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!


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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. :)