We are excited about using the Tapestry of Grace curriculum for school next year. It is a four year study of history from creation through the present. It shows HIStory of God's plan for mankind. Literature, geography, writing and a host of other subjects are integrated into the curriculum. If you want to know more about it, go to this link.

http://www.lampstandbookshelf.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=TOG&AFFIL=TOGU410

Or you can visit www.tapestryofgrace.com.

Or just contact me and I'll tell you what I know about it.

Emma, our "Gemma"

Okay, Hannah keeps reminding me that I've blogged about all our kids except the youngest. So let me introduce you to Miss Emma Rachel...

Emma is the youngest of the twins by 37 minutes. She has brown eyes and curly hair. She loves to sit and stack things. I can't turn my back when we bring in groceries or she'll have glass jars stacked as high as she can reach. She loves to sing and color. She loves to read. She loves to swing and slide outside. She loves bubbles and sidewalk chalk. She does NOT love to sleep. Naptime and bedtime are not her favorite times.

Hannah gave Emma one of her famous "spa treatments" the other day and fixed her hair. Here was the result.

Emma loves to pose for photos. She started dancing while I was taking her picture in the second photo.

Emma's favorite Bible story these days is Noah and the Ark. She'll listen to that story over and over and over and over...and then ask for it again!

I guess you could say that Emma is our extra blessing. We were expecting to see one baby on that ultrasould but God said, "Oh no! I'm giving you Emma too!" And we're so glad He did!!

The Diaper Bag

It was March 1st. A storm was blowing through Alabama and into Tennessee. We had been to the museum in Nashville, had lunch downtown and were headed south to meet Ella Kate (then 10 days old) at her home in Thompson's Station. However, we had to stop about 15 minutes from Shawn and Heather's house (that's Ella Kate's daddy and mommy) for a potty break for the guys in our family. They returned quickly and we headed on down the road.

When we got to my brother's house, we couldn't find the diaper bag. WHERE WAS THE DIAPER BAG!?!? I remembered having it at the restaurant with the sippy cups. Brent drove back to the gas station (the potty break stop) to see if he could find it. I started calling every convenience store I could find in the phone book with that name. Heather found phone numbers of parking lots in downtown Nashville. (Why didn't we take that receipt when we paid parking!?) I called the restaurant. There was no diaper bag to be found.

Now let me just tell you...this is no ordinary diaper bag...or maybe it is...this diaper bag had my pocketbook Bible that I'd had since college, Brent's new electric razor, Brent's Palm Pilot, a ziploc bag of crayons I'd been collecting since Brock was a baby, enough pullups and diapers to last 2 days for twins, and then the usual diaper bag stuff (i.e. ointments, wipes, sippy cups, etc.) WHERE WAS THE DIAPER BAG??!!

I searched my memory to figure out what had happened to it. The only thing I knew was that it either fell out at the parking lot or at the "potty break". Then it hit me...when Brent and Brock came back to the van, Brent opened both sliding doors (habit!) then immediately closed the passenger side door since it wasn't needed. It must have fallen out. But why wouldn't someone call us. You see, the bag had our nice little church ID card on it with the twins' names, address and phone number. WHERE ARE THE HONEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!?!?

Hannah and Brock continued to ask why someone didn't give us our diaper bag back. Although I wanted to tell them there were mean people all over the world, I knew better. I told them that God knew where our diaper bag was and that He could bring it home to us if He wanted to. So we prayed every day that whomever had our diaper bag would send it back.

Honestly, I had just about given up. Brent bought a new Palm, I found new sippy cups to use and life continued.

Friday morning...March 16th...the phone rang...it was a lady in Tennessee...was I the mom of Corinne and Emma? "Yes." She had the diaper bag!! The kids were SOOOOOOOOOOO excited! I was so excited!! She apologized for not calling earlier. They had 2 deaths in their family and had been out of town two times. The bag had indeed fallen out at the "potty break". They saw our van and tried to catch up with us but lost us. (We exited about 2 miles down the interstate.) Her husband was shipping it to us that day.

