* Got Josephina back from the shop. Turned out the 40+ year old wiring was bad and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, it still kept dying or refusing to start in the shop's parking lot and so after THREE visits with their mechanic, every single piece of wiring is now new - yay! They felt bad (probably more embarrassed than anything tho!) so they didn't charge us AND they refunded us the money we had originally spent... so all of the wiring got redone for free!! BLESSING!!
* Ben left for High Adventure with the Young Men on Monday morning and returned back Friday afternoon (see Spiritually Speaking for more insight)
* The girls had a friend over a couple of times this week
* The girls, Nathan and Mom went over to the Rigby's house for a movie night. We watched the new Peter Rabbit movie and A Wrinkle in Time. They were great hosts and provided fun movie snack as well as Root Beer Floats! wow!
* Went out to the Farm to visit with Aunt Donna before she flew back home to Michigan
* Had the Missionaries over for dinner
* Mom had Bunco (with her old Bunco group that she helped start 10 years ago!)
* We went out to Emmet to go swimming/Bridge Jumping
In Our Homeschool This Week...
* We kicked off the first day of school this week for Nathan and the Girls (Ben will start this next week since he was gone to High Adventure all week). It went awesome and we've all had such a fun time learning together each day!
* We've switched to some new curriculum that I am seriously soooo excited about (and the kids are too!). I've felt inspired and led to THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL curriculum created by Jenny Phillips. We will use this for every subject except Math (and Nathan will still use All About Reading). I LOVE that it incorporates multiple subjects together - for example, the Language Arts (for both the girls level and the High School Level that we're using with Ben) covers Reading, Writing, Literature, Grammar & Punctuation, Vocabulary, Spelling, Geography, and Art! And just like the title says - it does this is such a beautiful way! It's peaceful, calming and seriously brings in the Spirit as we're learning! It's also a "No Prep" curriculum and so we just open the book and go! So easy for mom!
* We're also using The Good and the Beautiful for our History - soooo excited! We'll do this family style learning all together and then they each have their corresponding course workbook catered to their level for further learning and research (with Ben's being obviously more in depth than the younger kids). I printed the course workbooks and then created a cover for each of them with their names on it and then took them to Staples to have them coil bound - Love how they turned out!
* The same approach will be used with Science. While they do have "Extended Learning" for the higher grades, I'm still searching for the perfect Science for Ben but will have him start with us and see how it goes. Maybe it'll be rigorous enough for him and we'll stick with it (for Ben) or maybe I'll be led to a perfect match for him.
* We'll also be working on Typing, Handwriting (the girls are especially loving this because each lesson has an art component - usually drawing!), Character studies, Extra Art, and Enrichments - which I've felt inspired to have each of the kids start their own "Principles Journal" so we've started off the mornings with a song, prayer and then going around and each reading a verse (we go around several times) and then we discuss the Principle(s) that are being taught in the verses we just read and then record them in our Principles Journal. This is going super well so far! Then we usually have a short spiritual discussion on what I feel impressed to share (this week it was all about the Plan of Salvation and Saving Ordinances) and then we proceed on to our other areas of learning.
* We're continuing on with the "Learn Math Fast" program. We did this last year with Ben and it really fit with his learning style and helped him feel successful so we'll keep going! I thought I'd start the younger kids on it (maybe at a slower pace and incorporate more games with it)
* We finished up our First Read Aloud for the year - Dr. Dolittle! We then watched the (1967 version) of it on Friday after we finished up all of our other classes. Even though it didn't follow the book (at all! haha) the kids enjoyed it.
* Also on Monday to kick things off - I surprised the kids by taking them to the movies! We went and saw "Sherlock Gnomes" which they all thought was fun to do :)
Seth Spotlight...
* Still struggling a bit there in California. But he's down to like 7 weeks and so we know he'll make it through! We got his Flight Itinerary home and he'll arrive at 6:33pm on Tuesday, September 11th.
* Had interviews with the Mission President
* Did some Visits
* Helped a family in their Ward move
Spiritually Speaking... by Ben (Again)
So, this week I had the opportunity to go on High Adventure, and lemme tell ya. . . It was EXHAUSTING!!!!! we climbed two mountains, but I'm not here to tell you all about high adventure, I'm here to tell you about the experince I had coming on the way down from one of the mountains.
Let me start off by saying that it was extremely steep, and the whole way down was made up of lose rocks and dirt, and I was honestly ready to throw in the towel- thing was, I couldn't. I had four more miles to the bottom.
It was down on of the most steepest declines of the whole area when I lost my footing and and fell forward. It was an eight to ten foot drop, and at the bottom, a bunch of jagged rocks that were sure to bash my entire skull in.
My thoughts were scrabbled during the processes, It was going by in such a blur, and my momentum was going to hurl me off to my certain fate (or at very least, a broken face and other snapped bones). I was preparing for the fall when something grabbed me by the backpack and threw me backwards onto the forest floor.
I was shocked. . . I was alive, and not even injured. I looked over at my Bishop who was staring at me in shock- we both knew that I was saved by an angel.
I quickly stood up, and without question, said a prayer of thanks, for I knew that my Heavenly Father had saved me.
For the rest of the way down, I had a few more times where I should've been seriously injured or killed, but was somehow saved last second. While nearing the bottom, I had personal revelation that those who ministered unto me and saved my life were my future children, and I am eternally grateful for the safety they and our Heavenly Father gave me.
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