For lunch on Sunday, we tried a Third World soup experiment : vegetables from the gardens, including fresh pumpkin and spaghetti squash. The experiment? We chunked all of the seeds in, too. The result? The spaghetti squash seeds turned very tender, but the pumpkin did not. Instead of fishing out the tough seeds, we put the soup through the blender, which worked well.
Sunday evening we went to a very poor community 1 1/2 hours away. We served ice cream, which was well received, but the meeting was a difficult one. Poverty and popular culture are hard masters. Slavery did not end with the Civil War. Our message is very basic : You can know God right where you are, here, today. God has a plan for your life that is unimaginably good and perfect. His plan requires that you follow Him 100 %. We always hand out free Bibles in the language of the people, a snack, and a tract put together by our family that explains everything that was preached. We also sing, sing, sing. After the meeting, I was able to talk with a young mother (sitting out of the photo), and her response was enough for us to know that she was one of the reasons we drove so far. Please pray for Breka and her young family.
Monday morning began with the boys practising their pacing skills on a course set up next door by Teresa's husband. They are getting prepared for Forestry competition in September ; there are many skill areas in which they will be tested.
After Forestry, it was back to school books. Stennes is pondering Greek contract verbs. Many of the courses Poppins and I choose are for ultimate discipline of the mind and character. I tell the boys that we choose hard subjects because it shows us what's really in their hearts. How? Frustration brings out the best or worst of us all, and it's easier to train character and deal with attitudes when we can see how they react to mental frustration and difficulties. We have been very happy with the results of this training. We have seen spiritual and mental maturation in the boys. They in turn have realized that we
all have to eat some type of elephant in our life : one bite at a time...
Josiah had a rumbly in his tummy, as he said, so he threw together a bit of leftover meat and spices, then made a big pan of hashed potatoes. They at it all. All of it. Plus bread and an entire bag of oranges. And a bowl of tomatoes from the garden. Boys' appetites are amazing.
Branch is figuring out the tune to a new assignment. The violin is too big for him still, so it's quite a stretch for his arms. We tell him that it's helping him grow. I don't know if he believes us...
The boys had Performance Class today at the College. They will be finished with the classes this month and will begin Homeschool Band in Tallahassee again in a few weeks, so it's back to busy, busy, busy.
Their teacher moved them in to another room that had a piano simply to prove to them that they
could indeed sing higher than they thought possible. We could hear their song and music all the way down the hall. I think we're making progress on projection of voice, which was one of our main goals for the class.
Sunday evening we went to a very poor community 1 1/2 hours away. We served ice cream, which was well received, but the meeting was a difficult one. Poverty and popular culture are hard masters. Slavery did not end with the Civil War. Our message is very basic : You can know God right where you are, here, today. God has a plan for your life that is unimaginably good and perfect. His plan requires that you follow Him 100 %. We always hand out free Bibles in the language of the people, a snack, and a tract put together by our family that explains everything that was preached. We also sing, sing, sing. After the meeting, I was able to talk with a young mother (sitting out of the photo), and her response was enough for us to know that she was one of the reasons we drove so far. Please pray for Breka and her young family.
Monday morning began with the boys practising their pacing skills on a course set up next door by Teresa's husband. They are getting prepared for Forestry competition in September ; there are many skill areas in which they will be tested.
After Forestry, it was back to school books. Stennes is pondering Greek contract verbs. Many of the courses Poppins and I choose are for ultimate discipline of the mind and character. I tell the boys that we choose hard subjects because it shows us what's really in their hearts. How? Frustration brings out the best or worst of us all, and it's easier to train character and deal with attitudes when we can see how they react to mental frustration and difficulties. We have been very happy with the results of this training. We have seen spiritual and mental maturation in the boys. They in turn have realized that we all have to eat some type of elephant in our life : one bite at a time...
Josiah had a rumbly in his tummy, as he said, so he threw together a bit of leftover meat and spices, then made a big pan of hashed potatoes. They at it all. All of it. Plus bread and an entire bag of oranges. And a bowl of tomatoes from the garden. Boys' appetites are amazing.
Branch is figuring out the tune to a new assignment. The violin is too big for him still, so it's quite a stretch for his arms. We tell him that it's helping him grow. I don't know if he believes us...
The boys had Performance Class today at the College. They will be finished with the classes this month and will begin Homeschool Band in Tallahassee again in a few weeks, so it's back to busy, busy, busy.
Their teacher moved them in to another room that had a piano simply to prove to them that they could indeed sing higher than they thought possible. We could hear their song and music all the way down the hall. I think we're making progress on projection of voice, which was one of our main goals for the class.
