My Ebenezer

  Eden rang in the first week of 2024 by succumbing to the flu. She has been in bad shape for 7 days; feeling bad, then better, only to swing into worse, then slightly better again. It's been somewhat of a roller coaster; we even thought she was recovered enough to send her to school the next day, only to have her crash again a few hours later. Some days she eats almost nothing (a few grapes, maybe) and others she's hungry for something, but can't tell me just what. Cheese Quesadillas have come in clutch. :) She's been lying around on a mattress in our dining room (I've found that extroverts, even when sick, "want to be where the people are," to quote Ariel) dozing and looking at books by turns.  If I thought a doctor would tell us something other than "rest, and get plenty of fluids" I'd take her in. Thankfully, the rest of us are fine so far! A friend and I have begun reading "Choosing Gratitude" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and we meet...

 We are excited and looking forward to some fellowship with Matt and Jen, Lord willing, this coming Friday night as we celebrate Libby's 9th birthday. Libby was born on November 1, so most years they have done a dress-up/costume party to celebrate the fact that she wasn't born on Halloween! :) Eden is super excited to wear her princess dress that I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago. My boys never have really embraced costume wearing, but Eden seems to like dressing up. I know I mentioned posting our routine, and I think I'll do that now. Not because it's the surest way to get more readers (it's not), but because it's for posterity. Here's what we're usually up to now that we're not homeschooling: 6:30am I get up, have time with the Lord 7:15 I make breakfast, Noah makes lunches for himself and Josh 7:25 Breakfast for as many of the family as are up. I make it my ambition never to wake a sleeping preschooler, if I can help it. *wink* 7:45/8:00 Tak...

Seth is hilarious. His strong point is definitely not school work of the worksheet variety, but he is always thinking on a creative track. For example, check out his mad fort-making skills:   Oh that we could find a way to harness that creativity and still accomplish the worksheets' objectives! Today during math class (online with BJU Press), his teacher Mrs. Lawson was trying to teach the concept of counting coins for correct change. They were pretending that they were trying to buy a baseball for $0.28 (by the way, on what planet could you buy a baseball for that price? I know, suspend your disbelief!). Mrs. Lawson told the students to pick up two dimes, then said:  "Okay, you have twenty cents in your hand. Is that enough to buy the baseball? Remember the baseball costs twenty-eight cents..." *long pause* "Noo-o! That's not enough to buy that baseball; how much will you need to pick up to have enough money?"  *another pause* At wh...

"Donkey drinks a lot of tea" -Eden Deep in concentration.  We are 20-something days into the strangest period of time I've ever lived through, social distancing. I don't share my opinion much about this, largely because I have a dissenting opinion to what I believe is the popular one, and also because I'm not sure I'm right. (But I think I am)  But the other day, my brother posted the following on Facebook, and I just couldn't agree more. " Social distancing is not the answer to this crisis, friends. We can't stay distant long enough to wait for a medical cure, without destroying ourselves in the process. Further, we were designed to be social beings. Isolation will kill us in more ways than one. Human solutions will not work. The answer, my friends, is prayer. If you are not a believer, then you may find this answer irrelevant or offensive. That doesn't change the truth of it. God has the power to deliver us. M iracles neve...

This is Day #20 since our lives were noticeably altered by COVID-19. I think we're all counting! For the most part these days, we just stay at home all the time. Eden is my "Can I go?" child. It doesn't matter where you're going, she just wants to go too, which is the exact opposite of me! It doesn't matter where you're going, I just want to stay home! This "safer-at-home" mandate Florida is under would be much easier if it were just me at home. Lonelier, yes, but oh the things I could do! The puzzles, the artwork, the cleaning, the organizing, the card-making, the baking/cooking... Another season perhaps!  For now, I'm trying to keep three kids out of mischief. Succeeding for the most part, thank the Lord, but sometimes things fall through the gaps.  Exhibit A: That is green sharpie on my dining room walls, folks, scrawled there by miss E herself. Don't ask me how or when she did this, but there it is. Kind of resembles the stoc...

