WoW Academy

Christmas 2008

Not Your Typical Christmas Letter

Habakkuk 3

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

Psalm 46:10

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
       I will be exalted among the nations,
       I will be exalted in the earth."

David was living Habakkuk 3:17-19  when we met. As a society, we expect that most endeavors in which we expend time and energy will pay off in proportion. That isn't always the case. As a young campus minister with little supervision and endless tasks to complete, David experienced a time when the fruits of his labor did not seem evident, or even possible. His main comfort during that time was the above passage.

God directed him to this passage again this year. In contemplating the stock market and the state of our economy, God reminded David that our hope and joy are in the Lord our God, maker of heaven and earth. He, in turn, was able to share God's comfort and truth with his clients.

As we contemplate this year, we have many things to be thankful for. I love receiving Christmas letters. In fact, I really appreciate them.  I can't help think ing of the typical Christmas letter with all the year's successes  highlighted for all to read.  I admit I have enjoyed writing Christmas letters such as those, perhaps a little too much. There is nothing wrong with sharing our joys and successes with others and I enjoy rejoicing in others' success. This year, though, God has reminded me he does not measure success the way that the world does. Working hard, striving, doing my best-nothing wrong with that. But when the striving and the working take the place of listening to God, being still, and finding my life's work in Him, then I am overcome by the pressures and expectations of the world.

This Christmas, as I reflect on Christ's birth, I am reminded that our  Savior, God's only Son, was sent to earth to be born in a simple manger. A humble birth.

My prayer for this season is that I will able to be still and know that He is God.

A Life Changing Summer

This summer was life changing for our entire family.  The most obvious change was Colin's graduation from high school.  He had an unusual but great senior year (I will include that story later) and while he knew what he was going to do for college, he struggled with what to do for the summer.  Finally, he decided to work at Camp Ladore, a Salvation Army camp in the Poconos.  It was a great growth experience in many ways-being on his own, working with peers, and counseling 7 to 9 year old boys.  He returned home on Tuesday and we have seen maturity and insight that would probably not have been attained in other summer pursuits. 

While he was at camp, Justine had 2 important experiences of her own.  In mid-July, her softball team participated in Worlds.  Amazingly, they won the 16U World Championship.  It was hard work and took a lot of mental focus and physical endurance but was not without fun as we relaxed on the beach at Panama City Beach, FL.  The following week we took a vacation with just her to San Diego, CA.  One of Justine's dreams has been to visit the San Diego Zoo so with some free frequent flier miles and a few free hotel nights we were able to accomplish this for her 16th  birthday.  We went to the zoo for four days and the Wild Animal Park for one.  We also visited La Jolla and Old Town and Balboa Park in San Diego.  I have never seen Justine more in her element.  She was able to use her new digital camera and took 1200 pictures.  It became very clear that working with animals is something that she will need to do in some capacity to make her life complete.

Back at camp, God was speaking to Colin in different ways providing him with some insight into his future calling.  During our vacation to San Diego I was struck by the idea that finding your passion in life and being able to pursue it is what makes life meaningful.  I am thankful to be able to guide my children in their life pursuits and to have a husband who understands and is living his calling.  I am overwhelmed that God through his grace has promised us that he will fulfill the desires of our hearts. (Psalms 37: 4-5)

A Life Changing Summer

The Children's Pool La Jolla, CA

View from The Cave Store La Jolla, CA

Prom 2008

Prom 2008

Colin and Ryan

Mafia man

Curriculum Planning: My Favorite Time of Year

Yippee!! It's my favorite time of year, the time to plan for what we will do next year.  Never mind that we're still stumped on SOS Spanish, muddling through Apologia Biology, and panicked about Jacob's Algebra.  The thought of planning for next year makes homeschooling feel alive and new again.  In the next few months we will finish up the subjects that have become a struggle around March and April.  We will visit our evaluator, tie up lose ends, and decide which subjects to spend just a little more time on over the summer break.  Then we will relax a bit, play a ton of softball, travel all over the place to play a ton of softball, take about 3 weeks off and start all over again.  Here's what our choices look like now:

English: We will continue with Write Shop.  I was contemplating this curriculum when Justine saw it at our homeschool conference.  She convinced me to get it and she loves it:  Write Shop

We will also continue with BJU Literature.  Justine loves the textbook approach so I won't argue with her. BJU Literature 

History: We have decided on Notgrass for World History and will also use some of their recommended books for literature:  Notgrass World History

Math:  We are ready to turn the instruction over to a real expert.  I have made it (well hopefully we'll make it) through Algebra I and Dr. Callahan will get us through the rest! Ask Dr. Callahan

Science:  We love Apologia and will start Chemistry this year: Apologia Chemistry

We will do some health and music for electives and continue with SOS Spanish.  Now all I need to do is get ready for the used curriculum sale so I can sale all the books I don't need to make room for the new ones.  Did I mention that I love this time of year!?!

