Back to Blogger.

So, after struggling with this new format for a couple of months now, I am done.

It is just not use-friendly.  And I want Blogger back.

So, in the next couple of weeks, I will be returning to Blogger.  I will post my forwarding URL then.

Until then, what has been going on around here?

• Weekend camping trip to Mackinac Straights and day trip to the Island.  Cold.  But enjoyable.  Stayed in gorgeous cabins.
• Football camp this week and less than 3 weeks before practice is in full swing.
• No sale on the house yet.  Still believing that God can move this mountain when the time is right.  We do have our sights on a possible house to rent, however, so we may be moving soon anyway.  Stay tuned.
• Hayden turned 6.  Sleepover and party at Craig’s Cruisers.  Fun and energetic.
• This is my last few days of being 36; I turn 37 on Wednesday.  Inching closer to the Big 4-0.
• Kennedy turns 8 next Sunday.  Yes, we are in birthday season during the summer in our family.  If we ever do have another baby, we MUST shoot for a winter birthday.
• We had yummy zucchini cakes with our burgers and corn-on-the-cob tonight.  If you don’t already know about the Pioneer Woman website, check her out.  Her recipes never disappoint.  I hear that the Marlboro Man sandwich is delectable, too.  I am planning to make her Pineapple Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Icing for my birthday.  Happy Birthday to Me!
• I lauched a 50-day workout this past week, wherein I am pledging to work out (at least a brisk walk, preferably cardio+core work) for 50 consecutive days.  I hope to go back to teaching feeling much stronger and leaner.  And to start getting my body back into the shape it was before kids (as well as to hopefully prepare for another pregnancy, God-willing). 
• Anyway, that’s a bit of what’s going on here.  See you back at Blogger in the near future!

Pennsylvania, Part Three.

The final leg of our trip to Pennsylvania brought us to Lancaster County, where we spent 2 days enjoying the natural beauties of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish country.  We spent a lot of time just driving through the countryside, marveling at the crops, admiring the simple yet majestic Amish homesteads, the subtle colors of the strings of laundry drying in the breeze, and the manually powered farm and lawn tools being utilized.  There is a certain peace and prosperity that is reflected in this simple yet very complex culture.  While I didn’t take many photos, given the Amish aversion to having their faces photographed, I did manage to capture a few images that represent the time that we spent there.

After a long drive, we enjoyed a traditional Amish feast which never fails to satisfy.  Fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, fresh garden salad, traditional Pennsylvania ham meatballs, chow-chow (canned veggies)…all topped off with Amish made Whoopie pies and, of course, the traditional shoo-fly pie (kind of like a molasses pie, similar to the consistency of pecan pie filling).  It was delicious and enjoyed by our entire family, especially with old hymns playing in the background as we ate.

The photo of this school represents probably the most powerful experience of our entire trip.  This is the New Hope School in Nickel Mines, just outside Strasburg in Lancaster County.  If you follow the news, you may recall back in 2006 when a gunman took a school-ful of Amish children hostage and proceeded to kill 5 Amish girls and injure 5 others, before killing himself.  What followed was perhaps this century’s most amazing display of forgiveness, as the Amish forgave this horrific act.  The original school was burned to the ground and this is the school they rebuilt.  It is not a tourist attraction; it is in no way marked.  We only found it after 2-3 hours of driving, and because we had read the book that gave directions to the site.  What a powerful reminder of the power of forgiveness that God extends to us through his son’s sacrifice.  We were forever changed by standing on this ground and will never forget the Nickels’ Mine incident.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ever since our trip to the Amish country, I have pretty much been obsessed with learning all that I can about this intriguing and inspiring culture.  I read the 2 books that we purchased while there, and also 5 more that I got from the library.  I am humbled and awed by the extent to which these people go to preserve their faith and culture, and drawn to their simple means driven by an intense faith in a forgiving and just God.  Kennedy and I are planning a 3-day trip to Indiana Amish country in August to celebrate our birthdays, so I hope to continue my research then.  Kennedy is also reading an historical fiction series of 8 “Lizzie” books all about growing up Amish.  I think that we will make a unit study out of this and picked up some great kids’ research booklets in Pennsylvania also. 

One more post is coming about our trip.  On the way back to Michigan, we stopped in Toledo for a day and enjoyed their amazing zoo.  Photos coming in the next post!

Pennsylvania, Take Two.

