Happy Father's Day!!

I am so blessed to have you as my Dad.  Your love for God and His Word has taught me so much.  Your love and support for me have meant more than words can express.  Thank you for being such a wonderful father!  I love you!

"A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season." ~Anonymous

Thanks for weeding during the growing season, Dad!

      We finished our fourth year of homeschooling this week!  Whoo Hoo!!  In History, we covered Creation to the birth of Christ.  In Science, we learned about all kinds of amazing ocean creatures.  In Math, we tried out a new  curriculum and loved it.  Every year it is so exciting to wrap things up, and pronouce, "We're done!"  But it's also bittersweet...another year passed...each child another year older. What a connundrum a homeschool mama faces...the desire to challenge them and push them on to greater and deeper levels...and yet the overwhelming urge to stop time and hold them so tight right where they are!  Ahhh...the balance of life is never easy.   In my retrospective end of the year mood....I just want to savor each precious moment. 

      The children, however, are ready to announce their new official grades and promote themselves upward.  So, with no further sentimentality, I officially promote them to the 7th, 4th, and 3rd grades and little man... you are officially a Kindergartener.  I'll end this post to go get a tissue. My eyes seem to be watering a little.

I love to see God's amazing handiwork in nature. His creativity and beauty refresh my soul.  When we moved to the city, I thought I would have to travel miles to have the experience of reflecting on the majesty of God through nature, but He has so totally provided in wonderful ways.  We want to share about the nature in our neighborhood, and how God has caught us by surprise with his creation. 

Our Garden - I'm eclectic in my homeschooling curriculum, and I'm eclectic in my gardening as well.  We started with some veggies in the backyard last summer.  I am amazed by gardening in California. You plant in January!  My lettuce, beans, tomatoes all reseeded themselves from last year!.  (Of course, I did have to dig up some lettuce from the middle of the grass and transplant it back into the square foot garden where it was supposed to be residing.)  Also...my pepper plants from last year survived the winter and I have  2" peppers already. ( I did plant some new pepper plants as well, in case these don't make it until harvest.)

This year we added a flower and herb garden in the front.  I planted 2 climbing roses by the fence and some other flowers (whatever looked pretty and smelled good) and herbs (sage, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, thyme, oregano and basil.)  We are having a blast watching it grow and using the herbs.  We planted some bulbs too...which we were just sure would never come up, but sure enough they have. 

Roses

Snapdragons and parsley

Gerber Daisy and Rosemary

We also have some lantana growing like crazy in the bed in front of the house.  I had to plant something that didn't require watering.  When I water that bed it runs under my sink and onto the kitchen floor.  The lantana has grown so big there...we have to keep trimming it. 

Birds and Butterflies - Now our front yard is smelling and looking naturey...and God has sent us some new friends!  We've seen 3 different butterfly species and 2 different humming birds and many moths at night time.  They all love the Lantana.

The visiting butterflies inspired us to raise butterflies so here we are with our freshly arrived caterpillars and butterfly nurturing equipment. 

This was an amazing project.  The caterpillars were so tiny...but were so hungry and grew soooo fast. Eric Carle certainly nailed it on the head!  In just 10 days they were all hanging from the top of their jars in their chrysalis form.  We were worried about one last straggler who just kept wandering around the jar...but he finally hooked on and joined the crowd.

After just over a week they began to emerge. Wow!  We only got to see one pump up his wings. The rest emerged at night or when we were away from the house.  We figured they liked their privacy.  In this picture you can see him starting to pump his wings to get them ready for flight.  Beside him are the empty chrysalis "shells" from his buddies.  The red stain is not blood, it's meconium which is the left over dye in the chrysalis used to make the beautiful wing colors.

We fed them oranges and sugarwater for a few days. You can see his probiscis unfurling toward the orange, if you look closely.

We set them free after four days.  One or two hung around for awhile, before setting off on their journey.  How amazing to see the metamorphisis.  It was definitely a homeschool highlight.

