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I have been homeschooling for 9 years now.  You would think that with all the curriculum I have sampled that I would be an expert by now.  Unfortunately, I am realizing that I am in the learning stages myself.  My oldest is in 9th grade, and is very adamant about going to college on a scholarship.  I have not been the best homeschool mom, I admit that there are days when I just shove the books and assignment tracking page in front of her and tell her to check off each lesson as it is completed.  There are days when I get so distracted by my preschooler and my hubby's business that I don't even sit down to read to any of my kids.  I have tried to use unit studies that would incorporate all of the kids, I have tried the traditional textbook approach, I have even tried unschooling (oh horror)! 

In all of these trials, the only method that is successful is one that is devoted and bathed in prayer to God, who has more than my agenda in His plans.. He has each one of my children in His hands as well.  I posted a prayer request to a group about my struggles with homeschooling a bright but lazy teenager, and how I was feeling that maybe my homeschool journey was over.  I am copying a portion of a response that I found really wise. 
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THE SCULPTOR

Isaac slid his hand over the smooth, cool, sculpture. He studied the detail. He ran his curious blue eyes over every curve and indention. “Master,” he said, “how dost Thou capture every beautiful and significant feature? Every detail and complication? Mine eyes have never seen such wonderful handiwork.”

 The Sculptor gently smiled. He looked at the garden beside them. Large blue butterflies spread their wings over the white and orange lilies. He did not answer.

 Isaac admired the other works of art. There were a horse, a dolphin, a tree, and a deer. Several smaller statues surrounded them. Each one was perfectly shaped. Not a line was out of place.

 A soft, calming breeze swept through the garden. The sky was gray and peaceful. Morning dew was still on the grass, and the entire place was filled with quiet and tranquility.

 The Sculptor did not look up. His gentle, wrinkled hands were busy. He was making a bird. His gray and understanding eyes followed the curves and shapes.

 Isaac yearned to have the ability to do what his Master could do.

 “Isaac,” said the Sculptor, stopping His work to talk to him. “To sculpt and to build and to create, you must break the clay down. You must crush it and make it into dust, then mix it with water. This makes new clay that is pliable in your hands.

 Likewise, you must let the Sculptor of the universe- who created all things good- break you in His hands, so that He may use the hardened clay. Man is proud and cruel and hardened; the Sculptor must crush him, crush his pride, and crush his hardened heart so that He can make it new.”

 Isaac was silent. Understanding slowly came to his mind. His heart had been hardened.

 “I want to be crushed!” he cried out in a broken voice. The Sculptor held out his hands. They were stained with blood.

 Isaac wept. The Sculptor wrapped His arms around him.

 “Thou art forgiven.” he lovingly said.

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BOB JONES PRESS


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I got to meet the author, Marcia Sommerville and her husband this past weekend at the Homeschool convention.  It was a blast, and I am so excited about using the Redesigned year 1 next year!  This will be the first year of using Redesigned, since I used years 1-3 of Classic TOG.  I am even skipping Year 4 so I can get into the Redesigned program!  I am so grateful to the Lord for this curriculum.  Before TOG, I used Sonlight and Konos.  When I got to the point of trying to combine 3 of my kids into 3 levels of Sonlight, I was about to throw in the towel and give up homeschooling.  I decided to try a Textbook approach, and that year turned out to be even more of a disaster!  So I purchased TOG, and when I got it from the big Brown Truck guy, I looked over the 1000+ pages and thought I must have made a mistake!  It was overwhelming to just look at it!  :0)
        I put it back on the shelf and decided to do another year of Sonlight.  It was a stressful year as I seemed to put off my younger kids as I struggled to help my oldest with her studies.  I picked TOG back up in the beginning of 2004 and haven't looked back since!  I just realized that I had to take one piece at a time, and though there are a multitude of ideas and hands on activities in TOG, I couldn't do them all!  Much more than that, I realized it would be okay to pick and choose only one or NONE AT ALL!  The freedom of doing that has resulted in a newfound appreciation of this wonderful classical, K-Mom unit study!

Well, back to the business at hand!  If you click on the link to the right side of my blog, that will take you to Tapestry of Grace website.  When you order online this week until July 1st, you can get free shipping by using a special code I can give you via email.  Please post a comment and tell me you ordered it and I would love to chat with you about it once you have it in your hands!  I am also starting a TOG Year 1 co-op in my city, and it is easy to do!  I would love to share with you about that too!   You can either post here or email me directly at: thepammy2001@yahoo.com for that code!

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Spiritual Warfare and Praying for Your Kids
By Jennifer Leigh Ryan

Earlier this year a gorilla escaped his cage and bounded out of nowhere to snatch a toddler from his mother's arms. So much for a breezy day at the zoo! As the mother struggled to free her child, the beast flung her across the walkway. She watched in horror as the monster bit her baby's body. The police shot the gorilla just in time. The child was released relatively unharmed. Can you imagine how that woman wrestled to free her son from the grip of that animal?

