Miracles and Technology, Caterpillars, and Thankfulness

Sunday, April 18:  Jade did an Explode the Code lesson, the children and I went grocery shopping, we read our proverb and some in the gospel of Mark, and then Nathan and I watched the movie Sherlock Holmes online.  Wow, did I ever like that movie.  We thought it would be okay for Jade to see and would give me an opportunity to talk to him about some things, so I planned to play it again the next day.

Sherlock Holmes, of course, is a fictional detective, most know.  This movie's case revolved around a guy seeking to control government, ultimately the world, using technology deceptively disguised by the "dark arts."  Intelligent and logical Sherlock Holmes knew there was an explanation for all the seemingly unexplainable events, such as the evil character Lord Blackwood rising from the dead.  He said that he didn't believe in magic, but rather science.  I couldn't agree more.  Magic is a myth, the whole "hocus pocus, abra-cadabra" nonsense.  There's an explanation for everything.  Even when people use dark arts, the spirits behind it all are literally bringing things about in some way.  It is explainable.  When God made the heavens and the earth, He did it by His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding:

Jehovah by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew (Prov. 3:19-20).  

The Most High God and His Firstborn are both more highly advanced than any human is.  Their wisdom, knowledge, and understanding far surpass that of ours, for we are created by them and given these things in limited amounts.

Certain elements in the movie reminded me of how people will be deceived in the last few years of this world/age.  Already there are fascinating technologies that are kept secret from the general population.  There are those who serve Satan and practice the dark arts.  These people include our top government officials who claim outwardly to be Christians just to deceive the deceived into thinking they are like them and nothing to fear!  What secrets do these evil spirits share with these people?  What sorceries are in store to deceive the masses?  One thing is for certain, that those who do not have the love of the truth shall be deceived.  The nations are fighting so and cannot get along.  The leaders and the rich keep meeting together to try to formulate a plan of peace.  They do realize an important truth, namely that in order to have peace, there must be a world government, and so everyone must obey the same set of beliefs.  What beliefs, what law, should be implemented, is the question.

Eventually, it will be decided in the Western world that the Christianity religion should be used to bring everyone under rule and that Islam should be once and for all stamped out.  Of course, except for the true  Christians who know the truth, namely that the Satan-inspired man-made religion of Christianity (Catholicism) is against God, and perhaps a minority of atheists and others, most will come to think it's a good idea and there will seem to be a short time of peace in this part of the world.  They will serve this coming government with their thoughts and actions (symbolized by the forehead and hands), rather than God's government.  They will obey a lie, rather than obey the truth.  

Fancy technology will be used to show signs and wonders, as I wrote in my intro to science and technology on my website.  Satan is working behind the scenes to inspire this in the minds of evil men so that ultimately he can be worshiped as only God should be.  No fancy technology, no wonders that man can do, even under inspiration or possession of devils, can compare to what God can do.  I want my children to know, though, that there will be fancy things done that people will believe is from God and is not.

Monday, April 19:  I refreshed Jaden on how to scan and copy with the printer, since we will soon start adding more to our plant binder that we started last year.  I let Trusten push buttons.  :-)  He loves to push buttons, so I let him do so when I can.  I lift him up so that he can push the button to start the washing machine.  We let him push the play and pause button when we watch movies on the iMac. 
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I can't remember the exact thing Jaden William said now, but he made some comment about water at a certain temperature, and I told him that was hot (I think he said 160 degrees) to us, and he was thinking it was cold, so I had to remind him of the numerical values of certain temps. that have been assigned to the Fahrenheit scale.  Somehow that conversation also involved reheating food, but I honestly do not remember the conversation really well right now.
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Another thing we talked about this day was a spirit vs. flesh body.  We were doing our daily bible reading, and I can't remember what I'd read over, but he said, "I just realized something.  Our bodies are God's body."  So, I had the opportunity to talk about that.  I told him he was partly right.  In the same way his body is Nathan's and my body, God's begotten children's bodies are His bodies.  In the same way Jaden is a reproduction of both mind and body by Nathan's and my coming together as one, so a begettal with the Father God's Spirit, we have a reproduction of His mind and will have a reproduction of His body, just as His Firstborn's (the Lord Jesus). 
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We also talked about Jesus' spitting and other strange things that he did when healing others.  I explained to Jaden that those things that he did were not really what healed them.  God's Spirit healed them, and in the case of the blind, the cells of the eye were made whole, or whatever was wrong with the vision was corrected.  We have certain powers in the modern medical instruments and drugs that are used today.  How much greater are the things with which God has at His disposal?  They would not have understood such things 2,000 years ago, but the modern medical miracles man has shown he is capable of should put it in a new light.

If man can do such things, what can God do?  Of course, one only has to look at heavens and the earth and how everything runs.  Wow!  Well, to anyone with any sense, I think it's plain that someone of greater intelligence put this all together.  Of course, the foolish have always given unintelligence credit.  As IF a rock (or block of wood) that can't speak or see or reason could create life.  The evolutionists, with such theories as life springing up on the "backs of crystals," as one guy put it, are no different than the heathens throughout history who have given rocks and other such things the credit.   Crazy, if you ask me.  If that's real science, I'm a dodo bird.

I am amazed at this iMac that I have and even more so with the iPhone.  What geniuses it took to put something together that does all that it does and it have such a small size.  Now, what person with sense would ever guess that something like that just "evolved," all the needed parts and applications just randomly came together to create the iPhone and all its programs.  Of course, that's nonsense!  How much more nonsensical it is to believe the earth and every creature on it just got here and is running all this complex programming from some random evolving of things.  Just the way the earth and the other planets are held together in orbit is amazing to me.
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We've been taking daily walks. The day before Jade opened up a web of Eastern tent caterpillars with a stick.  Today I brought the camera along.  I wasn't sure what the name of the caterpillars was as of yet, nor was I sure of the tree from which they fed and made their home.  I discovered later that it was Choke cherry, and there are Choke cherry trees all up and down this road, with Eastern tent caterpillars making their homes in them.

