Our First Commercial

The Brown kids have made their first commercial for Redeemer's Church Westerville. The commercial is promoting their Family Fun Night (alternative to Halloween). Just thought you all would get a kick out of seeing it. For those of you that live close - you are all welcome to come!
(view the clip at the bottom of the post)

We had a great weekend - a movie night, a grocery run, a birthday party, a Buckeye game, church and another birthday party. Tonight is AWANA. A few of us moms on the street are taking turns keeping the little ones while the older ones are at AWANA. Last Monday was our turn, so Abby will go to a neighbors while the others are at AWANA. I almost don't know what to do with my hour and a 1/2. Cleaning or running errands I guess!

Today we are taking a Science and History Day! Zach has a Tree Project that the rest of his classmates finished last week, so he is working hard to finish his display board and gather all of his samples and facts about "Elm Trees". Jord just needs to catch up and make sure that knows her early American History facts - especially about Jamestown. She is taking a Human Body class at our homeschool group that is what her first unit in Science is all about so I just need to sit down with her and make sure that she is understanding it all! Rachel is also doing Human Body with the homeschool group so she will sit in on my time with Jord. She is also sitting here beside me now asking me how to spell words - she is trying her best to sound them out.
We are also doing some chores - cleaning bunny cage, basement clean-up and still continuing to clean up the closet mess from last week. We'll see just how much we get done today. It's easy to make a list, but getting everything crossed off is the hard part.

Enjoy the Clip!

Pics - Finally!

Here are some pics that I have been meaning to put on here for a while now.

The first one is of Abby when she had her asthma attack and had to use the mask - it's supposed to look like an elephant face and trunk!

The others are of the Hurrican Ike winds that we hit here a couple weeks ago - we had Ellie and Noah that weekend - Look at the girls hair blowing in the wind!

And then there is our dog and bunny being such good friends!

We had homeschool group classes today so everyone is tired and watching TV right now. The girls are going to see Charlotte's Web tonight at the Children's Theatre. Julie & Ellie Long are going, as well as Teresa, Savannah and Luke. My girls are going with Memaw because I have Praise and Worship practice tonight that I had forgotten about, so Memaw stepped in and saved the day!

Changing over the Closets

Well, it's October 1st and it's chilly here. I just barely had the windows cracked today and the girls have been complaining of cold feet all day. We will have to get in the habit of wearing socks again. Today has been putting the flip-flops away, getting out the jackets and changing over to fall/winter clothes. Alot of trying things on around here today - in between school. Somehow we still managed to get almost all schoolwork done - and Jordan started division today!
My upstairs hallway is lined with clothes - what of Jord's goes to Rach and what of Rach's goes to Abby and what will not fit Abby - as well as the summer piles that need to be stored and Abby's that are too small and can be gotten rid of. I will not get to Zach until the weekend probably. It takes the girls a long time to try things on and they have to go look at everything in the mirror! The washer has been going all day - it started with my bedding (because some little 2 yr. old likes to play with the toothpaste and squirted it out on my bed) along with all the pants and shirts we are pulling out from totes in the basement.
I think it is supposed to get back up into the mid-70's the first of next week and we will be digging for a pair of shorts!
Happy Fall!

All kinds of trips

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a week since I have written anything! We had a great week of school last week and this week has a few more activities, so probably not as much school. I'm sure the kids are ok with that.

First, another trip to the dentist last week, Jord and I -no cavitites! Yeah! Second, another trip to Indiana, my Aunt Ginni's 60th birthday party. The girls and I traveled with my Aunt Alma and her daughter Shelli, there and back in the same day! It went alright, the girls held up pretty well. We were all tired! We had a good time and were able to see my cousin Mike and his girls (the ones who just lost their mom). ALL the girls had a great time playing together! Abby loved all the dogs! And of course, we were able to see Nana and Pappy again!

Monday, we took a field trip to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. They have homeschool days there every year and the kids were signed up for classes. We had a great time looking at all the planes, learning the history of planes and finding out about astronauts.

Last night, we had AWANA again. I need to mention that Jord works with Rach everyday to help her memorize her sections and at her first AWANA last week she said the entire verse of John 3:16. She was so proud of herself and so was I. Jord is such a big help in this area!

Today, we have another field trip to Sports Ohio. This is a big complex that houses fields for soccer and other field sports as well as a basketball course and a section where they have inflatables. Once a month they open their doors to homeschoolers only. The kids always come home from this exhausted!

Thursday, we have our homeschool group classes and that is usually all we get done in a day like that. So, as you can see, the week has already been and will be filled with extra things this week. Hopefully we'll get some school accomplished today, a full day & more tomorrow and then some more on Friday - for some reason everyone has trouble staying on task on a Friday.

