Monday 4-18-2011

We are due to start The Thanksgiving Story and finish the Sign of the Beaver---but we've already finished those. So, I checked out:

The Trailblazing Life of Daniel Boone and How Early Americans Took to the Road (Cheryl Harness Histories) - Hardcover (Sept. 11, 2007) by Cheryl Harness

We finished Cheryl Harness' book :The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the... by Cheryl Harness and liked it so well; I thought we would add this one in too. I have a big stack of books I want to read for this part of history. I'd really like for us to get to know the Pilgrims, Jamestown, Mayflower, Speedwell,.......

Last week was less than a LOW. We had dd's birthday party here on Saturday. So, it took us part of everyday to get things ready. We did math, handwriting, and reading everyday. We missed a few days of bible. We had a Hawaiian themed party and all the girls wore hulu skirts and lei's. For our main craft the girls each got a new white canvas bag from Michaels and got to glue on fabric birds, flowers, fish, leaves, flip-flops, etc. then with fabric glue they wrote their names in the middle. It was a lot of fun watching them create! The second craft was making bracelets/necklaces with beades (*esp. shells) to finish up the theme. There were just 4 girls total (dd and 3 others) so it was a small group.

I guess we practically had a 'spring break' with the small amount of lessons we accomplished. It was good for us to get a little break. I had shopping and we don't 'shop' normally; except for groceries, so it was good to go look for craft ideas and compare the stores and all that.

This is our last week of Aqua Athlete's; the gym and swim lesson class. Dd has really loved it. Her teacher came over to us last week and said she thought dd should join a swim team and invited her to come to her class the following night to give it a try. We went and they swam laps for over a hour. Dd didn't complain; but she decided she wasn't ready for that much swimming!!! I was disappointed; as a past swim instructor myself, that they never corrected anything. She could really have used a few pointers; but all they did was keep going lap after lap without any instruction. I am glad we went; and will now work on the strokes with her myself.

I want to thank you all for praying for my tooth. I know it sounds so less than even mentionable to even bring up a tooth hurting compared to all the major things going wrong in the world. I had just had it capped a few weeks ago and I knew it only needed to settle down after all the trauma and it would be okay again. It is doing so much better. It isn't back to normal yet; but it is greatly improved. Thank you all so much!

We went back to a church we found 2 weeks ago and really enjoyed our visit. Out of the last 3 Sunday's we have gone there twice. It is very small, very much like our old church we loved before we moved. They sing out of the hymnal; which we love. And the sermons have been home-runs! Bonus! Some of you all know how long we have been looking for a church to replace the one we first started going to when we moved here; and had a bad blow-out when we left. This church is a bit of a long drive out into the country; but well worth the effort so far. This could be an answered prayer request. The congregation has been very friendly; but not awkward, which is a hard thing to balance. I am praising God for this step in the right direction.

Well, it seems I am having a hard time staying on topic! I hope you don't mind my over-sharing; but God has truly blessed me these past 2 weeks. I just wanted to share. Ever since we have moved up by Indianapolis our life has been very, very difficult. My health really took a dive, my dh's job took a huge dive, dd's behaviors, all 3 dogs we brought up with us have slowly, one by one died off, huge church problems -where before church had always been a blessing, no friends, no fellow homeschoolers to befriend....it has truly been very tough. But, through all this hardship I've felt my faith in God grow by leaps and bounds. He has really stayed so close to me throughout each day and I've felt him and the power of prayer. I was listening to the radio a few days ago and the message was about how he had traveled a long time with 'peace/contentment' and she rambled and talked the whole time. When he arrived at his destination he found he had not learned anything. Then, he traveled with 'hardship' and not a word was spoken the whole time; but when he arrived he had learned so much. It is truly encouraging to know that even though we have to go through such hard life lessons that God will be with us throughout, and that in the end our faith and wisdom will be increased--we will be blessed by having gone through it.