handsful

Abbey, Marley, Payton, and Ethan are in two youth choirs under the ministry of Testify Youth Choirs…confused yet? One choir has about 35 members (this being their first year) and the older, more established one has more than 100. They each have their own local concert series this month, and they both go on tour (one to Georgia and one to Ohio) at the end of this month. Testify season is fun, crazy, and very busy.

This past Sunday, the North Meck choir (smaller one) had their first concert.

Look hard and you can see all four of them in this shot. This concert was at a Presbyterian church in Charlotte.

Same here :)

Abbey has a solo, and she did a great job.

This has been Marley’s first year doing Testify. She’s really enjoying it, but still isn’t completely comfortable being on stage…she’s working on it.

See? She’s even in an ensemble piece…

That also includes her brothers. The guys are also in one of the hip-hop dance routines. That’s hard to catch in a photo, though.

This looks a little wild, but it’s one of the choreographed pieces that I just love.

After the concert, the kids (including the guy in black) had to take a turn on the spinny thing.

Too funny.

Now, on to tonight’s concert. The Mooresville choir performed at a Children’s Home in Barium Springs.

We only had the zoom lens for this one, so no wide shots of the whole group.

The kids don’t have singing parts in this choir, but the boys are in the same dance routine. Again, hoping to get some shots of that at a future concert.

Caught three out of four kids in this shot…

As busy as this time is, the kids are collecting so many memories and experiences that they’ll have with them forever. Not to mention the impact that they are undoubtedly having for the church. We are proud of their commitment and hard work!

It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but never really thought I would. Then, maybe a year and a half ago, I began growing it out…casually, not sure I’d really go the distance.

I’ve loved it long, had fun putting it up in clips and braids. But, the last couple of months seemed to crawl by. I was pretty much over it, and counting the days till today’s cut. Interestingly, I woke up today feeling really crabby and just on edge. I was so nervous! But, once I got comfy in the chair, I was ready!

I brought along a famed photographer (and her assistant) to document the process.

Donna (my stylist friend) separated my highlighted hair and plopped it on top of my head. The program we used through Pant*ene doesn’t accept processed hair. Thankfully, my highlights are only on the very top layer. Here, she’s dividing the hair into individual pony tails. I promise I wasn’t as nervous as I look. Well, maybe a tiny bit.

4 ponies, ready to be snipped. Deep breath…

I swear, each one took about a minute to slowly cut off! Well, it felt like it anyway.

And, then she was done. 4, 8 inch ponies ready to be sent to the Beautiful Length*s program!

After a wash, cut, and style :) It’s honestly not as short as I thought it would be and I love the cut. It’s taking some getting used to…it feels so light!

Donna surprised me when she told me there was no charge…standard procedure for her when someone donates. Sweet :)

I’m so thankful I did this, and I pray that my hair is a blessing to someone in the future…what a privilege it is to do something so simple and hopefully make a big impact on someone else’s life.

This weekend, we all piled in the van and pointed it toward the NC Homeschool conference in Winston-Salem. With the exception of our years in FL (where we attended the FL conference), we’ve been to this one every year since our homeschooling years began back in 2001.

I remember that first conference well. Walking into the HUGE book fair with miles and miles (well, maybe I’m exaggerating) of tables full of colorful books, curriculum, and manipulatives, etc. I stared at my veteran-homeschooling sister-in-law and begged her to just tell us what to buy for our rising kindergartner! Seems like eons ago…

Most of the time, we only stay one night. This year, because the big kids were volunteering in the Children’s Conference going on during our conference, we stayed both Thursday and Friday nights (they had to report for duty EARLY both mornings…). And, because Lainey and Dylan were participants in the children’s conference, Randy and I were able to spend tons of time in wonderful workshops, hearing great speakers enlighten and encourage us in this homeschooling journey. Not to mention, the book fair…where everything looks great and the temptation to buy it all can be overwhelming!

One part of the conference we really enjoy is catching up with old friends. Friends like Val, Shelley, Julie, Rebecca, Terri…ladies that I’ve known since before I even had kids. Then, when we began starting our families, we began homeschooling them together. Our first co-op was known as “His Kids” and we met at Shelley’s house with all of our preschool aged kids and babies. The picture above is our kids posing with some of their “old” friends – since baby-hood. We watching parenting videos while Abbey and the boy beside her played on the carpet :)

This year was very different for the big kids…they had jobs to do. Report for duty before 8am each day, and work a VBS-type program with the younger kids…they worked hard, were wiped out by the end of it, but loved (most) every minute of it. The program director (above in the white shirt) is already campaigning for them to help out with a conference in SC. They made a great impression and that makes us very proud.

A fellow volunteer that Abbey became friends with…they’re both loud and crazy, so they got along swimmingly. And, are now FB friends, of course.

Once we arrived home on Saturday, we all sat in the living room and went through everything that we purchased. We’re excited about a worldview curriculum from Summit Ministries (www.summit.org), a DVD program on God’s view of economics, and a DVD series called “Do the Right Thing” by Chuck Colson. We also bought reading and math work for the littles, devotionals for the guys and girls, a cookbook and book on homesteading (gotta learn how to can veggies!), SAT vocabulary and math prep books, books for pleasure reading, pattern blocks and cards for the littles, etc etc! Some things we’ll begin using a little this summer, most is for the fall.

