The instructions to this meme can be found at this location: Small World at Home blog.

So here goes...

June 2008: This is the first post of my first blog.

July 2008: It's July 1st.

August 2008: I saw the symptoms before affluenza became a known buzzword.

September 2008: On this Labor Day, I hope my friends and readers have been having a pleasant break from their daily routine.

October 2008: We arrived back home safely on Monday, without any incident, after ten nights of camping with perfectly sunny and cool weather the entire time.

November 2008: Go ahead, laugh at me.... I can take it.

December 2008: Please keep our friend, Raymond S., in prayer. He is in immediate need of a heart transplant. Could you pass this prayer request on to your praying friends as well?

... and I am feeling a bit daunted. While it is true that I was excited to see the Calvert fourth grade box arrive this month, and there are parts that we are looking forward to, I am concerned. The workload looks ---- well ---- daunting. Fourth grade is when Calvert hits that accelerator pedal, when things begin to get serious. I can see there is a significant difference from third grade. We cannot wait to dig into A Child's History of the World, and the reading selections. But I can see that composition is going to be more intense. Don't get me wrong, because I know that the challenges of fourth grade are what distinguish Calvert's curriculum from so many others. It's just....that....well, now that we are here, now that we have arrived at fourth grade, I am very mindful of the challenges that lie immediately before us.

Some good news is that Baby Girl has already proceeded about 15 lessons into first grade, and she really likes it. Her skills in the three R's are already quite well developed, so much of our labor will be lightened for first grade. For this I am grateful.

Now I will be teaching fourth grade to Little Son, and first grade to Baby Girl. We will be doing school lessons for a much longer time than we are used to. We will need to begin earlier in the day, say, 8:30. I will need to focus better on time management, and spend less time on the internet. In short, I will need to live a more disciplined lifestyle than I have been living lately.

My morning routine goal will be for me to rise, tend to the dog, do my personal morning tasks, have my quiet time, and be ready to serve the children by around 7:45 each day. Then at 7:45, do Bible and/or catechism with the children, have them do their morning responsibilities at 8:00, and eat breakfast at 8:15. And if this doesn't allow enough time for everything, then we will move the start time of the children's schedule to 7:30.

Change is difficult. We are not used to getting up and going so early. I have been coaching the children a little about this during their break. This change will require prayer. I will need to become a more prayerful person this year to effectively meet all the challenges that 2009 will produce.

One thing I have done is to purchase a Christmas present for myself. It is called the Beautiful Life Management System by GraceWorks. I did splurge on this planner, but I am hoping that it will help me to keep house a little better and to keep up with details that I have let slip in recent years. But a planner is not a magic wand. The word of the year is going to have to be "pray".

We are beginning our school year on Friday, with lesson one. This is a day when there are no scheduled events, activities, or violin lessons away from home. I will let you know how it goes.

UPDATE in bold font below.

... and started reading a couple of articles in today's N*w Y*rk Times. One, in particular, I felt compelled to respond to. The article is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/opinion/30warner.html

The article discusses an inexplicable longing among some for the traditional ways of the 1950's culture. I sent in a reply and am wondering whether the moderator will post it. My reply was:

You will find a quiet revitalization of the traditional lifestyle of former decades in the homeschooling subculture, particularly that associated with conservative Christianity, but including those who merely choose to homeschool for academic and idealistic reasons. Social scientists need to be studying these families. We are such a family, and I personally know over a dozen other such families. Their marriages are intact after many years; many of them have children well into their teenage years. They often have 4 or more children. These are happy and satisfied wives and moms and dads who are making it on one paycheck (or in some cases, developing cottage industries and other forms of working from home to meet their needs and those of the growing homeschooling populace). We are working hard to teach our kids non-materialistic values, self-control, self-discipline, self-reliance, and diligence in all we do. I, personally, have sought out a particularly rich and rigorous curriculum to aim for excellence with my two children. It requires self discipline on my part, but it is certainly not impossible. So far, our kids are pretty happy, too. They are doing fine academically and socially, able to keep up with others of differing ages. They are well mannered; they make good eye contact with others. They are able to participate in substantive conversations with adults about all manner of topics. They are thriving in learning to be excellent in various skills. In our group, we have several who play musical instruments and sports. Much can be learned about our subculture by simply visiting our blogs (there are hundreds of honeschooling families who maintain them) and simply by observing us with an open mind. The traditional family is alive and well and growing in number, and busily raising and teaching tomorrow's leaders with God's help.

Sandy in Texas, if you read that article, I am sure you have a good reply to send in.

UPDATE: -- I cannot complain anymore. They did post my comment. They must have read my blog and felt guilty. LOLOLOL. Comment #63.


The second article, seeking out whether church attendance in 2009 just might be able to help the heathen to keep his New Year's resolutions -- well, there is no serious way I could respond to that one in a single comment that the moderator would post. You decide if you can by reading the article here. It is interesting how secularists try to describe the actions of the Holy Spirit in people's lives when they don't have the proper words to do so. It is also interesting that this article appeared in the Science section.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/science/30tier.html?th&emc=th

... actually, she didn't make it up herself, but she often said:


See this article: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16882.html


An intrusive press is part and parcel of an open democracy, especially when you are the POTUS.

