"New" School Year

Last week, after we got unpacked from our vacation, cleaned up the house, we sat down to start a "new" school year. The reason I have new in quotations is because we NEVER stop learning, so our school year never truly has a beginning or ending. We have school seven days a week, 365 days a year. But anyway, we were excited, because we picked up some new books. I found some "old" books that are wonderful. For our language, writing, reading, spelling we are using the McGuffey Readers. The girls really enjoy them. They are fun to read, easy to teach from. We also found a wonderful math program. It is the most practical math program I have found. My girls actually think math is fun now. Before we had many tears and lots of frustration. Now they actually look forward to working in their new book. It is so refreshing to find books that people many years ago used and became successful using them. We are also beginning to learn Latin, with Rosetta Stone. We are also continuing to use our Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home curriculum. Next week, they will begin a class on home finances. They continue to cook, learn new crocheting techniques, sewing, they weekly dehydrate foods, they have learned canning, bread making, etc. But of all these things, we truly love our Worship time that we start our day with. We sing hymns with a cd accompaniment, we work on catechism, read from Proverbs for Parents, and work out of the Joy of Womanhood Bible study. We are also studying Washington State history and geography this year. This is going to be another great time of learning. I am looking forward to all that we will be learning, because as I teach the girls, I learn right along with them.

Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth Speaks

Well, this is a hard subject for me to write on, but it is where I am at, so I felt led to put it on here too. I have a hard time with my mouth, a lot, I say things without thinking and then regret them afterwards. As I was reading a chapter from one of my favorite books last week, there were all these verses on our heart and mouth. In the past I have always focused on what I say, but God's Word shows us that if we control what goes into our hearts then what comes out of our mouth will be good. Here is one of those verses, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." (Luke 6:45) So I saw that I must be VERY vigilant watching what I allow into my mind and heart. What do I watch, what do I read, what/who do I listen to, what do I dwell on.
God says I must KEEP my mind on, "...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8) I must also, "...examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)
I also must remember to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
So if you are like me, which I hope you are not, keep these verses close to you, memorize them and let God use them to change what is on the inside, so what comes out will be honorable and pleasing to Him (and less likely to get you into trouble.)

Passing on the Flag to our Children

Edith Schaeffer wrote a wonderful article about passing off the flag of our faith to our children. This is a must read for ALL parents. It is lengthy, but well worth your time. If we don't pass off our faith to them then who will? God has given us the responsibility to train and nurture the children He has blessed us with. It is NO ONE else's responsibility but our's. We must take this responsibility seriously and not expect ANYONE else to do our job.

True Biblical Mothering

A friend of mine found this article on another blog. It was truly inspirational and convicting. May ALL mother's strive to be the mother that God created them to be. I pray that you will be blessed by this article.

Vacation Day 9

Well, this will be the last official full day of our vacation. (tomorrow we fly home). We went to Sea World Orlando today. It was a WONDERFUL time had by all. It is unbelieveable what they can get whales, dolphins, seals, walrus', etc. to do. I will put in a couple of videos so you can get an idea. Here are some photos too.

A saw fish flying over our heads, there was a walk through aquarium
Ralph and I waiting for the Shamu show to start

The girls at Sea World, not sure if they are ready for our vacation to end

Vacation Day 8 part 2

The second half of day eight was spent at Disney World Hollywood Studios. It was very interesting, especially for Ralph who likes all the behind the scenes "stuff". We saw how they did some of the stunts for Indiana Jones, we went to a sound studio, we took a tour of the back lot and saw some of the props and experienced an earthquake and flood, we went on a Star Wars ride, among other things. Here are a few photos of our experience.

The girls and I at the Indiana Jones part

A fire starts here (I think it is hard to see though) in the back lot because of an earthquake (the tram we are on is shaking and feeling like it is going to fall of the tracks)
Here is the flooding caused by the earthquake breaking water mains (Ralph was getting wet, at least he was able to keep the camera dry)

One of the space craft from Star Wars

A miniature of the New York skyline

Vacation Day 8 part 1

We started day eight at the GatorLand park. You read it right, they have an alligator park in Florida. It was, shall we say, VERY interesting. We watched some gator wrestling, feeding frenzies, and people having tarantula's and snakes put in their hands unexpectedly. Here are some photos and a short video clip.

Here we are at the opening to the park

Here is Ralph saving the girls from the "killer" gator

This guy was really keeping an eye on us

A sign by an area with parrots in it

Either a very brave or very stupid bird


A gator wrestler

Grandpa Noa, Grandma Tonita and Alicia on train ride around the park

Ralph, Hannah and I on the train
Ralph wrestling the alligator

Some people from the audience holding a Burmese python (as you can see none of us volunteered)

Some gators trying to get out of the sun, it was a very hot, humid day

Here we are leaving the way we came, back through the mouth of the gator

Vacation Day 7

On day seven we went to the Epcot Center. It was a very good experience, for the most part. We have found a LOT of animal rights/environmental "wacko" stuff at all of the parks so far. We just keep telling the girls that they can't believe everything they hear and that there are a LOT of misinformed people. Anyway we flew to Mars, a lot of fun. We toured France, England, Mexico, Norway, China, Japan, Germany, Morroco, United Kingdom and Canada. We also went on some other attractions. Here are a few photos (we took the least amount of photos here for some reason. Maybe because we were doing SO much!)

The girls and I while still in the parking lot

Ralph and the girls in front of one of the many fountains at the park

The Ladies in front of something called a "telephone booth" in Great Britian

Ralph and I in Morocco

The Ladies in Morocco, "Knock, knock, is anyone home?"

Ralph and I in front of a Viking ship in Norway

Vacation Day 5-6

Well, day 5 was the day of rest, so we went to church with Ralph's father and step mother. It was very interesting. It was a catholic mass in Spanish. It was a very up beat service though. The girls and I enjoyed the music and picked out the words we knew in Spanish. It was a two hour service.

On day 6, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We went on an African Safari and to a presentation with a lot of different kinds of birds, as well as other activities there. Here are a few photos from that.

Rhino

Giraffe

Elephant

Gorilla

The Ladies with a rhino

Here are the girls and I at the Birds of Flight presentation

Kimono Dragon

A large bat hanging upside down (I didn't know they could get this big!)

The Ladies in front of a tiger painting

Vacation Day 4

On day 4, we went to the Holy Land Experience. It was very interesting, giving you a feeling of what it could have been like a couple of thousand years ago.

The Nativity

Jerusalem's temple

A miniature replica of Jerusalem

A priest with a shofar, he played it really well, he could even play two at a time with different notes coming from each of them, it sounded very melodic

Alicia and Hannah in front of Noah's Ark

Ralph and I with a Roman guard

The empty tomb

The angels rolling the stone away :)

Jerusalem market

Moses, Alicia holding the Ten Commandments, and Hannah