Thankful Thursday ~ 5 Things

There are 5 things for which I am thankful today:

1. I am thankful for each new day as they are another opportunity to seek God and His righteousness. 

2. I am thankful for God the Father, who demonstrated His own love toward us by giving us the gift of salvation through His Son; God the Son, who willingly laid down His life, taking upon Himself the wrath of God that I deserve; and the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, illuminating God's Word to our understanding. 

3. I am thankful for my wonderful husband who does love me as Christ loves the Church. 

4. I am thankful for my SugarBear and Little Man whom the Lord uses to conform me to the image  of Christ Jesus. 

5. I am thankful for my gracious parents-in-law (or I should say, parents-in-love) who have put up with so much foolishness from me (to whom I'd like to apologize for all that foolishness).

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless 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

Linking up with Fellowship Fridays.

Wordless Wednesday: Homemade Wreaths

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Wordless Wednesday

The Mother's Homeschool Journal ~ May 22, 2015

In My Life This Week...

God's grace is most certainly sufficient and He's given more than enough to sustain me and to help me overcome some things. I know I don't love Him nearly enough (there's so much more of Him to love and so much more of me to give!) and that has stopped me from pressing on, crucifying my flesh and taking up my cross all my life in the past. 

Just about a month ago, the Holy Spirit started to work in me. I am seeing a change/growth in myself now. By God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit,  I continue to put myself in the way of truth no matter what my efforts are, no matter what mistakes I've made. It's not about me trying to do good. It's about the Holy Spirit drawing me and my willingness to submit to Him.

My gaze used to be on myself and my efforts for salvation, but my eyes have been opened up to see that the only thing that saves me is faith in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus plus NOTHING. He paid it all and there is absolutely nothing I do to earn that.

Oh, that I could've seen this truth before now!

In Our Homeschool This Week...

We're winding down the formal lessons. We have cut back to one single lesson/subject per day, however we will continue to read and write daily.   

Meal Planning Changes...

A certain disease that has plagued me for quite a many years has become quite a bit worse causing me to change my diet,  or, err, to follow the diet I should've been following all this time, or risk esophageal cancer. Yep. No fried food for me. No hardly anything for me! :-(

The silver lining is making this necessary dietary change may help to lower my heavy weight and elevated cholesterol level.  Making the change is proving to be a difficult thing.

No more tacos?!? ARG!!!  :-(

We're Listening to...
We've been listening to a series of children's catechism sermons preached by Mr. Paul Washer. We are on the 6th and 7th sermon (each sermon averages around 10 minutes in length). We've been exploring the very first question: What is the chief end of man?   Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We have moved on to the next question: How can you glorify God? Answer: We bring God glory by loving Him and doing what He commands.

Those are the short answers. Mr. Paul Washer does a very good job going into depth on children's level, giving good examples and scripture to illustrate these truths. All 4 of us have learned (and are learning) a lot from this series. 

I'm Looking Forward To...
A week at the beach in a few weeks. My family is coming for a visit and we've rented a beach house. I can't wait to put my toes on the sand, listen to the ocean and catch some rays.... oh, and visiting with my family. *wink*

Things I'm Working on...
Spring cleaning! We started to deep clean the house this week. It seems like an overwhelming task, but a check off list helps.

So far, we tackled the kitchen: Inside the cabinets and the fridge, wiping down the walls and base boards and everything in between.

Now, to keep up the motivation....

A Scripture Passage to Share...
4 But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
5 Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).
6 And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us [b]joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
7 He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved ([c]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;
9 Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]

Ephesians 2:4-9 Amplified

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Cleaning

Disclaimer: Children were not harmed nor overworked during this session. 

*wink* 

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Wordless Wednesday

Everything is Because of God!

As I was reading Psalms 65 this morning, the Holy Spirit enlightened my understanding: Everything is because of God. Every blessing, every good thing, every breath we take and even our very existence. From the beauty of nature to the blessing of spiritual gifts; it is all because of God. HE is our source, the author and finisher of our faith. His name is great and greatly to be praised. 

I couldn't help myself. I just had to share this.  

My Bible commentary says this about this chapter (and I didn't even read this part until just before I was going to share here): 

"This is a praise psalm, full of hopeful, confident, even enthusiastic feelings in response to God's goodness with no complaints or curses. The setting is a celebration at the tabernacle, perhaps at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring, or the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacle in the fall. 

I. Praise for Spiritual Blessings (65:1-5)

II. Praise for Natural Blessings (65:6-13)"

Psalm 65

There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,

And to You the vow will be performed.

2 

O You who hear prayer,

To You all [b]men come.

3 

[c]Iniquities prevail against me;

As for our transgressions, You [d]forgive them.

