The 2nd Mission Trip to Africa post

Priscilla's second Africa post is up on her blog here.

Today's Dictation for the Boys

"Son, if you are going to live a genuine Christian life, you will spend much time feeling alone. That will be particularly true if you read your Bible and do what it says. You will not fit in with this world."

From Boyhood and Beyond

Watch and Pray

I've seen this being discussed all over the internet. The lastest I've seen with some specific details is this post at Life in a Shoe. Go read it, look into it, consider and pray. Not only our children, but the future of our country is at stake.

Our Dim Eyes Seek a Beacon

Our dim eyes seek a beacon,
And our weary feet a guide,
And our hearts of all life's mystery
Seek a meaning and a key;
But a cross shines on our pathway,
On it hangs the Crucified,
And he answers all our longings
With the whisper, "Follow Me."

Life is a duty - dare it;
Life is a burden - bear it;
Life is a thorn-crown - wear it;
Though it break thy heart in twain.
Though the burden bear thee down.
Close thy lips and stand the pain,
First the Cross, and then the Crown.

Author Unknown

Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town

Priscilla just played me a country song that was something like the title of this post. We laughed over it because it sounds like our small town. We have a segment of the population of our area who seem to thrive on rumors. I guess it gets old cruising around the new Wal-Mart Supercenter. And the older crowd must get bored with their lives too. Might I suggest more great literature? A hobby of some kind?

With Michael and Candace's elopement we thought we would keep a list of rumors - just for kicks. They get so wild around here that it makes for something to laugh about. We have to laugh, or we might cry. It's scary what some people will believe without verification. Are we surprised that our country's media has so much influence? No. We see how easily the blind follow the blind all the time. Others have trouble repeating a story accurately. Maybe they should take to heart Charlotte Mason's way of learning to tell the truth - narration. (I just knew I could tie homeschooling in here somehow.)

Recently, someone we met told us they were talking to someone whom we had never heard of before, and this stranger to our family asked if we were the ones with the daughter who was excommunicated. Excommunicated from what, we were not sure. Our family? A church? Don't know. Have no idea how that one came about. Candace called the other night and asked if I knew where the rumor that Michael scared her into marrying him came from. Again, I have no idea. Who knows what will come next. It's never dull for long around here. We try to be thankful that we can keep people so entertained. Maybe talking about us keeps them from wasting brain cells on time with the television. We can always hope.

Candace and Michael Eloped

Candace and Michael decided not to go through with the counseling and the big wedding. Instead they eloped with a private ceremony Wednesday night.

I apologize to those who were looking forward to celebrating this special time with them. All prayers for blessings in their life are greatly appreciated.

More Media that Impacts for the Good

I read about the new film, Bella, on the Rebulution blog and found that it is showing in a city near us.

Here's a story of the lead actors amazing experience doing research for the film at abortion clinics.

I'm planning on trying to make it out this weekend to see this film. I'll be back later with a review.

Lifehouse 'Everything' Skit

My sister sent me this link to a powerful skit on God Tube. It brought me to tears thinking of everything that young people have to fight in order to serve God and enjoy His presence. It also served as a reminder to pray for those who are in the midst of listening to all of those other voices and are separated from Him because of it. Especially one young person who, though circumstances separated us, we still love very much and grieve over his current state. We pray, that like the girl in this skit, he finds his way back to Him who loves him more than anyone on earth.

Our Monthly Women's Meeting

I know I always write about our monthly women's meetings at church, but I can't help it because they are so good! This was our second meeting of the season and I can't believe how much pleasure I find in being a table hostess and serving the other women and girls. This month the topic was about Bible study and the woman who did the speaking did a fabulous job. One thing I love about so many people at our church is that they are REAL. They might even be a little afraid to be open about who they are but they press through anyway.



The speaker last night shared her story, how she came to a living faith in God after 34 years of searching. She grew up in church and was surrounded by believers but it wasn't until later in life that it all really became hers. And now she has a passion for studying the Bible because it was from realizing that God wanted her to KNOW Him that she found what triggered her ability to accept Him.



Kezzi had the pleasure of sitting next to her at dinner and talking with her more afterwards. On the way home, there were such animated conversations and enthusiasm about Bible study. Kezzi, Hope and I decided to start getting up an hour before everyone else and dive into some in-depth Bible studies. This morning we started our study of Daniel using Kay Arthur's God's Blueprint for Bible Prophecy. I am generally not a fan of prepackaged Bible studies but I do like Kay Arthur's materials and have enjoyed my International Inductive Study Bible for years. When last night's speaker started describing her Bible study methods, I knew it sounded like Kay Arthur's materials -- and I was right. I was happy to hear this because I already owned quite a few of those studies and knew we could jump right in without waiting on something to be shipped to us.



