Just Two Steps Away From the Funny Farm

Getting ready for Tapestry of Grace Year 2

2009-08-13T14:37:00.003-04:00

Part of me grieves the fading of summer. We fill our days with all our favorite things, but then too quickly it is time to transition to the rhythm of normal life again! I always hear comments from other parents about how excited they are that school is fast approaching! How different it is for those of us who homeschool. Truly, my only consolation of summer ending is the fact that my children and I can learn new things together! I love having them home. So often summer takes us in different directions - camp, missions trips, neighborhood pools, times with friends. But when school begins, we are learning together at home!

That is one of the reasons I particularly love Tapestry of Grace. With TOG, we all are learning the same themes and time periods of history at the same time - about the same places, people and events. So many books we will read together and so many things we can discuss together. I love that!

This year, we'll be doing Year 2 which begins where we left off last year, after the fall of Rome. We'll be going through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Reformation and early Colonial America right up to the drafting of the Constitution. What an exciting year this will be! I already know that this will be my favorite TOG year!

I was so pleased to find that most of our books that we would need are in our public library system. Each week, I'll be ordering books through the inner-library loan system to be delivered at our local library. The books that are used for many weeks and the ones unavailable at the library are the books that I have purchased. What fun to have all those packages of books arriving at our house! I love new books! Very exciting!

One of the books listed in the Alternate list for unit 1 is Twelve Bright Trumpets by Margaret Leighton. We have decided to buy that book to use rather than (or possibly in addition to) the assigned literature books for those weeks. I ordered this book from Queen's Homeschool Supply along with a literature-based study guide for all ages to accompany the book. It is part of Queen's Learning History Through Living Books section on their website. I thought this would make a nice addition to our study and the study guide would be helpful as well, especially if we substitute this for the other literature selections for those weeks. I really love the products that the Queens offer and we use their Language Lessons books for grammar.

Yesterday, I printed off the weekly overview pages and student activity pages from Unit 1 and put them into notebooks for Joel and Ivy. Once I print out the maps and add those in their notebooks, they will be all ready to go when we start school! I also printed off the reading assignment pages and put them in a notebook that we will all share. (We are using the digital edition). I may decide to print out teachers notes for my notebook also - I'm still deciding about that. This was the first year that I printed out student overview pages for their notebooks. I think it will help them to have the list of vocabulary words and time chart dates easily accessible every week. Joel will be adding time chart cards in his card box each week. He loves to illustrate those cards!

Joel, still at dialectic level, will be writing out the answers to the thinking questions and accountability questions I assign him each week. He'll most likely write that on the computer, print it out and put that in his notebook for me to check. I'll also have a spot in his notebook for his writing assignments. This will be our first year using the Writing Aids.

Ivy will continue at upper grammar level this year and she will be doing the lapbook for unit 1. She will also do the writing assignments each week and add those to her notebook. We are not using the Evaluations this year.

Once we buy new planners for Joel and Ivy, they'll be all set for another year of Tapestry of Grace!

To help me get ready, I looked over the Loom and read through the teacher information pages again as a refresher. Last year was my first year with TOG, and now I feel much more familiar with what we are doing! But it is good to read over everything again anyway.

I also was able to listen in on some of the TOG webinars which were great at helping me to figure out the features of the digital edition. I wasn't sure how I would like it, but I must say that I LOVE it! It has made printing out things so much easier and it is great to know that I can have a fresh clean copy of anything so easily! No more page protectors! All of the webinars are available to listen to at the Tapestry of Grace website.

Also at the website, which you can click to get there from this page, you can download free three week samples of the curriculum for anyone interested! That is how I fell in love with Tapestry of Grace last summer! I printed out the sample and dove right in!

Next time, I'll write about the other subjects that we will be doing this year. Even though I do hate to see summer end, I can tell you that I am looking forward to beginning school soon!

Happy 500th Birthday John Calvin!

2009-07-10T22:11:00.003-04:00

Tonight we celebrated John Calvin's birthday at a small Presbyterian church in Lancaster with friends from several different churches. Of course there was birthday cake - complete with a picture of John Calvin himself in the icing! The children played "Pin the beard on the Theologian" and colored pictures from the "C is for Calvin" page in the soon to be published book called "Church History ABC's" written by Steve Nichols and illustrated by Ned Bustard. Look for the book in bookstores soon! We know these men and are very excited about their project! It will be a wonderful book for children to introduce them to people and events in church history.

The evening also included art work and music in honor of the life of John Calvin and in praise and glory to God. We all sang a hymn written by Calvin from the Geneva Psalter called "I Greet Thee, Who my Sure Redeemer Art." This hymn speaks of the sweet grace found in Christ. I love the first and fourth stanzas best:

"I greet thee,

Who my sure Redeemer art,

My only trust and Savior of my heart,

Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;

I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

"Thou has the true and perfect gentleness,

No harshness has thou and no bitterness:

Make us to taste the sweet grace found in Thee

And ever stay in thy sweet unity."

Summer Days

2009-07-09T19:45:00.016-04:00

We love summer! It is a busy season, but it is by far the best time of the year! Our days are often full of spontaneous fun times, lazy moments spent with a book, sleeping in late, going on picnics... So much to do, but it's all good!

Here are some pictures of our summer so far. We already know the high-light of our summer! Seeing my cousin Brian.

We were so happy to see him after he was released from jail after his terrible ordeal. He and his younger brother, my cousin Jacob, came up here to visit us for a weekend. Here is Jacob, my mom, Brian and me. Don't we look happy?!! God answered our prayers in such an amazing way - so suddenly at an unexpected time. I felt like Rhoda in the book of Acts when I got the phone call that Brian was released!

Our vacation in the Adirondacks of New York was very relaxing and we really enjoyed our family time. We stayed with Mark's parents and had a great time visiting with Mark's sisters and their families. The cousins don't see each other more than once a year so those times are precious. Lots of time was spent out on the back porch - what a beautiful view they have!

This beautiful rainbow picture was taken from their back porch!

Joel and Ivy with cousin Jaime and Uncle Chad out on the porch
Jaden with his cousin Jonathan

We also visited some educational sites like all respectable homeschooling families would do! We've always wanted to go to Fort Ticonderoga and this year marked the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War so it was the perfect time to be there. We'll be studying colonial America in school this coming year so this field trip was a great introduction to the year!

Jaden thought the fife and drums corps were pirates!

Ivy would have been tall enough to join the Continental Army!

We also visited the beautiful King's Gardens

Jaden loved the school's playground near Nana and Grandpa's house. He even found a snake there in the grass!
Joel spent lots of time playing tennis with Mark and Uncle Chad and the cousins.

Here are some other pictures of our summer closer to home.

We love to go to Long's Park

We had a picnic lunch

The petting zoo was open that day so we were able to see the animals up close

Mark's big summer project has been re-doing our shed. He took off the old roof and put on a new one.

Now that the roof is replaced, he will replace the doors and paint the shed so it will look as good as new soon. My wonderful husband is always working hard for us! I am so thankful that he knows how to do everything - he's amazing!

Happy Summer everyone!

Sometimes I crack myself up!

2009-06-24T22:18:00.002-04:00

Today I was reading forum posts at the Tapestry of Grace website and I read a post about planning for the year and setting up student notebooks. I really liked that post and thought how similar that was to how I set up our notebooks! What a kindred spirit! Then imagine my surprise when I read that she has children similar in ages to my children with the same unique spacing between the children!!! I was excited about that - there is someone else out there with the same family dynamics with a big age gap! Then I looked at the name of the poster, and it was ME!!!! I wrote that post a year ago!!! I am SOOOO glad that I didn't make a comment to it and really embarrass myself!!!!

Organizing our school

2009-06-24T15:09:00.004-04:00

It's the time of year that I clean out all the files of the past year and re-organize in preparation for a new start. Yesterday, I spent the entire day working in the homeschool closet! But the results were worth it and I feel much better now that the job is done! I have two file cabinets in there - a drawer for each of teh following: homeschool subjects, family stuff, church things, and homeschool co-ops. On top of the file cabinets, I have racks of files for easy access for Joel and Ivy to put their papers in during the week. Some of these papers will later go into their portfolios. In this closet, we also have drawers of markers, pencils, color books for Jaden, art supplies, etc. The top part of the closet holds all our videos. We keep a ton of stuff in there!!!

Then I moved to the rest of the school room/family room. I tidied up the book shelves,and got my TOG volumes back in order. I emptied the student notebooks and made sure that all extra copied pages were put back in the right places in the volumes so that it is all ready for us in 4 more years! Looking at the space that my printed editions of Year 1 take on the shelves, I'm thankful that I will be using the digital edition for Year 2!!!

After everything was organized and cleaned out, moved to the next task: preparing for the upcoming school year. I love the customized booklist at Lampstand Press for my TOG books. I printed out a list of all the upper grammar and dialectic books I will need for our Year 2. Then I checked off any books we already own - always happy to see I own a few of them! Next, I went to the library site where I searched for all the books. I was very excited to find that the majority of the books we will need are in our library system. A few other books can be found in our church's library. Some of the books that are not in the library can be subsituted with other books from the "alternate" list that TOG provides. Several of those alternate books are in the library and will work for us. That only leaves us with needing to spend about $180 on additional books to use with TOG for next year. Not bad!

I printed the reading assignment pages (pages 4&5) from each week in Unit 1 to put in my binder. I really like having a printed copy of those lists so I can take them with me to the library or whatever. I also printed out the Lampstand list that includes the prices. Many times they offer the books at the same price or cheaper than Amazon, but I always compare to get the lowest price. I pencil in Amazon price lists in there too to help me compare and price everything before I order.

After I recieve the books I order, I will put a color coded sticker on the spines to help me locate them quickly and easily on the shelves. Last year, was Red, for Year 1. Books for this year will be labeled with a yellow sticker. I also write on the sticker what units the book will be used for.

Amazingly, I am very excited about the digital edition of Tapestry. I really, really like it! I love the freedom to print out what I need and never have to worry about it. No more need for page protectors! There are many things about the digital edition that are very convenient and I am having fun exploring it all! There is always a sense of excitement about the year ahead and I can hardly wait to dive in again! And Year 2, I think, will be my favorite year - I love it already!

Bowling for free!

2009-06-23T07:31:00.002-04:00

Perhaps you have already heard of the Kids Bowl Free program, but if not, here it goes! If you would like to have your kids bowl for free all summer (up to 2 free games every day), go to http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ and sign them up! There are participating bowling alleys all over the country. You can even get a family membership for all your kids and up to four adults for a small fee. We did that so that we could all join in the fun - even Grandma! We do have to pay for the shoe rental, but the games are free.

Music Camp

2009-06-22T06:52:00.004-04:00

Every two years, our church conducts a Music Camp for children. This year, the theme was "Music for All Seasons" and the focus was on music through the liturgical year.... Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Asension, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. For two very full days, the children had classes in which they learned about the significance of all of these special times and also some hands-on interaction with instruments, along with much singing! This was a pretty intense two days of music. Ivy really enjoyed it and she came home with the desire to join the handbell choir in the fall! She also loved learning more about the organ and watching a video that showed the inside of a huge pipe organ. All the children from Music Camp sang an arrangement of representative hymns from the liturgical year in church for the morning worship services yesterday. It was beautiful and also truly amazing how much music the children could learn in two days!

All the children had several sessions in the choir room singing together.

Sing Sing Sing!

Ivy really enjoyed playing the handbells.

Here are some of the children practicing in the sanctuary - this was practice for the 11:00 worship service choir. Ivy also did the 8:00 worship service too!

Portfolios and Evaluation Completed

2009-06-19T14:36:00.003-04:00

The books are officially closed on another year of school! The portfolios are ready to be delivered to our school district today. They are huge volumes, weighing about 8 pounds each and containing a record of our school year. Inside are the daily entries of all our days of school, lists of books, pictures, field trips, special events, projects, drawings, subject summaries, samples of work, awards, service projects, and on and on! I love having this wonderful record of all we have done. I remember early on in my homeschooling career, begrudging the requirement of the portfolios! But now, as I have just completed our ninth portfolio, I am very thankful that I have these precious volumes. Our children do enjoy looking back through them over the years and remembering special times in their lives. They are like keepsake scrapbooks and they give us the opportunity to see in a very visible and tangible way the progress they have made in their learning.

Our evaluation was Wednesday morning and today is the due date for the portfolios for our township. In a few weeks, I will get a phone call when it is time to pick them up at the school and add them to our shelf in our school room. When I retire from homeschooling, we will have 31 of these on our shelves! (Yes, I plan on keeping them all!)

Today, I already started taking pictures for next year's portfolios! Ivy is at Music Camp today! She already has started her schooling for next year : )

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!! BRIAN IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!

2009-06-10T15:57:00.002-04:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all who have prayed on behalf of my cousin Brian! And praise be to God who has answered our prayers!!!! Our heavenly Father has heard our prayers and our cries and He has done this, in His perfect time. All charges against my cousin Brian have been dropped and he is being released today!!!! Praise God!!!! Thank you Lord!!!!

Tapestry of Grace

2009-06-09T09:21:00.009-04:00

When our Year 2 Digital Edition Bonus Bundle arrived in the mail, I was so excited! It was quite a different package from last year's large bundles of printed material! I think I will really like the digital edition and the space saving aspect of it especially. I'm also happy that if something happens to the disk, it can easily and inexpensively be replaced without a problem.

Lampstand Press, the company that produces Tapestry of Grace is a wonderful company to do business with! Along with my Bonus Bundle, I ordered the Writing Aids. As I was looking through my book, I noticed that there was a printing error. I wrote to them yesterday telling about the problem with my book and my new copy will be on my doorstep today! The misprinted book is mine to keep as a back-up or to give away to someone who could use it. How nice is that!

I also want to let everyone know that I have become a Tapestry of Grace affiliate, which means that if you order Tapestry of Grace after clicking on the Tapestry of Grace from my blog, I will get some credit for the sale. Or you can order by phone or mail and give them my affilliate user's name which is "toggers3" or mentioning this blog site. Thank you!

Tapestry of Grace has been a blessing for our family. It is the kind of curriculum I would have loved to have written if I had had the time and ability to put it all together! I pray for God's blessings on the Somervilles and Lampstand Press that they will be able to produce Tapestry of Grace for homeschooling families for many years to come. I had never really known about TOG until last year when a friend shared with me about what she used with her family. After looking at the website and printing out the free samples available on the site, I knew very quickly that it was just what we needed. After using it for a year, I love it even more! So if you are considering it for your family, visit the website by clicking on my link and explore! I think you will really like what you see!

Tapestry of Grace/Digital Edition: Year 1
Tapestry of Grace/Digital Edition: Year 2
Tapestry of Grace/Digital Edition: Year 3

Portfolios....Evaluations....Objectives.....!!!

2009-06-08T08:26:00.004-04:00

School is over, but my work continues on as a homeschool mom in PA! This is a busy month as I prepare Joel's and Ivy's portfolios of the year. Thankfully, I have finished Joel's and now I begin to work on Ivy's. These are huge notebooks packed with the daily log of everything we've done and samples of all the work they've done for each subject during the year in school. Also included are many pictures, momentos, and other projects. I like to write a summary for each subject and of course, there are long lists of all the books we have used this year. These portfolios are precious keepsakes of their year and so far, we have eight of these on our shelves! By the time I'm done homeschooling, we'll have 28 huge portfolios in our house!!!

