My thoughts in Cyberspace

30 Days of Christmas: piano recital!

2012-01-29T17:34:00.001-05:00

December 17th

This should have been part of the 30 days of Christmas that I never got finished :) I finally had the time to sit & work on the video. Love my kids!

If you click on this link, you can watch them play their songs here: Micah & Ariella's First Recital

A day of rest

2012-01-29T07:01:00.000-05:00

I may sound like a broken record player (what's that you ask? think of a playlist that isn't playing through all your songs. You accidentally hit REPEAT, & now don't know how take off that little repeat signal). Anyway, this foreign concept of keeping the Sabbath, it keeps coming back to me. I don't do it on purpose, honestly, I think God keeps leading me & guiding me & directing me to take a closer look at how he feels about keeping the Sabbath. I grew up knowing I was privileged to have a relationship with God through Christ & that I wasn't bound by the restrictions of the law. One restriction that never seemed to be really important growing up was this idea of keeping the Sabbath. Not just keeping it... but keeping it holy. Holy! That's a God word, a character of God that we can only barely grasp. We try to find good illustrations that will help us grasp it further, but our understanding of the true "HOLY" God that we will one day stand face to face to, is very limited. By our humanity. So how, in our limited understanding of the word, are we to take a day & dedicate it to being holy? Here are a few definitions of holy as given by our friend Webster:
1. exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness
2. devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity
3. venerated as or as if sacred
4. having a divine quality
I can see some definite applications to "Sabbath". When I think of holy I think of being pure, set apart (specifically set apart for God & His purposes).
As I said, I feel like God keeps leading me to take a deeper look at what HE thinks about the Sabbath. Today I was led to Isaiah 56. I was reading my daughter's NIrV version.

The Lord says,
   "Do what is fair and right.
      I will soon come and save you.
      Soon everyone will know that what I do is right.

OK, so we all try everyday to know & do what is right, even those outside of Christ struggle each day with decisions & I think for the most part, people have this inner desire to do what is right. So I'm eager to read on & find out what things God wants to tell me is right to do...

² Blessed is the man who does what I want him to.
      He is faithful in keeping the Sabbath day.
   He does not misuse it.
      He does not do what is evil on that day."

hmmmm not really what I was expecting to come. I mean there are tons of things God really wants me to work on & focus on as I work at a right walk with Him right? & did he say "He does not do what is evil??? evil?" Evil is a strong word, I normally say sin, but evil sounds so much harder. So if I looked back at how God originally set apart the Sabbath, I would find that rushing around, being busy, planning many events, cooking!! :) all of that is viewed by God as evil? I need to think on that some more.

Let's see what else you have for me God...

³ Suppose an outsider wants to follow the Lord.
      Then he shouldn't say,
      "The Lord won't accept me as one of his people."
   And a eunuch shouldn't say,
      "I'm like a dry tree
      that doesn't bear any fruit."

Thank you, I always love when God gives me examples , something a little easier to grasp when I am trying to grasp what he is telling me. Eunich, I do normally feel pretty sorry for those guys, & yes I can see how they might feel that way. Strange verses to follow "don't misuse the Sabbath or do what is evil on that day"

⁴ The Lord says,
   "Suppose some eunuchs keep my Sabbath days.
      They choose to do what pleases me.
      And they are faithful in keeping my covenant.
⁵ Then I will set up a monument in the area of my temple.
      Their names will be written on it.
      That will be better for them than having sons and daughters.
   The names of the eunuchs will be remembered forever.
      They will never be forgotten.

God is pleased by those eunuchs that keep His Sabbath days. HE (GOD) will set up a monument in the area of his temple with their names written on it! Seriously! God is going to set up a monument in honor of them! Monuments of honor is something I have always felt that we (mankind) should do for God & yet when I think of the many monuments that men have done, they always feel small & insignificant next to the awesomeness of what God has done. So then we have the choice to let our lives be a monument in honor of God, but then I let him down & feel like my tribute is also lacking & comes up short compared to God. What kind of monument must God be able to create! & not for great works or passion but for keeping the Sabbath!

⁶ "Suppose outsiders want to follow me
      and serve me.
   They want to love me
      and worship me.
   They keep the Sabbath day and do not misuse it.
      And they are faithful in keeping my covenant.

