Fun Friday
24 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in hike, School Stuff
Well, we had plans – plans to walk 5 miles on the trail to the bus, then take the bus to the cafe’ and take the shuttle to the MOA and then the bus home. But, the cafe’ was closed (which I found out via their website) and Bethany had a math semester test to take, and her Coursera stuff to do, so we stayed home and did that. For lunch we went to Sweet tomatoes and then hiked 1.5 miles at the Bluffs park.
The park is part of the East/West regional trail that will eventually go all the way to Parker.
It starts near our house and goes 14 miles (NOT as the crow flies) to Lone Tree (where we were today.) I did not know it was that far (the trail is very winding.)
Still, the small part we were on had awesome views of downtown Denver and of Highlands Ranch.
I took the girls swimming at the pool after the hike and later tonight we’re going to church for a worship concert that will round out the evening nicely.
Thursday
23 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in co-ops, School Stuff
This morning we did some school, Bethany turned in her guitar assignment (by uploading recordings to Soundcloud) and turned in her Nutrition assignment (dinner – round steak in cream of mushroom soup, garlic spaghetti squash and garlic couscous.)
Grace wrote a post to tell everyone about the WAVES symposium coming up in September (Fabien Cousteau is one of the speakers!) Hannah finished up LOF Edgewood and was reading Nate the Great to me. We went to lunch with Dad (since he was home) at Chipotle and then the girls and I went downtown to The Gathering Place for a tour and to drop off donations.
I had planned for this tour to only be for little kids so that Grace and Hannah could be on this one, Bethany was the only one that was supposed to be at the other tour, so we got twice the information about TGP. We did ask some different questions and got answers about things like: Why is this shelter only for women and children? (Because there are already shelters for men and the environment there tends to be not as safe as a place with only women.) Why is TGP only open during the day? (Because there are many night shelters for people to sleep in, but they have beds covering the floor space and no room to have other things like healthcare, library, play area, and so on.) How many people come to TGP on a daily basis? (About 250-300, more in the summertime.) Is everything free? (Yes, you can see a doctor, work on a computer, take a crafting class, drop your kids off at the daycare, get food, get clothing, find bus routes, make calls on their land lines and more – for free.) Do you have to be homeless to go to TGP? (No, you can be short on food for the month and come get food, they serve the homeless, the poor and those who just need a little help with something during the month.) We dropped off food in the food pantry and books for the kids and adults.
After the tour we dropped some books and puzzles off at Lambuth house (since we were so close) and then got a snack at Littleman’s. I took the girls to Walmart where Hannah spent some of her birthday money on dresses, a nightgown, an itunes card and a wallet. Grace got a new swimsuit and Bethany got new swim shorts. Now we’re all set to swim. James made dinner and we watched some TV, I was tired from…..I don’t know what, but just tired.
Fun Friday
17 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in family outing, School Stuff
Today Grace got to listen in on a live interview with a marine geologist through JASON. She typed in some questions for Nicole Raineault, a marine geologist with the Nautilus Corps of Exploration. You can catch the recorded version here. She is currently analyzing the patterns of marks beaked whales leave in sediment in the deep sea, as well as data analysis from a mud volcano and a seafloor mapping cruise for the E/V Nautilus. It’s a field of study that Grace hadn’t considered before (one of Mrs. Raineault’s finds was fossilized whale bones), but she’s not sure about studying geology. In a few weeks Grace will watch the live Q&A with the Nautilus navigator and see what he does with the E/V. Bethany spent some time evaluating classmates in guitar by listening to their Soundcloud recordings. She finished up week one of writing and got her list of things we needed to buy so she could make her ‘balanced breakfast’ for nutrition class. Hannah had fun playing a coin game and writing her spelling words on the dry erase board (she thinks it’s fun to write them and then erase them.)
