More than Adrift

Thanksgiving is nearly here. And as I begin trying to rid myself of the thanklessness that often overshadows the blessings, I find myself growing in self control, and joy, and peace. This week in our Sunday school class, the teens walked through the story of Cain and Abel. A story which I have known for years, but settled into my heart this week. As Cain struggles with feelings of jealousy and anger, God comes to him. Speaks to him directly, though we don't have details, I can imagine it vividly. Cain is feeling rejected, jealous of God's favor towards his brother. I'd guess that there are deeper rooted issues, though I'm certainly adding my own back story here, but given Cain's enormous reaction, this probably isn't the first time Cain has felt slighted. But God doesn't walk away, leaving him to seethe in his frustration. He comes to Cain. While Cain is angry, God speaks to him gently, lovingly. "Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen...

We have had a lot of fun traveling through Ancient Egypt Our trip through Egypt We read a fun book about a cave discovery with all sorts of artwork painted on the walls, so this is our version :-) Homemade chariots! Kids loved this one! My favorite activity during our Ancient Egypt unit was building sugar cube pyramids! All three kids loved doing this activity. It can be small (beginning with a 6x6 base) or huge (D started with 10x10 base!) Warning: Sugar cubes are a little tricky to find! After completion, he asked me to save it so that he can show it at the county fair... so it is still standing in our garage!! Even through a move to a new house! This was another really fun activity. A lot of the books we read had maps of Ancient Egypt. We also located Egypt on our world map and drew in the Nile River and it's tributaries. So Cookie Dough maps seemed like the perfect activity!! We used premade cookie dough, blue frosting, a variety of candies ...

18 years ago, I thought I was on the brink of being a young woman. I was coming up on a big birthday, and thought I knew exactly what I wanted. I was no longer a baby, a toddler, a preschooler, even a child. I was growing up, and 12 seemed a significant age. I was a fairly typical (for West Bloomfield) 12 year old girl, and I wanted whatever most of my friends were getting for their birthdays (I think it was a cell phone) Instead, I opened a birthday card from my dad a few weeks early, and saw a gift certificate for a vacation. A vacation. Not what I had asked for. In fact, we went on vacations fairly frequently and truly, I wasn't all that impressed. Never mind that I had an amazing time. Never mind that I learned to surf, and sail, and met people I never would have met otherwise. Never mind that it was WAY better than what I had asked for. I still really wanted that cell phone. Fast forward 10 years. I'm 21, on the brink of adulthood, and I know exact...

Instead of beginning with Egypt, we decided to start at the very, very beginning. We started with creation. The book that we read was really quite pretty with great illustrations. And on one of the pages (the day God created the animals) there was a great picture of a frog! So I thought it would be great to tie in our own awesome frogs, the creek filled with frogs, and lots of fun games derived from there.... Then, we read the story of Adam and Eve (also a retelling in the same book) and in Usborne's 50 things to make and do, I found a fun (and easy, and cheap) idea to make a Shadow Puppet to re-tell the story we read. Here's K telling the story (the shadow puppet is a snake.... kind of...)  So if you know your book of Genesis, we are now at Noah's Ark. We spent two days on this story, because my kids had so, so, so many questions on this (where did the animal poo go? was my favorite) We re-enacted the story. D was Noah (of course) and C was one of h...

I am SO excited to be getting ready for our first homeschooling year. It literally gets my heart beating faster when planning it out. D asked me this week "When do we get to begin our unit on Ancient Egypt because I really want to make K's Barbie into a mummy!" This year, I am doing a hodgepodge of things, pulling together from lots of different sources, and since it's kindergarten, there is a lot of room for my own planning based on D's interests. I really need to come up with more clever names for my children on here... that will come in the next blog :-) This year we are using Math U See for math, which is a very visual, hands on program. I know that my kindergartener is quite ahead in this area, so it's likely that we'll move along at pretty quick pace. We are also beginning formal "reading" lessons with a book recommended by lots of friends, 100 lessons to teach your child to read. D already knows all of his letter sounds and underst...

One of the more appealing things about homeschooling is that I will have the ability to help shape and define my children's values, more so than an influential teacher, more than a group of peers, more than the culture we live in. Our faith will be defined as more than just attending church on Sunday. Our compassion can be learned with hands on service. Our patriotism will be redefined as a love of values, and love of man, rather than a simple love of country. Patriotism is one of the things that I struggle the most with. I love that I was born in the United States, I am grateful for it, and grateful for the freedom it has allowed me. But, I think there are better ways of doing things. I see problems with the values that our country is focusing on. I see challenges to overcome with our social systems, education, and government. To be truthful, I see more that needs to be improved on than I see should be modeled and reproduced. To me, being a Christian is loving the world. Lov...

Dreams are a funny thing. If you grew up in a good home, you were probably told things like "the sky is the limit!" "Dream big!" (maybe that was just my dad?!) And it's frustrating when your dreams become tangled up in diapers, dishes, and dirty laundry. The idea of losing yourself admist the daily grind is scary. I think this has always been my biggest fear. That my children will grow up, and I will have nothing of myself left. I will have given 100% of myself to them, and they will just grow up, and go on to live their own lives, and I'll have nothing to show for those 20 years. After years of genuinely struggling, accepting, praying, and re-cycling through these, I realize that it isn't that I don't feel like I'm accomplishing enough, it's not the accolades of a career that I really want. It's not the paycheck that I need. It's not more adult conversation. It's a legacy. I think that's why a lot of women seek out gratif...