Happy St. Nicholas Day

Today is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Myra, and these are some of the ways we celebrated today! The kids layed out their shoes by the fire place and left St. Nicholas an apple, carrots for his horse :)


We have been reading books for a couple weeks that I have gotten from the library (many books:) but here are a few that we liked! I heart inter-library loans!
The kids love the different history and legends that are written. I have used so many great blogs as resources for lists!
Here were their shoes to discover in the morning!! They were all so excited (of course) and shared their stories of St. Nicholas before we headed to church. (Niky was at a neighbor's birthday sleep over:)We decided to have a brunch after church with Steve's parents to celebrate. We made strawberry blintzes and read some of the books cuddled on the couch. Allie set the table for me and Steve put a picture of St. Nicholas on everyone's plate. Shaye made our dessert...
Kerry helped me with an idea and the kids responded SO wonderfully! I told them that they were to secretly help out someone in our family and then they had to place the St. Nicholas card where they gave sacrificially. I think EVERY bed was made by dinner time and even the trash taken out by my four year old! Seth even took half the rice krispy treats to a neighbor with a note. They LOVE giving! We may be inerrantly sinful, but we love responding to our Lord! I really needed to see this!

We got to help a family we love this weekend that just naturally gives to others. Then, they were all given monetary gifts today for Christmas by their grandparents...Steve and I were challenged that we need to adopt a family or a need to take care of howEVER we could. We had a family meeting and decided to help a family that has been dealing with cancer attacking this family's father and ALL that that entails. A local group in our town is collecting money for their Christmas and we decided to give to them. This really has nothing to do with US! I see it as, it really has to do with helping this family. We GET to give!!! Two days ago, we could NOT have! The whole spirit of St. Nicholas got to play out in many ways today. SO thankful!

What started as maybe a lesson in church history or Anglican tradition ended in seeing how God was truly meeting our need so that we could look OUTSIDE ourselves!

Emmanuel, God WITH us!

First Week of Advent Comes to a Close

It has been a great first week of Advent.

We unpacked some Christmas decorations last Sunday...the girls were SO anxious to get started. I walked into the living room at one point and saw my cute hubby putting together an artificial tree that we have borrowed from my inlaws the past couple years...he had super glue and my hair dryer, trying to piece it back together... Once he got the top on and saw that the lights were not working he threw it all back into the box. Poor guy! He tries so hard for us!! On Monday I took the kids to BSF and Steve and Shaye went and got us all a tree! Shaye was so proud to pick it out and kept saying...This is the best Christmas tree ever! Its finally decorated!

I explained to the kids how I wanted Advent to be focused and asked what past Advent traditions they wanted to use to walk that out. The Jesse Tree was a must to them...we are hit or miss on a daily basis, but overall this week, we have had some great conversations of Jesus being chosen from the beginning of time! Many of the ornaments are ones that Nik made when he was 8, so he is a tad emotionally connected to them. It is neat to be going over it again and see how each of them has grown in scripture over the past couple years and how they get certain aspects of theology on a slightly deeper level than before. I just don't think you can overdo the Jesse Tree. I have found different sites (bought that one a couple years back) and books that are great also, but for some reason I keep going back to this one and use it every year!

Also, they wanted to start Jotham's Journey again. This is a series of books we had started about 4 or 5 years ago. The kids are all at different stages now, so the girls (7 & almost 5) will start to appreciate them like the boys do! They always beg for more to be read! I love ending a storytime like that!! During this reading we light our advent candles, their other favorite part :)

I mentioned also to the kids that I wanted to focus on Advent music/hymns this month, instead of just the typical Christmas music. Nik took it upon himself to pick a hymn each day with a book he got last year for St. Nicholas Day. Because of those little lessons, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear was ruined for me because the author believes all roads lead to Jesus...sigh...we did get introduced to the "O Antiphons" though and cannot wait to discover those more, very interesting!! I also was sent these two devotionals. One is from Our Grace Journey, a blog that I have used for different studies before. The other one is from an AMiA church in Chapel Hill, NC.

Mentally I feel like I am IN Advent...which is NO small feat for me and my brain! I feel focused and able to think outside my homeschool mental box (something God is trying to grow in me, patiently). I am loving the revelations that I am getting regarding Advent and the traditions, I just love the depth of our Creator!!

Confessions of an ESFP

Ok, most of my family and close friends know I hate (HATE) personality tests. The first time I took the Myers-Briggs (I refuse to link that...you can google it on your own:) test in 92ish, I was on staff with Youth With A Mission and we took it so we could learn how to work together. I thought it was so dumb. I have no idea why, but I remember our Director saying, your personality type hates to take these tests. That sent me over the edge!

