Breath Of Heaven

I Need A Silent NIght

Give This Christmas Away

Give This Christmas Away

~Matthew West & Amy Grant~

Rachel really loves this song and so kept singing it and kept singing it and kept on singing it until Ryan yelled: "OK Rachel! We'll give this Christmas away if you'll only stop singing the same song!"

I really like the song too but I don't sound as good as Rachel.

Merry Christmas!

An Alabama Christmas

This is a song that Erin wrote when we were in the car. It is called "An Alabama Christmas"


Driving home one December night
Rolled the windows down
Something outside didn't feel quite right
And I realized what it was

Here in Alabama it never gets real cold
Here in Alabama it never ever snows
Somthin' 'bout ol' Bama
She full of Christmas cheer
Even if the winter never gets down here

I listen to the radio
All chock full of songs
They sing about the snow
Let it snow let it snow... It won't snow
So I grab my Auburn sweatshirt
And go buy a Yankee tree
Then I come home and drink some eggnog
Or maybe just sweet tea

Here in Alabama it never gets cold
Here in Alabama it never ever snows
Somthin' 'bout ol' Bama
She all full of Christmas cheer
Even if the winter never gets here

Whenever the snow does fall
It's all over here
Schools are canceled all around
"Hey yall! There's a quarter inch on the ground!!!"

Here in Alabama it never gets cold
Here in Alabama it never ever snows
Somthin' 'bout ol' Bama
She all full of Christmas cheer
Even if the winter never gets here

So I'll stay in Alabama
Sweet warm Alabama
Jack frost remains a stranger
And my barbecue's gettin cold

Jolly Old Saint Nick

The Hunt family is really talented.

Piano Guy's Play-list

Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel

I always liked the song "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel" and the piano guys did a great gob on this one.

It's like they really are in Bethlehem!

Such a beautiful arrangement.

O Come, o come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. 

(Refrain)

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come thou Lord of might, who to they tribes, on Sinai's height, in ancient times didst give the law in cloud and majesty and awe. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, though Rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny; from depths of hell thy people save, and give them victory o'er the grave. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come thou Day-spring from on high, and cheer us by thy drawing nigh; disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come thou Key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

From Magic to the Army

Ryan and Michael were in bed this morning and Michael had some deep questions for Ryan to answer.

(Micheal) "Ryan?"

(Ryan) "Yes?"

(Micheal) "Is magic real?"

(Ryan) "No."

(Micheal) "So wizards aren't real?"

(Ryan) "No."

(Micheal) "So... I don't have to be afraid of witches?"

(Ryan) "Nope."

(Micheal) "So... I don't have to be scared of the army?"

(Ryan) "No you don't."

(Micheal) "Oh! In that case, I'm going to join the army and ride a horse and shoot and gun!"

(Ryan) "Well Micheal, soldiers don't really ride horse any more. They ride in tanks and jeeps."

(Micheal) "Well, I'm going to drive a tank and shoot and gun."

(Ryan) "You can only do one. You can't shoot and drive at the same time."

(Micheal) "Where are you going to be?"

(Ryan) "I was going to join the air force."

(Micheal) "Then who's going to drive my tank?" 

And that's how most conversations go with Micheal -just where ever the wind blows.

Helpful Hints

Helpful Hints of House and Home

        Salad separating:

'When you are putting the salad from the bow into a baggy, just shake it real hard and the rotten pieces will stick to the sides and the good pieces will fall in.'

(All hints given are anonymous)

Not all the suggestions given do reflect the views of the writer. (Some suggestions work better then others.)

Suggestions may prove hazardous.

Don't try any of these at home.

By the Chimney

Rachel's first responce when she stepped into the living room and saw Sarah's socks by the fire: "Hey! Who hung there stockings by the chimney with care?"

Unnecessary Lines

'Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. 

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, 

a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, 

for the sames reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines 

and a machine no unnecessary parts.'

~William Strunk jr.~

The Cold Mouse

Last year we got an Angelina Ballerina Christmas book from the library.

In the book Angelina and her mom take a poor mouse man some food. The picture is a cutaway view

of the old mouse in his house sitting by his fire. He's wrapped in a worn-out shawl with lots of holes 

in it.

When Michael and Sarah were reading the book on the couch Michael looked at the picture and said in a very matter-a fact way: "Well, it's no wonder he's cold! Some body cut off half his house!"

John Dalton

We are now studying chemistry in school and insistently I am also studying it in another science course that I am doing.

Today, while doing a bit of home work for mom in addition to my own work, I stumbled across a man by the name of John Dalton.

