It's as easy as A, B, C...

Do all things without grumbling or arguing" Philippians 2:14

This goes for everyone in the family including Chris and Jessica who sadly saw the summer come to an end. Chris' moto as everyone asked him about being ready to go back was "Bring it on!"

Back to school means a lot of things this year:

backpacks for the boys.

assuring Caleb that he was not doing "baby school" (letter a week)

Jessica would for a 3rd year teaching a letter a week in trying to woo the alphabet out of Elijah.
leaving the leaf in the table because the space is nice.

3 grade level preps for Jessica

getting Chris out of the house by 6:55

So we kicked off school on August 18th when teachers were called back to work. This means we should end in May. Weeks 1 and 2 were review for the older ones who had not lost a beat over the summer from sight words to skip counting. We started the letter A for Elijah on week 1 and carried it into week 2 as we got our routine down. Blessing the school year meant selecting wise Bible verses for the first two weeks. "A cheerful heart fills the day with song" Psalm 15:15 (The Message). Week 2 was the verse at the top of the post.

Then we threw ourselves into the school year with Elijah's letter of the week verse for him and Caleb. Rebekah is working on the 23rd Psalm. Our 2nd and 1st grader are learning the books of the Bible. Rebekah is 3 books away from finishing the Old Testament, having started last year. Caleb is insatiable learning the first 18 in 3 weeks.

A was for apple and acorn and ant. We went apple picking during week 3 when a friend opened up his trees to us. Elijah was not pleased at first because we usually go somewhere else, but times change and so do people and he had a great time. In addition to the apples trees there was pear tree which led to double fisted eating for Elijah. Jessica caught Rebekah coming around the tree looking for more and captured a facial profile that peeks into the years to come. We made lots of apple pies. Including one for Labor Day.

B was for bread and butter, balloons, bugs, bowling, cookies cut in things that start with B (butterfly, boot, bat, bear, bunny) and the bean bag toss.

"Believe in the LORD Jesus Christ and you will be saved" Acts 16:31 was the Bible verse.

We practiced being content with our performace during bowling. Elijah had many tears when he didn't get a strike.

Who knew that cooking and cutting cookies and then getting to ice them (not counting making them) would entertain the kids for 2 hours!

We baked bread and spread our butter on it and ate it for breakfast.
Elijah "traced" his B with black beans.

C was for candy corn, cats, cows, calves, and the creamery. Rebekah and Caleb were working on the CH digraph that week too so we were able to make CHocolate CHip Cookies. "Create in me a clean heart, O God" Psalm 51:10.

At the creamery the kids were able to feed the baby cows (calves).

Home life continued also. 3 weeks in I think we're pretty settled into the routine. Labor Day hailed a first break from school and was quickly claimed as pajama day. We had a "cook out" for dinner at lunch time with hamburgers, salad, baked beans, watermelon. Everyone was so full it only seemed right to enjoy the apple pie and icecream for dessert. The watermelon sat out available after dinner and Elijah took it upson himself to finish it, juice and all!

Elijah has been fascinated with Lincoln Logs and taken a real liking to them creating complicated 2-3 story structures with doors and windows often times with more than one level for the building. Caleb is playing as hard as ever. Jessica snapped this picture of the pirate ship with the babies aboard and Wonder Woman in the crow's nest. Not sure what he was thinking but there was purpose behind it. Rebekah has been settling in to time apart from her neighborhood friend as they do school and have homework. Many hours are spent on the tire swing and regular swings.