the brew*crew adventure

I'm not really feeling very talkative lately (maybe you've noticed?), but wanted to blog a bit of what's been going on around here lately anyways. Afterall, I did promise an update, didn't I? So, what have we been up to?

Remembering, Celebrating & Worshiping

This last Sunday night Chris, N, T and I enjoyed a wonderful Passover Seder dinner with our local Messianic congregation, Beth Shalom.

It was beautiful, and the kids' favorite part was the dancing (well, besides the eating!). We've been reading together about the first Passover from the book of Exodus, and some childrens' picture books, and also of Jesus's sharing this meal with His disciples before His deah, and then His resurrection. N and T watched one of N's favorite movies yesterday, Cecil B. De Mille's "The 10 Commandments". It has been a refreshing time of encouragement, remembrance and worship for me, and for all of us I think.

Also, Jenny has a lovely post here about Passover, and the Cup of Redemption, which is ceremonially taken after dinner, and which Jesus Himself shared with His disciples.

The third cup of wine is taken after the meal. It is the cup of redemption, which reminds us of the shed blood of the innocent Lamb which brought our redemption from Egypt. We see that Jesus took the third cup in Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'" This was not just any cup, it was the cup of redemption from slavery into freedom. This is our communion cup.

~ excerpted from The Meaning of Passover

To see more pics from our Seder, click here.

To read more about the Passover from a Christian/Messianic perspective, you may see my post from a couple of years ago here, and there's a good article here and another here.

Riding

N and T started their horse riding lessons again last month. Their instructor takes a break during the winter every year. So, they're beginning their third year now of formal English riding instruction, and are becoming pretty good little riders, if I do say so myself. I think that T is becoming more and more horse-crazy, if that's possible. She spent this morning, making home-made molasses and bran horse treats for the pony she's riding, Baldrick, whom she "misses so much"... She had the idea and did a search for good "horse treat recipes" on her latest favorite site, a kid-friendly search engine. Then, she wrote it down and followed the recipe herself, turned out some great tasting (yes, we tried them), chewy horse treats for her pony. Well, it had been a whole day and a half since she saw him last! *sheesh* LOL

On Saturday T had her first horse show of this year, and she was so excited that she barely slept the night before. I know because she kept waking me up every hour with, "I'm so excited, I just can't sleep..." We had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to get her ready and to the barn to help load the ponies into the trailer. It was a really long day for her, well week really, since she spent most of Wed., Thurs., and Friday over at her riding instructor's house/barn with her lesson and then preparations for the show (shaving and bathing the pony, cleaning and conditioning tack, etc.). She's looking forward to her first year of showing, once a month, with cute little "King Baldrick".

Chris and I have just been so blessed to see how the Lord's provided a way for her to participate more actively in this sport which she loves so much, but would normally be out of our range financially. J, her instructor, asked me if she could show this year, because the academy that hosts these particular shows is giving her free classes/slots for one student and pony to show in each month (normally each class costs a certain amount which can range from $20+ per show, depending upon how many classes the student shows in, the average being at least three), since she already has so many students signed up to show. And she wants T to fill that complimentary spot. "Of course!", says I, what an unexpected blessing!! I think her teacher, J, is just as excited about it as we are too, which makes it so fun.

To see the rest of of the pics from her show, click here.

Demolition, Planning & Building

The past couple of weekends, Chris and N have been working hard salvaging oak wooden planks from a huge antique barn before it's to be destroyed by a developer that Chris knows, who gave him permission to take whatever he wants. Though it's a messy job and alot of work, this is has been a huge blessing and answer to prayer, since Chris has been specifically looking and asking around for salvageable barn wood to use for the various building projects he's been planning out... our new and improved (larger) chicken coop (which he's now working on, pics forthcoming), a big harvest-style dining room table, a headboard for our bed, and a bunk bed set for T (she's been wanting "rustic, horse-style" instead of the girlie white wicker trundle bed she has now (which I love btw, oh well, 'tis her room). He plans to plane the wood for some of the furniture pieces. It's amazing to me how finished and beautiful looking his handiwork is once he's finished. He has such an eye for detail, a true craftsman. I'm sure that N will learn a lot from Chris, who has had N working alongside him like a little man lately.

Playing, Resting, more Planning, Learning & Cleaning

So, Spring has sprung around here, and we're all absolutely loving it!! Once again, we have daylight until 8p.m., the windows are open and we don't need to heat nor cool the air at all, which is so nice, and the landscape is turning all green again too! The kids have proclaimed the weather as suitable for playing in the hose-water on the trampoline and running barefoot outside. They've been spending a lot more time down at the creek too, which Samson loves (nothing like a romp in the mud and water to make a dog's day). N has been bringing armloads of bionicles and GI Joe figures outside to play, building them little forts, etc. and T has been playing horses outside a lot, both alone, with me and with her kindred spirit friend, M. I've been playing at taking lots of pics of Spring blooms, but have yet to upload any of my pics.

