Love

Christmas is almost here. Oh, I had lists and ideas and all sorts of wonderful plans for this December, this season of advent to bask in the wonder of Christmas with our children, our first Christmas as a family of five. And then the REALITY of life set in. A husband working furiously to finish finals and papers in order to finish his seminary career (six LONG years of bless-ed seminary, finished-so thankful!!) We have endured two months of sickness between our three children...stomach virus, Strep throat, RSV, Strep throat again. I think I've wished everyone in the pediatrician's office a merry Christmas 4 times this month-every Monday! And on our most recent visit (yesterday) Graham accidentally scratched Daddy in the eye, which resulted in a corneal abrasion. He's been attempting to rest (in excruciating pain) unable to open his eye. Add to that the daily chores, plus attempting to proceed with necessary remodeling projects (we now have one FULLY functioning bathroom, yay!) and still trying to get organized and "settled in" while taking care of one or more sick kiddos for weeks now. Our advent wreath and Christmas Tree are/will be our only decorations out this year.

Today I blew my top. Yelled at our children, yelled at the dog, slammed a door. It was ugly. I struggle to serve patiently and selflessly. Today I became painfully aware of my selfishness, my weakness. Sleep deprivation only makes my weaknesses weaker. I will be heading to bed VERY soon. :)

What is amazing is how God's love casts its ever-present light over the dark spots of life. Millie's belly laughs and adorable "wounded soldier" crawl. Graham waking up in the middle of the night when he heard Dan get up, to help usher him around in the darkness since he can't see with his injured eye. A sweet neighbor bringing by a box of birthday chocolates just as my 2 o'clock hankerin' hit. Grandma inviting Hannah Reece over to make Christmas cookies while I ran some errands. A word of encouragement from a friend. An email asking for prayer for a loved one with cancer. Perspective. Thank you Lord, for perspective.

LOVE. God's love. This is why God sent Jesus to earth, as a baby. To show us what LOVE looks like. Thank you Lord, for this reminder. May you and I be conduits of God's great love this Christmas, and all year long. In our weakness Lord, may your strength, your LOVE shine through.

Egypt Day

Graham goes to a school that implements Core Knowledge.  Core themes are woven into the disciplines, even the basal readers.  Graham comes home excited about what he is learning.  This makes me (a former teacher) very happy.  :) We have really enjoyed the opportunity to extend his learning at home.  It has been so enriching, for ALL of us!   The series of books What Your ----- Needs to Know,   written by Hirsch, is the basis of the Core Knowledge program. 

One of the topics studied in first grade is Ancient Egypt.  A couple of weeks ago, the entire grade culminated their studies with "Egypt Day".  Each classroom was a station and the students enjoyed Egyptian food, played Egypt Bingo, made an Egyptian collar and had a wonderful time.  Here is our "mummy" sporting his best mummy pose.  :)

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"I learned about mummies, and people put the mummies inside sarcophagus'.  Babylon and Egypt both had gods and goddesses.  They were just Egypt gods, not the real GOD.  :)  King Tut was also named Tutankhamen.  Tutankhamen was one of the most famous kings of Egypt.  Queen Nefertiti was one queen of Egypt, too.  Queen Nefertiti was also a very famous queen.  And the people that lived in Egypt also thought that every night a man rose out of a flower on his flying boat and every night he picked the moon in his boat.  People that lived in Egypt had to catch fish to get food.  The people of the Nile river that lived in Egypt shared the Nile river with the people of Babylon.  King Tut died a long time ago and was put in a sarcophagus.  Also, he turned to a King when he was nine years old.  People that lived in Egypt had only pyramids.  The people of Babylon only had Zigurats.  A Zigurat is something that looks like a pyramid except it has bumps and it looks like it has steps.  Only the kings of Babylon and the queens of Babylon could go on top of the Zigurat.  The people of Babylon that were not royalty could not go on top of the Zigurat.  I felt very excited to learn about Egypt.  Learning about Egypt was the best thing I've ever learned about since I started in first grade."  -Graham