To join the fun, visit Carol's blog at Three Little Ladies , and link us all to your post!  Be sure to leave a comment here so I can visit your blog, too!

Merry Christmas!  We've had a whirlwind of weather here, beginning with a lovely little snowfall 2 days before Christmas, then rain which turned to ice the morning of the 24th, coating everything and making it dangerous to walk outside, which then turned to more rain as the temps went up, washing away and melting the ice, followed by cold, gusty strong winds with snow, and Christmas night into this morning, big, fat snowflakes accumulating to about 3 inches!  Here's the view out my window this morning:

Now, a quick trip through our homeschool week, ending with our Christmas...

Foreign Language: Nathan enjoyed some attempted conversation in German with my mom (his "Oma"), who was born and raised in Germany.  She was actually born in what is now Poland, but before WW2, it was Germany.  They had to flee the Russian Army in WW2, taking just one suitcase and wearing as many coats and hats as they could put on and still move.  Everything else had to be left behind.  She and her parents fled to Berlin...and then they had to leave there, as well, at the end of the war because the communist Russian army was coming to occupy there, too...so they headed to Dusseldorf area.  Oma said she remembers the American army, which had occupied Berlin initially, letting the citizenry know when they'd be leaving, and warning them all to get out.  She said she remembers seeing the Americans leaving in their tanks and Jeeps, and the Russian army coming in on horsedrawn wagons and carts...

Bryan would answer my questions in the best "Spanglish" (Spanish + English when you don't know the Spanish word) that he could muster...it was fun! 

Farm Work: None this week...Bryan will be back at Kline Creek Farm next week, Lord willing!  He has another cold virus now. 

Social Studies: The boys finished their American Government class!!!  What a relief!   Next semester brings on Economics.  Since they are both taking "English Composition 101" at the community college next semester, it is a relief that Government, with it's weekly essay papers, is over. 

Science: Chemistry is on break now for another week and a half.  Ahhhh...

Math: There hasn't been any math done this week...until today!  Nathan gets back to the last book in the Algebra 2 series (should take him a month or two to complete it), and bryan begins Geometry today.  We want him to finish it in one year, and then he can GRADUATE!!!  Wow, I cannot believe this is so close to being real!

Bible: Our whole family is studying Scripture with Cindy Zeigler's materials, and we are almost at the end of our Biblical Survey (also known as the "Kingdom Study").  We are hot and heavy into the book of Hebrews, and are learning about the 5 warnings that God has given to Christians in this book.   

We are, since the Zeiglers took what used to be (10 years ago) a one year Survey of the Bible and condensed it down to 17 weeks, moving rapidly through Hebrews in this study.  Next semester, we have our next study's materials here and ready to go...a 16 week study of just the book of Hebrews.  Whoa, this is going to be good!  So for now, we're getting a quick introduction to the "jist" of the book. 

Music:  This reminds me to have Bryan practice piano!   He's not feeling so well, so he probably won't think of it.  A little "Dayquil" to the rescue, and I think he might find 15 minutes! 

Homekeeping/Family:  Christmas Eve was spent at my mom and dad's, and we picked up Kev's mom and brought her along.  We had a gift exchange, dinner, and then went to Christmas Eve service with them at their church. 

Our church is what I describe as a "house church that got too big for the house," so we rentspace at a beautiful century-old chapel on the grounds of our local living history museum.

It is just lovely...but we only have it on Sundays.  Since Christmas Eve and Christmas were on other days this year, we don't have a service to go to.  My parents attend a local Lutheran congregation, and we like to go with them for their beautiful Christmas Eve candlelight service.  It was a wonderful time of worship in prayer, hymn, and communion. 

Christmas morning I got up early (I liked having the extra time!), turned on the Christmas tree lights, started a fire in the fireplace, brewed coffee and mixed up the scrambled egg ingredients, so everything was all prepped and ready.  The nice thing about having older kids is that they come down and you get to enjoy a quiet, leisurely breakfast BEFORE opening presents!  Once we were happily full, we settled into our gift exchange.  Nathan will be joining Bryan in the knife-sharpening business, so he get a Tormek T-7...that was the big gift of the year!  Bryan's "biggie" was an Aussie drover's oilskin coat...he got an oilskin hat from my parents to go with it.  This isn't Bryan, but a catalog picture:

A classic Australian sheep-rancher's coat (or any rancher...it's a Drover/Aussie Cowboy coat).  Also happens to be "period-correct" for Kline Creek Farm's 1890's costuming.  Now he'll be warm and DRY when he needs to be out working in the cold rains of winter/spring.  Lambing happens at Kline Creek from January through March, so the guys need to have good warm coats!  (The mama ewes and lambs are, of course, in the sheep barns!)

Since Kevin and the boys and I all like different kinds of coffee, we got ourselves one of those Keurig coffee makers, the one where you get the little "K-cups" and each one brews one cup of coffee.  It's pretty neat, and we've been sampling the different brews that came in the sample pack with the machine. 

So now we settle in for the walk into 2010.  God knows what He will allow this new year to bring, and nothing...NOTHING...will happen that isn't exactly in line with His plan.  We believe that Christ will be returning soon.  And so, rather than focusing on all the evil that is happening in this world, and the changes that are happening in our nation, we keep looking up, anxiously awaiting his Glorious appearing!  The battle is in the heavenly places, is being "mirrored" here on earth, and we know who will be victorious!  Praise God! 

May God Bless you this coming week!  Let me know you were here, and be sure to visit Carol at Three Little Ladies!

Merry Christmas Eve!  I have just a quick post, going up in the evening, but we've been with my parents all day.  Illinois has seen a lovely snowfall earlier this week...and my sons BEGGED me to let them shovel the driveway!!!  At first I had to say "no," because the reason they wanted to shovel the driveway was because they were wanting to do anything besides finishing writing their final paper for American Government!  I had to keep saying, "no, no snow shoveling until those papers are done...then you can celebrate the end of Government class! 

Needless to say, they finished...IT'S OVER!!!  No more American Gov't class!!!  And then they got to "celebrate:"

Boy, I wish I could bottle this!!! 

They've completed the work required of them for this semester, and we are all really happy!  There will be schoolwork over the Christmas break, but only the stuff that they are wanting to either get ahead in or, for Nathan, that will help him to CLEP test an English course in May, so it's by their own choice to do it.  This was a very tough semester, demanding.  Good job, guys!!!

 
Join Us Each Thursday! Here's How:

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below.
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs! 

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! 

I want to share three video clips which I located on YouTube...the first two are from a Public Television show that I have seen many Decembers over, titled, "Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe." These two clips share my favorite parts of the show.  I love the peacefulness, the simplicity, and the picture of the family generations coming together.  I hope you enjoy it, too!

The 3rd clip is of the WWI Christmas Eve Miracle.  It was the celebration of the FIRST coming of Christ that brought peace into the middle of the bloodiest battlefield...oh, Lord JESUS, what peace your SECOND coming to earth will bring about..."even so, come, Lord Jesus."

(*Note: in case the videos don't want to run here on this blog entry page, I've included a direct link to their YouTube home, as well!  I recommend watching in High Def, with the viewer expanded to full screen!)

Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe ~ Part 9

Rick Steve's Christmas in Europe ~ Part 10

To join the fun, visit Carol's blog at Three Little Ladies , and link us all to your post!  Be sure to leave a comment here so I can visit your blog, too!

Foreign Language: Nathan is done with German for the semester, but is enrolled in "Beginning German Level 2" at the college for next semester.  He's finishing up all the "loose ends" this week, before Christmas, so I'm letting him take a break from reviewing for now.  He does enjoy just randomly speaking German to me throughout the day, so that's good!  Keeps it fun, but keeps it in the brain! 

Bryan had a Spanish lesson today with my dear friend (it was her family who were over last night so late...we were all tired today!).  It was supposed to be the last one, but he's about one page away from taking the test and finishing the chapter/unit, so we decided to go again on Wednesday.  Much better than stopping so close to the end and then waiting 3 weeks!  He's doing very well.  Wish I knew Spanish, I could try and talk to him!  dh took it in high school, but can't remember a word of it.   

Farm Work: Nothing this week!  Off til January 2nd! 

Sharpening Business: Bryan is going to be teaching his brother to sharpen over the Christmas break, as well as two men and their teen sons from church.  We ordered all the sharpening machines, and they're lined up on a huge long table in our basement.  It'll be a two day class, with day 2 primarily sharpening every knife we can get our hands on, so they build up speed and efficiency...absolutely needed for the market environment!  It gets pretty fast and furious out there when there are 100 knives lined up to be sharpened!  We sent out an email to our church asking for their knives...hopefully we'll get enough, each "student" needs to sharpen 75 to 100!!!  Bryan's learning how to teach sharpening with this event, so these are his "guinea pigs!"  (They know it, we're all good friends, LOL!)  So this one's free; in the future, he can grow his sharpening business, potentially, by adding teaching sharpening as another way to earn extra income.  I'm so proud of him!  As a sheep farmer, every bit of extra income he can make is going to be VERY needed! 

Social Studies: Both guys completed the final American Government exam on today (Monday)!   YAY!!!  This was a BIG hurdle, these tests are not easy...50 short answer questions.  (Pain in the neck to grade, too, but they sure learn their stuff!)  Somehow Bryan forgot to take one of the quizzes (can you tell how not on top of things I was here???), from way back in unit 8 (that's 8 out of 15), so he has to review and take that quiz.  Quizzes are pretty easy, 15 multiple choice Q's, and he said that unit was an easy one, so I'm keeping my hopes high.  He has 2 more Government papers to finish, and Nathan has one more.  THEN...and only then...it is OVER.  I can't wait, and they'd better get it done by the 23rd!  I'm not excited about grading papers and writing course summaries on Christmas Eve!  I don't want to take this into the New Year, I really want my school work wrapped up before Christmas, so I can have a little break, too. 

Science: Chemistry is on semester break until January 5th.  Yahoo! 

Math...we are taking just a week off here so they can work full time to finish up Government.  Once that's accomplished, Bryan will begin Geometry immediately, and Nathan will continue Algebra 2, which he's a couple months away from finishing.

Bible: We continue to head toward the end of the Biblical Survey study.  Last Wednesday, the boys and dh went to their "Men's Mentoring" group, which meets once a month (it's the men and older sons from our church who get together).  The topic was on "Knowing when it's time to get married."  It was a packed house, the most attendance of the entire year!    

Music: We miss practicing with the choir, but are looking forward to our next musical adventure, which we'll begin preparing for in a few weeks...I'll update then.  Bryan's piano lessons are on break until the new year, but he keeps practicing.  Nathan is still teaching himself guitar.   

Homekeeping: I got the Springerle baked, and the lebkuchen, too.  I'll post those recipes and photos on Tuesday (the 22nd), Lord willing, over at my HomeSTEADblogger place, "Serenity in the Suburbs."   

 May God Bless you this coming week!  Let me know you were here, and be sure to visit Carol at Three Little Ladies!

How funny...to be able to add what I found to what I originally thought I'd post about!  What a hoot!

On Sunday, the boys and I joined the Jr. High through college-age friends in our small church's "Young Adult Choir" for the Christmas Hymn and choral music ministry to a local nursing home.  Our audience was in a room where they were having a special turkey dinner...most of them were being fed, they looked to me like a group of folks struggling with the after-effects of stroke.  Some had a family member with them, others were attended by aides.  After we sang for them, we spent some time visiting with them, and they were pretty verbal, which was nice!  They were all quite appreciative of the music we shared, and were most complimentary to the young people. 

