Inspiration

Lately, I've been inspired.

Twinkle Toes' first crocheted scarf with crocheted flowers.  She made it for Measle, who picked the colors.

Inspired by my girls and their awesome creativity.

Have I got creative girls, or what?  These are Measle's knit knee pads.

Twinkle Toes is crocheting articles for everyone in the family.  Queen loves her hat!

We were so excited that we dragged her out of bed when her sister finished it.

Inspired to make stuff, like soap. 

Inspired to be more than practical.

Inspired to be creative.

These samples are from two batches, one colored with cinnamon and chunks from that batch added to the next at trace.

Inspired to sew?!

I've made several trips to the bookstore with my girls looking for knitting and crochet books for them.  I think I first spied this book on my anniversary trip to the bookstore (it's an annual tradition.)  If you know me, you know each new obsession has to start with a book!  Anyway, this book is called Stitch by Stitch and it slowly introduces you to sewing one mini-project at a time.  I bought a machine on Sunday and the kids and I got cozy in the living room and watched the DVD about a dozen times, pausing as needed.  Finally, last night after Bible study, while Big D and the kids were still at his mom's house, I took the plunge and threaded the bobbin and machine!  Here's hoping that's the hard part!  So far, I've only sewn a stitch sampler and practiced curved lines.  Next up is applique and then cloth napkins.  If you sew, how did you get started?  Did you start out as a complete beginner, like me?  (I kept thinking, that's the back of the machine, as I watched the introductory DVD.)  What helped you turn the corner?  I'm very non-mechanical, if that's a word.

Review of Apologia's book How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. for your Kids by Rachael Carman

I was privileged to review the book How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachael Carman.

In summary, this is a book on  "bringing your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).  She takes a somewhat abstract concept and breaks it down into five biblical components of godly parenting.

H- Having a heart for the things of God.  It all starts with the parents.  How can you teach your children to "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven" if you aren't doing it yourself?  A wonderful reminder to show our children rather than just telling them to put God first.

E- Enriching your marriage.  Again, she gives not just abstract theology, but practical suggestions at how to respect and build up your husband.  A strong marriage is an important foundation for Christian parenting.

A- Accepting your kids.  I especially needed to read this chapter.  "We must seek God first when it comes to molding our children, or we will make the mistake of molding them inot our image instead of His.  We will try to make them inot what we want them to be for our pleasure and pride and not for the glory and praise of their heavenly Father." (How to Have a HEART for your Kids p. 108)  Ouch!  I needed this reminder to seek God's will for our children and then to step back and be able to recognize it when I see it, even when it differs from my preconceived ideas.

R- Releasing your children to God.  This chapter is all about our focus in training up our children.  Academics and profitable skills should take a back seat to the things of God.  Carman asserts that like Hannah in her training up Samuel for the purpose of working in God's tabernacle, all believers are called to raise up their kids to love, honor, and obey God.  "It doesn't matter if they grow up to become doctors or lawyers, mothers or nurses, accountants or diplomats, hairstylists or car dealers.  They are to be prepared to honor God in whatever they say and do."  (How to Have a HEART for your kids p. 127)   I understand this a little more each year we homeschool!  Our emphasis has definitely shifted over the years and for the better... on the Word of God and the supremecy of Christ!  And after all the prayers and training, sweat and tears, the day will come for us to let go and release our children to the Lord-- even if, or especially if it means allowing them to do something different for the Lord than what we had in mind.  Like going to the other side of the world to be a missionary.  Or not going to college.  Another tough chapter with many wonderful insights to glean for parenting your children with purpose.

T-  Teaching them the truth.  This chapter is really the "how to" of the previous one.  We can't train our children to seek first the kingdom of Heaven apart from saturating them with the Word of God.  There is no short-cut preparation for a life of service to the Lord.  Many of us homeschoolers claim Deuteronomy 6 as our mission statement, but how much time do we actually practice teaching our children God's Word?  This chapter encourages making His Word the foundation of your homeschool and gives practical suggestions on how to pull it off.

I'm happy to recommend this wonderful resource to you.  While written by a homeschooling mom, this book would be equally helpful for all Christian parents, regardless of how you choose to educate your children.

