Wednesday, August 30, 2006


Here is Allison's completed "Wedding Cake". Sorry for the blurry picture. If only I could keep Isaac from finding the camera and changing the settings. LOL
Allison Working on a "Wedding Cake"

Jon and Genevieve being goofballs and enjoying the new playdough.



Homemade Playdough
(from the book Get Ready, Set, Grow! by Morris and Crilly)

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp cream of tartar
3 cups water

Mix and cook over very low heat until not sticky to touch.


This stuff is great! It's very soft for young ones and has no dyes or anything unnatural. Make sure you use a very strong spoon to make it and have very well developed arm muscles. LOL

Well, I received Genevieve's next shipment of books today. I had to sneak them into my room since I bought more than for just this month. She has been following me around ALL day to do this new sticker book and I have to say that I'm impressed. This book is well done and maybe a little more complex than the last book. This one is called: My Big Book of Stickers by Matt Denny and it has special sticker puzzles to make it more interesting. It contains over 600 stickers and has a few more topics than the last book like leaves, flowers, and dinosaurs. We have already sat down and worked on it for about 45 mins total since it got here and we haven't even made a dent in it. I also purchased Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! and Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs. ALL the kids love the Pigeon books and I'm saving the Meatball book for bedtime tonight.

Well, tropical storm Ernesto is coming through today. Other than it being cloudy with occasional storms, it's like a normal day here in "Sunny Florida". LOL The best part is that it has lowered the temps and I was able to turn up the air conditioner to save money.
Well, I guess that's it for today. I have to decide between Beef Stew and Split Pea Soup for dinner tonight and need to get "it" on the stove soon. LOL Decisions, decision...
Blessings,
Lisa








Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A day in the life...

I figured that today would be a good representative sample of what our days are like. So here goes... LOL

Today I woke to Genevieve gently tapping me on the nose, telling me it was "morning time" and that I needed to get up and fix her some breakfast. I TRIED to ignore it because it was barely dawn but I finally got up. You really can't get away with ignoring Genevieve. She doesn't take "no" for an answer. LOL

So I roll out of bed, considering I beginning to gain some weight with this new baby, and head to the kitchen. Genevieve then insists on fixing her own cereal, I am grateful that she decides this while I'm awake as opposed to trying it on her own. LOL So we eat and then the others start to trickle in starting with Allison and ending with Jon.

I go to shower while the others eat their breakfast and then we begin getting ready for our school day. I sat with Jon first and went over his week. He is beginning Sonlight 5, is continuing Algebra 1 and Biology from last week and will begin Language once the book arrives from the company. After I set him on task, I tackle Allison. She has quite a bit of work this year! We went over her reading for this week using SL 200 and talked a bit about last weeks reading. She is just loving this year! I was a bit afraid that the work would be too much for her since I had heard many say that they skipped this year and came back to it when their kids were older but Allison is really understanding the reading and gaining so much from it. I'm glad that I didn't get scared away from it.

Once the older kids were started on their work, I worked on Genevieve. She is a real hands on type of child. We worked on a workbook that I bought for her last month with her box of goodies called Spectrum Basic Concepts Preschool. She learned about the color Red. Then we worked on Dora the Explorer Preschool Adventure Pre-K workbook. She practiced prewriting and learning how to follow directions. As we worked together Isaac colored on different pieces of paper and the wall and some of my furniture. LOL He also watched a baby program on the t.v. (I just love those Magic Erasers they keep me sane. LOL)

