Rejoice Over You

I think this is one of my favorite verses.

Just think of it--the Creator of our universe sings a love song about how much He loves YOU.

He created you, and He is delighted with you.

There is nothing ever that can separate His love from you.

He will never leave you--only you can leave Him.

And even then, He will still love you.

Forever.

Happy Sabbath!

Enjoy spending some time this Sabbath day with the one who rejoices over you with singing.

~Susan

In Search of the Perfect Pencil--Part 2!

Hi Everyone!

Does anyone have colored pencil brands that they love to suggest for our home school????  I am still looking for that "perfect" colored pencil.  The one that is fairly inexpensive, and the leads will not be so brittle that they break off when you are still sharpening it or even when you just gently lay the pencil down on the table!  Anyway, I have been researching and have a brand or two that I am interested in purchasing when I make my shopping orders for next year's school supplies.  But in the mean time, I have decided to copy one idea a home school mom shared with me.  She said that when the back to school sales are going on and you can buy them really cheap, she picks up several identical packages of the Crayola colored pencils.  Whenever one color breaks on her children, there are always several other pencils of the very same color that they can grab and just keep going so the broken pencil does not slow them down.  Later, when she gets a chance, she will go through and sharpen all the broken ones.

Another idea that I read about on a home school blog was from a mom who took all their colored pencils, made cardboard dividers inside a small shoe box, and they divided their colored pencils into sections according to color--without paying attention to what brand the pencil was--only to the color.

SO, trying to use just what we already have in the house, I gathered up two packages of Crayola's--these are the pencils that are driving me crazy due to pencil lead breakage.  But--they are in the house already, and we do have two packages so that means two of each color.  One could have a broken lead and the other could be grabbed and used so the project does not come to a stand still.  As long as that second pencil lead does not break, that is!

I then hunted down a different set of pencils that we had left over from home schooling our son.  I have no idea how they compare to Crayola's in the lead-breaking-department, but this is a set of Laurentien pencils and they were already paid for and in the house, so into the pile they went.

Out came the electric pencil sharpener, and all pencils got a brush up on their pointy leads.  Then it was time to organize. . .

The one (big!) purchase I did make was to run to Walmart and pick up a second big plastic pencil cup.  I had just gotten one for holding our Ticonderoga's, and if the colored pencils were going to sit out on our desk I wanted the pencil cups to match.  I know.  But it was only $2.00, so I could afford that splurge!

I already had some poster board in my school supplies, so I measured two pieces that would fit inside the cup and slit them.

Sliding them together gave me a nice X shape.

I did reinforce the slit parts with scotch tape attaching them to the "wall" next to them, so they would be a bit sturdier.

Last, we divided our pencils into four categories, roughly as follows:  1) reds, pinks, yellows, oranges,   2) greens, aquas, 3) browns, blacks, tans,  & 4) blues, purples, violets.

My hubby is referring to this as the "shot gun approach."  If one pencil lead breaks, hopefully we will have another exact or similar color so the project can continue on.  Someday I hope to just have nice pencils that the leads do not break so easily, but in the mean time, I am thrilled with how much more attractive placing the pencils right out on the desk top has made them.  My daughter has never been one who willingly wants to color something, but every day now finds her sitting at the desk and using the colored pencils to draw something.

And I call that SUCCESS!

Happy Home Schooling!

~Susan

God's Medicine Cabnet

Hi Everyone!

Found this funny being passed around on Facebook, and the thought struck me that there is SO much truth to this.  I mean, if we would only eat foods the way God grew them for us to eat, much of our health problems would disappear.  Not all, of course--we still live in a world of sin.  But we do so much to ourselves by our poor choices.  Kind of like pouring soda pop into your car gas tank and expecting it to operate great.  Really, it is a miracle that our bodies work as well as they do, considering what fake foods we give them much of the time--and then ask them to preform well.

Anyway, just something I am thinking about today.  God's healing foods--corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, grains, nuts, fruits, etc.

Hope you are enjoying some of God's wonderful foods today!

~Susan

Books of the Old Testament

Hi Everyone!

My daughter has been working on memorizing the books of the Bible in order this week.  This all started with a phone call from grandma.  My Mom asked her if she knew the books of the Bible, and she truthfully answered "Not all of them."  I wasn't home at the time this phone call took place, but when I heard about it later and was talking with my Mom, I couldn't resist teasing her just a bit and asking her "Well, why didn't you teach them to her while talking with her on the phone?"  

Anyway, so she had a bit of incentive, since she had been asked if she could do this.  Never one to back down from a challenge (she IS a native Texan, afterall!), we have been dutifully working on this project so she could tell Grandma "YES--I know them all!"

