I sit here on Friday night, waiting for our overnight guest. I think this is the first guest in the camper besides Grandma. Tonight was the rehearsal for Rachel and Josiah's wedding. Virginia listened very carefully to instructions as this is the first wedding she has ever been in. She is a "dress puffer." She is VERY excited.
Sunday we will meet here with the saints from Bluegrass Bible Fellowship. It will be nice to have so many extras as there are many here for the wedding. We will take off sometime Sunday afternoon to head to Ohio. The kids are excited to see Grandma Niswander and swim at her pool.
More, later. The guests are here.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The shadow of thy wings
I am sitting here tonight in a very hot camper. The heat index was supposed to be high today and it easily passed 100 degrees. However, there is good news in a hot camper. The air conditioning is currently shut off while our new friend is cleaning it. Hooray. He works on air conditioners for a living and said ours will work 30-40% better. Thank you, Scott.
The heat was making me think about how we were trying to escape the sun. Today, the girls wanted to hand our free drinks and tracts. We sat in the shade of a beautiful tree in front of the church. It just made me think about this verse.
Psa 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psa 17:9 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
This just reminded me of how we are protected by God just as I was protected by that tree. The sunlight looked nice and may have its benefits for today. But later the burn will hurt. The world is out there, and people may try to draw us into it. But we should stay under the protection of our Heavenly Father.
Monday, July 12, 2010
losing weight
When we have been in one location for awhile, I get this sudden urge to purge the camper of all the waste. Even living in a space this size, we seem to accumulate a lot of things we don't need. I had to learn when we first moved in here that I can't keep everything for a rainy day. Back in Maine, I would collect craft materials with every intention of using them with the kids. Well, I gathered and then never used. We would do a craft here and there, but never what I had intended.
Today, I wrote all the things that needed to be done on a notebook paper. Then the family got busy cleaning. This included pulling out furniture and vacuuming behind it, and wiping out cabinets. It is nice that this is a full day job but not a multiday job. The saying "Nature abhors a vacuum" is true. No matter how much space I have, I can fill it. Our five bedroom house had lots of extras and so does this camper (less than 300 square feet). As I was cleaning, I was thinking of all the weight we were getting rid of. It makes a lot of difference when we are hauling our house around behind us. The more weight we haul, the more gasoline we burn.
How much energy do we waste carrying around burdens that we do not need to carry? Is there anything that is weighing heavy on your heart? Maybe some anger towards someone, someone you have not yet forgiven, or some sin you have not yet confessed to God. What can you do today to change that? Our first action should be prayer. We do not need to carry these burdens.
What weight can you drop today?
Sara
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Let's be real
The church (the people) are supposed to be One. A large family that is to help us grow closer to being like Jesus Christ.Why do we try to be so secretive among other people who are supposed to be in our family? As I child, if I was ill, I did not hide that fact from my parents. If Naomi gets hurt, she knows that she can go to Nathaniel to fix her boo-boo. If Samuel is crying because he can't roll over, Virginia can help him flip.
Many times, I have mentioned a struggle I or my family is having. I have had brothers and sisters in Christ give me some fine answers and stories of their personal issues related to my problem. I have had others who act as if everything in their life is perfect. I believe that God wants us to have the support of other Christians and part of that is learning from eachother. I am not saying that we need to complain, but that we need to help our brothers and sisters through their genuine struggles by sharing the experiences God has shown us personally.
Most women would feel that a male doctor was belittling her if he said he understood how contractions felt. Someone who has lost a child does not want to hear "I know what you are going through" from someone who has two healthy children.
If I ask how to fit Bible study into a day filled with homeschooling and baby care, it is not useful for a sister to say "Well, you need to get up earlier". It would be helpful to share "I was never able to fit it in either until I started to get up before my children". I don't think everyone struggles witht the same things that I do, but there are some people that portray themselves as never having any problem learning how to best fit all our obligations to God and family into a day.
If I say something negative about my husband, I need a sister to lovingly come up beside me and show me how to build him up, rather than tear him down. If I admit that my personal time with the Lord is failing, I need a sister to show me how she makes it work in her daily life. But do you think I would admit that to someone who never has any part of her life that she doesn't seem to have all straightend out.
Let's be real with each other and willing to share what God has shown us. We need to help each other take up our cross daily and live the way God wants us to. At least for me, I need examples from women who have figured out from real life how to make this work. I also want to be an example to other women.
Maine trip plans
Well our adventure continues as we plan to leave Kansas on July 20th. Our whirlwind trip includes stops in Illinois; Richmond, KY (Rose, there is a baby that wants to see you); Bluffton, Ohio (two grandmas in one state- so much fun); and then heading back to..........................................Maine.