After the littles hard work, Genevieve and I made a snack for her and Isaac to share. We washed and cut up strawberries and then sprinkled them with Natural sugar. They both enjoyed their snack. At this point, I realize that it's almost lunch time and that if Isaac doesn't get a nap soon that he won't have time for one. So I begin lunch while Allison puts Isaac to sleep. The kids decide they all want hot dogs and for the olders chili on top. I fix that while fixing myself Nachos. Well, Isaac wouldn't go down, so I fix him some nachos with torn up tortilla and a side of Boarshead Turkey. We all enjoy our lunches and then Isaac naps. Now it's 1:00 and we need to leave at 2:00 for YMCA homeschool p.e., Allison and Jon work on their school work for this hour and I spend time with Genevieve. I get out the playdough and we play. I've decided that we need to splurge on some new playdough cause this stuff is gross. LOL I like to make my own but it just doesn't last very long. I really like the texture better though, so I think I'll make some later today. 2:00 rolls here and we rush out the door, late for p.e., and I wake the baby. I hate waking the baby but sometimes it's necessary. We drop off the older kids and come home. I play picnic with Evie and Isaac and then clean up the water spilled all over the blanket we used. LOL I call my mom to see how my dad is doing and she says that he's doing much better. We talk until it's time to pick up the kids at 3:00. I arrive late because the baby needed a diaper change and IT couldn't wait. LOL The older kids are soaked when I pick them up because it was a water fun day so they shower and change when we get home. Afterwards, they finish up some subjects and that's where we are now. I just finished sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor that got sticky from the strawberries and sugar and figured I'd write while I waited for the floor to dry. Isaac is watching t.v. and Evie is playing nicely in her room for "Quiet time". I've found that if she doesn't get "quiet time" that she can't control her behavior during the later hours of the day. Allison and Jon are still working on their school. I will next begin dinner and maybe make playdough at the same time, then spend more time with the littles playing with the new stuff and then we'll eat. After dinner the kids take care of the dishes while Eric and I will go for a walk with the littles and then we'll bathe them while the olders do some reading or if they are all caught up then they'll watch some t.v. or play computer. We will put the littles to bed and then Eric and I will talk about our day together. Then Eric usually goes to play Runescape with Jon, while I go to sleep because I need to be ready for my dawn o'clock wake up tomorrow with Genevieve. LOL (Sometimes we do a family game night once the littles are in bed, but tonight is an early night for me.) So here is "A Day in the Life of the Glasnapps." Hope you enjoy your day!

Blessings,

Lisa

Monday, August 28, 2006


We have had an awesome day! The kids made a mountain of bread and rolls for our freezer. Even Genevieve made rolls! Here is our hard work...minus about 5 rolls.LOL
Blessings,
Lisa



Here is what happens when you leave Do-A-Dots on the kitchen table...

The Voice of Truth

The Voice of Truth by Casting Crowns

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth


This song speaks to the very depths of my soul. I have battled fear for many years and this song really helps to put my fear into perspective. If what I'm doing is for God's glory, then fear is only a smoke filled mirror keeping me from God's plans. My faith has grown so much that I am able to step through this veil and triumph over my fear, with God's help, over and over again. I pray that someday, I will boldly serve our Heavenly Father, without fear or trepidation.

Blessings,

Lisa

Here is Jon's Kapla tower. We love these blocks! I got them when KB Toys were selling them on clearance for Christmas one year. They have been one of the most played with toys in the whole house.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Genevieve is so funny! She is singing in the great room right now and she has created her own lyrics for the song "You Are My Sunshine." She's singing:

I am my sunshine,
my every sunshine,
I make me happy,
The skys are gray!
Please don't take my sunshine away.

LOL

Blessings,

Lisa
This is my menu for this week. I'm only doing 5 days at a time but I figure it's a start.

Breakfast:

Banana, carrot, or Chocolate chip muffins
cereal
waffles
eggs
pancakes

Lunch:

Homemade pizza
Hotdogs and chili
Nachos
Mac and cheese
chicken salad

Dinner:

Chili and cornbread with toppings
Black beans and rice and salad
Stew and biscuits
Split pea soup and homemade bread
Fried Chicken and mashed potatoes

I'm going shopping as soon as the storms in the area let up. What a crazy day this has been! I woke up this morning and it looked like night. LOL That can really mess up a day when you feel like the one before never ended.

The kids had a great day yesterday. My mom took them while I was at the doctors and they went out to lunch. I got some pretty heavy kids back when they got home!LOL They went to Golden Corral and mom said they ate 12 plates of food. Isaac was almost as big around as he was tall.LOL I'm so glad that they had fun.

Blessings,

Lisa

Thursday, August 24, 2006

I had my ultrasound today and it was so nice to see the baby. It really puts my mind to ease that the baby is doing well. It was far too early to determine what exactly we are going to have but I am still very happy that I was able to see my new little one. They said that I'd have another ultrasound in a month or so and hopefully we'll know then what this little one will be. I may go buy an outfit or two anyways. It'll be nice to have tiny little outfits in the house again. LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

O.k. so I've been tagged. lol Here are my answers...

