Voting begins today!

Today voting begins for the 2009 Homeschool Blog Awards! Take a few minutes to go vote for your favorite blogs -- it'll be a great way to encourage those who encourage others!

(I'm not on there, but who knows... maybe next year!)

Praise from Botswana!

I have had the opportunity to correspond via email with a few of the people we met in Botswana. This is one of the times I love technology (because there are quite a few times I don't love technology!)!

Most of the people at the marriage conference came as couples, but there were a few individuals. who attended. One of those individuals was an Ethiopian gentleman at our table. Though he didn't specifically say that he and his wife were separated, we got that impression, and we knew that she and the children were here in the States for an undetermined amount of time.

A couple of months ago, I sent an email to this gentleman to let him know some specific things I was praying for him, and he responded saying,

"...I knew that GOD is responding fast as you are praying to me and my family. I trust GOD, every thing will be good as it is all His will but on His time and I will not be tired waiting for the time of GOD... AMEN!"

Today I received this email from the same gentlemen (keep in mind that English is not his first language, so forgive him for a little bit of odd wording):

"Praise GOD, our GOD is so close, Our prayer was heared and responce came, My family is all back home with peace and LOVE. The miracle of GOD that splited the meditranean has opened a way to bring my family back together. This is my witness on responce of heared prayer, which you participated in a lot.
Thank you
The friend you prayed for at Gaborone, Botswana
GOD is Great!"

God hears every one of our prayers, no matter where we are. Isn't great to realize that we can have an impact on the lives of people on the other side of the world? I feel rejuvenated about the power of prayer, and wanted to share this with you all! So keep on praying!

Weekly Wrap-Up (2 weeks!)

I didn't do a weekly wrap-up last week, so this will be a two-in-one. This one will lack a whole lot of how-we-did-its, and just touch on some of what we've done. I love to do posts that might help other homeschoolers, but sometimes I just want to keep up with what we've done. This post is mostly one of the latter.

I am seriously re-evaluating some things about our homeschool, and plan to spend some serious time praying about some specifics. Lindsey will be at a sort of caffeinated teen retreat called D-NOW (Disciple Now) this weekend, and Kathryn will be at her dad's, so I'm going to use that time to focus on listening to God on what He wants me to do/change. I'll be sure to blog about it -- later.

Last week, we studied France. Some of the things we took note of in our study: the Louvre museum, the thought of eating frog legs and snails, the 300+ types of cheeses they make there, and the Eiffel tower. Did you know that the Eiffel tower has 2.5 million rivets, 1652 steps, is 984 feet tall, and grows by six inches in the summer when the metal expands. Kathryn has added it to her list of Places I Want To Go -- she's been adding to it as we study different countries. I can't wait to see how long the list is by the end of our school year!

This week, we "visited" Germany. We were amused by some of the funny-sounding names of towns, like Worms, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. Kathryn wants to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, and thought it was cool that I could actually remember the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For one of her free reading books last week, Kathryn read Where the Red Fern Grows. I couldn't remember how long it had been since I read it, so I re-read it -- and cried like a baby. I am such a sap when it comes to books about dogs or horses.

In Biology, we finished up Unit One: The Basics, and reviewed a bit. Kathryn thought at first that she didn't know the answers to the questions I was asking, but when she stopped and thought, she knew them all. Hurray for retaining information! I am enjoying this Christian Kids Explore Biology book. This week we moved into Unit Two: Plants. So far we've diagrammed a plant, explored some plants in our garden, and learned about photosynthesis. She is itching to make the terrarium suggested for this week's hands-on project, so I'm going to have to rummage for the necessary supplies.

Kathryn read about outer space in her "News Current" magazine, and has decided that Saturn would not be somewhere fun to visit, due to the crazy storms, terrible temperatures, and lack of air that humans can safely breathe. She also learned about how Mars has been explored, and about craters on the south pole of the moon that have temperatures of -397 ℉! I love that amidst all this great current event and scientific info, the writers of the magazine remind us, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1)

Lindsey had a light school week, since she had no classes on Tuesday due to the local elections. She is ecstatic about D-NOW (Disciple Now) this weekend because she's been hearing about it from friends in her small group. It is THE big event for the youth at our church, and talked about all year long. The theme this year is Crazy Love, which should be great. God used that book to speak volumes to me! And for a costume contest part of the event, Lindsey and friends will be dressing up as Frostys (as in, the chocolate ice-creamy milkshake from Wendy's). Can't wait to see that -- and yes, there will be photos!

When I was at the homeschool moms' support group meeting on Tuesday night, Ken taught the girls to play "Heart and Soul" in parts on the piano. Lindsey plays the middle part, and Kathryn can play the high part and the low part -- not at the same time, of course! Sometimes he'll play with them, or sometimes he'll play the bass (hanging on the wall in this photo) while they are on the piano. While this is not exactly perfect piano form (you'll notice if you look at their hands), it's still music, and it's still fun!

The weather was gorgeous this week, but we still didn't get outdoors as much as I would've liked. However, we did find time for appreciating the roses that are still blooming, noticing a little inch-worm on a gerber daisy, watching butterflies that Kathryn hopes are the grandchildren of the ones we raised, and doing a bit of kite flying. We also finally did a nature study!

I'm really looking forward to my time of re-assessing things this weekend, and just spending some good time with God. One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we have the freedom to change things ANY time throughout the school year.

Nature Study: Bracket Fungi

Finally! An official nature study! Hurray!

While playing outside yesterday, we noticed some weirdly interesting mushrooms on the side of an old pine tree stump. We poked and prodded them, and were surprised at how hard and tough they were! I came inside later to research exactly what they are, and it appears that they are turkey tail mushrooms -- but I'm not sure they are "true" turkey tail mushrooms, so we won't be boiling them to make tea, crushing them into powder, or even chewing them as we stroll through the woods, like one eminent herbalogist likes to do. True turkey tail mushrooms are said to be fantastic for all sorts of health woes: tumors, cancer, HIV, malaria, and more! If all that is indeed true, then we need to be doing some serious mushroom farming!

Today we went back out and pulled one of these off, which was more difficult than you'd think.We brought it inside to study more closely, using our magnifying glass.
Lacy the WonderDog wanted to study it, too. {hee hee}
This study goes along with Outdoor Hour Challenge #41: Flowerless Plants. In the Handbook of Nature Study, we learned that these are considered saprophytes, which are a type of fungus that feeds on dead or decaying matter, rather than being a true parasite that steals nutrients from a living plant. Some varieties of bracket fungus, however, grow on living trees and are very harmful. There is no way to rid a tree of this fungus once it takes hold.

We're so out of practice with nature studies and our nature journal, that Kathryn is a little resistant to doing journal entries. I think it's because she's too much of a perfectionist with her drawing, so that's something we'll have to work on. For today, I printed out a photo of our fungi so she could paste that on her page and just write a few sentences about it.

I hope to be posting about many more nature studies as we try to get back into the habit of doing them!

A Rose

May I just say that I am in l-o-v-e with roses that still bloom in November?

Like this one...

Love-love-love it!