School of Latte Gems - Homeschool Blogger

Grace as a noun

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:34:00 -0500

GRACE
in the Greek text over 170 times from the Greek word charis.
From WordNet Dictionary
as a noun: 1. state of sanctification by God; the state of one who is under such divine influence.
2. elegance and beauty of movement or expression. 3. a sense of propriety and consideration of others. 4. a disposition to kindness and compassion 5. in Greek Mythology, one of three sisters who were the givers of beauty and charm 6. a short prayer of thanks before a meal. 7. the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God.

Next: as a verb....

Word Study: Thinking about starting something new on my blog

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:39:00 -0500

I was thinking of using this blog to start a new study for me and whoever wants to join in the conversation.

I'll do a Word Study. I'm going to start with the word grace.
Over the next week, I'll look at the definition, Biblical usage, currant usage, connotations, etc. I'll record my findings on here.

Let's see how it goes.

blog move

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:04:00 -0500

I would like to try blogspot to see what the functionality is on it. I'll still be keeping this blog but not updating it very often.

If you want to see our family, go to lattegems or http://lattegems.blogspot.com/.

Hopefully we can still keep with each other.
TR

GirlsNight

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:43:00 -0500

I have not been able to have recess for a few days.
The older two have been sick, and we've started late in the day and take it easy.

Tonight I asked to go out with some girlfriends. We ate a bite at dinner, then got in my jeep and drove the back road to this Corn Maze. One of my friends met another of her friends there. So then the four of us by the full moon (and flashlights) we found our way through the maze. It was cut in the shape of the Statue of Liberty. We found our way to the top star and only got turned around in the crown. I had never done anything like that before and it was quite fun. There were a ton of bugs but it wasn't so bad if you didn't have a flashlight shining on your face. There was a bridge that went up over the cornstalks and you could look out over the field and see a fog settling over the maze. The moon was full and if we kept our map lined up with the moon we could figure out where we were.

After a day of hanging out with sick or screaming children, this was a nice reprieve. Even though they were not always sick or screaming today, it was nice to get away.

Monday recess

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 13:43:00 -0500

Kids are playing outside and I'm zappin' a cold cup of coffee.
Just beeped; let me go get it.

There's that's better.

Well, we have an event Friday. It is a Mother/Daughter Tea Party. I've got 2 games planned. One game is "What is that Nursery Rhyme?" in which a line from a nursery rhyme is given and participants guess the title of the nursery rhyme. Doesn't that just sound like fun? The other one is "What can we bring to the tea party?" The leader will name some things that can be brought (e.g. spoons, butter, cookies) and other participants come up with something that can be brought. If they give a correct guess (cheese), the leader will say "yes, you can come to the tea party." If they say a wrong item (fruit), "I'm sorry. You cannot bring that." Participation goes around the circle once, then the participants give another correct answer and then can guess as to the rule it follows (double letter). Because there may be young ones there that will need help, older ones are welcome to give clues to help them out.

Also, I've asked a friend to come speak. She is a wonderful woman who I knew in my high school years as a wife and homeschool mother that was in a way a mentor to me. A lot of the mentoring that took place was by example. I loved how her family was--how they related to each other. It seemed like it was the way it was supposed to be. Those were the years that started that desire to homeschool in me. It was because of home, not because of intelligent children (even though hers are), and not because of bad schools (it wasn't all that bad where I was--at least some parts), nor because of support (I knew of no one else in our church that home schooled). She went against the culture I'm sure. This is about home/family--being there and helping each other and learning with each other--doing things together. Certainly God has called me to do this, but how would I have had a picture of what it looked like if I had not ever seen her family, if she had not opened her home and her family to me. I'm very thankful.

Oh and if anyone wants to come to my house--there are no guarantees what it will look like.

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 13:32:00 -0500

We had a fun day yesterday.
The kids and I invited our neighbors who also happen to homeschool to join us in celebrating this Jewish festival. We celebrated the Jewish New Year by having apples and honey, sweet challah bread and listening to the Ram's horn blow. The day was so beautiful yesterday too.
Since learning about Jewish holidays is quite new to me, I did not celebrate yesterday like you are supposed to, like you would a Sabbath. I didn't think to not schedule school work yesterday, so we did some things. I think if I had time to research and plan, I could do a little better in making the day special.
Seems like I can always remember it's Halloween because the decorations are out at Wal-Mart. I know that Thanksgiving is always a Thursday and I can plan dinner in that way (start thawing the Turkey on Monday, fix stuffing on Tuesday, etc.). Christmas also means two more birthdays, so I have to double up on presents and parties (so it seems)--there is no getting out of Christmas joy--believe me. I am just not used to thinking in terms of the cycle of special days on the Jewish calendar, even though I have been taught what they are and what they are for.
Well, it's time for recess to be over.

a small soccer picture

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:43:00 -0500

My husband got a shot of me with the ball. This is what we did Sunday afternoon.

