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This weekend our Worship Team is at a retreat in Cannon Beach – a Vineyard Worship Retreat.  I am so excited for them.  Also this week – I received ‘I Love Your Presence’ to review.  I kept it on my two iPods and laptop, and listened as I had time.  Today, I had a block of alone time, so I just turned it up and let it rip as I quietly went through my tasks in my home.  Compared to the last album, ‘Furious’ this one has a completely different flavor.  Slower. Quieter. I might call it a Lingering.  There are more female led songs – which I enjoyed, sometimes the octaves following the boys is hard for me. This gathering of worship songs seemed so personal.  I think it is why it was easier to listen to when I was alone. I could picture these songs on a Wednesday  night – one after the other – for over an hour, as we indulge our selves by stopping our pace, seeking his faith – being thankful to the King.  I highly recommend it!

I was given a copy of this to give away  – and I am taking a departure from the contest – and in honor of the retreat this week – I am gifting it to a member of our Vineyard Worship Team.

About ‘I Love Your Presence’:

LOVE OF GOD was recorded live at the Burn Bright: Worship and The Kingdom Of God conference, hosted by Vineyard Worship. Several hundred worship leaders and worshippers gathered in the Arizona desert to explore the nature of God’s kingdom through music and teaching with some of the Vineyard’s most gifted communicators and musicians. This inspiring collection of songs recorded live at the The Vineyard Church North Phoenix will immerse listeners in the powerful worship that was the highlight of the event. LOVE OF GOD reminds us to not just think of worship as singing songs, but also laying down our lives for Him. 

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I  only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255:”Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

We are studying John Singer Sargent, the Painter and Aaron Copland, the Composer as part of our Modern Art studies with Harmony Fine Arts Grade 8. I printed the Composer Notes for Copland from the A Young Scholars Guide to the Composer, and the notebooking pages from HFA Gr 8, and set Nathan to exploring about Copland’s life, while we listened to his music on You Tube. 

We watched the most fascinating video on John Sargent – a video slide show of his pictures.  Nathan was excited and said he really liked his work.  I liked how he seems to play with shadows and light.  He might have had a subject in a corner of a garden, and light would be shining some place else, – without shafts of light – but just – well hard to explain.  I really love the girls in his photographs. I could picture myself in his time, out doors with my pals, in canoes and by the lake, lounging for a painting with the children around. One in particular of the mom/friend holding a young boy’s hand as he stood behind a couch. I could picture Jon drumming on the couch and me holding him down. I really felt like I could have been IN any of his scenes. 

We went out to our newly arranged craft area to work on our pastel projects.  Brights on dark paper. 

Ya.  I really like art time. . . . We turned on Pandora and put in Sargent as a composer channel, then kept track of when which songs we listened to. I REALLY like his music. Maybe because I played Trumpet and French Horn in school. I recognized many songs through band.  Great theme music.  The boys recognized quite  few pieces.

We moved on to playing with skin colors, and faces – and I wish I had taken before photos . . .

Nate said his face looked like a balloon so he just changed it. . . . .

I adored their faces, then stopped to take a photo of the other drawings while they finished – when it happened. . . . .

Zombie Attack . . . Sigh. 

I think I’ll start taping up their drawings to the curtain in front of us. . . .

I’ll put up a link to the Composers study when it goes live – until then – Keep Studying the Composers! – Here’s Last Week’s Linkup!

The key – is combining the recipe from Confessions of a Homeschooler with the technique from Pioneer Woman.

The sauce from Confessions of a Homeschooler has ingredients that should already be in your cupboard. Making the beef in small single layer batches is the key.  It sounds awful, but you sort of fry it like bacon strips. . . .  in 2-3 batches.  Oh. But it’s just yummy beyond belief. . . . . . You know it’s good when your son hands you the camera and laptop as you sit down to dinner and says – you’re going to want to share this one mom.  We picked up a bag of peppers and onions at the grocery store for a whopping .99 each, so we added some sautéed to the side for more yummyness. Enjoy.