Now if you look up John Dalton on any public, non Christian, you will probably not hear that he was a Quaker who strongly believed in the Bible. Most people skip over that part -forgetting why most scientists became scientists in the first place! -All to study the workings of GOD's creation.

He was born in Eaglesfield, North West England, on September sixth 1766 as a Quaker.

His family was very poor, but John was still able to attended a little village school. 

At ten (The year that the Declaration of Independence was being signed in America.) John was showing great advancement in arithmetic and easily solving problems.

At age twelve, John opened his own village school (Talk about over achiever!) and taught for two years.

While other kids enjoyed playing with kites or swimming, John enjoyed doing science experiments. His favorite thing to study was meteorology and he would often collect air samples to study. -I mean, try convincing a twelve year old boy to go out and collect a few air samples and this kid does it for fun! And then -if that wasn't fun enough-, he went home and would play around with a few homemade thermometers, barometers, and hygrometers. (Now that's fun right there!)

However his studies of air and water led to him making some very important discoveries of some scientific principles. 

His most famous discover was of the atomic theory of matter. For this discovery john was given a place in the Royal Society of England, the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, and the French Academy of Sciences.

And still, to this day, we still use his theory as a vital part of our modern chemistry.

So maybe playing around with air samples, graduating at age ten, and starting your own school at twelve isn't so bad. (Unless you're really smart and enjoy playing with thermometers and air samples, this is not recommend at home for twelve year old boys, -especially on their own.)

On July twentieth seventh 1844, John Dalton died in Manchester England, at the ripe old age of seventy seven. To this day, John Dalton, is honored with a statute in Manchester Town Hall.

Fall

Fall is here!

Fall is probably one of my favorite times of year.

Ranger's Apprentice book #1

I got a recommendation of this book from a friend but Jessica (being our family reader) was the first to actually read it.

All in all it took me over a year to actually get around to reading it, but once I did I was glad of it.

Ranger's Apprentice book one the Ruins of Gorlan is the story of a young orphan boy, Will, who's about fifteen or sixteen who gets chosen by a ranger to be his apprentice. (hence the title.)

The rangers are a group of fifty men who are trained in the are of artery and moving silently among other things. The Rangers are many avoided because of the roomers that they use black magic. So you can only imagine Will's response when he finds out that he's going to be a ranger.

Together, Will and his Master, Halt, end up going on a wild ride together after evil beasts, learn the power of a long bow, and ultimately, Will learns how to get along with his life long enemy Horace.

I really enjoyed all eleven books as well as John Flanagan's second series: the Brother Band.

The only problem that I had with the first few Ranger's Apprentice books was the language. There was frequent use of one word that was pretty bad, so I would recommend parents reading and marking out the words.

But I do recommend them for any one. I know a dad who has read them all three times.

I thought that the books were well written, funny, intense, sweet.

My favorite books are the 1st; Ranger's Apprentice, 2nd; the Burning Bridge, 7th; Erak's Ransom, and the 9th; Halt's Peril.

The Green Ring Conspiracy

I decided to do a few things other then science posts. So I thought that a few reviews and recipes would be fun.

The review that I'm going to day is from my radio drama series called Adventures in Odyssey.

The Green Ring Conspiracy (album 53) is a twelve part episode about a counterfeit ring. (A counterfeiting ring is called a Green Ring.)

It all starts with a mysterious plane crash in a field with all three passengers being badly injured.

Only a few minutes later, Emily Jones and Matthew Parker are walking through the woods and find a back-pack full of money; thousand and thousand of dollars.

When Emily takes the back-pack to Whit's End to tell Whit.

While she's there and before Emily could tell anyone, Whit get's a strange phone call from the doctor and has to leave suddenly.

While at the hospital, Whit discovers that one of the passengers on the plane was actually his grandson, Monty and that his grandson is actually a secret services agent there to investigate a counterfeiting ring.

The whole story is extremely exciting, funny, and truly intriguing.

It's truly one of my favorite stories, and I recommend it for listening together as a family.

Oceanography

 My siblings can tell you that I am obsessed with the metric system. I just really think that it works so much better then regular inches. My brothers and sisters can probably also think that I want to change the regular method.

Well here's a few samples of the uses for the metric system.

The Metric System is used by sentience because it can be either really big like to measure the distance of the sun or small enough to measure atoms.

Anyway, I think the MS works the best and is so cool.

Ocean Temperature

The ocean is really deep like 2'400 meters kind of deep (which is 7,874.0157 feet).

The ocean is divided up  into three sections. Surface is the top to about 200 meters (or 656.16798 feet.)

