Is the cup half full, half empty, or ...?

I was just thinking of Thanksgiving, and how much for which we have to be thankful. Some people look at the cup half full. We have a roof over our heads, food on our table, clothes on our backs. Life is good. Some people look at the cup half empty. The roof leaks, the food is left overs, the clothes have holes. Life is hard. Then, I thought of David. He said, "My cup overflows." (Ps. 23:5) Do we see how our cup overflows? God is so good to us, so gracious, so faithful. We can cast our cares upon Him. We can approach the Creator of the Universe about anything. "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." (Ps. 23:6). My cup overflows!

Gracious Reminding

Psalm 119:29

Remove the false way from me,

And graciously grant me Thy law.

I've really been working hard at not being too hard on Rabbit. I am much better than last year, but there is always room for improvement.

This morning during my Bible reading time, the verse above stood out. Interestingly, the two verses before it were already highlighted, but not this one.

The first part of the verse was like a prayer for myself - I want the false way removed from me. Then the psalmist asks God to grant him His law. But not shove it down his throat - give it to him graciously.

I think of dealing with my kids, and I'm not often gracious. I get on their case, I even sometimes yell. Occasionally, God grants me graciousness, but I know it must come from Him, because it isn't in me at all. And it gets old, telling them over and over and over:

"Start a new sentence with a capital letter."

"Please turn out the light in your room."

"Pick up your toys in this path, or Mommy is going to get hurt!"

"Three times seven is twenty-one, not twenty-four."

And we grow weary saying the same things. But, in Philippians 3:1b it says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you." If it is no trouble for Paul, and no trouble for God, to remind me again and again of my character faults and places that I need to improve, then it should be no trouble for me to remind my children over and over.

I get frustrated with having to remind them, but I shouldn't. That means my expectations are way out of whack. That means I expect them to remember and comply every time from that point onward. But, can I even do that? How many times have I read through the Bible? How many verses have I memorized that tell me of God's love for me, and yet I doubt?

So, don't grow weary. It is no trouble to say the same things again and again - it is a safeguard for them. I just need to learn to do it graciously.

Week 12, Day 4 in ECC

Today's Bible passage was the one where Jesus tells the guy, "Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." So, we talked about the cost of following Jesus, and if we would be willing to sleep on the ground for Him. Hmmm. Lots of food for thought there.

Then we did Geography. We had a metric conversion activity, but it was too cold to go measure the yard, so we measured our sunken living room (it was over 4 yards). Then it was funny, I didn't really know how cold it was, so I said, "Well, let's just say it is 40 degrees." Then we followed the steps in the book: subtract 32 - that gave us 8, then multiply by 5 - well then we're back to 40, and then do the last step, which brought us to 4 degrees celcius - that eve sounds cold! I ust thought it was funny that we didn't really have to do the first two steps if you start at 40 degrees. Then we played the Geography Game. I told Rabbit if she wasn't sure about where a country was, she could look at the atlas. I didn't want her to remember the *wrong* place.

After that we did Spanish. I think we're not so keen on Tell Me More any more. Rabbit has a real hard time pronouncing the words in the sentences all together. So, what I did was have her do each word individually, and then I did the sentences. You have to pronounce the sentences correctly 3 times before you can go onto the next one. That got to be no fun real fast.

After snack, Rabbit worked on her Awana verse while I did preschool with the boys. We read Welcome Back Sun. It definitely had a different tone than The Day Hans Got His Way. It was a much more serious story. Then we worked on their verse. Tigger wanted a workbook page to do, so I found one on the letter "b" and they enjoyed that, and actually did quite well for a couple of 4 year olds.

Then Rabbit and I did writing eights. For writing time, I found a picture in a National Geographic magazine and had her write a sentence about it. She did good, except she forgot to capitalize her first letter. Also, while doing our writing eights, we listened to some Edvard Grieg. It was beautiful - it sounded like spring. We think some of the music is in Fantasia.