You should have seen these terrific kids, all decked out in their Christmas finery!  Pretty dresses, handsome suits and Christmas ties, smart slacks and sweaters...one elderly lady asked me if they sang together just this one time, or did they do it more than once a year?  I told her that we were blessed to hear them sing many times throughout the year, on numerous occasions, both at church and just for social get togethers, for fun.  She said, "it's so good to see teenagers do something besides hang out on street corners and be in gangs!"  (This is Chicagoland, afterall...)  I laughed, and assured her that these were really wonderful kids!  It is a blessing to be around such a vibrant group of young adults! 

Fast forward to Tuesday...I was clearing out my cell phone's "missed call" record, and other junk on it, and I got to checking the old photos that are on it.  I hardly ever use my phone's camera, and have never done anything with the few pics that are on it.  But I found these that were taken in early November on a day when these same wonderful, angelic-looking young men from the choir were decked out in a different kind of "finery" for a fierce day of playing "Airsoft wars"...my boys are the two on the left, one standing, one kneeling:

I wonder what that lady from the nursing home would have thought if she had seen them racing around on ATV's at Mach 2 with their hair on fire, Airsoft guns (semiautomatics!) slung over their shoulders as they headed out to the abandoned barn to pretend they were commandos...

It reminded me, too, of this scene I put in a previous post (hit your "back" button to come back here after you've watched it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8LmPF9B5EY&feature=player_embedded

(This was my sons with their friends practicing for our Reformation Day party, decked out in their newly purchased camo-wear!)

I just had to laugh!  Ah yes, boys will be boys...and then they'll put on their suits and ties and minister to "the least of these" around them, singing the praises of their Heavenly Father and their Coming King.  I do love my teenage sons!

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below.
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs! 

To join the fun, visit Carol's blog at Three Little Ladies , and link us all to your post!  Be sure to leave a comment here so I can visit your blog, too!

Foreign Language: This week saw the end of Nathan's German class at the college...HOORAY!  He completed the oral portion of the final exam on Monday, and this Monday (the 14th) he will take the written portion, and that will be the end of it!  He feels pretty good going into it at this point, but is in his room studying as I type this Saturday evening.   Bryan is being tutored in Spanish by my dear friend, Christine, and loves it.  Christine is fun, a great teacher, and the mother of 4 GREAT sons who happen to be some of Bryan's favorite buddies.  Not a bad setup!  All the guys speak Spanish (or are learning it), so there is lots of laughter going on alongside the learning.

Farm Work: Bryan is over his flu bug, other than an occasional lingering cough, and put in 12 hours of volunteer work this past week at Kline Creek Farm, 8 hours of it on Friday in the 20 below zero wind chills.  He was comfortable enough, he said, as we got him a set of "under Armor" long underwear, plus winter boot socks, and arctic-lined Carhartt bib overalls and the blanket-lined Barn/Chore coat which is the accepted "period costuming" for the 1890's that he interprets at the farm for visitors.  Guess he'll be ready for the ice-harvesting in January/February!  In addition to the usual chores, he and his supervisor spent most of the day in the barns (to get out of the wind), grinding corn (1890's style, in a hand-cranked grinder...VERY aerobic, definately keeps them warm!) and mixing feed.  He took a long, hot shower when he got home, and slept very well that night! 

After dropping Bryan off that morning, Nathan and I had a delightful breakfast together at Cracker Barrel.  We buy Nathan's sugar-free maple syrup there...it is the BEST tasting sugar-free we've found, and believe me, we've tried just about all of them!  We buy 6 bottles at a time (he LOVES pancakes for breakfast), and it lasts a long time.  When we run out, finally,  we treat ourselves to breakfast there since we're going to the Cracker Barrel store to buy syrup :-)

Social Studies: Both guys have completed all but the final chapter in American Government, and are REALLY looking forward to finishing the course next Friday, then they study over the weekend for the final exam on Monday the 21st.    They will switch to Economics for next semester. 

Science: Chemistry will finish for the semester with a test on the 18th.  Math...well, we know better now than to "finish" math for a semester...math NEVER stops.  Period!  Both of the boys are wanting to "fast-track" through their remaining math studies...Bryan with geometry (he's skipping Algebra 2), so he can finish and perhaps graduate in december 2010; Nathan with Algebra 2 (he's in the last module now) so he can try to finish it in February, then complete the year of geometry by the end of this summer...he wants to be in calculus either at home or at the community college next fall.  Yeesh!

Bible: Our whole family is studying Scripture with Cindy Zeigler's materials, and we are almost at the end of our Biblical Survey (also known as the "Kingdom Study").  What an awesome blessing.  I know I've written about this study before, but it is just jaw-dropping, how MUCH is packed in Scripture, and how, once you've thoroughly studied TOT, and then go into TNT and learn exactly what "The New Man" and "Living Stones" are, and what "the Church" really is, TNT just "unfolds" TOT.  It has been such a growth experience to finally take the boys through this study.  PTL!  I can't recommend this one highly enough, especially in these end times.

Music: Since the boys and I were sharing that cold/flu bug last week, we were not able to sing with the choir at church last Sunday, but we WILL be singing at the nursing home tomorrow.  We have been having a GREAT time this afternoon and evening practicing here!  I am soooooo glad they "invited" me to sing with them!  What a blessing this new activity has been in our lives!  God is so wonderful to bring music back into our home, even if we're not very good at it, it is such a pleasure.  Bryan loves taking piano lessions, and Nathan is teaching himself to play the guitar which has been sitting idle for the last 3 years.  Thank you, Heavenly Father!

Homekeeping: I was able, along with my dh and ds's, to put about 7 large bags of give-aways out on the porch for Amvets to pick up on Monday.  I also took 2 boxes of craft supplies (from my 4-H club leader days) to church, and I spread the word amongst the kids...they all descended upon the boxes, and most of it was snapped up!  It was packed in so tight, I don't think they found it all, so I am re-packing it (more organized, this time) and taking it to church again.  There is a lot of craft felt, much in red and green, and I would think they might be able to make some neat things out of it!  What I can't give a way at church, I will offer to a local day care center, or pre school, or something.  After that's exhausted, the garbage can will have to be next.  It is SO good to be able to see space again on the basement shelves!  We have all this stuff in bins, so we don't tend to be aware of it.  But much of it is unusable here anymore, so better to give to someone who will be blessed by it. 

 I still desire to make some special German cookies this coming week that I never got around to this past week as planned; Christmas will likely be fairly quiet this year, no big family "to-do's" coming up!  I like that! :-)

May God Bless you this coming week!  Let me know you were here, and be sure to visit Carol at Three Little Ladies!

This week has been a real busy one for us.  We've been on the "hunt" for clothes for Bryan, who is a couple months shy of his 18th birthday.  And it is, indeed, a hunt...Bryan's pant size is 29W 34L.  YOU try to find that, LOL!!!  We located one pair of Levi's jeans at Sears in that size, but only one.  I had to order a second pair online.  Dress pants had to be ordered online as well, and very few stores carry them.  We finally located them at Men's Warehouse.  Had them shipped to a local store so there wasn't a shipping charge.  We went to pick them up, and they were great...they tailored them so the length was just perfect!  We went back a couple days later and took advantage of a 50% off suit sale, and got Bryan one.  It's navy blue, and the jacket can be worn separately as a blazer, so we got "2 for one" that way!  He has a black suit from JC Penney, but the pants length was too short.  I brought it with us to Men's Warehouse, and the salesman said they'd lengthen them for us for $14.  That's better than buying another suit!   Nathan, 16, came along for the shop.  He's not quite into the men's sizes yet, so he just sat and waited while his brother got all the goods.  Nathan was content, though, and doesn't complain about getting "hand-me-downs."  He's very good about it!  (He wasn't always, but is now.)  He's got my husband's genes, so won't ever wear Bryan's suits unless they are heavily tailored!  Nathan's not quite that tall as Bryan (B's 6 ft at this point!)

Nathan is blazing the academic trail, though.  He is, as I type, sitting in his last German class of the semester at the community college...YAY!!!  They're doing a little bit of review, then having a party complete with German Christmas cookies (Lebkuchen...my FAVORITES!).  Monday he'll take his final exam, and that will be it!  He'll have 4 college credits, likely an "A" in the class, and 1 year of high school German credit...all completed in 4 months.  He has really worked hard for this, and he's so excited!  It has been a VERY tough semester for him, as far as his course load goes.  Once he finishes his American Government course, which is a challenging one (we got Notgrass...it's excellent!), we'll switch to Economics for next semester.  Though the material won't be a cake-walk, there isn't a weekly paper or speech due for it, so both of the guys are looking forward to that! 

Next semester will have new challenges for them...they're both taking English Composition at the college, so weekly papers will again be the norm, but won't require, I don't think, the research that the Government papers asked for.  Bryan will be heavy into Geometry (he begins today), and Nathan is fast-tracking through the end of Algebra 2 so he can begin Geometry in the early spring, he hopes.  He's doing a College-Prep Plus! course, which will culminate in taking a CLEP test for English Literature.  I don't really care if he passes that CLEP the first-time through...but it would be nice for him!  It's a course that is over and above his regular class load.  He's a week behind in the reading right now, so plans to work over the Christmas break to catch up and perhaps get ahead for next semester, as the study requirements will pick up before the CLEP.  I will give him a full credit for a course which I'm calling "Intro to Logic and Rhetoric," for all the work he's put into this.

Bryan is continuing his work at Kline Creek Farm, operating his knife-sharpening business, and plowing through school with the goal of graduating this time next year. 

I find myself, at this point, feeling kind of "vicariously overwhelmed" for them.  More than once I've caught myself saying, "they can't do it...it's too much."  But when I look at them working away, sometimes struggling under the load but steadily hammering away at it, usually smiling, I realize that I'm the one that's weary and ready to give up...they aren't!  They're excited about all they are accomplishing! 

Isn't that one of my goals for them, that they would learn the satisfaction of hard work and accomplishing something that seems just out of reach?  Isn't that how they grow, gain confidence, and build character?    So what do I do with my "vacarious weariness?"  I get out of their way and let THEM run!!!

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below.
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs! 

(To Participate in Tightwad Tuesday, write your post, visit CanadaGirl's blog, and add it to the list!) 

I'm not feeling terribly creative today...so for my TWT post, I want to point you to something that I discovered on the beautiful blog, "Eyes of Wonder." 

What I found there that I loved were "Window Stars."  These are tissue-paper "stars" that you make and hang up on a window, like stained glass.  They are gorgeous!  Here is a link to a tutorial on how to make them, and a photo of them from that same blog.  Note...it's NOT my photo, it's from the tutorial at the blog given...I just really want you to see how beautiful these are!  This is sort of some free advertising for duofiberworks:

Click this link for the tutorial: http://www.duofiberworks.com/journal/2009/1/5/window-star-tutorial.html

Photo from http://www.duofiberworks.com/journal/2009/1/5/window-star-tutorial.html 

You can view another gorgeous photo of them on Eyes of Wonder here (you'll have to scroll WAYYYYY down until you see the young woman at the sewing table):

http://eyesofwonder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/piglet-sidled-up-to-pooh-from-behind.html

Thanks for stopping by today!  Let me know you were here, so I can visit you, too!

God Bless you!

To join the fun, visit Carol's blog at Three Little Ladies , and link us all to your post!  Be sure to leave a comment here so I can visit your blog, too!

Our week can be summed up fairly quickly...sick, getting sick, and getting over being sick.  We've had a laryngitis-causing cold virus going through our church this month, and this past week was our famiy's turn!  Bryan got it first, and he got it the worst.  Completely lost his voice!  On the advice of a good friend, we began taking mega-doses (5-6000IU's per day) of Vit. D3.  Nathan and I also got it, but it was MUCH milder, so perhaps the D3 actually helped!  We cancelled most out-of-school activities, but everyone was well enough to make the trek into Chicago yesterday (Saturday) to join Nathan's college German teacher and some of the classmates (from all levels of German classes) at the annual Christkindlmarket.  It was quite cold since there was some dampness in the air on Saturday and the city of Chicago is on the shore of Lake Michigan, so damp cold is COLD!  Not much sun to warm us, either.  But the hot spiced cider in the little "boot" mug tasted that much better!  (I don't know these two girls...all photos below are from the gallery at http://www.christkindlmarket.com .)

