"The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Knowledge"

I spent last week fairly ill with some sort of flu.  I haven't been so sick in a long time.  Consequently, I don't have much to write about.  Instead, I'd like to share a sermon by my favourite preacher, my husband!

http://www.charlottetownbiblechapel.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Jan-29-2012-AM-Robbie-MacGregor.mp3

I hope this is helpful and encouraging to you!  Thank you for visiting today.  Linking up to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

It's a Special Day!

It's hard to believe our little boy is 5 today!  It doesn't seem possible.

Happy birthday, Laddie!

Remembering Mum

Carolyn Ann Downes Hardcastle

5 December 1951- 3 October 2003

Take the world, but give me Jesus,
In His cross my trust shall be;
Till, with clearer, brighter vision,
Face to face my Lord I see.
-Fanny J Crosby

The Last Hurrah!

Yesterday we went on a picnic/outing with our good friends for Labour Day.  We went to King's Castle Provincial Park, which is probably my kids' favourite place to go.  The woods and playground are filled with storybook characters.  There is also a beach!  And ice cream!  It was a gorgeous, warm day and breezy so the mosquitoes were hardly around.

The white boat is a fishing boat.  The grey boats are mussel skiffs.  You can see the buoys in the water marking the mussel socks.  Mussel socks are a way of of cultivating mussels off the bottom so they are cleaner and better tasting.  The "socks" are tubes of netting with the mussels growing inside.

Some cute little bare feet on the sand

There were lots of snails stuck to rocks on the beach as the tide had gone out not too long before.

There were lots of dead crabs.  I hate crabs.

This is Lass' beach project.  I must ask her what it was.

The pumpkin slide!

Papa Bear of The Three Bears

A giant rabbit

On the way home we stopped at Buffaloland Provincial Park.  We actually saw some buffalo (AKA American Bison, Latin name Bison Bison) this time.  They have been rather elusive this year.

Thanks for visiting today!

Good Intentions

Have you ever had the experience of someone giving you advice that you never asked for and insisting that their advice is what you should do no matter what?  I've had that experience lately.  It really bugs me that people (who are NOT "experts") dish out unsolicited advice and make you feel like a bad parent.  Then you feel bad that you're cross with them and then you just feel anxious and guilty.  I think people mean well but... grr.

I homeschool because I think it is the best thing for my kids and my family.  I am doing the best I can.  I am also doing the best I can to help my son with his problems.  The doctors (the "experts") say we are doing a great job and that he has made remarkable progress.  So why would someone tell me I need to do more?

We were talking about my son's upcoming ASD assessment.  I said all we really wanted to know was what we were dealing with.  The comment?  "Oh, but you want to get him into a programme!  You make sure the doctors get him some help.  He needs so much help with his socialisation (that's the wrong word to say to a homeschooler!).  You don't want him to... this, that, and the other thing.  You want the best for him..."

Yes, I want the best for my son.  What IS the best though?  Success in worldly society or to be the person God made him to be (whatever that might look like)?  I don't want my daughter in public school for various reasons, some moral and some scholastic, so why would I send my son to some kind of public programme?  He is our child and we have to raise him "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6.4), no matter what problems he has.