7 Years! WOW!

It is hard to believe that seven years have passed since Arthur and I welcomed Dacia Grace into our lives.  I am currently listening to Arthur recount her birth story.  It never ceases to amaze me and humble me.  God performed so many miracles that day.

Happy birthday to Arthur and to Dacia Grace!  I love being your wife and your mommy!  I am so blessed each and every day by each of you!

Science and the Library

We utilize our local library a ton.  It is a regular thing to find what seems to be 100’s of library items on our library shelves.  We are so thankful for our local library and the children’s librarians who help us find just about anything!

One of our favorite science series is the Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out About science series.  There are two levels that we have used:  one for Kindergarten and one for first and second grade.  While they are secular, I have found that they don’t deal a ton with evolution.  The ones that do have become a talking point for us about God and His design for the universe in contrast to man’s design for the universe.

Here are some of our favorites:

All pictures are from Amazon.

The Making of a Clay Pot

So for Week 1 we were supposed to make a clay pot.  We just now got around to doing it.  So here are some video clips for your viewing entertainment.

The first week of school we studied how the Bible was written by the original authors and how scrolls were made by papyrus and such.  They were stored in jars so here we are trying to make a jar.

Sorry the audio is not so good.  I don't know how to get it any louder.

I love her smile here.
She is loving school!

 

The finished product drying.

Nature Walk

 

Checking on the ant hill.

 

Spider web in the light.

       

Fall blooms.

First Levitations

Every month the grade school department of our church has a memory verse and a challenge memory verse.  Dacia Grace has memorized the monthly memory verses every month since moving up to the grade school class.  September marked her first month of attempting the challenge memory verse which was not really a memory verse per se.  The challenge was to memorize all 66 books of the Bible.  While she did not get all 66 done, she did get rewarded for her attempt and for making it all the way through Ecclesiastes.  Arthur and I were so proud of her.

In the process of learning them, we were working on the major prophets......

Isaiah.....


Jeremiah........


Levitations.....

Ezekiel


and

DANIEL!

Arthur and I had a good laugh at that one.  Levitations!  :)

Cupcake Decorating 101

After the cupcake decorating fiasco for Dacia Grace’s Half Birthday Celebration, I said I would never decorate another cupcake! 

Well…………

I was invited to a cupcake decorating class taught my an amazing lady from our church.  I had so much fun!

The first thing I learned was that my tools from the Half Birthday Party cupcake fiasco were BROKEN!  No wonder I could not decorate them at all!

We learned an easy, peasy way to fill the icing bags!  They practically fill themselves!  Without ME being covered in frosting!

Then we began decorating…….so much fun!

Here are some of the finished results.   I can’t wait to replace all my broken equipment!

Once home, Dacia Grace helped add the finishing touches of colored sugars and candy hearts.

   I decorated all of these myself!

By far my favorite one that I did. 

It was so easy once I was shown how!

AND……

Yes, they tasted as good if not better than they look!

First Grade School Pictures

So today was the first day of CBS.  We have taken a picture on our front steps every year since we started.  This year was no different EXCEPT that I will be using these shots for her official first day of First Grade shots.  She has grown up so much!

When did she group up?!

All ready for her first day in the Primary Class at CBS!

Showing her sassy side!

Hedge Hog

 

 

Yesterday while driving around Hood River for the Pear Festival, Dacia Grace called Arthur “the hedge hog”.  She was trying to call him the Head Honcho.  Oh how we laughed!

Simple Woman’s Daybook

Outside my window...
signs of fall are all around.  The air was colder this morning.  The clouds were here most of the morning.  The air smells of fall.  The leaves are beginning to change.  

I am thinking... 
about fall recipes!  Making lists of recipes that we want to make and/or try in the coming months.

I am thankful for...
the wonderful time that we had in Hood River yesterday.

From the learning rooms...
we are making up some activities that we were not able to fit into the schedule last week.  I love that we are able to be flexible this way.

From the kitchen...
my counters are covered in fresh fruit from our trip to Hood River yesterday.  The blueberries were still in season and we were able to pick almost 20 pounds of Elliots.  We also came home with 25 pounds of peaches and about 10 pounds of pears. 

Tonight we will have stuffed peppers with quinoa which is a new recipe for us. 

I am wearing...
a red three-quarter sleeve tee-shirt with blue yoga pants, striped socks with cats on them and a pair of blueberry Dansko clogs.

I am creating...
nothing right now.  I will begin thinking about Christmas here in a week or so.

I am reading...
the teacher’s manual for school.

I am praying...
for the upcoming UN vote on partitioning Jerusalem and Israel.

I am hearing...
Bob and Larry Sing the 80’s otherwise known as The Gourds Just Wanna Have Fun by the Veggie Tales.

Around the house...
things are actually doing quite well!  That is amazing!

