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The Poem of Susan

A dear friend, Jacqui, wrote this poem for me and about me a few years ago. Isn’t she delightful! It sounds like we’ve been life-long friends but really we’ve never met in person, only known each other online. I have many real life friends who wouldn’t know these details about me… but a true friend does – whether in real life or via the Internet.

Home Grown Kids she is to you
Call her Susan but never Sue
Healthy lifestyle is her passion
Goji Juice the latest fashion

A treadmill is she said to own,
but seldom do we hear the drone
for often is it said than done
Susan would rather be having fun…
like working on her blog
or sipping tea and eating chocolate log

She moves all over the countryside
from every state, far and wide
Her husband’s a soldier, he keeps her in line
But knowing dear Susan, that suits her fine

A favourite group from times of old
Stryper wearing black and gold,
In God We Trust was their cry
Susan, a headbanger My Oh My!

A chocolate addiction … or so I’m told
Cadbury, Lindt or Jamaican Gold.
The Adelaide crows are number one,
This is serious not just fun.

Softball is her favourite sport,
lots of balls has Susan caught.
Her post are long and full of facts,
they leave us speechless in our tracks.

An inspiration she is to me,
so lets all treat her gentle…leeeee

My Online Code of Conduct

Christian Internet Code of EthicsAs a Christian who is active on the internet,
I hold myself to certain standards of conduct. They are:

I guard my online relationships
I am careful to visit websites that do not compromise my life in Christ
I take care that my written communications reflect Christ in my life
I guard my time to assure that my time online is kept in proper balance with the rest of my life

For more information visit the
Christian Internet Code of Ethics home page.

Things I Firmly Believe

I believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. It is the final authority for faith and practice. I believe in one God, who is Creator of all, who has revealed Himself in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I believe that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God, died on the cross for our sin. He became man in order to demonstrate who God is and to provide the means of salvation for all humanity. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. No amount of good work or striving will achieve salvation…only through faith and belief in the shed blood of Jesus can we obtain salvation.

I believe in the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. He regenerates sinners, indwells believers and is a most wonderful Teacher.

I believe that salvation is a gift of God’s grace, through faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross…the Cross of the Messiah of Israel. Salvation is received by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Good works and obedience are the result of salvation, not a requirement for salvation. I believe that just as salvation is not earned by works neither do we need good works to be maintained. Works (changed and transformed lives) are the inevitable result of salvation.

The Lamb: Fantastic Freebie Presenting the Gospel

I have linked extensively to GoodSeed in the past but they have an extra special freebie which is perfect for this time of the year. Plus I like GoodSeed and wanted to highlight them today. 🙂

TheLamb

by John R. Cross.
This beautifully illustrated book will take them on a remarkable journey from Creation to the Cross, explaining the true significance of the baby in a manger.

By laying a foundation starting with creation, a clear identification is made between Jesus and the sacrificed lamb for forgiveness of sins. Issues like death are dealt with in an honest, straight-forward manner, but never is the child left hanging. Hope is always introduced. With a review at the beginning of each chapter and questions at the end, the concepts presented are reinforced many times and give you tools to check how much your child is understanding. Included with the book is a 60 minute CD, providing a word for word narration woven together with a specially written song tying in with the story.

Read the first three sections of the book in PDF format or register and access the entire FREE eBook. These guys are not spammy, they don’t send you dozens of emails- I highly recommend registering on their site.

If you have children or grandchildren and want to present the gospel to them in a way that is easily understandable yet full of truths you want to RUN over to GoodSeed right now and grab this amazing freebie. Whilse you’re there, check out the amazing free resources they have. Have I mentioned how much I really like and appreciate the ministry of Good Seed? And if you really like them, consider a donation or love gift… check out their financial policy here.

About GoodSeed

The ministry of GoodSeed believe that Christians need to be clear on the Bible’s primary message – the gospel – so that we can pass it on to others in a way that makes sense. Their materials are geared toward those who have little-to-no Bible background, which may be due to age (children), a remote location (tribal) or because a dominant religion hinders a clear explanation of the Scriptures.

Go check them out: http://www.goodseed.com/

Top Ten Stats in 2011

An interesting and unusual look at some of my stats for 2011.

Ten Top Searches on My Site

(no surprises here)

bible translations
kerugma
homeschooling
garden of eden
cross
bread
coffee tree
old books
printable bible reading plans
the animal school parable

Ten Unusual Searches To Find My Site

(I did get a giggle from a few of these)

do not be idle bible
winter dresses
pohon kopi
kışlık elbiseler (which is ‘dresses for winter’ thanks to google translate)
jesus twitter follow me
“major on the major” poem
don’t idolize the family
king’s cup coffee
unregistered homeschooler
i’ll smile when you speak

Top Nine Commenters

Amanda – 145 comments
Ruby – 93 comments
Joi – 75 comments
Leonie – 69 comments
joi – 62 comments
kidspatch – 62 comments
Rosemary – 61 comments
Cathy – 60 comments
Jeanne – 51 comments

More Children Equals More Humility: Letter To My Daughters

Dear Miss Graceful and Miss Joyous,

Lend me your ear as I talk to you about a conversation I overheard at a Mother’s Meeting awhile ago. It is something many mums might say to one another, especially in groups of of mums of many children. It may be spoken as a pithy yet affectionate acknowledgement of motherhood and the trials that go hand in hand with it. It goes something like this,

The more children one has, the more one grows and becomes more humble.

But is this right? Is this godly advice?

In my own walk as a woman of God and as a mother, I have gone through the gamut of emotions that comes with parenting. And the Lord certainly has used my life as a parent in order to grow me. Only God knows how much you children have had me on my knees, drawing me closer to Himself when otherwise I might not have. Yes, I do believe that part of His plan for parenting is that we, the parents, are drawn closer in our walk with Him. Parenting is one of the tools He chooses to use in His transforming work.

When I was a new bride, your father and I wanted to become pregnant straight away. We sure tried hard enough, but it was not to be. Oh, my heart ached to be a mother, to have a child to hold in my arms and care for. I remember the pain of Mother’s Day, made all the more painful for me when I’d hear some women’s comments at church: women jokingly talking about their family in that slightly-Aussie-put-down way that only we seem to do. I saw mother’s who were not full of joy with their job of parenting, I saw women who lamented over the burden that one extra child brings. Oh my heart would scream in hurt and anger because I dearly wanted a child and was not able to and here they were, with a child or a few and they didn’t seem to rejoice in their blessing. My time of infertility, although short lived, taught me a lot.

People would make comments like, “Oh, you just need to enjoy this time as a new wife” and I knew they meant well and there certainly was validity in their statement but it still hurt. I’m not sure they used the THINK Principle. What I really needed to see was women rejoicing in their blessing – a blessing that I was not blessed with at that time. What I needed was a hug and an ear that would listen. Sometimes we speak far too often.

To say to a woman who is blessed to have one child that the more children one has, the more one develops in humility is not only wrong but quite insensitive. It could be quite hurtful. We do not know the life story of most people we meet. We don’t know if a couple desires many children but they are only able to have one child. The infertile woman or the woman of one child is no less a woman than the woman who hasten children. Femininity is not about the number of children we have but neither is humility.

As I look through the Scriptures I simply cannot see where being a mother means that I will become more humble. I have learned that God uses the everyday circumstances of our lives to do His amazing, transforming work in our lives but He can do this with any circumstance. He’s not limited to using parenthood!

Humility begins with self awareness- awareness of who we are: unworthy sinners.Humility is an attitude… an attitude that we can put on.

My darling girls, let us be careful when we speak. Let us use the THINK principle– it will see us through many situations. May we always consider others and their feelings before we consider ourselves. Maybe our need to speak is not as important as we often feel it is.

Father God, We come to you as unworthy sinners… so utterly unworthy. We humble ourselves before you and ask that You would humble us by whatever means necessary so that we might manifest the love and power of Christ, for Your glory. Help me Father to be sensitive to the emotions of those who I come into contact with. May my speech be seasoned with grace and mercy, pointing always to You and Your glory.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
~Philippians 2:1-4

Vegetable Juices

Abba asked if I would share some of our vegetable juicing recipes… so here they are! Make sure you have a one serving blender.

Obvious Juice
2 large handfuls baby spinach
4 oranges (or tomatoes)
4 carrots
1/2 lemon (or a slice of pineapple)
This is my ‘go to’ juice. It’s easy to remember and jam packed full of nutrients. I call it Obvious Juice because it is Obviously Healthy.

Everyday Juice
3 carrots
1 apple
½ orange
1 celery stick
1cm ginger root
Ginger gives this juice a real kick and makes it invigorating!

Carrot and Apple Juice
8 carrots
2 apples
Slice of ginger
Simple but delicious!

Veggie Cocktail
3 celery sticks
3 tomatoes
2 carrots
½ lemon
Tangy and nice!

CCCA
4 carrots
1 apple
1 celery stick
¼ a cucumber
½ a lemon
Pleasant and refreshing. Good for those who aren’t accustomed to fresh veggie juice.

Metabolic Boost
1 Apple (or pear)
1 grapefruit, peel thinly, leaving the pith,
6 mint leaves
2 sticks of celery
Celery is FANTASTIC in juice as it helps to cleanse and purify the blood. Whenever my husband feels his liver is acting up, he craves celery. It always helps!

Weight Loss Juice
1 tomato
2 stems parsley
2 stalk celery
1 orange
1 spring onion or a clove of garlic
1 grapefruit
1 radish
1 mild capsicum

Tip
When juicing fruits and vegetables, alternate them through the juicer to get the maximum juice from soft fruits. e.g: juice oranges then carrots then spinach.

Green Tip
If you want to start juicing greens but find them a tad overwhelming, start with celery, fennel and/or cucumber. Cabbage is actually quite pleasant too- and very healthy. These make a nice and healthy combination that is quite pleasant and not as overwhelming as spinach, kale or the darker, leafy greens.

The DIY Bible Study

I’ve built a new website and I want you to zip over and visit it.

It’s called The DIY Bible Study.

I started this site (kerugma) as a repository for articles and forum responses that I was writing repeatedly. Over time the site has grown and morphed into my online home. However, this site is really large and has many topics from my personal and family journal, recipes, my exercise and nutrition journal, homeschooling information, blogging info, social media tips and my Bible study posts.

For many years now, I have wanted to share Bible study tips for those who want to dig into God’s word for themselves, instead of using pre-packaged workbook type Bible studies. There’s nothing wrong them- they have their place, but I’ve only used them occasionally throughout my walk as a believer and have never retained much from them. I get much more benefit when I dig into the word by itself – just me, the Bible, pen and paper.

Having said that I never found it easy. I started off with no clue as to how to study the Bible. It was a huge book, bits of it seemed boring and I was, quite simply, overwhelmed with it. Over the years, I’ve learned a few techniques that I now incorporate into my Bible study time. (As a side note, many of these techniques are not ONLY for Bible study but are valid and valuable study tips for any subject – fabulous for homeschoolers and parents wanting to supplement or help their child’s learning). I am certainly no expert. But I believe that’s why many people will benefit from what I have to share. I’m a layman – no fancy words or fancy books. I don’t know Greek or Hebrew or any other language for that matter. I simply want to share some useful tips. So this new site is for parents who wish to teach their children straight from the Word or for new believers or for busy mums who don’t have hours each day to pursue Bible study or attend classes. I did not invent or create these techniques, I am simply collating them in a user-friendly way.

I moved many of the Bible study posts from here to the new site. And I’ll be writing a weekly (God willing) post that will contain one Bible study technique each time, with examples.

I really want to focus on both this personal site and the DIY Bible Study site and separating the two will enable me to do just that. The DIY Bible Study is for all things to do with Bible Study whereas this site will contain the mundane, soapbox-style rants that cross my mind.

So pop over for a visit and sign up to receive the updates.

Don’t forget to ‘like’ the DIY Bible Study facebook page as well.

How Much Time Do You Spend In Bible or Devotional Reading?

If you are a homeschooling mama of little ones, how long do you spend reading either God’s Word or a devotional every day? (No condemnation or judgment… you may answer freely)

What’s In A Name? Why I Chose Kerugma

The name of my website has undergone many changes from HomeGrownKids, SusanPriolo.com, Kerugma.net and now as it has been for a few years, SimplySusan. Many people asked me what the title Kerugma meant. I used that name as it had significance to me but if you don’t know what it means, I’ll bet it all sounds Greek to you. I thought I’d share with you why I chose the name, Kerugma.

Kerugma

pronounced kay-roog-mah

that which is proclaimed by a herald or public crier, a proclamation by herald
in the NT the message or proclamation of the heralds of God or Christ

Kerugma means ‘proclamation’. It comes from the Greek word kerux meaning ‘a messenger’ or ‘a proclaimer’.

In fact the official kerux or herald would stand in the market place and blow a trumpet, calling the attention of the crowd to the edict of the Emperor, and his proclamation was as a command… it had to be obeyed. The kerux was called upon only to proclaim. His role was not to speculate about the message, nor to explain or justify it, but simply to proclaim the message, the essence of the Gospel. The onus was on the hearer to hear and obey.

What It Means To Me

We are ambassadors of God and His word, both by our actions and our words. One doesn’t need to post about theological matters in order to preach the gospel. The gospel can be preached throughout throughout the activities of our daily life.

You are writing a gospel,
A chapter each day.
By deeds that you do,
By words that you say.

Men read what you write,
Whether faithless or true.
Say! What is the gospel,
According to you?
(Author Unknown)

Now that you know what kerugma means is it easier for you to remember now?

What does your website or blog name mean? Why did you choose it?

Leave a comment to let me know or write your own blog post in response. (Just drop me a line to let me know so I can visit you)

Making Butter

After watching a recent episode of MythBusters, I am inspired to make my own butter! Yes, Google is my friend and I will ask his opinion later but I’d like to ask my real, flesh and blood friends for their input and experience.

Thanks to Nourishing Traditions, we eat a little bit of butter. Okay, we probably eat a little too much of it but it’s better than margarine so it’s not all bad. Right? Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Aside from the fact that I just want to try it and see if it is fun, I have a sneaking suspicion that it might end up being cheaper than store-bought butter. What do you think?

Have you made your butter in a processing machine or did you shake it by hand? Do you use cream or milk? Any other tips before I attempt it?

Training Children to Use Facebook for God's Glory

Facebook Training for Kids from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.

Many homeschool families do not have an issue with facebook. Their teens don’t care much for it so there’s no problem. But not all homeschoolers are like this. Some homeschool families are very much into technology and social media.

However if, like me, you are going to allow your teens to be involved on facebook, this video gives some very helpful and practical tips for parents.

We have applied the advice he gives in the video. And no, my teens are not perfect and they probably have made a few mistakes. But I am there to see it and guide them through it. For us, this is a much better approach than total avoidance. But that’s us. You might be different.

How about you? Are you ‘friends’ with your teens on Facebook? Do you interact with them on their wall?

Oh! While we’re talking about Facebook, have you ‘liked’ my susanpriolo.com facebook page yet? I post lots of Scripture and interesting links and tid bits to it a few times per week.

Family Christmas 2011

Many, many years ago… in the age of dial-up connection. Remember that?

Mr Greystash

Many, many years ago… in the age of dial-up connection. Remember that?

Pretty Bug

Many, many years ago… in the age of dial-up connection. Remember that?

Advent Reading

Jotham’s Journey, Tabitha’s Travels, and Bartholomew’s Passage are written for ages 9years and upwards. It all begins with Jotham and it continues in Bartholemew’s Passage culminating in a wondrous story called Tabitha’s Travels. This series of books has mystery, suspense, humour, victory and more. Not just a fictional story, it also contains a short, devotional reading for each day in the build up to Christmas.

Over the years we have thoroughly enjoyed the whole series of books by Arnold Ytreeide. If you haven’t heard of these book syet, please look into them and make reading one per year a new family tradition.

The stories are to be read each day in the lead up to Christmas. They tell stories that are filled with adventure and are rich in history. They have been woven together and include psalms, stories from the Old Testament and culture to paint a vivid and thought provoking series. The series is full of great explanations about how Jesus is the promised Messiah, and what that means for us today. Almost every chapter ends in a cliff hanger and the kids were just dying to read more. They were very excited when they made connections from Jotham’s story and Bible stories they are familiar with.

Our family didn’t have an issue with the somewhat graphic violence in the stories but I know of some families who have not been able to continue with the books because of it.

Arnold Ytreeide is married with two grown and married children. He has worked as a youth pastor, policeman and televaision producer. He has a degree in theology and he actually wrote Jotham’s Journey for his own children when they were young.

Best prices

Affiliate links are used and I may receive a commission if you purchase through these links.

Creativity Takes Time…

Two minutes and 7 seconds. Go on, you’ve got time to watch this. If you are a mum, dad or a teacher, you need to watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQhSXcyDHLA

Thanks to Louise, who originally posted this on Facebook.

National Homeschool Week Park Meet-Up Tomorrow. Are You Coming?

As part of the National Homeschool Week Park Meet Ups, I will be hosting a park meet in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd November, 2011).

A Park Meet is an opportunity for homeschoolers With Experience to share with enquiring or new homeschoolers. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and demonstrate to an often sceptical mainstream how great the homeschool lifestyle can be.

I will be at the park from Noon onwards so feel free to bring s picnic lunch and join me! If you live in the northern suburbs of Adelaide and want to know what park we are meeting at, please contact me for details. I will send you the location and my mobile phone number.

Strangely enough, I’ll be the lady without any children! I only have 2 children at home now and they will both be tending to the online lessons so can’t attend.

I hope to see you there!

Help Me Choose An E-Reader

Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad, Nook or Sony Reader or even another type of ebook reader? There are so many to choose from! And even though I am doing my research, I’d like to hear from my friends and blog readers. I want your opinion! Tell me what you have or what you want and why.

Why do I want it?

