Almost Totally Toothless

Daniel lost ANOTHER tooth last night. That makes 8 teeth missing in a very short time. I think I'm going to have to feed him soup for a couple of weeks. He's tougher than the girls about yanking them, he figured out how to work at wiggling them until they fall out, and he never misses the occasion to make a buck from the tooth-angel.

Review: That's Where God Is

That's Where God Is by Dan and Ali Morrow is a sweet little book that would be such a great way to open the door to some serious discussion with a child about asking Jesus into their heart. The story focuses on a little boy who asks his grandfather the question, "Where is God?"

I picked up a book recently along these same lines in the library and I hated it! I am very cautious about the theology with a book like this. The book in the library was like so many others I find; just a wishy-washy God is in the trees, God is in the birds kind of non-sense with no real kicker that God is real and we can have an actual relationship with him.

What I love about this book is the Scripture woven into the story, and an excellent and appropriate description of how to pray and how to ask Jesus into your heart. It is extremely well done and makes it so clear and simple without glossing over or being overly simplified. This will be a great book to have around the house or especially in a Sunday school classroom to share with children who are wanting to know more about God. I highly recommend it!

You can purchase a beautiful hardback copy of That's Where God Is HERE for $12.99.

Disclaimer: That's Where God Is was provided by David C. Cook and the B & B Media Group

for the purposes of review only.

Beach Pictures

Artsy Quiet Time

This is what happens when mom gets plenty of quiet time with God and has leisurely time to read her Bible and not rush. Ah, the blessings of not having any kids below preschool age! I thought it would be fun to paint a tree that had every part of the trunk and branches covered with verses.

I'm not sure that anyone else will be able to read all of them, but I sure had fun painting it.

I used different color fine tip Sharpies. I loved digging for cool verses for this, I used pretty random verses. Of course, the bottom root says the 1Tim 6:10 "The love of money is the root of all evil..."

Not sure what I will DO with it, (it's about 3x2 ft) but I enjoyed making it. Now I'm thinking wouldn't it be fun to do some themed ones ... a blessing tree, a healing tree. Don't know if I will find the time for all that...but we'll see.

Rock Painting

We checked out this GREAT book from the library it is called Painting Animals on Rocks by Lin Wellford. Rocks are all the rage at our house right now. I finally told the kids all cool rocks must be kept OUTSIDE; so we have a large pile of them outside our front door.

Here's some of our cool creations. The book gives some really great details and instructions so these were really easy to do. They might be a great thing to slip into a Christmas stocking, my kids have loved playing with them. Ally has visions of painting up a bunch and selling them. Gracie is not quite finished working on the very large and heavy turtle.

They are so fun to hold in the palm of your hand.

Here's Ally's bunny, she did a great job on all the little details. We are in a VERY crafty mode around here, county fair art submissions have to be in next Friday. I've been right there with them painting and playing as well. We have already declared Tuesday ART DAY and are going to only do some Math and the minimum school work so that we can do lots of crafting.

Frescos!

Oh my goodness! I have had the best time teaching my art history class at co-op! I was originally worried about teaching this class to the younger age group -as art history is generally done for an older crowd, but it has been a blast!

Today, we learned about frescoes. Fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster. We looked at some famous frescos from Art History and talked about why this type of painting was done. The plaster was used mainly to create better color, but we left our frescos white and we will paint over them next week. We could've mixed in powdered tempra pretty easily, but this was my attempt to keep it simple.
We used sheetrock drywall mud ($7 Home Depot) and sheetrock (salvage places often have broken pieces pretty cheap). Our sheetrock was 2 x 2 feet so they are pretty large (sorry parents). We could quickly see how hard it was to paint fine details! And how difficult it would've been to have our plaster substance colored already and control the design, keep it from mixing. We kept our image simple and ended up kind of finger painting it on. It was pretty messy!

Keeping the image simple really helped, so we did a simple tree. We used the drywall mud to do the trunk and branches and next week we will finish them up by painting them.

