Taking time, to spend some time.

"You will notice we say "brother and sister" 'round here,
It's because we're a family and these are so near;
When one has a heartache, we all share the tears,
And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.
I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God,
I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His blood!
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod,
For I'm part of the family,
The Family of God."

This past week, the Lord offered some incredible opportunities to bond with both my immediate family as well as my church family, which was so encouraging and uplifting that it must be shared. At my home church, Community of the Word, I was able to host a DIY day (Do It Yourself) and asked that all the ladies of the church who were interested in joining to bring pieces of fabrics, cloth, and/or accessories that they weren't using anymore to take apart and put back together. My hope was to be able to show them what I do in my business and teach them some ways to recycle old, unused items into something new. At the same time I was very excited to be able to spend time with these sisters of mine and build our relationship through a fun and funky type of fellowship.

Armed with one sewing machine, a few different sewing kits, and quite a few enthusiastic participants the day was a success and I was able to show a little love to my sisters in Christ through an avenue of love and creativity the Lord has given to me. It was certainly an enjoyable way to "Pay it Forward".

I praise God for the opportunity to share a little bit of myself with these ladies and, more than that, get the chance to learn a little bit more about them. Seeing them express themselves creatively was an insight into how beautifully unique the Lord has made each and every one of us.

Lord willing, we will be able to do many more events like this at CW and of course at other churches. If anyone out there, oh lovely readers, is interested in having a DIY day hosted either at a church or at some other venue, let me know! I would be more than happy to see what I could do for you.

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But that, of course, wasn't the only blessing to come out of this week. One outing, on a more personal level, was a day out with my boys to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Homeschooling all three of our boys affords us the opportunity to make every special outing a learning experience. Like a field trip, but more inclusive since we get to learn right along with them.

Watching your children nteract with the world is an underrated and under-appreciated blessing in this world. Having three boys with very different personalities gives both Ray and I a glimpse into who they are and the kind of men they will become. The decision to have them home schooled continues to be reiterated to me as a good choice and I praise God for the blessing of patience, endurance, and the ability to see the things I may have never noticed if we had put them in school.

Their curiosity is something that I hope never fades. Their ability to stay engaged in the world and to learn from every experience that God allows them is my hope and prayer for their future. And more than that I hope that we continue to have the opportunity to be an active part of their education.






The world is changing and growing just as our boys are and I cherish these days when we can spend time together and grow stronger as a family. I will never get tired of these moments and I hope that I never lose sight of just how fleeting they really are.

Thank you, Lord for blessing me with the chance to strengthen the relationships in my family both biological and spiritual. You really are a God of providence who is more gracious than I deserve. Here's to many more weeks like this.

-Ciel

Picture Day at Vanguard Academy

Here's a short story of how we envision 2013-2014 will be like at Vanguard Homeschool Academy:

 A lot of reading!

 A lot of searching! 

 A lot of discussing! Literally!

 Some silliness!

 And of course, eating healthy food!

 More reading!

 Teaching E for excellence!

 A lot of contemplating!

 Geology & History!

 Just learning every minute of the day!

 Practice makes better!

 Showing and Sharing!

 Learning to sit back and enjoy the moment! 

 Studying together!

 Enjoying the couch together!

Then thank God Almighty at the end of a wonderful productive day! What a blessing it is to be a homeschooling family!

Back to School at Vanguard Homeschool Academy

I'm very excited to get back into the groove again. The summer vacation trips we made had the kids looking forward to what's next on our schedule. But telling them about hitting the books soon wasn't going to be too exciting for them to hear. Since we are an all year school calendar, everything counts for their learning! What a beauty homeschooling makes!

So first on my list was to get my scope and sequence from Abeka and write down what goals we are looking at for this coming year. This really helps as a guide for me as I look for sources and methods to teach and help them apply it in life.

Here are a few other things that helped me get me going.
- www.homeschoolfreebie.com, I've been following this website for a couple of years now. Every week they send me a new list of free resources to use. I totally recommend it. And it's free to subscribe!

-www.educationworld.com, this website is recommended by Homeschool Freebie of the Day. The 5 minute lesson plans is a great list of suggestions! I actually followed one plan to teach spelling. Made a little tweak to it. Instead of drawing the alphabets on a fabric or a shower curtain, I used our school closet door and made the alphabets out of contact paper. It was quick and easy. The boys helped stick the letters. They enjoyed it!

So as I prepare for this year's lessons, I also try to find ways to get them ready by getting them involved.

Happy Back to School!

To be Healthy or not to be Healthy

I'm such a late bloomer. All along I thought I was being healthy enough in my own ways. Here I am thinking I'm smart enough to know what's best and what's not. Little did I know that I really wasn't. It takes constant knowing, by constant reading, by learning from others, or by experiencing it the hard way. I find it that life will be a never ending learning. Which I now appreciate and agree with that statement, before I would think it be dreading. I enjoy learning now, oh how I wish I had the same enjoyment back in grade school. Well, as the saying goes "better late than never". So, what am I jabbering about at the peak of a new year?  Why did I title my post the way I did? Maybe because I just want to tell everyone that I have been liberated to a healthy way. Now I agree that what we breath and take in is serious. With all the technology out there we seem to think it's all trustworthy. I guess what I'm trying to share is that through the past months I've been learning about what is healthy and what is not and announce that I've become an agreeable GREEN! Greener than before, I guess you can say. Happy New Year to the world of blogging!

Creativity at work!

