Turning Something Old Into Something NEW!

Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 02:37

This middle child of mine is very particular. Who would have thought picking out a journal would be so difficult? For school purposes, the kids are required to keep a journal of our trip to Africa. Vanessa was given a nice journal for her 8th grade graduation that is just right for her. Christina found a lovely journal at the store marked 50% off. It's very 'artsy' and has room for her to draw and write. But finding a journal for  Brianna  was whole 'nother story!

We searched in every store for the PERFECT journal. Book stores, card shops, art shops, Pickle Papers, Academic Toolbox,  A Book for All Seasons... you name it, we've  been there. We know exactly what kind of journals they all carry. NOTHING struck her fancy. NOTHING was just right!

Browsing in a bookstore alone one day, I struck gold! I found myself staring at the cover of a craft book. It was a book on how to make personalized journals!   I took in all the pictures and contemplated some of the tips, then shut the book and put it back on the shelf. For $19.99  I bet I could make a lot of journals!

So, we scrounged around the house for old scrapbooks, notebooks  and journals that were not so good, half used, or no longer  loved. Then we set to work taking them apart and salvaging the useable parts. We didn't really follow the book's advice... I couldn't remember anything I had read, anyway, but the pictures stayed in my mind. It was the idea that was important.

I decided to make one for myself while we were at it. We used 4 coordinating 12 x 12 designed scrapbook papers, lots of tacky glue, a little raffia, some elastic headbands, various types of paper salvaged from various journals, a whole punch, and some stickers and accents. This project took a few artistic brain cells and we finally settled on an 8 .5 X 8.5  inch square cover. We had to trim up all the pages we took out of other books and journals to the right size.

Bri working on the journals at her desk...You will note her artwork everywhere, hence the need for a very particular  journal.

Cutting,  pasting and designing.

We pretty much copied each other's ideas. Hers is red. Mine is blue.

Beginning to look like a book!

I found a nice coordinating pad of journaling tags that we shared and a nother little booklet of shaped paper that wasn't too pricy.

Oh What a Feeling

Posted on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 12:13

A new school year. A fresh start... new books, new pencils, new goals,  new ideas and new resolutions. Ah yes! What a feeling!  

My experience with School started when  I was about 4. It was a strange place. They didn't speak any English there and they sang strange songs about little men with apple heads and boats that tipped over. I knew I was liked by the teacher, she called me Belle Angela (even my name  pronounced in French). She was kind but made me repeat my request to go the bathroom in French. My sister was 3, same school, different class. I crossed the street every morning and rode the bus to school. That's all I remember. I was there about a year and a half.

My world as I had known it suddenly did a 180 degree turn and everything changed. My parents became Christians and nothing was the same ever again... not even school! In fact that was it for the little French Immersion School for me. The whole responsibility of raising children had taken on a new meaning for my parents and they had heard about homeschooling. Neither of my parents had had a great experience in school. My Dad had been told in front of the whole class by his teacher that he would "be a ditch digger for the rest of his life".  The prophecy might have come true, as he was a miner in the nickel mines of Sudbury  for 9 years before he met Christ, but after that the Lord led him on an interesting path to becoming a powerful preacher and an administrator even thought he had not finished high school. My Mom's schooling was rough. Her mother 's first language was  French,  her father's Gaelic,  so they spoke English at home. However, all the girls were expected to go to French school and all the boys to English school. She really didn't know any French and in those days if you missed a word in your reading you automatically lined up for the strap at the end of the day.... She missed many words and she got the strap every day in 1st grade. She hated school! She flunked 1st grade and a few other grades. She had one goal in school... to get out . She never finished high school.  It's a wonder to me, then that they were so ready to put us into school at an early age. I guess you do what you know, and they didn't know any different. That changed when they learned about homeschooling.

