2nd Time through P3/4 First Trimester

Hannah has finished the first seven weeks of P3/4 again. She’s been continuing her read aloud times with our nanny in the morning. She doesn’t seem to mind the repetition. They would almost always read more than the one scheduled story anyway so she’s probably read all of the P3/4 books at least 4 or 5 times already. Kathy has been supplementing their book selection with library books and was really excited the other day when we were supposed to be doing Sleeping Beauty and she had picked up a library book that was the “sequel” and called Waking Beauty. :)

We’re still maintaining the same science and social studies from P3/4 as last time around, and are attempting to actually read the P3/4 recommended bible. It is nice in that the stories are shorter and it has some question prompts at the end of each one. But Hannah really likes one of the other children’s bibles we already had, so its hard to argue against reading from that one.

Letter Posters Last time around we worked on Handwriting Without Tears Preschool (all capital letters). So at first I thought we would just go on to their next book which starts with capitals again and then adds in the lower case. But recently someone gave me a hand-me-down version of the Sonlight Language Arts for K (LAK) and after I looked through it and realized that Hannah was probably ready for it, we decided to shelve the HWT K for now and do the LAK instead. So we have been doing a letter a week, working on the sounds and words that start with it, looking it up in the dictionary, and practicing writing it. She really seems to be soaking it up and I don’t feel like I’m pushing her. Though I do give her m&ms when she writes her letters correctly. :)

The only other thing I try to fit in each week is some math skills. I found this site. It is supposed to be a membership, but they let your computer IP do 20 questions a day. That is just the right amount for Hannah. We probably do it 3 times a week. She is already proficient in all of the pre-K skills except money. She loves to click the right answer and see the green chekmark when she gets it right. I’ve been working through the sections to prove to myself that she has mastered them and then I’ll move her into the kindergarten level.

- Identify circles, squares, and triangles, Identify squares and rectangles, Identify cubes and pyramids
- Count dots (up to 20), Count shapes (up to 20), Count objects (up to 20), Represent numbers (up to 20)
- Compare groups (fewer or more), Compare in a chart (fewer or more), Compare in a mixed group
- Inside and outside, Left and right, Left, middle, and right, Above and below, Top and bottom
- Same and different
- Classify by color
- Long and short, Tall and short
- Light and heavy, Holds more or less, Compare height, weight, and capacity
- Wide and narrow
- Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, Count pennies

We went on our first field trip to the Children’s Museum with our friend Ashby. The kids had a good time checking out all the interesting things and Ben really like the little race cars! Pictures here. We’ll probably be trying to do a few more trips together this fall. Considering the fire station and maybe post office.

Still doing lots of fun crafts (see more here):
Cow

Overall, we’re still probably only spending about an hour on school each day if you add up all the stuff we do. Of course, she’s getting lots of other learning time in the course of her play and TV time and other book reading times. She’ll be taking a tumbling class this fall starting on Wed. And we’re taking this week off to play with Grandpa and Grandma.


Old doesn’t mean Irrelevant

This has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks now . . . getting ready to come out in something coherent I hope. :)

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

A few weeks ago Pastor spoke a sermon on Mark 12 where Jesus gives the “greatest commandments” ( God’s guide to a life well lived) in response to a trick question. I’ve heard before and made the connection that the greatest commandment corresponds to the first 4 of the 10 Commandments (relationship to God) and the second greatest corresponds to the last 6 (relationship to people). He also pointed out how Jesus takes the old, negative commands and turns them into positive commands. Instead of saying “you shall not”, he says “you shall”. The old way only tells you how not to live, but leaves the interpretation of how to live up to our own devices (which is what ultimately got the Israelites into trouble). The new way tells you how to live, and if there was any way we could actually live up to those commands (love God and love others), he doesn’t even have to tell us how not to live. This is great news! The good news is, we don’t feel so weighed down by the oppressive “do nots” and our stubborn traits have an easier time with “do this”.

Since we live on this side of the resurrection, I think we (or least I) have a tendency to focus totally on the new testament and disregard the old testament. To treat it as historical facts with no application to our relationship with God. Especially true in some denominations. At least in most traditional denominations, they read from the OT, the Pslams, and the NT each week even if they don’t preach on the OT reading very often.

