Posted by Posted in Family, homeschool, time

School 2015

Yes, today the new school year started for the Bowers, and quite honestly, I was excited to get back into a routine and work filled schedule. I like to stay busy. I thought I would give you a little peek into what we do here at Pilgrims Ford Academy (our homeschool name).

Our mornings before school starts involve devotions, breakfast together, our chores, getting ready for the day and family worship.

After that, we start our school work at the table, usually around 8:30. This school involves our math, grammer, writing, Spanish/language, Bible study and personal topics we would like to explore. Sometimes there are things like book reports and science reports that happen in the morning too.

We usually take a break at 11:00 or 11:30 and have free time until lunch, where we do a read aloud.

In the afternoon, we do our reading, history, science, geography and possibly more. It varies where we do this school. On the couch, in the clubhouse, on the trampoline, up a tree (my favorite), we have a lot of options.

Usually, we end our reading schoolwork somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00. The rest of our afternoon is usually free time, work on project time or pleasure reading time. We try to help Mom with dinner somewhere around 5:30.

Our evenings include, books read together, Bible studies, library nights, and card games.

Then we go to bed, somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 depending on your age. This year will include special times with parents in the evenings before bed too!

Then we wake up and do it all over again! Only because we are homeschooled there are always differences every day!

Your one and only,
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in adventures, gospel and outreach, journal entries, Living for God, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 6

Another beautiful sunrise and devotion filled early morning. After breakfast, we got to work.

So today, Lauren and I were the only one who were staining. We both got a lot done though. This would be our last day of helping with that as you will find out tomorrow. But that is okay because other teams throughout the summer would be able to finish the project. Lauren had lunch duty so I cleaned up everything before heading in for lunch.

That afternoon, after siesta, I went and set up for games with Mikayla. Today we played a ladder/number race game and a game called Steal the Bacon. Daniel, missionary kid at Rancho3M translated today.

We stopped work and games a little early today so we could get ready for the staff dinner. We put on “Sunday clothes” (skirts and nicer shirts) and hung out with the kids until dinner was ready. I got one of the older girls to braid my hair. They LOVE doing hair! It was really pretty.

Before the staff dinner, I tried to call my family, but it was pretty stormy and the connection wasn’t the best so I couldn’t talk for long.

At the staff dinner, we had an authentic Mexican meal, including chili reino, Mexican rice, mole (I think that was what it was called), enchiladas, and peach cobbler for desert (peach cobbler provided by the Americans 🙂 ). It was really good. After dinner, Pancho and Valeria shared their testimonies. SO touching. There were several generations of Rancho3M staff there, which was pretty cool to see.

After that, we went back to our dorms, showered and went to bed. That night I knew, that I would miss Rancho3M terribly. I do.

Well, stay updated to catch the last two days of my trip and a sneak peek of what a school day looks like for us. Since we have started school, you should see regular posts, so stay tuned for more!

Your one and only,
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in faith, God, Jesus

The Incarnation: Why I Love It

The incarnation of Jesus is something humans can not wrap their minds around. As hard as you try. How could Jesus be fully God and fully man? But think about it, would you want it any other way? Here is why I love the incarnation and its mind bogglingness.

1. Jesus was fully God.
If Jesus was NOT fully God how could I trust HIm? How could I believe Him? Humans die and fail and there has never been a human in my life who has not sinned or failed. How could I trust in a God who was part human. Jesus has to be fully God. Because He was fully God, He never sinned and He had a perfect life. Because He was a perfect man, He was able to be our perfect sacrifice. Think about this, if Jesus was NOT fully God and He had sinned even just a little, He would not have been able to be our perfect sacrifice. And we would have lived in our sin and death forever. One more point: I could/would not believe in a God who I can fathom. I don’t want God to be able to be achieved in my thoughts. Because Jesus was not just fully human but fully God I can not fathom Him. He is better/above anything I can imagine. I am sooooooo glad that Jesus was fully God.

2. Jesus was fully man.
Just as Jesus had to be perfect (fully God) to be able to die for us, He also had to be perfectly human to be able to die for us. God can’t die. God is holy and He can’t look on sin. However, since Jesus was fully human also, He could come to us in our sin and live with us and then die as our perfect sacrifice. I love imagining how Jesus came down to us. He was fully human and He could relate to us in our lives. He came not to be served but to serve. I love how Jesus was fully human.

Let me know your thoughts.

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in adventures, gospel and outreach, journal entries, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 5

So when I woke up this morning, I don’t think it would be humanly possible to imagine the fun I had today! Lots of days are like that for me. 🙂

Pretty regular morning this morning, we had breakfast and got to work staining. Right next to where we were staining some of the guys were building a storage room off of an office. It was really cool to see the progress they made, day by day.

