My family and I took a cross-country trip on a "Creation Adventure" homeschooling trip and the The Creation Museum was the reason for our trip!
Our trip started in Niagara Falls where the children viewed the amazing falls. We took the tour under the falls too. It was "so cool!" said my youngest son! We toured a little bit of Canada as my youngest son had just studied Canada in his homeschool co-op class.
Then it was on to the Creation Museum in Kentucky! It was such a great day. We thoroughly enjoyed the planetarium and highly recommend viewing the movie first before entering the self guided tour through the 7 C's, (Creation, Corruption, Condemnation, Confusion, Christ, Crucifixion, Consummation). When we were there the petting zoo had not opened yet but Noah's cafe and grill were both open. We enjoyed a delicious meal out on their deck with the children. We met some wonderful people and the staff were all very wonderful, courteous and helpful. My youngest son loved the dinosaur exhibit the best! My husband and I loved how at each exhibit-through the garden of Eden to Christ's Crucifixion, there were displays all around that explained two theories-two conclusions. The Creation Museum does a wonderful job in tracing carefully how two different views (Evolution vs. Creation) give you two different end points using the same facts.
One staff member explained they have plans to expand the museum by building a life-size Noah's ark on their newly purchased property! We will definitely be back!
From the Creation Museum we visited the Diamond Caverns and learned even more about our beautiful country and it's natural wonders. Who knew all around was CLEAR evidence of a world-wide global flood as described in the book of Genesis?! We thank God for people who are willing to stand up and give such testimony that God's Word is TRUE. If you do one thing this year-GO TO THE CREATION MUSEUM!
Ok, so a few of you have asked how are homeschooling is going since I had posted pictures about what I was up to all summer long! We are going into our fourth week of homeschooling and just starting to get into the swing of things.
Here is what our week looks like:
Mon, Wed, Thurs. Fri.-morning Bible and worship time- I am using Balancing the Sword for walking us through the Old Testament. We began lapbooks last year and we will continue working on those, I have a friend who sent a great link on creating an Old Testament lapbook with the kids I plan to order (this will make my life so much easier with the baby coming in only 5 1/2 weeks!) Scripture memorization (this week was 1 John 2:10- "Whoever loves his brother, lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble." We also use Josh McDowell's Family Devotionals 2, my middle son LOVES to talk for more than an hour about "moral questions" we call them.
My oldest son (6th grade) is working on A Beka Arithmetic 6, God's Gift of Language C, Spelling Workout F, Cursive Handwriting, required reading (he just finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson) and is working on Famous Men of Rome for Latin class, free reading and then studying and preparing for his other classes we co-op with (Story of the World-4, ( I added-King Fisher History Encyclopedia too), physics, and Latin) A couple times a week we add an outlining course, writing exercises, logic exercies and on Friday's we add a Read and Think from book 6 of A Beka. (My kids still really love those from the Christian school-so I decided to continue with them.) Tuesday we co-op, Wednesday he goes to chorus and band at the local Christian school, Thursday we cottage school for Latin with Christiana Latina. Friday I try teach the kids an art lesson from "How To Teach Art To Children". It seems like a lot but believe it or not my son still gets his work done well before noon and has tons of time to free read, play outside, read to my youngest son and work on his gardening experiments or just build with legos or whatever he chooses to do!
My middle son (4th grade) is working on A Beka Arithmetic 4, God's Gift of Language A, Spelling Workout D, Cursive Handwriting, required reading (he also finished "Kidnapped" and actually sat through a three hour movie version of the book after he read the book!) and he also prepares for his co-op classes of history, physics, and Latin. He also does a Read and Think (4) from A Beka on Friday's and is getting ready to learn the trumpet at his music class on Wednesday. (He struggles with some of his work and really requires a lot of my time but he can be a lot of fun as I watch "light bulbs" go off for him when he really grasps a new concept.) I let him work independently as much as possible and we go over mistakes immediately when he is finished. I have learned to be more relaxed with him knowing now how accelerated A Beka curriculum can be and also how much repetition he will get before he moves on to middle school. He gets his work done usually just after lunch then he breaks for playtime then comes in for quiet reading. He is currently reading "The Drummer Boy's Battle" (a mostly fictional story about the Crimean War and Florence Nightingale) and "Famous men of Rome" and for free reading he is enjoying working through some of the classic books my husband read when he was a kid such as "Me and My Little Brain". He also spends hours-literally hours- pouring over his science experiment books borrowed from the library or books on How Things Work.
