Today ....

Things I learned today:

• If your daughter wants to take a bath and you give her a shower cap because you don't want her to get her hair wet, you need to explain to her that this does NOT mean she can dunk her head in the water. 
• If your dryer breaks when it is forecasted to rain for a week straight and there are 9 people relying on that dryer, it will put a kink in your plans. 
• The boys are now aware of their "friends" being nearby. Isaac didn't want to hug me in front of his friends for the first time today at co-op. He found me later in the hallway and gave me a hug and said, "I just don't want to hug you in front of my friends."

We Bought a Farm: (Not) Being Lonely

Our dear friend Anni with our daughters and her little
foster daughter. (Laws don't allow me to show a
picture of her but trust me, she's a CUTIE PIE!)

The thing about this life here that is constantly amazing to me is this one fact: 

My biggest fear in agreeing to move out to "the middle of nowhere" was being lonely. And lonely is the LAST thing I could call myself now.

When John (aka "JB") and I began discussing homesteading and purchasing land, I was not on board. In fact, my husband will tell you that he played mental chess with me for nearly two decades in order to bring me over to the non-suburban-housewife side that I really thought I wanted to be on.

If you asked me where I pictured my life when I was a little girl, I would have told you, "as a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs." I pictured a mini-van and taking my kids to the local Christian school for their education. 

If you asked me when I was thirty-years-old where I saw myself when we got out of the military, I would have told you the same thing. In a neighborhood. With other people. (So I wouldn't be lonely of course.)

But JB had other ideas. He wanted to homestead. He wanted to live rural. And slowly but surely, he brought me over to the same side.

When we started looking for a farm, we thought something in the 8-10 acre range about 15 minutes from a town would be ideal. I specifically asked if we could be within 30 minutes of a town that had a Target.

But then, we saw this farm. And the price and the whole package was exactly what we wanted ... despite the fact that it was closer to an hour from a Target town. It was closer to the town of Greeneville and not Johnson City. I wanted Johnson City! But God had other plans -- oh and what beautiful plans they are.

Today, Anni and her beautiful little foster daughter joined us for our normal Sunday time together. Anni is now a member of our church here in Greeneville, and she is even signing for second service some weeks. Check it out!



Anni's parents were in town today. I didn't get a picture with them, but I do think it's FANTASTIC that Anni's parents names are GEORGE and DIANE. (Those are my parents' names too!) They are really cool folks, folks. Anni's Mom helped Abigail learn a new trick. You can see it in the video below. (You'll hear Jacob encouraging her and me talking with Anni's moms about one of my favorite topics: BOOKS!)



I am so blessed by all the people that find our home a place they like to be. Friends and family that stop through or get eggs or meat from us or volunteer or hang out with us. We have our wwoofers here and so many amazingly wonderful people that spend time with us. 

Today we actually had sixteen people here at one time. Our family. the grandparents, Anni and her parents and "daughter", our two wwoofers, and two local gals helping cut trees to raise money for a mission trip. 

I am not lonely.

Not even close.

(Sometimes I actually wish for a moment I was!)

We Bought a Farm: Game Day

The Kotysnkis are not only are homeschooling compadres, but they are family (Eddie and I are first cousins) and good friends. Because Eddie works from home, he doesn't leave his house much. So we decided to have a game day. It turned out that there was a beautiful snowfall during the day so we got to sit in the house with windows on all side watching the snow come down. It was wonderful! We also got to play some fun games. (IF you decide to purchase any of these games, PLEASE use my link. If you do, our adoption organization gets a part of the purchase price.) 

Aunt Hannah and Isaac played quite a few games of DOMINION together. This is one of Isaac's favorite games. 

Sidge got the game: CATAN: SETTLERS OF AMERICA for his birthday. Eddie, Eoin, JB and Sidge are playing that in the living room. 

And I was playing WINGSPAN with Jacob and Gabe. Folks, this is an EXTREMELY expensive game, but it is truly the best game our family has ever played. Jacob and JB are both, usually, not game players, but they LOVE this game. Gabe has become an addict as have I. All the kids like it. It is fantastic!!!!

While we were playing three different games, the five girls headed upstairs to create a little "beauty shop" game. Everyone was getting along and playing SO well. Here are some pictures from their fun time:  

We Bought a Farm: Garden Growth

I am trying to more and more link this Blog to posts JB does so that years from now, we can come back and look and see what we did! It's been so fun eating the last of our food from our garden for the  season. Here's just a few beautiful pictures:

Dear Father, I Need You

Dear Father, I need You,

Your strength my heart to mend.

I want to, fly higher,

Every new day again.

