Thanksgiving

This year, I wanted to truly meditate on the idea of giving thanks before we host Thanksgiving. But not thanks for "stuff." I want to meditate on the one to whom we give thanks. It really struck me after a house church conversation about the concept that:

Christ Jesus + nothing = Everything

Chew on that for a while before reading on...

So, if all the stuff is gone, will there still be thanks in my heart? I wasn't convinced because I spent so much time being "thankful" (read: in love with) the stuff instead of the Source.
Can you imagine if I spent every day telling Jeff how much I like the things that his earnings at work gave us, but never acknowledged him? Never told him of my love for just him? Never spent time with him? Oy. What an awful relationship. And yet, I have committed such an atrocity time and again with Christ. That's exactly what I want to change this year.
The first 5 days have already wrecked change upon my heart. I won't tell you each of my daily meditations. I'd much rather encourage you to take time to look upon Jesus and see His beauty for yourself. But here's an example from Nov. 1. We were laying in bed as I told him about my plan to daily give thanks to God for God. Mercy. Mercy was the key word for day 1 because Jesus has had boundless mercy for all my blunders, my dirt, my planks of the eye, my sins that I can't seem to acknowledge, despite their blatancy. It's a beautiful and unmerited mercy for which I am deeply thankful. But all I heard from him was a grunt. A grunt! Really?!?! That's it?!?! I was irked, and continued to be so until the next afternoon when, lo and behold, he asked me if I had chosen my key word for day 2. Because I hadn't learned my lesson from day 1, I made sure to first bring up his lackluster response. Turns out he had just been drifting off when I interrupted his sleep to tell him my grand plan. Jesus took that Mercy word from day 1 and put it right back in front of me and I saw - REALLY saw - how big his mercy is and how small mine was. I was caught up in ME, again. Though I had another word for day 2, but I was once again in need of that mercy I mentioned in day 1! And I'm writing it down in hopes that I won't be foolish enough to forget my foolishness.
But can I tell you about another mercy of Christ? When we ask Him to show us our sins in light of His grace, He does. And it's painful, but the cross was painful AND merciful. Because when He shows us our sins, He is also merciful to show us His grace. He is merciful to replace our folly with His good.
May our thanks be about the Giver of all good things.

Say Cheese (and ham it up)!

On the first day of Christmas pictures, my children taught to me...
*Always start by going to the potty!

On the 2nd day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
 *Boys prefer to be pants-free!

On the 3rd day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*Girls just love to be called "pretty"!

On the 4th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*They obey best when the pose is funny.

On the 5th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
* Picking his nose comes naturally.

On the 6th day of Christmas, my children taught to me...
*Kids are kinda weird, obviously!

 

On the 7th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*Their eyes close when they try to say "cheese."

On the 8th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
* Being naughty makes Dax giggle with glee!

On the 9th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*They hate sitting still in front of a tree.

 

 On the 10th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*Laughter is the best medicine for free.

On the 11th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*The best smiles will always be fuzzy!

On the 12th day of Christmas pics, my children taught to me...
*Jesus gave me a great gift when he made me a mommy!

"Frowing" Rocks

After a nice paddle on the fishing lakes and dinner on the shore, the following conversation ensued:
Mommy: Time to go, buddy!
Dax: (totally calm)  I not going.  I frow rocks.
M: Daddy & Charli are already gone, so hop in & let's catch them!
D:  (still calm) I stay here.
M: (amused because sometimes he's just funny) Well, I'll see ya.  I'm going to head back to the car for our dessert.
D: O-chay.  I frow rocks
M: Are you just going to stay here for the night?
D: (smirking) I sleep here.  (smirk grows & he proceeds to lay down on the rocks)
---Daddy & Charli return to see what's happening---
Jeff repeats (and Dax happily repeats answers) what we've already been through.  With one new question, though...
J: What are you going to eat for breakfast?
D: I eat my sammich!
J: What sandwich?  Where will you get a sandwich?
D: I set it on my yife jachet (looking around befuddled, recalling exactly how he DID do that for dinner.  But now he's wearing the lifejacket.)
---At this point, we decide Dax has won because we're all doubled over laughing.----
He did eventually get in the boat when we told him he could take rocks with him to toss out of the boat as we paddled back to the dock.  Of course, once in the boat, he really wanted to know what the dessert was ("Iiiiiss it toooootsie wolls?  Chandeeeees?"), and if he could jump off the dock into the grimy water ("I spash!").  Or just pee off the dock ("I shoot rocks!").  Ah, yes... that's Dax.

