Garden Club 5/ 29/ 09

With the perfect combination of rain and sunshine this week, my garden has been growing beautifully. We have lots of flowers on the peas. My broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower is growing but as of yet has no fruit.

The rest of the plants are growing strong. We were out weeding several mornings this week, and still only got about half-way through. Luckily we have plenty of time to get rid of the weeds. So please just ignore the weeds in the photos. You can do that, right?

We are toward the end of the lettuce, one of them is bolting. So I am going to let that one go and try to get the seeds from it. The rest we will cut today and see if it grows back or if it is too hot now.

My lavender is also about to flower! I am excited for that to happen.

Once again, I have run out of time before posting photos... they are on photobucket, so maybe I'll put them up when I have time. Also- Mr. Linky is still not working, so just leave your links in the comments section.

And Happy Gardening!

If the Shoe Doesn't Fit...

This is a re-run from Feb. 13, 2008... but it is too great of an idea to forget.

"Recently my husband and daughter were preparing to go with our church to the jungles of Ecuador for a week. The only boots Eric had were cracked in the sole, and I was uncomfortable sending him to the jungle with boots which may fall apart before the week was done. So he went to Stuff Mart and bought a pair of waterproof hiking boots.

Unfortunately, the left one was just a tad too tight once he got them home and tried to break them in. That would not work while hiking into the deep jungle, either. So I remembered reading something in Tightwad Gazette #3 -

We put a ziplock bag inside the boot and put some water in it. Then put it in the freezer. After it was frozen, took it out and pulled out the bag of ice. It had expanded just enough to stretch the boot and fit him just right!

I was so proud of this idea I just had to share it!"

This is linked to Works for Me Wednesday. Hope you all are having a great day!

Bible Bee Study Schedule Week 3

We are trucking along on our Bible Bee Memory and studying... The girls are completely caught up, the boys are a bit behind. One of our friend's boys is studying hard because he cannot stand the thought of GIRLS beating him. That psychology is not working on my boys, though I am proud of them!

Some of the people who live around here have asked me what exactly IS the Bible Bee, anyway? You can look at the website here. Basically it is like the National Spelling Bee, only with Bible Knowledge and Memory. In my opinion, much as I think it is important to spell well, I think it is more important to know and love the Bible.

There will be a local competition here in our little town on Sept. 12. The top 100 students in each category in the nation will go to Washington D.C. in November for the national competition. There are significant prizes offered for the top 3 students in each category, but the biggest prize is going to be gained by all who participate... increased knowledge (and hopefully closeness to) our precious Savior. Already, after just two weeks, my children know between 150 and 200 more verses than they did before. That is a winning situation, no matter whether we progress to the national level or not.

For those of you reading who are local, we DO have need of the help of about 10 people who don't have children in the competition... I have 4 who have agreed to help us. If you would like to help correct tests, give the tests, or judge the oral rounds, please let me know.

I have received many questions from people who are having their children also memorize for the competition. This is NOT an easy amount of scripture! We spend time every day working together. We read the verses at mealtimes. I try to quiz the children several times a week... reviewing all the verses they have learned so far.

So THEY are doing the memorizing, but we are also doing it together. It is a family effort. I could use the Bible memory times, myself, so it is all good.

We are going to finish Genesis this week, and start in on Exodus. We are continuing our efforts to learn 5 quiz questions a day, also.

So- we are actually on week 3 of our studying. This week works out that we have 5 verses from each category. We will be memorizing the following verses this week, one each day from each category:

(The * means that a portion of the verses have been already memorized in other categories.)

Category 1:
Psalm 119: 103-105
Psalm 126: 5-6
Proverbs 15: 1-2
Isaiah 26: 3-4
Matthew 9: 37-38

Category 2:
Psalm 37: 1-6
Psalm 66: 16-20
Psalm 71: 16-18
Psalm 85: 8-13
Psalm 94: 8-12

Category 3
Psalm 33: 13-22
Psalm 34: 1-10*
Psalm 36: 5-10
Psalm 49: 7-13
Psalm 71: 14-24*

I'd love to hear from others who are working with their families in preparation for the Bible Bee! Drop me a line!

