Anger causes us to lose the hearts of our children! It poisons what has taken years to build! (that alone kinda makes me wonder why I lose it, sigh?!)
Foundation for Overcoming Anger:
*Relationship with the Lord
-are we saved? Acts 16:31
-are we spending daily time with Him? Psalm 5:3
*Recognize that anger IS a choice.
-Proverbs 19:11
-Proverbs 16:32
*Recognize anger as sin, and all sin have consequences
-Ephesians 4:31-32
Some examples of Anger's Consequences
-Moses' anger with the Israelites led to disobedience as he struck the rock instead of pointing to it, this disobedience in turn led to the consequence of not being able to go into the Promise land! WOW, now THAT is a major consequence, eh?!
-Haman's anger toward Mordecai because Mordecai would not bow to him in reverence...his anger burned and he ended up being hung in gallows he had actually prepared for Mordecai! It's a long story but a good one! Esther 2-6.
Colossians 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
James 1:19-20 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
Anger has to be put away, NOT controlled!
-Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
-Colossians 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,filthy communication out of your mouth.
Well, to me that even helps decide what movies to watch! If we aren't to speak these things, chances are the Lord is not going to be real excited about us watching movies that have these things in them either!
We are to treat anger as dangerous. For me, it's almost like an addiction! If I've been doing really well in the anger department and then one day get mad at the kids, it has real potential to escalate! It gets easier and easier to be just a little bit louder every time you are angry, until you really can not get any louder so then you start making loud noises by banging your hand on the table etc. do you see how easy it is to get carried away? We really MUST treat it as dangerous! Because it truly is!
Don't make excuses. We can't blame circumstances as the reason for anger, IF time was taken when we started our day, to deepen our relationship with the Lord, chances are we wouldn't be ready to fly off the handle when things don't go our way!! Remember, anger is a choice!
I have not found a single scripture verse that justifies mans anger, not one!
(If you find one let me know!!)
The Maxwells suggest:
Repentance
Confession
Don't have angry friends, Proverbs 22:24-25 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
Pray, Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Accountability, Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
A soft answer Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Physical closeness
Fasting
I hope these notes help someone...but I would highly recommend going to the Maxwell's website and purchasing their teachings!! They also have some of Dr. Davis' teachings available at a VERY good price!!
Blessings to you all!
Gotta say I loved the AHEA(Alberta Home Educator Association) convention this year! Steve and Teri Maxwell were the main speakers and I just loved soaking up their take on life and how we can live it to the fullest spiritually! My biggest blessing is the impact that it has had on my husband! Half way through the convention, he up and told me he was ok with getting rid of the TV!!! You have to understand, this was what I wanted right from the start of our marriage and NOW I’m quite used to the "beast" as the Maxwells call it, and quite frankly, I’ve made friends with it!!! However, I DID disconnect the cable as soon as I got home and am purging tons of videos that are just not glorifying to the Lord. I can not part yet with home videos or my Max Lucado videos for kids, the Hermie series.
Also, to replace time with the tv, we’ve given Silas the use of tools to use in the back yard. I think his 7th birthday will be tool themed!! As I’d like to start a slow purge on the toys as well….a sloooooooow purge….I’m not feelin’ too brave here…
I’m also in the middle of reading Pagan Christianity? which is pretty much talking about the history of the church we are today…wow, who knew most of it was steeped in paganism!! Yikes! And it made me wonder how much more freedom we’d have as a church if we got rid of all the man made "rules" for what a church should look like?! I challenge everyone to read it! It just made me more hungry for the Lord and to be a part of the church without all the baggage we’ve added to it. Then I hear of so many underground churches in Asia that are growing exponentially, and it makes me realize that, it is most likely because they are forced to function as house churches! Everyone is an active part of the church! There are no pew warmers or people there just to criticize! Everyone is seeking the Lord all week and brings something to share when they get together! And believe it or not, even with no Pastor/Leader, everything is tying together like it was planned!! And the cool thing is, it WAS planned! Not by mere human minds but planned by the Holy Spirit!! Jesus is again the head of this kind of church! WOW, what a thought! I LONG for this! I feel like I’ve been starving my whole life for this kind of fellowship!
So, you add the ahea convention, pagan christianity?, and a woman who is searching for the Lord’s leading, and you get one emotionally charged woman feeling more than a little off kilter!! LOL
Oh, and then you add to the equation, dealing with the consequences of disobedience to the Lord…sigh, that made for physical upheaval on top of the emotional and spiritual upheaval….I definitely had to completely rely on Him to not lose my mind.
