Fun Way to Memorize the Ten Commandments

The other day, I taught Fred and Princess (ages 4 and 5)  a trick to memorize the ten commandments, and thought it would be fun to share on the blog. Two years ago, this was Bubbles’ topic for our homeschool project fair, and I’m sharing her essay below. She was in Kindergarten at the time.

The Ten Commandments

Then ten commandments are ten rules that God made. He wrote them down on stone tablets. We can read the ten commandments in the Bible. I learned a finger trick from my mom and dad. It helps me understand the ten commandments. You can see the trick on the pictures.

1: Hold up 1 finger. This means that God comes first. So the first commandment is that God said, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

2: Hold up 2 fingers. Two gods is too many gods. So the second commandment is “Do not worship idols.”

3: Hold up 3 fingers. It looks like a “W.” W is for watch your words. So the third commandment is “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

4: Hold up 4 fingers. What is the thumb doing? He’s resting. So the fourth commandment is “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”

5: Hold up 5 fingers. It looks like I’m making a promise. So the fifth commandment is “Honor your father and mother.”

6: Hold up 6 fingers. It looks like a finger is shooting the hand. So the sixth commandment is “Do not murder.”

7: Hold up 7 fingers. The fingers look like people getting married. When people get married, they make promises to each other. So the seventh commandment is “Do not commit adultery.”

8: Hold up 8 fingers. It looks like bars to a jail. So the eighth commandment is “Do not steal.”

9: Hold up 9 fingers. It looks like the thumb is telling lies about the people on the other hand. So the ninth commandment is “Do not tell lies.”

10: Hold up 10 fingers and wiggle them. It looks like I’m coveting. That means you are saying “Give me that! Give me this!” So the tenth commandment is “Do not covet.”

In addition to Bubbles’ trick, there is also a fun and catchy song by Mercy Me called “Ten Simple Rules,” from their newest CD, 10. Iron Man got me the CD for my birthday, and this song is our favorite. The kids and I like to make the hand movements while we sing along.

I hope these ideas will help you and yours to learn the ten commandments too!

 

Pleading their Case

Our children want a puppy.

This evening, they presented the following, well-thought out case to Iron Man in the hopes of convincing him to get them one for Christmas:

“Puppies are cuddly, puppies are cute,
They’re never nasty or mean…”

“Daddy, can we get a dog? ” This simple question brings a peal of laughter from you. “Why do you even want a puppy?”

“Everyone has a dog.”

“Now kids, not everyone has a dog, but I understand what you mean. I have an answer for your question: NO!” Now is that your only reason?

The same answer to that question. NO! We have a list of clever answers to all the questions and doubts you may have.

First of all, you may say, “You want a puppy this year, and if I buy you one, who knows? You might want a bunny next year!” To this, we answer, “A puppy can be our Christmas present for every year, and our birthday presents too!”

“Okay, but if you want a puppy, you better have a good name for him that I like,” you say. “All right, you can name him,” we answer, “but if you need some ideas we have a list:

Bolt, Marius, Rover, Big Red, ScoobyDoo,Tucker, Jack, Inky, Grace, Prince, Beethoven, Lady, Tramp, Perro, Caro, Pedro, Mario, Stretch, Snoopy, Scrappy, Ribsy, Fido, and last but not least, Angus.

Okay, these should help you name the dog. If you need any more names, please tell us. We would be happy to help.

You may say, “Naming the dog is easy. But I can’t train the dog. I just don’t have the time. No.” But we have an answer to that too. “We walk the dog. We will read books on how to train it, and if we need help, we will not ask you.”

“What about our allergies? You certainly do not have an answer to that, right?” Wrong. Google it, and you will get a list of dogs that don’t shed.

“What will we do when we go on vacation?” That problem is easily solved. Gram can “dogsit” for us when we go on vacation, and we’ll “dogsit” for her when she goes on vacation. (Side Note from Michelle: Right now, I suspect that Gram just heightened her interest in this case!)

Mom heard that dogs actually help with language and speech problems. Now think of how that would help George!

A dog could keep George busy, so George wouldn’t destroy the house. Just think of it-George not destroying the house! We would have a clean home.

Now we know what your next question will be, “What about the food?” We say, “If we get a dog, we’ll buy the food. Don’t you know how much money Gameboy has?”

We will potty train both the dog and George. First, we train the dog to go outside before doing his business, then we say to George, “What’s wrong with you, George? The wuff-wuff goes potty where he’s supposed to, and you don’t.” And everyone knows that George loves dogs and he will surely start going in the big boy potty and not in his pants! How cool is that?

