Monday Favorites

The kids and I really look forward to Mondays because we always read these 2 books. Akebu to Zapotec is an A to Z book of bibleless peoples around the world. Each week we read the short description of the people group and spend the week praying specifically for them- that they will hear the gospel and that the Lord would bring missionaries to them that could translate the Bible into their languange. It's a great opportunity for us to get away from thinking about ourselves and an opportunity to be grateful for all we have, most importantly a Savior and His Word. It's a great geopraphy lesson as well! So far we've been praying for the peoples Akebu, Brokpa, Chut, Dongxiang, Elkei, Fania, Gusilay, Hrusso, Ica, Jumjum, and Kulango. We also read a chapter a week from Missionary Stories with the Millers. These are amazing stories about how God empowers, protects, and uses men, women, and children to spread the gospel around the world. Our "struggles" are often put into perspective through these stories. Hopefully we are growing a little in loving what God loves!

Today's science- Taxonomy and Binomial Nomenclature:)

New school year! Fall 2011

We're off and runnin' with the start of this school year! Here's the first day complete with homemade chocolate chip cookies(our first day of school tradition!).

Wrappin' it up!

In a few days we'll be done with 1st grade and pre-K...moving on to 2nd grade and Kindergarten(yikes:))! It hardly seems possible that we've completed 2 years of homeschooling. Like others have said so well, we know that homeschooling is not right for everyone, but we want to be faithful to what God is calling our family to, for this season. We are far, far from perfection but want to continue to grow in faithfulness to the God who is always faithful!

In looking back through some pics from the year, we've experienced lots of God's grace, some difficult days, lots of wonderful days, attitudes good and bad. We've learned lots academically from the history of ancient peoples to habitats around the world. From outer space to spelling and multiplication. We've written stories and book reviews, poems and dialogues. Myles has learned to read and is picking up new words everyday. Hayley knows her letter sounds and is practicing the letters of her name. But more than any of this, we have lived life together, sinned together, prayed together, memorized scripture together. I have prayed for their hearts and they have prayed for Mommy's heart. All this I would not trade for anything!!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow is our first day of school. Starting school, in my opinion, is like having a baby. You're never totally ready, you're never as caught up on stuff as you'd like to be, and you're never 100% organized. Yet, the time comes and it works out, it's fun, we all learn, and at times it's a little chaotic:). I'm excited for this year with my kiddos and have been thinking a lot about this quote lately...



I seldom feel like much of an adventurer-standing in this kitchen, pouring cereal into bowls, refilling them, handing out paper towels when the inevitable cry comes: "Uh oh, I spilled." But sometimes at night the thought will strike me: There are three(in my case 4) small people here, breathing sweetly in their beds, whose lives are for the moment in our hands. I might as well be at the controls of a moon shot, the mission is so grave and vast.(Femine Appeal)



I am glad that their little lives are not completely in our hands...God is so much bigger and better. But I do want to use this time I have with them wisely!

Butterfly Release

As a science project we ordered painted lady caterpillars. We watched them eat and grow, then hang upside down and make their chrysalis', then eat their way out a week later and become butterfiles. The kids had a blast watching and learning about the process. It was so cool!