Watching the butterfly explore his new environment.

Getting a close up view...it's pretty amazing to see the scales on the wings with the magnifying glass.

Painted Lady enjoying the sunshine...

Snacking on the lantana...

Trees Look how God decorated our tree!  I'm from the midwest and have seen some amazing trees...but never a Bottlebrush like this, until we came to the city. ( I actually think it could technically be a bush...but somebody trimmed it to have a trunk...so we are calling it a tree.)

Here is a close up of the "bottle brush."

The tiniest candle looks so very bright in the middle of a dark room.  I believe the same is true of nature in the city.  A flower seems so much brighter, a bloom smells so much sweeter, a butterfly so much more joyful against a backdrop of concrete, noise and  pollution.  God is so good!  We see His beauty everywhere.

Happy Mother's Day!

On this special day I am so thankful for my Mom, and my Grandmas.  I know it is an incredible gift to have a Godly heritage.  I'm so thankful for their faithfulness, their sacrifice, their examples, their honesty, their laughter and their undying love for God and their families.  I love them sooo much!

 C.S. Lewis said, "I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare."  Mom, thank you for giving more than you could afford to spare and still continuing on with joy.  Your sacrifices and perserverance have blessed me more than I can ever say.  I love you.

Lilacs are some of your favorites so these are for you.

Each year World Impact sponsors a Princess Tea Party.  This year I was able to take 6 of the 8 young ladies whom I'm discipling.  If you receive our prayer letter, these are the girls in my Bible club that you have been praying for!  (If you don't receive our prayer letter, and would like to... please feel free to email me or you can read it online here. )

We had sooo much fun. The girls were all dressed up and ready when I went to pick them up at their homes.  Some were a little uneasy because they had never been to a tea party before...but they caught on real quickly!  We ate, giggled, played games, sang, and listened to a talk about being King Jesus' princesses.  It is so imperative that these beautiful girls know that they are treasured by Almighty God, and that He alone can heal broken hearts. That message was clearly communicated to them throughout the evening.   

These are all the girls that attended from our church plant.  We brought 3 Bible Clubs.

Here are some pictures of the girls enjoying their evening.  How fun to celebrate being royalty!

We give thanks for a sweet precious time, and for the extravagant love of our King.

One of the fun joys of homeschooling is discovering new resources and sharing them with others.  SoCalVal  has put together a great site full of resources tested by other homeschooling Moms.  You might want to check it out.  She is also having a contest at her blog to promote the new site.  Gotta love free resources!

My Redeemer Lives !!!!!

Welcome to our Hebrew encampment!  We're so glad you are visiting. We would like to introduce you to some of the people in our tribe.

This is Rebekah.  Her name means "Peacemaker."  She enjoys music and has made a lyre.

Now please meet Abigail.  Her name means "Her Father's Joy." She has made an oil lamp so we can see in the dark desert nights.  

This is Benjamin.  His name means "Son of My Right Hand."  Notice his sling and bag of stones he has created to protect our sheep. 

This is Aaron, our High Priest.  Notice his breastplate which has 12 gems to represent the 12 tribes of Israel.  You'll see that in the picture the glory of the one true God is shining upon him.

Here are some snapshots from life in our camp.  This is everyone gathered around the cookfire in front of our tent.  Rebekah is tending to her lamb.

Here are Abigail and Rebekah using their instruments to praise Yahweh.

This is Abigail preparing dinner and the oil lamp.

Here is Rebekah repairing her lyre.

These are items we created that we use each day in our camp...from left to right...the High Priest's turban, a slingshot, the priest's breastplate, the oil lamp, the cloth bag for stones, the lyre and a set of bow and arrows.  There is also a tambourine...but we didn't create it. We traded with another tribe. We gave them a clay pot and they gave us the instrument.

Thanks for visiting our home!  Shalom!

We celebrated our 100th Day of School last week.  We started our morning with 100 pancakes.  (That sounds like a lot, huh?!)