After five days in a remote mountain cabin, we were quite ready to spend a couple of nights in a hotel with air conditioning and a big bathroom!  We headed east to Hershey, PA, where we visited HersheyPark and Chocolate World.  Hershey Park is a huge amusement/water park, and we enjoyed the rides and especially the water slides, wave pool, and lazy river at the Board Walk water park.  We also got to see a cute sea lion show, tour the ZooAmerica exhibit, enjoy colorful fruity fill-your-own slushes (such a fun, cool idea), and eat some good amusement-park style food. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a day at Hershey Park, we spent the following day at Chocolate World.  This was the capstone to our homeschool unit on chocolate, and we learned more about how cacao beans grow in the rainforest, how the beans are processed into chocolate, and the history of the use of chocolate around the world.  I had been to Chocolate world on my senior trip back in 1990 so remembered pieces and parts of it, but it has changed and developed a great deal since then.  Highlights of our visit to Chocolate World included taste-testing of various types of chocolate, including drinking chocolate; a tour of a simulated chocolate factory (complete with singing cows); a great 3-D film experience; and getting our families photo put onto a Hershey bar wrapper.  By the time we left Chocolate World, both Matt and I were feeling a little “brown” with the sweet smell and chocolate all around…..there really CAN be too much of a good thing, and we were sure that we wouldn’t eat chocolate for quite a while after that visit.  The kids got to package their own Hershey’s kisses in a simulated factory, and they had a lot of fun learning about and sampling chocolate delicacies. 

After leaving the chocolate factory, we headed a bit west to Pennsylvania Amish Country…..which will need to wait for Pennsylvania, Part Three post!

Pennsylvania, Part One.

Whew, is it REALLY possible that it is July 8th already.  Typically, the 4th of July signals the impending end of summer because it all seems to be a blur after that.  We have had a very busy and chock-full few weeks around here, and it is my goal to catch up here on my blog and share some photos of our adventures.

The highlight of the latter part of June was our 10-day trek out to Pennsylvania.  Despite having to spend over 1,600 miles in the car, the trip was spectacular!  The car-activity bags were a hit for the kids and really helped keep them occupied during the miles of riding.

For the first 5 days of our trip, we stayed in a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains with some good friends of ours who relocated from Byron Center to Pennsylvania about 8 months ago.  They have 2 adorable girls–4-yr-old Braylin and 15-m0-old Maddie–and we had a great time catching up with them and enjoying the beauties of the mountains.  This place was located way up into the mountains, in a pretty remote area, surrounded by locals embracing the isolated mountain life, and on a great little creek perfect for fishing, wading and all types of natural adventures.  The kids loved wading in the creek, winding through the woods on little adventure walks, and fishing.  Kennedy’s highlight was catching a HUGE catfish….although she was grossed out by how ugly and long-whiskered it was.  Hayden also caught several fish, with his favorite being the rock bass.  It was so sweet…..Hayden used some of his money to buy a “Fish of Pennsylvania” guide and that kid toted that thing around for our whole vacation so he could draw fish and identify any fish that we caught.  Love it!  Both of our kids just thrive in the outdoors, especially whenever water is involved.  In addition to fishing and hiking, we enjoyed some rousing whiffle ball games, a trip to a state park for swimming and a picnic, oh, and lots more fishing!  We enjoyed our time with the Salisbury family immensely, appreciate their Pennsylvania hospitality, and can’t wait to return the favor when they visit Michigan.

After leaving the cabin, we continued east to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where we spent 2 days enjoying HersheyPark and Chocolate World.  But that is for Part Two…..

Catching Up, Heading Out.

As you can tell by my diminished frequency of posting here, our first days of summer have been pretty busy.  As I write, I am in the middle of packing to leave in the morning for a 10-day family adventure out to Pennsylvania.  More on that in a minute…..here is a bit of what has been going on around here in the past weeks.

We ended our full-time school year with our annual trip out to Lake Michigan.  I will be the first to say that the water was still FREEZING and we spent a lot of the time wrapped up in towels and long-sleeves.  The kids did go for a couple of quick swims, but we spent much of the time building sand and stick castles and just soaking in the sun and fresh breeze/wind.  On the way home, we enjoyed a great dinner followed by an ice cream treat.  This has become a long-awaited end-of-school year tradition.

