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