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"You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God's fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts." - Charles Spurgeon

What else can be said...?  nothing.   Thanks Mr. Spurgeon for the encouragement.

I'm planning to enjoy every minute of it while I can.

Posted in Thoughts to think about...

You are probably wondering what I am talking about... 

Some of you know that we were trying to plant a church in the downtown area.   Our events - christian raves - were a success having from 50 - 150 people coming depending of the theme.   We had wonderful DJs from outside, Toronto, California and New York coming to spin for us.  We had people coming through the doors and not staying during the service because there wasn't enough people to blend in.   It is hard... and we had to decide to close for the time being.    Two of our leadership members are getting married to each other in December - they need time to concentrate on the wedding.  We need time to seek what God is doing both on the church side and the business side.   Lots is going on.  We have just so much energy in us and we can't duplicate ourselves to cover every bases.

So with wisdom - we had our last service last Saturday.  It hurts.   Lots.  Never though it would hurt like that...  but God knows better...  He feels the hurt as well right?

I figure that a seed needs to die in the soil if we want it to become a plant - like a rose, a maple tree or a simple tomato plant.   Just the same way, HEAT has to die so it can grow while we take a time to regroup, pray and seek God.  

Slowly, God is bringing opportunities to us - both business and church.  Ideas brought to us about our church format.   Ideas that we are slowly consider and bring to God.   Great ideas actually.  

So for now - we pray and seek God...

In the meantime this morning Dominic, age 5, came to me and asked me to come and see his church that he made on his bed.   His stuffed animals worshipping God.   Cute!    He might be unto something a friend told me...  LOL   I don't know.   If church planting would be that easy....   but then again we wouldn't grow would we?  We wouldn't experience pain and seek God for every aspect in our lives.   And we wouldn't trust Him.

I'm thankful for the experience of this past year and a half.   We learned a lot.  Experienced a lot and twicked our service time.   The kids love it - saw God working in our midst and learned the importance of prayer and helping others.   We didn't loose our time.  Definetively not.

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Today it is national poetry day... (as well as grouch day but I decided not to celebrate that one...)

And one poet we really appreciate is Helen Steiner Rice.  And as we ourselves are going through a tough time with business and the church plant, I thought to put a poem about faith and perseverance.

Climb Till Your Dream Comes True

Often your tasks will be many,
   and more than you think you can do.
Often the road will be rugged,
   and the hills insurmountable, too.
But always remember, the hills ahead
   are never as steep as they seem,
And with faith in your heart, start upward
   and climb till you reach your dream.
For nothing in life that is worthy
   is ever too hard to achieve
If you have the courage to try it
   and you have the faith to believe.
For faith is a force that is greater
   than knowledge or power or skill,
And many defeats turn to triumphs
   if you trust in God's wisdom and will.
For faith is a mover of mountains -
   there's nothing that God cannot do -
So start out today with faith in your heart
   and climb till  your dream comes true.

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Geez!  I never thought I would have the writer's block...  But I am pondering on what to write...  You see I have to submit something on homeschooling.   And if my text is selected then I will be published in an e-book.   So I already have something in mind - I just need to take the time to put them on paper (or in this case in Word)....   It's just that there is no two days the same in this house... For example, today we had the annual family picture to get done at 10 am.   So I sent my 7 year old to do some Rosetta Stone while we prepare the rest of the crew....   No problem there.   But he didn't do his workbooks and it kind of bother me in a way.    I don't want to stress about it...

Honestly, I find it hard to be splitted in four.  Giving attention to Alexandre, Dominic, Jérémy and Jasmine and trying to teach.    Most days, I give Alexandre his assignments and then I try to work with Dominic with Jérémy following....   Mmmmm!   The school room is not done yet and I can't wait to have that finished.   Wish it would be done miraculously....   Hey I can dream...

So today is not quite lost after all...  Alexandre spent some time on the site of Time4Learning which I will write a review for in the weeks to come.   Alexandre can easily do some things there by himself.  Dominic and Jérémy ? that's another story.  Dominic is too fast and doesn't listen to the instructions... Jérémy is having trouble with the mouse...    So I do it for him but he gives me the answers.

Now back to my text I need to write...   How can I find the words to explain how homeschool is done in our house.   I think I will start with what I wrote for the newsletter of our association in town about reflections from a 1st year homeschooler and go from there.....  explain the differences between last year and this year - now if I can only find the time to sit down and write without disruptions....

