Book-Reading, Journal-Writing, and Art...What Fun!

I think I mentioned the last time that William got some new books, what are called "graphic novels," which are set up like comic strips.  I have never liked such, but he is loving them.  The ones I got are about historical persons and events.  So far he has read Anne Frank, Race to the South Pole, and Alexander the Great.  I think he has started Pizarro and the Incas.  They're very educational, and they start out by introducing the cast, giving facts about each person, and ending in the back of the book with a glossary of terms.  He has read another of his Cul-de-Sac Kids books.  It was about a tree house mystery. 

 For those interested in the historical graphic novels pictured above, they can be found at Timberdoodle.com.  Some can also be found on Amazon.

William also writes in his journal and draws a picture almost every day.  Some days his writing is neat, but his spelling is poor.  Some days it's not so neat, but the spelling is better.  Some days his drawings are good, and other days they are poor.  One thing is for sure; the journal writing is helping his spelling skills.  I think I mentioned it before, but in case I did not, he free writes and draws a picture to go with it.  He is currently dating by the Roman calendar at the top of the page, and then he writes his name at the bottom.  I then write everything correctly, which shows him where he made punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or other errors.  Well, he likes to write about things that he loves on most days.  I enjoy reading the short entries.  I also am pleased with his writing structure.  He always starts out saying what he likes (or doesn't like or whatever), and then he says why he does and describes the topic. 

Here are some of the latest samples:

For the sabbath, we have now restarted the Bible Stories book from the start again.  If there's anything else that needs to be addressed, I do that, too.

Most days during the week, we read a chapter of Proverbs, then William works in Complete Curriculum Grade 2 on reading, math, language arts, and spelling.   He's nearly finished with reading and math.  We sometimes read something on the human body.  We look into certain things he learns more in-depth.  For example, after he read Race to the South Pole, we talked about frostbite, and I showed him real pictures on Google Images.  He also plays outside, and he's looking forward to "busting ice" in the winter and also playing in the snow, if it does so.  He shoots a bb gun some days; he needs new arrows for his bow.  He loves to collecting rocks and collecting bird nests that he find.  He also pretends sticks are swords.  He's definitely a boy.  A few days ago he found a salamander, much to my surprise:

I've been letting Trusten free paint or play with chalk.  Pictured below is him working with water paints and also William painting a picture:

These are my plans in the near future:

Next week William will be done with the reading lessons in the CCG2 book and probably finished with math.  He'll continue to work on language arts and spelling, until it's finished.  He will read his books as he pleases.  We'll continue to look at and read our magazines:  Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, and Birds & Bloom.  I ordered William a typing program with lessons and games, so he'll be learning how to type.  I also have a book for him to start practicing cursive writing.  He'll be able to continue writing in print in his journal.   I also ordered Trusten a six-book set so that he can learn to draw, color, cut, paste, etc.  He is still watching his two videos on numbers and letters.  I alternate them each morning, except Sabbath. 

I look forward to the arrival of these things.  Well, this is a fair summary of what we've been doing lately.  Until next time....

Back to Serious Work After Feast of Tabernacles

Since the feast of trumpets, when I updated last, Will has had at least nine days of journal writing and reading, math, spelling, and language arts lessons.  That's all I have recorded.  We've been quite busy, though.  We left Sept. 20 to head to Idaho for our feast of tabernacles trip.  We got back on Oct. 1.  Will took two chapter books, both 70-something pages long, with him.  He completed one during the trip there, and he read the other one in full on the way back.  It worked out the way I had hoped it would.

We had a nice trip.  Oddly enough, I got out of habit of reading to Will his daily proverb while we were there.  I did not take any bible story book along, but I did take the holy day salvational plan map that I always use for holy days, pictured here:

Usually I go over the map with them both on the first day of the feast of tabernacles (a holy day) and then right after Tabernacles, on the 8th day (another holy day).  We did not do this at all on the 8th day this year, and I was rather in a meditative mode nearly all that day, thinking about the number 8 and eternity and time.

Two of the non-holy days were spent driving through Yellowstone National Park.  That was a great way to spend a couple of days during our great God's thanksgiving feast.  The views are absolutely breathtaking, or as Nathan said, "Everything is a picture."  I took many pictures, but I've yet to sort them onto our Shutterfly share site.  For those waiting on that, please bear patiently with me.  I've felt overwhelmed.  We actually all got colds while on the trip, and though I suffered badly only one day with cold symptoms, including a bad sore throat that took my voice away, it turned into bronchitis, and I stayed sick for a long time.  My ribs were all sore from coughing, and I had pain in my chest and back.  I was in such bad pain that I resorted to an OTC painkiller and NSAID--ibuprofen--for a couple of days, and I have been considered to have a fairly high pain tolerance (though I don't personally think so, anymore).  That's the first time I've used a painkiller of the like in 8.5 years.  It helped enough, though, for me to bear through it.  It surely wasn't as bad as the distress my body was in.  I'm still sore, but I'm recovering quite nicely.  Add to this that the boys went to stay with my sister and my parents for a few days, which gave me a needed break, but then I made a trip down to get them.  I also have had to make corrections to my book proof that is now in the publishing process.  I also wanted to add an introduction.  I've just been busy, busy, busy with so much.

We got to see a black bear and three moose.  These were great to see!  We saw a lot of elk, bison, and other animals, too.  The hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, mountains, rivers, streams, and other landscape features we saw were fantastic!  Here are a few of the pictures we saw on our trip:

Interestingly enough, the day after my last blog entry was a weekly sabbath, and we went for a sabbath drive.  Nathan stopped down a dirt road and commented on an animal track in the mud.  I hopped out and ran around.  I just knew it was a black bear track, and I was able to take two pictures, one with one of my shoes and a nickel for comparison, but a car was coming, and so after that I had to rush to get back in the truck.  After we got home, I confirmed the track with our track identification guide.  This is just a few miles from here:

Will has found bird nests, neat rocks, and the like in the past month.  He also found a tree across the road that he loves to climb high up into.

I am not sure how much I like the Cul-de-Sac Kid books he has been reading.  I bought them from a Christian bookstore, but the name "Christian" doesn't always mean it's modeled after the true Christ.  The first one he read was about a mystery of something.  I can't remember what now, but it revolved around the christmas holiday.  I think the mystery was a lit-up evergreen tree in a new neighbor's living room.  Then another book was something about "green gravy," and it apparently revolved around St. Patrick's Day.  When I scanned over the books, I noticed one was about another day of a so-called "saint"--St. Valentine's Day.  Will took a book with him to my parents', and when I was there, I picked up the book to see how much he'd read.  He said, "Oh, Momma, in case you're wondering which holiday that one talks about, it's Flag Day."  LOL!  It was so funny.

