Deep calls to deep at the roar of YOUR waterfalls; Psalm 42:7

Day One

Mingo Falls

Qualla Indian Reservation

After climbing 170 stairs.walking about a block over a rocky, muddy path, while hearing the thundering of the falls, we finally saw it.

It was so worth it. 

I don't think we have ever climbed to a waterfall and been disappointed.  Once again we were awestruck at the glory and the majesty displayed

by our glorious God. 

The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters:  The God of glory thundereth...

Psalm 29:3  ASV

We had our choice here, but twilight was fast approaching and after the climb earlier in the day to Mingo my ankle was NOT up to much so we opted for the closest waterfall.  Not as spectacular but still beautiful and the trail was wide and smooth.

David shooting Tom Branch Falls

Tom Branch Falls

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Day Two

The Waterfalls of the Cullasaja River Gorge

Cullasaja Falls

View of US 64 from the car.   This is where we stopped to photograph Cullasaja.  There is barely enough room to pull the car off the road and exit the car safely.

Dry Falls

The last 2 photos are from behind the falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Twenty Years of Wedded Bliss

otherwise known as:

Our Second Honeymoon

We stayed at Mountainbrook Cottages, cottage #5.  Little has changed in twenty years.  It was a much needed step back in time.  No T.V., No PC, No telephone, not even any cell service. 

The cottages are equipped with a basic kitchen.  The only trouble I had was getting used to electric burners.

We brought some groceries from home and purchased a few things that I had forgotten in town at the super Wal-Mart.

I almost forgot to take any pictures of the cottage until we were loading the car to come home on Saturday. Hence the couch full of bags, boxes and luggage.

Our front porch greeter.

Maqelle & Poppy the long-hair Chihuahua who took great care of us upon arrival.  I wanted to bring Poppy home with me!

Congratulations SARAH!!!

And the winner is........


Sarah

"Best Quilt Square Depicting the Artists Life"

The topic for the contest was based on a book that the library reading club was doing titled "On Agate Hill" by Lee Smith

The contestants were asked to design a quilt block that represented something in their life. They could use any medium to create their design.  Sarah's idea was a question mark  with the words who, what, how & why in the borders.

They also had to write a brief description of the block tying it to their life.  Sarah wrote about her love of learning and how asking questions and finding the answer is a great way to learn.

Out of the 5 winners, she was 1 of 2 who made an actual fabric quilt block.  The other was made by an adult. 

Felted Slippers Finished!!

  Before felting.  The color is bad. Felted, the gray suede patches are there for reference.  They will be attached in the final stage to the sole of the slippers.

The finished slipper! Here the color is good, a little light.

Here you can see the suede patches attached.  They were the most expensive part of this project and I think worth it.  I'm already wearing my new slippers, (it's nippy here in NC) and they are pretty no slip on the kitchen floor.

So there you have it, my newest creation.

Random Stripe Maker Tool

I just found a really helpful tool while I was browsing on Crochetville.

 Check out this random stripe making tool.

http://www.kissyourshadow.com/stripe_maker.php

It was designed with knitters in mind. But the uses are endless.

Currently I am crocheting a baby afghan and I've been adding a stripe here and there but I found that it wasn't as random looking as I wanted. This tool will let you preview your color choices and fiddle with the pattern until you get it just right. Check it out.

Baby Sweater

I just finished a baby sweater. Of course I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I didn't follow the pattern much either. I usually view patterns as a guide, I do use the size recommendations, but the stitch patterns etc I make up a lot as I go.

This one was a lot of fun and really very easy to make. I do plan on jotting down the changes I made to the pattern before I give it to someone, I would like to be able to make this one again.

Happy Birthday to.... Me!

In keeping with tradition I will post about my birthday. I turned 45 this past Thursday. As usual David took the day off and as usual, (I'm not complaining) since he's in the middle of buying all the vehicles for his company, he ended up doing a lot of work from home.

In an unusual way that was good. The kids and I got to see how dedicated to doing his best he is. How much he cares about the details of the job and how he goes the extra mile to get the job done.

