This Week at Home

In which,brevity wins.

On the Heart and Mind: 

There has been much on my mind this week, all thoroughly covered in earlier posts.  At this moment, I am physically struggling again with congestion.  I am wondering if it is an allergy problem.

On the Home Front:

Another quick paced week of putting out fires and trying to keep up.  All the basics were well tended to.


Learning and Life:  

Our lessons could not have gone better.  We finished The Land I Lost.  This was a big hit with the boys.  Sometimes we girls have got to endure books for them and they for us.

We started two books, which seem to have great potential, a biography on William Carey and Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin.  William Carey is the great missionary to India.  Daughter of the Mountains takes place in Tibet.  It describes the adventures of Momo, a little girl who wants a very special dog. 

Grace finished an excellent book that needs high praise, Pearl Maiden by Henry Haggard.  The major theme of this book is do not marry outside your faith.  You can read it for free via gutenberg.org.  The reading level is about 8th grade to adult.  Next she will be reading Lysbeth:  A Tale of the Dutch, also by Henry Haggard. 

For math this week we worked on other skills like Roman numerals, basic fact reviews and just a little long division to keep our wheels turning.  Hopefully next week we can revisit long division.  It seemed to go well. 

Our research papers were stalled a little.  They did research on their own, but not a lot is being written down yet.  Since I have planned 4 weeks to get this done, I think we are close to being on target.

In the Kitchen:  

Grace made smoothies twice this week.  I had forgotten how much I like them.  Her basic recipe is 1 cup of frozen fruit, 1 cup of yogurt, 1 cup of juice.  Her measurments are not precise.  Sometimes I think she uses less juice and more fruit.  The results are are always delightful. 

This week's menu:

Friday:  White Chicken Chili
Saturday:   Homemade Pizzas
Sunday:  Tacos
Monday:  Stir-fry
Tuesday:  Soup Night
Wednesday:  Breakfast Night
Thursday:  Roasted Chicken


On the Nook:  

I switch back and forth between reading from the Nook and listening to Eight Cousins via my computer.  I plan to finish the book soon and go onto A Rose in Bloom.  It amazes me that we have time to read for fun with all the reading we do for school, which is also fun!

Scripture Memory Work:
I put my verses on the side bar of my blog.  It is getting harder, adding more verses.


Quote of the Week:

I looked on childrearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully interesting and challenging as any honourable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.
-- Rose Kennedy

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I leave you with this picture, taken by my husband with his cellphone.  He went grocery shopping for me this week and bought me these beautiful flowers.  

Thank you, Darling!  

 Good bye to January!  

 

 

 

Cold Feet

Note: I wrote this post a few days ago as a way to sort out my thoughts. I almost deleted it. I thought it might be useful to someone to see that even dedicated homeschoolers struggle with their choices. However at this time, I do not think we will be sending our boy to school. There are too many helpful resources out there, not to give it a try.

How I see Ryan.

Just the thought of high school unnerves me.  How could we be almost there?  He is only 12!  (OK, he is turning 13 in 39 days, but I am hanging onto 12 for as long as I can.)

We've been tossing around ideas.  In my brave moments, I think we can do this at home.  In my fearful moments, I am searching for charter schools in the area or looking at online programs.  Even my husband is starting to feel my panic, which I really need to watch.  

I know there are many, many people who are doing a great job with high school at home.  I know this.  But in my mind, I can't quite get there yet.  He wants to go to college.  He needs high tech input.  (He is building his own operating system from scratch at the moment.  How do I guide such a mind?) 

In my sane moments, I calmly talk myself down from my ledge.  "We'll do Sonlight.  That will be a fantastic spine to our high school.  Then we will add computer classes from a community college.  See, that is not so bad. "  Then my fearful self says, "But who is going to keep track of all of this?  Who is going to put it into a transcript that makes sense to a COLLEGE? It's me, that's who!  You rational person will be in the clouds and I will be doing all the worrying! And I have two others at home who need me!"  I don't want to make any decisions out of fear.  I do know that  much.

This  reminds me of how fearful I was at the thought of not sending him to kindergarten, when we made the decision to home educate our children.  I guess that all has worked out nicely.  It's probably very similar, actually.

I need to wrestle this out in my mind for awhile and then move forward.  I need to be praying for wisdom and guidance.

"This is your child, LORD.  Tell us what you want us to do!"

