• Oct. 15, 2008
The Angels are Singing!

Just had to share quickly that dd (she is going to be 7 in February) told me yesterday she had asked Jesus to send His Holy Spirit into her heart.  We've known this moment was coming for awhile now and I guess she was finally ready.  As parents we were going to see that this type of decision came later in life, but God has shown us it is in His hands, not ours.

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• Oct. 14, 2008
Girlfriend Weekend!

Just spent my annual "girlfriend weekend" in Portland, Oregon at Women of Faith.  We had the best seats we've ever had....front row on the end.  The theme this year was "Infinite Grace."  It always sounds like such an easy concept so why don't we accept it as easily from Him?

My favorite thing this year was actually the music.  I always enjoy that but this year it really was inspiring to me.  Not just the lyrics, but the artists.  First there was Mandisa.  I never watch American Idol but evidently she had been on that show and taken hard hits from Simon's mouth about her weight.  She advanced pretty far but did not win.  After her time there she was approached by many people and had to decide what genre she would label.  She chose Christian.  She sings with such passion and has endured a lot since the show in the name of Christ.  I did bring home her CD and the kids can't stop playing it either!

The second artist was Nicole C. Mullens.  I've heard her a lot on the radio but she was so dynamic as a performer!  She has a group of kids called Team NCM that travels with her and they do interpretive dance and drama with her music.  She also mentors other girls in the "Baby Girls Club" where they learn sewing and other things together.  She has adopted two children and had two naturally. 

I guess the thing I took away from their testimonies was the reminder that God can use anyone no matter where we've come from or what pit we are digging out of.

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• Oct. 6, 2008
Totally Lost

The following is today's devotion from Alpha Omega and it hit me right where I am with Sweetie Boy.  I still remember the first time I realized that I was the one who needed to change so he could learn.  It was a simple thing too (for me) and I just couldn't understand why he could not figure it out!  I was explaining it well.  I was showing him how to do it.  But nothing but a complete blank on his face.  This was learning how to write letters and numbers following numbers and arrows.  I finally wised up and turned those outlined numbers and letters into roads he needed to build.  Whoo Hoo!  He had it figured out in seconds!  He understood roads and dead-ends.  So...read the following devotion if you'd like to.  It was a good reminder for me to look at myself.

* * * * * * * * *

"Totally Lost"
Monday / October 06, 2008

Some days, even the best homeschool teacher has trouble communicating a lesson. Whether you're teaching equations in algebra or diagramming sentences in grammar, a change begins to occur in your child when he does not comprehend the information you are covering. You've seen the look-a blank stare, a squint, eyebrows up in the form of a question mark. The body begins to fidget and unintelligible utterances come from his mouth. He doesn't have a clue what you are talking about and is totally lost. What are you going to do?

When I was new to homeschooling, I walked away in frustration or assumed my child was not paying attention. I tried repeating the same information or using a louder voice. With infinite variations, the battle went on until I realized the problem was not with my child; it was with me. I was the teacher, and I had failed to teach. I needed to try again and approach the information from a different angle-a new learning style or additional visual aids.

Thankfully, God doesn't lose His temper or walk away from us when teaching life's lessons. When we begin our fussing routine or get that lost look, He gently wraps His arms around us and takes us back to where we last understood. Lovingly, He leads us to godly counsel from Christian friends or words of wisdom from the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit customizes each particular lesson until we grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

Do you feel lost today? Let the Lord guide you back to where you should be. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Jesus, thank You for always knowing where to find me. Without You, I am totally lost in teaching my children. Show our family where we need to be and how to keep our eyes on You. In Your name, Amen.

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• Oct. 2, 2008
Tabernacle Fun & Learning

Our recent "together school" study has been about God's Tabernacle in the wilderness.  We are within a unit based on honor so what an appropriate thing to learn about.  I will share some photos of the models the kids are working on, but the best part of this has been the desire that Punkin' has to read about this event in her Bible and to assist them in putting together the significance of this structure for her life.  Sweetie Boy is just having fun getting messy with gold and bronze paint!

Putting the courtyard walls in place.

And painting the posts silver.

Here the models are with the courtyard walls, brazen altar and basin.

Painting the tabernacle walls gold.

The models with the tabernacle walls and veils/curtains in place.

As promised here is a photo of the inside of the tabernacle.  I had a really hard time getting my camera to take a decent photo of it for some reason so not the greatest, but you can tell what things are.

Tomorrow we will add the coverings of the tabernacle and the following day we will discuss how all of this aligns to be a cross and also make paper doll priests.  Having a hard time leaving this study.  It has been so fun and the kids have learned a lot.  How many 4 year olds do you know that go around talking about the tabernacle?