Now we have outsiders. Those who do not dwell under the promises of God's people. Those who are not recipients of those promises. They want to love God & worship him. He follows this desire of worship by saying they keep the Sabbath day & don't misuse it! We can all easily go back in scripture & see the many legalistic ways that you could misuse the Sabbath, but we modern day people like to look at the days Christ walked on the earth & say, "look, Christ healed on the Sabbath. He was scorned for doing so but Christ was trying to show us that love for our brothers supersedes the legalism of keeping the Sabbath" That's how I was raised anyway. Christ never sinned & look he broke those chains of legalism... but wait Christ never sinned, so that means he understood fully the desire of God when He created a day to be a day of rest & peace. He didn't need the laws of man to obtain that. How long, though have we all used that one example to throw out ALL attempts & keeping a real Sabbath. I think we gone so far the opposite way, using "legalism" as an excuse to do just as they did in Christ's day, "not understood fully the sentiment behind the Sabbath! A day of peace, a day that you can prepare for? I think about all those holiday meals when the entire family will gather together. The way we women spend several weeks in advance creating a menu, delegating tasks getting things prepared in advance to the actual day will be ready. No one starts making a menu that day then rushes to the grocery store to get what you need for a fine meal, (we may rush for that ONE important item that we have forgotten, but not normally for the entire meal). That's crazy! We try hard to make the day set apart, special... holy.

We are set apart, special holy. God wants us to take one day, each week, to remind us of that fact. He wants us to clean the house before hand, even if it means making the other days a bit busier, he wants us to make preparations for our bodies needs before hand. He wants us to sit back and reflect on our labors during the week and to relax and be at peace and enjoy the relationships that God has put in our lives, without feeling like we are rushing from one event after another. This is important to Him. God is the King of knowing how to relax. He has done MANY great things, but he also knows how to sit back & look at all He has done & say, "This is good"!

So after these dry tree eunichs and non-blessed outsiders worship Him and keep the Sabbath this is what God does for them...

⁷ Then I will bring them to my holy mountain of Zion.

      I will give them joy in my house.
   They can pray there.
      I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices on my altar.

My house will be called
      a house where people from all nations can pray."
⁸ The Lord and King will gather
      those who were taken away from their homes in Israel.
   He announces, "I will gather them to myself.
      And I will gather others to join them."

I love that phrase, "My house will be called a house where people from all nations can pray. Just love it! This blessing, this promise is a result of the actions of people who are far from God. There HAS to be something to being faithful in finding our rest in Him. I don't understand how it all works, but when I read passages like this I am convicted to try harder to HONOR a day for the Lord. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, I work to honor God every day that I have breath, but a conviction to Honor God with a day set apart, a holy day, a day of rest.

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-29T22:39:00.001-05:00

Our favorite, & only Santa that we've visited the last several years has been the Easton Towne Center Santa. He is the jolliest, kindest looking Santa. & his real beard is always neatly trimmed.

Need I say more?

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

My nephew Elijah had his Christmas program tonight. I didn't get to make it because of Praise Team practice, but the kids all said he did a great job! He worked hard on his Wiseman part. Micah tried recording it on his DS. I thought it was cute that they had a little Mariachi Band :)

We all came home from our various events & after just a few days of trying to keep the younger 2 girls away from my Gingerbread house we decided to tear into it! This was not your average cardboard gingerbread kit, but homemade gingerbread. It was soft & tasty! I have never had a "real" Gingerbread house before, it was DElicious! & fun

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

My friend Kirsten sent me an invitation to a "Gingerbread" party a couple of weeks ago. I, in my constant state of being home with my 4 lovely children, immediately made the assumption that it was for my younger girls as Kirsten has two Pre-schoolers as well. Well there's a reason why they tell you NOT to assume, & its because when you do, you're normally wrong. It took me a while to wrap my brain around the concept, but the invitation was not for my kids, it was for me! A fun evening out with a few girls making HOMEmade gingerbread houses by Maria's Cake Decorating! What a fun time it was & I really appreciated some time being adult, while feeling like a kid because I was playing with candy... lots & lots of candy! :)

On the back of my house, I made a stained glass window overlooking my Hershey bench, next to my Reese's birdbath. Abby made an adorable snowman with M & M earmuffs & a Candy cane heart.

