Joy to Spare

Leftovers get a bad rap. I keep seeing/hearing people bashing leftovers, e.g. "Our family has been battling colds, so we've been eating a lot of leftovers." My first question is, what else would you do with them, throw them in the garbage or feed them to the dog? The second thing I wonder is, how do all these people have the time and energy to make a new dinner every night? Leftovers in my house are the majority of what we eat. Here, we just call them "food." I love food. I really enjoy all kinds of foods from different cultures, prepared in interesting ways. I even enjoy cooking. What I don't appreciate is coming to the end of a long day and having to think of something to cook, using what I have in my fridge and pantry, maybe find a recipe(s), and dirty many pots and pans to create these dishes, all while my oldest son comes in every three and a half minutes to tell me he's hungry. So I don't. I know lots of folks find or create meal plans, w

What did we do today? I got up and did my coffee/bible/devotional time (Oswald Chambers--deep stuff!) and prayed for my family. The boys came out and did their "first things" too. They take a shower if it's their day, get dressed, feed the dog, drink water, and read their bibles. Big bro wrote a prayer/poem of thanks in his prayer journal (This is not a usual occurrence!) while Little Bro did his math workbook. After that, they began their day with Legos as usual. Big bro is really into Shakespeare right now, so lots of his current Lego play revolves around that. He constructed a scene from MacBeth. I got him a set of kid-version books of all the plays, which he's been enjoying. We had breakfast--eggs with butter, onions and green peppers, and a smoothie with lettuce, blueberries, spinach/banana, yogurt, and blood oranges. I read from our One-Year Bible, and the Window on the World page about Vietnam. Then, I read from the Peter the Great book we're reading

Having burnt out a little with "school at home" as our method of learning, the past couple weeks we've been doing "life" instead. The boys and I all learn so much more and are so much happier when we follow our own interests. I thought I'd start recording some of the things we do each day during this relaxed learning phase, with artificially separated academic subject areas highlighted so I realize how much"school" we're actually doing and learning even when we're not "doing school." So here's today: - All four of us read the bible at breakfast - the boys read Psalms and Proverbs, Daddy and I read Matthew. History, Character, Geography, Reading. - Spoke a little Spanish to each other throughout the day. Spanish - Little Bro wrote a(n other) letter to Santa--getting an early start-- and learned to spell "anything" "stocking," and a couple other words he asked me how to spell.  Spelling, Writing, Hand

3 years later... We just finished All About Spelling, level 2. For review, I made up sentences that use all the words they learned in this level, plus a few other words I've taught them, like "-ould," "their," "what, when, where," etc. and some "-ly" words.  I grouped them by our remaining school weeks, 3 sentences a day.   I prefer sentence dictation rather than simply writing lists of words. It improves spelling retention, plus they review capitalization and punctuation at the same time. Efficient! Leaves time for their own pursuits.  Here they are in case anyone else can benefit from them. Most are not great sentences. Some are really weird, untrue, borderline inappropriate... It's harder than I expected to craft good, short sentences from a word list! week 1 Buzz spills all six drinks on Mike. The garden queen uses a hose to water a rose bush. Keep careful count of those many broken cords. The girl’s quill pen races

Well, two years later, we are still doing toy stores in the front yard. This kid loves to make money. He drags Little Bro out on the Fourth of July to sit behind a wagon full of toys with masking tape price tags. They sit for hours. Our wonderful neighbors come by and make a donation or a purchase.  Big Bro wants to pull the wagon around the neighborhood, but I draw the line. Even though he's only eight, a permit must need to be involved at some point. I see big business in his future!  Sometimes Little Bro sells his pictures or paper boats. I secretly dream that the boys will be entrepreneurs together, Little Bro as the creative head and Big Bro as the businessman.  But then I also dream that Big Bro's passion for justice, creative problem solving ability, and persistence will serve him as an attorney working for social justice. And Little Bro's love for people and art could serve him so well as a life events photographer. Calm down, Mommy. Stop planning, and pray.

Two days ago Little Bro asked to do some reading, and I was surprised that he can now blend sounds together, i.e. read! A month or so ago, he couldn't. We were all so excited! Now it's my job to just keep calm and let him read when he's interested so it remains enjoyable and exciting for him. Yesterday I had Big Bro (Kindergarten) do a project of his choosing (no suggestions from me). He chose to open a toy store on the front lawn. Here were the observable things he learned about: -Character/values: You don't sell your brother's toys without asking first or sharing the profits. -Spelling: He made a sign: "Toy Stor". I had him add an "e" (Who's gonna make that "o" say its name?). -Art: He needed more "contrast" on his sign, so he went over the pencil with colorful marker. -Pricing/value: $9 is too much to charge for a used whistle; $1 is (a little) more appropriate. -Vocabulary: "Grand Openi