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• Sep. 23, 2008
30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge

This is a great challenge for us as wives to honor our husbands. If you are interested visit www.reviveourhearts.com   I found this right after dh had told me the guys in his class at church are going to hold each other accountable weekly for things they should be doing to encourage their wives.  I thought it only right to do the same for him.  I'm on day two.

Day 2
Today, find some way that your husband is serving you or your family. Does he help around the house? Take care of the car? Fix things that are broken? If your budget allows, give him a new, small tool with a big bow attached. But make sure he doesn't think it's part of a "Honey Do" list!

Maybe your husband is not a handyman, but does he run errands for you? Take care of you when you are sick? Help you make decisions? Praise him for his willingness to serve others. Let him know that you see his unique service as a great strength.

* * * * * * *

This was an easy one for me today! My hubby was already busy trying to fix the screen door this morning!

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• Sep. 12, 2008
One Last Pottery Entry

You're just going to have to bear with me one more time!  The kids had such a great time at a local pottery studio today.  We still have just a little more work to do on this part of our Honor unit before moving to the Tabernacle, but other than picking up their finished products on Tuesday night...the big projects are finished.

Punkin' chose a very cute fairy to paint while Sweetie Boy naturally migrated to the race car.  I was glad he didn't want anything larger as I believe his attention span wouldn't have lasted.  He did great with his patchwork car.  I think he used about 6 or 7 colors on this little 3" car!  LOL  Anyway...enjoy the pictures!

Ready to head inside!

Cleaning off their projects with water.

Starting work on his race car.

Finishing touches on her fairy.

I will have to come back and post the finished products after they have been glazed and fired so the colors really show up.

* * * * * * *

Here are the finished pieces.

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• Sep. 10, 2008
Sculpture and Attributes of God

We are continuing this week with our Honor Unit that covers sculpture, pottery and the attributes of God.  It is supposed to be a 3 week study, but we're going to finish it this week and move onto the next section of the tabernacle.  Can't wait to dig into that one!

Yesterday the kids made "clay dough" using flour, salt and water and then used their imaginations to create.  Today the paint came out.

Sweetie Boy created a caterpillar, cake and a hot dog.  He LOVES hot dogs!

Punkin' had a bracelet, teddy bear, Christmas tree, egg and shape necklaces.

Friday we will head to the pottery studio in town to make something to close off this study.

We finally have several pieces for our paper attribute quilt finished and Punkin' taped it all together and chose the entryway closet door to hang it on.  They've both been enjoying this project.

Today we added a couple more....Holy and Answers Our Prayers.

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• Sep. 4, 2008
Fun With Clay

We have been learning about pottery and sculpture at the same time we are studying the attributes of God.  The kids have been enjoying making things with clay.  Goodness but that stuff is hard to soften!  Next week I plan to take them to a ceramic type place so they can make a piece there for a field trip.  For now...here's a couple of photos of some of their work.

Tomorrow we will bring out the paint and decorate them up a bit.

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• Sep. 2, 2008
School in full swing!

Punkin' officially began her 1st Grade year on Monday and so far her favorite has been Spelling.  Since much of her math and reading is review from the previous year it is moving rather quickly for her so I'm putting a 15 minute time on the math and today she got through 3 days worth of work easily.  I know there will come a point when things will slow down so why not apply something we can do at home that they cannot do at public....keep working to your abilities!

Sweetie Boy is still doing well with his preschool and he has the song "3 in 1" down and goes around the house singing it all day.  It goes like this and is sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice."  "Three in One.  Three in One. See them working together to make our world great.  Three in One."  He then yells out while counting on his fingers...God, Jesus and Holy Pirit!  (Yes...typo is in place for accuracy.  LOL)

We also began our "together school" (KONOS) today.  The unit I chose to begin with is Honor.  For at least 2 weeks we will be studying the attributes of God and sculpture/pottery.  Today it was mostly the attributes.  We will be building a paper quilt featuring their own interpretations of the different attributes they name.  Should be a fun project that we build on each day.  I promise to share photos when we have more to show you.  I will share though that Sweetie Boy chose...drum roll please...3 in 1.  Big surprise!  Now, close your eyes and imagine this for the drawing.  4 sets of eyeballs and some squiggly lines.  That's it.  Can you see them?  He will point to each set and say "God, Jesus, Holy Pirit and Isaac."  I asked him why he added himself and he said, "Holy Pirit lives inside me."  WOW!  He's paying attention!!  Punkin' chose shepherd for her attribute and she drew a picture of herself inside a circle.  There is a smiling face on her dress.  She said the circle was Jesus all wrapped around her, guiding her.  The face is because He is happy and loves her. "  Can't argue with that either!  I'm really looking forward to what they come up with tomorrow!

