Jiggity, jig!

We just returned from the Christian Heritage Home Educators of Washington conference in Redmond, Wa.  Wow!  What a wonderful, uplifting, challenging conference.  Every session struck a chord with me.  Encouraging me, filling my wellspring, calling me to look beyond this moment to my legacy and back to my heritage. 

Sometimes it is so easy, to easy, to get caught up in the here and now, in the mundane, day-to-dayness of life and forget what our real intent and purpose is through home educating our children.  It isn't about today's assignments, or next year's requirements, or even preparing them for a career.  It is about cultivating deep, personal relationships with these people who are our children, being the wind and the tiller that guides them to their own discovery of Christ and God's Hand in their lives, and giving them a vision beyond themselves to help them guide and grow their own families and the generations to follow.

We were so blessed to attend and I would encourage anyone within a two day's drive to attend next year.  Dr. Voddie Baucham will be speaking.  (It is about a 10 hour drive for us to attend.)

Soon I hope to post some photos, but I first have to figure out how to do that with the new camera.  Always something to learn!

There is something about spring that just begs for Chickens.  It could be the new green starting to appear.  It could be the sun rising a bit earlier and staying just a little longer.  It could be that the hens are laying eggs again and they taste SO good.  It could even be seeing the Canada geese flying in the other direction now.  But whatever it is exactly about spring that makes me think of chickens, I'm glad we have a few. 

Our chickens are now about a year old.  I am expecting egg production to be more regular.  I am also hoping that one of the five hens will go broody and we would get some new chickies.  The rooster's name is Michael Flatley (my children are Irish dancers), he is a Dorking (that is breed, not brains), and the various hens have been named after other Irish dancers, including their dance teachers, although they bear no resemblance, well maybe the in attitude.

Happy Spring!

I have been quite impressed with Dr. Ron Paul.  I listened to a six-part interview on Glenn Beck.  Now, don't jump to any conclusions.  I am not a regular Glenn Beck listener (for many of the same reasons I stated in my previous political note.) 

If you get a chance, jump over there to watch the video, read the transcript or look it up on YouTube.  He is all for less government.  Gotta love that!

I have to say, politics drives me crazy.  Why, you may ask.  Simple.  They never do things the way I think they should be done.  I hate the injustice of the "bad guys" not getting what they deserve, I dislike "Big Brother" in my business or even looking my way.  I just want everything to work out the way it ought; you know happily ever after.   Well, needless to say, it doesn't work like that in the political realm, so I dislike politics. 

My husband will occassionally tell me, I should run for office.  Yeah, right!  I am pretty sure I would never, that is never, get elected for anything, not only because the only political experience I have is 7th grade room representative, but because I refuse to dance the PC tango.  I would have to tell alot of people, "Life is isn't fair.  So get over it."  I just don't see that as being a really popular platform to run on these days.

I would like to submit a well written article about Mike Huckabee written by a fellow homeschool mom.  I know many home educators are really excited about him, but there is something about him that makes me hesistate.  (Not that he's the only politician that makes me do that.)  I think this article is worth your time.  The state of your homeschool and country will depend upon how educated you make yourself about every candidate.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/TOSPUBLISHER/445968/

This morning at breakfast I heard the following exchange:

Daughter 1 (11 years old) to Son 1 (8 years old):  "Hey, do you want to switch bowls with me?  I got a lot of dust and I just don't like it."  (Cereal dust that is.)

Son 1:  "Sure!"  (A little more enthusiastically than I would expect.)

Daughter 1:  "Oh, never mind.  I better eat it anyway.  When I have a husband I might have to eat the dust, so I better just get used to it."

From the blog of Life in a Shoe and Vision Forum   comes a generous contest.  We love Vision Forum products and their mission.  I have to post a wishlist that totals $150 or less; a difficult task but a joy to browse the catalog none the less.

Our Vision Forum wishlist (in no particular order):

1.  Passionate Housewives: Desperate for God

2. A Comprehensive Defense of the Providence of God in the Founding of America

We so wanted to be in Jamestown for the celebration, but this gift would be the next best thing.

