Lessons About Fire, Metals, and Snow; and Will's Lego Spaceships

It SNOWED, and we got about nine inches or so of accumulation, so we all had a lot of fun.  I posted about that on my last post, but after the snow was melting off, William asked me about snow.  He asked how it was made.  I decided to read straight from the encyclopedia to him.  He learned then that it is water that is in a vapor form that freezes into minute crystals and falls to the ground.  I then asked him whether he'd like to make paper snowflakes.  We watched a Youtube video instructing us how to make them, and he went excitedly making his own after I demonstrated with the first one.  They didn't turn out exactly the right way, but I think he did a great job.

 He then wanted me to remind him how to cut hearts, so I did, and I showed Trusten how to cut out a heart.  My parents' marriage anniversary had just passed, too, and they were about to visit us, so William gave his snowflakes and hearts as gifts. 

Before the snow melted away, we made a snow volcano. William made a center, I poured baking soda in, and then I fetched the camera and the baby, and William had mixed some paint in some vinegar and poured it in for fun:

He then delighted in shooting arrows through the "volcano" with his bow:

One day on the way to the grocery store one day, William asked about metal in the ground, what it does if you bury it for awhile and then dig it back up later, whether more metal in the ground would "build up on it."  So, I explained briefly that most metals would break down in the earth and the minerals would disperse through the soil.  I talked about finding iron nails and other iron pieces over the years, while digging, and how rusted the pieces would be, as they oxidized, breaking down and returning to the earth in dispersed pieces.  He said that he recently dug up some metal that he'd buried about a year ago and said that it looked as if it had pieces of other things building up on it.  I told him that was another possibility.

The next day Will talked about metals weakening in the fire.  He'd put some metal piece (can't remember what now) in the wood stove, and he said after the fire was out, it was still in there, and he got it out, and it snapped easily.  I told him metals could melt, and yes, they could also weaken and become brittle.  I explained how different types of metals had different melting points, etc.

The following day a dying fire with still quite a bit of burning embers was in the wood stove, and William took a lighter and was trying to light up something else in there separately.  He discovered twinkling sparks that were quite dazzling.  He called me over to see, and he asked why that was happening.  I told him it had something to do with the electric charge, but I wasn't sure how to explain beyond that.  Nathan later told him that...well, I can't exactly remember--ha ha--and poor Jaden William couldn't exactly, either, because the next day I told him I would film him making sparks, and in the video he forgot how to describe it.  There was hardly anything in the way of embers this time, though, so the video is not nearly as spectacular as the show we saw the previous day:

One of William's favorite things is to build with blocks.  The sixth day of the week is video game day where he gets to play video games (with breaks) if he's exhibited good behavior during the week (which he usually does).  One of his favorites is Lego Star Wars, so he likes to build Lego spaceships.  I told him I'd like to take a picture of some of his creations (the ones he had currently laid out on his dresser top).  I told him I'd post them to this blog, and he insisted that he tell me the name of each.  Some of them bear names I know he got from the Star Wars game, but some of the things he made up himself:

From l to r, front: 1. News-telling spaceship  2. News-telling spaceship guard 3. Tie fighter  4. Rescue spaceship 5. Half bull-dozer, half crane  6. Naboo Star Fighter.  From l to right, back row:  7. "Just a trailer"  8. battleship  ("white and yellow things are telescopes, blue ones are cannons")  9. Big-engined spaceship  10. race car (he explained his turbo engine setup to me...he's so cool).

Side 

11. "20,000 MPH Spaceship" (He explained in detail about how there are bombs stored, 20 seconds after they are shot, others have formed and then take their place, and then he explained how it has six places that are in control of speed, which is why the ship is so fast.  Doesn't look like there could be room for all that stuff, I know, but he showed me how he had it all figured out.  

If anyone wonders the same thing I have, namely that his colors aren't always symmetrical, he has explained to me that he runs out of certain blocks, so he has to use other colors.  It's because he will keep built ships, cars, etc. on his dresser for the longest.  He doesn't want to disassemble them.  What do you all think about the guys wielding their swords?  Pretty cool, huh?  Shhhh...no one tell him, but I'm planning to get him the Star Wars movies for his eighth birthday.  I haven't seen the recently-made ones, the 1-3.  I've only seen the old ones, 4-6.

  Some other things of which I've taken pictures are as follows:

The binder I made for Jaden William in which to file his history stuff

His new sock monkey "Sara" that he bought and a journal entry in which he wrote about it.