Man versus himself

Man versus machine

Man versus the world

Mankind versus me

The struggles go on

The wisdom I lack

The burdens keep piling

Up on my back

So hard to breathe

To take the next step

The mountain is high

I wade in the depths

Yearning for grace

And hoping for peace

Dear God increase

Healing hands, of God

have mercy

on our unclean souls,

once again.

Jesus Christ,

light of the world,

burning bright,

within our hearts forever.

Freedom,

means love without condition,

Without a beginning or an end.

Here's my heart,

let it be forever Yours.

Only You can make every new day seem so new.

- Reese Roper

Tuesday Truth

TF Homeschooling: Mushrooms

I love when homeschooling and the farm come together so seamlessly. John (and our wwoofers: Jacob and Jake) are working on creating mushrooms out of logs. I never understand all the details. However, I have figured out how to share my husband's Facebook posts to give more details. 

Here you go: 

  

A Seamstress Ballerina Mama

My friend Kymberly is the mother of two girls. Her two daughters attend homeschooling co-op with us and are involved with Central Ballet as well. Once upon a time, long before I met her, she was a ballerina. However, an ataxia has stolen her ability to move like she once did. While she can walk, it is not without a struggle. She uses a walker and often depends on her husband and children to help her do things. 

Kymberly is the major seamstress for the ballet. She is constantly fixing and repairing costumes. Despite the fact that she has to go down the steps of our studio on her backside because of this condition that affects her nerves, I never hear her complain. 

Recently, Kymberly gave her oldest daughter, Ky-le, a picture. She wanted Ky-le to re-draw it for her. However, Ky-le explained that she was hesitant to draw it for the following two reasons: 

• my mom doesn’t just sit around she’s always engaged somehow 
• I wanted the drawing to be my own, not just a copy of someone else’s 

Kyle writes that the picture, "made me realize even though my mom may not be a dancer on stage, she is still a big part of the dance life behind the scenes. That gave me the inspiration to draw the picture below for her. The work she does behind the scenes allows me and my sister to dance as much as we do! We wouldn’t be a part of the dance world if it wasn’t for her so I drew this simple drawing with a big dedication and meaning for my mom!"

I asked Ky-le for permission to repost this. I absolutely loved this artwork and the meaning behind it. I actually think, Kymberly's condition aside, there is many a parent "in the wings" that can relate to this drawing.

Well done Ky-Le!!

TF Homeschooling: Country Unit

Our TF Homeschool (Two-Family Homeschool) group just finished an entire month studying a country. To read about how/why we decided to do this, please click here. I really believe that homeschooling is one big cooperative -- so this post will allow you to "steal" what we did and do this on your own in your house in a way that works for you. 

Firstly, some pictures from our adventures:

The delicious Bolivian food that we got to eat!

Thank goodness for Grama K. She helped some of my kids with their food. This is a German pancake! Yum!

One of the fun things about this project is that we did it with ALL the kids -- grades K thru 8. We simply changed it to work for kids at various levels. For example: the young kids had help with their speeches. 

This is me grading the projects. I'll share the rubric I used at the end of this post. 

Check out the "physical representation" that Ana made for Bolivia. 

Here are some videos from presentation day:

• Kari Physical Representation of Bolivia The kids all had to make something "physical" that represented their country. 
• Kari Bolivia Kari brought some fun things to show us.
• Ana PowerPoint Ana did an EXCELLENT PowerPoint which she added music to. 
• Isaac Canada His famous dry humor at work in this video!
• Abigail Germany I was so proud of Abigail for this speech! She is a lot younger than the other "bigs" but she did a great job! (Ana really helped her prepare which was so wonderful!)
• Bolivian Food Look at all the fun food the Kotysnkis made from Bolivia! They went on a two-week trip there over Christmas. (Hannah was born there and her parents were missionaries there.)
• Gabe Bolivia Gabe went first and did a great job!
• Little Kotynskis Discuss Bolivia Genevieve and Eoin went together on their project with Mama Kotynski helping them. 

If you are interested in "stealing" what we did for this unit, feel free to use this information below and morph it into a project that works for you. This mostly came from my head and browsing for some ideas online. 

You will be putting together a “folder” of a presentation for a country that YOU 

have visited. Included in this folder should be the following:

1.     Interactive notebook pages. These would include important things for your country such as landforms, food, culture, religion, time zone, holidays, What is the major industry in this country? What does it export? Import? etc. 

a.     1 page Abigail

b.     2 pages 5^th graders

c.     3 pages Ana

d.     4 pages Gabe

2.     A map featuring your country. 

a.     Abigail print map off and color and label. 

b.     Other kids draw and color your own map. 

