Getting Back To Normal

And what exactly is this normal I am speaking of?? :)
It's being a wife, mother, and homemaker. It's trying to re-prioritize my life. It's recognizing that this small wonder really needs me right now, but so do my other children. It's eeking out time with my wonderful husband and trying to reestablish a comfortable home life for the rest of the family.

My baby is growing up so quickly. She is already 2 months old. Where is the time going??

I have tried off and on to get some school going but it's not working out.

Next week we will celebrate the first week of public school here by playing.

We will play at Chuck E Cheese on Monday, the Museum on Tuesday, the beach on Wednesday, bowling on Thursday, Friday is TBD.

I plan to post on my Large Family Review Blog about how we managed the whole week affordably.

After our week of play we will buckle back down to our Read Alouds and finishing up workbooks.

The last week in September we will formally start our new year.

In the mean time I will be thoroughly cleaning the house and rearranging/reorganizing some of the more cluttered areas.

I will be working with the children to reestablish their chores. Right now it's almost an anything goes scenario with their chores and that is SO not working out for me. :)

Lily is getting older and is establishing a more set routine for herself. Right now it's totally baby led as far as feeding and napping. But I am seeing more of a pattern.

My kids need more of a routine, my hubby needs more of a routine, and I surely need more of a routine. It's been pretty chaotic around here.

I have new ideas and new tricks up my sleeve. We'll see how it goes!

A perfect post

Lady Lydia has the perfect blog post up right now. It's for Daughters Taught at Home it spoke volumes to my heart. It is so the vision I have for my own home and family. The one thing that really caught my eye was she said something about the more daughters you have at home the more lovely your home should be. Now I don't think she is necessarily speaking to the moms of three daughters under three. No, she is speaking to me. The mother of soon to be four daughters. At 13, 10, and 8 they should be assets to our homemaking. Instead they don't finish jobs, don't do them well, or only do a half job. My oldest tried to sew a skirt and because the whole project was to overwhelming for me (really, a skirt?) it became to hard for her because she had no guidance. Now it sits half sewn. I blame myself.

Why do my girls not do their best when it comes to homemaking? Because I do not do my best in training and teaching them. I do not do my best because I am overwhelmed when I look at all that needs to be done. I never learned. I never even tried to learn. Why do I want to pass that legacy onto my girls?

So I am going to start today. Today I am going to work beside my daughter who is in charge of cleaning the bathrooms. We will go down the list and do each chore. I am a bit limited in what I can do, but I think just me being there and being joyful will go a long way. I will also instruct her and show her as we go. My plan is to spend the rest of this week with her in the bathrooms and then next week when she is in the kitchen I will spend the week with her there.

I might have the girls clean in shifts for the next few weeks (with a hiatus of course for me when Lily comes) and spend time with each of them showing them the joy that can be had in homemaking.

I plan to put together some craft kits for the next few weeks and have them do some creative stuff for at least an hour every afternoon. After Lily is here and we settle into more of a routine we will spend that hour in the afternoon going through the books Keepers At Home and Raising A Maiden of Virtue. I started the Maiden book with Karly but we did not finish it. Now I want to go through it with all of the girls again.

Also my plan is one day a month to have daddy and the boys go out and do something or stay home and do something and the girls and I will have tea and a craft day at home or a nice brunch and time to browse craft shops or something like that out. We will probably start that up in the fall.

These are all things I have been thinking about lately. Funny the great ideas you have when you can't implement them.

I am looking forward to bonding with my little ladies. To teaching them the joy that is to be had in being keepers at home. In serving those around them. Of course to show that joy I will have to learn it.

I admit as much as I love the thought of having this new little baby to love and the miracle that she represents. And as much as I look forward to having more, I am not a good pregnant person. I don't know if it was the stress that permeated the last year and the first half of this pregnancy or just being so ill of health. I have been very ill through it all. But that's another post. This one is focusing on my little ladies.

I will be posting a baby update soon. I will be 38 weeks on Sunday. Almost here! :)

Be Blessed!

WWYD?

