History and the Bible Come Alive!

History.....I really enjoy history. I haven't always though. I thought the memorization of endless names, places and dates to be rather boring. But then one year in school I had a teacher who really had a "passion" for history and it completely changed my way of thinking. It became a story that impacted my own. I've enjoyed it ever since. But now that I'm a homeschooling mom.....I think I enjoy teaching it the most. It just fascinates me!!!

Tonight we had a special treat. We drove into the cities to hear a lecture at a christian college. It's about an hour away from us, but well worth the drive. His name was Michael Wise, and he is a world renown expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls. What's really cool is that these same scrolls that we learned about tonight are on exhibit at our state's science museum. WOW! The real thing just inches away from me. I can hardly wait to go see them!

That being said, you know when you have those proud mama moments? Those moments that feel like encouragement straight from the throne room of heaven? I know we are all proud of our children, as we should be. They are wonderful gifts from heaven. But since this is my blog and I don't have anyone else to tell......I'm going to share my proud moment with YOU! lol I hope you don't mind.

Tonight we went to this lecture not really sure what to expect. I wasn't disappointed at all. That being said, this was a true "lecture." It was not dumbed down for us non-scholars at all. lol It was about 1 1/2 hours long with a Q & A session at the end. 2 hours in total. Dr. Wise spoke like a true "professor" and had a good slide show presentation to go along with his talk. There were many words that I had never heard before. Just being honest. lol But what was so amazing to me was that woven throughout his speech was everything we've been studying in history this year!!

Now, I couldn't tell by the girls expressions if they were catching any of it. We had great seats right up front and I think they were glued to him and the screen all night. But the chairs were uncomfortable, it was late, and there was some wiggling and tiredness going on. Especially in my fun loving 8 year old. lol It was impossible to tell what they were thinking. Were they bored to tears at this man's 2 hour speech with words that even I hadn't heard before? Did they understand any of it?? Did they remember and see the correlation between what they had learned/read in history and what they were hearing here? Was the Bible coming alive for them in a new way like it was for me? I could hardly wait to hear their opinions afterwards!

Well, I wasn't disappointed. In fact.....I was amazed!!! I could hardly believe all the details that they learned and remembered. Thank you Lord!! I love it when He does this.....an unexpected surprise that ties everything together nice and neat! What a fun and wonderful way to tie up our year of history! We're not quite finished yet, but we're close. And after the year we've had....it did this mama's heart good to see all that they have learned. Really learned.

The best part about it though was how it not only tied together everything in history this year.....but what we've studied in the Bible as well. I am truly amazed at how God can make His Word come alive to us when we make learning it a priority. Thank you Lord for this special blessing straight from you. I love you so much!!

Lovely Locks and Lots of Life!

I used to roll Pillar and Miracle's hair when they were little. I have the greatest pics of them in diapers and rollers....dancing on the bed in front of my big mirror! If only I had a scanner. Although I'm sure they're happy I don't. LOL So when I found a HUGE container of these same rollers for $1, I just couldn't resist. Miracle has beautiful, thick, very straight hair. She has always wanted some curls like her sisters. Now she has them!

Yes, Rosebud is quite a ham!!

Her hair is naturally curly, so these ringlettes actually stayed in for 2 days!!

Ahhhh, just look at this beautiful smile. It melts this mama's heart.

While my Grandma was here, the girls planted some seeds. It so much fun to see new life spring forth. Pretty soon we'll have a nice sized container gargen growing on our back porch. Yeah!! Someday we'll have a "real" garden!

Last fall one of my former daycare parents, who just happens to be a master gardener, spent an afternoon doing some landscaping for me as a thank you gift. It was such a sweet gesture. I've always admired nicely manicured lawns with beautiful landscaping. But the outside of my home has never been a top priority. I've been waiting all winter to see what popped up!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see all these beautiful plants springing forth around my house!! Just look at them all! These will all have bright flowers pretty soon too. I'm just so excited!! I've never had any landscaping before.....I just love looking out my window now!!

This is one of our new raspberry plants. It's one of the biggest ones. Someday it will produce some great raspberries!! Yum!!

Happy Spring!!

Lists

I really like lists. I like the satisfaction of crossing things off. Truth be told I've been known to write something down.....just so I can cross it off! LOL I know. That's pathetic. But it's true. I am not a slave to my lists anymore though. But there was a day when I was. Productivity. Accomplishment. Finality. What wonderful feelings. Now, of course, not all success can be measured by a list. But at the end of a long hard day, week, month or even year....it sure does help keep me focused on the positive. On what I "can" do. Or rather what God can do when I cooperate with His plans and purposes!

This was just part of our list for today. I'm very pleased. Mind you I didn't do all this by myself. We're a family and when we work together, it's amazing what we can accomplish!

Plant raspberry plants in the backyard
Clean, organize and price items from our garage
Take another van load to sil house for garage sale
Girls complete weekend household chores
Plan meals
Go to bank
Buy groceries
Chop/dice/slice food for this week
Many loads of laundry cleaned, folded and put away
Call in and Pick up prescriptions
Call Grandma
Call Friend
Hang bulletin board and flower on Miracles wall
Roll Miracle and Rosebuds hair in sponge rollers while watching Amazing Race!

Whew! I'm tired! Although it's still very difficult to breath, it feels good to be "doing" something again. It feels good to be able to cross a few things off the list!!!

Random Thoughts

I have to say that there's something very satisfying about finding name brand winter coats for my girls, that just happen to be in there favorite colors, for pennies at a garage sale. Now don't get me wrong. I am not one to only buy name brand clothes. These that I found recently just happen to be! They are in "like new" condition too!! I'm just so pleased! I don't know what my financial future holds at the moment. Not sure what God's plan is.....but that's OK....because I know HE is the plan! He is the answer! So I'm sticking close to Him. That being said I'm preparing for winter, because I know it's coming. I'm making sure my family has everything they need. Because whether I'm prepared or not.....it's coming. Technically, it's only spring here. But we've had an unusually warm April and many many garage sales! I've already found beautiful warm coats for all three girls as well as snow pants/bibs for each! Some I already had from last year, but most were very worn and needed to be replaced. Now all I need are new boots for each. Yeah God!! Thanks for the deals!

A bloggy friend of mine introduced us to these two fantastic science sites. This virtual surgery website has knee surgery, hip surgery and even brain surgery. The girls are loving them!! Caution: virtual blood is shown as well as the sounds of different instruments. ie. saws The other site, orlive.com shows actual surgeries being preformed. This site is definitely NOT for the squeamish! My girls LOVE it though! Thanks Kysha for sharing them with us!! If you know of any others, please let us know. Thanks!!

Yesterday, my brother found us FREE raspberry plants on Craig's list. They were already dug up and wrapped in newspaper! All we had to do was drive 15 miles away to pick them up! Yeah!! We're going to replant them in the backyard against our fence line today. I'll try and get a pic of them after we're done.

We are also getting ready for a HUGE garage sale with my sil this week. I'm trying to downsize, de-clutter, and just CLEAN HOUSE!! We've already brought over one packed to the brim van load. We're doing another today. Pray that everything sells for both of us please!

Well, the sun has risen and there is much work to do. So that's it for now! I haven't been on the computer much these days as it's hard to sit for very long. But I believe that is going to get better soon. I miss my bloggy friends!