Each day of school our youngest has been putting a popsicle stick into the appropriate place value. He was excited to bundle the 10 tens and put them in the hundreds bag.

Then at 100 minutes into the 100th day we took some time out to do some activities.  We counted to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.  Then we counted...

100 pennies...

 100 crayons...

100 beans...

and 100 noodles!!!

We wrote some 100 day poetry and then did some estimating.  I had the kids stand where they thought they would be 100 inches from our school room door.  The ruler on the floor shows the actual measurement of 100 inches.

We had a fun time...and smiled 100 times.  (or close to it!)

This year we have been thoroughly enjoying our study of the Ancient Worlds through our WinterPromise curriculum.  Welcome to our Ancient Egypt Museum!

We begin with some symbols of royalty in Egypt.  From left to right,  the double crown (symbolic of Upper and Lower Egypt united as one), the staff and the flail (held in the Pharaohs hands), the blue false beard, and the nemes (Pharoah's hair must always be covered.)  You will notice the cobra on both headdresses. The snake was there, they believed, to protect the Pharaoh and remind everyone of his magical powers.

Now we will introduce you to some of the ancient rulers. You will notice that they are pictured with stern faces, for that was the tradition in Ancient Egypt.

 First, a ruler of both Upper and Lower Egypt who wears the Red and White Crown of the United Kingdom.  (Notice the red glowing eyes of the cobra!)

Next, the Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut.  She ruled as a Pharoah, and dressed the part, even down to the nemes and artificial beard traditionally worn by the male pharaohs.

Third,  we introduce you to King Tut.  He was a lesser ruler in the Kingdom of Egypt, but is famous in modern times because his tomb was found intact with amazing amounts of treasure.  His burial grounds had not been plundered by tomb robbers.

Next, we have a mummy.  (Ds age 4 was amazingly still during the mummification process.  Thankfully, single ply tp is fairly easy to breathe through.) Notice the staff and flail in his hands.

Here are some re-creations of Egyptian royalty with paper dolls.  Note the double crown.

This is a model of the Temple of Karnak.

Written in hieroglyphics, these are cartouches of the famous royalty you viewed earlier.

And finally, no Egyptian museum would be complete without a model of the famous pyramids.

We hope you enjoyed your tour of our Ancient Egyptian Museum! 

As part of our LA curriculum this year, I have been encouraging the kids to record, in a journal, quotations that are special to them.  Since I assigned this exercise to the children, my eyes have been especially attuned to great quotations, too.  Over the past weeks I pondered sharing them here...but hadn't really gotten to it...until now.  I stumbled across a quote that stopped my in my tracks, made me reread it and I haven't been able to quit mulling over it for the past days.

It is from the brother of a 20 year old girl who was killed in an avalanche.  She was an experienced mountaineer, but more than that, she was known as a devoted follower of God.  At her memorial people expressed over and over how her passion for God had been such an encouragement to them in their walk with Christ.  Even her parents told their pastor,  "She belonged more to Him than to us."

But her brother said,  "She was gentle in everything she did, except praising God.  She did that violently."

I read it...and I read it again...violent in praising God?...it seems almost sacrilege...but then as my mind wrestled with that concept...I thought of violent acts.  They are full of passion, abandoned to the moment, unbridled by impediments of common restraint.  A person who is violent is consumed with one thought, and gives herself totally to that purpose.  No thought, or action will stop the force that drives the person forward.   Violent worship is being totally abandoned to our King, passionate about Him and unafraid and unhindered to express our love. In fact, violent worshipers truly are unable to stop the worship that flows from them to their beloved Lord.  Not worship for show or for effect, not praise to God because it sounds good, but worship pure in motive and deed flowing unchecked from a transparent heart, bursting forth because it cannot be stoppped, this, I think, is violent worship.

