A New Year

Wow! It's been months since I journaled on the TOGBLOG. I don't even think anyone reads it but that's okay. The Lord will read it.

So much has happened since I last wrote.

Most recently, my precious grandfather went home to be with the Lord. He was 95 years old.

He had a good life. He had a long life, relatively speaking. My whole life he has been my hero.

He took care of me and had me live with him and my grandmother when I was a little girl. He never complained about it nor did he ever regret it. I'm sure, my brother and I weren't always good and they had to deal with discipline issues with us but they just dealt with it and never complained.

He will be missed terribly. I will post our last picture taken with him. It was a day in December, two weeks before he died. We took him to the Byer's Choice factory where they make caroling dolls. I will cherish that day for the rest of my life as will the girls.

Activity Day

Yes, it is activity day. It feels like we haven't done this in a while. Maybe because Val had her baby last week. She is doing much better. Life is getting back to normal. Whatever "normal" is. Today we ARE going to finish our mummy! If it takes all day! Just a bigger project than we anticipated. We are finishing our cylinder seals and having discussion. That's all good news!
The bad news is, my basement is a mess again b/c my diligent husband is sealing the walls and there is crumbled wall all over the floor and dust everywhere. We will be outside a lot today. Praise the Lord, the weather is cooperating.
Well, the day my house goes up for sale is a day I can celebrate! So charge on, Mike. We'll work around you.
We will be having our end of unit celebration soon. I have been thinking about it and since the weather is so good right now, I'm thinking we should have it at someone's house, in their back yard. We'll set up tables and invite our families and friends and serve food from ancient Egypt. I have tables but I don't have a back yard. We need to just organize it. Whose house, who will set it up, who will make food, who will decorate (just mildly). The olders will make the seder plate. So, finish those projects so we can proudly display them! I can't wait! This is too fun.

Change the Subject

Every now and again I get the urge to splurge on to a different subject.
Today, the Lord has lain on my heart the subject of organic fruits and veggies.
I have been learning so much about this stuff, I think I'm going to bust sometimes if I can't talk about it.
I love to share information because we live in a very unhealthy world and we are getting sicker day by day.
Why are organic fruits and veggies so important? Well, for one, there is no regulation as to how many times our food can be sprayed. Tests have shown that cancerous tumors have been found with pesticides in them. Not a good thing right?
You say fruits and veggies from the organic stands are too expensive. That was my first concern! I can't go totally organic so what do I do? How can I make changes to improve the quality of food for my family? How can I improve the health of my family? Well, let me help.
First, get rid of ALL hydrogenated oils from your foods. Why do companies use it then? Because it is cheap! Hydrogenated oils, in my opinion, are the number one cause of heart disease.
Second, get rid of ALL food coloring from your children's food. You WILL notice a difference. I can help with sweet treat choices if you need alternatives.
Third, don't let your family drink artificial sweetners. That means NO diet soda's and while we are at it, don't let them drink sodas period. Re-introduce water and iced teas and lemonades sweetened with natural sweetners. Yes, there is a difference.
Fourth, get rid of all WHITE flour and sugar in your diet. Use honey, maple syrup, and raw sugar instead of the other stuff. Use unbleached, whole wheat, oat, millet, coconut, spelt, and other whole grain flours instead.
Fifth, concentrate on centering your diet on raw fruits and veggies. Organic if possible. There are 12 produce items that you do NOT have to buy organic because they aren't sprayed much or at all. This is called the "clean" list.
Onions, Avocados,frozen sweet corn,pineapples,mangoes,asparagus,frozen sweet peas,kiwi,bananas,cabbage,broccoli, and papayas. Notice many of these are tropical fruits.
Now for the dirty dozen. These are the worst foods for pesticides. They are peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries(the worst of all), cherries, pears, grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
We need to pick and choose our battles and none of us are going to live on this earth forever but wouldn't it honor the Lord to have the highest quality of life we possibly can to serve him better? Our children will learn better with better nutrition as well.
Okay! Off my soapbox!