For those following the saga of our landlords and our consequence paying…we now have a brand new bathroom! There was so much mould in there they had to rip everything up, even the subfloor! So new tub, new vanity, new tile in the bathroom and new lino throughout the whole house! However, this also meant we had no full bathroom for a month. We learned the art of sponge bathing and showering in public showers at swimming pools…only had a couple young girls staring at my 2yr old and I…perhaps they hadn’t seen a brazillian wax with design before..hehe
There’s still lots more that need fixed but these were the "big" things, so I must admit I’m quite happy! And the contractor they hired had a wonderful helper who really took to my kids, calling my daughter "Hihi" as she said "hi" every time he’d come in the room…it wasn’t a creepy thing, he was a nice grampa figure who was expecting his first grandchild this summer…really nice guy.
Anyhow, that’s it for now. Hopefully it will work to upload this onto my blog! My internet connection is so glitchy…I’m really hoping it’s nothing serious, buy my computer IS old…sigh. I should really start transfering all my files to disk…look for future posts on my notes from AHEA!
Well, in my defense...I HAD updated it but the computer disconnected and everything was lost! sigh
We stayed! I'm happy too, cause it's making me realize how much clutter I really do have! I can't spread out so much here! What to to talk about first?!
The landlords came to do the walkthrough on Feb 24th...it is actually manditory for them to do it before the end of the first week of tenancy. Well, at least they can't withhold any of the damage deposit when we move...4 days later we had a health inspector come through and he wrote up a report and took lots of pictures. We called the health inspector because we were very unimpressed with the landlords walkthrough (there are 2 landlords). Both of them had the tendency to talk out their bum bum, if they didn't know what they were talking about, they tried to appear experts on the matter...for example, the landlord that was in the house the morning we moved in to let the carpet cleaners into the house had specifically said "no" to sanitizing and deodorizing the carpets...the previous tenants had a cat and dog and smoked! why on earth WOULDN'T you do those things?? Anyhow, this is the landlord that went on and on about how he had kids and wouldn't let anything unhealthy and unsafe stay in the house...he down played every health issue we were concerned about! the big water damage hole in the bathroom wall...he stuck his finger on the drywall and looked at his finger and said, "no, there's no need to worry about mould...we'll get someone in here to cover that up..."!!!!!! You get my drift on how "full of integrity" our landlords are....lol
Anyhow, the health inspector wrote up a nice big report that gave them 34 demerits, all the issues listed in the report have to be completed and ready for inspection by 8am March 31st. I'll be very satisfied as long as most of the items are done and a date is set for the other work to be done.
So that's where that is right now. We unpacked the homeschool boxes last week and are having fun trying to find enough book shelves to put everything on! LOL I'm loving it! But don't want to unpack too much since we still have to paint the interior. We have Silas' room all done in spiderman theme! And then the office in the basement is done as well, since we wanted to cover up the swearing and rude little stories that were written all over the walls in permanent ink!!!! We probably won't paint Shyla's walls since they are pretty pink already! But the living room needs done and the rec room downstairs along with the illegal bedroom, I mean my sewing room, downstairs!!! And the bathrooms...but the one is pretty much going to be redone so we'll wait on most of the painting...I'm actually having a lot of fun with the fix-it jobs and choosing paint etc...I've never had the freedom to do this to a rental before!
My word for the year is discipline, and going through this move and having school put on hold for a couple of months has really taught me how much better we do as a family when there is structure to our days...I've struggled with schedules so much....I hate them, cause I feel like such a failure almost every time! But I'm learning how to do a schedule that is flexible, it's taken a lot of tweaking, but my mind is finally wrapped around the fact that it really IS ok, not to follow it perfectly!!! It's a guideline, not a set in stone itinerary...sigh, very hard for my A type personality to get over....hehe
Ministrywise, it's going good! I'm the leader of our church's nursery and toddler program and other than the lack of helpers, I'm enjoying it, and to be honest, the helpers I DO have are soooo good at filling in for each other! I even got to sit in the service from start to finish last week!!! WOW!
I'm getting excited about the upcoming Alpha Marriage course we enrolled in! We have been married for 8.5 yrs and have never had any kind of counselling or been to any marriage builder groups, so this is going to be awesome! The friday before that starts is the focus on the family After Happily Ever After evening teaching. This is apparently the year to build our marriage!! Makes me kind of nervous...is this God preparing us for something disastrous???!!!!! But then I remembered a prophecy over me concerning us...she saw us counselling other couples, talking with them at our kitchen table....hmmmm, I like that kind of prep better than prep for disaster! LOL
Well, that's the update...any questions? Did I forget to update anything? lol
We are now in our new rental house...and we're not sure we're going to stay.
Right from the start, I had a bad feeling about the landlord. He seemed to be two faced and not able to keep his story straight. On the phone when I talked to him to look at the place, he said to phone to current tenants and then phone him back after we see the place if we want it....hmmmm, warning bells going off in my head right there, but I thought, "ok, he's just a laid back landlord..." then when we were we done looking at it, Jamie phoned him and said we were interested. The landlord then said we must have missed him cause he went to the house to meet us...hmmm, did he change his mind at the last minute or what? again, warning signs I ignored...sigh., I just really loved the house...
