Sunday, December 30, 2012

Entertaining at a Local Nursing Home

Here are some of our dear friends.





I am a little late In posting this. Better late than never.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas 2012


2012
Chloe (4):  Chloe is doted on 24/7 by everyone in the house. Yet she has no one over which to exercise dominion except the dog, Banjo - which she does. She enjoys singing to herself and is frequently heard talking in the living room alone making wedding plans.  We have not yet learned the name of the fortunate fellow.

Abram (6):  Abram wins the award for being the most fun to tease.  It seldom irritates him and everyone is happy to oblige in the task.  The rougher, the better.  His eyes shine with a flare that makes those who like things calm and in order, tremble.

Baruch (8):  Baruch is our thinker.  He spends his time wondering how to reverse the gravitational force of the earth, how many pulleys would be required to move the house off the foundation and trying to find a new color no one has thought of yet.  He intently listens to long explanations from his father regarding the nature of the world.

Abigail (11):  Abi is everyone’s friend and confidant.  Chloe regularly has a breakdown when Abi leaves the house without her.  By riding her unicycle when we take walks, she makes us look and feel like we are part of a parade.

Jacob (13): Unfortunately, our house is not large enough for Jacob.  For that matter, the city of Dubuque is having trouble containing him.  An unengaged Jacob is a frightful thing for our family and the general public.  Fortunately, he is a good self-starter (most of the time).

Mary Elisabeth (15): We would be in trouble without Mary.  She is an example to the other kids, extremely helpful around the house, full of spiritual insight and is just plain fun to have around.

Drew and Beth keep fighting to see they are part of something much bigger than themselves, or their family, or the city of Dubuque, or our great
nation.  We hope the Lord gives each one we love eyes to see past all the things that falsely make a claim to worth and blind us.  There is no thought, object, action or person that has value apart from Jesus Christ.
“Worthy is the Lamb”.  (Rev. 5:12)

Merry Christmas from the Tuecke Family!


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Fun Name that tune Challenge

I shared this last year, but thought it was good enough to share again. If you follow the link here you can listen to a Piano Puzzler.  This definitely counts for school! :)

For more Piano Puzzler's:
Click Here or cut and paste the URL below
http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/podcast/piano_puzzler/

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Abram Looses His First Tooth

Abram lost his first tooth last night.  I was bummed not to be home for it.  I wish I could freeze time, Abram and all the children are at fun stages in life!!


Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Juggling Balls

I found this in my drafts post list from March of this year.  One of the original set I made for Jacob ripped shortly after I made it.  I wanted to make him a replacement and couldn't find the pattern I had used.  Low and behold I had the pattern right in my drafts.  So of the sites below the first one listed proved to be the most useful.  The juggling balls are a great size and shape.  Oh and the reason his ripped is because I failed to put interfacing on the fabric.  The interfacing is dual purpose. One, stiffening the fabric and two, preventing fraying. So if you decide to make these I recommend doing the interfacing. Now it's happy sewing!!


This site gives detailed, yet complicated instructions.
http://juggleballs.amielmartin.com/all

The site below has good advice on what type of fabric to use etc.
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/barnesybags.html

The site below has printable patterns for many different styles of balls
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/sewingpatterns.html

I clicked on this link and got this:
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/Sewing%20Patterns%20for%20Juggling%20Part%20I.pdf

This site gives somewhat useless information about making juggling balls =)
http://www.pjb.com.au/jug/leatherballs.html

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Am I seeing things Clearly?

I have been thinking a lot lately about how important it is to see life through the crystal clear, untainted lens of the Bible. I generally think of myself as a pretty good person until confronted with the first three verses of Ephesians two*.  The fact of the matter is that I am not only not a good person, apart from the grace of God I am DEAD.  Yes, dead.  No not physically, but spiritually. I can do nothing to bring myself to God, nothing to merit a moment in His presence. Drew is teaching this week on the first 10 verses of Ephesians and as I listened to what he prepared I thought about how easily Eve turned from believing the truth to embracing Satan's lie**. Satan wants us to think God is our enemy.  He wants us to believe that God has withheld good things from us.  NO, God has gifted those He has chosen with every good thing***. When I see myself as pretty good I am not seeing things clearly.  I'm a slow learner, but I am begining to see things more clearly;) As I pray through each circumstance during the day I am calling out to the Lord to help me see things clearly.  Help me see things rightly, instead of clouded in the fog of lies bombarding me by the prince of the power of the air.












* 1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

**1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

***3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Snack Time and Organizing

Here is the snack I made for Chloe, Abram, Baruch and I while the oldest three were at play practice.
 
Here's Chloe and her kitty waiting patiently to dig in!
When I was uploading these pictures I noticed the shelves in the background and thought, why not put in some pictures of my new plan for the winter. 
 
A bin for each member of the family for our hats, scarves and mittens!

And a shelf for each child to put his or her boots on.  Although we have had no snow yet, I am asking each child to take off their shoes and put them on their shelf when they walk in through the door.  I sat everyone down and gave them the beef that Mom is not responsible for anyone's shoes.  If your shoes are found anywhere other than your shelf or your closet you owe me a quarter.  So far this has been the hardest on Baruch and Abram.  I feel so bad because they get the least amount for allowance.  But rules is rules and I am sure they will learn soon =).

