For weeks, Kevin and I have been keeping a secret: for Noah's eleventh birthday, Kevin had arranged for him to go flying with a friend of Kevin's who has a plane. Understand: this is the boy who eats, sleeps, and breathes all things aviation. He spends his time reading about airplanes, watching t.v. shows about airplanes, building paper airplanes, collecting model airplanes, dreaming about airplanes. And he's never flown at all, even on a commercial flight. And he had no idea what we had planned. When we pulled into the airport, I asked him if he had figured out what we were doing. He said, "Are we gonna look at some planes?!"
At this point I was almost crying because I was so excited for him. I said, "No, we're gonna GO FLYING!!" He was ecstatic.
A Beechcraft Bonanza
This smile hardly left his face!
Watching Bryan begin safety checks.
More safety checks as Bryan explained what he was doing to Noah. I liked the safety checks. :)
I got this shot just as we were airborne. Priceless.
The upper cluster of buildings is where Kevin works--The Sprint Campus.
Downtown KC
Princess Leia-esque, don't you think?
Eating BBQ at the Miami County Airport
Refueling
Bryan, the plane's owner, was so great to explain what he was doing and why, and even let Noah take the controls at one point...which caused my lunch to lurch. :) We did two 'touch and go's', and it was an all-around great experience.
Noah declared it "[One of] the best days of my life!!!" Happy Birthday, Noah!! Just don't expect us to top this one next year. :)
I thought I'd let you homeschool Moms of elementary age kids that Pizza Hut's Book It! enrollment is open for the 2011-2012 year. Go here and click on 'enroll'. My kids love getting to get a free personal pan pizza each month for reaching their reading goals!
Also, though I haven't seen this movie and really don't plan to, I know lots of people have seen it or plan to. I thought this was a careful, balanced review.
This morning promised to be such a pretty day, so after family worship time I packed a quick 'old-fashioned' lunch of oranges, hard-boiled eggs, banana bread, cheese, and crackers--and not so old-fashioned Kool-aid-- and we headed out to the arboretum. I have a new camera, and I've been itching to get out there to take pictures of the kids in that beautiful place. Mom is here with us today, so that made our visit even nicer! Grandma's presence makes everyone happy around here. :)
I'm disappointed that this picture turned out a little fuzzy, but I still love it. It perfectly captures Lily and Sam's relationship. They are buddies.
We've finally felt spring coming on here over the past few days. The kids are getting their winter-white selves out into the beautiful sunshine!
We've been plugging on with school. We are finished with our regular Classical Conversations meetings for this year, but still have our end-of-year picnic to look forward to! We hope to break the middle of May until July 1. I have some fun (and necessary) projects in mind for that time.
When Kevin and I were away for our anniversary, I read this little book (which I snagged at Goodwill for 50 cents!). It was such a wonderful and timely encouragement to me. I love authors--and homeschool moms--who are 'real'. I decided to get back to checklists after the author's encouragement to not "inflict [my] children with constant questions." This system is working out nicely. I just copy down the kids independent work into my own record book each day. For those interested, I laminated the paper, and wrote the kids assignments with a wet-erase marker. The kids mark it daily with a dry-erase.
Now that we've moved, we are very close to this one-room-schoolhouse that's adjacent to a museum. The kids and I had a field trip planned last Friday that we had to skip, so this was a nice spur-of-the-moment little consolation field trip. And, it was free.
This shrub, whatever it is, was the only thing blooming in the school yard. We were all drawn to it. Gorgeous!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth! Psalm 96:9 ESV
I recently finished a children's biography of David Livingstone. I missed so much as a child by not reading about the faithful men and women of church history! He was really more of a pioneer into the dark interior of Africa than what I think of as a 'typical' missionary, treating sickness and sharing the Gospel along the way, always journeying, drawing maps and seeking to find the right place for a mission station in the interior.
