Well, Preparation Day is tomorrow and I believe we're prepared for Preparation Day. LOL Our house cleaning has gone very well. We have scoured every nook and cranny (and we have cranny's!) with only moping the floors and vacuuming the sofa left to do. LOL After that - we're off to run errands.

One of our "cranny's" is our floors - we have hardwood floors but not your typical wood floors. It's hard to explain without a picture but suffice it to say that there are large 'cracks' between each board (it's the old farmhouse style floor). Today after we pulled out the appliances and cleaned them, behind and underneath them, we hit the floors with screwdrivers. Food and dirt falls into these cracks and they contain leaven - so the dirt/crumbs must be carefully scraped out. Actually, while it was probably one of the biggest object lessons of sin and how we have to be diligent to remove it and sometimes it's awfully difficult, it was a ton of fun too! We've only lived in the house a year, it's amazing how much was in there! BUT now it's clean. We read last night about Yeshua healing the demon possessed and how He told the crowds that when a spirit leaves a man it enters dry country then decided to head back to his former home when it finds no rest. When he gets there he finds it clean and everything put in order so he goes and finds bigger, stronger, and more evil friends than he is and they all move in together. The idea is that once it's clean it needs to be guarded and kept clean, there was no watchman at the door of the clean man so the old spirit entered back in with his buddies. Cleaning our floor and inspecting/cleaning our hearts is just like that, we need to be careful to stay on guard not to allow sin to creep back in. More than that, Who lives in our hearts? Is He welcome there and at home? I say He is my Master, but does my heart really reflect that? Is my tabernacle cleansed of sin or am I hiding something somewhere in hopes that He won't see it?

Anyway, I'm having a heck of a time finding a food bank to take the unopened food items that we're removing for Unleavened Bread. The command is not to have any leaven within your gates for the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread and not to eat any leavened bread in that time. Apparently the food banks in our area either consolodated to some secret location or nobody is running them anymore. What happened? There's a ton of churches and a ton of needy people in our area - how on earth do I get my food items to those who need it (and don't keep Unleavened Bread, of course)? That is frustrating. That also takes me back to my 'church growth assessment' message - what kind of growing churches are cutting out their food banks and services to the needy? *sigh* Why, if outreach is so important, is one of the most important forms of "outreach" to G*d being neglected?

As for the plague lessons, they have gone very well. Today is darkness and there is no way I could do that. We have a lot of large windows and no window coverings outside of the bedrooms. I simply could not cover the windows without damaging the walls and the blankets I'd have to use. So we decided that today we moved to Goshen, besides we needed the light to be able to clean our floors. :) I've made a few small alterations to what I posted earlier about our plague lessons, but for the most part they are the same. We will do our family leaven search tonight (instead of Erev Pesach), DH is ready to inspect our home for any sign of leaven. The thought hit me today that his search through the house is like my allowing the Spirit to search me and find the areas of sin in my life that I have overlooked. I don't plan on DH finding any leaven, other than what I hide for him to find as part of the object lesson. But if there is hidden leaven I sure hope he finds it - what a lesson that would be for all of us! We're off to find a feather today for DH to use in his search and recovery of what leaven I do hide. The feather is a symbol of the Spirit as well, He never is pushy or forceful. He is gentle and patient. It's awfully hard to push someone over with a feather!

I'm in a hurry and rambling, I know. I am sorry for that. :) There is one more thing I wanted to post today but I see my friend, Kristee has already posted the very same message. :) Please take a few minutes to visit her site and read the message she posted which was written by Rick Spurlock, a man I admire. This message is in two parts and this link will take you to the first part of his message (though the second of Kristee's).

I'd like to try to come back here on Friday and post about Unelavened Bread, First Fruits, and about the Counting of the Omer. I'll do my best to get to that as time allows. G*d does nothing haphazardly and everything in it's perfect time. He does everything perfectly - including these festivals that He set out for His children. They are called "a shadow of things to come" in the New Testament - meaning that there still is a substance yet to be revealed! This to me is amazing. Knowing what I do know about how they have been fulfilled already, I cannot comprehend how they could be more fully fulfilled! I can't wait!!

