To win, just leave a comment below, letting me know which item you’d like to win. You have until next Wednesday, December 5, at midnight, to post your comment. U.S. and Canada bloggers only, please. I’ll have a random drawing and announce the thirteen winners in next week’s Thursday Thirteen! I’m offering free shipping and delivery guaranteed before Christmas. Links back to TeamMASCOT and this Diary of 1 post would be appreciated.

Merry Christmas to all, and let your blogger friends know about the Diary of 1/TeamMASCOT Holiday Giveaway!

1. Boston Red Sox Wall Clock

As clocks tick your life away, do you ever dream of something more stylish on your walls than twelve numbers encircling two spindling hands that snatch away your lunch hour? How about a bright, colorful Boston wall clock that tells you the time and reminds you how much you love the Red Sox.

2. Detroit Red Wings 3×5 Flag

This 3′ x 5′ flag has vibrant colors & true team graphics and logos. The durable one sided flag can be used for indoor or outdoor use! Made with a nylon material & features a canvas strip on the side with a D-ring on top & bottom for hanging on a wall, or attaching to a flag pole. A high quality, large size flag with great designs. Fly this flag for your team on game day or everyday! Go Red Wings!

3. Detroit Lions Blanket: Woven Tapestry Throw

Known as the “Three Point Stance” design, this blanket is tough! This design is no longer made, but I have this ONE blanket left. This beautiful loom woven triple layer tapestry Detroit Lions Blanket with fringed edges is a tasteful way to show your team spirit. The Detroit Lions Blanket displays a beautiful array of color and a unique design of the Detroit logo. With its large 48″x60″ size it also makes for a prominent wall hanging. Go Detroit!

4. North Carolina Tarheels Stainless Steel License plate

For collectors or those lucky enough to live in states that don’t require a second license plate! We’ve affixed a colorful metal North Carolina Ram logo on the stainless steel license plate to create a visual statement for your vehicle or bookshelf. Very classy, sturdy, holds up to weather outside and shines inside! Go Tarheels!

5. New York Yankees 27×37 Vertical Hanging Flag

Hang this New York Yankees Banner Flag with pride anywhere and it’ll look great! The logo and graphics are on one side. Bright colors to show your team spirit, great for indoor or outdoor use. Made of a nylon material. The banner has an opening at the top to slip a stick or pole through for hanging. Go Yankees!

6. Chicago Cubs Glow Pen

Chicago Cubs Glow Pens are a great item for any fan! They are a high tech, innovative ball point pen with colorful LED glowing light. You can use this Chicago Cubs Pen as a personal emergency flashlight or use it to write in the dark! Go Cubs!

7. Atlanta Hawks Pennant

Decorate your room in team style with this high quality Atlanta Hawks felt pennant. Felt pennants are the standard for sports! The pennant flags measure 12 x 30 inches and feature fade resistant coloring and bold team logos. Go Hawks!

8. Michigan State Lapel Pin

Fine pewter is the base for these colorful pins with school insignias. The Spartans lapel pin is made from hand poured fine metal then carefully hand finished and colored. This beautiful Michigan State Spartans pin is approximately 1 inch across and includes a clutch locking back. Go Spartans!

9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8 Trash Can

The perfect way to declutter your messy room or office is with a sparkling new Dale Earnhardt Jr. Trash Can. Now you can be proud to throw away junk mail in your wide rimmed 10 inch diameter, fifteen inch tall, Dale Earnhardt Jr. waste basket. With Jr. now sporting the number “88″ this item will soon be hard to find. Go Dale Jr.!

10. Dallas Cowboys Stainless Steel Water Bottle

This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer, and I have ONE left. I’ve removed the stainless steel water bottles from my website, and you can only get this right here! This water bottle holds up to 28 oz of fluid and has a sports top for easy drinking at the gym. The unique water bottle displays a gorgeous 3-dimensional pewter emblem with enamel color. Go Cowboys!