Abby's newest phrase "_____is my bess fwend" Anything or anyone could go in the blank - Mom, Dad, Zach, Sissy, Ray, Kylo, bunny, bear, Jazzy, Vincy-pooh, Luke, - it depends on the day and who she is with. Yesterday it was Dad!

Excited About AWANA!

Tonight will be the first night of AWANA at the Baptist church close to us. This will be Rachel's first year to go and she is so excited. It was supposed to start last Monday, but the wind storm had knocked out power to the church. This morning Jordan reminded her that AWANA was "this night" and she giggled and almost cried I think with joy - she has been wanting to go for 2 years now! We will be left with only Abby for an hour & 1/2 . We will be taking her to Appliance Smart to look for a new dishwasher for the one unit of the duplex that we own. Fun huh?

We had a good weekend - first off the Buckeyes won! At church on Sunday, I played the piano for the praise and worship (I was also singing when I wasn't to nervous about what I was playing). The P&W leader just had a baby and is taking a couple of weeks off. I play the piano
around the house for the kids and I to sing "Jesus loves me" or "This little light of mine", but I haven't played for a whole set of songs for over 2 years now! My fingers were actually sore from all the practice leading up to this Sunday! Guess who played the drums????? Yep, Kevin was hooked into playing the drums because the regular drummer had to go out of town for a funeral!
We were both nervous, but it went well. We made a few mistakes that hopefully the congregation didn't catch - the rest of the p&w team helped to cover our errors. It was kinda fun to play - I like to - I just don't do it too often!

The weather is supposed to be wonderful all week - 75-80 degrees & sunshine. We haven't been able to put away our shorts yet, and the girls are enjoying riding their bikes. Rach and Abby have both moved up to a bigger bike and I need to get some pics of them riding on here. Abby goes fast enough now that I can walk beside her while she's riding and actually feel that it is exercise! It's looking to be a good week around here!

We're Family!

We had a good trip to Indiana and back - changing clothes in the van, getting lost and running wild in the graveyard are just a few of the highlights. It was good to see my cousin Mike and his three girls - Emily, Erin & Lindsey. Mike seemed so strong - trying to keep up with the flow of visitors coming into the funeral home to say farewells to his wife Jama. The girls all seemed to be handling the situation well. Emily had attached to cousins and was enjoying being the oldest of the group. She didn't show much emotion, she was "tough". She seemed matter-of-fact about what had happened. Erin, "who looks just like her grandma" (my aunt Ginni), was adorable looking at everyone through her glasses on the end of her nose - she wanted to know who all these people were and took to my kids right away - showing them around and taking them to the snacks in the basement of the funeral home. She has such a sweet spirit. Lindsey, was a joyful little thing with a mothering spirit - Abby quickly became her "baby" - Rachel, Abby and Lindsey had fun chasing each other, laughing and sharing snacks.
Toward the end of the night, we were saying our goodbyes, until we met in the morning for the funeral. Erin was standing beside her grandma as I gave her a hug. She looked up at me and said, "I forgot, Who are you again?" I began to explain that my dad and her grandma were brother & sister, so her dad and I were cousins so that makes you and I .... and before I could finish, she piped up, stuck her finger in the air and said "Family!" That's all she needed to know, with that she came at me with a big hug. Tears filled my eyes as well as Aunt Ginni's as we reaffirmed to her that "Yes, we are family!"
Family is what will see Mike and the girls through this. God has given us each other here on this earth to be his arms of love, His hands of kindness and His heart of compassion. He uses family! I love my family - all of them, down to the 3rd cousins! I know it's hard to get together as often as we would like because everyone lives here & there, but it's important that we try.
I want my kids to value the importance of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Just to know that we have an army of support if we should ever need it!
It was great to see so many come to show their support to Mike and the girls. They are moving back to Indiana and will be surrounded by family who will be their continued support!
We have been reminded here again in this house just how precious life is and what we do with our life matters.

Planning a Short Trip

We are planning to travel to Indiana again for the funeral of my cousin-in-law, Jama. She died on Saturday and they have brought her back to Indiana for the funeral and burial. What do you say to a husband who has lost the love of his life? She was only 32 - they had the rest of their lives to live together. What do you say to 3 young girls who have just lost their mother and are facing life without the single most important person in their lives? This is what's going through my mind right now as we prepare to leave tomorrow for the viewing, stay all night with my mom and dad and go to the funeral on Thursday. Holy Spirit bring comfort to their hearts, especially those" little girl " ones.
Well, half of Columbus is still without power - hard to believe I know! They are saying it could still take up to a week to get some areas up and running again. Houses behind us are without power, but we never lost power. They said on the news that there were wind gusts recorded between 60-75 mph. That's STRONG WIND! We had a couple trees split behind our house, but nothing brought damage. Almost all school districts in the city are closed because the schools do not have power. Some big stores are open- running on generators!
It's a whole different world without electricity!