4 

How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You

To dwell in Your courts.

We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,

Your holy temple.

5 

By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,

You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest [e]sea;

6 

Who establishes the mountains by His strength,

Being girded with might;

7 

Who stills the roaring of the seas,

The roaring of their waves,

And the tumult of the peoples.

8 

They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;

You make the [f]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

⁹ 

You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;

You greatly enrich it;

The [g]stream of God is full of water;

You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare [h]the earth.

¹⁰ 

You water its furrows abundantly,

You [i]settle its ridges,

You soften it with showers,

You bless its growth.

¹¹ 

You have crowned the year [j]with Your [k]bounty,

And Your [l]paths drip with fatness.

¹² 

The pastures of the wilderness drip,

And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

¹³ 

The meadows are clothed with flocks

And the valleys are covered with grain;

They shout for joy, yes, they sing.

Glory to God! Glory to God!


Linking up with Fellowship Fridays 

Frugal Gift-giving

Shopping at home for a gift? Yep. I did it. I "shopped" for a birthday gift at my own house. What can you do if you don't have the money to go out and purchase something? We could've made something, but we're talking about giving a birthday gift to a 7 year old boy. Now, I'm sure our friend would've loved anything we gave him, b/c he's just like that, but we really ran out of time for that kind of activity. So I started looking around our home for some items that we haven't used yet. If we haven't used these things by now, chances are, we aren't going to.

What did we gave away?  I'm so glad you asked.  :-D

        

 

A long time ago, over a year at least, I bought several pads of drawing paper that was on sale for a super good deal at a teacher store here in town. We had one last pad that we hadn't used yet, so we put that into a gift bag.

We had a huge box of colored pencils that I had bought at the beginning of the school year that hasn't been touched, so placed that into the gift bag also.  Our little friend enjoys drawing/coloring and creating pictures. So we knew he'd like those things.

I always enjoy giving books to kids as a way of encouraging them to read. Reading can open up a whole world of adventures and learning, but that is a post for another time. I looked on our bookshelf for a book or two to give away.  

We had two copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One was a very old copy (I love those) and another was a newer copy that was in great condition. I thought that would be a good read aloud for our friends to read together, so we packed that one up.

We also found another good book that we decided to pass on.

We already owned the birthday bag b/c I crazy save all gift bags we receive that are in good condition as well as the tissue paper - if it doesn't get too crinkly. The children made their birthday cards also.

I was really amazed that my children didn't ask why we were giving away our stuff. Hopefully that means they aren't attached to all of the things we have lying around our house. We don't really need all this stuff anyway.

Great gifts don't always have to be bought from a store. It's always a win as long as your gifts are in great condition and are given from the heart.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday SugarBear!

Then

Now

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Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday ~ Family Devotions

                          

                          

                                 

                     

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Wordless Wednesday

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Fellowship Fridays

Garage Sale Math

We had a garage sale over the weekend, Friday and Saturday. We had a LOT of stuff to sell. We did pretty well too! And I thought the yard sale signs I made wouldn't work, but they did, and to my surprise! Anyway. This was our very first garage sale. It is a ton of work! I knew it was going to be some work, but I didn't realize just how much went into it, but it was well worth it.

Whew!   :-D

The children had a lemonade/snack stand while we were selling everything else, so they were adding up money amounts (quarters) all day Friday and all Saturday morning.... Well, you know, when customers wanted to purchase snacks. You know what I mean, I think. 

We were exhausted by the time Saturday evening came. No energy left to count anymore. We placed the money we made in a bag and hid it away until we were able to count it. The time to count didn't arrive until this morning in our math lesson. I threw out the today's curriculum math lesson and we focused completely on counting the garage sale profit. 

The first thing we did was sort out all the coins and bills. They made dollar stacks of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies while I sorted the bills. After everything was sorted, we started counting. I had them make a list of each coin and bill.

We counted the coins first.  After we counted each coin group and counted it again, they listed the amount for each coin.

Then we counted the bills, twice, and listed those amounts. This was especially fun for them as they have only handled coins up to now. 


At this point, Jonathan was done. He was just done. So I let him run off some energy out in the back yard while Adelle then added up each amount together. 

First she wrote down the 20's amount, lined up the 10's amount under that and added them. Took that total and wrote the 5's under that and added again. We followed that pattern until we got all the way down to pennies. 

This was a fun way to practice adding skills and reviewing place value while learning how to write dollar and cent amounts together. And I just now stumbled onto a website that has posted a Yard Sale Board Game. We might have to make and play this one through the summer. It looks like fun!

I won't announce publicly exactly how well we did, but, to the glory of God, we raised enough money to begin ordering curriculum for next school year!