Valentine's Day 2007/Wedding Day 1987

Here is a wedding picture that my husband has on his desk in his study. 
November 14, 1987

Here is the perfect card I found for David this year:

Memories

My ds is graduating from high school this year so I am trying to organize his photos on my computer.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of him and his sister.

Ziggy

Katie

Here is Katie, a Finnish Spitz.  She is 6 years old.  This northern breed is the official dog of Finland.  Finnish Spitzs are hunting dogs, bred for their bark.  (we didn't know that when we got her.)  In Finland they tree animals and bark until the hunters arrive.  They are known to even track bears.

Our kitties, Nike and Mizuno (Mizzy for short)

Bald Eagles Live 1 Mile From Us

Christmas 2007

The Gun I Didn't Want

My son wrote this story for his high school comp. class.

Christmas is a time of joy, gift giving and Santa Claus.  In the eyes of children, Christmas is the most anticipated holiday of the year.  Their one-track mindset keeps them up late at night wondering if they were good enough for Santa to bring them all the gifts they wanted, especially the one special item first on their list.  The effects of not receiving that item can leave a child emotionally scarred and can even result in the utterance of an obscenity or two.  The main job of parents during the holiday season is to make sure that their children remain emotionally unscathed and, by all means, avoid any obscenities.

I personally have been emotionally scarred during the holidays.  This traumatic event in my life occurred in the winter of 1992 when I was three years old.  I had made all the usual stops around town during the holiday season, stopping not once, but twice in the mall to see Santa that year.  I had only one thing on my ming, "an official Red Rider, carbine action, two=hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and 'this thing' which tells time." Oh wait, just kidding, wrong story.  Actually, all I wanted was a wooden rifle with all the bells and whistles: a strap for when I was exploring the vast wilderness of my backyard, a scope to look through and spot any mysterious creatures that came by, and a loading mechanism to cock back and shoot those mysterious creatures.

Christmas Eve had finally arrived, and our evening celebration started with a trip to church.  Everyone else seemed to have a good time , but I remember having a little too much Yuletide in the stomach.  I did, however, leave my mark on the church and the back wall got the worst of it.  I went home proudly exclaiming, "I (b)omited all over the backwall!"

My excitement to get home and open my presents was short-lived.  (Santa always came a day early in our family.)  I was about to have one of the most pivitol moments in my life.  As parents usually do, they saved the most exciting present for last as they have the innate ability to know exactly what Santa puts in each box.  Here it was, the gun I had been waiting for.  Finally mine, al mine, just mine.  The wrapping paper flew in all directions but imagine the horror I felt when I realized that this was exactly the gun I didn't want.  I had made it very clear to my family that I didn't want this gun.  In fact, I made it very well know again as I cried, "This is the gun I didn't want."  My parents had committed the ultimate sin by letting my grandparents do the shopping for the most prized item on my Christmas wish list.  Looking over my gun sadly I started to ask some essential questions, "Does it have a strap? Can you cock it? Does it have a site?"

My grandmother answered all these questions with a nervous laugh and a resounding "no."  All I heard was the machine gun's repulsive Eeeeeeeeeee.  While I was trying to hold back tears my uncle came back with the quote of the evening which has been recited every Christmas from then on. "It's not the present you get, Colin, it's the though that counts."

Without a wasted second I quickly chimed in with a word whose origin is still debated, "Aw sh*t!"

My family burst into embarassed laughter that lasted a good five minutes.  That Christmas I learned that you can't always get what you want, but you can sure try.  My persistence eventually paid off. I did end up getting that gun at an after Christmas sale.  That Christmas will be forever remembered.  To this day, my grandmother still insists that my babysitter was the root of that evil word, while my parents and I have an inkling that I may have heard it at her house.

2007 Fall

This fall was a time of new events and changes.  Colin began a new school and finished his first semester early so that he can take the remainder of his senior year at a local college.  Justine attended her first dance, Homecoming, with some softball friends and is beginning softball at the local high school in January.  Colin is applying to colleges and Justine began 9th grade this year.  She is still enjoying homeschooling and wants to be a vet.  She is getting a lot of practice with our two new kittens.  They have managed to fight with each other and end up in the ER, one for a scratched eye and the other for an infected foot. 