Last month was a welcome reprieve from the months prior, since I had one less baby I was watching. It had been getting pretty stressful for me there for awhile, so the month long break was very timely. I'd been sleeping in until 8-8:30 most mornings, glorious, I tell ya! The mother had temporarily moved out of state with her daughter (the older of the two babies I've been watching for the last year), but has just recently returned again, and asked me to babysit for her again. I accepted, so my mornings are earlier again as well.

Now I have two crawling babies here, a 10 month old and a 14 month old, chasing each other, and me, around... crawling up my legs, reaching to be held and constantly getting into everything. It can be a bit much at times (I'm finding myself praying more), but the extra income is so nice, allowing us to spend some $$ on (hopefully) finishing the renovations on our old house here, without going into debt, and we're going to buy a new mattress for Chris and I (yay!!) -so it's well worth the extra work and inconvenience to me and our kids. And it's only for a few more months... We'd spent most of our tax return on paying off all of our credit card debt, and so now the only debt we have is our mortgage, and I'd like to keep it that way!

This is little E, the three yr. old we're keeping, brother to the 10 month old baby I just mentioned. He's a sweetie, and I feel badly that he and his little baby sister will probably be stuck in daycare soon. Their single Mom has recently put herself on a list for income-based daycare. So, I may lose them anytime, really. I plan to keep the other baby through the month of July, and then will take a couple of months off from baby-sitting to have our own little bean that's due in mid-August. After that, I'm going to just play it by ear as to whether or not I'll babysit anymore.

The kids and I went to a local homeschool co-op's visitors' day a couple of weeks ago, and really enjoyed it. I plan on enrolling both N and T in the weekly classes for each of their age groups next year, and they ARE. SO. EXCITED. This will be our first time to join a homeschool co-op. We've also been drawing out plans for our garden this summer, some of which we'll be planting pretty soon. It will be a simple garden this year, with N and T each having their own "little bit of earth" to garden and care for. T is growing herbs and helping me with a few of the veggies. N has some flowers and veggies picked out to grow. I'll share our gardening plans in greater detail a little later.

Schoolish type stuff has been happening around here lately too, though minimally. But we're happy with it. Reading (both independently and aloud to me), writing (daily copywork, and some written narrations here and there) and arithmetic of some sort are getting done most days, and I read aloud to them at least an hour almost every day, but not nearly as much as I'd hoped to before we'd started baby-sitting. So, much of what we'd planned to do this year will be pushed over to next year I'm afraid, but so goes it. And you know what? I am SO okay with that... we've had a wonderful year, full of challenges and life lessons that we never could have planned for, nor anticipated. We've lived and learned together, exactly what we were supposed to for this season.

I've been quite pleased with how well both N and T have progressed with their writing this year. T has written some stories, and writes in her journal almost daily, this of her own volition. She and N both are slowly working through the Writing Strands 3 book together (originally it was just for N, but then T insisted that she could and would do it with him), and lately have enjoyed writing letters to friends and family (their idea even). Their spelling has improved greatly, I think as a cumulative result of all their reading, copywork, spontaneous oral spelling quizzes that I give them (per their request, from the lists in their McGuffey readers-they love it!) and our sporadic work in our AVKO Sequential Spelling book (something else we really like and will continue with).

N and T have each recently completed a Developmental Mathematics book at their own levels, but have both decided that they very much prefer their Singapore math books to the Dev. Math books, so we've happily gone back to Singapore (with renewed vigor and appreciation on their part), and will continue on with that program, at our own pace. This week we're taking our Spring break, and so I'm not requiring anything academic from them, and yet today and yesterday they both wanted to play their Singapore math cd-rom, Vroot and Vroom, "just for the fun of it", and there they sat hurriedly scrawling out equations so they could find the answers and get through the mazes! So, math happens anyways. As does reading...

I walked in the dining room the other morning, to find N busily munching left-over pizza for breakfast, thoroughly engrossed in a library book... gotta love it! Also, below are some pics of their recently accomplished copywork. I recently invested in a couple of books of quotes and verses, compiled by Sandy Queen, for copywork, "The Thematic Copywork Lessons for Girls" and "The Thematic Copywork Lessons for Boys" books. They may also be used for dictation lessons, and are designed for children in grades 4-12, but has been working fine for T too, since she's a pretty advanced writer for her age. Though it seemed a bit pricey at first, this has turned out to be just the thing for us. Now that kids know exactly what they're to copy to each day, independently, it's actually happening every day, consistently... no scrambling for a worthy excerpt, or squabbling over its length being "tooooo long!" Each days work is already laid out, lessons numbered, nice and simple. N even exclaimed to me that he really likes his new copywork book (he really likes to know what's next, and this way can easily see what he has to accomplish). So, it's working for them (and me), and they're enjoying it, wonderful! After they complete these books, I plan to maybe compile my own copywork book for each of them, for a year at a time, since this system works so well. Or maybe they could just copy from one text for a term, year, whatever, with pre-determined portions already marked out/decided upon?

