Saturated

At the homeschool conference last week I found a company that was filled with delightful resources. I went back to this table many times. The company name is Doorposts. It is run by a homeschooling family. I purchased two things from them. One is the If-Then chart. It has a behavior, then a verse on why that behavior is wrong, then a space to write in the consequences for that behavior. We also purchased the book For Instruction in Righteousness this amazing tool has a ton of different behaviors, Bible verses on why the behavior is wrong, consequences from the Bible for said behavior, Bible stories of people who had problems with this behavior, and what we can receive when we overcome this behavior. Hubby and I are still reading through it, but its an awesome book.
We are trying to center our lives around the Bible a lot more right now. We want our home saturated with God's word. I am going to order the Bible curriculum from Veritas Press Genesis through Joshua. I have not had a Bible curriculum in the past for Karly and Kelsie, but one of our goals of homeschooling, which we are really hammering out right now, is for our children to know the Bible inside and out, through and through. Yes, Bible will be a part of our everyday life, but this curriculum will get down into the Word and take them deeper. After researching a TON of Bible curriculums this is what I came to. They all had pros and cons. I picked this one because it can relate back to history. I want the children to understand that Biblical happenings and historical happenings were going on at the same time. I want them to be able to grasp the significance of history and the Bible. Not revisionist history that talks of all our forefathers being atheists and what not but real true tangible history. Especially right now as we study the ancient history which paralleled so much of the Bible.
I will be going through Leading Little Ones To God with Adrian and Tamara.
We are starting a Bible memory incentive in our home. The older children will work to memorize and discuss the meaning of 3-5 Bible verses a week, the youngers will hide in their hearts 1-2 Bible verses a week. I will try to give more details of this as we iron it out.
During preschool time I will read at least one Bible story book.
Copywork for Kelsie and Karly is going to include scripture passages which they will also work to memorize.
I want my home saturated with Gods word. God's promises. God's love.
There are so many other changes we are in the process of making. One day at a time. We slip and fall back into old luke warm habits every now and then, but God knows we are striving. Our kids know we are striving for a more God-like home. Kids can be very forgiving when they know you are doing your best and trying to live out God's word. I'm amazed at the amount of grace my kids give me every day.

Be Blessed

Tomorrow

I have some vacation pics downloaded, but Im too tired to do anything with them. I will work on getting them posted tomorrow.

Night - Night

Be Blessed!

Vacation Pics

Here are some of our vacation pictures from Orlando. We went and stayed at a time-share condo my mom has. We spent most of the week in the pool. On Friday we played putt-putt and went to Wonderworks. On Saturday we spent the day at Downtown Disney. We visited the lego store and a huge toy store. Here is Jonathan looking through the brouchures to see what he wants to do first.

The kids playing with my brother. He was attacking them with the fun noodle.
Pool fun. My mom bought these bathing suits for Kelsie, Tamara, Adrian, and Jonathan. They have the floats inside. Walmart had them on sale for $9.99. I really liked the fact they were flourescent.

These are all our putt-putt pictures. The resort offered free putt-putt for the owners. The kids had a lot of fun. Of course Tamara and Adrian were more enthusiastic about the dinsaurs then the actual putt-putt. Also Adrian thought we were playing hockey as he shuffled his ball down the green with his putter.

These were some of the pictures from Wonderworks. They had some cool bubble machines they kids played with for a long time. The air hockey table above is used with some kind of shadow puck. You use your hand to move it around. It was neat. I did not get alot of pictures here because my camara died. :(
The last supper. We were getting ready to leave so they had chips and sandwhiches.

Bye-Bye

See you in a week........

Bye-Bye

Inspiring Blogs 2

I forgot to do my next inspiring blog post. Here it is:

The Cottage on the Hill: Mrs. Kate shares about her everyday challenges and triumphs. Her blog is charming. She has a little boy around the same age as my little guy so its fun to see what he is accomplishing. She makes beautiful creations and has lots of great ideas. I have "known" her for a long time through our Beautiful Womanhood message board and she is a true gem.

Pleasant View Schoolhouse: Mrs. Anna was probably one of the first blogs I ever latched onto. She is an adoptive mother herself. She was a wonderful help through some of my adoption and fostercare woes and I am ever so greatful. She has a nice, homey blog. Always inspiring me with new ideas. Her tone is gentle and fun.

Bethgem: Mrs. Beth has two beautiful children. She is a great inspiration as a mother. I love to read about her day to day parenting. She is also very creative and has some great ideas to share.