I was surprised to find myself feeling a bit depressed after thinking about this man's immense trials, sorrows, and suffering as he served Christ and strove to advance His kingdom. Part of my problem is probably that this bio was not the most detailed and well-written; I'm motivated to find an adult biography about him with more of his writings included. I think it's also important to be careful to not elevate these faithful 'heroes of the faith' to too high a position; in other words, while there is much to admire and respect, these men were just that: fallible men, who sometimes made bad choices and had sinful responses. David Livingstone was separated from his family for years at a time; sometimes his own young children would not know him when he was able to visit them. This image fills me with such sadness! This is one of the questions of 'right or wrong' I've been mulling. Wasn't his first calling to his wife and children? I know the 'boarding school' approach of missionaries to their children was common in the 19th century. Any thoughts?
After I finished the Livingstone biography, I picked up Spurgeon's 12 Sermons for the Troubled and Tried. This was providential, I know, because God is using this book to challenge my own comfortable ideas about living the Christian life. Here are some parts I've especially been thinking about:
And first, let me say of it, YOUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED SURELY. You may rest assured of that.
Faith is a sound sea-going vessel, and was not meant to lie in dock and perish of dry rot.
Indeed, it is the honour of faith to be tried. Shall any man say, "I have faith, but I have never had to believe under difficulties"? Who knows whether thou hast any faith? Shall a man say, "I have great faith in God, but I have never had to use it in anything more than the ordinary affairs of life, where I could probably have done without it as well as with it"? Is this to the honour and praise of thy faith? Dost thou think that such a faith as this will bring any great glory to God, or bring to thee any great reward? If so, thou art mightily mistaken. He that has tested God, and whom God has tested, is the man that shall have it said of him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
exerpts from 'The Trial of Your Faith', part I
I could keep quoting and quoting, this is such an excellent sermon! I think I've been overlooking a treasure by not reading Spurgeon before. So, I'll keep reading and seeking the Lord and asking Him to make me rejoice in my sufferings because of the growth and perseverance they give, instead of praying for God to protect me from them.
Today was a good, quiet, normal day. We worked hard at school and got lots done. The kids played. My Mom came over and served us and lightened my load. We read picture books and finished a biography about Corrie ten Boom that I was reading aloud to the kids (with editing). I worked through about nine corrected math lessons with Keely and Noah. Spring is in the air, which makes us all feel better, I think.
My Mom has been singing to Sam before his bedtime when she's here on Sunday evenings. It's made me think that I should do that more; learn the words to more lullabies, savor those precious moments when he's still and listening and cuddly.
Sam's room is pretty bare. Since we're renting, it's hard to want to put much effort into decorating it. Especially since this rental is for sale. I need a little more guarantee that my energy is really worth it. :)
Joe's lesson with my Dad
I realized today that I'm really going to miss gardening. I suppose I will have to make do with container plants this year. I need to research what veggies might do well in pots, too.
Well, we did it! After months of planning and weeks of praying about whether or not we should go because of reports of drug-related violence, we went to Acapulco. We wanted to mark our fifteenth anniversary with a 'big' trip; we've never really taken one together before. Wow! It was such a wonderful, sweet time together! We slept. We read (almost got through my sixth book on the flight home). We marveled at the amazing beauty. We slept more. We haggled (unsuccessfully, I fear) in the market. It was awesome! God was so faithful to protect us and bless us with this time away together.
the cliff divers
view from our room
the La Concha Club
another view from our balcony
Some of the highlights of our trip: seeing parrots fly by (not in a zoo!), worshiping with a church there in Acapulco--where we were able to hear the sermon in English through headphones, meeting a gal who is from Kansas City at the same church, marveling that we arrived safely at our destinations after each crazy cab ride(!), watching the waves and smelling the sea smell. We made some terrific memories, and for those of you who knew about our plans and prayed faithfully for our safety, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Iglesia Presbiteriana Maranatha
The absolute best part, though? Coming home to this sign and the sweet little people who made it. :)
A Beechcraft Bonanza
This smile hardly left his face!
Watching Bryan begin safety checks.
More safety checks as Bryan explained what he was doing to Noah. I liked the safety checks. :)
I got this shot just as we were airborne. Priceless.
The upper cluster of buildings is where Kevin works--The Sprint Campus.
Downtown KC
Princess Leia-esque, don't you think?
Eating BBQ at the Miami County Airport
Refueling
Bryan, the plane's owner, was so great to explain what he was doing and why, and even let Noah take the controls at one point...which caused my lunch to lurch. :) We did two 'touch and go's', and it was an all-around great experience. 
