Monday Musings

I read this blog post this morning. It was about preparing our daughters for real life. How to teach them courage and not shelter them from the reality that life is hard. She quoted Joshua 1:9 and how they use that scripture in their family as a courage bolster. I remembered it from last year's Mutual theme. Here's the scripture in case you're not familiar with it.

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

This prompted some serious thought for me this morning. Life has been hard for me lately. Many things are piled on my plate - some from my own choice and some have been put there by others. I've found myself complaining and lamenting how unfair it is for me. I've cried that I feel so alone. Wo, wo is me. On and on I go.

I'm amazed at the power one scripture can have. I've had my eyes opened in a way. I've been afraid and lacking faith. I haven't seen the amazing things that the Lord is doing in my life. "...Mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst...." (D&C 38:7) I need to remember this more as I go about my life. Most of what feels hard are things that the Lord has asked me or prompted me to do. I know He wouldn't leave me alone to accomplish them. I need to do more drawing near and seeking rather just asking and asking and asking. (D&C 88:63)

Today was a better day. I felt more peaceful and less anxious. I fussed less and said yes more. I enjoyed my day more and was more deliberate about the choices I made. I am grateful for today!

Five Things Friday

So here are five random things that have been going on here lately:

1. We were all talking one day at dinner about being pretty. So I decided to tease Tyler and called him pretty. He objected by saying, "I'm not pretty. I'm awesome!"

2. Karena and Hannah have both started new activities this past month. Karena has started guitar lessons. She loves it and is doing quite well. She is now learning that she has to practice and practicing is not as fun as lessons. Hannah is doing gymnastics. I think she actually likes it better than dance. We've been working on not saying I can't. For a few days I annoyed her by calling her "Cannah" to encourage more of a "I can" attitude. I told her I'd quit calling her Cannah when she quit saying "I can't" all the time. So far it seems to be working.

3. We have discovered that certain TV shows in our home make my children argue and fight. Since eliminating those shows they get along much better.

4. The kids and I are all learning to crochet. Some are taking to it more than others.

5. This is the month of field trips. So far we've gone to the zoo to learn about Rainforests and visited the Tennessee State Museum to see an ancient Egypt exhibit. Next week we're going to the Purity Dairy to learn how they make ice cream. In a few weeks we get to go to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens.

Things Overheard

1. While discussing a past visit from Santa at the library - Tyler: Was that the real Santa or one of his dorks?

2. While listening to talk radio about the budget crisis - Tyler: Next year I'm voting for President Monson because he's always good.

3. Karena: You can't tell if someone is Mormon just by looking at them. You have to see how they act first.

What we're learning

Well we successfully made it through our first year of homeschooling. I learned a lot about what does and doesn't work for us, myself and the kids. The past few weeks and months I have spent lots of time researching different curriculum choices for us for next year.

Tyler doesn't like to write and it is affecting his reading. I found a curriculum for him that separates out the reading from the writing. He'll still be doing writing but not as he works on his reading skills.

The girls did really well this year but need to be challenged more. They can read really well but need more practice in reading comprehension.

So with those things and others in mind here are the curriculum choices I finally settled on:

Tyler (First Grade):
Phonics: Primary Arts and Language: Reading
**This includes a sticker page (the Phonetic Farm) that reinforces the sounds being taught. For example the sheep sticker goes on when we learn about the "squealy ee's." It also has a whole series of file folder games that again reinforce the sounds being taught. For Tyler this should be a lot of fun and I'm excited to start this up with him.

Writing & Spelling: Primary Arts and Language: Writing
**This is a precursor to the writing program I'll be starting with the girls this year. It not only teaches handwriting and spelling but also the basics of composition. It should go slow enough that by the end of the year when he's a little more academically mature he'll be able to sit and write several sentences at a time. Right now its just pure torture for him

Math: I have several places I'm drawing our math material from. We'll be mainly focusing on improving his addition and subtraction.

Karena & Hannah (Second Grade):
Writing: Teaching Writing: Structure and Style
**I'm truly excited for this curriculum. I remember in our last phonics book the girls were asked to write a short story. Karena narrated this fantastic story out loud to me. When it came to putting it down on paper it was pitiful and turned into a huge ordeal. When I was introduced to this curriculum at a recent Homeschool conference the lady presenting compared writing to learning to play an instrument. She said just as it is ridiculous to expect a child to sit down at a piano and play an original composition with little to no instruction than it is to expect them to write an original composition after little to no instruction. This will be a curriculum we will use through high school.

