We've Got Guitar Hero!

Well, we've actually had it since March. Caleb generously donated a large portion of his birthday money so that he, Micah and daddy could enjoy the game. I've actually played it twice. Check out the guitar face!

Beit Or Camp Out

Our entire (almost) fellowship went on a camping trip just before it got really hot in Texas. We had a great time! Lots of fun, food and fellowship. We had a wonderful Shabbat admiring God's creation up close, played in a nearby lake and the boys had fun telling scary stories around the campfire.

Whatever Works!

I'm pretty sure you couldn't read like this in public school! One of the many beauties of homeschooling!

Dallas Zoo

We didn't get a lot of pictures, but we went to the Dallas Zoo with some friends from the neighborhood and from church.

I have the goofiest kids!

And I have no idea where they get it! Yes, I do, and it's not me!

Watermelon Fun!

We get to see family often now that we're in Texas and we love it!

Alvin and the Chipmunks in Concert

My kids love Alvin and the Chipmunks, but especially Caleb. I think their love started when we bought a boom box at a yard sale. It had the Tazmanian Devil on the front of it and someone left a cassette tape in the player. It was a bunch of popular songs featuring the Chipmunks singing them. Ever since then, they love them. So when I saw that a local mall was having a mini-concert for free, we had to go.

By the way, it was the first time my children (except for Micah) had EVER been in a mall! To say the least, it was overwhelming for them! The things you don't realize your children haven't done when you live in a small town. Now we're in the big city (at least nearer to one).

First Campout of the Year

The boys wanted to camp out with some of their new friends in March! In Tennessee, this would not have been very comfortable, and I wasn't sure by nightfall it would be comfortable in Texas. But there was no convincing the boys not to do it. So some friends brought their tent over and everyone brought their own sleeping bag and pillow for a night of marshmallows, campfire and fun. WELL.....the first one to go home was Noah - he said it was too crowded. There were 5 boys in a 2 man tent! Then at 11:30pm, Paden came knocked on my bedroom door and said he wanted to go home. So, I drove him home (around the corner). When I went to check on the boys when I got home, I noticed that Dominic was gone! It was really windy and the air was cool. At some point in the night he decided to walk home (around the other corner). So that left Micah and Caleb. They were warm inside the tent, so I left them both there. Not too long after I had gotten back to bed, Micah came up and was upset that he friends were gone. I said go to bed and I went outside and literally had to drag Caleb out of the tent door. He was dead asleep - had no idea he was the only left out there - and, obviously didn't care. The next day everyone came back to clean up the backyard, and decided that mom was right - it was too early to have a campout, even in Texas! The lesson learned - Let your yes be yes, and your no by no!

My Beauty

Sarah is all girl and today we found an unused set of princess fake fingernails and she so wanted them! She is such a little princess!

Happy Purim!

Last night we had a celebration of Purim.

Purim is an annual celebration of the events that happened to those that believe in God while in captivity by Persian Empire after the fall of Babylon.

The story is told in the Book of Esther.

While it is not one of the commanded holy days in the Bible, it is a day of celebration of one of God's miracles. It is also a celebration that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, a Jew, would have celebrated while He walked on this earth.

We broke bread together and shared some wonderful traditional desserts for Purim. John retold the story in the book of Esther. The children and some of the adults dressed-up as one of the characters in the story. During the retelling of the story, every time Haman's name was mentioned, we shook our noisemakers and yelled "Boo." Every time Mordecai was mentioned, we shook our noisemakers and yelled "Yeah."

It was a joyful celebration with wonderful food and wonderful fellowship.

We shared it with some old friends, met some new friends,

and we all learned more about the history of God's people.

Thank you to all who came! Thank you to the gifts and the givers!

Happy Purim!

Spring Equinox Experiment

On the equinoxes (approx. March 20 and September 22) the amount of day and night are of equal length--approximately 12 hours each. There's a "balance" of light and dark at almost all locations on earth.

But some people believe that there is another kind of "balance" on the equinoxes, a special kind of force that will make a raw egg balance on its own end!

Do you think this is true?

Is there some sort of cosmic "balance" that makes eggs stand on their own on the equinoxes, but not on other days?

Is there a scientific way for you to test this?