This is my finished tree - the thick mud makes a neat effect when paint is used sparingly to show the bark. Doing this hands on project really helped them to see how very difficult it was for Michealangelo and other painters who did this on the ceiling! We talked about how it probably dripped all over them, yuck!

I can't wait to see the finished products! It is really neat for me to teach this class focusing on the artist's process, techniques, and tools. What an awesome way to learn about art history and appreciate art!

It's Fall, Ya'll!

Today is the first day of fall and I have my windows open and air off loving the 78 degree morning weather. Sure, it will probably be back to 90+ by this afternoon. I am so crazy about FALL! It is my favoritest time of year! There is nothing I love to wear like long-sleeved t-shirts, hoodies, and sweaters! And I love open windows. Ahh. But there is this small part of me that starts to feel a bit of...maybe dread. Mainly because where in the world is that Christmas savings account I was planning to build up by now? There's that whole holiday season coming up at the end of fall. 3 kid's birthdays and Christmas all within 20 days of each other makes for a crazy (and expensive) end of the year for us.

But, let's try to dwell on the good. Think about the death of mosquitoes in the cold, snuggling under a quilt, and soup weather. Those are good thoughts.

So, I felt I needed a Fall To Do List just for me. A list of some really neat things I want to do this season.

1. Make homemade bread bowls for soup. AKA: Find more ways to get family to eat more soup. Last year my family was kindly groaning over the many soup meals I prepared.

2. Designate some meal plan nights. Homemade pizza night, breakfast night, kid cook night, or maybe...soup night?

3. Make time to finish 2 lingering craft projects just for me. A Texas quilt I have been working on FOREVER and a crochet blanket I am having fun with.

4. Run. okay. walk quickly. some. at least exercise. maybe jog around the house once when I walk to the mailbox. I took one look through the window at that Zumba at the Y and it scared me to death. I don't have near the rhythm for that. It'd be a train wreck and I might take a couple-a-people in Yoga pants out with me.

5. I have this BLISSFUL kid-free morning once a week while the kids are at co-op and it just makes me giddy with creative potential. I'd like to stay organized enough so that I can sit in a clean house with nothing pressing to take that time away. I'd love to use that time to study my Bible and write and read. It's so hard to relax and really enjoy that extra time when piles of laundry are staring at me or grocery shopping to be done! I need to work out another time to do my grocery shopping.

I'm gonna splurge on a big bouquet of mums & sunflowers to celebrate the end of 100 degree days! As we say in Texas, happy fall ya'll!

ridiculously pampered pooch

I never thought I'd have an inside dog, but I do. I alternate between hate and slightly more than like with this dog. But, like it or not, she is part of the family. I just wish I had 1 day where I could have her schedule and nap all day.

Garden Girl

Baptism

Daniel asked Jesus into his heart last year, but we handled his baptism a bit differently than the girls. We really wanted him to come to us and ask to be baptized instead of just saying, now you have to be baptized. He has been asking for a while, but this was the first time we have been able to schedule it.

It was an awesome time. A video was shown of Daniel giving his testimony. I said a few words about how Daniel comes from a long line of mighty men of God, then I said a blessing over him. I said the blessing my dad and mom said over me every day when I was a kid. Then his daddy baptized him and prayed over him. Here's the blessing:

You are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, blessed in the basket, blessed in the store, blessed coming in and blessed going out. You are a disciple taught of the Lord, and great shall be your peace and undisturbed composure. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against you in judgement shall be condemned.

There shall be no evil to fall upon you, nor any plague come near your dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over you to bear you up lest you stumble and fall.

You shall find favor with God and will men, and the Lord will bless everything you put your hands to do.

The Word of the Lord shall not return void, but it shall accomplish what God pleases and shall prosper in the thing He sent it to do.

I'm so blessed to have parents who spoke these words over me daily! I know that God has HUGE plans for Daniel! He is going to be a mighty warrior for God, he is already being used of God even as a kid.

Artist's Eyes

It is a hard thing for a kid to see things from a different perspective! This is one of my biggest goals in our co-op Art History class this year. We talk a lot about using our "artist's eyes" and not just looking at a painting but thinking deeper about how it was constructed, what materials were used, and why it was constructed. Friday we looked at a bunch of ancient masks, Indian masks, and talked about them. Then we made our own in class. It was fun, although most of them didn't exactly look traditional. If time would've allowed, I would've liked to have taken them for a walk and collected "natural" materials.

