Christmas Lesson for Mom

It doesn't matter what time I go to bed...I almost always wake up about 7 am. And it's just enough time to sit and pray and reflect, maybe do a little reading before anyone else wakes up.

This morning I'm thinking of our Christmas break, our Christmas holiday, the time we've shared together. It's been such a picture perfect couple of days, spending time with family, giving and receiving,cooking and eating...celebrating Jesus.

This year instead of me reading the Christmas story out of the Bible before we opened gifts, Joshua asked if he could tell the story. So he told the story from memory and did a good job of it. I admit that part of me felt like he did that so he could hurry up and get to the presents. I almost made everyone wait while I read the story from the Bible...but something tugged on my heart. " Stop Penny. Stop trying to control every moment. What is it that you're trying to teach him?"

I want my kids to know that they are not Christians in training, that they have access to God and the power of the Holy Spirit now. They can serve, they can worship, they can be prayer warriors and their contributions to our family worship time are just as valuable as my own.

I could have read the passage of Jesus' birth but I didn't need to. Joshua had allready done a beautiful job of telling it.

Happy Mother's Day

Top 10 Things I'm Thankful for 2009

1. The Grace of God.
2. My wonderful husband.
3. My awesome children.
4. Being so close (emotionally) to my mom and my siblings and all of their kids.
5. My amazing friends.
6. Hubby's job.
7. My job.
8. My home.
9. An abundance of food and water.
10. Homeschooling

Happy Thanksgiving,

Savoring Every Moment and Celebrating Life

My oldest turned 9 over the weekend! Can you believe it? Well sure you can, but it was a tough one for me. :)
We had a fun birthday weekend as a family. We went to see the Nerdbots on display and ended up (finally) buying W a build your own robot kit! He chose a 6 in 1 solar robot kit (pictured at left) and loved it.

He had a sleep over with a friend and ate pizza and root beer floats...the best birthday food ever! They watched movies and pretended to camp out. (We set up an indoor tent in their room and they slept in sleeping bags.)

We also had a birthday party with family...Aunts and Uncles and Grandma and cousins! All the gifts he was given were so perfect him. He got lots of board games, a skater t-shirt, a Styrofoam glider, an erector set, the robot kit, a couple of puppets and a web design instructional DVD so he can begin learning HTML. It was a wonderful day!

Now my youngest son's birthday is in a few months! He'll be 7 which just seems unreal to me. Time goes by much too quickly. It makes me appreciate our homeschooling lifestyle even more!!!

Savoring every moment,

How to "Tie-Dye" Easter Eggs

Place your hard boiled eggs in a colander in the sink and pour vinegar over them.

Drip food coloring onto eggs one color at a time starting with the lightest color and allowing a minimum of 30 seconds in between each color. Give the colander a gentle shake.

Allow to set for at least another minute and then rinse with water.

Ta-Da! Don't they look great? And it was way easier and less messy than the way we normally do it. If I had it to do over again I would have allowed way more time in between colors. The red is the only color that "took" as well as I had hoped it would.

Happy Easter!

He Is Risen (Illustrated by W and J)

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:1-15

Celebration and Contemplation

I wish I could take days like yesterday and wrap them into little balls that I could bounce (re-live) anytime I wanted. Spending time with family and celebrating together makes me feel all cozy and blissful. And I've gotta brag...my family and I have gotten really good at enjoying each others company. (We weren't always good at it. It took a little work to get where we are today.)

Now it's the day after and I am in a mode of contemplation. This is very typical for me this time of year. I'm asking, "What are our strengths? What are our weaknesses? Are we living God's plan for us? Are we being good stewards? What can we do better? Where do I need to back off and let God work?", etc. It's a time of prayer and planning and I actually enjoy it.

So next year is coming fast and there are changes to be made and to be looked forward to. A couple of those changes seem to be interconnected when maybe they wouldn't normally be. For instance, we've talking a lot about being better stewards of all that God has blessed us with and we've been wanting to focus more on character development and missions in our homeschool. So when we were checking out KONOS unit studies and came across their KONOS in a bag study called Africa: The Land of Stewardship we got really excited. We're hoping this will help all four of us achieve the goals mentioned above.

I truly hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that you're experiencing God's call on your life in a supernatural way! God bless you and keep you.

Time to Celebrate Christmas!

Oh what fun it is to...celebrate Christmas!

My sister Candy and Great Granny.

Our celebration began at 8 am this morning when I woke the boys so we could get ready to go to Great Granny's house (Great Granny is my Grandma). We got dressed and ready, picked up my sister and her girls and hit the road. It took about an hour to get to GG's house so along the way we chatted about all kinds of things, avoided the ice and snow as much as possible and overall just enjoyed each others company. Once at GG's we exchanged gifts, ate pizza and played cards. It's been about 6 months since we've been to see her so I was so glad to be there.

We'll continue to celebrate Christmas tonight by going to the Christmas Eve service at our church and then coming home to open the gifts we've bought for each other. (Just Hubby, me and the boys.) The boys don't know this yet but one of their gifts is The Polar Express on DVD in 3D. They are going to be soooo excited!

And then tomorrow we'll indulge in the last leg of our celebration by heading over to my sister's house for a big family celebration. My mom, brother, sister in law, sister, brother in law, husband, me and all of our kids will be there together. We'll open presents and eat a big meal and do the typical Christmastime stuff...and I can't wait!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and that as you celebrate God will bless you and your family!

Christmas Decorating

Okay, so I really did finally put up the Christmas decorations and they are nice and understated and clutter free. However, I cannot get the pics off the camera to post because I left the cord that goes from the camera to the computer at church on Sunday!

