We continued our Advent celebration with making and decorating gingerbread man cookies. Our good friends came over for dinner and afterwards we sat around the table and decorated our gingerbread man cookies. All the children had a wonderful time, and delighted in eating their newly decorated cookies.

This was my first time making these cookies and I wasn’t even sure what they are supposed to taste like. I got my recipe from 101cookbooks and I really like the taste of these cookies. (Note: to make rolling out the dough easier, I put a piece of dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll it out. After the kids imprint the cookies, I then peel the cookie off of the wax paper.)

Here are some photos from our advent activity:

Cutting the dough:

Freshly baked cookies:

Decorating time:

Our youngest daughter’s opinion: “Who needs decorations?!!!”

Our activity for the first day of advent was attending a Tree Lighting Ceremony in our city. The children got to enjoy free cookies and hot apple cider. We were surprised that there was a very nice concert inside the community center where we heard choirs from a women’s a capella group and a local high school group, and dance performances from both children and adults. The kids really enjoyed this evening’s outing.

Here is Andrew getting the activity slip from the stocking.

Matthew reading the slip.

Mommy (Emmie is on my back but you can’t see her) and the boys at the Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Calissa on Daddy’s back.

Emmaline wanting to eat her cookie instead of posing for the camera.

Women’s choir performing.

Children’s dance performance.

Recently I listened to the “Mothers and Sons” audio from Sovereign Grace Ministries, featuring Janis Shank and Charlotte Richardson. This was a very encouraging message to listen because I needed to hear these two older women’s advice. In a way they provided a glimpse of what is to come should the training of my sons remain faithful.

There were six themes to this talk:

Cherishing

Moms are encouraged to cherish their boys even through their rambunctiousness and boyishness. Our boys are boys, thus, they are not like us so we ought to resist the temptation to have them do things the way we want them to. We also need to allow room for noises, messes, competition, loudness, and roughness. In addition to this, moms need to cultivate affection in various forms for their boys. Our sons will have wives and they need to give affection that they have received from us.

Teaching

Even though moms are their boys’ primary teachers during the early years, there should be a transfer of training from moms to dads at some point. Teaching boys the gospel is of the utmost importance. What follows is the teaching on Biblical womanhood and manhood. Much of how our boys learn is through our personal examples, and this should encourage mothers to live godly and cross-centered lives as our boys are constantly watching and observing us.

Importance of Prioritizing Fathers

Mothers need to do everything they can to help build a father and son’s relationship. We also need to regularly ask our husbands how we can better train our boys in order to foster a healthy and better father-and-son relationship.

Communication

How mothers communicate with their sons should be motivated by kindness. One of the ways of communication is through encouragement. A good test of whether we’re finding ways to encourage them is to ask the question: “Is your son more aware of what you appreciate about him than what he needs to work on?”

In general, sons are not good communicators and moms should make it a point to learn how to draw them out beyond typical one-word-answers. We should also cultivate the skill of asking questions and listening to them whenever they are ready to talk.

Preparing

Mothers need to prepare their sons from boyhood to adulthood by teaching them what Biblical masculinity and femininity look like. Teach them what to look for in a wife as well as teaching them practical skills such as cooking, time management, clothing care, etc.

Releasing of Our Sons

The final part of raising sons is releasing them. They are to leave and cleave. Even though this process is hard on mothers, we are to release them so that they can cleave to their wives as mandated by God.

Personal Thoughts

I am at the very beginning of raising sons as my oldest is only 5.5 years old. It is good to be reminded that I need to allow my boys to simply be boys, even in all their boyishness. Stifling this very fiber of them is not conducive to relationship building. Many times I want them to behave the way I want them to behave, forgetting that I am not like them.

Even though I already know that how my boys learn about the gospel and the attractiveness of it largely depends on my personal example, I often forget to live it out. Sin gets in the way as well, which means I need to be even more vigilant in keeping my own heart as well as my boys’.

When it comes to encouraging my boys, the question “Is your son more aware of what you appreciate about him than what he needs to work on?” captured my attention. How easy it is to always want them to be better at this or work on this or that. Letting them know what they have done right or excellent should be more readily dispensed. It is not that I don’t encourage at all, rather, I tend to press the issue of what they need to work on more than what they have done right.

For the past several days I’ve been listening to Voddie Baucham’s sermons online. There’s something unique and fun about typical black preachers because they can take the ordinary and transform it to extraordinary with their words, tone, and attitude. It’s been a listening pleasure for the past several days. I don’t necessarily listen to Voddie’s sermons purely for the joy of black preaching, but I listen to them because his messages address the important issues of this culture in a Biblical fashion.

