What did YOU do in school today?

We are studying the book of 1John. Actually I am using the book of 1 John to help the Noodles to learn HOW to study God's word. We are taking it verse by verse...reading, meditating, discussing, memorizing, praying, and copying the words of life onto paper.

I love to watch them copy from the Bible. Well, Lili is still a little reluctant, but it will come. The words will soon begin to seep in and she will start to swim instead of trudge. She is so funny...she doesn't mind working on the memorization of scripture, but when I ask her to recite a verse to me and goes into meltdown mode. Once she calms down and decides to do it...the words flow out of her like honey. She has amazing skills of memorization just like her big sister, but she doesn't think she does so she fights me tooth and nail. Then once she recites it, she couldn't be more proud of her self. She is one hard headed little coconut. I always had trouble getting her to pray in the morning before school. She always said, "I don't know what to say" Oh no...wait...she didn't SAY it she screamed it at the top of her lungs. Ahhhhhhh ... the drama of it all. So I began praying and having her just repeat after me. I figured I would give her the words for a while til she found her own words and her own footing. Well, low and behold...she is beginning to find her footing!!!! This morning I asked Aly if she wanted to lead in our prayer time or if she wanted me to. Lili jumped in and asked if SHE could lead us. ~Thank you God for giving her the words to thank you and the words to seek you!!!~

Aly is full of questions and gets frustrated if she can't understand it right away. She has yet to learn that most of her questions will be answered by that Still Small Voice in her inmost being.

Getting her to be still long enough to listen for that voice of God in her is difficult at best, but she is slowly getting there. For one who grasps concepts so very easily...this one is hanging her up. Now she tackles memorization like a woman on a serious mission!!!! She loves to tackle whole chapters and large passages of scripture. Her dear friend gave her such a sweet compliment last week at Co-op. She said how much she appreciated Aly because she always had a verse of scripture for someone to make them feel better. My heart just melted. It thrills me to know that she is letting the truths of God flow back out and is able to be a blessing!!!

Today was a bit slower paced in our little school room. After we did our bible study, and worked on our Memory Box we decided to do a little Cartography. We are studying Geography by learning to draw the world. We started out by learning about the Great Circles ( Equator, Arctic circle, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle) and the Prime Meridian. After they could correctly place those on the paper we added the" Continental Blobs." We weren't worried about drawing them correctly yet...just putting them in the right PLACE on the paper. They had worked on that for a few weeks and once they got it down, we moved on to one continent. They decided to start with Australia. So, today I gave them gridded paper, a map of Australia on the same size paper, the colored pencils and off we went. I pulled up some Vivaldi Four Seasons on the laptop...

Some homemade Chocolate Chip cookies...

About 45 minutes later we had some pretty good maps of Australia to look at!! We had such a grand time together...drawing our maps...learning about God's world. Homeschooling is such a grand privilege!!!!!

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deut 6:6-7

...and one last picture

A girl and her puppy dog. Bailey loves to help with Astronomy!!!! Oh yes she does!!!

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line,

line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

Isaiah 28:10

In His Mighty Grip...

Tiger Lili...

So we were zipping through the grocery store this afternoon when Lili pipes up out of nowhere with, "Mamma, what makes YOU such a GREAT teacher?" I wasn't quite sure what the emphasis meant at first so I said, "Well, I don't know...do you think I am a great teacher?" She let out with a resounding "NO!!!" (Okay...now I know what the emphasis meant!!)

"Well, Lili...why do you think that?"

"Because you are a MEAN teacher!"

"What??? I'm not a mean teacher Lili! I do make you do things you don't

want to do sometimes, but that's not being mean."
"Why do you think I'm mean?"

"Cause...you make me do mean stuff...like go to the bathroom!!!!"

Gotta love my little Wombat!!!!

"...I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love..." Philemon 1:8-9

In HIS Mighty Grip

...even though he did not know where he was going

I received a wonderful devotional in my in-box this morning. I wanted to share and make a feeble attemt at expounding upon it. It begins with this...The story goes that A missionary society in London wrote to Dr. David Livingstone and asked, "Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send men to join you." Livingstone wrote back, "If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."

Wow...if that doesn't knock me off of my feet this morning nothing does!! This is where I feel like our little family has been for the last year...on a long road trip, with no map. Well, no map that WE could see!! God had (and still has) a firm grasp on the map and knows exactly where we are heading, but we haven't a clue.

It is called blind faith...and God has done a lot of building of it in David and me this last year...I think my girls are even starting to get it if that is possible. David posted a wonderful story on his blog last night. A friend sent it to us and it is very moving. The story is about Ferns and Bamboo...it is about roots and how God grows us and what we do with it in the end. It also spoke volumes to me about how God deals with us and how we deal with God and sometimes we try to make it so much more complicated than it really is. I don't begin to understand what HE is doing, I don't need to...I am just called to obey.

I used to need mountain top experiences to validate my faith, but I'm passed that now. Besides, I am learning that if I will just chill out and stop trying to complicate things...God will give me exactly what I need right when I need it. It's not about me anyway!! It is about acomplishing His purposes through my life. How awesome that he would choose me to take on this mapless road trip.

This brings me to my point...
Aly and Lili have both been very occupied with "Let's talk about God and Jesus" They come to us many times each day and ask. They both know the basics...Jesus died on the cross so I don't have to die...he came back to life three days later and is now in heaven with his Daddy, God the Father. They are learning the 10 commandments and are beginning (at least Aly is at this point) to understand that even at 4 years old, she is a sinner and she needs a savior. We talk about needing a Savior most every night at bedtime. I look forward, with MUCH anticipation, to the day that she decides to let Jesus be her Savior. My Mother's heart longs to have one less thing to worry about when it comes to my babies!!!

There is one other thing that sticks with me as David and I walk through this parenting maze with these amazing children. More than anything, I want them to live a life of Reckless Faith...to not be afraid to take that road trip with God without a road map...to willingly say "yes" to God when everything and everyone around them is screaming "NO...don't do it"

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The only way to teach that kind of faith, is to live that kind of faith. It is kind of like the slogan for the new Goldfish ad..."How children see things depends on what we teach them"

Please Lord...let me teach them right!!!