Click here for video footage of Jaden's observation. 

Oh, and I wasn't 100% sure what those little "black things" that Jaden asked about were, but later when we read more about these caterpillars, we found out that the black things are feces.  Nice, eh?  You should have seen the look on JW's face.

Here's a cute video of Trusten with one of the caterpillars.

Tuesday, April 20:  We read from Mark and Proverbs.  We talked more about technology vs. "magic" and end time deceptions, and we talked about stamps and mail sorting and transport.  I explained summarily how it all worked and how long it took for mail to get from place to place.  It all started with his asking why we need stamps, and then he also was under the assumption that the addressee received the mail piece the same day the sender mailed it. 

Wednesday, April 21:  We read Mark and Proverbs.  The boys learned about syrphid flies.  Here's a video of Trusten studying one on our front porch.  It was a bit annoying that JW kept asking Trusten what he thought about the fly, even interrupting Trusten's question, but JW and I had thought it was so funny the day before when Trust said he thought "good" of the caterpillar as he dropped it and brushed his hands together.  I watched that video over and over, laughing.

Thursday, April 22:   I started taking cal-mag supplements again today, though, as well as chlorophyll again. I know my magnesium is low, even though I do not eat a mainstream diet of refined grains and do not eat more than one to two dairy servings a day (too much calcium can cause less magnesium absorption, though magnesium helps calcium to absorb).  

The lilac bush in our front yard smells lovely, and we delight in smelling the fragrant air as we walk by during our daily walks.  Also, JW thought the Mullein we have around here was Lamb's Ear.  They are both soft, and they look similar, but I told him I didn't think it was Lamb's Ear.  I couldn't remember what it was called, though, so we id'ed the plant when we got home.  I look forward to the mullein blooming.  We had a pretty one near our creek last year, but JW said he thinks he accidentally hoed it down last year.

Friday, April 23:  Mark and proverb.   I realized my magnesium was low yesterday, but today I start wondering whether it's linked to hypothyroidism, with which I have suspected myself having for over three years.

Saturday, April 24:   The boys had their thankfulness lesson.

I'll update more in a later post.

Scorpion, Writing Choices, and Telling Time

I haven't updated weekly the last couple of weeks. 

*Monday, April 5:  This was the last day of Unleavened Bread.  I rented online "The Greatest Story Ever Told," but we watched a little over an hour (around a third), and it wasn't worth watching, in my opinion.  At least I know of a movie about Christ's ministry, death, and resurrection that is not worth watching.  Lesson learned.  And of course we read our daily proverb.

*Tuesday, April 6:  The boys learned two new butterflies (one new to me): Zebra Swallowtail and some sort of duskywing, I'm thinking probably a Juvenal Duskywing.  We had the duskywings everywhere, congregating on muddy spots.  We did two animal science lesson readings (arthropods and insects), and Jade did a reading lesson.  Daily proverb and bible story.

*Wednesday, April 7:  Daily proverb and bible story.  Jade did a reading lesson.  Then we dropped the Complete Curriculum writing section, at least for now, because Jaden hates it.  For now I have him practicing on paragraphs--indenting, proper capitalization, and correct punctuation.  This will also improve his spelling and of course his penmanship.  He writes me notes and tapes them in places where I'll find them.  I know he got this idea, b/c I leave sticky notes for my beloved husband sometimes and also sometimes for Jade.   The notes are very simple for now, as he still has to ask me how to spell a lot of words.  He keeps them usually to words he knows by himself.  He also wrote my mother a similar note.  After he gets more practice with the paragraphs, then I'll teach him how to write a proper letter so that he can write family and friends letters. 

His daily instruction (except for sabbath, when he gets a break from this) is to pick a short paragraph to copy.  He can choose any book, whether it be a children's book, an encyclopedia, or any book or magazine or anything else with paragraphs, and copy a paragraph from it.  He then has to read it aloud to me, and I'll point out any errors he made.  Today he chose to write from a book that I had since childhood, the first of two volumes My Fun with Words, which is a sort of children's dictionary that makes words fun.  He chose the entry "black." 

*Thursday, April 8:  Daily proverb and bible story.  Jade chose the entry "bad" from My Fun with Words.  I was curious whether he knew how to spell "black," the previous day's entry, since the entries repeat the entry word throughout the entry.  He spelled it correctly.  I think this was a good idea.  Jade also did a reading lesson today from Complete Curriculum for grade 2.

*Friday, April 9:  Today was Nathan's birthday.  He actually took off on this day!  That was nice for all of us.  He wrote out some invoices and job bids in the morning, and then we all went out together to eat for lunch.  We then spent the rest of the day together at home.

*Saturday, April 10:  Sabbath.  Due to unexpected circumstances, I was unable to teach the boys' their sabbath school lesson this day.

Youtube videos this week:  I didn't save them, but the boys watched videos on surfing, leafy sea dragon, some fire safety videos, some wilderness survival videos (collecting rainwater and making a deer snare), and some moral cartoon stories.

*Sunday, April 11:  I have no idea what we did this day.

*Monday, April 12:  We went to town to run some errands today.  We finished the NT section of the Bible Stories book, and so we will leave that alone now.  I have now continued the NT in the bible, where I left off.  I'd read Matthew to them after some of the prophets, and for anyone who forgot, I stopped in Jeremiah, b/c it bored them to tears, and I can definitely understand why it would be boring to children.  I think I will go back and read Daniel to them, though, at some point (not that Trusten will be listening).  So, we started the gospel of Mark today, and we'll be reading through the NT daily in addition to the the daily proverb.  

We got to see a scorpion today.  I'd opened a window in Liv's future bedroom, and I'd gone to my bathroom to brush my teeth in preparation to go to town.  Jaden came running in to tell me excitedly that he saw something that "looked like a scorpion," and he went on to describe it.  I told him that it probably was.  He and Trusten had been looking out that window, and apparently Trusten knocked out the screen.  When Jaden stuck his head through, he saw the scorpion on the ground. 

Here's a video of our scorpion discovery.

