faith walk

wild grapes

This is the wild grape vine that grows in our yard over our play fort. It is huge- the vine is thicker then my arm-. Well this year it produced a bounty of grapes, for us to pick and taste. It has been alot of fun . And provided a fun learning adventure as we took some and made some fresh grape juice.





a plate of fresh picked grapes, they are a bit sour compared to the cultivated ones but they are interesting and fun. its funny how willy-nilly the clusters are compared to cultivated bunches.




Mashing the grapes wrapped in some cloth and squeezing the juice into a ziploc bag, we did get enough for everyone to try a sip. And grape juice is also a great dye , maybe mix in cold cream for face paint?







The wild grape juice was very earthy tasting, and a bit sour. the kids got a kick out of mashing them and trying it. Madeline set a few grapes in the sun to see if they will become raisins. We also think this would make good ink to to write with.Perhaps we will try that this week.

MId-Atlantic Reptile Show

We attended the Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show last weekend. My kids loved it, they are big time animal people, and love all creatures. I had never seen so many snakes, lizards,and frogs in one place before. There was much to see and much to learn. WE all enjoyed the adventure.There where many interesting people to talk to as well.







looking at some of the many many snakes that where there with the breeders so many beautiful creatures I had no idea of all the colors and sizes in the world. Shawn liked seeing them since most where moving and at his eye level. I will say all the breeders where so interesting to talk to and answered endless questions from my kids. and many let them hold whatever they wanted.there of course where also booths with toys, and books, and shirts for sale. Grace an Madeline's favorite attraction- shopping!;-)







How about this huge tortoise, who was only$799, WOW!! Adam and Grace thought it was 7.99, no not even close. Should have seen their faces when I said no it was almost 800$.He was a sweet guy though an let us touch him all over and feed him some carrots.



This was Grace's favorite trip of the year, she is my no fear of anything child. She loves all creatures, great and small and wanted to hold everything.

We are now reading up and studying the bearded dragon all the kids feel in love with those little lizards, and want one. However , they and I are researching them out first, reptiles are so sensitive to changes in the environment and need very special care. We have to understand all that is involved before we bring one to live with us.

sweet potato bread

wanted to share this with you all a friend sent it to me, and we are making it later today. It is very yummy, i tried hers. We are into baking mode here my favorite thing to do and this is the time of year for it:-)This is so good with a nice cup of tea out on the porch in the afternoon while the baby is napping and the others are playing in the woods across the street. A perfect me time indulgence:-)

Faith

All we need is Faith

All things are possible with Jesus. Walk in Faith and follow the saviour, and all will be well. We are building our kingdom for Christ and Christ alone.

When all seems lost or hopeless and we have lost our way all we need is faith in the lord he will pick us up dust us off and get us going on our way again.

Blessings to all dear ones.

Where there is faith there is a voice calling keep walking your not alone in this world:-)

Serenity Prayer

this is one of my favorite prayers and thoughts. So often we want to change everything, and we cannot. WE need to accept and let Jesus have control. And that means once we let him have control we have to stop fretting over the problem, and going back over it. We just have let it go.We as humans tend to be impatient and not want to wait for God to decide when things will happen we want to 'help'. And often we just prolong the issue longer then it need be.

So today I pray to know what I cannot control an to truly let Jesus have it. To free myself form worry and quilt. To find peace in the Lord who is in control .

Madeline's eggplant dip

Madeline made a yummy roasted eggplant spread on the grill- with a little help from me of course-
. . This is such a simple side to make we make it alot while waiting for dinner , it is such a healthy addition to the meal. Egg plant has a lot of nutritional value to it.
First select a nice eggplant, we get ours fresh from a farm near us so they are firm and nicely colored, then put it on your grill over medium heat- poke a few holes in it - like when baking a potato-. Close the lid then wait till it gets nice and black and wrinkled.



When the skin cracks and is black - mine actually exploded, she forgot to poke hole in it for when it expands, so I got a bit of a surprise, - let it cool a minute then peel off skin and put the flesh in a bowl and mash it up .





Mix in a few other things and that's all that is in it. The roasted eggplant takes on a more distinct flavor, almost a smoky taste.





Madeline gives it a taste and says yummy, and all plated on her serving plate. She did a great job. At 13-14 in a few weeks- she is becoming quite a little cook she is really enjoying experimenting with new foods and adding new flavors together. She has my curiosity about flavors and how they work together.






While a couple of our guest politely tried the eggplant, some where not fans of it. But it is a yummy very earthy flavor, theres nothing processed in it I think folks get so used to all the fat and other stuff they forget what real food tastes like.

we love this dip and do make it quite a bit. Actually the kids are pretty good veggie eaters. we also made a fresh lima bean casserole that week with mushrooms and carrots it was so good. We do get some odd looks when the kids eat this stuff, but I do not keep much if any junkie food in the house so they only get sweets on holidays or on some nights when we do smores on the fire pit.

