I’ll be attempting to ease myself back into blogging. I cannot allow it to totally take over my life and I do not wish to abandon it altogether…we’ll see how I manage. I thought I’d fill you all in on what I’ve been up to during my blog hiatus.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was rear-ended one Sunday evening several weeks ago. Because the costs to repair the damages exceeded 75% of the book value of our van, the insurance company once again decided to total our vehicle which forced us to buy another one. Again.

After the initial shock (and anger) wore off, I had to remind myself of my week’s devotional readings centering on the life of Joseph (the Joseph of Genesis). Now, I know my present circumstances are far easier than those of Joseph. Still, I took seriously the morning’s admonition to look for the Lord’s favor as we searched for another van.

I had already contacted our local Toyota dealership, so they were expecting us. John V. had the keys and the pre-owned (formerly known as ‘used’) vans ready for us to test-drive them. Karl took one look at the tag on a 2002 and said, “I think we’ve found your new van. I don’t even have to drive it.”

Karl is an impulse buyer, but that was a little too impulsive even for him.

Well, we drove it and one other used Sienna. With the insurance buy-out and some other money we were able to purchase the 2002 van without financing. Karl was giddy. And I looked at it as the favor of the Lord to not have to go further into debt.

The previous owners traded-in the van the same week as my accident. It spent some time in the shop getting fresh fluids and an inspection before they put it on the lot, just about a week before we showed up. As difficult as it is to find used Siennas, I’m calling “favor of the Lord” on this one. I know, vehicles aren’t necessarily necessities. However, it was very kind of God to provide a van for us that we could pay for. He also showed his kindness to our children in that if we had had to make monthly payments for a van, then we were probably going to have to drop their music lessons from our budget.

To be honest, I didn’t really expect God to orchestrate something special. I only asked for help finding something to get us safely from point A to point B. The New Covenant doesn’t include luxurious mini-vans. In fact, you could say that I expected our circumstances to worsen. Joseph’s certainly did before they took a dramatic upturn. I don’t know the reasons why God provided a five-year-old van in such excellent condition for us. He did more than I asked, and I am thankful. And He reminded me that it is His pleasure to do more than.

We’ve had a great few weeks of school at our house. This is our fourth year, and I think we’re finally getting the hang of homeschooling. We’re using a mix of materials again this year. Our foundation is History. I decided to go with Sonlight this year (for History and Reading), with our own additions/tweaking to take advantage of classical methods. Just like the advertisements promise, my kids love to “do” Sonlight. They will read dozens of books this year with Sonlight, which is one reason it appeals to me.

Hannah is considered to be a third grader, so she is beginning Latin this year. I chose Latin for Children, Primer A for our first year. It is built to go with Shurley English Homeschool, which is what I chose for Grammar again this year. Memorizing information comes so easily to her, so she is having fun right now. The other three children are picking it up, too, just by being in the room as we chant and sing. By the way, would someone kindly explain to me the why behind the differences between classical and ecclesiastical pronunciations? I don’t plan on attending a church service conducted in Latin, so we’re going with the classical pronunciations unless someone can convince me of a good reason to learn it the other way. Since no one speaks it anyway, what difference does it really make?

I like Saxon for Math. Hannah and Benjamin are working through Level 3. Noah is working in Level 1. Abbey is working through Level K.

For Bible: I’m using Leading Little Ones to God with Noah again this year. Abbey and I are reading through The Jesus Storybook Bible together. Hannah and Benjamin are studying Exodus with the Herein Is Love series of children’s commentaries. After we get further into our study I’ll let you in on how much I love this book and why. Nancy Ganz has definitely raised the bar for what we can expect from our children regarding their grasp of sound theology.

I am creating my own spelling program. I am putting together the theory behind SWR and the memorization techniques in Spelling Power to develop something that works well for Hannah. Though she has memorized her phonograms and spelling rules, she is not the best speller. She has to memorize the words, and grouping them into their families is working well for her. Benjamin, on the other hand, knows his phonics backwards and forwards and can discern quite easily which spelling rule to use.

My goal for Abbey and Noah is that they know how to read by the end of the school year. I am using two resources to do this. SWR and An Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jesse Wise. This may be a bit ambitious for Abbey (she’s just 4), but since she already knows all of her letters I see no reason not to attempt to teach her to read.

Enough of that. Someone emailed me several weeks ago about our schedule. I’ll try to post that this week.

I don’t know if I’ll be posting something every day. Schooling four takes the entire day. By the time we’re finished it’s all I can do to put dinner on the table before I totally crash. Who am I kidding? Getting dinner served happens in crash mode. God is so good to give me that little extra I need to put food on the table, and/or to give Karl to wisdom to know by the sound of my voice that he needs to pick something up on the way home from work.

We’ll just have to see how well I can discipline myself to work hard and blog later. Either way, I’ll be keeping my heart and eyes open for seeing God’s care for me. Won’t you join me this week in expecting those inexplicable moments of God’s lavish favor?