Reason 261 I love homeschooling

Yesterday we were able to eat lunch with my parents as they drove through town. They were going from the Houston area up to Oklahoma and decided to take a bit of a detour through our little town.

We met at H*bby L*bby and then went to have a wonderful lunch together.

I hadn't told the kids who we were meeting - or that we were meeting anyone - so the look of surprise and joy on Juniors face when he saw "Grandfather" was priceless.

As a side note, we read Heidi last year which started Daisy calling him Grandfather and then Junior picked it up. So it isn't that he chose a stuffy sounding name.

And this is something we couldn't do if they were in school . . . or at least I would feel guilty about it.

Standing up for what is right

I don't get involved in politics very much, or protests, or political activisim.

But I can't stay silent about this.

This is wrong and if we do nothing a tragedy will happen.

A good man will be sent to his death.

This is a friend of ours, not just some article in the newspaper to us. We have seen his precious boys, and met his lovely wife.

The short story is, the US immigration department has tried to deport him and will probably continue trying until he is given asylum. He was witness to the murder of an Albanian parliament member and so is a threat. If he returns to Albania, he will be murdered.

The longer version can be read here at ICE Age USA: The Retraumatization of Rrustem Neza.

This is a kind, big-hearted, generous family.

I have a petition that I am going to post; if you want to print it out and sign it, please let me know in the comments and I will send you the address of the petition, as well as where to send it.

Please pray for this family.

A new 5 X 30 Challenge! Are you up for it?

This one is going to be a tiny bit more complicated. It is still 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week, but this time also choosing to forgo 100 calories.

Any 100 calories. Just don't have that 2nd piece of cake, or don't sneak the candy out of one of your children's eggs, or only drink 2/3 of that coke, or . . . well you get the idea.

Just doing that one thing every day will have you losing 10 pounds in a year.

Come join us over at2nd Cup of Coffee.

I can't even begin to think of a title

On Wednesday for the past few weeks the homeschool group has gotten together and let the kids play kickball and softball. The younger ones (under 1st or 2nd grade) just do kickball and the older (up to 13 years old) played both.

The kids have loved it, its low key and fun.

Wednesday I get a phone call from C, she has been coaching the little ones in kickball.

I didn't really think anything of it, we go to the same church, our sons are friends . . .

Ya'll, she asked me to coach! (Did you hear that thud? That was the sound of my family falling off its chair laughing.)

I don't mind admitting, I am horrible at sports. Awful. Beyond belief.

I passed P.E. because I showed up and my teacher took pity on me.

True story: in 1st or 2nd grade we had 2 sisters from Cambodia arrive at our school. They didn't speak a word of English and had to be very overwhelmed. They only went to school with us for a few months before they went to another school (I don't know why).

In 9th grade we went to school together again and became friends. They remembered me from when we first went to school together.

Do you want to know why?

They remembered me as the girl who was afraid of the ball - which I might add is something I haven't outgrown.

So I "coached" kickball.

I suppose it went ok, nobody cried, there was no blood. Really there are only 3 of the little ones who have the slightest clue what is going on and one of those kids is Junior.

Talk about out of my comfort zone though!

I did it! The 5 X30 challenge

Well I participated in the 5 X 30 challenge and actually completed it! We had a long and grueling exercise regimen to follow: it was 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 2 weeks.

I know! Awful!

No really, I felt pretty good about it. It was nice having "5 days a week" instead of setting days, and then kicking myself when I didn't do them.

I kept up perfectly. Well, except for the day that I only did 20 minutes. . . . And Wednesday when I "coached" kickball (which should count as partial credit since the coach is also the pitcher).

So

Dayenu

I realized that I didn't say how the actual Seder went and I will in a different post, but first I wanted to talk about Dayenu.

Dayenu is a Hebrew word that means "it would have been enough," and is one of the songs sung at Passover.

The words to the version we sang in English are:

If you had just brought us out of Egypt, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us the Sabbath, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us the Torah, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us Messiah, it would have been enough.

I would imagine the ancient Hebrews just wanted to stop being slaves and go home to their father's land but God had so much more planned for them. There is a longer version here at Wikipedia that also mentions much more such as being given the Egyptians wealth, the sea being divided, providing manna, and building the Temple.

God still allows His blessings to overflow on us. If you had only saved us from hell and not wanted anything from us, it would have been enough.
If you had only wanted our worship and not wanted a relationship, it would have been enough.
If you had just wanted a relationship with us and not wanted us to be your children, it would have been enough."