5 things in my freezer


1. 2 lbs frozen chicken
2. 4 loaves of bread
3. about 20 lean cuisines for my Dh
4. frozen homemade pancakes
5. frozen brocoli


5 things in my closet


1. shirts
2. 2 big 2 drawer bins
3. photo albums waiting for more pictures
4. my sewing machine
5. pillows


5 things in my car


1. two carseats
2. stroller
3. various bits of cookies, gummies, fishy crackers, etc...
4. lots of paper
5. maybe a few cups


5 things in my purse


1. receipts
2. grocery lists dating back to 1999
3. old gum that has probably lost it's wrapper by now
4. about $1000 worth of spare change
5. my cell phone that I always forget to turn on


5 things in my wallet


1. appt. cards from when I was pregnant with Evie
2. appt. cards from when I was pregnant with Isaac
3. appt. cards for today for this little one
4. pictures of my kids from 4 years ago(I just tell people to imagine them taller.)
5. My CVS card


5 people I would tag

De'Etta took my people, so just look on her list. LOLOL
Alright, so that's cheating. I'll list these people...

1. http://360.yahoo.com/galenaspencers
2. http://homeschoolblogger.com/Aliadelaide


Blessings,

Lisa

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Anticipation...

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jon's new school books. I have always hoped that all of my children would go through Sonlight 5 and now it's Jon's turn. I LOVED this year! Allison used this when she was in 5th grade and loved it but Jon just wasn't old enough. I always felt that Allison was a little too young for it in 5th grade, so I have decided that this is the year for Jon to go through it. It is just so meaty and inspirational with all of the missionary stories! I'm excited! We also ordered CQLA Level B Volume 3 for Jon's language arts. We already have the math and science and Jon starts homeschool P.E. today at 2. Now to find him an extracurricular activity and we'll have a complete year. I will sign him up for Flag Football today but I think I'll just add that to his P.E. credit. I guess we'll be brainstorming this week to figure out what he would like to do this year. Either way, we're excited! We keep looking for those boxes. LOL I'm sure they'll be here sometime this week.

Blessings,

Lisa

Neat Children's Books

I have a couple of really good books that Genevieve has just fallen in love with. We were receiving books from Brighter Vision each month but they have gone out of business, so I've been looking on Amazon each month for books to send to her. Her first favorite is called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems. This pigeon is just so funny! Genevieve loves how she has to participate in the book in order to keep the pigeon from driving the bus. The pigeon spends the whole book trying to convince your little one to let him drive the bus, just this once, in funny and interesting ways. He pleads, gets mad, tries to fool you and many other ways. At the end, he dreams of driving a truck instead. lol

My next recommendation is My Giant Sticker Activity Book by Priddy Books. This book is amazing! Genevieve spent a whole month putting this book together. She requested this book over a bedtime story most of these nights. It has over 600 stickers that you have to figure out where they go. It has sections on colors, shapes, vehicles, animals, counting, numbers, letters, etc...it's amazing!

We bought both books from Amazon and received them quickly. I just now bought Genevieve her next month's worth of books and I'm hoping that these books will measure up to last months. I'll let you all know. LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

Friday, August 18, 2006

I had my first Doctor's appointment today. Well, o.k., I was supposed to have my first appointment today but the doctor was called out on an emergency c-section and so I got to get out of all the "fun stuff" for today. My rescheduled appt. is next Wed at 11:00 and (drum roll, please...) I am going to have my first ultra sound next Thurs. at 11:45! I'm so excited! They said that we might be able to see what it is, so I'll let you all know what we find out. It will be interesting to find out if we will be continuing the girl-boy-girl-boy pattern or if this one will buck the system. lol

Blessings,

Lisa

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

My little green machine...

Have I told you all how much I love this thing? Well, I do! lol I have used it to suck up ground in blueberries, sour milk in my car, and Do-A-Dot paints. Well, today was the ultimate trial. I set Genevieve up with water colors in the dining room while I made dinner and she knocked over her water cup. Black water went everywhere. Whew, I looked at the mess and almost gave up. Instead, I got my Little Green Machine out and went to work. I was able to get it all up! My carpet has been saved yet again but my wonderful little machine!