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• Sep. 2, 2008
Canning Peaches

Yesterday our family managed to preserve 56 quarts of peaches!  Let me just say that I cannot believe my 4 year old son worked with us the entire 4 1/2 hours, but he did and he worked hard.  Here were our assigned jobs:  Sweetie Boy was to peel the peaches.  dh was to pit and slice them.  Punkin' was to put the slices in the fruit fresh water and then into the jars.  I did everything else...boil the peaches for peeling, put the sugar water in the jars and seal them up for processing and make sure everyone had the supplies they needed.  It was a great day and we're going to enjoy those peaches this winter!  We also chose to call this a good Home Ec class for the kids.

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• Aug. 30, 2008
Crazy Busy Week Ahead

Tomorrow Punkin' begins her schoolwork for the year.  She managed to make it through 3 weeks of break time!  Didn't know if she would so I had it all ready for last week.  So tomorrow we will begin breaking her into the schedule and switching up Sweetie Boy's turn with his preschool.  He has done fine doing it all at once, but now I will break his up into two different times and then he'll join Punkin' for "together school."  (KONOS)  Honestly I am not ready for "together school" so may delay that a day or two.  I've got a few books, but I don't have the things I need for the hands-on stuff yet.  And today I couldn't get the laptop to acknowledge the network printer so no lesson plans in my hands either!

We use Horizons right now for Math, Reading, Writing and Spelling for Punkin' and she simply loves it.  I went ahead and bought their preschool materials for Sweetie Boy and it truly is built for use in a preschool.  So much stuff and very fun!  I enjoy that the Bible is taught with it along with character building.

So to make sure our week is crazier.... Punkin's ballet begins again on Tuesday evening.  She will be going at 4:30-5:15 so it is later this year.  I will continue to do my exercise at the gym while she's in class.  That helps!  She is hoping some of the friends she made last year will be in class again.  I hope so too as 90% of the class was homeschool kids.

To complicate the first night of ballet, I have my monthly Mom's Night (with our Friday School group) so need to be out of the house no later than 6:30.  That just means I have to be very prepared with dinner so I'm thinking a pot of vegetable soup on the stove all day sounds like a winner!

Wednesday all of our activities at church start up again with the exception of the music classes both kids will be participating in.  Those start up two weeks later.  I'm happy about that as we will be needing to leave home by 5:45 at the latest now on those days.  I am looking forward to my ladies Bible study starting up again though.

Oh...and did I mention that I need to can 4 bushels of peaches and 1 bushel of pears in and around all of this?  Hmmmm

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• Aug. 26, 2008
Our Little Guy is 4

Well, technically not until Friday, but close enough as the party has drawn to a close.  We celebrated on Saturday night since his grandma and auntie were in town this past weekend.  We now let the kids choose what they will have for their birthday supper and Sweetie Boy chose Hebrew National hotdogs and hamburgers.  Made for an easy meal for mom!  The weather was so nice that day we decided to set up out on the back patio so the picnic atmosphere made it quite fun.  After supper he opened his presents and then we had cake.  He had requested a monster truck cake and that was very easy to create.  So another birthday down!

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• Aug. 18, 2008
School Has Begun!

The first day of school for Sweetie Boy was today.  We are using the preschool material provided by Horizons (Alpha Omega) and it is very thorough.  I couldn't believe it took us almost 90 minutes to cover everything!  They have it written so actual preschools could use the curriculum for 1/2 and full day school so it makes sense.  Anyway, Sweetie Boy actually was excited about starting, paid attention (a big thing for him these days) and worked diligently on his assignments.  He even remembered the song he learned about Daddy to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle.  I really like how there are Bible lessons, character traits and then the basic school stuff of math, etc.

Punkin' won't begin her 1st grade work until the first week of September IF it can be held off that long.  She just couldn't hardly take that her brother was "having fun and I'm not."  LOL  I had her washing the banister (which she actually enjoyed) and that didn't take as long as I had hoped it would to "entertain" her and then she came down to see what was going on.  When I told her to leave as she was distracting her brother she broke down in tears.   I still sent her out.  After school time was over I spent time with her cleaning out the lazy susan cabinet in the kitchen.  That seemed to help her depressed state.  We managed to break the lazy susan though...the fitting came loose so will have to unload it again to take it out and fix it tonight.  She thought that was pretty funny.

