4 hours ago
Happy Reformation Day!
We actually have been celebrating Reformation Day all week, because today is busy with church and other activities. But really, is there a better way to mark the day than to fix our minds on Jesus by worshipping at church? Sounds like a great way to celebrate to me.
For my last day of my 31 Day Blogging challenge, and as a little Reformation Day gift, I am sharing a free prayer journal I've put together!
Last week, after I was reading in the book Face To Face: Praying The Scriptures For Intimate Worship by Kenneth Boa, I decided to look for a prayer journal printable I could use to write down my prayers as I read through the Scriptures in that book. I was hoping for something that followed a similar prayer format, but I didn't find anything, so I decided to make my own.
These prayer journal pages have a section for each type of prayer covered in Boa's book:
Adoration:
Praising God for Who He is.
Confession:
Asking forgiveness for our sins against God and others.
Renewal:
Asking God for help against temptation and for personal renewal.
Petition:
Requests for yourself.
Intercession:
Requests for others.
Affirmation:
Agreeing with God's will in prayer, and submitting to His will.
Thanksgiving:
Praising God for what He has done.
There are 31 of these daily prayer pages in the document, so you only have to print once and you should have enough pages for one month's worth of prayer time.
I included pages to record prayer requests, including check boxes for marking off each time you prayed, a place to write applicable Scripture verses for that request, and a place to record when the prayer was answered or to carry it forward to the next month. I put in a few pages with Bible verses on prayer as well!
I also highly recommend purchasing Face To Face if you struggle with prayer time as I often do. Though the prayer journal can be used easily without it, I've found this book so helpful for adding Scripture to my prayers, reminding me of important areas to cover in prayer, and keeping my mind focused (which is always a prayer challenge for me)!
Download the prayer journal here!
I hope you enjoy the prayer journal - it's my gift to you! Thanks for hanging out with me this month, friends! I have more posts planned for the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
For first birthdays I always went a little over the top, and because of the effort I put in and the memories of my sweet little one-year-olds loving the presents and cake, a lot of the first birthdays are making the list. However, I've done several less elaborate party themes that were still fun and cute (and cheap!), so you can see all of my party ideas by clicking here!
Without further ado:
This was Wyatt's first birthday party, and with him being my oldest and this being my first opportunity for a themed party, I put a lot of thought and crafting into it!
This birthday party theme just came to me one day while I was reading Eric Carle's book to Clyde! It was probably one of the easier parties that I've done.
This party takes the cake (pun intended) for being the easiest party in this list! Just add a bunch of pink and yellow decorations, get some lemonade-flavored treats, and you are good to go. I even had a little yellow dress for Gwen to wear for her party, and she looked too cute.
I really had a vision and invented this theme for Clarice's first birthday. This one may be near the top of my personal favorites list, mainly because of the PERFECT cake my sister made for the party!
I really struggled with picking a theme for Georgie's first birthday, because it fell right during the fall. I wanted a really cozy vibe, but something that looked girly too. I saw a donut board on a different blog, and decided right there to get Derek to build me one and just go with that. It turned out so pretty!
I am going to cheat a little and add one non-birthday party to this list, because I think the decorations were so cute and could be used easily for a birthday party theme! This was actually our 4th gender reveal party, and it was so fun.
When we do themed parties, I tend to do them thoroughly, because most years we don't do formal birthday parties at all. Most years we celebrate quietly with a birthday cake, a family outing, and presents before watching a movie as a family. I suspect that the quiet birthdays will be just as special to my kids someday as the years we did a big party.
Happy Saturday!
(Photos in this post courtesy of our trip to a local corn maze last weekend.)
We are two months into our first year homeschooling four kids at the same time. Even though one of them is only in kindergarten, and her schoolwork doesn't take very long, it's still been a bit of a challenge for me to figure out how to balance everyone's needs. However, overall, I think it is going really well!
Homeschooling four kids at once used to sound quite overwhelming, but as with everything in motherhood, I found this is another area where you just grow into it. I have learned a few things in homeschooling my older kids that have made even this year, when I have more homeschool students than ever before, a manageable adjustment.
Bottom line: it's doable, and we're making it!
I thought I'd share a few things that I have learned in homeschooling multiple kids. There is nothing revolutionary here, but every homeschool mom is different, and we all learn different things at different times that work for us. Maybe some of this will sound familiar, but maybe some of it will give you new ideas as well!
