The truth is I'd fallen asleep!  Half-way through the second verse of 'Away in a Manger' I'd fallen asleep.  I knew I was tired but I don't think I've ever done that before!

I was giving the boys a goodnight cuddle and LJ asked for 'Away in a Manger'.  Now, before you start wondering where half the year is gone and it's Christmas already, I'll explain.  When LJ was born I was extremely sleep deprived - as you are! (Though I met someone today who tells me she happily manages on about 4 hours sleep a night! -HOW?)  But, I liked to sing to LJ.  I tried all sorts of songs but found the only ones I could really remember at 3a.m. were the ones I'd learnt as a child.  The modern choruses and hymns just weren't deeply ingrained enough, or were just too hard to sing by myself!  So my boys were raised on 'Jesus loves you', 'There is a name I love to hear', 'Amazing Grace', 'O Lord my God' and 'Away in a manger'.  'Away in a manger' seems to be the current favourite.

Why was I so tired the other night though?  Well, the night before I'd had a very powerful and disturbing dream.  I woke up with it just after 5a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep so I'd done most of my day's work by 9a.m.  I kept going and got caught up on some other jobs and by 8p.m. I was shattered.

The dream was a very gloomy picture of the future where we as a family were 'rounded up' at gun-point and taken to live in just one room.  It was extremely frightening.  There were many others there - one lady was reading her Bible in French.  Then there were others who were unaffected by the new 'laws' and were going about their lives as normal.  Very strange.

It was a conflate of some real-life experiences.  I was once evacuated to a school where I lived for several days.  I slept in a car, washed under an outside tap, ate army rations amongst several hundred other ex-pats of all nationalitlies, several of whom were also missionaries.  Eventually we were escorted to safety with very thankful hearts to the Lord.

Recently I've read a book or two with an incredibly bleak view of the future.  There have long been books and films with a very depressing view of the future.  We had to read John Wyndham for 'O'-levels - The Day of the Triffids and then there are all the films like '28 Days Later', 'The Day after Tomorrow' and even 'Independence Day'.  The current economic problems begin to make Revelation 6:6 about a time of great inflation, much money being used to buy a little bread, a little more understandable.

I am a 'Dr Who' fan and a recent episode showed a vision of the future without the Doctor.  It was awful.  It struck me that the writer was very much expressing this vision of the world without a saviour.  In that case the saviour was the Doctor. 

Of course in reality, the Saviour is Jesus.  And I am so glad that I know the Saviour, Jesus Christ.  However bleak the future looks, with Him there is the promise of a hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11.  However bad things get, we know for sure that Jesus is helping us and that we will spend eternity with Him.  There's nothing bleak about that! 

LJ got a great present for his birthday.  Hama beads and digger/dumper patterns to follow!  He's been a digger fan for a long time and things digger related usually go down well.

I decided to get some extra beads so we'd have plenty - we've got thousands now! - and decided to try the local Tesco brand ones.  They are cheaper and I thought they might be as good.  My initial impression is THEY AREN'T!!  I also decided to sort them out into little containers because they would be easier to use when following a pattern.  I wasn't wrong but perhaps there are better ways of spending my time.....

Before I tried to iron LJ's first effort (made with help - aren't they fiddly!) I thought I'd make a couple to try the iron on.  I made one with Hama beads and the other with Tesco beads.

The circle is made with Hama beads.  I nearly ironed that one into oblivion, pressing so hard!  The square had a problem.  A couple of the beads were shorter than the others and in my effort to make sure all the beads were melted and stuck together I managed to iron the base and squash some of the prongs a bit flat.  Yo!  Happily they are not too damaged and we will be able to use it again.  OOPS!

Then I ironed LJ's digger.  Isn't it great?

I found this tag over on my friend Deedee's blog and thought it would be fun to join in.  It was quite hard to answer some of these with just one word!

So here are the rules: All of the answers must be just ONE word.

We've just had one of those days where I really feel like we're making progress.  Yeah!

LJ has finished his first maths book, and we only started it in January, so I'm really proud of him.  He's very pleased with himself too, and afterwards sat down with an electronic puzzle and actually chose to do the subtraction game.  'Mummy, I'm getting them right!'  The game didn't last long, but what a self-esteem boost!

Go LJ!

Then we went swimming, and he swam right across the pool unaided for the very first time!  Yippee! How exciting!  (We started swimming about 5 and a half years ago.... )

This was a good day and I'm greatful for it.  Thank you, Lord!

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends!

