Sorry the last link was not correct. Actually it was, but I quickly deleted it, and just got around to putting up a new blog. Hope to see many of you over there! Here's the correct link: My Balancing Act

Tara B

I guess I am not really totally ready to say good-bye just yet. I was visiting some of my HSB friends and saw that many had moved to Blogspot, so I myself set up an account there as well. I LOVE the community here at HSB, but get so frustrated waiting for pages to load, and sometimes not load at all. So while I am not totally disappearring as planned, I am moving. You can find me at: http://tryingtobethechange.blogspot.com/

Hope to find many of you over there!

Tara B

I promised I wouldn't  just disappear again without warning, so here it is........due to lack of time while caring for my infant grandson and the difficulties sometimes getting things here at HSB to work properly, I am going to say goodbye for now.

I do have a MYSpace, but it has very little to do with homeschooling, it is basically an outreach to some teens that are friends of my sons, as well as a way to keep tabs on what my own son is doing while online over there. IF you want you can stop by and say hi to me there www.myspace.com/veggie_mom  I blog occasionally there, but as mentioned, mostly use it to keep in touch with some special teens who are reaching out.

Tara B

Oh my!! I've had quite an enlightening day today. I had a very rare lie in bed and watch TV day today.  We only have Tv's in the bedrooms, so we really don't watch a lot and when we do it is usually Discovery Health or The Learning Channel so I guess you can say I am a little out of touch with what regulary airs on the "boob tube." Although, I should admit here, I DO watch American Idol and Survivor when I am home, which isn't often these days!

Okay, anyway all I can say, is again...Oh My!!!  No wonder todays youth struggles so in so many areas. First I was suprised at the advertising. Many, many ads for achohol. Not just beer, but hard liquer! Of course all with the nice "have a designated driver" reminder at the end after 30 seconds of wild good times which of course you just couldn't have without that spiced rum or designer vodka.

Then came ad after ad for not only prescription viagra type drugs, but ad after ad for over the counter and mail order male enhancement or stanima products. Of course these ads were not medical type ads, they showed how successful an older male could be with the young hotties if only they ordered this product.

Then the worse yet were the Vegas commercials in which the theme was "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." I am not even sure how to describe the more disturbing ones, one of which two ladies switch wigs to apparently trick the men they're with.

Once you get through these ads, then there are the actual programs to deal with. Who comes up with these shows and who actually watches them?? Obviously someone watches them, or they wouldn't keep running them. Pray it isn't your children, or your husband for that matter.

Let's see, today I saw ads for "Wild Party Parents" , "Girls Next Door," "Flavor of Loves Charm School" , and many more tasteless shows. The first title shows parents acting even more tasteless then some of the wild college girls you see in the comercials for "Girls Gone Wild" and other types of programs. The second title was about brainless, wild party girls who apparently grace the pages of Playboy magazine. These girls are NOT they girl next door that comes to mind when you hear that phrase. The last title, I assume is a follow up to a similar titled show in which a large group of women act in repulsive manners in order to attract the attention of an even more repulsive pimpy type fellow.

This is just a small sampling of what is available for your childrens television viewing. So next time your friends or family ask "what is wrong with todays youth?" tell them to turn on their televisions to find out!

So sorry I haven't been around much lately. I have much going on in my personal life I want to share with you all, just can't right now. AS soon as I am able I will post an update on everything. Until then here are some more photos of my adorable Grandson, who is still with us. Lord willing, he will be for a long while.

No, I haven't disappeared of the face of the earth again, no I haven't up and left HSB without warning(again) we have just had some MAJOR changes in our lives(again).

If you recall, we had my daughter and grandson staying with us, and sadly due to circumstances had to ask them to leave.  Well, about two weeks ago I got a call asking me to come pick up my grandson and take care of him for several months. My daughter is hoping to use this time to get her life together well enough to take proper care of her son. It is our prayer she does so. If not, there may be some tough decisions to be made in the near future. We are praying God already has it all worked out, and we need'nt worry.

While this has been a tough transition it has been an exciting one to say the least! It has also been a wonderful learning experience in Gods grace and provision. We had no money to make the trip to get my grandson(he was out of state) and very little arrived with him beyond a playpen and some diapers. Between our Pastor and his wife, our church family, and our friends at the TKD studio, we now have more than we could have even thought we ever needed! What a blessing!

I am getting used to not sleeping much, having to work showers and potty breaks around a baby, but we are doing fine. The hardest has been trying to figure out how to practice Kendo(Japanese Sword Art) with a baby!  I'm not ready to trade my sword for a diaper bag just yet.....rather trying to figure out how to gracefully do both!

