Feb. 23, 2007 - Fancy French Soap School Project

When we were "visiting" France in our school lessons, one of our projects was to make soap by using old soap slivers, melting them down, and forming them into new soap bars.  Unfortunately it was not as easy as it sounded.  The first batch we tried in the microwave.  That did not turn out so well.  It was nice and soft as soon as it came out of the microwave, but then it would not soften any further.  Here is what it looked like:

We stopped at that moment and went to the internet.  Have I ever mentioned how I love Google?   I used one site that had great information about soap making.  I wish I had saved it.  First, it suggested putting the soap pieces through the food processer and shred them as if it was cheese.  Next,  it suggested to put it into a double boiler (I don't have one, so we used double pots instead), and add a little oil to the soap shreds.  The third suggestion was to add a bit of milk if needed.    Who would have thought of that?  Milk!!  Well, we followed the instructions by shredding our soap by using our food processor.  We put it into a small pot and set it into a larger pot full of boiling water.  Here is a picture of our soap in shreds, just put into the pot:

After the soap was softened just a bit into the pot, we added about a Tablespoon of oil to the soap shreds.  It softened up a bit further, but not until we added a Tablespoon of milk, did it really soften.  It  was amazing!  It transformed into a soft, mushy mass of soap!!  At  that point we added oatmeal to our cream colored soap, poppy seeds to our pink soap, and herbs to our green soap. 

After all that work, and mess....we were able to do the fun part.  We sprayed down waxed paper with Pam, and used cookie cutters,  playdoh molds, and our hands to make the shapes we wanted.   Here is our final product.  What an experiment!  Fortuanately, it was very easy to clean up...after all it was soap!!  It was probably the cleanest mess we ever made.  Ha ha...okay enough of my dry humor!! 

Feb. 16, 2007 - Serving up Joy

I saw this question this morning: 

"How about you? Is there an area in your life where you could serve Christ by choosing joy over bitterness?"   

 I am challenged by it.  I serve...all day.  It is not always easy.  A lot of times it is simply a choice.  Not fun, no smiles...silmply, a choice.  Other times it is great, and rewarding, fun and fulfilling.  There is something inside of me that compells me, almost propells me forward to do things for others.  The challenge for me is that I could serve others just by choosing joy over bitterness.  It is so easy to become bitter.  A child who does not like a gift given, a friend who ignores you, a husband preoccupied, family too busy......  It is all a trap to become bitter.  Serving could continue on, but it would simply become duty over time, and lead to deep sadness, and burnout.  The enemy wants to see us destroyed, and giving in to bitterness is giving in to him.  Again, I am challenged.  Pain, and hurt feelings are real.  I want to deal with it in a heart of forgiveness and allow Jesus to be my healer.  Letting it go, because Jesus forgave my sins and loves me even still. 

Another question comes to mind...how is choosing joy a way of serving?  It is not "doing," or "giving."   It is a heart condition, a perspective, a choice to dig into the treasures that Christ has given us, and not give into the carnal feelings that overcome us..that attack us with never-ending persuasion.   The Bible tells us that joy of the Lord is our strength.   Maybe as we use that beautiful treasure that Jesus has given us, maybe it drowns out the carnal feelings that scream at us.  I will continue to ponder this, look into God's Word regarding His joy.  I long for it.  I need it.  My family needs it.  I want to serve them joy.  

Feb. 7, 2007 - Here are my snow pictures!!

These were taken a few days ago when we went out to go sledding, but we had a long day that day and did not get them online.  We came in from being in the snow for two hours and my daughter started to shake, her eyes were dilated and she wasn't able to concentrate.  She was wearing three pairs of pants and ski pants on top, but her feet were soaking wet, and so were her hands.  She was shaking for about an hour with huge white circles on her cheeks.  She is already winter white, so a color even whiter scared me.  Well, I warmed her up in a tub, blow dried her hair, encouraging her try to talk to me the whole time.  I started feeding  m&m's into her mouth to raise her blood sugar.  We warmed up our rice bags in the microwave and put them around her neck, and within an hour she seemed almost normal.  what a scary event!!! 

Before that happened we did enjoy our time outside.  We made a little snowman, and pulled each other in our sled.  I wasn't sure I liked hearing "Mush, mush!!"    Around and around we went, and then they pulled me!!  I took them down a little hill with the neighbor kids.  I was exhuasted when it was all over!!  Later on that day, my second son ended up with a fever, so we stayed inside and warmed up with hot cocoa (which I heard prevents strokes  so we are doing good), and chicken noodle soup.  Here are the pictures:

Snow Angel time....how fun is this??!!!

