Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Flower Fades

Bits from Isaiah chapter 40 (read it all when you get a chance)
~Rose

A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.

Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Art Class- Paul Klee

Last week we learned about Paul Klee. He was an accomplished violinist but at a young age decided to pursue art. I love his bright, childlike paintings. When he died at age 60, he left behind 8926 works of art, some of which sell for up to 7.5 million! We looked at The Golden Fish which combined oil paint and watercolors.
The book suggested sketching an underwater scene, coloring it in with oil pastels and then do a wash with dark watercolors.

This week I decided to join in the fun...this is what I drew. It felt good to get creative!
Owen had help with the oil pastels, but did the watercolor himself.
Hope's artwork:
Owen's artwork:
My artwork:
The aftermath! Love those plastic tables!
~Rose

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Hope's Haircut

This morning Hope asked if she could have her hair cut. She's asked before and we've put her off. I told her to ask her daddy and he said yes, so I made sure she knew how long it would be before it would grow back. Yes, she still wanted it cut...like Abby's (her best friend).
So here is the before: Notice the tucked in cat!
And here is the after...
Yes, she IS a cutie! I think she looks older. And yes, I need to finish painting our bathroom!
~Rose

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Walkers...Used Most by Babies and Great-Grandparents!

But your great-grandparent's walkers are not as fun as this one!
Levi absolutely LOVES his walker. He is still not walking on his own, but with this walker, he just zooms around the house. He goes from the kitchen to the living room, dining room (around the table), front door and down the hall to the kitchen again...all the while giggling, smiling and laughing with delight.
Emma loves to chase him and they just laugh and giggle! Such wonderful sounds!

Levi is doing a LOT of this standing up in various places. He's taking a few steps to the couch or us lately. I think he'll be walking by the time we come out to CA in November!
A nice balancing "trick" by Emma.
Levi also loves his Pooh Bear train. Sometimes Emma rides it with him...more giggling and laughing.
A few recent shots of Owen. He did NOT want me to take a pic with his eyes open. He is a big time goof. Hmmmm, I wonder who he got that from?!
It's a little blue lizard he got at Chuck E Cheese.
~Rose

Monday, September 24, 2007

Art Class- Pablo Picasso

Last Tuesday we learned a little about Pablo Picasso and took a look at his piece called "Punchinello with a Guitar". I guess Picasso loved the circus and went regularly. This is a painting of a clown with a guitar coming out from the curtains to perform on stage.The book suggested painting a stage and using collage to cut and paste shapes to make a clown.
Hope hard at work...
And her finished product:
Owen did not want to do it, which is fine, so I got to help Emma. This is a cooperative piece!
~Rose

Home School Weekly Digest

Last week Owen did two days of Kindergarten! I'm letting him take his time, doing 1-3 days a week depending on him. His first unit is Ss, Sun, Jesus is the Light of the World. Each unit has 6 days of work. His fine motor skills are not well developed, so writing is challenging. After a brownie payment (bribe), he agreed to use the grip and try for 5 letter S's. He did great and was very excited to show his work to Grandma and Daddy. It's interesting, he wants his letters to be perfect and gets upset when they are not! We're working on that.
This is a math page. He traced his name and wrote the number one. He then was asked to draw one of something. He chose to draw a large rock and write a large one next to it.

One of his projects was painting a sun with alternate colors for the rays (patterns). Emma joined in on the painting.
Working hard!
Beautiful job Owen!
I got a smile :)
Another project he got to do was make raisins. We decided to use the oven instead of the sun so it would go faster. We used the dehydrate function and at the end of the day we had raisins!
They were kinda sweet, but not all that flavorful.
Hope got to do an experiment using yeast, sugar and water. We mixed yeast with warm water and added some sugar, put it in a jar and stuck the balloon over the top.
The yeast uses the sugar for food and creates carbon dioxide. This showed us how bread rises. This week she'll be making bread and play doh as we study more about bread.
It was so exciting to watch the balloon fill up. Within minutes it was pretty full.
Hope drew what was happening and noted the time. I love her drawings :)
This is Hope's first dictation page. Instead of doing it from her grammar book, I chose a passage from the book we are reading (The Courage of Sarah Noble-the story of a young girl traveling with her daddy into Indian territory to build a house for their family on land he had bought). It was a bit of a challenge for Hope, but she did a beautiful job and finished it in one sitting (I gave her the option to do it over two days). Her drawing is beautiful! This is the kind of stuff that keeps me going some days! I am blessed, challenged and humbled to be able to stay home with our kids and teach them.
I love it.

