Season of Rich Nourishment

Tables of food, hours of sharing of hearts,discussing of the Word, surprise guests and gifts--these all served to be quite the distraction to blogging on any regular basis,it seems.
We are well and enjoying the more relaxed pace of the holiday season,nourishing our bodies and more importantly our souls with the blessings God has so generously given us.

Seasons of quiet can be so inspiring sometimes and preparation for times of days of much work,physically and spiritually. For these seasons I am thankful!

My children,are awake, having tea and listening to Pilgrim's Progress. They will have breakfast soon and tidy the kitchen. I need to get a load of laundry into the dryer shortly and decide on the course of the day. Seasoned venison is slowly baking in the oven,readying for a night of food and fellowship,New Year's Eve. May the Spirit of Prayer flow through our home,and yours also ,in these days of extra rest!
Celebrate His Love! Marcella

Home Again!

Well,the long planned for, trek to Texas, is now history,and what a lot of memories remain for our little family. Playing Last Word in Tennessee and fellowshipping, driving into Arkansas,Lee's birth state on his birthday,driving over the Mississippi River,listening and imagining with Christian on our first ever listen to Pilgrim's Progress on CD, starting our first chapter of the Betsy-Tacy books,seeing an accident soon after it happened.............. and the pure historical feeling of driving into a Texas sunset in ranch country.Isn't it beautiful?

Descending on Dallas at night-is that city BIG or what? We had dinner and a lovely welcome from Lee's brother ,along with a birthday cake and smuggled in presents from our suitcases.We researched our tourist options and fell into bed....

The next morning we hit the zoo,a first for quite a lot of our crew.

Those otters sure were a great favorite and showcased very well! This was a relief,right after seeing the tiger,which was not as scary as the boys had hoped,I think!

Now,this snake's worth photographing......

and sculptures were plentiful,as were the huge tortoises from the Galapagos.

An underground zone for the little people-and some not so little people too......(so I hear?)

One of these dinky penguins could almost be a bathtub pet,huh? I,myself,prefer the chimpanzees.

Since they didn't offer any of these as souvenirs I came home with a cheetah magnet.Not quite as playful,but far less work.

After the zoo workout(was it ever a workout too!) we found a little German diner/bakery/store which served very homey food.Tempted to go for a staple like a chicken sandwich, I decided to try my first ever hot,pastrami sandwich in the name of broadening my cultural knowledge.I wasn't sorry. Lee and I really enjoy little out of the way places like these ,and tend to ferret them out wherever we go...

We proceeded to drag Lee's very patient brother across the street to a very large ,used book store. We emerged after dark-us book people:)

Back for dinner, and then a DVD for the guys,we girls couldn't stay conscious any longer.

Thankfully,the next day was a much more relaxed pace,time for leisurely visiting and cleaning and then we hit the road again.

That last stretch was a whopper-by the time we arrived home the next day,Lee and I were quite dizzy! Lee hauled our garbage,I unpacked as fast as possible-I've found the faster you get the suitcases unpacked,the faster,you get truly settled in.Lee baked bread and I cooked supper and we were off to bed!

We're trying to get back in the swing of things,a lot of the vacation laundry is done, some homeschooling projects getting done, and most of the gifts for friends and needy friends are packaged and or out. Lee and I are not big on the holidays,but there seem to be enough presents of dessert around here to feed two families anyway! Best of all we got carolers tonight.SquirrelGirl loves the song "Angels we Have Heard on High" and so I think even she was delighted.

May tomorrow bring you many blessings,chiefly the Blessing of loving the One ,whose birthday we say we celebrate!

In His Love!

Marcella

Howdy from Texas!

Just a quick hello from Texas! It's been quite the trip! Pictures and details later.We're well and have been having a nice time. It's been quite relaxing for the most part.

Well, I need to keep moving here! Just stopping in for a minute:).
Marcella

Crafts and A Christmas Song

I'm almost done showing my stuff,I promise! Here's my popsicle stick tree,made on craft night at our community center.Origami was another choice,but what mother of four has the energy to learn origami folds in the evening,I ask???

Cinnamon dough ornaments-made at a craft night. They're lovely,but highly breakable. Ask me how I know.

And something I imagined in my head and created for our living room wall. This is a piece of art canvas painted with brown acrylic paint and left to dry. When it was dry I penciled on all the words,then went over the words with a fine brush and black acrylic paint. There would be far better quality brushes than what I used,but this still turned out half decent. And it's a craft that's quite easy on the pocketbook,especially when you nab a canvas at a good price.

