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Time goes by so quickly. I cannot believe how long it has been since I have visited my blog. I cannot believe all that has happened in the last months. This past summer was a very hard one for me. On May 28th (2 days before my birthday) my dad passed away from cancer of the esophagus after a very long fight with many types of cancer. 22 hours later on May 29th my grandma, my dad’s mom, passed away from a massive stroke she had on May 17th had left her paralyzed and non-responsive. These have been the hardest days of my life. I miss my grandma and my dad so much. But, God is always good. As time passes I am able to see the blessing that He always pours out on us. We had gone to Hospice to say our goodbyes to my grandma when my dad began to hemorrhage and had to be rushed to the ER. My dad passed away in the ER a few hours later surrounded by his family. We were all blessed because we where able to tell him how much we loved him before he went to be with Jesus. My dad was my grandma’s life. He was her first born and after him she 8 miscarriages due to rh- blood. God blessed my grandma – her stroke left her unaware of all that was transpiring with my dad and she wasn’t sad anymore to see him so sick. She often talked about her babies and how she was going to see them in heaven. I feel blessed to been have been the one who was with my grandma when she passed away. I was able to honor the promise I had made over and over again to my dad to take care of my grandma. I was blessed to be there when she went to heaven to be with my dad and her babies. I feel certain they are all now together in the presence of the Lord and no one is sad, hurting or afraid. There are some days when I feel overwhelmed by the sadness of what will be missed and the inability to share wonderful things and the opportunity to get advice. The holidays are coming – my dad and grandma’s favorites, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then their birthdays – November 21s and December 27th. Those will be hard days. But the greatest blessing we have the promise of God that we don’t grieve like those who have no hope because we know that one day we will be with them. And that will be a wonderful day. As we try to adjust to these overwhelming changes in our family we try to move forward with our lives. We have begun our 6th year of homeschooling and things have been going pretty well. Surprisingly we have kept up pretty well with our schedule. Emily and I have really enjoyed learning about God’s wonderful creation through Konos Orderliness and Apologia Biology. We see how awesome God is in the creation of even the simplest life forms and the orderliness of the solar system. On one of our biology adventures we had to go to a pond and collect water samples. We were to observe the area first by sight and sound. To our amazement from an area of the pond we couldn’t see came a beautiful swan. She hung around a while and came very close to us. Then she went back into the water and back to where she came from. No sooner had she left than suddenly we saw a large bird in the sky. It was a falcon and it came and landed on the tree right in front of us. Such beautiful things God has made for us to enjoy. God is always showing us His majesty. We just have to be watching for it. Amanda, our oldest daughter, graduated from Thomas More this past May, a double major in English and History. PTL my dad and grandma were both able to see her graduate. She is taking a year off before looking into grad schools and has just begun working at a local bank as a teller. Very much out of her field but a good stretch we think. Emily will be driving soon. May 2007. When did that happen I wonder!?!?! Should be an interesting spring. I guess this is enough ramblings for now. I will try to get some photos posted in a few days. Blessings to all, Tina "Every puzzles missing piece, every unsolved mystery, more than half of every whole - rests in the Hands that hold you for someday." Nichole Nordeman - Someday |
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Well once again it has been such a long time since I have been here to do any kind of update. School has started back again and as usual we ended the year off of where I was hoping we would be. I have decided that my focus needs to be moved from what my goals are to what God wants me to accomplish each day. So that has been my prayer. That I will learn to let go and let God lead our day. It isn't easy but I know it is the right thing to do.
I have finished Created To Be His Help Meet. Have any of you read it? I found it very challenging and eye opening. So now my question is how does one undo 25 years of wrong behavior? I guess it is done one day at a time maybe one hour or one event at a time. After reading this book I think I now have fuller understanding of why so many marriages fail. We - the people in the world - have left God's plan for how to live so far in the dust and we have replaced it with something totally opposite. So, for me, I am praying about how to undo what I have done and what my daughters have learned or been taught by watching me and everyone else. Any advice would be welcome.
