Spicing things up

I'm finally getting around to spicing up my plain jane blog!

Spicing up like with a teaspoon of cinnamon, not a cup of cayenne pepper. Nothing major, just a tad more color, a new header and a more professional looking layout.

I've often thought about redesigning the ole blog but never got around to it. I know scads of you use free templates but I knew I couldn't follow suit (they look great on your blogs though). Knowing my fickle tastes I'd certainly loathe looking at any busy pattern in a matter of days. Or maybe minutes. (And I despise how those templates move when you scroll down the page of a blog. Am I the only one who's noticed that? Maybe it's the amateur-web-designer in me that cringes at that. In my mind only text should move when you scroll down, not backgrounds.)

Man, blogger has seriously improved its design tools in the past few years. Besides the new templates, they have plugged in html editors almost everywhere! I vividly remember 4 years ago when I spent hours of Chloe's naptime creating a header image and then laboriously toiling in the html to get it just right. And then there was the agony of realizing that the header STILL didn't work even after all my labor. Ugh.

This recent blog revamp was quick, smooth, and painless! Thanks to a few super easy tools that is.

• Jing. I realize I say I LOVE a lot. But I really truly LOVE this screen capture program. It's free and incredibly easy to use. And the quality of screen capture images is perfecto. Jing enabled me to skip the tricky step of saving my header as a picture (formatting, size and resolution often alter when I do this). Instead I just clicked on my magic yellow Jing ball, dragged the cross-hairs across my header and grabbed a copy of it. Jing has also made uploading medical images for my online job MUCH easier.
• Picnik. I think I'm the last person in the world to discover the fun-ness of Picnik. This online photo editing site has a lovely simple interface making it un-intimidating and easy to navigate. And it's loads of fun to apply their photo effects. Besides the usual color changing tools there are myriads of other toys to play with which make pictures fuzzy, bright, pixellated, and much more. I've only just begun exploring this whimsical site.
  
• New font. For the first time ever I downloaded and installed a new font. Woo-hoo! I don't remember on where I found the font for my new header but google "free fonts" and you'll soon see there are a plethora of downloadable fonts out there. Just be sure to read the fine print so you don't owe the font creator any royalties. This site made for good font browsing and boasts of 8,000 free ones.

So, what d'ya think of the new look? And how do you update your bloggy look?

We are ready for some football!

Since this is the third official week of football season looks like I'm a tad late with this post.

Regardless, we ARE ready for some football!

Fall is great; I usually love its arrival. But this year as the summer warmth fades I sense the impending restrictions of colder weather looming. How AM I going to stay sane while housebound with my three active short people? Football is one of the redeeming factors of the season change. (Along with apples, cinnamon, soup, pumpkins, mums and cute halloween costumes that is.)

As is no surprise to you if you've read my blog for any length of time, we are a family of Green Bay Packer fans. Even though we've lived in Ohio for 5+ years now, we are still avid Packer backers. I'm guessing you have to be a native Ohioan in order to cheer for the Browns. It's most likely a contract signed at birth to guarantee the Browns have a residual fan base.

See, I even talk blog-trash about football so you know I'm a true fan.

Every season opener, we celebrate with a Packer themed dinner. We put the TV on while we devour our green and yellow chow. Usually I serve quiche (with broccoli, spinach, peppers, and cheese inside to follow the theme), green/yellow jello, and kiwi or pineapple. This year I had some leftover mashed potatoes so I also whipped up a batch of potato croquettes. Unfamiliar with potato croquettes? That's fancy schmancy talk for FRIED mashed potatoes that have been mixed with cheese and breadcrumbs. Anything fried is automatically thumbs-up in my book but fried PLUS cheese? YUMMOLA. There were no leftovers.

Even with Aaron Rodgers at the helm, the Packers have managed to win both of their first two games. After replacing the amazing and venerable Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers needs to prove himself to me. I'm choosing not to comment on dear Brett's retirement and media fiasco of late. I'm just saying he was the BEST QB to ever don the green and gold. And he's incredibly fun to watch play the game!

That said, I'm curious about you and yours. Are we the only wackos that enjoy football season so much? What team are you rooting for this season and why? What football traditions do you and your familia observe?

