Beautiful Summer Blessings

Below are some random pictures that I took this summer... when in that moment, I thought, THAT is beautiful, a beautiful BLESSING.  Thank you God for those "moments" that remind me of all the things that YOU made and created for us to enjoy and make life that much sweeter.

"This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

"With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

"He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul" Psalm 23:2,3

"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15

"I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:6

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ...nothing shall be impossible unto you." Matthew 17:20

"We thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations." Psalm 79:13

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

"Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." 1 John 4:4

"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15

Our Family At Menards

Lowe's, Home Depot, True Value, and Menard's... These are just some of Eric's favorite places to "shop".  I do not enjoy these places as much as he does.  Okay, the truth is a lot of times I will wait in the car with the kids while he goes into these stores.  If I do go in, I look at items like decorative garden flags, lamps, home organizing items, magazines at the check out stand, and beyond that I start to get pretty bored and impatient... except at Menard's.  Menard's is the most family friendly store on Eric's list of favorite stores.  There are things there that men, women and children would enjoy looking at and shopping for, plus they have a few of these fun cars attached to their shopping carts that small children like to ride in and pretend to race around in all over the store.  This was Silas's first time to get to ride in one of these car carts and he clearly loved it!  (Notice Eric in the background.  He is very intently studying the lawnmowers and deciding whether or not this is "the one" we should buy.) 

So, while Eric looked at the lawnmowers (for about thirty minutes) the kids and I entertained ourselves with this yellow car cart.  We had already walked around the store and looked at all of the normal things we like to look at that day...  

When Silas had enough of the yellow car cart, and in an attempt to speed things up a bit, he decided to help Daddy out with checking out the lawnmowers.  I am pretty sure he had some good suggestions about this model and drooled all over it while making the suggestions.

 

Finally when the decision was made to buy "the one", I was relieved and we were ALL ready to check out, so we loaded back into the yellow car cart and headed to the front of the store... in a fashionable little Hendrickson parade... three kids, a yellow car cart, two adults, and a new mower.

August Schoolwork

Sarah has had a great first few weeks of first grade....

The first couple of days she got a little frustrated because she told us that everyone kept going over and over all the rules with her class.  She was ready to get started learning and having fun... but each teacher needed to go over the classroom rules and expectations first.  Below is a rule sheet that she made in her classroom.  It is a picture of David, from the "No, David" books, holding the rules that she copied onto her paper.

She has her own desk this year.  The desks have been pushed into groups of four or six children.  Tyson was the boy that was sitting next to her in her group.

The first grades at Sarah's school switch classrooms for different subjects.  They also switch teachers for levelized learning in reading and math.  Right now, Sarah is in the high groups for both reading and math.  Go Sarah!

Me:  What is Jitter Juice?  What did your class do with the Jitter Juice?

Sarah: "It was Sprite with, I think it was cherry ice cream in it.  That's Jitter Juice.  We drank it.  I think three kids didn't like it.  It kinda tastes like Sprite to me."

Me:  What things do you like the best about first grade so far?

Sarah: "Making the Back-to-School Book.  The sticker chart in my planner. The Jitter Juice.  P.E. I just like to run."

 

Me:  You have taken your lunch most days so far, but you have chosen to eat a school lunch a few times. What do you think of eating at school?  Have you liked the school lunches?

Sarah: "Good.  I did not like the quesadilla.  I did like meatball sub and the fudgesicle."

Me: You switch classrooms and have a different teacher for Science... What has been your favorite thing that you have gotten to do or learned during Science time so far?

Sarah: "Bringing two bean seeds and a little pinch of grass seeds home in a little plastic bag.  When they are starting to grow we are supposed to put them outside.  Then watch them grow."

Rosita Web Hendrickson

This is the cool Garden Spider we found in our front flower bed last weekend.  She is a little smaller than others that I have seen before, but just as fun to watch.  My Mom use to have one of these harmless spiders in her classroom every fall for her 3rd graders to watch, help feed, and learn about.  

These Garden Spiders will catch bugs in their web, wrap the bugs up in silk, and then bring them back to the zig-zag part that they spun and eat them there or save them for later to eat.  When my Mom had them in her classroom she would feed them a cricket everyday or every other day.  Using a pair of tweezers she would carefully place the live cricket into the spider's web and the spider would quickly run over, capture the cricket, and get to work wrapping it up and eating it.

So, when my parents came to visit us this week they taught the girls how to feed our new spider crickets.  Now each day since then the girls and I have tried feeding it a cricket.  We have had some success and a lot of fun watching and checking on the spider.

In the picture below the spider has just captured a cricket and is wrapping it up in its silk.

Still wrapping it up....

And, in the picture below everyone is checking out our supply of crickets that we have saved in the bug barn to feed the spider.

Just today, Phoebe told me she had named our spider, Rosita.  Tonight Sarah decided because Phoebe got to choose the spider's first name she would pick its middle name and last name.  First The spider was Rosita Jo Hendrickson, but after we all said it outloud and laughed... a lot, Sarah changed it to Rosita Web Hendrickson.  So, Rosita Web Hendrickson... We want to give you a great big WELCOME to our yard!  We hope you enjoy all the crickets and various other bugs we try to feed you.  Thanks for sticking around and tolerating some very interested little girls.

ALS Walk In Emporia

Below is a t-shirt quilt that I made for my friend, Shirley.  Her husband was Jeff, also one of my good friends.  Jeff died from ALS, (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 2006.  For many years while Jeff was still living we participated in the ALS Association's walks to help raise money for research and those living with ALS.  We still walk each year in memory of Jeff, and for those that are still battling ALS.  I used as many of our "TEAM MCCLOUD" t-shirts as I could find from past years to make this quilt for Shirley.

We walked in the Emporia ALS Walk last Saturday morning.  My dad co-chairs the walk with Gary Ace.  It was a nice morning, sunny and warm.

We had a little spot set up for "Team McCloud" to gather....

Lots of people showed up to walk in honor and in memory of friends and loved ones....

Phoebe wanted Daddy to carry her most of the 2 miles.... Sarah walked almost the whole 2 miles, and got a short 50 yard ride from Daddy near the end of the walk.

My Dad and Gary worked very hard to gather many items from the community for a silent auction.  It was very successful!  There were food vouchers and coupons from local restaurants, Starbucks coffee and tea baskets, tools, Royals tickets, handmade items like birdhouses and bird feeders, pies, a t-shirt quilt that I made, and a quilted table runner, Clint Bowyer autographed shirts, a Danny Manning autographed shirt, and a George Brett autographed baseball.

The walk participants and the silent auction combined raised approx $30,000 for the ALS Association.  Great job to all who helped out in any way before, during or after the walk!