Signs of Summer

How cool is that? Locusts (or are they cicadas? I can never figure that out.) are a tell-tale sign of summer around these parts. That buzzing sound at night lets you know the locusts are alive and well and it's truly summertime.

The kids were in awe as we watched this one slide out of it's shell and crawl away. He was in no hurry to get away from my camera. I think he enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame.

And the fruit! Oh, the glorious fruit! (And the glorious produce sales! Yeehaw!) We mixed up watermelon, blueberries, and cherries and put a bit of blueberry yogurt on top. It was a great start to the day. I love fruity breakfasts.

I went through a phase there about a month ago when I was downing a watermelon every couple of days (and not sharing it!) It settled my stomach for some reason. Now, normally, I love watermelon, but it's only in pregnancy that my sweet hubby will indulge me in that much of it!

Nevermind what they say. You can't have too much of a good thing.

Parenting & Family Books I Love

Ask and you shall receive. These are my favorites:

A survival guide for toddlerhood and beyond.

(The Ministry of Motherhood)

Crazy Love

A few months ago at a homeschool seminar, Carole Joy Seid highly recommended this book. She asked the audience if anyone had read it and one lady spoke up. She said, "It was a great book. My only caveat was: it made me question whether I'm really a Christian." At the time, I thought: And why is that a bad thing?? I haven't been able to get her statement out of my head since because I thought it was so sad. But since reading this book, I'm even more depressed for her. Clearly she didn't get it.
The title is very telling. "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God" by Pastor Francis Chan. I really can't recommend this book highly enough. Please run out and get it first chance you get.

Cook Along

So, the Clark girls decided to make quiche for dinner. We all just love quiche. And thanks to all those sweating chickens in the backyard, it's a pretty cheap meal.

First, I buttered the bottom of the dishes. Then put half a pound of browned sausage into each. I'm already salivating. (It doesn't take much for me, these days.)

Then we put roughly 4 oz. cheese on top of that. Pepper jack in one, because I think everything is better with pepper jack, and sharp cheddar in the other, because sharp is the only way to go. (I get my way around here.)

I cubed the cheese because I'm too lazy to shred it (and Isaac, our cheese man, was busy helping Kyle with some manly project.) Lydia was in charge of stirring the egg mixture: 12 eggs, 3 cups of milk, and 4 Tbs of butter.

Maya did a superb job of pouring the egg mix over the sausage and cheese. Look how happy cooking makes her!

Daniel put the spinach on top because he wanted to be in a picture, but the picture didn't turn out well. Sorry, Daniel. (He'll never know, so don't tell him.) Then I punched down those gorgeous green leaves, so they wouldn't burn.

Finished product. But we did add salsa on top to spice it up a bit. It was delicious! And see, I'm not the only one salivating now.

On Michael Jackson

Asking the Hard Questions, pt. 5

Do you love and desire fellowship with other believers?

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. ~1 John 2:9

How I Got Here, Part 3

When Elena and Chloe were still preschoolers, my plan was to work part-time while they attended private school. But God changed my heart. He taught me that children truly are a blessing and motherhood is a valuable ministry. I realized that I couldn’t truly disciple my children if they were under the influence of others the majority of their day.

The questions for me then were: What and how am I going to teach them?

At the first homeschool bookfair I attended, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of choices of curricula available. Why do so many people think that a teacher must know everything in order to teach it to someone else? Have they forgotten that their teachers used answer keys to grade their papers? At the private school I attended, I learned almost no fine arts. I could not have explained how Picasso and Van Gogh were different. But with my handy dandy library card, I can teach my kids all about van Gogh’s blue and rose periods and Picasso’s cubism. With the MathUSee dvds, I can teach basic algebra to my 2^nd grader. With any number of phonics books, I can follow the scripts and teach my children to be successful readers.

I love that I am learning right along with my kids. All through school, I never understood the point of learning history. It was just a bunch of names and dates and places that had no meaning to me. (Thank you, textbooks.) But I am learning so much about our interesting world history through all the living books I read to my children. Just by pointing out the places we read about in the books we read, I now have excellent geography skills. Homeschooling has given me a second chance at a quality education.