Monday, May 30, 2011

Some Gave All

Some Gave All

5-30-2011

 

I never had the pleasure of meeting my Uncle Pat, you see the war took him back in 1966. My oldest sister Barbie was the only niece from my dad he ever met, and she was just a baby, so she has no memory of him either. Brenda and I had never met him, but that doesn’t stop the tears from running down my face as I type this blog and it doesn’t stop the emotions from erupting from my heart as I edit the pictures of the articles my Granny clipped from the newspapers long ago.  To read the words quoted from my daddy as he spoke of his only brother and to see the pain of losing a loved one in the faces of my dad, Granny, and aunts has taken its toll on me today. I am writing this blog for Memorial Day. The day that was set aside to remember that some gave all.

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My daddy, William C. McGee, had already served one “hitch” in the army. When he got out, he and Uncle Pat worked in construction for a while. Work was scarce one winter so January 1963 they decided to enlist together. They were stationed together for a while in Korea.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Our Donated Terrarium

Our Donated Terrarium

May 14, 2011

My wonderful niece Susan, who is more like a cousin because of our ages, was so generous to donate her 60 gallon terrarium and several things to go with it to our little classroom after the death of her bearded dragon. She knew Austin was into reptiles and amphibians so she thought of him when she was ready to get rid of the tank.

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Austin wanted to keep it in his room but the shear size of the tank made that not possible, so into the classroom it went. Which is probably better so that we all can enjoy it.

Slipping and a sliding

Slipping and a Sliding
May 7, 2011
We went to a birthday party and the kids played on a slip and slid. They had a blast!
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Adam went at it 100% all boy but Anna wanted to be a little timid and tried to be more graceful.

Mud Slides and Dams

Mud Slides and Dams
May 9, 2011
We seem to end up back at Boykin Springs more often than I care to admit. I like the place don’t get me wrong but I love discovering new things but today they family just wanted to go play so that is what we did.
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Anna was happy to see that the “tub” we made last time we was here was intact and had finished filling up with water.

Torah Scraps ~Sanctifying the Name of God~

Torah Scraps ~Sanctifying the Name of God~

May 6, 2011

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Emor : אמר - "Say"
Torah : Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Prophets : Ezekiel 44:15-31
Gospel : Luke 11:1-12:59

“Birds and the Bees” of a Flower

“Birds and Bees” of a Flower

May 5, 2011

Working in our Botany Book we had a project to “dissect” a flower.

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At first we tried with small flowers. That was way to hard so we went to my moms and swiped a couple flowers from her to get some that was large enough to take apart accurately.

Botany Test ~Monocots and Dicots~

Botany Test ~Monocots and Dicots~
May 5, 2011
Being the “not so typical school” that we are, when we test we usually end up with something like this:
After reading in our Apologia Science Book “Exploring Creation with Botany”  Lesson 2 ~Seeds~  and learning about monocots and dicots we needed to see if the kids understood what we went over. So out to a hiking trail we went!.
A monocot has a single cotyledon (seed part) like a piece of corn and a dicot has two parts like a bean. If the seed is not present you can look at the leaves to tell; monocots have parallel veins running vertically along the leaf (like grass) and a dicot has the “net” of veins spreading out from the main center vein (like most plants have). Monocot’s flowers usually have petals in sets of threes, where dicots have petals in sets of fours or fives.
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“OK we are ready!” I don’t think I have to worry to much about them “freezing up” before a test!

Mother’s Day 2011

Mother’s Day 2011

May 5, 2011

My wonderful children are procrastinators just like me. The night before Mother’s day they begged to stay up a little later because we had been off visiting family and didn’t get in till late and they did not have their computer time. I told them that was fine. I was unaware they actually wanted to stay up later to fix me a Digital Scrapbook Mother’s Day card.

The next morning Stewart snuck into the kitchen and cooked cinnamon rolls for breakfast and brought them to me in bed. Of course I thought it was so sweet but I told him I will eat in the kitchen ( I only could see sugar and crumbs in the bed if I ate there.) Stewart called the kids to turn on their computers and they had all made me a scrapbook page and had put it as their background of their computers so when the PC’s were turned on that is what I would see. In Stewart’s words, “Welcome to the digital age, mom!” I thought they did such a good job. I had them “zoop” it to a flash drive so I could blog them.

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Adam’s

Mothers Day Stress Relief Remedy ~Craft~

Mothers Day Stress Relief Remedy ~Craft~

May 6, 2011

So as I was surfing around on Facebook a few days ago, one of my favorite Blogger/Full Bible Christian/Homeschooler/Author friends Robin Sampson of Heart of Wisdom posted a link for this adorable little craft project and I just had to do it for my mom, sisters, and MIL for Mother’s Day.

I call it the Mother’s Day Stress Relief Remedy.

