"All who need, may fear no more." -David Crowder

Wanting my words lead to lead to no other place but Father's big heart. That's all I simply want to do. He has made me glad. He is such a loving Father.

I think it's so right to say, You are so good. I know Somewhere Over the Rainbow is playing here on my blog, but the happiness and joy is right in my heart from a very loving, good God.

When I'm scared, insecure

~ I'm thankful You are still in control.

When I'm laughing

~I'm thankful for the people in my world who remind me to lighten up.

When my heart is filling

~I'm thankful for guitars and worship songs

When I'm walking with my daughter

~I'm thankful for the rustle of tall brown corn stalks and birds in flight

When I'm confused

~I'm thankful I can talk to Him and the Holy Spirit works in ways I can't see and somehow my heart moves in the direction He is leading me to go. Verified by the words from His Word. Wow, that's so cool when that happens.

When I don't have enough hands and I can't manage the kids by myself and I'm leaving church in tears

~I'm thankful for an older mama figure who shushes and hugs me and gathers up the wee-est one and helps me to the truck with compassion and mercy.

When there are apples, and stew beef, and flour

~I'm thankful for the family who is excited to share a fall feast

When I'm frustrated and weary with sin

~I'm thankful He reminds me of my own to help me remember mercy

When I'm feeling alone

~I'm thankful for the random gestures of love that tell me I'm not.

(I'm sorry I lost count! I have to go digging a little to see what number I'm on!)

Birthday Fun

In Which I Agree that Education Happens by Our Intimacies

Rainy days and five little guys in the house for long sessions because Dad and the big guys are away at their academies, I watch homeschooling work, and realize that it really took no magic on my part but to provide the opportunities and direction these folks need.

For Bannon's copywork, from our reading and because it just fits me right now :

"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it." House at Pooh Corner


Making paper autumn leaves

Playing with rice
leaves are hung!


"We know well that 'Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.' In other words, we know that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere) to forward his sound education; should train him in the discipline of the habits of the good life; and should nourish his life with ideas, the food upon which personality waxes strong." Charlotte Mason, School Education

In so many ways I love and appreciate Charlotte Mason's writings. She was very wise. I have changed somewheat since the beginning of my homeschool years. I used to be against certain books ("twaddlish"), television, and music not classical in their education.) While I am aware this has been a help in many families, basically I needed to be a (Insert my last name) and married to my God fearing husband Jeremy, and parenting my 8 folks that God gave me. It has caused my journey to look a little different than some of my favorite homeschool moms (or shall I say home-cool, because I REALLY THINK THEY ARE!!! :), but it has worked for us. And dare I say it? God has helped me find my way through the forest because I have asked Him to.

Charlotte reminds moms and teachers of the above thought. Children are educated by their environment, relationships and habits. I see this happen all the time with the kids. Just yesterday Bannon and I were reading the Among the Forest People book for nature and we were reading about bees and the kingbird. Because we had visited the local nature center where they had a bee colony that you could look at through the glass, and he had watched a television program on PBS kids that talked about bees, he was already enlightened in so many ways about them. I don't know why, but being a part of a child's education like that...is well...amazing. I LOVE it. Getting out there and living life, cracking open a book to read for 10 minutes together, today we'll draw it hopefully, reading House at Pooh Corner where Pooh Bear is always on the hunt for honey, and me feeling like Pooh is one of my understanding friends right now :) is all an education in this FAMILY'S life. All of us. It affects all of us.

The girls have been gathering their stuffed animals and playing Poohish interactions, the big guys away at their academies make us feel, and them as well, much like the Hundred Acre Wood folk who hunt for Christopher Robin because he has gone missing in the day. We know where he is at (school), but we understand the lost and missing feelings of the Hundred Acre Wood animals. We miss all of our own Christopher Robins. Of course, I made one of my teen young men tear up by singing a song from the movie they watched when they were little, Pooh's Grand Adventure. He won't ever admit it, but it is true.