And here's a Christmas song I really appreciate- It's About the Cross ,which School in Our Home has posted on her blog and I've also heard on the radio recently. Go here to listen-http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/SchoolinRhome/.

Well,I have carrot cake and broccoli soup to take in to Lee's workplace today to share with the staff and then continue prepping for an adventure we Pilgrims are about to embark upon.Stay tuned!

Celebrate His Wondrous Love!

Marcella

Still more playdough....

As we pack up lovely packages of special things for family and friends these days it's nice to add some unique little things. Packs of this playdough and the leaf votive holders added some handmade goodness to our gifting.You can find the recipe for the playdough and also Candy Cane Playdough at School in Our Home blog listed on my sidebar. Look under Arts and Crafts.

From my northerner's perspective,it's way too warm to be December, but there it is! Sunny and no snow in sight. I'd like a good,old snowstorm for a change!

Well,there's a wee girl who needs her diaper changed, some soup to start simmering, laundry to finish, maybe some sort of pie to bake,and so that said,I remove myself from in front of this screen. Wishing everyone a lovely night!
Marcella
*edited to add that the leaf votive holders can also be found at School in our Home! Happy "making"!

A Bucket of homemade playdough

-or keeping a four year old busy! I keep striving for rhythm and organization in my days and the days of my children,particularly my third child.She keeps being at loose ends,this number three of mine. I don't want that to be her memory of her childhood and the only way to remedy it is to plan.
So, jumping in one day, I mixed up a large batch of this homemade playdough,stuck it in an ice cream pail and labeled it. And you may notice it's colored pink! There was one activity,ready to go. By default a small table just her size was moved out of our Learning room. And a tiny chair from the depths of a closet. They came into the already narrow aisle of my kitchen. But it was just right for her. Near Mommy. Imaginating. Perfect.
Today I typed up a list of ideas for her . Painting with my fancy watercolors,which she adores. Coloring(probably more pink cats,forthcoming),playdough of course, helping me cook a recipe, and perhaps working on a thinking skills workbook. Sometimes it really is about the details and the planning....
Now for our mother-daughter,morning reading time. The special storybook basket has already been conjured up in my imagination.....More details later!
And it looks like I'll have a few new and interesting book additions winging their way to my house soon-I won a giveaway for three books from Chronicle Books from none other than Scribbit of Wall Street Journal Fame! You can find Scribbit's blog on my sidebar. I'll try to get pics of the loot when it arrives.
May your day go well! Celebrate His Love!
Marcella

The Learning Pursuits of a Seven Year Old Boy

Messing with his guitar....

Jess is my resident seven year old who probably knows more about our digital camera than I do. I cropped this picture he styled and lost some of the effect I think. At least it was appropriate subject matter. Ahem. We're still working on differentiating the finer details of that. He actually takes some pretty artistic pictures on occasion. Homeschooling gives him time to hone his photography skills which I find very practical:).

He checks the weather forecast daily on our homepage and that's opening new doors of knowledge for him also.

A 3D house design program his daddy bought for use on our computer has also piqued his interst and Ifind lots of houses on the computer screen nowadays.

And a book has opened the delight of a book series to him. None other than The Boxcar Children! The bookworm side of me wiggles in anticipation :) And Narnia is also a new interest. Hope my voice holds up!

And then there's chess. My mathaphobic brain tells me to stay out of this. Outsource little mother,outsource. And thankfully I've had no shortage of chess teachers generally.

And now the guitar. I think I can handle messing with the guitar. And fortunately,we are blessed with lots of guitar playing Christian "uncles". Maybe we can do this homeschooling thing afterall. Even with a time consuming one year old on the loose.:)

We love because He loves!
Marcella

The Blessing of One

We've celebrated a lot of blessings in this time of Thanksgiving. One thing we are supremely thankful for is one full year of loving Wrenbird, now known as SquirrelGirl. The sweet,fuzzy feel of her soft,fluffy head in the morning, her contentment with cheese and green beans, the feel of her little fingers pulling my hair and her little voice calling "come,come" delight us over and over.Her turning One kind of shocks me-it seems like a year passed so fast. But as she starts to stand on her very own I'm sure the second year holds much more precious promise,Lord willing.We love you,Squirrel Girl!

On her birthday,ready to head to church.

And last but not least, handmade gifts from our kitchen studio! Tea light holders. I'll have to get a link up on how they're done. I'm so keeping one of these for us!

May your day be blessed. Celebrate Love! Marcella