Spelling Difficulties

You know we've lived in the "north" too long when Katy, today as she worked on her spelling words for school, tried to sound out the word "ice" with a "u" instead of an "i". :) (Think, if I can attempt to phonetically spell it, "uh-ice", but blend it into one syllable...maybe more like "oice"?...)

Grocery Store Tour

Our local grocery store hosts free tours, so our playgroup took a second tour this week (the first tour being 2 years ago). It is a great tour! They led the kids through the store, beginning with the security office (full of video screens to watch people on every aisle!!), to the floral department, to produce, to deli, to seafood, to meats, to the stock room with its box crusher and trash compressor, to the really big freezer and refrigerator (brrrr!!), to the dairy and bakery and then to ring up "purchases" they had selected from each department. We discussed the food pyramid and which foods were in which groups during our tour. They gave us samples along the way and goodie bags and balloons afterwards! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Several of the "babies" (who are actually mostly 1 year old now!!) hang out together beforehand.

Marshall and Lily visit together while the big kids look at the security monitors.


Liam wasn't thrilled about being in the stroller while the girls got to walk.


Sorry it's sideways, but here's Sam (our next 1 year old!!) and Mabel waiting patiently.

Katy and Darsie touch the lobster! Last time, Darsie touched it (at 2 1/2, maybe?) and Katy held back with a look of horror etched on her face. She said it made all the difference to realize what those rubber bands were for this time! :)

Katy rings up some bread while Susie makes sure she does it properly.

Liam's favorite part was the balloon. He was happy the whole rest of the day because of that orange balloon!

Just Like the Pilgrims

The girls have definitely been listening while we talked about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving all month because, yesterday after a yummy church pot-luck dinner (Thanksgiving leftovers!), Darsie commented, "Mommy, we are just like the pilgrims because we had three days of Thanksgiving!" And we did, really! We had Thanksgiving on Thursday with friends, then Friday we ate our turkey with our friend Anna, then yesterday with the whole church. A pretty good way to celebrate, I think!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have a tradition each year in which we make a tree of thanks at the beginning of November. Each night at dinner, we go around the table, and everyone tells us something that he or she is thankful for and we write it on a leaf to hang on our tree. The girls have thought that it is funny that, as the trees outside are losing their leaves, our tree starts out bare and then becomes covered as the month progresses. It has been neat to hear them progress from looking around the room to find something to mention ("I'm thankful for the lights...") to more real and serious things.

Here are some of the reasons the Foreman family is thankful this year:

I'm thankful for.....

• Small group because I like to listen to Daddy play guitar. (K)
• God is a good God and He can take care of us. (D)
• God always supplies what we need. (M)
• A wife that loves me and takes care of me. (M)
• The good friends God has given to us. (MS)
• Snow! (MS)
• Our babysitter, Erin. (K)
• Good friends who love us and take care of us. (M)
• Fall, because it is beautiful and reminds us of how amazing God is! (MS)
• The yummy lunch Mommy and Daddy made and the leaves outside. (D)
• That God made the world and it tells us about Him. (K)
• My family. (M)
• My brother and my family. (D)
• God provided a lamb for us! (MS)
• That God created all things. (D)
• Snow! (D)
• My family. (MS)
• That God gives us rest from our work. (MS)
• My friends because God made them and they're nice to me. (K)
• Friends that are like our family. (MS)
• My wife is a good cook. (M)
• God is faithful all the time! (MS)
• The leaves because they tell us that God is beautiful! (K)
• Eating goldfish at church and praising God at church. (D)
• Trees, because they have beautiful leaves. (K)
• The holiday of Thanksgiving, because I like it! (M)
• My whole family! (D)
• My friends because I love all of them! (D)
• Our church. (K)
• We have a good God and He is in control. (M)
• Our church. (M)
• The horses show God's beauty. (K)
• My husband, who is a gift from God. (MS)
  

"Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever!
Psalm 106:1

Thanksgiving!

The girls load the middle deck of the Mayflower with 102 "pilgrims", each with accompanying "box" of belongings. Can you imagine this for over 2 months??!!

