I'm with the band

Noah and Adam are in the middle school band now at our church. Our middle school worship center is called the Firehouse, hence they are in the Firehouse band. Noah is singing and Adam is drumming. I'm proud of this accomplishment. They will be singing praises to The King in front of their peers. They also will be filling their minds with more and more praise songs!
... Aren't they too cute?

Onions make me cry

One of my motivations for homeschool was Beniam. He never really attached to me. I do not want to minimize the pain of those dealing with RAD. We were never dealing with RAD. He has always been sweet, easy to love and respectful. There was just always something missing. Our only real issue with him was his picky eating habits. Though we did not cater to them, at times we would scold him for not eating the healthier option during meal time. After a few months of his being our son, we eased up a bit on the pressure for him to eat everything. At that point it became obvious to us that this was not about food, it was about something much deeper. I have to back up and point out that he began sitting in my lap on occasion since we started homeschool. Big progress. Well Sunday we hit another monumental achievement for him. We went to a local buffet after church. One of the other children exclaimed "Look at Beniam's plate!" I looked up expected to see a pile of fried chicken and there it was....a small salad!!! He had a huge smile on his face, just for me I believe and he said "I'm gonna try to eat a little." Yesterday we ended up in our neighbor city with an hour to kill before an appointment so we went out for lunch. He wanted a meatball grinder. I ordered it and it was filled with onion and peppers. Always in the past he would gag, literally, at the sight of onions and peppers. He'd gag, his eyes would water and he'd look like he'd been injured. This time he looked up at me with a big smile and said "I'm going to eat the onions and peppers this time. He took slow bites and then as we all sat in hushed silence he said "I think I like onions and peppers. I think I'll start putting some onions on my food!" I cried, for real. I knew deeper what this meant. Beniam, also being very shy would never sing in front of anyone. We'd catch him singing and dancing in a room alone but the minute we'd walk in he'd stop. Guess what? Yes! He is also singing and dancing. And so am I.

Homeschool bliss and other stuff...

We started homeschooling when our other kids went back to school. Today is the 4 week anniversary. For those of you who aren't in on the history, we have 4 in public middle school, 3 at home and my step-daughter is out of state. This is my first year of homeschooling. So far..... I LOVE IT! I love it for many reasons. To name a few: NO homework to help them with. NO notes that their lunch account is over drawn. NO list of supplies the teachers need. NO projects! NO permission slips! OK so that is just the "NO's" that I love. I also love: sleeping later. The kids having healthier breakfast and lunch. Getting to spend my day with some of my favorite people. My new homeschool friends. Getting to learn things again with my children. Beniam sitting on my lap. (That's my favorite. He would never sit on my lap before. Though he has always been easy to love and be with he never really seemed to attach to me, until now.) Field trip Fridays with Dad. Reading. Praying together more often. Enjoying good weather days. My house is cleaner. Yes, I said cleaner. :-)
As you can tell by my blogging, my grammar is very lacking! LOL. Hopefully you'll see it improve as I help the kids with their lessons.
Another thing going on around the Bond household is a focus on nutrition. We have many documentaries on eating well. The kids are enjoying them and participating in cooking healthier foods. We have decided to give God our stomaches. Sounds strange? It really shouldn't be. We give him our time and talents, we give him our hearts, why shouldn't we also give him our stomachs? He provided us food to eat, we should enjoy that food. Only that food. Our culture has gotten so far away from the teachings of scripture and the life abundance that Christ came to offer us. We have perverted his idea of family. We have perverted the physical world around us. We have perverted sex and dare I say it....We have perverted food. He gave us all we need for sustenance and we have added addictive substances to it. We have devitalized the soil. We have turned agricultue into capitalism. So I have decided I am giving God my stomach. If anyone is interested on the resources I am reading or watching please email me at: afrosandtiaras@yahoo.com.
Peas and Love ;)