Nov. 15, 2009

Wesley Movie

Tomorrow is my birthday. I mention it for a couple of reasons. First, I'm not planning on celebrating any more birthdays after this one. Second, last night I actually got to go out on a date. This is unfortunately not a frequent occurrence in our house. After a nice dinner and a little bit of window shopping, we headed downtown for a movie premiere! Yes, you read that right. I don't live in California but I went to a movie premier last night. Wesley is the story of John Wesley's early ministry. It was filmed here using a lot of local actors (hence the location of the premiere). The lead was played by Burgess Jenkins, who happens to be a friend of my husband. (Well actually my husband is better friends with his older brother, but why quibble?) I confess, I was a bit skeptical about how good this independent, low-budget film could turn out. I was pleasantly surprised. The script was good, the story interesting, and the acting, while not Oscar-winning, was WAY above what I've seen in many of the Christian films. (I'm not trying to be cruel, but I've found some of them painful to watch.) And most exciting was the message that the film conveyed. John Wesley was an Anglican priest who had no understanding of the gospel. He was working hard to earn his salvation, but he had no assurance of his own salvation. It was a failed missionary journey to Georgia, meeting with the Moravians, and other influences that led him to true faith in Christ and an understanding that justification is by faith in Christ, not our works. After seeing the movie, I am very interested in learning more about John Wesley's life and ministry. I know that I will have disagreements with some of his theology, but I think that there may be fewer than I previously thought. I'll try to mention any good resources for studying John and Charles Wesley that I discover.

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Nov. 13, 2009

I've got a plan!

I've been feeling kind of blah this year. I've tried not to complain here too much for a couple of reasons. First, I strive to not complain in general (though fail miserably) and second, who wants to read a bunch of whiny "I'm depressed" posts. This school year has been tough. We aren't accomplishing everything that I want to or think that we need to. I don't really have a plan for fixing that exactly. But I do have a plan to cheer myself up. Next week we're taking 2 days off of school so I can paint my living room! Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but I haven't been this excited about anything for quite a while. I bought the paint at the end of the summer but ran out of time before starting school. I had resigned myself to waiting for spring, but thanks to Heidi, I realized that I could do it now, before Thanksgiving. She's a whole lot busier than I am and she's painting. So I decided to go for it. I'm looking forward to a freshly painted living room to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus the extra school break will do me good.

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Nov. 8, 2009

Thankfulness

I participated in this challenge last year and found the extra encouragement to meditate on thankfulness a blessing. So, even though I'm starting late, I'm going to participate this year too. God's grace and mercy extended to me Christ's atoning blood The sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit God's sovereignty My husband My children My church A Christian heritage After today, I'll be adding my thankful list to my sidebar. On a related note, I have updated my How to Have Thankful Children page on squidoo. I added a couple of new activities I have found. If you have any links to suggest, I'd be happy to add them. (Note: I'm not looking for Thanksgiving holiday activities, just those that focus on thankfulness.)

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Nov. 3, 2009

Running Behind

I can't believe it's already November. I feel like I have never quite gotten into the swing of things this school year. My plan of "ramping up" to add all of our subjects hasn't exactly worked. We didn't get enough momentum to make it to the top of the ramp and apparently slid right back down to the bottom. Don't get me wrong. We're getting the basics done. That seems to be what I'm good at. I can schedule the morning independent seat work. It's just the afternoon fun stuff that doesn't get done. So, I'm behind. A big part of the problem is that I am simply trying to do too much.I know I can't keep up with everything. It's funny how widely varied my responses can be to stress. Sometimes I get depressed and shrink from the work that is calling me. I think I am scared that I won't be able to do it even if I try, so if I don't try, then I haven't really failed. Silly logic, I know. Other times when I'm stressed I get highly motivated. Usually it's not to do the most important things, but I get really encouraged and excited about accomplishing small things that I've been neglecting. That's where I am right now. I had a huge pile of reading on my nightstand. There were books that I had been putting off for a long time. Some were for reviews, some were just ones that I wanted to read, but was having a tough time getting though. I have been working through the pile and I'm down to 5 books. For some crazy reason that is encouraging to me. I am also ending the day without any unfinished laundry. (I'm not talking about dirty clothes in the baskets, though that's under control.) I frequently go to bed with a load of clothes still in the dryer. Sometimes I've got one in the washer too. I just feel so much better without half-done laundry hanging over me. (not literally, that would be really strange.) I also organized my daughters' dresser drawers today and then my organizing mood carried over to my own room so I cleaned out one of our chests. Not exactly stuff that was on my urgent to-do list, but I feel amazingly relaxed. So, with all that said, I'm going to go to bed with a good book.

