Prayer and Praise

I have some great news and a prayer request for all my prayer warriors out there! 

First, for the praise!  My cousin's family, the Millers, have been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia for over 2 years now.  They got news back at the beginning of the summer that they were going to have a precious baby girl.  At the time she was only 5 weeks old and they were hoping to have her home with them by the time she was 4 or 5 months old.  Well, because of the legal system in Ethiopia, their court date was delayed by two months.  After they finally got a court date they traveled over there in October to meet their daughter and go to court to legally become her parents.  They did not pass court because of one piece of paper that was missing from their file.  It was not a piece of paper that either they or their agency had to submit, but one that had to come from within Ethiopia.  It's kind of a long story, but to make it shorter, they got good news today!  All of the legal issues with the orphanage have been worked out so that one piece of paper should soon be added to their file and they will hopefully be traveling back to get their daughter in a just a few weeks!  So praise the Lord for this uplifting news!!!

Now, for the prayer request.  Many of you know that my sister has not had the best health for the past few years.  She has had many discouraging diagnoses and surgeries within the past 8 years or so, and now another one is at hand.  This coming Tuesday, December 7, she will be having a surgery to remove her entire large intestine.  It is a very serious surgery, so please pray that all will go well and that she will recovery as quickly as possible.  And please pray for her husband, children, and the rest of our family as we do our best to take care of her.  Thank you in advance for lifting her name up before the Lord.  God bless!!!

Designs by T Update!

Just wanted to give you a quick update on my business!  I've been busy revamping by business blog and I also created a Facebook page for Designs by T!  So check them out!  I've got lots of new Christmas designs available if you are looking for gifts.  And my newest addition is that I am printing designs on pillows now! 

Visit the Designs by T blog, or find me on Facebook!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Homeschool Update

I can hardly believe that we are almost finished with another semester of school.  Zora is doing well in her second grade curriculum.  I must say, however, that this has been the most challenging year for me teaching her.  We seem to clash a lot, so I'm just praying for the patience I need to make it through this year.  Despite the struggle, she seems to enjoy the things we are learning this year.  She continues to love her History & Geography and studying ancient cultures.  Right now we are studying Ancient Greece and she loves all the Greek Mythology we've read.  It's also interesting to her to connect some of the historical people with lessons she's already learned from the Bible (ex: King Darius).  In science we have completed our unit on living & nonliving and have moved on to earth science.  Right now we are studying different types of soil and their properties.  Although math is still not her favorite subject, I have seen lot of improvement in her math skills this year.  She's becoming a pro at addition & subtraction even with carrying & borrowing!  She's really excited that we've begun multiplication.  She actually thinks it is fun :-)  That makes this math mommy happy!

Lily is improving by leaps and bounds right before my eyes this year.  Her favorite subject is math!  She can't wait to get her math worksheet each day and pull out the number line and abacus to add & subtract.  Her handwriting is also very nice for a four-year-old.  We've been working hard on writing the letters correctly and putting sounds together.  She used to dread trying to read words to me, but now she attacks it with zest!  Reading is not her favorite subject, but she is learning!  She has one book each week that she has to read to me each day.  At the beginning of the week it is sometimes a struggle to get through the book, but by the end of the week she reads with confidence!  Here is a video of her book this week:

Isn't that great?  I just love our reading curriculum!  It is the same one I used with Zora.  If you are wondering what we use it is a combination of 3 things... A Reason for Handwriting, Explode The Code Series, and Fun Tales.

Besides our book learning, we've been enjoying fun times with friends as well.  We had another nature exploration day at the lake with some friends...

eating lunch on the deck

 playing with a crayfish (or crawdad)

 a nice walk through the woods

We also went to our local Air & Space Museum with some friends.  Here is the tour guide teaching the girls what to do to "fly" the plane.

 Zora concentrates on flying the plane

 Lily concentrates too!

 The girls enjoyed looking at all the planes there!

 Lily then got to role play her dream job! She has been telling me for a couple of months now that she wants to work in some sort of aviation field.  Either an astronaut, pilot, or at a launch control center.  The tour guide chose her to be the launch commander.  She was beside herself with excitement.  Chole (left) was the Captain, Zora (right) was the Co-captain, and Lily (middle) was the Launcher.  She was so proud to push the red button and launch the spaceship!

 Here is the spaceship going up!

 Zora as an astronaut

 Lily as an astronaut

 Even I joined in on the fun and got to experience driving a spacechair.  It was harder than you'd think!  The controls were super-sensitive!

 After we looked at the airplanes and spaceships we had some fun learning about weather.

Girls in the tornado tube

 Zora & Lily giving the news

 Zora forecasting the weather

 It seems a flood is headed our way!!!

We have just 2 short weeks left until Christmas break!!!! 

Hooray

Funny Kids

I have to share some funny things that my kids said this week...

The other night about 10 minutes after we put the girls to bed Joel and I heard wailing coming from Lily's room.  Not just crying, but WAILING.  We rushed in there thinking maybe she had gotten sick or fallen off the bed or something, but when we opened the door and ran to her bed she seemed to be perfectly fine other than the screaming and crying.  So I scooped her up and held her tight and asked her what was wrong. 

Her answer was, "I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP!!!"  