Yesterday I lamented to a friend that we had hoped to have guests to our Passover Seder this year. We invited friends and our small group. Nobody has accepted our invitation this year. I lamented to a friend "We've prepared for the feast, invited our guests - and nobody is coming! I know a little how the man in Yeshua's parable might have felt. But maybe Elijah will come to our house as our guest of honor this year!" But you see, HaShem had a message for me yesterday - He brought it to me through three different people. Everything is in His time. This isn't the time for those we invited and He must have something in store for just us this year, it must be time for something in our family! I cannot wait! The kids are so excited that they can hardly stand it. Something great indeed!

Have a wonderful Tuesday. I likely won't be back until Friday, unless I have time this evening or tomorrow to pop in.

Sometimes something happens and you feel like you've been doing it right. Today something like that happened. I don't know how many people actually read my blog - LOL - but who cares. I have to tell someone other than DH cuz that's what proud Mamma's do!

When the kids were done with lunch I was still cleaning the kitchen (getting ready for Passover) so they went outside to jump on the trampoline for a bit. I called them in and as soon as I heard the basement door close I heard that they were involved in a dispute - not really a fight but getting there. As they came closer to the stairs it evolved into a fight. I sighed and reminded myself to let them work it out. DD came in the kitchen irritated with DS saying that they were playing a game and he was being difficult and ruining the game. Then came DS saying the same thing about her. *sigh*

I asked them if whatever they're fighting was worth ruining their friendship and DS said, "What friendship? It's already ruined!" Well, that was the WRONG answer. DS is a natural born fighter, like me. DD is the complete opposite. Their little spats are a release and energizing for him but they cut her to the core, this is something we're working with DS on understanding and being respectful to his sister about.

Anyway, I ask what the fight was all about and when they both told me their sides of the story, I couldn't help myself - I laughed. (it had something to do with shooting the lid off an empty Probios tube and something about the stairs, I didn't quite get it all.) My reply was, "So your friendship is ruined over a tube lid? Is that lid more important than your friendship? That's plain silly." I sent DS out to finish cleaning the van and DD up to her room to collect some things we need to take to town. I followed DS out to the van to help him put the seats back into it and once the seats were in he disappeared. I waited a minute or two, thinking he may have gone to the bathroom, then went in to find him assuming he was trying to skate out of his chores.

What did I find? I found DS, 10, and DD, 12, sitting in DD's room and DS apologizing to her for hurting her feelings and that a stupid Probios tube lid wasn't worth their friendship. I heard her apologize for stealing the lid and not letting him up the stairs as long as he had the tube. Then I heard them start to chit-chat about Passover and how excited they are. *grin*

We all went back to finish the van. Now they are walking up to the neighbors to take them a loaf of bread we made yesterday - best friends again and all is right with the world. :~) G*d is so good and I am so incredibly blessed!! "Love covers a multitude of sins." This was the theme of our breakfast conversation. I am so glad that we have another application for that verse to talk about tonight at dinner! *grin*

We are studying Alexander the Great and the Greek influence on the world (that's a continuous study that ends up in everything a little at a time) right now. It's amazing how much the Greeks have influenced everything in our daily lives, and we don't even realize it! From our architecture to our language to our way of thought, and more!!

Yesterday we watched a good video (they're not all good) about Alexander the Great. One of the men being interviewed was talking about the city of Alexandria and how it was the center of learning for all the great minds of the time. The city was full of libraries and museums, and more. But he took a bunny-trail (something I'm famous for myself) on what museums were. The kids didn't catch it, none of the 5 did, but I caught it and thought about it for a bit. What he said was that museums were dedicated to the goddesses, the Muses. What else he said I couldn't quite understand due to his thick accent, but the gist was that the museums were so named in honor of these goddesses. Interesting...

This morning the older boys and I were discussing part of the weekend sermon at church and the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 where it says "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from G*d and not from us." We were looking at a book about the Dead Sea Scrolls and talking about how Scriptures were stored in jars of clay for preservation, like the Dead Sea Scrolls were. The book we were looking at is a Calliope book (I really like these little books) and on the inside cover it says this: "Calliope is pronounced kuh LIE o pee. In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Calliope was the Muse of epic poetry and eloquence. The ancients honored the Muses as the goddesses of the arts and sciences." Our sermon/Dead Sea Scrolls conversation turned to the root of what museums are - centers to display science and art. Interesting...

