Books Galore

A friend of mine took me to Barnes and Noble this past week because she was getting a great deal on books (long story)...so I walked out with about 13 books!  I felt like I had gone on a spending spree!  So now I have more than enough to read and more than enough recipes to cook (I got a few cookbooks).  Here is some of what I got...

Books on Christianity and one on courtship (since we have a pre-teen this is something we need to start thinking about.).

I also got a few cookbooks...I have loved Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day so I went ahead and got their "healthy bread" book.  I love Rick Bayless' show, and his recipes look so yummy!  And finally, I have loved Stephanie's blog and recently purchased a new crockpot.

And finally, these just looked like cute science books...I know... "cute science" probably doesn't go together, but I loved the look of these books so I picked them up for the boys.

The Night Noah fought the Durango and Lost

Here was my evening in case you are interested!

*Noah splits open his head by running into the open door of our Durango.


*2 min. later my Spanish student walks in.

*I have to clean up Noah while she waits.

*Throw TaeKwon-do uniform in wash in hopes of getting out the blood. He was wearing his WHITE uniform...got pretty bloody

*Throw dinner in crockpot.

* Go to grocery store to get liquid bandage.

*Their credit card machines are down...I have NO money and NO checkbook.

*I tried to call Tim...pay phone wasn't working (because of course I don't have a cell)

*Finally credit card machines work

*Go home with liquid bandage..doesn't work

*Dinner in crockpot was a DISASTER! NEVER do mac and cheese in the crockpot even if the lady from "A Year of Slowcooking" says it will work! IT WON"T!  LOL

*Throw out dinner.

*Call a friend who is a nurse. She rushes over.

*Nurse takes one look at it and say get to First Care.

*Go to First Care.

*Noah gets six stitches in the forehead by the P.A. and nurse that saw me two weeks ago for my torn calf muscle. Kind of like a mini-reunion! LOL

*Go home...feel like crying...haven't eaten dinner...not sure I want to.

*I am positive that I am going to need therapy! LOL

Jay Wile Workshops

This past weekend I went to some workshops done by Jay Wile, the author of the Apologia Science books for 7th-12th grades.  These workshops were awesome!  Even though Jay Wile is a nuclear chemist and a self-proclaimed "nerd", he was a great speaker and easy to understand.

I went to the following workshops....
Teaching Critical Thinking
Why Homeschool through High School and How to teach High School at Home
Homeschooling: The Solution to our Education Problem
Teaching Science at Home

If you would like access to the handouts for these workshops, click here.

One thing that Dr. Wile did for me was to affirm what I have been doing all along.  If you go to the handouts you will see that he has a plethora of statistics that show how homeschoolers do in comparison to public school kids. The numbers are amazing!  So definitely check out the handouts on Homeschooling: The Solution to our Education Problem and Why Homeschool through High School.  Another thing is that I learned that I have been doing science right all along!!  Dr. Wile gave us these two quotes to emphasize his point about math and science (and to add a little humor to the workshop!).

“Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments”

-Alexander the Great

“Science without math is like music without instruments”
-Jay Wile the Not-So-Great

Dr. Wile says that in the early elementary years, you need to do science only once or twice a week, but you must do math EVERY day!  The math is crucial because science is math-driven.  Well, this is exactly what we did in the elementary years!  The Five in a Row curriculum only has you do science once a week, so that is what we did.  We did math everyday with Math-U-See (which is one of the curriculums that Dr. Wile recommends).  But as you move into Jr. High, you need to step it up a bit.  I haven't really done that with Zach (he is in 7th grade this year).  We are working two days a week with an in-depth study of zoology.  But next year I am moving to Apologia, and he is going to do General Science.  After that, he should be ready for high school Biology.

Another aspect of teaching science that I was unaware of is the approach you take.  You can either go with a spiral or an immersion approach.  The immersion approach works better because there is more depth because a student is taught one subject in science for awhile.  In the spiral approach, the student touches on lots of different approaches over the year and then goes back to them again in another year.  Most of our science has been the immersion approach without me realizing that this was beneficial to my kids.  This year in science has really been "immersion".  All we have focused on is zoology, and we have gained so much understanding and knowledge that we didn't have before!