We moved out to the country when I was 5 and I learned many things in the  forests and out on the farm but it wasn't until I turned 8 years old that my Mom decided it was time for me to learn to read. In a matter of 3 months I could read my KJV Bible and was well on my way in homeschooling. Math was a struggle for me. I totally resented the fact that at 4 years old my brother could give me the answers to my math problems. It took me awhile to master the facts. My homeschooling years were filled with a variety of opportunities to learn to work in many settings.  I could run the till and give change in the health food store, or serve customers at the vegan restaurant.  I could transplant tiny seedlings in the commercial greenhouses, or pick strawberries for money, stand on the back of the corn seeder to make sure all was working right, cook for a crowd and sew my own clothes. I remember flying down the hill for a half a mile on my sled with my English book tucked in my coat to study near my Dad in the maple sugar shack. In summer I rode my horse a couple miles through the woods to piano lessons. Homeschooling was good and a natural choice for me to make for my own children.

 Me in the pigtails...

I was 18 when my husband and I began our courtship. It was a couple days before he was leaving for college and my family and I were leaving as missionaries to Africa  when we went on our first date. We had no time to dilly dally... there was so much ground we had to cover in that one date. And so we hashed through it all. One of the big things we established that evening was that we both were committed to homeschooling. And so, here we are!

We love homeschooling. We love having our children at home. I enjoy working with them and arranging educational opportunities. This year is our oldest daughter's first year of high school at home. There are some new challenges, but I feel no anxiety, only anticipation of what she will do. We have a 7th grader girl and a 5th grader girl. Our first month of school should be somewhat normal. At least, as normal as school in September can be with pears ready to can and applesauce calling!  Come October we leave for Tanzania to help with an AIDS orphan project  all together with several homeschooling families who are our dear friends. We will be gone 2 months. We are so excited!!! This is education HANDS ON!

God has promised: I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou shalt go; I will guide thee with Mine eyes. Ps. 32:8 With our school year plans in God's hands,  I am excited! Aren't you?

Hard Lessons!

Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 07:18

I finally made the difficult decision to completely wipe out Christina's 6th grade math scores on her Teaching Textbooks computer program and have her start all over again. She had been having trouble with her math the last few weeks and I slowly came to the realization that combined with the inconsistancy  of summer homeschooling and lack of dilligent effort, along with a missed concept or two, she wasn't making it. She was more than half way through the second CD. It's really okay to back up... after all I don't want her trying to do 7th grade math when she turns 11. She is smart and quick and usually finds math a piece of cake, but she also tends to take the easy route and consequently missed something somewhere. She said she was fine  with my desicion.  The computer records everything and looking through her work of the last few weeks  I noticed that when she got a problem wrong she didn't necessarily  watch the explaination to see where she went wrong. I told her that I considered that a form of cheating... just skipping over the hard parts and not really learning. Somewhere she missed something important. I wanted to impress upon her mind the importance of hard work and dilligence so I asked her to write me a one page essay on how she planned to study her math from now on and back it up with a scripture.

Just this morning she had struggled to write out a book report. I made her revise it about 6 times. It wasn't very long and it wasn't really that creative, but she finally got it done. Well, she went off to write me this little essay and was back in 15 minutes with an entire page, neatly printed and I could only find 3 spelling mistakes. It was written  with passion!  I read it with disbelief and laughed until the tears ran down my cheeks. I laughed because I could see the funny side of it, and because I remember a similar paper written by her older sister over an issue with spelling years ago, and I laughed because she contradicted herself .  I also groaned knowing I was dealing with a heart issue. The passion was actually rebellion all couched in good things. WoW! I had my work cut out. A quick prayer was in order.

The Essay:

Jesus is coming very soon. So soon that I will not have time to even need a job. The signs of the times are appearing everywhere. We need to be ready for Jesus to come and telling all who will listen about His soon return. So, why are we just wasting our time learning math and all the other subjects? The only subject that I believe that we should spend time on is our grammar so that when we tell others about Jesus we may have clear undefiled speech. So that others may find the truth through our clear healthy speech. So, let’s not waste our time with things that we do not need. When we get to heaven we don’t need math, spelling, writing or history, science and all those others things. They will be very useless then. Come let us reason together, Says the Lord of hosts. This is what I believe. Don’t you think so, too? As Pepere would say, “We need to learn to love to work”. And I want to learn to love to work in every day work and in work for Jesus.