Recently, on a message board, the question was asked, "What would you do if homeschooling became illegal?" Many thought the question was completely hypothetical. Me? I'm not so sure. As I see our liberties sleeping away and see the American people turning to the government more and more, I see the government taking more and more. What better place to raise up a generation loyal to the ideals of our new government?
Why, oh why, would the government allow us to teach our children something contradictory to what they are trying to implement? That's one big argument I have heard from some hard liberals towards homeschooling. "Why leave this children to be raised in a hateful, bigoted environment with no regulation on what they are being taught?"
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I believe in living life on guard and planning for any possibility.

What did this question lead to? It led to someone else asking, why do you homeschool?
For us it's not even a choice. God has called us to this. Some days (especially lately) I have felt like the biggest failure being my kids teacher. This past year was full of rough starts and stops to our homeschool. I see the next few months being the same. But I have to trust God to make up for my slack. I know my kids are safe and are hearing truth and not lies. They have good Christian books and videos available to them. They see us struggling, but leaning on God. What more education could I want for them?
Yes, of course I want the basics and even more, but if they come out of our homeschool with a good foundation for trusting and serving God, then we have accomplished a ton!
An interesting point was made by one of the mom's on the message board about illegal homeschooling.
It was not that long ago that people risked fines and jail time to school their children at home.
I know a friend of mine from our homeschool group with a son in college, talks about how she NEVER left home with the kids during the day because it cause too many problems?
Can you imagine?? That was in the 90s! Are we so naive to think it could never happen again? Are we willing to throw away their sacrifice?
What would I do if homeschool was illegal? I don't think I'm going to talk about it here. Too risky. But I do have a plan. Do you?
Be Blessed!

Our Birthday Decision

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! Ours was nice and quiet. Nothing much to talk about.

This young lady has a birthday coming up soon. She will be 13 and we wanted to get her a special present. We were going back and forth on what we could get her. We finally decided on a laptop/notebook computer.

As she gets older I would like for her to start to explore blogs of other girls out there who share some of our beliefs. I also want her to have the opportunity to use the computer to do some of her schoolwork. There are also some fun game sites I will let her pursue.

There will be many rules around the laptop though.

It will stay in my room and she will earn the privilege of using it by completing her responsibilities. She will only be allowed to use it for so many hours a day/week. She will have to be in the same room one of her parents is in and sitting right next to us. All new websites, blogs whatever will have to be approved through us first.

Yeah, I'm a little paranoid. But I like to say better safe than sorry. This child is known for coming to us with questionable stuff so I feel pretty good that if she comes across something by accident she will alert us to it. But we will be right there anyway.

I feel good about this gift. I know she will love it!

A weird post for the New Year I know, but I felt bad for not having posted at all. I do have a lot of stuff to share, but I just have to find the time.

Be Blessed!

Real Expectations

Tonight we actually got the Christmas tree up and decorated. Yipee! The kids are slowly heading to bed for the evening. After much excitement it will take awhile to calm down. :)
Right now we are listening to Christmas music sung by Harry Connick Jr. I like the way he sounds kind of old school.
It's funny as I reminisce about Christmas' past. I remember the first couple of years how fancy our Christmas tree and decorations were. I had a whole red and gold theme going on and blue and silver. Now as I look at my Christmas tree filled top to bottom with snowmen, teddy bears, trains, and all other sorts of plastic doo dads I have to smile. How I used to long for children to celebrate the holiday with. I love the cluster of ornaments at the bottom from Jonathan.
I love the poinsettia arrangements stuck in the gaps by the girls who declared it just lovely.
Tacky has not entered into any of their vocabularies yet. :)

My girls all talked tonight about their future homes and families. What they would do to celebrate the season. I heard a lot of fairy tale dreams. Husbands who enjoyed Christmas as much as they do. Perfect children who knew how to decorate a tree. Quiet times spent admiring the tree and the true meaning of Christmas. As my oldest daughter and I chatted about Christmas and her ideals I told her to hold loosely to her dreams.
When we first married I had many ideas of what Christmas with my husband would look like. Imagine my disappointment when I spent those first few married years shopping alone, decorating alone, and pretty much all the romantic Christmas notions I had were shot to pieces.
My husband just does not enjoy Christmas. Decorations aren't important to him. He could care less about picking out gifts. Usually I am sent off to buy my own presents.
I'm not complaining. Oh I did the first year. I even let his attitude towards Christmas affect mine. I got to where I did not like Christmas anymore. As a matter of fact I am just slipping out of that funk this year. We have reached some compromise. He does shop with me now. We make it a date. He helped decorate the tree this year because I was sick today.