Things we have learned about the pilgrims so far:

• There was not much room for them in the Mayflower!
• It was probably pretty stinky in the Mayflower!
• The kids had to work hard to help their families!
• They had to leave most of their stuff behind when they sailed to the New World!
• We are glad that we were not pilgrims back then! :)
  
• They believed that it was all worth it to be able to worship God in a way that they believed honored Him and was in accordance with the Bible.

As Christians, we are called to be pilgrims here!

The writer of Hebrews says of Abraham:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

And of the people of God in general:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Is God worth it to you and to me? Is He worth leaving everything you or I have for a better country? Is He worth the hard work that it takes to pursue godliness and prepare for eternity? Yes, yes and yes! This is what I want my children to learn from the pilgrims!

Honoring our Soldiers

The town of Media near us (where the church is located) has the best Veterans' Day parades, so yesterday when a friend reminded us about the parade, we packed up and headed over to honor our soldiers. (This is the same parade where a few years ago the girls' pictures ended up in the local newspaper!)
Anyway, we braved the cold, donning our winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves and bringing blankets to sit on and cover up with. It was well worth it! Even Liam sat enthralled through the whole thing! Nine marching bands, many ROTC's, and carloads of veterans later, we were very thankful that we had come out to cheer them on!


h

Also for MIss Michelle

Again, thanks to your rhythms, we have been able to recite our verses all week long!

For Miss Michelle

Darsie has quickly learned her verse for this week, thanks to your excellent rhythmic powers!
(Pardon the difficulty pronouncing "refuge" - we're not sure she gets that word yet. :))

A Day Out

These are friends of ours from Israel. Baruch Maoz, with his wife Bracha, is a national pastor in Israel (until he retires in December). They were in the states for several months to visit with family (two of their daughters currently live in the states) and to visit their supporting churches, and we got the privilege of spending a weekend with them. We spent some time Saturday evening together and then Sunday afternoon at some other friends' house, and then yesterday we planned to have lunch together and then go to the Art Museum.
We were really excited about the museum, especially since the girls and I have been doing picture studies with a different work of art each week (we are currently doing Renoir). The museum has several Renoirs, as well as other works from book we have read, so we were excited to see them in person. We researched where each work was, where the handicapped parking was, etc. and planned our visit. The only thing we didn't think to check was......the days they were open. Turns out, museums in Philadelphia are closed on Mondays. Hmmmm....who knew?! We, of course, found out as we walked up the (back) steps to the entrance. :) So much for impressing our out-of-town friends and having a cool field trip.
Anyway, we went to the visitor center instead and watched a movie and saw the liberty bell (the girls really wanted to see it) before bidding good-bye to Baruch and Bracha. We told them that, maybe next time we would take them to the art museum on a non-Monday so they could actually see the inside of it. :)
(We also had to schedule a day on our calendar to go to the museum, since the girls were so disappointed about it.)

A New Friend

Matt came home Saturday to a new friend on our outside basement doors. He called us out to see, and we grabbed our nature journals and sat and drew him and watched him move around. Pretty alien-like, huh? Tomorrow, we are going to research our praying mantis friend here and see what we can learn about him...

Household Tasks

This month, the girls have been learning how to rinse and put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, in addition to washing whatever is non-diswasherable in the sink. They are very proud of their new skills and have been taking turns at the sink each morning.
They also have jobs of wiping the table and sweeping after each meal. As you can see from these pictures, Liam is ready to get in on the action a bit. Yesterday, Darsie let him walk with her, holding the handle. Today, Katy repeated this new treat, and he loves it! He has always loved the sweeper and would follow it around when in use (much to the delight of its operators!). Now, it seems, he needs his own chore chart and is ready to pull his weight around here. :)

Pumpkins!!

Katy and Darsie harvested their pumpkins a week ago when we noticed that the vines were dying. They have been so excited about these pumpkins ever since they planted them in May. It has been fun to watch their progress, from just flowers to little baby pumpkins to nice sized ones for picking. We have had them on display on our table, but they were starting to smell really pumpkinny, which I took to mean that they would not last much longer. So, today we learned about pumpkins, observing the outside and drawing it, observing the insides and drawing them, and then carving the faces they requested into each pumpkin.
Here are the before and after shots.