I feel like we think we are no longer held to the rules and regulations of the OT, probably due to the writings of Paul.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

But Paul also warns us of falling into this trap.
Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

Jesus also tells us that the OT should still stand.
Matthew 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

A lot of times, we argue away the Levitical laws saying that “Christ died for me so I don’t have to do that sacrifice thing anymore.” True . . . but what about the rest of the regulations? There’s everything from how to be considered “clean” to how to repay someone when you have done something you shouldn’t have to them, to how often we should take a sabbath day, year, sabbath celebrations, and what thithe really means (every 10th animal or crop item is the Lord’s).

This idea, the idea that we should still take the OT very seriously, has been convicting me recently. How do we know what it means to “love God and love others” if we have no rules to live by that show what love isn’t. That is the purpose of knowing those rules. They were the regulations God set before the people, His people, so that they would be set apart from other cultures, that if they followed them, would point other people to Him. They would provide the guidelines for how to love God by “obeying” Him. If you love me you will obey my commandments. . . ouch. I don’t think he’s talking about just the NT here.

So what is the practical application? What is the outcome of all this conviction? I have no idea. I suppose I need to start by doing more than a cursory glance through Leviticus and some of its surrounding books. And since I’ve read it before, that probably actually means I need to understand what some of those ceremonies really were for to make an educated decision about whether or not I should still be living under that regulation or whether I’m covered by the blood of Christ in that case. We still teach our kids the 10 Commmandments right? Why don’t we teach them all the rest of the laws? (Probably cause there’s a bunch of blood and death in them!) Pastor has a saying that I really like “We are not freed to do what we want, we are freed to do what is right!”. Why is right so hard to figure out?


We are a First Generation Church

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.  I still have much I want to write about, but taking the time to blog hasn’t been making the list.  I do apologize for this, both to you and God.  There is much I want to rejoice about, share with you, and give glory to God.

Some time ago I came across Jeremiah 6.  Much of the Old Testament writing of the prophets is pretty dismal to read, lots of warnings of what will happen to Israel if they do not return to God, sprinkled with some promises of God’s goodness and faithfulness.  One paragraph in Jeremiah 6 struck me as particularly dismal:

27 “Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals,[c]
that you may determine the quality of my people.
28 They are the worst kind of rebel,
full of slander.
They are as hard as bronze and iron,
and they lead others into corruption.
29 The bellows fiercely fan the flames
to burn out the corruption.
But it does not purify them,
for the wickedness remains.
30 I will label them ‘Rejected Silver,’
for I, the Lord, am discarding them.”

There are many places in the bible that mention the refining fires of God, a good thing meant to purify us and make us more Christlike.  What struck me about this passage was that it says the fires were ineffective.  When nothing good can be found, what does he do with the metal?  He labels them rejected and discards them!  What’s surprising here is he’s not talking about some heathen group of people, he’s talking about his beloved, Israel.  The idea that Israel, who time and time again experienced first hand the power and the love of God, had become so corrupt that God was telling Jeremiah that it didn’t matter how hot he stoked the refining fires, there is nothing left to refine!

Wow, this is amazing to me.  If God’s chosen people are at risk of being labeled Rejected Silver and discarded, then how much more so are we who have been grafted into the family as Gentiles, and so distant in time from the miracles recorded in the bible, at risk of falling into this same corruption?  It means that every generation, no matter how well rooted in the Lord their ancestors may have been, is at risk of falling away from the Lord.  I was so moved with compassion and concern for the salvation of my own children that I felt moved to share this at a Prayer and Praise, essentially what I have shared here.  But also felt moved to lead the group in a corporate prayer.  This turned into praying in tongues, my first public tongue.  Paul tells us that if we give a public tongue we should also ask for the interpretation of the tongue, so that the body can be edified.  However, I wanted to test the Spirit and see if anyone else would receive the interpretation, trusting that my spirit would discern whether it was a correct interpretation, even though I did not know myself what the interpretation was.  I wasn’t disappointed.  A lady in the congregation, who speaks English as a second language, said she received the interpretation in Spanish and translated it to us as “”if you hear my voice, you will not be discarded.”  Very appropriate I thought, and much like the character of God to express love, peace, and assurance, and the same simple truth expressed to the Israelites time and time again.

Afterward my pastor spoke with me and shared a comment that sums it up well.  He said “we are always a first generation church”.  Every generation must decide to accept God on their own, there is nothing we can do to assure their salvation for them.  This makes Deut 6:6-7 all the more important:  “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”  This and prayer are the only hope we have to prevent them from being labeled Rejected Silver.  I intend to do my part.

-Nate


Baby Sharks Video

In honor of shark week . . .
Play Video

They are usually much more animated, but they got shy when I got out the camera. :)


Meal Co-op

Our family and our neighbor’s have been doing a meal co-op. Its great!