I bought him some historical fiction "graphic novels."  Well, it turns out that they are laid out inside like comic books, but they are fictional stories BASED ON true historical figures.  The one he is currently reading is about Anne Frank.  He said he really likes it.  GOOD!  I do wonder whether they are a tad advanced for him, but he hasn't seemed to have any trouble.

I recently started having him do journal entries.  I then have a notebook of my own that I write what he wrote with corrections, and then he takes it and writes on the next page of his journal the correct way.  This way he gets more practice learning how to spell properly, punctuate, indent, etc.  Plus, it gets him thinking about things to write about.  I also have him draw a picture at the top.  The journal notebooks I have bought him have a space to draw something at the top.  I really like them.

Here is a sample of one of his initial journal entries and then the corrected one:

 It's about a dog for which we are now caring, until we find it a home.  He drew a picture of himself and then our front screen door with a dog outside it.  He can definitely read words a lot better than he can spell them, but that's why he's doing journal writing.  ;-)

Well, now that it's cooling off and we have no trips to take, we'll be getting more serious about learning and book work again.

Until next time...

Feast of Trumpets 2010 and a HUGE Caterpillar

The Feast of Trumpets was September 9 on the Roman calendar this year.  It was nice to have an extra day of rest this week.  The holy day started on the evening of the 8th, and we had brisket and sides for dinner, and Will and I made trumpet-shaped sugar cookies for dessert.

Will cutting out dough with cookie cutter

He had fun helping me make the cookies

The first batch of trumpet cookies

Trumpets is the fourth annual feast and holy day of God, which symbolizes the fourth step in the true plan of salvation.  Passover is about the sacrificial death of the sinless Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  Feast or Days of Unleavened Bread is about repentance, turning from sin and toward God's law of love.  Pentecost teaches that we need the begettal of God's sperm/seed/spirit in order to be a son of God and for help in keeping his commandments.  Trumpets foreshadows the time in the future when the seventh and last trumpet of Revelation's trumpet plagues sounds and Christ returns and the saints rise from the dead and are changed, followed by those alive at his coming, and they shall all meet him in the air and receive their rewards, and then they shall descend with him and reign for a thousand years, bringing in a new age--the Kingdom of God.  I look forward to the fulfillment of this holy day.

I went over the feasts with the boys and read them scriptures dealing with the feast of trumpets and what shall take place in the future.  I also read them their this year's letters for their Feast of Trumpets reward journals.

Rewards Journals

I mourned for days prior to this feast of trumpets, because I knew the boys could not be rewarded.  Their behavior and works fell far too short of reaping any rewards, and if it wasn't for poor Trusten's lacking a better example (namely Jaden William), he really deserved a punishment for being naughty over this past year.  It could be argued, then, that Will needed the punishment, but then it could be said he is lacking a better example.  The boys have really just needed more loving and patient Daddy time, and he's worked so much.  He may soon be selling his business, though, and if so we can pay off everything (our mortgage and vehicles, as we have no other debt), and he can do something that has a schedule and way less hours away.  I know all the boys in this home (including my beloved husband) truly have a good heart, but without God as the top authority, things just do not work well.  

So, I read the sad letters to my boys.  I believe I am sadder than they, because I missed out on giving them something.  I want to teach them justice/judgment, though, and if I reward them after poor behavior, it is no encouragement for better behavior the following year.    After I got past my sadness, I realized I would have a biblical lesson to teach.  Those who are called but reject the calling, or are chosen but do not stay faithful, will not even be in the first resurrection, but there may be others who are in the resurrection but will not receive rewards but "he himself shall be saved..." (I Cor. 3:15).  Now, I know my boys are not the type who just do not care.  They go back and forth between trying really hard to do what is right and then do works on top of that, and then deliberately doing evil deeds.  Just as the wicked will see what they would have received if they had done righteously, before they are destroyed forever, I wanted my boys to see what I really wanted for them to have but they didn't get.  If they were both deserving, I wanted for them to have a swing set, and Nathan okayed it.  If, of course, one was undeserving of something and another not, other things would have been worked out, but that was the TOP prize, and I wanted so badly for them to get it, but to be just, we could not do it.  Will was disappointed, but I know he knows I deal justly with him.  He had told me before that I'm "unfair," but he knows that he is the only one unfair when he's doing wrongly.  It's no different than what God told Israel, as recorded in Ezekiel chapter 18, when they accused him of being unfair, and he says that they are the ones who are unfair.   Will has had superstar behavior today.  I hope it continues.  As I keep reminding him, judgment is a process that takes time.  Super good behavior for a short time to try to reap a reward and then going back to do evil afterward is not true, nor lasting, repentance. 

September 10:  Today Will excitedly showed me a huge red caterpillar.  I believe it is a larvae of an Imperial Moth, though most of those are green.   He has it in a large yogurt container that has holes in the lid, and he also collected some other things and put them in his science containers we got for him.  He's apparently using them today as kill jars.  He has a spider, some unidentified insect, and then a moth that Trust killed.  The two former are alive in there, awaiting the oxygen to run out, I guess.  He said he wants to study all of them under the microscope.  Check out the caterpillar:

What I believe to be a red Imperial Moth larvae

Note the size of this caterpillar

Well, that's it!  I have to finish preparing for the sabbath. 

Archery, Cuttlefish, More Art, and Rock Examination

August 22, 2010, Roman calendar:  We left Jasper to come back home.  We went to Branson first, though, and Nathan bought Will a new bow.  

August 23:  Will did his writing, and he also drew a house and some trucks with a dry erase marker.

House with chimney smoke and trucks

August 24:  We went to get groceries.  Will drew more pictures on his dry erase board.  Here is another:

Truck driving by rocky cliffs

The white spot is from the camera flash.  I love all his pictures, regardless of whether they'd win any awards, and I know most of them would not.  Some are better than others.  I think he probably takes more after me as far as art ability.  I have never had a gift in drawing, but I do have artists in the family, so it may be that one of my children will have a gift in art.

Nathan instructed me that Will must understand his bow's owner manual before he could shoot it; he told me that I had to read the instructions, then Will had to read them to me.  So, I did just that.  I read each warning/instruction aloud to him, then I gave the book to him and had him read it to me, and then I also made him repeat each instruction in his own words so that I knew for sure he understood.   He then shot his bow. 

