Family Rule Phylacteries

Today we read Deuteronomy 11:18, "Fix these words of Mine in your hearts and minds, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads." We discussed the difference between being a Pharisee (just making an outward show of following God) and being a true disciple (hiding God's Word in your heart). We then came up with some family rules and made phylacteries with them.


The kids liked wearing them on their hands.



Anna sang us a song about the rules. She likes to sing.

A horse is a horse

Our next topic of study in our obedience unit is horses. We are reading "King of the Wind" by Marguerite Henry. Today we made stick horses out of paper bags and newspaper.









Later, we taped them onto the kids' bikes and rode our "horses" around the neighborhood. Yes, folks stared at us. We are used to it.







Can you say "petulant 3 year old"?

Studying light

We've made several fun projects during the first two weeks of our Konos study of light and authority.

We made a lighthouse. We talked about how God gives us authorities (governments, teachers, parents, etc) to help guide us from danger. We affirmed God's Word as the one immovable, totally trustworthy "lighthouse" in our lives.:





(I googled "building a model lighthouse" and you would not BELIEVE the crazy instructions I found. Who needs to build a two story lighthouse in your backyard? Are you deterring ships?)

We built a lantern and walked around in the dark. We talked about how God's Word sheds light on our immediate path and we need to trust that He will give us the light we need, when we need it. Looking too far ahead can cause fear, we need to simply trust and walk in the light He gives us now.



And finally, we made our own candles and enjoyed a candlelight supper. Philip said this was wicked messy and asked for Konos' address so he could send them a "thank you for giving my wife messy ideas" card.

First, I chopped up a block of paraffin:



Then we broke up crayons and added them for color:



We melted the crayons and paraffin over a double boiler (note, if you desire trying this: do not use the pan you plan on using for supper that night.) We also added some peppermint essential oil.:



We took empty one quart milk cartons and placed wicks in the center. We added ice cubes and some random other broken crayons (the kids wanted polka dots in their candles):



We poured in the wax. This was very messy. A funnel would have helped. A lot.



When they were solid, we peeled off the cartons:



Then we enjoyed our candles at dinner. It was neat when they burned low, as the light flickered through the holes created by the ice cubes.



Now we are moving on to our study of horses. Lots o' fun! More projects to come in the future!

Completed!

Doesn't it feel good to accomplish something? In late January I began running and doing Weight Watchers. This past Sunday I completed my first half marathon. Can I tell you how fantastic it was to run across the finish line? To hear the cheering and cowbells? Super awesome!



And I've lost almost a Gabriel sized amount of weight. I was thinking, as we walked/ran, how much harder it would have been with this little guy on my back:

Overlooking an insult

Recently, one of the children's verses for the week was Proverbs 12:16, "A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult." I talked with the kids for a while about how we need to have thick skin. We need to ignore little annoyances and not be so touchy.

Later, I was contemplating the same verse. I thought about how some parenting books advocate a zero tolerance approach to back talk and disobedience. While I certainly believe in training your children to speak respectfully and obey immediately, I wonder if our haste to nip things in the bud can sometimes cause us to miss the root issue.

For example, Nate is having difficulty controlling his temper at times. He gets upset and doesn't know how to handle his emotions. He begins to get angry and has a tendency to back talk when I redirect him towards calming behaviors. Sometimes it really hacks me off when he sasses me and I'm tempted to respond with anger to his rude remarks. This can quickly escalate into a yelling match, making me feel like I have an 8 yr old teenager. I let my wounded pride and desire for respect from my children control my behavior.

I think the prudent thing for me to do is overlook the remarks (for now) and get to the root problem. He feels out of control with his emotions and needs help learning how to exercise self-control. I need to learn to not take things personally. I need to calmly and rationally help him instead of getting offended. Sometimes the punishment mentality muddies our effectiveness as parents. We are looking so closely at the behaviors we *need* to punish that we fail to see our kids as coheirs with Christ who need our help and guidance more than our snap judgements.

I think I need to pray more that God would help me see my kids' hearts and get to the root of their behaviors. I don't want to focus so much on the little stuff that I miss the big picture.

Too smart?

Daddy, "Nate, did you hear Mama ask you to set the table?"
Nate, "I must have been moving my head when she asked me. The sound waves must have bounced right over me."

Crazy Rainbow Birthday Cake.

Since we are studying light in our Konos Obedience study, I knew this cake would fit right in with our unit. It fell right on the day we studied rainbows and talked about Noah. Luke really liked it, though I do NOT recommend using the icing they suggest. It was really heavy and almost ice cream like. It slid right down the sides of the cake and I ended up having to freeze the whole shebang. Also, I couldn't find two round pans, so we did one large pan and then cut the cake in half and stacked it.

Here's our crazy bright bowls o' batter:


Plopped in the pan:


Swirled with a knife:


Cut, filled, stacked and frosted - with the proud birthday boy:


Blowing out the candles:


A side view:




All in all, it was pretty tasty and the kids really enjoyed it.