How to Have a HEART for your Kids by Rachael Carman is available for $13 from Apologia Press.  Other great resources for parents from Apologia Press include Educating the Wholehearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson and 7 Tools for Cultivating Your Child's Potential by Zan Tyler.

Please check out the other TOS crew reviews for How to Have a HEART for your Kids.

Disclaimer:  I recieved no compensation, other than a free copy of this book, for the writing of this review.  The contents of this review express my personal opinion of the book.

Soap making diaries

We're still at it.  I say "we" because Big D decided this is going to be a joint venture.  (Although the first time I announced to him that I was going to learn to make soap, his response was, "Isn't soap cheap?")  Remember, it's not about the money, it's about learning to produce something.  Anyway, last time we used a ceramic cake pan as a mold and had enough left over for one little rose.  The soap in the cake pan came alive in front of our eyes.  It was remniscent of the movie Alien.  Seriously.  We freaked out a little bit.  At first, I thought this must be what "gel phase" looks like.  Then after the alien came out of the pan 3 inches and began spreading, I scooped it all back into the crockpot to cook some more.  It was somewhat salvaged, but didn't turn out like we hoped.  (Rapid temperature change?) 

Meanwhile, the single rose is perfect.  One perfect rose.  That's what we have to show for all our soap making efforts. 

Measle immediately claimed our one successful soap and ran back to her bathroom with it delightedly shouting, "It's just like store-bought!"  A triumph, indeed. 

What kind of homeschool ship am I running?

Hopefully, a ship that no one wants to jump from!

Three sisters doing school outside on an uncharacteristically cool morning.

I know, I'm a pushover!  It's just that I remember staring out the window of my classroom with longing.   I HATED school!  I don't want them to hate homeschool.  I want them to enjoy learning.

Queen (2) doing her "homework".



Well, I must not be a complete pushover.  My 2 year old has her own curriculum!

What kind of homeschool ship do you run?

Another of the many reasons we homeschool.

There are many reasons to homeschool.  You can read some of the things we love about homeschooling on the homeschool tab at the top of my blog.  This is one of the biggies:  to foster close relationships between siblings.  I know that Twinkle Toes would love her baby brother even if she went to school all day long, but it's such a blessing for both of them that they get to spend the majority of each day together.  Twinkle Toes has been crocheting for... oh about 2 weeks now!  I took her to a local fabric and crafts store yesterday and the first thing she picked out was yarn for making a hat for Calvin.  You can tell she was pretty excited about it since she finished it already!

I think he's excited about it, too!  It may not be a flawlessly crocheted hat, she is a beginner after all, but it was made with love for her baby brother.  And that means the world to me!

It doesn't get much more rewarding than that!  Oh, and I have to ask you to turn up your volume for a minute and listen to Twinkle Toes' two newest recordings that I uploaded to my playlist.  What a talented girl!  But, what I love most about my sweet 10 year old daughter is not how competent in the kitchen she is, or how industrious she is when given a task to complete, but her precious heart.  This girl really does aim to please.  She loves the Lord and she loves her family.  What more can you ask of your child?!

Weekends are for projects!!!

I awoke yesterday with one thought in mind:  clean out my storage room.  The before pictures are so embarassing.  I'm fortunate my family hasn't turned me into Hoarders:  Buried Alive, I hear they're always looking...

I clean this closet out about once a year, but old habits die hard and somehow the storage room quickly fills back up again.  As you can see, we couldn't even walk in there.  When it got so bad that the kids were risking their lives just to bring me a can of tomato paste, I knew I had to do something.  Check out the after shots. 

I drastically reduced our gift bag stockpile.  Hopefully, this way I'll actually use them!  And I do still have a few framed works of art and other assorted pictures on the floor, but I hung up five from the stash and gave away a few more.

This was a "quick" clean meaning I left the upper two, out of reach, shelves as they were.  I'll tackle holiday storage, well... around the holidays.  I accomplished my mission, which was to make our storage room safe and usable once more.

The "quick" clean didn't actually go that quickly.  It turned out that my little storage room project led to mini projects all over the house.  Each item that I took out had to either find a new home or find its way to the garbage or giveaway pile.  And often the items that found a new home meant rearranging other items in that location.  For instance, I took three large pictures from the floor of the storage closet and hung them in the "office", or the room formerly called Daddy's Special Room which has since become Mommy's special room, aka blogging headquarters.  Of course, the walls were not bare, so that meant taking pictures off the wall and finding new homes for all of them!  I like how it turned out, though.