Earlier in the week Josh, the kids, and I were itching to get out. The lockdowns here in Jacksonville are getting a little... well, the first word that comes to mind is "ridiculous." Oppressive is a close second. Maybe not quite that strong, but when you tell people to keep exercising and stay active, and then you shut down literally ALL the outdoor venues like playgrounds, fields, hiking trails, state parks, and beaches...  Anyway, we found out that the state parks with campgrounds in Georgia are still open, and there were vacancies, so we booked a couple of nights at Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, Georgia. What a treat it was to escape, for just over 24 hours, the twilight zone that we are currently living through! Here are some pics from our time away: Our first meal at the campsite: hamburgers and hot dogs. Food tastes better when you're camping, in my opinion. It was bright down by the dock and fishing pier! Pep brought his cast net. He ...

You know when the electricity goes out suddenly and unexpectedly, and it's kind of cool for the first hour or so? You light candles, you might pull out a card game, you imagine what it must have been like for people before electricity was a given.  And then, along about hour three of the power outage, it starts to get Really. Old.  That is how the current worldwide quarantine feels to me. I'm not even going to explain about the Coronavirus since I can't imagine you not knowing about that already. A couple of weeks ago the government began clamping down one freedom, and then another, until what we're left with is the order to just stay at home.  Social Distancing. The whole world, it seems, has been ordered by the powers that be to stay at home except for absolute necessities like food, medicine, or doctor visits.  And just like that, everything from the way the world learns, worships, shops, works, eats, and lives has been freedom-restricted. I'm not saying whether...

In this post, I'm going to show you 3 photos that were taken today (actually, by now it was yesterday), which may or may not sum up a normal day for us.   Today in Chemistry and Physics class (did you ever in your life think I would teach Chemistry and Physics???) we were studying the different states of matter.  One of Noah's favorite parts of the Apologia curriculum is all the experiments and hands-on activities that are suggested and embedded in the reading assignments.  Today one of our experiments was to make sorbet out of fruit juice, using a couple of ziploc bags, ice, and a boatload of salt.  It turned out great, and Noah loved it! Now, as a side note, the above is one of those pictures (actually all three of these are) that people post on Facebook, and then everyone and their brother looks at that and says, "Oh, what a nice day they had homeschooling.  I wish we did fun projects like that. He looks so happy and content.  Why is my homeschoo...

Well, since I posted about the lack of damage from Hurricane Irma, Josh has had no less than 5 phone calls about ceilings falling down and failing roofs.  Strangely, they don't necessarily seem like they're tied to the hurricane.  Whatever the cause though, it has meant that Josh is gone more hours during each day so that he can in some cases replace entire roofs. There's something about your husband being gone over the supper hour when you have small children that makes a day seem really long. (I understand there are tougher circumstances to live through, such as a deployment, but what I said is no less true.)  I usually look forward to Josh being home by 5, so that there's some relief for me during The Witching Hour (any mom of young kids knows what that is; it's the hour you're trying to get supper on the table.  It turns normally mild-mannered kids into whinier, clingier versions of themselves).  And then feeding them dinner all by myself makes me feel lik...

I had every intention of getting up to exercise this morning, but when it was actually time to do it, I laid in bed 5 more minutes.  And then 5 more. And then 5 more.  And....you get the idea.  Then it was time for my shower, and as much as I don't normally put stock in the idea of "me time," this getting ready in the morning is my final taste of silence and Thinking My Own Thoughts that I have until the kids go to bed at night.  I cherish it a lot.  And so, when Seth knocked on my door while I was drying my hair to tell me that Noah had eaten a potato chip (he makes Josh's lunch every day, and grazes on lunch food as he goes) and he wouldn't give Seth one.  Tattling, my pet peeve. And meanness, my other pet peeve.  I didn't handle it well.  To my shame, I burst out of my room yelling something about Never Being Allowed To Eat Chips While You Make Lunch Again (yeah, that sounds logical and mature! Way to go!) and then slammed my way back into the ...

Today I woke up 25 minutes late, which is a problem on a Sunday. (I make it my policy to only set an alarm on weekdays, so that I have 2 days in the week to sleep past 6:15 am.) I somehow got everyone out the door in time for church, but it wasn't pretty.  It seems like our fuses are extra short on Sundays. Maybe it's just us...  It does give me the opportunity to rely on God's grace more, and to confess that we are weak people in need of constant mercy. We taught junior church and had charge of the nursery (which was just Eden) during the main service, and tonight the ladies started a new Bible study group on the book of Exodus. I think it will be a great study if I can find the time to complete the homework each day.  After church, we took a new guy and his sister out to Wendy's for a little extra fellowship.  They are young (early 20's), originally from Hong Kong, and just getting started here in Jacksonville with new jobs.  We enjoyed getting to know them...