Thank you for stopping by.  Visit Life in a Shoe for details on the giveaway.

I just love autumn!  The chill in the air.  The unpredictable weather.  The increased activity of the birds.  The honking of Canda geese as they fly overhead.  (Although I do sometime feel I need to duck my head as they fly over.  A reflex developed from seagulls at the beach maybe.)  {inhale deeply here, close eyes, and exhale}  Don't you just love the autumn, too?

I have taken all my tall corn stalks out of the garden; at least the ones left intact from the last couple of storms.  These I plan to lash to the columns at the front of the house.  As soon as I find some twine.  I have two pumpkins and a bi-colored squash out front on my child's bench.  The larger pumpkin was subjected to the paintbrush and the result is quite Martha-Stewart-y.  Soon I'll pick the strawberry corn and start drying it.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle a skirt for my eldest daughter.  We purchased, for $3, a mini-skirt and now will add a pretty floral fabric to it in order to bring it down to a more modest length.  I can't recall where I got the directions for doing it (I always need a pattern for everything), but I may have Googled "broom skirts" to get it.

I am also starting to reglaze two old wooden windows my husband salvaged last year for me.  I am quite excited about this project because I will hang them indoors.  Other than a few postcards and children's artwork I don't have any thing on the walls.  The only nails/screws in the walls are the ones holding the CD towers to the wall.  All that is about to change!

It is a good thing that autumn is just getting started.  I have alot to work on.

I haven't browsed to see how many others have written about the sixth anniversary of September 11th.  I do remember last year reading several blogs and crying all the while.  I can't say with certainty that I'm avoiding those memories or just writing them down.

I remember though.  We lived in Florida at the time.  September is a nice time to be in Florida, the heat is mellowing, but the sun is still shining.  That morning was beautiful, a twang of fall in the air, slightly cooler, crisp blue skies.  My husband had just left for work (i.e. he walked to the other end of the block to his office at church).  I was just turning my attention to getting the children moving when the phone rang.  It was my husband.  He had just turned on his radio (he likes a.m. talk shows) and asked me to turn on the T.V. because there was something going on.

I turned it on, not really knowing what I was to look for or find.  The picture on the screen was the first tower to be hit-- smoking.  The newscaster babbled "It could be..."  "Maybe it was..."  generallities that seem to go on and on and muddle my mind.  I tried to describe to my husband what was happening and what was being said.  Then, I saw the second plane banking.  I knew in my heart what was about to happen and started crying, saying to no one in particular, "Oh, no.  Oh, no."  Wanting to shout to everyone in the building, "Get out quick!"  As I talked to him, trying further to descibe what I had just saw, the towers started to come down.  My husband came home right away.  We prayed, I cried.  Then we tried to reach his brother who lives in NYC.  Of course, the cell towers were down and other ones were jammed with phone calls.  We prayed and called family in Oregon to see if anyone had gotten through.

There are some things that etch themselves into our memories and never fade.  The day I was told my best friend was dead and 9/11 are two of those for me.  We eventually got through to my brother-in-law.  He had had the day off from work and was watching the events unfold through a window not many blocks away at a friend's apartment.  Had he went to work, he would have disembarked the subway under those towers while these things were happening.  We are thankful he was not there; we still pray for those families whose loved ones were there.

So what do we do now?  Unfortunately, it seems, that the long-term memory of America is not very good.  I think that fewer really take time to remeber this day six years ago, and any event in our history longer than that is almost forgotten completely.  Just look at the all the tests and surveys that ask people about historical events or people -- so very few remember any past President Cliton or even what started the War in Iraq to begin with.  Sad, but true.

Today we went to our local school (which just opened this fall, built for $6.5 million) to vote on yet another school bond measure.  But that is another story.  After voting, my husband began telling me about the Glenn Beck radio show.  I am linking it here, because you need to know what is happening.  I don't care to listen to those kind of programs, so please don't think that I am endorsing them for you.  But this particular episode needs to be out there.

