"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" Ephesians 2:10 Poiema is the Greek word for workmanship =) This is me, walking.... sometimes missing the signs but the Lord is always kind to make them larger the next time around. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:37:00 -0600 Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:37:00 -0600 I was listening to a John Piper message yesterday. He quoted this poem.  it's a wonderful.   I should commit it to memory. The Thorn I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne and begged Him for a priceless gift whichI could call my own I took the gift from out His hand but as I would depart, I cried "But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart. This is a strange, a hurtful gift that Thou hast given me." He said "My child, I give good gifts and give my best to thee." I took it home and although at first the cruel thorn hurt sore; As long years passed, I learned at last, to love it more and more. I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace; He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil that hides His face.  ----Martha Snell Nickolson Happy New Year everyone! I pray that the thorns of 2009 will serve to reveal His face. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/641692/ Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:37:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/641692/ My friend Shaina sent me a good knock on the head via Llyod-Jones.  He's speaking of spiritual depression, but his points can be generalized to any area that we struggle with spiritually.  And of course, it's always nice when someone says it's ok to talk to myself. ha.  "I say we must talk to ourselves insteading of allowing "ourselves" to talk to us.  Do you know what that means? I suggest that the whole trouble of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to our selfs. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it.  This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter.  Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?  Take those thoughts that come to you when you wake up in the morning.  You have not originated them but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.   Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you.   Now this man's (David in Psalm 42:5,11 ) treatment is this:  instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himslf.  "Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?" he asks.  His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says "Self, listen for a moment and I will speak to you."  Do you know what I mean? If not, you have had but little experience. The whole art in spiritual living is knowing how to handle yourself.  You have to take yourself in hand, address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say "Why art thou cast down? What business do you have to be disquieted?"  You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself and say to yourself  "Hope thou in God" - instead of muttering in this depressed and unhappy way.  And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is,  What God is and What God has done and What God has pledged Himself to do.  Then, having done that, end on this great note - defy yourself and defy other people and defy the devil and the whole world and say with this man, "I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance and my God."  ~D Martin Lloyd Jones http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/622362/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/622362/ My brother is getting married very very soon =)  A week from Saturday, i think.  Maybe you knew this, but I didn't know, until this year, that the typical wedding recessional is a piece by Mendelsshon from  A Midsummers Night Dream.  But even more strange than that, in my opinion, is the fact that the processional piece heard at many weddings (the ubiquitous Here Comes the Bride) is from a Wagner opera (Lohengrin).  Who knew that the "Kill the Wabbit" guy was also the "Here Comes the Bride" guy!!  (ok, different operas).  But what does all of this have to do with books?? I actually didn't go looking for wedding trivia this evening, I have been jumping around looking for confirmation of my thought that an opera alluded to in our current bedtime story was the Ride of the Valkyries (or "Kill the Wabbit" if you are a Bugs Bunny fan....) opera (the only name I know it by).  And that bit of wedding trivia came up so I thought I'd share.   We just finished reading Henty's For the Temple out loud. That went about mach 10 over the younger girls heads, but Lukas got a fair amount of it and even Eden can now say 70 A.D when I ask her when the fall of Jerusalem occurred (well, the AD one...).  So after the girls were such good sports about the boy book, I decided I should find a lighter and more entertaining book.  We are now reading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. It was written and set in the 1940's (New York) and is  delightful.  My kids get annoyed with me while I'm reading outloud b/c I keep stopping to admire her wonderfully rich vocubulary and descriptive language.  Here is part of the exchange this evening: Me:  "He went tiptoe down the iron cellar steps into the great warm subterranean room where the furnace crouched glaring amid its coiled tentacles of pipe like the minotaur in the labryinth."  Oo, isn't that a great picture?  What a great way to say that! She could have said "he went downstairs to the furnace room." Instead she said "The furnace crouched"  What a great strong verb!  And who remembers anything about the Minotaur in the labryinth??" Them: Moooooommmmm, can you Please just READ? (Can you tell we are in the middle of IEW writing assignments?) She uses alot of similies, too, that are very picturesque.  Another thing I love about this book is that she throws in references like "the minotaur in the labrynth", assuming that her readers will know what she means.  One of her characters CHOOSES to spend an afternoon at the opera, part of tonights chapter described it and his thoughts about it (and his attempt to tell the story to the household handyman...).  Which is what inspired me to go online and figure out which one it was so maybe we'll listed to a few snippets of some of the music tomorrow.  Learning is so fun!  Anyway.  This is a strange post for one who's not posted in Months!  I really do mean to be better about blogging. Someone asked me last night about how hold Christopher is and I had to stop and count.  