Five on Friday: March 29, 2013

1- Last night our church had a Love Feast and Communion Service after which our pastor and his wife shared slides from their recent trip to Israel. It was a simple meal, reminiscent of but not quite like a Passover meal, We had bread and butter, fruit, celery and dip, cheese and lamb stew (or gluten-free beef stew) to eat plus grape juice or water to drink.

2- I finally got to snap a picture of baby Harold walking last night while everyone was gathered having dessert after the slide show. He has been taking more and more steps without any encouragement or coercion, but he won't let me take a picture. Last night he didn't know I had the camera. Hehehe!

3- Today we dyed eggs for our hunt on Resurrection Sunday. Though we don't believe in teaching the children about the Easter Bunny, we do still give them candy and do an egg hunt. 

4- I caved in last night and started playing the Pic IQ game that my daughter (and several Facebook friends) have been playing. I have been seeing people ask for help, but wasn't exactly sure what the game was or how to get it. Hubby installed it on his phone last night and got stuck on the one puzzle. And suddenly I decided I wanted to play too. I got stuck on the same puzzle this morning, but finally figured it out. Haven't told the hubby yet as he is sleeping. Of course, now I am stuck on another one.

5- We usually have movie and popcorn night on Saturday's, but as we have to get up waaayyy early for a special service Resurrection Sunday morning we decided it would be best to have our movie night tonight. 

If you would like to participate in Random 5 on Friday head on over to Miranda's blog, The Pebble Pond.

Muffin Tin Letter Review

Even though it is not Monday we had a Muffin Tin for lunch today. Muffin Tin Monday was postponed this week due to homeschool co-op being moved to Monday. I was going to cancel our muffin tin meal, but the girls were still wanting one. So, today I decided I would give the girls a muffin tin to review the letters we have done so far this year. I knew we were going through the curriculum slowly, it just hadn't dawned on me that we have only done 8 letters this year (since August).

Here is our review for the letters S, M, L, A, N, T, U and D

S-Sugar Snap Peas

M- M shaped Muenster Cheese

L- Lettuce Leaves

A- Apple Slices

N- Nuts

D- Dressing/Dip

T- T shaped Tuna sandwich

And for U:

Their drink was Under the napkin.

 Harold also had a muffin tin of course.

Tuna sandwich (which he didn't really care for)

Muenster cheese (which he obviously did like, seeing as he finished most of it before I got my picture)

Green Beans

Apple 

Linking up with

Wordless Wednesday: March 27, 2013 (w/linky)- Lunch Party

It was around lunch time and hubby and I were both in the living room. The girls had been getting lunch together and suddenly I heard one of the girls say something about not letting Harold fall. Mommy made a beeline for the kitchen to find them gathered around daddy's stool/chair eating their lunch.

Hannah and Harold are using the school table chairs, Amelia is using a storage container and Tabitha is using the Bumbo.

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

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Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- March 26, 2013

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Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me and Emily @ Emily Reviews

So glad you could join us as we embark on another year of Tuesday Giveaway Link Ups. 

Our co-hosts this week are Ashley from Forgetful Momma-Bottles, Diapers...Babies  and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would  like to follow the  hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Ashley from Forgetful Momma-Bottles, Diapers...Babies  and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

A is for Allegiance

Here it is the end of the week and I finally have time to sit down and write a post for this new challenge I am participating in. Have you ever tried to blog through the alphabet? I have done ABC photo challenges (in fact I am still participating in the one), but I have never tried writing blog posts focusing on all the letters of the alphabet. I foresee it will be quite a challenge, but one I am eager to try out. Though linking up at the end of the week on the first week isn't a great sign. That said, if you would like to try out this challenge, Marcy from Ben and Me is accepting submissions for this week's letter A until tomorrow.

A is for Allegiance

We pledge allegiance to the flag during our "circle time" on school days. We also pledge allegiance to the Bible.  I grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and thought it was extremely important to make sure the children knew it. I then discovered there was a pledge to the Bible (I had never heard of it growing up) and thought it would be a great addition to our "circle time."  We had gotten into the habit of reciting the pledge to the flag and then moving on to the pledge to the Bible.  Unfortunately this habit has been hard to break. 

You may be wondering why I say it is unfortunate. Well, I realized that our first allegiance should be to God, not to a flag or our country. In my old church I don't even think they believed in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. In Philippians 3:20 it states, "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. "  Personally, I still think we should have some sense of patriotism for our country, but it should never come before our allegiance to our Lord and Savior. So, I tried to reverse the order in which we said the pledges. However, the children have been so used to the original order, plus we add the song "The B-I-B-L-E" after the Pledge to the Bible, that the change in order wasn't working. 