I think that most Americans have gone back to pre-9/11 thinking, living, etc. that the information in this episode of Glenn Beck is particularly worrisome.  It appears from things gathered, that terrorists are thinking of targetting our schools.  Now, I won't elaborate here, but I encourage you, dear reader, to prayerfully consider reading this transcript, or letting your husband read it and share what he thinks appropriate for you.    This is not just a case of  "Boy, I'm glad I homeschool" because should this day come to pass, God have mercy on us, it will be crippling to our nation.

Remember Jesus' exasperation in the Garden?  "Could you not watch one hour?"  America watch.  And pray.

I was bemoaning my most current trial to a dear friend recently.  She sympathized with my plight and then told me to go check out The Pleasant Times (I think so I could appreciate that I am not suffering alone in this trial).

It all started back in our first Idaho spring...

We noticed many large mounds of dirt in one corner of our backyard in the spring of 2006.  I regularly trampped them down, knowing some little critter was busy at work.  I thought if all his holes were stompped tight he'd give up and move on.  He didn't.  However, he stayed in his little corner.  That was alright by me for it wasn't a corner where the grass was thriving and it was near the neighbor's yard; where I secretly thought he'd make his way too since their grass was much greener (really, the grass is greener on the other side).  Yet, the little fellow stayed put.

One summer day this year I saw a big fellow sitting in his newly dug hole in my FRONT yard flowerbed!  I was stunned to say the least because the distance from his backyard corner is considerable and he was now awfully close to my newly planted dahila croms (and don't they like bulbs?).  I immediatly informed my dear husband that he could now do away with the gopher.  (I think he had been secretly planning on this for some time -- he came home the next day with a bag that he hid away in the garage.)

I did try filling up some of the holes with large amounts of water and for some weeks there was no sign of new digging.  The neighbor came over one afternoon to tell me of her gopher trouble (I was secretly relieved that he had moved on) and I felt confident that now that Mr. Gopher had tasted of her professionally landscaped yard he wouldn't come back to our DIO (Did It Ourself) yard.  {Sigh}  That is not what happened.

We planted a garden.  Need I say more?  I have no flourishing pumpkin and squash plants (aren't they the cockroaches of the plant world?).  I have only two green bean bushes left.  Two days ago, Mr. Gopher started felling the last standing stalks of sweet corn left from the ravages of two Idaho windstorms.  Timber!! Just like an Oregon woodsman.  I could almost taste those cobs as they fell.

My only consolation is that it is fall and soon it won't matter how much produce is left in the garden, the ground will freeze up and Mr. Gopher will be stopped for the winter.  Unless of course he gets a hold of one the backhoes.

Wow!  It has been a long while.  I am so sorry.  I do have lots to share and some photos too, once I figure out how to get them in here.  I have barely been keeping up with my email.  I hope this month to do several entries in order to share what has kept me from blogging since forever.

We are well, but tired.  Looking forward to some changes in our lives and striking out a bit differently.

This has to be the most memorable Valentine's day to date for me.  Ever.  Hands down.  The day started out routine enough, with me getting a late start on the morning, breakfast finishing after 9 a.m.  My dh called to see how things were going, checking in with oldest dd to see, I presumed, how her attitude was and if she was doing what was required of her today.

Just as we were sitting down to school routine the doorbell rang.  I reluctantly rose, sort of hoping whoever it was would be gone by the time I got there.  (We get a great many door-to-door sales for some reason.)  A quick peek out the front window revealed a van (so they were still here).  When I opened the door, what to my wondering eyes should be revealed?  Four, flashy dressed men with mischievous grins.

It was a quartet from the Boise Valley Chordsmen!  A kindly man handed me a rose, then asked, "Would you like us to sing outside or come in?"  I was in utter shock, as I invited them in!  What is going on?  As they filed in and arranged themselves, I asked my children, "Did you know about this?"  All I received back was great big grins!  They sang two wonderful and heart-touching (my son's term for things that make me cry) songs.

Wow!  What a man is the one I call my own!  I will never forget this Valentine's day.  I dabbed tears of affection for my dear, hard-working, ever long-suffering husband, as the four filed out the door wishing me a Happy Valentine's day. 

 I wished I had not had on my working-about-the-house clothes!   

