Verses of Comfort

During my Bible study of Paul, I learned that he encountered some truly frustrating circumstances. His trials and his faith in the face of those trials are an inspiration to me. After all, if he can keep on with what God wants him to do even after being beaten, stoned, flogged and imprisoned, why can't I?

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. I Corinthians 10:13

For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.  II Corinthians 1:5

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. II Corinthians 1:9

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  II Corinthians 4:7

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  II Corinthians 4:17

Clean House, Clean Planet Recipes

Natural, homemade cleaners, as recommended by Karen Logan:

Earth Scrub
16(or 22) oz bottle:
Mix 1 2/3 (2) cups  baking soda with 1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's in a bowl. 
Add 1/2 (2/3) cup of water. 
Add 2 Tbsp vinegar.
Stir until the lumps are gone.  If it pours into the bottle easily, it is the right consistancy - if not, add a little more water. 
Shake well before using.

Use for tub, sink, toilet, garbage cans. 
Can be used to deckscrub linolium floor - squirt on floor and scrub.  Let sit and then scrub again.  Dry wipe with towels.  Spray with vinegar and wipe/mop again.

Earth Shaker: Kitchen Cleanser
Fill Shaker 1/2 full with baking soda
Add 15-20 drops essential oil and stir
Fill shaker to the top with baking soda
Put top on and shake

Bubble Juice:
1 1/2 cups water
3 Tbsp or more dishsoap

Sleep it Off: Oven Cleaner
Mix 1/4 cup salt and 3/4 cup baking soda in a bowl and put into a shaker bottle.
Spray Sal Sud's spray in oven and then shake soda/salt mixture on.
Spray again with Sal Sud's spray.
Make a paste with soda/salt mix and 1/4 cup water and spread on sides/top of oven.
Let sit over night.
Scrape or scrub off and wipe down with Sal Sud's spray. 
Spray with vinegar to dissolve residue.

********
Sal Sud's Spray: from Dr. Bronner website
Fill 1 quart spray bottle nearly to the top with water
Add 1 Tbsp Sal Sud's

Reading List for R

Encyclopedia Brown, Sobol
Fantastic Mr. Fox, Dahl
Freckle Juice, Blume
Sebastian Superslueth, Christian
Tales from the Back Pew, Thaler
Hank Zipzer, Winkler
Boxcar Children

Reading List

Lakeshore Christmas, Wiggs
Visions in Death, Robb
Flight to Heaven, Black
Hurricanes in Paradise, Hildreth
Oceans apart, Kingsbury
Shades of Blue, Kingsbury
Forgiving Ararat, Nazareth
Sensible Shoes, Brown
The Socialization Trap, Boyer
The Me I Want to Be, Ortberg
Going Rogue, Palin
Sticky Fingers, Martin
Some Like it Lethal, Martin
Heaven is for Real, Burpo

"Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis

From the book "Mere Christianity", buy C.S. Lewis. Page 148-149, the second chapter on Faith:

"Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home [Heaven] is good actions, or Faith in Christ...Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair at that point: and out of that faith in Him good actions must inevitably come. There are two parodies of the truth which different sets of Christians have, in the past, been accused by other Christians of believing: perhaps they may make the truth clearer. One set were accused of saying, 'Good actions are all that matters. The best good action is charity. The best kind of charity is giving money. The best thing to give money to is the Church. So hand us over $10,000 and we will see you through.; The answer to that nonsense of course, would be that good actions done for that motive , done with the idea that Heaven can be bought, would not be good actions at all, but only commercial speculations. The other set were accused of saying, 'Faith is all that matters. Consequently, if you have faith, it doesn't matter what you do. Sin away, my lad, and have a good time and Christ will see that it makes no difference in the end.' The answer to that nonsense is that, if what you call your 'faith' in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all - not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him. The Bible really seems to clinch the matter when it puts the two things together into one amazing sentence. The first half is, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' - which looks as if everything depended on us and our good actions: but the second half goes on, 'For it is God who worketh in you' - which looks as if God did everuthing and we did nothing."

Raising Fit Kids

Notes from the book, _The No-Gimmick Guide to Raising Fit Kids_.

*Warm up before exercising: walking, arm circles, knee lifts.
*Stretches:
*****hamstring: sit down and spread legs, exhale and reach for one toe and hold 30 seconds, repeat on other leg
*****groin: sit, bring feet together so that the bottoms of feet are touching, lean forward and hold 30 seconds
*****quads: lying down on side or standing up, bring heel to buttocks, switch
*****lower back: lie on back, knees bent, bring one leg up to chest and hold 30 seconds, switch
*****cobra stretch
*****shoulder stretches
*****side stretches
*Go for walks daily. Start with 30 minutes and increase by 5 minutes each week. Kids run, skip, gallop, explore, etc.
*Other aerobic activities: bicycling, roller skating/blading, swimming, jump rope
*Winter aerobic activity: Dance Dance Revolution (there is a Disney version available!)
*Strength Training, work up to 2 sets of 12-15 reps, 3-4 times per week: weights (light), push ups, sit ups, back-ups ("superman"), chin ups, lunges
*Only take second helpings 20 minutes after dinner is served.
*Slow down eating, encourage conversation, manners, setting down the fork in between bites.

Day 3: The Meltdown

Today definitely did NOT go as smoothly as I would have hoped. It took E an entire hour to learn how to write the number 2. And R flipped out again about identifying naming words (nouns) and describing words (adjectives).

After many, many repetitions and mounting frustration, I had a meltdown too. Thankfully my wonderful husband stepped in and helped with the 2 teaching while I worked with R on his Language Arts.

No Language Arts tomorrow...History and Geography instead.

On the bright side, M has really been speaking a lot lately, increasing her vocabulary. She's growing up so fast!