Tackle it Tuesday

BeforeAfter

On 5 Minutes for Mom they have a Tackle it Tuesday encouragement post each week. The idea is to pick a project that needs doing in your home and then to do it. On Tuesday, blog about the project when it is done. The project that I picked is to clean up the floor along my side of the bed. This area tends to catch all of the mess that has no real home or that is in process for some other project. I was able to get the area cleaned up and even dusted the furniture. Over the weekend we shampooed all of the carpets in the house.

Frito Pie

This recipe is so EASY! My family loves it.

Ingredients:
Chili (canned or homemade)
Fritos - Original or other (we like the chili cheese)
Shredded Cheese

In a 9 x 13 or larger pan - Cover the bottom with Fritos. Over the Fritos add your Chili - you want enough to fill the pan and then top with the cheddar. For a 9 x 13, I use about four 15 oz. cans of chili. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. We usually serve with a green salad.

Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie started Menu Plan Monday. I think this is a great idea, hopefully it will help me to keep planning menus. Having a menu plan helps with the budget as well as keeping the dinners on time. My husband works swing shift and so we have to get dinner by 12:00 or 12:30 pm., which can be a challenge as we are also homeschooling our three boys and have very busy mornings. Here is my menu for this week.


1. Frito Pie
2. Stuffed Chicken
3. Quick Chili Rice Casserole
4. Tuna Wedge
5. Beef Stroganoff

Around the blogosphere

The folks at Wittingshire always have beautiful photography from around the Pacific Northwest region and currently have a wonderful tribute to Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter - the post is dated Sept 5.

The Common Room family have a couple of funny posts about their new puppy - the probably Irish Wolfhound, Donovan here, here and an adorable picture here. That family is so much fun!

Athena in a Minivan has a great video that you must watch!

Free Admission Thursday

There are several museums in the Puget Sound area that offer free admission on the first Thursday of the month. I plan to visit some of them this school year. Let me know if you know of any others.


Museum of History and Industry in Seattle

Burke Museum at the University of Washington - Seattle

Washington State History Museum - Tacoma (free from 5pm-8pm)

Seattle Museum of Flight - Seattle (free from 5pm - 9pm)

Seattle Asian Art Museum - Seattle (free on First Saturday too)
(the Seattle Art Museum usually has the First Thursday free too, but they are currently closed for remodeling.

Wing Luke Asian Museum - Seattle

Burke Museum

Today we took our first field trip of the new school year. We went with some dear friends to the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. This museum contains a great variety of items from geological finds to dinosaur skeletons to cultural displays. The lower floor contains cultural displays from the many diverse groups of people living in the Seattle area. These included Native Americans, Japanese, Korean, Polynesian peoples, Laotian and others. They don't allow photography in the museum so you will have to go to their website to see the exhibits. The children enjoyed the trip as did the moms! This museum is well worth the time!

September 30th, Museum Free Day

I received the following link for the Smithsonian Museum Free Day. The link will take you to the information page and it contains a link to museums all over the country that are participating with the Smithsonian. This is a great opportunity to visit a museum that might otherwise be financially out of reach. Make good use of the day!

Homeschool Meme

How Great a Debtor and JavaMom both tagged me for this meme.
1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED.
Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Sally Clarkson

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT
Email groups and internet search engines

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
I can't really think of any off hand - I try to be very careful with my purchases and have used most of the items that I bought enough to justify their expense.

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Notgrass American History

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
CadCam student program

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED:
Someone that could come in and organize our family room area for a nominal fee. ;D


8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I like Rainbow Resource catalogue

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
Ambleside online and many other blogs

10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS:
1. I tag whoever that wants to play that hasn't yet.

5 Things Meme

This is a very belated answer to a tag by Cindy at Dominion Family.

Five things I have in my:

Freezer:
1. Chicken Breasts
2. Bread
3. Pepperoni Hot Pockets
4. Salmon
5. Popsicles

Closet:
1. Shoes
2. Fabric
3. My dad's slides and slide projector
4. Craft Supplies
5. Clothes

Car:
1. Tissues
2. Power Invertor
3. hair brush
4. Mozart CD
5. Green Apple gum

Purse:
1. Burt's Bees lip balm
2. Wallet
3. Advil
4. Calendar
5. Cell phone

People that I am tagging:
1. Beth Spera In Domino
2. Our Blue Castle
3. Any others who would like to participate

Raising Boys

In my catching up on my blog reading after vacation, I came across this post at the Dominion Family Blog. It is a MUST read for those parents who are raising boys.

My Week

We arrived home on Sunday Evening, three of us had head colds (I was one of the three). We celebrated hubby's birthday. The alternator went out on the suburban. My bursitis is still acting up. Hubby returned to work on Tuesday. I have been working on mountains of laundry and laying around in between. I spent time on the phone trying to get some medical assistance for my mom, with little success. Not a very productive week. We did get our wireless network set up again today, after much frustration. So maybe things are looking up. I am hoping to recover my dining room chairs this weekend and work on school scheduling.

