Merry Christmas!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - The Week Before Christmas

1-3 - Haircut time. Phew, there are my boys! 4-5 - Unveiling murals 
that our homeschool co-op help paint. 6. Made pumpkin rolls.

7. Church Christmas Party, 8-9 - Playing with Playmobil.

Well, I did it! I had schedule this last week for school, but at the last minute told the kids that they only had to focus on math and reading. I'm sure when June rolls around I'm be upset that I didn't do this week of school, but honestly, we (or maybe I) needed the break. So here is a little list of things that we did:

• Slept in
• Took the boys for haircuts
• Christmas shopping
• Baking
• Went to the Oregon Food Bank for the unveiling of the murals that our homeschool co-op had help paint for them.
• Hosted our church's Christmas party
• All the kids played with their Playmobil sets for hours upon hours every day. 
• The kids read books. Caleb read 4 books alone!
• I read Dicken's A Christmas Carol  aloud to them.

A good week overall! This coming week we will be busy getting the house cleaned for the arrival of my parents on Christmas Eve.

Wednesdays with Words (Jane Eyre)

 

I am listening to Jane Eyre on audio and just listened to this passage and thought, "Wow!" and had to go find my book to share. This portion is at the point where Mr. Rochester is trying to convince Jane to go away with him.

     This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. 'Think of his misery; think of his danger; look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair - soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?

     Still indomitable was the reply: 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am , the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth - so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane - quite insane, with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.'

Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte   

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Happy 18th Birthday, Caleb!

 1. The birthday boy! 2. Look at all those candles!!

3. Gifts 4. Hunting knife from Papa & Granny.

Somehow in this crazy thing called life I found myself the mother of an 18 year old. Yes, Caleb turned 18 on Saturday. It is hard to believe since it hasn't been that long since I was 18, maybe not so in real life, but in my spirit!

We kept his birthday low key since he will also be having a graduation ceremony in the spring. On Friday we went to Famous Dave's for dinner along with his Granny and Papa Starr. He received a hunting knife, which according to them he can use next hunting season. We'll see what happens. (Though my husband was raised in a hunter's home he didn't get the hunting gene.)

Saturday evening we had a small celebration with our family and friends, Hannah and Sarah. He received a lot of goodies. His favorite is his new basketball. My favorite (and funniest) was this:
 

William Shakespeare's Star Wars

In other news: 

 1. Delani working on letters. 2. Caleb's invention. He was cooking 
tortilla's and attached a fork to the handle of the spatula so he could 
poke holes in the tortillas. 3 - 6 - Co-op Christmas Party 
7. Game night.

Our biggest thing in our homeschool was the Christmas party for our co-op. The kids had the opportunity to do several crafts together. Later the teen group did a White Elephant gift exchange and played the Christmas Candy Ball Game. The younger kid's did "Winter Olympic" activities for PE and then they also had their own Christmas Candy Ball. 

We have been faithful in doing school work, but I think this coming week the focus in just going to be on math, reading, and Circle Time reading. This is so I can focus on a few things before Christmas comes. We will be having quite a few celebrations coming up, plus my parents will be coming for Christmas.
 

How about you? Are you still doing school work or taking time to enjoy the Christmas season?

The Saga of the Starr Christmas Tree

 

We finally got the Christmas tree up and decorated. Yes, it took three whole days, but it is up. I don't know why it takes so long and there are moments that I wish I had a fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and--poof--it is decorated, but alas, that doesn't happen around here!

 

We have an pre-lit artificial tree and last Tuesday Caleb and Shade pulled the tree out and put it together only to find out that half of the lights didn't work. Shade worked on it all evening and couldn't find what the problem was except that it was worn out. Well, there wasn't money in the budget for a new tree and I briefly entertained the thought of a real tree, but threw that idea out quickly.