The next layer is Thermocline is from 200 meters to about 700 meters.

And the last layer is called the Deep Zone is 700 meters to the ocean floor 2400 -plus or minus.

The top of that water in a tropical water region could be 30 degrees Celsius (or 86 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Polar arias could be negative -2 degrees Celsius (or 28 degrees Fahrenheit.)

The top of the water in an averaged aria at the surface could be about 81 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius.). And at the deep zone and at the floor is about 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit or 2.5 Celsius.

The FLoating Instrument Platform (FLIP)

There are many interesting research vessels, and I encourage you to look them all up, but and interesting one, that I found to day, is called the FLIP.

The FLIP stands for FLoating Instrument Platform. (The L is the L in fLoating.)

The FLIP had no engines like the other research ships, but was towed to the sight where is was left for weeks -sometimes months, while it did its research.

It was 102 meters long (335 feet.), and was kept afloat in the water by a ballast* tank on the Stern (rear). The ballast tank was flooded, keeping the FLIP upright.

Then part of the ship containing things such as the living quarters, communication equipment, the laboratory, electrical generates, and scientific instruments, was some seventeen meters above the water (55 feet).

vertical position

With the FLIP in a vertical position, it proved to be a remarkably stable platform, even on choppy waters.

Career (US)
Name:	RP FLIP
Owner:	Office of Naval Research
Operator:	Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Builder:	Gunderson Brothers Engineering
Completed:	1962
Identification:	Call sign: WI7115 IMO number: 9180229 MMSI no.: 338040561
Status:	Operational
General characteristics
Tonnage:	700 GRT
Length:	108 m (354 ft)
Beam:	7.93 m (26.0 ft)
Draught:	3.83 m (12.6 ft) (towed) 100 m (330 ft) (deployed)
Speed:	7-10 knots (towed)
Capacity:	Fresh water 5.7 m3 (200 cu ft) Water generation 2.7 m3 (95 cu ft)/per day
Crew:	5 crew 11 researchers

 *ballast |ˈbaləst|

noun

1 heavy material, such as gravel, sand, iron, or lead, placed low in a vessel to improve its stability.

• a substance of this type carried in an airship or on a hot-air balloon to stabilize it, and jettisoned when greater altitude is required.• figurative something that gives stability or substance : the film is an entertaining comedy with some serious ideas thrown in for ballast.

2 gravel or coarse stone used to form the bed of a railroad track or road.

• a mixture of coarse and fine aggregate for making concrete.3 a passive component used in an electric circuit to moderate changes in current.

verb [ trans. ] (usu. be ballasted)

1 give stability to (a ship) by putting a heavy substance in its bilge :the vessel has been ballasted to give the necessary floating stability.2 form (the bed of a railroad line or road) with gravel or coarse stone.

PHRASES

in ballast (of a ship) laden only with ballast.ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: probably of Low German or Scandinavianorigin.

Pita, Pepper, and Pork Sandwich

Here's a recipe for a pita, pepper, pork sandwich.

Indigence

1. Two peppers
2. One onion
3. Already cooked pork
4. Three table spoons of olive oil
5. Four table spoons of butter
6. Two teaspoons of dried parsley
7. Two teaspoons of chili powder.
8. Ten pitas

Melt three table spoons of butter in a frying pan while you chop the peppers and onions.
Add chopped veggies to the butter and let then saute.

Add three table spoons of olive oil, one table spoon of butter, parsley, and chili powder to a frying pan to heat.
While the oil is heating, chop the pork; you need about two cups.

When you're done chopping, add the pork to the oil and let it brown and get nice and tender, to soak in the flavor.

When the pork is hot, crisp, and flavorful, (like above), then it is time to serve it.

You can either mix the two or serve them separate depending on the amount then you want in your pita.

Cut the pitas in half and then stuff with the the peppers, onions, and pork.

For a dressing there are a lot of different things that you could put on.

You can put on mustered and Mayans or miracle-whip or ranch dressing.
My dad liked Italian dressing.
And if you like, ovocido is good on there.

And here is your recipe for pepper and pork pitas.
Enjoy! Goce!

(That's Spanish for enjoy)

Happy Anniversary!!!

I just wanted to wish my mom and dad a very happy Anniversary!

They have now been married for twenty two years!

Y'all are the best parents I could ever have wished for.

Thank you for always being there for me; for giving me love and forgiveness any time I needed them (Which is quite a lot); for homeschooling us; and for never giving up on us even when we did crazy things like ride out bikes down the hill and into the stump to see how far we could shoot off.

Thank you and a very happy Anniversary dad and mom!

