CHRISTEPHI

A mere generation ago it was very common to have milk delivered to your door. Now, most Americans purchase their milk from a grocery or convenience store. But how does it get there? Most children know that milk comes from cows. But what does that mean? If you cut open a cow, does it bleed milk? What about chocolate milk? Does it come from brown cows? Do your children have a concept of how the milk they pour on their breakfast cereal gets from the cow to their fridge? I wasn’t sure mine did, so we took a trip to a local dairy! We visited the Shatto Milk Company about an hour’s drive north of Kansas City. When we arrived, we were greeted by Barb and Leroy Shatto who started us off on our tour with a round of milk tasting. We tried banana, orange creme, strawberry, cotton candy, root beer, coffee, and, of course, chocolate flavored milks. Mr. Shatto told us that their root beer flavored milk has won first place in the world among flavored milks! Their chocolate milk won s...

Spring has come to our parts early this year and that means it's been really hard to discipline ourselves to stay indoors with our books. It also means I've been terrible about taking pictures, posting on Facebook, and blogging!  There's nothing quite like getting outside in the fresh air and sunshine after the dreary chill of winter. My last update on our school year was at the end of Week 5, looking forward to a week off. And what a week it was! I took the entire week to sew up a storm and ignored all the piling up housework.  It was wonderful therapy! The following week, we spent our time deep cleaning and catching up on all those pesky little house chores that tend to accumulate over time. After two whole weeks off, it was tough stuff coming back to routine on Monday morning.  I gave plenty of extra time to Mister E to get moving in the morning. And Miss M brought her feathered friend down to school with us. On hard mornings, sometimes the best th...

I  have always thought it sounded trite to speak of “falling in love with Jesus.” But trite or not, isn’t that what I want for my children? To learn to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). With that in mind, and having run across this blog post on Pinterest several months ago, I created a morning devotion basket for the kids and I to use. You see, up till now, I would typically find time to read the Bible and pray away from my children. Away from distraction, away from the demands of dust and dirty dishes, and away from the 437 questions a four-year-old asks every day. Then I realized I was doing them a major disservice by disallowing them to see me in the Word regularly. If I want them to love the Lord God, then I must show them how I love the Lord my God! Our new routine is to wake up in the morning, prepare a simple breakfast — usually cold cereal for the kids, toast and tea for me — and sit d...

I have had this product since mid December, so why am I just now getting around to reviewing it?  One simple reason: Miss M stole it from me and has been listening to it at bedtime every night!  In fact, when I borrowed it back from her she was upset, insisting that she just finished one of the CDs and needs the next one for tonight.  That's gotta be a good testimonial right there! What you get is a case containing 20 CDs covering the full text of Matthew through Revelation.  The recording is more than just a reading of scripture by one person; it is an audio drama in which different voices speak the different verses as if they are actually there. Sound effects enhance the production. It's supposed to be a big deal that the cast includes: Jim Caviezel as Jesus Richard Dreyfuss as Moses Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene Stacy Keach as Paul Louis Gossett, Jr. as John and Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Mary the Mother of Jesus But these big names are no bi...

Here are ten reasons we school year round and what that looks like for us. 1. Enjoying the outdoors. We take longer breaks in the spring and fall when the weather is perfect .  Unless you live near the beach (in which case, pat yourself on the back and move on to number two), you are pretty much guaranteed to have miserably hot summers and possibly even bitter cold winters.  It’s generally a lot more pleasant to be indoors draped over the air conditioner hitting the books in July and August than it is to be out and about.  At least that’s the case here in Missouri! 2. Celebrate! We get to take the entire holiday season off!  That means more time for holiday gatherings, singing carols, and really focusing on the reason for the season.  This year we will break from the second week of November through the first or second week of January giving us plenty of time to prepare for and celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New ...