Secrets and Surprises.

We've kept at least five really big ones for nine whole months. Can you believe we've never ever told a single soul (pre-birth) the gender (or names) of our previous five babies-in-waiting? Matter of fact, we've been so good at keeping secrets, we even kept them from ourselves!

Until recently, despite the prescience of ultrasound, we managed not to find out who we were adding to our family until each one actually made his or her own personal entrance. Anticipation built over months to make the moment of birth into an irreplaceably dramatic revelation of what came at the end of the umbilical cord. An emotionally stirring Introduction. Of course, the secret couldn't help getting out then.

It was absolutely precious, and EXACTLY what we wanted.

For months, we had names picked out for either or, and we were ever so happy just to wait and see. When people asked, as they always did, what we were having, we'd give them pause by whispering, “A baby!” Of course, that's not what they wanted to know... and we knew it. But then again, we didn't know what they wanted to know either... if you know what I mean.

We've never found out ahead of time. Until last October, that is. This time, being most likely the last time, I was wavering about whether to know or not to know. Problem is, I was wavering right there on the ultrasound table. And the doctor was not wavering at all. She didn't even waver slightly as she discovered the telling sign and unwaveringly told us her discovery before we could tell her...

Oh.
Well, there was no going back then, was there...
So, now we knew.
Of course, it has been so long ago now.
It almost seems like we've always known who 'tis waiting (rather actively I might add) there inside me.
Oh and guess what?! Even though it's all so unexpected...

It's still absolutely precious, and EXACTLY what we wanted.

'Cause keeping a secret is hard work, this time we've decided to tell our secret before it gets accidentally discovered. Again. :) I hope this is as fun for you as it is for me... SURPRISE!
We're having a... baby!!

:)




Okay. I know. Look closely, now...



Oh, did you think getting secrets out of me was going to be easy?!
(Click to zoom)

:)

At last, the secret's out!!
We're really excited.
Only 8 weeks to go.

Booklists Old and New: 2013 & 2014

This post shall be Reflective on the one hand, as I note the books I've read in 2013, while on the other it shall adhere to this month's theme of Newness with a projected booklist for 2014.
Now you know. That there was my introduction.

:)

...and because the girl's extremely bored expression  makes. me. laugh., I'm putting it up AGAIN.

Last year, I set out to be more purposeful in my reading. I guess I probably did better than past years, but still I was not as purposeful as I'd like to be.

I made a Very Long Booklist for 2013. I sort of went hog wild listing titles left and right. I figured they were books I'd eventually like to read, so why not put them ALL on the list?! Silly me. There was a big difference in the list I made in January 2013 and what I had in December 2013. There were books that had been scribbled in on a whim and two months later were completely forgotten or that halfway through the year had lost their luster. Those along with some books that have been on the *to read* list for the last 4 years simply didn't get read. Obviously, I am a novice at advanced booklistkeeping.

Anyway, no more excuses, I read what I read and here's the list.

Wait, one more thing: I'm not going to comment on any of them this time around because, well, if this reflective-ish post is going to make it up inside January's borders, I have to post it as-is.

Oh, and I just thought of something else. I may try to make a linkable list later. Right now, I'm just going to post pictures of the list. That's about 68 times easier!

Yes, the list, it's coming...

Books actually read in 2013:



Now, for 2014.
I learned some things from reflecting on last year's Very Long Booklist. This year's list denotes changes based on those now *older and wiser* observations.

Starting with generalizing the categories, then slimming my pickings in each, I anticipate having room for more guiltless spontaneous reading throughout the year.

Also, I went ahead and cut all the books I've been thinking of reading for nigh on forever and will commit their fate to whichever way the winds of interest and curiosity blow.

Oh, the list? Right, that's where I was going....
Here you have it.

Books planned for 2014:


P.S. Incidentally, not all the books that I read to the kids for school have made the Booklists. Generally, I only included those I would read regardless of whether I was reading aloud to them or just for my very own self.

And it's possible I've forgotten to list one or two titles; and nary an author, since this is not an official bibliography (contact me if you simply cannot figure that out and absolutely must know).
So that's  pretty much it.

My friends booklists often help me decide which books to read.

