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I am an aunt again, that makes 4. This time I finally have a neice! Emma Paige weighing in at 8.3 pounds she is 21.5 inches long. She was born on Friday, May 10. She is so cute! Her big brother is thrilled to have her home. He has done very well with her. Everything has been going GREAT here. I am so excited to have spring finally here. I go out on our deck and have my morning coffee, read my bible, listen to the birds. It is so great to feel such a connection with God in the morning. We live right near a nature center so we get all kinds of wildlife. Especially in the mornings. I took a wonderful picture of a Oriel in the tree. We have had a lot of them around here. We are starting to scrape the house getting ready to paint and put on a new roof. I'm so excited about that! We are doing a cream color with burgandy trim. I'm having trouble with the posting pictures on here otherwise I would post pictures when we are done. We have ordered our curriculum for next year. We are going to use My Father's World-Exploring Countries and Cultures. Check them out www.mfwbooks.com a friend of ours used them last year. We are starting on the 5 year curriculum. We are so excited to start this. It is all planned out for us. There are all kinds of activites for us everyday. Music from around the world, cooking, science, all we have have to add is Math and Language Arts. The shipment should be here tomorrow!! YEAH! As I posted before I've been diagnosed with Spinal Stenosis (narrowing of the soft tissue in the spine) and have been going to physical theraphy for a month now and they started me on lifting weights with my legs....well I woke up a week ago and my knee was swollen and very sore. I gave it a week and then called my doctor this past Friday and had x-rays. Well Monday I went to an orthopedic doctor.....good news is that my knee is just stressed! Now I have to wait until August to meet with the neuosurgeon for my back. The orthopedic doctor looked at my MRI for my back and they said my spinal stenosis is a pretty bad case for someone my age. I'm still praying it will not require surgery! I had to take a leave of absence from the ambulance and I had to withdraw from the EMT course. That was very difficult for me. I was so looking forward to the class. I guess it wasn't in God's time! Oh well. Well off I go outside to enjoy the day. God Bless
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Spring is such a wonderful time of the year. I look at spring as a time of renewal. It's a lot like when you are saved. Everything is new and fresh. I decided this term at our homeschool co op I was going to take a class. My first choice was quilting, but the cost was a little high. So I went with photography. I'm really glad I did. I have found a new hobbie of mine. This picture is one I had to take for a close up. If you can see it there is a small spot of pollen that had fallen off the center of the flower. Pretty cool I think.
I've been taking pictures of a lot of things around our property. This particular flower has a great deal of meaning to my husband and I. This came up shortly after my husbands Father passed away. He was not a flower man. My husband's grandfather came over and planted a whole garden full of tulips for my husband's Mother. My husband's Father mowed over the whole garden. Well this year we have almost a whole garden full of tulips.
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Today Katie turns 14! It is so hard for me to grasp. I look back at her baby pictures and it just seems like yesterday. She is growing into quite a young lady. I am going to try and work on uploading some pictures to add to this post. I just never seem to have enough time to sit here at the computer and work on this. Katie has really started taking over some duties of the house. Mostly the cooking. She really enjoys cooking. Maybe she is the next Rachel Ray. You never know. She is also starting to be interested in boys. I know it is all a part of growing up....but I am trying to teach her that God has someone all planned for her. It is up to her to follow his direction and the path will lead to him. I just worry that she will go the wrong path like I did. I know I have to leave it up to God.
