A Month of Service

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. We live near enough to the Joplin, MO area to be asked to help with clean-up and several other service projects to help those in need. Our church (locally) has designated the month of June as "A Month of Service". Our family typically does this anyway during our month interval when we take off from educational times. We typically take off July and December, focusing those months on service projects and our annual projects, as well as family trips. We decided to change our month of service to June this year, but keep our month "off" in July to coincide with various camps and youth conference that is planned for July.

The Sunday after the Joplin Tornado, a meeting was held during the last hour of our church meetings to give information about the way we can help, which included:

• Priesthood assignments with Mormon Helping Hands to clean-up.
• Visiting those critically injured that were moved to our city (The hospitals in our area are FULL and we have had public notices to go to Urgent Care instead of the hospital if at all possible.)
• Donating funds to the LDS Humanitarian Fund.
• Donating time to various organizations as we wish.
• Helping with specific needs for families in our church.

In all, we have been able to help with several needs and service opportunities. It has been an uplifting experience to visit severely injured people who have nothing, not even a pen and paper to write down their story of survival. As we talk with these survivors, they don't even know where to start. 

Now, most are waiting for insurance checks so they can purchase household goods and rebuild there lives.

Making Weaponry?

I have had mothers question my choices in allowing my son to make "weapons". Our society has been leaning for some time towards "weapon free" play for boys. I personally think this is an agenda to keep us from defending ourselves, a way to "dumb down" the masses, creating a passive citizenry. I do not think ownership of weapons leads to war, quite the opposite, I believe it leads to self-defense and thus deters war.

Our son has made nunchucks, wooden and PVC swords, shields, slingshots, and now a PVC bow and arrows. Maturity level has been a major consideration in allowing him to make weaponry. He has also been taught the proper use and storage of his items. I believe that the teaching of Self Government is the key to a home with boys and their weaponry. Abuse of the rules leads to loss of precious items, items that were personally created by the individual and thus are far more precious than store bought toys. The teaching of Self Government with its accompanying consistency in loss of privileges has worked extensively well in all areas of home management, including all areas of parenting boys and girls.

Plus, the making of these items has taught him many math and engineering skills as well as provided hours of physical, non-electronic entertainment.


Some food for thought:

Risk, there is no real living without it. Die we all must, but try to knock all risk out of our lives and we lock ourselves tighter and tighter into a safe, comfortable, deadly box, and we die too, without ever having lived. - Alex Noble

Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education. - David Polis

Now I see the secret of making the best persons, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. - Walt Whitman

The most important education is that which leads to personal survival. - W. I. Thomas

3-D Puzzles

Over a year ago I picked up some 3-D wood puzzles at Michael's craft store. We tried the helicopter but everyone was sick of it after a few hours. Friday I was going through more storage items and finally found some of the homeschool art items I have been looking for, among these items I found the 3-D puzzles. I decided that since everyone is "so bored out of their minds", to bring them inside and just leave them on the table.

Pretty soon Nayna got hooked...

It took a couple of days, but she completed it all by herself.

New Table! (Well, Almost)

I have been meaning to do this for about 2 years now....paint my table and china cabinet! I was given this table (a Freebie Fairy gift) about 9 years ago. It had an ugly honey-yellow stained top and yellow-white painted bottom. I refinished the table top with a colonial country stain and re-painted the bottom white when we got it. Too bad I don't have old photos to show how much better it looks than when we got it.

Getting Ready to Paint!

I have only completed one part...the table...but doesn't it look awesome!

I Love it!

Mike is at Scout Camp with Chris. Marly and I are not strong enough to take the china hutch apart, so we have to wait for our strong men to come back home to help us with that one. I had hoped to have it all done before they get home **sigh**. I took the leaf back out. We only use it for when we have company.

I should have done this 2 years ago

"Freebie Fairy" Comes to Visit!

When we moved to Missouri, we could only afford to bring one truck. So we had to reduce our belongings and only take what meant the most to us. Everyone was willing to sacrifice and so we were able to do it without much trouble. I did get rid of a few things that I now wish I had, but nothing of any great value. My biggest disappointment in moving is the things that got damaged this time. Other than replacing all my Pampered Chef pans and cookie sheets, the damage was manageable. I have not been able to replace my Pampered Chef stuff yet. :-(

However, the Lord has blessed us with a community that gives a lot of things away. We also gave away a great deal of our belongings when we moved, so we are happy that we can partake on the receiving end once in a while, as well as the giving end. We have been given 2 book cases, 1 shelf unit, 1 closet organizer, 3 chairs, and a piano! (so far). I am so happy about the book cases since I had two boxes of books that I could not unpack. Yeah!

I feel a little weird posting about our freebie stuff. But, I also feel that in this economy, we need to all help each other out if we can. We received these items from a neighbor who can't take everything with them. We gave away tons of stuff when we moved. "Pay it forward", right? I also believe that Heavenly Father wants us to be wise stewards over what he has given us. Thank you neighbors! Sorry to see you go.