Well Ladies, put up your dukes! Spiritual warfare is waging on the home front. Like that rabid gorilla, or a roaring lion, our enemy is seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is eyeballing our kids. Our only hope is God. But God is counting on us. He's not budging unless we stand-up, fight and pray. As one evangelist said, "God does nothing on earth, but by prayer." We've got to pray or be prey.

What is Spiritual Warfare?> Spiritual warfare is not about looking for a demon under every bush or casting out devils. It's about power. It's praying without doubting that we are shaping our world (James 5:16). It's an offensive stance against sin and wickedness. Saying, "No devil, you're not getting my child!" We're wielding the power of the Cross and Christ's blood, saying, "In the Name of Jesus, every demon must flee!" (Luke 10:17) It is winning souls, living righteously and setting a good example. It means understanding who we are in Christ, and praying proactively rather than when we've reached dire straights.

The Battle
Don't underestimate this war. True, we wrestle against "principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this age" (Eph. 6:11). But our most formidable foe is ourselves. Our flesh is at war with our soul (1 Peter 2:11). Only by walking in the Spirit can we overcome our flesh (Galatians 5:16). As far as the dark forces, we don't have to worry. The devil was defeated on Calvary. Our job now is to pray in accordance with that defeat and serve as co-laborers with God in effecting our kids' lives. If we aren't praying, we're falling behind.

It's time to advance the Kingdom of God; to stand and fight. Paul tells us to "take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand" (Ephesians 6:13). This armor is our Christian virtues of truth, peace, holiness and faith. Our sword is the Word of God. Our prayers link us to God who does our bidding and abolishes our strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3).

Why Pray for our Kids?
Mama began praying for Ray before he was born. Though he grew up in church, as a teen he rebelled and grew into a wicked thug when he reached adulthood. Still Mama prayed earnestly for him without wavering.
"Ray," Mama said. "Me and my household will be saved" (Acts 16:31).
"Right, Mama!" Ray laughed. "Face it. I'm happy doing drugs and stealing. Give up!"
"Somebody's lying." Mama said. "Is it God?"
"No, Mama," Ray said, shaking his head, amazed at his mother's dogged persistence.
"Well, somebody's lying," Mama said.

Many years passed, but she never stopped praying. She stood on God's promises about her son. One day, she got a call from the hospital. Ray had been shot. He was dying on a gurney. Mama said, "No sir! My son is not dying. God made me a promise!" The doctor thought she was crazy. She didn't care. She marched to her prayer closet and wrestled with the enemy. Mama won. Ray came back to life after dying from multiple life-threatening gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Five years later, when Ray was in his late-thirties, Mama's prayers were answered. He gave his life to the Lord and was gloriously saved. Now this ex-convict travels the world preaching the gospel and testifying of the power of a praying Mama.

Hopefully your children will never be like Ray was, but if they are God will be faithful to you like He was to Mama. Pray the scriptures over your children daily. Once you start, you'll be hooked for life. Repeating scriptures on behalf of your kids is powerful and moving. You'll become a better mom.

Here are just a few of the many scriptures you can pray over your children, the list is endless:
I pray that ________ (child's name) will have faith in God. (Romans 10:17).
I pray that ________ (child's name) will walk in humility (Titus 3:2).
I pray that ________ (child's name) will have a good self-esteem (Ephesians 2:10).

How to Pray for Your Children:
1. Praise God first. (Psalm 100:4)
2. Make sure there is no unconfessed sin in your life that would hinder your prayers. (Psalm 66:18)
3. Acknowledge that you don't know what to pray without the Holy Spirit directing you (Romans 8:26)
4. Deal aggressively with the enemy in Jesus' name with the "sword of the Spirit" which is the Word of God. (James 4:7)
5. Die to your own self and the urge to pray what you feel you should pray. (Romans 8:26)
6. Wait upon the Lord and listen for His direction. (Psalm 62:5)
7. Believe that you are hearing God when you pray (John 10:27) and that he is guiding you. (Psalm 32:8)
8. Ask the Lord to give you confirmation in the Bible. (Psalm 119:105)

Jennifer Leigh Ryan is a Freelance Writer, Youth Pastor and Women's Speaker from Dallas, Texas. She is graduating with her Diploma in Practical Theology from Christ for the Nations in Fall 2004.

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This letter is being composed on the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on behalf of my mother.  My mother, Myrtle, is a long-time resident of Louisiana, and was born and raised there.   She moved to Texas as a young woman and met my father and raised 6 kids.  She moved back to Louisiana 25 years ago after divorcing my father and married my step father, Edward.   She stayed faithfully by his side as his health began to deteriorate after a massive heart attack and heart surgery.  Eventually, he had to have dialysis and oxygen.  My mom’s health also began to go down-hill, she has diabetes and emphysema.  Living 600 miles away, I feel helpless. 