Cataldo Mission - Idaho

On our way home from Montana, we stopped at Cataldo Mission State Park. We have driven past is so many times on our way to from other places and never stopped. I was driving and decided it was time to take a break. This mission is the oldest building in Idaho. It was a worthwhile stop and now my curiousity is satisfied.

We toured part of Yellowstone National Park on our free day at camp. We were able to visit Mammoth Hot Springs, the Norris area where Steamboat Geyser is, and the Canyon area. After leaving the Canyon area, we were supposed to head north back to camp. I got us twisted around and we went south instead, but because of the mistake we got to see a great heard of bison.




This is a near arial view of Yellowstone Bible camp. I say near, because it is actually taken from what is called T-shirt mountain. Some of the men, boys and girls climbed this mountain and at the top there are T-shirts that they can sign. Our older two boys really enjoyed this challenge. This was a great vacation.

We're Home

We arrived home from our trip on Sunday evening. After our stop at Glacier National Park, we went for a week to Yellowstone Bible Camp in Pray, MT. It was a family camp and consisted mostly of homeschooled families. Some of which we know from here in the Pacific NW and some of which were new to us. There were just over 60 in attendance of ages 2-87. There was tasty food, great fellowship and also many great lessons on family and relationships. The schedule includes lessons in the morning after breakfast and then again in the evening after dinner. We had free time in the afternoon and then a free day on Thursday. We used our free day to travel into Yellowstone National Park and had a wonderful time there viewing the great scenery that God created along with many different forms of wildlife. (I will post pics. soon). We arrived home tired but grateful for the time we had. On Monday, I needed to go to the store and decided to take our suburban, so I could gas it up after the long trip. Well . . . it died in the left turn lane in traffic. Turns out that the alternator gave up the ghost. Thankfully, it waited until we got home instead of somewhere on our 500 mile drive home. God is so good!

Fire around Glacier National Park

There is a fire burning on the east side of Glacier Park and at one point the Going to the Sun Road was closed halfway up. We were concerned that we might not be able to get across the park and make it to where we had a motel reserved. Well, they got the fire somewhat under control and the roads opened so we made it through. I took a couple of pictures - one of the smoke from the fire, it is taken from an overlook near Lake St. Mary, and the second of some of the devestation that the fire caused. We saw lots of charred trees and even some flames in the top of a tree, it was a terrible and sad sight.

Wildlife at Glacier National Park

Click to enlarge the images, it was if these two were posing for us.

Hidden Lake Nature Trail at Glacier National Park

More Images of Glacier National Park

We enjoyed seeing the Red Tour Buses that operate in the park and couldn't help taking pictures of them. I am including one of a bus going through one of the tunnels in the park. There are also many wildflowers in the alpine areas and I am partial to them so I am including one or two pictures of them too.

Glacier National Park

Yesterday we drove from Missoula up to West Glacier and then on into Glacier National Park. It took us a lot longer to drive up than we thought because there was much road construction. After we went into the park we had a picnic lunch at the Apgar picnic area. It was very pretty there on the end of Lake McDonald. The weather was warm and sunny. We spent the afternoon and early evening driving around in the west side of the park. We stopped at McDonald Lodge and walked through - it is very old and beautiful with log beams and a gianormous fireplace. Today we got up and drove across the rest of the park, we took our time and stopped many places along the way. I have a flair up of bursitis in my knee right now and so we could not do as much hiking or even walking as we would normally do. We did stop at Logan Pass Visitor Center and do a 3 mile hike up to Hidden Lake. I am sure I will pay for that later. We did get to see mountain goats, bighorn sheep, hairy marmots, ground squirrels, and chipmunks during this visit. This visit to Glacier was time well spent.

Today

Today is our 26th Wedding Anniversary. Today we drove about 8 hours and spent time in three states. Today we completed the first leg of our trip to Montana. Today the weather was cloudy and then sunny and warm. Today we crossed three mountain passes. Today we ate lunch at Dairy Queen. Today the boys got to watch a movie because we have a new laptop. Today I got to blog because our favorite hotel has wireless access now! Today was a good day! Hope your today was great!

We're off

It may be quiet around here (nothing new) but we will be off in the morning, heading to Montana. We will be spending a couple of days in Glacier National Park and then travelling on to bible camp near Yellowstone. Dear friends of ours will be at camp with us and it should be a great time! I'll post pictures when we get home.

Busy Birthday happenings

It has been a very busy week. Our eldest child, Plant Lover, celebrated her 21st birthday on the 25th and her very dear friend Tiffany and husband Josiah and baby Anya came to visit from Nashville. We had a BBQ with friends and family this past Sunday and had a wonderful time celebrating with our dear daughter.

