First of all, I'd like to apologize to my email subscribers for the mistake in the last post. I realized it only after publishing, and I've updated it.
The days leading up to Tabernacles were busy, but we did some of our regular schooling. The 15th of September, the first day of the week, was a day of cleaning and laundry, and I had Trust and Liv work on Explode the Code and preschool workbook pages, respectively. I don't know what Jaden William did that day...there's no telling. I imagine he probably did something with his daddy, but whatever it was, I didn't record it.
Second day of week was reading and math, as usual.
Third day of the week I had a doctor's appointment with an ENT. Good news is that I don't have some tumor or something in my throat or ear or head, and I tested with "excellent" hearing, toward the top of the chart. Bad news is that I guess I'll just have to live with the clogged/full feeling in my left ear, as I have the last two years, or maybe successfully get rid of it by getting a retainer to wear at night, because it's believed by both the doctor (who suffers the same issue herself) and me that it must be due to problems with my temporomandibular joint, and I grind and clench my teeth at night.
Our regular reading and history on the fourth day of the week. Then the night of the 18th was the beginning of the Christian holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Tents or Booths), and the first day is a sabbath, meaning no servile work. We had our traditional hot dog and marshmallow roast.
Mmmmm....that's what I call a good "hot dog." No ketchup on mine. I don't like sweeties on my hot dog. But this picture is making my mouth literally water. LOL! Organic beef hot dog and whole wheat bun with mustard, mayonaisse, pickle relish (I prefer dill over sweet), and one of my recently newfound loves, sauerkraut. Mmmmm....doggie! Ha-ha.
It was too cold most of the nights during the week of Tabernacles to sleep in tents outside, and it also stormed one night. But there were two nights during which we did sleep outside. The first night we did we stayed very cold, despite the fire and warm clothes with our blankets. The second night wasn't as bad. We did not camp this first night.
We enjoyed the next day, mostly outside. It was sooooo wonderful outside. Not too hot, but it was sunny and beautiful. We sometimes even listen to a sermon outside (with iPad), though we listened inside on this day. I made an experimental Mexican cheese dip and included ground beef. Oh, it was good! I poured it on chips in bowls for everyone, and we enjoyed! A friend of ours, Dave, came over for a bit, and he ate with us.
The kids had fun riding in their dump trucks down our hill road, and the boys took turns pulling the girls in their wagon:
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| I took a video and tried to post. I do not wish to wait for it to load again. You can see Trusten to the left of the picture, and Liv is toward the base of the hill road, at the woods line. They sometimes pick up quite a speed and roll a good ways across the yard. |
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The second day of Tabernacles was preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. I stayed very busy on that day, because I also blogged in addition to my cleaning and cooking, and I fixed an extra big feast. I also needed to bake a big pumpkin so that I could make pumpkin pie for dessert, and I also put back three additional bags of pumpkin pulp for later pies.
I wasn't able to find a good turkey anywhere, so I baked chicken. I baked cornbread to make dressing and then baked that. I made baked macaroni and cheese, boiled and mashed potatoes, and I also served green beans, turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce with whole cranberries.
Everything but the cranberry sauce, which I almost forgot to take out of the refrigerator for us to eat!
Delicious homemade pumpkin pie
This night of the Sabbath was the first night we camped out, in two tents, toward the back of our property, up the hill. Brrrrr….
We then enjoyed a nice Sabbath day, eating delicious leftovers for lunch. We listened to a sermon, and I read to the kids about Tabernacles.
The fourth day of Tabernacles we enjoyed a family day. We went to visit the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks near Fayetteville, AR after a breakfast of peach and cinnamon muffins.
We then enjoyed a nice Sabbath day, eating delicious leftovers for lunch. We listened to a sermon, and I read to the kids about Tabernacles.
The fourth day of Tabernacles we enjoyed a family day. We went to visit the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks near Fayetteville, AR after a breakfast of peach and cinnamon muffins.
This last picture is of the boys running barefoot across the grass in the center. Ahhhhh.... I saw a sign that said, "Please Run in the Grass." WELL...you don't need to tell ME twice! I took off my sandals and took off! It was luxurious!!! No rocks, nothing pokey. All the kids loved it, too. I even took Happy out of her stroller and let her walk barefoot in the grass. Nathan declined. That's too bad. It was soooo nice. My feet felt refreshed for a great deal afterward. The flowers, butterflies, and bees were all very nice to me, but running through that grass and wiggling my toes through it was truly the highlight of my day.
After we left, we then ate in Rogers at a brick oven pizza restaurant that we'd not tried, yet, since it's fairly new. It was good. Then we went next door to the bowling alley and played a game.
