Back to Life...

Just got back home today from being in Puerto Rico for 2 weeks! We took TONS of pics that I will share soon! That's it for now. Back to life and reality but it feels SO GOOD to be home! There is something about your own bed and schedule that is comforting :-)

Oh, and we are taking December to do a Christmas unit study and will be back to ECC Week 12 in January! Here is the link the Unit Study on the Symbols of Christmas.

7, 8, 9...

We are getting to our "crazy" season! So posts maybe few and far between. In less than 3 wks, we will be headed (in real life), on a secret trip to Isla del Encanto! Yes, it can still be a secret when I'm posting on my blog b/c the surprisees do not read by blog:-) That being said, I'm super excited and you know how hard it can be to be productive when you are looking forward to something in reachable distance! I'm trying to push through these next few wks and get everything finished!

Now back to previous weeks 7, 8 and 9! Sadly, my camera battery charger is lost and hubby accidentally erased most of my camera phone pics which = s no pics and mostly boring post. I LIKE my pictures!

We traveled to Canada for 2 wks and Brazil for week 9 and we are in week 10 now. We are learning so much!

The highlight while studying Canada was learning about George Muller (who is German lol!) WOW! This man was AMAZING!

The day after we started reading about George Muller in Hero Tales,

I found this free downloadable book written by him! I wasn't even looking for that but when I downloaded another book, this one came up as a recommended book!

Week 9 we started the biography of Nate Saint.

We have been loving this read aloud because it's packed with so much action. Abrianna interrupts all the time and says "What's going to happen?". I keep replying, "We have to keep reading to find out."

We also found a Brazilian Bakery super close to us and have enjoyed many pastries and breads from there!

So far, we have learned all of the names of the North American countries, including the islands and we are working on learning the ones in South America.

That's the "school" update :-)

In other news, Jose's family came for the weekend from Miami and we had a birthday party for Elijah, who turned 8 a few wks ago! Here are a few Noy family pics (courtesy of my SIL)!

I'm really bad at this

blogging thing!

So, where have we been and what have we been doing?

I will start with the much needed vacation Jose and I took ALONE to NYC!!! We are SUPER THANKFUL for WONDERFUL moms (and a sis-in-law) who babysat while we were away! What a FUN time we had with each other sharing our dreams, hopes, and vision for our future and the future of our children!

On that note....VISION...

We were recently talking about a vision for our family and what would = success when it comes to our children and here is what we came up with:

We will be successful if our children

-KNOW HIM INTIMATELY

-FOLLOW HIM PASSIONATELY

-SERVE OTHERS INTENTIONALLY

Yep! That's what everything boiled down to!

School update:

Week 5 & 6 in review.

We traveled to MEXICO! I checked the kids passports and let them cross the border since the didn't look suspicious;-) They added the Mexico flag sticker to their passport book.

BIBLE-We talked about Cuba and Haiti, using Window on the World, and learned about the prayer needs of each country. Our memory verses were Matt 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" and Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. For our verses from now on, I have decided not to use the ones in MFW (for now) and focus on ones that relate to character training which I've been learning and using from our Growing Kids God's Way class. Which, by the way, is the best parenting curriculum, based completely on God's word, ever created in my not so humble opinion;-)

SCIENCE-We learned about desserts from Properties of Ecosystems and about dessert animals from Living World. We learned the difference between cold blooded and warm blooded and did a couple of different experiments to help illustrate. We also learned oases and rain in the dessert. We encounte.red a giant grass hopper and a giant moth? or something in our home "habitat".

GEOGRAPHY-Facinating Mexico facts. Nature, farming, and Industry in Mexico. How to cook tortillas. Geography game where we are learning all of the countries in Latin America.

ART- We made yarn art and tomorrow we are making tissue paper flowers tomorrow in preparation for our Friday FIESTA!

When Elijah is not doing school, he is building a new Lego creation, watching the weather channel or researching past hurricanes and weather patterns!!! This child is OBSESSED with WEATHER! He cracks me up dancing to the jazz music while announcing the different city's weather!

