On Christmas Eve

Zechariah’s Song

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Luke 1: 67-79

Praise be to our Lord and Savior, and may your feet be guided into the path of peace this Christmas and always.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

High School!

We started school this week -- My Boy starting 11th grade and My Girl starting (drumroll please.......) ............... high school!

I don't know who is trying to play this cruel trick on me, but there. Is. No. Way. my kids are old enough for 9th and 11th grade!

I've got to say though, as much as I have loved homeschooling all along, I still love it just as much in high school. I love having my kids old enough for in depth discussions about history and church history (a la TOG). And I love being able to have discussions about books we both enjoy (they're reading Pride & Prejudice this week. Joy! It's fun to have someone to laugh at Mrs. Bennett with!)

I also love that they are doing such a good job with the independent part of their learning. I always heard that by the time you get to high school a homeschool mom has worked her way out of a job, but I didn't quite believe it. However, I can tell you that there's a lot of wisdom to it. Even though I'm still teaching My Girl algebra, and I'm meeting with the kids once a week for TOG discussions, I'm finding myself with a lot of time on my hands. I've even taken on a part time job! I don't know if I'll keep it or not -- we've only just begun our year but so far, so good. I'm able to be there for the subjects my kids need me for in the morning hours, and then work in the afternoons. Where we might have a problem later is when extra-curriculars start up. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess. For right now, this first week of school has been a good one!

What more was needed by this old man, who divided the leisure of his life, where there was so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the heavens for a ceiling, sufficient to enable him to adore God in his most divine works, in turn? Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on earth, and all the stars in the sky.

--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Today's the day! The movers will be here in 5 hours (why am I awake??). We'll pack up, drive to our new city, sleep in a hotel, then move our things in our new home tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take some pictures for a change.


For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Daybook

FOR TODAY
Outside my window... It's nearing daybreak; I can see the silhouettes of bare trees against the sky. We're coming off a wonderful spring-like weekend, but I think today is going to be cloudy, rainy, and cooler. Bleh. It's been such a wet, gray winter here. I'm ready for green!

I am thinking... that I need to get off this computer and get my day started! I need to make breakfast, lunches, start the crockpot, and shower. But I don't wanna...

I am thankful for... God's provision for our family.

From the learning rooms... My Girl is still struggling with adjusting to the online writing class I signed her up for. I know, one of the reasons I signed her up was so she could get used to meeting weekly assignments from someone other than me, and that is definitely happening. And she isn't happy. And I expected that. But it doesn't make it any more fun to live through! I keep thinking and hoping that over time it will get better :-)

From the kitchen... right now, all is quiet. But I need to get going. Honey Nut Cheerios w/ blueberries for my breakfast, make lunches for us to take to co-op, and start the crockpot -- I'm thinking beef tips for dinner.

I am wearing... warm & fuzzy pjs and I'm wrapped in an afghan that My Man brought back from his trip to Africa. I love the rough, hand-woven texture of it.

I am creating... I heard about "Oil Rubbed Bronze" spray paint on one of the blogs I read (Thrifty Decor Chick), and it was something I'd been needing awhile. All my fixtures, knobs, etc. in our house are ORB, and the front door knob has been showing wear for several months now. So I finally picked up a can yesterday at walmart, and I'll be spraying that this week. There are a couple of other places around the house that could use a spray, too, so who knows what kind of mess I'll be creating?!

I am going... to spend all day today in co-op. Tomorrow night is our homeschool group meeting, which will center on homeschooling high school.

I am reading... "My Life in France" by Julia Child. I'm enjoying it so far. I saw the movie "Julie & Julia" last summer with My Girl, and I've been on the waitlist for the book at the library ever since. It finally came in last week.

I am hoping...

I am hearing... a few birds outside the window. Could that mean spring is somewhere around the corner? I hope so!

Around the house... I worked in the yard doing some winter cleanup in the gardens. I cut back the butterfly bushes and the hydrangea, and cleared away the spent stalks of perennials. Things look a little bare, but much neater!

One of my favorite things... is enjoying movies with My Girl. We went to see "When in Rome" this weekend. It was a fairly innocent, slightly silly romcom, but My Girl hasn't seen many of those yet, and she loved it. I loved seeing her love it, and enjoyed the time with her.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Nothing big on the plate here. We're gearing up for Speech & Debate season, so we'll be working on those speeches. First tournament for us is in 3 weeks.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing.. Here's a picture of our house from last April -- my favorite time of year. Green grass, green buds on the trees, blue skies, warm temperatures. Ah, spring! I can hear you whispering!

Top Dog

Guess who's Top Dog around this house?

Rice balls

I was looking through some old photos on my hard drive, and found these from a couple of months ago. I realized I had taken them but never wrote the post to go with them!

At the end of Unit 1 of our TOG (this past October) our co-op group had our Unit Celebration. Every family brings a covered dish that relates in some way to the time period or geographic location/culture that we studied. We spent a week studying Japan during the Middle Ages, so My Girl (lover of all things Japanese) wanted to make some Japanese food. She had seen lots of references to rice balls in things that she reads, so that's what she wanted to make.

She found a few youtube videos that give step-by-step help in making them. It always amazes me what you can find on youtube...

Anyway, we went to the Super Target to find our ingredients, since the smaller store I usually use doesn't carry sushi rice or seaweed ;-) Then, we got started.

The first thing you so is cook your rice. I don't have a rice cooker (I know!) but it did just fine on the stovetop. Then we mixed canned tuna with mayonnaise and also sliced the seaweed as instructed in the video.

Once the rice was done, we set up an assembly line with a bowl of water for moistening our hands, the tuna, the rice, and the seaweed.

They're really simple to make. Wet your hands to keep the rice from sticking, then get a small handful of rice and shape it into a ball.





Use your thumb to poke a hole in the center,



spoon some tuna mixture in,



and plug the hole back with rice.





Then get a strip of seaweed and wrap around the ball.





They really weren't bad! We seasoned ours with soy sauce, and we weren't crazy about the seaweed. But they were pretty good after all. We made this plateful, and then realized they needed to be smaller so we'd have enough for the UC. So we made another plateful of rice balls about 1/2 this size. We ended up with about 25 or 30 of them, and were all eaten by the end of the night!