The weekend

I have been so impressed with our 5 yr old boy. He is really developing a love for reading. I usually find him curled up somewhere reading a book all on his own. He'll come running up to me and show me the latest book he has finished reading. Today I caught him reading Little Bear so I grabbed the camera to share :)

Some pics from the weekend. It's been absolutely beautiful out!!! After looking at the pics of our boys, they ended up getting haircuts at the end of the day :)

Lilla Rose Flexi-clip

Can you tell I'm really trying to win a Lilla Rose flexi-clip!!!! Here is another giveaway for one.
http://www.thanksmailcarrier.com/2011/02/lilla-rose-flexi-clip-review-giveaway.html

Lovin' this book!

I absolutely love this book so far! God's Names is a book that introduces and teaches kids many of the different names of God. God's character is expressed through his names in the Bible. So far we have learned that "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth...." Elohim is strong Creator. The kids have learned that God is Jehovah (Self-existent), Yahweh (Unchanging), El Shaddai (God Almighty), and El Elyon (The Most High). The book covers 23 of his names (with pronunciation), their meanings, scripture and a lesson that shows this characteristic, discussion questions, and an activity. We learn more and more just how awesome our God is!!!

We also made some more butter and buttermilk today! You can guess what we're having for dinner!! ......biscuits :)

Lilla Rose

OOOhh another Lilla Rose giveaway!!! Go to A Wise Woman Builds Her Home to enter. I want to win one for my daughter. I LOVE the one we just got. The extra small fits my hair well, but we need the mini for our girl. Her hair is simply too thin. I did manage to get some pictures of her with it in though and it stayed in for most of the day (but kept slipping down the hair....thus the need for the smaller fitting one).

First Service

We met in our new church building today!!! How exciting it was. As I mentioned over on our church blog, today was a day of all smiles...not because of a new beautiful building, or more room, or the big attendance....our smiles were because of the things we have seen God accomplish! It was a great day today. We had 113 in attendance (our attendance had been reaching the 80's) and everything seemed to go so smoothly. We praise God for his goodness and give him all the glory!

This Sunday

Looking forward to our FIRST service in our NEW building this Sunday!!!! Can't wait to post pictures. How exciting it is going to be. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

I can read!

I was getting the schoolwork ready this morning for the kids and I heard our 5 year old on the floor reading. I mean, really reading! He had gotten one of the Dr. Suess books down and was reading every word. I sat there listening and had such joy knowing God has given me this privilege to enjoy every stage of his learning, here with me, surrounded with his family who all came around him to listen and praise his efforts.


(had to do it in 2 parts...can only upload small videos)

Bible Study

We ladies have started our Beth Moore study this week called Living Beyond Yourself. It is a study of Galatians, particularly focusing of the fruit of the Spirit. I've already been getting a huge blessing from it (only on day 2 of our homework!) I'd like to share some things that I've been learning about.

When Paul and Barnabas were in Galatia preaching, there were many Jews who got very upset with their teaching. They wanted to stir up trouble for these preachers so who do you think they went to first to plant these bad ideas? Acts 13:50 says these Jews went to the God-fearing women of high standing (NIV) - the devout and honourable women (KJV).......
When the serpent wanted to beguile Adam and Eve in the garden, who did he go to first? Gen 3:1 He approached the woman.....
WHY?
Woman have influence! It can be used in the most positive of ways, but also can be used in the most detremental ways.

After finishing Day 1 of my homework, I had this on my mind. How much of an influence women can be. That evening I was flipping through some God-Tube videos and came across one about Oprah, one of the most powerful and influential women on earth. I was surprised and shocked to read about the book club book she is reading through and having online classes with millions of women. She is preaching a gospel of self salvation.