When Abi is not doing school, she loves to play Pet Shops and actually loves to build Legos with Elijah! I'm so thankful how close we had them together! I guess that's why we had two more so close huh?!

Joseph is still getting into everything! He's so curious and so precious! He LOVES Abi and Elijah! (I'm sure he loves Moses too when Moses' isn't trying to eat him!) Yes we have a biter! Yes we are working on him;-) Every night and for naps he asks for each one to come and pray with him then give them a hug! Joseph has such a sweet spirit!

Moses is definitely the clown of the family! SO FUNNY ALL THE TIME! Oh, except when he is biting! He ALWAYS has a SMILE and is always making us laugh!

Here is a random pic of our grocery store trip!

There's the update!

ECC Weeks 3 & 4

Crazy 2 wks so I'm putting weeks 3 and 4 together since they are running together in my brain! Our first official stop in North America was USA!

BIBLE: We are LOVING Hero Tales! We talked about Dwight Moody (Boldness, Repentance, Strength) and Harriet Tubman (Compassion, Joy, and Perseverance) and the character traits that went with each person. We also talked about missionary kids and the Navajo from our book Window on the World.

GEOGRAPHY: We reviewed USA states and colored our USA coloring sheet and completed a fun cross word puzzle. Since we just finished US history last year with Adventures we had time for lots review and fun stuff.


SCIENCE: We enjoyed a nature walk as your will see from our butterfly pics! Beautiful! We learned the different types of forests and what lives in the different parts (Canopy and Forest Floor).

ART: We made Navajo sand art, cat and dog masks (just for fun) and a bean and seed necklace minus the seeds. LOL!

READ ALOUD: We are continuing Kingdom Tales, which I LOVE!

Below are a few of our pictures! Today (Labor Day) we went to Fort Moultrie and had a great day! We also talked about the history of Labor Day and how it came about.

We are taking the rest of the week off just doing the 3Rs because my mom is moving back to Charleston tomorrow and Jose and I are heading to NYC on Thursday! YAY! A weeked getaway! It's been awhile;-) Enjoy the rest of your week in My Father's World!


Abi painting her mask

Elijah's finished product


Beautiful!

Elijah writing a letter for PLL.



Elijah's sand art

Abi's sand art

Fort Moultrie

Fort Sumter in the distance

ECC Week 2 in Review

So...2 wks are gone!

I have to say, I think I'm finally in my groove with homeschooling (for now). In my opinion, it takes 2 years to start to kind of know what you're doing. It's probably my opinion b/c that is true for me. LOL! It's like the children know what is expected of them, they know the schedule and the agenda so we just get it done while having fun! I seriously can not even believe how much I am enjoying this journey! If you talked to me a few years ago, I was in tears at the fact that homeschooling was going to be my reality. But, the Lord definitely knows what he is doing! I can't imagine our days any other way! I definitely know homeschooling is not for everyone and I would never want anyone to choose it unless it was something they felt led to, but I'm so thankful I listened to the call the Lord had for our family! Even if I started out kicking and screaming ;-)

THIS WEEK WE LEARNED:

Bible

-How people began to speak other languages

-There is only one God for the whole world

-The good news is for EVERYONE

-Judaism

Geography

-Elevation and depth

-Difference between physical and political maps

-The names and locations of the oceans and continents

-We made and enjoyed our world cake

-Definitions of ocean and ocean ridge

-We reviewed our address and phone #

Science

-Biomes around the world

-Leaf and Bark rubbings

-Nature walk which ended with Joseph getting stung by 3 bees :(

-Oxygen and Water Cycles

Art

-We created paper dolls that were from around the world. Our creative juices were NOT flowing in this project ;-)

Read Aloud

-We started Kingdom Tales (I'm loving this book)

We also have Grammar, Spelling, Spanish, Math, Reading and Music but nothing too interesting to report. We did join a Lego group on Thursday that meets once a month. The kids had a blast. My kids LOVE Legos! What was funny though there was a group of girls playing dolls while Abi and another girl were the only ones playing with Legos. Here are a few pictures from our week.

