I was tagged by FollowingTheAncient Paths

This is our first "official" year of homeschooling so I will answer the best I can.

1) One homeschooling book you have enjoyed.

Heart of Wisdom by Robin Sampson is by far the best book I have read on homeschooling. All my children excel with this teaching method and this book also opened my eyes in my spiritual life as well.

2) One resource you wouldn't be without.

My Bible. This is the primary focus of our education and the guidebook for our lives. There is no way I could homeschool without it.

3) One resource you wish you had never bought.

When I initially began preparing to homeschool I wanted to be stocked up ahead of time so I purchased a complete Lifepac curriculum. I then discovered HOWTA and I ended up selling Lifepac for less than what I paid for it. You live and learn I guess.

4) One resource you enjoyed last year.

We didn't officially homeschool last year but I used Ruth Beechick's Three R books  and my DC really excelled.

5) One resource you will be using next year.

I think we may be trying Math U See next year and we will continue with our HOWTA unit studies.

6) One resource you would like to buy.

More books...we can never have enough.

7) One resource you wish existed.

Something that would tell you if a curriculum was going to work for your DC before you invest big $$ only to find out it isn't meant for them.

8) One homeschooling catalog you enjoy reading.

I don't even get any homeschool catalogs and pretty much utilize the internet for research and purchasing.

9) One homeschooling website you use regularly.

www.heartofwisdom.com

10) Tag 5 people. I'll do this part later as I have some laundry I need to get finished up.

We had another wonderful Shabbat. It is such a blessing to relax from the hustle and bustle of life and refocus our attention on HaShem. Since the kids were not here last weekend we picked up last week's parsha,Va'etchanan,this week. Va'etchanan(Dueteronomy 3:23-7:11) covers the Shema and the retelling of the Ten Commandments. This week's Hebrew letter was(noon) pronounced like the english N. The kids completed their Torah Club booklet,read a story based on this week's portion from the Family Parsha site, and watched a Torah Tots video. They drew and cut out a picture of a scroll with the Shema wrote on it in English and Hebrew to hang in their rooms. We also made mezuzahs. A mezuzah is a small box that contains certain portions from the Torah. They wrote the Shema on a small piece of construction paper and rolled it up like a scroll and placed it in the box. The mezuzahs were taped to their bedroom door frames. I'm now trying to get them in the practice of going into the room and touching the box and sending up a quick prayer of thanks to G*d for giving us His love and mercy and His Word. I also got them started in the Adam to Abraham unit study. I discussed Genesis with them to spark their interest and had a discussion on what they already know. I wrote key events and characters from Genesis on index cards and the kids had to put them in chronological order. The first attempt they cannot use any reference and they only mixed up 4 out of 15. The next attempt I let them use their Day by Day Kid's Bible and they got them all in the correct order. We covered how the books of the Old and New Testaments are grouped and they made a drawing to help them remember. I read to them from Who's Who in The Bible and we watched Genesis(The Bible Collection). We covered the first two steps of the 4mat method:

1. Excite
2. Examine
3. Expand
4. Excel

Tomorrow they will begin working on step three and will have to do one of the following:

• Create a outline of Genesis 1-12
• Write a summary paragraph for each of the key events of Genesis 1-12
• Create a Time Line or Story Board on Genesis 1-12

We spent 7-8 hours covering everything today. I tried to take a break a couple of times but they did not want to stop. Needless to say I didn't get to work through my own FFOZ materials today. I did read the parsha and listened to the audio commentary last night while I was preparing the kids materials. When they go to bed tonight I'll finish up with the written commentary and questions.
My DH and I came to a decision tonight on Xmas. Rachel has been making a "wish list" all weekend of what she wants so we decided it was time to explain we won't be observing Xmas this year. Instead we are going to take the money we would spend on gifts and rent a cabin in Smokies for a week. I was prepared to hear cries of protest but they were thrilled with the idea of vacationing in Pigeon Forge. We will leave out the day after Xmas since we do have to make visits to our families. I'd like to leave out Xmas morning but I expect they'll be quite a outcry over us not observing it here. If we don't visit their houses either I imagine it would be a big argument so I will settle for the later departure. We are going to try to make this a annual trip that way they will have something to take their mind off of what they are "missing out on". Of course we will still celebrate Yeshua's birth but we will do so during Sukkot which is most likely the actual day of His birth. There is a interesting article about that
HERE.
My DC are finally in the bed so I am going to get off of here and read over my Torah Club material.
Blessings.....  

Posted in Everyday Life

I started the Clean Home/ Clean Heart Challenge last night. The first thing you do is to set household, children, and personal goals. You can see mine here . I made the CHCH Organizer Notebook and the daily routine to put on the fridge. The daily routine is pretty thorough and has kept me on track so far. Checklists and routines do work well for me as long as I don't get off track. If a mess starts to accumulate,especially piles of laundry,I tend to get overwhelmed and give up. This is going to be the hardest thing I have to overcome. I'll be posting my before pics to the website above later tonight. Hopefully, in a few days I can start adding some after pics. Today's verse to ponder:

I am also working on 30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge for Wives. My goals for this program are:

• You can't say anything negative about your husband ...to your husband...or to anyone
  else, about your husband.
• Say something that you admire or appreciate about your husband...to your
  husband...and to someone else, about your husband!