I just finished listening to his message The Centrality of the Home (note: Paul Schafer at Reforming My Mind compiled many online sermons from many wonderful pastors and preachers, which included Voddie Baucham’s messages). I came away encouraged and affirmed after listening to Voddie’s message on “The Centrality of the Home.” The main point of his message is that for the past 30 years churches have taken up the disciplining and teaching of the children instead of encouraging and training parents to teach their own children as laid out in Ephesians 6. He challenges people to think Biblically about the youth group culture and encourages parents to take up the task of disciplining their own children. Our Christian heritage is declining and parents need to value children as gifts from God and take up the main responsibility of shepherding them. We are to make disciples by having and teaching our children.

There is no doubt that I despair from time to time when the workload is great while caring for my four young ‘uns. It seems that we take the more difficult and less traveled road when it comes to our children. We chose to have more than the socially acceptable two children per family, we chose not to put our children in daycare, we chose to have one single income so that I could stay home with the children, we chose to homeschool, and we chose to have our children sit with us in church and not send them to children’s church. We don’t know too many families who do this, and at times we feel like a sore thumb and even feel a bit lonely or too different. Voddie’s message comes very timely for me because he affirms what we’re already doing. The constant training and disciplining at this stage of my children’s lives is very exhausting but it will bear fruit down the road. I will look forward to the day when I see the fruits of our labor, and in the meantime, I will not lose heart and I will press on.

We love the Christmas season. We already have our Christmas tree up and Christmas music playing in the background every day. This year I decided to make our Christmas season more fun for the children, and I came up with a decorative advent calendar. I made 25 mini stockings using Martha Stewart’s pattern and directions. Each of the stockings contains an advent activity that we will do for that day. From December 1 to 25 we will have an activity for each day. The activities we came up with are simple things like making Christmas cookies, play a board game, go out for dessert, go to a local Christmas train, visit Christmas in the Park, watch a movie, drink hot cocoa, etc. In addition to these fun activities, we will have our advent reading each night to learn about the coming of our Lord.

Mini stockings hanging over the mantel.

Close-up view of the stockings. I used fabric glue to write the numbers on the stockings.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we trekked out as a family on a shopping trip. Nope. . . not your regular Black Friday shopping. We went to the fabric store instead and each of the kids (just the oldest three) picked out their own fabric. The children had requested that I make them hats, but then it eventually got more complex as they requested scarves and booties along the way. I find it amusing that my children got so excited at the fabric store. Who would’ve thought? They loved picking out their own fabric and I loved making things for my children..

Here are the fabulous four with their matching hats, scarves, and booties.

Close-up view of their booties.

The children requested a pom-pom hat and I got the pattern from here. This hat is very easy and quick to make. All you need is measure your child’s head circumference and cut out two long strips as explained in the sewing instructions.

For the scarves I just cut out a long strip of fabric and make fringes on all the sides. You can make the scarf as wide and as long as you want. Try a piece of fabric around your child’s neck and see how long you want it.

The booties are the most complicated out of the three though they are not difficult. I got the pattern from Stardust Shoes which has an excellent tutorial in sewing these adorable shoes. These shoes are similar to the popular Robeez leather shoes. I made several modifications to the original pattern by using fleece instead of cloth, and using Jiffy grip (same material as the commercial PJ feet) instead of bonded leather. The original pattern is for size 0-6 months and I had to tweak the sizing for all my children. After some trial and error, I finally got them right.

To learn about the origin of Thanksgiving, my son and I read several books and made a lapbook. In order to make sure he understood what he read, I had him narrate the stories back to me. We are very thankful to Jimmie who created a website or a lens on how to put a Thanksgiving lapbook together. We got all of our Thanksgiving crafts from her site.

Here is Matthew holding his lapbook.

We kept the lapbook really simple this time. On the top is a mini book that reads “I am Thankful For. . . . ” To the right is a corn he made by gluing kernels onto a cardstock that’s shaped like a corn. The kernels are taken from the actual corn we picked from Ardenwood Farm we visited in October. The middle bottom contains a mini-book that tells a simplified story of the origin of Thanksgiving from the pilgrims arriving to America to celebrating the first Thanksgiving. To the left and right of the mini book are two pockets that contain an Indian and Pilgrims jigsaw puzzle.

This is a turkey pop-up book. I had my son write things that he’s thankful for on the turkey’s feathers.

Close-up view of the Thanksgiving mini-book and the puzzle.

