Pinewood Derby Time!

Today was the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby! Since Braydon is a Tiger Cub this year, it is our first attempt at the race thing.  He ended up placing 3rd! We were just really shocked how well the car did.

The winning time was 2.65 seconds. Second place was 2.701 seconds and Bray's time was 2.705 seconds. It was close but all of the kids had a great time!

They are already planning next year's strategy!!

Fasting and Fillings

During the month of January, our church has suggested we fast from certain things of our choice. One thing I was fasting from was social media.....hence the lack of posts.  So I am now fasting from sleep in the early a.m.  I am getting up 30 minutes earlier to spend time with the Lord.  It has been quite refreshing, and I may just continue doing it.

So, I have a lot of cavities that I have neglected to fill.  I am starting the journey to get them fixed...blah!  I have a plan all laid out for me by my dentist and it is going to take five exciting visits. I had the first visit this past Monday and I am having to go back today because something has malfunctioned in the ol' mouth...yuk.  I was having no pain prior to the procedure on Monday and now it feels as though a herd of elephants are kicking me in the jaw....joy!  There is some inspiration to go to the dentist, eh??

Maybe I should fast from dental work???? Just sayin...

Kid Talk

Setting: Walking around the neighborhood with Braydon for a little bit of afternoon air.

Me:  "This is a nice walk...uh oh! Your least favorite hill is coming up!"

Bray:  "Mommy, why is it that your battery life is longer than mine somedays?"

What a kid!!

Happy New Year!

Things are going well here at the Smith Ranch.  We are keeping busy with homeschooling and everyday happenings, as always! The boys are getting big and we can barely keep the 15 year old fed and full!

Braydon is going to be 7 next month and is really interested in airplanes right now. He went on a field trip to an air force base museum and had a blast learning more about fighter jets!  He plays about every sport possible and is practicing his basketball moves with his new goal during his "off season".

Andrew is 11 and still swimming away on the swim team.  He enjoys his model train sets, caring for his russian tortoise, and shooting air soft guns at the moment. He is NEVER low on energy. He is always ready for a new adventure.

David is 15 and our high schooling garbage disposal.  He is 6 ft tall at this time and who knows when he will stop!  His ACT prep and reading mostly occupy his free time when he is not busy doing school. He reads about 10-15 books per week!

Chris and I just stay busy pulling practical jokes on one another and being madly in love....haha!  Our life is busy but extremely blessed and we wouldn't have it any other way!

P.S.  Chris and I went on an awesome cruise together and it was a fabulous time!
P.S.S.  New Year's Resolution:  Write more about family adventures on my blog!
  Just thinking to myself: More blogging = more seat time for Mommy! (encouragement)

Kindergarten Graduation!

We are so proud of our little graduate!

We love you, Braydon.....our first grader!

Hello Again!

I know! My blogging is so cyclic, but that's the only way I manage !!

Anyway, our latest:

• Braydon has lost his first tooth!
• We are in process of fixing our pool (pool maintenance not fun) we could have been swimming for a while now, but hubby very busy with work and I don't typically mess with the outdoor chores!
• School is going well. Braydon will be finishing up Kindergarten soon and David has to work a tad bit longer than his brother to finish up his freshman year!
• Kindergarten graduation will be on May 23rd for Braydon.
• We are getting excited, but not overly as of yet, about our upcoming cruise in November.
• Staying healthy.
• I'm doing a workout routine that is extremely intense....for me, at least! (P90x)
• Still loving my elliptical that hubby got for me....
• T-Ball is happening and Braydon loves it.
• David has read his buhzillionth book this year! :) The boy loves to read!
• Preparing for the heat (yes, this takes months of self pep talks.)
• Chris works...a lot.
• Hubby bought me a new camera! Woo Hoo! I love it!!
• We visited Queen Wilhelmina a few weekends ago and it was beautiful!
• Rain and storms.
• Last, but not least.....loving my family!

Happy Anniversary!

