A new school year...

The high school complex

It's August and our county started classes on August 1st.  How crazy is that?  The four older kiddos all began new experiences.  Joanna is a senior and is as busy as ever.  She is currently assistant directing Snow White in preparation for her senior project.  In November- January, she'll be directing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  She's currently applying to college, prepping for the ACT's, and studying for several EOCT's (kinda like a clep test for certain high school classes, but not really).  She cannot fail them or she loses her GPA status and that affects everything else.  We've been to several doctors recently to see if we can get her body functioning better.  She's been 1 1/2 years off of gluten, but a lot of her symptoms are still mysterious.  Hey, pray for her.  We desire to trust the Lord through this year.  She desires to be able to focus better on her schoolwork without the fog and pain that she normally walks through.

Daniel is now a high schooler!  He has joined the AFJROTC.  Uniform pictures will have to be posted shortly.  He also recently learned that in order to join the Navy, he must have a 3.0 or better.  Since he has a clean slate in high school, he has been working very hard to keep on top of his work.  He even looks for other students that excel to help him when he's struggling.  That means that he's not so needy of tutoring at home, which has made my job easy!  Funny thing, Daniel joined beginner band, even though he has no experience.  He told the band director he plans to play the drums.  Talk about faith!  So now we're looking for a used drum set and a teacher. I think he'll take off with this one.  He has a natural ear for rhythm and is hitting the drum pad daily.   He also has found a new love in tumbling.  He's been taking private lessons and just graduated to a group tumbling class.  He loves it.


Nicholas entered 7th grade and joined tackle Football for the first time.  He left this morning (on Friday) wearing his jersey.  He gets out the playbook regularly to study, and talks all the time about what he's learning.  For a little guy, I think he packs a big punch, so I'm curious to see how he does in the game.  Here's the thing I love about Nicholas.  He comes home and does his assignments ahead of time.  I saw a note from the teacher yesterday to say that a paper was due, and when I read the assignment, I realized that Nicholas had done it earlier this week, printed it and had it ready in his binder.  So cool!

 Anthony loves taking 5th grade Chorus with Mr. Gunderlock, who also leads worship at Sovereign Grace Church. And he can't wait for the local track club to get started.  He plans to start running so he can join a team when he gets older.  He's still working on making his bed in the morning and keeping up with his socks.  This is the one kid that I walk around after.  He always leaves his mark!

Lastly, this year also marks the expansion of our household. ( No, we're not having a baby!)  But we did acquire 7 new inhabitants.  Well, 8 if you count the dog.  Nick's sister and clan are sharing the home with us and it has been a blast.  Everyone gets along well, and with our families sharing the expenses and responsibilities, the load around here is quite manageable.  We have three seniors in the house!  Looks like we just may need a big party come May!

Brigadoon!

Joanna joined her first adult only cast in February 2012!  She played "Bonnie Jean" in Brigadoon.  Again, she got to act along side Dad!  Nick has the best accents.  He would teach some of the cast how to speak in an Irish accent, and then teach the main character how to talk "New York."

A Christmas Carol 2011

So it's been a little too long not to post!  Much has happened in the last year!  This past school year, Joanna did her first Shakespeare show, a minor role, but good experience in "Much Ado about Nothing."  She also began performing back at Elms Street Arts (formerly Towne Lake Arts Center).

Here's her first performance back on the stage in Woodstock! (with DAD) Once she started, she kept going.  Also, she began attending Etowah High School in January, so there was a lot of transition in our home. 

In A Christmas Carol, Joanna played one of the charity workers, and Nick played Bob Cratchet.  It was a long running show but loads of fun.

The (latest) Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

So this year, I got the chance to direct The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I took over directing mid-year to serve one of our teachers at Masters. This production was primarily middle schoolers. Joanna helped with make-up and back stage managing. It was neat to sit up in the tech booth and orchestrate the behind the scenes stuff, wearing our cool headsets. Haha.

Here are a few fun pics of the students (Daniel is the Dwarf :).