I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  It was hilarious and sad to me all at the same time.  I wasn't really sure how to respond because she obviously WILL have to grow up, so I just said, "Well, honey, you don't have to grow up tomorrow or anytime soon.  You've still got a lot of time to be a kid."

Zora also cracked me up recently.  Anyone who is around my children for very long knows that there are A LOT of words that we don't say in our family just because I don't think they are appropriate for our household, especially our children.  I'm not just talking about cursing - even things that aren't kind.  We don't judge others who say those things, we just don't say them in our family.  We try to teach them the great life lesson that "If you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all". 

Because of that it's a joke with a lot of our family and friends that they need a list of all the things that our kids aren't allowed to say so that they won't slip up around them.  Well, we had a bunch of the young adults - who don't have children - from our church over to our house to eat.  A few of them "slipped up" with some "foul words".  As usual, they started laughing and one of the guys said, "I need a Summers' Dictionary so I'll know what I can't say."  Zora ran down to the playroom and brought back her actual dictionary that she uses for school.  He laughed and told her that he didn't really need a dictionary, but a list of what he couldn't say.  So she went back to the playroom and made her list (shown here with her spelling)...

stupid

dumb

shut up

da in a sassy way

(this means DUH! with attitude)

holy cow

hate not to peaple

(this means we can't hate people)

carp

(what she meant was crap)

whatever

(this also is said with attitude)

This actually isn't a complete list because there are obviously a lot of other words that aren't kind, but it was a good start and we all got a good laugh :-)

Gymnastics & "Ice Skating"

This week was our last gymnastics class for this year.  We are going to take several weeks off to enjoy the holidays and spend some time with family.  Here are some pics and videos of this week...

On the uneven bars

Girls on the balance beam

I also found some other videos on my camera - some of the girls "ice skating".  Apparently they both have this dream of being ice skaters because lately they love dressing up "skating" around the kitchen.

THEY CRACK ME UP  

They got ahold of my camera and videoed one another doing their "routines".  Maybe I just think the videos are funny because they are my kids, but I can't help but crack up because they are so SERIOUS about it and really think that they are doing a beautiful routine.  See what you think :-)

Homeschool Activities

Our homeschool group, C.U.E., recently had a fun little get-together.   At our meeting they created their own country and were given the task to choose leaders, divide into states, and create flags.  I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.  Not only did they have fun, but they also had to learn to be cooperative and work together.  The boys actually were more successful at working together than the girls, but there were also less boys involved!

Zora & Lily working on their part of the flag

 The girls flag

 The boys flag

I was so proud of Zora because she went way out of her comfort zone and ran for President!  I was shocked that she did this because she does not like being in front of a group talking.  She wrote her entire speech by herself.  Even though she was not chosen as President, I think giving the speech really made her gain some self-confidence.

Zora's Speech

(please pardon my pitiful camera skills!)

In case you couldn't understand her this is what she wrote/said:

Hi! My name is Zora.

I am running for President.

The reason why I want you to vote for me

is because I would take care of the country very well.

And I would also make sure there was enough protection.

Also I would make sure there was enough hospitals

and enough people to care for the poor.

I would make a good President because I am strong, kind,

and would make a good leader.

So vote for Zora.

Thank you!

Another fun activity we did recently was a nature walk at a friend's home near the lake.  All of the girls explored the land for interesting nature finds.

My little explorers

 Exploring with friends

They had some fantastic discoveries!

 At the end of our nature exploration the girls decided to just play on the shore with pails and buckets.

Right as we were getting ready to leave we had a visit from a flock of seagulls.  They were beautiful!

It looks as if we might get one more short taste of warm weather so we will be exploring there again soon.  Then we'll have to find indoor activities to do because the cold weather will be moving in to stay :-(

This week we had a little art lesson about sculptures.  We then took a little trip with some friends to The Purple Glaze to paint some sculptures of our own!  The girls did great! :-)

My little painters

Lily painted the funny little monkey and Zora painted the mermaid...

Halloween Festivities

This year for Halloween we had an astronaut...

...and Indian Princess Pocahontas.

We started off our celebrations with a trip to the library on Thursday for a little party. I didn't get any pictures that day. However, on Friday we also had a party with our playgroup friends and we had quite a crew! I must say that the kids were absolutely adorable! The kids and parents alike got really creative with their costumes :-) Here is most of the crew!
Friday night Papa and Mamma treated us to a night at Camp Cute & Spooky. The girls had a lot of fun.

Zora dancing

Lily patiently waiting for a balloon sword

Zora's ghost
She did NOT want them to put it on her face

Jupiter Jump!

Pony Rides

Trick-or-Treating in the Enchanted Forest

Lily & Papa

Ready for a hayride!

Saturday night we met Papa, Jen & Jake for little Trick-or-Treating in Broken Arrow. We also had cousins Nate & Alli with us. Here is Jake, Zora, Lily & Alli posing on the Chik-Fil-A firetruck.

Lily & Daddy walking the streets.

We finished off the evening with a frozen yogurt treat from Cherry Berry. Jake sure had a hard time moving around in his costume, but the good news was that he had a built-in-table! :-)

On Halloween night we spent the evening at church where we had a trunk-or-treat after service was over. I think the kids raked in more candy than we could eat before next Halloween! It's a good thing we're going to the dentist this morning!