Here are a few other pictures of the festivities in Chicago at the Christkindlmarket:

For special occasions, the city of Chicago sure can be fun!  But we've lived in it, too, and unless you can afford the VERY VERY "high rent districts," I think big-city living is horrible.  Not for me, never again, no thank you!  But I don't mind a special event now and again!

Today will finish my week's activities, I'm scratching my "itch to pitch" as I have an Amvets pickup coming tomorrow.  So I am bagging up all the outgrown and no longer worn clothes, and EVERYTHNG else I can manage to bag up that I don't use and love.  I hope to have the front porch filled with bags!  I am praying that all of these things will be a blessing to someone who needs and cannot afford to purchase them. 

Let me know you were here, and be sure to visit Carol at Three Little Ladies!

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below.
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs! 

(To Participate in Tightwad Tuesday, write your post, visit CanadaGirl's blog, and add it to the list!) 

My husband and I have, this semester, introduced our boys to one of the best Bible studies we've ever gone through.  Originally, when we first took it, it was a one-year study, but over the last decade or so it's been condensed into 16 weeks--perfect for a one-semester Bible credit!  It was written by our dear friend, Cindy Zeigler, and she and her husband, through their church in Florida, offer it at no charge.  I have a link to her and the study on my sidebar at left.  It's been there for a while, so this isn't really new, but the reason I wanted to post this today is because the season of Advent is upon us.  I know some have completely stopped celebrating Christmas, and that is an individual choice.  Dear family friends of ours here have done so, and we understand why, and respect their decision, though we have not made the same decision, even after reflecting upon what they've shared.  I've been thinking so much this week about the first coming of Christ, and I just wanted to share something from our Bible study that I mentioned above (and that you can get absolutely free...no cost, no shipping charges, nothing...did I already mention that???  It is Tightwad Tuesday, afterall!!!).  From "Understanding the Bible: A Biblical Survey," comes the following:

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Shortly after the onset of Judah's captivity, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzer.  Then, after the Medes and Persians overtook Babylon, and after the 70 year period of Judah's captivity, Judah was allowed to go back to their land and rebuild Jerusalem, the wall, and the temple.  There were three post-exilic prophets -- Haggai, Zacharia, and Malachi -- each telling of the plans the Lord has yet for Israel.  After the Word of the Lord came to Malachi, the final prophet, there was a long period of silence from Heaven -- 400 years.

 

The prophecy of Amos came to bear on the Jews.  Amos, after being told by a priest to leave the Northern kingdom and go prophecy in the Southern kingdom (Amos 7:12), uttered these words:

Amos 8:11  "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD..."

So there was silence.

The voice of Heaven was not heard by the ears of earth.

...for 400 years.

...four hundred long years!

And...

A woman who was called barren,

bore a son, and they called him John.

Suddenly a bright light shown in the darkness...

...a star shining in the east.

A virgin had conceived and had borne a Son, and they called Him Immanuel, "God with us."

Then a voice was heard...

...a voice crying in the wilderness

...calling the people to

"Repent for the Kingdom of the Heavens was at hand."

(Now, jumping ahead in the study, we come to the First Coming of Christ in fulfillment of so much O.T. prophecy...)

"Not far from the city of Bethlehem was a place where shepherds were keeping watch over a flock of sheep.  After "Immanuel" was born, an angel appeared to these shepherds.

Luke 2

8     And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night.  9  And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.  10  And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people;  11  for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord.  12  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."

13  And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." 

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The prophecies which are enfolded in the Old Testament are unfolded in the New Testament!  This is so much more than prophecies of the Baby born in the manger...when one understands the meaning of the "Kingdom of the Heavens" (first introduced in the Mosaic covenant, but WOW, what happens while Christ walks the earth is incredible!), when one comprehends what all the talk of "peace" in TNT is referring to (it's not what you think...), when one recognizes the hugeness of the coming of this Child and what His purpose was (have you looked to see what the New Testament says His purpose in coming was?  Jesus Himself is the one who says exactly why He was sent!), you begin to understand why, after 400 years of not hearing the Word of God from Heaven that the sky was suddenly filled with a multitude of angels praising God and giving glory!  When we, at Christmas-time, look at and remember the first-coming of Jesus Christ to this earth, we should...if we understand the Kingdom of the Heavens...be awestruck at the Masterful and Powerful Hand of God!  The Heavenly host celebrated this event in a most dramatic way...so for us, it is still something that we wish to recognize and celebrate, as well.   

Oh, may I urge you to obtain a copy of this study and accompanying DVD lessons (all free, I say again!), and to be diligent to complete it?  It is long...it's a semester-long, if you think of it in terms of weeks, but it can be such a life-changing time in God's Word...and ONLY God's Word!  This isn't someone's "take" on the Scripture, you'll just study Scripture, and interpret Scripture by studying Scripture.  One friend who began the study quit after the first week..."this is review, I know all of this already."  Oh, I could cry for her.  One MUST begin with the beginning...with the foundation, but I promise you, the depth and insight you will gain over the 4 months of study will be immense!  Start the study...and finish it!!!  

To obtain your free study (if you have high schoolers who could do it with you, just ask for extra study books and notes, one copy for each person doing the study...then get one set of the DVD lectures per family), just click HERE or on the link in my left sidebar under "Curriculum Picks: Biblical Survey by Cindy Zeigler," and send an email to Kim asking for the "Biblical Survey."  That's the one you want to begin with.  You can tell them that I sent you, if you like!    

Think of it as a FREE Christmas gift that will continue giving to you until Christ's SECOND Coming!!!  May God bless you today!

We've had a wonderful week complete with Thanksgiving celebration and then the "rapid-fire-turnaround" this weekend toward Christmas.  I love this time of year, though it can be exhausting (just this week...the rest of it isn't so packed with activity!).  I'll do my Wrapup by days:

Monday: School School School...really, nothing else!  Though while Bryan was at my friend's house for his Spanish lesson (she tutors him), I did get to the grocery store across the street from her house and do much of the Thanksgiving shop...

Tuesday: School School School...I did the last of the Thanksgiving meal ingredients shopping while the boys had their chemistry class online (it's 1.5 hours long...good time for me to get something done!)

Wednesday: No German class for Nathan, as the college was off for the Thanksgiving break.  But we did everything else...they didn't have time to stop!  I began to clean/dust a bit (there wasn't too much to do).  Bryan had a fever and felt tired.  So he rested and just did bookwork.  Nathan was my main help this time around!  After they completed their school assignments, Bryan "veged out" on the couch and happily watched Nathan vaccum and dust and clean toilets!  I made cranberry sauce and made the stuffing up to the point where I bake it for 1/2 hour.  That gets done Thursday!  Pulled out the silverplate cutlery and polished it, then set the table for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.   Made sure I had all ingredients ready to go, and verified the menu.

Thursday/Thanksgiving Day: Got up a little early, had breakfast and coffee, then baked pies (I already had frozen a lot of pie filling this summer)--Concord Grape Pie, and then I made "Sweet Apple Hand Pies" which are puff pastry cut into sqauares, and put around apple pie filling, which I made with apples gotten on an autumn trip up to Wisconsin.  They're just like Pepperidge Farm apple turnovers that you buy frozen, but they're square instead of triangular.  By then everyone was awake, so we had a nice breakfast together, and turned on the local parades on TV, then had football on in the background later.  I made the rest of the dinner, my parents arrived at 4pm, and we had a lovely, quiet celebration and time of fellowship.  Bryan was feeling a little better, but still not all together well.  I did dishes until about 11:30pm, and then they were finally done!  Got it all put away (the holiday serving bowls, utensils, etc.).

Friday:  Bryan the same...not well, but not terribly sick.  The rest of us took down the autumn decor, inside and out, and put up some of the Christmas decor in the house...just a little, as I was tired!  The boys set up our "Mountain Village," my favorite!  Mostly we sat around and enjoyed each other's company.  :-)

Saturday: We made the annual trip up to Waunakee, Wisconsin, to get our Christmas tree from CaPaul's Tree Farm.  It's about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive up there, so about 6 to 7 hours for the entire day.  We take the dog (an 85 pound labrador), she loves it!  Bryan was coughing a bit, but said he felt pretty good! Found  a lovely Frasier fir tree, the boys sawed it down.  When we arrived home again, we microwaved leftover Thanksgiving dinner and had that, then unloaded the tree from the cartop, and got it in the house, trimmed and placed just right in the stand!  A nice drink of water and we let it set for the night to let the branches spread out wide.

Sunday (today):  Bryan is now officially sick!  He's starting to sound "goopy" and is coughing more.  I think the trip to the tree farm finally pushed him over the edge!  So he and Kevin stayed home from church while Nathan and I went (we are singing next week with the choir, so we needed to practice; we STILL need to practice, LOL!).  Our sermon was on the beauty and power of the Gospel message, and the beauty of the message of the CROSS, the power that is within that.  We hit Trader Joe's on the way home, plus the other grocery store nearby, for the week's items. 

Once home, Kevin and Bryan had gotten the lights on the tree (YAY!), and Bryan was beat.  So Nathan pretty much did the rest, with intermittant help from me and Kevin.  Here's the finished product, minus the tree skirt:

We had Christmas CD's playing all afternoon, and it is fairly cold and rainy today, so it helped make it seem more real that it's actually almost December!  It's been so warm all month, it hardly seems possible! 

Both boys spent a couple of hours studying, and are now caught up (YAY!!!) in their work.  College course ends in 2.5 weeks for Nathan, and we'll have our other homeschool classes done for the semester in about 3 weeks.  We are ALL really looking forward to that...it's been an intense semester, and we are weary.  But overall, the guys are doing well, and we are marching on toward completion!  My prayer is that Bryan would be healthy again very soon, and that Nathan and I would not catch this...but I'm pretty sure we will.  For Nathan, with his diabetes, these sort of viruses can really knock him out for a while.  NOT GOOD with finals coming up at the college in German!  But his teacher is very, very kind, and I'm sure she'll work with him and whatever his needs are.  He's a good student in her class, getting an "A" and participating really fully, so she enjoys him! 

That's our week...thanks for stopping by to visit!  Leave me a comment so I can find and visit you, too!

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below, giving the EXACT URL of your post.
  (Example: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/plans4you/123456)
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs and leave them comments, too!  I'll visit your blog once your link is posted!)

• Simply write a positive post about something (or things) that your homeschooling teenager has done which impressed you this week.  Keep it focused on good/encouraging/growth-maturity-related things you've observed about them; lessons they've learned, or that you've learned through them.  
• Link back to me (Lori @ Plans4You) in your post somewhere, so your readers will know where to go to join Thursday TAT.  If you'd like the link-button to put on your blog and/or at the top of your post, you can get it HERE. 
• Sign the Mister Linky below.
• Be sure to leave me a comment, and then visit the other participant's blogs! 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Things are moving at such a fast pace here, especially in our homeschooling and home training.  My babies of yesteryear are young men who are rapidly approaching independence.  I so love that opening Diana Waring quote, "Got Teens? You lucky dogs!!!"  I agree with her heart and soul.  I am so blessed to have teenagers in my life!  There are so many "horror stories" out there about raising teenagers, but I want to use this weekly theme to encourage and uplift, to share the joys and out-and-out delights of parenting and homeschooling teenagers!  I hope you'll share the fun alongside me!

Got teens?  Keep your eyes and ears open for something you'd like to share in a blog post on Thursday, and then come on over and join me!  Please tell your bloggy-friends about "Thursday Talkin' About Teenagers,"  so they can join, too! I look forward to reading your posts!   

