Once again I'm made some goals I want to accomplish for 2010. Here they are in  no particular order.

• Trust God more to meet my needs
• Be a better helpmeet to my husband
• Be a better mom to my children
• Not compromise my convictions even if it costs me some of my friends.
• Crochet a least one item for myself. I have never accomplished this.
• Commit more time to prayer
• Crochet at least five prayer shawls(see www.shawlministry.org) this year.
• Improve greatly in my homeschool efforts

Wow! It's hard to believe that 2009 is coming to a close. It seems like it was only yesterday I was posting on how quickly 2008 went by.

This is the time of the year where I reflect on events that impacted my life or the life of others. I think about whether or not the goals I had for this year were accomplished or not. Some were met and others were not. My family stayed healthy with no real major illnesses. My poor father in law was hospitized twice though due to kidney stones. February 10th marked the one year anniversary of my dear mother's passing. That is still very hard for me.

We have a new pastor at our church who will start in January. We had been without one for a year. Praise God for His blessings and His faithfulness to answer our prayers. Our youth pastor and his family have started a new season in their lives by moving to Colorado. I believe that the Lord will bless us with a new youth pastor soon.

The nation saw some major losses most notable was Michael Jackson. I was very saddened by Jon and Kate Gosselin's divorce. I'm praying that the Lord will restore their marriage and put to shame the media evil tongue wagging gossip.

I need to pray about what the Lord will want me to accomplish next year. I will post them when I know what they are.

Here are the top 5 things I'm sick of hearing about in the media.

5. Adam Lambert-Who in the world is this person????

4. Jon and Kate- These people really need prayer.

3.Party Crashers- What are their names again?

2. Sarah Palin-No offense Sarah but enough is enough

and the number one thing I'm sick of is

1. Tiger Woods- Let's face it. What ever is going on in his life is between him and God. It isn't any of our business.

Pray for all of those on this list.

There is this great corn maze in town that many people  like to go through each year. I don't like it myself because I don't like that "lost" feeling.

I was thinking that in some ways a corn maze is like a life without Christ. A person can go through life with all it's twists and turns and feeling like there is no way out. They run into all these obstacles and they feel there is no way out.  Unless they are willing to follow the path that leads to Him they will remain trapped, going in all sorts of directions heading the wrong way,

What a lonely feeling that must be.

I have noticed in the news lately that the number of children who ended up being injured or killed has increased. Locally there is the guy (I wouldn't call him a man) murdered his girlfriend's four year old child. I mean what is going on with people hurting innocent children?

I know it must grieve the Lord when people hurt His little children.

I find it so disturbing how much Halloween is glorified with all it's evilness. I felt really bad for my 12 year old daughter because she was with her friends  recently who come from Christian families and all they wanted to talk about was how fun Halloween is. My daughter tried to tell them we don't celebrate the holiday at all but they wouldn't listen. She was really upset about it.

I guess this falls under the category of "just because your family doesn't do this doesn't mean my family can't".

 I recently got some tracts regarding Halloween that are written for Christians. It's very informative and convicting.

 Before God convicted me of the whole Halloween thing, I thought it was fun to go out trick or teating or get involved other  seemingly "innocent" celebrations. A fellow Christian shared with me the origins of Halloween , it's paganism and scriptures backing up why we as Christians should have nothing to do with Halloween.

Galations 5:19-21

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

 ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

 ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

The author of this Halloween tract talks about how people claim that Halloween is just  harmless fun for children.

He asks this question of Christians "Can a thoughtful Christian give a Scriptural reason for observing a holiday so steeped in paganism and witchcraft?" He talks about the modern resurgence of withcraft and Satan worshippers who openly claim Halloween as their holiday,  and asks " How can Christians observe it, even in fun?"

It has not been easy not to get involved with the whole Halloween thing. I still struggle with allowing our daughters to get dressed in costumes.

 We stopped going to this one church's Halloween alternative event because it was just too much for us. Some of the children and parents too were  in costumes that were either too scary or too sleazy. Even  some of the  church's volunteers had costumes that were inappropriate. I guess that was the straw that broke the camels back and I said no more! I'm sure dentists would have a major conniption if they saw how much candy the church gives away!

It won't be easy to say no to any Hallween or Halloween alternative activities, especially when all our friends and their children are doing it..

In a few days it will all be over. I can't wait.

Today we went to a little town a couple of hours away to visit some friends who have started a new church. We don't get to see them that often and so it was nice to see them again. The church is small so they meet in the home and because of the size of the living room they don't have the separate seating you see in most conservative Mennonite churches.

The service was great and we had a wonderful fellowship meal afterwards, After the meal the sisters sat together and talked while the brothers  sat together and chatted. The men  decided to sing a few hymns  together and it sounded so wonderful. It pleased my heart to hear my husband singing with these guys too. A few minutes after they were done singing I heard these sweet children's voices singing. It turned out that my eight year old daughter and her friends were singing "adult" hymns. I say adult because these songs aren't usually taught to children. I felt a little bad that my daughter didn't really know the songs but she did pick up the words with the hymnal.

It made me wonder why we don't teach our children the hymns like Great is Thy Faithfullness, Nothing But the Blood of Jesus and more.  Maybe we think that children can't sing them or that the songs are too old. I think if children are brought up on hymns they will learn to appreciate them and sing them.

That's all I'm going to say on that subject. I don't want to start a controversy.

Like I was saying in my previous post the Maxwells are very textbook oriented and they talk about it all throughout the book.  They don't seem to agree with homeschool methods that make homeschooling "fun". All in all the book was interesting and I got some good ideas for managing my homeschool a little better.

Well it's the third week of school and we have actually gotthen through without a bunch of complaints. The girls seems happy with the courses and so is mommy! You know the old saying "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"

I'm trying hard not have bad attitude in the mornings and I have found that spending time with the Lord is helping me tremendously. It sets the tone for how my day will go.  I'm adding school devotions to our curriclum and for us any of the Miller Family series of books works well for us. They are Amish-Mennonite stories and they have a lot of Godly values.  We all seem to like Wisdom and the Millers and Prudence and the Millers the best.

The interesting thing about these books is I'm learning alot myself and there are times when I have been convicted of a behavior that is less than Christian after reading one of these stories.

Or I will read a devotion about the very issue that we read about in one of the Miller books. Thisis when I know the Lord is dealing with me.

One of the things I enjoy about homeschooling is having my children home with me. I know that there are some  parents whose children go to school outside the home and they are counting the days when they go back to school. It's like they don't enjoy having their children around.

I don't like not having my children nearby. Even though they are 14, 12 and 8 it is such a comfort knowing they are safe because I know where they are, though I know they will leave home someday

I'm not saying they don't get out because they do. They have lot's of activities they are involved in but they are not overscheduled either. That would not sit well with dh or me.

I have ordered the Maxwells book Managers of Their Schools because I think I need a better plan. I have Magaers of Their Homes and Mangers of Their Chores. Both are great books so I need to get with the program and do some scheduling. Maybe that will cut down on I'm-bored-syndrome.

******I started this post days ago but had to save it because one child got sick and I'm just now getting around to finishing it.******