My youngest son is only four. We are working through, very slowly, "Teaching Reading", and he is learning his vowels as well as memorizing the alphabet. He knows all his colors and can count to 12 or 13. He enjoys finger plays of math, "life math" we call, it throught the day whenever we are setting the table, ect. We are always counting and quizzing him for fun on his numbers. He is learning to add and subtract numbers too. I let him play quietly most of the morning while I work with my middle son but I am so amazed at how much my youngest picks up on things. He has books he borrows from the library and I am just enjoying every day I have with him, not pressuring him to "school" .
Here is one more project I completed this summer. The ceiling took five coats! Three of primer-two of paint- just to get the ceiling white again! (It used to have dark sky and clouds.)
Here is the dresser I painted to match the room too.
Here is a view of the window. Will this room ever stay this clean again? I wonder....
Here are two photos of my oldest son's new Red Sox themed bedroom. The stripes were a pain to paint but they came out nice we think! The room was originally green so we left one section green to represent the "Green Monster" wall. My son loves it!
We've had a couple of cool days, yet sunny. Fall is around the corner. I love the fall season in Maine. County fairs, apple picking, cider, foliage. But before I say "Hello" to fall I had to post about my big Summer project(s). Here is one of them. My husband and I stained our back deck (it's huge-12X24). After nine years I finally have brand new patio furniture for my deck so we had to stain the deck! My husband even got me three star gazer lilies for my birthday. The kids and I enjoyed many lunches and a couple of family dinners on our new patio furniture this summer. I could be found saying the following several times this summer: "Any evening when I can sit out on my patio and have dinner as a family is like heaven to me!"
Here is me and my family at the family camp in Maine. We added an extension to the dock making it a great place for the boys to jump in now! We had a lot of fun. We swam, relaxed, fished, went boating, picked wild raspberries. I just love summer in Maine! It is my favorite season-okay-I love all four seasons (except mud season!) I am 24 weeks along in this picture and I was sticking my tummy out for the camera to be sure that we didn't miss the fact that I was pregnant. Looks like I don't need to stick my tummy out-it sticks out enough already!!
I have been feeling the baby moving lots and loving every moment of it. This morning my youngest son crawled in bed with me and he got to see my tummy roll! It was so neat! I can't wait to meet our little girl! God has so blessed us!
After 3 boys, and tubal reversal, we are going to have a baby girl!!! We just found out last week. My phone had been ringing off the hook practically with so many family and friends who were anxious to offer up congrats! (I felt like the baby was already here!) Now we have just a few more months to go until we can finally hold her in our arms. I am just about 20 weeks now. She has begun kicking and I have been feeling her moving for a few weeks now. It is such an exciting time for us. God has been so faithful to us and has finally blessed us with this precious new life. I can't wait to post pictures of the boys with their new baby sister!!!
The boys are getting all excited. Each of the older boys was proudly sharing at the dentist office recently that they were going to have a sister. It still sounds soooo strange-"a sister"! But it's really true! After 40 minutes of trying to get a good look on the ultrasound -the tech finally declared she was ready to give up the information she had been leaning toward-a girl! She's nearly 100% positive it's a girl and I feel confident too, I never did catch a look at any boy "parts" the whole time we were looking at the ultrasound, and believe me, I know what boy "parts" look like on ultrasound!
I'm excited to think about all the learning we will be doing this fall as we all learn to take care of and raise a baby girl!!!
A friend of mine was telling me about the chapter in the book, Jesus Has Left The Building, about how the author looked up his income at www.globalrichlist.com and found that he was in the top 6% of the richest people in the world. I was amazed at his testimony and how the Lord had convicted him through scripture that the rich are to be giving to the poor. I think I fall into the same category as most Americans, we don't drive Hummers and have million dollar homes and yet compared to the ENTIRE world population we are VERY VERY rich! I encourage you to checkout where YOU fall into the world's richest people. I think you will be amazed and (a bit ashamed). According to our (humble) income we are even richer than the author of this book and rank in the top .98% of the richest people on earth! We are the 59,029,289 richest people on earth!
I went immediately to WorldVision and sponsored a family for just $40 a month. Yep, that's all it takes to sponsor an entire family!!!
God has already been speaking to me about ways to cut back on expenses and knowing that I am supporting a family for such a small amount of money it just blows me away! (And we think we struggle to meet bills-yikes! We are so blessed we don't even know it!) I encourage you to read Jesus Has Left The Building and let Paul Vieira's words draw you into what God is doing in the world, particularly with the western church. Open your heart to treasure what God treasures and not what the western world treasures! God likes to shake things up, He has in the past, as the author explains the story behind the ark of the covenant and the ways God worked once and changed. He's moving in new ways today! God wants to get out of your "box" and into your life! Paul Vieira writes, in chapter six, that God wants to set up a tent in your back yard! (He makes house calls too!)