After the portfolios are completed, we have an evaluation with our evaluator, a school teacher who has graduated her own homeschooled children. She will look over their portfolios and talk to Joel and Ivy about their year and answer any questions I may have. She is a great resource of information about homeschooling through high school! Even though I am a certified teacher, I comply with this part of the homeschooling law because it gives added accountability and support. Also I love the feeling of accomplishment after putting those portfolios together!!!

Then I must write out the objectives for each of our children for all subject areas for next year and send that along with a notarized affidavit of our plan to homeschool and turn in the portfolios to the school district. There are many homeschool families in our school district so the portfolios really pile up in the office! After a couple of days, we may go and pick up our portfolios. I always wonder if they even look at them all!

Along with all the paperwork and the preparation of the portfolios, June is a busy time for us choosing and ordering our curriculum for next year. That's the fun part! I am very happy with Tapestry of Grace - we really learned so much last year! So this year, we will be doing Year 2, digital edition! Using the digital edition will be different for us, but I think I will like it. I also ordered Writing Aids and look forward to using that this year for the first time. We did the Bonus Bundle so we'll have the Map Aids again and the first unit Lapbook for Ivy. Year 2 covers the time after the fall of Rome right up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence! We'll be studying the Rennaisance, Reformation and Colonial America - all very interesting! I am so excited! And best of all, most of the books we need are at the library so there are very few that I will have to purchase this year!

For Math, we will be continuing where we left off in their Math-U-See books. And we will order new Language Lessons books from Queen Homeschool Supply. We love those! For science, Joel is going to complete his General Science book from Apologia He did half the book this year because Future City Engineering fulfilled half of his science requirement for the year. Ivy will be doing the Zoology book and she's excited about that.

We've decided to drop our Monday morning Homeschool group for next year. We loved that group and the classes were fantastic! However, it was too much for us to be involved with two groups. We'll continue the Thursday afternoon Hempfield Homeschool Group that we have been a part of for almost 8 years. I will be teaching classes there in the fall and spring semesters next year.

There is much to look forward to for next year and great memories to look back on from the year just completed. I love homeschooling! Soon, I will enjoy a nice break from it all and savor the summer. Oh I love that too!

A special day

2009-06-08T08:11:00.002-04:00

It was such a joy for us to witness our son Joel being baptized yesterday morning and welcomed into membership at our church! We are so thankful beyond words for God's grace evident in his young life and to see his love for the Lord. He took the communicant members' class for the past 12 weeks, along with other young teens to study and understand the doctrines of the faith. There were several members of the youth group who stood together yesterday confirming their faith in Jesus. Joel was one of two who were baptized in that service, kneeling down and having the water poured onto their heads from the hand of our youth pastor. What a beautiful and meaningful service it was to us as his parents. Praise God for His wonderful saving grace!

Last night was also a special time for us. We went back to our former church to attend the commissioning service for our dear friends who are leaving for Bolivia next month with New Tribes Mission. It was a special time to share with them as they prepare to leave for this new chapter of ministry in their lives. We also were so happy to see many old friends there who we haven't seen in a couple of years. Even though God has led us to a different church, our friendships there are very sweet and precious to us.

So this morning, I am rejoicing and treasuring the blessings of God! How wonderful it is to be part of His family!

J.A.M. (junior-high adventures in ministry)

2009-06-02T07:51:00.004-04:00

Our son Joel along with other junior highers and youth leaders from our church spent the weekend at Philadelphia Biblical University to participate in ministry to inner city kids. Approximately 200 kids came for Kids Day on Saturday. The "jammers" were each paired with a child for the day and had one-on-one time to present the gospel with him or her. 37 children accepted Jesus as their Savior! Please pray for the children that were there and that they would continue to grow in their faith. Joel's buddy accepted Christ three weeks prior so he was able to encourage him in his walk with the Lord and to share with others about Jesus. Here are some pictures of Joel and others from his team on the trip.

A picture of forgiveness

2009-06-01T06:28:00.003-04:00

I just have to share what I learned in Sunday School yesterday! In a previous post, I wrote about forgiveness after reading the book Amish Grace. God is still teaching me more on this subject! Yesterday, in Sunday School, I learned for the very first time the significance of the items in the ark of the covenant and how that was a picture of God's forgiveness through the covering of Christ's blood.

Hebrews 9:4 mentions the items in the ark of the covenant: the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Have you ever wondered why those items were chosen?

This past year, in our Tapestry of Grace Year 1, my children and I learned about the ark of the covenant. Yet I never thought deeply about the contents! First,the jar of manna... God's provision for a complaining and grumbling people. It was the perfect food for them, yet they were discontent. Aaron's staff that budded....Numbers 17 tells the story about Aaron's budding staff. God had told Moses to get twelve staffs, on from each tribe. The staff belonging to the man He chose would sprout to "rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites" said the Lord. The next day, they saw that Aaron's staff had sprouted, budded, blossomed and produced almonds! Numbers 17:10 says, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Put back Aaron's staff in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign to the rebelious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.'" This was a picture of God's loving heart acting in mercy to His people to keep them from sinning with their grumbling. And lastly, the stone tablets.... Dueteronomy 10 tells us about these tablets. They were not the original ones - those were broken when Moses threw them down after seeing the people with their golden calf. God replaced the tablets and they were to be put in the ark.

Each of these items illustrate sin against God by His people. Yet, they each also show God's mercy and grace. The provision of manna, the guarding from sin, the replacement of the tablets help us to see His love despite the failures. These items, reminding the people of their sin were hidden inside the ark of the covenant.

Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would come and sprinkle blood on the lid of the ark with a branch from the hyssop plant. The ark represented the sins of the people and the sacrificial blood was to purify from sin. David wrote in Psalm 51 verse 7 "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." The fulfillment of this was later when Jesus offered His blood for our sins. What a loving, forgiving and gracious God we have! He never overlooks our sin, yet He provides a way for us to be made clean and forgiven.

This picture of God's forgiveness in the ark was a whole new concept for me. I thought it was just too good and exciting to not write about! I hope it was a blessing for you as well.

Apologia elementary science journals contest

2009-05-27T23:19:00.004-04:00

It is the time of year that I start planning and purchasing for next year's schooling. I'm getting really excited and look forward to ordering our new books and materials! I was just reading Kelli's blog at www.thelandofboys.blogspot.com about a new contest to win a notebook journal for Apologia's elementary Botany or Astronomy books!! We have used the Botany book this past year and have loved it. The new notebooks to go with the text books look fantastic!! This contest is over May 29 - so enter right away if you are interested. Here is all the info.

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available.
These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:
A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.
See the sample pages here:

Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128

and

Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

All the Last Times

2009-05-26T16:02:00.012-04:00

At bedtime on Sunday night, I gave Jaden a kiss and put him in his crib to sleep. Just like hundreds of nights before. What I didn't know is this: it was the last time I would ever put my child to bed in a crib!

Granted, he is nearly 3 and a half years old. Our other two children were out of the crib before his age and into big beds by age 3. We knew we really should be getting a big bed for Jaden, but we didn't feel rushed. I had slept in a crib at three years old - I still remember it! But Jaden is already 3 feet 3 inches tall and the crib was starting to get cramped. So when I was walking around the neighborhood yesterday at all the yard sales (it's an annual thing here on Memorial Day) and I spotted the perfect bed for Jaden, we bought it!

Mark went to work taking the crib apart and assembling the new bed in his room. It is a very nice bed - big storage drawers underneath for all his toys, a bookcase headboard. Just right for his little room! But seeing the crib dismantled and ready to be put into storage made me have a strange little lump in my throat. Good-bye crib!!! That piece of furniture and that stage of life has passed for us now.

Then I began to think about all the other things that I unknowingly did for the last time - all those times that passed un-noticed and unaware. All the first things are celebrated and recorded - first smile, first teeth, first steps... But the last things slip away silently and it is not until afterward that we notice they are gone......Like the last time I ever carried Joel in my arms. There was a last time, but who knows when that was? The last time I ever washed his hair... gave him a bath... helped him brush his teeth... wiped his nose...put him on time-out... walked him in a stroller... exchanged Eskimo kisses... buckled his seat belt? All those times have long passed. I never knew when I did any of those things for the last time.

When was the last time that I did all those things for Ivy? Rocked her to sleep... Held her on my hip... Fed her in the high chair... Kissed to make it better... Sprayed "No More Tangles" spray in her hair... Held her hand as we crossed the street... Let her stand on a chair in the kitchen so she could help stir... Played "hide and seek" with her? All those last times have all happened and I didn't know at those times it was the very last time!

One of the advantages of having a baby again after the other children were older is that I've realized more and more how quickly the stages pass. I've learned to treasure those moments along the way, all the "ordinary" times that later are looked at as being so tender and sweet in the memories. I've also experienced the blessings of having older kids and know that I have much to look forward to with Jaden!

Here are some pictures of some of those things that passed by seemingly unnoticed:

Holding Joel in my arms

Changing Joel's diapers on the table

Making Joel laugh with his favorite cow puppet

Joel riding horsey with Daddy

Our little family of four with toddler Joel and baby Ivy

Carrying Ivy in the sling

Mealtimes holding Ivy and Joel in the high chair

Giving Ivy a bath on the table

Ivy wearing an Easter bonnet!

Ivy snuggling up on Daddy's lap

Joel wearing a Cowboy hat and boots

OK - you get the idea! I could add about a hundred more pictures illustrating these things that passed by so quickly, but I'll stop here. Instead of grieving the passing of those things, I will embrace the moments today and look forward to the future memories that we will make!

Our busy month!

2009-05-24T19:06:00.008-04:00

For our family, May is the busiest month of the year! I have been so busy that I haven't been able to keep up with this blog very well, although there have been so many, many things I have wanted to write about!

This month included choir concerts, a wonderful Mother-Daughter weekend retreat, Mother's Day with my mom, and my mom's birthday, Track and Field Day, our anniversary, visits from friends, Mark's parents visiting from New York, my Dad and his wife visiting from Arizona, yard sales at our house, several dentist apointments, completing the painting of the kitchen, putting away Jaden's crib and getting him a "Big Boy Bed" and next weekend will be Joel's missions trip to Philadelphia!

These are some pictures from this month.

Jaden loved helping Daddy and Ivy plant the flowers this year!

Ivy and I had lots of fun on the Mother-Daughter retreat! Here she is with some friends in the rowboat. Later, Ivy and I went out on the canoe together. We had beautiful weather and a great time.

We ate s'mores after roasting marshmallows over the fire in the lodge.

We went on a sunrise hike - a very early morning, but it was nice.

My beautiful daughter

Grandma reading stories to Jaden on Mother's Day

Mark cooked lunch for us on Mother's Day. He grilled chicken and made everything to go with it too! Yum!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Jaden loves to help me make pancakes on Saturday mornings! I also wanted to show the kitchen door before it was painted.

Ivy found baby bunnies in the backyard. She kept them for a little while, thinking she and her friends could "adopt" them. They had them up in the clubhouse, fed them milk from an eye dropper and named them all - until I found out about it and insisted they be taken back to their nest and their mama!!!! Thankfully everything worked out well and the mama rabbit was happy to see them again.

Pictures of our completed kitchen! Everything painted, new floor, new ceiling, new tile board, new trim, crown moulding, etc. I love it! Thank you Mark!

My Dad and his wife Ginny from Arizona.
Daddy reading Jaden some Bible stories before bed - on his brand new bed!
Jaden's first time going to sleep in a big boy bed!!!! He told me he thought it was very nice, but he liked his crib better! Silly boy!

Differing perspectives on forgiveness

2009-05-24T17:25:00.004-04:00

October 2, 2006 was a beautiful sunny Monday. I remember turning on the radio as I began to prepare lunch that day and heard the report of a stand-off at an Amish school. There are numerous Amish schools in Lancaster County, one less than five minutes from our house. Immediately I turned on the tv for more information. Quickly the news spread that the Amish school in Nickel Mines was the scene of a horrible tragedy after a gunman walked in and shot 10 little Amish girls leaving five dead and five seriously wounded and then killed himself. I gathered my children close to me and we prayed. We felt so very, very sad. Who could have done such an evil thing? Why would anyone want to kill sweet young children? A school shooting in an Amish school was unthinkable before that day.

It wasn't very long until the killer was identified. That brought more shock and more unanswered questions. He was a quiet man with no criminal history, no understood motive beyond the fact that he had bitterness in his heart to God because of the death of his baby girl nine years before. He was from a Christian family, was homeschooled growing up, had a good wife and children. And we shared a connection with his parents that I will not specify here, but it made the news a little bit more personal and tragic.

Perhaps the biggest story in the aftermath of the tragedy was the forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish. Even though the murderer of their children was dead, they forgave him in their hearts, choosing not to hold on to bitterness. They extended kindness and compassion to his family. Many news stories circulated with interviews, telling of acts of kindness, care, reconciliation..... it was truly inspiring and miraculous.

I have been reading the book, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher. This book has been very interesting and has given me an even greater understanding of the theology the Amish embrace. I deeply respect and admire the Amish in their reactions to the unthinkable tragedy they suffered. My heart hurts thinking of the pain they experienced and still continue to live through.

Their theology, however, is deeply rooted in trying to gain God's favor through their good deeds, including forgiving others. The Amish believe that if they do not forgive, they will not be forgiven, using the Matthew 6:14-15 ("....For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.") And the Lord's Prayer includes "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." By forgiving others, they can rest easier knowing that they will be forgiven and perhaps receive eternal life in heaven one day. The thought of not forgiving someone brings terror into their hearts because they believe they would be in danger of hell.

Generally, Protestants hold to a radically different perspective and motivation for forgiveness. We forgive because God forgave us. Not with the uncertain kind of hope that maybe He will forgive us IF we forgive. Rather beacause we have been forgiven, His grace makes it possible for us to forgive others. Our motivation is one of gratitude for the forgiveness we have already received. Ephesians 4:32 and 5:1 instructs us to be "forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." We are to be imitators of God, as His dearly loved children. So forgiveness is an outpouring of the forgiveness and grace we received from God in Christ. It all originates with God! We cannot gain God's favor by our good works, or our forgiveness of others. Without His forgiveness and grace, we were dead in sin, unable to save ourselves. No amount of good deeds could make us right with God! Isaiah 64:6 says, "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy." We know that we have eternal life, not because of anything we have done, not because of good deeds or forgiving others... but because we have been saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-9).

These two different perspectives and motivations for forgiveness have been on my mind for the last two weeks. And God used this in His wonderful wisdom to prepare me for the lesson I was given to substitute teach the fifth and sixth grade girls' Sunday School Class today! I was asked to teach an overview of the books of Titus and Philemon to the class with the emphasis on forgiveness! How appropriate was the timing!

Our anniversary

2009-05-18T07:07:00.003-04:00

Today Mark and I celebrate 18 years of marriage! We were so very young - Mark was 22 and I was only 20! Over the years, our love has deepened and grown with the passing of time and so many life experiences together. Our life together has had bumps and surprises, twists and turns, but what a wonderful ride it has been! I am so thankful for our marriage that has only grown sweeter over the years. It is a blessing and joy to be Mark's wife! In honor of the day, I thought I would share some pictures from our wedding day - May 18, 1991 at Faith Bible Church in Sterling, VA.

Running at a very fast pace!

