It has been beautiful weather around here.  Over the weekend, it felt as if we were in the middle of summer on one of the hottest days!  We spent the weekend at the cottage so we were able to pretend that we were not in October, but rather, July or August.  It is truly an Indian summer.

I always love our little trips to the cottage.  For one thing, it means an entire weekend spent with my husband, and the kids get to spend 24/7 with their dad.  The cottage has no TV. (well, it has a “TV.” but no connection to the outside world).  My husband and I spend every evening (on the ranch) watching the news, and in between commercials, we watch the Discover/Science or the History Channel.  So when we come to the cottage, it’s a different atmosphere. 

There is also absent the sound of a phone ringing.  We are kind of isolated for the weekend and I like it like that.  It’s a little bit like being on vacation every weekend – lots of driving time together and a lot of quality time with dad.

Directly across the street from us, though, is what seems like a ‘gang’ of hoodlums.  No, they’re not thugs, but rather little girls (pre-adolescent and teenagers) and a few boys (if you count the one with long blonde hair to the middle of his back a boy).  They have built for themselves quite a reputation among the neighborhood.  They have been found inside people’s houses using their phone when they came back home.  There all kinds of stories I’ve heard from the neighbors but I won’t repeat them all here.

This was one major contrast to our ranch, where we don’t often see people on a day to day basis.  Having neighbors this close was nice in some ways, not so nice in other ways.  These kids hang out on their skate boards going up and down the street, getting into fights, and it seems as if they are looking for trouble.  One of our neighbors had his own set of problems with them and when he went to talk to their parents, he found that they could care less.  This has caused much consternation among the neighbors on our cottage strip.

I found myself caught between two ideas of thought.  On the one hand, I realized that these kids were causing trouble, but I also knew that these kids need Jesus and that God loves them.  After an incident that we ourselves had with them, I began to pray for them by name every morning when I get up and have my coffee and quiet time with Him. 

When you begin to pray for people, you look for ways that God can use you to convey His love and His message of salvation.  When I came to the lake this weekend, I had a keen sensitivity that my opportunities to witness to these children were coming to an end, as when winter approaches, we won’t be here.  And what if they move during the year (they rent) and when summer rolls around, I never see them again?

I prayed on the way to the lake, that God would give me the opportunity to witness to them, and that He would give me the boldness to do so when He gave me the opportunity, and that He also would give me the Words in which to make known the mystery of the gospel.

We were getting ready to pack up and go back home. I could see the girls and boys outside on their skateboards, talking loudly, getting into fistfights, and hanging out on our neighbor’s patio furniture (who was not home.)  Their boldness at doing this was starting to annoy me greatly.  I felt a responsibility towards my neighbor to protect his home and property and felt a sense of indignation at these kids to be doing what they were doing right in front of us, as if they had the right to do this, without any guilt or sense of concealment.

Instead of thinking about sharing the gospel (in which it had crossed my mind minutes before, that the weekend was coming to a close and that I had not witnessed to them as of yet), I started thinking very negative thoughts.

I was going out to the truck to leave, when two of the girls came walking through our neighbors back yard.  Our eyes met, and I stopped.  My mouth opened, and I began to ask them if they thought it was right that they were hanging out on someone’s deck. “Do you think that is the right thing to do?” I asked them.  I then explained to them that I had a responsibility to my neighbor to look out for his property, just as my other neighbors had for me (in the incident I referred to before.) 

I marvel at how God answers prayer.  Just a few minutes before, I had been highly irritated with them, and now, God used this moment to give me that opportunity that I had asked for. 

I explained to them that ever since we’d had that “incident” with them, (to which the girls had confessed and apologized), that I had been praying for them.  I asked them what they knew about Jesus.  Tayla mentioned that she had been to church, once, a long time ago. 

I told them of God’s love for them, and how He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for their sin.  Without the blood of Jesus covering their sin, the penalty of sin is death – in the eternity of hell.   But God loved us so much that He sent His Son – He lived a perfect life, in order that He could pay the penalty for our sin upon the cross.

As I was talking, in my mind, I started thanking Jesus for this moment.  Not only had He given me this opportunity, He had given me boldness. I was sharing His testimony as freely as one possibly could.