We each cook enough food for both of our families once a week. So one night I cook and split the meal with them and another night they cook and split the meal with us.

Lots of pros:
1) The size of our family usually means that if I cook anything from a box or in casserole form (which is about all I do), we’ll have leftovers. I’m not really a huge fan of leftovers. This arrangement reduces leftovers!
2) I get a night off! (and the other family gets a night off)
3) We get to try new things that I don’t normally cook and vice versa.
4) Usually its pretty simple meals so that’s nice.
5) It has stopped us from going out a couple of times (probably hasn’t saved us any money as we just go out a different night instead).
6) Get to know our neighbors better.
7) Makes me pay more attention to planning, which maybe has saved us some money.
8) There are probably others, but can’t think of them right now. . . .

Cons:
1) Sometimes we have do to a little rescheduling, but totally worth it.
2) Sometimes we have to take a week off and my children want to know why we haven’t seen the neighbor yet this week (aka why are you cooking tonight mom?).
Not very good cons. . .

Thanks Guymons!


H the Dalmation


Nate and Pepper Spray

So I have been carrying a pepper spray canister connected to my keychain for a couple of years. Its one of the easiest ‘weapons’ to carry (don’t need a license, small, can take it a lot of places you can’t take a gun . . . ) and according to some safety instructors, just having something is usually enough deterrent to anyone who might attack you (they will find easier prey). I’ve been ‘trained’ to carry my keys once I leave any building, headed for my car, and usually after leaving my car headed to a building. This is a good idea even if you don’t have pepper spray as you could use your keys as a weapon if necessary (more likely to do damage than a bare fist). Its also good to have your keys handy to be able to get into your car as soon as you get to it instead of standing outside the door fumbling in your purse or pocket.

. . . can you tell Nate has been coaching me? . . .

Anyway, the canisters are under pressure and have an expiration date and they recommend you fire them every year or two anyway to make sure the nozzle hasn’t been jammed with gunk or there is something else wrong with it. If you are going to be serious about this stuff, why take the chance that when you actually need it, it doesn’t work?

My expiration date was up and Nate decided he wanted to see what it felt like. Yes, this was his idea. I think he must be related to the Jackass guys. He also wanted to walk through some scenarios to make sure I knew what to do. Haha. At first he only wanted me to fire it at 6 ft, but pepper spray really only have effectiveness at less than three. We tried it at 6 and it just floated away on the breeze. Then I told him we might as well use it and get closer, so we got close and I shot him!

Couple random things . . .
- The one I had was dyed, which surprised me, but also helped me to aim. You are supposed to do short pumps, so as you pump you can change the angle. It also stained Nate’s clothes.
- Nate had on his glasses and a hat, but even so, his eyes did get puffy and his breathing was difficult when it got into his airways.
- We were surprised that it also hurt our skin (I got a couple drops on me). I guess we were thinking it would only affect moist areas like eyes and nose and mouth.
- I was surprised that it has a little bit of a delayed reaction (maybe because I didn’t get a good direct shot at his eyes. So, if I had to actually shoot someone, I’d warn first. If they still advanced, I’d wait until they were within three feet and make sure I get a good shot in their face. Otherwise, it might not stop them enough for me to get away without being knocked out or hurt.
- It took him a good 10-15 min cool shower before he stared feeling better.
- Nate says he doesn’t recommend this experience and probably won’t sign up for that again.


You can see where his shirt collar was and I’m surprised by how puffy his eyes got even though his glasses protected him from a direct shot.

From Nate: This wasn’t a fun experience, but I’m glad I did it because we learned a number of things from this:

  • Becca now has experience using her weapon, and is more knowledgeable in how to use it most effectively.
  • The inhalation effects were almost immediate, but because I was expecting it I was able to avoid inhaling very much of it. The effects of inhalation were short term, but they may give you the needed seconds to get away or make your counterattack, such as a good kick to the groin.
  • The irritation of the eyes were almost immediate but I could still see for several minutes before it was really bad. It was not the instant involuntary eye closure like I expected. Thanks to the glasses and hat, which an attacker will also probably be wearing, I was able to greatly reduce the amount of contact with the eyes.
  • I did not expect the irritation of the skin. My face and neck where on fire for about 15 minutes. I started to wonder if I was going to have markings on my face that would be visible for days. Thankfully I did not. This also highlighted the importance of trying to position yourself upwind before using the spray so you don’t end up spraying yourself.
  • Attempting to shoot the pepper spray at a range greater than 3 ft was a waste of spray. Stepping into the attacker and attempting to spray directly in their face is your best bet. Of course, there are different kinds of sprayers out there, some that are more gel based instead of gas based that give you greater range. But with those sprayers you need better accuracy, because it isn’t creating a mist in the air like our type of spray. Becca’s pepper spray is also nice because it 4″ of metal and can be used as self defense weapon in multiple ways. Most other pepper sprayers that I’ve seen are cheap plastic.
  • This experience hurt bad enough that I really really really hope my kids never get into it. Playing with mommy’s keys is a no no. Especially since kids like to put things in their mouth, discharging in the mouth could constrict air ways enough to cause suffocation. Keep away from children!