Honored and Missed

My grandfather, Clarence Raymond Smith, was born July 13th, 1917 in a small town in Arkansas. He was a father, a husband, a grandfather and great grandfather. He was a wonderful grandfather, who loved to spend time with us kids. When I was in grade school and junior high he used to take me fishing with him and we would catch bunches of fish and then grandma would fry up a mess. He always had a big garden, enough to feed and army and he teased me about my first garden - he said it was a "postage stamp garden". It thrilled him that I was interested in gardening. Grandpa loved to work with wood and was always puttering in his shop and his other favorite thing was grocery shopping and keeping the pantry full. You would find him with all the grocery ads and then he would go all day from store to store getting the good deals. He liked to cook and make a mess. Grandpa had a triple bipass surgery and then lived life to the fullest for about 15 more years. The man was stubborn but boy did he have some spunk. Grandpa loved the Lord and did he sing about it (although a bit off key). He went on to be with the Lord, December 1996 and he is sorely missed.

Books finished this year

I am moving this post to the top as I finish books.

January

A Christmas Carol
Gulliver's Travels

February

Reading Between the Lines

March

When God Writes Your Love Story
Best Friends for Life
Pride and Prejudice
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

May

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer Detective
More Hours in My Day
I Gave Dating a Chance

June

The Scarlet Letter
Robinson Crusoe (with B#2)
Book of Indians (with B#3)

July

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled
The Hurrier I Go: Finding Time for the People in Your Life
Mere Christianity
Th Man Who Was Thursday

Currently Reading:

For the Children's Sake
Dating with Integrity
How to Read a Book

Quotable . . . on Personality

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, chptr. 11

"At the beginning I said there were Personalities in God. I will go further now. There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints."

Quotable . . . on the church

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis book IV, Chptr. 8

" In the same way the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the bible itself are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. it is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him."

Quotable . . . on Faith

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, Chptr. 7

"But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognise the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it."

About Me

Javamom tagged me a long while ago with this one and I just got it finished. It was kind of fun to go down memory lane and scary too since the old memory doesn't work so good anymore.

20 years ago (1986)
1. I was 25 years old.
2. My oldest was almost one
3. I worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in their personnel office.

15 years ago (1991)
1. Our second oldest was 8 months old
2. We were getting ready for our dear friends to move in with us.
3. I was content to be a wife and mommy.

10 years ago (1996)
1. I was 35 and was 8 months pregnant with my fourth child.
2. My grandfather was very ill
3. We went to see a civil war reenactment

5 years ago (2001)
1. Went to my first Apple Cider Press Youth Rally
2. Spent lots of time with our friends the Reddings
3. Listened to our daughter sing with her friends at Youth Rallys

3 Years ago (2003)
1. We camped at Mt. Ranier, North Cascades, Olympic National Parks and Mt. St. Helens
2. I witnessed the birth of my dear friends daughter.
3. Our oldest graduated from our homeschool.

1 year ago (2005)
1. We went camping in Spokane, WA
2. We went to We Care Ministry training
3. We went camping at the Olympic National Park

This year so far (2006)
1. Our two oldest boys have committed their lives to Jesus.
2. We went on a mission trip to Texas.
3. We changed churches after 14 years at the same one.

Yesterday
1. Met some friends at the park
2. I did laundry
3. Planned for our reading program

Today
1. Went to a garden with my daughter
2. Hosted neighborhood reading program
3. Worked on School Planning

Tomorrow
1. I will watch my son at swimming lessons
2. I will fix dinner for my family
3. I will help with Summer Memory Madness

In the next year
1. I will go to Yellowstone bible camp
2. I will work on my scrapbook
3. I will work on decluttering my house

In the next minute
1. Get ready for Bed

Clash of the Cultures

Last weekend we got pulled into a domestic dispute that our neighbors were having. We don't know much about these neighbors except that they came to America from India about 11 years ago. Their 19 year old daughter came flying into our house crying and hysterical asking me to call 911 and saying that "he" was going to kill her. After her came her mother, who speaks very little english and her father or brother, I am not sure, it is all kind of a blur. The girl ran upstairs and the mother was excitedly talking to me, I could not understand what she was saying. I followed the girl upstairs and telephoned 911, the neighbors already had too, and then waited for the sherif to get here. My husband got the others out of the house and I was able to calm the girl. Turns out the father found that she had a "My Space" and instead of talking things over decided to get physical. I don't debate the right of the father to make rules for his household, but I do take issue with the way he and his son tried to enforce them. What I see as an issue here is people coming from one culture that has certain ideas about women and their place to another country, namely ours, that has completely different ideas about that sort of thing. They don't learn the language and they send their children to public school and yet expect that they won't pick up attitudes that pervade our society. To some extent, as Christians, we can have the same problem. We are in this world but of another, trying to remain true to our Lord. Trying to fit one culture into another is truly a difficult thing.

Words are Interesting

Quixotic: 1) of or like Don Quixote; 2) extravagently chivalrous or romantically idealistic; visionary; impractical or impracticable.
(found in A Man Who Was Thursday)

Megalomania: 1) a mental disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur, wealth, power, etc. 2) a passion for or for doing big things; 3) a tendency to exaggerate
(found in Mere Christianity)

Pirates!

