Today marked the end of our trimester. I will be giving out grades on Monday. I need to grade some tests first. Today we marked some success by reading for an hour this morning because all of our Bible and History work was done for the 1st trimester yesterday. It would have been done a week ago but we added one more event so that we could be done by May 10th. If my Mom doesn't come out to visit after Christmas then we will work on the week between Christmas and New Years. This will give the kids a little more leeway later on with their work and finish by the end of April. If my Mom does come out then we will just work a little longer and work up to May 10th. No worries either way. John came home from work around noon, played a game of chess on Yahoo chess. Isaac on the sidelines offering "advice" and then headed up to Canada to play at Newton Wave Pool in Surrey BC. That is how we celebrate the end of the 1st trimester. Two and 1/2 months and we are 1/3 of the way done.

On the way home tonight John was quizzing the kids on their math and on their spelling. Lona spelled a few three letter words such as mop, dad, pan, hop on pop, and mom. John asked Job how to spell "mouse". "That's easy." He responded. "m-o-u-s-e." "How do you spell Washington?" John asked. Job confidently replied, "That's easy. W-A-(dot)." Well technically it is correct. Suprising us very much. Outside of the box thinker.

I read a book that I really like. It's called Beyond Summerland. It is by L.B. Graham. It is a christian fantasy story. I read the first in the binding the blade series and am looking to read the other three. The last book will be out sometime in 2008. I love fantasy books but finding a Christian one was surprising. It was a great story.

Another reason we had an hour of reading for the kids today. It was not only to give them a reward but to reward me as well. All the kids found some books to read or look at. No one complained about it. Hopefully we are instilling a love of reading in these kids. Isaac seems to. He has read three books and we just checked them out on Thursday. I was surprised by Job at the library. He picked up a chapter book at the library and started reading. He was hooked and read the whole book before we left the library and then proceed to tell everyone about it. The only other thing that he reads voraciously is Calvin and Hobbes.
Lona is still just looking at library books but has read 4 of her primer books. We are proud of her.

The end of October. November is fast approaching. Christmas is 57 days away. I am starting to shop a little bit. It seemed like October just started and we have already celebrated my birthday and John's birthday. Isaac thought John's birthday was still coming up. I guess he missed the present opening and the apple crisp we had for his birthday.
On Sunday all the kids were up at 6:45 and wide awake. Job crawls into our bed and says, "Mom, I love you because you are pretty, you're nice to me and you love me." Boy, did that melt my heart. All I wanted to do was lay there and cry.
The rest of the day after church we spent cleaning the house. It was a disaster. I can't remember when the floors had been vacuumed. Swept daily but vacuumed, eons ago. I think that it was clean for all of 5 minutes. Oh well. Once this fall is better than nothing.
This is the last week of soccer. Job had his last practice tonight. John plays basketball tomorrow night. Northlake Church is having their pumpkin bash on Wednesday night. The boys are playing chess Wednesday afternoon and Lona and I are going for chocolate chaud at Starbucks with a friend. Thursday John is going to Canada to play lazer tag and pizza with work, so the kids and I will watch a movie and maybe go to McDs. Friday, the kids are going to cut their Awana cars and I am going to a spa. Friday night Isaac has his last soccer practice. Finally Saturday are the boys last soccer games and Lona has dance class. Wow. That is our week. I'll post pictures of the pumpkin patch we went to last friday sometime this week. Fall sports are ending. Lets look for something else! (Crazy in the head)

9:35pm. Is my day over yet? We quickly had our lessons this morning, Job rushed off to PE. Yes, he understands what physical education is all about. Then a 1/2 hour later we jumped into the van and drove off to the ceramic art studio. We learned about glass fusion. We took little colored glass pieces and arranged them on clear glass squares to be melted. Then we looked at the kilns and the kids asked all kinds of questions. I love impormptu field trips. This was supposed to tie in with our lesson on Justinian the Great, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire during the Byzantine Ages. Boy am I learning a ton.
Next was three stores to find the correct attachments to my kitchenaid so I can make applesauce. I found a wheelbarrow full of apples and John went to pick them up. We figure there are 8 gallons of apples. I made a small dent in it tonight and have 12 quarts + in the fridge ready to can. I can't freeze it, we have 1/2 a cow in our freezer. I am out of milk, cereal, bananas, dog food it has to wait until the applesauce is gone to I have room in the fridge.
Tonight I was eating dinner and John was playing with his new mole traps. Isaac was watching and listening. John had it all figured out and made this comment, "Now we are really going to catch some Mol-lases." Isaac laughed. About five minutes later, Madison was trying to get our attention because she wanted fed. John asked, "What's up with Madison?" "Oh, Mom just kicked her in the *ss." I burst out laughing. This came from my 9 year old!!! What are we doing????

