This weekend I posted several articles on organizing your finances and preparing for your future. I am thankful we had the foresight to actually live those words on frugality and saving not living them in theory.
Let me begin with John is OK.
He was in a car accident this morning that totalled his car, completely. His air bags deployed and his seat belt did it's job. He is super sore but no broken bones. I expect he will be in pain all weekend long. I have heard that the pain from the seat belt is terrible. I told him I much prefer to lose that hunk of metal, gas guzzling Jeep than to lose even part of him. :)
The car appears to be a total loss though. On the good side it was a paid for, 11 year old car, on the bad side the insurance company will surely see it as just that, an 11 year old car, valueless. We tend to drive our cars until the don't run or we outgrow them ;) , so this is new to us. We pray that the insurance company is fair and upstanding.
After John's health and well being were confirmed, I sat down and ran some numbers, all day long. I had to find some way to distract myself as he drove home. Did I mention he was out of state! I feel so blessed that we have been saving for an emergency such as this. I am so grateful that it is a steel and metal emergency and not a life and death emergency. We will have enough to pay cash for a newer vehicle for John and leave a little in emergency savings. We are going to really test the frugal tips I have been picking up recently and put them into action. I want to have the savings built back up to sustain us for 6 months.
Knowing that the cash amount will not vary depending on the type of vehicle, we are trying to decide if we should purchase a new to us Honda, that will seat 5 or if we should find a minivan that will seat 7+. We have always talked about having vehicles that could seat most of our family or at least an adult and the 5 kids. I just don't know if John will want to drive a minivan everyday to work! :)
We have a week or two or three to decide. Those of you with large families, what do you think, practical minivan or small, efficient Honda?
We'd love the prayers as John heals and we sort through all the paperwork involved.
Don't forget to bookmark the new blog and add it to your feedburner or your favorites.
Another great article from Crosswalk by Cathy Steere, which I think she wrote for Homeschool Enrichment magazine. I like their magazine but I am currently not making any new subscriptions for the year so am having trouble keeping myself from subscribing to TOS, HEM, Back Home and all of our family favorites and new discoveries. They really can add up...
I have in this post not copied the article directly but I have done so in a post to myself only, I copy the entire article so I can read it again later. (I mean I have done this with previous articles written by others as well.)
So if the link doesn't work for you, you can ask me personally for more information.
This article is really good. Enjoy and think about how to use the concepts in other areas of learning. I used a similar method with my two now ages 11 and 12 and plan to use this expanded method with Em, age 4.
Today the C.O.W. Bus came to town and with it the community held a Wellness Fair - booths from the local health centers and library and such. There was canada's food guide, and brushing teeth and bike safety and balance, and strokes and ages and stages and parentlink, etc. Lots of goodies and reading material to take home. Each child got a book or two! Plus coloring stuff and stickers and post-it notes and chalk and more stickers etc. What fun.
After we went to the C.O.W. Bus, we went on a little picnic in the park. Of course we decided to go at nap time, but W would not sleep in the stroller - too much to look at and too much running to do.
Well, here's what an hour at a Wellness Fair will do to two little ones.
I was trying to keep them up to put them to bed early tonight. Oh well. That's the way life goes. When you are tired, you are tired. I will probably be canning with two little ones under foot!
I love this blog called "The Assembling of the Church" written by Alan Knox. He has a series he contributes to regularly called - SCRIPTURE AS WE LIVE IT. He takes verse that instructs us, and then rewrites it in how live it and this clearly shows how we are failing in living the scriptures sometimes. This series is very thought provoking and informative. Here is what Alan has to say about this series - "This will be (I think) a new regular feature hear at The Assembling of the Church. The purpose of this feature is to get us to think about what Scripture says compared to how we actually live and what our traditions teach. Since I'm very interested in ecclesiology, many of these passages will deal with the church. But I will also include other Scriptures as well. I would love to see alot of interaction on these short posts."
I asked Kevin to take k / c to this presentation at the Clark Center in A.G. this Friday night at 7 p.m. I have watched some of the television programs and have liked them. The event is free. I invited Kevin's mom and dad too. I will stay here with Toby and Em though they are offereing FREE childcare... and a children's program for ages 6-10. How they are pulling that off I am not sure. Perhaps with the help of local church volunteers.
