Ahh, that's better

If you're feeling like life is frantic and crazy, that the USA is falling into a deep financial pit, or just need a good healthy reminder to open your Bible, go read this. Don't worry, it's short and to the point, but well worth it. The Lady of Virtue doesn't post much fluff. :)

Clarity

I think it's interesting how I can suddenly get clarity on a certain verse or topic when I'm reading the Bible or another book.

In Sunday School, we've had some intriguing discussions about how faith and works tie in; how we'll be judged (are Christians judged too?), rewards in heaven, and the idea of being 'given much so much is expected.' And I've been reading an Andrew Murray book called True Vine that deals with the vine & branches passage in John 15. Some things came together...

Last night while reading Knowing God by J.I.Packer, a few passages really stuck out to me:

Index of the Heart:
"...The relevance of our doings is not that they ever merit an award from the court (the chapter was on God, the Judge)--but that they provide an index of what is in the heart--what, in other words, is the real nature of each agent."..."Similarly, in the sheep-and-goats passage appeal is made to whether one had or had not relieved Christians' needs. What is the significance of that? It is not that one way of acting was meritorious while the other was not, but that from these actions it could be seen whether there was love to Christ, the love that springs from faith, in the heart. (Mt. 25:34-46)"

"How do free forgiveness and justification by faith square with judgment according to works?
The answer seems to be as follows. First, the gift of justification certainly shields believers from being condemned and banished from God's presence as sinners. This appears from the vision of judgment in Revelation 20:11-15, where alongside "the books" recording each person's works
"the book of life" is opened, and those whose names are written there are not "thrown into the lake of fire" as the rest are. But, second, the gift of justification does not at all shield believers from being assessed as Christians, and from forfeiting good which others will enjoy if it turns out
that as Christians they have been slack, mischievous and destructive. This appears from Paul's warning to the Corinthians to be careful what lifestyle they build on Christ, the one foundation. "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work shall be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames" (1 Cor 3:12-15). Reward and loss signify an enriched or impoverished relationship with God, though in what ways it is beyond our present power to know. Final judgment will also be according to our knowledge. All people know something of God's will through general revelation, (I thought of Rom. 1:19-20, where creation has made God known to all people)
even if they have not been instructed in the law or the gospel, and all are guilty before God for falling short of the best they knew. But ill-desert is graded according to what that best was; see Rom 2:12 and Luke 12:47-48. The principle operating here is that "where a man has been given much, much will be expected of him" (v. 48 NEB). The justice of this is obvious. In every case
the Judge of all the earth will do right."

Pretty wordy, I know, but he says it much better than I could. It really made me think about if I am living to the best of what I know about God. When talking about our actions showing if we really loved God, I thought of John 14:15, 'If you love me, you will obey what I command.' Seems like a tall order. But in True Vine, the point is brought out that the power to bear fruit in our lives comes from God, if we only abide in him. I've been pondering what 'abiding in him' looks like. John 15:9 points the way: 'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.' Lots to think about and continue studying.

Random Bits

It's been REALLY windy here all week. Tuesday, I think, some plastic grocery bags blew in from their pile by the garage door. Lo and behold, there was something in one of them, and it was the missing toothbrush! I was starting to think I'd gone looney. :)

We caught two more mice this week. Ugh.

A funny from Speedy yesterday: "I don't WANT to share. I'm SELFISH!!!" (Background: we were finishing up our PAT home visit and someone asked for a snack. I said there were leftover pieces of their PB & Js from the day before in the fridge. That's what the fuss was about.)

A couple books I've read lately:

My Antonia (by Willa Cather) A classic that was being promoted in the area to get people reading. I wasn't that impressed, it being a classic and all. It did bring up some interesting points about immigrants to the US trying to make it in Nebraska in the 1700s; but didn't really have a plot (which it said in the introduction), and didn't really leave me feeling like I'd gleaned much from it.

Making Your Home a Haven (by Cindy Salzmann) This was a good, practical, biblical and concise lesson in homemaking. I wish I'd read it several years ago, and I think I'll put it on my list of good bridal shower gifts. :)

And lastly, lest from my queenly Halloween picture, you think I'm one of those people who doesn't show much when they are pregnant, here's a side-view Speedy took for me:

In the School Room this week

Here's some of what we're doing in 'school' this week:

We're reading these books:

A Grand Old Tree by Mary Newell DePalma

The Nutty Nut Chase by Kathryn White

The Leaves are Falling One by One by Steve Metzger

Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins

Clifford and The Big Leaf Pile by Josephine Page


We're painting on these leaf spiral crafts:

We're pretending to be leaves, dancing and twirling to music.