You may say, “Someone has to walk the dog every day, and its not gonna be me!” Here’s the deal: You get us a dog, and we will walk him every day without complaining.

“Ha ha ha!” you say. “You think I’m about to buy you a dog if you walk him?!?”

“Yes,” we answer, “and if we do everything that we just listed. And we know that you love us, so there are our reasons.”

“I’d give a home to all the lost puppies,
If ever one day I were queen!”

“Arf!”

Iron Man was impressed by their persuasive appeal, but has not arrived at a verdict yet. Personally, I think schnoodles are awfully cute. I hear that they are hypo-allergenic. Just sayin’, ya know? I’m not taking sides. I’m Switzerland.

But, they are supposed to be good with children. I’ll zip it now.

Switzerland.

 

Fred’s eye

Thanks so much for the prayers for Fred’s eye.

Our little trooper is coming along just fine in his recovery. The doctor said that his eye had only 1/4 to 1/3 the scratches that he had yesterday, and he should be near 100% by Saturday or Sunday. I’m amazed that the eye heals as quickly as it does. God’s a good inventor, isn’t he?

As the doctor was applying Fred’s patch yesterday, I commented that a patch wasn’t quite going to do it; what Fred needs is a knight’s full-body suit of steel armor. Minus the sword.

 

The poor kid

Here is a boy who is having a rough day.

It started late yesterday afternoon, actually. He was scraping some bark off of a tree, when a piece flew into his eye. I searched in his eye and we got a tiny piece out. A few hours later, his eye was still very red, and he was still having pain and bursts of crying, so we suspected a scratch on his cornea.

First thing this morning, I took him to the pediatrician. It actually had gotten a lot worse – more red and swollen – overnight. The nurse used a dye and black light to look for scratches. She didn’t have to look very hard. No sooner did she turn on the black light than she exclaimed, “Oh, my word!” She showed me the scratches which illuminated flourescent green under the light, and while I’m not medically savvy in any sense, I was horrified by how much of his eye began to glow. She searched all around his eye to see if any more specks of bark remained, but could not find anything.

She then directed us to a pediatric ophthalmologist. He too was taken aback by the large area covered with scratches. He gave Fred a numbing drop, and then searched way up under the eyelid. He found another piece of bark. Not a speck, mind you, but a seriously-sized piece. As he removed it with a Q-tip, he commented that he could not believe our boy was even able to open his eye with that thing in it. Fred was so brave – didn’t cry a bit. The doctor said he was tough, and as he spoke his notes into his recorder, I heard him comment, “cooperation of the child was remarkable given the size of the bark.” I was proud of my boy.

We will return to the ophthalmologist tomorrow to see how he is doing. Apparently, he doesn’t usually ask to follow-up with corneal scratches, but wants to see Fred because the scratches are so large. Even so, he believes that Fred will feel much better in the morning. I hope he’s right.

This boy, I’ll tell you what. If it’s not Knex pieces bursting his eardrum (just over a month ago), it’s tree bark scratching his eye. I certainly hope he’s done with his series of accidents!

 

Just an amusing little snippet of our day

I have a few stories to tell and pictures to share, but I’ve had a nasty flu over the last few days and am not quite up to posting them yet. Additionally, Iron Man is out of town for most of this week and every ounce of strength I have is being used to keep our home running at a bare minimum standard (ie, keeping food in the kids’ bellies, stopping little ones from hurting themselves or each other, and preventing the house from looking like the aftermath of a tornado). But I pause from my rest and duties to share this…

As I was in the kitchen a few moments ago, I heard a loud shriek coming from Princess. “What is it?” I asked her, suspecting that I knew exactly what it was.

“Look!! A bug!!” she answered. Just as I suspected; I’ve heard that shriek before.

“Show me,” I asked her, expecting to see an innocent little ladybug or housefly.

“There!” she said, pointing about 2 yards away to the lid of a toybox. No ladybugs here. I was looking at one of the ugliest, creepy-looking bugs that I have ever beheld.

Internally, I shrieked and shuddered right along with her. Outwardly, I put on my calm, “there’s-nothing-to-fret-over” face, glanced around for Gameboy (our usual bug-exterminator), and when I couldn’t find him, said, “Oh Princess, that little bug won’t hurt you. Now let’s just get a shoe and a napkin, and we’ll smush him.”

I then smiled a big, fake, happy smile to prove that I wasn’t the least bit creeped out. I think she fell for it. She calmed down pretty quickly.

I did the deed (blech!) and, still internally shuddering but outwardly collected and unaffected, flushed the horrible little monster down the toilet.

Where is Gameboy when you need him?

 

My Hero

How many men would be willing to take six children, from ages 2 to 11, to church by himself?

