From the Heart:

The next six months seem to hold a lot of unknown for our family.  There will be no discipleship training school this year like we usually have in January.  A couple of our good friends are moving overseas in the next couple of months.  It seems like it will be a lonely isolated time.  I know God can make good of it.  We do have some things in our minds and hearts to do, but we want God to be in control, and so we eagerly await His direction and confirmation

On Monday evening we went into town and helped a missionary family with Frontier Ministries pray through the home they just purchased.  The Lord gave them a surprise package last year when their son was born.  They found out he has down's syndrome.  Right now they are working stateside, but they hope to go back to Afghanistan in the next year or two.

Last Saturday night, dh and I went out to a movie.  We hadn't had a date in a LONG time.  We wanted to see Blindside, but it sold out while we were in line.  We saw 2012 instead.  It was nice to be able to talk in the truck and have a special time together.

In the School Room:

We had a nice full week this week.  It was good to get a lot done.  We are enjoying our readers and read-alouds, and I am learning along with them in science.  Right now we are reading "The Terrible Wave" about the Johnstown disaster of a dam breaking in 1889.  Amazing story. 

I think Little Critter may end up not needing a kindergarten year.  He enjoys so much learning along side his sister!

On the Mission Field:

We prayed the team of 8 off to New Mexico this morning.  I am excited for them, and for what God is going to do in them and through them.  They will be working with the Navajos until early January, then heading to northern India.

In the Literary Scene:

I finally finished reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.  I'm also reading a book called, "Funding Your Ministry".  It seems like a great resource to teach us how to raise our missionary support in a godly, biblical way.  Soon Tim and I will be reading this together.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

Thanksgiving was good. We went to my Aunt Jans to have turkey. Then all we had for supper was frozen pizza and chinese food. Not much has happened since then. last night swimming almost killed me. we had to do 3 200's sprinting (a 200 is eight laps) then 4 100's (a 100 is 4 laps). Ah well, it's still cool. Then tomorrow me and RaeAnne are gonna have a sleepover!

From the Heart:

Thanksgiving came and went.  It was a good change of pace, but frankly all the free-time is leaving me a bit stir-crazy.  I am a task-oriented person.  I like to be with people, but if there isn't meaningful conversation happening or games or something, I kinda want to find some somewhere.  I've found myself alone with the kids for a lot of the past 3 days (as usual), except when we were actually celebrating Thankgiving, and not having a schedule of, you got it, tasks, we've all been a bit off of our norm.

Snow Crystal roped some of the staff and students into playing Life. 

Little Critter and Bubbies got Tom to play Ring Around the Roses.

Little Critter and Mountain Princess built towers to throw blocks at to knock down.

Time for dinner!

I had a couple of minor revelations today.  One is that I need to think more in terms of my husband's and my calling as a couple and as a family, and not focus entirely on what my gifts/callings/passions are. 

We had a "Christmas Before Thanksgiving" party last Saturday.  It is an early Christmas for the outreach team.  It was fun, but crowded!

Little Critter got his hair cut off.  It changes his looks so much!

In the School Room:

We only did school 3 days this week, and right now it seems really long ago!

On the Mission Field:

The students looked at their spiritual gifts this week, and are looking toward their outreach at the end of this coming week.  This week they will be preparing for outreach all week.

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

Me and mom went to see New moon on Sunday! It's really cool, almost exactly like in the book. They made the Voltra scene really cool, with Bella running through the red-hooded figures to get to Edward.     Then swim team is getting slightly less exuahsting, it's fun, but tiring. On monday I saw RaeAnne at the pool. Then after practice I found that my favorite Twilight shirt was stolen. Oh well.

For Today, Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Outside My Window... 

Cold and sunny with a snow-covered ground. 

 I'm thinking...

We really need to increase our monthly support.

From the learning rooms... 

The older girls are getting so much better at doing their work on their own.  I have to be more diligent to check their work and do thier follow-up questions or narration.

I am thankful for... 