Maybe we'll do some leaf rubbings; find pairs of matching leaves; or groups of 7 leaves.

We're working on the Letter L (for leaf) and the number 7.

We'd like to make these Adorable Acorns:

The kids are holding their acorns, and their Leaf L's are hanging in the window behind them.

Some fingerplays and rhymes:

I stood beside a tall oak tree, I felt a gentle breeze.

I tipped my head and looked up high, to see the colored leaves!

And soon the tree began to sway, The leaves came swirling down...

Red and yellow, orange and brown leaves...Landed on the ground!

By: Jane Kitson

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb; Mary had a
little lamb, who's fleece was white as snow.

Everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went; Everywhere
that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one
day; It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and
play; It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb in school.

Cobbler

There's a cobbler down our street, Mending shoes for little feet:

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang!

Mending shoes the whole day long; mending shoes to make them strong;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang;

With a bang and a bang and a bang-bang-bang!

And a Spanish song we've been working on:

Lava, lava (sung to: 10 little indians)

Lava, lava tus manitas. (pretend to wash hands)

Lava, lava tu carita. (pretend to wash face)

Lava, lava tus dientitos, (pretend to brush teeth)

Todas las mananas. (every morning)

Peina, peina, tu cabello. (pretend to comb hair.)

Ponte, ponte tu ropita. (pretend to put on clothes)

Calza, calza tus zapatos. (pretend to put on shoes)

Todas las mananas.

By: New Eton School Staff

If I haven't mentioned it, No Time For Flashcards is a great preschool activity blog that someone turned me on to! (Thanks, G.B.!) It is crafts that you will actually have supplies on hand for, and that keep it simple! Yahoo!

Reading time

I actually had opportunity to catch up on some reading this week! (i.e., I went to bed at a decent hour and read in bed!) I just finished 'Preacher's Kids' by Grace Nies Fletcher, in which she relates what it was like growing up in a preacher's family at the turn of the century. She has a very warm way of writing, and it was neat to see how tightly knit their family was. Although, she and her brother did each come to a point where they tested their parents' faith and had to make it their own. A note from one of the dad's sermons on prayer stuck out to me: "What is prayer?...when what we want and what God wants are one and the same. Then only do we reach up to touch the hand of God, our Father." Simple, yet profound.

I also started reading 'Knowing God' by J.I.Packer. It's pretty deep, but will give a lot to think about. I think it will be looking at God's character and attributes. The author talks about knowing God more, not for the sake of knowledge itself; but as the writer of Ps 119's goal is, so ours should be: "He wanted to understand God's truth in order that his heart might respond to it and his life be conformed to it." Christian life in a nutshell! Stay tuned for more from 'Knowing God.'

And now for a few random smatterings that I was hoping to get done last night--but the internet was being a PAIN!

I have several moss rose plants that have just flourished this year--they are like small bushes, really! The picture doesn't do justice to the pretty red color that these are. And I have NEVER had marigolds that looked like this! Huge plants, huge blossoms, SO MANY blossoms! Hubby is glad to see that the cow manure he filled in the flower bed is making its mark. I guess I'm a believer in the difference fertilizer can make, too!
Yesterday Speedy was sent to lie down in our room. We went to get him for school and couldn't find him. We finally followed the blanket trail to the back of the closet under Hubby's hanging clothes. Speedy is quite drawn to the closet during nap time for some reason.
Everyone had their sunset pics from the KSU game this weekend on facebook; so here's mine:
And, our 3 little tailgaters were tired, but had a pretty good time at the game. Speedy couldn't stop talking about Willie the Wildcat. :)

Love to Read

I've always loved reading, hopefully that is trickling down to my kiddos. Here they are, 'reading' chapter books. Honey had to have one, also, but of course looked up to say 'cheese!'