And if your team plays the Packers, I sincerely hope we kick your tail.

Quotable kids

I'm feeling low this morning. All three of our children woke up for various reasons during the night. Ugh. The day can only go up from here, right? :)

To perk myself and you dear readers up for this last work day, I thought I'd share a few funny kid-isms from Chloe and Clive. Enjoy!

Setting: Driving home from the farmer's market.

Chloe: "Mama, when I grow up I am definitely going to live in the country. It's very quiet out here. And I finally know what I want to be when I grow up -- a mommy!"

Me: "Chloe, I'm so glad you want to be a mommy! Being a mommy is the BEST job in the world but it's also a very hard job."

Chloe: (after thinking a moment) "It won't be hard if I don't have any kids."

Setting: 9:45 p.m. As I walk upstairs to put Solomon to bed for the night, I find Clive lying on the floor in the upstairs hallway snuggling his blanket.

Me: (surprised) "Clive, what are you doing? You're supposed to be sleeping in your bed!"

Clive: "I was praying for some food. I'm hungry, mama!"

[His prayers were answered. I promptly got him a snack and got him back to bed.]

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Giggle, giggle. I feel better already. Hope you all have a lovely Friday!

Happy birthday, my love!

Today we are celebrating my dear husband, Matt. Today he turns 36 and though he has to teach from 11 - 5 we still hope to make it a special day for him.

Of course, the ONLY way I know how to celebrate involves food. Is there any other way?

• Donuts for breakfast (Matt's fave which I never allow because I'm a pseudo-health-food nazi)
• Brown bag lunch with a payday candy bar tucked inside (Again, Matt's fave that I don't usually buy)
• Marco's pizza for dinner, veggies, applesauce and apple pie for birthday dessert
  

I LOVE cooking for my hubby and making him feel special so I asked him last week for his birthday dinner request. I was hoping he'd pick something rather easy since Thursdays he gets home near 6 and as such I have no kid-assistance during dinner prep. To my delight, and I hope not to diss my cooking, he requested take-out pizza! YAY for me! I made a frozen apple pie filling this past weekend with our excess apples (instructions here) so the pie shouldn't be too labor-intensive either.

We made cards and have a fun bag of gifts to give to Dr. Daddy in the morning. I'm hopeful that we can watch a movie together after we get the kids to bed. We'll see how much energy we both have by that time of the day! Usually we do our computer work, school work and housework like mad fools until we collapse.

I brag on my husband a lot and for good reason. He is a committed husband, the most loving and fun daddy I've ever seen, and my heart's counterpart. He's a superb listener (believe me, it takes serious skill to listen to my ramblings), a deep thinker, and a creative tinkerer. I love all the facets that make him up. He's my sweetheart and my heart is full for him.

Happy birthday, dear Matt!

Horn Homeschool: Week 4

Continuing with the "A" themes, week 4 of our homeschooling venture (can we really be through four weeks already?!?) was all about ART.

And man, was it fun!

I've decided to nix my weekly practice of listing our homeschooling activities because 1) I realize none of you really care to read all the details, 2) I do NOT want to give my inner-braggart voice by tauting all that we're doing. And believe me, my inner-braggart has a LOUD voice! and 3) It takes a LONG time to post all the nitty-gritty details. That's time that I would rather spend baking granola or taking a shower.

Instead I'll offer up a weekly highlight post showcasing our fave activities and resources.

So without further adieu let me tell you about some stellar kid art resources. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend these resources for teaching art to youngsters.