Torah Scraps ~Be Holy~ April 29, 2011

Torah Scraps

~Be Holy~

April 29, 2011


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This weeks reading:

  • Torah: Leviticus 19:1-20:27
  • Prophets: Amos 9:7-15
  • Gospel: John 7:53-10:21

Each week on the Sabbath Eve (Friday evening) we read our weekly Torah Portions. On Sabbath Morning (Saturday morning) the kids and I scrapbook the main idea or something we personally got out of the reading.

Springs, Swings, and Things

Springs, Swings, and Things
May 3, 2011
Boykin Springs is one of our favorite places to visit for a quick hike. Today we went because a friend of mine had asked if we knew the condition of the park so of course I went to check it out. You know me, any excuse to hike!
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A picture of me and my baby boy. I fussed at Stewart for never getting a picture of me and Adam.

Just as Much

Just as Much

April 29, 2011

After I lost my sweet dog Foxy I thought I would not love another pet. I almost rebelliously had my mind set to it.

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That is of course until a little dog named Kelev came into my life.

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Stewart took me to Canton, TX and pretty much against my will and bought me a puppy within a few weeks of losing Foxy.

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I did not feel ready to “replace'” her yet, I had more crying to do I had more anger to deal with. I didn’t want to say no because I knew it would help the kids to get past the loss of our family pet if they had a pup to play with, so I gave in.

I still fought the urge to love him. I did not want to lose him and be heart broken again. The person who said “better to have loved and lost” is goofy. I only lost my doggy, not even a family member, and it hurt so bad I could hardly stand it. Of course a person can not turn off the heart’s emotions no matter how bad we wish we could at times.

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It didn’t take long for Kelev to wiggle his fuzzy little self right into the big middle of my heart.

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Now, don’t get me wrong, he has been a bit of a challenge at times. Chewing anything and everything he could get a hold of which includes but not limited to bike fringe, wisteria bushes, shoes,… phone lines, Stewart’s solar yard lights…

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To the point Stewart was about to give up on Kelev because he was so destructive. Thankfully, Kelev’s special little personality won Stewart back over each time.

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This little pup was curious and in the big middle of everything we did or do.

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As Kelev grew from pup to dog so did our affection for him. He was becoming a member of our family, not just a pet.

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Loving to get in our laps and posing for pictures as much as our other children.

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Always “sitting” at the picnic table with us. Having a deep mind discussions with Mr. Orangey, the cat.

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The kids love him just like a sibling, and of course he thinks he is one. He seems to be saying, “What ya doing sis?”

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They love to play with him, although I don’t think the children have learned the concept of “fetch” yet.

 

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He has such a mild temperament. He was very interested in the kittens but knew not to hurt the babies.

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He hates it when we are in the back yard and he can’t come (because he tramples the garden.) He peeks under the fence and watches us longingly.

It amazes me how fast he learns. I coaxed him one time a few months ago to get in a chair beside me.

When I was done giving him his bath this time around and I got out of the chair I was sitting in to wash him and he hopped up in it and has been getting up in a chair to sit with us every time we are outside now.

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I decided to write this blog even though I already have a blog about Kelev. I did because I just realized today as he ran to beat me to the top of the steps he had filled the void my Foxy girl had left behind.

She always ran to the top step to make sure she got her very last loving in before I went inside for the day… and today, I realized Kelev did the same.

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He will never be Foxy but I told him today, “Are you trying to be like my Foxy girl? You know Kelev, I love you just as much as I did her.” and my heart smiled knowing it was ok to love a pet again.

Foxy was a wonderful beautiful dog, loyal, devoted, and loved me so very much and I think I will always miss her but Kelev has a character that I have never seen in any dog. I love him in a different way than I did Foxy. With her, I had a protective love, guarding her from harm and wanting to care for her, which probably stemmed from me rescuing her. With Kelev, it is more of a best friend love and we just enjoy each other. I know most people want to say a dog doesn’t have a soul and they are “just” an animal but I say those people have never met

Mr. Kelev Tov “Mammer Pajammer” Husband.

 

Canyon Rim

Canyon Rim

April 24, 2011

We woke first thing in the morning hoping to get a hike in before the heat became to intense. The summer like weather in the spring has made me wish we were back in the winter. On top of the heat there is no rain. Everything is so dry and fire danger is very high.  All winter I was looking forward to the spring with the flowers and birds and all but now I am disappointed. We decided last night to head toward Newton to check out some trails we found online. We chose the Canyon Rim trail to take on. We thought we would get in a couple hikes today. Of course we was thinking that before we arrived at any of them.

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We found the trail with a lot of help from my iPhone. It looks as if the trail has some what been forgotten.

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Well, that don’t look to bad less than two miles. We decided to start easy and then hit the hard trail.

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Right off, my kids get into exploring and taking pictures. I guess they are well trained by now.

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There were plenty of milk weeds flowers to look at.

