I am trying to raise money to order this years books! I will accept paypal or money orders for the items below:

- Plants Grown Up by Doorposts - wonderful book in excellent unused condition. I paid $40.00 ($48.00 on their website) - asking $30 ppd.  

- TRISMS Discovering the Ancient World Curriculum in like new condition: This set is complete and includes: Comprehensive User’s Manual Answer Key Book Student Pack Research Questionnaires Maps Worksheets Tests Quizzes Paid $150.00 - Will sell for $120.00 ppd.

- The Usborne Piano Course Book One - $1.50 + $2.00 s/h

- APOLOGIA - Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day in like new condition - Paid $35.00 - asking $22.00 ppd.

- How Great Thou ART - Very Good Condition - Never Used: Includes: Feed My Sheep Curriculum Book with 3 years worth of lessons! 3 Paint Card Sets of 17 cards - Unused 7 videos with hours of teaching and over 250 lessons! Will sell for $75.00 ppd.

I will be posting more books for sale over the next week!

Remember how I told you about our wonderful luck with the Luna Moth and the eggs? Well, today, exactly 12 days after the eggs were laid, we have sweet tiny little green caterpillars! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself… and so are my girls!

We lost count around 30 or so. They are so cute! We moved them from the box into a glass jar where we will keep them and feed them until they get a little bigger. Then we will move them to an empty aquarium with netting on the top to keep them in.

You can read a really good article with great photos at Wikipedia about the Luna Moth.

Here are some photos:

 We learned that the Luna Moth Caterpillars eat several different kinds of tree leaves including walnut and pecan. I have some walnut trees, so we are off to pick leaves!

This is such an exciting event in the life of a homeschooling family, don’t you think?

I received this in my email… looks like fun! 

Get Ready to Track Next Spring’s Journey North
It’s time to dig in! This fall, plant a Journey North Tulip Garden so you can proclaim the official arrival of Spring, 2009 in your community.  By sharing observations over the Internet, students across North America will follow the wave of spring as it moves northward and measure its pace from distant places.

A Study of Plants and Climate
These gardens are the focus of an annual international science project in which students investigate the relationship between geography, climate and the arrival of spring. Plants reveal the effects of climatic factors as they develop and grow. Through this study, now in its 16th year, students can explore real-time maps and climate data and compare their results with others in a long-term database.

Join The Fun!
Classrooms of all grade levels can participate and teachers can enjoy learning with their students. How will Spring 2009 compare to earlier years? Let’s find out!

How to Participate
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/tulips/AboutFall.html

When I saw THIS:

 I had to share it with you! Is that not the sweetest little baby bootie ever?? And, if you visit humble Bea’s shop you’ll find even more darling handmade goodies!

Well, we got the new house for my step-daughter Julina and her family! We are so excited we can hardly stand it!

As I said before, the house is about 6 miles from my house and on top of the mountain ridge on Little Shepherd Trail. The property has 7 acres, a house, a detached garage, a small barn (stable), space for a nice vegetable garden, 5 or 6 huge apple trees already brimming with ripe apples, some other fruit trees, and an incredible view!

We went out there today and I took some photos, we picked a bag full of apples and they taste so good!

Julina and I are planning to have a garden together next year, can apples, and we want to get a horse or two and some chickens and goats!

However - the real miracle is that we only paid $38,000 for the house, land and all!

Here are some of the photos I took today…

The house has 1500 square feet.

P.S. - excuse the trash - it won’t look like that for long! We are going tomorrow to clean up!

That is Sarah and Hannah - you can see Sarah’s shirt is filled with apples!

Don’t they look yummy!

Yesterday morning Mykal and I loaded our bags, our bedding, and our kids and drove five hours to Indian Creek Camp for 4 days at our Minister’s Meeting. We arrived last night at around 5:00 and had a delicious supper at 6:00 followed by a very interesting meeting and then swimming at 9:00. We found a luna moth at the pool and took it back to the room in a box to take this photo.

