My Father's World--The Letter Q (Quail)

A little over a month ago we did our second-to-last week of school and the focus was the letter Q.

We enjoyed learning all about birds, but it was difficult to find any books on quail at the library.  Even our animal encyclopedia, which is a favorite resource for us and contains almost every animal, bird, and fish under the sun did not contain a single reference to quail! 

I found a coloring printable and the kids colored, cut, and pasted the pictures for their binder pages.

Our key words were: I do not grumble or complain; I am thankful.  I had Ali read aloud from her Bible the story of the Israelites grumbling about the manna and how the Lord sent quail.  We talked a lot about gratitude/thankfulness this week.

The key words for Q are definitely among my top 5 "MFW key words" that get frequently quoted to the kids!

We walked to a friends' home who has ducks, geese, robins, etc. to talk to her about birds and observe them in their pond.  We listened to different bird calls on this nature website and tried to learn to identify the birds we commonly hear.  We went fourwheeling with my parents as a pre-Mother's-Day excursion (something my mom enjoys doing) and saw beautiful scenery, and heard our state bird, the Western Meadolark, singing.

In other events of the week, our kids performed in the kids' musical, "Sermon on the Mound" which a lady from our church organized and helped them put on.  It was very well done and I was so proud of Ali and Jer!  Justus, on the other hand, wasn't quite old enough to be in it.  Through most of the program he was sitting when he was supposed to stand, standing when he was supposed to sit, exposing his belly button, hugging his neighbor, rocking back and forth, staring off into space, etc.

Ali and her friend Marlee had a speaking part together about the armor of God.

Jeremiah and his friend Creighton had to read a part about the spiritual armor too.

Ali was THRILLED to get to be a Dandelion in the show.  At first, it looked like only the little girls would be able to do it and she was so disappointed.  But then the director was mentioning that she didn't have enough and I told her Ali would love to be one.  She quickly made her the "leader" and so Ali was in charge of helping the littler ones do what they needed to do during the show.  A sweet lady from our church made the THIRTEEN dandelion costumes all by herself!  One little boy, Justus' best friend, insisted on being a dandelion, along with the 12 girls.  No, he didn't wear a tutu, just a green leotard!

This was after the show--a few of the dandelions that remained on the church playground decided to dance around together and I just so happened to have my camera on my arm...ready to capture the sunset glow falling on them!

The night before Mother's Day I gave Ali a lesson in how to make chocolate-dipped strawberries for her Mom.  Selfish?  Maybe.  Brilliant?  Absolutely!  If I get nothing else on future mother's days I will be happy!

Fourwheeling through the canyon was so much fun.  We had a picnic and hiked around. 

Ali took this pic of us on my old snapshot camera that is now Josiah's.

We saw all kinds of neat things, including butterflies, a white snake, and our state flower, the Indian Paintbrush.

This is Wyoming Rush Hour Traffic =)

The Highlight of My Week...

Okay, I admit that often it's the littlest things that make a weary mom smile and find the strength to go on.  When photographing this awesome young man who just graduated from his homeschool studies, a passerby who knew him from the grocery store where he works stopped to chat and asked me if I was his girlfriend. 

I am 12 years older than him, have FOUR children, am a friend of his mother's, and have never in my life been even remotely hip enough to date a guy in a band with a cool guitar.  I'm sure it was this poor fellow's low-light of the week to hear that...but it put a smile on my face and made me think that those "What Not to Wear Mom Makeover" DVDs my mom loaned me must have really paid off!

  

Little Graces

Life is full of those precious little moments that you want to hang onto...those little graces in your day that whisper of God's goodness...

A little sis wanting to be like big sis

Brother and sister dancing together

The three "camping out" together in the playroom in our big tent Daddy set up for the night

Chubby baby girl in a fluffy, cotton-candy-like tutu that makes her look even chubbier!

Favorite books from the library

A watermelon potbelly

Boys and squirming things

Her saying, "Dance!  Dance!"

A robin family high above our yard

Always active little boy

The way she takes care of her, loves her, and models good behavior for her

Him asking his baby sister to dance

A perpetual smile

Blueberries on sale!  Breyer's vanilla...yum!

A full moon with whispy clouds floating in front of it

Asking me to cut her hair--goodbye daily hair battles and tangles!

His imagination

His love for nature and God's little creatures

Marveling at the snake's blue-looking eyes

Her ability to spend hours playing in or with water, completely fascinated by dumping and pouring.

The amazingly vivid colors that one gets when photographing on a cloudy day. 

This is straight-out-of-camera (SOOC), taken at a wedding we attended on a chilly day in late May.

Young ladies sewing in a tent they made from a sheet

So much creativity flowing between them!

Daddy building a new fence to keep little ones in and unwanted ones out

My brother being home on his days off and hanging out with us

Summer is here!

