A big day!

Wow! What a day Monday was! It was certainly a big, busy day in the Bentley household. Dennis worked ALL day! Yes, from 6am until 9pm, he was away at work. But that's okay, because we are grateful for the provision of the Lord in strength to work and supply our every need.

Charis started 1st grade. After a little bit of trouble getting A Beka Books shipped to us; they finally arrived Friday. I took the weekend to go over lesson plans and set a more definite schedule. Matthew was so anxious to start that we got a sheet of paper and our Vowel chart out. I had him draw and color pictures of things that start with "A" and he did a really good job! I'll see if I can get a picture of his work on here soon. With Matthew doing some school work, Charis seemed a bit more enthused to work on hers. She is learning cursive, which has already proved to be challenging just with the letter e. But I'm not going to be discouraged; we have plenty of time to work on penmanship!

Today was also Charis' first violin lesson with a new teacher. We had set the violin to the side with our move and only recently picked it back up to practice over the summer. Ms. Melanie is a good teacher and strives to make it fun. Charis was a bit rusty on some review songs. She was given some new diddles to learn and was told to practice, practice, practice!

After lessons, we headed home and shortly after, the UPS truck pulled into our drive. Matthew ran to greet the driver as he handed him a box marked "A Beka Book." Talk about excitement! He wanted to do school all over again for the day. But we sat down and went through his materials so we could get a fresh start today. The excitement has even oozed down to Andrew: yes, he want to do school too!

Birthday News

We celebrated Faith's first birthday July 2. She enjoyed her cake thoroughly as you will see by the pictures. I just thought Matthew's reason for her being "picky" about how she ate her cake was hillarious. You'll have to listen very closely... tell me, what does he say?

Enjoy the pictures!

(Notice the lack of clothing: after 3 other kids, we figured out cleanup is much easier this way!!!)

I love to watch their curiosity and the expressions that come across their faces. The last one seems to capture: "I'm done and about to pop!"

Back to Blogging

From the first sights of our house to the making of our home, here are the pictures of completed rooms. If you'd like to compare before and after pics, you can go to the archive posts on the right and click on the link 6/01 - 6/08 for the before pics.


Our bedroom, along with the master bath, is my favorite of all the rooms. The colors seem to blend well and I love to see the sunlight brighten the rooms early in the mornings.






Here is the girls' room. We liked the colors and papering in it, so we chose to leave it as is was. It also serves as a guest bedroom for short term stays.



Next is the boys' room. Definitely an improvement, I think. I love how well the colors match on the sheets and the walls. We have a few other ideas we would like to add to the room as time and finances allow, but for now, it's better than purple! Beyond it is the playroom, which has yet to be finished. That is to be a kid's project once we get the nerve up to let them handle paint (which could be years ~ ha!)

Here is our living room looking down from the top of the stairs. This picture makes me dizzy, although actually looking down does not. Weird, huh? I am growing accustomed to numerous trips up and down the stairs every day. Maybe it'll help me keep my weight low. Since this picture, we have put curtains up on the windows, so maybe you'll get a glimpse of them in a future post... or maybe you'll just have to come visit sometime to see them yourself!

The kitchen needed a bit of work with the range hood missing as well as the gaping hole where a diswasher should go. Those in place and my grapes up as decorations, and our kitchen is complete! Well, close... since most of the appliances are black, we would like to eventually replace the fridge with black, but if it's still ticking, we'll just keep saving until it's a need and not just a want.

Single eye

What a way to start the weekend!

Andrew woke up Saturday morning looking like this:

We noticed Friday evening that he had what appears to be a mosquito bite under his eye, on his cheek bone. No worries there, he's constantly got bites on his arms and legs. He went to bed that night looking and acting fine. Then at 7am, Charis brought him downstairs with a big bulging eyelid. After examining it the best we could and not finding anything to attribute it to, we decided to take him to a doctor. We considered the possibility of an allergic reaction to the bug bite, but wouldn't that have taken effect sooner?

Well, he was given a booster shot (don't remember the name) of antibiotic and then was prescribed amoxcillin along with Benadryl. Off and on throughout the day he complained of it hurting. You should have seen the stares he received from adults and kids alike when we all went out for Matthew's party (that's another post)!

Yesterday, still looked pretty much the same, but when he woke up this morning, most of the swelling had gone down. There's minimal bruising on the inside corner of his eyelid, but still no evidence of anything definite that caused it. A bite on one of his hands began to swell yesterday, but a second one on the opposite hand did not swell. Baffled? Yes, we are. But the antibiotics and Benadryl seem to be helping and his diapers are lovely!

Here's another picture just to give you a good laugh:
Check back tomorrow for details on Matthew's birthday!