My son is explaining how the mommy longlegs eats the daddy longlegs. But then, the father eats the mother. God could turn the spider back into a daddy longleg so he can then eat his wife. They're gonna have baby longlegs if they be nice to each other and don't eat each other.  I find his logic dizzying, but he's intense in his explanation, so at least it's cute. Intensity, sans logic and cuteness, would get tedious.

My lovies picked these for me the other day. Fall flowers :).

I made tortillas for the first time last night. The flour mixture I ground was soft white wheat and kamut. They are not pretty, but they did roll! Inside was a chicken fajita mixture that had been made in the crock-pot. Very fun and simple, but did take more time than bought wraps!

Don't you love when the weather gets cooler and you can start thinking more about soup, the crock-pot, pies, and hot tea? Right now I'm simmering vegetable soup (beef broth) with quinoa and brown basmati rice for lunch, and we'll have the first successful loaf of bread I've made in a while with it. In the crock-pot are chicken quesadilla's. I should be making tortillas to go with the latter, but Rush Limbaugh is coming on and instead I'm blogging.         

It's a light school day for our oldest as she has a friend over for a few hours. We've worked on her paragraph about the Mayflower and did our Foundations review and she's done her timed math drill sheet and mental math. The rest of the work will be finished this afternoon (spelling, vocabulary, word problems, rest of math lesson, EEL Task sheet, AWANA). This time with her friend is needed for her well-rounded education. Our middle daughter is finished all her normal work for each day, so at least I can be glad for that! Little man is also finished his school for today.     

So, I'm going to make some tea or coffee, have some soup and sew a patch on my son's vest for AWANA. This is a great day. I hope to read more of Don Finto's book later.      

Author of this posting is listed at the bottom--just an fyi, cervical cancer rates are higher in cultures where males aren't circumcised, though clearly circumcision isn't required for salvation!  One thought is that this is why God told the Jewish people to have the males circumcised, to protect them.

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Is it possible for a Christian to convert to Judaism?                                                                         

Thank you for your question. Yes, it is possible to convert from a so-called Christian to a so-called Jew, but first lets consider what it really means to be either. According to the Bible, the only conversion that means anything is not conversion from Christian to Jew or from Jew to Christian, but from unbeliever to believer.

John the Baptist warned that Jewish ancestry was not enough to guarantee salvation. (Matthew 3:9-11)                                                                                                          

Even a Jew by birth is not a "Jew" in the truest sense unless his heart is converted: 

"A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code."

• Romans 2:28-29                            

(Formal conversion through a rabbi would obligate the convert to undergo the ritual of circumcision and adhere to strict religious rules, many of which have only the most tenuous basis in actual Biblical commandments)                                     

In 1 Cor 7:18, the apostle Paul tells the uncircumcised not to seek to become circumcised. It seems clear that Paul is saying that non-Jewish believers should not convert to Judaism:

"Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts." -- 1 Corinthians 7:18b-19

What does it mean then to keep God’s commands? A crowd once gathered around Yeshua (Jesus) and asked him "What must we do to do the works God requires?" He answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:36) On another occasion, he declared that whoever believes in him will have eternal life, but whoever did not would remain condemned.    

Note that I said remain condemned, not be condemned. In Yeshua’s words, he who does not believe is condemned already. That is because there is a gulf of unrighteousness between Man and God. The Bible tells us that everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23, or Isaiah 53:6) and fallen short of the glory of God. Because God’s standard is absolute Holiness, it is impossible for anyone to attain it on his own. No matter how many or how great his good deeds may be, it is impossible to regain that "perfect score" once even the tiniest sin has been committed.                                                                     

How then can anyone be redeemed, if he cannot redeem himself? Only by the grace of God. So does God just shrug and let everyone off the hook? No, if God were to lower the standard he would be making himself less than God. The World to Come would be no better than The World That Is if all the sinners simply marched right in unchanged! What God has done is to offer his own righteousness to pay the price. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, so in order for God to pay, he had to come into the world as a mortal man of infinite righteousness to die. Now most of us do not have enough righteousness to survive death, but the Son of God Yeshua did! He literally rose bodily from the dead in three days time, proving he had the authority to the price of sin once and for all for all mankind.                                           

You might say that God has set a trust-fund of righteousness with a balance of infinity. Anyone with a need can draw on that account simply by asking for it. Since absolutely no one on earth has perfect righteousness on his own, anyone who fails to take advantage of this offer will simply come up short. 

"Cashing in" this way – by simply acknowledging your need to God and accepting his gracious gift – is the beginning of a true relationship with God. It doesn’t come from circumcision or baptism or conversion to this or that religion. Having taken God’s hand this way, what remains is to learn to walk with him, to know and do more and more of his good will.

David Brown
AMF International
http://www.amfi.org

Don't you love days when you think homeschooling is the best thing going? I love to hear how other peoples' days go so I can get ideas on how to do things here, so I'll share what our day was like today, so far.      

We didn't start super early as I slept in. The kids are not supposed to come down for breakfast unless they have done morning chores, but today they forgot and the girls were playing cards at 8 am in their jammies. ACK! Everyone got sent upstairs to do morning chores (dress, make beds, put jammies away, groom). Meanwhile, breakfast was prepared by a jammie wearing momma. 

Usually we start school around 8 or 8:30 at the latest, but the house wasn't as straight as I wanted and we decided little people need to be doing more work around here.  By 9 am school was in full swing with the house straight, including the kitchen, which is a shocker, trust me! I can do the entire house but leave the dishes undone...  

