Have you been to Homeschool Share lately? If you have not visited the site lately or do not know what Homeschool Share is, you are missing out!
About Homeschool Share: Homeschool Share (HSS) is a on-line cooperative effort of several homeschooling moms to provide free but quality literature-based unit studies and resources.
There are tons of unit studies available at HHS for all age levels and the best part is they are FREE! Yes free! HHS is one of my favorite resources!
There are some neat changes coming to HHS. In the near future there will be a HHS blog! Starting in October (tomorrow!) There will be a monthly calendar available to download. You can go here to download your copy! There are lots of fun and exciting things to do in the month of October!
Saturday between raindrops (you do know that NJ is now known as the state of perpetual rain, don’t you?) we went apple picking! Kaden has been waiting for this day since summer! That boy loves to pick things! He is either going to be chef or a farmer!
We went to one of our favorite markets. Mood’s Farm Market. I am telling you if you haven’t been there you need to pay them a visit! Soon!
Saturday was the last apple hayride of the season! Wow! The month of September just flew by! I was glad we were able to go!
We picked Red and Golden Delicious!
The Apples were so abundant!
Holding their apples on the ride back to the market
Kaden relaxing on the ride back!
My little farmer!
Our hayride purchase included not only a 3 lb bag of apples for each person but a mini bottle of apple cider and an apple cider donut! YUM!
Afterward we headed into the market to see what was available! Lots and lots of apples!
and pumpkins!
We came home with 12 pounds of apples for eating and making applesauce. We also came home with a dozen cider donuts!
If you are in the area you need to stop in for a donut and some cider. You can’t miss Mood’s, just look for the orange windmill!
I’m back! Did you miss me? I have not posted all this week! We were away all last week. We spent 5 days at the Jersey shore in Wildwood vacationing and attending the NJ state firemen’s convention. We had a very nice time even though we had rain for most of the day on Saturday. We spent a lot of time walking the boardwalk and a bit of time on the beach and at the pool.
While we were there we also visited our favorite used book store! We did not leave without purchasing couple of huge bags of books! The owner of the book store asked if we were homeschoolers and I said we were and asked him how he knew. He said he could tell by our book choices!
I had every intention of blogging this week but the week has gone by so quickly and here it is Friday. Today we are headed to our local children’s museum (shhh the boys don’t know we’re going) and then to lunch and finally to Hmart our favorite Korean grocery store! It is a good day for indoor activities since it is raining. Again. Justin has been wanting some seaweed and has been complaining we are out of it. I also need to make some more Korean meals since he has been requesting them! I’m getting hungry just thinking about them!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon in the ER with my dad he cut the tip of his pinkie off and the boys and I happened to be there when it happened. He is going to be ok and needs to follow up with a neurosurgeon in a couple of days but that added a bit of excitement to our day!
I will be back to blogging more regularly this coming week. We are officially back to school on Monday. We never really stop learning around here but have been doing a bit of light school until now. We are anxious to get back to our studies and into a routine!
We have added two new pets to our family. Two hermit crabs, Wildwood and Bob. Bob is currently not doing too well. Luke is fascinated with them.
Luke and I have bonded so well. He is such a sweet kitty. I love him! He loves to be petted and has such a loud purr. He is 6 months old now and huge. He is still stealing though!
Before I go I will leave you with a Kaden funny. The other morning I got up and Kaden wanders out to the kitchen where I am sitting and says good morning poptart! You are my sweet poptart! This child is soooo funny! I don’t know where he comes up with these things but he always leaves me laughing!
Until next time! I hope you have a fantastic day and a great weekend!
I have had this book sitting in my to read pile for a long time! Too long! I looking through my pile the other day and decided to give it a go.
From the Publisher
Do I have a child? Julia DeSmit knew she would face the question eventually, but she didn’t expect it now. At twenty-four, she is finally content with the way her life has unfolded. A single mother to her son and young brother, she works at the local grocery store while chipping away at a two-year degree. All her free time is spent with her unorthodox family—her boys, her grandmother, and her boyfriend of five years. It’s not perfect, but Julia is happier than ever. So when she receives the cryptic e-mail from her son’s father, Julia’s world is turned upside down. She hasn’t heard from Parker since he left her in a college parking lot nearly six years ago. But one look at her son—the spitting image of his father—is enough to convince her that, for better or worse, Parker is a part of their story. Faced with this new reality and an unexpected tragedy, Julia begins a tightrope walk between what was and what is, what she hopes for and what will be.