2009-05-15T21:31:00.004-04:00

I guess you can tell I've been busy! This has been the longest break in the blog so far! This is the season of the year that our family seems to run at a very fast pace. And speaking of running and fast paces - today was the annual Track and Field Day for Hempfield Homeschoolers! Ivy participated in 7 events - tire run, obstacle course, hurdles, long jump, high jump, softball throw and soccer kick. She had a blast and won a few second and third place ribbons! I was the guide for the 11 year olds so I got to record the times and help with the ribbons. Joel was too old to participate this year so he helped with the 100 yard dash - timed the races. Afterwards, we all enjoyed a picnic lunch and brought some friends of Joel and Ivy home for the rest of the day! They played a long game of Life and ate lots of pizza.

Easter

2009-04-13T15:00:00.005-04:00

We had a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating our risen Savior!

Saturday was a day of final preparations for the holiday, shopping, meal preparation and a favorite activity for our kids - coloring the eggs! Jaden thoroughly enjoyed this. Somehow I was the one who had the most stained fingers!

Sunday morning was absolutely beautiful. We all went to church for the early service since Mark was singing in the combined choirs for both services. During the second service, I had to serve in the two year old nursery. I love serving in there, however I was sad that I would have to miss Mark's solo - he was singing his song in the 11:00 service only. I didn't mention this to anyone. But God allowed a wonderful blessing to me through a sweet older woman. She came to the nursery where I was and asked if she could replace me while I went to listen to Mark sing his solo! What a sweet, thoughtful thing she did for me! And we barely know each other and I still have no idea how she knew I was in the nursery and would love to hear Mark sing! So just in time, I was able to slip into the back of the sanctuary and hear Mark sing his song. He sang it beautifully - "Love Crucified, Arose," an old favorite song by Michael Card.

This was the prayer that we recited on Sunday morning:

"Father of Glory, we continue praising you for raising your Son from the dead. This miracle was all your doing! Now we seek the life-giving consequences of his new life in ourselves. Establish our assurance that the blood of Christ cleanses us completely. Fortify our hope in time of death, of a resurrection body one day.

Grant us, O God, faith to live upon the wealth of our eternal fortune, not the crumbs of temporary possessions. Banish fears and discouragement that overtake us even in the midst of worship. Renew our hope in Christ's next great appearing: Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen."

A "new" old hymn

2009-04-10T15:26:00.003-04:00

Last night at the Holy Thursday service at our church, we sang this old hymn written by Johann Heermann, 1630. I had never heard it before, but found it to be both beautiful and theologically rich. This morning, I read again the words as I reflected on Christ's suffering and death.

Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
That man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered:
For man's atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God interceedeth.

For me, kind Jesus, was thine incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation:
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

An afternoon at the park

2009-04-10T14:31:00.006-04:00

One of the best things about being a homeschooling family is spontaneous trips to the park after lunch on sunny afternoons! I may be 38 years old, but I still love to swing on the swings! I'm so happy that we have a three year old and can still go to playgrounds! Here are some pictures from our beautiful day at Amos Herr Park.

I love this picture of Ivy on the swing!

Jaden being a cowboy
green!

Jaden loves his trike

and Ivy's scooter!

Joel can never be near a baseball diamond without hitting some balls!

We walked around the Amos Herr homestead.

I love magnolias.

Spring is so pretty.

Ivy near the garden

There is a nice trail around the spring house.

My two boys on the see-saw!

Eyes at the Window

2009-04-03T08:25:00.005-04:00

Last night I read the final pages of the historical novel, Eyes at the Window by Evie Yoder Miller. It tells the story based on a true event involving several Amish frontier families in PA and OH from 1810-1861. Each chapter speaks with the voice of a different family member allowing the reader to know the inner thoughts of each character as the tale is unwoven. An Amish baby was murdered and the case went unsolved for more than 50 years.

The themes of judgment, suffering and forgiveness are woven through the book. Although this was Miller's first novel, it is an uncommon, striking, well-written book. Admittedly, I am a very critical reader and generally shun novels written about the Amish, but this one is completely different than the plethura of others. It is rich and lyrical, haunting, deep and penetrating. Definitely not mindless "twaddle"!!! I know that I will always remember this story and the characters that became so real in my mind. I will perhaps read it again as there is much on which to ponder and reflect. Because the characters speak honestly about marital relationships and adult issues, I do not recommend this book for younger readers.

Hempfield Homeschoolers' Spring Concert and Learning Fair

2009-03-28T11:40:00.003-04:00

Last night we enjoyed a beautiful concert by the choirs of the Hempfield Homeschoolers. Ivy is in the 4th - 6th grade choir and they did a great performance! They have been practicing every Thursday all semester and it paid off well. I am so thankful for the wonderful choir directors and teachers in our homeschool group. What a blessing to be a part of it for the past 7 years!

Above is the combined K-6th grade choirs.

This is Ivy's 4th -6th grade choir. She is in the middle row, 5th from the right.

After the concert, the gym was opened up for the Learning Fair. Ivy's Art classes displayed some of the students' work and there were many other projects on display including several science projects. All the kids did a fantastic job showing things that they learned throughout the year.

Ivy's paper is displayed on the top right. Below is her dolphin painting.

Joel's Future City Engineering Team showed off their model and did the oral presentation that they did for the competition in January. Next weekend, they will be going as invited guests to Philadelphia to present their model and presentation to the Electrical Engineering Institute at a dinner and reception. Way to go Future City Team!!!

Here is Joel on the left during the oral presentation. The model city is on the table in front.

It was a wonderful evening and I was very proud of all the students! There were a couple of bad moments though...... In the middle of the choir concert between songs, Jaden yelled out, "I'VE GOT TO GO PEE!!!!!!" We were sitting up in the balcony and his outburst seemed to reverberate through the whole sanctuary!!! The teenagers were sitting across the aisle from us and they laughed so hard I thought they were all going to burst!

Then during the learning fair, Jaden was knocked over by an older child who was running in the Fellowship Hall and he fell flat on his face - WHAM! right on the hard floor. He cut his upper and lower lips and had blood covering his mouth and nose. Poor thing! I was in a different room and didn't see it happen, but thankfully Ivy was nearby and scooped him up and found us. He had a bruise on his forehead too but he's doing fine. He sure got a lot of attention last night!!!! And every last born child loves that!

incarcerated and innocent

2009-03-25T14:59:00.003-04:00

There was a news story this week that touched my heart for obvious reasons. A 28 year old Lancaster Bible College student named Clark was arrested for holding up two female clerks with a knife and robbing a Turkey Hill Minit Market. He had been in trouble years ago and spent some time in jail before becoming a Christian. After looking at the surveillance video, his parole officer thought the robber looked like Clark and so he became a suspect. The employees identified him as the guilty one. So Clark was sent to jail and was awaiting trial.

Clark maintained his innocence. Yes, he had been guilty before, but his life was different now. He had been asleep in his apartment the night of the robbery and had nothing to do with this. Could this really be happening to him?!

While he was in prison, he was determined to use his time to minister to the other inmates and share the gospel to as many as he could. After all, he was at LBC to get training so that he could be used by the Lord in prison ministry!!! God always has a plan and a reason for everything that happens and can even use our suffering to bring about good.

Then one night, the real robber struck again! Obviously it could not have been Clark, who was in his jail cell! The charges against him were dismissed and he was released. It was a case of mistaken identity.

Was Clark bitter? No. The news story said that he forgave the police officers who arrested him. Is he going to sue? No. Although he lost several weeks and will have to make up this whole semester which will be very costly. He also lost his job and had his reputation tainted again. But he is so happy now to be a free man. The newspaper reported him saying, "I just want to praise God. Hallelujah, hallelujah."

I can't wait to tell this story to my cousin who also is in jail for a crime he did not commit. Sadly, I don't think that these things happen as rarely as people think. As long as there are humans involved in the "justice" system, there will always be injustice. How comforting to know that even in the affairs of men, God is in control and He is just!

In his statement to the police, he wrote the following verses, which I will pass on to my cousin Brian:

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"

John 8:32

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

John 8:36

Picking Cotton

2009-03-18T15:20:00.005-04:00

One of the blogs that I follow is http://www.challies.com/ You can always scroll down the page and click on the link to go to Tim Challies' blog and read his insightful posts. Today's post, called "Picking Cotton" was a review of the book of the same title. The book tells a story that is both heart-breaking and inspiring.

Tim makes it clear that he is not endorsing or recommending this book because of the graphic content. But the story is worth telling. Back in 1984, a young woman was raped by an intruder in her house. She identified the man as Ronald Cotton, and he was convicted and sentenced to prison. After serving for 11 years, he requested a DNA test which was becoming more in use at that time. The test proved his innocence! For 11 years, an innocent man was in prison. (Thankfully the real rapist was found, tried and convicted later).

The most amazing part of the story is not that an innocent man served 11 years, but that he was able to forgive the woman who mistakenly put him there. He held no bitterness or anger towards her. And those two individuals were able to form a friendship! Complete reconciliation and forgiveness is a beautiful thing. A little glimpse of God in sinful humanity.

My heart was drawn to this story because of my 23 year old cousin Brian. People who know me know that my cousin has been in jail for a year and a half for a murder he did not commit, and is awaiting trial in July. Before this happened to my cousin, I had so many false presuppositions. I assumed that people in jail must have done something wrong! Perhaps I would have agreed that there were rare occurrances of an innocent person being in jail..... but I thought that would be very rare, and surely, they must have done something to get arrested!

How much I have changed in my thinking. I've become much more aware of false charges, mistakes, wrongful arrests, injustice, and unfairness. I've also become much more sympathetic to those in prison or jails even if they are guilty. So many times inmates are dehumanized and denied basic human rights, like fresh air and sunshine. I never knew that before. My thinking was so wrong.

As for my cousin Brian, he is doing well under the circumstances. His letters don't convey any anger or bitterness. He seems to be accepting this as part of God's plan and purpose for him right now for whatever reason. Sometimes the path of life involves suffering. He is suffering, but there is a peace there too. We are praying for justice and that he will be released soon - even before this goes to trial. We are also praying that God will bring good out of this experience and that He will get the glory.

For those of you who would like to be a blessing to Brian during this time, he would LOVE to get some mail! Just writing him an encouraging Scripture verse would make his day! He is in a cell with nothing to do but read the books we send him. No TV room, no going outside, no windows to look out.... so notes are very precious and encouraging to him. His address is:

Brian Lamb

Dallas County Detention Center

204 Poplar St.

Buffalo, MO 65622

Matthew 26:40 says, "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Remodeling

2009-03-17T15:29:00.006-04:00

We are in the process of fixing up our kitchen! In the summer of 2006, we bought this home and we've been slowly redoing everything. Much of the work on this house was done by Mark with help from his dad before we even moved in. New walls, new carpet, new flooring, electrical work, and many, many, many other details. What a long process it has been!!! So many projects have required more time, more money and more patience than we had to give so we've had to go at a slower pace. I've been very eager to have the kitchen projects completed and we are finally making progress in that room again! When we are finished, we'll have freshly painted walls, trim, and door, new tile wall paneling, new trim, removal of old cabinet over the microwave, new flooring, new ceiling, and hopefully a new dishwasher! I am so thankful for a husband who knows how to do EVERYTHING!!!! He is absolutely amazing.

So if you were in our house now, you would see dust all over the place from sanding the spackling, plastic hanging from the cubboards, our dining room table covered with kitchen things, and it is a mess!!! But because I know how nice it will look when we are done, it's OK! It is worth the inconvenience, the dust, the mess to have a pretty kitchen.

That thought reminded me of my children today. As a homeschooling mom, sometimes our days are long and we struggle with attitudes with our teen and tween and math and assignments.... Sometimes I wonder, "are we making progress???" and "are these kids going to turn out OK?" and fear and doubt try to enter my head when it's not smooth sailing. But when I keep my eyes on the reasons we are homeschooling and the investment we are making in their lives, I realize that despite "messy days", this is all worth it! The teaching and training of my children is not easy, but it is very, very rewarding and worth all of the time, effort and challenges it brings.
After all, whether it is just a pretty kitchen or something far more precious like great relationships with my well educated children - these things require inconvenience, mess, sacrifice, and time, but the results are wonderful!!!

But even more wonderful is the fact that God is doing the work with our children! I need to be faithful in teaching them and Mark and I need to do our best with nurturing them in the Lord, and training them to be disciples. God is the One who is ultimately working in their lives, sanctifying them so they are more and more like Christ. It is a life-long process for all of us.

Here are the verses I shared with my children today from I Thessalonians 5:22-23

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul,and body be kept blameless at the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful and HE WILL DO IT."

Here are some pictures of our kitchen project to share with you!

Mark had to cover the cabinets with plastic to protect everything inside from the dust. See the wallpaper we had to remove on the far wall?
Then he took down the microwave and this cabinet off the wall. We don't need the cabinet and we are going to have a shelf there instead after the wall gets painted.
This is the wall where the cabinet and microwave were (and the stove and refrigerator goes). Mark's least favorite task is spackling and sanding, spackling and sanding.... so much prep work before painting!

2009-03-14T15:21:00.004-04:00

Afternoon on a Hill

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind blow down the grass,

And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

10 more weeks to go!

2009-03-13T16:10:00.003-04:00

This has been a really good school year - our first one with Tapestry of Grace! But I must admit that I'm getting eager to finish! Ten more weeks, 50 more days.... Each day I pray for fresh diligence and cheerfulness in our studies. Why does our first semester always seem to go so quickly and the second half of the year drag so slowly?!? I want to finish well, with enthusiasm. I do not want us to coast half-hearted to the end. Does anyone else struggle with this?

What does help us is a varying of our routines. Although, I know some families like to start at exactly the same time every day and have a schedule almost written in stone - and that works out great for many! But for us, we are much more flexible in our daily rhythms. Sometimes what works best when we get the school doldrums is to shake it up a bit and do things out of the regular order. Or in a different room. Trying to keep a sense of humor helps too! Let out some silliness and music! Leave the books and take a walk and then come back with better focus..... I'm thinking of ideas as I type this!

Even in our flexible routines, I think it is best for us to begin our school time with prayer. We pray for diligence and cheerfulness each morning and read the Word together and sing our song of the month. That does help in setting the tone for the rest of their studies. It's still hard sometimes, but it does help!

I would love to hear some suggestions on keeping school fresh for the last weeks of the year. My son just read this over my shoulder and said, "Field Trips!" Any field trip suggestions for Classical Greece and Ancient Rome?

As I close this post, I am reminded of Paul's assessment of the Thessalonians in verse 3 of the first chapter of his letter to them. Notice the motivation they had in their work - it wasn't duty, or obligation, or fear, or selfishness. It was faith, love and hope!!! This is my prayer for all of us who feel tired as we finish the last several weeks of the school year with our children:

May OUR work be produced by faith,

OUR labor be prompted by love,

and OUR endurance be inspired by hope

in our Lord Jesus.

(my paraphrase)

Family history

2009-03-12T06:32:00.005-04:00

Sitting on my desk is a page with the names of 24 couples who I decended from, consisting of just one branch of a huge family tree. This particular page of names from my maternal grandmother's family goes back to Jonas Weed who came to America on the Arabella in 1630 and settled in Stamford Connecticut in 1642. I am 11 generations down from him! Another branch from my paternal grandmother's family goes back even farther - 14 generations to Henry Collins who was born in 1606 in England.

Thanks to the many historians in my family tree, I have extensive listings of geneologies from several branches so that a computer printed paper copy of my family tree takes up half of the family room floor!