We haven't started working on the New Testament books yet--one step at a time.  But this morning I decided to video her saying/singing them, so Grandma can see her do it.  She did make one little mistake where she started to skip a book, but she caught herself and went back and corrected it.  I think that's an A+ job for any kid!

Hope you enjoy!  Later I will share some of the resources we used to help her learn, so that if you are interested in helping the children in your life learn the Bible (or you yourself!), you can! :)

Have a wonderful day with Jesus!

~Susan

My Newest Diet

New Year, New You.  Here is the newest diet plan that I am considering.  ;)

Laughing is good for you!

~Susan

Happy Birthday Uncle Arthur!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Uncle Arthur, Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuu!

No, Uncle Arthur isn't my REAL uncle, but I would sure claim the man even though I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person as he was born before "my time."  One hundred and seventeen years ago today--January 14, 1896, Arthur Stanley Maxwell was born in London, England.  During his lifetime, he served in many different positions, including author, editor, and administrator.  But what he is remembered for the best is as the author of the famous "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories" set.

When I was a child, these were my FAVORITE books in the whole world!!!  They are all stories of children--some made the right choice when facing a hard situation, and some did not, and I would read for hours at a time, knowing that these stories were about REAL kids just like me!  At that time, they were a huge twenty volume set.  My mom would sometimes buy one of us kids a volume for Christmas, or one volume for Easter, until our family had the whole set.  When we grew up, my older sister married someone who had his own childhood set--so she did not take her volumes with her (yea!), my older brother never had kids, so he said that I could have his volumes (double yea!) so that left our family set of books to be divided between my younger sister and myself.  Unfortunately a couple of the books were never found in the house, but we divided up what we did have.  Later, I found some volumes being sold on-line, so I bought them and shared the duplicates with my sister as we each had different volumes to start with.  I have 18 out of the original 20 volume set--I think I will forever be searching on-line for volumes 15 and 16!   Now a days they still publish Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, but they have condensed the 20 volume set down to only 5!  It's not the same!  Arthur Maxwell also published a 10 volume set  of "The Bible Story," which is still in publication today.  Many thanks to my brother-in-law who helped me purchase the Bible story books at a discount when our son was a little boy.

So there you have it--the reason why today is a very special day.  And while I never had the pleasure of meeting Uncle Arthur myself, my husband did teach at a college for ten years where Uncle Arthur's son was the president.  And if the father was anything like his son, then I know Uncle Arthur was indeed a wonderful Christian man and I look forward to meeting him some day in heaven and telling him what a blessing his books were to me growing up--and to my children as well!

Makes me wonder--what kind of influence am "I" leaving behind in this world?

In Search of the Perfect Pencil

Hi Everyone!

Our second semester of our school year is well under way by now.  It is always a bit of a hurdle to get started again, as Christmas break is usually quite long and your school schedule becomes sort of a distant memory. . . but last week we started back, and by Friday I was feeling like we really were getting our subjects done. :)

In between semesters is always a good time to evaluate how things in your school are going--what is going well, and maybe what isn't going well and what possibly could you do to change things for the better.  I have several home school blogs that I like to read on a regular basis, as I gather ideas for things that might help or work in our own home school.  Even if you have been home schooling for fourteen years like I have--and classroom teaching before that--it is still helpful to read about what others are doing and evaluate in your mind if that idea is worth adapting for your child.

WELL--this is a super simple thing that I found, but I am still thrilled about it so thought I would share just in case there is anyone else out there with the same frustrations as I have had.  I have finally found the perfect pencil!!!  I am serious--I have been SO frustrated with pencils breaking on my daughter all the time.  She will be one problem into a math sheet--and her pencil breaks.  She will ask me to sharpen it, so I do--and just the moment it gets to the right length, that lead will break off right in the pencil sharpener!  Grrrrrr!  This has happened SO many times, and I have always been frustrated when it does, as you lose your child's attention and it wastes math time and turns it into pencil-sharpening time.  I never remember having this problem when I was teaching in the classroom, but I chalked it up to companies making pencils less well now-a-days.  I still think this idea has some truth behind it--pencils didn't do this when I had 20+ students in my class!  At first, I thought it must be my pencil sharpener and the sharpener I had in my classroom (those old crank ones bolted to the wall!) must have been a better quality sharpener.  So I went to the teacher supply store and bought the highest quality non-electric non-bolt-to-the-wall sharpener they had.  I loved the sharpener--but the pencils still broke!  :(

FINALLY, this week as I was reading one of those other home school blogs I mentioned above, the mom writing the blog mentioned how they loved Ticonderoga pencils, as they didn't break as easily for them and they sharpened well!  My ears pricked up immediately, and if I could have I would have left my house that very second to run out and buy some!!!  But alas, I had to wait until the next day--but I bought some as soon as I could!  They ARE more expensive, but they are SO SO SO worth it in my humble opinion.  I sat down at home and sharpened 24 pencils in a row--and not even ONE broke while sharpening.  AND they write really nice as well!