They would really like if it you commented on this post and congratulated them.

Thank you Dad and Mom!

Antifreeze Fish

antifreeze |ˈantiˌfrēz|
noun
a liquid, typically one based on ethylene glycol, which can be added to water to lower the freezing point, chiefly used in the radiator of a motor vehicle.This is the definition of antifreeze.

Antifreeze is a form of alcohol and is used in car ratdiators to prevent the water from freezing.

(Alcohol -just so you know- freezes at -202 degrees.

Water at 32 degrees and sea water at 28.5 degrees.)

Now you're probably wondering how a fish can be anti-freezable.
Well God created a bunch of fish that live in the Antarctica near the Ross Sea *(see the Ross Ice Shelf). They live in extra cold water.
One fish is called Dragonfish.
All these fish have a special protein in their blood that is a form of antifreeze that keeps their blood from freezing in such frigged water.
It's just another amazing thing that God did.

The Bible Bee reg.

Well, the Bible Bee on the 25th went really well!
I came in third for our group and Erin came in first.
It was a lot of fun and our judges were really sweet.

Bible-Bee Links

Here are some likes to what Erin and I have been using for the Bible-Bee.

Quizlet has been nice for testing.
See what you make on an eight hundred and ten question test.
Quizlet

Scripture Typer is great for memorizing any bible verse that you want.

Now I do recommend these not just for the Bible-Bee but also for and Bible study or Scripture memory that you want.

And here is the link to the Bible-Bee web sight.

Doing the Bible-Bee has been one of the hardest most rewarding things that I've ever done.
I know, -you're probably thinking 'Why's she giving advice to a Bee that she hasn't completed yet?' Well, that answer is easy enough, no matter if I'm one of the top one hundred kids in the nation or not, I've done what most people have never even herd of and at the same time doing things of eternal value.
Though, when Jess told me what I just told you, I pointed out that I felt like I was going to be eternally exhausted.

But I think that if you compete and make it to nationals or not, you've laid up treasures in heaven and done an awesome thing, and personally I think that everyone should do it.

Just a little encouragement, and I'm going to go memorize the last of my 25 passages.

Sorry

Sorry about the little mix up.
It was in fact dad's birthday and not Sarah's. But she's great too, and her birthday's in January.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

 Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Happy 4th of July

The fourth is a great time to remember what the patriots of our country died for and what they new that they were getting for them selves and for us years to come.

Happy Fourth!!!

The Challenger Deep

The ocean floor is just like the dry land only covered with water. There are valleys, mountains, plains and deep trenches.
The deepest point known in the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located in the Marianas Trench in the South Pacifistic Ocean near Guam. (Which is over by China, Australia and Japan. It's a small island.)
The Challenger is 10,911 meters below the surface of the ocean floor. -Not the top of the water. (That's about 35,797.244 feet and that would equal almost 7 miles.)
If you put mount Everest in the Challengver, Everest would be covered by 2 kiolmeters of water. (That's over a mile of water.)
Well, that's about 11 kelometers of water all pressing down at about 1145 tons per square foot.
The first exploration of the Challenger was in January of 1960 by the crew of a sub called the Trieste. They went way down, down to the bottom of the ocean floor. It was pitch black and cold. But in the head lights of the Trieste they saw something go past. Looking closer it turned out to be a flat fish about a foot long. It just proves that GOD made every bit of the earth to be inhabited by living creatures, not excluding the deepest, coldest point in the ocean.

The Pero Currnet

You just thought that the Gulf Stream was big. Well, the Peru Current is several times larger the the Gulf Stream.
The Peru Current is not as fast and not as warm as the Gulf Stream but is 900 meters (560 miles.) wide.
And where the Gulf Stream warms up the colder arias, the Peru Current cools down the coast of south America.
It just goes to show you how much GOD really did plan all this out.

The Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is really big and is about 80 kilometers (or 50 miles.) wide and 1000 meters (or 3,048 feet.) deep.
It starts in Florida and heads along the coast of North America for a while before heading on to Europe. After reaching Europe, the Gulf Stream branches out and heads to the Arctic Ocean and Africa.
The Gulf Stream is also responsible for the mild weather in Great Britten.

Fun On the Swings

Michael, the king of bossing people around.

A common saying in our house: "Oh! Isn't her so adorable!"

Surface Currents

Surface Currents are moved by winds and can be several hundred feet deep.
They move in circular patterns called gyres.

(Jir.- the "i" has a little line "-" over it instead of a dot.)

In the northern Hemisphere the gyres move clockwise and in the southern Hemisphere, they move counter- clockwise.

