A day of praise & thanksgiving

In keeping with my old testament readings lately, I am declaring today a Day of Praise & Thanksgiving to the Lord for all He is and has done for our family!  It's good to remember the mercies of the Lord and to proclaim that His goodness endures continually.

So with all my heart, I thank You, Lord, for...

• Knowing You, that somehow in the billions on the planet, I was blessed to have the gospel told me at a young age


• My beloved husband, my partner in faith and dearest earthly friend


• My precious daughter who came as a miracle and continues to bless my life in more ways than I could have imagined


• My home, our sanctuary, and lovely yard; flowers, peaceful neighborhood, and lovely places to walk


• My husband's good job


• Hot showers, clean water, good food, warm beds, washing machines & dryers, books & libraries, cars, telephones, and all the thousands of comforts that make life so blessed


• My mom's arm healing so well after a nasty break, and that it wasn't a hip or worse


• Our families who love us and love You


• Dear friends and all the richness they bring to my life


• The privilege of homeschooling, for all the good books and resources we have available, and for our wonderful support group


• Our beloved church family and their uncompromising stand on Your Word


• This free country and all the privileges we enjoy as a result of that freedom


• Healing from our illnesses and infirmities, for the blessing of health


• Your WORD!!! that changes me and gives me strength, confidence, courage, and perspective


• Writing and sewing and hiking and cooking and entertaining and reading and art and all the joys of creativity and self-expression


• Daily purpose because of You in my life


• Our sweet little dog and the laughter that she brought to us


• Mercies new every morning, answered prayer, and grace for every need

You are altogether awesome, wonderful, incredible, and You fill my heart.  I give You praise and honor today for revealing Yourself to me every day...and thank You for taking me to live in the secret place of the Most High.

My homestead moment

Guess what I did today?  Dehydrated cranberries...lots of them!

I've been waiting for them to come in again for the holiday season and was delighted to find them at Costco this week.  I'm on a fairly strict candida diet right now, but have discovered the cranberries are a low-glycemic fruit.  I cook them up with stevia and even though it's not quite the same, it's great to have a treat like this. 

Off season they're pretty expensive so I'm experimenting with some ways to preserve them.  Anyone ever tried canning them with stevia instead of sugar?  I called the Ball company consumer rep today to ask them about it, but they said there hasn't been any research done on canning with stevia where they can definitively say, yes, it works and is okay for you.  I might boldly go where no professionsals have gone before.

Did I mention that it takes a long time to cut that many cranberries in half??  I might just be content with freezing them from now on.

Scheduling a teen's life

A couple of weeks ago, I finally made the decision that I should no longer be micro-managing SweetPea's schedule.  I've been trying for a couple of years now to really get her to see the 'big picture' of our week and month, to learn to plan ahead and take ownership of what she needs to get done when--with little success. 

So I put together a planner for her and told her that from now on, she's responsible to keep it up-to-date.  (Bold move!)

I give her a pretty new 3-ring notebook, added a bunch of blank tabs and notebook paper, then gave her some time to do an artsy spine and cover to insert, and to personalize the dividers.  I went to Donna Young's website and printed out big double-spread calendar pages on card stock, front and back, then had her spend some time putting in all the important dates from my calendar for the coming year.

You know what?  She loves it!  It's now her "Life in a Notebook" and I have successfully passed the baton!  :-)  Each Monday morning we sit for a bit and update all our comings and goings, check in on projects, brainstorm ideas, and talk through what any given event will require.  I suspect that deep down somewhere she's an inveterate planner like her mom, and I'm having the fun of drawing it forth!

A writing lesson

A story I wrote was recently accepted for one of the Chicken Soup books, and while gratifying, the real 'meat' of this experience was what I learned about writing. 

I wrote this story a number of years ago, had it rejected by a magazine, and filed it away.  When I began to reconsider it for the CS book, I saw that it needed major rework on many fronts.  It was 500 words too long for their needs.  I was guilty of two major no-no's in writing:  writing passively instead of actively (too many "was's"--I had six in one paragraph!), and telling instead of showing.