*Tuesday, April 13:  We read from Mark and Proverbs.  Jade wrote a paragraph out of a monster truck book, and he also wrote some book titles. 

*Wednesday, April 14:  Mark and proverb.  Jade read a Rocket Readers book.  He did a page of double-digit addition, and I printed off some clock worksheets, and I worked with Jade on his time-telling.  He also played Time in a Bottle on Clever Island.  He wrote a nursery rhyme from our Mother Goose book in paragraph form.  I read an old issue of Wild Animal Baby to Trusten, and he also wanted to look at a shapes book, so I quizzed him on size and shapes.  I also taught him how to draw circles.   They also watched some Youtube videos, but I didn't track them this week.

*Thursday, April 15:  Mark and proverb.  Jaden wrote a paragraph from a Little Golden book entitled My Little Golden Book About God.  He played with ice, as he did numerous days this week.  I got the boys signed up for swimming lessons this summer, and we visited the recycling center, where Jade helped me sort through our plastic.

*Friday, April 16:  Mark and proverb.  Jade did an Explode the Code lesson, and I answered Trusten's questions about magnets.  They watched some YT videos.

*Saturday, April 17:  I read a proverb and taught the boys their thankfulness lesson.

We've done some fun things in nature since, but I will stop here and post this week's stuff at the end of this week. 

Passover and Unleavened Bread, Repentance Journals, Firstfruits, and Taking Things Apart

*Sunday, March 28:  In the morning we read our proverb, and Jade did his Explode the Code lesson.  At evening, it was the 14th day of the first month of the year.  We observed the new covenant Passover with wine and unleavened bread.  I read to the boys out of Matthew.  We then washed each others' feet.  Jaden wanted to wash everyone's feet, though.  He even washed Baby Girl's feet.   I washed Jade's feet.

We will not have leavened bread in the house this week, and we will eat unleavened bread each day.

*Monday, March 29:  We read our proverb and bible story.  I told the boys what would have happened to Jesus the night before and what would have happened during different times of the day.  I did it in OUR time but explained that in Jerusalem the time of day is different, but it would have been the time of day it was here, there when it was happening.  Well, that doesn't sound well explained, but rest assured the way I said it, Jade understood.  This night was the first day of unleavened bread, a holy sabbath day.  It was a full moon, as it was the middle of the month, according to the object in the sky which God placed there for us to keep up with the months, namely the moon!  Most of adherents of the man-made religion of Judaism (as well as Passover-keepers of the man-made religion of Christianity and also Messianic Judaism [Judaism married to Christianity]) keep the Passover on this day, the 15th day of the month, although the scripture couldn't be plainer that it's the 14th day of the month that the Passover should be kept.  The 15th day of the month--mid-month with a full moon--is the first day of unleavened bread.  The full moon would have lit up the night if the Israelites happened to travel any by night after the Passover.

The full moon was lovely and should have been a reminder to all believers that God lights the way to righteousness for us.  He lights the way for us to leave the darkness of sin and death.  Egyptian bondage symbolized bondage to sin.  Serving the Egyptians symbolized serving the law of sin and death.  The Firstborn's of God death frees us from bondage, frees us to turn and serve the law of God with all our hearts and covers us with grace for our repentance.

*Tuesday, March 30:  It was nice to have a day of rest.  It was a lovely day outside, so the children and I enjoyed a good time outside.  We walked around on our property and took pleasure in the various wildflowers that have bloomed, all the greenery, and the buds on our flowering trees and bushes.  We also liked to see all the pretty butterflies fluttering about and the sights and sounds of the birds.  The only downside was some sort of gnat-type insect that kept swarming us now and then.

I read the proverb of the day.  Then I read some out of Revelation to Jaden.  That was an impulsive thing, and I didn't really have any specific reason.  Then I had Jaden write in his new repentance journal, and I had Trusten talk to me, and I wrote what he said in his for him.  You may remember that the boys have rewards journals for the Feast of Trumpets.  For the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they have repentance journals.  They write in the repentance journals; Nathan and I write in the rewards journals.  They write the sins they need to work on overcoming for this year.   Here's a picture of the repentance journals:

Jaden wanted pancakes so badly this morning.  He's asked one day last week, and I promised him we'd make pancakes "sometime next week," not thinking at the time about what week it was to be!  SO, we made unleavened pancakes.  It was simple.  I just left the baking powder out.  They were flat as a pancake.  LOL!  Okay, seriously, they were a bit flatter than normal, but they tasted fine, we thought.

I went over the feast map that I downloaded several years ago from United Church of God's sabbath school section for children.  I have copies for each of the children and myself, and they're colored.  It makes it more fun as we go through each step, and I quiz them (mostly Jade right now) on what each of the feasts and holy days mean as it pertains to the plan of salvation.

We didn't have a real lunch this day.  We just snacked all day.  Then for dinner I fixed some very delicious chicken fajitas, with of course unleavened bread (tortillas), tomatoes (canned, as I can't have anything close to raw), and fresh red bell pepper.  Oh, and we added some fresh organic shredded cheddar cheese.  They were so very good!

*Wednesday, March 31:  I can't remember the conversations of this day.  It never fails; if I don't take notes, I forget.  I know we read our proverb and bible story.  I also know the boys watched the following Youtube videos:

Survival:  fresh drinking water, making a snare, making a bow
Moral cartoon story:  "The Crocodile and the Monkey"

We had delicious chicken and dumplings, with the dumplings being tortillas I cut into dumplings, and green beans.  

*Thursday, April 1:  Proverb, bible story, and Youtube videos.

Survival:  making an arrow, dehydration
Moral cartoon stories:  "The Fingers," "The Crow and the Necklace"

We tried ground turkey for the first time (excepting pre-made turkey burger patties that we've  had a few times), since I've not fixed beef much in the past few months, except for special feasts and usually leaner red meats only on the weekly feast day.  The things, like tacos, that I normally used ground beef for, I've fixed vegetarian, with beans in lieu of meat.  Well, tonight we had soft tacos with ground turkey, and they were super!  We have things made with tortillas (unleavened bread--no yeast) all week during the week of unleavened bread each year.  It's an extra reminder what the week is about every time we sit down to dinner (which is overcoming sin, yeast being symbolic of sin).

