Just thinking out loud... - Homeschool Blogger

Tons of laundry.....

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 02:58:00 -0500

and it is so wonderful! Last night, all of my loved ones were asleep, so I went down to our basement, we have a laundry room there. I took my four or was it five loads of laundry and went downstairs. After hanging up a load with little underwear and socks that don't seem to have an end, I was complaining to myself. I thought what an awful job is was to have to hang up all this stuff on rows upon rows of laundry line......All of the sudden it hit me and I had to smile and I felt very happy. I am so fortunate to be allowed to hang up all this laundry! My God has blessed me so much. I have a wonderful husband and wonderful children, yes I have to do their laundry and cook for them and clean and teach and the list goes on - BUT He allows me to do that! I have all of my beloved family right here with me. I had to think of the Amish community that just lost five little girls. I can only start to imagine how painful a loss that must be. So here I am with all my family, everybody healthy and I dare to complain about the laundry! When this thought went through my mind I realized just how ungrateful I can be. I still had to hang up three loads and I did it with a happy heart and I was praying all the while. Thanks to my Father in heaven I was shown yet another thing to change in my life and attitude.

I am really touched by the horrible tragedy in the Amish community. On sunday at Awana the message was to see how the Amish forgave and if I really think about it I find it breathtaking that they can do it and so fast! What strengh God gives them! Yes, I think we can learn from them, I know that some of their theological thoughts are not mine, but in the end does it matter? They have the same God and the same Jesus and they do walk the walk. Maybe they are not so wrong for rejecting ' the modern things' . If I look around in this world, well there are many people who are stopped from doing their daily chores because of the computer. Many children grow up with the tv running non stop, they haven't learnt how to play or communicate and these are just a few examples. Is it just easier not to have these things than to have to learn how to not be lured into the temptation? If I spend too much time on the computer and it gets really late, well we could make a MacDonalds run or order pizza?! The Amish eliminate a lot of those kind of things, that make life nice but are not necessary to live. I know that I would not want to live without my computer or washing mashine. But still there is a lot to be learnt from the amish lifestyle.The time they spend together working as a family would be a good thing to start out with. Are we sheltering our children too much from the work that needs to be done? Hhmm, I need to think about this.....

In the meantime my heart and prayer goes out to the Amish community and the wife and children of the killer. What awful legacy those three children have to carry around with them. I pray that God will use this too to have something good come out of it.

Mon, 9 Oct 2006 06:50:00 -0500

I see it has been a while. Well, we have taken our children out of public school and are homeschooling them.They are very happy about this and so am I. Though it is quite a bit more work. I really enjoy this though. The Lord opened the door for us to bring the kids home, this can be considered a miracle.

In generall we follow the Ambleside Online lesson plan and add to it. Like Apologia for science and we do grammar with first language lessons, for history we use history of the world vol.I and for math we use Math U See. If I can manage I add some handicrafts. We will do our first field trip on thursday. We go to the egypt museum.

For Bible we read through the Bible, we are also doing a Genesis bible study and work on the book of Proverbs. I am sure glad that the day doesn't have more hours, I am sure I would find some subjects to add for the kids -lol

It' s been a long time....

Fri, 1 Sep 2006 06:36:00 -0500

that I have posted anything. But live is happening so fast and before you know it, your children are half grown up....we had a fairly relaxed summer. Halfway through the summer DH and I decided to take the kids out of the public school. We are now homeschooling! This has been one of my constant prayer for the past few years. But it wasn't until I completely gave this issue to my Lord that my hearts desire came true. God has taught me a valuable lesson. I had lost my focus, I just wanted it my way. It wasn't until I learned to honestly give my children back to God that he made possible for us to home-school. So now we praise the Lord and rejoice. Not only at what He taught me, but also what the kids have seen and learned through this as well.

I have been laboring over the curriculum for the last two weeks. I think I can finally wrap it up today. We will start on Monday, this week we did some reviews on the things we had done through the last year. I was surprised to see how much the kids retained! We are going with Ambleside online and add a few other things. I just hope I didn't add too much, I tend to go overboard. But as in everything God leads and I will follow.