With only two children left at home (and they are currently 14.5 and 16.5yrs) we are looking ahead to our future. We want to downsize. We have a rather large home library that served us well over the years but it has become tiresome to lug it all around from state to state. (Remember we’re a Defence Family).

Wants:

To read any books from any source, pdf ebooks included.
To be able to take notes, keep bookmarks, etc
Wi-Fi
Easy to read

So, don’t be shy. Tell me your thoughts. Sell me an e-reader,friends.

How to Create Your Family Mission Statement

Where there is no vision, the people perish:
but he that keeps the law, happy is he.
Proverbs 29:18

Your life has purpose. Your family has purpose. Your homeschool has purpose. You know what is important to you. And you know what is in your heart. But maybe you haven’t expressed it with words nor put it on paper. Yet doing so is a very beneficial action that will help you and your family throughout your life. A Family Mission Statement is an effort to define the vision of your family and therefore the mission or purpose of your family.

When to devise a Family Mission Statement

You can write your own Mission Statement any time, but sooner rather than later is best! You might be recently married – get started on it today. You might have just found out you were pregnant or have a new baby. Maybe your children are school aged. Or even high school aged. It’s never too late to articulate your thoughts, values and vision and put them down on paper.

Reasons and Benefits of Devising a Family Mission Statement

reaches the heart of the family members. This is not just a formula or a bunch of rules. It goes beyond laws and touches the heart.
a Mission Statement will keep you focussed on your goals.
a Mission Statement will help you discern a course of action when ever you need clarification. It will aid you in making rational decisions.
let others know your values and priorities for how you spend your time and money.
is a perpetual reminder to the family.
dictates your daily interactions with family members and with others.
dictates your daily rhythm or schedule.
dictates what you do and how you do it.
assists with direction, focus and motivation.

How To Devise Your Family Mission Statement

For the Christian the first step is to pray. Put it before God and ask Him for revelation. Then take time to ponder the questions below and discuss them with your spouse. After awhile, grab a pen, your husband and start mind mapping.

Substitute I/we as applicable.

Who am I/we?
How did we get here?
What is my reason for existence?
What is my deepest desire?
What do we feel strongly/passionately about?
What is the most important thing in our life?
What is ‘family’?
What things are important to us, as a family?
What abilities and interests and concerns has the Lord given to us, as a family?
What are our strengths are as a family?
What are our weaknesses?
What makes our family special?
What should we do more of as a family?
What should do less of?
What is the one thing we desire to see happen through us in the world?
Can we see any specific ways of making this happen?
What are we trying to achieve?
Include any quotations, Bible Verses, poems that help you articulate your thoughts and/or sum up your ideas.
What direction has God shown us:
1. 1. regarding our individual and our family’s ministry in the Kingdom?
  2. regarding the children He has given us/or may give us?

That seems like a lot of questions! However these are only suggested questions to get you pondering so you can devise your own Mission Statement. This list is not exhaustive and it isn’t meant to be used in a rigid manner. Rather you can use the questions to pray and meditate upon and talk with your spouse and children about. These questions are a springboard not a quiz!

Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.
Proverbs 16:3

Now what?

Print it out. Inspire your children by sharing it with your children.
Commit to your Mission Statement.
Commit your Mission Statement to God.
Be prepared to reassess your statements periodically. It’s important to examine our priorities on a regular basis so that we can pro actively work toward them.
You may prefer to use such terms as Family Motto, Family Creed, Family ways, etc. The wording isn’t the important part. The content is.

“Education is not the filling of pail, rather the lighting of a fire.”
William Butler Yeats

Examples

Several posts can be viewed here:

Our Lifestyle of Learning and
Identity Directed Homeschooling and
The Animal School Parable and
Academics which may serve to give you an example of our educational philosophy or educational mission statement.
Our family goals for Bible Study may also be an example of our Family Mission Statement for Bible Study.
Although I didn’t set out to write a Mission Statement about our Family Health, this is very similar – In Our Kitchen.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-10

Have you written a Family Mission Statement? Maybe you used a different process or included other things. I’d like to hear about it. Leave a comment?

I Lost My Voice

I recently posted that I don’t parent from fear now. And I don’t anymore. But I did. And I see similar actions from young parents- tactics used to control, cajole, manipulate or micro manage their children. I see some parents who are so scared of letting their children make mistakes.

I’ve also met some adults (young and slightly older) who have been parented by these methods. And sadly, they have turned their back on God, rejecting His way and going after a life of fun and temporary pleasure.

Losing my voice

When one of my children was 14 she started to go off the rails. She rebelled against us, God and everyone else that she perceived as authority. And as is typical with this particular child when she does something she does it well – to 100% of her ability. Being such a young age, everyone (friends, church members, other homeschoolers, etc) got to see her rebel against God, family and homeschooling. Suffice to say it has been the most difficult period in my life… but God has been good (of course!) and has revealed Himself to me in a way that I needed.

My daughter did all this early and publicly, or so it felt because I was involved at church and in the homeschool movement. I started to feel like the example – what not to be or not to do. Ouch.

On a personal level, I lost my writing/speaking voice. I totally lost my confidence. I had nothing to say. I felt useless and worthless and as though I had nothing to offer anyone. I felt that people only wanted to hear of the positive, glowing success stories and my child didn’t fit in that mold. Guess what? She still doesn’t. We don’t fit in that mold either. And largely nothing has changed. People still want to hear the glowing, positive reports… until they have a child who starts to look sideways- then my inbox gets busy.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
~2 Cor 1:3-4

Back to those young adults…

Unlike my daughter they appeared to be good, Christian, homeschooled kids… until they hit about 17 or 18 years of age. Things have started to go downhill… very quickly. In fact, some of those young people are doing the things that my daughter was doing years ago. Except my daughter isn’t doing all that any more. She has learned a lot (she still has a long way to go, but that’s God’s job, not mine) and now manages her own home. But these young people I know have now gone off the rails. What’s the difference between my daughter and them? Not a thing. Except they are older and because of that, it doesn’t seem as bad. But it only seems that way because it isn’t as public. But the same attitudes are there; have fun, party hard, hate authority, parents, etc.

But God is a big God.

I was saved by grace. I couldn’t have saved myself. When (not if, but when) my child realises their salvation and has a revelation from God I want them to know the truth – that they are saved by grace, through faith. I know he has a plan and a purpose for my children and their salvation. God is a God of salvation. Redemption is His business!

What have I learned during this journey?

Heaps! But writing concise summations are not my strong point. I don’t know really but a few things come to mind… don’t be too quick to look at others and judge. Don’t look for formulas. Don’t try to micro manage our children. Don’t parent from fear. Accept that I cannot obtain salvation for my child. Accept that I can’t train them to be a Christian. Applying lists and rules and guidelines are just that – lists. Don’t micromanage their attitude but look to their heart and treat it gently, tenderly. Everything I do needs to be seasoned in grace and only motivated by a deep and sincere relationship with the Lord Jesus.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
~2 Corinthians 12:9

Oh, in case you hadn’t realised… I found my voice again!

Use a Voice Recorder for Auditory Learners

I’ve been using a nifty little tool which has helped me organise my ideas for writing and website work. It’s such a simple idea, I can’t believe I haven’t used a voice recorder before now.

Courtesy of lauraneff

I was complaining (Yes, I know you might find that very hard to believe but on a rare occasion I have been known to grumble and bemoan) about my lack of focus, how I am so easily distracted and mentally vague due to ideas buzzing in my brain. Unless I transfer those ideas from my head to something more tangible they shoot around my head like a little ball in a pinball machine. I’ve got to do this immediately else the ideas will be lost. Know what I mean?

I’ve tried writing little sticky notes but they just got lost. I tried having a notebook but I never had it on me when I needed it. So then I tried taking notes on my phone but found it too hard, too slow, too laborious with my one finger typing on the phone keyboard. Plus my mind ticks a lot quicker than I can type on the phone. I’d lose my train of thought to easily and be right back where I started- distracted.

The free voice recorder app is a convenient tool for taking notes, creating audio reminders or recording narrations.

And then my husband-who-is-very-smart, suggested I use the voice recorder on my phone. What a brilliant idea! (It’s so clever I nearly considered leaving this part out of the blog post and claiming the idea as my own.)

Yes, I am one of ‘those’ mama’s. You know, the ones who have a phone glued to their hip at all times. No, it’s not for facebook or email (Well, not ALL the time) but because I can always be contacted by Mr. Smart-Hubby and the children. However I am meandering again. Back to the point. (See, you’d never have any idea that I struggle staying focused if I didn’t tell you, right?)

I created a shortcut on my phone desktop and within 2 seconds I have my voice recorder open and ready. I can spill, albeit in my jumbled fashion, my scattered thoughts into the recorder and it’s done! No longer are the ideas roaming around in my head. They’re tucked away on my phone, ready for me to deal with at an appropriate time. Once the initial idea is out of my head I can then begin to fine tune those thoughts and / or focus on the activity I was engaged in before the light bulb moment.

I am rarely at a loss for ideas… it’s in capturing and storing those ideas that I need help. If I’m having difficulty with a website design or site issue, sometimes I’ll have an idea of how to solve the problem while I’m doing something completely unrelated; like showering or watching softball or cleaning the bathroom. Usually that idea will have to stay in my head while I’m doing the activity which causes me to appear vague at times. But not any more! I just record my idea into my phone and it’s gone! My mind is free to enjoy the task that I was doing- I can be in the moment again.

Ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them.
~Alfred North Whitehead

This hack can easily be beneficially adapted and used with children, especially auditory – linguistic learners. Can you imagine the various ways to use this trick in your family? In your homeschool?

Try having your auditory-linguistic child narrate a chapter of his book. Have them record their key notes as they are working through a textbook. They can easily record events, dates, proper nouns, etc.
Send a child outside to play for 20min and then hand them a voice recorder- think of the possibilities!
Come on, brainstorm with me… share an idea or two in the comment section.

What tools and tips help you to be productive and organise your creative ideas?

It’s Not All Up To Me

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
~Philippians 1:6

Throughout most of our homeschooling years I have felt ‘behind’. Not being in the school system nor of the school-at-home approach we have never believed that a child is ‘behind’ yet I put this on myself. I often felt that while others were doing ABC curriculum in Yr 8, we were starting it in Yr 9. I doubted myself and my ability and thought I was letting my children down. But I’ve learned that I didn’t let my children down.

They were learning valuable life skills. The less I do, the more they do. I don’t do anything for a child that he is able to do for himself. (Sure, there are extenuating circumstances but that’s not the point of this post.) It is empowering for a child to be able to do much for himself.

Even being left with no scheduled school work for a short time can be good. It allows the parent ascertain the maturity level of the child and the responsibility or ownership level of the child toward his lessons. Rather than see my character trait as a weakness or a flaw (which can enable the child to use it as an excuse for not getting on with things) I see it as an opportunity. The children have an opportunity to put into practice that which they have been taught!

It’s not possible nor reasonable to train or teach every child every thing they need to learn. I don’t need to do it all. Just as God is perfecting in me His work, so He is with the children. I am not perfecting them – He is. God has begun a good work in me and He will continue it until the Day of Christ.

Prayer

Lord, give me the grace and strength to accept that this verse applies to my children as well as to me.

Reflect

Do you doubt your ability to homeschool? Don’t worry… God will give you His grace and His strength when you ask for it and when you need it.

My Flesh Is Weak But…

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mark 14:38

Like the disciples, I know Jesus. I haven’t seen Him in the flesh, nor walked and talked with Him in the flesh like they did, but I know Him. I’ve witnessed His power and seen some mighty acts of God. And like Simon, I fall asleep all too easily. I get caught up in the busy world of children, housework, meals, bill paying and church… my life becomes full of these necessary things and I not as focussed on the still, quiet voice of God. The problem isn’t so much that my life is full or that I lack time. The problem is that I don’t stay alert… I don’t stay in prayer. I desire to be a part of the move of God, I want to hear from Him. Yet my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak.

It’s hard to find the time.
I’m tired.
I’m busy.
I have little children.
I have teenagers.
I have a night owl husband.
I’ve worked all day

The excuses go on… and on.

Jesus tells the disciples (and me) to watch…”to keep alert”. He tells them (me) to pray – to keep in touch with God via the Holy Spirit. Why? So that I will be able to discern temptation… discern when I am under spiritual attack.

The Spirit Is Willing…

I desire to practice righteousness but I am human. I live in a flesh and blood physical body, which fails me, constantly.

But…

I take comfort in the lives of the disciples… the ones who fell asleep instead of watching and praying. For it was through their failure that God taught them many valuable lessons and revealed Himself to them. And so it is with me. It is during my failures, my weaknesses that I see more of Him and His awesome power and righteousness.

In My Life

I can have all the best plans, good intentions, perfect schedules. But I lack the energy and the self-discipline to see those plans through. My spirit is willing but my flesh is very weak. Like the disciples, this is where I learn the most valuable lessons. It is here that God speaks to me, here that God works through me and in me. Not when I have everything under control for that is usually when I am operating in my own strength. Accepting that my flesh is weak, accepting that I fail is when I turn to Him. And rely upon Him and His grace: trusting and expecting that He is glorified. When I am weak, He is strong. He doesn’t want me to work it all out by myself, in my flesh. He wants me to rely upon Him!

Prayer

Father I do thank you for showing me my weaknesses… for it is my weakness that you are strong. Thank you for working in my life and through my failures. Help me to see more of You. Draw me nearer to You Lord, that I may rely upon you for all my daily strength.

Reflection

Remind your children to use their gifts and talents and interests for God’s glory and not their own. Share some of your (appropriate) struggles and God’s victories with them today.
Are you aware of your own weaknesses? Have you heard the voice of God speaking to you during your weakest moments?
Have you experienced moments of grace, where God has carried you through a weakness?

Gorgeous Free WordPress Themes

Beauty & Clean is a beautiful, clean theme which has a premium and a free version. The free version would be more than enough for most bloggers. A huge plus with this theme is the shortcodes that it comes bundled with. Amazing! Download it here and you can see an online demo here.

A gorgeous new, free theme which is minimal in design but rich in features is Typominima. The purpose of the theme is to enable bloggers to express themselves with a clutter free theme. You can check out the theme features and also a series of posts containing sample styling for the most common elements you’ll need on your blog before you download Typominima.

And for those who just can’t get enough of Facebook, you can use the FB Timeline theme for your blog. Check it out here.

Free themes are often great but care needs to be taken. Not all free WP themes are clean and free of nasties. If you see a theme you like but aren’t sure, drop me a line and I’ll be happy to assist.

Read Real Books, says Dr. Ben Carson

In February I shared with you how our family watched movie that profoundly affected all of us.

Here’s what I wrote:

Last year we bawled through, er watched the made-for-tv movie, Gifted Hands, the story of Ben Carson. I might be the only adult believer who hasn’t read the book yet… and I am asking myself why this is so. I cannot believe I haven’t read this inspiring biography. If you haven’t watched this movie with your children then please, run out to the video store and hire it. You will not be disappointed. And if you are, well I won’t say anymore. This movie has affected me so profoundly… but time will tell, won’t it. (Maybe I’ll write how this movie and book has affected our parenting and homeschooling style)

Ben Carson was a difficult student, in his own words. He and his brother, were raised by their mother in poverty. She worked very hard to be a good example and she urged them to get a good education. She believed they could change their circumstances… they need not be destined to a life of poverty. She knew that if they could have a good education then they could have a better life.

No, she didn’t pay exorbitant amounts of money for private tutoring. In fact, she herself could not read! But she did limit their t.v. viewing to three shows per week and insisted that they read two books from the library each week. They also had to write a book report on each one. As Dr. Carson recalls,

“But, she didn’t dictate what we had to read. And, as I began to read, I discovered one very important thing: Even though we had no money — no money for anything, between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere in the world; I could be anybody; I could do anything. My horizons began to open up.”

Sonya Carson also insisted that Ben memorise his time tables after school, before he could go out to play. She encouraged her sons to persevere… to try harder, to strive for excellence. I got the impression that she wasn’t oppressive… she wasn’t a Tiger Mom, just incredibly persistent, determined and encouraging.

“Learn to do your best, and God will do the rest.”

~Sonya Carson

The movie, the life story of Ben Carson also challenged my eldest son. All this year he has applied himself diligently to his studies. You see, we have been free-range homeschoolers. Unschoolers, natural learners… whatever you want to call it. Anything but consistent and diligent in formal seatwork learning. I always believed that once a person has the tools of learning, the most necessary ingredient after that is desire or motivation. I’ve always believed that most people will learn what they need when they want to.

I had wondered if my son saw his early learning years as a drawback. He had gone to cadets and quite possibly didn’t relate to the many years of study that all the other cadets had experienced. Watching the Ben Carson story, challenged him to aim high, (something I’ve always told him… but he needed that revelation for himself). We talked after watching the movie. And he decided to set aside 3-4 hours per day to study. If you are a school-at-homer or insist that you children do this amount of bookwork daily, you probably don’t think that much of his decision. But this type of decision is so much better when it is self directed by a student who has been unschooled his whole life. I can see the influence of Ben Carson’s life upon him.

And, bear in mind that we watched this movie at the beginning of this year (2011). Lots of people write rave reviews after using a resource for a week… but the influence of this story is still going strong, nearly ten months later.

I could give you a thorough review and tell you so much more… but I don’t want to pre-empt any of it. I don’t want to get between you and the movie. I want you to watch it with your family. If you have not seen the movie Gifted Hands or read Ben Carson’s biography, I encourage you to. It is a fantastic family movie.

I’ve had a quick hunt around and found that the best, current price for Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story – $5.65 with free shipping is here at the Book Depository US.
The best price for Think Big is a Book Depository US – Paperback for $6.60 with free shipping.

There are lots of trailers and excerpts of the movie to view on youtube but here’s something I thought fellow home educators might enjoy. It is an interview with Dr. Ben Carson, American neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

http://vimeo.com/14668795

Inspired?