Math Day:
The fifth day of Tabernacles, on the second day of the week, Nathan worked, and the kids and I went to get groceries. Since it was normally our "math day," I weaved in the topics of "numbers" with "temporary" and "tabernacles" and "eternity" and "infinity." I compared the meaning of TABERNACLES and NUMBERS with the meaning of the coming holiday of EIGHTH DAY and ETERNITY, even talking about how a sideways 8 is the symbol for INFINITY. I used "bread" as an example, asking the children whether they thought there was any number of loaves of bread that they could be given that would last them, for food, for the rest of their lives. They agreed that there was no bread they knew of that would last that long, but even if they were given a fresh loaf every day for the rest of their lives, there is still a limit to the number of their days and the number of loaves of bread. That's like tabernacles, I explained to them. But, the 8th Day symbolizes eternity, and directly following the temporary existence on this earth with the limited number of days and loaves of bread is eternity on a new earth, where there is NO limit. And the "bread of life" will not ever run out.
The fifth day of Tabernacles, on the second day of the week, Nathan worked, and the kids and I went to get groceries. Since it was normally our "math day," I weaved in the topics of "numbers" with "temporary" and "tabernacles" and "eternity" and "infinity." I compared the meaning of TABERNACLES and NUMBERS with the meaning of the coming holiday of EIGHTH DAY and ETERNITY, even talking about how a sideways 8 is the symbol for INFINITY. I used "bread" as an example, asking the children whether they thought there was any number of loaves of bread that they could be given that would last them, for food, for the rest of their lives. They agreed that there was no bread they knew of that would last that long, but even if they were given a fresh loaf every day for the rest of their lives, there is still a limit to the number of their days and the number of loaves of bread. That's like tabernacles, I explained to them. But, the 8th Day symbolizes eternity, and directly following the temporary existence on this earth with the limited number of days and loaves of bread is eternity on a new earth, where there is NO limit. And the "bread of life" will not ever run out.
When we got home from town, I took a picture of Jade with one of the new chicks. The other picture was taken another day, I think on the weekly Sabbath. Yeah. Most of them hatched out two days before that, on the first day of Tabernacles. Yeah, all the chicks we've had have always hatched on either the weekly Sabbath or an annual holy day (except for the two of these, maybe, that hatched the following day). There were seven in all. There was a runt, and something has happened to it since, but the other six are doing well. All but one are Little Hen's chicks, but she sat on all the eggs, so the one is her adopted chick.
We watched a family Christian movie this night called Lukewarm.
Art and Music Day:
Time to listen to one of the kids' favorite songs, "Dreaming of the Kingdom," on Youtube. I also gave the kids God's Kingdom-themed coloring sheets to color.
William's on left, Trusten's upper right, and Olivia's lower right. Olivia was very excited when she handed me hers and pointed to all the colorful streaks in the "air." She said they were fireworks! Yeah, you can tell I need to work more with them on coloring. That's something I've never been into doing much, and Trusten doesn't like it, I don't think, either. He was content to hurry up and finish his. His picture brings to mind "God Loves the Children" song...."...red, yellow, black and white," except there are purple children in his picture instead of "white." LOL That one child is a mix of red and purple.
This was the second night we camped out.
The boys and Olivia slept in a tent together, and Elizabeth slept with Nathan and me. The girls hung out for awhile in the tent with me, while I read and watched the boys around the fire.
History and Geography Day:
My plan had been to talk about biblical history regarding the Feast of Tabernacles, both how it was kept under the old covenant and how it was kept early in the new covenant and how it's kept now, still under the new covenant. BUT, I was very depressed on this day. I let the kids play outside a lot, and I tried to keep my depression at bay by reading a lot in one of my books that I was reading. I recently finished another Christian historical fiction trilogy, set in the first century A.D. in the Roman Empire. This was the second set of books I've read set in that time period, in that genre. I loved the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers, that I read two summers ago. This time I read Debra Diaz's Woman of Sin trilogy (Woman of Sin, then Man of God, then Child of the King). Another excellent story, with the exception of a few problems with doctrine that are mentioned here and there, like the wrong Sabbath day and a trinity god and coming fully equipped with eternal life so that you either live in heaven or burn (somehow) in hell for eternity. Oh, and the not understanding things about God "not what's important." Thankfully, these details only cropped up here and there, just once or twice each, and did not affect the overall story. I downloaded the books to my iPad and iPhone with my Kindle app, and two of them were free, and one of them was $2.99. What a fantastic deal! They're all showing up for the latter price now, so I guess I must have bought them during a special or something. The entire trilogy is available for $4.99.
Anyway….I know the kids enjoyed all their free time that they got. This was the last great day of Tabernacles. It's a shame I was down, but it could have been worse.