And how many men would forgo the nursery services, choosing to keep the children with him, in order to train them to sit well in a church service, to avoid sharing any yet-dormant germs, and to avoid bringing further germs home to his sick wife and three-week-old baby?

And how many would stop at the grocery store on the way home, bringing all six kids into the store, to pick up some soup for his sick wife?

And how many would do all these things when 1) his wife offered to keep the youngest kids at home, and 2) he was not even asked to go to the store?

I’m talking about Iron Man. Now see? He really is a superhero!

 

The votes are in!

We’ve had a lot of good suggestions for a blogname for our new baby. Some ideas that have been tossed around are:

• Big Ben – suggested by friends who are Steelers’ fans. But I am the rare person living in the United States who doesn’t watch football. At all. So I vetoed it. Sorry, guys!
• Little Guy – because this is what I’ve had a tendency to call him on the blog so far
• Chase – because he’ll be chasing around 6 big siblings
• Angus – because Iron Man thinks it’s a cool name
• Sunshine – because his skin is so smooth and warm – but this was vetoed because we don’t want him to get beat up with a girly name
• Bundle – because he’s our bundle of joy, and he loves to be bundled up warm and snuggle close with us
• Joy – because of the “bundle of joy” thing, but vetoed because it’s girly
• Cutie – because George isn’t using this name anymore, and it certainly does apply

The children have all voted, and they decided on another blogname for their baby brother… a name which was thrown into the running at the 11th hour. They unanimously agreed, so alas, I have to go with…

Burrito.

Want to find out where the rest of the crew got their blognames? Read more about us here!

 

Pictures, pictures, pictures

I know, I know: It’s been a whole week since I’ve written a blog post. I have nothing exciting, poignant, or even practical to share right now, as we are simply taking some time to get to know our newest family member (who is yet to be blognamed, I might add.) It was also Iron Man’s first week back at work since Baby’s birth, so I spent most of my time getting back into “life.”

So while I have nothing prolific to share today, I do, however, have pictures!

Ah, those beautiful baby eyes!

George loves his new baby brother

How sweet is this?

Gameboy has a soft spot in his heart for babies

Especially this baby!

A sweet moment with Bubbles

Love this

The rare photo with me in it… I’m usually on the other side of the camera. Plus, I’m not photogenic at all!

We are taking the month off of school on “maternity leave.” We actually started school a month early for this purpose. However, we’re using the time to do some fun school activities that I did not have the energy for during the 8th and 9th months of pregnancy. This Roman arch, for example!

That’s all for tonight, but more are coming soon. We are going on a field trip tomorrow, and I’m sure I’ll have some photos to share of our adventures there. I also hope to put up some more pictures of our baby boy with his other siblings! They all adore him and can’t get enough snuggle time with him.

 

Can’t Resist

Just a few more pictures of our baby boy. He’s changing too quickly already!

first bath at home

a hint of a smile

 

More Baby Pictures

So much to share! But I have a precious newborn boy in my arms right now, and I’ll need to keep it rather short.

First, thanks to my wonderful husband for posting some pictures on the blog! He’s a man of many surprises. He also taught me how to add captions to my photos. All this time that I’ve been blogging, I never noticed this feature!

Secondly, a few little details. Many of you were praying for our baby to have a safe delivery, and he did. When we got to the hospital on Monday morning, he was in a transverse position again (although he had been head down the night before) so my doctor gave me an epidural, effectively turned him, and then put a binder around my belly to discourage him from moving out of the head-down position. About five or six hours later, he was born. I might add that this wonderful baby only made me push through three contractions before he was out. This turned out to be a blessing in more ways than one… his cord was actually looped twice around his neck. Thankfully, it was only loosely looped and the doctor quickly unwound it as his head emerged. Makes me wonder if that was Baby’s reason for moving around so much in the womb… perhaps he was trying to get away from it. Every time I think of what could have happened, I thank God that he is okay.

Third, we need a nickname for our little guy. Iron Man voted that we temporarily call him “Angus” on the blog, but that’s not going to stick for long. Any suggestions? To describe this little guy, he is the perfect 7th baby. He is beautiful, soft and warm, so calm and peaceful, hardly ever cries, loves to cuddle…. just what we need in our large, happy family! I’m at a loss for nicknames though, and we’re taking suggestions!

And finally, some more pictures!

Whole Family! Looks great but… umm… we can’t see the baby

Whole Family, Take 2. Much better.

with Daddy

with Daddy and Grampa

with Mommy

with Mommy and Grampa

with Mommy

So Sleepy

with Bubbles

with Gameboy – and a kiss from a Princess

with Grandma

with Polly

with Gram

with Pap