This is what happens when you give a baby one little Hershey's kiss and tell her to pop it in her mouth and not get sticky!  Uncle Grant (whom my kids call Uncle Googoo) was trying to win Little Miss Katri's affections, as she stubbornly refuses to like men other than Daddy.  He gave her this flower and the chocolate and by the time we drove 3.5 blocks home to our house, her hands and face were covered in it.

An update on our summer:

My goal was/is to have a SLOW summer.  That is my theme-word for 2012.  Boy, it can be a challenge to keep things slow!  My hubby joined a church softball team, clients have come out of their winter slumber and booked photo shoots, the kids are excited about attending a VBS this week, Ali is in a free Reader's Theatre program at the library, and the kids enjoy having pool parties on hot days.  We are striving to do a little school each day, spend LOTS of time outdoors, nourish relationships and spend a good deal of time with family, friends, and neighbors.  This is the first summer since 2003 (the year we got married) that I have not been pregnant or nursing/tending an infant!  I feel like a million bucks and I hope to fully enjoy this summer to the glory of God!

You'll probably see more posts than usual here this summer as I've given up using fb for the summer.  I still use my business page on fb, but I found that I was getting overwhelmed from the info overload there and feeling like I needed to step back from that for a while, like I did last summer, to take a bit of a media-break and recharge this summer.  Blogging is very relaxing to me, and is a great creative outlet for me, so you can expect to see many more pics and posts to come!  And I promise to finish my MFW series and post about our last two weeks of school, Q and Y which we did a few weeks ago!

Book Goals for 2012 Updated

Here's where I'm at with my Book List so far:


The New Testament of the Bible  (ongoing)

The MoneySaving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine  EXCELLENT!

Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson   Our Pray and Play group did this from Jan-April
An incredible book!

Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman   Most inspiring book I've read all year!

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Unplanned by Abby Johnson

Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn by Karen Andreola 
(Having an awful time finding copies of these to borrow or buy inexpensively.  If you have them and wouldn't mind shipping them to me, I'd ship them back!)

Entre Leadership by Dave Ramsey

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

A Sweet and Bitter Providence by John Piper

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Cansfield Fischer

The Vine and the Trellis by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

Heaven at Home by Ginger Plowman

A Stolen Life by Jaci Dugard   This book was the most heart-wrenching and horrifying book I've read all year, especially since I have daughters.  Warning:  Very, very graphic in nature and probably not a good read for most because she doesn't hold back at all in describing how she was tortured by her kidnapper.  Please exercise great caution/wisdom in whether or not you should read this memoir.

Somewhere More Holy by Tony Woodlief

A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola   Half-done and LOVING it!

5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter by Vicki Courtney

The Twelfth Imam by Joel C. Rosenberg skimmed this one.  The first one, The Tehran Initiative took so long to read and I didn't find it beneficial to my life in any way, so I just skimmed this one, to save time!

The Tehran Initiative by Joel C. Rosenberg

Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer  Really interesting!

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp

Give Them Grace by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson

The Persecutor by Sergei Kourdakov

The Husband Project by Kathi Lapp  Our Pray and Play group went through this in April and we LOVED it!  Our hubbies loved it even more and they asked us to continue doing it for the rest of our lives =)

Cool Beans by Erynne Mangum

Putting God in His Place by Matt Whitman (OUR PASTOR!!!), Matt Ostercamp, Aron Utecht, Mark Coddington  Reading now

The Art of Photography by Bruce Barnaum

Chasing the Light by Ibarionex Perello

On Being a Photographer by David Hurn

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

Photographic Composition by Grill and Scanlon

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

Portrait Photography Tips

Potatoes, Not Prozac, Are you Sugar Sensitive?    Half-done, but very interesting book on health issues!




Re-read:

The Worn-Out Woman by Dr. Steve Stevens and Alice Gray

Radical by David Platt

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husband by Dr. Laura  One of the best books on marriage...ever!!!

Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman

Have a New Kid by Friday by Kevin Leman  Read all the highlights, and while I took away some good from it and practical ideas for dealing with our kids, I much prefer the heart-focused mode in Don't Make Me Count to Three as a Biblical approach to child training

Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg  Skimmed

She's Gonna Blow by Juli Anne Barnhill     Half-done, love this book!

Mother by Kathleen Norris




Read-Aloud to the Kids

Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John    One of the best read-alouds for kids....ever!!!

The Tanglewoods' Secret by Patricia St. John  Reading now!

