Joseph Turns 5!

Joe turned 5 on August 14th, and we had a BUSY weekend! I'm going to show it to you in pictures with added commentary. I'm still too exhausted from it to give you the play-by-play!

Grammie wanted to give Joe his presents from herself and Baba in person, so we met at the halfway point -- a McDonald's in Washington. The kids had hot fudge sundaes.


Joe got underwear (which he actually asked for!), socks, books, a gift card, GI Joe action figures -- who now are named after the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.


When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, he deliberated for a while then settled on a "monkey cake". This was my attempt. It made the birthday boy happy and that's all that matters!

We had his little party at Nannie and Papa's house on Saturday, since we were staying the night with them Friday night. I hid Joe's presents in three places around the house. He had to follow "monkey prints" (I traced his foot) to find the presents -- three different colors for three different locations.

He followed the blue footprints outside to find his new school desk! Jeff and I bought it at an antique store a while back, and Ken and Cheryl restored it and painted his name on the back.

Jeff's brother Jason was there with his three children, Jacob and Sarah and Joel.


Amazingly, though each child wanted a very specific part of the monkey, they all chose different parts! What are the odds of that happening?? Sarah and Joel got ears, Jacob actually didn't request anything specific, Kaity wanted the hair (chocolate sprinkles) and Joe, bless his heart, wanted, and I quote ... the nostrils. Yes, that's my boy!


Sadly, the weekend ended with me having a terrible migraine Sunday-Monday. I still have what I call a "leftover" headache from it today, but at least I can function now!

Why We Homeschool

First and foremost, we are a homeschooling family because that is what God has called us to be. God has not called every family to homeschool. Jeff and I feel that in this season of our lives, God has asked this of us. There may come a time when He calls us to place our children in a public or private school. We pray that we will be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit should that time come. As parents, God has placed the awesome responsibility of raising our children in the way they should go in our hands. Every Christian parent's first priority is to teach our children to love God, regardless of where they attend school.

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NASB

In a public school setting, your children will not hear their lessons and take their tests from a biblical worldview. Even if your child's teacher is a believer, they cannot teach your child to love God in a classroom setting. The teacher may discuss God if a student initiates the discussion, she/he may offer differing viewpoints, but they still must test on the standards given to them by the government. Those standards certainly leave no room for a Creator. Despite the best a classroom teacher can do, it is imperative to note that it is still not her/his responsibility to teach our children the precepts of God. God has given that privilege and joy to us as parents! We get to tell our children of the wonders of God! We have the honor of teaching them daily through our own walk and talk with Christ of the sorrow and passion and amazing love of the cross and the resurrection. When we inevitably make mistakes and fall short, it is a wonderful opportunity to share with our children the love and forgiveness that can be found on our knees.

I love reading books with Kaity and being able to stop and say, "Now why is that statement not true?" "What does the Bible have to say about that?" "Did this character make good choices?" "How would this story/situation have ended differently if this person had chosen to follow God's command?"

Honestly, we as a family are passionate about homeschooling. I'm a nerd, too, and that helps a lot! I just love the first day of school, new books, fresh pencils and paper ... I could go on all day! And not a day goes by that I don't thank God for the privilege of staying home with my children and teaching them.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

This Saturday I had the rare privilege of a day off! We jumped on the opportunity to head to the mountains for the day, and I'm so glad we did. It was a beautiful day. You know, it's truly sad that we live only an hour away from mountains and never get to enjoy them. But we made up for lost time on Saturday at Brasstown Bald. We drove to the base of the mountain, stopping for lunch along the way. The hike up to the peak of the mountain was only 6/10 of a mile, but it was a steep, winding trail. Because of various pregnancy issues, I haven't been able to exercise in about a month, so it was pretty tough for me! Jeff of course, was fine. Stinker. He even decided to carry Joe on the way down since that was probably safer than Joe running down on his own. After the long trek, we rewarded ourselves with Mayfield ice cream!

The restaurant where we had lunch, Bernie's at Nacoochee Valley Guest House, was really neat. While we waited on our food, the waitress gave us plastic baggies and invited us to pick blueberries, blackberries and raspberries out in the back yard. The kids loved that! Joe even got to see a cute brown bunny up close.




(Yes, the kids are standing on a platform!)

Girls' Night Out

A couple of weeks ago, Kaity and I had the unique opportunity to spend the evening together, just the two of us! Not having a lot of money, I told Kaity I wanted to do something special together but we had a budget. We could go out to a restaurant and that would be all we could do. We could eat fast food and maybe go to the $5 Christian Book Store. Or we could eat at home and then go do ... something else. As I threw ideas out to her, nothing appealed until I got to, "Hey, we could get your ears pierced!" She was really excited about that! We ate dinner at home then went to Wally World to get the ear piercing done.

The lady who did the piercing was on her own that night, and fairly reluctant to do it by herself since that meant doing one ear at a time. Kaity and I convinced her to do it anyway! And Kaity was a real trooper. She never even teared up! She is thrilled over her new earrings -- they're her October birthstone.





A peach shake from Chick-Fil-A sure helped ease the sting from the ear piercing!


This was on the following Sunday. Kaity wondered if people would have a hard time recognizing her since she had new earrings, "curly" hair, and a dress she hadn't worn in a while. How cute is that?

Baby Bump!

Here I am at 3 months ...

It's Official!

There's only one baby in there! Much to my mother's disappointment and my relief. :) But my due date has been changed since I'm further along that we originally thought. I'm now due on February 6th, 2010 -- the day after my stepdad's birthday! So, yay for not having as long to go! Enjoy the fuzzy, gray, crooked pictures.

If you squint, in this one you can see Baby's head on the right, and arms and legs already, which made it clear that I was further along than we thought.


Here, the doctor took the measurement and deduced that I am ten weeks along today, instead of 8 1/2.

Digital Camera Roulette

Just some pretty flowers from my "garden" ...



Another pretty little flower ...


And ... the cat sleeping on my face. This is her new favorite place to nap. Anytime I lay down, she comes running to wrap herself around my head. It would be endearing if only I could breathe.

Billboard Placement Fail

Family Reunion

We drove down to Blackshear this weekend to celebrate my aunt and uncle's retirement. They have lived all over the U.S. and other parts of the world, and are now so glad to be able to settle in their own official home! Our family stayed with my cousin Shanna, who has recently purchased a home of her own as well. We always have a wonderful time visiting with the extended family at Granny and Papa's house and wish we could stay longer ... and that the drive was shorter!

Family tradition ... four generations playing Scrabble!


More family tradition ...


The kids watching a movie at Shanny's house.


It's not a Floyd reunion if we're not playing games! In this case, Apples to Apples. The game of Loaded Questions the night before got only slightly out of hand. :)

Hippie Children

Mom and Berk recently bought Kaity and Joe tie-dye T-shirts. This morning, I told the kids to go get dressed and they ran up the stairs, obviously plotting something. They kept saying, "Don't look, Mommy!" When they came down, they were dressed identically. They're so cute!