11. Texas Longhorns Stainless Steel Travel Mug

16 oz. stainless steel Texas Longhorns Coffee Mug will keep that steamy brew hot while you’re driving. Features a screw on lid with a drink spout, and a plastic interior. This artistically detailed, three dimensional pewter design is becoming a collector’s item. Take it camping, to the office or even to the big game! Go Longhorns!

12. Oregon Ducks Chrome License Plate Frame

A classy way to spice up your ride is with our Oregon Ducks chrome license plate frame. Features the team colors and logo, and has pre-drilled holes for easy mounting. The chrome frame is very durable and will last for a long time! Go Ducks!

13. New Orleans Saints Auto Emblem

This officially licensed New Orleans Saints Auto Emblem adds a touch of spirited class to anything. I currently only offer the chrome (no color) auto emblems on my website, and will soon be adding these color emblems. But you can get this Saints color emblem right here! Chrome-finished oval with durable color insert showing a screened team logo. Applied to vehicle with automotive 3M tape (included on emblem). Part can be removed without damage to paint or surface and is UV protected. Go Saints!

Thanks for visiting the Diary of 1 Holiday Giveaway of Sports Stuff! You can visit the Thursday Thirteen meme hub here.

The story of Brother Yun is inspiring, painful, seemingly incredulous, and certainly in season. The Heavenly Man details the life and ministry of this Christian house church leader in his own words, also interwoven with accounts from his wife, Deling. A large portion of the book describes the countless ordeals of intense torture that would kill any man, but these reports are offset by Yun’s testimonies of miraculous healings, visions, dreams, and many other supernatural events. In fact, that is the theme of the book: with great persecution, the Church will see the miraculous hand of God and will grow.

Brother Yun, Liu Zhenying was his given name, was born in 1958 in Nanyang in the southern part of China’s Henan Province. He spent his childhood in a farming village of 600 people, in a little mud house with a straw roof. He worked the fields like most poor children, along with his four siblings, and received little schooling.

China became a communist nation in 1949 and thus Brother Yun was born into a spiritual and political climate that was void of all Christian fellowship and Bibles were nowhere to be seen. Mao Tsetung (Zedong) ushered in communism and death; his policies of the suppression of counter-revolutionaries centered on mass executions, and Mao himself claimed to have killed 700,000 during the early years of his founding of the People’s Republic of China. However, the U.S. State Department puts the number at several times that amount. Not only were Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts slaughtered, Mao targeted the leaders of the former government, former employees of Western companies, rural gentry, and anyone whose loyalty was suspect. His policies of forced collective ownership, including a ban on all private food production and a ban on private land ownership, led to what is thought to be the largest famine in history, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. Brother Yun reports that in his Henan Province 8 million people starved to death.

In 1974, Brother Yun was 16 years old. His entire family became Christians overnight when his father was healed of cancer. Yun’s mother, who had heard the gospel in the 1940s from a Western missionary, had become a Christian, but in the ensuing decades of Mao’s dictatorship, was spiritually starved. However, this one night when her husband lay dying, she heard a voice say, “Jesus loves you.” She immediately recognized the voice of God, and told her children that “Jesus is the only hope for Father.” They all prayed throughout the night, and by the next week their father was completely healed. Yun relates that this was such a powerful event in his family’s life that today, over 30 years after Jesus healed his father, all five of his children still follow God.

Yun’s mother couldn’t remember much of the Bible, but she told all she knew to her family. Yun began to long to read the words of God for himself, but this was during the Cultural Revolution when Bibles were scarce. People were allowed to read only Mao’s little Red Book, and if caught with a Bible, it would be burned and the owner would be publicly and severely beaten, along with his entire family.

A most curious series of events followed, as Brother Yun, a mere 16 years old, began to fast and pray for a Bible, such was his passion to read God’s word. He had a vision one night, in which two strangers gave him a bun of fresh bread, which they pulled from a red bag, and upon putting it in his mouth, it turned into a Bible.

