Thoughts on the Days of Awe

My life is made up of minutes.
Each minute I use costs me part of my life.
How did I use those minutes?
Did I waste them on silliness, or selfishness, or wishful thinking?
Or did I make a difference in the lives of those around me?
Did I share a smile?
Did I offer a drink of water?
Did I patiently change yet another diaper?
Did I serve?
Did I worship?
Did I obey?

I want to live my life with purpose, making each moment count. Will my husband be thankful for his friend for life? Will my children know I love them? Will I brighten my corner of the world? Perhaps my impact will not be huge, but I hope it will matter.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
(Mat 25:34-40)

Feast of Trumpets 2011

Feast of Trumpets

It is always a joy to celebrate the feasts of YHVH.

This year was unique.

It felt as though someone did not want us to celebrate.

We had to deal with some spiritual warfare.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  (Eph 6:12)
 

But it was beautiful to see the men anoint the children with oil and pray over them. We witnessed the power of the shofar as we blew them on this set apart day. We were grateful that YHVH gives the victory when we trust in Him. He is truly our Salvation, our Rock, and our Deliverer.

Once the spiritual attacks were dealt with, we had a wonderful day. The air was delightfully crisp and pleasant. We had plenty of good food. We enjoyed each other's company. The children blew paper shofars as they marched around the house. (I see a wonderful connection to Joshua here!) We also danced and spinned and played on the soft green grass.

Here are some glimpses into our day.

 We hope you had a lovely Yom Teruah!

Rubber boot homeschool week #4

We had a shorter week to allow time for Feast of Trumpets.
It was a week of learning to be flexible and a week of learning to be strict.
I learned to be flexible in science class. We moved to the couch so everyone could cuddle and see the pictures. I also decided to rearrange the order of science books planned for this year. I'm still using the same books, just changing the order.
I also indulged in a little spontaneity. We studied Egypt in history this week, so I printed off some clipart and we made Egyptian pop up pictures.
Math, on the other hand, required more strictness. Isaac had begged to not be timed in math, so we decided to only time him once a week. However, this led to math worksheets being completed at 9:00 at night. So, we had to draw the line and return to timing. I was pleased that their timed efforts were really good. Naomi got 100% and Holly showed great improvement over her previous scores. Just goes to show that if you give them an inch, they take a mile! I tend to be too easy on them, so I have been learning how to expect more and hold my children to certain requirements.

Part of this week was also spent getting ready for Feast of Trumpets. I'll do another post on our celebration. Here are some pics of the kids helping me get all the food ready.

We made:

• 36 dinner rolls, twisted to look like shofars.
• 30 cinnamon rolls
• 3 doz ginger snaps
• 3 doz chocolate no-bake cookies
• 2 doz devilled eggs
• double batch of garlic dip

On prep days, I have started posting a to-do list on the fridge. There are certain incentives that don't happen until the list is finished. In times past it has been easy to let the last few things go undone. I have been working on finishing what I start, which is also good training for the kids. As a bonus, it has really increased our productivity, in school and around the house.

What I learned this week

• B doesn't happen until A is completed.
• Lists are a good thing.
• Constantly having two little boys on my lap can be a bit tiring.
• Homemade cinnamon rolls are really good!
• Men blessing their children is a beautiful thing.

Shabbat Shalom to everyone!

How to rejoice when the car gets fixed

I thought everyone would like to know that my van is fixed! I now have power steering again. The really exciting part is that I fixed it myself. I am not in the habit of fixing cars, or even checking fluid and changing tires. But I do hand over wrenches quite nicely, so I felt confident I could tackle this project with a little help from Doug.

The part that I needed to replace is a hose having to do with the power steering. When I sound a little vague in this story, it's because I hope you won't notice my ignorance. :) I didn't know where this hose was, so I pulled out the new one and started looking around until I found a hose that looked like it. As you can see in the pic above, this can be a challenge. I am very proud to say that I got black grease up to my elbows in the process.

So I finally located the part and Doug gave me the wrench. What a switch! I loosened the top end of the hose, only to discover that the bottom end would require me getting under the van. (I have a full size van.)