We looked at the place again, and on the way there, I prayed that Jamie and I would be on the same page if this was the house God wanted us to move into, Jamie thought it was too small and just didn't like it, this time we walked through WITH the landlord, and he said he'd have the lino fixed and the fireplace cleaned and the bathroom fixed. Even after we wrote out 6 cheques for the landlord at Tim Horton's, Jamie felt panicked like we were royally screwing up...I told him I still loved the house, but would understand if he wanted to back out...he chose not to back out...I'm not sure why, but we went through with it...even though I knew I was ignoring the obvious answer to my previous prayer, which was, "no daughter, follow your husbands intuition this time."
Now when you move into a house yes there are usually little fix it jobs and light cleaning, and so the landlord gave us $300 off the first months rent. Usually, when you move into a place it is generally clean and ready to move into...uhhh, not this one. We had to get the landlord to clean the carpets, so he paid some company to just steam them not deodorize or sanitize them, the previous tenents had a dog, a cat and they smoked (which we could not smell when we looked at the place). So the carpets were cleaned the morning we were supposed to move in...oh and the landlord was very adamant that we move in Feb 1st instead of March 1st, which we would have preferred...sigh....anyhow, the carpets now smelled like wet dog in the basement and on the stairs...ugh, and the stains weren't even touched... anyhow, we borrowed a carpet cleaner from a friend and it is starting to smell better in the basement...not great, but better, perhaps once I get the walls cleaned it will be great!
The house was just plain filthy, it took me over an hour to clean the freezer alone in the fridge, I had to spray the oven 3 times to get it clean enough to use. I didn't even want to use the washroom until it was cleaned...ugh.
The landlord has still not done a walkthrough with us and obviously didn't do a walkthrough with the previous tenents cause he was surprised when one of them was still living here on the 29th...legally that's fine, they had until the 31st but it just showed us that the landlord did not take great care in getting the keys etc from the previous tenents since he had to go to the house to get the keys to give them to us...anyhow, nothing has been fixed, he has made no attempts to contact us or return our calls...we are all sick and congested because I can't clean the walls etc fast enough...the kitchen is almost done...just have to wash above the cupboards, I'm just scared to see how gross it is up there...sigh...the kids are sleeping in one room together...the one room in the house that I've prayed over. We need to pray over the whole house together, but so far I've just been praying as I've cleaned. No one has slept well since we've been here either.
And you know, the funny thing is, it was really difficult to move here too! The U-Haul truck we rented for 10am wouldn't be ready until noon due to the huge line-up of people, so we cancelled our reservation of that truck and reserved a 24 foot truck at budget for the following day, which was a friday. Friday came along and at 8am we went to get the truck at Budget, only the 24 foot truck wouldn't start! so they offered us a 16 foot truck, well that's fine and dandy but it will take multiple trips so what kind of deal would they give us....well they offered us the truck for 24 hours at the 8 hour rate, so ok, that's something at least...the first truckload was ready to go and then THAT truck wouldn't start. Back on the phone with Budget...meanwhile I've dropped the kids off at my brother in law's house along with my mom inlaw, and then I went over to the new place to start the overwhelming task of cleaning...this was the first glimpse I had of how much work it would take to clean...I cried, and prayed lots.
So Jamie got the runaround from Budget and had to phone around for a towing company that would tow the full truck over to the new place, because all Budget did was send over another 16 foot truck to transfer over our belongings!!! LOL As if we'd do that! So, they loaded up the 2nd truck and called it a night. So the full nonworking Budget truck still stood on our lawn at the old place with a padlock on it, and the new Budget truck was driven to my brother in law's place where we all ended up spending the night, since the beds were in the nonworking truck. In the morning, we were able to get through to Budget and give them the number for a towing company that would tow the full truck. We were so blessed though because while Jamie, his dad and brother were unloading the trucks 2 guys came over to help, yes, their wives offered them to us without their permission, but they came over with a smile on their faces and it was such a blessing!! One even brought over his 11 yr old daughter who helped me clean the kitchen!!!
So now, here we are, our phone and internet are hooked up as of the 7th. We're still cleaning and trying to get the smoke smell gone, hopefully we won't have to resort to painting.
I've learned a thing or two about prayer though. If I'm going to pray and ask my Lord for help, I need to listen to Him and accept His advice when He offers it!!! I feel very much out of His will right now, but am not sure what His will is.
Should we stay? We haven't signed the lease yet because of the landlords inefficiency in coming over here to get it signed and the walkthrough done. Should we keep our word that we'll sign the 1 yr lease and stay, and just clean like crazy and get things fixed that are hazardous to our health?? Our air quality is my main concern, the furnace must be serviced/cleaned and the humidifier cleaned if we are to stay. The bathroom must be inspected for mold since there is extensive water damage with a hole in the wall from water leaking...mold in the walls??