His mother and father were afraid their son had gone mad, as Yun frantically searched the house for a Bible. But lo and behold, a knock came to the door, and the same two men from Yun’s vision were waiting there, and slipped through the door the same red bag, which contained a Bible. Yun later finds out that these two men were sent by an evangelist from a far off village, who had received a vision from the Lord instructing him to give his Bible, hidden underground for safekeeping, to a certain young man.

This young man was Brother Yun, and despite having only three years of education, began reading his Bible, one character at a time with a dictionary at his side. After reading through the whole Bible, Yun memorized entire chapters at a time. Within the first month, he memorized the Book of Matthew, and then on to the Book of Acts. During this time, Brother Yun received another visitation from the Lord. He felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a voice tell him “Yun, I am going to send you to the west and south to be my witness.”

Yun started preaching at age 16, and because no one had a Bible, his preaching consisted mostly of reciting the books of the Bible that he had memorized. People would stay up all night just to hear him speak, because they too longed to hear the Word of God. Within that first year of preaching in neighboring villages, Brother Yun led over 2,000 people to Jesus. Persecution was immediate. All of the new Christians in the first village where he spoke were arrested and beaten. Yun’s name was on the Public Security Bureau’s “Wanted” list because of his evangelizing.

Soon after, Yun was married to Deling, through the matchmaking of their mothers. She is a lovely Christian woman and shares parts of this amazing story as well. She recounts the story of her and Yun going to the marriage registry office to apply for their marriage license. After waiting a long time, Yun didn’t come out.

Only later was I told that when Yun wrote his name in the registry office, the clerks noticed that he was wanted by the PSB for being an illegal preacher, so they arrested him on the spot! They already knew he had been preaching the gospel all over the province. This was the start of our life together!

The pressure against Brother Yun and other Chinese Christian house church leaders mounted, and the torture and abuse at the hands of the Chinese police and other government officials is unspeakable. In his 23 years of ministering in China, Brother Yun and his family were continually on the run, he was imprisoned three different times for a total of seven years, and yet people came to Jesus by the thousands.

Woven throughout the most intense scenes of torture is always the strong presence of God. Yun shares many personal accounts of divine healings, people being delivered from demons, and other miracles. During his first imprisonment, Brother Yun survived a 74 day fast. His second time in prison, the PSB beat his legs so badly that he was crippled, yet he walked out the front doors of the prison and escaped. Yun describes that escape of May 5, 1997, walking past guards and through open gates:

Somehow the Lord seemed to blind that guard. He was staring directly at me, yet his eyes didn’t acknowledge my presence at all. I expected him to say something, but he just looked through me as if I was invisible!

When I arrived at the main iron gate leading out to the courtyard I discovered it was already open! This was strange, as it was usually the most secure gate of all.

After many trials and long periods of agonizing separation from his family, Brother Yun finally escaped China and now lives in Germany with his family. The last several chapters of The Heavenly Man are his reflections on the Western church as well as a description of his new focus on the Back to Jerusalem movement.

I understand why many people are deeply moved by this book. Reading about a man a world away who has to beg, pray, and fast for months just to get his hands on a Bible, while I have ten on my shelf, makes me a bit uncomfortable. Brother Yun has some sharp words for the Western church:

On some occasions I’ve struggled while speaking in Western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China.

……..

When I’m in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don’t need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. Jesus truly stated, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15.

The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God’s Word. It’s the truth that will set you free.

……..

When revival came to believers in China, the result was thousands of evangelists being sent out to all corners of the nation, carrying fire from the altar of God with them. When God moves in the West, it seems you want to stop and enjoy his presence and blessings too long, and build an altar to your experiences.

I’m trying to keep perspective here, because I realize that different nations have different battles and their own unique burdens, and it’s not always fair to make direct comparisons. However, Brother Yun’s experiences in China have much to teach us in the West.