Yesterday we started a winter garden.  A dear friend of ours gave us an AeroGarden for Christmas (it arrived only yesterday).  We lost no time at all putting it together. 

It is a neat hydroponic growing set up.  Our first seven plants are various herbs.  It has an adjustable growing light hood and pump to circulate the water below.  We are all excited to see the green grow!  I think I checked four times last evening to see if anything had sprouted yet!  

It has been so very cold here.  Just the perfect weather for snow, if only it would.  Early in the weekend we were down to two degrees.  Brrrr.  Thus I did not get out into the garage all weekend as I would have liked.  However, I did get some C&C cleaning up done.

I have a corner in my bedroom (don't we all) where my totes and boxes of sewing stuffs reside.  I have, with God's help, emptied a tote and two boxes from that corner.  It feels so good to see it shrink.  I have also determined to use fabric I have rather than buying for sewing projects.  In fact, I am making a blanket for my nephew.  I wanted to try a flannel rag quilt, but didn't have enough flannel of colors and patterns I had in mind.  I was about to go buy some, when I remembered some cute dinosaur fabric I bought for my son, a few years ago, that he decided he was to big for.  So now, I have a cute blanket under construction and with some scraps of lining material (used previously for Easter vests for my son) to make triangles for a boarder.

Yesterday I did go out into the garage for an hour or so.  Brought in three boxes and whittled them down to one - which is full of things that have a place to go.

I love seeing my keep piles growing smaller and the get rid of pile growing larger!  It feels very good, very liberating.  My sister recently informed me of a family whose home burned to the ground.  I have SO much stuff that will be of help and use to them and it is already in boxes for transport!  Praise the LORD, He made a place for this already!  He is so good!

"Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable to the Lord." 

Ephesians 5:8b-10 (NKJV)

Satan really likes to get at us when we have set our minds to do a thing.  I have been fighting coming down with a cold for a few days, and today it really hit me.  However, I would not be moved!  Rather than going out into the fridged garage to continue cleaning out boxes there, I tackled the Christmas stuff today.

I did manage to fill up one box of things to part with.  Unfortunately, that did not diminish the capacity of Christmas storage needed.  In fact, my dear love brought home two more totes to put stuff in!  UGH!  I really tried.  I don't think I failed, however, because I did fill up a box to get rid of and identified some items to "recycle" next year.  I also boxed a few special ornaments for my three blessings as their own special ornaments that they will inherit someday.  (I decided to do this because while sorting through the multipicity of ornaments I have amassed, I thought, "How will my children ever know which is their special ones if I were not here to tell them?")

Yesterday I also filled a box with magazines to get rid of.  I sorted all my other magazines into seasons (Spring & Summer, Fall & Winter) to make accessing these easier during the appropriate time of year.  Again, the number of boxes did not decrease, which I can't figure out why not, but I do have less than I started with.  This also brings up a good point I read somewhere (maybe at Dandelion Seeds) that we should really evaluate our magazine subscriptions.  Keep those we truly value and cancel the clutter -- including merchandise catalogs!  owwww!  That's rough.

Has anyone else started their own battle with the evil twin "C"s yet?  Leave me a note and let me know how it is going for you.  Sometime this next week I am going to share some insight and thoughs from an article I found (in one of my older magazines) about contentment.  Stay tuned.

God Bless your labors.

Greetings in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.  I want to wish you all a blessed and joyful 2007. 

I generally don't make New Year resolutions, however, this year, at the close of the Christmas celebration, I found myself face to face with Change.  It seems that this elusive, yet ever moving body planted itself right in my path, determined to be dealt with face to face.  You see, I don't do change well, at least the obvious kind of change.  (That is such an ironic statement from someone who has moved eight times in six states since marrying 18 years ago.)

The changes I must face this year, the ones I know of anyway, are not insurmountable, but they are changes nonetheless.  The largest and most looming is that of Clutter and Chaos; those twin evils that haunt and lurk in most homes.  I met them as I packed my Christmas decorations and supplies.  I had only a handful of new things, yet I could not get everything back in the boxes from which they came!  It was then I determined to fight this beast and unshackle myself from the things I have.  "Be careful that the things you possess don't end up possessing you" is a warning that I have not heeded well. 