Or do we walk away? It feels like it will be a big struggle to work with this landlord to get things healthy in this house, and yet Jamie and I both would love to buy this house and fix it up really nice!!! We just don't have the money to fix it up if we're just renting, as it wouldn't be an investment then...just making the place liveable for the next tenents....can we afford to put that kind of money into a rental?? I'm thinking probably not, but is that just me being selfish and stingy with our money? Isn't it the landlords job to keep the house from getting so run down?
I really don't know what to do. Advise and prayers would be great!!!
Ok,
short and sweet...moving to a house in Midnapore in two weeks...haven't packed a thing yet!!! oy....won't be online much, but am hoping I can still do bare bones school with Silas!! lol
That's it until Feb!!
We've completed our first week using ABC's of A.C.E. and it's working like a charm!! Silas is totally interested in learning to read and is grasping the different sounds with this indepth phonics program! We have a winner, ladies and gents! I'm so happy!
This year, 2008, we are concentrating lots on character developement...and it's a family project, not just mama teaching littles! The main thing we are doing is working at becoming more disciplined in our lives....we've become so undisciplined that it's horrifying really! I think it's really interesting how the enemy sneaks in and makes things progressively worse. Like, I started staying in bed until Shyla woke up because she likes a nice long hour of nursing before her day starts and I just cherish that cuddle in the morning! But now she is almost 2 and only wants a small nursing session in the morning and doesn't care as much for cuddling, it's more like wrestling and playing! lol Yet, I still stay in bed until she wakes up! Which is really silly! So, I'm setting the alarm now for 8am and I'll get my day started before the kids wake up, that way I can get my time with the Lord in, before chaos ensues! lol
I've been preparing my homeschool week on Sunday evenings, which is so easy!! Like a half hour tops to prepare for and photocopy any pages needed, it's so nice to be prepared! How much more smoother our days have been! Now just to schedule a bit more of our day. I AM realizing how much better we do with a schedule! Less whining and complaining for sure! and I'm ALL for that!! hehe
I'm enjoying 2008 so far! Full of anticipation as we look for a house to rent! Glad that I'm no longer fighting God's design for happiness. He created this world with order, why then would I be foolish enough to think I could be happy living in chaos?! Sigh, I don't know why it takes so long to learn these kinds of lessons...it's like you have to absolutely detest what you've become before you can change! Anyhow, change is in the air! And we're all happy about it!
I'm so thankful for my loving and merciful Heavenly Father! He is SO full of grace, it just simply overwhelms me!
Wow, what a wonderful Christmas season we had!! We were so blessed to be able to spend time with our family, and nothing is better than that!!
Monday, Jan 7th we start again!! I've prepared our week and am really excited to have more structure than we did for the first part of the year! We are starting the ABC's with A.C.E. as Silas needed a more indepth phonics program. And we're continuing with Story of the World and MathSmart. This is it for now as we did not do so well with our ant farm (only 6 survived the trip to our house) and the seamonkey's bit the dust when I changed the water...sigh....most of our houseplants are dead too....what does that tell you??!!! lol guess science is NOT my strong suit! hehe
I'm so excited, I've accepted a position of leadership in our children's program at church!! I've got some great ideas to enhance an already awesome program, and can't wait to implement them!
Oh yeah....we're moving again!!!! It hasn't even been a year, but our landlords have decided to sell their house and have released us from the lease! I really don't mind moving, as I'm ready for a smaller house, but I didn't think it would happen so soon!!
We need to be out by Feb. 28th but I'm hoping Jan. 31st will be our move in date to a nice house in Midnapore!!! We'll have lake privileges and be close to our homeschool board (support groups will be within walking distance!!) and all my friends are in that direction as well!! woo hoo!!
Anyways, that's it for now!
It's really quite silly how preparing for Christmas makes me a different person...lol I become childlike and silly, playful and fun....I would really like to be like this all the time, so does that mean I should be baking all year 'round? lol
I've enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in our home this weekend, the house is tidy, the main floor decorated, puzzle is set up on our extra table, baking is being eaten on a regular basis (not so good! lol) and generally a less frazzled house.
I'm a lot calmer too now that I've been taking my vitamins more regularly! hehe Despite the colds that are going through the house right now, I feel peace.
We got a call from our landlord and we will need to start looking for a new place in January. And decluttering is going quite well...got rid of one HUGE box of toys! 2ft x 2ft x 3ft high box!! Crammed full!
Anyhow, that's our update for now. Things are feeling good, cheques are coming in from clients. Bills are paid. Christmas is almost here!
Feeling rather overwhelmed today...after procrastinating for too long everything seems to be biting me in the butt today....and maybe rightly so.