    • I’m glad we did it, I’m glad Becca carries pepper spray. I’m glad she trusts me enough to do crazy things like this to learn from it, and I’m glad we can laugh about it afterwards.


    P3/4 Done

    Hannah Nate Hannah is completing her first time through P3/4 this week. We’ve completed gluing all of her read aloud pictures into her lapbook. And she had a good time showing it off to daddy. Based on some suggestions at the Sonlight forum, we are going to go through the Core again instead of moving on to the next one. I’ll be trying to hold off until she turns 4, but we may not make it. :)

    3rd Tri

    While we had our foster son, we worked a lot on letters and their sounds with him since that was what he was focusing on at preschool. He and Hannah both learned all their basic letter sounds in the course of the 2 1/2 months we had him. Ben even sometimes runs around making sounds, his favorite are B (buh) and D (duh). I blame this largely on the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD as it helps the children have fun connections for each letter sound – think popping popcorn for P. Since Hannah seems to be rearing to go, we will be starting the first Sonlight Language Arts curriculum (K) as we go through the read alouds again. We already got the readers (the ones she is supposed to read to me) and even though they don’t show up in the schedule until a couple months in – when you know enough letters to make some words, she is starting to read them to me. Its really fun because a lot of the time she sounds the word out correctly, then just makes up something unrelated to the sounds she just said based on the picture. My other problem is that she has most of the books in our house memorized, so that makes it hard for her to actually read the words instead of just saying what she knows they are supposed to be.

    Dot to Dot Hannah’s first dot to dot. We forgot to make it clear that she needs to try to draw the shortest line between the two numbers. I think she did really well considering I think she probably only knew what the numbers to 10 look like.

    I’ve been making new contacts in the homeschooling arena and have been given some materials as well as some sold at discount. So I’m starting to collect the next round of readers and workbooks. Hopefully, I’ll find out that I saved money overall when I compare to the full price at the website.

    Hannah has a friend that is a year older than her whose mom just decided to try homeschooling since they won’t let her into kindergarten next year and she will probably be bored (she is already reading very fluently). So we’re discussing the possibility of some joint field trips in the fall; dairy farm, bakery, fire station . . . Should be fun.

    And, as always, the kids have been doing fun crafts with our nanny!
    Balloon Kites


    P90X Round 2

    Just finished my 2nd round of P90X, I feel good!  I haven’t been 210 lbs since I was 17 years old!  I would like to have a little more muscle mass, but dumbbells are expensive and the bands seem to do more toning than they do muscle building.  That’s okay, what do I need muscle mass for?  Trim looks good on me too. Good enough in fact that I don’t mind sharing some before and after pictures online, body hair and all.

    The before pictures come from May 2010, prior to starting any work outs, I was ~242 lbs.  I wish I had these poses back from 2008 when I was 255.  My all-time high was 265, my Junior year of college, 2000.

    I’m pleased with the results, especially considering I haven’t really changed my diet other than trying not to snack in the evening, which I didn’t do much of before anyway.


    Bad dreams

    For as long as I can remember, I have had bad dreams. I think that sometimes I have normal dreams and just don’t remember them, but I don’t think I ever have “good dreams”. The kind where you are supposed to wake up smiling. Sometimes I get prophetic dreams and I think this is one of my giftings. Usually, they aren’t very detailed, just a person I know and a feeling like I should contact them. When I muster the courage to follow up, its always good.