Work and Wind

The Cast of Wind in the Willows

It turned out to be a tougher school year than we thought! I think we are finally (after 5 months) beginning to find a rhythm. First we had to cut back on a lot of outside activities. Then I began spending a lot more time with my older children to keep them on task! Now, back to helping the little ones more again! How does one make this all work?

One thing is a constant. Joanna will forever be an entertainer! Since Annie, she played Ms. Hawkins in Treasure Island, co-directed Anne of Green Gables, ran tech for It's a Wonderful Life, and did some reenacting for a "Ghost Tales" tour of downtown Woodstock.

She also led worship solo at school this past fall. It looks like she may be playing and singing more in the future!

This semester, she and some great friends at Masters performed The Wind in the Willows. Joanna is "Mole." She's made some longstanding friends at Masters, as have the boys. Up and coming? Daniel will play the Dwarf in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this spring!

"Mole" and "Ratty"

"Frog" and "Mole"

Our little darling :D

Autumn

Since Facebook entered our world, there's much less posting here. But I finally decided there are enough people out there that would like to still see a picture or two, that I'm putting a few recent ones up!

In this post we were in week 13 of school- 10th, 7th, 5th, 3rd. We manage to get schoolwork complete most weeks, and were are being fed, but I need a maid. Any takers? We have no money so we'll have to pay you with smiles and thank you's for eternity :). Joseph has entered the world of running and talking - and loving toothpaste. I have to pull the tube away from his little hands every morning. LOL He doesn't know how to get the lid off, but he tries to suck any residue. Minty fresh!

We took one day this fall to hit the apple/pumpkin country around here, and here are some fun pics!

Annie Jr.

In her next show, Joanna played an awesome role in Annie as Miss Hannigan. She was amazing! Here are a couple pics!

Joseph's Baby Dedication

March 28, 2010 The day we dedicated Joseph to the Lord!

Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe

So we've had such a blast at TLAC. This is week 2 of performances, and I got a chance to get backstage last night. Here are some fun pictures of the children getting into theater! -oh, and the BIG KID too. Nick does his solo as Father Christmas among other roles.

There he is, Father Christmas


Here are some minions of the White Witch


Joseph likes the role of a star as well! He's got makeup in his hands!

Daniel turns 12!

So, it was quite the crazy party. Daniel had 11 boys at his birthday party. We made a royal mess! Throwing chocolate covered marshmallows into mouths, finding a whistle inside of whipped cream and blowing it (without using hands), donut chocolate dipping!

How do you like Daniel's new doo? The "gel" look is really whipped cream. Makes a great styling agent!

Christmas 2009

We had a great trip to Ohio to visit Nick' sister and an overnight outside Toronto, Ontario with Nick's Canadian Campagna cousins. It was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. It was the best Christmas holiday away from home ever!

Vito Antonio and the clan in downtown Toronto

Crazy cold Georgians at Niagara Falls!

Some fun and crazy pics from last month

Some fun pics from our trip to Columbia and a bit of randomness!

We went to the Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens and the Children's Discovery Museum!

Joseph was enamored by the animals.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

It is amazing how quickly a decade goes by. We celebrated with Nicholas' favorite food, nachos! My newest tenager! Happy 10th Nicky!

Happy Birthday Joanna!

Joanna got a day of the mall, dancing lessons, and a sleepover! It was quite a weekend!

Week 6

Wow. It's week 6 of school and we are as busy as ever. Do you see the theme? (my last post was 2 weeks down!) We've been eating, sleeping, and dreaming school for the entire time! The children are quite done already, and ready to go back to Sonlight and just mom being in charge. We're going to give this more time, though. We don't want to quit because the going gets tough. Unfortunately, we won't get our first real break until Thanksgiving! The good news is that we are not far off from our goals. One thing is for sure. I have had to become more organized than ever. I've also seen my own heart more clearly and don't like what so easily comes out. This has been a good growing experience for all of us.