Another thing we share in common with last night's speaker is a passion for interrelationships between the older and younger women - younger women meaning teenagers. And a passsion for NOT dumbing things down for the younger ones. I was pleased last night to see a handful of younger girls attending with their mothers. Priscilla saw another woman's young daughter come in and ask what we did in that room so Pris told her a little about it. When she saw another young girl there she said, "You come in here? I want to come!" To see fires like that lit is very exciting! It seems like every month Kezzi is expounding on how much the youth need to hear the messages, even more than the women do. To me it is nice to see things being shared that can minister to everyone, regardless of age.



Another woman and I were asked to meet with the speaker privately before the meeting and pray with her. When we came back into the main room, I was excited to see that my table was already full of women enjoying fellowship with each other. I think I heard that there was 57 women there last night. I'm so excited to get to meet more of them and to get to know more about the ones with whom I have already begun to form relationships.

Hits and Misses for this School Year So Far

Math is going well. Luke is plowing through Teaching Textbooks 7, Abel is in the Delta Math U See book, Hope is working through Teaching Textbooks' Algebra. Annalise is about half way through Miquon's orange book and I've been using a lot of other resources with her. A favorite is the Noble Knights of Knowledge progam. Most of the time we take Friday's off of the regular math work and play math games.



For the first time we have accomplished some regularity in the subject of Current Events. This year I purchased God's World newspapers for Annalise, Abel and Luke. Hope reads from World magazine. All I do is call them to the livingroom, hand out their papers and set the timer for them to read. At the end of 30 -45 minutes, I ask everyone to take turns telling about interesting things they have read. This method has two ingredients that are important to me: it's simple and it works.



We just started using Mark Kistler's Draw Squad and we are loving that. I make sure this is the last thing of the day so I don't have to hurry anyone away from the table when they want to keep drawing.



The Thinking Toolbox is something that everyone is enjoying once a week. I read this aloud and we do the exercises orally. I can't believe I'm teaching my kids how to argue. Like they really need any help in this area! Annalise always asks about when we are going to do this. She already acts and thinks like the older kids already so I hope I'm not creating a future monster. :)



We are still coming along in our Apologia science books but I put them aside when we have real life nature studies. We'll probably make more headway with these when it's too cold and nasty to go outside. I'm also planning on finishing up our Kamana One this winter. All we have left are some lessons in the Resource Trailhead, which mostly entails making nature journal pages for different topics. By Spring, I'd like to be ready to order Kamana Two.



As is usual with me and foreign languages, I haven't been making the time for our Latin study. We did one lesson and then haven't picked it back up. I'm planning on trying again when we begin Term 2 because the wedding will be past. Planning the wedding is my excuse and I'm sticking too it.



Somehow we've been interrupted on some of the days when we are supposed to do our US Geography with the book It Happened in America. We're still working through this book from last year. We have done a few this year. The last state we did was Minnesota and that evening we even made the Minnesota dinner from the recipe book Eat Your Way Through the USA. The dish was a tater tot casserole but we can't use tater tots because Ford is allergic to the preservatives in them. I just used our own home grown potatoes after I fried them up. The cookbook has been a great addition and I hope we will be successful in making time to use it with each state study. These two resources along with a state map coloring book have been rounding out that study nicely.



Kezzi is really enjoying Sonlight's Civics/American Government course . So far, it seems to be the perfect amount for her senior year since she's working part time down at Ford's shop learning how to do the office work.

Once again, I've been in the old debate with myself of whether to study history all together or separate. Separate is currently winning out. I'm planning on letting Hope begin Sonlight's Church History course as soon as we finish our Ancient Rome studies. I like that the planning is all done, the booklist looks good and the writing assignments are tied in with the reading. I was going to continue studying history together with Hope, the boys and Annalise but I don't think Hope is getting challenged enough and I like the look of the things she'll be diving into regarding Church History. And if we had continued on chronologically from Ancient Rome that would mean going into the Middle Ages. When it came down to it, I couldn't bear to do that again to the boys. They've spent years in their elementary grades in the Middle Ages. They really need to learn more American History now so I'm going to take them through the 1700's (they went up through the 1600's last year) and the American Revolution with a combination of Ambleside Year 4 and Sonlight's World History Part 2. Hope needs a review of the Middle Ages and I think she'll get that with the Church History course.



Nothing that we have used this year has turned out to be a dud yet. It's too early to tell about the Latin program but ask me later and we'll see how it goes.

