Posted in weekly class log

Our Exploring Countries and Cultures year has progressed more slowly than planned, but it is turning out to be a good year none the less.  We spent all fall on North America, all of January on South America and are now heading into Europe this week.  I would have to say that the missionary biographies have been the highlight of our studies, with Joshua taking to Cameron Townsend and Nate Saint with amazing interest.

Rick and I watched "At the End of the Spear" in December late one night after putting the kids to bed.  We hadn't planned to let any of them watch it, feeling that at not quite 8 even our mature little man was much too tender for such a visual encounter with missionary marterdom.  But by what we now see as God's ordinace, Big J. wandered into our bedroom late that night, about 20 minutes into the movie.  He couldn't sleep, something very unusual for him, and the two little ones were both sound asleep, also somewhat of a rare occurance at that hour for both to be out cold.  He ask if he could stay and watch, and with a quick silent prayer for wisdom, Rick and I exchanged glances and knew the answer should be yes, though up until that moment we would have never dreamed of allowing it.  He watched with intensity then fell asleep just before some of the most brutal sceens.  He slept soundly and had no emotional trauma, though the story has stuck with him in a profound and positive manner. 

When we began reading Nate Saint's biography we only got part way through before J. asked to stop, not wanting to relive the story again.  But after a couple more days to reflect, he came to me asking to watch the entire movie again, watched it, then was ready to finish the book.  I think both of us have been deeply challenged by this story and it made our studies of South America all the more profound.  As we start ci-op back up this week, he will be taking an international cooking class along with fencing and writing at co-op. I'm headed out in a few minutes to take him to his violin lesson. How can he already be 8 years old? Time just flies this side of infertility...

R. is also growing up. She's spent more of her 5 year old year away from us than with us so far, turning around from her time at my parents (see next two paragraphs), to go spend 5 more days with Rick's mom on their farm about an hour away. It is so wonderful having everyone back home together, though she had a delightful time haing one-on-one Grandma attention for tea parties and dress up and lots of great outside play! Our homeschool co-op starts up again this week and she doesn't know it yet, but will be taking ballet again. I can't wait to see how excited she is when she finds out on Thursday! :)

It's amazing to think our baby is already 2.  Little J's learning new words on a daily basis. The kids all stayed with my parents for about 5 days after Rick's surgery (next paragraph).  I was just too physically done in to be an effective parent.  I was shocked at how his vocabulary had jumped in those short days.

Rick's had a SLAP repair (muscle that connects upper part of arm to shoulder was ripped away) a week ago Thursday.  He was several hours delayed, not going into the ER until after 8pm (had IV and was read at 3) and heading home from the hospital after midnight.  But the surgery seems to be sucessful and his range of motion is impressing both his surgeon and PT. Little J will tell anyone who will listen, "Daddy Ow-nie!" and it is obviously of great concern to our littlest that Daddy hurts.

I'm hopefully going to be seeing Dr. Peterson (one of the world's leading experts in CFIDS) in the very near future. We've been working on this since last June and it is sounding more imminent now, so I'll try to keep you posted. I'll be teaching a class on writing for publication at our co-op and I'll be speaking on "Harvesting Hope from Heartache" at an informal ladies' tea for our church this Sunday. I'm also excited to have been named "Consultant of the Month" with Affordable Mineral Makeup for the month of January. Please drop by and visit my Inner Beauty Blog for affordable beauty tricks, healthy makeup tips, book and product reviews, inspirational articles, and give-aways all focused on letting your inner beauty shine!