I am not quite sure how to feel right now. I have been out of town with John at an AMAZING church planter's conference since Friday. We are learning soooo much. It is a huge blessing to be able to be here. It was truly an act of God to get my children taken care of for 7 days with 48 hours notice. Some superstar gals came together to take turns watching them over this week.
I miss my kids. I have called 3 times. But only Layton will come to the phone and talk to me. I know they are having a blast! They totally love the families that are caring for them this week. But I know Cheney has voiced a few times that she misses me but she won't come talk to me on the phone. Elijah doesn't want to have anything to do with coming to the phone either. It makes me kind of sad!!!
So either I have done such a great job getting them cared for while I am out of town that they don't need me or they just don't miss me...Aww!
The Seven Evans
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sonogram...
So last Tuesday we were blessed with a sonogram from FBC/K's pregnancy center. I have been thankful to hear the heartbeat at my appointments but anxiously awaiting to see our sweet little number 5. I was 17 weeks along. The baby measured perfectly for my due date, October 11th. The placenta is not in the way of the cervix (an issue I had last time until one week before Nathaniel was born). We saw the heart beating, the cute little toes and fingers. It looks like it is going to have my ears like Nathaniel. (They poke out pretty badly...hee,hee!) We saw the spine and all the important parts look healthy...PRAISE THE LORD! But that one part that people usually want to see...to determine male or female...well...our baby is very modest. Kept his or her feet up there in the way so we couldn't determine if it is Oakley Joy or Isaac Justice. So I guess we will have to wait until sometime in June for that when I get my sonogram from the doctor.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Oh Cheney!
This morning as we were making scrambled eggs, Cheney said, " I'll crack all the eggs. I am a genius." She doesn't seem to have any self-confidence issues. A few moments later, she said, " Mommy, you're a genius." I think this was because she was excited that I was making canned cinnamon rolls but what a way to start the morning. I'll take it. I figure I should document this moment so that when she is older and questioning my advice, I can remind her that once upon a time she truly thought I was a genious.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Update
Well, I will be 16 weeks pregnant on Sunday. Cheney calls it "prednick." It is soooo cute!
Our house is still for sale but I think we are settled on the fact that we are not in a rush.
God has settled our hearts in St. Cloud. Crazy, because I never thought John would feel settled here. God has now set John's heart on fire for St. Cloud. Only God could do that.
He is gone this weekend, will be home Sunday night and then will be out again on Monday to be home Wednesday. I am pacing myself. I am not used to his traveling again. It has been such a long time and well, Nathaniel adds a lot of work to this crew. He is saying a few more words. But mostly when he wants something he just says really loud, "Momma, Momma, Momma, Momma" until I figure out what it is. AAAGGGHHH!!!
Elijah had to return a duplicate gift her received for his birthday to Walmart. We did that today. He was so grown up about it. He wanted to hand the item to the clerk at customer service and explain why he was returning it. He wanted to carry the gift card with the returned monetary amount on it around the store the whole time. Walmart was out of any lego kits that fit into his price range so he looked around and found a 5 dollar light saber to go with his much more flashy and complicated light saber that he got from MaMaw on his birthday. Which has proven to be his favorite birthday present this year. He wanted to have a second light saber so he could play with someone with his light saber. It was so precious today he shared both light sabers out in the yard with his siblings and the neighbors. I was so proud of him. He didn't keep the much nicer light saber to himself. He shared both of them equally. What a sweet boy!
I have got to get around to taking pics of the kids. I just have a hard time chasing Nathaniel these days and taking pictures. Hee, hee! One day I know he is going to be a little frustrated that there are fewer pics of him than his older siblings. This fifth child will be lucky to even be caught on camera.
Our house is still for sale but I think we are settled on the fact that we are not in a rush.
God has settled our hearts in St. Cloud. Crazy, because I never thought John would feel settled here. God has now set John's heart on fire for St. Cloud. Only God could do that.
He is gone this weekend, will be home Sunday night and then will be out again on Monday to be home Wednesday. I am pacing myself. I am not used to his traveling again. It has been such a long time and well, Nathaniel adds a lot of work to this crew. He is saying a few more words. But mostly when he wants something he just says really loud, "Momma, Momma, Momma, Momma" until I figure out what it is. AAAGGGHHH!!!