Upon hearing the weather reports last August 2005, I called my mom and asked if she was evacuating.  She and my step dad lived in a 30+ year old mobile home that had an additional two rooms added on.  Based on my experience with living in a mobile, I knew that it couldn’t withstand hurricane winds.   Much to my surprise, they were not planning to evacuate!  I begged her to at least go to stay with my step brother in Baton Rouge, I told her that I had a feeling it was going to a bad storm this time.  Finally, they decided to pack up and go to Baton Rouge.  I talked with her in the morning shortly after she arrived at my step brother’s house.  The winds were already starting to pick up there.  However, she was in a brick house and if memory served me correctly, the big bad wolf couldn’t blow the brick house down.  Much safer than that old mobile home.  The phone lines went down and I did worry some, with my eyes fixated on the News.  I knew she was okay.  However, about 4pm that day, I had a horrible feeling in my gut.  I thought, hmm, I didn’t pray for Grandma and Aunt Lena and all the other kin, maybe they are being affected by the storm.  I had talked to a cousin who said he was on the phone with his dad who lived along the Pearl River and winds were about 90 mph and the phone went dead.  The next day, I was able to get through to my step brother’s cell phone and he gave me terrible news.  About 4 pm the day before, my step father and mother decided to drive back home to see if there was any damage to their home.  Forget the warnings and downed trees; my step father was a determined man.  At one point, he was told to turn around and go back to where he came from, but he knew all the back roads and kept going.  My dad always used to say if an enemy ever tried to attack the U.S, he would go hide in all those pine trees in Louisiana and they couldn’t find him.  Well, now all those tall pine trees were downed and littering the highways.  I was fuming mad when I discovered this horrific news.  For 3 days, I couldn’t reach my mother or know if she ever made it home.  I posted Missing ads on the Internet sites that were set up for Katrina victims.  When I heard that my city was going to be taking in evacuees, I rushed to help, maybe that would help alleviate my fears.  I helped serve food to many of them, as well the helpers.  It was a fairly organized operation, but sometimes I felt guilty.  Some kids would come back for seconds, or missed the deadline to get their food by 30 minutes.  We were instructed to not pass out anymore food because they were waiting for a bus of evacuees who had been without food for 3 days.  I admit I couldn’t turn away the pregnant woman and children who came to the table late.  I talked with some of them, finding out things that made my skin crawl.  The ones who were evacuated to the Superdome seemed to have a more traumatic experience than those who stayed in their homes.  I tried to comfort those I could, but inside, I was worried about my own family.  The next day, I called my step brother and gave him a lecture for letting them go.  I told him I realized his daddy was stubborn, but he should have held him back with whatever means were necessary.  I asked him to drive back to their home to check on them.  My step dad needs oxygen, and who knows how much he had left.  I begged him to go right away.  My husband wouldn’t let me jump on a plane, and if I did, where would it land?  New Orleans was in chaos.  Finally, I heard some good news that night.  My step brother went to my mom’s house and saw all the trees strewn all over the yard, and half of the home destroyed.  They weren’t there.  He decided to drive to her cousin’s house where my mom had gone to deliver all the meat that had been in her deep freezer.  She said when she walked outside and saw my step brother that she hadn’t been happier in all her life.  She had told her husband that morning that they had to go back because he was out of oxygen and they didn’t have electricity.  What would have normally been a 1.5 hour trip from Baton Rouge to their house took them 9 hours.  When they got home in the middle of the night, they couldn’t even drive onto the driveway.  Gas was spewing out from under the house and it was chaos.  They slept in their car that first night.  The next 2 nights they slept in their new recliners in the living room.  Some water had come in through a broken window, but they were safe.  The next day we got some bad news.  My step father’s mother had been moved from the nursing home in Bogalusa when it lost power and she died of dehydration.   The days and weeks that followed were painful for my mother and step father.  They couldn’t get immediate help and eventually had to pay someone to cut and remove all the trees from their land.  I remember when my aunt had a timber company pay her for the trees!  I guess these trees weren’t valuable anymore in their current state. 