For each of the children's birthdays we let them pick out the supper. Katie has chosen to go to Applebees for supper. Thank goodness my parents are going and will be helping us with the cost. Fourteen year olds do not understand for the most part that money is very tight. Especially with gas prices approaching $4.00 a gallon. Unbelieveable! Boy someone is making a lot of profits. My husband and I talked about buying a horse and buggy....it would be cheaper to keep a horse than a car now a days. May 8 we will have another birthday to celebrate our other daughter will be 11. The end of April and May we have a lot of birthdays. Lets see.....we have 3 birthdays in 10 days, it will soon be 4. My sister in law is due any day now with the 4th birthday. It is a busy time of the year. Saturday is the combined birthday party for Katie and Hannah. We also, on Friday, have our homeschool co op informational meeting. We have 6 who are interested in joining our group. We are excited about our group. Now we are just waiting on God to provide a building for us to use. |
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It has been a long time since I've posted here! I wanted to let everything settle down for a while. I'm glad to report that for almost 2 weeks now we haven't heard anything from the "other" family. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. We left it to God and I know his will is being done. Homeschooling is going great. With all the termoil going on this past month I am very surprised on how well the kids are handleing this now. They love homeschooling. Frankly so do I, I am learning so much right along with the kids. So we feel like we hit a homerun in the ball park of life. We are finishing up the year with Unit Studies. My husband and son are going to start on next week on the history of sports. It is a real good study. I thought it was something that they could both relate to. The girls and I are starting the American Girl books. I am VERY excited about this. I have a lot of activities planned for this. We purchased a couple of the AG cookbooks and craft books. We are also going to do a lapbook on each doll we cover. Our lapbooks are different than most. Buying the file folders for them was getting to be expensive. So we bought a huge lot of heavy paper (almost card stock but not as thick) and are putting it all in a 3 ring binder. Its almost notebooking but in more of a lapbook format. If I ever have a free moment to figure out the uploading of pictures here I will post pictures. I went for my physical that is required by the ambulance corp I volunteer in. Well to make a long story short I have been having some pain in my back that goes down my left leg causing my foot to go numb. It has been bothering me for a while now. I thought it was just due to my weight. So I brought it up to my doctor. She ordered xrays which showed a narrowing of the spine. She then sent me to PT 2 days a week and I had to have a MRI. Anyone who has been through one of these can relate to what I am talking about. It was the worst experience of my life. I am by no means afraid of small spaces. But 40 minutes in a "doughnut" was a bit much. I'm still waiting to hear about the results from my doctor. We will see. My PT says he is confident that PT will be enough along with loosing weight. Anyone who has had to do that knows that it is not easy. I've been in prayer a lot over this also. The temps are in the 70's today!!! We did school outside today. I couldn't sit inside at all. The feel of the sun felt so great. I love it when it is in the 70's! I did my devotionals outside this morning and it was so peaceful listening to the birds and spending time with my Father. Ok time to get back outside. Enjoy the nice weather.
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It has been a while since writing here! We have been so busy lately. First of all my former Mother in law hasn't let up at all with regards to her "concerns" with homeschooling. Friday, while droping my daughter off at public school for speech theraphy who did I run into?? You guessed it, my former in law. She just smirked and went into the building. She and my ex had a meeting with the superintendent. When I got back home I called the superintendent's office to find out what was up. I spoke to the secretary, she told me he was out of the office and would be back around 1 PM. I told her to have him call me ASAP on my cell phone. Guess what....No return phone call. As soon as I am done here I will call him myself again. I notified HSLDA and am waiting to hear from them again also. All weekend while the children were at their Dad's house all they heard was...."you are going back to public school on Monday". They were all very upset with what they heard all weekend. I know the Lord tells you to love your enemies....BUT it is very hard. Our 10 yo daughter had trouble sleeping Sunday night. She was very worried about having to go back to school. I reassured her that she wasn't going back. See recently she has been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder. Which affects how information is interpreted, or processed by the brain. What I thought was her just not hearing/listening to me. She slept very well last night. I have been praying very hard about this. I'm surprised at myself in how I'm handling this. But I know it is only through the grace of God I'm able to hold myself together. On a brighter note.....it felt like spring yesterday. Temps reached into the 60's!!!! I saw flowers starting to peek through, heard birds singing. I was able to sit out on our deck and enjoy the day yesterday. But I also saw how much stuff is in our lawn from all the storms we had this year. Sticks, papers, leaves, ect. This weekend we have decided to have a spring clean up. Its only going to be in the mid 40's but that will keep us moving! I'm getting excited to plant our gardens. With the price of everything going up, I'm planning on planting a large garden and canning/freezing a lot. We used up the last package of corn from last year. I've been saving my egg cartons to start seeds, which I'm going to plant soon so they are ready to plant on Memorial Day. Last night I went to the store and got 1 loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, and eggs.....which came to $6.75!!! I couldn't believe how much things cost. We usually go to Save a lot, which helps some but it is in the next town over. With gas up it didn't pay to go there. My hubby usually stops on his way home from work for the groceries. |