So, how did we celebrate?

• I got my drivers license renewed.



• I got a new 'Stir Crazy' popcorn popper



• I got a new synch cradle for my Palm Zire 71 that friends gave me



• I got the 3rd Sovereign Grace songbook
• I got 'Sense & Sensibility' on DVD (much to the chagrin of the males in the house)
• I got $$ from my in-laws and I ordered yarn today from knitpicks. I'm going to make a pair of felted slippers and a dressy short sleeved sweater.
• I got to spend the day with my family and even though David was working, he was home and that made the day very special.

So 'Happy Birthday to Me, and I don't feel a day older, but hopefully I AM becoming wiser

consumer search: love what you buy

http://www.consumersearch.com/

Several months ago I discovered this website. It was probably a link from one of the many yahoo groups I belong to. Since I have found it to be so helpful, and informative and, best of all, FREE! I thought I would tell you, my loyal followers about it.

It's the same idea as 'Consumer Reports' magazine, but free.

Heart of Dakota, Creation to Christ

This year we are actually following a preplanned curriculum. I love it!! Everything is laid out in the teachers manual with a two page spread for each day. Each unit takes four days. We are using a variety of publishers such as Apologia for science, Rod & Staff for grammar, Write with the Best for writing, Saxon for math.

If you go to the web site, http://heartofdakota.com/ you can download samples of all levels of the curriculum, order a catalog, and join a message board. The author is active on the message board and also answers emails with questions.

We are three weeks into the year and are really enjoying every minute of it. The only thing I have added to our day have been Latin vocabulary, spelling, and guitar. With guitar my goal is to have Daniel continue to improve and teach me at the same time. We'll see how that goes. My fingers do not want to form the chords as easily as he makes it look.

The biggest things I love about this curriculum?

1. Everything is SPELLED OUT! In the event that I am sick, or when David and I go out of town in a few weeks, anyone will be able to take over.

2. The children can self-teach. Really! It's that well planned out!

3. It's completely biblical. All the history and Bible lessons flow together chronologically.

4. Even though I bought more books this year than I have ever bought for school in my life, I was able to buy almost every thing second hand. AND these books are worth keeping. As Charlotte Mason says, "No twaddle".

5. It is leading us into a deeper understanding of who GOD is, it is challenging us to think for ourselves.

' One of the most wonderful things about knowing GOD is that there's always so much more to know, so much more to discover. Just when we least expect it, He intrudes into our neat and tidy notions about who He is and how He works.'

Joni Eareckson Tada

Happy Birthday Daniel

WOW, Daniel is 13. He was a Labor Day baby in 1996. Our pastor at the time stopped by the hospital on the way out of town to pray with us. Fortunately Daniel had made his entrance by then!

It's hard to believe that only thirteen years ago he was a tiny 7# infant and now he is becoming a young man. (No 'teenagers' allowed in the Gibson household, only young men and ladies).

To celebrate we spent the day with Dad, and went bowling. I think it will soon become a favorite pasttime. We went to Fryes Lake Lanes, where if you go at the right time, (Thursday after 1pm) Eddie will probably be there, and if you ask he will give you tips on improving your game. Eddie is one of those guys who loves the game and wants to see young people do well form the start.

http://www.fryes4fun.com/Bowling/BowlatFryes.htm

Hopefully the kiddos and I will be able to bowl at least a couple of times a month during the day and David will be able to join us on his days off.

To all my 'FRIENDS' on facebook

I am closing my facebook account. If, in the future, you want to know what I am up to, then please feel free to call me or even write me a letter. I am home most of the time. Since we homeschool, afternoons are best for phone calls, and it does usually take me at least a few days to respond to a letter. But I will respond. And I LOVE getting a real letter in the mail.

If it is urgent, an email is okay, but definitely not my preferred method of communication.

You may be wondering why I am choosing to quite using something so easy to use such as facebook. Did you read the article I linked in my previous post? No? Then here is the link again...http://voices.allthingsd.com/20090825/how-facebook-ruins-friendships/ read it.

