Volcanoes

Ethan chose an Eyewitness: Volcano video for Anna Kate at the library last week. It was connected to her love of Hawaii. To be more specific all of my kids love something to do with Hawaii. For Anna Kate it's really dancing the hula; for Ethan, volcanoes; for Rosie Lilo and Stitch (she calls them both "Stitch") - and all of them are in love with the beach.

Brian and I are going away to a yet-undisclosed location of his planning on Thursday and Friday, so I decided to save the video for their school day with Gran, and then, as often happens, I got on a roll and put together a volcano unit. I'll send some to Gran's and we'll do some next week and some we'll save for another time, but there's some really cool stuff out there! Use discretion, of course, because these are secular science sources.

Make a volcano:

1. Classic version
2. Easier artistic version
3. Another easier version
4. Easiest version - this is the one I'm sending to Gran's, but I'm writing a note on it to add the red food coloring to the vinegar, because I know that my kids won't buy that's it's a volcanic eruption if the "lava" is white
5. Cheater's version

Worksheets, etc. :

1. Crayola Volcano Mini Book
2. Time for Kids map worksheets here and here.
3. Label a volcano diagram
4. Volcano writing paper
5. Fill in the blank

Online articles:

1. Science News for Kids - enter "volcanoes" in the search box if nothing comes up. There are several articles
2. "Exploring Volcanoes" - I also found a juvenile book by this researcher, Donna O'Meara, at our library
3. "Explore Volcanoes"
4. "Volcano! Mountain of Fire" - this online stroy at National Geographic Kids has video clips as well.

Online activities:

1. VolcanoWorld's Games & Fun Stuff - has a neat dot to dot among other things
2. For older kids (looks like preteen and up): a strategy game in which you are a disaster manager handling a volcanic eruption and evacuating a town

And last, but not least -

Home Ec (otherwise known as Snack Time):

• Volcano Cake

I also did a juvenile volcano search on the library's database. I chose several more books and videos. I'll try to let you know later which one's were favorites.

"Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org".

She understood as a child

Ethan and Anna Kate are on the couch behind me discussing Judas. Ethan says, "did you know that Judas was one of His disciples?" Anna Kate replies, "yeah, he's the one who traded Him in." Ethan quickly says,"not traded Him in - betrayed Him, Anna!"

She speaks!

Rose was looking at the pictures on my blog and saw Gran which then set her off to identify everyone in the pictures. "Pa" "Daddy" "Mommy" Then, she surprised me by saying, "I'm the mommy" pointing to me, then "I'm the baby" pointing to herself! She continued on with "Brur" (brother) and her almost internalized version of "Anna Kate" and continued identifying herself as "baby". I guess she got tired of trying to say "Rosie".

Pearls Before Breakfast

This astonishing story has been all over the blogosphere, but if you've missed it so far, go here and catch the story with music and video. Then take time to notice the neauty in your world today. :&)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticle

Easter pics and newsyness

Well, it's still crazy around here. I feel like I've been careening from project to project. First the church ministry fair, the next week Mom's birthday dinner, the next week Brian's mom in the hospital (she looked so much better on Easter! thanks so much for praying) and the car in the shop, then Anna Kate's two parties that weekend, and then I realized that I ought to have Easter dinner at my house because Mom shouldn't have to worry about it. So I threw together a dinner menu with a lot of help form Kraft Kitchens:

Orange-Spinach Salad
Spiral Ham with Coke (poured over it. makes it very tender)
Mom's amazing green beans and devilled eggs that she insisted were no trouble
New Potatoes in Dill Cream Sauce
Maple-Glazed Baby Carrots
Brown and serve rolls
Lemonade
Iced orange, passionfruit & jasmine green tea (our family's favorite tea, except Anna - there always has to be one dissenter)
Strawberry blossoms with almond cream
Rice krispy squares iced like petit fours sent by Nanny from The Popcorn Factory
Easter creamy jello jigglers (I used lemon jello and white chocolate pudding mix
and cut out butterflies instead of eggs)
Angel lush (used a Gluten Free Pantry cake mix)

Now, don't be fooled by that innocent little Rosie face. She is a terror! I can't take my eyes off of her for 30 seconds without some disaster occurring. Easter dinner was a little late thanks to her. She went into the laundry room and turned on the sink and pulled out the drain and stuffed something else in it and flooded the room and into the adjacent playroom- then she managed to sneak off and do it all over again about half an hour later. She is in a bed because she could climb out of her crib, she pulls chairs over to kitchen counters and the stove, she can turn doorknobs, she can knock over safety gates...

