I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous.

I am in week 4 of our Beth Moore study: Daniel, Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy. I love it! I have been rather distracted from all our house stuff, so haven't really taken the time to fully emotionally engage in some of the days homework, but today I got to since the kids were gone to my mother in law's! In our Esther study last year, and now again in this Daniel study, I am relating more to the antagonist of the story than the hero :) The above verse really struck me since I have been so consumed with house stuff. I have been praying that the Lord would protect Steve and I from finding our contentment and security from this new house and that we would always find our peace in Him alone. As Beth Moore said on last week's video, it is better to learn this lesson "from the page" than going through anything remotely like what King Nebuchadnezzer went through to bring him to his knees! But how awesome it is to see that the Most High God granted King Neb the stump of the tree and its roots to stay in the ground so that he could finally give glory and praise to the ruler of Heaven and earth!

Weekly School Review

Amidst the moving craziness, we were able to have a pretty full week of school. We had fun dissecting owl pellets on Monday! "This is really fun, and I thought it was going to be boring," Zeke said. They loved finding the skulls in the pellets. Abby even found a bird skull! This activity is definitely not for the faint of heart. There was a slight odor to the pellets...and Abby even started having allergies to the fur in the pellets! But, Micah could participate, which he always appreciates and Eli was very festidious about cleaning off the bones!

On Tuesday, we had our co-op. I co-teach a "Michigan, My Michigan" class and got to put this lighthouse craft together for this week. The kids really liked it; even the two boys in our class who never want to do the craft participated in this one with no complaining :) We have learned that the kids really like playing games too--they stay much more engaged! Bingo, Jeapordy, and I am going to try Hang-Man next week!

Wednesday and Thursday we completed our schoolwork early for the Happy Molar household--by 1pm! The kids have done a good job working hard all morning so we can have time to run to the house or run errands for the house in the afternoon. Abby got to have a play date on Wednesday afternoon, and my MIL took the kids Thursday afternoon overnight! What a blessing! Steve and I spent 2 hours at the lighting store, had a nice dinner out and I got to attend a jazzercize class in the morning instead of at 7pm at night! I sent their English, math, bird lapbooks, Bible assignment and read-aloud along and my MIL was able to complete all the school work we had for Friday! She's a pro!

My mom is coming for a visit this week, so we will be taking the next 2 weeks of school off for her visit and our big move! And the next time I post a review, it will be from our new school room!

The half-move!

It has been quite the whirlwind in the Happy Molar world! On March 2nd, we closed on our new house--hurray! We are still just blown away that this is happening! On March 3rd, the painters moved in and we moved half of our "stuff" into the garage. We are waiting for the painting to be done, appliances to arrive (next week!), and new carpet (2 weeks) before we make the last big move. We have been busy buying light fixtures (A LOT of them!!!) and taking trips to the house once in awhile to answer a painting question, unload a mini-van full of boxes...

I will post some before and after pictures of the paint soon !

Non-school Review

It was OK to play in the middle of the road today!
Is it spring yet?

This past week has been very...random...to say the least! Our co-op was cancelled on Tuesday because of the big snow we had on Sunday night, which gave me the time I needed to get our grocery shopping done for the week. Looking back, perhaps I should have done school that day! But we really did need groceries...I was scrounging for meals by then anyway! Then Wednesday morning we took Steve to the bus stop to catch his Mega-bus to Chicago (which he learned never to take again...). That made us start school a few hours late on Wednesday morning. Then on Thursday, Abby woke up with her 3rd fever in 9 days...she'd have a fever for a couple days, then it would disappear, only to reappear a few days later. That same morning Zeke woke up really complaining of a sore throat and when I looked in his throat, I saw some white spots. They were in no shape for school (and I rarely hand out sick days). We got into the doctor's office that evening and those two tested positive for strep. That evening, my mother-in-law spent the night since she had lost power that day. Friday, I woke up with a sore throat and headed straight for the doctor's office, but I was clear. I sent Z & A home with my mother-in-law since they were going to have another sick day and I was supposed to meet the designer and a painter at the new house in the afternoon. I took the younger boys with me to get my first round of carpet samples and to my meeting at the new house... To my frustration and disappointment, the realtor that is "taking care of the house for the bank" never showed up to let us into the new house...argh! Steve and I thought we had confirmed this meeting, and he never contacted us about not being there. I was very frustrated since I had two people with me, wanting to get into the house! This realtor has been very odd to work with. He will not let our own realtor have access to the house, there is no lock box on the house, he says he needs to be there every time we want to get into the house, and he only gives us one hour sharp to be there, then hovers over us until we are out the door. We have been trying to get quotes from drywallers and painters...next Wednesday, this will not be a problem any more! But Steve wanted to have the drywall repair starting ASAP--the first week we own the house. I wonder when we'll actually start the work now....