These are a few of my friends' favorite things:

Jeanne's favorite 10
Mama Squirrel's 10 books that stuck
Nancy's Reader's Journal

It seems like there were a few more, but I'm so late in getting this up, the links are buried now... Anyway, if you've posted a booklist and you'd like to share, you can link to it in the comments, how's that?!

*(:K: stands for the kindle version.)

Where I've finally reflected...

Source: wikipaintings.org This upcoming term's artist is Manet... imagine my delight when I found this! :) Oh. so. lovely.

I have not in fact deflected my goals for reflection... honest, I have truly reflected. 

While most of it's still in my head, some of it's on paper, I have shared a teeny-weeny bit over here...

Reflections of Goodness... {the value}	Reflections of Goodness... {observed}

::

I still hope to blog those reflections specific to our homeschooling year. What I've learned as a person and teacher-guide, as well as what we've learned and implemented in our school... I'll be posting that over at Fisher Academy. Hopefully, that will happen sometime tomorrow. We wrapped up term exams on Saturday, and I'm almost done with Term Planning today. It may yet be possible!

::

{If you too are reflecting on 2013, click over to see if you'd qualify to enter the giveaway 

for a 2014 Art Calendar. Linky closes 12/31 @ midnight.}

Breaking News: You are NOT going to believe this...

This may be the real reason I've been rather absent online. I've been kinda more than usually occupied offline... :)

Book matters for summer...

Summer Reading for Me & Mine.
I'll be steadily working at making a dent in my Extremely Daunting Reading List for 2013 (this linked 2013 list is no longer current as I've finished some but didn't cross them out AND several headings have grown by about 20 books... ur, well, who knows what year I'll finish :).

The kids will be snacking on Leftovers (the list of books we that we were supposed to but didn't get done this year ... which consist of a few y3 & y8 free reads... oh, and Desiring God which we had all along but I didn't know it. {nervous chuckle}).

But, I'm also hoping to go through some nature study science-ish stuff with the kids, particularly A World in a Drop of Water: Exploring with a Microscope, among others.



Wouldn't this add an extremely fun aspect to nature study?!
Check out Imagination Childhood blog's new summer catalog accompanied by 
a GIVEAWAY ending 6/11/13!



From the Feedly Feast: {inspiration blog reader} 
On Summer Reading
Tell me a story - Summer reading list
More Library Additions
2013 Summer Reading Guide - Ultimate beach reading
The Books of May
What I'm Reading this Summer
What we are reading
Reading Aloud

Other Posts of Interest

The Poetics of Learning Language

Spanish Online Game - Dia en el Circo
Why Finnish Babies Sleep in Cardboard Boxes

blessings...

Dear Friends,

I'm so thankful to have all of you. :) I want to express my deeply felt thanks to those who have been praying for me. I feel all wrapped up in the love of Jesus via your thoughtful words of kindness and tender prayers.

As I don't usually write so personally on this particular blog... I do feel personally about homeschooling too... this is just how I organize my brain :) I'll share any further thoughts as we go through the healing process at A Pilgrim's Project, my personal blog, (personal, as in all things directly relating to my person besides homeschool :). You are all more than welcome to join me there :). Thank you for understanding. Micah was so concerned (and wonderful, btw. I am SO thankful), and knowing there are praying people who read this blog, he posted his note here as well while I was still pretty much out of it. I am so so thankful for your prayers and even more so to the God who hears them. He is ever and always so very good to me.

These two songs have the most healing for this momma heart today. :)

It's official!

We're expanding...

Roadtrip!

We have been 'on the road' for 4 weeks now!  Seriously!  All seven us in a seven passenger van traveling halfway across the States and then practically from top to bottom and then back... Sound interesting?!  Let me tell you... it is.  ;)  If you happen to be interested in what our family is up to, I've posted some summary pictures of our time in the States so far over at my other blog:

http://apilgrimsproject.blogspot.com/search/label/USA

Have a peek HERE:

oh my good golly... nominated?

Oh my good golly..

I was just over at the HSBApost where the Annual Homeschool blog awards happen.  I was perusing the different categories, eying my favorite blogs...  and voting... and my heart's beating fast...  and my thoughts are racing... and...




OH. MY. GOOD. GOLLY.
(there, I said it again.)




I've been nominated!



hilarious.


