TulipGirl

Tell everyone why girls love spring at Royal Buffet. . .

Maybe you’ll be the one to win a spring-loving, handcrafted diorama!

Update: Congrats, Leigh!

This past Wednesday, I went to a women’s Bible study. It’s the first one I’ve been to in several years. In part because other studies have been held at a very difficult time for me to attend, and in part because I don’t want to take the time to attend a book study. While there are some excellent Christian living and learning books published, if I go to a Bible study then I really do want to study the Bible. (Though, I also do appreciate other get together with women of the church for getting to know one another.)

So this women’s Bible study is going through the book of I John. Since I won’t be able to attend every week, I want to set aside extra time for personal study and meditation. I’ve found a site from which to download an audio version for my MP3 player. I think the boys and I are also going to read through it a few times together (and perhaps use it for some memory work?)

I John 1 – 5, ESV, Text

I John, WEB, Audio

I John, KJV, Audio

Poythress on Biblical Interpretation

Thomas Boston’s Useful Directions

Metachoi’s Short Course in Hermeneutics

Rejoicing with dear friends who have had their firstborn son (he was 9 lb, 15 oz!) Our love and prayers are with you.

“What I tell my childbirth classes is,

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Each of you are just the right mother for your children. God gave your children to you–not as a possession, but to nurture and raise to His glory. I am not the one God chose to mother your child–not me, not anyone else. Your love and God’s grace are what your child needs–regardless of what parenting books, websites, and ideas you come across along the way. You will have challenges, struggles, heartaches, as well as love, joys and successes!

Through it all, we learn to lean into the Lord. . . to trust Him. . . to turn to Him in prayer and humility and rest. . .

And we are free! Free from philosophies, free from rules. . . free to turn to the Lord and grow into the mothers He has called us to be!

I have found it freeing to learn and study and seek wisdom–both the direct revelation in the Bible as well as revelation in God’s creation. One resource as we seek the Lord in our ministry of mothering is the website Parenting Freedom. This site is newly online, but the mother behind it has long been sharing mothering encouragement with me and others. I appreciate her willingness to learn, grow, seek the Lord and find freedom in parenting.

I encourage you to visit the website, be encouraged by the Scripture, be challenged by the research, and know you have freedom to seek the Lord as you nurture the children He has given you.

“Instead of one of those stereotypes, I’m one of those Smeagol-types.” –C7, as he prances around in his pajamas-cum-loincloth before bed

Joy to the world
All the boys and girls, now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

Welcome, little baby J! Hubby’s little sister has a firstborn son, entering the busy, breathing world today.

Quote of the Day:

“We’re an exceptional family, aren’t we?”

That’s what R9 said to me as I was making dinner tonight. “Connor has already been in bed an hour, and we’re just making dinner!”

Summer is slowly creeping in. . . We’ve had afternoon showers recently, and soon it will be hurricane season. The weather is warm enough for the boys to swim, the pool is clean, and they have new goggles. Still, the water was chilly enough that they didn’t stay in long today.

Hubby has moved his thesis writing to the back lanai. Each day he sets up the desktop on the patio table and writes and thinks and is energized by the fresh air and sunshine. It’s still cool enough to have the doors open and the A/C off. (Thanks to the Florida summer, our electric bill trebles when the A/C is on.)

Yesterday the two younger boys and I went out and about. The best part was a trip to B&N. The boys had gift cards from my brother and they had such fun looking and looking and trying to decide. C7 was immediately drawn to the bird watching kit. I thought the allure was simply the binos included, but he’s been looking up birds in the guide and sitting still and watching the birds in the woods. R9′s favorite choice was a sketchbook, so he’s been accompanying C7 and sketching birds and other things he’s observing. Ahhh. . . I love delight-led learning, especially when it mirrors my own educational ideals! They also bought books on mammals, the wild west, archaeological treasures and wildcats. We ran a few routine errands, too–bought a new mouse for the laptop (the touchpad is wonky), visited the bread store, the produce market and shared a treat from Starbucks.

But I’ve traded buying coffee when out for the yummiest coffee at home. I’ll just bring my own when I leave the house. I finally bought a burr coffee grinder (a Christmas gift, thanks to my parents.) Fresh ground, fresh roasted Old Bisbee coffee–nothing is better!

With birthday money from my grandmother, I bought a birdfeeder and seed. Unfortunately, where I wanted to hang it is too close to the lanai screen, and hence a squirrel feeder more than a bird feeder. We’ll put it in the front yard, instead.