With the end of the official school year, our homeschool time has become much more relaxed.  Over the summer, we plan to do a lot of fun hands-on activities and trips, in addition to lots of reading and math practice.  The kids are both involved in several reading programs over the summer to encourage them to continue reading for enjoyment, and we are planning lots of days of exploration.  One of the best things we have done so far has been a nature journal in which the kids are recording and drawing their discoveries.  Hayden has especially taken his very seriously and has even TAPED several live (or used to be live) bugs into the pages of his journal.  That was fine, until he tried it with a caterpillar, which got a little more “juicy”……but I love that he is initiating the learning.  We even found a huge 4-inch long water beetle that looked like a cockroach on steroids…..I have never seen one like that before, and I must say that it made be think a bit before heading into the lake last weekend.

Last weekend, we enjoyed our first camping trip of the season.  Matt stayed home to coach his last t-ball game and to attend to some things that needed to be done with the house, while the kids and I headed about 3 1/2 hours north to gorgeous Higgins Lake.  This is one of my very favorite Michigan lakes because it is exceptionally clear and you can walk out for a very long way from shore and it stays shallow for a long way.  We tented it this time and thankfully had beautiful weather, as I despise tent camping in the rain.  We enjoyed celebrating my niece’s 2nd birthday (she is the sweet little girl with the blond piggies), fishing a bit with my brother, swimming, sitting by the campfire, and enjoying the great outdoors.  My kids absolutely love camping, and it is so rewarding to see them thrive in the outdoors.  No “nature deficit disorder” for these kids!

This week brought KidsGames here, which is sort of like a Vacation Bible School but on a much larger scale. The kids get to pick a skills track for the week (Kennedy chose Drawing Animals, which Hayden chose Football) and they sing, dance, learn Bible stories, and play games.  They have loved it, especially today when the big fire truck paid the 500+ kids a visit and sprayed them all with water!  For those of you readers from McBain, it reminds me of the big McBain Days firefighter’s ball where the kids stand underneath and get soaked….fun memories!

Tuesday night brought our final Machine Pitch softball game of the season.  It was such a great group of girls this year, and each of them made notable improvement.  It has been fun to coach Kennedy and to see her develop a love for the game; at the beginning of the year, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to play, but I am so glad that she did.  She hits so well and was one of the top hitters and run-scorers on the team.  She made so much progress in her knowledge of the game, and it is fun to see her “find her place” in the game.  We celebrated with a team ice cream party after the game.  Our final record was 6-4-2 this year, and a fun time was had by all. 

Tomorrow, we are leaving for a 10-day family adventure east to Pennsylvania.  We will spent the first 4-5 days with friends in their family cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, where you can apparently fish off their deck!  After that, we will continue east to Hershey, where we will spend 2 days at Chocolate World and Hershey Park, which is apparently much like Cedar Point with rides, shows, dolphin demonstrations, a zoo, etc.  For the last leg of our trip, we will spend time in Lancaster County learning about and enjoying the Amish culture, and then on to Gettysburg for some learning about the Civil War.  All in all, we will probably log close to 2,o00 miles, so I have planned lots of activities for the car.  I have created little Travel Activity Bags, some of which include the following:

1)  Doodle Books

2)  Children’s Atlases and maps

3)  Vintage Candy (pop rocks, Zots, Sugar Daddies)

4)  Wicki Stix/Pipe Cleaner art

5)  Colored Electrical Tape Art

6)  Scratch Art Books

7)  Sticker Books

8)  Mad Libs

9)  Magnet boards (made out of cheap cookie sheets)

AND, when all else fails, I bought a couple of new movies and 2 new games for the Nintendo DS.  I figure if I ration these out over the trip, the novelty should help them when the monotony of the car-riding threatens sanity (ours and theirs).  Kennedy will be reading lots of books about Pennsylvania (like the American Chillers book about PA), and I have lots of map/facts about Pennsylvania that we will learn about on the way. 

Lots of photos to come when we return!  I will try to post a couple of times from the road, but it is probably a better bet to check in at FAcebook to see what we are up to….Bon Voyage!