I shared with my young daughter tonight that if her husband does not share her enthusiasm for Christmas that it's ok. She can still enjoy the holiday. Make it something special for him.
I love hearing my girls talk about their future homes and families. I don't squash their hopes and dreams, but sometimes we do have talks about real expectations. Who knows if they are even listening. I know what the stars in our eyes can do to our perceptions. LOL But I figure as their mom it does fall to me to disciple them in this area.
I was so selfish as a new wife. I was used to stomping my foot and getting my way. Ohh the fights we had those first few years of marriage. All because of my unreasonable expectations. Fortunately I married a strong man who knew not to give in to me. That has been a huge source of maturity for me. Having someone finally tell me,"No." I hope the same for my girls. A man who loves them enough to stand firm when he needs to. I also hope they are a bit more mature heading into marriage than I was. :)

Well I need to get busy getting school ready for tomorrow.

Be Blessed!

Christmas Traditions

Well I wanted to start decorating yesterday but I realized that where my tree is supposed to go is already occupied. By the girls room. Roy is finishing up their floors today and we still have all of their stuff in the living room. Right now it's a big girly Christmas explosion in my living room. I have my Christmas stuff sorted around the room and the girls stuff is pushed up against every wall. It's a little bit disarming right now. But dear husband will finish the floors today and we can regain some normalcy. Whatever that is!

I did make it to Target yesterday. The five dollar pajamas were gone, but I got some flannel PJs for each kid for $10 each. Sounds like a lot, but they have not had new PJs all year. They will open those on Christmas Eve for cute Christmas morning pictures. I also found some nice lightweight jackets on sale. Here in FL those are essential. Sometimes it's just not cold enough for heavy jackets but too cold for just long sleeves. Of course it's going to be 39 degrees tonight at the boat parade so they will not get to wear their cute light weight jackets.

I also picked up two presents for hubby. I won't say what here because sometimes he peeks. :)

I wandered over to look at Thermos but was appalled at the price. $25-$35. I am going to Walmart today to check out their prices. I really want to take hot chocolate tonight. I am also going to bake pumpkin cookies and chocolate chip cookies for tonight.
Fun times.

Starting Tuesday we will be playing our twelve days of Christmas game. I will write out twelve Christmassy activities on twelve pieces of paper. At least twice a week we will pull out an activity to do as a family.

Here are some of the activities we have done in the past.

Walk around the neighborhood to check out the Christmas lights.

Read the Christmas story by tree light.

Watch a Christmas movie while sipping hot chocolate and eating popcorn.

Christmas craft.

Turn on the AC and build a fire, listen to a audion version of A Christmas Carol.

Bake and decorate Christmas cookies.

Have a birthday party for Jesus where we each give him one gift for the new year. Like a promise to be more kind to others. A promise to spend more time in prayer. Ect...

Have a family sing along of Christmas songs.

That's just a partial list of all the fun memories we make at Christmas. It helps us to slow down
and really connect as a family. As the kids get older this gets to be more and more important. It's so easy to loose track of family during this busy season.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas season!

Be Blessed!

Spell check is not working so excuse any spelling errors. I spell as bad as any homeschooler I have ever met. :)

New plan.

Ok, here's my new plan. I'm going to send my two older girls to the local Church of Scientology. I figure that there they can spread the love of Jesus to everyone they meet.
I'm going to let the boys eat whatever they want. Whenever they want. That will help them to learn to make good decisions.
My youngest daughter will be allowed to go out with boys. Whenever. I want to make sure she knows how to handle herself and the younger we start the better I say.