If the day comes that the press are barred from such interaction with the president, then we all better worry. This would be an earmark of a repressive, totalitarian form of government. It would be a very foreboding sign indeed.

And now it is time for my 100th post. I could say that in honor of my 100th post on this blog, I am going to give away 100 dollars to the person who leaves the 100th comment on this post.

The fine print rules are that the 100 comments have to be left by 100 different people, and that the contest ends in 100 hours, or around midnight on 12/27.

You can tell I'm really taking a big risk here. The operative words, here, being "could say".

What I really wanted to post in this 100th post is a photo of my favorite view of the year.

My baking is done. I have made seven different treats. They are:

Pistachio Bars;

Almond Bars;

Tropical Lime Oat Bars;

Praline Sugar Cookies;

Candy Cane Cookies;

Snickerdoodle Pinwheels; and last, but certainly not least,

Double Chocolate Espresso Bars!!

Ostensibly, I made these treats to eat and share with friends.

But you know, and I know, that it was really to post their pictures on the blog!

In addition, the children are in three performances this year. Last Sunday, they played violin for our church Christmas Fellowship night, and Baby Girl participated in a lovely girls' dance performance to "Away in a Manger".

Today, both children will be performing Christmas songs on violin in a group for a local Rotary club.

On Christmas Eve, the children will be in a Christmas Pageant titled "The Mystery of the Manger" where they don't have any speaking parts, but will be in the singing groups.

The challenge is in keeping them healthy for all these events. Little Son developed a cold on Thursday evening, and I have my doubts about Baby Girl right now. She was complaining of the same symptoms last night.

But otherwise, shopping, wrapping, and baking are essentially finished, and this girl can coast the rest of the way.

Coming up ... this blog's 100th post.

You Are 69% Likely to Survive Another Great Depression

Even though you may not be expecting the worst, you're the type of person who prepares for the worst. You live a relatively modest life. You don't overspend, and you aren't very materialistic. You are also quite self sufficient and independent. You have many useful skills. You can take care of yourself and those you love... which is crucial to surviving another Great Depression.

Speaking of keeping one step ahead, I have another story. Our family never goes shopping on Black Friday, but this year, we saw such an extraordinary price cut on something the children wanted, that dear dear DH got up early in the morning on Black Friday to procure that item. He was up around 5 a.m. and slipped out of the house before I even woke up - what a gem he is! He drove a half hour to the store, was first in line (or close to it), got the items, loaded them into the van and returned home. By the time he returned it was daylight and I was up reading in our family room. He deposited the items into a slick and sneaky hiding spot and entered the house. Then he put his jammies back on and went to bed, and actually fell asleep again (as only a man can do).

The children arose a little while later, and found him as normal as ever in bed, never suspecting anything. It was the perfect plan.

Or so we thought.

The next day, as our family was driving down our street in the van heading to P*nera Bread, Little Son piped up a question: "Daddy, did you drive somewhere early yesterday morning?"

DADDY: "Er, why do you ask?"

LITTLE SON: "Well, I was riding my bicycle yesterday in our driveway, and I noticed that the most recent tracks in the sand were from a car, not from my bike".

Mommy and Daddy exchange "parent" glances.

And I (Mommy) hastily volunteered: "well, I think the meter reader is due to come read our meter. Maybe he came by??"

LITTLE SON: "But how would he get through our gate if it was closed?"

DADDY: "So have you figured out what kind of bagel you guys are going to order?"

MOMMY: "Do you think our friends will be there this morning?"

And the matter was dropped. But of course, Little Son may appear to "drop" a matter of conversation, but that certainly doesn't mean he stops thinking about it, you know what I mean? Is it me, or are they making kids smarter these days? Or does it just appear that way since their minds are getting sharper and sharper even as my own becomes duller and duller.

Inquiring minds want to know.

A dear friend of mine has suggested that Little Son may have a future in the CIA or the FBI.

Like most of my readers, I have been very busy this past week, and haven't had time to write blog posts. It isn't that there isn't anything bloggable in my life, it is just that some of it is too complicated to write out quickly. I am in the middle of writing a longer post about a more complex subject, but that might not be posted for a while yet. But I do have a current short anecdote about a conversation I had with Little Son yesterday while his sister listened in.

Our church asked our family to light the Advent wreath for the fourth Sunday in Advent. This will be our first time doing this in the six Advents we have been attending this church. So yesterday, I reviewed the passage of scripture that our family is to read, and practiced it with the children. It is from Luke 1:26-35. Basically it is the story of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to a young virgin named Mary and announced that she would give birth to a son.

So, I could see the question coming before it did, and both children were present at the time.

LITTLE SON: What is a virgin?

MOMMY: A virgin is, well, you know how animals and insects have to mate to have a baby? Well a virgin is someone who never mated.

LITTLE SON: Then I'm a virgin, too.

