Ark Academy

Wow...it's been a long time since I've blogged. Life has been very busy. Plus, I have been horrible about managing my time. I love to be organized, but unfortunately The Container Store doesn't have anything to help me put all of the things that take up my time into pretty little boxes.

I have had a lot on my mind, like I said we've been pretty busy. One of the biggest things that my family has been going through is attitudes. Big, bad, ugly attitudes! Not just from the kids either:( We ended up taking a whole week off of academics and focused on Bible studies and doing things together, trying to get our focus back where it should be. I LOVE that I am able to do this! How awesome is it that we can focus a whole week on Bible, or anything for that matter. In fact, today I helped Bear with his math cuddled under a blanket, while it was sleeting outside. Home school has it's ups and downs, but I sure do love the ups! :)

I've blogged quite some time ago about naming our school. We named it Excalibur Academy. This is a great name, I think, but the boys were having trouble even saying it, plus we are just really needing a fresh start. A new beginning for our school. So *drum roll* Ark Academy it is! Ark stand for Armor of Righteous Knights. You see, my knight and I are raising little modern day knights. That is why we went with a Medieval theme to begin with, but it's not just because we think knights are cool, we want them to become righteous men. Men willing and desiring to stand firm in Christ. Plus, the name Ark is also in memory of our son Todd. We did his nursery in the Noah's Ark theme and everytime I see something Noah's ark I think of him. The past few years I've struggled with God not giving me a specific ministry, kind-of in memory of Todd or an outlet for my loss. All along my ministry was staring at me in the face. My family, my children.

I don't have any pictures to share this time...that's one of the things my knight will be doing this weekend :)But soon I'm going to be making some changes to my blog and also blogging more often :) Have a great weekend!

The Best Day Ever!

This week we've been having lots of fun. I've heard the boys say, 'This is the best day ever!' almost everyday this week. :) This season we made an Advent Calendar that has a Bible verse and an activity to do each day. If you want more details on how we made it you can visit my other blog http://growingtowardsthelight.blogspot.com/
The boys had a lot of fun the other day when they did the activity planned. Surprise daddy with an early Christmas gift! We gave him a Bobba Fett mug...Monkey couldn't wait for him to open it, because of the candy inside.

We've also been reading lots of great Christmas books. Monkey's favorite was J is for Jesus. I think that's because he got to eat a candy cane while hearing the story. In the photo he's trying to put the "J" back together after he bit into it before I could take the picture. Of course his brothers joined in on the fun.

Bahumbug...no wait, Merry Christmas!

The above pictures are of what's helping me to keep my focus this Christmas. I keep slipping into this BLAH mood, sad I know. Things just keep creaping up...divorce...sickness...finances... It seems as soon as I get a chance to breath, something else takes my breath away. Fortunately, God knows my limit, even though I thought I reached it a long time ago...is it possible for God to stretch your limit? I don't know if I like that idea. Well, that's the bahumbug part...

This Christmas I have had the chance to witness generiousity, joy, excitement, love, and sacrifice. Actually, not only witness it, but fell it and be a part of it. This Christmas I've seen my baby put his "guys" in the nativity so they can see Jesus. This Christmas I've spent time with my family, really spent quality time with my family. This Christmas will be a merry Christmas!

It looked like...chocolate

This week we started our month long unit on Harvest and The Fruit of the Spirit. I'm using the book The Apple Pie Tree for Monkey. We talked about the four seasons and started making a book. The book is four pages, on each page is a picture of the stages of the apple tree. Monkey really enjoys painting! In the picture below he was painting the page of the apple tree in the winter. He said, "Mommy you know what this looks like?" I bet you can imagine what I thought he was going to say, but he surprised me by saying, "Chocolate!"

Bear has been doing a Fruit of the Spirit lapbook, which I got through Curriclick. I wrote the different fruits of the spirit on a ball and played a game with the boys. We tossed the ball around and when you caught the ball you had to pick a fruit and share a way in which you could model that fruit. Bear picked faith. He said, "I can show faith when I tell people about Jesus".

Growing towards the Light

Well it won't be long now and Fall will come to a close and winter will be upon us. At least that's the way it's suppose to go...but this weather has been crazy! We had a lot of fun the other day, when the above picture was taken. The boys had leaves all in their clothes :)

I'm starting a new study with the boys. I'm not sure what to call it...it will be on apples, seeds, vines, fruit of the spirit... I guess you could say it's on spiritual growth. This will mainly be for Bear, to encourage his Christian walk. But, I'm sure Monkey will have lots of fun with all of the things we do also. Maybe I'll call it Growing Towards the Light. In fact, I plan on starting another blog strictly for this...more later.