August 25:  Will did reading and math out of CC2.  We read our daily chapter in Proverbs, as usual.  I'm also reading to the boys from the gospel of John.

August 26: Will did his near-daily writing.  Most days he copies a paragraph or two from a book.  Some days he writes a letter to someone.  He still needs spelling help, so most of the time he wants to write a letter, he tells me what he wants to write, and I type it for him and print it.  He then just copies.

August 27:  We just cleaned the house then went for a walk.  We saw some animal tracks.  

What appears to be an opossum track

Deer track (toward center of photo)

We also saw cat tracks.  It was dry for so long that the road was very dusty.  Our sandaled feet were filthy by the time we got home.  After we got home, I let the boys watch some YT videos.  Will had asked about film developing a few days before, and he also asked about older-fashioned grain milling, so they watched videos on these things.

August 28:  The sabbath day!   Besides our bible reading, the boys and I read some of their Ranger Rick magazine.  We all went for a walk, including Nathan.  We tasted some wild plums.  

August 29:  We finished reading RR.  We learned about cuttlefish and their amazing camouflage abilities.  I showed the boys some Youtube videos about cuttlefish later, as well as a video on metamorphosis that discussed butterflies, frogs, and dragonflies, and a cute little cartoon duck video for preschool age children, which is good for Trusten.

We also read the July issue of Heaven's Family, and Will did some writing.

August 31:  I don't know what we did the day before, but this day we went to get groceries, and Will did his writing.  Of course, we read the bible, as usual.

September 1:  Will did writing, reading, and math.  He is now very interested in rocks.  His interest has been growing more and more.  I was very much into rocks at that age, too.  He likes busting them open to find crystals, dirt, or whatever else may be in rocks.  He enthusiastically shows me what he has found.  

September 2:  We went to town to run some errands.  

September 3:  I spent a great deal of the morning just talking to the boys.  We also prepared for the sabbath, and then we watched a good Star Trek (New Generation) movie.  It was Insurrection.  Will did some math from CC2.  He's been learning "regrouping"  (or what I know as "borrowing"), taking from the tens place and converting it to the ones place.  I used Cuisenaire rods to help him better understand.

September 4:  The sabbath day.  I had a nice day of relaxation.  Nathan finished working on an animal cage with Will, all except putting hinges and a lock on the door.

September 5: The children and I went grocery shopping.  On the way, we were sitting at a red light, and there was a red Corvette convertible sitting at the red light on the opposite side.  Now to give a bit of background information, a red '69 Corvette Stingray is my favorite car of all time.  So, I said, "Will, see that car over there?  That's a Corvette.  That's the car I like.  You'll see it when he takes off.  Just watch."  

The light then turned green, and off the guy went.  I figured he'd have quite a take-off, but he went faster than I assumed he would.  He took off and got down the road so quickly, his tires squalled a bit.  I said to Will, "Well, apparently the guy driving it really likes the car, too.  I think he likes it a bit too much, and he's wanting to show off in it and wants everyone to see him in it."

Will then replied, "Well, no one is going to see him in it.  He's driving too fast."  Hahahaha!  That child sure knows how to make me laugh.  He had a good point, though.  

After we got home and were about to eat lunch, I asked Will to dump some scraps we had outside.  He came back in and complained about Beaver, one of three cats we have.  Beaver, though, hates the other two cats, which are her kittens.  She hissed and was mean to them so much that now that Sylvester, the adult male, is bigger, he chases her off.  Beaver is bad to try to trip us up when we go out there.  Will did trip and fall this time.  He said, "Momma, Beaver is soft and easy to pick up, but I know all that is deceptive.  She's really bad."  I once again got a good laugh.  I've been trying very hard to get it across to him that outward appearances can be deceptive, and for him to say that the cat's soft hair made him deceptively like her was hilarious.  But, again, he had a good point.  He's always thinking.

September 6: We had errands to run in town.  We cleaned.  I don't think we did much else.  I explained to Will about Labor Day and why certain things were closed.  He asked why his daddy was working then, and I said it was because he had work to do and that we didn't always keep that holiday.  We were working, too.  Will did reading, writing, and math.

September 7:  Will did writing, reading, and math.  Will also started a book the day before this one, and he finished all but one page (not sure why he didn't want to read the last page until later) of it today.  It was his first chapter book that he read by himself.  He kept avoiding it, thinking he wouldn't like to do so, but he thanked me for making him start reading it.  He did something the day before to forfeit his play privileges, and so he did a lot of writing and reading.  The book is 61 pages long.  

Until next time...

New Knowledge on Insects, Judging the Inner vs. Outer, Outdoor Work, and a Trip to Jasper

 Watermelon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squash

 

 

 

 

 

The above pictures were some watermelon and squash plants (along with corn, not pictured) that Will planted himself.  He put the dirt in the buckets himself and planted the seeds.  We had entirely too much on our plates to worry with planting things this year, but I started getting sad about it.  Will really wanted something, and I gave him permission to plant some things, even though it was the beginning of July.  He started not taking care of them, though, failing to water them, so they are about dead now.  The corn died a while back, but I did get a picture of it as well.  Will is pictured above thinning out the plants.  

Will collecting rainwater

Watching collection cup fill

Pictured above are pictures of Jaden William using one of his collection cups to collect rainwater.  We were going to use a pH strip to measure the pH of the rain.  We only got a sprinkling of rain, though, so we didn't get much water, and before I could get a pH strip, something mysterious happened to what little water there was.  I think Trusten dumped it.   So, this project will have to wait until the next time it rains.

August 10, 2010, Roman calendar:  Bible reading.  Will did his daily writing, a reading lesson, and a couple pages of math.  He's been working on 2-digit and 3-digit subtraction.

August 11:  Bible reading. Will did reading, writing, and math. 

August 12:  Will did reading, writing, and math.  On our nature walk, we took two plant samples to add to our plant binder.  However, we do not know what either is.  One is a shrub that has yellow flowers, and another is a wild grass.  I wonder whether the latter would be a good source of grain, if needed for survival purposes.  I've researched and cannot find the answer for either, so if anyone recognizes either or both, please let us know.  We did make copies of the plant on the copy machine, and the sheets are ready to cut and add the binder.

Yellow-flowered shrub with toothed leaves

Lovely wild grass with flat heads of grain/seed

Plant binder of local plants we started last year

August 13:  We read more than half of the latest issue of Ranger Rick.  We learned something really neat.  We were reading about ways bugs (mainly insects) can be good.  We read about wasps depositing eggs into certain caterpillars, and the larvae hatch open inside of them and feed on the caterpillars' insides.  They then eat their way out and spin cocoons on top of the dying caterpillar.  Well, this answered a question the boys and I have had about some caterpillars around here.  We've wondered what the strange white things were on the backs of them.  Now we know!  We also read other interesting things.