As I write this, I realize that it is not the order of the pledges that is the most vital in our lives. It is how we actually live our lives, making sure we are first focused on God and His Word, that will make a difference.

So, what comes to your mind when you here the word "allegiance"?

I have to admit, besides the pledges, one of the first thing that popped into my mind was the song, "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" by Ray Boltz. I love this song! I remember going down to the Free Methodist church in the town where I was living 17 or 18 years ago and watching the very powerful and moving video. Would I have the strength to face arrest, torture and even death to remain faithful to my Lord and Savior?

I don't know if you have ever heard of this song before; I do realize it is quite old now that I think of it. It was one of my favorite songs on Ray Boltz's album entitled "Allegiance." Of course, it was the first as well, seeing as I had never heard of him before. 

The video shows scenes of the cost that people paid for following Jesus, from Bible times, to medieval times, to modern times and into the possible future. Here are the words:

I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb 

Words and music by Ray Boltz

CHORUS:
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

I have heard how Christians long ago
Were brought before a tyrants throne
They were told that he
Would spare their lives
If they would renounce
The name of Christ
But one by one they chose to die
The Son of God, they would not deny
Like a great angelic choir sings
I can almost hear their voices ring

CHORUS

Now the years have come
And the years have gone
And the cause of Jesus still goes on
Now our time has come
To count the cost
To reject this world
To embrace the Cross

And one by one let us live our lives
For the One who died to give us life
Till the trumpet sounds on the final day
Let us proudly stand and boldly say

CHORUS

To the Lamb of God who bore my pain
Who took my place
Who wore my shame
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

CHORUS (repeat)

1994 Word MusicASCAP (a div. of Word, Inc.) and Shepherd Boy MusicASCAP (adm. by Word, Inc.).

This song still gives me chills and brings tears to my eyes, even without watching the video.

With Resurrection Sunday only a week away, I think it is a wonderful time to renew our Allegiance to our Lord and Savior and to realize the power of His sacrifice.  Where does your allegiance lie?

A Pictorial Look at our Homeschool Day

Our schedule has been a bit hectic lately. There are days when we get to some lesson time and days when the girls may only get on the computer programs. I wish we could have more days like the one I am sharing here. A day that includes "circle time" and an activity or two, plus a book (or two, or three). After which the girls watch a show while I make lunch. And while Hannah sleeps after lunch, the girls work on math and reading.

As I stated, these ideal days do not happen as frequently as I would like with playgroup and co-op taking up 2 of our 5 days. And then, there are the scheduled and unscheduled appointments that creep into our days.  All I can say is, I am learning to be more flexible and just go with the flow. I am hoping things will get a bit more ordered as the children grow, especially when I don't have a baby anymore.

This week we have been continuing our unit on Dinosaurs.

After breakfast the children can play while I get lesson ready.

But the older girls have some chores to finish first.

 And hair that needs tended to.

There is always laundry to do.

More playtime...

...while mommy finishes up a worksheet she forgot about.

And they are off to Mrs. Bearly's school on the school bus.

(They travel to school by bus or train or boat)

We begin our time with prayer.

And the pledge to the flag and the Bible.

Then we sing the B-I-B-L-E song. On the 2 and 3 verses they walk around the table.

Unless we are injured of course.

 Time for our "This is the Day the Lord Has Made" song

 Then one of the girls points to the calendar as we find out the day.

And Harold amuses himself (sometimes)

Finding out the weather 

 Working on our Words to Remember

 Pretending to be dinosaurs while we say our poem.

Working on their Shape Dinosaur Mazes

 I was reading to them from What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? while they finished up their mazes.

 Time for a dinosaur dig.

 Of course, I had some last minute getting ready to do.

 And of course, they made a mess while I did.

 Time for a memory match game with a twist.

 Amelia had some papers to finish cutting out for her Letters, Numbers and Shapes Lapbook. 

 So, I let the other girls get on the WiiFit for a few minutes (this is not normal for before lunch).

 What my table looks like after lesson time/before lunch time.

 This is normal. The children watch a show while I make lunch.

Exploring during lunch time.

Naptime for Hannah

 The older girls are working on their new Shapes lapbook.

And that is the end of our official homeschool day.

This post is a part of the TOS Review Crew Blog Cruise, "Our Homeschool Day in Pictures." 

Click here to check out more fun posts.