Finishing school

With Silas' fight with cancer, our homeschooling has looked a little more like unschooling. We have been very relaxed about school but still trying to get in plenty of learning. While we may have not done a lot of handwriting or algebra this past year and a half, we have learned a lot!

I have continued to keep a "school" journal, recording our school days and what type of learning was done. They actually got to go on quite a few field trips! The radiation lab where Silas received his radiation treatments, the South Carolina Aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, etc.

We have 5 weeks left of our school year. Or 24 days left to reach 180 for the year. If all goes according to plan they will be finished just in time to have the last week of August off, the week of Jason's 8th birthday.

My main goals for the next 5 weeks are to get Gideon and Jason reading better, and to have Michael writing better. Of course there will be other learning as well, but those are some areas that I really see a need for improvement in. Michael also has to take his 6th grade test this year.

Gideon can actually read better than he thinks he can. He has been in vision therapy for 4 years now and his poor vision really interfered with his ability to see to read. Now though, we have made great progress with his vision and its time to buckle down and pick up the reading! I think he mostly needs confidence and practice. He really does know the basics.

Jason has not really had an interest in reading before now, but he is showing some and I would really like to start working on it more with him. He is really bright and I think he will pick it up quickly. I worked with him some a few weeks ago and he flew through the lessons with ease.

Michael started reading at the age of 3. Which threw me off a little! I did not read until I was 11 years old and was determined not to push my kids to read until they were ready (my parents did not push me either). Then Michael at age 3 starts begging me to teach him to read and by 5 was reading at a 2nd grade level! His writing on the other hand.....well, we need to work on that.

We talked with each of the boys about what kind of extra curricular activities they would like to do this coming year. (We'll start back to school again in September). Michael wants to work more on making videos for his youtube channel. Gideon wants to do more art. Jason wants to do gymnastics. All three of the boys will take swimming lessons next week. Probably for the last time, they can all stay above water now, so I think this last year of swimming lessons will be it for them, unless of course one of them decides they want to get into swimming more.

Well, that's about it for this post. God bless!

Blogging again

I doubt anyone currently looks at this page since I have not posted anything on it in over two years! I want to pick it up again though. Writing has become very therapeutic for me over the last year and a half and I want to keep it up.

My youngest son, Silas, recently passed away. He had a rare form of liver cancer. I am not going to blog specifically about him here but you can read about him at www.caringbridge.org/visit/silasedenfield or www.facebook.com/prayingforsilas . Those two pages are devoted to him and to our dealing with his passing.

This page is more about our daily family life, recipes, homeschooling, etc.

I should be asleep now though, church in the morning! Goodnight! I'll be posting again soon!

Prayer

Its hot outside! May 13th and 93+ F. I wish it would rain. It seems like its been forever since it rained. There is a 30 percent chance this weekend. I pray it does.

As I was watering my garden this afternoon I prayed that God would send rain and then I remembered a story I heard about two monks. Each of them had a small olive tree they were trying to grow. One of them prayed for rain, prayed for frost, prayed for sun, basically all the the things he could think of that the plant needed to grow. Eventually his tree died, but his brother monk had a flourishing tree! He asked his brother what he had prayed for his tree and he said "I just prayed that God would give it everything it needed to grow into a strong tree and He did!"

I think sometimes it is perfectly OK to pray specifically for what you want or need, but how many times might it be much better to simply pray "Lord, you know what is best, please provide for my needs".

Hope this makes someone feel better

And I hope no one thinks badly of me after reading it.

Our homeschool day, in reality...right now anyway.

8:30 AM Wake up

9 AM Listen to Adventures in Odyssey while eating breakfast

10 AM Start school with P.E. outside

10:30 AM or maybe 11 AM
Start another subject, perhaps Math, perhaps Science, or perhaps gardening
(we planted bell peppers, parsley, lettuce, and snow peas today) usually 2 subjects during this time.

11:45ish Go up the road to check the mail

Noonish Lunch

1 or 2 PM More school work, math, or reading, or writing, or home ec. (today it was math)
usually 2 subjects. Yesterday was an all History day.

3:45 PM Play outside (Michael had a headache so he took a nap)



Not the schedule that you might guess huh? At least we are doing some school work. We are learning a lot during the in between times. Gideon helped Jason write numbers today. Michael looked up an article online about rockets yesterday and he's working on writing a story in his free time. The other day they created space suits for themselves out of plastic bags with holes cut in them. We practice AWANA almost daily, memorizing scripture. Tomorrow Gideon goes out with his daddy for breakfast and then to the tax assessors office. Last Thursday we went to Wal-mart for Gideon to spend his birthday money and talked quite a lot about how much he had and what combination of Lego sets would be within his budget. Michael was behind in math a few months ago and now he is ahead!

My point is, they are learning! We may not stick to a strict schedule, we may not cover every subject every day, we may not be what you might expect from a homeschool family, but my kids are learning, a lot!

My main goal for the education of my children is to teach them how to learn. As of now I think they are well on their way! Sure, there are plenty of other things I want to make sure they learn before they leave my care, but they will learn those things. I am sure of it.

Merry Christmas!

Greetings!

The past year has been one full of learning and growing for the Edenfield family. Last year, as you may know, we moved to Georgia and began caring for Archie's Mom, Jeri, who suffered a stroke in 2008.