This is what is SO amazing to me. Each of us had the exact same items to use for our houses & each one was insanely & adorably unique. So now I must ponder the question. Are any two Gingerbread houses alike???? Don't you just love the little firepit next to the walkway!

Thank you so much for the night out, great snacks, fun with friends & a new experience for me!

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

Look at these faces. Just look at them! They are absolutely precious! Tonight we took our elementary aged kids to LexCourt to Christmas carol. I love the fact that there was no fear, no shying away. Lots of Joy. I always enjoy the faces of those, confined by their bodies, when they suddenly light up as the young ones walk their halls! A small smile, a little wave, these are the things I want to remember on Christmas morning when I sit with my children all around me, ripping into their gifts & shouting in excitement. That's not the only thing this holiday season is about. It is about all of these moments we commit to experience as we lead up to that moment. Jesus gives us a hope & a joy & we are made to PROCLAIM it! These young lives are growing everyday, right before our eyes, & these are the moments that shape them and mold them into something more as they become adults. Even my little band of preschoolers who tried to join in the singing, and if they couldn't actually sing, then they joined in the spirit. They were being introduced to the realm of caring for others.
For many years now we have done taken our young kids to carol in the Nursing Home & each year I long for more. To find some way we can minister & relate on a one on one setting. Each New Year brings busy schedules and that desire is soon forgotten! I would love to hear of some ideas and ways that kids can do more with Nursing Home residents. Share if you have any!

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

Meat Sandwich.

Would you like some bread with that meat? T.j made a sandwich with 5 layers of meat! & he ate it all.

Yep that's all I got.

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

Sewing Lots & Lots
So what's been happening at my workbench? Lots of lots of little Mary's and Joseph's and baby Jesus'. Last month after my dad had his unexpected surgery for the DVT in his leg, I came up with a way I could help them out with some of their medical bills. I decided to make soft, layable Nativity figures and sell them on the "everything handmade" website, Etsy. I have never sold anything on Etsy so it was all a new experience for me. They basically use Craft Fair prices online. My plan was to give $20 of each set I sold to my dad. (as of this typing 12/26, I was able to give my parents around $250! Praise God for that opportunity).
To get these made, I have had to spend every free minute while the kids are working independently & the younger ones are napping, or after everyone in the house has gone to bed, sewing.
It has been quite an experience!

Micah also had some sour jaw breakers that just cracked him up. It gave him MUCH delight to ask each of us to try one. I say ask, but really, he demanded we all give these Super Sour ones a try!

Yep they were sour.

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

First cup of Hot cocoa of the year!

I'm not really sure what all went on today. The pictures I took aren't very clear either. I'm sure we spent most of the day working through our new Unit on Rome. This was probably the day we went to the Main library to return all of our books on Ancient Greece & checked out 90+ on Rome.
Although we haven't had any snow yet, this appears to be our first cup of hot cocoa! A favorite request by Ariella & by the looks of these two, it will soon be a favorite for them as well!

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-05T11:55:00.000-05:00

American Heritage Girls Award Night!!
Poor little Shirah was the sweetest little girl I ever saw in a time out chair today. Having lots of Christmas decorations & a tree up is a BIG temptation for an almost 23 month old! At some point, after being instructed not to touch, she did anyway... and got in trouble. Its so hard to be mad at her when she looks over at you & sticks her big bottom lip out though!

Tonight was a special night for us because it was our first American Heritage Girl Award night. If you aren't familiar with American Heritage Girls you really should check it out here: American Heritage Girls. They are a Christ-centered organization that builds our young girls up with integrity through service to God, family, community and country. This has been the first year Ariella has had the privilege of being a part of this group. She has had so much fun & we just love the great things she is learning at her bi-monthly troop meetings. Ari is the shorter one on the left side of the stage.

Ariella was excited because she was one of the girls picked to help lead us in a song. Her troop leader, Mrs. Reed has been an absolute delight to get to know. The big surprise for Ari was when they gave out the prizes for their At Home Candle fundraiser. Out of 86 girls she was the number 2 seller! Way to go Ari! She was super excited to get her special prize!

