Diversions and Self-Control

I just read the section in ch. 3 about Diversion. This may be more of a personal commentary today, however, I feel that this issue needs to be addressed all over America.
DIVERSION

Earlier this week, we watched a preview show of Jamie Oliver's Food Revoloution. This entire country is all about convience and doing things for ME! In this section about diversion, she brought it to a head with self-control under God's authority. The last time I wrote about this book, it was on the topic of Authority. All authority under heaven is given by God. No matter how we are living, we are all under his authority. My husband and I have decided to take a class at our congregation that is going over the book of James in God's Word. Something recently whacked me in the face. Gluttony. I've had a problem with this, not realizing that it is a sin! Hello! I've even read it in the Bible, do not be gluttonous. I haven't been paying attention, I just eat because it tastes good! I have had a poor ability to divert myself from the habbit of gluttony. I haven't been practicing self-control over my body, which happens to be God's temple!

I shouldn't even get started in the problems of the country I currently reside in. I am thankful everyday for my citizenship, which is in Heaven. I am concerned about things going on in our country, and I do believe that we should protect our rights and all that stuff. I support our troops, our protection. I do not support the terrible parenting (or lack of it) that has gone on over the past few decades. YES, I said parenting.

When we teach our children the correct way to divert themselves from wrong doing, they will later on have the knowledge and (hopefully) wisdom of self-control. They should be brought up under the authority of God's Law! So many children in years past have not been given the tools they need to control themselves. And sadly, that is bleeding (I believe literally) into today's culture. No teaching of diversion has led to complete self-reliance, taking care of self and no one else, climbing that ladder for self. This culture has forgotten the foundations on which our country was established! They came to America to escape the dealings of England! They sent Benjamin Franklin to Europe, leaned upon George Washington during war, and called upon GOD to take away the taxes and give them FREEDOM!!!!!

Our country has lost it's self-confidence. Most people in this country have lost the proper self-respect that Macaulay wrote about. To finish this post all I can think of is to quote the last paragraph of this section.

We help a child in this lifelong struggle if we love him and like him. True appreciation will help give the child the lifelong strength of not having to struggle for a proper self-respect. All teachers know that the most "unteachable" children are those who have lost self-confidence. They don't think much of themselves; they too easily sit down in despair under the labels which describe and limit them. Is it strange that everything seems to come back to love and moral framework? If we have truly understood reality, we realize that this is the touchstone of the matter. God is love, and He is perfectly holy.

I pray that we can teach our children the proper self-respect that they need. I pray that they will never forget the true country foundations. I pray that God will bring this country of ours back to what it once was.

They have begun!

Well, I'm finally sitting down and enjoying quiet time (as quiet as we can get it right now). It's nice that all my children will agree to have a quiet hour during the day! Today has been the start of our science experiments! We are following the experiments lined out in the HBNS (Handbook of Nature Study) for the study of wildflowers. We will conduct four total experiments. They are all about the basic needs of plants. The experiment we began today is about soil! It is quite fun getting all of this started! We are using good potting soil, dirt from the back yard (AZ dirt doesn't seem to be very good), sand, and (now I thought this one was wierd) sawdust. I'm very curious to see what happens with the sawdust mainly, but the dirt from our back yard intrigues me as well. The other three experiments will include one about sunlight, another about how the leaves turn toward the sun, and the last will be about water.

I looked things up on the internet about the layout of an experiment that children would do for a science fair. We are modifying it and using the same parts of an experiment, putting it into our nature books (or rather, Benjamin Bunny is putting it in his journal). As far as the nature journals go, I'm making an example of things that they will add to their journals and then they will have an idea to get themselves going. For now, I really think that is going to work best for our family. I've done a few things differently, but overall, they are going to be great! I'm really enjoying the journaling. My personal attempts at drawing are slowling getting better and that excites me. Friday, we will be attending a nature study with our local CM group. It's going to be great! With the wildflowers in abundance right now, I know it's going to be wonderful and beautiful!