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I really like trails that have signs explaining things about the local fauna and any historical events that may have happened in the area. I commend Champion for having great signs on their trial. This  is “Bear Grass'”, or so the sign says. It says it is used to do basket weaving, I see a project in our future!

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Adam likes leaves. He found a neat “two toned” leaf and a couple with some leaf galls on them. He compared the sizes and wished he knew what bug had made them.

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Can you spot the butterfly? There were several of these little Buckeyes fluttering around.

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Austin was busy taking pictures of every spider web we came across, amazingly there were hundreds of webs everywhere on this trail. He did get some great pictures though.

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A Red Jumping Spider awaited his close up. Kind of creepy having him staring at you!

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And his side view.

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Gee, honey, could you have at least fixed my collar before taking a picture of me taking a picture?

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There was a little spring fed creek that apparently this “canyon rim” went around. Maybe because of the dry weather there wasn’t much of a creek, just a trickle of the spring coming out of the side of the bank.

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Parts of the trail was a bit difficult, instead of going under like the rest of us, Anna though she needed to go over and got her foot stuck, she was not happy that I chose to get a picture rather than run to her rescue.

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The next downed tree Adam, Anna, & I took an obscure trail around while the men folk crawled under the large oak. Awesome things can be found when you venture off the beaten path. Anna got a great picture of this little bird nest.

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I was constantly calling to Austin telling him to keep up but he was busy getting pictures. I need to slow and chill and let the boy explore, but I was trying to keep all of us together and the little ones like to run ahead. He did take some very interesting pictures.

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A blooming Bull Nettle and what appears to be a Bag Worm Moths Cocoon.

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A katydid nymph and funnel spider he photographed.

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A group of Daddy-Longlegs huddling together and a close up of some that Austin think are Eastern Daddy-Longlegs because the coloring is a bit different.

We were starting to wear down and worry that we may have to dead head back to the car (which we hate to do). Not having a map so we can see where we are heading and how far we have to go can be very frustrating. We just kept moving forward hoping that the trail we was on, looped.

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Stewart being tired and I wanting to lop, doesn’t mix well.

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Just about the time we decided we may have to turn back because the trail looked as if it ended we saw this sign.  It looked like there was fox holes and embankments all along this little gully although I couldn’t find any history to back it up on the internet just a mention or two that it happened in Burkeville, TX. We decided to keep going forward because there might be more history to be found.

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Finally coming to a sign that said we were at the end of the second trail, we had hope and trekked onward.

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A little farther around the rim we began walking on a wide path and then found this sign so apparently we was on an old logging road.

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I was pleased at the many information signs that were on the trail. Several trees were labeled, Magnolia, Hickory, Black Gum, and Loblolly Pine. If the trail itself had been better maintained and easier to follow this would have been a really great hike.

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I thought this was kind of funny, the sign says Southern Pine Beetle Infestation, and yet there are no pine trees, were they trying to make a point here!

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“Deer Run Lookout” so dear Anna had to run out and look. I tell her, “You’re not a deer!” “Uh huh!” She coyly replies.

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I think Adam was playing Indian Warrior and the tree with the hollow place in it was his Teepee and the stick was his spear.

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Anna props herself up on a beech tree growing from the side of the bank and looks out over the canyon.

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Of course if Anna does it then so does Adam. He watched as Austin and Anna climb down the steep bank to look at the creek.

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Anna goes to climb back up the bank and slips and falls down a little way, she jumps up, “I’m OK!” we all laugh at her silliness.

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Austin spotted this web, “Oh cool, It looks like a sail boat!” Spiders can be great artists!

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At this point the trail is getting more difficult and it seems like we have already walked three miles. The signs are hard to locate which doesn't help our lack of motivation.

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The information signs were often the only thing to let us know we were still on a trail. This first tree had Woodpecker damage, that is what caused the ringed to form around it. The next one, a Sweetgum, had a canker caused by insects.

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We were very tired of the up and downs of the valleys and hills but we spotted the sign a few yards ahead where we entered telling us we were almost finished with the third trail. We were very happy to know it was a loop around and we was not going to have to dead head back that whole way. Although I was not necessarily planning on taking on the “difficult” walking trail!

I was climbing the last incline and my foot slipped on the pine straw and down I went to my hands and knees. Being silly I started to crawl like that was the only way I would make it to the finish line and after two “crawl steps” I almost landed in a pile of dead crow.

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Stewart had saw it but I hadn’t because my hair had fell all in my face when I went down. He was saying, “Honey! Honey! Crow!” A couple more steps and I would have been face first in a crow carcass! Ewwwww!

We were so happy to be back to the car. What was suppose to be only a 1.6 mile hike I swear ended up about 3 or more miles, either that or I have really gotten out of shape in the last few months not being able to hike.

I was happy as always just to be out and getting fresh air and sun shine and enjoying nature but we just have to get out more and hike because I feel like a big wimp after this one about whipping me. Needless to say, this was the only hike we did today, the others can wait till another day!