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-03T20:10:00.000-05:00

Ancient Greece Olympic Games
Today was the official completion of our Unit on Greece. To complete the unit, the kids prepared some artwork, memory recitation from Greek myths as well as scripture, some tasty Greek food samples, & fun Olympic Game Events with friends. The kids had to add some finishing touches to their Greek Amphorae's (suppose to be clay pots, but after several days of failed attempts at homemade clay we made paper-mache pots)

We sent out some official invitations to the event the week before Thanksgiving. It asked that each participant "train" for the day. When everyone arrived, if they intended to play, we asked them to sign & take an oath stating that they had prepared for the events and that they would play fair, similar to the oaths the early Greeks had done for their games. They ran around the field passing a "torch" to begin the games. It was all in fun & we were happy that everyone played with good positive spirits! The day could not have been better, lots of sun :) Of course shortly after we started, a cold wind started to blow. Thanks to all our friends who could come spend a few hours with us!

Here's a 9 1/2 minute video showing the kids doing their Myth project :)

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-12-02T05:16:00.000-05:00

Friday, December 2, 2011
It's 5 am & I haven't been able to get to sleep yet so I decided to get out of bed & fiddle around. I know tomorrow is going to be a tough day & am praying I can get a couple of hours in before the kids get up. So in an effort to get sleepy. :)
We were wrapping up our unit on Greece so we took the day off of school. We have our grand Olympic finale coming up tomorrow so we worked on finishing up a few projects & going over the stuff we had memorized. We all went out to eat at the Downtown Athena restaurant & enjoyed our Greek food. Other than that and housecleaning, it was a nice, quiet uneventful day! Just the way I like it :) Ending with our time of reading more about God's incredible plan put into action in sending himself in the form of man to us! & more Star Wars Lego figures :) This time, assembled by Ariella

30 Days of December: 2011

2011-12-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

December 1, 2011
December is finally here!! We got a chance to hear Emily Allen & Elizabeth Hallabrin do an EXcellent job in the Lexington High School Orchestra. It was one of the BEST performances we've heard at LHS. We came home & the kids heathenly wrote letter to Santa as well as Letters to God to thank him for the many blessgins they have. We began our Advent Story Calendar which tells parts of Christ's birth each night. Since tonight was Day 1, we let Micah read the story then hand the book ornament on the tree. We then opened up our Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar that Tj has been looking forward to. Tj made up a Lego character nativity story for the kids & then Micah put together the Lego scene for Day 1.

30 Days of Christmas: 2011

2011-11-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

November 29, 2011
The family left quickly Sunday evening. Tuesday night we took out our Holiday Cheer & decorated the tree. The kids always enjoy getting out their ornaments & finding a place for it on the tree. This year Ethanah was able to follow directions better & be a help with the tree. It's also a great time to talk about Christmas & what this celebration means to us.

30 Days of Christmas 2011

2011-11-28T16:51:00.000-05:00

November 26, 2011
I have a feeling that for most people, the Christmas season really begins once the Thanksgiving feast has settled & you have survived Black Friday. That's when we begin feeling the magic of this time of the year anyway. So this year I decided to count down the 30 days leading into Christmas. Last year it was fun documenting the many events our family took part in.
The spirit of love, joy, peace began for us during the Thanksgiving week. We were extremely blessed to have my brother Caleb & his family Kelly, Riley & Dakota here for Thanksgiving & thankfully surprised that my parents, who had other obligations & recent medical problems, were able to be here as well. Kelly was sick with pneumonia the entire time, which was a real bummer, but we sure enjoyed watching the younger cousins all have a good time playing together.
We got out of the house for a bit to enjoy some beautiful weather at Mansfield's Carousel. Thankfully the music was not as loud as it normally was so there were no screaming babies!

Thanksgiving didn't feel entirely the same for us because Scott, Frances & the boys weren't with us. They got to go see DisneyWorld!

2011-10-16T23:01:00.001-04:00

I had the pleasure of going to visit my beautiful friend Sondra & her family on Thursday. It was a special visit to meet the newest member of their family Mylah Elizabeth who was born October 7th. Sondra looked beautiful & glowed as she handled her newest with ease :) It was fun also to see their new community that they have a heart to share Christ with. It has been a blessing to see their family in full bloom & look back on the way it has grown from a seed into a beautiful flower! Love the times I get to spend with her & her family!