But the real problem showed up when I faced the daunting task of cutting 500 words.  That's a whole page of typewritten material, double-spaced.  And since this was a true, personal story, I just couldn't see what I could cut without damaging the flow and interest of the story.

So I went to work with some experimental slicing and dicing.  What gradually became apparent was a more subtle problem inexperienced writers have, that of having too much 'stuff' in the story that distracts from the main point.  It could be other sub-stories, rabbit-trail descriptions, or events that don't really add to the story.

I had to ask myself, what story am I really trying to tell here?  When I answered that question, I saw that two other incidents I had included could be taken out without impacting the story.  In fact, by doing that and tightening up some of the "and then I's...", it gave a much greater dramatic punch to the actual story I was trying to tell.  And 500 words thankfully disappeared.

Simplicity.

That's the key word here.  Tell one thing in one story.  Enlarge upon it, enrich the descriptions and word use, add some metaphors and similies, using vivid verbs, and you have a compelling read.  If you're a word-lover, it's hard to submit to the maxim, "less is more," but in this case it's true.

My dad is a landscape painter by profession, and he has preached this for years.  "Simplicity!"  He taught me early on that a really good painting is not one that has every jot and tittle of detail (we have cameras for that), but rather simple strokes in bold colors, clean composition balance, and focus on one main thing.  Funny how that parallels writing--and life.

Well, it was a terrific experience and one that will make me a better writer, hopefully. 

Simplicity!

A great writing curriculum

Honestly, I can't believe how I've let my blog slide these past few weeks.  Chalk it up to that old 'busy' excuse--truly.  I take solace in noting that others around here are in the same boat!

We've finished up our second week of school.  Wow, those first few days were tough!  Neither of us wanted to do it.  But we've finally hit our stride again, not finding it so hard to get up early, discovering once again that we really do better with a schedule.

 I have to give a huge thumbs-up for the WriteShop curriculum!  I'm very impressed.  It's very detailed, leaves nothing for you, the teacher, to have to figure out, even to check-off lists that enable you to grade each assignment objectively.

Best of all, I love the process it leads you through, beginning to end.  The student must not only edit their own work--at least twice per assignment--but they must know why.  It requires a thoroughness that I can see will develop excellent lifelong writing habits.  I also love the way you can adapt the assignments to your core curriculum.  In a word, I'd say it demystifies the writing process.

So far, so good!  I'm happy to recommend it.

Blogging? What's that?

I'm so disconnected right now from posting.  But the dust is settling around here so I'll be getting back to a routine soon.  As fun as our summer has been 'away' from our usual efforts, I think both SweetPea and I need our schedule.

In these last couple of weeks before school begins again (AACK!!! I can't believe I'm saying that), I'm trying to focus on the big "O" word--organizing.  School prep, the last of our shed and yard projects, the basement (this one is a permanent sticky), etc.  I'm trying to finish up an article I'm writing, work in some visits with homeschool friends before they disappear off my radar when school starts, schedule dental check-ups, etc.  I would love to work in some of my own catch-up reading, but I try to preread our Sonlight literature--SweetPea's readers--and I haven't even begun yet.  I figure I'll attend to my catch-up list sometime after 2014!

And on the fun list is our ongoing sewing class with our friends.  This week we sew aprons start to finish, having done all the learning and prep work--now the fun stuff!  I'll post pictures when they're done. 

God is good, all the time!

A VBS week

A cool, rainy weekend was just what I needed to 'take me off the hook' for doing yardwork!  Not that I don't enjoy it, mind you, but we had a FULL week helping out with VBS at our church.  If I told you I had a class of 15 6 & 7-year-olds, that might clarify things a bit, huh?  :-) 

But as is typical of the goodness of the Lord, He had all sorts of graces and mercies on a challenging few days.  First of all, the kids were great!  Our topic was wonderful--the Covenant.  We had a terrific group of volunteers to make it all happen.  And when I was scrambling to pull together a lesson (I was a last-minute fill-in teacher and so had no time to prepare ahead of time), I was relieved to sense the Holy Spirit's leading...something workable for each day.  Praise the Lord, it got done.