You can use this Thursday Talkin' About Teenagers link button in a couple of ways:

1. Insert it at the top of your posts (like I have, above) 

2. Place it in your sidebar so others know you are participating (mine is in my left-hand sidebar)

Use the following code, taking out all the asterisks * first:

<*br><*center><*a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/plans4you">
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Thanks so much for joining Thursday Talkin' About Teenagers, I'm looking forward to reading your posts!

God Bless,

Lori @ Plans4You

Welcome to my "Weekly Wrapup" with Three Little Ladies :

(This is from my Company Front Porch blog section, "Homeschooling Through High School" ... thought I'd post it here at Plans4You, as well!)

Today's entry will be brief (perhaps a welcome alteration from my usual ramblings for some of you busy homeschool moms!).  As always, the homeschool high school does not typically have a lot of "room" for "extra projects" or holiday crafts.  So what to do about Veteran's Day when homeschooling through high school?

It is my personal opinion (and ONLY my personal opinion) that one of the greatest gifts this country can give to our veterans is to teach our children the history of our nation's battles.  The very fact that the Korean War is nick-named "The Forgotton War" belies the lack of intentionality which most American's apply to their study of American history. 

Philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic George Santayana is known to have penned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  In the grand scheme of world history, America is but a babe of a nation.  In comparison with, say, Europe or Asia, we here in America really don't have that much history to remember!    As I reflect upon Veteran's Day, I feel that we owe it to the brave men and women who have fought and/or died in service to this great nation of which we have been blessed to be a part, to teach our children their history, and to teach it to them well.  I wish to require a deep consideration of history at this, the high school level.  And, most importantly, to unfold our nation's history...our world's history...by looking at it from the overarching viewpoint and plan of the Author of human history.  It is, afterall, HIS-story.

I have recommended it before, and I'll recommend it again:  the best history curriculum for high school that I have come across is Diana Waring's "History ALIVE!"  Beginning with Creation and ending with the VietNam War, the curriculum is a three year tour through the history of the world ALL presented in a format that is glued to the Guiding Hand of God as presented in the Bible.  You and your students will learn to see His purpose in each and every event for achieving His desires for His people, all laid out in Scripture.  In the process, you will cover history, literature, composition, geography, art and architecture...even cooking!  Every learning style is accomodated with Diana's coursework, and the course is a dynamic learning experience. 

Give a veteran an important gift during these important years in your homeschool.  Give a veteran a young adult who comprehends the gift that our veterans have given us.

May God bless you and your homeschool this week!

Lori

(To Participate in Tightwad Tuesday, write your post and visit CanadaGirl's blog to add it to the list!) 

I read Annie Kate's wonderful tips for microwaving pumpkins, but was concerned about the warning she posted about them potentially killing the microwave (by overheating it), so I poked around a little to find a safer alternative for mine.  (I already replaced my microwave and my refrigerator this year plus have had repair bills on my dryer and my oven, so I'm NOT about to take any more chances, LOL!)  If you have a larger pumpkin, this will be a safe alternative that won't overheat the m-wave.

I figured that it would be safer (and yes, take longer) and healthier to just steam-cook it in the oven.  A Google search brought me to "SeasonalChef.com" where I found this wonderful tidbit taken from a book titled, "The Perfect Pumpkin," by Gail Damerow:

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"The standard method of producing a puree is to boil chunks of pumpkin, peeled either before or after boiling. But that method results in some loss of flavor and nutrients. So Damerow proposes a better way, taking a cue from Native Americans, who cultivated pumpkins for 8,000 or 9,000 years before Columbus reached the New World. They would bury pumpkins whole in the hot ashes of a fire. You could do it that way yourself, or more conveniently, use an oven.

'Baking a whole pumpkin will give you drier meat, which saves you time simmering off liquid if your ultimate goal is to make a pie,' she explains.

To bake a pumpkin, stab it in at least six places to release steam. Place it in a pan with some water in the bottom and bake at 350 degrees until the pumpkin is soft enough that you can depress the shell with a poke of the finger. Then let it cool, remove the seeds and scrape out the soft flesh.

Damerow recommends making more puree than a recipe calls for so that you can enjoy some of it on the spot, straight and hot, with melted butter and perhaps a sprinkling of cinnamon."

***

I know to cook an acorn squash at 350 degrees would take an hour, so for a pumpkin, I imagine it wouldn't be much less, if not more.

Author Damerow's book also has recipes in it, three of which are given on the "Seasonal Chef" website.  One is for Pickles, another is for Canned Pumpkin Bread...soooo cool, you bake the recipe in greased glass canning jars, then take a jar out of the oven, wipe down the rim, and quickly put on a lid and tighten the rim around it...it'll suck in and seal the lid, and then you store it with your other canned stuff!  How cool is that???

And this one looked so different, I want to try it sooner as opposed to later:

This recipe is from the Stonycreek Farm in Noblesville, Indiana, home of a month-long Pumpkin Harvest Festival each October.

3 cups raw pumpkin, sliced
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup milk
1 tsp salt
dash cayenne
¼ tsp dry mustard
½ cup shredded Swiss cheese
Parmesan cheese

1. Saute the pumpkin in the butter until tender. Remove to a serving dish.

2. In remaining liquid in pan, combine the eggs, milk, spices, and Swiss cheese. Heat until the cheese melts.

3. Pour the cheese mix over pumpkin. Top with Parmesan.

Again, the website where I got all of this is "SeasonalChef.com" if you want to get the other two recipes!  Yummy pumpkin!

God Bless

Lori

(To participate in "Tightwad Tuesday with Canadagirl," click on the graphic above or in my sidebar.)

It has been a rough few days...from previous posts and my whining on several C-boxes, you know that first my refrigerator stopped working; 2 or 3 days later, Sunday evening, my double-oven wouldn't work.  I had a repairman out Monday...it turned out to be a self-cleaning feature, the locking latch, that was unknowingly shifted enough that it wouldn't allow the circuit to connect, so the oven wouldn't ignite...that's painful when you pay $129 to have someone slide a latch on the door over 3 inches to "repair the problem." 

Two hours after the oven was back up and running, right before dinnertime, my kitchen sink backed up. 

At this stage, it's almost comical to me.  You see, I was supposed to host 40 people here for a Reformation Day Party Saturday (Oct. 31st)!  I say that I "Was supposed to" because we've gone with the backup location, a community center room that God was sooooo good to impress upon me to reserve, just in case the group got too big for my house!  The group isn't really too big, but the problems going on in my kitchen ARE!  We're serving dinner to the group, so the situation is just impossible.

BUT...that's not my Tightwad Tuesday post for today.  (There's nothing tightwadish about the $$$ that's just flown out of my house in the form of repair costs!)  That's just the background to what I have!  

That evening (Monday), after the oven repairman came over and my sink backed up, my dear friend, Nan, and her 4 teenage sons came over.  It was the final "rehearsal" day for what we're calling "The Band of Brothers."  This group is Bryan and Nathan, plus their good buddies, these 4 awesome brothers from our church, who are doing the presentation portion of our Reformation Party.  Well, the other 4 guys are doing the presentation...they've invited Bryan and Nathan to join them in singing one of the hymns of the Reformation, "Rise Up O Men of God."  They thought I was just taking photos of them singing...but I was sneaky, and video'd them!  Got the last two verses:

As for the camo gear...we ran into the guys recently at a Hunting and Fishing Expo (a wonderful surprise!), and they said they found a guy at a booth selling old camo wear for a couple bucks!  Bryan (closest on the right) already had camo jacket and pants, but Nathan (closest on the left, with the guitar) was holding out for a sale price...well, he found it!  His camo jacket that he bought had some rips in the shoulder, so the man sold it to him for $1.00!!!  They all bought camo jackets that day, and they come over for hymn practice wearing them.  It's so funny, if you saw them hanging out somewhere, you'd wonder "what these kids in the camo gear are up to"...and then they start to sing Reformation hymns!

OK, so this isn't technically a true Tightwad Tuesday post...but I just wanted to share the video, and Nathan did find the jacket for a buck...

Have a wonderful week, and I'll post some pics and video of the Reformation Party in my Weekly Wrap-up on Sunday!

Blessings,

Lori

Waiting Upon the Lord...A Young Man with a  Big Dream  

Philippians 1:6 ~ "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."

This verse refers to the completion, at the return of Christ, of the spiritual work that He began in us...we are, in this life on earth, a constant "work in progress."  If we yield our lives to His will, and follow His path, He will carry on the work of the Master Potter upon our "lump of clay lives."  Of course, our work and vocations are merely a part of the way that God molds and uses us to share the Gospel of Faith, and the Gospel of the Kingdom.  He gives us a path to follow, if we have hearts attuned to His leading, and those paths are to satisfy His purposes.  For Bryan, this seems - more and more each day -  to be a path that includes farming and sheep. 

We had a wonderful visit to the Harvest Home Farm in Whitehall, Wisconsin, the weekend of
October 9.

We left Chicagoland on Friday late morning, and arrived "Up North" in the beautiful hills of Mississippi River Country, southwestern Wisconsin, around dinnertime.   Our accomodation for the weekend was a lovely little guest cottage called the "Granary Guesthouse."  (That's our little station wagon...the guest quarters are upstairs, while the lower level is used for storage at this time.)

It has a bedroom with a queen bed, plus a double futon.  We brought along a cot for Nathan to sleep on, as he and Bryan can no longer fit in a full size bed together!  Here are the boys during our evening of "Settlers of Catan" playing...the best game in the world!

Part of the reason for our visit (the main part!) was to hopefully initiate a discussion with the folks who run Harvest Home Farm about the possibility of Bryan doing an old-fashioned apprenticeship there.  We had met with our pastor, Gary, and his wife the week prior to our trip, to ask their counsel about it (they are old friends with one of the founders of the Farm), as they know of Bryan's desire to become a sheep farmer.  Gary indicated that he had not mentioned anything to them about Bryan or us, so we knew that we would be "hitting them blind" with this idea.  His advice was just to go and "feel the situation out, see how it goes."   

I'm a pretty spontaneous person when the situation arises...spontaneously.  But I do NOT like being "spontaneous" when I have to plan to be!  I like to know things will procede in advance, to have a plan in mind.   So this was not what I had hoped for.  But, over the years, I have learned that God is wayyyy better at handling Bryan's life than I am!  And so, I agreed with Him that I would trust, and wait. 

I asked Him to show us when the time was right to discuss an apprenticeship, if it was right, by having THEM bring it up, by having THEM lead us into the conversation.  Perhaps they would ask for some help with chores while we were there, and they'd see how capable Bryan is, and mention how nice it would be to have someone who could help with the work.  We prayed, and asked many of you, our "bloggy-friends," to pray during the week before our trip that God would go before us, and prepare their hearts; that He would make them feel and sense a great need for help, and then see that Bryan would be just the right one to meet that need. 

Upon arrival, we were greeted by 5 dogs (border collies plus one lab) and several sweet barn kitties.  These two agreed to pose and smile for us when we promised they'd be famous in bloggy-land:

Mike and Becky, homeschooling parents of 4 children ages 14 down to 4, live on and "run" the farm.  They have great hearts for ministry, and Becky has a lovely desire to exercise what seems to be a gift of hospitality...but the work of the farm keeps them so busy, it can be difficult.  Harvest Home Farm is, first and foremost, a place of ministry.  Visitors to the farm get to connect with the land, the animals, and farm-life, of course, but the primary goal is to connect them with their Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ, through the many Scriptural analogies to sheep, shepherds, and the agrarian life.  It is a fantastic place, with a fantastic story to go with it.  (Do take a moment to take the link I've provided on the right side of my blog and visit Harvest Home Farm after you finish here!) 