And so today...March 20th...the first day of spring...19 days after we lost the diaper bag...it came home to us via UPS! And everything was still there...including the 3 week old banana!! :) So I gave it a good cleaning and it's ready to go again.

What's the point to this story? God used a simple thing like a diaper bag to teach our children (and to remind us) that He cares about every little detail of our lives. Our kids know our prayers were answered.

And God bless Mr. and Mrs. Hall in Tennessee! There are two honest people in the world!!

Everyone May Comment Now

Okay, I finally figured out how to allow "anonymous" comments. You don't have to have an account to leave a comment. Just please be respectful and sign your name. Any unsigned comments will be deleted!

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS! Is anyone reading this!!???????????????????????? (Just kidding...I know you are because you have told me. Now you can COMMENT!:)

Photo of twins

I was asked by a college friend to post a photo of the twins. So here's one from our snow day last month. Emma is in the pink hat, Corinne in the white hat.

Hannah reminded me that I haven't "told everyone about Emma" so I'll do that soon. It's just too late tonight to think about it.

We spent most of today outside as the weather was quite nice around 60 degrees, I think. Snow is fun for a day or so but I think I like the warmer weather better for keeping.

MY SWEET GUM BALLS

today i was outside 5 hours gathering SWEET GUM BALLS stiiicky BUT REMEMBER THE GRASS IS'NT SICKY INYMORE i'm glad cuase now i can go outside ALLDONE

by Hannah

Our own entrepreneur

Hannah is getting quite good at counting money for a six year old. When her grandparents were here at Thanksgiving, she made some money "selling" them her artwork. (We won't name any names for who got that started, but he goes by the code name of PAWPAW around here.) We finally had to put a stop to it when she was trying to charge her brother for a picture.

Brent took Hannah to the bank last month so she could open her own savings account. She has learned to pick up coins that are left around the house. They either go in her bank or the offering can for Sundays. She had saved well over $25. Brent helped her divide it into 1/3's. She chose to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, the church building fund and then put the rest in her savings account.

What she didn't realize was that her bank would be empty. So she was developing the habit of asking us for money. One day she kept saying, "Will you give me some cash?" or "Will you give me some money?" all day. That just wasn't going to happen! Well today, I got the bright idea of telling her, "Hannah, I'll pay you one penny for every sweet gum ball you pick up off the ground." Off she went...and 5 hours later she had picked up 903 sweet gum balls...yep, that translates to $9.03 we owe her. I'm just glad I didn't offer a nickel for every sweet gum ball!! :)

The photo shows Hannah with her sweet gum balls in the 5 bags ready to go to the dump in the back of Daddy's truck. At least our yard looks a little nicer now...and Hannah says the grass isn't "sticky" anymore.

Now she wants to make papers to give to our neighbors to tell them she'll pick up their sweet gum balls for $.01 each...that just might be a good idea!

One more thing...

I didn't mention this in my last post. Saturn is almost 700 million miles away! To give you a little perspective...it's about 20,000 miles around the earth. The fact that we could see it so clearly from our driveway through a telescope is amazing to me!!

We finally saw Saturn!

We got the kids a telescope for Christmas. It was our "family gift". No one told us how much work it is to use a telescope. Neither one of us is an astronomer. Brent took the task to heart though and has spent a great deal of time reading on the internet, using www.skymaps.com, and working with the telescope to find things for the kids to see.

Well, tonight all his hard work paid off. WE FINALLY SAW SATURN!! It looked just like this photo except a little smaller. (We don't have a high dollar telescope!) It was breathtaking, nonetheless!! We could even see the rings around it.

God has created an incredible universe!! We're having fun learning about it through our telescope.

Valentine's Day (a.k.a. Mom's Day)

Remember KidStuf...one of the God Time devotions said to serve your parents breakfast in bed. Well, Hannah decided that Valentine's Day would be a good day to treat mom to breakfast in bed...and do laundry...and clean the baseboards...and unload the dishwasher...and fix my hair...so this is a picture of me after my time at Hannah's spa.

Those KidStuf virtues are beginning to show in our sweet daughter!

