Homeschooling for His Glory

For those of you who do not know yet, I am a native from the beautiful island of Martinique in the Caraibean. Though we are part of France, we are still islanders and as such have our cool traditional Christmas goodies that fill our tables at Christmas time. Today I am going to share with you one of the most popular and enjoyed by all. Pates de Noel Dough: The dough is a very simple pastry dough. 1 1/2 cup flour 1/2- 1tsp salt 125g ( 1/2 cup) butter 10 cl milk, or water, or a mix of both Mix together  the flour and salt. Cut in the butter until resembles crumbs. Add the milk or water and mix until the dough comes together. Knead just enough to make a workable dough. Filling: 1 lb ground pork salt, pepper, 1 bay leaf 1 lemon 1 onion 3 garlic a couple of green onions scotch bonnet or red pepper flakes or enough of cayenne pepper to spice the lot 1 or 2 slices of bread soaked in milk (optional) Brown the meat with the squeeze lemon and all of the spices...

A few Saturdays ago, our church had a cookie exchange event and I brought these 2 delightful cookies. I thought I'd share one of the recipes with you all, and put it on here for keepsake. Here we go: Swirled Sugar Cookie Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ¨Preparation: Measure the flour, salt and baking powder into   a bowl, mix and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and the sugar. Once smooth, add the eggs, vanilla and combine well. Add the flour mixture to the butter / egg mixture a little at a time. Mix until the floor is well incorporated and dough is smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or wax paper and chill in the fridge  for about 1 hour. Overnight is also fine. If you want to freeze the dough, you can do so at this stage. Divide in tree equal pieces and place in three separate bowls. Kn...

He Who is Mighty (Sovereign Grace Music) Oh the mercy our God has shown To those who sit in death's shadow The sun on high pierced the night Born was the Cornerstone (Pre-Chorus) Unto us a Son is given unto us a Child is born Chorus: He Who is mighty has done a great thing Taken on flesh conquered death's sting Shattered the darkness and lifted our shame Holy is His name Oh the freedom our Savior won The yoke of sin has been broken Once a slave now by grace No more condemnation (Bridge) Now my soul magnifies the Lord I rejoice in the God Who saves I will trust His unfailing love I will sing His praises all my days

It's Friday and time for a random 5 run down. 1 . It's December, the Christmas tree is up. 2 . We still have school for a couple of weeks before we take off for Christmas. We did finish our Writing Curriculum from Classical Academic Press (Writing and Rhetoric Book 2). We will start book 3 in January. 3. I have started copywork exercices again. This time we are using Scripture as our base. 3 Goals: Memorization Spelling practice Handwriting practice I am using Write Through the Bible from Intoxicated For Life, but you can get some nice ones as well from Homeschool Copywork . 4 . Zach finished the Biology course with Standard Deviant, now we are going through the free Biology course from Classic Science. He is liking it so far. 5. My oldest, Zach had a birthday last Saturday. Can't believe he is 11 already and entering a new stage. Wow, am I ready for this? That said so thankful to God for Him and what he is preparing him to be by His grace...

I am not much of a tradition kind of girl, but around this time of the year I think it is a very good idea to keep our eyes on what really matters: Christmas is about the coming of Christ fulfilling God's promise of sending a Saviour to the world. To help with that we do what is called "Advent". There is different ways of celebrating and observing Advent, usually in the form of a reflection everyday of the month of December leading up to Christmas. Today I thought I would share with you a few free resources out there that you could use to help you focus on Christ during this season: 1. John Piper's Advent devotions: Good News of Great Joy The Dawning of Undestructable Joy 2. Paul Tripp's Advent Devotion: Come Let us Adore Him 3. Nancy Guthrie: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room 4 . Make Him Room by Kristen Oliphant 5. Jesse Tree Advent projects. In the past we have use the appendix at the back of the Book: Disciplines of a Godly Family by The H...