The Youngin's

 Jack built a race car out of stools...I was actually impressed that it really looked sorta like a race car....

 Chloe sounding out words with her phonics flip book I made her...

 The girls helping me prep food for the freezer.....

 Chloe has the biggest smile!

Prison Break!

We have been cooped up all winter with only  few days that we were able to venture out of the house into the outdoors.  Everyone is stir crazy and even though it was a little windy, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to go to the park.  The kids had a blast and acted as if they had never seen the out of doors.  Tyler thought he was big man now that he can slide by himself down the slide.

Hit the Deck and Other Goings On...

This time of year is always my slumpy time.  Where the seasonal changes and the time change mess with me. I long for days when we can escape the house, when sickness isn't upon someone.  I put alot of stock in seasonal depression, as I am certain I am a victim of it.

So, school has been laid back...not alot of book work, some reading aloud of good books, but the basics are integrated into games as everyone is stir crazy.  It is amazing how much math  fun can be found in a deck of playing cards!  The game above is called Spiral.  It was loads of fun and the skills are easily adaptable to the varying levels of math skills we have here.  Here's the link to the instructions for this game....

We also use our Uno cards or more than UNO.  I made a list of the skills each child is working on, for instance. .. Lillie is multiplying working on fractions and place value-ing....Jack is adding and place valueing...Chloe is greater than / less than-ing and adding.  So each child draws 2 number cards (you need to remove the actioncards (or the face cards if using a regular deck).  So, say Lillie draws a 2 and a 4.  I would pick a task from her list, say multiply the two numbers or draw me a fraction or arrange the numbers to make the LARGEST number.  Say Jack draws a 4 and a 3.  Then I would pick add the two numbers or make the largest number etc...you probably get the picture.

Yesterday Chloe and I played a game where we removed the face cards, drew two cards and piece, added them and the one who had the biggest number won.  She beat me...alot...lucky dog.  It was simple but fun for her.  

Here's a link to two other card games I've played with Lillie and Jack.

Check out Education.com for more great games!

We also play UNO as God intended and Yahtzee which are both great for reinforcing math skills.  I love playing games.  I recommend the Family Math books, the older one and the newer ones.  Also , anything Peggy Kaye has authored...Games for Math, Games for Writing, games for Reading etc...

 Okay, here's randomness...

Jack and Tyler built a duct tape obstacle course for their cars complete with ramps and dinosaurs.

 The weather is crazy these days, seems like it can't make up it's mind.  I printed these neat weather stations for the kids.  They complete it in the morning and update it as the weather changes...they even play "Weather Channel." LOL...nerds.  Check out Mr. Printable's site...he's my hero!

 These are some cloud finder wheels from Scholastic...they not only id the clouds but tell you what each cloud means weather wise.  This is great because it encourages the kids to work independently.

 I was saving this nice wood plaque to woodburn a nice sign but Lillie beat me to it.  Guess she felt no one was recognizing her greatness and made herself an award. LOL...Yeah, her spelling stinks..but it says "is a great piano player, Lillie Anna Davis."  She's so humble.....

 Jack's math from this morning.  I found these great skill cards at Kroger's of all places and they were dirt cheap, so I pick 5 a day and we work through them.

Sinus's have gotten me down today, the weather hopefully will iron itself out.  Remember how blessed you are!

Life Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Wonderful....

These words were penned by my grandmother on the top of a page in her bible.  She has gone over ahead of me, but what she has left behind her still lives.  The other day , I read a quote that stuck with me.  

"Love is stronger than death, even though it can't stop death from happening,

but no matter how hard death tries , it can't separate people from love.

It can't take away our memories either, so that, in the end

Life is stronger than death."

Though death sometimes seems to have the upper hand, our memories of a person's life remain, long after the earthly tabernacle has gone.

And so this is where I find myself, where I have been for the last couple of weeks ... exploring the deepest recesses of my memories, pulling out everything I can find.  I guess that's why I like pictures so much...any pictures, because it's a tangible memory.  I can hold it and look at it and...remember.

So this post is going to seem random and I am throwing proper grammar and punctuation and composition to the wind and will commence to my ramblings, because I want this stuff out of my head where things tend to get forgotten and out here where nothing is forgotten.

I was in the gas station during the last snow we had.  I needed bread.  The only loaf of bread on the shelf was Roman Meal Wheat Bread...grandmother NEVER bought any other kind of bread.  She was definitely committed to brands on some things...just some things her and pop liked that she never compromised on.  Fig Newtons, Roman Meal Bread, Vienna Sausages, Deviled Ham, Cracker Barrel Cheese (this was the MOST important as it was the key to her famous Macaroni and Cheese) and Sam's Cola.