Our climber, Corinne

Our first two children were never "climbers". I'm sure I said things about parents who just couldn't keep their kids from climbing. How hard could it be?! And then God smiled and gave us Corinne...

Corinne is our third child (only by 37 minutes). She has made me "take back" so many things I said prior to her arrival. This girl will climb anything that even looks like it can be climbed. I think she was climbing before she was walking. I do believe there are days when her main goal in life is to find something to climb, then show her "younger" sister how to do it so that when I walk into the room, it's Emma I catch, not Corinne.

Now let me say that even with all the climbing, Corinne is a joy to be around. If you read my entry about our oldest, Hannah, then you know a little about KidStuf. (If not, read that entry. I think it was in Nov or Dec 2006.) Anyway, Corinne is right there beside Hannah singing during KidStuf. She even knows some of the hand signs. During the week if someone asks a question like, "Where are you going?", she immediately shouts, "KidStuf!"

Corinne also loves to help me clean. I call her "little Martha" (as in Martha Stewart). I can always count on her to pick up toys that are out, "help" me with laundry, clean up messes the best she can, and help me make my bed when she's around. If she gets her hands on a wet wipe, she's scrubbing the walls or baseboards. Oh, how I do hope this continues until she can REALLY help!

There's so much more I could say about the smallest member of our family but I'll stop here. I've often heard "big things come in small packages". If anyone can prove that to be true, Corinne will be the one to do it. She is "fearfully and wonderfully made". There's just no fear in her when she sees something to climb! :)

Two 2-year olds in the house!

We celebrated Corinne and Emma's 2nd birthday Saturday. It was a Winnie the Pooh and Friends party. They had a fun, fun time. It was an hour of playing games, opening gifts, eating a light lunch then plenty of cake for everyone. It's such fun to watch a room full of 2 year and nearly 2 year olds "partying".

We couldn't believe we were expecting twins 2 1/2 years ago and now we can't imagine life without them! God is good!!!! (And Mommy is tired so...good night!)

Our sweet Brock

I told you some about Hannah last time. Our next child is our son, Brock. What a wonderful boy he is! Brock loves to sing. You can hear him humming or singing at most any time of the day. Sometimes I wonder if he doesn't sing in his sleep! :)

Brock is full of questions. When I give my "mommy" answers, he'll ask me what every word means. "What does 'probably' mean?" "What does 'maybe' mean?" "What does 'in a minute' mean?" "What does 'I might' mean?" Honestly, the boy asks questions all the time. And he loves numbers...on clocks...on signs...on stereos...anywhere there are numbers, he's focused on them and what they are telling him.

Brock keeps us laughing at life. Brent was reading out of the Bible to Brock and Hannah before bed one night. He was in the part of the Old Testament where the Law was being given. (Don't ask me WHY they were reading this part...I have no idea!) Anyway, Brent read the verses about killing disobedient children. Hannah asked if people still do that. Brent told her no, but some parents send their kids to military schools if they don't obey at home. Brock took a long, hard look at Brent, pointed his finger at his daddy and said, "YOU DON'T DO THAT!" He was quite obedient for several days after that!! :)

We are thankful that God chose to give us a boy as part of our family. He does bring a different perspective to life. We love our Brock!!

Hannah and KidStuf

Let me tell you about our oldest, Hannah. One of the highlights of her week is KidStuf. Each Sunday evening, the children have their own worship service. The stage in the children's building has a set that is used for Sunday School and KidStuf. The Sunday evening service is for kids and their parents, a family style worship. There is music, drama and a few surprises every week. The music is upbeat. There is a worship "team" (i.e. one or two adults and lots of kids) on stage doing hand motions and basic dance steps. This was all a little overwhelming to Hannah the first few weeks but she knows all the moves now! She is totally captivated for 45 minutes every week!

For Hannah's birthday last month, she received a gift that had a headset microphone...the kind the worship leader wears for singing every week. Earlier this week our kids were all outside playing. When I stepped outside from the kitchen to take a peak at them, she had Brock, Corinne and Emma all lined up and she was leading them in her own version of KidStuf - headset mic and all!! They were moving their arms and singing the best they could! It was ssssoooooo cute!! I got a little of it on video.