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Oct. 28, 2009

Sore Throat Tip

You know that feeling like you're just starting to get a sore throat? You're not certain that you're getting sick, but it seems really pretty likely. I found something several years ago that usually heals my throat when I do it early enough. I have to warn you though. It tastes pretty gross. I gargle hydrogen peroxide. I take about a capful of the standard strength hydrogen peroxide in the brown bottle and pour it into a little bathroom cup. I add about the same amount of water to the cup. Then I gargle that. Sometimes, if I'm not too disgusted, I even do it again. You don't really taste it while you're gargling, it's the after taste that's pretty bad. But I really don't like getting sick and I've found that gargling with hydrogen peroxide Works for Me!

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Oct. 21, 2009

Creative Dusting Tool

I should mention that I really don't like to dust. It's one of the chores that I try to assign to my kids. My bedroom furniture is particularly difficult because it has grooves that are hard to get to. Here's a picture of the cabinet on the front of the chest after not dusting it for months, weeks, a few days. I intentionally didn't dust for the experimental purposes. (I'm not a very good liar.) (I really can't believe what I will take pictures of!) This is after dusting it with a dust cloth. And here is the final product after using the canned air. There is still some dust in the corner, but overall a great improvement. And it's quick and easy too. I'm certainly not going crazy dusting with the canned air every day, but when I actually do dust, I've finally found a way that Works for Me!

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Oct. 16, 2009

Startling Revelation

I wrote this several weeks ago, but didn't post it because I wanted to read it when I wasn't in the midst of the hard time. I've reread it now and decided it's worth sharing. I've had a revelation. Homeschooling is hard. I'm not sure why that is so startling to me. I've been doing this for 6 years now. I know it has been hard. It's just that I've had in the back of my mind that it's not supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be wonderful with happy, smiling children who are excited about learning EVERYTHING and cheerfully do all their work ALL the time. So, since that hasn't been my experience, I've sought to fix the problem. That's what I do. I want to solve problems. I'm very pragmatic by nature. If something isn't working, then I'll do whatever is necessary to fix it. So when my son doesn't want to write everything down on his assignment I'll let him do it orally. He's still learning right? When he doesn't want to drill math facts or Latin declensions that's fine because he really does know them. Why should we make homeschooling not fun? Well guess what.  Sometimes work isn't fun. Training for a race isn't fun. (Neither is racing either for that matter.) We have to work to achieve our goals. If something doesn't immediately solve a problem, that doesn't mean that it's the wrong answer. So when my children don't want to have to work, why am I surprised? Why do I expect them to just do something when it's hard for them when I often fail at it myself? It takes continued effort when something is hard to see the benefit. Remembering the benefits can be helpful when things get hard again. There are going to be times when homeschooling is hard. When that happens I don't need to try to make it better. I need to persevere. I need to teach my children to keep working when something is hard. My evaluations need to be made when I'm not in the midst of a hard time. Too often I have given up on good things because I didn't try hard enough.  Hopefully every minute of every day isn't going to be hard. But there may be some days when it seems to be. There may be seasons where homeschooling is mostly hard. During those seasons, I need to make all efforts to look for positive things and to focus on our goals. I must continually give our homeschool over to the Lord. I pray that we will emerge from the difficult seasons much stronger.