Christina wasn't in the room when I laughed... but I think she knew. She came back to ask if I had read it and what did I think? I told her I saw a spirit of rebellion in it  and that I recognized that it had bothered her more than she realized to erase her math and I sent her on her way to memorize her weekly scripture texts.  Half an hour later I asked her to please type up her paper. She went off to do it but wasn't gone 5 minutes when she came back weeping. She was totally heartbroken saying she knew the paper was written in a spirit of rebellion and she was totally contrite. She couldn't type it.  Her passion had cooled and the Lord had spoken to her heart and she saw things as they were.  Tired out now she wrote:

For school I will be very, very careful and diligent in all subjects. Be diligent unto God, a “woman” that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. 2 Tim. 2:15

I will not grumble or complain when told to do school or when the problems are too hard. Do all things without grumbling or complaining. Phil. 2:14

I will follow school rules and not cheat even if it takes extra long. I will learn to the best of my ability. I will make God first.

Thank the Lord hard lessons can be learned!

Blessed Sabbath

Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 12:16

We had quite a full day! It was wonderful and full of fellowship and blessings. The highlight of the day was when 3 our  young friends committed themselves to God in baptism. Our old pastor and his wife came back to be with us and to baptize the kids. It was so nice to see them again! He had a VERY thought provoking sermon, as always. Christina was thoroughly confused right from the onset of the sermon and leaned over and said, "I don't get it!"  Well, she was only voicing what others were thinking. I reminded her that this was Pastor Witcombe and that she would understand by and by. "Just wait and see". Of course, true to his style, he had to create big questions in our minds and to catch our imaginations and make sure we were awake! He then proceeded to open the Word and teach us. Christina, being only ten, still had to ask him questions when she pumped his hand at the door after the service. He was only to happy to talk with her.

Ellie
Samuel
Jonah

We had a lot of people over for lunch and then joined a pretty big crowd at the bank of the Icicle for the baptism. We were interrupted twice by a helicopter landing a few feet from us whirling dirt into the air and drowning out the pastor's words. Everyone joined together for a little walk and a potluck supper. We enjoyed the fellowship and the food was yummy.

Homeschooling

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 06:45

It's so fall feeling with the cool weather it just makes the kids want to do school!  We discussed spelling and the consensus is that Excellence in Writing's Phonics Zoo really does teach spelling better than anything else we have used. I had Calvert's spelling CD last year to give them a break from the same old, same old and they tell me they didn't learn anything from it. They tell me they always refer back to the rules they learned in Excellence in Spelling anyway. Well, good. We still have it and we shall continue! Their spelling really has improved over the years. I have seen huge growth but none of them are natural spellers. I picked up a book from Costco called Painless Spelling. I was reading it and it's quite interesting. It talks about words in a fun way. I think we will go through the book together and see what we can learn. I also have Rummy Roots and I think we should play around with that some, too.


I enrolled in the 2008 -2009  Blogger Friend School and I am participating in their Back to School Giveaway. See, I think Brianna would LOVE those nature journals!!! I can always learn something new.

Hungry Anybody?

Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 07:31

There should be no exuse for hunger around here, should there? What am I going to do with all that spagghetti squash? There is a ton of sweet meats out there, too. I worked in the garden for an hour and pulled up some plants and picked these veggies and took my neat little hula hoe - which I had not used at all this year and trimmed up the weeds. It's looking good and going strong.

Thanks to the Talls for the beautiful pears.

This is it for our family orchard. We have a few boxes of these wonderful nectarines and they mark the end of harvesting our own fruit. 

Potatoes

Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 04:42

I was wondering out loud this morning if there were any potatoes in the lower garden as we were driving down the road towards town. Suddenly the girls remembered they had not fed the horse so we did a U turn and returned to feed Bella. Poor thing! The "Forgetter" was thinking it was another day of the week and someone else's day! While they took care of her, I put my hand down into the hay in the potato patch and came out with a nice big Yukon Gold.  So, we had new potatoes for dinner today.