Ocean Currents

The ocean currents are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon.
There are three types of currents:
              Ocean Currents
              Waves
      And tides.

Most currents flow under the surface of the water and you can tell them apart from the water that they're going through because of temperature and salinity. 

(Sa-lin-i-ty, is a measure of the quantity of dissolved salts and other solids in a mixture such as sea water.) -From the science dictionary.

Icebergs

     First off, we need to get the difference between icebergs and ice-chunks.
     Ice-chunks are frozen water.
     Icebergs are frozen snow that builds up after a long time with out melting.
     After a while gravity causes the frozen snow to slowly flow down the side of the iceberg at a grand speed of a few inches a day.
     When the snow finally gets down into the water, it forms an ice-shelf. This ice-shelf is spread-out under the surface of the water. The biggest ice shelf was the size of Texas. This one was called the Ross ice-shelf.
     Some icebergs are really big and a few where actually mistaken for islands. Well, the part of icebergs that we see is only about 10% of the actually iceberg and the other 90% is the part that we have to worry about. Sometimes the bottom of an iceberg can reach 800 meters or 2,620 feet. (This is down in the thermocline leval.)

Heated Water

Water takes longer to heat up then land, but water holds the heat longer then land does.

The Ocean

The Oceans takes up 7 10ths of the earth. But the ocean is actually only 96.5% water. The other 3.5% is 2.75% Sodom chloride and 0.78% other things.
  The ocean contains 360 quintillions gallons of water. (And just so you know; a quintillion is a billion billions which is 6 sets of 3 zeros or18 zeros.
  Gallons of water int the ocean:
               1,000,000,000,000,000,000, times 360. That's a lot of water.
   One cubic mile of ocean water contains:

           4.5 billion tons of water

           128 million tons of Sodium Chloride (table salt)

           18 million tons of magnesium chloride

           8 million tons of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)

           6 million tons of calcium sulfate

           4.2 million tons of potassium chloride

           470,000 tons of calcium carbonate

           47,000 tons of rubidium

           1,400 fluorine

           1,400 tons of nitrogen

           470 tons of zinc

           380 tons of phosphorous

           380 tons of arsenic

           94 tons of iodine

Any way that's a lot of things in one cubic mile of ocean.

The Metric System

Why do we have the Metric System?

'cause it's just so Cool!!!

The Metric System is used by scientists because it can go from beyond huge to the size of an atom of even smaller.

   We have different words to measure different things such as: Volume is called a Liter or in abbreviations (L.)
Mass is measured in Grams or (g.) And last of all; length is measured in meters or (M)
 
Here's what a part of the Metric System looks like.

              Pico one trillionth (or one tenth to the 12th power.)

              nanomicro one billionth (or one tenth to the 9th power.)

              milli one millionth (or  one tenth to the 6th power.)

              centi one hundreth (or one tenth to the 3rd power.)

              deci one tenth (or one tenth to the 1st power.)

              _____ one

              deka ten (10)

              hecto hundred (10 to the 2nd power.)

              kilo thousand (10 to the 3rd power.)

              mega million (10 to the 6th power.)

              giga billion (10 to the 9th power.)

              tera trillion (10 to the 12th power.)

(These are all Latin words & 10 to the 2nd or 12th power means that you add how many ever zeros. So ten to the 3rd power is 10,000 
  And there is the Metric System.

Rain Droplets

I thought that I would do some cool facts for a while & so here's your cool fact of the day.

       Cloud and Rain Droplets; (There are four different sizes of droplets.)

                 Rain Droplets -(Diameter) 2mm

                 Drizzle droplets -(Diameter) 0.3mm

                 Giant Cloud droplets-(Diameter) 0.1mm

                 Cloud droplets-(Diameter) 0.02mm

Just so that you know, mm stands for Milli Meter and is one one thousandth of an inch.
         (mm is part of the Metric System. I'll do a post on it pretty soon.)

Eden's Give-Away

http://edensevaluations.blogspot.com/

Try getting some free gum off of Eden's Evaluations.

Michael, 4 Years Today

 Michael was the biggest blessing that GOD ever gave us and a big surprise too.

 We weren't expecting to have more kids and were defiantly surprised that it was a little boy.

 We were also quite surprised to find out how much energy he has. 

 In one meal he can neatly polish off a grand serving of three to four peanut and butter and jelly sandwiches as well as some fruit and desert if we have it.

 GOD knew that we needed another little kid, plus he also bless mommy with the four years of rest betwean Sarah.
  I guess he knew that mommy would need to build up energy to keep up with him

Behold, children are a blessing from the LORD.