Our suburban is bought and our insurance is paid up for six months.  Also that we have siblings that pitch in and gift us with money when things are tight...    

From the kitchen...

From the Heart:

I'm loving being with my kids.  Every moment that I get with them fills my heart.  It is so wonderful to hold my son in my arms and hear him say, "I wuv you, Mommy. You're adorable!"  I also love watching and experiencing the moments that my five year old studies her first words and reads them.  Each day she makes so much progress.  My 10 and 12 year olds amaze me with how they are growing into young ladies more each day and becoming individuals.  Life as a Mom is good.

The little ones like to snuggle in the rocking chair after their bath near the wood stove. 

I just finished looking over my blog from a year ago.  I am so glad that I am not in that place any longer!  A year ago my Snow Crystal was having concentration problems, abdominal pain, seizures, weakness, and looked like a little holocaust survivor.  She was depressed and talking about suicide.  I praise God for all my friends who so faithfully prayed, and for the cure of becoming gluten-free again, and avoiding artificial additives.  She is my healthy, happy, seizure-free young lady again.  No more of any of those things, and her school work has improved dramatically this year.  I am so grateful to the Lord!

In the School Room:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  Abraham Lincoln was shot again this week (we learned it a few weeks ago, but readressed the reasons this week).  The aftermath of the civil war was anything but nice.  Andrew Johnson may have had Abraham's roots, but he lacked some of Abe's other successful political prowess.  Matter can be in the form of a solid, a liquid, a gas, and plasma.  Old Yeller is my 10 year old's first school book to be taken on without my help, and she's doing a good job.  She even stated that this is her favorite reader ever.   Caddie Woodlawn continues to be a spunky little thing.  Tall tales are fun because they exaggerate a story and hyperboles are perfect to put in them.  Mountain Princess finished up decimals, fractions and percentages, and moved on to tesselations. (Did I learn about these in school?  They are fun.)   Snow Crystal is working on fractions now.

Bubbies, 5, learned about the clothing and culture of the French in the period just before Napoleon's time and about the French revolution.  Birds have feathers, lay eggs, are warm-blooded, and most eat other animals.  We examined an old robin's nest and found an unhatched egg.  Robin nests are made of mud, twigs and grass.  Numbers higher than ten are made with groups of ten and units.  She finished the week by writing her numbers between twenty and thirty.

Little Critter, 3,  is beginning to take himself to the potty and we are having much fewer peeing accidents.  On the other hand, yesterday he pooped in the bathtub again.  Good thing sister wasn't with him this time!

On the Mission Field:

One of my favorite speakers, Graeme from Australia, was here speaking on cultural differences.  We had another India - style dinner too.   The students have only two more weeks before they head out on outreach.  They will spend their first month in New Mexico with the Navajo work there, then the final eight weeks in India.  We saw the Lord bring in a bunch of money toward their outreach expenses.  That is always fun to see.

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

Swim team started up again. Its very exhuasting, but fun. My dad found out that I got a medal from last year for getting fourth place in 100 IM.  That was pretty cool. Then today we had cake decorating class.  It was fun, we learned how to make roses and borders. It was at my church, and RaeAnne and Shelby and Emma were there.

Sup peoples? I'm kinda bored... It's cold and wet and rainy outside...'Course, I kinda like it that way, just not the freezing cold part....

Dad and me went huntin' the other day, and not fifteen minutes after we got in the stand we started hearing somthin' running around to our left. We could tell it wasn't squirrels or birds, and then I heard a snort! We froze and waited, dad getting ready to hand me the muzzle-loader, and then it turned and started heading toward where we were facing. (It was behind the trees of course, so we didn't even know what it was, just that it had four legs.)

Then guess what pops out of the woods? A STINKIN' DOG! Yepper folks, we thought we had us a deer and it turned out to be a dog. Big black dog. And the dog was nice enough to pee on the tree in front of our stand, just to scare off any deer that braved it's scent. Humph.

Then about twilight, everything is still and quiet, and you can practically feel the deer moving around, and we're all relaxed......Then what do we hear? That sound that every hunter HATES to hear unless it's com'in from him............