So if you ever get a chance to listen to Dr. Wile, please go!  You will be blessed!  Some of his workshops are on CD, go here to check them out.

Titan's Uncle and New Playmate

Ok, so I know that all of this might be confusing, but I will try to fill you in.  Titan's daddy, Kazz,

Kazz and Titan

unexpectedly died last August. Kazz was owned by some dear friends of ours, and they are now looking to get another mini schnauzer. Well, Kazz's parents (these would be Titan's grandparents) just had another litter!  And Kazz's owners will be getting one of these new little puppies in March!  They are going to get another boy!  This means that Titan will have a new playmate who is actually his uncle!  We can't wait to meet the little guy! 

From My Pictures

Here is the litter...five girls and two boys. 

The God Full of Blessings

God pursues us and wishes to bless us...Here is how He has blessed me this past week. 
306.  Two new comforters for our bed for free!
307.  The gifts of a friend.
308.  Safety for Tim.
309.  The ability to start walking and exercising again after tearing my calf muscle.
310.  That God is faithful to us even when we are not.

311.  Reading the book, Experiencing God.
312.  God's help in helping me overcome some unforgiveness and bitterness.
313.  Time to relax.
314.  Dinner date with my hubby!
315.  That God is providing for all our needs and then some.
316.  The power of prayer.
317.  God fixing a situation without me even asking!
318.  Walks with Titan even though it is cold!
319.  Receiving a new homeschooling magazine for free!
320.  Getting my first issue of Taste of Home...love this magazine!
321.  Using my brand new crockpot a lot!
322.  Getting caught up with a lot of my review work for the TOS Crew before other big projects come in.
323.  Watching Titan open his own kennel with his teeth!  So cute!
324.  A movie to watch, Julie and Julia.

325.  Making bagels for the first time!  They actually were good!
326.  Homeschooling workshops that I went to by Jay Wile.

327.  Looking forward to using some of the Apologia resources next year for science for the kids.
328.  That Titan will be getting to meet another member of his family, an uncle, very soon.  There will be a post on this coming soon.

The Prayer of Revenge

Ok, you are probably looking at the title of this book and thinking, "What in the world?"  How can prayer and revenge be put into the same sentence?? How in the world can you justify such a concept? But I have to say if you have ever experienced a conflict with someone who has not sought forgiveness and remains unremorseful, this book will help you  get you to the point where you can forgive the one that hurt you and who has never sought to make it right.  I can't recommend The Prayer of Revenge: Forgiveness in the Face of Injustice enough!  This is my second time reading it through, and it has helped to come to terms with two relationships in my life where the offenders have been completely unwilling to make amends.  Both these offenders are professing Christians which makes it even harder to deal with.  But I firmly believe that we become more like Christ when we make that decision to forgive.

Prayers of revenge are called imprecatory prayers, and they actually exist in the Bible!! These are prayers (many of them are prayers of King David) in which the offended party cries out to God to bring justice on the offender.  A good portion of these types of prayers are found in the Psalms.  Here is a list of some of the chapters in Psalms that contain imprecatory prayers.  By reading some of these you will get an idea of what I am talking about...

5,6,7,10,11,17,23,25,28,31,35,40,41,54,55,58,68,70,71,73,74,79,83,94,104,109,120,129,137...and this is only a partial list!

This book encourages forgiveness regardless of the remorse of the offender.  The Bible teaches that we must forgive.  It is emotionally healthy for us to forgive.  It is the only way that we can be free from the pain that the person inflicted. It is the only way we can be free of the person who hurt us.  When we don't forgive we are giving the other person the power to hurt us over and over again. When we don't forgive we in some ways have an issue with God.  We don't believe that He will serve as judge between us and our offender.  We don't believe that God will dole out the necessary justice.  By placing our faith in God and handing that person over to God, we can let go and forgive.

"It is mine to avenge; I will repay.  In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." Deuteronomy 32:35

Our First Week with Plants Grown Up

This is our first week working with Plants Grown Up, a book from Doorposts, that I have been wanting to use with the boys for several years now.  We only have a few more years to prepare Zach for his adulthood.  I have felt that we need to step it up a notch so that he will have the skills to be a godly adult, husband and father.

