Report on the HEAV Homeschool Convention and Hannah's 15th Birthday Party

"But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”"

Matthew 19:14

I don't think I ever posted on how the Homeschool Convention went, so here's a quick idea of what went on.

Thursday morning we went to my great-great-Aunt's funeral, ate a lunch, and then Hannah and I went to the Greater Richmond Convention Center with my Aunt and Uncle. After around 10-15 minutes of trying to find a cheap parking spot we found one for $5 and hiked to the convention. Once inside the gigantic building Hannah and I went one way (up the escalator!!! :-D) and my Aunt and Uncle the other. Hannah and I went to a training session for the children's program, conducted by CCI. Everything went well and after the session was over we went and visited the Exhibit Hall. After reading books and "browsing" through different people's stuff we went home with Mama and Alexis who came and picked us up since our Uncle and Aunt had already left. Grandpa and Grandma came down to watch the younger children for us. They did a great job too! Grandma fixed us home-cooked meals Thursday and Saturday and, as they always are, they were absolutely delicious!!!

Friday and Saturday morning Daddy drove Hannah and I early in the morning to the convention center and we hopped out and ran to our room where we had staff devotions. We were ready for children by 7:30 AM. Hannah was an assistant leader for Team H (I think) and her leader was Mr. Mishael. I (Kimber) was a "runner" whose job was to "run" in my section and take children to the bathroom, get crafts, etc. - pretty much just help out wherever I could. Children are so precious, just read Matthew 18 and 19 and you'll see how precious they are in the sight of Jesus, too. I could seriously go on forever but I don't have time, so I'll just end my story with this: Hannah and I had a wonderful time working with the children and, if the Lord leads, I hope to do it again next year.

Daddy, Mama, and Alexis: I think we all had a great time doing what we did. One of the favorite speakers for Daddy and Mama was Mr. Voddie Baucham and Alexis' was Mr. Steve Demme. It was Alexis' first-time-ever at the homeschool convention and she enjoyed it, though I know she wanted to stay longer (I did too!).

So, the end result was that everyone came away from the convention feeling refreshed and renewed!

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Hannah's birthday is June 21st, 1994, but we decided to celebrate it earlier this year because of family situations. Her party was set for Tuesday night (the 16th) and our family members were given only a 2-day notice (invitation) to come and celebrate her birthday. Everyone but a few people showed up!

Our cousins, Kaitlyn and Sarah, from Rocky Mount, VA had come down (school's out!) for a visit and they spent the night Monday. They helped make dinner and dessert, too!

Mexican was for dinner.

Mexican is definitely one of our family favorites though a few members would prefer something else!

Gracie my 5-year-old cousin.

Eden loves playing with Gracie and Claire (7 year old cousin); they're best friends!

Tacos!



Hannah in line for food for her B-day dinner.




The "middle table."
Left to right: our cousin Collin, Seth, Caleb, and our cousin Claire

I call it the "middle table" because there were 4 tables. There was the "adult table," the "older cousin (teen & pre-teen) table," the "middle-aged cousin table," and the "younger cousins table."

Dinner was excellent as always!

After clean-up (Erika, my cousin, was a huge help - washing, drying, wiping, etc.) we went and played outside a bit.



Hannah rocking our youngest cousin to sleep.


"Present time!" was soon called and we all headed inside.

Hannah reading a card.

Pickles!

Hannah received lots of assorted presents but one of the presents was pickles and Brunswick (Sp?) stew - two of her VERY favorite foods! :)

Singing happy birthday.

As you can see from the picture we normally try to out-sing each other and with over 20 people present it normally is pretty loud! :)

Blowing out the candles.

The cake!

This is what the cake consisted of:

2 boxed funfetti cakes

2 gallons of vanilla ice cream

1 can of funfetti frosting

1 package of Golden Oreos

It was really, REALLY good!!

