First Day of (Home)school!

Although we've been working on learning activities for a while now, today was our first "official" day of school! Our schedule so far is:

Brush teeth
Breakfast
Chores
Bible
Unit Studies (a 4 week study on gardens)
Lunch
Math
Science
Piano

However, I see that Bri's already switched science & unit studies on our wall chart so we'll see how it goes tomorrow...

Things didn't go completely without a hitch - our first attempt at the science experiment flopped, the second nearly caught fire:

But finally on our third attempt we created...FRANKENPUPPY!

So your first thought might be that the picture's upside down. It's not.
Ok, maybe that wasn't your first thought, but I'm sure it would have crossed your mind eventually if you looked close enough. Guess the secret to our fresh clean scent is out.. Anyway, at this point we couldn't be too picky  - it looked similar to what we were going for and wasn't on fire.

I know it's hard to tell but the blue jewel is its eye, the green push pins are the collar and the binder clips are some sort of cage to keep it from escaping...or something like that.

Also worth noting, you'd think the smell of melting soap might be pleasant but I can assure you that's not the case. At all. Burnt soap is slightly worse.

For dinner Bri made homemade pizzas and they were ON FIRE! Just kidding, they were delicious. I couldn't get her to smile for the picture though, she says that she's not smiling again until her front teeth come in.

I'll post pictures of her "gardens" tomorrow. We planted lots of great stuff and can't wait to see it grow!

My Testimony

I struggled with this post a bit, ok...a lot, because although I've lived my testimony, I've never shared it other than in brief conversations. I hope that by writing this down I and others can see how God has been working in my life even when I wasn't aware of His presence and that it will help me to share the way that God has become the source and strength of everything I do now.
I was raised in the church but had ran into the world as fast as I could fallen away during college. I tried doing things my way for many years but that just left me lost, frustrated and crying for help. I started feeling God's call in my life several years ago and was getting back into church when my friend's daughter was in a serious accident that nearly took her life.
The accident had a profound effect on me and I started thinking about my children and the "age of accountability", something that I'd heard of before but didn't really know anything about so I started seeking answers from God's word. We joined Fellowship of the Woodlands where my oldest daughter was baptized in June of 2008.
A short time later my grandmother's church in the country partnered with a small church in my neighborhood for GA camp and my daughter was invited. After camp we started taking her there for GA's on Wednesday nights and soon we started coming on Sundays as well. North Woods Baptist welcomed us as family and had such an amazing focus on God that we knew that this is where we were meant to be.
I was baptized when I was 8 but was ready to rededicate my life so when my husband became a Christian we chose to be baptized together as a public symbol of our new life in Christ.
The story doesn't end there. Actually this is where it begins and I will add to it, God willing as He allows as we live out His word in our daily lives.

And So It Begins!

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.  Proverbs 16:3, NIV