Valentine's Day 2013

We started a new tradition this year...a girls' Valentine's Day tea party!

It was small, personal, and it was a blast!

Enjoy the photos.

Our four girls, on the couch and smiling!

 

JeNi was helping set the table, so got a cute shot of the smaller girls.

Look at Deanna's lovely table all set for us.

The girls, enjoying their special time.

A game of "pin the heart on the valentine"...great job JeNi, the girls loved it.

JeNi ran the crafts and activities for the girls

Our winner!

Spinning Abigail around.

The girls got some "Wii Kids Dance" time...it was sooo cute!  Especially since Abigail and Sissi had never done it before.  Very serious faces and lots of concentration.

Some cute shots of them dancing.

Definitely fun, we'll be doing this again!

Sissi's "heart hair" for today's tea, again, courtesy of www.princesshairstyles.com

My girl, growing up!

Scripture Memory Box

From the time my kids were about 2 years old we have worked with them on memorizing God's Word and have used it to show them how much God loves them, how He has saved them, and to point out issues with their character and with their behavior with us, and toward others.  I have never been very good about doing it on a regular basis though, it was always in response to something....ie. we have a problem with saying mean things to a sibling and hurting their feelings, what would be a good verse to memorize, oh, yes, Proverbs 12:18 "Reckless words pierce like a sword but kind words bring healing."  Then, we would recall the memorized verse, talk about how it made them and the offended one feel, pray about a change of heart and action, and then move on.

This year, in my group that I read through the Bible with every year, we're doing a memory verse each week.  I knew that I wanted to do this, and that I wanted to not just remember that week's verse, but to also recall all of them, so I began to think about how to do this.

I was thrilled when I came across the Charlotte Mason system... http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

I got an old leftover container and some 3x5 cards that I had brought with me and set to work to write up verses we already knew and to make all the dividers.  The idea is that you have the front verse that you work on daily until you have it down, then you review some of the verses behind the dividers...there are odd and even days, so the verses that you just recently memorized you'll review every other day.  There are the Monday through Friday verses (we don't do this regularly on Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't make cards for those days) and then numbers 1-31 for the days of the month.  As you memorize more and more verses, the cards will keep moving back, so they will be reviewed less and less, BUT, at least once a month.  There will come a point you have a verse in each number slot and then you start over again at number 1.

So, today, we were working on Romans 14:19, then we reviewed our even verse (Matthew 4:4), Tuesday's verse (Mark 12:30-31) and our verse for the 12th of the month (Genesis 1:1)  It took us all of 5 minutes, then we moved on with the rest of our 3 P's :0.....what are the 3 P's we start our school day with....well, Proverbs, Prayer, and Pledges.  This year, we are reading through the Proverbs, about 5-8 verses a day.  We discuss them, talk about what they mean, and how they relate to our life.  Then we pray together and we do our pledge to the American Flag and to the Christian Flag, and we are ready to start our school day.

Have you tried this system for your Scripture memorization?  Do you have another method that works for you and your family?  Please share!

Our Scripture Memory Box

Birds and Kids' Art

A few weeks ago, we found two birds just sitting on the porch area outside of our house.  They let us get super close to them and wouldn't fly away, they seemed to be breathing heavily and be injured in some way, so we called a local friend of ours that takes in injured birds and nurses them back to health to re-release them.  About the time he and his daughter arrived, the dog came out of the house and scared the birds so that they bounced off our ceiling a few times in their attempt to fly away and successfully saved their lives enough to fly another day.  I wish I had just picked them up and put them in a box for him...they were quite obviously in need of some help.

Can you see how close we were...amazing that they sat so still for us.

Birdie number 2

The one bird made it to the tree by the porch, I love how you can see the moon in the afternoon sky.

Then, last week we were working on drawing birds again, we seem to like drawing them lately.  On this day, it was an eagle.  I was also working with them on proportion and filling in your whole picture with a background that is pre-planned to fill the page.  They each positioned their eagle in a similar pose and then I told them that they could have their eagle anywhere, "in a valley, with grass, trees, mountains, an ocean, even aliens if you want...just fill the whole page and take your time."  So, this is what I got.

Krypto and his alien landing.

Gwangi with an alien attack.

Final Krypto picture.

Gwangi's picture, with full out alien invasion.

Sissi working on her picture.

Matching Shawls and Princess Hair

One of our friends saw this fabric back in the States and sent it to us in a care package a few weeks back.  I did actually make the shawls then, I just hadn't taken a picture yet.  Today, princess hairstyle and all (thanks to www.princesshairstyles.com,) we were "pretty as a picture" and I just had to share!

A side view of our shawl and updo before heading to church.

A close up of the hair...she's so serious, watching Veggie Tales before we leave.

A view of the top.  Three french twists and a messy bun to finish it off.

There is my smiling girl!

And of course, Caroline had to have a matching shawl.