Oh dear, he's 6 months old in 2 weeks, that means I really should think about starting him on solid food at some point! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/604342/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/604342/ "A happy heart makes the face cheerful....."  Proverbs 15:13 When I was a child, I  had this beautifully illustrated book of nursery rhymes . I loved it very much.  A few years ago, my very thoughtful brother found out which book it was from my mom and bought one on Ebay and gave it to one of my girls as a Christmas gift.  While reading through the book with them, we came across this short and pointed poem  "Here's Sulky Sue. What shall we do? Turn her face to the wall until she comes to!"  I had to laugh because that's what we do with our own little sulky sues (and joes...).  Kids with attitude get to go stand in the corner until they have a happy heart for the under 6 set) or a good attitude (for the over 6 set).   Sometimes a child will wail from the corner "I'm happpppyyyyyy now!"  I will hold them up in front of the mirror and say "is that a cheerful face???!  Sometimes they are there for quite a long time.... The idea is that obedience with a bad attitude or angry heart is not acceptable.  So I try very hard to stop their world and give them time to get their own attitudes straight before allowing them to do whatever it was that they were originally not happy to do.  And then I usually give them a second job to test them =)  If they come out of the corner and give me attitude again, it's lather, rinse, repeat. Back to the corner! (thanks to Carla Link for corner time guidance...) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/571880/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 14:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/571880/ I really had intended to post a specific birth announcement last night but ran out of steam!  So here are the specifics (well, I won't give TOO many...) Christopher Thomas arrived Friday at 1:08 pm.  He weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 oz, the biggest of our babies yet.  He has dark fuzzy down hair (just a little) and dark eyes like most of the other kids and he's is so cute!  We got to the hospital around 7:30 in the morning, the dr. broke my water at noon, and he was born about an hour later =)  I was bound and determined to forgo the epidural this time b/c although it's a beautiful thing in the middle of hard labor, I never like the annoyance of the recovery (which for me is dull achy pain around the needle site for a couple of weeks).  So I managed to go drug free. And let me just say that it was the worst 15 or 20 minutes of pain, but now that I'm home I'm feeling better at this stage of the game than I usually am.    And I'm really  happy not to be pregnant!  Except I can't find anything to fit (I hate the idea of wearing maternity clothes after the baby arrives ).  So I'm living in sweats and looking oh so unattractive, but people make allowances for the first month or two http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/524584/ Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/524584/ 10)  Insurance companies must be the ones who pick out and supply the hospital with their beds.  They are so incredibly uncomfortable in any position that no one wants to stay longer than absolutely necessary. (I checked in at 7:30 on Friday morning and checked out at 6:30 pm on Saturday night) 9) I'm supposed to call my insurance company before I leave for the hospital for their permission.  Whoops.  I truly did forget this small detail.  Why I need their permission, I'm not sure.... 8).  Hospital floors are gross.  After an hour and a half of walking the halls to encourage... progress...., my white socks were black on the bottom. I threw them out before I left the hospital. 7)  Televison only gets worse.  I do more TV watching while in the hospital than any other time.  It's depressing to see how much further it's degenerated in the past 2 years.  Especially what passes for kid shows. 6)  Nurses don't always get that IV needle put in right the first time.  Ouch 5)  When the dr. says "Just one more push and then it will be all over" it usually means another 2 or 3. 4) Nursing a brand new baby causes contractions all over again.  You would think I would remember that much, but it always is an unpleasant twist.  I think contractions should be finished once the baby pops out! 3)  I'm not going to have the desire or energy or even presence of mind to work on the baby book or thank you cards or anything else after delivery.  It's too easy to click through the remote 47 times an hour instead. 2)  How fun it is to pick up the phone and ask someone to bring you food to your room and then take away the dirty dishes later 1)  How amazingly tiny and perfect and precious a newborn is, a complete gift from a loving and faithful God! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/524038/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/524038/ I have this nice little thin book (more like long pamphlet) called "Classical Education and the Homeschool" by Douglas Wilson et al (Mr. Wilson's sort of retraction of his unfortunate comments regarding the ability of homeschoolers to do a proper job of a classical education in his otherwise excellent book "Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning" from 20 years ago) which I pull out and read  through periodically.  Here is a passage that always hits me where it hurts every time I read it.  So I'll share it with you and hope that you can say "That's not a problem in our house!" "The last important note is certainly not last in order of importance.  The Bible teaches that doctrine - teaching- must be adorned.  If it is not adorned with a gracious manner and clean hearted living, the child will likely either come to imitate the hypocrisy of the parents or turn away with disgust from everything given to him, including what was truly valuable.  Neither direction is one we should want our children to take. Consequently, the rigor of classical study must not be confused with the rigors of living in an unpleasant home.  Consider exhortation from a father in a former century: [A child's] character is forming under a principle, not of choice but of nurture.  The spirit of the house is breathed in to his nature, day by day.  The anger and gentleness, the fretfulness and patience - the appetites, passions, and manners - all the variant moods of feeling exhibited  round him, pass into him as impressions, and become seeds of character in him; not because the parents will, but because it must be so, whether they will or not.  