fun trip

The big playground was lots of fun!

House chamber



Jay in the Senate chamber.

The rotunda was beautiful.

Lindsey and Claire

Mitchell and John in the science museum











The huge rocking chair at the Ag museum.

Here are the kids on the nature trail.

Ben is not so sure about this up close and personal encounter with a snake.

Here is brother Jerry.

Claire is helping Aunt Rosella in the kitchen.

Jeremy and John

We had a great time on our trip Sunday and Monday to Jackson. We stayed with my brother and his wife. She cooked a delicious meal for us on Sunday night and we got a special treat in that we got to hear my nephew preach at their church Sunday night! We are very proud of him and are looking forward to a wedding in about a year as he will marry Lindsay, whom all my children love!

We went to the Science museum and the Ag museum on Monday morning and then toured the Capitol. On the way home, we stopped back at this enormous playground and let all the kids play. Then the excitement began on the way home. We were about 30 miles from Canton in the middle of nowhere when the Chunn mobile broke down. We were right in front of them, so we stopped and the Corbins were a little ahead, so they turned around and we all had great adventures on the side of the road for about 2 hours. Ask Yonea about the garbage can :)

We moms giggled and had a great time on the side of the interstate waiting for TOW mater to come drag off the Chunnmobile!

Finally, we piled 11 people in our Suburban and part of us headed home. We arrived about 11:30 and the other van made it home at 1:45am!!

We made some great memories that we can laugh about for years to come.

I am thankful for wonderful memories and friends!

Elvis is in the building

Noah, Ryan, Jonah and Ben are the Blackwood brothers quartet

Laura is Dr. Hardy, Margaret is Cheryl Pruitt and Anna is Faith Hill

John Parker is William Faulkner

Hannah is Kathy Tibadeaux, Martha is the first female mail carrier, Ben is John Grisham, Matthew is Archie Manning, Mark is Brett Farve and Macain is Hershel Walker and Andrew was James Earl Jones AKA Darth Vader

Claire is Eudora Welty, Molly is Oprah and Joshua is Sheperd Smith

Hannah was a catfish and Carson is a farmer

Elvis aka John John

Ain't nuthin' but a hound dog

Today was our last coop and it went out with a bang! We have been studying Mississippi this week and we kicked off our coop today with a parade of famous Mississippians. Elvis was in the house!! Thank you, thank you very much! We had other famous Mississsippians too.

After that we dressed up like Indians and frontiersmen and did some bartering using Indian sign language. They traded buffalo skins for guns and cloth and furs for slaves and beads.

We have enjoyed coop this semester! We finished the day with a picnic and fun play time at the

new Saltillo playground.

Jay is ready to barter.

Anna is trading a buffalo hide for cloth.

Hannah is a precious papoose!

He has bought a slave!

Much trading going on.

good news

I am so happy to report that Daddy is not going to have valve surgery or bypass surgery at this time!! I am so thankful to God for this blessing. He is going to have a pacemaker put in next Tuesday and control some other heart issues with meds. We have a wonderful cardiologist that was very patient to explain what was going on at every stage today and truly went beyond the call of duty.
On a lighter note, I have some concern over blogging saftey so I have decided to change the name of our blog to one, that to those of you that know us, fits us well :)
I pray you will all have a great Easter weekend as you meditate prayerfully on the great cost and Merciful Love that stooped down to rescue helpless sinners and on the glorious power that raised our Savior from the dead and is still at work today in those who are His.

need prayer

There are so many needs that I am aware of in my small circle of life. Friends with seriously ill children, people struggling terribly with their marriages, people feeling lost spiritually, and a host of other problems. Sometimes my heart feels so burdened for the pain and struggles of those around me. I am so thankful to have a Great Intercessor that I can come before to lay my requests at His pierced feet. What a price! What a cost! What unimaginable love it took for God to send His spotless Son down to suffer through a life here and to take the infinite wrath of God on His infinite soul! For me. It pleased the Father to crush the Son. Isaiah 53. During this week, I am thinking more and more of that Awesome Love that stooped so low to rescue such a needy sinner. He is such a wonderful, merciful God! His patience ,because of His Son, is so great with us!
I have a personal prayer request that I am asking my fellow bloggers to please join me in. My sweet Daddy is having some heart tests run on Friday and is facing some possible surgery after that. I am going to have the opportunity to talk with him on Wednesday, and I pray that the Lord will make it a sweet time between us and that we can talk about some of the things that the Lord has done in my life lately and that he will find encouragement in the Lord. I sent him a letter today and I hope we will have time to talk about it on Wednesday. Thank you for your prayers!

Barn loft and coop

How fun to play in the barn loft with friends!

Jay

Claire, Molly, John and Macain eating toasted marshmallows.

Macain finishing up the popcorn.

Scott, Claire and Jonah. I think Jonah ate 14 toasted marshmallows!?!?

We had another fun coop today. We studied the Pacific states and the Southwestern states. In my group, Claire's group we learned about the desert and planted a succulent plant in a clear pot that they filled with layers of sand. Sand art and plants combined. Our plant was an aloe vera so hopefully this craft will even be useful!

We also talked about how the Grand Canyon shows convincing evidence of a catastrophic flood.

Creation scientists think the great canyon can be explained far better with a biblical worldview than with the evolutionary viewpoint which leaves many questions unanswered.

After lunch, we recreated an earthquake by shifting plates under a pan of dirt and watching the fault line open up into a huge crack and then used jello to simulate the rolling of the earth that actually sends buildings crumbling.

After that , we went outside and had logging games. The log toss, log roll and pull the log contest.

We also measured with chalk the circumference of a giant sequoia and even measured the height of one. Some of them are almost 300 ft. tall!

Claire tossing the 'log'


John loved the log pulling contest!!

Anna and Mrs. Karen

Macain, Claire and Carson in the log pulling contest