It seems this young lady, Lygon Stevens, lived her life flowing from that violent worship of God.  Person after person remarked how kind and gentle and encouraging she was to everyone she met.  I think sometimes our passion...our violence, if you will, is misplaced.  We are so concerned about our rights, and our desires that we become violent for those things which do not last, rather than violent for Him who is from everlasting to everlasting.  Lygon left a journal which was full of treasures of praise to her Father and submission to Him.  So I leave you with a quote from her...

"...to become as nothing to myself, that I may, with every breath , breathe the will of God."

O to love God so passionately and to worship Him so violently in private, that only He would be seen when I'm in public.

For Christmas we gave the girls a little sewing machine.  So while Grandma was with us, we all took some sewing lessons. 

The girls also received dolls for Christmas but we were having difficulty finding pretty dresses for them (that weren't too expensive.)  We did find a free pattern online for 18" doll dresses, so Gramma and I each sewed a dress for the girls' dolls.  The sewing machine was not quite up to the task...so we did them by hand.  The girls were tickled with them.  Who knew fabric scraps could make such lovely dresses? We had a lot of fun and made some sweet memories, too.

We have been absent for so long from our blog.  First our camera broke...then we finally replaced it...then after just a short while the new one was stolen...then it took a long while to replace that one.  All that to say...we're back and excited to be here!

Our Christmas season was wonderful!  Some of the highlights were...

Our Trip to Colorado

We went to visit two young men who are from our church but who are in a 2 year Discipleship program in CO and KS.  What a trip!  It was great to see our friends and our kids were thrilled to see and feel snow!  Our ds (4) hopped out of the car and said "Can I touch it?"  When I said "Yes!"  He plunged his hands in to his wrists.  There was a moment of shocked silence followed by a sharp intake of breath and he hollered, "Wow...snow is COLD!"  Quite a moment!  The kids got to "tube" behind a 4-wheeler and even go sledding. I even took a turn on the tube.  It brough back memories of living in Pennsylvania. Cold has a whole new meaning for these kiddos who were raised in the desert.  We barely escaped out of CO in time, for the next day they had a huge storm with lots of snow.  On our way out of the Rockies we saw bighorn sheep!!  They were grazing on the mountainside right beside the freeway.  They were less than 10 feet from our car!  What a thrill!!

Our First Live Christmas Tree (in 9 years)

I loved cutting down a real tree each Christmas when I was growing up, but since living in warmer climates this hasn't been an option for us.  Well, I guess it is an option, but the first year we exercised that option and brought a live tree home, it was dead within a week.  Since then we have been an artificial tree family.  But this year my wonderful dh (knowing my obsession  appreciation for traditions) found a tree farm and we cut down our Christmas tree.  It was a 2 hour drive (one way) and we should have worn sunscreen, but we made a wonderful memory and got our tree.  And our house smelled soooo good.  After picking it out and everyone taking a turn with the saw, our ds (4) said "What is this sticky stuff all over my hands??!!"  He has a whole new appreciation for the word  "sap."   I know in the pictures we look bundled up...but that's because we all wore our Christmas sweatshirts to add to the festive spirit of the day. The truth is we were sweating quite profusely and had to turn the air conditioner on for the drive back home!

Our Advent Devotions

This year we were very purposeful about having Advent devotions.  We set aside the things we normally do during devotions and Bible time and focused on the birth of Christ.  We used our Advent Wreath, sang carols,  made a Jesse Tree, and read devotions and scriptures totally focused on Advent.  This was a precious time for our family.  It really helped me as a Mom to focus and not feel rushed.  It made our Christmas season seem intentional rather than chaotic.  I'm so thankful to Jesus for those special moments.  What a treasured time.  Two of the books we used were Getting Ready for Christmas by Yolanda Brown and Come Let Us Adore  Him- Stories behind the Most Cherished Christmas Hymns by Rober J. Morgan. I also loved the Advent Calendar site by TeachingMOM.

Our trip to Knott's Berry Farm

For Christmas my parents gave us a trip to Knott's Berry Farm.  Because we don't get to see them very often, this was a precious time of celebration as a family.  My mom had been to Knott's as a child with her Grandpa and family, so it was a neat blessing for her to now share that same joy with her grandchildren. 