We were 15 minutes late for our appointment, but the orthodontist forgave us and put braces on Vanessa's teeth. I can't wait to see her fangs move into place in the next couple weeks. I remember thinking Brianna's moved very fast. The other two were at music lessons and I had two hours to go shopping all alone. It was fun. I don't do that very often. I didn't get very far. I think I am a slow shopper. I bought a package of 105 skeins of craft floss and a lot of bright colors. The girls are into making the friendship braids and learning new designs right now. I think this fancy package will keep them and their girlfriends entertained for hours on trip to Africa.

So far we were able to only register 2 in our family for a yellow fever shot. This is getting complicated! I hope to register two more today and then maybe it will work to register the last one tomorrow... then we have to work out a time to actually get it done.

Yesterday, we drove into Wenatchee as soon as we knew Steve was off work and raced to the government buildings to get Vanessa's passport application in. With Steve working long hours everyday we can't seem to get there when the place is open... We got there 10 minutes before closing time and you would not believe it, but the woman refused to help us because it was too close to closing time!!! It was a total waste of time. They sure know how to complicate things.

Readymade

Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 07:54

This is what 10 double batches of my experiment "just add water" cashew cheese looks like. I had a lot of fun with this. I think that I actually need to make more, but I ran out of a few ingredients. I have to dry more tomatoes because I used up all the tomato powder and I ended up making a few "jack" cheese batches. I vaccum sealed the packages and I will store them in my freezer until we are ready to go. This will be nice on haystacks, quesedilla's, breakfast burritos and such.

I am posting my recipe, not because I think anybody is going to make it, but because I need to have it for future use.

1 c. cashew pieces

1 Tbl. cornstarch

4 Tbl. dried tomato powder

1 tsp. onion salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 Tbl. Lemon powder

1/3 c. yeast flakes

Blend well. Seal in ziplocks and freeze. When needed blend with 2 1/2 cups water and simmer in saucepan, stirring constantly until thick. 

The girls enjoyed picking blackberries by the irrigation ditch this afternoon. They grow wild and abundant down by the water. They also picked the beans and I blanched and froze them. Today was the first real unharried and unhurried day I have had in a LONG time. I enjoyed it thoroughly. There is something about just staying home and doing home chores that makes me feel rested for a change.

. . . . . . . . ! ! !

Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 01:20

The man in brown visited us today!  We are ready to start packing. This stack is a little intimidating to say the least. Actually  though, we are only allowing one footlocker each. The other footlocker each is for VBS supplies, food, and things to take over and leave for the project. You would be amazed at the things people think they need... I think Jason and Antionette are laughing at us right about now and my mom is rolling her eyes.  If they only knew!!! Actually, I have done my share of eye rolling... particularly at some of my husbands outlandish ideas. Uh, did I say secretly? Anyways.... as I was saying !!! We don't have any suitcases because we have never really needed any, I guess. We have small rolling bags but they don't fit anywhere near 50lbs. That's how much each piece of luggage is limited to.  These footlockers were $25 each which beats suitcase prices but I had to special order them and there were some shipping costs. Couldn't find a single footlocker in town, though Wal -Mart would have ordered them and they would have cost more than these with the shipping. I am a little afraid of this monumentous task - this computer isn't sure monumentous is a word, or that I spelled it correctly, but it describes the task very well, according to me.) I am afraid of all the STUFF we are going to bring that we don't need.  So, Antionette, Jason, Mom, let us know what you need from us quick... or forever hold your peace

The Seamstress

Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 07:06

Christina has been working very hard most of the day sewing. She has been making pillow cases for our travel pillows and she is getting quite creative about it! She doesn't need my help much. This is the perfect project since all the seams are straight.

She enjoyed looking through the stash of fabric, seam binding and rickrack and choosing her combinations. She's especially proud of the pink polka dot with the double rickrack that she made for Bri.

This lacy one is for me.

So far she has finished 5 and she plans to make 5 more so that we can change the pillow cases to wash them. I suggested that since I think this is a good way for her to practice her sewing skills. Of my three girls, she has more patience and desire to sew than the other two, but they are slowly becoming interested. Anyway,  I am quite happy with Christina's work!

