Friday, January 25, 2013

Hershey and friends

This weekend some of our friends from Richmond came to visit! One thing we did was go to Hershey Chocolate World. It is always fun to experience how chocolate is made and enjoy a little sample! The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing together after not seeing each otter for 10 weeks! Casey and I enjoyed catching up too. It was a blessing to spend time with them!







CC

One of the highlights of the last few weeks has been joining a homeschool group called Classical Conversations. It is held on Tuesday mornings from 9-12 and then we stay for lunch and "recess". Lucy is in the nursery and the boys are each in their own class. We all learn the same new content each week. There is a lot of memorizing to song and it has been amazing to see the boys pick it up.

One of the things for this week was learning what the tallest mountain on each continent is. We have been incorporating the CC material into our lesson plan for the week at home. Today each boy chose their favorite mountain and we "recreated" it and painted it. They were so into it! Owen wanted Mt. Everest of course. It is the tallest of all! Naturally Baxter chose the 2nd tallest - Anconagua in South America. (I found the idea for this here: http://solagratiamom.blogspot.com/?m=1)

While they were busy building and painting Lucy was busy playing with some dry pasta and bowls. This went well until she dumped it on the floor. That seems to be her favorite past time these days. I can't wait for her to outgrow that!!

Thankful to be learning with and alongside these precious boys. Even though they are each learning new ways to push my buttons and rebel. I am learning that the gospel is big enough to handle their issues and mine :) and we can walk through that with each other.

All that said ... Thankful the weekend is here!







Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Library!!

We finally got my drivers license today so we got to go to the LIBRARY!! Wow did we miss it. We were all like little kids in the candy store. It was especially fun for me to get some books for the boys that go perfectly with what we are learning about.

Good to see this little reader in his sea of books!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Day by day

We sang this song at our evening worship service on Sunday. It had a beautiful tune, but the content of the words is what really stood out to me. It speaks of the presence and action of God in and for us each day, each minute, each hour. As I start of another busy day I thought it would be important to revisit the lyrics and meditate on who God is for me and what He is at work doing in His world today.

"Every day The Lord himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour."

How I need His mercy each hour. Often in a different way each hour - patience with my kids as they wake up cranky or demanding, perseverance to walk with them and help them every part of the day, strength to work hard during their rest time to get chores done, faith to see God at work and God able to work in my heart and theirs even though we struggle with the same things every day...etc etc.

If you can click on the picture and zoom in, I think you too will b encouraged by what you find is true of God this day and every day! If you can't see it you can also google it and find it, the title is, "Day by Day and With Each Passing Moment."

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

PA Farm Show

Today we were introduced to the PA Farm Show. It was really great and overwhelming. Picture a HUGE convention center FULL of cows, pigs, horses, sheep, tractors, chicks hatching, ducks sliding on a slide, sheep being sheared and their wool being turned into yarn, a large butter sculpture etc.

It was a great field trip for us! We went with another family at church and had a blast. They loved petting a horse and rabbit.

Oh, and our kids rode on a bus for the first time. Oh, homeschooling :).

Here are a few pics.







Walking

We live very near the Army War College in our apartment. There is a neat trail as part of the Army Heritage Education Center. It is a 2 mile trail with all sorts of things to see and explore (bunkers, tanks, helicopters, etc!). It was 40 degrees the other day which is our new warm :) so we went. O had put on shorts earlier...should have had him change! It was real chilly after the sun went down!

Love to have a new place to go where the kids can just run and explore and have fun.









Saturday, January 05, 2013

Our new home

God has really provided a smooth transition for us to our new church and town. The first few weeks were especially hard for our precious Baxter, but he, as well as Owen and Lucy, really seem settled and content. We are all really enjoying the church and people that God has called us to know and love and care for. They have been very welcoming and gracious. Matt is learning how to plan his weeks in order to prep for 2 sermons and also counseling/lunches/committees/etc. God is meeting him in that! We are getting back into our school routine which is also really helpful. We really enjoy the town and the area - it's a really beautiful part of God's world! The mountains are beautiful and the rolling hills are covered in snow. Every day the sunrise and sunsets are amazing...wow! It is rather COLD but we are trying to tough it out!

Don't get me wrong, we have days and moments that we miss our dear friends from Richmond, all of the fun things we loved there and the mild weather! It is still sinking in that we have actually moved. When I changed our address with the post office, it asked if this was a temporary change or permanent. I clicked permanent. There are often moments that remind us of that. Both the blessings and the sadness remind us of that. Thankful that our address change is not the only thing that is "permanent" but that God and His presence and care and loving faithfulness are also permanent!

One thing that is not permanent is our apartment. It has been a very good place to transition to. It is clean and safe and close to the church. It is however temporary. And small and narrow. Our new home is going to be started this coming week! Wednesday is the day they should break ground! We are so excited. We are also impatient. We are so ready to make this final transition and really make our home here and have people in our home and get to know our neighbors, etc.

Here is a pic of the "before". We will add more as we go. We are so thankful for it and can't wait to use it for His glory!