And here are the after shots, with the girls modeling their best pumpkin faces as well. :)


We harvested some seeds to dry and save for next year and the rest are toasting as I type (Darsie has been particularly excited about this step). You should have seen Katy's face when she tried to get seeds out of the bowl and touched the stringy pulp. Classic Katy. :)

Our Budding Musician

Katy has been working on figuring out this song for weeks now. I think she must have heard the clocks at various houses where we stayed on vacation and wanted to copy the song. So, she has figured it out all by herself! Lately, she has added the left hand because she notices that we play with both hands when we play piano. Our plan with the kids musically is to wait until they are about 7 to start formal lessons, so it is really neat to see her trying to figure stuff out on her own! Matt showed her how to locate C on the keyboard, and she is so proud of her new skills. (Of course, being the music majors that we are, we think it is one of the coolest things in the world that our 5 year old can locate C!)

Computer Skills

Katy is so proud of herself that she has figured out how to maneuver the cursor on the laptop. Here, she is watching her friend Joel ride his bike without training wheels (on his mom's blog). She probably watched it at least 10-15 times, smiling and laughing and talking to him throughout to offer encouragement ("Oh, Joel!" "I just can't stop watching this!",.....) She thought it was pretty cool to be able to click to start it on her own, to click on pictures to see them up close and scroll through them, and to scroll down to also watch the cool video of cicada killers (also on Joel's mom's blog). All in all, a very satisfying Friday afternoon. :)

Playgroup Nature Hike

We headed to the Newlin Grist Mill with our playgroup this week. I have heard about this place and wanted to visit and have just never gotten around to it, so, thanks to some organizing by my friend Gina, we finally got to explore it this week! It was a wonderful fallish morning, so nice to enjoy wearing long pants and sneakers! We hiked along the mill run, then crossed several streams, stepping on rock trails (this was both girls' favorite part!). Come on up and we'll take you there!

Our hikers, minus Liam and Tabitha (on moms' backs), Sam (happily clinging to Michelle) and Rachael (cushy in the stroller)

One of the crossing points. I had my jogging stroller, which fortunately forded two of the three streams very well. Dawn's, however, had to be carried across. I am sure we looked quite interesting, with 6 moms, 8 walking kids, four babies, and two strollers all trying to cross the streams. :)

Liam's vantage point on my back. The new back wrap I learned in Atlanta finally worked for us!
There were fish with large black spots on their sides down in the water, and Ellia and Katy watched them for quite a long time.

Early Transportation

That's what we learned about this week, so we built coracles from pipe cleaners and plastic bags. The girls thought we should test them out, so we outfitted several princesses and sent them on their way. To the girls' delight, they floated quite well (for quite a while, until someone inadvertently splashed a little too enthusiastically and sank them). I think it added to the girls' enjoyment to be able to visualize a little better what Reepicheep found and kept in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which they are reading with Matt in the evenings.

Our Latest Project

Today we finally put together the situpons that we bought materials for a few weeks ago. We are planning on doing quite a bit of outdoor nature study for school this year,and, remembering the situpons we made in girls scouts, I thought we should have something to sit upon while we draw in our nature notebooks. We took some vinyl tablecloths from Big Lots, newspapers, string, my new leather punch (very spiffy toy!) and twist ties (handy "needles"!) and created beautiful new seats for ourselves. I am very proud of the girls - they stitched up theirs all by themselves! Katy got frustrated a lot at first because it wan't coming out perfect with every stitch. She kept asking for help, and for a while I showed her why it was knotting and helped her undo it. After a while, though, I told her that she had the tools she needed amd that she needed to try to figure it out for herself. She got really frustrated, so I advised taking a break, to which she responded that she wanted to get it done. So, after a brief internal struggle, she applied herself, figured out how to fix some knots herself (very proudly!) and sewed up the entire thing (very proudly!)! I am so proud of her - this is the thing we are struggling with in her handwriting somewhat (perfectionism versus cold hard reality), and so it was a great advance thast she stuck with it and completed the task! Darsie did great, too. She stopped for a while, tired of it and wanting to play. When Katy wouldn't come play with her because she wanted to finish hers, Darsie came back to the table on her own and picked it up and finished hers! She did great sewing, especially considering that she has never really done it at all before!
Now we are ready to venture out next week with out nature journals and pencils in hand!

