Please Pray for Noah

I don't know how many of my regular readers have ever clicked on the "Noah" link farther down in my right sidebar, but he is a precious little just turned 2 year old that we have been praying for for quite a while. He is very, very sick right now, with a strong infection that abx have not been able to knock out of his system yet. They suspect that the infection is in his central line, through which he receives all his nutrition and hydration. But if they pull it they would have to wait until the infection cleared before inserting a new one, and Noah cannot receive nutrition through IV, only through a central line. He would basically be fasting. For most adults a few days of fasting would not be a big deal, but for a young child and especially one with a mitochondrial disease, it is quite serious. They are debating this option now. If you feel led, please click on his link which will take you directly to his mom Kate's blog, read more about his situation, and pray for him. He has been quite sick before, and had a few close calls, but he has never been as sick as he is now. Thank you, friends.

Bye Bye Paci

All of our children have been very attached to their pacifier. At some point while they were all 3, they threw paci away and began sleeping without it. Last night, Little Man decided that this was the day! We had a little "ceremony" (which you'll see in the video) where he put his paci away and opened a gift from Grandma B and Grandpa Dean. Grandma, completely understanding how hard it is to be 3 and learn to live without your paci, has given each of the children a new something to sleep with when they threw their paci away. (thank you Grandma and Grandpa!)
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Little Man was very excited about his new stuffed dog, but when he was actually tucked into bed, it dawned on him that the going away of paci was meant to be permanent. He cried so hard! I confess, I was ready to cave, but my dear sweet husband assured Little Man that he could be a big, brave boy and hug his new stuffed animal whenever he missed paci. He fell asleep clutching that poor dog so tightly, it was really sweet and funny and a little sad. A bit bittersweet for mommy. No-one in the house is in pullups during the day anymore (yay!) and no-one has a paci. I thought this day would never come, but now that it's here.........mixed emotions.
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(And if the pajamas that Little Man is wearing look slightly feminine, it's because they are hand me downs from his big sister, which he very proudly wore ALL DAY yesterday!!)

First Day of Co-op, 2008!

Here we are, all packed up to go to co-op yesterday!

We have lots of new families at co-op this year, and LOTS of high school classes being taught for credit. It has a different feel, and yet is wonderfully familiar at the same time. We had a super day!

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Little Man is in the preschool program all morning (3 hours).

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Son C has a five in a row class (based on the Five In A Row homeschool curriculum, so named because you spend five days in a row reading a good children's book and doing activities based on that book), Zoology 1 for 5-young 8 year olds (taught by me), and a class on native americans.

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Son L is taking a class called "Surviving the Medieval World", Zoology 1 (with his brother C), and a gym class.

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Son G is also in the Medieval World class with his brother L, plus a class on native americans for upper elementary students, and Zoology 1 for older 8-12 year olds (taught by me).

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Daughter G has a card making class, a teach with movies class, and Zoology 1 with her brother G. Her teach with movies class will be watching two movies this session and then discussing them in class. I'll tell more about that class in another post.

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It was so fun to see old friends and make new ones, and to begin interesting and fun new classes. I am going to love my Zoology classes! We are using the same book for both age groups, but what we do in class will be vastly different depending on age. It was a great first day!

Nature Walk

The glue on the front of our nature journals wasn't even dry, when we donned our moccasins and set out on a neighborhood expedition. Here are the young explorers. Son L even wore his indian tunic from last Halloween. If you look closely you can see that Little Man's moccasins are about 5 sizes too big, but it was the smallest sized kit they had, so he gets to grow into them!


This is daughter G's nature journal after we returned home. She found lots to draw and write about!

Son G trying a bark rubbing.

Son C painstakingly drawing the leaf that is lying next to his journal.

We only walked for about a quarter mile but it took an hour! We saw, among other things.....a really big nest in a tree (not sure if it was a bird's nest or a squirrel's nest), a very large cricket (which several people drew), a baby cricket, a dead worm (fried on the sidewalk, but still interesting!), various berries, leaves, sticks, and rocks, and a beautiful butterfly!

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As we walked we talked about how Lewis and Clark had to take quick notes or collect items while they were traveling, so that each night when they made camp they could write a detailed description of what they had found. They had to write by campfire or lantern light of course, and with a quill pen dipped in ink! Having tried writing with a quill pen and learning how difficult it is, all of us could appreciate the amazing sketches that Lewis and Clark both made in the margins of their journals. It was a wonderful afternoon of learning, "naturally"!

