Birthday Bash

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families..." Psalm 68:5, 6.

Lord, thank you for being my Father and Father to my daughters. I pray my girls will always experience the unreserved, unconditional love of their family also, and that they will know beyond any doubt that they are deeply loved and treasured. Thank you for family celebrations.

Last night was Jonathan's birthday. He is my youngest son, now age 28. All those who were able packed into his apartment, the girls running off to play with my granddaughter Lana and Mattie, my oldest's son's girlfriend's daughter. What a crazy mix this family is! Arielle and Liana are thrilled when everyone is together. They love being part of such a loud, lively, loving group.

Liana was having trouble memorizing her math facts. We tried counting with manipulatives and with fingers. We've used Saxon's apple visual and we've done skip counting. She got stuck on adding and subtracting 2's. Then I had an idea. I wrote numbers on large sheets of paper, one to a page, and placed them on the floor like stepping stones. Then I would call out a fact like 6 plus 2 and Liana would literally jump from the number 6 to the number 8 or backwards if it were a subtraction fact. The light bulb went off. She got it!

That trick only went so far. Now she is learning fact families. When I first introduced the idea, she was excited. Immediately she got out a big piece of paper and drew a house--complete with a roof, windows and a door. Then she wrote all the facts that "live" in the house as a family. She remembers these facts. Another fun idea for her is playing math games with a deck of real cards. We play for pairs of numbers that go together to make 8 or 9 or whatever she's working on. Her very different learning style is challenging my teaching style and stretching me.

What's cooking tonight...

Quick & Hearty Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground turkey

1 finely chopped red pepper

1 chopped small onion

8 oz. tomato sauce

1/2 cup barbeque sauce

1 cup of coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots)

hamburger buns

Brown the turkey with the peppers and onions. Stir in tomato sauce and barbeque sauce and add coleslaw mix. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Serve on buns or over rice.