I had to carefully angle this shot so as not to show my paper monster lurking on the coffee table.

 
The picture that this cheerful oil painting replaced was a truly ugly work of art.  What an oxymoron!  I don't know what I was thinking, but I bought this papyrus in Cairo years ago and had it framed when I came home.  I'm sure the heiroglyphic writing means something special or I wouldn't have bought it, but I've since forgotten, which pretty much means it's a meaningless ugly work of art.  Anyway, I'll probably move it to a less visible part of the house.  (Notice I didn't show you any pictures of my dining room, otherwise known as the room right next to the storage room.  Let's just say it's next on my to do list.)

And lest you think this is all I did over the weekend...

I wandered into Big D's garden to see if there was anything to pick and came back with this.

After I took this picture, my husband actually brought in two more butternut squashes and about a pint of green beans.

We chopped the bellpeppers and froze them spread out on cookie sheets then placed them into pint size freezer bags in 1.5 cup increments.  Big D cut and flash froze the green beans.  I cooked three of the butternuts, scooped out the yummy part and drained it in the fridge for a couple of hours before freezing it in individual bags for baby food.

You'll just have to trust me that this is a freezer door newly stocked with garden veggies : ).

I also canned 8 pints of dill pickles this weekend and told Big D it was the last time I was doing dill pickles... EVER.  It seemed lots more complicated and definitely took longer than doing bread and butter pickles, which we like just fine.

And finally to finish the weekend, Twinkle Toes and I made homemade pop tarts tonight.  I adapted Laura at Heavenly Homemaker's recipe.  We made a raspberry jam infused frosting for them, too, and decided to scoop it into a ziploc so that tomorrow morning we can just snip the corner and the kids can squeeze the desired amount onto their pop tarts.  Cool, huh?

Uh, you can probably tell that the chefs sampled their creation.  We felt it was our duty.

Well, it was a profitable weekend.  Now back to school tomorrow.  What did you do this weekend?  Any projects?

Reducing our Waste

We've been making some small changes around our house that I hope will add up.  Let me emphasize again that our motive in "going green" has nothing to do with the humanistic worship of nature over the Creator that we've come to associate with environmentalism.  Instead, what I mean by "going green" is trying to be a good steward of God's creation.  Even after the Fall, Adam and Eve were to tend the garden, so to speak.  It would be more difficult, but they were still supposed to exercise dominion over creation.  It seems like dominion is a poorly understood concept in our culture.  This misunderstanding has given dominion a negative connotation, leaving it only a step or two above exploitation.  But the dominion of the Bible is not negative at all and can more accurately be thought of as "tending" or "caring for".  The picture is that of a good ruler, not an evil despot.

Anyway, since my husband has remarked multiple times in the past about how much waste our family of 8 produces, I thought that would be a great place for us to start.  Here are a few things we've done that have drastically reduced our waste production.  In fact, by implementing these small changes, we've cut our trash in half!

1.  Re-usable grocery bags instead of plastic sacks.  Our local grocery store sells these bags for 99 cents each and then subtracts 60 cents per bag used each time you check out.  Not bad.  The bags pay for themselves after two shopping trips and they can be used over and over again.  Our family eats lots of groceries so we were bringing home 12-15 sacks every week. 

2.  Cloth diapers.  Okay, so this isn't a terribly recent change.  I started cloth diapering Calvin (10 months) from birth, but then regressed a little when he was around 6 months and had a bad rash which I later learned was Staph.  When Iwent back to cloth I saw that it wasn't contributing to his "rash" at all and that he actually did better with the cloth diapers.  (Thankfully, he's been clear now for a few weeks.)

3.  Cloth wipes.  This is a recent change and has been a really tough one for me.  Let's face it, this is the one time it would be really nice to just trash something and never deal with it again.  I've dedicated a small wet bag for holding these wipes until I can wash them, which I do daily.  I hang these outside to dry, along with the diapers, but that's a separate post.

