Weekly Review

This week was much easier than last week. No one had a fever or was throwing up, and my tooth stopped hurting. It's amazing how much those physical pains expose our weaknesses. Now that things are a bit back to "normal", I'll have to remind myself to still come to God for strength daily and hourly. Even though I physically feel strong now, it is God's sustaining Grace that gets me through. How easily I forget, when I'm back on my feet. The sermon that was preached this morning was such a good reminder of God's amazing grace for when I'm sick or well.

We were able to tackle quite a bit more school work since everyone was up to par.

Evan grappled with long division this week. It has been encouraging to see him gain speed and accuracy with addition, subtraction and multiplication. We went back to drilling with flash cards this year and that seems to be a help.

Evan has really taken off with his baking. He even asked if he could do his school work on Saturday so he'd be freed up to do more baking on Thursday. He has been selling bread to other homeschool families that we meet with on Fridays. He got half of his work done. Sometimes his start is better than his finish, so we're working on that character trait with him!

Amy is enjoying cursive handwriting. We use Italic so it's a bit different than traditional cursive. She is also a great speller! We are just about done with Modern Curricular Press Spelling workout B (which Evan hated but she loves) and then I'll have her start IEW's Phonetic Zoo spelling program.

Someone had suggested saving those credit card, magazine etc. applications and having your kids use them as practice for handwriting, learning their address, and filling out job applications later on. Amy filled out one for Sierra Trading Post this week. It was great practice for her and I realized she still didn't quite know what town we lived in! She guessed the town we go to church in instead. There were two spots to fill out so she got double the practice. Next week I'll try to find one for Evan.

Emily asked several times this week to cut. She is really getting the hang of scissors. We also worked on tracing and letters.

For our Bible curriculum we are using Nancy Ganz's commentary on Genesis in the "Herein Is Love" series. It has been a challenge for Emily to sit still and not interrupt while I read. But she is learning quite a bit too. She has been asking all week, "Jesus made bananas? Jesus made my kitty cat? Jesus made my big girl bed?" She is also very curious about angels now.

One of the other subjects that Evan and Amy do together is Latin. This only works when Emily is taking a nap or going for a walk with dad. This week we learned more about conjugating verbs and declining nouns. Evan is really getting it this year. Amy is having a harder time, but it is her first year. She however, loves learning the songs and prayers.

On Thursday we got to go to a Harvest Party with a homeschool group that we used to be a part of three years ago. We had such a fun time visiting. The kids had sack races, played tug of war, and bobbed for apples. Then we had dinner on my friends porch overlooking the valley as the sun set. I wish I had taken some pictures, but it seems these days my hands are always busy taking care of Emily!

Pumpkin Recipes

We're bringing these to a harvest party tomorrow!

Pumpkin Cookies

Cream together: 2 cups of butter (or Earth Balance)
2 cups of sugar (or Sucanat)

Add: 1 16 oz can pumpkin
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Then add: 4 cups flour (can be white whole wheat)
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp. salt

Optional: stir in 2 cups of raisins and 1 cup of nuts
Bake on greased cookie sheet for 12-15 min at 350.

These pancakes are a fun way to add a little vit. A to your morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Whisk together:
1 1/4 cups flour,
2 Tablespoons sugar,
2 teaspoons baking powder,
1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger and salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cloves

Mix together in separate bowl:
1 egg,
6 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup of milk (or soy milk)

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Heat a buttered skillet over medium heat and cook a couple min. on each side.

Emily Quote

"You have lots of pretty shoes!" Spoken to everyone at the shoe store. What's a daddy to do! Of course he bought her new tennies with butterflies on them!

Relief at The Dentist Office

This past week my kids were sick, my back and neck hurt, my husband was working extra hours, school was not going well, my house was a mess, and I had to go get a crown put on one of my molars. I'm pretty faithful to go to the dentist and it doesn't usually bother me. But I've had a crown put on before and my tooth hurt for a solid week afterward. It was not fun.

