Pictures from our Trip and a Cute Story

The Tri-State Area: Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee

Lunch in the National Park; the rest of us used the picnic table.

6 of the Rowe Children in the gardens at the Creation Museum.

Kevin and "Aunt" Felicity Slemp with Baby Eliana. Maybe they're claiming these other children too? Funny thing happened: Kevin and Felicity got delayed at the entrance going into the restaurant after church on Sun. Not thinking anything about it, we trooped on in through, me looking 8 1/2 months pregnant and carrying a diaper bag, the hostess leading, 6 children behind me and Jeff carrying Eliana in her car seat bringing up the rear. When we got to the table, he had this humongous smile on his face. He said, "You wouldn't believe the looks we got". Someone even stood up and counted. He was loving it! If someone had asked he would have told them yes, they were all his; probably easier than explaining it.

Scott and Harris with a python; I am keeping my distance, completely uninterested. A great time to visit the restroom

Such love! Cannot wait to get our own goats. I guess there will be no more trips then.

Pictures from Kentucky

Near Cumberland Gap National Park; behind us is the Valley trail used by Daniel Boone

This bull really liked the boys; he would butt his head through and bump them to get food; once he pushed Scott over onto the ground butting his head directly into Scott's rear!

Scott and the Zorse

Outside the entrance to the Creation Museum

Creation Museum

We just got back from a great 4 day trip to Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. The Creation Museum is in Kentucky, just across the river from Ohio, and we went to eat once (also across the river) in Indiana. The Museum is just wonderful! Amazing and such great information. We all enjoyed the shows, the planetarium, the artifacts, the dioramas, the presentations, the animals, and more. Jackson was a little bit wary of the moving, fire-breathing dinosaur until he realized it wasn't real; of course he asked that question probably 5 times. Of course it was more than just about dinosaurs. If you don't believe the first 11 chapters of Genesis, you cannot embrace Creationism. Evolution is an option but goes completely against Biblical beliefs but more than that, their theories are based on a lot of assumptions. You have to assume a lot of things that are not proven facts to believe in evolution. Also, you would have to accept the billions of years ("old earth") idea to believe in this as well. It all depends upon your starting point. We learned so so much, especially about how a catastrophic flood could have changed the earth's continents, climates, and land forms into what we see today. And, this was a new thought, that the earthquakes, volcanoes, and other "disasters" that happen currently on a much lesser scale than after the flood, are still occuring as "after shocks". The first 11 chapters of Genesis are the basis for believing the whole Bible! You have to go to see for yourself and it sure does make you think differently even if you do believe what Genesis says. Scott and Jeff went to a seminar where they learned how to share all this information, to know what you believe and then be able to articulate it. This is so important today as we all walk around believing certain things but when questioned cannot defend our faith.
The animals outside were a huge hit for the children. They had so much fun feeding and petting, and running all over picking up food off the ground for more feed. At one point I asked Jackson (jokingly) "Are you ready to leave?" Jackson said with a straight face, "No, I'm the farmer."
Another highlight we got to see "Aunt Felicity", meet her husband Kevin and new baby, Eliana. Kevin is a pastor in Berea so we went to church with them and then out to lunch. That was a nice ending to a great trip.

http://www.epikardia.com/

One of my favorite curriculums I've ever used has been this one. We experimented with it when it was new on the market and probably only around in the Charleston area. Now, these gals have moms using their materials all over the place. What began as the most impressive book list for a grade level I had ever seen (and I am a "book gal") has now evolved into high school classes and full lesson plans with everything but math (that's a lot of material) for many grade levels. I am so hoping that Beth will make some of her high school classes available on-line (hint hint Beth!) as I have said since my oldest was 5, that I wanted him to be in some of her classes. What a tremendous learning opportunity with such good materials and literature and a fabulous instructor to boot. Beth once said she was not a "rule follower", ah, a girl after my own heart. But that's not just why I like her so much. She and Dana have made a great team and each do their parts well with much enthusiasm as well as skill and dedicated effort. Being amazed at the book list and wealth of information of project ideas, resources, what we called when I was being teacher-trained in college, the "whole language" approach to grammar and literature amazes those I expose to this curriculum. The specific lesson plans then "blow them away". It's hard to find such an adaptable, usable, resourceful, specific, easy to follow curriculum such as this. In fact, even though we have used many other resources over the years and will continue to, this is the most thorough approach I have ever seen to integrating subject areas all together in common themes that make a lot of common sense. Check out some of their new offerings at:
http://www.epikardia.com/blog/curriculum/win-free-curricula/

I just witnessed the most unusual wedding. I'm pretty sure that I've only been to weddings outdoors and in churches, but this one in a hotel is the first. Jeff and I checked into the Peabody hotel this afternoon in Little Rock for a SASHTO convention. By the way, the Peabody is famous for its mallard ducks, inside! (That is another blogpost). We registered for the conference and then went to the hospitality suite to get water, drinks, a snack and I got some hot tea. While in there, one of the AK DOT workers said we could stay for the wedding. THE WHAT? It turns out that 2 delegates from MS decided to get married away from home while they were here for the conference. They were looking for a JP to marry them today and couldn't seem to find one, so they asked the AK DOT people who are coordinating this conference for help. One got his local minister to come, another one sang a song she pulled off the web, another got the chef here to make cake, have champagne, the official photographer for the conference took pictures. I don't think I would have believed it if I had not seen it for myself. The DOT even hooked up a speaker and played the wedding march. I was glad to hear the minister say "til death do us part" and not "for as long as love shall last"; he was a Baptist minister after all. The bride, (you will not believe me) wore a black dress! Anyway, flowers, throwing bouquets and all, it went on ontop of an indoor balcony overlooking the luxiourious lobby. This one takes the cake.
Time now to go back to the room; I need a camera for the infamous duck march/parade that happens daily at 11 am and 5 pm. Cannot miss this one. What a unique hotel. http://www.peabodylittlerock.com/peabody_ducks/

