Finally a post

If I was more patient I would have all new pictures to show you. Pictures that are uploading right now I hope. They are taking a long time so I'm not sure they will make it. :)
So, in honor of Lily's 10 months on this earth we will look at the first couple of months again.

We've been busy lately. We are back to following a lot of suggestions in The Well Trained Mind. Karly and Kelsie are working through CLE Math and LA and we are adding in for them Writing With Ease 1, First Language Lessons 3, and either All About Spelling or Spelling Workout. We will work quickly through WWE 1 as I just want to get them used to the type of copywork, narration, and dictation we will be using. FLL is to give them some supplemental work in areas they need more work in. I'm torn with spelling for them. I think AAS might be a better program but I think SWO would fit better with our family right now.

We are also going to work through Grammar stage Earth and Space Science as directed by TWTM. I decided to use Story of The World Volume 2 for everyone. Right now I am asking the questions in the AG and writing down every one's answers. Then, Karly and Kelsie copy what I wrote. Soon I will have Karly and Kelsie write the answers to the questions in complete sentences. We are making it work.

Around the house things are changing slowly but surely. My room was clean, but now it has accumulated stuff again. I don't really know what is up with this. I need to figure it out.

I am working on my closet this week. I will start by taking everything out. I am doing this because I had to make a late night run to Walmart last night to get pants for Jonathan's suit because his pants were missing.

I am making room to keep every ones dress clothes and shoes in my closet. I am so tired of missing Sunday shoes, tights, socks, slips, sweaters, ties... so now Sunday clothes will be in my closet and we will decide what to wear the night before.

Also for some reason there is a pile of clean clothes in the corner of my closet. Usually I hang everything up when it comes out of the dryer so... I'm not sure where this pile of clothes came from.

We were given 11 diaper boxes full of clothes from 6m to 24m for Lily. I sorted through all of them and now I have a stand alone closet full of clothes arranged in boxes by date. I also boxed up her clothes she's outgrown and I need to make room in the corner of my closet for these boxes. We really have no where else to store them and I do want to hold onto some of them.. just in case. :)

Last Sunday was our last Sunday at the church we have been at for the past 10 years. Well it's actually a split off from the church we went to right after we got married. This church has been around for about 5 years. But it's a lot of the same people. It was hard, but it was such a God thing. About 6m ago God really started showing us that we really needed to expose our kids to families who were more like us. The past few months have brought some things to our attention and we started really praying about a more family oriented church. Then a few weeks ago I noticed a church up the street was changing their name and it indicated it might be more family oriented. I went online and sure enough they worship together as a family. They do have age segregated Sunday School but they do not have a youth group. They are also reformed and the Preacher's preaching is more expository. All things I love. We listened to some of his sermons and were impressed. Some friends of mine go there and she answered a lot of my questions. Next Sunday we will visit there. I'm very excited. I am leaving a denomination I have been a part of since birth, but I totally agree with everything in their statement of faith.

It's a new adventure, but God has really been leading us in this direction. I can't wait to see what happens!!

I hope you all had a great Easter!!

LOVE!

Our Cooking Ministry

Well, Im ready for something a little lighter around here, how about you? :)

The ladies from our church get together every other month and make up a big batch of freezer meals. One lady has a pressure canner so sometimes we make soup and sauces as well. We store these freezer meals and pass them out throughout the month to families in need. Job loss, new baby, illness, family crises... you get the picture.

Its been so wonderful to have this time of fellowship and also to not have to coordinate a bunch of different meals for a family in need. I keep them in a chest freezer I have here at home. Another lady with a big pantry keeps all the canned stuff.

We make chicken and rice, mac n cheese, meatloaf, mashed potatoes.. all sorts of different meals.

We take donations from members for food. Also we have some money budgeted for it. It's worked out great for the past 4 months we have done it.

Does your church have anything like this?

Be Blessed!

Trying Times

See this little bundle of joy? See the twinkle in his eye? This kid has tried my beliefs on family integrated worship more than any other thing on the planet.
Other families thinking we are crazy, my mom telling me I am being cruel, people telling me I am missing out on food for me because I have to correct him... I can deal with all that, no problem.
This kid? This kid makes me want to run to the nearest nursery and plop his sweet tushy down!

You don't believe me?! He looks so sweet? HA! Just this Sunday alone he threw a whopper fit towards the end of church. Granted it was fairly quiet with only a few whimpers leaving his lips, but he was throwing his body all over the place!
It is getting a little better. Here are some of the things I do to prepare him for Sunday.
We practice during the week. At home. It's easier to correct something immediately at home then in front of people. Almost every morning we have Circle time as a family. We read a Bible story, illustrate it, then do memory work and read a short story. Except for when he is illustrating a story with the other kids he has to sit in a chair right beside me. If he does not he is corrected immediately and put back in the chair. Or quieted down.

