16 hours ago
A Quote
"As we read the lives of men and women who have been strategically used by Christ in building His kingdom, we note that the names of those through whom they were brought to faith in Jesus Christ are often forgotten or lost. But their significance is incalculable. God delights to use the hidden and the forgotten. This is, surely, a tremendous encouragement to people like us who live our Christian lives in relative obscurity. We do not expect to find our names in any church history book. And yet, it may be that someone to whom we are kind because we love Jesus will be taken up and extraordinarily used by God to build the church of Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is far more significant than fame when Jesus is building His church."
-Sinclair Ferguson, In The Year Of Our Lord
A Book
I’ve been reading a homeschool book this week called Education: Does God Have An Opinion? By Israel Wayne. I know the title sounds really aggressive, but I’m finding that the book isn’t as harsh as the title sounds. I just started Part Two of the book, and I have a feeling this is where the homeschool gold will be - the author is breaking down each school subject and discussing how it can be taught from a Christian worldview, and how we can point our students back to Christ through every area of study. It’s already given me so much to think about!
A Bit Of Nature
We went on a a nature hike with our good friends last week, and there were so many pretty leaves everywhere!
A Recommendation
I’m going to highly recommend the pumpkin donuts at Dunkin Donuts this week. I snagged one yesterday (there were only two left), and I must say, they do pumpkin donuts right. They're not sickly sweet, but has just the right amount of pumpkin.
A Moment Of Happiness
Yesterday I took my big kids to soccer practice. If you read my post yesterday, you know it was a cold day. I sat huddled in my chair, watching the kids chase the ball around the field, while I drank my coffee and worked on this post. The leaves are finally starting to change in town, splashes of yellow and red against the dark grey of the skies, with the mountains in the background. Even though the air was so brisk and my fingers were almost immediately cold, I have to say, I really enjoyed it all - the shouts of kids in the background, the water trickling in the drains, the smell of wet grass and leaves, and red noses when my kids finished up their practice. What can I say, I’m a cold weather person.
It is snowing outside right now.
It seems a bit early for the first snow, but that's only because the weather has been so nice lately. We've had a bright, warm fall up until now. In truth, we were probably overdue for some cold weather.
Today we are working on some unusual schoolwork. My big kids have a chance to participate in a program put on by a local bank, where they will learn about global economics and work together to "run" faux trading between 16 countries for the day. They'll be doing that in November, and we have a whole semester's worth of curriculum to go over in the next couple weeks. Normal school is on hold so we can finish as much as we can before our training days next week.
I never thought I'd be explaining the definition of a tariff and how a trade war works to my elementary school students, but I'm actually amazed at how much they are retaining! I also credit a lot of their understanding of some of these complex eceonomis concepts to the Tuttle Twin books. One of the videos we watched mentioned protectionism, and Wyatt said, "Oh yeah, it's just like in The Tuttle Twins And The Food Truck Fiasco." I'm amazed at how much my kids enjoy those books, and clearly the concepts are sinking in.
We made it through four global economics lessons today, and right now Gwen and Wyatt are playing a trading relationships and transportation game, involving a worksheet, a globe, and a pair of dice.
It started snowing around lunch time, and we have about an inch outside right now. My little kids emerged from their rooms (where I had relegated them for the morning so the big kids could focus), and they immediately dug the snow clothes out of the closet, and they've been traipsing in and out of the house every few minutes for the last half hour. I'm definitely going to have to mop the floor now because of all the melted snow, but they were so excited, I couldn't say no.
In about an hour I'm going to have to start getting the big kids ready for soccer practice, and we'll probably have to find some extra layers since it's a cool day. Christmas music may be played in the car on the way down. I may even treat myself to a coffee since I'm going to have to stay warm on the sidelines during practice.
Between soccer practice and trying to catch up on our global trade lessons, I didn't have a lot of time to be creative today, so this is what you get - a little snapshot of our Tuesday.
I'm finally getting around to sorting through my pictures and sharing about our trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky!
First for a little back story - I've been a Ken Ham fan for a long time, and I had heard so many good things about the Ark, so I knew we eventually wanted to take a trip out there. Late last year, I heard that they were extending their 2020 deal and offering free admittance for kids 10 and under for all of 2021! This would be our last year that we could get a kid discount for Wyatt, so I knew I wanted to try to make a trip happen.
However, earlier this year Derek got a new job, and we lost all our vacation time from his previous workplace. Since we didn't have any time off built up, we didn't take an official vacation, just a few long weekend trips. Despite the lack of vacation time, I have been scheming all year about how to make a trip out to the Ark work.
Well, we knew our good friends also wanted to visit the Ark Encounter, and so we recruited them to take a trip with us! I would drive out by myself with the kids and our friends, and Derek would fly out after work to meet us. Then we'd take a long weekend and all drive home together. This scheme saved Derek from having to take as many days off, so we were able to make the trip work! I'm so thankful our friends were up for going on a trip with us, because I don't think we would have made it out there without them, and it ended up being a really wonderful memory to go to the Ark together!
