Coram Deo

Evil Looms

Let's see if the system works....

My mother is taking me to court.

She had left her landlord/roomate's house. They were lovers at one point but for many years they have had seperate bedrooms and were basically just roomates. He was around through my childhood and was like my dad.

She left and then stole his things- multiple times. And why she would stop by and take things that she then tried to give away, I don't know. Why everything was suddenly hers, I don't know that either.

I DO know that somehow I got stuck as mediator. Probably because she tried to get me to lie and say the neighbor stole part of his belongings. Or when she tried to get me to spy on him... and I wouldn't do it. That kind of got me involved to.

Long story short- I took his stuff back more than once. I never did get it all back. One of the things I took back she is really mad about. It is an old civil war letter. It was only appraised at $125 or $150 but they think it might be worth more than that.

So she is taking me to court for theft. Even though she KNEW she needed to give his stuff back. And even though she had given me permission to be in her home to get his things back. The day I took his letter back (it would of been considered his) I was using her computer. The letter was beside the computer so I took it back. How simple is that???

Now I go to court on the 3rd at 2:30. I am not being charged for everything. Just the letter. This is so pathetic. It is slowing down our trip down south. Oh wells. Let's just hope the magistrate is level headed. :)  

And to make it worse, she and my brother can break into my home while I am gone on vacation and the police can't do anything because they don't have forensics. And they can break into our other house, that used to be her lover/landlord/roomates because the house deed wasn't in our name yet. It doesn't matter if WE were the ones that paid all the years of back taxes on it. Whatever.

Windmills

Rick has learned to build windmills for green energy!

Now he is considering having his cousin build him a website to make that his business. I think that is very neat! His cousin and his wife are inspiring because they are both self employeed and doing well in Pittsburgh, Pa. If they can do it then we can too, right? She is the photographer who took really nice photos of our girls and Gabe when he was born.

Since he is getting laid off on the 25th of November he figured that starting a business would be a good idea. The question is what to do. He can build just about anything and is especially good with a welder. Do should he build things for jeeps??? Green power seems to be a good business to get into too.... we will see. God will show us what to do.

Things That Have Changed

Things that have changed since I was on here blogging...

1. We got milking goats and they had kids.
2. We got chickens, guineas, ducks and hatched and sold them. Rick made a giant incubator that holds about 500 eggs.
3. We are selling our house and moving into a place that is dumpy and needs everything really replaced. From the floor to the wiring to the walls to the plumbing....
4. Rick is getting laid off from his job at GE with about 200 other people. (well, about 150 layoffs and 50 early retirements)
5. Since Rick is getting laid off we are planning on going back south for the winter. Maybe we will go a little further south this time for a few weeks. There are clear waters and pyramids in the southern part of Mexico along the eastern coast. The Caribbean coast.
6. We are selling a bunch of our animals so we can go south and housing out the rest of them with friends.
7. Savannah, the oldest child, just became our first teenager.
8. Rick is building a windmill. It is almost done. I will blog it when it is complete. The outside is fully done but he still needs the guts and batteries. It is SO cool.
9. We should be able to take the windmill with us in our VW camper van to Mexico. Then we can camp with electricity! Oh, and the point of changing to #9 is that we are getting the VW camper van finally done and painted. (we better get it done while we still have $!)
10. Uuuummmmmm..... I know there is more but I can't think of them right now.

Fall 2009 Family Photos

We are back blogging I think....

To see the individual photos up close just scroll your mouse over the screen.

My Jesus, I Love Thee

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Catching Up on Our Homeschooling This Year

I have seen the future of schooling, and it is us.

Let me explain. My oldest daughter, who's 14, is supposed to be going into grade 9. Our province allows students who wish to take their courses online, through one of the school boards. So we decided to have her do Math and Science online, while I continue to teach her English, History, Social Studies, etc.

Last year she took French and Science, and she quite enjoyed it. This year she's doing grade 10 Science and grade 11 Math. She could have done grade 11 Math last year, but there was no room in the class. My younger daughter, who is 12, is ready for grade 11 Math next year, but I'm going to let her wait a year before she takes it online. But teaching them at home just let them whiz through most of Saxon Math's program, and we've loved it. They're so far ahead.

So even though I love homeschooling, I'm letting my daughter do some public school courses (although they still are online). Why? It's simple, really. If she has six grade 12 credits from an acredited school, then getting into university is no problem. We don't have to jump through hoops. And I've decided that this just sounds easier, and I want to make it easy for her.

Besides, I'm still teaching her the important stuff!

We calculated it out, and she'll be finished her grade 12 credits when she's 16. And then she has a year and a half to work full time, or write a novel, or travel, or do missions trips before university.

But as we've been watching this whole process unfold, it has occurred to me that this must be the future of schooling. Think about it: it's much easier to teach online. Sure, you still need a teacher to mark the papers, but there's no physical building. You don't need gym equipment. You don't need a library. You don't need to hire a janitor, or a secretary. It's a lot cheaper.

And then the kids aren't exposed to all the crap they get in high school. Why wouldn't more parents have their kids do it this way? And as governments face more budget cuts, you can bet they'll start to look at more online alternatives.

Of course there are Christian online options for high school, but here in Canada most of them aren't acredited, so we went with something that absolutely was. But it just makes so much more sense. Rebecca has two Science classes a week, of about an hour and a bit each. She submits one assignment a week. And they cover the entire course curriculum. In a regular classroom you'd do 400 minutes a week, instead of their 180. You just get rid of all the wasted time. So the kids have more time for their real life.

Why wouldn't this catch on? Personally, I'm still having fun teaching History and English. We're using Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum with both she and her sister this year, although I've added some books for her to read. Over the course of the year both girls will read approximately 27 books. Next year she's doing Sonlight's Survey of British Literature, which also has 27 books. That's serious learning and serious reading. In public school English (including online), they read 4. How is that education?

I'm thrilled that I can find the best education that works for my girls, and for our family. We're taking a month long missions trip to Kenya this year, and we don't have to worry about missing school in the middle of it.

I really think more and more people are going to clue in to how much time is wasted in school, how poor an education it is, and how much better your life can be with real educational alternatives. So let's not shirk when people ask why we homeschool. Let's be proud! We, after all, are the future.

One, Two, Three, Four...

School Rules