Great Wolf Lodge

We just returned from our first vacation ever!! We took a short 3 hour drive to Grapevine, TX and went to the Great Wolf Lodge. It is a huge indoor water park and hotel. We arrived about 1:00, stayed the night and played the next day until time to head home. We had a great time, but were completely waterlogged!!! We met my brother and sister-in-law there with their three kids and all of the kids had a great time together.

There's A Storm in the Night next week

Next week we will be rowing A Storm in the Night. I think that this will be a great time to row this book since we are heading into Tornado season here in Oklahoma.

We will also be reading the following go alongs:

It Looks Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw

Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman

The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola

We will also be doing a cloud experiment that I will post on later, a rain experiment, making an emergency kit in case of bad weather, a little cloud watching, and some cloud snacks.

I will post on all of our fun throughout next week.

BFS # 125 Let Your Fingers Do The Walking (Yellow Pages)

Memory Verse: Ephesians 6: 10-18 10 Finally, grow powerful in union with the Lord, in union with his mighty strength! Use all the armor and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So take up every piece of war equipment God provides; so that when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist; and when the battle is won, you will still be standing. Therefore, stand! Have the belt of truth buckled around your waist, put on righteousness for a breastplate, and wear on your feet the readiness that comes from the Good News of shalom. Always carry the shield of trust, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the helmet of deliverance; along with the sword given by the Spirit, that is, the Word of God; as you pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people.

Introduction: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking (Yellow Pages) I have deviated from the traditional Memory Verse.. in that usually we take one of the words in the slogan and seek a scripture that uses that word, but today I’m using the concept of what Yellow Pages is all about.. seeking and finding. I used the word Walking.. which made me think of shoes.. and this set of verses is exactly what I want to share. This assignment will be tougher than those of the last few weeks.. take your time, you can always do it late. Put on that full armor and study God’s word, so that you can more fully understand what He wants you to learn from it. This scripture from Ephesians is exhorting us to be armed - fully armed - to stand against HaSatan - the Adversary. The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. I want us to dig deeper into God’s Word, and to really let our fingers do the walking through the resources we have available to us - books, internet - and really seek to find the true meaning of His Word. Don’t worry, I’m no expert, I’ll be learning to do this along with you all.

Assignment: I’d like you to choose a word, find the Hebrew or Greek original word, and then dig into it’s full meaning. Use things like the Strong’s Concordance or the Gesenius and find the root of the word. What is the first occurrence of that word in scripture? What did that word mean in that first occurrence? Did the meaning of the word change as God used it in scripture? Now find some verses in scripture that use that word, and like The Message Bible does, re-write that scripture using the full meaning that you now understand to illuminate that scripture verse. What kinds of words should you look up? I’m going to do fire.. but you could look up water, altar, sacrifice, prayer, washing, or any word that you feel God is asking you to understand better. If you feel challenged to, when you find the Hebrew word, look up the meaning of the letters in the root word. The Hebrew letters themselves have meaning, and give meaning to the word.


Okay, this is not my gift, so here I go doing the best of my ability and if I get it all completely wrong...please forgive me and I hope I don't offend anyone in the process. With all that being said, here I go:


The scripture I chose is Revelations 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it].

This is the verse in Greek:

17ὁ ἔ.χων_ οὖς ἀ.κου.σά.τω τί τὸ πνεῦ.μα λέ.γει ταῖς ἐκ.κλη.σί.αις· τῷ νι.κοῦν.τι δώ.σω αὐ.τῷ τοῦ μάν.να τοῦ κεκ.ρυμ.μέ.νου, καὶ δώ.σω αὐ.τῷ ψῆ.φον λευ.κήν, καὶ ἐ.πὶ τὴν ψῆ.φον ὄ.νο.μα και.νὸν γεγ.ραμ.μέ.νον, ὃ οὐ.δεὶς οἶ.δεν εἰ μὴ ὁ λαμ.βά.νων_.


I decided to do a word for word translation of this verse instead of one word

ἔχω - to have, to hold, that is to say, to have and hold, implying present, continued having, or lasting possession.



οὖς - an ear



ἀκούω - to hear, intransitive, to have the faculty of hearing; transitive, to hear, perceive with the ears; to give ear, listen; to hear, that is to say, to learn by hearing, be informed



τίς - any one, a certain one, when emphatic, it denotes somebody important, something great.