So, I have begun and resolved to have no mercy upon the twin evils of Clutter and Chaos.  I began in the garage.  That has a story of its own, but I will say this, we have not yet unpacked all the boxes since our last move, to Idaho, a little over a year ago.  {sigh}  It is a confession usually accompanied with a strained laugh, and responded to with some sympathy from others.  But I do not confess to you this for such pity.  I am shamed that I have so much stuff (some of which has not been unpacked since we moved from Florida to Washington, from there to Idaho, TWO years ago!  Enough is enough! 

I have emptied, so far, six boxes of stuff; lots of trash, and some going into other boxes for a garage sale or charity.  It is a liberating feeling!   As soon as I finish typing this entry and I bundling up to go back out and tackle some more boxes (it is about 20° out this morning).

I really think that once I battle with Clutter and Chaos, then I will be able to embrace Organization whole-heartedly in this New Year.  I know my friend, Dandelion Seeds, is making January the month to declutter in prepartion for another Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge  in the spring.  Visit her blogs and join in.

God bless you all in the changes that you face in 2007.

Yesterday it began to snow.  Not the frantic, fluffy stuff, but sort of a drizzle, only in snow.  Off and on it went for the afternoon.  My littlest kept asking to put on the snowboots and suit to go play.  So very cute, only by evening the grass was not even covered up.

However, we woke this morning to about four inches of fluffy snow.  It was so beautiful; blue sky, the proper amount of chill in the air, and new insulated snow boots for everyone, including Mommy!  :O)  The night before we strung real cranberries on fishing line; so we took that out and looped it on the tree with the bird feeders.  I don't know that the birds really went for the berries though.  We have been seeing mostly House Finches this month. 

Since my last post, we have not slowed down much at all.  Thanksgiving found a total of 14 crowded warmly in our home and some wonderful fellowship and praises of Thanksgiving to God above filling the nooks and cranies.  The dance "recital" was wonderful!  There was over 400 tickets sold and everyone danced great.

My first month of Irish step dance lessons went well.  I have discovered how uncoordinated and aerobically challenged I am, and it is worse than I thought.  :O)  But, I am learning and my children, who have been dancing a year now, are trying to bring me up to speed (their speed) as kindly as they know how.  They don't even laugh at me, bless their hearts!

Thank you for stopping by this year.  Please do come back and visit again.  Leave a comment so I might be able to stop by and visit you as well.  Merry Christmas to all and a blessed, peaceful New Year!

:O)amy

The leaves have been blown from the trees already and the winter rains have begun to fall regularly again.  Oh, it is soooo cold.  How could I forget how cold it was last year?  The foothills have put on their winter shawls, gently dusted white by the new snow.

October was very busy for us in the ways of traveling.  We finished traveling around the south-eastern counties of Idaho getting stamps for our "passports."  Then we turned northward and finished 12 counties in the panhandle.  What a wonderful trip that was; my first time north of Boise.  We then hand-delivered our "passports" to the Governor's office, to which we were treated to meeting Governor Risch.

We celebrated our 18th anniversary in Couer d'Alene.  While there my eldest daughter and I attended the Mother-Daughter Tea sponsored by Christian Heritage Home Educators.  What a wonderful weekend it all was!

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday and my children and dear husband gave me a pair of Irish ghillies for taking Irish step dance lessons, with two of my children.  They all have much more confidence in me and my abilities than I do, for I am quite nervous about the whole affair.  When I expressed my gratitude, oh how eager and excited they are for me, I also mentioned I probably wouldn't perform (as our school is a performance school, not a competition school) but only enjoy learning, my dear children exclaimed, "No, Mommy!  You have to perform, we want you to perform.  We want to show you off!"  What a blessed woman I am!  So come December, you will dance with me.

We now are planning to host 16 for Thanksgiving and participate in a holiday recital at the Nampa Civic Center, as well as three other performances before the recital.  The children are thrilled.  I am thankful we homeschool so we can enjoy these activities to the fullest.  I am ready, however, to hibernate.  Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it SNOW!