Mama's Song: Joy in the Morning Light - Homeschool Blogger

I'm Moving to Blogspot

Mon, 7 May 2007 11:55:00 -0500

Over the last year that I have been blogging, I've wished that I could do more with my blog's appearance, but I have not known how to do anything, due to my kindergarten level computer skills. The last few months I have been thinking about what I could do, and have considered moving my blog to blogger.com. Yesterday I went there and decided to experiment with setting up a new blog. I have to say I was very pleased with how they have things set up, and I was able to set up something that I am quite excited about. I was able to change many things just by pointing and clicking, without knowing a bit of html. I am able to have my own photos on the top and on the side, and I look forward to changing them through the seasons.

So with that, I must inform you that I am moving to Blogger. I have really enjoyed being here at homeschoolblogger. com. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was what got me started blogging here. I really appreciate the nice community they have set up for homeschoolers. I enjoy reading other blogs and meeting women who love God and are dedicated to loving their husband and children.

I hope you make the move with me. Go ahead and update my address in www.bloglines.com or whatever RSS feed reader you use, so that you know when I've made a new post, and come take a peak at the new look of my blog. http://joyinthemorninglight.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth Joy

Emily Rose is Blogging

Sun, 6 May 2007 20:50:00 -0500

I promised my daughter that when she started writing blog worthy entries in her journal, that I would let her have her own blog. Well, she has done that, making good progress in her abilities to express herself in writing this year. So I am pleased to announce that she has a blog of her own now. Please stop by and welcome Emily Rose to blogging. www.homeschoolblogger.com/akidslife

Of Colds and Computers

Fri, 4 May 2007 21:09:00 -0500

Good news. I'm fighting off my cold with lots of time in the sun and weeding. It seems to be helping, because I think I'm almost all well. How's that for a home remedy? I've got a huge amount of weeding done. I can now walk on my garden path. New weed cloth has been applied, and wood chips are starting to be laid. They will be finished on Sunday.

More good news. The computer parts arrived this week, and my husband has been working hard connecting, downloading, uploading, connecting, installing, reinstalling, and now he is trouble shooting. I've been completely computerless for the last 2 days, but that meant more time in the garden. And now, at the end of the Friday, I am finally able to get back online and let you know that I should be able to post photos again real soon. Except we just discovered that photo library didn't transfer from the old to new hard drive. I think that should also be solved real soon though. I'm getting excited. Thank you to all you readers, both known and unknown who have been patient with me over the last few weeks.

Who's Responsible for our Children?

Wed, 2 May 2007 12:24:00 -0500

Sometimes the responsibility of motherhood comes heavy upon me. I wonder how I can raise Godly children in today's world. All around us the devil has set up traps to catch the attention of our children and draw them away from God. It seems that the temptations focus on young people are stronger then before.

Thinking of this, Jesus brought a promise to me during my quiet time with Him this morning. Isaiah 29: 22-24. It is a wonderful promise.

"No longer will Jacob [mothers?] be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. When they see among them their children, the work of My hands, they will keep My name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction."

Our children are the work of God's hands. God is more responsible for the outcome of my children then I am. I am only a tool in God's hands. God says that the wayward will gain understanding, and the complainers will stop complaining and accept instruction. He is so good. I rest in Him today.

New Word: Huggle

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:13:00 -0500

This morning I've been feeling pressure in my head from a newly acquired cold. I felt more like lying down then sitting up to listen to Forest read to me. I thought Forest could lie down beside me on the couch and he could still read. But Forest would have nothing to do with this new way to read. He said, "No Mama. I would really rather huggle when we read."

New word: Huggle. Verb. When a child sits close to his mom and she puts her arm around him while reading books.

Have you huggled a child today?

Weeding the "Lovely Garden Row"

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:09:00 -0500

This week is going by very fast. I'm still waiting for computer parts. It sounds like my new used keyboard won't arrive until middle of next week.

I thought I might blog more old photos, but the yard has been calling me every day. Even though weeding isn't their idea of fun, I want the kids to be working out with me anyway. I want them to learn that weeding can be fun. And also, they don't have to be ruled by their feelings.

Feelings are normal. I have lots of them. As a woman I often think in pictures and feelings instead of words. But I have learned that my mind can be ruler over my feelings, so as to dictate my actions and reactions. And that if I allow God to do so, He is eager to renew my mind (feelings?) for me.

My kids have very strong feelings. What they feel, they really feel, and they aren't afraid to express it, since they are also very extroverted.   But there are so many times when feelings can't see the whole picture, and the mind needs to look things over and help in the decision. Sometimes feelings just focus on the negative part of the picture and ignore the positive parts. Feelings can remember a past experience and jump to a conclusion that the next experience will be the same, even if it won't be.