I made a funny observation this week.  Every time I needed my group to gather together and head off to our next activity station, there were fifteen little bodies lining up in a flash next to me like so many iron filings to a magnet.  Efficiently, superbly lined up every time.  One of the excellent 'crowd' skills taught in public school!  Truly, I heartily appreciated that this week.  Have you noticed that trying to get a group of homeschoolers lined up is like herding cats??  We could take a lesson.

One little girl in our class asked prayer for God to help her witness to a little neighbor girl.  You should have seen the shock on her face when that little neighbor arrived late in the week!  Just in time to hear the whole way of salvation through Jesus and how much God loved her.  I saw a hard and sullen little face change in two days to a happy, participating part of our group--and rejoice to know God's mighty work has begun in her.  Things like this sure make it all worthwhile, don't they?

Ah, summer...

It's finally here!  We're warm, it's not snowing, and it's very green outside.  You can't tell me that I might still need gloves and boots.  Please.

And the other good news is that we finished school!  (Almost.)  We actually met all our state requirements for hours and days, and will just do a bit of wrap-up this month, then truly have a few weeks off.  We're in the middle of our last read-aloud for Sonlight Core 7, God's Smuggler, about Brother Andrew.  My goodness, what a wonderful example of being led by the Holy Spirit, of being truly sold out to Jesus and living every day by His heart.  It's been a fresh challenge to my own faith.

SweetPea finished Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, and we certainly both have to give that program a huge thumbs-up.  She loves it.  And it's a relief to me to have found the right thing for her that we can track with now throughout high school.  Yay!

Having already done a big vacation in April, we're looking forward to some quality time to improve the homestead.  Hubby needs to rebuild a shed and do the finish work on our new patio roof, and I have a ton of yardwork and landscaping that will take me all summer to catch up on.  I haven't done much the last couple of summers; a nasty bout of candida last year nixed my energy for doing normal yard stuff, and it's been a year of recovery.  I'm praising the Lord for the increasing ability to tackle these things again!  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"!

We're starting a fun project tomorrow with another family--I'll be teaching them and SweetPea how to sew.  We expect to work at it throughout the summer, and I have the side hope it will jumpstart me back into sewing.  I used to make most of my own clothes, but it's one of those things that fell by the wayside when I started homeschooling. 

Off to see what Brother Andrew is doing in the next chapter!  Blessings on your day.  :-)

Apologetics today

We had a great opportunity today to hear Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) do a presentation for students on defending your faith.  Wow, these guys have certainly done their homework!  I've heard and read much on the topics they present, but it was fresh and so well presented.  My favorite part was the discussion on DNA, how they have discovered that the DNA code is really a language--complete with counterparts to letters, words, and sentences.  God is so awesome!

I need to do some more browing on their website, but I'd certainly recommend it as a fabulous resource for homeschoolers.  He told us that very shortly after the news story came out recently on the "we finally created life in the laboratory," they had an article posted addressing it in detail.  The website is:  www.answersingenesis.org. 

Now I want to go see their Creation Museum in Kentucky!

A May Day blessing

It's May!  Yay!

I just had the most astonishing blessing for my May Day.  I was hard at work out by our front entryway, laboriously moving all the small rockwork (one rock at a time) to clean out the pine needles and debris that had fallen over the winter.  A s-l-o-w job.

I noticed across the street our neighbors' young grandsons had arrived for a visit and were weeding dandelions in the yard.  I only knew them by sight, and their grandparents only slightly as our paths don't cross very often.  A few minutes later I looked up, and to my surprise, here were all three boys coming up our driveway with a beautiful gift bag.  "Hello," I said, wondering if they were going to try to sell me something.

"Hi," they all three said.  The one with the gift bag held it out and said, "This is for you."

"For me???!"  I was nonplused.  For a fleeting moment I thought it was a trick, that something creepy would jump out of the bag at me.  I am deeply suspicious of groups of boys doing anything together, having been on the receiving end of pranks more than once.  Cynical, huh?