We did this test for 2 weeks before the equinox and then balanced the same, raw egg on equinox.

Look what happened! It DID balance on the 20th! And it had not balanced before.

Now, we're going to balance the same egg for a few weeks after to see what happens.

Snow in March in Texas?

We actually had some snow here in Texas. Only about enough to make 4 snowballs, but it counted in my kids' book!

Hi Everyone! UPDATE

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged. We've been doing tons of stuff, and I do wish it had been chronicled. But I will give you a run down in one LONG blog!

2008 has started out to be a very good year!

GOD

Our family has found a wonderful fellowship to share the weekly Sabbath (Shabbat) with each week. It is small, but full of families with children. We have made many wonderful, budding friendships there. Each week we learn more and more about the Torah and how Yeshua (Jesus) has been there from the beginning. We share wonderful music of which John is a big part. He recently wrote a song and sang it at service. We host a weeking men's bible study in our home. We also host a monthly Hebrew class. There is so much to learn from the original language of the inspired scriptures. In case you are interested, each week I post the weekly readings. The ladies get together once a month and share scripture and fellowship. It has been a wonderful blessing for our whole family to find this service.

FAMILY

Our famly is really settling in. It almost feels like we've been here all along. We see our relatives on a weekly basis rather than a bi-yearly basis. We share birthdays together. We "pop by" for no reason. For a while we had a standing Thursday movie night with Gram and Grandpa. We need to start that again. John and I are so blessed to have family that we can rely on to take care of our children if we want to go out on a date. Up until we moved here, I think we had 1 date or less per year. We're even getting to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversay by going to Austin for a long weekend at the end of March! Ladies, remember the relationship with your husband. It is what started your family. The chlidren will grow up and have their own families. Make sure when they are gone that you still have a relationship with your spouse!

I'm speaking to myself also!

Our homeschool is thriving. Both boys are studying American History.

Quick story - we were studying the American Revolutionary War (War for Independence) and I was explaining how the Minutemen were outnumbered by the Redcoats, or as Caleb calls them the Lobsterbacks. And Micah said with a tune, "We Won't Back Down!" So, I immediately found a youtube copy of Tom Petty singing his "Won't Back Down" song and we listened to it during the rest of our class. Now how many history classes were you in that you got to sing Tom Petty while learning about the American Revolutionary War. And I bet you don't remember as much as these kids will as a result of attaching a song! Every time we hear the song (like during the Superbowl half-time show), my kids remember what they learned about this war.

Homeschool IS cool!

Caleb is reading well and started writing cursive.

Micah is breezing through school and doing better and better at writing.

Sarah is taking off and just about ready for pre-reading.

And, you may not believe this, but I have a family full of witnesses that my 2 year old Isaac know the sounds of more than half of the letters. If you know anything about the Montessori style of learning, that is a style I have used with my preschoolers - learning letter sounds and writing cursive. Isaac still says only a very few number of words, but I think he's saving up to simply talk in full sentences!

The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has so much to offer for fieldtrips, and we have gone on several. Mostly plays until the weather warms up. We are looking forward to checking out the zoos, parks, museums, etc. We're looking forward to the Mesquite Rodeo this summer.

We recently celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday! It's hard to believe he is 7! I've included a few pics. There is one of Flat Stanley. He's visiting us from our cousins in Pennsylvania!

WORK

John's business has been slow lately. There is so much to learn with a new business. Lots of trial and error. But God has been faithful and as I was typing this entry, we received some very good news about one of our vehicle transations. We stopped to praise our Heavenly Father for the blessing. We know that He has a plan for our family. I pray that it includes my husband to be self-employed, but we will follow whereever God leads us.

We would appreciate your continued prayers.

FRIENDS

We are making many friendships. The children have friends in the neighborhood that as soon as school is out they are off to play. Most of the time our home is the "hub" or as one friend put it "the koolaid house". Everyone comes here! I LOVE it that way. John has made some good friendships with the men at our church fellowship. I have made some budding friendships with some homeschool moms, and of course, my best friend, Kathleen, lives here. I've known her for almost 20 years! WOW, I feel old!

But, alas, we miss all of friends in Tennessee more than we can express. We think of ALL OF YOU so often! I'm so thankful for email. It has made the world much smaller and more accessible. I want all of you to know that if you ever want to come and visit, our door is always open. Do not wait for an invitation. This is the invitation.