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Oct. 6, 2009

Day at the Fair

We took a day off from school yesterday and spent the day at the fair. We rode a lot of rides. Little one liked this one. This one not so much. I got her off before it started. (After I took a picture.) We checked on our entries and we were very proud to find... A blue ribbon for son's photo manipulation and a blue ribbon for my daughter's weaving project.

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Oct. 3, 2009

Educational Opportunites at the Fair

We dropped off this year's fair entries on Wednesday. It made for a very busy couple of days because, well, I'm not really good at helping my kids work towards deadlines. That and my daughter was baking two items and those HAD to be done on Wednesday morning. I never entered anything at the fair as a child, as a matter of fact I don't even remember GOING to the fair as a child, so I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of the competition. What I've just realized is that the fair is a full of educational opportunities that I've largely overlooked. And I don't mean while you're at the fair, though those exist as well. I'm talking about using the fair entry book as a guide for projects during the year. Obviously, not all fairs are equal, but ours is HUGE and has a large number of different competitions. Some of the obvious ones are art (divided into every imaginable category), craft, home economic, and agricultural contests. But there is also poetry, essay writing, LEGO construction, robotics, and displays of collections. I can see great benefits of linking our school projects with fair entry categories. It will encourage my children to do their best work, and it will encourage them to actually FINISH their projects. It will also provide us with the opportunity to learn new skills. I'm excited about the possibilities! Here are this year's entries. I hope to have more entries next year and think it is possible if we don't wait until the last minute! This is my 11 year old son's entry. It is a digital photo manipulation. He used the top three pictures to make the final picture on the bottom of the poster. My 9 year old daughter's entries: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins Molasses Crinkles Some paper flowers of her own design. Weaving done on her lap loom. My 7 year old son's entry:

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Oct. 1, 2009

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

2-1/2 cups flour (can use half whole wheat) 2 cups sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ginger 1/4 tsp cloves 1/4 tsp nutmeg 2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 4 eggs 1 can pumpkin (We used 2 cups) 1 cup melted butter 12 oz chocolate chips (2 cups) Preheat over to 350. Mix dry ingredients together. Beat eggs in large bowl. Mix in melted butter and pumpkin. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin pan, bake 20-25 minutes. Makes about 24 muffins.

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Sep. 27, 2009

Sabbath Hymn

We've finally started doing something in our home that I've wanted to try for a long time. (I was originally inspired by Molly at Counter Cultural Mom.)We're going to work on learning one hymn per week. I'm printing out a copy of the words for the kids' memory notebooks. (Which are getting SLOWLY put together.) We sing it together during our family worship. I am certainly getting a lot of piano accompaniment practice. For our first hymn we chose one that is not very well known, but it is one we sing fairly frequently at church. It is filled with thankfulness for God's grace and Christ's sacrifice. No Not Despairingly by Horatius Bonar No, not despairingly come I to Thee; No, not distrustingly bend I the knee: Sin hath gone over me, yet is this still my plea, Jesus hath died. Ah! mine iniquity crimson hath been, Infinite, infinite—sin upon sin: Sin of not loving Thee, sin of not trusting Thee— Infinite sin. Lord, I confess to Thee sadly my sin; All I am tell I Thee, all I have been: Purge Thou my sin away, wash Thou my soul this day; Lord, make me clean. Faithful and just art Thou, forgiving all; Loving and kind art Thou when poor ones call: Lord, let the cleansing blood, blood of the Lamb of God, Pass o’er my soul. Then all is peace and light this soul within; Thus shall I walk with Thee, the loved Unseen; Leaning on Thee, my God, guided along the road, Nothing between.

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Aug. 30, 2009

From Whence This Fear and Unbelief?

by Augustus M. Toplady From whence this fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief His spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men Condemn me for that debt of sin Which, Lord, was charged on Thee? Complete atonement Thou hast made, And to the utmost Thou hast paid Whate'er Thy people owed How then can wrath on me take place, If sheltered in Thy righteousness And sprinkled with Thy blood? If thou hast my discharge procured, And freely in my room endured The whole of wrath divine. Payment God cannot twice demand First at my bleeding Surety's hand And then again at mine. Turn then, my soul, unto thy rest! The merits of thy great High Priest Have bought thy liberty. Trust in His efficacious blood Nor fear thy banishment from God Since Jesus died for thee. I find it helpful to meditate on hymns such as these. What  marvelous truth it contains. Christ's blood made our atonement. It is in His merit I put my faith and not on my own.

