As is the custom for many at this time of the year,
we are reflecting on God's bountiful blessings to our family.
In years past we have done a 'tree of thanks',
it's a project that we have enjoyed, but this year we are doing something just a bit different....
an 'advent calendar' for Thanksgiving.
First, we made our own envelopes (one for each day of November,)
and then we searched online for cute images and clip-art to decorate them.
Inside the envelopes are small slips of paper that say, "I am thankful for...."
Each day we will each write down one thing that we are especially thankful for, and then place it in the pocket for the day.
At the end of the month,(or perhaps at our Thanksgiving celebration,)
we will all read our slips and share with one another just how richly we have been blessed.
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. 1 Chronicles 29:13
• Nov. 7, 2009 - Add hand-made jewelry to your Christmas gift-giving list!
Posted By yankeemom
Visit my dear friend Melody over at With the Fruit of Her Hands for all of your jewelry needs. I can personally attest to the quality of her work. While you're over there, join the contest she's currently having!
Tomorrow, Nov 7th, our family will be participating in the Walk to Cure Diabetes. This is sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Joshua has been looking forward to this walk for many months. We started talking about it when he was in the hospital. He is familiar with "walks" because we go to the local Buddy Walk (supporting Down syndrome) each year.
Here is a note from Joshua.
I think the walk is going to be fun. I hope that the JDRF gets more money so that they can find a cure for diabetes. I hate diabetes. I don't like getting shots and pokes. I want to be able to have food whenever I want it.
I know that money is tight and that there are many worthy causes. I do feel the need to share this one though as it is important to us and many other families as well. If you are interested in sponsoring Joshua, please go to this link.
You can type in his name Joshua Nelsen and state and his page should come up for you. Our team name is "Joshua's Fan Club" which should also show on the site.
We had another great co-op day last week. I just haven't gotten around to posting about it. It is always such a treat to spend time with friends and have fun learning in the process. We had a beautiful day and spent it all outside.
So what did we learn about today? Well, pumpkins of course.
We had a few more experiments on density and learned that all pumpkins float no matter the size or weight.
One thing that I thought was really interesting was watching them turn in the water so that the stem was facing down. I'm not sure why they did that, but all of ours from small to large turned in the water like that. (Can you see that the large one is in the process of turning?)
We also learned about the human body. We talked about joints (and had a neat visual) of how the joints can break down (ouch that one was a little close to home!). They also learned about the bones in the body.
They came home with a neat project to label the bones as well as a skeleton to put together. (The black dots are velcro to which the names of the bones can be attached. There is a copy of the same sheet with the answers behind it so that they can check their work.)
After learning about the body, we talked about the style of running done by the man in the book who "shuffled along" and won the race! The children had several rounds of running a course. What a fun course too! It was through the woods and the path had pumpkins all throughout as well as pictures of various Australian animals.
Lastly, the children learned about hot air balloons and why they float. They made their own hot air balloons from a trashbag.
They used hair dryers to fill them with hot air and then watched them rise!
We had a yummy snack of pumpkin muffins and granola. While they were snacking the children watched the "dancing raisins" experiment. More on the experiment here.
While the other children were learning about pumpkins and such, Daniel again had his private nature study class with his sweet friend Miss Lynn. He so looks forward to these days!
Thank you friends for another wonderful day! I'm blessed to be a part of such a creative and sweet group of friends!
Sorry I haven't been updating more....We all have the 'blahs.'
(It's too early in the year for this...isn't it?)
Part of it is the weather - ( the cold hit early this year),
part of it was the flu -(that took a lot out of all of us!), but mostly...
we're just not as excited about school this year for some reason.
The material is just as good,
but we haven't found our groove and settled into a comfortable routine like we have in past years.
It isn't MFW that's dragging us down this year -
(Yes...we're all ready to move on from Rome, and I've been a bit frustrated with some of the readings, but in all I think that we've all enjoyed it....)
It''s our core subjects that have hit us hard this year.