Kickoff!

The Home Depot project for this morning was a paper football goalpost. Remember those paper footballs (triangles folded over and over again) from elementary school? Well, they're back just in time for kickoff. The girls had a good time, especially using the screwdriver (their first time with one!). Then, when Matt got home for lunch, he showed them how to flick ("kick") the football through the goalposts. It took quite a lot of practice for them, but they thought it was great! Here are pictures of them concentrating as they try to master this new skill.

(Matt had fun, too, I think. He also taught us "basketball" using a quarter and another persons hands as the net. Reliving the old glory days, I guess. I remember watching all the elementary school boys and just putting it down to them being boys.)

Maps

This week we learned a bit about map-making. We read a story from a Richard Scarry book, and then each girl made her own map showing all of the places the farmer went during his day (and learned about what a tailor and blacksmith do in the meantime). They enjoyed arranging the buildings and then drawing roads on their papers (not exactly a lesson in efficiency yet, but a good start!). We then took our maps into the living room, pulled out the blocks, and built their towns using their maps as blueprints. It was a difficult concept for them to grasp, but they began to get it a little bit, as you can see from these pictures. They thought it was great fun to build towns and had even more fun filling their buildings with people afterwards!

Thoughts on School

Of course, in all the fun and excitement of planning a course of education and remembering how fun it is to learn and how many cool things there are to learn, my prayer is that I will not lose sight of the real purpose behind it all. Matt and I listened to some comments by C. J. Mahaney this weekend about family and the church, and one point he made stuck out to me in the midst of school stuff...we are preparing our children for eternity. Math and reading and science and history, homemaking and exercise, everything else is useless and meaningless to our children if they do not get the reason behind it all, the purpose for learning all of these things, the One who created all of these things and holds them together and makes them work...they need to be prepared for eternity, not just to live and work and function on this earth. Education is important, but it is because it shows us multiple facets of our Creator, it points us to Him in His glory, His beauty, His otherness; it reminds us that we are but human and cannot know anything fully, but it also reminds us that He is God and can be known BY US! I want my purpose to be that of the Apostle Paul, who says:

"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. 2:2-3)

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." (Col. 1:28-29)

And the encouragement is that it is His energy that will work in us! So, you will know how to pray for us this school year! And we certainly appreciate your prayers!

Thoughts on School

And the encouragement is that it is His energy that will work in us! So, you will know how to pray for us this school year! And we certainly appreciate your prayers!

Of course, in all the fun and excitement of planning a course of education and remembering how fun it is to learn and how many cool things there are to learn, my prayer is that I will not lose sight of the real purpose behind it all. Matt and I listened to some comments by C. J. Mahaney this weekend about family and the church, and one point he made stuck out to me in the midst of school stuff...we are preparing our children for eternity. Math and reading and science and history, homemaking and exercise, everything else is useless and meaningless to our children if they do not get the reason behind it all, the purpose for learning all of these things, the One who created all of these things and holds them together and makes them work...they need to be prepared for eternity, not just to live and work and function on this earth. Education is important, but it is because it shows us multiple facets of our Creator, it points us to Him in His glory, His beauty, His otherness; it reminds us that we are but human and cannot know anything fully, but it also reminds us that He is God and can be known BY US! I want my purpose to be that of the Apostle Paul, who says:
"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2-3)
"We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." (Col. 1:28-29)

First Day of School!!!

Well, our long-awaited, much-anticipated first day of school was today! Katy is officially kindergarten age now, and Darsie is doing K-4 stuff. We resumed our chore charts this morning after a summer hiatus (unintentional), so we actually have all of our beds made up and the dining room table and floor are clean!

The day started after devotions with hurrying to get their hair done and teeth brushed so that we wouldn't be late in meeting the school bus at the curb. Then, we hustled outside and stood at the street watching for the bus. Sure enough, there was bus-driver Jim-Bob coming down the street. He gave the girls the usual "no standing, hands to yourself, keep your voices down" speech, and then they were off with big grins on their faces. After several more stops (funny how all of the other children missed the bus this morning!), bus-Driver Jim-Bob remembered that he had forgotten to eat his breakfast and begged pardon as he made one more impromptu stop. We then headed on to school and were dropped off at the curb. Once inside our classroom, we enjoyed a nice "first-day-of-school" snack of donuts (hence the earlier stop!).