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to see Pirate's of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. We are big fans of the first movie and we really enjoyed this one as well. There were a couple of creepy parts that I didn't like, especially the opening scene, but for the most part it was a very entertaining story. Johnny Depp was as creative as ever in his character of Captain Jack and the costuming for Davy Jones and his crew were favorites of our whole family. Sensitive individuals may be upset by a few of the scenes that contain violence.

The Man Who Was Thursday

Wow! This book was a real page turner. Chesterton is indeed a master at his craft. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, it all changed and then changed again. Those who like a mystery will like this one. The ending, well it just wasn’t expected! This was my first Chesterton work, but certainly won’t be my last.

Happy Birthday Bouncy Boy!

Bouncy Boy, our youngest child, turned 10 last week. In our family, we have the tradition of letting the special birthday person select breakfast and dinner menus. On his birthday, we had cinnamon grands for breakfast and Pappa Murphys Pizza for dinner. Because he wanted his big brother to be at his party, he chose to wait until a few days after his birthday to celebrate with his friends. B#1 got home from his mission trip late Sunday night and we had Bouncy Boy's birthday party on Monday afternoon. He didn't want cake and chose to only have ice cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Vanilla. It seems just as if it were yesterday that Bouncy Boy came into our lives. My how time flies! This child fills our lives with much love and excitement. He is a very passionate child, there is no in between with him. He keeps us on our toes. Currently he is really into marvel comics and action figures.

A - Accent: American
B - Breakfast Item: toasted raisin bread
C - Chore you hate: cleaning the bathroom
D - Dad's Name: Raymond
E - Essential everyday item: toothbrush
F - Flavor ice cream: Extreme Moose Tracks
G - Gold or Silver?: Gold
H - Happy Place: my recliner, with my bible or a book and coffee
I - Insomnia: sometimes
J - Job - Love or want to leave: wife & mother - LOVE IT
K - Kids: yes (4)
L - Living arrangements: Two story house
M - Mom's birthplace: Missouri
N - Number of houses you've lived in: 7 and 3 apartments
O - Overnight hospital stays: three
P - Phobia: heights
Q - Question: Does anyone ever read these things?
R - Religious Affiliation: Church of Christ.
S - Siblings: one sister, two step sisters and one step brother
T - Time you wake up: 8am ish, 7ish on Sunday
U - Unnatural hair colors you've had: None.
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat: brussel sprouts
W - Worst habit: Talking too much.
X - X-rays you've had: Dental and chest
Y - Yummy: chocolate and oh yes chocolate, did I mention chocolate?
Z - Zealous about?: God!

I have seen this on many blogs but decided to do it after seeing it on Beth Spera in Domino

Quotable . . . On Heaven

These quotes are from Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. Book III chapter 10 Hope.

"The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so inffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither."

"Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all - except in so far as "heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world."

"I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

Food for thought . . . Thoughts for Prayer

Summer Memory Madness

On Wednesday evenings during the summer, our congregation has been providing a program for children ages 4 - 6th grade called Summer Memory Madness. My understanding is that they have been doing this for 11 years now. The theme this year is Called to Action and the the goal is for the children to hide God's word in their hearts. Memory verses have been selected to go along with theme and the children learn these verses each week. There are learning, craft and game stations set up and the children can go to the ones they are interested in but must go to at least three of the stations and the station that teaches the new verse. The children are learning the verses and are having fun too. I have been helping and having fun along with the children - plus I am learning the memory verses too!

Homeschool Carnival Week 27

The Homeschool Carnival Week 27 is up at Tami's Blog! There is something for everyone. Go check it out.

Letterboxing

Monday afternoon, B#2, Bouncy Boy, Plantlover and her friend Latoya went with me to a couple of parks on a type of scavenger hunt. We went on our first Letterboxing outing. I learned about letterboxing on one of my many email lists about a year or more ago and wanted to try it, but just never got started. Letterboxing involves rubber stamps and clues. People place a notepad, rubber stamp, and ink pad inside a rubbermaid type container then hide it in some location and then post clues on the letterbox website. You can go to the Letterboxing website and look up parks and other places in your area that contain a letterbox. You print out the clues and then take a rubber stamp and notepad with you on your adventure. Once you find a letterbox, you use their stamp to stamp your notepad and then you stamp their notepad with yours and return the letterbox to its original hiding place. We printed out clues for two parks in our area and went on our search. We found both boxes and learned some things along the way. It is a bit cumbersome to carry everything involved and do all the stamping and try to be inconspicuous at the same time. We will put together a letterbox kit for our next adventure. You need a pen, stamp and pad (in case theirs is dry), a notebook and wet ones to clean everything/one up when done stamping. It was a very fun time and Hubby was even able to join us at the second park!

