A beautiful wedding

The happy couple!

Lauren and Joseph arriving at the rehearsal dinner.

Lindsay and Jeremy - they are getting married next May!

Claire and I at the rehearsal dinner.

Mom and Dad and Claire.

My brother, Hule and Loretta

Rosella and Jerry - the proud parents!

Waiting for the wedding to begin...

Lauren and Joseph!

The wedding party

Ann enjoying he reception!

Mom , Loretta, Cathy and Jim

The children had fun at the reception playing in this adorable playhouse designed and built by Lauren's Dad!

I thought these pumpkin centerpieces were extra cute!

Their backyard was a great place for a reception. The bluegrass band from Starkville was very entertaining.

My nephew Joseph and Lauren were married Saturday in South Mississippi in a lovely wedding.

All my siblings were there and we had a great weekend visiting with each other and celebrating the wondrous occasion. The rehearsal dinner was so pretty. It was held in a beautiful old house in Magee and the food, flowers and fellowship was delicious! On Saturday, they were married in a sweet ceremony at Lauren's church and the reception was held at Lauren's parent's home.

It was quite a blowout! They roasted a whole pig and had more food than I had ever seen! We had such a good weekend visiting and laughing! After the wedding we went back to Jerry and Rosella's and stayed up late reminiscing.

I do pray for many years of wedded bliss for Lauren and Joseph and hope that their union will bring God much glory and their lives will be spent in His service and love!

Happy Birthday Ben!

What fun at Uncle Jerry and Aunt Rosella's house! Aunt Rosella played for hours with the children last night - they played spotlight outside and balloon creatures and hide and seek.
My children love to spend time at their house in Jackson. They have officially moved to Starkville now but they have not sold their house in Jackson so we all congregated there this weekend for the wedding.

This afternoon , after a delicious brunch at IHOP, we went to the Museum of Natural Science in Jackson. Ben loves animals of all kinds and he said this was one of his favorite museums.

They had a new exhibit called Monsters of the Deep where there were models of prehistoric and modern day sea creatures.

We have had a wild weekend! We went down Friday to the Jackson area for a rehersal dinner for my nephew, Joseph and his lovely bride, Lauren. Anna went down with the Chunns because the Spartans were running in a XC meet in Clinton on Saturday. Anyway, I'll post on all that later...

For today,

Happy 10th birthday to Benjamin Scott Blassingame!

I simply cannot believe that it has been 10 years since that sweet day when I first saw his face and my empty arms were filled with another blessing from God. You see, between Anna and Ben, I lost 2 babies - one at 9 months and one at 9 weeks. It was a tough 4 years. I truly thought I may not be able to have any more children. After the loss of Jacob and Grace, I had a tough time getting pregnant. My doctor did some tests and my hormone levels were super low and he told me to come in and he would try me on fertility drugs. Before I could get there, I did a pregnancy test, since I was a few days late, and I was pregnant! My doctor had said there was no way to become pregnant with such low levels and when I called him , he said something like," God did not need your progesterone levels to be high enough!"

Anyway, I believe Ben was a miracle baby, as they all are really... and I remember that wonderful day 10 years ago when instead of stillness and quiet when a baby was born , the room was filled with crying and a wiggly 8 pound 5ounce boy! What a awesome day it was to be able to hold a baby again and leave the hospital with him in my arms. God has blessed us tremendously with Ben's life and I pray for him as I do my other children , that God will draw them early to Himself. And that He will reveal Himself and His glorious beauty and love to their hearts and that their lives will bring Him much glory!

Cross country running

This is Margaret, Anna and Martha before the Sherman 5K race on Sept. 12

Here is a group picture of all the Spartans that ran in Sherman! Several Spartans received medals for their fast times!

We are in a busy season right now in Cross Country. The Spartans ran in the Sherman 5K last Saturday, Sept. 12 and this past Saturday, the Junior Varsity and Varsity runners (grades 7-12) ran in the Saltillo XC invitational.

Here Anna is finishing the Sherman 5K (3.1 miles). She beat her time from her first race by 5 minutes! Good job Anna!

Some of the Spartans before the Sherman 5K.

This is our Varsity Boys team who competed at the Saltillo XC meet. They all did a great job!


The Varsity girls did an outstanding job at the meet. Since we are homeschoolers, our girls can't compete as a team, but if they had been able to, they would have won 1st place overall at the Saltillo XC meet - way to go girls!!! Can you tell by their legs how muddy the race was?

It rained off and on all day and the course was a pure mud bog in places and the runners had to slosh through and on one of the hills they had to pull themselves up by their hands!!