My husband is now working toward getting ordained as a Deacon with Anglican Missions in America (AMiA) and we had to do a marriage assessment for that. Of course that entailed 5 personality tests, no joke. One was even a Spiritual Gifts test, all it really tested was my cynicism, which I am sure my Myers-Briggs fully explains:) Anyways, I have to say...I think I learned something...I don't know who Myers or Briggs are, or how they even came up with all those questions, but it helped me. Well, it helped part of me:)

My personality type was/is E (extrovert) S (sensory) F (feeling) P (perceiving). Henry is almost the same except for the end which his is J (judging). Mine is supposably *the performer*, which maybe explained me at 15, but not really now. What it did help with is...homeschooling.

What it explained to me is that I like things open ended, not structured (though my head likes to think I want to be structured), want to consider ALL possibilities, nothing set in stone because of unknown variables, flexible, likes adventure, takes risks, etc. This explains me to a T! Its actually what drives my poor hubby crazy. I even yell at him for writing in his calendar in ink, cause something might change! I NEVER write on ANY calendar in ink...its forbidden!

Link to homeschooling with four children, which really needs to be scheduled, organized (times 4), time slotted, written in ink, goal oriented, big picture minded===STRESS. And not just any ol' stress, MY stress! Something that our counselor that was in charge of giving and interpreting all of this said, was, you need to mesh your personality type with homeschooling four children. You need to lower your stress.

No duh! was what I was thinking! Thats the only thing I KNEW walking in there! It actually had been my heart's cry!

So, now I at least feel like I have a mission. I need to have a schedule that serves my children to the fullest, but doesn't stress me out and HELPS me to serve them. I am going to work on that over Advent as we take a break from the rigorous schedule that we usually are working on. I need to also trust God in this. I need to see it as a tool and not *who* I am specifically (my type wouldn't allow that anyway:).

Simplicity of the Gospel

This is the last week of Term One of this year! We are finishing off books, ending units, preparing for Thanksgiving and Advent…exciting and exhausting all at once. Yet, this was the hardest term for me. Which seems strange, since this is our seventh year of home schooling, so it should be getting easier, not harder right?

God is taking me to the END of me…all those *great* Christian clichés we often quote: ‘more of Him, less of us’, ‘Him increase while we decrease’, ‘in our weakness He is strong’ (ok, that one is really scripture)…you get my point. Well, if you have ever truly fleshed that out…you don’t really pray those when you are IN it…you mostly start saying, “OH GOD! HELP!” Which I suppose is His point! Nevertheless, the process is so very valuable, and yet excruciating all at the same time. And even more important: eternal.

Then tonight, I came across this quote in my BSF study notes on John 6: “In order to recognize and appreciate a supernatural work of God, it is first necessary to recognize its impossibility on a human level.” Which, quite honestly, makes me cuss every time…not kidding.

Home schooling, obviously has been easy for me to handle until this point. I have made it work, had fun, learned the Charlotte Mason method, learned about my children, enjoyed my children. Then this year (the most organized I have ever started), cannot make it work, yell more than I want to, cuss out Charlotte Mason and not enjoying my children like I want and I don’t even want to know what they thought of me the past couple weeks.

And, yet, its not even really all about ME…I can so make every hard time and/or Bible lesson about me, about how I am changing, about how I am becoming a moldable vessel to him, about my fruit, about how THIS scripture spoke to ME, etc, etc.

The real question remains:

What about my homeschooling reveals the Glory of God?

Am I focusing on the food that is perishable, instead of the food that is imperishable?

“Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father
has set his seal.” John 6:27

What does Jesus say that this imperishable food is?? Jesus answers some of the 5000 that just ate the miraculous ‘3 loaves, 2 fish’ meal (they just experienced a miracle, a sign of who He is, and MISSED the whole point) : verse 29: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

That’s it??? No steps? Just believe? Are you sure? It’s not harder? more complicated?

Lord forgive me of my UNbelief.

I am t.r.y.i.n.g. to make sure school is enjoyable, not scarring, creates a love of learning and knowledge, builds good habits, is structured, provides lessons of character building. On and on and on and on I could go. Efforts toward food that perishes;

He says…BELIEVE in the one who was sent.

The Stripped Down Easter

Easter really became only about the Resurrection to me yesterday.

Doesn't that sound weird? Kinda of a "DUH" statement, but the last 48 hours has shown me how much more I personally have added to the Easter "experience" in my head.

My brother and sister (in law) were in this past week and with my birthday being on Good Friday, we were very excited that they extended their stay for a day so we could have fun on Saturday and get ready for Easter. I put all my fun *emotional eggs* in one basket apparently.

Our youngest daughter got really sick, waking up on Friday night throwing up. It went downhill from there! All of a sudden, my weekend was unraveling completely!
My family was leaving early (in case this was contagious), all my *fun* plans for Saturday were gone, I couldn't buy new ties for the boys, I wouldn't end up getting something new for Easter, we weren't eating my birthday cake, I wasn't planning an Easter meal, we were going to be without any family, and here my sweet girl was puking up anything going in...and on and on it went in my mind! I was a wreck! I had a complete meltdown on Saturday evening (that kinda started in the afternoon, my sweet, patient hubby;)

Sunday morning...I was better...sort of! Helped Steve get the kids ready for church. Seth found a tie on the closet floor (new to him :), Alexandra wore a turtle neck under her new Easter dress (because we live in the tundra!), Nik was excited about taking my place in the Nursery and Steve was excited about serving as Acolyte that morning! I tried not to think of all I was missing...its very difficult to go ALL through the Lenten season and then end it with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and NOT get your Easter Sunday!!!