I hope this translates to lots of actual reading once they can read the words and not just the pictures! :)
So I haven't been that happy with how 'school' is going for us--Princess gets frustrated if things are too hard, and I think she's not quite ready for what we're doing. Then there is Speedy, who REALLY wants to be involved, but completely on his own terms. I mean, I want it to be fun, not frustrating, so I'm researching online to see if I can find some free resources that are literature-based (where the activities are kind of based on a book of the week or something). I'll keep you posted. Or maybe I just need to set aside the same undivided time just to play games, do puzzles, art, sing songs and read. More relaxed. But I always feel like somewhat of a failure if I quit something in the middle. Which is silly--if it's not working for us, it's not working.

On a completely random note, I finally finished up two batches of apple jelly. Sure-Jell makes it pretty easy, but it was still kind of intimidating to try.

Hungry?

I feel like a Reading Rainbow book report--here's a fun one we read this week! Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. Maybe I liked it because no one had to cook or shop for food--it all fell from the sky! The kids were pretty intrigued by it. All was well till too much food was dropping and everyone had to move!

By the Sea

No, we haven't had a sea side vacation, but something (maybe the story of Jonah and the big fish?) has inspired quite a fascination in Speedy for books about the ocean.

Ducky by Eve Bunting is interesting--a story of a crate of bathtub toys that got spilled in the ocean and drifted--scientists charted where the toys came ashore. It's even based on a true event in 1992! Speedy's favorite page, of course, is the one where a shark is coming up to bite a mouthful of the toys. :)
Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae has been a favorite of Speedy's for a couple months now. Each time we read, the kids pick which fish they are that day. Speedy is usually a shark or jellyfish; Princess is an angelfish or dolphin.

I think 'Finding Nemo' added to the sea-frenzy--as we read, the kids often relate to what happened to Nemo & his dad, like when he jumped on the tops of the jellyfish.

In case you were wondering, I just can't decide how paranoid to be about all this web stuff, so for now, I'm not using the kiddo's real names. Hope it's not too confusing. :)

I thought I blogged...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...the posts I wanted to write must not have made it out of my head onto the computer!



We finished reading Stuart Little last week, so got the movie from the library yesterday. Once again, it was too scary and too sad for sensitive Princess. :)

'Slogging'

Sorry for slacking on my blog lately--apparently it's 'Week of the Young Child,' so our PAT group has 'celebrated by having about 10 events this week. Plus our own family field trips and a birthday--I don't feel like I've accomplished much. So welcome to my random round-up of posts today. :) And blogger has been giving me fits--more so than ever before!

It was me this time--I'm the one who stocked up on $2.00 a bag cereal. :) What can I say, my hubby has taught me well.

Here are a couple cute books we've read lately: (pics to come once blogger is working again)
Over In the Meadow by John Langstaff: cute rhyme about animal families and counting. llama, llama, red pajama by Anna Dewdney is about a llama who doesn't want to be in his room by himself at bedtime--yes, I can totally relate! Plus it's just fun to say llama and pajama and mama over and over again. :) An excerpt after the little llama just cried bloody murder:

Baby Llama, what a tizzy!
Sometimes Mama's very busy.
Please stop all this llama drama
and be patient for
your mama.

Cheese, cubed

I hope you can see well enough to notice Honey's cheesing for me from two different angles while hubby's doing storytime. :) Speedy's favorite book of the moment is Little Quack or Little Quack's Hide-and-Seek. Princess is easier to please, it doesn't matter as long as SHE gets to pick it out! Honey likes to read anything that tastes good. I hope she's picking up on a lot just eavesdropping on what I read to the older two, because it sure doesn't feel like I get a chance to read much just to her on her level.

Cheese #2!
And cheese #3: grilled cheese...
...but April Fool's, it's actually pound cake and frosting. The kids and I had fun with this idea from Family Fun. Hubby didn't figure it out until he picked one up. Here is the pound cake recipe I quickly found when our grocery store didn't have any pound cakes for sale. I baked it in 2 loaf pans for about 35 min; and of course didn't have any sour cream, so subbed yogurt--half vanilla, half peach. The cake didn't seem any worse for it!

I've finished reading Shepherding A Child's Heart. It's written from a very scriptural perspective, and has a lot of good things to say. It focuses on being intentional and changing your child's heart (which is what motivates the bad behavior.) Seems like the method of change is mostly lecture, quoting scripture and sharing appropriate anecdotes. I'm not sure how to implement that with our seemingly strong-willed kids, but the book did encourage me to be more intentional in noting the kids' strengths, weaknesses, and gifts; as well as developing good character traits in them. Makes me tired just thinking about being so intentional. Anybody have any insights on this?

