The Sunday Train

Waiting for the Sunday train to choo choo us off to church.

New York style fun.

Thank you, Father, for the experiences you give us....

Quiet Time

"And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so."

God's Word and one of His many creations, the hydrangea. Clipped from our yard.

Beautiful joy.

Nature Walks

Our daily nature walks consist of crossing the street, using the path bridge over the highway (mentioned in the last post), and descending into absolute God-given beauty. Charlotte Mason's nature journals have a whole new meaning to all of us here. Thank you, my King.

Then we casually mozy on home through the winding streets of the neighborhood. Bliss.

Our Winter Wonderland

So this is our new home and what it looks like in the winter. We really enjoyed experiencing living in the snow...even in a storm, it is so peaceful and serene. It has a way of making the dead things of winter come alive with beauty. The boys and I even enjoyed shoveling the snow off the walkways and throwing salt out to keep them from icing (I was scolded by the mail woman when it wasn't done and then she gave me a quick lesson on how to do it when she realized I just moved from AZ!) The view from my kitchen window looks out onto the driveway, but in the snow, even a driveway is beautiful! You can enjoy the view too watching Steve leave for the train in our new van.

The picture with the pine tree close-up is taken from our front door and is the corner of our yard...notice the traffic lights in the background and, if you look even closer, you can see cars driving down the highway just past the hill. Between the highway and the traffic light corner, we were initiated pretty quickly to living in a suburb of the City that never sleeps.

Hello Again!!

Can you believe it? I am blogging again! It has been so long that I forgot my password and had to reset it again. :oP Just typing this, I feel like I am working out the blog rust!

It took me a few months (shortly after my last post to early December) to settle into the idea of moving from the southwest to the northeast, then it has taken me from December to now to settle into the element change and adjust to the new homeschooling laws. When I wasn't teaching or shopping for clothing to help us from freezing, I was busily writing out scopes & sequences, plans of instruction, quarterly reports, and helping educate our local school district on the legal rights of the homeschooler. But, ahhhh, "school" is over and spring is here!

Despite the strict homeschooling laws and being popsicle-like in the winter, we are really enjoying being here and feel so blessed to experience the culture and the nature (yes, nature in a suburb of Manhattan!)...I can't wait to share pictures with you! (now I just need to remember how to retrieve the pictures and post them....oh computers!!) I sincerely even feel blessed to experience the homeschool laws here...God works it ALL out for our good and His glory!

Thanks for your patience and encouragement while waiting for me to post again.

I love you all!

Ship Logs and Hardtack

These are some photos from our study of explorers. The children had to "learn the ropes" of being a limey (a sailor for those that aren't sea savvy)! They drank beer (apple juice with powdered vitamin C added), ate hardtack (dry biscuits), salthorse (jerky), limeys (straight lime juice - talk about puckering!) and dried fruit.

They also had to learn how to tie different types of knots and know the reasons behind the knot. They handmade their own ship logs by dipping crumpled paper into a coffee bath, sun drying it and having to hand-sew the binding. It has been great fun! They love writing in their logs using the vocabulary they have learned of the late 16th century. If you click on the pictures, you can actually read some of their log entries. Enjoy!

A Summer Study Wrap-Up...

We are ending our summer studies that began with the Middle Ages and is wrapping up with the Era of Exploration. We thought we'd share a bit from our Middle Ages studies now, with more to come on the Era of Exploration.

A (downloaded) photo of William Wallace's actual sword - which of course was a total hit with the boys. In case you don't know who William Wallace is...he is the namesake for our youngest son and the freedom fighter "Braveheart" so gallantly showed.

God was so good to bless the girls and I with a summer tea at real castle - especially during our study of castles!

Our family had the opportunity to help give and attend a "King and Kingdom" themed baby shower this summer...another timely gift from our Father! Everyone dressed as a knight or princess...it was great fun. The boys' knights and tents were used as decorations...and then photo props! Ja. set the props and took this picture.