Our Grand Adventure - Homeschool Blogger

Goodbye

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:58:00 -0500

First of all, please read my entry below for one last update on the going on's of our family.

It is in obedience to the Lord that I am saying goodbye to blogging. I have felt for several months that the Lord did not want me blogging any longer. I kept putting it off trying to deny that this was really the Lord. But when when I took a break from blogging to spend more time focusing on the Lord, I could not deny it any longer. I MUST obey Christ, it is not an option. So while I will miss so many of you ladies it is with joy I obey! I will spend the extra time investing in the relationships the Lord has given me. My relationship with the Lord, my relationship with my husband, and my relationship with my children.

It has been such a pleasure meeting you all. I have been blessed to have known you. Don't forget to keep the Lord number 1 in your life, day in and day out.

So, here I go travling down the next path on Our Grand Adventure!

With all my love,

RaShea~

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths.

Update

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:40:00 -0500

After spending much time waiting on the Lord, we felt we had heard what He wanted for us. We decided that we need to move down closer to Lee's parents. His Dad had a stroke a few years ago and they really need us. Since then we have been waiting on the Lord to provide a job for Lee. On Wednesday He did just that! Lee was given a job right there in his home town population 700! We will be moving from my parent's 5 hours south into another state in about three weeks.

All the children are doing great. We haven't gotten much school work done the last few weeks because we have been travling frequently to Lee's parent's.

Jared decided that he wanted his taining wheels off his bike today so the big boys took them off. It is so cute to see my little 4 year old zip around on this gravel driveway!

Tomorrow is opening day of fishing and the big boys are going out with my Dad bright and early in the morning to spend the day at the lake. This is a big event for them, one we will all be glad has arrived!

Zachary has been reapting this joke constantly to us in his little two year old voice: Knock Knock, Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Banana split The funny thing is that I don't think any of my children know what a banana split is!

Sadie is becomming more and more a little lady by the day. She is becoming my right hand in all our homemaking duties. This is such a joy for me to see her heart being turned to the ways of the Lord at such a young age.

Ellie is just blooming! There is no other way to describe it! Every day I find myself praising God for the work he has done in her. At five she is learning the phonectic sounds of the letters and many life skills. She has become the mother hen of the children! This is the girl that we were told would probably never be socially "normal" and probably not talk! God is so amazing!

I am looking forward to being settled for the first time in three years. I am also looking forward to seeing the mighty hand of God work in Lee's family as none of them are believers.

I have one last cuteness to share. Sadie (7) was playing a game and Jared (4) said to her "Sadie, you're a natural." She replied "Well thank you Jared, but I don't believe I am all that good." This was so very cute! They sounded so sophisticated.

Going Ons' and Taking a Break

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:00:00 -0500

Spring is in the air today, and I love it! It is already 1:00 and we haven't gotten to school yet as it is just so nice outside. Just as the bees are buzzing, so are we.

I have started making our toothpaste, and that is going well. I am very happy with the results and having fun expirmenting with various flavors and such. I am also quite happy that we are saving at least $10 a month by making our own!

We have gone down to Lee's parent's who live about 5 hours south of us. It has been good for us to get to know thier life again. Just before we moved to PA Lee's Dad had a stroke, which dramtically changed their lives. This new life they live is not one we have been a part of and it is so important for us to be a part of it.

The weeks we go down we spend half the week here and half the week there, this is hard, but neccessary!

We believe the Lord has shown us one part of His plan for our family, and so we are trying to figure out how we will be obedient to that.

I have sproted many grey hairs in the last month, guess I will get to enjoy my crown of glory for a long time!

We continue to do school and will continue to do school year round taking breaks as needed. I have started to beef up the big boys school work and am planning on taking them to the next level throughout the next couple of months.