MOMMY: That's right, you are. And the fact that Jesus was born this way is another amazing miracle about him, another way he was completely different, because Mary had never mated.

LITTLE SON: You mean, Mary and Joseph never mated?

MOMMY: Well, sure they did, later on, when Jesus had younger brothers and sisters, but at the time Jesus was coming, they hadn't. Remember, at that time, Mary was just engaged to Joseph. They weren't even married yet. So this is just one more amazing miraculous thing about Jesus; the way he was born. Different from everybody else.

LITTLE SON: Well I believe that miracle is true.

MOMMY: Good for you!

And then I was off the hook. It was that quick and simple. I didn't bat an eyelash. Whew! That was easy enough. Until next time, that is....

You see, Little Son and Baby Girl have been learning about the Birds and the Bees by, ...well, ....studying birds and bees. Little Son has been reading books about creatures for a couple of years, and has "explained" all this to me several times. They have sort of discovered at least some things about the facts of life through the "back door" of nature study, as it were.

So Mommy continues to try to keep one step ahead...

If a dog pees into a low bush at night while the Christmas lights are on, will he get electrocuted?

THEME:
This week it’s seriously going to be just fun. This week share your favourite candies. I know from being on the HSBA Post team that Sprittibee and Dawn love gummy-bears, and maybe Bunny too. Have fun with this… and you’re welcome to post a photo of YOU eating your favourite candy. Haha!
God’s Word is also like sweetness to our souls. His sweet love, forgiveness, comfort, peace, and more is what makes our lives seem a little more bearable when things get rough. Whenever you eat your sweet piece of goodness remember that God loves you and will always be there when life seems sour.
Share a scripture for this week as well. One that lifts you up when you’re feeling discouraged.

It is impossible for me to simply identify one favorite candy, so instead you are going to get many fine candies that I enjoy.


York Peppermint Patties









Spearmint Leaves

Yes, there has been a cease fire in my battle with perimenopause. And it has been all about better nutrition.

First of all, many thanks to Paula over at A Large Room for recommending a good book to me: "What to Eat", by Marion Nestle. This book was a whopper, over 500 pages, but I read all of it, and it was very informative. Just when a previous book I read about Perimenopause and nutrition had me thinking I had to go to a different planet to find safe food, this common sense nutritionist showed me I didn't have to. I highly recommend this book! This lady is smart. She is a good analyzer and thinker. She writes in an engaging, and often humorous way about a subject that can be pretty dry. She has done hours of research into the politics of food marketing, and how it should affect our choices on what to purchase and what to eat, and how to choose well at the supermarket.

Second of all, thanks once again to Leanne Ely for helping me get on the good nutrition wagon again. Thanks to her recipe plan, we are once again eating well at dinnertime. And these dinners often mean plenty of healthy leftovers for lunch later in the week.

The result is that I have been doing better in the hormone department. The symptoms and issues I reported back in this post have largely improved. There have been some days with a couple of symptoms, but not nearly to the extent that I complained about during the summer. I know that our diets left a lot to be desired. My DH and I had emerged from our successful weight loss year (he lost 35 pounds last year and I lost 30 pounds) without a decent eating plan for sustaining the weight loss, so we ended up eating too many packaged "calorie--controlled" meals without enough nutrition in them. Hey, Stouffers can be a good thing in a pinch, but too much of this sort of eating will take its toll. Not to mention the high sodium content. So now we are happily home cooking a wide variety of foods, and this is one area where it has been helping me.

Another things is that the book I mentioned above helped me to identify what may be the emerging signs of lactose intolerance in Baby Girl. So, after recently upgrading to organic milk for her benefit, I now find that I need to purchase organic and lactose free milk for her. I have been doing this for a week now, and her tummy aches have gone away. That is, until this morning when she complained about it again. I thought about what she had eaten and remembered that she ate a large portion of a casserole I made last night that contained cream cheese. Whoops! I guess I forgot about the lactose content there.

I spent the first 31 years of my life in the shadow of New Y*rk C*ty. That is, if you were to drive up on a ridge in my town and look to the southeast, you could see the entire Manh*ttan Skyline on a clear day. The Big Apple was probably 20 or 25 miles away, as the crow flies. Yet, our town (called a "borough" in New Jers*y) was relatively small, and had a population of under 10,000. It shared a post office with the neighboring borough. And any of our trips to the post office were of a small town nature. My dad was a collector of stamps, so this meant we were there often. We waited with him on short lines of five people or less. We had plenty of time to look around the room, poring through huge zip code directories and studying the Wanted posters. It had a creaky squeaky door with a jingle bell fastened to it at Christmas time. Some of the people either knew my dad by name, or at least by sight.

When I moved to my present state, I, too, moved into the shadow of a big city, just like where I grew up. Except now things are more urbanized. Things are bigger: shall I say, more "consolidated". Banks, shopping centers, and post offices are built for big crowds. There are huge parking lots, and widely sweeping driveways with multiple entrances and exits off a road that may be a six lane or more "street". Yes, in our area, roads that would be called highways anywhere else are simply "streets". Post offices can be hugh urban centers, with multiple long lines of people waiting, and post office stores on the other side of the waiting areaallowing you to purchase interesting products with postage stamps as the theme. There are massive adjoining rooms with p.o. boxes lining them, many vending machines for stamps, and even do-it-yourself package weighing and posting machines.