I've put off doing the invoices that should have been sent out last week, or even the week before...and then of course a cheque that I thought was already through the bank got cashed...sigh, overdrawn....
Feeling a little anxious about finances right now...maybe that's partly seasonal depression talking...although it could be lack of diabetic control as well, since high blood sugars result in depression as well...and goodness knows, they have been quite horrible lately....sigh
I'd love to be able to purchase the Minimed Paradigm REAL time insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring system...but $7400 is a little out of our range!!! Ok, Ok, ALOT out of our range!! And I can't seem to find medical coverage that covers midwives and insulin pump therapy!! Mind you I've only checked out 2 companies so far!! lol I just about laughed at one company who only cover one glucose testing machine every 4 yrs...whoopdeedo, go to Safeway and they GIVE you the machine when you buy 100 test strips! Which is about a months supply...sigh.
School was slowed right down, while we waited for a more indepth reading program to show up...it showed up today!! Yay, the highlight of my day! We'll start school again tomorrow! woo hoo! We're enjoying Story of the World as well...Silas just can't get enough of it! We're only on chapter 3!! hehe
Last week I saw my son for the first time as "special needs"...not high needs, but definitely not able to "fit in" during a group art class. Perhaps it was my own fault for allowing him to eat a bagel and regular milk for breakfast...you see, he has Asperger's (my diagnosis, not a dr.'s, but good enough for me!) it is mild enough that if he avoids certain foods, he is as normal as any 6yr old boy (not that I'd classify any 6 yr old boys normal, but you know what I mean!!). So that means he doesn't drink juice, pop or milk, doesn't eat dairy, sugar or anything with wheat, that is he is forced to avoid these foods if I want a child who behaves normally. If he DOES eat/drink these foods, it can be a very interesting day! He forgets what personal space is and invades mine constantly (more than my nursing 20 month old!!), talks nonstop (not even joking), flaps his arms in constant excitement (he's heard all the bird jokes out there!), and is easily frustrated (school goes completely out the window!)....Maybe I'm not pregnant yet because God sees how much time I need to invest in my beautiful firstborn son. I know God is so unbelievably wise. I can only guess why we only have 2 live children and 1 waiting in Heaven for us.
Lord, grant me wisdom as I continue to hs my son, I see now why you planted the desire to hs in my heart so early on in motherhood! It makes so much more sense now! Thank you! Lord, grant me patience as I continue to figure out asperger's syndrome, allow me to find the tools I need, if healing is not in Silas' future! Thank you Lord, for blessings me with these 2 children you've entrusted in my care! Let me see them the way YOU see them! Help me battle the opinion of society, that children are a nuisance....they are a blessing! How dare I let selfish thinking invade my life and make me think otherwise! I come against you satan, and all who follow you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth! You have absolutely NO POWER over me, because I am a follow of Jesus Christ and His blood has washed me clean of the past, present and future.
" 9 If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the Lord, who is my refuge-- 10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." Ps 91:9-13NIV
I wonder what exactly it means to "make the Most High your dwelling"??? This is The Message translation....
"9 Yes, because God's your refuge, the High God your very own home, 10 Evil can't get close to you, harm can't get through the door. 11 He ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go. 12 If you stumble, they'll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling. 13 You'll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and kick young lions and serpents from the path. 14 "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God, "I'll get you out of any trouble. I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know and trust me. 15 Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you, then throw you a party. 16 I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"
Wow....why does it take me so long to remember why I got to this point of depression??!! Spend time with the Lord, Seek HIM, Call on HIM, Hold onto HIM for dear life!!!! Why is it so hard? Is it hard because I've become so selfish I don't want to share my alone time with Him?? How lame! Forget that! Maybe I need to put my Christian fictions away for awhile and pick up my Bible ALOT more!
Sometimes the Lord reveals wonderful things and sometimes kicks us in the arse! Blessed be the Name of the LORD!!!!
Isn't it funny how physical "things" can drain you? Right now I'm sitting at the computer when I SHOULD be doing some bookwork with Silas...but I'm procrastinating....he IS playing an educational game on his computer so it's not like he's watching tv or anything...sigh...I'm surrounded by books...schoolbooks, fiction books, nonfiction books...perhaps too many books are in my house...but I love them! I just need to somehow organize them, along with every other aspect of my life! I got a good start on organizing our shelves and putting everything in it's place...but somehow, 3/4 of the way through this project it came to an abrupt halt. I don't know why. Am I scared of actually completing something I've started? How silly, yet it feels that way! I want my house to be decluttered by Dec. 1st. I really had better get cracking...books first then the kids toys, the clothes are already done! yay!
