all i want for christmas is my 2 front teeth!

jojo gets to sing it this year. he lost the first front tooth just before thanksgiving and the second one yesterday at Bible study. (what are they doing with those kids???)

he is also missing one of his bottom almost-front teeth, so he's looking pretty fun!

the big 70!

grandpa joe celebrated his 70th birthday with a huge sombrero! we took him to the whole enchilada for birthday dinner. the food was yummy and there was ice cream to celebrate (not the dreaded flan i thought may be coming!) hooray for celebrating 70 years of my dear dad's life! happy birthday grandpa joe!

thanksgiving 2009

grandpa, cousin shawnie & auntie tiadra came over to spend some time eating with us. we (i mean they) relaxed and watched football & throwball (american football). i spent most of the time in the kitchen - but i love the traditional thanksgiving meal! although it was just the 8 of us, we had all the yummy foods we love at thanksgiving time - turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, olives and jello! shawnie brought some pilgrim & indian decorations. we talked about the first thanksgiving and what they had to be thankful for. then what we had to be thankful for. everyone was really full so we had to wait a few hours before having pumpkin & apple pie! lastly, we painted handprints on our thanksgiving tablecloth and wrote what we're thankful for to remember for years to come. it was amazing to see just how big our kids hands have grown over the past few years and it was fun to look back on what they were thankful for. sy said he was thankful for "God" both when we went around the table at our mealtime and when we painted hands later. either he's really spiritual or... he's got the sunday school answer down already - and he's never been to sunday school! only time will tell. :)

to the beach... ALONE!

i had the opportunity to enjoy the beach for 3 hours by myself. it was incredible. i took a blanket and some books i've been reading, my journal and some snacks and headed to newport beach. it was a cool day and i was wearing pants and long sleeves but i was sooo happy to go! the beach truly soothes my soul. i am amazed at how my body reacts to just hearing the waves. the ocean air is nice too, but i've been spoiled by living close enough to the ocean that we get that air in the mornings sometimes. anyhow...

i've been reading through seasons of a mother's heart and i was finishing up a chapter about times of refreshment and restoration. i was wishing i could have one of those times, when mom emailed that she had some free time to come over for a few days and give me some time to myself! i have a hard time taking these times even though i know that everyone needs them, i just don't make the time because everything else seems more important. i especially have a hard time leaving the kids and trusting that anyone on earth could possibly care for them as i do! BUT this time, i was reading about being renewed, i was feeling burnt out, and then i had an offer for childcare from the person i'm most comfortable leaving them with for extended periods! apparently, it was time for me to have some time for me!

i was able to read my Bible and read some more of the seasons book. i spent time praying and singing hymns. i had brought my hymnal along and that was a good read in itself.

(on a side note... we've been learning a new hymn each week at home and the old hymns are really like stories. i'd never noticed before that if you only sing one verse you really only get a piece of the "story" or message.)

so i was singing from my hymnal and i am also reading a book on prayer, so i looked through the last couple chapters i'd read and enjoyed a more directed prayer time.

and that was my FANTASTIC time at the beach! (where i took a photo of myself - to prove i was there!)

apple dumplings & gang

last weekend we rented "the apple dumpling gang", an old disney movie with don knotts. none of us had ever had apple dumplings, so we made some before the start of the movie then ate while we watched once they were ready. sooo good! we used this recipe and of course kik's turned out the best! he is my little artist and even his baking turns out beautiful! (the dumplings in the recipe could easily serve 2 adults or 3 kids.) we had a blast - the kids were laughing and enjoying our treats. it was a fun night!