Now, I'm not going to ask you to vote for me (though you can if you honestly think I deserve it) because there are a number of really great blogs on the list!  Of course you could vote for one of my friends' blogs and ask one of your kids to vote for mine!  ahahahahahah!  If I asked for your vote, I would feel like I were asking you to NOT vote for some of my very favorite blogs!!  ;)    For instance.  Some of my long time friends are nominated too!

Jimmie @ Jimmie's Collage, who I've known since the good ol' days at HSB

Jeanne @ A Peaceful Day

Mama Squirrel @ Dewey's Treehouse

Barb @ Harmony Art Mom

Amy, Marshie and all the rest of the delightful people @ Heart of the Matter

And of course a good number of newer friends have been nominated too...

Go here to check them all out.

{Make sure to click on the blog's link before you click the dot to vote 

because after you vote the list vanishes 

** UPDATE: Here is a list of all this year's nominees.}

So.  I just can't believe it.  Seriously.  And all I want to say is, thank you to YOU my friends who read this blog and think it useful.  :)  I want you to know how nicely and warmly that makes me feel.  :)

there.  I'm done.

:)

Fisher Academy: About Us

Inspired by Heart of the Matter's Not Back to School Blog Hop, I've decided to post a peep into our teaching home!  Fun, huh?!  It's been awhile since I posted pictures of the kids and our schoolroom (click here for post: circa, 2005!), etc. so hold on to your pants I'm gonna try and pull a four-posts-in-one!

First off, in a true about us post, I thought you'd probably like to know who is being taught here, right?  So, here goes...

The students:

We have 2 students currently starting year six of Ambleside Online.  They are 12.5 and 11.5 years old, respectively.  Now, I took these lovely mugs and got all through editing them, before realizing that I have every freedom to take more creative poses in more exotic settings... oh well.  :)  Darcy has good advice in her post Do's and Don'ts of School Picture Day, it is important that as homeschoolers we don't forget to take these monumental photos of our kids so that they can see the sequence of their very own history, how they looked EVERY year growing up.  Of course they don't have to look anything like traditional school pictures, thankfully.








...and then we have our Ambleside Online year two student...   oh wait she was absent on picture day.  She'll be there on 'retake' day though for sure.  :)  She's 7.5 years old:








Our two youngest are in year 0 of Ambleside Online.  It is an unofficial schoolyear, basically not really even preschool per se... but education is a life and life starts before birth and so their education begins as soon as they're out, right?  :)  We read lots aloud, do lots of nature study, hang out with the bigger kids and get in on some of their stuff... you know, the life of a homeschooler's tot.  ;)








The teacher:
Well, that's me up there at the top left of this blog... :) I don't love to post pictures of myself, way too conspicuous. I don't even really like to be in pictures at all except to remember that I was in fact present while my kids were growing up, not ALWAYS behind the camera!

The schoolroom:
We do school at home (literally all over our home) and away from home...

"The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through experience, seeing something with our own eyes."

Jack Hanna 

Our curriculum:
If you've read this blog before you know that I'm crazy about Ambleside Online's Charlotte Mason education. We stick pretty closely to AO's recommended curriculum. We use MEP maths and The Easy French and Rosetta Stone Spanish and Spell to Write and Read (thanks Richele)


Our day:
I have posted about how I do my scheduling here and here.  What it works out to be in real life is completely dependent on a 267 variables which in themselves vary from day to day.  :)  However, this is the list that keeps us on task and helps us to make sure we get what we need to get done every day.
We all have our own copies, the boys' is for 4 weeks at a time, and mine covers the whole term.
Basically, we get up between 6 and 7, breakfast is at 8, sit-down-together-sit-at-the-table-school starts at 9.  We do a couple things after lunch and try to be done with everything by 2 or 3pm. (that even happens occasionally! ;)





So there you have it folks!  Fisher Academy International Teaching Home, or life of FAITH as it were :)
I hope you'll be inspired to spotlight your own unique homeschools!  :)  Make sure to link up if you do, so we can all be inspired!   Also, check out the Not Back to School Blog Hop posts for TONS of links to other homeschools over at Heart of the Matter!  Fun, fun.