Today though, I got a special treat. Santiago, a very cute staff child, still too young for school, followed me around and would hide behind brick walls and play peek-a-boo. He hung out around us all during the morning, until we went in for lunch. When Mikayla and I were setting up for games he was with us playing with chalk. I got to chat with him in Spanish all morning!

Also, this morning, Lauren brought us some authentic Mexican food to try. She wouldn’t tell us what it was until after we ate it. I ate it and found out what it was. Pig skin.

Over lunch, our team thought it would be fun to have a water fight with the kids and the afternoon work crew would ambush them. So that afternoon during siesta, some of the other teens/college students of the group and me of course helped fill the water balloons.

We filled about 1500! There were three huge coolers of them! We all had blisters on our hands from tying them all! By then the kids were out of school and it was quite a big job to keep them from getting into it right then!

For games that day we played with balloons. We had some games planned to do with them but the games involved popping the balloons and the kids grew rather…. attached. 🙂 Instead they carefully untied the balloons and filled them with water and dumped them… on us. Today I was the “translator” of the group again.

After a while, the kids doing crafts came out and we played a big game of Shipwreck or 4 Corners. Whatever you want to call it.

During this time the work crew had gone and gotten water balloons and then went out to the sombrero and proceeded to ambush the kids!

Well after this, we brought the rest of the water balloons out and had fun throwing those around. The water balloons evolved into buckets which somehow turned into hoses and basically, everyone got wet! I was soaked, muddy (I had slipped in a mud puddle), and had a skinned knee (from slipping). It was pretty fun.

After washing up and hanging out with the kids some more, we went into dinner and then we played our USA vs. MEX soccer game.

I played midfield. They won, like usual. 4-1 But hey! We scored and they didn’t score more than 5! I would say Victory for us. I actually got the ball a few times and I didn’t kick anyone by accident. Good game!

By now, as you can imagine, I was tired and proceeded to go to bed. Ahhhh! Good night!

Your one and only, 🙂
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in adventures, Family, Fun Stuff, It makes me laugh, memorys

Loco…. muy loco

For all of you who do not speak Spanish the title of this post is “crazy, really crazy”. Yes, this post is going to give you a look into my families crazy side. Not the polite, public side or even the chilled, hangin-out-with-friends side. It is our crazy side.

Ok so back up a little, Celia, William and I were messing around with Jace in his room today. I melted into the closet hoping he wouldn’t notice me and I could surprise him. That doesn’t work when your other siblings (who adore their big sister so much they like to do everything she does) follow you into the closet, creating a surge of bodies inside the closet, which is already packed with a dresser and lots of hanging clothes!

With no place left to go I still try to pull together my “melting into the closet” act and slip between the dresser and the wall, underneath the hanging clothes into a small space which is perfect for hiding or reading a good book.

Thinking myself very clever, I get comfortable and stay quiet.

Until….

You guessed it. Little brother William (7) seeing me leave, climbs in after me. Ok, still not TOO bad, its a little smushed but more cozy than uncomfortable. And at least he isn’t sitting on me!

Well, not for long! Did I really think I could get away with this? Next time I think I will try to stick to the ceiling instead of melt into the closet. Food for thought.

Celia (12) looks around and not seeing her two partners in crime, finds them in my (what used to be) secret nook. What then evolves is a series of trying to fit my sister between the dresser with one hand and putting my little brother on my lap to make room for her with my other. (sigh) This isn’t a mansion or anything!

Ok, so we are all in. Why I don’t know because by now Jace is probably in the living room.

However, this adventure is not over yet! William is my nature rather…hmmm…how should I say it… squirmy?….active?…can’t keep still?….all of the above? Yeah thats the one, even in a closet space. Go figure.

Next there issues a stream of comments that would make anyone laugh (at least if you have a humor like me). Shall I give you a sampling?

Ok. Something like this.

“Ow.”
“Your head is soo hard.” (directed toward William)
“Why is your elbow in my ear?”
“This would make a great blog post” (I wonder who said that… 😉 )
“William!”
“Oh okay! That hurt.”
(insert random grunts)
“Is that your foot?”
“My leg is twisted in every direction.”
“I think I hit my funny bone.”
“My ankle is asleep!”
“Your head is in my mouth!” (also directed toward William, sensing a pattern…)

and on.

Please enjoy the mental picture of William thrashing around in this closet space on top of me (ahem ahem) and Celia.

Well, you might be wondering how this is going to end.

I will tell you.

This story ends with me stuffing Celia out of the closet and pushing William right behind her. Thats right folks.

Oh but I forgot to tell you.

The true end is me trying to get out without knocking all of Jace’s nice shirts off of the hangers. Its a skill. A skill I am blessed to have.

Boy, do I love my siblings.

Thank you for being crazy enough to listen and well enjoy the embellishes. 🙂

Your one and only,
Priscilla