Create a picture slideshow

Sondra with Selah, good times :) May God bless the family you've been blessed with Kevin & Sondra!

Egyptian Art

2011-10-11T21:37:00.002-04:00

On September 22 we started working on an Egyptian frieze art project. We talked a bit about the form of Raised Relief (main focus/subject of artwork is raised with the surrounding areas lower than it) & Sunken Relief (main focus area is sunken in with the surrounded areas raised around it) that is seen on many of the ancient Egyptian sculptures & tombs. Thanks to the internet (I can NOT imagine homeschooling in a day before internet where the world is literally at your fingertips) we were able to look up actual photos of relief samples.

We then got to try our hand at making our own Plaster Frieze.

We followed the directions on the plaster (Tj STRONGLY suggest that we DO NOT use our normal baking items in the future for plaster projects). Because my kids were low on patience, I made it a bit thicker than it called for so it would dry quickly. Then poured the plaster batter on some baking sheets. Before mixing the batter I had the kids plan out & think about what they wanted to carve into the plaster. The batter was thick & started to dry REALLY fast, poor Micah had the hardest time carving through his almost dry piece. We all used plastic pointed objects to "draw" our design on the plaster then immediately started sanding around the main design to create a raised plaster relief. Using light sand paper & wet wash clothes, Ariella & I managed to create a good raised area.

A few days later we then used tea water to paint on our reliefs to give it some contrast & a bit of an "antique" look to it. Micah was nice & let Shirah help him paint his relief while Ethanah was my relief painter & I played the part of Pharaoh & just sat & gave orders :)

We were suppose to paint using colors the following week but I ended up getting sick & only managed to get through the essentials that week.
Today we were finally able to finish our Friezes & paint them outside on this beautiful day. They all turned out great! Unfortunately, a few hours later, Ethanah decided to climb up on our outside table, throw all the friezes on a near-by chair and break all of them (before I had taken a picture of them :(. They looked so cool with the color added, I will see if I can get any type of pics of the pieces tomorrow :(

Joe's Relay

2011-10-11T20:03:00.002-04:00

I don't know how we've made it through 6 weeks of homeschool, but I'm pleased to say not only have we survived, we've thrived! I'm loving it & all the fears & concerns I had before starting this adventure have diminished. I'm not going to lie to you and say that each day has been a day of educational bliss, its been hard work & needed an extremely supernatural amount of patience. There are lots of "learning to work together" character traits we all need to still work on, but it has been a HUGE, fulfilling blessing to me! I pray some day my kids will say the same thing!

So today marked the end of our 30 days of Egypt (6 weeks). What a fascinating learning experience it has been! I have been too tired to share much of what we have done, but as I have been going through & thinking about all we've covered, I thought it would be a good idea (to help me remember) to go back and share some of the fun stuff we did.

The first week of school we studied the life of Joseph, of course focusing on his time in Egypt. It was fun to study some of the foods he may have eaten (Tj & I already liked Lentil soup, but we were given a GREAT recipe that we will be including in our weekly meal rotation!), jobs that Ancient Egyptians may have had, types of homes, irrigation & crops etc. To conclude our study of Joseph we had a Relay race of Joseph's life, it served as a kind of overview of the major points in his life. In order to pass from one area onto the next, Micah & Ariella had to correctly spell one of the related spelling words for the week. They had to keep trying until they got it right :)

Going in a clockwise circle they had to:
1. Put on a shirt of many colors
2. Hopscotch on over to a
3. large pillow representing Joseph's dreams
4. Follow the blue line in a spiraling circle down into a (fire)pit; representing Joseph's time thrown into a pit by his brothers
5. Push a kiddie car; representing Joseph traveling in a caravan to Egypt
6. Sweep; slavery
7. Sit behind bars (chair bars); Joseph's time in prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar & his wife
8. Eat make believe bread & drink make believe wine (yeah I didn't have all my supplies ready :) to represent the Chief Cupbearer & Chief Baker & their dream revelations
9. Ending with climbing a plastic tower & putting on an aluminum foil ring; representing Joseph's ascension as Pharaoh's right hand man & given a ring of power.