After 4 months, FEMA gave a modest sum for repairs.  Since there was no insurance, my mom had to find the cheapest materials and labor available.  Fortunately, my uncle had a construction crew that would not charge too much.  The repairs were done, though the bent frame on the mobile home couldn’t be repaired.  The rooms that were added on sustained the bulk of the damage, and that was where the repairs were concentrated on.  On Easter morning, I called my mom and found out she was going on a trip to the Smokey Mountains!  That just happened to be the week where a bear mauled a little girl and her mother to death in those same mountains.  Great, more to worry about!  I was surprised that my step father agreed to go considering his health.  I think he knew his time was short and he wanted to leave a good memory for my mom.   She came back (thank God she didn’t find any bears)! and tried to make Edward as comfortable as possible. I talked on the phone to her every week, but I was busy with selling our house, buying another one, helping my husband’s business and schooling my children.  Time was never on my side.  One week after our move into the new house, I got a call from mama crying.  “My baby is gone!”  I thought at first she was referring to my brother or sister, but realized it was my step father.  She had to go to the Emergency Room because she had been having nosebleeds every day for a week.  She told my step father to go back home because it could be a while and she would call him when she was released.  The doctors wanted to admit her, but she signed herself out.  She tried calling home and there was no answer.  She became worried and asked one of her cousins who had been visiting someone else in the hospital for a ride home.  As soon as mama opened the door, she saw Edward sitting in his chair and just knew he was dead.  At that point, she started to get hysterical and her cousin heard her and pulled back into the driveway.  Mama told her to put his oxygen on, he will come back!  It was too late.  He was gone.  I was able to arrange a few days off to fly with my brother on a plane to attend the funeral.  I took my youngest son, 2 years old.  I hadn’t been on a plane in over 12 years and had sworn after 9/11 that I never would.  Well, 2 hours on a plane is a lot easier in a rush than 12 hours in a car with a toddler.  At one point, I let my son look out the window right after take off.  He said “We are in the sky! I don’t want to fall!”  I don’t either baby!  I made it through.  The trip home was a little rough.  Leaving mama was hard to do; I wished I could take her home with me.   Three weeks after my step-father’s death, I called my mom on a Saturday and while I was talking to her, I heard my aunt in the background.  There was a bad thunderstorm and she needed my mom to get off the phone and help her with the window that had never been repaired as rain was coming in.  The front door blew open.  A few minutes later, my mama called me back crying again.  The roof had come off of the additional rooms again and water was pouring in, all over the new beds and her clothes and dressers.  Could there be anything worse?  Here she is grieving the loss of her husband, is in poor health, and now another disaster strikes. 

To this day, those rooms are still damaged. FEMA won’t help her this time.  She is still living there lonely and exhausted.  She can’t even find a lawyer to help her sell the place so she can get away from it all.  I am begging her to come here, but she has too much going on and her mama is in a nursing home up there.  I just wanted to share this story; writing helps me to express my feelings.  Hopefully it will help someone.  Maybe even my mama.

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He is both brave and talented.  Click on this link to read his Postcards from Israel Blog: http://www.mysanantonio.com/specials/weblogs/northisrael/2006/08/sensations.html

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"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever." Psalm 125:1

AND:

Prov. 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding..."

This is really hard for me.  It sounds so easy, but when it comes to actually doing it, I want to run and hide.  So, I figured I need to write down for all the world to see.  Pam is going to Trust in the Lord with this house situation.  I will not run and back away, the Lord is in control, not me!  Ok, there!  Now I can get back to life and Mount Laundrymore, which seems to endure forever like Mount Zion! :)

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Missey died on my Birthday.  Although I never met her IRL, I have known her for 5 years, from the start of my homeschooling journey and she was a true inspiration to me.  I posted a reply to a mom who is scheduled for a c-section and is feeling fear after hearing about Missey's death.  I got to thinking that even though we don't have any possible explanation of why a young mother would die, God knows and His ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts.  I am learning to appreciate this life journey and recognize that Life is indeed Precious!  I have been convicted to spend more time with my children than my computer, and if that means sacrificing that precious time away from home working to try to buy all the stuff that I think I "need."  I have all I need, really.  I have taken so much for granted and only now do I comprehend the magnitude of God's calling to me as a mother.  Not as a writer, not as a "know-it-all-curriculum-junkie" and not as a lawyer.  Those dreams may come someday, but for now, I have a great ministry right here in my own home.

May we all take time out each day to appreciate our children and dance with them.

Shalom B'Yeshua!

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I copied this from homeschoolingforjesus' blog.. Too good to pass up!

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Thought this would make you laugh, I know I needed it after all this craziness since the Hurricane!

Hello, You've Reached the Mental Health Hotline:

If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

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Well, I am not really a Hippie.  I am a bit of a rebel though!  I don't know what all this is about, but if it has to do with writing and sharing, I am all for that!  I have been homeschooling for 5 years and am also a fan of Homeopathic medicine and Natural care products, like cloth diapering, natural cleaners, and aromatherapy.  I have recently started a small home business selling these products because I love them so much and want to help other mama's get educated about the dangers of everyday toxins in our homes.. from dish soap to shampoo to insect repellants, you name it! 

I am a book nut, I have too many books and wish I had wall to wall book shelves for them all.  I love organizing them every few weeks! :)

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