Three Little Ghostesses

We're easing back into schooling this week with some fun Halloween activities.  Today we read a few fall poems, read an Uncle Wiggly story about Halloween (from our Sonlight books), and produced a video of the poem Three Little Ghostesses, a Mother Goose rhyme (posted at the bottom!).  Maybe we can squeeze in some sort of math lesson as I go to the bank to drop off our rent check later ;)



Taylor thought our ghosts should be mean

Cutting out ghosts

Gluing on googly eyes

Rory's ghostesses on postesses

 

Taylor's video

Preparing for Halloween

Pumpkin onesie (unsnapped because I just changed his diaper)

Merida dress-up

Ariel Jack-o-Lantern for the Little Mermaid enthusiast

Simple joys

Here are some of the simple joys of life with kids:

A blossoming helper

Squinty smiles

Pumpkin patch after church

Baby and books
(re-creating a shot of me around the same age with the same bookcase!)

Snuggling in my lap, asking me to read

Sweet potato

Sparkly stickers in the mail from Grandma

Water!

Lost in India

While unpacking boxes and settling in, the kids and I have not been doing any homeschool (big surprise!).  But one easy schooling fix for us these last couple of weeks has been the Lost in India program, through Mission India.  We heard about it through Sonlight, the homeschool curriculum we use.  It has become a highlight during our time in California so far!

Lost in India is a free, 1-month long video series telling the story of a man, Chris, who gets lost in India and goes through some crazy adventures and meets lots of interesting people on his journey to meet up with his friend, Justin.  A new video is released every Tues and Thurs and is accompanied with several online activities - stories, journaling, a family devotional, quizzes, surveys, and more - to help get the kids involved.  We've tracked Chris' and Justin's whereabouts on a big map of India using stickers and we earn "badges" for completing all of the online activities.

The information we've learned has ranged from fun facts about clothing, food, language, and festivals -- did you know in Maharashtra, India there is a Hindu ceremony in which frogs are dressed up in wedding attire and "married" in hopes of pleasing a rain god? -- to much more serious matters like misogyny, abortion, and religious persecution. Each lesson has driven us to pray fervently over the people and issues in India.

When we signed up for the program we pledged to raise money to give kids in India the opportunity to attend Children's Bible Clubs, the ultimate goal of Lost in India.  These clubs allow children to play, sing, and hear the good news about Jesus - possibly for the first time.  Each dollar sends one child to Bible Club, but with a matching challenge from Sonlight each dollar is doubled!

Our goal is to raise $50, which will send 100 children to Bible Club. The girls have been working hard helping around the house to earn quarters to put in their little donation box and Taylor has taken the box around a church we've been visited to ask for donations.  Would you consider helping us reach our goal?  You can find our family's personal donation page here.

There is one week left of the program. The girls are excited to see how Chris' adventure ends.  The church we've been attending has a missions conference this weekend, which will be a nice segue between our adventures in India to learning about how God has been working in other places all over the world.

California - we're really here!

It has been a whirlwind year, but all our talk about moving to California has finally become reality.  Mark is working a temporary position with Boeing, assisting with flight testing for the F-15 in Palmdale, located an hour north of Los Angeles.  We'll be here for 18 months (or so) before returning to St. Louis.

Sight-seeing around St. Louis

It was almost a year ago that we got wind of a CA position and Mark was intrigued. In April, it was confirmed that he would be the team member from his F-15 group to make the trip (no one else wanted to go and live in the desert, hehe). For the entire summer (Jun-Aug), I was bouncing between Omaha and Evansville with the kids while Mark repaired and renovated our house in preparation to sell, and continued to stay away while it was on the market.  We went on a house-hunting trip to Palmdale in Aug to set up a rental home, our house finally went under contract in September (after Mark had left for CA), we put a contract on a new house in Florissant (since we our returning) and made a deal with some friends to house sit while we're away, and now we are wading through the final weeks of negotiations and packing up the old house.

How can we pack up the old house while we're already in CA, you might ask?  Why, because Mark is actually back in St. Louis on business for a few weeks while the kids and I are here in CA.  It's a crazy, mixed up situation, but everything will be set right soon enough.  The closing for our old house is on Oct 23rd and the closing for the new house (barring any awful repair negotiations) will be on Nov 7th.  When Mark returns here at the end of the month, he won't be traveling again.

The drive from L.A. to Palmdale = sandy mountains.

It's been one week in Palmdale now and I can say I really do think it'll be a good family adventure.  It is a nice desert town with good stores, and a pretty park, and friendly people.  Our rental house is nicely kept and in a great neighborhood.  We are slowly venturing out around the city.

I've been fluctuating between unpacking and organizing, helping the kids acclimate to these new surroundings by making things fun, and operating in full-out survival mode.  After an entire summer of parenting three without Mark, it's not unfamiliar territory.  This just happens to be the first time I get to do it without other adult helpers in the same house or city. 

Playing computer games

I set Taylor up for a gymnastics trial class tomorrow.  She's been having the hardest time adjusting (read: being happy) here, as she is old enough to miss our old house and her friends and our homeschool co-op.  It's a daily up and down.

Rory and Elliott are, of course, young enough to be happy as long as we're all together.  Well, as content as they can be without Daddy around.

Some big milestones that have happened out here: Taylor has learned how to ride a bike and Elliott is just starting to crawl.  I have also noticed Rory's creative side budding more.

I anticipate at least another week of unpacking and then I hope to hop into a regular schedule of homeschooling and exercising (ugh, baby weight) and activities around town.