Then after the older boys went off to work, the rest of the kids and I read The Librarian Who Measured The Earth. We really liked the book and DH came in for lunch part way through. He really enjoyed the book, though he only got to hear half of it. Very interesting!! BUT what was more interesting was the museums! Here again, is the root of museums as quoted from the book: "For indeed this museum was not just a collection of things on exhibit. The word museum literally means place of the Muses. In Greek mythology, the Muses are the nine daughters of Zeus, who help inspire artists and scientists."

So - three times in less than a day we have the word "Museum" explained to us. Greek influence again!! To me, that's fascinating. What? How HaShem brings these things to us if only we'd listen and pay attention. We ask Him to be our Teacher, and He teaches us a wide variety of things but they must ALL glorify Him. How does this help us glorify Him? It helps us understand and appreciate the lessons of Hanukkah, the lessons of Hebrew vs. Greek, all the more. It brings to light, once again, how our very thought processes are affected by our culture. To all 7 of us - it's been very eye opening and another reminder - "Are you Hebrew or are you Greek?"

I’m posting our Passover/Pesach preparation and teaching plans to share with friends and family but also to see if anyone else has any suggestions or ideas. They are surely welcome! Much of my writing assumes a certain familiarity with the Passover/Pesach traditions, symbolism, and meanings. If something is unclear or unfamiliar, don’t hesitate to post a comment about it. On my sidebar there are several recommended web sites that would be good places to find more information. I must make clear that none of these ideas are original to me. I need to give the credit to the people at the Biblical Holidays forum and the FFOZ forum as well as to the materials produced by those two organizations. These are where the majority of the ideas below have come from.

We will start our lessons with learning about the plagues. Before and during this plague object lesson we will also focus on cleaning every nook and cranny of our house to remove all leaven. The weeks leading up to Passover/Pesach is a time to clean the house, the van, the truck, etc. Not just a light clean but a serious deep clean - spring cleaning if you will. This is a time to remove all leaven from the house, including all products that include leaven. From dog food to cream of mushroom soup to soda to bread. Anything with leaven, even a little bit, must be cleaned up and removed. The crumbs in the cracks of the wood floor, under the piano and the appliances in the kitchen, etc all must be cleaned up. This symbolizes the hunt and removal of sin from our lives. It is common for leaven to be the representation of sin in Scripture. It is important to search our hearts and ask Him to reveal to us areas of our lives that need to be cleaned up and removed. By Passover/Pesach the house will be leaven free and spotless.

We will demonstrate each plague here at home in the 9 days leading up to Pesach. Each plague begins at sunset because that is when the day begins according to Scripture. At the end of the afternoon the family will clean up what remains from the plague and before dinner we’ll burn what we cleaned up outside. The symbolism here is fourfold: 1) to make us aware of what the Egyptians went through. 2) the direct challenge of their gods by The Holy One Himself. 3) to realize that we, too, have our own Egypt that we’ve been brought out of (a life of sin and being outside of His covenant). 4) the last has to do with the burning of the object lesson materials and the leaven. It correlates to the cleaning of the house, this is to symbolize our cleansing our own tabernacles from sin and not simply putting it in a cupboard (trash can) or storing it outside (garbage can). We need to get rid of it completely and fully so that we can’t go and bring it back into our lives.

Each plague will begin after dinner and will multiply when I wake up in the morning so when the kids wake up, it will have grown quite a bit. At the end of the afternoon, before dinner, we will clean up the plague to symbolize the Holy Ones removal of the plague in Egypt. We’ll focus on the relief that the people must have felt when the plague was lifted and the frantic cleaning and attempt to get back to normal they must have all done once it was over. This is another reminder that we need to be that diligent in cleaning up our lives and removing the sin. It will also be a helpful tool in our preparation cleaning of the house as we’ll be able to focus on one area of the house each day for deep cleaning.

Plague Lessons:

1) Water of the Nile turned to blood. Add red food coloring to everything with water - pitchers, juice, etc. Remove all traces at the end of the day.

2) Frogs. Cut out green shapes and put them everywhere - in beds, on counters, on floors, in dressers, in the food, etc. Burn frog papers at the end of the day.