Looking at the names of well over 100 couples who I descended from makes me feel so incredibly blessed to even be alive! All of those couples had to have met and had a child who had to have a child......or I wouldn't exist today! It makes me so thankful for God's sovereignty and creation of each human life. I don't believe that we exist by chance! God knew about each of us before the foundation of the world and each of us is a miracle! Each generation has TWICE the number of ancestors as the previous one and that is amazing too! Think about that!

So many of my ancestors were the 8th or 9th or 10th child in the family! Some of my ancestors were the products of a second marriage due to the first spouse having died. At least one couple that I know of several generations back was not even married! It is simply amazing that I am here today!

The stories are fascinating. Some of my ancestors lived in Boston and were neighbors of Paul Revere. Several ancestors faught in the Revolutionary War. One of my ancestors was instrumental in the capturing of a British man-of-war in the Potomac River during the War of 1812. Several fought in the Civil War. Some traveled west in covered wagons. One was a Methodist circuit rider preacher. I am very thankful for the Christian heritage that is evident for many generations back on many branches of the tree.

And there are mysteries as well, the Cherokee ancestry of my paternal Grandfather, the possible family relation to Alfred Lord Tennyson, and questions about the parents of one of my great-grandmothers - was she a secret daughter of the infamous Charles Taze Russell? I would love to know the answers!

Those of us who have children will be the ancestors of future generations. I want to live my life so that those who come behind me will find us faithful, like my favorite song says. As a mom, I know that I am very involved in shaping the next generation! What an awesome task that is.

Be encouraged today - you are a miracle! Your existence was planned by God! And if you are a mom, you are making an impact for your descendents to come!

"...what we have heard and known,

what our fathers have told us,

we will not hide them from their children;

We will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

His power, and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law

in Israel which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their chidren.

Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands."
Psalm 78:3b-7

A great coupon code for you!

2009-03-11T13:22:00.006-04:00

My friend Amanda on her blog, Just a Small Part of the Bigger Picture, announced the winner of her giveaway of Bible memorization software and I won! I am so excited about this and I believe this will really help our family to learn our Scripture passages each week. I have no excuse now not to memorize!

And I'm happy to let you know that Greg at http://www.memorizehisword.com/ has offered a great discount on this software for anyone else who would like to have this! You can get Memorize His Word for $10.00 off! For the rest of March, the coupon code PSALM11911 will take $10.00 off the price of a CD.

Please visit his site and watch the demo to see how this product works. I think it is a great tool for the whole family or a whole class - it keeps track of everyone's progress and each one can go at his or her own pace. You can enter whatever verses you choose and there is no limit on the number of verses! As you learn the new verses, older ones can also be reviewed.

I hope that many will take advantage of the $10 savings and order this product - I think it would be a perfect Easter present for anyone! And thank you so much, Amanda, for the giveaway! Please visit her blog, you will be so encouraged!

Making music together

2009-03-09T21:01:00.006-04:00

I was the only one without a stringed instrument tonight, but that's OK because I had the camera! Now if only I could figure out if and how I could put a video on here! I wish you could have heard this - it was a little bit of southern gospel with some rock-n-roll mixed in!

I love our family!

This week's Scripture passage

2009-03-09T15:33:00.003-04:00

We are treasuring God's truth in our hearts, along with the youth group at our church. Each week, there is another verse or verses to learn. We would be so happy to have others join with us! We are learning the verses in the NIV, which is the version most people are using. So here are the verses for this week...

Topic: God's Jealousy
Reference: Isaiah 48:9-11

"For my own name's sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to cut you off.
See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another."

2009-03-09T13:53:00.002-04:00

I just added a link to Narcissa Whitman's letters and also a link for her journal that she wrote while traveling west on the Oregon Trail and an account of the massacre for whoever would be interested in reading them. I found her letters and journal to be fascinating! Scroll down to the original post "My 200 Year Old Friend" and you'll see the links at the end of the post.

The Gifts God Gives Us

2009-03-08T18:48:00.013-04:00

Our son Joel loves to draw. He has gone through stacks of sketch books over the years and tons of ink! We realized he was going to be an artist when he was two years old and he was already drawing stick people! It is a wonderful gift that he's been given by God although so many times he has wished he had been gifted athletically instead. He LOVES sports so much. However, we know that God has made him artistic for a purpose. We don't get to choose the gifts God gives us, but we are to share them and use them for His glory.

Joel at age 2

Still drawing at age 13

Here are a few drawings from one of his sketch books to share with you. Click on a picture to make it bigger.

Signs of Spring

2009-03-07T08:22:00.004-05:00

"For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers have already
appeared in the land;
The time has arrived
for pruning the vines,
And the voice of the turtledove
has been heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

A great tool for memorizing God's Word

2009-03-06T22:28:00.004-05:00

The youth group at our church has been given the challenge to memorize a Bible passage for each week of this year. Families of all the teens are encouraged to join in and also memorize these verses! I am very excited about this, yet memorization is really, really hard for me and I know this will take effort and discipline on my part. Thankfully, there is a resource that can make this a bit easier for me!

My friend Amanda is having a giveaway at her blog - Bible memorization software! I just watched the demo and it looks fantastic! You can also get a 30 day free trial there. Be sure to check out Amanda's blog to enter for a chance to win the software for free! And her blog is wonderful too!!!

This week's verse for us is on God's righteousness.

Dueteronomy 32:4 "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

I'll be posting a new verse each week and we would love for you to join us in treasuring God's Truth in our hearts!

Kissing in the Kitchen

2009-03-05T19:20:00.006-05:00

It was March 5, 1989, that Mark and I first kissed! Can you believe it's been 20 years?! We both were Lancaster Bible College students and I was a freshman and Mark was a junior that year. Mark sang in the college choir and the first week of March was the choir's spring tour when they traveled to different churches and sang concerts. It so happened that I had gone home for spring break and the LBC choir was presenting a concert near my home in Virginia. Of course my family and I went to the concert - they looked forward to an evening of beautiful music and I wanted to see friends, particularly Mark! It was that night that I first heard Mark sing. He sang a beautiful solo, that old song "Sincerely Yours."

After the concert, all the members of the choirs were assigned different families to go home with to spend the night. Guess which choir member our family took home that night?! That was the first time Mark got to meet my grandparents and see my home. It was in the kitchen of my family's home before we all went to bed that he gave me a kiss! And twenty years later, we still are kissing in the kitchen every day!

Mark and Jenny 20 years ago

Snowy Day

2009-03-03T09:51:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we got almost 5 inches of snow, winter's last hurrah! It looks beautiful, even though we are eager for Spring's flowers and warmer weather. Ivy enjoyed sledding with neighbors and Jaden had fun outside around the yard. Joel moped around disgusted that it had to snow - he says he would like it if it weren't so cold and so wet!!! And yes, we still had school! But our Monday morning homeschool group was cancelled so we still had a more relaxing day and the kids could sleep in a little bit.

Today we'll be going to the Pediatrician's office to hopefully remedy Jaden and Ivy's coughs. Perhaps it was a bad thing to let them play in the snow yesterday but I thought some fresh air would do them good.... they've been sick for awhile. Hopefully soon our nights in the bathroom with the steamy hot shower running and vicks all over the chest will soon end. Why are coughs always so bad at night?

Sunday morning

2009-03-01T20:46:00.004-05:00

What a blessing it was to be in church today! After several weeks of sickness, it was so good to be able to worship with our church family this morning. This weekend was the Global Symposium, a Conference on Biblical Missions so we were able to hear several missionaries speak and visit many displays. We heard a missionary couple with MNA First Nations who work with Native American tribes. Guess how many tribes are recognized by the federal government in this country? I guessed 50, thinking was probably too many. But actually there are 560 tribes in this country!!! It was heart-breaking to be reminded of the sad history of the native people, but encouraging to hear of the work of God in the lives of so many native Americans.

We also heard from missionaries with MTW in Germany working in Berlin. I was amazed at the complete lack of Christian concepts in that city. They are a post-modern people with no idea of church, God, moral absolutes or truth. Even the Reformation that swept through other parts of Germany never reached their city so they have had no Christian influence.

Our main speaker in the services today was Dr. Stephen Beck with Greater Europe Mission to Frankfurt, Germany. He spoke on Proclaiming Christ in a Post-Christian Culture and how to reach the post-modern culture for Christ. It is hard for us in the U.S., and perhaps more so in Lancaster County, PA, to imagine the complete lack of Christian thought or ideas. Yet, that is the case for much of Europe. No concept of church - what is church? no concept of God, worship, truth, morality. How do we reach people like that? By serving. By loving them and serving them. Trying to include them in our circle of belonging. Everyone wants to belong and be loved. Through loving service, and a sense of belonging, many post-modern people are coming to Christ. It is a slow process, but God is working in the hearts of His people and His grace is irrisistable!

Every Sunday morning, we recite prayers of confession as a church body. I love that aspect of our service. I'm thankful for these prayers that I can use to speak what is in my heart that I don't always have the words to say. Here was our prayer for this morning:

O my Savior, I am slow to learn and ever prone to forget all your best lessons. I am pained to think upon too many prayerless mornings when I might have claimed the day for your service. Except for your tender forgiveness - all undeserved - unspent opportunities and cold compassion toward others would be my condemnation.
Your life-giving Spirit can shatter the walking trance of unbelief and degenerate behavior in which millions still sleep. As you empower the work of evangelism, please blow upon my spiritual ashes until an unmistakable flame of Christ in me shows his truth and mercy to some other soul. Make me your instrument: to comfort someone in despair, or to bring the wayward to the Cross of Jesus. Amen.

My 200 year old friend

2009-02-26T20:34:00.013-05:00

While preparing to teach third grade classes about the Oregon Trail, I kept coming across brief references to Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who were among the very first to take the trail west in order to build a mission and spread the gospel to the Cayuse tribe in Oregon territory. I had heard of these missionaries before, but the details were sketchy in my mind and I felt compelled to find out more about them - particularly Narcissa. I wanted to know this courageous woman who set out on the perilous journey that no other white woman had ever taken before.

As I researched her story and read her many letters, I was overwhelmed with emotion! There are so many sad parts to her story, yet I can see God's tender hand of grace working through all the events that happened in her life. And even now, so many years after she has gone on to heaven, we can read her letters and be inspired by the life she lived. I feel like I have met a new friend, although she lived 200 years ago! But I like to think of her as a kindred spirit and I really do look forward to meeting her in heaven someday! I think we will be friends.

She was born the oldest daughter in a large Presbyterian family and enjoyed a good upbringing. At age 11, she gave her heart to Jesus and at age 16 she first felt committed to give her life to missions work. She trained to be a teacher and taught Kindergarten for a while. She accepted the young Dr. Marcus Whitman's proposal to marriage, although she didn't know him very well. But they both had the same love for the Lord and the same calling to reach the Indians. The very next day after they were married, Narcissa said sad good-byes to her family and began her journey west on what would become known as the Oregon Trail. They traveled with the Spaldings, another couple who were going as missionaries to the native tribes. Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were the first white women to go west to Oregon. Because they were able to make the trip, many other families soon followed the trail west.

It was a difficult 2,000 mile trip but they arrived safe and sound among the Cayuse tribe who gave them land to build a mission along the Walla Walla River. Their friends, the Spaldings traveled north to work among the Nez Perce tribe. It was a very busy time for them, building a home and mission, making friends with the native people and preparing for the birth of their first and only child, Alice Clarissa who was born on Narcissa's birthday just a few months after their arrival.

Alice was the joy of Narcissa's life. I could tell from her letters that Narcissa was a very loving and devoted mother to Alice who stayed by her side always. Alice slept with her mother every night as a baby and toddler and the two were very attached. As a two year old, little Alice was very advanced for her age, often singing hymns and reciting prayers and proclaiming her love for Jesus.

Because they lived so close to the Walla Walla River, Narcissa and Marcus often instructed Alice to never, never go by the river. They were terrified that Alice would wander close to it's banks and made sure that she never did. One day, after watching several of the native mothers and children down by the river, Alice ventured down to it's banks. Narcissa was horrified and immediately snatched Alice away and sternly gave her another lecture to never do that again! Little Alice was very repentent and seemed to understand the dangers so no further discipline was administered.

But apparantly, the temptation was too great. On a busy Sunday afternoon, while Narcissa was in the kitchen, Alice slipped out and took 2 cups down to the river to fill. She was asked to put water in the cups. Alice decided she would instead get the water from the river as she had observed the Indian mothers and children doing. A short time later, two cups were found floating in the river and Alice had drowned. She was 2 years old.

It is hard to even imagine the grief of losing a child. I read the letters she wrote her mother about that awful day. So heart-breaking. After a time of deep depression and darkness, God enabled Narcissa to open her heart to other children who needed a home. Since they were located near the end of the trail, there were several orphaned children who ended up at the Whitman's mission in need of parents. Narcissa became a mother to many such children, as well as the children of Indians and fur traders.

Marcus was busy trying to evangelize the Cayuse people as well as taking care of their medical needs. Narcissa gave herself to caring for the children and also teaching classes for the women and children to teach them to read. They lived exhausted busy years giving themselves fully to the mission that God had given them. But they saw little fruit for their hard work. There were so many cultural clashes and misunderstandings between the missionaries and the Indians. It was hard to connect.

And then the measles outbreak came. The measles spread among those at the mission as well as the Cayuse tribe. Dr. Marcus was very busy tending the sick and administering medicine. Unexplainable was the fact that the white children who took the medicine got better, but the Indians were dying - even with the medicine. They didn't have the immunity to the Measles, having never been exposed to it before. Up to half of the tribe died! The Cayuse didn't understand why it was just the Indians who were dying. Mistrust grew in their hearts and then anger and bitterness. They began to think that perhaps the Whitmans were poisoning them!

In their culture, if a medicine man could not heal and a sick person died, that death would have to be avenged. The medicine man must die as well.

It was decided that the Whitmans and all adults at the mission should be killed. What followed was a horrible massacre. Marcus and Narcissa were killed along with several others, including some teenage children in their care. The other children were taken as hostages and some died during that time before they could be found and rescued.

How could God allow that to happen? He is sovereign and His ways are not our ways. After the killings, the Cayuse tribe was dispersed. But the Nez Perce tribe the Spaldings ministered to experienced a spiritual awakening and many became Christians. And as the news of this spread, all of Narcissa's letters eventually would become published and have inspired many to go into Christian ministry. Their legacy lives on.

Sadly, they are often mischaracterized in the retelling of their story. Secular historians love to insinuate that they had no business trying to evangelize the Indians - they should have left them alone. Sometimes if they are mentioned at all in the history books, it is only a brief note about Narcissa and Mrs. Spalding being the first white women on the trail.

Reading about the Whitmans and mostly reading Narcissa's letters have taught me so much about self-sacrifice and service and faith and suffering. Their story is one that I want to share with my children and hopefully they will be remembered for many, many years to come. To read her letters go to http://www.1st-hand-history.org/Whitman/letters.htm

To read Narcissa's journal about her trip west on the Oregon Trail and an account of the massacre, go to http://www.corvalliscommunitypages.com/Americas/US/Oregon/OregonNotCorvallis/whitmansall.htm

God's Help at Break of Day

2009-02-23T07:54:00.005-05:00

It's Monday morning and we are home, still dealing with the sick bugs. We can't go to our Homeschool Group classes this morning since there are still fevers and coughing. But we will try to get caught up with our school work here.

As others can probably attest, it is hard to start on weeks like this! But we must press on, be dilligent, do our best.... even when we aren't feeling our best.

I found this verse this morning in Psalm 46
verse 5 says:

"God is within her, she will not fall,
God will help her at break of day."