Julie, especially, has reached a point in which her main subjects have increased quite a bit in the level of difficulty. (She's hit the 'logic stage' for those who subscribe to the 'Classical' model.)
Because they are more difficult, she often needs to spend more time on them.
This frustrates her, (because she sees Joseph 'whizzing' through his work,)
it frustrates Joseph, (because he has to wait for her so we can all do our MFW readings together,)
and it frustrates me, because we get further and further behind...
(and this extends our time in Rome!)
Also, Julie has begun her catechism work that she must take in order for her to become an 'confirmed' member of our church. This is a very intensive Bible study course, and I think that doing two Bible programs (MFW and catechism) is wearing her out. I'd hate to give up either one, though...as they both have so much to offer... One is church history, and the other is Church history!
Thinking ahead to next year already, I have already decided that - while I have really loved combining Julie and Joseph for Bible, History and Science these past few years...I did so because I thought it would make things easier and less complicated for me. At first that was true, but now that they are at different levels of comprehension...this is proving to not always be the case.
So next year, I am pretty sure that each will have their own completely separate program for all subjects. whether those are textbooks, or unit studies, or possibly even literature based programs - I haven't decided.
We'll stick it out for this year though, and who knows...
once we're out of Rome - our whole outlook may completely change.
As I was uploading pictures I realized that we've been quite busy the past couple of months. So without further ado, here is a quick pictorial rundown of the month of August.
As you may remember, Christy came to help out shortly after Joel was born, so here's a picture of all our cutie-patootie kids, minus Joel:
And we spent some time cuddling the baby
Then someone turned seven years old
And my Mom was here to cuddle the baby
And we did some baking (I think this was oatmeal cookies?)
Then we cuddled the baby
Then another friend came to visit, and we spent the time musing about what life would be like with children who looked like us, but in the end we decided not to trade after all
And we ended the month by - cuddling the baby
Next time, we'll have September's pics - where we cuddled the baby in exotic locals
• Nov. 3, 2009 - Updates and a look at our week ahead
Posted By LeslieN
Things are busy here - no change there. Just thought I'd do a quick update.
Yesterday, Eliana met with the cardiologist. She was very displeased to be there. She fussed at EVERYTHING! Fussed about blood pressure (so they didn't even try), fussed about having her height and weight taken, fussed about having her temp taken. You get the idea. She was fine until someone else wanted to touch or look at her. Her ped told me this was an appropriate developmental stage. LOL
Her EKG went well and it all looked good. Her physical exam was also good. Based on her size and how she is doing (and maybe a little on how she was acting?), the cardiologist decided not to have an echocardiogram done. He wasn't sure the sedation would be effective on her due to her being on the cusp size-wise and I don't think either of us thought she'd be still for an unsedated look. I was fine with that and so we were able to go home a little early.
Joshua went with us and he wanted to play a little in the outside play area. It was a beautiful and chilly day and he and Eliana had fun playing. We hadn't ever stopped at this play spot before as it has always just been Eliana and I.
I'm thankful for a good report on her heart.
Someone had asked for more details on Daniel as my earlier post was a little vague. I talked with a nurse today trying to follow-up about our referral. We haven't yet heard about a new appointment and she is hoping we'll hear something by Thursday. We should be scheduled for the first available time slot. The doctor's notes on Daniel are "optic nerve pallor". Basically it means the color of his optic nerve is pale and not the color it should be. It's in just one eye and is noted as "prominent". I have to confess that a quick google search (I know, why do I do that?) does not make me feel good about any of these words. I just want our little boy to be fine. I really just want nothing new to be diagnosed here! I don't want to worry (I know it does no good), but it can be hard. I do best just trying not to think about it. Some days it is just too much, kwim?
Our week ahead is a full one. I'm coordinating a field trip for our FIAR group. It's to a new place and I need to work on final details to get it all ready. We'll be doing some outdoor survival with the older kids and other nature topics with the younger ones. The weather is predicted to be beautiful so I'm looking forward to a fun outing.
