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...