We have seen the Lord's plan in placing Sheldon and Austin just 12 months apart. Many times over the last few weeks, I have heard a still small voice saying, "that is why they are so close in age." While getting pregnant when my first baby was just 3 months old was a shock, God had a plan, just as His word tells us. He is so awesome! This has been an encourager to me as it is 10 years later and the Lord is chosing to show us the why in this area.

Still working on our garden plans, and anxious to get started.

At two, Zachary is still nursing strong. We nurse anywhere from 6-9 time in 24hrs. I have always wanted to nurse until my baby was two, but typically by this age I have already had another baby and and pregnant again. Zachary loves his "yummy mommy milk", and I don't have the heart to wean him just yet, so we will continue for now.

I have really been pondering why exactly is it that I have this blog. I am considering shutting down my blog. I'm just not sure what the purpose is and whether or not it is benefical. So, I will be taking a break from blogging until I decide.

A boy and his dog

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 00:05:00 -0600

Sheldon has always loved dogs. We got Mary our mutt dog from outside of Walmart in October of 03'. Sheldon was smitten with her the moment he saw her! As a puppy she slept next to him in the bed. As his love for her has grown so has his responsiblity for her, this has been good for him. We have had ups and downs with Mary, a couple of times we thought we would have to find her a new home, but God has always allowed Sheldon to keep this special friend.

When we first moved to PA we had to leave her in OR. We left OR with no place to live, no car, no job. We planned on staying with friends for the first couple of weeks, but up until we moved we had been babysitting their dog for them because they couldn't have a dog where they were living. So we had to find someone to take care of Mary. God provided a Christian couple to take care of her!

The day we were moving we had the big ole' Budget truck in the driveway and we were loading up. We had sold our house and most of our belongings and were moving to an unknown place. This was exciting and a little scary, an emotional enough time,then the couple came to get Mary and it was a heart wrenching moment! The children were crying, I was crying because they were crying, it was a difficult day. After they left with Mary, I found Sheldon sitting under that big ole' budget truck sobbing and sobbing. A boys heart was breaking with the seperation of he and his dog.

Fastforward a few months and we had Mary trucked over to us in our new home. What a joyous day that was!

As always, the Lord has provided us a way to keep Mary with all the moves since then, including this one. I praise God for the lessons He has taught Sheldon through this dog.

The other night, I once again couldn't sleep so I layed there listening to Mary have doggy dreams. She was wimpering and her legs were moving. About this time Sheldon wakes up to go to the bathroom, he climbs down from the top bunk and stops to kneel down at Mary's side. He pets her and tells her it's OK. He even goes on to tell her that it is just a dream and it will all go away! He goes on to the bathroom (this is to my relief as I was afraid he would pee his pants) when he comes back he stops again at Marys side. He pets her, hugs her and tells her that it is all better now. He then tells her that he is going back to bed but she doesn't need to be scared because he is right there, and if she needs him, she can get him! Too cute!

I enjoyed this glimpse into the heart of my son, what a treasure it will always be for me. He doesn't know I was awake and he doesn't need to know, becuase it was a special time for just a boy and his dog!

Gettin' back up and going

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:05:00 -0600

All went well last week. It has been a week of recovery, but I think I am on the home stretch now! We ended up taking the week off of school which wasn't the plan, but what was needed. Now I'm just trying to get back into the grove of things. Today is our Friday so after the next two days of "weekend" I'm sure we will be right back up to normal.

Teeth

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:37:00 -0600

I am having oral surgery done on Tuesday morning. While I am looking forward to having the problems fixed, I am not looking forward to the recovery! The doctor told me to expect four days of being out of commission, and being on light duty for a few days after that.

I have been doing some preperations for the time when I will be down. First off, I am trying to do all that I can to promote quick healing without complications. I have been loading myself with Vitamin C and immune supporting herbs. I will also take some liver supporting herbs to help my already overly taxed liver process all the medicines. Second, we have come up with a plan of complete rest for me for the first few days. To help with this Lee and I did a complete cleaning of our room this last weekend. Floors, under beds, dusting, the whole nine yards. We have not been able to open a window in there since we got here and this has really bothered me. But my fabulous husband worked at it and he got it to open a bit! My hero!!! Fresh air does a body good!