Part of KidStuf is learning a virtue each month and a memory verse that goes along with it. This month's virtue is "compassion". Each Sunday in Sunday School they get a piece of paper to take home called God Time. It has four days of things to do to put the virtue of the month into action. Today, Hannah went to the dollar store with Brent so she could do her Christmas shopping. (She had $2.69 left from her birthday money.) She came home with two coloring books, one for the twins to share and one for Brock and her to share. She was soooo excited to have gifts for them under the tree that she had bought with "her money". She said, "Won't they be excited to have a gift from their big sister?!"

She also had a card in one of her bags. She wouldn't let me see it. I figured since Brent had been with her to buy it, I didn't need to investigate anymore. A little while later, Hannah came to me with the card. On the envelope, she had written "Mommy!" It was a thank you card. She said, "Mommy, on one of my God Time sheets, it says to give a thank you card to someone who has helped you do something. So I got you a card." Inside the card she had written, "Thank you for helping me clean daddy's truck he likes it love Hannah". Earlier this week I had helped her sweep out the back of Brent's truck as a surprise for him (another God Time idea she wanted to do). Needless to say, I cried a little after she was off doing something else.

We never know how our actions are shaping our children. It reminded me again how important it is to cover all I do with my children in prayer. It also reminded me that we only have them for a season. I want this short time in the span of their whole life to be one of happy memories with mom, not mom off busy doing other things and not having time to help, teach and train them. What an awesome task God has given us as parents! But He doesn't give us any task any greater than the power He gives us to complete it well!!

Our sweet Hannah is such a blessing to our family. I hope one day she'll know how much she teaches me every day!

This month's verse for compassion is Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind and compassionate to one another."

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Okay, so it's December 1st. Our children were given a book for this month. It's an Advent Christmas Carousel. They are so excited that December is finally here so they can open a window each day. The time just doesn't go fast enough for them. Brock said today, "Why can't it be tomorrow so we can open another window?" Such excitement for the unknown...but maybe not because I heard him telling Hannah later..."I know that Jesus is born on number 25!"

This is the most wonderful time of the year...when we have an open opportunity to share the Good News...with everyone we meet. My prayer is that during this time, I will not become irritated over a long line...frustrated with "the new person" checking me out...aggravated over mislabeled items at a store...but rather I will allow Jesus to live through me to be seen by those I meet.

I know each day that "little eyes are watching me"...four sets of them most days...and I want them to know that Jesus is the Reason for this season!


The Freeland Family

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for family, good health, good friends, and most importantly - God's love! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

October

October has come and almost gone. What a pretty month this has been with the leaves changing colors. We are trying to enjoy being outside as much as possible before the cold weather settles in to stay for a while.

Brent turned 40 on the 19th. We spent the afternoon at the NC State Fair. It was our first time for the NC fair. Actually, it was the first fair for the kids. They had fun on rides and eating. Brock was 4 on the 21st. He had a fun party that Sunday. He is showing his uniqueness more and more as he gets older. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says "a football player". Cars, trucks and legos are some of his favorite toys right now.

Brian, Debbie and Jessica were here for a few days. It was fun letting all the cousins play. Sweet Jessica just came right in as if we were next door neighbors! I'm not sure she knew what to expect but she was ready for it! The time with them went by tooooooo quickly.

Corinne and Emma are able to remember words and phrases from books now. They are beginning to have their favorites that they bring to us to read over and over again. Thankfully, they have a big sister who can read to them when I'm not able. She keeps them occupied when necessary.

That's all for now. Check back periodically for more about the life of the NC Freelands...

The Freeland Family

Happy First Day of Autumn!

Summer is gone. We had a fun time in Texas and Alaska. Now we're back home getting into a routine again. School has started. Hannah is a Kindergartener now. She's playing soccer again. Brock got a new haircut. He looks like a big boy now. Corinne and Emma are cutting lots of teeth and talking up a storm. We understand about 20% of what they say.