Activity day: We picked up the kids from our neighbors house this morning at 8 am. We went out to dinner last night and so they just stayed over. Lona had dance class at 9:15 (I went running - 4 1/2 miles in 40 minutes). Then Isaac had a double header at 11:45 and Job had a game at 1:00. Lona fell asleep at the game. In the first game Isaac scored the only goal that our team scored. It was great. He was at the right place at the right time more than once and finally he got a goal. I was proud. In his second game, the kids worked hard. They may have given this team a harder time if they weren't so worn out. I thought that when they passed they did a great job. It was even until the last 5 minutes of the game. Bummer, but they played very hard and they shook off the first loss. Job's team had a little more of a challenge. Job was still feeling tired after having a fever for 5 days. He was still taking a nap on Thursday. Friday was his first napless day in almost a week. Next week he'll do better.
After soccer we had a free afternoon, so filling it up we decided to take our thirty year old couch to the dump. the fabric was riping, some huge holes. It was a hide-a-bed, so donating it was out. The matress was terrible and the bar hurt a person's back to sleep on it. It was in our family room and we want to make room for a pool table. John is going to build me a bench to go under the window; it will also hide the toy boxes. Yeah. I want to be organized and somehow with homeschooling, scrapbooking, three kids, and just junk, I that isn't happening.
John picked out a 1/2 marathon for me in January. I just have to heal my tendon behind my left knee. It was sore after about 3 miles today. That is just unacceptable. I need to find some stretches or exercises for it. Tomorrow. I am trying to scrapbook tonight.
good night.

Job today was pretty tired. He almost fell asleep reading his book. We went upstairs and laid down. He cuddled into me and said, "This is my favorite part of the day, the cuddle part."
That made me feel so good. I love being a mom.

Evening, Saturday

I have scrapbooked nearly all day. It seems like it has been a long time since I did anything creative. I am in no mood to run, Job and Lona both have 102 degree fevers and have basically slept all day. It was a beautiful fall day, warm and smelling of leaves, but still I stayed inside. I took a class on line and now I need to do the work. Tomorrow John has sound at church so I am staying home with Job and Lona while Isaac and John leave.
On another note, I think that I have found a camera to replace mine. It is the Rebel XTi. I am looking into a place that has it for sale (body only) for $270. I have all the lenses and only need the body. My camera can be fixed but if I can up grade for only $50 more than the cost to fix my camera might as well do that. I can say that I miss it.
John's birthday is coming up quick. We are going to a marraige dinner through our church but I want to do something for him. I just need to figure it out. I have one week.

Saturday night, the night before the marathon. I am a little nervous. I took this week as a rest week, and now I don't quite feel prepared. I only ran 20 to 30 minutes twice. I have ran 5 miles twice a week and then a long run and then this week pretty much nothing. The twenty-two mile run was hard, mentally and physically. This journey was probably tougher mentally than physically. Overcoming hurdles of motivation and belief in myself has been challenging as well as encouraging.
It was so much easier when I had a consistent running partner and now I almost feel lost. I guess that I am going to sign up for a half marathon in November just to give me some motivation for running. I know that I can do a 1/2 marathon because I have already done it. I was a lot of fun doing the Skagit Flats. I completed it barely under two hours and that didn't seem that bad. I am hoping to be able to do this in 4 1/2 hours; 5 at the longest. I know the route, I have either run or biked it. I have already done twenty-two of those miles. I am scared. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll post how I did; both mentally and physically.