Names of Jesus

For the month of December we take a break from our regular school stuff (except for math) and do a Christmas study. This year we're studying the Names of Jesus. And lest you think I am oh, so smart, I must tell you I got the idea from easyfunschool. They have loads of ideas for Christmas. We started with Alpha and Omega and made these banners:
















TADA......


I did print the verse from Revelation 22:13 and glued it to the middle. After that we did Wonderful Counselor (they had to solve a dilemma about Johnny who was with some friends and a conversation was taking a turn for the worse - oh my! what should Johnny do?); Everlasting Father (did a family tree for this which they had fun doing); Mighty God (made a Jesus is mightier than... picture collage with pictures of mighty things such as: a vacuum, oven, binoculars, a dog with a tree in his mouth, germs, Mighty Dog dog food to name a few. We also had grapes on toothpicks for barbels) ; Prince of Peace; Unspeakable Gift (we wrapped a box to reminds us of Jesus love for us and wrote a thank you note to God); Lamb of God (made a cotton ball lamb); and Good Shepherd. Most of them included copywork of a verse which we have put into a Christmas journal/scrapbook along with the other things we've done. Here's a picture of a few things which will go in later:

And that's it for our Christmas study for now. Oh, and we light our Advent candles and are reading Bartholomew's Passage this year as well. We are liking this one.

Festive (Easy) Ornaments

The kids and I made these ornaments with peppermint candies the other day and they were soooo easy - even the craft challenged could do this:

Ok, I don't know why my picture turned out liked that. I am so not a whiz at this stuff. But anyways, unwrap the candy, make your design-making sure they touch and bake in the oven for a few minutes. I baked mine at 300 for about 5 minutes. You'll see some of them are a little overdone. (If you do a better homes & garden search online, you can get better directions :) Although, I have to admit I did accidentally break the tree at the bottom. I had glued thread for hanging and thought the glue was dry BUT it wasn't and it broke. After looking at the directions, you are supposed to insert a hanger AFTER they come out of the oven and the candy is soft. Same with the decorations which we put on before. I guess it would pay to read the instructions carefully before you start :) And then a piece of candy broke off the cross. And you know what? Craft glue doesn't work for gluing pieces of candy together! Who knew? So that's it - my festive candy ornaments.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

It's that time of year and we've been busy! The day after Thanksgiving we went and cut our own tree - a 9 footer!! It really didn't look THAT big outside. Good thing we have a cathedral ceiling in the family room. Z couldn't wait to put the lights on and decorate it. Most of it is done - it just needs a few last touches. And I really tried not to rearrange the clustered ornaments... We did some shopping today since there's supposed to be a lot of snow tomorrow. So I'm thinking it'll be a good day to work on some gifts or maybe make some fudge. Tonight we made our annual Christmas countdown straw for Jesus' crib:




Twenty-five strips are cut and each day a piece of "straw" is torn off and put into Jesus' crib:



We're doing a Christmas study of the Names of Jesus that we've been working on all week. But I'll save that for another post. Now if we could only unpack all the boxes with the decorations.... For now though I'm going to of have a cup of tea and watch Rudolph.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Munchie - A New Creation

When we had gone our nature hunt, we looked and looked and looked for monarch caterpillars. They were very hard to find (after searching I don't know how many milkweeds, J gave up - he was tired of looking!) But Z and I didn't and we finally found one - HOORAY! So Munchie came home with us:


We set him up in his new home and fed him some milk weed (which he obviously enjoyed from the mess he left behind:). We continued to feed him for a few days and he then went into his "J" position:

And the next day he became this:


I was really annoyed that we missed this part so we brought him inside after that. I certainly did NOT want to miss him coming out of this!!! Now he was in his chrysallis when we were getting ready to go on vacation and we didn't want to miss him coming out. Sooo....we did what any normal homeschooling family would do....


Yep, we took him along! He was a good traveler - didn't complain, didn't ask how long it would take, didn't ask for a potty break and he didn't mind my loud music either. What more could you ask for in a travel companion?

About five days later while we went out for lunch we came back and ....

TADA....

He came out while we were gone! Sigh.... maybe next time we'll get to see it. Anyways, we didn't want to let him out because the weather was rainy and miserable. So he got to stay with us one more night before we let him go. The following day we let him out. He didn't come out right away so Z pulled the stick out that Munchie was on. I think he was getting a little nervous that something happened to Munchie and that's why he wasn't flying. After awhile he finally fluttered his wings but stayed on the stick. Perhaps he really, really liked his stick? I'm not sure. But eventually he fluttered some more and went a couple inches from the stick:

He stayed there for awhile and fluttered his wings some more for us. We were going out for lunch so we said good bye and wished him well on his journey to Mexico.

His wings were fluttering while I took this picture which is why it's a little blurry. It was really neat to see this new creation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

After we returned from vacation, we finished our pages for our nature journal:


Next year I'm going to start looking earlier so maybe we can have more than one. We'll see if I remember - time goes oh so fast!

Nature Study - Outdoor Challenge #1

I've been wanting to use nature study as our science and decided to give it a try this year. It sure wasn't hard to convince the boys. We went out for our nature study walk to a nearby park and found a shelter that was next to a creek. (you know how water is just fascinating for boys :) We found all sorts of things - salamander, crayfish, mushrooms, animal bones and took lots of pictures. Here are a few:

this guy kind of blends in:



We're not sure what left this print but J would like to find out.... (i think he'll be disappointed if it's "just" a dog)
my guess is raccoon for this one...


We're not sure what this is either but we want to find out - poison ivy perhaps? We didn't touch it just to be on the safe side.