When it comes to Easter baskets, it's all about the chocolate(in Rose's book at least). Don't know where she gets it from. She was on a mission to find the caramel kisses in her basket - and everyone else's!

On the flip side, after we prayed for the meal, Anna Kate asked to pray. She thanked God for sending Jesus to die for us and that He is alive, and that when she got to go to heaven she was going to sit on his lap!

And Ethan demanded everyone's attention as he shared the Easter story with the Resurrection Eggs.

In other news, my beloved has really been feeling awful. He's been having terrible knee pain which makes all moving around very painful. Please pray that it passes soon; we have no idea what triggered it.

Our Resurrection Sunday service is always such a beautiful celebration. The large clusters of lilies at the front of the church were lovely. We sang so many of my favorite songs before and after the sermon. "I Will Glory In My Redeemer", "The Power Of the Cross" (it's been in my head ever since),"I Come By the Blood," and what Easter service could be complete without "In Christ Alone"? I had been teaching it to the children all week. Anna Kate and Ethan waited for it at the beginning of the service, but we didn't sing it, then the sermon, then singing at the end. It was the last song! They were happy to be able to try to sing along.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

I wonder...

What was it like the day after Jesus died?

Did the world springing to life around them seem to mock them?

Or did everything seem colorless without Him?

Did any of them anticipate what would happen next?

Did they dare to hope?

Hot Cross Buns

I thought my hot cross buns days were over, but I found this recipe and gave it a shot. I just pulled them out of the oven and we tasted a hot one. They took about 4 hours with double rising, but they are so worth it! Hurry, there's still time to have them after dinner.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who consideredthat he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous,and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors

The Messiah is for Good Friday not just Christmas

Dust off your CD of The Messiah. Start at track 20, "Behold the Lamb of God," then continue through "He Was Despised," "Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs," "And With His Stripes We Are Healed," "Since By Man Came Death," and on through until you're singing, "Worthy is the Lamb and hath redeemed us to God, to God by His blood..."

Response to "Five Streams of the Emergent Church"

Lindsey linked to this article by Scot McKnight on the emerging church as food for thought and mentioned this concept in particular:

"A notable emphasis of the emerging movement is orthopraxy, that is, right living. The contention is that how a person lives is more important than what he or she believes. Many will immediately claim that we need both or that orthopraxy flows from orthodoxy. Most in the emerging movement agree we need both, but they contest the second claim: Experience does not prove that those who believe the right things live the right way...Here is an emerging, provocative way of saying it: "By their fruits [not their theology] you will know them."

There are at least a few things in this description of the emerging church that are huge red flags to me. This quote is the first one. While it is true that many who have or claim to have the right theology have not lived in a way that reflects their belief, I don't think that it is reasonable to think that you will live the right way if you don't believe the right way. When you grasp a right view of God it should radically change the way that you live. Isaiah caught a glimpse of God and saw what he really was. If you don't believe the right things, then how are you supposed to live the right way? how would you know what the right way was? God gave us His word so that we could know the right way to live. We are commanded to search the Scriptures, study to show ourselves approved unto God, and rightly divide the word of truth. This really sounds like the old faith versus works argument that the Bible already addresses. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, but faith without works is dead, it's not genuine. The same thing could be said of your orthodoxy.

Obviously the "in versus out" debate is a big problem, but even the author of this article addressed that.

