Latest baby gift

Hooded Towel with a Monkey Face

Gift Bag made with leftover fabric. :)

I made two towels, but only one has the monkey face.  I think it turned out cute!

What I am praying...

I have several prayer partners that I pray for and who pray for me.  Plus I pray regularly for my family and my church family.

This is what I'm praying for each of them (and me!) from Ephesians this month:

I pray for you constantly, 

·        asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 

I pray that

·        your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that

·        you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.

Isn't praying God's word amazing?! If you read this page, I encourage you to pray this prayer too.

Things To Do:

I'm making a list of things to do in my "spare time" to keep from mindless munching and/or computer usage.  You all know what I'm talking about right?

Here's my list:
 
Manicure (trimming/filing/painting nails) 
Pedicure (trimming/painting nails) 
Take care of feet (moisturize dry heels) 

 
Plan lessons for our homeschool 
Research projects for our homeschool  
Read ahead for our homeschool 

• Remembering God's Awesome Acts
• Science/Biology units

 
Pre-prep food 
chop 
cook 
freeze 
roast 
etc. 

 
Sewing - 
cut out project 
do 1 step of a project 

 
Plan for our puppet team and children's ministry 
plan lessons 
work on a song 
design a puppet 
work on a skit 
etc. 

What have we been up to?

Well, I haven't been blogging much. I need to get back into The Homeschool Mother's Journal on Fridays.  I'll try to do that this week.

But right now we are in transition waiting for new math to arrive and trying to find our way around biology.  We haven't gotten very far.  My son doesn't have a good memory (unless it has to do with Star Wars) and so I'm backing up a bit and trying out some hands on activities to help cement these concepts in his brain.

Biology begins with the smallest organisms so I found some projects to build atoms, molecules and cells.

Here is what we are using:


I downloaded them from Currclick.  They have several titles and I downloaded many of them when they were on sale.

Now, for an atom model  I got instructions here.


For marshamallow molecules I found a post here.



I would love to buy these, but the above are more accessible.


For cell models I found this and this.



I found more middle/high school ideas here.


Disclaimer: All these photos are from the original sites, they are not mine.  
But when we make ours I will post pictures!

Spiritual Warfare

I don't often post about spiritual matters, I'm not sure why that is...hmmmm
But I really just needed to write down what God showed me this morning.  I have this Bible reading schedule that a friend and I do.  We read the scripture, write our thoughts or what God revealed, then we pray.  I've been doing this sort of quiet time for well over a year now.  So as you go through the Bible you LEARN no matter what your reading schedule.  My Sunday school teacher calls it "the as you go principle".  It's so true!  I've been so amazed at what God has revealed to me in some very unusual or obscure passages!
Right now we are reading 2 Samuel and we were on chapter 21 today.  (This is copied from a NLT version of the Bible.  I know some people don't like this version, but I have been enjoying reading it because it's worded different and it allows me to have less preconceived ideas.  You know?)
Anyway here is the passage:

Battles against Philistine Giants

 ¹⁵ Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted. ¹⁶ Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. ¹⁷ But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle with us again! Why risk snuffing out the light of Israel?”

 ¹⁸ After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of the giants.

 ¹⁹ During another battle at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem killed the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam!

 ²⁰ In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants. ²¹ But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea.

 ²² These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them.

I found it interesting the enemy was kin to Goliath in a way, and David is still battling and conquering them, although he almost got killed himself.  It makes me think of spiritual parallels.  The way we go into a "battle" but we are worn out and not refreshed and ready to handle it, but praise God for prayer partners who swoop in and save us!  Sometimes we need rest and renewal and we DEFINITELY need each other! And I also noticed that the same enemy cropped up again and again in David's life. Sound familiar?  It is to me.  This was so amazing to me that I decided to share it.   I love God's word and I love to learn from Him every day.