Brother Yun’s incredible ordeals in China have led him to a deep desire for not only Chinese brothers and sisters to know Jesus, but all the world. In chapter 24 of The Heavenly Man, Yun describes the Silk Roads, key trading routes that first brought herbs, spices, treasures, new religions, and invading armies in and out of China. Some accounts say that Christianity first traveled down one of these roads from Jerusalem to China just decades after the resurrection of Jesus.

It is the goal of Brother Yun and the Back to Jerusalem movement for the gospel to travel full circle, out of China and back to Jerusalem. The nations along the Silk Roads are home to the three strongholds of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, with more than 90% of the people groups who haven’t heard the gospel living here. Yun describes meeting Simon Zhao in 1995 in Central China, a believer who spent 31 years in prison for his involvement in the first Back to Jerusalem movement in 1950:

The Lord had already placed the Back to Jerusalem vision in my heart, but after meeting Simon Zhao it became the primary focus of my life. I came to understand clearly that the destiny for the house churches of China is to pull down the world’s last remaining spiritual giants: the house of Buddha, the house of Mohammed, and the house of Hinduism, and to proclaim the glorious gospel to all nations before the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

You need to understand that when we speak about “Back to Jerusalem,” we’re not saying that Jerusalem is the main goal. We are not planning to rush there for a big conference! Jerusalem was the starting point for the gospel two thousand years ago, and we believe it will circle the whole world and return to its starting point. Our aim is not merely to evangelize the city of Jerusalem, but the thousands of unreached people groups, towns and villages located between China and Jerusalem.

Fascinating. The Heavenly Man, the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun is a powerful book that I recommend to all Christians wanting to challenge their Western faith and enlarge their Christian worldview.

This review is part of the Chrysalis November Christian Book Fair.

Well, at least that’s how it happens in my house with three and four year olds - and even the six and eight year olds.

It’s a great temptation to lock kids out of the kitchen, and there are pressing times when I have to say, “No, Mommy has to do this herself,” but I try to have a general rule that the children can always help. However, to maintain a level of sanity, I’ve come up with some tips and tricks which I’ll list below, for making the cooking time with kids an enjoyable and educational experience.

I’ve read several stories of great chefs who always point back to their childhood cooking with their mothers or grandmothers as a meaningful element in their later careers. I’ve also read accounts of women who know little about cooking because their mothers didn’t allow them in the kitchen.

There is a wonderful book called The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber that convinced me I needed to make a significant place in my time with the kids for food - from the picking out of the ingredients at the market, to the preparation of the meal, to the enjoyment of the taste. Abu-Jaber “comes from cooking,” and notes that how you cook and eat, and how you feed your neighbors defines who you are.

I’ve been remiss in keeping to that commitment, but especially as the holidays are welcomed, I want to renew that vision. Here’s my list to keep me on track with cooking with kids:

1. Plan ahead for the extra time required for the children to be helping.

2. Assign turns if you have multiple children, or chaos will ensue unless you’re WonderCook. With my four children, I allow up to two at a time helping, and the kids take turns. I’ve had meltdowns involving four chubby little hands all trying to stir the same batter.

3. Pick a few recipes for the children to work on consistently so they have it memorized. My children help make pancakes or muffins several mornings a week and know the recipes by heart and have such a joy in preparing something they know so well.

4. Teach as you go. “JoJo, show me which one is the tablespoon and which one is the teaspoon,” I say to my four year old, and she quickly picks the right one. Or I say, “JJ, what does the baking powder do for the recipe?”

5. Allow licking! My kids enjoy the licking of the spoons and bowl nearly as much (or more!) as eating.

6. Ask your older children to prepare simple meals for the family, and maybe come up with a schedule, like every Wednesday, your eight year old son makes lunch for the other children. I have a cookbook called Kids in the Kitchen with great recipes youngsters can make themselves.