What I finally decided on was one tiny tree (the same height as my 8 year old) tucked into a corner and then a rosemary plant cut to look like a Christmas tree on top of the armoire in the living room with some red candles and an angel figurine arranged around it. J and I decorated the trees and had a wonderful time talking about all the old ornaments I have. Some of them date back to when my now 23 year old brother was in 2nd grade. :)

Sharing all those memories with J reminded me why I really do love Christmas. In addition to celebrating the greatest gift the world has ever received (Jesus) I also enjoy the Christmas tradition of giving each other gifts. Not because of the material aspect of it. But because it's so wonderful to have those you love on your mind so much for a month or so as you decide what to give them and as you prepare to cook a meal and spend the day with them.

Speaking of the meal, we've yet to discuss that. Better stop typing and make some calls!

Still Waiting...

I'm still waiting for the Christmas spirit to take hold of me. (I mean the Christmas decorating spirit.)

When I go to other people's houses that are all decorated for Christmas they feel homey, cozy and welcoming but for the last few years when I decorate my own home it just feels like clutter.

I'm hoping the ornament exchange I'm attending tonight will help get me in the mood so to speak.

Have you put up your tree yet??

PS The beautiful tree above is my sisters not mine!

Time for Advent

Advent is one of my favorite teaching times of the year!! In the past we've done an Advent calender and a Christmas notebook. But this year we're doing the Advent calender and a 12 Days of Christmas Lapbook that I found on Jamin's blog. I'm not sure how the boys will like all the cutting and pasting. We may end up doing it in a different way like a poster or a book instead of a lapbook. I don't know yet. I intend to present them with the materials today and see what they want to do with it. I'll try to post some pictures later in the week.

What does your family do for Advent?

Real Post Coming Soon..In the Meantime

You Should Have a White Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent joy and spirituality. The true meaning of Christmas is important to you - even if you're not religious. The holidays are a time of reflection for you. You like to spend time thinking about what's important in life. Your white tree would look great with: Bright, bold ornaments You should spend Christmas Eve watching: The Nativity Story What you should bake for Santa: Sugar cookies - served up with a tall glass of milk

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Thanksgiving 2008 In Pictures

The day started with the usual...put the turkey in the oven. As you can see I cheated a bit this year and baked an oven ready turkey.


Around mid-morning we began to deep clean the house in anticipation of the afternoon and evening festivities.



After eating (notice no pics of the food, I was so hungry I forgot to take any) we each shared what we were thankful for and I wrote them all in this book. This has been our tradition for 10 years now and it's so fun to look back and see how our lives have changed.

We had lots of friends and neighbors stop by and hang out a while this year. We played board games and played the Wii. We ate lots of food and talked a lot.

We took a walk together and finished out the night listening to our friend Dave sing and play the guitar.



Now that's a lot to be thankful for!

God bless you,

10 Things About My Family that I am Thankful for this Year

1. We are all alive and well.
2. We are still living and growing as a family of homeschoolers.
3. We pray together and worship together.
4. We ponder the big questions of life and love together.
5. God is working in our hearts and the changes are becoming more and more obvious.
6. We genuinely enjoy each others company.
7. W's vision is getting better and his reading is improving.
8. J is reading well and enjoying learning.
9. Wonderful Hubby and I are both leading discussion groups with a Biblical focus. (His is for men and mine is for women.)
10. My marriage is growing stronger and stronger!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What Part of Thanksgiving am I?

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

http://blogthings.com/whatpartofthanksgivingareyouquiz/">What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Happy Birthday to J

Saturday we celebrated J's 6th birthday with family and a couple of neighbors!

Here's a pic of J with one of his gifts. It's a trick camera that squirts water instead of taking a photo.

This is J's cake. We always let the boys design and decorate their cake if they want to. It's so fun to see what they come up with.

And of course, here is a pic of W playing the Wii. Some day I'll get tired of taking these.
J got the Lego Star Wars game for the Wii from Hubby and I for his birthday present so it was the hit of the party.



Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Cousins and Pumpkins and Fun

Most children I know spend all of October looking forward to dressing up and trick or treating on Halloween. In my house we also look forward to this...

Each year my sis and I get our kids together (at her house) and carve pumpkins the week of Halloween. We cover her table with newspaper and have at it. The adults always help the kids scrape the inside of the pumpkins and then we use the guts to give ourselves pumpkin facials. (I was an esthetician in my "life before kids" and used to give pumpkin facials all the time.)

We don't trick or treat together, they do their neighborhood and we do ours, but this tradition brings us together to celebrate each others creativity and have fun!

Since It's Almost Halloween...

You know how we love spiders!!

I hope I didn't scare you too much,

My 8 year old's birthday cake

Saturday, W turned 8! As usual he had some very specific ideas for his cake and this year he decorated it himself. Here he is in the process of drawing an octopus with green frosting. (I thought it was perfect...8 legs and 8 years.)

And here is the finished product.

His party was so much fun. The highlight of the event was playing charades with our family and friends. W was excited too because he was given lots of building and science kits. He also got a cool Star Wars t-shirt and $30.00. (Hey, I want $30.00 for my birthday!)

Anyway, hope every one's having a wonderful day today!

He is Risen!

Our Easter celebration this year was truly wonderful! We spent time worshipping God, hanging out with family, hunting eggs, eating too much candy and wrapped up the day at the bowling alley!

Church was a special treat for me this year because I was able to help lead worship. I don't sing but am learning a little ASL and was able to be one of 6 people who signed the song "Jesus is Alive" by Ron Kenoly. It was great fun!

As for the bowling...the boys bowled against each other and their cousin Chris who is 7 years old. They had so much fun (with the bumpers up!). My big boy won the first game with a score of 88 and the second one with a score of 91! My little boy actually threw his ball into the other lane once so that was a little embarrassing for him, but we all had a great time!

Hope you enjoyed your Easter and will have a great week!