“Salvation is a free gift.  Jesus shed His blood for all of mankind’s sin and paid the penalty.  But it’s like at Christmas time – if I gave you a present, Taylor and Tayla, and it were sitting under the tree, but you never went to pick your gift up, unwrap it, and to take the gift, that present never became yours, right?”  (They nodded their heads in agreement).  “So it is with salvation.  Christ died for our sins.  But we must claim this gift of salvation for ourselves.  We must go and pick up this present to us from God.  We must ask for forgiveness of sin and to ask Him to come in to our heart.  We have to receive the forgiveness of sin for ourselves, personally.  We have to claim our gift.” 

“God loves you.  When I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sin and to come into my heart, I was fourteen years old.  When I did that, Jesus came to live with in my heart.  He lives there, and that is why I love you.  It is because God loves you and He dwells within me."   It occurred to me at that very moment that these girls may have never heard that God loves them.  This is hard to explain, but when I said, “God loves you,” and looked directly into their eyes, I felt in a way I’ve never before, that I was conveying God’s very Words to them, as if a conduit of His message, to them personally.

I asked if I could pray for them, and with them, to ask God’s blessing on them for this coming week.  I wrapped my arms around them and began to pray that God would bless them abundantly this coming week, and to help them with school, keep them from temptation, and to stay away from bad friends.  And then I asked Him to help Taylor and Tayla to accept Jesus into their hearts and to receive His forgiveness of sins.

When I left, I gave them a big hug and told them again that I loved them and pray for them every morning when I’m not here.  I even invited them to come spend a week with our family – next summer – to spend time with our horses and to learn more about Jesus.

I can’t tell you how much I marveled, and still stand in amazement, how God answered my prayer for the opportunity, and for the boldness.  As I prayed this morning for them, I began to wonder if I said all the things that they needed to hear.  Did I miss something?  Was there something I should have said, but didn’t?  Did I take for granted some of the things I said, not realizing that if they had never heard of God’s love or His Son and what He did for them? 

And then and there, I realized that if God answered my prayer for the opportunity and the boldness, then surely He must have answered my prayer that He would give me the Words in which to make known the mystery of the gospel.   

There is nothing that brings me more joy than when I share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is a joy that has no comparison to anything in this world.  “Dear Jesus, please grant me more such opportunities with boldness, and the Words in which to make known the mystery of the gospel.”

I have just updated my Shelfari bookshelf to reflect the books that I am reading now (See Widget to the left)

• A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick.  I get encouraged every time I open something by Ruth Beechick.  This book will be one of my top recommendations for homeschool families.
• Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.  I am actually listening to the mp3 version of this and thoroughly enjoying it.  As I’ve already said in a recent post – I can’t wait till I share this with my kids.  
• Proverbs for Parenting.  I’m not actually reading this, cover to cover, but it is upmost on my book pile as I am keeping it in front of me so I refer to it often.  I have sensed a need to really elevate Scripture as I instruct and train my youngest two.  Proverbs is a good place to start.  Having it handy makes it easy to pick up both when I’m dealing with an issue or pondering what is going on.
• How Should we then Live by Francis Schaeffer.  One chapter of this series was in Joshua’s reading list in his last History unit.  We want Josh to be familiar with F.Schaeffer’s teaching so we bought the dvd series for Josh and the mp3 for me.  I haven’t actually started listening but it is top top of my list (probably once I’ve finished Do Hard Things)
• The Second Mrs Gioconda by E.L Konigsburg – the jury is out on this one.  I bought it because it had to do with art and I thought it may interest our artist, Naomi.  But I am not sure – It is an interesting book, would probably be a good read aloud, giving plenty to talk about but I am not convinced it is the best – and I am trying to give the children not only good literature but the best.  So we will see.

This week has been super busy.  I had four different workshops all happening this week:

• parenting support group
• scrapbooking workshop
  
• lapbooking made easy with homeschool mums
  
• homeschool network meeting

Then I had two social visits and one prayer group time.  A week full of people – I love it.

But it does mean that I haven’t had my evenings to blog and I haven’t done much browsing either.  Here are a few links  though to the things I’ve been reading and thinking about.

Making Mind Maps using Excel - I love this idea.  I have used Kidspiration and it didn’t really click with my children, maybe I tried it too young.  I’m going to teach myself this method (I love playing around with Excel for different purposes) and then encourage my kids to do likewise.  I think mind mapping is very important skill – it doesn’t really matter how you do it but to organize and categorise your thinking is important.

Feeling a bit drab lately so 3 steps to naturally beautiful nails was nice reminder.   ..   I came across this article on Escaping a Style Rut - that pretty much describes me!  Though I quite like my style in many ways, there were a few things that I gleaned here that could spruce me up a bit!