Galatians Bible Study with Teens

A commentary with a difference!

Letters to Brian and Daniel is written as letters to two young teenage friends of the author. It is a walk-through commentary on the New Testament book of Galatians. The book is twenty-four studies and it will guide through the book, highlighting the major points that the Apostle Paul was making in his letter to the Christians in Galatia.

There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter to keep focussed on the major points. There are extra Bible references to reinforce the teaching and may help the reader learn about cross referencing.

How We Used It

I used this book with my two boys, aged 14 and 16. It can be used for younger children or for older people who have never read through the book of Galatians, or for new believers. Especially helpful for those parents who are not fully acquainted with Galatians.

The book contains 24 lessons and they can be read through in any manner. They could be read one chapter per day or one chapter per week. We did about 3 chapters per week. There is minimal teacher preparation.

Our Lesson Format

Introduce
Each day I would ask the boys the main points from the earlier lesson. Most times, I simply looked back to the previous lesson’s questions as they emphasise the main points of each passage. Then we would read the passages aloud. The boys took turns in reading aloud from their own Bible.

Digging Deeper
I would read through the chapter in Letters to Brian & Daniel. I emphasised the areas where the author did. Some words or sentences are bold whilst others are in italics. It’s all quite self-explanatory. Not at all cumbersome or confusing.

Examine & Expand
The boys would write a selection of the passage for copywork. I would simply select a key verse or small section from the reading. Often we would just write out the memory verse. This further reinforces their learning. Using the verses or chapter as oratory practice/ recitation would also be helpful.

Apply
We concluded with a short time of prayer.

Phrases & Concepts

Focussing on one book of the Bible at a time is an excellent way to learn. The Holy Spirit revealed a lot to us throughout our study of Galatians. The boys also became familiar with various Christian phrases. Not Christianese but terms and phrases that are constantly referred to in the Bible, especially by the Apostle Paul. I don’t necessarily want my children to be well versed in Christianese but I do want them to understand Paul and the other books of the Bible.

This book is not devotional in nature. The concepts it deals with are meaty. But it is written in a way that even children can understand. There’s no reason not to learn doctrine when there are truth-filled, helpful books such as this. Letters to Brian & Daniel will clearly impart wisdom on the nature of God, the nature of man, the sovereignty of God, salvation, grace, faith, law and freedom.

This handy guide already has discussion questions revolving around the central points of the passage! But don’t be fooled by its simplicity for the concepts examined are heavy. I was quite surprised at the understanding level that my boys displayed, thanks to the Holy Spirit and John Dunn’s book.

This is a fantastic resource for teens, families, small groups, pastors, parents… anyone and everyone who wants to dig into God’s Word.

It may be purchased through Koorong for $5.00 but the publisher offers it as a free download.

I thoroughly recommend this book and a study through Galatians. If you don’t know what to do next for Bible study, why don’t you grab a copy of this book and do it? It’s free. And meaty. Filled with practical nuggets of essential truths. Please let me know if you use it with your family for I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

What have you been studying with your family?

Fearless Parenting

I find myself being very reflective lately. Maybe it’s because my eldest daughter recently got married or maybe it’s because both of my daughters are out in the big, wide world leaving me at home in a houseful of males. Maybe it’s because my youngest is 14 and I see my homeschooling years coming to an end in the near future. (Considering we’ve been learning at home for 14 years I consider only another 3 or 4 years to be in the near future) Regardless, I’ve had lots of time to think and reflect about my earlier years of parenting.

The challenges of raising a child are as much for the sanctification of the parents as they are for the benefit of the child.
~ Bryan Chapell

Parenting From Fear

Looking back I can see how much I parented out of fear. Of course I didn’t think so at the time but in hindsight I know that it was. The journey I’ve been on was not an overnight one: they rarely are, but it’s been a good one. A journey that The Father knows I needed to learn. Hearing it, parroting it and saying it are totally different to *knowing it*.

I’m not scared any more. But I was. It’s not a good place to be. Too often I tried to control er, influence my little ones. I micro-managed them. At one stage, of which I am ashamed to admit, I even thought I could control er, train their thoughts. I thought I knew what they were thinking by observing their body language. While there is some validity in this, I’ve learned to always expect the best, yet not assume, and give them room to grow and not treat them as though I am the omnipresent Holy Spirit. By trying to look at their heart I became judge and jury- deciding what *I* thought their motive or attitude was and metering out appropriate consequences.

I didn’t want my children to learn by their mistakes. Or rather only with the little mistakes. Like accidentally smashing the brand new fish tank after I told them that it was too heavy and awkward for them to carry. That was fairly easy and I got through that one ok. It was only money at stake.

The real pressure came when the heart issues got involved. Modesty, purity, honesty are all virtues that I care about and they mean more to me than money or possessions. This is where my control freak tendencies started to emerge. I was influenced by certain ‘styles of parenting’. Books, blogs, forums were all vehicles for the legalistic messages of parenting. And I devoured their training. I take full responsibility for that, I’m not trying to cop out. But listening to them exacerbated my problem. I wanted to do the right things, live the right way. I wanted to be a good wife and mum. So I read books and devoured websites until I needed glasses. In my enthusiasm and zeal I was listening to every message I could about striving for the narrow way, the hard way, etc. I read article after article about the high calling of motherhood and being a keeper of the home. I’m not saying these ideals are wrong but I gave them more credence than they rightly deserved.

Homeschooling suport groups and literature can be a vehicle for legalism, fear and comparison. Being fallen creatures (man) we listen to ideals, we like to look up to people- we put others on pedestals… this is fallen human nature. And as thus, any movement can be a vehicle. I don’t say this to be discouraging rather to alert people to the dangers of ANY group/banner/movement/gathering. We need to keep our eyes on The Lord and Him only.

Lessons Learned

I am not God. I am not omnipotent nor omnipresent. Duh! Yet sometimes it can take me years to realise such basic, grassroot lessons.

The beauty of God is that He is God. He will save our children because it is or isn’t His plan. We don’t teach them in His ways for them as much as we do for our own sake! Yup, when I realised that it shook me to the core, but it’s a wonderful truth.

God has shown me the most wonderful things from it all – I am only just beginning to grasp a little of how truly sovereign and immense He is. I knew that before. But know I am coming to really KNOW it.

And lest that sound all rather small and insignificant, let me assure you that it isn’t. It is actually the foundation, the character of who God is. And He is revealing it to me, little by little. Wow, I am gobsmacked at how awesome and big and totally in control He really is. And how totally not in control I am.

The lessons God has revealed to me have been the only thing that keep me going at times. Where once I felt it was all hopeless. What’s the point of doing my best if it doesn’t guarantee that my children will be Christians? All the wrong questions- what is the point, why does it matter… and so on. I was not parenting from the right place though- not from freedom, peace or liberty. God wanted to reach me, to teach me. He wanted to blow my mind with Himself! But He had to wait until I got to the place of emptiness… so that I could listen.

And that is right where God wants all of us to be — totally and utterly dependent upon Him.

This is not hopeless as I once thought. It’s glorious! I can now rest in the fact that He has it all under control. I can stop worrying and just be willing to be used by Him. He does much better work than I ever could.

The relationship I have with my children is all the better for these lessons learned. They are free to live their life, free to make mistakes- any mistakes. Sure I don’t condone all their actions and behaviour but I don’t love them any less for it. Just as Christ died for my sin, He died for theirs too. My children are now free to walk the path that is before them with boldness and strength without fear of condemnation or judgement from me.

I’m not scared anymore. And it’s beautiful. Freeing. Relaxed. And joyful. To parent out of freedom and grace is refreshing. It’s totally liberating!

“God’s initial goal for Christian homeschooling families is not the raising of godly children. Instead, God’s wonderful, but subtly hidden agenda is that the homeschooling experience be so challenging for the parents that they feel the need and hunger for a closer walk with their heavenly Father.”
~Wisdom’s Way of Learning by Marilyn Howshall

What is your idol?

An idol is anything which displaces God in my heart. It may be something which is quite harmless in itself, yet if it absorbs me, if it be given the first place in my affections and thoughts, it becomes an ‘idol’. It may be my business, a loved one, or my service for Christ. Any one or any thing which comes into competition with the Lord’s ruling me in a practical way, is an ‘idol’.
~ A.W. Pink

Gleanings in Exodus By Arthur W. Pink

Homeschooling thru sickness, surgery & trials

This is our 14th year (give or take several months) of learning at home and in that time we’ve lived through births, deaths, job changes, surgeries, interstate moves, chronic and acute illnesses. Many new homeschoolers or interested people often want to know how we have homeschooled through illness.

Having a Vision for Family

I’ve found it vitally important to have a family mission statement. Knowing why we were homeschooling was vital. Knowing that homeschooling, for us, is a lifestyle, a long term venture allowed me to homeschool throughout illness. That isn’t to say that a short term homeschooler cannot homeschool through trials- but it will look different. That’s why it is important to know why we do what we do. The answer to these questions dictated how we homeschooled throughout the various seasons of life.

Homeschooling, as a natural extension of parenting, is a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve learned to ‘make hay while the sun shines‘. There are times when all is sweet and rosy: we step on the accelerator knowing that sooner or later we will encounter a speed hump or pothole. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can be flexible… we can go with the ebb and flow of the family rhythmn – speeding up, slowing down yet knowing that we will get there in the long run.

Our family is a training ground. Being family based, the children have learned how to care for others, how to be compassionate… how to be a patient (Children being children have all suffered broken bones and the usual childhood injuries). Being at home most of the time has provided many opportunities for the children. They have watched me care for others, they have been the one being cared for. They have also had opportunity to be the carer. Not only did they experience being a patient but they grew in knowledge, understanding and application. Now that, is learning!

Opportunities

I don’t see illness or injury as an interruption to our lesson schedule. It’s all part of life. Life affords us so many learning opportunities, if only we learn to see the value in everything. There’s always something to learn. Making the most of every situation is working smarter, not harder. Homeschool efficiency.

Sometimes it isn’t a learning opportunity as such, rather a ‘doing’ opportunity- to serve, to be hospitable, to display empathy and compassion. An opportunity to grow, practice and develop their gifts and character: creativity, team work, work ethic, imagination, cooking skills, card making, cleaning, etc.

Older Children

If it were not the eldest children who were sick, I would have them help out as much as possible. I wouldn’t work them to the bone. I mean, they were children, not my slaves nor were they adults. But as part of training, it was very helpful all round. The girls learned how to cook and clean and look after others. I also found it helpful for each girl to be ‘a charge‘. I paired the eldest girl with the youngest son, and child two and three together. Sounds weird but it worked wonderfully throughout the years. Each girl would be responsible for helping/serving their charge. Naturally, I had to make sure that no one abused their role. When the boys had to do their hygiene, cleaning rooms, chores, etc. their ‘charge’ would help/supervise them. This gave the girls opportunity to lead, in humility and grace. This also gave them opportunity to grow and develop in patience. It was also beneficial for developing family ties.

A Time for Beauty

During times of illness, injury or trial I did not expect the children to concentrate on writing assignments, ACE paces or heavy schoolwork. However, it was the perfect time to gently nourish one’s mind and soul with beautiful things. Reading the Bible, reading and reciting poetry, listening to classical music, gospel music or hymns, watching good movies, listening to an audio book, handicrafts, outside games and activities, baking, playing board games, are all activities that can be enjoyed during these times. I have found activities that have rhythm to be especially beneficial during those times – trampolining, poetry, hopscotch, elastics and jump rope seem to have a very settling and stabilising effect on everyone and the physical aspect releases pent up energy and encourages happy endorphins.

Obviously not all those activities can be done during illness. When we’ve been ill with a flu or other such sickness all we want to do is watch old movies and listen to audio books, while sipping on Lemon & Honey Tea. I would just do what I could manage without adding stress or unnecessary fatigue. Keeping a sense of peace and harmony is important, especially during illness or trials. However when I have had surgery and am incapacitated for several weeks, I can lead up to the more energetic activities. I would sit outside in the sun, sipping a cup of warm tea and supervise the children in running races or playing on the trampoline. I found that if I could manage this for half an hour in the morning the rest of the day would be more peaceful and restful.

Keep Daily Rhythms

During some times of chronic illness or recuperating from surgery I try to keep some normal lifestyle routines puttering along in the background. This gives a sense of stability…normalcy for the children. Keeping our read aloud going, listening to classical music and Bible reading might be things that I would keep up. If none of us were up to reading aloud then I’d pop in an audio book or listen to the Bible on tape. Classical music, hymns and other soothing music are beneficial and soothing.

Getting Back Into It

Eventually, there comes a time when we had to institute lesson time again. I found it hugely beneficial to combine many subjects. Learning history via good, living books. Not only were we learning about history but we were also doing literary studies and English (Language Arts).

From the living book I would choose a passage and have the children copy it, word for word. This is known as copywork. I would also have each of the children take turns in reading parts of the book aloud as well as ask them to tell back the story in their own words, which is known as narration.

Rethink Relearn

We had only been homeschooling a few years when I had major surgery, with several months of recovery. I’m really grateful for that time as I learned to think outside the box! I was forced to be aware of all the learning opportunities and activities that real life offers. I learned that family, friends, the Internet, books, games, maps, T.V., doctor visits, grocery shopping, dentist appointments and the like are the lesson! Our daily routine, living in this world offers much if I’m willing to be a student.

It’s easy to listen to others- family or friends and even other homeschoolers. But honestly, it doesn’t matter what others say. I learned the hard way not to be swayed by other homeschool families. It’s better to thoroughly talk things out with my husband, decide upon our family mission statement and then be guided by the Holy Spirit.

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’ “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

Do you have any tips or advice for homeschooling through tough times?

Homeschooling thru sickness, surgery & trials

Having a Vision for Family

Homeschooling, as a natural extension of parenting, is a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve learned to ‘make hay while the sun shines‘. There are times when all is sweet and rosy: we step on the accelerator knowing that sooner or later we will encounter a speed hump or pothole. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can be flexible… we can go with the ebb and flow of the family rhythm – speeding up, slowing down yet knowing that we will get there in the long run.

Opportunities

Older Children

A Time for Beauty

Keep Daily Rhythms

Getting Back Into It

Rethink Relearn

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’ “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

Do you have any tips or advice for homeschooling through tough times?

Learn The Bible In 24 Hours – fantastic overview!

Learn the Bible in 24 Hours is presented by Dr. Chuck Missler of Koinonia House. The series consists of 24 one-hour videos. This would make an excellent semester series for a middle – high schooler. I have read the book and it’s worth reading… but these videos will give you an audio/visual review of the entire Bible and its design. I recommend it!

Hour 1 – Introduction
Hour 2 – Creation And The Fall Of Man
Hour 3 – The Pre-Historical Period
Hour 4 – The Patriarchs
Hour 5 – The Birth Of The Nation
Hour 6 – In The Land
Hour 7 – The Monarchy
Hour 8 – The Poetical Books
Hour 9 – The Book Of Daniel
Hour 10 – Post-Exile History
Hour 11 – The Major Prophets
Hour 12 – The Minor Prophets
Hour 13 – How Sure Can We Be
Hour 14 – The New Testament
Hour 15 – The Gospels
Hour 16 – The Last Week
Hour 17 – The Book Of Acts
Hour 18 – Romans
Hour 19 – The Church Epistles
Hour 20 – The Hebrew Christian Epistles
Hour 21 – Eschatologicial Summary
Hour 22 – Revelation 1-3
Hour 23 – Revelation 4-22
Hour 24 – Conclusion

If you were using this for your middle/high schooler, you could add in some living books, the Bible readings and you would have a full course for an entire semester!

If you added English lessons (copywork, dictation, grammar, etc) as well as historical fiction you could use this as a full year course.

Fantastic free resource! Do consider adding this to your family bible study.

Guarding My Heart

A few years ago in 2007, God showed me things about myself. Ugly things involving laziness, idleness, gossip, needing to know and pride.

The new Facebook changes have brought this lesson to mind again. There are a few issues with the FB change but they are not the point of this post. I could just copy and paste the blog post but it is slightly different this time… so I won’t. But you can read it here on Cleaning Up My Internet Habits.

Moreover, as they go about from house to house, they learn to be idlers, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say and talking of things they should not mention.
1 Timothy 5:13

Many years ago, I read an article that convicted me of the sin of ‘needing to know‘. But you know what? Just because God taught me some things about that then, does not mean that I now have all my ducks in a row and that I don’t struggle in this area anymore. I do.

Which is why I’ve decided to limit my usage of FB. The new ticker is not good for my emotional and spiritual health. For those that don’t know, the ticker is located at the upper right hand side of the feed page. And it updates in real-time. I can see every little bit of activity that each of my ‘friends’ partakes in. I can see when they comment on a mutual friend’s post even if I have no part in the conversation. However, I can even see their activity (comments, etc) to their friends with whom I am not connected! I really don’t need to know this information.

The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.
Proverbs 18:8

This is not edifying, helpful or beneficial to my Christian walk. In 2007 I decided to only [cyber] hang around places that I would contribute to. If I do not have any kind of relationship with a group or persons, if I am not contributing in any way then it is, quite simply, gossip. That which Paul describes as wandering around the neighbourhood, being a gossip and a busybody.

If I am not involved in some way with a person or site or blog (by praying for them or commenting them) or if I’m not serving them by responding to queries then maybe I ought not be there. I need to continually ask myself: Why am I here visiting this site? Is it to serve, to be edified, informed, to pray? If not, then I need not be there.

As a woman of the word, I need to guard my heart and mind. I do not need to be about gossip and ‘knowing who said what to whom’. I need to be about the word and serving others. I will continue to use fb as a way of sharing but forgive me if I don’t comment on your walls or updates. I need to guard my heart, be careful to not be a busy body, be busy at home and not be idle. This is my weakness… and as such my course of action.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Oh, before I forget… this is my weakness. I am prone to be idle and a busy body. I am referring to myself. This is not a post that you need to take on as though I am speaking at you. If the Holy Spirit convicts you, then that is wonderful. If not, that is fine too – He has other lessons in store for you.

