Full Moon

I always find a full moon a fantastic sight.  I especially like to watch it come up on the horizon.  Imagine my delight when Daniel came in from outside to tell me that the moon had just come up and it was "big and orange."  I quickly ran out to see it, then had to run to the house to get my camera.

The children have been enjoying these nice days and have been staying out after dark most nights.  Daniel has set up a target for practicing his shooting and is getting quite good at it.

They have also been enjoying the trampoline and swing set.  On Sunday they tramped through the woods and pasture.  Elly found a deer leg somewhere.  That bothered the children but we let her keep it.  She took it away somewhere so no one could take it from her.

School days have been going well.  We are still in the Middle Ages.  The past few days we read about the Crusades.  Since we just read about Richard the Lion Hearted, king of England, and his brother John, I am thinking that now would be a good time to start reading Robin Hood as a read-a-loud in the evenings.

Last night we started reading Dangerous Journey A Story of Pilgrim's Progress.  We were one night behind.  I wasn't sure if the children would like it and be able to sit through two chapters but they loved it and didn't want me to stop at chapter 3.

I remember reading Pilgrim's Progress out loud to the older children.  They were older than these younger ones at the time and really liked it.  I'm finding this version of the story as good as the first and appreciate the illustrations.  Reading the story we find it easy to make spiritual applications in our own lives.

We started astronomy using our Apologia  Exploring Creation with Astronomy book.  Since Apologia didn't have the elementary science books back then our older children used the Apologia science books starting in 7th grade and liked them.  I will be reading this book along with Daniel so he can narrate back to me what we have read in his own words.  Then we will do the projects at the end of the chapters.  A few months back I purchased a glow in the dark solar system set at Hobby Lobby that we will put together this week.  I appreciate being able to use science books that don't go against our  beliefs.

I am finding so many ways to apply Daniel's new verses in my life and in the lives of the historical figures we are studying.  His verses for the next two weeks are found in Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

For Leah's science we are going through Usborne's Science With Water and finding it fun and informative.  We do a lesson once a week.  Leah continues to do well at her reading, writing, and phonics though she struggles a bit with learning her math addition and subtraction facts.

This week I was called to jury duty.  The murder trial is expected to last for a couple weeks.  After writing to be excused as I am responsible for teaching and caring for my two young children and have no one other than Tim to help me with that, Tim works nights and needs to sleep until 1:00 at least which would leave the children on their own for several hours, and I have a medical condition that would make it difficult to sit for periods longer than an hour, I was still called to be there.

Tim did get up on Monday when the children did so he did not get much sleep that day.  He also did school with Daniel so it was a day off from that for me. 

This was my first time being on jury duty and I found the whole process interesting.  I spent the whole day there while the lawyers questioned the eighty potential juror's in groups of thirty at a time.  I was in the second group and had listened to the questioning of the first group.  They were allowed to answer in private if they wished.  Our group came up for questioning in the later afternoon.  I was able to speak to the judge and attorneys in private and explained my problem.  They agreed that it would be difficult for me to serve and let me go.  If it were not for the nature of the trial, the children's care, and the medical problem I would have liked serving.