We're moving along....

It's day number 46! Janelle has a few more days logged than that since she began over the summer, but Jordyn is excited that her number line is growing l-o-n-g-e-r!

My Gacko

I LOVE my Gacko (aka 'my jacket')! Everyday I ask Mommy to get it for me so that I can go outside. Sometimes I cannot go out, but that doesn't matter, I wear my gacko anyway! It's especially handy if I need to stuff extra bits of breakfast or lunch into the pockets. Gackos are wonderful--you can wipe your nose on it, stuff animals in it, unzip it and ask Mommy to rezip it several times a day, and a bunch of other things. Though I have several gackos around, this one is my favorite because it's soft on the inside. If Mommy would let me wear it to nap, I would! But that's not happening she says. Oh, well...when I wake up the gacko goes back on anyway. Do you have a favorite gacko too?

He Speaks!

Josiah said his first 3 word sentence recently. At almost two years old, he has an abundance of words and while he's been stringing two of them together for a bit, he's decided to expand his skills.

What was this flash of brilliance worthy of blogging?

"I NEED THAT!"

Need I say more?

Stories of our Faith

Wanting to focus some on the history of Christianity, last week we took time to read a story of courageous action in the life of Martin Luther. After listening to Mom read an excerpt from the book Trial and Triumph, the girls chose to act out the story of the posting of his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. Jordyn was a poor woman buying indulgences and Janelle represented the church council. Dear Mom was Martin Luther ("because you know the story best Mommy"). Scenes switched as we rehearsed the ripple effect of one man's questioning and searching. We became the printers who spread copies of the theses throughout Germany and Europe; then we were the ones who threatened Martin not to speak out. Finally, we acted out the common German people who were happy to receive the Bible in their own language after Luther had translated it for them.

After the hulabaloo of costume changes and such, we took time to remember examples from the life of Jesus....another courageous man who defied the empty religious practices of his day to bring hope to others. We prayed for courage and strength for ourselves, that we too would not simply point others towards outward practices, but toward relationship with a real God.

Our time ended with a rousing rendition of one of Luther's hymns, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". Janelle led by playing the melody line on the piano, Jordyn pranced & danced around, and Josiah tried to be heard above the music as he yelled for someone to get him his sippy cup.

It was a beautiful time. :o)

The Girl, The Grasshopper and The Owl

No, this not the title of an Aesop fable. It's the pictoral adventure of one young girl who loves science! We didn't catch the specimens ourselves :o), but ordered a dissection kit from Home Science Tools which included a frog, an earthworm and a grasshopper. Thinking it would be a good idea to do a 'dry' dissection, we worked on the owl pellet kit as well. Very interesting! And owl swallows its prey whole and regurgitates a pellet containing all of the bones.

Here are a few pics of the dissections Janelle has worked on so far:

taking a look at the owl pellet...

separating out the bones...

and the grasshopper...

(Jordyn suggested that we not show close up pictures because 'it might make people sick').