Here is a shot of some of the runners before the race at the Saltillo XC meet, BEFORE the mud!

These are some of the teams ready to race. I am not sure which group this is.

A typical homeschool day

This year things are running a bit differently than in years past. We are definitely doing a more "schooly" schedule than ever before. We do enjoy coops on Friday in Credo and my favorite part of the school day, other than Bible time, is reading through history with Ben and Claire. I am learning so much!
We are doing some read aloud books as a family and those are always lots of fun.
We just finished Augustine, Farmer Boy of Tagaste, and we are about to start a book on Robin Hood. I am reading a book about a Russian martyr outloud to all, as well, since we just finished learning about the great persecution of the Christians in the early church under the Romans, especially Diocletian. Scott has started reading Rolf and the Viking Bow at night to all. But now, back to our schedule.
We still try to start the day off in family worship as often as possible with Scott leading our Bible time around 7 am. After Scott leaves for work, the children do independent Bible reading and start on chores. We then eat breakfast and then start our school schedule.

Mondays Rachelle, Laura, Margaret, Micheal and Hannah come over about 8:45 and Rachelle teaches writing using The Lost Tools of Writing for about an hour. Then I teach Algebra to the older ones. While Rachelle is teaching, I do history and usually science with Ben and Claire and get them started on their independent work.
After Algebra, we have lunch and then Anna finishes her independent work and I go over it with her and Ben and Claire get their work checked and gone over.
We have to leave at 3:30 to go to XC practice.

Tuesdays We usually start our school day on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a Bible lesson from the Bible Study Guide and then do read alouds with everyone and then I teach Ben and Claire History, Math and Science together and leave them to do their independent work while I read to John or work with Anna.
After lunch, Christa comes over for Algebra tutoring. Then, we finish up school and then at 3:30 head off to XC practice again.

I have learned to put things in the crock pot on XC days, or we eat sandwiches for supper!

Wednesdays The school schedule is pretty much the same as Mondays except no XC and we try to go to church on Wednesday nights.

Thursdays This is a crammed in morning of school. We do Bible Study Guide, read aloud and then set off on independent work. I do Math and History with Ben and Claire together and try to get lunch ready to eat at precisely 12 noon. From 1-3, I have 2 College Algebra students come over for tutoring and then we make another mad dash to XC practice.

Fridays We have CREDO coop in the mornings and usually on Friday afternoons, I come home and collapse for an hour or two!

A new idea that I tried out this week (thanks Yonea) was to give my children assigned zones of the house that they are responsible for keeping tidy all day. Scott actually commented on how well the house looked when he got home. I am not sure how this will work long term, but for now it is going pretty well.
Our school days are full, but I do enjoy the time together and I hope my children will have some fond memories of busy days of laughter and learning!

Ben's pictures

He loves animals of any kind - even insects.

Here's a pic he took of one of my favorite things in nature :)

Ben declared today that he would like to be a nature photographer. He has been clicking pics left and right. Above are some of his latest ones.

Happy Birthday Mom!

We had Mom a birthday dinner on Monday. Cathy and Bailey came down and we had stuffed shells, salad and garlic bread. Mom had requested strawberry shortcake and so we had that for dessert. I am thankful for a special Mom who is also a wonderful friend!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Claire's birthday!

This is Brianna (Bree) Blassingame. This was Claire's big present!

Claire soars through the air!

Last Friday, a week ago, we had a small gathering for Claire's 8th birthday. We just had a few girls come over and swim and then had cookie cake and ice cream!

Then on Sunday night, Scott set up the tent and we all gathered around the campfire for supper and fun. Scott, John, Ben and Claire camped out! It was a rather chilly night, but they had a great time.

Then on Monday, her real birthday, Scott took her out to breakfast and we had school and then after XC practice, we all went to Cracker Barrel for supper.

Happy Birthday My Kiki! I love you!!!!

She had already received her big present, Brianna the sheltie, but with some of her other birthday money she picked out a Baby Alive doll. It talks, cries and does other realistic baby things!?!?! So now I have 4 children, 2 dogs(who are not housebroken) and a realistic baby doll who has to have her diaper changed......... Ah.. life:)

Last week my internet was down. It was a rather hectic week, but we enjoyed Credo on Friday and on Friday night, some of the Credo moms went out to a movie and to Barnes and Noble for coffee. It was an encouraging evening as we shared about the Lord and prayed together.

Saturday was spent shopping and Sunday was wonderful in worship and hearing the Gospel preached.