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Snapshot Summary #51



 
Sunday
23 - September, 2012



Drew's plan to take Cob on a "coming of age" outing finally materialized!!  The put in on the Mississippi and traveled south, camping on an island.

Monday
24 - September, 2012
 
In the morning, Abigail and Chloe went on an outing.
 
In the afternoon we watched the men lock through lock #11
 
 



 
Please read Jacob's write up on his blog entitled Mississippi Adventure
 
Tuesday
25 - September, 2012


My niece Morgan pops in for a visit! We were all blessed to have Morgan come to Dubuque for work AND work in a visit with US!!  Thanks Morgan, we enjoyed every minute!!

The rest of the week FLEW by as is this one!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Snapshot Summary #50




Sunday 16 - September, 2012



Friday  21 - September, 2012

 The Birthday celebration continues =)  Happy 11th Abi!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Snapshot Summary #49



Sunday
9 - September, 2012
PM Family time
Baruch with his temporary cast.

   Listening to Dad read Pilgrim's Progress
 


Sleep, after a stressful day and a lot of pain from the broken bones

Monday
10 - September, 2012

I was thankful the dr. was able to fit us in for Baruch's arm today.  Originally they thought we would have to wait until Tuesday, but when I mentioned he was in a lot of pain they got us in at 3 PM.  After that we ran errands, one of which was stopping at Bicycle World.  Abigail has been saving up her money to buy one ever since she learned to ride.  Her goal was to puchase one while she was still 10 years old.  I was 10 when I bought the very unicycle she learned on! While she was counting out her cash she turned green and had to run outside to relieve herself in a bucket in the van.  Poor girl, she got the stomach bug Mary and I had Friday night and Saturday =(.

 Feeling much better with the stabilization of the permanent cast.
 Story time in the boys room with dad and the girls room with Abi.


Tuesday
11 - September, 2012
Jacob had the up-chucks this afternoon =(
Sorry no pictures of him =)

By bed time Abigail was feeling fine, she was happy since her 11th birthday was coming in the AM!

Wednesday
12 - September, 2012

Happy Birthday Abigail!!

A couple neighborhood friends come to help celebrate! Thanks girls, Abi sure enjoys your company =)
 Making homemade crackers =)

Thursday
13 - September, 2012

Peterman's came for piano and Abi watched Lydia.  She managed to put a beautiful crown braid in Lydia's hari.  This isn't the most flattering picture of Abigail so please focus on the braid =).


 Here is Abigail at Bicycle World testing out her new unicycle!

 Jacob and Seth running in a cross country race.



Great Job guys!!

Friday
14 - September, 2012

The older three went to play practice while the younger three and I rescued the house from a week of sickness and chaos.

Saturday
15 - September, 2012
Mary ran in a cross country meet this morning but I didn't bring the camera.  She did a great job!  The course was tough with one extrememly steep hill that she ran up twice and another lesser grade hill she ran twice also.  She ran the entire way!!  Way to go Mary!

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

First Day of School

And here are all of our daily checklists . . .




Mary’s Independent Daily Checklist

o Read Bible

o Chores

o Brush Teeth







o Piano (theory on Monday)

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Jacob’s Independent Daily Checklist

o Read Bible

o Shurley English

o Math (Complete One Lesson or a test)

o Science

o History

o Piano (Dr. Jensen)

o Piano Composition

o Guitar & Band

o HTML

o Brush Teeth

o Chores

 

 

 



 

Abigail’s Independent Daily Checklist

o Read Bible

o Chores

o Brush Teeth

o Violin

o Math (Complete One Lesson or a test)

o Skip Counting

o Shurley English

o Spelling

o Science

o History

o Piano

o Piano flash cards or theory

o Reading (or read aloud to Chloe)

 

 

 



 

Baruch’s Independent Daily Checklist

o Bible Memorization

o Chores

o Brush Teeth

o Phonics/Reading/Spelling

o Math

o Skip Counting

o Shurley English

o History

o Science

o Piano

o Piano flash cards or theory

 

 

 

 

 



Abram’s Independent Daily Checklist

o Bible Memorization

o Chores

o Brush Teeth

o Phonics/Reading/Spelling

o Math

o Skip Counting

o Science

o History

o Piano

o Piano flash cards or theory

 

 

 

 

 



Chloe’s Dependent Daily Checklist

o Bible Memorization

o Chores

o Brush Teeth

o Sing Aa Apple

o Play a Number Game

o History

o Science

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom’s Daily checklist

o Bible Reading

o Bible Memorization

o Pray for Drew

o Pray for Mary

o Pray for Jacob

o Pray for Abigail

o Pray for Baruch

o Pray for Abram

o Pray for Chloe

o Chores

o Brush Teeth

o Daily Exercise

o Teach Mary and Jacob Shurley English

o Teach Abigail Shurley English

o Teach Baruch Shurley English

o Teach Mary Spelling

o Teach Abi Spelling

o Teach Baruch Spelling/Phonics

o Teach Abram Spelling/Phonics

o Read Aloud to Chloe

o Read Aloud History

o Do History Project or Map  work

o Read Aloud Science

 


 


 

background image