Over the weekend, we took another family nature walk and we saw another type of bird and we also added to our list of wildflowers! We had recently obtained a new set of binoculars and I was so thankful to have these on hand, otherwise I would never have known we were being blessed by the presence of a Phainopepla! I'm pretty sure we also saw a male House Finch. The new wildflower that caught my eye is the Scorpionweed or Wild Heliotrope. They are beautiful little flowers. I nearly missed them! They were so tiny. I sure do hope that the children learn soon to see even the tiniest of things!

That morning, we had decided to take a trip to a local cultural event. It was fabulous, well, mostly. They seemed slightly unorganized and it was colder than I thought it would be. We had two little girls that were freezing! Honestly, it wasn't that cold, but the breeze made it hard to bare. I hope to have another opportunity to go see the Day of the Spanish Horse again!

Spring!

We've taken a short break for Spring Break - to join in with friends. It has been nice. Although, Te...he...hee! I have sprinkled little bits of teaching here and there - the kids have no idea (shhh...!) Today, we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and it was fantastic. They are in the midst of their Spring Butterfly exhibit and so we got to see that. The kids also got to cary around papers with a list of things to search for. It was fantastic! They really took off with it and now they are Super Saguaro Sleuths! We got to see some cactus flowers today. They always take my breath away. I grew up in the SW, so naturally I've seen a lot of cactus, but I had no idea how many varieties of cactus there is! It's amazing! We are enjoying our "Spring Break." After the garden trip, we stopped at a store and got the supplies to help us with some experiments coming up soon. When we got home, the children immediately planted their seeds. Flopsy's experiment this term is to plant seeds and take care of her plant. I'm going to try and leave most of it to her. Last summer, we planted a garden and that was a wonderful learning experience. Now, we are in a different climate completely and we have new things to learn! I love it. I'll definitely be writing about the experiments as they transpire.

I've been watching a discussion on the AO email list about taking sweets out of the home completely. I'm sorry, but I just cannot completely give up the sweets. I've often teased about chocolate helping my head aches going away. I realize that perhaps, subconsiously (and unfortunately) I hoped that was true. My weaknesses are sugar, chocolate, sugar, soda, and more sugar. I also have a weakness for that "fourth meal." I admit, I have not been taking care of my body. And sadly, my children have seen it and commented about it. I have decided today to cut out soda (I think completely) and try to seriously cut down the amount of sweets I injest. I'm sure my husband will be pleased with this decision, but he's my enabler! He loves to buy chocolate for me when he takes the kids shopping. I can't count how many bags of chocolate are in this house, stashed in different places - even in my undies drawer! I know, this is sad. Here I am folks, a complete chocolate junkie! I am addicted and I need help! And I write this as I am battling a head ache. I've taken some pills - which I am getting sick of doing, I can't stand pills. Thankfully it's getting better, but I've got to stop hiding the problem. I think that this will be good for the children as well, they seem to accept when I offer the healthy snacks, but they often ask for the sweets. They often ask if something is healthy for them, they are definitely more health consious than I am! But I'm afraid I'm leading them down a dangerous road. It's time to go off roading and find the right path!

So here are my lables:
Spring and Holidays ~ we are so enjoying the warm weather and what Spring as brought to us, not to mention Spring Break!
Experiments ~ nature study experiments will be posted as they grow!
Personal growth ~ lets see if I can get off of the things that are harming my body.
Term 3 ~ nuf said, it's term 3, Spring Break or not!
Nature Study Resources ~ Desert Botanical Gardens is a beautiful place to visit, no doubt! Much to see there.

Success!