~Rose

The Finished Breakfast Nook!

Wish I had a good before shot...but here it is...our little breakfast nook! We had our washer and dryer where the table is. That was one of the things I didn't really like about the kitchen when we bought the house. Thanks to Josh, Des, Dale, Desi and others, we were able to move them and create this cozy little spot! I love to sit here in the morning sipping tea or coffee and reading my Bible. I am trying to wake before the kids and have that quiet time first thing since our house is quite noisy during the rest of the day! Some days I make it, and some days I don't. I do think it's a matter of getting to be earlier! We used chalkboard paint for the black rectangle and I have written Hope's memory verse there: John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
~Rose

Friday, September 21, 2007

Oscar Mayer Lounge Singer?

Desi was driving with a friend (Mark) recently and they happened upon the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. They got the chance to sing the theme song for this contest. If you want to see Desi's song, and I know you do...follow this link and type in the code: EZ96JG
~Rosehttp://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/bym/img/dec04/oscar1120504.jpg

Let Trials Bless

I read this this morning and was encouraged. It's challenging though. I love the part about how grace changes the outcome of those tribulations...our patience instead of our getting annoyed and upset. It's through difficult circumstances that we are refined or perhaps burned up depending on where we are with God. I pray we can look to our tribulations as tools in the hand of our loving Father, who does not want us to continue to be spoiled children, but rather desires us to mature in His ways so He can use us to reach others with His love.
~Rose


Faith's Checkbook by C.H. Spurgeon
Friday September 21, 2007

Let Trials Bless

Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. (Romans 5:3)

This is a promise in essence if not in form. We have need of patience,
and here we see the way of getting it. It is only by enduring that we
learn to endure, even as by swimming men learn to swim. You could not
learn that art on dry land, nor learn patience without trouble. Is it not
worth while to suffer tribulation for the sake of gaining that
beautiful equanimity of mind which quietly acquiesces in all the will of God?

Yet our text sets forth a singular fact, which is not according to
nature but is supernatural. Tribulation in and of itself worketh petulance, unbelief, and rebellion. It is only by the sacred alchemy of grace
that it is made to work in us patience. We do not thresh the wheat to lay
the dust: yet the rail of tribulation does this upon God's floor. We do
not toss a man about in order to give him rest, and yet so the Lord
dealeth with His children. Truly this is not the manner of man but
greatly redounds to the glory of our all-wise God.

Oh, for grace to let my trials bless me! Why should I wish to stay
their gracious operation? Lord, I ask Thee to remove my affliction, but I
beseech Thee ten times more to remove my impatience. Precious Lord
Jesus, with Thy cross engrave the image of Thy patience on my heart.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Usborne Art Treasury

Ok ladies! A few of you have mentioned that you cannot find this book. Here is a link to it on Amazon. The ISBN is 9780746075616 if you want to look it up at your library. We are loving this book...so much that I bought it...on Amazon. Hope you find it!

I took this back in January...so rare to see a hummingbird be still!
~Rose

Monday, September 17, 2007

Art Class -Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai's block prints are amazing! To think he created this truly beautiful piece (The Great Wave off Kanagawa) of art 175 years ago boggles my mind. I guess this is the first and most famous of a series called "Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji." I would just love to see this in person at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We learned that this piece was done with a series of blocks. Some of his pieces were so popular that the block prints wore out!
My mom was on a road trip this week, so I was solo with the kiddos on this one. We were excited to see if we could do it!
We used styrofoam plates and sharp pencils to carve a wave design. I did most of the waves and the kids poked holes for splash effects.

We smeared on a mixture of blue and green poster paint with foam brushes.
This one turned out to have too much paint on it. We tried three before we figured out that it needed just a little paint (think stamp). We then turned over the plate onto a white paper and rubbed away with our little fingers. It was messy. But good art often is messy!
This was the result as we carefully peeled the paper off the plate. I like the round design.
Just beautiful! This week we will do Picasso inspired art.
This is a shout out to my man. He conquered the kitchen floor to rest of the house issue! Look at that lovely reducer piece installed and wonderful. He did 3 total and I love how it finishes off the floor. Thank you Desi! You are the best for putting up with all my "prodding." ;)
~Rose