I hate sick

2011-09-29T17:43:00.001-04:00

I have learned a couple of things since homeschooling. I can't think of any of them at this moment except this one.

When you homeschool, if the teacher is sick, you can't call a substitute!

I have been sick now for 1 week. What started as a sniffing, coughing, sneezing cold has not let up. Rather than letting up despite the Netipot, frequent doses of EmergenC, Vitamin C etc. It has chosen to compound itself very difficulty in my frontal lobe and sinuses. Impacted, painful, miserable. My throat is sore, my ears are starting to ache. Today has really been the worst day, but all week I have not felt myself. I finally called the Dr. today & have an appointment tomorrow.
Which means I'll be feeling GREAT tomorrow!
Well all this goes to say, on Monday morning, when I woke up still feeling less than stellar, I thought, "how is this going to work?" Here it is Thursday evening and we have survived! I won't say every day was filled with fun activities to enforce the material we covered. In fact I'll be honest in saying everyday this week we were pretty much done with the basics by noon. First week that has happened.

So that leads me to another thing I've learned. When the teacher is sick, she can still teach her class in pyjamas on the couch with a Kleenex box on her lap. The class has already been infected by her germs :)

The dreaded Snuggie

2011-09-19T23:07:00.000-04:00

For years we have all rolled laughing & making fun of those crazy Snuggie & Snuggie cult commercials. Every winter though, Ariella, says, "I'm cold! I want a Snuggie" So when we saw at Drug Mart that the Snuggies were only $5.00 I said, ok I'll buy you a snuggie. I couldn't get enough fleece to make one for that price. So we came home with a Snuggie for Ari & a Snuggie for Ethanah. It is huge on Ethanah, & Micah started whining because he didn't get one (who knew Snuggies were going to be so popular???) so Micah gets Ethanah's & I decide I'll make two smaller ones for Shirah & Ethanah. A friend gave me three different rolls of fleece a couple of weeks ago, so hey, they weren't going to cost me a thing but time! As far as time goes, if you like to sew, these were insanely simple & literally took me about 45 minutes.

I only had time to make one today, so I made Shirah's.

I used Ariella's as a pattern, I don't know if the Snuggies for Kids are the same as the adults, but this was simple. It is basically a large square/rectangle of fleece with arm holes. To measure for Shirah, I wrapped the fleece around her, going over her head and then pinning it at the feet where I wanted the length to go. I actually made it a little long so she could use it for a couple of winters.

I then wrapped the excess fleece around her little arms & took into consideration the seams.

I believe the two arm pieces were around 12 1/2 in by 15 in.

I ironed & sewed the sleeve hem & then sewed the two long sides (right sides together). That left me with a cylinder tube.

I then wrapped the large square piece around Shirah again so I could mark where her arm holes should be. I used the top of the cylinder tube as a guide for my armhole openings. Then cut the holes out. With the sleeve inside the hole opening (right sides together) I then sewed them together on the inside of the snuggie.

Finish the other edges & you are done!

M is for Mummy

2011-09-19T22:01:00.000-04:00

So we've been reading The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. It's added a lot of everyday life in Egypt to the many things we've learned so far. Today, in Chapter 5, two grave robbers were hung at the nearby Palace. We talked about how the Egyptians soul would wander around naked, poor & hungry if grave robbers took their stuff & how different that is to the promises of Jesus in Matthew 6. What we store here on earth can be destroyed but what we store in heaven can not be taken from us.

For fun, the kids wrapped their favorite stuffed animals in toilet paper. We didn't use any natron (kids vocab word) salt for mummification, but they seemed to be pretty well stuffified. (I made that word up)

Ariella decided to put her mummified bear in a sarcophagus (another of their vocab words). She then started finding things to put in with it. I was impressed by all she thought up. She said, "mom the flashlight is so he she will have a light to guide its path" the jewels of course were to represent jewels. The awesome thing about all this is how much the kids are learning about the ways of God as opposed to the many attempts of another culture to have a good afterlife.

Shirah had a mummified dog, Ethanah had a mummified zebra, Ariella had a mummified bear & Micah had a mummified spider :)

Warms my heart.

