At our home, we have been working on setting chapters of the Bible to memory. Three of my kids are old enough to memorize the Bible and are each working on different chapters. My oldest is learning 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. My next child is learning The Beatitudes, or Happy Attitudes as he calls them. And my preschooler is learning Psalm 23. We have been using the books and CD’s from Thy Word Creations for this endeavor, so that we are also learning the chapters set to music.
I believe that memorizing the Bible strengthens our minds, besides giving a spiritual blessing. I believe that time spent in memorizing the Bible with my children will not be lost on their other school subjects, because I believe so strongly that it will strengthen their minds and actually help them in the other subjects, as well. And most importantly, I’ve been claiming this verse for my children, while I help them with their memorization: “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11.)
The passage that JD Boy just finished memorizing was the Ten Commandments. He had a hard time keeping the last six in order, so he decided that he would like to make a simple lapbook to help him visualize their order. Here are some pictures of his lapbook.
Each matchbook has the Commandment number on the top flap, a picture to go with the respective Commandment on the bottom flap, and the words of the Commandment on the inside. Here is the inside of the Tenth Commandment book.
Since JD Boy and I designed these matchbooks ourselves, I uploaded them to HSLaunch, so you can use them for free. I have also uploaded the pages that my daughter used for copywork when she memorized the Ten Commandments a couple of years ago.
I’m going to admit that I have a hard time without a computer. Perhaps I have an addiction. I’ve had the chance to see how much more I could get done each day without a computer around, since slightly before Thanksgiving actually. Which, by the way, was quite a bit. I had to use my husband’s computer to get on the internet. That worked okay, but my files weren’t on his computer. Anyway, I’m quite happy to announce that I’m the proud owner of my husband’s computer now and it has been reformatted and loaded with my stuff and bears my name on it. I am so, so happy about that! He has a new computer, lest you fear that he might go out of business without his computer.
So that’s the deal with my computer, but now to share what’s gone on around here for the last month and half. We’ve been as busy as beavers, going here and going there and spending time with friends and family. The holidays are such a great time for all of that. After all, the roads are covered with ice, so you take your life in your hands in order to see your loved ones or they have to do likewise to come see you. I’ve been considering rescheduling the holidays or moving to Australia. Not really.
First off, one fellow in our home had a birthday. Time goes way too fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was thinking that he was taking too long to make his debut. (I’m kind of impatient because he came a week and a half early, but I thought that was late.)
He got real tools for his birthday. Now, I’ll know who to ask for a measuring tape or hammer or screwdrivers. That will be nice! He also got a camera.
Everyone except the baby now has a camera. I may have to turn this blog into a photo blog. Even our four year old now has a camera.
We had fairly nice weather in December. We did not have a white Christmas, but we did have a white Thanksgiving, so here is a picture that we’ll just pretend was taken at Christmas time.
We did see some snow in December, however, while risking our lives on those icy roads on the way to grandma and grandpa’s house a week or so before Christmas.
Christmas was at our home this year.
We spent Christmas at our home with my husband’s side of the family. That made for fifteen people and two dogs in our house for the weekend. That’s two dogs more, but two people less than we had for Thanksgiving. It was cozy and fun. The house swarmed with kids. Some of the family has to drive some fifteen hundred miles to get to our house, so we feel quite loved that they keep making the trip out to see us, even on icy roads. (Thank you, since I’m trusting that you read my blog!) Fortunately, I think their way was fairly clear this year.
My husband plays the violin, our two oldest play the violin, my sister-in-law plays violin and cello, and my nieces play cello, viola and violin. We had lots of concerts at our house while everybody was here. It was a real treat. They all played for church along with some friends. It was so special.
The matching outfits were Christmas presents from Nana.
We made a few trips to museums and such, but that counts for school, no matter when it happens, so I’ll post about that later, as I required the kids to write reports on their trips to make it authentic!!
And through it all, the baby has continued to grow and change. Babies do so much of that.
Yes, I have a thumb sucker for the first time.
Well, now that you’re afraid that I have turned this blog into a photo blog, I guess I’ll stop. I do have to thank my kids for the plethora of pictures of the baby. I haven’t been taking near as many as I should be…she’s a fourth child, you know. But actually there are hundreds of pictures that were recently loaded on to my computer of her that I need to sort through. So she’ll have something for posterity yet! I suppose I could keep going and sharing more pictures, but I’ve got other things to get caught up on my new/used computer.