What do you think? I mean obviously I am stunting their individual personalities by not letting them do and be who they want to be. At the ages of 12, 9, 8, 6, and 3 I think I can trust them to make good choices. God will protect them even when they don't make the best choice.
I mean I'm not 100% sure what I am doing here besides cooking, cleaning, kissing boo-boos and carting them to various activities. Maybe that's what my job as a parent is supposed to look like.
I could teach them manners, cleanliness, godliness, but quiet frankly enough people have told me that when my kids leave home none of that will matter so I'm thinking I could save myself the trouble and just skip it and relax.


Or maybe, I will decide that God has given me these children for a reason. Given them to me to raise and be responsible for. Given them to me to teach them His word and His love and to love, honor and fear Him.
Maybe I will decide that they are not quiet old enough to carry the souls of the world on their shoulders so their evangelizing right now should be under our guidance and protection.
That because they have not been exposed to wisdom for more than a few years they are not so much ready to go out and be wise.
Maybe I will just keep them close by for a few more years. Teaching them God's truth. Teaching them the wisdom from the elders around them. Teaching them to put on the full armor of God and when the evil comes to stand.
Just maybe.

Be Blessed!

Making it more about Jesus

Lately Jesus and I have had some serious discussions about homeschooling. Mainly, that this world is temporary. Math, English, Spelling, it's all temporary. Do my kids need it? Sure. Is it life or death that they have it? No. Scary, huh? I spent, HOURS, coming up with new lesson plans and a new organization system back in June just to have it all ripped to shreds these past few months. I truly believe right now I am Heaven's court jester. I say that with the utmost reverence. I truly believe that God is delighted with me and that I amuse Him. In a good way. Like when your kids are being silly and kids and you think they are just wonderful. I have brought God much laughter over this homeschooling thing.

See, Jesus used Karly to show me that I could make this fun or difficult. We could spend the next few years of her life here arguing and fighting over school work or we can spend it bonding and learning to love and serve one another. Hmm.. yeah. Tough choice. So, I am now coming to a place where our homeschool truly is more about Jesus. The loving Savior Jesus who delighted in the children. Who blessed them and had them brought to Him. Whose laughter I can almost hear as he played with the children around Him. I truly believe that Jesus had fun with the children around Him. And I am to be more like Jesus, right?

We will have daily Bible reading. If nothing else gets done that day we will do that. We will go back to singing hymns and memorizing the catechism. We are getting back to memorizing Proverbs as well. I am going to work through How to Study the Bible for Kids by Kay Arthur with Karly and Kelsie. With all of them we are going to read through How to Pray for Kids by Stormie Omartian. We are going to keep a family prayer journal where throughout the day you write down any requests you have and at night we will pray together for bed. I also read something I would like to start. Every morning during circle time we will pray for the person sitting next to us. I'm also going to have the older girls keep a gratitude journal. I will ask them to write down five things every day they are thankful for.

I want our focus to be on God this year. If we get to the math, spelling, and writing portion of the day, great. If not well, we know all knowledge comes from God.

Be Blessed!

Is it just me?

I have never been able to tune my children out. I hear everything they say from three rooms away and if they are whispering I find myself yelling at them to speak up. LOL
While my husband can't hear them fighting in the same room he is in, I can hear them fighting when they are at grandma's house. Ok, maybe not, but it seems like I can.
One time I got on to the girls for dancing instead of doing schoolwork. I was in another room. My oldest started crying. Not thinking I was too harsh in my words of correction I asked her why she was upset.
"How did you know we were dancing? You were in the other room!" she wailed.
The distress of finding out your mom really does have eyes all over the house was just to much for her.
I informed her that a mom knows everything. It was one of the most triumphant moments of my life as a parent. I never let on that I sent a little spy into the room when I heard some weird noises. Some secrets moms just have to keep.
On the other hand, being able to hear everything is sometimes stressful. I envy my friend who can have a van full of children and not hear the horrible (not in a bad way, but come on they are 11 and 12 year old girls) conversations coming from the back. Or maybe she has just learned to be more laid back and ignore them. Quiet frankly about 1.2 minutes of hearing about how great the Jonas brothers are is more than enough from me.
Imagine my 12 year olds surprise when we got back from that trip and I told her she needed to find something else to talk about because I was done hearing about the brothers.
Sometimes I wish I could be a tune them out mom. Then I remember that God has entrusted these kids to me . I have to train them up and if I don't know what they are thinking about then how will I know which direction to take them in spiritually?
I am my husband's helpmeet so I need to be aware of what's going on with my kids so I can let him know. Men aren't wired to multi-task or to hear everything.
So I guess I will be ok with hearing it all. Sometimes it's very amusing. Like the theological discussions my two boys have. I love to hear them playing legos and my six year old preaching to my three year old about the dangers of hell. Yes, I do believe we are raising a little George Whitfield. Where do these kids get this from?? LOL