I love you, Christopher! I am glad that I get to be the girl that spends the rest of her life with you.  Thanks for picking me!  I know you love me too....you always find a way to make me feel so special.  I appreciate all you do and promise to treasure you forever!

Love you to the moon and back.....Shoog!

4-H Sharp Shooters.

Here is a picture of the boys' 4-H shooting club that they are always talking about!

Schedule Change.

My husband is working second shift this week at work.  He does this every once in a while, so we are kind of familiar with it.  It does; however, mess our daily routine up entirely!  So, this time I am changing things up a bit for us.  Instead of starting school in the morning with the kids, I am going to have them start after lunch.  This way, the kiddos will be able to hang out with him until he leaves.  Otherwise, they work all morning and then they don't get to see him at all in the evening!  Then, when the weekend comes, it is like he has been out of town on a business trip.

I am usually one of the homeschooling moms that is pretty rigid with our schedule, but I am kind of thinking, why not?? We are still doing our school, just later in the day....and it is only for a week! I suppose I am getting soft with age...:)

Now, don't get me wrong, I still totally agree with a solid school schedule for the kids...but we are just tweaking it this week...we will be back to "normal" next week!

SNOW AGAIN!!

We were under a warning for a possible one inch of snow last night and today....well, the forecasters get a gold medal once again! We are at about four inches and counting....still snowing!

Braydon was inundated with a snowball attack from me! I got him once, he fell, and I just kept on throwing snow globs at him....he was laughing so hard that he couldn't get up from the ground....good times!


It is soooo much fun to go out and play in the snow with the kids.  Unfortunately, we do not have the proper attire now that we are down south, this is just so unexpected! We bundled up, as best as we could, and played for about forty minutes....then we came in to a nice warm house and hot cocoa!!
 
We are all still in shock that we have seen snow twice this year! What a blessing for the kids to be able to play in it again! Thank you, Lord, for days like this where it is so fun to transform myself into a kid again!
 
The weather is so unpredictable here.....70 degrees this past weekend....four inches of snow today???

Goings On.

I have just a moment to write a few things that have been going on:

• New life groups at church....fun! Chris is doing Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey and I am in a Mom's group. David is in powerhouse and Braydon does JBQ.
• COLD weather for this area! Today's high is 30 degrees!
• Braydon's birthday numero six is coming up in a few weeks...and we are going with the "camouflage" theme!
• David is raising money to go on a church youth trip to Florida!
• Chris is working really long hours and we miss him bunches!
• Planning on taking a trip to Indy soon....
• Braydon has a JBQ meet this Friday night and he is going to try for another quiz out.
• School, of course.
• I, personally, am trying to lose the weight that I gained on the cruise and over the holidays! I am using my elliptical that my wonderful hubby bought for me :) It is going well...and I am almost there!

David did eventually get the sickness that was lingering through our house after he returned from the RAMP....so he did miss the toothpick bridge competition...I think we are still going to build one and test it though!!

We are all well now and just waiting to see what adventures God has in store for the Smiths in February!

My Message!

This is what Braydon surprised me with after he completed his morning work!  I LOVE IT!

Only In The South!



No window scrapers needed when there is cardboard around!

  

Gassin' Up!




This is an Arkansas snow plow....HAHA!



Snow + Braydon = Happy!




When it started to snow...I just let him stand in it....we did not know we would get as much as we did!



Let It Snow!

It happened! We actually had snow...and a good amount of it.  At our house, I think there was around 6-7 inches of accumulation.  It was wonderful!  We went outside and Braydon was able to play in the snow for the first time ever!  He probably shouldn't have went out because he really wasn't completely rehabilitated from the flu yet, but this opportunity doesn't come along very often, so I used my "fun" judgement indicator rather than my "mommy" indicator....and we PLAYED!! Chris pulled down our sleds from the attic and the kids had a blast...good times.