Thank you, Marina, the fabric is beautiful!

Just schedule it!

It's hot here!

It's that time of the year where you are just dragging and sweating and can hardly make it through the day without a nap (or at least the thought of a nap...or a hundred thoughts of a nap!)

But, I'm homeschooling my children, and that means that hot or cold, tired or not, I still have to push through and get it done...or at least get some of it done...or maybe just get half of it done?  Because honestly, there are about 100 other things I have to do, too!

Really though, I had a wake up call this week.  We are studying the Civil War for history, and my normally very excited children weren't so enthusiastic.  What was wrong?  Truth be told, it was me!

I was tired, I hadn't spent nearly enough time lesson prepping, figuring that it would all just "fall into place."  I had delusions of us getting online and finding all this stuff and making big projects and everyone loving it.

The catch?

I didn't really plan any of it.  I just figured their natural enthusiasm would guide us. But, where was my enthusiasm?

Maybe it's not this way in your house, maybe this unschooling or delight directed approach would work for you, but in my house, if we're hot and grumpy and tired, the bare minimum gets done.  We did our Bible, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and we even had a Science lesson on steam engines and plenty of History read alouds this week (done on Mommy's bed, under the AC of course)...but, we never did get a start on those projects, we never did get online and watch those videos and see all those neat ideas.  And truly, isn't that one of the final steps in the learning process?  You can motivate kids and teach them an idea, but then it will leave their mind if there isn't a practical application of it followed by a review.  Those practical applications are the retellings and drawings that little kids can do, the projects they can make, the videos they can watch and then you talk with them about what you've seen and whose perspective it was from.

I started to really think about this on Thursday and Friday and realized....my kids are the KIDS.  They don't know about all that cool stuff out there, they literally don't know what they're missing.  How can they ask to watch those videos, do those cool projects, hear those audio dramas if they don't even know they exist?  That is why I am the teacher, to direct and motivate them, to show them what is available.  Then, if they latch onto something, and love it, we can take a tangent, we can go there and stay put for a bit longer, but, if I don't plan it, if I don't pull together the resources and have a well thought out idea of how things are going to go, we'll never get anywhere.

So, last night, I told Indy, "I need some planning time tomorrow morning.  About 2 hours.  Would that work?"  He of course said yes! (Thank you, Honey!)

This morning, after breakfast, I got right to it.  I pulled up my Tapestry links, My Audio School, Have Fun with History video site, my Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers Civil War CD, a pile of books, and my 2 week school calendar and got right to work mapping it all out.  I tried to take into account our busier days and a 2 day break that is coming up for mid-term at HOPAC.  It all fell together very nicely.

Part of my pile of History books (yes, there are more) and my 2 week schedule for Tapestry.  Krypto does his own reading and writing in the morning, while I'm doing Language Arts with Gwangi.  You can see his assignments in the top set of boxes.  We do History together in the afternoon each day.  Those are the ideas, readings, and links that are listed in the bottom section.

Now, I've got a plan.

Does any plan survive "first contact with the enemy?" (an old military joke)  NO!  Life will happen, I still have a sick Sissi; but, for now, I have ideas written down, links saved on my computer and pictures, maps, and projects are printed and ready to go for Monday.  I feel refreshed, I feel motivated, I'm ready to put some practical learning time into covering a very intense time in US History.

Has this ever happened to you before...you have great "pie in the sky" plans and then they just don't come to fruition and you feel like you've failed, like you aren't doing the best that you can?  What have you done when you've realized that school isn't "fun" anymore?

My Prayer Today - Psalm 37

I've been adding 2-3 Psalms everyday to my usual devotional time.  Yesterday, I read Psalm 34 and was able to find several truths in there that I could then add into my prayers to the Lord.  Just like a child learns how to speak by mimicking their parents, so we learn how to pray by using God's own inspired words that we find in the Bible.

Today, I read Psalm 37...full of familiar words and phrases, so comforting, so convicting, so awakening to how I need to pray.  Have you read and prayed Psalm 37 lately?  I won't cover all 40 verses; but, here are some that I made notes on and breathed back in response to my Lord.

1 - Don't worry about what others are doing, even when they're wrong...be responsible for your own actions.
3 - Trust that God has it covered, just do the right thing.
4 - Fill my life with God, be happy with Him, and He will provide for me and my family.
5 - Just like Prov. 16:3, I need to commit my plans to the Lord...He will take care of the rest if we have the right motivations for what we're trying to do.
7 - Rest and be patient...God's got it covered.
8 - Don't get angry, it just leads us to do yucky things.
25 - In all of my experiences, have I ever seen someone who is truly doing the Lord's will not be taken care of in the end...I highlight that part because I know the righteous go through troubled times, in fact, Psalm 34:19 tells us that "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all."  It doesn't say WHEN, but it does say He'll deliver!  It also says He'll deliver us from ALL of them!
27 - How many times have I seen in the Psalms "depart from evil and do good".... it's in about every third or fourth Psalm.  Truly!  God knows we are going to do bad things, but, once we're aware of it, we should turn around, leave it behind, and do the right thing.  We are responsible to make a change!
28 - God will give us justice when things aren't right...again, it might not be in our own timing, but, it will happen, count on it, He will not forsake us.
...and finally,
39 and 40 - He has saved us, He provides us strength when we are weak or troubled.  He will deliver us BECAUSE we take our refuge in Him.