Our House feels empty

B#1 left Sunday after church services to go on a mission trip to Montana. We are missing him terribly. We don't normally let our children go off without us like this but we felt this would be a good experience for him. He went with about 9 teens, some parents of the teens and our youth minister. It is a good group of people. They will be working with a very small congregation while in Montana, helping with community outreach. He will be gone all week and return late Sunday night. I am sure he will have much to share when he returns.

The Bright Yellow House

When we purchased our house 7 years ago, I wanted it to be painted yellow with white trim. Well, that wasn't one of our choices from the painter and we would have had to pay extra to have it - - so I didn't get my yellow house. About two years ago our house needed to be repainted (the original job was not very good - the hurry up cheapo job) and so hubby and I painted it. I now have my yellow house, it is the brightest in the neighborhood. Some people think it is a bit too bright but I just tell them that I am not a subdued kind of person.

Summer Garden Adventure

Our daughter planned a summer garden adventure for the ladies of her congregation. On Tuesday of this week they went to visit two gardens in the Puget Sound area. I was able to go to the first garden with them and took these pictures. It was a smallish garden called Bradner Gardens and is in a quiet neighborhood in Seattle near I90 off of Rainier Avenue. It is also a pea patch garden where people can plant a garden spot and then volunteer to keep the garden up. There was a childrens garden, vegetable patches and a great variety of herbs and flowers. It would be a nice spot for a picnic lunch.

A Giant Hole

One of the favorite summer time activities for our boys and their friends is playing in the giant hole. This is the second time that we have let the boys dig a hole in our backyard. It took great energy to dig it and now they have made caves for their actions figures and have a great time playing in it. They spend hours at a time out there. Just about every little boy in our neighborhood has played in it at one time or another.

Science is Fun Summer Reading Program

We are on Summer break from our regular school routine. While my children would love to play all day long and not touch a book, outside of a comic book all summer, I have other plans. One thing that seems to happen on our summer breaks - too much free time and then squabbling or "I'm bored". This year I decided that I could provide a diversion once a week for some of the children in our neighborhood and a couple of our dear friends. We are meeting once a week for an hour and reading about a famous scientist and then doing an experiment or two that replicates a discovery of the scientist. I made up manilla folders for each of the children, with log sheets for them to keep track of their reading each day and to record books in certain categories. I wanted to encourage the children to widen their horizons and so I am giving extra points for their trying books outside of what they might normally read - such as a biography, a nature book, a history book etc. They get a sticker and a piece of candy bringing their folder each week and I am keeping track of their points and then will give prizes at our half way point and then again at our last meeting. We will also have a banana split party at our last meeting. We had 17 children, 1st - 10th grade the first week and 12 the second. The children seem to enjoy it and are reading away! This was a great way to motivate my boys to try some different kinds of books on their own and keep reading.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOTLE'S TIME!!!!

Guess What?! It is our blog birthday today. I almost missed it - Oh My! This has been great fun and I hope it will continue to be as we move into the future.

Tootles!

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Well, I finally did it! I can now say that I have read the book that almost every high school student in America has been forced to read. Somehow in my high school career, I missed reading any of the classics that others were made to read. I decided to preread this book as it is one of the books assigned in my sons literature curriculum this fall. I must say that it was not at all what I expected and I was pleasantly surprised. All I really new about the book was that it was based on an adulterous affair. And while that is the sin that starts the story, I found the book to be much more about sin in our life and how we deal with it. It was about the difference between confession and repentance versus hiding sin and it torturing us, or us not forgiving sin and then our sin of unforgiveness turning us into a monster. The characters became very real to me and I think that Nathaniel Hawthorne did a masterful job with this story. Although, as Gene Veith pointed out in a World Magazine article, Mr. Hawthorne did seem to miss the point on the gospel and God's great mercy and forgiveness toward us.

Highschool/college- homeschool or not

We have one child who has already graduated from our homeschool and is currently working toward a certificate in Landscape Design at a local Community College. She did well in her highschool work and is also doing well in her College work. So why do I have anxiety once again as we have another child in highschool? B#1 just finished his first year of highschool and for the most part is doing very well. Of course he is different from his sister in many ways and thus we are having to adapt our curriculum to these differences. In my planning his course of study, I did some blog surfing and came across some interesting thoughts about homeschooling highschool or not. Kim at Upward Call had this to say. Semicolon had a three part article about High School here and here and here . Semicolon also had some things to say about College or Not that I found interesting and here is link to an article in about Homeschoolers going on to college. (I have not perused this site enough to know what else might be found there - but this article was interesting.) Hope this helps others who are thinking about High School and College.

