Home School Blog: #1

I am so extremely pleased to announce that we have decided to home school!!! Most of you know that this is something that has been on my heart for sometime now. Their are a lot of things I love about my kids being a part of their community in public schools, which is partially why taking the plunge took me so long. The first day of school this year was really confirmation that it was not what I wanted for our family though.

I know that one of the great debates in the Christian community for reasons not to Home school is segregating ourselves somewhat and not letting our children live in and experience the world as they are surly going to end up having to do one day anyway. I totally respect and understand that point of view. My reasons for wanting to home school have very little to almost nothing to do with me wanting to protect and shelter them from the things public school and the world will expose them to. I myself think it is very important for them to have that experience out from under the protection of Mama, out in the world.

The bottom line for me is I really want to be the one to teach, grow and nurture my little ones on a full time basis. I felt robbed when Drew started 1st grade and was gone SO many hours a week. Now that Lilly is in school too I feel totally freaked out by the fact that its not too far off and all three of them will be gone almost 7 hours a day. I know in my heart that that is not how I want things to be for us. God has unleashed the teacher in me over the last couple of years. 3 years ago I would have laughed at the possibility of being a homeschooling Mom... I never felt I had even a remote ability to teach. But God is amazing!!! He has taken me through teaching ladies how to stamp, to teaching Sunday School, then preschool and now He has called me to teach my own kids.

I am so extremely excited to began this journey and so thankful that I have some great homeschooling Moms to lean on. I will need to use all the patience I can drum up to wait until next year as we feel we have to finish out the commitment we have already made by putting them in public school this year. But that gives me lots of time to research and get prepared for the journey that lay ahead.

Great song and one of my prayers...

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Pictures that speak a thousand words

The kind and attentive hearts to an anxious little girl...
Innocent friendship... I can't help but imagine these girls 10 years in the future.
Just one of the boys...
Maybe you had to be there...

A hunger for His Word

I have often envied people that seem to love studying God's Word. I confess I had never really felt that kind of love for it. When I first became a believer I was very intrigued and wanted to soak up everything I could about being a believer, including reading the Word. But I can't say I had a true love or hunger for it. Over the last few months God has really grown that hunger in me. It started back when I posted THIS and has developed since then. I can't wait to go deeper or get more from my study time. Some scales have been lifted from my eyes to help me to see God's Word in a whole new light. The resources for more in depth study have not been at my disposal which has been frustrating me. You can only get so far with the free online resources. So Clint and I have decided to purchase some Logos Software. I am just SO FREAKING EXCITED to get it!!! I even paid extra for the faster shipping.

So here's to becoming a true Bible thumper, and loving every minute of it.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

Psalms 19:9-10

Tis' the season...

to be anything but jolly! In my house this season looks and sounds more like running noses, barking coughs, and fevers. Gus woke up this morning with that nasty barking cough and I had to once again cancel my fun plans. Boo hoo for me and Gus. Today we'll be staying at home close to the humidifier and taking hot steaming showers.

Retreat

The retreat was...

fun

exhausting

edifying

encouraging

convicting

a great time to connect

At retreat my kids...

ran like wild animals in the rain

slept good

stayed up late

got really dirty

made new friends

enjoyed old ones

played four square until 11pm (drew)

At retreat I...

Enjoyed getting to know knew people

had a blast hanging out w/ good friends

slept on a bed that felt like plywood

played games

shed some tears

was moved by the testimonies

took tons of pictures

sought out the advise and encouragement of others

felt cared for

I left retreat feeling...

blessed to be part of such an amazing church
thankful for the vision that was shared

hopeful to see the body of Christ at Grace grow in deeper community

tired and in need a a good night sleep in my own bed

FLASHBACK with some looking forward

LBC BABY!!!

I always loving going to Lakeside for our Church retreat. It is something I look forward to every year. What is also very exciting is how much my girls look forward to going. Every day this week Drew has woken up and said 4 more days until we go camping with the church, 3 more days...2 more days...1 more day...TODAY WE GO!!! Lilly also this morning was asking if today was the day and when I told her is was she had a look of absolute joy on her face. It warms my heart that my girls cherish this time of fun and fellowship with the body as much as I do.

Looking forward to another great weekend at LBC...only wish my bunk mates the Osborns were going to be there with us.

"Blognal" from the bed

COPYRIGHT: term "blognal" is from the creative and oh so clever mind of miss Heather Osborn. I hope she doesn't mind me using it...

