New soccer

So, soccer has been an ordeal for the past three seasons.  Each season we have been scheduled to practice on Wednesday.  While I am not saying it is sin to not walk in the doorway of the church on Wednesday night, it is sin to put things above the Lord.  So, we have chosen not to put this sport above the Lord.  After much discussion and attempting to remedy the situation, we withdrew E from the Y soccer.  He is now playing for a homeschool soccer team.  It is a non competitive team, but I was surprised at how organized it is.

E had his first game yesterday afternoon.  In the blazing sun (yes, Arkansas, I know.  I'm sorry.  Not trying to rub it in).  We had to wear sunscreen.  They practice for 1 hour and then divide into teams for a game.  Reminds me of the winter league he did.

E put on his own sunscreen and missed the area near his goggles.  I missed the back of one of my arms.  So, we are each sporting a nice small sunburn today.  

Friends

Eric has started to develop friendships here that he would be sad if we had to leave someday.  I am glad.  It is taking me a bit longer.  I do have some swim friends though.  Thankful for those.

We went to eat last night after practice with one of  Eric's swim buddies and his family.

He also has a fun lunch group.  

They sit across the room from me, so I don't interact with them much.  But they have started playing a modified version of Pokemon.  Eric is their referee.  

There is a family that we enjoy getting together with.  Their youngest turned 2 on Monday, so we met up with them to celebrate.  

Swim Meet

We had a swim meet this Saturday.  Eric did a great job.  

I love the above picture because Eric still looks tiny.  He isn't.  By any means.  But the angle of this picture tricks my mommy eye, and therefore makes me happy.  

We enjoyed being all together at the meet.  

His first event was the 50 yard backstroke.  He had a slow start, his foot slipped on the wall.  He usually starts very well.  But even with that, he STILL took time off.  Awesomeness!  He took .35 seconds off with a new best time of 38.74.

So very proud of that kiddo.  He works so hard at this sport.  

He then did a 100 yard backstroke.  He did well in that.  He didn't get his best time.  He added 0.63 to his time to finish with 1:22.30.  

Next was 50 yard breaststroke.  Swam this one quite a bit slower than his previous best, but still swam very hard.  He added 2.96 to this for a time of 51.21.  

Then he did a 200 yard IM.  This is where you do each stroke.  This is his very first time competing in this event.  In fact, he had to swim with 15-18 year olds because it wasn't offered for his age.  He wanted to try this event, and I am so proud of him!  He did great.  He executed each stroke and turn properly and finished with a time of 3:19.25.  

See the fellas around Eric.  Yep.  These are the boys he was racing.  Some of the boys on the blocks (in the next heat) clapped for Eric when he finished.  I think they were impressed with this little guy hanging with all the big ones.  So, so proud of him.  Last year at this same meet, he did a 200  Free.  It just about took him down.  He struggled so much with that.  This 200 IM didn't seem to bother him at all.  He rocked it!  He didn't even seem that tired when he got finished.  

We went to Shoney's after the meet and got some dinner and hot fudge cake for our hard working guy.  

Sound Booth

Recently a man who serves at Extension with us approached Eric about helping in the sound booth at church.  He said he noticed that Eric pays attention well and thought he would do a good job.  Eric LOVES this!  He thinks it is the neatest thing ever.  He currently has helped 3 times.  It is just him and the other man, and he pretty much does the sound board on his own.  He will be ready to serve whatever church the Lord places him in.  

LTC practice

So, LTC is quickly approaching.  Since it is a new program here, I am having to do pretty much everything.  It is keeping me a tad busy.

E had Bible Bowl practice last night, and then they practiced their puppets for our class.

Thumb War

I finally figured out how to pull pictures off my phone again.  So, I will try to backtrack some and post some neat things we did.  However, I will just start with more recent ones.

Sunday in bible class the 5th and 6th graders were talking about Jacob and Esau.  At the end of class they had a thumb war competition.  I walked in to the final battle.  Eric ended up being the champion that day.

I thought this was too cute.  Believe it or not, there is a dog in there next to Eric.  And believe it or not, he did not even seemed bothered that Eric was taking up so much of his bed.  Seriously... those two...

This week

We started back to school Monday.  I've already learned a lot this week.  :)

Like we did an experiment with clay and toothpicks to see how the spines in a cactus help keep it cool.

As the sun moves, the spines cast shadows on the cactus, thus helping it to remain cool.  Interesting.  

I also learned that the Rosetta Stone was something real and not just the name of a foreign language study course.  What????  

It was the tool we used to learn to read hieroglyphics.  

Eric and Gizmo reading his book for school.  He is currently reading Black Stallion in the adventure genre.  I love the above picture because it looks like G is reading too.  

Then he just laid his head on Eric's arm.  Eric spoils that dog and will not move if G is comfortable.  

We went to a fun program at the library on Monday.  It was Lego Robotics, and E had a blast!  

Here is E with the children's librarian Ms. Lindsey.  He really likes her.  She leads the book clubs he attends.  It should not surprise anyone that he was the first person they had to make the robot his own way.  Some children added an accessory or two, but he completely changed his up. 

After they played with them for a while, the kids began to battle.  

Eric won some battles and lost some.  But, he had a blast!

His is the one on the far left.  The one that comes in later is the way his looked when he started.  

There were a couple of other variations pre built.  This picture shows him battling a scorpion looking version.  That one and a robot looking one were both pre built, and the children did not alter them.  They could, they just didn't.  

We will definitely be doing this again next time it is offered.

Soccer camp started back again last night.  E is in the orange on the left.  He is enjoying this camp, although he played so hard last night that he is really feeling it today.  He has a few bangs, bruises, and sore muscles.