I did the paper mache-ing before hand so the project would go quicker. I've learned from experience that a bunch of kids and paper mache = disaster! The silver masks in the photo were made by sticking on mettalic tape (bought at Walmart). I've had fun using it for all kinds of artsy projects recently. Although, I have to hide it from my son who must eat rolls of tape like candy. If he walks out of a room with a roll of tape I know I'll never see it again. But, I never (okay do my best to almost never) deny a kid the supplies to create some crafty creation - it's good for the brain!

Girl's Room Makeover

My girls are so great about sharing a room. I think it is good for kids to share a room, it has to build patience, unselfishness, and kindness! It must be good training for marriage because most of your life you have to share a room with your husband! However at ALMOST 13 and 10 we decided to make some minor changes to their living arrangements. They have a HUGE room so we thought we would divide it in a non-construction type way.

Here's some before pictures. The loft bed has been nice to create a private space for the oldest, but part of the challenge has been TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT personality styles. Daughter #1, Ally, is kind of a minimalist; pretty neat, hates clutter. She's the type of kid that reads a birthday card, says "AWW that was sweet" and puts it in the trash immediately. Lets just say we'll never see her on one of those hoarding shows.

Daughter #2, Gracie, on the other hand probably still has every note, card, drawing, sea shell, and letter ever given to her. Her love language is gifts and every knick-knack has a story that she remembers. She can tell you about the time Nana bought her something for $.25 cents from a gumball machine and because of that special memory- she must treasure it always. We always encourage creativity and B and I both will help our kids construct odd things they dream up, draw out, and create out of lumber or craft supplies. Gracie loves and hangs on to these inventions a bit long for her older sister's taste. She also has enjoyed wallpapering the walls with horse pictures and drawings.

So the room redo began. Each girl drew out her ideas, but in the end Mom and Dad had to work out something that was actually possible. I spent about $100; which is a lot more than I planned. But it was really neat to let them have creative freedom and try to be really frugal. So many of my frugal ways have worn off on my girls. We spent money mainly on a new bedspread, fabric for pillows with lots of JoAnn's coupons, just a few special touches like wipe off posterboard sheets for $.33 (who knew they made those?), and a roll of ocean print paper for $7.99 at Michaels with 1/2 off coupons.

So, I know way blurry photo! You walk into the room and see we have divided it in two mainly with the dresser in the middle of the room. We braced it on the back with a large sheet of plywood and pushed the other sister's dresser against it for extra stability. I think Dad might of actually put a screw from the dresser to the bed for safety, but I hope not.

So now Gracie has her own private play space and lots of room to spread out, decorate walls with pictures, and lots of grazing land for her model horses to roam & enjoy.

Here's the backside of that same dresser with Ally's side of the room. We covered the plywood with the ocean print bulletin board paper.

She has always wanted to have a brown/green/turquoise kinda scheme so we found some great fabrics, whipped up some curtains ourselves, and made a body pillow to turn the bed into a cool hangout couch. She loves the rag rug made by her great-grandmother even if it doesn't really match.

Ally asked me to make her a sign with Jeremiah 1:5-9 on it. She planned it out and wanted Africa in the background. It was a fun project and the girls are really happy with the results. We required them to fill a large box with stuff to get rid of before we would begin the redo. AND it was an educational project, too! We did lots of drawings, measuring, figuring, planning, sewing, and lots of creative thinking to make it all come together! I love encouraging my kids to see how much they can make out of little, that is a creative skill that comes in handy so much in ALL of life.

Ancient Art Lesson

In our co-op Art History Lesson last week we talked about how ancient people made art and WHY. We had a great discussion, looking at lots of examples from historic art and cave paintings.

Then, we went outside to make some paint like ancient people might have used. We talked about papyrus, looked at some handmade paper, and talked about the tools that would've been available to use & how paper would've been made.

We crushed up rocks and chalk.