Week 1

Our first week of school was AWESOME! Way better than I could have imagined! The KEY was for me to have time with the Lord before even beginning! Imagine that. A crazy, unique idea right?! My heart and my head needed to be in the same spot!

Like I've mentioned before we are using MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC)! This is the intro year before starting the four year history cycle. In ECC, we will be studying diverse cultures around the world, geography, and learning about different missionaries.

Anyways, our first week was pretty much an introduction for the year. So, we started out with our memory verse John 3:16. As we "travel" through out the different countries we will be learning this verse in the different languages. We also had an introduction to maps. We learned N, S, E, and W as well as hemispheres, distance, and scale. In science, we started learning about ecosystems, environments and studied our backyard habitat.

In music we learned a new song called "Hello to All the Children of the World" which teaches them the word Hello in several different languages. I'm NOT a fan of the cd's with children singing but the kids seemed to love it! LOL!

We also did our "real" school work with math, reading, phonics, writing, and Spanish. Next week we are adding spelling.

I'm really pleased at how smoothly the days went. Even with the toddlers. It really helped to schedule time for the big kids taking turns (20 min-30 min) playing with the babies. I was able to focus on the individual needs of Elijah and Abi with their help!

I know I'm a little late posting week 1 since we are 1 day shy of completing week 2 but better late than never!

Join The CAUSE! Please!

The statistics of human Trafficking are HEART WRENCHING! Imagine.......your precious child TRAPPED in a life she or he never even imagined or even knew exisisted! We have GOT to do something! We can't hear the cries for help and turn a deaf ear!

Psalm 82:3-4 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor. RESCUE the weak and the needy; DELIVER them from the hand of the wicked!

PLEASE WATCH!

PLEASE click HERE and join the cause. The link will take you to The A21 Campaign cause site and you can click JOIN there!

Jose and I are working on a few things behind the scenes to help the cause! Stay tuned for more updates and information!

Christine Caine (Part 2)...

that should really probably be part 1!

SO MUCH to say about such an AMAZING woman of GOD!

But, to start, I heard of Christine Caine a few months ago when a few of the leaders from Seacoast's women's ministry came back from hearing her and they were SO passionate about what they experienced while hearing her in Florida! The leaders were on FIRE and created and implemented a local summer outreach called Summer2Serve! It was a true blessing not only for the women who participated but also for us who volunteered! All that to say, that was the ONLY thing I knew of Christine Caine. I never heard her speak. I never heard her story. I never heard about her ministry until this past weekend.

WOWZERS! Her speaking ability incredibly engaging! Her story, in her words, she was unwanted at birth and was given a number instead of a name and then suffered years of abuse. BUT! BUT! BUT! Praise God that is not the END! The Lord transformed her life in unbelievable ways and she is living proof that our God is BIGGER than ANY circumstance we started out in! Finally, her ministry! My heart was broken! My eyes were completely opened to a whole different world I can't comprehend existing today!

Four years ago Christine's eyes were opened to the tragedy taking place around the world! HUMAN TRAFFICKING! I saw the movie Taken and I've heard of it before but I thought it just involved a few people! I was SO WRONG!

Here are the CRAZY stats:

• Trafficking in women is the second largest global organized crime today, generating approximately US$12 billion a year.[2]
• There are 1.39 million victims of commercial sexual servitude worldwide.[3]
• Over 25 percent of sex trafficked victims are trafficked from Southern and Eastern Europe.[4]
• 90% of victims trafficked into EU member states end up in the sex industry.[5]
• There is an estimated 20,000 women and girls trafficked into the Greek sex industry, earning Greece the title: "the center of trafficking in Europe."[6]
• One study reveals that one in every 10 Ukrainian persons knows someone in their community who has been trafficked.[7]
• Tragically, only 1-2 percent of victims are rescued, and only 1 in 100,000 Europeans involved in trafficking are convicted.[8]

When I was sitting in the audience hearing what IS going on, my immediate thought was my precious baby girl! I thought, what if my precious child was trapped in this industry? I would most definitely do anything and everything I could to get her back and get her safe because she is my daughter! There are MILLIONS suffering daily in this horrific darkness and they need to be rescued and redeemed! We CAN do something! We MUST do something! This past weekend Christine spoke at Seacoast and she shared the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). She said when we hear these stories and get emotional that is NOT compassion! Too many times we confuse empathy and apathy with compassion! She said compassion is what the good Samaritan did. He saw the hurting man and he crossed the street to help! Compassion was an ACTION!