Colin learned how to surf this summer and checks the weather often hoping for an opportunity to surf in our not so wavy gulf.  He also joined a band and began attending a new youth group.  David is still traveling with work and we are both traveling with softball tournaments.  I am working for my brother fulltime as his business continues to grow.  I've heard change is stressful but our family seems to thrive on it so for us, this year has been an interesting and fun one. 

We wish you all blessings for a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Plans for Next Year

Planning for the next school year is so much fun for me because it involves one of my favorite activities-curriculum shopping.  It's hard to believe that Justine will be in 9th grade next year.  I have very little fear or concern about teaching high school.  Maybe it's because she learns so differently from most people so we've been making changes, researching, trying different curriculum all along.  Nothing has been accomplished easily but we've made wonderful strides and accomplishments throughout the years. My upbeat and positive attitude did not come easily.  We have put in years of tears, struggles, and hard work and are finally seeing the results.

Next year we are using Around the World in 180 Days as our main curriculum.  We haven't been very diligent in geography so this is our crash course.  I plan on having a missions focus and using missionary biographies, a general missions book, and Operation World (to teach us to pray for those in other nations.)  I also found a cookbook for the 10/40 Window which we will cook as part of Life Managment/Home Ec skills.  We will finish Algebra I with Teaching Textbooks and continue with either Algebra II or Geometry.  We are going back to Apologia Biology and will use the CD Rom that will read the chapters to her.  For English she will use BJU Literature.  (She loved her BJU Literature book this year.)  We will also continue with Vocab and some type of paragraph and 5 paragraph essay writing book.  I am still up in the air on language.  If I could find a good Chinese language teacher we may go that route but we'll probably end up with French or Spanish. 

I'm looking forward to the homeschool convention in May.  It's my favorite time for shopping and renewal!

Second Semester Happenings

We had a relaxing Christmas break and I realized how wonderful doing nothing really is.  We had no sports and very few things to do.  It is amazing how clean the house stays when you're actually around to clearn it.  Baseball and softball are starting full-force this weekend so we have about 4 months of craziness. 

I feel a renewed vision for schooling.  This is the time of year that I reassess what worked and what didn't and try to finish the year strong.  The Forester's Alg. I book was/is an amazing fit for us.  We are working through it SLOWLY but I think we'll be finished by mid-summer and Justine gets it which is great.  Her writing is improving and she wrote an amazing book review the other day.  We've put the Veritas History on hold to spend some detailed study of WWI and WWII at Justine's request.  Science was a bust this year.  We started with Apologia Biology but got too bogged down in the vocab.  We'll pick it up again next year.  Then we went to BJU Earth Science.  Not a good fit.  Too much focus on little bitty details.  I ordered some constellation study books so we'll be spending time on those.  Easy Grammar Plus is a great fit.  We finally found a grammar book that works! I'm starting to organize for next year (9th grade). 

Working for my brother and doing school at his office has been good for us this year, too.  I think it's a great experience for kids to grow up with a family business.  My parents both ran their own businesses when my brother and I were young and we learned a lot about how  it all works.  Now my kids have the same opportunity.

Christmas Reflections

During the Christmas season I like to reflect on where we've been and where we're heading next.  I am surprised at how much change and growth I've seen in my teens this past year.  For some reason, I hadn't expected so much change in both of them.  Colin has found a very nice group of friends who are mature and build him up.  He is more motivated about his schoolwork and grades and study parties seem to be the norm this year.  He played football and is getting ready for baseball season.  He is part of a great program called Peer Counseling which helps to develop leadership skills.  Justine has become more outgoing and less serious about herself.  She is enjoying softball and softball friends and writing a book.  We discuss it weekly and She has enough material and information for a trilogy.  I am amazed at what's in that mind.  My health is getting better and better and David and I are enjoying time together doing things that health restrictions didn't permit.  We enjoyed our first cruise this year and had a relaxing, refreshing time.

On a sad note, David's father passed away this fall after a long struggle with poor health.  The funeral was beautiful and was a testimony to his strength of character.  It was helpful for the kids to see the legacy of faith passed on to them.  David bought a business in PA this year and I am continuing to work part time for my brother.  Our lives are, like everyone elses, busy and hectic but we are loving where we are and we look forward to the challenges of 2007.