Lots of Things

I think the biggest thing for us at the moment is that we started school (book work that is) last week. At least we started most of it. Our biggest curriculum is Tapestry of Grace, which covers history, church history, geography, writing, and literature for everyone, as well as government and philosophy for Joanna and I (rhetoric level). We started this curriculum last year and, although it is a lot of work, really like everyone in the family is learning about the same things, just at different levels. Joanna, Jessica, and I have yet to start our science and Spanish classes, which we take outside the home. Oh, and we still have to start math. So we're obviously not into full swing, but we're well on our way. We like being different. :) Here's a few pictures of the three youngest working on art projects. Jason is making a salt map of geographical features, and Jeannine and Julia (with help from Jessica) are making Byzantine mosaics.

Julia is SO excited about school. About two weeks before we started she would tell everyone about her school books and how excited she was!

Another thing we did for the new school year was to make a new chore schedule. This was a hard thing to do, because the one we had used before was amazingly organized for daily variation in meal making, laundry, dishes, etc. The only downfall was that it only worked for three people (Joanna, Jessica, and I), so we really needed to incorporate Jason, Jeannine, and Julia more. After much deliberation, we finally realized we have to try a completely different approach, so we moved to the week-by-week approach for J1-J4. The rotations are: 1. laundry 3x a week 2. unload d.w. 2x daily 3. clean up around house and empty kitchen trash. 4. load d.w. 2x daily. Jeannine and Julia empty trash upstairs, unload silverware, set table, and a few others that I don't remember. One thing I've noticed about chores over the years is that with "a lot" of siblings the work load lightens as they grow more capable of taking on more chores. :)

Jason has his own way of doing dishes :) -----------------------------------------------------------------

Two weekends ago we visited Mommy's sister's family in Pittsburgh. We had a great time. On Friday night when we arrived we went to our cousin's band camp marching band concert (not sure that's the right word) and ate dinner there. Their band is one of the few bands in their area that actually march (as opposed to shuffle), and the band is very proud of the fact. Here's a little video:

cute picture of Julia eating a hogie

Saturday we mainly just sat around visiting and playing games. Some of the group went swimming in the back yard pool. Joanna and I walked over to our grandparents house (just down the street) and spent some time with them. On Sunday we went to church, had a nice meal at Nana and Grandpa's house, and then drove home. It was a short but fun filled weekend.

Playing Mad Gab. (I thought this looked almost like those pictures on the backs of games that show everyone so excited to play - almost)

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The Wednesday before we went to Pittsburgh Daddy took Joanna and I to the DMV and we got our learner's permits! Thankfully we both passed the test the first time. holding our temporary permits - they had to mail us the actual ones

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~Janelle