Today we started out the study by reading two books: The Apple Pie Tree and We Plant a Seed. We pretty much just talked about the stories and how we can compare ourselves to plants. Plants need light, soil, and water in order to grow, just as we need certain things in order to grow in our relationship with Christ. Bear mentioned the Bible, church, and nice friends that help us 'be a better Christian' We talked about how plants grow towards the light, just as we should be growing towards the Light...Jesus Christ. Just reading and talking with Bear was so easy to do, so enjoyable, and so meaningful to both of us. Monkey loved the stories, but did end up falling asleep in my lap :)

Hopefully I'll have the new blog up and going soon! Happy Fall!

Living Victoriously

To here our story visit my first entry... http://toddlittlelamb.blogspot.com/2008/07/nacham.html

Life is changing right before my very eyes. Fall, the season of leaves changing colors, and cooler weather. Plus, Bear will be 7 tomorrow and Monkey will be 4 in December...

October is a special month for me. A month of memories. A month of healing. A month of growing. It's been 8 years since we lost Todd. It's a weird feeling being able to talk to Bear about his brother in Heaven. We talked the other day about how it was sad for us saying goodbye to him. It was amazing to be able to talk to Bear about how even though it was hard and so sad, God gave us hope and healed our hearts. But, He didn't stop there. He gave us happiness and blessed us with a son, one year and four days later, and then another, and then another. Three sons to raise!

We aren't the only ones who have gone through pain and struggles. The world is filled with people hurting...and God wants to minister to each of us. We can live our lives victoriously, not just barely making it through, but living a life full of joy and love and hope!

Life is changing...God will never change...

A conversation to share: This took place while waiting for slushes at Sonic...
'Hey lady, you mind turning your music down?' 'Oh, sure sorry to bother you.' (I proceeded to pretend to turn it down) 'I don't like that Bible thumping music' 'What bothers you about it?' (the whole time I'm trying not to upchuck in his face, very nervous) 'I'm a good person and work hard, I don't need God' 'Well, I don't know what I would do without God' (thinking in my mind what do I say to this guy, I sound so stupid) 'Ya, well He's never done anything for me.' 'But, He has, He died for everyone so that we can live through Him' (slushes came...his order too...Bible songs playing in the background, louder than before)
I have never had a conversation like this before. The man left before anything else was said. But I got the chance to share a little, with the boys in the back seat, and all because of a cd! So, turn up the music!

This is the cd we were listening to: http://www.worshipmusic.com/spd1245.html

Excalibur Academy

Let me just get the negative out of the way, so the rest can be nothing but positive. The joys of homeschooling have been few and far between this week! Bear is growing up so fast and he seems to be going through some changes. From losing his first tooth to gaining more attitude...things have been interesting around here.

The thing is I never thought I would home school. I just couldn't picture it, I had other plans, so did my husband. But, one thing I'm staring to learn (even though you'd think I would have learned it by now)God had other plans. It just seemed like the more we prayed about it the more confident we were that homeschooling the boys was the right thing to do. I say that we will just take it one year at a time...

I've been learning a lot lately about plans. Lesson plans, plans for the day, plans for our future, and my ability (or lack) to make them. It seems like every time I make a plan to do something or try to schedule our day it falls through! It's frustrating for someone who tends to be a little bit of a control freak. Anyway, I'm a slow learner, but I'm learning to ask God for help, to actually invite Him to make the plans for me. This may sound a little odd, but it works. It's not like He actually says, 'O.k. Amy you need to give Bear a lesson on fractions and then do handwriting.' Although that would be EXTREMELY convenient! But, He does speak to me in other ways. I feel a peace about my day. I'm able to let go of things that are not important and focus on my students. My sons. The thing that is not important is house cleaning, of course.

Excalibur Academy is the name of our school. We (meaning my sister,Karen) picked the name because it has a medieval sound to it and we (meaning my knight in shining armor and me)always say we are raising little knights. I want my boys to grow up to be men of chivalry. The ones that will open doors for women, the ones that will honor women, the ones that will always look to their King. Needless to say our little squires keep us busy!

So, I'll just end in saying that I'm not sure what the future holds exactly (even though that is a little annoying) but, I do know that God does and maybe it's best that I don't know everything...maybe. Until that time comes I will just have to trust God with the details.

Monkey loves to use his clothes pin counting cards.


We started a study on China. Here's Bear using chopsticks.


Puppy love stopping to smell the flowers.