3) Lice. Hole punch white papers and scatter the small pieces everywhere. Study a little on lice and how gross they are.

4) Flies or Beetles. Hole punch with black paper and scatter them everywhere.

5) Livestock Disease. [I’m not sure how to replicate this one. DH wants to use the paint ball guns to paint the cattle, sheep, and horses (which is what they were used for originally - to mark the cattle out in the fields). I’m not so sure.]

6) Boils. We will use clear tape and put small pieces and larger pieces on each others skin. After a time they itch and get irritating. We will not be allowed to remove them until before dinner.

7) Hail and lightning. [I’m not sure how to replicate these either.]

8) Locust. Brown larger than hole punch size papers all over, in the food, etc. Somehow we’ll symbolize the loss of the food, or maybe we’ll just talk about the severity of loss of food at the livestock disease, hail, and locust plagues.

9) Darkness. Cover all the windows somehow and remove light bulbs from fixtures or simply tape over the switches so the lights cannot be turned on. We have a lot of large windows so there isn’t any way to block out the light completely. We will still be able to function in the house but it’ll just be darker than usual.

10) Death. We will not die. :) We will use red construction paper and DH will “paint” it around our front door and blue paper on both sides of the door leading to either the dining room or the living room to represent the Sea of Suf which was parted, the symbolism of the mikvah or baptism. He will do this in the afternoon, before our Passover meal. We will have our meal/Seder together and keep the papers on the door frames till the end of the Festival of Matzah/Unleavened Bread.

On the Eve of Pesach DH will take the family on a search for any left over leaven we have missed. He will search through the house with the family in tow to inspect that every piece of leaven has been removed. He will use a candle (or maybe a flashlight) to search out even the dark corners and a feather to brush away what traces may remain. This is like what the Spirit does in our hearts - He shines the light in even the dark places of our lives to clean out any hidden thing we might need to get rid of but may have overlooked or neglected to get rid of. I will hide some pieces of bread in odd places for him to find and once he’s searched the house we will take these pieces of bread out into the driveway and burn them like we did with our plague object lessons. Along with the leaven we will have already written down areas of sin in our lives that we need to get rid of and throw those papers into the fire. This will be before our meal together, before we enter the house under the blood (red construction paper) that is ‘painted’ around our door frame. It will be at this point that we will no longer be Egyptians but Hebrews because of our faith in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) has allowed us to be grafted into the vine.

We may read the story of Moses/Moshe leading the people out of Egypt and the first Pesach outside as a group, weather permitting. After this, we will enter under the blood and then pass through the sea (blue construction paper) and into the living room. We may consider washing each others feet as Yeshua did for His disciples, before we eat of course, if time allows.

We will use a Haggadah listed here about half way down the page. We’ll try not to be as slow as in years past (we learn so much and have so much fun, last year it was past midnight before we finished our meal). :) I purchased the above Haggadah at the local Christian bookstore last year but there is another Haggadah that I’d really like to get my hands on as well, this one.

After the meal and we’ll have the Afikomen search by the kids (have candies as rewards for questions and who finds the afikomen). This is a neat part of the meal, where 1/2 of the broken piece of Matzah (when Yeshua said, “This is My body broken for you”) is hidden. The child who finds the hidden 1/2 brings it to the father of the house to redeem the piece for a piece of candy or some coins.

Have our Counting of the Omer chart displayed and sheafs ready to be applied to each day posted somewhere in the kitchen or living room. Personally, reading Psalm 119 daily is a highlight of the year for me. Being able to sit out on the porch in my chair and read before the kids wake up, watching the sunrise and hearing the birds - it is an amazing time of worship for me and I look forward to those times all year long. There’s something special about those 49 days and thinking that this is what Yeshua did with His disciples all those years ago before He ascended.

This will take us into Pentecost/Shavuot. :~)

I thought I’d write about how we teach history/social studies here at home. I have always loved history and learning about various times and places. Teaching this subject is incredibly fun for me, and I think the kids enjoy it too (though I’m sure I enjoy it so much more). I also love the Word of G-d. I have found various ways to incorporate the Word into almost every aspect of our studies, with the exception of math, from vocabulary to resource skills to dictation. But, this message is about my favorite way to incorporate Scripture into our schooling.