The Think Principle

Originally posted on September 1, 2005

Our home is noisy! Our home is loud! And is filled with constant talk! But, this is a good thing- discussion is a cord that helps to bind the family together. Nevertheless, constant talk can be a drain upon others and it isn’t necessarily beneficial for the talker either. We have discussed a few slogans that have been able to help us to control our tongue- I’ll share them here.

Speak when the words build up.
Speak if the words bring a smile.
Speak where reassurance is needed.
Speak what gives hearts courage.
Speak how He would.
Words that encourage. Words that give life. Words that bless. If you have those kinds of words on the tip of your tongue, then please speak.
Otherwise, maybe it is best not to.

“If you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”
~Acts 13:15

Family Bootcamp

Yesterday was the first day of family boot-camp:September. Our lifestyle is very relaxed. We like it that way. But there’s a difference between relaxed and plain lazy. Sometimes, especially after a major event, we need some down time. But invariably there is a time to get up and going again, lest we fall into being plain lazy.

During the lead up to the wedding and wedding week, Jays (16yods) lessons ambled along as he is enrolled with a DE school however Cee’s (14yods) daily work time depends more upon me. In that I mean that I need to see that he tends to his lessons. If I drop the ball in this area, then he tends to lose motivation. If I don’t inspect his work regularly then he is at the stage where he loses interest and focus.

Before the wedding we took some time off. We took another week off after the wedding as John was home and we really needed the down time. We never really got back into it all. Hasn’t helped that John has been home from work a lot with a bad back. That completely throws any and all routine out of whack.

It’s time to get going again. I needed to put my thoughts onto paper before attempting to commit them to action. I have never found it beneficial to over schedule our day. I prefer to leave room in order to be flexible- see what the day brings!

Blocks of Time Boot Camp style

We usually work well with Blocks of Time and Family Boot-camp is arranged similarly. The main difference is that I become a drill mama, enforcing adherence to the schedule. I feel like it sucks all the fun and joy from the day… but it is Boot-camp! We need it. It’s that kick in the pants we need to get up and going again.

So, I put a few times on paper, printed it out and gave a copy to each of the boys and one goes on the fridge. I explain to the boys the purpose of Family Boot-camp, taking full responsibility for us getting into the mess we’re in. I told them that just because we are free-range homeschoolers doesn’t mean that we don’t need to learn valuable life skills like time management. (I explained this after John quickly pointed out that we are always learning. Ha, trying to beat me at my own game)

So after explaining the purpose of Family Boot-camp, I quickly went over the practical outworking of it. I didn’t labour over it to much as it gives too much room for disagreement and disgruntlement. It’s better to just do it rather than talk about it.

We do this style of Boot-camp at the beginning of each term, or after a holiday period… whenever we need to. But we don’t overdo it, otherwise it becomes burdensome and we lose the speciality of what makes up our family.

The basics of Family Boot-camp in our home are:

Early to bed, early to rise.
Set times of study and chores.
Set time for computer usage.
Learning to manage our time wisely.
Learning to manage our resources wisely.

Here’s what the daily schedule looks like, although be aware that John follows his own schedule due to his phone/computer lessons being at different times.

Time Breakdown

7.30am – 9.30am

9.30am – 11.30am

11.30am – 1pm

1pm – 3pm

3pm – 4.30pm

4.30pm onwards

Breakfast / Chores / Hygiene

Study period

Lunch / Free time

Study period

Productive free time

Chores / Free time

Family Boot-camp goes from Monday through to Friday. Any work/chores that have not been completed by Friday will be tended to on Saturday or consequences will apply. (That usually gets things tended to promptly)

The hardest aspect of Family Boot-camp is me. I have to be on my game. The success of boot-camp depends upon what I ‘inspect, rather than expect’. No point in setting these things in place and then slacking off and not following through with it. I have such mixed feelings about boot-camp. On one hand I despise how drill sergeant like I become yet on the other hand I really like the results of boot-camp living.

Book camp will look different in each family but I find that having a clear purpose and schedule that suits our lifestyle and goals are the important factors.

How about you? Do you have a boot camp or kick-in-the-pants time? Will you share with me about it?

The gospel frees you…

“The gospel frees you from the pressure of having to fix people: your worth is located in Christ, not in their transformation.”
~Tullian Tchividjian

Why public school?

by orsorama

We have always home educated our children, except for a brief foray into GradeK-1 for our eldest daughter. Having said that, let me state that I am not of the view that says ‘everyone-should-homeschool-because- it- is-the-only-way”. I am not against school, but I do think that it is one of the most important decisions you can ever make in your life… rather in your child’s life.

Over the years I have tried to be patient with every one who has genuinely asked, “Why do you homeschool?” I believe that most of us have been so deeply indoctrinated by the world that we honestly can’t see what is wrong with the public school system. But like I have written elsewhere, I do not have all my ducks in a row– I don’t have it all together.

Our lifestyle is one that we deliberated upon and prayed over and researched together and so I know the ‘why’ of what we do. I’d like to know why you do what you do. I want to ask you the reader, this question. I don’t ask in anger nor with any malice. I really would like to share in your thoughts. I promise to be gentle, as I hope you will be too.

Previously I have asked homeschoolers why they chose to homeschool… but now I’d like to hear from public schoolers.

If you are a parent and a Christian and you send your children to a public school then please take a few minutes to leave a comment.

Why do you not home educate your children? Why don’t you homeschool?

Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach

Click here to learn more or purchase

Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach

written by Robin Sampson

The Heart of Wisdom Publishing Company is a family owned and operated business that publishes a variety of homeschool resources useful for Christian families in the training of their children. This approach uses the Bible as the centre of all education. Those who are interested in a Bible based, Delight-Directed, Note-Booking, or Charlotte Mason approaches may like these products as the author has taken the best from each approach and blended them to make the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach.

I have used some of the Heart of Wisdom units for a few years now but I have been most influenced by Robin’s book, ‘The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach‘. I have learnt that the Bible outlines how we should teach our children and that study is a form of worship. The goal of this approach is to train children to read, to study, to understand, to love to learn and, most importantly, to desire and seek true wisdom. A benefit to this approach is multi-level teaching and can be used by a mother with children of all ages. I loved ‘Educating the WholeHearted Child’ by Clay and Sally Clarkson and it provided a vision but, for me, it left out many practical how-to’s. The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach fully provides this yet with the expectation that each parent is to do what is right for their family.

Click here to learn more or purchase

Section One

The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach is divided into several sections. Section 1 tells of the Sampson family journey from school to homeschool- various approaches and methods. The author doesn’t tell the reader how they should approach education based upon her experience, rather she sends the reader to the Scriptures to find the answers.

Section Two

Section 2 is important as it looks at the foundation of Christian education, by exploring the roots of educational methods from the past until modern times. The book also looks at the difference between Christian, Hebraic, Greek and secular worldviews and how this impacts the methods used in modern education. Great reading for new homeschoolers or veterans.

Section Three

Now knowing about why there is a need for change in the way we view education, Section 3 tells us how we can change and use different methods that encompass a Biblical worldview. Learning styles and the Four-Step approach to a lesson plan as well as talking about Charlotte Mason, Unit Studies, Delight-Directed studies and Critical Thinking and Logic are included.

Section Four

Section 4 is a large chapter, full of meaty ideas that will challenge each reader’s thinking and method. A four-year plan that can be rotated to provide a full 12 years worth of study, based upon God’s Word and World is suggested. Scrapbooking or Notebooking is encouraged – assisting children in their learning as they plan, develop, classify, categorise, construct, and organise their work. History is taught chronologically while science is taught in the order of Creation. English skills are integrated into all studies. Scheduling, planning and much more is addressed in this chapter.

Section Five

Once the educational philosophy has been addressed, a change in resources may be required. Robin doesn’t leave us floundering. In Section 5, she writes about using the HOW unit studies or devising your own and where to get the various resources from for years K-12. Science, History, Literature and Life Skill resources can be purchased from the Heart of Wisdom online Store or from your local Christian bookshop.

Click here to learn more or purchase

Not only was I encouraged by this book but informed, refreshed and motivated to run the race. This book, this approach, is like a breath of fresh air. The book is available through a variety of means: electronic download, or bound editions. Regardless of the format, the content is excellent and I wholeheartedly recommend it for any parent, homeschool or otherwise.

Disclosure: I am compensated for purchases made via the referral links in this post.

Homeschool Smorgasbord

CountON.org
Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12, with parental supervision)
You won’t believe the selection of FREE interactive math games and activities designed for students of all ages that are available at this website. This site also provides links to additional math resources for every strand.

Building Kingdom-minded children
The Bible seems to divide the life of people into three phases. Childhood, young adulthood and adulthood, according to my sweet learned husband. Both the Old Testament refers to words that describe such an age as well as the New Testament, as seen here in John.

In our home, we treated our children differently at each phase. Each new level of life came with new training and responsibility in order to give them a heart for our King and for His kingdom. I believe that there are many paths to teach these principles, but no matter what path you take, it all involves very intentional and purposeful training and planning.

Seeking Out Godly Friends For Your Children
People ask me how important friendships are for children. My answer may not be what you would expect from me…homeschool mom who will fight tooth and nail against the concept that homeschool children need a good dose of socialization… But, my answer as to how important friendships outside your family are would have to be…Click to read the whole article…

The Center of Science and Industry
Sounds boring, right? Well, it’s not! The site provides free educational activities in science, industry, health, and history in a most engaging way. Do check it out.

Per Square Miles
Wonder what would happen if we put the world’s population in 1 city? Visit this site for a visual representation.

Lifestyle of Learning has a spiffy new website.LOL is a ministry to families bringing a healthy new face and focus to home education.

Homeschool Smorgasbord

Homeschooling Freebies

Free copywork books

Proverbs 22:6 Academy produces quality copywork books as well as a heap of freebies for you to download and print. A few free titles are:

A Copybook of Love
A Copybook of the Months of the Year
A Copybook of the Days of the Week
Words of Wisdom Copywork

Konos Patience Unit Study

Early on in our homeschooling journey we dabbled with KONOS unit studies. Whilst we didn’t end up sticking with KONOS I learned an awful lot about teaching and devising a unit. In the following page you can sample the KONOS Unit Study philosophy with this free mini-unit on patience taken from the curriculum. Subjects covered include Bible, critical thinking, science, health, art, practical math, language arts, geography, and history. Very handy!

Garden of Praise

Garden of Praise is a large site that has been on the ‘net for many years. You’ll find many free online and printable teaching materials.

Practical Pages

Practical Pages freely shares notebook pages, minibooks and lapbook projects, handwriting charts and booklets, organizational tips and ideas

Recordings of Books on the Ambleside List

A list of free audiobooks of those used in the free, online, Charlotte Mason curriculum. DO check it out!
look out for the second list as well. (List found at Librivox)

Planning the new school year

Ebook: The New School Year – Another FREE book for you! Do you need help planning your school year? Download this e-book FREE from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

100 Best Blogs for Christian Homeschoolers

Need some more blog reading to add to your day? Find the strength of community across the miles through the technology of blogs. Share with these families to find suggestions for lessons or curriculum, to be inspired by others’ walk with God, learn about homeschool politics and policies, hear from those who have gained the benefit of homeschooling, and more among these blogs.

Church History

Trial and Triumph free ebook. Originally published in 1999 by Canon Press, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History by Richard M. Hannula is now available free online, having granted Google books permission to display the title in full. This book is used in AmblesideOnline and it is an excellent resource. Trial and Triumph introduces the reader to church history via a series of short biographies. Starting with the early church and going through to recent times you’ll read captivating and inspiring stories of real people and real events. The short chapters are excellent for narration in its many forms (see my Activity Sheets for more info).

A HomeGrownKid gets married

Go get a gravatar!

Have you ever wondered how some people have a cute little picture or a photo of themselves or their business logo next to their name when they leave a comment? It’s called an avatar. Other social networking sites call them by different names but the general name is an avatar.

You can have an avatar through google, which will show up on all blogger blogs. You can also have a wordpress.com account with an avatar but still, this is limited. I’m aware of OpenID but when one wants to keep some things separate I believe that gravatars, linked to your email accounts are the way to go.

What you really want is a gravatar!

Your Gravatar (a globally recognized avatar) is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. So, when you use your email address on a gravatar-enabled site, your chosen avatar is automatically used. How cool is that?

Many people will tell you that it’s important to use the same logo or photo all the time. I agree that this important if it is a business but I don’t think applies to personal bloggers as much.

I do try to use the same avatar across the Internet but I also like to change it up occasionally. This means that I change it at Gravatar.com, facebook, Google and AussieHomeschool.

Go grab one now at Gravatar.com. Sure but how?

Go to Gravatar.com.
Click “Get your Gravatar today”.
Enter your email address.
Activate your account by clicking on the link in the email you receive.
Choose a username and password.
Add your image/photo.
Crop it and finish.
You can use multiple email addresses and images.

How to enable your (self hosted wordpress site) to use gravatars?

Simply login to your admin dashboard.
Go to Settings –> Discussion –> Avatars and select the desired fields.
Done!

If you have problems, which is unlikely, check out the FAQ.

** Alternatively, if you have a self hosted wordpress site and like the Hover Gravatars that wordpress.com use, you can download the Jetpack plugin, activate it, enable hovercards and away you go!

Hope this helps,

The Wedding Day ~ part two

The Big Day

For weeks I had told Abigail that she would be better on her big day. Partly because I think positively but also because I thought that some of her sickness might have been caused by stress (working long hours, travelling to see Ian, wedding arrangements, etc.). However, she awoke on the big day; snuffley, blocked up and nasally. It was no wonder she whined at me, “Mum, you said I’d be better by today… and I’m not.” And she wasn’t. Truth be told she looked down right awful – red puffy eyes, a red nose and coughing every night for the week before the wedding had taken its toll on her. So she dosed herself up on all the right medications, had a shower and we zipped over to the hairdresser to have our locks curled and set.

We forgot to have breakfast. However the bridesmaids came to the rescue. They met us at the hairdressers with a cuppa. Thanks Kate and Rebekah! But not before we forgot Abigail’s veil. Yes, we left it at home. Kate and Rebekah had gone to my house and searched my room for it but they couldn’t find it. So after my hair was done I popped home, found it and zoomed back to the hairdressers so that they could attach the veil. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law had arrived at our house as she was doing everyone’s make-up and the photographer also arrived. Egads, get a move on Susan!

When we (Abigail, Kate, Rebekah and myself) arrived back home it was all systems go! John had set out platters of the most delicious foods: dip, crackers, salami, ham, cheese, chips, carrot sticks, etc. but we were all either too busy or too excited to touch any of it! The guys (John, my Dad, Master J and Master C) managed to get themselves dressed and ready in their spiffy new suits while the girls got made up and dressed and generally fussed around. Such fun!

Ian had organised two FJ Holden’s to escort the bridal party. They were a little late as they broke down a few times. Wouldn’t have mattered as we were also running a little late. But of course, a bride is never late so we blamed the cars. 😉

Time for the ceremony!

John walked his daughter, Abigail, down the aisle… I know I am a little biased, but she didn’t look sick at all. She looked radiantly beautiful. Mind you she matched Ian perfectly as he looked rather dashing too. I thought the ceremony was very sweet. The music was played by a friend who is a professional pianist. The entrance song was ‘River Flows In You‘ (Yiruma). Throughout the ceremony we sang a few songs: Awesome God, In Christ Alone, Be Thou My Vision. The ceremony matched Ian and Abigail.

Then the bridal party and immediate family left the church and gathered together to congratulate the happy couple while the guests went next door into the church hall for some afternoon tea. There was a lot of Mediterranean food and cakes as well as a coffee machine and barista. Abigail is a barista (and latte artist) and The Coffee Barun, where she works, kindly let us borrow a machine to use for the day. A fellow barista that she works with attended the wedding as a guest but also kindly agreed to be the barista so it was lattes and cappuccino’s all round. We had some champagne and John and Ian gave a speech. It went all too quickly before the photographers were hurrying us out the door.

The photographers did an excellent job. Not only did they photograph the day but they also acted as chief seamstress, corsage dresser, and general helpers. Two fantastic young ladies! However, we had a schedule for the day and we had to stick to it. Just as well they pushed us along as one of the lovely FJ Holden’s broke down again, while on the way to the Waite Arboretum for photos. It was all good fun and provided lots of laughter. After our adventures with cars, I think Abigail should be quite used to it all by now.

The parents left the photo session early to allow the couple to finish the session. Our family zipped back to the church to help with the clean up, which was being done by Abigail and Ian’s friends. Oh, where would we have been without them? We then zoomed over to Ayers House where we were having a small, private reception in the Ballroom for immediate family and very close friends. By this time, I was ready for bed. I was so tired I could have slept right there at the table.The guests had arrived, the bridal party, minus the bride and groom were also there and we had some pre dinner drinks before their arrival. I loved meeting Ian’s extended family, who had travelled over from Sydney. Most of his family are Christians so he has a wonderful heritage. I got on with all his family so well- felt like I’d known them for years.

Hmmm, I received a quick phone call from the chauffeur of bridal car. They were running a little late. The car had broken down… again! Hahaa, love it!

The bride and groom eventually arrived and the food started. A few more toasts and speeches and then I got my second wind. I don’t know how but I found some more energy! We all had a few dances and then it was time for the bride and groom to leave.

Kate and Simon (a bridesmaid and best man) had decorated their car… and unbeknownst to them, had gained entrance to their motel room and left them boxes of chocolates. Awww, so sweet.

I didn’t cry once. For the whole day. It was the most magical day and I was deliriously happy. Abigail has chosen wisely as Ian is a fine young man who is responsible and mature yet full of energy and life. He is a godly young man who has a heart to serve the Lord and both John and I are happy and proud to have him in our family. Nothing sad about that! I couldn’t stop smiling all day. Ok, I’ll be honest. I did cry just once. As they drove off from the reception I had a wave of happy-sadness. It only lasted a minute or so. And then tiredness took over again.

