According to Plan

I love planning, preparing, scheduling, and ordering my day.  Having an idea of what I'd like to accomplish greatly aids me in getting through my day.  Imagine my dismay when, last week, I came accross James 4:15 in the kids' daily devotional:  "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."  Later on that same day, my Bible reading assignment took me to the same passage where James admonishes us to follow the Lord's plans, not ours.

"Okay, Lord," I wondered, "what do you have in store for us tomorrow?"  I sincerely hoped that He wasn't planning on one of the kids waking up sick or needing to go to Urgent Care for something!

Since I'd read the same passage twice in one day and since I was pretty sure that the authors of the devotional hadn't conspired with my daily Bible reading coordinators, I tried to be prepared for whatever was coming down the pike.

I was looking forward to the next day's school assignments - it was supposed to be a catch-up day since we'd not completed a few things in the previous weeks and I felt that some of our missed assignments needed to be finished.  After breakfast the following morning, though, I realized that I'd left our binder of curriculum in the car and that Jon had the car at work.

Oops.

This normally would have completely derailed my day's productivity, but since I had just read about following the Lord's will and not necessarily my own, I was able to switch gears.  We pulled out our core curriculum that wasn't in the car and had a good day of Bible, math, reading, and spelling.

I then got the brilliant idea to have the kids help me make laundry soap.  Not only were we on the dregs of the last batch I had made, but it would be very sciency and would make up for my leaving the science activities in the car.  I ran to the laundry room (grateful once again to have such a room in my house!) to get the needed ingredients.

And then I discovered that I only had the Fels Naptha and not the Borax or Washing Soda,  Really?  I thought.  How on earth do I have the one ingredient that is most difficult to obtain and not have the simple ingredients?

Once again, I was reminded of the verse.  Suddenly I got the brilliant idea to walk to the store to get the Borax and the Washing Soda.  We'd walked there many times, and we could all use the exercise.

Of course, though, I'd left the stroller in the car along with the school work, and carrying home heavy boxes of laundry fillers while dragging along a tired toddler didn't appeal.

All that to say, my day definitely did NOT go as planned, but the Lord had prepared my heart earlier so that none of these little setbacks irritated me much at all.  This in itself was a miracle since I like to be on top of things.

We ended up cleaning house and calling it a day.  I don't know why the Lord planned our day the way He did, but the lesson I learned was very needed.  We can always make soap another day (look for a laundry soap post soon!); we got some good work done on our core subjects; and I got a clean house, too.  There's not much to complain about when I think of all the blessings!  (Photo Credit)

First Nature Walk

This past week, we participated in a nature walk that a friend organized for us.  While we are always on the lookout for neat bugs and unusual sightings whenever we venture out of doors, this was our first official nature walk of the year.  It's amazing what can be found along a concrete path next to a lake!

Our first "discovery" was this bush covered in purple, velvety flowers.  I'm sure it has a name, and it's quite popular where we live, but the list of flora that I recognize consists of roses, Gerber daisies, and African violets.

Next up was the lake, where we found ducks and Canadian geese aplenty.  The boys were equally enthralled with the paddle boats, but those didn't exactly fall under our "nature" theme.

Canadian geese cover the grounds much of the year here.  We found a couple of birds with broken wings, which, while sad, helped the kids to better see how the wings are supposed to be folded up neatly on the backs of the geese. 

This face says it all:  one of the best finds of the day was a fuzzy black and orange caterpillar.  A quick Google search at home says it's a Tiger Moth caterpillar.  This little guy willingly crawled up lots of eager spark plug fingers, much to the joy of said spark plugs and the squeamishness of their mommy.

Of course, the squeamishness of the caterpillar was nothing compared to the queasiness induced by this snail...and no, I didn't touch it!  My friend very graciously offered to hold it up so that we could snap a picture.  The kids really liked it, though, since its markings were much lighter than the usual garden snail variety.  I was very eager to move on to the next adventure.  If only I'd known what was in store!

Amazingly, a docent from the San Francisco zoo was walking around with his pet Albino Burmese Python.  Now, there's something you really don't see every day!  Honestly, I liked the snake much better than the snail since it wasn't slimy.  Yeah, I'm weird like that.  T was all for having the handler put it on his shoulders, while K was content to view it from a very safe distance.

On the remaining portion of our walk, we found pine cones and clam shells and made bark rubbings with paper and crayons.  It was great to get some hands-on exploration of God's amazing creation.  The kids had a blast and continued hunting for bugs and special finds later that evening when we went out with Jon for a family walk.  They made one final discovery.

This is a small, black beetle that turned to a copper color whenever the fading sunlight hit it.  Again, we have no idea what variety it is, but they begged me to take a picture.  Who was I to argue?

Whole Foods Field Trip

Last week, we took a tour of Whole Foods Market, a local heath foods grocer.  Not only was it nice to get out of the house and do something out of the ordinary for our learning time, we found the tour fun, informative, and tasty!

I must admit I don't usually shop at health food stores.  I find them visually overstimulating, crowded with inventory, and generally overwhelming.  Healthy living and eating is something that greatly interests me, though, so when our home school group offered us the invitation of a tour, I gladly signed up.

Am I ever so glad we went!  Our tour guide was fantastic - very patient with our youngsters as she offered tips, advice, and samples as we went along.  She showed us how to read the many labels and explained what the various bits of information represented.  (Who knew about something called an ANDI score to indicate a fruit or veggie's nutritional value?)

At first, the boys, especially K, were reluctant to answer questions, but about half way through the tour they began to participate and pay attention.  By the time we reached the salad buffet, T had really found his comfort zone.  When our tour guide presented the kids with a plate of salad greens, a few tomatoes, and a giant topping of dressing, she asked, "what's missing from this plate?" hoping that the group would notice the 20-30 other healthy topping choices she hadn't selected.  T blurted out, "the fork!!"  We all enjoyed a round of laughter.


At the end of the tour, each of the young participants were given an in-season Fuji apple and a reusable water bottle.  Once home, the boys and I reviewed some of the healthful facts we'd learned on the tour.  Much of it had gone over their heads, but it was a great start toward understanding nutrition and healthy habits.  I think the tour probably covered enough Health for the month!  (Photo Credit)

I Signed My Life Away

I filled out my very first affidavit today.  It sort of felt like I was signing my life away, but if filling out an online form will afford me the continued joy of educating my spark plugs at home, I'll do it!  For those who need to file in California this year and who are as uncertain as I was about doing it, below is an excellent link that will, for the most part, hold your hand through the process:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/CaliforniaR4.htm

I'll eventually figure out how to condense these addresses into a nifty little "click here" button, but for now, simply copy and paste into your browser.

Happy filing!

(Photo Credit)