I will include links to the books I’ve written book reviews about as well for anyone interested in using the same books we have enjoyed. Hopefully all the links will work properly!!

Anyway, here’s how we study history/social studies by using the Bible in a chronological order as our guide over the past three or four years. For example, we created our own timeline from the genealogies listed in Genesis. Scripture lists how old one man was when his recorded son was born, and how old that son was when his son was born, etc. We kept careful track of these dates and then added up the years to determine roughly how old the earth is (remembering that Scripture doesn’t specify how long Adam and Eve were in the garden). This made a lasting impact on our family as we realized that there is no way we could reconcile many thousands of years between Adam and Noah or Abraham or Moses. We talked about the important fact that there was no death before Adam and Eve sinned and the first death was when G-d slaughtered an animal for them to use the skins as clothing. We did a stint on dinosaurs and learned a lot about some artifacts that seem to prove that man and dinosaur truly did live together, rather than “millions of years” apart. We used a lot of material from Answers in Genesis and were privileged enough to go to one of their seminars when it was in our area. We used their book The True Story of Noah’s Ark by Tom Dooley when we began to study the time of Noah. We also purchased from them a model of the ark made from paperboard. This interested the family a lot on several levels - DH is a carpenter so the carpentry and design of the ark was of great interest to him. We also live on a small farm, so the animal husbandry issues that would have had to be worked out on board the ark were lively discussed for days on end as well. We had read some articles in previous years concerning the ancient animal husbandry skills and were so tremendously impressed at their systems for feed and waste removal, it was easy for us to imagine a clockwork system on board the ark. During the time of the Tower of Babel we looked into Iran and Iraq a little to learn what ziggurats look like, and we found a blank map and drew out our own table of nations. We used a peach colored pen for Japheth, a black pen for Ham, and a bronze colored pen for Shem. Each of their descendants were the appropriate color and we drew their names on the map in the places where Scripture says they migrated to. This was a lot of fun and very eye-opening for all of us. Comments like “No wonder all the people who live in that area are...” Another very interesting subject that we studied at the time of Babel was Nimrod. This took us into a quick study of the ancient gods and how each culture had the same gods but differing names (which is easily explained by Babel and Nimrod). Nimrod felt he was a god, he was a mighty man - a leader of the people, and he “threw it in G-d’s face”. We discovered that so many of the chief gods of ancient days all trace back to the same man and time - Nimrod in his pre-Babel days. This was also extremely eye opening, to say the least!

While studying a specific time and place, we will check out materials from the local library to learn more about the time or place. We have tried very hard to learn about what life was like at the time of these events, what the customs of the day were (which so often help us understand what the verses mean and why such strange things are mentioned - they were meaningful rather than strange now). We have tried to understand what was happening in the lives of other peoples and nations at the same time as the events we’re reading about as well, to help us have a stronger understanding of what Scripture is teaching.

When we came to the days of Moses, or Moshe in Hebrew, we studied Egypt and it’s culture then as well as today. It was at this time that I began to use historical fiction stories to supplement, or enhance, our studies. We read a book called Tirzah and listened to G. A Henty’s audio-book called The Cat of Bubastes. The kids absolutely loved these, and I thoroughly enjoyed them too. We studied the spring feasts at this time too: Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matzah), and The Feast of First Fruits. We had been taught a little about Passover in our church the previous year and knew a few older couples who kept these feasts. But as we read through Scripture, we were moved to honor these feasts and festivals ourselves because we, too, are G-d fearers. We took time to study Passover and let the initial Passover event sink in deep. Later on, at Passover time, we did keep Passover together as a family for the first time and we were so incredibly blessed! We have kept the feasts and festivals to the best of our ability ever since and have been so amazingly blessed by YHVH through them.

At any rate, we came to the ‘Wilderness Wanderings’ and were given a video by Ron Wyatt documenting his archaeological finds. Among these finds were cities such as chariot parts at the bottom of the Sea of Suf, Mt. Sinai which is called today Jabel al Laws, Sodom and Gomorrah, and several other amazing finds. During this time we read through Leviticus, which to some is incredibly boring. Our kids were eating it up! For months they were thrilled with Leviticus and considered it one of their favorites because of how the L-RD was bringing daily things into our lives to demonstrate even vague verses and ideas, let alone the larger points.