7. Encourage creativity. If your six year old daughter does what mine did, and creates a concoction including milk, raisins, cinnamon, coconut, pepper, and cracker crumbs, at least oblige her by tasting her creation.

8. Safety first! Any parts of the cooking projects that involve sharp knives or burning hot ovens, Mom takes over. I am right by my children’s side as we prepare foods because they are all still very young.

Happy cooking with kids, and enjoy the upcoming holiday feasts!

November 16 - On this day in 1988, Benazir Bhutto was elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the first woman, and at age 35 the youngest person in modern times, to be head of the government of a Muslim-majority state.

I find her story fascinating and intriguing. And she’s baaack. She’s so beautiful and well-spoken, and I so want to believe her when she says she’s returning to bring democracy to Pakistan. But I can’t get past her sordid history of massive corruption charges and ties to the very terrorists she denounces.

Benazir Bhutto has attended Radcliffe, Harvard, and Oxford. Her father was a former Prime Minister who was executed for conspiracy to murder the father of a dissident politician. Two of her brothers were murdered. She has been under house arrest, lived in exile, and survived an assassination attempt. How can you not be curious about this enigmatic woman?

Since November 3, 2007, there has been a “State of Emergency” in Pakistan, as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed martial law, citing dangers of religious extremism, terrorism, and an interfering judiciary. Bhutto immediately interrupted a visit to family in Dubai (Grace, have you seen her around? :-) ) and returned to Pakistan.

Initial talks of power-sharing between Bhutto and Musharraf have broken down. Yesterday, Benazir Bhutto said she would not talk to Pervez Musharraf on any issue, but will continue her struggle against dictatorship in Pakistan and seek to restore democracy. Bhutto’s recent comments:

When martial law was imposed and constitution was torn apart, I decided to discontinue the talks. …Life is very precious and gift of Allah. It should not and cannot be wasted but when my country is in danger, when my countrymen are in danger, when there is no rule of law, when extremists are gaining ground, I am ready to risk my life.

I hope you’re able to follow a bit of the news coming out of Pakistan. I think the Pakistani situation has great bearing on the future of Middle East stability and the war on terror, which ultimately has a direct and terrifying bearing on the the United States. Bhutto now presents herself as the opposition leader, with probable elections in January. Hmmm, read this before you decide what you think.

About the photo: This is the original homestead from our property - and yes, it’s still standing, won’t you come in for a cup of burnt coffee boiled in a pan over the cookstove? The land has since been divided, and the 20 acres we own isn’t graced by this dwelling. Our neighbor who does own the property this sits upon has plans to reinforce the structure and keep it up as an historic landmark - she just needs to keep her cows from knocking the place over. You wouldn’t believe how many tourists and locals alike pull over to take pictures of this old homestead!

More Blog Carnivals:

The Carnival of Family Life

The Carnival of Homeschooling

The Christian Carnival

Enjoy a wonderful Wednesday! I guess this post really wasn’t “wordless.”

JJ: No, Blabber Mouth!

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Upon doing his business on the toilet, in the tradition of finding shapes in the clouds, the three year old:

Little L: Look, Mommy, a pirate ship!

**********************

JoJo: Mommy, Little L called me a Pookie Bear!

Little L: Jo, I was jus’ pertendin’.

You need to know that even though “Pookie Bear” sounds like a term of endearment, Little L gets in trouble for these words. See, it’s the worst name he can come up with when he’s angry. We figured this out recently upon hearing the outburst “I hate you, Pookie Bear!” when he was most angry with his brother or sisters. Not sure where his three year old brain came up with Pookie Bear, but, when I give it the equivalent of the worst name I could think of, you can see that he deserves punishment!

Reminds me of a story my mother-in-law told me about my husband. When he was a little guy, he got in a heap of trouble for calling her a “Pinecone Head!” Yes, that’s the worst he could come up with!

**********************

Little L: I love you Mommy. You my best friend.