1. Morning Time is the best thing we do in our homeschool.
As my kids have gotten older, I've prioritized morning time more and more, and I think it's one of the most valuable parts of our homeschool day. I don't homeschool my kids just because I want to teach them to read or do arithmetic - I want them to learn Bible verses, to have time to do Bible study together each day, to memorize a catechism, to sing hymns, and to watch all these things sink into their little hearts. I want time to enjoy a good book with them, to introduce them to good music and poetry. All that happens during Morning Time, and our homeschool wouldn't be as fulfilling without it.
(This is where I finally give you my October and November "Minimalist Morning Time" pages! Download them by clicking below. To be honest, we are still working through our September memory work, but I still had fun putting these pages together since I want us to memorize all of these Scripture passages, hymns, and poems eventually. I'm sorry the October pages are so late, but I think it worked out well to group October and November together. The Westminster Shorter Catechism questions for October were rather heavy, since they were presenting the problem of sin. The November questions tell us the solution, our Savior, Jesus Christ who died in our place! It's nice to post them both at the same time so we get the bad news and the good news at the same time.)
2. Combining subjects is critical for saving time.
As much as I can combine subjects, I do. We usually do things like history, science, and Bible together - any content-based subjects are easy to do as a group. I usually pick something that is geared toward my older kids, and then let the little kids listen in and pick up things wherever they can. But occasionally I'll do a book that is more directed toward my younger girls, and sometimes my big kids enjoy joining in on that too! We've even got to the point where some of big kids can do other subjects together, like writing lessons. Gwen and Wyatt have been doing the same writing program this year, and having a buddy has seemed to be motivating for both of them!
3. Overlapping subjects is an option.
For the subjects that I can't combine for my kids, like math, I've learned that I can sometimes overlap those subjects so I'm working with two kids at the same time. For instance, I might explain a math concept to one of my older kids and get them working on a worksheet, and then while they are doing that, I'll start explaining a math lesson to a second kid. Sometimes I have to come back to the first kid for answering a question or re-explaining something, but I'm still getting through two sets of math lessons at once this way, and it's quicker than doing a lesson with each kid start-to-finish consecutively.
4. They become independent quicker than you think.
When my oldest kids were just starting school, I thought it would be forever before I'd be able to get them to do any work independently, but it actually happened quicker than I thought. The age this happens is going to vary by kid, but I've noticed this year that all my efforts to gradually move them toward independent learning have started to pay off. One of the big kids is actually done with schoolwork before I even make breakfast in the morning, and while the other requires a little more supervision, I can usually hand over a stack of books and expect that they'll get things done by themselves. I look over their work later, and will sometimes call them back to talk through the lesson or concepts, but it's surprised me how much they can do by themselves this year.
5. I've come to accept that this is my full-time job.
As a second generation homeschool mom, I had some expectations of how our homeschool would go based on my own homeschool experience. I remember as a kid finishing up my work by lunch or early afternoon and having lots of time to read and play, and I loved being homeschooled because of that. That was a major plus to me as well when I decided to homeschool my kids - I wanted them to have that time to explore and be kids.
What I didn't realize is that just because I finished school quickly as a kid, didn't necessarily mean my mom was finished. As a homeschool mom now, and especially a homeschool mom of five kids from 4-10 years old, I've started to realize that even though my individual kids will have plenty of time for playing or reading during the day, I myself will probably be working through lessons with various kids from right after breakfast until mid-afternoon (or sometimes later). I think this will change a bit as more of my kids become independent with their school work, but for right now I've accepted that this is a major way I'll be spending my time during the week for the next couple years at least. And I've learned to be okay with that.
This homeschooling-lots-of-kids thing is a full time job - and, though it does take a lot of work as a mom if you want to do it well, it is a fulfilling and enriching job. I've come to accept that and treat it with the same seriousness that I would treat a job outside the home. And you know what? We all are enjoying it more as a result of this attitude shift of mine.
6. It's okay to just call it quits for the day, even if we might not have gotten to everything.
In this stage where I am homeschooling four kids at once, and trying to figure out how to balance that, I've learned it's a virtue to know when to quit. Sometimes we can't fit in every subject every day, and it's rare that we attain my "ideal homeschool day". When things are taking longer than usual, or we have some frustration happening (from the kids or me), or we are all just exhausted from a particularly busy weekend, it's okay to put the books aside and start fresh the next day. I've become better at balancing the need to stay "on schedule" in our curricula with reading my kids' moods and putting their individual needs first. It's freeing to know that even if we close the books early some days, it will all even out by the end of the year.
