our dozen beautiful feet

A couple of years ago, I started digging into how to teach my kids to really understand literature.  Luke was finishing sixth grade and had read a lot of great books on his own.  But we hadn't done much with literary analysis, or real literature.  He'd mostly read classics for kids or historical fiction to bring his history studies to life.  As we moved into middle school, I was trying to figure out the best way to tackle the Great Books.  I started out looking for the perfect curriculum to guide us through the Great Books, to provide us with a reading list and the right questions to think about. I downloaded samples and made book lists, compared book lists, re-arranged book lists. I thoroughly examined Veritas Press Omnibus, Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside Online, Classical Conversations, Old Western Culture, Beautiful Feet, Sonlight, Memoria Press, Excellence in Literature, Schole Academy, www.classical-homeschooling.org.   With a few exceptions, I felt l...

Since this is our first year as a family to observe Lent together, I'd like to keep a diary of sorts with pictures of the things we've done and remember our first experience through this season. For the family, I opted to follow Rich & Rooted Passover. It's organized with three study days a week, a day of Prayer, a day of Alms (either giving money or acts of service), a day of feasting, and a day of worship. We began on Ash Wednesday with our own little ceremony. We talked about the purpose of Lent being a time to remember that we are made from the dust, and we will return to dust. Thinking of the end of our life encourages us to contemplate what it means to live fully and well today.  We spent some time talking about what it means to live well and to live fully, a life more abundant, and what things might keep us from living that way, things that hold us back.  We all wrote those things down on a sheet of paper and burned them in a small bowl.  After that, we se...

When our kids were small, we began the tradition of observing Advent as a family. Neither Paul nor I grew up observing Advent or Lent, or celebrated things like Ash Wednesday. But a mentor friend of mine had given me a set of Jesse Tree ornaments, and a devotional guide for the Advent season to go along with it, and we began to do this every year for our children. As we've returned to the US and found ourselves most at home in a Presbyterian church, we have been introduced to the celebrations of Lent and Ash Wednesday.  These were very unknown things to us a year ago, and I will always remember vividly my first Ash Wednesday service last year!  This year, I wanted to be much more intentional to embrace this season of anticipation. I'm learning a lot about and hope to grow through it these next six weeks, as well as lead my kids to some self-flection. Here are some resources we'll be using to help us navigate this season as newbies: I found this article that is a grea...

I found this digging through some old files on my computer. I think I wrote it maybe five years ago, long before I was blogging, as a note to myself.  It was an excellent reminder to me this week. I got an email from a friend and it mentioned not praising what is not praiseworthy. This friend was talking about reading People magazine and how it’s truly hypocritical.   I think what she means is she enjoys reading it, but is disgusted with what she’s reading, which is why she enjoys it. J   It struck a chord with me and caused me to consider, what do I do with my actions or words that teach my kids to praise what is not praiseworthy?   If the kids see me spending more time on my appearance each morning than I do with the Lord, it teaches my girls that beauty is more valuable than Christ, and my boys that a beautiful woman is more valuable than a spiritually deep one. If the kids observe that Paul and I would prefer to watch television or read a book *every*...

Okay.  The past two months have been pretty tough.  Right after Recess (homeschool conference in February), we had a group of friends arrive to help us with some medical camps.  Paul's sister was part of the group, and we had such a great time with them!  We had three different camps running for three days: a dental clinic, a First Responder training/CPR, and the third was a Fetal Development class for ladies.  It was a long week, out to villages, all over town, but a lot was accomplished, and we had such a good time hanging out with other Americans. Before they came though, Paul and I both were feeling tired.  We knew we were pretty run down, and just not ourselves. I kept telling Paul, "I just feel like we're not really living!"  I knew my thyroid/autoimmune stuff was still an issue.  The anti-thyroid drugs I'm on were managing my physical symptoms well, but emotionally and spiritually, we were both struggling. After our friends left, anoth...

We are getting back into the swing of things here at Preedy Academy!  This week, we began a new unit in our third year of Tapestry.  I just love the Tapestry books!  This unit, we are covering 1825 to 1850.  We began our studies with a look at the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, the last of the aristocratic presidents.  We also studied DeWitt Clinton, Governor of New York and his dream of seeing the Erie Canal come to be! I didn't really know anything about the Erie Canal, but we went through a great book by Cheryl Harness that was very well-illustrated and engaging.  It had a song in the back cover that we also really enjoyed learning about the building of the Erie Canal. This unit, I'm moving more of our work out of a notebook and into a copybook.  The kids have had copybooks for a couple of years now.  But I've just used it literally to copy things into, quotes, Bible verses from time to time. It hasn't been very useful.  So this ...

