My dd's sermonette at church

I thought I'd post a copy of the sermonette my dd gave as part of the youth program at church last week.

"Agnes was born in Albania in 1910. At the age of 12 she knew God wanted her to help the poor. At age 17 she went to India to teach school. At age 35 she took medical training and began work in Calcutta. In 1979 she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Agnes, now known as Mother Teresa, gave up home and possessions, but not her heart in order to do what God wanted her to do. She gave food and shelter to dying people who had been rejected. She did it lovingly and cheerfully.

This reminds me of Jesus.

Jesus never rejected anyone or hurt anyone. Here are some things Jesus did do: He did a lot of miracles.
He healed the blind, He healed cripples and lepers, and He raised the dead.
He taught by reading Scripture and telling what it meant. And He prayed.
He loved us and died for us. This was unselfish.

Michael Weiskoph is a TIME news reporter. He was in a Humvee in Irag when a grenade landed in the truck. He instantly picked it up, and in the process it blew up and he lost his right hand. Even though he lost his hand, he saved 4 lives.

This reminds me of the text John 15:13—“Greater love has no one than, this that he lay down his life for his friends”.

Does this remind you of how Jesus showed us that God loves us?

Romans 8:39--Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 12:10--Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 13:9--The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving our neighbor means treating everyone like you would like to be treated.

Love is to be like a child saying “I love you” to someone special
--to surprise someone by doing something they’re not expecting
--getting busy with what you are supposed to do
--obeying God or others you trust
--voluntarily babysitting your brother
--when you make a new friend
--being unselfish: thinking of others first
--and accepting anyone who God loves

1 Corinthians chapter 13 describes love. Verse 11 tells me that while I am a child, I will talk like a child, I will think like a child, I will reason like a child. I am learning as I grow. When I am grown I will put childish ways behind me."

Click to fund mammograms

Please visit The Breast Cancer Site. A minute of your time, and a daily click, will help fund mammograms for women in need...women who most likely otherwise wouldn't have their disease detected early. Bookmark it so you can come back...every click helps!

Keeping our environment healthy

The birds and other animals that are affected by oil in the wild are rarely affected alone. They live and travel in flocks, kind of like an extended family. There are many ways you can make a difference. One of those ways is by joining my flock to aid wildlife.

Start by choosing a virtual animal and placing it in an environment. You can even choose if it’s standing, swimming or flying. Add a message for your friends to read that will go along with your animal. Then send it on to your friends and invite them to join. Each person who joins your flock is one more person making a difference for these animals.

Moment of Pride

Some days it's good to be the mom of well-behaved children. I had a short appointment at work today, to enroll for health insurance benefits under the new program they've started. I dropped dd9 off at choir, but had ds4 with me. He was sooooo good and quiet during the appointment, just snuggled on my lap. The benefit enroller kept asking him questions and talking to him, and of course if you know ds4, he doesn't need any prompting when it comes to conversation, LOL. He told the guy all about Poppa's porch and office, and a host of other things, very cute and sweet. Ds got thirsty so I told him to go out in the crew room and ask someone to get him a drink, and while he was gone, the enroller asked me if ds is always that good! It's a good thing the appointment was short, or I think the guy would have tried to sneak him in his computer case and take him home to Atlanta, LOL.

Ranch Rice & Bean Salad

Ranch Rice & Bean Salad

I invented this recipe Friday for a church potluck

1 cup rice
1 can black beans
1 tomato, diced
1 zucchini (or cucumber if you prefer), diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 pkg ranch dip mix
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar

Cook rice in your rice cooker or on the stove. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Whent he rice is cooked, place the rice and beans in a mixing bowl. Add the chopped vegies and stir to combine. Place the packet of ranch dip mix in a 1 cup liquid measuring cup. Add red wine vinegar according to how tart you want your dressing to be, then pour in enough olive oil to the 1/2 cup line in your measuring cup. Mix well. Pour dressing over the salad and stir. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight to let the flavors blend.

A Lesson for Grandma

Grandmas are wise beings. They have learned a lot in their lives. And they should know that you are setting yourself up if you ask your 4 y/o grandson a question in public, because what GRANDMA thinks is a perfectly logical answer will most certainly NOT be the one that said 4 y/o grandson gives!