We crushed up berries with rocks. A couple students spotted some sunflowers in a field and picked them, crushed their petals and made some great yellow paint also. The rest of the flower made a great paintbrush.

We didn't take the time to mix in some thickeners like egg and Crisco (animal fat) like ancient people might have done. Actually, they would probably have cooked the paint too. We talked about making brushes out of animal hair, we used sticks (or fingers) to paint onto our paper.

Our creations weren't exactly things of beauty, but it was more about the discovery and the experience. It was kind of messy, too, but they came back into class talking about different vegetables they could crush up for other colors. I have fond memories of doing this as a kid when I lived in west Texas with the red dirt. Hopefully they'll think differently about paint! One of my main goals in this class is to get them thinking differently about art. When you see art you shouldn't just look at it on the surface, but look at it with "artist eyes" considering also the tools used to create it.

Students Learning to Debate

I have a new soapbox. I have come to the recent conclusion that EVERY Christian student should learn debate. It should be mandatory. Is that a bold statement?

It is not enough that our children KNOW what they believe, study the Word of God, and learn all the apologetics curriculum there is to be learned. If we have strong enough convictions about our beliefs and feel that the current society is rejecting those values -we must teach them how to speak out, defend, and argue for their beliefs. What we do is for nothing if they cannot stand up and defend these ideas we are raising them to uphold.

Homeschoolers ESPECIALLY! Why else are we doing what we do?

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." - Proverbs 31:8-9

Even if you don't have access to a great class or program like the one I teach at co-op you can work with your kids on some debate skills:

1. Set up a mini debate -just you and your child. I don't believe you should allow a kid to argue with you normally, but explain that this is a debate and that at this point it is appropriate. However kids need to learn the skill of disagreeing without arguing. Give them some time to prepare a speech. Set some ground rules and time limits depending on age. Explain that interrupting is not allowed. 2 min each for presenting an argument and then 1 min summary each at the end should be plenty. For older kids you might have longer speeches and a quick time for questions in between. Take the less desirable side and don't go easy on them.
Sample topics: Evolution vs. Creationism - Is the Bible True? Is Jesus really the Messiah? People should obey God vs. People should do what they want

2. Periodically force them to verbalize their beliefs and explain WHY they feel that way. Ask them questions that begin with, "What if someone says..."

Debate provides such valuable skills! Not only for life, faith, and people skills - but so much is gained for academics as well. Organizing thoughts, listening, responding appropriately, research, using evidence, and writing just to name a few.

Death In the Pot

As you may know I love to paint Bible verse signs. There's one sign my husband has always wanted me to paint for our kitchen that I haven't gotten around to. The sign would be hard to paint because it needs to contain the entire story of 2 Kings 4: 38-41. You gotta read it in KJV to really appreciate it, but unfortunately this verse is occasionally a big part of our mealtime around here, usually in the winter when I like to experiment with my favorite food; soup!

Just to summarize from the KJV: Some men make a "pottage." They go to eat it and they cry out, "O Thou man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it. Elisha prays and puts some flour into it, and there is no harm in the pot.

My family leans heavily on this passage of scripture during mealtime prayers because as far as I know this is the only time in the Bible that FOOD was actually healed. Now, as my husband explains it to the kids - this means when we pray for our food we are not just blessing it, not just thanking God for it - we are asking God to heal it. Yes, he is a funny man.

Now, I am not particularly known for my great cooking, especially when I stray off on my own without a recipe. My whole family loves to tease me about this Bible story when I set some strange concoction down on the table for supper. The conversation goes something like this:

kid: "Wow." (without enthusiasm)"What's that?"

dad: "OOh, it's Pottage!"

kids: (in unison) "Oh, thou man of God, there is death in the pot!"

And Daddy prays for the healing of the food, but I'm pretty sure God doesn't honor prayers prayed out of sarcasm. I'm no theologian or anything.

Texas Beach Trip!

Yes, we have beaches in Texas, too! After living in North Carolina - we expected to be slightly disappointed with the Texas beaches, but they were great. Kinda seaweedy, but the water was WAY warmer than the east coast! We've been to Galveston but I don't remember ever going to Padre Island. I know I probably went as a kid. ANYWAY a beach is a beach ... we love beaches of any kind and we had a great time!