I know we all have them from time to time. The kind of days that make us wish we had a different life. Fewer kids. An easier existence.  I''m being brutally honest here. It's been a not-so-very-good-week.  I feel like I can't quite do anything well.  The kids are constant.  "Mom, I need water. Mom, I need help with math. Mom, I'm hungry. Can we go outside? Can I play the Wii? Can we go to McDonalds?"  And then Meryn is just screaming.  Always screaming.  Because she's happy.  Because she's frustrated.  Because she is tired, or hungry, or for any other number of unknown reasons. Sometimes, it's all just too much.  The kids are up before my alarm goes off most days.  I really have NO idea when they get up, because I'm usually up by 6:15 or 6:30.  So from the moment my feet hit the floor until about 9 or 9:30 at night, it's kid time.  I never have enough patience.  I never have enough creativity.  I'm constantly ...

Since we returned to South Asia in February, we have been blessed to have Bimla living with us and helping me around the house.  She has the sweetest spirit.  She loves the kids.  She's a fantastic cook.  She helps.  She serves.  With joy.  She is a gift from the Lord.  I don't know what I would do without her. God has been so good to me.  She has such a pure, kind heart.  She senses what I need and just does it. When Meryn is screaming and being demanding and I'm trying to teach, Bimla swoops in and picks her up and goes off to play, dropping whatever she was doing before.  When it's time for lunch, she never asks me, "What should I make today?" She simply goes in the kitchen and figures something out with what we have, because she can tell I'm already overloaded with interruptions and we're trying to finish math. When she has something on her mind or heart, she talks to me.  We have the greatest conversations.  A fe...

I've been living in a real relationship with Jesus for about 15 years, and you would think I would have learned this before now.  I admit I've never really had the kind of prayer life I'd love to have, it's always bee something I've struggled with.  I've found it easiest to pray while writing, it keeps me focused and less rambling to be writing my thoughts. So I've always kept a prayer journal. But lately, I just haven't even had words to pray/write.  I've heard others say things before about praying in faith, and having enough faith to believe God will accomplish what we ask.  I've read the Scriptures about asking Him and Him giving you the desires of your heart. But over the past year, as we've waited for step after step to get us closer to bringing Meryn home, I've watched myself go through the following cycle.  We need to see something happen: fill in the blank.  I begin to pray, believing that God can accomplish this thing on ou...

Good news! Our private investigator finished his work, and I received all his documents and summary over the weekend.  After pouring over it all again and again, looking for typos, misspellings, inconsistencies, things that don't make sense....  I finally think it is ready to go.  He did a really thorough job, and I can't find anywhere that I think he could have done more.  Our case is a really straight forward one without much room for question to it. Except for one little fact that is just a fact. It cannot be changed, it is there and there's nothing we can do to "fix" it.  We're not ready to share the details of this, but I feel it needs to be covered by prayers.  It is something that could have been avoided if the proper care and attention had been given at the very beginning, but at this point, it is too late and we just have to roll with it. I feel very hopeful that this will be something the Embassy sees fairly often and will not pose any proble...

Today, Baby Yusuf was discharged from the hospital. We were able to visit him and his parents for the first time since his liver transplant almost one month ago.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves (mostly)! I just have to say... Oh.My.Word.  Look at all that hair! This kid had no hair. His body is finally working and giving him the nourishment he needs! And he's BROWN!!! Not YELLOW!!! Praise God, Praise God.... Yusuf's father in the background, so happy! How precious is he!!?? Yusuf with his beautiful mother..., and the first time I've ever seen him smile! LOVE! She kept telling him, "Yusuf, you need to get well fast! Meryn is coming to play with you!" Melt my heart... They're just about three months apart... Just LOOk at those eyelashes! All the medicines for Yusuf.  His parents are troopers to be keeping track of all this! The happy family (minus the four proud sisters... a new family ...

God has done amazing things for this little baby Yusuf!  After doing lots of research a couple of months ago, we were able to find a hospital in Delhi willing to discount their services in liver transplant for Yusuf and his family.  And not just any hospital.  According to their surgeon, they are the number one, #1, hospital in the world for infant liver transplants.  Seriously. So the doctors all agreed to work for free, and gave them a bed in the government ward, also free.  Their only costs will be medicines and consumables through their stay.  But this will still amount to a whopping $15,000.  Not to mention Yusuf will need about $150 of medications for 24 months post-surgery.  Shew. So we began to pray that God would provide this amount.  And that Yusuf's father could be a donor.  Turns out he's compatible, he can give Yusuf a small lobe of his liver.  What a praise! And, within just a few weeks, our family members, who ...

I have a confession.  For all these months, as I have watched God do some pretty amazing things in our adoption, and seen how at every turn, things happened just as soon as they could, my faith has been strengthened. So has my expectation.  As we finished the court process and began the Embassy process with our adoption, I entered this phase with full expectation that God would be consistent.  That we would face no delays (even though nearly everyone else was), and that our daughter would be home in 8 weeks or so.   Folks, it's not going to happen.  A couple of weeks ago, I returned from the land of optimism (foolish optimism, let's be real), to reality.  There were a few instances in the last couple of weeks that crashed in conflict with my expectations and caused a crisis of faith.  Or at least a crisis of expectation.   Just because I expect God to do something doesn't mean He's going to do it.  And just because I think it'...