So one of the benefits of living in our small rural hamlet of 2,800 people is our tiny little post office. About three years ago, the Postal Service closed the tiny little post office of a neighboring town (to their profound disappointment!) but we still have our tiny little post office. So on Monday morning, when I went with my children to get Christmas stamps, we were greeted by a postal clerk who knows us and who sees us often. She rewarded our children with a ring of her bell for being "so good today". There was no line, only me, and a lady who came in after me. I had the time to pick out the stamps I wanted, and buy some 1 and 2 cent stamps to amend some older stamps I found in my kitchen cabinet (whose face value I didn't know, and had to ask). And yes, even the door squeaked and creaked, and had a jingle bell attached. And when I got over to the counter, I had time to calmly attach the stamps, including 1 and 2 cent-ers to my various pieces of mail, and the children gleefully took turns dropping the envelopes, one at a time, of course, into the "Out of Town" slots. After all, there is rarely a reason to drop much in the other slot. As we left the building, another incoming lady greeted us and held the door open for us.

I was thankful that I could deposit a little bit of "small town" into my children's memories, just like I have. Thanks to our tiny little post office.

Please keep our friend, Raymond, in prayer. He has been in the hospital almost continuously for the past two months. I will try to update you as I find out more in time. Thank you.

Please pray for Raymond S., a long time friend of ours. He is in immediate need of a heart transplant. He has had a long history of heart disease, having had his first bypass surgery at age 36. He is now 49 years old and has a wife and 8 year old son. Please pray that the Lord will uphold him and his family throughout this time until, hopefully, a successful heart transplant takes place.

Could you pass this prayer request on to your praying friends as well?

This weekend, we cut the grass for the last time this year. We will not need to cut it again until March. Unfortunately, our big tractor was on the blink again (so what else is new?) and while DH tinkered with it for hours, I completed the grass cutting with our Sears garden tractor. Let me tell you that this meant a total of 6 hours on the lawnmower seat! Believe me, my back was killing me by the time it was over. And did I mention that I was freezing as well? Everytime I rode the tractor toward the east, the wind cut through all three layers of clothing and made me shiver. I have never been so cold while cutting the grass! That was the downside.

The upside was that I had six hours to think, pray, and process all the events of the week. There were several things to think about. Some were wonderful (see my last post!!) and some made my heart heavy.

As I get older, I have more and more trouble with change of any type. One change was that my new progressive lens eyeglasses arrived in the mail on Monday. They took some getting used to, but they are pretty nice. That is a positive change.

That same evening I went to our homeschool fellowship mom's monthly meeting. Whereupon my dear friend announced to us that she and her family are probably (definitely?) going to move out of state. Her parents are not doing well, and they would benefit from my friend's moving close to them. My friend is doing her filial duty, which, I suppose, is a good thing. But it is not a good thing for me. But since she is likely to read this post, I mustn't go on about myself, lay heavy guilt on her, and whine about how all my best friends end up moving away. I happen to live in one of the most transient areas in the country. Everybody comes here for awhile and then moves on. Especially if they are my close friends. I cannot tell you how often this has happened. Sigh. Sigh again. So, instead, I will say that I honor and respect her and her family for praying hard and doing what they believe to be the right thing. Even if it sucks for me. They have had a hard week this week. They lost a beloved pet. So life is hard for them. But I will miss them immensely, and I am tired of my best friends moving away. This was the first family to greet us when we began to attend our present church, and they are our best friends there. This is a bad change.

Here is another change that is probably going to make my readers laugh, but hey, it just adds to all the misery. A local restaurant, Fazoli's Italian fast food, suddenly closed. This is the third time this year that I planned to meet DH after work at a restaurant, and when we both arrived in the parking lot, found it to be closed and gone. But now, Fazoli's! This was our home away from home. When you live out in the country, you need such a place. How many times we have had to grab a cheap, healthy, non-fattening dinner at Fazoli's when we were on the way to some place, or on the way to supermarket shopping, and now we can't anymore. It is one less option for us, when there weren't that many options to begin with. After all, where else could we get a healthy meal for a family of four for $17, and be able to stop at Lowe's, or any other such place, before heading home again? I know it sounds silly, but I am going to really miss that place. I now know why they call it a Depression.

I am starting to hate change. Unwelcome change.

Today we had a congregational meeting at our church. Our church has been through a lot of change this year. There were some unfortunate events that caused one of our pastors to leave, and several families, as well. Our church budget has been shrinking for a couple of years, and now it is really going to shrink a lot more for 2009 as membership falls. It has been reaching crisis proportions. We love this church, but in some ways it does not resemble the church we joined five years ago. We have no building, as we didn't five years ago. It's a long story. There has been talk of constructing a new building, but various factors have prevented this from happening to date. Now, with the membership and budget where it stands, the prospect of a building, as designed, is looking slim.

