The Johns Family Blog: 2010

To homeschool or not ?!?!

I think this has been one of the biggest topic at my house for the last year. We homeschooled K1 last year and we really enjoyed it but this year since she was going to Kindergarten we decided to let her in on the discussion and to see what she thought. As we did last year we prayed and talked about our decision to homeschool or put her in public school and we finally came to the agreement that we would "try" out public school on a trail basis. K1 was one of the main reasons that I agreed to let her to go school even though I have never been "sold" on the whole idea but as the school year goes on I can't help but have this lingering feeling of needing to homeschool her. I mean I literally have a "need" to be the one to teach her, so show her life, to show her a new way of learning, to actually see her learn, to watch her face as she discovers something new, to watch her discover and all in all just a be apart of her life.

Now I know it may be hard to believe but I was not really for homeschooling when the idea came to me. I had actually never even considered it before I had children such less even entertained the idea before in my life. It wasn't until pre-school got closer for K1 that I really started to think about homeschooling her. I didn't have much information and the community that I live in doesn't/didn't offer much information so I did what I do best and that is RESEARCH like CRAZY!! ;)

Once I started to really look into the different curriculum it got to be a bit overwhelming but the more time I have spent looking into homeschooling and into cirrculum the more I realize it is exactly what my family needs and wants. You can make it fit for your family if it's what you chose to do. Public school (in my opinion) is a one size fits all school I don't really agree with this approach to teaching. They want to push loads of busy work on you and your "hard work" all comes down to passing standardized testing. For my family and I we don't believe that public school is the best situation for our children so we have "officially" decided to homeschool our babies. The next step will be to pull her from school. We have already decided on the different curriculums so on to our next adventure...God willing. ;)

A picture from our homeschooling days in pre-k.

K1 pretending to eat her homemade ice cream that she molded. She how fun it is to homeschool. :)

And there is K2 making "mermaid clothes" as she put it. Hard to believe how big my babies have gotten in just a year.

Love them so much. God bless.

THANKS-GIVING

Hard to believe it's that time of year again. Today was a beautiful Thanksgiving and yet again I have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed us again this year as he does every year and it's hard to figure out why when I know we don't deserve any of it. Either way I am thankful for what we have...each other. :)

K1 and K2...This picture summarizes exactly why I always wanted a sister. :)

The girls and I before leaving the house.

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws house. My mother-in-law Delores cooked a delicious meal and I think we were all stuffed to say the least. I guess it's a good thing I'm not really watching my weight right now cause I'm pretty sure I put on a few pounds today. None the less we had a great day of fellowship, fun and food. My kids also had a great time playing out in the country and I was able to caputre a few pictures of them running around the yard. I have to say that my kids are truly 3 of the best things that have ever happened to me other than marrying their daddy. :-)

My dirty little monkey running around outside. It's a miracle that he is looking at the camera. ;)

The kids rocking on the back porch. The love being out in the "country". This is exactly what I picture in my future...

And last but not least my handsome hubby and I on Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for and yet none of it would be possible without him and I fall madly in love and making all these babies.

From our family to yours. We hope you had a BLESSED ~THANKSGIVING!!!

<3>

Halloween ramblings...

So it's that time of year again. When the leaves start to turn beautiful bright fall colors, the weather cools off, you buy a new costume or a few new costumes if you got a bunch a youngins like I do, you go to pumpkin patches, you buy a new pumpkin or three and you take LOTS of pictures.

Ok, well maybe in a perfect little world all those wonderful things happen but sadly none of those things happened at my house this year. Chin up friend....life goes on. Ok, maybe I am actually saying that to myself cause I'm not going to lie I was kinda upset.

Unfortunately in this part of the world our leaves just look dead, it's still feels like summer time, I actually hand-made my kids costumes this year (GO ME!!!), we didn't get to go the pumpkin patch cause my babies were sick, and I didn't get many pictures of the kids doing all the fall stuff that we usually do. I know BOO!!

Thankfully all my kids and I are better now. :)

I tell you what everyone being sick at the same time is not fun at all but on the bright side we are now immune to the Flu....hopefully.

