The heavens opened and Jesus was hit by a cannon ball??

The Baptism of Jesus

 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.  And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,  and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;  and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,  with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew  3:13-17

So today while reading the above story my Weston came to the part where the heavens open and the Holy Spirit came down to rest on Jesus. He was struggling a bit and finally stumped by the word dove he blurted out cannon ball. Of course it was followed by all the boys breaking out in loud boyish laughter. When I finally got them calmed down we finished the story. I guess I should have looked up cannon ball crafts instead of doves???

Working on our scissor skills today!

Gibbers

Working on our craft!

Gluing his wings on his dove!

Working hard!!

Hand Print Doves!

I can't tell you the blessings I have been given for this time with my sons. I look forward to each day with it's triumphs and challenges! This is a adventure and I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to travel along.

In the temple with Jesus!

Our story today was about Jesus as a little boy and his time spent in the temple. I decided it would be a brilliant idea if we tried to make a temple. Anyone who knows me is aware that I have a very hard time putting things together and paying attention to details. This little project tested my every ounce of patience. We did at last in fact make a Temple and the boys had a blast!!!

The Bible Reader Weston reads everyday!

Reading his story!

We colored pictures about ourselves and how we have grown!

Gluing the Temple walls!

Finished!! WHEW!!

A Biblical WorldView??

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 16:8

As another week approaches there is a controversy swirling around the home school movement that may have gone unnoticed by many  of you.   It is not solely about Young Earth Creationism ( YEC ), although that is a part, or Old Earth Creationism ( OEC ), but about the inerrancy of Scripture and how we deal with such disputes in the church and the ministries surrounding it.  What sparked this debate was The Great Home Schooling Conventions board deciding to rescind ( fire ) Dr. Ken Hamm’s and Answers In Genesis’  ( AIG ) invitation to  speak at their conferences due to Dr. Hamm’s comments regarding Dr. Peter Enns.

Dr. Enns, who wrote the 2005 book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problems of the Old Testament, which emphasized the human nature of Scripture over and against the divine, was another speaker at the conference being held in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Dr. Enns also has written that the Genesis accounts are firmly grounded in ancient myth, which he has defined as:
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Purim

Today we had our celebration of Purim. If you don't know what Purim is it is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people as told in the book of Esther. It is celebrated by the reading of Esther (Megillah which means scroll), dressing in costumes and lots of delicious food. One of the foods we tried were  Hamentaschen cookies. Yummy! We had a great deal of fun making masks, noisemakers and eating cookies!!

Hamentaschen cookies

Coloring our Haman and King Ahasuerus Masks

It is customary to boo, hiss, stamp feet and rattle gragers  whenever the name of Haman is mentioned in the story. The purpose of this custom is to blot out the name of Haman.

Weston refused to color Haman nicely because he was evil!! ha!

Enjoying our cookies!!!

Math is Radical!

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.  ~Albert Einstein

Today was a long anticipated day for my Children in fact I think they counted down to it more than  Christmas. We finally finished day 100 on our number chart! Hard to believe there is only forty more days left in our lessons. I am now going to have to think toward summer and how we will spend our days. Where does time go? 

Proud of their charts!

 

 

 

We celebrated with 100 Stickers!!!!

My little Star!!!

Our three little leprechauns!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Last night a very sick Mommy asked Daddy to help her make a leprechaun trap she promised the boys. He spray painted the cup and I helped with a few details but major props go to Daddy for his help since Mommy isn't up to par!

Weston looking for his leprechaun he wanted to be "filthy rich" with his pot of gold haha!

Candy the tricky leprechaun left!

His note said "HA HA NICE TRY!"

My three little cuties!

Bubby (Trying to show his missing tooth!)

The little Mischief maker himself!

Getting so big!!

We made leprechaun hats and talked about Ireland!

My pot of gold!!

Jonah and the whale!

Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17

Jonah and the Whale

Writing our words to know!

Playing Jonah Go Fish!

 

Painting our Whales!

Finished whales!

We ended our day with a fun lunch of fish sticks, gold fish crackers and ocean water! The boys are now in the living room taking turns being whales! So fun to hear them retelling the story and hearing Gibson try to say Nineveh!

Explosions, Dirt, and Mischief

OK this is my first attempt at posting on the Stapleton Shenanigans and I truly hope that I entertain as well as my lovely wife does with her posts.  I just wanted to take a minute and try to explain with meager words a view of the world through a boy's eyes.

Every tree is able to be climbed and those just out of reach branches are oh so tantalizing.

Dirt is a commodity to be prized and must be carried in pockets, inside shoes, and every crevice God created on the little boys body.

All of God's creatures want to be caught,  trapped, investigated, and shown off to moms, sisters, and various little girls whose screams are almost as valuable as dirt.

Pirates are cool and walk with peg legs, say shiver me timbers, and have buried treasure hidden throughout my backyard.

Aliens are both extremely real and engaging, animals talk, and life must be lived moment to moment with barely a breath taken between adventures.

Little boys love their mommies even when the say they don't.  A mother's tender touch can heal all hurts, mend all wounds, and ease all fears.

They will emulate the men in their lives and ( by the grace of God we are worth emulating ) one day will become one.  Daddies are strong, fearless, able to leap tall buildings in single bounds, and know everything from how to fix the mower to gluing Buzz Lightyear's leg back on.

Little boys are special and they need to be allowed to be little boys.  Energetic, inquisitive, and rambunctious they are created in God's image and deserve to be who they are while being shaped by loving discipline and guidance.

Pray for all the little boys in this world because one day they will become men with little boys of their own

Luther, a proud daddy of three such little fellas

Our Feild Trip to the Greensboro Science Center.

Today Luther had a off day and we decided we would go on a field trip to the Science Center. We didn't tell the boys where we were going and they were all very excited when we got there. It was a great day not too busy and the volunteers were great to answer questions and let the boys pet some animals!

Awesome T-Rex

Bubby with his favorite Dino!

Gibber playing captain of the cool boat!

Little Bug!

Wessy Bug!

This turkey followed me around strutting. It left everyone else alone but ME! I was totally freaked out!

"Who" is cuter!

Petting checkers the corn snake!

Brand new baby wolf pups. Weston was so disappointed he couldn't see them. Then on our way back a volunteer stopped us and told us they were opening the boardwalk if we wanted to see them. We were the only guest there the rest were Science Center employees. It made the boys day! It was an awesome experience!