But that was not what the meeting was about. The meeting was to ascertain the feelings of the congregation regarding hiring a worship leader and professional band for our weekly worship. Our church needed a permanent worship leader; a person who would not be leaving within a year due to graduation from seminary. Additionally, I suppose it was thought that our worship service needed a "pick-me-up". So, our church advertised for a worship leader, and one of the applicants has been leading worship music at our church for the past six weeks or so, as an extended audition. Now we are to decide whether to hire this 5 member "band" permanently. The price tag for this music group is extravagant, to say the least; i.e. more than 20% of our annual budget. As in, I am shocked that someone can be paid this much money for working one morning a week. I should have chosen music over engineering, I guess. I am also shocked that our leaders even considered this person, knowing the high price, and allowed him to do worship for us for the past month. Basically, they set the hook in the mouth of our congregation.

Imagine if your spouse brought home a luxury car to "try out" for an entire week, allowing you to drive it and fall in love with it before springing the ridiculous price on you. This is what happened to our congregation. Never mind that our church budget is about to shrink to two-thirds of what it was this year. Some folks in our church think that we should hire this band because the music is good, and the leader is a good leader. Hmmm. A few people thought we were in no position to hire such an expensive band. The meeting adjourned, and we left, rather depressed, and feeling that there was truly a wide split in our congregation over this issue.

I am troubled that our church is actually considering taking on this huge expense when, financially, we are "on the skids". I am troubled that there are so many folks in the church who think we need to do this. People who said they didn't "enjoy worship" until this wonderful band came along. Big sigh. There was talk of taking a "leap of faith" in this area. There was the implied belief that this musical band was guaranteed to expand our membership. My DH knows of one couple that did not care for the new group, a couple that had only been attending for a half year. I am not sure if they have been returning. And what about the building project that was discussed 6 months ago as a leap of faith, to expand membership?

America has two types of folks. Spenders, and savers. By spenders, I refer specifically to folks who spend money that they don't have. I see that both groups are present in our congregation. DH and I are savers. We are very careful about money. We are very analytical. We don't want our church to commit financial suicide. Adding this music band will mean that each household unit in our church will need to contribute an additional $100 per month. Just for the music. Not to expand anything else, not for missions, not for community outreach. Just for the music.

Are we paying for our own musical entertainment, and calling it "worship"? Someone said we need to "do worship right". What does this mean? Our own pastor has traveled to African churches, and witnessed firsthand what churches can do to worship with little or no money. Aren't they "doing worship right"?

When we joined this wonderful church, we did so because we were so impressed with the fact that this church appeared to have its priorities right. They didn't have a building, they didn't have a nursery school, or any of the trappings or programs that many American churches have to meet the needs of the membership. But they were seeking first the Kingdom of God. And with no building to care for, they were largely unencumbered by all the burdens and expenses and worries of taking care of a physical plant. They could use all their resources for missions, outreach to the underprivileged of the community, children and youth, and local ministries. The congregation was special, and had their heart in the right place.

But now, I truly worry about our leadership. I worry that they have been overtaken by a modern spirit of materialism. I was already worried that the proposed building would be too fancy. And as lofty a goal as that building was, I am now discouraged that we will never reach it, because we will go broke paying our professional music band. I guess I just don't have enough faith.

This afternoon, DH announced to me that if our church hires that band, we will be looking for another church. Hiring that band will be pure foolishness in his eyes (and I guess in mine, as well). But where will we go? I have no idea. No idea at all.

So here is where the lawnmower therapy came in. Six hours on a mower provided plenty of time to pray, meditate, think, process, and worry. About change. About the future. About the economy. About grieving the possible moving away of a dear friend. About possibly having to find another church. I really don't want to do this. I wanted permanence in a church for our kids. Especially at this time, when Baby Girl is on the verge of making her profession of faith to the church.

Too many changes. Too much heaviness of heart, even as I feel great joy over the Holy Spirit's working in my children's hearts.

I cannot believe it has been an entire week since I have written a post. It's not that life has been boring; quite the contrary. But I haven't had the time or opportunity, until this weekend, to process everything in my mind and heart.

We have a joyous piece of news to report. Baby Girl became a Christian this week! It was truly a great day for us on Friday.

Until recently, much of our morning scripture discussions has been between Little Son and me, but recently I decided to make sure that Baby Girl was aroused from bed earlier so that she could at least listen, even if she did not wish to participate in the discussion. She is not a morning person. I knew she needed to hear more of scripture at home than she was hearing. As it turned out, before long she approached me twice within a week to tell me that she wanted to "turn her back on sin", to use a phrase that we used when Little Son received Jesus two years ago.

So during our school lessons on Friday, November 21, she told me again that she wanted to "turn her back on sin" and "turn to Jesus". So I put the books aside, grabbed some materials I had kept on hand for this moment, and tried to assess her understanding of the Gospel by asking her questions, reading to her, and defining some terminology. Then we went together through our own very annotated version of the sinner's prayer, and then I joyfully welcomed her into the family of God. She was obviously very pleased with this new change in her life, and promptly went out to the family room to announce her profound and life changing decision to Little Son.