*Friday, April 2:  Proverb and bible story.  Jade also played on Clever Island, playing "Time in a Bottle" to work on his time-telling and a game he really loves called "Meer Cat Mob" in which he has to shoot at meer cats (or maybe their signs) that have the right words labeled in front of their holes and get them before they go back into their holes.  There will be a category, like "verbs," "adjectives," or "food words," and so he is supposed to only shoot at those kind of words.  A screen shot from "Time in a Bottle":

We had vegetable-venison stew for the sabbath, but we had tortilla triangles to go with it for a change.  We had a mixture of chocolate and vanilla pudding for our dessert.

*Saturday, April 3:  Today was the sabbath day, and I read the daily proverb and then a lesson out of Choosing Thankfulness, about how David praised God and was a man after God's own heart.  I worked on the book I'm writing, God's Law of Love:  The Perfect Law of Liberty, and I'm nearly finished with the sixth commandment.  It was also a very gorgeous day, and I got to spend plenty of time outside cherishing the gift of creation by the Wonderful Creator.  I walked around with my Liv and then sat her on the grass so that she could pull at flowers and kick the grass back with her bare feet.  She got her feet dirty.  She really tore that grass up!  :-)

*Sunday, April 4:  The day after the sabbath during the week of unleavened bread is First Fruits.  It's not a feast of any sort, not a holy day.  Under the old covenant, though, the priest would wave a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to be accepted by God.  When Jesus the Christ ascended to God after his resurrection, he fulfilled this.  He was the firstfruits of the spring harvest (I Cor. 15:20), as laid out symbolically in God's feasts that lay out the plan of mankind's salvation.  So, I explained this to Jade and how ironic it was that this year it happened to fall on the same day that Christianity keeps its feast of Easter, on which they claim their christ rose from the dead, known in ancient heathen religions as the "sun god." Easter is the name of a heathen goddess, also known as Ishtar, Astarte, Eostre, Isis, etc., depending on which culture and language is being used.  She is a fertility goddess, hence the big deal over sex-crazed rabbits and eggs. 

We ate out at Las Palmas, a Mexican restaurant, for a late lunch today, and then when we got back, Nathan put together our new ceiling fan for the living room, while Jaden took apart the old one.  The other day, Nathan replaced a couple of our door knobs, and Jade took apart one to study it.  When I asked him the other day what his favorite thing to do currently is, he said, "I like to build, but I also like to destroy, and then when things can be fixed, I like to rebuild them after I tear them down."

Well, that's it until next time.  It will soon be the last day of unleavened bread, starting this evening, a sabbath day.  So, tomorrow I'll be going over the feast again with the boys and the entire plan of salvation.

Sloths, Birds, World Architecture, Solar System Scale, and Righteousness

First, I'd like to say that I left out something in the previous post on Wednesday, March 17.  For his writing that day, he had to write about what he learned that day.  Then on Thursday, March 18, while we were driving, I made up a tale about a white-tailed deer named Will who went to go find other kinds of deer.  He went across the North American continent meeting other deer and had short conversations with each type after learning their names.  He made comments on the differing antlers and such.  Then he had to sneak aboard a ship and stay alive by eating grain, as he travels to Europe.  That was the end of that segment of "Will the White-tailed Deer's Adventures ," until I can better research the deers of Europe, then he will move on to Asia and so forth.  I'll be showing the boys pictures on Google images of different types as we go along.

*Tuesday, March 23:  Proverb and bible story.  Jade did a reading lesson (about a secret king who dressed up like he was poor to see how his people were), two math pages, and some Youtube videos (including the Omega 3 one which was listed with the last post with previous videos).

*Wednesday, March 24: Proverb and bible story. We went to buy groceries.  Jaden has been pushing Liv in the stroller, and I keep Trusten in the kid's seat in my cart.  I tell the clerk how much water I'm going to buy, and then we all go back to the truck.  I unload the groceries and strap Trust and Liv in their carseats and lock them up.  Jade and I take the water jugs back in to fill them.  I can watch the truck the whole time through the front windows right beside the water dispenser.  I love our grocery store!  We shop at Ozark Natural Foods.  We are co-op owners there.  They are fairly strict about what they carry:  no artificial ingredients or things like MSG, no pesticides, hormones, and definitely no GMOs.  On the way home, I explained to Jade what was meant by "as the crow flies," when he was asking how many miles we had left to get to our house.  I explained the difference in going along the road and "as the crow flies."

Jade had to write out the scripture verses:

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. -Matthew 15:8


For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. -Romans 2:13

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. -Ephesians 6:4

I had already talked to him about these, but I wanted him to write them, too, and to memorize them.  This is because of what I discussed in my previous post.  As for the last one, he's not a father, but he is like a father to Trusten, since he's the firstborn.  Trust imitates everything Jaden does.

I'm happy to say that Jaden is working on changing his ways.  He has a way to go, but he's doing well, and Nathan is also improving as a father.  We are both trying to be good parents.

Youtube videos:  Red Peacock (animated moral story), visuals of World Architecture, planets and stars size to scale--Our Solar System (Jade loved this one),  biography of Amelia Earhart

*Thursday, March 25: Proverb and bible story.  Jade did three writing pages (making lists), two math pages (intro to double-digit addition), and a reading lesson (Grimm Brothers).  The boys and I read and looked at Jaden's newest issue of Your Big Backyard.   In it, we read about different types of birds and the different types of nests that they make, and we read about three-toed sloths and some other things.  Then I read to the boys a couple of the stories in the previous issue of Heaven's Family, to remind the boys of what types of things go on in the world and how thankful they should be.  One of the stories was about some poor widows and their children, and another was about how thankful some very impoverished families were to have biosand filters in order to have clean water. 