This morning, I'm asking for God's help as we begin the week. How thankful I am for His strength each day!

Mortal ills prevailing

2009-02-19T12:00:00.002-05:00

Cancelled piano lessons, got a substitute teacher for my class this afternoon, sent Mark out to take Ivy to her classes and pick up more things from the store... what a day. Sometimes the sick germs win and we have to surrender to those mortall ills that prevail.

However, this will pass. I'm so thankful for the blessings of home, warmth, oranges, soft tissues, videos for Jaden, and a caring husband. There is always a rim of joy surrounding the clouds.

Like last night, when Victoria Rose was being buried in the backyard, in the rain, and we were weeping.... we could hear the church bells ringing the song, "Jesus What a Friend" at that very time. Like music for a funeral.

I hope whatever you are facing today, there are reminders of God's love for you. Look for joy!

Goodbye Victoria Rose

2009-02-18T15:12:00.005-05:00

Today is a very sad day. In a couple hours, I will be taking my mom and her cat, Victoria Rose to the vet so that Victoria can be put to sleep. Victoria is my mom's best friend and has been with her since 1992. Sadly, age, kidney failure and a thyroid condition have caused Victoria pain and suffering. My mom is broken hearted but takes comfort that she will see Victoria Rose again one day!

Psalm 36:6 "...O LORD, you preserve both man and beast."

And for those who have loved a pet who has died, I found a great website explaining why all pets go to heaven.

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-AnimalHeaven.html

Victoria Rose is the black cat on the right.

Earth's Crammed With Heaven

2009-02-17T16:31:00.001-05:00

Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God.
But only those who see take off their shoes.
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A great gift from a mother to her child

2009-02-16T20:46:00.003-05:00

Today at the Prayer and Share time at our Homeschool Group, one of the moms told us about this wonderful idea for a gift to pass on to our children when they leave home someday. She has a friend that has bought a nice wide-margin, note-takers leather Bible for each of her children - one that will last forever. In each child's Bible, she high-lights verses for him or her, writes notes in the margins, writes out prayers for her child - writing in it through the years. Then when each child grows up and leaves the nest, goes off to college, she can present them with their Bible!! Full of notes, high-lighted verses, prayers and love from their mom over the years. This can be started for a child at any age, whether in the teen years or for a new baby! Isn't that a really terrific idea?!!

Home and School

2009-02-16T20:22:00.003-05:00

I like that our family is all home tonight under one roof. Joel had a great time on the Youth Breakaway Retreat, but I was happy to see him get off the bus last night at 9:30. I like it so much better when all our offspring are in the nest! He came home with lots of great memories, but no voice! He was totally exhausted today so I gave him the day off of school! Besides, it's Presidents Day anyway! Ivy and I went to Homeschool group for classes while he rested at home with Jaden who has a cold.

Tomorrow is a special day of remembrance for our family.... 14 years ago, Mark and I found out we were going to be parents!!! It was such a wonderful happy day of rejoicing! We have since that day taken a picture of our family each year on that day and it's been neat to see those pictures over the years. Maybe I'll post those on here sometime when I get a chance!

Also, tomorrow, it's back to the books as we begin week 22 in Year 1 TOG. We'll be studying the Chaldeans (New Babylonians) and the Babylonian Captivity. Sad tales in the history of Israel. It's been really interesting studying through the Old Testament again this year. I've read through the Bible with our children before, but Tapestry of Grace helps us to really dig deeper and that has been fascinating!! Some weeks are very busy and we sometimes have to just skim the surface, but other weeks we can go more in depth. And I always remind myself that we'll be studying this again in 4 years so it's OK to miss some things this time around!!!!

"The Skunk" by Joel

2009-02-15T22:38:00.002-05:00

Joel had to write a poem about an animal for tomorrow's Literature Class. Here is what he wrote:

The Skunk
By Joel

Your coat, most so, is black as night,
With fearful stripe of white so bright,
You have no need to run or fight,
For men will run for stink or sight.

Your frightful smell,
No soap can repel,
Tomato juice lone,
Can to this stink rebel,

Do the bugs you eat
Make your form smell and reek?
Can man or beast stand
When the stink reaches peak?

You’re sometimes bred as pets,
Otherwise known as pests,
Your odor at best,
Puts a sense to the test.

You’ll never be eaten,
Or in fight be beaten,
Above all the rest,
With sin’s curse, you’ve been blessed.

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T16:13:00.004-05:00

I love Valentines Day! It is a wonderful day to be nostalgic, romantic and appreciate the ones we love. I know, every day is a day to love our families and friends and some people don't see a need to have a special day set apart for that. But I like special days! How boring if every day were the same. And a day dedicated to love is wonderful!!!

My mom and my daughter and I went out for lunch today - a special time for us girls! We went to a little tea shop in downtown Lancater on Mulberry Street called Pemberley Tea Shop. It is a beautiful, quaint, Victorian shop all decorated with mix and match pieces of furniture, chairs, china dishes, lace, linnens, and of course tea cups! I had strawberry cream tea and a tea cup of chili and a sandwich. And we all enjoyed wonderful deserts! It was such a calm and relaxing place and we three generations of girls enjoyed it very much!

Mark stayed home with Jaden and did a labor of love for me - he got our master bathroom all primed and ready for the wall paper. Soon we will have a beautiful master bath! I can't wait!

Joel is away on the youth retreat all weekend - and I miss him. It doesn't seem right for one of our family to be gone on Valentines Day.

Tonight after supper, Mark and I are going out for coffee just the two of us. I'm looking forward to that as well!

So happy Valentines Day everyone! I am so thankful for the ones I love, so many precious family and friends. And most of all for the One who first loved us and who enables us to love each other!

Christ Lives in Me

2009-02-12T20:33:00.005-05:00

The other night at youth group, Joel's youth pastor shared this video with the teens. They talked about how Christ lives in us. I thought it was a great video and it even made me teary eyed, and Joel said, "Yep. I thought you would have that reaction!" Joel, with his 13 year old eyes, just thought it was funny. But when you really think about it, it is wonderful and I can imagine my heart singing the Hallelujah Chorus too!

Spring Fever

2009-02-11T14:42:00.006-05:00

What a beautiful day it is here in Lancaster County, PA! A nice sunny and "warm" 63 degrees! Jaden enjoyed riding his tricycle and then Ivy and I took him around the block. Ivy also got to spend some time in her "tree house" today. Joel's been heading to the tennis courts practicing his swing. We love February days like this!

I'm thankful for our quiet block with no traffic! Perfect for a preschooler on wheels!

Ivy enjoyed showing Jaden her private tree house in the backyard. I went in there, but it is pretty much adult-proof! Not so easy crawling in!

Valentines Dinner at church

2009-02-10T21:00:00.004-05:00

Saturday night, Mark and I went to the "Homebuilders" Valentines Dinner at church. We don't really fit into the category of "Homebuilders" since we were established back in 1991, but since we still have a young child we can still sneak in the group!! I think we were the couple married the longest after our speaker, Dr. Light and his wife, and one of the only couples there who have a teenager in the house.

We had a really nice time - the gym was all decorated and there were some really hilarious games.... cake smashing, dressing men as brides with toilet paper, etc. Wedding pictures were shown continously on the big screen and it was fun to identify couples with their pictures.

Dr. Light gave a short inspirational talk on marriage and he encouraged us to do things for our spouses that would make them fall over in shock! Things that we know they would like, but we don't take the time to do it or we don't bother to do it often.

Mark must have really taken that advice to heart! I was totally shocked the next evening when he scooped out the cats' litter boxes! Mark does a lot of wonderful things for me each day - he always graciously helps around the house with dishes, laundry, vacuuming, etc. But the litter boxes!!! Wow!!!! I really appreciated that!

So I just want to encourage you to surprise your spouse and do something totally unexpected just to put a big smile on his/her face. And it is contagious!

To see pictures of our Valentine dinner, go to our church's website (the link is down on the right side of this page) and click on "ministries" and then "adult classes" and then "Homebuilders" and "Valentine Dinner" There is a picture of us at the "Love Shack" table!

Ivy's "tree house"

2009-02-10T14:20:00.005-05:00

Ivy loves to spend lots of time outside in the backyard underneath a tree in which she and a neighbor friend of hers have created an imaginary house! She has things all set up and arranged under there... divided into different little rooms. There are dishes, shelves, a plastic container for a sink and a box. The floor is covered with pine needles to protect against any mud or dampness. Once a bunny came into the "house" to visit! It was only about two feet away from Ivy and they enjoyed a few minutes together.

This is a wonderful place for Ivy to dream, play and pretend. She is currently writing a story that tells the adventures of things she and her friend imagine happening in the house.

Jaden's haircut

2009-02-10T13:03:00.008-05:00

Jaden's hair was getting really, really long. But he was terrified of getting his hair cut.... although he's had several hair cuts in his life. Whenever we tried to have him sit for a haircut, he would scream and shake his head and it was absolutely impossible to even attempt it. Until...last night! I think his hair was so long that was even starting to bother him! After much explaining that it would not hurt and letting him sit in front of the TV watching a favorite video, he finally caved in and let Mark give him a much needed hair cut!

We are all very happy about this and quite relieved! Here are some pictures of this great event!

All done! He looks so different now!

Hopefully next time he won't mind getting his hair cut quite so much!

Here's a poem Joel wrote today

2009-02-06T10:34:00.002-05:00

"Leaves"
by Joel, age 13

No one seems to hear them rustle
As we get caught up in our hustle;
Birds with them will twist and tussle
To make a nest within to snuggle.

Suirrels will pack them close for heat,
Then shoo them out to keep things neat;
In fall, their colors are tough to beat,
Although, to eat, they're not so sweet.

On the ground or in a tree,
Used as a hive by wasp or bee;
A hiding place for fly or flea,
What use for leaves is there for me?

Poetry

2009-02-06T07:10:00.002-05:00

I love poetry! I am an assistant in Joel's 7th and 8th grade Literature class at our homeschool group and I am loving that! Last week, his teacher read this great quote:

Poetry is like an imaginary garden with real toads.

Think about that!

Here is a poem I really like.

Swift Things are Beautiful
by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightning that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteor,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.

And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.

A sprinkle of snow

2009-02-04T15:21:00.003-05:00

This morning we woke up to a very light sprinkle of snow on the driveway. The kind that you take a step in and it disappears immediately. Hardly even noticeable. Imagine my confusion when I heard the radio announcing all the school closings! Even the shopping centers were opening late!!! What in the world is going on, I wondered. So I called my husband Mark and asked and he said that just a few miles from us, there was up to a foot of snow!!!! I'm talking like the next town!!!! And it's not like we live in the mountains where it can snow on one side and not the other! Really, really, really strange. So anyway, several of my friends were shoveling and sledding today in a foot of snow and I could look out my window at grass.

No complaints though - I am so ready for spring!!! >

Birthday cards for Brian

2009-02-02T20:18:00.003-05:00

This Saturday, February 7, is my cousin Brian's 23rd birthday. Please send him a card! Maybe write a Bible verse or a short note of encouragement. It would be great if he could get a lot of cards over the next week! Just tell him you heard of him from me!

His address is:
Brian Lamb
Dallas County Detention Center
204 Poplar
Buffalo, MO 65622

If you want info on Brian's situation, click on "Pray for Brian" label to read my previous posts.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

Teaching third graders

2009-02-02T20:04:00.002-05:00

Today began a new semester at the homeschool group that meets at our church. I'm teaching the third graders about the Pioneers on the Oregon Trail - the same subject I'm teaching at our other homeschool group. I prepared for the class today and was thinking I would have it pretty easy with only 9 students in there..... but I knew it would be a bit more challenging than I anticipated when I walked in the classroom and saw the children sitting on the tables! A class full of rowdy boys! And truthfully, I love teaching energetic kids - but I was worn out by the end. My class that I teach on Thursday afternoons is very easy - lots of girls who just love coloring their papers and learning as much as they can! This Monday morning class will make me work a bit harder! I felt like I had actually walked the Oregon Trail myself by the time I was done with the class today!

Joel is taking a Logic class and English Literature. Ivy is taking Art History and Writing. They are both in gym classes - basketball right now. They loved their classes today and were very happy to be back with several of their friends.

We came home at lunch and I took a nap! I told my kids they had off school for the rest of the afternoon - and they didn't mind that a bit! They were tired from their classes too! Joel is still recovering from last night's Super Bowl Party. He came home hoarse and with a bruised eye! Played some basketball in the gym and had an accident with the wall and the ball. He's still talking about what a great game that was last night! (Even though he hoped the Cardinals would win.)

Tomorrow, we'll catch up with our Tapestry of Grace and all the rest of our schooling. We have to finish week 19 and begin week 20 this week!

Joel's Super Bowl Preview

2009-01-31T16:07:00.002-05:00

Hi, folks!
As promised, I (Joel) am here to help you break down Super Bowl XLIII, which happens tomorrow at 7:15p.m., just so you know. Don't worry if you can't understand this; my mom couldn't either. Lets get started, beginning with the local bad-boys, defenders extraordinaire!

PITTSBURGH
When they have the ball: look for quarterback Ben Rothlesberger to employ a variety of screens and option routes to establish a rhythm, which he could not do in Super Bowl XL only three years ago. Also, Ben is notorious for holding on to the ball too long, so the timing routes and designed passes will make things flow much easier for the Steelers as well. Arizona must also remember that running back Willie Parker set a Super Bowl record with a 75-yard touchdown run as a rookie in Super Bowl XL.
When they are on defense: Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald set a playoff record 419 receiving yards, besting the greatest wide receiver of all time, Jerry Rice. Covering him is paramount to the Steeler's success. A healthy return of Anquan Boldin only adds to the difficulty of this nearly impossible task. But the Steelers can give Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner a much harder time using Fitzgerald and Boldin by applying once again their incredible pass rush. The Steel City represents an exotic, aggressive blitzing package, utilizing smallish, athletic linebackers such as James Harrison and Larry Foote.

ARIZONA
When they have the ball: The Steelers should know as well as anyone just how good Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald are, because they've been impossible to miss. But something less popular in the Super Bowl conversations is the resurgence of running back Edgerin James. He had several key runs in the NFC championship game that opened up huge plays, such as the big pass to Fitzgerald early in the game. Becoming one-dimensional in a big game such as this is almost certainly fatal.
When they are on defense: The Cardinals were known for being sluggish, and kind of out-of-shape on defense for most of the regular season, and showed little enthusiasm late in the game. The playoff teams they knocked off a few weeks earlier were a big test, and they rose up to the occasion. The Steelers are not a bad running team, but not half as good as the Atlanta Falcons, or Carolina Panthers, both of which Arizona beat in the playoffs. But pass coverage is an equally big task, going up against a healthy Hines Ward and a playoffs mega-star, Santonio Holmes. The Cardinals are not entirely defenseless, however, with talented players like Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and Adrian Wilson in the defensive backfield.

THE OUTCOME
I think that this game will be a lot more interesting than people give it credit for. Both teams have outstanding talent, and I like both team's offensive schemes. But, someone has to win, and someone has to loose. We won't know for sure who that will be until tomorrow night, but we all love to guess. My prediction:
STEELERS 21,CARDINALS 24!!!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my preview, and I hope you enjoy the game as well. I know I will.

Johnny and Chachi's 80's medley

2009-01-30T21:15:00.006-05:00

Here is another of my favorite Johnny and Chachi videos - a great flashback to the eighties!!! Yes, this week has been a week of remembering those days! (Thanks to Facebook!)