Be Blessed!

What makes me wrong?

I am always making up scenarios in my head. I like to think it's me following scriptures you know where Paul tells us to be ready with an answer for what we believe. I'm just practicing here. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 1Peter 3:15
One of my favorite scenarios is where people gang up on me to challenge the way we raise our children. You know one or two do-gooders decides that my children will be forever scarred because they don't __________ fill in the blank (go to youth group, go to children's church, date, go to school, do sleepovers...).
The big question that I pose in my head to these people (who are already talking about me behind my back in real life by the way) is what makes me wrong except for your opinion that I am wrong?

Why exactly do my children have to be "in the real world"? I mean really? Is the real world sex at sixteen (or even younger now)? Is the real world hanging out at the mall all day trying to find a boyfriend? Is the real world sitting in a classroom with twenty other people your age trying to get through Algebra? Is the real world throw a pie at your youth leader night?

Can I ask, what is wrong with having innocent girls? With having boys who are more concerned with their latest Lego creation than with girls? If my daughter goes into marriage innocent and naive because we have protected her is that so wrong? I don't see anywhere in the Bible that says that my kids have to "experience" things to grow up to live good lives.

Isn't it weird that the Bible talks about God sheltering us and being our shelter, but other Christians point out how we are sheltering our kids too much? Just something to think about.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, [and] a strong tower from the enemy. Psalm 61:3

Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, Psalm 17:8

Be Blessed!

Tribute to an amazing Daddy!

His vision for our family: Father, grant my request that the number of my descendants in heaven is equal to the number I have on earth.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth it's fruit in it's season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee: for thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. 2 Samuel 7:29

So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household."

Acts 16:31

For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands; happy shalt though be and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Psalm 128:2-4

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.

Proverbs 20:7

I am working on our home education list for the rest of the year. I bought some books at the used curriculum sale last week and some more at CBD. I am reading through some more "how to books" and gaining lots of ideas. I like to school til about Thanksgiving and then "take time off" in November and December. I try to make sure we read a lot and watch some good educational videos during that time. I am trying to mesh up Charlotte Mason, Classical Education and the different learning styles of my children. I am working on some more "home ec" stuff. See my posts in the sidebar for Maiden Karly, Responsible Adrian, and Gracious Kelsie and Tamara. There are some new pics coming soon, I promise.
Jonathan is begging to "do school" so I have a little Bible craft and letter he colors. Also lots of reading. I want to incorporate more classical music and art history study this year. Karly is heading swiftly out of the grammar stage into the logic stage so I am looking into some logic stuff for her. On top of everything I am trying to make school more fun!

My head hurts! :)

I have prayed and prayed over our Math curriculum. I am comfortable with it and my kids do well with it... even though they hate Math. Sometimes I read that I should shove the Math curriculum because they hate it, sometimes I read that if it works we should stick with it. I would dread trying to start a new Math curriculum. When I weigh all the pros and cons I am thinking I will just stick with it. I think they hate it because it requires them to think.. I don't think another Math curriculum would fix that. LOL

For Grammar I wonder if I should switch, but I love the comprehensiveness of the Grammar program we are using. I tried a different one this year and it was just not it. I know with this one they are learning what they need and it's pretty low maintenance on my part. With five kids I treasure low maintenance. Then I read about all the fun Grammar programs. I think for now I will stick with what I have The kids don't mind it too much. The part they don't like is the writing, but that's Grammar..right?

