Month: July 2005

I have posted a few new photos in the gallery. I hope to get quite a few more by the end of the summer.

Sunset in July

Last night after work, I replaced a broken drive belt in the vacuum cleaner, put a set of bunk beds together that Aunt Jean had donated to us, and drew with the kids. We use the will use the bunk beds in the bonus room as a place to relax while reading and doing other school work. They will be nice for company, too. It was really a nice quiet evening. I had an epiphany last night and came away with a little clearer understanding of the impossibility of comprehending the true greatness of God and his creation. Amazing.

Again we went out to Steve and Elena Myers’ for our bible study last night. The kids painted the birdhouses they built at the Linn County Fair and swam most of the day with Jacob and Haley, the neighbors across the street. Their big sister, Hannah went off to summer camp for four days. It might just be me, but it seems like they play a little bit better when there is one less kid.

I am struggling with a tough problem at work and I am struggling with a tough technical problem with the CNC router. All this shall pass, but it looks like I am in for some long work hours over the next several weeks. Kelly, Christian, and I continue with our drawing. Lorena, continues planting flowers and working on the garden. Yesterday, Lorena took the twin cat sisters to the vet for shots, de-worming, and de-liceing. Today, she picks up the newly adjusted bicycles. It will be nice to have the bikes around. I hope to ride some so I can start getting a little more exercise.

The best part of my day yesterday was the hour or so I spent in the evening with the kids working on our drawing. We finished the third lesson in Mark Kistler’s Drawing Squad. I really do believe we are getting better. Lorena spent most of the afternoon and evening working on the yard. It is really looking nice. She also, took the bicycles down to a local bike shop to get them adjusted so we can ride them more this summer. Lorena is hoping to do some riding with our neighbor Gina.

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Friday night, we hung out at the house. Saturday, we worked on the yard and my CNC router, then went to a play at the Albany Civic Theater. It was not as good as Charlie’s Aunt that we saw this past winter, but it was not too bad. On Sunday, we went to a potluck at Jim and Joann Waldo’s house after meeting. It was a going away party for her because she is going into the work. Sunday afternoon, we went to Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah’s house to have some dessert with all my sibilings as well as My uncle Ron and his wife Wonlyn.

We sat outside the garage after work last night and a beautiful sunset. We took a couple of pictures which I will try to post before too long. Lorena and the kids went down to the post office to mail some packages yesterday afternoon and managed to lock the keys in the car so I had to leave work a little early so I could open the door for them. They went to the library and had to pay $20 in late fees. Hannah, Jacob, and Haley, the kids across the street went on a vacation for three days, so the kids will not have anyone with whom to play for a little while. It was a little bit of a frustrating day for everyone. Maybe God put the sunset there for us to see to remind us that He is in control.

Lorena took Kelly and Christian to a U-Pick blueberry place yesterday. They had an absolutely great time and came away with a pretty good load of blueberries that Lorena froze for eating throughout the year. Now she wants to put three blueberry bushes in one corner of our property. I am all for it! After that we went to our bible study. The kids had a pretty lousy day of selling lemonade yesterday and their friends, Hannah, Jacob, and Haley are going away through the weekend so everyone is fearful of the potential for boredom — a fate worse than death in this household of ours.

I made more progress on the CNC router last night. I think it is going to work just great.

The CNC router in the garage is now moving. It is not operating properly yet, but it looks like it is going to be just fine. The company that made the machine for us sent me a new configuration file this morning, so maybe I will get a chance to try it out today or tomorrow. Today, we have our Wednesday night bible study, so I will not be able to do too much, but between tomorrow and Saturday, I hope to get it cutting some things.

We continue to work on our drawing and we are getting better and better. By the end of the summer, we should be blasting right along. The lessons call for a half an hour per day, but we have been putting in an hour or more because we like it so much.

Last night, I put up hooks in the garage to hang the fertilizer spreaders, the weed eaters, an extension cord, and a sprinkler. Lorena had cleaned off a workbench for me to use for the computer to run the CNC router. I moved the computer I got from Good Will for less than $30 down to the garage and hooked it up to the router. I was unable to get it running, but it is definitely moving forward. We drew again last night and I think we are getting better and better. By the time we finish our book, we are really going to be not too bad. It think I am going to try to get a book on how to draw people next.

This weekend, for the most part, the kids played, I worked on the CNC router, and Lorena worked on the yard. We also worked on our drawing and went to a potluck at Jim and Joann Waldo’s house. It was generally a slow and relaxed weekend.

As part of the Sonlight homeschool program, we recieced a copy of Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad. Obviously, a book on drawing. It looked like such a cool family thing to do, that Kelly, Christian, and I started on it last night. We are going to try to spend a half an hour per night on it. After school starts in mid-August, we might have to revise that, but the first night was really fun. We went down to Target yesterday evening to buy a couple of Nancy Drew computer mysteries and the sketch pads and pencils we wanted to use for the drawing exercises.

Kelly got third place in the talent show at the Albany Public Library yesterday. Christian did an awesome science demonstration with a big volcano at the end. They both did a super job. Hannah Biles acted as Christian’s assitant. I am proud of them both.