I have put the children back on breakfast passes. We haven't picked this back up since we moved, and our mornings have been less than smooth running. So breakfast passes we go! Why didn't I think of this earlier? Breakfast passes are a checklist of things that have to be completed before they are able to eat breakfast. They hand me a completed pass and I hand them a breakfast plate or bowl. No pass, or incomplete pass, no food!

A couple of weeks ago, I pulled Sadie (7) aside and told her that I was giving her the responsibility of the familiy's laundry. She is now completly in charge of it! This is a HUGE undertaking and responsibility, therefore this is her only responsiblity as far as keeping the house clean and running. With a family of eight, we have a ton of laundry. We do have it down to two loads a day though. She sorts it, washes it, puts it in the dryer and then supervises the folding (Jared 4, and Ellie 5 are required to help with the folding), and then puts it away. She was very happy to take on this responsibility and is doing a wonderful job. The first week I walked her through each step, each dial, each load. The second week, I let her do it while I shawdowed her and helped her if she had questions. Then I handed the job over to her. I reassured her that I have complete trust in that she knows what she is doing. I also explained to her that really, she can't mess it up. Sure, somethings might come out a different color, and some might shrink, but all in all that is OK, no big deal. This seems to be just the encouragement she needed and is quite confident in her job.

I already have a menu planner set up, so that will help a lot with the making of the meals. I have each days meals listed a week in advance. I am going tomorrow to buy the groceries for the week, so they will be on hand. I am so glad that I have already implemented this system (I have been doing this since the beginning of last summer or so) as this will be big help to Lee. Praise God for the wisdom He gives us!

I pray that these things will make it easier for Lee. He can "handle" six children quite well, but I would like to bless him by making things run more smoothly. I'm sure he will take the children on a special outing (a day at the park, fishing, a drive and a picnic, or a hike in the mountains) too, he is so great about that!

I am so blessed to have a husband that can run the ship while I am down, without thinking about it, to have children on board with pulling extra weight while I am down, and that the funds have been provided for me to even get this thing fixed; blessed indeed!

P.S. Can someone explain to me while there is no spell checker on this form? I cannot be the only bad speller on homeschool blogger!

Pork update

Wed, 7 Feb 2007 21:38:00 -0600

OK, well we tried the pork expirment this evening. We just bought the cheapest piece of pork we could find, which was a loin chop. We poured coke over it and did not see worms! Whew!

Now, I still believe that this is very possible, but honestly I believe it can be possible with beef or chicken also.

We did this because I felt if I was putting the info on my blog, I should check it out. Also, because well honestly, we thought it would be cool!

We still will not eat pork. This is something we have prayed about, and feel this is something the Lord is asking of our family. We have read not just articles like the one in my post below but also scientific studies.

So there you go, our personal results. If any of you try it, please let me know your findings!

THIS is one reason why.........

Mon, 5 Feb 2007 23:50:00 -0600

we don't eat pork! This is an article from a recent newsletter from Nancy Cambell of Above Rubies. At the end of the article I will tell our story of pork.

PORK AWARENESS

Try this and see whether the pork you bought has worms. If you pour Coke (yes, the soda) on a slab of pork, wait a little while, you will SEE WORMS crawl out of it.

A message from the Health Corporation of Singapore about the bad effects of pork consumption. Pig's bodies contain MANY TOXINS, WORM and LATENT DISEASES. Although some of these infestations are harboured in other animals, modern veterinarians say that pigs are far MORE PREDISPOSED to these illnesses than other animals. This could be because PIGS like to SCAVENGE and will eat ANY kind of food, INCLUDING dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, excreta including their own, garbage, and other pigs.