Youtube videos:  plane and forest fires (computer-generated), California wildfires (2007), giant octopus (Trust wanted more octopus videos), octopus, and a moral cartoon story: "The Beggar's Laugh" (animated tale of wit and wisdom)

Oh!  And here are a couple videos that I taped this day, of our flooded yard: creek and yard

*Friday, March 26:  Proverb and bible story.  Jade also did an Explode the Code lesson.  He now has only one book left.  The boys played outside in the water that was left from the flood, which wasn't much.  It clears out pretty quickly.

Youtube videos: monarch butterfly metamorphosis, another monarch butterfly metamorphosis, a dragonfly metamorphosis, 1948 spiders and other arachnids, Discovery Channel spiders, "Treasure in the Fields" (animated moral story), "Dolls" (animated moral story)

*Saturday, March 27:  Proverb and thankfulness lesson, where the boys learned how the Levites praised God.  We also listened and sang along praise songs by Fernando Ortega, one of my favorite musicians/singers.  Nathan also loves him, and he's practicing "Come Ye Sinners" as sang by Fernando with Amy Grant.  He says he wants to get it perfectly.  It's really sad that he didn't learn to play an instrument at an early age, because I think he could have, and he sings so well. 

Tomorrow night is Passsover, and then after that the week of Unleavened Bread.  Jade will be off a week from doing written book work.  He may write some scriptures.  He will definitely be doing one writing project, and all that will be revealed in this week's blog post at the end of the week.  I'm hoping it will be a good week!  :-)

Time Travel, Birds, Nutrition, Technology, Weather, War & Governments & Religions, Morals

*Sunday, March 14:  Proverb and bible story.  Jade did Explode the Code.  We all as a family watched The Time Traveler's Wife.  Nathan had gone by the movie rental store and picked out a couple movies.  It's a little ironic to me that we keep watching time traveling movies, and this topic keeps arising.  The boys and I had watched that Meet the Robinsons which had time travel.  Nathan and I recently started watching lectures about relativity and quantum mechanics.  I've been doing a lot of personal research on such things.  Anyway, the boys and I ended up watching this movie again the next day, after I answered some of Jaden's questions and explained how the guy traveling in time was not real, that he couldn't really do that.  It was a neat movie, though, and he said he understood it so much better the second time.  Nathan and I watched 2012, which did have some things that made you think, but some of the stuff was a crock, not to mention the movies Hollywood makes are SO far-fetched.  It had to be miracle after miracle for the main characters to live through everything they did.  I mean, they would have been dead I-don't-know-how-many-times.

*Monday, March 15:  Proverb and bible story. Jaden did 3 writing pages in the 1st Gr. CC, 2 math pages in 2nd Gr. CC, a reading lesson in 2nd Gr. CC, and we discussed time travel and watched that movie again.  Well, I halfway watched it and halfway did some writing while Liv slept.  The movie mainly played again for the boys, but it was distracting me.

Trusten identified felt pictures and put them on our flannel board.  Here are some pics of the boys this day:

This evening was the new month and also the new year.  Jaden blew the shofar, and we had brownies for dessert.

*Tuesday, March 16:  Proverb and bible story. Jaden and Trusten started out the day watching a Reading Rainbow dvd about family, as I was not out of bed yet.  Jade did 3 writing pages, 2 math pages, and a reading lesson.  We talked about what a crisis pregnancy center does and then went to town to the nearest one.

*Wednesday, March 17: Proverb and bible story.  I literally lectured the boys all day long, explaining to them proper family dynamics, focusing on the role of a firstborn son and the younger siblings.  I want Jaden to be a loving ruler over his siblings, to teach them by example how they should act.  I want him to be able to constructively find things for them to do together when we're having adult conversations or when I have other things I must do.  I also reiterated to Jaden and do so every day--when needed, that he needs to treat Trusten how he wants his daddy to treat him.  I'm sure Jade would not like it too much if Nathan pushed him onto the floor or grabbed him by his shirt and shook him around, but he has done Trust that way.  He also provokes Trusten to anger; this is a major issue on which we're working.  Another issue is his lip service that he is giving us.  We can tell when he's sincere and when he's not.

Yet another issue is that hearing and acknowledging instruction just doesn't cut it.  Hearing and understanding is not enough.  DOING is important.  It was unbelievable one day that I told him what he needed to be doing, and he said okay, and so I asked him to repeat it back to me so that I knew he had listened.  Well, he repeated it back just fine.  He heard me just fine.  THEN, astoundingly, he walked over to what he had been doing and went back to doing it, NOT doing what I'd told him to do.  Talk about jaw-dropping amazement!  A hearer and not a doer!  Knowing what the command is is good, if one does it.  Not doing it when knowing he should is worse than not knowing it!   I will be assigning him new scripture verses to memorize, and that will also comprise some of his writing.

*Thursday, March 18: Proverb and bible story. We went grocery shopping this day, and I don't remember what sorts of things we discussed during this day.  I didn't note anything.   I don't think Jaden did any book work, though.  Aha!  I know what we did.  We watched an Ice Age "short" on Amazon called "No Time for Nuts," which was yet another time travel video!  The boys love the Ice Age movies; they have the 1st and 3rd ones (they saw the 2nd online, and I didn't much care for it).  I thought it was a full-time movie and had seen it at a glance a few days before when browsing.  Well, it turned out to be around seven or eight minutes long, a "short," as I said, so I found a cheap full-length animated movie they could watch.  I chose Gulliver's Travel.  I'd never read the book or had seen any movie on that.  I halfway kept up with it as I did laundry and such, while the boys watched it.  Interesting.  The graphics and animation were lacking, but the story had a good moral.  An evil astrologer sorcerer was working for both sides of two peoples to keep them warring with each other.  A ship-wrecked doctor by the surname of Gulliver ended up on an island with the one people, and he was a giant compared to the tiny Lilliputians.  Anyway, in the end he helped make it possible for the two sides to find peace with each other.  It was the end for the trouble-making evil man.  I explained to the boys that some people were indeed like that and lived to keep trouble stirred up for others.  That's the way the evil powers of the world are doing among our real nations, keeping wars going against each other.  Very sick. 