Perhaps it's time to start taking vitamins again...especially D and B-complex, perhaps do my hormone balancing tincture again. I'd also like to do a cleanse, but have to wait until Shyla is done nursing. We are NOT going to mess with that!! lol
School is sort of at a stand still in the reading department...we needed to get something a little bit more indepth, so I'm ordering the paces that go with Reading with Ace and Christie. I think we'll both like it as it's a 12 week program where we need to follow a set curriculum. I think I really need the structure right now.
I had a chance to visit my parents on the long weekend. Such a wonderful visit! I attended a women's supper at my mom's church and was really blessed by the speaker. She spoke out beautiful words of prophesy over me, my children and husband. The Lord is good and I will enjoy seeing the prophesies come to pass! It's always fun with prophesy, you just never know when it's going to happen, so there's the anticipated waiting and praying!
Our Summer season landscaping is over now and we're eagerly awaiting some snow. God has been so good to us as we've struggled this summer running a company we bought. Old equipment, but wonderful clients! We replaced the main mower and are waiting to replace the truck and trailer, which are both falling apart and I seriously think they are still running only because of the grace of God!!
Thank you Lord, for your faithfulness and grace!
I don't know why I get so surprised when I'm with a group of Christian women and I'm the only one that has a problem with halloween...how can we be the salt of the earth or the light in the darkness if we're just blending in with what the world does?
I talked to my husband about this and I was so relieved to see that we think alike on this...we're both frustrated with trying to figure out what holidays are ok, as Christians, to celebrate and which ones to avoid...so far we've just gone with gut instinct. That's not working so much anymore, we need a reason to do what we do...so we are going to study the holidays that Jesus celebrated and celebrate THOSE holidays. Can't go wrong there!
Anyone else celebrate the Jewish holidays as opposed to the common worldly holidays?
Well, yesterday was officially our first day of school. But it was definitely a different kind of school that day! LOL
We cleaned up after breakfast and then took the car into the shop to get a new clutch put in....and took the LRT and bus back home. It was an hour and a half trip! We got to go through tunnels which was facinating for the kids. We saw the tops of a bunch of pine trees need the Jubilee Auditorium and saw tons of pinecones, which got us talking about why some trees have lots and others are evenly dispersed. Then a woman who used to go to our church sat across from us!! So we got chatting and I missed our stop!! We got off at her stop and then got back on to go to the right train stop and found our bus stop. Seeing as how we missed our train stop we had to wait an extra half hour for the next bus. All the while Silas and I were chatting and Shyla was wanting out of the mei tai by this time as an hour in a mei tai for any 17 month old is a little long! I really have to master that back carry thing!!!
We did a few more chores and then it was supper and bed. I DID watch the Nativity Story last night!! I enjoyed it.
Today was a much better day. We got started with our math, we're using the Power of Ten curriculum and he totally gets it!! It's very similar to Math U See. We'll be starting his phonics back up tomorrow as well as starting science.
Very relaxing and enjoyable!! We've been walking a lot more and running around at the park. It will be nice once swimming lessons start.
That's it for now!
God has shown His love to our family so much this year!! I'm enjoying it completely, yet a little freaked out that He might hide Himself from me at some point!
I can't say I've "felt" His tangible presence, but I've "seen" the evidence of His presence over our lives many times! So many times we've not known what to do, so we've sat back and simply prayed. God has been so faithful in answering our prayers! He arranged where we were to live back in February and so we moved and have felt blessed being here. We just found out that at the end of our lease next July we'll need to move again. It would be easy to start freaking out and feeling stressed that we'll need to move all over again...but why would I?? When the Lord has shown us over and over that He has better things in store for us, why should I now think He doesn't know what He's doing?!! How arrogant is that!
So I'm practising how to rest in Him. This doesn't come easy for me. I always feel like I should be "doing" something. Isn't it interesting that He asks us to take time to "rest" in Him, to do nothing but wait for Him to talk to us. Ps 5:3 "In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. " and again in Ps 37 verse 7 says this " Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. " The whole chapter is really good but vs 7 and 34 specifically I love! I think I need a lot of practise in "being still" ! lol
So pretty neat, we got our new mower...a beautiful walker brand mower. My mom and dad in law decided to help us out and finance it. So that's an answer to prayer! Now we just need to work on a newer truck. We just had to put a ridiculous amount of money into the tires of a 1981 truck that won't even last as long as the tires!! ouch.
My feelings this cold August morning are this, "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I've got a beautiful feelin', everythings goin' my way". It's nice when "my way" matches up with "His way"!
Have a blessed day everyone!!
1. Post rules before we give you the facts.
2. Start with eight random facts/habits.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 8 things and post these rules.
4. At the end of the blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names. Leave them a comment to tell them they are tagged.