When it came time to study the crossing of the Jordan River, I came upon several biographies written by W. Phillip Keller. My favorite individual for a long time had been Joshua, Moses’ aide. Keller had written a biography of Joshua based on Scripture and historical data, it was a fantastic book that I read for my own study. He had also written books on Gideon, Elijah, and Yeshua/Jesus in my book collection which are wonderful to read. During the time of the Judges, we read a book called Hittite Warrior. We rose and fell with Israel through the days of the judges and then came to the days of Kings David and Solomon. We did an indepth study of the Temple with a model that came with a book called Solomon’s Temple Model. We have used this temple model almost anytime something significant happens concerning the Temple in our Bible reading. When Israel fell, we studied Assyria but put off studying Iraq until we studied Babylon when Judah fell. We read the book God King together when Israel fell and prepared to move into studying Babylon and Iraq when Judah fell.

When studying the days of Queen Esther, we began to study Iran and Persia. This is a great time to study Purim too. We are now studying the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. We are currently finishing reading Within the Palace Gates. From here we begin to move into the New Testament and I have a few selected books for that time period as well. When we get to them, I’ll post reviews of them as well.

Well, February has taken a different tone than I expected. I had hoped to be on task all month without interruption. HA! Why do I ever get those ideas anyway? LOL It started out with DH not having work, so he's been home piddling around all month. It's wonderful having him home, but it sure throws a monkey-wrench into my days. We don't get up as early as we should, we get our days started out slower, we take longer lunches, we stay up later in the evenings, etc. *sigh*

Next I got sick. I got really sick. It only lasted for a few days, but long enough for me to tweak my neck again. Laying on the couch for 2 days will do that to ya every time. But this time I ended up at the doctors office, and he promptly sent me to the hospital for more tests. That's going to be expensive!! But by now we're starting the third week of February!!

So this past 10 days we've been working to get on track. Then the ewe lambs - and dies. That was an unexpected trauma, but we're dealing with it. Needless to say, our 'on track' hasn't happened yet.

So here's my plan for March. Purim is on March 14. This fits perfectly into our plans. Our evening Bible reading has us at the time of the return of the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem. We're moving right along into the time of Esther, perfect timing for Purim. :) And since I had planned to study Iran in February and we haven't gotten to it yet, we're starting this week and will study Iran in March and Israel in April - which coincides with Passover in April. It's great how He works these things out. :~D If anyone reading is interested in some material for Purim or Passover, feel free to post a comment and I'll be happy to pass on what I have.

Math and spelling are always easy to do, just one unit after the other. Working the animals (the births & death) into our school work is a piece of cake. Our morning Bible reading has us in the Gospels and we watch a video on each book as soon as we're finished with that book. I expect we'll finish Matthew by the end of the month so we can watch the video again sometime in early March, unless the kids don't want to watch it because they've seen it so many times. :)

I'm encouraged, though, even with the setbacks we've had this month. It all works out beautifully in the end. But February sure has been one traumatic month! I'm not looking forward to repeating it anytime soon...

January - we're halfway through the month already! Time flies! We are in the siege of Jerusalem in our evening Bible reading. It was a great "coincidence" last week when the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem came on Tuesday and our reading brought us to the fall on Thursday. :) No, we did not fast. In honesty, I didn't even know or think about it until after Tuesday. Next year...

Since we're in the siege by Babylon, we are studying Iraq. What a better time to study Iraq than today? With the elections, the trauma in the country, the war, Saddam's trial, etc - there's so much material to go from. Besides, it gives us an opportunity to study the various lands that Iraq has been over the years. Next month we'll move on to Iran.

The kids are getting their math down, doing very well. I've included 5 minute timed math sheets every day, as a warm-up. On Fridays (preparation day) they only have the timed math. Seems to be a good combination for them. Their individual reading is going well too, and I've included the weekly Parshah's for them starting this week as well. So we have the Gospels/Acts in the AM, their own reading in the afternoon, and our Chronological study in the evening. I'd like to get the whole family involved in the morning reading as well, but we'll see... Right now we're reading the weekly Parshah's together on the Sabbath, so now the kids have something more to contribute. We'll see how that goes. Their piano is going well also. They have decided they want to add the violin and the saxophone to their lists as well. The 4-H Speakeasy event is this weekend too and both kids are presenting and/or volunteering at that event as well. We have begun our livestock judging unit study this month as well. A friend is scheduling a trip to the local butcher when they are available to take our kids. He's a good guy, an old family friend.

