Gray Glory

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. 
The skies display his craftsmanship.  Psalm 19:1 NLT

Biblical Education

I'm 41 today.  I hope my 42nd year will be one of being "diligent to show myself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth" (2Timothy 2:15).   I pray that I will (paraphrasing Colossians 1:28) proclaim Christ, admonishing and teaching my children with all wisdom, that I may present them complete in Christ, and that I will labor for this purpose, "striving according to His power which mightily works within me".  (Colossians. 1:29)
      And this is why we use the Weaver Curriculum.  We believe knowledge of God and His Word is the most important knowledge the kids can possess.  
     A while back in our "home education journey", having tried the classical approach, the Charlotte Mason method, and literature-based unit studies (among others), we began to question more deeply our real purpose and goals in educating our children.  

• What does it matter if they "speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love" for God and others?  
• What is truly the point of knowing "all mysteries and all knowledge" without loving and knowing God? (referencing 1 Corinthians 13:1-2)    
• So what if they've read every great book in the Sonlight catalog or every "living book" on commendable book lists.  Can any of them (or even all of them taken together) claim to be "inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be fully adequate, equipped for every good work" (2Timothy 3:16-17)?  
•  And why, really, why in the world am I willing to teach an entire year on the Little House on the Prairie (or the Chronicles of Narnia or various topics such as sharks or castles), but doubt the validity of teaching based on God's Word?

     So here we are nearly a year into Weaver, enjoying it immensely, learning an incredible amount on a whole variety of topics.  Most significantly, tho, we are finding that indeed the Scriptures are more than sufficient for all we need to know.

More fun fishing.  

Husband & Son had a very successful fishing trip Thursday eve.  Son was so proud to have caught The Biggest.

Summer occupations:

the 6th (yes, 6th!) lug of peaches

In addition to fresh eating and the peach ice cream we'll make this evening, I've already canned 26 quarts of sliced peaches and 21 jars (of various sizes) of jam, but everyone decided that wasn't enough jam.  So back to the store this morning for another lug!

And fishing

Husband and kids finally had a chance to go fishing -- the first this year.  They had a fun evening and we had a great supper the next day.

ERRRRRGH!!!  I took several beautiful pictures on our nature walk this morning, intending to post them today.  But when I attempted to download them, the camera seemed to jam up part way through and now isn't reading any picts.  Hopefully Husband can fix it later.  In the meantime, here are some spring picts of kids.

                                  My beautiful girls on Mother's Day.

                        Son & Littlest playing drums for worship time.

Just returned from the dentist.  They deep-cleaned the lower left back teeth, deep enough to require anesthetic.  Then they pulled my upper left wisdom tooth.  Wasn't too bad --tho not very fun right now with one side of my face numb, and trying to bite firmly on the gauze with my lower gums complaining loudly.  M-I-L & Bug are determined that I will rest as much as I need so helping with kids and dinner.  How blessed I am!

I will return!  I must!  I simply must find time to keep in touch with my dear friends too far away to visit.  Somehow....

School room (with the exception of two cabinets) is CLEAN!!!!!


Oh happy, happy, HAPPY day!!


My Lenten "fast" this year is decluttering, getting rid of all the nonessential extras crowding us out of our home and demanding so much time and energy to manage. MIL helped this week with clothes in storage. Today the kids helped with the school room.


AAAHHHH... I'm 10 pounds lighter!

Dear Friend,
Today, thanks to help from MIL & Husband, I got the piles of clothes packed into our storage room cleaned out. Half a van-load taken to Share & Care. I'm now down to 1 box of baby clothes, 1 box-girl, 1 box-boy, 1 box-jammies, and 1 basket-coats. Saving clothes for children spread out by 4 years -each- takes LOTS of room. Decided it was unnecessary and overwhelming. So just keeping the nicer, less-replaceable things now. Whew!!! What a wonderful relief to have that job done.
Trying hard to settle more into calling myself a Weaver. I love the curriculum --well, the idea of it anyway. Several times over the last two years since purchasing it, I get all determined to just go to it, by-the-book. Then, right at the point of beginning, I get all kinds of ideas for "improving" it. First, it was wanting to start at the beginning, with "Creation". The further I went trying to develop my own thing, the more I relied on Considering God's Creation, till I was mostly following it. Fine, but what about Weaver? Then prepared to go to it again and got all kinds of ideas for rearranging the topics. Took so much time, I lost track and did other things to sort of fill in the blank. Now about two-three weeks ago, I again felt convicted to get going on what God had led me to do (Weaver). Sat down to prepare and thought --hmmm, here we are 4-ish weeks away from Easter. What better time to do the month-long study on the life of Christ that I had previously planned to throw in throughout the year (in an effort not to spend all our time in the Old Testament). It follows the Weaver pattern using a Bible lesson to launch into Social Studies, Science, etc. My theme will be "Heroes", looking at who's the greatest Hero, examples of godly and worldly heroes, and how we can be true heroes. I think it will be tons of fun, very educational & enjoyable, and a timely preparation for Easter as we build toward Christ' death and resurrection. My only hesitation --it's not technically following Weaver!! When, oh when, will I be able to just open a curriculum and do it?!?
I've been thinking of you and praying for you. How are you?? Wish I could just run next door and say hi!!! Oh, what a beautiful dream that would be!
Love you, my friend.

Dear Friend,
"Sniffle, snuff, snuffle-snuffle, snort." This is what I hear all day. No, it's not the dog. No, it's not crying. Just kids with head colds. Bubs (what we call Son -- Bee's shortened version of Brother Bear that just stuck) started first with a sore throat, quickly followed by runny nose. Then Bee, Bette, and we'll see about Bug. Not a bad one, but Bette kept me up most of Tuesday night and Husband was up with her about half of last night. Oh well, who needs sleep, anyway?!
Learning lately to notice and fight self-pity. I told Husband recently that I think the Bane of a woman's existence is not her monthly cycle, but rather self-pity! It so easily sneaks in and colors everything we think, do and are. I recently discovered that I have held years of bitterness against my children(!!) because some area of their personality made life difficult for me. --So when I talk about sleepless nights, I have to keep this to the forefront and remember, remember to "count it all joy when (I) face trials of many kinds" and be thankful. Amazing the help and hope God gives when we lean on Him in gratitude.

Gotta go make breakfast...
Love you