If you truly are my friend, then we will work to maintain our relationship. How many people do you have on your 'friends' list. 100? more? Can that many people truly be your friend? Acquaintance maybe, but FRIEND? Come on, people, get real. Friendships take work. Facebook doesn't require any effort.

Neither does blogging for that matter. BUT, I am going to keep my blog, because it is an easy way to get pictures to Aunt C whom we call regularly as well as to other real friends that are now in other states and to whom we either write or call.

So, good-bye Facebook. it was fun for a while, but not worth the isolation that it caused, or the 'fake' friendships that it encouraged.

Join me if you dare in building real relationships, full of life, promise, trust, and encouragement.

How Facebook Ruins Friendships

Read the article I've linked and tell me what you think.

http://voices.allthingsd.com/20090825/how-facebook-ruins-friendships/

First week of school under our belts...

and it's been a good week. I did not realize how much we were 'unschoolers' until we started following a preplanned curriculum. I love Heart of Dakota! http://www.heartofdakota.com/

I can't say enough about it. It is steeped in the Bible, I think the only class that doesn't use God's Word in some way is math. In fact yesterday on of the kids noticed that everything we read and did pointed back to scripture and commented about it. When I assured them that this was indeed the case, they wondered if it wouldn't be confusing, so I pointed out that everything followed the same timeline, Creation to Christ and now they are seeing how it all ties together.

We are using resources by Ken Ham, Ruth Beechick, and Diana Waring to name a few. We are studying the geography of the holy land and we are using Apologia for science and learning all about zoology.

I do have to admit, the first 2 days, I taught like I was used to doing, and I was exhausted. Then I realized, this curriculum is designed to be done more independently, and why am I making it so hard on myself? With that in mind, the last 2 days have been easier.

We are still not doing everything that is scheduled. One reason is I just discovered that I overlooked the dictation assignment for this week in our Language Arts section. And we are also waiting on the student book to arrive for our reading program. I think that by week 3 we will be up to snuff so to speak.

Even though I'm tired, I'm really pleased with how the kiddos have taken charge of their learning this week. They are getting started on their individual classes on their own, not waiting on me to say 'get to work'. I have a 2-page excel spread sheet that I fill in for them to check off their assignments, it is semi-detailed and has them refer to the teachers manual for specifics. So far this is working well, I'll probably tweak it a little, but my thought was to give me a printed record of what we did this year and also be able to sell my teachers manual to help finance next years books if it is in His will that we continue homeschooling.

Now the only thing I really need to figure out is how to create a spreadsheet for grades. I think David can help me there.

Is summer break already over???

Tonight, at 10.30 pm, my children dug out their math books and started working on math for the 2009-2010 school year. Sarah couldn't find the math book she wanted so decided to work on spelling instead.

This after only 4 weeks of "summer break". I am no where near ready to resume teaching. Shoot, I still have to reorganize all the bookcases, order the books we need, and my teacher's guide for next year isn't even going to ship until August 1. (I plan on officially starting on August 17).

Daniel asked if he worked all day tomorrow on books would I count it as school. "NO"!

Sarah is also in the process of writing a preschool curriculum. I'm trying to encourage her to stick with it. After all, isn't that where a lot of the great homeschooling products have come from to begin with? Other homeschoolers? Why shouldn't she be one more author? She loves children and is really good with them. She seems to be a natural teacher. She has some really good ideas, now to get them on paper, organized and eventually submitted to a publisher...

Daniel on the other hand has a mind for computers and music and story telling. Who knows where God will take him with those interests and skills.

During these next few years, we are really focusing on helping them to grow in the areas where they have interests and skill, to become stronger in their weak areas and to grow in their love for Christ and for others. Sometimes it seems that it is all for naught. We cannot see the future. But our Father is in control and we have committed these children to Him from before they were born. They belong to Him. We are only temporary parents, hopefully teaching them to serve and to love as the Father has loved us.