I remember the way their garage smelled when they lived in Georgia.  I remember the scratchy carpet in their house, brown shag, no doubt the latest fashion back whenever shag was the IN thing.

I remember her tea parties...which consisted of no tea whatsoever...just Fig Newtons and Cokes or Lemonade.  Everyday...like clockwork when we were there visiting, if we werent running all over creation.  See, we only saw them regularly 2-3 times a year, so when they had us they , especially Pop, tried to cram every bit of fun and activity they could, to show us a good time, and probably to make up for lost time.

I remember that she was a scheduled person.  Her and Pop were masters of the routine.  They had the same routine every day that something wasn't going on.  I remember waking up to the smell of coffee in the morning and roaming around and finding no one in the main part of the house...but the bedroom door was closed for about an hour.  When I was an adult, she revealed to me the secret goings on of those mornings when the house seemed empty.  She was having her devotion time.  She subscribed to Our Daily Bread Devotionals and gave me my first subscription to it.  Her Bible is proof of her love for Christ.  Filled with her thoughts from cover to cover.

I remember Jody and I took a trip down there when we were first married and her and I sat up late one nite, just going through her recipes.  I will admit that these are my fondest memories.  She taught me alot about cooking and taught me to set a table.  I also remember when I actually taught her something!  I taught her an easy way to make chicken and dumplings that Jody's Mom Pam had taught me.  She loved them and raved about them, and it felt good to have her compliment me on something...she was an awesome cook, loved it with a passion.  I spent that nite copying some of her signature recipes, things she was known for....Brown Rice that she always served with Roast and Gravy, Beef Salad (which is so good), Macaroni Pie, Poundcake (that was my dad's birthday cake on many occasions), Brocoli Cornbread,  and Chocolate Chip Deelite.  

Ask anyone in the family and they'll tell you she made the best spaghetti sauce...but she never would tell you the whole recipe...I have currently made 2 batches of sauce using what I know and still haven't figured it out!  Maybe you just had to be her...yes, that's the missing ingredient.  

We wrote letters to each other, our preferred communication. She loved writing notes, loved pretty stationary and always ended every note to me in this fashion...

"Grandmother is praying for you!!!  I love you."

I remember the day I called her to tell her I had given my life to Jesus.  She cried and I remember her yelling back to Pop and he said "Well, that's just good."   And I remember her saying that God had answered her prayer.  That she had prayed for me for so long.  And to be honest, I think that is the thing I will miss the most about her not being here anymore...that she won't be praying for me.  And, though I know heaven has gained something special, I can't help but wish I could hear her on the phone again saying "Remember Della, Grandmother Loves You."  

Torn

I love little unexpected surprises, well, unless the surprise deals with a diaper or a trip to the ER...I don't really like THOSE surprises.  While perusing through the book of Joel, I was surprised by a verse that stood out to me.  Now, I've read the small book of Joel before, probably haphazardly and half-heartily, which is why I never saw this passage before....

"Therefor also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting , and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful , slow to anger and of great kindness."
                                                                                                         Joel 2:12-13

Rend....your...heart.  What a beautiful thought!  Why rend my heart?  What does it mean to me to rend my heart, how does one do that?

Matthew Henry in his commentary on Joel says this...
"There must be outward expressions of sorrow and shame , fasting , weeping, mourning; tears for the sin that procured it."

This is true.  When we sin, we ought to show that outwardly, but we fail to consider the inward working of repentance, which must come first.
1 Samuel 16:7 tells us that man looks on the outside, but God sees the inside.  We can be so concerned with our outsides can't we?  We dress them up, we take care of them...why?  Because that's what man sees and for alot of people what man thinks is important.  All the while our inward spiritual man is begging for our care and attention.  If someone calls and says they're 30 minutes from my house and they're coming for a visit...do you suppose I will start deep cleaning the nooks and crannies?  Worry about the bedrooms?  Nope...I'm gonna worry with what they see when they come in the front door.  I'm gonna be yelling at everybody to PICK UP!  I'm gonna throw stuff in rooms with doors and lock them.  And forbid someone want to look into those rooms.  But God doesn't stay in your living room...he lives in your heart and he can see the insides, no matter how good the outside looks.
All things spiritual must begin with a right motive and an inward working to have any real fruit.  Nature tells us the outside is temporal...this body decays.  But it's what is on the deepest inside...the soul...that goes on forever...that goes back to the one who gave it in the first place.
No one likes repentance, really.  If you'll be honest, you don't like to be told you are wrong, don't like to feel you are wrong, don't like to admit you are wrong, and certainly don't really like to apologize when you are wrong.  That's human nature and we're all stuck with that.  My husband says I never say I'm sorry...and when that irritates me, my response is "I'll say I'm sorry when I am."  And sadly that's the attitude we take with God whether we realize it or not.  Oh, we may not say it, but our actions speak volumes louder.
What God is saying here in this passage is that we ought to have an outward show of repentance, but before any of the outward means a hill of beans to HIM, we must begin to repent inwardly.
Henry goes on to say," When we are greatly grieved in soul for sin, so that it even cuts us to the heart to think how we have dishonored God and disparaged ourselves by it, and earnestly desire to get clear of it and never return to the practice of it, then we rend our hearts and then will God rend the heavens and come down to us in mercy."