"Forever isn't long at all, when I'm with you." Pooh to Christopher Robin

Elbow Deep

Oh Lord, Your many kindnesses to us
I see it in my days here
as I'm cleaning the water that has saturated the floor
as I'm teaching 2 column subtraction
when the little person is working on staying in their own bed
when the heart to heart talks are many and needed
when I want to move to Australia to get away from me, but I can't because it will still be me I see in the mirror

I am so thankful for

• friends who lend their ears and hearts
• Your Word, which has Your words and thoughts
  
• Above Rubies status updates on Facebook
• quilts, comforters which make these cool nights offer restful sleep when it is available
• cotton towels
• Holy Spirit guidance
• the fun we feast on through the many children books available to us
• laughter
• medicine by having a cheerful heart
• David Crowder's worship ministry
• Beth Moore's teaching which still ring in my ears
• the magnificent colors of autumn
• Your Grace which invites me again and again into Your loving arms

And the Rain Came Down.

The rain is falling.
The skies are gray.
But here inside the children play.


We pile the blankets to make our "nests"
The colors speak, our home is blessed.



With play-doh and song



These are simple days
But a mother's heart, offers up her days

The love and mercy that she deeply needs,
are found and freely given at her Savior's feet.

Acts 14: ¹⁷ Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

Without Cost

Well, sadly I think the beaver has gone. We had a rush of crazy activity near the pond as we hunted for a missing chicken. If beavers are sensitive to activity like that, Paddy is long gone.

But, we went on to play games like "Camouflage."

Can you see them? No? Oh wait...


How about now? :)


Do you see them yet? They are excellent camouflagers.

Polka-dot girls, played picking raspberries, and pop the jewelweed seedpods. That is great fun for little ones. It's hard for me to pull them away. And they are certainly impatient for the raspberries, just so mama can get a cute picture. Ah well.


I know I have spoken of my daily journal I keep open where I write thoughts, meals, things, and What-nots.

I had a couple things spoken to me yesterday I treasured. I'm writing, I'm saving. I'm sharing today. Just because sometimes children make us big people slow down and remember life through their eyes is so much simpler than the Big people stresses and worries we carry. I am instructed when I am listening.

*Tag was rowdy, and especially funny, because I PLAYED. The kids were laughing hysterically and breathing fast, but I didn't miss Bannon's, "This is a happy game!" comment.*

*Abby snuck in before quiet time to visit with me. My dear little girl has an amazing ability to TALK. Yesterday she asked me, "If Jesus sent a baby down the waterfall to us, would we keep it? Or would we give it away to *insert many names here*?" She went off to play "babies." *

Nature Study this Week

I love getting to have our own ecology lab around here! The pond that was seeing its ending with increasing sediment and the froggy inhabitants, has taken new interest for us all as we have been visited by a beaver! We hope he or she will stay!

Swimming in the pond, letting us somewhat near

We'll call he/she Paddy the Beaver for fun's sake.

As you can see, the Paddy has been very hard at work!


Here is a weed flower seeding that my mom picked up alongside of our driveway. Jeremy took it in to a work colleague and he helped us to discover it is from the wild onion family, a variety of the Jack-in the-Pulpit. Information is seen here.

And now, for this fellow. This weed I gathered and rid of thinking it a hallucinogenic. Well, funny thing is, I link to and follow Cold Climate Gardening (see in my sidebar.) She had pictures up last week of Wildflower Wednesday's bur cucumber. So, I went hunting on Google images for its seeds. And, lo and behold, the Jimson weed and bur cucumber seedpods look VERY similar, but the bur cucumber seeds actually resemble cucumber seeds, and I do believe that is what we have!! We will scavenge today, draw, and verify for sure with Mr. Plant IDenTiFiIER. Thank you Mr. IDenTiFIER! The bur cucumbers are edible, which would explain the mistakes families and soldiers from history have made.

"Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them." Charlotte Mason, (Vol 1, II, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children, p. 44)