3.     A Paper on your experiences within the country. 

a.     1 page Abigail

b.     2 pages 5^th graders

c.     4 pages Gabe and Ana

4.     A paper on the historical aspects of this country. Who discovered it? Explored it? Settled it? Established it? Were there native peoples there? Study the beginnings of the country, was it a colony, a territory, an independent state, a civilization? What is still there today that keeps history alive in the country. Expansion topic: Wars in which the country was involved. What is the religious history of the country. How has it evolved to the current religious practices?

a.     1 page Abigail

b.     2 pages 5^th graders

c.     4 pages Gabe and Ana

5.     A list of important vocabulary for your country. Learn to count in that language. Be able to say it to a parent. Include the counting words in your assignment but do not count them as part of your words. 

a.     10 words Abigail

b.     20 words 5^th graders

c.     30 words Ana

d.     35 words Gabe

6.     A drawing of your flag

7.     Provide an example you have drawn that shows the size difference between your country and a state in the USA that is comparable to it. 

8.     Make a timeline of the history of your country. 

9.     Print out a few photos to include in your folder that show some examples of what the country is like. 

10.  Create some sort of “physical” representation of your country. This can be something edible (example included below) or it could be a lego or playdough example. The sky is the limit. Come up with something interesting!

11.  A currency converting page: For this activity you will learn about the currency of your country. You will check the conversion rate and learn to figure it. Then you will get a merchandise catalog and cut out pictures of goods you would like to convert and show the difference in cost between the USA and your country. 

12.  Read a biography book of someone from that country--perhaps a scientist, explorer, or inventor. Maybe a politician or religious figure and summarize it in a typed paragraph. Should include either a handrawn or actual photograph of the person. Parent must approve the book/length.

13.  Calculate distance from the capital city to other locations around the country. Use a map and ruler. What is the population of the country and the capital city. What percentage of people live in the Capital city compared to the entire country?

14.  What are the demographics of the country? Identify the people groups. Come up with an interesting way to share this in your folder. 

15.  What is the weather like in the country? Does it vary from North to South or East to West? How vulnerable is the country to natural disasters? (volcano, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, etc.) Come up with an interesting way to share this in your folder. 

16.  Find out what kind of government this country has. Write a compare/contrast paper showing this countries government compared with the US government.

a.     Abigail: skip this

b.     Fifth graders: a few paragraphs

c.     Ana & Gabe: five paragraph essay

17.  PowerPoint presentation on your country. Print out slides and include them in your folder. 

a.     Abigail: 1-3 slides

b.     Fifth graders: 4-8 slides

c.     Ana & Gabe: 9-15 slides

18.  Cook a dish from your country to share with the group. Take pictures of you sharing your meal with the group and include the recipe and experience in your folder. 

The following item must be done but will not be included in the folder. 

19.  Prepare a speech about your country.

a.     Abigail: 2-4 minutes

b.     Fifth graders: 5-7 minutes

c.     Ana & Gabe: minimum 10 minutes

In addition, you must choose 3 of the following six activities to accomplish:

1.     Visual board on your country. 

2.     Read a historical fiction book about the country.

3.     Design a travel brochure inviting people to visit your country. 

4.     Study the Art, Architecture, and Music History of the country. Come up with an interesting way to share what you learn about this. This can be a paper, a presentation, a PowerPoint presentation.

5.     Where is this country located with respect to other countries and the world. Learn what borders the country. Do a fact sheet for each bordering country and put it in your notebook. Include basics: Language, government, flag, capital, etc.

Make a game of trivia about your country. (This is great for Make-Your-Own GeoSafari boards. We always make several GeoSafari games to go with our foreign country studies.)

Here is the rubric I used to grade their entire project. Note that I graded them and then 

they also graded themselves using the SAME rubric! For the oral presentation part of the project, I used this online rubric that I found. 

Category	Exceeds  Expectations 21 pts possible	Meets Expectations  14 pts	Does not meet Expectations  7 pts
Task Completion	Wow! You did a superb job of covering all the requirements of the task with creativity and a great deal of attention to detail.	Visual includes most of the elements stated in the task.	Very little attempt to fulfill the requirements of the task resulting in missing components.
Attractiveness and Organization	Your finished visual is a work of art!  It is attractively presented, easy to read with excellent use of graphics.	Information is well laid out and easy to read.  Use of graphics enhances the information presented.	Information is presented haphazardly making it difficult to follow.
Content	The visual includes many interesting details and more than the basic information about the topic.	The topic is explained well and examples are given.	Information included is not complete.
Knowledge gained	Students are able to comfortably talk about the topic and answer questions about the material included in their presentation.	Students are able to talk about aspects of their topic and show that they have learned new facts about it.	There is an inability to share information about the topic.
Effort	You gave FULL effort.	You gave GOOD effort.	Your effort was POOR.
Attitude	You had a great attitude	You complained and whined a bit but mostly had good effort.	You were a big whiner.
Helpfulness	You helped your classmates anytime you could.	You helped your classmates some but not as much as you could.	You didn’t really care about others while doing the project.