educating classically and false religions

i am a far cry from a classical educator. i am enjoying classical conversations - CC (our new curriculum/class) but i don't completely fit in. i am tutoring the 2nd grade class and some of my kids as well as those in the 1st and k classes are definitely "classical". i've always idealized classical education because it is logical and thorough, BUT it seemed way to intense to start my BOYS in this model of education. so we've been charlotte mason-ish until this year. even now, the only classicalness you'll see is what we're getting from CC. in addition to doing our memory work (7 subjects, timeline, exodus 20) every day, mapping our geography, and practicing our fine arts for CC, we do math and spelling. we also read a chapter of the Bible every day, practice our hymn of the week (with mom at the piano - yikes!), study our IBLP character trait of the month, and read 1+ chapters of a missionary biography. most recently we've added abeka health,safety&manners, and abeka readers for our pizza hut book it goals. (those are comfortable for me as i grew up with abeka). the boys actually really like the readers and i am hoping it will lead to more reading on their part. they both read really well, but haven't really enjoyed doing it on their own. of course, if i'm honest, i really like reading aloud with them and would miss it if they were reading on their own. hmmm...
so the point of the post was supposed to address "classical education" as scott & i have discussed it in our kids' lives. so...
one negative we see in classical ed is that it introduces so many false gods and false religions to children at such a young age. our goal was to feed our children only TRUTH until we were confident they could understand the difference. this was an advantage we saw to homeschooling in general. so when the opportunity for CC came up, we evaluated where our boys were in their understanding before signing up. in our 8 weeks so far, the boys have memorized greek & roman "gods", the basis of hinduism & buddhism, and next week we'll learn a sentence about confucious and taoism. these have been single sentences not anything lengthy, but still we didn't want to introduce it if they weren't ready.
fortunately, what truly prepared them for understanding idol worship was reading through the Bible. as we've traveled through the old testament, we saw the israelites live in many lands where there was idol-worship and we saw the israelites themselves fall away from God over and over again. i remember the boys saying "again?!" then, the second week at our new church, there were missionaries visiting and they talked about idol worship. they talked about how even when people became christians they still sometimes kept their idols for a while. she looked right at my kids and dropped the idol she'd brought along on the floor and made a real point to them that the idol was just a "cast idol" and obviously had no power.
when we chatted with the boys before purchasing the CC book, we became confident in their confidence that there is one true God and we worship him alone. as we read our missionary biographies and updates from the missionaries we support, our hearts long for those who do not know to know Jesus. as we welcome into our home non-believers and those deceived by false religions, we recognized that they are deceived and long for them too to know the love and forgiveness of our God. as i answer emails from those seeking to know more about Jesus, the kids are seeing how we can turn to God's Word for answers to tough questions.
CC says we want "To know God and to make Him known" - i agree and believe our family is growing in both those things.

i'm back

from a 3 month vacation from the blog. lots has happened. where to start?

we are busier than ever with fall activities. you'd think without "back to school" we'd not be so crazy, but everything in life here runs on a traditional school year calendar. soccer, cbs, and classical conversations are a few of the things that are keeping us busy right now.
soccer was a previous post. it is still going fantastic. the boys love it. ky also started in september and she does NOT love it. :) her "team" is a group of 40 4yo girls. they meet on saturday mornings and do a mommy-and-me exercise for 30min working on a couple skills, then they play 3-on-3 games for 30min. she is okay doing the skill part, but during the 3-on-3 she says "i just want to play with my brothers." (and we are thrilled that she loves to be with family and chooses us over anyone else.) it's been interesting.
cbs (community bible study) has started again. in fact we are well on our way through the book of Luke. the boys are doing well. i am enjoying the time with other ladies chatting about God's word. scott is guiding us along the way - once again creating deep family discussion we all love.
Bible bee - you may remember me mentioning that we would be working on Bible bee memory work as jojo was signed up to participate in the first national bible bee. the local competitions were held on september 12 and nationally the top 100 finalists in each age category will go to washington dc to compete in november. well we chose to do the "mini-bee" since it was our first time, jojo is only 7 (the youngest able to compete) and the work was less overwhelming. (the primary bee which he could also have competed in required 200 passages memorized and 200 Bible-knowledge questions. the mini-bee required 50 passages and 100 Bible-knowledge). it was so fun to do this memory work as a family over the summer. all the grandparents got involved by recording some of the verses or questions that we put on cd and listened to in the car or at bedtime. now, even kik, & ky have atleast 25 verses memorized and many questions also. i am so blessed to have our family hiding God's word in our hearts.
in the end - jojo placed 3rd in his category at our local bee! way to go jojo!
classical conversations -
we started a new curriculum for our homeschool this year. it is a memory work program covering english, history, geography, latin, science, math, and a timeline from creation to now! we go to class on tuesday mornings from 9 to 12. the kids get their new memory work introduced in creative ways then they get to do a science experiment, fine arts (drawing/art or music), and speech. i was so pleased to find the program as it just touches on everything so i feel like they're getting a good balance of all subjects even when we choose to specialize or focus on just one thing for a time. i was really wanting to do science experiments with them each week, but frequently those were put aside if we ran out of time. i was searching for a speech class for them, but that too is covered. i am not very artsy or musical, so although i tried to cover these subjects before too, the method i used was a little chaotic. this whole program really just fit what we were looking for and fit it into a tiny time-slot! the more follow up i give at home, the more the kids benefit. i too am learning a lot as i signed up to be the 2nd grade tutor. i learn all the material right along with the kids and am having fun doing it!
those are the weekly activities. we also have some monthly and sporadic activities that fill out our weeks. we've continued to enjoy our science center passes. we go every other week alternating the local science center and children's museum. and we also try to make it to a "parkday" to fellowship with other homeschool families at least once a week.

and that's fall with the grubb family in a nutshell!

soccer is back!

