* Everyone got sick! 1 entire week was spent with multiple family members out of commission (including mom and dad!)
* Dad, Ben and Seth went to the Bismarck Temple with the Youth for Baptisms
* Dad went out of town to Canada for 3 days for a Trade Show
* Jocelyn and Garrett Newman came over to play with Nathan and the girls
* Lots of nice weather! Spring has arrived! We had a few days in a row of rain and that in turn greened up the grass. Also the first leaves on the trees have begun to sprout!
* Stake Conference. We had Elder George Rhodes (of the Seventy) was the visiting General Authority that spoke to us :) Mom and dad also had Stake Auxiliary Training.
* Steve passed away on Monday. He had gotten sick (again) on Sunday afternoon and was gone Monday at 5:30pm. The older boys came home from work early and helped dad bury him in the backyard. We had a little service for him and talked about how he was seriously the perfect dog for our family.
* Lexi lost a tooth (on her birthday!)
* The girls turned SEVEN on April 29th!
In Our Homeschool The Past Two Weeks...
Life Skills: We've been doing our Spring Cleaning! Each day a different child gets to work one on one with mom for 2 hours as they scrub, polish and chat :) Mom was hoping to have the entire house done in the 2 weeks, however with sickness taking up 1 of the weeks, we still have some more to go! We also did Yard Work and cleaned out the garage!
English: Vowels, "ph", word searches, independent reading, Read Alouds, vocabulary, story writing, story retelling, 3 letter blends, writing letters (when mom would give Nathan a sound, he would write down the letter that makes that sound), Lively Letters, word choices, novel writing, cursive
Math: fractions, math war, story problems, multiplication, baking
Science: We came upon a new science show called SciGirls (about 4 tween girls that explore science themes and we love it!!!) We've learned about levers and pulleys, horses, turtles, habitats, puppets (which then inspired the girls to make their own puppets), We explored whey we get dizzy when we spin, how our eyes work, we also learned about many animals with the Kratt Brothers and some additional science themes with Sid the Science Kid
History: We learned about Christopher Ludwick who was a German-born American patriot with a big heart and a talent for baking. When cries of “Revolution!” began, Christopher was determined to help General George Washington and his hungry troops. Not with muskets or cannons, but with gingerbread! The book that inspired our learning was titled "Gingerbread for Liberty!"
Enrichment: Continuing on with our reading of "How Do I Know If I Know?" which is such an awesome book and makes for great discussions (especially to topics related to our testimonies). We've talked about Agency and Accountability, how our decisions determine our destiny, being honest, good characteristics to gain, and manners!
Art: The girls designed and made a Treasure Box out of cardboard and tissue paper, free hand drawing, coloring, chalk art and painting.
Other: We're on track for Nathan to earn his Wolf Badge at this next Pack Meeting (Yay!!) so we have been working on scouting. Mom and the older boys have wanted to learn Japanese and so we're working on that together. Lots of Imaginative and Adventure Play outside!
Kids Say:
(The girls were watching The Little Rascals and there's a part in there where Darla calls Alfalfa a "Hunk")
Lexi: Mom, what's a Hunk?
Mom: It's a super cute boy.
Lexi: Oh... then Nathan is a Hunk because he IS a super cute boy!
This melted my heart that she would think her big brother was a super cute boy! :)
Spiritually Speaking...
In one of our morning devotionals we talked about how we really need to be recording the tender mercies (or times when we can see the Lords hand in our daily lives) for two reasons: (1) It makes us more AWARE of the Lord and all that He does for us and (2) It is good for us to be able to go back (especially in times of doubt or sorrow) and see/read about these tender mercies. I told the kids that is why I include a "Spiritually Speaking" each week with our blog entry - so that we can reflect on blessings and help from the Lord over the week. We then thought it'd be fun to pull out one of the printed blog books and read a random Spiritually Speaking. We read an entry from the Spring of 2013 about how I had a direct answer to prayer when trying to call a new counselor when I was serving as the YW President. It really was incredible at how directly my prayer was answered and the kids and I enjoyed hearing about this experience. It really helped to solidify how important this section of our family history is (both to us AND to our posterity!).
In Stake Conference today, Elder Rhodes talked about "Creating an Ideal Home" and I loved every minute of it! He took his teaching from Alma 32-34 (where Alma encourages us to "experiment on the word" even if it's just planting a seed of faith (or anything else for that matter) in our hearts). We can ask ourselves, "What seed can I plant to help move our home to be more ideal?" This seed can be anything we might need to work on for ourselves (forgiveness, judging, not gossiping, being more diligent with spiritual things, etc). This has inspired me to evaluate myself and determine what seeds I can plant to help us have a more ideal home!
Also, the Mission President and his wife both spoke as well. We were informed that the South Dakota, Grand Rapids Mission had been realigned and a North Dakota, Bismarck Mission had been created (and the mission home had been relocated to Bismark).
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