4.  Bye-bye paper towels.  This was also a really tough transition.  I was a complete paper towel junkie!  I was so bad, I would use a paper towel for one tiny thing and then toss it.  I knew it was wasteful, but was caught in a rut.  Now, I do one extra load of laundry daily for just rags and hand towels.  We used paper towels in the place of napkins before, so now we use rags for that, too.  One of these days I'll invest in some cloth napkins.

5.  Cut down on the purchase of packaged items.  The big one in this category are drinks for the kids.  I used to buy 3 boxes of Caprisuns every time I went to the store.  The kids are just drinking water and milk most of the time now, which is far healthier for them, anyway. 

6.  Begin paying bills online.  While I don't think we'll ever switch over to online bill paying completely, we have started paying a few of them electronically.  The bills and giving that are the same amount each month are the ones we've begun paying online.  It's a small start, but I've noticed the difference in the amount of our mail already.

When you think about, these changes taken on their own each seem insignificant.  But together, they've enabled us to cut our waste production in half!  

Here are a few things we aren't doing yet that I know would cut our waste even more.

1.  Buy in bulk.  We have a Sam's here, but it's clear on the other side of town and I NEVER go there.  Once you pay for the gas each way I wonder if it's really that much of a savings.  I don't know.  One of these days I may start buying in bulk and I bet we could cut down even more on wasteful grocery packaging. 

2.  We get TONS of junk mail.  I've only recently learned that it's possible to eliminate almost all junk mail.  According to Michael Abbate of Gardening Eden, two services that will drastically reduce your junk mail for a small price are GreenDimes and 41Pounds.  If I have time, I may contact one of them this weekend.  It's definitely on my to-do list! 

3.  Recycling.  I know, I know.  This is a no brainer that you have all probably already been doing for years.  Recycling is not practiced widely in Texas and I only recently learned that there's a service that will come to our house and pick it up.  This is also on my to-do list.

 

I would love to hear what you're doing to cut down on your waste.  Please share!

Glorifying God in our Homeschools

I've read several posts lately that have primed the pump for my taking on this topic, as well as recently touching on it myself on our homeschool page above.  What really got me to thinking about this, though, was this week's Bible study from the Desiring God DVD Study Guide.  One of the questions asked us to list 5 specific, even mundane, activities that are a part of our day-to-day lives.  It then asked us to write a sentence or two describing how it might be done to the glory of God.  It wasn't difficult to come up with 5 daily activities, but of course homeschooling jumped to the top of my list.  Not that it's mundane exactly, but it seems to occupy the majority of my day every day and it doesn't exactly seem glamorous (in terms of ministry) or obvious how it can be done to the glory of God.

In order to discuss how homeschooling might be done to the glory of God, we have to first agree on what it means to glorify God.  We cannot add any glory to God, since He is all glorious, but glorifying God has to do with reflecting Him both to the world and back to Him.  We were made in God's image, but after the Fall that image was tarnished, we no longer as accurately reflected God.  Salvation, and even more specifically the process of sanctification by which God makes us holy, is all about restoring us to His image.  When we show God's attributes like His love or His mighty works like creation or answered prayer, we are reflecting His glory, thus glorifying Him.  This can be accomplished in worship, in fact it is the goal of worship.  It can also be accomplished in any task we perform, if we do it in a way that magnifies God.  One way of thinking about glorifying God is that it is living life in a very God-centered and God-exalting way, rather than promoting self at every turn, as is our natural inclination.  These are my words and according to my understanding, of course, and I hope I rightly conveyed this all important, but sometimes abstract concept.  Please read this John Piper article on the joyful duty of man to glorify God for a better explanation if you're interested.

This brings me to the question of how we can glorify God in our homeschool. 

Put God first.  In other words, we must make our homeschools God-centered.  I used to think this meant we needed to pray and read our Bibles first thing each morning.  That's a great start, but now I think putting God first in our homeschool is much more.  We need to magnify God in EVERY subject we study throughout the day.  There are no secular subjects! 

History-   Continually point our children to the Providence of God and how He works in and through events and people to bring about His will. 

Geography-  Emphasize praying for the church around the world, that God would build His church and glorify Himself among the nations (something He says He will do, so this is praying for God to accomplish His will).

Science and Mathematics, the language of science-   Praise God's power and order displayed in creation and the laws that He uses to govern His creation. 