This Weeks Goal - American History Decisions

I have been looking over what the boys have accomplished this past school year and making plans for the next year. I have been reviewing my long range goals and trying to find good fits for each of the boys. This weeks goal is picking books to teach American History at three different grade levels. I have B#1 entering 10th grade, B#2 entering 7th Grade and B#3 entering 5th grade. For B#1 we have settled on using Notgrass American History and Literature curriculum. It looks to be an engaging and educational choice. I am pleased with this selection and I believe it will help spark B#1's interest. I haven't settled on what to use with the younger two boys yet. I own several books that cover this period but neither of the boys are real strong readers yet, so this makes it a more difficult choice. I am trying to move them into more independent learning and thus need to make careful choices in their books. Engaging, but literary books fit the bill, which ones for their levels? I really like This Country of Ours by HE Marshall, but don't own it yet. Maybe I will have to sell off a few of the books I do have and purchase it. We shall see.

No, I haven't vanished off the face of the earth

It has been such a long time since I have posted. I am not sure why, but I haven't made time to write and now I have a cazillion topics running around in my head and will have to take time to post on them - I will try to be coherant in my writing - but no promises. We have been busy with finishing up our school work, church activities, planning school for the upcoming year, and working on summer plans. Whew! I have been online reading - just not doing much writing.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I just finished reading a collection of stories about Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and I really enjoyed them. The book I have contains three stories, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Tom Sawyer Detective. I chose this book because I wanted to preread it before assigning it to my son. Actually, I didn't think I would really like it. Surprisingly, I found it very delightful. The characters were very realistic, a bit mishievous and naughty, but realistic nonetheless. I think Twain did a great job of giving the flavor of the times. The second story was a bit far fetched, but that was what made it fun to read. The only negative I found was the way people of color were referred to, although it was common of the time and place it is still derogatory. I do feel that this negative can be used as a teaching tool. This was my first Twain novel and I look forward to reading more of his work.

Mothers Day Picture

Here we are - we had a wonderful day!

Memorial Weekend

(boys 1, 2 &3 in their costumes)

We had a very busy weekend that included much celebrating. Saturday we were able to attend the much anticipated Samurai birthday party. Many attendees were in costume and they had such activities as archery, martial arts, picking popcorn with chopsticks and caligraphy. We rolled sushi and also had dinner together. It was great fun!

Sunday, after worship service, we went to my sister in laws for a surprise birthday party for my husbands uncle. He was turning 70. It turned out to be a nice day and we got to visit with some cousins that we hadn't seen in many years.

Monday was the church picnic and a silent auction to raise $$ for the teens activities this summer. The teens are going on a mission trip in July to help a small congregation in Montana. We had a nice time. All in all the weekend was full of fun and fellowship.

Success vs. Excellence

I have been listening to a tape of a class that I took years ago at a workshop. The class was taught by a man named Richard Rogers and was entitled Pursuit of Excellence. I thought I would share some of what I learned from this first lesson.

Success has to do with wealth, power and prestige. Churches are dying today of success or mediocrity. Success breeds mediocrity. A church that is looking for success is probably looking at externals such as: What kind of building do we have (or want), "who" is our preacher? "who" are we reaching to (as in, is it somebody important)? Success driven churches also view the church as an organization instead of a family. We must know the symptoms of a success seeking church to avoid moving in that direction.

Excellence is simplicity, servanthood and surrender or humility. Excellence is doing God's will. Efficient committed, creative, productive. God is the source and supplier of all excellence. The source of, as well as example of holiness is God. Philippians 4:8 is he verse the encompasses excellence. WHATEVER keeps you from the things listed in that verse - GET RID OF IT OR THEM! WHATEVER, it is.

If you are striving for EXCELLENCE you are not of this world.

Philippians 4:8 NIV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

More Blooms

Bleeding Heart and Poppies

Mothers Day Weekend

To celebrate Mothers Day, my sister, her mother-in-law, my mom, my daughter and I all went to the quaint little town of Snohomish on Saturday. We had a wonderful lunch at the Cabbage Patch restuarant, which is an old home converted over to a restuarant. In the town, there are many antique shops and other gifty type shops, which we took time to browse. It was a wonderful day. I hope to post a picture of us at lunch, as soon as my daughter uploads it for me.

On Sunday, after church, my dear husband took our three sons and myself out to Subway for lunch and then for a drive up to Snoqualmie Falls for the afternoon. Because it was a beautiful sunny day it was quite crowded at the Falls. Nevertheless, we chose to take the hike to the river, which is only 1/2 mile, but on a very steep grade. That was great exercise! The falls are spectacular and I truly enjoyed the day. The weekend was very pleasurable.

Blooming!

A collection of flowers that are blooming in our yard.

Book review: I Gave Dating a Chance

I Gave Dating A Chance by Jeramy Clark

The author states that he wrote the book in response to the "no dating" movement. From the back of the book. "The time has come for a sound, biblical and practical approach that balances out the extreme perspectives: dating without responsibility versus a complete withdrawal from the dating process. Learn how you can confidently pursue healthy dating relationships that are characterized by holiness and integrity – and ultimately bring glory and honor to God".

