Photo Perspective

Siah points to a letter on an alphabet chart Kacie was making for him, "Mom! This letter is called PEE!! Ha,Ha!"

Saw this in a catalog today, and had to share it.If you plan to put it on YOUR Christmas list include this link so they know exactly what you are asking for. I can honestly say that I do not want one for Christmas, but thanks for thinking of me. :-)

V wanted to share his creative writing for the day. His assignment was to describe someone he knows well using his senses. He chose to concentrate on sight, sound, and smell.

I have a friend named Jim. He has gray hair. He has a cowboy shirt and pants. He wears cowboy boots because he has tons of cowboy boots. He is carrying a saddle with both hands. He has a mustache. You know how you have like a beard, but he has that all shaved off. He has a white, black, or brown cowboy hat. He has a band around the hat, like a cowboy band. He wears vests.

He has a tough voice which sounds like a grown-up. That’s just how he is. When he’s carrying a saddle, he’s grunting. Once he gets the saddle on the horse’s back, he takes a big breath. When he is mucking out the stalls, the pitchfork he has makes a scraping sound on the bottom of the stall. Once he flies the poop into the wheel barrel, it makes a big quiet bang.

He smells like he is always out in the barn. He doesn’t smell like that on Sundays. He takes a shower. On Monday he still smells like he took a shower, but after a while he smells like he is always working in the barn. YEEHAW!

This weekend we had the privilege to gather for a potluck with other families who had adopted children from Ukraine. V had looked forward to it all week, and was able to interact with 20+ other Ukrainian kiddos. We enjoyed swapping travel stories with others who had been there, and even met up with a family that we first met in Poland while we were both on our journeys home from Ukraine.


We adopted V from Ukraine through the Independent Ukrainian Adoption Family Network. The IUAFN naturally developed as one adoptive mom, Cathy Harris, turned around and helped others adopt from Ukraine. Many of those joined in the effort to help others, and now Cathy and the IUAFN has helped over 900 families adopt children from Ukraine without the extra costs of an adoption agency. We call our kids the Ukrainian Angels. Needless to say, I wanted a picture of V with Cathy for his scrapbook. V, though, didn't care much for getting his picture taken with a lady he had never met before and was not as cooperative as he normally is.


If you have time to get lost in a bunch of priceless pictures of children given a future with a family, check out Cathy's web site. We are family #275. Cathy's site is a bit out of date, but I suppose that is because she adopted 3 more children and now has a total of 10!

We see little white nubs starting to come through. Don't you just love babies' toothless grins?

This morning I cleared the school/office desk off in preparation for our day and thought, "I'd better get a picture while it looks so neat." We are thankful for the large desk we were given and can easily fit several of us around it. It fits just perfectly in the space next to the stairway in the basement. We have not completed the finishing of the basement yet, so we just try to ignore the insulation between the floor joists above us. Someday, Lord willing, it will be finished. :-)


If you look closely you can see our blue timeline on the wall. We are using the CD from Homeschool in the Woods that has various versions of hundreds of timeline figures and events. We are still working on the beginning of World History, so our line isn't very long yet. The kids will color a timeline figure while listening to their history story, Bible lessons, or other literature. I'll color a miniature figure printed on Post-it paper, and stick it up in its place on our time line. I'm hoping the kids will get a better feel for the big-picture of history this way.

On the right side of our homeschooling space, you'll see a map hanging on the wall. The flip side of the map has a zoomed in map of the U.S.A. The whole thing is laminated so that we can use white-board markers to indicate locations of what we are studying in history or reading in our literature.

I love looking back and reading some of the cute things the kids said. I have one scrapbook page in Miah's book that is dedicated to cute things he said while he was three, but since then I haven't really kept a journal of them. I decided I'm going to put them here so you can enjoy them and I can remember where I put them!

Miah while fighting sleep in the van during today's sunny drive: "Mom, my eyes keep turning on and off, and I don't like it!"