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Aug. 25, 2009

Our Homeschool Days

For the fourth week of the "Not Back to School" Blog Hop, we're supposed to share about a typical day of school in our homes. We started our school year yesterday, and I'm purposely starting slowly. To be honest, when we started school yesterday, it seemed as if not a day had passed since we finished up in the summer. I don't mean that in a good way. All the little annoyances and problems didn't magically disappear over the summer. Sixth grade son still interrupts me constantly and has no concept of the distraction that he is causing by asking me questions willy-nilly. Fourth grade daughter still breaks into tears when her brothers' interruptions break her concentration for the hundredth time. Second grade son still can't focus on anything for more than a few seconds. I have to stay right on him, but then he gets annoyed and frustrated at my interference. Almost three year old can't find anything quiet to amuse herself while I'm teaching the others. She can play quietly any other time, but there's something about my busyness that makes her need to be with me and talk...or yell. I honestly am at a loss as to what adjustments I need to make to help with these problems. I can make beautiful schedules on paper, but somehow things just won't happen the way they're supposed to. (I know it's only the second day. Things will get better, etc. but this is not the newness. This is our pattern.) Part of me thinks that I need to let go of some of my ideals with how school should be done. One of the things I'm thinking about changing is our beginning. I want us to start our day TOGETHER with a short devotion and time of prayer. The problem with that is I've got 2 dawdlers who aren't ready to start, while my daughter is ready. She winds up doing nothing until mid-morning when she could reasonably be done with her seat work by then. Part of me says, yes, the starting together is important, you just need to keep pressing toward the goal, and not give up and they'll get it. Then the other part of me is asking why? Maybe things would work better if I allowed for the staggered start. We could have our devotion time at lunch when we are all together. Beginning the day in prayer points to our reliance on God, but if I'm frazzled and frustrated every morning when it's time for prayer, then what I'm teaching them? You may wonder why I'm posting this. (Actually, I am wondering that too.) I'm going to post in the hope that it will provide encouragement to someone else. Even though this is our seventh year of homeschooling, we do not have everything figured out. We grow, we change, we make necessary adjustments. I will spend time in prayer over this, and many of the underlying issues with the children. I will seek my husband's opinion about our schedule. I will press on. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:13-14

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Aug. 23, 2009

First Day of School

We're starting our school year tomorrow! I don't recall ever feeling quite so unready. I don't know why I haven't been able to get into planning mode this summer, but I didn't do nearly as much as usual. I have worked out a daily schedule, but since we're not starting with all our subjects this week, I won't need to use it. My two oldest are starting on math, English, and Latin tomorrow. My second grader will do math, handwriting, phonics, and reading (which is about his full load of seat work anyway) so we'll see how that goes. I have a couple of products that I'm reviewing that we will be finishing up with or starting this week as well. Of course, you'll be hearing what I think about them later!

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Aug. 21, 2009

Girly Do

This post is definitely a little different from the typical here, but I had to share. Thanks to Kimberly @ Raising Olives, I discovered a really neat blog called Girly Do's By Jenn. We've been pretty limited with our girls' hairstyles in this house. We have the basic ponytail, the partial ponytail and the occasional french braid. I didn't really do anything special to my daughter's hair when she was little because it was thin and slippery. Now it's thickening up and is not nearly so difficult to work with. Today I saw a style that looked really doable on Girly Do's called Elegant prom hair style, so I decided to give it a try. (I know, it certainly doesn't sound easy.) I thought it turned out cute. (If you ignore the few little flyaways and the slightly lumpy hair.)