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I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I know we did. We went to my parents church because it was also my Dad's birthday. I grew up in that church and it felt good to be back there with my family. The church is struggling a great deal now. They may even be closing the doors. That weighs heavily on my heart wondering if we would of gone there would they be a little better off? That has been a big struggle for me lately. I know the Lord led us to our current church, but I'm also feeling led to my parent's church. Its the mind game right now with my self. I've been praying a lot about it. My Husband said he felt really good after leaving church yesterday. I've discussed this with my Husband and we agreed to pray on it. I've also talked to a good friend of mine about this subject many many times. Anyway we will see where God directs us. Today was a great learning day for all of us. I thought it was going to be difficult to get the kids settled down after Easter. Although we limited the amount of candy they had. Our 13 yo Katie, who has had not wanted to do anything lately sat right down and did all her work in record time. The most amazing thing is that she did it all right!!! Our 10 yo daughter Hannah, is still struggling with school work. I've been doing a lot of research on learning disabilities and I am taking her to the doctor Friday. One of the learning disabilities that kept coming up with her "symptoms" was Auditory Processing Disorder. All of the "red flag" items listed we checked off for her. I'm praying the doctor will listen to us so that we will be able to start helping her now. Today she read 2 books to me out loud and actually remembered what she had read. Our 8 yo son has been flying with education. He struggled with reading, but he just didn't want to sit and read. He is doing great now, I stopped pushing him with reading. He just picked it up one day. Math is his strong area. I feel bad sometimes because he is able to help our 10 yo. My husband is going to start a Sports Unit Study with him next month. He is very excited about it....oh yes and Andrew is also! LOL Our group lessons start up again next Monday, Katie is taking cooking, crocheting, card making. Hannah is taking learning the states, American Girl, Fun with Crafts. Hannah really enjoys making things. I'm going to start doing a lot more lapbooks. That way she will have something there right in front of her of what we learned. Andrew is taking archery, gym, drawing. I'm a little nervous about the archery class but i'd rather him learn it there. Have a Blessed Day!!! |
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This weekend has been such a wonderful weekend. My hubby was off Friday, we went and our 13 yo daughter opened her very own bank account! She has been helping a friend of ours with her kids once a week and has started getting paid for it. She was SO excited to have her own money. We are trying to teach her the value of a dollar. We also went to the uniform shop to pick up my ambulance stuff I needed. A stethoscope, work boots, the core I volunteer for also suggested getting a pair of EMT pants. Now I'm not sure how many are familiar with these type of pants .....but they are not flattering on a woman. They have a ton of pockets which makes the hips and thighs look larger! I do not need any help in that area! LOL So since they were not manitory I passed on them. My training has been going well. I'm trying to get used to jumping up again in the middle of the night when the pager goes off for a call. The first night I was on call and the pager went off I thought I was going to have to peel my husband off the ceiling!! LOL!! I really enjoy being able to be out in the community helping those who are in need of help. I'm excited to start my EMT classes in May. I'll be done by the end of August!! Today, Saturday, we had a lazy day here at the house today. This morning we watched "The Greatest Story Ever Told." I enjoyed that. Although I saw things that I'm not sure really happened. All in all it was a very good movie. Tonight we made Resurection Cookies. This was the first time we have made them. The kids had a blast reading the verses and adding the ingredients. Although I was a little weary of adding vinegar to cookies! I took some pictures so i'll try and post them later. We are supposed to be getting DSL internet!! But we have been given the run around about that. Our neighbor has it and everyone on our road. All of 5 people including us live on this road. We are the only ones with out it. We were supposed to be hooked up Tuesday or Wednesday of last week but a "glitch" in the system caused us not to be able to get it. We called again and they came out Friday to "investigate" the situation. We are supposed to call back on Monday to find out if we can get it. So we will see. It will be much easier to do things on the computer with it. But it is not a life or death situation. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. We will be spending the day with my Mom and Dad. It is also my Dad's birthday so we will be going to Church with them. God Bless!!