Michigan Momma: My kindred spirit. When Mrs. Lori posts I always find myself nodding along. We have children around the same ages. We have a lot of the same struggles and difficulties. Shes a great example (in my book) of a wife and mother growing in the Lord. I love learning from her.

Pearls: There are not enough adjectives to describe how much I adore Mrs. Janel and her blog. When I wrote my last entry on "my little prince" I was hoping that she would reply with her wisdom. She did in a personal email to me, full of wisdom. I found her blog through our Beautiful Womanhood message board. I started commenting on her blog because of a contest. She has visited mine a few times. Her words of wisdom are sustaining. I think she is someone I want to be like when I "grow" up. :) She caught my attention further as she has a passion for women's ministry. I emailed her asking for pointers in starting my women's ministry and she immediatly emailed back with some great ideas and advice. If you view nothing else at her blog check out her "Five Fat Files" post. So encouraging.

Well ladies there you have it. Five more gems. They are priceless in my collection. I learn something from each of them all the time.

Be Blessed!

Calling Veteran Moms!

Ok I need some veteran mom advice here. What do I do with a four year old boy who thinks the world revolves around him and him alone. Im really loosing my cool over this one. Im sure its perfectly natural and all, but there are 6 other people in this house. So natural as it may be it needs to be taken care of. Any suggestions?

Mind Numbing

So before I stumble blindly to bed, because you see, I am absolutly exhausted. Such is the reason Im putting commas where none should be... *Sigh* I must say that all I want are some number matching worksheets, PLEASE!! Why should they be impossible to find????




Be Blessed!

New Plans

I remember when I started homeschooling how I always read that you never stop changing your home school. LOL. Could someone have told me that I would learn new things to implement ALL THE. TIME. Really? I don't have time for all of this.
Our history and science is not working out. The kids are staring blankly at me - A lot. So we have to revamp.
Right now we are using Story of the World: Volume 1 Ancient Times and Mystery of History: Creation to the Resurrection. Here is my thought process as of right now (subject to change at a moments notice)
I am looking into getting the audio CDs for SOTW and listening to them throughout the day and in the car.
We will use Biblioplan Ancient History for the bulk of our History.
For a more hands on approach we will use the SOTW activity guide along with History Pockets and some other hands on books I found.
It sounds like a lot for History and I might find its too much, but this is what I want to do right now.
For Science we have been using Christian Kids Explore Biology. The kids don't like it. We will be purchasing Biology 101: Biology According to The Days of Creation DVD set. This is actually a high school series, but I have read some good reviews for it saying the whole family could enjoy it. I'm also going to use Science Through Children's Literature and Living Learning Books.

I'm pretty excited about these discoveries. If they don't work out I will sell them next year and try again.
I have some other changes as well and I will be more than happy to share them as I get them all worked out. I think this is my favorite part about homeschooling. I get to decide what my kids learn.

Be Blessed

Preschool for free

When Being A Mom is Hard

One of my children has been having a lot of trouble finishing her schoolwork. The deal was when dance started if she was not caught up with schoolwork she would not dance. She missed one dance class in June. The first one. She made the rest by the skin of her teethe, literally, just to repeat the process again the next week. I was tired of the fighting and the arguing. So, when this week rolled around as a "Star" week, with nothing planned, I told her if her school work was not all caught up by 3pm Friday she would not dance the rest of the year.
Today at 3:05pm, I had to take away dance class from my little girl. I had to do this so she would learn self discipline and responsibility. She made some really bad choices this week, that resulted in her not being even half way done with her schoolwork that she was behind in. The hardest thing was sitting back and letting her make those choices. I knew how it would end. I tried to discuss the options with her, but her mind was made up. She choose a few hours of playing (actually just wondering around the house being bored) to working on school work. There were a few other choices she made also along those lines, but you get the picture.
I dont have a lot of compassion. I really stink at kissing boo-boos and understanding why thunder scares. But I felt such empathy for my baby today as I took away those dance classes. I know it has to be done, but Lord, its hard.

Awesome God

Dont you think God loves us very much to give us this beautiful creature?

Delightful Stories Part 2

I truly struggled with the title. While I want to continue these stories, that by the way hubby finds wildly amusing, and stick with the theme of delightful stories, the rest of the Paul story does not end delightfully.

However my memories of Paul are still delightful, so I will continue the theme.

