Saturday, November 27, 2010

Brakes!!!

According to family lore, I was walking at 6 months, running soon after, and I have not stopped since. No snuggling in Grandpa's lap for me. I had things to do and people to see...and for the last forty something years, that is how I have lived my life. Full throttle, get-out-of-my-way, let's get moving!

If you were one of the unfortunate ones who got run over, please accept my sincere apology.

Now it seems, I have come to a place in my life where God is telling me to be still...literally and in other ways too. I have been in bed, flat on my back for the last eight days - culprit? The disk between my L4& L5 vertebrae. It seems that this particular disk has had enough of the abuse I have piled on it, and has decided to vacate the premises. Problem is, I still need said disk, so the struggle that is going on between us "Get back where you belong!" "No way, I am outta here!", is proving to be a painful one.

So now, until I can have a consult with an orthopedic surgeon, I am stuck here, praying that a stray cough or sneeze is not the trigger that sends me to the hospital for emergency back surgery.

I have also learned that the phrase "In my humble, true opinion" is not a very good way to live life. Yes, I, like many others, have preferred ways for doing things...trouble is, I have tended to think that my way is the only way. Again, my sincere apology...I don't mean to be bossy. I just figured I would save you the trouble of learning the hard way what does not work....arrogance at it's worst. I really am sorry.

Brakes. God is good at applying them at the right time. Even when we don't see it that way. I pray that I will continue to see what I need to see during this forced still time. And I covet your prayers as well.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Moving on!

So, we finished North America last week, despite all the puking, colds and general mayhem that occurred. I am happy to be moving on to South America, as we have spent all of this year and all of last year in North America....glad to be moving on to warmer climes, yummy food and interesting studies!



I got all the maps switched out and the new ones hung up...I particularly love these two. One is a satellite image of South America which shows the topography in brilliant color. The second is part of a great set I found that shows the biomes of the world - which is exactly what we are studying this year! It shows a sat map at the bottom with all the tropical rain forests (for example) in the world highlighted, animals that live in that area and some of the vegetation you would expect to see. They are so perfect for what we are doing this year...especially since we live so far from so many of these biomes! I got both sets at Mardel where it costs not much to laminate them before you even bring them home!

This next map is one that I got for under $20 on Amazon, and we are poking all kinds of holes in it, planning on it being trashed when we finish the year. For $20, it is worthwhile! We have marked all the zones on this map, temperate, atctic, etc. as well as the prime meridian and used this map to do some work locating spots on the map with latitude and longitude. It was really fun!




We are also marking places on the map where people live that we know, as we go through each continent. If you know anyone who lives in South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, or Antarctica (I can hope, right?)...send us a pic (email is fine) and a town name, and we will post them on our map!

We are also moving on in the English department...some of you know that Sweet Girl has had some real struggles with her attitude about the level of work increase this year, specifically in the area of her new English book. I really prayed about what to do, as sometimes the lessons took her 2-4 hours to complete, but as we have really worked on the heart attitude, lessons are now being completed in 30-45 minutes - MUCH better!! We should finish 'The Courage of Sarah Noble' this week, and then on to 'The Sign of the Beaver'. I am so happy with how this program (Total Language Plus) works. I have seen such an improvement in her spelling, writing and comprehension...I count this as one of my BEST homeschool discoveries - ever!

OK, off to the library to pick up all the South America books and movies for our book basket - enjoy this beautiful day!