Family Updates

Hello Family!

The lack of updates has been due to phone and computer issues. Mom spent 6 hours on the phone in one day trying to resolve those issues. Our internet is spotty and the phones are unpredictable. Grrrr! Mom will be narrating this update and Martha will be typing it. 

Matthias seems to have the beginnings of his very first cold. He's still pretty wonderful and happy a lot of the time. Another tooth has joined his first. His diet has expanded to include cheese and yogurt-praise the Lord he is not allergic to milk! He's sitting up like a pro now and reaching for things quite distant from him. He is also sleeping 10-12 hours at night. He is chattering very much these days and seems to imitate our sounds. He's especially good at "da-da". This makes his daddy extremely proud.

Bjorn had his 7 year physical on Monday. Our young man is very healthy and has grown an astounding 5 inches and gained 10 pounds in under a year and a half!! 
Math continues to be his best and favorite subject. He has developed a true love for hunting with his big brother-hunting for red and gray squirrels and chipmunks, that is. 

Ingrid only got two wrong on her math test today-mom's jumping up and down!! 
Ingrid's newest news is that she has gotten a haircut-pretty short. She looks exactly like the picture of Tante Ingrid that was sent by Cliff on the same day she got it cut!! She loves it!
The Lord is healing a rather deep cut that she got on her thumb while making notches on a homemade arrow. She did not get stitches and has learned a great deal on how to take care of wounds.

Eleanor is looking forward very much to celebrating her 12th birthday. Ellie was just in the kitchen and said: "Next year I'll be a teenager and my birthday will be on a Saturday and I won't have to do any schoolwork!!" 
Ellie is also learning how to take care of her new earrings. Her favorite ones are the "diamonds". 
Just so that you all know, Ellie is probably going to be taller than mom by next month!

Lars, our hunter, hasn't shot anything else, (besides squirrels), since you heard about his first deer. He hopes to get another at hunting camp soon.
Lars highly recommends the books "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Hobbit". So if it's been awhile since you read these, take them off your shelf, dust them off, and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of literature. 
Lars's braces are off for those of you who don't know, and he's probably 6 foot by now, or maybe 6' 1". By Christmas he'll be about 7' 5" and his shoulders won't be able to fit through normal doors. 
His internship (repairing musical instruments) continues to go really well and he's learning a lot; including how to make pot racks out of trombone slides. 

Martha...in the first person now. My favorite school subject will never be math. But, I'm working very hard on the ever-practical Stewardship math from Math-U-See. I just finished a lesson on Taxes (yeah!) and am working on a Banking lesson. It covers everything from giving a tip at a restaurant to writing a check and keeping a checkbook. 
I'm weekly teaching piano to one girl who just turned 12. Lessons are going very well and she's moving right along in Suzuki Book 1. Thanks to Farmor, I've learned a lot about teaching the piano. 
I'm holding two mother's helper jobs. One is weekly and the other is monthly or as-needed. 
11th grade continues to be very busy. One nice thing about homeschooling is I can fit in schoolwork around my busy schedule. Sometimes I do school in the morning, sometimes afternoon or evening. Sometimes both! I have lots of different subjects. I'm taking Physics this year which is proving to be a bit of a challenge so far. I don't really have a favorite subject:) 

Margit is kept very busy with schoolwork, housework, and meal preparation. Every day. 
We are through with our first quarter of school already and into our second. The older three work mostly independently which frees up my time to work with Ingrid and Bjorn one-on-one. We finished our first biography on great American Christians. Fanny Crosby was who we studied. I highly recommend Ethel Barrett's book on Fanny Crosby (which can be found at Tusen Takk). Our artist for the quarter was John Singleton Copley. His was an amazing artist during the Colonial Period in America. His work is so true to real life and he uses light so effectively. Most of his paintings are portraits of people of the time. My favorite is the painting of his family.
The housework is now accomplished before every showing by everyone. Wonderful!
Meal preparation duties are being shared between mom, dad, and the kids. For instance, Todd smoked a pork loin and Ellie made coleslaw for a dinner, Martha made a chicken soup for a lunch, and Bjorn assisted with a kielbasa-bean soup. Ingrid helped make sugar cookies, and Lars makes amazing scrambled eggs. 

Todd is continually working to provide meat for our family. It's hunting season! As meat prices go up, we go down to our freezer. So grateful! 
Even though we have no offer on our home, Todd is continually maintaining the home and outside, working on gardens and lawn and making sure things are in good working order for the next owners. 
Last Sunday and this Sunday coming up, Todd has been assigned by our pastor to review a chapter during our Sunday School hour in a book called "Bookends of the Christian Life" by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington. His particular chapter deals with the encouragement we receive as Christians from the Holy Spirit. 
Todd has been teaching Martha about driving...She will get her permit soon! Mom notices a couple more white hairs:) 

That's a general update on our family. Hope everybody has a wonderful Wednesday:)