For book basket, Rabbit read a book of Disney Princess Stories. I told her that wasn't really book basket, but at least she was reading something, I suppose. After lunch we continued on with math, spelling, reading and poetry. For some reason, math took her a while today. Seemed like she got in a brain slump this afternoon.

Overall not bad. Sometime this weekend we are going to go ahead and do the Bible time and vocabulary pages that are scheduled for Day 5, so when we start up again after Thanksgiving, we start up on Week 13, Day 1.

Week 12, Day 3 in ECC

Ahhh, no meetings, no classes, just a regular day.

We started with the usual. Rabbit did a very good job narrating the Bible passage back. We talked about serving Jesus because of all He has done for us.

We read from Illustrated World Atlas about the Northern European countries. That was interesting, and then took a pass at the Geography Game, even though it wasn't scheduled. Rabbit was disappointed about how she didn't do that well (as compared to me), but I try to encourage her that in a couple of weeks, she know it really well.

Then it was time for Spanish. We break the speaking sentences down to words, and then put it together. She still has trouble though, but it is getting better. Then snack time and recess, while I put together a crock pot meal.

I had her work on her Awana book for and multiplication Wrap-Ups for seatwork while I read a story to the boys. We read "The Day Hans Got His Way." The kids thought this was hilarious. It was a pretty funny story. Then they wanted to draw on the easel, so I set them up for that. Rabbit and I did writing-eights, and then she did her writing sentence. Another great job. I think I might have to start increasing it to two. Then we did English - it was a picture study, so that was different than usual.

After lunch, I was about to go out the door, when I saw a bunch of sparrows on the ground by our Russian Sage we have planted out front. Then I saw 3 woodpeckers. I called the kids over to see. Then one of the woodpeckers decided to fly onto the house, so I decided it was time to scare them off (you should see the damage they have done to the neighbor's trim on their house). Anyway, that was our Nature Walk for the day. It was too cold (high of 36 degrees) to do a "real" nature walk. Looking through the window, seeing woodpeckers putting their long beaks into the ground to dig out seeds and bugs was going to have to do for this time.

Rabbit did a math page, and did awesome, while I put the boys down. Then we did spelling, reading, and poetry. We actually finshed by 2:45 today.

Then we went to the library. I was trying to find some more Norwegian books to read to the kids, so I searched online for some titles and went to check them out. Most of them talked about "spirits" or "trolls." (Did you know that Three Billy Goats Gruff will come up when you do a search for Norway?) The spirits were usually evil, and the stories implied that the spirits could actually do things and hurt people. I didn't want those to be in our book basket. The other thing I noticed about a lot of the Norwegian folk tales and stories, is how the woman is usually made the hero, or usually right at the end of the story. Sometimes it almost seemed "feminist". I did find 2 books not on the book basket list that I thought the kids would enjoy. We'll see.

Week 12, Day 2 in ECC

Of all days to start late, dance day is not one of them. And then, I was interrupted by an important phone call, so we didn't get started until 9:30...

We started with Awana verses and then Bible time. Rabbit was surprised that Jesus would be "amazed" by anything. So, that was a good discussion.

Then on to geography. Of all days to have to make the geography game! It takes so long to make the cards, and Rabbit wanted all 23 countries. So, that took us up until Spanish/snack time. (At least there was no science scheduled.)

After that, I spent a little time with the boys for Preschool, and then it was time for me to make lunch. I made Rabbit do book basket, as I finally had a couple of books to read.

During dance, the weather was so nice, I was able to take the boys to the park. It was good to have them run around, because they napped during quiet time.

Then Rabbit and I worked on math, writing eights, 2 English lessons, spelling, and writing. Whew. Then it was time for art. I had a cardboard chest that I bought from Michael's earlier this year, so I let her paint that. She didn't really do the "Rosemaling" pattern - I just let her paint it. She can sometimes feel pressured to "do it perfect," so I let her paint it however she liked. It was 4:00 before we finally were done for the day.

Week 12, Day 1 in ECC

Today was presentation day. We had to get done by 2:00 - and we did! Although I missed a couple of things.