When we left in March, God had given us a peace in our hearts that we may not travel that way again for sometime. Recently, God has opened doors for us to do some Gospel work in the area. We are excited to be back with some work in mind. None of our return trips to Maine have been vacation, but there has been no planned work to get to.
The kids are glad to get back to see old friends. Also looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa. We want to spend lots of time with fellow Christians while we are home, so please contact us if you can get together. At this point, we do not know how long we will be home. God will direct our paths, so we will just wait on his timing.
We are glad to see the ocean soon and feel the cooler weather.
Learning from each other
This was written a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it.
I had the most amazing time with three young women who are very devoted to God. Two of these ladies seem to be approaching marriage very rapidly, a very good thing. We decided to sit down and do a Bible study on marriage. It was so much fun and amazing to see the insights that these young women have. It seems like there is not much mentoring that goes on in today's churches. Both young men and women are left to figure out how to live a Christian life.
God will give us the tools we need to be able to follow Him. One of the tools he has given us is people who are more mature in the faith and those that have already experienced life. We can learn a lot from one another just observing how other's live in their everyday life. The early church saw this as they met together day by day to have meals together and worship God. Our churches are so disjointed now. We don't even know each other. How many of us know the color of the carpet of Mrs. So and So who sits in the pew with us on Sunday morning? How many could even tell you what the house looks like? Many may not even know the town she lives in. Could you tell me how many children she has? What her favorite book is?
The people in the first churches could tell you. The home church was an extension of the family. They connected with people through meaningful relationships. They did not just see them at the "church building" 1,2, or 3 times a week.
Have you ever had friends that you spend a great deal of time with? We had some really good friends that we spent probably 20 hours a week with, outside of the church building. We would be at their house or they would be at ours until the wee morning hours. You get to know a lot about a person this way. Not only did our children become really close, but you get to know their hopes, dreams, fears, and struggles. I saw their desire to follow the Lord all those years ago, and they just returned from a survey trip to the mission field.
People say quality time is not the same as quantity time. You find out more from eachother when you have no agenda. A big spider jumping out at me may reveal that my friend shares that issue. When someone sees me struggling to get my little one down for a nap, she may have a suggestion that I had not thought of. These things are not brought up during Sunday school or Church service. I know these are trivial things but these lead to big things.
We need to surround ourselves with the church, people who believe in Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sins. The church building is just that, a building. God does not call us to go to church every Sunday. He tells us to "not forsake the assembling of ourselves together". Our family tries to be with other families at least 5 days a week outside of scheduled church meetings. These may be believers or they may be people we are trying to lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. This way we can bring more people into God's family, more tools to help us in our Christian walk.
Sara Cowperthwaite
12 Emery AvenueThomaston, Maine 04861
cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com
Friday, May 14, 2010
A day to clean
We are now in Ottawa, Kansas, our new home for at least the next month. We arrived yesterday, just in time for naps and then running out to visit with friends. So today was our first day settled down.
Since we have been back in the camper, we have remained in a place for the longest of 9 days down to the shortest of 1 night. We never really moved back in. We always had the camper in moving condition. This means we have to climb over things to find a pencil, move the wagon (which is usually outside) to sit at the table, and keep rods on the bookshelves. Today, we put the pencil drawer back up on the shelf, put the wagon outside, took the rods down, and a quite a few other things.
We also got out our cleaning products. I cleaned inside the camper as we have been without water for a few different times. We brought drinking water here and took showers elsewhere. However, the camper had not been thoroughly cleaned. It was not unlivable, but doesn't it feel nice to give everything a scrubbing. This included emptying drawers of little used utensils and washing those.
Mark and Nathaniel gave the van a proper cleaning on the inside. When you are in the car as much as we are, it gets very cluttered. We sometimes even end up with miscellaneous socks or toys. So, they got out all wrappers and food, vacuumed and wiped it all down. It looks very nice.
Grocery shopping was the next activity on the agenda (after lunch and nap). We had to really stock up as our fridge was empty. It was nice to get home and fill the fridge and cabinets. Tonight, I will be working on a menu for the next week. I am hoping to get more disciplined in feeding my family better. We just need more variety.
My family thought supper was great. I made homemade pizza in my cast iron skillet. I do not have a cookie sheet that fits in my tiny oven. But I just discovered that my skillet fits. It turned out awesome and will definitely be a weekly treat.
Since we have been back in the camper, we have remained in a place for the longest of 9 days down to the shortest of 1 night. We never really moved back in. We always had the camper in moving condition. This means we have to climb over things to find a pencil, move the wagon (which is usually outside) to sit at the table, and keep rods on the bookshelves. Today, we put the pencil drawer back up on the shelf, put the wagon outside, took the rods down, and a quite a few other things.
