Reliving The Life Of A Civil Soldier

A Blog Contest!!

While browsing the Lion Brand web site the other day, I found this really cute knitted sweater garland pattern.  I made one of the sweaters with some scrap homespun that I had, but I thought the sweaters would be much cuter if they were a little smaller. So I used some Red Heart Super Saver yarn with smaller needles and come up with this:

And I am going to give this away to one lucky reader. It could just be you!!

If you would like to win this garland, please leave a comment on this blog post. Tell me about your favorite Christmas decoration and leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win! I will let one of my kids draw the name of the lucky winner on Friday, December 18th.

Our Nativity Tradition

For years now, we have enjoyed Celebrate Jesus at Christmas by Kimberly Ingalls Reese. The first couple of years, we did all the readings and activities as part of the Advent season. Now, we use the book for the daily Nativity Building.

The Nativity Building activities have you move around and add figures to your Nativity scene throughout the Advent season. Right now, our manger is under our Christmas tree with a cow and a ring. The ring is a 'reminder of our relationship with Jesus. We are eternally bound together in love.' (Celebrate Jesus at Christmas, p. 18)

Mary and Joseph are currently traveling to Bethlehem...

The shepherd is in the field tending his sheep...

The wise men are still at their home...

The best part of the Nativity Building is the first gift the kids open on Christmas morning. We wrap our Baby Jesus in gold paper and put Him in the manger. This is, after all, the best gift!

A New Christmas Tradition

We are trying something new this year. I have had this book Family Celebrations at Christmas by Ann Hibbard for some time now. The book gives you two years worth of family devotions to use during Advent to focus on Christ rather than the commercialism that has come to be known as the Christmas season.

Over our TV cabinet, we have a quilt banner hanger. I thought this would be the perfect place to hang our Advent Banner. Using material that I already had, I put together a wall hanging with a tree and 24 buttons to hang our 'ornaments' from.

So far, we have completed two days of the study. The first ornament has the symbol of Alpha and Omega. The second ornament has a Bible. There is a Bible reading and discussion questions for each day. I am looking forward to seeing our completed tree!

  It is after Thanksgiving and officially the time to start thinking, dreaming, getting excited for, Christmas! I listened to my first "official" Christmas song of the year: Welcome to Our World by Chris Rice, sung by Michael W. Smith. I love that song. I think my favorite line is, "Fragile finger sent to heal us; tender brow prepared for thorn; tiny heart whose blood will save us, welcome to our world". Just the fact that Christ was a baby sometimes escapes our memory. We, or at least I, think of Him most as a grown man during the height of His ministry. But before that He was small and delicate and who would have thought to look at Him that His fate was death, and spilled life-blood for a creation who would mostly shun Him? I think it very good to remember Christmas and its promise; that our lives were once pointless and sin-filled and horrible, but God sent His Son - who came willingly - to our earth as a child. That he might grow and live in our world and still be willing to die in our stead for our never ending sin. And that He did it out of love. Pure, True love that even Angels do not understand. And by this gift of God we may obtain a life abundant with Christ, and afterwards an even better, more wonderful life everlasting with our Great God in His heavenly kingdom!  What a blessed thing to remember and commemorate! What a beautiful gift that I gladly and humbly receive, and most definitely welcome to our world.

Things I am thankful for...

...the Word of God which gives me strength to get through each day

...my family 

...fall colors and blue skies in November

...seeing my winter garden through an open window...in November

...the freedom to homeschool my children

...wonderful hymns and worship music that God allows me to play and listen to 

...cookbooks with wonderful recipes to keep my family fed well

...many sewing and craft projects to keep me busy

...a meal from the freezer after a long day of cooking and baking

Hurry Up and WAIT!!

I don't think waiting is all that hard for me.  I usually find ways to fill my time, even if it is just a good book to read.  But these past two weeks have redefined waiting.  After my last post, I did have to go to the ER, and was diagnosed with a kidney stone which was lodged in the ureter.  I followed up with my urologist, the only one in the area, and scheduled a lithotripsy (sound waves blast the stone into tiny gravel that are easier to pass).  Since I had come down with a bad cold and had lost my voice, he also prescribed an antibiotic to make sure I didn't develop any other nasty bugs before the procedure.  Unfortunately, I had a severe reaction to the medication and ended up hospitalized.  Since then, my heart has been racing.  And racing, and racing.  While I was in the hospital, the doctor placed a stint to make sure my kidney could continue to function.  Lithotripsy was rescheduled, and home I went.  The tachycardia did not go away, though, and a subsequent EKG proved abnormal (inverted T waves), so lithotripsy was cancelled again. 

So here I am.  Two weeks and I still have a stone.  Thankfully, oh so thankfully, I have no pain.  My pulse seems to be returning to normal after 1 1/2 weeks of racing.  Hopefully, I will find out soon what the new plan is.  And hopefully, we can wait until after thanksgiving.

As to our Thanksgiving study--we finished Leif the Lucky and started Columbus today.  We should finish Columbus tomorrow and next week we will read Pocahontus and If You Sailed on the Mayflower.  We are also using a globe to trace the routes that Leif and Columbus took and a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words.  And The Usborne Book of World History has been a great resource with this unit study.

When December comes, we will begin our Christmas study, which always includes reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.