Kaitlyn and Sarah helped me make it. First we baked the cakes (in two big roaster pans! :-D), waited for them to cool, then I spread out 1 gallon of thawing vanilla ice cream, with my clean hands, on one of the cakes, sprinkled the crushed Oreos on top, and then stuck that cake mixture in the freezer. Waited for the cake-ice cream-cookie-mixture to get solid and then put the other softened gallon ice cream on top of the cookies with Kaitlyn, and stuck it back in the deep freeze. When Na-naw got here she moved the top of the cake over from one of the roasting pans to on top of the stacked mixture. Then we (my cousins, Na-naw, and I) spread out the icing and sprinkled sprinkles on top and then stuck it back in the freezer! YUM!!!!

The only bad part about making the cake was the ice-cream spreading. It would literally freeze your hands. Why not use a spoon or something? you're probably asking. Well, hands are so much easier to use than anything else. I did get freezer burn on one of the digits on my middle finger and a little bit on my pointer finger but I'm okay! :-D You probably think I'm crazy but the cake tasted good! :) Anything for the family.

After everyone had left and stuff was cleaned up, we went to bed. My cousins, Erika, Allie, Claire, Gracie, Collin, Kaitlyn and Sarah spent the night. Of course we (the older girls) didn't fall asleep until near midnight.

This is the picture of the "crew" (missing me) at the breakfast table Wednesday morning.

Daddy and Mama made one of the best breakfasts' for all of us. Daddy made omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hot dogs, and Mama made banana bread and biscuits. Dad said he cooked over 3 dozen eggs for the crew.

Wednesday we videotaped each other acting in plays, walked to our neighboring horse farm and enjoyed each others company!

All of our cousins were gone by the time we returned from church Wednesday. :(

My cousin Erika.

My cousin, Collin.

I hope Hannah had a blessed birthday. I also hope that she knows that without her our family would never be complete and that she's a wonderful sister, daughter, and friend. We love you, Hannah!

(Right now, Hannah's with Na-naw for her birthday shopping)

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I just have to post this super, exciting, wonderful news!!!!!

WE CAUGHT TWO VOLES IN OUR MOUSE TRAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That may not sound one bit exciting for you but it is for us. The voles have been eating tons of our plants and after hours of hard work and prayer we were finally rewarded with two dead ones! Yesterday, as Caleb was checking the mouse traps he found one, yelled to Mama, and seriously all of us came running from different points in the yard to see it. It (Mr. Vole) was actually pretty cute though a bit...squished. Anyways, Caleb found another this morning. Our prayers have been answered - thank you, Jesus.

(I probably sound really crazy but, seriously, after all the hard work we put into planting, watering, tending, de-bugging, caring, etc. after our garden plants, it is extremely frustrating to find out that your plants are being eaten by something you can't see. Sometimes you can't wait to see a dead one after hours of work trying to catch, or kill, one. We don't enjoy - a.k.a take delight - in killing them but it's something we've got to do. Our gardens feed us for most of the year and we're not going to sit around and let a little critter eat them from underneath of us. I hope that makes sense. :)

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All for Jesus,

Kimber

Weeding the Strawberry Patch

"Therefore, as I live,” Says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “ Surely Moab shall be like Sodom, And the people of Ammon like Gomorrah— Overrun with weeds and saltpits, And a perpetual desolation..."
(Most of) Zephaniah 2:9

Our strawberry patch was overcrowded with weeds. So, that was our project last Saturday afternoon...weed the entire strawberry garden and then mulch it to keep the weeds down. The reason for so many weeds was because of the hay we had put down in the patch. It went to seed bringing thousands of 6-10 inch hay shoots. Well, Hannah, Mama, and I (Kimber) were already in the garden working so I asked Alexis to get my camera and take a few before and after shots for me...here they are:

A strawberry row with weeds.

When I went out to look at the garden and see what we could do, my first thoughts were to till it all up and start over from scratch but that would be an entire waste of the $100+ we spent on these strawberry plants, though maybe a bit easier for us! :)






All three weed-filled rows of strawberries.





The finished result (after everyone - excluding Lydia, of course - at home helped in some way or form):



WOW! :)



We just threw all the weeds in the row. The sun will probably kill them before they can take root in the walkways! Yeah!





A strawberry row.

(See the flowers on the plant in the foreground - strawberries will be here soon!)




While I'm at it here is some of our first produce of the year...blueberries and raspberries!



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All for Jesus,

Kimber

Homeschool Night June '09

"Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, “What is your report?”