Blessings,

Lisa

Monday, August 14, 2006

5 Days

5 Days. That's right, 5 days. That's all it took for Jon to want to come back home. His view of school has been forever changed because of this experience. No more thinking the grass is greener or that he'd have more friends or that it is all fun and games. His subjects in honors and gifted were 1-2 years behind where he is at home. The kids were just awful to him. The teachers called him a liar when he tried to explain why he was late for class. The bus rides were pure torture. So my son is coming home. What's so funny is that I was so sad by the end of the week because I thought he was happy there. He never complained, just accepted all this abuse because he felt that he had made us work so hard to get him into school and he didn't want us to be disappointed. He finally told Allison and she came to me. I went to him and asked him how school went and he said, "great!"lol... I told my dh to talk to him and find out what's going on, you know, sometimes a boy just needs his dad. Well, he finally told his father everything. What a mess. So, I'm going to be looking into his curriculum for this year. I'm glad we found out now instead of months from now. I think we can undo 5 days worth of damage. Even though this didn't turn out the way we had hoped, I think that this was a good experience for Jon. I think that he will work harder at home knowing that home is where he belongs.

Blessings,

Lisa

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Here's an update from our lives...lol, I'm still trying to keep my cookies down. Some days I'll feel fine and then, wham! I can't even get up. Other days, it's all I can do to eat and nap. I'm hoping that this will end soon. I have my very first OB appt on Aug 18th and I'm getting excited. I'm hoping that since I put this off for so long that I'll be able to hear the baby at the appt. lol

Isaac had his 9th laser surgery last Thurs. He did remarkably well. This hospital really does a good job with the little ones. He wasn't even sick after he woke up. He acted like it was just another day and didn't even need tylenol the day after his surgery!

Jon decided that he really wanted to try school. My dh and I agreed and he has gone this whole week. I'm not sure how things will turn out but we did offer this to the kids and I am going to trust that God is in control and that he will look after Jon while he's in school each day. I am watching him closely and if I start to see things that I don't like, he'll be back home in a flash. So far he's enjoying the experience. I'm glad to see that he can hold his own in a classroom though. He's in all gifted classes and they require a lot of projects. Way more hands on than I expected.lol

Allison decided to stay home. She said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."lol She seems quite happy and is doing well in her first year of highschool. She has chosen Algebra 1, SL200, CQLA Level C, Apologia Biology, Guitar, and Spanish 2.

We almost put Evie in preschool but she really didn't want to go, so she's staying home with the rest of us. She's just so active that we thought she might like getting out for 3 hours a day but no, she was quite unhappy with the whole thought of it. I'm glad. I know that my dh was just trying to lighten the load but I'm very happy that most of the kids would rather have their mom than the lure of spending the whole day with their peers.

I guess that's it for now. I'm just too exhausted to write any more.lol If you all feel like praying, please pray that my tummy settles down soon and that my energy perks back up so that I can keep up with these kids.

Blessings,

Lisa

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Well, we almost sent our older kids to school this year. It had been a while since our last teacher evaluation and I guess I was beginning to feel as though the kids just weren't getting a good education here at home. With a new baby coming, I wasn't sure that I could handle the added responsibility of schooling the kids. After a lot of prayer and the aforementioned evaluation, we have come away refreshed and ready for another year. The teacher not only passed them for the year, she kept asking me for the names of all my curriculum so that she could use it for her kids. She was duly impressed with the kids knowledge and felt that school would not be the best option for them. I guess in my heart I knew this was true. We ARE homeschoolers. Really, the more I thought about the kids being gone all day, the worse I felt. I finally told my dh that if he were to help on the guidance counselor side of things that I'd be willing to start another year. The more I prayed about the reasons why I didn't want to homeschool this year, the more I realized it wasn't the school part of it. I was overwhelmed with the idea of adding the whole how to get into college aspect of the highschool years. I mean, I'm already quite overwhelmed with what I'm already doing and I just didn't want to mess the kids up by not doing a good enough job on that part. Well, he's agreed and so we'll begin our year as soon as I've shored up what we will be studying. Here's to a good year!

Blessings,

Lisa