Goodnight, September

Wasn't it just January 1 like a week ago?

This year has gone by so fast and yet we have been challenged and pulled in so many directions, I can hardly believe it's October-eve already!

Courageous Women: My Sister, D

My sister, D, never reads my blog unless I take her by the hand to my computer and load up a specific entry for her to see/read because she just doesn't have much time for blogging.  Or reading.

D is a single mother to four(!) beautiful girls.  So they keep her pretty busy all the time, when she's not working, running errands or hanging out with a friend once and awhile.  I do understand why someone in her shoes doesn't get the chance to read my blog.

My point is, I don't even know if she'll ever see this post.  So I'm blogging about her and how she's inspired me with her courage for my benefit and so that maybe my readers can also be inspired by this lady I've known most of my life as my baby sister.

Free

Lately, the kids have all been "daddy's kids" more than usual.  I think, because of that, C must have said something to the kids because I've been hearing a lot of justifications to their positive comments about Daddy to me so I don't feel bad or something.

For example, this morning, Z was saying he was glad it was Friday because then he gets to go with Daddy and S to bring her to her teen group. 

I said, "I was thinking tonight you could stay with Kool and the Gang so you can do a fun thing I have planned for us, also because I think S needs some one-on-one time with Daddy tonight."

There was silence.

Teen Books That Even She'll Love to Read

I've been bragging on our teen daughter, S, lately and how amazing she is to me.  Granted, she is still completely human and has struggled and rebelled like the rest of us have.  However, at her core is just a compassionate, mature, phenomenal person that I am honored to have in my life.  I am awed by her strength and grace just about every day in big and small ways.

How did she get to be so incredible, you ask?

Clear the Stage

Our daughter, S, told me about this song yesterday and I hadn't heard it before.  I love the lyrics, the sound of the song and even the simple idea behind the video.  Take a look...

Even If

It's a Monday and I am just really not usually a fan of Mondays.  But this is the day the Lord has made and I'm trying to keep things in perspective.  Each new day has the hope of "anything is possible."  Sometimes, it's easy to forget that.

On my way to dropping off my nieces at their schools this morning, this song came on the radio and it just really hit me in a precise moment when I needed to hear it, I suppose, and suddenly I was crying my eyes out at the lyrics.

Preview

I hope to share with you a few photos from the hundreds I took as I documented my birthday weekend as soon as I have some time to sort through them and pick some good samples.  But in the meantime, I'll just share with you one of my favorites from the weekend.

Slender Man

Okay, so apparently, it's all the rage around here with middle school boys to spook each other with stories about Slender Man.  Have any of you heard about this mythical character?  There's a bunch of stuff online (go ahead, I dare you to Google it -- but I don't advise you to download games and such unless you trust the source), but the whole idea of it falls in line with spooky tales I remember from my childhood (i.e. Bloody Mary and the Candyman).

My Favorite Season of the Year

It's that time of year once again!  Here in New Mexico that means the smell of roasting chiles, picture-perfect scenes of hot air balloons aloft and plenty of bunnies sneaking into our backyard to harvest more apples than we'll manage to get once the bunnies, birds, bugs and bats have their way with them!

Happy Autumn, Friends.

"In Fact, I'm Dreaming Right Now..."

This week in school we were memorizing verse two of Psalm 139:

"You know when I sit and when I rise,

you perceive my thoughts from afar."

Celebration!

Not counting how many readers follow Mama Flock through their Google (or other?) readers and their email address because I don't know how to figure that out (or even if I can), I just noticed that I'm up to 20 members now!

No Argument

Crafty

A mood suddenly struck our two craftiest kids this past weekend and they were making one new creation after the next.  I couldn't keep up!

Circulatory System Videos

Alright, so this week, our family will be learning loads about the Circulatory System, also known as the Cardiovascular System (though I grew up with the term Circulatory, so I tend to stick with that one).  Here are some free video links to make this week easier for me, but also so you can learn along with us!

Sunday's Stoplight Sightings

So, I came up with this stoplight themed post idea last Sunday and then do you know what happened?  None of my stoplight sightings this week were noteworthy!

Best Thing I've Heard All Week

"You're right, Mama, the human body is really interesting!  I like learning about it!"

- Z

Please Vote

I don't have a Facebook account, but if you do, you can help this family obtain enough votes to have Chase bank's $250,000 for cancer research put into Noah's name.  Noah lost his fight against cancer not too long ago and his family created Noah's Light Foundation in his honor.

Please go to this website to find out how to vote for Noah's foundation to receive Chase bank's donation...

Thank you!

Patriot's Day

Hello Friends,

I wanted to post for you an amazing video about why we remember 9/11/01 and how awesome our God is that was shared with us in our church service on Sunday, but I have yet to locate it on YouTube or wherever our audio/video ministry team got it.  Also, requests for that information are so far left unanswered.  So maybe I'll find out later and you can check it out another day.

Funny.

My husband sent me this link because he thought I could relate.

Nervous System Videos

This week in science, our kids will be studying the Nervous System.  I am including some links below to three great kid-friendly videos which teach the basics of this system.

Completely Random Costumes

While I was typing up my last blog post, I was interrupted by J and O who have been playing together up in the loft for an hour or so.  They came to show me the new costumes they created.

J was wearing a blindfold and holding one of those big plastic crayon banks (you know, they're like three feet long and from the Dollar Tree).  O had pillows strapped all over his body with belts and he wore a funny jacket and hat over those.

Sunday's Stoplight Sightings

I may be a homeschooler, but I do get out of the house quite a bit.  One thing that has always amused me while driving around town is just the random things I notice people doing at stoplights.  Even for me, I find stoplights are a great opportunity to check a text message (for shame), check my teeth in the mirror, turn to talk to a kid eye-to-eye or reach something that fell off a seat. 

Weekend Journal: Prompt 10

I love office supplies.  I do.

Quiz Grades and Our Flower Child

I have blogged a lot recently about our sons, but this evening, I just have a bunch of notes I've jotted down over the past week or two to remind me about little stories involving one of our daughters, J.

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Before I get into those, though, I wanted to celebrate the happy news that S called me about from school today.  She got four quizzes back today and on one, she missed two, on another, she missed one and on two of them she got 100%!  We are just so pleased with her hard work and success in school this year.  I told you she was working her buns off!

School DAZE

The first week back to school is always a tough one as we get back into our usual full-time school routine.  So time for blogging is minimal for sure.  But I wanted to get on here before today starts just to give a quick update how things are going so far.

Labor Day Randomness

It's rare that all of us have a free day at the same time, so when we do, we try to plan something fun and family-ish to do with it.  Today was one of those days.  Only, we didn't really get anything planned in time.  So we just winged it (wung it?) and did total randomness.

Weekend Journal: Prompt 9

Okay, this weekend, I'm "borrowing" the idea for our journal prompt from Jodie at Fresh Art Photography who blogged about her personal Everest and tackling it this summer (water skiing) and she asked the question of her readers ... What's your personal Everest right now?