Its been a little hard to bite my tongue when it comes to my husband but it has made for little to no bickering. I can't imagine not blogging about my frustrations with him when they come up but its not allowed. Ya'll have to be my accountability partners and if I start complaining about him or speaking negatively please put me in check. Here is today's verse for thought from the program:

Posted in Thoughts and Musings

This Sabbath was absolutely wonderful. My husband has never been meticulously observant but goodness did that ever change this week. Yesterday I had mentioned a email I received from one of the ladies in my Hebrew Roots group about a some people that thought they had discovered Noah's Ark. This piqued my husband's curiosity and he googled it. He found a site about a discovery of the Ark and sat on here for a couple hours yesterday reading through information and watching the videos. When he finished reading this site it directed him to another site called Covenant Keepers. It had a really interesting presentation on a man's theory about the Ark of the Covenant. Jason read through the first part and told me to come read through the rest of it with him. As I began reading through it I kept telling him they had some interesting points but their theology was lacking. By the time I had got to the third section I told Jason this is going to be a 7th Day Adventist site. Jason assured me no this man had no denominational affiliation. Sure enough by the fifth section,when they've got you hooked with the intro info,they throw out their "prophet" and other SDA theology.  We had a nice laugh over it since he always made fun of me for getting pulled into one of their prophecy seminars and now he to fell for something like it. Although I disagree with a lot of the SDA theology I have to credit them with opening my eyes to the validity of the Sabbath and OT which led me to where I am. Ironically, the same thing happened with Jason. We discussed the "faulty" theory they have that the 144,000 and remnant that are spoke about in Revelation are the true believers(i.e. SDA). Jason asked me what it was talking about if it wasn't talking about the church. So I pull out my Bible and pull up a couple of sites and show him that it is talking about the Jewish people. This led to a discussion on replacement theology and what a true church should look like. I told him my opinion was that it should be like the 1st century church before the Roman corruption when it was a sect of Judaism. I do not believe ,nor does the Bible say, that Jesus came to abolish the Law(Torah). He came to fulfill it and live the perfect Torah lifestyle as a example of how we should all strive to live. He was the final sacrifice needed and he opened Salvation up to the whole world so we could have the opportunity to be grafted in to the tree of G*d's chosen people. The Bible says that G*d allowed some branches(Jews) to fall off and for other branches(Gentiles) to be grafted in until the fullness of the Gentiles or when the last Gentile who would believe did.  After that all of Israel will have the blinders G*d placed on them removed and they will see Yeshua as their Messiah.  The crazy thing is that when we,gentiles,were grafted in we proceeded to cut off the Jewish root of the tree. Where did that get us? Well look at the church today,the thousands of denominations, there is no "root" to hold the tree together and they all fall off and grow wild. My answer to Jason's question about the "true church" is Messianic Judaism. I truly believe we are meant to follow the Law ,Jesus followed every jot and tittle, and the Bible states over and over we should strive to live as Jesus did. Now let me say,so as not to offend others, that I don't think you have to be a Messianic Jew/Torah-observant Christian to gain salvation. We are saved through grace and Jesus knows what is in our hearts. Two thousand years of corruption in the church has many sincere believers blinded to G*d's original plans. By the time we finished this discussion it was pretty late and we went to bed. After breakfast this morning I asked Jason if he was going to finish up on the house next door but he just grinned and said,"Nope,its the Sabbath." and he disappeared into the living room. I read this week's Torah Portion,Haftara,and NT verses to the kids. They completed their FFOZ activity books and headed off to play for awhile. I came in the living room to find Jason reading through a site about Messianic Judaism. Now this might not seem like a big deal to some but my husband does not read,not that he can't,he just hates to. So him doing research/reading both Friday and Saturday was a huge shock!!  He usually just relies on me to tell him what I'm learning. I clearly did not want to interrupt him so I grabbed my Bible and FFOZ materials and went to study in my room. I finished about and hour later and came in here to find him still reading. He kept turning around and saying Megan you won't believe this. Did you know the church changed yada yada yada. Of course, I couldn't do anything but laugh,it hasn't been that long since I was at that point,and had to read everything I could get my hands on about it. Who am I kidding I'm still at this point!! I went to fix lunch and came back to find him frantically searching for a Messianic congregation in the area. He still isn't comfortable with the idea of a home meeting, although he said he may be in the future, but for now he wants to find a congregation. He found a few in Knoxville and said a hour and a half wasn't to far away. Again this elicited a chuckle from me since this is a man that said Cleveland ,a 20 minute drive, was to far to drive to go to church. He brought up the topic of modesty over lunch. Now let me just tell you its amazing what our L*rd can do because this is a topic that I've been mulling over for a week or two. I had not discussed this with Jason at all and yet he brings it up out of the blue. We talked about whether women/girls should wear dresses and I shared with him my thoughts on headcovering during Bible study and prayer.  I had been reluctant to do this previously,although I felt led to do so, I didn't want to do anything my husband doesn't agree with or is not comfortable with. However, we agreed this would be ideal and now I am going to gradually start going to dresses only for Hope and I. It just amazes me what G*d is doing. On another note we have been having problem out of our water heater for a few weeks and we either had lukewarm or no hot water. When I turned the water on this morning we had very hot water. Nobody had done anything to it but it started working properly and has ever since. Now some will probably say I'm being far-fetched but it just seems ironic to me that my husband thus far had been lukewarm in his belief,kind of like that water, but when he woke up today and opened his heart to the L*rd, that water started running hot.
It amazes me how much the kids are taking in as well. When we went grocery shopping this week Hope threw some bacon into the cart. Juan picked the package up and placed it back in the freezer. He told Hope that was made of pork,which we didn't eat,and proceeded to help her find turkey bacon. Tonight Jason asked when I was cooking dinner and Hope told him that we could not cook until the Sabbath ended. She has also taken to calling it Sabbath day instead of Saturday. I find it really cute but my mother did not. When Hope mentioned it to her on the telephone she proceeded to give me a "tongue-lashing" for taking this whole thing "to far" (something I never thought I'd hear from my mom) and confusing the kids. She said the Sabbath is on Sunday and I should tell the kids that. I was polite about it and basically just avoided the comment. Everything in me wanted to tell her to find me just one place in the Bible that said the Sabbath day was changed. However, I didn't want to cause a argument and I've had this discussion with her she can't find one because there isn't one.
We had a snack at about 6 p.m. and headed to Cleveland at 9 for a late supper. We timed it just right as the sun was setting as we arrived at Applebees. Its been a long time since we've been out to eat a "nice dinner". The kids were really well-behaved and we had a really nice time. All in all this Sabbath was fantastic and I praise the L*rd for answering my prayers.
Well that is all tonight. I'm sorry for grammatical/spelling errors but I am very excited and getting really sleepy. It doesn't make for the best circumstances to blog under but I had to share how G*d is working in my life.

