1000 Gifts: A Kaleidescope of color

Think of a beautiful diamond ring and how it sparkles every time you look at it from a different angle. Or a kaleidescope and how its shapes and colors keep changing and glittering as it turns. Understanding the beauty of God is a little like looking at a diamond or gazing into a kaleidescope. The longer you look, the more beauty you see.

-- Joni Eareckson Tada

My gratitude list continues...

0039

a few last flowers, blooming in grandma's garden

0040

itsy-bitsy cherry tomatoes, still growing on the vine

0041

God's tiniest creatures, busy about their work

0042

snow boots in September... because he thinks "they're cool"

0043

best buddies, constant companions, faithful friends... and the joy they daily bring

0044

my niece & my nephew (and of course their mom & their dad :), celebrating their very first birthday

0045

fun places to play... and the chance to be a kid!

0046

sibling generosity... and the opportunity to witness it every single day :)

0047

Wonderful grandparents... who love their grandbabies!

0048

And a great-grandmom, too... who delights in her great-grandsons' visits every single time~

"Taste and see that the LORD is good;

blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Psalm 34:8

And my list goes on...

Join the gratitude community:

Geography... the yummy way

Maps. Maps. Maps. We love our maps, but I gotta tell ya, sometimes the same old thing gets sorta dull. Sorta ho-hum. And extremely boring. After all, my two oldest boys have labeled a gazillion maps over the last few years-- maps of Egypt, maps of Mesopotamia, maps of Africa, maps of Europe, and on and on and on. And now that we're tackling the ever-growing young American nation (think late 1700s to the early 1800s), one more traditional paper map just didn't hold too much appeal.

So, we decided to try something new.

Something fun.

Something yummy.

We made one out of cookie dough!

Here's the super-easy skinny-- we rolled a tube of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough out on a baking sheet and baked it for 10 or 15 minutes... until it looked just right. Once it cooled sufficiently, we used a paper map as our guide and cut out the edges (on the right hand side) accordingly. Since we've been reading about Daniel Boone, the Wilderness Road, and the early stages of western expansion, we included the east coast states from South Carolina to Pennsylvania. We iced the giant cookie with vanilla frosting and then drew in the individual states with Betty Crocker Easy Decorator icing pens (they're awesome!).

Next, Bub labeled each state,

added a Skittle for the Cumberland Gap (a key passageway through the lower Appalachians which made the west accessible to pioneers), and drew in the Wilderness Road (the principal route used by thousands of settlers to reach Kentucky).

Then Noh-man iced the Atlantic Ocean,

and with Big Man's help, he added chocolate chunks to represent the Appalachian Mountains.

Not a perfect rendering, but a fun-- and extremely delicious-- one!

And we all reviewed our geography in the process~

Wordless Wednesday

Lunch, prepared a little early

A few minutes ago I ran upstairs to grab the sheets off Big Man's bed... time for a spin through the washing machine. As I pulled the covers back and picked up a few random toys from the floor, I noticed a lunchbox, tucked neatly underneath his bed. Heavier than I expected it to be, I unzipped the pouch for a quick peak inside. And what did I find?? Lunch for co-op this upcoming Friday-- which he had packed a few days ago-- along with a few toys. A race car, a thumb-sized skateboard, his wallet (which held the race car and the skateboard), a super hero action figure, one of my good spoons from the kitchen drawer, a Gogurt, and a vanilla yogurt. That makes 2 very warm dairy products... under his bed... waiting for Friday.

At least he's excited about co-op!!

With a heavy heart....

I'm finally admitting that summer is officially over. The cooler temps have arrived, the leaves have begun to change color, and school is back in full swing (not to mention all the activities that come with a new school year). And for all that, I'm wonderfully grateful. The pace of life that comes with autumn, however... well, I am just not ready for hyper speed yet! Before you know it, we'll be shopping for Christmas gifts and we'll be setting up the tree-- wrapping paper & decorative ribbons are already lining the shelves at Costco, for goodness sake, along with various & sundry other holiday items... ugh.

Ah well.... summer was fun while it lasted, and before you know it, it'll be back. In full force. And then I'll be posting this note all over again, I'm sure :) Until then, here are my last few summer pics... a few of Big Man-- with his beloved water gun-- at the pool.

"Some parents say it is guns that make boys warlike.
But give a boy a rubber duck
and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol
and shout
'Bang!' "

-- George F. Will

Can I get an Amen??!

On the Lawn

This afternoon, as the Tea Party Express pulled into Washington D.C., crowds gathered on the Capitol lawn. Some news stations reported tens of thousands in attendance; others reported one million. I'm not sure how many people actually showed up, but it was a lot. I know... because we were there, and it was awesome!

History in the making-- that's what we told our boys. Because when the Constitution is threatened and when our rights are ignored... "we the people" must take a stand for what's right.

So this morning, that's what we did (and thanks to some good friends-- whom we just happened to bump in to them as we approached the lawn-- we even had a few signs to wave as we ambled along).

And I'm so glad we did~

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;

or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,

and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

-- 1st Amendment to the Constitution

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

--Winston Churchill

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

-- Ronald Reagan

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

-- Charles Kingsley

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

-- James Madison, speech, Virginia Convention, 1788

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

-- George Washington

The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power.

-- Daniel Webster

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather and irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

-- Samuel Adams

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

-- John Quincy Adams

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned-- this is the sum of good government.