We also have family Bible time at night. He sits right by me or daddy and is expected to sit nicely and quietly. He is 2 so we don't expect him to sit perfectly still. Sometimes in church I will give him a banana to eat or a book to look at.

If he cannot sit nicely and quietly he is corrected. Immediately.

When we started taking our kids into worship with us our oldest boy was about 18m old. I used to have to take him out every service and correct him. But he quieted down a lot quicker then Jonathan has. Usually one correction was enough for Adrian. Not so much for Jonathan. :)

When I do have to take him out I correct him. Then we sit for a few minutes. He has to stay in my lap. I will not let him down to play as that is what he wants and he would pitch a fit every Sunday just for that. :) From about 14m - 2.5 years are the hardest for me. I know it seems like forever, but persistence has paid off for us.
Jonathan is finally getting to a point where he can sit in the chair by himself with his little toddler Bible and be happy during church. We sit in the back so that I can take him out if need be. My DH supports all of this. I take him because Dh is the spiritual leader in our family so we think he should be the one to get to actually listen to the sermon. LOL.

Some people go to church to be fed. I spend time in the Word every day so I don't need the feeding so much. I go to worship God. I believe my way of worshipping right now is to show my children how to worship! There will be time as they get older that I can sit back and enjoy the sermon. Our preacher is a gifted man. Fortunately we now have a podcast of his sermons on our website so I get to listen throughout the week.

Now, however, is my time to train my children. That's my worship and ministry.

I posted this in response to someone asking me about it. I think it was Michelle.
I hope this helped. We are not perfect. My five year old (the oldest boy mentioned above) has just decided recently its ok to talk during the service. NO, we don't know where he got that idea. LOL. My oldest is huge fidgeter. To the point of being distracting. My youngest daughter likes to turn around so far in her chair she sometimes ends up on the floor.
Our big secret is we do a lot of training at home during the week. It makes it so a quick tap or look can straighten up just about any of our kids.
Above all we pray. We just ask God to work out any problems ahead of time. We believe this is what God has called us to. To worship in church as a family. We believe by being obedient that God will bless us.

Be Blessed!

Sunday...

Sunday will be a big day for my family.

I am doing the storyteller part of our kid's program. We have a program called Kid City that we do before the worship service. It's aimed at families. Basically we take one virtue a month and there are songs, skits, and stories for the whole month. This month is respect. We are working around umbrellas, because parents and others in authority over you are placed there by God, like an umbrella, for your protection. I like that analogy. Of course my umbrella is really messed up and has holes in it. I get to talk about David and Saul. Basically, as you all know, Saul had some issues with David. One minute he liked him the next he wanted to kill him. But while David protected himself, he still respected Saul. He had a few opportunities to kill Saul (one in a cave where David cut off a piece of Saul's robe...thats my story) but instead waited until Saul left and then went out, fell to the ground, and begged Saul to reconsider killing him. Saul repented and agreed that David should not be killed. The moral of our story is we have to respect people in authority over us even if we don't agree with them. Thats my short version of the story. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 18-24. I think this is a great lesson. I just hope I don't forget my lines. LOL
The second thing is my husband is going to be ordained as an Elder in our church. He and two other men are the first ordained Elders for our church so its monumental on many levels. I am so impressed with how much he has grown just in the past year. He was so strong and godly just last year when he called our former pastor to repentance, I can't believe he is now an Elder. He is perfect for the job though. Humble and willing to serve God wherever he can. He also is an awesome leader of his home. Our pastor did tell the men that they had to be in God's word daily to be an elder. He called them everyday for two weeks straight at an appointed time to see what they had read that day. Its done wonders for my guy and I'm so happy and thankful. My man gets a little better everyday and I love him a little more everyday. :)
I'm really looking forward to Sunday.

Be Blessed!

Life Groups

Acts 2:44-47
44And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

This is what Life Groups are based on. Mostly verses 46 and 47.

Life groups are a sort of Bible study during the week. We get together with other people and share God's word. There is no "teacher" per se, just a facilitator. We discuss the Bible study book and the relevance it has for our lives. Its a time to be accountable and transparent with one another. A time of fellowship. There are a few reasons we like the Life Groups.
It frees up Sunday morning for worship and teaching.
Sometimes people who dont go to church will come to a fellowship at your home.
It gives people a chance to "get real" with thier small group.
Its flexible. In today's world unfortunatly not everyone has Sunday off. This gives people an opportunity to fellowship with other believers and learn from God's word on a different day.
Its family oriented. Its ok if my kids wander out during the meeting. Its ok if they ask questions out loud.