I decided to go to church online...I felt so PATHETIC! But I knew Mark Driscoll was streaming all his services live that day (he did FIVE services with baptisms at every one! the dude is AMAZING!) Anyway, I watched his 8am service and part of his 9:45 service...and it wasn't anything eye opening for me per se. But God starting dealing with my heart...of course...and all of a sudden things started coming to my mind...ties, hams, family, birthdays, shopping, dinners, new shoes, eggs, baskets, all of it...what does it EVEN have to do with MY GOD dying and MY GOD raising from the dead?? And not that you cannot USE all of those things to celebrate, I don't even mean that. But I wasn't going to be able to use ANY of those to help me celebrate...and in that moment it all became VERY VERY clear to me!

OUR Creator, YOUR Creator...appeased the wrath of God and died for us! Who the heck needs Easter grass for that! AND, every Sunday is Easter! So I really didn't miss anything!

Quote of the Day...

"Look Mom! I found the cross of Egypt!"

Our family participates in Bible Study Fellowship and this year we are studying the life of Moses and recently there has been much talk of Arks, Candlesticks, Egyptians, Promised Land etc. Sethie and Allie were doing their timeline figures for their History lesson, which today happened to be the same time period. I gave Shaye some timeline figures you to color, and this was her narration of our lesson! Hopefully one day all her dots will be connected! :)

I have survived lots of firsts!

I survived in the last three months:

• homeschooling our first term, our 4 really inquisitive, motivated, spirited, (sometimes whiney) children
• a half marathon
• an election
• gas at $4.24 a gallon (ok, that was in August, but I still survived!)
• 24 hours of Foster Parenting classes
• lay offs
• bailouts
• paycuts
• no 24 (Jack Bauer) since before the writer's strike
• missing family
• my oldest turning 12
• Just So Stories...again...
• a women's Bible study after MANY years (though I did sweat a little)
• my own mental lists

See, so I have been busy;) And I have lots to share!

Chris Tomlin is Stalking Us

Ok, not really, but on Thursday mornings, we have worship as a family to a CD. Chris Tomlin's new CD is the new family favorite! (Which really needed to happen because my kids were starting to dread Jeremy Riddle...) I printed out words to Sing, Sing, Sing and Exalted and we had worship to those. Well, we started praying afterwards with the CD still playing, and the last song on the CD is our HYMN we are studying Fanny Crosby's All the Way my Savior Leads Me started playing. I stopped praying and we all looked at each other in amazment, we had no idea that it was on this CD! Is God trying to say something to us? hehe If I was a true Charismatic I would think it was a confirmation to something;) Nik bursts out, "Chris Tomlin is stalking us!" Yeah, I am sure that is it!

We went ahead and finished praying and then sang his version. The kids were pretty proud they knew most of the words. God's moving in our worship time;);)

Its that time...

The school bell is almost ringing around here! Oh, wait, that was the coffee pot;)

If you have read this blog for any amount of time at all (all five of you;) you know that I am ready for a *normal* year! Well, I have MUCH to communicate, but first, step into this ADD mind of mine and see how our schedule came together.

First, it started with fear and trepidation at homeschooling a middle schooler, a 3rd grader and a 1st grader who thinks she is a middle schooler...

Then, I needed to figure out HOW in the world I was going to do it. I use the BEST curriculum guide in the world, with the BEST philosophy (IMHO of course;). But there is that applying thing that gets the best of us stuck at times! Plus, three kids, with three different book lists, one three year old, four days a week equals crying out to God (and of course a glass of wine...).

Here is what I did:

wrote everyone's initial and subject needed to be covered in the next 12 weeks on a piece of paper and threw it on the floor:

this is just a portion

I am not good at processing AND making a chart on the computer at the same time, and I needed to see the whole week at once.

Then I put the lessons times along one side of the room and started to fill in the gaps.

On Monday mornings, I decided to do everything we can together, which isn't too much, but every little minute I can squeeze out of the week helps. Together we are going to do our quartly Composer Study, Artist Study, Shakespeare, Hymn Study, Folksongs, scripture reading, and handwriting.

I worked on one day at a time, and I think I have it all figured out. At least it looks really good on paper!

Here is what my paper squares week looks like after rearranging a couple times. We only school 4 days a week and each column under each day is one of the kids schedules. Nik was a little overwhelmed at the amount of his squares.

The final schedules are here...they even each got their own font;) So, it fits on paper (even with some of the books they didn't finish up last year), we will see if it works in real life!! I will keep you posted!