Language Arts-  Emphasize the importance of being able to clearly communicate the gospel to others.  Shining the light of God's redemptive plan magnifies Him in a way difficult to match.  It shows His sovereignty, love, grace, mercy, fogiveness, justice.  Almost every attribute of God is displayed in His marvelous work of redemption.  Part of being ready to give a defense for the hope of Christ that is in us (1 Peter 3:15), is simply being able to communicate clearly. 

Foreign languages-   Determine which languages will best equip your family to share Christ or better worship God.  In our homeschool we think biblical Greek will aid us in understanding God's Word, and therefore God.  We're also studying Mandarin Chinese, but whatever foreign language you fill into this blank, we should attempt to discern how our children can use this ability in the future to point others to Christ.

Music or Art-  Encourage your kids to think how they can best reflect God to others through the arts.  Both music and the visual arts can be of assistance in worship.  They can also be used to bless the body of Christ, displaying Christ's love for His church.

 All of the above is only dealing with the content of our homeschool.  The  manner in which we homeschool is another way we can reflect God's glory.  It doesn't matter how great our homeschool content is, if we spend all day screaming at our kids and criticizing them, we are NOT reflecting God's glory.  I struggle with the drill sargeant mentality.  I've been praying for some time that the Lord would help me be patient and loving, gentle and encouraging with my kids throughout the day.  Often, I have to stop and repent of my attitude or tone right in the middle of the day.  I love homeschooling my kids, but sometimes my words and demeanor don't accuately convey that.  Likewise, if our kids spend all day fighting with one another, we've missed the point.  We don't want to raise little pharisees who know the law in their minds, but missed it in their hearts.  It's not enough to study godly character traits, though we certainly do this, we must pray that the Lord will work in us and through us to glorify Himself.  We start each day with that very prayer.  That we will love the Lord and show that love by being obedient to Him and loving one another.  This is easier said than done and obviously a lot harder to control than our homeschool content, but God is the one at work in us to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).  He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6)!

Hey, stop having so much fun!

Measle loves having her own Sonlight core!  Day before yesterday, after reading about different foods from around the world, Measle insisted we make a traditional Indian drink called a lassi.  It was really easy and tasted a lot like kefir.  You make it with equal parts plain yogurt, water, and add some sugar and vanilla for flavoring.

Then yesterday Measle learned about how people dress around the world.  After school she and her sister had fun donning saris and turbans.

Can learning really be this much fun?  Measle thinks so.  Don't you just love homeschooling?

Little things add up.

Remember when you first realized the power of compound interest?  I couldn't believe it.  How could such a small difference add up to such a huge amount over 10 years!  I've been thinking about this lately.  Sometimes I feel like we're not spending enough time on spelling each day, or reading to my little ones.  I fret because I'm not spending as much time as I would like on Bible study each day or exercise.  But then I remember that little things do add up.

 
It doesn't seem possible that we'll read ALL these books in our homeschool this year.  Yet, we finished all our books last year and the year before that.  What's the secret?  Huge blocks of time for reading, reading, and more reading?  Surprisingly, no, though I would like that given the time.  One chapter at a time.  That's how we get through all those books.  One chapter at a time.

How about memorizing a book of the Bible?  A daunting task, to be sure, but it can be accomplished in much the same way.  One verse at a time.  And getting into shape?  One mile at a time.  The key is consistency.  Rather than becoming discouraged, we just need to take heart and do the next thing, even if we don't know how it will ever add up to enough. 

This must be God's design.  He certainly doesn't sanctify us all at once, but a little bit at a time.  Often we can't see the increase in our faith or the growth in our obedience.  We can't see how God is transforming our hearts and renewing our minds.  It happens little by little as His Word works in us.

So if you tend to have an all or nothing attitude like I do (which is why I gave up dieting long ago), be encouraged to work at things in your life and homeschool like God works in us- one day at a time.  Just choose this day to commit your time, your homeschool, your children, your body, your life to the Lord for His purposes.  He can take our little and make it into a lot over time.  Little things add up.

 

Student photos- Not Back to School Blog Hop

I'm terrible about taking pictures and my kids haven't had a "professional" picture made since we took them out of school.  I snapped some shots today.