But, as I predicted...the town did shut down, and Chris didn't have work on Monday...so we let the kids skip out that day too!  The locals got out an extra day (not sure why, roads were totally clear), but our kiddos were hitting the books again on Tuesday. Anyway, we needed to get new tires on the truck, so we drove to Kana and delved out the cash (SO NOT fun) for big ol' tires for the beast of a truck that we have! It was so pretty driving through the country seeing all of the snow covered farms/trees....I miss that! We had a great family day....and we were able to share it with our good friend, Steven!

Who knows how long we will be in this town.....maybe forever, but thank you, Lord, for letting the kiddos experience the snow...at least this once!

ALERT!!

There has been a winter weather advisory for our area starting tomorrow morning!  It is possible that we may accumulate 4, count them, 4 inches of snow!! What shall we do??  It is a blizzard in the making!! AHHH!

Ok, so you have sensed my sarcasm!  I hope we do get the weather, but grocery shopping is usually a chaotic event when this sort of weather is coming. Of course, it would be time for me to go! Wal-Mart will be out of water, milk, bread, and the canned goods aisle will be close to bare, but I will push and shove with the best of them.

 The city will no doubtedly shut down and turn into a ghost town....except for us hoosiers, we will be out checking things out...and maybe getting out our sleds (coated with cobwebs, I'm sure, located in the attic)for some playtime!  I wonder if kiddos down here have ever seen sleds ? 

This should be exciting.....

The "Ick".

Poor Braydon has been struck again with the "ick"!  He has had quite unfortunate luck with sickness the past few months....but we are praying the plague will soon be over! :)

David is trying to stay clear of him because he is going to Alabama with our church next weekend to the Youth Ramp...he is very excited about going, so we are praying that the germs do not spread his way!

Braydon will be missing his JBQ (junior bible quiz) meet tonight and is quite upset about that, but like we are telling him, there is always another meet!  He has been practicing so hard on his questions/answers....he is even able to do the interruptions for the ten point questions! We just keep telling him how proud we are and it seems to be helping him cope with missing the meet and his friends tonight.  Well, that, and we told him we could watch a movie of his choice tonight!  A little bribery never hurts...:), haha.

Oh and our fish, a midas cichlid, really does have what is termed, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, or in short, "Ick".  This is a parasite that attacks a fish and is better known as white spot disease!  He is getting better, though, as my wonderful hubby is nursing him back to good health.  He is on our prayer list as well, per Braydon's request!

The turtle, dog, cat, and parental figures are still well and trying to get the rest of the household back to "norm"....or at least what we call normal !

Our Engineering Competition!

One of the families in our homeschool group has devised a toothpick bridge building competition!  This sounds really fun and we cannot wait to participate....David will start constructing this weekend!  Here are our guidelines:

This will be a fun and exciting project provided you, the participant review these rules closely and keep in mind this is a competition of you using your entire mind. Skills used are; thought, reasoning, hand to eye coordination and interpolation.


TOOTHPICK BRIDGE BUILDING:

Each bridge must satisfy the following requirements:

R 1. Each student will submit one toothpick bridge for testing.

R 2. The bridge will be constructed only from

a. Diamond or Forster flat, round, or square tooth picks approximately 6.5 cm in length from a box labeled accordingly: Flat, Round, or Square Toothpicks;

b. Elmer'sTM woodworkers glue.

R 3. Toothpicks may not be broken.

a. Imperfect toothpicks may be traded in for new ones.

R 4. The mass of the bridge shall not exceed 35 grams.

R 5. While resting on a table the bridge shall allow for a 5 cm x 5 cm x 30 cm board to pass under the bridge parallel to the length of the bridge, and with the movement of the board perpendicular to the roadway along the table top.

R 6. The roadway of the bridge shall be a minimum of 4 cm wide along the maximum length of the bridge and at a height from the table top of not more than 10 cm. The roadway shall consist of at least a rail along each side, which is continuous along the maximum length of the bridge. It need not have a travelable surface. When a 3.5-cm wide by 50-cm long 1.9 cm board is laid along the roadway, there shall not be more than a 1.0-cm vertical gap between the board and roadway on either end.

