That's why ducks fly

Summer finally to this part of the world. It is really pretty warm these days - if there are no major storms, it is quite nice. So today Jeremy wanted to go to the pool where his sister was life guarding. We some stuff to do so we went to the pool for the last two hours before closing. Due to insider information we knew that it would be less crowded during that time. Anyway, the little guy had a great time. He jumped and dove and flew down the zip line and the slide. He had blast. Unfortunately somebody stole his goggles. So after the swimming we went to the store to buy a new pair of goggles. Jeremy found what he was looking for, which was a combo pack consisting of goggles, flippers and snorkel. He really liked it and tried it out at home. It was quite funny to see him struggle to waddle through the house. I just burst out laughing when he mumbled to himself "Now I know why ducks fly rather than walk" while he waddled on into the kitchen for a glass of water. 

I thought I share this little snipped with you, maybe you need a little smile today. I know I did :-)

New Curriculum arrived!

I have been homeschooling for about six years now and every year I ponder anew which curriculum to choose. I have tried textbooks, but that doesn't seem to work well for my lovelies. I really liked  Ambleside Online. A great curriculum fashioned after Charlotte Mason's style of teaching. I really enjoyed it when I had only two kids and they were in the same grade level. It didn't work so well for me when I had three kids in three different grade levels. I don't know how others are doing it, but it drove me crazy, it is quite possible that I could have done something different and make it work, but I couldn't figure out how. Then I tried to put my own curriculum together, which worked well but was VERY work-intensive! I also tried Tapestry of Grace, which I thought was super because I could put all three kids in the same curriculum and we were all learning the same but at different levels. The difficulty I had with TOG was that I couldn't just pick a few books. I constantly had to battle the want to read every book, which TOG clearly states is NOT intended.
This year we will be a very different year for us for many reasons, some I will talk about in a week or two, the other reason is that one of my kids is starting college work. She is going to do 'her own thing' and I have only two left to teach. I really needed something this year that spelled everything out for me and was already all done, so that basically all I have to do is open the folder and start teaching. Sooo, this year we are trying Sonlight. I got the first box with curriculum and I am excited! It is ALL done for me! I don't have to do much at all. I can't believe how easy it can be to plan a school year! Would you believe that I am pretty much done with planning for one of my kids? I opened the box, put all the stickers on the books, so we know which books is for which week. Next I loaded the student and teacher folders and I am done :)  I can't believe it! Okay, so I have to add Math and Science, but they are really easy to plan, because they are pretty much scheduled when they come. This year the kids will do Wordly Wise on the computer, I got a really good deal on that. The only thing I have to do is move some of the scheduled work, because it is planned for five days but we want to do it in four days. That way we don't have to worry about things when it is co-op day. So Fridays will be for co-op, field trips and catch up if needed.
I would like to mention that there is nothing wrong with any of the other curricula, I just really don't have the time to plan so extensively anymore.

So anyway, here are some pictures from 'box day'  :D

Something to smile :)

I don't know how the weather is where you live, but here it has been raining a lot. I am thankful that it is only rain and not tornadoes. So I guess I have nothing to complain about :)

The other day I was out and running errands, when suddenly I had the incredible urge to stop at Dunn Brother for a nice, hot coffee. Vanilla white chocolate mocha with whip - oh, so good! Anyway, I pulled around the corner into the parking lot, because I always slurp the whip first. Until I had the first sip of coffee, I didn't really pay attention to my surroundings .... yes, it was that kinda day. Then I lifted my eyes and I had to laugh out loud - all by myself in the car. There were ducks swimming in a pool of water in the parking lot! It was just too cute. I thought I share some pictures and hope they make you smile as we all enter another week :)

This just looked cool.....

This looked better in nature, I couldn't
capture it exactly though

It has been a while :)

Oh my, time really flies! Last time I posted, we were surprised by snow. Now we have mainly rain, though I don't want to be unfair, we also had a few sunny days since then. The weather is about as crazy as our lives are right now.

I am in the middle of planning my daughters graduation party. I am so blessed to have a good friend helping me. Highschool graduation is an American thing and I grew up in Germany, we didn't have grad parties. So now I am learning many things about it,  so I will be ready for the other two children who will follow in a few short years :) I can't believe I am done homeschooling her. Where did the years go?  This is a new chapter in life, for all of us. I am excited to see what God has in store for her.
Here are two  pictures of my grad girl, courtesy of JK Photography.

My little guy wanted to go fishing the other day but I had a few errands to run in the morning. So we made a deal, if he got his school work done by the time I got home again, I would take him fishing.
Let me tell you, he has never done his school work so fast! So I had to keep me end of the deal, which at first I wasn't all that happy with because more work was waiting for me to be done. But I wanted to keep my word. I have to tell you, it was a blessing. While Jeremy fished and had fun and made some new friends, I got to sit in the sun and just relax. I got to soak up some wonderful, warm sunshine. After about two and half hours we had to leave because I had more stuff to do. We both had a great time. Jeremy caught quite a few fishes and I had time spend with my Lord :)

Noooooo :-(

I am totally speechless now..... I did suspect it but now I know that I live in the eternal Tundra!
It looks like Christmas time but, alas, it is the 22nd of April !
I am so tired of snow. Actually that wouldn't even be so bad, I could live with it - not like it, but okay. However, there is no sun! On Saturday it was a sunny day but that was the first and so far only one thus far in the last week or two .....  I need sun and warmth........

