The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked.  

And the guide said:  "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end  will be better than the beginning."

  But the young mother was happy, and she would not
  believe that  anything could be better than these years. So she
  played with her children, and gathered flowers for
  them along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; and
  the sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried,
  "Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."

  Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was
  dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother
  drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said,  
"Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come."

  And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and
  the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary.
  But at all times she said to the children," A little  patience and we are there."
  So the children climbed, and when they reached the top
  they said, "Mother, we would not have done it without you."

  And the mother, when she lay down at night looked up
  at the stars and said, "This is a better day than the last, for my
  children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage.
Today, I 've given them strength."

  
 
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened
  the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped
 and stumbled, and the mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.
" And the children looked and saw above the clouds
  an everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond the
  darkness. And that night the Mother said,
"This is the best day of all, for
  I have shown my children God."

 

 

  And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and
  the years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent.
  But her children were tall and strong, and walked with
  courage.  And when the way was rough, they lifted her,
  for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill,
  and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And
  mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end
is better than the beginning, for my children can
  walk alone, and their children after them." 



  And the children said, "You will always walk with us,
  Mother, even when you have gone through the gates."
  And they stood  and  watched her as she went on alone, and the gates
  closed after her.  And they said: "We cannot see her
 but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory.  She
  is a living presence......." 

  Your Mother is always with you.... She's the whisper
  of the leaves as you walk down the street; she's the smell of bleach
  in your freshly laundered socks; she's the cool hand
  on your brow when you're not well. Your Mother lives
  inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop.
  She's the place you came from, your first home; and
  she's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love
  and your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can
  separate you.

  Not time, not space... not even death!

 PASS THIS ON TO ALL THE MOTHERS & CHILDREN YOU KNOW.
 MAY WE NEVER TAKE OUR MOTHERS FOR GRANTED...

  Pass it on to the men too because they have mothers too....

My mom sent me this in an email and I thought it was very, very nice and worth sharing...

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%?    What does it mean to give MORE
than 100%?    Ever wonder about those people who say
they are giving more than 100%?    We have all been in
situations where someone wants you to give over 100%. 

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
Z


Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

AND, look how far the love of God will take you

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical
certainty that: While Hard work and Knowledge will get
you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the
Love of God that will put you over the top!

Thought this was cute...

Wash Day...........
 
 
Monday 
Wash Day

Lord, help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity, so I may serve you with perfect humility through the week ahead.

Tuesday
Ironing Day

Dear Lord, help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected though the years so that I may see the beauty in others.

Wednesday
Mending Day

O God, help me mend my ways so I will not set a bad example for others. 

Thursday
Cleaning Day

Lord Jesus, help me to dust out all the many faults I have been hiding in the secret corners of my heart.

Friday
Shopping Day

O God, give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal
happiness for myself and all others in need of love.

Saturday
Cooking Day

Help me, my Savior, to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it
with clean, sweet bread of human kindness.

Sunday
The Lord's Day

O God, I have prepared my house for you. Please come into my heart so I may spend the day and the rest of my life in your presence.

I like the title of the last post by my friend SCHOOLDAZE .  That is what my post is about really...nothin' much.

Nothin' much is going on here...at least nothing that I'm inspired to blog about.  We do our daily 'thing'.  I'm still studying BPA heavily and I've started writing my curriculum for next year using the BPA approach.  I've alread done the subject of Literacy.  That includes reading, writing, spelling, grammar, speech, comprehension.  If I can figure out how to post a document here I'll post a few pages from my lesson plan on literacy...I plan on using this plan for my 4ds who will be 5 next year and in kindergarten.  I can 'expand' it to use for my 6dd who will be in 2nd grade next year.  She is already reading so I'll use it for her to just 'firm' up her foundation in literacy with more work on phonics-vowel and consonant blends and more reading, reading, reading! 

I'm currently working on 4Ring the Christian Principle of Self-Government.  I plan on teaching the 7 Principles as a foundation in our 'Christian Character' studies.  As we study the 'academic' subjects I can reference these 7 principles and b/c they should be familiar with them it will hopefully be easy for them to relate what I'm talking about to the subject we are studying.  I hope that last sentence made sense...

Anyway, I am very busy buy b/c I've not spent much time on the computer I find I'm more focused on my house and my children and studying...Praise the Lord!!  I suppose that is how it is supposed to be...so until I get inspired to write more it may be a little slow around my blog for a while.

Until next time....

dee

Well, tomorrow dh returns to work after spending a very enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday with us.  I have enjoyed every LAZY minute that we spent together as a couple and as a family.  

We went to my sil for Thanksgiving and then back home and have been home ever since.  We've run various errands and such but we just lazed around and did NOTHING together.  That is what I sooooooo was longing for.  I did not want to think about lessons, writing reports to the district, or even blogging!!!

In all of my doing NOTHING I did study my PA book and I stay in prayer asking God just to illumine to me the course, the way, the direction I should take in preparing my curriculum the Principle Approach way.  I'm am understanding, the more I read and study and pray the more insight I begin to have.  I'm so excited about this.  I'm so ready to see how God will formulate all of this within me to arrive at a curriculum.  I've also decided to start teaching the PA way next year, dd second grade year, which we will start in July 2006, since I'm doing year-round schooling.  For now I'm going to use this time to study and pray and write my curriculum for next year.

As for our Thanksgiving week, we took the week off from our studies and just let the children be... and the 'teachable moments' just 'happened'.  It was so wonderful to be so relaxed.  I think the children feel the change especially in me.  So I'm endeavoring to keep this attitude as we start a new week.

So 'school' did occur, very unintentionally, during our 'vacation'.  My dd6 learned how to mend her Barbie clothes with needle and thread.  My ds4 wrote a lower case 'a' for the first time in his life and it looked wonderful.  My dd6 also requested to have a family meeting last night.  So right before bed we all came together in the living room to await instructions from her and she spreads out one of my huge scarfs on the floor and told all of us to get our bibles.  Dh and I did.  She wanted us to take turns reading scripture.  So we went around twice amongst me, dh and my 6 yr. old daughter reading the word of God.  After the first round she wanted to pray.  We did.  After we prayed she wanted to go another round of each of us choosing scripture and reading out loud to each other.  We did that. Then we ended in prayer. 

My soul/heart was so refreshed and overjoyed at seeing my little ones requesting bible reading time WITHOUT our nudging.

Praise the Lord!!

What a wonderful way to end our Thanksgiving holiday!!!  I am so thankful for this EXTRA time God gave us to spend together.  I thank God for the gifts of my husband and children.  I thank God for being in relationship with Him...for coming to know Him....for Him making Himself known to me. 

I love You, Jesus....I'm Yours....forever......

dee

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I got such wonderful encouragement from my friend Suzanne that she just really made my day.  It got me to thinking how much an encouraging word really can bless someone's heart or even stop them from making certain decisions...to help them to keep keeping on. 

The bible tells us in Proverbs 25:11 that - A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver

Romans 15:2 - Let each one of us make it a practice to please (make happy) his neighbor for his good and for his true welfare, to edify him [to strengthen him and build him up spiritually].

1 Thessalonians 5:11- Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing

So let us make it a practice to continue to encourage each other here in this community...not just one day a week on Random Blog Day but let it be everyday...for we never know when someone will really need it.

Thanks Suzanne for making my day, today!!!   

And thank you Lord for knowing what I need when I need it!!!!!