No pressure, just know that you are always welcome!

Take care and Shalom (Peace)!

Why My Christian Family Doesn't Observe Christmas

Christmas famously "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" is quite another.
But because both celebrations fall on Dec. 25, the two are constantly confused. Religious Christians condemn taking "the Christ out of Christmas," while First Amendment absolutists see a threat to the separation of church and state in every poinsettia on public property and school dramatization of "A Christmas Carol."

A little history can clear things up.

The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very popular holiday.

In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. That's why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are "moveable feasts," moving about the calendar at the whim of the moon.
It is a mark of how late Christmas came to the Christian calendar that it is not a moveable feast, but a fixed one, determined by the solar calendar established by Julius Caesar and still in use today (although slightly tweaked in the 16th century).

By the time of the Council of Nicea, the Christian Church was making converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing ploy with a little political savvy thrown in.

History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but according to the Gospel of St. Luke, "shepherds were abiding in the field and keeping watch over their flocks by night." This would imply a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals.

So Dec. 25 must have been chosen for other reasons. It is hard to escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system.

By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey noises. In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect a "bishop of fools" to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what was in all but name the Saturnalia.

With the Reformation, Protestants tried to rid the church of practices unknown in its earliest days and get back to Christian roots. Most Protestant sects abolished priestly celibacy (and often the priesthood itself), the cult of the Virgin Mary, relics, confession and . . . Christmas.
In the English-speaking world, Christmas was abolished in Scotland in 1563 and in England after the Puritans took power in the 1640s. It returned with the Restoration in 1660, but the celebrations never regained their medieval and Elizabethan abandon.

There was still no Christmas in Puritan New England, where Dec. 25 was just another working day. In the South, where the Church of England predominated, Christmas was celebrated as in England. In the middle colonies, matters were mixed. In polyglot New York, the Dutch Reformed Church did not celebrate Christmas. The Anglicans and Catholics did.

It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that created the modern American form of the old Saturnalia. It was a much more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the community-wide celebrations of earlier times.

St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.

The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's the time of year when it blooms.

In the 1840s, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," which does not even mention the religious holiday (the word church appears in the story just twice, in passing, the word Nativity never). Prince Albert introduced the German custom of the Christmas tree to the English-speaking world.

In the 1860s, the great American cartoonist Thomas Nast set the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man in a fur-trimmed cap. (The color red became standard only in the 20th century, thanks to Coca-Cola ads showing Santa Claus that way.)
Merchants began to emphasize Christmas, decorating stores and pushing the idea of Christmas presents for reasons having nothing whatever to do with religion, except, perhaps, the worship of mammon.

With the increased mobility provided by railroads and increasing immigration from Europe, people who celebrated Christmas began settling near those who did not. It was not long before the children of the latter began putting pressure on their parents to celebrate Christmas as well. "The O'Reilly kids down the street are getting presents, why aren't we?!" is not an argument parents have much defense against.

By the middle of the 19th century, most Protestant churches were, once again, celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday. The reason, again, had more to do with marketing than theology: They were afraid of losing congregants to other Christmas-celebrating denominations.
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill making the secular Christmas a civil holiday because its celebration had become universal in this country. It is now celebrated in countries all over the world, including many where Christians are few, such as Japan.
So for those worried about the First Amendment, there's a very easy way to distinguish between the two Christmases. If it isn't mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Mark, then it is not part of the Christian holiday. Or we could just change the name of the secular holiday back to what it was 2000 years ago.

Merry Saturnalia, everyone!

Reprinted from an article written by JOHN STEELE GORDON

Wall Street Journal

December 21, 2007; Page A19

Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Matthew 15:7-9

7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

8 ‘ These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Mark 7:6-8

6He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

7They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

Isaiah 29:13

13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

More Information

And one more source

Festival of Lights

We will be celebrating for the first time this year the Festival of lights or the Festival of dedication, also known as Hanukkah. It is interesting to note that our Savior, Jesus, likely observed this date as it is mentioned as a point of reference in scripture (John 10:22-39). It would be much like you or I would use July 4^th as a point of reference when speaking of that time of year.