*Friday, March 19: Proverb and bible story.  Jade did a reading lesson.  I really like his reading lessons, because not only is he reading aloud to me and answering questions, but he's learning things from what he reads.  Sometimes it's history.  Sometimes it's a moral tale.  They've all been good, though.  Jade usually does an Explode the Code lesson on Fridays, but he was exempted today.

*Saturday, March 20: Proverb. I did a thankfulness lesson with the boys today from Choosing Thankfulness.  It was just the lesson that needed to be taught, too, because it taught that complaining and finding fault were opposites of being thankful. Of course, it pointed out that at times it was needful to do these things.  I think it was eye-opening to Jade.  I've told him these things before, as he often complains when I do things for him, without a thank you.  But, his seeing and hearing it from that lesson made it somehow more real for him.  It snowed this day.  It was the biggest snow yet.  It had been warm the days before, and we'd gone out with short sleeves.  I had to bring my plants in; I explained to Trust that the snow might kill them.

*Sunday March 21:  Proverb and bible story.  There were two killdeer birds in the driveway bobbing their heads around.  They were fun to watch.  I got out our bird guide and read about them to the boys.  Then later we saw a Northern flicker drilling at a rotten stump in the back, on the hill.  I didn't know what sort of woodpecker it was myself, so I had to id it in the guide.  I took a couple pictures of it, and I also filmed it.  I got it on film throwing dirt with its beak from the base of the stump.  I read in the guide that they eat ants in the dirt, so that's what it must have been after.  I also looked up pictures on Google images to make sure it was the right bird, since it was a different flicker that they had pictured in the guide's entry.

We all watched a movie that Nathan picked up:  Amelia.  It was a decent watch, and the boys learned some about a figure in history, namely Amelia Earhart.

Jaden did not do Explode the Code.  He will start it back Friday.

We looked at pictures online of various nations, especially island nations, and read about them.  We located some of them together on our globe.  At the boys' bedtime, I pointed some of the places we'd discussed out on their fabric map on the wall in their bedroom.

*Monday, March 22: Proverb and bible story.  Jaden did three writing pages and read a story as part of one of the writing assignments.  He also did two math pages and his reading lesson.  We talked about many things.  We talked about people frog gigging and crawdad capturing and how people eat those things.  The boys sure weren't impressed about that.  Jaden asked whether I knew anyone who had eaten a horse, and the sad thing is, is that I do know of one person who told us he'd eaten horse, as well as opossum and raccoon, in addition to all the other usual suspects.  I'll never forget that man telling me that the horse was really dry.  What an abomination...

We talked about governments and religions and how corrupt all man's governments and religions are, including the dominating government and religion of the United States.  We talked about nuclear weapons, because Jaden asked me about what they were and what they did.  I reminded him of the animated atom video he watched a little while back on Youtube.  I briefly explained that atom bombs were created by nuclear fission.  I talked about the horrible damage they cause and also about radioactive fallout and how a person needed a lot of protection from that, preferably an underground shelter.  I explained to him that simply being in the house doesn't give us much protection from the radiation pouring in and told him you'd have to have a lot of mass between you and the radiation.

Jaden asked about man's technology and whether they could make storms and make other weather catastrophes.  I told him that there was evidence that they could but that I wasn't sure how much of the bad weather, earthquakes, etc. was due to man's causing it, because much of it is still going to happen naturally.  He said, "And that's God's causing it."  I said, "Well, yes, he made the earth in such a way, and those things naturally happen; it doesn't necessarily mean he deliberately says that he wants such-and-such to take place at such-and-such time and place, although he does have the power to do so.  I reminded him again of how we are living in the last days when man's knowledge and technology is increased but it will never match God's.  I told him there is no telling for sure what all "miraculous" things man will do with his knowledge before the end of this age.  I think he asked this about the weather, because he must have been listening the day before when Nathan and I briefly talked about earthquakes and such and how man has the technology via EMP to cause earthquakes. 

Jaden looked at my February/March Birds & Blooms magazine while I was busy.  I asked him later what he'd read, and he said he'd read about how to build a bird house.  

As Trusten munched on a snack of carrots, I took the opportunity to talk to the boys about vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, the latter of which is what gives carrots and pumpkins and sweet potatoes their orange color.  I told them we needed vitamin A for healthy skin, hair, nails, and vision. 

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Some Youtube videos watched by the boys lately:  sea star locomotion, sea stars fighting over a scallop, snail eats a sea star, brittle star eating a clam, shark vs. octopus, atomic and nuclear bombs in action, Hiroshima after the bomb (sad), The Three Fishes (highly recommended animated moral story; I watched it myself after Jaden asked me to watch it, b/c it was good), The Father and the Donkey (another moral story that I also watched with them), How does the body use vitamin A? , and Omega 3's

State Games, Thankfulness, Spiders, Birds, and Butterflies

Sunday, February 28:  Nathan and Jaden went to the storage building to get a chain for the chain saw, and Nathan cut down some small trees to start on a log playhouse for the boys.  Jade did Explode the Code, and of course we read our proverb and a bible story.

Monday, March 1:  Jade did 3 writing pages plus a paragraph on a tablet page, 2 math pages, a reading lesson.  I read a proverb, a bible story, an entry in the prayer book, and read the chapter in God's Design for animals on the introduction to invertebrates to both the boys.  I've been reading more books to Trusten.  I've been reading at least one book nearly daily to just him.

Tuesday, March 2:  Jade did 2 writing pages; we did a proverb, a bible story, and an entry in the prayer book.  I read a chapter in Swiss Family Robinson, and I reviewed where we were in Prepare & Pray.  Then I found a free animated movie online for the boys, and the boys and I watched it together.  It was called Meet the Robinsons.  It had a nice moral to the story, I thought, and it also gave me the opportunity to briefly explain that a person cannot travel in time to the past and go back and forth from the present or past to the future and back.

Wednesday, March 3:  We went to town on this day, and I didn't have Jaden do any book work this day.  We just did our usual...proverb, bible story, and book readings.

