Conference, Homeschooling, Gardening

So, first of all I want to say how grateful I am to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was talking to someone the other day about how in our church we get public speaking opportunities from the time we are 4 years old and up. By the time you are a teenager, you may have an opportunity to speak in front of hundreds of people (the whole congregation). We don't have one main pastor that does all the speaking. Each person in the congregation has an opportunity to teach and we all learn and grow from each other. I love that! Then we get opportunities through callings and we learn to rise up to the challenge and learn to organize events, become a leader, learn to social network, delegate responsibilities, plan ahead, work out our finances. This really is a leader training church! As I talked to Rob about this, he told me that when he was on his mission in Honduras, the members of the church were taught how to read, they learned about hygiene, basic life skills etc. The church members are helped at whatever level they are at, to move to a higher, better level than before with things that not only help within the church, but are useful for life in general. Truly inspired.

Anyways, I got to watch/listen to conference this weekend and listen to the prophet and apostles. I always feel so filled afterwards. I prayed for help with strengthening our family, and the first talk I heard after praying, addressed just that. I love the quote by Elder Henry B. Eyring that said, "Selfishness is the absence of love." It really made me think. It is something that I need to work on .

I loved listening to Thomas S. Monson and his talk on loving and serving others. I know that our leaders were called of God.

HOMESCHOOLING

So, I made the decision to homeschool Robert, and Isabelle this year. It was a very hard decision, and if I didn't feel so good about it, I know I would have been way too intimidated to do it. But, I feel so lucky to have so many friends to lean on for support and advice.

In our area there is something called the Home school connection. This is where Robert goes to a school two days a week and I homeschool him 3 days a week. He loves it! He says he likes it way better than Chinook. He has a gym class where he alternates rock climbing, swimming, and gym activities, he is taking math, science, and a creative writing course. I augment those subjects at home, then also teach him language arts, social studies, and art.
This is a picture of his first day at the Vancouver Home Connection.

I have been surprized at how well it has gone, not just for them but for me. I feel much closer to my kids. We are having lots of fun together. I feel like I am getting to know them better. Robert wrote a letter the other day and in it he said that his favorite holiday is Halloween- I didn't know that! I had Isabelle draw pictures of her favorite foods. She said her favorite foods were chicken, grapes, and pie. I was shocked by the pie thing! I almost never make pie! She is truly her father's daughter.

Normally in Robert's prayers he has not wanted to say what he is thankful for, and if he says much it is something like legos or friends. Since we have been homeschooling, he says how thankful he is for family, mom and dad. I can't believe the change.

Some fun activities we have done:

We made slime, and experimented on how many water droplets will fit on a penny for Science.

We read a story about frog and toad (wind in the willows) then I had Robert draw frog, Isabelle draw toad, then taped them to pencils and had them act out the story with their puppets.- Lit and art

We made necklaces with beads. I had them sort the beads, then create a pattern with them.- Art and math.

We also went to a Harvest Fest put on by a local History Museum and learned about blacksmiths, logging back in the day, old fashioned stores and clothes. Social Studies.

I am having so much fun! (I think the kids are too!!:))

GARDENING

So, I never imagined that I would be doing this, but I canned veggies from my garden for the first time, this week.

We had TONS of tomatoes, so I decided to make spaghetti sauce with them. I am glad that my cookbook had a section on canning, and that my mother-in-law, who has done canning all her life, was able to come up and bring her canner! It wasn't nearly as a bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was just peeling all of the tomatoes. I just love that I am learning new skills and that I did the whole process- planted the tomatoes, harvested them, made the sauce and now it really will be homemade spaghetti.