This week we are doing the chapter on "Justly Judging in Discipline Situations". I have decided that we will do one memory verse and two projects from one chapter each week.

Our Memory Verse: "The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him." Proverbs 18:17  There is so much validity to this verse!  We need to listen to both sides of the story before making a judgment call!  I know that I have jumped to conclusions that were incorrect when learning about a conflict between two people.  I have also been the victim of someone listening to someone else's story about me and then making an inaccurate judgment call about me.  Not only are we memorizing this verse, but we are discussing how to put its wisdom to use.

One of our projects is that we are going to study the Brother-Offended Checklist this week.  This is a list of what the offender and the offended should do in a conflict.  All the suggestions are based on Bible verses.

We are also going to make a list of offenses and appropriate consequences in order to introduce the concept of the "punishment fitting the crime".  We will also base this on Bible verses, using the Scriptures as our guide.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures with Plants Grown Up!

Incorporating Geography

I have never gone through a geography course with the boys.  We have always incorporated geography into our other subjects.  In the early days we learned the location of the countries and area of the US that were in the Five in a Row books that we rowed. We now do history mostly chronologically with Biblioplan.  As we go through history we do maps of the area that we are studying.  This year we are doing zoology for science.  Once again we are studying geography by looking up where the animals live.  So as you can see you can incorporate geography in a lot of places in your homeschool.  I have found that geography is easily included in history and science (especially the life sciences).

Another way we are doing geography this year is through a handwriting program called A-Z Mystery Flags from LightHome Publications.  Each page is a different letter of the alphabet...there is a mystery flag that the boys have to figure out the country for (a country that starts with that letter) and then the boys have to write out the countries for that letter in cursive.  We actually use Italics... and I have them write the countries in italics.  Because they have done italics their whole lives, they have a hard time reading regular cursive.  This program is giving them the opportunity to practice reading cursive.  I then have the boys look up and locate each country on their page.  Here are some pictures of them working on "Page M" today.  There were a ton of countries that start with the letter "M" so we did a lot of locating!

Here is Noah trying to figure out what the mystery flag is.

Working on handwriting...

Looking up the countries.

I am planning on using A-Z Exotic Animals next with the boys. As we go through these animals we will look on a map to find their habitats.

If You Will Ask...

I recently finished a book by Oswald Chambers entitled If You Will Ask.  I have to admit that it wasn't an easy read!  Chambers' writing is lofty and the concepts are deep and to be quite frank, half the time I didn't know what he was talking about! But, nevertheless, I was blessed by reading the book.  There were some important concepts that I needed to be reminded of and to learn.  Here are a few of them:

*God's silences are His answers.  Sometimes God doesn't answer us at all...it is like He is saying, "no".  Or He is waiting so that we can grow in Him.  There are several situations in my life where God hasn't answered the prayer and has been somewhat silent on the issue.  He is growing me through the experience.  Actually, come to think of it, every time God has said, "no" I have grown!

*Prayer comes with a price! But I am not the one it cost. We have access to God because of what Jesus did on the cross...prayer is not a sacrifice for us, but rather for God!

*Prayer alters....me and others.  Prayer also alters circumstances through me. The biggest revelation I got out of this small book is that the aim of prayer is to change me and make me more like Christ.  It isn't about a wish list that we give to our Heavenly Father each day!

*Prayer has no snares.  It is one area we can serve where we won't get nailed by others!  God has been teaching me that when you are in ministry people will come up against you to criticize what you do and how you handle things.  But prayer is private, and we can serve in this area without fear of ridicule.

A Plethora of Praise

God is always faithful...here is how He has blessed me recently...
291.  A birthday party for Noah.
292. Loving on me through the support of church members.
293. A youth pastor who is very supportive of the teaching we are doing in the Jr. High class.
294. The ability to have a sense of humor in the weirdness of life!
295. I didn't lose the diamond in my wedding ring.
296. A fixed wedding ring.
297. That God is for me and faithful to me even when His answer to my prayer is a firm "NO".
298. Hot drinks on cold days.
299. An awesome birthday cake decorated by an awesome husband.