For Sale By Owner

 

 

Our Byron Center home is now for sale by owner, as we are relocating about an hour north to be closer to my husband’s new job.  This home has been a great family home for us.  It is situated in a wonderful family neighborhood with caring neighbors and lots of fun and wholesome kids to play with.   I love this home because it truely has the best of both worlds; out the front is a quiet, family-friendly, well-maintained neighborhood to satisfy your need for community.  Out the back door is a large fenced yard bordering a large corn field and wooded area, giving the home a peaceful, natural feeling and the kids (and adults) ample room for walking and exploring in the woods.  The home also features the following:

4 Bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

Master Suite with master bathroom (both freshly painted)

Large living room with picture window and built-in library shelving (negotiable with sale); we use this room for an office/library.

Bonus family room with gorgeous brick fireplace

Large kitchen and dining area, with newly laid wood laminate flooring; newer black appliances (refrigerator, built in microwave, stove, dishwasher) included

Main floor laundry room with storage cupboards and closet (freshly painted) (newer black GE High Efficiency washer and dryer negotiable with sale)

Huge basement with family room, bedroom/craft room, full bathroom, and ample storage spaces

Black chain-link fence around backyard

Above ground pool and wooden playscape negotiable with sale

More photos and details can be seen here:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2025554&id=152001860.  Please email me at nmcdonald@cornerstone.edu if you would like a private showing. 

OPEN HOUSE:  Sunday, June 14, 2009, from 3-5 PM

Graduation.

We decided to stage a little graduation ceremony to celebrate Hayden graduating from kindergarten and Kennedy completing 2nd grade.  Both sets of grandparents came, and we enjoyed a day full of blessings.  The kids made fresh jam and bread, and they also made their favorite lunch dishes to share.  Kennedy made corn choup (chowder/soup) which was scrumptious, and Hayden made taco salad, which was also very yummy.  Coupled with a fresh fruit salad, lunch was enjoyed by all!  Afterward, the kids shared some of things we have been doing in school over the past months, and we even involved Grandpa and Grandma in some hands-on learning through a chocolate tasting station.  Kennedy then shared a PowerPoint research project on rattlesnakes, and we showed a slideshow of photos from the year.  Finally, the kids donned their caps and gowns.  It was truly a great day to celebrate all the ways that God has gifted and blessed these awesome kids.  Here are some of the ways I have seen them change and grow this year:

HAYDEN has become a reader right before our very eyes.  I have truely loved having a front-row seat in seeing him start to figure out language and how sounds, words and ideas fit together.  He has advanced to the 5th set of BOB books and this summer, we will start with short chapter books like Frog and Toad, and maybe some of the Henry and Mudge books.  As of late, he doesn’t go anywhere without his journal and a box of colored pencils, so that he can draw, write, and document what he sees in the world (with lots of drawings of race cars and trophies thrown in for good measure!).  Hayden loves figuring out number problems and has really taken to computation, telling time, temperature, and all those other numbers so naturally.  Anything to do with sports, and Hayden is there!  He is a natural in most sports that he tries.  He loves exploring nature and getting his hands dirty and has thrived with the hands-on activities and field trips that we have done.  Over the year, Hayden has really matured in his ability to handle frustration and disappointment, and to not get so frustrated if he doesn’t do things perfectly the first time.  Hayden is one of the most loving kids I have ever met, and is always willing to give hugs, kisses, and kind words freely.  He is a budding gentlemen and naturally looks for opportunities to hold doors, let ladies go first, etc.  We have been richly blessed with this boy….Thank you, Lord!

KENNEDY continues to thrive on all things academic and is working well beyond her grade level in all subjects.  With the flexibility of homeschooling, she has been able to work at her own level and do lots of interesting research-type projects, most of which center around animals.  Kennedy is a great speller and has talked about wanting to enter a spelling bee next year; she also loves to write and research.  I will often find little short stories and poems laying around the house.  Like Hayden, she always seems to have drawing paper and pencils with her.  Kennedy loves all kinds of art and is showing some real artistic talent; she has also recently expressed an interest in auditioning for some community theater productions.  Kennedy has such a kind and sensitive spirit, and is an “old soul” in so many ways.  While she has to work harder athletically than her brother, she is really showing some good solid skills and is a force to be reckoned with on the basketball court and softball field!  Kennedy has grown in her ability to realize that mistakes are part of the learning process, and she also has loved all of the field trips and nature-based learning that we did this year.  Kennedy is an amazing girl who is growing into a pre-teen before our eyes……thank you, Lord, for entrusting her to us!

Great work this year, Kennedy and Hayden!  We look forward to continuing this journey through the summer and beyond!

Update.

