September 2011

Wow! Seems like I blinked and there went September. Getting back to a school-day routine has its challenge.  How I wish I could blog everyday as I use to do.  Anyway, I decided to post the pictures of our lives in this last month for you who are interested to see and for me as a documentary of our days.  I did launch some craft projects and reorganization but those will be posts of their own.

Without further ado, here are some pictures of our lives...

School has been fun for Joshua this year.  We have decided to sign him up for some Co-op classes and it turned out to be a good decision of doing so.  Josh has mapped out a schedule for his homework (all on his own without my prompting).  He has taken on ownership of his education.  I am so happy that he understands this part of his schooling career.  Without the "wanting to learn for your own and for His glory", education could only make one half-a-man, in my opinion.

Peter decided to join in the learning fun as well.  Here is his name in free-hand style.

Guess who is driving now?  Yup! My sweet Christine.  She got her driver license a few days before she turned 17.  She has been a great help to me since then.  She runs some errands for me now, which leaves me more time to help Josh and Peter and work on the business.

Did I say Peter has been super busy?  This is one of the many activities he has gotten his hands on.  He thoroughly enjoys the cutting papers activity.  To help control the mess a bit (for cleaning up purpose) I made sure he used a tray to catch all the cut pieces.  Some still landed outside of the tray (and on his head) but it was much more manageable than if he did not use the tray.

A dear friend dropped by and blessed us with a bag of fresh oranges.  We enjoyed this goodness immediately! Yum!!! OJ rocks in this house.

 Joshua got promoted to be the Cadet Staff Sargent.  He really works hard for all of these promotions. He said CAP is his life right now.  I agree.

 He also received an achievement award for outstanding professionalism and sportsmanship. This certificate  has something to do with the Color Guard team being professional in their dealing with the competition.    The Major has since framed the certificate for the team members who received the award.

 Some one's birthday and it is not Peter's but hes was so excited that anyone sees this picture would think it is his birthday! This is our kids birthday breakfast tradition - Donuts. Yes, it was the 17 years old's b-day. :)

There are many reasons I homeschool my kids.  One of them being able to "sit-in" the class and get up close and personal of my kid's learning.  Here Josh was learning about density and I totally love the hands-on part of the class.

Another experiment to see how fast color diluted in hot and cold water - Atoms move faster in hot water.

and who says you can only write a letter "O"?  Peter made the letter out of ice!

I serve M&M at my CM workshops.  My friend's daughter was at one of them in September and she created this flower art with the M&M (and then she ate them all up).  What fun!

This is the "must have" tool for every scrapbooker.  Once you have this tool, you will make perfect circles and ovals EVERY TIME.

Another pretty pages created (all by hand-cutting).  We collectively have accomplished over 200 pages since my returning to the business.  I am so glad I could help motivate my friends/customers once again to work on their albums.

 Peter has somehow developed a love of picture taking.  I have decided to make a new label to journal his new interest as some of his perspectives are quite good.... maybe not this one, but I just love his face and the way he is so proud of his "end product". :)

Folks, this is not an ordinary ice cream treat.  It is a celebration of the successful potty training!! It took ten days for the training and it is done.  No bribing, no candies nor toys.  Just the matter of fact training.  So I decided to reward him for the effort when he did... ahem... you know... the big one all on his own.  The "ur-oh" part was after this treat, he thinks every time when he wants ice cream, he'd just need to sit on the potty! Note: We have since retrain him that he could have ice cream without having to sit on the potty. Whew! Lesson learned: Give the treat a bit later after the business is completely done and so he won't associate the two together.

Peter's another self portrait - he is getting better...

 Soccer season! This is Josh's last one.  Robert is the coach of his team (not by choice but due to if he did not step up for the position, there won't be a team forming).  He is so busy already, this really adds to the busyness quite a bit.  Thank goodness though it will end before Thanksgiving.

 Run, Josh, run!

 They won this game 3 to 1.  Everyone worked hard for it! Cheers!

 Unfortunately at where we live, autumn is not easily detected. so when I saw the yellow top of this tree, my heart skipped a beat.  I love autumn. Always do and always will.

A bit blurry in this picture but not the memory that stays in my mind of my kids playing together.  I am very blessed that the fact my kids like to spend time with each other willingly. They have their difficult times but it's very rare. Thank you, Lord.

What a handsome album coverset all personalized for Peter's 2011 pictures of life.  This is CM's special "You create it album coverset".  I love it!  If you are interested, my consultant ID is 57264686.

 I just had my birthday too.  My family treated me to a very nice Italian dinner place.  The fries were so tasty that everyone helped me out with it.

 This one was Christine's dinner.  I am not sure of the name but it was delicious, too.

 Here is Peter's light show.

 more light show... I like light shows so these last two pictures really are for me. :)

Joshua parted Peter's hair right in the middle.  He looked like an English boy with his hair like that, doesn't he?

 Another picture from Peter's point of view. Never knew my old vertical blind can look so grand.

I love this perspective (courtesy from Peter, but of course).

 Oh no! He took after his sister's favorite subject of shooting - foot, feet or shoes!!!

 This one is so over exposed but I LIKE it!!! Peter really blesses me with what/how he sees through the lens.

Last picture from Peter - I could not believe the solemn mood he captured in this picture. He is only 3.5 years old. Good job, son.