Our first few moments with Mike made it clear that he had no idea what had brought us to the Farm for the weekend.  We were, as far as he knew, just a family from Chicagoland, visiting the Farm for a nice weekend get-away. And that was true!  His father-in-law, Larry Guthrie (remember him from Part 5 of this tale?), and his wife were both out of town.  Larry had been our "connection" to Harvest Home Farm, and was one of the "founders" of the place and its ministry.  Given this set of circumstances, the realization that we would, in all likelihood, not  be discussing a possible apprenticeship for Bryan was a bit of a disappointment, but at least we knew it from the outset.  OK, Lord...You know absolutely best!  We will wait, and just have this wonderful weeknd of refreshment, and a chance to simply observe, be a blessing to them with our work, if they need help, and get to know one another better.  Thank you for making it so clear right away!  We do not need to wait and wonder!

The next day, Saturday, dawned clear and CRISP.  That's COLD!  At least the forecast snow had held off; we were expecting 2 inches of the stuff, and were NOT mentally prepared for it!  We were physically prepared, with plenty of warm coats, hats, mittens, and boots.  Mike has lots of mowed paths which guests can follow to take wonderful hikes up...up...UP to the top of the ridge for spectacular views of the valley and the farm!  The first photo below is almost all the way up, but not quite!  The last one is all the way up:

A turn to the left takes you around to the group camp area, complete with campfire ring and volleyball nets, and there is a path down to a lovely pond for fishing:

A turn to the right (from the top of the ridge) takes you around and back down...and along the way you pass a lovely bluff where they've set up a trap-shooting range,

and then you go down, down, DOWN to the lovely pastures area:

If you're getting the idea in your head that "this place is BEAUTIFUL!"...I want to tell you that the photos don't even tell it all.  Harvest Home Farm is a place that displays the majesty of the Creator.  It is just breathtaking!

After the wonderful hiking, we helped Mike and Becky unload some hay bales into the barn.  Becky and I had a little time to chat about the Farm and her life on it, and what they love about it.  I bit my tongue as she told me about the dreams that she had to serve their future guests (once they get guest cabins built) and the lovely hospitality touches she'd like to put in practice (once they get a commercial kitchen built, but they have to move the barn first) and the yarn she'd love to spin from the wool they shear (once she has time, which seems as though it's years away)...these things that God has gifted her to do and laid upon her heart, but that they just can't because it's all they can do to keep the farm-work up and keep the grounds cleared and the sheep fed and the dogs trained all while homeschooling the kids...

I'll tell you what, I was about to bust right out of my skin, I wanted to cry out, "We can help!  We can help!  Our son wants to work with you!  To work the farm with you!"  But, as I said, I bit my tongue.  My mind was carrying on a second conversation, though, along with my heart..."Oh, Lord, THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  I know we need to wait until YOU direct us to talk apprenticing Bryan here, but You have answered our prayers by showing us that they DO have a need for the kind of help that Bryan can give them!"   I was so grateful and excited, because now, even though we were to wait, we were waiting with great hope!

All too soon, it was time to pack up most of our things on Saturday night, since we would be leaving Sunday, right after attending church with Mike and Becky.  Mike stopped by just before dinner and told us that his father-in-law had called, and was back in town, and really wanted to have a chance to chat with us before we left.  He'd join us at church, and perhaps we could have coffee afterward...that sounded just wonderful to us (who wouldn't want a latte after church??!).  We packed up everything that we wouldn't need the next morning, and snuggled in for a good night's rest.

Worship was warm and intimate at the small Wisconsin church.  Afterward, Larry found us, and we headed off to the coffee shop.  We talked about the history of the Farm, their search for it, their plans for the ministry there.  We talked about our pastor, Larry's good friend, and how we came to attend the church here in Chicagoland.  We talked about homeschooling.  And then, he looked at Bryan, and said something like, "you know, by your age a young man should have a direction in his life...he should set a goal.  Do you know what you'd like to do?"  "Well, yes...I want to be a farmer."  "Ah-hah!  What kind of farmer?"  "A sheep-farmer.  I want to raise grassfed lamb."  "And where would you like to do this?  Do you know where you want to live?"   Bryan, the grin he had tried to suppress taking over his face, replied, "well, HERE!!  Southwestern Wisconsin!"  "Really?  Well, that's terrific!" 

He turned to me and Kevin..."So, what are your plans to help Bryan with all of this?"  Stunned, we gave him the VERY-condensed version of Bryan's story, from the visit to the County Fair, the 4-H Club, the Montessori-farm in Amish Ohio, to Kline Creek Farm and the sheep-shearing school. 

"Very good," he said.  And then, the real stunner..."So, what now?  WHAT'S THE NEXT STEP?"   I had to pick my jaw up off the floor as Kevin finally spoke that which had literally been coaxed out of him: "well, we're thinking an apprenticeship would be the best thing."   It was as though he had been expecting it all along!  Had our pastor back home made a phone call to his friend, and given him a "head's up?"  Had he remembered, from our first meeting at our church when he was a guest-preacher, Bryan's interest in sheep-farming, and put 2-and-2 together?  God's provision, however it happened, in answer to prayer, was unmistakable.  We had asked Him to direct the timing of the conversation by having the HHF people bring it up if we were to even mention it.  Our pastor back home was not aware of that prayer we had prayed.  So if he had spoken to his friend, it was by God's leading, rather than ours!  What a wonderful answer to that prayer!

We chatted for a while about the things that they were praying for the opportunity to do at the Farm, their need for help (volunteer help, not paid help), the obstacles they were facing in terms of funding and building codes and where to house an apprentice (another obstacle).  Then, he looked up at Bryan.  "Bryan, I think I see a match here.  It's a ways off yet [because of the aforementioned obstacles], but let's be in prayer about the timing, and we'll keep in touch.  You have some skills that we could really use, and I want to hear more about the place you volunteer, and the programs you're doing out there."

And so, here we are.  Wow.  What a surprise, what a blessing, what a confirmation!  We are just today putting together a packet of information to send them...a "resume" of sorts, of Bryan's experience, so they can see what he's done that would be helpful to them in terms of skills he already has; a letter of intent on our part of what we are hoping for in terms of the apprenticeship, and our financial intentions (we will pay them to apprentice Bryan); and a copy of parts 1-5 of "I Wish I Could Go To A Farm," so they can read for themselves the wonderful journey that God has ordained for us to be on in all of this.  We'll also be sending along a list of the remaining studies and experiences that we have been led to seek for Bryan before he strikes out on his own (things like taking some mechanics/engine-repair classes at the community college...a furniture-making course in Texas that teaches the skill using only hand tools, not expensive power tools that cost a fortune and lead to debt...and, Lord-willing, an Associates degree in Agriculture from a nearby junior college).  Some of these things may begin to happen this spring, if an apprenticeship needs to wait for a while.  It may be that he will learn skills very useful to HHF, so God wants him to do these things first.  Larry, Mike, and the Lord will direct our steps from here. 

Bryan, Kevin, and I will continue to wait, to wait upon the Lord, who knows the plans He has for Bryan.  We wait in joyful expectation, and rest in the knowledge that, even if nothing comes of this in the end, He is in complete control, and will accomplish His will in the life of our son.  "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him."  ~ Psalm 62:5 

 God Bless you,
Lori  ... 

(To participate in "Tightwad Tuesday with Canadagirl," click on the graphic above or in my sidebar.)

Mary (aka CanadaGirl) asked if anyone had tips on saving money at hotels while travelling besides getting the hotels that offer free continental breakfasts.  we do a lot of road-tripping and travelling, and have found a couple of things that work consistently for us:

#1.  When I go to book a hotel, I always look to see if I get a fridge and microwave in the room.  The fridge isn't so important, as we can simply bring up our Coleman cooler.  But the microwave is nice...I can get frozen "TV" dinners, or make a dish that can be brought in the cooler, and microwave it for dinner.  I would rather spend $20 extra per night on the room than pay $60 for dinner out. 

#2.  If there's one available where I'm travelling, I try to book a room in one of the "extended stay" hotels...the ones with kitchenettes in them, especially if I'm staying more than one night.  Again, it may be $20 to $30 more per night than the Motel 6...but if we have to eat out, lunch and dinner, we'll spend way more than that.  Bring a loaf of bread, jars of PB&J, or tortillas, mayo, lunchmeat/cheese and some prewashed lettuce leaves, some fruit, a bag of chips, and your water bottles, and you've got lunches. 

No kidding, we show up with BAGS AND BAGS of groceries when we travel! 

#3.  I ALWAYS travel with my crockpot!  Make the food for it in advance, freeze it if you won't need it for a couple of days, and it'll be good in the cooler.  Baggie all spices needed.  Bring plastic plates, forks, knives, spoons, and cups, and a little bit of dish soap.  Use a washcloth from the hotel room to wash, but if you have something that would stain it, bring your own from home.  Dressers with a towel laid out make fine dryer racks! 

#4.  We also bring snack foods in the bags and cooler...yogurt (the tubes of yogurt are best...Gogurt, they're called), cookies/granola bars, and cereal and milk for breakfast. 

There is just no reason, if you're on a tight budget, to think you can't cook in a hotel room!  Just be safe, NO electric frypans or gas stoves (you're not camping).  Call the hotel and ask them to put a microwave in your room, or if one is available somewhere for guest use.  And be sure to calculate the cost of a lower price hotel room with NO cooking facility requiring eating out vs. a slightly higher price room where you can cook. 

God Bless,

Lori

We've had a really intense week; my kiddos are learning to manage/budget their time in what is proving to be an ambitious year academically for them.  Schoolwork is taking wayyyyy too long, and we need to find the "leaks" where their time is being frittered away.  Part of it, I have observed, is that they just like talking to each other too much (a good thing during free time...not so good when there is a ton of schoolwork to be done!), so 5 minutes, 10 minutes, here and there, adds up.  I'll be on the prowl looking for the rest, and figuring out what we can do to fix it!

Bryan and I have one more Saturday (this coming one) of knife sharpening at the Farmers' Market, and then he is DONE for the outdoor market season!  We decided to work through September, rather than stopping at the end of August.  Good, in that he's made a ton of money this month!   But it's been really exhausting for him as he loses the whole day on Saturday (homework gets done Saturday eve and Sunday), especially since he's working at Kline Creek Farm on Fridays every other week.  We will BOTH be glad when the Market season ends!  (Markets go on through October...just not with our presence!)  He will continue to sharpen for customers here at home, but we'll pick the days...it's by appointment only. 

If you've read my series, "I Wish I Could Go To A Farm," I mentioned a place called Harvest Home Farm.  We'll be heading up there in early October for a weekend visit...pray that it would be fruitful and a learning experience for Bryan! 

May God Bless you this coming week!

Lori

(To join Friday Show n Tell with Canadagirl, click on the graphic above
or link to Canadagirl's blog from my "Friends" Section)

Thanks, Mary (aka CanadaGirl)...you inspired me to FINALLY get going on all my berry recipies and get them into the freezer!  I started late in the evening, and finished last night around midnight.  I pulled the baggies out of the freezer this morning to photograph them for today's post:

We'd picked TONS of blueberries while in Michigan, plus I had a lot of raspberries this year, so now I have:

Blueberry Freezer Jam...8 pints

1 Raspberry Pie Filling, and 1 Blueberry "Pudding" Topping for a layered dessert (I write either the baking instructions, if pie filling, or the name of the cookbook and page # if it's part of a longer dessert recipe, directly on the freezer bag)

2 Blueberry Pie Fillings

Scary how much sugar I doled out last night!!!!!!!  But the wonderful thing is that now I have my pie fillings for Thanksgiving (blueberry pie, plus I'll make a pumpkin one, too) and for Christmas (Raspberry), as well as extra for when company is coming, and for a pot-luck dessert.  The boys were especially excited about the jam...now when they eat their PB&J sandwiches at lunch, they can remember our trip to Michigan! 