I forgot to mention our 8th grade formal. Let me touch on that briefly before moving into the Paul years part two. He wore a suit and tie, I wore a flowery dress. He never left my side. He got me drinks and snacks all evening. Were we together on a "date" at the dance? Not that I knew of. Did his face get red and did he cut in when another guy friend asked me to dance? Yes. Did he refuse to dance with another girl on the last dance, "ladies" choice? Yes. Why? Because he wanted me to ask him. She just beat me to it. She grabbed his hand and walked him out there. He turned to look back at me. I walked over and asked him to dance. He said, "Of course. Who else?" He was so sweet and such a gentleman.

Of course I was obsessive. We were starting highschool in the fall. We had assigned days to pick our schedules. His, thankfully, was before mine. I called another friend and she found out his schedule, very shrewdly I might add. On the day I went to pick my classes I was signed up for all the same classes. Well, actually I was at camp, so my mom signed me up for the classes I'd already selected. Funny. He commented one time on the fact we were in almost all the same classes. I put on my innocent face and said, my mom signed me up for my schedule. Not a lie necessarily. Freshmen had to share lockers. We buddied up with people in our English class. Two of Paul's guy friends asked him to share a locker, he turned around, smiled at me and said, "Nah, I have my locker buddy," with a smile and a wink. My heart thudded right out of my chest. We spent days walking with each other to class. When he bought lunch he always got an extra order of "tots" to share. When I bought lunch I grabbed an extra oatmeal raisin cookie for him. We spent afternoons in the library after school doing homework together. That was actually my best year academically. Did I metion Paul made straight A's in middle school?

We had a long discussion one day about "us". We were best friends, but at 14 he did not want a "relationship". He was pretty mature looking back. He nudged me when he said it and smiled. I knew that I would wait for him to be ready. Ahhh, the dreams of youth. LOL.

My other guy friends, remember the geeky ones from back in middle school. The ones I still love. They all grew up over the summer. They all showed up with deeper voices and longer legs that first day back in highschool. They were not the "hottest" guys around, but in my book still the best catch. Sweet, smart and funny. One guy in particular, Jason, was the sweetest. He and Paul were good friends. He used to get so mad at Paul for not "liking" me. Later, Paul told me he thought Jason had his own crush on me. Sweet boy. See my self esteem was not the greatest. I loved being around these people who were not the most popular or the hottest, because I knew I could be myself and they would still care. Jason and I stayed friends all the way through highschool. He is the last person I expect to see at the reunion, but one of the ones I want to see the most. Another one, Neil will will also reapper later in the Delightful Stories series. He was always trying to make me laugh. It was funny because he was usually so serious. But he liked making me laugh. I would love to see him at our reunion.

My girlfriends through this time were..... well questionable. They were more boy crazy than me, if you can imagine that. They come more into play in the Sophomore year of highschool. Lets just say even being boy crazy I had values and standards. They really did not. I thank God that He watched over and protected me in those years.

Back to Paul. At the end of ninth grade he and I had a rift. I still dont know what it was about. He started backing away from our friendship. I was dejected and hurt. We made up a little bit, but never regained the closeness. I had my yearbook and was going to ask him to sign it one day. He snapped at me and I walked away shattered. I said I would not ask again. On the last day of school I left early. He called me that night to ask why I did not say good bye or let him sign my yearbook. I cried on the phone with him. I felt so dumb. I hate crying in front of people. We met for lunch at the mall not long after. He apologized for being a jerk for the last few weeks. I apologized for crying, and not saying goodby. I never did let him sign my yearbook.

In 10th grade he joined our crew team. He stuck with us for a few more months but eventually the life of crew took over. He was hanging out with new people and new friends. He and I still talked in the halls occasionally. We both ended up in summer school for Algebra 2 after 10th grade. He was...different. Not so gentlemanly anymore. Not rude or wild, just kind of a know it all teenager. Trying to fit in and be popular. Ya know? We had a good time in summer school, but it was more buddy-buddy. One time right before summer school was over he and I were sitting on a bench outside during break. We were sharing a soda laughing at something stupid. He shuffled his feet, gave me his lopsided grin and asked, "What happened to us?" I shrugged, handed him the soda and walked away. I remember that day so vividly.

We shared an AP European History class our Senior year. By then he was a complete stranger. He sat right beside me. I talked to the girl on the other side of me who I did not know from Adam more than I talked to him. He gave me a note one time during one of the teachers lectures. It said, "Hi, I miss you." I looked over to see his lopsided grin. I threw the note away that night after reading it 1000 times. We graduated and I never saw or heard from him again.