I don't know what else we did this day, except read the bible, which rarely ever goes undone.

August 14:  Sabbath day. I read to the boys from the Bible Stories book.

August 15:  Will did some reading from one of our atlas books, so he got his reading in, as well as geography knowledge.

August 16:  Will did reading, writing, and math.  A lot of days, when we read our daily chapter in Proverbs, I elaborate on one or two.  This day, I discussed in depth about there are many lovers of the rich, but the poor is despised by even his own neighbor (14:20).  As a child and without having the seed of God gestating within him, Will naturally judges the outside.  The vast majority of people living in this world are that way, in fact.  People are so hung up on outward appearances and by what a person has materially, that they miss what is truly important.  So, when I stopped at this verse and repeated it again with different phrasing, he opened the door for deeper instruction by saying, "I would hate a poor neighbor."  I explained that he could end up that way, and he would be sad if he did not have any friends to help him.  I told him one person could be poor one day and rich the next or vice versa, and he or she is still the same person.  The sad fact, though, is carnal people like those who have and shun those who have not.

Sometime, one of these days, perhaps this very day, Will painted a piece of wood he found to make it look like a boat, he says.

August 17:  We went to town.  Judging the elderly by their outward appearance (wrinkles and such) came up once again, as it has before, and so I had a discussion with Jaden William about this.  I told him that we should not judge according to the house/body/temple in which a person resides.  I pointed out that he would be the same person if he had a disfigurement, if he had an accident.  He certainly would not want everyone hating him simply because he was disfigured.  I want my children to learn to judge persons by their hearts, the way God does.  It's the carnal nature of people to judge what is on the outside.  Man is so hung up on the wrong thing.  I reminded Will that elderly people are my favorite (most, as a GENERAL rule).  Most people in old age have matured to a level where the possess great wisdom, and they have kind and gentle spirits.  Now, there is always the exception to the rule, and I explained to him that some grow very ugly and bitter in their last years.  Those are the type, though, that are hung up on outward beauty and the lusts of the flesh.

It matters not what a person's shade of skin is, whether they have taut skin or wrinkled, short or tall, unblemished or blemished, God judges the heart, and the righteous do the same.  God showed man's carnal way of doing things with the old covenant regulations, which discriminated against gentiles (non-Israelite, which is pretty much non-white with the exception of Assyrian and Babylonian backgrounds) and those with disfigurements, etc.  A woman having her menses was not allowed to even touch a holy thing.  Imagine not being able to read the bible for a week, simply because you are bleeding.  Such is the carnal nature of people, and God gives people over to their own carnal ways.

During the drive, Will "disappeared" (as he puts it) to Montana and came back to tell me about all the bison he saw.  

When we got home that day, Will did his writing, reading, and math.  I'd bought a new pumice stone when in town (not sure what happened to my old one), which we'll use for our feet, but I also partially filled a bathroom sink with water and demonstrated its floating ability.  This was fitting, since it was just a week after we discussed volcanic rocks, including pumice.

August 18:  We read Ranger Rick--the remainder--and learned about marlins and odd turtles and tortoises.  During Proverbs time, we talked a little in depth about how wisdom is better than gold (16:16).  I discussed how most rich people act, as well as thugs who are materially rich.  I speak of those heathen idiots who yell in pride about their sins, accompanied by what they call "music," which is what I call [c]rap.  I talked about how absolutely stupid such people are and how very void of wisdom they are.  Wisdom goes along with righteousness, whereas foolishness goes along with wickedness.  I really do value wisdom and knowledge above riches.  I already feel rich, and in reality, I am very rich materially compared to most of the world's people.  I would be content with even less, but I never want to go without wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Will also raked leaves and twigs this day to burn.  I have never been one to rake leaves to burn.  I always leave leaves.  They don't bother me, and Nathan has always been the same way.  However, Will loves to burn, so I let him do this.  Of course, it was all supervised.

August 19:  Will did writing, and he cut a tree with a saw of his daddy's.  He, of course, called his daddy to get permission, and I supervised.  He just loves doing things like this.  He told me about his plans to make things of wood and sell them.  He then told me on a different day that he was planning to build a flying machine.  I just LOVE my boy!  I like listening to him tell his stories and share his meditations and ideas.  I hope when he gets his flying machine finished, that he takes me for a ride.  He and I both love flying machines. 

Putting the final saw touches to the tree

 

 

Will admiring his work

Will looking at me for a picture

While Will cut up his tree that he cut down from off the hill, I sat with Trust and Liv on the back deck and did some finger painting with them. 

We also saw some deer in our front yard this day, and we've now seen them a few times:

Two of the deer

All three deer, 2 doe and a still-spotted fawn

August 20:  Nathan took us to Jasper, AR to stay in a cabin for a couple of nights.  It was the best cabin we've stayed in yet.  It certainly wasn't the biggest, but it had a huge wrap-around porch, and it was ALL cedar, except for the floors, so it smelled wonderful.  My clothes even smelled of cedar after we came home.  We saw some elk on our way in.

August 21:  The sabbath day.  I got to visit a congregation of brethren whom I dearly love.  It had been a long time since I saw them.  I had a nice bible study with them and sang and talked.  I enjoyed sitting outside on the porch of the cabin and visiting with my wonderful husband and children, while taking in the view of the valley below.  After the sabbath, we ate some elk pizza from an all-organic restaurant.  Nathan went to pick it up, while I got the boys bathed.  We also had a delicious chocolate mousse pie from there.  It was a delicious meal.

 Will update more soon....

Hot Summer Days--Swimming and Visiting

Will finished his last Explode the Code book.  He also passed his level 1 in swimming.  It took three tries, between last year and this.  Apparently that's common.   I'm just glad he finally passed.  Level 2 and 3 will have to wait until next year.  Until then, a little swimming will be fun. 

With the exception of two weeks since I updated in mid-June, Will has done some reading, writing, and math nearly ever day but the sabbath.  I read to all the children most days, and sometimes Will now takes turns with me reading the storybook pages.  I have also started looking at little learning books with both Trust and Liv together.  They two have so much fun together.  I feel bad for Will that he lost his closer-in-age brother.  However, he and Trust still do a lot of fun things together, and both boys love playing with Liv. 