This is so exciting! Clint and I finally entered the world of wireless Internet. We've had this lap top collecting dust for sometime now. The benefits are obvious...I'm blogging from the comfort of my own bed! I've already been up and out of bed and even left the house this morning, but I was so darn excited to be able to blog from anywhere in my house that I decided to hop back in bed and bask in the moment! Yay me! Even more exciting, the kids haven't discovered where I am yet, so I am enjoying the time to be alone w/ my thoughts. Which are many right now. My heart is full this morning with lots of things. I had the blessing of spending some fun, encouraging, and enlightening time with Linda last night. I felt very blessed to gain from her wisdom. She has an amazing heart for the Lord and I think is often misunderstood. I know I myself have misunderstood her at times. My heart is feeling very thankful for her and the glimpse I had into her heart. Iron sharpening Iron...so vital!

Well, I'm certain I could go on and on but, I guess I better get back to the kids and the list of chores...

Feeling word: Peaceful

Love,
Me

How do you eat your ramen noodles?

The Moon

Did any of you happen to check out the moon this evening? It was very cool... low, big, bright! The girls and I enjoyed looking at it. It went a little something like this...

Mom: Hey, girls look at the moon!

Drew: Wow, that's cool! Look how big it is!

Lilly: I can see it! I can see it! It's a full moon!

Then their was a bunch of chatter between the girls I missed. then...

Drew: No Lilly. Their is only one moon

Lilly: We have two moons. We have two moons

Drew: Their is other moons Lilly but we only have one.

Lilly: No! We have two!

Drew: MOOOOM! Will you please tell Lilly we only have one moon.

Mom: Yes Lilly. We only have one moon. Other planets have moons, some even have more than one. But we only have one moon.

Lilly: But we have a half moon too!

That girl just makes me smile!

Can't believe it's been six years

In six years we’ve...

Grown in Christ together
Scrapped till our hearts were content
Had baby boys together
Mothered each other's children
Traded pillows
Done Bible studies together
Praised and worshiped our King together
Stayed up all night
Shared in our struggles
And in our hopes
Confessed our sins
Prayed with each other
And for each other
Taken the stage together

made others laugh together

Drank countless cokes

Cleaned up hundreds of flies
Held one another accountable
Served together

And even sinned together
Acted like little girls
Traveled together
Danced in the rain
Shared many secrets
Cleaned each other’s houses
Prayed for each other’s Husband
Counseled each other
Had merlot in Verlot
Spent too much money together
Ate at the world’s largest Mc Donald’s
Binged on candy
Shopped until we’ve dropped
Reviewed, edited, or approved each other’s emails
Laughed until we’ve cried
Cried until we’ve laughed
Shared our burdens
And our blessings
Encouraged and supported each other
And so much more!

Happy Anniversary Soul Sista!

On my mind

I have to say how glad I am to be back online. Our cord went bad and we've been with out the Internet since Thursday evening. I've had plenty to do though.


Lilly is finally feeling better after 5 days with a fever. Poor thing was miserable. But she's back to herself and looks cuter then ever with her new hair cut.

I've been purging through my girls clothes and doing the laundry...12 loads to be exact!!! This picture is just my sock pile! That's why I'm purging! My girls have enough clothes for about 4 little girls and that makes for WAY too much laundry.

This week I am working on picking the Christmas program for the children. I am having a really hard time doing it because so many of the plays are cheesy. But the kids want something fun so I'm trying to find the right balance. I would love to just do the story of Jesus' birth and nothing else, but I know some of the girls are hoping for a comedy. Any thoughts on how I can make the Birth of Christ a comedy? I did find one dusty old play from before I was born in Berta's office that has some potential. Its a little Hell, Fire and Brimstone in the message but I think can work with it...maybe?