What else can I say? A beautiful day, for a lovely couple.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the friends and family who helped to make the day as beautiful as it was. Without their help, it would not have gone so smoothly or been as lovely. I’d also like to say thanks to all the friends and family who came to the wedding to witness the marriage of Ian and Abigail. It was especially beautiful to have a few home-schooling friends there- it made my day! Thanks Katie, Cathy and families.

Chicken and Noodles

This is one of our family favourites.
15min preparation. 15min cooking time. Serves approximately 6

Ingredients

750 grams chicken breasts
6 eggs
2 onion
6 cloves garlic
250 gram corn kernels
150 grams bean sprouts
450 mL sweet chilli sauce
75 mL olive oil
3 tablepoons soy sauce
salt to taste
850 grams noodles 2 packets fresh in packet
150 mL milk
Rainbow Salad mix **

Method

Make this dish in allotments, otherwise it goes mushy and yuck. Prepare all ingredients in advance.
Separate noodles by putting in bowl with hot water… or read packet instructions well.
Thinly slice chicken into strips
Thinly slice garlic and onion.
Make sauce: chilli sauce, soy, salt, chilli powder, garlic and lime/lemon juice.
Beat eggs. Add 100ml milk. Combine one tablespoon sauce mix into eggs.
Heat wok with oil.
Pour in eggs and lightly scramble. Transfer to bowl.
Add little olive oil. Use half of the onions and garlic and put into oil. When it is just starting to brown, throw in half the chicken. Brown them whilst breaking chicken into smaller chunks. When this is starting to brown add corn… then bean shoots. Toss for one minute.
Throw in half of the noodles and half of the sauce mixture with half the eggs.
Toss and serve.

**Optional: add mushrooms or cashews and/or rainbow salad mix.

The good ole days

John sent these images to me via email. I actually remember seeing ads similar to this when I was little. What a good lesson in the powerof media and advertising!

Left me quite speechless!

Recipe Collection & Meal Planning with Plan To Eat

Meal planning and cooking come easily to some people. I am not one of those people, despite my father being a quality chef. I have previously mentioned how my husband taught me how to cook those packets of 2 min noodles whilst we were on our honeymoon! I really, truly, had no idea about cooking.

Interested in trying out Plan to Eat? You can sign up for a completely free 30-Day Plan to Eat Subscription right now!

But after getting married, I had the desire to learn. I loved experimenting with new recipes but having 4-5 children, a budget and minimal time also meant that I just needed to get meals on the table. Over the years I have tried computer and online meal planning (like MealsMatter.org) as well as pen and paper but it just never seemed to work for me. I couldn’t find a system that was do-able and that could keep up with my constant changing. I went looking for an online program and trialled a few. Ho hum, didn’t like them for various reasons.Then I found Plan To Eat. It looked kind of groovy. (C’mon, it was new and shiny and online!) So I signed up for a trial month but secretly wondered how long I would last with it. In the spirit of honesty it did take me a few weeks before I really got the hang of it. There could be more instructions and user friendly helps on the site although this is something that PTE are working on. And the site tour, blog and forum are more than helpful. I just needed to look around a little longer. The site isn’t static, they do make upgrades and improvements as often as is reasonable.

As you know I don’t like to endorse products that I don’t use or wholeheartedly recommend. So, I’ve waited awhile to tell you about Plan To Eat. But I have used it for quite a few months now… and I’m still using it!

I used to have bookmarks to recipes all over the ‘net. I would forget where I had bookmarked each recipe. But now I can simply import a favourite recipe to my PlanToEat recipe collection! It’s all in one place.

Interested in trying out Plan to Eat? You can sign up for a completely free 30-Day Plan to Eat Subscription right now!

What it is?

It is a virtual recipe book, meal planner, shopping list and more. Plan to Eat was born out of a desire to eat real food — great food — prepared at home, together as a family. The husband and wife team have a real food philosophy.

Features

Import recipes from over 100 sites automatically or you can manually (and painlessly) add them to your recipe collection.(Taste.com.au, WholeLiving.com PioneerWoman, allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com just to name a few. See a larger list here.)
PlanToEat syncs with Ical (for Mac users) or google calendar, if you want it to.
Share recipes with friends and build your collection of recipes.
Drag n Drop menu planning
Save / Load Meal Plans
Customisable: Change Serving Size, Nutrition Data for each recipe if you wish.
Generate Grocery Lists for Each Recipe/Menu
Use it to access your shopping list from your smartphone and check off items as you go
Cost: $4.95/month or $39/year
Free Trial: Yes! 30-day free trial

I am slowly adding all my favourite recipes to my Recipe Book. I can access, print and share my recipes from any computer with internet access. I can filter the recipes in my collection by ingredients, tags or how often I’ve planned them! No more paper shuffling! There is a Shopping/Grocery List which worked a treat the first time I’ve used it but since then I haven’t put in the time needed to master it.

I could give you images and/or a video tutorial but I don’t need to. The best way for you to have a really good look is to try it for free. Yes, Plan To Eat has a free 30 day trial. They have a blog, facebook account and a support forum.

If and when you join up to PlanToEat, be sure to add me as a friend so that we begin sharing recipes. You’ll find me there as HomeGrownKids.

Interested in trying out Plan to Eat? You can sign up for a completely free 30-Day Plan to Eat Subscription right now!

Disclosure: If you sign up for Plan to Eat through one of the above links, I will earn a small commission. You certainly don’t have to use these links, but it is one of the ways that you can support this site.

Bible overview 4 (Week 13-16)

Kerugma Family Bible reading guide for use with young children. This guide is a no-fuss, easy to implement, overview of the Bible for the whole family.

To see previous months, please use the menu to the right. I will post a new 4 week plan every Sunday.
* Bible references are in the ESV. You may, of course, use the version of your choice.

Benefits:

for use with the family
52 weeks of the year
6 days a week
short time needed each day
weekly memory verse

Week Thirteen

But your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his descrees and obey his commands, as at this time.
~1Kings 8:61

1 Kings 4:29-34 Solomon’s Wisdom
1 Kings 6 Building the Temple **
1 Kings 8: 1-21 Bringing in the Ark
1 Kings 8:22-24, 54-61 Prayer of Dedication
1 Kings 9:1-9 The Lord appears to Solomon
1 Kings 12:1-17 Israel rebels

**Note: Younger children may benefit from limiting the text to 1 Kings 6:1-6 and 1 Kings 6: 37,38

Week Fourteen

You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
~2 Kings 17:38-39

1 Kings 17 Elijah, Prophet of Israel
1 Kings 18:1-16 Elijah and Obadiah
1 Kings 18:17-46 Elijah on Mount Carmel
2 Kings 2:1-15 Elijah taken up to heaven
2 Kings 5: 1-14 Elisha’s Miracle
2 Kings 17: 1-23 The Last King of Israel

Week Fifteen

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
~1 Chronicles 16:34

2 Kings 22:1-13 The Book of the Law is found
2 Kings 22:14 — 23:3 Josiah renews the Covenant
1 Chronicles 17:1-15 God’s Promise to David
1 Chronicles 17:16-27 David’s Prayer
2 Chronicles 20:1-12 King Jehoshaphat’s Prayer
2 Chronicles 20:13-30 Jehoshaphat defeats Moab and Ammon **See note**

**Note: Younger children may benefit from limiting the text to 2 Chronicles 20:13-17 and verses 26-30

Week Sixteen

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
~Ezra 3:11

2 Chronicles 30:1-9 Invitation to the Passover
2 Chronicles 30:10-27 The Passover Celebration
2 Chronicles 32:1-23 Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem **See note**
2 Chronicles 32:24-33 Hezekiah’s Life
2 Chronicles 36:15-23 The Fall of Jerusalem
Ezra 1 The Exiles Return

**Note: Younger children may benefit from limiting the text to 2 Chronicles 32:1-8 and 2 Chronicles 32:1-23

To learn more about how we did Bible study you can read through our 4 step process page using the anagram IDEA: Introduce, Dig Deeper, Elaborate and Application.

Here are five sample lessons of the Kerugma Family Bible Study Guide.

History of homeschooling

So what do you think… is this an accurate description?

Click for larger image

Post courtesy of The OnlineCollege

Main Course Smorgasboard

‘Where Children Sleep’

This photography project is quite startling. It speaks loudly yet the commentator and/or photographer doesn’t write a word other than the facts. There may be some bias in the subjects chosen but either way, there is something we can all take from this presentation.

I Spy Animals

http://www.ispyanimals.com/
Oh, you absolutely must bookmark the website, I Spy Animals. It is an average website as far as design but the content is amazing. Written by by Jan Perley she writes and includes plenty of images on species identification.

To Heaven and Back? by Defending. Contending.

http://defendingcontending.com/2011/09/01/to-heaven-and-back/
A somewhat sensitive issue in today’s society, even amongst Christians… but how much of it lines up with the Bible? To Heaven and Back ponders these issues by studying the Scriptures.

How many times have you heard someone claim they died and got a glimpse of heaven? Recently a co-worker told me the Pastor of her sister’s church preached a sermon on heaven. In his sermon, he mentioned a little boy who’d died and entered heaven {the child was revived by doctors}. While in heaven, he saw his grandpa who he’d never met. The mother of the child showed the little boy a picture of his grandpa, and he said that wasn’t him. So she proceeded to show him another picture, one of his grandpa when he was younger, and he said that was him. I didn’t say much as I listened, but all the while I knew what she thought was true was anything but. Stories like this are told everywhere, those who do not understand what the Bible actually teaches about death and heaven swallow this as truth.

Heads or Tails?

http://theupsidedownworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/heads-or-tails/
Rebecca Trotter ponders what it means that Christ is the head of the church? We assume that this verse means that the husband should lead his wife, but does Christ really lead the church?

A husband’s job is not to direct his wife in the way that she should go. A husband’s job is to give his wife hope and comfort and the freedom to become who she was created to be (a secret only her heart knows, btw), just as Jesus offers hope and comfort and freedom to become who we were created to be in the Kingdom of God. This has nothing to do with power and authority and everything to do with love. Paul was telling men that they should be empowering their wives to be who God designed them to be and presenting their wives to Christ as an example of how well they loved.

Where’s The Octopus?

When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming. Hanlon studies camouflage in cephalopods–squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They are masters of optical illusion. These are some of Hanlon’s top video picks of sea creatures going in and out of hiding.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10397

The Word did not become a philosophy, a theory, or a concept to be discussed, debated, or pondered. But the Word became a Person to be followed, enjoyed, and loved.
~Roy Lessin

The Wedding ~ part one

Trying to organise a wedding in only ten weeks is achievable. Just ask us.

If you have wondered why my blog posting has been slow or sporadic, read on and learn why. I have been totally preoccupied with:

Church Decoration, Hall Decorations, Afternoon tea for 100 guests, Evening Reception, Flowers, Dresses, shoes. etc., Invitations, Bombonierie making, Order of Services, Seating allocations, and a whole lot more!

Ten week countdown

Wedding stationery and bomboniere. Who can guess what the bomboniere was?

After the initial excitement of Mr. H’s proposal it was time to get down to details. After all there wasn’t much time to plan things. One might consider that we should have been prepared for such an event with a 19-20year old daughter but… Suffice it to say that we were not.

We decided to make the invitations ourselves.I worked myself into a dither by trying to consistently tie 70 little brown bows that all looked uniform. I was not having a great deal of success until John put his fitter/turner skills to good use and devised some templates and together we made the invitations, based primarily around Abi’s chosen colour scheme. Oh man, I love that guy and his skills!

The wedding date was set. Church was booked. Ceremony time and ministers booked. Aside from dresses, what could be left to organise?

Ha!

The ceremony was to be followed by an Afternoon Tea in the church hall. This was to be followed by photos of the immediate family and bridal party. Later on that evening, a private reception was held at Ayers House, for immediate friends and family. Sounds easy, right? It was. And it wasn’t. But that’s all part of the fun of life, isn’t it?

I can’t believe how much of it all that Abigail organised. She arranged most of it all by herself, yet still managed to include me. I love that will aways be appreciative. Amazingly, she achieved a wondrous balance between organising, delegating, scheduling and still letting other people contribute with their gifts and talents!

Suitably attired

The men folk needed some suitable attire. We don’t usually have need for suits in our family. John has a suit in the cupboard. It is about 20 years old and he’s worn it once. So we didn’t want to spend ridiculous amounts on suits to feed the cupboard moths. We looked into hiring suits but providentially stopped into Myer before we committed to hiring. Wow, so glad we did. John, the two boys and my dad were suitably attired at an unbelievable price. Worked out to be cheaper than hiring and we got to keep the suits! (Start the car… start the car! is exactly how we felt — those familiar with IKEA ads will know what I meant)

Invitations were sent out, RSVP’s started to arrive, catering was being organised and the cake was being made by a friend. Abigail found her bridal dress, which is no easy feat when one is only 160cm tall. She even found her shoes to match! Some young women take weeks or months to find the right dress and accessories but not Abi. She knew what she did and didn’t want and wouldn’t be talked into anything else. Hair and nail appointments, fittings, etc were all made and being tended to. What else needed to be done?

The Mother of the Bride (MoB) needed a dress! My favourite non colour has and will always be black. It’s elegant yet smart, timeless and proper, not to mention slimming. But I didn’t want to wear black. I know that it is not considered bad etiquette to wear black to a wedding. I just didn’t want to. I wore callouses into my feet searching for the right dress. It was starting to worry me and I didn’t want ‘me‘ to become an issue in the wedding. I found a gorgeous black dress that not only fitted me perfectly (no easy feat) and was comfortable but it even looked nice too! Oi voi! Does it get any better? Yes it does. It was a price that I liked! [ Start the car! Start the car! ] But it was black. Ding dong. I had stayed away from black and tried to avoid with every fibre of my being… but the wedding day was getting closer and I was tired of worrying about myself when it was my daughter’s big day. So after consulting Abi and being reassured that not only did it look nice and that she really wasn’t fussed about the colour unless it clashed horribly with the colour scheme (which it didn’t) I then sought my husband’s approval. He loved it. MoB dress – check!

Oh, did I mention that my dear Dad came to stay with us a few weeks before the wedding. I love seeing him and having him visit but it still did throw things around a little. Bedroom and wardrobe arrangements were in dissaray, schedules need to be re-tweaked. Yet this just added to the overall excitement level. Oh, did I also mention that Dad is diabetic and thus needs to eat several small meals a day? My kitchen looked like that of a truckie roadhouse for the weeks leading up to the wedding. I tried to breathe deeply and not fuss over it until 3 or 4 days before the wedding whereby I buckled down and deep cleaned it from the tippy top to bottom. I vowed and declared to skin anyone who dared mess it up.

One week to go

I worked like a mad woman for the whole week before the wedding. I wanted the house to be spotless and immaculate (which would be a rarity in itself), I wanted the whole family to dressed beautifully in clothes that would not leave us penniless for the next ten years. I wanted the day to run perfectly smooth, with all of us having adequate rest and food. Well, it doesn’t take a genius to see that I was just a tad over ambitious.

With only a few days to go, it was time to make the bomboniere (wedding favours). Due to the nature of the bomboniere we couldn’t make them too far in advance. They had to be fresh!

We had a typical bridesmaid dress debacle and an incident involving a rather unaccomodating, rude bridal saleswoman. This in turn, forced Abigail to change the colour scheme of the flowers with only 2 days to go. Thankfully Flower Folly were more than happy to go with it and meet her needs. Many young brides may have had a hysterical fit at all this but not Abi… in fact, she was calmer than the rest of us. However throughout the previous few weeks poor Abigail was sick. She had been to the doctor’s and was on her second course of antibiotics for a possible lung infection. She wasn’t getting any better but I kept her on telling her that it was stress and that she would be fine on The Day. [More on that story later…]

The Penultimate Day

John (the FoB) managed to whisk Abi away for breakfast and have a Dad~Daughter date before officially giving his blessing on their marriage. I’m so glad that they had a couple of hours together. I’m sure it is a time they will both treasure.

I felt like I was caught in a whirlwind yet was thriving on the adrenalin; here I was running back and forth to various appointments, confirming reception numbers and allocating seating arrangments, ushers, catering, coffee machines, rehearsals, flower petals, accessories, my dad, my husband, my sons, my younger daughter (also a bridesmaid), bathing the cat and organising bite sized food snacks for the morning and organising the clothes and emergency girly bag. (safety pins, hollywood tape, spare buttons, needle & thread, spare toothbrushes, perfurme, makeup, etc.) I had spent quite some time with Abi in the preceding week but it was always doing something, going somewhere, being busy with the wedding. I just wanted to stop. And have coffee with her. But we were both too excited and preoccupied to sit still for long.

Mr. H is a youth pastor so the youth group gathered together as usual on the Friday night and helped us to set up the church and hall. Chair covers, satin sashes, carpet runners, tables, decorations and such were arranged as much as possible. It was time to head home and catch an early night. Aha, wrong again! I had Order of Services to finish compiling and printing.

And so it was…

I dragged my weary, aching legs into bed at 2.15am on Friday night (actually 2.15am is Saturday morning but at that point I was trying to remain positive and so preferred to think of it as Friday night), after working on the Order of Services (ceremony programs) and deciding that getting a few hours sleep had to be more worthwhile than ‘the perfect program’. I felt like I didn’t sleep at all, although I must have. I tossed. John turned. I flopped. John rolled.

Zzzzzzz….

The Morning of the Big Day

6am – Tinkle, tinkle, tinkly bells… My alarm clock gently awakened me so I swiped it to snooze for another 10 minutes.

