Our Daily Schedule

OK here it is! My schedule for the next school year. I realize it will need some tweaking once we get started, but for now it seems to be what will work for us. I tried very hard not to change some routines that have worked well for us so far. Mainly the morning routine is untouched. I am trying not to look at my schedule as that, a schedule, but simply a routine to strive for. We will be doing a lot more reading, especially for Rebekah, this year and I still haven't decided if Brianna will be joining Rebekah and I in this. Finding something for Zachariah to do during this time will be a challenge. It has been a challenge so far since he has shown no interest in school at all. I don't want the TV on during the day so I'll try really hard not to have that as an option. I usually read to him or have a hands-on project for him to keep him busy. I'll see how this plays out. So, as we start gearing up our brains and lives for a new school year I can't help but get a tad excited about what will happen. I'm always up for a challenge in this area.

Family

Here are some pictures of us from recent weeks. We've had a busy and fun summer so far.


Zach and Daron getting ready to light a fire cracker. They were fun to watch!


Zach loved the results of the fireworks.

Kelli and Brianna. The mosquito's ate us alive until Nana came to the rescue with some fabric sheets. They really work!

We were ready to see the fireworks at a local church in town.

Rebekah practiced the Pledge of Allegiance for this day.

Brianna and Daron.

Zach and his friend Night.

Rebekah and her friend Dari.

A great summer day.

The kids had a great visit with their Nena.

Nena and the kiddos.

Nena and Brianna.

Rebekah's crazy face.

Daron, Daron's dad, and Tommy. It was a hot day!

Swimming at Nana'a and Papa Tommy's. There's really nothing wrong with Kelli, she's just making a silly face. :-)

Childlike Faith

There are some days when you wonder when you will see spiritual fruit in your kids, and then there are days you are in amazement at their level of faith. Today, I got a beautiful glimpse at that fruit in Rebekah, and it was....Oh! So Sweet!

The kids were excited because we had made plans to go to the library. There were several movies we were going to pick up but the main reason we had to go was because we had a library book that had been several days overdue and needed to be returned. I had intentionally placed the book by my purse to help remind me about it. Later that afternoon we loaded up and left in route to the library and about half way there I realized we left without the book. So....we u-turned and went back home to retrieve this book. I knew exactly where I had placed it so I quickly ran into the house to get the book. But to my surprise, it was not there. I immediately became frustrated because I knew one of the kids took off with it and there was no telling where this book could have disappeared to.

I stomped outside to the car and commanded that the kids get out and help in the search for the missing book. (Hey! This sounds like a good title to a Nancy Drew book:-) Well to my dismay, the book was no where to be found. Of course, I did have two 6 yr. olds and a 3 yr. old looking. What did I really expect?

I quickly became flustered and announced "WE ARE NOT GOING TO THE LIBRARY IF WE DO NOT FIND THIS BOOK!" The kids immediately became horrified. And the search was taken more seriously at this point. After 10 min. of looking, Rebekah piped up and said "You know Mommy, when I can't find something I ask Jesus to help me find it. Maybe if we pray He will show us where it is." I stopped dead in my tracks and stood there in awe at my daughter. It was at that moment that I rejoiced. Here, my 6 yr. old daughter got it! She realized that only Jesus could help us. We stopped right there and she prayed the simplest of prayers. "Jesus please help us find this book."

Lo and behold! Not a minute later I found it tucked behind our very dusty fake tree. We took time at that moment to thank the Lord for his faithfulness and goodness. I used this teachable moment to point out to them that what Rebekah demonstrated was called faith, believing in Jesus when we need help and trusting Him to do it.

It was a beautiful moment for me, to witness the childlike faith from my daughter that Jesus wants us all to have. It makes all that I do so worth it when I see that they are growing in the Lord. I love these moments, they are priceless!

Sunflowers in Bloom

One of the subjects we do for school is a Nature Study, where we pick one area of interest each week and we learn a little about it and we record our finding into what we call our "nature journal". Usually I try to pick something the kids are interested in for that week. But this week I decided to choose sunflowers simply because we have a few growing in our backyard.

Lately though I have been getting some resistance from the kids in doing nature studies. It has been a little frustrating for me since I really enjoy this subject. I'm still having to evaluate why they are not enjoying this as much as they used to. I am praying about this so the Lord can show me what I need to do to make this experience more enjoyable for everyone. One reason, I think, is I have been hesitant to allowing them to paint. Simply out of my own selfishness. I hate to clean up the mess! But I realize it is not fair to them and does not benefit them to not paint. They love it and I need to be more accommodating.

So, we did our nature study on sunflowers today. At first we were only going to just draw them with coloring pencils in our nature journals but I decided to break out the paints instead. The kids had a blast! And they went from saying "No! We don't want to do nature studies!" to "Yippee! We get to paint! This is going to be fun!"

For inspiration, we looked at our new art appreciation print by Vincent Van Gogh called The Vase With Sunflowers. Brianna is trying to draw her version of it.

Rebekah is using a real sunflower from our backyard to help her draw her painting. She's really good!

After several attempts at it, I helped encourage Zach to not just scribble all over his paper. I talked him through how a sunflower looks and this is his own painting after our little talk. An artist in the making!

Brianna's finished piece. She even made sure her sunflower had roots drawn in. She worked hard on this one.

Rebekah's completed project. Oh! And Zach snuck in this picture just as I snapped it. This is his favorite thing to do...make faces at the camera. He's my little clown. LOL