From "A Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George:

...Martha, Mary's sister, didn't discern the miracle of God in the flesh. Consequently, she marred His visit by her behavior. She crossed over the line of graciously providing food and became overly-involved in her hostessing. When Jesus opened His mouth to impart words of life - the Word of God spoken by God Himself - and Mary slipped out of the kitchen to sit quietly at His feet, Martha broke under the anxiety, frustration, and anger she was feeling. She interrupted the Teacher, her guest, to say, "Don't you care that I'm putting this meal together all by myself? Tell Mary to help me!" Martha failed to discern the priority and importance of time with God.

While I know that spending Thanksgiving your mother-in-law or your crazy Uncle Harry, the chainsmoker, is not the same as having Jesus Christ, the very son of God sitting in your living room, Jesus did command us to love one another. Even Uncle Harry. So in all your busyness this week, don't forget to slow down and enjoy the people God has placed in your life. I'm guessing He did it for a reason (I keep telling myself as I prepare for a long Saturday with my own mother-in-law).

So, will you have a Mary or a Martha Thanksgiving?

Gratuitous Romy photo:

We've just finished up week 11 of our school year. Thought I'd share what we've been working on for anyone interested out there.

Bible and History: We're using My Father's World, so for the past couple of weeks history and Bible have coincided as we learn about the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity in the first century. This week we focused on Paul's missionary journies. The kids were able to tell me so much about Paul at the end of the week - certainly more than I was able to at a significantly older age.

We're reading Twice Freed right now, which is a piece of historical fiction about the Onesimus/Philemon story. It fits right in with our Bible study, and really helps to flesh out some of what was going on culturally at the time of the early church. We're all enjoying it.

In addition, we've been reading about Galen and his life and contribution to medicine. Luke and Peyton love the idea that you could just put a sign out and start practicing medicine back then!

For science, we're a wee bit behind of where we thought we'd be, but we studied a bit about the skin this week, with lots of discussion about melanin, because we are a Highly Freckled Family. We also took a side journey to learn a bit about the difference between the worms that litter the sidewalks after a rain and intestinal parasites. *Hint*: If you google images for this, you may not want to do this with you children looking over you shoulders. Heck, you may just want to skip the images. Really. (Now I bet you'll go look, won't you?)

We've just completed week 10 of Latina Christiana I. We will hover here until after the holidays and just spend the next few weeks reviewing what we have learned and practicing translations. Yesterday, Luke told me that "besides the vocabulary, Latin is just really grammar at a higher level." Can I get an amen? I have to admit I was skeptical about committing the time to this, but wow! And after just 10 weeks, which equals 100 vocabulary words, both kids are spotting derivatives everywhere we go. They are pretty good at translating simple sentence with nouns in the nominative and genitive case, and both say this is their favorite subject.

As for math, Luke has turned the corner on long division, and I think he'll make quick work of the last few chapters of Math-U-See Delta. It stressed him out at first, but now he's getting it just fine. Peyton is working through the Beta book, and will be moving into subtraction with regrouping soon. She really mastered the addition well, so I hope subtraction will go the as well. She struggles occasionally with perimeter problems, which I think is an unusual thing to get stumped with. Everyone has their blocks though, I suppose.

Both kids are working at their own levels in Spelling Power. Spelling is not Luke's best subject, but he has improved tremendously this year. I would rather not do spelling with Peyton, preferring to wait till next year, but she is an insistent little 7 year old. She is the one who proclaims loudly that she doesn't like school, but methinks she doth protest too much.

We have finally found a grammar program that is fantastic for Luke - Growing with Grammar. We're combining it with Writing Tales, and together I think it is a terrific approach to something that was very overwhelming to Luke just 6 months ago. I've tweaked the schedule so the same grammar topics we study in GWG are being covered at the same time with WT. It's a good combination of study, drill and usage that I believe will make him a strong writer. And he doesn't hate it!

Peyton is continuing to work through First Language Lessons, and asks to do grammar even when it's not on the schedule. Again, the eager student. Too bad she doesn't like school :).

Finally, Luke is reading Socks by Beverly Cleary, and Peyton is reading The Secret Valley, by Clyde Robert Bulla. Luke remembers reading The Secret Valley, and he and Peyton discuss it as she finishes each chapter. I love that.

Now you've probably noticed that there is no art in this. SHHHHHH! Maybe we'll get back to art after the holidays. Maybe not. I can't get too worked up about it right now. Full plate and all that.

As for my other student, well, she's a quick study. She's broken the 15 pound mark, she's tried some real food, and the girl loves her a nice bath. She still does not however, nap.

Gratuitous Romy photos:

We enjoyed another really fun Halloween around here. Gathering candy for the Good Soil crew were Cleopatra and The Headless Horseman. In the cheering section we had a teeny little lobster who was really so cute you could eat up with just a touch of butter. Unfortunately, the picture of her doesn't really suggest that. I was just juggling too much while Bud tried frantically to make it home from Austin in time to go trick-or-treating.







We have a fairly large group of pals that terrorize visit the neighborhood together. This was the view from our front porch at 6:30, just before take-off.





All in all, everyone had a good time. Bud made it back about halfway through the evening and was able to walk around in his businessman costume with the kids while they gathered candy. We visited Nana at the end of the night and she oohed and aahed over the costumes and served....cake. Because the kids didn't already have enough sugar. That's what Nanas are for, I suppose.

Tomorrow we will buy any candy the kids have remaining in their buckets for a dime a piece. We tell the kids we want to keep them healthy. But really we just want to eat the candy all ourselves!