I would like to say that Little Son spontaneously threw his arms around his little sis to welcome her to her new life in Christ. But..... "sibling-ness" overcame all, and Little Son refrained from such a display of emotion. That is, until I told him how appropriate it would be for him to welcome Baby Girl into God's family. At that point, he did hug his sister, with giggles to punctuate the significance of the moment. As only a big brother can.

Now Baby Girl has already expressed an interest in meeting with the elders of our church so that she can make her decision public, and simultaneously join our church. This is a tough call for me, because I want to be absolutely certain that she can articulate her newfound faith and understanding of the Gospel. Although she appeared to "get it" on Friday, I feel that she needs more development before she can adequately convey her convictions verbally, on her own, without my assistance, to our church elders. I want it to be a positive, successful experience for her, so right now, I think she may need more time. Am I making a mistake by waiting? I am not sure. Should I "strike while the iron is hot" and her enthusiasm is high? Might she become shy and self-conscious later on? Dh and I need some wisdom here...

This morning in church we listened to our pastor as he preached about Psalm 100, a psalm that teaches us the proper way to express thanksgiving to God. He got to verse 3, which reads: know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. At that moment, Baby Girl smiled up at me in the pew and whispered: "I belong to Him!"

"You sure do, Baby Girl, you sure do!" I replied, giving her a big church cuddle!

That is correct. We just mailed the final test in on Friday. Little Son has successfully completed Lesson 160 of Calvert School's Third Grade course. Now we take that long awaited break time that I often thought (and dreamed) about during the long hot summer weeks. I took some time after he finished his test to organize his papers and close the cover of the big 2 inch heavy duty three ring binder that contains his third grade portfolio. I felt pride and satisfaction over his completing this challenging course, and yet there was a tinge of sadness. Third grade seems to be the end of the young "primary" grades in my mind, and fourth grade seems so "old".

Fourth grade will begin for us after New Year's Day, and it will provide a much heavier workload than third grade did. But there are many things to look forward to. History will feature A Child's History of the World by Virgil Hillyer. I have heard so many good things about this book since I first planned to homeschool, and we will finally discover what it is all about. My bloggy friend over at Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet has given me a glimpse into the older Calvert years, and for that I am grateful, because I do not know anybody in person who is using Calvert at a level above third grade.

I am extremely proud of Little Son for coming this far and loving learning all along the way.

Baby Girl has begun First Grade, and I will continue to school her between now and New Year's. She says she "loves school" and she is doing fine with her first grade course so far.

I am so thrilled and thankful for what the homeschool lifestyle has already done for our family. I would not trade this experience for anything!

My next personal goal is to sit down and figure out how best to spend all the remaining "free time" I will have over the next six weeks. I want to use that time to the best advantage to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and take care of errands (and dental work!) that I have put off for far too long.

It's the "most wonderful time of the year" alright!

We just returned yesterday from a camping trip to Fort Desoto Park. The weather was magnificent. Not a cloud in the sky, and every day was breezy, dry, and in the 70s with nighttime lows in the lower 60s. We have been perfecting our camping skills as well, with the camper van making our lives so much easier. DH has truly figured out how to organize everything so well. We visited Fort Desoto, spent time at the beautiful beach (the nation's No. 1 beach in 2005), and walked out on the fishing pier. One of the highlights of this trip for our kids is crossing over the Sunshine Skyway, a very spectacular looking bridge. The children saw some live starfish on the beach, and a live manta ray that washed ashore just before we walked past. Also, pelicans galore. One exceptional highlight was the dolphin we saw just offshore, maybe 100 feet from the waterline. It was jumping and plunging repeatedly into the water. Thanks to Little Son for noticing that!

Here we are checking out the mortar cannons at Fort Desoto. This fort never saw any combat. It was constructed during the Spanish-American war to protect Tampa Bay. This cannon could fire a 1000 pound cannon ball over a mile up in the air. it was interesting to learn how they practiced firing it off every day, and the conditions the soldiers had to live with during that time (around 1905). The barrels of these guns, alone, weighed 29,000 pounds. It was interesting to learn how they mounted these guns in place way out on this remote barrier island before they had heavy equipment such as cranes to do the work.


Here are the children out on the fishing pier. It was very interesting to watch everybody salt water fishing on a Sunday afternoon. The water is just such a lovely aquamarine color there. The beach sand was so white and powdery.







Here is a photo of some of the many pelicans we saw. The fishermen had to compete with these to catch fish. No contest!













Baby Girl and Little Son decided to go into business for themselves. They collected the prettiest seashells they could find, and put them up "for sale" at the edge of our campsite. After sitting there for about an hour, and flagging down every passing car, they had $1.25 to show for their efforts (and sold the prettiest shells!) Some campers are very generous people. Too funny!

Oh, and lest I forget, here is a picture I took on the way out of town, through the windshield, of our children's absolute favorite bridge, the Sunshine Skyway. For the blog, of course.