I will skip past the start of our trip, except to say that I almost fell asleep driving through Kansas (flat, straight road, and lots of grain fields). We did stop and have lunch behind the St. Louis Arch (which is the Gateway to the West, and the location where Lewis and Clark started their expedition - learned that from my 10 year old).
When we finally arrived in Kentucky, my friend's husband went to pick up Derek at the airport, and we were finally all together again! The next day was the big day, the visit to the Ark Encounter!
This is a very limited amount of pictures, and I don't feel like they do the Ark justice. Not only was it incredibly huge, but there was so much on the grounds as well. The entrance is in the shape of a rainbow, to represent God's promise to never flood the earth again. There was a whole area dedicated to restaurants/food trucks, a really cool kids' playground (which included a roller-coaster swing), and a miniature zoo that we barely even had time to check out properly!
Of course, the big attraction was the Ark itself, and walking in was so impressive. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's set up like a three-floor museum with areas to watch educational videos, exhibits, and gift shops. The exhibits were very interactive and interesting for my kids - I don't think they got bored once. We could have spent much more time inside the Ark than we did.
My favorite exhibits were the ones that explained the really practical aspects of the ark - like how they could automate the feeding and watering of the animals in different ways, the interesting way that the different animal kinds may have looked back then, and an entire exhibit about how a moon pool could have helped with disposing of waste and keeping fresh air circulating throughout they Ark.
Everything they presented was so well thought out. I am a young earth creationist, I have believed in a a literal worldwide flood and a literal Noah's ark my whole life, but I never gave much thought to the practical aspects of running the Ark while Noah and his family were on it during the flood. It was amazing how realistic and researched their presentation of the Ark was. If you have ever questioned whether Noah's ark could have been real, or wondered about how they handled all those animals, the Ark Encounter is the place to go! It answered questions I didn't even know I had.
The kids' favorite part of the day was definitely the virtual reality experience! We decided to pay the extra fee to take a virtual reality trip to Noah's day. We had real VR goggles to wear, and sat in chairs that moved, while a friendly robot took us on an adventure. The kids were shouting in glee during the whole thing, and we had one child quite frightened when a dinosaur chomped at us. I've caught the kids playing "time travel" a few times since we got back!
We ended the day enjoying some really good fudge that we bought at one of the shops while we watched the kids get some energy out on the playground, which included a rainbow maze, a rubber whale and other creatures to climb on, a miniature zipline, and the aforementioned roller coaster swing. They were having nightly gospel concerts while we were out there, so we also got to hear a couple songs before we called it a day.
I'd highly recommend taking a trip to the Ark if you have kids anywhere from 6 and up - my younger girls enjoyed it too, but I think the big kids really got a lot out of it. Clyde especially has been so interested in how they built the Ark since we got back, and it's been special to see how this trip has sparked his interest. I think for all my kids this brought Genesis alive for them in a unique way, and it was so worth it to go.
Next up will be the Creation Museum!
Praise ye the Lord, ye servants of the Lord;
Praise ye His name; His lordly honor sing;
Thee we adore; to Thee glad homage bring;
Thee We acknowledge; God to be adored
For Thy great glory, Sovereign, Lord, and King.
Father of Christ - of Him whose work was done,
When by His death He took our sins away -
To Thee belongeth worship, day by day,
Yea, holy Father, everlasting Son,
And Holy Ghost, all praise be thine for aye!
-Hymn from the Apostolic Constitutions, translated by George Ratcliffe Woodward
This week I re-started a book called In The Year Of Our Lord by Sinclair Ferguson, which I've mentioned before. In it, he goes through some significant people and events in the history of the church, covering the highlights of each century since Christ. It's such an interesting book, and one that I'm in the mood to read especially leading up to Reformation Day! I never finished it last year, so I'm hoping to make it all the way through by the end of October.
One thing I really appreciate about this book is how he includes writings from each century at the ends of the chapters, and this short song of praise was written in the 3rd century. Reading this book always gives me a new appreciation for the richness and history of our faith, which I think Protestants can sometimes lose sight of. When we fall into chasing everything that's current or trendy, we miss out on some of the depth that is to be found in those who came before. New isn't better, and our God is unchanging - the same in the beginning, the 3rd century, right now, and forever. I love how reading millennia-old songs of praise to our Lord, written by Christians that passed the faith down through the generations, reminds me of the faithfulness of God to His people.
Happy Sunday, friends!
Do you want to know what some of my most popular blog posts are?
Fudge recipes.
Several years back, when I was pregnant with my girls and therefore had a massive sweet tooth, I went a little crazy on the fudge recipes. I came up with several actually, all using my basic white chocolate fudge base recipe (which was an adaptation of a different fudge recipe - I make a lot of fudge, okay?). I especially loved the fall adaptations, though my most popular by far is my lemon fudge recipe.