-- Thomas Jefferson

The first few days

Aahhh, week one, almost done. Only 35 more to go :) Grin.

Seriously though, it really is hard to believe we're back in school. I could really use another few weeks! But in July I made a firm decision-- this past week would be the week for us... our back-to-school-week... our ready or not, here we come, time to start up again, hooray week. Needless to say, once I shared this decision with my little people, they were less-than-pleased (they frequently asked what was so wrong with waiting until next September to start). And I certainly understood their less-than-agreeable attitudes. After all, our summer was incredibly busy, and down time was-- unfortunately-- at a minimum. In fact, to me the thought of picking back up with our studies was actually quite laughable, but like it or not, the calendar clearly stated that September had arrived. So, sticking to my previous commitment, we forged ahead (and we're all still alive to tell about it :).

Monday evening: fresh from the beach, we hustled to get our house back in order, grabbed a few texts off the shelf, and saddled into Tuesday morning, ready for a fresh start. And believe it or not, we actually had a nice time of it. The boys, of course, were on their best behavior because our "first day of school lunch" at Subway (their current favorite) was hanging in the balance (is bribery really such a bad thing??). The rain thwarted our picnic, but submarine sandwiches still satisfied 3 little tummies around the kitchen table that afternoon.

Now in preparation for the 09/10 academic year, I pondered a bit... about resources and curricula, activities and commitments. You know, all the big stuff. I wanted to pick a Bible verse to serve as this year's focus-- our mantra, so to speak-- and interestingly enough, I settled on one right away... Ephesians 4:29. And then I began to chuckle because almost as quickly, it dawned on me that this verse was not new to us; in fact, it's been studied before in our household. Just to be sure, I glanced back at a post I wrote after our first month last year, and lo and behold, here's what I found:

"One of my primary goals for the early part of this year has actually not been academic. Instead, I've been trying to focus a bit more on "brotherly relations." You know, how they treat one another (I know, it's surprising that that would even be necessary, right? Ha!). To do this, we've been studying this verse:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Ephesians 4:29

Treating one another with kindness and love does not come naturally to any of us. The constant bickering, arguing, fighting, and tattling that occur daily in our home are evidence of that! So we're paying extra attention to the choices we make and the words we use. In addition, Hubby and I continue to remind the three-- they'll be brothers forever... their bond is precious and their relationship is unique. Abusing it is absolutely inexcusable. So... step by step, day by day... we're all striving to control our tongues!"

Hmmm.

How 'bout that.

It seems I saw the need last year to tackle this ever-elusive quality... this whole speaking-in-truth-and-love thing, and sure enough, for some strange reason or another, I still see the need to address this seemingly unattainable trait. So instead of claiming a new verse for this year, we'll just keep trucking forward with last year's selection, and hopefully, by God's good grace, we'll make a little progress (or a lot!) so that we can move on to a whole other host of character issues that would like our attention :)

As for our academia, I decided to start off the week slowly. Over the years I quickly learned that diving in with both feet only makes for a house full of very unhappy swimmers. So in the interest of their sanity and mine, I decided to dip one pinky toe in this week, and perhaps by the end of the month we'll be floating merrily down the stream.

For starters, the day begins with me. Period. For good or bad, I'm in charge, and generally speaking, if I'm not on my game, things are gonna head south... quickly. So with that in mind I decided weeks ago that I would rise much earlier than my kiddos each and every day. There's just no other way around it. You see in earlier years, when I've stayed in bed (due to nursing babes and/or complete exhaustion) until my little people were ready to climb out of theirs, things just didn't go well. At all. I simply was not prepared to face the demands of the day. To meet my little ones head on (along with all their school subjects and general life issues), I needed some wake-up time beforehand. I needed some time in the Word. I needed some time in prayer. I needed my mug of hot cocoa, for goodness sake! I also needed a minute or two to just sit. And ponder. And enjoy the peace.

So this year, 5:45 it is... my magical wake-up hour. Because if I crawl out of bed at that hour I should be guaranteed an hour and a half before my 2 biggest bruisers descend. And that's enough, thankfully. And so far, so good. In fact, as a sweet treat this week, Lollipop has been sleeping much later than any of her brothers, so I've been blessed with a golden window of opportunity each morning-- a good hour almost to snuggle on the sofa with a few god books before clamoring into the kitchen for breakfast. A little history. A few Bible stories. Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin... it's all good. And it's a great way for us to ease in to our day.

So after some lemon poppyseed muffins (a first day favorite) or a few slices of french toast, our routine, thus far, looks like this: we all head up the stairs for our Bible lesson together, some discussion time, our hymn study, and some memory work. Lollipop plays contentedly, and Big Man pops in and out as he pleases (after some math and his phonics work, that is).

Bub and Noh-man then tackle their math before we head downstairs for their piano lessons.

Each one gets a turn, and sometimes Lolli generously offers her assistance :)

Then it's back upstairs for some independent reading (and a nap for Mosby),

an entry or two in their vocabulary notebooks, a little copywork, and a logic puzzle

before we all reconvene for another chapter or two in Benjamin West.

And then we're all done. Finis. No more.

Each and every one of us--> desperate for a break at this point (this new routine is gonna take a little time :)

Next week we'll add in our latin & literature studies, and we'll also dive a little deeper into our history work,

but for now, this is enough.

So with that, it's time to head outdoors for a much needed change of pace and our daily stroll around the block...

Cause even super heroes in striped socks need a study break!