At 10:30 we headed to the YMCA for free gym time and break. I had to work out today, my knee is still improving and if I miss cycling I'm not doing so well (just twice a week will do) and for my hormone issues, weight lifting needs to occur also.                           

Here's what school the kids have done today, note all we're doing for science and history is Foundations memory work and the experiment they do weekly on Fridays (aside from reading books relating to these and watching Moody Science Videos).

• 3 yo- Listened to Bible story and was read to, Foundations, set table for breakfast, put "stuff" away
• 5 yo- K math, k-1st transition math, Bible, cursive, phonograms, TYCTR 33, Logic, handwriting, AWANA memory work, was read to, Foundations, vacuumed main level of house, cleaned sinks, put "stuff" away
• 7 yo-Saxon 54 math, EEL Task sheet, copied IEW sheets on compound sentences, reviewed all vocab words with me, Bible, AWANA memory verses, word search of banned words for writing, daily word problem, spelling test, Timeline review of first 6 weeks CC, cursive writing, read to siblings, independent reading (living history), Foundations, swept garage, folded laundry

The girls have ballet and during that time DS1 and I will do his AWANA memory work, go over numbers and letter sounds, and play together. He and DD2 painted and played playdoh earlier, plus played outside. Right now everyone is resting for quiet time (2 sleeping, 1 reading), so I'm on here and am about to get my shower for the 2nd part of the day and tonight. We've also put the "If/Then Chart" back up. Just need to clarify and simplify. I explained to them what the consequences will be. We'll also reinstate the "Blessings Chart" for when they go out of their way to be kind to others. (www.doorposts.net) 

Adding veggie tip--pureed carrot or squash is good in chili, adds a sweetness to it.       

I've always wanted to be a Messianic Jew...born and raised Jewish then learning the Messiah has indeed come. To be a "completed Jew" seems incredible to me. It is incredible to be born-again no matter what, but this has always interested me.              

I'm learning more about this idea and how some who are not actually raised Jewish worship alongside "completed Jews". IMO they are not actually Messianic Jews, but are fellowshiping and worshiping with the brethren they are most comfortable with. We are all one in Christ, so it is personal preference and perhaps a calling.  It's something I am very curious about as I feel a strong desire to witness to Jews who do not yet know the Messiah has come.       

What I'm wondering tonight is if you learn you have some Jewish blood in your ancestry, does that make you part of God's chosen race? Or is the religious side a big part of that? Does one need to decend from parents or grandparents who were practicing Jews in a religious sense. If it is a direct ancestry thing I'd go with the Biblical view of it having to come through the father's side rather than the Rabbinic view of the ancestry coming from the mother's side.       

I'd love to hear from you on this if you know anything about it. I would love to witness to Jews and to learn more about the religion so I could understand more about Scripture and Jesus' early ministry. I desire to see Jews come to a saving faith in the Messiah.

I stand corrected this morning about Les Miserables. It was incredibly entertaining. We watched the 10 year anniversary tape and from the start I sat captivated. While I wanted to fall asleep, I couldn't let myself. So, it was wonderful, and suddenly I feel more cultured .

It's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Participating locations offer free mammograms on the 3rd Friday of Oct, which is National Mammogrammy Day. Get you a mammogram girls if you haven't had one recently!

We had Classical Conversations today and it was terrific as always. It is wonderful for me to see Christ in this program and in the tutors my children are blessed to have. I don't know about you, but I pray for God to put women in my kids' lives who show them aspects of goodness they might not be getting from me. He's done it with CC and I'm thankful to say the least.          

So, we've cleaned up the house, math is done, dinner is over, and my dh got all fancied up for our night of watching Les Miserables. I'm feeling miserable over this prospect, but he's so excited he showered and put "the" shorts on (see prior post). I'm to make popcorn while we do it up Broadway style after the kids hit the sack. I think I'll fall asleep so plan to turn his head by donning my newest jammies. :)      

As a side note: I made brownies last night and put baby food prunes in, just 1 stage 2 container, then used oil for the rest (no applesauce to be found). YUM. I also sprinkled a decent amt of ground flax seed in, to counteract the oil don't you know :). They really have a moistness to them.

We had a fun day today driving a bit over an hour to an apple orchard for pumpkins. It was amusing that the pumpkins don't grow there, they get shipped in and sat out near some vines that are growing, but just not producing pumpkins! Still, it was a great field trip and the place is beautiful. I hope we can all go back as a family. Tomorrow I'll get pics up!

Usually a good day involves school and cleaning to me, but we just started math (never finished it) and headed out at 8:30 am. After pumpkin and apple gathering, we got home, everyone took a fast shower and changed (except momma), and the girls and I headed to play dates. Thankfully our little guy napped while daddy worked. 

It was my youngest daughter's first drop off play date. She loved it and did not get scared at all. Such a blessing! I'm so thankful she has a sweet little friend, whom I have known for a couple years, to be close to. Church introduced them and they are in, and have been in, several classes together for years.      

Quite delightfully, a new friend of my oldest's (and me) lives essentially on the same street as my middle child's friend. So after dropping DD2 off, DD1 and I popped over to our friend's house! Can it get any nicer than that??      

On the way home I ordered pizza for dinner, so they ate and watched a movie while I baked and cleaned in the kitchen. Such a nice night leading up to the debate tonight.

God has been so good to us with our schooling decisions this year, all the way around. Do you feel you are in a groove that is just 'right' for your family?       

Incase I haven't said it plainly recently, I love homeschooling and the innocence it allows in children, if you strive for that.