BOYDS CREEK ACRES

Outside my window...grey, dreary, COLD day. But it IS a day that the Lord has made, so I will rejoice & be glad in it!

I am thinking...that this is a week of 'back to normal' and life will take on it's regular pace.

I am thankful for...the safe and blessed delivery of my friend's sweet baby boy on Saturday morning! This is my dear friend whose husband was killed in a motorcyle accident back in July. This baby is SUCH a miracle - it had TWO tight knots in it's umbilical cord and is perfectly normal!! One of the nurses told her that certainly the Lord let her husband watch over that baby to make sure it got here. Please keep her - and their (now) 4 children in your prayers.

From the learning room...Back to school today! On the plate are: Bible, American Gov't, Composition, Life Skills, Marine Biology and Nature Journaling/Art; gym will resume on Thursday.

From the kitchen...simple soup and sandwiches...or maybe salad for lunch; chicken breasts, snap beans w/almonds and garlic/rosemary roasted potatoes for supper.

I am creating...by tearing down. We will be taking down our Christmas tree and other decorations today. Boohoo!

I am reading...Bible; reading through DD#2's schoolbooks and doing some extended planning...that I DIDN'T get done while on Christmas Break!

I am hoping...that an important appointment for DD#1 goes VERY well for her tomorrow.

I am hearing...Glenn Beck on the radio and the girls walking around up-stairs.

Around the house...putting things back in order after the Christmas decorations come down, laundry, homeschool...

A few plans for the rest of the week: homeschool, gym, THURSDAY IS DD#1's 21st B-DAY!!! Practicing the 4 songs that DH & I will be singing at my mom's church on Sunday.

Here's a picture our pastor took of us at church on Christmas Eve. (WOW! Do I need a haircut!!

)

I hope you all had a happy and blessed Christmas and that your New Year will be even MORE happy and blessed!!

If you would, PLEASE keep us in your prayers. Sunday was our last day at the church we have worshipped and served at for the past 12-1/2 years. It's a 70-mile round trip and we feel that the Lord is leading us to serve closer to home. We have a few churches 'on the list' to try, please pray that we will be sensitive to the Lord's leading and land where HE wants us. Thanks.

Outside my window…Lovely sunshine and clear blue skies letting in the COLD temps.

I am thankful for…New Hope Community Church, where we worshipped and served for the last 12-1/2 years. Yesterday was our last day because it's a 70-mile round trip and we feel the need to serve in our own community. THANK YOU to our many dear friends who sent us off w/many tears and well wishes. We love you, so!

From the kitchen…left-overs from yesterday's praise team Christmas party and then pasta, salad and freash bread for supper.

I am wearing…NEW Christmas jeans(!), red & white turtle neck; soft, fuzzy house socks my dd#2 got me for Christmas.

I am creating…new fresh bottle of face wash ~ 8 oz. liquid castile soap, 10 drops of tea tree essential oil, 5 drops of rosemary essential oil and 10 drops of lavender essential oil. This is GREAT for oily/acneic skin. DO NOT use to remove eye make-up!! You can also use this for a shampoo or anitbacterial handsoap.

I am going…to the health food store to pick up some more flaxseed oil and Evening Primrose oil capsules. Later I'm picking up my order at our food co-op.

I am reading…Bible; "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks that my dd#1 got me for Christmas. It's SO GOOD. I am SO impressed that the girl who is the "love interest" in the story is a very strong, very real Christian. One of the reasons the guy in the story loves her so much is BECAUSE of her strong faith, her morals and her self-assuredness. What a great "twist" for a secular book!

I am hoping…that we will find a new church where we can serve to best fit our gifts.

I am hearing…the radio and our dog, Maggie's, little paws prancing through the kitchen.

Around the house…enjoying our beautiful Christmas tree for a few more days until we take is down on New Year's Day. Boo hoo. I love our tree and all the Christmas decorations.

One of my favorite things: my way cool new digital camera my sweet hubby got me for Christmas!! Woohoo!!! As soon as I learn how to load the pics onto my pc I'll post some! lol I do SO enjoy other's blogs w/pics so I'm wanting to add some to my blog, too!

A few plans for the rest of the week: To pick which church we want to try this Sunday. Ty & I need to pick out the songs we will sing at my mom's church on the 11th. We've been invited to do a 'mini-concert' during their service.

I've seen this on Homeschoolblogger's sisterchicksteph's blog and momto4beauties' blog and I thought I'd give it a whirl. If YOU take the time fill out these questions, let me know so I can read yours! This things I have done will underlined. (P.S. - Because this is copied/pasted it won't let me change some of the colors - so...sorry there are so many color variations. I hope it isn't too confusing. :-/)

46. Been transported in an ambulance (I rode in the ambulance when our little girl died - saddest and scariest ride of my life)

54. Gone to a drive-in theater (I went to my first walk-in theater when I was 9 or 10 and not again until I was a teen. My girls have been just the opposite!)

OH MY WORD!! I just read one of the best blog posts on the trap of Virtual/Charter schools that I've read in a long time (and didn't write myself! HAHA!!). This came from http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com. She is the mother of 14 w/#15 on the way and has homeschooled them all. I HIGHLY recommend her blog - full of wisdom and grace. I'm posting her entry about Virtual/Charter schools below and request that not only YOU read it, but link it to your own blog, or copy/paste it onto your own blog (and give her the credit, of course) and tell everyone you can to read this. It's excellent!

I live in a largely blue-collar town. There are no mansions or super affluent people that make up our community. The families that choose to be "traditional", with the daddy as the breadwinner, struggle. Lots of homeschooling families that I know here have had trouble even affording a computer.