How can this be supported in any form????

My mother wanted to know what I do with myself these days, so I said I go downtown and watch a trial. Oh, that’s interesting, dear, she thought, and asked for details. Mom’s mind doesn’t work the same way it used to since her stroke three years ago, so the conversation went something like this:

Well, a man named Kermit Gosnell is on trial for murder, I said. (It turns out she had heard of the case.) “How can anybody abort a little baby?” she said. Well, actually, Mom, he’s not on trial for abortion, he’s on trial for murder. Everybody’s OK with abortion; they’re just not OK with murder. As a matter of fact, Judge Jeffrey Minehart purged the jury of any self-declared pro-lifers before the trial began.

My 81-year-old mother, not being as “with it” as she used to be, struggled to understand the arcane distinction between “abortion” (the killing of a baby) and “murder” (the killing of a baby). I patiently explained that the authorities didn’t like that Dr. Gosnell did what he did a minute after the baby was born, rather than a minute before.

Then things started to get complicated. That’s because I ended up telling Mom about the prosecution’s star witness, Karen Feisullin, an ob-gyn who practices at Abington Memorial Hospital, where I birthed three of my four children. I re-emphasized to Mom that this was the prosecution’s girl, the one the D.A. called to show the defendant did wrong.

On the witness stand Dr. Feisullin, after turning her nose up at Gosnell’s antiquated ultrasound machine, tutored the courtroom on how an abortion is done properly: (A) Grab baby’s leg with forceps; (B) pull into birth canal (pieces may break off); (C) deliver body, except for head; (D) insert probe into back of skull; (E) suction out brain for easy passage. And there you have it, folks, a perfectly legal D&E, or Dilation and Evacuation.

My mother still wasn’t catching on. So why is Dr. Feisullin the good guy and Gosnell the bad guy? Well, Mom, she’s a licensed ob-gyn, and most of her practice is delivering live babies to happy women in a gleaming, state-of-the-art hospital. Abortion is just a teeny part of her work: She does a scant two to four second-trimester abortions per week, and mostly for “fetal anomalies.” Besides, she’s kind of pretty.

Furthermore, I told Mom, Dr. Feisullin is careful only to kill babies up to 23 weeks and six days old. She would never take out a life one day older than that (though second-trimester fetal age assessment has an over-and-under of two weeks). That would be against the Pennsylvania law, and she is an honorable doctor. So are they all, honorable doctors. (At one point, as defense attorney Jack McMahon walked back to his seat after an uncomfortable cross-examination of Feisullin over the gritty particulars of fetal dismemberment, she called out from the stand, “Are we going to talk about how they’re all over 24 weeks?” McMahon reminded her that he was the one asking the questions.)

There are other differences between Gosnell and Feisullin, I explained to someone now far too old to understand. In Gosnell’s clinic, when an abortion went wrong (that is to say, when the baby lived), he would do a fast scissor snip at the back of the neck—but when an abortion went wrong on Feisullin’s watch, she would give it “comfort care.” What’s comfort care? Mom naïvely probed. Well, it means she “keep(s) it warm” under a little blanket “until it passes.” So you mean in Gosnell’s operatory the baby is put out of its misery quickly, but in Feisullin’s he might flop around on a table for hours? (Actually, Mom didn’t ask that. That one’s my question.)

I saved the ickiest for last: Gosnell put a few baby’s feet in specimen jars. They were marked and labeled for women who might want them later for DNA samples or identification of age, Gosnell told his staff. That’s disgusting. The proper disposal of fetuses, as everyone knows, is biohazard bags, an Insinkerator, an on-site crematorium, or sale to pharmaceutical or cosmetic companies.

You know what, Mom? A pox on both their houses.

WORLD | Courtroom horror | Andrée Seu Peterson |

Thank you Pastor Piper and thank you Pastor Meyer

A little over three years ago we visited Bethlehem Baptist Church for the first time. Even though we didn't know anyone, everyone was very nice to us. Actually that is a total understatement. Bethlehem cared for us and loved us in very amazing ways. This was what drew me to that church in the first place, not necessarily because of all the help that we received, though I don't know what we would have done without it, but it was much more than that. They didn't know us - at all. They just heard of a need and responded - that is what drew me to Bethlehem. It was so intimidating at first. So big. So many people. My church in Germany had about 120 people. We went to our Pastors, two of them, to bible studies. As a new Christian I was mentored by my Pastors wife and we became friends. We had close relationships with lots of accountability. I learned so much there! Now, here we were in Minnesota at Bethlehem Baptist Church, three campuses - one church! So many people! Yes, it was intimidating. We tried a smaller church first, but that just didn't really feel like home. Once we got past the "bigness" of BBC, it got much easier. The people made it so easy for us, we were welcomed and we felt at home. So for the next three years we sat under the teachings of Pastor John Piper.
When we were in Germany, I only heard of John Piper and his name was mentioned right along with John McArthur, John Edwards, Mr. Spurgeon and other big names. So it was very amazing to hear him preach in person! I have learned so much and I have been challenged plenty of time by Dr. Piper's preaching. Every Sunday was amazing because though I may have read what he preached about, I was amazed how much more God showed him in the same passage. Not that I agreed with everything, but it challenged me to dig deeper and find the answer as to why or why not I agreed. It was amazing to listen to Pastor Piper, his love and passion for Christ is just contagious.
Today now Bethlehem celebrated John Piper's 33 years of pastorate at BBC. I really like what his wife, Noel, said that they are not retired but refired. It is sad that John Piper is not the Pastor of BBC any more, at the same time I rejoice with him and his family. He will now have the time to pursue the things he didn't have time for before. He will have more time for his family. Pastor Piper and Noel, I wish you all the best and all of God's blessings! I am looking forward to find out what else God has in store for you!