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Aug. 19, 2009

Sharing e-mail on multiple computers

I've had my laptop for a few months now. For the previous 9 years we had only 1 internet connected computer in the house. I had developed a reasonable system of organizing our computer files and e-mails on 1 computer, but the addition of the laptop has been confusing to me. Where should I store the files? How do I sync the 2 machines? One of the biggest sources of contention has been e-mail. My husband and I have a shared e-mail account that is our main account. In addition I have a g-mail account that I've used mainly for signing up on webpages and other internet related things. (My Facebook and Twitter accounts are connected there for example.) I wanted to be able to read our personal e-mail on our laptop so first I tried reading it on-line. Big yuck! Then I started using Outlook on my laptop. However, my husband felt out of the loop since he wasn't seeing the e-mail. Just last week I found what I think is the solution to our problem. First, I moved all my homeschool e-mail groups to the g-mail account. Then I set up the g-mail account to retrieve the mail from our joint e-mail LEAVING the e-mail on the server. (In g-mail, click settings, then the accounts and import tab, finally add POP3 e-mail account.) Then, I set up Outlook on my laptop to retrieve from the g-mail account instead of our joint account. This way I can read all the e-mail, both mine and our shared account, on my laptop, AND my husband can come home, open Outlook on the desktop computer and retrieve all the e-mail from our shared account. Now he doesn't feel like he's missing e-mail and I don't have to share my laptop. It is definitely working for me!

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Aug. 16, 2009

What Various Hindrances We Meet by William Cowper

Periodically, I like to share some of my favorite hymns. We sung this hymn at our evening worship service, and it was a blessed reminder to me about the importance of prayer. The fifth and sixth verses are especially convicting to me. What various hindrances we meet In coming to a mercy seat; Yet who that knows the worth of prayer, But wishes to be often there. Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw, Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw; Gives exercise to faith and love, Brings every blessing from above. Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer makes the Christian’s armor bright; And Satan trembles, when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees. While Moses stood with arms spread wide, Success was found on Israel’s side; But when through weariness they failed, That moment Amalek prevailed. Have you no words? Ah, think again, Words flow apace when you complain; And fill your fellow creature’s ear With the sad tale of all your care. Were half the breath thus vainly spent, To Heav’n in supplication sent; Your cheerful song would oft’ner be, “Hear what the Lord has done for me.”

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Jul. 27, 2009

At the Beach

This is my first ever entry into the iHeartFaces contest. This week's theme is "at the beach".

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Jul. 27, 2009

Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island

I've lived in North Carolina for most of my life, but it wasn't until 3 years ago that I first went to the Outer Banks. While there, we visited 3 lighthouses: Currituck, Bodie Island, and Cape Hatteras. I did not climb Cape Hatteras Lighthouse then because a) my 4 year old did not meet the height requirement, b) It was 95 degrees, and c) I was 7 months pregnant. Last week we went back to the Outer Banks for a vacation and a family reunion. This time I did get to climb the Cape Hatteras lighthouse along with my 7, 9, and 11 year old children. Daddy stayed on the ground with the 2-1/2 year old. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in North America. Its total height is 210 feet. There is a magnificent view from the top. My 3 climbers made it up the 268 steps. This view shows the ocean as well as the path on which the lighthouse was moved in 1999 in order to save it from erosion. Walking DOWN the steps was scarier than climbing up. We also went to Ocracoke Island for the first time. Ocracoke is only accessible by ferry. This is one of the ferries that runs between Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. The ferry ride alone lasted 40 minutes each way, so we had a day-long adventure. Here's the lighthouse on Ocracoke. It's not open for climbing, but is still nice to visit.

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Jul. 25, 2009

Home from Vacation

I am home from a marvelous week of vacation in the Outer Banks. Sorry for going missing, but it didn't seem like a good idea to announce my vacation ahead of time. It would be really great if Homeschool Blogger added the ability to schedule posts that would post automatically. Of course it's not very likely that I would get 7 posts prepared ahead of time to post while I was gone anyway. Be sure to check back for vacation pictures and vacation tips.

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