Homeschooling year 11 is almost under our belts. When we began, we had no plans to continue through high school…not that we weren’t open to it, it’s just that we were taking it one year at a time. Here we are now, with a rising 11th and rising 9th graders (not to mention rising 1st and K). It’s not always been easy, and we’ve had trying years, especially those when we’ve moved. But, it’s still the best decision for our family. So far so good :)

But, I’m cramming it in anyway. As busy as we are, it’s gotta be done.

My dad turned 70 last week! Mom and Dad drove over to our place to celebrate…we hung out, showed them the house (they’d not seen it since moving day…) and garden, opened a few presents, and then went to a local place for a great southern-style lunch. We sent dad home with a slice of pecan sticky bun cheesecake from a nearby bakery. Hope he liked it! Happy Birthday, Dad :) Love you!

I’m keepin’ my eye on you, Granpa…

This has been a BIG week for our Lainey-girl! First, we discovered she had a loose tooth. She spent the next week or so wiggling and twisting, and sure enough yanked that puppy out a few days ago. She was rewarded with 4 quarters from the “daddy-fairy” (no toothfairy here…)

Last weekend, Lainey decided she was done with her training wheels and set out to learn to ride her two-wheeler. It’s not been easy, and she’s had a few frustrated tears for sure. But, she’s doing great and showing herself to be very persistent when she wants something. Marley has been a fabulous big sister-teacher.

Dylan watching the progress…imagine one day when HE rides a bike?!

A hard-working girl. We wrestled with that helmet…it was either too loose or too tight. And, you can see here that the tooth was still hanging on.

While she was learning to ride, Randy was beginning the fence for our garden. We went back and forth on this. Fence, no fence, fence, etc. In the end we decided to go for it and build one…better safe than sorry, I guess. He designed it himself (as is usual when he builds anything), and he’s doing it right. Payton and Ethan have been big helpers! I added another 2 rows of corn last night, while the guys got one side done, began another side, and started the framework for the gate. It’s a big job.

Yesterday, we called our neighbors to see if we could come and visit their donkeys. Yes, we’re in the country now. Mr. and Mrs. Fesperman are both 80 and the sweetest couple around. Just last Sunday, we were out in the backyard…we look up to see Mr. F driving down our yard in his golf cart. He was bringing over a whole bag of homemade mini pecan pies for us. Oh my gracious, they have been so yummy!!

So, Marley, Lainey, Dylan, and I headed across the street to have a little farm experience. Mr. F met us at the barn and drove us over to see his 4 “pet” donkeys.

Tom-Tom is the big white one…then there’s the family of daddy, mommy, and little baby. They came right over for head scratches and apple treats. Well, Tom-Tom stayed behind the fence and made a bunch of noise at us. The roosters crowed a lot (we regularly hear them at our house, they think the sun rises about every few minutes), and the cows pretty much ignored us. Mr. F used to run a very prosperous working farm, but now just keeps his animals for “fun” and for the tax breaks :)

Marley took a lot of the pictures in this post…thanks, girl.

You’re pretty much up to date on us, now…don’t you feel better now?

It’s been years since we had a garden. Like about 9 years when the big kids weren’t so big. We had a small area beside our house and grew lots of tomatoes, attempted cucumbers (heh), and managed to get a couple of cantalopes.

We’ve super-sized that garden here. The actual tilled up land is 25′ x 110′. Gulp. We decided to try half of that for this first season.

After measuring, we made a trip up to our local garden center and the nice guy there gave us a guide that tells us what we can plant this time of year, how far to space each plant, and how deep to plant. Just the right info we needed! We pulled out the graph paper, did calculations and drew out our garden. Last Saturday, we headed to the dirt…

We decided to be really geeky and actually put up stakes at each row of plants. Then, we strung twine across each so we’d know where to plant.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Time to get our hands dirty.

The master gardener

Peppers. We planted 5 different kinds. We had a system…Payton dug the holes, and Randy (and Dylan) put the plants in. We were short-handed that day. Marley was with a friend, Ethan was sick, and Abbey was inside getting ready for the prom (see last post!).

Tomatoes. Again, 5 different kinds. We also planted beans and corn by seed (THOSE took forever…), cantaloupe, and watermelon.

Now that it’s all planted, we’re considering whether to put up a fence. We’ve gotten varied advice…you MUST have a fence or you’ll lose all your veggies…take your chances and see what happens. ?? We’ve never seen deer here, but we feel they must be around (woods all around us). We have seen bunnies several times…and we know they love gardens. We’d hate to see all of our work – and food – eaten up by woodland creatures. Randy has crunched the numbers and drawn out the design for the fence he’d prefer to build. We’ll see.

Have I mentioned yet how much we love it out here? Rural life is suiting me just fine.

Last Saturday was Abbey’s Sophomore prom

This is Abbey’s second year going, and she went by herself again. She was meeting up with several friends, so it was all good.

We snagged her dress from a consignment boutique here in town, and got it for a steal. Course, we then had to get it a little altered, but it was still less than the prices we were finding in stores. Yikes.

Honestly, this dress was just made for her. She’s stunning…

Went jewelry shopping on Saturday and found just the right pieces.

Some people just HAD to pose with her.

Including her goofy daddy. It’s a shame she doesn’t resemble him at all.

Abbey’s friend Kathryn came over to help her get ready. She tagged along with us to drop her off, (we were taking her home) and Abbey convinced her to join her in a shot.

Posing with one of her friends, Daniel. Her other friends were fashionably late and we weren’t able to get a group shot. She said she had a wonderful time, and couldn’t decide which she liked better…this year or last. She’s never been good at making decisions.

Can’t believe we’ll most likely have FOUR going to prom next year.