Spelling: All About Spelling
**I love this spelling program. It teaches them why words are spelled the way they are. No more memorizing long lists for the test on Friday only to forget them by that afternoon. We're almost done with Level 1 and will be starting on Level 2 shortly. The girls really enjoy it so far.

Latin: Prima Latina
**Yes, we are going to learn Latin. We are beginning to start following a more classical education model of homeschooling. For a good definition of classical education click here.

Math: Same as Tyler
**Still focusing on Addition and Subtraction and adding in fractions and beginning geometry and multiplication

Literature: Reading and discussing several chapter books such as Winnie the Pooh, Boxcar Children, Little House in the Big Woods, and Little House on the Prairie.

Music: Piano and possibly guitar for Karena

Everybody:
History (Old Testament/Ancient Egypt): Veritas Press
Bible (Gensis - Joshua): Veritas Press
**Both of these we will be studying together. They are a series of cards that have specific information to memorize and then resources to add to it. We'll be doing different projects and worksheets along with these cards.

Geography: Basic geography (maps, continents, oceans)

Science: God's Design for Heaven and Earth
**We'll be studying The Universe, Planet Earth and Weather and Water. I tried to do Astronomy this past year but I couldn't get into our science book. It read too much like a textbook and every time I brought it out the kids eyes would glaze over. (Mine did too, actually.) These books seem to be much better. They have a good balance of activities and reading. There's only a page of reading per topic for their age group. The books we tried before had pages and pages of material per topic.

I believe that's everything. We'll be starting back to school in July. I've been trying to get everything planned and ready so we can just jump in with both feet.

Something I never thought I'd hear

So after a long and crazy week John and I got to have a fantastic and relaxing date night. After dinner we wandered towards Barnes and Noble. We got a phone call from our realtor (that's another topic for later) so we stopped at some tables outside the store to talk. John finished the phone call and we went inside. We made it to the back of the store and started flipping through some books. Suddenly John says, "I have a cicada in my pants." I laugh, thinking he's kidding. As I look up he's grabbing a small handful of his pants on his thigh and I realize he's actually not kidding. He really did have a cicada in his pants! I can't wait for those stupid bugs to go back underground.

Easter Activities

Friday began our Easter activities. We had our annual egg dyeing celebration. I always wish we had more eggs to color but one family can only have so many hard boiled eggs. The kids always have fun participating and I'm impressed with how creative they try to be. Even Tyler who is so hard to get to sit still through a whole craft project is often the last one done when it comes to coloring eggs.






Friday night the Easter bunny came to pay us a visit. (By the way - if anyone can tell me the significance of a bunny bringing eggs at Easter I'd really appreciate it. None of my kids nor myself get it. Santa I get, but not the Easter bunny.) Anywho - a friend of mine (Thanks, Maren!) introduced me to the Saturday morning Easter bunny. It leaves Sunday free for what and Who we are truly celebrating. (See this post for my feelings about Easter.) The kids were just fine with it. Karena actually had a whole conversation with a neighbor friend about it that afternoon.

We started with the Easter baskets. The kids had taken it upon themselves to write the Easter bunny letters. Tyler asked for a blue egg with a train in it. The Easter bunny was quite fortunate to stumble upon that very thing when it was hopping through Target the very next day!


Hannah was quite impressed with her new package of underpants. She proudly announced Sunday morning at lunch that she was so excited to be wearing her new flip flop underpants. "They feel great!" I quickly asked her to try and not mention underpants at church that day.


After breakfast we had our egg hunt. John swears he say a huge bunny hopping off into the forest. "Wink. Wink." Tyler kept asking him if he REALLY saw a bunny, what he looked liked, what color he was, and even what he sounded like. I think he's had one too many people try and hoodwink him.

Tyler and Hannah were like speeding trains through the whole hunt. (I've finally realized why almost all of my pictures of Tyler are blurry. He won't be still. It's like trying to take a picture of a hummingbird.)


Hannah managed to collect every egg sitting in last years garden.


Karena was methodical and a lot slower than the others but she managed to find all the tricky ones. The other two were going so fast they missed a lot.


When Karena found one she certainly kicked it into high gear.


Sunday was a nice day! We had some friends over for dinner and got to enjoy some yummy food! Unfortunately the only thing I took a picture of Sunday was the dessert! But it is a delicious picture.


That's a homemade turtle cheescake. Oreo & pecan crust, a layer of homemade caramel, cheesecake, and pecans with caramel and chocolate drizzles on top. My friend convinced me to take a picture. It tasted as good as it looks!