WHEW! What a whirlwind. The next 4-6 weeks are going to be very spotty as far as school is concerned as well. I'm pretty much only going to plan a couple days of school per week, when Steve has his full days at the office. One of his full days falls on our co-op day, and we do not do any of our school on those days since we are gone all morning and then have a friend from co-op over for a couple hours in the afternoon...so I will only have Monday and Fridays as a full day of school and probably Wednesday for a half day. The rest of the week, during Steve's non-clinical times, we will be spending a lot of time tranistioning into the new house. My mom will be here the third week of March...hopefully for some of the last hauls over to the new house?!?!? So...I've just got to do what I can during this transition time until we get settled again. I'll keep you posted!

I was really excited for science this week...and then couldn't do any of it! I have been using my own resources for science based off of the outline that is in the Creation to Greeks TM. So, the past few weeks, we have been reading some things about birds and I printed out a lapbook for each child to do for our bird section. But, only Eli got to do a few things on his since he was not sick. I also ordered some owl pellets to dissect and am excited to do this next week.

We did go ahead and start The Children's Homer, even though I am not finished with The Hittite Warrior. I think I can do both books for a couple of weeks--we'll probably move our reading of The Hittite Warrior to bedtime. I see that a lot of you have gotten the audio book for The Children's Homer...I should check and see if our library has it. My kids love listening to books on CD! Zeke seems very interested in all the Greek Mythology...he's been reading a few extra Greek Mythology books I placed in our book basket.

Zeke is working on writing a "tall tale" for English and seems to enjoy the planning stages. Abby is working on a letter, although she writes quite a few letters on her own. We will do the chapter, however, so her curriculum stays lined up with Zeke's. And we just keep plugging away on math. I have had to skip a lot of the vocab and art in CtG curriculum the last few weeks to keep up!

?Traditional vs. transitional vs. contemporary?

Which style am I? This is (saddly) what is occupying my brain power these days. I've looked at hundreds of light fixtures over the last few days and am finding that my tastes are all over the place! Maybe you can help me! Take a look at these links and let me know which one you think I should go with in our new home! We close this coming Wednesday and we are VERY excited to get in there and get started with the work!!!! Guess which ones are the designer's choices and which are mine :)

The Bellamy line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45161OZ&pname=Bellamy - Wall Sconce 1Lt

The Abbeyville line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45050OZ&pname=Abbeyville - Wall Sconce 1Lt

The Lacey will coordinate with the Abbeyville...
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45281MIZ&pname=Lacey - Wall Sconce 1Lt

Vanity lights? Lilly line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=5455AP&pname=Lilly - Bath 2Lt

Or Bellamy line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45162AP&pname=Bellamy - Bath 2Lt

Beautiful Words in the Morning

Psalm 143:8, 10
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

I thought these words were so beautiful the other morning when I was reading them in my (not so) quiet time with the Lord :) He is so good to me and I long to grow in my maturity so that I may honor him more with my speech and actions. I may even want to stencil these words on my new bedroom walls!

Week 18, CtG

In Bible time the past couple of weeks, we have been memorizing Psalm 23. When I saw this verse in our curriculum, I was so glad because Abby had been memorizing it as her personal Scripture this year. Every day that we add a verse to our handwriting, she is inspired to draw a picture of the verse. I loved this picture of the table being prepared for us before our enemies. I love Abby's beautiful heart!

Another source of inspiration for everyone this week was the end of Treasures of the Snow. Because the kids were so into the story, we finished it a week ahead even while starting it behind in the curriculum. The day we finished the story, everyone drew a picture of their most memorable point of the story. Very cute! That night at bedtime, Eli said, " I wonder what the Hittite Warrior will be like." The Hittite Warrior was suggested in the back of the curriculum for these weeks and I'm going to try to squeeze it in as a read-aloud. I see there is quite a bit of reading coming up, though, so we'll see how it goes! I think I'm reading it for as much my interest and benefit as theirs!



And here is a sample of what Micah does while we are doing all of our reading:

We had to skip all of our art lessons this week because we were supposed to go outside and draw a flower...not possible! I was going to buy some flowers so they could look at one and draw it, but kept forgetting and now the week is done.

Other than that, everything else was run of the mill. Zeke got to start up his Spanish lessons again today, which he was excited for.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our cousin across the country!

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.