Thank you for stopping by...please leave me a note to let me know you were here, and so I can visit your blog, too!

God Bless,

Lori

(To Join the Tightwad Tuesdays and/or Friday Show~n~Tell with Canadagirl, click on the graphic above, or visit Canadagirl's blog)

*Note: I posted this as a Show-n-Tell Friday last week, but I think I'll use it as a Tightwad Tuesday tip, also!  If you've already seen it, thanks for stopping by again!  If not, enjoy!*

I was getting tired of going into the "school closet" for the teacher's guides and answer key binders that I use daily, and wanted them on my big desk in the school room (which feels really big now that my computer is up in the "craft" room!), but I didn't want to just lay them down on it.  So I went to my local office supply store in search of a magazine holder.  I wasn't sure how much those things would cost there, but I'd seen a set of 5 online for $11.99 + $8.15 shipping=$20.14.

My store didn't have anything like these, but as I was looking, I noticed the cardboard display boxes they had all their binders and folders in.  One was already empty (back to school sales!), and with a quick little "consolidation of products" on my part, another was quickly emptied.  I took the empties to the manager and asked if I could recycle these in my home, and she said "of course!"  I got one narrow box and one wide box.  A little bit of fabric that I had and some Contac paper that had been in the closet for over 5 years (leftover from lining some old drawers) and I think they turned out pretty cute!  FREE was nice, too!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hope you have a wonderful day!  Let me know if you stopped by!

God Bless,

Lori

I have the blessing of writing for the Front Porch of Homeschoolblogger.com this year.  I write the "Homeschooling Through High School" column, which is published every Wednesday (click here to view the articles). 

Normally, the Company Front Porch is the only place you'll find these articles.  But the one I submitted today for tomorrow's edition represents my heartbeat and my passion when it comes to this time in the lives of my kids, and it is what I really desire to share with everyone through my blog here, Plans4You.  So I decided to post it here today.  I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps are blessed by it.  Let me know you've stopped by!

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!!

The Front Porch theme for this week is "Back To School."   My 15 year old son and I were heading from the parking lot of our community college to the building in which he takes his German class, and I asked him if there was anything that he did to "gear up" for the fact that, this week, our school year begins full-on.  The first thing he did was to look at the can of diet Pepsi-Max in his hand, raise it up slightly, and say, "WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!!" 

If you do not see television at all, this would make no sense to you.  But if you've seen it on occasion, as we have, you may be familiar with the humorous commercial which features multiple sleepyheads in need of a "jolt" to bring them to a state of consciousness. 

Once we got serious, he said that, typically, he would play as hard as he could for the couple of days leading up to the Monday start!  Play for him would be ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and practicing/playing with "Flightgear," the computer flying program he enjoys doing with a couple of serious aviation students in our church.  This season, owing to a badly sprained ankle the beginning of August, he has been sitting with his foot up for a few weeks.  So, he told me, the beginning of full-time school is a welcome relief from not having enough to do.

Telling...our high school students are not little kids any longer.  They are young men and women; adults-in-training.  I love to reflect upon the things my sons tell me...to "chew" on them for a while in order to extract the full "flavor and nutrition" from them.  What have I "extracted" from this brief interlude?

1.  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)

Our young people were created in the image of God and for the purpose of "having dominion" over the earth.  If they are not engaged in such pursuits, they will feel a sense of restlessness.  They will seek "something" to "dominate."  Is it not best that we guide them in this quest? 

Have your homeschool students grasped the link between the work of school that they are doing and the fulfillment of their created purpose and longings?  Have you???  What about the student who fanicies himself a future engineer...and just isn't excited about the study of Government and Economics...how does he "gear up" for this course?  How about the daughter who has to take freshman biology this year, but has NO interest in the inner workings of a dead frog? 

Find the tie-in.  Find that which will take the present situation, from which they feel "disconnected," and link it to the future that God is planting, whether subtley or overtly, in their hearts.  Link them...connect them...help them to see it, to look for it.  Teach them to pray for it, and pray with them!

From homemaker to engineer, everyone in this nation is going to experience a major change in the structure and scope of "power" of our government...and soon.  As Christian adults, perhaps as married adults with children of their own, should Jesus' return be yet another generation away, our sons and daughters will have a pressing need to understand the basis of government (God's Word and Love), the various ideologies that have crept into our society and are being applied in this country and how to spot them in political rhetoric, proposed laws, etc.  (I hope, by this age, that we do NOT fear having such discussions with out young adults, as we are not citizens of this world, but of Heaven).  Understanding the past is the key to unlocking a "big picture" comprehension of the present and the future!   

Does your daughter enjoy flowers?  Food?  She LIVES in biology!  Would she, as a future wife and mother, like to have a vegetable garden to help provide nutritious, cost-efficient food for her family?  A study of the science of life, created by God, will help her to understand what happens when we hybridize and genetically modify our seeds, our animals...our food.  

Do our students comprehend that the entire universe operates via mathmatics???  Every single thing?  That it is clearly important to God, as he used it to make everything run...so doing the best we can in math thanks Him for it, and honors Him?  And that grumbling and complaining about it "disses" His created order?

We're back to school now, and we want our students excited, motivated, and engaged.  Help your sons and daughters to formulate a vision of their futures, based upon their God-given gifts and the desires of their hearts...then show them how their homeschool studies, one course at a time, are moving them along the path to the fulfillment of those God-given desires.  Each child is different, as God has created and gifted them.  Delight in the process of "preparing them to launch!" 

I like to compare these years to the Space Shuttles of NASA.  If you've ever visited the Kennedy Space Center, or watched the preparation for a launch, you are familiar with "the crawler."  The crawler is the enormous vehicle upon which a finished and ready rocket is placed and secured for the trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad.  These rockets are heavy, and must be moved extremely carefully.  Thus, the crawler moves at the incredible pace of 1 mile per hour, with the entire trip from VAB to launch pad taking between 5 and 6 hours.  It is almost painful to watch, it's so slow!  And yet, with every passing inch by every passing inch, the anticipatory excitement of the coming launch builds.  If you've never seen the crawler in action, you can view it here in this one-minute-long video...(click the "stream" icon when you get to the intro page.)

Did you see what I saw?  As the crawler inched along the path, the launch pad was clearly in view.  "Atlantis, Welcome to Pad A" signs awaited it!  The anticipated arrival was planned for, thought out, acted upon, celebrated!  The folks operating the crawler could see it!  They knew, while on that slow, arduous, heavy path, what the target was, and they had it in their sights, ever before them, urging them on through those long 6 hours of slow, slow progress. 

I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at: can your homeschooled high school student see his or her launch pad?  Do they understand that they are the Shuttle, preparing for launch?  Can they see how the classes they are taking now are part of the things that make up the crawler, which is supporting them, transporting them, to the launch pad (Graduation Day)?  Are the classes they are taking transporting them to the life that God has put in their hearts to pursue?  Or are they on that crawler with no launch pad in sight??? 

Back to school?  No idea where the launch pad is?  Perhaps you need to delay the start by a week or two, and take an extra camping trip with your teen, or have some backyard picnics with the whole family if that is how things can work for you, to discuss the things of the heart...your teen's heart.  Help them see the launch pad.  They'll tolerate the crawler much better...and maybe even enjoy the ride.

May God Bless you and your family this week!

Lori

Lori Havens has been married to Kevin for 24 years.  They live in Illinois with their two sons, Bryan (17) and Nathan (15), and dog Sunny (9).  Lori enjoys writing, gardening, reading, and the outdoors.  She is the author of "Should I Be A Nurse? A Journey of Self-Exploration for Those Considering a Career in Nursing" and  "7 Essential Questions Every Future Nurse Must Ask."     You can find her blogging at both Homeschool Blogger and Homestead Blogger  .

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Let me know you stopped by today, so I can visit and say "hello!"

It has been a nice week...LOTS of rain, and the temps and humidity have dropped off.  Today is "glorious" in many ways, weather being one of them!  Here is my Wrapup...

Homeschool-Related

• I got Nathan's German textbook for his community college class.  We are excited that this one semester of college German will earn him one year of high school credit!  His first class is tomorrow morning. 
• I am missing one of the 2 copies of our American Gov't texts that I purchased at our homeschool convention in June.  This is a BIG frustration...we can still begin, but now I have to shift things around so they can share the one copy we have.  I have torn the whole house apart looking for this thing.  My last inkling is that I had taken it along on our church camping trip to Michigan in July, so I could read through it a bit and get an idea for how the course is supposed to be scheduled out for the semester.  We had to pack up in a hurry when we broke camp at the end of the week, and it was raining...so it's possible that someone may have grabbed it off the little table we have for books and a lantern, and tossed them into a gear box, just to get the packing done.  (Unlikely, but I haven't found them in the china cabinet or the pantry, or any of the other "wierd, ridiculous" places that I've been looking in desperation!  So we have to go into the storage space under the basement stairs, haul out all the tents/cots/cooking gear bins to get to the general gear boxes so I can look there.  If I find them, it'll be well worth the effort.  If I don't, it'll just add to my mounting frustration over this! 

Building Friendships

Bryan has been playing volleyball with the kids from church today; Nathan, who is walking on his own (no cane or crutches), still cannot tolerate any excessive movement of his recently sprained ankle.  So he's a little bummed.  He came home with us after church.  We are planning a "Reformation Day" gathering at our home for October 31st.  We did it last year, and had a blast.  My friend Nan and her 4 sons are our leaders for this program...we just open our home and host.  But the 4 guys (they're young men now, not boys anymore!) invited Bryan and Nathan to sing "Rise Up O Men of God" with them, so they're nervously happy about it, and will be practicing this week.  We'll be getting together with these wonderful friends each week for group practice.  Many of our young people enjoy singing together, and they sing in parts, so it really is wonderful to listen to!  I'm sure I'll have a Friday Show-n-Tell on this gathering come October/November (not sure what day Oct. 31st is this year)! 

Entreprenuerial Pursuits

Bryan and I worked the Farmer's Market on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day weatherwise to be there...a little cold, but we had light jackets, so were quite comfy.  Nathan is getting ready to learn the business, and to handle the market next year that Bryan and I can only be at once a month (we're at one market almost full time, but rotate to the smaller market).  By the way...he's a knife sharpener. 

Growing in Wisdom (in addition to stature!)

{I put this part in brackets as it is "the chorus" which will repeat each week.}

{We are in the 3rd week of a 16 week "Survey of the Bible," which dh and I have done before (it used to take a year to do this study...it's been condensed!); it is not for "beginners," and can be considered--as opposed to "spiritual milk"--"strong meat."  We want the boys to be prepared with a thorough understanding of the greatness and magnitude of God's overarching plan for His people in these last days and in the coming Kingdom of Christ in the...we hope and pray...near future!  It is an awesome study...you can learn more HERE  (look for the first one, "Biblical Survey").}

This week we looked very closely at Scriptures words about the stated purpose for which God created man.  Now, I have to admit that I would have said "to glorify God."  Most people do.  And, OF COURSE we want to glorify God in all we say and do!  But when you go to look in Scripture to see what God says is His purpose...His stated purpose...for creating man...hmmm.  Looking closely, and I mean REALLY closely, paying attention to the context of each verse we look at in such things (for we do NOT want to take verses out of context), it is an eye-opening experience!  I'll just let y'all play with this one for yourselves.

Can I recommend this Biblical Survey Study series highly enough to you?  Some of us are jumping into some new practices, things that are gaining popularity especially recently among homeschoolers, with regard to keeping feasts, sabbath, etc.  And this can be a good thing, in some ways!  But before you do, I would urge you to go through a study like this one...so you have the entire, BIG picture of Scripture, and figure out why it is that you want to do this, if you do (which you do not have to!).   