the boys had their first practices this week! they are excited to be back and use their new skills that they learned during soccer camp last month.

both boys are on the same team this year - hooray! and they are on a team with some friends from past teams and a few new boys, but the new boys are friends of the friends so it's going to be so fun to hang out with our team! i'm looking forward to a great soccer season. games start next saturday and are at the same field we've played at the last few years. as always, if you come, we'll feed you lunch before or after!



schedule:

aug 22 2pm

aug 29 11:30am

sep 12 9am

sep 19 2pm

oct 3 12:45pm

oct 10 11:30am

oct 17 12:45pm

oct 24 9am

oct 31 9am

nov 7 2pm

nov 14 2pm

nov 21 12:45pm

vacation - day 13

wake up at mt shasta koa

why stop in stockton? to visit wild horses

ports - minor league baseball

sleep at rest stop near three rocks, ca

vacation - day 12

we drove from kah-nee-tah to bend - where grandma grew up and her friend sheila lives. she brought us home-made cookies and accompanied us to the lava lands visitor center.

next we went to the lava caves and climbed down into a lava tube with a lantern for light. it was near closing time and we were the last ones in there - SCARY!

before crossing the border into california, we stopped to use our last sparklers. we used them at the wedding to see off the bride & groom, but most of our kids had already retired to the hotel. since we can't do sparklers at home, we thought we'd take the opportunity to let the kids do them.

vacation - day 11

after breakfast (the best french toast my husband's ever had!), we took off from longview, washington and drove to

kah-nee-ta, warm springs indian reservation in central oregon.

it was a nice drive and there was so much beautiful scenery.

vacation - day 10

this morning we headed out to silver lake to go fishing! all the kids have never been on a boat until yesterday, nor have they been fishing, so this was a real treat. we went out on the lake adn found a nice spot, got out all the fishing poles and waited. it was beautiful weather and we really enjoyed the time. grandpa saw a 12-14" fish swim by jojo's line, but that was all the action for the day. the kids didn't mind. we all had fun. i held a pole for a little while - my first time fishing too!

afterwards, we headed a few miles down to the mt st helens visitor center and learned all about the 80's volcanic explosion. we watched a little film and saw many exhibits. lots of photography- including a second-by-second timeline which was incredible. at home we had another yummy meal. aunt marilyn & uncle gaius are wonderful hosts and fed us well for the entire time we were in their care! dinner was late (we'd had a late lunch too) but nobody realized it because it didn't get dark until almost 10pm! another little bit of learning - being further north means more daylight into the night during summer.

- a great day! also the day my camera broke (it will go back to the shop when we get home), but the pics from here on out will have to come from other sources.)

vacation - day 9

i woke this morning and headed to the gym again. don't know where i get the energy, but i've enjoyed working out first thing in the morning and coming back to everyone still asleep at 740! it has to be because the kids have been up so late (like 10 or 11pm), but its just working.

i spent my time while they slept loading the motorhome with all our stuff. when they woke, we had breakfast in our room (it was still yummy, but the little breakfast room was so crowded there was no room for a group of 6).

we said goodbye to the family we'd been with for the past few days. it was so good to spend time with them as they live so far away.we loaded up in the motorhome and headed for my uncle shawn & aunt ai kin's house in vancouver.

i've not seen my uncle in over 10 years. the last time was at my grandmother's funeral. but before that, we saw each other in hawaii, where he was stationed in the navy. they hosted a friend and me for a couple weeks the summer i was 14. it was so good to see them and just chat for an hour or so before we got on the road to longview, washington to see scott's uncle. (it's uncle day).

mom's brother, gaius and his wife, marilyn are hosting us for the next couple days. today we met them for a picnic lunch along the colombia river. after our picnic, we set out on their boat to cruise the river. we had planned to fish, but fishing has been closed. so we will try to fish tomorrow.

the boat ride was especially fun for the kids because they've never been out on a boat! (just the 5min balboa ferry.) after the boating, another first - riding in the back of a pickup. the kids were thrilled some more. then, we went to their home and their mom & kids came over for dinner. gayna brought the kids gumballs, which was another first and they were being so funny. i had to excuse their silly behavior explaining that they'd never had them before - what a fun day of firsts!

david brought his family - lisa & 3 of their 4 boys (to oldest is at college). their kids were 8 11 & 16. they were so great with our little ones. we had a great time with all of the family. there was much good food, great fellowship, and fun for the little people. what more could we ask for? (the house next door is vacant - and i am tempted!)

the views from their house are incredible - day & night! i took these photos as i went to sleep and woke up!

vacation - day 8

today is the day we came for! tonight is the wedding!

i woke up before the family, but it was already 7 so not too early. i took the opportunity to head down to the gym. i had a nice work out and was ready for the day. got the kids up and dressed & we headed down to the breakfast room.