Star of Light by Patricia St. John

Stuart Little by E.B. White

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White


I'm sure many of you would benefit from various books on this list, but I'd like to gently encourage you to read this book, "Mother" by Kathleen Norris, if there is one book you read this year and you are a mom, or hoping to be a mom someday. It is so beautiful, simple, easy-to-read, and powerful in encouraging you as a mom. I have read it a few times in the last decade and plan to read it a few more. It only takes a couple of hours to read and it is WELL WORTH the time. If I could, I would buy one for every friend and blog reader I have!

My Father's World--The Letter V (Vegetables)

For V week we studied vegetables and our key words were "God gives me all that I need."

Though we haven't had a garden of our own yet, we are thankful to be able to participate in Bountiful Baskets food co-op.  In a state with a very short growing season and very limited produce options, this co-op has made an ENORMOUS difference in our eating habits.  Every other Saturday when I get my baskets, the kids help me wash and sort the fruits and veggies.

Justus is a cheerful produce-washer.  He especially loves cherry tomatoes and can eat a whole container in one sitting if we let him!

We tried painting with various fruits and veggies while listening to Mozart.

Sometimes a homeschooling mom has to treat herself on a rough day!  Melted Ghiradelli chocolate and fruit kabobs are a luscious snack!

It's high time Katri learns to clean up messes, since she is so good at making them!  I gave Ali the responsibility of helping to train Katri and they had lots of fun together while cleaning up our living room!

A while back I purchased 4 visors on clearance for about a quarter each.  I whipped them out and gave the kids lots of stickers and jewels to decorate them with.  They wore them around all week and called themselves the Adventure Scouts and formed a little club together.

Proud of his veggie painting

I've made my life and workload simpler by serving lunch (and snacks too) outside and using paper plates more often!

One day I did some bulk cooking and was completely overwhelmed by the enormous load of dishes covering my counters and filling my sink.  I knew I could either throw in the towel and not do them at all or enlist some help!  The kids were bickering anyhow so by asking them to help with dishes I killed two birds with one stone!  They happily washed dishes outside for an hour while I shuttled them in and out and rinsed and dried them.  After an hour, the 3-4 dishwasher-loads-worth of dishes were done!  Hurray!

Alathia, always crafting, made this paper chain one day.  I took this pic before she finished it.  It ended up being twice as long as it is shown here!  The first 50 loops were made from hand-made construction paper.  She forgot we had colored paper in the homeschool closet so she colored her own from computer paper!  What a girl!

We babysat Jed and a few other friends while their mamas had dentist appointments one day.  We drew the alphabet with sidewalk chalk and played games on it.  I had Ali spell words by hopping from letter to letter and had the boys do an alphabet hop.  My nephew Jed thought it was hysterical to see Auntie hopping around on letters and he couldn't stop laughing!

One huge excitement we had during V week was Box Day.  If you are a homeschooler, you know how exciting it is to receive your new curriculum!  We got the My Father's World basic Kindergarten pack with a couple of extras (the ant farm and butterfly garden) and the MFW 2nd Grade Deluxe set.  I'm excited to look through it this summer and prepare for the next school year!

My Father's World--The Letter X (foX)

My Father's World curriculum uses the word fox to teach the letter X, because so few words start with the actual letter, especially words relating to nature studies.  The key words are, "God's Word makes me wiser than my enemies."  We learned facts about foxes and charted the differences between foxes and dogs together after reading about foxes in our Animal Encyclopedia.  A really cute book I found last summer and had stashed in my "X file" in my homeschooling file box was "Fox Tale" by Yossi Abolafia.  It was about a fox who tricked all of his friends and so they cleverly tricked him and got all of the goods back that he stole from them. 

We ran around the yard playing the game: A-Hunting We Will Go.  Katri giggled like crazy as I chased the older kids while holding her in my arms. 

I found a simple fox drawing online and drew it on the whiteboard for the kids to copy.  They colored their foxes on their binder pages red.  Jer did some worksheets on the letter X and practiced reading simple words.  Ali worked on her First Grade stuff and in her free time begged me to do Hangman word games on the white board.  She loves solving word puzzles, much like I did as a kid!  I was a big fan of Wheel of Fortune, from 3 years old on!

In addition to the verses on being wise and shrewd, I went over personal safety rules with the kids during Fox Week.  It was a good time to point out the sneaky tricks that some not-nice folks use to lure children away from their parents or into their vehicles.  You can't be too careful these days; just reading the news will make your heart sink most days if you are a parent.

Ali helped me prepare for a baby shower we hosted on the weekend for a friend.  She was a big help with making the fruit pizza and helping me get the place cleaned up.  We also attended our nephew Jed's belated First Birthday Party at my parents' house.  He is part-Honduran so my mom had purchased a pinata in the shape of a cowboy boot, which was great fun for the kids, and took all of Grandpa's strength to break open!

I can't believe I didn't take more pictures of our week studying the letter X!  I took so many pics on the frog lessons the week before, but only 1 pic this week!