I began this year anew. I spent the summer embarking on a new planning method for our year. One where everything was planned out ahead of time over 36 weeks and placed into file folders. As I read about doing this from others who had pioneered it before me, there was one piece of the puzzle I knew would be both part of the key to the plans success, as well as the hardest part for me.
 

 
“I was tired of always finishing math in August instead of May, and it dawned on me one day that we always fall behind because of all of the extra unexpected things in life that take over like sick days, etc…
 
In the school system, if one person gets sick, the teacher doesn’t stop teaching while that child is missing. They keep on going and the child either skips the work, or does only the important parts (even if just orally).
 
So, I decided to split up all of our work into 36 weeks, and told myself that if the week got away from me, we would just keep on going the next week, by either throwing out the work we missed or doing it quickly out loud. This was crazy, but worked so well for us. You see, it’s ok to miss a math sheet here and there throughout the year. There’s enough review etc, that it’s not a big deal… But it IS a big deal if you miss the last big chunk of your book. This way of doing things helped me to finish the whole year by may with lots of breaks throughout.”
 
To read the rest of this article hop on over to HipHomeschoolMoms and check out our lovely community!

AND … do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} and fill out the short form. Contest runs 5/6-5/13 and the winner will on 5/14. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother’s Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

And to all you MOMS out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

She’s…My Everything by Suzanne Woods Fisher

“A mother is one who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take.”
–Cardinal Mermillod

Just a few more months. My mother was hoping Dad would hang on long enough so they could celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary in April. But on January 1st, as the sun rose on the new year, my dad’s worn out heart beat its last. Dad had battled Alzheimer’s Disease for ten years. As many of you know, AD is a long, hard journey. Hard on the one afflicted with the disease, hard on the caregivers.

But not without its blessings.

Four years ago, as I began researching stories for Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, my path crossed with a handful of Plain families who were coping with Alzheimer’s. It was just about the point when Dad’s illness was shifting from early to mid stages AD and the timing was a divine accident. I learned so much as I observed the calm acceptance of these families. Rather than waste time shaking a fist at God for allowing this disease to take their loved one, they put their energy into trusting God’s sovereignty. They didn’t deny the difficulties and complications and sadness of Alzheimer’s, but they didn’t dwell on them. “God has a plan,” one woman told me. “He always has a plan.”  

Something else I noticed was how privileged my Amish friends felt about caring for their loved one. Caring for the elderly, they believe, is the time to give back to them.

Those encounters shaped my perspective of Dad’s illness. I started to pay attention to how God provided answers to new wrinkles created by Alzheimer’s, just in time. God may be slow, but He is never late.
I started to cherish special moments or good days with Dad—just as he was at each point in his illness. Not mourning the past, not dreading the future.

I really miss my dad. I miss his scratchy whiskers and the way his eyebrows would wiggle at us, even as words failed him. Yet I have such peace in my heart that he was well loved and well cared for, right to the very end. And as hard as Dad’s end of life has been, it isn’t the end. We will meet again. As the saying goes, “Some may see a hopeless end, but as believers we rejoice in an endless hope.”

There’s a beautiful story that illustrates my parents’ 59-year marriage. This event happened about a year or two ago. My sister had accompanied our mother to the doctor appointment for Dad at the Stanford Memory Clinic.

Dad had declined quite a bit that month. He was weak and lethargic, even to the point of whispering, as if it took too much energy to project his voice. During the doctor’s appointment, the doctor told my mother and sister that Dad was now in late stages of Alzheimer’s. Dad didn’t have much vocabulary left, but when the doctor asked him who mom was, he whispered something back. The doctor looked at Mom and asked, “Did you hear what he just said?”

Mom shook her head.

“When I asked him who you were, he whispered, ‘She’s…my everything.’”

Suzanne Woods Fisher is a writer of bestselling fiction and non-fiction books about the Old Order Amish. Her interest in the Plain People began with her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. Suzanne is the host of Amish Wisdom, a weekly radio program on toginet.com, and writes a bi-monthly column for Christian Post. Suzanne can be found on-line at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.

Re-printed with permission by Cooking & Such, www.sherrygorebooks.com.

Exciting News – the latest Pearl Girls book, Mother of Pearl: Luminous Legacies and Iridescent Faith will be released this month! Please visit the Pearl Girls Facebook Page (and LIKE us!) for more information! Thanks so much for your support!

 
I have never particpated in Top Ten Tuesday but came across it today and thought it might be a fun way for me to recap this past weekend in NYC. Chloe and I had the chance to spend 4 days with our dear friends Michalene and Sasha trooping around NYC. Chloe has never been and I have only been once, for one day! We couldn’t see everything (not even close), so this is just a list of 10 memories/places from our trip this past weekend. (These are in no particular order)
 
1. 9/11 Memorial

The Website: http://www.911memorial.org/?gclid=CO71_LyK8a8CFUSK4AodmSkhZQ

2. Ellen’s Stardust Diner

The Website: http://www.ellensstardustdiner.com/

3. The Plaza Hotel’s Eloise Store

The Website: http://www.theplaza.com/shops/eloise-at-the-plaza/

4. Toys R Us Ferris Wheel

The Website: http://www.toysrusinc.com/about-us/times-square/

5. The American Girl Store

The Website: http://www.americangirl.com/stores/location_ny.php

6. The Big Piano in FAO Schwarz

The Website: http://www.fao.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3810526

7. Times Square

The Website: http://www.timessquarenyc.org/index.aspx

8. The Gershwin Theater for Wicked

The Website: http://www.gershwin-theater.com/gershwin_theater_new_york.php

9. The packed 4 Train on the Subway / Grand Central

The Website: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?194:3146

10. Central Park

The Website: http://www.centralparknyc.org/

 
AND … do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful hand crafted pearl necklace. To enter, just {CLICK THIS LINK} and fill out the short form. Contest runs 5/6-5/13 and the winner will on 5/14. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls™ products (all GREAT Mother’s Day gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

And to all you MOMS out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

Priceless Treasures | Cindy K. Stiverson

We’ve heard it said and often find it true:
You don’t know the value of a treasure until you’re without it.