Our wildflower hunt was extremely successful! We spotted at least four varieties of wildflowers on Saturday! It was fantastic. We ventured to a new mountain park in the area and it was fabulous. We found some spots to sit and relax, and take out those nature journals and draw. I've heard before to not keep my own journal, but I have to say I disagree with that one right now. When my kids see me putting things in my journal, it has inspired them to do something for theirs. For now, it is working! We took our lunches and sat down at first to eat. Then we started on our journey and found a spot to sit down right away. It was great! Daddy was able to take little Peter Rabbit off for a little while on a walk while I was able to sit and work with the other two to help them find something to draw and figure out how to get it in. They were very frustrated at first because their drawing abilities are very immature right now and they wanted to give up, but I was able to encourage them enough to get a start. We got some good things in and they were pleased for the time being. We continued on our walk and loved spotting all the Mexican Poppies and Lupines. They were gorgeous and so plentiful! Then, on our way back, Flopsy stopped us all saying that she really wanted to sit down and draw something in her journal! Thankfully, we were at just the right place to sit down and she took her time drawing cactus, a scorpion and our family on a walk. It was so wonderful. I'm so happy that she took the initiative to do it herself!

I hope to remember this day forever because there are days that we all get discouraged and it is time like these that we need to remember, because these are the days God can use to keep us going!

I hope that you have a blessed week!

From my heart to yours.

Wildflower hunt!

I'm excited. Tomorrow, I have planned for our family to go on our first official nature walk hunting for wildflowers! Wish us luck! I'm hoping to find the perfect spot for us to find a treasure trove!

Term Three, can it really be???

I've got a huge smile on my face right now...

~Let me enjoy~

We are nearly finished with our second week of this term. I'm really enjoying this term. Last week, we took a trip to help my parents out and it was quite interesting taking care of my grandmother while trying to school and chase after my brood. :) We were in the northern part of New Mexico and it was wonderful to enjoy the trees and snow on the way. One of the highlights of our week was toward the end of our stay. We looked out one of the back windows and to our pleasant surprise, we got to watch two mourning doves in the beginnings of their nest building for this year. It was wonderful to watch and Benjamin was quite amazed! We are planning a return trip in a month, we hope to find a nest there. Other activities included leaf rubbings and the beginnings of our nature book with a section on our term study - wild flowers. They are looking quite nice so far! I found some great printables for a lapbook on plants that includes a few things for wildflowers. If I find it again, I'll post a link here. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any reading in that I've been trying to stay on top of for my personal growth (mainly in the way of educating my children), but what did come to my realization was totally worth not having the chance to read.

We were there to take care of my grandmother while my parents were out of the country. I had been calling it house- and grandmother- sitting. ;) I've always been a bit uncomfortable around "old people," especially those with Alzheimers. The last few days have opened my eyes quite a bit. It's scarey. Imagine you have no idea what being hungry is, what time of day it is, when to lay down, who you are, who the people around you are, where you are. Imagine not understanding anything, except maybe how to talk, eat, and get around. It's frightening! This is my grandmother. One evening, she turned around to us (she was eating her dinner) and asked for help. I went over to her and she had tears in her eyes. She just wanted to know the right thing to do. She didn't know what to do with what was in front of her. Another night, she came into the living room after the children had gone to bed. It was getting late and I was winding down. She had a conversation with me about what I do and where I lived. It was a funny conversation, but at the same time, sad. It was sad because she was expecting people to come visit her, her friends, and they weren't coming. She knew her friends weren't there and she wanted to know why. After getting her back to her room, she said that her sister was coming to get her out of there that night. She was waiting for someone to come get her to take her home. She wants to go home!

What a week for my children as well! I'm posting this on our homeschool blog because it was definitely a week of home learning. While we were completing actual school work, we were all learning something more valuable. We were all experiencing what we are taught in the New Testament about taking care of the widows. I watched as my children gained this experience under their belts. I watched as Benjamin Bunny had the desire to do things for a woman who has no idea who he is and would have no recolection of the good things he had done for her. I watched as Flopsy grew out of her fear of what was going on. I watched little Peter Rabbit have fun making this woman laugh. What a week we had. It was absolutely fabulous!

Thank you, Mom, for asking me to take on this adventure while you and Dad had to go away.