I know I'll have to remind myself of everything that I've written here when I add my fifth child into the homeschool mix in a couple years! But I'm sure I'll discover more along that way that will make that new season manageable as well.
For the past three years we have celebrated Reformation Day at the end of October. There was one year where I was going to let it slide, but my kids didn't let me forget! We enjoy learning some Reformation history leading up to October 31st, and I try to incorporate a few fun things to make it memorable.
In the past I have made my kids Reformation Day shirts, we read our favorite church history picture books, and we eat gummy worm desserts as we learn about Luther's famous stand at the Diet Of Worms. We've eaten sausage noodles as we learned about Zwingli's friends eating sausages during Lent (their own form of "protest"), and we considered doing "pin the 95 theses on the church door" as a variation of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey (but I have yet to get my act together enough to make a door poster for the game).
This year I ran across this Reformation Day guide by Brighter Day Press, and I snagged it while it was on sale! It has five lessons about different aspects of the Reformation, plus a bunch of ideas for things to include for a Reformation Day party. I was delighted to see a bunch of craft, snack, and game ideas that I hadn't thought of!
Since Reformation Day falls on Sunday this year, and since we'll be pretty busy on Sunday, I decided to scatter our Reformation Day activities throughout the week leading up to it instead. So we've been doing some crafts together this week, and I have more planned for today and tomorrow, thanks to this guide.
Here's what we've done so far!
Marshmallow Hammers - The kids and I had fun making these on Monday, and then snacking on them as we read our lesson. It's a little hazardous reading Martin Luther by Eric Metaxes on my own this year, because I had to inform my kids that it's actually more likely that Martin Luther mailed his theses to a friend who posted them to the church door with glue - the letter was dated October 31, 1517, which is why we mark the start of the Reformation on that day. It's not as great of an image as good ol' Luther determinedly nailing up his points of discussion, is it? But we still loved making these edible hammers!
A Mini Printing Press - There were actually many who came before Luther who had similar concerns about the Catholic church and their practice of indulgences, but one factor that finally made these problems more widely known was the development of the printing press. Without the Gutenburg Press, the recovery of the truth of the Gospel - that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone - wouldn't have been able to spread like it did! I loved this craft because it was a good demonstration of how a printing press would have worked back then, and why the production of printed material, though a major technological development, was still fairly slow. Can you imagine having to make an engraved plate for each page of the Bible? No wonder it took three years to print 200 copies!
Next up we will be writing with feather quills, and maybe playing "coins in the coffer" (another game idea that was included in the guide). If you want your kids to learn about the start of the Protestant Reformation, I do recommend checking out the Reformation Day Guide from Brighter Day Press (not sponsored, just sharing a good resource)! These are just a sampling of some of the activities that we found in the guide. It's been really fun to work through it together this week, and it has also sparked some great discussions.
For instance, at the end of the first lesson, which was a summary of Luther's life, I asked the kids what was the most courageous thing they thought Luther did. My big kids were very thoughtful about it, and both Wyatt and Gwen said independently that they thought it was brave when Luther stood up at the Diet Of Worms and said his famous words:
"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason (for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."
My eight year old told me she thought that was brave because he stood up for the Bible when everyone was against it. For all of Luther's faults, of which I am aware, this is why I think figures in church history are worth studying despite those failings. You would be hard pressed to find a person in history who did everything perfectly, who didn't get anything wrong. But there are so many historical figures, like Luther, who showed us what it looks like to stand firm upon the truth in the Bible, even when everyone is against it, even when it could (or often did) cost them their lives.
I want my children to have those stories in their minds, to know that standing on God's Word and holding fast to Jesus in a world that makes it so difficult is something that possible and courageous and eternally significant. Learning about church history gives them those examples to hopefully strengthen their own resolve, for right now and when they grow up. I'm thankful to have the opportunity to learn these stories with them each October.
This year was my oldest boy's 10th birthday party, and as his birthday approached in February, we knew we wanted to do a special "double digit" party for him. Our kids don't get birthday parties every year, and with five of them we've had to think about which ages we wanted to plan to be party years. Hitting the double digits is a special year, so we were thinking about what we could do to celebrate Wyatt.
Our options for parties outside of our house were limited, with most places requiring limits on the number of people or requiring everyone to wear masks. So we decided to do something creative at home instead. What we came up with was a Nerf gun war/capture the flag birthday party inside our house!