I have so much to "blog" about; I actually have a list; I don't want to forget it all. The problem is I never sit down to do it. Okay, so I have decided that I will not catch up unless I start somewhere. So I am going to start with today, what is current now, and hopefully I'll get my "journaling" in there at some point. I am inspired by reading others' blogs so I just need to use this as a personal journal time, then I'll make the time. So here goes, I am going to start in all places, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Ducks Ducks Ducks and Ducks

The children all want to share their ducks with you, via pictures that is. Every year for the past 6 years, we buy baby ducks that are 1-2 days old from a local feed and seed. This year we are going to try this in the house in the upstate which does NOT have a creek in the back yard. Well, we do have a small plastic swimming pool. We are hoping to acclimate them to our land which does have a creek on it and maybe they'll stick around. We've never had any of the ducks we've raised come back before.

There's a neat story to how this started. We bought our Snee Farm house (in Mt. Pleasant) on the 28th of Feb. 2003. The end of March, a week or so after moving in, a daddy and mommy mallard met us on the paving stones at the driveway having come up from the back yard. To this day, you can count on ducks arriving at the creek in our back yard and on the no man's land between the creek and golf course about Mar. 30 or 31st; same days every year. Of course we fed them and they would come and go until late summer. In May, the mama duck made a nest and we watched her lay eggs, one each day, until the raccoons ate them. A lady in our church told me how she had bought baby mallards and raised them and then let them go on her pond on her farm. She explained exactly how she did it; it sounded fairly simple and I was intrigued. The next year, we went to Cordoray's on John's Island, bought a lamp, 2 ducks, and some chicken feed and we were on our way. Last year, we got a little more sophisticated and bought a feeding and water bowl to use with mason jars. Also, last year we bought 4 ducks, before it had been 2 each time. We've had one duck drown (suffocate? in the muck in the creek); we've had a pair go off before they could fly; they just walked away one day; and we've had one visit our homeschool support group meeting. (A fun story, Scott brought it into the church in a box, the custodian happened to be on elevator with him and Scott was so hoping Ernest wouldn't quack). That same duck, Ernest, imprinted on us so much that he/she followed us constantly and Pappy trained him to fly in races with him and the children. Our ducks have personality and when it is time for them to stay outside all day (it's a gradual process), when evening comes, they know it is time to go to the garage and will make lots of noise until you let them in. They also like to get loose in the garage (we've learned to cover the rubbermaid bins we use with chicken wire) and hide. It has been a fun experience for the children and I don't know how I will ever tell them "no". We have even had to travel with the ducks before. I do have to write that Jeff is a tremendously good sport. So here are pictures of this year's batch, Tuffy, Tom, Wilson, and Clara (named for Clara Barton). It used to be that I did most of the caring, coddling, and mommy duck stuff, now Scott has done it, even having them sleep in his room the first few nights. It won't be long now, before they will be bigger, start to smell and need to go to the garage. Scott decided since 3/4 of our children are boys that we would have 3 boy names and 1 girl name this year. Of course, we don't know at this point what they are; it's always fun to guess. Enjoy our pictures and we will keep you updated.

2.10.10

I'm going to catch everyone up about a month here....



We had 4 birthdays in 19 days!



First, Scott turned 12 on 2.10.10. He loved the way that date sounded. Such a handsome fine young man he is becoming, on his way to being a real man (like his Daddy!) We have been so blessed to have him these 12 years and I am so looking forward to lots more years.

Someone asked me if it didn't seem like it had been that many years since he was born and I have to say, yes, it does. I remember every detail like it was today (can't vouch for yesterday, cannot remember that far back!) I have enjoyed these years immensely, all the moments, actually there's no word to describe it. I'm so glad I knew my choice ahead of time and made that choice to raise my children at home with me even though my flaws are evident always. I cannot imagine being separated during the day. I'm so thankful to the ones who encouraged me to homeschool. What a blessing it has been. Here are a couple of pictures of our oldest son.

I'll post more birthday pics later.

New Blog! Big Step!

I have finally done it! I know it's not "rocket science" but for me technology is really hard. As long as everything works okay and stays the way it's supposed to, I'm okay. But give me a time when my computer won't do something I want it to or the internet is acting up, or the printer won't print, and I'm calling for my hubby to help me or since he's not always around, my oldest son is also becoming quite the whiz at fixing things.

I have been wanting a blog for some time, just a little fearful of the process. I read others' and decide, hey I want to do that. My main reason is to share my life and my family with my friends and family members. So many don't get to see us that often or even know what we are doing, so this is a way to share it all in one place at one time and our friends and family can choose to follow along if they want.

The picture above is of my sweet precious children right before Christmas at what they call our "mountain house". Going from bottom to top, Scott, age 11, Sarah Kelly, just turned 9, 3 days before this picture, our triplets, Drew, Elizabeth, and Harris (out of order) ages 5 1/2, and Jackson (aka Jack, J, Jaffe Man, Jacker....) age 3.