Here are a couple of photos I took with my cell phone this evening:

I had a rather sad conversation with my dear sons friend last night. He is a self-proclaimed Buddhist.  We have several Buddhist friends and we try to respect each other and our beliefs, and if neccessary, just agree to disagree. No problem. But this kid(age 16) is very proud of his so called faith, and wants to make sure everyone knows, and also knows how wrong their own faith is. Gotta respect his zeal. Only one small problem.....he has no idea WHAT he believes and what the basic facts of his faith are.....

I sincerley asked him some very basic questions genuinely wanting to know that answers. "Do you believe in God the Creator and Buddha is a prophet or do you consider Buddha to be god??"  Response, " um, I don't know." Question: Do you have a Holy Book? Response:  "Um I don't know, I don't think so." Question: "Do you attend some sort of service weekly at a church or temple?"  Response:" my family does once a year or so." Question:  "That's good, but do most families attend regularly, are there weekly services?" Response: "Um, I dunno know."

Wow! This young, sweet kid who is so zealous in his faith, has absolutely no idea just what it is he is so zealous about. The fact that he is a Buddhist, doesn't bother me half as much as the fact that he has absolutely no idea what he believes, yet he claims to believe so strongly.

Then it got me to thinking; Do we do any better teaching our own children WHAT we believe, and Who we believe in, and basic facts of that faith? I sure hope so.  I do make a rather conscience effort to instill these things in my children, but after this conversation, I intend to be even more diligent in doing so. Having "faith of a child" is a great thing, they don't neccessarily NEED all the facts to believe, they just believe. That is such a beautiful thing indeed, wouldn't be great if us adults could follow such an example? BUT, especially as my children mature and reach their pre-teen and teen years, I want to be sure they know the whats and whys and basic knowledge of our faith. You never know when they may be questioned on it, either out of genuine curiousity(such as I was with this boy last night) or in hopes of trying to disprove their beliefs. I want to make sure my children are equiped with the Truth and can intelligently and lovingly stand up to any attacks or interogations, or just lovingly explain to someone who is genuinly looking for those answers.

The other day while channel surfing I stumbled upon Oprah. I normally don't watch talk TV type shows, but this episode caught my attention. It was about mothers around the world. It was very interesting to watch how other families in other cultures lived and some of their views on us American mothers.

One mother in particular really caught my interest. I believe she was from Africa. She was a single mom with several children. For work she carried loads of other peoples cargo up and down a hill many miles. We're not talking light loads, we're talking 200lbs of beans on her back! Barefoot at that as her flip-flop style shoes gave out several miles into the trip. For this and another load which consisted of a mattress, she earn a whopping twenty-five cents!

This is what this woman and her family survive on. By the time she bought grains for their one meal that day, she had nine cents left! But rather than whine or complain(which I KNOW I'd be doing!) she boasted that with that money she was able to send four of her children through primary school! Here I am worried if I can properly educate my children on our seemingly limited budget. Here I am wondering if my dinner of beans and bisquets is suffieciant(I prefer threee courses!) Seeing how others live really helps put things in perspective sometimes!

I can't even SAVE a quarter a day, but alone LIVE off of that! Now, I know we have to keep things in perspective, a quarter there probaly goes much further than a quarter here, but still......watching this incredible woman along with others who struggle just to survive, really helps me to keep things in perspective. IT sure makes me see a much clearer distinction between wants and needs. I don't really need much, but I sure want lot's! Alot of things that seem like needs really aren't at all. It really opens your eyes to how blessed we really are!

Here in America, with all of our social service agencies and private and religous social programs it is very rare to find anyone who stuggles just quite like this incredible woman. With all of our programs, even our poor seem wealthy beyond belief to others who live like this woman. I am not trying to down-play the crisis of the poor here in America at all, I know there are those who really struggle and go hungry even here. But poor in America is quite a bit different than poor in parts of Africa, Asia, and other truely poverty stricken areas.

The poor here still have programs such as Food Stamps, Medi-cal, Wic, Section 8, and other such programs. Many people(not all, MANY) become so dependant on these programs that many quit looking for work, start to expect others to pay for their shelter, food, medical, and anything else they "need." Yet these non-working individuals still live a quality of life with much more than this woman who works harder than the majority of men I know and isn't expecting a thing from any-one else.

This woman is working, doing back breaking work, just to provide one meal a day, a dirt floor hut, and an education to her children. Meanwhile we have people here living in what this woman would perceive as luxury who avoid, quite well, ever working a day in their lives. They got the system wired, they know what churches to go to based on the best "free" food boxes, they know which hospitals will give them "free" emergancy medi-cal, know which programs will give them a carpeted hotel room or apartement and just how long they can drag it out before their expected to work and have to move on to the next program before ever starting that job!

I don't know about you, but something seems terribly wrong in this world, when one woman has to carry two hundred pounds of bean MILES up and down hill for a mere quarter, and return home to a dirt floor hut, and we have strong, healthy men who make a living out of "working the system" and avoid work at all costs yet live far better than this woman can ever even imagine.  Just plain wrong.....