And a few minutes we found this moth and put it in the box as well.

After taking the photos we let the moths go. But to our surprise - look what we found in the box!

EGGS! We are so excited! I have not been able to find a photo of Luna Moth eggs, but we are hoping to hatch baby caterpillars from a Luna Moth!

This morning, we had a wonderful breakfast followed by a nap for me because I am simply worn out and then at 9:00 am I took my darling little girls over to the horse corral to ride horses for an hour.

After that I took them down to the pool where they swam for an hour and I drew a picture of a Titmouse bird which I had been wanting draw and paint with watercolors for about 6 months now and hadn’t because I had no time to do so.

After that, I went back to my room and painted the picture and at 12:00 took the girls back to the corral to ride the horses and go on the trail ride. They LOVE horses! Then at 1:00 was lunch, and I took another nap because I am so tired from these last few weeks. At 3:00 it was back to the corral and I was so proud of my seven year old because she got to go on her first trail ride, controlling her own horse and did a marvelous job! They are having so much fun. We then went swimming again and I go to chat with my good friends who are also pastor’s wives.

We found a caterpillar in our room this afternoon. We took a photo and then let it go.

Supper was at 6:00 pm and then I went to the 7:00 meeting after having skipped all the other meeting today! We are getting ready for our 9:00 swim here in just a few minutes.

I hope that while I am enjoying a much needed too short retreat, that you all are enjoying the devotional From Chaos to Calm. I have posted the whole week so you won’t miss a single one while I am away.

Sincerely,
Melissa Ringstaff

My grandaughters, Abby and Tierra left at about 6 am to go back home to Georgia. We had a wonderful time with them here.

This morning, I went to the Harlan church (2 miles from my house) to pack up my props and materials that I need for our VBS in the Belcher church (2 hours from my house). While I was there my Mother-in-law (83 years olf) was dropped off at the church to sort and pack up yard sale stuff for the church yard sale she is having next week at her house. So, I ended up going through clothes and boxes of stuff and packing it in my van to take to her house. And since I was at it, I picked out clothes for a very, very poor family we have been helping. They have 11 kids at home and are desperate for any kind of help.

Then I took my Mother-in-law home and unloaded my van and then drove back to the church to actually do the job I went there for in the first place. It took about two hours to box up and pack my van with the VBS stuff. I am so glad that is done.

In a bit I will be going out to Wal-Mart to do some last minute VBS shopping since there is no Wal-Mart anywhere near the Belcher church. I will also be purchasing a years worth of school supplies for our Sabbath School in Belcher. I will do the purchasing for the other two churches in a couple of weeks.

My Task List for Today:

1. VBS Shopping
2. Laundry (2 - 3 loads)
3. Hand towels on the line to dry
4. Fold the clothes and put away
5. Fold the blankets and bedding in the Living Room where the four girls slept all week and put away.
6. Straighten house. (No small feat when you have a BIG house!)
7. Clean the kitchen. My dishwasher has been out of commision for months! So everything gets handwashed. I don’t mind so much except that there are so many people who use so many dishes and really its the putting them away that is such a pain.
8. Pack our clothes.
9. Plan snacks for VBS.
10. Cook supper (squash casserole, sliced tomatoes, rice, and patties with gravy)
11. Bake two peach pies.
12. Clean kitchen after supper.
13. Print crafts that we need for VBS.

I am sure there is more that needs to be done. Just looking at the list right now made me really feel tired! Whatever I don’t get to will have to be done before I leave for Belcher tomorrow. And it all has to be done and I can’t leave too late tomorrow because I need the whole day to set up and it is a 2 hour drive.

I completed my prayer journal last week. I was so excited to be finished with that little book! Actually, the last journal I had was given to me and I wasn’t delighted with it - I just didn’t find the style of it appealing, but the frugal part of me, just couldn’t bear the thought of not using a perfectly good blank book. So, I reluctantly filled its pages with prayers, but I wasn’t thrilled each morning as I picked it up and I used it not everyday, but off and on.

