It's about time Pepto updated her blog so I could enter my thoughts on working w/ her!  She's great.  I think we had her in tears last night, she was laughing so hard at our shenanigans here at work. I pray she can go full time soon to ease her budget a bit, and to give this place a little lift. That'll be a good thing when it happens.

Thing2 got his first report card. He's doing so well. He pulled down a 'B' in Algebra. Yea, God! We prayed about that one! We forgot to pray for World History, though, because he earned a 'C' in that class. Too many dates and not enough meat in the lessons is what I think, but that's just me. Anyway, we need to pray about History.

Also, it could be because T2 has a special girl in his life who might be distracting him...just a bit...from his studies. He is "going with" a young lady from his youth group. I think she's a very neat girl. She came over after church for a chaotic lunch of Wendy's carryout last week, and she hasn't dumped him, so that's a good sign! Her mom & I had a nice talk, too, on Sunday. Both families are on the same page as far as dating & such, so that's good. Her dad works seven days a week, so he wasn't there Sunday, but we moms pretty much covered it all.

T2 and I are reading a book together called Dating With Integrity. It's a bible study and, so far, he's keeping up w/ it. I told him he couldn't see Girlfriend unless he did it, so he is, under duress!

Thing1 is just trippin'. Don't know what we're gonna do with her. Let's see, where do I start? How about last Wednesday? I get home from work, and she's waiting up for me. Her lip is pierced (!) and she broke up w/ Pierced. She was tired of the manipulations. She said it was hard to do, but she finally realized he wasn't going to change (three smacks w/ a 2X4 later!) and she ended it.  I was kind of sad for her, even though I was relieved. We all remember that first love, and how sad it is when it ends...

About the lip-thing...it's tasteful, as far as lip piercings go, but it hurts to look at it. I'm kinda surprised, because she's such a wimp when it comes to pain, but, yeah, she did it! I told her when she's 70, gravity will have stretched the crazy thing and she'll be droolin' all over herself!! She says it's pretty sore. I said, yeah, when you poke a hole through muscle tissue, it'll get pretty sore! Sheesh!

So the next day, Cat in the Hat drops her off at work and 20 minutes later, she's back home. She quit her job (nothing like having a clean slate, huh?). It seems her manager wasn't thrilled w/ her new jewelery and asked her to remove it. T1 refused, she says, because the manager didn't make anyone else remove their piercings (I guess this is a very motly crew at the pet store) and she didn't think it was right that she should have to lose hers. Manager didn't give her a choice, so she quit. Sheesh, I'm glad she can stand up for herself, but talk about an extreme reaction. Anyway, she's unemployed.

Then, fast forward to Sunday morning. I had to get up during worship and walk around. (My back is a pain in the ...well, back!) And who do I see sitting *very* closely together in the back row? T1 & GuitarMan's no. 3 son! My head was spinning. :) Had a good talk w/ GuitarMan, so I know he and BeautifulArt are keeping an eye on things and praying for them too.

Just as an aside... I'm in mourning. You see, when we began this homeschooling odyssey, I had visions of perfect little people, following their denim jumper-clad mother like little ducklings in a row. Playing chess and reading the classics for fun, growing up to grind their own flour, make their own bread and make yogurt from the goat's milk they'd just brought in from the barn. Now, I know that wasn't very realistic. We don't even have a barn!

Really, I do sometimes wish for that. But, doesn't God have a sense of humor? Seriously, I love my kids, and their uniqueness. They are far from perfect, and will likely make many mistakes...most of them avoidable, some of them not so much. Some things I think are mistakes, may not be. When I think of my prayers for these precious children of mine. I don't recall ever praying for them to be cookie-cutter Christians, or even my vision of  what the homeschooled child should look like (that everyone always oohs and ahhs over their charm and intelligence). What I prayed for is that they would grow in their knowlege of and their relationships with their Creator, become confident in who He created them to be, be willing servants, and learn w/o the limits others who have no choice but to go to a school building to be educated. He has answered that prayer and given so much more. But sometimes my flesh still mourns that "loss". Isn't that just pitiful? So anyway, I waffle between being so proud of my kids for being who they are, and wishing they fit that aforementioned mold. God is so good, and he's molding them into the people he wants them to be. I am just a tool, one of many, that He will use along the way.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll update on Cat and the Littles another day. I've been snatching minutes here and there to keep up on journals, just not commenting on all of them. Just know I'm praying for all the family and my "journal_Gs". Much love!!

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18