I kissed my son Connor on his right cheek today. A few minutes later I had to wipe his face from lunch and he says, "Mommy, I can't feel your kiss anymore."
I asked him if he needed another one on his now clean cheek, he said, "yes!"
What a sweet boy who still desires the feel of mom's kisses on his cheek!!
Here "it" is! Our baby's first ultra sound picture! I am 10 weeks along now. The baby measures 2.96 centimeters. My husband asked, "what is that in inches?" (It's less than 2 inches.)
My uterus is the size of a grapefruit, and healthy. We got to see the baby's tiny heart beating. Can you imagine women choosing an abortion at even this stage-only 10 weeks? The tiny baby is nearly completely formed and is even now growing nails on it's fingers and toes!
Only 10 more weeks before we can find out the sex!
I've been having a particularly hard week with one of my kids, guess who?
I was reading another homeschooling mom's blog and just prayed the prayer that she suggests, I just started to cry when I prayed it. She suggests that you ask the Lord to let you see these treasures through His eyes, for His purpose. She suggests it will help you calm down as well as see your purpose and value to the KING OF KINGS!
All my children are such blessings. I wonder sometimes why God chose me to be the mother to these kids, and why He thinks I am worthy. Only He knows I guess, but what wonderful gifts I have been given!
Here is my blessing number 2 proudly sporting his new cover from his Uncle Bret!
Here are my boys at the Engineering Expo 2007. They got cool green shirts so they wouldn't get their "slime" they created on themselves. We had a great time! They loved the robot exhibit, the alternative fuels exhibit where they turn wood chips into gasoline for automomobiles. They also loved the magnets and static electricity displays.
Chef of the Day at our Homeschooling co-op has been a lot of fun for my boys! Here is Brandon (above) and Jacob (below) posing as Chef of the Day.
Brandon chose to make pumpkin pie for his recipe. Jacob chose to make "dog houses"
Here is the recipe for "Dog Houses"!
One package refrigerated pizza dough tube (or make your own)
8 Hot dogs
condiments-(ketchup, mustard, relish)
Roll out pizza dough into rectangle. Cut into 8 smaller, equal rectangles.
Place hot dog on top of one rectangle, dress with desired condiments. Now carefully take pizza dough and pinch all AROUND the hot dog sealing in the hot dog and the condiments. Be careful not to go too heavy on the condiments so they don’t squish out!
Bake 400 degrees for about 10 minutes (oven temps. vary)
Let cool, enjoy!
Variation: Make pizza dogs by simply adding cheese and pizza sauce, or try chili dogs, just add chili.
I was completely moved by Barna's next to last paragraph. It really drives home the point of how important a job we have been given in raising up young children. I was surprised that Barna even blames the "church" as being a usurper. What a wake-up call to parents to take back their right to raise their children as God designed!
"If you have not yet reached the point of embarrassment over the fact that most adults-perhaps even you-abdicate your children's moral and spiritual development to illegitimate usurpers of that responsibility (eg., schools, the media, legislatures, judges, and even churches), then I pray that the Holy Spirit will heighten your sensitivity to this travesty with all due haste. We have no right to complain about how our children develop if we are not heavily and purposefully investing in those outcomes. Those who fill the gap in our absense are mere substitutes for us when we don't pull our weight. If we default on our responsibility, we cannot blame those substitutes for making the most of the opportunity. This is, after all, part of the battle for the minds and hearts of humanity."
Frank Viola contrasts the institutional paradigm verses the Biblical Paradigm in his book,
Rethinking the Wineskin:
The Practice of the New Testament Church
by Frank Viola
Most American Christians have learned to read their NTs through the modern lens of 20th-century institutionalism. Hence, there is an urgent need for us to rethink our entire concept of church and learn to see it afresh through the lens of the NT authors.
Because of common misteaching, we have many deeply buried assumptions that are in need of excavation and examination. We have been mistaught that "church" means a building, a denomination, or an organizational structure. And that a "minister" is a special class of Christian.
Since our contemporary notion of the church has been so entrenched in man's thinking, it requires a conscious effort to view it in the way that all first-century Christians did. It demands that we rigorously plough through the thick and tangled weeds of human tradition until we unearth the virgin soil of spiritual reality.