Aww, I love waking up to that. This makes up for all his tough talk.

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My family is participating in the Veterans History Project as part of a homeschool history project. We will be interviewing a family friend who is a Vietnam veteran. You don’t have to submit the oral history you collect to the Project, but it’s really simple and would benefit us all if you’d be willing to contribute and help preserve these stories as part of America’s folklife.

The Veterans History Project is primarily focused on first-hand accounts of U.S. veterans from the following wars:

• World War I (1914-1920)
• World War II (1939-1946)
• Korean War (1950-1955)
• Vietnam War (1961-1975)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-1995)
• Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts/Wars (2001-present)

The Project also invites U.S. civilians to share their stories of their active support of the war efforts, such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, and medical volunteers.

The participation guidelines are straightforward, and includes a Veteran’s Release Form, which is included in the Project Kit. Only one interview, between 25-90 minutes long, is allowed per veteran or civilian interviewee.

Sample interview questions for veterans are available at the Project website, and are an invaluable resource! The questions are divided into segments, making it easy to conduct interviews in sessions if required: Jogging Memory, Experiences, Life, After Service, and Later Years and Closing. “Do you recall the day your service ended?” is a question I’m sure all veterans will have no trouble recollecting.

This weekend my children were in two different Veterans Day parades. My son, who is a Cub Scout, marched with his troop in the neighboring town on Saturday, and my daughter, who is a Brownie (Girl Scout), marched with her troop on Sunday in our town. I took several photos of veterans who lined the streets with the other parade watchers, and I so wish I could have sat down with them all right there and heard their stories! Here are some of my favorite shots:

A World War II veteran:

Two Vietnam veterans:

Navy Lieutenant Commander, veteran of WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War:

Since I walked the parade route, I only had time to stop and ask permission to take a photo, and thank these men for their service to our country. From this last fellow, though, I had the privilege of hearing a snippet about his thirty year military career.

No matter where your politics lie in regard to war, please be pro-veteran. Someone handed my husband a card which said Pro-Troop. War-Neutral. That’s a nice non-partisan way to honor our military men and women.

Please let me know if you participate in the Veterans History Project!

Thank you, all veterans of all times.

I remembered an old poem my mom wrote, and rummaged around this morning and thankfully found it. Her father was a WWI veteran. He spent the last decade of his life confined to a wheelchair, the result of mustard gas from the war. My grandpa died before I had the chance to meet him. But, thanks, Grandpa.

ODE TO VETERANS
by my mother

Have you survived the overflowing banks
of spring?
Tramped the long road of summer to the end?
Withstood the heartbreak and chill all
autumns bring?
Seen winter come, and still have breath to
spend?

Then I salute you, veteran of earth’s day.
You who have flown from dawn to set of sun.
Soon you will rise beyond the Milky Way
The toast of all in heaven, the long race won.

About the photo: Do you remember the feeling, as a child, of being on top of the world? Just eight feet up on the monkey bars can make you a king.

Blog carnivals to visit:

Carnival of Family Life
Carnival of Homeschooling
Christian Carnival

I may not have been doing any of those particular things lately, but certainly in some ways I have not honored God in all things. In Daniel 5:23, Daniel says to Belshazzar: “But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”

While I don’t advocate Christians beating themselves up over their shortcomings, I do strongly believe in taking inventory of your life. As Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” We don’t need to look for handwriting on the wall because we have the Holy Spirit residing within us to convict us of sin. So ask. Where have I been weighed and found wanting? I’ve been examining, and I’ve given myself a report card in some “subjects” that I’ve deemed critical to my family life and my walk with God. I don’t mind sharing how I scored:

Relationship with God - B
Relationship with Husband - B+
Relationship with Children - B
Keeping a Pleasant Home - B-
Feeding my Family Healthy Meals - C
Educating my Chidren - B
Relationship with the Body of Christ - B-

I’m used to being a straight A student, so this doesn’t look pretty to me! I won’t go into all the details of why I graded myself with those particular letters, but overall, my deficiencies have to do with being undisciplined, unorganized, quick to anger, and just messy. But folks! Unless we really take the time to sift through all the areas of our lives, and be willing to be honest, and be willing to make changes, we will never grow.