Yet how often do we respond like children? If you feed children a meal, it is enough. If you give them cupcakes with sprinkles, it should be enough but someone will complain because someone else got more sprinkles.

"God, I like having a roof over my head but I want it to be bigger like the Jones." "God, I like my kid but I want him on the honor roll like Mary's kid."

We I need to make a more conscious effort to notice thank Him for the blessings we are given.

Dayenu.

Things I have learned because of blogging

Things I have learned because of blogging:

1. HTML and some CSS because I am a geek that way. I want to ba able to manipulate my blog to my satisfaction.


2. HTML and CSS can be two of the hardest languages on the planet ok, not really but you feel that way when trying to get it to cooperate and it doesn't want to.
   
   Not that I would know anything about it


3. I do like HTML better than WYSIWYG yep, I am a geek that way. If you aren't big enough of a geek to know what WYSIWYG is, it is "what you see is what you get" and the default format of most places you will type in text.


4. Steel cut oats are vastly different from regular rolled oats better flavor and better texture. Plus unlike rolled oats, when they get cold they do not turn into sticky play-dough. gag.


5. This post is a beautiful illustration that makes so much sense! I have referenced it so many times recently.


6. And then there are so many posts that make me laugh so hard I snort tea out my nose like this one or this one and . . . . well there are many, many others.


7. Blogging can help your memory, since you have stuff written down.


8. It can also make you feel stupid when you realize that there are 5 posts you have been writing in your head and you can't remember any of them when you sit down at the computer.
   
   So I have heard. It has never happened to me.cough, cough, cough



9. and sometimes blogging can be like hair

The blogging community is like every other community, there are some toads as well as some wonderful people. I fell so blessed to have made some of the friends I have found here blogging.

Works for Me Wednesday - boiling eggs

My first Works for Me Wednesday! I am soo excited!

My kids love boiled eggs. They just love them and since they are healthy I try to keep them around.

I just don't want them cracking an egg only to find out it isn't a boiled egg.

There is that little trick of spinning an egg and if it won't spin, it is raw. Especially when it is on it's way to the floor. The cooked eggs spin nicely, also on the way to the floor.

But an even easier method (and much less risky) is to tint the eggs as they are boiling.

I don't mean drag out the red dye and the vinegar. Just save your tea bag from the morning cup of tea, or some used coffee grounds and drop them in the pot with the boiling eggs and boil as usual.

It doesn't take very much, just 1 bag or about a tablespoon. It isn't enough to flavor the eggs, but it does give them a darker color like the manilla paper used in grade school.

They can then be stored in the original container. Tinting the eggs with a used tea bag Works for Me

Sunday Seder

Our church (along with 2 others) was so extremely blessed to have some of the people from Congregation Beth Messiah in Houston come to let us experience a traditional Passover Seder.

Oh, it was amazing. I could go on and on but I will try to contain myself to just a few things.

First, in case you didn't know the Seder is one of the feasts commanded by God in Leviticus. It is to remind them of how God freed them from slavery to Egypt and how the angel of death passed over their homes in the last plague. In Leviticus it is called the "feast of the unleavened bread." It is also the meal that Jesus and the disciples were eating at the last supper.

That first Passover, they were commanded to bake bread with out any leavening and roast a lamb. The leavening is a symbol of sin, but it also shows that they were not supposed to take their time. Bread with leavening takes awhile and they had to be ready to leave.

Now the Jews that celebrate Passover are supposed to rid their house of leavening. This is not just the jar of yeast in the freezer, but any bread, and anything that might have bread crumbs (like a toaster.) The point is though, we can't remove every bit of it any more than we can remove every bit of sin. That's why we need Jesus.

At the Seder meal there is a plate filled with Karpas (greens), Betzah (egg), Maror (bitter herbs), & Charoset (Nuts & Fruit). I am not going to attempt to give an explanation because you will find many on the net that will be much better than mine.

But there is something I want to share about the Karpas. We had parsley for our greens and the green symbolizes life. Passover happens in the spring when new life starts up. Life is given and sustained by God.

Before eating the Parsley, we were told to dip it in some salt water which symbolizes the tears that were shed by Israel as well as the tears that we shed. The Maror symbolizes the bitterness in slavery, but I also see it in the tears.

Tears shed because of slavery. I also know that we are not immune to slavery. So many are enslaved by their sin - powerless to stop. And then so many exchange those bonds for a new set of bonds. Any religion that wants you to jump through hoops to assure you that you are saved - for the moment at least - is not what He planned. If you have to do A, B and C in order to be saved, then you are saying that His sacrifice is not enough.