6.05am – BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! John’s alarm clock bellowed loud enough to wake the dead, or so I thought. Obviously not loud enough to wake him though. My alarm clock is sweet, gently rousing me from my slumber to remind me that the day is beginning. John’s alarm screeches and roars then plays a horrid squawking song. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING makes me feel more agitated than being woken by that horrid, ungodly noise. On and on he slept, seemingly oblivious to its demands and my sounds of anger and frustration as I lurched over him to turn the monster off. I only managed to stun it into silence for another ten minutes though.

6.10am – Tinkle, tinkle, tinkly bells… my clock sweetly and patiently reminded me it was time to get up. No, I didn’t spring out of bed, on that day – the day of my daughter’s wedding. I was too weary. But I dragged myself up and into the shower so that we would be at the hairdressers on time. “At least I might be able to catch a quick nap whilst getting my hair done.” I thought silently. The words gullible and naïve now spring to mind.

Out of the shower. No time for a morning cup of tea. No facebook/email check. Maybe at the hairdressers?

6.30am – The Bride gently knocks on my door. “Muuum”… Oh dear, what’s wrong?

Courtesy of Rachael Elizabeth Photography

Stay tuned for part two, coming up next week.

[edited to add: No one was harmed in the leading up to this wedding. ]

Process of learning via the Internet

“Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.”
Kelly L. Briggs, “Reading in the Classroom” (2003)

I love movies… I enjoy watching tv and videos. There are times when a good documentary or instruction 3 min video is better than reading a book or article. But I see a trend on the Internet that really annoys me. Maybe it just doesn’t gel with my learning style however…

I would rather read the information than watch it.

Using a video where a person articulates the information is really popular today. But I find it stifling, tedious and time-consuming. My time is precious and I can read. There is nothing more annoying than arriving at a website and wanting to know what the site is about and the only way to find out such basic information is to sit through a 5 minute video listening to that information. I could read (scan) for that information in less than 5 minutes, thus getting the information that I want in a shorter time.

I’m a scanner. I skim through articles and books, seeking information that I want so that I can then expand my knowledge in that area. Watching video upon video wastes much of my time and doesn’t allow me to get a quick overview. So if a company or product site has loads of videos for the bulk of their information, they will lose me. However, once I’ve skimmed the site and retrieved the basic information I want, then it is time for me to dig deeper. This is where a video comes in handy.

This is all part of the way we learn about different topics- be it Ancient Egypt or green smoothies. I’m not talking about learning styles as much as I am about the process of learning. The method in which a person learns can be adjusted to suit. i.e: one can read a book or watch a video depending upon their preferred mode for absorbing information. I’m talking about the building blocks of learning which is cross generational.

I’m not talking about the use of video lectures, documentaries or dvd/cd use for instructional use, for they are valuable and have a solid bearing upon education. I’m talking about websites that have a video introduction (as an example) in which a computer generated or sometimes a real person’s voice will speak words of welcome and describe the site. I’m talking about a passive process replacing basic reading. What is happening to the world of print? Are we too lazy to even read such basic English? What effect does this have upon a developing mind?

I have learned, both as a homeschooling mother and a lifelong learner, that there are no shortcuts to education! The process of education is hard work. Each student must be a willing participant. No matter how hard we try or what new technologies we use, we simply cannot perform a data dump of information (knowledge) into a student’s brain and call it education.

Reading stimulates the brain and mind where the simple act of watching information is more passive. This is all part of a global change in learning and processing of information but I fear that a lot has been lost as a result.

What do you think? Do you see the popularity of video instruction that replaces reading as a positive, negative or something else?

“Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
~Abigail Adams

Free facebook security guide

Facebook. Love it or not it’s here to stay. Facebook has devised a new security guide for parents, teens and educators, or everyone. It’s good to read this guide for yourself but also read it with your children. It has a lot of common sense in it, useful for facebook, twitter, email and more. The free downloadable guide includes tips on how to protect your fb account, how to avoid scammers, how to use secure security settings and a whole lot more.

Some of the tips include:

Create a solid password and change it regularly. Tips for creating a solid password are: Passwords should be longer than six characters and include a mix of uppercase, lowercase, and special characters. If you need help with checking to see if a password is considered strong, you can use this site – Microsoft password checker.
Change your password regularly.
Share your personal information only with people and companies that need it.
Log into Facebook once each session. If in doubt or if you feel something is ‘off’ then skip the bookmark and type www.facebook.com directly into your browser address bar.
Always log out of Facebook (and any other site that needs logging into) after using someone else’s computer.
Use secure browsing when and where possible.
Keep your anti-virus software updated.
Keep your browser and other applications up to date.
Never paste script (code) in your browser address bar.
Beware of scandalous posts from anyone—even fb friends. If it looks like something a friend wouldn’t post, then don’t click on it. Many of the scammers devise their nasty apps based around current events. e.g: ‘Watch this video to see Michael Jackson’s last minute alive‘ and other such garbage gossip.

Head over and download the free pdf: Guide to Facebook Security

Homeschool Smorgasboard

PowerPoint on Possessive Nouns (5th Grade) PowerPoint on Possessive Nouns (6th Grade). A great resource for writing: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/english/powerpoints.htm

This is a teacher created site full of ideas for six trait writing, reading, literature, and many areas of classroom management, including getting organized. http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/menu.html

Birds coloring book from birds.cornell.edu – link to pdf download.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/bbimages/PDFs/ColoringBook.pdf

Very cool aviation math unit complete with videos for grades 5-9. Free from NASA!
www.smartskies.nasa.gov

Free Science curriculum – A homeschool science curriculum where you can combine a multitude of ages, use “living books” and do lots of hands on activities! tha: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/otters_science/otters_science_main.html

XtraMath – A free web program for students, parents and teachers: https://www.xtramath.org/home

Squidoo lens featuring timelines for homeschoolers. http://www.squidoo.com/homeschooltimelines

California Geological Survey (CGS) staff have scoured the Internet and compiled this linked list of free-to-download, 3D paper models and paper toys that are related to the Earth Sciences. They have listed over 250 paper models that can be cutout and assembled. Some might be suitable for class projects while others are just plain fun to assemble. The difficulty of assembly for each model is highly varied. The text and directions on some cutout sheets for some models are in Japanese, but this seemed to pose little problem in the actual assembly process for those of us who do not understand the language.
http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/information/pages/3d_papermodels.aspx

Find all the classic Amazing Space activities. Get to know our vast universe by exploring its planets, galaxies, comets, black holes, and more. http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/

Science With Me! is a free educational science website for elementary age children. Our website offers science movies and songs, free science coloring sheets, free science worksheets, fun science projects for kids and stories to help young children learn scientific principles and science the fun way. http://www.sciencewithme.com/

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
~William Butler Yeats

What's for tea: August

Confession time: I have not followed a menu plan since Abi & Mr. H announced their engagement. In fact, I have barely cooked! We’ve made do, but it has taken a toll on our bodies. Last week I started easing back into cooking and preparing fixed lunches. I take time with these things. I am, by nature, highly unorganised. I take some time to find my groove and whilst I’m in it everything is great. However it doesn’t take much to knock me out of my groove and the engagement/wedding did just that. So this is the first menu plan in a few weeks. (And it’s an off-pay week as well, so I’m doing okay)

Monday ~ Potato Bake

Tuesday ~ Stir Fry Chicken Noodles

Wednesday ~ Pantry Pasta

Thursday ~ See what grabs me on the day!

Friday ~ Crispy Oven Baked Thighs and Zucchini Bake

Saturday ~ Catch-What-Ya-Can

Sunday ~ Lasagne, Salad and Ginger Orange Dessert

Do you menu plan? I’d love to see your plan. Feel free to link to your own blog post or tell me how you plan for meals.

Divided: the movie

As you look on the church landscape, youth are leaving the faith in droves. The modern church, overall, is struggling to reach the next generation with the gospel. What has happened? Whether for good or bad, men, for many years, have been inventing solutions or brainstorming ideas without fully relying upon the foundation of God’s Word. God, however, is greater than man, and as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways higher than ours and His thoughts than our thoughts (Is. 55:8-9). We have substituted the greater for the lesser – God’s wisdom for man’s ideas. Jesus said that he who hears His Word and does it, is like a man that built his house upon a rock, and when the storm came, it stood firm. On the other hand, he who rejects His Word, is like a man who built on the sand and when the storm came, the house fell (Matt. 7:24-25). Shouldn’t the church, as a whole, abandon the sandy ideas of man and shamelessly return to the firm rock of the Word of God? God’s Word sufficiently identifies how youth are to be reached.

For more information on this issue, please see the film Divided, which is a documentary on age-segregated youth ministry in America. Watch it for free (for a limited time) at www.dividedthemovie.com.

This message is not new. John and I have been of this train of thought for over 15 years. However, this was pre Internet time. Nowadays ideas like this move quickly, due to widespread Internet usage. Do we agree with everything in the movie? No. Do we agree with all the ideas ad methodology of Family Integrated movements? No way! Does the movie have a bias and a definite point? You bet! However, there is a of of truth and validity to be found here. It asks good questions. It raises some interesting issues. Questions and issues that are worth discussing and searching the Scripture about. If this info-docu sends you to God’s word for answers then I will rejoice in that. The Bible can stand up to it. All I would caution is to diligently study the scriptures rather than studying blog posts on the issues.

I’ll warn you though: this movie, this train of thought has its enemies or those that do not agree. It is quite controversial on the interwebs. Rather than listen to every argument or blog post written on the movie, why don’t you watch it… then search the Scriptures with ears listening for the heart of God.

Bible Overview 3 (Week 9-12)

Kerugma Family Bible reading guide for use with young children. This guide is a no-fuss, easy to implement, overview of the Bible for the whole family.

This week we start our tour through the HISTORY books of the Bible:
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

Week 1-4 of the family Bible reading plan
Week 5-8 of the family Bible reading plan
This is part three week 9-12.

* Bible references are in the ESV. You may, of course, use the version of your choice.

Benefits:

for use with the family
52 weeks of the year
6 days a week
short time needed each day
weekly memory verse

Week Nine

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

~Joshua 24:14

Joshua 1:1-11 – Be Strong & Courageous
Joshua 2 Rahab and the Spies
Joshua 5:13 — 6:27 Jericho
Joshua 7 Achan’s Sin
Joshua 9 The Israelite’s are Tricked
Joshua 24:14-33 The Covenant Renewed

Week Ten

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ~Ruth 1:16

Judges 6:1-13 God Calls Gideon
Judges 6:14-40 Gideon’s Sign
Judges 7 Gideon’s Victory
Judges 16:1-22 Samson and Delilah
Judges 16:23-31 Samson’s Death
Ruth 1 Naomi and Ruth

Week Eleven

For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

~1Samuel 12:22

1Samuel 3 God Calls Samuel
1Samuel 16:1-13 Samuel Anoints David
1Samuel 16:14-23 David Serves Saul
1Samuel 17:1-37 David and Goliath
1Samuel 17:38-58 The Battle
1Samuel 20 David and Jonathon

Week Twelve

This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.

~ 2 Samuel 22:33-34

2 Samuel 5:1-10 Israel’s New King
2 Samuel 5:17-25 David Defeats the Philistines
2 Samuel 6:1-5 The Ark of God
2 Samuel 12:1-10 Nathan Confronts David
1 Kings 1:28-40 Solomon is King
1 Kings 3:1-15 Solomon asks for Wisdom

Week 1-4 of the family Bible reading plan
Week 5-8 of the family Bible reading plan
This is part three week 9-12.

To learn more about how we did Bible study you can read through our 4 step process page using the anagram IDEA: Introduce, Dig Deeper, Elaborate and Application.

Here are five sample lessons of the Kerugma Family Bible Study Guide.

Remembering John Stott

A few hours ago a precious man of God was taken home to be with the Lord. He was 90 years old. Family and close friends gathered with Stott today as they listened to Handel’s Messiah. Whilst I mourn the passing of such a dear man I am thankful for his years here on earth and all that he was able to accomplish.

The first book by Mr. Stott that I read was Basic Christianity but the book that had the most profound effect upon me was The Cross of Christ.

Visit the The John Stott Memorial

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ”The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world” as ours. . . . “The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.”
~John Stott
The Cross of Christ

Have you read any of John Stott’s books? Which one had the most impact upon your life? If you haven’t read any of his works, I’d like to strongly encourage you to do so.

Site news: new design, looking forward

It’s nowhere near finished. It currently looks like something that the cat dragged in. But it is up and running. My website, that is. If you’re reading this in a feed reader you won’t notice but I took the site down, deleted 50% of the posts and started again with a whole new design. No, it isn’t just that I’m bored. Ah, far from it. But it does fit in with my streamlining plans for the future.

You may notice that there are now 3 navigation bars: one at the very top linking to pages and the secondary menu linking to categories. The 3rd menu is at the very bottom of the page and contains all the boring but necessary stuff, like my new Disclaimer/Disclosure policy. The other page you may notice is the “Things I Like” page where I link to some products and services that I like.
I know that the rotating image viewer on the front page is all skewiff but with the wedding in 17 days I can’t afford to devote any more time to it just yet. I’m also aware that there are broken links but again, that will have to wait until after the wedding.

For now, it is quite pedestrian and wrinkly but over time I’ll get it straightened out. If you notice a particular design problem, and want to shoot me a quick email I’d be most appreciative.

Bible overview 2

Kerugma Family Bible reading guide for use with young children. This guide is a no-fuss, easy to implement, overview of the Bible for the whole family.

This is part two (2 of 12). Go here for part one. I will post a new 4 week plan every Friday.
* Bible references are in the ESV. You may, of course, use the version of your choice.

Benefits:

for use with the family
52 weeks of the year
6 days a week
short time needed each day
weekly memory verse

Week Five

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
~Exodus 6:7

Exodus 1:22–2:10 The birth of Moses
Exodus 2:11-23 Moses runs away from God
Exodus 3:1-10 The burning bush
Exodus 3: 11-22 Moses’ Job
Exodus 6:1-13, 26-30 God promises help
Exodus 10:1-20 The ten plagues

Week Six

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
~Exodus 14:14

Exodus 10:21-29 The plague of darkness
Exodus 12:1-20, 28-32 The passover
Exodus 14:13-31 Crossing the Red Sea
Exodus 19 Mount Sinai
Exodus 20 The ten commandments
Exodus 32:1-23 Israelites rebel

Week Seven

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
~Numbers 6:24-26

Leviticus 18:1-5 Keeping God’s law
Leviticus 26:1-13 Reward for obedience
Leviticus 26:14-26 Punishment for disobedience
Numbers 9:15-23 Following a cloud
Numbers 11 Complaining to God

Week Eight

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
~Deuteronomy 6:5

Numbers 14:1-30 Israelites rebel
Deuteronomy 4:1-14 God is near
Deuteronomy 4:15-19, 25-40 No other God
Deuteronomy 8 Not forgetting the Lord
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 Blessings for obedience
Deuteronomy 28:15-35 Curses for Israel’s disobedience

This marks the end our journey through the Books of the Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
I know it has been quick but this reading plan is to introduce your children to an overview of the Bible. Some scholars (and lay persons) spend years or even a lifetime on a particular book but that is not the aim of this quick overview. After this reading plan has been completed, you could go through the Bible again with another plan or using a Chronological Bible. However, this is a good plan for getting through the Bible (the main parts) in one year.

To learn more about how we did Bible study you can read through our 4 step process page using the anagram IDEA: Introduce, Dig Deeper, Elaborate and Application.

Here are five sample lessons of the Kerugma Family Bible Study Guide.

Almost 800 pages

This site contains (at the time of writing) 732 published posts and 62 published pages? That’s 794 in total. That’s over 6 years worth of writing, quoting and linking. So it stands to reason that there are many links which are broken, outdated or no longer existing. I am s-l-o-w-l-y going through the whole site and trying to correct or delete them. It’s a painful process which necessitates the consumption of ample amounts of coffee and chocolate.

In the meantime you may come across a broken link to my site and for that I apologise. However, you could use the advanced search, the site map, the articles page, the archives or subscribe to the rss feeds. Or maybe you were looking for the free downloads? You can also contact me via email, facebook or twitter – just click on the pretty little pictures at the top of the right hand sidebar.

Please be patient. I hope to have most of the links fixed soon.

Through the Bible overview (for families of littlies)

Kerugma Family Bible reading guide for use with young children. This guide is a no-fuss, easy to carry out, overview of the Bible for the whole family.
Here are four weeks in advance. I will post a new 4 week plan every Friday.
* Bible references are in the ESV. You may, of course, use the version of your choice.

Benefits:

for use with the family
52 weeks of the year
6 days a week
short time needed each day
weekly memory verse

Week One

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. ~Gen 1:31

Genesis 1:1-24 Story of Creation
Gen 1:25-31 Ruling Creation
Gen 2 Adam & Eve
Gen 3 Sin enters God’s perfect world
Gen 4:1-15 Cain & Abel
Gen 4:16-26 Cain is sent away

Week Two

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;t walk before me, and be blameless ~Gen 17:1

Gen 7:1-10 Story of Noah
Gen 7:11-24 The Flood
Gen 8:1-17 The rain stops
Gen 8:18-22 The Promise
Gen 15 God’s covenant with Abraham
Gen 21:1-21 and Gen 22:17-18

Week Three

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. ~Gen 28:15

Gen 22:1-14 Abraham tested
Gen 22:15-24 Abraham blessed
Gen 27:1-29 Isaac’s blessing
Gen 27:30-46 Esau upset
Gen 28:1-9 Jacob flees
Gen 28:10-22 Jacob’s dream

Week Four

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. ~Gen 50:20

Gen 33 Jacob meets Esau
Gen 37:1-11 Joseph’s Dreams
Gen 37:12-36 Joseph sold into slavery
Gen 41: 1-36 Pharaoh’s dream
Gen 41:37-57 Joseph in charge of Egypt
Gen 45 Joseph makes himself known

To learn more about how we did Bible study you can read through our 4 step process page using the anagram IDEA: Introduce, Dig Deeper, Elaborate and Application.