My Reflections of the Savior

I had to speak in church today. The topic the Bishop assigned me was "My Personal Reflections of the Savior." It was an emotional week for me as I prepared this talk. I was struggling with some other things as well as having to prepare this. But it did give me a lot of time to reflect on the Savior which I am grateful for especially during this Easter season. So for anyone interested this was my talk:

Bishop asked me to speak of my personal reflections of the Savior. To be quite honest this has not been an easy topic for me. Speaking about my feelings is not a skill I’ve learned well over the years. So this week has been quite the struggle for me to put into words my thoughts of the Savior and how He has affected my life.

I’ve also never before worried about not having mighty spiritual moments. But I did this week. I worried about giving a talk when I don’t have anything impressive to share? My concerns were eased after listening to Elder Ballard’s conference talk again. If you remember he spoke of a gold miner that was frustrated with the lack of gold nuggets he was finding. A wise old prospector taught him and me an important lesson. “Walking over to the pile of rocks, the old prospector said, ‘Oh, there is gold all right. You just have to know where to find it.’ He picked two rocks up in his hands and crashed them together. One of the rocks split open, revealing several flecks of gold sparkling in the sunlight.

“Noticing a bulging leather pouch fastened to the prospector’s waist, the young man said, ‘I’m looking for nuggets like the ones in your pouch, not just tiny flecks.’

“The old prospector extended his pouch toward the young man, who looked inside, expecting to see several large nuggets. He was stunned to see that the pouch was filled with thousands of flecks of gold.

“The old prospector said, ‘Son, it seems to me you are so busy looking for large nuggets that you’re missing filling your pouch with these precious flecks of gold. The patient accumulation of these little flecks has brought me great wealth.’”

So my goal today is to share with you three of the little flecks of gold that have brought me great spiritual wealth and brought me closer to my Savior.

Fleck #1: His example of service: Christ was always serving those around him. We have many of the great and miraculous ways he served recorded in the scriptures. He healed the sick. He blessed the children. He fed the 5000. Sometimes we focus on these miraculous ways and miss the small seemingly insignificant acts he also performed. Many times after he performed a mighty miracle he stopped and spent some time with that person – teaching them, comforting them and bringing them peace.

I know I can’t accomplish the miracles that Christ did but I can follow His example as I reach out to comfort a troubled heart or bring peace to a worried mind. I most likely won’t have an experience like in 3 Nephi where I see heavenly angels and fire coming from heaven to encircle my children. But I know there are earthly angels that encircle them here every Sunday in Primary and teach them that their Savior loves them and cares for them. I may not be able to take some loaves and fishes and feed the 5000 but by paying my tithing and fast offering to the Lord, He will take my few pennies and dollars and do miracles in the lives of those that need it.

Fleck #2: When I was in college I purchased a little statue carved from olive wood. I was so captivated by this simple piece. The man I bought the statue from told me its inspiration came from a scripture. The statue is an upright hand with a little boy resting in it. The hand and the boy are not carved to look like two pieces but instead it has been carved to look as if the boy is part of the hand. I went home and found that scripture. It has since become my favorite. The reference the merchant was referring to is found in Isaiah 49. But I prefer the similar one found in the Book of Mormon - 1 Nephi 21: 13-16.

“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me – but he will show that he hath not.

For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

When times get difficult I know on many occasions I have been as faithless as Zion and asked the Savior if He had forgotten me. I have been assured each time that he cannot and will not forget me. He has “graven [me] upon the palms of [His] hands.” His atonement, death and resurrection weren’t done for all of us as a collective whole. They were done just for me. They were done just for you. Not only did he do those amazing, miraculous works just for us he is continually helping each of us.

Elder Richards said in his talk, “The Atonement Covers All Pain”, “The Savior is not a silent observer. . . . Perhaps His most significant work is in the ongoing labor with each of us individually to lift, to bless, to strengthen, to sustain, to guide, and to forgive us.”

How does he know how to help us? How does he know exactly how to help us? I came to understand just a small bit of this as I was reading Alma 7:12.

“And he will take upon him death, that he my loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”

I have always concentrated on what the atonement can do for me. Until this verse I had never considered how the atonement affected Christ. This verse taught me that the Savior chose to experience all our infirmities so he could know the perfect way to help me.

President Henry B. Eyring taught: “It will comfort us when we must wait in distress for the Savior’s promised relief that He knows, from experience, how to heal and help us. … And faith in that power will give us patience as we pray and work and wait for help. He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience.” When experiencing anything difficult many of us gravitate to those who understand and have experienced what we are going through. What better person to turn to than the Savior, the one who truly knows, the only one who can perfectly understand what we are going through.