Elijah had to return a duplicate gift her received for his birthday to Walmart. We did that today. He was so grown up about it. He wanted to hand the item to the clerk at customer service and explain why he was returning it. He wanted to carry the gift card with the returned monetary amount on it around the store the whole time. Walmart was out of any lego kits that fit into his price range so he looked around and found a 5 dollar light saber to go with his much more flashy and complicated light saber that he got from MaMaw on his birthday. Which has proven to be his favorite birthday present this year. He wanted to have a second light saber so he could play with someone with his light saber. It was so precious today he shared both light sabers out in the yard with his siblings and the neighbors. I was so proud of him. He didn't keep the much nicer light saber to himself. He shared both of them equally. What a sweet boy!
I have got to get around to taking pics of the kids. I just have a hard time chasing Nathaniel these days and taking pictures. Hee, hee! One day I know he is going to be a little frustrated that there are fewer pics of him than his older siblings. This fifth child will be lucky to even be caught on camera.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
"I think I'm gonna throw up,
I think I'm gonna throw up,
I think I'm gonna throw up my hands and praise the Lord!"
Yes, that is a real verse from a real song. John has even sung it at camps and Layton's children's choir sang it at church last Wednesday. We used to laugh hysterically when John would throw that verse out at some random time. But yesterday, during dinner, Layton just rolled her eyes and said, "That's not funny, Dad."
Since Layton, Elijah, Cheney and I spent the hours between 11 pm and 6 am on Sunday night taking turns throwing up every 30 minutes the song had new meaning to say the least.
All we did yesterday was watch movies, sip on liquids and sleep. We watched 3 classic disney movies I had recorded over the weekend. Thank goodness for the DVR.
Today they are back to their old selves pretty much. Layton has a slight fever but they are all eating and arguing with each other and playing. Praise God.
Guess we need to start school.
I think I'm gonna throw up,
I think I'm gonna throw up my hands and praise the Lord!"
Yes, that is a real verse from a real song. John has even sung it at camps and Layton's children's choir sang it at church last Wednesday. We used to laugh hysterically when John would throw that verse out at some random time. But yesterday, during dinner, Layton just rolled her eyes and said, "That's not funny, Dad."
Since Layton, Elijah, Cheney and I spent the hours between 11 pm and 6 am on Sunday night taking turns throwing up every 30 minutes the song had new meaning to say the least.
All we did yesterday was watch movies, sip on liquids and sleep. We watched 3 classic disney movies I had recorded over the weekend. Thank goodness for the DVR.
Today they are back to their old selves pretty much. Layton has a slight fever but they are all eating and arguing with each other and playing. Praise God.
Guess we need to start school.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Another reason I love Homeschooling!!!
Ok...today we were tired of reading and math worksheets so the kids started the day out by swinging outside while still wearing their pj's. I am sure anyone driving by might have thought, "Aww, those poor little homeschooled kids." But when they came in we juiced oranges and made fresh veggie soup. And through it all we completed some science, social studies, Bible, math and phonics. We counted the oranges by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's. We cut them all in half...so Layton and I reviewed her phonics rule about when making a word that ends in f plural you have to change the f to a v and add -es. She also figured out that since we had 20 oranges and we cut them all into halves, we had 40 peices of oranges. She quickly said 20, 40. Woohoo!
We talked about the parts of an orange- a seed is called a pip, the white stuff in there is called the pith and there is also pulp in the juice when you juice it. An orange is covered in peeling. I also discovered and orange is considered a berry. I didn't find out exactly why but I did think it interesting. I just made a worksheet for her to do tomorrow which will include fill-in-the-blanks using various facts we learned and will also include changing 5 singular (orange) words into their plural form and putting the parts of the orange into ABC order. The 4 we talked about all start with p so she has to look at the 2nd and 3rd letter in some of them. We threw in a little social studies by talking about how oranges are an important crop to Florida and the orange blossom is the state flower. We talked about how we can use the orange: fragrance, orange oil- a cleaner, vitamin C, juice, and eating it of course. Did you know that gardeners can use orange peeling to help keep slugs away? Layton does. We even threw a little Bible in there. We took 4 oranges and I poked holes in them in the designs requested by the kids and then they poked cloves in them. Smells so good in my dining room...oh, yeah, Bible...2 Corinthians 2:15 "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." Being of His aroma means we act like Him, love like Him, recognized as Christians as easily as an orange is recognized by its fragrance.
Layton then chopped all the veggies I needed for my Weight Watchers Cabbage soup recipe. While she did this, we discussed fractions- wholes, halves, fourths, eighths and how 1/2 = 2/4= 4/8. The equal fractions thing was a little over her head but she was introduced to it.