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Well this week has been full of ups and downs. Last Sunday our computer crashed. Praise God I had taken all of the photos off of the computer and put them onto CD's. BUT I didn't have a chance to get the homeschool file off! I was sick to my stomach with worry. My Dad had called on Tuesday saying that he was able to recover the files!!! I am so very thankful for a Dad that has the know how to do that. We would have to go without a computer if it were not for him being able to do it at no cost. Then Friday I received a very disturbing call from the public school. They had received a phone call from my former mother in law (the children's grandmother) voiceing concern about my daughters math skills. She has never been happy with us deciding to homeschool. She is the type of person who isn't happy unless she is controling the situation. She isn't a follower of Christ either, which makes it hard also. Anyway, she has been making phone calls to the school (at least 4 times), the State Education Department (at least 3 times). The Superintendent said that he felt he should call us to make us aware of her "concerns". I spoke with him about how when the girls were in school their math scores were well below the average scores. He said that he was aware of that. He tried to tell her that but like I said she is very difficult to talk with. I appoligized to the superintent for her draging him into this. Obviously he said he feels that every child should be in school. I said well of course you do, if you didn't you would be out of a job. He laughed and said your right there. I told my ex to have his Mom call me directly. She called Friday night, and I told her I wished she had come to me with her concerns and I would of happily shared the test scores from last year and the previous school year (in public school) The test scores were in the same percentile. No worse though. She made threats that she was going to FORCE us to have the kids tested by the public school. I know what she is capable of....BUT I know the Lord is capable of more. Maybe the Lord is using our faith to lead her to him. Wouldn't that be something. Please keep us in your prayers as we get out of this valley.
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I am amazed at how fast life goes by. It has been a month since my last post! I had decided about a month ago that I was spending too much time on the computer and not enough time on family and my other interests. The computer had been like the TV. I limited myself a lot on it recently and feel I have a grasp on it now. Kids are doing very well in school. We have gone back to the Prairie Primer. The kids learn so much more using this type of study. We are looking into the Further up and In next year using the Narnia series. Our son is thrilled. While he loves what we are doing this year it does tend to be a bit "girly" as he puts it. My husband has been teaching him woodworking, and general around the house stuff. It has been a great time for the both of them. God works in amazing ways....I was saying at the beginning of this blog about not having enough time to do things I enjoy because of the computer. I had been considering it since we had the drunk driver crash here in December. I went last month and voted in the primary election. I ran in a woman who when I was a young adult was my mentor while I was in the Fire Department and Ambulance Service. I had seen her around town a few times in the past few years but never talked to her. I kept saying to my husband that I would like to look into perhaps joining the ambulance again. But that was as far as it went. Well low and behold I saw her at the voting place. She said HEY I was going to call you today and tell you we are doing a orientation in a few weeks for ambulance and was going to ask if you were interested. I smiled and said I've been talking to my husband about it for a few weeks now. I sat my children down and explained to them what I was about to do. They were very excited about it. Then last Thursday she called and I went to orientation. I am again a member of our ambulance service. This Thursday will be my first shift in about 17 years. I am very nervous, excited and anxious all at the same time. For now I'll be a driver, back in the day I was a medic. In May I'll be working toward my Emergency Medical Technician certification. Everyone tells me its like riding a bike, you never really forget what to do. The only thing different about entering this time is I am now a Christian. I pray I will be an example to others. I will try and keep updating on my progress as I continue. |
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It has been a while since I wrote here. Life gets so busy. Yesterday at work my husband fell down a set of stairs (about 6 ft up) PRAISE GOD he only suffered minor scrapes and scratches. He is a bit bruised also. But God was with him. I try not to dwell on the what could of happened. School has been going great so far. We are all starting to feel a bit of the winter blahs! But are being creative in trying to get over that. The temps here have been so crazy. Last week we had a day of 55 degrees. Today it is 20 degrees. We had on Tuesday and Wed. ice and sleet with freezing rain...then to snow. Yesterday and Today has been steady snow. I'm going to post some pictures tomorrow. The trees are covered with snow, my family and I love to drive down this little country road that runs along side a creek with trees on both sides. It is like a tunnel of snow. I