Judges 18:8

Paw-paw, Na-naw, and G.G came over last Thursday night for our homeschool night. This homeschool night was sort of a way to end the school year though we will continue to try and do school Monday-Wednesday throughout the summer (that's always our goal but we rarely fulfill it). Daddy wasn't able to make it (he was away from home working) but we're going to share our reports with him soon...anyways, here are the pictures.

Lydia.

I put her in this dress. It was a little too big on her but she was too adorable in it to take it off. She loves wearing shoes (especially Sunday shoes) and she just walks around in them on the hard-floors (non-carpet) just to hear them click-clack everywhere. It's pretty cute! :)

Hannah

Me (Kimber)

[Don't I look interested? :)]

Alexis

Caleb playing his guitar.

Seth

Most of us shared our WriteShop papers or something we colored, have been working on, etc. We had chocolate pudding pie with Cool Whip for dessert...yum!

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Yesterday (Sunday) we went to the Pasta House Italian Restaurant in Mechanicsville to celebrate my Uncle's 31st birthday. It was his favorite restaurant and a little pricey. Anyways, most everybody in the family that was local came and celebrated his birthday.

Happy (belated) birthday Uncle Sean! :)

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We have another busy weekend ahead of us. Thursday - Saturday is our annual homeschool convention.

Hannah and I decided to volunteer this year in the children's ministry and I'm really excited. It looks like a lot of fun! Grandpa and Grandma are coming down from Northern VA to watch my siblings from Caleb down to Lydia. Saturday night is my cousin, Justus', 1st birthday party, so we'll be leaving from the convention to his party. Our Aunt and family (the Lawhorns) are coming down from Rocky Mount, VA for a visit. We also might celebrate Hannah's 15th birthday with our cousins and have a sleep-over (at our house). And Sunday is our monthly Nash Luncheon.

So, a full weekend is ahead of us! :)

All for Jesus,

Kimber :)

Josiah David's Collage from Emerald Isle, NC

"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."

2 Kings 22:1-2

Here's Josiah's collage:

Josiah was probably my favorite subject...if you can't tell!

Strving to be like Jesus,

Kimber

P.S - Attention any garden experts: we have some very invasive voles eating our 100 pounds of planted potatoes. We've tried lots of different things to rid us of them...stuffed Juicy Fruit gum down their holes, tried to drown them with water poured down their holes, tilled up their tunnels...and they seem to still be there...any help or suggestions would be more than appreciated. Please leave a comment or email us if you have any ideas that you think will work. We'd like to not use any poisons or anything really expensive...

Emerald Isle Collage for Eden Rose

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared."

Ezekiel 28:13

Here's Eden's collage:

Striving to be like Jesus,
Kimber :)

Lydia's Collage and Seagulls in Emerald Isle

"Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”"

Genesis 1:20

Well, here's Lydia's collage...most of her pictures have someone else in them. It's really hard to get a baby to smile on command (actually quite impossible), or to have them stay in one spot and look photo-genic, so these pictures all have someone else with her except for 2, but I hope you get the point! :)

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After Alexis' post on the beach with the millions of pictures, that was only about half of the week recorded. So you missed a lot more pictures but we're not going to post them because it's a lot of work. Anyways, I really liked some of the pictures of the seagulls. We had some leftover bread and pancakes and decided to feed the wildlife. These are the pictures from the food-throwing experience:

Hello!

This is one of my favorites!

A broken-winged seagull (I don't think it was really broken; he was probably just posing for the camera!)

In flight

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You probably get tired of the pictures of Lydia, but here are some more from the other night. :) I had taken a video but we're not patient enough to let it upload the entire day, so there's just the pictures to view.

Look at those blue eyes!

Eating...

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All for Jesus,

Kimber

Alexis' Memorial Day Report

...........For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son.....

Paraphrase from John 3:16

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

This is the report That I (Alexis) made for memorial day.

Enjoy!

Click to enlarge for easier reading

THANK YOU AMERICAN SERVICEMEN!

☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺☻

His Princess,

♥ Alexis ♥

Daddy & Kimber's (Hannah's too!) Father & Daughter Retreat Portraits

Last week we got the Vision Forum pictures in the mail (via a CD) of the pictures from the Father & Daughter Retreat. We got our pictures around 5 minutes before the next session started! :)

Here they are:

Daddy


Daddy and I

♦◘♦◘♦◘♦◘♦◘♦◘♦◘♦◘♦

I just thought it would be fun, if I put Hannah and Daddy's picture from the 2007 retreat up here too, so here it is:

.....But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father......

Genesis 20:12a.

♦♥♦♥♦♥♦♥♦♥♦♥♦

Striving to be like Jesus,

Kimber :)

Hannah's Memorial Day Report

"It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.'"

Exodus 13:9

Here is the report that Hannah gave on Memorial Day:

Memorials

Definition of memorial:

“That which preserves the memory of something…the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of the death and sufferings of Christ.” Webster’s 1928 Dictionary

“A monument, statue, holiday, or ritual that serves as a reminder or remembrance of a person or an event.” Bible Dictionary

There are two different kinds of memorials; there are physical memorials and spiritual memorials.

A physical memorial would be like when Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordon River and set up a pile of 12 stones to remember what the Lord had done. It was so that when their children’s children saw the stones they would ask why they were there then the parents would be able to tell their children the marvelous work of the Lord God of Israel.

A spiritual memorial would be like the day you accepted Christ as Savior or the time you prayed to God and He heard you and answered you. An example would be when Cornelius cried out to God to show Him more of Himself and then the Lord sent Peter to him who then shared the Gospel of Christ with him and household and they all accepted Jesus as Savior.

Memorials in the Bible:

Spritual Memorials

1. The Passover- this was a time that the Jews remembered their divine deliverance from Egypt which is found in Exodus 12:11,14

2. Feast of Purim- this feast was a time for the Jews to remember another miraculous deliverance from total annihilation while in the country of Persia, now the country of Iran, during the reign of King Ahasuerus and the noble queen, Queen Esther. This “memorial” is found in Esther 9:26-28

3. The Sabbath-this was a time for the Jews to remember that they were a chosen pople, holy unto the lord. Also it was a time to rest and remember that the “earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” See Exodus 20:8-11.

4. Resurrection Sunday- this is a day that Christians remember that their Savior, Jesus Christ, arose from the dead and is alive forevermore. See Mark 16:6.

5. Judgment Day- the Day when all flesh will stand before God and will be judged and if their name is not written in the Book of Life they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. See Revelation 20:11-15


Physical Memorials:

1. Korah’s Rebellion: When Korah rebelled against Moses and Aaron the Lord told Korah and his company to take a censor, put incense in it, than, whosever incense the Lord regarded would be the chosen. Well, as the story goes, Korah, his family, and some others, died and the censor’s where taken, at the command of the Lord, and hammered into a sheet that was then put on the altar “to be a memorial to the children of Israel that no outsider, who is not a descendant of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before the Lord.” Numbers 16:40

2. Aarons Rod: The Lord told Moses to take the rods of the 12 leaders of Israel and put them in the tabernacle and “it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom;” Numbers 17:5a. Aaron’s rod was the one that blossomed and proved the Lord had chosen him and his house for the royal priesthood. “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.” Numbers 17:10

3. The Fiery Serpents: The Children of Israel were complaining again and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them to poison them so they would die. In order to save the people they had to look up at a bronze serpent that Moses had made at the Lord’s command. See Numbers 21:9.

I’m sure there are plenty more that I did not record, but you’ll have to search the Scriptures themselves to find them.

A memorial in the Bible was to be a time of solemn remembrance of what either the Lord had done or to remember what they had done and the consequences thereof. A memorial is to be long lasting. In Proverbs it repeatedly states not to remove the ancient landmarks, which are a type of memorial.

If memorials are special in God’s heart, shouldn’t they be in ours?

Memorial Day 2009

"‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance."

Exodus 12:14

If you've read my previous post on Memorial Day ("May We Never Forget...") than you will know that we went to the Virginia War Memorial on Memorial Day this year. Most of the time we've just had a cookout (we still did after the service) at someone's house but we wanted to try and do things a little different this year. Mama had us research different events that would be going on on Memorial Day and I (Kimber) looked up a couple sites and the war memorial was the best option. They had a service from 10:00 A.M - 12:00 if I remember correctly. We arrived there about 15 minutes early and I went around and took pictures until they started. Paw-paw and Na-naw came too.