Week 5

Tweak! Tweak! Tweak! Is that a bird? Did you hear a bird? Oh, hi!
We are tweaking and still tweaking. That is okay because eventually we will be right where we all want to be and we won't have to tweak until our lives seem to change again.
I'm just having fun here! We went to John Heinz refuge for bird watching /listening and we had a blast! It is truly a beautiful place and we saw some beautiful water birds. It's a little hard to not scare off all the birds with a big group of kids but it was still great.
We have not finished our mummy/sarcophagus yet but that is the way it goes. As long as it is done for our end of unit celebration at nine weeks, we should be good. Today we made cylinder seals. Next week we will finish our cylinder seals. The kids all have their first writing assignments to be graded. Whew! The pressure is on!
We are going to the Mennonite Visitors Center in two weeks to see the Tabernacle replica.
Val is due any day now so everything with us for next week is tentative. I know the Lord's timing is always perfect.
More later.

It's Been a While

Wow! The time has flown. I can't believe we are on week 4 already! I feel like we are finally coming out of the fog.
We are starting to get more done and into a routine. The confidence level has risen a bit as well. Our dance classes have started this week so this was a good week to feel like we are okay. Thursday we will work on the sarcofagus again and measure out the Ark using string. The younger kids may be going to John Heinz Refuge at some point.
They are studying birds so this is a real good time to go. Writing class seems slow to me but I'm following the curriculum and I'm seeing it's important to go over all the steps carefully so there is no question how to write the assignments when they come up. If anyone else is wondering what to do in the mean time, I suggest they do dictation every day. Even the 9th graders will benefit from that. Until Thursday!

Map and Dough Map

We met at Lisa's for mapping and the salt dough maps. It was, for some of us, the blind leading the blind. Some of us had it together and that is great! If one of us has it together we are good to go. I am definitely getting the hang of this. One day at a time of course. My girls LOVE mapping! Sarah keeps checking her dough map to see if it's drying. It really takes a long time to dry in humid weather.
Good news! I cleaned a lot of the basement last night and today and I think there is hope for next week. Sarah made a paddle doll today. It turned out very cute. Maybe as we have time, we can get together other times to do other activities as well. Especially for those who find doing art projects a challenge. Anyway, I guess we will learn as we go.
The girls were doing their maps today and I have a question. Maybe for Lisa - There are printed labels for "Egyptian Resource Map". Ummm... Can someone tell me where to find the directions for that? I'm sorry I'm so dumb here. I really need my hand held. I am NOT administrative in nature AT ALL! Reading manuals is very challenging for me. Right Laura?
Lisa, can you send me a few pix from yesterday so I can try to post them here for all to see? Thanks!
More later!

A Late Start

Well, it was a late start! I didn't get up until 7:00am. I already know one or two of you did NOT get up late. That is okay because we worked at a regular pace and just did what we could until 4:00pm. It was fun though and we did have to go to the orthodontist at 1:30. So we didn't work the whole time. I did let them come up for air.
Working through the curriculum, I feel like I'm forgetting to teach some stuff. I keep forgetting we have the whole week to do "Week 1". So that was day 1.
Day 2 was much better with getting up on time. I was up before 6:00am and so was Sarah and Jamie wasn't far behind. Steph.... well, she was really tired. She got up around 8:30. We had our first Writing class and Sarah had her first science class. I think it went very well! I was excited when we left. I was very happy with the way it went even though I think we all were a little nervous how it would go. Praise the Lord! He is so faithful to help us and carry us through. I can't wait until tomorrow for mapping and our salt dough maps!
We will not be here at my house though, my basement is not ready yet. It is a mess.
I am concerned about getting all our required reading in. It seems by the time we get everything else done, we are too tired to read. I actually read a chapter out of the Ancient Egyptians book to them at dinner tonight. I guess it really doesn't matter how they get the information, as long as they get it. How is everyone else doing?