Both of our boys are scheduled to play in the State Championship games of the Homeschool Football League this week-end! Rebecca also has a soccer game in between the boys' games. This will be the last of our "Sports Saturdays" for awhile. (Rebecca has one more game, but it conflicts with our homeschool group's Family Event.)
As of this evening, Joshua decided that he wanted to miss his last game so that he can participate in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for the Cure which is the same time as his game. This is something he was interested in doing and we have talked about since he was in the hospital with a new diagnosis. The game though was not something he wanted to miss - until now. So, we need to make plans to join in the walk. I really don't know much about it and we have not done any fundraising either. I think that we will just go and experience it. I think it will be really nice for Joshua to meet someone else with diabetes.
Rebecca and I have been invited to do a presentation at Duke next week about community service. We'll share some of our story and lead a class in jewelry making to about 150 student athletes. We'd love prayers as we prepare. We are excited about this opportunity and want to make the most of it.
We are also preparing for our homeschool group's largest event of the year coming up in about a week and a half. My job is organizing and coordinating. It is a really fun event which is done cooperatively. This year our theme is The Gullywasher (a Five in a Row title). I'm looking forward to it.
Well, it's late and I need to get some sleep as the morning always comes faster than I'd like for it too. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragment to me. I appreciate it. This has been a hard season of life and I'm in a struggle. I feel as though I've been buffeted by challenges on and off for quite awhile. I am trying to rest and trust - though it has not been easy. I have never been as aware of the spiritual warfare going on around me as I am now. I'm thankful that I know the One who has already won the battle.
We were fortunate to be able to go to the Fair on a beautiful sunny day - and with friends too! Rebecca had entered two items in the fair and was very excited to see if she had placed with either of them. We went to a few other exhibits on our way to see her items.
How exciting it was to go to the case and find that she had indeed gotten ribbons - two blue ribbons! Congratulations!!! You did a great job Rebecca!
The first ribbon was for this beautiful jointed doll that she made.
The second was for this food made from felt. It's a blueberry waffle breakfast. The waffles are sitting on a waffle maker (really cute). The meal also includes sausage and a fruit cup. It's so cute!
My children have enjoyed this exhibit and look forward to going back each year. You start with a basket and then wander through the garden areas of things that grow in NC.
The children are able to pick and gather various fruits and vegetables.
When their basket is full, it is weighed and exchanged for some money.
You can use this to buy a bag of goodies - including an apple and some peanuts. Eliana loved her apple this year. I love seeing her eating it on her own!
The DMV hosts a driving safety experiential exhibit.
They also gave out "clickers". (Really loud and lots of ours have disappeared thankfully!)
Of course we had to see some animals and the ducks and chicks were the cutest!
Bumper cars are the favorite ride for my family. Just look at their faces!
I was able to do something really fun too! There was an Artisan Bread class. We thought it would be short and we would go in and enjoy the beginning of it. My friend Rebecca and I and some of the kids (5) started out in the class. Well, it wasn't a short class and so the kids drifted out. Rebecca and I stayed because ...
it was fun and interesting and I was chosen to be a volunteer. :-) One of the first jobs was to cut and weight the dough. I've had some practice with a scale and this was fun.
The chef from Neomonde Baking Company was hilarious! It was a lot of fun learning the techniques and making the bread.
Doesn't this look yummy? Oh, and did it all taste good! We made a pumpernickel with raisins and walnuts, a whole grain and focacia. It was all delicious and I was able to bring a loaf of each home (and sample it there too).
It was a fun day filled with lots of sights and sounds. We were worn out by the end of the day and ready to go home to rest. I'm thankful that we were all healthy and able to have a fun day together. Hope you are able to enjoy a fun fair where you live!
I'm the blessed wife of My Honey of 14 years, and Momma to eight wonderful Lambies aged 13 and under. We live in Central CA, and use Ambleside Online for our curriculum. I'd love to meet you , so browse a while and feel free to leave a comment!