In a community like ours, virtual schooling where the government sends a family a computer, pays for internet use, and supplies all sorts of glossy, colorful curricula and even science and craft supplies, is just too much of a temptation.

When our state first began to offer such programs, I can remember the glowing reports of all of the "goodies" that were sent--it was like Christmas! Everything needed was provided, including scissors and craft paper, and seeds for growing things. Mothers who before had been wringing their hands wondering how they were going to afford the Saxon Math series were now almost care-free.

But there was a catch.

Someone has said that nothing in life is truly "free". With all of the goodies and the ease of knowing someone else was in charge came a large price. Instead of worries over buying supplies and curricula, now the mothers had a heavy burden placed on them every day. They had to coerce and nag and bite their fingernails over getting the work done that was required--a whole boat-load of extra fact-cramming and busy-work that made it almost impossible for anyone to have a good life, especially for the mother who had even 3-4 children on different levels. Instead of having their lives simplified, they were complicated beyond comprehension, and their children were being harmed in the process and turned into drones who hated anything to do with "learning".

The most unfortunate thing of all was that most mothers were convinced that this sort of government-sponsored slavery was what homeschooling was all about! Many who were already feeling overwhelmed about teaching their own children became convinced, after allowing the state to muck with things, that homeschooling was impossible and horrid. So, they gave up.

But learning is not a super-complicated thing that only professionals know how to do!

Our children were born to us completely helpless--they could not even hold their own heads up! Somehow, with our encouragement, they learned to walk and talk and feed themselves. Children, even in some of the most impoverished conditions, learn to do these things, unless they are ill or haven't any food to eat.

Why do children learn these things? Is it because they are constantly nagged, or they have been through the right "programs"? No. Children learn these things because they want to and they need to. The parents are there to facilitate and encourage.

Now here is the secret that those who run teaching colleges and publish curricula and make their living on the supposition of universal idiocy do not want you to know:

TEACHING CHILDREN IS NOT DFFICULT--THEY ALREADY WANT TO LEARN!

I once checked out a magazine published for teachers from the library, thinking I could glean something of value for my own family. An article was written therein about teaching composition to middle-school students. I could not believe the amount of verbage it took--paragraph upon paragraph of evidence and studies and then the methodology that took pages to explain. What a waste!

Writing is just an extension of language, another form of communication. When it is taught in this context, it no longer seems mystical or complex. Good writing is learned by reading the good writing of others--with reading aloud, discussion, and application.

The same goes for the other subjects. Math is a sort of communication, it is the communication of the Creator to His creation--that there is order and care. Science is best described as the "thinking of God's thoughts after Him". The wonder of this planet and the universe is the only catalyst needed. Once the appetite has been whetted, a parent need only to watch a child take off like a rocket-ship (and be willing to enjoy the adventure).

Of course, you can't enjoy the wonderful adventure of discovery with your child if every day is prescribed and written down. The time and energy you would normally have to explore and discover is all taken up by the reading of droll, dumbed-down texts, numerous questions to be answered by rote understanding, canned experiments and the like.

Yes, there are times when a little rote learning can be valuable, but not as an all-encompassing program. The teaching of facts should be likened to handing out tools that a skilled craftsman, the child, can use to create and discover further. Rote learning should never become the end, but the means. We should not be so much concerned with turning out children who can win at Trivial Pursuit as much as we should be concerned with raising children who can take the information in any situation, analyze it, and come up with wise conclusions and solutions.

I do not write theory here; I myself have seen the proven examples, and not just among my own children.

But the public schooling industry, and it is a great part of our economy, does not want you and I to know just how simple teaching and learning really is. Just think of how many meetings and conferences would have to be canceled. Whole political commmitees would have to be disbanded. We would see a lot of educational phd's flipping burgers, and whole educational supply industries woud go belly-up.

Besides all of this, those who desire power over our population would be the saddest of all, because people of America would once again, as in the crazy times of our inception, realize just how many choices they have, and would develop the intestinal fortitude to pursue those choices. I personally believe that it would allow Chrisitanity to return once again as the underlying foundation of our Republic, as parents would be allowed to pass on their Judeo-Christain values in a personal way to the next generation.

But you won't read this in the leaflets sent out to entice you. They will act as your friend, and say how they understand that you feel unsure and intimidated. But they are not friendly. They only wish to use your own fears to convince you that you can not do it on your own.

But, with God's grace and help,

YOU CAN!!!!!!

Sky Watch

The planets and the Moon are putting on a show! For a few nights, brilliant Venus, bright Jupiter, and the crescent Moon blaze in a striking conjunction. They first formed their brilliant triangle last night, 15 degrees high, in the southwestern sky. The three celestial objectives will continue to stay close together as seen from Earth even though the planets are millions of miles away.
Read more Sky Watch! We provide the current and upcoming months free for our Almanac.com readers.

BOYDS CREEK ACRES

2009-Jan-5

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #16 ~ 1/5/09

2008-Dec-29

Christmas Eve Picture

2008-Dec-29

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #15 ~ 12/29/08

2008-Dec-22

The Simple Woman Daybook ~ #14 ~ 12/22/08

2008-Dec-17

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #13 ~ 12/17/08

2008-Dec-10

What Have I Done?...

2008-Dec-8

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #12 ~ 12/8/08

2008-Dec-3

The Trap of Virtual/Charter Schools

2008-Dec-2

Attention Stargazers!!

Sky Watch

2008-Dec-1

6 Things Tag

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