17 and the wings are a lot higher up on the fuselage (that is the main trunk of the plane). In the Pacific, especially during the later part of the war, bomber squadrons with these planes would have operated off islands such as Iwo Jima, and Chichi Jima.

The above blueprint pictures were all obtained from www.the-blueprints.com.

My Job

Chrysostom on parenting:

"Let us bring them [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Great will be the reward in store for us, for if artists who make statues and paint portraits of kings are held in high esteem, will not God bless ten thousand times more those who reveal and beautify His royal image (for man is the image of God)? When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving (all these are attributes of God), to be generous, to love their fellow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them."


What a great job I have.

So, I am, of course, adjusting the schedule for our second day. The afternoon went well, but the morning is too ambitious. I need a little more breathing room to accomplish other tasks. Simplified:

Everybody Sam and Will Ben and Cal and/or girls

6:30- Rise, dress, make beds, read Bibles
7:00-Family worship
7:30-Greek, Breakfast Preparation
8:00-Breakfast
8:30-Chores
9:15-History MWF, Church History Tue, Theology Thurs
10:00-Group Study: Science MWF, Art Tue, Music or Geography Thurs
10:45-Break/exercise, Math, preschool pages for Amelia
11:15-Bible, Preschool activities
12:00-Outside play
12:45- Lunch and girls to nap
1:30-Literature reading, quiet time, mom's break
2:15-Grammar, phonics for Cal
3:00-Math, phonics for Ben
3:45-Read Aloud
4:15- Clean up
4:30-Free Time
6:00-Dinner
Evening routines of baths, piano practice(Yeah! We just got a piano teacher!) and time with dad

School Excitement

Everybody is talking about the first day of school. Many public schools are starting classes today. Today is our first full day, as I said it would be and we're feeling the excitement too! Everyone is loving going through the new schedule. I thought I would post it here for those who are interested. You'll know just what the Joneses are doing all day!

Everyone Sam and Will Ben and Cal

6:30- Rise, dress, make beds and read Bibles
7:00- Family Worship
7:30- Greek, Everyone else=breakfast preparation
8:00-Breakfast
8:30-Chores
9:00-History MWF, Church history Tue, Theology Thur, Preschool time!
9:45-Everybody=Science MWF, Art Tue, Music or Geography Thurs
10:30-Exercise break, Math MWF, Special time with sisters Tue and Thurs
11:00-Bible MWF, Preschool pages with Amelia Tue, Typing Instructor Thurs,
11:45-Math, outside play
12:15- Outside play
1:00- Lunch and girls to naps
1:45-Literature reading, Quiet time, Mom's break
2:30-Sam=Grammar, Will=activity with Ben, Cal=Phonics
3:15-Sam=activity with Cal, Will=Grammar, Ben=Phonics
4:00-Read aloud and snack
4:30-Free time
6:00-Supper
Evening routines of baths, reading in bed and time with dad

Hello

I guess I thought I would drop in and say hello. We are enjoying our first days that feel like fall. Most of the people who read this don't live in my region. I know that the west coast didn't necessarily have a hot summer, but we sure did. The whole summer has been HOT, and I'm pretty sure that these days in the 70's we've had this week are the first ones since May. Ahhh...such a welcome change.
Public school has begun again, which means that the neighborhood kids are only outside to play in the afternoons/evenings now. We're doing school as well, but found that we were over-ambitious to start it all this week. I got pretty sick last week, and some necessary preparation didn't get done. So...we're cleaning out desks, accumulating school supplies and tweaking the master schedule that we plan to follow for this school year this week and will begin the full schedule on Monday. I'm ready and, therefore, loving the shift to fall and school. Hurray. It feels good.
Our new baby is doing well. I'm 19 weeks and feeling the first movements. We're nearly half way in the pregnancy. I just read that the baby is over 6 inches long from head to rump and weighs around 9 oz., roughly the size of a large, heirloom tomato. :)
Well, it's 9:30, which signals bedtime for me these days. I expect to be back with pictures in about a month. Until then, I'll occasionally update on what's going on with us.
*Julie*

This Week's Menu

I thought I'd post my dinner menu for the week. I always find it interesting to know what other people are cooking.