I know some of you will just find this to be a "so-what?" moment, but I'm kicking myself for not taking our camera to record this conversation.  It's the FACE!!!  His face tells you far more than his words, so for those of you who know his goofy nature... I'm guessing you're laughing as you imagine his expressions.  Those of you who don't... I'm sad for you.

Homeschooling - The Early Days

   Well, we're finally giving it a whirl.  For real, though.  It's not so much to know if they can do it, but if I can do it.  I've made goals for this year - just 2.  I should call them "hopes" because goals are based on my own ability.  One thing I learned in parent-teacher conferences (though I often succumb to it myself) is that we ALL want our kids to be "gifted," many of us assume our kids are "gifted", and very few of us are actually raising kids who are bound for the Ivy League with a 4.0 lifetime GPA.
   So anyway, my hope is that Charli can be reading simple books independently and have math skills that would pass kindergarten.  Next year I'd love for her to be able to enroll as a 1st grade home-schooler.  My hopes for Dax?  Sure, I'd love for him to master his alphabet and even a few sounds.  But right now I'd love to make it through library day as a group participant.  Sleeping past 6 a.m. would be great, too.
  As for the first day... We are trying to do a work-play-work-play schedule, but our "work" involves some fun, too!  Our springboard, of sorts, is the Five In A Row (FIAR) curriculum.  Each week focuses on a specific book - this week we're looking at Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel.  We then design lessons in various subjects around that. 
   Mike takes great care of his shovel named Mary Ann, which is a great introduction to stewardship.  We begin our day in prayer with a specific focus - Missionary Mondays, Family Tuesdays, etc.  Then we read a Bible story relating to the character quality, such as the 5 loaves and 2 fish to reinforce the concept of stewardship, or Adam & Eve (stewardship gone wrong).  Finally, we practice our Awana memory verse for the week and then break for some free play time.
   We then move on to our story time, reading the focus book, and sometimes another related book.  I'm trying to work in some non-fiction that teaches us more about a specific topic, but it's awfully fun to find another fiction book, too.  After the first reading, we climb the story elements mountain, looking for: setting, conflict, action, climax, and denouement.  We add a sticker to the timeline (1900-present) representing when the story took place, and another sticker on the world map for the story's location.  It's great for the kids to see that there's more to learn about another culture than just the differences.  Children's lit does such a nice job at helping kids see that we have commonalities across the world that are just as special as our differences.  We also do other activities, like art projects and science experiments.  For example, yesterday we learned about the water cycle as we boiled water, watched the steam rise, let the heat melt ice in a pan above, then observed condensation/rain on the bottom of the ice pan.  Simple, but cool.  Today, we did a fingerpainting art project looking at perspective of trees.  Both could involve Dax, and both turned out great!
   The math lessons are going so-so.  Same for the formal reading lessons.  This is where Dax is such a wild-card.  He will semi-participate some days (it really IS stuff he can understand to some degree), he will refuse to participate other days, and then there are the days he just flat-out tries to stop our lessons.  And since they're more formal lessons - wait, let me define "formal."  We sit down for these lessons.  Other than that, we include rhymes, crayons, clapping-counting, and games.  Terribly formal and boring, eh?  Ah, well, we'll keep trying.  We can't expect them to go from play-all-day to structured play in just a couple days, now can we?
For guidance and patience we shall pray, and tomorrow shall be another day...