We also got out our cleaning products. I cleaned inside the camper as we have been without water for a few different times. We brought drinking water here and took showers elsewhere. However, the camper had not been thoroughly cleaned. It was not unlivable, but doesn't it feel nice to give everything a scrubbing. This included emptying drawers of little used utensils and washing those.
Mark and Nathaniel gave the van a proper cleaning on the inside. When you are in the car as much as we are, it gets very cluttered. We sometimes even end up with miscellaneous socks or toys. So, they got out all wrappers and food, vacuumed and wiped it all down. It looks very nice.
Grocery shopping was the next activity on the agenda (after lunch and nap). We had to really stock up as our fridge was empty. It was nice to get home and fill the fridge and cabinets. Tonight, I will be working on a menu for the next week. I am hoping to get more disciplined in feeding my family better. We just need more variety.
My family thought supper was great. I made homemade pizza in my cast iron skillet. I do not have a cookie sheet that fits in my tiny oven. But I just discovered that my skillet fits. It turned out awesome and will definitely be a weekly treat.
A look at the first day of bible school
We started our bible school in Genesis 1 and Matthew 1. I wanted to give just a brief description of how our day works.
Genesis 1
Separating the waters above from the waters below- we discussed how we have water on earth and water in the sky (clouds). This led us to talk about the water cycle
God making things after their own kind- Dogs always make dogs, cows always make cows, and humans always make humans. There could not be evolution the way it is described in how people came to be. Two monkeys have never produced a person. God produced many types of animals. There may be variations but one kind does not ever become another kind.
Lights in the sky to show us signs and time- We took an orange and drew an equator and a spot to represent us. We showed how we measure a day, year, and seasons using the orange as the Earth and Naomi as the sun. This was really fun.
Adam and Eve were vegetarians- at this point God gave them green plants to eat.
For handwriting, Virginia wrote James 1:1 and Nathaniel wrote James 1:1-3. This helped with the memorization, along with handwriting practice.
Spelling for the week came from these verses also. Virginia- servant, Jesus Christ, tribes, faith. Nathaniel had words such as various, endurance, encounter, dispersed.
Matthew 1
I had always dreaded reading the list of genealogies. However, doing it as a family made it really fun. We shared any stories about the descendants listed or stories that happened around their time. We discussed the approximate ages of Mary and Joseph. We discussed the marriage rituals of the culture. We talked about the census and why they were used then and today. This brought up a lot of current events as we talked about the government checking up on people.
This is just a brief description. The afternoon is used for naps for the youngest two and math for the older two. This will also be the time for story writing, journaling, drawing, and other assignments that link to what was discussed on the day.
Genesis 1
Separating the waters above from the waters below- we discussed how we have water on earth and water in the sky (clouds). This led us to talk about the water cycle
God making things after their own kind- Dogs always make dogs, cows always make cows, and humans always make humans. There could not be evolution the way it is described in how people came to be. Two monkeys have never produced a person. God produced many types of animals. There may be variations but one kind does not ever become another kind.
Lights in the sky to show us signs and time- We took an orange and drew an equator and a spot to represent us. We showed how we measure a day, year, and seasons using the orange as the Earth and Naomi as the sun. This was really fun.
Adam and Eve were vegetarians- at this point God gave them green plants to eat.
For handwriting, Virginia wrote James 1:1 and Nathaniel wrote James 1:1-3. This helped with the memorization, along with handwriting practice.
Spelling for the week came from these verses also. Virginia- servant, Jesus Christ, tribes, faith. Nathaniel had words such as various, endurance, encounter, dispersed.
Matthew 1
I had always dreaded reading the list of genealogies. However, doing it as a family made it really fun. We shared any stories about the descendants listed or stories that happened around their time. We discussed the approximate ages of Mary and Joseph. We discussed the marriage rituals of the culture. We talked about the census and why they were used then and today. This brought up a lot of current events as we talked about the government checking up on people.
This is just a brief description. The afternoon is used for naps for the youngest two and math for the older two. This will also be the time for story writing, journaling, drawing, and other assignments that link to what was discussed on the day.
Monday, May 3, 2010
homeschooling using only ONE textbook
Our family has started a new curriculum for our homeschool. We teach all the grade levels at the same time, do all the work as a family, and use only one book as our textbook. We are all learning a lot, not only about the basic subjects but also about daily life. Our work together only takes us 3 hours in the morning and then the children do independent work at their level. So far, we have been doing it for a week and a half and everyone is really enjoying it. We call it Bible School.