am working really hard lately at organization. I want our home to be a place of santuary and refuge for my husband who works so hard to support our family. It is so easy to let things go when I'm tired at the end of the day. I've been working on teaching the kids to help me. Not an easy task. Yesterday for school we cleaned their rooms. I showed them how to clean and put things away. I call it "Clean the way I want it cleaned not you". Their way is "making a path through the room by pushing everything to the sides of the room". My Mom smiles because thats how I cleaned my room as a child....or at least she says so. Every week I am going to TRY and post a recipe for something that our family has enjoyed making in the past. We let each child pick a recipe...either they have found it online....or in one of our many cookbooks. Last week we made Milk Crackers, a lot like Round butter crackers. I don't remember where I got this recipe from. I've had it for years. ENJOY! Milk Crackers 2 Cups All purpose flour (or what ever you like) 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup milk 1 Large Egg Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in the butter until it is very fine (I use my stand mixer with the wisk attachement). Add milk and egg. Mix together to form dough. Knead well roll thin. Cut into squares, rounds, or use special cookie cutters. Prick crackers with a fork. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
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Wow! I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. We finally got our car fixed. I praise God for his faithfulness through all this. Look at a few of my posts if you are not sure of what I'm talking about. My Uncle has a garage not too far from here so we spent the day down there with him. He is a Christian and we really enjoy him and my aunt. I started thinking about New Years resolutions. If you are anything like me I say every year that I will loose weight. This year I decided NOT to set any resolutions. I turned my whole year over to God. I'm very excited to see what he has in store for us. My husband just finished college (on Saturday!!) so we are patiently waiting to find out where he wants us. I would like to move back to the southern tier of New York State. That is where I am orginally from. My husband has applied to a few places down there. Right now he is just enjoying having free time again. Frankly, so am I. Although his studies were done online it still was very time consuming, he works 40-50 hours a week and went to school. Did not leave much time for family. The children are finally settling back down to their studies. They were still wound up after the holidays. During our Christmas break I came across lapbooking. Let me tell you. We have been doing this for almost 2 weeks now. The children LOVE it. They are absorbing so much more then just sitting down at the table doing workbooks. We are reading the book "Around the World in 80 Days" with each we are studying each country they go to. We learn how they got there, what they ate, how it was during the 1800's in that country. It is so much fun.
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Well we just returned from our Christmas Party. I'm very happy my sister has a big house. There were about 30 people there. So here we are sitting down to eat dinner, our children know to wait for the blessing before eating, and our 3 children are patiently waiting for the blessing before eating and everyone around them are already eating. Andrew pipes up and says HELLOOOO we haven't prayed yet. No one really knew what to say. My Dad was in the other room still getting his dinner and came out and asked the blessing. That started off the topic of being saved. He asked everyone sitting with him why they didn't thank God for the food they were eating, sending his only Son to die for us. Now Andrew does not like to be ignored, he kept on talking. My grandparents kept trying to change the subject but Andrew just waited and started where he left off.....As I was saying......then continued. My Dad, Uncle, Aunt, and us were just filled with joy over Andrew. My grandparents listened to him. So we will see. My husband and I are taking our car down to my Uncle to fix it Saturday (as you saw from my previous posts that we were hit by a drunk driver) and will be staying with my grandparents. I am really not very close to my Grandparents so I'm praying this trip will help that a little. Andrew even witnessed to my cousins children. There is so much joy seeing my son sharing his faith so openly!! Have a great New Years. |
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This year Christmas for us was the greatest. We did not have a crazy Christmas going here and there and everywhere. We consentrated on what the season is for. The birth of our Savior! We all, even the children, felt wonderful on Christmas morning. Oh yes the children were very excited to see what they were going to get. Our 8 year old son put it best. We asked the kids what Christmas was really about. They all answered it was Jesus' birthday. We then asked them how would you feel if on your birthday everyone else got a gift instead of you? That is when our son said " I already gave Jesus the only gift I can, my heart and my life". Yes I cried like a baby. From the mouth of babes. He was so right. Now for me as a parent the task is to guide them into living that life the right way. We are still struggling with our 13 year old in the area of being a Christian. We still have one more Christmas get together today. It is with my Dad's side of the family. He has 4 brothers and a sister. So it is a very large get to gether. 2 of my Uncles are Christians. My grandparents are not. When anyone mentions God or the Bible they get very defensive. Our 8 year old is what we call our "soap box preacher". He shares his faith with anyone and everyone. So we are excited/weary of today. I will not tell him not to share his faith but I'm worried that my grandparents will stomp out his light. I am going to leave it up to God. Who knows maybe it is God's plan to let them hear it from Andrew. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. May the feelings of Christmas be in your hearts and lives all year long. |