So every now and then I really enjoy "a fly by the seat of my pants and think of it as we go" kind of day. And I sure do love the internet...facts about oranges in an instant.
We talked about the parts of an orange- a seed is called a pip, the white stuff in there is called the pith and there is also pulp in the juice when you juice it. An orange is covered in peeling. I also discovered and orange is considered a berry. I didn't find out exactly why but I did think it interesting. I just made a worksheet for her to do tomorrow which will include fill-in-the-blanks using various facts we learned and will also include changing 5 singular (orange) words into their plural form and putting the parts of the orange into ABC order. The 4 we talked about all start with p so she has to look at the 2nd and 3rd letter in some of them. We threw in a little social studies by talking about how oranges are an important crop to Florida and the orange blossom is the state flower. We talked about how we can use the orange: fragrance, orange oil- a cleaner, vitamin C, juice, and eating it of course. Did you know that gardeners can use orange peeling to help keep slugs away? Layton does. We even threw a little Bible in there. We took 4 oranges and I poked holes in them in the designs requested by the kids and then they poked cloves in them. Smells so good in my dining room...oh, yeah, Bible...2 Corinthians 2:15 "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." Being of His aroma means we act like Him, love like Him, recognized as Christians as easily as an orange is recognized by its fragrance.
Layton then chopped all the veggies I needed for my Weight Watchers Cabbage soup recipe. While she did this, we discussed fractions- wholes, halves, fourths, eighths and how 1/2 = 2/4= 4/8. The equal fractions thing was a little over her head but she was introduced to it.
So every now and then I really enjoy "a fly by the seat of my pants and think of it as we go" kind of day. And I sure do love the internet...facts about oranges in an instant.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Haven't felt like blogging much lately. Busy, busy, busy!
I have revamped our school schedule...
Ideally this is how it should go...
Breakfast, clean up dishes and floor under dining room table.
Get dressed, make beds.
Have group devotional (mom and kids), calendar time, Review 21 rules of this home, and memory verse.
Then Reading time...about 45 minutes with Layton while Elijah and Cheney play upstairs with Nathaniel playing in the crib. Then about 25 minutes with Elijah while Layton and Cheney play on the front porch and Nathaniel falls asleep for his morning nap. Then about 15 minutes with Cheney while the E and L play. For me, It is really hard teaching both Elijah and Layton to read with distractions. They need this one on one undisturbed time.
Then snack time while they listen to books online. Old classics. They love it.
Math time with each...alternating each of them again while Nathaniel naps. Trying to alternate the activities with the others with things like playdough, water colors...not sure what else yet. Hopefully some kind of on-going craft they can do. Can't wait until they get a little older and can do the lapbook stuff!!!
Then Lunch.
Playtime outside. about 45 minutes.
Naptime for Nathaniel and Cheney. At least 30 minutes quiet rest time for EVERYONE... especially MOMMA! Then have Layton read aloud and finish up any Vocab and spelling work.
Then we are supposed to do some kind of Unit study where we do our Konos unit. We will be starting our Animal and Plant classification stuff soon. They are excited. I purchased kits for growing butterflies and a frog. I guess I will wait to start those until after our trip in the middle of February. I have to order the tadpole and crysalises (sp? LOL) We are going on two weekend ski retreats with John in N.C. and will visit John's family up there the week between.
Snack...
Kids either get to watch TV or free play inside or outside.
Then I cook dinner.
Then we clean up.
To be perfectly honest by this time of day, I am pretty much tired of spending time with my kids. I feel like I need space. We haven't exactly figure out how to handle this. John has been out every night except Thursday this week with events getting back after the kids are in bed. So the kids and I have spent a couple nights watching movies together. We watched the Sword and the Stone one night. I am glad we watched it On-Demand before I bought it. I didn't remember the whole story line when from when I was a kid and had been thinking I probably needed to buy it because it was a classic and all. Well, I changed my mind. Tooo much sorcery and stuff. All in good fun but still. I mean I suppose that sounds dumb to say when MERLIN the WIZARD is a main character. I should have thought that before. But I thought more of the story was about the boy and not how the wizard turned the boy into a fish, squirrel, and bird to learn lessons.
So...trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, feed the kids, about 6 times a day. SEROUSLY they eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. And I am supposed to lose weight in all that eating. I am going to have to get better about getting out my celery sticks and fat-free dressing.
