The man he's become

When Danny was 4 years old, I met a mom who had 5 kids and homeschooled. I thought she was so.......WEIRD! Then my friend Teri invited me to a school board meeting. The local public schools were starting this thing called Outcome Based Education. Everything I read about it sounded bad. So I went to two meetings, and when I figured out that the parents had no say, and that the school would do exactly what it wanted, I decided to take a second look at homeschooling. I borrowed a big box of old Teaching Home magazines. I went from "These people are weird" to "We can do this with God's help!". I really felt this is what the Lord was leading us to do. Ralph, however, was not convinced. I talked him into letting me try to do a preschool program with Danny and just see if I could teach him anything. So I quickly sent off for the Bob Jones K-4 preschool program and we dug in. Danny probably wasn't ready for all of it, but he did enjoy the one-on-one time with Mom while Cara napped. I was determined and we got through every last part of that program. (I am much more relaxed now with my little ones; poor Danny was the oldest and so he had to put up with my misguided perfectionism). Ok, so when it was time for kindergarten, he wasn't the reading genius I was hoping for, but he did know his letter sounds and was starting to sound out little tiny words. So Ralph and I figured we couldn't hurt him too bad doing kindergarten at home, and if it didn't work out, he could go to school for first grade......

Now that little boy is just about to finish his first year at Folsom Lake College. We homeschooled him all the way through highschool and don't regret one minute of it. There were times when I thought I would mess him up, or that he wouldn't learn enough, or that I would somehow ruin him for life, but God was gracious and He saw us through the work that He began. By the way, Ralph totally came around to homeschooling and wouldn't have it any other way.

I am so proud of the young man that Danny has become. He loves his siblings, he loves his parents, and most importantly, he loves the Lord. He is just a nice guy to be around (and pretty smart too!). So here are my oldest and youngest, just having fun together.

Jackson adores Danny!

My First Post

Ok, so this is my very first post on my very first Blog!! So what do I say? I'm Megan, wife to Ralph, and mom to Danny, Cara, Nick, Samantha, Joey, Rebecca, and Jackson. I just thought I would start a blog to keep track of our lives and then if anyone else is interested, they can read, and if not, well, that's ok. I'll be able to look back and remember all the stuff I usually forget. This past weekend was great. My beloved brother, Scott, and sister-in-love, Lynn, came for a visit. So on Saturday my mom and Ralph's mom came up, and all the ladies and girls went to a Spring Tea at church. I'll post a picture later. (A man from our church took a picture of all 7 of us in this cute garden setting, so I'm waiting for that one). So for now, here is a picture of my brother and his wife, and our youngest, Jackson. Ok, not a great picture but I didn't take alot of pictures this weekend. I was just having too much fun visiting.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids on our recent family vacation. The first picture is at the Medieval Times dinner and show and the second is in Disneyland.

This last picture is of Joey and Jackson this morning as the kids and I were having our Bible and prayer time.