"This is from Lisa," the youngest towhead said.  Oh.  My neighbor, the grandma.

They waited as I opened the multi-colored pastel bag and drew out a card.  A May Day gift!  Inside were some lovely spring kitchen towels and a little gift for SweetPea.  I was trying to gather my wits, having been caught completely off-guard.

"Wow, what a thoughtful gift!  Tell her thank you for me, okay?"

They agreed, but kind of hemmed and hawed.  Then one of them said, "Could we please help you?"

Help me???  Do young boys volunteer to do that these days???  Boys that you don't even know??? You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather.  Of course my lightning-quick response was "Um, sure!"

They pitched in with a will and I had a lovely time, meeting them, talking about fishing and homesteading and guy things.  And we made quite a little dent in that rockwork.

Later, Lisa came to retrieve the boys and explained that where she grew up, they used to do May Baskets.  They would make paper baskets, fill them with flowers and candy, then ring someone's doorbell, leave the basket, and run off before they were discovered.  I was the lucky recipient of this year's May Day surprise!

Well, I tell you.  It brought tears to my eyes to receive such unbidden kindness not only from a neighbor I didn't know well, but to meet three wholesome, very dear young boys, simple and direct, and totally devoid of attitude.  How incredibly refreshing.  No, they're not homeschoolers (thought you might ask!), just raised right.

What a great reminder of how powerful it can be to bless someone's day.  Mine is blessed!

Honoring the Sabbath

I have learned from hard experience that the Lord had a very good reason for making the Sabbath for man.  We need the rest after six busy days!

It used to be that I would do carryover work from the week on Sundays, trying to catch up, but would find that come Monday, I was tired before the new week even began!  Seemed like I could never catch up.

But in keeping with a new understanding the Lord has been giving me of walking in His rest instead of my works, I decided to make our Sabbath be more what the Lord intended--a day of rest.  I'm not talking here about keeping Shabbat as the Jewish people do; more the spirit of the Sabbath.  A time to stop and refresh, focus on the Lord and His Word, rest.

It's hard!  Church life often makes our Sundays one of the busiest days of the week.  But, together with my hubby, we've decided to keep the decks as clear as possible.  I was reading a couple of weeks ago in Exodus 16 in the account of God giving manna to the Israelites.  They were commanded to gather twice as much the day before the Sabbath as none would appear on the Sabbath.  It occurred to me that I could ask the Lord for that same kind of thing--help on Saturday to get all my work done as well as preparation for Sunday.  Here's some of what I do to get ready:

-  I cook ahead, maybe even from Friday, and cook extra so that on Sunday all we eat is leftovers.

- I set up breakfast before bedtime Saturday night.  Sometimes I make a breakfast casserole or waffles ahead of time so that it's just a quick warm-up in the morning.

- Fresh placements and napkins out to look pretty and special for the Lord and my family.

- Giving or tithe check written and ready.

- Church clothes picked out and ready.

- A quick house pick-up and dishes put away.

It's so wonderful to wake up and not begin the day in a frazzled rush, getting us out the door to church.  I'm able to have my quiet time with tea and actually have my spirit prepared for worship service!  What a concept.

Another thing that has contributed to a peaceful Sabbath morning is Hubby's involvement.  It seemed that I was the only one who could read a clock on Sunday mornings.  No matter what time we got going, we were always in a late, mad rush out the door to church.  My indigestion and irritation did not help me receive much from the Lord!

So after some discussion, Hubby agreed to take over the leadership of Sunday mornings.  He set times for all of us to be up, showered and dressed, and when I had to have breakfast on the table.  It's incredible--we actually now have extra time in the morning, to the point that we have leisurely family talk over breakfast!!!  It's wonderful.

So all taken together, our Sabbath is becoming what it ought to be, little by little.  I look forward to it now, knowing I have 'permission' to not do my to-do list for one whole day.  If it must be done, it just might have to wait until Monday!