7 Years Old

Lily Bug, Happy 7th Birthday! This post comes a little late - 5 days late to be exact. I'm sorry you and the whole family have been so sick this past week. Definitely not a fun way to celebrate your big day. You are a beautiful young lady and we are so blessed by your fun creative spirit.

One Year!

Happy 1st Birthday, Little Miss Charlotte Gray!!! Today is your big day, sweet precious girl!

I am blessed beyond measure and revel in the abundant grace of God because He chose to place you in our care. I have the pleasure of kissing your sweet chubby cheeks each day. My heart overflows with joy when I hear your funny little giggle when your big brothers and sister act out something silly just for you. You do these funny arm flaps when you are excited, or when you see food. You love music and try to imitate it with a sweet sound - "da da dadada..." (it resembles the Darth Vader song. LOL). You love attention! You tilt your fuzzy little noggin to the side and give a sweet sideways grin at anyone who is watching. It's a definite attention-grabber no matter where we go. I love your dark hair, which is getting quite long now, and your expressive dark brown eyes. You study things closely and intently trying to figure out the world around you. You light up when Daddy comes home and gives you kisses. I love how you and your sister melt Daddy's heart.

Today, we all celebrated your birthday with dinner at Silver Spoon Cafe. You loved the bread with butter. Daddy couldn't shovel it into your mouth fast enough. You enjoyed a sampling of spaghetti and french fries. We topped it off with a peanut butter ice cream pie. And then, the most special thing happened! After I took you, Lily, Griffin and Schaeffer to the van while Daddy was waiting for our server to bring the check, a very kind-hearted lady stopped by to talk to Daddy. She said you and your brothers and sister were perfectly sweet together, well-behaved, and interacted so kindly toward one another. Daddy testified to God's grace and blessings in our lives. And when our server brought the check to our table, he explained that someone had paid for our entire meal because they said our children were so precious. Perhaps it was the lady who shared the encouraging words, or perhaps it was someone else. But we will always remember the kindness expressed on your very special day!

I pray that you grow into a lovely woman who loves, fears, and serves the Lord all the days of your life!

The Mystery of History

I have finally found it! I believe I have found a homeschool curriculum guide for leading classical, chronological, complete Christian world history lessons called The Mystery of History. So many curriculum guides in this area are tedious, complicated, and time-absorbing leaving little time for other things such as phonics and math...and being a kid. So what's cool about this curriculum guide is that it gives simply laid-out history lessons with suggested activities for varying age levels. For the younger students, the suggested activities are very hands-on and fun. We all can get excited about that! We have the flexibility to pause and further explore a time period and/or culture with library books and Scripture. At this point I'm probably way more pumped about these lessons than Lily and Schaeffer. I get to learn history in its proper perspective for the first time in my life (no thanks to my public school education). The best way to teach HIS-story is by telling it as the story of God and man so that kids have an understanding of why we are here. It only makes sense to tell the story from the perspective of the Sovereignty of God and His providence in our lives. And to top of this really great find, I happened upon it at a used curriculum sale. God is still in the business of showering down blessings!