Since we have limited space in our house, and since I knew this party could get crazy, we limited our invites to just immediate extended family and one close family friend that we knew would be game for a crazy Nerf war. And it did get crazy, but it turned out to be so much fun!
We basically played capture the flag, with the teams divided between the upstairs and downstairs of our house. In order to make our house feel like an appropriate environment for a Nerf war, we took down all our breakables, hung up plastic sheets to divide some of the rooms, moved the larger furniture so it could serve as barricades, and planted buckets of darts in strategic places as reloading stations.
For food I made cupcakes, layered finger jello, multi-colored white chocolate fudge, and snacks foods like pretzels and Chex mix, with chili for the main dish. We also bought little single-shooter dart guns from the dollar store as favors for all the kids!
Each team took some time to hide their flag, and each team had a designated "jail". People were supposed to freeze for five seconds after they got hit by darts, based on the honor system, and they could be "captured" and walked to the jail (the bathrooms), where they had to wait five minutes, or until a jail break. The flags had to be hidden in a place where they were visible from three directions (thought that rule got a little tricky). Everyone got a green or blue bandana and glow stick bracelet, so we could see who was on which team even in the dark. The first team to bring the opposing team's flag back into their territory won!
We also came up with a Nerf War Playlist to accompany the mayhem (it's a pretty great playlist, if we do say so ourselves).
We made sure to split up the adults and kids evenly among the teams, and I'm happy to report that no one was injured! We played three rounds, and we had a blast! I think it was especially fun for the kids to have the adults playing the game too, and I think it will be a good memory for everyone!
Mother Culture is a popular concept in Charlotte Mason circles, and it basically just means that mothers should be learning too. It's important to keep learning as a homeschool mom, and as I learn, I'll be a better teacher for my kids.
A mother culture basket is kind of like a morning time basket for the mom, and I think it can include not just books that help me to learn, but books that I find refreshing as well. For the last couple years I have my own morning basket of sorts - actually it's a morning shelf in my reading nook in our front room - and I thought it would be fun today to share a few things that I have on my shelf right now. These are books that I read after my morning Bible reading, and usually before the kids are up and about for the day, but I'll sometimes squeeze a little reading in here and there during the day as well!
Since we were in Kentucky anyway for our trip, we decided to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. Before our trip we researched the different tour options, and delayed buying tickets a little too long. Unfortunately for us, by the time Danae and I tried to buy tickets for a cave tour they were sold out! We tried calling the park several times and never got an answer, so we decided to stop by Mammoth while we were there to see if it was worthwhile without a guided tour.
I must say, before researching this trip, I was not aware how many caves are in Kentucky. There are caves all over the place down there! When we realized we weren't going to be able to take an official tour at Mammoth, I did a little research and found so many private caves in the area. We decided to book a tour at one of the private caves as well, just in case we couldn't get into Mammoth Cave.
We drove down to the Bowling Green area on the third day in Kentucky, and arrived at Mammoth Cave around lunchtime. We were happy to find out that we could indeed buy tickets for a self-guided tour! I was so happy we still got to see Mammoth Cave, and now we can cross one more national park off our list!
The cave itself was more impressive than I expected. I have been in Carlsbad Caverns before and thought Mammoth Cave couldn't be much different than that, but I can say now that I think they are both their own, unique experience. The caverns we saw in Mammoth cave were huge! There was also a park ranger inside the cave to answer questions, and he gave us some interesting information about the way Native Americans explored the caves. Another park ranger stopped us to show us a bat hiding right on the wall of the cave. I was also interested to see that there was a World War One memorial inside the cave, erected by mothers of fallen soldiers.
After we checked out Mammoth Cave, we drove the rest of the way to Bowling Green and visited Lost River Cave for a boat cave tour. Yes, we really rode a boat into a cave! It was a pretty cool experience in itself, and the history of this particular cave was pretty colorful. We found out it was a popular courting spot during the Civil War, that the cave used to host a nightclub in the 1920's, that it's flooded countless times, and was even at one point filled with trash before it was cleaned out and preserved in the 80's! Apparently they still host wedding receptions on the old nightclub platform, and I thought it was such a cool spot.
We enjoyed another dinner together with our friends on this last night before we made the long drive back home. I am so grateful we were able to do this trip with such dear friends! All three of our destinations - the Ark, the Creation Museum, and the caves - were that much more special to do with good friends, and I'm so happy we'll always have this fun memory to look back on together! Thanks, Danae and family, for taking my crazy suggestion to go to the Ark together seriously! I'll always be thankful we went!
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