ὁ - hence, his



πνεῦμα - to draw breath



λέγω - to lay, lay together, to collect; then, to lay before,



ὁ - hence, his



ἐκκλησία - The entire community of all who are called by and to Christ out of the world, the Church universal



ὁ - hence, his



νικάω - to be victorious, come off victor, conquer



δίδωμι - giving freely unforced



αὐτός - very, self, joined with each of the persons, with the third person, not simply he, but he himself, he and no other. Always emphatic



ὁ - hence, his



μάννα - manna, the miraculous food with which God fed the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness



ὁ - hence, his



κρύπτω - to hide, cover, cloak; conceal, keep secret, to keep covered for purposes of concealment



καί - connects thoughts;



δίδωμι - giving freely unforced



αὐτός - very, self, joined with each of the persons, with the third person, not simply he, but he himself, he and no other. Always emphatic



ψῆφος - a small stone worn smooth by water, a pebble; hence, any polished stone, a gem, stone of a ring. Also, of the black and white stones used anciently in voting, viz. the black for condemnation, the white for approval or acquittal



λευκός - light, that is to say emitting light, bright, brilliant, shining, glittering; and hence, radiant white



καί - connects thoughts;



ἐπί - upon



ὁ - hence, his



ψῆφος - a small stone worn smooth by water, a pebble; hence, any polished stone, a gem, stone of a ring. Also, of the black and white stones used anciently in voting, viz. the black for condemnation, the white for approval or acquittal



ὄνομα - that by which one is known, the name by which a person or thing is called; hence, the proper name or appellation of a person.



καινός - new, that is to say newly made; not merely recent, but different from that which had been formerly; new, as coming in the place of a thing that was formerly, and as not yet used



γράφω - to grave, or cut in



ὅς - perchance, perhaps, giving a stamp of uncertainty, and implying a dependence on circumstances



οὐδείς - not one, no one, nothing



εἴδω - to perceive



εἰ - if, putting the condition simply



μή - not



ὁ - hence, his



λαμβάνω - to take, take hold of, apprehend, to take or receive from another; to take what is given; hence, receive, pointing to an objective reception

Originally I just wanted to translate "in the stone a new name written", but after I got started, I decided to see how I interpreted the translation. So here is the Kerri Version:

Those who have an ear that can hear the manifestation of God should gather together all who are called by and to Christ; and each person who yields to Him will enjoy a taste of how saints and angels live in heaven, and He will give freely to each person a polished radiant white stone symbolizing acquittal and cut into this stone will be a name different than which he has been formally known, that he can not perceive until he takes what is given. Revelations 2:17

Whew!! This was a tough assignment but also a great way to get into the bible. I bookmarked this page that I used for translation to use again anytime I am not sure I fully understand a verse. Now I need to go give my brain a serious rest!!

Madeline Wrap Up Party

Today we had our Madeline wrap up party. This has been a great book and one that we will probably row again in the future. We started the day by talking about symmetry. This was a much easier concept for her to grasp than I thought it would be. We flipped through the book and she would tell me which pictures we symmetrical and asymmetrical. We also did a craft in which we folded a piece of paper in half and then made drops of paint on one side of the paper and then folded the paper in half. We really smashed and rubbed the paper together and then we opened it back up to see that both sides were now symmetrical.

Reagan is a picky eater so we had to be creative with our "French food" for our wrap up. We decided to made "French" bread pizza and I made a cake that looked like Madeline's hat. The cake didn't turn out perfect, but she liked it.

Madeline Day 4

Before we started rowing Madeline, I wanted to get Reagan a Madeline doll. Boy did this turn out to be much bigger than I anticipated, but isn't that always the case. After much searching, I found one on ebay and won the bid.

The doll arrived today in great condition and she was sooooo excited when she opened it.

We watched the Madeline movie today and she held on to her doll. We also started discussing our wrap up of this unit and what we would cook. I think this will be fun for all of us.

Her is Reagan and the Madeline doll. We took the picture in front of our map with her pointing to France.

Madeline Day 3

We started out our day by finishing up our study of France. We decided to learn a couple of words in French today. We kept it simple and learned Bonjour and Oui. Reagan really liked learning another language and decided we should use these two during the rest of our Madeline study.

After this we went into talking about germs. We talked about how germs are transmitted from one person to another by the way of direct contact or by touching objects others have touched. We then did an experiment about handwashing to show her how long you have to wash your hands to get all the germs off, not just run them under water and go.