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Election day in Canada.   It used to be that employers would let their employees go earlier so that they can go vote...   Advanced voting was allowed only if you had proof that you couldn't vote on Election day.   Things has changed in the last 20 years or so...    We take advantage of the advance voting because we hate waiting a long time on Election Day.   So we did our duty as Canadians about two weeks ago.   And tonight we will learn what our next government will look like - Would it be a Conservative majority or a minority government (either conservative or liberal)?   The whole thing starts at 9pm (EST).   Me?   I will not stay up and hubby will watch it.   He is really following this.

Having a majority government would be nice but I am unsure if we will get it with all the things that are going on.   Honestly, I didn't enjoy the debate and the election campaign this year.   Too much attacking one another I find.   Would you believe me if I tell you that we have 5 major parties in Canada?  And that's not counting the little ones that are trying to get in as well.  There is the Conservatice, the Liberal, the NDP, the Green Party, and The Bloc Quebecois (which is represented only in Quebec - I think that a federal party should be represented in all the country... but looks like it is not the case!  And mind you I am from Quebec.) - and there are those small parties also.   The Bloc Party is there only to represent Quebec at the federal level and make sure that the decisions are made for the Quebecers too!  Their leader will never become a prime minister...

So today it's the final day for the leaders to convince the population to vote for them.   I pray that Canadians make a sensible choice regarding the economic situation these days.  May  our nation be govern by people who will be attentive to the people's need.  

UPDATE:

We now have a strong Conservative minority government...  Hopefully we won't go back in elections for a little while... but you never know with the opposition.

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Today is thanksgiving day in Canada...

Which made me think about what I am thankful for...

The bible says "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all curcumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

And in the Psalms often you can read "Give thanks to the LORD for he is good."

So what I am thankful for?

• my relationship with God and the freedom to be a christian
• my husband who helps me a lot - he started homeschooling Alexandre on certain subjects like computers and music.
• my kids and their individual personalities... each one of them are different
• my mom even if our relationship sucks sometimes.  She sacrificed a lot for me in the past.   Wish she could see how much I love her.  
• my in-laws who are very loving and open arms for me (not what my mom had...)
• being able to live the 4 seasons in my country
• having a roof over my head
• contracts for the business
• homeschooling with all it's hardships and happy times
• being on the Homeschooling Crew - can't wait to havemore products to review!
• my eyes so I can read as much as I want
• electricity - I know it's weird but I don't think I would be able to cook on a wood stove.  Honestly I will have to learn if I needed to and it will be a big learning curve but I like having electricity.
• our team for H.E.A.T. Worship House. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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I'm curious about my ancestors.   And over the last 10 years or so I was able to collect our genealogy.   It's not complete but I have most of our past figured out.    I have all the ancestors of the Lussiers and Cantins up to the first who came in Canada.   I think I have most of the Rivards and some Lantaignes a bit of Boissés and none of Ledouxs.    These are on the grand-parents sides.   But I think it's interesting that my kids  will be able to continue their genealogy in the future.  

One thing I cherish are things from the past.  Like I have an old necklace and bag from my grand-mother, old furniture that belonged to her, old pictures from my parents, and this ring from my paternal grand-father.

This ring is quite a mystery for me.   I don't know the whole story behind it.   I heard that either my grand-father or great-grand-father had gone to Yukon and found a golden nugget which was turned into this ring.   I wonder sometimes if the story is accurate or not.   Everytime I look at it, I wonder what is the history behind it.    This is something that is gone forever for me simply because I never really sat down with my grand-pa and asked him.   He is gone now... since many many years (I was a teenager when he died).   And my dad too since Dec 2000 -  well I don't think he ever knew the story either.   Honestly I didn't expect getting this ring when dad died.   He had left my mom since a number of years and was living with a woman that I never met - never felt as though I needed to met her either.  However, after many years of separation from dad I had decided in Nov 2000 to make an effort and meet him in a public place with my aunt, his sister.   He was sick.  Very sick as a matter of fact...  Cancer.   God had worked so many years to make peace in my heart and I forgave my dad.   He died knowing I was expecting his first grand-child... 

Anyhow, back to the ring...   After his death, I received a package in the mail.  It was the famous ring...   And now, I have this ring - not really knowing what to do with it and wondering what it's story is.   Wondering...   Oh I wish I knew the story so I can tell my kids about it.

