2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Final Post)

 Tuesday morning we attended a regional breakfast followed by the students being able to vote for Congress Governor, Speaker of House, and Speaker of Senate. Isaac is sitting on stage for breakfast because he was chosen to give the invocation for breakfast.

 After voting we were able to change and board buses for our trip to the General Jackson.

 After boarding the General Jackson we enjoyed lunch and great fellowship time with others.

 Can't have a complete trip without a little goofing off. :)

 The Cumberland River

 After lunch and a trip on the Cumberland River we headed back to Murfreesboro for a formal dinner at the hotel. Sarah was chosen to play the keyboard while everyone entered and was seated.

 Here is a picture of our table at the formal dinner.

Very thankful that I had this opportunity to attend Congress with Isaac and Sarah. These two had a great time at Congress.

2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Part 4)

 On Monday we all boarded buses and traveled over to our state Capitol in Nashville. Our morning started off with getting to be apart of mock sessions. The students were able to sit where our Senators and Representatives sit and see what voting on bills is like.

 One of Isaac's parts was to stand and oppose one of the bills they were voting on. Then the floor was open to others who wanted to state why they would be for or against the bill. The students were then able to "vote". The students I was with said this was their favorite part of Congress.

 Then after a box lunch at the Avon Williams campus of University of Tennessee the students attended a couple of educational sessions. One was titled "From Sheep to Wool" about the uses of wool. The other educational session was about Memes and how to critique them. We finished up around 2:15 and headed over to meet our county Senator and Representatives.

 First on our list was Dr. Joey Hensley which is our Senator.

 Next we stopped in to visit David "Coach" Byrd, one of our Representatives.

 Our final visit was with our other representative, Barry Doss. At the close of our visit with Barry Doss they were going in to sessions, which we were able to attend but didn't get to stay long.

 Then we had a few hours to grab some supper and look around before heading back to the buses.

 It was a long day, but good. We ate supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory...delicious!

Here we are making our way back to the buses. We got our exercise in for the day and were some tired folks. :)

2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Part 3)

 On Sunday after the Speech Competition Isaac had to stay and practice for his part in the presentation that all the finalist put on for all the 4-Her's that arrive on Sunday afternoon. Sarah and I didn't have to be at registration until later that afternoon. Once we registered they were able to mingle and play a few games. The picture above is of Sarah playing a game with a couple of others we met from our neighboring county. We were able to get to know them and spend time with them during Congress.

 Bryan's parents took our three younger children home with them and were able to spend some time with them. Here is Gigi making cookies with them. One of their favorite things to do with Gigi.

 Then Pop took them on a jeep ride. They saw a train pass by and enjoyed the sight seeing.

 Love this picture of these three. I missed them so much but I know they had a great time with grandparents!

While at Bryan's parents they got to spend some time with cousins! These 5 always have a great time together. Yes, Joanna is one of three granddaughters, the other two are 14 and 21...so Joanna gets to hang out with the boys.

The three younger children were able to spend one night with Bryan's parents and one night with my parents and then my parents brought them home. Lots of fun and great memories were made!

2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Part 2)

On Sunday we headed over to the hotel where Congress was to attend Isaac's speech competition. Here are pictures we took with Isaac.

 Bryan and I are so proud of him. It is hard to believe this young man had to take speech therapy when he was younger. He has come a long way!

 Here is Isaac with Bryan's parents, Pop and Gigi. We were very thankful that they were able to come up and be there for the competition.

 Here is Isaac with my parents, Paw and Maw. Isaac had lots of support for this competition. It was great to have both sets of grandparents there to support and cheer him on. He didn't win State but we are very proud of him for making it this far!

 I just had to share a comparison picture. The picture above was taken one year ago at 4-H Congress 2017 when Isaac competed in 9th grade speech contest at State level. The picture below is this past Sunday at Congress. This young man has grown so much! Can't really notice until you do some comparing. God is good!

2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Part 1)

On Wednesday Isaac, Sarah and I returned from a 4-H Congress trip. It was a great experience! I have lots of pictures! I will do my best to recap each day and all that we got to do. I will start by telling that Isaac was a regional speech winner, so that means he would be one of six 10th graders competing at the State level. Being a finalist meant he had to go up a day earlier than everyone else. He had to arrive at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. The rest of us along with grandparents packed up and headed to our destination. We dropped him off and did some sight seeing. We went to the Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, TN. If you know anything about our family you know we really enjoy this kind of stuff! We enjoyed our visit there.