Resources I used for Lapbooking made easy –

Dinah Zikes books – I love these books – they make lapbooking easy.  She takes a piece of paper and folds it into a book, possibly using a few cuts here and there.  That is so much easier than cutting around templates and stapling together.  

Jimmie’s Lapbooking Lens – I love Jimmie’s resource list.  She has a very real and do-able approach to lapbooking.

Yesterday I started listening to the mp3 version of  Do Hard  Things.  Love it!  Can't wait to read this book to my children.  We are going to have it as a family read aloud so we can discuss it together.  I am so itching to start now but we are going to hold back till Peter's work load slows down a bit so he can be involved in the discussions too.  In the mean time Josh and Jess are reading the blog and we often discuss that over the dinner table.

Magic is our newest addition to our ranch.  Magic is a most fitting name, for we have had many

magical moments with him since his arrival. 

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This morning, Magic was visiting us in our yard as Dad was getting ready to go to work.

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I think it was hard for him to go to work this day because he was enjoying his daughters and entire family with our new colt.

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Magic is officially Rachel's colt. We bought him from Maple Grove Haflinger Farm, which

has some of the most beautiful modern haflingers on the market.

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We all hung out this early morning with dad. It was one of those mornings you wanted to

never end.

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Eventually, he did have to go to work.  But before I could persuade the girls to come into school,

they were off for a trail ride. 

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Since I already had my camera with me, I decided that I'd tag along and be the paparazzi for the

day. 

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Magic's mom is a dream horse.  She stood so perfectly still for the girls that Rachel was able

to stand on her and pick an apple.

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After their stop at the apple tree, they meandered down to the lake.

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Then in to  the woods....

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And  through the flower meadow...

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Eventually, we did come into school.  But the memories are going to last us a long time.

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 Yes, Magic is certainly a most fitting name.

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Come join Mary at Canada Girl for a lot of fun show and tells....

(To See Pictures of What's Been Going On Around Here Lately, Go To Rachel's Blog.)

It’s a chilly morning as I sit here writing to you with a sweater on, and a cup of hot coffee by my side.  I have an irritating cold – nothing severe- but enough of it to be very annoying. The kids are still sleeping, and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet too much to wake them.

It’s been busy around here.  There’s been a lot of fun stuff going on, but when I haven’t been engaged in the fun stuff, I’ve been busy organizing.  Since I read the book, The House That Cleans Itself, I’ve got a whole new vision for my home.  Every spare minute I’ve had, I’ve been busy creating new systems.  Decluttering and organizing is energizing to me.

I did do something this week that I have never done before.  It is something that many of you consider a way of life, as common as breathing.  Yet, for me, it was as foreign as speaking another language. 

Saturday, Margie and Mike, came over with their children to ride horses and to pick apples. We made a plan that I would come to their home on Monday afternoon, with my two daughters, to learn how to can tomatoes and homemade apple sauce, and to make my first homemade (apple)  pie. 

When we arrived, Margie was busy in the kitchen.  She’d already started the process of canning as we were a little bit late.  She has this huge country kitchen with a big island in the middle of it.  There were a total of four adults, five teenagers, and one child hanging out in the kitchen and there was still a lot of room to spare. I would have to say that Margie’s kitchen is a homeschooler’s dream, as it opens up into the room that their children homeschool in – via Bob Jones University satellite t.v.  As the kids “attend classes,” Margie is right there by their side, albeit, baking pies, canning, and preparing the evening’s dinner.  I’ve never seen a better set-up than that.

While we were there, we not only canned tomatoes, made homemade apple sauce (and canned that, too), made an apple pie, but we also made pizza for our evening’s dinner. I’ve never made homemade pizza dough, either!  It was a day of a lot of firsts.  

When I came home I was so proud of myself for making my first apple pie.  The pie crust was simple and it even looked good (we laced the top crust).  For dinner, I served homemade pizza and hot apple pie for dessert.  

As much fun as I had doing all of this, the best part of all was spending time in Margie’s kitchen with all the high voltage energy emanating from so many happy people.  Mike set up a barn building date that we had discussed a few weeks ago at the lake cottage when he and my husband drew the plan out on a table napkin.  We even planned a December ski trip, taking advantage of their resort time-share.  It should be a lot of fun cooking and baking together on the up-coming trip!