Art Resources

• Katie series by James Mayhew. I'm evolving more and more into a Charlotte Mason follower. As such I find that using books to teach unfamiliar subjects works very well for little minds. My kids swallow up new information if it's presented well in picture book form. Such is the case with the Katie books. We read both Katie Meets the Impressionists and Katie and the Mona Lisa this week. Both Chloe and Clive were hooked on these and asked for them again and again! These books don't cram facts about art down your throat. The books more gently present art work and subjects of art in a relate-able way. And they're fun reads to boot!
• Classical Baby: The Art Show dvd by HBO. This dvd was incredible. It was entertaining, enriching, and educational (like my spontaneous "e" alliteration?) on many levels. The gist of the flick is this -- a cartoon baby conducts appropriate classical music with animated paintings. So the watcher is making visual AND auditory connections. For example, an action painting by Jackson Pollock is paired with The Flight of the Bumblebee music. Paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Cassatt, Pollock, Mondrian, and others are featured as well as various famous sculptures. The kids asked to watch this EVERY DAY last week. And I let them because they got SO much good stuff into their brains. How many 2.6 year olds do you know can identify Monet's Waterlilies or Rodan's The Thinker? My Clive can thanks to classical baby.
• The Usbourne Art Treasury. I'm learning that Usbourne=Awesome. This book is no exception. The book introduces not only famous paintings but also explains in kidspeak identifying techniques of various artists. AND the goes one step further. After each two page spread of explanation and visuals, a simple project is given to imitate the artist's technique. We only did the Van Gogh project but there were many others that looked promising.
• How Artists See series by Colleen Carroll. We read the How Artists See People book in this captivating series but there are a plethora of other titles. The book clearly compared and contrasted various paintings of children, men and women by posing simple questions to lead in observational discovery. I was genuinely surprised at the kids' attention span for this simple book. They easily made it through the entire thing (Clive not so much as Chloe) and eagerly answered the questions.
• A Book About Color: A Clear and Simple Guide for Young Artists by Mark Gonyea. Excellent book. I stumbled upon this beauty in the non-fiction stacks and it's cover tempted me to pick it up. I'm so glad I did! A simple and eye-catching read, this block-image book teaches lots of color principles using easy images and familiar references. Through this book, Chloe easily picked up several color concepts and vocabulary words (i.e. primary and secondary colors, complementary colors, saturation, and color wheel).
  

Week 4 Highlights

Outdoor painting with cardboard palettes









































Action painting (aka Jackson Pollock style)





































Painting with thick paint ala Van Gogh





















Field trip to the Cleveland Art Museum (this place ROCKS! And admission is FREE. We truly are fortunate to live near such a high-class joint. It houses several Van Goghs, Monet's classic Water Lilies, a miniature demo version of The Thinker, and a Jackson Pollock. Not to mention works by El Greco, Renoir, Mondrian, Degas, Picasso and many others. Did you know you aren't allowed to take even non-flash photos at the museum? Found that out the hard way.)





















Sculpting with clay (Spent two afternoons working with oven-bakeable clay. Chloe made several little things the first day and then the second day she crafted a crown [pictured below] and the letters of her name. I made Bob the Builder. Sculpting sure is harder than it looks!)

My present sufferings

Last night was beyond rough for me. Solomon woke up twice to eat. Prior to that, Chloe also woke up needing consolation from a nightmare (her nightmare subjects are worthy fodder for a separate post). Mere verbal comforting didn't suffice so I crawled into bed with my scared Chloe and tried to sleep.

As you can imagine, sleeping with a wiggly cuddly 5 year old in a full size bed does NOT make for good quality slumber.

Due to my severe sleep deprivation, I assumed Solly and I would skip church this morning. He promptly woke up again at 8:30 this morning jolting me abruptly from my hazy consciousness. When I realized he would be awake for the bulk of the morning, I hastened to get us ready to go. Heck, if he was going to be awake at home, why not be awake at church where a loving capable nursery worker could care for him? Where else could I get a much-needed break if even just for an hour?

I'm inexpressibly glad I went. God had a word to speak to my weary soul. As Pastor Begg talked of suffering and glory from Romans 8, my tears trickled. I've never thought my life contained suffering of any kind. I'm healthy, free, have my needs met, and have never been persecuted for my faith. Most Americans would say the same. We have it pretty stinkin' good.

But as I sat there in the pew sniffling I realized I have been suffering these past months. Suffering from sleep deprivation. Before you turn away and regard this post as incidental, consider. Sleep deprivation is a seriously difficult ordeal. Intermittent sleep taxes me not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it's hard. I know these days will pass, I know this baby stuff is full of phases, but it's still hard. It feels like suffering to me.

