Snippets From This Week So Far

• This is camp week. Grace is attending an anime camp in the morning and chemistry camp in the afternoon. Busy but fun.
• Storms, rain, and mud. A vicious cycle in my world. Typical weather for summer but wreaking havoc  on the mud in the backyard where the chickens live. 
• Oven is broken at the moment so no baking going on.
• Organized all the food storage.
• Working on art journaling sample pages for my upcoming class. Next will be puppets to make as samples.
• Reviewing products for TOS Review Crew. Reviews will be up starting next week.
• Working on a new Bible study that I won as a giveaway on another blog. So far I like it. It is mostly about health and how we treat our bodies according to what is in the Bible.
• Our Tomatoes crop is not going to be good. So much for my visions of pasta and pizza sauce.

Photo Update

Won in a Giveaway.

Art Journaling Page - Layering

Art Journaling Page - Birds

Art Journaling Page - Collage

Harvest from the garden today 

Controversial Topic

Wondering if any of you out there have home churched or unchurched now or in the past. Over the past couple of years I feel my heart and desires have been changing. At this point I don't know if it is the flesh talking and my desires or if it is God talking to me to take our spiritual life on a different path. Organized religion has been a part of my life and my children's life since as early as I can remember. My husband became born again and a church attendee about 10 years into our marriage (currently our 26th year of marriage). Lately I have felt led to do something through my home for non attending church friends on another day of the week and maybe not attend our church as much as we did in the past. I feel led to reach out to individuals that for one reason or another don't feel comfortable going to church but do believe in God. Maybe younger folk that don't identify with the four walls of the church. I would like it to start off with a meal and fellowship and just learning to know people better. Am I crazy? Am I thinking the wrong things? I am 45 and have spent most of that time involved in various churches in various cities. I have sat in classes and worship services, but I feel now is the time to do something. On that same note I do help with a teen drama team that travels and performs Christian skits, and this fall I am a co-owner of a Christian fine arts cooperative (helping kids to learn their talents and perform in the community to further God's kingdom) that will start, but still feel I need to do more to make a difference. Tithing is a whole other issue. I will probably get alot of comments disagreeing with me on this, but I would what little tithing money I can give go to missionaries, etc. instead of paying for a building, etc. Does that sound wrong? Am I wrong? Recently we started supporting a missionary through Gospel for Asia and I feel led to do more. My cousin and her husband are leaving in August for Uganda as missionaries for a year. I would love to help them too, but only so much money to go around. Feedback from other Christians would really be helpful right now. Please keep it kind though. I continue to pray and ask for guidance as well as discussion with my husband. Currently his work schedule keeps him from attending church on a regular basis but that will change in the next month. Our church is small and we love them like a family and it would hurt to leave on a new adventure. Though again I come back to the fact that we are supposed to go out and make disciples of men, sometimes I don't know if I can help do that in my current situation effectively.

Index Card Challenge

This week me and Grace only got 2 index cards each finished. I was plenty busy creating journal pages to use as examples for the kids class I will be teaching in August.

Grace - Prompt Rainbow

Grace - Prompt Ladybug

Me - Prompt Draw with a ruler

Me - Prompt Ocean

Last Child In The Woods Chapters 15,16, and 17

Here are some of the items I found interesting in the three chapters:

• The fact that PETA was campaigning for no fishing. Standing outside of schools and handing out literature to children about how bad it was to fish. What is the world coming to when a family can't enjoy fishing.
• The need to train young persons in wildcrafting. This is an art that is very quickly dying out. 
• What Finland is doing correctly in there educational system. Finland does not require students to attend school until 7 years of age. They offer no special programs for the gifted, and spends less money per student than the United States. Finish educators believe in the power of play (I am assuming mostly in elementary and primary grades - although the book didn't state specifics). Lessons are worked on for 45 minutes and then 15 minutes the children are allowed to run and play to blow off some steam. A substantial amount of learning has been moved to natural settings or in to the community.
• I also liked reading the information about Ecoschools and Farm Schools. I think the idea of Farm Schools is very unique and could benefit very many students out there in the system that are don't fit into the "school type" mold. Not to mention that the farmers are dying out and not many young people are taking up the challenge to continue with family farming. What will are nation do when enough food is not grown or I should say enough chemical free foods.
• There was one quote from chapter 16 that really stuck with me,"An environment-based education movement - at all levels of education - will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world".

One of My Favorite Times of the Year - School Supplies

Although technically the supplies in the photo are for my upcoming art journaling class I will be teaching. This time of the year you can get some real deals. I was super excited to walk in to Walmart this afternoon and find the back to school sale was on. I was able to purchase 20 glue sticks, 3 packs or markers, 3 packs of colored pencils, 13 sets of watercolors, 2 pencil sharpeners, and 2 packs of crayons for 18.36. I call that a steal. Oh, I almost forgot that the price also included 4 packs of wooden spoons for the puppetry arts class.

Two New Obsessions

Okay I have two new obsessions. I am little slow on jumping on the band wagon with this first:

Pinterest is my new best friend. Love looking at all the art journaling pages, homemade gift ideas, etc.  Next new obsession is art journaling.

Used watercolors and a template from Pinterest.

This is in colored pencils - a poem about caterpillars for the kids  in my art journaling class.



As far as art goes I am not very talented or creative. But when I agreed to teach an art class in the fall for 3rd - 6th grades I knew I need to step outside of my box and get to work. So each night me and Grace sit down and either do a journal page or an index card for the ICAD challenge. We have actually had alot of fun with it so far. Hoping I improve over time. In years gone by I did alot of scrapbooking which has prepared me a little for the art journaling process. I do want to learn more techniques to improve my pages.