I’ve planted morning glory seeds and we’ll see if my notorious black thumb doesn’t kill them. The boys will be mulching and raking and trimming the hedges this week. Our front porch has become the favorite play spot for the boys and their neighborhood friends. Somehow they still need daily reminders that books and flip flops and toys can’t stay out on the porch overnight.

We went to church this morning and it was worshipful and welcoming and good. I’m thankful. As much as we value the church in the community and the importance of corporate worship, it’s been hard to integrate into a church since arriving back in Florida. Why that has been is. . . complicated. . . but through it all we’ve seen God’s faithfulness. It is restful, though, to be in corporate worship now. It hasn’t always been so.

We had bowls of fresh fruit for lunch yesterday, Florida fresh blueberries and cantaloupe. Today we shared artichokes for a midday snack. The fresh produce just tastes so good. A friend told me about how a local gentleman developed the Earth Box for fumbling black thumbed gardeners like me. Remembering Natalie’s salsa garden last year and knowing how my boys will each tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and onions raw, when they are available, has me tempted to try my hand at container gardening on our lanai. The sensibility sets in and I think, maybe next year.

Beyond the weather and the birds and the produce, I can sense a change of seasons coming. Not just in our environment, but in our lives and future. I don’t know in what ways, just that seems thing to be warming up and getting ready to turn into something new.

R9 has caught two lizards and named them Mark H. George and Fudge Brownie.

etu: T10 said other lizards’ names were Butterfinger, Mr. Nerdy and Nerd-of-the-World.

All the cool kids are doing it. . . Revolution Money Exchange is trying to give PayPal a run for its money. *cough, bad pun* Looking through the fine print, everything seems legit. $25 is automatically credited to your account if you sign up before April 15. (And if you click through on that button, it credits my account with an extra $10.) The test will be whether it becomes as widely accepted and trusted as PayPal.

A beautiful sea fan? That was my first thought. Venture your guess in the comments and I’ll post the answer in a couple of days.

Update: I meant to post the answer the very next day. . . but this week has been a bear! As Candace, A and Allison said, this is an alluvial fan in Xinjiang Province, China. “Covering an area 56.6 x 61.3 km and taken on may 2nd, 2002, this photo shows an alluvial fan that formed on the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China. An alluvial fan usually forms as water leaves a canyon, each new stream eventually closing up due to sediment – the result being a triangle of active and inactive channels. The blue ones on the left are currently active”

I think it is beautiful and makes me wonder and the glories of Creation.

My boys amaze me. . . really they do. I’m seeing as time goes by that their interests and lives are expanding, and that expansion goes beyond my experiences.

For example, someone recommended the Yul Brynner 1969 movie Taras Bulba to me, so we rented it the other day. In spite of our time in Ukraine and great interest in that region, I still have fuzzy spots in my understanding of its history. R9 piped up, “Wasn’t he a Cossack? Who killed his kid?” J11 answered, “Yeah, but he wasn’t as bad as Ivan Groznyi.” While I wasn’t exactly sure of where he fit in history, I thought he was a Cossack, but wasn’t sure about it until we watched the movie.

The other day T10 asked me, “Who do you like better? Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, or Bill Gates?” Later the boys were playing a modification of a game that they made up, each making decisions as a businessman about shares and advertising and keeping score on a piece of paper. J11 has been reading The Myth of the Robber Barons (for fun) and their U.S. history text is addressing industrialization and monopolies.

Today they spent most of the day on the lanai, hand-painting their little green army guys. Hubby found a book that describes specific battles and they’ve been setting them up throughout the living room and re-enacting them. J11 and R8 each painted red-shirted Garibaldi troops. I hadn’t even heard of Garibaldi and his exploits before now. . .

I’ve been giving the boys more cooking tasks. They love cutting up onions and peppers and I’m starting to count on them to be my sous-chef helpers. They made cupcakes for a neighbor’s birthday, and surprised me with brownies and milk one night for dessert. Better yet, they are just as good as cleaning up kitchen messes as they are at making them.

They’ve been reading avidly. Once again, we’re under a self-imposed ban from the public library. We just don’t do well with due dates. Thankfully, we have two Goodwill Bookstores in our area which each have well-stocked kids’ and homeschool sections.

Both my mp3 player and the boy’s cd player died this month. We’re taking turns with the laptop. I’ll listen to my lectures with my ear phones on (but missing my learning during drives.) The boys have been listening to Alexander the Great and other stories from LibriVox. (Finally taking advantage of this, Kathy!) I’d really like to get them another cd player, but want to make sure it’s both kid-durable and can read mp3 and wav files.

So many little daily details that I don’t want to miss and forget. Yet, I know they are hard to remember if I don’t record them. I want to get family photos taken soon.