My parents lead a vegan cooking class and outreach at our church. Tonight's topic was on sugars and carbohydrates, and the menu featured healthy ice cream with toppings as the main dish, along with salads. One of the toppings was freshly made lowfat healthy granola. Grandma was going to introduce talking about the granola to the class, so she asked ds4 "What is your favorite food that Grandma makes you for breakfast?" He very quickly replied "Pizza!" Now this is funny, because Grandma doesn't make pizza...and certainly not for breakfast!

DS4 also found himself a job at the class. One he liked very much. His job was to lick the spatulas that had been used for stirring things like carob sauce and ice cream mixes. He told me that he really really likes jobs that involve licking things. ROFL, silly boy ;-)

Curriculum Planning

I've been planning science curriculum for ds4. He's too smart for his britches, but don't tell HIM that ;-) We didn't buy some of the science books from Sonlight Pre-K because they were things he already knew (shapes and opposites). Not using those opened up a big gap in the schedule, that I needed to fill. Then, last week, we started on the Usborne What's Under the Sea book, which they have scheduled to read 1 page a day. I know he'll never go for that slow pace, so I'll read him 2 pages a day, from that one and Why do Tigers Have Stripes? So that'll be opening up an even bigger gap in the schedule. So, here's the plan.

I've ordered a couple of activity books, which we'll flesh out with library books, so we'll get some reading and some paper or hands-on activities each day. The activity books are Ready to Learn--Beginning Science from Incentive Publications, and Learning to be a Scientist from the Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids series. (Both sites have page-by-page samples so you can see the scope and content of the books.) I'm getting both workbooks from Rainbow Resource where they're less expensive, of course ;-) I have a list of library books to get that will correlate with the topics covered in the workbooks. Hopefully ds4 will find them to be interesting. I guess we'll just go at our own pace. If we need more, I'll get more from the ScienceWorks series. I'd imagine 2 books should fill up the remainder of the year, tho I don't know exactly how many weeks that will be yet. I just know I had to do something! Good thing I'm at work this weekend, so I had time to get it all figured out :-)

Reasons I like my kids :-)

• They're great helpers--last night I had to take out the trash after work (you know, a job a man COULD do, but leaves it for his wife to do after 12 hrs at work anyway, LOL!) Anyway, they wanted me to sit and relax and they would take it all out to the curb for me. I couldn't let them do that...we all did it together. DS4 insisted on pulling the big trash can on wheels. It's as tall as he is, bless his little heart. He had to stop to rest 3 times but he made it to the end of our LOOOONG driveway and wouldn't let me help him! (DD9 and I each carried a recycling bin.)
• When I asked them to empty the dishwasher, they had it done in record time, and reloaded with the dirty dishes that were on the counter (you know, a job a man COULD do, but leaves it for his wife to do after 12 hrs at work).
• They're willing to do school at night, to fit my work schedule, and they don't complain even when they're getting tired. Maybe that's cuz we're reading good book, LOL.
• They think stuff like history and science is really fun.
• They call me in the morning when I'm at work, just to say "hi" and tell me they love me.
• They're noisy and rambunctious, but still love to snuggle.
• They love it when I read aloud to them.
• They're just great kids, and I'm the luckiest mom in the world cuz they're MINE :-)

Guess it just wasn't in the stars!

My Adventurer Club kids are earning their astronomy award. I guess looking thru a telescope to see some planets, stars, and constellations, just wasn't meant to be! We had a party last night at my house, and wouldn't you know, it totally clouded over as it got dark :-( Waaaaa! Oh well, we had a good time anyway. Only one of the club members was unable to make it...and one mom brought two extras, so it all evened out in the end. Lots of good munchie food...hot chocolate and hot cider, pumpkin dip that was a big hit, etc. The fire kept us warmish, well, those of us that didn't feel the need to race around like wild children in the dark ;-) My dad did a little talk on the universe for the kids, so it wasn't all lost. Oh, and in case you're wondering, no party is complete without decorations, right? I had a black tablecloth with gold and silver star confetti on it, plus a star centerpiece for the table, and I had silver and gold cut-out stars (about 5" stars) hanging. Actually dd9 hung the stars. She hung 3 of them from the clothesline, and they were really cool. They were moving with the breeze and catching the light of the fire and they really sparkled in the dark! The party store had them for 69 cents each...much easier, imho, than cutting stars from cardboard and covering them with tin foil. Yea, much much easier. We also hung a gold star-shaped mylar balloon from the mailbox to mark the spot where the party was. All in all, it turned out well. I'm glad I didn't opt to try for next week to do the party, because it looks like the weather will be rainy and even colder.

