Or We Could Just Call It "Forty-Nine"

Here on the 7th day of the month, it seems like a good time to share seven sevens: seven lists of seven things.  Why?  Just because.  :)

Seven Christmas CDs I've Been Enjoying:
1. Home for Christmas - Barlow Girls
2. Peace on Earth - Casting Crowns
3. It's a Wonderful Christmas - Michael W. Smith
4. A Christmas to Remember - Amy Grant
5. Noel - Josh Groban
6. Rose of Bethlehem - Selah
7. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir (of course, I had to include a CD by this outstanding group!)  ;-)

Seven Things I Wouldn't Want to Homeschool Without:
1. The Little Man in the Map - E. Andrew Martonyi - (the best way to teach U.S. geography!  in fact, thanks to this book, I now know where all the states are - yippee!)  ;-)
2. YouTube - (whether we're studying about murmuration or learning The Orange Blossom Special, YouTube is guaranteed to have something to help)
3. Google - (all I can say is HOW DID WE EVER educate our children/get educated ourselves/learn anything/survive without Google?)  ;-)
4. Starfall.com - (Jeff discovered this site when Josiah was a toddler; I vividly remember holding Josiah on my lap in our apartment in Israel and pressing on each letter of the alphabet while he watched...each of our children has benefited from--and LOVED--Starfall!)
5. Life of Fred math books - (by far, the best way to teach math that I've ever seen)
6. Sonlight Instructor's Guides - (they make it E-A-S-Y to be a homeschooler!)
7. The Well-Planned Day planner - (I've been using them for three or four years, and have discovered that for me, they are so much more than just a planner...they become a scrapbook of accomplishments and activities throughout the year...plus, they are so pretty!)  :)

Seven Achingly Gorgeous Pieces of Music:
1. Gabriel's Oboe - Ennio Morricone
2. Ashokan Farewell - Jay Ungar
3. Au bord d'une source - Franz Liszt (I played this in my senior recital in college, by the way.)  :)
4. Piano Sonata No. 8 (Sonata Pathetique), 2nd Movement - Beethoven (I think I played this during the wedding reception for my brother David.)
5. Gavotte - Rameau
6. Theme from Schindler's List - John Williams
7. Ave Maria - Franz Biebl (especially as sung by Chanticleer)

Seven Favorite Passages from Isaiah:
1. 6:1-8 - (I've loved this passage ever since I was a young girl; in fact, my first--and all-time--favorite Bible verse is verse 8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I.  Send me!'")
2. 8:11-18 - ("...do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it...")
3. 26:8-12 - ("...your name and renown are the desire of our hearts...")
4. 33:2 - ("...we long for you.  Be our strength every morning...")
5. 43:4 - ("...because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you...")
6. 46:3-4 - ("Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he...")
7. 51:1 - ("Look to the rock from which you were cut...")

Seven New Recipes I Want to Make:
1. Fruit Salsa
2. Creamy Sausage Stew
3. Ten O'Clock Rolls
4. Loaded Baked Potato Salad
5. Black Bean Brownies
6. Venison Hash
7. Triple Chip Brown Butter Cookies

Seven Books I Want to Read in the New Year:
1. Prayer - Philip Yancey
2. Radical - David Platt
3. Keeping House - Margaret Kim Peterson
4. Anne of Green Gables (the whole series) - L. M. Montgomery
5. a travel book by Mark Twain, maybe Roughing It or A Tramp Abroad
6. Bringing Up Boys (and possibly Bringing Up Girls, although I don't have that book yet) - James Dobson
7. Our Jerusalem - Bertha Spafford Vester

Seven Goals for the New Year:
1. Do at least one major beyond-myself outreach.
2. Clean the whole kitchen, including all the cabinets. (We are blessed with A LOT of cabinets, so this is not exactly a quick project.)
3. Get my weight down to 139 pounds.  (Which on some days makes me think, "Yeah, I could do that," on other days makes me sigh, "That's impossible," and on still other days makes me question, "Why would I want to do that?  I'm doing just fine at 153 pounds, thankyouverymuch.  I think I'll go have a bowl of ice cream.")  ;-)
4. Make this the year I conquer the Dirty Dishes Monster.  Too many nights I go to bed with some dirty dishes still on the counter.  Could this be the year I solidly develop the habit of doing them all every night?
5. Plant strawberries, raspberries, and some fruit trees.
6. Go camping a lot as a family.
7. Keep dealing with paper clutter, especially the old sentimental papers that I have to figure out something to do with.

This concludes my seven sevens.  Or in other words, my forty-nine.

I believe it's time for Jubilee.  :)