The piano has not arrived yet, we need some help getting it moved. It needs some TLC, but plays beautifully! Marly is so happy to have a real piano! I'll post some picks of our piano once I get it refinished. Thank you Thom-Ann for the piano!

Marshmallow Canons

Chris LOVES making things. He says he is leaning towards becoming an Engineer. I think it would be an awesome career, based on his likes, dislikes, and abilities. He and his friend took apart the Marshmallow Guns he made the other day and made this...

Summertime Projects!

Summer brings a lot of changes for most families, ours is no exception. We typically take June off as a family break from the regular home education schedule. This year we have already traveled to Arizona and Sam is home with us for the next few weeks. Everyone just seemed itching to do some personal projects so we made a trip to Wal-mart and Lowe's to get some supplies and here is what everyone is doing.

Duck Tape

"I don't believe in much, but I believe in Duct Tape." ~ Miles on the final episode of Lost.

Duct tape is amazing stuff! I seriously think everyone needs an abundant amount of it for emergency preparedness. We have been making luggage tags, purses, book bags, wallets, etc. Mike was so surprised that my book bag was completely made of duct tape. He just couldn't believe it!


There are a lot of cool colors out there for Duct Tape. Here are some of the plans we used for our first projects before we started doing our own designs. Duct Tape Woven Purse and Cute Duct Tape Purse

Marshmallow Guns and Nunchucks

Chris has always loved making weapons, including wooden swords and shields. He made three different models of marshmallow guns to determine which design worked the best. Another tip he told me was to stuff the handles and the butt of the gun with TP to make the air pressure higher inside the gun.

The nunchucks are solid wood from a piece of dowel he had already. I was a little concerned about having him practice with these in the house. I wish he would have used a softer substance!

Apples Galore

We purchased apples this year. I typically alternate peaches and apples. We did peaches last year, so apples are this year. We seriously were SICK of peach jam by the time it was all gone. I think we are feeling the same way about applesauce right now. I made the peach jam too sweet, so that is an adjustment I make now. We either only use half sugar or do not add sugar at all.

Here are the recipes I used:

• Applesauce - I do not add anything...just pure apples.
• Apple Butter - I have not made this before this year, but we decided a few jars of it to use alternating with peach jam will be nice. I used half the sugar.
• Crockpot Apple Crumble - I doubled this one because we have a very large crockpot.

Marlayna also made a delicious apple pie. She has been gathering recipes for a cookbook to take with her when she leaves home, which is hopefully a long time from now!

I've had a few people ask where I buy my bulk produce from. We are part of a co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Currently they are in Arizona and Utah, but I know they are open to starting up in other states.

Family Project - Tire Swings!

This week we decided on a couple of family projects. We wanted more things to do in the back yard and we have an enormous Chinese Elm tree that we thought might make a great place to hang a couple of swings. We decided tire swings might be the most economical that would also hold the weight of my growing teens and any other children that grace our home.

We took a trip to Discount Tire and asked for some free tires, which they were very happy to give to us. Next, we found some websites that gave instruction about building two types of swings. We made a list of the hardware we need and took off to Home Depot one day after school hours were over. We couldn't manage all the hardware needed to make the horizontal tire swing, but we did get the vertical tire swing up.

Way to go Engineer Knot Maker Chris! He tied all the knots. All Marly and I did was help lift and hold the tire.

August '09 - Week 2

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Part I - We went over the Ruler's Law vs. People's law and the balance of power between Ruler's Law and People's Law. It is very interesting to see how much they love this subject. Maybe it has something to do with becoming aware of problems in the current government and wanting to know why it is that way and how we can change it that has sparked so much interest.

Math - Dice games: "Which Number Wins?" (Probability) - Individual Math-U-See books

History - "Stories of Beowulf Told to Children" - How the Water Witch Warred With the Dane Folk, How Beowulf Overcame the Water Witch, How Beowulf Returned to His Own Land.

English Language - Winston Grammar - Review: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, and Articles.

Science - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" and "Chemistry for Every Kid" - Subject: Force. (I am not liking the textbook listed above very much, but it does give some decent explanations...I may be ditching this one as soon as I find what else I should do.) We'll keep "Chemistry for Every Kid". I'm still waiting for the money to buy the BIG chemistry set that we want.

Family Projects - Splitting firewood, building chicken laying boxes, and building tire swings.

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making. - Reading: "Storytellers", "May Bird", "The Adventure's of Sherlock Holmes", "Touching Spirit Bear" - Math: Math-U-See "Epsilon" Fractions - Mind Benders A4-B1

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Chickens and Rabbits, Chain Mail making, Building a Rope Bridge - Reading: "Diamond of Darkhold"

Samantha (Practice Scholar) - Started her Senior year of high school.

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Projects: Fixing my sewing machine, then when that didn't work, stitching an apron by hand. - Reading: "Little Men" - Math: Math-U-See Algebra - Reviewing what I have forgotten.

Mom Notes: I love the website Living Math. I also found several dice games for practicing addition, multiplication, division, place value, and fractions. See this post for more details. I purchased a large bag of dice from a dollar store...sweet deal!