If you are reading this, I strongly suggest that you take the time to learn about your parents, grand-parents and so on.   So many stories they can tell you.   For me, it's too late...   but I encourage all of you to take the time and sit down with an elder and ask them questions from their past.  Learn from them.  They are often wiser than we can think...

Posted in Thoughts to think about...

I've been pondering of friendship lately.   I realized that I am not a person who will have tons of friends.   I've always been like that since primary school I guess.   I learned fast that others can take advantage of you and somehow my heart had shut down on future friendship...   Oh don't take me wrong, I have one close friend when I was in high school but somehow we lost contact when we left for college.   Then we reconnected when she had her 15 years conventum (a year after mine) and lost contact again...  Then I found her on facebook but then I got sick in my stomach with facebook and I scraped most of the supposively friendship I had.   No really Facebook made me realize how fake some of those friendship were.    The kind of friendship that say hi only when it is convenient or only when you go to church...  Mind you sinice we are planting a church ourselves, we left the mother church without others thinking much about us I think.   Why am I saying this?   Well, nobody called or e-mailed to ask how things were going...   Except one or two that I would consider friends.    One of them left for Cochrane, AB to finish her master in divinity.  The other is homeschooling as well but her kids are older than mine.

Speaking of friends moving away - I got my share lately....   Last year, it was friends who moved to Winnipeg.  Since then, we made the effort to call once in a while but honestly I feel like it's a one side thing.    So I am wondering how close was that friendship???   Then, Rob sister, her husband and their two sons left for Vancouver earlier this year.    That too bad but hey a guy has to go where there is job to support his family.   So I understand.   It just sucks that we won't have physical contact with my nephews...   Oh well.  Then I though I had some sort of friendship with an older woman but again because we left our mother-church to plant another church, well that friendship sort of went on the ice...

Then my friend and her family moved to Cochrane.   Her daughter went to school with Alexandre and they are close.    We "joke" about the fact that they might marry someday.   Hey we never know...    Anyhow, these two are close and even call themselves boyfriend/girldfriend.    I want Alexandre to cultivate this friendship so we will write to his friend Emily during the next two years.

But friendship for myself???   Right now, I must say that it's pretty platonic.    I know that Jesus is my best friend and I do have internet friends but meeting with someone who lives in Pennsylvania or Cochrane, Alberta on a regular basis is kind of hard don't you think?    So I give it up to God - totally.   After all He knows what kind of friend is best for me.   I won't be looking.  He will have to make things happens. 

But just in case....  Here's some of my requirements:  Someone who would like to read, take walks, christian, interested in crafts (mostly stamping and scrapbooking), camping, homeschooling (possibly - or at least encourage me to continue), skating (okay it has been years since I did this but hubby doesn't enjoy it so I figure a girlfriend might like it), shopping, someone who would lift me up (not put me down), someone who will move heaven and earth to take my out because she knows I need a break from the kids, someone who will laugh with me and cry with me...   Mmmm!  My list could go on and on.   But I sure hope that I will find such a friend eventually. 

In the meantime, hubby wants to give me a break and suggested that I go to the trailer by myself for a day or two.  Problem is - I hate driving bymyself on long distance.    I hate going to eat somewhere by myself also.    So I guess I have to work on these aspects of me...    because I do need the time by myself -desperately!

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" Don't feel totally, personally, irrevocable responsible for everything.  That's my job.  Signed, God."

Posted in Thoughts to think about...

Ever heard of this community site?   It is quite addictive if you ask me but fun at the same time.   You can find old friends which who you lost touch with or just keep in touch with regular friends.  

BUT at the same time, I am disturb with something.   As for any other sites, I think you should be careful with the kind of information you put on Facebook.com.  I do have friends who posted their full address and phone number in there.   Personally, I prefer not to... for various reasons but most specifically because there are sickos and weirdos in the world.   Now, I am not freaking out here...  we had a situation in our city with a murder and it could be linked to facebook somehow.  

I prefer caution...   Just as for the blog.  Don't put too much information.  At first, I had written where I lived but I realized that it would be preferable not too.  So I went through all my entries and remove any references to where I live.

Having said that, you can control the information you put on Facebook and I think it is interesting to see how people are doing...  Try it out...  I think you will like it!