I was just looking at the list of Nominees and realized I have had a really disconnected year with all my knee surgeries, rehab and stuff. Seems I don't recognise any of the nominees in any given catagory. Who I am so out of touch! Either that, or you all have been changing your blog names on me. LOL How strange it all is to me. Do you know who these fellow homeschoolers are? I sure hope they have as much fun as we did.
Congratulations all you nominees. I plan on doing some visiting to get to know you. (o:

Of all the places I could choose to write about this, here seems to be the perfect place. Maybe becauseyou know my heart better than most, maybe because "Encouragement Along the Way " is the title of my book and my blog. Venting is something I do very rarely and these words are not writing in anger, more befuddled and confused than angry.

You see I discovered the other day that my publishing comapany no longer exists. I was not told it was no longer in business. I was not notified that they were no longer distributing my book. Truth is I don't even know if my book is even available anywhere any longer. The original file, the publisher did not return. You see I wrote an email requesting I be mailed a case of books. I was planning on a book signing prior to the Holidays. After all this is the time people are most likely to buy a devotional. Anyway, the email was returned adressee unknown. So we went to the Publishers website.. It was gone! Without any notice it was completely gone.

When my first publisher sold the company, we had great correspondance, decisions were made and new contracts exchanged. The new publisher well, that has never been the case and it breaks my heart. I expect Christians to behave honorably.  And that has not been the case, not even respectfully have I been included in this dissolving of my ..."MY" book.

I am told it is mine to do with as I please. Find a new publisher, self publish, or e-book it. I am open to the Lord's direction. Valerie posted this verse on her FB today, and I knew it was God speaking to my heart.

We rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love. Romans 5:3-5

This is my prayer,my focus, my desire. This hope is the only hope that does not disappoint. So today I am developing character, praying to forgive and waiting for direction. After all, it was never ever my book, the heart of it, the words in it ,they were always the Lord's. It is His to do with as He chooses.

 

 

Every Five years our daughter and her husband renew their wedding vows. The first time they had a renaissance theme. The second five years theri Youth Group chose the theme and they had a GOTH wedding. The kids had a blast decorating their youth pastor . This year, their fifteenth anniversary, they had a Hippy wedding. They decided they now live where Mike and I were married so they would have a Hippy wedding in our honor. We had  blast. You can watch them Here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2190FvJdk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdRblX8R4E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ql9Apn1BL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ4AXSx53A4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwPsSRmQHQQ

We had so much fun and laughed so very hard. I hope these make you laugh too. As Proverbs 17:22 says A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Be Cheerful....Stay well

I know it has been for ever since I did a Show and Tell. Hopefully I will get here a little more often.

Because of Jesus, Bobbie

 This was today's update from Chris' beloved Tracy. Please keep this family in the forefront of your prayers.

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW, AND I KNOW HE WATCHES ME

Dear friends,

Thank you for keeping Chris and our family in your prayers. We got through last night relatively well by God's grace.

Quick update on Chris:

1. Vital signs are and have been stable for over 12 hours now. We are esp. thankful his blood pressure is up. It was critically low. His temperature which was at a life-threatening 85.8 got up to 96.6, which, while not life threatening, is completely debilitating for someone like Chris with MS. It was around 91 when we left last night which is much better for him.

2. Chris has two infections, both of which, combined with the MS, have put him into a status of critically ill. First, is a urinary tract infection. This has responded well as of last night to antibiotics. Thank the Lord! Two, he has pneumonia. While it is not a severe case for normal healthy people, it is very serious for Chris.

3. He had to be on oxygen 20% midday, but as the afternoon progressed, they continued to up that to 100% and finally had to resort to using a bipap machine, which is a mask that forms a seal on the nose/mouth area and pumps oxygen into the lungs. By last night, his oxygen levels had come up, and held steady so that they could remove the bipap machine.

He came very close to having to be put on a ventilator if the bipap machine failed to get his oxygen levels up. This is a serious step to take, and not one to make lightly. We are thankful the doctors did not have to do that.

Concerning interventive measures, Chris and I talked quite a bit in the last two months about what he would like to have done and what he would not want done should the need arise to visit this issue. Chris, who was never one to want a lot of medical intervention, decided that he did not want to be artificially prolonged.

If the doctors had told us they needed to put him on a ventilator, even though Chris said he did not want to, I would have asked them to do it, but only so that our children could be with their daddy before he goes home to be with the Lord.

Chris is close to going home we believe. He is fairly unconscious, non-responsive and has had no nutrition since Thursday except hydration and electrolyte and glucose supplementation.

He is not stable or responsive enough to move from the ICU unit here at St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs. With almost complete certainty, he will not be coming home to Virginia.

Because of this, we flew Bethany, Megan, and John out here to be with their daddy. Chris parents just flew in early this morning. In addition, our family life pastor is flying in today at noon.

We don't know how much time we have left with  Chris, but we believe it is not long. As a family, we all knew that Daddy was getting worse; we just didn't expect him to be getting ready to go home to be with his Abba Father quite this soon. We are all at peace with whatever God has planned, knowing that because He is there, it is all good.

Thank you for your prayers as we prepare and spend our last days and hours with Chris. May they be filled with many precious moments and sweet fellowship with him!

This morning I received an urgent prayer request from my dear friend Tina. Her husband Bob was at the bedside of HSLDA attorney Chris Klicka who had been attending the HSLDA Leadership convention. At the same time Mike Farris the founder of HSLDA was flying home to his wife Vickie who is in he Hospital in DC and has taken a turn for the worse.