That's Daniel boogy boarding in the background. My parents hosted their annual grandkid fun time called Max Camp -this year at Padre Island. They took all 3 kids down south on Tuesday in their camper and parked right on the beach. They played in the water pretty much all day every day for 4 days straight. We picked them up on Saturday - and we brought the dog along with us on the 6+ hour trip south. The dog was a BIG PAIN by the way and I think her traveling days are numbered. SHE was good, but traveling with animals is just crazy, I think next time we'll board her or something.

The kids had fun doing some park ranger programs; earning their junior ranger badges and exploring the park.

We used these cool PVC things to get shrimp out of the sand. The kids found lots of sand dollars and crabs (a crab bit our dog on the nose). The kids talked the whole way home about all of their adventures and retold all the Max stories. Uncle Todd and Aunt Allison took them kayaking and Max showed them how to snorkel.

Sending the kids down so early in the week was a spontaneous decision and the teacher side of me hates to have them miss so much school. We didn't get much normal school done this week; but as we are studying Texas History this year I think this trip ought to count for something! Plus all that science -

Here a ranger is showing them some really cool coral on the beach. I would've thought this was rope that had washed up, wouldn't you? It has a soft outside and the inside skeleton is very much like wire. It was used by Indians (there's some history & science) for all kinds of things. They had some really interesting programs! So, educational and fun - what a great field trip -er...week of field trips - field trip week! Max Camp is always full of incredible adventures! As our motto for my parents is in our house, "You never know with Max and Nana!"

Softball Pictures

Kid #1 has been on a travel ball team and it has been pretty wild. Tournaments are pretty much constant and LONG and SO VERY HOT! It's tough! She's lovin' it, though.

More discipline has produced results. She sets aside time early every morning after her devo to bat and pitch before starting school.

September is a light month for softball activity - only 2 weekend tournaments! August and October are pretty well booked every weekend! This kid is also doing some pretty intense school work with Algebra I, I always have a tough English curriculum, lots of extra subjects she requested this year, some tough classes at our homeschool co-op, and her first year of the youth group.

Frugal Fun for Kids

I posted earlier about SEEDS FAMILY WORSHIP and the 5 CD's online you can listen to. We are actually using these for some Bible memory this year. I have also mentioned how my kids love to listen to Adventures in Odyssey online. Tons of episodes on their website! Lunchtime is our read aloud time for school. Dad sometimes reads to everyone in the evening - he does the best voices, especially when he does the buzzards from Hank the Cowdog. The kids love it! We never go on a road trip without some Hank CDs from the library.

I love our read aloud time, but some days I've already had 4 1/2 hours of teaching 3 grades by lunch and I just need to eat some lunch in peace. That's one of the times when we like to turn on Adventures in Odyssey. Plus, my kids will do twice the chores when they are listening to a book on tape. I've really worked this to my advantage, see. The kid who does laundry gets to go off in my bedroom and listen to a tape. It is a coveted chore. Nice. Let's fight to see who gets to fold the clothes.

We haven't really experienced Jonathan Park until recently. I always see them listed in the CBD catalog, but I have never justified the expense; they are kind of pricey. I just found that you can also listen to one episode a week online for free -Jonathan Park! We borrowed a few episodes from a friend and WE LOVE these CD's! Very educational too.

Another great resource that is way cool is that our local library has these way cool little mp3 things called Playaway. Does your library have these things? They are so cool! They each have 1 book only loaded on them. They are tiny little things that fit in your pocket, you plug in your own headphones of course. A neat, fun way to listen to a book without hassle. I am okay with listening to books as long as they are not on my required reading lists, then my kids will just have to read the real thing.

This week I am listening to John Grisham's newest novel (which is for kids by the way) Theodore Boone. I always read books from the kid's section. I know that when I am old and all my kids have left home I am going to still be going to the library and reading kid's books. Maybe then ... when I have more time I'll start writing some.

Have a great day!