We had a very lazy afternoon, then I took Bethany to a friend’s party and we all picked her up after 7pm to go to a nature program in Aurora. It was James’s first time at the Star K ranch, but not ours. We got to see deer, bats, horned owls and a coyote, but that’s not what the program was about. Joy started out by talking to the kids about the sun and earth, then we tried to figure out what colors stars were and put them in order from hottest to coldest (blue to black.) Then we went outside just as the sun went down and looked at the moon. Soon stars started popping up. We located the Big Dipper, Leo, Jupiter, Saturn, Virgo, Vega and lots of other stars by themselves and in constellations. We had binoculars (which made the moon look nice) and we were trying to distinguish star colors with them too (that was harder to do.) We talked about the night sky and where objects will soon be (the Summer Triangle for instance), then we walked back to the nature center.
Tomorrow it’s bookmark awards and a trolley tour.
Tales, the park, music and art
16 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in art, co-ops, exceptional kids, park day, School Stuff
Yesterday I had my trickster tales co-op at the MOA art park. I like showing off places that people have never been to. Almost everyone at the co-op had never been to the park at Fiddler’s Green, but now they know what a cool place it is. In the Summer when the Weidenblume sculpture is covered in willow leaves we like to lie in its shade and do school.
The willow is just starting to leaf out and even now it gives a bit of shade. I read Arrow to the Sun, Pig Boy and Jabuti (all by Gerald McDermott.) The first book is a Pueblo Indian tale, not so much trick as a tale of how boy came to earth and how rainbows were made. The second book is a tale from Hawaii, the third is set in the rain forest and is a tale of how the tortoise got a cracked shell.
After the readings we glued colored paper shapes (or just colored) a turtle, some of the kids got very creative with that part, some didn’t do it at all and everyone had some time to play at the park.
After the co-op we went up the street to Westlands park for park day. Annie wasn’t too sure about my new camera, she had just gotten used to the old one, now I’m going to have to win her over with the new one.
The kids played in the brush (yes, they have an entire playground and they choose to play in the gully and trees, I love these kids.)
The parents talked while the kids played, ahh park day. The weatherman was correct and right on time it started to rain and hail in typical Colorado afternoon thunderstorm fashion. It was good to get out and see so many friends, some of which we hadn’t seen in ages.
Today we started school on time (because Daddy was working from home) and everyone got through in record time. Bethany was able to record her guitar playing and upload it to her Coursera guitar course before the deadline (4 hours before, but it was still before the deadline.) We weeded through the library books that needed returning and headed out to the EK meeting at Mcd’s for a late lunch. No one showed up to the meeting, so we ate and I let the kids play while I finished up my May article for ColoradoEdNews. Then we drove by CORE art gallery to see Bethany’s art piece.
It looks so tiny hanging underneath a huge painting, but it’s the biggest piece she’s done (she did another 16X20, but this piece is a bit bigger than that due to the inch of space between the 8X10 canvases.)
It will be there for the rest of May and part of June (wanna buy it? $125 and it’s yours.) We dropped off more books at a different library (and I still have more books that need to be dropped at our library) and then we went home. Grace read Corduroy and some of Aesop’s fables to Hannah (it’s going back tonight) and then they all went out to play.
I love it when a day (or two) comes together.
Monday
07 May 2013 2 Comments
in dance, School Stuff
There was a buzzing in the wall next to an outlet in the kitchen and the hot water heater burst last night. I didn’t make it to church because we spent the morning moving furniture out of storage and dumping it at Goodwill, after the fourth trip they were like…don’t come back. So, this morning was not calm. There were things to shut off, quotes to be made, school to be done and in the middle of it all I was supposed to be letting my dance song minister to me..yeah that didn’t happen. I did get one bit of quiet before we left for dance and for the rest of the week I am going to use the song with my morning devotionals. We are not holding a recital to show off a dance and get the audience to clap for us. We are engaging in worship and trying to draw the audience into worship with us. If we don’t believe in the act of worship, all we are doing is a pretty dance. So, my goal for all of us this week is to meditate on our songs and use the words to truly worship.