Mr. Monk, our 7th grader

Troubleshooting.

Is it me, or is this kid photogenic?

Twinkle Toes, our 5th grader

Twinkle Toes crocheted her doll's little ensemble.

Measle, our 3rd grader

Prince, our Kindergartener

Queen, our Preschooler

Calvin, the baby

 

Check out lots of other student photos at the Not Back to School Blog Hop

Our Course of Study for 2011-2012

I think I've already posted most of this, but now I have it all in one place under our Course of Study tab above.  It helps me to go through it, over and over again.  Know what I mean?  Check back later as I'm trying to update all of my tabs.

Proud Mommy to six... jars of bread and butter pickles, that is!

I just can't believe I made and canned pickles this morning!  I'm so proud, I just have to share.

I didn't use all the cucumbers Big D brought in, just 15 cups worth.  I used the smallest and skinniest first.

My lovely sous chef, Measle Bug.  She chopped all the onion.

My "weight" squishing the water out of the cucumbers and the vinegar concoction on the right.

Cucs cooking and lids boiling.  I washed the jars in hot soapy water, dried and baked them 15 min at 225.

This is before I wiped the rims.  I had enough for seven jars, but my family was curious to try them.

Boiling 10 minutes, three cans at a time.

Meet my babies.  They're beautiful, aren't they?  Taste good, too, and I don't even like pickles!

From Big D's garden into my jars.  What a rush!  It reminds me of the first time I sold something on ebay, many moons ago.  That turned into quite an obsession.  (I'm so over ebay, by the way, which may or may not have anything to do with our running out of things to sell : ).  Anyway, I've got to go check on the beef I'm rendering for tallow.  I know, I know.  I'm just a regular Ma Ingalls.  Well, except that I'm sitting here in my air conditioned living room, drinking a white mocha, and blogging on a computer with internet access to millions of people around the world.  Except for those little details, I'm just like Ma Ingalls.  I did make the white mocha myself, though.  But I bought the milk.  And the white chocolate chips.  And the instant decaf coffee.  Oh for goodness sake, I'm really not like her at all, am I?  

Supersize Me- Car Edition

Three and a half years ago, Big D and I bought a new car.  It was an absolutely fabulous car, much like the one I'd driven before... with one exception.  For the previous 7 years I had driven a GMC Yukon with both middle and third row bench seats, bringing the total seating capacity to 8.  Three years ago, Big D decided we needed to go with the second row captain's chairs configuration in the GMC Yukon XL we were buying, meaning it would be a roomier vehicle but only seat 7.  I was expecting our fifth child at the time and you know how that goes, we thought surely at our age she would be our last one.  We were delighted with Calvin's arrival two years later, but unfortunately it meant we were short one seat.  That is, until now...

Thanks to Little Seats we now have a fourth row bench seat that adds room for two to three more (two with boosters, three if you have three tiny 8 yr olds who have graduated from booster seats, which we don't).

What do you think?  They do a good job of matching the seats you already have.  You just select the make and model of your car along with the upholstery choices- leather or vinyl, and color.

Prince (5) and Queen (2) have been assigned to our new fourth row.  I help them in and out from the back.  The seat is off-set to make getting in and out easier.

The view from the rear.  It almost looks like an airplane, doesn't it?  I love it!

I know this doesn't exactly go along with "going green", but we do have to be able to transport our family.  And now we can!

I have good news and bad news.

Which do you want first?  The bad news?

My little soap making experiment was what my kids call an "epic fail".  See for yourself.

Ah, the age of innocence, before I knew it was all for naught.

I thought "trace" had occurred.  Maybe not.

When I first started filling my muffin tins molds, the soap appeared to be homogenous. 
After the first 4 or 5, the mixture seemed to begin separating.

My mess of soap, all wrapped up for future use.

Doesn't it look pathetic?  At least it's functional.

Hey, we're still going to use the soap, even if it does look like blocks of cottage cheese.  At least it smells good, like lavender.  Or as Twinkle Toes says, like my deodorant.

And the good news?  My crock-pot has never been this clean before.  My muffin tins got a good washing, as well.  At least I only made a half-recipe.

This is the part of the post where I enlist the help of my crafty blog friends.  If you know what I did wrong, please advise me.