And I'm afraid Jaden is going to look like Chachi soon if he doesn't get a haircut!

I've entered the world of Facebook!

2009-01-30T20:37:00.003-05:00

OK, I finally did it - I got on Facebook! Oh my goodness, it has been like stepping back into time this week as I've seen pictures of people I haven't seen in over 20 years!! And it has been amazing hearing from so many classmates and old friends. I am so thankful for friends!!! And one thing that has really,really made me happy was seeing evidence of God's grace in the lives of many of my classmates. We went to a very strange legalistic school and despite coming out of that environment, so many are still walking with the Lord today. Three old friends are now Christian school administrators! And many more are devoted followers of Christ.

By the way, our son Joel wants his own blog now, but I'm probably going to let him post on here from time to time. He's got quite a gift with writing (NOT like me!) So sometime soon you may see a post or two from him - and I can almost guarantee it will be about football.

Speaking of football, GO CARDINALS!!!!!! Yes, I'm still a die-hard Redskins fan, but I would like to see the Cardinals win the big game. I love under-dogs. Even though the Steelers are a more local team. But my dad lives in Arizona, so that counts too! : )

Well its time to get off here - we are in the middle of potty-training...... and YAY! Today for the VERY FIRST TIME, Jaden told me on his own that he had to go! And he did! That was a very, very happy thing! Now if only we could bribe him into sitting still long enough to get a haircut......

Pictures from Future City Engineering Competition

2009-01-26T10:13:00.010-05:00

Here are the three Presenters from our Hempfield Homeschoolers' Future City Engineering Team: Marshall, Joshua and Joel standing behind their model city Waiani. Most of the morning, Joel and the other presenters had to answer questions from engineer judges about their city.

The team spent hours answering questions from the engineers. In the end, they received two special awards: Best electro-engineering and Best Creative Problem Solving awards.

Here are some close-up pictures of Waiani, the model city. It is located in Hawaii in the year 2158. The scale of the city is 1 inch =40 feet.

Notice the stadium of the Waianni Wild Hogs made by Joel. Nearby is a beautiful waterfall and some high rises.

Mrs. Brackbill, our team's teacher is in the background and next to her, on the far left in the background is Mr. Schulz, our team's engineer mentor. They made all of this possible and worked many, many hours helping our team prepare for this day.

Joel made 4 posters to use as visual aids in their presentations to the judges. This one demonstrated Waiani's geothermal power. To break the tension and stress, we enjoyed an entertaining presentation by Hatfield Corp. in which they demonstrated a wonderful accomplishment of a team of engineers in creating the Phillie Phanatic's Hot dog launcher!!!! This contraption can actually shoot out hotdogs all the way to the upper decks of the stadium during the Phillies' home games! I took several pictures, but the hotdogs shoot out so fast you can barely even see it flying out..... finally I got this picture in which you can see the foil wrapped hot dog in a bun as it is making it's speedy flight to the back of the auditorium!

At the end of the day, the 6 final teams presented their model cities on stage to a panel of final judges and were then asked several questions by the judges. Our team was the last to present and they did an excellent job although they came in 4th place. No pictures of the presentation unfortunately! This photographer was too nervous and wanted to watch without distraction of having to take pictures. I will probably be able to post others' pictures in the near future.

And even though they came in a disappointing 4th place out of 47 teams, the teams that beat them were very, very good! In fact two of the top teams this year won first place in previous years and each went on to the top 4 spots in the National Competition in Washington D.C.

Future City Engineering Competition

2009-01-24T22:35:00.004-05:00

What a long day it was - full of emotions, pride, nervousness, suspense, hope and then disappointment too. First of all, I am SO proud of the Hempfield Homeschool Future City team!!!! They did a terrific job and their model, presentation, performance, assignments were all top-notch. They stood out as a very excellent team - and they were also the only homeschooled team there!

They were very impressive, and the model looked fantastic! Out of 47 teams, we really believed that we could go first place. For the whole day, Joel and the other two team members who were picked as "presenters" had to answer questions from the judges about their future city. Then they had to go to another room and perform their oral presentation in front of a group of judges and answer more questions about their city, particularly the engineering aspects of their city. We couldn't observe that part - we just prayed for them!

Then later in the day, the top 6 teams were announced. The top 6 teams would be advancing to the final round and Hempfield Homeschool team was announced as being one of the top finalists! Yay team! Each of the finalists then had to perform their oral presentation to the final judges on stage - in front of the whole audience of people. So then we could see them give the performance and they did GREAT!!!! We were so proud of them!!!! Then they had to answer more questions from the final judges. We were very happy with how well they did and we really thought that they could very easily place first or second place.

However, in the end, it was announced that they won the "Honorable Mention" spot, the 4th place winners! Not bad to be 4th place out of 47 teams - mostly from large schools, some with more than twice the number of team members. (Our team only had 9 students and some schools had up to 30 some) Anyway, we were very proud of them, yet honestly, very disappointed. Joel just about cried. But we did win two special awards - best electro-engineering and best problem solving awards. We won over $400 in cash prizes and they got medals and plaques to take home, pictures in the newspaper, interviews and the good feeling that comes from doing their best and working very hard.

We expected to place higher, but we went home happy and praising God for it all. It was a great experience and even the disappointment is another lesson in life. I believe the team was honorable and I am very proud of the honorable mention! They are winners in my book!!

I took several pictures - check back here tomorrow for them. It's late now and I need to go to bed!

Future City Engineering Competition tomorrow!

2009-01-23T17:17:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow morning at 5:45 AM (!!!!), we will get on the bus to Philadelphia along with the rest of the team and their families and head to the Future City Engineering Competition for a full day of judging, presentations, awards, etc. It will be a very long day for all of us, especially the team. Joel was chosen by his team to be one of the three presenters so he will be answering questions by professional engineers about their future city design. He will also be presenting their city to the judges in a skit format in which he plays the role of the successor of David Murdock, the owner and founder of Dole Foods and Dole Nutrition Group.

Joel and his team of other homeschooled 7th and 8th graders built a model city called Waiani in Hawaii, which means beautiful fresh water city. They created their model city with trash, recycled materials and anything they could find. It all had to be built to scale and had to include certain elements including a movable part. They had to do a computer design of the city using Sim City software and again they had to meet many requirements for that portion of the competition. They had to write a research essay and a design abstract on the topic: "Creating a self sufficint system within the home which conserves, recycles and reuses all existing water sources."

Each of those requirements along with the oral presentation - all factor into the points needed to win the competition. Joel and his team have worked very, very hard on this. They have a wonderful teacher who has poured herself into this and opened her home on weekends for workdays for the team. Also they have an engineer mentor who has helped the team understand how to envision technologies of the future and incorporate those ideas into their city.

To read about this competition go to www.futurecity.org

Last year, there were 32 teams at the regional competition and our team won 4th place! This year, we are hoping to be in the top three. The first place team will then advance to the National Competition held in Washington D.C. next month.

Please pray for Joel and the team tomorrow as they spend the day talking to judges and being at their "very best" all day. It will be stressfull and they will be grilled with lots of questions from engineers. They have to think quickly and creatively answer questions that they may have not even thought about before! Also, as homeschooled students, they will be noticed by all the judges and professionals and pray that they will be a good testimony to those who sometimes misjudge homeschooled students!

Jaden will be spending the night and the day tomorrow with Grandma while the rest of us go to the competition. He is very excited about going to Grandma's house all by himself for a sleep-over! She is going to spoil him rotten.... eat out, go to the Children's Museum, play with new toys..... but they'll have fun. I'll post on here late Saturday night when we get back about the results of the competition.

Thanks for praying!!!

Teaching about the Oregon Trail

2009-01-22T20:13:00.002-05:00

This semester, I'm teaching third grade classes in both of our homeschool groups all about the Oregon Trail. I have always found that topic fascinating and am awed by the pioneers who suffered so much to follow their dreams. I don't believe I would have ever wanted to do what they did - walk 2,000 miles across an unknown and foreign country, drinking muddy river water to quench my thirst, watching babies and children be buried, trying to keep my children warm and fed and alive.... all to live a harsh and isolated life!!! If it were just me, I would perhaps be willing to suffer greatly for a dream. But to see my children suffer.... no, I could not do that. Some families did have good experiences and to read their stories is truly inspiring! Many made it across relatively unscathed.... except that they would have seen others suffering and so many, many, many graves. Other families fared much worse. I read that 1 in 11 people who ventured on the trail died on the journey and many of them were children. In the end, for many, it wasn't worth it. They didn't know, until it was too late, how hard it was!

I'm sparing the third graders much of the tragic, gory details of the sad stories, but we are learning much of the geography, daily routines, adventures, hardships, interactions with the Native Americans, and interesting facts along the way. It has been easy to plan activities, games, lessons and everything through the plethura of online resources and library books available. One of the favorite things for my class is the Oregon Trail game we play at the end of each class - no, not the computer game. I drew a large map of the trail that I posted in front of the classroom. I divided the class into two teams, two traveling families. At the end of each class, we continue the game in which each "family" answers questions to move forward on the trail. Sometimes they pull a card with a hardship like an ox dies or a wheel breaks and they have to stay put. Other times, they get fair weather or fresh meat and they advance more. My kids love seeing their wagons progress on the big map! And each week, we pick up the game where we left off. At the end of the 8 weeks, hopefully at least one of the families will have made it to Oregon City!

One website that I found really interesting is
http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/00.n.trailarchive.html
Here you can read full texts of several diaries and memoirs of pioneers who made the trip west. Very fascinating reading! Particularly good reading when feeling like we have it hard as homeschool moms and overwhelmed in our busy lives!

It's COLD!

2009-01-17T09:47:00.006-05:00

Jack Frost makes beautiful designs in our sunroom.
The temperature in the family room by the fire is nice and toasty warm - 80 degrees. It is only 10 degrees outside. The coldest weather we've had in years!!!
Even our car is suffering! It usually only looks this bad when we are up in New York!!! This is the normal car look up there! Notice Ivy's signature in the back!

Feeling like we are in Siberia!

2009-01-17T09:32:00.002-05:00

It is COLD here! Really, really, really cold. This feels like Siberia, or Minnesota, or way up in the boonies of NY where Mark's family lives. Normal for THEM to have temps in the single digits or below....but for us, it is way too cold! We aren't used to it! We don't like it one bit! OK, got that off my chest!

The straw that broke the camel's back was when we woke up this morning to FROZEN PIPES!!! What in the world?! I thought that only happened in back woods type places, hunting cabins, remote well-water places....not in a neighborhood with public water! Not in my house!!!!!!!

Growing up in Virginia, this was absolutely unheard of. Plus we were always fortunate to have electric heat. So here is Reason #562 that I really, really, really like electric heat! No oil pipes to freeze to make the house cold enough to freeze the water pipes!!! That's exactly what happened - the oil froze in the pipes and made that end of the house freezing cold which froze the water pipes.

I am thankful for our woodstove! In our family room, the temperature is close to 80 degrees with the fire going. The other end of the house by the kids' rooms is 56 degrees!!!!!! When we woke up this morning, Jaden and Ivy were still sleeping in their beds, buried under blankets and unaware of how cold it was in their rooms! I am SOOO thankful that I thought to give them extra blankets last night or they may have had frostbite!

Mark used my hair dryer up in the attic to thaw out the water pipes. Now he's off to get a heat additive to put in the oil to keep it from freezing.

So it has been quite a morning already! I am thankful that so far, there is no apparant damage. I'm thankful that we are warm and cozy by the fire. I'm thankful that Mark knows what to do to fix this! And I'm thankful that the temps should be warming up soon!

The Don't Song

2009-01-12T07:15:00.003-05:00

We really like this! This is Johnny and Chachi's The Don't Song. Enjoy!
And by the way, my husband lives out this song very, very well! I am very blessed.

Jaden's Baptism

2009-01-12T07:02:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was a very special day for our family as we had Jaden baptised. I was so nervous because three year olds can be so unpredictable and I was imagining all the worst things that Jaden could possibly do or say up there in front of the church! As it turned out, everything went very well. There were 4 little ones baptised and of course, Jaden was the oldest! Mark held him and he had a sweet calm little face as Dr. Rogers sprinkled the water on top of his head.

It is so amazing how God is involved in so many details in our lives. Yesterday morning in Jaden's Sunday School class, the lesson was on baptism! How perfect that was! Jaden has a limited understanding of what it all means, but we have explained it to him the best we can. This shows that he is God's little boy and promises to save Jaden if he puts his faith in Him. We look forward to that day when Jaden does know Jesus as his Savior. For now, he knows that God loves him and the seeds of believing faith are starting to grow in his heart.

I've been tagged!

2009-01-12T06:28:00.010-05:00

Amanda at http://www.encouragementalongtheway.blogspot.com/ has tagged me in a photo-posting game! This is what I'm supposed to do: Go to my picture files on my computer. Open the fourth folder and click on the fourth picture and post that to my blog. It has to be the fourth picture of the fourth folder - no exceptions! This put great fear and trepidation in my heart because I have the very, very bad habit of never deleting any pictures!!! I had no idea what picture I would find there!!!! As it turned out, my fourth folder was full of pictures of one of our annual trips to the beach in 2007. And the fourth picture is:

We went to Island Beach State Park in New Jersey for the day on my birthday back in 2007. This is Joel, my husband Mark and little Jaden who was only 19 months old. It was Jaden's first ocean experience! It was a wonderful day and what a great memory to have..... now that it's the middle of January and we are experiencing extremely cold weather! Yes, my heart longs for summer!

I am supposed to tag 4 other bloggers, but for now, I will just pick one: Kelli, at http://www.thelandofboys.blogspot.com/ who sometimes reads my blog and I enjoy hers as well!

A Visit from Dr. Rogers

2009-01-10T14:57:00.003-05:00

Our pastor, Dr. Rogers, came to visit us at our home this morning. Tomorrow Jaden is getting baptised and Dr. Rogers wanted to come over and spend some time with Jaden and show him what was going to happen and to pray with us. I thought that was a great idea! Hopefully Jaden will do OK tomorrow and it will be somewhat familiar for him because of the "practice" session today!

When we first told Jaden that Dr. Rogers was coming over to our house, he was SO EXCITED!!! We quickly realized that he thought we were telling him Mr. Rogers was coming over!!! And Jaden loves Mr. Rogers' TV show! Then we explained that our pastor was coming and showed him a picture of him so he wouldn't act disappointed when it wasn't Mr. Rogers at our door!

Interesting side note here: Mr. Fred Rogers was actually a Presbyterian pastor in the Pittsburgh Presbytery at the same time that our pastor, Dr. Michael Rogers was when he was a young pastor in western PA! So for a time they were in the same Presbytery although our pastor said they never actually met each other.

Back to Jaden's baptism, it has taken us a year and a half to get to this special day. We first started attending Westminster Presbyterian Church back in September 2007. Over the months that followed, we studied more and more about reformed theology and the doctrines of grace. Some things that we have always believed have been challenged as we began reading the Bible in a new light. Both of us have bachelor degrees in Bible from a Bible college and yet we continue to learn and grow in the Word of God and it is an exciting journey! One of the areas that our understanding has changed has been the sacrament of baptism.... moving from credo-baptist to paedo-baptist. What helped us to understand what we now believe is the biblical application of baptism is an understanding of covenant theology. It is like puzzle pieces that all fit together! I won't try to write an in-depth explanation here, but I have linked a couple of good articles about baptism on this page. Also the monergism site that I have listed is an excellent place to go to understand reformed theology.