We were involved in Life group at our old church. I think its what knit us together and brought us to a place where we could launch out when God told us to and start a new church. Not that I think Life group should be used as a catalyst to split and start your own church, but circumstances being what they were, God used them.
We love being a part of it.

Managing the Children

So as I mentioned before our first church service resulted in some bored children running a bit wild. My friend and I noticed this and even tried to intervene a few times to no avail. Parents were all busy helping set up and break down. I saw many of them trying to control the children, but they just waited until the disciplinarian was out of sight and then resumed "playing".
So Melodie and I put our heads together and God gave us a great plan.
The children age 8 and up will be put on a ministry team. They will be given age appropriate responsibilities and will be an intergral part of helping our church to grow and function efficiently.
Children 3-7 will be assigned a table in the cafeteria (where we meet) with coloring books, crayons, games....quiet sit down things. One or two of our older girls will sit with them during this time and "supervise".
Infant - 2 will be with mom or dad in a stroller or sling.
We will institute a reward system for the older children. For instance every month one child will be selected our "Star Servant" or something and will receive recognition and a small award. We are hoping this will provide some motivation for some of our harder to deal with kids.
We are hoping this will instill a sense of purpose in our children as they help to make our church function. I really think that this will go a long way in producing productive young adults. I think that in a few months we will see completly different young people showing up for church.
I know in my family when my kids are kept busy helping to run the house they dont have as much time or need for trouble. They take more time to pick up after themselves and make sure areas are kept neat and tidy throughout the day.
Our preacher has approved this idea. I just need to get it in writing to him.
Im excited that he wants to see our young people utilized for the kingdom as well.

Be Blessed.

Moving Day

I am so excited. My exclamation key does not work or else you would see a ton of those in this post. LOL
We are moving. No not my family, my church. We are moving out of the home of my dear, dear friends and into a elementary school. We move on May 13. Mother's day. Yes. My mother's day will be chaotic, rushed, frantic, spent running around from about 7am til 12, and amazingly the most exciting Mother's day. Well other than my first Mother's Day with my kids. That was THE MOST EXCITING. :P
Right now I am working on making sure that we have a working nursery at the school. We have a great group of people. Everyone is ready to donate. Of course logistically we have to be able to move whatever is donated around from place to place because we cant store it in the classroom at the church.
My friend who will be in charge of the kids will sent me a great list of what we will need. Im happy because it means that my baby swing and excersaucer and bouncy seat will not have to sit in the attic until Gideon makes his grand entrance, whenever that is, soon Lord, please. No he is not on the horizon yet, but we still have faith that he will be one day. Anyways, back to the real post.
So moving day is just around the corner and how exciting. The best part for me is watching from the inside. Im the type of person, I like to have my hand is EVERYTHING. I feel most put together when Im in the middle of all the chaos. Being part of the lead team with my husband has been such a great experience for me. I love being there to hear the decisions being made. I love giving my input on some small detail. I know the church is to be led by the men, but I dont have any problem sitting next to my husband as he leads. He loves when I make a suggestion or give some input. I know whatever I say is not the law it is just that, a suggestion. I love the fact that my new preacher has a couples lead team.
This is an exciting experience for us. We know we are where God wants us. We know that God is going to bless this church off the scale. Its going to be great. I will post about our first Sunday and let you all in on a little of the excitement.

My "dirty" little secret...

Well in blog land there are many different types of blogs. I tend towards the more conservative Christian homemaker blogs. Now in an effort to keep it real I have a secret to share. Are you ready?



I go to a Purpose Driven Church.

We have spent the last few months watching videos by Andy Stanley and Lou Giglio of North Point Church in Atlanta.

I laugh because I read all the time about how evil my church is.

My new Pastor loves God and his soul purpose in life is to reach out to the unchurched and share Jesus with them. The people I fellowship with in my new church feel the same way.

I have a post in my draft folder called the Truth About The Purpose Driven Church. I am still researching and writing it.
I dont agree with everything. I see too much watering down of some important stuff. But frankly our mission is to go out into the world seeking the lost and share Jesus. Thats what we are doing.
I hope no one stops reading my blog because of my little secret. Funny thing I never really thought about it being a secret until I recently read some serious bashing of Rick Warren and all things Purpose Driven. Im laughing as I post this. Its all said in good humor.
Lets just remember two things:
1. Jesus was a radical in His time, not doing things the "old fashioned" way.
2. Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is never evil.