Handwriting I will keep the same. They only do the Kindergarten, first grade, transition, and last book.

I love copywork so we will keep that.

We are not reading nearly enough. I have a Literature Pocket (Nursery Rhymes) coming for Tamara and Adrian. I am doing a Beatrix Potter study with Kelsie and a Literature Pocket (Fiction books) with Karly. On top of that I am checking out biographies, classic fairy tales, and other fun read aloud books from the library to read aloud during the day.

Our science and history was getting dull and boring. I have a new science project program and am adding something to our history program to spice it up a bit. On top of that we are going to read everything we can get our hands on for the science or history we are studying.

For Tamara and Adrian I am adding in a structured Phonics program. I was trying to get away with not doing it, but Tamara especially needs some more help. We are also reading a whole lot with them. A. Whole. Lot. They have a simple school day of one math worksheet, an addition fact sheet, three pages in Explode the Code, a handwriting sheet, and soon a Phonics sheet.

I picked up a new Spelling program I think I am going to try with Karly and Kelsie. It's very low pressure and seems to be really good. We will try it. My girls are HORRIBLE spellers. :)

I am sitting here blogging because I don't want to go play with lesson plans and schedules anymore. I need to because July is going to be when we start most of the new stuff.

July is kind of the start of the second half of our year. It seems weird, but I get pumped around this time. We have the used curriculum sale, the state convention (which I have yet to get to), and the regional convention (which I enjoy going to!). All of that works to get me back in the groove. Around Thanksgiving I really want a break, but then there's the new year and it's time to get pumped again. LOL

I love home education..even if it makes my head hurt! :)



Be Blessed!

I'm just saying....

I read this article today with a pain in my heart. California a lot of the time leads the way for other states. Two very distinctive things struck me about this article. One was the fact that these kids were being called these horrible names. The other was the parents who are so upset over this ruling.

No child deserves to be taunted cruelly or called horrible names. It's never Christ like to bully someone else. These Christian parents should be teaching their children that while we don't tolerate sin we still need to have mercy towards the sinners. No one is going to come to know Christ while being teased and taunted mercilessly. I don't believe the sin of homosexuality is any different than lying. Sin is sin. Just as mercy as we minister to other sinners is mercy.

Next, can I just say, as a parent if the ruling in California makes you so angry, why are your kids still in public school in California? Do you really think this is the first time they have gone outside of your permission to teach your child lies? Evolution as a fact, anyone? Revised history that completely leaves God out of our country? Why is it ok for the schools to teach your kids this but not the homosexual agenda? As my favorite preacher Voddie Baucham says, "If we continue to send our children to Caesar for their education - We need to stop being surprised when they come home as Romans."

Be Blessed!

Thoughts and Musings

We were out of town for the better part of last week. We went and visited with my inlaws for a few days and then hopped over to Tampa to visit my husbands best friend and his family. It was a busy but joyful week.

Karly has her schoolwork caught up. A huge deal around here. We are ready on Thursday to start June. WOOHOO! I won't tell you that I just decided to move all of May to June and just pick up there. LOL I really do love homeschooling.

Roy went for a test for a job on last Tuesday. Please say prayers that it all works out. He is very excited about this prospect and I pray with my whole heart that this is it for him. He really feels that God is leading him in this certain direction and is trying to be obedient. Of course it would mean major life adjustments for our family, but hey, I'm all for it if my husband is loving what he is doing.

We have our yearly used curriculum sale Saturday. I look forward to this all year. I am so lame. LOL It's so much fun pouring over the curriculum and finding that treasure. You know, like last year Saxon 5/4 the whole package brand new for $24.00. No lie! Or how about Keeping Your Child's Heart by the Maxwells for $1.00. A book I have come to love and treasure. Of course occasionally I walk out with a dud or something I end up not using but for a few dollars a piece it's not a huge loss. Of course God always sends someone my way that I can bless with my oops purchases.

Potty training. Stubborn. Do I need to say more? "Jonathan, you can't play the Wii until you are potty trained. You have to be a big boy." "Ok," he says cheerfully. Ask him if he wants to play the Wii. "No, not til after potty trained," he replies and then goes on his merry way. Seriously?