The political demographics of this movement leave me appalled. Yes, there are too many Christians who believe that the Republicans are saviors. There is only one Savior. He is the only one who can change peoples hearts and make any lasting changes in their lives. That's something this emerging movement needs to remember as well. Social reform comes from the inside out. The church, not the government, should be responsible for reaching out to those in need and has often failed miserably. While we should seek to have the government address serious social problems (Wilberforce and his fight to end slavery being a very visible example) I cannot conceive of believers supporting the Democratic party as a whole. How can you align yourselves with a party that blatantly opposes nearly anything moral? This seems so narrowly focused. Do you think that there were Christians in Nazi Germany who supported the Nazi party because they thought that it would help their people recover from the financial and economical disaster of the First World War? What do we think of them? Do we wonder how they could have stood by and watched an entire race of people be exterminated? Someone please tell me how the Democratic party's supposed "historic commitment to the poor and to centralizing government for social justice" is worth the blood price of millions of tiny babies. If these innocents can't be protected, then why pretend that your protecting or helping anyone?!Not to mention how they'd like to reform my entire way of life from the pennies in my pocket to the way I educate my children and conform it to their master social plan. No thanks! Maybe I'm crazy, but this constitutes a massive lack of discernment to me.

So that's my take on this article for anyone that cares. If the emerging church wants to use incense or sit in a circle - good for them, but we have been called by a holy God to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Any movement that forgets that the gospel is the only thing that will every change the world has completely missed the point.

Update on Brian's mom

Mom finally came home from the hospital on Saturday. Her heart does not appear to have suffered damage from the temporary loss of blood flow, but she is still weak from the whole ordeal and from trying to adjust to new medications. Thanks so much for remembering her in your prayers.

I love Goodwill

We had errands to run today. To a book warehouse out in in the middle of nowhere for Ethan's first grade math books and to the dump to properly dispose of the old computor monitor. But to get there we had to go past the Goodwill nearest to a rather well to do population. I'd yet to find my Easter dress. I was out last night and finally found a store that had several I liked, but they were $35-40 each! Way too much in my tightwad book. SO - I decided to give Goodwill a try. For the $35 I would have spent on one dress, I got my Easter dress (on the left) as well as three everyday dresses AND 6 videos.

Another fantastic resource

If you homeschool like I do, pulling from whatever resources you find to fit what your kids are interested in, then you probably love to find new sources of great free materials. Here's one I found recently: LearningPage.com. They offer several sets of themed worksheets to give you an idea and with your free membership you gain access to a new set of worksheets developed each month, as well as the old monthly sets. They even e-mail you to let you know that they're out. If your child loves ocean or zoo animals, bugs, dinosaurs, or space, you'll love the sample sets of worksheets with those themes. The monthly themes are 10 worksheet sets and are on Preschool-3rd grade level - the sets have worksheets on different levels so a family with children in more than one grade could enjoy it together. Monthly themes such as "Thankful Times," "In My Garden," and "Summer Storms" await you with membership (remember, it's FREE). So go check it out!

Guess what we did today?

Went to a train's birthday party! Complete with balloon arch, cookies and juice, clown bounce, carnival games, a train ride - and ridiculously long lines! I'm talking half an hour for the clown bounce and over an hour for the train! We did the other activities, then left and went to Micky D's for lunch then returned when the "party" was over but the train was still running and hopped right on! Rosie. in particular, was thrilled!

Anna Kate's flower dance

Easter for Kids

1. The egg decorating stencils and scrapbook paper are just two of the many gems at Hershey's Easter pages.
2. We are going to do this craft to remember the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I think we'll have to listen to that selection from the Messiah while we do it.
3. We'll probably print these bookmarks for favors at our Easter dinner.
4. And the toymaker dresses up our holiday once again with this beautiful decoration that we'll print onto cardstock for the door.
5. Here's a great empty tomb coloring page.
6. And, of course you can have crosses or lilies on your DTLK writing paper and other Easter themed worksheets too. Brian took the children through Isaiah 53 in family devotions last night. I believe that we'll have phrases from Isaiah 53 for copywork the rest of the week. "All we like sheep have gone astray," "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" "He was despised and rejected of men." "And with His stripes we are healed."