You know you're a mom when...

...your shirt looks like a used kleenex

...YOU are the one who has to do all the undesirable household tasks (ex: those certain dishes that NOBODY wants to wash! Sorry, mom, that we always ignored those growing up!)

...you know what clipping all those box top and best choice labels is for

...you know why it's crucial to keep the toilet lid closed

...you pick up the same things over and Over and OVER

...part of your 'workday' includes playtime and storytime and naptime

...you get to give Kissing Hands (The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn)

...your reading list includes parenting how-to's (the latest one I'm reading through is 'Shepherding a Child's Heart' by Tedd Tripp. It presents kind of a different perspective from a lot of other parenting books out there. More focused on changing the heart than just the outward behavior. Neat.)

I also recently read 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen. I don't think I'd ever read it before. My sisters have a little book club, and that was their latest selection. I think society was so interesting back then--some of the things would have been neat for a while, like dressing up for balls and such; but there was such an apparent prejudice based on money and your name. I'm glad that's changed a little.

My time is up--I'm being summoned to the sunny table to check out the latest tomato sprouts!

The Shack

I finished another book last night: 'The Shack' by William P. Young. http://www.theshackbook.com/ My sister-in-law passed it on to me. Anyone heard of it or read it? I guess you'd call it sort of an allegory. I had a really hard time getting through the first four chapters (if you read the back cover of the book, you'd know why). I was wishing I hadn't started reading it, but felt like I had to keep going to get it out of my mind. If you can make it to chapter 5, you'll be okay, I think. It touches on so many aspects of Christian life and questions that come with the hard stuff in life. And presents such a loving, intimate portrait of God--the whole trinity, even--and presents the essence of each part with neat clarity. What's presented seems to mesh with the Bible to me, but I'm not an expert that can vouch for the soundness of all the 'theology.' This sounds cheesy, but the descriptiveness (of ch. 5 on) is also a 'feast for the senses.' :) All in all, it's a pretty thought-provoking book. If you've read it, let me know what you think.

Tuesday Musings

We saw a Papa John's flyer with a heart-shaped pizza, so Princess wanted to try making one for our Valentine dinner. Wasn't too hard. She was also excited about our pink punch (1 c pink lemonade, 1 c raspberry sherbet, 1 can 7up).
Speedy has latched on to Sam the bear; Sam sleeps with Speedy; Sam is sometimes Speedy's pillow; Sam takes trips in the van with us; Sam even sits at the table during meals sometimes. (Yes, he's wearing his jersey again!)
Just a cute one of Honey and Hubby. :) Honey's latest exploits include still putting everything in her mouth, and passing some interesting things into her diaper; LOVES grapes; can climb onto the bathroom stool and reach onto the counter; very interested in everything in the bathroom--today was already seen dragging around the toilet brush, then the bathroom rug. She cried herself to sleep for a nap today...for the first time ever--usually I am her pacifier to soothe to sleep. She has never been interested in an actual pacifier for more than about one minute. She's waving, clapping, bouncing to music, putting phones to her ear, trying to run, and I'm pretty sure, has repeated a couple words. :)

Princess & Speedy always want to try yogurt, then don't like it, so there's all these partially eaten yogurts lurking. Finally, we discovered that they love the Yoplait Whipped yogurt. Especially the chocolate mousse flavor. Does that really count as yogurt??

Speedy was reading 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' out loud to himself after lunch today. Very cute. And hard to believe he's growing up so much! He was helping me in the kitchen this weekend (he likes being close to the food, I think, and the opportunity for snacking). He was leaning over a pan just out of the oven, and I said "that'll burn your face, honey." He kind of glared at me and said, "I not HONEY, I SPEEDY!" Hubby agreed. :) Speedy has come up with his own word for when he toots--he calls it a peep. Like, 'I peeped' or 'I made a peep.'

