He is Risen!!!

Here is the account of Jesus' Resurrection from Mark 16 NIV:

Jesus Has Risen

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ² Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³ and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶ “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
⁸ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.^[a]

---

⁹ When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

¹² Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. ¹³ These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
¹⁴ Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
¹⁹ After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. ²⁰ Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it 
  

Good Friday

This account of Jesus' death is taken from Mark 15, in the New International Version:

The Crucifixion of Jesus

21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. 25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews. 27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [28] [a] 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

 The Burial of Jesus
⁴² It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. ⁴⁵ When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. ⁴⁶ So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. . .

Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what it would have like, to witness Christ first hand.  To have seen Him preach and teach.  To see His miracles.  What was going through everyone's mind that Friday evening?  How was their Sabbath different now, compared to the previous three years?

Being almost 2,000 years after the fact, we can morn the lose of Christ on Good Friday because we know Sunday is coming.  With that, I leave you with a link to this video.
 

American History ~ narrowing down the search

Feels like I am still hunting the elusive rabbit when it comes to finding an American History curriculum I'd like.  Over the last few weeks of researching eras, curriculum's, Pinterest and what ever else, Notgrass keeps popping up.  I've been torn between their American History Curriculum and Bright Idea's curriculum.

Today, we headed into Washington, D.C. to look at a few of the monuments and memorials.  Simon's Boy Scout Troop is working on "Citizen in the Nation" and one of the requirements is to visit a national monument or memorial.  He really wanted to see the Lincoln memorial, as for another requirement on this badge he is studying "The Gettysburg Address"!

While in between areas, it really struck me that given enough time, I should probably not rush into the American History curriculum.  Settle on one soon and start planning it out for not this coming school year, but the following year (meaning 2014/2015).  My thought is to take a longer of a school year to and build in many field trips along the east coast and inland a bit.  We can easily hit Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Monticello (all in VA but different trips; the first three and then the forth); Gettysburg, PA; Ford's Theatre; Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island; Liberty Bell and Betsy Ross' house; with a bit more planning some sights out west.

It seems like it would be such a rich experience to be able to hit as many of these things as possible.  To see the area's first hand either before, during, or shortly after studying them for school.  Would love to make the school year real for them; real people and places!

So where have been?  What have you liked?  I'd love to hear what you have done!

 

Day of Photos?

Well, not exactly a day of photo's, just things that grabbed my attention (and my frustration in our camera and my lack of photography skill ~ tired of blurry, grainy photos). 

           Had hopes of capturing some good photos of our barely colored carnations.  With a bit of work in trimming the stems and cutting them, we did get some coloration.  Down side, there are only tiny veins of color.  Hard to capture a good photo of that, for me anyway.

Anyhoot ~  here are a few others that turned out fairly well, some with a few retakes.

 The boys had played outside for awhile this afternoon.  Thing two really wanted

popcicles today and really seems like a good day for them.  We had none though.

I offered to make yogurt fruit ones and use the popscile forms we had.  They weren't

to keen on the fruit I wanted to use, but being mom, I stuck to my guns to get berries in them.

After letting the berries thaw a bit and get mashed, I set the potato masher in the sink.

Loved the color left in the sink.
Equally love using bleach in my white sink to maintain the white.  It will

get cleaned later.

 Remember our Resurrection Garden post from a few days ago?

I noticed today we have grass growing.  It's like baby hair right now, but

still very cool to see.

 Another view of the grass.

 Not one of my best photos.  This was rather hard to get a

good shot, but this is the best.  These seedlings are basil.

Hoping for an explosion of basil this year!

(and tomatoes too, which we haven't started yet)

Around Halloween last October, we ended up with 7 little pumpkins.

We saved the seeds from one pumpkin and get them planted.

Going strong, reaching for the sun, about ready for a larger pot (just

not sure if it is time to put them outside yet!)

What are you growing?  Let me know, maybe we can compare notes!  Any suggestions on camera's?

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Are you Irish? Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Do you celebrate it because it is fun?