We are the proud owners of a 'new' car.  Yippee!  It is a black Toyota Avensis and is 3 and half years old.  It's just the newer model of what we already had, but you know what?, this one actually works!!  Yeah!  It's so nice to get in a car where everything just works properly.

And the very best thing is that the Lord has heard our prayers and we are completely debt free on the purchase.  That is soooo amazing!   Thank you, Lord!

In one of life's little 'strange' events, we purchased the car exactly 7 years to the day from when we bought the last car.  Hmmm.  Wonder if this one will last as well?

Our car has been fantastic.  We bought it second hand 7 years ago with 60,000 miles on the clock already and we've not had any trouble with it at all.  Well, we hadn't until about 2 months ago.  It juddered, it lost power on hills and when we asked what the problem might be the answer was 'old age'.  (Have any of you had the doctor say that to you yet?  Not great is it?)

But, it only happened occasionally, and whilst we knew we would have to get a new car within the next year we were slightly taken aback when the car failed it's MOT (Ministry of Transport annual road-worthiness test) and seemed to get dramatically worse overnight.  The cost of repairs is huge and not worth it, all considered.  (We've got over 120,000 miles on the clock now)  So, we've gone from 'we need a new car soonish' to 'we need one NOW!'.  We are allowed a few days grace because the old MOT runs out Mon 30th June, and you're allowed a few days to get repairs done, but even so, the pressure is on to do something very quickly.

Had I have posted this 2 days ago, the situation was a bit dire.  We don't have money for a new car, and when I say new I mean second-hand, new to us.  Strangely for me I wasn't worried!  I just felt sure that the Lord would help us.  And you know what, He has!  Very quickly, someone gave us a great gift specifically to get a new car.  With the few savings we have we looked online to see what we could buy.  We want another Toyota because both we've had so far have been fantastic, and we liked the idea of one of the new 'hybrid' models.  Have you seen how much they cost???  So we're sticking with a 'normal' car, though going for diesel this time as it works out cheaoper to run.  We found something which looked okay, but had a shortfall, and then we were offered a short-term, but interest free, loan to cover the difference!  Wow!!

We've put a deposit on the car and it will be ready on Weds or Thurs.  I am both praising the Lord for all He's done and continuing to ask for His help, because, whilst the loan is great, we need to be able to pay it back!  I'm still not worried and I'm sure I'll have another 'praise report' soon!

Remember those cookies I was baking for Father's Day?

I thought you might like to know what happened.  I baked my 100 or so cookies and found that, once I got started, it was quite easy.     Another lady from church baked her batch and put some of each into a cellophane cookie/sweet bag, tied with ribbon.  When they were handed out everyone was amazed.  'Oh do I get some?!' was the comment from most of the men with huge grins on their faces.

I think they went down very well and I'm glad we found an acceptable way to bless all the men in our church.

A couple of months ago I joined a group on the internet which is called 'The Northwest nature study group'.  It's quite self explanatory and I thought it would be another opportunity for my boys to get out and about with other homeschoolers and I could benefit from someone else's area of expertise.  I've not managed to get to one of the monthly meetings yet, ('Best laid plans of mice and men gand aft aglay...'), but we have started nature journals.

This is a great idea and a little like how we used to do autograph books when I was a child.  We all have our own journal and choose a nature theme and then create a sign-in page and create our double page entry.  Then we post the journal on to the next person on the list.  There are 5 groups of about 7 sending journals to each other.  And this made me smile... about half the journals are going all over the country, some even to Spain!  Not quite 'Northwest' then.....

LJ  and PJ both chose 'animals' as their theme and we had a great time preparing their journals and researching their animals.  Hippos for LJ and kangaroos for PJ.

Creating the signing in pages.  We finished (in a bit of a rush before our holiday) and posted and on arrival back from holiday found the next journals to complete.

LJ's journal was on the theme of 'Under the sea' so he chose to research the octopus.  We found a great online clip of an octopus 'pouring' itself through a very small hole.  Amazing!

PJ's theme was 'In the garden' so he drew some roses and a leaf from our garden.  And now we post and wait for the next journals....

A few weeks ago, we were able to join my parents for a few days of their holiday in the Lake District, England.  It's not too far from our home and is very beautiful, especially if the sun is shining.

Whilst there is much to see and do there, one thing I wanted to do was visit the Beatrix Potter museum.  There has been a resurgence of interest in Beatrix Potter due to the film 'Miss Potter', which I haven't actually seen, but I remember these tales from my childhood.  As we went around the museum, my parents commented that they remember them from their childhoods too.  I remember a friend giving me a little Jemima Puddleduck tin when I became an aunt for the first time.. wow! that's a while ago!

