Rockets...and new suits

Catchy title, huh? :O) Read on, and you'll understand.
Katie got a model rocket last week, so she and her Dad (mostly Dad) spent alot of time putting it together and getting it all set up.

They chose a place to set it up where it surely wouldn't land in a tree. There were no trees close enough. (whatever) Katie was all excited....I've never seen one of these things blast off....I tried to get a picture of take-off but it was too fast. It was gone before I knew it! Plus...it's hard to take a picture when you're squealing and running in the opposite direction. (The dogs did NOT like this....Diamond ended up in the doghouse pouting) So where did it land, you ask? In a tree. It nestled in one of the tallest trees on one of the tallest hills on our property. I never would have believed it would have gone so far so fast! Matt ended up having to cut the tree down to get the rocket. Oh well...it was a huge oak...it'll make good firewood. :O)
Ok, so there's the rocket part of the title. Now onto the new suit. Just thought I'd post a picture of Jacob in his new suit. Ain't he slick? :O)

Winter is definitely here!

Yesterday was Day One of our 2nd semester and what a good school day we had! The kids always fall right back in sequence no matter how long our break has been, and I am one thankful mama!
And brrrr! It's cold here! Yesterdays high was 23 degrees! I never ever never wear shoes in the house (don't even wear them often outside!), much less socks, but yesterday was definitely sock day! We spent most of the day huddled around the woodstove! I have 3 birdfeeders outside my living room window (near the woodstove) so we watched the birds alot yesterday. :) They ate like there was no tomorrow! It's funny how, over the past several years, we've been able to recognize a few birds that come here year after year. For instance, there's a little chickadee with a cowlick on the back of his hear, whom I have affectionately dubbed "Cowlick." There's another little bird that always has a baldspot on his head. :) Then there is a really (and I do mean really) chubby goldfinch named Eglon...named for that...um, shall we say "fat" king in the Bible. :) Anyway, they're fun to watch...even if I'm the only one who really enjoys that pasttime.
Matthew 6:25-26 ¶Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

We're off to a new year!

2008 is up and running now and we wish you a Happy New Year! We'll begin our 2nd semester of homeschool tomorrow. I think the hardest part will be just getting the kids out of bed in the morning. We've been sleeping in during our vacation, and sometimes it's hard to get adjusted to waking up early. But once they get out of bed, I am confident hoping things will go smoothly.

Thought I'd post a picture of one of the gifts Katie got for Christmas. It's a neat little kit where you make a mold of the human skeleton, let it harden, remove it from the mold, then put it together with magnets or just glue it on a background. The kit includes many different colors of paint, but who wants a red skeleton?? She really enjoyed doing this. Gotta love those educational games! :O)

Wow! Has it really been that long?

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Nov. 7! Shame on me! But what I really want to know is....did anybody miss me?????

All is well here on the old homefront. The school year is going great...the first semester is behind us....and besides a few very small bumps in the road, things are going great! For the most part, the kids seem to love learning. We were SO ready for Christmas break. I think we had all reached "burn out point" in November. We are really enjoying the time off. We'll start back January 3rd, hopefully refreshed. :O)

Christmas was wonderful, with the exception of Amy not being here again. :O( Hopefully next year she'll at least be on the North American continent and can make it home for the holidays. I'll post a few pics of Christmas Day....this is the first Christmas we've had where there were NO toys!!! Woohoo! Nope...I don't miss those days of tears on Christmas Day because that favorite toy broke not 5 minutes out of the box. :O) Hope Christmas for you and yours was just as grand as ours! And now...onto the pictures!
First and foremost, here is Matt's annual Christmas picture....same ol' thing year after year. Soon as the gifts are opened and ooh-ed and aah-ed over, he snatches the first blanket he can find and covers his head and goes to sleep! hahaha! Wouldn't be Christmas without this picture.

Rachel got a really nice music stand for violin practice, a music bag, a purse, the cutest little pocketknife with flowers on it, and some books and clothes...

Jacob got several books he requested, a fascimile copy of the 1560 Geneva Bible (also a request), a slick new red dress shirt :O), a wallet, a watch, and a few other goodies... Katie got a much-wanted comforter set with horses on it, a coat, a neato put-it-together-yourself skeleton kit (I'll post pictures later when it's finished), an ant farm, some dresses, the same cutest little pocketknife with flowers on it that Rachel got, and several other things that made her smile and say "Oh wow! Thanks Mom!" :O)

I got a VERY nice multifunction printer from my Amy :O) I love that thing! And I got a bird feeder, (or should I say ANOTHER birdfeeder....I can never have too many of those things! It was filled with candy canes cause Jacob knows I love 'em!) and a JCPenney gift card (already spent it!) *excuse the picture...I was still in my jammies :O)

I'll try not to wait so long to post again. Until next time...tootaloo! :O)

The Torah

Jacob received the nicest gift from a friend the other day. Someone gave him a small Torah (about 6 inches). It's probably about 40-50 years old, I'm guessing, and was purchased in Israel. Of course, it's all in Hebrew so I don't understand one thing that's written! But Jacob is very interested in things like this and it has a special value to him. Thought I'd post a few pictures of his latest treasure. :O)

Rachel's Violin Recital

This past Saturday evening was Rachel's second violin recital. She was pretty nervous this time, but not as bad as the first time! She performed VERY well....playing a Bach piece entitled Gavotte. She said she made one little mistake, but if she did, I didn't notice! A new feature that was added to this recital was the new Strings Ensemble! The teacher started the group several months ago (the group consists of any of her students that were interested...about seven altogether) and this was their first performance. It sounded wonderful! So here are some pictures that were taken on he "big day".
This was taken at home before we left:
This was taken while she was waiting to perform with the ensemble: And this was taken after the recital with her teacher:

Neato!

Jacob and I did the most neato-est experiment in Chemistry the other day! (I know, I know...a homeschooling mom shouldn't use the word "neato-est" but it's the best way I can describe it!) Anyway, the purpose of the experiment was to get a rough idea of how small a molecule really is. In order to do this, we followed a process to dilute 0.5 ML of dishwashing liquid to 400.0 ML. We filled a large bowl almost full of water and let it sit. We calibrated an eyedropper to determine how many ML of liquid are in each drop....this turned out to be 0.026 ML. Next we sprinkled a light dusting of pepper over the surface of the water in the large bowl. Then we carefully put one single drop of the diluted dishwashing liquid in the center of the water/pepper-filled bowl. The pepper that was in the center of the bowl was pushed outward, leaving a clear circle in the center (see picture below). Why did it create a clear circle? Glad you asked. :O) Because the dishwashing liquid is made of several compounds, one of which is sodium stearate. The other compounds sank to the bottom but the sodium stearate remained on top of the water, spreading out as a single, circular layer of molecules. Using the measurement of the clear circle in the water, and several other calculations we determined during the course of this experiment, we determined that the width of the molecules in the sodium stearate is about 1.2 x 10(to the negative 8 power) What does a number like this mean? Well, the width of the average human hair is about 10(to the negative two power) centimeters. The size of these molecules is about 100,000 times smaller than that! Pretty neat, huh? :O)