Bethany had another class start today, Child nutrition. She was very excited, so excited that she watched all the videos, took the weekly quiz, started a discussion on healthy desserts, posted on about 10 other threads of discussion and did her first assignment which was to create a side dish for dinner with at least 2 vegetables in it. Here’s her quick stir fry recipe:
Heat 3 TBSP oil in pan
In a bowl mix the following:
1 green and 1 red bell pepper cut into strips
2 C thinly sliced carrots
2 C snow peas
to this add:
3 TBSP soy sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ginger powder
dash of cinnamon
salt to taste
Stir well then add to pan and cook for 5-7 minutes on medium. It was a great addition to our stir fried pork and noodles. She made a video for the assessment.
We took the girls to Whole foods to redeem their kid card. They spent the last 3 months checking off circles on the back of the card when they did a cooking class, helped out at the homeless shelter, did an girl scout event, did a chore for me, etc. The guy at the counter didn’t know what the prize was, so he told the girls that they could get anything in the store that was under $5, I thought that was very generous of him. Now they want to fill up another card (although by the time we come in to redeem that one, I’m sure they’ll have figured out what the real prize is supposed to be.)
Tomorrow it’s cake decorating 101 and Aesop’s tales at the library.
Why does it feel like Friday…
02 May 2013 Leave a Comment
in recipes, School Stuff
when it’s Thursday? We worked through school this morning. Grace and Hannah are sharing Science and History this year (well, K12 Science, Grace is also doing Biology on her own.) It’s Earth science and today they were identifying minerals. We looked through our rock collection at minerals you could identify by color (and smell…sulfur), some you could identify by luster and cleavage (mica) and some you could identify by streak (pyrite.) I found this site that has a short list of minerals with their properties. This site is all about mineralogy for kids. And, of course, Rader’s site on Earth science. We will be looking for minerals (rocks are made up of two or more minerals, but minerals are not made up of rocks) on hikes this Summer. Bethany finished week 3 of her Healthcare innovation course, her guitar class is going well and she adds Child nutrition on Monday.
After lunch I took off for errands. I had to pay the U-haul place that Grandma has her stuff at, drop Bethany’s art off at CORE gallery for a juried show and pick up a library book that got misplaced at the homeless shelter on Monday. When I was walking to take Bethany’s art in, I tripped on the sidewalk. Since I had art in one hand and her drop off papers in the other I had no choice but to drop hard on my knees and elbow. Well, I guess I could have landed on my knees and face, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’m also glad that we have a week until recital, both my knees are bruised and I’m guessing it would hurt to be going up and down on them today…or tomorrow….or the next day. Bethany’s art was number 58 to be dropped off, that doesn’t mean anything except that 57 other artists dropped off art for the show too. I think it opens on 5/6, so she’ll know by Sunday if it made it in.
For dinner I made a cucumber-tomato salad with cilantro and taco-chicken-zucchini-enchilada stuffed peppers. Hmm…maybe I should make a better name for that.
I stewed up the chicken with the zucchini, some tomatoes, onion and taco powder then I stuffed some peppers with the concoction and poured enchilada sauce on the inside and outside of the peppers.
The girls won’t eat peppers with things stuffed in them, so I only made those for James and me. They will just eat it plain or in a tortilla.
OMG, those pictures are awful, I need to get a replacement camera fast!
Wednesday
24 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in devotionals, Poems, School Stuff
Psalm 39: 4-7
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.
What am I doing in the meantime, Lord?
Hoping, that’s what I’m doing—hoping”
The Joy dare today was {3 gifts fragile}
1. Life. It is very fragile, in the end we are dust and what keeps our earthly bodies together is fragile, temporary and dying every day. But, eternal life is around the corner.
2. Faith. Sometimes faith is tested and we come out on the lower part of the scale. Sometimes we get an ‘A’. Faith is fragile because some days we get more than we can bear and we break under the burden. But, God comforts us when we feel crushed.