When I think that the purpose of this suffering is to show by contrast the beauty and lightness of the promise of heaven, then my present sufferings are a bit more bearable. And I know that Jesus is here with me in the muck and mire of everyday sleep-deprived life. It stinks and He knows it. He knows, He cares and He hears when all I can do is cry, "Help!".

I'm not trying to be over-dramatic for the sake of hyperbole here. I hope I never forget the deep and real hardness of these days. I hope I always have empathy for new sleep-deprived moms. I hope I don't ever trivialize the difficulties of the first year of babyhood with trite sayings and passing judgments.

And more importantly, in or out of sufferings I hope the God of heaven will always be my comfort.

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Romans 8:18, 23-25

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. . . . And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Lazy Saturday

Now that Matt is slaving away back in the college classroom, weekends have become our family's much-needed and anticipated together time. It is breaking Matt's heart to be away from us so much! It's especially difficult to deal since some evenings he gets home only an hour before the kids' bedtime.

I'm not whining, I realize this is normal life. But that doesn't mean I have to like it!

Today we've all been puttering around the house together working on various projects at a leisurely pace. And though I never experienced a full break from kid-dom, it felt refreshing and therapeutic to slow down a little. I even tinkered a bit with my sewing machine (I've missed you old friend!).

How'd you spend your Saturday?

Clive time

Today a dear friend of mine took Chloe home for an afternoon playdate (thank you, dear friend!).

Imagining the extra time I would have this afternoon with one less child to manage, I immediately envisioned myself doing something productive around the house. Maybe I could finally scrub the bathtub, dust away the inch-thick layers of sediment settling in our living room, or begin working on Chloe's halloween costume. Ah, the lovely fantasies and unrealistic expectations of my dreaming mind . . .

What DID end up happening was that I got to spend some super good quality time with Clive. Since he's the middle child, I don't get much alone time with him. He's a crazy fun and unbelievably adorable kiddo. I love him to pieces. But thinking of a special activity for JUST him and me gave me pause. I didn't really want to dig in the sandbox or play cars in the dirt. But I did want him to feel like the center of attention since he's always living in his older sis' shadow.

Clive got pretty sad when his big sis left so I distracted him with smoothie making. He sat on the counter and dumped frozen strawberries and yogurt into the blender eagerly. We ate our lunch on the porch so we could watch for the garbage truck. (Exciting lives we lead, eh?) After some pretend fixing of the porch railing with his tools, we made peanut butter cookies together.

Making cookies with an active 2.6 year old is certainly an interesting experience. He wanted to do EVERYTHING himself. If I wouldn't have been on my toes, we would have ended up with some extremely unique tasting peanut butter cookies (I barely saved the dough from an extra cup of sugar Clive wanted to add). Once we got the ingredients correctly measured and mixed up, Clive's job was to roll the cookie-dough balls into the sugar. And then he took it upon himself to throw the dough onto the baking sheet. Sheesh. Can't blame him though, I DID call them "balls". And my boy knows what do to with a ball!

We had loads of fun and even though no household appliances were scrubbed this afternoon, I made a lasting memory with my dear middle boy.

How do you make your second child feel special?

Horn Homeschool: Week 3

We had LOADS of fun studying airplanes last week. Especially fun because we took two field trips to see planes up close and personal. This week was enriching for me personally because I know virtually nothing about airplanes. It's gonna be hard to top airplane week!

Here's what we did:

Monday, September 6
* Reviewed long-a and "all" sounds by reading simple readers together (I read 1/2 and Chloe read 1/2)
* Handwriting page
* Annos math games
* Read two chapters in Dr. Doolittle

Tuesday, September 7
* Read several airplane books, identified parts of plane
* Made airplane models from balsa wood and popsicle sticks
* Read two biographies of the Wright brothers and also the book So you want to be an inventor?
* Airplane lunch and airplane spoons. Consisted of string cheese wrapped in salami for plane body, pepper strips for wings, carrot for tail. I taped "wings" on the kids' spoons so they could fly their yogurt into their mouths.
* Handwriting page
* Math workbook page
* Annos math games
* Taught "air" words, wrote on the blackboard and Chloe made a guessing game for me using "air" words
* Matched rhyming words from two columns on the blackboard using long-a and "all" words
* Watched "There Goes a Plane" dvd
* Finished reading Dr. Doolittle
* Sang and listened to "I'll Fly Away"