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• Aug. 15, 2008
Portraits of the Kids

Had some new pictures done of the kids this week so thought I'd share a few.  I only go to a studio once a year and as a family we chose August so we could call these our "school pictures."

 

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• Aug. 13, 2008
Contest for a free Schoolhouse Planner

There is a contest being offered for 3 free planners that have been created by Old Schoolhouse, but you have to submit your entry by the 19th!  Here's the link to a review of the planner and the contest requirements:  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/BackAtTheRanch/574287/ .

I'm posting this here because I'd love to be one of the winners!

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• Aug. 10, 2008
Porcupine Tales

Saturday morning about 1:00 dh and I were awakened from our near slumber by the soothing sounds of one of our basset hounds barking outside our bedroom.  (We have french doors that open to the patio and that's right where Gus was standing.)  When he persisted dh headed outside to haul him inside but that did not happen.  Gus came over happily to see him but then went straight back to what he had been doing.  This is not a usual occurance for Gus.  He typically goes right to bed and we never hear from him again.  dh then went to get a flashlight and what he found was a porcupine behind the garden shed.  Now, we do not live in an area that one would call habitat for such a creature.  A subdivision on the south, houses to the east and west and a freshly baled hay field to the north.  We also are in a desert climate.  We did manage to trap the porcupine easily by putting the dog carrier at one end of the foot wide path behind the shed and nudge it from the other end with a shovel.  We still have no clue how it even got into the back yard.  It had to come through our pasture fence (there is a low electrical wire all the way around) and through the same type of fencing again into the back yard.

The dog did not settle down easily and this irritated one of the others so she was barking at him constantly.  It was about 3:30 before the house was quiet again and we could sleep.  We both had to be up by 7:00 as well so we were tired all day.

Let me tell you something.  It's hard to find someone who wants a porcupine, but by mid-afternoon Saturday I finally heard back from a lady that works with an animal rescue group and we made the decision to drive to her place so she could take the porcupine off our hands.  Once transferred I was finally able to get a good picture to record the event or for proof to our friends that yes, we really did catch a porcupine.

One thankful thing throughout all of this ordeal was that Gus did not get close enough to be whipped with that quilled tail.  We did keep about a dozen quills that were left in our dog carrier so those will go in the scrapbook with the pictures.

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• Aug. 2, 2008
Summer Olympics - Day 3

We discussed the different events that are played in the Summer Olympics.  They then played a game of "Memory" using the symbols created for the China games.  I had printed them out and then put them on index card halfs with rubber cement. 

Next we looked up the medals on the internet.  Very beautiful ones have been designed for these games!  Then they created their own.

After that we headed outside for some fun and games of our own.  We did the shotput, frisbee throw, soccer, baseball, ran dashes and relays and added some water games.  We ended the festivities with a water ball fight!

Here are the lapbooks so far.

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• Jul. 31, 2008
Summer Olympics - Day 2

Our fun continues!  Today we discussed the Olympic flag, rings, motto and song.  They each colored a picture of the flag to use in the lapbooks, but the fun really started happening when we pulled out the biscuit dough, butter and colored sugar!  We made donuts!

While the donuts were baking they painted their version of the Olympic flag.  At least Punkin' got the rings on in color order.  Sweetie boy just did what he wanted.  I did notice when he was finished that there were two yellow rings though.

Tomorrow we will be learning about the different sporting events and actually holding a few of our own competitions.  To begin this segment we actually started early by going to the public pool this afternoon for our swimming competition.  Punkin' won the farthest jump off the edge and leg splashing contests.  Sweetie boy won the "I'm done" contest.  He was tired and cold.

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• Jul. 30, 2008
Summer Olympics

We officially began our summer Olympics study today and the kids had so much fun.  We talked briefly about how the games came into being and what they are like now.  Then we talked about the torch relay and how it is used during the games.  Punkin' was very happy to know she will be staying up late for Opening Ceremonies to see the torch come in and how they light the "big fire."  We then made our own torches out of construction paper and tissue paper.  They have had a blast with those simple things!  Punkin' sat with me at the table for about 30 minutes while we mapped out the torch relay across the world.  That was really neat to see on paper.

Here's the beginning to their lapbooks.

   And here are their torches.

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• Jul. 28, 2008
Sometimes life is just one big field trip

Today we went to Joe's Sporting Goods to buy some patching material for the wading pool floaties and tent air mattresses.  While I was looking at my options the kids went across the aisle and proceeded to check out the 4-wheelers and sand buggies.  They were just having a ball and saying "what a fun park!"  Had to capture it on my cell phone.

This one is going to be sent to his Auntie as a joke about "what I want for my birthday."

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