My kids would like to be free to do what ever they want to do whenever they want to do it. This sounds like fun. But it isn't fun, when the messes pile up, others feelings are hurt because we are thinking only of ourself, or the weeds grow so high that you can't find the flowers anymore. Then the work of digging out from the results of lazyness is more difficult, then if they had done the work in the first place, putting things away as they go, and so on.

Sometimes work is simply that, work, hard work. But I am learning that in most things, there is usually something fun or enjoyable, if you can use your mind to get past your feelings, and look for that joy. And then if you can convince your mind to stay there, and not go back and start wallowing in negative feelings that may even be imagined, not based on the reality of the situation.

So, I've been trying all kinds of methods to get my kids to enjoy weeding with me. First of all, I'm not sending them out to do it alone. Even I can wilt when I have to do a large job alone. I'm out there setting the pace, providing the tools, and encouragement. Next, I keep reminding them that while we are out weeding together, they have my full attention. They can tell me stories, share their latest ideas, or be silly. My ears are there for them.

Today I was weeding in what I call the rose bed. It is a long strip by our parking area that has rose bushes, daffodils, and coral bells.   I was trying to maintain some happy chatter, because they kids weren't really with me yet in spirit. There was murmuring and complaining to equal that of the children of Israel. Poor Moses had it bad, because he had many more then two children to get through a hot dry desert. Can you imagine all those complainers? Even the grown ups were complaining.

I was especially enjoying the coral bells. They are sending up pretty stalks of buds almost ready to bloom. As I pulled grass, and weeds away from them, I felt like I was setting them free. How happy they must feel. If they could ring their bells, surely they would ring them with joy. I started playing with words about the coral bells, out loud, of course, in hopes it would catch the attention of the kiddos. Sure enough it did. It wasn't long before we had composed a song about our coral bells ringing their bells that required the kids to echo what I was singing. It worked. The focus was taken away from their bad feelings and new, better, happier feelings took their place.

"We'll set the Coral Bells a ringing, ringing, ringing.
We'll set the Coral Bells a ringing
In our lovely garden row.
Ding dong. (Ding dong).
Ding dong. (Ding dong).
Ding dong. (Ding dong).
In our lovely garden row."

We made up a verse about the daffodils dancing in our lovely garden row.   Then a verse about the roses perfuming our lovely garden row. But of course, we couldn't stay serious long, and my son made a verse about the sprinklers squirting in our lovely garden row.   It is very simple music, but it was about what we were doing, and we were making the music ourselves.

Only about one third of what I wanted to get done was completed. One part of me is disappointed. I'd like to be able to look out the window and feast my eyes on my lovely garden row all weeded. But maybe there was some higher weeding that needs to get done. Weeding out the negative feelings and developing good character is a part of education that gets overlooked. And when else do I take the time to compose original poetry and music with the kids. We had a fun bonding time. And because we have more work to do, I have more days to enjoy with my kids in the spring sun, and more chances to work on character growth.

How does the weeding go with you and your kids?

The Weekend

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:31:00 -0500

My husband has been busy today gathering parts from the four winds, including his office, a local store and maybe now even Ebay, attempting to put together a new computer set up for me. For all these years, of computer use, I've mostly used Apple laptop computers. They are seemingly simple, everything contained in one little box, that I can carry with me somewhere if I wanted to. This new set up has a big box to go under my desk, a separate DVD player, speakers, keyboard, mouse, a hub, wires, cords and more cords. And there is probably some other external part that I don't even know about yet. I don't know if I will have any desk space when I'm done donating it to computer parts. But hopefully, they will all work when he is all done with the process. I don't know what I would do, if I didn't have my dear husband to take care of computer issues. Hopefully somebody would have pity on me and save me from technology.

Yesterday a group of kids from five homeschool families joined together and sang at church. It was our first time to do this, and we were given only one week to practice. Somehow I ended up as director. I can sing, but I've never directed a group of kids. We sang the old song "More About Jesus I would Know." The first and second verses really fit what I think about one of the main purposes of homeschool. Ath the performance the kids smiled, focused, sang clearly and knew the words. I was really proud of them. Somehow the kids did a wonderful job, in spite of me. I guess all you need is a good group of kids. Makes me kind of excited to think about doing something else with them. I think some of them are even old enough to learn parts.

Today it was raining when I got up. I had planned to start in the garden early, but the outside work got shifted to the afternoon. When I got out there, I found the tomato starts I set out on Friday afternoon thriving, maybe looking even better then they did when I first set them out. I need to do some more work in the vegetable garden, but decided to pull weeds in the flower beds while the soil was soft. I pulled and pulled and sent Forest to dump repeated wagon loads of weeds to the appropriate pile. There is still much to finish, but I was satisfied with what we accomplished. Part of the garden path is ready for wood chips. I moved some yarrow to the end of the driveway, where hopefully it will continue to thrive as a more intentional weed, crowding out the star thistle that loves to grow there. My little herb garden is now weed free, and a few new perennials have been planted. If all goes well, tomorrow I'll be out there too. I'm looking forward to more garden fun with the kids. Emily Rose wants to help haul wood chips for me. Forest wants to haul more weeds to the pile for me. And I want to get more weeds pulled for him to haul.