Today, I have hope... we are just going to work through as much as we can and not worry about the rest. Also, I have now recruited Daniel to help with the schooling process. Instead of focusing on him and making him the center of our day, we are now allowing him to be a teacher. Today, so far he has schooled two subjects to Anthony (with some of my help) and I am about to have him begin his own work this afternoon. That is a huge blessing! May it continue to work!

Week 2 almost down, 34 weeks to go!

Our football kid

Here we are! Almost through week 2! GVA has been quite a learning curve. For those who don't know, GVA is a public charter school that is a virtual school. All of the students work from home, with the parents as a "learning coach." It is just like homeschooling, but I am now accountable to a GVA teacher and the state for getting the material taught. Last week we schooled pretty consistently from 8:30am until 10pm, taking only brief breaks for lunch and dinner. Daniel had football four nights last week (6-8:30), so when he got home, I'd hit the books again with him. There has been no TV, no games, no friends, until yesterday! We worked really hard and took the afternoon off to meet up with friends who have a lake on their property. So we tubed on the lake and played in the water. Now, here I am again at 9pm still trying to get through a couple more lessons! Once these munchkins are a bit more independent, I'm hoping the day will go quicker! It dominates our lives at this point.

And then there is the baby! He is so very social. He loves being held and easily distracts us! We can't help grabbing him up to cuddle. School came way to soon for us. We'd all much rather just play with Joseph!


Joanna and Joseph

School's In for Summer

Well, it's August 11th and we're in our last week before school officially begins. I'm sitting with my two big boys going through the "OLS" - the online learning school that they will be using this year as a part of GVA. Yep, we're officially in public school... at home! I'm very excited about getting started with the boys. All three will be learning as a part of Georgia's Virtual Academy (K-12 curriculum). Joanna is doing Sonlight's Core 200 this year studying the History of God's Kingdom. I can't wait for that to begin. We'll be learning about the affects of Christ's coming, and the early church all the way through the reformation!

I do love homeschooling! I'm hoping that we'll get an "IEP" for Daniel, should we need it. I'm ready for him to be more independent in his schoolwork. This year? Jo's in 9th, Daniel- 6th, Nicholas 4th and Anthony- 2nd. It definitely creeps up on you. It seems like just last year I was only schooling 3 children and Anthony was toddling around. Now they're all in different places and schooling separately from each other, which means much "Teacher Duty."

OH, BTW. Our new teaching spot is... the basement. Eeeww! Spiders! We kill at least two a day!

1 week out!

Joseph at 1 week old!















As I'm posting this, Joseph is sleeping soundly on his play gym. He has begun sleeping a 5 hour stretch at night, which has been wonderful for me! A few more nights of this, and I will be spoiled. We're both pretty sleepy most of the time, so this new season has been marked by lazy days. I've tried to get out at least once a day to do something. Pediatrician on Monday, to the beach for 1 hour on Tuesday, bowling with friends on Wednesday, and yesterday Jo, Nicholas and I went food shopping- and they played all day with neighborhood friends.

Today? Just taking Jo to a party this evening, but she's babysitting ALL DAY today for a friend. I dropped her at 7:30am and she'll be there until 5pm. I haven't been called to rescue her so I suppose she's doing just fine. Glad we got her that cell phone since there's no house phone there. By the way, the party tonight, it's a 13 year old girl's dream. A 5 course dinner, sleeping in the barn with horses, and boating on the lake tomorrow. I'm jealous! Well, all except the barn thing. Horse slobber on my PJ's - no way!

Loving how the children have taken to our new baby. They love to hold him, talk to him, change him, etc. There are times when I have to say, "HEY, I'm the mommy! Can I hold him now!" LOL All in all, God has been good. Nick has been back to work all week, and holding together so far. We're making ends meet by God's grace. Meals have been coming thanks to good friends, and we're basking in the new baby. Daniel said this morning that he loves having Joseph in our family. That fills my heart!

The Boy's Rooms- As Is

Just waiting for decorative touches- the boys' rooms are done! Well, except for doors and baseboards, but those can wait!