Here are five sample lessons of the Kerugma Family Bible Study Guide.

Your turn: family bible study

Some years ago I ran a series of questions on my blog where I asked questions, inviting you, the reader, to share with me. You can see more of these posts here. I’d like to start that back up again. So please do share, either by leaving a comment below or linking to your own blog post.

We all desire for our children to know and love the Lord and be literate when it comes to the Bible. What have you done this week toward that? What lessons from the word have you learned with your family over the last week? What do you plan to study (read- memorise-apply) in the following week?

If you are at a loss for where or how to start, what can I do to help you?

Trying harder

Coffee explained

I’m not 100% sure that Abi would agree with this and I’m sure she will correct me if it is wrong but here is a cup of coffee explained.

Image courtesy of http://fooducate.com

I used to have a cappuccino but find they are way too frothy for me nowadays. I stick to latte’s or a flat white.

How do you take your coffee?

How to write a best seller

And why I have not tried…

“The best way to write a best-selling book is to know who your audience is (and what they want) before you start writing. You should know everything there is to know about your readers in advance, and then write your book. Most people do it backwards.” ~John Locke

A few years ago I wanted to write a book. No great surprise there, I suppose. Lots of homeschoolers want to write a book. I think it has something to do with our love of language and our willingness to communicate via literary language. I used the Bible as our primary textbook for homeschooling. We studied English, Science, Geography, Art and History using God’s word. For a season we used many of the Heart of Wisdom unit studies (which I wholeheartedly recommend) before I modified the HOW methodology to suit our family. Our family bible study pages are a result of that.

Family Bible Study

I wanted to share how we studied the Bible in our family. I saw many parents desiring to impart a love of God’s word to their children but had no idea how to go about it. I observed countless parents who led the family in Bible study using consumable, pre digested bible studies yet they didn’t know how to study the scriptures for themselves. I wanted to write how we did things in our family.

Unlike some other committed womenaka Robin Sampson & Anne Elliott I seem to lack the consistency to write. Maybe the desire was there but it was not the right season for me at that time. Only God knows. But now, a few years later I am glad that I didn’t write Family Bible Study Companion. I’m glad I am not writing a how-to book for homeschoolers or parents. Because, simply, I would be doing it all backwards, as John Locke would say.

On the other hand, I’m not sure I do agree with his statement. Oh it might be correct when attempting to write a best seller but what if that is not one’s goal? What if my desire is to simply share a facet of our study habits? Does it change things?

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the above quote?

The diagnosis

I haven’t played a game on facebok for weeks… haven’t blogged much, haven’t been on AussieHomeschool but… I have been on Pinterest!

So what is this Pinterest thing all about? Basically it is your own creative, visual pin board. When you find images of anything that you like, you can ‘pin it’ to your pinterest. You can peruse other people’s boards and like their pins or add it to your own collection. Sure, I can see that some people would wonder why on earth this pinning trend is catching on but it’s really all quite natural – not much different to keeping a scrapbook. When we were first married I kept a scrapbook. No, not a fancy thing like Creative Memories book, rather just a paper scrapbook that I would post lovely images, quotes, scriptures or notes into. Come to think of it, it’s much like blogging! Well Pinterest is a little different but rather than read all about it, pop over to my (rather small) Pinterest page and see the things I like.

I am collecting images of things that inspire me or that I like.

Images of home decorations that I could never afford not manage in a rental
Clothes that I would never buy or wear
Colour schemes that I love but will never be able to use
Coffee because I love the colours and artwork
Scrumptious food that I simply couldn’t be bothered to make but it all looks good
Plants & gardens that I will never plant or grow
Word art and saying that I couldn’t think of myself but always nod along in agreement
Crafts that I’m too lazy to make

If you’d like to join Pinterest, let me know and I’ll send you an invite.

If you are already pinning, let me know your email address/username so that we can pin together.

How not to remind teens to write thank you notes

A Mum decided she was no longer going to remind her teens to write thank-you notes. That year their Aunt never received thanks for the checks she gave the teens for their birthdays. The next year things were different. The teens each visited to thank her in person!
“What caused the change in behaviour?” a friend asked the Aunt.
“Oh, that’s easy.” the Aunt replied. “This year I didn’t sign the checks.” 🙂

The Long and the Short of Dresses

I’m confused. I just don’t get it.

Yesterday, we (Miss A and the bridesmaids) went shopping for bridesmaids dresses! It was a l-o-n-g day and we went all over the city but returned home empty-handed. Now Miss A is not difficult to please. She has a colour range in mind and a fairly good idea of the style she wants- classic and elegant. They style in mind will look lovely on the bridesmaids as they are tall and slender.

So why is it so hard?

Summer dresses

In summer I can buy long dresses- maxi style. Ankle length.

Winter dresses

But in winter most of the dresses are short. What’s with that?

Are we really so odd for wanting a long dress in the colder months?

Idolizing the family

Living in a time when the family is under attack, the real danger is idolizing the family. We hear the family first and may be tempted to say amen. But Jesus will have none of this. When family is first, God plays second fiddle.
from Family Traits by Wynn Kenyon

It really is a good article and well worth reading. Lots to ponder especially when there is a tendency for the homeschool market to be unbalanced in this area.

He goes on to say:

The family is central to the biblical ethic. It is the primary image of the relationship of the saints to God. The work of Christ was required to bring about regeneration and adoption, making believers heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And the book of Revelation culminates in the wedding feast of the Lamb. Given the significance of this concept, what does it mean to live a life “worthy of this calling?” What should family members look like? To answer these questions we turn to the biblical narrative.

Individuals were not made to exist in isolation, but in community, just as the triune God exists in community. Because we are created in the image of God, we are relational beings. The difference between God and man is that the persons of the Godhead don’t grow into perfection where humans do. Since “it is not good that the man should be alone,” God made “a helper fit for him.” God created woman and established the family, along with other significant social structures to meet this need. God designed the family to be the primary institution to give children the moral and rational tools to subdue the earth. God created the bonding that naturally occurs (that is, family ties) as well as natural instincts and declared them good…Genesis carefully balances the significance and purpose of the family.

But don’t be content to read these snippets… read the whole article. Family Traits by Wynn Kenyon

What! No clicking?

Cross centric

As you read the four gospels notice that the narration slows down as the hour of Christ’s death approaches, slowing from months and weeks to hours and minutes, reminding us that this was the hour for which he came. We are to pause and ponder every detail.

~C.J. Mahaney in the message “Cross Centered Leadership”

Mother's first duty

Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship, but dream not that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord. Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple.

~ Charles Spurgeon

Simply Small Homes

We have lived in all sorts of homes: a small house, a large house, a converted bus and even a shed! Some of our best times were when we were in the bus and the shed. Life was simpler. Naturally as we got older we accumulated more stuff, had more children and apparently our need for a larger home grew. Apparently.

In times of stress I yearn for simplicity because deep down I know that stuff doesn’t matter. I know that our best times of fun, fellowship and intimacy were when we had less stuff and less room.

This video is 10min long… so grab a cuppa and watch it. Let me know how you feel about it. It appeals to me. John and I may very well retire in a cabin as we don’t want to take out a large mortgage and be in debt. What are your thoughts? Could you live in a home this size?

Preach Christ- Spurgeon

To be prepared for the coming conflict, we have only to preach the gospel, and to live the gospel; and also to take care that we teach the children the Word of the Lord. This last is specially to be attended to, for it is by the mouth of babes and sucklings that God will still the enemy.

…

Preach Christ; preach the Word in season and out of season: and teach the children. One of God’s chief methods for preserving His fields from tares, is to sow them early with wheat.

~Charles Spurgeon

The war on truth

A sweet lady named Susan (how could she be anything else with a name like that?) visited my blog and left a comment. Over a cup of coffee, I popped over to her place and just so adamantly agreed with her words that I thought I’d quote them here and point you to her place.

Susan is a follower of Jesus The Christ, wife to fellow follower who happens to be a pastor, and mother to his eight children. You can find her blogging over at MomsHeart48.

I heard a quote from Franklin Graham the other day. He said “Truth is Provocative”. Whee! Thank you so much. I am so tired of apologizing for simply telling the truth. Shoot yes, the truth hurts. It hurts because the sting of sin is real! When truth hits sin it’s like peroxide hitting an open wound …there will be a reaction. We must let truth do it’s work. We must stop apologizing for it’s provocativeness! The fact that the truth will hurt all on it’s on is why we are warned to speak it in love. We don’t need to shout it …a simple whisper will hurt and will make it’s point because truth is a work of God. All truth is God’s truth. We must embrace it …not evade it. We must speak it …not soften it. We must let it sting the sin right out of us and then let it restore to rightness with God…Jehovah God… the eternal self existent one who hates sin but loves sinners.

The reason that her words resonate with me so strongly at the moment may have something to do with my current reading list. Have you read The Truth War by John MacArthur? Free excerpt is also available from this page.

Right now, truth is under attack, and it’s going on within the boundaries of evangelicalism. There’s a lot at stake and there’s no middle ground—no safe zone for the uncommitted in this war.

John MacArthur has written this book to unveil the enemy’s tactics and equip you to fight. Here’s what you’ll learn

The pitfalls of postmodern thinking.
The inherent flaws of the Emerging Church Movement.
The historic skirmishes in the truth war and their effect on the contemporary church.
The vital importance of truth and certainty in a postmodern age.

Ten ways to nurture your children

Childhood & the Scriptures by Spurgeon

Let us expect our children to know the Lord. Let us from the beginning mingle the name of Jesus with the A B C. Let them read their first lessons from the bible. It is a remarkable thing that there is no book from which children learn to read so quickly as from the New Testament: there is a charm about that book which draws forth the infant mind. But let us never be guilty, as parents, of forgetting the religious training of our children; for if we do we may be guilty of the blood of their souls.

~Charles Spurgeon

Where is my head?

Churches, Reception venues, Wedding dresses, Shoes, Hair ‘n’ Makeup, Flowers, Favours, Caterers and menu’s, Invitations, Colour schemes…

Mid August is the desired date. Many people are saying that it can’t be done in such a short time… but we are pretty resourceful around here. Plus, it is off peak time. I don’t think it could be done in 10 weeks during spring or summer but in Autumn/Winter – yeah, we can do it.

This is all so exciting!

Weekly Menu Planning

For 23 years I have been attempting to get quick, tasty yet nutritionally balanced meals on the table each night. I’ll keep you updated as to when I achieve that goal because I have not reached it yet. However I have a goal and a plan of how to achieve it. Here’s the plan along with my areas of focus:

Nutritional Variety

I could eat grilled chicken and hokkien noodles every night. But I shouldn’t. Of course I have the perfect weekly meal plan and whilst it doesn’t always stay on schedule, just looking at it helps me to look further afield than grilled chicken.

Some people I know like to think of their weekly menu plan in themes, which can also makes for a great learning activity.

Monday ~ Mexican night (Chilli Con Carne,bean burritos, tacos)
Tuesday ~ Greek night (Greek salad, hummus sandwiches)
Wednesday ~ pizza night (homemade and nutritious version)
Thursday ~ “burger” night (veggie burgers, salmon burgers, turkey burgers, tuna burgers)
Friday ~ Take-away or Kids’ choice
Saturday ~ Italian night (lasagna or pasta with kangaroo sauce)
Sunday ~ Soup and Salad night

This is a good plan and obviously works well for some…I prefer to focus on protein as my main ingredient and then I cook from that depending upon what I have on hand. As an example:

Susan’s Weekly Ideal Menu Planner

Monday :: Chicken
Tuesday :: Fish (most likely tuna or salmon mornay)
Wednesday :: Pasta or Rice
Thursday :: Beef or Kangaroo
Friday :: Eggs (omelet or frittata) or Plant Based Meal only
Saturday :: Legumes/ Rice/Nuts/Grain (complementary proteins)
Sunday :: Kangaroo, Beef, Soup or Lasagne or CatchWhatYaCan (everyone gets their own)

I always cook a little extra so that John can take it for his lunch the following day. When I cook rice, pasta or beans I try to cook a little more so that the remainder can be used for lunches. I have organised my cookbook (printouts placed in plastic sheets in a 4 ring binder) according to the above types: chicken, fish, pasta/rice, beef/roo, eggs, legumes, salads, casseroles, soups, etc.

I’m able to tweak this plan depending upon the needs of the family. Tuesday and Wednesday meals are quick and easy night because we are out, taking boys to cadets and eating at all odd times of the night.

We try to have lots of fresh salad and/or veggies with each meal.

Wow, I sounds organised, don’t I? Believe me, the reality is much different. 😉

Balance

There used to be a day when housewives would cook a meat and three veg dish. I grew up on that. It’s just not the way that my brain thinks although I don’t know why. I like to ensure that we are getting a balance of lean protein, low starch veg, healthy fat and a starchy veggie, in that order.

Seasonal produce

Along with my weekly menu plan I try to buy seasonal. I also try to buy fresh produce at the organic produce shop but it is a few kilometre’s away and I don’t always get there (I have been car-less for several months) so I shop at the local green grocer’s where possible. Buying seasonal is often cheaper and there might be slightly less nasties (pesticides and other gunky sprays) on the produce. Not only that, but I believe God created foods to be grown and harvested in their own season. I’m no nutritionist nor a scientist but I think He might have been on to something with that whole design/creation thing. 😉

Fire drill for a homeschool mum

Monday's quiz

Announcing…

We, John and Susan, are thrilled to announce the engagement of their eldest daughter to *Mr. I on the 18th May, 2011.

The happy couple

Further details will be announced as plans are made.

We could not be happier and are delighted about the upcoming marriage.

*C’mon, you know I don’t use names here.

Eating out the pantry

Having a weekly menu plan is all well and good but some times it just doesn’t work. Well, not in my house anyway! This week is going to be one of those weeks where it doesn’t work. It is our ‘off pay’ week and we’re pretty stretched financially. I am not good at menu planning or cooking on a tight budget but I don’t have any choice in the matter. I can plan for it or eat bread and butter for the week. This type of week is where we Eat-Out-The Pantry or the Fridge. Basically the menu plans goes down the drain and I simply use everything from the fridge and pantry. Ah, the benefits of having a well stocked freezer!

Confession Time

Stocking the freezer is my strong point. I like to buy produce, especially meats, and put them in the freezer for later.

Problem: I do not like going into the freezer and defrosting meat.

Solution: Sadly I had to ask John to help me. He went through the freezer, told me what was there so I devised the menu plan. He even took some of it out for use early on in the week and then placed the meats for mid week closer to the front. We would obviously go hungry if he didn’t help me.

So what does our menu plan this week look like?

Eat-Out-The-Fridge-Until-Payday-Menu-Plan

Sunday:: Chow Mein (beef mince and cabbage)
Monday:: Soup and Baked Pasta with Turkey Sausages and Spinach
Tuesday:: Catch-What-Ya-Can (soup, omelette, toastie sandwiches, etc)
Wednesday: Italian Pizza Soup and Something with Turkey Sausages. Any suggestions?
Thursday:: is payday!

I make nutritious soups which are warm and filling and not too expensive so a bit of broccoli and zucchini will be all I need to buy at shops to get me through. I also have a packet of Aussie Soup Mix in the cupboard so can do something with that.

But what I really need is a quick, easy and tasty recipe using Turkey Sausages. Anyone?

Tuna lasagne

Tuna Lasagne (Healthy, Australian version)

Filling

6 spring onions
2 carrots, finely sliced
4 medium zucchini, sliced
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 tsp dried basil
2 TB chopped parsley
425gm tin tuna, drained and flaked
140gm tomato paste, mixed with 1/4 cup water

Mix all filling ingredients together.

Extra ingredients

600ml cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
125 gms of instant lasagne noodle sheets or 1 pkt of fresh lasagne noodles
2 cups grated tasty cheese

Method

Mix cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg together. Spoon 2-4 TB of it onto base of lasagne dish. Cover with a layer of lasagne sheets. Spread half the filling over the lasagne sheets. Top with half the remaining cream mix, then sprinkle over some cheese.

Put another layer of lasagne on top, spread with remaining filling, then cream, then remaining cheese.

Bake in a moderate oven for 50 minutes.

Serve with a salad and crusty bread.

How to leave comments on the Internet

Why I am on Facebook

It’s a good question. Why am I am facebook? My husband despises FB… even that is an understatement. However it is important to not get caught up in social trends rather to know WHY I do the things I do. It’s important that I be deliberate and intentional in the online world.

I first joined many years ago… couldn’t figure it out so left it. Then I went back to give it another go. Being that little more familiar with it the second time around allowed me to understand how it works and see its potential. But that doesn’t tell you WHY I joined. I could see it was going to be all the rage. If it’s going to be the ‘in thing’ then chances are that one of my children will want to use it… therefore I wanted to know what it is all about- just like I know a little about tumblr, formspring, myspace, linkedin, bebo and all those other social networking sites. As a parent who allows their children onto the WWW, it is my duty to know where they hang out. I want to be realistic. The Internet is not going away, it’s here to stay. Like it or not. Same with facebook. If it’s not FB it will be some other site.

Stalkbook

Yes, I spy on my children. I stalk them. And the point is…? Why wouldn’t I? I’m careful about their ‘real’ life and their online life is an extension of that so of course I would pay attention to it.

My family are getting sick of hearing this but facebook is not evil. It is a tool that can be used for good or evil. It can’t make me lazy but I can become lazy by avoiding work and being on FB. Is that FB’s fault or my fault? I actually find FB to be a lot like a mirror- it reveals things about people. And about me. Many people who only know me from softball may be surprised when they see me on FB, talking about faith, the Bible, natural health, homemaking and current events. But that is me- it is who I am.