For Bible, we read about Romania in Window on the World. The story was about a lady who was will to trade her best clothes for a Bible. So, I asked the kids if they would be willing to trade their favorite toy(s) for a Bible. Uh, we're not there yet.

Next, we were off to Norway. Rabbit wanted to take a boat to Africa (from Brazil) and then fly to Norway, so that's what we pretended. Then I put the flag stickers in their passports and dated them. For science, we read about conifer forests.

Rabbit did Spanish on the computer again. She does fine saying individual words, but when it comes time to put them into a sentence - well let's just say it sounds like mumbling. If I say it with her she does better, but we have issues. Maybe I need to do ear eights before Spanish and do fencers before geography?

After snack and recess, Rabbit had quite a bit of seatwork: a coloring page from Bible time, copying the memory verse for the week, the Flag Sticker Book, and addition Wrap-Ups. So, she worked on those while I did Cubbies verses and stories with the boys. Then the boys wanted to color their coloring page form Bible time. After that, it was time for me to make lunch, so Rabbit worked with the boys and they all did their Flag Sticker books together.

After lunch, Rabbit did math while I put the boys down for quiet time. Since we were short on time, we didn't review the x3 math facts. We did writing-eights and then spelling . I forgot to do English! We were going to read the next story in her reading book, which was The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy. We have the original somewhere, and as I was reading ahead in the book I noticed they had changed the story just a little and I didn't really like the wording, but we couldn't find our book. So, we skipped ahead to the poem and did our poetry class real quick and then music.

Finally, we went to presentation day. Rabbit said a verse she is working on for Awanas. Both Tigger and Pooh each sang the "ABC Song" - separately. I decided they should do it separately, since they sang at different speeds, and tended to get lost at different places. It was very cute, and I'm glad they had the courage to stand up in front of the kids and do it. After that, it was soooo beautiful we went to the park with all the other families and had a blast there.

Week 11, Day 5 in ECC

Well, at least we were able to easily meet our 4 hour requirement, even on this Light and Independent Friday. (I know, really it is Monday).

I had forgotten (again) to get the kids verses ready, so I had to do that. We started late because of that. We then worked on the verses, and did ECC Bible time. After ECC Bible time, I still needed to print out the vocabulary pages for Rabbit, so she read the younger YWAM Nate Saint story to the boys. Rabbit prefers that I draw the pictures and she colors and writes, so that's what we've been doing.

That took us to snack time. After snack I had Rabbit work on writing a letter to Grandma, while I did preschool with the boys. I read them the story out of their Cubbies book, and we worked on their verse. They weren't keen on much else, so I did repatterning with Rabbit and then writing. She wrote a very good descriptive sentence today. She really is getting so much better at it. Spelling is still a challenge, but she is really trying. We also read the next story in our reader.

While I was making lunch, the kids watch a video called Families of Brazil (or something to that effect). The Teacher's Manual called for cooking, but the two recipes offered had milk products in them (whipped cream or condensed milk). I couldn't think of a substitute. But, in the video, it talked about what they typically eat, so I figure that covered it. One thing I really like about ECC is I don't feel bad if I don't follow things exactly - I feel like I have a lot more freedom to substitute something equivalent if I want (like if I don't feel like cooking some foreign recipe).

Rabbit watched the next chapter on the DVD while I put the boys down. Then we reviewed the right brained flash cards. After that we did the first workbook page for that chapter. Mostly we just need to review a lot to memorize those facts. Then we did spelling - she didn't miss a single word from last week - hooray! And, she did very well for this week's new words. The last thing I was going to work on with her was Spanish. She had been having a little bit of attitude issues through-out the school day, and they all came out during Spanish. She was mumbling and wouldn't speak clearly into the microphone, so the software was having a hard time figuring out if she was saying anything. After about 2 minutes I called it off. I was getting frustrated with her, and that's no good. I actually think she must of had some small amount of milk product sometime this weekend, because she had other behavior things that were indicitive of that.

Well, tomorrow we're off to Norway. I think it will be a better day. The kids always have lots of fun the first day into a new country.