The day before the dentist appointment, I had a melt down. I felt melancholy and blue. Sure, my circumstances were not what I'd really like, but they weren't that awful. Others suffer much more than loneliness, laundry and dentist chairs. But I was full of tears instead of hope.

Before I left, I put "The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God" in my purse. It is one of the books that I bought from Desiring God back in June when they had their $5 sale. I don't really know why I bought it. But God used it at the dentist office to draw me to Him. I almost cried as I read it. It is a beautiful poem on the sovereignty and goodness of God in the midst of suffering. John Pipers words echoed my heart in the misery I felt that day. But more importantly, they gently reminded me that God not only knows about my suffering, but orchestrates the events in my life to help me know Him more. He is sovereign and He is sweet.

"He is not poor nor much enticed

Who loses everything but Christ.

It won't be long before the rod

Becomes the tender kiss of God."

I left the dentist office in more physical pain, but much lighter in my spirit. The tears were gone. They were replaced with renewed hope in God who showed His mercy to Job and who is showing His mercy to me.

Costume Preview

The girls have been sick this week. Amy decided that dressing up would make her feel better. Of course everyone else wanted in on the action!
Jengo Fett
Molly (from the American Girl series)

Dorthy and Toto

The crew

School This Week 10/12/07

My blogging friend Leslie, has started a new weekly post. I thought it was a good idea so I'm copying her! I don't know if I'll be able to post every week. But I like the idea of giving a little weekly report on what we did during the week for school. It also encouraged me to look at the little highlights and bright spots of the week since I far too easily remember the discouraging and hard times.

This week Emily learned how to use scissors. I bought a little book from Timberdoodle called Let's Cut Paper that we started to use. She was so proud of herself! Each morning she ran to her dad to show him what she'd done. It was too cute!

Amy went to her grandparents this week. That made our school week look very different. We do science, history, Latin, writing, and Bible together with Evan. She enjoyed her week off being spoiled by her Grandma and Papa. She got to go swimming and shopping quite a bit. And she had a lovely tea party with her Great Grandma, her Auntie and her Grandma. Usually the kids take turns having a week at Grandma and Papa's house during the summer, but it didn't work out this year. So we're just fitting it in where we can! We love the flexibility homeschooling offers.

Since Amy was gone, we didn't try to work on the subjects that we do with her. Instead Evan and I worked a little more intensely on math and grammar. And it just so happened that this week his spelling was particularly troublesome. So we were able to spend some more time on that as well. But yesterday, Evan said, "When are things going to get back to normal. I mean when is Amy coming home?" *big sigh*

We did get to do some fun things together too. Evan loves going to thrift stores and Alicia told me about a good deal at a local one. So we took off mid morning, something we never would have done had it been a regular school day.

We have all been various levels of sick this week too. Emily had a fever much of the week. So like Evan, I am hoping that things get back to "normal" soon!

Fall Arrangement

I love decorating for Fall. I bought a huge bunch of preserved leaves several years ago and each year I reuse them in different arrangements. This year I combined them with some fun berry twigs that I got on clearance last year. I really like how it turned out. But Sean was a little disappointed that I took the berry twigs off of our piano. I had a big brown flower bucket full of them. So I'm on the lookout for something new for the piano. I picked up a beautiful burgundy vase at the Goodwill last week. I'm hoping that I can find something to fill that. Any ideas?

Home, Sweet Home

This week we officially joined our new church as members. We've been going there for about 7 months now but there was something fun and exciting about being "official". After a couple years of not being sure where we were headed in our church search, it is really nice to have a home. God has been so faithful and good to us through it all!

I am so thankful for this group of believers. I appreciate the pastor's commitment to the Word of God through expositional preaching. Boy, is it convicting!!! It's so exciting to see the Holy Spirit use the words that John Marc preaches on Sunday to impact our family throughout the week.

We have also made many new friendships and renewed some older ones. Here are some pictures of Evan's Sunday School pool party held earlier this month.

Amy and her friend Savannah playing in the sandbox.