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I thought maybe for this post I'd share a little about myself. I was born and raised in a Christian household. I praise God for my Parents each and every day. I have 3 siblings 2 sisters and a brother (who is the youngest). I was saved at a very young age, around 9 or 10. I was at a Christian camp and went forward to an alter call. We moved a short time after that from a pretty small town where I was the "queen bee" in school, and my graduating class had 11 kids in it, to a little bigger town where the graduating class had 90 in it. I did not enjoy where we were living now (I am still there in that same town). We started at a great Bible believing Church. I loved it. But Monday thru Friday I was just like the other kids. I felt I needed to fit in. At that moment God just didn't fit into my school life. I still to this day feel very guilty for that. But I know I am now forgiven. I continued down the wrong path for many many years. I had to marry a man I knew wasn't the one God had intended for me to marry. After 8 years and 3 children, It went from bad to worse. I kept telling myself I have to stay here, the word divorce wasn't even in my vocabulary. My parents were great through this whole time. I was still so far away from the Lord at this time that I was sure he was "done" with me. I could hear my parents praying for me daily, we were living with them while I finished up college. A couple of months later, more like almost a year my sister said, why don't you start dating again. YIKES!! That terrified me. Who is going to want a 30 yr old mother of 3?? Living in the same town again that I grew up in I had seen many people I knew from High School. I kept running into a young man who was 2 grades ahead of me. I know now that the Lord was placing us at the store at the same time. It was almost a month before he had the courage to ask me out on a date. Besides I kept going back to the, who would want me? I kept telling him you do know that I have 3 kids don't you. He had never been married. We went on our first date, I had the best time. My Mom always told me that when you meet your soulmate you'll just know it. I knew what she meant. I really wish I would of listened when I was a youngster. We dated for 3 years before he popped the question. He proposed to me on December 24, 2004. I was so surprised. We were married in a historical village here in our hometown. It was a dream wedding. But the most important thing is that Christ is the center of our marriage. My husband was saved 2 months before our wedding, and I rededicated my life to Christ. We have had our share of troubles sure, but with Christ all things are possible. My life is on the right path now and all three of the children have excepted Christ and had water baptizm. We knew the Lord wanted me to come home, another area of life I tried to fight the Lord on, I had just started a career in the legal field! Well here we are present day, homeschooling and at home just as the Lord intended. GOD IS SO GOOD!! God Bless everyone and Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. |
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I don't know about anyone else but here we are so excited for the Christmas Season. We love the snow, snuggling up on the couch with a good book. I overheard 2 women talking today while waiting for my daughter about how they can't wait until Christmas was over. They were so tired of going to this concert and that concert. When our children were in public school I remember how much I loved going to their concerts. How sad it is that some parents go into the concerts with this type of attitude. The children have worked so hard. That is one thing the kids really miss about public school. I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool the children. The other night they put on a play for my husband and I. It was the first Christmas, it was full of songs and scripture. It truely made me feel great to see the kids acting out the scenes. Those are the memories I cherish. I am almost done with the Christmas preperations. I still have to bake Christmas cookies. I'll probably do that this weekend. The kids love to decorate the cookies. Then I'll just have to put together the gift baskets of goodies I give to the neighbors. The kids love to deliver the baskets. We have decided this year to take the commercialism out of Christmas in our house. We have a few decorations. The main focal point is the manger scene we have. Which I know is the way it should always be. But it is so easy during this time of year to get carried away. My siblings do not understand how we can do this. I said its easy...talk to me come January when all your credit card bills are coming in and you are complaining about how much you spent over Christmas. Have a very Merry Christmas!!