It really was a terrific camping trip.

Our next camping trip will be the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. More on that in a future post.

As part of Calvert's Third Grade plan, Little Son read the book Smiling Hill Farm, by Miriam E. Mason. This is a book that has been read and enjoyed by generations of Calvert third graders. It is a very sweet chapter book tracing the history of the Wayne family from the time when they settled in Indiana, and everything that happened on and around their property through several generations. It also described how their lifestyles changed over more than 100 years, beginning with carving out their lives from a wilderness setting, and up through much of the 20th century. It is written in a very sweet, simple and innocent narrative style with plenty of dialogue, much of it from the point of view of the children in the family. I recommend it to any child who wants to learn about American history in a warm and interesting way.



One of the assignments was to create puppets of many of the characters from the book. There were so many characters! So Little Son came up with his own way of depicting the myriad characters of this book. Here are some of the results:


Today, as part of his lesson plan, he is to act out select scenes from the book with his puppets. Should be cute!

In late September, I administered the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to Little Son. It was his first experience with any standardized test. I wanted to do this because, well, although I suspected he was doing very well, I like to have evidence of it for his homeschool file.

Since we begin our school year in January, rather than September, he was nearing the end of third grade when he took this test. He took the Third Grade test. However, since he took the test in September, they compared his score to a national norm of Fourth Graders in their first month. I guess that was the best they could do.

We got the results back last week and his composite score was 93rd percentile. Reading was 97th percentile, Language was 89th percentile, Math was 73rd percentile. Other scores added into the composite as well, including Science and Social Studies. We are very pleased with this and happy to keep this in his file.

I do not report this to brag about Little Son's progress. But I do give a lot of credit to Calvert School. This curriculum is just amazing to me, and I would be helpless without it. So this is my small way of getting the word out about Calvert, in case anyone is searching and interested.

I also think that, just in case our national environment becomes less homeschool friendly in the future, it is a good thing to have standardized test results in your child's file. Just my opinion, for what its worth.

Monday was an exciting day for Little Son. Earlier in the summer, he had written a letter to President Bush as part of a Third Grade Calvert writing assignment. His letter was generally supportive of the President, and encouraged him on one of the significant issues of the time.

Months passed, and this Monday, the day before Election Day, we received a big manila envelope from The White House. Little Son tore it open, and read the following letter:

October 31, 2008

Dear [Little Son]:

Thank you for taking the time to write and for your kind words of support.

It is an incredible honor to serve as President of our great Nation. As my term of office comes to an end, my Administration will continue to confront the challenges of our times. You also have an important role to play for our country. I encourage you to study hard in school, reach out to those in need, and never doubt that you can make a difference.

Mrs. Bust and I send our best wishes. May God bless you, and may God bless America.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

All I can say is, how 'bout that? A timely message from a President very close to the end of his administration.

Two photos were also enclosed, one of the President donning a cowboy hat, and one of the First Dog, Barney, autographed with a paw print.

Needless to say, Little Son was very happy with the response and we will be framing this for his wall.

I have to say that I was without words this morning. I did not have the ability to express what was in my mind and heart today. So I am thankful for all my bloggy friends for being so articulate this morning. I even discovered some new blogs today, with excellent wisdom to share. Thank you to all you Spirit-filled ladies; your words have been a blessing to me today.

One person pointed out this verse from Proverbs:

On Wednesday, I went to the polls. It was at our local library, where I first entered with my children to pick out new books. Then I went outside with the children to wait on a line for about a half hour, with the hopes that the new books would keep the children busy during that time.

An older couple immediately behind us caught my eye. Although the gentleman didn't indicate who he was voting for, he obliquely replied to a comment about candidate- of- choice with this comment: "Are you kidding? We were in the same hotel together. The H*noi H*lton!"

At first, I wasn't sure who he was talking about, because I didn't catch the entire conversation. I heard his wife comment "This is my walking miracle here", as she clapped him on the back. At that moment, it dawned on my what they were talking about. So I smiled broadly and said: "Are you talking about yourself?" and he replied "Yeah."

Wow! Goosebumps. So he proceeded to tell me the story of how his plane got shot down over Viet N*m and he ended up as a POW in the H*noi H*lton two months before J*hn McCain had. "Five years and 7 months, I was in there". His wife showed me his uneven shoulders, from having been shot in one shoulder, and as for the other shoulder, he commented "Ejecting out of a plane going 800 miles an hour really tore me up". Yes, he knew J*hn McCain at the time, and knew him well before his imprisonment as well. He is two years older than Sen. McCain.

I shared with him the joy I felt when we returned from Viet Nam with Little Son, how our plane went over New York City and I could see the Statue of Liberty out the plane window. I pointed it out to Little Son, then 7 months of age, with a huge lump in my throat. This gentleman explained the best feeling he had was when he got out of the POW prison and was flown to the Philippines, where a crowd of 10,000 was there to greet and cheer him. He said it was a wonderful feeling for him, kind of like how I felt in the airplane that day.