Some things I liked about this book were that he encourages dating not as a means to romance but as a means of getting to know one another. He suggests activities that are more conducive to learning about each other. Included are good ideas on how to keep the date "safe". There is a chapter on how to chose your date, which gives great guidelines, even for those not going to date but in considering what you would like in a mate. In his chapter on quality control he delves quite a bit into character, both in looking for a person of character and becoming a person of character. There are many warnings about guarding your heart and keeping pure. The author had some great points on modesty, mens’ and womens’ roles and treating each other with brotherly or sisterly love. One quote on modesty: "Modesty is a state of being; it involves how you think and act. Modesty affects every part of your life, from speech to dress to how you sit." Pg 129.

On the down, side he gives examples, some from his own life of how people crossed their boundaries. I felt that his examples showed how hard it is to stay emotionally neutral to someone you are spending alone time with. He speaks about identifying when you’re ready to date and when your not, which is fine if you are dealing with emotionally mature people, but expecting a 16 year old to recognize this is a bit out of hand. He also speaks quite a bit about casual dating, "just for fun", but his examples seem to show that this would be a difficult thing to accomplish. In a couple of places he seems to imply that those who don’t believe dating is a good option, keep themselves completely from the opposite sex, which in my experience is a false assumption.

While I do agree with him on the fact that young men and women need to understand how their demeanor and actions affect their brothers and sisters and that they need to learn how to interact with one another, I remain unconvinced that dating is the way to accomplish this. Family activities, church activities and group outings can provide such opportunities and a much safer environment.

A Little Home Ec.

The boys were invited to a Samurai birthday party to take place in a little over a week. Our friends are famous for these wonderful theme parties in which all the guests dress in costume and participate in great activities that go along with the theme. They have attended a medieval feast, a Redwall birthday, Army parties etc. All of which they have enjoyed tremendously. Did I mention that it was a costume party - ah yes. Three boys needing Samurai or ninja costumes. Part of our school this week has been spent on cutting out and sewing costumes. At the beginning, I always feel overwhelmed - but now that the boys are older, they have helped a lot. Boy #1's costume is almost done and he has done it all on his own, with a little advice and supervision from good old mom. Boy #2 has started sewing his costume and bouncy boy, who is almost 10, will get to start sewing tomorrow. I am very thankful that they can be of so much help, especially since I procrastinated until now. I have known about the party for months - but just purchased fabric on Monday. Oh well, such is life at our home.

Spring has sprung.

We are finally getting some nice sunny days and they are delicious! Today it even got up to 75 ° at our home. I have been enjoying walking in our neighborhood, observing the flowers that are in bloom and soaking in the sunshine. I haven't had much to say lately, but with the spring comes dreams of summer. We will officially school until the end of June and then take July and August off. We typically have great weather during those two months and so I like for us to have lots of outside time then. During those off months we will continue to read and do math drills and take field trips. I hope to spend time with friends and also take time to plan for the next school year and do some organizing in our home. Some things tend to get put on the back burner when we are in the midst of school and I hope that I can get to them when we are on a lighter schedule. We will attend Family Camp at Yellowstone Bible camp in August and hopefully get in a quick side trip to Glacier National Park while we are in Montana. All in all, it has the makings for a great summer.

Life with focus . . .

It is funny how life happens and then I realize that I am not keeping up with things - such as this blog. We have had many changes in our lives during the past several months, such as leaving one church family after almost 14 years to join a new church family. We went from being very involved in a church family to starting from scratch in trying to figure out where/how God wants us to serve in the new one. We have had two of our sons dedicate their lives to Christ and we have gone on a mission trip as a family. Our daughter started back to school after a quarter off and started a new job (all in one week) whew. . . .Time can just slip by if you let it and you can just float along if your not careful. I want to live with a purpose and make sure the important things are taken care of and done. I think the past few months have held many purposeful events and I hope that I will be able to keep focus as we move ahead into the summer.

My sis and her Puppies?

I took these pictures on a recent visit to my sisters. Captain Jack, pictured with my sister is not quite 1. The other dog is Sparky - he is 5.

What's UP?

We have been busy trying to get back into some sort of routine since arriving home from Texas. School got going pretty well and then after a week and half we took another small break to go visit family, I'll post pictures later. Well, now we are back at it and trying to stay focused. It is a bit difficult because Spring finally arrived and I sure would rather play. I plan to keep us schooling until about the end of June, we will take most of July and August off with the exception of a math drill here and there and some reading. We don't get much warm weather here in the PNW and so I like to be able to take advantage of it. We have an out of state trip planned in August and since we will have used most of my husbands vacation we won't do our usual camping trips but probably some day trips to parks, zoos and museums during the Spring and summer.

Wow - A New Look

I decided to go for a new look on my blog and when I changed templates all of my links disappeared. So instead of writing on my blog, I have spent most of my time putting things back. Whew!