Tomato Power

Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 02:39

The dried tomatoes blended up into a nice powder.  We're calling tomato power! It turned out well  and I am  sure it is going to work in my experiment very well.  It's pretty potent stuff. We'll have to use it in small amounts.

I decided half the tomatoes needed to wait another day to be all the way ripe. There were enough to can 14 jars of tomatoes and a big pot of spagghetti sauce.  The kids love homemade spagghetti sauce with peppers and eggplant, zucchini and homegrown herbs in it.

I am thinking there just might be something to the theory that the Night Shade family of vegetables are not good for arthritis. I have been eating an abundance of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and some potatoes. I have a few knuckles that are more sore and swollen than usual, too.

Boy!  I've been doing a great job of burning off all the hair on my knuckles. Everytime I light the canner,  Whamp! There goes the hair on a few more fingers. I think I might have figured it out why I was having so much trouble lighting the silly thing. The propane tank was nearly empty.....and now it is empty.  In fact, it didn't finish the tomato job. I don't know how long it sat there. It seemed obvious that it boiled  'cause the  jars sealed in the pot... ( how come I don't know for sure?) But one must be cautious with tomatoes. I certainly didn't want to go and fill the tank. After all, I would have had to drive the 1/2 mile to the gas station!!! Worse yet I would have had to unhook the propane tank from the stove and I hate doing that. But my real handy excuse was that I think my husband has to take a look at the hose before I use it again. It's full of cracks. SO, I finished the job on my stove top. Yep! my glasstop. Nope, it didn't crack. Good thing. I would have had a hard time explaining that one!

It was a busy week!!!

Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 08:36

Life got a little crazy around here and I never had a chance to update this blog.

Wednesday:  On Wednesday I spoke at the Cashmere Rotary Club about our upcoming trip to Africa. Somehow I had gotten the impression I was talking to a little group of women. Not so! The room was full of business women and MEN all dressed up. I didn't know what a rotary club was, actually. All I knew was that I was to share about our project in Africa and have the kids sing. I had 7 girls  and their moms with me. They sang very well. Then I showed my mom's pictures of Africa and the orphans and talked about the needs created by the AIDS epidemic in Tanzania.

People seemed favorably impressed. The gal who asked me to speak knew the kids had to raise $1500 each for the plane tickets and she also knew many of them had made nice note cards from their water color paintings to sell and she asked them to bring cards. Isabelle was the only one with any cards ready to sell. She was one of the few who hadn't quite reached her goal. The cards were on the table and as people filed out afterwards they put money in her hands. It was MORE than she needed to complete her goal. She had $230 donated that day. Bethany was a little short on her goal so they split it.  We have been asked to update them when we get back. We were also asked to sing at a couple of churches.

 Our dear friend Sharon died Wednesday morning from cancer. We will miss her. When I think of her I think of all the years of faithful service to our children's choir. She was NEVER late and ALWAYs there. She loved the kids and she really contributed to our ministry. When cancer claimed her energy it was with a sad heart she had to give up playing the piano for us.

Thursday: Steve had the day off so we finally got to use the tickets for the water park that we had been give way back in May. It was a bit cooler than usual which was nice because there were less people there. In all there are 10 water slides. We like the double tube and the racer. The racer was just like crazy carpeting. I could imagine myself on snow rather than water. It was sooooooo FAST! Christina loved the purple haze the best. It is a dark tube where you can't see a thing for 400 feet of water slide.  My feet have deep blisters from walking on concrete without shoes.

Friday: Kristen and I got together to plan food for the Africa trip. My house can be grand central station with people coming and going and a houseful of kids. We didn't get everything done, but we kind of organized our thoughts a little and decided what needed to be ordered from Andy's Market.  I spent all afternoon preparing food for company. When you cook out of a garden it takes twice as long.... We picked green beans and snapped them  and blanched and froze the extras. I made a huge cabbage salsa from one of my great big cabbages for the homeless ministry and kept a little bowl for our meal. I did Spanish rice and a huge pot of refried beans and a great big cucumber tomato salad and I served water melon and cornchips with it all.

Sabbath: I was suppose to lead out in song service but I wasn't quite ready in time with trying to have the food ready for company, so Brianna went ahead and did it for me.