Yesterday for our history lesson we learned about the Egyptian pharaohs, mummification, and pyramids. It was a rather intriguing lesson for a five year old. It included a detailed explanation of how a priest mummifies a body. Mummification is a very long and tedious process. In the case of the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops, each of the his organs such as the heart, liver, intestines, etc. were stored in individual jars with a picture of a Egyptian god for each organ. The Egyptians believed that these gods protect each specific organ. After the Pharaoh was entombed in the pyramid tomb, the Sphinx (lion body with a human head statue) acts as a watchdog to prevent thieves from entering the Pyramid.

While learning this particular lesson, I wondered for a bit my son’s thoughts on whether what the Egyptians believed was true or not. Just as I was pondering on this, my son told me, “Mommy, what the Egyptians believe in is not true because the Sphinx is a fake. He is suppose to protect the Pyramid but he’s not real so the thieves got in and stole all the treasures.” I was glad to know that my son picked up on this obvious point.

My husband has been taking the boys through the Westminster Shorter Catechism for the past six weeks, and just last week the boys learned question #5:

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

Since we had just learned about many gods of the Egyptians, I wanted to know whether my son could relate the history lesson with his ongoing catechism education. I asked him if there was more than one God, and after he answered that there was only one true God, I asked again whether what the Egyptians believed in was true. At this point, he knew the answer already. It was clear that since there is only one true God, no other gods exist and of course the Egyptians were wrong.

One of the joys of homeschooling is opportunities such as this in dialogging with my children about the things we learn and how they relate to the one true God. Too often, in our secularly-defined education system, academics are divorced from the knowledge of God. But as we teach our children at home, there are many opportunities to help our children absorb those academic subjects in the context of the most significant reality of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Every first Wednesday of the month the San Francisco Zoo has a free zoo day and so that was where I went with the kids on Wednesday. We met up with some friends and between our three families, we had 15 kids. The children had a great time looking at different animals and running around like wild boars. The latter is always a hit with my children.

Here are the kids looking at penguins. I was a bit surprised that penguins are very smelly. They smell very fishy (the penguins, not the kids).

Grizzly bears swimming in the water. My younger son was afraid that the grizzly bears would come and hurt him, but I reassured him that the strong glass barrier would protect him.

It was just magnificent to see the giraffe.

Even though we saw lot more different animals, the ONE thing that captured my children’s attention and delight was the train. They giggled and totally lost control of themselves when the train went by and puffed a lot of steam onto them. It was a blast! It’s funny that my children can enjoy watching the train go by without getting on it. What a simple pleasure, not to mention my fatter wallet for not having to spend $3/kid for the ride.

This morning we read Psalm 103 for our morning Bible time. When we came to the 8th verse where it says “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” I paused and explained the meaning to the children. I explained that God is full of mercy and love and that He is not quick to get angry. Most people are quick to get angry. . . . but before I could finish the rest of the sentence, my 5.5 yr old chimed in and said, “You mean, like you, mama?” I looked at him and said, “Yes, like me. I will do my best to learn to be slow to anger.” My son does not beat around the bush and calls it out as he sees it. Today was another humbling experience living and interacting with my children.

What my son said is true. In the midst of busyness in caring for four high-maintenance children, I have become prone to get angry easily. As much as I want to make excuses such as lack of sleep, fatigue, demanding kids, etc, I know when it comes down to it, they did not “make me” sin. Rather, they revealed the sin that was already in my heart. How I have acted was not pleasing to God. I knew I had to change.

Yesterday I listened to a sermon from pastor Dave Harvey titled “When Sinners Say I Do” (from which was derived a book of the same name). When he quoted Thomas Watson in saying, “Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet,” it caught my attention. As I struggle each day with anger and wonder how I can get rid of this anger problem, Watson’s quote comes very timely. It is only when we hate sin will we find Christ truly sweet. One important principle that I got from Dave Harvey’s message was that when we sin against our loved ones, the person who is most offended is God. We have primarily sinned against God and this is a great offense. When we have this proper perspective, we will be more likely to mortify our sins.

Our pastor has been teaching through the book of Ephesians, and this Sunday he preached from Ephesians 6:4a on how parents not to exasperate their children. I am a parent of four little ones and naturally this message is of particular interest to me. I think it is helpful that Pastor Cliff listed 17 common ways parents frustrate their children. I listened to each one introspectively to evaluate whether I was guilty of that particular behavior:

1. Favoritism
2. Neglect
3. Permissive parenting
4. Child-centered parenting
5. Legalism
6. Overprotection
7. Hyper-critical
8. Discouragement
9. Hypocrisy
10. Injustice
11. Wrong expectations
12. Unbiblical anger
13. Pride
14. False comparisons
15. Promise breaking
16. Public humiliation
17. Marital conflict

For detailed notes on this week’s sermon, you can open this pdf. If you wish to listen to this sermon, you can go here.