So tomorrow is the big day... Jaden will be baptised as a three year old! I guess you could say that he is twice blessed! He was dedicated at 6 months at our former church! It will be a special day for us as this will be a visible sign and seal of God's covenant of grace. No, this does not save Jaden. There is nothing magic about the water sprinkled on his head. Rather it is a visible marking of Jaden being included in God's covenant people. We hope and pray he will one day put his faith in God and we will teach and instruct him in the ways of the Lord. What an awesome responsibility we have. Yet, it is not our efforts that will save Jaden. (Thank goodness!!!) It will only be through God's grace and His grace alone.

Sequential Spelling

2009-01-08T07:11:00.005-05:00

I think I FINALLY found a good spelling program for Ivy!!!!!! A friend of mine who has a son who also struggles with learning challenges and spelling recommended Sequential Spelling to me. After reading the website and using the sample lessons with Ivy, we are hooked! The AVKO (Audio Visual Kinesthetic Oral)Dyslexia Research Foundation publishes this. It is very affordable, very easy program and Ivy really likes it too which is extremely good!

It really is sequential, in that it introduces words in families that build on each other. For example,the word "in" is introduced first and by the end of the week, "beginning" is learned. It gradually builds on words to imprint them in the minds of the students and they are easily remembered.

There are no lists of spelling words to study, no spelling tests! Because with kids like Ivy, that does not work! She can memorize a list of words, take a test and then immediately not know how to spell them again. Very frustrating for her and me!

Sequential Spelling gives a list of words each day and any misspelled words are immediately self-corrected. The list builds all week on the previous words and it really does work. Of course, if you want, you can do spelling tests, but the writers believe that students learn best from their mistakes and so the tests are actually a learning device - not an evaluation.

If you have a child who struggles with spelling, I highly recommend this program - you can look at the website and you can print out sample lessons to try first like I did. http://www.avko.org/

Hymn of the Month

2009-01-08T06:54:00.003-05:00

For the past 8 years of homeschooling, we have always begun our school days with Bible reading and a hymn. Each month, we sing a different hymn so that we can learn all the stanzas together. Sometimes we read about the history of the hymn and the author. It has been a wonderful way to start our days singing a hymn of praise to the Lord!

Last month, we just got a new hymn book, the Trinity Hymnal, that our church uses. Since we became Presbyterians over a year ago, we've had to learn many, many new hymns! I don't think we've had a Sunday since we've been there that there wasn't at least one unfamiliar song sung - sometimes all the hymns are unfamiliar!!! (Presbyterians sing different hymns!)

So my goal is to learn some of these "new" yet very old hymns. Joel picked our hymn for this month which is new to us: "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" by Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 1739,

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are,
My glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds,
In these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear,
From guilt and shame.

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev'n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived,
Hath died, for me.

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
whose boundless mercy hath for me -
For me a full atonement made,
An everlasting ransom paid.

O let the dead now hear thy voice;
Now bid thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this,
Their glorious dress,
Jesus, the blood and righteousness.

The Sovereignty of God and Bad Circumstances

2009-01-08T06:34:00.004-05:00

Over the past year and a half, I have come to rest more and more in the sovereignty of God. It has been a deepening realization and the more that I come to grips with God's sovereignty, the more peace and joy I feel even when confronted with bad circumstances or pain. We are seeing the sovereinty of God in my cousin Brian's life. God has used this time of Brian's incarceration to help Brian have a deeper relationship with Him. We are so encouraged by what God is doing in Brian through this awful time and it is becoming more clear that this was indeed part of God's plan for him... Not that God ever desires evil, unjust things to happen. Yet He is sovereign over these things, using them for His purposes and for good.

In recent letters from Brian, he writes that this experience will always remind him that God is in control of his life. He also wrote that this has helped him realize how much God loves him !!! His relationship with the Lord has obviously grown and he has changed and matured in many ways. So through this unjust tragedy in his life, God is working and it is good!

Brian has had a good testimony in this jail. The sheriff has said that Brian's attitude has been great. He is quite a contrast from the others that come and go through there. The Christian books that he's been reading, sent to him by my mom, have been passed around to other inmates. Who knows what impact that will have on many other lives? God can use Brian and those books to bring others to him.

Please continue to pray for Brian. This is very hard and he's got a long wait until the end of July for the trial. But I am praising God in this because He is in control and He is a loving and good Father.

The Curtains Closed

2009-01-05T17:25:00.005-05:00

The curtain closed after a busy Christmas Show season for Joel in Sight and Sound Theatre's "Miracle of Christmas" show. Mark and I were able to go see his final show on Friday night. It was a wonderful performance! We were so proud of Joel and so thankful for this opportunity he had to be part of such a fantastic Christmas show.

On Saturday, we saw the final showing of the season's "Voices of Christmas" show at Sight and Sound's Living Waters Theatre. That was so much fun! We really loved that show and highly recommend it to everyone. I think the "Miracle of Christmas" show at the bigger theatre gets most of the attention, but "Voices of Christmas" was an absolute delight! Jaden was enthralled as were the rest of us! It was amazing.

So for now, Joel has a bit of a repreive from the theatre. He is hoping to be back as Ishmael in "Abraham and Sarah" which opens in April. It is time to send in the head shot and measurements and wait for a contract. We would love for him to have another year there. After 6 years, it has become home away from home and such a valued part of his life and experience.

Joel won't be bored though.... Future City Engineering competition is in 3 weeks and he will be busy, busy, busy preparing for that. He has been chosen to be one of the spokesmen at the competition in Philadelphia. Much to prepare for! We hit the ground running today getting back into the routines and rhythms of schooling. Our break was wonderful, but always seems too short!

New Poll

2009-01-01T11:54:00.002-05:00

Well my last poll about The Shack was a dud! So here is a new one for you: Did you stay up till midnight last night to ring in the new year? We all did here - except for Jaden who is too young to care about a new year!

And speaking of the Shack book, I had to return mine to the library before I was finished reading it!!! I could only keep it for two weeks since there were holds on it and it could not be renewed. Two weeks was just not enough time for me - especially the busy weeks before Christmas! What was I thinking???!!!! But, honestly, it was not a great book, in my opinion. I thought it was poorly written and although it did give me things to ponder, I found myself disagreeing with it more often than not. Maybe some day I'll pick it up and finish the second half of it, but more likely I won't.

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-01T11:21:00.002-05:00

We wish your family a wonderful and blessed new year! May you all be filled with hope and joy at this time of new beginnings. I love the feeling of a fresh start, renewed goals, and the nastalgia of the year gone by. Some of my goals are to be better organized, especially with meal planning and scheduling of time. Most importantly, I want the fruits of the spirit to be growing in my heart more this year. More love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those are my goals! I would like to focus on each one at least one month... starting with Love.

We spent the evening last night at a party at the home of some new friends of ours from church. There were 9 families there so they had a houseful! Mostly teens and their families. Joel had a great time with all of his church friends there! Jaden was the youngest and because of him, we didn't stay very long. He needed to come home and go to bed. We invited my mom over and we watched Its A Wonderful Life and rang in the New Year.

This was the first time Ivy has been away from home on New Years. She was invited to go with a friend and her family last night Downtown to the Celebrate Lancaster! Event. I'm sure she had a great time downtown at midnight seeing the Red Rose drop! I hope she was warm enough since it was VERY cold last night! Then she spent the night with her friend and we haven't seen her yet this year. We missed her, but she was SO excited to go!

Today will be spent watching the Penn State game and continuing a nice long break from school..... oh, it will be so hard to start up again on Monday! Yes, we have enjoyed this wonderful time off!

Have a happy New Years day everyone!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-29T08:43:00.003-05:00

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! And that you and your families will have a wonderful new year! I really love this holiday season after the crazy busyness and rushing around the weeks before Christmas. Now it is a time to slow down and reflect, savor and enjoy the wonder and peace and joy of Christmas! Our Christmas celebration is always spread out beginnng with two familiy parties earlier in the month. Then there were two Chrismtas Eve services at our church. What a beautiful night that was!

Joel and Ivy were involved in the Christmas Tableaux during the first Christmas Eve service. Joel was a shepherd boy and Ivy was a townsperson. Ivy also sang in the combined children's choir. Mark sang in the Matins choir. It was a beautiful service! Then we all went back to church for the late night Christmas Eve service, a beautiful candle-lit formal service with lots of music. Mark sang in the Senior choir for that service. Jaden went to church in his pajamas because the service didn't end until 11:30 PM.

Christmas was a nice relaxing day here at our house. My mom came over and we took our time opening presents, laughing together, eating a big dinner and just enjoying the day.

The day after Christmas, we all went out to eat at the Olive Garden for dinner and then to Sight and Sound's Millennium Theatre to see Joel in "Miracle of Christmas." That was a spectacular production and we were so proud of Joel! It is always such a joy to see him perform and of course, the shows are wonderful. Later this week, we'll all be going to the Living Waters theatre to see "Voices of Christmas" and hopefully I'll get to see Joel perform "Miracle" one more time this week before the show closes.

That night was the earthquake, which I already mentioned. Thankfully we've had no aftershocks that could be felt! Yikes! We drove by the epicenter yesterday which is 2 miles down the road from us.

Mark has off work all week so we are enjoying the week off, catching up on sleep, having fun and looking forward to celebrating New Years Eve. Next Monday, we'll start school again and ease back into the daily routine and rythyms of school days! I love homeschooling, but I also really love the breaks!

Earthquake!

2008-12-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

Last night, well, actually early this morning shortly after midnight, we had an earthquake here! The epicenter was just 2 miles down the road from us - yikes!!! I happened to be in the bathroom, brushing my teeth with my mouth full of toothpaste... I heard the loud rumble that sounded like a freight train going down our street and everything shook for about 10 seconds. I threw down my toothbrush, must have swallowed my toothpaste and went into the bedroom where Mark was sitting up in bed..."It's an earthquake!!" Then I ran to the other side of the house where the kids rooms are and they were all sleeping soundly in their beds. I checked outside - no, the trees didn't come down! It took us a long time to go to sleep, we were so nervous. The last earthquake we felt was 10 years ago but that one was not as intense. I do not like earthquakes and I'm very glad we do not live in California! I don't think I could get used to them being a regular occurrance!

Do you have an extra Christmas card?

2008-12-19T16:12:00.004-05:00

My cousin Brian would really appreciate a Christmas card from anyone who would like to send one. He is in jail for a crime he did not commit (see other posts) and is in need of encouragement. Just a brief note or Scripture verse would help to make his day brighter. Maybe your children could write a note or color a picture for him. Thank you!!!!!

Send to:
Brian Lamb
Dallas County Detention Center
204 Poplar
Buffalo MO 65622

"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Matthew 25:37-40

Jaden's birthday pictures

2008-12-19T09:13:00.005-05:00

When I asked Jaden what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said a BLUE cake! So this is what I came up with!

Jaden was so excited! See his puppy, Douglas, that Ivy bought him from Build-A-Bear?

He got mostly train things for his birthday. My mom got him the engineer's outfit.

My "baby" is 3 years old today!!!!!

2008-12-18T15:31:00.010-05:00

Today is Jaden's third birthday and I've been choking up over it all day. The time has gone so quickly! I will never forget the complete and total shock and amazement I felt on April 15, 2005 when we found out that we would be having a baby after so many years!!! (Joel was 10 and Ivy was 8 1/2 when Jaden came!) I am still amazed! What a wonderful blessing and gift he has been to us. I will never cease to be thankful for the surprise gift of Jaden!

Earlier today, we went to Build-a-Bear and Ivy spent her own money for Jaden to make a cute little puppy! He plays "Jingle Bell Rock" and he is so cute! Jaden named him Douglas.

Tonight, we'll be having a family party with hot dogs, cake and ice cream. I blew up tons of balloons all over the house and we'll have party hats and noise makers! I'll put up birthday party pictures later.

For now, here are some pictures of Jaden.

Here he is the day of his birth! December 18, 2005

Where did that little baby go?!

School Days

2008-12-17T14:36:00.003-05:00

This week we are in Week 16 (TOG year 1) "Judges, Samuel, and Minor Neighboring Cultures." With Christmas quickly approaching and all of the busyness of the season, we are more laid back these days, but trying to include all the important things. Joel is enjoying reading "The Wanderings of Odysseus" and we are wrapping up our study of the ancient Greeks.

But I am especially enjoying our reading aloud of the book of Judges right now. So many lessons to learn from those ancient Israelites and their relationship with God. The cycle of disobedience, calling to the Lord for help, God's deliverance, peace and safety and then disobedience again keeps being repeated over and over again.

We've had some good talks about that cycle of obedience and disobedience. We all struggle with that. Sometimes as parents, we think that obedience is only something children must learn, but we must all live lives of obedience to the Lord. Am I a good example to my children? I need that reminder now and then as I get caught up in the day to day discipline of our children.

Jaden struggles with obedience in picking up his toys. He loves spreading them out all over the house but balks when it is time to clean up! "Mommy, just look at the ceiling! The ceiling is clean!!!"

Because he didn't help pick up the toys, Mommy had to take them away for a few days. Jaden is still in the training phase. He is still learning about what obedience means. I must be patient with him as he learns and also have a certain amount of empathy for him too - aren't I still learning and growing in my walk with the Lord? How often I still fail. But I am thankful for the grace of our Heavenly Father who lovingly forgives us.

The discipline and training of children can be exhausting. Sometimes they can be slow to "get it". But then I remember that these things take time. And God is working in their hearts just like He works in mine.

And then there are those wonderful moments that I see God's fruit in their lives and I rejoice! Like yesterday, after some hard feelings between the big kids, one of them asked the other for forgiveness and mended the relationship - all without being told to do that! And the other asked for forgiveness too and everything was happy
again.

Some of the saddest verses in the Bible, I think, are found in Judges 2 verses 7 through 15. "The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel....After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. The the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals..."

They had failed to teach their children to love and obey God and the result was great distress.

This week, in the midst of the crazy busy Christmas season, I want to focus on the most important parts of our schooling - our time reading the Word together and learning from the children of Israel as we read through Judges, Ruth and First Samuel. Learning about the Greeks is important too, but I love our focus on Scripture this week!

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-17T13:09:00.011-05:00

Snow came yesterday, covering everything with a beautiful white frosting. So plans were changed and rearranged as usually happens in this kind of weather!

After bundling Jaden up, I took him outside and he watched me make a snowman! It was a lot of work rolling those snowballs all around the yard while bent over. Great exercise! But Jaden was very happy and I think the snowman turned out very well! I wanted to put some birdseed on the snowman's head for the birds to enjoy like we read about it our library book called Stranger in the Woods, a photographic fantasy by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoik. A wonderful book to read on a snowy day!

However, our snowman didn't last long.... Ivy and her neighborhood friends decided the snowman was too small so they got rid of ours and attempted to make a bigger one! Imagine my surprise when later I looked out the window and our snowman was gone! The new snowman is in a different location and they left it unfinished - did I say that making a snowman is a lot of work?! Especially a BIG snowman. So they gave up.

Ivy noticed that this squirrel was new to our feeder! How would she know that??!! She explained to me that this was a skinny squirrel and all the regulars here are quite fat!

The kids really enjoyed the snow... especially being able to play outside in the snow after dark with all the neighborhood kids! Joel doesn't think there is anything better than playing football in the snow in the dark!