Elizabeth has been waiting for this very moment!

Timothy trying his own angel.....

Joshua is posing with a mouth full of snow!

PRETENDING to eat snow......there are too many cats where we live, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Jonathan was our photographer of the day, so he is not in the pictures this time.  Well, off for now.....

Feb. 2, 2007 - A Little Touch of White

Wow, what a day yesterday!!  We woke up to maybe half an inch of snow on the ground.  Of course, for Kentucky that means that schools were out.  Yeah, people do not know how to drive on roads that have a bit of white on them.  It worked out well for us.  We decided it was not enough snow for sledding, but surely enough for snowball throwing. 

Ok, so here is a story.  My husband works for a property managment company.  The  management "office" is a large home on one side and the office on the other.  We live in the house side.  Unfortunately, "our" basement is a very large tool shed, so people are in and out all the time.  Anyway....there are two owners, one works here daily, and the other comes around  every few months.  The second one mentioned has never met me....until yesterday.  My children, the first mentionded owner's children, and I were outside playing and trying very hard to find enough snow to make snowballs.  I know this is confusing...hang in there.  The owner that does not come around often goes into the office and tells them that some kid is climbing on the red van, which happens to be ours.  My husband poudly says, I am sure it is not mine!  The other lady says, well, it must be mine then.  Wellllll......all I can say is that I feel sorry for those poor kids being blamed for climbing oun our van.  That kid was me.  I, I, I.....I was trying to find more snow.  Those little kids had taken all the snow on the ground and I had to be innovative if I were to protect myself!  Ok, I shouldn't have been up there.......so anyway,  what an introduction!!  Oh, my!!    

Well, today we have two whole inches of snow, so we can look proper with our sleds today instead of climbing on the vans to collect snow.  Yesterday for lunch everyone had hot chocolate and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Today I think we will heat up some chicken noodle soup.  All in all, it was a alot of fun throwing snowballs with 7 little children and feeding them all lunch.  Well, that is all for now.  We will get everyone bundled up to play in the snow once again, dreaming of our ski day coming up soon......hope everyone out there has a warm day..... 

Jan. 31, 2007 - Traveling...

Our family loves to travel.  While we don't have the finances to actually do much of that, we make the most of our studies.  With My Father's World, we are able to travel through every continent.  So far we have traveled around North America, and South America.  I loved the rain forests of South America.  The food was delicious, and not one upset tummy!!  We have traveled into Europe and visited where my heritage comes from (Norway and Sweden).  That was a blast, and even saw some reindeer races take place.  Now we are in France and are about to make some fancy French soap to take home as a souvenir.  We havent been able to sample any French cuisine yet, but I am sure we will truly enjoy that experience!!   We have been enjoying the French artists, feeling as if we knew a bit about the painter himself.  We have been able to "meet" people from times past by reading great biographies.  We read of Cameron Townsend, missionary to Mexico and Guatemala.  We read of Nate Saint and the great strides that were made in the Auca territory in the jungle, and of course we cried when he died....well, at least I did.  Right now we are reading about George Mueller, and are hoping that he changes his life around soon.  Our next destination is Germany!!  We will beging our travels there in two weeks.  For now, we are enjoying beautiful France!!  I hope your day is a great one wherever you may be!  Melissa

Jan. 30, 2007 - Deprivation....

Jan. 18, 2007 - Our School life....

School is very important to me, but in my heart it is not the first thing that I am thinking about.  What is most important to me is what God is doing in our hearts.  That is why we were so blessed this year when we were given a curriculum.  It was an answer to prayer, not just financially, but spiritually.  The 2005-06 school year was terrible, and I was longing for a more fulfilling year.  The curriculum given to us was My Father's World.  We are doing the Exploring Countries and Cultures year, and have been so blessed!!  We have learned about North America, and South America (my favorite so far), and next we are headed to Europe.  We have learned so much and had so much fun! 

We have also changed directions with math, and are using Right Start Math and LOVE IT!!  I have never been math minded and I am just a huge fan of this math curriculum.  Another answer to prayer!  We have read through two biographies, Cameron Townsend, and Nate Saint.  We will be starting George Mueller next week.  We have done baking together, crafts, and have still had time to do chores, play, and do piano lessons!!  I am truly blessed.  God's answered prayer is like a fresh drink to a parched mouth.  Well, that is all for today...my children are all up and ready to begin.  Until later......

