Taking The Less-Beaten Path

I hate to do this again but…

I will be moving my blog back to Blogger www.biaswonderyears.blogspot.com.

I was really excited to be able to blog among other homeschoolers, and I did manage to connect with some of you, but I have to say it has been a really annoying experiece to try and manage this site!

I can never download more than 4 or 5 pictures at a time and it’s such a lengthy process!  And I’m really not good at trying to manually figure out the template.  It has been a major factor in my not blogging as often.

Can you guys (the powers that be) please, please make this site more user-friendly?

I would love to come back again when that happens, but for now I’ll be posting at Blogger again.

This site, albeit inactive, will remain here for the time being.

Homeschoolers, please visit okay?

www.biaswonderyears.blogspot.com

See you there!

Please leave comments!

I’ve had a strange week.

I’ve needed to give my mind a vacation, of sorts.

There has been LOTS to think about for us in the last while.  Health issues, our future, family issues, planning for our next schoolyear, evaluating our last schoolyear, trying to get the garden weeded because the bark mulch needed to come!  Okay, the last one wasn’t that crucial, but it just was another thing that needed to be done from my endless list of "Things That Need to Get Done – Soon!!". 

So finally on Tuesday, I think it was, I decided that I was done thinking for a while.  I need a break.  I just didn’t have the strength to keep on thinking everything through anymore.  I’m letting God do what He needs to do in my heart, and let my mind catch up when it’s ready.

In the meantime, I am letting the kids play to their hearts’ content (school can way a few days), cleaning out closets, making piles and piles and filling boxes upon boxed for MCC, organizing things that I’ve wanted to organize for almost 2 years (since we moved!), decluttering my house, simplifying my house (hopefully), and ordering pizza for dinner.

All without thinking.  Just letting my mind concentrate on what is right in front of me, and letting my heart feel what it wants to feel at that time.

It feels good.

And this is the result:

I am quiet pleased – let’s see how long it lasts!

The kids and I also finished up reading "In Grandmas’s Attic", and have started two new books:

The Light at Tern Rock by Julia Sauer and George Schreiber. 

A boy and his aunt are asked to take care of a lighthouse for two weeks in December.  The man has promised to be back before Christmas.  Will he hold his promise, or will Robbie have to spend Christmas on "the Rock"?

The House At Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. 

(Loving this one.  A bit tricky to read aloud, but once you master the different voices for the charachters, it’s a hit!  We’ve hat lots of laughs!)

I said a while ago that I planned on putting some Mexico pictures out here, but I’m having trouble downloading more than 4 or 5 pictures at a time onto the blog.

So you’ll have to come over to our place for a cup of coffee once I have the pictures in the scrapbook.  You bring the chocolate!

We are slowly winding down our school year.  The Math books and the writing assignments will be put away soon.  But we are going to keep reading our Sonlight books throughout the summer.  I asked the kids if we should put them away too, but I got an adamant "No!".  That makes me happy.  I’ve always loved reading, and I’m glad to see that love growing in the kids as well.

I’ll try posting here what we will be reading through the summer.

What I’ve been reading.

For The Children’s Sake by Susan Shaeffer Macaulay

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

What I’ve been reading to the kids:

- The Usborne Complete First Book of Nature  - we are reading about moths and butterflies, and have already learned about birds, mammals, plants and insects.

- Hero Tales by Dave & Neta Jackson – this is a great book with short biographies about Christians who abandoned everything to serve God.

- In Grandma’s Attic by Arletta Richardson – stories of a little girl growing up in the late 1800′s on a farm in Michigan.

- The Children’s Book of Virtues 

What is the sound of God calling us?

Does is sound like thunder?  Not likely, unless you’re in deep trouble!

More like a whisper?  Like the wind rustling through the leaves of a tree on a balmy day? More likely.

I’ve been hearing God calling my name.  But not outside, because the weather has not permitted me! 

I’ve been hearing him call me in my discontentment with ‘things’.  I’ve been hearing him call me in my restlessness.  I’ve heard him call me by name in my hearts’ deep longing for MORE.  More life.  More joy.  More deepness (is that a word?). 

When I abandon myself, and give myself, my time and my efforts to him, he has poured His love on me!  That was very unexpected!  He has answered prayers immediately (like, the same day!).  He has placed people in my life that have shown me His love (angels, really).  He has given me freedom to praise Him, and my praises in turn have released more of His love on me.

I don’t want to sound "mighty religious" here.  I am not perfect.  I am weak, and I am sinful.  But my heart desires to obey God.  And when I obey him, He makes himself known to other through me.  It is not me.  It is Him.  So if you see anything worthy or good in me, please know that is is all God, and not me.  I just want to give Him all the glory for it!

I was encouraged by an article today.  Because it echoed my desires these last weeks.  It is written by Jeannie Fulbright.  She’s an author and a homeschooler, and her articles have encouraged me many, many times. 

I hope you can find time to read it and be encouraged by it.

www.jeanniesjournal.com/2008/05/drawing-near-to-god.html

God is calling you.  Can you hear him?

Our little girl is 5 already?!

Wasn’t she born just the other day?!  Where has time gone?

We had a great day celebrating Cara.  She was allowed to choose what was to be for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  She requested pancakes for breakfast, and lunch was supposed to be toast, but the others were not too keen on that!  I ended up getting some of those Lunchables Snack boxed for them and they thought they were great!  For dinner the kids had cereal (again Cara’s choice!), which was great ’cause it was easy for me!  Ron and I made dinner for ourselves later.

We presented Cara with her present after breakfast: a brand new bike!  Which was overdue, since she had already outgrown the other one a long time ago!

The rest of the day was spent riding her new bike with Froggy in the basket (her new Webkinz which she also got that day from Conrad, Johanna and Jacob), spending her first time EVER on Webkinz World ("Mom, this is SO exciting, I have been waiting for this for SO long!!"), and playing with her brother and sisters.

The next Friday (18th) we had a little party with her girl cousins her age, and here are some pictures of that!

 Julia, Cara, Tais, Johanna and Petra.

Opening gifts.

The cake – ice cream!