Pastor Cliff mentioned that in preparing for this sermon that after compiling his own list of ways parents can exasperate their children, he then asked his four children for ways he has frustrated them. It is extremely humbling to ask for one’s children’s opinion of how you’re doing as a parent. I decided that it’d be good for my soul to ask my oldest child (the younger three are too young to articulate) for his opinion of me as a mom. I was prepared for the worst, but I believe my son was kind in saying that he couldn’t think of anything that I do to frustrate him. Prior to soliciting for his input, I asked if he knew what Sunday’s sermon was about and he correctly answered, “Parents, do not exasperate your children.” He was listening after all!!! Even though he didn’t give me much feedback, I believe I need to strive to be a better mom to him. I think it is good for us parents to regularly ask our children how we are doing as parents and in what ways we are frustrating or exasperating them. It is very humbling, yet very sanctifying. This is what God would have us do.

Remember the contest we entered for Tim Challies’ Reformation Day Symposium? Our submission won!!! In Challies’ words:

Musings of the Dings - The strategy here worked—brownie points were awarded for including a five-year old in the symposium.

My husband said that Challies might be a bit biased because he also has little ones so he is quite sympathetic. Nevertheless, we are very excited, even more excited than our son.

One of the benefits of having kids is that you never lack interesting stories and funny sayings. There’s always something funny or interesting to chuckle about everyday. Life is never dull with children. Here are some examples from our home:

Alternative Medicine:

Mom: “My tummy hurts.”

3.5 yr old: “I’ll kiss your tummy mommy.”

Non Sequitur:

Mom: “Mommy is tired.”

2.5 yr old: “Do you want to pee, mama?”

Apologizing to oneself:

Mom to 3.5 yr old son: “Son, you need to apologize to your sister for hurting her. Now, repeat after me. I’m sorry for hurting you. Will you forgive me?”

Before the the guilty party can answer, the offended one (2.5 yr old) starts repeating the apology.

Finding a wife the easy way:

5.5 yr old: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a daddy.”

Dad: “Son, before you can be a daddy, we will pray that God gives you a wife to marry.”

5.5 yr old: “Why? I have Emmie and Calissa (his sisters). I can marry Calissa and Andrew can marry Emmie. I don’t want to marry someone else.”

When faced with trials or sin, I often hear people say, “This is the work of the devil.” Just recently I had this same thought as I headed out of the door to church with a not-so-happy disposition. I thought this must be the work of the devil because it seemed as though there were many Sundays like this. It was either unpleasant things said or something bad just happened as we hurried the children out of the door. Having a bad mood on the way to church was definitely unpleasant and not something we had in mind.

Even though I thought about attributing this Sunday morning’s foul mood to the work of Satan, I quickly remembered that with my sinful nature, I didn’t need Satan’s help in stirring up anger. I am well capable of that. No help needed in this arena. I am not denouncing the work of Satan as I believe the devil is quite prevalent in the world. What I’m denouncing is our quick tendency to blame others, e.g., Satan (or our spouse, or our children, etc.), instead of owning up to our own failure. When we sin, let’s be clear and admit that it is our fault. Yes, the devil can deceive and attribute to our failure, but it is only when we give him a foothold. When we admit our sin, God is faithful to forgive us if we repent and ask for forgiveness. Next time we’re tempted to blame others, check our own hearts and more than likely the person to blame is yours truly.

For our science experiment today, we made elephant’s toothpaste. We made the kid-friendly version using hydrogen peroxide (3%), yeast, food coloring, and dish soap. Even though we didn’t use the 6% hydrogen peroxide as suggested by the recipe, we were still able to create a reaction, but just a little bit slower. Nevertheless, the kids loved the overflowing bubbles.

Matthew getting ready to pour the yeast mixture (catalyst) into the hydrogen peroxide, food coloring, and dish soap mixture.

The reaction is now in motion and the boys are anxiously waiting for more bubbles.

More bubbles.

As usual, I have Matthew write a short page of what he had just learned in his science notebook, and this is what he wrote:

I learned that the yeast acts as a catalyst, which makes the hydrogen peroxide release oxygen faster.

The boys enjoyed the experiment so much that we did three different ones with blue, red, and green food coloring.