Tuesday, July 07, 2009

We had no problems finding Char-Mar Ridge. What a great hike it is! About a mile and a half, through beautiful woods winding across and around a creek. We looked for glacial erratics, white/red oaks, and shelf fungi. Once again, we found them all! Not only did we find shelf fungi, but we saw several other types which we were able to look up in the Eastern Forest Field Guide I purchased last week. This trail was particularly well-marked with the different trees close to the trail: Oaks, Elm, Locust, Buckeye (my favorite), Black Walnut, Hickory, Hackberry. Oh, and we saw animal tracks in the banks of the creek in a couple of places ... a raccoon and a deer, we think.

Not as many pictures this week, but here are a couple:

Before church (just 'cause it is cute):



The start of the trail:



Jason got some help pushing:

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Monday, July 06, 2009

At church yesterday, "Mom, I think there's going to be a bath-tism today."

Getting dressed this morning, "Mommy, can you turn this shirt outside-out?"

I LOVE 3 year olds!

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Thank you to all those in service, praying to those on active duty!

Parades, cooking out (hopefully between thunderstorms!), fireworks!

Hobby Lobby took out a full-page ad full of quotes about God and the United States, see it here. You can see all their past ads (Christmas, Easter, Independence Day) here.

I'm going to try this recipe for dessert today, except I'm going to use Angel Food Cake.

Hope you have a great Independence Day!

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Our first Letterboxing adventure was finding the park! We decided to go today (Sunday) because the first trail is closer to my parents' house than to ours. We made a wrong "non-turn" and turned around after talking to a park ranger at a different park (different park system, even!) and found our way into Sunbury, Ohio. We saw the sign for the park, which isn't on the road the park is on. We drove around Sunbury for a bit before finally finding Vernon St and followed it back to where we had turned around to get to the sign. Ah, well.

The first trail is the Big Walnut Community Trail. Before we got onto the trail, we saw our first bunny of the evening. A converted portion of an old railway line (we got to walk across the railroad bridge), the walk in is about .6 mile in (and another .6 out [grin]).

Our Letterboxing book listed several things to look for; we googled before we left so we'd have a chance of recognizing them. Honeysuckle, Mullein (pronounced Mullen), Horsetail, a couple of types of birds, we talked about what wetlands are, and were on the lookout for groundhog holes. Other than the birds, we saw all of the things listed; I'm impressed by how well this was set up. We saw at least 4, maybe 5, bunnies while we were at the park. Bunnies were not in the book, but were the favorite thing we saw for 3 of 3 Garrett children.

We found the letterbox which had a stamp for our book and a card which discussed the history of Mullein in the US. Immigrant families from Europe brought it with them for its many uses: its soft leaves were used under clothing for added warmth, as wicks for lamps, boiled (or smoked) as medicinal recipes, and its stalk was used to make torches by dipping it in animal fat. Pretty interesting stuff!

Honeysuckle:


Horsetail:


Mullein:


Finding the Letterbox:


The end of the hike:

posted by dawn8:08 PM|Link| (3) comments

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

We're very excited about this family program sponsored by our county's park program: Summer Letterbox Adventure 2009! I've been looking through the instruction booklet and our Handbook of Nature Study and am excited about the pre-research and then going with Jason on Saturdays to get our stamps. I hope this will teach our children (and me!) about our local flora and fauna, get us out into our local park system, and be a lot of fun.

Do your parks do anything like this?

posted by dawn11:51 AM|Link| (1) comments

Friday, January 16, 2009

We've had a busy week! School for the kiddos, evening things for me, Jason has had long hours. Fun fun stuff!

This week we started to work into our routine. The children seem to be really liking having a certain order to the day, and they definitely like having time with me by themselves in the routine. Our days are starting earlier, nap times are later, and bedtime remains the same [grin]

We will normally have Thursdays off for a day with my parents (and me running errands), so I chose to take a day off school even though we were staying home yesterday. I had some housework that getting caught up on would help in the coming weeks. This was not helpful, it would have been better to do our routine even without school (assign helpers for the work during their time, and do some of the reading aloud anyway).

Some things I learned this week:

1. Nate participates at story time better if *I'm* participating.
2. Memory work has to be done more in a round than one child's then the next.
3. There is too much to do and too little time to do it ... and we've not even started everything! And there'll only be more in the years to come! (Of course, everything is mommy directed right now ...)
4. A day off routine makes that day *and* the following day harder.

The children did really well! Margaret and Nate are working on memorizing The Vulture in IEW's Poetry memorization program. They really like learning the poetry. We're also working on catechism, Bible verses, and a hymn. Right now, the hymn is "Holy, Holy, Holy" and we're learning a verse a week. I organized our memory work into boxes a la Simply Charlotte Mason's plan only through the days of the week. So far I really like it.

Math is very basic at the moment: Number Recognition and Counting. 1-100, Skip counting by 10s and by 5s. We haven't started a "formal" math program, and probably won't for quite a while.

I'm very much liking Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading Margaret is flying through the lessons (which aren't too long) My only (minor) complaint is I think she gets distracted by the parent's script, so I'm considering typing separately the child's portion. She's also doing Explode the Code Book B which we're almost done with. These couple months off have really enhanced her speed and ability with it.