I know now what happened to us. God had a much bigger plan. He had a stable Christian guy out there for me to fall madly in love with. God knew what I needed much much more than I did. I needed Roy. I needed him to be strong. I needed him to say,"no" when he knew something was not right for me. I need Roy, so I could be safe and secure that nothing except death would ever seperate us. Unfortunatly as you'll see I had to go through a lot more "heartache" before I realized that.

What happened to Paul?

I heard on our highschool alumni message board about a year ago that he'd committed suicide a few years back. I have asked everyone I could think of for more details. They have none. I still get weepy when I think about him and the tragic end.

What would have happened to me if God had answered my foolish prayer of youth with a yes??? Would I be a widow? Would I have turned from God, because my husband had no faith in Him? Thank you God for sparing me that prayer. Please God be with the family he left behind.

Hey Paul, "Hi, I miss you too, friend."

Books for boys

Who would not love a set of these beautiful books? The Ballantyne Christian Adventure library is available through Vision Forum for purchase. BUT Crystal and Biblical Womanhood is giving a set away this Saturday.

Now, I'm not telling you all to jet over there and enter, because then how would I win?? Just kidding. Go right now and enter to win these beautiful, truth filled books.

With a quote like this in his book, you know I have to have them on my bookshelves. I love the language and the vocabulary. I also love the fact that he wants our little boys to grow into MEN.

Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system.... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession.... —R.M. Ballantyne, The Gorilla Hunters

Be Blessed.

I know, I know...

I promised to continue my Paul story tonight, but I got busy planning some new stuff for our homeschool and now my head hurts. LOL.
For the rest it might be TMI. Just be warned.





I went in for my sonogram today. They did an external and internal one. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Of course not on my top ten list of things to do, if Im not pregnant, ever again. Tomorrow I go for my lab work and then at the end of this month I go for my monthly Drs. visit to check progress and discuss treatment.
I had to drink 32oz of water this morning in a half hour time period. Well it was supposed to be in a 15 min time frame, but it ended up being a half hour for me. I literally thought I was going to be sick to my stomache. I dont think I have ever had that much water in such a short amount of time. They had me full for the external exam and then they let me empty my bladder for the internal. The lady said, "Go empty your bladder." I literally thought the gates of heaven had been thrown open. I hit that bathroom flying. Praise God no one was in there.
Well I HAVE TO GO TO BED. Im exhausted.
Night Night

Be Blessed.

Delightful Stories

Are you ready for more high school humor? I am.

Lets start with my first "true" love. His name was Paul. We met in 8th grade and he was taller than me. (Very important in 8th grade) He had thick brown hair and puppy dog brown eyes. He was just as goofy and awkward as any 13 year old boy.

Here is a secret: all my guy friends in junior high were awkward and geeky. I loved them dearly and if you stick with me you will see how my love and devotion to them in junior high paid off in high school. They were the nicest group of guys. We sat together at lunch. On one side was Jason, Paul, and my friend Amanda. On the other side was Chris, Me, and Neil. We had a great time. Almost everyday milk would spew out of some one's nose we laughed so hard.

Anyways, I had the BIGGEST crush on Paul. I think he knew. Well I know he knew after Valentine's Day. My friend Amanda spent the night with me the night before Valentine's Day. My mom took us to Eckard's to pick up some candy and cards for our friends. I picked up a small cute box of candy for Paul and a little stuffed bear. Very, Very, Very little. Amanda grabbed a GIANT GIANT GIANT SIZE OF TEXAS chocolate key that said and I quote, "You hold the keys to my heart!" Cute huh? My mom being the wonderful wise woman she was says, "Um, I don't think that's a good idea." Me being the newly crowned know it all teenager of the home said, "Whatever mom. You don't know. Of course its a good idea. All I need is a chocolate key the size of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to make Paul fall madly in love with me." Being the cruel person she is , my mom bought the darn thing. Can you believe that?

Well I flounce to school on Valentines Day just knowing that today I will taste sweet love. Amanda had homeroom downstairs with Paul and I had homeroom upstairs. The plan was laid. Amanda would bring Paul to the bottom of the stairs and I would hand him the chocolate key the size of North, South and Central America, and maybe a tiny bit of Europe. He would of course sweep me into his arms and declare that we must be boyfriend and girlfriend forever. So with chocolate key in sweaty palms and butterflies trying desperately to get out of my stomach, I walked rather unsteadily down the stairs. There my handsome prince awaited at the bottom of the stairs. Hand him the chocolate key that had somehow grown to be bigger than the Americas and all of Europe, smile sweetly and await his declarations of love. (LOL I have butterflies just typing this) As I looked into my beloved's eyes......I......I.....FREAKED OUT, threw the GIANT CHOCOLATE KEY at his head and ran blindly back up the stairs. Fortunately he caught the GIANT CHOCOLATE KEY, turned to Amanda who had so graciously fallen onto the floor laughing and said, "She just threw a chocolate key at me!"