Will update again in a few days, so until next time....

Mystery of History, Snow, the Eye, and Pasting

Some highlights since my last post....

Jaden William:  Will loves talking about the periodic table of elements.  Nearly every time we sit down at the table to eat, he looks at the big poster on the dining room wall and quizzes us and asks us questions about various elements.  He has many elements memorized. 

He has been cheering Trusten on and encouraging him whenever Trusten is doing book work or talking about numbers and counting things. 

We started the Mystery of History Volume 1.  So far we've done three lessons.  He's done two projects:  following instructions by himself to make a book about creation, including the six days of work and the holy seventh day of rest, complete with writing and pictures AND forming his own animal out of clay and giving it a name.  He has also started making out memory cards on 3x5 index cards that will be used to help him memorize the high points of his history lessons and for games.  Trusten sits with us on the couch and listens to the lessons or plays quietly in the floor with Olivia.

He has practiced more on his addition with carrying.  He's been working on finishing his last spelling lessons and language arts pages in his Complete Curriculum Grade 2, and he's been regularly writing and drawing in his journal. 

He has read something like eleven Cul-de-Sac Kids books now and three or four of his graphic history novels.  Concerning the latter, he said he's "taking a break from them."  He says they are a little difficult for him, but he does like them.  I told him that it was okay if he wanted to wait and read them when he got a little older.

Trusten:  I introduced him to pasting.  I cut out pictures for him, and he made a collage on a piece of yellow paper that he cut out by himself.  He just about cut up the entire yellow sheet.  I got up to get something, and he went to cutting more on it!  When I got back, I had to explain to him that he was only to cut out the yellow portion of the page so he could paste pictures on it, not cut the page to pieces!  He also learned how to make a paper chain.  I cut out the pieces for him, and then I showed him how to do it, then I helped him do a few links, and then the last three links he did all by himself!  He did a great job.  He's also shown that he is understanding numbers pretty well up to ten. 

Both boys:  Bible reading every day.  William likes to read our daily Proverbs chapter.  He thinks it's fun, and I think it's GREAT!  I've also been randomly selecting sections (usually about a chapter, sometimes less, depending on the amount of information) from the gospel accounts so that the boys can learn directly from our Lord Salvation himself how to be like him.  On last Sabbath, we went over Choosing Obedience lesson 3. 

We started learning about the human body.  We  use books we have, and we have a flannel board with felt pieces.  Jaden William wanted to start on the eye, so we learned one day recently about the eye and the various parts and how it works, as well as a few cool facts about the eye. 

We've taken a few hikes on the sunny days.  The boys have been having fun playing in the snow we've had this week.   The last two days have been sunny, so even though we've had cold air temps, the sun has been nice, and we've taken the last couple of walks w/o Liv, during her nap time in her play pen. 

The boys love to play on the Playstation 3.  They play Lego Star Wars and Wall-E.  Trusten doesn't really know how to play very well, but he likes to watch William or play with him, anyway.  They also never get tired of playing with their various blocks.  Their overall favorite blocks are the Lincoln logs, but lately they've played a lot with the wooden baby alphabet blocks, and Will has been enjoying creating various structures that look like the Roman Colosseum.   He actually constructed the first model and called me to look at it and told me it was like the Colosseum.  :-)

Well, that's it for the highlights.  Here are some pictures:

Top, from r to l: Trusten making a collage, children sitting to listen to me read and talk, William working on his Creation book.  Bottom, from r to l:  William and his animal named "Three-Legged Big-Head," one of Will's Colosseum models, and Trusten with his paper-chain

Top, r to l:  Boys playing in snow, boys headed to top of hill for our hike.  Bottom, r to l: Jaden William's name written in the snow with his PEACE "sword," and William with an icicle

Until next time...

Crochet, Eagles, Elements, and Strange Animals

Jaden William has continually written in his journal, and I always enjoy reading his entries and looking at the pictures.  His spelling, though improving, is still very lacking, though his reading ability is very good.  He has taken a break from reading the graphic historical novels, but he still reads his Cul-de-Sac Kids books whenever we travel.  He keeps one of those books in the seat pocket in the truck.

He's nearly done with his Grade 2 spelling lessons and language arts, and he finished math nearly a month ago.  He was done with reading a long time ago.  I've been printing him off math worksheets for more practice on his single digit and double digit addition.  He does not yet have single-digit addition down well enough where he can immediately give the answer.  I'll be using the flash cards more, too.