Thursday, March 4:  I am sick of getting too many catalogs in the mail that are only good for recycling.  I hate that so many trees are cut down for this nonsense.  I canceled seven catalogs, and since then I have remembered two more I need to cancel.  If I want to buy something from any of these people, I'll go online and find their stores!  I reminded Jaden of how so many trees are cut down for all this excessive advertising.  Some of these companies give a catalog once a week or more!  At least that is the way it seems.  We get some of them a lot.

Anyway, Jaden William did 3 writing pages, a reading lesson,  and 2 math pages.  We did a proverb and a bible story.  I got out the metal detector for Jade to use in the yard while I sat out on the front porch and read and Trust followed him around, and he unearthed some hunk of something.  I'm not sure what it is.  The boys and I raced out on the road a few times.  That was fun and good exercise.  Jaden also made a slingshot.  He wanted to play Funschool after we came in, and I told him to try out the states games that he hasn't played in well over a year.  He did well.  This also reminded me that his Clever Island account should be canceled soon.  I am going to assign him to work on his time, addition, and maybe a couple other things on there, and then it will have served its purpose.  My dad gave him the subscription to that.

Friday, March 5:  Jade did Explode the Code.  I took away his toys and gaming privileges.  I want him to have a heart of thankfulness, love, respect, and obedience.  I reminded him and Trust how they should treat each other and us.  Jaden has become unthankful, and I think it's because he has so much and doesn't realize how good he has it.  We also looked at the pictures of me in my school yearbooks, and I discussed and demonstrated how prison schools...uh, I mean U.S. government [public] schools run, and Jaden thought he was being tortured.  I told him that we had to actually go through it, including being punished for having to go to the bathroom!

Saturday, March 6:  We did a proverb and thankfulness lesson out of the Choosing Thankfulness book.  We spent much time outdoors.  We all went walking through our woods, including Liv being held by Nathan.  I held Trusten's hand.  When we got back Jaden and I looked through the spider field guide and the bird field guide.  We had seen a spider's empty egg sac on the the ground.  The bird field guide was looked through mainly because Jaden decided he wanted to look at that, too.  Oh!  I've seen a bald eagle flying twice recently while out and about driving, both times in the same area.

Sunday, March 7:  Nathan and the boys worked on the playhouse in the afternoon, but then the chainsaw cord broke.  That figures.  Jade saw and described a butterfly, so I took out the field guide, and we discussed the possibilities of what it could have been.  I later taught Trusten about caterpillars, chrysalis,  and butterflies, as well as patience when when I dry him off after bathing.  He was wet and pretending to be a butterfly wanting to leave, impatiently.  I said that butterflies had to be patient while emerging and drying off their wings.  And of course I read them a proverb and a bible story.

Monday, March 8:  We read Jaden's March issue of Your Big Backyard magazine.  Some of the things the boys learned were about the ears of different animals and the different functions ears served for animals (hearing, cooling off, etc.), as well as the different locations and appearances of ears; the difference between hares and rabbits, shapes in nature, and bluebirds.

We looked through and discussed my latest issue of Arbor Day news.  The night before Jaden expressed an interest in wanting to learn more about sea stars (sometimes called starfish), and Trusten has been asking about octopuses, so we looked at some pictures in a book we have called All About Animals by Childcraft.  I then read the lessons in the God's Design for Science for animals on mollusks and echinoderms.

Jaden has talked a lot about numbers.  He often asks the same questions over and over and tells me the things he understands over and over, just in different ways.  He's clearly fascinated by math and numbers, which is great, but it's funny (or not so funny) for me, because that is a weaker subject for me.  I am average in math (ranging from below average to above average in subareas).  I can teach him all the basics of arithmetic, accounting, algebra, geometry, and more, and then beyond that he'll have to take online classes or go take a class or whatever, if he needs more math, because he's sure not going to get anything beyond the basics of math from me.

He also sometimes talks about states and various places at bedtime, because he has a world map and a U.S. map hanging on his bedroom wall.  This is something he did this day.

 Tuesday, March 9:  Jade started off the day adding numbers and asking and telling Nathan about sums.  He counted and counted while I nursed Liv before bible time.  He did two writing pages, and we did all the usual other things.

Wednesday, March 10:  Jade did two writing pages, we read our normal things, and we left to Arkansas this day to go celebrate my mother's 50th birth anniversary the day afterward.  We chased tornadoes while traveling!  So, we talked about tornadoes and funnel clouds and such.


Thursday, March 11:  We read our proverb (didn't take the bible story book), and we went out to eat for my mother's birthday.  The place we went had a carousel and lots of games and things for the boys to play.  I'm sure Jaden liked that, since he has all that taken away at home currently.  Then we went to a rodeo, which is something I'd never even been to myself.  It was at the White County Fairgrounds where my dad is the fair manager.    The rodeo participants were college students from ten different states.  I feel sorry for those calves that are roped and slammed to the ground to have their legs tied.  Jaden seemed to think it was great, and Trusten just kept climbing up and down the two stadium seats between my sister and me.

Friday, March 12:  We ate lunch with my mother and aunt, and we traveled back home.  We read our proverb.

Saturday, March 13:  Ah!  The sabbath was so welcome after such a busy week.  I was so tired, though, that I didn't even do the boys' lesson today.  I did do a little writing myself, and the boys started off the day watching the movie Solomon and Sheba. LOL!  Trusten actually picked it out. 

I think I have pictures to share, but I can post them next time.

Roads and Land, Heathen Tribes, and Vertebrates Quiz

*Tuesday, February 16:  I think this was the day we read Trusten's March edition of Wild Animal Baby, but I don't know what else we did or talked about.

*Wednesday, February 17:  It was a sunny day this day, and the boys and I walked up the hill and looked around while Liv was sleeping inside.  I don't remember what else we did, except they had the following Youtube videos: how to make lollipops (could not find one on commercially-made ones), magical nature alphabet (for toddlers and preschoolers), fascinating caterpillars animation, exactly how a car engine works (3D animation), and how air conditioners work.

