Life, Love, Rememberance, and Deliverance

Our preacher recently requested members e-mail him any personal stories relating to God's deliverance or second chances. I had a little something to share, but the e-mail came back to me not once but twice. I almost didn't resend the story below because I was pretty sure I had missed the deadline. I never even heard back from Mr. Preacher Man and was caught off guard when he read this to our entire congregation last Sunday. The timing of it all is so fitting. This week marks the 22nd anniversary of Dad's passing. Also my Mom and Grandfather shared October birthdays. And our Joise Mae would be 12 this October. So here's to life and love, death and deliverance and a lot of remembering.....

My husband and I have been married over 23 years now. We have been through a lot together from the beginning of our marriage. My father died of cancer a year after we married. My mother died 7 years later of cancer. They were very young, 46 and 53 respectively. My younger brother was 16 when Mom died and my husband agreed that my brother should live with us as long as he wanted. My brother could have let this tragedy turn him into a bitter, angry, and rebellious teenager. But he stuck to the straight path, and in spite of all the obstacles Satan put in his way, became a minister. For me my “day of deliverance” was the day he came home here to College Hills as the guest speaker for homecoming Sunday. Oh, and by the way – my mother prayed fervently the prayer of Hannah. She always wanted a son who would grow up to be a minister. God certainly answered her prayer, although she wasn’t here on earth to witness that answer.
I could write a book about how Satan has worked overtime on me and my family. Maybe someday I will. But for now I will simply emphasize that my parents were simple, faithful people who loved God and their every day lives reflected that. Sometimes it seems as though Satan has the upper hand because he never lets up. But good has overcome evil, even in this life. And that IS the big picture.

What I Found Under My Pillow.....

One night about a month or so ago, as I pulled back the covers and fluffed my pillow, I found this sweet note my daughter had written and placed under my pillow. The message made my day, my week, and my month. Never under estimate the effect in doing the "little" things for those you love.

Home School Materials - Favorite Picks

Although we've been back at home schooling over 2 months, we never stop looking at new materials and deciding what we want to add to our "library." Here are some of our family favorites and our reviews of each:

Apologia's Exploring Creation Series is Hope's favorite pick for science. We love the conversational style, the hands on activities provided, and the abundance of color photos. We appreciate the presentation of science from a Godly perspective. Both mom and child have gleaned much from this series. Currently we are studying Astronomy. We want to add FLYING CREATURES, SEA CREATURES, and ANIMALS to our collection. Even if you do NOT home school, this series could provide a lot of summer science fun during the break.

Hope is studying Latin this year. I've looked at several programs available to home schoolers. Our top pick is Latina Christiana. Several levels are available which progress from easy to, well, not so easy. What Mom loves is the fact that the series is DVD driven with a perky Latin teacher explaining and pronouncing everything we need to know. The teacher is obviously from the south so you get the southern drawl for English along with the Latin. Salve Magistra!

I know Saxon Math is the Bible of Mathematics to most home schoolers out there. But our kids hated it. When I would break out the Saxon math books, our children would instantly grow fur, fangs, and claws. Our kids and Saxon math simply didn't bring out the best in each other. So our top pick for math is MATH U SEE. Hope better understands the meaning of math because of the manipulative that can be used through all levels of the program. And there is also a DVD of Mr. Math U See presenting EVERY lesson of EVERY level. Sweet. Oh, and don't let the level titles freak you out. The levels correspond to the Greek Alphabet. Alpha is level 1, typically for 1st graders. Currently Hope is the middle of Delta. Since we switched from Saxon to Math U See in the middle of the year, we are lagging a bit behind.

When Micah was in 5th grade, he was fortunate enough to attend and IEW creative writing program. IEW is short for Institute for Excellence in Writing. This is the best creative writing program around hands down. Hope is taking this course at her new tutorial school this year. I am amazed what our kids can write after only a few lessons. What a fantastic tool! Wish this was available in my school days. I would have been much better prepared for college. This program is DVD driven too. There are parent DVDs and student DVDs included in the program. There are several levels available and support materials offered for different studies in history, Bible, ect. Hope's class is writing over ancient history this year.

Homeschooling In the Woods offers some impressive history study aides in time line format. We have the Historical Timeline Figures CD-ROM. There are over 1500 historical events and people available to print on your home computer. Make a timeline, or flashcards. Assemble a lap book for unit study. The options are endless.

We also have the Timeline Notebook. It is quite attractive and our kiddos can work on this for several years as we study history in chronological order.

I am loving the Mystery of History Series. The first book starts with creation and moves forward through both Biblical history and World history. It is pretty neat to learn what was going on in other civilizations when certain Biblical events were occurring.

We are also reading from the Story of the World Series. I lucked up at a book fair and got Volumes 2,3, and 4. I think another volume or two may be released soon. These are a must have and a must keep for us. I can picture us reading these stories to our grandchildren someday. Also, each volume is available on audio CD so everyone can get a dose of history while spending time on the road. With Mystery of History and Story of the World, we are using our Timeline Figures and printing the pictures of people and events, then coloring them with pencils, and placing them in chronological order in our timeline notebook. What a fun way to learn history. Wish this were available when I was a kid. I might know more about history today!