"Jonathan, you can't spend the night with grandma. She does not like changing diapers." "Ok, I wait," he replies with a grin. *Sigh* I do so love this little boy though!

Anyway, just a glimpse into the everyday chaos that I call life. Hope you are all well.

Be Blessed!

The Young Lady

So in a few short weeks I will be the mother to a 12 year old. It's a bit daunting. To understand that my time with her is winding down. There is still so much left to teach her. I pray daily that she will be molded into this young woman who loves God and desires nothing more than to serve Him. I look at all the short comings in my own life and notice how she tends to pick up some of my worst behaviors. I only have a short time to be a better influence on her.

She talks of marriage and babies and staying home. I pray that she truly believes those things in her heart. I pray for her future spouse. That he is right now surrounded by godly, faithful men. Men who are leading him and guiding him into true manhood. A man who loves God and wants nothing more than to serve Him is my prayer for this young man whoever he is.

We talk daily about decisions and choices and how they can help or hinder. About how habits that she forms now will be habits that she can either benefit from or will hurt her in the future.

I look at the young woman she is becoming. She had a gift card to Walmart the other day. She went straight to the toy aisle. She meandered up and down looking at baby dolls, Pet shop stuff, some dress up clothes, eventually she realized the toy aisle did not hold the same appeal it held only a few short months ago. We ended up in jewelry and clothing and shoes. Eventually she wound her way back to bedding. She found a nice fuzzy pink blanket that she claimed as her own.

She has asked for a camera for her birthday. I guess Build A Bear is out this year.

She is leaving girlhood and entering a new season. In another year she will be gifted with her very own home management notebook, full of ideas and inspiration for the daughter at home. With blank pages left to fill in her own schedules and routines and project ideas. It will be designed to grow and go with her.

She enjoys spending time in the kitchen. She loves helping out. In a few short years we look forward to releasing her to help the sick and overwhelmed for a few days at a time. She still has some maturing to do before that season. She loves to read her Bible. She enjoys talking to us about what she has read. I believe that God has something big in store for this young lady. She has been beaten down repeatedly in life but she always springs back for just one more go round. She has a warm gracious personality. I'm not sure she has ever known a stranger. Yes, God has a mighty goal for this young one. I look forward to watching it come about.

On days when she is my hardest child to parent (more and more it seems lately) I remember that God placed her here for a reason. She came to us at 8 years old. Insecure, rebellious, undisciplined, and unruly. I have seen God work a mighty work in her and I know He is not done. I am excited for this daughter of mine. Excited to see what God works out in her life. Excited to see her become a gracious, godly young woman. What a journey!

Be Blessed!

The best laid plans

Sometimes we make plans. We set goals. We dream dreams. Then something comes up to "distract" us.
A day at the beach. Enjoying the smell of the salty air. The sounds of waves crashing. Little sun tan lotioned bodies covered in sand and smiles. Enjoying one another and God's magnificent creation.

A garden! Millions of flowers in all sizes and colors. The smells sweet and tantalizing. Honey bees floating from flower to flower savoring the sweetness of each. Little hands covered in dirt as they hand you a wild weed and you declare it the most beautiful flower you have ever laid eyes on! A smile and the knowledge you have made a little boy's day!

A good book. Pictures and words that transport you to another place and perhaps another time. Knowledge. Understanding. Wisdom. The crinkling of pages. The smell of a newly opened book. The wonder of what will come next. Chubby fingers tracing the pictures and repeating the words.

A rainy day with friends. Time to snuggle up and watch a happily ever after movie. To pop popcorn and giggle over Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse. Enjoying Laura Ingall's latest escapade. Wondering what Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer will dream up now! The crunching of popcorn and little sighs of happiness from awe struck little people.

Or a time of rest. A sick little boy. A drink of cold water. A soft touch on the forehead to make sure it's still cool. A lap that will hold and snuggle until the ache goes away. The smell of shampoo as he gets in closer and you kiss his head.

Sometimes our plans are changed, interrupted. Those times are God ordained for us to draw closer to our little ones.

Be Blessed!