Garden Club 5/ 22/ 09

I think I missed a couple weeks, so I may have lost our few Garden Club members... spring is such a busy time here!

Anyway- my garden is looking great. My peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage all look great, but as of yet have no fruit on them. I am not sure if they will just look good but not produce, or whether we are still OK.

We have been eating turnips every day, so my spring garden wasn't an entire loss, I suppose. Oh yeah- and lettuce is still producing, although our spinach bolted. The kids don't like it as much, and since I send them to cut the salad greens before dinner, they didn't get much of the spinach.

Our peppers have flowers coming on them. Tomatoes are small, but we have solved our cutworm problem and they are now growing. Cucumbers are starting to vine. We have lots of cataloupe and watermelon planted, so we'll see how these do.

We are getting a few strawberries a day, but not enough to even give everybody one. I am not sure we'll keep them, since to give enough space to grow enough for us to feed us would take a whole other garden.

Our fruit trees and blueberry bushes are in the ground and looking great. We'll only get about 4 apples this year, and a handful of blueberries, but soon they will be fully producing. We have room For about 5-8 more fruit trees. I hope to get them in the fall.

Green beans are growing up their poles, but something is eating the corn... I am guessing it's deer. That particular garden is not fenced yet.

I have Thyme and Lavender from last year. The Thyme is ready to be cut back and dried. The lavender has lots of buds. When they bloom I will dry them too, hopefully for a wonderful sachet of potpourri!

And, although it is not from my garden, it IS part of feeding my family, we bought 3 flats of strawberries and made two of them into 20 pints of jam. The third one we froze whole strawberries to use in smoothies. The children LOVE to add milk, frozen strawberries, and a little sugar (or a lot depending on which child is adding it... I have one who figures if a little is good, a lot is better. We're working on it!). Yum, Yum!

That's all that's going on in my garden!!! What's growing in yours?

Mercy Medical Update... May 2009

We had a WONDERFUL series of tests/ appointments in Cincinnati early this week. On Monday we had an echocardiogram, EKG, and meeting with the cardiologist. He said she looks, "Fantastic." Her heart size is reducing, which we suspected as she has a lot more energy. He had not seen her hemangioma since we started the propranalol, and was amazed at the reduction of the mass.

The next morning we had an MRI, but we don't have the results yet. Then we went to do a blood test which shows whether her body is making whatever hormone the prednisone replaced for two years. We won't get the results for a week or so.

From there they did a scan of her spine to see about the bone density. Evidently long term prednisone use can reduce the bone density. These results came back PERFECT... as if she never used prednisone. This is a miracle.

Then we saw Dr. Adams (hemangioma), Dr. Azizkan (head of surgery), and Dr. Elluru (ENT). They were all thrilled with her progress. She has an ear infection in the bad ear, so we have antibiotics. We also increased the propranalol, since she is doing so well cardiac wise.

AND!!! We don't have to return for 6 WEEKS! We have NEVER had a 6 week break from doctor's appointments. In this busy time of year, I am thankful to not have to go to Cincinnati!

In other Petersonclan news, Josiah fell off a slide at the park and hurt his foot. It is evidently not broken, but he is in bad enough pain for it to be. So he is out of commission. Lucky him... he now has no excuse to not know the Bible verses for the week. ;)

Off to make strawberry jam and weed the garden. Have a great day!

Bible Bee Schedule Week 2

Hello, fellow Bible Bee participants!

We had a VERY successful week in our memory... especially since the leaders at Bee headquarters took off the highest levels for the local contests. All the girls made the memory goals, and are drinking their choice of hot chocolate or tea in celebration.