Church update

Not a lot of time as we are getting ready to tuck the littles in for the night, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are starting a new church! PRAISE THE LORD! We have the worship leader who came with us and now we have a pastor. He will meet with us for the first time officially on the first Sunday in March. How exciting.

Be Blessed

Update on the church thing...

Well as of last Sunday we dont have a church "home". My husband stood up and basically called the Pastor to forgive and move on and the pastor buried his head in the sand. He thinks there is nothing wrong. Hubby wont let us sit under a pastor who will not follow the word of GOD. We met with a group of like minded people from the church yesterday. We watched an awesome video and prayed and discussed the future. For now we will just continue in prayer, being careful to seek God's will and then we will see where God leads us. There is some talk of trying to start a church, but once again a lot of praying going on.
All of these changes around, I just feel like Im on a roller coaster. Its exciting but very nerve racking.
Tomorrow I will be posting some health research I have been doing.

Nothing much of interest...

Well there is a ton of interest in my life right now, but nothing I could write about due to the circumstances surronding it all. Life really isn't fair. I guess I should be grateful that God allowed certain people to come into my life...even if it is to be for a short time. I guess what bothers me the most is I feel like we should not be the ones to loose our friends and connections we made because one person cant say they are sorry. Because one person cant stand up and admit that he was wrong. There is so much potential for the place we are leaving. So much potential for the wonderful people who feel they have to leave to. I remember my favorite Frank Perretti book, The Visitation. I remember the struggles the preacher in that book went through. I remember the famous phrase, "We are going to take this town for Christ!". Our church could have been an awesome church like that. We could have done some serious soul work on our side of town. I cant say any more about this. I have probably already said to much. But this is my online journal. I will want to look back at this post next year and see that it was not as bad as I thought it was. No matter where I go, God goes with me. He has a new adventure in store for us. This time next year I may still harbor some hurt over this, but I will be busy at our new adventure.

Around the house:
My kitchen has stayed clean all week. I have to sweep and mop and then Im done for the day.
I have one more box of clutter to get rid of from our school room. So far thats two boxes. WOOHOO!
Im breaking everything down. This month Im keeping the kitchen clean and decluttering the school room.
I have laundry folded just needs to get put away.
I have to sort the laundry from our bedroom and remind the girls to take thier baskets and empty them. We are getting there slowly but surely.
Im going to boil some chicken and shred it and pour bbq sauce on it and we will have sandwhiches tonight before church. I will fry up some hashbrowns and bake some beans to go with it.
Im trying to stretch our grocery budget this month which means getting creative! :)

Churches.

My whole 27 years here on earth I have been in a few churches. Lets count them up and see why I had to leave.
Birth - about 4 or 5 Church 1. I dont know why we left here. I have never asked. Hmm..
4 or 5 - about 8 or 9. Church 2. Dont remember much about leaving this church either. I think something happened and the Pastor left and mom and dad did not like the new pastor. I was saved at that church.
8 or 9 - 11 or 12. Church 3. The week after we joined the Pastor resigned. Red flag number one. Red flag number 2 came when we realized the deacons ran this church. Mom and dad worked alot during those years and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents at thier church. Should I count that as a church. Lets and call it church 4. We left church 3 when the pastor and music minister were run off by the deacons and another man stood up in the business meeting and called my best friend's dad out into the parking lot. My dad stood up and said my family is outta here and not coming back. We followed. Church 4 I left because my mom and dad were back home and so were we. Thus began my aversion to business meetings.
12ish - 17 Church 5. Left here when Pastor told his wife he did not love her anymore and walked out. I was close to this family and felt the whole thing. Also had people teaching the youth who were on the brink of divorce and fought constantly. They did not like me a bit, mainly because up until they showed up I was the one running the youth group and because they talked down to us and fought all the time people still looked to me (the oldest youth) as the leader. It was a difficult time for our church and I was not sticking around to see it. I was done.
18-22 Church 6. I sat through some gory business meetings here. Should the pastor step down because his ADULT son was arrested? Should the music minister, whose wife and family is completly out of control and who refuses to show up for meetings and other church events be kept around? By the way yes, the Pastor should stay. No, the music minister needs to find another calling in life. IMO. There were more issues there but those are the ones I remember. The next big thing in our church life there was the homeless people for crying out loud!! There was a homeless ministry to women and children that area churches were taking up. Basically for one week these people slept at your church. During the day they were out getting job help. Some of the people in this church thought this would be a blemish to the church. UNBELIEVEABLE! The church got it voted in and then the neighbors (some of them church members) got it blocked by city council. NICE. Glad Im not going to be one of the ones answering to God on that one. I was all for it. Anyways, the church and its AMAZING pastor withstood both of those things. I love that man and his wife. They are saints in my book. Hubby and I left not long after marriage to find our "adult" church. We wanted a church were we were seen as husband and wife. Also we wanted one closer to home.
22-present church 7. Is it time to say goodbye to this church? Looks like the time is drawing near. I want to find a church were I can get lost. I dont want to be in the "core" group anymore. Im sick of it! Now, I have kids to think about. I want my kids to grow up in a church. I never had that. I always wanted the bond that kids have who have known each other in the church setting their whole lives. I want my kids to have that. Now, because of immaturity and a lack of leadership my kids are not going to have that. Im just sick!