*Thursday, February 18: The boys explored our dry creek bed.  We later drove to Fayetteville, and I explained mile markers and exit numbers to Jaden.  On the way home I explained Jct./junction meaning where two or more roads meet (or join) and that "junction" and "join" come from the same Latin root word (jungere, meaning "to join").

I explained the land dispute that we're having with our so-called "neighbor" to Jade, including a brief explanation of land plats, deeds, boundaries, etc.

We got a census letter in the mail that informed me that we should soon be receiving a census form, so I talked to Jaden about what a census was and why it they are done.


*Friday, February 19: Jade did an Explode the Code lesson.  He spent time with Nathan learning how to use a metal detector as Nathan looked for some of our pins marking our land boundaries.  He also went to town with Nathan, while I stayed with Trust and Liv.

I talked to Jaden again (as I have been doing) about the role of a firstborn, while adding details I had not before.  I've been teaching him that he should make sure he's doing the right things, that he should set a good example for Trusten and that he should be Trust's teacher.  I also lectured to him about time management, obedience, and more.  I explained to him that if he does the right things and follows his daddy's rules that Trusten will then obey him (Jaden).  He wants to boss Trusten around without leading and teaching him the right things by example. 

They watched some fun Youtube videos...things like five monkeys jumping on a bed and a couple of decent cartoons; one was about spring and another about magnets.

*Saturday, February 20:  We read two bible story entries instead of the one we read on work days, instead of a sabbath school lesson, because I had not prepared one.  It was a fair day (mostly cloudy but not cold), so we spent some time outside walking around on the sabbath.

*Sunday, February 21:  Jade did Explode the Code.  We did our daily reading of a proverb and a bible story.  I talked some on the not striving with a neighbor hastily, or he may bring you to shame in the end, and I explained to the boys (well, mainly to Jade, but Trust sits and listens, too) that our "neighbor" is a prime example of this.  He has been brought to major shame, and it's all b/c he wanted to stir up strife.   And of course, I read the boys each a book of their choice to them, as I do most days.

I was planning to make chicken fajitas for dinner, but Nathan suggested he take us out to eat.  I reminded him that if we ate at a Mexican restaurant, the meat quality might make us ill.  He said he'd take us to a nice one.  So, we went to one that appeared upscale.  Afterward I explained to Jaden how that was a prime example of how looks can be deceiving.  The restaurant was nice looking outside and in, but the food was a joke.  They didn't even cook my tomatoes or bell peppers, and I must have my tomatoes cooked now, or otherwise I will have an allergic reaction.  I specified from the beginning that I must have cooked tomatoes, but it was ignored (although most M. restaurants cook them, anyway, but this one didn't even make fajitas with tomatoes, so I had to request them to be added).  I had her take the stuff back to cook, but it ended up not being cooked enough, so later at home, I experienced a mild reaction.  I downed some liquid vitamin C and drank a lot of water, and I ended up being okay.

Jaden and I played chess together before they went to bed.  Afterward Nathan and I started watching Youtube segments of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which has been something I've wanted to read for a few years now.  I do better reading something, but I go the gist of it.  It took us two nights to complete it all.  It was interesting, but it really brought out the folly of such folks, and I didn't much care for the vulgar pornograpic parts.

Monday, February 22:  I'd been getting on to the boys again for going around without their clothes, especially their shirts.  They'll often strip to their underwear, though, and then run around.  I tell them not to act like heathens.  Jade asked to see videos about heathen tribes (which I've shown before), so we watched some.  I cannot remember the name of the tribes we watched this day, but one was the last known tribe that still sometimes practices cannibalism.  Tobacco smoking was also important in this tribe.  They would run or think about killing someone if they saw an outsider approach who was not wearing clothes.  The people who lived in the villages who had converted to the Christianity religion (which, at least is better than full-blown heathen) explained this to the fellow who was visiting these tribes.  He approached them naked, except a leaf covering his genitals.  All the tribes were in Africa. 

Jaden ate buckwheat cereal for breakfast this day.  I usually make muffins, cereal bars, oatmeal, or something for breakfast, except on the sabbath.  This day I didn't feel like making anything.  Anyway, later in the day I was doing clothing bin inventory and putting away clothes and taking out clothes, and I had a couple small buckwheat pillows in a bin.  I gave them to the boys, and I told Jaden they had buckwheat in them.  He wanted to know what that was, and I told him he'd had buckwheat cereal that morning.  I then showed the boys pictures of buckwheat and the plant.  They even got to see the real deal, because Trusten got into one of the homeschool drawers, stole Jaden's scissors and made a cut into one of the pillows!  I made him sit beside me while I stitched it closed. 

Jaden did three writing pages, two math pages, and of course we did our proverb of the day and a bible story.

Tuesday, February 23: Jade did three writing pages, two math pages, and a reading lesson.  We did our proverb and bible story.  Jade did his school work on the front porch. The boys and I walked up our hill and to the deer blind.   Jaden then practiced his archery skills with his bow.  I got some puzzles down for Trusten.  Trust loves to pretend to cook.  Of course, both the boys do this outside.  Trusten does this everywhere, though, including bath time.

Wednesday, February 24:  Jade did a reading lesson, three writing pages, two math pages, a vertebrates quiz, and we read our proverb and bible story.  I elaborated on covering up sins versus forsaking them and receiving mercy.  We walked up the hill.  Nathan and I started on our dvd lectures on relativity and the quantum revolution.

Thursday, February 25:   Jade did a reading lesson, three writing pages, and two math pages.  Proverb and bible story.  Jaden and Trusten spent a lot of time outside playing in the sandbox while I read outside.  Jaden made a house with a steep embankment near it, where he had a horse.  Trusten pretended a stick was a person. 

Friday, February 26:  Jaden did Explode the Code.  We then cleaned the house, and I cooked, to prepare for the sabbath.

Saturday, February 27:  Jaden went somewhere with Nathan and stayed gone a long time, so we didn't get to do our sabbath school lesson.  I took Trust outside to play in the sandbox while I read the bible.