"God is a feeling....not a belief??" The Word of God clearly says that the heart is wicked, man loves darkness rather than light. It also says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
I know many Christian women are allowing her into their homes everyday. Just because you acknowledge that you do not believe what she is promoting does NOT make it harmless to watch.
2 Peter 2:1-3 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up......(NIV - because that is what the study is written in)
These false teachers are greedy for power, position, popularity.
2 Cor 11:4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

Don't put up with it!!! Don't allow these false teachers to enter your home. It is NOT harmless television. Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopie Goldberg...the list goes on......all promote anything but Jesus Christ. Women ARE influential. Do not think for a moment that having these programs on is just harmless noise to pass the time. Turn them off!

Accountable2You blog button

I made a blog button for Accountable2You on the left side bar. How cool is that!
What is accountable2you?? It is a computer software accountability program for users who want to be held accountable for their internet/computer use, and it was developed by my hubby :)

It is actually going through a major overhaul right now. The new website looks fantastic (not published yet though)!! He's also making it so much easier to use. He is also getting the Mac version ready which should be available by the end of March. Please pray for him as he continues to develop this program. He has some decisions to make over the next month and could really use God's leading in these matters.

Homemade is fun!

Over at Raising Homemakers, they posted a video on how to make homemade butter. Hubby and I were amazed it was that easy!! We are so use to convenience....it's amazing what a little work will produce :)

So the family got together (yes, it was a family affair) and we grabbed 2 cartons of Heavy Whipping cream, divided it between 3 plastic containers, put 2 marbles in each container and started shaking!!!

It was hard work as you can see from our boy's face *grin*

After about 15 mins, we had butter and delicious buttermilk. I'd say it made over 3 cups of buttermilk and over 3 cups of butter.

Our daughter used the buttermilk to make buttermilk biscuits from scratch and our son made us some cinnamon butter.

I have to say it was delicious!!!!! (and soooo much fun!)

shake, shake, shake!!!

the butter separating from the buttermilk

2 cartons produced all that!!!

from scratch buttermilk biscuits

cinnamon butter

Doesn't that look GOOD!!!!!!!

Smiles again

Glad to be able to say our girl went the whole day without a fever!!! After 8 days I think she is finally over it. Now I just pray no one else gets it in the family! Thanks to all who were praying for her. It's so good to hear her chatting up a storm once again instead of curled up in a ball on the couch :)

Great thought for the day

I LOVE what I read today in my inbox from Teaching Good Things. One of the most important things about educating our children at home.......

Relationship
-Don't sacrifice your relationship with your child over getting school done.
-Do not squeeze them into a box while you crush their spirit. Education is not a one size fits all.
-Always expect THEIR best, not yours. Just because you excel at something does not mean they will. Push them to their limits, but not over the edge.
-If one of you (or both of you), are crying, angry or frustrated at the end of the day, take a breather and connect your hearts. Make sure they know your love is not based on passing a test.
-If what you are doing is not working, draw back, get recommendations from others and tweak your approach and/or curriculum!
-If you have your child's heart and your relationship is good, they will put forth extra efforts to do a good job. If they feel stupid, or that they can never measure up, they will quit trying and cut you off emotionally.
-A passing grade, certificate, diploma or degree is never worth damaging your relationship. The relationship MUST come first.

I think when Mom's are just starting out with homeschooling, there is a certain pressure felt to know we are doing a good job and that we are capable of teaching our children. Our efforts are very much put into showing that our children are getting good grades and that they are accomplishing more than their public education peers. Sometimes this can strain our relationship with our children because we feel like WE are the ones under a microscope being watched! Ohhhh how much I learned through the first 2 years especially from homeschooling. How many of these points listed above I had to experience before coming to the realization that I am not out to prove anything. I am called of God to teach my children more than just academics but to teach them how to be soldiers for the Lord. I have them only for a short time to guide and help mold them into the individuals God wants them to be. Homeschooling is soooo much more than academic knowledge!!!
At the end of the day, did we help to shape their spiritual lives or were we more concerned with how well they knew their phonics rules and math equations?
Our priority should be their heart first, then their mind.

Stress

So we are on day 8 of a high fever. When I say high, she starts her mornings with a normal temp (from having medicine before bed) and by noon she is above 103 again, usually hitting 104 by evening, which follows with another dose of medicine before bed.......
*sigh*
Then I get the added bonus today of a 3 year old giving himself a corneal abrasion and a trip to the eye doctor, with antibiotic drops ($88!!!!!!!!).
*sigh*
But on a happy note, hubby finally has a little work coming in. We praise God for the income!!

