Do you agree with that title? It seems the older I get, the days seem to go faster by. Maybe I try to get too much done in a day..

My children seem to be growing up right before my eyes.
Merlin Loyd, my baby, will be 3 on Friday, Dec 9th! I find that very hard to believe, he as just born..
His speech seems to be broadening every day. We can actually understand what he is saying most of the time. And some of them times are rather hilarious, his word usage can be comical at times.
He thinks he is a big guy like the older children. A 5 yr age difference between him and sister makes life hard on him and us! He thinks he is old enough to do what the older ones do, when he is not! We end up with many a crying episode and quite often a big mess..
He loves hammers. You can only imagine what can be done with a hammer.
He loves trains.. We drive by a train track and he is sure there is a train coming soon. He sees Thomas the Tank Engine in any store before I am aware there is one! He calls it "My Thomas"..
He also loves to ride in the truck or tractor with Daddy. Some days if he hears that Daddy is going to leave soon, he will be right there getting boots and jacket on and saying, "Daddy, Go with you?" and quite often a very urgent "Please" will follow. He is learning to sit still. Beginning to love books. And learn how to play quietly, by himself. He still gets into soo much when I am busy with schooling the older 3.
He has a servant's heart. He wants to help you in any way he can, even to bringing a cup of drink or a snack or whatever he thinks you need. So sweet and hard to resist when he is like that. If you tell him you don't need anything he will try all the harder to push it on you.
He still loves to be held and cuddled. Which makes this mother heart glad, for all too soon he will be too grown up for such 'baby stuff'.. He is a thumb-sucker.. (I got 2 of them)..
He still is not potty trained, like I wanted him to be. But, maybe I baby him just a wee bit too much.. His older brothers were both about this time as well.. Sissy is another story, she did herself around 20 months.

Well, I need to keep moving. But, find it hard to. My neck has a crick in it and I find it painful to turn my head a certain way or lift it a certain way.

I spell checked this post and it claims I mis-spelles the word with!!

Well, school is going along well. With some ups n downs. What else when a toddle is in it too.. Canning is mostly done. Got tomatoes still hanging on. Next month we will be doing a lot in the kitchen. Making it into a new one.. So, a lot is in the plans now. Maybe I can blog about it.. We will have to see.

Tonight we went to Hubby's Fall Company Picnic. Had a good time. Enjoyed it much! Esp the youngstes. I am having some touble with a cetain lette on the keyboad. Can you guess which? Not had to see.. I have been tying to use wods without it, but can hadly do..

Good Night.. Gotta hit the sack.
Have a Blest Sunday o Monday depending whee you live!

Might need to do this in several posts to keep it from getting too lengthy..
And I will need to upload pics later.. So keep watching for more..

Now.. Let's See...
Where should I begin? My head is whirling.. Where did this summer go? Or year for that matter?
My garden did not do well this year. 
We are in the process of redoing the basment bedroom.. The boys are moved upstairs until we can get it done.
Guillermo & Bertha and Sarita were here for 6 months! That was a hilight of our summer..
We were belssed with a new neice in June.. But we only got to enjoy her until she was taken home to Chile, Sept 13th..
Papa spent several weeks in the hospital, he had staph infection again.. But, the Lord gave him a miracle! He went into the hospital with a pacemaker and returned home without one! To this day he is still without it!
We made a trip up to see Daryl & Jenny! We made good memories and are hoping to get back up there sooner than later..
We had a Hostetler Family Camping trip to Prince Gallitzen State Park.. Which we got one loud and rather startling surprise happen! They had fireworks and we sat too close and got them right in our face! So some of us took off running for our lives, leaving some of the rest roaring with laughter! We retreated to a vehicle and moved to a safer veiwing distance!
My hubby and children really surprised me with a birthday party.. I was totally unaware of anything, they even told my non-secret-keeping daughter and to my surprise she never breathed a word to me!! She is growing up..
We had a Fresh Air Fund boy again this summer.. FUN!!
Hubby Dear got a part-time job driving truck, seems like it is a bit more than part-time! To me anyway..
And last night he left with his trucker buddy, as he needed a team driver to pick up an expedited load bound for Oregon.. But alas they didn't get the load.. So, he will be dropped off on the way to Louisianna tomorrow afternoon..  They were really looking forward to teaming it to Oregon.. But, I guess the Lord had other plans.. Maybe they can take a trip another time..
We butchered 2 big batch of chickens..   Thanks to Guillermo we now know of a swift way to de-feather them!
We started school on August 2.. So we are officially in week 9 this week.. WOW! I semester all done! Yikes.. That sounds like we been doing school for a long time! But we have enjoyed it so much this year! We switched curriculums,  again.. We are using My Father's World.. We are thrilled with it. The children are enjoying school much more this year.. So is this Mom, Teacher.. Exploring the different Countries and Cultures in that country, opens up their eyes and broadens their horizons..
This week we are heading into South America.. Chile is on the list! They are learning some Spanish words.. I want to get them so they can speak it fluently, as in our area here, it would do us all well to learn that language..
We took care of our friends' place while they were off on a much needed vacation..
Spent a good bit of time with dear friends through out our busy summer... When we weren't making memories with family..
We had a baptism for our oldest son, Andreas.. We are all excited to see the Lord working in our youth.. The 2 oldest youth in our church are now baptized and walking in the Lighted Path..
Our church is getting involved in a few differnet ministeries..
Every 4th Sunday of each month we sing at a nursing home right here in Orrstown..
Different Sundays, when we can get on the schedule, we go to Loysville Youth Developement Center. It is a Boys Juvenile Prison. We really enjoy this one hour of sharing with these boys. It makes us very grateful for our Christian heritage, and for Christ in our hearts.. For without Christ we would be right there with them boys.. I can't imagine what them dear boys live through, although some do come from 'good' homes..
This has been rather sketchy, and not in any chronological order..
I will put on pictures soon.. I hope..