William loves our periodic table.  It hangs in our dining room, and when we sit at the table to eat, he talks about it often, asking what certain elements are and what their importance is.  It also takes us to conversations such as radiation, iron and hemoglobin, etc.

Will and I started our first crochet lesson.  We learned to make a chain stitch.  

We saw a large number of bald eagles and took pictures.  I let the boys watch Youtube videos about bald eagles and birds of prey. 

We're about to start studying the human body more closely, and we'll also soon be starting Volume 1 of The Mystery of History.

Trusten has been practicing his coloring, cutting, and folding skills.  He loves to learn through movies, of course, so I try to have him watch things that are educational.

I still read a chapter of Proverbs each day to the boys, and then I just spend some time talking to them about wise choices and giving them real life examples, including things they do.  I talk about what Salvation (Jesus/Yeshua) would have done, and I sometimes read from one of the gospel accounts or read from one of our bible story books.  Sometimes I read from the little book about praying.  On Sabbaths, I've restarted the book Choosing Obedience. 


Youtube videos the boys have watched include topics like:  bald eagles, whale sharks, and Tasmanian devils.

Some pictures of some of the things we've done and learned about:

Bald Eagles

A couple of Will's journal entries and our crochet chain stitches

Trusten practicing his cutting

 Until next time....

Chemicals, Animals Galore, Pizarro and the Incas, and Speech Therapy

Let's see...


I don't remember a lot of the things we've talked about since the last time I updated, and I really have not keep many notes in my daily planner over the last few weeks.  We've had some nice conversations, though, and we've read a lot of interesting things together.  Some highlights:

When William and I were preparing for breakfast one morning, I noticed I was out of muffin liners.  I would have to grease the pan and put the batter straight in.  Well, I didn't have my better of two pans.  There were rust spots in some of the cups, so I talked about it to William.  I explained what rust was, where it occurred, how it happens.  I started off asking him questions to get him to think.  Then I would explain.  Then I talked about elements and compounds.  I took a pen and jotted down different chemical compounds on a piece of paper on the kitchen counter.  I wrote down the chemical symbols for water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sodium chloride.  I talked about the differences between CO2 and CO and reviewed what he knew about the former and explained in what applications the latter was found and how dangerous it was, etc.  We talked about sea salt and refined salt, where salt is refined to sodium chloride.  I told him I'd get him a periodic table poster so that he could learn more about the elements and their symbols.  It's on our dining room wall, and we all like it.


We've been reading about sea otters, rattlesnakes, red squirrels and gray squirrels and how the latter are overtaking the former's habitat in Europe, how cell phones require mining for coltan which is toxic, and the mining poses many problems to gorillas in Africa for many reasons, and "dancing" animals such as "leaping lemurs" (sifakas) and sand-diving lizards.  We've read all this in the November Ranger Rick magazine.   We read all about owls and other things in Your Big Backyard.  Then in the Dec/Jan issues, we read about different kinds of bears, chameleons, penguin and how scientists study them (specifically Adelie penguins)--Will loves penguins, how different animals sleep, the conventionally-farmed sugar cane pesticide and synthetic fertilizer threat to the Everglades, and more.

I also have my December/January Birds & Blooms magazine, and William and I look forward to learning how to hand feed winter birds.  I really wonder whether we'll be able to master it!  We've decided to read and then try.  I'm sure it takes a lot of patience and a lot of time.  

Will has finished three or more Cul-de-Sac Kids books since my last update.  He tells me about them when he's finished.  He also finished reading about Pizarro and the Incas.  After he finished, he said, "Momma, I guess that El Dorado movie is true." That was an animated movie that someone (I think my sister) bought one of the boys.  Trusten wanted to watch that movie so many times!  Will got sick of it.  I think it's at my parents' now.  Anyway, briefly it's about two guys who get themselves in a lot of trouble, because they cause mischief stealing and such.  Well, they go from Spain to South America to the land of "El Dorado" where they allow the tribesmen there to believe they are gods so that they can get tip-top treatment and gifts of gold and other treasure.  It then shows what are assumed to be Spanish conquistadors arriving to conquer and seek gold.  So, I explained to him that the movie, of course, was untrue (and we had already talked before about the moral lessons in the movie), but it had parts based on true history.  At least I know that he's really reading the books and getting something out of them.  I think he has started on the book about Leonardo da Vinci.  He usually keeps a Cul-de-Sac Kids book out in the truck to read on the days we go to town.  He keeps one of the other books on his dresser in his bedroom.  I think he's about to read a book he has about Abraham Lincoln, because he asked about him, and I found a book that we have here about him.  I'd read it to him a couple years ago.