My Thoughts
I don’t know why I waited so long to read this book. It was such a good story! Beneath The Night Tree is actually the third book in this series. I have not had the pleasure of reading the first two books. This book is a stand alone book though and gave quite a bit of back story to make it easy to follow.
Julia is a single mom raising her 5 year old son, her 10 year old half brother and living with her grandma. Julia has been seriously dating Michael for sometime now and hoping Michael proposes marriage soon! She loves Michael and wants to start a life with him.
Then one day she receives an email from her son’s father, Parker. Completely out of the blue. Julia’s world is changed in ways she does not expect. Her faith is tested. Is marriage to Michael really want she wants? Has Parker changed?
This is a very touching story. Julia must make some hard choices and really look at her life, her faith and what matters the most!
disclosure: I received this book as a Tyndale blogger in exchange for my honest opinion. No other compensation was received. All opinions in this post and on this blog are my own.
The last couple of weeks Aunt Shirley has been here visiting NJ from Florida! We were able to visit with her a couple of times while she was here!
Kiara (our niece) Aunt Shirley, Kaden and Justin
Our time together went by way too fast! We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up! The boys were very excited to see her (so were Larry and I!) and were so happy we got to spend time with her!
We hope to someday in the near future make the trek to Florida to visit her!
The other day we had a little fun with our shadows! It occurred to me that it would be fun to take pictures!
When I see my shadow it always reminds of the story of Peter Pan! Have you ever read Peter Pan? There is a part in the story where Peter wrestles with his shadow. We read it last year and the boys really enjoyed it!
Anyway here are our shadow pictures!
Justin
Mom & Justin
Dad
Kaden
Kaden & Mom
This was so much fun! I have a few ideas for some future shadow pictures!
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Karri | Marketing Assistant | Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sara Horn is a wife and mom, a writer, author and founder of Wives of Faith, a military wives ministry. She’s a sought-after media guest and writer of numerous articles and books including GOD Strong and the Gold Medallion nominee A Greater Freedom cowritten with bestselling author Oliver North. She’s devoted to her husband who serves in the U.S. Navy Reserves, crazy about her son, and passionate about her ministry to women. Please visit
Sara Horn, a busy writer and mother, deemed the Proverbs 31 wife to be an impossible ideal. Or is it? This surprising, heartfelt personal account of Sara’s one-year experiment reveals how even a domestically-challenged woman can embrace God’s purpose and encourages readers to pursue God’s amazing plan for their lives.
Product Details:
List Price: $12.99 Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (September 1, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0736939415 ISBN-13: 978-0736939416
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Oh Be Careful What You Preach
Yesterday was Sunday.
Our pastor started a new sermon series on the family. We missed the first sermon last week, but we were there yesterday for the second. The first week was “Dads Matter More than Anything.” This week’s was titled “Moms Matter Just as Much.”
Good to know.
As the pastor got started, I pulled out my Bible and my notebook, all ready to take notes. But then he said something that made my stomach churn. My hands instinctively made fists. My eyebrows furrowed.
The biblical passage he was speaking from was Proverbs 31.
Of course, I muttered to myself, turning to the passage I revere and fear at the same time.
The Proverbs 31 wife and I don’t get along very well. I don’t appreciate how bad she makes me look. I don’t like the guilt I feel when I see her. If she is the standard all Christian wives should work toward, then I’m in serious trouble. If she’s the equivalent of Miss America, then I’m a whole lot more like Lucille Ball. I have a lot of explaining to do for why I’m not more like Miss America. And I’m not really sure I can.
The pastor started making his points:
An Excellent Wife Is a Rare Find (v. 10). An Excellent Wife Can Be Trusted in Every Way (vv. 11-12). An Excellent Wife Is Concerned for Others (v. 20). An Excellent Wife Is Strong and Stable (v. 25). And so it went.
I stopped taking notes at “An Excellent Wife Is a Tireless Worker.”
My husband glanced over at me when he heard my notebook snap shut. He knows that’s never a good sign. Neither was the steam coming out of my ears and the laser stare in my eyes. He started looking for the exits, just in case.
I don’t like it when men tell women what will make us excellent. I don’t consider myself a feminist at all, but I just don’t think men can possibly understand the woman any more than we can understand the man. That’s why Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus was written. Eve may have been formed from the man’s rib, but she definitely had a mind of her own. And maybe, just maybe, if Adam had taken more time to understand her, the whole scene with the apple and the garden might have gone a lot better. Just sayin’.
