Beautiful Music

Listen to the beautiful music I heard coming from the girls' room tonight:

"The glory of the Lord shone bright around him [Moses], and the Lord said, 'I am God and I am a merciful God, gracious and slow to anger, and filled with a steadfast love.  Yet those who have sinned shall suffer for it, and their sins shall be visited upon the generations.  Behold!  I will make a covenant with you today.  Obey me and you shall see the work that God will do for Israel.  Other nations will be driven before you and you shall possess the land of Canaan.  You shall break down the altars of the Canaanites and destroy the idols of all other peoples who worship false gods!  You shall win a great and terrible victory, if only you are faithful to me.  Now, write down my laws once more, and keep them as I intend!'  So Moses wrote down the Ten Commandments again, and brought them to his people."

(Jaela was reading aloud to Anya from one of their Bible Storybooks.  The only word she stumbled over was "Commandments"!)

O, Christmas Tree!

The day after Thanksgiving, the girls talked me into getting out the Christmas stuff a little earlier than usual.  We set up our nativity sets, hung up the stockings and decorated everything except for the tree (because we didn't have one!).  

We usually get a live tree, and then Mike takes care of everything -- he trims the trunk, gets the tree level in the stand, cuts any stray branches, fills the stand with water, puts on the lights... I wasn't looking forward to doing all that in addition to finding, bringing home, and wrestling with a live tree this year on my own, with four kids in tow.  

OK, I was dreading it!  

Have I mentioned how much we LOVE our neighbors?  :)  They called last week and offered me one of their artificial trees.  I was seriously considering having the kids make a tree out of their handprints cut out of green construction paper, so I think it is fair to say that Mark and Mary might have just saved our Christmas!  Well, maybe not our whole Christmas, but at the very least they saved our tradition of decorating the tree!

While the kids finished eating lunch, I set up the tree.  During nap time I put the lights on (I have gained a new appreciation for Mike doing it every year!), and I had enough time to put up some lighted garlands on the front porch, too.  After the girls got up, we put the ornaments on the tree while Isaak finished his nap.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Monkey see, Monkey do, Monkey get in trouble too!  At least that's what his shirt said today...

At lunchtime today, I told the kids I was going downstairs to make lunch, and as usual, Isaak dropped what he was doing and followed me down.  While I got lunch together, Isaak got plates out of the cupboard and lined them up on the counter.  I stopped him after he'd gotten four out, and showed him that there was one for Jaela, one for Macey, one for Anya, and one for Isaak, and that he really didn't need to get any more out.  (He usually gets every plate in the cupboard out no matter what I tell him, but for once he actually stopped!)  After I pointed out that there was a plate for each of them, Isaak stood for a moment looking from me to the table.  Then he started making trips back and forth.

A plate for Anya, a plate for Jaela, a plate for Isaak, a plate for Macey.  Each time, I would see a plate pop up over the edge of the table, tilt until it was flat on the table, then finally a little hand would appear as it released the plate, all four fingers stuck straight up in the air.  He was SO proud of himself!  

I gave him the forks to put around, too, then put him in his chair as his sisters came to the table.  "Isaak did all of these?!?"  Isaak answered for himself, with a big grin and more of those emphatic head nods.  

Monkey see, Monkey do...but the rest doesn't always follow!

I Am Thankful

I am thankful that when things happen that we don't expect, God is faithful in ways that we don't expect.

And I'm thankful that we can't see what's coming, either.

God is good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seatbelt Check...for Eternity

I thought that I was just making sure that everyone had their seat belts on correctly after we left the re-cycle place today.  Instead, it was the beginning of a very interesting discussion on death, heaven, and worship.  It was a very long conversation, but here are some quick highlights:

Macey:  I hope I get to die when I'm still a kid, because I really want to go to heaven and see Jesus and God.

Jaela: When I die and go to heaven, I might be shy of Jesus.

Anya:  I just want to go to heaven and see what the angels look like!

Am I Cheap, or Just Lazy?

I am feeling just a LITTLE proud of myself!  During naptime today, I cut my own hair!

Before

After

I hate going to get my hair cut.  I hate spending the money, and I hate figuring out what to do with the kids while I'm getting it cut.  So, I have been planning this "do-it-myself" experiment  for a while, but I waited until after Mike left.  That way, if I made too much of a mess of it, at least he wouldn't have to look at it!  :)

Repetition, Repetition

We begin every school day (except for Tuesdays, since we leave the house between 7:30 and 8:00 for CHET) with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Our address and phone numbers, how to dial 911, and all the memory verses we've worked on as well as the current one are all posted on the bulletin board above our school-table for easy reference.  After the Pledge of Allegiance, we review our address and phone numbers, and our memory verse for the week.  About once a week, we also review how and when to dial 911.

Our memory verses (in the NIV) this year are ABC verses.  Each week's verse starts with the next letter of the alphabet.  (A:  All Scripture is God-breathed...  B:  Blessed are the...  C:  Children, obey your parents...  and so on.)  Most of the verses were chosen for their, um, instructive nature, and as I have mentioned in an earlier post, they're not only instructive for the kids;  I need them too!  :)