 

Fortunately, we still had a box full of lights left over from the last tree we had. I need to briefly explain here that him putting the lights on the tree has always been point of contention for me. Through out our married life he always works so hard at putting them on (the way I tell him I want them) and then we I go to finish decorating even though I try so hard to ignore them and just decorate the tree I usually ended up restringing them. Well, with that though in mind I wasn't very thrilled, but this year I resolved that I wasn't going to restring them.

 

So Wednesday evening Shade and the kids went through all the lights and strung them on the tree. The next step was for me to put on the red mesh.. Since it was so late Wednesday I deferred the job to Thursday. When we got home from co-op on Thursday our furnace had decided to quit working and putting mesh on the tree with my winter coat on wasn't an option!

 

Thankfully, the heat came back on and when we got home from church I put the red mesh on the tree, the kid's put on the ornaments, and I finished it up with the gold mesh. It was late, but I had some very happy kids.

 

Please note: I DID NOT restring the lights and neither did I rearrange any ornaments (a first)! Amazingly, my kids have figured out how to get them spread all over the tree rather than in one spot.

 

So there you have it, the Saga of the Starr Tree. It is pretty sad it takes so long to decorate, but I guess that fall under my "life happens" motto.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Random 5 on Friday (and more)!

 

1. & 2. Thanksgiving ham and apple bars for dessert. 3. Opening an
Advent gift.4. We are reading Oliver Twist and one day I had to
read 8 chapters to them aloud since they had to hear 'just one more'.
5. New phone. 6. & 7. Snow!!!!

1. We woke up this morning to find snow falling. The kids bundled up and went outside for a little bit. Even though I grew up in the Mid-west I don't miss snow at all, especially since Oregonians don't know what to do in it or with it!

2. On Monday I remember that it was a new term and I wasn't prepared for it at all. I spent the next three days trying to get my plans finalized so I could print them off. Oh the joys of not being prepared!

3. I entered the world of smart phones. I've been having a lot of fun with Instagram and joined up with Raising Mighty Arrows' December Photo-a-Day.

4. We had a different Thanksgiving this year. We couldn't go and be with my husband's family due to my husband having to work Thanksgiving and the day after, so we stayed at home and invited a couple from church over. I decided to try my hand at making a cheesecake and had quite an adventure which resulted in making two cheesecakes. Yes, when I cook I always having interesting and at times stressful moments. (Even though I goofed when I made the first one it tasted fine and I was able to freeze the second one to eat later.)

5. Here are some random photos of things that have been happening around here since I missed a couple weeks of posting.

1. Chantry's turn for presentation. He did a book report on

Swallows & Amazons. 2. I'm not sure what prompted sunglasses for
eating dinner, but for some reason Delani thought she needed them.

3. I spent a couple of nights on the coast for a Woman's Conference.

4. Delani loving on her doll. 5. Destini's birthday gift finally
arrived from American Girl. 



Wednesdays with Words (Patience)



This week I'm reading from The Fruitful Wife: Cultivating a Love Only God Can Produce by Haley DiMarco and got to the chapter on "Patience" when I found my toes being stepped on! Yes, I have quite a ways to go when it comes to excelling in patience.

Patience displays not only our faith in, and imitation of, the One who has been so patient with us in our sinful and ugly ways, but it also displays our trust in him. When you trust in God, you aren't prone to impatience, because impatience stems from not getting what you want. When you trust in God, what you want is his will alone, and impatience is less and less of an issue. Impatience implies that God has lost control; that things have happened that weren't meant to happen, and that life is out of whack. But for the believer who trusts in God's complete sovereignty, there is nothing that is too late, too slow, or unwelcome, because we know that it all first passes through the hand of God (see Lam. 3:8). When you are assured of this truth, you are set free from the bondage of impatience that prompts you to become controlling, critical, doubtful, fearful, or just plain restless. The restlessness of impatience that grinds on your gut and panics your mind is the opposite of resting in the Lord, of finding strength in his peaceful patience and his sovereignty over even our little inconveniences and catastrophes. p. 93