First Day of School

After a two week delay from when we had originally planned to begin school, it finally happened! We got it together and began our new schooling year today!

Though I was looking forward to the routine and structure of our school days, I have to admit, I just wasn't quite ready this year. It's been a busy summer and the urge to sleep in this morning was tempting. But alas! I got up and got busy......at 5:30am.  This happens to be my normal wake time, but for some reason, just knowing we were starting school today made me feel unusually tired. Or maybe it was staying up until 11:00 pm watching the Olympics that made me feel so tired!  Hmm...

Just for fun, I thought I'd document our day. I can remember a time when we were on top of things and probably TOO scheduled for most people, but it worked for a time!

Now, with seven kids, five of them seven and under, I have yet to find a schedule that works for us. So, we just do the best we can and try to be sensible in our planning and have fun!

Here's what our day looked like:

We always begin our day with Bible reading and prayer, even the little ones.


After Bible, we spread out and put everyone to work. The school-aged kids pretty much always begin with math. The younger ones think they're schooling by doing something like this.


Celeste began with Grammar and Composition while Cheyenne used the computer for her math lesson.

This is Seth digging in to his second grade arithmetic book.

Sophia got quite a bit ahead last year, so is well under way in her first grade math book.

We do not do a formal pre-k program, but we do get our little ones started in basic letter recognition, sounds, and writing practice when we feel they're ready. Chloe is up for the challenge, although she's learned a lot already by way of watching the older children. She did GREAT tracing the letter A.....and, she's our first lefty!

While the other kids are still working, we try hard to keep the little ones busy with Legos, Tinker Toys, or Blocks.

Cheyenne is busy completing her math. She's pretty good at it, just like her Daddy!

Bam Bam and Pebbles! Poor Genevieve!

We're to the point where we have to take shifts with the little ones. Here, Celeste is taking her shift while I work with Seth. What a help this is!!!

Seth is doing his copywork from his second year of First Language Lessons.

Break and snack time.

Thankfully, Genevieve is content to sit and play!

The little ones are busy coloring while I work with the older girls.

Chloe's a big girl and she's learning to read!

Seth's (second year) lesson from First Language Lessons. He LOVES this book!

Sophia BEGINS First Language Lessons! I LOVE this book!

Ahh.....a quiet moment for the older girls. The little ones are down for rest time! The girls are doing Vocabulary at the moment.

We had a great first day!

Tomorrow, we'll dive into our other subjects such as History, Science and Writing. While these pictures may reflect that of a nice, peaceful, stress-free day, we certainly had our share of whining, poopy diapers, chaos and discipline. But over all, it was a productive day and I can actually say that we're looking forward to tomorrow!

I am truly blessed to be able to teach my children at home! Happy schooling everyone!

The Girls

When Did They Become Little Women?

Celeste (13) and Cheyenne (almost 16)........our two oldest daughters...........

Sisters.........Best Friends.............Well........most of the time ;-)

Just because they make me smile................

Recipe Tragedy

A Tragedy

Okay, so maybe tragedy is too strong a word, but you'll know what I mean once you read this! As you know we just moved. While we were unloading the truck here at the new house, we put out an ice chest full of sodas, juice and water for all of the hard workers. Just so happens, the box that was so nicely serving as the table for the ice chest had THIS in it.........

What is THIS? THIS is my recipe book! (Taking a deep breath, trying not to cry, lip is quivering as I write....) Somehow the naughty ice chest leaked and dripped water into the kind, serving box and saturated my entire recipe book. By the time we knew it, the damage had already been done! Years and years of precious recipes, now mold laden, has morphed into but a scary science project.

So the work begins to rebuild years of cherished meals and desserts one page at a time. I went to the store and bought a new binder along with PAGE PROTECTORS!!!!!! Live and learn, right? The girls and I will sit down and write, type, and print off as many recipes as possible whenever possible, although I'm sure it will take some time. Hopefully, we can remember the recipes that we can no longer read. And if you know me and have given me a recipe, you may get a call soon..........
This was our beloved Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing recipe........

A tragedy indeed, RIGHT???

Moved

Oh Internet......How I've Missed You!!!

All I can say is........HOORAY!!!!.......we're back on-line after two weeks. I feel like I've been out of all the loops lately, and now I've got some catching up to do!

We're all moved into our new home and enjoying it tremendously! God was so good to work out all the details and to allow us to move into the home we began building over a year ago! It's hard to believe we're finally here! I'll try to get some pics up as soon as I get things in order.

I'll have to keep this one short.........Greg's working his 24 hour shift and there are seven children waiting on Mama to finish up on the computer! ;-)

Be back soon........

Moving Day

Well, tomorrow's the day we begin our move. Much has already been done to make things easier for us tomorrow. Today, we finished clearing out all of the kids' rooms. We moved out furniture, books, and toys. We've cleaned windows, sills, and baseboards. And we even vacuumed and shampooed carpets.

Our babies rooms are empty!!! So, we set up all their mattresses in the playroom and now they are enjoying a sibling's sleepover.

We're quite entertained by the stories, giggles, and silly noises coming from up there. It sounds like they're having a blast....especially the little ones who think this is the coolest thing ever!

We pray that the new family moving in enjoys living here as much as we have, and creates many special memories with their little ones in the years ahead. We'll miss this house, but we'll look forward to creating all new memories in our new home. For now, I'll savor this special memory of all our children up in the playroom enjoying each other's company as siblings should.

I can't wait to hear the stories tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Celeste

Happy Birthday Celeste!!!

