Redeemed

I heard a powerful testimony this past weekend, one of healing and forgiveness and overcoming. I love how God can use our most painful experiences, our failures, and mistakes, for His purposes. He redeems them! Today Mia misread her math assignment, quite frankly she assumed she was doing her doubles subtraction work, which is very easy for her. She knows you can just look at the the bottom number and that's the answer. 16-8=8 But, doubles work was yesterday, today the answers needed a different approach. Mia is a hard worker, she gets 100% almost every time, and she takes pride in that. Today, she got most problems wrong. This was devastating. Suddenly, she hated math, she hated school, she did not want to redo the work, she was a bucket of tears and frustration. Once again, the theme of redemption popped into my mind. I always circle the incorrect answers and put stars on the right ones. As the kids correct each mistake, I turn the circles into a smiley face or a puppy depending on my mood. This makes it fun for the kids, they get a secondary "reward" even if they didn't get the first star, and helps clarify which ones have been made right. Today though, I needed to go above and beyond to show her what can happen with old mistakes that are redeemed. Today's marks of error, signs of her mistake, were turned into beautiful princesses complete with starry wands. I cried through the whole thing. What a gift the Holy Spirit prompted me to give her. She was thrilled with the result and I was able to tell her, through my tears, that no matter what happens in her life she can always go to her Heavenly Father for redemption and he will make something beautiful from it.

You always have choices. You can crumple in defeat, and quit when you make mistakes or are hurt. You can hide and pretend they didn't happen. You can lash out and hurt other people, leaving a trail of further devastation behind you. Or you can allow God to change you, redeem you, and use those things for beautiful purposes that He has planned in advance for you.

Lord, my paper of a life is filled with lots of circles. Even the few stars I have are mostly just luck! But I turn myself into you for correction and healing. Make my mistakes, failures, and hurts something beautiful! AMEN!

When It Rains It Pours... er I Mean...

So, you can probably guess, if 10 chickens, or for that matter 30 chickens, weren't enough then surely one horse was not enough. Today we welcomed Stormy the miniature Appaloosa gelding to our farm.

He is only 2 years old, silvery gray and he and Sugar have quickly become the best of friends. When they first met through the fence, Sugar came running up, whinnied a loud hello and stamped her foot as any independent, spirited woman would. This was the most movement we've seen from Sugar since we got her. Then she sprinted over to the gate where we were leading Stormy in, they both whinnied a lot, danced around some, and then that was it. They were friends. I expected some bickering as they adjusted to each other but there wasn't any. Both are mild mannered and they don't wander more than 5 feet from each other now. I'll have to post another picture later, it was getting dark and that's the best I can do.

Now the work begins. We need to train them to our voice commands, the saddle, and eventually to a cart. Sugar has some experience with the saddle and riders and she's working on obeying voice commands but Stormy has very little experience with any of it. By the way, when I say "we" need to start training, you know of course I mean Andrew. After all this is his venture, I just get the joy of blogging about it.

And that's not all...

We also opened the front pasture up to 6 male alpacas. It's a win-win situation as we've been wondering how we were going to maintain the field and the owners of the alpacas needed extra grazing room for the herd. It's also another opportunity to bring in a little income and get familiar with the animals without the investment of actually buying some.

Josiah and Mia got to hold the lead on two of them but both dropped the ropes when they pulled too hard. Alpacas are stronger than they look and of course they were nervous in the new environment. Unfortunately they could only catch one right away and the other ran off with his lead dragging behind him. They were all in the field, but we didn't want the lead to get him caught up in anything. So, if you're wondering, catching an alpaca isn't easy. Especially when it's their first time in a new field and they've just gotten out of a trailer. Thankfully for me, Sierra needed to go down for a nap at the same time, so I got to watch the comedy unfold from the warmth and vantage point of the house. The couple that brought them over, Andrew, Josiah and Mia were all waving their hands, arms outstretched, forming a semi circle trying to corner them on one end of the field. Those wiley alpacas though, they managed to bob and weave and work their way out of the little trap.

Pacas 1, humans 0.

They tried again, this time with all the leads they had removed from the other alpacas tied into one long rope. The alpacas saw that coming and ran all the way around to the other side of the field.

Pacas 2, humans 0.

Finally, with the extra leverage of a tree in the corner and the extension of a long branch cutting off the get away angle, they got them cornered and were able to grab the lead. Phew!

Game over. Humans win 3-2 with that last second 3 point play! It was great fun to watch!! I was thinking that I actually should have joined in, perhaps that would have sent me into labor. Oh, there's still plenty of time to chase them around.

To top it all off. Josiah found another garter snake, only this one is a lot smaller. He named him Carter. We're keeping him outside in the same little tub we used before. Hopefully he'll last longer than the other one. I'm wondering if a raccoon or some other predator got the last one. Poor thing.

Another Awesome Homeschool Day

I'm sorry to keep blogging about this but it is the newest thing in my life and I'm loving it. It is so rewarding to push through the hard times and to enjoy the wonderful times. This week we did more science. Last week dealt more with history. Both encouraged us to look for answers, be it on a map or globe, in the yard or in a book, online... you name it. It's been so fun to be on this discovery journey with the kids.


So, we're studying the water cycle and rocks and soil. We've had several experiments which have been fun. One was testing the amount of water different plants extracted and then transcipitated back into the air. We just sealed plastic bags over the tops of different types of plant trimmings and put them in cups of water then compared the amount of water in the bag when we were done. Another was testing our soil - that one was a flop but I don't think the kids noticed. They just had fun putting dirt and water in a test tube with some powdery stuff and watching it change colors.


Today, though, we went on a rock exploration at Larwood Park in Scio. There are two creeks that join there and the setting is beautiful. We climbed all around the creek bed looking for different types of rocks to compare. I can't believe the variety we found! We also enjoyed watching small fish play in our shadows and picnicking near the water. How lucky are we that this was school today!!