Part of my struggle with the treatment of the fairer sex comes from the attitudes I’ve witnessed through the church denomination I’ve partly grown up and worked in. I agree with a lot that my denomination stands for. But when it comes to the treatment and attitudes about the service of women in the church, it often leaves me with the same feeling I get when I hear fingernails scratch down a chalkboard.
What I don’t understand is why there’s this 21-verse list of what the perfect wife is and not at least a Top 10 of what makes a perfect husband. I raised this question once on Facebook, and a guy I know who is deep into seminary classes pointed out that Ephesians 5:25-28 is an all-encompassing directive for husbands. See what you think:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Really? That’s great. Husbands are told to love their wives as they love themselves, and wives are given a laundry list of ways to show our love (just in case we might get confused and think the husband, as part of his love, might also “get up while it’s still dark and provide food” for his family). Husbands—you show love. Wives—get to cookin’.
Back to my stewing. I sat, listening to our pastor as he continued to speak on all the things that make an excellent wife, from the example of the Proverbs 31 superwoman:
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (Proverbs 31:10-31)
I kept reading this passage, over and over, the successes of this great wifely role model taunting me more than encouraging me, my very being wilting and shrinking as I sat there, no comparison to this giant of an example. I was waiting, for what, I didn’t know. Waiting for something—a bright glimmer, anything that my pastor might say to give all the wives sitting in the audience, or maybe just me, some hope. He didn’t let me down. His last point was the same point I have made in the past: The Proverbs 31 woman’s most important task is to fear the Lord (v. 30).
My breathing relaxed a little. This, after all, was something I understood. Of course, I want to be a better wife and homemaker. I want to be a better woman in general. But my greatest desire is to be closer to God as his daughter. I want that close, incredible relationship with him.
I haven’t always done well with this. If God and I were going for a walk in the park, I’d be the kid running out in front, barely able to wait for him. Patience is not my strength. Waiting on God is hard.
I began to prayerfully think over the pounding of my heart, the churning of my stomach, and my fingers digging into my thighs. OK, so why am I so mad? Am I mad at the Proverbs 31 wife? Am I upset with the pastor? Am I angry at myself? I mean, I argued with myself. Wouldn’t it be great if you COULD be like the Proverbs 31 wife—if you were praying and reading the Bible and really staying in touch with God every day? Couldn’t God help you do it all?
He could if he wanted to, I’m sure. I’m just not convinced he wants me to be able to do it all. I’m not even convinced that the Proverbs 31 wife was real. I mean, I grew up being told King Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, and he wasn’t exactly a role model when it came to women. He liked having as many wives as he could, and in fact it was his infatuation for the opposite sex that got him into trouble toward the end of his reign.
What if this woman we’ve all idolized and tried to emulate is just a concoction from King Solomon and a group of his royal cronies who sat around one day, drinking beers, and decided to have an impromptu brainstorming session on what makes the perfect wife? And some servant of his wrote all of these ideas down on a big Post-it note and it eventually made its way into Proverbs with all the other wise things Solomon wrote? In fact, my Bible notes that verses 10-31, the Proverbs 31-wife passage, is actually an acrostic. Each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See? I told you it was a drinking game.1
Or if this woman really did exist, then maybe she was like the Martha Stewart of her day, and I’m sure the majority of the women living in that time didn’t like her and didn’t appreciate her. And while they watched her television shows and read her magazine, Housekeeping in the Holy Land, behind closed doors, they lived in fear and guilt that one day their husbands would come home and say, “Why can’t you be more like the Proverbs 31 wife?”
But then I got a crazy idea. Why can’t I be more like the Proverbs 31 wife? What would it be like to try and actually follow the example of this woman so many hold in such esteem?
I definitely had some things to think about.
Review coming soon!
Disclosure: I received this book as a member of First Wild Card in exchange for posting about this book. No other compensation was received.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001. A day that forever changed all of our lives. Do you remember where you were? It is one of those questions that when asked we automatically remember where we were and what we were doing.
Larry and I were on cloud nine! On Saturday, September 8, we received the best news EVER. We were were told we were the parents of a sweet little baby boy from Korea. Justin.
On the morning of September 11th we were busy preparing for a visit from Debbie our social worker. She was bringing Justin’s paperwork and we were going to go over everything together so we could start the process of bringing our sweet boy home.