Christine and her husband started The A21 Campaign ! They are putting into action what Jesus calls us to do! Here you can find 21 ways to get involved or help! All of us can do at least 1 on list of 21! They are making a difference in THIS vapor of life that is/will have an impact on thousands if not more!

Christine Caine! (Part 1)

WOW! Last night I had the privilege of hearing God's word through Christine Caine! She was AMAZING! One thing that struck me like lightening was

James 4:13-17 (NASB)

¹³Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."

¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

She hit on the fact that we are here in this moment in time, in this place for a mere vapor when compared with all eternity. I've heard it plenty of times and in fact it's such a cliche when you hear people say live like you were dying yada yada yada yada. But, truly last night it hit me. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Our life, however short or long is just a blink! SO what am I going to do with the small vapor I have? So many of us, including myself, have plans! Good plans and good goals and then we try to fit God into them! So we have our nice house, car, kids, life and check off our church box on Sunday etc. But what are we (me) really DOING for the kingdom of God????? NOTHING! We are satisfied with being comfortable checking off our church box living our mundane day to day life while the world around us is hurting and dying!

I mean really! In light of eternity, does it matter? Do I have to have the latest and greatest "STUFF" this material world has to offer? When all is said and done, do I want my legacy to be Jessica-A good mom, who loved Jesus, her family, and the Bachelorett but offered NO hope or compassion to hurting or lost friends, neighbors or the world. Her faith was silent without works. Her Children don't know Jesus because she only spoke of Him and did not SHOW them the example of Jesus! NNNNOOOOOO! That is NOT the legacy I want to leave with my vapor of life!

I want to be a daughter of the greatest king who is fully abandoned to HIM and HIS WILL for my life! I want to be selfLESS and giving! I want to "cross the street" and be the compassionate follower! I want to set the Jesus example for my family! I can't do any of that if I'm okay with being comfortable with my easy life!

Well..... I am challenging myself to let God be the GREAT and AWESOME God He is! Who has great plans for my life (if I will let Him lead) who wants to give me more (not material wise) than is beyond my comprehension. I want to really mean the words in the song "Awesome is the Lord Most High" when I sing "Where you send us, God we will go!" Whatever that means and whatever that takes. Whether here, there or somewhere I want to see His plan unfolded in our lives!

There is SO much more to this life than just living and dying!

First Day!

Well...Today was our 1st day of school! I can not believe we are starting our 3rd year homeschooling! CRRRAAAZZZY! I'm amazed everyday at what God has done in our lives and in our family! If you don't know our homeschool story, you can read it (short version) here. Trust me when I say we were NEVER going to homeschool because "those people are weird"! LOL!

Anyhow....my plan has been, (I made a great "schedule" with the help of Managers of Their Homes) to wake up at 5:30AM to have quiet time, exercise, shower, brew and drink coffee, all before the children wake up. So you ask..."How did you do today?"....I FAILED!!!!! I woke up at 7AM (but I do get bonus points because the kids were still sleeping) and I had quiet time. NO exercise, NO shower, NO coffee was brewed or drank before the children woke up at 7:30 BUT at least I got the most important thing accomplished:-)

After everyone woke up and got dressed I made the kids take "First day of school pictures". I decided to start a new tradition this year and made tiny posters that had the date, grade, height, and weight written on them. I'm planning to take me picture at the end of the year to see the change. Here are a couple of our pictures.

Our day started with the kids favorite place to eat...

Then we got home and got to work ;-)

Here are a few pics from the rest of the day.

It was really a great day!