As parents we have always said that we want our kids to love and obey God first. Then, to be productive members of society and finally, to learn some academics. This new schedule covers all of those in that order. We use the Bible as our textbook and teach reading, language arts, spelling, science, handwriting, social studies, geography, government, health, and music.
This is how our day is set up. First we spend 15 minutes talking about one chosen family. We talk about ways that they have encouraged us in the past and what good examples we can learn from them. From this discussion, Mark or I write an email to or call the family to share our list. We hope to encourage them to keep up the good work. We then pray for that family and other prayer requests we may have.
The next hour is spent in the old testament. We started in Genesis Chapter 1 and try to get through at least 1 chapter a day. During this time we discuss anything brought up is the chapter that would be covered in one of our subjects. Maybe it mentions stars so we discuss constellations. Or perhaps a certain king, so we will discuss the design of that government, from kings, all the way down to servants. We also discuss what God is trying to teach us for our daily life. We then spend 15 minutes on a project related to the chapters we discussed.
The following half hour is writing time. We practice handwriting by writing some verses from James. Our family has decided to try to memorize the whole book and learned 3 verses the first week. Nathaniel and Virginia also have spelling words during this time. Naomi works with Mommy on preschool level things.
The last hour is spent in the new testament. We read at least 1 chapter and work through how we can apply these ideas to our lives today. We also spend time learning about the culture. Why did Mary and Joseph have to go be counted for the census? What is a census? Why do we have a census today?
Everyone has enjoyed this time. Both children do math out of a workbook in the afternoon. I am so glad Mark helped me to implement this idea of teaching everything out of the Bible. I think I will learn a lot by going through the Bible in order and remembering some stories. I will also probably learn new ones from areas I have skipped over.
I will try to update my blog regularly with different topics we discussed in different chapters. Please check in regularly for those. Also, any suggestions you have for projects to go along with certain chapters would be greatly appreciated. I will try to include pictures occasionally to show some of our work.
As parents we have always said that we want our kids to love and obey God first. Then, to be productive members of society and finally, to learn some academics. This new schedule covers all of those in that order. We use the Bible as our textbook and teach reading, language arts, spelling, science, handwriting, social studies, geography, government, health, and music.
This is how our day is set up. First we spend 15 minutes talking about one chosen family. We talk about ways that they have encouraged us in the past and what good examples we can learn from them. From this discussion, Mark or I write an email to or call the family to share our list. We hope to encourage them to keep up the good work. We then pray for that family and other prayer requests we may have.
The next hour is spent in the old testament. We started in Genesis Chapter 1 and try to get through at least 1 chapter a day. During this time we discuss anything brought up is the chapter that would be covered in one of our subjects. Maybe it mentions stars so we discuss constellations. Or perhaps a certain king, so we will discuss the design of that government, from kings, all the way down to servants. We also discuss what God is trying to teach us for our daily life. We then spend 15 minutes on a project related to the chapters we discussed.
The following half hour is writing time. We practice handwriting by writing some verses from James. Our family has decided to try to memorize the whole book and learned 3 verses the first week. Nathaniel and Virginia also have spelling words during this time. Naomi works with Mommy on preschool level things.
The last hour is spent in the new testament. We read at least 1 chapter and work through how we can apply these ideas to our lives today. We also spend time learning about the culture. Why did Mary and Joseph have to go be counted for the census? What is a census? Why do we have a census today?
Everyone has enjoyed this time. Both children do math out of a workbook in the afternoon. I am so glad Mark helped me to implement this idea of teaching everything out of the Bible. I think I will learn a lot by going through the Bible in order and remembering some stories. I will also probably learn new ones from areas I have skipped over.
I will try to update my blog regularly with different topics we discussed in different chapters. Please check in regularly for those. Also, any suggestions you have for projects to go along with certain chapters would be greatly appreciated. I will try to include pictures occasionally to show some of our work.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
future blog posts
We have not had access to the internet in our last several stops. Since we left Maine on March 21, we have been in Georgia; Tampa, FL; Tallahassee, FL, back to Georgia and now in West Virginia. Our GPS wanted to give us the scariest way imaginable to get here, but we made it. Now that we have computer access, I am planning on updating a lot more. Today we are headed out to do some laundry, visit the library, and have dinner with some of the people from the church here. We are here through Monday and then off to Richmond, KY.
I am hoping to blog on a lot of things in the near future. The most exciting is our new way of homeschooling. I also will share some pictures of our family. Samuel is growing fast and is super cute.
I am hoping to blog on a lot of things in the near future. The most exciting is our new way of homeschooling. I also will share some pictures of our family. Samuel is growing fast and is super cute.
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