Yesterday Angela and I were able to attend the Arlington homeschool bookfair and convention.  It was such a good day!  The ride over and the ride home, which is around two hours each way, seemed like 15 minutes to me, as we were able to fill the time with plenty of talking!    It was so much fun, as we don't get to do that as much as we used to when we attended the same church and care group, were neighbors, etc.   We even had a nice lunch together; what a treat!  Thanks, Angela!  Next year, I'll drive!    Oh, wait a minute, no I won't; I'm scared!  LOL

The classes we attended were on the subject of teaching children to write well.  I have found, in the freshman Englsh class I teach at co-op, that moms have a hard time teaching writing.  I have found this in my own home, too.  Even if mom herself is a good writer, it's not easy to translate that skill into teachable chunks of information for a student.  I found that WriteShop is a really usable looking curriculum; I think I will try to get this for my boys to use at home.  It teaches strong skills in increments.  Their website is www.writeshop.com if you'd like to read more about it.  I'm excited to try it out!

I also liked the looks of the Teaching Textbooks math curriculum.  I am SO not a math teacher, and this would do that job for me with minimal intervention.  I'm so thankful to have learned about this and that I got to see it in action yesterday.  That will make life with the Frazier boys much more pleasant next semester! 

Last night on the way home in my own car by myself, I put in a Chris Tomlin cd.  God and I had a great time together on that trip!  There is nothing like praise and worship music to make one's heart soar and spirit focus on the Lord's goodness and mercy and grace.  We are so blessed to know Him!  I am so thankful I'm not lost; what a tragedy it is not to know the Lord.  I pray daily for those I know who don't know Him.  Anyway, I highly recommend Chris Tomlin's music for anyone who hasn't heard it before.  It is pure and simple and worshipful.   Here is a list of his cd's:  http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntk=keywords&Ntt=Chris+Tomlin&action=Search&N=0&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1&Go.x=14&Go.y=6

Tomorrow is Mother's Day; my sweet mom is in Heaven with the Lord, having a celebration day every day!   She is so blessed!  My mother-in-law is actually hosting a family gathering at her house tomorrow for all of the kids and grandkids, but we're all doing the cooking.  Her son and his wife and four kids are coming up from Conroe for the day, which should be fun.  Lots of noise, lots of big talkers, and lots of food will be involved!  I hope everyone here has a lovely, blessed Mother's Day! 

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 

See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you.

Lift up your eyes and look about you;

all assemble and come to you;

your sons come from afar,

and your daughters are carried on the arm.

Then you will look and be radiant,

your heart will throb and swell with joy........

Isaiah 60:1,2,4, and 5

I love these verses!  I remember a song that begins "Arise, shine, for your light has come...."  and I always liked it; it was so joyful!  It reminds me of the sheer joy of knowing God, and the salvation He gives by sending Jesus, who is our light.  The Israelites didn't have Jesus yet, of course, but He is OUR light now.  So awesome.

The last line was such a perfect description of how I felt this morning when I was talking with my husband about Heaven.  We didn't get to go to church, sadly, as he and our oldest son worked so late last night, so he and I watched a local pastor on t.v. together.  He was discussing the thieves who were on the crosses near Jesus, and how the one rejected Him, while the other believed and accepted Him.  He went on to talk about "death bed conversions," and we talked about that when it was over. 

Anyway, just getting on the topic of Heaven, of being with Jesus forever, and how we'll be there in an instant when we breathe our last, always excites me.  It didn't used to.  I used to think, "Oh, no, I have so much to do; I want to be married/have children/work," and all those things a young woman thinks.  I have noticed that, while I'm not exactly a senior citizen at 40 years old, still I am older and I know Jesus better than I did back then.  The very thought of being with Him makes "my heart throb and swell with joy."  That really is how I felt this morning, listening to the pastor and imagining being there. There was a real inner excitement when I pondered it; I know it's the quickening of the Holy Spirit, who longs for Heaven within me. 

So, while I'm not suicidal or anything along those lines, I understand more what Paul meant when he said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain."  I knew what he meant intellectually, but now I know it as a reality for myself. 

We made it through the week with our ancient Greece study; it was really good!  The guys were into it, and that made my job a lot easier.     They liked all the things they read this week, and I went to Heidi's blog here to make use of some of the wonderful Greek unit study links she has there.  They read a lot of those and saw some neat pictures.  Several times this week I heard Jacob and Jared, the youngest two, discussing the good and the bad of Athens and Sparta.  Of course, they are interested in the battles and armor and chariots and so forth, mostly.  That's definitely a good study for boys. 

Today Jacob and Jared helped me clean house while Justin went to work with my dh, Tims.  We got a good bit done, and it really needed it.  It gets out of control so fast with three boys, two dogs, and a cat romping through it; that, plus a mom and dad with very poor organizational skills and too well-developed packrat skills!    I have a hard time with that, and then I get overwhelmed with the task, and I shut down.  Anyway, at least today we got a start on it!  I am thankful for that.