When we have celebrated/held a Sabaath meal (Shabbat), we have loved it.  We've now done it twice, and wouldn't mind doing it some more.  But we probably don't approach it with the same mindset as you might think.  I enjoy Colin and Nancy Campbell's "take" on it, as well, fyi, in Nancy's book "The Family Meal Table and Hospitality."  You can read an article she penned describing their Shabbat HERE. 

We are not, and neither are they, to my understanding, "Torah-Keepers" as I've heard it called.  I don't want anyone to think that any of my past posts are prodding you to take up different practices.  Just an FYI!  We are in perilous times, and we need to take care that we are not "tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching," (Eph. 4:14). 

The Biblical Survey study is available at no cost.  Our dear friends who authored it want believers who are desiring to eat the "strong meat" of Scripture (as opposed to "milk," see 1 Cor. 3:2, Hebrews 5:12-14) to have it.  Look for a link in the left-hand column of my blog, for "Curriculum Picks," and select "Biblical Survey by Cindy Zeigler" for more information.

Looking Ahead

So, school will begin...for the most part...more or less...tomorrow!  We'll not be full-time yet, we're still waiting for a couple of other things to get schedules written in stone--things that will happen outside of my direct control.  But Nathan begins German, Bryan begins Spanish with my wonderful friend and awesome homeschool mom, Christine, we'll begin American Government minus one student textbook (thankful that we still have one which can at least be shared), and I'll get the schedule completed within a week or two, Lord willing!  Full time, full on school will probably begin just after Labor Day. 

May God bless your coming week!

Lori

(To join the Weekly WrapUp, visit http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/threelittleladies )

For Show~n~Tell Friday, I'll just mention that I don't have a photo of an "accomplishment" ready yet, as we are still digging out the school and now the craft room.  We moved my laptop and all the wireless networking stuff up into the craft room, so it is becoming my sweet, little place!  I went to the store this morning, and asked for 4 boxes, which they gave me, so I could fill them with all the "littles" for the Goodwill store.  Today is "be brutal and pitch it" day!  Hopefully I'll have some photos for my Weekly Wrapup Saturday evening.  Also, I FINALLY FINISHED Bryan's story, "I Wish I Could Go To A Farm!"  Part 5 of 5 is available, just below this post.  (Actually, the "story" will continue from time to time as events progress, but we'll now be in "real time," as opposed to covering what's already happened.)

For now, I found this video via a trail of links I can't quite remember; but I think it is a straight-shooting, simpe-yet-powerful message that we all need to hear...and not just us, but especially our older kids, who are faced with an uncertain future in a culture that rejects Christ.  We can all use this reminder to take a look in the mirror, and in our own hearts.   Here you go:

Let me know you were here today...God Bless you!

(NOTE: If you haven't read all the previous parts of this 5 part tale,
you'll want to begin at the beginning, in Part 1 .)

Our thunderstorms have passed, for now, so on with the story.  We left off as we got out of the car and walked up to the Amish Farmhouse...

We weren't quite sure of what to do...where to go; but within just a few seconds, a lovely girl, came out of the barn and greeted us.  She was Willis and Kathy's 16 year old daughter, Diane, and she would show us our room and show us how things worked in there.  (I learned later in our stay that English was her second language...I had NO idea as we conversed!)  The door in the photo above, with the chair and the shrubs by it, was ours.  She brought us into a lovely room that had functioned, for years, as the family's "grandparents apartment."   When it was no longer needed as such, they chose to turn it into a B&B. 

In the photos below, notice the gas-lamps on the walls...no electricity, here!  Also the homemade Amish cinnamon rolls in the cake platter on the stove (I took this pic later in our stay, so there's only one left!)   Beyond the calendar wall, you enter a tiny little kitchen...complete with sink, gas stove, and gas refrigerator.  And gas lights (they make the room hot!).  The kitchen, when you head through the opening there, is on the right...the half-open door you see goes to a full bath.

So, why were we here?  This is an Amish Dairy Farm!!!  What more could Bryan want?  Hadn't it all pretty much started here, in Ohio's Amish country, on a farm, surrounded by dairy farmers and their holsteins???  Bryan should be in dairy-farm-heaven...

Earlier in the summer, when I had spoken with Kathy Miller on the phone to book the reservation (turns out that they ARE, indeed, Amish...they got permission to have a cell phone to take calls for reserving the B&B), we spoke of Bryan's desire to be a dairy farmer.  She said that a number or their guests wanted to experience helping milk the cows, and that we would be welcome to do all the farm work and chores we wanted!  (Smart family!)  So I made sure Bryan packed some jeans and his work boots from Kline Creek Farm.  That first day, we wandered around the place, but didn't do any chores.  Next day, though, Diane had told us we could help milk, and I sent Bryan out to the barn.  He wasn't too enthusiastic...I just couldn't figure it out!  But he went. 

A half hour later, he was back at the door to our little place.

"Mom...Mom!"

"It's open, Bryan...come on in."

"No, Mom...can you bring me a clean shirt, quick?"

Uh-oh...what in the world had happened?

I went to the door, and there he was, shirt off, the offending garment in a wad on the ground. 

"I think I'm going to be sick...can you give me something to get this smell out of my nose?"

I picked up the shirt...and dropped it again.  Yep, that's a bad smell...  I grabbed the platter of homemade Amish cinnamon rolls, and stuck one under Bryan's nose.  He inhaled deeply. 

"Good?"

"Yeah, better..."

By this time he had kicked off his work boots, and came inside.  The smelly jeans were immediately stripped off, right there just inside the door, and tossed outside, to join the t-shirt.  Another whiff of the cinnamon rolls, and he was off to the shower, where the smells of soap and shampoo quelled the nausea.  When he was dressed in fresh everything, we sat down with some cold drinks and started to talk.

"So, Bryan...what happened out there?" 

"I don't want to be a dairy farmer.  I can't.  That was the worst smell in the world, I thought I was going to vomit the whole time."

~~THUD~~  Was that my jaw, my visions of my son's future, or my dreams of retiring in a "granny cabin" on a farm, hitting the floor?  I must admit, when I smelled that shirt, I was pretty disgusted, too. (Coming from a well-seasoned R.N., that's a lot.)  It wasn't a manure-smell.  I'm not sure what it was.  Maybe one cow had peed on herself, or a neighbor cow had peed on her, and it had lingered and "festered" on her, or something...I really don't know.  We know manure...we know it well!  We know the ammonia-smell of pee-soaked straw bedding in a sheep barn and in our cow shed at Kline Creek Farm.  This was different.  It didn't bother Diane or her little brother, and--I have to say--she certainly didn't smell of it at all!  But somehow, something disgusting got on Bryan as he milked, and he was stuck in it for 20 minutes, and it ended ALL desire to be a dairy farmer.  Boom...just like that. 

I put the jeans and t-shirt in a plastic grocery bag, tied it shut, and stored it under the shrub outside the door until I could go to a laundrymat the next day with a bottle of bleach.  Bryan was a happy camper...the worst was behind him!  I, on the other hand, felt shell-shocked.  "Lord, why?  What now?  All this time, all this effort, all these hours we've spent on farms, our volunteer hours at Kline Creek...was it all for nought?"

I haven't yet mentioned that one of the main reasons for our trip was that it was my younger son, Nathan's, 15th birthday.  His dad had to be away in Europe, and I wanted to give Nathan something special.  Going to Cleveland and coming home wasn't so exciting (when you live in Chicago, visiting Cleveland doesn't hold any attraction...museums, zoos, arboreta...we have all these here and they're awesome).  So I extended the trip into Amish Ohio...and then tried to find a place that would be interesting for us all. 

So, here we were, and it was the day before Nathan's birthday.  I found Diane outside, and asked her if she could recommend a nice Amish bakery nearby where I could find a little cake for Nathan's day tomorrow. 

"Oh, I'll bake him a cake!  What flavor does he like?  What kind of decoration would please him?"

Wow!  What a sweetheart she is...I told her, "white cake, vanilla or lemon frosting, no chocolate, and he loves the north woods, or the tropics...your pick!"

The next morning, Kathy Miller (the mom) stopped by. 

"I hear it's Nathan's birthday today!"  "Yes, it is!  What a lovely place to be for his birthday!"

"We'd like to have a cookout for him tonight, to celebrate!  Would that work?  We'll have a little birthday party!"

WOW...what a treat!  We agreed to meet at the campfire pit (in the house side-yard) at 4pm.  Willis grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while we all sat, chatted, and got to know one another better.  Then, surprise of all surprises, they said, "food's ready...come on in!"  They invited us into their spacious kitchen (we thought we'd be eating outside), where Kathy had a lovely array of condiments, salads, and chips set out.  We enjoyed our meal together, along with a time of mutual questions and answers about each other's lives. 

Afterward, Diane unveiled her creation...and what a creation it was!  The lightest, fluffiest white cake I think I've ever had, decorated with a deep, forest green frosting complete with evergreen trees, rivers, boulders...it was gorgeous!  We all admired it, and then greedily cut it to pieces and gobbled it up.  I figured it would be time to say goodbye afterward...and I was sad to see this unique moment, a private meal shared with an Amish family, come to an end.  But instead, we had yet another "blessing from God" in store.

"Would you like to join us for coffee in the living room?"  Willis invited.  Bryan and Nathan and I shot a delighted glance each other's way. 

"Why, yes!  We'd love to!"

We stayed for another hour, sharing about our lives, sharing the blessings of homeschooling, sharing our love for Jesus, and learning more about their lives on the dairy farm.  (We did not mention the "crisis" of that morning, which remained tied up in the plastic bag, underneath a shrub.)  Willis talked about his dairy business (he's named it "NorthHope Holsteins),

and then asked Bryan about his asparations as a farmer.  Bryan was pretty general in his answers.  I held my breath. 

"I work with sheep at Kline Creek Farm." 

"Willis has a twin brother," Kathy piped up.  "Yeah," said Willis, "he's a sheep farmer out here.  Say, I have a magazine I'd like to give you.  I think you'll enjoy it."  He handed Bryan what has now become one of our family favorites...an issue of Farming .  Yes, it's just called Farming.  Like the Amish...simple. 

At the close of our evening together, we listened to an Amish father pray with his family, and read to the two younger children, who were all scrubbed and in their jammies.  It was a truly special time.

The next evening, we were invited to join the Miller's and their church for volleyball.  We were allowed to take this one photo...before the more conservative families arrived...of my sons, Diane (going for the ball), and an Amish boy and his sister, so we could have a memory; within about 20 minutes, there must have been 50+ kids there, playing volleyball on 2 courts:

 By the time the sun had gone down, an old Amish grandpa had started a fire under his big, cast-iron kettle, in which he made fresh, sweet, Kettle-corn, and hot dogs were roasted along the sides.  At the beginning of this time, the conversation between myself and the Amish women was cautious, and reserved.  By the end of the evening, we were freely sharing about my role as a homeschooling mother, protecting our children's hearts from worldliness, about the difficulties Nathan faces as a diabetic, and the difficulties that many of their children deal with...basically, we discovered that we're all just folks!  We enjoyed that evening of food and fellowship and volleyball so much!  Often they would be speaking to one another in their German dialect, especially the volleyball players...but now and then, they'd look over at Bryan and Nathan and say something like, "Ja, dat was a goot shot!  You play well!"  At the end of the evening, darkness upon us, the Amish began to walk, bike, and horse-and-buggy home.  We climbed in the car and drove back to the B&B.

Back in our apartment room, we lay in our beds (the boys were still small enough to share one bed, so I got the other all to myself!) and chatted, the gas lamp as low as we could get it due to the heat. 

"Mom?"

"Yes, Bryan..."

"I can't wait to get back to the sheep at Kline Creek."

"The sheep?"

"Yeah...the sheep.  You know what I think?  I really want to have a farm.  But not a dairy farm.  It's the sheep.  I love working with the sheep."