I am an unknown amount of Irish and not sure if Kevin knows any of his nationalities. We both are firmly "American"!

We don't have anything formal to do to celebrate the day!  Possibly a brief history lesson, fish and chips, and a bit of fun science.

For science, here's what is going on!

 Gather your supplies:

1. White carnations (mine was a package of 7, very convenient for 6 colors and a cloud)
2. Clear vases plus a clear juice jar (only had 6 clear vases)
3. Food Dye
4. Rolo's
5. Water

What we did:

1. trim leaves off the side of the flours ~ this keeps the water fresher longer
2. added approximately 6 drops of dye in each vase (ours came with blue, yellow, red, & green;
   we mixed colors for orange and purple ~ about 3 drops of appropriate colors)
3. trim about an inch or two off the bottom of the flower
4. put a flower in each vase and one in straight water (because we had seven colors we
   are having a cloud too!)
5. lay out some Rolo's for the pot of gold

 Kind of a neat idea ~ one of those that strikes you late at night, the night before an event.  Floral stores are closed on Sundays and many places didn't have white carnations.  Third grocery store was a winner, but I almost did not find the Rolo's.

Got the flowers in the water about 3:00 PM today!  Wonder what time they will start changing?  Want to leave a guess in the comments?  No blog give away, just bragging rights!  Will update the post with more pictures when and if they change color.  Until then, keep on guessing!

On a totally unrelated note, Kevin and I started dating 17 years ago today.  He remembered, I didn't!

~~UPDATE~~~~
As of 9:00 AM on 4/18/13, no color had seeped up into the flowers.  I cut them way down and the color hadn't made it up the stem much at all.  Makes me wonder how old the flowers are.  Flowers will "self seal" their stems to retain water, which is why it is recommended to cut the bottom two inches off the stems when you get them.  Certain flowers you can keep doing this, once a week, and have an arrangement for awhile.

Anyway, I took about 4 inches off.  We'll see what happens.  Here's a new photo of the flowers:

 

Pi Day is coming, are you ReAdY?

You know about Pi day, right? Yes, I am making a huge assumption that you are a math geek!

Does that clear it up any for you?  Tomorrow is March 14th or 3/14.  Do you get it now?  Do you see the leap, the connection?

Do you see the 3.14?

     Naturely you need to have pie tomorrow!  What kind would you have?

Possibly Chicken Pot Pie?

What about a Key Lime Pie?

Hhhmm!  A nice chocolate pie, maybe?

Think I'll take my friend's suggestion and have Chicken Pot Pie for dinner then something sweet for dessert, just not sure what!

Happy Pi day!

Resurrection Garden

Have you heard of these before? Have you seen them over on Pinterest?

     Thought it would be a good thing for Easter this year to make and seems easy enough to do.  The one I had seen here gave a good list to follow.  The one down fall was I didn't have a large, clay saucer and knew I didn't have dirt or grass seed.  Quick trip to Wal-mart to pick up supplies.  I was shocked that the saucer was over $6.50 dollars.  Bought it anyway and started looking around the house for alternatives and found one.  Also decided to use some larger, decorative rocks instead of the ones I picked up as well (two things to be returned now!).  Anyway, here's my take on the Resurrection Garden:

 Dirt and surprisingly the organic stuff was cheaper than plan old dirt!

 Mixed the compost with water to make mud!

Good day for a wanna be garden when one gets to play with dirt!

It even smelled good!

Small clay pot (I had several to choose from) and square, ceramic tray

I have from an old candle set.  This should do the trick.

I put aquarium gravel down and laid the pot down on it's side.

Next applied the wet dirt over most of the area.  Then sprinkled grass

seed all over the damp dirt.

 

 Between the opening of the pot and the corner I laid the decorative stones.

 Here is a top view of our Resurrection Garden.  There is grass seed on there.

Hope to take a photo, each day, to show the progression of grass growing.

 Well to truly celebrate the resurrection, there needs to be crosses.

