I was running out of day and hadn't yet taken a picture, so Taryn volunteered to have her picture taken. Then I took Rebekah's too, because over the weekend she had a hair wrap done and it looks really good.

The weather was so beautiful. It was necessary to get out and enjoy it. John and the 5 oldest kids rode bikes over to Clemson Elementary. David and I followed in the van. We played on the playground and walked on their little walking trail.


This is the face of a Tina who's been told she can't get in the creek.

The parade of bikes on the way home.

It was time. Time to rake the leaves. The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect day to be out working. The kids and John raked the whole yard in one day. It is so amazing to me what we are now capable of. Rather than the kids being work-creators, they are now work-accomplishers.

I was feeling better today, but not up to such physical work and also not wanting all that dust and dirt in my sinuses. I stayed inside and worked on filing a drawerful of papers and started the taxes. Not as fun, certainly, but probably a wise choice.

Okay, I think I'm getting a bit better. I have been drinking as much as I can stand today to try and flush out all the nasty. I think it turned into a sinus infection and that is why I've felt so bad. Anyway, can you stand some more archived pictures? These are from December when we went to cut our Christmas tree.

Still feeling lousy. Taryn and the other kids are wonderful, letting me rest and carrying on with whatever schoolwork they can do on their own. No new pictures today, but here are some pictures of some sweet, sweet cousins.

I was feeling worse today and I spent the day resting. I did not take a picture today, so I'm posting one from before this project started.
This is Tina just before we took down all the Christmas decorations.

David the rock star.

(In case this needs specificity, and I think it might... the maraca is the microphone, the sword is his guitar, the binoculars are being used for a guitar strap, and the sunglasses are self-explanatory.)

Still trying to recover here at our house. It is a nasty, nasty cold.

Sick again. Home from church with 3 kiddos. We're resting and playing some games. Looking forward to spring! We've had a rough winter so far.

Christina has some unique hair. I have never seen hair that gets as matted and tangled as hers does. She'd been sick, so doing lots of laying around and maybe more restless in her sleep. It was truly awful.

After we had worked on it a bit... still a ways to go.

Homemade pita bread. We ate Greek... olives, yogurt, cucumber, feta cheese, hummus. It was so, so good. My mouth is watering just remembering it. And no, we did not share with the kids.

A Picture a Day

I have a dear friend who started a project called a Year in Pictures. Her intent is just to give a little peek into her world. Other people do the same project as a motivation to practice their photography. I'm trying to do a little of both, but I will admit thus far it has been mostly just quick snapshots which amuse me or I feel define a particular day.

I did not start on Jan 1st. I started Jan 6. I will also admit to already skipping 2 different days, but I took more than one on other days, so I'm going to cheat and add them in on the 2 days I failed to take a picture. I'm also going to add the pictures as blog posts on the day they were taken which means I am going to put a bunch of blog posts up after this one, but they will have earlier dates.

I hope that by blogging this way I'll have something to post each day and hopefully it will keep me blogging more consistently. I think it will be a good record of all we did this year and hopefully you'll enjoy it too.

Once all the toddlers in the house grew up, I thought I would never have to reroll a roll of toilet paper. Turns out the cat thinks it's a pretty fun toy too. Who knew?

The only picture I managed to get today. Sam writing sentences for a punishment. But overall it was a good day, just one filled with school, visiting friends, going to the store, ballet and cuong nhu. Oh, and a delicious dinner including blueberry buckle, spinach quiche, and fruit salad (a definite family favorite)

Some times we love homeschooling. I might even be so bold as to say MOST of the time we enjoy homeschooling. But some days, not so much.

"My mom says some days are like that.

Even in [public school]."

(Adapted from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)

Just eating the Skittles is just plain boring... must play with them first.


All the snow and ice are really melting today... yucky and muddy.

Got our heat back today (after 18 days without it... but no, I wasn't counting). So nice to come home to a warm house after being out in the cold rain.

Basement organization pics. Still some work to be done, but overall a huge, huge improvement.

Game closet

Craft closet

And the big basement clean happened just in time for John and Rebekah to snag this Foosball table out of the neighbor's trash pile.

This weekend is all about getting organized. The kids each get a box of their own. A small one for their bedroom and a larger one for the basement.

This is what we do when we wake up in the morning. We all pick a space heater and huddle around it (including the dog). The no-heat adventure continues.


It's Friday night and this has been a Friday night tradition for quite some time... Piggybacks to bed.

More playing in the snow today. Snow underneath and ice on top made sledding today fast and rough. The kids demonstrate here the unusual quality of the snow on day 4 after the storm.





And I demonstrate why I should never allow John to take a job which requires us to move up north.

There must be a teenager in the house because it is all music all the time.

TobyMac if you're curious.

(And yes, there is still no heat... notice all the bare feet. They are impervious to the cold. Here's me... I wear a hat inside most of the time to keep warm. Oh, to be young again...)

Today the girls invited their friends over to do school together. They marked off their own space and actually did all their work! I'm realizing that with this photo-a-day project, I'm going to have to do a better job with looking for picture taking opportunities. I realized once the girls were finished that I should have gotten their picture while they were working. Darn!

And this picture of Rebekah was taken after dinner while we were all cleaning up. She and Taryn had their MP3s and were bee-bopping all over the kitchen. Taryn ran for cover when she saw the camera come out. Rebekah quit dancing, but gave me a smile.

Snow Day

Seven inches of snow! So much fun!

Snow Cream! Yum!

Tina sitting by the fire. She's wearing a T-shirt, which shows we aren't suffering too much without heat. The headband was a handmade Christmas gift from Taryn. So cute!

The beginning of a fire. We are burning lots of fires as we continue with no heat in the house.