Here's Mia looking for great rocks.
Josiah's looking for some rocks eroded by the waterfall.

Sierra found a great example of erosion!

Here we are comparing the density of different rocks by pounding them together.

Josiah was in charge of keeping the records of our findings.

Grandpa Davis joined us which was extra nice for Sierra and I so that she could play with him and I didn't have to worry about her taking an unintended swim.

In fact we should get some credit toward PE for the day, too. One for swimming...

...and one for balance beam.

The Cooler parts of HomesCool.

Today, after I was working with Mia on her reading skills, Sierra climbed up beside me and said, "Can you teach me to read now, too, Mama?" It was so sweet. We sat and worked some letter sounds until she was satisfied that she made sufficient progress for the day.

The girls are also working on their "All About Me" books. They've cut out tons of magazine pictures and glued their collages of things they love (mostly cats and dogs) and then we did a photo shoot with them at home, on the phone, with family, etc. Then with that they are learning their phone numbers, address and how to introduce themselves. Mia is really accomplishing these things, Sierra is along for the ride and learning cutting and gluing skills at this point.

Anyway, here are some of their pictures for the book...

A few of Mia's favorite things.

Our white house.

The funny thing about this phone picture is that she totally looks like I'm interrupting her but it was all staged. One of the takes was blurry but it would have been the best, she was actually mouthing some words. Crack me up!

Day Two of Nordstrom Academy

I'm just kidding, we didn't name our home school. I know some people do but given our name... I just couldn't do it. It's strange, I haven't had time to blog in so long, then I start up with home schooling and I get two out right away. I think I just need the release after the balancing act that the day feels like. I'm definitely not confident or feeling like it's going smoothly, but today went a lot better than yesterday. Josiah said to me, "Mom, you're the best teacher." That really helped. Later in the day he said, "Home school is so much easier that real school." D'OH! I told him that I took that as a personal challenge.

Honestly, I just don't feel like there is too much more I can do to make it harder until the rest of my resources come in. I'm finding that the kids already know so much, that most of what is suggested in the curriculum is just a time waster so I skip it. I will start spelling next week so that will help some and I definitely see a need for some handwriting work, which I knew going into this. Other than that I'm looking forward to getting further into the year so we can actually learn some new things.

By the way, thanks for all the encouragement, today was better than yesterday and we still have room to improve so I guess we're right on pace. I have to add, I LOVE seeing the kids learn and it's worth it to push through the tough times for the times when I'm there to see the dots connect for them or to be amazed by how much they remember or to introduce them to a new thought. What a privilege I've been given!

As for the rest of life, Andrew will be showing the house twice today, not that I'm prepared but he helped out some, mostly getting his stuff out of the house which is really what I wanted for the sake of my own sanity anyway, so WIN-WIN. I really don't want to move until after the baby comes so I'm just not worried about cleaning up or making any kind of impression. Well, I guess either way an impression is being made... but most of the time I don't know them anyway!! I'm also meeting with the midwife tonight. So, it's a busy Tuesday. I really hope I just click with this midwife right off so I don't have to keep searching. If I can squeeze it in I'd like to interview one more just to have a comparison but we'll see how tonight goes. Based on her website photo it looks like she has purple highlights, that might be fun. (An update on the tub request: it's not a "No". Andrew is searching Craig's List for something that would work. Ya!)

Beginning the Homeschool Journey

Well, my 4 boxes of homeschool curriculum came in... last week! It took me almost a full week to finally work up the nerve to open them up and begin figuring out our plan of attack. I've seen a few people's systems and all of them are very different but work well for them. Just like parenting, I guess we all have to figure out what works for us and our kids. So, I'm still discovering what I think will work best for us but I've also come to understand that it will be a constant work in progress. A question was posed to me just yesterday that I think needs to be answered as I determine how I will proceed in this new homeschool adventure. "What is my goal?" Is it to prepare them for college? Is it to prepare them for life in the working world? Is it to prepare them for service? Is it simply to make them self-sufficient learners? When I determine my goal then my path to get there will be much clearer.

Last year I had the chance to ask a former missionary kid what his feelings were about growing up in a boarding house away from his family for year at a time. I have to admit, I have immediate judgement that the kids should be with the parents, reaping from the lessons of service and ministry, and that they themselves are one of the parents' mission fields. (It's so easy to have everything figured out when it isn't your life or your circumstances!!) His perspective was that his parents were giving him the best advantage in life by sending him to an English school so he would be best prepared to do whatever God had in mind. He also said that in our Western culture we tend to idolize our kids, making our decisions revolve around them and their short term comfort. Ew, idolize! That's not good and short term comfort is not the legacy I want to leave with my kids. I thought his point was one worth examining. Unfortunately, I'm still considering it and have not come to any rock solid conclusions. Maybe it's just fine to keep it in the back of my mind as a parental check point but I have a feeling I'll have more to blog on this thought as we get into the school year.

The original point of pursuing homeschooling was due to the fact that our summers would be fully occupied with camps and in order to have a vacation or visit family and friends we'd need the flexibility that homeschool would offer. Also, in Newport, the schools are 20-30 minutes away one way in the non-snow season. With one child going 1/2 days and the other full days it just seemed like we'd be in the van all day long! Even with our future still in limbo it makes sense to be ready to go when God says, "Go!" and to begin this homeschool journey while I'm still in familiar territory.

As for the camp, I have no further updates. We have two interested parties for the business, whether they are viable options to purchase remains to be seen. I'm guessing this whole thing will work out in a way that will blow our minds and not be anywhere near the original plan that we had put together. We're good with that. I can't wait to celebrate but for now we wait on the Lord. He is good!!