I remember I was doing laundry and Larry was making the bed. Larry had the radio on and a news reporter came on and reported a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. Larry called out and told me about it and I told him to turn on the TV. I honestly thought that it was an accidental plane crash and I wondered aloud to Larry why the pilot could not see those huge buildings.
I thought perhaps that it was a small plane that hit that first tower! When Larry told me it was a Boeing jet, I just could not imagine. I have never seen the World Trade Center in person and could not imagine how vast those buildings must have been. I kept saying to Larry that the entire plane went into the building! I just could not fathom it!
Within minutes another plane hit the second tower. After that second plane crash we knew something terrible was happening. Then the plane crash at the Pentagon in Washington DC and finally the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Deb our social worker called us on the way here and asked us if we knew what had happened.
When she arrived, we tried to go over Justin’s paperwork but we could not stop watching the TV as the events of that horrible day unfolded before our eyes! We watched those huge, huge buildings fall to the ground with all of those people inside. Trapped.
Nearly 3,000 people. Gone. Fathers, mothers, aunt, uncles, sons daughters, grandparents, nieces and nephews. Gone.
Such a sad day. I think of those first responders. The firefighters and police officers. The men and women who went in to those buildings with no thought of their own safety. Their only thought, to rescue the injured only to meet their own deaths. So sad.
One thing I will forever remember was the silence in the sky in the days after 9/11. We live right on the flight path of the Philadelphia International Airport and we always have planes going over. There was nothing but silence. It was an eerie feeling.
I remember watching the TV and hearing the personal alarms going off repeatedly from all of the fallen first responders. Larry is a volunteer fire fighter and I have heard his alarm. I cannot imagine hearing those alarms going off over and over again knowing there were so many fallen first responders but no survivors.
I personally did not know anyone who perished that day. I cannot imagine the pain of those who lost their loved ones. I cannot imagine the loss of all those children suffered knowing their parent would not be coming home ever again. I pray for these families that they find peace and comfort in knowing that we have not forgotten. It is important that we never forget. There were many hero's that day both civilian and first responders.
Let us never forget their sacrifice. Let us never forget those lost on 9/11/2001.
In you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Psalm 25:2-3
For all the Freddie Mercury fans out there! Today marks Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday! If you’ve been a reader for a while you know we are huge Freddie Mercury Queen fans!
In honor of Freddie’s birthday Google has put together a cool doodle video.
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is just a little over a week away. In our house 9/11 has always been a event that is never far from our minds. Justin has always been very interested in NYC and has always had a love of the World Trade Center even though they were struck down the year he was born. For some reason he has always held a love and fascination for them. He has watched many documentaries and coverage of that horrible and sad day. We have talked about it and wondered why there are bad people in the world that would do such a thing.
We have never done a unit study about 9/11 and this year Justin asked if we would could. I started gathering a few resources.
Here are the books we will be using for our mini unit:
The Little Chapel That Stood~This a story about 9/11 and The chapel (St. Paul’s) that stood 100 yards from the Twin Towers and how it remained standing after the towers fell. This is a gently told story of the events of 9/11.
Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey~This story starts in 1931 and follows the adventures of a fireboat as the city of New York grows. As the city gets larger and the piers are shutting down, there is less of a need for a fireboat and the John J. Harvey is soon retired. Then on 9/11 when the twin towers are stuck down the fireboat comes out of retirement to help.
Homeschool Share also has a free unit for Fireboat.
New York’s Bravest~This story does not center on 9/11. It takes place in the 1840’s about a legendary firefighter by the name of Mose Humphrey’s. This is story of courage and bravery and is dedicated to the 343 New York City Fire fighters who lost their lives on 9/11.
Other resources:
Candace at His Mercy is New has some great resources we will be using.
Heart of the Matter Online has a unit study 9/11- Ten Years Later with lots of links and information available.
A couple of weeks ago I came across this wonderful bread stick recipe (via pinterest) for Bread Machine Bread Sticks.
As you can see by the photo above they were very good. This is all that is left of a huge cookie sheet of them! This recipe will go into our favorite recipes!
I no longer own a bread machine. Instead I used my trusty KitchenAid Mixer to mix up the dough. I let it rest right in the mixer with a clean kitchen towel tossed over it. Every so often I would turn the mixer on and let it knead the dough for a couple of minutes. I did this two or three times before I rolled the dough out on a cookie sheet and cut them into 24 pieces!