Doug prepared to jack up the van, but realized that he needed the handle for the jack. He couldn't reach it so he asked me to get it. I leaned over him to reach it, but found out too late that I couldn't reach it either. My hand slid down the side of the wet van and I somehow dove over Doug and landed in a heap on the other side. (Hey! I didn't even touch him! I wouldn't want to hurt him.) I managed to get myself out of the pretzel which involved a leg twisted under the rototiller. I will confess that this took me a few minutes. But I overcame and got on the little wheely cart and slid under the van. Shortly thereafter, I had the hose disconnected. (Woohoo!) It was easy to ascertain the problem. A faulty o-ring. Isn't it always a faulty o-ring? Even Apollo 13 had problems with a faulty o-ring!

So now I was ready to put in the new hose. Doug gave me a lecture on keeping everything clean so as to get a good seal. (I'm covered in mud, grit, and grease, but I'm supposed to keep everything clean.) Okay, bottom end secured. Top end will not align with the hole. Remove bottom end. Align top end. Resecure bottom end. Discover that to bleed the line, bottom end must be disconnected. Egats! Disconnect bottom line. Read manual! Discover that bleeding can be done without disconnecting bottom line. Resecure bottom line. By the way, we were still very calm at this point, and even enjoying ourselves. (Yeahh!)

Note to self: Pin hair back before working on a car. When I tried to wheely cart myself out from under the car for hopefully the last time, my hair got wound around the wheel. The more I tried to get out, the tighter it got. Doug had to pull me out with the cart hanging from my head, and pull my hair out of the wheel. That's when I had Gramma braid my hair.

So we bled the system, which involved me watching the fluid burp and bubble up, while Doug turned the steering wheel back and forth. Finally the bubbles stopped and we declared success! Then Doug got the great idea of showing me where some of the other fluids are located and discovered that I was very low on oil, so we took care of that, too.

I fixed my van, acquired black under my finger nails, grease up my arms, a few bruises on my leg, and a very satisfying sense of accomplishment! Praise YHVH!

Rubber boot homeschool week #3

It was nice to get back to a relatively normal school routine this week. Last week, I felt like I was up to my ears in hot dogs and jerky. Nearly 50 lbs later, the butchering is all done.

Toddler Highlight

The little people in our house get to be part of the fun, too. Elisha has taken his education into his own hands of late. Did you ever get frustrated when your toddler repeats everything you say? Why are they doing that? Well, they are trying to coerce you to teach them. They want you to repeat them so they know if they are saying it right. For example:
Elisha: wauuuu
Mommy: water
Elisha: wauuu
Mommy: water
Elisha: wauur
Mommy: water mayim (mayim=water in hebrew)
Elisha: miauuu
Mommy: That's right Elisha. Water. Mayim.

We have been playing this game all week with every word from nose to dog. His vocabulary is really skyrocketing. I wouldn't say his pronunciation is perfect yet, but he is producing words on his own now. He also is developing quite the personality. He is completely taken with this hat (love the flower) and acts so silly when he has it on. It's like he knows how cute he is!


Babylon
It just so happens that we studied Babylon this week in history and in Hebrew Life and Times.

We talked about the Tower of Babel, and how it was essentially a high place for pagan worship. I never thought about it like that before. I also began writing easy to read summaries of our history lessons for Naomi. I want to give her reading practice wherever I can, with varied content. She read through it with just a little help. Babylon kept throwing her. She thought it should say baby-lon. She then wrote a sentence about Babylon all by herself. I then helped her correct any mistakes. This is the beginnings of real writing for her. I'm excited to see how well she is doing.

We also did some map work. They have done alot of copywork and labeling in the past. Normally, I write down the words on a scrap of paper and they copy it. This time I orally gave them one letter at a time. They did very well.

Quotes from the week

• Naomi: "A burger without pickles is like a girl without a skirt."  
• Holly: "I want to see the world! Maybe when I'm ten, I can go places all by myself." 

What I learned this week

• Sourdough needs to be fed every day, or there are consequences.
• Some of our children need more help than others.
• We must equip our children for life in this world, rather than shield them from it. See this article   
• Good communication can solve many of the little problems in life.

It's been a good week! Have a wonderful Shabbat!