Jan. 18, 2007 - Back to Introduction

Well, I think I will go back to early summer where things went awry.....life went disappointingly crooked, or so it seemed.   We had about 9 months without a job, and that shook us up a lot.  Not that we weren't looking--we were (very hard), the job just was not there!!!  Now, we have always had a heart for missions (I think as Christians we all do), and we thought maybe we should go to a school of missions down in TX.  We were planning pretty seriously, but the doors were closing pretty firmly in our faces.  Can you say "disappointment?"  Things just kept getting harder.  Well, my husband decided to take a medical coding class.  Surely, this was the answer!!  This was a 2 year course condensed into 10 weeks.  This was the most intense class I have ever seen.  He spent all day studying and then he'd go to class. 

The stress began to rise for us both.  You know, all along it just seemed good enough to prepare a good home, be a good wife, cook, clean, teach my children and be a blessing as much as possible.  Things really changed and God was asking me to live outside of myself for once.  Being a "good" wife really changed directions.  Suddenly, I was trying to figure it all out....fix things...desperately.  Oh, our marriage was good, but life was suddenly looking very sour and we were just barely hanging on.  So, superwoman came to the rescue....."What can I do to fix it all?  I kept looking back and thinking "if only things were like they were 3 years ago...we were happy then...."  My wonderful mom sent me an e-mail and encouraged me to choose to love right now and not look back to who we were then, but that God was doing something new in us and to embrace it.  AAAahhhh, I could breathe again.  Letting go, and trusting God is so freeing.  Slowly we began to mend.  The job came, summer came to an end and school began.  Life continues, and we are closer than ever.  God does an amazing thing in our lives when we let Him, and don't try to be in control so often. 

This is not our dog BTW.....but maybe how we looked early this past summer......

Jan. 17, 2007 - Prayers for a dear family

Jan. 16, 2007 - Our homeschool beginnings...

Starting a new blog means re-introducing ourselves.  The first time I blogged, I really had no idea that others could read it, so it began as a sort of Bible study journal.  It ended up as a place that my thoughts just jumbled out, and I mean jumbled...most of it probably made no sense.  No wonder I didn't have many comments!    Well, this past year was a huge challenge for us....loss of job due to a medical practice shutting down, a move, a new job, lonliness, a terribly active summer, a single sister moving in with us, and now there are some major events going on as well.  Even all that being said, school itself is going much better this year.  We are more structured, more excited, and getting a lot more done.  My children are all taking piano lessons as well!!  They are already playing songs like "God is so Good." 

Ok, a little background....My husband and I have been married for 11 years.  We have a very special friendship that I cherish, though we struggle to keep it that way, like anyone.  We have four children....three boys and a girl.  Their ages are 9, 8, 6, and 4.  I can't believe my youngest is 4!!!  Homeschooling began in my home when I was 12.  My mom began by homeschooling my younger sister (the one who lives with us), and my brothers.  I begged to be brought home and be homeschooled as well.  I spent one more year in a Christian school, and then spent the rest of the time at home.  After being in so many schools due to moving frequently, homeschooling was an amazing blessing!  I was determined to marry someone who would agree to homeschool BEFORE marrying me.  So...poor Jonathan (my husband)....he had to endure many teaching tapes and discussions and decisions before marriage.  He probably thought he had entered the twighlight zone when he met me, afterall, the only homeschoolers he had met lived in a terribly messy house, did school in pajamas all the time and did not know how to read or spell at 11, or 12.  I sought to show him how it could be different.  We looked at books that my mom had, introduced him to our homeschool group and 4-H group (made up mostly of homeschoolers).  Well, he decided to take the plunge.  We have had a blast ever since.  Hee hee...we have had some really really hard times....but God has kept us closely bonded through it all. 

We have been homeschooling since day 1.  We love it and Jonathan has kept me going, never letting go.  I was the one who was burned out last spring and he encouraged me and prayed for me.  I suppose that is where this blog came in.  I don't come in here feeling like I know it all, or have any answers.  I don't have major philosophies on how to do everything "right," and I am I don't introduce myself as a homeschool mom right off the bat with a smug look (like I used to).  Going through hard times and being humbled brings us right down to reality....we are just like the rest of humanity.  I cherish my family, choose to homeschool and follow God's call on my life, and am so grateful for Jesus and salvation, and the gift of the Holy Spirit....other than that I don't have any other gem in my pocket.  I am just so grateful for life and the chance to live for God.  I don't know if anyone will ever stop by here and bother to read my long winded ramblings, but I do know it will be fairly simple, and may end up being my Bible journal again after all.  Until next time......

Jan. 14, 2007 - I am Back, just a different site....