tick tock tick tock

Yes, time keeps marching on and we flew through another week!

FirstMan is plugging steadily away at Hebrew 2 on Monday nights, and he's to the exciting part of "parsing verbs"...in Hebrew...which you read from right to left, each letter from top to bottom because the vowels are tacked underneath the consonants since the language was created without vowels. Confused enough? I am!

Sis and Wilsonator are both preparing for a song and dance performance next Thursday at school. We think Michael needs to hop on a flight as soon as he returns from AZ because they're doing a D.isney revue!!! Sis's class is dancing to "Make_way_for_Prince_Ali" and I can't remember offhand what Wilsonator's is doing, but I know he'll know 'em!! I'll try and get some video clips. Sis is in a track club this spring and is enjoying forging some new friendships there on Monday and Thursdays after school. Wilsonator is one happy guy to have his best SC buddy here to spend the night tonight and hang out with us all day tomorrow!

Xanman has had some up and down days. He tries SO very hard to be obedient at school, and he had to "pull a stick" for the first time recently. He was ashamed to tell us, but just as God in Christ has forgiven, so did we...and so did his wonderful teacher who loves the Lord as well! It's been so neat getting to know the teachers at school and how many of them have a relationship with our Lord and Savior! Xan got a pretty short haircut this week, and was feeling a bit self conscious that everyone would make fun of him. One of his close friends did laugh, just because he looks much different, and you can imagine the drama that ensued each time he related that to one of us in the family (especially to me since I'm the one to blame for holding the scissors!).

Ray is catching on fast to word recognition and letter sounds. Do we really have to wait 2 more years for kindergarten? I'm thinking about starting it at home with him this fall already! Over the last month or so, he's been sorting out his "ths" and f or phs". Example: "I'm free...no I'm THREE." (that was back in January), now he's on to "I can do that myselth!!!" You see, we told him that the "f or ph" sound he was mistaking should the "th"...so his little compartmentalizing brain assumes that EVERYTHING that was once thought to be "f or ph" is actually "th". One way I'm helping him out of that is our twice weekly trip to a store here in town called Ear.thFare, and we carefully sound it out each time we go or talk about going.

My Womens Min courses are on break this week, as we finished our 5_aspects class last week...what a neat study! I encourage you to check out the link and consider that as an in depth devotional at home if you don't get the opportunity to study it as a group. There were a few minor things that we disputed as "unwarranted liberties" in some of the analogies, but the completeness in sifting the Old and New Testament on feminine subjects and themes was incredible! One of my new favorite passages that really came to life in this study was Psalm 45, and to stop and ponder Ezekiel 16 was just mind blowing!!

As a family, we're also working on changing some unhealthy habits in our kitchen these days. It's been fun to get our juicer out and start our days with fresh veggie/fruit blend juices in the mornings. The kids have been SO great in trying new things and eating their big salad before the main dish every night. I was excited to discover a way to make homemade ranch dressing that is completely zero refined sugar, msg, preservative and dairy free (and it's not made from tofu) LOL! Even Xanman can have 'ranch dressing' now, and you literally can tell NO difference in the taste from what's in the K.raft bottle at the grocery store! Our menu is steadily changing and we're learning together as a family how God designed our bodies in a wonderful way to fight disease, to have self control over our desires (yes, even for unhealthy food!), and that He created us in the beginning as plant eaters-so we can confidently know that these are the very best foods for us. Being wise stewards of what we've been given also includes the body He gave us to live in while we are here, and we desire to serve Him with energy and vigor!

Hope everyone had a great week, and as the clock keeps ticking away, let's rejoice that we're one week closer to Christ!