Catching Up- October

10/5
Today started fire prevention week. Due to this the base had fire trucks, ambulances, their mascot cart and a collection of fire and police men wandering the neighborhood. All was well until the blow-up man mascot stood up and started walking towards the kids. LOL the sudden and unexpected movement startled a couple kids and scared a couple others.

Thank goodness Frank was outside because he was able to calm Ava as I calmed the younger kids. Ava had sensed their apprehension and gone into protective mode. She deliberately placed herself between the kids and firemen. Once Ava and the kids were calmed, Ava understood they were not a threat and was very happy to greet them and let the kids leave the yard.

10/6
This afternoon I was working with Ellie on her math homework. Throughout she kept complaining about how Mrs B. will not let her just do her 3rd grade math in her head. "But mom after all, math is just so easy and I just get it when we do my homework. Why can't I just give the answer?"

I explained to her that there are several ways to show her work and that while right now showing her work may seem annoying, boring, tedious, there is a reason. Once her homework was finished we went to Khan Academy and looked at a basic algebra equation.

Very quickly she understood that 7x=14 means x=2, 5x=15 means x=3 and the next equation sample kind of stumped her at first. 2x+4x=18 meaning x=3. While the equation was being explained, she paused the video and let me know that the last one had to many numbers running around in her to keep track.

At this point we restarted that example and I let her see how the example was showing "keeping track of work" just like she was. Suddenly, she got all excited and understood what was going on. Once she understood, she looked at me proudly and exclaimed, "Hey I understand this, I am a mathematician after all!"

10/9
This morning we woke the kids up extra early to try reversing the order of the day. Instead of trying to end the day with scripture study (and often failing) we decided to begin the day with scripture and prayer. 

The poor kids were groggy and confused as we started. This morning Jairon grabbed a random scripture mastery card and began reading, "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying resistance unto this people..." At first the "resistance was not noticed then suddenly dad, Celidah, and Jade all started laughing at the same time. Confused I asked if he meant "repentance?" Jairon confused looked back at the card and shrugged his shoulders saying, "uh huh, yeah, repentance."

Well by this point, resistance had already been said and a new meaning had begun to set in. Yes, the Borg had infiltrated our first early attempt this morning. Borg or not, the more souls that are brought to the light of Christ, how great will our joy be?

Yes, I love how kids bring a vastly different perspective to gospel topics LOL

10/9
Last night I get news from my mother that the colon cancer she thought she battled and was in remission has progressed to her liver. At this point what we do know is when colon cancer reaches the liver it is stage 4 and the prior treatments did not work like expected. 

If you would please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she enters the next stage of her journey through her battle that would be greatly appreciated. She has an amazing team of doctors she to help her, however there are many unknown factors at play.

Our family has a Thanksgiving tradition of collecting things we are thankful throughout the month of November then sharing on Thanksgiving before eating.

I challenge everyone to find and collect one thankful act or blessing each day in November leading up to Thanksgiving, then sharing each act and blessing with the group before enjoying your amazing feast.