We (the kids and I) started a new chapter book--Stuart Little. We're only on chapter 3. Need to enforce some bedtimes, I guess. I finally finished 'Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours' (I hear you snickering) by Kevin Leman. It was slow to start, but had some good points--main focus is 'reality discipline' basically letting logical consequences and your (the parent's) actions do the talking instead of arguing, wheedling, bribing, etc. Also had some pretty good chapters on single parenting and blended families. The verse it was based on was

Eph 6:4 "Don't keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them
angry and resentful. Rather, bring them up with the loving discipline the
Lord himself approves, with suggestions and godly advice." NLT

Also talks about how as a parent you want to aim for an authoritative approach, in between permissive (robs child of self respect and initiative by doing so much FOR her) and authoritatian (robs child of self-esteem and sense of independence by doing so much TO her). Interesting.

So Hubby thinks my blogging is kind of silly--I can't blame him, he actually gets to talk with other adults throughout the day instead of pseudo-conversing via a blog. :) It's also a good way for me to savor the everyday stuff, share info with others as I think of it (that I usually end up forgetting to tell them in person), and hopefully be an encouragement, or at least mildly entertaining to others. Time to end this long post that has only taken about 40 minutes, in between interruptions. One of which was Princess asking me if God and Jesus would take care of her if she didn't have a Mommy and Daddy in heaven. (sniff, sniff) Yes, Princess.

Fancy Nancy

Here's Princess in her girly skirt and tights, after PAT storytime on Wed. (she won this 'Sam' bear from 'A Snowy Surprise' in a drawing).

We read our first 'Fancy Nancy' book this week--pretty cute. Princess' not quite as over the top as Nancy is, but I felt for her when we read this page in Fancy Nancy (they're trying to decide what kind of dog to get) "Too big. Too brown. Too plain. Sometimes it's hard being the only fancy person in a family." I'm glad she has her fancy cousin to hang out with.

'Max,' Ruby asked, 'what is in your pocket?'

We read Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells today, just TICKLED me! If you don't know, Ruby is the older, bossy, type A big sis and Max is, well, a typical little brother. She had helped him pick up his room, throw away some junk, etc. Then sees that he's been stashing it all in his pocket. I don't know why, I was just TOTALLY tickled by it! :)

Eeny, Miny, Mo

Princess' version of the rhyme she's been chanting all week:

"Eeny, Miny, Mo. Catch a tiger on your toe. If you holler, let him go. I pick YOU!"

We've been trying to read from a 'chapter' (i.e. chapter book)each night at bedtime (when the kids are in bed by 9. Doesn't happen as often as one might think!) Anyway, This fall we read Charlotte's Web, then watched the movie. (In the past week or so, Wilbur has reappeared as a stuffed dog in our house.) Last week, we finished Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (or as Speedy says, Prs. Wiggle Wiggle.) As soon as we finished, they were asking if we could go get the movie from the library. I can't find it!! A good picture book we read last week was Mailing May, true story of a 5 year old girl who was mailed to visit her grandma because train fare was too expensive. Neat illustrations, too!

Night Owl

I reverted back to my younger days--staying up till too late last night finishing another George MacDonald book, The Shepherd's Castle. Not as good as the first one I read, this one was a little dark--hidden chambers in a castle, a drugged madman of an earl. It did have some truth in it, but I had to finish it so I wouldn't be too creeped out to sleep! :) (and I didn't get my 2 scrapbook pages done, either!)

A Good Read

Amazingly, I am still able to enjoy reading--in smaller bits of time than pre-kid, but I still enjoy it quite a bit. (And sometimes I get to read books without pictures, too!) :) I just finished 'The Baronet's Song' by George MacDonald, it's a nice read, very descriptive of the Scottish countryside, but not too descriptive to make it boring. It's a touching story about an orphan, who although treated very poorly, still has a pure spirit and love for humanity. He's always looking out for others, what he could do for them, never thinking what he would or could gain from it, and that really impressed me. He comes to know Jesus through a woman who takes him in. The description of her faith was simple, but impressive to me: "Not for years and years had Janet been to church. She had long been unable to walk so far; and having no book but the best, and no help to understand it but the highest, her faith was simple, strong, real, all-pervading. Day by day she pored over the great gospel until she had grown to be one of the noble ladies of the kingdom of heaven--one of those who inherit the earth and are ripening to see God. For the Master, and His mind in hers, was her teacher. She had little or no theology save what He taught her. To Janet, Jesus Christ was no object of so-called theological speculation, but a living Man who somehow or other heard her when she called to Him,..." Not that I'm advocating not going to church by any means, I just thought it interesting how complicated we make knowing God sometimes.