All our outward actions mean nothing if we don't turn to God.  I learn alot from my kids.  When they say they are sorry, I know it's because they got caught...if I hadn't called them on it, I never would have known about it, probably unless one of them got to feeling a little guilty.  20 seconds later they'll do the same thing and then say I'm sorry again...rinse and repeat.
This is what my concept of repentance towards God is most of the time.  Lucky for me, God has more patience with me than I do my kids. :)
when we rend our hearts, first and foremost, when we truly repent and AGREE with God that we were wrong, we are made better.  We're more likely to turn away when that sin or temptation presents itself to us again.

Psalms 55:17 reads, "For thou (GOD) desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise."  
This is what God expects from his children.  Samuel told King Saul that obedience was better than sacrifice.  In the new testament, believers are told to offer their bodies a LIVING sacrifice unto God.  All of these start on the inside and work their way out.
That's just what was on my mind the last couple of days, just had to get it out there if for no one else but myself.
I'll leave with Psalms 34:18 "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit."

Have a blessed day!

Hiatus Over

Good grief, it's been a long time and so much has happened since my last post and I really don't want to type it all out.  To say that the last year has been trying would be THE understatement of the century.  Ups and downs and lots of in between.  So the best way I feel for me to start blogging again is just to pick up like I never left off.
I feel like I've been head above water here, purely in survival mode when it comes to just about everything.  And that's mostly my own doing.  I know, I know, I can't control circumstances sometimes, but I do have complete control over how I handle my circumstances and I just haven't handled them as well as I could have been.
Ever feel like you're constantly walking uphill with no destination in sight?  Yeah, that's kinda how it feels.  But I am not utterly cast down...my desire is to not stay down in my circumstances but to triumph over them.  I don't want to say at the end of a trial that I merely survived, that I "endured" it...I want to say that I was made better by it, that God refined me a bit through it, that I learned the lesson I believe every circumstance poses for us.
Enough deep stuff, my head hurts...really learned alot as far as homeschooling goes.  Learned not to stress so much, and I'm seeing fruits of my labor which helps a great deal.  I have three in "school", though I feel more and more everyday that I don't like to use that word.
Lillie is reading like crazy which is a wonderful relief.  Her cursive writing is very nice considering she just started about 6 months ago.  We use italic cursive, Getty-Dubay specifically, for it's ease in transitioning from print to cursive.  However, she does her copywork in cursive daily, she still prefers to write in print, which is fine by me as long as I know she knows how to write in cursive.  I never write in cursive, EVER.  Haven't since they stopped making me in school.  She loves to make up stories, but is a reluctant creative writer.  So, I let her use print when she writes independently and that seems to help.  I also checked out a wonderful book by Peggy Kaye called Games for Writing.  Anything Peggy Kaye writes, I love.  And my kids love games and that avenue really drives alot of things home with them.  Whatever works, right?

We played a game the other day called Silly Sentences and the girls had a blast with it.  So , I think that before I expect Lillie to just start pumping out amazing literature, maybe I ought to EASE her into it?  These games really are doing the trick, wetting her whistle so to speak to express herself through writing more.
Jack started the Math-It program.  Lillie is halfway through it and learning so fast.  Which is great.  Jack is stealthy at math, Lillie prefers history and reading and drawing, but the Math It has helped her so much to memorize her math facts.  I can't recommend it enough.
Chloe is learning to read and write her numbers to 100 and she has been doing Hundred Chart puzzles.  Just print out a hundred chart, cut it up into pieces and let them assemble away.  She loves it and it makes math , which can be intimidating to her, fun.  That's important, let me tell you.

Lillie doing a word search using her spelling words.  I use plastic page protectors to  reuse worksheets and things using dry erase markers instead of pencils.  Saves paper....
Wrapping up, just a few pictures from lately....

Woodburning

Finished woodburning...

Boy can build anything with legos....

 

Ummmmm, Makeup gone Wrong

                                                       
Have a Blessed Day!