Just talking to this couple made me all teary eyed. "You have my utmost respect and admiration", I said to him.

He chatted with Little Son about airplanes a bit, letting him know that he could still fly "in the back" some day, even if he didn't have 20/20 vision.

It was an uplifting and encouraging experience for me.

Once upon a time, there was a family of four. A mom, a dad, and two little children. They lived in a subdivision of homes that all basically looked alike. Their yard was small and unfenced. Solicitors often came to their door. Noisy college students rented the home across the street. The homeowners' association often sent letters to them complaining about dead palm fronds that needed to be trimmed, or pressure washing that was needed on the driveway. This family became annoyed, because there always seemed to be a problem, despite all the effort they put into keeping their yard nice. They decided they needed change. They wanted more space, more freedom, and less scrutiny. They wanted to raise their children where they didn't have to worry about a speeding car picking them off. They wanted to move to the country. They wanted change. At some point in the house shopping process, I don't know exactly when, they prayed for guidance in selecting a new house. After all, moving was a big decision.

So they went with their realtor to visit a house for sale in the country. Yes - surely this was the place! It was different from their old house. It had over 4 acres of space and privacy. You couldn't see your neighbors, and they couldn't see you. It would be a change. Yes, the floors seemed to buckle in some places, and there were some biting deer flies in the yard. The bathrooms looked pretty used and rusty, and the kitchen would have to be completely redone. But the house was different than anything they had ever seen before. It was unique. It would be a real change, moving here. So they overlooked its faults. They visited this house with the realtor 2 or 3 times. The realtor secretly thought the house was a dump, but said nothing. The couple was figuring on a bid for this house, when....

They found out about a second house. This house was on one acre. It was charming and well kept, and the asking price was much less than the first house. In fact, the first house now looked pretty bad compared to this one. This house had a nice view of a horse farm in the distance. It had many lovely oak trees in the back yard. The mom fell in love with those oak trees. But the house was too small. They took measurements, and it would be difficult for them to fit their furniture inside this house. There was also a neighbor with a loud motorcycle. But they overlooked these faults. The house was pretty, and it would be a change. So they placed a bid on the house. The bid was rejected; it was too low.

The couple was down in the dumps. They thought about giving up on looking for a house in the country. By this time, their realtor started to wonder if this couple really knew what they wanted. After all, the houses they were interested in had nothing in common with each other. But the next day, they saw another house come on the market. It was on 5 acres, with a barn and a hen house. There were five neighbors in view. They went to see this house. Yes, this would be a change. It was big enough for the family. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with the house. Everything looked fine. There was plenty of open space. There were many fruit trees, and a garden. There were lovely old oak trees, dripping with Spanish moss. The house was newer than the others, and looked very solid. It had a lovely fireplace, too. That same day, they placed a bid on the house and it was accepted. Yippeee!

A month later, they moved in to the new house in the country. Three weeks later, a hurricane came. There was some damage to this house, but it was minor. No trees were lost, and the roof didn't leak. It was a well-built house.

By this point in time, the cost of homes had become to skyrocket. There weren't any more decent homes in that community that this family could have afforded. It was a good thing they purchased a home when they did!

As for house number one: the family later learned that there was a problem with water quality at that house that would have cost a lot of money to correct. In addition, after the hurricane, the house became isolated. Trees had fallen across the wooded driveway, and there was no other way in or out of the property.

As for house number two: all the lovely oak trees in the backyard were knocked down by the hurricane. And yes, the motorcycle was as loud as ever, even in the middle of the night.

The moral of this story: This family was us, over four years ago. We thought we were wise. We thought we were careful.... savvy. We thought we knew what we were doing. All we knew is that we wanted change. We wanted change so badly that we were blind to the obvious. We were willing to overlook many red flags in order to get what we thought we wanted. Our desire for something different had made us blind.

The only thing that protected us was seeking God. God had protected us from our own shortsighted folly. Praises to Him!

May He protect all of us from our shortsighted folly as well.

THEME:
This week I’d like to invite you to share your favourite field-trip that you’ve been able to go on since you’ve started homeschool. I’d encourage you to include photos, but you don’t have to.

This seems like the perfect opportunity to finish writing about our September family camping vacation, since our vacation was really like an extended homeschool field trip. Many of the places we visited turned out to be very educational. Here they are in the order in which we visited them:

1. Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia - we were camping at F. D. Roosevelt State Park during this time, for three nights. The first full day, we spent at Callaway. It was very quiet that day, with few visitors, since it was off season. They have a magnificent butterfly exhibit, inside a glass building, with non-native butterflies from around the world. Our children are such butterfly lovers, and they could have stayed at this exhibit all day long. Once we could pull them away, we enjoyed the birds of prey encounter, and learned many of the blessings that birds of prey provide for human beings. One of them, is that they get rid of a lot of harmful bacteria, like botulism and anthrax. Did you know that birds of prey can consume carrion with these bacteria, and never get sick. In fact, they rid the world of these harmful bugs. Another reason that birds of prey need to be respected and protected.