Finally, our main focus this year is Geography. Understanding a little bit about where we live and how it fits into God's world before we start studying history. We started very slowly this week by "reading" a book about maps. It was .... hmmm ... further over their heads than I thought, so I would read silently the page and explain using the pictures. That worked better.

Next week, more fun is involved, so you'll have to come back to see what we've been up to!

posted by dawn3:59 PM|Link| (8) comments

Friday, January 09, 2009

First day of "K4":




First day of "preschool":



30 minutes of Mommy to myself?! Woo-hoo!

posted by dawn9:53 PM|Link| (1) comments

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Way back in September, lo these many months ago, I was re-reading Proverbs 31 and I noticed something I hadn't noticed previously. I'm not generally one for "New Year's Resolutions" (although if I were, I like what Cindy has to say in this post) or year-long themes, but I've been mulling for 3 months and now it is time to do.

Proverbs 31:13: She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.

Other translations use such words that describe her working with "delight" and "eagerly" and "willingly." Getting started working tends to be my problem, I often enjoy the work when doing it and certainly enjoy the fruit of the work, but forcing myself to get going is not my strong suit. So for 2009, my intention is, every day, to work with willing hands. Starting slowly, baby steps, surely, but at first "willing" my hands to work and, Lord willing, soon delight in eagerly working.

posted by dawn9:46 PM|Link| (2) comments

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

There is something about saying, 'We always do this,' which helps keep the years together. Time is such an elusive thing that if we keeping meaning to do something, but never do it, year would follow year with no special thoughtfulness being expressed in making gifts, surprises, charming table settings, and familiar food. Tradition is a good gift intended to guard the best gifts.

-Edith Schaeffer

via DJ

posted by dawn11:28 AM|Link| (0) comments

Friday, December 26, 2008

My in-laws gave me this book by Noel Piper for Christmas. I'm going to try to share some quotes throughout my reading.

From the forward (by John Piper): "God is the treasure of our lives. We see him in everything. We believe with all our hearts that 'from him and through him and to him are all things.' He gets the glory, we get the joy."

Because God has given all things and sustains all things and gathers all things to himself for his glory, we are to delight and en-joy glorifying God in all things. OK, so that only turns Piper's statement into a run on sentence [grin], how does one do that? This book has been written to encourage us to think about such things and give ideas of how that practice can be made. This is why I want to "think aloud" through this book. Do we have traditions for traditions' sake, or do we have traditions to glorify and enjoy God?

"Memories go with lots of things." (p.13)

That is so true! A friend/acquaintance recently "friended" me on Facebook and posted our 5th grade class picture. Memories came flooding back, it was a year of adjustments for me, but as we were chatting about it she remembered a special time my parents planned ... a sleepover for all us kids! We got to invite 2-3 friends apiece (there were 5 of us) and we did all sorts of things: ice cream sundae bar, making pretzels/pizzas, games, etc. To her that was a highlight of her 5th grade memory. While it was a fun time, we had a lot of fun things that we did as a family together, even if things like a new school and few friends made my non-home life difficult. Memories go with lots of things.

"Moses assumes children will ask why. And he instructs parents to give an answer that speaks of reality." (p. 17)

My littles are constantly asking why. I need to remember to answer them in a way that points them to Christ (and "because God made it that way" isn't always a satisfactory answer) ... and not out of frustration or "just get this kid to stop asking me" but really think like they are and ask why?

What say you? Do you have traditions for the sake of tradition? How do you change them to being for the sake of Christ? Do you have anything that has recently brought on a flood of memories? (I dug my high-school jacket out of the hall closet when I cleared it out today ... I don't want to get rid of it, but I don't know what to do with it either, it is a prized possession.) Finally, how do you bring all of the "why" of children to Christ? To showing how he created and sustains all things Col 1:16-17 without resorting to "that's just how God made it."?

posted by dawn9:58 PM|Link| (1) comments

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn king
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled
Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies
With angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new-born king.

posted by dawn12:00 AM|Link| (0) comments

Monday, December 22, 2008

This:


Becomes this:

posted by dawn9:44 PM|Link| (3) comments

Monday, December 01, 2008

On the way to church we often discuss our expectations for worship as a reminder for the level of behavior and participation we expect. Yesterday, we got to talking about obeying and loving God perfectly and Margaret said only Jesus did that (woo-hoo!) and that everyone dies. Of course that brings up a special case in my head:

Mommy: Well, except for Enoch. "He walked with God and then was taken."
Margaret: Yeah, he should've been holding his Father's hand so he didn't get took.

Evidently she didn't realize that he was.

posted by dawn8:05 PM|Link| (3) comments

Friday, August 15, 2008

At the dinner table tonight we were enjoying some of our fresh from the garden tomatoes in our salad. Margaret mentioned about how they were so much better than the ones from the grocery store.

Jason: "I wouldn't know, I'm not a tomato connoisseur."
Margaret: "I am a tomato one-of-those ..."

Cracked me up.

posted by dawn8:55 PM|Link| (4) comments