R 7. The bridge shall allow for a test rod of 2 cm x 4 cm x 15 cm to be placed across the bridge at the roadway level and with both bottom 15 cm edges within 3 cm horizontally of the center of the 30 cm span roadway. A 5/16 thread eye bolt, 7.62 cm long will be placed in the center to pull downward.

R 8. The maximum bridge height shall be 22 cm.

R 9. The bridge must be "free standing".

R 10. Specified tooth picks and glue are the only materials to be used.

R 11. No discoloration of the bridge will be allowed.

a. No paint, stain, markers, etc.

b. Other decorations may be used, but must be able to readily remove the decoration(s) so the judge may review the bridge.



The Competition –

The bridges will be tested as follows:

C 1. The bridge shall be placed on a testing stand, which will consist of two flat level surfaces, which will be level with respect to each other and separated by approximately 25 cm.

C 2. The testing apparatus will be placed on the bridge with the test rod placed on the roadway as specified above. (Maximum bridge height is 22 cm.)

C 3. Force will be applied slowly by the student adding weight to a bucket while the judge calls the scale reading until the bridge breaks or the maximum weight is reached. The bucket will be weighed.

C 4. The bridge must be free standing or it will be broken on its side.

C 5. All bridges will be broken.

C 6. The bridge that is able to hold the most weight before breaking wins the contest.

Will let you know how we do......

Our Current Studies!

This is for all of our family and friends that are wondering what the kiddos are doing in school right now!!

David:

Geometry:  Logic problems/proofs. (David's favorite!)
English: Writing a research paper currently and studying gerunds and participial phrases with diagramming.
Geography: Studying the Northeastern U.S.
Biology: Mitosis, meiosis, and starting genetics chapter.
Spanish: Studying uses of of "ser" and "estar" with prepositions and relative pronouns.
Bible: Christ and the religious leadership.

Literature will begin in about 6 weeks after his Grammar/Writing section of English is completed. We will also be doing some keyboarding and working on some sort of building project??? We have not decided what as of yet! David is also in a shooting club with 4-H, teen helper for two other 4-H clubs, in Toastmasters, Teen court (prosecuting attorney), and in January will be the president of his shooting club. He is also involved in our homeschool group.

Braydon:

Phonics: Learning more consonant blends...still working only on the short vowel sounds in reading.
Math: Addition, subtraction, time, perfecting counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, money, and introducing fractions.
Science:  We just studied the migratory patterns of several birds, and are currently learning about ants, bees, and some other insects.
Social Studies:  Learning the capitals, flags, nicknames, and one special point of interest of each state...currently Montana!  Just finished a study on Christopher Columbus and haven't picked our next person of interest yet!!
Bible:  Junior Bible Quiz and we do a daily bible reading/lesson.
Writing:  Practicing sentence structure and punctuation.

We are also working on the calendar/weather. After Christmas will be doing some music lessons! It will soon be time to start T-ball after that.  Braydon is also in a shooting club with 4-H and two other 4-H clubs.  He is the photographer/reporter for his shooting club. Braydon is also involved in our homeschool group!

Hope this answers your "wonder what those Smith boys are studying/up to?" questions!
Be blessed!!

Funny Shorts.

Braydon comes up with some funny material! I have to write them down as he blurts them out or I forget...here are a few of the recent ones:

• "Mom, I am ready to watch "Diarrhea of a Wimpy Kid" when you are ready to put it on!"

• The song "Oh How He Loves Me" is really "WoooHaaa He Loves Me"....and everyone else in the world sings it incorrectly!

• "Mom, I seriously doubt I will be counting by these ridiculous 2s in Heaven, so could you really just let me know why you are inconveniencing me with this lately?"

• "Daddy, I would play some basketball with you, but I don't really want to put the smack down on you in front of your wife, ya' know, Mom."

• Getting his hair cut at Sport Clips, seeing all of the baseballs and footballs and such..."Boy, I hope this lady can cut my hair without watching the game on television. If she screamed, "touchdown", and made the wrong move...my hair could get whacked!  That would be an awkward day on the job for her!"

Will post more as he supplies them....