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When, with a wounded heart, anger, or malice
I draw myself apart searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows?
Where, when I languish?
Where, in my need to know?
Where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately.
Reaches my reaching.
In my Gethsemane, Savior, and friend.
Gentle, the peace He finds
For my beseeching.
Constant He is, and kind.
Love without end.

As we truly realize that it was “my Gethsemane” we can sing and be joyful “for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; . . . for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.”

Fleck #3: Let me tell you about my grandmother. She was an extraordinary person. First let me describe her. She was very petite – 4’11” to be exact. She had this perfect head of white hair. Her clothing was always very nice. I remember she even wore her nice blouses and slacks camping with us. And she did actually go camping with us – tent and all. She was a convert to the church. I will always be grateful that she and her children joined the church. Through many of her life experiences I have learned perseverance in the face of trials. I have learned from her to have a good attitude and to have fun with life. I look forward to following her example and serving a mission with my husband.

During my freshman year of college she got sick. Her funeral was the first I remember attending. I remember walking into the viewing and seeing her lying there. My only thought was it wasn’t her. She still had the beautiful clothing on. Her hair was still perfectly styled. But something was missing. Her spirit was gone and her body remained. It was the first time I was truly grateful for the resurrection. I will one day get to see her again. I will get to see her extraordinary spirit reunited with her petite body.

President Monson said in a talk in last April’s General Conference: “No words in Christendom mean more to me than those spoken by the angel to the weeping Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when, on the first day of the week, they approached the tomb to care for the body of their Lord. Spoke the angel:

“Why seek ye the living among the dead?

“He is not here, but is risen.” ¹²

Our Savior lived again. The most glorious, comforting, and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place—the victory over death. The pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary had been wiped away. The salvation of mankind had been secured. The Fall of Adam had been reclaimed.

The empty tomb that first Easter morning was the answer to Job’s question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” To all within the sound of my voice, I declare, If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth.

“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” ¹³

He is risen! He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst his three days’ prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered; man is free.

Christ has won the victory!

Jesus Christ stood up in the Premortal Council and volunteered to come to Earth and become our - become my Savior. I know he didn’t volunteer in ignorance. He understood his role in the plan. Jesus was the cornerstone of the plan. Without him there would have been no resurrection. Without him there would have been no repentance. Without him there would have been no salvation.

Tyler-isms

Ism #1: (This is NOT an announcement, by the way.)

Tyler: Mommy, I think you should have another baby. I want a brother or sister.

Me: Well, Tyler, why don't you pray and ask Heavenly Father about that?

Tyler: No, Mommy! That's your job!



Ism #2: Walking through Sam's

Tyler: Mommy, you need to get some new pants.

Me: Why? (Suddenly realizing what he means.) Oh because they're too short?

Tyler: Yeah!!

Me: They're called capris. They're supposed to be short.

(He's been growing so fast that he's been hearing his pants are too short a lot lately.)


Ism #3: Sitting at lunch - A very profound one!

Karena: Mommy, I feel like I don't have anything special.

Me: Like what?

Karena: Well, I don't know. Just something special.

Tyler: The thing about things you get that are special is that the first day they are special. The next day they are about half special and the day after that they aren't very special.

Bring On the Luck!

Taekwondo

Since September the kids have been participating in a morning taekwondo class a couple days a week. The owner of the studio was extremely generous to offer it to the homeschool community for free this year. It took the kids a while to warm up to it and really get into it. Last month they finally were prepared enough for their yellow belts. Tyler was the most prepared but ended up being the most nervous. They all did extremely well. (When I figure out how to make movies from the videos from my ipod I'll post them.) Since then Tyler has been practicing all the time. He's really getting quite good and almost has his 2nd pattern memorized for his next test.

Here are my new yellow belts:

Tyler

Hannah

Karena
(The wind was pretty strong and no one wanted to stay out anymore for a retake.)

Just Before Church

What do you do with the 30 minutes before church? You read a book...

He fought the wall...

....And the wall won.




We were walking out of a store this afternoon that had a completely glass front. There were two sets of doors with a glass wall separating them in the middle. I guess Tyler didn't realize that the middle wasn't a door and tried to open the wall with his face. He hit the glass so hard he even got a bloody nose.

While we were in the bathroom patching him up he had two questions for me.

1 - "Mom, what happened?"
2 - "Can we still go out to eat?

Why I don't post

I haven't posted in a while. No one's noticed I'm sure. Its the pictures. I don't like dealing with the pictures. To be quite honest I think I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Or I'm just easily distracted with other things on the internet.