2011-09-14T23:52:00.001-04:00

So each morning as part of our homeschool schedule we are so blessed to be able to spend about 30 minutes sitting around the table, eating breakfast, discussing & reading the bible with Tj before he heads out the door. This is something we never had time for before & we are all really enjoying it.
The life of Joseph has been the first 12 days of our curriculum's focus. Not only would we read a few chapters of his life with Tj, we would later use his life to illustrate different parts of literature (Setting, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution, Endings etc.) We used it to come up with chronological events, we used it write & discuss characters etc. Basically it was our text book for 12 days. Of course after reading with our kids this familiar life of Joseph; from being the loved, favored son to being stabbed in the back by his own flesh & blood, reading about how God directed & guided his life & then analyzing it as literature was really fun. Of course when we came to the day where we were discussing the THEME of this passage of literature we landed on Genesis 50:20. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." This is not only the obvious response to Joseph's brothers who intended to bring an end to their favored brother, but also later in Joseph's life. Potiphar's wife intended to harm Joseph for the way he refused her advances but God used that to reveal Himself as the One true God through the dreams of the the Cupbearer & Baker. Not only that, but God reveals to us the kind of response we should have when we are in rotten undeserving situations. We are not justified just because it seems unfair at the time to grumble and complain in the breakroom, or revolt and manipulate things to get our way, we've been given the example of Joseph to show us that we should be hardworking, trustworthy, respectful, gracious representatives of Christ.
My favorite part in all of this was when Tj read the closing section of Joseph's story. Shortly after Joseph's father, Jacob, dies, his brothers come to him. They are afraid that since their father is dead that Joseph will no longer show them any kindness or favor. They decide to make up some story about their father's last wishes.
What made me catch my breath was the short response that is recorded in Genesis 50:17. "Joseph wept." Joseph could see right through their lies for what they were really saying. After all that time, they still refused to open their eyes to the righteous character that their brother lived. After Joseph had forgiven them & opened his arms to them, they still held on to doubt & chose to warily lived among him. They did not KNOW THEIR BROTHER!
It would make me weep too.
Many times it is our own flesh and blood that refuse to see the light of Christ in our lives. Many times we are hurt the most by the ones we think should see us the clearest. But much like Joseph's brothers, if you set your heart against someone and decide in your heart to mistrust them, it doesn't matter what they say or how many ways they try to show their love for you, the eyes of your heart will not be open. Everyone around them may see the fruits of the Spirit being produced in their lives but you will be incapable of seeing them clearly until you ask God to open the eyes of your heart to see truth. Our mind is a powerful thing & it can cloud or deceive you into thinking that what you hear or see is truth. It will convince you that there is NO other way to look at an experience, even if what you believe is not what was intended.
& when this happens, it causes you to weep.

The story of Joseph gives my heart such peace. I caught my breath because I realized Joseph knew, he understood betrayal. He lived his entire life pleasing God with his choices & actions and yet he was not understood by his own brothers. They doubted his very character.
He lived to serve God & he carried that burden. and it was ok. He was not a failure in his service to God.
Because what their human fears intended for evil, God used for good.

2011-09-14T23:07:00.001-04:00

I really am not trying to bore anyone by only blogging about what we are doing with homeschooling, so please forgive me if I am. I am not blogging about half of what we have done so far, but this has been a fun project for me (yes I'm the artistic kind). After the kids studied maps of Egypt & made their own drawings of Egypt & located a few places on their maps, we went outside to make a 3D map for ourselves. Don't knock it, we know this is NOT to scale. more just for fun :)

We started this on September 1st. We got some "black soil" from our back yard and tried to lay an area down that resembled the path of the Nile River. That was suppose to represent the rich soil surrounding the Nile that was used for crops etc. With our fingers we created a "tunnel" to put our foil down. This was to hold water to represent the Nile. It kind of branches out at the top for the Delta. The younger girls then helped fill in the rest of the area with sand surrounding the Black soil while Micah & Ariella shaped dunes of sand. The foil idea did not do a good job of actually holding water in the Nile as M & A had hoped.

On Sunday the 11th the kids made little flags to mark the areas on their map that they were suppose to know.