Off to the doctor

Our girl is now on day 7 of a high fever, so we're heading to the doctor this afternoon. Will update when we get back.

So that was useless!! Must be something viral they say....Just keep giving her medicine for her fever.....aaarrrgg. They took a blood sample and her blood count was fine, so they determined it must be a virus. Just wait it out but if she still has a fever by Friday, bring her back in and we will run more tests.

Ohhh...and she is still contagious so keep her away from kids (kinda hard in a house with 3 other little ones!)

Winner!

I just went over to Daily Bread Living to check out the winners and I won!! Out of the 15 or so giveaways, I won the Lilla Rose flexi clip *big grin* (giveaway #3). How cool is that!!

In other news, pray for our oldest. Today her temp got up to 105....aahhh. Tonight she actually got really sweaty after I gave her some medicine, so I don't know if her fever has finally broke after 5 days, or if it is just the meds. Tomorrow we will see whether or not she needs to head to the doctor.

Sick girl

Our oldest has been down with a high fever going on 4 days now. It is not like her to spend entire days on the couch :( Praying she gets better.....

Lots of giveaways

There are lots of giveaways going on at Daily Bread Living right now. Hop on over!! Click on their 'home' link to see all the giveaways listed.

Quote

I came across this quote today from Martin Luther back in the 16th century:

"I am much afraid the school will prove to be the great gate of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt."

Class Planner

I love this Class Planner I found!! It has eveything you need in one book for a year of record keeping for your child.

"Each subject has daily slots for a week's worth of assignments; quizzes or tests; and main concepts to master. There's also room for concepts that need to be re-emphasized and the date review was completed. A monthly fill-in-the-date square calendar is also included. Charts include reading lists, physicians list, report cards, academic records, high school curriculum plan, transcript, projects, field trips, vacation schedules, prayer journal and more."

Sammy again

I've mentioned this book in a
previous post. Reading through
it again with the kids, this passage
just jumps off the page. If only our
children grow up learning this early!!!

(Sammy is tenderly teaching Precious,
who is new to the flock, a lesson about
her attitude toward some sheep in the flock)

"Do you think your heart is ready to hear something wonderful, even if it hurts at first?" Sammy asked.

Precious wasn't sure she liked the way this conversation was going, but in her heart she knew that Sammy was her friend. He would do only what was good for her.

....

"Here it is, and I hope you'll never forget it: there are no annoying sheep, just annoyed sheep."

Sammy paused and let his words hang in the air so that Precious could think about what he had said.

"Soooo", Precious said slowly, "the problem is not the other sheep. The problem is...me?"

"Yep," Sammy agreed.

"You're sure Bertha is not the problem?" Precious asked.

"Think about it, Precious. What is one thing that is true of every sheep in our flock, even Bertha?"

Precious pondered this a bit and then said: "Our good shepherd bought every one of us. We all belong to him. Oh, Sammy, how could I be annoyed with a sheep that our shepherd loves? But I'm confused. Is it right for Bertha to...well...to be like she is?"

Sammy nodded understandingly. "If Bertha needs to change, our shepherd will change her," he said.

What truth that is! How much wasted time have we as Christians spent on our attitudes towards other Christian brothers and sisters. John 13:35 is very clear that "by this all men shall know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". I love this book!

Homemade granola bars

Daddy found another recipe for homemade granola bars and they turned out really, really good! They are nutritious and delicious :)

Taken from http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/04/11/homemade-granola-bar-recipe-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-these-bars/
Here's the recipe:
2 cups oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts (crushed)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 Tbs butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
8 oz dried fruit (raisins, cranberries)
Preheat oven to 400 deg Fahrenheit. Mix peanuts, oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 mins, stirring every few minutes so they don't get burned.
Prepare glass baking dish (about 11x13 in) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.
Put brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla and salt into saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
Your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. (Grains, liquid 'glue' and dried fruit)
Mix everything well and dump granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.
Spread out mixture with wooden spoon or spatula.
Fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and press HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won't fall apart when you cut them.
Wait 2-3 hours until granola has totally cooled.
Open wax paper and carefully turn granola onto a cutting board. Firmly press down with a knife (not sawing) and cut granola into bars.
Wrap individually or store in a ziploc bag. Enjoy!