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Thank you, Lord, for the amazing world you've made for us to explore and subdue. We praise You, the Creator, and thank you for the variety of creation you've given us. Help us to be observant and always curious, and help us to care well for the earth and its inhabitants.

Making Nature Journals

Even though Lewis and Clark is so last week, we couldn't quite let go of the expedition! We decided to make authentic nature journals so that we could go on our very own expedition around our neighborhood, looking for new and unusual objects in nature. I'm not sure these are actually authentic, but they are about as authentic as we could make them! No staples or tape, and they had to be covered with some type of deerskin looking fabric to make them "waterproof". Here is the finished product:


First we prepared our paper. We got about 5 or 6 sheets of plain white paper (from our printer) and folded them all in half, then set one aside. We cut slits in the rest of the pages, directly on the fold line, about 1.5-2 inches in on each end. The one sheet we had set aside got a long slit cut right in the middle along the fold, not all the way to the edges. Then we loosely folded the other pages the long way (a "hotdog" fold for those of you who do lapbooks) and slid them into the one paper with the long slit in the middle.

After sliding them together so that all the original fold lines matched up, we opened up the pages and had a nice little book with no staples or tape!

Then we laid our paper on top of a slightly larger piece of fabric which was brown and soft on the outside, to simulate deerskin.

We folded the edges of the fabric over the front and back page of our paper book and began sewing. We had to be careful to cut short slits in the fabric right at the spine so that we could fold it over and sew it to both the back page and the front page.

Then it was time to embellish our covers. We choose leaves from the yard and laid the leaves on a piece of paper put on top of a piece of wood. The paper was there just to prevent the wood from staining. Then we covered the leaves with a small square of muslin, taped the muslin down so it wouldn't move, and began pounding the muslin with a rock in order to transfer the colored "juice" from the leaf onto the muslin. This took patience but looked just great when finished!

We did glue the muslin to the covers of our journals, because we didn't think to sew the muslin to our covers first before assembling the book.

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Muslin: $1.00

Deer looking fabric: $3.50

The experience of making our own nature journals: Priceless!

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In my next post I will share about the nature walk we took with our new journals!

Great Song

With all the economic turmoil lately, the Lord reminded me of this song. It is a wonderful song because it applies to any of us, in any situation, and it's TRUE. Really, no matter what you're facing, this is the bottom line. It's worth the 4 minutes to listen (I thought the graphics were a little odd - if they annoy you, try to ignore them!).

Overheard.....

As I was tucking in 6 year old C, I explained that since the brother he shares a room with was out with daddy, I would leave his door open, but he was NOT to get out of bed unless he had to go potty.

C: "what if I need to ask you something really bad?"

Me: "If you want to ask me something really bad, you need to ask right now."

(I should have seen it coming)

C, settling in: "well mommy, I was wondering how is it possible that God was never built? Or born? I mean, how can He always be?"

Oh great!

So started a very sweet 25 minute conversation, just he and I. It's not often that I get to tuck him in without his bunkmate. We talked about how volcanoes are made, among other things. Here are more snippets of the conversation about God:

C: "Before God made anything, there was just black. Black that goes on and on and on and on until it bumps into more black."

Me: "Well actually, in Genesis the Bible tells us that before God started creating there was just void. Void means empty."

C, clearly incredulous!: "I can't imagine what nothing looks like! I mean, if God hasn't made black yet, and there's no white or grey, or any colors. What does nothing look like?"

And later......

C: "do you know who I'm most thankful for mommy? God! I love Him so much and I want to make him happy, but it's very, very hard."

Me: "yes sweetie, it is hard, but God can help us do what is right."

C, ignoring me and still thinking about how hard it is: "it's the hardest thing in the world.........."


How thankful I am for this boy! How thankful I am for the chance to see into his heart and mind, and know some of his deep thoughts. Thank you, Father, that C is already asking such excellent questions. Please show Yourself to him in ways that he can understand. Help us to give him the right image of You. And help him to do what is right, and to "make You happy." Thank you for being bigger and higher and greater than our humanness can understand. I love you, Lord.