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We here in western NY are seeing alot of snow. Yesterday 12-13 we received about 5-6 inches of snow in a few hours. We are supposed to get more this weekend. I do not mind the snow so much now, since I do not really have to go out in it. The kids on the other hand do not understand WHY they do not get a snow day along with the neighbor kids. I promptly told them that when the other kids are in school in the spring time we take "Sun-days". Although the children love to play outside in the snow, I am not so quick to let them. We live in a very small house and there is not much of a spot for them to take off their snow clothes. Although I did break down and let them go out yesterday. BUT once you are in you are in for good. So far so good. I finally figured out how to upload pictures to the blog. So I posted a picture of the crash that happened here on the 4th. It is amazing how God works. We sent the young man who crashed here a Christmas card with some tracks in them. Then I was at the store the other day and ran into him and his father. I was able to chat with them for a moment. Then the same day stopped to get gas and ran into them again. Yes we live in a small town but they do not live here. They were just passing through on their way home. The children are doing well with their studies. We have taken a break from our workbooks for the Christmas season. Frankly, I do not like workbooks. I have found that the kids just rush through them, although they are done right, they are not really learning the material. So for now we are doing unit studies, and copy work. The Bible is filled with tons of handwriting material. Well must run now. Time to shovel. BOY will I be happy when hubby is done with his college!! 3 weeks and counting!!
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Well I haven't posted since almost Thanksgiving we have been very busy here. Doing this and that and everything in between. We have snow here now. It is very nice the first 10 minutes of the event. Naw...I do really like the snow...as long as I can stay put and enjoy the beutiful scenery. We have been doing many more kitchen lessons than workbook. I really enjoy the kitchen lessons better than everything. We have made gingerbread, learning where ginger comes from and seeing on the map where exactly it is in regards to us. We made a number of different cookie recipes from around the world. We contacted our church missionaries and asked for different recipes we could try. That was so much fun. Ok that was the great stuff that happened to us recently. Now for the bad....many people homeschool to protect their children from the dangers that lurk out there in the world. Well those dangers came crashing through our front lawn and almost into our home on December 4. A young man decided he was "OK" to drive home from the bar and going around 80+ miles an hour, oh yeah it was also snowing, split our telephone pole in half and became air born doing a nose dive into our front lawn with his car, then crashing into our car. Coming 4-5 feet from our house with us inside. Although that was a very bad situation we can see God's hand in everything that happened that night. We were supposed to be at church at that very minute, but due to the weather we decided to stay in. Had we gone to church he would of gone right into our home. The major thing was that my husband and son were shoveling the driveway about 15 minutes earlier. The young man came back the following night and told us he was very sorry for what happened. That was nice to see. As a former court clerk who had to deal with a lot of so called sorry people, I could tell he was genuinely sorry. We were able to witness to him and his father. He was sobbing by the end of the conversation. I told him that I had no idea where his relationship with God stood but God obviously had big plans for him because after everything he did not have 1 scratch on him. We contacted the judge and want part of his sentence to be coming back here in the spring and cleaning up all of the 1,000's of car parts spread out in our lawn. Yes I said 1,000's.
So back to Homeschooling.....we turned this whole ordeal into a big lesson. The kids are now fully aware of what happens when you make bad choices. Not only do they affect you but those around you and even thoes you do not know. I praise God that he crashed here and not into another car with innocent people in it. Until next time. God Bless.