I was going to spread bark dust in the garden last night after work, but I sprained my ankle pretty bad walking to Safeway to eat lunch, so I was a little bit hobbled up. Instead, I took the time to work on Christian’s first day homeschool schedule. It came out pretty good. I have loaded both of the kids up with what I believe is a good amount of work, but I am sure I will have to adjust it some as we go along. I have added two new materials this year, neither of which I believe is particularly onerous. The new Spanish part of the program will be the most challenging of the two. The other one is just fun. It is a drawing program that looks absolutely fabulous. I am hoping Lorena will sit down and do it with the kids right after lunch each day. While I have added a couple of things, I have backed off on a couple of things, too. In particular, we will not be going nearly as fast in math this year as both Kelly and Christian are well ahead of their grade levels. We will probably go at a rate of a less than a year and a half of the Singapore Math program per actual school year, while during the 2004-2005 school year we did almost two full years of the program so we could catch up to a decent level after the abysmal three years in the government school programs.

I stopped in at Radio Shack today at lunch time and found that Lorena and I were eligible for a new cell phone if we signed up for an additional couple of years of service with our cell phone service. I got a new phone for each of us. They are really nice Samsung, color LCD phones. They have been very useful over the last couple of years.

I am reminded that Kelly and (possibly) Christian will be competing in the annual talent show down at the Albany Public Library this afternoon. Kelly won last year so she has high hopes for a repeat this year even though she won’t admit it.

I started putting the worksheet for the first day of class together for Kelly last night. The first one always takes the longest, but it is amazing how fast it went together this year as opposed to last year. This year I think I understand the Sonlight curricula a lot better which is the base around which all the rest of our studies revolve. I noticed that it is more difficult to integrate material designed for classroom learning into our program than programs that were designed specifically for homeschool or for individual learners. I still have to add some logic for both of the kids, but other than that and the science listed below, I think we are just about ready to go.

I just purchased the RealScience-4-Kids Biology and Physics curricula from Access Research Network. We loved their Chemistry program so we are looking forward to receiving these, too.

It has been amazingly rainy for the month of July. This Saturday, Lorena and I worked on the lawn most of the day. We made some good progress, but I have been fighting a summer cold so it really has not been that fun. After meeting on Sunday, Steve Myers came over for dinner as his wife is visiting her family in Southern California. After that, the kids went down to the Sears photography studio and had their annual school picture taken. They came out very nice. We have heard that some of our friends, Lauro and Mari Valdez, from Monterrey will be coming to visit us in early August. I will be working pretty hard, but Lorena and Martha should be able to take good care of them.

I reloaded the Linux computer this weekend, too. It is just about set for homeschool for this fall. I am looking forward to getting the first weeks assignment in place after I add a few more programs.

Things are getting back to normal now. Last night, I mowed the grass while Lorena watered and trimmed the trees, flowers, and grass. The kids mostly just played. I gave them some additional chores to do while I am at work. I posted a bunch of pictures to the gallery today. They are the last of the pictures from the trip. Don Lauro has a whole bunch more that he has printed out. I particularly liked this picture of Lorena brushing Kelly’s hair.

Lorena brushing Kelly’s hair

I woke up this morning to find that fanatics have exploded a bunch bombs around London. It is amazing that people will go to such ends to subjugate others for a lie. The only way out of all this is the hope that is exclusive to belief in Jesus of Nazareth. God is faithful to turn even the worst tragedy into good for those who serve him.

We went to our Wednesday night bible study last night at the Myers’ house. Elena and the kids have gone to Mexico to visit Elena’s sister, so Steve is by himself at home. We invited him over to dinner after meeting on Sunday.

The kids are playing like maniacs with all the other kids in the neighborhood. They have been keeping up with their 15 minutes per day on Mavis Beacon, too.

I ordered the majority of next year’s homeschool books from Sonlight before I left for vacation in Mexico. They were waiting for us in the neighbors garage when we got home. Kelly and Christian helped me sort through them to assure they had all properly arrived, then I accumulated the instruction programs into their respective notebooks. All in all, it is an impressive array of books. The kids are already looking forward to getting started.

I had a chance to look at the test scores for the California Acheivment Test that the kids took earlier this spring. Of a total of 120 questions on each of the tests, Kelly missed 2 and Christian missed 6. Most of the test results were not meaningful because both Kelly and Christian appear to operating at a higher level than the level for which the test is designed. The only semi-meaningful piece of information was that Christian is testing at about a sixth grade level for math while Kelly is testing at about an eighth grade level. We knew the kids were a little bit lower in math than in other areas for having spent the previous three years in the government school system. That being said, they are both two years ahead of grade level and should be catching up to their natural level.

Cal and Lily Harper wrote a note congratulating Christian for his drawing that appeared in the Albany Democrat Herald while we were gone. Wouldn’t you know it. The picture got published during the one week when we have our paper cancelled. We will have to try to get a copy frome someone to put in Christian’s scrapbook.

The kids are happy playing now with the neighbor kids and life is slowly returning to normal after their three week long stay in Mexico.

Update: I just sent out the orders for the last two items we need for next year’s homeschool. They are Igniting Your Writing and Easy Grammar. It is going to be a busy year because, in addition to what we did last year, we are going to add the new Spanish program we picked up in Mexico.

We got backinto Portland from Monterrey a little after 11:00 PM last night and made it back to Albany around 2:00 AM. We had a wonderful time in Mexico, but now it is time to get back to work. I have to mow the lawn and do a bunch of other stuff on the yard. Lorena will be spending the next two or three days getting the house and all the laundry back in shape.

Grandpa Lauro is all set up with his new email. He is also using his new digital camera to take lots of pictures. I taught him how to take pictures, download them to the computer from his camera, burn them on a CD, and take them down to Walmart or H.E.B. to get snapshots printed out. We had a great time doing that.