I am so excited to go to church tomorrow; our church has changed over the past two years, and it has been a good change.  The pastor we have now is so down to earth, communicates clearly and interestingly, and isn't afraid to speak the truth.  The worship leader is fairly new, and I love his style of leading worship.  He always includes a traditional hymn or two in with the praise and worship songs, and I love that.  I don't think we need to forget our heritage as a body of Christ; the old hymns teach sound doctrine and scripture, and I think that is so crucial.  He never lets it get stodgy, though; he keeps it upbeat and joyous.  He has breathed new life into our worship program, and I feel more free to worship because of it. 

I talked to my sister-in-law from Conroe today, and we discussed her oldest son's wedding, which is to take place on August 18.  I find it a little bit comical that this young bride has planned an outdoor wedding in August in Ft. Worth, Texas (likely to be 110 degrees!), at 2:30 in the afternoon, and she has the guys in black tuxedos and the bridesmaids in black dresses!  Can you imagine?  I think if I were 22 and inexperienced I would think that was a great idea, too!  But as a 40 year old I can only see the problems; groomsmen with knees buckling passing out on the platform, pretty little bridesmaids with sweat stains on their lovely black dresses, etc.  I am seriously considering going full on Kentucky Derby and wearing one of those big, fancy hats to keep the sun off of me!  Do you think that would be inappropriate at a wedding?    I feel sorry for the young lady, because this is her special day and I want it to go so well for her, and I truly hope it does.  She has heard the warnings from elders in the family, and has not heeded them, so we'll all just make the best of it and enjoy it.  I'm just going to wear the thinnest still-decent cotton dress I can find!  

This morning I arose to find my sons, already awake, reading all about Greek history in various books.  I was shocked and happy.  Before we started using Sonlight world history and were in textbooks only, I would have to practically use a cattle prod to get them going in the morning!  I seldom, if ever, would see one of them already doing math, for example, or reading from their history text, before I ordered them to, cattle prod in hand.    This was a great sight for me, a lover of books, to behold.  They are currently reading Hittite Warrior,  A Child's History of the World, Story of the World, Usborne's Encyclopedia of World History,  and I'm reading orally to them The Trojan War.  For our Bible study, we are using The International Children's Bible Handbook.  We are concurrently reading I and II Chronicles and memorizing (one hopes) I Corinthians 13.  I am ashamed to say that they have never memorized much scripture; not passages, anyway, just short verses.  That was my lack of effort, not theirs.  So this will be a new and interesting undertaking for our family.  Could it be that after eight years of homeschooling I have finally found the right path? 

We just finished our academic year in our co-op, Cottage Garden.  We meet weekly on Mondays at a local church, and have grown to include about 46 families.  We have been involved in the co-op for six years, I think.  It is such a blessing, and I encourage anyone who has access to one to try it out.  The boys are involved in four classes each, such as Apologia botany (my younger two), and Apologia general science for my oldest; they are also in taekwondo, literature/poetry, and geometry, among other things.

  I have been teaching Easy Grammar 5/6 to a small group in the co-op, and freshman English to six teenagers.  I have so enjoyed that particular class!  We have used Rules of the Game 2 and 3 for grammar, Vocabu-Lit I, Jensen's Format Writing, and a study of Shakespeare for literature.  We studied Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.   For the first three I used Progeny Press guides, and for MSND I made my own study sheets.  What a joy that was for me, as I delight in teaching English!  It reaffirmed in my mind that I will likely return to teaching school when the boys are older, unless God leads me otherwise. 

I think financially it would be a wise thing to do, to provide our family with insurance and to provide my husband and me with a retirement savings and income.  He is currently an independent contractor, so there is no insurance for us at the moment.  If we can hang in a few more years, I hope to help with that.  There are hurdles to clear if I am to do that, of course; THEA testing, admission to a program to get my certification, taking classes to rememdy any of their requirements they don't feel I sufficiently met at UWF, etc.  Then, of course, I have to take the TExES certification test and then, most importantly, find a job!  I'm not worried about that now, of course, as it isn't time to do that yet; it's just something to think about.  God will direct my steps in this, or either He'll lead me away from it to His actual plan for me!

My oldest son is teaching my youngest son how to make his "famous" peanut butter cookies.  He is only grumbling a little, as he has a good bit of patience with Jared.  He also really likes to eat, so he's looking forward to that part of it, too.  This day is going well so far!  God is good. 

I love the idea of a blog devoted to homeschooling my boys.  I have had many adventures, and misadventures, with them through the eight years I have been teaching them!  This is a good, central place for me to put some thoughts down on the subject.  I thank my dear, sweet friend Angela for revealing this place to me.

My sons' ages are 14, 12, and almost 11.  God led me to homeschool them in 1998, just after we moved to Texas from Florida.  He kept putting people in my path who were homeschooling, or were planning to in the future.  More about all that at some future date.  For today, I am satisfied that we are doing some good things in our homeschool.  I feel like we are "getting there."  I don't know if I'll ever feel like we "got there," even when they're all grown and gone.  There is so much to learn and accomplish in educating a child! 

We are currently using Sonlight One Year World History, Horizons math, BJU geometry, Easy Grammar, Building Spelling Skills, and some other odds and ends.  I am looking forward to adding some new things in the coming months.

God is good!  He has always been faithful to us, even when we have been unfaithful.  I can't  wait to watch Him continue to work in our school and home as we work through the middle- and high school years!