Tonight's Quick Delicious Dinner Discovery

Mmm!  My favorite recipe book is Bon Appetit's Every-Night Cooking, and I've tried a good number of the recipes within it.  Tonight we found one that we hadn't tried, and the ingredients happened to be things I not only had on hand, but also needed to use soon.  It turned out to be quick, simple, very delicious, and relatively inexpensive.  I'm all for sharing quick, easy, and delicious recipes, so here it is, including my modifications:

Quick Chicken Packets w/ Couscous

*2 B/S chicken breasts sliced thinly (me - leftover shredded chicken)

*1 box (or most of one) cherry tomatoes

*1 bunch spinach, washed & dried, chopped or torn

*1/2-1 T dried dill

*1-2 t shredded orange or lemon peel (me - clementine)

*1-2 garlic cloves

*1 T olive oil

*salt & pepper to taste

*1 box garlic & olive oil couscous

-----------------------------------

-Preheat oven to 425.  Place cookie sheet in oven to heat.

-Mix dill, peel, garlic, & olive oil in med. bowl.  Add tomatoes and chicken & toss to coat.  Salt and pepper to taste.

-Cut 4 sheets of foil.  Spray each w/nonstick spray before filling.  After spraying, add a handful of spinach, then top with a hearty scoop of chicken mix.  Form a closed packet w/foil.

-Place packets on preheated cookie sheet.  Bake until chicken is cooked through, approx 10-15 min.

-Meanwhile, make couscous according to box directions.

-Top couscous with packet contents and enjoy!  We did!

Our Favorite Pancakes

I've come to love using rice milk in my baking.  For many of the recipes that call for regular milk, I even tend to prefer the rice milk because it doesn't leave the sticky heavy texture that I find with milk.  That said, here's the recipe we've found to be our family favorite:

Because of Dax Pancakes :)
Family Size Batch ~18 pancakes (5 inch)
3c flour
1.5 t baking soda
1.5-2 T  baking powder (yes, tablespoons - the taste really does bake out)
 3/4 t salt
*Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Then add:
Scant 1/2 c sugar or honey
3c rice milk
1/4 c olive or veg. oil
1.5 t vanilla
Blueberries!!! (they're not really optional in this house, unless you're willing to sub. chocolate chips)

YUM!

Westward We Go - Day 8

Tuesday, August 30

Oh, it's so hard to accept the final day.  It had literal and figurative ups and downs, but good closure and some definite reasons to look forward to home.  We had a nice leisurely breakfast, and then headed out to try our hand at Mt. Charleston.  We knew we couldn't possibly complete a 16-mile hike with over 4000 ft. gain, so we just planned on getting as far as possible.  We came to the first trail junction, and we decided to change plans spur-of-the-moment and try what appeared to be a shorter, but still intense trail called Cathedral Rock.  It was a great climb - challenging but not defeating - and turned out to be a perfect choice for our day.  We gained 1000 ft in a little over a mile to reach a fantastic little nearly-9000ft. summit with gorgeous views.  It was a wonderful place for a snack-lunch picnic before we headed down.  When we returned to the hotel we put the kids in bed for naps.  Oh my heavens... that did NOT go well.  Dax cried and Charli wiggled the entire 45 minutes.  And once again, Mommy and Daddy were not allowed to catch a snooze.  We were so frustrated because that just topped off a couple other incidents (like really slow front-desk service, etc) since we'd returned from the hike.  We took a deep breath, reminded ourselves that this was our last day of vacation, and decided to take the kids down to the pool and enjoy the rest of our time.  It worked - we had a fantastic time for over an hour.  We laughed for 5-minutes straight when Dax discovered parts of his chest he'd never noticed before.  He was totally befuddled as he checked out the "new", um, amenities and found not only one, but TWO!  Whoa.  We came back up to our room, ate leftover Mexican made into salad with a bit of our other leftover foods, packed everything, and put those kiddos to bed.  Finally, an easy-to-bed night.  7:30 found our kiddos soundly sleeping and Mommy watching tennis.  Aaaahhhh.  Now off to bed for a good night’s sleep before the alarm clock goes off at 5.  Seems ridiculous when our flight isn’t until 8, but that’s the “joy” of a big airport.  Can’t really recommend the Vegas airport experience.  Great appreciation for our Dayton Airport, though!  Home, here we come!