3. Hope. When we put our hope in something and our bubble bursts, our hope fades. It’s a balancing act, trying to hope in good things and not being disappointed when those things fall apart. But, hope is one of those things that remains.
Hope
Hope is a golden cord
reaching to Heaven
connecting me
to the One who holds my hand.
Hope is rays of sunlight
bursting through the clouds
a radiant destination
for the One who nourishes my soul.
Hope is the view
from the top of the mountain
seeing past the aching feet
to the One who walks with me.
Hope is a promise
like a colored rainbow
resplendent in the sky
for the One whose love is unending.
-Liese
Today we did school, went to the EK meeting, ran errands, wrote letters and made sausage and potato soup for dinner. I booked my calendar with some co-ops and transferred those to my low-tech paper calendar. I printed out some harmonica songs for a co-op tomorrow, Bethany bought her book for a co-op tomorrow and I cleaned up the kitchen (actually, that’s a lie, I am about to clean up the kitchen.)
Tomorrow is a new day.
Friday
19 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in School Stuff
Ah, the end of the week (what? Homeschoolers get excited for weekends too..) Hannah is really coming along with her reading, I think she’s about to slide on over into pretty much reading on her own (finally!) Grace worked on a paragraph for school, which was also a post for her blog (she’s not done yet, it’s about the pink river dolphin.) She also wrote a humpback whale poem.
Humpback whale,
you are a mystery
of the sea.
You sing sweet songs by the bay,
each and every day.
You spout to greet,
and leap gracefully into the air,
then breach,
and crash onto the sea.
Your pounding fluke
makes the waves and ocean
white with foam.
Who taught you these things?
Who taught you how to sing?
Your haunting melodies
float across the sea
and echo back to me.
Humpback whale,
you are a wonderful mystery
to see.
-Grace
It’s for the K12 poetry contest (the theme was animals, that’s pretty cool.) Bethany was finishing up her lectures for her Healthcare innovation class, doing some math and science. She took her week one quiz when we got home from the park and got an 11/12 on it, not bad. The question she missed was about need and problem statements – their definition was a little strange. Since she’s been in the Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship Coursera class for a week now, here are my thoughts on it.
-It’s hard, well duh, it’s a college course taught by professors, but it’s not that hard.
-It’s caused her to take notes, something she hasn’t had to do yet. This is a very good thing! Plus, as she takes notes she will learn how to write short hand that she understands or increase her typing skills.
-The lectures are only part of the course, there is a lot of discussion and it can be hard to follow threads or find things to post on…but, next year she will be on a HS platform and discussion is something you have to do.
-She isn’t in the medical field so has no knowledge of most of the health care or medical sides to things…but, she also can apply the information to every course she will take and areas of her life (the course is more about innovations/entrepreneurial ideas than just medical.)
-There is valuable information given and since she has no preconceived box to put these things in, she can think outside the box when information is given to her.
-She made an A on the quiz for week one, so that’s good for confidence.
-If you participate in discussions and pass all the quizzes you get a certificate stating that you took the course, which is pretty cool.
-It’s free, so I like it.
To that end, we just left Mcd’s where (after reading chapter one of the Innovator’s DNA book that is part of the class) she looked at her strawberry pie and then walked over to the manager and said, ‘Hey, you know how you could make these better? You could combine the cream cheese and strawberry instead of having them side by side in the pie. And, a brown sugar/cream cheese pie would be even tastier than this one.’
You can find the courses here: https://www.coursera.org
Tomorrow we have a cooking class at Whole Foods and maybe we’ll go to the mineral and fossil show in the afternoon.
Busy day
16 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in School Stuff, science
We were supposed to go to Boulder today to visit the recycling center (and a side trip to the CU museum, Longmont museum and the cheese shop) but it snowed. Of course, it was supposed to snow today, but it didn’t. That’s the way it is here, snow, sun, sun, snow – even the weatherman can’t keep track.
