I couldn’t be more grateful for this warm winter.
Now – I do predict we will have more bugs and varmints after this not-cold-enough-to-kill-yucky-stuff winter where food was plentiful.
But fun was plentiful as well, as evidenced by this cool racing game.
Sometimes non-homeschoolers I know ask me about the way we homeschool. They question the lay-out and the physical aspects of it. Many picture a school-room type setting, or at least a dedicated work-area. While there are many homeschoolers that approach things that way it has yet to be the case for us.
First and foremost, we are dining-room-table homeschoolers. The majority of the work over the years has been conducted there.
Our second most frequent location is the living room, or family room couch. Head gear optional.
This year we’ve had a new obstacle. Johanna. Whenever I would try to do the kids’ language and reading work, she’d try to insinuate herself between the student and I, or between the book and I. This was a real problem. Our first solution was for the girls to take her up to their room to play while I worked with Nigel and Stewart, and then have one of the boys play with her while I worked with Marie. This worked to an extent, however she really got tired of all that time in their rooms and she destroyed their bedroom on a daily basis. By Thanksgiving it really wasn’t working.
So we started a new plan. Each morning after Bible, I’d head to my room. The kids would then rotate through my room while the remaining kids would hang up downstairs with Johanna. This meant she had a lot more room and variety to play. The kids and I would do school on my bed, snuggled into the pillows. I had one friend jokingly share how she envied how I got to lie in bed all day. 
A new problem developed.
All those hours on my bed were making my tailbone sore. Yes. I just admitted that on this blog. MY BOTTOM HURT. Now, I didn’t realize what was happening. Truthfully, it took me a long time to figure it out. But now that I have found the problem, there was only one solution…
Yes, that is a card table and chairs in my BEDROOM.
My life is so weird.
But the view is exceptional!
Sometimes they REALLY get into their roles…
I’m just glad he didn’t embrace the whole pacifier thing. 
While it is very uncommon for me to wake up at night to use the bathroom, I am very glad that I did last night. As I was doing my business I suddenly woke up enough to realize just how cold I was. I wondered if it was just the bathroom, but returning to my bedroom confirmed that it was just plain chilly in our house. I spoke out to John about how cold it was and he popped out of bed not realizing that I was already on my way to investigate. His words were, “Wow. It is.”
As I headed down the stairs to check the thermostat I reckoned that we knew this could happen. The furnace is pushing 30 years old and it was one of our main concerns when we first bought the house. As I padded to the living room I was chewing on the hassle that was probably before us of buying a furnace and having it installed ASAP. I confess I was totally grumbling.
Then I got to the thermostat and smiled. The little arm on the top of the older-style device was pulled all the way to the left. It was set to 50 degrees. Oh, those little hands! The thermometer registered 65 degrees! I slid the plastic arm back to it’s home at 72 and headed back up the stairs.
As I snuggled back I chuckled as I told John about my findings. We both snickered a little and acknowledged how glad we were to have caught it when we did. As I rolled over to find a comfortable spot I suddenly laughed out loud. “John! Some people SET their thermostat to 65 degrees!” Despite the 3:00 A.M. hour John roared as well.
I then rolled over and smiled as I concurrently thanked God for Fairport Electric and contemplated what a difference 7 degrees makes!
In playing with the boys this morning Marie bit her tongue. It was a considerable bite and bled for hours. I finally called DDS who was out of the office. His secretary directed me to call pediatrician. We went in around 10:30 A.M. and were there until noon. There is a flap on the side of her tongue but the doctor does not think she is a candidate for stitching. She does think it will continue to bleed for another day. She had said if it were grossly bleeding at 1:30 P.M. to call and we’d go to an oral surgeon somewhere. But if it were just a slow ooze that we would not need further evaluation. At 2:00 P.M. it was just trickling and our doctor visits were over for the day.
Soft, cold foods only. She told us to go get a milkshake or smoothie. Marie made the doctor smile when she said, “That’s the best news I’ve ever heard.” We went to McDonald’s where I paid an obscene amount for a milkshake, but it was the size of her head and came with whipped cream and a cherry. You should have seen Marie’s face when I went to hand it back to her. “This is mine?” Glee.
She was also told not to talk or open her mouth except to eat cold, soft foods. That is hard for any child, but Marie…..
This will hardly register as a blip on the great screen of Marie’s life, but it did make for an adventurous morning!
She’s now outside climbing pine trees and driving the baby around in the PowerWheels car. [The baby is wearing a helmet.]
I, for one, would have had the kids singing this straight with no choreography. Less is more, in my book, when organizing children.
Not so with Mike. The guy has a vision. He makes it work.
He also makes a great dance at the end of the video.
Scripture balloon and saying, “Good-bye.”
On Monday we went to Pastor Jeff’s memorial service.
It still seems unreal.
Just unreal.
HOW IS HE GONE?Just a few months ago he was there – teaching about the seven letters to the churches from the Book of Revelation.
And now – he has moved on to Heaven.
It is still so hard to believe it.
The service was like no other service I have ever attended. It was beautiful. It was almost two hours in what was probably a 78 degree sanctuary at the end of a long day. And yet the kids were all so attentive. Little Tabitha started to fall apart the last 20 minutes from fatigue. The kids [and John and I] hung on every word and WORD as we longed to know more about the man we won’t get to hear from anymore in our time.
We heard from his aunt on behalf of his sister, and from his college roommate and fellow pastor. We heard from his dear friend and pastor of Pittsford Community Church and from our own worship leader and youth pastor. We heard from the daughter of an elder on his behalf, and from a dear friend and small group partner. Scripture was shared from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, read by a friend and fellow worshiper and from our Pastor Emeritus.
And the message was shared by his long time mentor.
Music from a trombone ensemble and our own choir blessed our hearts.
A video was compiled from family movies and photographs.
And at the end of the night each family was invited to take a Scripture Balloon home. The kids and I have different memories of what our scripture was. But we were instructed to take it home and send it into the sky. As soon as we got home we went out to the deck. We prayed that if it pleased the LORD the scripture would find its way to someone who God had prepared to read it. We watched it go into the clear night sky. Thousands of stars shone as we watched the balloon for as long as we could. We could hear the coyotes in the distance [I choose to believe it was a GOOD distance]. Some of us cried. We continue to pray for the words to find their way to someone who wants to know more about God. We know that is what Pastor Jeff would want, too.
“Well done.”
Sometime in the waning hours of February 15th, our time, our good and faithful Shepherd welcomed Pastor Jeff into the assembly of saints.
I can’t know for sure, of course, but I am rather confident that Jeff heard the words, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
A friend encouraged me this morning suggesting how Jeff in his suffering probably introduced many new people to the LORD.
May it be so.
new look for school books
Our homeschool set up changes a little each year.
This set up in the dining room has worked for the last two years.
I had my eye on this little beauty…
18 x 42 Chrome Rolling Wire Shelving Utility Cart: 2 Shelf
1842R2C-NEXEL-DUC
$145.00But at that price, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Then, at BJs the other night, I saw this!
$39.99
Now we can wheel our school books to the pantry when we have guests over.
Or not.
But now we CAN if we want to.
Dayspring Disciples 