So about school - we have finished up Latina Christiana and have moved onto Spanish. We are using the Spanish in 10 Minutes A Day program. Today we put stickers around the house: el telefono, la silla, el sofa!! We are having fun. It is very true, having spent a year with Latin we are finding Spanish quite easy to learn. We are moving big time into our study of the Civil War. Even though we are just getting started - we just finished up Ft. Sumter today - we have been able to see from our past studies on slavery, the Underground Railroad and the lead up to the war, how the country was heading toward war. We have had some great discussions. One question that is wondered about is what was the cause of the war. In our discussions we have decided that it was first about states rights and then about lifestyle - the North and the South were so very different (slavery and all that brought with it being what led to the lifestyle differences) and if the United States was going to stay united one lifestyle would have to prevail. We are able to see how God placed Abraham Lincoln in that time for the purpose of directing the United States through the Civil War. We have talked about how each side thought they were right, how once they were neighbors and part of one country and then the next day they were firing at each other. We also wondered how hard it must have been for most of the people to fight that war and we have wondered what life in America would be like if there had been a different outcome. We will keep looking at the battles but also spend some time taking a small area in our classroom and setting up camp, we will learn about being a soldier, the importance of the railroad and the many Civil War firsts. I was hoping to be finished with this unit by now - but really we are just getting started - I bet we won't finish until the end of the year. :) God will lead!
Well, I guess that is enough for now. Hopefully, I will get back here before many months pass by.
Live a life driven by purpose! Tina |
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It has been such a long time since I have posted anything here on my blog. So much has been going on that has kept me away. I decided I had better get with so now I would like to share a little bit about what we have been doing in our homeschool. We have been studying the usual subjects, math and science and we have really been learning alot. But, I think what we have been enjoying the most is our Unit Studies on Slavery and the Underground Railroad. We are looking forward to moving in to the Civil War in the next couple of weeks. I think what has made our Slavery and Underground Railroad studies so exciting has been the hands on field trips we have taken. The first field trip we did really relates more to our Civil War study but it was exciting just the same. We participated in an archeological dig at a local Civil War Museum here where we live. The museum is actually located on the site of a Civil War battery fortification in Ft. Wright Kentucky. The city and the local state college are responsible for the dig and they have opened up the opportunity to the community to help out. We were excited about the stuff the we found: square nails, human and animal bones, a button, broken glass dishes and china. Emily found the fortification foundation in our section of the dig. If you might interested in reading more about the dig and the battery fortification here is a site to check out. http://www.fortwright.com/index.asp?page=museum
The other field trip we did was to investigate the history of the Underground Railroad in our area. We live very close to the Ohio River which was a route for freedom seeking slaves. We started out in Kentucky and then traveled across the river into Ohio. We saw alot of really interesting sites some that were open to the public and others that were private residences. We also saw the location of a slave pen that is now located in the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati (the site of our next field trip). Also, in Kentucky we were able to visit the site where Harriet Beecher Stowe was inspired to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. I think the place that had the most impact on us was in Ripley Ohio. It was the home of abolishionist John Rankin. He was a Presbyterian minister and both his house and the church where he preached anti-slavery are still standing. The house was the house mentioned in Uncle Tom's Cabin - the beacon on the hill - called Liberty Hill - it sits way up on a hill up from the Ohio River. The house is alone on the hill and surrounded by trees. There were at one time 144 stairs leading from the river up the hill to the house. There are still steps leading down/up the hill from the house - the original ones have been replaced with new ones it is amazing the feeling you get when you go on those steps in those woods. The feeling is also in the house. We were able to see the secret places that were used to hide slaves under the front porch and in the attic. It gave us a feeling that is hard to explain. Emily has been intrigued by all that we have learned and she asked me the other day.......since we live in Kentucky did I think we would be slave owners or abolishionists. We hoped we would have been abolishionists. Another thing that Emily has really enjoyed doing is checking out the things on this website.... http://pathways.thinkport.org/flash_home.cfm She has enjoyed learning about the language of the Underground Railroad in words, music and quilts. This is in the secrets: signs and symbols section. She really enjoyed designing her own quilt square and finding out the route in Follow the Drinking Gourd. I think what impressed her the most though was the section called eyewitness to history where you are the slave and have to make choices.
So that is the update on the exciting things we have been learning about Slavery and the Underground Railroad. We are going to spend the next week learning about the people who a made a difference and then go to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Then we will begin studying the Civil War.
I will post some pictures of our dig and Underground Railroad field trips in a little bit.
This makes the 3rd time I have written this post only to have it disappear, the last time I don't know where it went, the first time it disappeaared when I tried to insert pictures so that is why I am posting them separately.
Have a great weekend. God bless you all! Tina |
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These were shared with me - I thought that they might help others as we continue to prayer for the victims of Katrina:
Healing and health for the injured.
L:ive a life driven by purpose! Tina |