I am going to try to add a photo this time. I think I have it figured out now. I hope to be a little more consistent posting on this blog. Please leave a comment when you can. I will read them.

Until next time...happy first day of autumn!

We're Headed to TEXAS!!

We have been talking about having "courage" lately thanks to the Arctic Edge VBS curriculum this year. We also read about John Bunyan having courage to go to jail for preaching the Gospel. Brock put his "courage" into practice at a birthday party last week. He has always been afraid of bouncehouses. Well, this party was at PumpItUp...an indoor bouncehouse playground. I put Brock inside the bouncehouse with me and said, "We're not getting out until you bounce!" Within 10 minutes, he was bouncing!! Yea!! He had a blast the rest of the party. Today Hannah had "courage" to try a zip-line at a friend's house. (You sit on a round disc swing attached to a rope and slide from one tree to another tree. Hope that makes some sense.) Anyway, she tried it without any tears or thinking about it. She loved it and did it as many times as she could before we had to leave. They both used their "courage" when we went to the Science Museum in Durham last week. Hannah let butterflies land on her and even held them on her fingers. Brock played on playground equipment that used to scare him. They both had a great time with our friends, the Carraways.

On the other end of the spectrum is Corinne. She is fearless and will try anything if given the freedom to do it. Emma isn't far behind her, just a little slower. I found them one day last week STANDING in their booster seats at the table. Yeh, now we keep the trays on the seats when they're not in use! Corinne has learned the many uses of a step stool so we have to keep a close eye on her these days.

We are getting everything ready to fly to Texas. Brent will take the children and me to the airport Friday morning. My mom will pick us up in Houston late Friday afternoon. If all goes well, we'll be eating Tex-Mex for dinner!! I can't wait!!!! Lots of Blue Bell ice cream will be enjoyed as well during this trip!! Hannah and Brock are excited to fly on an airplane since they don't remember the last time we flew. They will be taking turns by the window.

The Freeland Family

Our Resident Artist

Hannah had a WONDERFUL time at art camp. The theme for the week was "It's A Bug's World". She made a paper mache' of a lady bug and it has glow-in-the-dark paint on it. She painted a forest scene on a canvas. She decorated a tshirt and started a "sketch book". She also made a glow-in-the-dark butterfly. She's ready to go again whenever we'll let her! She told Brent last night that she can draw butterflies very good because she is "an artist". When she got paint on her coverup, Ms Susan (her teacher) told her that she was "wearing her art".

Brock is doing a good job of writing letters. He has a few he needs to get in the correct direction but otherwise, he's doing a very good job. He is only 3 1/2 so I'm happy that he's holding his pencil correctly!

Corinne has a molar coming in the bottom right side of her mouth. She still thinks most everything we do is funny and is climbing on anything she can get up on. She has learned that climbing on the trunk is a "no-no" but she'll still go over to it, put her knee up on it and look at me to see what I'm going to do about it. Very cute but I don't let her know I think she's cute! The main lesson she's learning right now is to sit, not stand, on the couch.

Emma prefers walking over crawling now. She still has her "sneaky" walk but she's fairly steady now. She too can crawl up on the couch so she's learning to sit, not stand, as well. She does okay until her sister climbs up with her and leads her down the wrong path:) She has a molar coming in the bottom left side of her mouth. We've started letting both girls walk to/from the van, into buildings, etc. I had forgotten how much more time it takes to get somewhere with a toddler walking beside you...and Emma takes even longer.

Brent is at the lot trying to clear away some of the tall grass. He's meeting a builder there next week to get some ideas on house construction costs, house location on the lot, etc. We're in the very beginning stages of getting ready to build. We'll hopefully know more after he meets this builder next week.

Our dryer quit working Thursday night so we found a used one today. Long story but we were very happy to not buy a new one at this time. At least we can have clean, DRY clothes now. And the man we bought it from was even nice enough to take our old one to the dump! (It was beyond repair even for a repairman.)

That's all for now. I still need to learn how to post photos. I'll try to do that soon. Until then...I'll send photos via walmart.com when I can.

The Freeland Family