Monday recess

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:59:00 -0500

kids are outside playing happily. I hope

I am thinking about this weekend. Friday night my husband and son went on a bike ride with some others with a group called "Ride Civil." It is to show support of our town having folks learn how to deal with cyclists on the road and share the road. I don't know if folks are getting it though. There's a lot of hollarin' at the cyclists, gunning it, and not moving over. It is somewhat fearful for me to think about b/c it's my 9 yr. son out there. The net reaction to the fear is anger. So I get so angry sometimes at folks who don't scoot over.
Well, that was Friday night.
Saturday morning, we had "soccerfest". This was a fun day for the kids at the soccer field. For my team of under 5s, we had 3 short games spread out over the morning. I think it was a little much. The first scheduled game, a teenager volunteered to ref the game (great!). This was supposed to happen, but the big kids didn't have enough command to say to the coaches, "I got this--step aside." I think I understood the meaning in this, but it caused a little confused for the kids to have another big kid on the field and the parents who might not have know we were to expect a teenager to step up and do this. Between games, jumping things and blow-up slide-y things were around to play. We also played "Beat the Keeper." There was also a dunking booth. Well, on the second scheduled game, our opposing team didn't show and the earlier game was missing an opponent, so they were playing against themselves. Then 5 collegiate players showed up on the field to say "we want to help." So, as coach, I say "come on. Let's all play." That might have been too much. We left after a hot dog lunch in the only shade we could find and went home.
After a long nap, we went to our Torah Club. My husband and I were in charge of leading the children in a study. We got through the Scripture reading and then turned to put on the CD and realized we'd left it in our CD player at home so we could do nothing. We tried the best we could do to retell the story that was used. Thankfully not all the children that are usually there were there. After we were done, it was potluck time. We shared a meal. As we were leaving, we were invited to one of the other family's church. So we decided we do that.
Sunday morning: my husband goes to a men's study that he hasn't been to before. It was a Jewish Code of Ethics meeting. I won't go into his thoughts about that.
Then he gets back and we go to this other church. Now at this other church, I have so many friends here. A lot of friends used to go to the church I go to now. I saw a lot of them. These are very close friends, even now. I miss them. It makes me want to go to this church. However, my husband doesn't feel led to change.
So now my internal tormoil begins... I know I'll stay with him, but it's hard to be happy. I'm having to pretend at church that I'm happy to be there, but I'm not. I like the people that are there. I haven't met a single person that goes there that I just don't like or don't want to talk to. But there's something missing when I go. My husband knows my feelings, but says that God is not leading him to move. So I stay. I try. I hope that things will get better. I do have hope that things will get better. We have just recently been involved with yet another group, from our church, that lets the kids come and be there. I have much hope that this will help with that empty feeling that I can't seem to explain.
So then, that brings me to Sunday night (my next post will be about Sunday afternoon). We had the group from our church that I just mentioned meet at our house. Two of the four regular couples couldn't be there, but another one came and I invited our new children's minister and his family to come and they came.
It was very good and encouraging, but still I have questions and reservations. We'll see.

yesterday

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:14:00 -0500

There was no recess yesterday. Children got out of hand, so big mean momma put a stop to all kinds of fun.
So then I didn't get a recess either.

I did manage to deal with the clothes. A friend commented about it saying that if I put up all the summer clothes, we're sure to have a few more weeks of hot weather. Isn't that the truth? I've found that to be the case every single season. Just when I put up the seasonal clothes, that's when I need them again.
Well, here's what I decided to do. We have one straight closet for the girls. On one side I have 4T summer and size 5s for summer and fall. When she goes through the 4T, we will pass them along. The other side was more tricky. I have all 6 and 6x hanging up. She's one of those in between sizes. She can wear 6 pants, 6x dresses and 7 shirts. What I think I'll do is as she wears the summer size6, launder and then put them in the bucket for lit' sis next summer. Once the 6s are gone through one more time, we'll take down the 7s and 8s and add them to her closet. She'll still have the pants in her drawers (no pun intended-npi). The worst thing about all this is that so much effort gets put into what to do with clothes and it might only last 3 months, then we have to start all over figuring out what to do, who likes what, and where does it go.

Anyway, I'm sure this has got to be the most boring blog you've ever read. Now you see why I haven't blog much over the summer. I don't think about too many interesting things anymore.

Well, maybe I'll have more to think about after this weekend. Soccerfest is going on tomorrow morning and I (Big Momma) get to play soccer on Sunday, hopefully with other Big Mommas (and after the season is over, we can all be called Little Mommas :)

Wednesday recess

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:29:00 -0500

Kids are all outside for a recess.
I've been given a number of clothes for my girls. Right now, I'm working on sorting and hanging up the ones we like. It's a huge ordeal. I don't have an easy system for it. I put them in piles by size, then put up in the closet what they can wear now. But it's about to be fall. So do I put the size they are now in with the others or do I wait until it becomes cooler? If I put away clothes that they can wear now but are definitely summer outfits, then we'll miss those last opportunities to wear some of our favorite outfits. And we know Who only knows when the temps cool for the season. It is no wonder that the closets are a mess.

well, I'd better bring them to finish what we can before AWANA tonight.