..........BOOM!

Ah yes, it was a lovely time....lol.

As we climbed down from our stand, we heard the sound of a lucky hunter driving off on his ATV with a big ol' deer on the back.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention fencing, didn't I? We got this guy to do fencing lessons for our homeschool group, and it is so AWESOME! Mr. Michael makes even the stretches fun....It's fun to attack Danny, even if it's with an imaginary sword....I'm the only girl, as usual, but there are some boys my age, so they offer a bit of a challenge.

It's fun to hear the other kids groaning and moaning during the stretches and exercises, lol. Some of them don't even make it through, they just collapse on the ground. I think Mr. Michael does it on purpose, just to see how determined we are.

Soooo, what are y'all doing?

May the Force be With You,

GirlJedi

From the Heart:

My baby boy turned 3 this week.  I guess I am officially past babyhood in the is family.  It is bittersweet, but I don't mind too much.  On his birthday he came up to me in the morning and announced, "I turned big!"  It was adorable.  He is a huge boy, and I've already had to pull out his size 4T clothing.  I'm reluctant to give up his size 3 clothes since they are so cute, but as I see the sleeve-length and leg-length getting shorter and shorter, I am coming to the conclusion that I must let go and move on!

The Lord continues to stir change in me, and yet I do not want to get ahead of Him.  We've put out a fleece of direction, but it still hasn't given any answer for us.  I think it is good to go about making change slowly to give us and our children time to accept it, especially since we like where we are at so much.

This is Little Critter on his 3rd birthday.  Love the brownies on his face? 

On the Homefront:

We are back to winter now.  Everything is white and snowy again since Friday.

Tim (my dh) finished a project he's been working on for the past couple of months.  It is a cigar box guitar.  He loves to express his creativity by making musical instruments.  It sounds pretty good too!  In the past he has also made several kinds of drums and digeridoos.

This is dh with his cigar box guitar.  He's handsome, isn't he?

In the School Room:

I was inspired by Lalaith's school wrapup on her daybook post at Avonlea Academy, so I'm going to try it instead of listing every gory detail:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  America is growing in leaps and bounds, with the beginning of department stores.  Batteries in sequence make brighter light than ones that are parallel.  Atoms make up all matter, but did you know that quirks and gluons make up protons and electrons?  Will of Shades of Gray finally decided that good men were on both the Yankee and the Rebel side, and men who chose not to fight were honorable too.  Caddie Woodlawn was a spunky little thing.  To build a fire in the fireplace successfully, one needs a good source of air, kindling, and most importantly, a piece of egg carton.  Poems are funner if you have a pattern to follow when writing one.

Bubbies, 5, learned that coffee and chocolate didn't become popular until the age of exploration.  Until the late colonial years, food was pretty bland and mundane.  Mammals have fur, give milk, and breathe air.  Reading is challenging and rewarding, and gets easier if the same simple book is reviewed each day.  Mathematics includes not only addition, but also taking away.  A triangle has three sides and three corners.  An eight can be made without lifting your pencil.  Copywork is still drudgery.

Little Critter, 3,  found that hitting his sister with a fork will put two pricks just below her eye like a snakebite.  (I'm so glad it didn't get her eye!).  Going to the bathroom is against his idea of a good time.  Wet pants, on the other hand, makes mother unhappy.  The letters each have a sound.  "I" says itchy, itchy chickenpox.

On the Mission Field:

The school had Chris Austin here.  He has been teaching team building and has been helping the students find their strengths and weaknesses. 

In the Literary Scene:

I am still reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

Yesturday I had a sleepover with RaeAnne.  We watched Agent Cody Banks, and made earings and tie pillows.  Audrey came, so she could play with Tessa, and got a little slaphappy. Then in the morning, we had to get up really early so we could go to Grand Rapids and go to a conference where a auther called Nancy Rue spoke. She talked about things like beauty and bullies and such. She was a little... crazy. But in a nice way.