Only the necessary task of rethinking the church in its Scriptural context will enable us to distinguish between the Biblical notion of church and those institutions that pose as churches. Let us briefly isolate some of those differences:
renders the bulk of its congregants passive-in-their-pews
associates church with a building or a denomination that one "joins"
is rooted in unifying those who share a special set of customs or doctrines
thrusts "ordinary" Christians out of the holy of holies and chains them to a pew
places its priority on religious programs and keeps its congregants at arms-length, insulating them from one another
spends most of its resources on building expenditures and pastor-staff salaries
operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the functional head (while Christ is the nominal head)
enshrines and protects the clergy-dominated, program-centered system that serves as the driving machine of the organized church
builds programs to fuel the church; views people as cogs in the machine
encourages believers to participate institutionally and hierarchically
separates church(ecclesiology) from personal salvation (soteriology); views the former as a mere appendage to the latter
The Biblical Paradigm
knows nothing of a clergy system
doesn't recognize a separate class called laity
makes all members functioning priests
affirms that people do not go to church nor join the church . . . affirms that they are the church
is rooted in unreserved fellowship with all Christians based on Christ alone
liberates all believers to serve as ministers in the context of a non-clerical, decentralized form of church leadership
places its priority on face-to-face, shared-life relationships, mutual submission, openness, freedom, mutual service, and spiritual reality-the very elements that were built into the fabric of the NT church
spends most of its resources on "the poor among you" and apostolic workers
operates on the basis that Christ is the functional Head through the invisible guidance of the Holy Spirit through the believing community
shows a revulsion for the clergy system because it quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit (yet lovingly embraces every Christian within that system)
builds people together with Christ to provide the momentum for the church
invites believers to participate relationally and spiritually
forges no link between personal salvation and the church; sees the two as inextricably intertwined. (Scripture has it that when people were saved, they simultaneously became part of the church and immediately met together.)
He summarizes with:
"We live in an hour when the Spirit of God is beckoning His people to embrace His ultimate intention regarding His beloved church. This intention rests upon forming a people who are filled with the new wine of God's Spirit for the single purpose of preparing them to be a glorious Bride for His Son. Within this context, He is summoning His people to re-examine the old wineskin of church practice."
George Moreshead explains,
In these times when doing (even if doing 'for God' and 'for His glory') has so largely eclipsed the Biblical emphasis on, and the priority of, being and becoming, it would seem to be equally necessary and important to have those with the spiritual understanding and discernment to know what the NT 'Israel' ought both to do and not to do! How then can there be anything to rival, as the primary need of the present time, the raising up of those who see from heaven-believers of exceptional spiritual stature and a Spirit-taught understanding of this time, for the building up of the Body of Christ to the measure of Christ's fullness? How else can the 'old men' of the new 'Israel' join in with their younger brethren in the song of victory and the shout of success over God's completed house? ("Understanding the Times," unpublished article-slightly paraphrased)
This has been hard for many of us to learn and un-learn what God's church really is. A pardigm shift though can only be revealed by God to a believer's heart that has been opened to full reliance on God. No agenda's, no programs, only the full assurrance that God alone is building His church, just as He said He would and still is today!
Well, we've officially announced to our families that we are "expecting". We told our boys yesterday morning and they were all very excited. "Really?!" they asked. Then Jacob, my middle son, quips, "Well, that's one more mouth to feed!"
I really don't know where I got that kid from. He makes me laugh. He makes me cry. He brings out the best in me. He brings out the worst in me. He is just a gem. He is a special gift from God. Yep, he's right, there will be one more mouth to feed come November!
Praise the Lord! God is so good to us! It's been nearly two years since my tubal reversal and nearly one year since our miscarriage. God has opened my womb again. We are still very nervous about miscarriage (of course)-it's all in the Lord's hands. Trust and pray. Wait and seek. Glory to God in the Highest!
“Every happening ,
great and small
is a parable
whereby God speaks to us,
and the art of life is to get the message.”
~Malcolm Muggeridge
I loved this quote. I really do believe God speaks in parables to us. Every day is a new message from God. Like puzzle pieces that fit together we look back at our lives and realize that God was creating a masterpiece from the very beginning. We need not worry about today, God is working out all the little details in His time!
This blog is about our life and adventures in homeschooling, making our priority to train and educate our children in our home as we seek the wisdom and knowledge of our Lord. Come, Take, and Learn-(right Jack?!)
This is a picture of the baby's room before. My dh and I painted this 5 years ago when I was pregnant with our 3rd son.
Here is a view of the window. Will this room ever stay this clean again? I wonder....
Here "it" is! Our baby's first ultra sound picture! I am 10 weeks along now. The baby measures 2.96 centimeters. My husband asked, "what is that in inches?" (It's less than 2 inches.)