Trusten watches Meet the Letters or Meet the Numbers nearly every morning.  He's taking breaks as of late, though, because he's getting burned out.  I know they're helping, though, because now he shows me the magnetic letters on our refrigerator and names most of them that he picks up correctly.  Good videos for young children who like watching videos to learn the alphabet, numbers, and other things.  Preschool Prep has other videos, but Trusten has known his colors for a very long time, and he knows his shapes.  As for sight words, I may consider getting those videos in the future.  I've loved doing flashcards with William for such things, especially since we can sit and snuggle in the recliner together.  Trusten likes to sit with me, too, but not for long.  About the only way to get him to sit still for long is to let him watch a movie. 

Will is so excited about winter coming.  He was happy to see a little ice out there today from water freezing, so he asked whether he could go bust it.  :-) 

I want to get started back on Prepare & Pray, just going through and picking things that need to be taught to the boys for survival.  I'll do it how I decide. 

After William is finished with the Complete Curriculum Grade 2, I don't think I'm getting any of the others.  I have enough things around here to teach spelling skills, language arts, etc.  I have this great book called Basic Knowledge that I've had since a child.  My mother bought it for me.  Reading can be practiced with the Bible and history and science books, encyclopedias, magazines, etc. 

I believe children should have all their basic education finished by the age of 12 or 13...certainly it doesn't take until 18!  For crying out loud, it's clear to me that God created the human being to be going through adult training (boys with fathers and girls with mothers) during the adolescent years, and this has been my plan all along.  So, I'll continue on with it.  I just need a math curriculum.  I don't think I can teach math well enough without it.

I have been going through a speech curriculum, as Will needs help with speech (and Trusten with certain things such as wrong plurals, wrong pronouns, wrong past tenses).  It's called Straight Talk, and I've not finished reading through it all.  Of course, I skipped a great deal in the middle, as it did not apply.  It sounds as if I'm already doing mostly the right things to help Trusten, which is to correct what he says by repeating all of what he said back to him in a positive way, except with corrections.  I guess it just takes time.  As for William, he still stutters and has pronunciation problems, and so I'm working on that.  One of the things I've been in the process of doing for awhile is to slow down my own speech, because I think that has contributed to the problem.  I suppose at some point it has been ingrained within me to hurry up saying what I have to say, otherwise someone is not going to listen to me.  I've spent too much time in the past around impatient people who want me to listen to what they have to say but don't care what I have to say.  So, I've been slowing it down, at least around my sweet babies.  When I'm around people who don't care about anything I have to say, I've been learning to just not talk as much.  Why waste my breath or time?

When William goes fast, I remind him to SLOW down, that I'm listening to him and that it actually doesn't take as long to talk about what he wants to talk about if he slowly does it and gets everything out the right way the first time.  I still have a ways to go for my own self.  I had speech therapy for two years as a child, but my speech is still not the greatest.  I don't have the same problems as either of the boys (and they each have different problems, as I already explained), but I do have to speak very slowly in order to pronounce everything well and to get my thoughts out intelligibly.  I have so much in my mind, as I'm a deep thinker and a studious individual, that my mind works more quickly than I can talk, and I'm detail-oriented, too.  William takes after me in these things, so I am very sympathetic toward him.  I've decided, too, that I do not care if I am talking REALLY slowly to someone.  I believe that's simply the way I need to do it.  I need to organize my thoughts slowly as I go.

Will tried some sewing on his own, though I told him to wait on me.  I plan to do some together before the winter is over and to start learning to crochet.  The following are some pictures I've taken over the past month and a half.

Will sewing some paints

Will on a ladder.  He'd watched Nathan clean out the gutters

 One of Nathan's clients gave him an extra gingerbread kit they had, and so William put it all together.  I originally started helping in the beginning, but all we did together was put the house frame up.  After that, William did it all, with of course his letting Trusten help put some of the easy stuff on.  I think Will did a great job!  Inedible ingredients, in my opinion, but cute.

William's gingerbread house

Side view

Back view

We got the flannel board and some felt pieces of the human body out several days ago.  We'll continue doing this so that the boys can learn more about our bodies and the way that they work.

The boys and I watched a movie called Legend of the Guardians:  Owls of Gahoole.  That was a good animated movie, and it had a good moral lesson.  Another good movie we all watched was My Name is Khan, though it made me cry a lot.

Well, this sums it up until next time.

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.