Ok, I am getting off of my soapbox now.

The Seder is so rich in symbolism that points straight to Christ as the Messiah. There are three pieces of unleavened bread together in a pocket, the middle one is broken and then wrapped in linen and hidden to be found later. "He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Luke 22:19.

I have so much more to share, but I am going to stop here for now. I want to tell you about Dayenu - it would have been enough. What a deep and rich word! But that will be tomorrow.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

We had the opportunity to go to a star watching party on Saturday night. It was amazing.

We have had a telescope for awhile but neither Hubby or I can figure out how to use it.

Well, we know how to use it, but it is difficult to find what you are looking for when you aren't very good at it.

We got a star wheel and learned how to use it, directions to make an astrolabe and other tips. The two astronomers leading had brought 3 good telescopes and then would focus them on some amazing sights.

The moon with its craters is beautiful, it was like those pictures you have seen, but this was not a picture. Hubby and I had seen Saturn before in my Dad's telescope, but his doesn't give as close of a picture. Saurday, we saw the line of rings and one or two of the moons.

It gave us more ideas on how to get out there and watch what is going on in the sky. They are planning on doing it again in June and we are hoping to be there, as well as one in July.

There are more tips and tricks we learned and will hopefully be able to keep learning more. I will post these as I get time.

Sometimes they make you proud

This is my precious girl.

If you notice the hair, its long. She decided 3 years ago she wanted to grow her hair out. It had reached the point where it wasn't getting any longer.

In November, Daisy mentioned that maybe she wanted to get it cut off. She wasn't sure though. I mentioned that she could donate her hair to an organization that uses it to make wigs for kids who had lost their hair.

I also told her that I was going to make her think about it. She wasn't going to cut off her hair in a whim.



Summer is coming and it gets hot here. Ok, it is pretty warm now.

She mentioned again that she wanted to get her hair cut and donate it. She had really long hair.


Seriously, that is long hair.

Well, her hair isn't long anymore.


First they put it in a ponytail and then they took the scissors to it.



Too late to back out now. Her hair went to Locks of Love where they will use it to make a wig for a child who needs it. Interestingly enough, 80% of their donations come from children.



It took awhile to get her hair cut into a style. Or maybe I am spoiled to all she needed before.



So now her hair is very short in the back, compared to very long.

She is thrilled. She has it longish in the front and short in the back.

She didn't want me to tell because she wanted to surprise people. Now that they know, I can share the news.

7 quick takes

I have all these posts that I am planning on sharing and then it gets to be Friday and might as well do them in the 7 quick takes.

1. Our church is doing a Seder supper on Sunday. It will be led by some Messianic Jews who will explain to us what it means. I love doing these things, I inevitably learn something that makes me be even more amazed at Him.

2. Some of you seemed a bit intimidated by letting your kids help you cook. With mine I started on the fun and easy stuff, like instant pudding. I would let them pour the powder into a huge bowl (so it reduced the chances of splashing) and then they poured in the milk I measured. When their arm got tired of stirring, I took over but they had done enough to feel ownership.

Both of them have helped me make chicken sticks (like tenders). You slice up a boneless chicken breast into tenders size, then let them dip it first into plain yogurt (not vanilla) and then into bread crumbs (crushed cereal or whatever). Then bake at 350 til done.

Over at the cooking blog, I have some more recipes that my kids have made right here.

3. I have kept up with the 30 x 5 challenge! I have managed to work out for 30 minutes 5 days a week for the entire first week. I mostly do the jog/walk mix but I have done some yoga and some other stuff with the Wii fit. I just need to lose 2 more pounds to be back where I was when I fell off the exercise wagon and then about 50 more pounds to get me well into "healthy" weight.

4. I have some other news that I can't share yet.

I just hate when people do that. Don't you?

5. I made a pot roast last night and impulsively added mushrooms.

OH MY STARS!

We usually put a portion in the kids bowls and they Junior only wants to eat 1/3 of it but we make him eat half (He wants to save room for a piece of candy).

Last night there were 2 bites left. I asked if he wanted more and he said no but gave it 2 thumbs up.

And it had onions. And mushrooms. And he hates both.

6. I tried getting the kids pictures made in some bluebonnets but the light didn't cooperate. It looks too blue in the pictures but I can't seem to fix them.

7. We saw a man shoeing some horses near our church yesterday evening so we got out to watch for a few minutes.

I didn't realize that horses stopped with their front feet and so the front shoes are different from the back shoes.