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Last weekend we were able to see a friend of ours become an ordained minister. Boy what an experience that was. To stand up in front of the panel and get question after question must of been nerve racking. I know I was nervous and I was just the "kitchen help". He did great. You can always tell a person is called by God as to how they handle themselves in certain situations. We are approaching Thanksgiving. The same friend of ours and his wife and kids are coming here for Thanksgiving dinner. They are expecting their 3rd child Saturday and didn't want to travel. This is the very first time I will be cooking the complete meal. I have my Mom on speed dial. I started thinking about giving thanks and what I'm thankful for. The number one thing that comes to mind is that Christ came died and rose again for me. Second, my Husband and 3 children are walking with Christ. Third, My Parents are walking with Christ. Fourth, the ability to homeschool our children. Fifth, we are members of a wonderful Church. The list could go on and on. Trying to get this thought through to the children is difficult at times. We, like many homeschoolers are on a very tight budget, the children are still trying to adjust to that. I'm not sure they see the good in it yet. What they see is what they can't have. I know that in the future they will thank us. (I hope) It is hard not being able to give them the stuff they are use to getting. But it is just "stuff" after all. What matters is making sure they are brought up to adore and love Christ. Almost every day on the news there is some story where a child has done something. Just tonight there was a story about a child attacking another child, they were both 8!!! My son is 8. I know almost on a daily basis I thank or tell my parents I'm sorry for the way I was as a child. I admit it, I was a brat at times. Mostly in my later teen years. I think that when it comes right down to it we all need to be thankful for each day God has given us with our families. He may call us home tomorrow. Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. |
I have helped with many dinners but never gone out on my own for something this big. I know I will be fine. |
Whew! Finally made it to Friday. I don't know about anyone else but this week seemed to go on forever. Well ok not forever but a long time. I finally had a chance to meet with a woman who is considering homeschooling. We'd been trying to get together all week and something kept coming up. She will be pulling her daughter (14) out of public school so I agreed to meet with her to show her the paperwork. It all went well. Her husband isn't for pulling her out of school. His concern....how will she play sports? I asked them...in the long run is sports going to make her a well rounded educated person? If she is meant to be a professional athlete then the Lord will work out the details. She agreed. So now the rest is up to the Lord. The children have ants in their pants lately! They don't want to sit for their lessons. So we haven't done much this week. I think the most they learned this week was when we went yesterday to the prospective homeschooler's house. They have a farm. The kids were able to feed a horse, chickens, play with the dogs. She also invited the kids back for a horse riding lesson. They were very excited. I haven't been on a horse since I was a kid. Being at that farm yesterday made me long for my childhood days of growing up on a farm. We had a 30,000 chicken farm. Yes!! You read that right. When we had to move I was the only one of my siblings who was upset about it. I was and still am a country/farm girl at heart. Yesterday showed me how much I really miss it. We still live in rural america....but its no where near a farm. I said to my husband last night, "Wouldn't it be great to buy a small farm? We could get some chickens, pigs, ect." He didn't say NO! But the house we have now is his childhood home where his parents resided until they past away 4 and 5 years ago. So we will see. Maybe its just a pipe dream of mine.
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Hi everyone, I am a Mom of 3 wonderful children (don't we all say that!?) Daughter 13 Daughter 10 Son 8. We live in western NY. We've been saved only 2 years. My husband and I were saved just 2 months before our wedding. Yes I am divorced. It is so wonderful to have our marriage centered in Christ! Boy what a difference it makes. I know I'm not perfect and never will be, but my Father loves me unconditionally. NO matter what I did in the past I am forgiven. 3 years ago if someone were to tell me I would be a stay at home Mom, homeschooling my children I would of said you are crazy. I had just graduated from college and had a wonderful job as a Paralegal. As a matter of fact I did tell a couple of Homeschooling Moms they were crazy. I could never do that. Never say never when the Lord is in control. How could I be "stuck" with my kids 24/7 I'd go crazy! Well 2 years into homeschooling I love it! I wouldn't have it any other way. But let me tell you it wasn't without hesitation on my part. I hadn't totally trusted the Lord that this was the what he was directing us to do. It took a lot of nastiness on the public school part to get me to do it. It came down to one of the administration saying to me "Well if you think you can do a better job...." Well I said Yes i can!! I have to say this is the first time I have finally fell in Love with my children. Of course I have always loved them but it is a new kind of love that many of you have felt. I am pleased to say that not only are my husband and I saved now, all 3 children are saved and know Christ as their personal savior! They have all been baptized as well. Watching them be baptized was like having them all over again. The joy in my heart was overwhelming. Even for my husband, we were both sobbing during the service. We use many unit studies and some workbooks. But the kids do not like workbooks. They said they are boring, frankly they are for me too. I'd rather have them on an adventure. They are starting to like learning. Our 13 yo is the normal teenager, everything is stupid and boring. But she is getting better. The younger 2 just love school now. There is much more to the story which will come out with time. I look forward to many many entries on here and hearing from people all over.
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