Wednesday, September 8
* Reviewed "air" words
* Reviewed vocabulary words: biography, inventor
* FIELD TRIP: Military Air Preservation Society Museum. I impulsively threw the kids in the van for this impromptu field trip. It was perfect for our little crew! This small museum was a gem! Run by retired volunteers, the place was nearly deserted and all the older gents got quite a kick out of my active kiddos. We even got a personal tour guide who patiently answered my very dumb questions. :) It was a fairly hands-on museum -- the kids especially enjoyed playing in the gondola (passenger part of a blimp) and manning the anti-aircraft gun.
* Taught "air" combination words (i.e. airplane, staircase, hairball)
* Constructed rubber band airplanes and flew them outside (These cheap little wind-up propeller plane kits were great! Chloe got LOTS of practice counting to 100 as she wound up her plane's propeller.)

Thursday, September 9
Took the day off to pick apples with friends

Friday, September 10
* Read blimp, helicopter, and hot air balloon books -- compared and contrasted these with airplanes
* Suitcase number activity. Since one of the kindergarten objectives is for students to know their number words, I labeled 10 suitcases/bags with the number words from 1-10. Then Chloe and Clive (mostly Chloe) filled the suitcases with the correct number of items. They also put the bags in numerical order. Lots of addition and subtraction was involved in this simple activity, not just counting. Often Chloe would lose track of what she had already placed in a suitcase so she'd recount and I'd ask her a few questions to help her figure out how many more or fewer things she needed to match the number label.
* Airplane/airport game. Chloe and I worked all afternoon setting up an airport. We made tickets, boarding passes, luggage tags, set up a metal detector, ticket counter and created seat assignments. I can not even begin to tell you how much learning went on during this fun activity! Chloe typed our address and phone number for the luggage tags (practice reciting information), she wrote and cut out the tickets (handwriting, spelling, writing monetary values), wrote names on each luggage tag (reviewed spelling family names, wrote proper titles such as Dr. and Mrs.), grouped and organized luggage tags, creatively used household items to construct a (non-working) metal detector. After dinner we led Matt & Clive through the airport process and ended by showing an in-flight movie on the "plane" complete with snacks.
* 9/11 history. In the process of setting up the metal detector, Chloe asked me why such devices are needed. It was the perfect opportunity for me to tell Chloe a little about 9/11.

Saturday, September 11
* Kent State Aviation Heritage Air Show

Soul Music

Like most folks, I have particular musical tastes. Of course I'm keen on a variety of artists from differing genres dependent on my mood, inspiration and activity. But when it comes to soul-stirring truth-speaking music, I have a few all-time faves that I keep coming back to. These artists continually resonate with and encourage me in my daily walk.

For me, the artists below have perfectly struck that hard-to-find balance of poetry and music.

Sons of Korah :: This Australian group is led by a theology prof who sets psalms to music. The kicker for me, besides the sincere vocals and meditative music, is that they don't change the words of the psalms (except marginally). Keeping the text pure makes their sound rich and deep.

Shaun Groves :: In my opinion this guy is seriously gifted in poetry. Seriously. His song Last Notes is a simple but incredibly encouraging look at death.

Keith & Kristyn Getty :: This husband and wife team write modern yet theologically rich and alive hymns. Love 'em. Especially Kristyn's prayerful ballad Still.

Sovereign Grace Music :: There are simply loads of songs I dig by these artists! While their poetry/creativity is not always earth-shattering in its presentation, in my mind they've produced some moving and inspiring music. My favorites are the kids' album, Awesome God, and Valley of Vision inspired by the Puritan prayer book of the same name.

I'm always on the hunt for some new favorites! Who are your go-to artists for inspiration, encouragement and spiritual resonance?

Fall = Cinnamon

This weekend we had a few surprisingly chilly days which reminded me of the impending arrival of fall. Not yet, please!

Something about the cooler temperatures triggered the fall baker woman in me. Without realizing it, I baked FOUR TIMES this past weekend. Once a day I baked up something yummy containing cinnamon -- the delectable spice of fall.

