New Morning Mercies

It's been WAY to long since I have posted! I wasn't even sure what to blog about, so bear with me as I try to hone in on my 10:30 pm ADHD brain! I looked over and saw the book next to me entitled, "New Morning Mercies" by Paul David Tripp and I thought, "That's it! That's my title!" No matter what happened today, no matter what is on my mind tonight, joy comes in the morning! His mercies are new every day!

Last week was our first (half) week of Stuebs Academy! If you haven't heard of Stuebs Academy, it is a VERY elite academy , from elementary up to Junior High! In fact, we are SO elite here at Stuebs Academy, only TWO students are admitted yearly! ;)

Oliver and Patience officially started last Wednesday and if I were to give it a rating I would say it was "mas o menos." We started Wednesday off with donuts, because well, donuts. At 9 AM we began with Luther's Morning Prayer, devotion, and song. On Tuesday and Thursday, Oliver goes with hubcake for catechism and Latin and Patience and I do "More than Words" written by Rebecca Spooner at Gather Round Homeschool. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Oliver, Patience and I are studying the New Testament. They have some memory work from Scripture each week and every other Friday we also will will be doing Hymnology! I can honestly say, I NEVER thought I would be doing this. However, I can HONESTLY say I never imagined 2020 to be what it is.

After our Bible and Catechism work, we move on to my FAVORITE time! Gather Round! We are currently doing our Unit Study on Africa. This curriculum covers writing, reading, spelling, history, some science, social studies and geography. It also incorporates memory work from Scripture as well as God's word tied into ALL things ( what we as Christians firmly believe) so for us, it is just fantastic! After I read the lesson, Oliver does his own independent work within his workbook and I help Patience through hers. Honestly, teaching is fun. The hardest part has been the meltdowns and stubborn personalities. However, I will say, even though each of them gave me their own handful of meltdowns and butting of heads, the two of them TOGETHER got along better in those three days than I have seen them get long in oh, the last few years! It was truly awesome to see them listening to the Chronicles of Narnia while working on their African puzzle together. They played monopoly and there was WAY more laughing than bickering. I could only raise my head up and say, "Thank you God!"

After Gather Round, we take a break and they go play outside. Oliver usually shoots some hoops and Patience either walks the dog or takes her Barbie jeep around the neighborhood in her usual parade queen style. :) Once winter comes I hope they play together building forts and sledding at the hill down the street. (Please LORD help them get along!) When break is over, we come back and Oliver does his own independent work in Math. I purchased an online tutor program called "Nicole the Math Lady" to help him with his Saxon math. He is pretty good with math and so far hasn't even needed the online lessons, but in time He will. The other awesome thing is it corrects the answers as well! He writes the answers out on paper and I go through and plug them in to get them corrected! EASY PEASY! Patience is using the math curriculum from Masterbooks called "A Living Education." It is a Charlotte Mason themed approach to math with Christian principles plugged in, and so far I am also loving that AND ZERO meltdowns with math! SCORE!

The rest of the day we rotate different activities. Currently, we are going through the Bill of Rights. I will give Patience some spelling and Oliver is working on a book report. We also do about 30 minutes of Read Aloud where either I read OR we listen to an audio book. Currently we are listening to "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. They are also required to read another 30 minutes a day. Oliver is required an extra 60 minutes.

For me, reading and God's word are my main focus. We fill in the gaps from there.

"A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." —Abraham Lincoln

We have also added a few other things to our schedule to help keep some "normalcy." Since all sports were cancelled at their normal grade school, finding something to keep them active, especially Oliver was crucial. He is a lover of ALL sports and it was literally breaking his heart. We found out the city was still holding a soccer league so we signed him up for that along with some of his friends. He is also playing in a homeschool flag football group and playing basketball with the homeschool group on Tuesdays. He hasn't started back up with violin yet, and not even quite sure if he will. I would love to see him keep up with some form of music but his heart just didn't seem to be into violin anymore. Patience is taking weekly piano lessons from her great aunt right here in town, and is finally starting to get the hang of it. I am hopeful with more practices she won't be quite so dramatic anymore! YAY! WINS!!!!

Our regular school week is running from Tuesday through Friday. Mondays are off days, or make up days, or as of current, each one of them have a four week art class on Mondays at a local homeschooler's house just down the road! They each have a separate time. Patience's class is for an hour and a half and Oliver's is for two hours! I am actually super excited to see what they will be doing! There has been so many blessings from this venture and so when I start to get overwhelmed or my critter brain goes a muck, i try to reign it back in and remember all these amazing little blessings and new beginnings. I remember the "New Morning Mercies", and am able to catch my breath once again and take another step forward.

All good things take time. Patience is a virtue, and a learned behavior that needs to be taught and practiced. We named our daughter Patience for a few different reasons. One, was because I love history and geneaology. Long ago,as I was reading through work my Uncle Rob had poured so much of his time, heart and soul into, I came across a great, great, great aunt of mine named Patience. She was from Ireland and I just loved the name! We later found out about four months after OUR Patience was born, our daughter and my great times- three aunt BOTH have the same birthdays?!? Another reason we chose our daughter's name was because after Oliver, we suffered two devastating back to back miscarriages. The thought of attempting to try another chance at bringing life into this world paralyzed me with fear. However, my heart hurt so bad for the little girl I had lost and I had always dreamed of having a little girl. The pain of waiting, trusting, and enduring the years between those losses and our miracle rainbow baby, Patience, was beyond anything I can to this day describe. Her name was just so fitting, and God's "New Morning Mercies" are incredible.

Waiting is not weakness.

Waiting is CONFIDENCE that God will keep all His promises.

His mercies are new every morning.

xoxo,

Sara

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;his mercies never come to an end;they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22-23