Over the weekend

Not too much happening here. Everyone is mostly over their colds. Just the lingering cough.
Here are a few pics. Our boy reading to daddy, our other boy being 'cool' :) and our girl made homemade granola bars today.

The importance of chores

Tonight is our homeschool meeting! I look forward to these (even though we've only had 1 meeting so far!!) It's a time for us as a group of ladies/mom's/homeschoolers to encourage one another, swap some great tips and resources, and just have some good fellowship. One topic tonight that we will be discussing is 'how to get it all done' when you're a busy mom taking care of house, hubby, children, and schooling (and some with work responsibilites).

One big thing I've learned over the past year or so is the importance of chores for our children. The bible tells us to train our children and that requires us to not only train them in God's word but training them to be servants of Christ. A girl needs to grow up being trained on how to become a Proverbs 31 woman (whether or not she will marry). Our boys need to be trained on how to become the responsible head of his home (whether or not he will marry).
A child at the age of 3 can be helping around the home learning responsibility by making his bed, picking up toys, organizing areas. A child at the age of 7 should be fully capable of doing most things around the home (that doesn't involve danger like ironing etc). We as mom's need to be careful that we are not doing an injustice to our children by doing everything for them. I know it is much easier for us to get things done on our own the way we like it done. Training a child involves patience, extra work and time on our part. If you do the proper training when they're young, you will save a lot of time when they are older!

Another thing that goes along with teaching them the importance of chores is teaching the proper heart attitude. We try to teach our children 'honor'. When mommy asks to clean the toy room....honoring mommy would be they not only clean the toy room but they go above and beyond what is required of them with a happy heart. They clean the toy room AND the bedroom. When they are asked to clear the table after a meal, they not only clear the table but grab the swiffer and sweep the floor too. If we create a servant's heart in our children at a young age, they will see chores or any type of work as a way of showing honor and love to Christ.

When you have children who are eager to help out, have a desire to please and want to work, what a blessing that is to a mother!

Volcanoes

Three of the 4 kids are down with a cold so daddy headed off to church alone this morning. Let me tell you this is 11 colds for our 13 month old! Pitiful!!

So since we have been reading about volcanoes in our science class (we are on the planet Mars now....yes, it has been slow going!!) and since our son got a volcano science kit for Christmas, we thought we'd have some fun this morning. We first made a small one all together, but the kids each wanted to make their own..... messy but fun!

Volcano = baking soda, flour, water

Lava = warm water, citric acid

School updates

What's been going on in school lately?

Our 5 year old has started cursive writing and doing an excellent job!! I decided to start him on cursive because he is very good with writing his greek alphabet (which is alot more flowy and curvy than our alphabet). He's only been at it a week and has learned l, h, k, t, i, u, e

I've been doing a Revelation study with our 8 year old and we are both enjoying it sooo much! They have many books in the series (Genesis, James, John, etc..). She has been learning alot and it has opened the door to discuss many, many spiritual things concerning heaven and the end times etc. This link lets you look at all the books....

After our trip to Alabama to visit some friends, I was introduced to All About Spelling (thank you Letisha!) I am loving it!! I'm going through it with our 5 and 8 yr old. During the lesson you use magnetic tiles to teach them spelling (phonics) rules.

Our 3 year old has been having fun with the greek alphabet! He knows it better than our alphabet :) Here is a video of the first 18 letters.

alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epslion, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma

Snow much fun...

Here's some pics from yesterday. They had a ball!!!!
(and yes, I did go down too. It was hilarious!)


chasing the runaway sled

WIPEOUTS!





Yep...that one's daddy!