I avoided him rather well for the next two class changes. Dreading lunch, which I knew would soon come. Of course first was science class. He sat across the room from me so I figured if I could get in there and get across the room I would be safe. The teacher being in what she referred to as her 200th month of pregnancy gave us some worksheets and let us have free time. I stuck like flypaper to my side of the room. I sat on the wall by the window. Could I have opened the widow and sat outside I would have. Could I have opened the window and sat outside across the street I would have. Believe me. My eyes were glued to the paper in front of me. I don't know what it said, I just knew I could. not. look. up. Then I harbored one small glance across the room to where Paul sat with a group of guys talking and carrying on. Of course he picked just that moment to pull out the GIANT CHOCOLATE KEY THE SIZE OF THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD and show it to "the guys". Then, I know not what he said but whatever it was caused every male head at that table, all 229 of them, to turn and look at me. Paul winked and smiled and I happily spent the rest of the class on the floor under the table pretending to read a book. When the bell rang I sat there for awhile waiting for the room to clear. When I walked out the door, Paul was waiting for me. We always walked from Science to lunch together. Today would be no different. I stared down at the floor. He steered me around obstacles. He kept up a steady stream of talking. Sweet boy. I think he knew how uncomfortable I was. At lunch he kept kicking me under the table. When I looked up he would smile and make a joke. He slid me his cookie. Winked at me and told me Happy Valentine's Day. I survived the "key" incident. Though at the time I was sure I would not. Paul and I stayed good friends through 8th grade. Maybe in some way we were "boyfriend" and "girlfriend". He would always walk me to class, share his notes with me, snitch the food off of my tray at lunch, kick me under the table and smile and wink when I looked up at him. One time when I did not know the answer in science class and everyone was looking at me, he blurted out the answer. We would walk down the hall together pretending to trip each other, but if he ever caused me to stumble he would reach out to steady me.

Tomorrow I will tell you about 9th grade with Paul and our locker sharing experience. And the many times he rescued me that year. I will also share with you the reason God took Paul out of my life. Why he did not answer my heartfelt prayer that we be together forever. God had someone else picked out for me. Someone perfect for me. Someone I love more than I ever "loved" Paul. Paul picked a different road for his life. One that I just found out about a few months ago. I still get a little teary eyed when I think about it.

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you laughed a lot and awwwed a lot. I hope your heart grew a little warmer thinking about your first crush.

Be Blessed.

Im going to kiss my husband and thank him for choosing me. I cant imagine my life with anyone else.

My Health

So here is something I have been debating about sharing. I have decided I will though, just so I can encourage other young women going through this.

In the coming months I will be visiting my doctor once a month. I have been diagnosed with Stage II diabetes as a result of PCOS. Well I guess I should start with my doctor diagnosed me with Stage II diabetes and THEN decided to run some more tests for PCOS.

Tomorrow I go for an ultrasound to check my adrenal glands.

Tuesday I go get lab work done for LH, Testosterone, and FSH levels.

I have to check my blood sugar everyday, which my kids think is neat. LOL

I have not shared a lot of details with people, well, mainly because I am ok with this. Im not sad or freaked out. I dont really want others to be either. I knew that I likely had PCOS. I knew that even though I ate right my blood sugar was messed up. The best part about this is with treatment I will be able to loose weight better. You see Im not an unhealthy eater. When I loose weight it stays off, but loosing weight for me is hard to do. In a year and a half I have lost 25 pounds and kept it off. My doctor assured me that there was nothing I could have done to loose it faster. When I went over my diet with her she was well pleased. She thinks I will see a huge improvement in the coming months.

Also having the diagnosis of PCOS will open some doors toward fertility that I have not been able to open.

Im very comfortable with this new lifestyle. Especially since God has been moving me toward it with diet and excercise for the whole year anyway.

Anyways, I plan to keep posting on things I learn and am going through. Unfortunatly due to diet, enviroment, and too many extra hormones going into everything we eat and drink there are a LOT of young women out there suffering the same as me. I hope to get some new information out to you all.

Be Blessed!