    But the bad dreams. . . I can recount the vivid fears and dreams of my childhood, my parents probably can too. Snakes and monsters and such. One time on a mission trip, I had one and screamed and woke everyone up in my bunkhouse. Nate was in another area, but he told everyone that its normal and I would be ok and to go back to sleep. When Nate and I were first married, I went through a round of bad dreams related to some issues I needed to deal with that was brought to the surface with him. He would hold me and let me cry or comfort me or at least try to avoid me if I thought he was the source of my bad dream and lashed out at him. That appears to have mostly been worked out, or he has stopped telling me when I do it (or he has gotten used to it and sleeps through it now). Now they still come, but in the last few years they’ve taken on a new form. Possibly because I have outgrown my childish fears of monsters and the dark, and possibly because I have worked through some of my issues, and possibly because I’m trying to fight my fear.

    FEAR. That’s the best way I can describe how I feel when I have them. That feeling you get when you can see danger headed straight for you and you know you can’t get out of the way in time or when you get that hair raising feeling that there is evil close by and its aiming its sights on you. Heart pounding, frozen in place. It’s a physical presence, something breathing on me, or watching me, a shadow at the window, an unknown noise in the house or in the backyard. I’ve been trying to get myself to recite a scripture verse or rebuke the devil, but in that not-quite-awake state, I am not very good at thinking clearly. Besides, I’m in that adrenaline rush mode where I just trying to figure out how to survive the current situation (in my head).

    I, unfortunately, appear to have passed this issue on to at least my daughter. When the kids do wake up at night afraid, I have nothing to say to them. I don’t know how to help them cope, when I have the same problem myself. Its a good thing that Nate usually does the nighttime duties. She told Nate this morning that she was happy because she didn’t have any dreams last night. :(

    I’ve never thought to try to understand this part of my life until this morning. Its kinda one of those things where its always been there so I don’t even think to question it. Do other people have this problem? Nate doesn’t seem to. But I never put it together that this really shouldn’t be a normal occurrence. I had one last night so I finally got around to talking to God about it. (Why can’t I learn this lesson? Talk to Him about it before you get fed up with it. Before you are so tired of struggling.) Then I had my own little inner healing session in my car on the way to work this morning. Gloria would be proud. :)

    He simply told me to analyze the most recent type of dream. Usually it starts with the feeling of a presence and once I’ve detected it and I try to find the source, it takes the form of some shadowy figure on the ceiling or wall or outside. I can’t really see anything definite, the form appears either too fast or too slow for my eyes, like its not quite part of this world. So I end up spending a lot of energy just pinpointing where I ‘feel’ it and thinking that if I could just see ‘it’, that I could keep it from doing whatever evil it is planning for me. After this point it usually leaves, possibly because it has achieved its purpose in ruining my sleep for the night or maybe I just wake up enough that I can rationalize myself into going back to sleep and forgetting about it. And that is how they go. Probably 10-15 min tops. I don’t usually have more than one a night, but it does happen. I’m not sure how often I have them, never attempted to track them.

    Then I hear Gloria’s voice in my head “Ask God to tell you where He is in this situation.” So I ask Him. I replay the scene in my mind again and this time I see something akin to a sci-fi force field around our room (and throughout our house) protecting not only me but also my family. However, it only goes to the edges. So the shadowy thing comes right up to the force field and sends its little ray of fear down toward me. I think that it must be able to make sounds, not necessarily words but noises and hints. Due to the force field it can’t actually touch me or even really get very close to me. But I can still feel its presence. This is what wakes me, and causes my panic attack, and my subsequent search for my attacker. At which point, I imagine the thing laughing at me through my episode until I pull myself together enough to either start praying or go back to sleep. If I start praying, it leaves immediately.

    A force field may not sound so exciting to anyone else reading this post (if you even got this far into my crazy life), but this was revolutionary to me in my car this morning! I know that there are passages that support the idea that Christians are ‘protected’ by the Holy Spirit residing in them and I’ve even applied some of them to things that were going on around me when I’ve been awake. It’s really the idea that even when I’m sleeping and not fully in control, the Holy Spirit in my life is. And He’s protecting me.

    I can’t say that I’m done with my bad dreams because I haven’t slept again since my session this morning. I can say that my spiritual eyes have been opened to see the truth and what I’m dealing with. Its just a little emotion named FEAR, and God has placed a 10 foot restraining order on it for me. So I can either choose to continue to let it taunt me from my ceiling, or wall, or backyard. Or I can tell it to shove off, it has no power over me. And now I need to chase it away from my children! Because even if I don’t get around to dealing with my issues for my own sake, seeing my children have to fight these battles sure adds some incentive to break free.


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    • The Moehrings

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    Diagnosis: I am Insane!

         May 5, 2012
       By: Nate

    3rd 6 Weeks

         April 30, 2012
       By: Rebecca

    Easter Pics

         April 20, 2012
       By: Rebecca