On Monday the 12th we had time to get back to our 3D map of Egypt. Several weeks ago we started growing our own wheat grass. Intending to use it for juicing, we instead used it on this day to make our own grassy/reed like boats. We cut the grass about 5 or 6 inches and tied off the ends. Then using our fingers to widen the center area to form a "boat" shape. We tested these first boats in the tub & successfully they floated. Next we gathered a bit more wheatgrass to make a wider base then spread out the center so we could fit some Lego people in our boats. They floated :) The kids were pretty excited about that. Ariella said it was a coffin carrying a Pharoah down the Nile.

We put our Lego Pharoah's on our Nile. The kids filled up the Nile with water again, sadly, it just ran out into the sand.

Tuesday the 13th was P is for Pyramid day. After looking at many GREAT pyramid examples. Studying the early flat top Mastaba Pyramids, then Step Pyramids to the sleeker ones we think of we each then tried to make a pyramid. We tried to make one of each example out of styrofoam. We then placed our pyramids on our map. This has been a fun project. I don't know if we'll be adding much more to it. I think we are just going to wait and see if any grass grows along the Nile in our Black soil.

B is for Barley

2011-09-08T22:29:00.002-04:00

Our eighth day of homeschooling & I honestly don't feel like we've really got into a routine yet! I'm loving the curriculum, I'm loving the MANY activities it suggests to enforce what we are studying. I'm learning new things about weather & how weather is formed in the desert & how life survives in the desert. I'm enjoying the relaxed pace of life & time I'm getting to invest into my kids lives, but I still don't feel... rooted. This week was kind of a different week anyway with my brother Caleb here with his daughter Riley. We didn't ever get into a real routine, but we sure had fun seeing him & his amazing girl Riley!

Today's focus letter was B (especially for Ethanah who enjoyes the "letter of the day") & since Barley is grown in Egypt we were able to make Barley cakes together. Actually the kids were suppose to do ALL the work while I only supervised & they did just fine. I only had to help once when Ariella's cake was burning & I had to flip it for her ;)

Ariella's job was measuring. She had to measure everything out.

Micah needed to "grind" the barley grain into a powder so it could be used.
Ethanah was our mixer. She didn't have any help & did a great job! I forgot to take a picture of our taste tester!

We chopped up some dates and ate them on top with honey. The dates were pretty good on top, but no one really cared for them all by themselves :)

Pencil Holder for Homeschool

2011-08-30T22:51:00.000-04:00

Wow, today was my second day of homeschooling with the kids. Today when Tj came home I had a.. moment when it hit me... for the next 188 (school days) I have commited my days to running back and forth between kids & assignments, overseeing what they are doing as I am trying to put out fires & potty training with my younger two girls, going through & creating lesson plans for 2 kids at two different learning levels every night, making lots of lists (supplies, meals, things I need to get) to help make our day go smoother. So Tj comes home today & I felt this pressure, like, oh my, I am not going to have a single moment to do something spontaneous or creative or that I enjoy until next June!!
So in order to fight this untrue statement, we had an early supper (thank you roast beef in the crockpot & supper is ready after going swimming with the kids) & Tj informed me he was going to clean the kitchen (God bless him!) so I decided I wanted to do something artistic.
All afternoon the large cans from the ravioli I'd made as a quick lunch had been staring at me & calling out to me to do something with them. They were persistent in reminding me that I had been wanting to go pick up some containers to use for pencils & glue & scissors on our homeschool shelf & that if I used them for the job I wouldn't have to buy anything. So I decided I was going to put them to work, only I didn't want to make some crafty craft (never been fond of the crafts, although I do them (with 3 daughters how could I not?) but I normally would prefer actually creating something artistic. So I wondered if these large cans could be used artistically???

Here's what I did:
I found some scrap paper that fit my current mood.
Modge-podged the paper to the cans leaving the outside of the paper so I could draw on it.
Grabbed a pencil & lightly sketched something.
Filled in the pencil drawing with acrylic paint to compliment the paper.
Outlined the paint with a thin point black sharpie marker.
Modge-podged the paper, as well as adding some contrast paper over the seam I had created.
Let it dry & now ready to be used.

Oddly enough, this simple project did the trick. Not only did I end up with some nice looking, cheap pencil & glue holders, but I felt at peace knowing I could still whip something up on a whim while homeschooling!
Onward and Upward!