A Different Education

During the past couple of weeks our family had the opportunity to go work on a We Care Ministries church campaign. We Care Ministries works with local congregations to help them get the gospel out to their community. The campaign is a week long effort at door knocking in the community during which they offer assistance - such as food or clothing to those in need and then also offer to share the gospel. It was a stretching experience for our whole family and a very rewarding one at that. We lived with an extended family of very like minded, spiritually focused people who had a real heart for the lost of the world. The best part of this was seeing our 15 year old son grow in his spiritual life. He has grown tremendously in many ways. This boy was very timid to get up in front of a group but while we were there he was able to get up and share in front of a large group of adults, he went door knocking and actually talked with the people at the door and now he is ready to go on another campaign. During this campaign we also saw a total of 25 souls come to Christ along with one wayward Christian coming back. We may have missed two weeks of our regular studies but the education we gained during those two weeks is of eternal value.

A Book Readers Quiz

I was tagged by Merry at Beth Spera in Domino with this quiz. I tag Javamom, Mama Squirrel and Plant Lover. I look forward to reading your answers.

1. How many hours a day do you spend reading?

About 1 (not counting reading children's school books with them).

2. How fast do you read?

Not real fast but not slow either - I haven't timed myself

3. What is your favorite book?

In His Steps by Charles Sheldon

4. Who is your favorite author?

I don't have a favorite - I like Tolkein, Austen, and Dorothy Gilman plus many others.

5. What is your favorite action/adventure novel?

Not sure

6. What is your favorite mystery novel?

The Mrs. Pollifax novels by Dorothy Gilman

7. What is your favorite romance novel?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

8. What is your favorite character novel?

Deer Slayer by James Fenimore Cooper

9. What is your favorite fantasy/sci-fi novel?

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

10. What is your favorite history book?

??

11. What is your favorite biography?

Barbara Bush's Memoirs by Barbara Bush

12. What is your favorite other non-fiction book?

Best Friends for Life by Michael & Judy Phillips or
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Phillip Yancy

13. What is your favorite play?

Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

14. What is your favorite of the genres mentioned in questions 5-12?

Mystery novels.

15. What is your favorite type of character?

Strong, full of integrity and great morals

16. If you could host a party with 7 literary characters, who would they be and why?

Miss Marple of Agatha Christie fame because she is logical and wise; Aragorn because of his integrity; Mrs. Pollifax because of her sense of humor and she just seems like she would be fun to be around; Elizabeth Bennet because of her sharpness of wit; Sam from Lord of the Rings because of his loyalty and I am not sure who else I would like to meet - maybe Merlin from The Once and Future King - just to keep things interesting.

17. Do you like film adaptations of books? If so, which is your favorite? Which is your least?

Yes! I like A&E's Pride and Prejudice and I am not sure which I least liked.

18. Who is your literary role model?

Don't have one

19. Which literary house would you like most to live in?

Pemberly

20. Which literary couple would you like most for parents?

???

21. Pick 3 literary characters you would like to have as siblings.

Lizzie Bennet, Charles Bingley, Aragorn or Faramir

22. Who is your favorite literary villain?Favorite as in most wellwritten?

??

23. Name a character that most people dislike, but that you do not. Why do you like them?

??

24. Which minor character deserves a book all to themselves, in your opinion?

None are coming to mind right now


25. Which character do you identify most with in literature?

Elizabeth Bennet (sometimes snippy and misjudge people)

26. If you could go into a novel, which one would it be and why?

I am not sure.

27. Do you prefer hardback or paperback?

Paperback for reading, but hardback for buying.

28. Do you like dustcovers?

I don't mind the mylar library ones - but don't like the regular paper ones.

29. Do you like introductions, forwards, afterwards, and appendices?

Not really.

30. Do you like reading literary criticism?

Sometimes.

31. Do you like new or used books? What about ex-library?

Both

32. Are you likely to buy new books without having read them, or would you buy a used copy (or check it out from the library) to see if it is good or not?

I rarely buy a new book, unless it is unavailable otherwise.

33. Name 3 - 7 books that you rarely see on people's favorite book lists, that are high on your own.

??

34. Which is your least favorite book of those that are considered "classics"?

Wuthering Heights - utterly depressing

35. Do you like books read aloud, or do you prefer silent reading?

Silent reading.

36. When you read, do you see things in your mind like a movie, or just in vague pictures?

Vague pictures

37. Do you like to read in silence, or with backround noise/music?
I prefer silence

38. Can you read in the car without getting carsick?

Sometimes

39. Do you go to booksales?

Yes

40. Name one literary quirk of yours.

I don't know of any

There's No Place Like Home

We arrived home at midnight last night and slept in this morning. There are mountains of laundry that need conquering and many tasks that need attention. There was a stop at the grocery store for the basics and the first cooked by mom meal in almost 2 weeks. (boy was I spoiled). We will start school & regular chores again tomorrow and that will probably be challenge after having 2 weeks off, especially since the neighbor children are now on spring break. We are in the Pacific Standard time zone, but our bodies on are Central time. This should be an interesting week.