Great day

Today was rather uneventful but great nonetheless. Now that I’m reflecting on the entire week…I love home schooling. (That’s no secret though.)

The devotion was about the Girls Scout’s promise “…to serve God and country…to help people and to live by the Girl Scout law.” In Matthew 5:16 it is written, “In the same way let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father.”

JD was extremely sleep this morning and struggled to get out of bed. We got started late so he read “Hero’s don’t Run” independently this afternoon. I read the Purpose Driven Life this evening because I didn’t want to go two days without reading it. Today’s title was “How Real Servants Act.” (We all know Jesus set the bar high when he demonstrated that as the son of God he too was a servant. So What makes us any different?) Did you God may test your heart by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped for? Rick helps us understand this by defining six characteristics. 1. Real servants make themselves available to serve. Not only when it’s convenient. So every morning we all need to remind ourselves that we are God’s servant. That way when he throws a wrench in our plans we won’t freak out. 2. Real servants pay attention to needs. Seize the moment when there’s a need and don’t put off until tomorrow what we can do today. 3. Real servants do their best with what they have. The bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” It doesn’t have to be perfect either; God uses it and blesses it. 4. Real servants do every task with equal dedication. I personally don’t have a problem doing jobs at the church which could be classified as “beneath me.” I have a problem being the 20% doing it all the time. I guess this characteristic hit me the hardest. I just need to do what needs to be done as though I’m doing it for God himself. 5. Real servants are faithful to their ministry. I know these people and am disappointed when my children’s ministries suffer because of lack of commitment. I try hard never to be this servant. 6. Real servants maintain a low profile. Meaning don’t do “eye service.” I really don’t know any of these servants in my church. I do however see it down Main Street when every other month there is a new church open. There are 8 churches on that street!

Math was fairly easy to do today. It was very similar to yesterday’s lesson. Only today they taught the area of parallelograms and triangles. A parallelogram is a four sided shape. When you cut it in half from corner to corner you have a triangles. We used the skills we learned from yesterday to solve all kinds of “area” questions. JD really mastered this quickly. (I’m going to need a tutor.)

JD got almost all the way through his keyboarding lesson when he got distracted at hit the “full screen” button. This made him lose all the work he had already accomplished and brought him all the way back to the start. He was working on Level 4, Stage 10. This lesson incorporated the letters “x” and “z.” They do “warm-up” first. Then, the left hand and right hand next. The last step was working with both hands while typing sentences. I re-typed the lesson and got him caught up to where he was prior to losing it all. I wanted him to get through the whole lesson.

We utilized the edit/rewrite time to finish typing the superhero story called “Bombhard.” (Yes, one word.) It’s of course a fictional story that incorporated characters, setting, plot, cause and effect. (Thank goodness that one’s done.)

The health lesson today was called “Have a safe and fun time.” I loved this lesson. It taught him safety about the following topics: car, biking, swimming, fire, and streets. There we’re points in this lesson that I as a parent have never had the opportunity to tell him. Things like: bicycle hand signals, don’t swim when you are tired or experience cramps, diving into unfamiliar water, escape routes from the house in case of a fire, chasing a ball or animal into the street, and boundaries for our neighborhood. Last year the bicycle boundary was into the next cul-de-sac. The world is just not the same as when I was a kid. I told him he is never to turn left towards the highway. That his boundary ends at so-in-so’s house. I worry so much for him when he’s on his bike. I worry that he’s so into “his world” that he will forget about everything else. And with all the distractions car drivers face today, they may be too distracted to see a wild boy on his bike.

The spelling test went well. He received a well earned 100% on 15 four letter words. I think 15 was a lot too, but it should decrease next week.

I think I have discovered the art of relaxation. I have been trying to put it into practice the last couple of days. I may have found a new hobby. I curl up on the couch and read. Jeff made mention that I haven’t read this much the entire time we’ve been married. I started reading JD's books to make sure what he was reading was age appropriate and for DETAILS for book report and that led to reading a book he started back in public school and never finished. (Whew...I finally found out the end of the story. Earlier today I started a book called “The Shack.” I'd heard a couple of things about it and was interested. I just finished the sadness chapter.