Promotion for Mastroianni boys!

On Saturday, Aug 28, Dom and the boys had their karate promotion.  I was scheduled for a meeting that morning and had been praying about where I should be.  God finally prompted me to ask Dom how important it was to him that I be at promotion (I already knew the boys wanted me there)...turns out it was pretty important.  God always knows where He wants us, because I was blessed beyond measure.  I have journaled about this in another book of mine, but will say here that I have never been more in awe of my men, especially my husband, for so many reasons, reasons that will remain between me and the Lord.   God is good.  Here are the photos I took on Saturday:

Sensei setting up Dominic's 12" board

Dominic ready and focused (I missed the

actual wood breaking for Dom)

Dio breaking his 12" board

Sensei setting up big Dom's FIVE boards!

Daddy getting ready and focused...

WOW!   Amazing...followed by loud cheers!

I'm not in awe because my husband can break five boards, but of what he has accomplished over the last year and how God is working in his life.  Praise God!

And now I am fast forwarding to tonight - as each receive their new rank:

Dom and Dio receiving their purple belts

Dom receiving his green belt

Dom accepting his new rank.

Tennis, anyone...

About six weeks ago Donatella started taking tennis lessons here in Bedford.  She is enjoying it, and I finally remembered to bring the camera.  We are proud of her as she works hard:

Entrance to tennis courts

practicing her drills

forehand ground stroke

nice...hitting over the net!

backhand

forehand volley (above and below)

Game - Set - Match!

Embalming and Mummies!

One of the highlights to our first week of school was learning about the embalming and mummification rituals of the Ancient Egyptians.  And because all the kids love hands-on projects (and Tapestry of Grace is full of them) we decided to re-create that process in our home!  We needed a model for our mummy, so it was decided that Fancy Nancy would serve that purpose for the next 8 weeks!    Below are the embalmers hard at work:

Here she is... although the bodies were soaked

in salt for 40 days, we did not perform that part

of the ritual, we just pretended we did.  The kids

then went on to "remove" her organs and brain and

put them in the very special canopic jars below:

And since we were not shaving her head, we thought

it would be nice to "wrap" her hair so as not to get any

paper mache in it:

Learning about this process was so interesting - as they

"prepare" the bodies for their next life... one of the ceremonial

things to do is paint the fingernails and toenails in gold!

Here is Donatella as head manicurist and pedicurist:

After the nail painting, the body is then washed down:

While all this was going on, Dom and Maria were

preparing the paper mache - we have learned that

Maria does NOT like goop!

Preparing for wrapping!

Well, I guess Fancy Nancy is not looking

very Fancy right here!  The boys made some

heiroglyphic messages, and below Dom made

the special face mask to adorn the head:

A few days later Dio asked if he could make a sarcophogas

for the mummy....so hard at work he painted a box and we

lay our mummy to rest...where she will stay until we display

her at our End of Unit Celebration in October!  We had a lot

of fun...

It's all about the process and working together, and not the final product.

We sure are having fun!

I wish I could say more about how this all relates to God displaying His glory, but then I would need

write the curriculum here in our blog.  Tapestry of Grace is a wonderful Christian curriculum, and we are

studying history chronologically, beginning with Ancient Egypt, then pausing and going back to Creation

for a few weeks, then picking up where we left off.  We are so enjoying learning about God's plan

and how He unfolds it throughout HIStory.

First week of school!

The first week of school had lots of ups and downs...some of the ups - the girls' relationship is really bonding and taking off as we work on their curriculum.  Below we talked about Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent and we used a belt on the floor to pretend it was the serpent!  

Here are the boys learning about Heiroglyphs on the computer - from just a brief glance at the alphabet Dominic had it almost completely memorized.  They wrote homecoming notes to dad in heiroglyphics - awesome! 

Dominic completed his first chapter book on his own!  It was such a good book that I then read it aloud to everyone and Dominic enjoyed it even more the second time!

Currently we are studying The Life of Moses and Ancient Egypt.  We studied the geography of Ancient Egypt and did our first "project" - making "salt maps" which was a lot of fun!  We used salt dough and then after it was dry they painted and labeled everything.

Here are the boys finished maps:

This first week was met with lots of challenges ... deep breath, cry, pray, sing hymn, long talks on the sofa, hugs, hugs and more hugs, tears, prayer for wisdom and grace, more talks, more hugs, more tears, mommy wanting to run away at least twice, boys to the rescue, long hugs and lots of love.  This is what it is all about - why we homeschool... so we can have these talks and build character and disciple.  Thankfully, everyone shows up the next day with big smiles, and mommy washed by the Word.  Amen!

First Day of School

Monday, August 9 was our first day of school, and we started with our traditional special breakfast, followed by a picture of smiling faces and barefeet!  Now where else can you go to school with no shoes on! :)

Here you are showing Daddy what you did the first day!!

Our school name is The Cornerstone Academy, refering to Isaiah 28:16:  So this is what the Sovereign Lord says, "See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed."  The Cornerstone of course refering to our Savior, Jesus Christ.  You see, kids, God called me to homeschool.  There are times when I feel overwhelmed, and I know I cannot do it (or anything else in my life) without Jesus, the Cornerstone of our family and our lives.  It is by His unending Grace that He pours Himself through me to you.

Our school is considered a non-public school and is registered in the State of North Carolina, along with almost 65,000 other homeschooling families.  Wake County also happens to have the most homeschooling families per county, so we have lots of support and things to do.  The children know when asked, where do you go to school, to answer The Cornerstone Academy, our homeschool.  I am blessed beyond measure and privileged to be homeschooling my children.   I cannot thank my husband enough for all his support, and for working so hard so that I may stay home with our children.  I thank God every day for showing both Dominic and I how to live simpler lives, free from the bondage of debt and that we are not slave to material things.  God has showed us how to be content with little, and our marriage and family is stronger because of it.  Our prayer is that we can show this by example to our children so that they never want more than what they have, and that if they do have more, they will use it to help others to further the Kingdom of God.