Today we are celebrating Molly’s seventh birthday. If dogs could contemplate life…
Peter began the tradition last year of making kibble- and treat-laced pancakes for the birthday canine. Molly is quite aware of what’s happening here!
As much as I cringe at the amount of hair we vacuum up regularly and the poop we pick up daily, this dog has added a lot of richness to our lives.
“The righteous care for the needs of their animals…” (Proverbs 12:10)
This is what we call it when Derek has the day off of school. Peter continues to highly cherish these days and likes to plan how they will spend their hours together. Yesterday they played on the ice.
The younger ones sure are motivated to finish schoolwork on days like this!
Back in September, we celebrated Happy Autumn. Today, we have happy winter.
Stopping to draw the leafless trees.
The anticipation built through November and December. Then the temperature dropped for a few days, and the skates came out. But, true to Chicago weather, it wasn’t long until the temperature warmed up for a couple days–just enough to melt the ice.
But we waited. The weathermen said it would freeze soon enough, so we drew pictures
and kept the skates out until the pond was solid once again.
Jake went out with the drill yesterday afternoon and declared the ice thick enough for open skate. Since there was no snow on the ice, it was particularly slick. Molly was hesitant.
But the kids had a blast.
Here they are finding their skating legs.
As Jake saw Ruthie struggling on her skates, he took her under his wing and taught her a thing or two about gliding.
She was so excited to show me what she learned and exclaimed, “Look what Jake showed me!”
Jim had compassion on the kids out in the single-digit temperatures and built a fire for them.
It was much appreciated.
Ruth found this scene at Jake’s invitational yesterday quite funny. Instead of Where’s Waldo, we called it Where’s Jake?
Here’s a new favorite app for Bible reading:
It’s free, has the Bible in a bazillion different languages, and the best part is that it reads out loud to you with different voices and sound effects in the background. It also includes the full length Jesus Film…in half a bazillion languages.
While most residents of the midwest are thrilled over the unseasonably warm, mild winter we’ve experienced so far, the residents of this “waterfront” household have been wondering since late November when ice would form on the pond.
After much waiting, their desire has been fulfilled. Jake and his trusty (or should I say trusting) canine companion went out a couple days ago to measure the thickness.
He drilled until he hit water, then measured.
He declared it thick enough for people, just don’t drive your snowmobile on it yet. So out came the snow crew to carve out a rink.
Happy people!
Knowing that the next couple days will bring temperatures above freezing, they are getting as much ice time as possible, day and night.
Jeremy practiced lines, segments and rays in math class today.
He turned into a spiritual lesson by observing that “A line is like God because it has no beginning and no end; a ray is like us; and a segment is like Molly.”
And whoever said math doesn’t contain meaningful life lessons?
Due to my own logical, mathematical mind, our homeschool tends to be heavy on the math and grammar side of things, which means that the valuable right-brained activities are sadly neglected.
Fighting against my left-brained nature today, we did some art. We learned about primary colors.
The kids chose from a stack of idea cards and painted using only red, blue and yellow paint.
It’s fun to see the different personalities crop up in situations like this.
While Jeremy tediously (and minutely) traced his picture with a pencil before touching paint to his paper,
Ruth slopped on the colored fun, and if she made a mistake, she turned it into something else.
Peter was a nice balance between the two.
I’m especially looking forward to our next art activity on the color wheel: red plus yellow equals orange. We can turn just about anything into a math lesson!
We found a recipe for a new way to dish up bacon and eggs. Peter was excited to try it and began by cooking up the bacon.
Next we formed the bacon into muffin cups
then cracked an egg in each.
They baked for several minutes in the oven, and once we slapped on some cheese, and they turned out beautiful and tasty!
Happy girl.
Some of us squirted Cholula on top, which put them over the edge in flavor.
After a fun, relaxing break, we are back to the routine of school. We sweetened the deal, so to speak, by starting a new science chapter:
Not content to simply perform the egg white experiment, Peter and Jeremy recalled an Australian dessert I made a couple years ago as part of our study on world geography, and they decided to use those egg whites to make something pleasantly sweet: pavlova. When I left to pick up Derek from school, the egg white foam left from our experiment was sitting in a bowl. When I returned, Peter (with Jeremy and Ruthie) had transformed it into this.
It’s like a giant marshmallow with an outer crust. By itself, it’s nothing special, however when you add whipped cream and fresh fruit, it becomes a delicious sweet treat.
As I was reading the account of the flood in Genesis 8 this morning, I noticed something interesting. After 150 days of rain and flooding, the water began to recede and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.
Noah then waited 40 more days to send out the birds, waiting a week between each bird’s errand.
Verse 13 says that by the first day of the first month, the ground was dry. When Noah observed this, he very well could have charged forward and brought everyone off the ark. But he waited until God told him it was time… which didn’t happen until the twenty-seventh day of the second month, nearly two months later!
I can just imagine how anxious Noah and his family would have been to hop off the ark and walk on dry land. Talk about having cabin fever! But just as he trusted and obeyed God in the building of the ark, Noah completely trusted and waited on God for the time to exit the ark.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
FCA was asked to provide breakfast for the Midlands wrestling tournament at Northwestern this week. It became a fun family affair as we prepared breakfast for 100 kids the night before.
Peter made granola, one big batch at a time.
Meanwhile, the rest of us cut bagels and fruit, and assembled yogurt parfaits.
While Peter waited for the granola to cook, he passed the time by practicing drum rolls.
The next morning, Peter and Jim drove the food to NU and served it to the kids.