They propagate thier own evil in the child, not by design, but under a law of moral infection.....The spirit of the house is in the members of the children by nurture, not by teaching, not by any attempt to communicate the same, but because it is the air the children breathe....Understand that it is the family spirit, the organic life of the house, the silent power of a domestic godliness, working as it does, unconsciously and with sovereign effect - that it is which forms your children to God." Ouch.  I have been so convicted lately that I don't cultivate an atmosphere of joy.  I almost don't even know how to begin doing that !  How depressing.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/520691/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/520691/ So it's 5 days until my due date. I've never made it this close to my due date before!  Although it's working out well, I have lots to do and some 'extra' time to get it done.  I am feeling rather uncomfortable at this point, but ah well.  Just think how uncomfortable labor and delivery will be!  I'm so hoping to go drug free this time.  Although I wouldn't object to being knocked over the head and rendered unconscious toward the end My big goal was to be able to get through the end of our Classical Conversations year, and that I did, very thankfully!  I've fallen rather behind in my bible reading!  I should be in the middle of Psalms by June and I'm still in 1 Kings.  so I just need to pick up the pace a little.  I did find it interesting that David's wife Michal lost the ability to have children with him b/c of her snarky attitude toward him, and then David chose her 5 sons from her other husband to be among the 7 delivered up to die for the sins of Saul against the...what's their names.  I forget.  Somehow that doesn't seem quite fair. But who said life is fair.  Anyway. I'm still too busy to pay proper attention this blog, but I'm hoping at least to be better about checking on how everyone else is doing!   More later... jennifer http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/520681/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:21:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/520681/ Well here it is the end of March, another month whizzing by.  I'm still pregnant <g>  I am actually feeling that way lately!  I find myself telling my kids to pick stuff up off the floor more often since I just don't want to exert the effort necessary to get that far down.   Only a few more weeks left, though. I'm hoping to get the last 2 weeks of CC done before the baby gets here.  The women from church threw me a baby shower this past Saturday and I've realized I have to go through Daniel's closet and start moving stuff out of there that doesn't need to be there to make room!  People have been so kind and generous to bless us. My brother is doing really well, thank you for your prayers! He's planning to return to work mid April and seems to be back to normal. Well, that's a relative term.    I'm sooo thankful that it's spring.  We still have chilly mornings but there are lots of trees blooming and green shoots poking up through the mulch beds (now if my kids would just remember not to run through them...)  Daniel emerged from his winter of being shut in the house with the lately perfected skill of walking, he's loving the outdoors.  My Grandparents are making their annual spring trip back to Ma after wintering in Tx, they're planning to stop by on their way through this Tuesday.  My grandparents are amazing.  Fit as fiddles and wonderfully fun.  I'm so pleased that my kids get to have a relationship with them.  And my parents are planning to come down from Me at the beginning of May.  Such fun!  Mom broke her foot after returning home from a trip here to help my brother so I'm praying her foot will heal quickly and well.  Ok, that's all for now, not very interesting...!    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/507631/ Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/507631/ So how is everyone doing on their bible reading these days??  I've fallen behind, need to reorder my priorities and get up earlier!  (and go to bed earlier..) I just finished Joshua today, now on to Judges!  Last night we had the funeral service for my father in law, it was really nice.  Mike managed to get through the whole service and did a great job.  My brother in law provided for some comic relief with a light hearted story about my father in law and my mother in law did a great job of holding it all together.  We had a reception afterward at the home of one of our church friends who lives nearby, lots of people and food.  The kids got to play with their cousins and stay up way too late.  Today was not so pretty in the Nevarr household.  Yesterday we went to the library, so Lukas and Eden spent most of the day reading after I gave up trying to get some school done in the morning. I should have known better! My mom is still here, so she took the kids to the park across the street (if you can call 3 swings and a slide a park!) and kept them busy and entertained.   Mike took the older 3 to my mother in laws so they could spend a little more time with their cousins before they go back to W.V, so it will be another late night for them since it's 9:30 and they're still not home.  My brother is finally able to be here at the house, it's nice to have him here and he's doing really well. He shares his cookies with me that people bake him as get well gifts   My brother, who isn't very heavy to begin with, lost weight while he was in the hospital so now we're all trying to fatten him up again. Of course, it would help if he didn't have so much help eating those cookies!  People have been so very incredibly kind and supportive and helpful these past few weeks.  It makes me appreciate even more how the body of Christ is supposed to work, when I see it being worked out on such a personal level. And i so apprecite those of you who are praying for my family, I know that the Lord is working through those prayers. Just as a side note, the font has been small the past few posts b/c I was using a mac which doesn't let me change the font size for some reason.  Mike got me this beautiful new computer  - the mac, which I really like, but I still use my trusty laptop to do most of my "work"  All my files are saved on this computer, and I've not figured out how to switch them over yet. So! That's all for now.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/493961/ Thu, 6 Mar 2008 20:14:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CCMom/493961/