Ahhhh...  I had a really good day. Junior and I went to CHAP (Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania) Convention. It was my 3rd time attending.  It refreshes you and reignites you for the next term. I like to go and get my next year's books. And attend a workshop or two.
We were able to attend a workshop dealing with Kinesthetic Children.. Quite interesting, his website is lovetolearn.com for anyone who wants to check it out. He is very good, because he was such a child growing up.
There are 3 types of children, Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic..
The last 4 years we have been using a rather conglomeration of curriculums. We decided to go with a new curriculum. After talking to 2 different curriculum advisers.. Talked with some friends. Sat in on one speech about one of the two. We were 'sold'... There were also some other recommendations, one given through xanga.. One of them being, TeaLady's blog, which has been extremely interesting and intriguing.. I HAD TO check out 'My Father's World' curriculum. We like the way the whole family can be involved in each day in the same lesson.. Even with next term, I have 1 in 1st grade, 1 in 2nd grade and 1 in 5th grade.. I can pretty much work altogether. We are looking forward to our next school term!
We only have 2 days left in this year. Then I need to get my records in order and Andreas' portfolio together..
Next year I will have 2 portfolios to make.  
I have to share this one.. 
The other night in Family Devotions we started reading in the book of John. I helped Emery find John 1.. He promptly started reading it outloud! He read words I didn't know he even knew! We were very impressed and delighted! Just a mere 3 months ago he would never have tried to read it!
This mother needed that.. It really makes it worthwhile when one of your children all of a sudden takes a hearty interest in reading after struggling for so long.. 
Well, this mother is very tired.. We have had a looong day. We dropped the kids off at friends' house by 7AM.. All 3 boys are crashed. Dear daughter took a short katnap since we got home and is still going.. We picked up 2 DVD's from Christian Worldview Media booth.. So of course they had to watch them tonight. One was called The Widow's Might.. Now the one in is a nature video called The Mysterious Islands.. A very Science movie on animals of all kinds...
Good Night to all..
P.S> Hope I don't wait so long to update again..

EDIT*** We are still doing our Math-U-See.. We like that too well to switch to another Math program.

I just saw this on another blog and swiped it. I love it..  I grew up with 10 younger siblings..

Why big families are easier:

Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can’t drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.

Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn’t make it.

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Foreign language skills. You can learn a lot of Spanish by watching ten years of Dora the Explorer that you just can’t pick up in two. And now with the Diego spin off I’m practically fluent.

Laughter. The children have learned to laugh at the insane non sequiturs of younger siblings. They’ve learned that laughing just feels better when seven people are doing it along with you.

Competition. Do I really need to go into this? Everything is a competition in big families. The children compete over who reads faster, who drinks their milk faster, who gets to the bathroom first…etc. Everything is a competition and they’re all keeping score.

Balance. The floor of the front room of my home is a minefield of toys and childhood paraphernalia. Just walking through the room requires great skill and balance. I’m absolutely convinced my two year old will be a favorite for Gold on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics. (She might have to lay off the cookies a little but I’ll deal with that later.)

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just give it to the baby because you want a little quiet. Not all the time. But sometimes.

Just say “No.” Being able to say “no” may be the most undervalued skill in this world. The need to be liked is pervasive. The need to be cool even more so. Having brothers and sisters teaches children to say “no” about 143 times a day. It’s a good skill.

Praying. They learn that nothing beats praying together as a family.

Nature/Nurture. Having many children has taught me that nature has a lot more to do with who my kids are than nurture. This is helpful, especially when your children misbehave you don’t have to feel bad about it. Just say “Stupid nature!!!” and blame your spouse’s genes.

Namecalling. You can occasionally call your child by the wrong name and still not be considered a terrible parent. They know who you mean just from your tone. Sometimes if you need something done you can call the wrong name and someone will still show up. That helps.

Spying. My children have learned that they can’t get away with anything. I have spies who look a lot like them who are willing to drop the dime on them for anything. Even at school I’ve got a child in just about every grade. If they do something I’ll hear. That keeps them nervous. And I like keeping my kids a little nervous.

Friendship. The children have many friends. They’ve got girly friends, crying friends, fun loving friends, consoling friends, and crazy friends. And they all have the same last name. And they’ll be there forever for each other. No matter what.

Love. I think my children have learned to love because there are others around them to love and who love them. I honestly can think of no better way to teach children to love than siblings.

~written by Matthew Archibold