_______________________________________________________
1. I was born in Saskatchewan, Canada
2. We run our own landscaping company
3. We LOVE swimming in outdoor water
4. I tend to refold towels if others have done it wrong....sigh they only fit in the cupboard one way!! lol
5. I met my husband at Bible College (Bridal College!)
6. I have traveled to Cuba and Bahamas
7. I have a tendancy to procrastinate
8. I hope to someday live near salt water
I am tagging the following friends:
Morninglight, Infojunkie, Joymommy, Ericaand3kids, Homesweethomeschooler, Mamato8, Simply me and my family, My first blogging adventure.
I fail to see why the Lord sometimes allows stress in our lives...sigh, it's like we're supposed to grow or something!! LOL
I'm so excited that Silas will be reading soon! He's got one very loose tooth and according to Dr. Dobson, that is a major indicator that your child is ready to begin reading....something to do with the chemicals that are released in the brain when the tooth gets loose...anyhow...it will happen soon!! We're taking most of the summer off, with some review of letter sounds and how to write them...gotta keep that knowledge fresh!
This is Jamie's really busy season...landscaping, and unfortunately, the equpment keeps breaking down and the weather has not cooperated one little bit...we both feel that since we're in the Lord's Will right now, maybe the enemy is trying to discourage us hugely....hmmm, he's doing a good job, however our Lord is stronger and mightier than anything the enemy can put against us, he's already lost the battle, why he continues to fight us is beyond me! We already have the victory!! Praise the Lord! I don't know where the new equipment is going to come from, but when the metal main frame of your ride on mower breaks due to metal fatigue, it's kind of a sign it should be replaced sooner than later!!! LOL
The Lord is GOOD!!! I can not say that enough! He has blessed us hugely and will continue to do so in the future.
I'm going to take the kids to Saskatchewan on holidays for two weeks...it's been a while since I"ve been home to see my mom and dad and siblings. I feel like I just need to get out of this city and relax for a bit and recharge....I feel like a single parent in the summer and winter, I need time to refocus on the Lord without the distractions of keeping a house clean and cooking meals....it's just totally different in someone elses house even if you DO still do those things....anyhow. that's that.
If there's anyone out there praying for us, it is hugely appreciated! Right now we need a Walker mower machine which is around $20, 000 (more than I'd pay for a car!!!) and a heavy duty truck....sigh, I'm hoping to find one second hand for around $10, 000....our current truck is an '81 and no one really knows why it's still running!!! lol heavenly fumes I say!!
That's our update! And look it's not even a month since the last update!!! hehe
Wow, So much for updating once a week, I couldn't even do it once a month!!
So much has happened since Feb! We received a phone call from our missionary friends/landlords on the 10th of March asking us to be out by March 15th and that they would give us half a months rent at the new place if we were able to do that. So because half a months rent was only $200 less than a full months rent where we already were, we jumped at that since it was obvious they were wanting us out real soon in order to get a few renos done before they sold the house...and our new landlords, friends from church said it was fine...they phoned us later the next day and said they wanted to bless us with half a months free rent!!! Oh wow! Talk about major blessings!!! March and April are our typical stressful months as it's in between the summer landscaping and winter landscaping jobs...
We've been continually blessed in the running of our new company as well! And because of the Lord showing His favor on us, we have come into a need of newer and larger equipment to accomodate the demand for Jamie's acreage lawncare services. This is especially intimidating as the equipment we need would mean buying a larger trailer as well. We also are in need of a new to us truck...right now we have a F350 recycle truck that dumps out the back and lifts stuff into the side....it's an '81 and is on it's last "legs" so to speak...lol we're having to fill it up every other day or so....that's about $200 a week in gas alone! So we're looking for a truck as well...a Heavy Duty duramax diesel....sigh It's insane to think that in our first year of business, we need about $50 000- $75 000 worth of equipment!!!! Yikes!
So that aside, I've been learning lots about running a small business. I've been doing the invoices and the books and it's quite fun actually!
I have been doing a Psalm 1 unit study with Silas this last month and I have really noticed a difference in his attitude on the days that we do it. I've also realized that as we approach his birthday month, he is more of a spirited child than I had thought...apparently they have major meltdowns in the months surrounding their birthdays and at the halfway mark as well....we are experiencing that heavily right now. Happy, happy, joy, joy!
I went to my very first homeschool support meeting this week! The last one of the year, but I loved it, they talked about various curriculums. I can not wait to get started planning our new school year! We're mostly unschooly, but "I" love planned curriculums! lol We're in the middle of registering with the ROOTS homeschool board(which is the support group I went to) and am so excited to be partnered with them!
Well, I guess that's it for now...oh yeah...I'm 30 now!!! sigh, guess it's time to grow up now...don't even wanna! So I probably won't, except in the important areas! lol
I'm REALLY wanting to start my days before everyone else again....I lapsed...badly! So has my laundry! The rest of the house is in pretty good shape but the bedrooms and the laundry just can't seem to stay caught up...too much clothes perhaps? Time to dejunk in a big way I guess...no I KNOW I need to, I just need to get brave enough!