These are the naughty rabbits who are always nipping into Mr McGregor's garden to steal a lettuce or some onions.

And these are the kittens who get up to a lot of mischief, nearly driving their poor mother to distraction!  One of them nearly ends up being a rat's roly poly dinner!

We had a great time and the boys thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the charcters, from Miss Tiggywinkle to Jeremy Fisher, the Puddleduck family and of course Peter Rabbit.

We had a fabulous holiday last week.  The holiday was given to us by a dear friend who thinks it's important for families to have a break, and was such a blessing.

We were based in Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham, famous for being where Robin Hood used to hang out.  It is truly beautiful there and so peaceful.  We had a lovely house with a little stream just a few feet from the back door.  We saw loads of wildlife including some moorhens, which I had seen before but didn't know what they were called until PJ, having watched a nature programme, announced, 'There's a moorhen!'  Little sponge!

Moorhen (in background) and geese.  We were trilled that many of the animals had their young with them and we had fun with 'geese and goslings', 'ducks and ducklings' and then 'swans and sygnets'.  Isn't English great??!!

Swan on the little stream.

Feeding the birds, of all shapes and sizes!

There were loads of squirrels too and this one was very taken with the apple we put out.  We were amused to watch him spit out the skin, just like our boys used to!

Thank you Lord for a wonderful break!

Life just got a bit busy!!

We've been doing some really fun stuff, but the result is that I'm too busy to post about it!!

We've done some art work, been out on several trips, including Beatrix Potter and seeing cows milked and I promise I WILL post some photos and tell more as soon as things calm down a bit.

We're taking a holiday next week and I need to get organised for that and before we go I need to make about 100 cookies to freeze for Father's Day.  I'll explain.  Every year we make sure to include all the women on Mother's Day.  I have both been too far away from my Mum to see her or even talk to her on the phone on Mother's day, and I've known the awful heartache of loosing babies and so being a mum, but not having a baby to show for it because there are all in heaven, and hitting Mother's Day.  Mother's Day can be both wonderful and incredibly painful!  So we always make a fuss of all the ladies on our church, many who are 'Mother's in Israel', and give flowers to all.

This year, a couple of us ladies decided that perhaps Father's Day too had its heartaches and we would like to bless all the men that day.  The question was what to do!  So, we decided to bake a lot of cookies and tie them in nice bags to present to them all.  The only slight problem came when we booked our holiday over Father's Day (not on purpose) and now it's just one more thing to get done before we go!  Another lady will bake too and so everyone will get a mixture of cookies, she'lll just have to defrost mine!  To those of you who thrive on baking this may seem like no big deal, but it is to me!  Maybe I'll even post photos of my attempts!

Recently I came across a situation which really made me pause for thought.  I know I don't agree with much of the modern philosophy on life but in some instances I've not formulated what I DO agree with!

These days there is a massive emphasis on the 'celebrity' - what they wear, eat, drink, where they go and how we can be like them.  But who are these celebrities?  Pop stars, sports men and women, tv or cinema stars - so-called modern heroes.  Have any of them done ANYthing very useful?  Maybe a few.  Sadly most of them are overpaid idiots!

Many years ago the heroes of the day were intrepid explorers or brave soldiers who'd defended their country, or were doctors finding new cures.  As heores go their stories ring a lot more true than those who sing or kick a ball.

Then the second series of 'Heroes' has just started in the UK.  Seemingly it is massively popular.  We are crying out for 'heroes'.

So, if all these are not my idea of a hero then who is?  Who would I want my children to perceive as heroes?  Who would I want to emulate myself or have my boys emulate?

It's great to have people to look up to, - to have role models or 'heroes'.  Mostly I want to be like Jesus!  Then there is the Hebrews 11 'hall of fame' - heroes of the faith.  Sometimes, though, we need people a little closer to us, people who we feel we can relate to in some way.  There are many people I've learnt from over the years and maybe a few of those I'd call my heroes.

I realised in thinking about this that I am profoundly uninterested in the modern celebrity and frankly want my children to have nothing to do with it.  What I DO want is for them to know about those who've been heroes for Jesus.  I know there are a few books written along those lines - guess what my boys will be reading!

I'd like to start a tag.  One about heroes.  Tell us about someone who is your hero and why.  I'd love to know what others think!  Can I tag deedee, mamasmurf and blessedwith2angels?