Some flowers that were on a wreath (they had a wreath-laying ceremony).

The statute on the far right they called "The Shrine of Memory." The clear walls on the far left have the names of all the soldiers who died in various wars and their virginia counties they were from. All together there are 11,634 names on the marble and glass walls; all of which are Virginian's who died to keep us free.


A close-up of the Shrine of Memory and a rose.

We live in King William County, and that is why I took this picture.

Caleb during the ceremony.

(He doesn't like me taking pictures of him, hence the hand over his face)

A veteran in the audience.

We were surprised to see so many people there to honor those who have and are serving our country. There were people standing everywhere.

This lady sung a song.

This was the main announcer.

The service went very well. They had about 4-5 different people talk or sing and the mention of God was everywhere in their speeches and how we need to take accountability of our sins, repent, etc. It was very inspiring with the exception that Jesus' name was never mentioned - only God. Not that God is bad (not at all!) but people would probably get instantly offended (Matthew 11:6) if "Jesus" was mentioned, so the speakers stayed "political."

After the ceremony, they had the wreath-laying ceremony at which they positioned the wreaths all around the "Shrine of Memory." Someone was pronouncing each wreath, what it represented, etc. and the carrier.

I just thought this veteran's facial-expression was funny! :)

Carrying a wreath.

I just had to put this one up here! :)

A smiley veteran!

Ah - a Marine! :) (The one in the red suit)

(Inside joke - ask my family if you want to know!)

They (there were 2) were carrying the wreath down the walkway and they did one of their marine grunts (which sounded like "oo-rah" to me) about half-way down. It was really neat - they were my favorites!

They had the most beautiful music done by bagpipe-players, drummers, etc. there in full attire. The leader of the "band" (the one in the middle of the picture) we had seen at Mrs. Heather's wedding. They played T.A.P.S and Amazing Grace.

I took a video of them but it's cut a little short because I was running out of memory space (and a couple other reasons), but at least you get the point! Please forgive my horrendous video skills, I was enjoying their music, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention - just listen to the music and all will be well! :)

Here's the video (it may not have uploaded, so it may not be here):

After the ceremony, we (our family and Paw-paw and Na-naw) went to my great-grandparents gravesite (Forest Lawn Cemetery). My 2 Great-Grandpa's are buried there along with one of my Great-Grandma's (a.k.a Great), all of which are my grandparents (Paw-paw and Na-naw's) parents.

This is Paw-paw's parents gravestone.

I have no memories whatsoever of Na-naw's or Paw-paw's dad but I remember lots about his mother, whom we called Great. She's the one who started the entire "Nash Luncheon" thing. Every Sunday she'd prepare a meal for all the Nash's (by herself) and clean it up. She always gave us a couple of jellybeans before we left and a card at Christmas.

Alexis, Daddy, and Seth walking around the cemetery.

While we were there, we went ahead and read our Memorial Day Papers starting from youngest to oldest. We (those who were eligible enough to participate) each had a project that we had to complete by Memorial Day and everyone's project was different.

Seth's project was to draw a picture of something that had to do with Memorial Day. And he drew a picture of the scene where we get the National Anthem from.

Caleb had the job of writing up something about a national cemetery. He picked Arlington National Cemetery.

Alexis' project was to write up the history of Memorial Day.

The intent listeners.

Me (I really don't like this picture...).

My job was to pick a hero to recognize on Memorial Day. I picked Michael Fleming Foland. Please click on the link and read his story (the citation is the best). He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor (highest military award) posthumously. I cried on the last 2 sentences of my report (I think most everyone else did too). It's just amazing what others do to protect us and their fellow brothers in their unit, even at the sacrifice of their life. No one will ever be able to repay them.

Hannah's letter was on the history of Memorials in the Bible.

Everyone's report was very interesting, and I'll try and get them all up here, Lord willing.

After our reports were read we went to Paw-paw's house and had a small cookout (that was very yummy!) and some strawberry angel food cake. Yum!

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Striving to be like Jesus,

Kimber :)