what's up

Well, once again I have let WEEKS slip by without posting ANYTHING on here! Really, it's not that I don't want to, I just forget with everything else going on. Anyhow... So what HAVE I been up to? Well, I just finished a book called Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, by Francis Chan. I am not sure where to begin if I were to give a summary because there is so much in there... but I will quote what is said of the book on its website, crazylovebook.com ...

"Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts — it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same.

Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything."

So there you have a perfect introduction:-) I highly recommend it.

As for homeschoolin'... I am continuing to introduce Sign Language and Spanish to Simeon (though I can't take the credit for this as Jill and Christyn do almost all the teaching!) as well as teaching him Phonics, and continuing to work through Pre-K and K level workbooks covering other various subjects. We are pretty much done with Pre-K and really getting into the Kindergarten level stuff. This week we are reading a library book about about the Cultural Revolution in China. It is from the perspective of a 13 or 14 year old boy, and I am really enjoying it! I don't know a thing about China's history, so it has been really educational for myself as well. We've also been busy planting things around our yard. This turned out to be a bit more work than I thought (and I hope stuff grows alright) because after digging past two inches of topsoil the soil is like 90% sand with a LOT of rocks. More than one neighbor has told me that this used to be a sand pit... so I guess that is the explanation! Anyhow, we planted a dwarf peach tree, pear tree, two crab apple trees, 4 cherry bushes, rhubarb, periwinkle, and a couple lilies. We'll see how they do. Today I took a break from things around here and had a relaxing afternoon helping a friend paint her house out in the sunshine:-) The children did some school work outside, and then rode bikes. I think everyone had a nice time being together!

Just noticed that it's creeping past 11:00 here... time for bed.
More later... I hope:-)