Anyway, if you love fudge, and you love fall flavors, I thought I would share my three autumn-inspired fudge recipes again! Since it's been so many years since I experimented with my fudge recipes, maybe I need to come up with another fall fudge flavor - stay tuned.
Pumpkin Maple Fudge - I remember not being totally satisfied with the way this fudge turned out, though it was still delicious. I think I wanted the pumpkin flavor to come through more, so a re-work of this recipe may be coming.
Caramel Apple Pie Fudge - This, more than any of the other recipes, is really a full-on dessert fudge!
Cinnamon Orange Fudge - This one was certainly fall-ish, but I think it could be yummy for Christmas too!
What do you think, what fall flavor should I experiment with next?
2:07 PM
I stare at the pile of 4x6 photos, trying to muster up the gumption to start sorting. Over the last ten years I have fallen woefully behind on getting photos printed, and in a manic spurt of motivation, I have printed two years worth of photos all at once. They arrived in a big jumble, and I must pick through them one by one, separating them out by year and month, and then put them into albums.
There are no shortcuts here, so I sit crosslegged on the floor and start twelve piles, one for each month of a year that was finished a decade ago. As the photos slowly start resembling chronological order, I find myself lingering over each one a little longer. There is one of that time we went to the zoo when my oldest was a baby. There is one of his first Thanksgiving, and I can see how his hair stood straight up in a golden fuzz around his sweet face.
I watch myself in these photos, as my belly goes from flat to pumpkin-esque, as my next child grows inside. Then there she is, squinted eyes and puckered newborn lips surrounded by dark hair against the hospital sheets.
Before I know it, not just one hour but several have passed. The photos are sorted, and I have painstakingly put them into albums. An entire day's work, and I've only improved the status of this ridiculously delayed photo project by 25 months. It took me six months to get organized and motivated enough to accomplish even this, and I feel that these albums will never be complete.
But I will keep trying, I'll keep finding pockets of time to sort through our family's history and preserve it as my kids grow and change more with every year. Even in this one day, I've watched my first and second babies go from a bundle in the hospital to chasing and popping bubbles in the backyard, from a black and white outline on an ultrasound to crawling across the floor with a two-toothed grin and sparkling eyes. I want to watch the rest of my children join our family in photos, I want to watch as my husband and I gain a few gray hairs and laugh lines, as these albums are slowly completed, one by one, year by year.
And when this season of parenting children in our own home is complete, when I close the last album containing their childhood, I hope I can say I we all enjoyed it to the full.
Stop.
I am not very far into my re-read of the book yet (Jane just got to Rochester's house and hasn't met him yet), but to give myself a little inspiration, I created a Jane Eyre board on Pinterest! I don't think I've actually used Pinterest for years, but this situation called for it. I found a lot of interesting things to bookmark, and thought I would share them on my blog today.
Jane Eyre's Home - To start this off, I found this blogger's description of visiting Charlotte Bronte's home really fascinating, and the pictures added a lot to my understanding of the landscape she probably had in mind when she wrote Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre Literary Dinner - I remembered seeing a literary dinner idea in the past, and a little googling led me to this gorgeous Jane Eyre literary dinner. Their decorating really matches the mood of the book!
Jane Eyre Ambience - Need a little music to play in the background while you read? I found this Jane Eyre Music and Ambience playlist, and also this playlist "for Jane Eyre and Rochester slowly falling in love".
Close Reads Analysis Of Jane Eyre - I am planning on listening to this podcast as I finish each set of chapters. The gang over at Close Reads is basically the only reason I ended up liking The Great Gatsby, and I'm curious to see what insight they have on Jane!
Jane Eyre, The Comic Book - I found this Jane Eyre graphic novel and requested it from my library - I thought it might be fun to see how they adapted the book to comic book form.
Jane Eyre Cardamom Seed Buns - Several years ago I read a great book called Voracious, which included recipes inspired by works of literature. When I was working on my Pinterest board, I remembered that book and looked up the author's blog - and what do you know, I found the Jane Eyre recipe! I don't seem to remember the seed cake/buns/whatever-they-were in the book, but I'm sure I'll get there.
Jane Eyre Seed Cake - On a similar note, here is another seed-related recipe.
Beauty And The Beast, Jane Eyre, and Rebecca Help Us Decide Whether A Jerk Can Change For The Better by Faith Moore - You might have caught my post yesterday about the princess book I read - well, I was poking around on the author's website and saw this post about how Jane Eyre and Beauty And The Beast relate. I remember not loving Rochester last time I read the book, but I thought the author of this article raised some really interesting parallels between the Beauty and the Beast story and Jane Eyre. Spoiler: Moore doesn't think Rochester is a jerk, not a true jerk. You'll have to read the article and tell me what you think. This article also helped me understand my more lukewarm feelings toward Jane Eyre - I've never been as drawn to the moody-man-who-is-changed-because-of-a-woman storyline. Give me Prince Charming instead, please. But we'll see if my opinion changes as I read this time through!
I had such fun putting this Pinterest board together that I'm considering doing one for the next classic book I read! What's your favorite classic?
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