So, we woke up, had blueberry muffins and got started on school. Hannah read, did some art and math and played on Starfall. Grace did history, science, grammar and reading. Bethany did math, grammar and her on-line college course – medical innovations. She wanted something related to medicine, this course is all about innovations in the health field. After lunch and a quick walk around the block we pulled out some science stuff totally unrelated to anything anyone is doing in their actual school work.
First, we made a DNA extraction solution (100 ml of shampoo – or 50 ml of dish soap, 1 TBSP of salt, 4 C water. Dissolve the salt in the water and slowly add the shampoo/soap until dissolved. Don’t stir too hard, you don’t want foam.)
Then we squished a banana, added 4 TBSP of the extraction solution to the bag and continued to squish, then let it sit on ice for 1 minute for 5 cycles.
We filtered the banana solution and added it to a test tube (1 TBSP of it) and slowly added 1 TBSP of 95% ethanol down the side of the tube. Some of the banana DNA floated to the top of the ethanol solution and I scooped it out and put it into another container. Next we made a salt water solution (2 tsp salt to 4 1/2 C water) and swished 2 tsps of the solution for 30 seconds. Then we spit that out in a test tube and added 1 tsp extraction solution and gently rocked the tube back and forth for 2 minutes.
Then we added 1 tsp of the ethanol down the side of the tube.
I extracted the DNA strands and put them in a smaller container, one for each kid.
Our next task was to make some fake blood (4 TBSP clear corn syrup, 2 TBSP water, 4 drops red food coloring, 1/8 tsp cocoa, 1/8 tsp corn starch. Mix all ingredients in a ziplock bag, seal and smush the bag to mix well.)
We took some paper, yard stick, eyedropper and the blood and went outside.
Each of the girls had 2 sheets of paper to work with, they dropped the fake blood from different heights, different angles, the wind blew some drops and some were splattered on.
When the drops dry we will continue the blood spatter investigation by looking at the diameter of the drops, what does height/angle do to the drops? What affects the blood drop more height/angle? What does gravity have to do with how the drops look? What direction were the drops made from and how can you tell?
That was fun, plus it makes the neighbors wonder what we’re doing on the driveway with bags of fake blood and yardsticks.
We have other forensic science stuff to do later like fingerprint lifting, shoe impressions and more. Fun stuff. Tomorrow we have a poetry event at the Fox theater, a science co-op, I have to pick up the prize I won at Doors open Denver and we’re going by RAFT to look around. I’m hoping our weather warms up just a bit so we can go on a hike Thursday and Friday.
A snow day
09 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in School Stuff
No, no, we didn’t take one, it just snowed…and it’s a day…snow-day! We did school with the heater on downstairs, it was a bit chiller than yesterday.
Grace is working through a huge Biology book along with Earth Science. Bethany is about to start some on-line college courses (medical innovations, guitar, writing and child nutrition) in the next few weeks as we wind down ‘real’ school. Hannah is reading and finishing up her History and Science.
After lunch we went by the library to pick up some books, my stack is getting awfully big on the coffee table. We’re reading this book aloud right now (great book, I had to share it with the girls.)
Other books in the queue right now: Crime scene science fair projects, Night, Mr. Poppers penguins, The great theologians: a brief guide, Minibeasts in the pond, 50 people every Christian should know, Shel Silverstein books, chapter books and beginning reader books.
After we loaded up on books we headed over to Chuck E Cheese’s to finish off the tokens from my birthday.
That didn’t take terribly long. Then we came back home and I took some pictures of the poor looking robins in the snow.
The flowers will probably be okay (so will the birds, they just look so sad and cold….but, if they were that sad they could just fly somewhere warmer.)
Bible study was canceled tonight, we did not get a foot of snow, but it’s still snowing. Tomorrow I have my fractal co-op, so snow is fine as long as the plows keep the roads clear.