That's it for real now...oops one more thing...Jamie has had many people phone him, stop him on the mower, flag him down...they want him to cut their acreages!! Jamie is at his max right now with the size mower he has...he's putting in 71 hours a week! No, I rarely see him and only talk to him on the phone during his 10 minute breaks! lol
We need to hire someone once we get more equipment, but it needs to be someone with the same work ethics as my husband! Which is very hard to come by....something to pray about that's for sure!
Ok......yup, I'm done!
Blessings!!!
I don't know why I'm surprised every time it happens...it happens often enough that I should almost expect it!!
During the last month of stress, the Lord has proven to be our provider! I'm getting more and more excited about moving to our new place! I'll be getting rid of a lot of clutter this time we move. I'm just done moving it all...
Silas has his first loose tooth! Yaay! Reading will happen this year for sure! This was usually the biggest indication that kids are ready to learn how to read according to my mom...she found this was incredibly accurate! And it helps that Silas is very much still a huge book worm and loves it when I read to him....we've been doing lots of read alouds lately...I wonder if The Little House on the Prairies would be too girly for him?....or should I save it for when Shyla is older? Any suggestions?
Must start taking some sort of inventory of what we need and what we can get rid of ..... Don't know how that's going to work as Jamie and I have very different opinions on what we need!! lol The first thing I'd turf is the TV!!!! He seems to think it would look good on top of the corner gas fire place...men! lol we'll see!!
Things are definitely looking up...the Glory School was phenomenal as usual!! This time Charlie Robinson and his son Samuel did the evening sessions which was really neat! Lots of dancing, flagging, and praising the Lord! Healing happened, a gem stone was found!
I love it when the Glory of the Lord appears !!!
And as silly as this sounds...I am now able to start trying to get pregnant again! lol last month I was frustrated about not getting my monthly flow back yet and wouldn't ya know it...it shows up the first night of the Glory School! haha, answer to prayer if you ask me!
I'm excited about the things the Lord is going to do in the near future. Stay tuned, as I will be reporting once a week...hopefully!
Blessings! Thanks to all who may have prayed for us!
Wow,
I seriously can not remember the last time I felt this stressed! I want to bury my head in the sand and wake up when it's all over! We're moving at the end of March...our rent will be $500 more than what we were paying, then the utilities will be a bit more too, due to the size of the house! This may sound like complaining, but it's not!!! I'm very excited to move to this new house! However, we were finally in a place where our rent was not making us housepoor....now we'll be paying lots more rent and back to being housepoor.
But it's neat, because despite the fact that I'm scared out of my tree about the dramatic increase in how much we'll be paying for rent...so far all other doors are closing! So I feel like the Lord is leading us to this one house....knowing that, I realize that He will also provide the extra finances we'll need to make rent and other bills. Sigh...
I will be happy when the move is over and done with...in the meantime I need to get busy getting a letterhead made, invoices made, business plan finalized, etc etc....so much to do...I think I will have to make a list so I don't get overwhelmed and go into shut down mode! At least then I can stroke things off the list!
Meanwhile, my darling daughter is crawling everywhere and lighting up the rooms she enters! Squeals with delight when her brother spends time with her! She's such a sweetheart! We'll be moving on her 1st birthday, which makes me a little sad. Maybe we can move a week earlier?!
I'm looking forward to having the space to entertain! We've never had that before! The Lord has blessed us so much this past year! Dreams are being fulfilled and more dreams are being realized!
I started writing this blog feeling quite scared and worried, but after putting my thoughts on "paper" I feel quite excited about our adventure!
The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever.
What a week! I feel like the enemy has me under attack physically this week...since Friday I've been tested for strep throat, confirmed eye infection and yeast infection and possibly have an ear infection...ok...I'm actually not feeling toooo bad, but now my 9 month old is sick with a cold and cannot be put down...
Then to beat all that, we got a phone call last night and our landlords, who are missionary friends of ours, have decided to sell their house this summer...I completely understand their decision, but it still sucks for us. This on top of the fact that this spring we start running our own landscaping company...yikes...thank goodness the Lord is in control!!
I feel VERY out of control right now, I want to get pregnant again but am still breastfeeding and it's pretty much out of my hands when I'm fertile again...I don't know what's going to happen with the company this year...I don't know where I'm going to be moving to, if at all...Again, thank goodness the Lord is in control!! My mom reminded me of a wonderful verse in Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
On a happier note, I filled in my registration for the Glory School today and am mailing it away this week! I can't wait! I'm bringing my husband with me this time, so it will be nice when we're on the same page spiritually! It really helps to read the same books and go to the same conferences! Anyhow, very excited about it!
If you want more info on it check out my link to EXtreme Prophetic and you'll see the Glory School in Calgary on that website on the right side of the page....enjoy her site!
Tata for now!