As you can probably tell, I’m having a bit of difficulty with the transition to WordPress; I’m not liking the restrictiveness of how photos are displayed, so I may be searching out other options.  However, for the time being, I wanted to update you TableScrap readers about what has been going on around here. 

• Summer school came and went, so the academic year is officially overat Cornerstone University. We had another great Play Therapy course session, where we played with sand and water trays; took a day-long play date to the shore; played with dollhouses; creative art; and hopefully reconnected with the joy that play brings to our lives, whatever our age.  It feels SO GOOD to be finished, with the summer stretching before me.
• House projects are in full gear; we are really hoping to get the For Sale sign officially in the yard this week.  The floor trim is finished, thanks to some amazing Christian friends who came and finished the project for us, and we are in the process of painting, staining, fixing screens, and getting the pool cleaned and ready for swimming.  We are gradually packing boxes and getting a lot of the excess moved in to a storage unit.  Please pray that God will bring us a buyer in His time; truthfully, I have minimal anxiety about this issue, because we trust that it is firmly in God’s hands.  He has the perfect buyer for us, and we will wait on His provision.
• The flexibility that is inherent in homeschooling has been a true blessing over the past couple of weeks.  With Matt’s spring sports schedule and my summer school in full bloom, school took a back seat.  And it is alright!  The kids spent part of the time with Matt’s parents, learning about gardening and even getting to drive a big tractor with Uncle Scott.  As of today, we are back to school full time and hoping for a full two weeks before we gear down a bit for the summer.  We are currently studying the American flag and all its surrounding traditions, and we will be launching a huge unit on Chocolate tomorrow!  I am really excited about this unit which involve lots of taste testing, examining the history of chocolate through various cultures, a trip to see the musical theater production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”…..and all crowned off with a trip to Hersey, Pennsylvania in June to Chocolate World.  We plan to do a little graduation/celebration next week with grandparents. 
• What will summer homeschooling look like for us?  Summer will be focused on reading good books, exploring and making entries in our nature/zoo journals, doing hands-on experiments, and focusing on memorizing some Scripture and poetry.  Of course, lots of free play time and pool time and trips to the Lakeshore.  We want to keep moving forward and celebrating the natural joy of learning, while also having lots of downtime and time for fun.
• Memorial Weekend was pretty relaxing.  We worked on house projects, enjoyed some down-time, and had a nice picnic with family. The kids used some new oil pastels to create flag cards and thank you notes for both of their grandfathers, who served in the military. 
• We are kicking up the family exercise plan this weekend, joining the community center which has a wonderful work-out facility.  I am looking forward to intensifying my exercise and enjoying the stronger feeling that comes along with a regular weight-lifting routine. 
• It is really starting to feel like summer around here, and we love it!  We had our first trip to Lake Michigan last week, are in the process of getting the pool cleaned and filled, and we have had water fights out in the yard almost every day with all the kids from the neighborhood.  Given that this will be our last summer in this neighborhood, we are savoring every moment with these friends and wanting to cherish these special times.

Nine Years, Nine Photos.

Met. 

Fell in love. 

Got married. 

Bought our first home. 

Honeymooned in Hawaii.

Had a baby girl. 

Had a baby boy.

Moved. 

Countless football games.

State championship.

Moved again. 

Countless blessings and challenges. 

And more football games.

Planning yet another move.

Hoping to build a home this time around.

And maybe a barn.

And surely attending many more football games.

Nine years full of love. 

I love this journey with you. 

Happy Anniversary, Matthew.

Love you with

all of me.

Mother’s Day Blessings.

• Lunch out with my Mom yesterday after graduation.
• Scrapbooking with my mother-in-law, daughter and sisters-in-law last night.
• Sleeping in a bit this morning.
• A low-key day at my in-laws’ house.  Conversation, watching the kids play football outside, just low-key relaxation family-style.
• A colorful hand-arranged flower bouquet made with fresh-picked flowers from my mother-in-laws garden, arranged by Kennedy.
• Beautiful hand-made cards from Kennedy, Hayden and Matt (Yes, my husband cut and stamped it himself!).
• Coupons for a date night, a free scrapping weekend, and {I can’t remember the third coupon!}
• A delicious dinner with my family on the way home….no cooking!
• Two amazing kids that are true blessings in my life, straight from the Lord.
• A handsome, loving husband whom I love beyond words.