We take for granted the things in life that seem so readily available.
• A paperclip or rubber band, to hold things together.
• A tissue or napkin, to wipe our nose to clean our face, to absorb our tears.
• A Bible to speak words of wisdom and instruction and life and love.

 
And a Mother, who is all these things and more.

• She is readily available.
• She holds things together.
• She wipes our nose, cleans our face (and our fingers, and, well…everything else!)
• She absorbs our tears and calms our fears.
• “She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.” (Proverbs 31:26)
• She loves.

Within hours after my mother passed into the gates of our heavenly home, I was missing her. Her quick wit…humor…charm. Her warm smile and melodious laughter, which served her well to the very end, as did our Lord Jesus Christ, who so graciously allowed her to slip quietly and peacefully into His arms.

She simply stopped breathing.

As I stood at her bedside in those priceless moments after her passing, I wanted to touch her skin as much as possible while there was still warmth in her body; to nuzzle my nose against her head and breathe in the scent of her hair while she was still there. Priceless treasures I was guilty of taking for granted, clouded by unmet needs. I was so consumed with what she was not, that I never fully appreciated who she was. It’s like I was blind, but now I see!

I see her strength, her commitment. Her perseverance…sacrifice…her unspoken love. I see how much she meant to me, how much she did for me, how much she taught me, and how much of the good in me was modeled by her.

She was a virtuous woman, as described in Proverbs 31 of the Bible.
“Her children stand and bless her… a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise (vs. 31).”

This last verse of the poem serves as an epitaph for the woman of virtue. It speaks of the legacy she leaves in her passing. It spurred me to write a personal epitaph for my mother, which I read at her funeral.

We publicly declare your praise today,
and in the days to come,
for you deserve to be praised and blessed,
“We honor you, Mom, for all you have done!”

In my earliest of memories,
You worked so hard, striving for the rest.
You persevered through great trials
and did your very best.

I know you are being rewarded
in ways far beyond our reach.
We honor you now by practicing what you’ve taught,
and even what you preached!

You’ve stood for us for all these years,
Today, we stand for you!
I pray that our applause on earth
will reach your heavenly ears.

With the reading of this poem, I asked everyone to stand. We clapped our hands in celebration and praise of the life of my mother, Margaret Alice Stiltner.

Imagine our surprise to discover that she had left a poetic epitaph for us! She had clipped it from an old magazine and framed it. I found it when I was cleaning her home, on a nightstand by her bed. My mother was never versed at expressing emotion. This was her sweet way of kissing us good-bye: a priceless treasure to remember her by.

I am currently taking a photography workshop. My goal is to be able to comfortably shoot in manual (or Av/Tv) all the time. The workshop has also renewed my sense of want for a new camera and lens. I currently have a Canon Rebel T1i and two lenses: a Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS, and a Tamron AF Aspherical XR Di 28-300mm 1:3.5-6.3 Macro. The T1i has never cut it for me. The response time for focusing and taking photos has always seemed slow, and my photos always appear washed out.

The instructor of my workshop offered to take a look at my camera to see if anything jumped out at him. Turns out, I had some settings way off. For example my white balance was set for fluorescent light and my metering was set to take an average of the whole scene instead of a partial in the center.

I took it to him a few days after our first workshop when I first tried to flip to AV(aperture priority) on my camera. The picture of my daughter in our tree looked just awful. The color was all wrong, it was washed out and not clear at all! I have been working mostly in my creative auto where I was lowering the exposure by 2/3 of a stop to compensate for what seemed like washed out pictures to me.

This post is mostly for me, and whoever happens to see this is just stuck looking at it, or immediately clicking off of it when you realize how much it doesn’t interest you! Over the past 2 weeks I have been learning a lot about my camera and some settings that I never really thought about before. So this is where I am going to put a bunch of photos side by side for comparison.

First up is the photo that started it all. Chloe in the tree before the camera setting adjustments and after. Amazing what having the right white balance setting will do!

This is a woodpile taken before the setting changes, and after.

Here is a side by side I took comparing my Rebel T1i with the 7D. I put each of them into manual f/5.6 1/10 3200ISO. Looking back I think the ISO needs to come down since was not hand holding the cameras I did not have to worry so much about shutter speed. They each had the same Canon 18-55mm lens on at the time of the photo as well.

Decided to play with the White Balance. One is automatic (AWB) and one is cloudy. The automatic has a red hue to it, where the cloudy (which is what it was that day) seems to have truer green colors.

In these two I was playing with the AFLock (automatic focus lock). In one photo I just focused on the center and shot, which leaves Jayden not in focus, and the background sharply in focus. In the second photo I used the AFLock to keep Jayden in focus and the background blurred.

Here I was playing around with f-stops to have more or less depth of field.