So--you may think this is a foolish thing to be happy about, but as a home school teacher, I spend a lot of my day with a pencil in my hand--or trying to make sure my daughter has a pencil in HER hand!

Now.  If only I could find the perfect colored pencils. . .

Anyone have any suggestions?

~Susan

God for God Bible Marking System

Hi Everyone!

Hope your New Year is starting off well.  I know in our family, this is the first week with all schedules back full swing--back to full time work, full time school, full time life!

Just wanted to share with you a neat little something I ran across today.  It is a Bible-marking system that is so very simple, but I thought at the same time so very neat!

In a nutshell, you will need three highlighters to do this--one yellow, one blue, and one green.  As you are reading verses in your Bible this year, if you see a verse that is describing the character of God--mark that verse (or part of verse) yellow.  If you find a verse that talks about God's will for your life--this would include instructions, commandments, or counsel--mark that one blue.  The last category you look for is promises of God for you--those get marked green.

Here is an example of what the popular verse John 3:16 would look like using this method:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (God's Character -- Yellow), that whosoever believeth on Him (God's Will -- Blue)should not perish but have everlasting life." (God's Promise -- Green)  John 3:16

That's it!  Pretty simple, isn't it?  But it is supposed to help you really look at verses in a new way.  I haven't tried this yet, but I am certainally thinking about trying it!

I learned about this Bible marking method from this web site, if you would like to read more about it:

http://godforgod.vpweb.com/G4G-Bible-Marking-System.html

Let me know if any of you have tried this idea before, and how you liked it.  Or if you haven't tried it, what do you think of it?  I would love to hear from you! :)

~Susan

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I know I have been kind of quiet around here lately.  Too busy with family over the holidays to be spending much time on-line.  We flew out to California to spend Christmas with my father-in-law.  With my mother-in-law passing away in the Fall, this was his very first Christmas without her, and we had a wonderful time being together.  We missed Mom, but it gave us all a chance to talk about how much we loved her and how much love she gave to all of us.  I had not been able to fly out for the funeral, so this was my first time out since her death.

We visited the cemetery.  The new headstone was in place.  Kind of hard to look at a headstone and see your loved one's name on it.  But I know she loved her Savior, so in spite of my missing her I had peace about the fact that I will see her again some day when Jesus comes to take us all home.

None of us expected this death in the year 2012.  It came upon our family suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.  Last year held joy--and sorrow.

This new year I know will have both in it as well.

Which is why I do not dare enter this New Year without one thing--Jesus.

As we flew back home this past Monday, our flight started early in the morning when it was still quite dark.  After we had been flying for awhile, my husband peaked out my window seat window and brought my attention to the lovely sunrise (see photo above).  It was SO very pretty!  My camera focused quite a bit on the scratched plastic of the window, but I hope you can get the idea of how beautiful it was.  Breathtaking, really.

I couldn't help but think of this quote from one of my favorite books:

"Heaven and earth are no wider apart today than when shepherds listened to the angel's song.  Humanity is still as much the object of heaven's solicitude as when common men of common occupations met angels at noonday, and talked with the heavenly messengers in the vineyards and the fields.  To us in the common walks of life, heaven may be very near.  Angels from the courts above will attend the steps of those who come and go at God's command."  Desire of Ages p. 15

That's what I want--to come and go at God's command.  To have my life so in-tune with what my Creator wants me to do that I am directing my feet only to the path He wants me to take.  I want angels to attend my steps always.

Starting the new year by myself is terrifying.  Just one peak at the news tells us that our whole world is out of control.  Evil people hurt and steal.  Debt is rampant.  Even nature destroys large areas with floods and other disasters.  No--a new year by myself is not something to bring peace of mind to me!

But I am the object of the King of the Universe's attention.  He waits in the morning to meet with me.  He sends angels to attend my footsteps.  No good thing does He withhold from me.

The song that goes through my mind--"Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. . . "

I cannot predict what will happen to you or to me this year.  But I do know that if Jesus is with us, it's certain to be a Happy New Year!

~Susan