Posted in Daily Memes

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLD 

By Rabbi Meir Kahane, Zt"l 
Dear World, I understand that you are upset by us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry. (Outraged?)

Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset by us. Today, it is the "brutal repression of the Palestinians"; yesterday it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War and the Sinai campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily.

Of course, dear World, long before there was an Israel, we - the Jewish people - upset you.

We upset a German people who elected Hitler and upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations -Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians and Romanians.

 And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset.

We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us.

For centuries, we upset a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through inquisitions, and we upset the arch-enemy of this church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.

And it is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear World, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish state. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you and disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you (and thus love you)- and have you love us and so, we decided to come home -home to the same land we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset.

Alas, dear World, it appears that you are hard to please.

Having left you and your pogroms and inquisitions and crusades and holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state, we continue to upset you. You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The "radical" Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset.

Well, dear World, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel.

In 1920 and 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody.  Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered tens of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron.  Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron in 1929.

Dear World, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967?
And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots between 1936-39? Was it because Arabs were upset over 1967?

And when you, dear world, proposed a UN Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a "Palestinian State" alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried "no" and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that "upset" caused by the aggression of 1967?  And, by the way, dear World, why did we not hear your cry of "upset" then?

The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who ­when they had all the territories they now demand be given to them for their state -attempted to drive the Jewish state into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "itbach-al-yahud" (Massacre the Jew!) that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel.
What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today, but we should not "repress" them.

Dear World, you stood by during the holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres.

You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction.

And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians dream daily of that
extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land.  If that bothers you, dear world, well ­ think of how many times in the past you bothered us.

In any event, dear World, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.

 

**Rabbi Kahane was murdered on November 5, 1990, at the Marriot Hotel in New York, minutes after he gave a lecture to American Jews on the subject of emergency Aliyah.

Posted in Everyday Life

 In this week's Torah Portion we finished up the book of B'midbar(Numbers). It covered when the Israelites completed the 40 yrs. of wandering in the wilderness and how the promise land is to be divided up among the tribes of Israel. The kids worked through their booklet and learned this weeks Hebrew letter,tet,pronounced like a T. The craft activity was to make desert critters. They were supposed to dip their fingers in paint and make fingerprints on construction paper to decorate to look like desert animals. It quickly turned into finger painting desert animals and a much bigger mess than I had anticipated. Cole pretty much painted himself...LOL. Here are a few pics....




Sorry, the pics are kind of blurry. I fixed them the best I could with PSP but I really need to buy a new digital camera!! Our last one got dipped in a glass of koolaid and now we only have the cell phone camera. As you can see it doesn't take very good photos.
Today we went to the Lake McKamy and although it was pretty hot it was suprisingly comfortable on top of the mountain. Jason walked down one of the trails beside the beach and fished for a bit while the kids and I swam. It didn't take him to long before he rejoined us because he spotted a snake along the edge of the water. We stayed for a couple of hours and had a really nice time. Here are some pics I snapped:

The Kids Cheesin' for the Camera

Juan, Hope, and Rachel

My Kids Playing In The Water

Cole and His Coat of Many Colors

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