 We were able to see them shoot off the cannon! Pretty loud!

 Here is Elijah with my dad waiting for the cannon to fire. Not the one they are standing in front of
:-). LOL!

 Then we walked through the grave yard. There was around 24,000 soldiers either injured or killed during this battle.

 Checking out one of the cannons that were on display.

 Here is Sarah posing with my parents and being a silly girl. :)

 Timothy gets a ride from his dad. Bryan wearing Timothy's hat. Love these two!

Actually I love this whole crew!! After checking into our hotel we went to eat dinner. It was great to spend some time together!

Vine and Olive Plants

I recently came across a few pictures that I has glad to know I have. Let me remind you that 4 1/2 years ago we lost our home to a fire... which means we lost all of our belongings except what we were wearing at the time. The items we lost that upset us the most is our pictures and home videos. The other items can be replaced but those are things we will never get back. I say all that to let you know that when I come across pictures from years ago I get so excited! Get ready, I will be sharing some of those pictures in upcoming post.

The first picture I wanted to share is this one of the kids and I in January 2013.

Here we are in April of 2017. Four years later!

I am sure you are wondering where did I get the title for this post... I am so glad you asked. In Psalm 128 verse 3 the Bible tells us:

"Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table."

Why We Homeschool

It would probably be good for me to talk about "Why We Homeschool" once a year. Because its always good to remind ourselves why we do what we do. These pictures were taken a couple of years ago. When Timothy and Joanna are done with school work they have some of the best times together. Even the other children enjoy taking a few minutes in between subjects to have fun together. They are only little once. One day the older ones may be off at college and won't have this time with their younger siblings. Very thankful they get to enjoy this time now!

Our first and biggest reason is because that is what God has called us to. Bryan and I made the decision to homeschool after much prayer and seeking the Lord. It sure wasn't the popular thing to do. Matter of fact we have been the "odd" family in all of our places we have served in the ministry because we homeschool. When people first began to find out that we felt lead to homeschool their first question was usually "How long will you homeschool?". To be honest when we started homeschooling our oldest we thought we would homeschool until each child was in the 3rd or 4th grade. That oldest child is a Sophomore this year and not once has God released us from homeschooling. God has reminded us often that we are doing exactly what He wants us to do.

Another reason we homeschool is for the spiritual foundation we desire for our children to have. There are days that we struggle and it is a joy and blessing to be able to stop and pray with that child or children that is struggling. We can plant scripture in every part of their day. The curriculum we have chosen to use is biblically based and the children are even learning scripture while completing school assignments.

(Elijah, Joanna, and Sarah)

There are many more reasons why we homeschool but I will only share one more. We homeschool for the relationships it gives. How awesome it is to see our children be able to build a relationship with each other and when there is an opportunity they get to build relationship with grandparents. If for some reason we need to take off and be with family we have that flexibility.

(Isaac spending time with my dad while he was in the hospital)

Flying Kites

I can not wait for spring to get here! We love spending time outside! This week it was nice enough a couple of days to get some sunshine and fly kites! Here are a couple of pictures of our kite flying.

 Joanna enjoyed flying her kite. We have a great big field that was just perfect for this!

Timothy had lots of fun too! These pictures were taken at the end of the day and they were finishing up their kite flying. I hope these are times they will never forget! Elijah and Sarah enjoyed flying kites too but I didn't get their picture.

The Trip Home

 We had lots of fun and made lots of memories but we were also ready to get home to our animals and normal life. Each night we camped in our pop-up camper and never had any problems or issues. God is good!

 These were a couple of pictures of scenery on the way home. We camped in Nebraska before making the long trek home. The weather on our trip was pretty but windy. From the night at the Badlands to this last night in Nebraska it was windy the whole time, some days were more windy than others. Very thankful that God kept us safe and that He provided each and every thing we needed for this trip to be possible.

On our last trek home it was Elijah's birthday so we let him choose where we were going to eat for supper. He chose Golden Corral...he likes buffets! :) This boy turned 10 that day and enjoyed every bite of his supper! Love this boy!!

Grand Tetons

Our last sight seeing stop on our trip was at the Grand Tetons! It is just south of Yellowstone. Our big "fun" for the trip was renting a boat and spending a couple of hours on Jackson Lake.

Doesn't this look like a postcard? We were actually there and took this picture! Gorgeous!!

I love this bunch and we have some of the best times together!

Bryan and I along for the ride!

We enjoyed visiting the Grand Tetons just as much as we did Yellowstone.