You see, my friends, God is faithful.  What He begins, He will finish.  We may get in the way, slow things down, cut off our own noses to spite our own faces, as we try to rush His plan outside of His timing.  But He WILL finish what he starts.  All the years of volunteering at Kline Creek Farm, and my questioning God about why we were here "with all the sheep" when Bryan wanted to be a dairy farmer; the times we were around dairy farmers and Bryan wasn't going out of his skin with excitement, and I asked God what was up with that; He knew...I was supposed to pray, wait, listen, and obey.  And this is where I begin to weep, even now, as I recollect the things that have happened since then.

In April, we attended "Family Week " Camp with Tommy and Sherri Waller, who were featured in the Franklin Springs film documentary, "A Journey Home." (I blogged about it here. )  During Family Week, we were blessed with teaching by Colin and Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies  .  The Campbells are Kiwi's...New Zealanders...so they have that delightful accent, and it is so much fun just to listen to them! My three men, Kevin, Bryan, and Nathan, sat in on a Men's class with Colin, where he shared that Nancy's father (who has gone to be with the Lord) was once the World Champion Sheep Shearer!  Turns out that Nancy grew up on a New Zealand sheep farm. 

When I heard this, I began to pray.  You see, we are actively looking for an apprenticeship opportunity for Bryan, who is now 17.   Father in Heaven, You have laid out a path for Bryan.  You have plans for him.  If you want us to speak to Colin and Nancy, you'll need to make a way...there are several hundred people here, and they're always surrounded.  Show us.

That evening, Saturday, was our "Shabbat" dinner (you'll have to read that post about Family Week for the details on what was happening).  All of us in attendance were gathered in the large building for a delicious taco-salad bar meal, and Colin and Nancy shared their family's traditions for the Sabbath.  It was a beautiful time of blessing the members of our families, and praying over one another.  Afterwards, it was time to eat the taco salads!

There was one long buffet table set up with all the food on it, and the Wallers asked everyone to form 2 lines, and to serve themselves from both sides of the table, to get everyone through faster.  The 200+ people did so, and we waited.  As we inched closer to the serving table, I spotted Colin and Nancy in the other line.  Everyone near them was straining to lean in close and converse with them.  Lord, if You want us to talk with them about Bryan, You have to make the way.  Make it clear to us.

Closer and closer to the buffet table we came, and I eyed Colin and Nancy as they also moved in.  After a 5 or 10 minute wait, it happened.  We merged together near the head of the table, ended up...you guessed it...face to face with Colin and Nancy.  "Hello there, I'm Colin Campbell!" he said, reaching out to shake hands with Bryan and Nathan.  After a brief moment of introductions and "we've enjoyed your teachings this week," I told Nancy how much Bryan had enjoyed hearing of her father's World Championship status...and that they were looking at an aspiring sheep farmer! 

Smiles and laughter and rapid-fire conversation were ours with the Campbell's as we made our way down the buffet table, filling our plates.  Boldly, I told her that we desired an apprenticeship for Bryan , but only with a family who dearly love the Lord.  "Oh, I'm sure we must know someone back home...would you be willing to let him go to New Zealand?"  "If it is what God wants and has for him, of course!"  We agreed to stay in touch via their Above Rubies website, and, when and if the time came, they would check their New Zealand connnections for us, and we could go from there.

Fast forward to May 17th...we had a guest speaker giving the message at church.  He is an old and dear friend of 2 of our teaching elders.  As he began to speak, he began to share about his ministry over the years, and how he was led to buy a farm, and continue his speaking and teaching ministry there, using "agritourism" to bring people in, and the many scriptural analogies to farm-type living in his teaching, which has always used "word pictures" as the mainstay.  Bryan and I smiled when we heard that.  He then went on to share about how they also really work their farm, providing organic, grass-fed, grass-finished meat, marketed directly to the consumer (just what Bryan wants to do!).  We smiled again, nodding in agreement.  The final bit of information was a true joy...

Guess what?  They raise sheep!!!  Our pastor, Gary, had told us that we would like what his friend, Dr. Larry Guthrie, had to say.  It gave me goosebumps when we realized what had just walked into our church!  We plan to visit their Wisconsin farm, Harvest Home Farm, very soon.  Our pastor said that he would put in a good word for Bryan with Dr. Guthrie if Bryan felt the Lord directing him to spend some time there, learning about sheep farming, and all the other things that they could teach him.

So there you have it.  It began in the heart of an 8 year old boy who felt a longing to go to a "real farm."  Little did I know that over the next 9...almost 10 years, I would learn how faithfully God would lay out a path for my son.  Now and then, I wonder...how in the world will a kid from the uber-suburbs of Chicago ever end up with a farm?  How can he buy land?  How will he afford it?  I have friends...well-meaning...who ask the same things, though not in so many words.  And if they don't ask, I'm sure they think it!  Who wouldn't?  They are valid questions.  But then, I come back to the first 4 words of the question: "how in the world...," and I have my answer.  Bryan's life isn't in the hands of "the world."  It's in the hands of God.  We'll put our hope and trust in Him...for we know that He is faithful and true.  After all, I didn't know any farmers.  But God does.  God knows LOTS of farmers! 

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5,6)

"My son, preserve sound judgement and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.  Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble." (Proverbs 3:21-23)

"The LORD will guide you always."  (Isaiah 58:11)

Thank you for stopping by, and thank you for staying with me until I was finally able to finish Bryan's story!  I'll continue to post about him as things progress, of course!  But the next story will be his younger brother's, Nathan's.  He's a bit more perplexing, at least at this stage of life, since he really doesn't know what it is he wants to do.  I know he's just 15 (he'll be 16 in a few weeks), but I know all too well how quickly these years go by, so my mind is beginning to train onto him, the things he says, the things that I see which "light a gleam" in his eyes.  I'm gearing up for the next "ride" that God has for us to take!

Let me know you were here...thanks, and God Bless you!

To my friends who have been reading this story, and waiting...waiting...waiting...for Part 4, my thanks for your patience!  I'm not sure why, but I've been writing this part for several months now, and I keep deleting and starting over.  The others just flowed...this one has been very slow in coming to me.  Again, I'm not completely sure why.  I'm sure I'll figure it out once I'm done writing it, and I'll just know.  For now, I'm hoping that this draft will not be erased in frustration, too! 

If you're new to this wonderful story, please take a few minutes to start at the beginning...I am always awed at how  evident God's hand is in our lives, and you'll be able to see it, too, if you begin at Part 1!

So, back to the story of Bryan and farmers...have I mentioned that "I didn't know any farmers, but God does...God knows LOTS of farmers..." ???  Perhaps a few times. 

Bryan began working with Mark Johnson in February 2006, at the age of 14.  He was a pretty little kid back then.  Not too terribly tall, and skinny...VERY skinny!  What a difference 3 years makes!  Bryan is now just about 6 feet tall, with perhaps a couple more inches to go yet, I'm told.  He's still lean, but 3 years of hauling hay bales builds some pretty impressive biceps!

When he started with Mark, he was pretty sure he wanted to be a dairy farmer.  Holsteins in the southwestern hills of Wisconsin...that was the picture he had in his mind.  I was hoping I could talk him into Jersey cows instead, as I think they are prettier.  But it's his farm, so he gets the final say!  But I digress...

Mark manages his own farm, in addition to doing the work at Kline Creek Farm.  He is a sheep farmer in both places.  He raises Southdown sheep, a meat breed.  At Kline Creek, we also have the Shorthorn cattle.  So we figured that Bryan would learn a lot about sheep that he wouldn't really need, but the "principles" would "transfer" to animal care basics on a dairy farm.  Plus, the few cattle that we have would give him a start, even though it's not a dairy operation.  "Lord," I would pray, "I'm so grateful for Kline Creek Farm and this opportunity!  What a blessing you have given us!  But, I have a question for You: we raise sheep here--Bryan needs experience on a dairy farm.  Please introduce us to whomever it is we're supposed to meet who has the dairy farm that Bryan can spend time at and learn that business.  Don't get me wrong...we love Kline Creek!  But why are we here now with all these sheep?"

Month after month, for the first two years, Bryan worked with Mark...and the sheep.  He would do bits here and there with the cows...he even got to give them their injections (yikes!)...but mostly he worked with the sheep.  He's helped with lambing, shearing, worming, feeding, chasing, cleaning, and, at the County Fair, showing the sheep (the photo below is from July 2008). 

At the County Fair in 2007, we were walking around the dairy cow barn, looking at the animals.  One farm family really decorated their area...big wooden signs, hand decorated/woodburning lettering, lovely tables and chairs, fabrics...very "homey" looking!  The woman who was usually there (obviously "mom") was always very friendly to us when we would come by, and would talk to us and answer my questions.  I often wondered, "Might this be the place where Bryan could apprentice?"  Bryan always enjoyed visiting the cows, but never asked any questions...Nathan and I tended to do all the talking. 

Why isn't he saying more???  This could be the place!  He should be going out of his skin with excitement here!  I just couldn't get a read on him.  Hmmmmm.

One afternoon, I asked Mark if he knew any dairy farmers here at the County Fair...I told him where my thoughts had been, and I mentioned this particular farm's display that I'd been drawn to.  (And yes, he knew Bryan was interested in dairy farming, in case I haven't yet mentioned that!)

"Yeah, I know them...quite well!  Their son works with my wife!  They're terrific, and they have a really nice dairy farm!"  He supplied me their names and cell phone number. 

WOW!!!  Talk about excited--I could hardly believe it!  Lord, thank you!  Again, you've given us exactly what we needed!  Thank you!  I told Bryan the good news...

"Mmmm, that's good."  That was all.  "Bryan, son, do you realize that we just got a 'connection' for you with a nice dairy farm?"  "Yeah...it's fine,"  came the monotoned reply. 

Now, I'm all about helping my son with making connections, finding opportunities for him to learn and experience things in areas where he's interested.  But I do expect him to "get up and go" once I've located an open door.  With this "connection" that I'd scored, his get up and go got up and went, as they say.  I had spoken briefly and non-specifically with this dairy-farm mother about our "general interest" in dairy farming, and she had invited us to come to the farm any time for a visit (how very sweet of her to do that for us!)...but I never set it up.  For some reason, Bryan just didn't seem that interested, though he continued to tell me that he wanted to be a dairy farmer.  "OK, Lord...I'll wait."

Let's move along now to September, 2008.  My dh was on a business trip in Europe for 2 weeks, and the boys and I had some stuff we needed to do in Cleveland, Ohio for a couple of days.  Of course, I looked for a way we could extend the trip, and WOW, did I find one!  Remember from Part 1 or Part 2 of this story, I mentioned The Country School Farm in Amish Ohio?  Well, anytime I get in the state, I look for a way to work in a trip out there...it is so beautiful and peaceful!  Since it was only a couple of hours south of Cleveland, if that much, we decided to go for a few days. 

Googling and linking from here to there brought me to an amazing opportunity at a place called the "Farmstead B Inn B," and the family of Willis and Kathy Miller.  Advertised as a B&B on a "3rd Generation Amish Family Farm," and a dairy farm to boot, it seemed like just the place for the boys and me, so we booked our stay via telephone, and headed out there. 

I wasn't quite sure what to expect...I figured that this family probably wasn't Amish, but Mennonite or something, since they were having "English" stay on their farm, and they'd booked our reservation via telephone--didn't seem very Amish to me!  We pulled in the gravel drive, and walked toward the house...

  The next 3 days, though on the outside seemed rather ordinary, proved to be a real turning point in the story of a great, great God who has the heart and the future of a young man held tightly in His Perfect Hand. 

Join me shortly for Part 5 of "I Wish I Could Go To A Farm"...

(We have a major thunderstorm blowing though right now, so I'm shutting down for a while...part 5 will be up soon!)

God Bless you, and let me know you stopped by!

Lori