We are so thankful for the many blessings God gave us during the season celebrating His Son's birth. Most of all we are thankful for Jesus, His Son. 

I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix with my Dad.  My Dad got some free tickets from a friend.  It was very loud!!

 My favorite car was the McDonald's car.  My favorite part was the drifter's race. 

 I also got to sit in one of the race cars, and I got an autograph.  It was soooooo fun!

The garden has grown a lot.  The radishes are about 2 inches.  The tomatoes are 10 inches high.  The cucumbers are 3 1/2 inches.  The carrots are just popping out of the ground.  There are peas up.  The green onions have popped up too.  The lettuce has grown a lot.  The marigolds have new flowers.  Every thing has really grown.  I am very happy.

We had such a fun time with our Spy Kit from WinterPromise.  It was part of our study about WW II.  I was pleased with how many different codes and methods were included in the set. It was also wonderful that there were 2 complete sets...so the kids divided into 2 teams and sent messages back and forth.  We've had secret agent action all week long!

 Our unassembled spy decoder kits!

 Coding and Decoding Messages...

Our weekend started on Friday, when we remembered our Savior's suffering by carrying a cross through our neighborhood with others from our church plant.  Then, we had a Good Friday service.  The amazing sacrifice that Jesus made never fails to stun me.  Saturday we continued our yearly family tradition of dyeing eggs, to celebrate the new life Christ gives us. On Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord with our church plant family.  He is risen...the grave is empty! Halleluia!!! 

DH helping mix colors with dd...

Oh...the joy of an orange egg!!

On Monday, we celebrated our youngest's 4th birthday.  He wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine birthday.  I wasn't sure if I could make Thomas on a cake with my Wilton supplies or not...but he recognized it was Thomas...so I guess it  turned out ok. 

Make a wish...

He had a few friends over and we made trains out of cardboard to ride on our sidewalk chalk tracks.

We also painted some little wooden trains. The kids did a great job...they each turned out so unique! 

Today we finished our square foot garden. Although technically it should probably be called a linear foot garden since it is much longer than it is square due to space constraints.  We had a blast putting it in ...now we will pray that it will grow. 

I also found some great notebooking ideas for gardening, (Thanks Jimmie and HarmonyArtMom!) so we are using our garden for history (studying WW2 victory gardens), math (estimation, measuring, counting), science (hypothesis, prediction, parts of the plants, how things grow, insects, weather, nutrition), language (writing, vocabulary) and art (sketching and drawing.)  Wow...and this just started out as a project to get more healthy vegetables and fruits onto our table.

DD watering newly planted seeds...

and sketching in her Gardening Notebook.

Our 4 year old's self portrait when he had the camera...dirty feet...the sign of a great gardener!!

Yes, it was a wonderful weekend...that spilled over into this week!

As urban missionaries church planting in the city, our family has lots of fun and interesting opportunities to share in ministry.  Here are a few from the  past month.

The girls and I are ready to go to a Princess Tea for girls in our neighborhood.

DS and friends at a basketball clinic for the community.

 Hubby and DS at a Bible Club celebration.

We got to be the first patients during the trial run of the new Dental Clinic sponsored by our church plant and World Impact.  How fun to go to the dentist...where we also go to church!

Thank you so much Dr. Balber and Mr. Isaias!!

Please pray for our dental clinic as we get set to open it for our community in the next few weeks.

We sorted, tallied and graphed all the marshmallows in a 14.5 oz box of Lucky Charms. Then we compared our results with our original hypothesis.  In our box, we had more clovers than any other marshmallows.  We sent in our results to the national marshmallow count project at www.technospuds.com.  It was great fun to see the other schools' tallies being registered and to watch the totals go up.  We enjoyed this little math project a lot...and the kids definitely enjoyed eating the Lucky Charms for the next few days.

Shoebox Models of the Immigrant Tenements from the

late 1800's in New York City.