My Thai Friend

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:15:00 -0500

I just discovered that on this old computer, I have access to some old photos from back when we first started using digital cameras, and fancy camera to two megapixel photos.

I thought I'd introduce you to my Thai friends. The last time I saw her was almost 5 years ago, about the time I took this photo. The first time I met her was about 16 years ago, or so, when I was fresh out of college. I had gone to Thailand to work for a couple years. She was a secretary at the language school where I worked part time, and she was really nice. I had an apartment nearby and so did she. I had a kitchen, and she didn't. She would just go out on the street and buy some food every day to eat. This isn't as bad as it sounds, because you can get good food for cheep out there. It is what lots of people do there. But she was also a good cook and could make many wonderful Thai foods. I wanted to learn how to cook Thai style, so we would go to the market. She taught me how to shop, what different foods were, how to bargain, and how to get the right bus back home. I would pay for the food. At my apartment we would make a feast, and invite people over to eat. It was so much fun! We really had a good time together.

Many years later, when I married, we went to Thailand for our honey moon, and I was able to see her again. Then when my first baby was born, I gave my little sweetie her name. Once, she even was able to save up enough Thai baht to fly to the United States! She knows lots of people here, because of her job at the language school, but she chose to come and stay with us. We gave her the best time we could, and of course, we cooked Thai food together, and had a feast, inviting over people to eat with us.

All these years later, she still works at the same language school. She is older, but so am I. It has been 5 years since I saw her last, but every year, I long to go back and see her. The only problem is now all of us need full price airline seats and that's quite a chunk of money for a one income family.

Thoughts

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:06:00 -0500

I am finding that blogging without photos takes less time. It is quite a process to get photos downloaded, edited, exported, uploaded, and inserted. I love seeing what I am talking about, but maybe this is going to challenge me to write more descriptively, and save me time.

My friend Shereen at w8ng4him commented that it has been hard to make comments lately on my blog. I think this is a homeschoolblogger.com problem as she mentioned. The website keeps bringing up blank pages. I've been experiencing that when I try to edit a typo out of my blog. So, unfortunately, the last three entries have mystery typo for you to search and find. Hopefully, I'll be able to to correct them though, before your eyes even see them. But if I can't you will know why.

I want to work like a crazy woman on my garden today. I'm on my way to the store to get some soil amendments for my tomato beds. It is Friday, but the weather is perfect for gardening, and I've got baby tomato plants that are going to stress or die if I don't get them in the ground soon.

I am working on a Baby quilt for my new niece who was born six weeks early. I hope to finish it soon too. I'll post a picture of it when I am able. My husband might have a "new" older computer up and running for me this afternoon or on Sunday. I'm getting hopeful.

Thursdays Tidbits

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:15:00 -0500

It is hard for me to blog with out the photos to illustrate what I am talking about, but I'm going to try. I don't know how much longer it will be until my dear husband has time to work on my computer issues, but I'm going to try to be happy while I wait.

This morning the kids got their school work done before breakfast, as usual. This has been working really well for us. Usually every morning they will watch a math DVD to go with their Math-U-See book. But since the computer is down, so is the DVD player. I let each of them choose something else to do in place of math, and they enjoyed that activity so much. Both of them chose to work in the Art workbook. Both have a different Berry Stebings Art book, at different levels, of course. I am glad for them to work in those books. I think art really stimulates the mind.

After breakfast, and a little house work, we went to the library and sat and read stories. They close at noon for an hour. We were having so much fun that we forgot about it. The librarian had to come find us and ask if we wanted to check out books before we left. Yes we did. Both kids left with a stack under their arms.

We stopped at the store and picked up more bananas. The kids wanted to go eat at the wonderful little deli across the street. I enjoy going there too, but it's hard to leave there with less then a $15 bill. I mentioned the cost to the kids and wondered if they wouldn't enjoy looking in the grocery store for something special instead to go with their lunch. We came out with a box of gluten free/dairy free cookies, and box of fresh strawberries, to go with the mashed avocado on Corn Thins that we would eat at home.

Have you ever had Corn Thins before? They are made of puffed corn and similar to rice cakes, but thiner, and crispier, more like a thick cracker. I like them so much better then rice cakes. They are wonderful with many different toppings.

We also stopped at a garage sale, and for $1 my daughter found some old wheels to use on the go-cart she is hoping to design. We got my husband some irrigation pipe for my husband to use for moving water underground out to our garden area. He is planning to put it on a timed sprinkler system for me, separate from the one on the lawn. As it is right now, the lawn has to be watered as often as the garden does. The garden needs it every day, because it is on the hottest side of our property. So the lawn is over watered. Once it is set up, I will also be able to water different parts of my garden for different lengths of time also. I think this is going to be a good improvement to the system.