We have another field trip planned with our homeschool 4-H club this week, to a science museum. That will be interesting. That evening our livestock 4-H club has a meeting as well. It'll be a busy day. Then the next day is Speakeasy and my mom comes for a visit that afternoon, she'll be with us for a week. We're excited. While she's here we're taking a trip to more central WA to visit my brother and his family - in the mountains! The kids are thrilled, we've only had snow once this year so far - it lasted two weeks, but still... We've got one ewe expected to lamb any day and the cows should start calving in April, so there'll be a nice break between those two seasons. But the kids market project animals begin to come from February through May. The busiest seasons of the year are upon us.

January is a busy month, a good month. But it's already half over! I can't believe it! School is on track, even with the curves life has thrown us this month. That's a good feeling.

This is a test to see if I can figure out the paragraph settings...

I'm still not sure how to get this format to work - getting various paragraphs to actually look like paragraphs rather than one long one. :) It's code that I'll have to figure out in time...

Today it is 3 days from Christmas and from the start of Hanukkah on the traditional calendar, the corrected calendar had Hanukkah last month. This year it has been so wonderful not to have all the distractions of 'the season' enter our house. We are all so much more at peace than we would be otherwise, it is so much easier to focus on what needs to be done and on what is important. Some decisions are hard to make and to stick with, this was a hard one to make but so much peace and comfort have come from it. I think that sticking with the decision we made concerning Christmas will serve to bring us closer to the LORD - which some will find absolutely ironic.

I have found a spelling list that focuses on themes and letter blends and categorizes them by grade level. I think that will help Wyatt a lot, but he still needs to learn to slow down and pay attention to his work. We'll start the new spelling lists with him next week. I also re-found the SuperKids website where I used to print blank math worksheets for the kids to do timed math. The goal with that is to get them to memorize their addition and multiplication facts and be able to access the answers quickly in their mind, rather than using fingers. With that site I'm using the vocabulary words of the day too. I did find, somewhere, a "Wisdom" journaling PDF that I have the kids working through right now as well. I wish I knew where to find more journal packets like that on different Scriptural topics.

Today we read Acts 18 after breakfast and in the evenings we're in Jeremiah still, with a little Daniel, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles thrown in. It sure is amazing how the LORD uses our daily lives to bring us back to our Bible reading, how He brings things into our lives that directly relate to our reading and teach us to walk out what we are reading, what we believe. We are also studying Hanukkah a little. We have already decided to keep this holiday and focus on the "No Compromise" theme. I'll write in another post about our Hanukkah plans and how we will implement them in our home. Very exciting!

Back to school - Kerrin is using Saxon 87 and is progressing very well, she is already at a higher level of math than I ever understood. Sure, I somehow ended up in Geometry my last year of high school, but since I kept failing Algebra and didn't have a clue what it was about, I don't think I really 'got it'. Since I didn't figure out how to mulitply, really, until I was 20, she's WAY ahead of me. :) Wyatt is in Saxon 54 and I had him start over from Lesson 1 in September. In typical Wyatt fashion, he was racing through the material and not paying attention to what it was about so that he found himself near Lesson 40 or 50 and didn't have a clue what he was doing. This year he's taking it slower and is trying to convince me that he should be doing Algebra now. I don't think so...

4-H is still a major part of our schooling too. With Kerrin as club treasurer of the livestock club and club secretary of the homeschool club, she is getting a lot of real life practice and skills through her positions. She also is the 'chairwoman' of the pop-tab collection fundraiser for the Ronal McDonald House. Wyatt is Council Rep. for the livestock club and has been asked, and he accepted, to give a public presentation next month for SpeakEasy. He is loving the idea of speaking in front of a crowd. Both of them are doing fabulous in their piano as well. Kerrin is still interested in playing the violin, so I think that now after 2 years of piano that I'll look into violin lessons for her. Wyatt wants to learn to play the saxophone as well, we'll see about that...