The copywork books are typed in a manuscript print, and N and T transpose each of their lessons into cursive (which they were already becoming proficient at when we started these books). N had asked if he could write his in print, rather than cursive, one day, "to take a break from cursive writing for awhile". So, I let him, and it was so funny that as he began, he was surprised to find that he was having a hard time keeping from writing words in cursive (he's gotten so used to it), and even commented on how much slower-going it seemed, to write in print. So, he ended up choosing to start over and write that lesson in cursive afterall!

Here's some of N's recent copywork:

And some of T's copywork:

With all of this lovely weather, and plans for a very busy summer ahead for us, I've been feeling the need to do some serious Spring cleaning. So, I decreed this week Spring break for the kids, and for the rest of this week, that is what I shall be about- cleaning! This will also allow me to get used to having both of the babies again, see what sort of routine we all work out together, before trying to do too much more with N and T seperately. I did recently buy the Beautiful Feet Geography Through Literature guide and maps to go along with our Holling C. Holling books (we already had), hoping to get the most out of these beautiful and informative books. I'd really like to get started on that soon, but am wondering now if it's even feasible, or will have to wait until after our baby girl's born (and thus we're not baby-sitting the other three anymore)?

My brother and sister-in-law will be visiting us next week with their four kids (which they unschool). Michael has an interview for a teaching position at a college campus about an hour and a half away from us, and so may even be moving here this summer, if he decides to take this job. He's graduating in May with his PhD in Physics, just has to complete his thesis. I'm so proud of him and Sharon (he's been in school in a long time, and Sharon's done alot to help him make it work!), and so looking forward to seeing them - it's been a couple of years!

So, I think that this should bring you pretty much up to date with us, and I'm starting to get a stiff neck from sitting here for so long, so I'm signing off for now! Happy Spring to ya~

We like to make "Resurrection cookies" on the third evening after Passover, rather than on the night before Easter Sunday as many people do. It is our family's preference to commemorate our Lord's resurrection at this time, as opposed to "Resurrection Sunday", since we've found the timing is more Biblically accurate, and made even more relevant by our having just remembered the death of our Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah, during Passover three days earlier. And yes, as Gentile Christians, we also have chosen to keep the Passover, rather than Easter, for numerous reasons. For one, the apostles were commanded to observe the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that follows as well. Paul writes,

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even the Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," 1 Cor. 5:7-8.

The Apostle Paul also writes,

"For I have received of the Sovereign, that which I also delivered unto you, that the Sovereign YAHUSHUA the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, 'Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me.' After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, 'This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Sovereign's death till He come," 1 Cor. 11:23-26.

Here's a small blip considering the controversy of old, that arose over the issue between those faithful in the East who adhered to the Passover and those in the West who preferred Easter.

“A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the [new] moon … should be observed as the feast of the Savior’s Passover…. [The] bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor [bishop of Rome] and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him: ‘We observe the exact day [commanded in Scripture]; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles … and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord … and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr…. All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.’ ”

~ excerpted from Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book V.

“early Christians were Jews and the Hebrew [Passover] tradition was powerful in their minds. A party of such conservatives [led by Polycrates] known as the Quartodecimans thus pressed for a continuance of the Jewish Passover … even to the point of schism, but they were overruled by the [Roman] Church as a whole….” (Quartodeciman comes from the Latin word for “14th”—and was a label given to those who followed the Scriptural command to observe the Passover on the evening of the 14th.)

~ excerpted from The Encyclopedia Americana, p. 506.

Today’s Easter tradition is developed around a “Good Friday” afternoon crucifixion and an “Easter Sunday” sunrise resurrection. What most Christians fail to realize is that this scenario threatens to annul the only sign Jesus gave as proof that He was the Messiah—that He would be in the grave exactly three days and three nights. “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, in like manner the Son of man shall be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). You don’t have to be a math genius to see that from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning is not three days and three nights. Thus, on this count alone, Easter is shown to be fraudulent.

~excerpted from The Day Jesus the Christ Died, by Fred R. Coulter

Here's a good article, if you're interested in reading more about this: Why Should Christians Keep the Passover?

Resurrection Cookies

You'll need:

• 1 cup whole pecans
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• zipper baggie
• 3 egg whites
• wooden spoon
• pinch salt
• tape
• Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important-don't wait until you're half done with the recipe!) Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.

Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.
Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.
Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.
Read Matt. 27:65-66.

Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight.
Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.
Read John 16:20 and 22.

GO TO BED!
On the following morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! Upon His resurrection, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.
Read Matt. 28:1-9