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
~Hebrews 3:13

Nobody really wants nor needs to know that I plucked my eyebrows or burnt my new saucepan. And I think that kind of sharing is not only superficial but truly time wasting. Despite what others do and the media may tell you, FB is not only for uploading embarrassing photos and doing stupid things. I try to use it by encouraging fellow believers of the promises and the character of God. Sure they ‘know’ it but being reminded is never a negative thing.

“I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have”
2 Peter 1:12

Worldview

Friends know that I am a questioner. I want to know why. One of my favourite sayings is “know why we do what we do”. So at times, I ask questions. Sometimes these questions aren’t ones that I am struggling with- sometimes they are designed to see how or WHY others do things the way they do. I like to know if other people understand WHY they celebrate Christmas in the way that they do… or WHY they spend money on the things that they do… or WHY they eat healthy food when it’s hard work.I know it challenges people… but it challenges myself even more.

Developing relationships

I’ve found it to be helpful and effective for relating with my distant relatives. Why? Because it is neutral territory. They are free to be themselves and not put up a facade. My extended family has a long history of h*mos*xuality and drugs running right through it. God worked in the life of my mum to break this cycle and she was the first believer in her family… my dad and myself followed. Therefore I am ‘friends’ with some fairly *colourful* people on fb, as in real life. I know this has shocked a few people but FB is one neutral venue where some of them might actually listen/read my posts. I do not live as a separatist… my faith is not isolated and my life has many non believers in it. Yes, I live in the world but am not of the world. I know that many fellow believers do not agree and I’m fine with that. That is their life and God may have called them to it. Most of my fairly think I am a religious, goody-two-shoes nutter. But they still visit my profile 😉 I have had some fantastic, deep, gospel-filled discussions with colourful people on FB… discussions that I wouldn’t have had at church or in the street.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
~1 Thessalonians 5:11

I’ve also shared (given and received) health information, homeschool information, photography tips, Internet security advise, homemaking tips and recipes on FB.

Sure, technology should not replace real life contact and relationships but really, isn’t that obvious? There are negatives to FB and other sites… but to adamantly avoid FB whilst spending hours perusing other blogs and loitering in forums is no better. Common sense is needed. Always. There is a lot be wary of and to be careful of with FB and any other social networking site or blog…. we should always use our common sense and realise that nothing that is anywhere on the Internet is ever truly private. There are still guidelines and netiquette to be observed. I would not want to hear of a major idea or event from my children through FB; a quick phone call is much better.

Encouragement and Information

All in all I use FB as a way to encourage others, to receive encouragement, to learn about others so that I can love and care for them. Now if we’re talking Twitter, that’s a whole ‘nother story. I just can’t seem to get into it yet I know that others are blessed by it. Maybe I’m just too verbose for tweeting? 140 characters? Come on! That is just unreasonable. 😉

Permissible… but beneficial?

Blogging is great and there are loads of benefits but it isn’t always the right time in one’s life to get into blogging. Same with online forums… or FB. This chapter of my life sees me with older children so life is much different than when the children were younger. Honestly, I don’t know how some mums of younger children do it! I used to get sucked into forums- they were like a black hole that just gnawing away at my personal time. I became a mum where the *lights were on but no one was home*. You can read about it here… If this sounds like you, let me encourage you to stop your online activity and ask the Lord to renew your heart. He can and He will. I know.

Mind you whilst it might appear like I have ‘it altogether’ with this FB issue, I don’t. There have been times when I have deactivated my account and taken a FB sabbatical. I periodically cull my ‘friends’ list. I will ‘drop off’ the online planet for days or weeks at a time. Because real life and relationships come first for me.

If you do use FB or have decided to give it a go, head over here to Albert Mohler’s blog and look over his advice for social networkers.

Facebook is a tool … it can be used in a responsible way and give glory to God. How about you? Why do you use Facebook?

Broccoli & Lemon Soup

In the cooler months there is nothing better to warm cold bodies than a nutritious soup before the main meal or for lunch. I’ve also found that a healthy soup before the main meal tends to fill us up more thus we don’t eat quite as much, which is a positive. This dish is a favourite in our home. It is high in Vitamin C and even those that don’t like broccoli will love it.

Broccoli & Lemon Soup

Yield: 8 x1 cup serves
Time: 20 min

5 cups water (1250ml)
4 chicken stock cubes, although I use whatever I have on hand- vegetable stock powder usually.
600 grams chopped broccoli (stalks and all)
1 large coarsely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried sweet basil
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
grated rind of half a lemon

Method

Bring water and stock cubes/powder to the boil in a large saucepan. Add broccoli, onion, garlic, sweet basil and pepper.
Return to the boil and simmer for 10 min.
When cool enough, puree in blender (or stick blender) and adjust the liquid until it equals 8 cups.
Reheat and add lemon juice and grated rind.
Serve with a slice of lemon on top.

Nutritional Information Per 1 Cup Serve

Calories: 45
Protein: 2g
Fat: 1g
Carb: 7g
Fibre: 3g

Why I post quotes

I love quotes. Can you tell? I have them everywhere – in the home, posted on facebook, at the end of posts and on my phone. I never realised that quotes actually annoy some people. But they do! So if my posting quotes annoys you then maybe you can just ignore them. O:-)

Having said that I am a little fussy with quotes. One does have to be careful, you know. Not everyone is equally quotable. Some theologians and authors are more quotable than others. J.C. Ryle is very quotable as is R.C. Sproul but Geoffrey Bingham is not so. Yet each man states the truth in a unique, clear and definitive way. Some people just speak or write in a more quotable way than others. I wonder if more pastors will try to become ‘quotable’ in this modern era of sound bytes and tweets?

I’m not in favour of posting many Bible verses as it is too easy to ‘name and claim’ particular verses and take them out of context. Many times, especially when reading the Old Testament we need to read the entire book and know the 5W’s and a H about it – Who wrote it, to whom is was written, when was it written , why was it written, in what time and culture it was written and what was or should have been the response.

When I am reading a book, there will be a sentence or passage that really speaks to or encapsulates an entire thought in an articulate way. Those who know me well understand that I have always struggled with [not] being articulate so this is probably why I love quotes. Short and to the point without loads of waffle.

Another reason I post quotes is for my own encouragement and that of others. I love logging on to Facebook and seeing words of wisdom or snippets of truth pointing to God. This is truly a daily encouragement and builds up my faith. Yes it is a challenge to use social networking responsibly but isn’t that just a natural extension of our responsibility as a follower of Christ?

I am sorry to those few who think that I don’t post anything original but when other people have gone before me and said great truths so succinctly and carefully then they are worth quoting. Besides that, do you really want or need to know what I had for breakfast or that I washed my hair that day. Really? I wouldn’t find that very encouraging or edifying at all.

* See related download – Observation Sheet (using the 5 W’s and a H) and various ways to use it.

The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they are genuine.
~Abraham Lincoln

Christian Internet Code of Ethics As a Christian who is active on the internet,

I hold myself to certain standards of conduct. They are:

I guard my online relationships
I am careful to visit websites that do not compromise my life in Christ
I take care that my written communications reflect Christ in my life
I guard my time to assure that my time online is kept in proper balance with the rest of my life

For more information visit the

Christian Internet Code of Ethics home page.

Grace in the Garden

Were Adam and Eve sent to the Naughty Corner?

A Garden of Grace

If you’ve been reading your Bible for a few years I’m sure you’ll nod along in agreement when I ask if you have ever read a passage many times and yet one day, a point just jumps out and smacks you in the face. That happened to me again recently. I don’t know the amount of times we have read Genesis. We’ve read it, copied selected passages, read a few commentaries and read other works that tie in with it.

I’ve always known that God showed great grace in the garden of Eden. But this passage blew me away when I read it. I rushed to share it with my children the next morning.

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”– therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3: 21 – 24

I’ve always seen that God made the first sacrifice. Sin brings about death. We know that Adam and Eve deserved an instant death yet God slaughtered the substitute (which he provided) and covered the sinner’s shame. (Atonement)

But awhile ago, the Holy Spirit showed me something further of God’s grace. I’m sure it’s not new to you… and you might think it shouldn’t have been new for me having been a believer for over 20 years but this just slapped me in the face as I read it.

… Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever“– therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden…

The world yearns for eternal life… and that promise is for the believer in Christ Jesus- those who have salvation by His name. But can you imagine eternity in that fallen, depraved state? Imagine eternity with no hope of deliverance, filled with sin, removed from right relationship with God? Ugh! So God sent them out from the garden. He didn’t banish them as a punishment (He’s not SuperNanny sending us to the Naughty Corner) rather He was extending grace and mercy to them again. Banishing them from the garden was an act of merciful grace – thereby preventing them from being sustained forever (in their depraved, fallen state) by the Tree of Life. God the Provider. God the Protector.

And that is my life story too. Fallen, wicked, depraved and sinful was I, till He drew me unto Himself. He revealed Himself to me, leaving me with little choice but to believe and repent. (I could have seen the revelation of Him and tried to run but He is patient and gentle and brings things about in His right time) He provided me with a covering cloak through the atoning work of Jesus Christ- a substitute on my behalf.

I could write more and more about God’s merciful grace… but I’d rather you read the chapter again and dig into it anew, looking for God’s merciful grace in the beginning. And when you find it, please share with me.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
~Jude 1:24-25

Nothing much…

I wanted to quit. Pack up my blog and stow it away in the cupboard. I feel like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. I’m not a homeschool blogger anymore. I’m not into crafts. I’m not a foodie blog nor a photography blog, nor a theological blog. I mainly just share our weekly life which is more like a family journal- quite boring if you’re not part of that family, I assume. I don’t fit into a blogging niche. Once upon a time I did, but that chapter is closed.

This site started very natural- as a natural extension of my participation on forums. I simply copied and pasted my replies here rather than rewrite them everytime a question was asked. So primarily, I blogged for me. And I’m happy for that. I don’t try to teach anyone… I just wanted to share. I don’t want to get into theological debates nor lead people astray with any wishy-washy or incorrect theology, so I simply stopped sharing what was on my heart. Yes, I do need to be careful with my words, but to allow that to prevent me from sharing is also questionable. I think I had become more concerned about appearing correct than actually sharing my walk despite the fact that I had previously written how I do not have all my theological ducks in a row.

I wanted to dig a hole and bury the site. And while John would respect my decision if I decided to go ahead with it, he really doesn’t want me to do that. I think he knows that I am the greatest beneficiary from my blog. He wants me to continue. He wants to see me write more. So I shall. I will share some of the things that I learn. They may not be 100% doctrinally correct but be patient with me, please.

I guess I’m back.

Web wanderings 11-4-11

Christian links
Legalism ~ at Monergism: Legalism could be defined as any attempt to rely on self-effort to either attain or maintain our just standing before God.

The book that changed the world– KJV exhibition coming to a city near you.

Will studying theology kill my faith?

Passover articles at Heart of Wisdom ~ 12 Passover Articles, history, meaning, prophecy, crafts, recipes, hagaddah, unleavened bread, & more.

Kingdom Series- the movie. We really enjoyed these books... can’t wait for the movie!

Womanhood
“Dora the Doormat” and other Scary Straw Women of Complementarity ~ thoroughly enjoyed this summary of how some people try to stereotype the complementarian woman, by Mary Kassian

Life Skills
Fifty ways to say ‘No‘.

Health
Nutrient Chart: nutrition chart with pictures provides an easy cross-reference for vitamin and mineral content in fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Cookbook Having trouble losing weight? Health not as good as it should be? Dr. Mercola says it’s grains that are the culprits! Not just another low-carb book, this gives some real information and help.

Parenting
Free Gospel-Centered Parenting eBook for Download

Four Opportunity Phases of Family Discipleship ~ Depending upon the ages of our children, we have four times when we can impact their lives in the manner that Jesus made disciples. Think about the first twenty years of your child’s life and some broad things we can say about certain age-related categories or phases and what you can generally expect in terms of discipleship opportunities.

Education
50 Common Latin Phrases Every College Student Should Know

A modern day look at The Passover
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KLKG6LNX

Shopping… the Key to Longevity?

Shopping keeps us young! So go out: buy! Spend! Be a good citizen! Do it for your health!

Well! The The Herald Sun reports : “SHOP so you don’t drop. That’s the message from a curious new international study, which shows shopping could help you live longer.”

Older men who indulged in daily shopping trips were 28 per cent more likely to live longer, compared with 23 per cent for women.
Australian experts say shopping can lift spirits for all ages.

“Modern stores are bright, energetic places that I would think can be pleasantly stimulating occasionally if your alternative is largely being stuck at home with limited forms of communication or contact,” he said.

Sure the article does mention that it is the social interaction with others, the companionship that is beneficial and with this point I thoroughly agree. But HOW in the world do they arrive at the conclusion then, that it is shopping (spending money, being a consumer) that leads to longevity of life. How about other forms of social interaction like volunteer work in the local community, being an active member of the local community and being active within the church community? Making encouraging phone calls or sending cards, writing letters or the occasional visit is certainly more satisfying than spending money. Investing in relationships… putting time and effort into eternal matters has to be fulfilling and beneficial for everyone involved.

What a totally worldly way of looking at this issue. Not only should we aim to be interactive in our elderly years but as younger women, it is very important that we learn to respect the older women in our church community. If we treat them with disrespect or treat them as the world treats the elderly then they will most likely react accordingly.

The Scriptures tell us what to expect from old age… and how to spend our time:

Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding.
Job 12:12

If any believing woman has widows, she should help them, and the church should not be burdened, so that it can help those who are genuinely widows.
1 Timothy 5:16

They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing.
Psalms 92:12-14

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Titus 2:3-5

As a family we watched this as a news article on TV the other night. We used it as a way to teach the children how the media (and anyone pushing a bias) can attempt to manipulate the hearer by using faulty reasoning and jumping to unreasonable conclusions. Grrr, it makes me mad!

Rant over… back to your irregularly-never-scheduled blog. 🙂

Carob treats

Carob Treats

3 Weet-Bix or Vita-Brits
1 TB carob powder
1 TB Coconut oil
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup almond milk
Pinch or two of Stevia or natural sweetener
1/2 cup sultanas, raisins, prunes or figs.

Place all ingredients except fruit into blender and process.
Stir in the dried fruit and pulse lightly.
Using a teaspoon, measure out amount and roll into balls. The mixture should be firm and not too wet.
Once formed, roll in coconut.
Chill in fridge.
Enjoy!

Almond Milk and Granola

♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ I am so clever. I am so clever. ♪ ♫ ♩ ♬

Yes, I jumped around the house yesterday afternoon singing this to any and all. Why am I so clever? Because after trying something 5 years ago and failing I recently had another go. And the result was delicious! I felt clever for actually doing something successful.

Almond Milk and Nutty Granola

A few years ago I tried to make Almond Milk and a dehydrated granola from the recipe in Serene Allison’s book, “Rejuvenate Your Life – Recipes for Energy“. I failed miserably. 🙁 In fact, salads and nut sprinkles are pretty much the only things from that book that I do well.

But in my travels around the world (with the help of the Internet) I stumbled across a video of Jennifer Cornbleet, at LearnRawFood. She was making Zucchini Pasta with Marinara Sauce. We tried it ourselves and loved it! Then I searched for ‘raw foods’ at my local library and Jennifer’s DVD was available so I sped er, mosied along over to the library, borrowed it and watched it. She makes it look all so easy and achievable! I was so inspired that I tried the Almond Milk and Granola myself… and […drum roll please…] IT WORKED!!! It is delicious! Rich, nutty and creamy and it keeps for 5 days in the fridge.

Jennifer Cornbleet’s Almond Milk

Yield: 2 1/2 cups, 2 servings

2.5 cups water
1.5 cups soaked almonds (see note)
3 pitted medjool dates ( I didn’t have medjool dates so just used normal ones)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Equipment

measuring cups
measuring spoons
blender
fine-mesh strainer or mesh bag
medium bowl
rubber spatula

Method

Place 1.5 cups of the water and the almonds, dates, and optional vanilla in a blender. Blend on high speed until very smooth. Add the remaining 1 cup of water and blend until smooth.

Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl and pour the almond mixture through it. Using a rubber spatula, stir and press the pulp that is caught in the strainer to extract as much milk as possible. Alternatively, use a mesh bag to strain the milk.

Discard the pulp left in the strainer. Transfer the milk to a sealed container and store in the refrigerator. Almond Milk will keep for five days. It will separate, so shake well before using.

Note: To soak the almonds, place 1 cup of them in a mason jar (or bowl). Fill with cool water, screw on the lid, and soak for 8 hours or overnight at room temperature. Drain and rinse. 1 cup raw almonds yields 1 1/2 cups soaked.

** I didn’t use vanilla but added a teaspoon of honey instead.

If you try it, let me know how it went. If you have any other tips, please let me know.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlOg7LGrDEE

No Knead Bread

Making bread is nothing new. I’ve been making home made bread since the early ’90’s. The recipe was given to me by a friend of my mum’s. It is a quick and easy bread recipe which delivers a lovely, soft, fluffy bread.

Soft, White Aussie Bread

5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 TB lecimax or other bread improver
1 TB instant yeast
2 cups warm water
1 TB oil

Combine and knead until desired consistency. Shape into rolls or loaves. Leave to rise for about 20 minutes. Bake for 15-20 minutes (for rolls) or 30 minutes for a loaf in a 200degree oven.

Problem – My Italian husband doesn’t like soft, white, fluffy bread. He loves going to his mum’s place where she always has strong, crusty, continental loaf.
Solution – No Knead Artisan Bread! It is just how my husband likes his bread… strong with a deep crusty crust.
New problem – The cooked loaf doesn’t last longer than an hour or so in our house.

No Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. (I don’t bother with this)
Approximately 375 – 400 ml lukewarm water

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

See original sources

See the recipe in the New York Times here.
Learn how this method works here.
Watch a video of it all here.

I use our pizza stone for baking the loaf. I pre-heat it, which is an important step. I also use a little baking paper as it allows for quick clean up. Another tip that I use is to put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven when pre-heating and baking. Helps to get a lovely crust.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

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