once scott was up we left the boys with him & dad while us girls (mom, ky, and i) went shopping for shoes for ky for the wedding (her new white sandals were not looking so new after a little wear - my bad for letting her wear them.) we found shoes right away and then went in search of gift wrap for the birthday gifts we'd bought yesterday at ikea - for the birthday party in a couple hours!

we got back to the hotel just in time to pick up the boys and head to the party at a park just about 15 minutes away. the kids had fun, (it was a park), spending time with family. we had lunch and cake then headed back to the hotel for a nap before the evening wedding festivities.

ky & sy napped, the boys swam then read quietly for a few minutes before getting our wedding gear on. we headed to the church and got ky ready then took some family pictures.

the wedding was beautiful. the boys were silent. ky did walk down the aisle after much prodding (and i even said pleeeease once). she almost skipped down and after the wedding started she said "mommy, i forgot to drop my petals. i have to go throw them." i told her no, but she started shifting laps from one relative to another getting closer to the center aisle! fortunately, she was not at all disruptive.

jake & katie were so great to watch as they became united that they may "glorify God"! they are an amazing couple and we pray that God will do amazing things with this couple united to serve Him!

after the wedding, there was a reception with food, stories of the couple, and a yummy cake! when it was all over we sent them off with a celebration of sparklers. that was a treat for ky because they're illegal where we live. it was a treat for me because that's what i wanted at my wedding, but - once again - illegal. the boys had already gone home so we grabbed a couple extra for them. what a fun day!

vacation - day 7

NO CAMERA TODAY!!! - i almost can't blog about it!

this morning we got to pick up grandpa from the airport - less than 5 min from our hotel. (which also means that our boys get to watch planes landing all day long - super fun). after we picked up grandpa, we got everyone in the motorhome to go to ikea to buy some birthday gifts and have a tasty lunch. our next stop was OMSI.

the oregon museum of science and industry is an amazing place. we spent over 4 hours and could easily have done 4 more. they had a chemistry lab and a physics lab with really great experiments. there was an incredible prenatal exhibit - i cannot even communicate how great it was! the whole museum is intriguing to adults and way kid-friendly at the same time - quite an accomplishment! and once again - free - as provided by our science center passes courtesy of mom!

we left omsi in search of food, but after a long, but fun walk - across a draw bridge, sharing the sidewalk with cyclists at a high traffic time - we found no food in walking distance. so...

we drove to burgerville usa - meeting our goal once again to eat at places that we don't have by our house if we have to eat out.

we returned to the hotel (about 830pm) and went swimming for a half-hour before bed.

another great vacation day!

vacation - day 6

when we woke the seims treated us to a delicious french toast breakfast with homemade jam! it was so good. they were so fun to have an activity planned for the kids, so we went out back and jojo, kik, & ky learned archery! jojo was an instant success. kik had to work at it, but in the end was able to hit the hay bales with the target. ky tried a couple times, but was more interested in their dog, kady. while they were shooting the arrows, mr seim noticed we were shooting toward the sheep beyond the fence in their yard, so he went to move the sheep and the kids all followed. they tried to pet the sheep, but the ewes weren't interested in being touched. sy didn't understand. but they did get some food and there was one sheep that was willing to come over and eat from their hands! we had such fun, but too quickly had to leave...
next stop - avery park (corvallis) where daddy played when he was little on a huge real train! superfun for all. then off to...
discovery village, salem, or - another science center we were able to enjoy for free with our science center passes mom got us this spring. (she did not realize the use these passes would get.) this place was really fun and well done. the kids enjoyed the bubble room, the grocery store, china, a huge outdoor space, a train room, and a dinosaur room. we spent a couple hours then were off to...
downtown portland for a wedding rehersal and dinner with family. the wedding is in a beautiful church with much stained glass. ky did amazing at the practice and i think she'll do well for the real thing. it is so fun to see this couple get married and honoring God with their lives! i can't wait to see how the Lord will use them in the future.
we headed to the old spaghetti factory for the dinner! i was so excited. i still call it my favorite restaurant even though i've not been in a few YEARS. so it was so enjoyable - yummy food, far-away family together, a great celebration, kids being good listeners. it all made for a fun night.
scott & mom had dropped ky & me at the church and left the motorhome at the hotel. we easily found rides to the dinner & back to the hotel. the couple who drove jojo & i back has a little 5mo boy and are thinking of homeschooling. i enjoyed sharing my passion with them - and hopefully not overwhelming them, but encouraging them!
when we got to the hotel, i found a "fitness center" so i spent some time on the elliptical reading my book "Revolution in World Missions" (odd that i was in a plush gym on an elliptical...)
now i must sleep!