The only bad thing about the snow yesterday is that we couldn't go to the "Comfy Cozy Christmas Cast Party" last night for the cast of "Miracle of Christmas". It was going to be a fun pajama party breakfast dinner with lots of goofiness - how could it not be crazy with all those actors?! But the roads were slippy last night with ice as well as snow and we didn't want to risk the 45 minute travel on winding countries roads down to Quarryville where the party was going to be.

So to make up for that sad disappointment, we had our own pajama party here!!!! I made breakfast for supper - omelets and a ham and cheese quiche! We all got our jammies on and played games and had a silly time together. We set up the card table by the Christmas tree, put on some Christmas music and played Scrabble Upwords. It was a hilarious time. We all laughed very hard at very silly things. I won, by the way! Yes, I love that game!

Have you read The Shack?

2008-12-15T13:59:00.004-05:00

I just put up my first blog poll! It seems like everyone is reading the book called The Shack by William Young. A few weeks ago, I reserved a copy of it from the library and received it last week. I'm not finished with it yet.... and I'm not sure what I think about it or if I like it or not... It is a very different kind of book! I'll put a poll up later asking what you think about the book if you've read it.

Family Christmas Get-togethers

2008-12-15T12:15:00.007-05:00

What a busy weekend it was! Friday night was Mark's company Christmas Party at Willow Valley. Saturday morning, Mark's sister Hope and bro-in-law Chad came over for breakfast. They drove down from New York to spend the weekend. Saturday evening we went to Mark's cousin Brandi's house for the annual family Christmas gathering. There were 30 of us....aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and Great-Grandma! It was so much fun - especially for all the little cousins! There were 9 kids in all.

Then on Sunday after church, Nana and Grandpa came over and spent the day with us. They brought down presents for Jaden's birthday and Christmas presents too! We had cake and ice cream to celebrate Nana's and Jaden's birthdays.

Unusual Christmas Presents

2008-12-11T18:07:00.004-05:00

At a Ladies Tea at our church, our pastor's wife told about the gifts that her husband chose to give their four young adult children last Christmas. He gave each of them and their spouses.... BURIAL PLOTS!!!! I'm not kidding!!!!

We have a wonderful pastor and this was a very generous gift - burial plots aren't cheap! Our church has a new beautiful cemetary and those lots were on sale last year. I'm sure to him it was a very good and practical gift. Not a practical joke, but a practical gift!

But it struck my funny bone for sure! One of his sons, after thanking his dad, said, "But Dad, how will I tell the guys at the office what I got for Christmas???!!!"

As my husband and I were laughing about this the other night, I said, "Only a Presbyterian pastor would give a gift like that!!! After all, Baptist pastors would never give burial plots to thirty somethings because the Rapture would make that completely unecessary!!!"

And then we thought about it even further, Baptist churches don't have cemeteries either!!

I hope that made you smile and didn't offend our dearly loved Baptists! But the whole thing made us laugh all week!

Something Very Funny

2008-12-11T17:28:00.003-05:00

I know that my next post on here is anything but funny, so I wanted to also post some funny things to make people smile or crack up laughing!

Today at the library I overheard the librarian telling a woman that she could not check her books out because the computer alerted her that this woman had a rather large unpaid fine. A fine of over forty dollars! (wow! I thought my fines were big sometimes!!!) Anyway, the woman was flustered about it and asked what the fines were for.

"Well...." said the elderly hearing-impaired Librarian in a very loud voice,"Twenty-five dollars was to replace a book that you checked out back in 2001 and never returned!"

"Really?" asked the embarrassed woman,"What book was that?"

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life!!!!!!!!

Prayer is needed

2008-12-11T14:52:00.005-05:00

As I've written before, my 22 year old cousin Brian has been unjustly incarcerated in the Dallas County Jail in Buffalo, MO since November 8, 2007. He has not been convicted of any crime. He has no prior record. He is in jail because a cell phone charger belonging to him was used in a murder of his next door neighbor, an old man who was interestingly a drug dealer. Brian had nothing to do with this murder and there is no, and I mean absolutely no evidence that he was involved in any way except that the cell phone charger that was wrapped around this man's neck belonged to Brian. This man who was murdered as well as Brian and several other tenets had all recently moved due to remodeling in that apartment building. So it is very reasonable that that cell phone charger was left behind or lost in that move.

Anyway, Brian was falsely charged and arrested and has been awaiting trial which isn't scheduled until JULY 2009!!!!!!!!!!! (Can this happen in the United States??? Sadly, yes.)

Brian and the other inmates at the Dallas County Jail in Buffalo MO are not allowed to go outside. EVER. Brian has only been outside twice in the past year, to his two hearings. There are no windows in his cell. No sunlight. Also, this County Jail has no TV, no library, no exercise room.

Brian has had perfect behaviour - no bad attitudes and he is not angry or bitter. He struggles with depression at times but I think he is becoming a stronger and more godly person due to this suffering. I know that God has a reason for this but at the same time, I think it is time we do something about the gross human rights violations at this jail. A year without sunlight and deplorable conditions there are cruel and unjust. Please pray for Brian. Pray for Brian's release and that those responsible for the crime will be brought to justice.

How many more weeks till Christmas break???

2008-12-09T08:28:00.003-05:00

We are still plugging away with school. Many of our friends school year around so they can take off most or all of the month of December. We prefer to have a long break in the summer, so we usually only have a week or two off for Christmas. Admittedly it is hard to focus when there is such excitement in the air and such a busy calendar too!

This week we are on Week 15 of TOG year 1, "The Promised Land: Conquest and Settlement". I think it is a good week for us to be focusing on that since we need to press on in our studies as we learn about the children of Israel who had to press on to the Promised Land!

I really love how Tapestry of Grace weaves Biblical history with world history... for example, this week as we read of Joshua and the early judges, we are also reading The Wanderings of Odysseus and D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. Joshua was entering the Promised Land at about the same time that the Mycenaeans were prominant in the Aegean cultures and the Trojan War probably occurred sometime during the period of the Judges. Fascinating! We love to see how it all fits together in history. There are so many interesting connections to make!

A visit to Great-Maw's house

2008-12-09T08:11:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, we drove 3 hours down to Alexandria, Virginia early in the morning to go visit Great-Maw (my Grandma). It was so nice to see her again! We had a really nice visit with her and Lucinda, her pug which is remarkably similiar to a pig, but very, very cute!

We took Great-Maw out to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and had such a nice time together. Then it was time to drive the 3 hours back home. The kids were really good in the car for all those 6 hours. It was a long day, but a very good day too.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

2008-12-09T07:35:00.010-05:00

On Saturday, we all went to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. We came home with a beautiful Douglas fir just like always. (By the way, Jaden's middle name is Douglas because he's our Christmas baby!)

Here is the tree all decked out with hundreds of ornaments.

The only problem is that our two cats, Sasha and Starlet cannot resist the temptation of all those ornaments! Each morning we wake up to find a couple dozen ornaments all over the living room floor! We can do our best to prevent the un-decorating when we happen to be home and awake and near the tree, but when we are gone or asleep or out of the room, they go after that tree with tremendous enthusiasm!

Here is Starlet planning her next escapade!

Grand Prize Winner!!!!

2008-12-01T14:53:00.004-05:00

Joel entered a drawing contest for Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine - designing a new mascot for his favorite team. Of course he drew a mascot for the Washington Redskins and I thought it was pretty good. He is very critical of his drawing and he wanted to throw it away. But I sent it in and it turned out to be the grand prize winner!!!!!!! Braylon Edwards of the Cleaveland Browns helped to pick the winners and Joel has won his autographed helmet! Today we received the newest issue and his drawing is featured on page 27! In a few days, it will be on their website at http://www.sikids.com/ Look under "cool stuff" - that's where the contest winners usually are. Until then, here is a copy of the winning mascot:

Turkey leftovers

2008-11-29T16:34:00.002-05:00

We LOVE turkey leftovers! In fact, today I'm roasting another turkey just to have some more! I bought a fresh 22 pound turkey on sale at the store today and it's in the oven now. The Thanksgiving turkey disappeared too quickly! Now we'll have plenty for sandwiches and we'll freeze some for later.

One of my favorite recipes for leftover turkey is Turkey Noodle Casserole. It is very good! Here's the recipe:

In large skillet over medium heat, cook 1 cup chopped celery and 1/2 cup chopped onion in 2 T. butter till tender. (I usually skip this step and do without the celery and onion). Stir in 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 1 cup milk, 2 cups of bite-sized cooked turkey (or chicken) and 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Cook and stir until cheese melts. Cook 1/2 pkg of medium egg noodles and drain. Combine noodles and Turkey mixture into 13x9 baking dish. Top with 1 cup of soft buttered bread crumbs. Bake 35 minutes at 350. This serves 6-8 people.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T10:43:00.019-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! It was really nice to have Uncle Bill, Aunt Janis, cousins Emily and Jacob, and Nathan, Ruth and their baby Ethan here as well as my mom. We were all missing Brian and wishing he could be here with us too. We were able to talk to him on the phone and pass the phone around the table. We got to spend a half an hour on the phone with him - 15 minutes on Emily's cell phone and 15 minutes on ours. Please pray for Brian, that he would remain strong and be encouraged as he is suffering a very unjust incarceration and that God would bring justice quickly. Please pray for his release. Even though he's been in jail for over a year now, trial isn't until July 2009. But we know that God is able to bring about good from horrible things as he did in the life of Joseph. And God is still in charge and we have to trust Him.

Here are some pictures of our day yesterday as visited together after the meal, playing games and enjoying the precious new baby!

It looks like Mark and Joel are sleepy from so much turkey!!!

Uncle Bill, Aunt Janis, Emily and Jacob

Ruth, Nathan and little Ethan

Uncle Bill and Aunt Janis won the Thanksgiving Trivia Contest! They got to take home the big prize, the Turkey wall hanging - see it in the background.

Ruth watching Nathan as he plays 20 Questions. Is he thinking of Batman??!

My mom enjoyed holding the baby. He is so precious!

My wonderful husband Mark

Ethan's bib says "Handsome like Daddy!"

Jaden loves to be a cowboy! We had a Rootin' Tootin' Good time!

So excited about Thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T20:30:00.006-05:00

We are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house. I am really looking forward to having a house full! Every year my aunt and uncle and cousins come up from Virginia for the day and it is a great time to catch up with each other. This year will be extra special since my cousin and his wife are coming with their new baby! We will have 13 people around the table this year.

I found some great things online that I printed out to make the day even more fun! I found some placemats for Jaden to color as we wait for the meal. They would be great for a children's table at Thanksgiving! Go to http://www.bhg.com/holidays/thanksgiving/crafts/thanksgiving-place-mats and you can print out several different place mats for young children to color.

We will play a Thanksgiving Trivia game that I found at www.creative-baby-shower-ideas.com/thanksgiving-trivia.html I printed out the game and everyone can play this as I finish the meal prep in the kitchen. I even have a prize for the most correct answers! This game will be fun and have everyone laughing. We'll find out how fast a spooked turkey can run and all kinds of interesting things!

My son loves crossword puzzles and I found a great Thanksgiving one at http://akidsheart.com/bible/PsalmsofThanksp.htm There are 26 clues of words found in the Psalms about giving thanks. The references are included if you need the answers. This is KJV.

And just for fun, there is a word search at http://akidsheart.com/holidays/thanks/turkeyws.htm All the words are food words and will make everyone hungry as they wait for dinner!

For decorating the table, I printed out some nice napkin rings at www.countryhome.com/thanksgiving There are also other decorations to print out there too with a vintage Thanksgiving patriotic theme.

And I really like the patterns you can download at www.BHG.com/tabledecor There are beautiful leaf patterns and also labels in nice fall colors. You can use those for place cards and all sorts of things.

Every year, we use the same place cards that our kids made for the family when they were young. We put pilgrim and indian stickers on the card stock paper and Joel wrote the names on them in his 6 year old handwriting. They are so cute! And we can't help but use them every year.

We'll have the same menu as always too.

Roast Turkey with lots of gravy
Mashed potatoes
Yummy sweet potatoes (see recipe on the side of this page)
Lots and Lots of Stuffing
Baked corn casserole
Green beans
Cranberry sauce (my mom's homemade - yum! yum!)
Rolls
Pumpkin pies with whipped cream
Vanilla Ice cream
and new this year will be mini-trifles!
In small glasses, I will layer cubed pumpkin bread, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, carmel sauce and pecans.

Tomorrow will be busy baking, cleaning and getting all the last minute details taken care of. Joel and Ivy will still have school - thankfully they can do so much on their own independently! They will be mapping out Ancient Greece tomorrow and reading the Greek myths, working in their math-u-see books, language lessons and lots of home ec. time with pie making!

Have a great Thanksgiving! Psalm 106:1 "Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"

4th-6th Grade Homeschool Choir

2008-11-22T14:07:00.005-05:00

Here is the picture from Ivy's choir concert last night! What a wonderful group of well-behaved, homeschooled children! It was a beautiful concert and the kids did a fantastic job. Can you spot Ivy in the picture?

Snow before Thanksgiving!!! Can you believe it???!!!

2008-11-22T10:05:00.006-05:00

We got a little over one inch of snow yesterday!!! What a surprise for this time of year! Jaden is having fun outside with Daddy today. Notice his pink mittens? I searched all over the house for mittens that would fit him - it was amazing how many right handed mittens we have in this house without their matching left hands! Ivy's old pair of pink ones fit him best so they'll have to do for now.

This snow really caught us off guard and unprepared! Thankfully I'd already bought Jaden a winter coat, snow pants and snow boots (just no mittens yet) and Ivy told me yesterday her old snow boots are too small. She's wearing Joel's old snow pants and Joel currently has no snow pants, but he has boots! We usually don't need these things this time of year.

However, we should have known..... Last night was the Hempfield Homeschoolers Christmas Choir Concert. For the past 7 years, I would say it snowed for 4 or 5 of the concerts! So this year, they decided to have the concert REALLY EARLY, before Thanksgiving and one of the reasons was that there would definitely be no worry about snow!!!

The roads were very, very slick last night and there were so many accidents all over the place. While driving over a bridge, our car slid on the ice and I braced for an impact. Scarey!!! One car in front of us did crash. The parking lot at the church of the concert was like a sheet of ice.

But the concert went on as planned and it was a really beautiful performance. Ivy sang in the 4th-6th grade choir and they did a really, really nice job. It was very beautiful! Ivy also had a speaking part and did a wonderful job. We were all able to be there to see her.

Yesterday was also Opening Day at the Sight and Sound Theatre's "Miracle of Christmas" Show! Joel performed in the opening show at 1:00 and also for the 4:00 show. I really, really, really wanted to go see it for the opening show at 1:00. Sometimes if there are extra seats, they let the child actor's family have complimentary seating. So Ivy, Jaden and I were all ready to go but we had to wait and make sure there would be seats for us. Half hour before the show, we were informed it had sold out and we couldn't watch it. SO SAD! So we had to go home. So over two thousand people got to see that performance and the mom didn't get to see it! Oh well.

Joel's high-light yesterday was that an NFL football player, the kicker for the Baltimore Ravens was there in the audience at the 4:00 performance. He arrived in a big black limo - Joel didn't get to see him but he saw the limo. All the football loving actors went out there to see it!

Today is a perfect Saturday. No rushing around going places, no frantic schedule.... Just a laid back day to sit by the fire and relax!!! The kids are all playing outside, Joel and Mark both have the day off and it's a nice peaceful day. Next week we'll be really busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. We'll have 13 people around our table and I can't wait!