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We have moved onto the letter U this week. Long sound of U: Unicorn, short sound: Umbrella. We will also be learning about the Universe and Sea Urchins. We started this week at the dentist. Monday morning Tristan had one of his front teeth pulled. It had been damaged by several incidents. He has been such a great patient and it looks like his gums are healing well. The human body is Amazing! So far this year, morning devotions with the kids have been kind-of a chore as we were reading through the sermon on the mount. It was way above their level of understanding and I was getting discouraged. Then I found this program that is a verse card for every letter of the alphabet. http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/10/abc-printable-scripture-cards/ . Now we have a verse for every week; we read the same verse every day of the week and the kids love identifying the letter of the week on the card. Praise God for using a chance encounter to lead me to this resource. I wanted to sh...

We are learning so much every week it is crazy! There are so many fun opportunities with the letter O. Cheerios are shaped like O's. Oranges begin with O, are circles and make great snacks! Stop signs are Octagons and, therefore part of O week. It's been a great week. Some of the highlights from the week: The toilet paper tube octopus craft. Easy and cute! I used hole punches for my circles and the kids did a great job coloring and glueing. We also loved making Oatmeal cookies. The kids did well scooping spoonfuls onto their own separate pans. I am impressed with their skills more every day. Here is the website I got the recipe from -http://www.simplebites.net/simple-tips-for-baking-with-kids-recipe-giant-oatmeal-cookies/- I used mini chocolate chips instead of seeds and I added half a teaspoon of ginger because I had to make it my own. They are delicious! Book reccommendations for the letter O. Octopus Opposites Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer. Such a cute book! Great...

This anniversary of Roe vs. Wade I find myself analysing the definition of life. I feel that is really close to the heart of the issue of abortion. Having majored in Microbiology in college, this question about what defines life is pretty familiar to me. I mean, are viruses really alive simply because at some point they are able to reproduce themselves? I mean, a little bit of DNA and protein doesn't constitute life does it? And so the debate continues. Thinking about my own children, I remember the first time I acknowledged their life. That 7 week ultrasound where we saw baby's heart beating. Just a little flicker on the screen, Life! With our second baby, I found out I was pregnant and at our first appointment with the midwife we were listening to baby's heartbeat on the doppler, at 9 weeks! Amazing! I can't imagine life without either of these guys. Statistics show that about 40% of abortions take place after 9 weeks gestation. I'm shocked by this! Obviously, I ...

 January began so quietly and then we all got sick. I've heard we had a mild case of the flu going around, but I would tell you otherwise! I guess it really doesn't matter, we are all better now and getting back to the routine of things. The kids and I started centering our daily activities and exploits around a letter of the alphabet for each week. We started with the vowels and have sped through A, E, I and this week we are talking about O. It is cool to see what the children have taken away from the previous weeks and how they are growing to acknowledge letter shapes. They recognize the letters on random things and point them out to me, like the letter A on a sign or the letters on liscence plates.  As much fun as our Electricity experiments were with static and balloons, the take-away from the letter E seems to be the little focus I did on Engineering. Tristan asked today if we could play "engineer" again and build bridges and tunnels for his cars.  It was also ...

After discovering the blog a dress a day I was inspired to make a dress with the fabric that I purchased for Yoga pants. I actually love it! Why haven't I made a formal pattern out of stretch fabric before now? It works for Sunday morning, but it is super comfortable!

After 8 weeks and the exclusion of all other leisurely reading, I have finished Simon Sebag Montefiore's Jerusalem, The Biography . I have also been studying Jerusalem in the Bible using the Strong's Concordance. My mind is full and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Partly because, all that I've read about Jerusalem is very foreign to me. The culture, the tradition, the rich heritage that this one city contains amazes me. As a Christian, I have a hard enough time deciding what Jerusalem means to my own faith, add to that millions of other Christians, Jews, and Palestinians (Moslems) who share the city as their sacred space. It blows my mind and really reveals the difficulty behind the city's ever experiencing peace. I am in Jeremiah in my Bible study, so I look forward to parsing through more prophesy about Jerusalem's future from God's word. What prophesy I've read so far is confusing and I have a hard time deciphering what has already taken place and what God has ...