We have visited with family and friends.  We have watched several movies together, like Alice in Wonderland.  Nathan and I have watched a few by ourselves, such as The Book of Eli and Avatar. 

There have been a lot of moral lessons and science lessons.  I teach them as the opportunities present themselves or when the questions come.  We took a short break from our daily reading of Proverbs, but we started again.  I sometimes read in order from where I am reading through the NT of the bible to the boys, currently in John.  But, many days I don't read that to them and instead just read whatever from the bible that goes with a certain real-life lesson I'm wanting to teach.

We read the May and June 2010 issues of Heaven's Family.  Those always make me cry.  We read about families having to eat rats to survive, the Chili earthquake and how a woman was reunited with her grown children (after having been kicked out by her abusive husband), and we read about how the Rwanda Holocaust that killed 800,000 led to the Dominican Republic of Congo conflict, in which 5.5 million have been killed.  We read stories of woman refugees.  In the latter issue, we read how Heaven's Family helped with a shoe business and a van loan and treated a boy with infected eyes who lost his parents in a fire, how bikes are provided for men to get around, and how preaching in Myanmar to a heathen tribe led two men who previously hated each other (b/c one killed the other's relative) now are good friends.  Lastly, we read about a woman who lost her father was put in an orphanage by her mother, because the mother could not afford to care for her.  The woman met a young man there who helped with the orphanage.  They ended up getting married, and she then helped her new husband start another orphanage.

Will turned seven years old, and we went to a magic show in Branson.  It was good, but we were disappointed that there was not any real interaction with tigers, as the advertising had led one to believe.  He got some really neat things for his birthday.  He got two animal traps of different sizes, a memory card for his camera, a backpack and some science stuff to go in it, and a plant press.  His daddy bought a PS3 (that he calls his own), and he bought Will games to play on it.  I'm not overly crazy about the system, but Nathan did buy Jeopardy for us to play, and I enjoy playing him on that.  He currently holds 60% of the wins, but at least I win sometimes!  Back when we played each other on the tv show, I don't think I ever won a single time.  I love trivia, but I don't have a fast processor.   Anyway, from his various grandparents, he got money, some books and science project labs, a rock tumbler, and some safety glasses and rock pick and chisel.  Maybe he got other stuff, too.  I can't remember.  He got a lot of stuff this year. 

Will said something during a trip to town, a month ago, that was clever.  He said that during the time of great tribulation, people would die of lack of oxygen because of the trees burning up.  Well, I don't know whether that's exactly accurate, but it sure shows he is a thinking machine.  Well, it does make sense.  The O2 levels definitely decrease as tree populations drop, and the CO2 levels increase unchecked. 

Will also tells me about exciting adventures he has, as he "disappears" and goes on journeys.  Well, I can tell he has a fair understanding about geography and what animals live certain places and what sort of ruins are in different nations.  He has talked about how he had to use the power given to him to blow a polar bear back from hurting him, and he said he likes to explore different ruins in places like Rome.  He also says he visits God's house, which he described in detail for me, and I'm still pondering how he knows certain things, as some of the things he described are almost identical to what Ezekiel recorded, and I've never read Ezekiel to Will.  I've read Isaiah and started Jeremiah, but then I stopped reading the OT prophets to him.  He also rides in a rocket.  I thoroughly enjoy listening to him and his various adventures.  

Nathan surprised us one day by coming home and informing us that we were leaving the next day for a trip to St. Louis.  He took us to the St. Louis zoo.  We saw half or so of it, and we'll have to go back to see the rest when it's cooler.  It was SO hot.  It is a really good zoo, though.  We really enjoyed the hippos and penguins.  Those aren't things you get to see in just any zoo.   We have our cabin reserved for the Feast of Tabernacles this year.  We are staying in Idaho and will be visiting Yellowstone National Park one or two days of that week. 

I finished the book on which I've been working:  God's Law of Love:  The Perfect Law of Liberty.  It will be in print soon.  Nathan is talking about a possible future sale of his business.  He also printed out a bunch of papers telling him what he needs to do to become a licensed insurance adjuster, as that is something he is considering.  He really wants to be actuary, but maybe that requires schooling.  I can't remember.  Anyway, he wants to do something different. 

Well, how is that for a QUICK summary of the last two months.  My custom is to be very long and analytical, but I just will not find the time to catch up in that manner.  No pictures.  Sorry.  Those who are on my Shutterfly picture email list will have seen pictures and will see more.  I don't have time to post any right now to the blog. 

Until next time....

Surgery, Waterpark, Berries, Rabbits and Fertility, Life and Death Cycle

First, for the next couple of months, I'll likely have only two to four long posts, as I'm very busy, and I'll just highlight things the best I can, and I won't record things in a day-to-day highlight format. The boys have swimming lessons from June 14 to June 24, and then Jade will continue from the 28th to July 8, Mons.-Thurs.  I'll be spending around fifteen minutes a day or so with Trusten to work with him on the Roman alphabet and more with basic counting--language and math skills.  During that time Jaden will do his writing.  Then I'll sit with Jade as he does his reading lesson and math practice, probably about twenty minutes.  He also practices money skills when he buys things, which he does sometimes.  I let him count out the money to the clerk.  The rest of the regular week days (1st day through 6th day) will go on as usual, learning social skills, science, history, music, art, etc. as things come about, REAL LIFE, as the name of the blog denotes, a lifestyle of learning. 

Okay, now for last week's highlights:

*June 6, 2010, Roman calendar:  June 3rd was Nathan's and my ten-year marriage anniversary.  We went through a lot together in our first ten years of marriage, some really good and some really bad.  We've never left each other, even when we felt unloving toward each other.  We've kept our promise to each other through better or worse, and we've become stronger for it.  I love my husband so much!  He's an amazing person.  He has his share of faults, but I do mine, too.  I hope the next ten years are even better than the last.   Anyway, we both agreed it would have been foolish for him to drop things on the 3rd in order to eat a special dinner together or anything.  So today the boys stayed with a friend, and we ate together...with Liv.  ;-)  We're hoping in two years to go somewhere together, just the two of us.  Liv is attached to me right now, of course.

*June 7:  Jade did a reading lesson, and he started reading a Cul-de Sac Kids book.  Trust said he wanted to learn the alphabet.  I've not bothered, as it was pointless, as he previously was not paying the least bit of attention, unlike Jade at that age.  Jade expressed the desire to stop reading Proverbs, so I told him we'd take a short break.  He definitely knows them.  He doesn't always live by them, though.  We're continuing through the NT scriptures.

