A good cup of coffee to wake up to in the morning...ahhh!  My wonderful husband thought of me yesterday and how I love coffee in the morning.  He picked up a gourmet coffee....yummy!  I used to drink these all the time, and loved them.  I deeply appreciate and think so sweetly upon what my husband did for me, but the coffee tastes like chocolate syrup.  No reflection on my husband at all, it is just amazing to me how our tastes change over time!  So, I have watered it down with 3/4 regualr coffee, and 1/4 mocha latte.  The good thing about this is that it will last for days!!  Well, we have three presidents in our home today.  Yesterday being President's Day, we got online and checked out a few sites.  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/96/whitehouse/whhome.html

This one let them pick their favorite things as new president and a newspaper article was written about this new president using  their name.  We all laughed so hard.  I read it aloud and changed a few words to either make it understandable or to cover over words that I didn't appreciate.  We had a virtual tour of Mount Vernon.  That was great fun.  We just felt like we had gone on a field trip right here in our home!                                                                                                                       

I know this is getting long and most people probably get bored by this time...but it has been a few days now!!  I have been having some great time in a Bible study that I have been doing in the morning before my little guys get up.  It is called, Breaking Free, by Beth Moore.  How many of us moms, who live in a world that we try to keep perfected on all sides, have high hopes and aspirations for our children's lives as well as our own, have things that we get in bondage to but have no one to talk to, or the know-how to break free?  I know that I do.  It has taken me on a journey of pride from 2 Chronicles 26-27. It is truly amazing that when we, as Christians place anything higher in our lives than the Lord, we find hurt and pain.  God helps us break free, not only because He is not in His rightful place, but because of His love and compassion for us, knows that the pride hurts and destroys us.  King Uzziah is an example of that pride and the pain that follows.  His son lived a steadfast life for God, but still left the "high places" of worship to other gods standing.  Therefore the people under him, and even his own son, did not worship the One true God.  It is truly a wake up call for me to remove the "high places" or things that I feel I cannot do without in my life.  I want Jesus to be my "all in all."  There I find true happiness, peace and joy!!  That is all for now.....

Well, here I am and it is Friday again. Time truly does fly.  I am not sure what was accomplished this week.  We have mended some relationship issues, talked over many others, and washed all the laundry.  There it sits, on the couch.  We exercised, built a snowman (which melted), made cookies for the mailman, and bought groceries.  They sit on the table waiting for me to put them away.  I am laughing now.  We do get things done, and I try to maintain a schedule, but all seems to go off track with just one thing that is unexpected.  I wonder if anyone has a schedule that works for them and still allows them to enjoy their family and the freedoms this life offers in Christ?  Could I please meet that lady?    I feel that she would be an asnwer to prayer.  I desire to structure my day according to the way God wants me to.  I am not quite clear on how to do that.  Now that my husband is not here for most of the day I feel like I am back to the kindergarten of being a wife and mother.  It is so funny!!  I am sure that as I pray about these things God will reveal to me what He has.  God is so good.  I will try to gear up for the new week and hope and pray for joy to be the theme of our week.  I feel like I am ever learning...always at the Lord's feet!!  What a wonderful place to be.....

Valentines Day....a day of chocolates, canndy, hearts, flowers, cards, and cupids.  My children and I got to talking about all of this just this morning.  We have a day of fun planned for sure, but we made some time to discuss the whole topic of love.  What is it really?  We tend to struggle with it here a lot.  We tend to be seekers of ourselves quite a bit, and complainers, and..well, shall I go on?  As we talked, we had several issues arise with different children, and I raised my voice, and so on, always going back to the topic of love.  I can chuckle about it in one part of me and the other part wants to hang my head in shame and cry.  We compared love to gum.  Gum?  You know, the kind that starts out really great, and makes great bubbles...and then gets sour and hard as a rock.  We are like that a lot.  We think up some great big plan.  Maybe it is a nice card, or a dinner, or flowers, and then with our daily interactions with eachother we turn sour and hard hearted.  I for one really like the gum that last and lasts with great flavor. I truly desire to be more loving, with the love of our Everlasting, Ever loving Father.  I desire that the love in my heart soar way above and beyond the human plannings of one day a year where we color pictures, buy presents and light candles.  I pray that the light that shines the brightest is the love of Jesus that shines all year long!! 

As far as what we are doing for "fun" today:

We had heart shaped pancakes with kisses on them (after our very loving talk)

We did valentine worksheets that were printed off the computer

We talked about the history of Valentines Day

We "plan" on making some cookies

We "plan" on making some great cards for one another

I plan on setting my heart on Jesus so that I may truly love from my heart!! 

Well, that is all for now....and am really at His feet today,  Melissa

February 13, 2006

This is brand new to me, but really a great thing.  My husband has worked from home for most of two years. We have had so much fun, all six of us!  We lived in a 1800's log home, have renovated a new home together, and so many other things together.  We are going through some changes.  They are all good, just different.  He is now working about 10 hour days away from home and I am needing some things to help keep me encouraged with homeschool and things of the Lord.  The ages I homeschool are 8, 7, 5, and 3.  We have a lot of fun.  We do Abeka mostly, but I want to change that!!  We love to read together, do hands on fun things, and enjoy  the learning process more than just "getting it done."  I was homeschooled and knew that unit studies was the way to go, but my husband needed some time to feel comfortable with homeschooling, so Abeka seemed pretty good for a time.  It has served us well, and probably will continue with it in areas of our learning, but desire some other things.  I am not sure who will read this, but if there are any ideas, please comment!!  Thanks.  I viewed some really great and inspiring websites from some ladies here and it has blessed me!  Some of them I saved on my favorites.  I plan on trying to place entries daily, but we will see how that goes.  Each day is different for me.  I am more of a relaxed homeschooler.  I like to plan, but as soon as I do...off we go on a hike, or to the library or something!  Well, that is all for today....off we go to town.  :0) Melissa