I just NOW received this most urgent update asking for the following prayers

Pray for

~ Pray for the Klicka children who have just been told to come to the hospital.

~ His blood pressure to go up

~ His temperature to go down

~ For his body to absorb oxygen or he won't last for another few minutes and his children won't get to see him again on this side of Heaven…

Father God Please please hear our prayer and get all of Chris' kids safely to his side. Father we ask that you would meet these immediate needs just as Tina Farewell presented them to us
Father God They have fought this battle so bravely and so very long please let them stand together. Our hope is in Chris' Healing and we know that his total healing will come when He is standing and leaping and praising You in Your Presense. You have already numbered the days of his life before even one began and we trust that You will fulfill them all. May that please include time with his beloved Tracy and with His children. We are so grateful for all the moments the Call on his life has provided for all of our families. And plea for one moment for them now.

We all have the priveledge of teaching our children in our homes because of these visionaries. Please pray for these families.

Because of Jesus, Bobbie

Happy New Year! "May You find your name inscribed in the Lamb's Book of life."

This is a typical greeting on Rosh HaShana for most Jewish people. It is their hope to find their name Inscribed in The Book Of Life. This book is traditional opened on Rosh HaShana and Sealed with all the plans for the coming Year on Yom Kippur. Your Destiny set before you for the year to come.

We who know Jesus (Yeshua)  as our Messiah have the assurance that our name is in the Lamb's book of life. Rev 3:5 says "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. "

This is the promise of believers, but a curse to those who do not believe. Rev 20:15 says"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Even King David knew the depth of this blessing and this curse as we see in Psalm 69:28 "May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous." There is nothing worse.

My prayer for you and for all  you love, is that your name will be inscribed in the Lamb's Book of life, that you would know Messiah Jesus as your personal Savior and peace will flood your heart and mind. If you have not searched the Tanakh and discovered the Lordship of Yeshua (see Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 61) no matter how many good deeds you perform to out weigh the bad ones, their is no other sacrifice worthy enough to have your name inscribed in The Lamb's (Jesus') Book of Life. He is the only way of escape. He is the only atoning blood sacrifice there is. Far too many Torah observant followers have replace Yeshua who is the Word made flesh and His atoning sacrifice with the Law. The Law was not enough then and it is not enough now. Only the Atonement provided through the blood sacrifice of Yeshua for your sins will get your name in this book.

This is a New Year, A moment set in time for you to Repent, to recount your sins and have them washed away. This is when our sins are Psalm 103:11-13 "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;"

This is my prayer for you and our praise for my family. Tonight as we celebrated together I know everyone at my table has their name inscribed in the Lamb's book of life and that is cause of Celebrating a New year!

LaShana Tovah, blow the Trumpet in Zion! ....Are you ready if it blasts tonight???

Today 40 years ago God blessed us with the amazing entrance of canadagirl.

So since I cannot put 40 Flamingos on her yard, I thought maybe we could post pictures of 40 flamingos on our blogs!

so this one is mine....happy 40th birthday my sweet mirror twin!

And I am the beneficiary of these talents.

Heatherlee began making me my Birthday present so that she would have it finished on time to surprise her mama. The problem, she ran out of yarn the last row, the last 12 inches and the yarn is no longer available! That sent her on a quest and somehow she found a woman with a skein with which she was willing to part . Hooray for me! That means Friday night my daughter showed up at the door with the most beautiful shawl you have ever seen.

To prove that statement I will show you!

It is the most beautiful blue jean varigated yarn you have ever seen!

If you look closely you can see the Challah Braid pattern that runs through it.

I absolutely LOVE my new shawl and am looking forward to wearin it everywhere.

I did not have to have my Bat Mitzvah to get my shawl like Tirzah and Kezziah did. But The specialness of it, the love woven in it, the prayers said over it makes it as holy to me.

Thank you Heatherlee! You truly do rise up and call me blessed!

 

Rejoicing, dancing, celebrating!
It seems my vote actually counted for once in the State of California!
The California Supreme Court just upheld Prop 8 as a legal and constitutional vote of the people!
Marriage is defined in the State of California as between a Man and a Woman only!

They did however decide to allow the 18000 illegal marriages done to stand.

Just a reminder that when Christians actually take a stand even in the state of California we can stand up for Biblical principles!

There is a really great new show on Blog Radio called "The Homeschool Mommy". Every Tuesday at 1:00pm EST Dana Carrol Broadcasts from North Carolina. It is a call in show with Guests from all over. Depending on the subject you can hear from Veteran Homeschoolers on How to teach High Schoolers, from mom's with Large Families (Barbara Frank has 13 children) and this last Tuesday the Interview Subject was me and Encouragement Along the Way.

I had so much fun visiting with Dana. But I have to tell you, I was nervous about the whole thing. I like it when the words come from my fingertips. When they come out of my mouth, there is no delete key. Dana made me feel right at home right away.

Sometimes I am amazed at the techno age we live in. When I wrote Encouragement Along the Way , it was because I needed Encouragement and there was no place to find it. Now we have the Homeschoolblogger, The HomeSchool Lounge and The HomeSchool Mommy.

You can check it out here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Homeschool-Mommy  My interview is still available to listen to, as are the others I mentioned. Dana is delightful as the Hostess and her guests are as encouraging as they come. And you can listen while you do all the other things this computer calls you to.

Now, Show and Tell with canada Gilr has been bringing us together with Show and Tell as long as I can remember. So stop by her blog and see what we are all up to.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/canadagirl