Beach life

I wanted to let you know of our beach experience yesterday. The kids wanted to go to the rough/wavy beach. I dislike going here because it's not as tranquil as the lagoon we generally go to but I decided we hadn't gone in a while so we'd go let them play in the waves. The kids had a blast as expected. We had the beach to ourselves, so nice to feel like it's your beach! Our own private oasis. Now I had my contacts in and the water managed to misplace one. So keeping that in mind, as I was looking in the water I kept thinking I saw something so I'd stare and not see anything so just assumed it was the contact issue and a wild imagination(ok looking back I know I should have said something to James at this point in case it was something serious) I get out of the water to go play with the little kids in the sand. A few minutes later James and the big kids follow. Turns out he thinks he saw something in the water too. So we are staring out to sea to try to figure out what it is.....thoughts going through my mind: log, shark, dead body(hey told you I had a wild imagination) James thought a seal. Then we get a good look at it, it had come in close now, it is sea turtles! So we sat and watch them body surf right around where we had been. I was excited to see them so close although wished they'd come up on shore so I could get a good picture of them, maybe next time!

Child Services

To say I'm disappointed in Child Services would be an understatement. This is a group of people that are suppose to be there to help children that are in bad situations. Yes there are going to be people in any job that make mistakes but when this is your job and you make a mistake it can cause a lot of heartache. Take my friend Sara for example. She had her kids taken away, her oldest, who is the same age as my oldest still worries that they'll come back for him. Sara won her case against DFC which is Great! I'm so happy but the thing is a. they took the children away BEFORE they asked questions and b. it cost them a TON of money to win this case. Now since they were innocent to begin with both these facts are absurd! Of Course DFC doesn't agree with the judges ruling and have said they will keep fighting this. So my question is how much money will they receive back to cover their legal fees and when will DFC admit they made a huge mistake?
Now because we live in the age of the Internet and the military moves us around alot we know alot of people. Unfortunately that's not the only person I know that has/is dealing with child services. Another friend Stacey is going through it too. Different reasoning's behind it, another innocent mom accused.
I'm not sure what needs to be done. I do know not all workers are so careless in accusations, I do have a great friend that children are lucky to have when she takes on a case. Workers do need to follow up on leads. It seems not everyone truly has the families best interest in the mind. Then too you hear of stories where children who truly needed out of the family situations were left with them and something tragic has happened. A serious overhaul needs to be addressed in our country for these services.
Knowing we live in a place where we are sue happy and the fingers are often pointed was a big reason we joined HSLDA. Now none of the above families are homeschoolers, yet when you do something 'different' it seems the finger may point to you. So staying up to date on legal matters and having a legal team on our side if the need should ever arise seems like a smart decision for us.


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In other news, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!!!!

We made butter over the weekend. I did take pictures but the camera was in the black and white setting so nothing really exciting about a black and white picture of butter! The kids had fun, each of the older three took turns shaking the container until, voila butter!
Sunday is a blurr, I remember picking James up from work and trying to make biscuits and gravy before church. Didn't quite have enough time to get the gravy just right but I think we will try to eat this a little more often because a. its yummy! and b. I'll be able to remember how to do it easier!
The kids made clay in science this week. J shaped his into a race car(which requires a lot of imagination!) and the I's made smile faces. J has painted his the others will paint today and then I will take pictures to share their creations.
I5 is turning 6 soon. She and I went out shopping yesterday. I think we have has started a tradition of doing birthday shopping with her every year. We have a lot of fun with it. The thing she really wanted was fingernail polish and she got a kit with nail polish and lip gloss. She is currently painting the younger brother's toes......hmm How do you think they'll look in pink and purple?