I have stepped on the scale, have not measured up to God’s standards, and unless I do something about it (which Belshazzar did not), I’m in trouble. This doesn’t have to be an exercise in just wallowing in the muck. I see this as a very positive operation - the point is to set some new goals, and through prayer, discipline, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, advance.

The next time I I step on the scale, I hope to find a more favorable balance. :-)

I did post a schedule for our homeschool, and I know that doesn’t make me answerable to you, gentle reader, but I will follow up. There’s a certain amount of accountability I need to function well, to stay disciplined, to maintain the course. Like I said in that post, I was feeling overwhelmed with inability and disorganization, and writing out our homeschool schedule - and posting it - was just the framework I needed to lock down on myself.

Now I get to tell you that writing out a rigid schedule doesn’t mean you have to be chained to it. Let it act as a mere suggestion on the days you don’t need it because all is well; let it serve as the guiding principle when your objectives have become dim; or demand that it be the strictest procedure when reigning chaos requires order.

I have the first few months of school behind me, and I can say that our schedule has been somewhere between a strict procedure and a guiding principle. I’d like to tell about what we really did mostly for those who are freaked out about their ability to homeschool. A comment I hear fairly often from non-homeschoolers is this: I could never do it because… I’m just not organized enough, I don’t have enough patience, I’m not smart enough…and so on. You’ll see following that there is, and arguably should be, a lot of room for flexibility.

Here’s what was in the planner, with what we really did on one particular day below each subject entry:

9:00 Math: Ray’s New Arithmetics

First of all, at 9:00 a.m. we weren’t doing math. We did art first, only because one of the kids had gotten into the paints and art supplies, and while I was making breakfast and otherwise busy with dishes, they all went wild with painting. This lasted for an hour.

We actually used our Singapore Math workbooks all week, because the kids still hadn’t finished them up from last year. So, we’ll continue Singapore. We also played with Cuisenaire rods.

The little ones (3 and 4 years old) sat with Grandma during math. Mulit-age teaching is possible and a beautiful thing, even if hectic at times. Grandmas sure come in handy right about now! In this photo, Grandma was telling little L. that he was building the arched entry way into Pine Grove Park, and creating little floats for the parade. Grandma was in a distant time some 60 or 70 years ago, and recalled with great detail the beautiful parade floats from her hometown of Port Huron, Michigan.

“Mama, look at my pretty float on the St. Clair River,” says little L., pridefully pointing a chubby finger at his stack of Cuisenaire rods.

9:30 Spelling: Spelling Workout, Modern Curriculum Press

On Monday, we didn’t use the workbooks at all. Somehow, my oldest (8 yrs) got it in his head that he wanted to write a letter to Santa. We don’t even promote Santa around here, but enough friends and family do that the kiddos are well aware of the jolly red suit. So, that’s what we did. Here’s the beginning of my son’s letter:

He told me that when he grows up he will move to the Aleutian Islands so he can have a Swedish Elkhound - in case you can’t read the last part of what he wrote, he asked Santa for a Swedish Elkhound. He poured through a dog encyclopedia, and after reading all the various characteristics, picked out that exact canine. Friendly. Alert. Can possibly pull him all over Alaska in a sled.

Naturally, my 6 year old daughter wanted to ditch the spelling book and likewise write a letter to Santa. I had to be fair. She drew more pictures than actually writing words, but for both of the kids, we did spend time working on how to spell the words they wanted to use.

The rest of the week we did use our Spelling Workout books. My son finished his on Friday, and will move to Level C.

9:30 Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

While the older kids wrote their letters, I worked with my 4 year old on her reading lesson.

