Moose Hunt 2010

Here are my boys posing proudly with the moose my husband harvested back in October. We are still enjoying this moose. We had some of the meat made into sausage and we used that sausage in our Christmas stuffing! What a blessing to our growing family as well as it made for lifelong memories for the boys AND we could count some of the hunt as SCHOOL! I guess I'm becoming quite the Mainah these days-because I really LOVE moose meat! I am so thankful every day I can go to my freezer and get such lean, healthy meat and not have to drag my kids to the grocery store! What a blessing!
I loved what Sarah Palin had to say in her show, Sara Palin's Alaska, about having meat in your freezer. I am not ashamed anymore to say we have meat in our freezer! :) Here's the link to the clip from the show:
http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/sarah-palins-alaska-shes-a-great-shot.html

Leaving our study of Ur with Abraham

We have been journeying through history from Creation to Noah's flood to the tower of Babel. Presently we are leaving Ur and the Sumerian culture that God called Abraham out of. Above is a picture of the ingredients we used to make a lentil stew. The Fertile Crescent was a very fertile land for growing lentils and other crops during Abraham's days.

The lentils are soaking in the pot here.

The finished stew!

Enjoying the meal as a family!

Dressing up to complete the lentil stew experience! The boys thought I was a bit carried away! :)

The Princess Turns 3!

We had a fabulous birthday party for my dd last week!

Here is her princess castle cake! The cake was made with ricotta cheese and apples with cream cheese frosting. Even the children were asking for seconds on the cake! (I can't tell you how many times we throw away cake that has been served to the children. They usually won't eat a lot of cake.)

Some of the delicious sandwiches to go along with our princess feast of bbq chicken, potato salad (pink of course!), pink mac-n-cheese, macaroni salad, chips and dip, and pink lemonade!

The lovely Queen Elizabeth, aka, "Granny"! When she said she was going to dress up she wasn't kidding!

The princess hosting her friends for dinner!

My 14 year-old ds dressed as a jester doing some juggling for the children. He had quite an audience, even the adults were entertained!

One of our guests was very helpful in our craft time. The girls all got to make their own princess crowns from foam, glitter, stickers, and glue!

The bouncy castle we rented to go with our theme. The kids had a blast!

Digging for the King's treasure! We bought two big bags of rice and added it to our sand table. We buried gold coins from the dollar store and some fancy gem stones from the dollar store too! It was quite a hit!

Me, as Jasmine, dh as a knight and baby as Tinkerbell!

Princess Party and new Homeschool curriculum!

Who would have thought we would be having a princess party after three boys? But it's true my dd is turning three tomorrow and it hardly seems possible!

We have been busy making preparations for the party in the midst of starting a new curriculum. We are trying the Winter Promise http://www.winterpromise.com/ high school edition of Quest for the Ancient World. We are also following Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations cd's as well but found the book to be too hard to implement. It took us nearly two months to get through one unit because it lacked clear set daily goals for my kids. I like to see my lesson plans written out "Sonlight style", http://www.sonlight.com/ I call it and that's exactly what Winter Promise has done. It's so much like the user friendly Sonlight materials. I plan to use both throughout the coming years as the Lord provides the funding!
Yesterday I set up an archeological site survey in the back yard implenting the first activity in the Archeology for Kids         http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Kids-Uncovering-Mysteries-Activities/dp/1556523955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288352096&sr=8-1

It went really well. It took a lot of work to map out the site of a 10 x 10 square. The boys decided they definitely did not want to be archeologists but they came away with a better understanding and appreciation of what archeologists actually do and why! http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.answersingenesis.org%2Farticles%2Fnab%2Fdoes-archaeology-support-the-bible&h=d5e09 Here is a great article about how archeologists help people BELIEVE the Bible as historical TRUTH.

TRUTH. That's what I try to teach my kids. We discuss a lot of things thoughout the day and that's part of the reason we enjoy homeschool so much! My ds who is 12 is a constant talker. When he was in 2nd grade in the Christian school (before homeschooling) his teacher said he talked too much! No kidding?! Well, I let him talk all he wants because that's how he learns and processess the world is through discussion. It's not an easy day, but it's worth the effort when I see my kids getting along well with one another and ENJOYING life together!