One of my heroes is a man called Teddy Hodgson.  He was a missionary in Congo, Africa and was martyred for his fatih in 1960.  His story is amazing - just an ordinary man, who loved Jesus.  He was invalided out of the army in WWI because his trigger finger got damaged, but in Congo he was known as a 'crack shot' and was called upon many times to help villagers whose crops were being ravaged by elephants. Those huge animals would never come near when he was around, but he tells the story of a small mouse bringing her babies to him to rescue them from the ants.  That tiny animal trusted him, but the elephants were afraid of him.  He went to Congo in about 1920 and the spent the rest of his life in evangelism everywhere and in every way he could.  He saw many people become Christians.  He suffered great hardships and saw all three of his wives die working beside him there in Congo.  He loved his Saviour to the end, even trying to save the life of the young man who was also martyred with him.  His story is partly told in 7 Pentecostal Pioneers  by Colin Whittaker (ISBN 0551010673) and 'Out of the darkness' and 'Fishing for Congo Fisherfolk' both of which he wrote, which sadly, are out of print.

May I serve Jesus equally wholeheartedly!

We had one of those wonderful moments this week when LJ realised that he can read!  He's quite a good reader and has been reading whole books at his level for over a year, but I guess he just didn't realise that he could read anything, not just a book I put in his hand!

He had gone into the classroom, picked up a book called 'Signs of summer' from the library and then read it right through with no help.  He was thrilled to bits and so was I!  Way to go LJ!

Then we had another big smile when PJ managed to complete an entire letter/picture puzzle based on knowledge of beginning sounds.  He only got stuck on 'giraffe' which was hard, as we'd always said 'guh' for g, but figured it out when it was the last one left!

I guess that proves my boys are definitely learning something!  :-)

Don't we live in a small world?

The other  day I was chatting to part of my extended family and they mentioned they knew someone who has homeschooled for years.  Turns out to be the same people who had organised the Northwest event I went to!  They have been friends with my brother's family for many years and I think I've even met them before!  Thinking back, I do remember my sister-in-law talking about them quite often.  We are planning to attend a home ed. conference in August and will have a chance to catch up with them then.  I'm wondering who else we might meet there...

Another 'small world' story.  I recently contacted someone whose child had gone on a visit to Zambia.  Turns out we know many people in common!

 I do love making these connections.  I guess they help me to make sense of this world!

We have just changed ISP and after over 10 years using the same one, it has come as a bit of a shock to my system!  Especially recently I have bookmarked loads of pages with good ideas for homeschool and transfering all that information is taking more time than I would wish.  Hence a little while where I've been 'quiet'.  Anyway, to today's title.....

Yes, I have more reasons to love homeschooling!

For instance. at the 'Easter' break this year we decided that we would just have a week, rather than 2, off.  When I reminded everyone on the Sunday tea-time that we were back to school the next morning I expected at least a groan, if not a 'do we have to?'.  I got neither!  LJ simply said, 'Okay!  Can we start with maths, because that's the hardest.'  'Of course', I reply and that's that subject finished with!  Wow!  Going back to school in the past has been a major deal - not so now.  Yeah!

Then, out of the blue, my sister-in-law was able to get a 'cheap' ticket and come over and visit for a week from Canada.  No problem for we homeschoolers to drop everything and go visit!  It would have been so hard if LJ was in school.  We had a great visit with her and as we see them less than once a year, that was rather special. 

Then, we've had some unseasonably warm weather for May and we have been able to enjoy every minute.  What a blessing!  Last summer was so awful, this has been just fantastic!  We've had a big storm today with thunder and lightening, but it still seems warm tonight.  I hope we're in for a great late spring and summer!

It was farmer's market again last weekend and as I drove to it, I simply revelled in all the beauty of nature.  Spring is very much in evidence at last.  We've had a few warmer days and then more rain, so everything has bloomed.  The road we turn on to to go almost anywhere is beautiful at this time of year.  Someone thought ahead and planted several different types of trees, so we have an amazing array of colours walking its length.  There are the trees in blossom, with dark  or pale pink, or white blossom, then many shades of new green leaves, from acid green to vibrant 'grass' shades and some leaves which grow back in autumn shades of dark red and brown.  The verges are a mass of dandelions and daisies and small purple flowers which I don't recall noticing other years.  Just amazingly BEAUTIFUL!

I like spring.  So much hope for long warm days.  The world simply seems lighter, brighter and a nicer place to be.

Yes, the whole family is now reunited!  Thank you again for praying.  We heard yesterday that G has been back to Turkey and successfully brought back her daughter.  The family are now all home and recovering.

As I said before, we never thought there would be such a speedy resolution, especially for this last child, but the Lord can do and does do amazing things!  Thank you Lord!