One of my favorite things...
fresh blueberries and peaches!

A few plans for the rest of the week...
a special field trip on Thursday and the beginning of Bible study on Wednesday morning.

My Picture Thought...

Still love that my girlie was baptized last week!
Here Pastor Brett is praying for her while Daddy watches.

Portland Mounted Police Tour

    The trainer is “dressing” the horse for duty.Watching the trainer work with the horse in the training ring.  Notice her pink cowgirl boots! 

Exercising on the horse tread mill.  This machine not only exercises the horses but is also used to de-sensitize the horses to flapping plastic bags, flags, skate boards, loud noises, etc.  Anything that will startle a horse on the street.

  

Our tour guide, Roxie, showing us all the different work horses.

           

The friendliest horse in the stable, Punch, who allowed all the children and adults to pet and admire her.  She is not fully trained for street patrols but will be out there soon.

Notebooking

As we continue on our homeschooling journey, notebooking will become a weekly and then almost daily assignment.  So what is notebooking?  What are the advantages of notebooking?  Since I do not have any experience yet, I thought it would do well to share with my readers from a seasoned pro, Lainie!

Here is the link to the blog where she was a guest author.

Brachiosaurus and Worm Habitats

Today we headed over to our good friends, Aunt Jackie and Emma, to do some of our hands on science.  While Emma is not in First Grade, we knew she would still enjoy doing some science with us.

Brachiosaurus – Scientists believe that the largest dinosaur was the brachiosaurus.  We decided to complete an activity that we did not get to do last year during kindergarten because of the rains.  We began at the mailboxes outside Aunt Jackie house and measured 110 feet marking every 10 feet.  Then we had each of the girls lie down on the ground at the same beginning point to see how big they were in comparison.  What fun to see how we would have been dwarfed by these amazing creatures God created!

I am standing looking at the two girls by the mailboxes!

Worm Habitat – For science this week we were studying worms and other creatures that live close to the ground.  Yesterday we built an ant hill.  Today we made a worm habitat from a 2 liter soda bottle, dirt, sand, leaves and pieces of apples.  We had great success with that BUT NOT with finding any worms to add to our habitat.  We will have to wait for the rains so that we can complete our worm habitat.

Watering the ground to see if the worms will come up to the top for the water.

Digging in the garden for worms.

 

Filling the worm habitat.

Shoelaces, Fractions and Ant Hills

Shoelaces:  After getting baptized last night, Dacia Grace decided that she just had to learn how to tie shoelaces.  So here she is after tying the shoe many, many times!

Fractions:  First grade math is centered around many activities that are hands on.  The intention is that Dacia Grace will learn math from touching, feeling, and tasting math.  What a fun way!  Well this morning’s math topic was FRACTIONS!  What better way to experience how fractions affect our daily lives than by baking.  We sure enjoyed the scones!

    

Ant Hills:  First grade science is also very hands on.  Today we soaked a piece of bread in honey and then laid it outside near a rock that we knew had ants under it.  Soon there were ants everywhere.  We fully expected the ants to carry the bread off to their hill/nest piece by piece.  We were very surprised to see the ants COVER the piece of bread entirely and then carry the bread piece by piece into their store rooms from UNDERNEATH the ground.

The piece of bread is still barely visible at the bottom right of the middle of the picture.  I know it is not easy to see.  Mainly we are including this picture so that WE can remember what happened.  :)

Baptism Service

Our church chooses to use a local river beach for its baptism services.  I so enjoy going.  A couple of the men will lead worship while those wanting to be baptized line up.  After a brief time of prayer with one pastor or deacon, the person heads into the river to be baptized by one of our pastors….usually Pastor Brett. 

On the way home from church today, Dacia Grace expressed her interest in being baptized today.  After a conversation with her, Arthur and I gave our whole hearted approval. 

We headed off to the river where we met our good friend Emily and her children, Kibi and J-den.  Dacia Grace was so excited to learn that Kibi had also decided to be baptized today.

Waiting in line with Daddy.

Happy for the others baptized.

 

Being prayed for by Pastor Brett right before being baptized.

 

Waiting in line for Kibi and Emily to be baptized.

What sweet faces!

Pastor James (children’s pastor), Pastor Brett (senior pastor), David Frost (college pastor) and Joey (Pastor Brett’s son).

Enjoying Math

Treasure in My Heart – UPDATED!

Since we are studying Proverbs this year in school and discussing how God gave us His words to hide in our heart like treasure, I decided to have Dacia Grace make a treasure box.  This treasure box designed to hold memory verses from her grade school years will be a lasting memento of God working in her life.  

After planning very carefully how she wanted her treasure box to be painted here she  is working diligently on it.  Once it is all done, we will post a picture of the final box.  It is going to take several days to finish it.

Here she is working on the final touches ……