Flowers, water and gardens
05 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in pics, School Stuff, science, volunteer
Flowers from my walk this morning.
This morning Grace met at Grant Frontier park with Casey from the Cherry Creek watershed, Sabrina from Riverwatch, Mara from Denver water and Ronnie who lives in the Overland park area.
We talked for about an hour about how we could help Grace in a citizen scientist endeavor to get some marine biology field work done. It was great. We took a quick assessment of the river, Casey helped Grace with a turbidity sample and a ph sample back at the car.
We found beaver marks on the willow trees (did you know willows have salicin in them which is used to make aspirin? That’s why beavers never have a headache…that was a joke.)
These rock cairns in the river were put there by gold panners.
Ronnie told us that he’s seen gold diggers come in and dig 5 foot holes in the river and use gas powered suction pumps to pump areas of the river right here. That, of course, is not allowed. You can’t change the flow of the river like that (the river reverts back after a couple of years, but it takes time to do that.)
We came away with some ideas about how to go forward, we’re going to meet with Sabrina soon to do another river assessment and do some insect sampling.
Ronnie told Grace he would teach her how to fish, Casey will supply us with sample kits for recording things such as ph, turbidity and other things and will take the data back. Mara will help us too. Casey expects that after one or two times of meeting Grace will give her a written paper about what she knows, what she wants to know and what she has learned. She also told Grace that the Overland park neighborhood holds monthly meetings and at some point she would like Grace to present her findings about the river to the community (sounds like presentation club.) All in all it was well more that what we expected. It sounds like we will be forming some good friendships with people who can be mentors and help Grace with marine biology.
After lunch we went to the Botanic gardens for free day. Not much is growing, but it was good to get out in the gorgeous weather. Bethany took some pictures of me by the chicken coop.
We pet the goats and horses and admired the chickens.
Hannah and friends played in the kids area while Grace and Bethany walked in the dry creek bed.
I did find a few flowers growing, but for some reason my camera was not focusing correctly, so all I got was this one.
On the way home we stopped to check on a magpie nest.
Grace noticed the birds assembling their nest when we were eating at Taco Bell one day. Magpies are huge birds and they make huge domed nests with a small opening for them to get in and out of. The nest looks finished to us, so maybe some babies will be popping out soon.
We’re heading out in a bit for the First Friday Art walk on Santa Fe. We’re (hopefully) picking up Bethany’s art from the Buxiejo gallery (and dropping it off later this month at CORE for a different show, the one at Buxiejo never happened.) I’m sure I’ll have pics of the art walk up tomorrow.
Roots
01 Apr 2013 Leave a Comment
in links, School Stuff
Hannah was studying roots in science today. Here are her CD case plants, the radishes are growing out of the CD and the lima beans have finally sprouted. Here is a site with interactive plant stuff.
Grace started her new science -Earth science. Bethany was working on factoring monomials and polynomials, grammar and reading Lord of the Flies.
I went to NIA class this morning, we have dance this afternoon and we are going to the shelter tonight to babysit the kids there while their parents are in a class. We’re going to be making ziplock bag butterflies and reading Amelia Bedlia stories and trickster tales. Tomorrow I’m going to see a movie with friends (Les Miserables), Wed. is park day, seeing Grandma and a hike, Thursday is my history co-op and Friday Grace gets to meet with her marine bio mentor for some citizen scientist work.
Beware the Ides of March
16 Mar 2013 Leave a Comment
in School Stuff
Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry “Caesar!” Speak, Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:
What man is that?
Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Our ides day was much better than his. We were doing school when James called and asked if we wanted to go to Casa Bonita for lunch. We said yes! We went and watched the divers, played games and ate horrible Mexican food – it was fun. We dropped Joel off at work and went to see Grandma Carberry. We chatted with her for awhile and then went back to the house. I left for my Women’s Worship night and James took the kids to KFC and Salvation Army (they are so easy to please.)