A Winner

I was discouraged with the boys' apathy towards our morning read aloud, especially Luke's, so I told him he could pick the next book. After consulting Kezzi, he brought The Perilous Gard to me. It was a hit with everyone. I love it when we are reading a book that everyone is excited about. I couldn't wait to get to it each day and I didn't have to coax anyone to agree to some extra readings in the afternoons. We don't celebrate Halloween but the climax of the story took place on All Hallows Eve so it was a good time to read it.


I really don't want to do a book review here. Amazon always has plenty of those. Luke said he "loved" it and that should be enough of a recommendation for anyone. Or at least anyone who knows Luke.

Enjoying October's Bright Blue Weather

This morning after our Bible time, Fiction Read Aloud and Math, we took off to a local river spot for a Wild Day of nature exploration and journaling. I forgot to take my camera (as usual) but I found this picture of the river we went to and the other pictures in the post by searching google images.


Within minutes of arriving we had seen many things to draw. I found a small snake in the little inlet that flowed into the bigger river. When Luke tried to catch it another one swam under his foot, so he ended up getting that one. We also saw cardinal flowers along the bank...

along with these asiatic dayflowers, which Luke identified immediately.

Luke also caught a frog and announced that he had a leopard frog. He always amazes me with his knowledge of the natural world. I guess he learns all of these things by browsing through the field guides. The frog was returned to the river, but the snake was brought home as a pet and now resides in the aquarium in the screenroom.

We lugged out all of our backpacks with nature journals, paints, pencils, poetry books and a field guide and took over two picnic tables near a little river-side fast food place. The river was down considerably from our summer of drought but the boys had fun hiking across and even managed to squeeze in a few swings off of the swimg that goes into the river before I called them back to get started on their journals.

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I read a poem, October's Bright Blue Weather by Helen Hunt Jackson, aloud and copied this last stanza into my journal:

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"O sun and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather."

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While they were finishing up, I ordered cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes and read to everyone from our historical fiction book (that I had smuggled into my backpack ) while they ate.

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My plan is to take many such days as these this fall before the weather turns too cold. I've been inspired recently by reading these two blogs: Handbook of Nature Study and The Heart of Harmony. These are the kinds of days I will remember and be glad that I took the time to enjoy.

Go on over to The Prissy Closet

Priscilla finally has finished her first post about her mission trip to Africa, with parts 2 and maybe 3 to come.

Feast of Tabernacles

Last night started the first of eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles. We celebrate this simply by camping out on top of our hill. Every night we have a bonfire, singing, reading Scriptures and enjoying fellowship, smores and usually, popcorn! Last night a beautiful full moon rose over the mountains, which is my favorite part of the Feast. Kezzi is learning to play the guitar, so this year we have some music added to the mix.

We've mentioned it to quite a few family members and friends, some of which joined us last night. If I forgot to mention it to you, and you would like to come just email us for directions at shadybrookacres@gmail.com. And bring your instrument if you play one! We usually head up there around 7:30 every evening.

(Saturday night is the only night we won't be doing this.)

Questions from a Reader, Answers from Me

From an anonymous reader:

"I hesitate to post this, because you seem to have fears that someone might post something ugly or nasty on your blog due to the approval delay, but I will post anyway.

I have a question that has been bugging me since your daughter got "engaged". My question is: Why would you want your daugher to go to marriage counseling if you knew that God was all in it? I mean, if you can only know a person for 2 whatever weeks, and then KNOW that God wants you to marry this person, why bother with the counsel?

have been following your blog for some time now, and find this very interesting subject. What if the counselor finds these two won't work out, or need more time, would you take the advice of the counselor? Would you take the advice to wait for a year? Or whatever he/she was to say to these young people? Would you pull the stops and cancel the "marriage?"

I am not a good writer, like you, but my question is why bother with the counselor? If God be for us, who can be against us? Why use man as a mediator?

I am for counseling, dont get me wrong. I truly think that it is wisdom and a good thing. But, the way this method seems to have some flaws that I do not understand, nor the intellectual faculities for.

I have several small children, and this is an issue that my wife and I have struggled with. "



Yes, sorry about the delay in posting comments. I do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, spam gets through. Secondly, I have had people post inappropriate things. So, since it is my blog, I control what gets put on it because I'm the one who bears responsibility for it.