Monday - Pork Chop and Cabbage Casserole (new recipe) (Done, it was very good)
Baked Red Potatoes with sour cream

Tuesday - Chicken Chili
Guacamole, sour cream and cheese

Wednesday - Crockpot Beef Stroganoff (new recipe) (We'll see)
Egg Noodles
Steamed Broccoli

Thursday - Pasta Bake with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes
Green Salad

Friday - Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Zucchini Muffins

Frogs and Toads by William Jones

This is our biggest toad. We call him King Smoit. No bug is safe inside the terrarium with King Smoit around.

He does not hop very much.




This toad [Jacques] has already gone to toad heaven.

This is the biggest frog we ever caught !

He is the most handsome frog I have ever seen. Mom says he doesn't look smart but I do not agree.

A Little Update

Taking the babies for a walk.

Buckling them in is Cecily's favorite part.


Update: In the middle of Samuel's birthday celebration the camera stopped focusing and would only take blurry pictures. I think this means we'll be replacing it. That won't happen right away, so I plan to take a bit of a blogging break. I'll post the pictures that I did get of Sam's birthday and then I'll probably let the blog just sit for a bit. I'm sure I'll come back in a month or two with fresh inspiration of how to make it more interesting anyway.

Vacation is winding down. We're easing back into school. Samuel and William have been doing grammar and just started doing math as well, as of yesterday. Next week they'll review History and Bible from last year and then the following week they'll begin this year's History and Bible. At that point, we'll begin the full school schedule for them.
Benjamin and I have picked back up where we left off at the tail end of his Kindergarten phonics curriculum. I think in about 2 weeks he'll have that wrapped up and will be starting the First Grade phonics. I've been thrilled with how well he has been doing since we began again. He seems very ready to move forward and I'm so excited for him to get to be a good reader this year! He's going to love being able to do it.

Calvin is just starting his second week of the Kindergarten phonics. All of the boys have been excited at the beginning, but none have been as excited as Calvin. We are having so much fun together.

Amelia and I went and picked out preschool books for her and she's getting her fair share of "school time." Everybody's ready this year!

That's what's new with us. We're enjoying the fresh produce of summer, enjoying the beautiful weather outside, and enjoying learning and spending time together inside. Oh, and enjoying watching my growing tummy and tracking the growth of the new brother/sister.
Hope you're finding many things to enjoy in these summer days as well.

A Visit with the Ericksons

One of my good friends from high school came with her family to see us. :) This is Annie and her family who are missionaries in Peru and had only been back in the states on furlough for a few days when they drove up to spend a couple of days with us on their way across the U.S.

Annie and I only lived a couple of hours apart when we had our first two kids. They used to play together when they were very small. None of them remember, but here they are, reunited after about 8 years.

This is little Oliver with Calvin.

Miss Cecily thinks having 4 extra kids around night and day is pretty great.

Benjamin and Kelly.

Everybody.

The second night they were with us, we headed out to Chestnut Ridge park to swim and fish and grill hot dogs. Maybe you can guess what happened? It rained...oops...I mean poured as soon as we got there. The park ranger said that an extensive storm was headed directly for the park. We looked at our friends and they said, "Yipee!! We LOVE the rain! Let's stay!" Honestly, their kids were thrilled. I think it might be a bit of a cultural difference between here and Peru. :) The Joneses don't mind the rain, but you rarely meet someone who's *thrilled* with it. So, we stayed. Some of the boys did fish a little bit. We found a picnic shelter to have as a dry base. The little girls got a little cold.

Dads holding daughters.

The men even rigged up a shelter for the grill and they *grilled* hot dogs, no kidding, when it was pouring, NOT drizzling.

Then we came home and roasted the marshmallows over the charcoals in our grill under the covered porch.

Though this looks toasty, it wasn't a particularly toasty evening. :) But very adventurous and cheerfully adjusting to God's plan.

We were grateful for the time with them. We don't know how many years it will be before we will see them again. It was so fun and interesting to hear about their life and ministry in Peru. My kids loved asking their kids questions because they have such a different life, speaking Spanish and living in such a different place and culture.