I want to state here, that I understand there are those who utilize some of these programs and use them for the purposes they are intended, to help through a rough time. I hold no judgement of such people, I pray I am never there myself, and if I am, I won't be judged so harshly. I AM talking about people  who truly make a living out of this. There are more of those types, than the families that these programs are designed for.

I personally know of SEVERAL people who avoid marriage, so they can continue to recieve services, several who claim mental or physical disorders to get them unlawfully. Those are the people I am speaking of. Those people could learn a lesson or two from a woman like the one described above!

I finally watched Facing the Giants after reading rave reviews from fellow Christians. I LOVED this movie. I wish they'd make more movies like this with positve, uplifting messages.

While raving about this movie on a message board I frequent some mentioned that while they loved the movie too, they were concerned about how once the main character really let go and turned it all over to God, everything just fell into place, a new car, a much wanted pregnancy, a winning football season etc...When I thought about it, it concerned me slightly too. I would hate for fellow believers, or worse non-believers to get the message that turning your life over to God is the equivelant of a magic wand. You trust and pray, and your whole life is perfect. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is a great movie, and I don't believe that particular message(at least to that degree) is what the movie was all about, but how many people will be disappointed when they turn their lives over, and are awaiting big miracles only to find more struggles?

I have heard many preachers say something to the effect of "if all is going right in your life, something is wrong." Why would they say this? Well, from my own personal experience and observing many other fellow believers, I have noticed the closer I am drawing to Him, the more the Enemy tries everything in his power to make me doubt. If we're just complaisant Satan usually leaves us alone, no danger. But oh, when we really start to try to live a life pleasing to God, then Satan gets nervous and will do everything in his power to get in the way. Think of Job...

Now, I don't mean to say that to live a life pleasing to God, we all have to suffer like Job, but I think even more dangerous a thought is the thought that God and prayer is some sort of magic wand to fix all of our problems. I know too many people that think like that, then doubt and sometimes even turn away when everything isn't magically fixed.

I think, like the wonderful movie was trying to portray the key is to praise God no matter what. Give Him praise when we are winning, and more important , praise when it seems we're losing. Give Him praise expecting nothing in return other than to bring Him glory.

As promised, here is an update on the goings on of my family these past couple of months.....

As you know we brought my daughter and grandson home to stay with us in hopes of getting them on their feet. Well, no matter how good our intentions, wishes, and prayers are for our children, if their hearts aren't in the right place, there's not a whole lot you can do, but continue praying. There is a VERY fine line between helping and enabling. To enable someone who just isn't ready to change is only hurting, not helping, so we had to make the very difficult decision to refrain from anymore help. As a matter of fact, my dear husband will be pulling out of our driveway at 6:00 am tomorrow with them to take them back to where they came from. It is tearing my heart out, but it was only after lots of prayer we came to this very difficult decision.

That is pretty much where we are now, but that is not the whole story. To make a long, sad story short, I will just say these past couple of months have been treacherous in many ways, and has taken quite a toll on the whole family in many ways; financially(it has near drowned us!), emotionally, health-wise(it's amazing what stress can do to our bodies!) and even affected our schooling. IT is hard to school amid total chaos.

Before you start to feel too sorry for us, it hasn't been all bad! We've had our share of blessings as well. After having some difficult times with my oldest son, we are starting to see him become a fine young man. Even with chaos and limited school time, all the children have made incredible leaps and bounds in their education! They are thriving! My oldest son is testing for his black belt in Tae Kwon Do this June, and hubby just tested for brown, and youngest son is testing tonite for his green stripe! I myself tested and passed my orange-stripe test in Kendo!

Our lives these past few months(year actually) really make Ecclesiates 3 come to life for us. Perhaps that is why my son seems to cling to that one! We sure have had our "seasons" around here, just about every one mentioned! I myself find much comfort in the fact that there is a time and season for everything, and HE is with us in the harsh, cold, lonely Winters, just as he shares our joys in the Springs and Summers of our life!

First I want to apologize to all my "friends" here at HSB for just up and disappearing a few months back, without any sort of warning. We were really struggling with some hard times, and I just needed a break.

I am back with a new blog title. I certainly don't feel entitled to the "Supermom" title anymore. Boy, that's a hard one to live up to!

I came up with this new title from my sons favorite Bible verse; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

I look foward to playing a little "catch-up" and letting all of you know what has been going on with my family, as well as trying to get caught up on all of you here at HSB.

I promise, I wont just up and leave again, if I do for some reason find it necessary to leave again, I will certainly give some sort of warning, and say a proper good-bye. Next time I will also save some of my favorite entries. Some I think I may be better without, but there are a few I wish I would have saved. Well, live and learn. I've been doing alot of both of those around here lately! I'll fill you all in on the details a little later!