And a blast from the past...Halloween 2009

K1 as a Pirate...ARGH!!

My handsome little man...notice the drool coming off the chin. Such a cutie.

Our sweet little angel K2. Isn't she precious? Let's just say she was NOT thrilled with picture time. I will be showing this to her first boyfriend just so he knows what he is getting into. lol.

World's Worst??

I know you are probably all in shock right now after seeing this blog from me. Take some time and compose yourself. You probably don't know what to think with me actually (gasp) blogging!! :)

I know it has been far too long since I posted anything but unforunately I have failed at being a blogger...which is obvious since my last post was in April. I know shame on me. :/

I think I could quite possibly earn the title of World's Worst Blogger at this point?!!? I have had blogs in the past that I have neglected but this time I said it would be different because it's a "family" blog but I was mistaken. So please forgive me and let's move on with my blogging. I will be making a great effort to "regularly" post blogs about my oh so amazing family so be on the look out.

Oh and I couldn't actually post a blog without adding a picture so...

Our K1 before school on Wacky Tacky Wednesday. :) She looks pretty wacky in my opinion.

Flower fields...

Just a few pictures of the girls I took in a flower field on the way home from Lee's baptism....

My little angels picking flowers for their mama. K1 and K2.

Aww...

Look how sweet...K1 and K2 sharing flowers. Gotta love it.

K1 in the field.

K1 (mom it's really bright out here). lol.

K2 just sitting down playing with flowers.

An Easter blessing and a lesson...

Of all the Easters that I have ever celebrated I would have to say that this year was by far the best. This Easter I got to witness one of my long time prayers coming true right before my very eyes. My baby brother Lee getting baptised and it was such a awesome experience to be apart of and what better day to be baptised on than Easter Sunday.

As I got up that morning to get dress for church I started to think about what I was going to wear (as us girls usually do). As I was looking through all my clothes I came across a white top and I thought it would be a perfect color for an Easter baptism. When you get saved Jesus washes you white as snow and since my brother was being "washed clean" I thought no other color would be more perfect than white.

Lee's baptism was beautiful and of coarse I was extremely proud of him. It's funny how you pray for something so long and you feel like it's never going to happen and then in God's time it all falls into place *PERFECTLY*. I love that things work out like that.

Walking up the steps of the baptism pool.

Getting in the water.

Lee being dunked under....I have waited for this for so long. Melts my heart.

Lee coming back up.

* Faces have been blacked out to protect identity*

So after the baptism we all got to sit around and hang out and during this time I got food, dirt, and even a footprint from K3 on my shirt (yes, you read that right a footprint) and all of this from my wonderful kids. By the time we were packed up and ready to go I had started to wonder why in the world I even wore a white shirt in the first place since I knew it was going to get dirty. As I drove home thinking about my now grey shirt it got me thinking about God and his love for us.

Are our lives not any different than a white shirt that gets dirty??

When we sin and get our "shirts" dirty God takes those shirts and washes them clean over and over again because he made a promise to us when we accept him in our lives as Lord and Saviour. Sometimes he even has to bleach our shirts to make then snow white again but it doesn't matter how many time we get them dirty because he never breaks his promise to clean us up again. Now that is a powerful love. God bless.

Thank you Lord for all you have done.

Easter activites #2

*This was on the way to see GG and Aunt Kathy. My sweet little man could no longer hold his precious eyes open. I just love getting pictures of the kids sleeping...

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After all the fun we had at lunch time with Daddy J's side of the family it was time to load up and head home but not for long. We went home uploaded all 0f our goodies from Grammy and Grandpa and then head off to see my side of the family.

My Aunt Kathy was preparing a BIG Easter dinner for my family, my parents and GG (the kids Great-Grandma) and It was absolutely delicious! Ham, green beans, squash casserole (my fav), sweet potato casserole, biscuits and to top it all off coconut cake with ice cream...YUM!!! I would have to say she spoils us and we love it. :)

Then it was time for business....More Easter egg hunting.

And they're off....

Gramps helping K2 collect her eggs.

K1 running with two baskets....she must thinks she is getting all the eggs. LOL.