We looked at this site for the ides of March about assassinations that shook the world (with Caesar being the first slide.) We have a DVD on Ancient Ireland to watch this weekend (for St. Patrick’s day) and on Sunday we’re watching some Celtic dancers at Grandma’s nursing home.
Here are a few links for St. Patrick’s Day:
Some school, a hike
12 Mar 2013 Leave a Comment
in Bible, hike, School Stuff
Time change has had an effect on us, everyone wakes up later. This has thrown off my school schedule. I like to get started by 9 and I hate doing school after lunch. But, that’s what we’ve been doing. Today we just pushed lunch back since we ate breakfast so late. Yesterday was gorgeous and I had nothing planned for this afternoon and wanted to go on a hike. Of course, it snowed last night, not much, just enough to make the paths muddy.
But, we went anyway.
We brought Maisy with us because we thought she might like running around the rocks (we were right.)
Daniel’s park is about 15 minutes from our house, it’s rocky mesas, pines, scrub oak and beautiful views (when it’s not snowing in the mountains.)
Even with the mountains obscured there is still something beautiful about the view.
I promised to come back to the park when it’s warmer (and drier.) We also have to hike the East/West trail that has an opening not too far from the park.
Tonight it’s Hannah’s night out and I’m off to church for Bible study. We’re looking at Micah tonight, here’s a verse from that book:
Micah 5:2-4
2-4 But you, Bethlehem, David’s country,
the runt of the litter—
From you will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule Israel.
He’ll be no upstart, no pretender.
His family tree is ancient and distinguished.
He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God’s strength,
centered in the majesty of God-Revealed.
And the people will have a good and safe home,
for the whole world will hold him in respect—
Peacemaker of the world!
School, Storytelling, Shalom
06 Mar 2013 Leave a Comment
in links, School Stuff
This morning we did school, I guided Hannah through Greek history and phonics while helping Grace with her math and checking Bethany’s science (homeschoolers multitask well.) We left late to head to the Fox theater for the storytelling show. It was a tribute to the late storyteller Pat Mendoza, whom we saw once at the Fox many years ago. Some of his fellow Rocky Mountain Storytellers showed up today to tell us stories about coyote, how to help your local pizza place, why it’s good to be yourself and how the sun came to be (according to Bush mythology.) If you don’t know how to tell a story, there is a book on Project Gutenberg about it. We’re about to take a break in our school and one of the things we will do is create stories about things, like how the sun got into the sky or why the beaver has a flat tail and so on. Kids can get quite creative with stories!
After the theater show we picked up a friend and went over to RAFT. The girls found the biggest bag they could and filled it with stuff from the back for $1. I snagged some CD cases to use for a seed project and wouldn’t you know it – I was perusing this site and now I need plastic bottles (and I was just there, and they are cheaper than buying coke from the store and drinking it to get an empty bottle.) We got home and the girls played while I worked on getting my links for school stuff organized. I have a whole section for Grace (marine biology) now and found this site for Bethany to pick some work from. We school year round and we’re about to have a break from the K12 curriculum as we end one grade level and wait for the other to show up. Then as we reach summer we start to slow down so we can take advantage of lazy days in the river, hiking, camping and in general being outside. One of our favorite outdoor spots to laze away with a good book is under the Weidenblume sculpture. In the summer it’s so cool and shady in there (and it’s a great place to take pictures.)
I guess I’m thinking of summer because it was 60 and sunny today, but a foot of snow is on the way this weekend, so it’s not summer yet. But, tomorrow is another pretty day, nice enough for a Park day! The Shalom part was just the feeling of peace that I got as I talked to my friend about Jesus. I found these verses in Romans today – wonderful.
Romans 9:25-27
Hosea put it well:
I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
they’re calling you “God’s living children.”
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
and the sum labeled “chosen of God,”
They’d be numbers still, not names;
salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.