Celebrating Holy Week

March was a crazy busy month! All of the birthdays are now over for a bit and Brian's mom came home from the hospital on Saturday finally. She's still trying to get adjusted to new medications and is still feeling lousy, so I'd appreciate your keeping her in your prayers. I really wanted to do more with Lent and Holy Week this year, but I've had to scale back considerably in order to mantain sanity. So I've returned to my Easter file and pulled out a few gems. I have one that I haven'r found a link for yet that we'll be using this year. Each day we will read the Scriptures relating to the events for each day of Passion Week. Brian has off for Good Friday and the Scripture for that day follow a timeline from early morning, 9AM, 12 noon, and 3PM that I hope to follow. Here are links to a few great resources for remembering this week's events.

1. The Teaching Home's Easter Unit Study
2. Christianity Today has Family Activities for the week leading up to Easter as well as a Countdown to Easter article with 40 ideas for 40 days of Lent, many of which are great for this week.
3. Christian Homemaking (and a million other websites) have Resurrection Story cookies that are in my plans for Saturday evening.

How Old?

ONE...

TWO...

THREE...

FOUR!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNA KATE!

Anna Kate's birthday letter

April 1, 2007

Sweet Anna girl,

I used to sing you a song when you were first born:

Sweet Anna girl
Sweet Anna girl
Pretty little pearl
Sweet Anna girl

This is the year your sweetness has really come out. Your heart has turned toward Jesus, and you’re growing into such a sweet young lady. I love the way that you just start spontaneously singing your own made up songs of praise to Jesus for whatever has made you happy. I love to hear your very original and always sincere prayers.

You still love all things girly. Especially ballet this year, and particularly Twelve Dancing Princesses. We wach that movie all the time! Your favorite characters are Genevieve and the chiclets (or triplets, as they are more commonly known). Your favorite line form the movie is “How Romantic!” You’re such a lovely dancer. Joy just spills over from you in the most graceful movements.

You love tights and want to wear dresses every day. Not even skirts or last years beloved jumpers will do. You feel the need to wear princess clothes and everyone knows that princesses wear beautiful dresses. While you don’t fuss about wearing your flowered jeans and pink pants much anymore, a girly pink dress is your preferred garment.

You still have a bit of a wicked streak, but over all are a much tamer lass than a year ago. I just love to spend time with you. You’re such a good shopping buddy. And you love shoes too. You’d like to wear ballet or dress up princess shoes everywhere, but you sure did love your pink boots this winter; I’m so glad that I got them for you. Now we’re back to flip flop weather and you couldn’t be happier. You’ve loved flip flops since before we could find ones small enough to fit your two year old feet.

You are a Southern girl. It still cracks me up that given a choice of foods, you nearly always choose grits. You could live on grits!

You love to “snuggle up in our sleeping bags and watch a movie.” You still love to sleep with Puppy (and Taggie too until I hid it away to help you quit sucking your thumb). You have loved your thumb well all of these years, but you did it, Anna baby! You’ve stopped sucking your thumb in time for your birthday so that you can be a real princess and have princess teeth! I’m so proud of you!

You’re getting to be so smart too. I can’t believe how well you’ve been writing letters and how well you recognize letters and numbers. I haven’t spent much time teaching you the way I taught Ethan, but you don’t miss a thing. You’ve learned so much right alongside him this year and I bet by the time I write this next year, you’ll be the one reading books to me.

You don’t want to get any older and grow up, but I promise Anna Kate, that no matter how old or how big you grow, you will always be my baby and I will always love you.

You delight me, pretty child. I’m so glad that God chose me to be your Mommy.

Sinning with a high hand

I'm once again linking to the words of the wise man I am blessed to call husband.
Here's a glimpse:

"But consider the sin that is not ignorant. (This is what most of us consider to be sin.) It is a sin with a high hand, that is, it assaults God's authority. This is sin for sin's sake. This is when you want something so badly you dare God to do His worst. It rarely sounds so bold as you prepare to do it. No, it hisses in your ear, "You will not surely die." You know that no good judge would ever find you guilty in his court of law and say, "Aw, it's not that big of a deal." Because it is that big of a deal. But you will deceive yourself into believing God is so unconcerned with your righteousness. You're too important to be bothered with righteousness..."

Read the rest here.

The result of intelligence

"I'm smart," Anna Kate informed me a couple of days ago. "I'm so smart that I'm going to turn four!"