The Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ March 18, 2016

The blog here has been quiet for 2 weeks. Our schedule has been topsy turvy lately and I wanted to give an update. HMJ is the way to go!

In My Life

Crucifying myself, my pride and my will must be done on a DAILY basis. It's painful too. Not that I want to hang on to my selfish ways (or maybe I do?), but the flesh and the Spirit are at odds with each other. (Galatians 5:17) This war is difficult. Is that just me? 

In Our Homeschool

Bible - These past few weeks have been about Jesus being the Head of the Body, the Church. (Col. 1:18). We've been learning how we can grow together and encourage one another in the Body of Christ. 

History - This week in our American history studies, there are 4 new states to join the Union:  Main - 1820, Missouri - 1821, Arkansas - 1836, and Michigan - 1837. 

I learned something about my home state that I didn't previously know. Missouri is sometimes called the Cave State b/c of all the caves that have been discovered there. Tennessee is the only state that has more caves than Missouri. Who knew?

Science - Since we've been talking about Christ being the head of the Body, we've been taking a look at how our physical bodies work. We learned about how our brain and the 5 senses work together.

Math - We're wrapping up learning the addition facts. Then we'll move on to subtraction.

Language Arts - We're still trekking through Switched on Schoolhouse and Easy Peasy. Jonathan still dislikes handwriting practice and Adelle is getting better at composing letters. She's going to start writing a letter on Wednesdays. I'm calling it Letter Writing Wednesday. *smile*  She will write a letter to a different friend or family member each week and mail it off.

Read Alouds - We're still in On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My last HMJ post stated that we are in the middle of it. I should've said that we started it. I didn't realize how many chapters are in this book. It's been fun though. 

Places We're Going/People We're Seeing

My Sister-in-law (love) came to town for a 2 week visit. We took last week off to spend some time with her. This week we hit the books again during the morning, went to my in-laws house to continue to visit in the afternoon and stayed for dinner in the evenings. Then we had some more visitors! They are friends of my in-laws. Grandma's house has been quite full and our schedule has been full, fun and exhausting! 

I'm taking a big ole nap tomorrow..... maybe. 

We're Listening To

I'm still listening to and learning old hymns. The kids are listening to Awesome God album by Sovereign Grace Kids. I knew about a singer named Matt Boswell who writes modern hymns, but I have very recently discovered a couple of other modern hymn writers - Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend. I still keep an eye on the lyrics to make sure they are Scripturally sound. Oh, and I also recently learned that Grace Community Church has published a new hymn book called Hymns of Grace. 

Directly from Grace Community Church website - With more than 100 new hymns and melodies from the last twenty years, Hymns of Grace is truly a new hymnal! The collection features almost forty new hymns from Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend, as well as titles from Sovereign Grace, David Ward, Christ Anderson, R.C. Sproul and Matt Boswell, among other modern hymn writers. We have also included classic hymns (some in new musical settings) - and six by John Newton, sixteen by Isaac Watts and eighteen by Charles Wesley. 

Yes. I think I'm going to request one... just as soon as they're in stock again. 

A Photo, Quote or Video to Share

Let me suggest a fantastic website called Grace Gems; A Treasury of Ageless, Sovereign Grace, Devotional Writings. 

I signed up to receive the daily devotions in my email. Wow! 

Here is today's Grace Gem:

The best name by which we can think of God!
(Martin Luther)

"This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in Heaven . . . "Matthew 6:9 

The best name by which we can think of God is Father. It is a loving, deep, sweet, heart-touching name, for the name of Father is in its nature, full of inborn sweetness and comfort.

Therefore, also, we must confess ourselves to be His children--for by this name we deeply touch our God, since there is not a sweeter sound to the father than the voice of the child.

"He shall cry to Me: You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!" Psalm 89:26