Busy, Fun, Busy, Fun

Boy, the days are picking up speed! But God is SO GOOD!
I have so much I want to share, but so little time for blogging!

I have committed myself to a healthier lifestyle. I have been participating in Weight Watchers for nine weeks now and have lost 11.5 pounds! We are eating healthier, controlling our portion sizes and enjoying it!!! We have tried some excellent recipes and tweaked some old favorites to make them healthier! I am also participating in step aerobics/kickboxing two evenings a week at a local church and starting a video aerobics class at our church for a group of ladies and myself this morning. That will get me exercising purposefully 4 days a week!!! I feel so good and am proud of myself...hoping to lose 10-15 more pounds before maintaining!


Alexander started school this week! We are having such fun already! He is so smart and loves to soak it in...he was so eager to get started and really enjoys my one on one attention during school times! Handwriting was a struggle for him last year (very monotonous and repetitive, while not his strength = great frustration for him). This year, we changed the curriculum to Handwriting with a Purpose, which has a memory verse each week and he slowly practices writing letters and words from the verse for the first three days while memorizing, then writes out the entire verse on the 4th and final day! He loved it and it improved his handwriting, just to have an ultimate purpose! And an eternal one at that! We did handwriting at 11 the first morning and at 5:30, I asked him to tell Eric any part of the verse he could remember and he quoted the whole thing, plus the reference...IMPRESSIVE! This weeks verse is Psalm 136:1...a great reminder for us all..."Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!"



We also had our very first homeschool co-op meeting! We got together with five other homeschooling families at our church and one mom took her turn leading a science lesson of her choice. She taught about oceans, tropical storms, hurricanes and even tsunamis and each child made an ocean in a bottle! The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and then got to play together in the church gym afterward! We will attend each Tuesday and are looking forward to the next one already!



Reagan turned 2 1/2 last week...boy, how time flies!!! She is growing taller and getting some hair...FINALLY! She is playing so well WITH other children I keep this year, rather than near them. We are having toddler school each day, too, learning and reviewing some important early skills. This week, we have been focused on Jack and Jill for our nursery rhyme and talking about the color green and our shape is triangles! We sing a lot, read many books, and have plenty of time to play, too! Yesterday, we made turtles with green triangles on their shells...each toddler glued independently...FUN!!!





Eric is staying busy, too...meeting with Super Summer guys this week, beginning prep for next summer's camp already! The new 6th graders moved into the youth group Sunday and we are happy to watch them grow, physically and spiritually! We are taking our group to an outdoor all-day concert next weekend called EnFuego, with some great bands playing in a large field in Verbena, AL all day and half the night! We will be a small group amongst over 20000 people there...pray that God will reach many teens for His glory that day from many different churches! Eric is several weeks into reading through the entire Bible in 90 days and I am a few days into a reading plan to read the whole New Testament in 60 days! We are growing and learning so much...God is truly GOOD!!!

Oh, BTW, Alexander had his first job this week and last. He rides his bike around the block at lunchtime each day (with me close behind pushing a stroller of an unknown # of children) and helps with two Golden Retriever pups and the mommy dog, while the family is back to school and teaching. This weekend, the doggies get their forvever homes, but Alexander has sure enjoyed watching them grow and has been so sweet to them! And the pay??? A refrigerated Reese's cup...he'd ask for nothing more!!! Is this a sweet picture, or what??