Jaden took the binder I compiled years ago on abortion (pictures, statistics, stories, testimonials, types of abortion, etc.) off one of our shelves, and he saw a picture of a fetus clutching a surgeon's gloved finger.  The baby's arm was outside of the uterus via a surgical incision.  He asked me about it, and I told him that picture actually had a good story and that the surgeon was doing a good thing to help the baby.  That baby had spina bifida, I believe.  Some women pay a priest of child sacrifice to kill her child, upon learning such a diagnosis.  The parents of that child decided to have in-utero surgery.  The doctor fixed the baby right up, and the baby was born months later in good condition.  So then I talked a little more about surgery and how it can be a good thing, a lifesaving procedure for people.  I also briefly mentioned anesthetic drugs and what they did.

Jade tried making an axe while we were outside.  I said that our survival guide likely had information on such a thing, so he asked me to get it, and we read about that topic.  I then told him that was something he ought to do with his daddy.  Ha, ha!  At least I know what I need to try to do, if the occasion ever rises.  Not so sure my axe would turn out so well, though.

I read a long list of health facts aloud to the boys (as if Trust was really listening--ha, ha) from a book that we got with the rebounder.  Very interesting, and Jaden thought some of it was, too.

*June 8:  I took the boys to the water park today.  They had fun doing that.  It was hot outside!  During our walk later in the day we investigated and theorized why different fruits are falling prematurely from trees.  Some reasons could be:  disease epidemics, abundant fruit-producing year so early shedding of some, or lack of pollination that could be caused by lack of bees.  All these are very good possibilities, because we are experiencing a huge bee population decline, and the boys and I have seen many trees around here affected by apparent diseases.  But, the things that have started fruiting have been fruiting abundantly, so this could be the reason.  Some readers may remember that I mentioned last summer a mulberry tree that we have in our front yard.  I concluded that it must be a male (because mulberry is a dioecious plant), because it had no fruit last year.  This year, however, it's fruiting, so it's obviously a female that just did not put off any fruit last year.   Also our dewberries only put off ten or less visible berries last year, and they ripened at a small size and dried and wrinkled before we discovered them.  I explained to Jaden that if one year saw a big ruin (like the huge freeze we had in the spring of 2006), the next year tended to produce largely.  However, I also wondered whether last year could have been a sabbath year.

We saw some sort of tortoise that day, too, but I can't remember what it looked like.  I don't have a picture.  We've seen several box tortoises, lately, though, because blackberries and dewberries are fruiting.  They love those!  The boys ate more dewberries themselves.  Jade threw some premature fruits, possibly sproe berries or some sort of plum (not yet id'ed) and called them "cannons."  He's so funny.

We saw a rabbit in the road when we got back from our walk, as there are plenty of rabbits out and about at this time of year.  So, I started talking about rabbits to Jaden.  I explained that the heathens valued the rabbit as a symbol of fertility, as it is well known that rabbits mated a lot and had lots of bunnies.  I said that is why "Easter bunnies" in the form of chocolate rabbits and such are popular during the Easter (Ishtar/Astarte) feast in the spring, along with eggs, another symbol of fertility.  I asked Jaden why he thought rabbits had a lot of offspring.  He was not sure and apparently was not in a thinking mood.  I told him that rabbits were prey to just about every predator there is--snakes, coyotes, foxes, hawks, owls, cats, etc.  Since so many animals prey upon rabbits, they must bring forth a lot of offspring.  But, does all that sex and fertility reap eternal rewards?  Of course not.  Rather, the very reason the rabbits have so many babies are for the sole purpose of DEATH.  No promise of resurrection for those rabbits.   Sex and more sex, birth and more birth, death and more death.  Such is the earthly life cycle of the flesh, something not worthy of worshiping, in my opinion.

*June 9:  We read Luke and some out of the children's book about praying, and I read the boys their story books of the day.  Jade wrote his paragraph, and I read some to Jaden about the importance of water.  During our walk we saw a dead shrew, and so I talked about maggot eggs, maggots, and the fly life cycle and their purpose (again, as I had this conversation with them several days prior about a tortoise or turtle that had been run over in the road).  I then talked briefly about death recycling and the heathen/pagan belief in reincarnation.  Indeed everything made from the earth--humans, animals, and plants--returns to the earth and then becomes a part of something else.   Our flesh, in that way, does reincarnate.  It's a continuous cycle, and in order to keep life sustained, death is required.  Otherwise, we'd be overpopulated.  The earth can only support so much life at a time.  I reminded him, as I'd said the day previously when talking about the rabbits, earthly reincarnation is not worth worshiping, because our spirits are not reincarnated but are collected and kept in hibernation mode until it's decided that they should be resurrected in new bodies (for some spiritual bodies and some physical bodies, depending on the resurrection).

*June 10:  We went to buy some groceries on this day, and we did our usual reading.  I don't know what else we did.  I don't recall.

*June 11:  My mother came to visit us on this day, and we all went walking together.  Trust fell and gashed his knee, so I returned home with him, upon his request.  After I got him cleaned and bandaged, though, he wanted to go walking again, so we went to meet them, and Jade had found a tortoise and an adjustable strap...well, what was left of it with the adjustable part.  Oh...I don't know what they're called.  Anyway, someone else's junk became his treasure.  It's enough strap for him to hold something on the back of his wagon or pedal car.  The boys got to enjoy dewberries again.   I actually looked up blackberries vs. dewberries when we got home.  I'd been meaning to do that, so I could explain to Jaden the difference.  My mother wondered, too.  Nathan and I looked it up three or four years ago, but I'd forgotten what I'd read.  I think dewberries are better!  I guess they both have a common ancestor.  Now there are a lot of varieties.

*June 12:  The sabbath day!  I talked to the boys about loving and caring for each other, wrote a blog post on my other blog, and I worked a little on the 7th commandment in God's Law of Love:  The Perfect Law of Liberty. 

Until next time....peace to you!

Spit on Plants, History of Paper, Railroad Switching, and Blimps

May 30, 2010, Roman time:  During our walk, the boys and I noticed what looked like spit on the stems of some plants.  Jade asked me about it, so I got him to thinking.  After seeing two of them, I offered the theory that perhaps an animal came to eat some plants and actually did leave its saliva.  He said maybe it was some sort of animals' eggs.    We walked a while more, and Jaden spotted another plant that had the "spit," and he said, "Momma, see there is no evidence of the plant or anything around being chewed."  I delight greatly whenever I hear things like this.  I praised him for his logical thinking, something a good scientist needs.