I believe God gave us one body and we should treat it well. Nourish it with good things- both spiritually and food wise-.When we are nourished we are in a clear state of mind and have the strengh and energy to accomplish any task the Lord asks us to do.

Shawn and his trains

Shawn has discovered the fun of the Thomas trains:-) We have quite a few from all the other kids so he has plenty to choose from.They just recently really got his attention,perhaps it was the trip to Straushburgh and all the big trains, and the huge Thomas displays everywhere. I have been reading him- and the others too- the Thomas books- which where written by a minister- as he plays and he likes it. We have a lot of the stories so they are a good add in and helps with language skills. Shawn is not a big talker yet so maybe these will encourage him along.





Shawn let Adam join in the fun with him he likes the helicopter-Harold-. It was so nice just watching them create and imagine together.


He likes keeping them all very close to him and gets such a huge smile when he plays. He does let us play with him, but is picky about who we can use:-)




Shawn really likes these trains, he even sleeps with them all in a bucket. Too funny. All the kids have liked Thomas but not as much as Shawn he is quite taken with them.

end of summer camp-out

The kids and daddy spent the night in our yard in the tent. It is the closest to camping we could get this year but the kids don;t care to them it was a night of fun and memories.




Putting up the tent proved a bit tricky they waited until it was dark and that made it a bit harder. They where just to busy having fun to realize it was dark. But it did get put together.With out much bickering:-)







They roasted marshmallows by the fire pit and had glow sticks and necklaces, which broke so they used the glow gel and drew all over the place and our whole patio looked like a million stars by the time they where done.

Then it was into jammies and into the cozy tent for snuggeling and stories;-)Shawn and i went inside for the night.





they had a great night sleeping in the tent with daddy, though daddy did not sleep too well:-) This is a time they will always remember, .How blessed we are to be able to spend this time with the children, just enjoying them watching them be silly and love life. The innocence of childhood is fleeting but it is something we all should try to hold onto- Remember Jesus said ' Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for it those such as these who will enter the kingdom of heaven'-.

illustrating our names

In our monthly art class , we talked about illustration. And made illustrations of our names. We also talked about how we each had a unique name and we are all unique to God, he knows each of us by name :-)

We first drew names in big puffy letters.





The puffy letters where colored with bright colors and/or illustrated with things the kids liked, see how Grace's c is a caterpillar, and the dot on Madeline's i is a guinea pig:-)




we brought them home to finish and since Shawn did not make one there we helped him make one at home. the plan is to hang them on their doors.

Hullabaloo

We recently got this game in a bag of used games from a fellow homeschooler the box was a bit worn but the game is in great shape. It is a bunch of many colored and shaped pieces with various pictures on them- animals, food, instruments etc..You scatter them all over the floor-theres a lot of these pieces-. Then press the button on the control box, this leads you through all kinds of moves and instructions to move from piece to piece- stomp to red, spin to a food, hop to a triangle etc..-. It is a lot of fun, my kids have been playing this endlessly for the last week.Shawn really likes it , even though he does not get the whole idea yet, he likes the throwing the pieces all over and dances to the music and is learning colors and shapes a bit.

It has been a lot of fun since there have quite a few rainy afternoons this past week, and the kids get to burn energy and have a lot of fun in the process. They have even played it in the yard. The pieces are made of a rubbery material so it is weather tolerant to a point.

I know they like it they have just gotten up and I can hear it on already . We are working on going a bit more unplugged- gasp!- so this has certainly occupied them to the point they do not care about other diversions:-) And it has also been a nice break in our school days when they say ' my brain hurts'- this just cracks me up-I can get them to play this or something else for a while- so they get some learning in and not know it.

Jock's Island

We finished our first read aloud this year, we actually read this in one afternoon. It is a story about a border collie living on a volcanic island, when the volcano becomes active the villagers leave , with out the animals. Jock does not know why the people are all gone, he eventually finds Lar's who lives on the far side of the island and who takes him in , they become great friends. And have some fun adventures together. It is a fun quick read. all the kids enjoyed it and it was a nice way to spend a rainy chilly afternoon. We curled up on the couch lit some candles had soft music in the background a pot roast in the crock pot, had a plate of just baked cookies and snuggled together. It was a wonderful time.

This is just the afternoon that makes me remember why we home school in the first place for times like these. To love a good book together, and not rush through it , to be content to be with each other, and enjoy our company. It was a wonderfully blessed afternoon that came when I was doubting my home school, its nice how god gently reminds us why we are doing this . And reminds us how precious his lambs are and that he is the one guiding our school and will give us what we need and show us what we need to teach and how to do it.

a grasshopper visit

It was such a nice fall afternoon yesterday we moved our school out on to the front porch.While we where working, along came a grasshopper he started out on my candle holder and then Grace persuaded him to climb on her thumb. He was pretty content and seemed to not mind. I know they can pack quite the bite when agitated, but he was pretty docile.






He seems to be checking over Grace's math assignment and giving her a few pointers. He would not move off her finger which was a bit funny.




He did hop off on his own, after he was done visiting with us. He was quite an exciting quest to have visit us yesterday.