Eighth Day: The 8th Day holiday was better than the previous day, but I was still somewhat depressed. Nathan was home this day, but he was in a bad mood (for which he profusely apologized later). I failed to make up for it, so I was pretty guilty myself. I listened to a sermon (without inviting him, which was the wrong thing to do), and I do not remember at all what was said. I don't think I listened much to it, really. I love to meditate deeply on the 8th Day, and I did enjoy some of that outside. Some parts of the day were good. I think the kids had a good day overall. Nathan grilled hamburgers, and I cut up potatoes for french fries, and I also fried onion rings. I believe the Enemy was working very hard against me or against us during these last days of the fall holiday season. But his kingdom failed overall, because ultimately, good things have come about. And it's all good, anyway, to remind me of how bad things won't happen in God's Eternal Kingdom.
I also wanted to do a "science" theme on this day, since it was our regular science day. I'd wanted to take a family walk, but in my state of mind, I didn't go through with my plans. I thought it would be neat for the kids to collect nature things of their choosing and then do a craft, gluing everything on individual sheets of construction paper to form the numeral "8." BUT, the bright side of this is that I STILL can do this soon with the kids. There's nothing stopping me.
My plan had been to talk about biblical history regarding the Feast of Tabernacles, both how it was kept under the old covenant and how it was kept early in the new covenant and how it's kept now, still under the new covenant. BUT, I was very depressed on this day. I let the kids play outside a lot, and I tried to keep my depression at bay by reading a lot in one of my books that I was reading. I recently finished another Christian historical fiction trilogy, set in the first century A.D. in the Roman Empire. This was the second set of books I've read set in that time period, in that genre. I loved the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers, that I read two summers ago. This time I read Debra Diaz's Woman of Sin trilogy (Woman of Sin, then Man of God, then Child of the King). Another excellent story, with the exception of a few problems with doctrine that are mentioned here and there, like the wrong Sabbath day and a trinity god and coming fully equipped with eternal life so that you either live in heaven or burn (somehow) in hell for eternity. Oh, and the not understanding things about God "not what's important." Thankfully, these details only cropped up here and there, just once or twice each, and did not affect the overall story. I downloaded the books to my iPad and iPhone with my Kindle app, and two of them were free, and one of them was $2.99. What a fantastic deal! They're all showing up for the latter price now, so I guess I must have bought them during a special or something. The entire trilogy is available for $4.99.
Anyway….I know the kids enjoyed all their free time that they got. This was the last great day of Tabernacles. It's a shame I was down, but it could have been worse.
Eighth Day: The 8th Day holiday was better than the previous day, but I was still somewhat depressed. Nathan was home this day, but he was in a bad mood (for which he profusely apologized later). I failed to make up for it, so I was pretty guilty myself. I listened to a sermon (without inviting him, which was the wrong thing to do), and I do not remember at all what was said. I don't think I listened much to it, really. I love to meditate deeply on the 8th Day, and I did enjoy some of that outside. Some parts of the day were good. I think the kids had a good day overall. Nathan grilled hamburgers, and I cut up potatoes for french fries, and I also fried onion rings. I believe the Enemy was working very hard against me or against us during these last days of the fall holiday season. But his kingdom failed overall, because ultimately, good things have come about. And it's all good, anyway, to remind me of how bad things won't happen in God's Eternal Kingdom.
I also wanted to do a "science" theme on this day, since it was our regular science day. I'd wanted to take a family walk, but in my state of mind, I didn't go through with my plans. I thought it would be neat for the kids to collect nature things of their choosing and then do a craft, gluing everything on individual sheets of construction paper to form the numeral "8." BUT, the bright side of this is that I STILL can do this soon with the kids. There's nothing stopping me.
It's been three years since I've attended services during the feasts, and this year we didn't keep the feasts with any other believers, and I suffered in part because of this. I've also decided to go back to the United Church of God nearby. There wasn't much I opposed when we went before (unlike in some of the other congregations), and I know the things that I did won't bother me so much now, and I realize perhaps I could even be a valuable person there to change those specific things. It never occurred to me before. Jaden William is also excited. He, Elizabeth, and I will start attending this upcoming Sabbath, and Nathan will decide later whether he wants to attend. I will not take Trusten and Olivia without him.
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I've got one more post to do before I'm caught up. The kids and I took a much-delayed trip to visit family and friends. We waited for months, hoping Nathan would get to go, too, but I finally decided to just take the kids and go. So, I'll post pictures of our visit. This week I'm getting caught up not only on blogging, but also on things around the house and finalizing preparations for a baby shower I'll be hosting in early November, as well as preparing for at least one CLEP test. I'll be soon signing up for college classes for next spring. Nathan has signed up for some for the second eight weeks of this semester. He'll be starting soon.
Until next time...
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