I enjoy teaching the little primary Sabbath school class with Elaine. The kids are fun! We have a new little girl in the class. I kind of get the picture she has had very little Christian influence in her life. She is very, very sweet and good, but she hasn't known the basics like kneeling when we talk to Jesus.  Her dad was a soldier shot in the head in Iraq and has been recovering for a couple of years. She tells me they are moving here. 

We miss our little buddy Payton in class. BUT we were glad to learn he and his family made it to Korea safely. We won't see them for 2 years. We are praying for their ministry there. Kids say the funniest things. Before they left a friend was saying goodbye to them and said to Payton, "You are going to be so big the next time I see you." He never batted an eye, "Yup, and you are going to be old!"

Vanessa was pianist for church... and since it was communion she brought her harp. Then we had the new Pastor and his family over for lunch and also our friends the Kahlers. The pastor's son was in Africa where we are going for a year. He think my brother is the coolest guy on earth!

We went and helped with the homeless ministry in the park. There were a lot of people. Probably 50 or so. The kids sang and played their violins and the guys seemed to respond well to that. There was another crazy fight. I don't particularly like going there with kids.

Sunday: Vanessa is going to play the piano for me at the United Church this morning and I am going to can tomatoes! We have a lot of tomatoes coming out of the garden so today is the day I can them.

The Homeschool Plan

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 08:23

I am not so organized as most of you at the moment! I haven't sat down with the books or anything, but I might not need to. Sounds weird, I know, but life is very busy and homeschooling  is just part of our life no matter what time of year it is. If we are off doing something or the fruit needs canning we don't study, but if we are home it is just a natural part of our daily routine.  So, maybe this is more to organize my thoughts than to really "tell" what we are doing.

 

17 years!

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 08:36

We've been married 17 years! If I had to choose all over again, I would marry the same man -  no question!! He is a very good husband and our life together has been a happy one.  I am grateful that he is so committed to the Lord, is a wonderful, dedicated father and loves me, even after all these years.

We actually went out to eat together Friday at Viscontti's. The kids were at a friend's and the NWYC.

He brought home the roses last night. He said there was one rose for each year we were married and one for this year. He also had a gift for me. I am the worst at getting gifts. Part of it is my practicality... I won't buy something just because. I won't buy something unless I  absolutely know it is needed and will be used. I think that most stuff people buy aren' t necessary and so, I have a hard time shopping for gifts. I like to plan ahead but when I am so busy, I just don't... That said, I still haven't given my husband a birthday present - and his birthday was the day before yesterday, let alone get him an anniversary gift. I feel crummy about that and at the same time I know that gifts from the heart are far more meaningful.

I got to thinking I better start planning for the girl's birthdays in October, now. Vanessa will be 15 the day she plays for the symphony and three days before our Africa trip. Christina will turn 11 on our trip. I need to think of a little thing that would mark those milestones in their lives and make it a bit special.

We've been to the river twice this week. We floated our tubes around Black Bird Island. The first day was 103 degrees and even muggy. We went with the Talls and had a great time. The water felt wonderful. Then the next day the girls and I decided to invite the new Pastor's wife and daughter to go with us and have a little picnic. It was only 92 degrees and a bit cloudy. I still thought the water was nice. It was a bit of a risk inviting someone you don't know very well... not knowing if they like adventure, if they know how to swim, or if they care for cold water - after all the Icicle wasn't named that without reason! However, we thought it might be good to get to know them outside of the church and church related functions. Besides the girl - who is Vanessa's age, is really missing their old home and friends, etc... Everything turned out great! They are adventureous fun loving people. Vanessa's says the girl is "not the boring kind" . She's really outgoing and enjoys life. Now she wants to go to Africa with us! See, her older brother spent time in Africa already and he worked with my brother. Her mother was even excited about the prospects. I don't know if it is even possible... we bought our tickets months ago so we would have to see if we could get her on the plane. And she plans on attending the day academy in town - and all our kids are homeschooled. Not sure if the school would be kind enough to let her miss that much time. She thinks she would like to be homeschooled but her mother isn't up to that.