Growing in Grace is having a fun scarf giveaway.  Also, there's step-by-step instructions on how to knit a scarf.

Deadline to enter is October 17th at midnight PST,
so go check it out!

What a great day. I really feel like we turned a corner. In an attempt to control the power struggles I seem to have with my 7 year old when it comes to school, (I have been starting to worry about our relationship being very strained.) So, I have been using a different approach. I have been more laid back about school. Some days we didn't do it at all. I have been putting him in charge of some things.
I read a post on my Weaver Yahoo group that said "Inspire not Require". I really like that. I have been trying to find ways to do that. Lang Arts has always been a struggle with Hayden. Lately I have been doing the writing, while he 'writes' the story. I figure that by the time he gets to college he will be writing on his own....and yes, he might have bad penmanship if he doesn't practice 10,000 times, but most of the people I know with bad handwriting are successful doctors (me excluded!)….. We have also been writing about something he loves instead of what the book is saying to write about. This is not easy for me. I am kind of a 'by the book' person. Not as much as my brother (sorry Jimmy!) but going "outside the box" is not something that come naturally to me. I can almost hear a collective “DUH!” from all you homeschoolers! Gee…who would have ever thought to lay off the pressure and work with something he’s interested in???  Like I said, I’m inside the box…… Anyway, today he ASKED to do LA!! Yes, he WANTED to write about Pokemon! I dropped everything I was doing and sent him to get his journal….. I am hoping that one of these days he will ask to do the writing himself. I tend to write slowly in order to make my penmanship legible! (and that’s after writing “I will not forget my homework tomorrow” until I had hand cramps when I was in school. Did that make my penmanship better?…..NO…..it did make me not like writing……or my teacher)

 My how time flies when life keeps you hoppin'!

We had all but finished cleaning and organizing our house when we got some house guests from Louisiana the end of August. My older sister and my 79 yo Grandma live on the Westbank and were evacuated due to Hurricane Gustav. The Tuesday after they arrived, Sept. 2nd, the day I had planned our first day of school, I ended up spending the day in the emergency room with my Grandma who was dehydrated and had stomach flu on top of recovering from gall bladder surgery the week they evacuated. So my sister stayed with the girls and took care of things here as best she could. She literally spent the day in my shoes with them and implemented the lesson plans-thank God I had them planned out well in advance-to the best of her ability. They planned on leaving the 6th or 7th but ended up staying in lieu of Hurricane Ike on the way and forcasted to hit right where Gustav made landfall. So we watched and watched Ike to see what it would do once it entered the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually it became clear that Ike was headed for Texas but was so BIG that they might as well wait until Ike was done. Grandma and Sis left on the 14th at the girls' bedtime. In all this time we accomplished 3-4 days of actual school. The rest I canned green beans and made zuchinni relish and kept up on the house work as well as visited with Grandma-who we hadn't seen since our honeymoon 5 years ago-and my older sister-who had moved back down south and had been gone for two years.

The morning after Grandma and Sis left I discovered just how tired my preggy body was and didn't get anything done but the bare minimum. We are slowly getting caught back up on our lessons-doing only the Konos activities that will drive home the concepts so we can get back on track and math, english, and phonics. We are just about caught up with Konos but will take a bit more to get caught up with the three R's.

Here it is October already and I am still playing catch up and feeling quite overwhelmed and well, frazzled. In just 2 and 1/2 months we'll be expecting baby Simon to make his debut anytime and we really need to have everything-schooling and house work-complete and ready to go before that. In the midst of my hurried, stressful days our pastor's wife announced a new Bible study she wanted to host at her home called The Frazzled Female. Of course, I jumped on board-feeling led to-feeling I could really benefit from this Bible study. I am having a blast doing this study and letting God work on me and change from the inside out. I am slowly getting control of my life again with God's help and the encouragement of the wonderful ladies in our group.

Our almost 3 1/2 yo is finally potty training! I am so excited! Sad to say but Dad did the other three so #4 DD is the first one that I have been hands on with. We ran out of Pull-Ups so I resorted to the underwear and plastic pants method and it is working really well! She has some accidents-we started last Wednesday-but mostly goes on the potty. One of my "to have done before baby is born" items was to her potty trained fully and she is well on her way.

Guess that's it for now. Hope everyone else is having a great school year so far! Ours has been quite the adventure and it's only been a month since day 1!

Today marks five weeks since the Drews family was changed... forever. Praise the God of all creation for how He continues to be a blessing to those who've been touched by this sweet family's devotion to and dependence upon Him.

Thank you, Marsha, for allowing Jesus to shine through you to so many people around you.  May God be glorified!

Delight yourself in the LORD;
         And He will give you the desires of your heart.

He knows when we need things long before we do.  He even knew what Miss Jocelyn, Miss Amanda, and I would be writing about today before we knew ourselves.    Isn’t God awesome?!

• Do you think this is just a coincidence?
• What can we learn about God from these seemingly un-related blog entries?

   Commit your works to the LORD
       And your plans will be established.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
         And do not lean on your own understanding.

Click here to join this week's Saturday Psalm and Praise.

My sister has been on near total bedrest for about a month.  Yesterday, my new niece 'S' was born weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces. Mother and baby are doing fine. I can't wait to meet her in person!

Come see what others have for Show-n-Tell!  Mary (Canada Girl) hosts this fun meme every Friday.

Make plans now to go see this tomorrow night!