So, the day I finished the last page, I went to Wal-Mart to see if they had any pretty books for not too expensive. I was so excited when I found a beautiful leather journal for only $8.00 and it was “me.” I was so excited about the new book, that I couldn’t wait to for morning to begin my journaling. I sat down and began to write. In times past and in my prayer journals past, I simply wrote out my prayers and praises to God. This time, I decided to use the book as a prayer journal but to also include my thoughts, special occassions, memories of the day or week, or simply to add in my comments about the events of the day. I have written a lot in the book already and I am enjoying it so much. I want to leave a legacy of writing about our family, my dreams, my petitions to God, the woes and the joys of my life to my children. I know that when I am gone, someone will sit down and read the pages I have written. If I had not pages to be read, there would be nothing personal - nothing of my thoughts, nothing from my heart for my children and grandchildren to know me by.

If you are doing the From Chaos to Calm challenge with me, I hope you will find a journal for your prayers and other thoughts that makes you happy to look at, hold, and write in. A plain spiral notebook for 10 cents at Wal-Mart will work - but will you be delighted each time you open it? Will it last the test of time and be passed down as a legacy of your faith to your children and grandchildren? Of course, you may not want anyone to ever read your thoughts and that is okay too!

I encourage your write whether your heart is filled with peace, joy, or even frustration, it will allow you to see God’s hand in your life in a real and tangible way!

I was so happy to see the sunshine this morning. It has rained all week. I did appreciate the rain. We needed it. However, it was nice to see the sun. One of my favorite household chores is hanging up the laundry on the line outside. And of course, that is hard to do when it is raining!

I am loving my new Purex Linens and Lilies scented laundry detergent. Oh, how good it smells!

Also, on of my new favorite songs is Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Christ Tomlin. Absolutely beautiful.

We are working on putting together our VBS program at our church here in Harlan. We are using the same theme, Out of Egypt that I wrote for our Primaries at Campmeeting. I also wrote a program for ages 0 - 4 for our VBS called Baby Moses. We spent the day decorating for that yesterday. So much fun! I will have to share some photos later.

And finally, if you have not visited A Virtuous Woman lately, you should! There are so many new features - I know you will love them!

I am so excited about this coming school year! I pretty much have most of my curriculum picked out … just need to start purchasing!

Here is my plan so far…

- Tapestry of Grace - If you are interested you can download the first three weeks of year one here: Go to Egypt.

From their website: Tapestry covers the humanities: history, church history, literature, geography, fine arts, government, philosophy, and writing & composition. Tapestry does not include a phonics program, science, math, grammar, spelling, or foreign language. Lampstand Press does, however, recommend and sell complementary logic, spelling, and grammar programs.

- Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day - from Apologia. We LOVED the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day this past year!

- Math U See - You couldn’t ask for a better math curriculum for homeschoolers!

- A Reason for Spelling

I am a big fan of the Charlotte Mason Method… So, we will continue our nature study journals and nature walks. We will continue to do copywork and notebooking with our science and Tapestry of Grace.

And we will incorporate some of the resources from Ambleside Online:

Composer Study
Art Appreciation
Nature Study
FolkSongs
Hymns

From other sources:

Poetry
Home Economics from Pearables

I am currently taking piano lessons and will continue to teach my own children with:

Alfred’s Basic Piano Library

We use the Sibley Bird Field Guide and the National Geographic Bird Field Guide - wonderful resources! We do a lot of bird watching and are working on creating a Bird Friendly yard with feeders and bird houses. We are doing some of the projects from: Pojects for the Birder’s Garden - a wonderful book!

We will incorporate lapbooking into our studies as well - and something I like to call “folderbooking” kind of like lapbooking and notebooking all rolled into one.

Anyway, there is my plan - now to just get all those books ordered! I can’t wait for them to come in the mail!

I am so excited I can hardly wait for this school year.