The smell of spicy cinnamon hanging in the air is almost motivation enough for baking. I'm also hopeful that baking more for my family will mean that we'll consume fewer processed foods overall. And that's a VERY good and needful change for our family snacking habits.

Here's what I cooked up:

Friday: Dutch Crumb Apple Pie (This is Matt's all-time favorite dessert. Baked this to celebrate our collective survival of his first week back to teaching.)

Saturday: Zucchini Nut Cookies (Had 1 cup of shredded zucchini lying around so I tried this recipe from allrecipes.com. These were DELICIOUS and promptly consumed by my cookie loving tribe. No one could tell there were green vegetables hidden inside. After I revealed the secret veggie ingredient Chloe proclaimed, "Mommy, it is against the law to put vegetables in cookies!" I'm willing to break the law to make these yummies again.)

Sunday: Morning Glory Muffins (In an effort to have easily accessible breakfast sides, I baked up these healthful muffins. Again, Chloe rebuked me for these muffins contain vegetables -- carrots this time rather than zucchini. They are moist, tasty and full of lovely fall spices!)

Monday: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips (Cookie jar was suddenly empty since the disappearance of the zucchini nut cookies mentioned above. The 1/2 bag of peanut butter chips inspired a batch of oatmeal cookie goodness.)

What are you baking these days?

To-do list

Besides homeschooling and the regular meal responsibilities of the week, I'm looking forward to a few extra fun items on this week's agenda:

* Introducing Solomon to solid foods

* Apple picking with friends

* Local air show

* Making Solomon's first Green Bay Packer t-shirt

What's your week look like?

Horn Homeschool: Week 2

Have we truly completed two full weeks of homeschooling already?!?!? I'm perplexed, amazed and thankful to God for His grace in this kindergarten venture. Looking back at the busy week, I'm agog, simply agog at how much we were able to get done. It helps that Chloe is an absorbent little sponge and a quick study!

Our week 2 theme was "All About Me". Since it's standard for kindergarteners to learn all their basic personal info, it was a natural fit along with our letter A activities. It worked beautifully with our phonics lessons too. This week we tackled the "ah" sounds (i.e. "all", "aw", and "au" words).

Here's the day-to-day breakdown of our week's activities:

Monday, August 30
* Reviewed long A sounds
* Read "You are Special" by Max Lucado
* Made t-shirts out of construction paper representing Chloe & Clive. Chloe had to cut hers out and color/draw her favorite foods, activities and likes on the t-shirt.
* Learned Psalm 139:14 and drew it on a poster
* Learned and sang "God Made Me" together
* Talked about how God made us and our bodies
* Traced C & C's bodies on paper bags. Colored and wrote names on each paper body outline
* Handwriting page (from A Reason for Handwriting Level K)
* Read James Herriot's "Only One Woof"
* Drew pictures of our favorite scenes from "Only One Woof"
* Watched Veggie Tales "God Made You Special"
* Reviewed "all" ending words

Tuesday, August 31
* Began All About Me booklet -- made cover and did three pages (linked here)
* Made "A" shaped pretzels from bread dough
* Reviewed "all" ending words
* Constructed a poem about Clive using interchangeable "all" ending words (this got pretty silly!)
* Reviewed Psalm 139:14
* Sang "God Made Me" and "All Creatures of our God and King"
* Talked about how God made each person different and unique with special talents/abilities
* Read part of Peter Spier's book People (FANTASTIC book! Perfect lesson extension human differences throughout the world and chocked FULL of illustrations and information.)
* Rhyming game using a ball (On the porch Chloe and I bounced a big ball back and forth. For each bounce we had to say a word that rhymed with "ball")
* Read "I Can Draw" and "I Can Read" (To emphasize the abilities God has given Chloe to develop)
* Handwriting page
* Math workbook page