It may have been this day, but I think it was the week previous, that Jade lost his only arrow when he was practicing his archery skills.  I am hoping Nathan gets him some new ones for his seventh birth anniversary.  I've ordered everything that I wanted to get him.  This will likely be one of his best birth anniversaries ever.  I'm so excited!  He'll love what he's getting, I'm sure.  Of course, they are very practical gifts and will help him grow in knowledge.  We have ticket vouchers to a show in Branson with tigers.  Jade was asking me more about tigers recently and said that he would like to have a tiger.  I told him some do have tigers, and he continued questioning me.  We so far did not know where we were going this year for his birthday, but I then knew where we should go.  This is actually a show to which I wanted to take the boys last year during the Feast of Tabernacles, God's annual thanksgiving feast, but they had already closed down the show for the winter break.  

May 31:  Jade did a math page for addition practice.  We read the bible, as usual, and I think he wrote his typical paragraph.  Some days he has not, but most days he does.  He has also skipped some days for his Explode the Code (which I usually have him do the first and sixth days of the week).  Well, most of the days he has not skipped, but he's not done the entire lessons, but rather two or three pages.  Anyway, he's nearly finished.  His penmanship is improving quite well, and I don't have him sitting at a desk writing all day, either.

During our walk we looked again at those purple insects I mentioned in the last post, and we noticed that they appeared to be in different stages.  Some hardly had any purple "fluff," and they were smaller and had no wings.  The complete ones had purple "fluffy" looking covering all over, with a wispy, curled-up "tail" of the purple stuff, they were larger (though still small), and they had wings.

June 1:  We went grocery shopping, and we saw the Goodyear blimp.  I drove down a side road so that we could see it better, and I took pictures.  I have several of that day and a few days later, on which day was even better, as I got pics of it flying to its landing spot, went down the same side road as I did the last time (Airport Loop), and took pics of it on the ground and then taking back off.  Here are just a few:

 

June 2:      This day we read June/July issues of Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby, the boys' magazines to which my grandpa subscribes for them.  What do you know?  We read about spittle bugs, which explained what the spit was on those plants.  In addition to our regular activities, Jade read aloud one reading lesson and answered the questions, from his Grade 2 CC book.   Among the many questions Jade asked this week, one was about paper.  He said he liked how wrinkled paper looks, because it reminds him of the "old paper."  I said he meant papyrus.  Another thing he asked about was how trains change tracks, when I explained how they sometimes had to change.  He originally asked where was the "end of the railroad" and that it must "go forever."   The boys watched Youtube videos on the history of paper, the birth of writing, brief history of written language, manual railroad switches (I explained that it's mostly done by signals now), railroad history map in the U.S., and the African dung beetle.  

I tried something different this morning for breakfast.  Cinnamon roll muffins.  They looked ugly, but they tasted okay.  The boys loved them, but I am not in a hurry to make them again.  

June 3:     Nathan and I celebrated ten years of marriage.  :-)  We got our new Needak rebounder delivered via UPS this day so we can bounce and jump to good health.  It's something we've talked about for about three years, but with almost any large purchase, we usually consider it for quite a while.  We really like it so far.  

Jade wrote each of us a sweet notes and drew us both a picture.  Here are the envelopes:

Nathan had to work this day, so we had a dinner together (minus the boys who stayed with a friend) a few days later.  The children and I went out, and the boys and I saw the blimp again.  We had to go out to get Jade's glasses and get Liv some clothes from Old Navy.  He says they make everything "swirly," so he's not wearing them for now, until I can get him back to the optometrist to figure it all out.  I asked whether he answered her questions honestly (this is his second year getting tested), and he said he did.  

Right before we left for town, Jaden came to my bathroom where I was brushing my teeth, and he said something quite clever to me.  I love listening to him.  He said, "Momma, I was just thinking.  A company--like a store--is like a father, and employees are like the sons.  Then the store is like the mother, and the [goods] are like the fruits."  While I may not agree 100% with this analogy, I liked what he said, and I'm glad his little wheels are turning. 

June 4:  During out walk today, I assisted Jade in uncovering a spittle bug underneath all the spit.  The boys liked seeing how the bug hid underneath the spit while it feasted on the plant juices.

I was inside nursing Liv, and I let Jade go outside before the rest of us did, and he came rushing in excitedly, because he rescued a chipmunk from Sylvester (our cat).  So we all got to pet a chipmunk!  

June 5:  On the sabbath day we enjoyed a good portion of the day outdoors in the nice weather.  The boys' lesson was about Paul and Silas and how they were thankful, even while enduring hardship.  Toward the end of the sabbath we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows outside, much to the boys' delight. 

Until next time...

Peace.  :-)

Pentecost, Trusten's 3rd Birthday, Plants and Insects

*May 23, 2010 (Sivan 10, 5770): Pentecost.  I helped Jade decorate outside with balloons and streamers, but it was really windy, so it didn't work out too well.   Since the Holy Spirit was poured freely upon thousands of believers on the first Pentecost following Jesus' resurrection and ascension (not the first Pentecost ever, but the first after these events), and the Church of God, the Body of Christ, was born, I think Pentecost--also called the Feast of Weeks--is a great holy day to give our children gifts that boost their biblical knowledge and/or help their spiritual growth in hopes that they will choose God's way and one day receive the Holy Spirit themselves.  This year I bought them two 4-dvd sets of Old Testament bible stories.  They're called Under God's Rainbow "The Old Testament."  It's the first time I got any of these particular videos, and the ones they've watched so far are super, in my opinion.  On the sabbath days, the only videos I let them watch are bible-related or creation-related, but they sometimes watch them on regular days, too.  Some of the stories they have on other dvds, but this varies it up some.  Plus there are some that they don't have on dvd at all.

We fixed a beef brisket, the first one since sometime last summer, I think.  Nathan fixed it on an outside homemade grill, and I made some roasted potatoes in the oven and fixed a salad.  I also made a punch with ginger ale, orange juice, and frozen strawberries and pineapple chunks.  Everything was so good!

Only Jaden sat to listen to the lesson of the day.  We sat outside.  I discussed Pentecost, and as I usually do on each annual feast holy day, I went through all seven feasts and reviewed how they taught the true plan of salvation.  When discussing Pentecost, I used the punch we had as an illustration, the punch being the Spirit of God, and the cups in which the punch is poured are us.

*May 24:  Don't know.  :-)

*May 25:  All I know is that this is the day we ended our week-long abstinence of wheat and all gluten.  I already talked about that in my previous post.  As to what else happened, I don't remember, nor did I record it.