So I'm going to try something new. I'm going to try and put up a post a week and I'm not going to worry whether I have pictures or not. Maybe you'll get lucky and get to see nicely edited photos or maybe you'll just get to read my ramblings.

So with all that I hope you enjoy some random pictures from the past few weeks.

Funny things we heard today

You know you're a redneck when...

Your daughter yells, "Daddy, your neck is RED!"


You know you need to reteach a topic when you hear...

Counting for hide-and-seek, "3 and 2 fourths, 3 and 3 fourths, 3 and 4 fourths, 3 and 5 fourths, 3 and 6 fourths, 3 and 7 fourths, 3 and 8 fourths, 3 and 9 fourths, 3 and 10 fourths. Ready or not here I come!"

My Halloween Creatures

Cannonsburgh Village

I've been pretty bad about chronicling our first year of homeschool. Honestly, its been kind of rocky. Great at times. Bad at other times. I'm finding it hard to develop and stick to a routine that gets only just some of the "it" done that I need to get done.

But even with all that, I'm still really enjoying teaching my own children. Its so exciting to see them understand something or get a concept that has been difficult for them.

Friday we had a field trip to Cannonsburgh Village. A little history: The original name of Murfreesboro was Cannonsburgh. It is a southern-style village, circa 1800-1925.

We first stopped by the blacksmith's shop.



We were able to see Blacksmith Alan make a hook that could be nailed into the wall. The kids were astounded to see him break, twist and pound metal. Tyler even said it looked like a glow stick.

We then were given a tour of the rest of the village.

The Chapel with its amazing stained glass windows.

The one room school house. The blackboard was wood slates in a frame.

The mill. It is still a workable mill. They use it during festival days. We learned a interesting fact. If there were any widows that brought their corn or grain to be milled they were not charged to mill it.

We ended the tour with a hayride. Our guide, Vera, was fantastic. She was so kind. She spent the hayride talking to Karena and Tyler. She was genuinely interested in what they had to say and enjoyed seeing how Karena and Hannah were unique. So many people just notice their similarities.

After the tour was over we took a break for a cool snack. The kids all said they wanted to go back again.

What's wrong with this picture? Take 2

Can you guess what this is?

Does this give you a hint?

What about now?

Yes! That is a perfectly round egg. We got it at Sam's. Not quite sure how it passed inspection and ended up in my carton. Thought it was blog worthy though.

What's wrong with this picture?

This came in the mail yesterday. First off, this is NOT an announcement. Just making sure no one gets the wrong idea.

So as I was saying, this came in the mail yesterday. Apparently Similac thinks someone is having a baby.





Its not me though.




Congratulations, John! You're going to be a mother!

Random Updates

1. The Bug - The bug was a house centipede and not a silverfish. Thanks Dad and Brady for the info! Click on the links to see pics of both. I'm not exactly sure which one is most creepy.

2. Canning - Friday, the kids and I went to a local farmer's market. We got around 90 ears of corn, 3 lbs of green beans, a watermelon, a quart of raw (yummy!) honey, and 2 loaves of Great Harvest bread. Yesterday, we canned the corn, beans and some homemade spaghetti sauce and got 10 quarts of corn, 2 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 6 pints of beans. I was exhausted by the end of the day to say the least. But I was quite pleased with myself.

3. Shoes - Tyler can now tie his own shoes! The day he figured it out he told everyone we met. The grocery produce guy, the cashier at CVS, everyone.

4. Primary - Karena gave a talk today in primary and Hannah read the scripture. Both needed no help from me. I'm amazed at how well they are reading.

5. Scrapbooking - Finished two scrapbook pages about our trip to Utah this summer. Head on over here and check them out.

6. Bike - John got me a bike yesterday. Haven't been able to try it out yet. Hopefully tomorrow. The kids are always wanting to go out on bike rides. Can't wait to go but I think I might hold off until the weather cools down a bit. In the paper today the weather forecast for the next 3 days was "Very Hot."

The Bug

We had just arrived home from church. John and I were changing in our room when suddenly all three children started screaming from the living room. My first thought was, "Okay, who did it this time?" I began to head out to check when they burst into my room and slammed the door. Hannah informed us there was a scary, creepy bug on the floor in the living room. She then explained how she found it. She said, "I thought it was a hair ball. Then I got closer and the hair ball had legs and it MOVED!"

We went out to find and capture the bug. Sure enough it was a pretty creepy bug. I have never seen anything quite like it. If anyone can identify this bug I would appreciate it.