Today our second daughter is thirteen!!! Celeste is quite an amazing and talented young lady, and has many interests and hobbies. She absolutely LOVES to bake! She very creative and isn't afraid to experiment in the kitchen. She loves to try different combinations of spices and herbs when she's cooking, and we've been the lucky recipients of some culinary masterpieces. It's funny......I'll often quiz her when I've cooked something new. I'll ask her to identify the spices or herbs and 95% of the time she right......even with the more unique spices.


The little ones love to watch.............

Celeste also has artistic qualities........she did not get those from me! She inherited these traits from her very talented Gramie! Celeste loves to draw, paint, crochet, and sew! For her birthday, she asked for another sewing machine (which will be coming soon), as well as sewing and painting supplies, of which she is now well stocked!

And finally, two of our favorite character traits in her that make Celeste who she is: First, she has a sweet servant's spirit. She's always willing to help and has great situational awareness. She generally see's a need and responds before asked! Second, she's a little comedian. Maybe not so much out in public, but here at home. She cracks us up daily, especially with her quick-witted humor in unexpected moments!

Celeste, you are a treasure and you've grown into a special young lady! We're thankful for every moment God has blessed us with you and look forward to watching you grow into the woman God has created you to be!

Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you!!

(I posted this today, Sunday, June 22. For some reason blogger saved it as June 21st)

Kids Packing

Sweet Picture
I had to post this picture. This particular day my friend and I went to another friend's house to help with some cleaning, so my older girls looked after all of our children (except the babies......we took them). I just thought it was SO cute to see that the bigger kids helped pack and the little ones played in the boxes while we were gone. Oh, and there's another little girl hiding in the box in the upper left corner. So precious........and what great helpers! Thank you, girls!!!

Moving Update

What We've Been Up To

Celeste is our resident comedian. And while she's been a tremendous help during the moving process, she's been caught playing on more than one occasion!


Well, her humor was contagious so Daddy joined in............

Ready to be shipped off to China.........

Fun aside, we've been VERY busy preparing for our move. MOVE??? The Sabo's are moving??? I know, I have been very neglectful on the updates, so for those of you who haven't heard yet.........we're moving!

It's a long story but I'll give you the short version for now. A year ago we decided to build a house. Two months later we put our house on the market. New house was completed six months ago. Our house hadn't sold. New house went on market by builder. New house stayed empty (on the market) five months. YEA! We finally sold our house! Yea again! Call builder to say our house sold and we want new house! Builder says new house is under contract by another family! BOO HOO! We wait to see what will happen, but begin looking for another house. We check back. Still under contract. Check back again. Still under contract. Check back AGAIN. Contract cancelled......house is available. YEA! We sign contract for OUR house and now we're packing. The End.

Someday, I'll give the longer, more exciting version. At any rate, we're excited, eager and looking forward to move into our new home. God is good!

And I can't end this post without a cute picture of Genevieve, now 5 months!

Church Mission Trip

Church Mission Trip (pics)

Rio Grande Bible Institute-Radio Esperanza

The trip was fantastic and much was accomplished in the short time we were there. As I write, families are still there working hard and will return later in the week. The Rio Grande Bible Institute's mission is to train missionaries and pastors to go into Mexico to spread the Gospel and minister to the people. Our purpose in being there was to help with various projects ranging from demolition work to picking up nails from recent roofing work. There was much to do and there was certainly a job for everyone! One of the neatest aspects of the trip was watching whole families work together and be productive. Even the small children were given jobs and were diligent to complete them. So often mission trips are reserved for youths and adults, assuming young children are too little to do much! Well, may I encourage your churches to plan family mission trips and watch the love, learning, and hard work that takes place! These kids were so sweet and very eager to do ANY job, even out in the heat of the day!

I took many pictures and tried to post just a fraction of them, although there are still many. I'm posting these mainly for the benefit of my family and church family that could not come. But if you don't fit into these categories, I hope you will enjoy them anyway!

We all stayed in the student dorms, specifically, the men's dorms. We were quite comfortable.

The Warren boys settling in.............

Our family settling in ...........

The rest of our family settling in...........

Our brood............

It's time for bed.........

Julie, CJ, Blair and Melody up early preparing breakfast............

With full bellies, it's time to get to work........

Josh and David on plumbing repair duty.........

Greg on mudding and tapping duty.......

And under Daddy's tutelage, Seth learned mudding and taping.......

Curtis had to repair a tractor tire...........

Dirk (our pastor) had fun knocking down a wall in a bathroom........

And Brandon joined the fun.............

Bethany contributed by building a log cabin..........Great Job!

Bethany also helped look after our little ones and much, much more.........


There were even jobs for mommies and babies..........I was the "Magnet Lady"

Malachi helped pick up nails and metal with this handy magnet.........

This is why we had to do this.......the boys cracked me up by how excited they'd get over their new found "treasure"................

Seth lifting the magnet to release the nails into the box.........

Sophia tried her hand at magnet pulling, but it was harder than it looked........

We celebrated Ethan's second birthday while on the trip. Our thoughtful pastor made a trip to the store and bought this cake. It was a sweet birthday..........

Here's Ethan getting ready to dig in............

Ethan's new best friend, CJ............

There's always time for music..........

Amy and Chey singing Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee in English and Spanish.........

And to end my photo journal, here are some of our families before Sunday morning worship. I was unable to get all the families photographed........I apologize for missing some.........

It was an amazing trip and we look forward to doing it again soon! Thank you to the Rio Grand Bible Institute for allowing us the privilege to come with our families to work with you!

Again I say.........Soli Deo Gloria!!!