10:00 Language Arts: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, by Jessie Wise.

By the way, it’s really not 10:00. More like 11:30, but who’s keeping track? We memorized a new poem, went over the definition of a noun for the hundredth time, talked about common/proper nouns and wrote the names of some relatives. Took all of 10 minutes. I DO NOT need 1/2 hour at this point on First Language Lessons. I think I’ll cut this section to 15 minutes. However, if I combine two lessons, as I did a few times this week, I’ll use the whole 1/2 hour.

Multi-age note: the 6 and 8 year olds both do generally the same work. They memorize the same poems and are together learning the grammar techniques. Their written work will obviously differ, but it’s been effective to teach them simultaneously. The 3 and 4 year olds participate by memorizing the poems. Yes, a three year old can memorize “The Caterpillar” by Christina G. Rosetti with ease!

10:30 History: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, by Susan Wise Bauer.

We pretty much follow the program here. The kids love history time more than any other subject, mostly because of the great storytelling by Susan Wise Bauer. Chapter 15, The Phoenicians - the kids listened as I read about Phoenician traders and settlements, they did some map work, and then colored a picture of a great Phoenician sailing vessel. The children contemplated boiling snails to make the purple dye that the Phoenicians were famous for.

11:00 French

I read aloud La Chatte Perdue, Les aventures avec Nicolas. It’s a cute story from the Berlitz publishers about a missing cat, and we practiced some basic vocabulary and phrases. Ou est Princesse? Je ne sais pas.

11:30 Science

We read aloud from our Special Wonders of our Feathered Friends book. We learned about the Arctic Tern, and the kids drew pictures of this amazing migratory bird.

12:00 Art/Music

Well, we already covered art at the beginning of the day, so we’re done!

Formal schooling for the day is done. Next, we ate lunch and had a clean up time. Now the three year old needs his nap, and the rest of the children have a quiet time for 1 1/2 hours. I’m busy on the computer, catching up with the business, maybe a little blogging.

Once afternoon naps and/or quiet time is complete, we head over to the office for about an hour. I pack up orders for the day while the kids play with projects they’ve brought with them. Today it’s gluing beans onto cardstock, making interesting designs.

Back home, it’s time for dinner, clean up, storytime, and bed. There you have it, a day in the life of a homeschool family. Of course, no two days are ever the same, but you get the flavor.

Speaking of flavor, my six year old just brought me a cup of something that she made. “Here Mom, it’s a banana shake I made for you! It has cinnamon, milk, yogurt, mashed up bananas, and that’s it - it’s a simple recipe!”

And before you can catch her, because you are busy with other work and four little children, she proceeds to then remove these same dirty clothes from the dryer, fold them, and put them away, never minding that they have bits of food stuck to them and the crusty socks still have retained their owner’s shape.

This calamity causes the daughter whose nearly 80 year old mother lives with her to race from drawer to drawer, feeling for clothes that are still warm and smelling for nasty socks, to pull out and begin the proper wash process once again. The chaos caused by all this commotion causes the elderly mother to break down in tears and retreat to her room.

Repeat above scenario with the dishwasher, and I believe your mother has Alzheimer’s.

You can find me over here getting help.

I’ll be reviewing The Heavenly Man right here when I’m finished, so be on the lookout. This is for the November Christian Book Fair hosted by Chrysalis, and you can click here if you’d like to submit your own Christian book review.

Several blog carnivals to visit if you have time this weekend:

The Carnival of Family Life
The Carnival of Homeschooling
The Christian Carnival
Festival of Frugality

I just might get away all by myself this weekend to catch up with old friends, including my dear friend K. who just had a baby! As long as there’s no snow on the mountain I would have to drive over. I don’t drive by myself in the dark or in the rain or in the snow. Kind of limiting, isn’t it? I just have terrible night vision, and especially with moisture in the air - the glare just freaks me out.