The End.

Maturity

Its been a good week. I am sitting here waiting for hubby to get home from a men's retreat he went to this weekend. Oh how I miss him. This is only the second time in 4 years of marriage that we have been apart overnight. I checked Mary Poppins the movie out from the library last night and after dinner out with a friend the children and I watched part of it. We were up late watching it and the children took a 3 hour nap today. We were up around 8:30 to go have breakfast with a couple of other ladies from church whose husbands were at the retreat.
An interesting remark was made by a woman I know today. She mentioned that since the preacher has been preaching about men being the head of the family that her husband who has not taken a leader role in the past all of a sudden wants to exert control. She is not comfortable with this and resents the way he is trying to "yank" the control from her. I can see where she is coming from. Submission is not easy and it was such a casual conversation and the subject was changed quickly afterwards so I did not get to give my submission lecture. (Drat!) :O) I was thinking about loaning her my copy of Power of A Praying Wife by Stormie O Martin. This book helped me a lot to stop trying to change my husband and ask the Lord instead to work on me.
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I have been in 6 churches in my life. In everyone of them I have gone through rough times with the congregation. Although I dont remember much about the first two I remember greatly the third one. I was in fifth grade when the Pastor left. My family soon followed along with many other families. I went to the next church til I was a Senior in highschool. Then my whole world fell apart when the Preacher at that church informed his wife he did not love her anymore and walked out on her and thier young son. I was devestated as I was best friends with his neice and was a part of this family. I started going to another church and was accused of leaving for all sorts of reasons by "friends" from the other church. It was not pretty and I determined at this new church I was going to sit in my little pew every Sunday with my best friend and a few other friends and not get involved in the church or with the people. HAHA! Little did I know if you arent going to serve the Lord He is not going to bless you! Lesson learned. I became involved in that church and once again formed a relationship with the Preacher and his family .There were some problems at this church but we survived, lost some members but hey the church kept churning out the Gospel and the Preacher stood strong. I left that church about a year or so after we got married. Dh and I wanted a church that was ours and plus we wanted one a little closer to our new house. I still love and respect that Preacher and his wife. At my church now we do things a little different. We have a praise band and powerpoint and something called LIFE groups. Our LIFE groups are based on Acts 2:46 and 47 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. We have three groups that meet during the week together and go over the Preacher's sermon from the week before. We fellowship together and take care of each other. We are forming lasting bonds with these people and also using this as opportunity to bring our lost neighbors in since we rotate houses. I love this.
Why do people have such thin skin? My feelings have been hurt numerous times, sometimes by the same person but I chose to go on with my life. I wish we in the body would realize that it is up to us to show maturity. We cant always count on it from the other guy (or gal). It would also help to remember that we wont be held accountable for the what they say to us or how they behave towards us but we will be held accountable for how we act and what we say.
I have sat broken hearted as the preachers that I know and love were torn down by people, I have closed my eyes and prayed for everything to be over in business meetings where people (supposed brothers and sisters in Christ) called each other out to the parking lot. I still tense when I hear the words business meeting. Do you believe I actually went to a church one time that argued over whether to have a program to help some homeless families??? How sick is it that these people were ready to leave the church and string the Pastor up because he supported this program? Im happy to say though through all these trials and tribulations I have grown so much in my walk with God. I am finally at a point in my life where I realize that the Pastor is chosen by God and that I have no authority over him. I also realize that in a church there are sometimes people there planted by Satan to undermine the Holy Spirit. Spiritual warfare has become a real thing to me.
I guess in this sense God has worked all things together for the good because I would still be immature in this area had I not had my heart broken so many times.