No one ever tells you at your baby shower just how hard it is to let them grow up!

My Movie Making Debut

What will they think of to amuse and entertain us next?
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I hope you enjoy our little movie (yes it was a family collaboration) and consider making one of your own. Please,let me know if you do. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Is it Wrong?

Forgive me this rambling post.  Indulge me,if you will, as I sort out my thoughts.  I go back and forth on this issue.  Maybe it is this long, cold winter that is stirring my longings, I do not know.  Whatever "it" is, I find myself pondering a change, before it is too late.  

It has always been a dream of mine to live somewhere beautiful.  As an adult, I have always lived in suburbia sprall.  At times, it tires my eyes.  My heart's desire is to look out my window and see God's handiwork, not a trampoline and the neighbor's backyard.  Sometimes when I am at Lake Michigan or looking at a beautiful picture on a blog, I find myself caught up in this desire for beauty to surround me.  I start to wonder why cannot I also live in a beautiful part of this world, if I chose to do so.

Then I feel guilty.  Is this a wrong desire?  Is this being discontent?  I do know that I find myself feeling renewed and  restored in such places.  Sitting on the beach in the sun listening to the rush of the water thrills my soul.  Is it wrong to want to live closer? 

Here is where my desire gets wonky.  Reality is that I live in what I think is a very good place to raise my children as far as community goes.  We have a very good job, parks, friends, a church, family and other joys.  We are mostly safe. We are comfortable. We do live only 3 hours away from our lake and go often. 

I feel foolish.  And really, I do not spend a lot of time worrying or wanting a change. It is just there in the back of my mind.  "If I ever get the opportunity to move somewhere beautiful, I just may jump at the chance!"  (Most likely to discover that home was best of all. )


What do you think?  I'll tell you what I think.  The conflict lies in that this life is not my own.  This world is not my home.  Perhaps, if the LORD wills, one day I may live in a beautiful place or not.  My life's purpose is to glorify my Maker, not myself.  And I need to be content where I am, right now.  Easy to say.  Harder to change my heart.

Celebrating Life

It has not been my habit to celebrate non-major, mostly over commercialized, holidays.  Years in public school taught me to dread Valentine's Day's rejection and St. Patrick's Day pinches, not to mention April Fool's Day's pranks  Oh no, let us not go there! I am glad to have spared my children these horrors.


On the other hand, winter is long and I find myself actually craving a diversion this year that just might be afforded from such trivial holidays as the above mentioned.  I think this has to do more with a certain longing to go camping than anything else, now that I ponder further.  So, therefore, I declare that we are going to celebrate life this winter.

First, we are going to make Valentine's garlands, cards for one another, cookies in the shapes of hearts with sugar sprinkles.  We are going to purpose to share our love with others. 

I will no longer a winter holiday Scrooge.  I embrace the opportunity to amuse ourselves and spread a little of God's love to others. (And keep my sanity this long, long winter.) 

Beating the Yuckies

It happened again.  I am about at my wit's end, too.  We've never had such a hard winter with colds and the like.  My poor unsuspecting husband was the latest to succumb.  (Although, 3 of his co-workers exposed him early last week, so perhaps we should not be surprised.  You are only as well as your sickest co-worker, right?) 

He was fine until Friday evening on the way home from flock group.  I will not go into further details, but we did not sleep a wink all night.  We figured it was food poisoning.  Saturday, he said he felt  better, so we ran a few errands in the morning.  (We had to get the camper's license plate, you know!)  By afternoon he had a glazed over look and a fever over 100.

I was both relieved and more worried at the same time.  It probably wasn't food poisoning.  When the fever came, we knew it was a virus.  "A virus!!!  Oh no!!   Who is next?" my mind whirled.  So out came the Lysol, 10 percent bleach spray bottle and lots of washing.  And to bed he went. 

Now, I come to the point of this little post.  I am not a novice at homeopathic ways.  I have been taking apple cider vinegar and vitamin C to boost my immunity.  I am wondering what I am missing.  I bought some elderberry pills tonight.  I've heard they fight the flu and boost your immunity.

What are some of your best remedies to keep well? 

This Week at Home

In which, I find myself pondering how another week has flown by.

On the Heart and Mind:  

At this moment, all is peaceful in my world.  (The children are asleep.)  Let's see.  I am grateful for technology that allowed me to keep in contact this week with family as far away as Peurto Rico to Arkansas to California.  Just think how blessed we are in this age!  The people I love are always a click away. 