*May 26:  This was Trusten's 3rd birthday, as figured on the Roman calendar.  My sister came to stay the night.  We ate lunch together and then went to Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari in Gentry, AR.  I took pictures and posted them on our Shutterfly website.  Anyone reading this who does not have access to that and wishes to have should contact me for the site and password.  We all had a lot of fun.  I laughed so much that I was just about drunk on endorphins.  I'm not kidding.  We did the petting section first, and then we did the driving part.  When I got out of the truck to go around and get back in the driver's side (b/c Nathan took his own truck so he could run a service call afterward) I was quite light-headed.   We got to pet kangaroos, donkeys, ponies, goats, monkeys, and tigers...and I may be leaving out something.  There were parrots and peacocks.  We saw things like spotted deer, longhorn cattle, tigers, and lions on the driving part.  Oh, they even had an alligator.  Anyway, Nathan turned around to lean over the seat and unbuckle Trusten so that he could get up in his seat to see out the window.  Without permission (and Na really should have locked the doors), Trusten opened the door.  I think he must have misunderstood.  I'm not sure.  Anyway, he fell out of the truck and landed in a big pile of animal feces.  I think it was cow's, thankfully.  He did have a small wound on the back of his head.  It's GOOD, actually, that he feel in poop, because the back of his head landed on the ground, and if the poop hadn't been there... We had some wipes and a blanket in the truck, so Nathan cleaned him up the best he could.  I washed him in the shower when we got home.  He happened to fall right outside some of the cats' cages, and they paced quickly back and forth, staring at them with killer eyes.  Trusten loves poop, though.  Jaden actually told him at some point during the drive, "Well, Trusten, you've been saying you want to eat poop.  I guess you got your wish." (No, he didn't really get any in his mouth.)   He didn't seem to be too upset, though.  He kept laughing and saying it was his birthday poop.  Crazy...

*May 27:  During our walk we saw mysterious growths on the leaves of a tree, different than the previous growths I recently mentioned, an on a different type of tree.  They were little pink things that stuck straight up like tiny fingers.  I took pictures of these, but I'm missing a few pictures.  My iPhoto is not doing me right, I don't guess.  What had been in my "Last Import" never moved to my "Last 12 Months," and so basically one import just totally replaced another import.  Thankfully, most of those pictures were not totally lost, since I had uploaded them to Shutterfly and Facebook before I uploaded the last pictures.  However, there were some pictures that I did not upload to either of those, so they are just GONE, it seems.  I'll be sure to upload my latest "last import" to Shutterfly before I upload more pics from my camera into iPhoto, in case the same thing happens again.  I just don't understand what the deal is. 

Anyway, there is this plant that I've wondered about for awhile now.  I have no idea what it is, and I've never seen it before, anywhere else, in my life, of which I'm aware. So, then I was really startled to discover the strange insects on it this day.  Actually, Jaden saw them first and summoned me to the plant.  Now, at the time I write this, I realize I saw one fly around our front porch around this time last year, but at the time I saw these on the plant, I didn't remember that.  I do not know what they are, and I cannot get a good picture of them.  They have purple "fluff" on them.    Both they and the plant look like they belong more in the Amazon than in the Ozarks. 

Jade was carrying one of Trusten's wooden pop guns that he got for his birthday (from their Aunt Meg), and he was "shooting" the cork over and over along the walk.  When we emerged from the forest-surrounding stretch, we heard an echo bouncing from the mountains back across the pasture.  They were delighted and asked me about it, so I explained about how sound waves travel and can echo, just like many other things bounce back or ricochet when it meets a barrier.   I then shouted so they could hear my voice echo.  I told them my favorite place to play with echoes, as a child, was down at the river, just a short walk from my parents' house.  I'd call from the one bank and I would hear the echo bounce back from the other side.  I hope I can remember to take them down there to shout the next time we go visit. 

Jade copies a paragraph from a book or something else nearly every day.  Here's a picture of sitting on the couch to write, and he's using a feather pen that his daddy made for him about a year ago, from a feather Jaden found, though I usually make him use a pencil:

*March 28:  Jade and I both had optometrist appointments.  My last year's visit and this year's visit found my left eye (my master eye, even though I'm right-handed) getting worse, though both my eyes remained stable for several years, since my teens.  My right eye has recently started bothering me again, as it had before my last year's visit.  What is happening is my right eye is overcompensating for my left eye, and so it is becoming strained.  Both of my eyes had also shared the same prescription for as long as I can remember, until last year.  My contacts are now a -7.50 and a -8.50.  I did not get a new glasses prescription.  It slipped my mind.  The current one, which I got last year, is a -9.25 for both eyes.  The reason for that is that is my eyes last year for contacts could have both been -7.75, except when your eyes are afflicted with such high degree myopia as mine as that, they do not make in-between numbers like that.  Two years ago, my optometrist wanted to move my left eye to a -8.00, but I did not agree to it until last year, because I tried the -8.00 for a week, and it was too much.  I'd really needed a -7.75, except they don't make it.  So, I was able to stay with the same prescription for both eyes.   My ears make up for eyes, though, I believe.  I have exceptional hearing, and I wonder sometimes whether that is why others have a hard time hearing me.  Many say I speak too softly, but I hear myself loudly and clearly.  I think I just have better ears than most.  I hope I never go blind.  I'm thankful for modern medical technology so that I can wear contacts.  I am totally useless without these aids.  I would love to cure my eyesight (naturally, rather than surgery, of which I've decided against for now), and I believe it is possible, but it requires that I go without my lenses for most of the time, which is impossible at this season in my life.  I tried it a few years ago, when I only had William, but it was hard enough then.  I had to wear glasses to cook and do other tasks. 

As for Jaden, he is still far-sighted (normal from birth), and he has an astigmatism in one eye, whereas from birth both eyes have it.  So, she said they should be grown out of at a certain rate, and she's afraid he may develop a lazy eye in one of his eyes (forget which), if he doesn't have lenses.  He's not particularly thrilled, and I don't blame him. 

I took a picture of this moth in our kitchen, at night:

We have plenty of these, but I'm not sure what kind of moth it is.  We like the look of them, though.


*May 29:  The sabbath day.  A much-needed rest.  I did a sabbath school lesson with the boys, about the parable Jesus told about the workers in the vineyard and how they all were paid the same amount for different lengths of time of working and how the ones who had worked all day complained, even though they had agreed to the wage which they were paid.  I also worked on the seventh commandment in God's Law of Love:  The Perfect Law of Liberty. 

Until next time...