My first blog post!

This my official first blog post ever. We have a lot of friends and family spread out all over the world, so I thought a blog would be a great way to update people about our family life.

I chose the name Blessed Arrows Family Happenings because we've named our homeschool Blessed Arrows Academy (from Psalm 127). Homeschooling is an important part of our life because it's such a critical component of how we've chosen to raise our children.

Speaking of homeschooling, that brings me to our children. I don't really want to use their real names on the Internet, so I'll need some fake names for them.

From here on out, the oldest boy shall be called Piglet. No, he's not a pig (in fact, he's quite tall and thin), but his personality is much like Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh books (the real ones by A.A. Milne--not the Disney ones). He likes to have fun and be involved in things, but he's very cautious and always ready to retreat when things get dicey. Piglet is currently 5 years old. He's learning to read and doing quite well with it. He volunteers to read signs for me wherever we go and will proudly tell anyone that he's in kindergarten.

Continuing with that theme, the middle boy will be called Tigger. He's bouncy and full of life, and he rarely stops to consider the ramifications of his energy. He always means well, but he occassionally leaves a trail of destruction as he bounces around. He's 4 years old and wants to do everything that Piglet does, and it does make his lip quiver and his eyes fill with tears when he's unable to keep up because of his age.

The baby is now 16 months old, and he can be Roo. Just like Roo in the stories, he wants to do whatever everyone else is doing and rarely realizes that he's just a baby. He does a pretty good job keeping up. He climbs everything at the playground and makes his needs known through a combination of baby words and gestures. He has a few words that he mispronounces, like "wawa" for water and "nana" for banana, which has led his brothers to believe that Baby is a language quite like Spanish where there's a predetermined word-for-word translation for all adult words. They're always pointing to random objects and asking me questions like, "What's Baby for car?" and "What's Baby for TV?" They're quite disappointed that I can't tell them what the Baby word will be until Roo comes up with his own names for those particular objects.

I'll conclude this post for now. Later I'll figure out how to post some pictures so that everyone can see just how adorable my children really are.

1Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except
the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
3Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127