What Constitutes the "BEST day of your life?"

Well, I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging again. I realized today that it's been over 2 years since I blogged about anything. I can look back and see all the things that God has been doing in my life and in our family since then. We've gone through trials, challenges, and triumphs. God was and is in all of those, and they have all turned into blessings, even though the harder ones at the time didn't feel that way.


I read a quote recently and felt that it really summarizes the life of a Christ-follower:

"With Jesus, everyday has the potential of being the best day of your entire life." -Eric Ludy

I was thinking about this, and how true it was. What constitutes the "best day of your life?" Is it when everything goes your way, the laundry is caught up, the kids all get along and the bills are paid? Is it when the kids eat all your cooking without complaining, your husband calls you "beautiful" and the 2 yr old doesn't fill his sisters slippers with sink water?


Looking back at the last year, I'd have to say that it has been the "best year of my life." No, we didn't win the lottery, nor did we take a cruise to Hawaii. The kids still act like kids, and I still have to daily rely on the grace of God to supply my every need. What changed is that I have had a revelation, of sorts, that truly with Christ the circumstances of our day or year don't matter in creating that "best day or year." What matters is that with Christ in me, I truly have everything I need for life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3 )


The Bible says that when we ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our life, we die to ourselves, and He literally comes in and takes over the throne of our lives. We are no longer the person we were before. Our hands become His hands. Our minds become His mind. Our words become His words...as He transforms us to be like Him. The amazing thing is, the Spirit of God truly IS all the things Galations 5 says He is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.


You know why that is so amazing? Because when God's Spirit comes to live in us, WE have all those things as well. We can love the unlovely, because God is love and He is now in charge of our life. We can have joy (not grumpiness) because God is the author of joy. We can have peace, even when there is noise and chaos all around. We can be patient, yes, even with THAT 2 year old, because God is patient and He is giving us EVERYTHING we need to live this life victoriously. We can be kind...and good...and faithful...and gentle...because HE is all those things....and we can have self control....which means we can mother without yelling or having a tantrum even when the toddler IS. Seriously..we don't have to act the way we used to act once we realize WHO is now King of our life. Every fruit of God's Spirit is now ours when we live In Christ.

Anyway, this revelation has transformed our family. The Gospel is truly amazing. But it isn't just amazing because it saves us from the penalty of sin (hell), but because the Gospel truly is the power we need every day for living a life of godliness and joy and triumph in Christ.


Today can be the best day of your life, even if it is filled with diaper changes, cooking and laundry. We just need to believe God's Word by faith the miracle that happens when the Gospel becomes real in our life. As Oswald Chambers said in today's devotional:

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of Faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us "go." The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person...

So go on out there and live by faith and have the BEST day of your life!!!

Curriculum: High School

And last but not least....our 10th grade curriculum.

We let him play a big role in choices this year and here is what he is using.

His main curriculum core is My Father's World US History through 1877.
It is supposed to be for 11th grade, but he covered world history last year, and their world history covers 9th and 10th grades...we chose to go a different route though.
So, this curriculum covers, US History and Government this year and next year the other 1/2 of US History and Economics.
It also includes Bible, Language Arts, American Literature, and a great class on Developing a Christian Worldview.  He is on week 4, and we are very impressed by the curriculum so far!

Along with that, he is using Life of Fred Trigonometry for math.

He just finished Apologia Biology using DIVE into Science.  They have him finishing Biology then also cramming Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Apologia (Their advanced Biology course) into 2 months.  I chose that because he had no interest in the human body (GASP--with 2 medical parents.) but I wanted him to learn it and he was willing to do that route.  Turns out, 1/2 way into the book, that he wants to study the body the whole year cause it's so interesting and he would like to learn more and not rush, so we are changing our plans from finishing it quickly and moving on to Chemistry, to taking the whole year to study Advanced Biology and taking the Biology CLEP.   I would also like him to read through Where there Is No Doctor, and maybe go to work with Chris a few times to see how the medical field works.  Don't get me wrong, he still has no interest in the medical field, but it will be beneficial for him all through life.   Grin.

Electives:
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Piano
Soccer on Sunday's.  = )

Curriciulum: Middle School

I have 2 middle school students this year.  A 6th grader and an 8th grader.  They are both extremely independent workers which is great for me!    We are a few weeks into school and they seem to be really enjoying their curriculum, especially some new choices we went with to add some new excitement.


Here is what they spend their days working on:
Bible
They both spend time first thing reading through the Bible on their own.  Later, at naptime or in the evenings with Daddy, we are going through a Bible Curriculum Foundations 3 that has us reading a chaper every day.  We also have Sword Drills twice a week, and memorize a passage of Scripture every week.   They write, illustrate and act out their Bible Memory verses to help them remember them more easily.

Language Arts
6th grade
She is using a new curriculum for us called Intermediate Language Lessons.  I love it immensely and will likely use it for all the children below her in the years to come!     It is a very fun curriculum that doesn't have any "fluff" or (in my opinion) unnecessary grammar stuff that is impractical for the real world.
This is her first year using a spelling curriculum.  She is an excellent speller, but the book she is using Building Spelling Skills 5 covers many of the countries of the world, states and geography.  It also has a lot more practical words too.   It's much more than just spelling.  She seems to like it.
8th grade
Noah will be using 2 Total Language Plus guides this year:  Swiss Family Robinson and the Yearling.
He is also finishing the 2nd part of Jump In writing curriculum.  They have him do a 10 minute "Writing Plunge" every day with a story starter.  It is a lot of fun for him. He is also using Easy Grammar Ultimate 8th grade, that is a 1 page review every day of all grammar concepts.

Math
They are both using Life of Fred.  Hosanna will be doing 2 books this year: Fractions and Decimals & Percents.
Noah is finishing up Keys to Algebra that have helped him review some Algebra concepts and will be starting Beginning Algebra Life of Fred soon.


Science
They are both using Apologia this year.  Noah is using Apologia Physical Science, and Hosanna is using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Hosanna's comes with a really neat notebook that makes it so much more fun too!
We also just signed Noah up for a really neat, 2-day lab intensive science camp in February.  It sounds so fun, and will help make his Freshman year of Biology much easier.


History
They had an intense year of history last year, so this year is a bit easier.  They have studied all of history except modern history.  They are reading through Story of the World 4 and doing just the map exercises in the activity book.  They are also reading books 6-10 of The Story of U.S.
I have also assigned 8 more books to read to go along with that time period.  (Across Five Aprils, Courage to Run, Hudson Taylor, Sergeant York and the Great War, Twenty and Ten, Hiding Place, Number the Stars and Brother Andrew)

Spanish
Rosetta Stone

Electives
Typing with Mavis Beacon (both)
Thinking Toolbox for Logic (Noah)
Homemaking (Hosanna)
Feed My Sheep Art Curriculum (Hosanna)
Piano (both)
Guitar (Noah)

I think that about covers it.  = )