Wednesday, November 22, 2006

WEDNESDAY

1. We assembled our lap books.

2. I baked apple pies while the children worked on this.

3. I went out to lunch with Debbie...I love this monthly treat. She is so good to remember when it is "time". She'll say "it's about time"...and she is always SO right!

4. When I got back from lunch, Arielle and I baked Chocolate Pecan Pies and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

5. Adrienne dropped by to drop of Coconut oil and talk produce.

6. We rushed to the chapel for an ecumenical Thanksgiving service/pie social.

7. I left my purse at home...Jamin ran around the block, retrieved it, and was in the front yard by the time I drove around the block.

8. Zander thought it was a fate worse than death to have to go to chapel....he INSISTED that "God is not THERE"...but did well through service.

9. Stacia did not do well; we ended up in the cry room anyway. LOL

10. Pie Social was amazing....way TOO MUCH PIE! I have no idea how we'll get rid of all our pies.

11. Operation Warmheart gave us a box because Mike is gone. I appreciated the thought.....the kids are wondering, however, why they would think our income went down when Mike deployed. I think it was the THOUGHT and explained that to them. It is nice to see base support in a tangible way.

12. Came home and picked up some things while Jamin made ice cream.

13. Going to bed....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING HON, WE WISH YOU WERE HERE. YOU REMAIN ONE OF THE BIGGEST BLESSINGS IN MY LIFE. WE'RE MISSING YOU AND GIRLS WE'RE MISSING YOU TOO!
CURSOR

OK - Cindy - anyone else...that cursor thing is getting BIGGER in the title. I have it added as a page element in the side bar...it's there. I put it at the end of the html code and it still stays there.....any suggestions????
WooHOO - our first real big lap book completed - all the pages won't upload...but here's enough to figure out what we've been working on. LOL




Here is the cover - I thought this sounded fun and Nolan was game. I noticed Arielle was distracted and then nearly in tears. Turns out she is NOT an abstract gal and hated our cover....so she did a "real" picture for the back. I thought you could tell it was the Mayflower?

As you can tell, I curbed my perfectionist impulses so this would be THEIR project...



Arielle's back cover

Thoughts: I think we enjoyed this. It took a LOT more time than simply reading and narrating back. ::snort:: We didn't do a couple of the books, because I either felt they looked way to much like busy work...or they were above the writing ability of the children. We did add in a little maze that Arielle found and liked, and two pictures of our traditions, as well as the directions to Nine Men's Morris...
BAKING -

5 Pies done....I ended up using Cynthia's famous pie crust recipe. {bg} I was amazed at how fast these went together.....I made 3 deep dish apple and 2 chocolate pecan....I adjusted the directions for that one. I simply put the honey, chocolate and butter in the microwave together...looks good - hope it tastes good. LOL


I also got two batches of chocolate Chip cookies done. Debbie told me she will bring brownies - so I don't need to make those. The Caramel corn is done.
I still have a Gooey Cake to do tonight.....and I'd like to try some new pumpkin recipes...but hey...probably not tonight. I guess I'll do some light cleaning ::snort:: and think about making a special day for the children. LOL
Some Pictures of traditions that we took, mounted and put in our Lap Book instead of a couple of their little booky things. {G}


Our Thanksgiving Tree




Our Thanksgiving Table Cloth - everyone signs it every year. We didn't finish getting it all embroidered...guess it will be a long night or we'll fake something. LOL
GENTLE - ONE FINGER TOUCH

Not wanting to tell Stacia "don't touch" all the time...realizing that young children need to explore and are naturally curious.... I have been saying "Gentle Stacia, one finger touch".

Today she had "one finger" out and touched the power button, the ejection buttons for discs, the on off switch on the fax machine...... when I said Stacia, "One finger" she showed me her one finger. ::snort::
PARENTING/DISCIPLINE in PROVERBS - Ch 22

22:11 "He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious, the kin is his friend."

~Simply thought this would be an encouraging verse to share, as we've discussed our tongues so much this month.

~*~*~*~*To see extensive word studies on rod, child, discipline and such; click parenting in the side bar...scroll to Oct 24 and read forward. To see the resources I use in word studies do the same. I will not repeat all the basis for my comments here - they are there for you to check if you are new to the blog.

22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it."

~train - #2596 chanakh - initiate, teach, train, dedicate, consecrate

~child - #5288 naar - young man most agree between 16 - 24....old enough to go to battle and marry

~way - #1870 derekh - going along, course of life, path, journey

~old - #2204 Zagen - become old, days of life

Literally: {Dedicate}, Train a {young man} according to the {course of his life, bents, pattern of his life} and as he {grows older} he will not depart from it.

The Bible DOES have some interesting things to say about training our YOUTH.

22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him."

~Child - 5288 - naar - young person same as above

~rod of correction, rod of chastisement, rod of discipline - Shebet of Muscar or Shevet of Muwcar - same thing..... see rod and discipline word studies for full notes.

Theological Word Book of the Old Testament - "Rod of Correction most often denotes oral instruction".

Foolishness discussed here is not childishness...we are discussing a youth!

Literally: Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a {young person}; {oral instruction} will remove it far from him.

Remember this instruction is to be based on RELATIONSHIP and is to be God centered and God natured. When society tells us to pull away and give our "teens" independence....God's word says "Keep them close, apprentice them if you will, and orally instruct them".....THEY STILL NEED YOU!

As our young men and women have matured, they have naturally come to us with new issues that rise and we are able to "discipline" them.....some questions they begin to ask in this stage...."How do I hear the voice of God", "How do you make life decisions", "How do you weigh which thing to do when both paths seem equally moral and beneficial", "Why don't we date", "How will God bring a spouse my way if I don't try a few out", "Will I make the right choices", "What will happen if I totally blow this", "Is God a God of second chances", "Will you love me if I make the wrong choice and spend thousands of dollars on a worthless degree" ::snort::.....Now If I have distanced myself because "teens need independence" who do you think will supply these answers for my children? Peers - who don't know much more than they do and often know less. God set it up for children to learn from their parents. They naturally progress from infancy, to being a weaned child, to being a young adult and then an adult.....don't buy the philosophy that all teens must rebel or be terrible.

NOTE - I am not dictating the choices to my child. We purposefully keep quiet until asked our until our youth shows they are ready to listen. Youth MUST learn to make their own choices. If you make all choices for your child until they leave home they will be learning how to make a wise choice while out of your house for the first time.....begin to teach them how to make choices when they are YOUNG and you can instruct through through their failures...and the stakes of bad decisions are not as high as they are for a college age student.

NOTE - this is also the age where children will make their OWN choices and some will make bad choices....still they need our oral instruction and love in the midst of walking out the consequences of their sin.....and sometimes there is separation during this time. I am NOT saying that if YOU do everything right your youth will not rebel. I am saying that it is not a GIVEN that every youth will rebel. It will depend on the heart of our children/the choices they make...which is why, I believe we are to be mainly concerned with our children's heart from infancy.