Remembering Great-Grandma

The children's great-grandmother died this last week. While we're sad we won't get to see her anymore, or get her emails - as she was a Star Trek loving, GameBoy playing, email writing kind of Grandma, we are celebrating with her, a gentle passing. After all, she lived for 92 years, was saved, and passed peacefully, with a minimum of pain. So, praise the Lord!

We opted to keep the children at home, under my care, while my husband made the whirlwind trip back to the west coast for the funeral. Funerals are not the best places for small children, and winter roads being what they are, it just seemed better not to take them. I'm so glad we were able to make a trip out last month for them to see her while she was still alive.

The children, and I, lined up our own sort of memorial service at home. We set up a tea party (did I mention that Grandma was a Red Hat Society member?), and watched Grandma's story on video, together.

A decade, or so ago, when we thought Great-Grandma was getting on in years, my husband taped a series of video interviews with her. He filmed, and asked questions, and Grandma spilled out the story of her life. At the time, we viewed it more as a history project, but knowing her age, and the age of our children, we were pretty sure there would be at least a few who would not remember her, when she was gone. Now they'll be able to hear her story, in her own words, and see for themselves who she was.

I'm sure we'll be spending our weekend fielding a few of the bigger questions of life and death, like "will there be video games in heaven?", and that sort of thing. But in between tears, and silliness, we'll also spend some good time remembering a sweet lady, and a life well lived.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Hearts for Math

I decided to take advantage of the little ones' enthusiasm for Valentine's Day, by cutting foam hearts for their math exercises.

I envisioned nonstandard measurement...


...patterns, and sorting, addition, and subtraction, and all that sort of thing. Then later, maybe I'd punch some holes in them, and turn them into lacing cards.

But, the children decided as math manipulatives, foam hearts make pretty good bath toys.


We now have the most romantic tub in town.


I wonder if I could work it into a science lesson?


It's great to be a homeschooler.

New Year's Resolutions You Can Keep - Reading the Bible in One Year (15 Minutes A Day)

I usually scoff at books, and videos promising amazing results in 15 minutes a day. However, that does not stop me from buying them. My reasoning is, that while I might not be able to learn Russian in 15 minutes a day (if I learned anything in college, it's that becoming fluent in a second, or third language takes time - a lot of time), I might be able to glean enough Russian from a book making that promise, to qualify as an introduction to the study - and you have to start somewhere.

I wouldn't really expect to become toned and fit, in 15 minutes a day either. Again, I have enough experience with exercise to know that a 15 minute workout, that would provide real physical results, would be far more intense, and difficult, than I could manage. But, I might learn one, or two new toning exercises to add to my routine.

So, when I purchased a chronological Bible last year, with a statement on it's back cover, assuring the reader the entire book could be read in a year, in 15 minutes a day, I didn't really think it was true. After all, I'm a pretty slow reader. I read a lot, but I read it all very slowly. After, a couple of weeks of reading the daily portion though, I was amazed to find each section really did only take 15 minutes to read. It wasn't my first time reading through the Bible, but it was the easiest method I've tried.

15 minutes a day isn't enough time for a deep study, but reading the entire Bible in a single year, provides a big picture overview, that adds depth to additional study. If you haven't tried it, let me encourage you - reading the Bible in one year is a very doable New Year's resolution. And, it really can be achieved in 15 minutes a day.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

New Year Resolutions

I've been enjoying reading all the list of resolutions, and goals for the new year, posted in the blogosphere. And, of course I've been working on my own list, which has been a lot of fun in the emotional crucible of a visit home.


My husband, and I, have been walking the children down memory lane a lot this week, taking them to the church where we were married, our first home together, and our favorite date spot coffee shop. It's given us a lot of time to take inventory of where we started out, where we are, and where we'd like to be.

I keep a scrap of paper in my pocket, so I can jot each new goal down, as it occurs to me. This morning I took a few minutes to glance over the hodge podge. My scrap of paper is filled with all the normal resolutions: exercise more, eat less, study a new language, read the entire Bible through again, read more in general, master four new hymns on the piano, become friends with my sewing machine, and so on. Not to mention all my goals for homeschooling, which I keep on a separate scrap of paper.

I decided, that before I jump right in, in my normal flibberty-gibbety kind of fashion, I should take a minute to break down the list, and find the bigger goals behind the individual resolutions. Then maybe, knowing what it was I was really hoping to achieve, I might have a better chance of achieving it.


Being quite general, here are the four resolutions, all my little resolutions seem to boil down to:

1. Be More Disciplined


2. Be More Organized


3. Be More Giving


4. Be More Useful

I think these will be my mantra, and measuring stick for my activities in the new year. Either that, or I'll scrap them all, and dive right in to a pile of "Do Every Thing Under The Sun in 15 Minutes a Day" books - I did mention that I was a flibbertigibbet, didn't I?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Get Well Cards For Great-Grandma No Thanks To a Nanny Government

The little ones are busy this morning making some get well cards for my husband, and I, to deliver to his grandmother at the hospital. Sadly, they are not allowed in to the hospital to visit.

When we headed out from Montana, Grandma, who is 92 years old, was recovering from infectious pneumonia. She was doing well, and had been moved from the hospital to a nursing home, for recuperation, before she was to be released to her apartment.

While we were in route, however, it was discovered that her medications, including a heart medicine, and a blood thinner, had been overdosed, and she had to be returned to the hospital.

We found out yesterday, that children under 12 are not allowed to visit at the hospital, due to concerns over the swine flu. We commented to the nurse, that our children were healthy, and not likely to be carriers of the flu, but discovered the concern was not for the patients, but for our children. Apparently, the state of Oregon is looking out for our children for us, and keeping them out of potentially dangerous places, where there is a small chance, that they might contract a disease, which has a small chance of making them very sick. Hmmm...welcome to the world of the nanny government.

While, I have no desire, that the children get sick, I do believe we could probably make sure they not stick things in their mouths, and wash there hands, and that sort of thing, on our own. We've lived in Montana long enough, that our first reaction was to say, "Well, if we want to get the flu, who are you to stop us?"

For today though, we'll settle for just hand delivering cards from the children.