Tonight we finished up the chapter book...The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White (he also wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little). It was lots of fun piled on the couch together with our popcorn and drinks under a blanket with the kids in their pajamas. They really loved the book and even asked when we could read it again. We had to finish going online to look up the meaning of the word "crepuscular" because the boy in the book was trying to figure out what it meant while reading about rabbits. It means...of or having to do with twilight...then we looked up twilight...the time as the sun is just going down or coming up. Don't you just love reading? It was soooo much fun. Reminded me I need to keep up with the chapter books. Our next unit of study with plants and animals uses the chapter book, The Secret Garden. I read it a few months ago to get familar with it again. It think the kids will be sooo inspired to grow things and learn about plants and animals.
Oh, well, better get some laundry done. Football season is over so I am not sure if my dear sweet hubbie will be keeping up with all the folding like he did when he was watching the games. Oh...Yea!!! Timmy Tebow!!!! He is such a God's guy!!! I pray God uses him greatly and that God protects him from temptation and attacks while he is in all this limelight.
I have revamped our school schedule...
Ideally this is how it should go...
Breakfast, clean up dishes and floor under dining room table.
Get dressed, make beds.
Have group devotional (mom and kids), calendar time, Review 21 rules of this home, and memory verse.
Then Reading time...about 45 minutes with Layton while Elijah and Cheney play upstairs with Nathaniel playing in the crib. Then about 25 minutes with Elijah while Layton and Cheney play on the front porch and Nathaniel falls asleep for his morning nap. Then about 15 minutes with Cheney while the E and L play. For me, It is really hard teaching both Elijah and Layton to read with distractions. They need this one on one undisturbed time.
Then snack time while they listen to books online. Old classics. They love it.
Math time with each...alternating each of them again while Nathaniel naps. Trying to alternate the activities with the others with things like playdough, water colors...not sure what else yet. Hopefully some kind of on-going craft they can do. Can't wait until they get a little older and can do the lapbook stuff!!!
Then Lunch.
Playtime outside. about 45 minutes.
Naptime for Nathaniel and Cheney. At least 30 minutes quiet rest time for EVERYONE... especially MOMMA! Then have Layton read aloud and finish up any Vocab and spelling work.
Then we are supposed to do some kind of Unit study where we do our Konos unit. We will be starting our Animal and Plant classification stuff soon. They are excited. I purchased kits for growing butterflies and a frog. I guess I will wait to start those until after our trip in the middle of February. I have to order the tadpole and crysalises (sp? LOL) We are going on two weekend ski retreats with John in N.C. and will visit John's family up there the week between.
Snack...
Kids either get to watch TV or free play inside or outside.
Then I cook dinner.
Then we clean up.
To be perfectly honest by this time of day, I am pretty much tired of spending time with my kids. I feel like I need space. We haven't exactly figure out how to handle this. John has been out every night except Thursday this week with events getting back after the kids are in bed. So the kids and I have spent a couple nights watching movies together. We watched the Sword and the Stone one night. I am glad we watched it On-Demand before I bought it. I didn't remember the whole story line when from when I was a kid and had been thinking I probably needed to buy it because it was a classic and all. Well, I changed my mind. Tooo much sorcery and stuff. All in good fun but still. I mean I suppose that sounds dumb to say when MERLIN the WIZARD is a main character. I should have thought that before. But I thought more of the story was about the boy and not how the wizard turned the boy into a fish, squirrel, and bird to learn lessons.
So...trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, feed the kids, about 6 times a day. SEROUSLY they eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. And I am supposed to lose weight in all that eating. I am going to have to get better about getting out my celery sticks and fat-free dressing.
Tonight we finished up the chapter book...The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White (he also wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little). It was lots of fun piled on the couch together with our popcorn and drinks under a blanket with the kids in their pajamas. They really loved the book and even asked when we could read it again. We had to finish going online to look up the meaning of the word "crepuscular" because the boy in the book was trying to figure out what it meant while reading about rabbits. It means...of or having to do with twilight...then we looked up twilight...the time as the sun is just going down or coming up. Don't you just love reading? It was soooo much fun. Reminded me I need to keep up with the chapter books. Our next unit of study with plants and animals uses the chapter book, The Secret Garden. I read it a few months ago to get familar with it again. It think the kids will be sooo inspired to grow things and learn about plants and animals.
Oh, well, better get some laundry done. Football season is over so I am not sure if my dear sweet hubbie will be keeping up with all the folding like he did when he was watching the games. Oh...Yea!!! Timmy Tebow!!!! He is such a God's guy!!! I pray God uses him greatly and that God protects him from temptation and attacks while he is in all this limelight.
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