A laugh a day....

This year I have been trying to incorporate a little exposure to classical artists and composers. We "celebrate" their birthdays by looking at and discussing their art or listening to their music and talking about the time period in which they lived. Today is one of my favorites - Vivaldi. We talked a little about when he lived, I showed them a picture of the composer and then we listened to the "Four Seasons" on CD while they did their art, penmanship, spelling and ate lunch. After the CD had finished I asked the youngest, "Do you remember the name of the man who wrote that music?" He hesitated then said "It's the "Four Seasons" music I know but I can't remember his name. Was it "Old Baldy"?" Well, I don't think we will forget his name for a long time!! May you have a good laugh today, too!

Quick update on MIL...

Praise! All lab reports so far seem to indicate it is the same type of lymphoma as before. We will meet with her surgeon tomorrow for follow-up and then early next week with her cancer doctor to discuss options for treatments. So far things are very encouraging so thanks so very much to all who have prayed and written!
-F

Photo Journal from School

I haven't posted pics from our homeschool lately - here's a hodgepodge of them:

Ethan testing the difference in strength of boosters for his rocket (boosters for this type are simply plastic disks - the thicker the plastic the more pumps required and the higher the trajectory of the rocket) BTW - this is one of the "absolutest bestest" gifts for a young boy not yet ready for the model rockets that require matches and combustibles!


Learning about
(and practicing!)
good posture:














One of EK's art lessons:













The food pyramid:

Musical cars

How many cars can one person drive? Well, in the first 2 days of this week I drove 5 different cars (no kidding!). Needless to say, we had one in the shop and played "musical cars" to get things done - more dentist appts (don't ask - not good news), a friend moving out of state, car problems, acro class, library books due back, MIL's surgery and "normal" stuff has kept life interesting! I'm so thankful that friends and relatives are so good to us - thanks Renee for taking my youngest ones to the field trip while I was at the hospital, thanks Gran for letting me drive your car to get you to/from the hospital, thanks Katy for letting me borrow your car to deliver pizza to our friends, and thanks to the Lord for keeping me safe switching cars around! Our purse is much smaller thanks to cars (but not the one shown here - I just liked the pic!!!) and teeth and tomorrow is another "cut" at work but for now we are just thankful to have cars to shuffle around and enough money to put gas in them. Most of all we are thankful for the friends and family to play musical cars with us!

[I'll post an update on MIL later in the week when the lab results come in but for now thanks for the prayers - the surgery went very well and it is hopeful that the lymphoma will be confined to the surgical area.]

Missionary Monday

A couple from our church (and also homeschool group) left last Wednesday on a sweet mission to Vietnam. The husband works for Touch the World Ministries and they are in Vietnam to try to begin a process to get a medical ship built and ready to go to the poor, the orphans and the needy in a country that so desperately needs not only medical attention but spiritual attention. Many true believers there are persecuted for preaching the light of the gospel in a land filled with the darkness of falsehoods. Please pray for my friends that they will be physically protected, spiritually guided and used in a mighty way by our mighty Savior to reach those whom He loves and desires to see accept His Word and His Salvation.

I can just see it now....

Today's CleanLaugh from Pastor Tim - "Tea Service"

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe 1 and a half years old and had just recovered from an accident in
which my arm had been broken. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water.

After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then says, 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??'

President's "Week"

We are doing something special about Presidents all week instead of just on Monday and I thought some of you might enjoy hearing about it. We started off on Monday watching a short video about George Washington, then doing a few worksheets and games about him. We made finger puppets of George and Honest Abe from HERE and as the week goes on each of my youngest two are finding facts about "their" President to be ready to give a "report" with their puppet on Friday. We have also done coin rubbings, made some silhouettes from cut outs I already had and my 9 yo is memorizing the first 16 Presidents, the 5yo memorizing the first 6 ones. Math has included things like the difference between years of each of the 2 (Washington and Lincoln), converted to weeks and then days, etc. Geography has included finding and learning about Philadelphia, Trenton, New York and Washington, DC as well as finding out how many states have cities named Washington and/or Lincoln and tracing the Delaware and Potomac Rivers.

On a different subject we are all planning to stay up late after Awanas tonight and view the Lunar Eclipse. We just finished a unit about the moon last week (when I had no idea the eclipse was coming up :) !) so we are looking forward to that. Just wish we had a telescope but it will be lots of fun - we are all planning on climbing out onto the back porch roof (almost flat), wrapped in blankets to watch it. It's great to live in the country with no street lights around!!

Enjoy Presidents, Lunar Eclipses and most of all your family this week!!