Wednesday, September 1
* Labeled body parts on body outlines and introduced new body vocab to Chloe (i.e. shin, calf, waist, shoulder blade, collar bone, wrist)
* Simon says game using body part vocab
* Completed three more All About Me pages and bound the booklet with ribbons
* Read all of Peter Spier's People (This took us about 45 minutes, believe it or not! It is a good sized book but also very involved. After reading each caption, I had to do some further explaining to nail the concepts for Chloe.)
* Introduced "aw" sounding words on the blackboard
* Handwriting page
* Math workbook page
* Read James Herriot's "The Christmas Day Kitten"
* Drew favorite scenes from "The Christmas Day Kitten"

Thursday, September 2
* Reviewed "aw" words and introduced "au" words
* Read "The Oak Inside the Acorn" by Max Lucado (Beautiful book! Warning though, it may invoke some mommy tears when you get to the end. )
* Sang "All Creatures of our God and King" and "God Made Me"
* Reviewed Psalm 139:14
* Read "Just Me" poem from I Can Make a Difference by Marian Wright Edelman (This book was not as good as I hoped but the poem was just right for our level.)
* Annos Math Games, Chapter 1 (Somehow Chloe got it into her skull that she doesn't like math. NOT allowed in this household! I'm hoping to throw in more manipulatives and math literature so it doesn't become too boring. Annos Math Games has been terrific so far! Chloe asks for more and though an adult can easily see the math applications it feels more like a picture book than actual "math".)
* Handwriting page
* Chloe read the reader "I Can Draw"
* Chloe typed sentences (This is Chloe's newest hobby. Matt has been giving her typing lessons and Chloe enjoys typing "stories". It's usually just 3-4 sentences but it's good spelling practice for her since she already knows that red squiggly underlining means something is wrong.)

Friday, September 3
(Didn't do much in the morning since everyone was feeling sick and I was feeling tired from caring for sickies.)
* Reviewed "aw" and "au" words
* Played silly sentence game (I made three columns on the board for crafting simple sentences -- articles, subjects, verbs. Most of the subject and verb words came from our "all", "aw", "au" words from the week. Chloe and I took turns seeing who could make the silliest sentence using the word from the board.)
* Annos Math Games, part of chapter 2
* Chloe wrote thank you cards (Maybe we'll get these all finished before her next birthday!)
* Began Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (Since we are almost done with our current read-aloud, Dr. Doolittle, Chloe asked that we try Ramona the Brave next. After half of one chapter I knew Chloe was NOT ready for Ramona Quimby. Charlotte's Web is a much better fit.)

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Ready for week 3 -- Airplanes!

Empty

I've been purposely silent on the blogosphere and Facebook this week. This week Matt has gone back to teaching so I've been on my own for kid care, meals and homeschooling. It's been a mad blur. And it's left me empty.

In the midst of the chaos late yesterday afternoon, God gave me a moment of clarity and rest. Believe me, it was less than quiet at the time. Picture it: There I was, holding a screaming baby on my hip while trying frantically to make a bottle, pacifying a 2 year old pulling my legs and asking for a snack and monitoring the pots I had simmering on the stove. Certainly not the tranquil verdant setting for a moment of insight to alight.

Nonetheless, the simple truth hit me again in the face. I'm not doing the work here. I can't possibly be because I'm utterly drained. It's like I'm in slow motion and I'm watching as God's strength flows and works. I'm completely empty. Of strength, of patience, of wisdom, and even of love.

And when I'm totally flattened like that, it's a good feeling. It's not without pain to see the reality of who I am -- a helpless gasping soul who needs to be rescued and buoyed. I need. Desperately. But to be needy is not something to be ashamed of.

When I see how much I need and I glimpse my silly pettiness, God reminds me of that I'm part of something much bigger. That as I blunder and flounder He is working out a grand scheme for humanity. He's in the business of rescuing thousands of souls who are feeling just as lost, tired and needy as I. He's making a kingdom. And I'm a part of that. And someday with the family of God's kingdom I'll sing His praise and leave these cares behind me forever. Ahh.

The extra bonus wonderful part is that I'm in the process of bringing these dear little ones along into the kingdom. That in the changing of poopy diapers, cleaning up messes, and wiping snotty noses I'm serving my children in order to show them what Jesus' love really looks like.

Let Your kingdom come, Lord!

This song says it much better (click "Kingdom Coming" to play).

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"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." [Matthew 6:33-34]

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." [2 Corinthians 12:9-10]