First we coated her hands with vegetable oil and then sprinkles lots of course black pepper on her hands and had her rub it in. No only could she see the "germs", but she could feel them as she rubbed the pepper in.

We then went to the bathroom and she washed, and washed, and washed until the pepper was all gone. It was really neat for her to see the pepper left on the faucet knob after she had turned it on and the pepper left sticking to the sides of the sink. This was really a great visual. We talked about how long it takes to properly wash our hands.

Yeah! All clean.

BFS # 124 - The Easy Button

Memory Verse - Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.2 Chronicles 7:14-16

Introduction - I thought that I would hit the “easy button” this week and not only make the assignment light, but also give us a chance to get to know each other better through prayer.

Assignment - This week I would like you to post any prayer requests you have. What is going on in your life that you need prayer warriors for? Feel free to post an unspoken request if you feel it is too personal. Then if you would just take the time to visit as many other BFS buddies as possible, pray for them and then leave them a little note letting them know that you have prayed or will be praying.

My prayer requests this week are:

For the Lords protection over our health

For my daughters to continue to grow in Christ and make the right decisions

For my son to come the know the Lord and accept Him

For a better attitude for myself when it comes to work and family issues.

Goodbye My Friend

After weeks of searching and keeping hope that our sweet dog scooby might still be alive somewhere, we have come to accept that we might not ever see him again. It was almost a week ago that he got out of our back yard, he had done this before but had always come straight around to the front door.



I have had signs up. No response. I went to the pound. No scooby.



So, here I go.



Scooby lived for 14 years. A long life for a Maltese. He had so many cute qualities like the fact that he skipped when he walked and hiding from us UNDER the covers when he didn't want to go outside. He is survived by his best bud and cohort in crime Daphne (our other Maltese). In the end he was deaf, blind and could be quite the grumpy old man, but we still loved to love on him. We have had him so long, I almost don't remember what was like when he wasn't with us. Sadness, such terrible sadness that he is gone.



I would love to see him come to the front door tomorrow and be able to delete this post, but I really don't think that will happen.

BFS #123 - ABC's of Praise

Introduction: This is a steal, literally, because I found it on Facebook and decided to use it this week. This is an expression of Praises to God- using the ABC’s. I thought this would be a good way to be able to Praise God and use every letter of the alphabet!

Assignment: Try to think of one thing you can say to the glory of God- one thing to thank Him for, a positive thing you can say about Him, or one of His Names-using each letter of the alphabet. You are allowed to make up words- if you can justify them by making it clear what you mean- and you may also use any foreign language (but please explain what it means) - and you can also use a thesaurus or dictionary if you get stumped. I’m putting my list below so you’ll have to copy and paste this then remove my answers. It’s a bit of a challenge but I think you’ll enjoy it. Have fun with it!


A - Always available
B - Blessings abound
C - Creator
D - Darkness without Him
E - Excited to meet Him
F - Free ( salvation)
G - Great provider
H - Helps those in need
I - Invincible
J- Jesus freak - wish I could be more like them
K - King
L - Loving
M - Most High
N - Nails in His hands for us.
O - the ONE
P - Praise
Q - Quietly (listen quietly for His voice)
R - Repentance
S - Superior
T - Trust
U - Understanding
V - Vast (His love for us)
W - Wonderful
X - eXpert
Y - Yours (for the asking)
Z - Zestfully - pursue him zestfully

France and Madeline

Today is our second day of rowing Madeline. Today we focused on Paris and France.

We worked on a couple of mini books and fold outs that we found on home school share. The first one was a tour of France and came with pictures of different structures that the artist had included in Madeline. Reagan had a bunch of fun trying to find the different pictures. I had also checked out a book from the library on France and we would also look up the pictures in there and get a whole different view. There were several night time pictures with the structure all lit up.
We then colored the flag of France and she had to write the continent that France is located in and then pick France out in a picture of that continent.
Her favorite activity was the Madeline doll cut-outs. She thought they were so cute and we had fun putting them in two rows of six. We then used them to do some adding and subtracting. We will be using these all week for math and any other activity we can use them for.

Madeline

This week we will be rowing Madeline from FIAR. Reagan really likes this book and I knew she would be excited. We have read the book before, but have not rowed it. I had the table all set up to surprise her when she awoke on Monday morning. As expected she was all smiles.

This was the table when she awoke in the morning. She immediately started questioning me about the toothbrush and soap, and the number 12. The mystery of it all makes her so excited to get started and figure it all out.