300. Wow, making it to 300 blessings!  I am about a third of the way there!
301. An opportunity to love on the Jr. High kids that I teach.
302. That God sees me through the hard times just like he saw Hagar in the desert.
303. That God is healing my torn calf muscle so quickly.  I can almost walk normally now!
304. A new Bible curriculum for the kids.
305. Watching Titan play with him toys...he is so energetic and fun!

The Artist

The Architect

Homemade Sausage McGriddles

Holly from the FIAR boards posted about making homemade sausage McGriddles. If you don't know what these are...it is a breakfast sandwich with pancakes as the bread and sausage in between them.  I happen to love these things, but I don't go to McDonald's very often (maybe once a year).

Basically all you do is cook up some sausage patties.  Then make some pancakes from your own recipe or a mix.  Add some pancake syrup to the batter and make the pancakes the size of the sausage.  These were awesome!  Not sure, because I haven't tried it yet, but you might even be able to pre-make them, freeze them and then just pop them in the microwave in the morning.

Happy Birthday, Hangboy....

I mean Noah!!!!  You are nine today!  Amazing! Here are a few pictures and stories (from a post from last year) of the animal-loving (and therefore, appropriately named!) birthday boy!

Here's a couple stories surrounding Noah's birth....If we had listened to Zach (who was three at the time), we would have known that our second child was going to be a boy too. Zach insisted from the time I was 5 months pregnant that the baby was "Hangboy". We kept telling him that it might be a sister and not a brother. But in his 3 y/o mind he just "knew" that it was a boy and that his name was "Hangboy". Well, there was no way we were going to name any child of ours "hangboy"...so we just kind of ignored the comments....at eight months pregnant I went into early labor (this was highly traumatic for me because I had miscarried the year before)...I went into the hospital and the dr. performed tests. She came back saying that my labor was backing off and I could go home, but before she left she said, "If this is a girl she will do fine if she is born early (baby girls are stronger than boys), but if it is a boy you better pray he hangs in there." Well, he did...born a few days before his due date..."Hangboy" had hung in there and made it to term...although his name now is Noah. The moral of the story: Listen to your three year old son...he may know more than you think!

Here is the story about how Noah got his name: We also joke that Noah almost didn't have a name....Tim and I had a terrible time picking out boys' names when I was pregnant with Zach. (now if we would have had girls this wouldn't have been a problem!). But you see, God has a sense of humor....when we picked out Zach's name we pulled out the baby name book and went through the whole book until we got to the Z's. The only thing left if we were to have a second boy was Zeke and Zero (no lie... "Zero" was a name in our baby name book!). We joked that if our second was a boy we wouldn't be able to come up with a name. But in the second half of my pregnancy with Noah we finally decided on the name Caleb...then at the last minute Tim changed his mind and settled on Noah. This was funny to me because he had always told me that we would never name a son of his with an "a" sound at the end...therefore Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Noah, etc. were out of the question! But who knows why at the end he changed his mind...I personally think God helped change his mind because after Noah was born and named we found out that "Noah" means "comfort" and how appropriate the choice was considering we had lost two babies.

You are such a neat, talented young man!  We love you!

More for Multitude Monday

When you start making a weekly list of what you are thankful for you will be amazed at how much there really is to be grateful for!  I encourage you to visit Ann's blog (click the button above) to find out more about Multitude Mondays!  You will be blessed.

276. An opportunity to bless my enemies!
277. Cappuccino
278. Figuring out what we are going to do for science next year....Apologia!
279. Walking with a friend early in the morning.
280. Learning parenting techniques from great Christian parents
281. That God is faithful.
282. That Titan is becoming more obedient with each passing day!
283. A great week in school last week!  The boys had such a great day that one night we took them to Cold Stone.
284.  Which reminds me...I am thankful for ice cream!
285. A new crockpot! Moving into the modern age! LOL
286. A part time job for Tim!
287. Dealing with the bitterness in my life that has been festering and being free from it! This article really helped!
288. Decluttering my house a bit
289. Precious sleep
290. Getting through my first week of Spanish lessons for the spring semester...only 14 more weeks to go!