Gramps helping K2 find some eggs.

Even GG was able to make it out to hunt eggs with Gramps and K2.

Baby K3 looking for eggs too.

Love this picture of the beautiful sun shining. :)

Gramps and the girls in the sun light...Beautiful!!

After hunting eggs we went onto the back porch and had some yummy coconut cake and ice cream and then we headed back outside to play in the BUBBLES!!

Daddy J, Nana, Aunt Kathy, K1, K2 and K3 chasing bubbles.

K3 looking up at all the bubbles.

K2 in the middle of all the action.

Aunt Kathy and K3.

*Funny story about Aunt Kathy and K3: Every time K3 would fall down from walking or running he would look over at Aunt Kathy and raise his hands for her to come and pick him up. It was so cute. He loves his Aunt Kathy. :)

After all the fun was over....K1 decided that she wanted to do a dance for everyone before she left and below is the picture of her bowing after her performance.

K2 holding their new alligator that sings: Gnarls Barkley's Crazy!!

Easter activities #1

On Saturday April 3rd as we were making our way out the door to have lunch with Grandpa, Grammy, Uncle David and Allen we were shocked to find....

Surprise!! The Easter bunny had come early.

The kids baskets.

The girls holding "Alice in Wonderland".

I guess the Easter bunny got the message that Daddy (J1) was going to be working on Sunday and that it was very important for to us to all be together to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior.

** Now I know that not everyone celebrates Easter and I know that it is a pagan holiday but I believe that there is a way to turn "Easter" into a lesson for my children. My children know that we celebrate Easter because that is the day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. My children also know that he died on a cross for our sins and that he will return for us one day. Don't believe me...just ask them yourselves. :) We also tell our children that the Easter bunny comes and brings them goodies in celebration of Jesus's resurrection. **

After the surprise visit from the Easter bunny we headed over to "Pizza Boys" a local restaurant in town to to eat lunch and hunt eggs. Not only does Pizza Boys have awesome food for a reasonable price they also have a play area out back that my kids LOVE to play on.

Uncle David, Allen, K1 and K2.

K3 hunting Easter eggs.

K2, Allen and K1 hunting eggs.

K1 hoarding all the Easter eggs. She was definitely playing to win. LOL.

K2, Allen and K3 looking for more eggs.

On a mission...

On Friday February 12th we were at a friends house and we were discussing how it was snowing in Georgia and how we wished it would snow here in Florida (even though we all know how unlikely that is). So we started watching the weather channel and some how we all decided to be spontaneous and go on a mini-vaca. I think CB and I were much more convinced than our husbands were but they decided to tag along anyways. Not that they would have had it any other way.

So we went home loaded up and were off on a mission to see....SNOW!! We originally decided we would drive to Georgia and see how much snow they got but once we got there we decided we wanted to actually see snow fall. So we drove, drove and drove some more until we decided to call my dad (since he was raised up in North Carolina) and ask him what he thought. He said Asheville would be nice so we headed that way.....

Here are a few pictures from our adventure....

My girls (and their friends) in S. Carolina seeing and touching snow for the first time. They were very excited.

K1 and K2 playing in the snow (South Carolina). They were the first ones to put their feet in the snow.

There is absolutely no way we would have missed seeing the Biltmore when we were so close to it. It was breath taken just like I remember it years ago.

Me and handsome Hubby. We rarely get pictures together and as you can tell by my chin being cut off this was a picture taken by us. LOL.

So we knew that if we drove all that way there was no way we were going home without tubing. So on our last day there we bundled up and drove around and found an awesome little spot called: Wolf Ridge / Wolf Laurel Snow Tubing located in Mars Hill, North Carolina. It was perfect. There was only one other family there tubing with us and they were a very sweet family with kids around the same age as ours.

Here are a few pics from our tubing day:

Daddy and K3 coming down the slopes. Yes my son has on a pink hat but with all of our luggage in the back I could not find his blue beanie so he wore one of the girls. He is young enough that this will not be traumatized.

Some of the snow flakes that fell on K2's jacket. BEAUTIFUL!!