INFLUENZA (flu) is one of the MOST famous illnesses which pigs share with humans. This illness is harboured in the LUNGS of pigs during the summer months and tends to affect pigs and human in the cooler months.

Sausage contains bits of pigs' lungs, so those who EAT pork sausage tend to SUFFER MORE during EPIDEMICS of INFLUENZA. Pig meat contains EXCESSIVE quantities of HISTAMINE and IMIDAZOLE compounds, which can lead to ITCHING and INFLAMMATION; GROWTH HORMONE which PROMOTES INFLAMMATION and growth; sulphur containing mesenchymal mucus which leads to SWELLING and deposits of MUCUS in tendons and cartilage, resulting in ATHRITIS, RHEUMATISM, etc.

Sulphur helps cause FIRM human tendons and ligaments to be replaced by the pig's soft mesenchymal tissues, and degeneration of human
cartilage. Eating pork can also lead to GALLSTONES and OBESITY, probably due to its HIGH CHOLESTEROL and SATURATED FAT content. The pig is the MAIN CARRIER of the TAENIE SOLIUM WORM, which is found in its flesh. These tapeworms are found in human intestines with greater frequency in nations where pigs are eaten. This type of tapeworm can pass through the intestines and affect many other organs, and is incurable once it reaches beyond a certain stage. One in six people in the US and Canada has RICHINOSIS from eating trichina worms, which are found in pork. Many people have NO SYMPTOMS to warm them of this, and when they do, they resemble symptoms of many other illnesses. These worms are NOT noticed during meat inspections.

Four and a half years ago, I became very ill. As a result of this I ended up having my gallbladder and my apendix removed at 3wks and 6wks postpartum. (NOT fun, let me tell you!)

But through this, I began to study health issues. I had a special interest in toxins in our food. While doing this research I started reading all kinds of information like the information above. YUCK!

At the same time, we began studying some old testament scriptures. I came across the food laws, and what I found out was a corrilation between the unclean foods of the bible and foods that scientist have discovered bad for our health! Go figure, God was right all along!!

I encourage all of you to research this out for yourself just for the awareness. I also encourage you to research this out before you pass judgement on those who chose to eat more aware, and most certainly before you question a persons decission on this!

Please don't think that if the food was toxic for us the government wouldn't "allow" it. We thought along these lines for some time. At least be informed as to what you are eating!

Oh by the way, we haven't tried the coke on pork thing. But we will this week! I'll let you know if this was our finding! Just thinking about it makes me seriously want to throw up!

A Wonderful Day

Thu, 1 Feb 2007 02:28:00 -0600

We had such a wonderful day today. We slept in late (it is our weekend), and woke up feeling refreshed.

Lee had something to do in town, so I made meatloaf and put it in the fridge for dinner and then peeled and cut up the potatoes and put in pans of water to be boiled for mashed potatoes. The children played outside, and I watched them out the window while in the kitchen. We had beautiful sun and warm winter weather, the sun shining in all the windows was beckoning us to the outdoors.

When Lee got home we had lunch, got everyone presentable and headed to a local park. We visted the duck pond, watched ice skaters skate on the outdoor rink, and played and played on the playground!

As the sun ducked down behind the mountain, it became quite nippy but this didn't stop the children. Silly Zachary doesn't like to play at playgrounds, not even with Daddy and Mommy right by his side. He chose to sit in the stoller and watch for most of the time!

I took him for a walk in the stroller for some different scenery up the path a ways. Oh how I enjoyed this walk. Walking on the path through the trees with the creek just below us. The fresh Pacific Northwest cool air in my lungs. I felt more alive than I have in a long time! Oh, it's good to be home in the West!

Veggies

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:34:00 -0600

OK, so this is just one of my pet-peeves. But I want the whole world to understand that,

CORN IS A GRAIN, NOT A VEGETABLE!!!!

So dear mothers, please do not give your children a serving of corn and tell them to eat their veggies!