Good thing we have wood skewers, twin, and Elmer's glue.  I actually

separated the length of twin to be 3 different pieces so that it wouldn't be

to thick when tying the two pieces together.  Then a spot of glue to help

hold it all together.

 These turned out fairly well, I think.

Probably won't put them in until Good Friday though.

Feel free to copy my idea or the one I linked.  Either way, take a look around your house to see what you have, no need to spend an arm and a leg for this.  It is more important to think of the cost that Jesus paid, for us.  We have truly been given the greatest gift in his death.  A simple acceptance of His suffering and death enables us to enter into eternity with Him.  Now that is true Grace!

 

Snowman

A certain someone wanted his photo taken with his snowman before it melted!

 

SNOW day!

Here, that means:

• getting the basics of school accomplished is like an ancient torture device
• fire going
• one outside, playing, getting cold
• hot chocolate consumption
• usually baking but I've done so much the last few days, we have loads left over
• random electronics being used
• coffee flowing and I am the only one consuming!  Think I might  be up late tonight!  Anyone want to facebook chat!  Cori, you're on the West Coast and might be a good time if I am still up at midnight.  ;)
• regular chores being totally ignored
• wet clothes everywhere it seems
• evening activities canceled
• pondering tomorrow's events
•  we aren't moving our cars if we don't have too!  To many D.C. Metro people don't know how to drive in snow and slush.  Safer to just stay home!
• dog really doesn't want to go outside
• something warm for dinner and in the comfort food category

Hope everyone is safe and your travels are easy!
 

Reading ~ love or hate it?

   Do you love to read? Are you one who could navigate your whole house or apartment or whatever all the while totally engrossed in a book?  Do you read late into the night by headlamp or candle light?

I so wish I was that person!  Nope, not that way at all.

                  Reading has always been difficult for me, even now many years after "formal" education.  To pick up a book and read is just hard.  The idea of being swept to another location, by a book, is very alluring.  Being so mesmerized by the characters, the scenery, the plot, would be a wonderful thing.  Honestly, even while reading "The Help", there is only so many times you can hear "you still aren't finished with the book" before you become discouraged.

Kevin, on the other hand, can loose a day or two reading.  It isn't uncommon for him to have a couple (or more) books going at one time.  Eeek! How do you do that?  The characters for me would be jumping from one book to another, in my dreams!   He is an avid reader.

    Now, to keep things fun around here, our boys are evenly divided among the two camps.  We have one that it is "just hard to do" and one that would "loose hours in the day" (well unless the call of the wild is to great, then he is outside getting stinky and dirty!  He IS a boy and takes the job seriously).

All this to say, I have become quite smitten with audio books.  They are a life saver! I know I've mentioned a few times, either here or on facebook, that we have plowed through a bunch of books as a result of listening to them.  I'm not sure if 11 books is a great number to consider "read" or "listened too".  I think it is fairly descent because we do home school and actually read dead tree books everyday and pick up interest based ones from the library.  So the totals would be a bit higher if those were included as well.  If you look at the page labeled "Boy's Reading List" you'll find the ones we have been going through, that I've picked out to listen to or be read too, plus a few more I want us to still get to.  Most of these titles have come off of lists of "Great Classic Books" so to speak.  There are a number of those lists floating around Pinterest.  You can just search "reading lists" and find a bunch to choose from.   I took a few and came up with our list that way.  Here's a link to my reading board on Pinterest, should you want to take a look at the more detailed list.  I actually want to reread them and update my list over here.  Know there are a few classics I haven't mentioned or gotten to yet, one being Shel Silverstein and I just happen to have a lot of his books on our shelves.  Will make a conscious effort to read some to the boys everyday, from those.  Shouldn't take to long as a most are poem books. :)

Being able to listen to a book is great when we're in the car so much.  We get a lot done that way.  It has been rather enjoyable for me as well.  There are many that I didn't read as a child because reading wasn't enjoyable.  I feel like I am reliving a piece of a childhood missed.