Do you go to the Lord for shelter in times of trouble, or do you attempt to tackle it on your own....is He your shield, your strength, your hiding place?

I am reminded of the old hymn...
Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
Than to trust and obey!

I really needed this reminder today, I pray it's something for you to hear and think on as well.

Final note of trivia - did you ever realize that the Psalms and Proverbs make up about 10% of the Bible...I'll be honest, I never did.  As I've been flipping back and forth to them each and every day lately, I started making a note of how large the section was.  Then I did the math.  These words of wisdom, prayers for protection and guidance, cries of anguish, shouts of victory and sweet lovingkindness aren't just 2 out of 66 books of the Bible, they are a significant portion of Scripture.  Read them, pray them, and feel the shared  pain and joy of the writers.

What have you been reading?

If you're anything like me, you are usually always in the midst of about 5 different books...and have a long list of others that you really want to get to.

I always think that I'll write a review and let you know how great the latest book was/is, but then I start reading the next one and I forget to tell you all about it.

So, I think I'm going to give you a quick list and summary of books I've been reading, and those that I'm getting ready to read, and ask you if there are any that I should be adding to my list :).

Ready for some fun?  Let's go!

In the historical fiction arena, I read several books over Christmas.  The one that really stuck out to me was "While We're Far Apart" by Lynn Austin.  I subscribe to an email service that tells me about FREE Christian downloads on Amazon and this one popped up months ago.  I downloaded it and finally got around to starting it while we were driving down from Nairobi.  It takes place during WWII and intertwines many different, separate lives to tell a story of heartbreak and reconciliation, of loss and redemption, of fear and peace.  The letters that are interspersed throughout the book, written from a Jewish son that has left the US and gone back to study in the family's native Hungary, and follows all of the torment and actions of the Nazis, the loss of family members, had me in tears several times on our drive.  I like how she tied in the real life Raoul Wallenberg and the things he did to save so very many Jews from the Nazis in Hungary, he was shown as a kind of "Schindler's List" type character.  The reality of what these people went through, and how so many struggled to get action and financial support to those hurting moved my heart immensely.  

In the short inspirational arena, I read Dietrich Boehnhoffer's "Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible."  It was recommended by one of our speakers at the conference that we attended up in Kenya.  He spoke 3 mornings on the Psalms and how they are the communal prayer.  How as children we learn to speak to our parents by parroting and copying their speech...how then do we not see the need to teach our children and ourselves how to pray by using God's own words when we pray to Him? The Psalms allow us to come together in a common and understood hurt, complaint, grief, and then to see the praise part at the end.  No other book besides Isaiah is more quoted in the New Testament than the Psalms.  In the Jewish faith, many of them read dozens of Psalms a day, and over the course of their life, they are memorized.  All it takes is for someone to say the first line and the whole Psalm is recalled to their memory.  I can't say I'm reading dozens a day, but I am adding them into my quiet time each day, and making notes on how these verses have been turned into Praise and Worship music in our churches. I love singing my prayers, how beautiful is that?

In the education arena, I've been reading "Muslim Ministry in the African Context." It is a book put out in a series called Africa's Hope by the Assemblies of God.  I'm about half way done, but it has really opened my eyes to praying for and about my understanding and feelings toward those of the Muslim faith.  I believe I always had just a very cursory overview and understanding of what Muslims believe.  As we've been meeting more of them here in Africa, as Indy has been teaching them and they've been asking him questions about Jesus, it has become so obvious to me that I need to know more about what they believe, about how to talk to them, about how to explain to them what we believe and how to show them God's love.  

In the past month I've also read "The Bait of Satan: Living Free of the Deadly Trap of Offense, "Always the Baker, Never the Bride" (yes, a cute Christian romance), "A Marriage Carol," A Simple Amish Christmas," "Divine," "Total Truth" (I'm still working on this one) and probably a few others I'm not remembering.

I want to read "Dietrich Boehnhoffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy," also Mitch Stokes' "A Shot of Faith to the Head" which came as a recommendation from a Pastor friend of ours back in Colorado.  Krypto wants me to read "The Mysterious Benedict Society" and there are probably a couple of hundred other books that I've downloaded to my Kindle that need to make it on the list at some point.

Did any of these look interesting to you?  Are there any you think I should add to my list?