When we first got out here we had thoughts of possibly planting a church but were unsure of ourselves. We visited a local church for a while and began attending regularly. After a while we realized that while there was nothing wrong with us attending that church, it wasn't God's best for us. Towards the end of last year we felt He was saying to us "I'll bless you if you choose to stay here, but I have something better in mind". In January of 2010 Maranatha Fellowship began in our home. We have worship service every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM. We have also had other opportunities to minister to the community. In March we had a Resurrection breakfast and invited people in the community to come and celebrate the Resurrection with us. We set up tables in the yard and had a nice pancake breakfast and crafts for the kids. In April Archie had the opportunity to go to the Deep South Pastor's conference in the Atlanta area, it was a very encouraging experience for him. In May I had the opportunity to help with a purity retreat for girls at the church we had attended for a while. I also had the privilege of hosting a ladies bible study the past few months, it was a huge blessing to me as we studied the book of Philippians. This past week we had a Birthday Party for Jesus at a local park, it was a lot of fun and I think everyone felt the Love of the Lord as we celebrated His birth! So far the membership of the church is just the 7 of us, but we are confident that the Lord is doing a work in us and will use us to reach others for Him.

We continue homeschooling. I stay home with Jeri and the boys and Archie works at a local hardware store in Vidalia. In a time where so many are out of work it is such a blessing that he has a job! He has been working there just over a year now. My parents were able to come out for a visit in June and we really enjoyed having them.

Michael is as dramatic as ever! He turned 10 in November and is now in 4th grade. He loves legos and riding his bike. He is also in the AWANA program, along with all of his brothers. He is not a little kid anymore and we see more evidence of that every day.

Gideon is 7 1/2 now and also loves legos and riding his bike, he also loves being silly and laughing. He is quite the artist too! This year has been a tough year of eye therapy for his "lazy eye". We have been taking him to a specialist in Savannah every three months since February. His next check up is January 6th and we are hoping to be at the end of the therapy. His vision has improved a lot but the progress has slowed down over the past few months as he is getting older. (There comes an age where a child's vision can no longer be corrected with therapy).

Jason has learned to ride his bike without training wheels recently, he also learned how to pump the swing all by himself! He is also quite an artist. He is very independent and bursting with energy. He turned 5 in August.

Silas has grown a lot in the past year as well. He is now 2 1/2 years old and speaks really clearly in complete sentences. He recently told me a story that he made up all by himself, I was quite impressed! He does his best to keep up with his brothers. He is also a very loving boy who loves Jesus very much.

We still care for Jeri and have learned a lot through becoming caregivers. It is not something we expected to do this early in our lives but it is something the Lord knew about before hand and I believe prepared us for. The Lord has used this in our lives to teach us many lessons and He's not done yet!

As we wrap up one year and prepare for the next it is evident that God is good and directs the steps of His children. Serving Him has been an exciting adventure for the Edenfield family and we love Him for every moment of it!

May your eyes turn to Jesus this Christmas and New Year. May you look on His wonderful face and may He change your heart. God bless y'all!

Persimmon pudding

This is a family tradition on my Dad's side. The holiday season wasn't complete without persimmon pudding! We ate it in these very dishes at my Grandparents house! I was blessed to inherit Grandma's China when she passed away.

First you make a batch of pudding and a batch of foamy sauce. Then when its all said and done you have too much pudding and not enough foamy sauce so you have to make more foamy sauce. Then there is too much foamy sauce and you have to make more pudding and the cycle continues until you are out of persimmon pulp!!!

It is very rich so you really shouldn't eat very much of it. It tastes great hot and great cold! I have had it for breakfast more than once in my life, though that's probably bad LOL. The best thing to do for the sake of your health is to only make it when you have lots of people to share it with.

I always add more cinnamon than it calls for.

About the pulp, I just take the seeds and the leaf off of the persimmon and put it in a food processor until its pureed. Some use a colander. Some use cheese cloth and squeeze the persimmon through it.

OK, the persimmons used in this recipe are Hachiya persimmons, they almost look heart shaped.

Hmm, anything else I should add, yes, OK, To get the persimmons mushy put them in the freezer and then thaw them out when you are ready to use them. They will probably be hard when you get them from the store but freezing them and thawing them will make them nice and soft. If you get them off the tree you may find some already mushy. You WANT them mushy!

Oh yes, one more thing, I find it much easier to steam the pudding in a food steamer. I have to add water after about an hour but it always turns out to be cooked perfectly all the way through.

OK, here's the recipe from my Grandmother Golightly!

PERSIMMON PUDDING
Christine Golightly

Heat over 300 degrees Farenheit

Blend Ingredients:

1 Cup flour
1 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsps. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 T butter (cut in)
1 Cup persimmon pulp
1/2 Cup milk

Put in a covered dish. Cover tightly with foil or lid
and place in covered pan or on a rack. Have pan half full
of water. Let steam 2 hours without lifting lid.

Serve with Foamy Sauce

1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg

Beat while heating over water in a double boiler.

No Knead Ciabatta

No Knead Ciabatta
3-1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 cup warm water

You just stir. Let it rise for 18 hours at room temperature (60-70 degrees), pour and shape, let rise 2 hours and bake at 375 for about 35 minutes.

I sifted the flour into a 4 cup measuring cup and it came out great! You do want to make sure the flour is not packed.

REALLY good as garlic toast!