Hanukkah (sometimes spelled Chanukah), is observed for eight days, beginning on the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev. This year it starts at sundown, Tuesday, December 4th, and lasts for eight days thru Wednesday, December 12th. While it is not one of God’s commanded Holy Days (His Feasts) described in the bible (Leviticus 23; also read Matthew 5:18), it is a wonderful remembrance of a historical date that included miracles from God. It is a time of renewed dedication, faith, hope and spirituality. It's a time that says: "Never lose hope." Hanukkah commemorates the victory, through the miracles of God, of a small band of Maccabees over the pagan Syrian-Greeks who ruled over Israel.

Over 2300 years ago in Judea (Israel) there lived many Hebrews. There also lived a very wicked man called King Antiochus IV. Antiochus ordered all the Jewish people to give up their God, religion, and customs and worship only the Greek Gods. By his orders Jewish temples were destroyed or used for his pagan purposes and those Jews who would not worship how he commanded were severely punished.

Some of the Jewish people chose to obey Antiochus, but others refused. Now one of these men who refused to worship the Greek gods was Judah Maccabee. Judah had four brothers and together they formed an army with as many as would join with them. Their goal was to defeat the Syrians that oppressed them so that the Jewish people could be free to worship, as they believed. They chose to call themselves Maccabees, which means hammer. The Maccabees and the Syrians fought for about three years until finally the Maccabees defeated the Syrians and reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem.

Their first priority was to clean and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem to the service of God. So they washed and scrubbed the temple clean and removed the Greek symbols and idols from within the walls. Now they were ready to rededicate it unto God (165 BCE). Remember Chanukah/Hanukkah means "rededication". The only problem was that Judah and the Judean heroes could not find any blessed oil (olive oil) to light the lamps. They searched and searched. Finally, in one of the Temple chambers they discovered a very small cruse of oil.

According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the flames of the menorah burned and burned and burned and burned and burned and burned and burned and burned. For eight days they burned. (I bet you counted). Those eight miraculous days were chosen as the eternal symbol to commemorate the miracle of Chanukah - the eight day long Festival of Lights, where we light the Menorah each evening, publicizing the miracle God performed more than 2000 years ago.

There are many additional traditions with which many people are familiar with Hanukkah. Special blessings are prayed at the evening lighting of each candle. There is the dreidel game, which is a four-sided, spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. In Israel the letters mean "A Miracle Happened Here.” Traditionally, fried foods including latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts) are served representing the oil that burned in the menorah. And some have even incorporated gift giving on each of the eight days. However, none of the traditions have anything to do with what the historical date truly represents.

It is interesting to read about Yeshua (Jesus) being the "light of the world" understanding that his fire can never be quenched. Similarly, the Menorah was sustained throughout the entire dedication period with only enough oil for one day - the "Miracle" of the Feast of Dedication or Lights.

Wishing you a happy time of remembrance of our Savior’s and each of our ancestry.

Break a Leg! Kick the Bucket! I'm Keeping My Eye on You!

Amongst studying about all of the early explorers and finishing a long study on the Pilgrims and Puritans and their journey to the New World and their early, harsh life, we decided to look at the Arts side of that time period. And who best to study but William Shakespeare. My older 2 are only 9 and 6, so it was not an intense study, but a very informative and fun one. We learned that William Shakespeare was a very famous playwright and that we still today use tons of the idioms (check the title) that he wrote for his plays. We also learned that he wrote many sonnets. And we attempted to write our very own. The creative juices flowed a lot easier when I agreed to be the scriber of this sonnet. The boys came up with the words that rhymed and then I helped them make the sentences. I must say, some of the rhymes were a challenge to make work, but then that was the point, right? All the beautiful poems and sonnets we read seem to just flow, bt I'm sure it took a lot of work to write some of them. After we wrote this, Micah titled it.

God's Creation
by Mommy, Micah and Caleb

The world is a vast space
And our God is the praise.
Filled with creatures all over the place
And even a child that plays.

The animals roam loose
And the trees are colored rust.
The camel and lion and goose,
God created even man from dust.

The world seems in a rush
And so many choices of roads.
The animals may be the crush,
As the tires go over the toads.

Yes, the rush and crush of time
Must be the worst type of crime.