Oh but suddenly, the weather has taken a change for the worse!  Today we woke up to 0 degrees.  The windchill is -9.  We will be lucky to see 11 degrees.  I know that many others are a lot colder than Indiana today, but we are not used to this.  I am so thankful for a warm house.  We will not be going out to get groceries today as I planned.  We will make do for one more day.  (Melissa, I can hear you laughing at me!) 

Jeff's birthday was splendid, well, at least from my point of view.  He did have to go to work and it did take him two hours to get home last evening in the snow.  I made him a big hearty dinner, complete with cherry pie.  (No, I did not make it.  I did bake it though.)  The kids gave him some of their hard earned money too.  It was a sweet time.

On the Home Front: 

Well, this is where I am supposed to tell you how much cleaning and organizing I got done this week.  Perhaps you will allow me to tell you my excuses for this lack of progress?

I find that when we are really making good progress on our lessons, the house suffers.  I have one independent learner and two highly dependent learners.  They require my complete attention from 8:30 AM until 2PM.  (Now, I know some people are able to train their kids to teach themselves, but I have two learners who are just not ready for that.)

For me, school is a full day's effort!  My brain is drained by 2PM.  I enjoy this time with them, do not misunderstand.  However, like all working mothers, the best of me is spent and working on my house is difficult.  Thankfully, the basics get done, emergencies get tended, I provide tasty meals on schedule, and most of the time I would not be embarrassed to have someone drop in.  I am talking about deeper cleaning, not just surfaces.  I am talking about my dream cleaning schedule. 

Therefore, this is why I am taking today off from lessons.  Yesterday was our 100th day of school.  I want to take today to get the house in order, do some baking, and ponder how to make the last 80 days of school our best ever. I want to finish strong and I want a clean house!

Learning and Life:

For the last two weeks, my two dependent learners have been struggling with long division.  I have to walk them through every step, every time.  It's like I have to do their thinking for them!  Well,  this frustrates and confuses me.  I am not good at being patient, waiting for the lightbulb moment.  Like I said, my oldest is independent and has been teaching himself math for three years.  So, I think it is time to back off a little.  My plan is to go back and review some of the more basic skills and just do one division problem a day instead of a full worksheet.  What do you do when you hit a wall?  

Otherwise, learning is going so well.  Ryan and Grace have chosen their research paper topics, written their thesis statements and chosen their questions to answer.  They have also been reading about their topics on Wikipedia.  I wish I had Wikipedia as a student.

We started two new books, The Land I Lost by Huynh Quang Nhuong.  They love this book!  "More, more!"  they say.  True confession time, I don't like this book, but am reading it because it is an excellent book about life in Vietnam.  The book is filled with stories of how villagers must fight jungle animals to survive.  Still, they love it?

The second book is, The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford.  Because one of the main characters happens to be a Siamese cat, of which I am most fond, I like this book.  However, shame on the Hunter Family for entrusting their pets to such a careless man!  (Yes, I am indignant!)

In the Kitchen: 

Friday ~ Meatloaf
Saturday ~ Lasagna
Sunday ~ Roasted Chicken
Monday ~ Chicken Soft Tacos (from leftover chicken)
Tuesday ~ Stir Fry & Egg Rolls
Wednesday ~ Breakfast Night
Thursday ~ Soup & Bread Night

Today, I plan to bake some pumpkin bread to take to flock group.  I may also make some cookies to bring.  I want the kitchen warm and the house smelling good!

On the Nook: (or Computer, as it turns out)

Grace and I have been enjoying Eight Cousins by Lousia May Alcott via Librivox.org.  We listen as we work.  I will say that this is a most pleasurable book and I love getting the home basics done as I listen.  I cannot wait to listen to A Rose in Bloom , also by Miss Alcott, next. 

Scripture Memory Work:

I  added the second verse to the passage I am learning.  It is a simple verse so I am doing well.  It is harder when I have to put them together.

Psalm 77: 11-12 ESV
"I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.  I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds." 

Quote of the Week: 

"As sure as ever God puts his children in the furnace, he will be in the furnace with them."  

~Charles Spurgeon

Thanks for hanging in through this long-winded post!  

I wish you a very happy weekend,

Jenn