The boys came a little short, but they both did pretty well, so we count it a success all the way around.

I am changing things a little this week... we will still take the verses we need to work on, but I have divided it between the days of the week, so they have certain portions to work on every day. Just saying, "Memorize these by the end of the week" was a bit too broad for a couple of them.

If the verse has a * next to it, a portion of this verse was memorized last week, so we already know a portion of it.

So here is our goal for Week 2:

Category 1

Psalm 34: 8-9 (M)
Psalm 34: 18-19 (T)
Psalm 56: 3-4 (W)
Psalm 90: 1-2 (Th)
Psalm 100: 3 (Th)
Psalm 119; 10-11 (F)

Category 2

Joshua 1: 7-9 (M)*
1 Samuel 12: 22-25 (M)
1 Samuel 15: 22-23(T)
1 Chronicles 29: 10-13 (T)
Psalm 19: 1-4 (W)
Psalm 32: 6-8 (Th)
Psalm 33: 6-9 (F)

Category 3
Psalm 1 *
Psalm 8
Psalm 18: 30-36
Psalm 23 *
Psalm 32

We will continue to learn 5 Bible Knowledge questions each week, and will continue to work through Genesis at 3 chapters a day... this week will be Gen. 31 - 45.

We are all having such a good time doing this together as a family. It is a wonderful tool!!! I do quiz the kids each day on the verses they have memorized, maybe for about 10 minutes a day, but the children are doing this.

I have all the OT verses printed out with just the first letter of each word. We have put these on the backs of our cards. If you want to have these, please contact me. I will try to send them. I have them in power point, but if you don't have that program I can try to make it a PDF file to send you. Just e-mail me at: petersonclan at momys dot net.

I will be out of town for Monday and Tuesday taking my little one to Cincinnati for a couple days of tests, so if you do not hear back from me until the end of the week, don't worry. I'll get to you!

Bible Bee... finishing Week 1

We have been working diligently (or not so diligently depending on the child...) on our Bible Bee memorization, etc.

Yesterday the headquarters sent out a new explanation of the regulations... stating that the younger children only have to know Categories 1 and 2, and older children Categories 1, 2, and 3 for the Bible Memory sections of the local contest in September. They will add one level if they make it to the National level in November. This was a relief to us all!!! They decided that they would work on the verses for the local level, and only add the additional level if we continue on to the National competition.

Josaiah stated, "The Lord has heard our cry! The Bible Bee People have taken away some of our fear!!!" I thought that was pretty funny.

Taking one level off for each of the children made us able to keep up with our schedule. This would not have been the case if they still had ALL the verses to do. All except one child (who has learning issues) will have memorized their sections of verses... I am posting the updated list here for those of you who want to either give the children a pop quiz as you see them, or use the schedule for your own studying.

Category 1: Week 1:
Genesis 1:1-2
Joshua 1:9
Nehemiah 9:6
Psalm 1:5-6
Psalm 19:14
Psalm 23:4
Psalm 23:6
Psalm 23:4-5

Category 2: Week 1
Genesis 3:14-15
Genesis 8:20-22
Exodus 15:11-13
Exodus 34:6-7
Duteronomy 1:29-31
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Category 3: Week 1
Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 2:20-25
Leviticus 19:11-18
Deuteronomy 7:7-10
Deuteronomy 8:2-6
1 Chronicles 16:23-33

We are in good shape to complete these... Anna, Emma, and Matt are all memorizing Categories 1 and 2, and Angela and Josiah are memorizing 1, 2, and 3.

Oh yeah- and Sara (age 5) has memorized all the category 1 verses for the week, and Nate (age 4) has done the first two or three. They are too young to be registered, but they are listening to all the quizzing and studying around here and picked it up.

Yes, it is a hard thing. Yes, they have to work on these. But it is possible. It is even good for them to have such a high goal. I encourage all the parents to stay positive, and keep telling the children they can do it. They CAN do this!