Sometimes they just need that break and let their creativity inside run like crazy with the camera. This photo was taken by my eldest son, Ez 9yo, who built this little village of logs and added his toy soldiers to create a war zone. Who would have thought of that a war zone can exist on Mommy's wood floors but my own sons! They even took a video and made a movie out of it.

Diving into Chapter 2

Here is an advice on how to dive into chapter 2:
1. The keywords you should mark on your bible: fellowship, abide, sin, know, love, born of God, Light, truth, write, world, references to the devil.

    I suggest you think of a creative way to mark them distinctively all through out 1 John. I use color pencils and shapes. If this is too challenging you can make it simple to your own way of remembering them. Just know that these keywords will help us know and understand.

2. Note down the purposes of John, the author. You will know it when it writes, "I am writing to you... because". I'll give you a hint there are 6 in this chapter

3. Lastly, write down what you learn about Christ.

This was  emailed to the group before the next Saturday meeting for our study on 1 John. As we moved on to chapter 2, I felt that I had to give a little bit of a guide on how to get into it by using the New Inductive Study Bible.

Results: All the ladies were able to mark their bibles to keep track of keywords. Maybe you're wondering what's the purpose of that. Well, keywords help us see what the author is emphasizing in his writing. It is most of the time his point or purpose. Finding purpose will then help us understand more. It takes awhile to look for keywords, but slowly our eyes get used to seeing as we look for it with intention to seek understanding. I'm excited for the ladies, because I see that they are working hard at it. One of them bought a new journaling bible and started exploring it with her color pencils!

Journey to a 1 John Study

There is a solid number of ladies that is studying the book of 1 John with me. And I am really enjoying the company in diving deep into our bibles every Saturday morning.

This is a quick note of how our first meeting went so far.

A recap on chapter 1 observation.
Here are some background we found out:
-The author is Jesus' cousin John the beloved.
-Who is he writing to? Believers. Christians. Those who have trusted in Jesus
-His purpose for this chapter is on verse 4 "so that our joy may be made complete".
-When was this written? between A.D. 85 and 95

Here are the keywords that we found that was mentioned or repeated once:
    -fellowship         -sin
    -Light            -Truth
    -Write

Since this was our first meeting there wasn't much to expect, but it was a great time to build the foundation and direction of where we are going. We listed what we found out about God and Christ. And as I remember we closed in prayer asking God to help us love God's Word. I think that's a great prayer because if you truly have trusted and put your faith in Christ you will keep His commandments and walk in it.

Lastly, this is what I encourage them to do for the next chapter study, read and re read it! Endure the temptation to think that you already know it. Write down your thoughts or anything that comes to mind on the side of your bible, when you read it. Soon those notes will eventually make sense.

It's my hope to share through my blog what transpires in our discussion, and hopefully describe how God has been working in us individually. More to share as we continue our study.

Helping others grow in Christ

So it's been busy as usual in the household of the Lunas. It's not with complaint that I share that, only  stating a fact of life's reality. In fact, I consider it a blessing that we are busy and not idle. It's just a heart issue of mine that struggles with not knowing when to step back and really enjoy this blessing to the fullest. There are nights as I lay down to sleep I try to imagine myself not being so busy as I am, but end up despising the thought of motherhood sitting around and looking relax all the time. I can't imagine any  mother, who is raising a family would find herself busy sitting around more than managing her family's life and home. I thank God for the joy I experience through the busyness of family life. But oh, how I need more of Him for more grace to find true joy!

On top of family life, there is my personal ministry life. Maybe I haven't mentioned it before, but I meet with individual ladies to help them with their Christian life. But with a limited time I can only manage for now to meet once a week. And how ever much I would love to concentrate on one person at a time, it's hard. So I had to put three of my sisters in Christ, who shares the desire to grow in loving God's Word, together in one study.

It has been a great blessing to me for the past month to study the book of 1 John with these group of ladies. And it has kept me on my toes reading and diving into scripture to help them see for themselves the benefit of studying the bible text by text and discuss it. I only hope to share the growth of this group of ordinary women, who has been save by Grace through faith in Christ and whose hearts are so driven to love God and His Word. So I post with the hope of sharing a blessing and glorify Christ in it. And hoping the words I will use to describe will be to boast in Him alone.

It is my prayer to see these women gain, not only the passion to be proud of being a Christian, but the reasoning why they should be so passionate about Christ. As my own mentor have shared with me that "passion without knowledge is empty, and knowledge without passion is cold". And I honestly believe  that learning to study the Word of God for themselves (like the Boreans) is the key to that kind of Christian walk.

As a group we have read through the epistle of 1 John. We looked up some history background. And now we are discussing it chapter by chapter. On my upcoming posts I'll be more specific on what we have studied. But to conclude this article let me share what I use to study with these women. For my personal study I use the New Inductive Study Bible.  It gives us direction as we study it together. Second, I have a list of probing questions to bring about discussion. Sometimes when we really can't say anything else we move on to our next text to observe. I like the method of observation. It helps us break it down and really finding the context, the purpose and meaning of the text. This third tool that we use was shared by my husband. It is a method of studying the bible with someone, it is called "the Swedish Method".  It's simple. It encourages the group to look beyond the obvious. I believe there is always a danger when we become too familiar with the text. I know that I get too confident and think I arrived in knowing the passage because of hearing it, reading it over and over. But we shouldn't cut ourselves short of the blessing we can get from reading and studying every text written. There has to be more than the obvious with God's Word.

So with that said, I just know that there is no end in learning and studying in this life time. Especially when it come to God's Holy Word! It's exciting and I really look forward to greater blessings ahead.