My stack of books to read is growing. So much to read and so little time. Right now I'm reading Hearing God by Dallas Willard. Its a little over my head but I'm working on it. I also have Stronger than you think and having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. Not to mention any of the Lori Wick and Francine Rivers books in my stack. I'm also trying to finish up my study of Ephesians so I can start my study of Proverbs 31. I am really excited about that but already have my next study in mind after that. The curse. I really want to study on that cause so many christian self help books talk about the curse and how it affects this, that and the other thing. I just want to see for myself what the curse really means for us today and how it affects us in our everyday lives.(Clint and I really need to buy a good commentary)

Sorry for flipping from one subject to another...just got a lot on my mind :)

Praying for the families who lost a loved one

isshoes...
It was time for Gus to move up to a new size of shoe. He however, was not very happy about it. First of all its all I can do to get him to wear shoes rather than boots most days but if I do succeed, these green shoes that are getting to small are the shoes of choice. I kept bringing the blue ones out and getting all excited about them. Then I'd try to put them on his feet and he'd grab them and throw them saying "no shoes!" I even resorted to using the other kids to act like they were going to take the shoes and wear them to make him want them. That didn't work either. So this weekend I explained the situation to Clint. he took that matter into his own hands and forced those shoes onto Gus' feet. He didn't like it one but but Clint didn't care. This was one battle that the 2 year old was not going to win. I of course was pleading with Clint. "honey, the shoe still fit him a little, we could wait a while..."blah, blah, blah you get the picture. He said if he didn't get this taken care of I was gonna have to fight with Gus about it later so just let him deal with it. So true, so true. So my little boy with his broken will sat in his room crying for fifteen minutes saying "shoes, shoes". Once I saw him come to his door I went over to comfort him. Thankfully he didn't ask me for his green shoe cause that would have been really hard for me. He just asked me to pick him up and get him a blanky from his crib. From that day forward we have successfully been wearing our new blue shoes (or boots). Thanks Hubby!

and if that wasn't enough isshoes for one house hold...

Our sweet little Lilly has a HUGE obsession with shoes. Just take a look at the picture and you'll see. Once in a while we let the girls spend a little fun money out of their banks and Lilly always picks shoes. GRRRRRRRR it was I say every time cause we don't have enough room for the ones she already has. Since everyone knows how much she loves shoes, she often gets them as gifts too. Fortunately since this picture was taken a couple months ago I have been able to pair down (no pun intended) some of her shoes and they are much more manageable now.

Here's my brainy breakfast of choice.

Per Dr. Sears recommendation kids should have a brainy breakfast before they head off to school in the morning. Brainy breakfast is whole grains, fresh fruit or proteins. The choices for my girls are whole grain pancakes with fruit, eggs, whole grain english muffin/toast or oatmeal. Drew has been making herself one of these every morning before school. She toasts her muffin, scrambles her egg (in a round bowl so it takes the shape of the muffin) in the microwave and tops with a slice of cheese and canadian bacon. Probably a little high in cholesterol but a good source of whole grains, fiber (double fiber eng. muf.) and protein to start the day off right.

A style of his own.

I picked out Gus' shirt and shorts today but he gets all the credit for the hat and boots. That boy loves his rubber boots! This hat (that is to big for him) is his latest style accessory of choice. Don't ya just love little boys!?!

A splash of color.

Before...

After...

Thank you Heather for sharing your super cute fabric with me!

Missing you Monday

I sure do miss doing this. Hoping and praying they're all enjoying their schools this year

My Man

He’s sweet and kind, caring and gentle. He’s strong and sensitive, playful and patient. He provides and protects, supports and sacrifices. He can sweep me off my feet and twirl me on the dance floor. He can fix almost anything and find almost anywhere. He paints the girls finger nails and maintains the yard. He wrestles with our kids and mops our floors. He dedicates me sweet songs and tells me that I’m beautiful. He eats everything I cook him and occasionally cleans the kitchen. He doesn’t know how to cook, but he tries. He hates rearranging the furniture, but he will. He doesn’t like to snuggle, but he does. He picks me up when I’m feeling blue and slows me down when I don’t know when to stop. He’s my encourager, my helper and my handsome prince. He’s my sexy lumberjack, my faithful companion and my forever friend. He is the man God made for me!

Happy Birthday Honey, I love you forever and ever and ever and ever.
Love Babycakes

OOPS!

I am sure you notice that my blog looks a little different. You may even notice that this is the first post. Long story short I meant to delete another blog and didn't realize until it was too late that I was deleting this blog. OOPS! I was so extremely disappointed. The blog in it self I was not so much worried about as it is easy to start a new one. The content however, that I lost was TOTALLY FREAKING ME OUT! I posted some very special things and was sickened that they were gone forever. So I send out the BIGGEST THANK YOU to Kyle for finding all my content on WWW for me. What a relief it was to see some of my most important posts again.

KYLE, YOU ROCK!!!!

They don't call him "boss man bing" for nothin'