The wedding has been postponed

This has been very difficult for me to write about, Nataleigh's father and Mark found out that the age of consent is 16, so we will have to wait another 3 years for the wedding.  I'm so dissapointed, the wedding is in 8 years.  Eight.  That means that the soonest I will be a grandmother is in about 9 years.  That is almost an entire decade.

I'm trying to look on the bright side but I am very disapointed.

Homeschooling: Part One

We are lucky enough to be able to homeschool (I’m still praying for your husband to see the light Ashleigh.)  It’s the end of the school year for us and I’ve just finished buying the curriculum for next year so we have it when we start in August.

We have most subjects together, I believe learning as a family helps everyone learn.  We do however have Penmanship, Math and reading/English apart, other than that we generally learn together.

Penmanship: we don’t use an actual curriculum or boughten package, each day I have them copy part of a scripture or I tell them to write their testimony of the Lord Jesus in their best handwriting.  They have gotten much better when doing this after learning how to write properly when doing this.

We use Rod and Staff for English, just with different grade levels.  Rod and Staff uses Mennonite grade levels which are a little different than non Mennonite grade levels.  Non Mennonite grade levels are a little ahead until about 3-4th grade, then both even out before the Mennonite grade levels jump ahead at about the 5th grade, so even though Joshua and Jacob are in 1st and 5th grade right now, they do use different books because of this.

Joshua is about 3/4ths of the way through the 5th grade book, but I’m not pressuring him to hurry through it because of the grade differences between us and the Mennonite book.  If he starts the 6th grade still using the 5th grade book I’m fine with that and so is Mark.

Jacob uses the 2nd grade book, he’s currently just starting it, and will only be a few lessons in when we break for summer.  I just didn't want to have him go 3 months without any English/reading work.

In Math they are in different curriculum, Joshua uses Teaching textbooks, which isn’t a christian curriculum but it works best for him.  He’s a very independent learner and this way I can concentrate on Jacob.

Jacob uses Minquon Math and has just finished the Red Book.  We also use living math with Jacob, he helps me add prices at the grocery store.

The rest of the subjects we have, we do together, they are: History, Science, Geography, Bible, Art, Music, Poetry and Physical Education.

I'll post about our other curriculum sometime next week, stay tuned!

Busy Busy weekend!

We had such a busy weekend, we went to a wedding and I've been busy preparing school for next year.  I'll share what we'll be doing in another post,.  :D.

But we had a good Sabbath and a good week.

I should have known that our friendship would hit a snag.......

Although Ashleigh and I haven't known each other long, (We met just over a week ago.)  Satan is already trying to break our friendship apart.  But I will not let this happen!

Earlier in the week, Joshua managed to find a soda that my husband bought (against my request, because soda's are unhealthy.)  And not only did he have one, but he gave Nataleigh one!  I was horrified.  He's never been willfully disobedient but I know he was this time because I told him one night that Nataleigh's family didn't drink soda's.  He's been grounded to his room for the next week, unless he has to use the bathroom or eat he's not leaving his bedroom until Saturday.

Another source of contention between Ashleigh and I is that she found out that the children are vaccinated.  Well, they wouldn't if it were up to me.  I would be happy to let them run around unvaccinated, but Mark insists that they are vaccinated.

I'm not happy with Mark this week.  But I must submit to him, for he is my husband.

Oh, I've finished a simple baby sweater for my oldest grandchild!  5 years can't pass quickly enough!

Wonderful Sunday!

I had a wonderful Sunday today with my family.  We went to church and the children behaved wonderfully, even little Abigail who still needs to be trained not to cry.  While we went home, we talked of the service and I was delighted to learn that Jacob had actually paid attention (he doesn't usually, he's good at faking it.  I praised him for learning more about God today, hopefully he will take the lesson into his heart and desire to learn more about God always.

When we got home I made my husband his favorite dish for dinner.  Since it is Father's Day, we talked at the dinner table about Fathers and how they help children become Godly men and women.  Jacob asked why we dont have more children in our family.

I tried to answer his question but couldn't for the tears.  I would love to have more children, but it seems that so far God has only seen fit to open my womb for 4 children.  Except for Joshua, I have been unable to get pregnant quickly.  Mark scolded Jacob who looked ashamed, he hugged me and said that he was sorry for making me cry.  I forgave him for his insensitive question and dinner went on.

We spent some time with Nataleighs' family and enjoyed ourselves.  I am enjoying getting to know her, she is a godly girl who is very mature for her age.  I can't wait for them to get married.  Too bad they can't get married sooner then when Nataleigh is 13.

First blog post

This is my first blog post, my friend Ashleigh has a blog, http://zedicy542.blogspot.com/ and she said I should start one as well.

I'll start by introducing my family,
Mark is my husband, he is 29 years old and the head of our lovely family.
Joshua is my oldest son, he is 10 years old, our honeymoon baby.
Jacob is my middle son, he's 6 years old and a little spitfire.
Johnny is my youngest son, he's 3 and loves to 'read' the bible.
Abigail is my only daughter (so far) she's 6 months old and I can't wait to make her a big sister!
I am Elizabeth and married Mark when I was 18.

My son Joshua is betrothed to my friend Ashleigh's oldest daughter, Nataleigh.  They will wed in 5 years when Joshua is 15 and Nataleigh is 13.  I can't wait for that day.  I think I will start sewing and making things for the babies they'll be sure to bless us with.

I can't wait! Now that Joshua is betrothed we need to start looking for a wife for Jacob.