At the same time, I am also excited to see what God will do at BBC. Our new Pastor, Jason Meyer is good. I like his preaching, it is very strong. I can only imagine what must go through his mind as the successor of John Piper. I am certain that he is very confident in Christ and is filled with the Holy Spirit.
So I am excited to see what the future will bring :)

In conclusion I would like to say: Thank you for all you have done for the BBC family and Godspeed to the Piper family. Thank you for all you will do in the future and Godspeed to the Meyer family. I pray for God's blessings over all of Bethlehem and the rest of the world.

Gluten Free Bread - and it tastes good ! :D

I am very excited today! I have finally found a recipe for gluten free bread that easy, fast and tastes good! If you have ever tried to eat gluten free bread from the store, you will understand my excitement ;-)    Let me explain how this all came about.... A little while ago a friend from church and I talked about german bread and how much we miss it (she is german as well). Then she told me that she has a great and easy recipe for baking bread at home, without a bread machine. Well, I wasn't too excited at first because I know about baking bread. When the kids where younger, I used to bake bread all the time - without the bread baker and from scratch. It was usually not too bad but rather messy, though the kneading process was surprisingly stress relieving, seeing that one could pound the dough and really work it through.... then you have to let it rise and wait and knead and let it rise and finally bake. And don't forget all the clean up. It was rather tedious to wash out all the fresh (very) sticky bread dough out of the wash cloth and get if of the work surface ...... hhmm, no I wasn't too eager to try baking again. It tasted good, but I just dreaded all the work. My friend assured me though, that the whole process is very quick, easy and painless. She must have seen the doubt in my face, because she invited me to her place to bake bread. Well, I was curious and I like spending time with her, so I agreed to come over a few weeks later. When baking day came, I went to my friends house with some other lovely ladies from our church, who were just as curious about baking bread in a 'painless' way.
Well, to make a long story short - it was great, easy, painless and delicious !
We mixed the dough in a stand mixer, put it in an ice cream bucket, let it rise for about one hour, took a chunk out and baked it - done! The rest of the dough stays in the bucket in the fridge and when you are ready to bake the next bread, you take out another chunk of dough, let it rise for about 90 minutes and bake it - done! It truly was easy and the clean up is done very fast and easy. Of course we baked regular bread at my friends house, but when I got home, I remembered that about a year ago I recipes from another friend and they were from the same book that my friend used when she baked the bread with us. So I set out to find the recipes and I found them! Sure enough, it was the same book! "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes A Day".  Sooo, of course I tried the recipes and to my great surprise - it came out great and tastes great! I have tried a sweet bread for Easter - I don't have pictures of that. After that I made the the gluten free olive oil bread. Can you say awesome :D   So I mixed the dough one evening, it took about 20 minutes, including clean up. Put it in an ice cream bucket and put the lid loosely on it. Let it sit for 2 hours and then put it in the fridge. I wanted to bake bread the next day. Well, the next day we all had a craving for pizza. If you have been gluten free for a little while, you know that this can be a problem. Though Dominos has GF pizza but it is small and rather expensive ( $ 10 for a small pizza) and we would have had to buy at least two pizzas. I remembered though that somewhere in the recipe it talked about using the olive oil dough for pizza. So we stopped at the grocery store and got some pizza sauce, cheese, ham, pineapple and olives and went home. It took some of the dough out of the ice cream bucket and made two pizzas. I just had to flatten the dough and put all the stuff on it and put it in the oven - done! It was really, really good! The next day I used the rest of the dough to bake bread. You just have to let it rise for about 90 min and bake it - done! It is one of the best GF breads I ever had! It is hard not to eat too much! If this all made you curious, here is the website, it even has a short video on how it is done. Take a look, you will be amazed how easy it is to make bread - and cheap! I have ordered the book now, because there is one chapter of gluten free baking in it, seeing how much money I can save in buying bread it is well worth the investment :)
Now that I talked all about our yummy food, here are some pictures :)

It was supposed to be done on a pizza stone, I used a
pizza tray with foil, since I have only one pizza stone.

It turned out very well :)

Ham and Pineapple - yummy.....

Doesn't that look good ?

Same dough as the pizza.

It is a little bit chewy but not too dense and
crispy on the outside. Very delicious!