Your question is a good one. Candace and Michael are going through counseling for several reasons. I think pre-marital counseling is not just for the purpose of finding out if you are meant for each other. It can help you build a good foundation, thinking through how you will handle issues before they arise. Candace and Michael have spent their whole lives getting our perspective on life and it's nice for them to have a chance to hear from someone else who we greatly respect and honor. We already know from hearing our pastor teach on Sunday mornings that he has a lot of wisdom and great things to say, so it's easy to trust him to give sound advice to our children. I think Candace and Michael greatly honor their parents and they are old enough to have had some time to judge whether or not they think their parents have had wisdom in their teaching or not, but even still, I think it's nice for them to hear it from someone else. And if he has differing views, it's still good for them to have a chance to think through what they believe. In fact, our pastor has asked Candace to review the book (in writing) that he has asked them to read. And both Candace and Michael have already read enough to see that they have differing views from the author. The times in my life when I have learned the most, is when I have questioned something I have heard that didn't set right with me and explored it for myself.

We did not recommend counseling in order to obtain a stamp of approval but if our pastor had serious reservations and recommended doing something other than following through with our plans, it is something we would take seriously and devote a lot of prayer to. I can’t say ahead of time whether we would agree with his advice or not. We would have to know what his advice was and how he arrived at it. We try to follow God, not man. But it is something we would weigh heavily. And no matter what we do, Candace and Michael are adults and are free to make that decision themselves. We do not have the power to cancel this marriage. All Ford and I have to do is decide whether we give our blessing or not. Candace and Michael would have to decide to proceed without it or not.

You are correct. There is no flawless way to go through this process. I have told the girls that there is no guarantee when it comes to marriage. There is no way to enter into that covenant without risk. There is incredible risk. We can only throw ourselves on the mercy of God and always try to trust Him no matter what happens. No human being deserves unconditional trust. A spouse will always have the power to hurt you. That risk doesn’t even end after twenty years of marriage. It’s always there. You have to take the risk and be vulnerable. It’s just the way it is because we live in a fallen world and people always have a choice to do what's right or not.

However, I do believe strongly that there are ways to reduce the risk of disaster. It is obvious that the modern method is NOT working. So, we've been willing to rethink the whole process and consider alternatives. Sometimes it's as simple as "considering the ancient paths".

We have made some mistakes and, I hope learned from them. We also have had some successes. By successes, I mean not just Candace and Michael, but other situations that have come about when the outcome has been realizing that the matches are not right without any damage or hurt on either side. I especially rejoice when the young men leave the process without any ill feelings toward us - and better yet, when they remain as one of our family friends. We have had two experiences like this recently.

Your questions do not offend me at all. On the contrary, I enjoy them and would love to have more conversations about this issue, especially with people with whom I go to church I'm real glad you are thinking about all of this and questioning what you see and hear. I wish everyone would. So many people just float along on the stream without thinking about what they are doing. As a parent, you are on the same journey as we are and I'm sure you want what is best for your kids. Since we are only human, none of us are perfect. But I serve a perfect God who does have answers and promises to give me wisdom if I will only ask and believe. My fault has been in barging ahead without taking the time to ask. Don't make that same mistake. Ask away.

Our Collision with a Deer

At 7am this morning Candace and I were on way to meet Michael for their pre-marital counseling class when all of a sudden a huge buck was on my windshield. All I remember is seeing the head of a deer right in front of me and looking right in it's eye and then hearing glass shatter. I stopped the car and then just starting screaming. The shock of it just brought back memories of other accidents and I felt as though I was reliving them. Candace was beside me and immediately asked if I was ok and started trying to calm me down and tell me it was ok. She was the one who had a level head throughout the whole thing. I just lost it.

Luckily, the deer did not break through the windshield, although you may be able to see from this picture that it almost did. It did kick out the passenger side window where Candace was sitting. When she turned her head to protect her face, she saw deer hooves coming in the side window. That glass went all over us. The picture below is where Candace was sitting. And we both had deer excrement all on our clothes. I even had some on my back! It must have come in through Candace's side window.

By the time we stopped and were able to get out, the deer was no where to be seen. It did leave some of it's insides on the road and hanging on the roadside fence. We are thankful that neither of us have any serious injuries. Candace has some tiny cuts on her face and arms and I have just a few. As we stood waiting for the police to arrive, we had to shake the glass off of our clothes and we could feel it come down our pants and land in our shoes. But it could have been a lot worse. Ford and Michael were both on the scene within minutes and Ford was able to drive the car back home.

This incident has made me really want to get the deer population under control around here. We need more hunters out here! We were talking to a guy at church last night and he mentioned wanting to come out to hunt. I think now I'll send him a written invitation!

Marys and Marthas

Last night was our first women's meeting of the new season. This year I volunteered to be a table hostess, which means that I help cook part of the meal and I'm responsible for serving the ladies at my table and leading the discussions after the speaker. I'm really excited about the coming year and am so thankful for the opportunity to serve the beautiful women of our church, even in this small way.