Here are the treasures we brought home: The leaves and queen anne's lace are in a book so we can study them and put them in our notebook. The poofy round thing (which came from a tree) and cicada shell are going on our nature shelf.


But this was our best find and, truth be told, it was one of the reasons we went out:

And, of course, Munchie came home with us but more on him in a separate post.

It was a great day to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the boys ask everyday if we can do nature study. Now if they would only ask everyday to do their language arts.....

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Favorites

I always see in blogs Thankful Thursday, Works for me Wednesday or even Wordless Wednesday - I'm know I've seen something for Tuesday but I can't think of it right now. So I thought I'd do my own: Friday Favorites (catchy huh?) . So here we go, these are a few of my favorite things: (hard not to hum the tune from the Sound of Music isn't it?)

1. My husband and boys (really, what kind of wife and mom would I be if I didn't list this?)
2. Roses - they are my absolute favorite flower. Since we have moved into this house, they have given me a rose bush on almost every mother's day!
3. Chocolate peanut butter ice cream. A dairy nearby make the best - lots of hunks of peanut butter, mmmm...)
4. Reading - I love to read!
5. Scrapbooking!!! Although I don't get to it as often as I would like - but that's the way life is sometimes.

So there you have it - a few of my favorite things. Oh, be assured there's more but perhaps I'll save that for another Friday. Enjoy your favorites and have a great day!

Vacation

We returned from our vacation in the Finger Lakes Region on Monday. We had a great time camping. Our site was on a creek which the boys loved! The first thing they did when we parked was take their sneakers off and go in the creek. We did a lot of hiking. Oh, did I mention I forgot my camera? Honestly, how can a person go on vacation and not take their camera?!?!? I still haven't figured it out but that's what I did. My husband placated me by buying 3 disposable cameras. Not the same if you ask me but what could I do? We hiked Taughannock Falls - 215 feet - the highest in NYS. (Picture it in your head....nice and tall and loud!) We hiked at Watkins Glen - 19 water falls there. Walked behind quite a few waterfalls there. (Again, you'll have to picture it in your head :) I liked that hike. We met our neighbors at Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca on Saturday and they brought my camera!!! Hooray, I was so thankful and glad to have my camera! We hiked the falls to the top. As I am soooo out of shape, it was a tough beginning for me. But it eventually got better. And now you no longer have to picture it in your mind....




Z the brave one. He was only one out of four boys who would jump in! So, his Dad joined him.

We also had a couple uninvited visitors .....

eewwww..... he was named Spike and came home with us and released a few days later in the nearby creek.

double eewww! He found his way out of the box and slithered into the bushes. Thank God they came into my husband's path and not mine.

A view of the creek behind our site:

So there you have it - a short recap of our vacation. Now to figure out where to go next year....

Chautauqua Lake

We had a great weekend camping in Chautauqua. It's one of my favorite places to go. The weather was beautiful. We had campfires, ate s'mores and went for walks. We did some hiking at the Jamestown Audubon & Wildlife Sanctuary and saw Liberty the eagle:



The muscles are damaged in her wing and she is unable to survive on her own. What an awesome creature. We also saw frogs playing tag in the lily pads but I couldn't get a picture of that.

After we packed up the camper to come home, the boys decided they wanted to go fishing. So we stopped at the lake . It was a great day for it (although a little windy).

Here's my husband's great catch...

Am I blessed or what?!? (good thing we weren't counting on that for dinner)


Z caught an abundance of fish mostly pumpkin seed and J caught a couple also (I guess he wasn't in the right spot).



After a couples of hours it was time to come home, unpack, put stuff away in the kitchen, put stuff away in the bathroom, put clothes away, clean out the cooler and whatever else. I love to camp but all that packing before and after is not my favorite thing. And then there's all that laundry....

wordless wednesday

A Mother's Love

A Mother's Love

A Mother's love is something
that no one can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain.
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away...
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking...
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems...
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation...
A many spendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand.

Helen Steiner Rice

Even a Dandelion Can be Pretty

Ok, so ... I either need to get a life or I am "officially" a blogger since I am posting before and after pictures of something I made. (I believe this would be my friend Daune's (Life is so Short, Yet so Eternal) fault as she is the one who encouraged me in this blogging business ;)

This is before....



and this would be after....

Amazing what a person can do with a notebook and wallpaper (and someone else's directions). Have a great day!

Melissa

Easter Prayer

I wish I could say I came up with this myself, but I didn't. I came across it on the Presidential Prayer Team website.

O God, who for our redemption gave your only begotten Son to death on the Cross, and by his glorious resurrection has delivered us from the power of our enemy:

Grant that we who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit. Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with Him in the joy of His resurrection, empowered and transformed by your grace in and among us.

O Lord, so stir up in your church, indeed in each of us, that Spirit of adoption and reconcilliation that is made possible by your grace revealed in Jesus the Christ, that we being renewed in both body and mind, may worship and serve you in sincerity and truth. We pray this in the name of the same Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy SPirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

from The Book of Common Prayer

Channels of His Love

Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace

That where there is hatred - I may bring love,
That where there is wrong - I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,
That where there is discord - I may bring harmony,
That where there is error I may bring truth,
That where there is doubt - I may bring faith,
That where there is despair - I may bring hope,
That where there is shadows - I may bring light,
That where there is sadness - I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather To comfort - than to be comforted
To understand - than to be understood
To love - than to be loved;
For it is by giving -
That one receives;
It is by self-forgetting -
That one finds;
It is by forgiving -
That one is forgiven;
It is by dying -
That one awakens to eternal life.
Francis of Assisi

I know very little about Francis of Assisi (other than I see his statue in gardens but I don't think that counts) but I loved this poem that was in my son's reader. That I would live this way - WOW!

Melissa