10 random things about me

Jen IG is having another contest... Here is my entry: (since it's SO long, it is also my post for today!) 10 random things about me Well, I thought about researching what "random" really means... I mean, I want to get it right! But I'm not about to get out of my warm comfy spot to find the dictionary, and I don't feel like looking it up on the internet. Besides, I looked for the dictionary yesterday and couldn't find it... (BTW, I am known among my friends as someone who can 'randomly' go on and on talking about whatever is 'randomly' catching my attention at any given 'random' moment... I am terribly distractable, but it all comes from something... Something makes me think of something and that leads to something else... and so on) 1. There is a GIANT housefly flying around my head. I can feel the wind of it as it flies by. I abhor houseflies, especially the ones that are the size of a small bird. But WAY worse are the ones that are just about dead that will NOT stop landing in your hair! 2. I had braces when I was younger, but you wouldn't know it for how crooked my teeth are now. I lost one retainer, and the replacement fell out of my schoolbag and got run over by my mom's minivan, I was too embarrassed to tell my parents... thus the crooked state of my teeth. 3. I named our stateside vehicle, the Dodge Ram 12 passenger conversion van the "Tuttle Tank" because it is soooo big and it's green. It already had earned the name even before my 6yo son backed it into a 10 foot deep ditch (with his 3 siblings who were NOT belted in), the thing was sitting there and I could barely see it sticking up out of the ditch and after the tow truck pulled it out we drove it away. 4. I named our Peruvian Isuzu Trooper fairly the "Tuttle Trooper". We were stuck on the highway just after a huge landslide had happened. There were cars lined up on either side and my husband put that thing in 4x4 and you should have seen what we drove through! It was AMAZING. 5. I have played soccer in multiple countries. My team even played the Danish womens' national team (we lost). In Peru, the guys do NOT like to let the women play. Not long ago, I felt like a little kid as the LAST one picked for teams. Even as a grown woman, I cried. 6. I too am afraid of the dark, or at least of what may lurk there in the dark. It all started when I was little I would run as fast as I could from my room down the hall to the bathroom because I was deathly afraid that the Indians hiding in the living room would shoot me with arrows! 7. The aforementioned random thing is probably why I at the age of eleven had to stay in the hospital with a severe kidney infection. The doctor said it was from holding it when I had to go to the bathroom. My teacher came to visit me in the hospital... 8. When the nurse tried to put the IV in, she had to try 18 times! This was traumatizing and the cause of my phobia of all things medical... 9. I am VERY afraid of needles. So much so, that I HATE going to the dentist or the doctor or the lab or any other random person that might like to poke me with a needle. Because of my fear of needles I had all 4 of my children with absolutely no drugs or any interventions of any kind - in the hospital - believe me, the staff there were generally not 'natural friendly'. With my first they kept threatening me with pitocin and an epidural if I didn't hurry up and have the baby! 10. I met my husband when I was 12 and he was 13. He liked me, but was in love in the 'junior high' kind of way and thus was mean to me... we started dating when I was 16. We were VERY young when we got married and we would have it no other way. I was a (married) teen pregnancy with my first son! 11. I am from the Pacific Northwest and I REALLY love the rain. It's raining right now and as it usually does, it is probably dropping like a small waterfall into our living room. 12. I could go on and on as I am thinking of more things that are totally unrelated to anything else, but I think this is getting really long. Now, that was maybe not so random as I usually am, but that is my entry for this contest! Amy Cajamarca, Peru

Saturday, April 29, 2006 - Very Fun!

Posted by EEEEMommy (69.175.131.81)

Thanks for stopping by my blog and your encouraging comments! How cool to be in Peru! I'll have to read some more of your blog to find out why you're there. :)

Permanent Link Fix it Delete it

Sunday, April 30, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Rebeca (71.36.202.237)

It was fun to read your Random things! We don't have a TV at all! So I guess we missed out on Turn off Your TV Week.Now that I'm used to not having it I don't know when we'd find time to watch it. We do watch movies on our computer once in a while. And, did you know that today is Oatmeal cookie Day? I don't know who gets to declare these things! I liked you F themed newsletter! Blessings, Rebeca

Sunday, April 30, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by momanna98 (69.211.48.123)

In your control panel on of the options is RSS feed. If you go into that you can turn it on. If it is on, it isn't posted on your site like most peoples are. I don't know how to get it if there isn't a place that says RSS feed.