Toes?

My kids are painting each others' toenails. One of my kids is a boy. He thinks it's fun to play nail salon. Maybe cuz he has a sister that thinks it's fun? In his defense, he's just spent the last 45 minutes playing with his motorized car, building ramps and seeing how well he can make it go on different configurations. Big sis played some of the time as well. At least they're sharing, and I don't hear argument coming from the other end of the house! In spite of all of the running I had to do today, my mom and I found time to go for a walk while the sun was shining. Another gorgeous fall day...lots of beautiful leaves on the ground to crunch. I love the sounds and smells of fall! We found an interesting looking mushroom top. It was large and had a crease down one side, that made it look for all the world like...well...what you see when a plumber's pants don't fit too well ;-) Gave us a giggle, anyway. Yes, we're like a coupla schoolgirls sometimes.

When we got home from our walk, the door was opened by two children who welcomed us to "Goo-Goo's Buffet!" Goo-Goo's???????? Where on earth did THAT come from, ROFL? They'd even put a white board on the music stand as their sign...you know, the "please seat yourself" sign at a restaurant? Cute. They'd set out several containers of leftovers, knowing that was what we were going to enjoy (or re-enjoy) for dinner since dh had to go to work early tonight. They can be great helpers when they want to be! All I had to do was scoop out the squash I'd cooked, and fix some crusted tofu. The tofu was AWEsome! I dipped it in egg and then crushed cereal flakes and fried it...mmmmm, such crunch! I know both of my kids each ate at least 2 pieces...I didn't count how many I ate . DD and I dipped ours in ranch dressing...mmmmmm, if I weren't full, I'd want more!

When ds and I were shopping today, we ran into our doctor. He showed her his squash and she mentioned mashing squash, putting on a little butter, and drizzling it with maple syrup. Well, we had to try that out. Now I wanna know, why didn't anyone tell me to eat squash that way ever before???? It was soooooooooooooooo good! We have REAL maple syrup, too...my dad made 24 gallons of syrup this spring so we're always well stocked!

OK, now that you're all hungry, I'll close, LOL!

Ah, the bliss!

There we all were...me, the tired mom after working all day, and two kids that wanted to spend some time with mom! So, we all got our pj's on and sprawled in my bedroom to spend some time learning together. Yep, that's right...we homeschool. Since it was evening, we kind of compressed things along...ds4 worked in his workbooks with a bit of assistance from me, while I read dd9's stuff to her (oops, blush, I just realized that we forgot to do science! Oh well, we'll just double up tomorrow, LOL!) DS got his stories as bedtime stories, and then dd's read-aloud was her bedtime story, except I gave in and also read the other book that we have been reading at bedtime also. Got me a good case of Sonlighter's Throat today, since I have to talk a lot at work also, LOL.

I know I have to juggle things to make it all work...f/t outside home job, plus hsing my kids, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. The snuggles, the moments of quiet praise, the "aha" moments when I lead them thru something and can know for certain that they've grasped the concept! Oh, and last night, dd9 had her first "aha" moment! She hadn't heard (or watched) her little bro read in a couple of weeks. When he picked up his book and started reading, holding it by himself and moving his little index finger under the words to help sound them out...her jaw hit the floor!!! She was so surprised by the change in just a couple of weeks, from his needing my help a lot, to reading the story by himself with me just there in the room to help him on a couple of harder words. I loved being there for her "aha" moment too...the look of pride on her face as she watched him was just priceless. I'm so glad we can share it all together.