It is called Amazing Discoveries in Revelation's Prophecy. Dead Men Do Tell Tales
Clark Center, 487 Fair Oaks Ave, Arroyo Grande CA 93420
Thanks for stopping by my blog sunflowermommie. Sunflowers happen to be my favorite flowers. Mine did not bloom this year due to a cold dreary summer. :o( Next year I am going to plant them near the house... hopefully that will help.
You asked what rocket day is...
My local home school support group is having day where kids can bring a rocket they have designed and built or a pre-made/kit one. We will set off the rockets to see how high they fly and have lots of fun too. The kids (but maybe the dads more so than the kids...LOL) are really looking forward to this activity. :o)
We lost a baby in 2004. Harvey Richard Harris lived for 12 days in March. As much pain and as much heartache and grief as we have been through by his short life and death, we would not change it for the world. I would have to say that much good came of his life and death. I would say we grew as people and as parents. We are amazed at how many people he touched in those few short days. This song was so hard to hear and listen to for many many months after Harvey's death. Now, 4 years later, I can listen to it without a complete breakdown, without tears welling up uncontrollably. I still sigh a lot listening to it.
I still think about him and all the things that could have been and should have been. He would be 4.5 years old now. Starting kindergarten! If he were alive and anything like our other children, he would be busy and into everything. He'd be a very active boy and keep us all on our toes with his humor and antics. I imagine he would have been a very big boy for his age, being that he started out at about 11 pounds.
Our life has moved on since March of 2004. We have added to our family since then - a girl and a boy and one on the way. We've moved across the country twice - once to Ontario and once back to the prairies. My dh has changed jobs numerous times and we have experienced many many things in the last four years, but nothing has affected us a deeply or as drastically in so many ways as those 12 days. Our relationships with others changed - some good, some bad, but that's life.
We have come out of that experience, or rather, are living with that experience with a different view on life. God is ultimately in control and although we can plan and dream and organize everything to the nines, we can't forget that HE can change things in a moment, that HE will put His plans into place no matter what we want or try to do. But we've also come through it knowing that HE is in control and that HE knows us. That HE will not give us more than we can handle! And, let me tell you, you don't know what you can handle until you are in the situation. Trust His Word. He will never let you down.
I don't know what your situation is right now. I don't know what you are struggling with. Money? Marriage difficulties? Starting homeschooling? New baby? A move or changing jobs? All of the above? You can do it, not alone, but with God and with the people HE has placed around you to help you. Please remember that you are not an island. God didn't create us to be islands. He created us to be part of a family. That's another thing we learned! Family isn't just the people you were "placed" with. Family can be church, a community group. For us, we have three families - our extended "traditional" family, our fire fighting family and our church family. Each serves a purpose and each adds so much to our lives. Find your family, the people that care about you. Reach out to them. Let them help you. But most importantly, trust God! HE will get you through.
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Lovelace. If you have never read or listened to this story, you should! It is sweet, well written and gives a wonderful description of life in small town America in the . . . . honestly I don't know what year, but I'm guessing 1950s. There is even a Betsy-Tacy Society. We will be moving on to read the next in the series as I can't find an audiobookin our library system. The next book is called Betsy-Tacy and Tib.
I've been still struggling through The Hidden Art of Homemaking. And it's not because the book is hard to read. Honestly, it's because I committed to writing a post about each chapter and find it very hard to go on reading the next chapter if that post is not written and posted. I'm loving this book. The last chapter was on Flower Arranging. Loved it! I'll post about it soon and move on to the next chapters.
In our homeschooling, our Bible lesson has seen us learning about Moses and the Ten Commandments and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo. (Not positive on the spelling, forgive me.)
Oh and the C.O.W. Bus gave us new books, so we'll be getting into reading those. You'll hopefully hear about those next week. While on the C.O.W. Bus we looked at some really neat books that were puzzles and you had to put the pieces on the correct page. Those were neat.
cooler weather
a healthy garden
a great pregnancy
well-behaved children
a friendly community
answers to prayer
technology - and using it, not letting it use me
fall activities starting again
the opportunity to stay home with my children
my children loving to learn
a Bible-believing midwife
my hubby's job
my parents
I'm a homeschooling mom with seven littles 12 and under... changing diapers and dealing with hormones and loving that God trusts me with this big job and this big joy!