I was kind of nervous about the small talk time because I am horrible at instigating small talk, especially with strangers. Even when I am interested in the other person, I freeze up and can't think of a thing to say. However, I knew that if I prayed, God could help me. So pray I did.

Candace, Priscilla and I left early, picked up Michael's aunt Alana and arrived to a beautifully decorated room where we were to meet. I popped my casserole in the oven, helped set out a few things and then sat around visiting. People began to arrive and I went and stood by my table, waiting for the women to get seated. God's special blessing to me that night was to fill my table with women whom I knew already and had already come to love! As I looked around, I breathed a big sign of relief. I kept thinking that it was amazing that I've only known these women for a year, because it seems so much longer since they have become a part of what I look forward to so much.

We had a great time. One of our pastor's spoke, kicking us off for the year by encouraging us in the chosen path of topics, which is spiritual disciplines. He talked quite a bit about Mary and Martha in a way I had never heard before. "Martha always gets a bad rap," he said. And then he went on to elaborate on the scriptural evidence of Martha's character. Being a Martha, through and through, I was so blessed to see this other view of things. After he described some of the nature of Mary and Martha types of personalities, he had those who were like Mary stand up and then those of us like Martha. He encouraged us all to look around and seek friendships with the opposite types. Then he had us pair up with the opposite type personality and we all prayed together, asking God to help us learn from each other. A lot of times, things like this can be real hokey, but this wasn't like that. It was real.

I laughed to see both women who sat on either side of me, both of whom had become very dear to me, stand up as Marys. It really almost brought me to tears. God is so good. When we walk in faith, trusting His goodness, He blesses us beyond our imaginations! Much beyond what we deserve.

Smartening Us Up

Several of my friends are reading Gatto's Dumbing Us Down, so I thought they might appreciate this quote to go along with it.


"The child does not mind a bit if there are things he does not quite understand." To which I add: It's important that there be things he or she doesn't understand, or understands only partly, by guessing from the context. That's an excellent way to learn.

Books for very young children don't have to be Dick and Janeish, or even Goodnight Moonish. I see no need to dumb down in writing for the young. Why not smarten up instead? Brooke did.

Quote from A Child's Delight by Noel Perrin

I saw this book mentioned on a couple of other blogs, so always interested in children's literature, I ordered a used copy. I liked this quote and have noticed how true this is when I'm reading to Annalise. Today we were reading Beauty and the Beast from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book. While I was reading, I knew there were many words she did not know but it did not diminish her enjoyment of the story. It's amazing what you can pick up by the context. And I agree that it is an excellent way to learn. Much more interesting than lists of vocabulary words.

For Instruction In Righteousness:A Topical Reference Guide for Biblical Child-Training

This is a little gem of a book we have used over the years. We are currently using it in our morning time together, reading through verses that talk about being kind to each other. It's really simple to use. Everyone comes with their Bibles and I call out a verse for each one to look up. They all take turns reading their assigned verse and then we talk about it. Simple and easy. Many times we prefer to read through whole books in order to grasp the content by reading it in context but it's nice to occasionally take a topic and see what God thinks about it.

It's been convicting to realize that I have not always enforced kindness in our home the way I should have. It's sobering to realize how serious God is about how we treat each other. We are a very close family but sometimes we are not very kind. Since we are so quick to forgive, we sometimes take that for granted. I think this study is waking us up a bit.

In Hopes of Helping to Alleviate Anyone's Fears

Some people have been concerned about the quickness of Candace's engagement. So far, everyone that we know of that had concerns, has been quickly reassured after spending any time with Michael or talking to Candace. And today, our pastor, Chad, was no exception. Chad had concerns after hearing how fast things went. He even called Ford to talk to him about it and to make sure we were ok with it. After their first counseling session today, he said his concerns were gone. They had a great time with him and are really looking forward to the six weeks of counseling ahead.

One of the young men came up to Kezzi at church and asked what was going on. How come Candace had a boyfriend when she had preached against dating to everyone else? Kezzi tried to quickly explain that they had not dated and they were engaged. The young man was shocked and Kezzi didn't have time to explain more. She was sure he left confused but she plans to try to explain more later. Most people don't understand how you can get to the point of engagment without the dating part.

I am really looking forward to the wedding and life with a married daughter and son-in-law. Michael has been so easy and we couldn't ask for a better man for Candace. Of course, we know he must not be perfect, but neither is she. Or any of us. People don't have to be perfect to be a part of God's perfect plan. I pray that the example of God's faithfulness and theirs will be an inspiration to many. I know it's encouraged me even more to trust God - that He is worthy to be trusted and He often has better plans for us than we can even imagine.