Principal Matt then introduced himself and prayed for our school year. The girls observed that he and bus-driver Jim-Bob bore strange similarities to each other, the only difference actually being that Principal Matt didn't have on the too-small baseball cap that bus-driver Jim-Bob had worn.

We then began our day with chore training, then on to math, letters, reading together, learning about the first clothes and making mammoth tusk necklaces (who knew you could buy mammoth tusks??!!), then charting our trip from Philly to Sarasota, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Athens, Greenville and home on our wall maps upstairs. (Forgot PE, didn't get to other things today, oh well...)

After all of that, the real fun began for the girls (school was over for the day!). Because they have so many stuffed animals and dolls, we had filled two bins to put in the basement and let them each pick out 10 to keep upstairs. Well, today was the first day I actually remembered to let them re-pick out their toys. So, we brought all of their animals and dolls downstairs and the bins upstairs from the basement. You would have thought it was the greatest reunion ever, with the girls runnning to me with each new "friend" that they had rediscovered. They were having so much fun that we decided that today they could keep ALL of the toys out until time to clean up. So, they have planned the biggest party ever, a fun school day for the kids, a tea party and who knows what else....Here's the picture...

Swimming Lessons Were Worth It!

On to Ponte Vedra Beach in Jacksonville with my Grandmother. This is the water slide at the beach, and Darsie did nothing else the whole time that we were at the pool than slide, over and over and over again!

I still cannot believe that, three weeks ago, they had to stay at the steps in the pool or use floaters and now they can swim all over. Katy swam the whole length of my grandmother's pool yesterday with her face in the water (almost under water) saying that she was a mermaid. Darsie can jump in the deep end and swim to the steps! Amazing!

Fish...

The girls have been taking swimming lessons all week at a friend's house. It has been amazing to see how much they have grown in boldness and skill in just one week! Monday afternoon, they had to learn to put their faces in the water (mouths and noses at the same time!), kick, and glide out to us. By Thursday, Katy still did not want to jump into the water without holding onto her teacher's hands. Once she got over it and did it one time, she wanted to do nothing else but jump the rest of the lesson! Even yesterday, she still didn't want to put her face in the water while swimming (Darsie, on the other hand, takes a dramatically deep breath and puts her face in even before she puts her arms out and kicks!). Today however, Katy put her face in the water every time, even coming up for a breath and then putting it back in! Both girls jumped off the diving board (to Pam's waiting arms) and then swam to the side of the pool! Katy even swam from the deep end all the way to the steps at the shallow end several times today! Amazing! We are so proud of them!
Pam prayed at the beginning of lessons on Monday for God to help them to be brave to try new things and to help them to be able to do them. He certainly answered her prayer!


(Wouldn't it be a little intimidating to be the one in the water when they jump like this??!!)

Camp - Twinkle, Twinkle LIttle Star

Here is Katy's group playing the handbells. Pretty good, though each of them looked like they were clutching their bell waiting and wondering when their back would be tapped. :)

Camp - Sah Chi Chi

Here's Katy's group performing with the umbrellas that they decorated themselves. She did so well the whole time!! I'm really proud of her!

Camp - Ging Gong Gooli

Here's Darsie's group performing their song, "Ging Gong Gooli" with ribbons. Notice how Darsie zones out for a little while and then gets into it. Ben is standing next to her.

Camp - Jelly on the Plate

Here's "Jelly on the Plate", one of our favorites. Notice Darsie's hip action.....:)

Camp - Hello From All Over the World

Here are the girls chanting "Hello from All Over the World". Notice how Darsie kind of stares off into the distance sometimes - we hesitate to say it out loud too much, but she definitely is our blonde.... :)

Camp!!

The girls LOVED their week at camp! Today they put on a show at the end, and both did great in it! I have several videos to upload, so stay tuned! In the meantime, here are some pictures from the show...

We love Home Depot!!!