I have not figured out how to pursue my own studies toward my B.A. I may just have to wait on that for a few years.....or could I get better organized?

God doesn't call the equipped, He will equip the called !

Question for ya'll....

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 02:58:00 -0600

I am hoping that somebody can help me out. I am not very good with computer things, so please be patient with me. I would like to add links to the sidebar of my blog, how do I do this?

Michaela <><

Thank you everybody !

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 02:24:00 -0600

I would like to thank you all for all the nice comments and wishes you left ! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy

My vacation was nice, we had a lot of accidents, but we still had a good time. We had two day of snow, so we took the kids and the sleds off we went. It was fun, the next day grandma came with us. We went to a rather steep hill, by the time you were about half way down you did a good 15 mph. So, that was too fast for me and I did not want to climb that hill again <g> . So dh and son went down and I watched as they rolled the sled. Dad landed on the boy and his little face was scratched up and shoulder was really badly aching. My mom ordered me onto the sled with her. I didn't really want to but then I have to obey my mom, right ;-) We made about half way down the hill and crashed head on into a small tree. I was sitting behind my mom and it looked as though she broke her neck when we crashed into the tree. But she got up laughing ! I cried, go figure. We cooled her face with snow by then my girls made their way to us as the rescue crew. But my youngest daughter got bit by a dog that chased them down the hill. Luckily it was just bruised and not bleeding. We went up the hill where dh and ds didn't know if they should laugh or not. A fine sight we were. We started on our way home. I was quite a long way home, about 25 min. to walk. But it was still fun. When we came home I saw that my dad had hurt himself aswell, but mom said that that happened at night. The gasbottle was empty and he wanted to exchange it and after he did that he forgot that the gasdoor was still open and in his way so he bumped into it, hard enough to where it left a gash on his temple and was bleeding. So here we are everybody got - except me! My mom had the best shiner I've seen, it turned a wonderful shade of black. Well, we still had a good time and could laugh about it!

We were all sad when the time was over and we had to pack up and go home.

About a week later, we still had ice and snow, my mom and dad went back to the campground to spend the weekend. While they took the dog for a walk my mom slipped and broke her arm. Luckily it was just above the wrist. But she had to get operated and had some wires in her arm. Now they took the wires out and found the it was infected. Luckily that too went away and my mom is now eager to get the cast off so she can do all the things she normally does and wasn't able to do. Maybe it was God's way of telling her to take a break.

Finally vacation

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:39:00 -0600

Today was the last day of school, yeah! We don't have to worry about the whole situation for about 10 days.

The teachers of my youngest daughter want to send her to the schoolpsychologist, because she works better at home than in school. Because they can't get her to cooperate. Now there is something wrong with her - again, so they say. Well, I say there is something wrong with the teachers. I also got a letter stating the she can go to math therapy because she has a math disability - so they say. Well, she just got her math test back and she has a ' B' . I don't think they are right. I talked it over with dh and we are in agreement that she is not going anywhere and not seeing anybody. She is just fine!

Dh is working on getting the girls into the american school here in Berlin. I don't think he will be successful, but I pray for it and God will place the kids in the right ( home?) school.

Fortunatly we can forget about all of this and just look forward to visit our friends. We will take the train on Monday and enjoy four and a half days with very wonderful people, who will leave Germany in a few weeks to follow Gods calling.

God is good....

Wed, 4 Jan 2006 06:29:00 -0600

Well, here I am again. We had Nina's birthday, Christmas, New Year and on saturday we have Jamie's birthday, monday dh's birthday. Then we are finally done with all the celebrating -lol- Jamie is going to see Narnia with some friends. Of course I am going with her. I am still not sure about that movie, but I guess it is too late now. She is really excited about it, we usually never go to the movies. With five people that would cost us a small fortune. It is much cheaper and easier to just rent a dvd.

Right after Christmas we went out to our camper. It is about 45 min. from where we live. If we don't have the time to travel with it, we just stay at the campground. And that is where we spend about a week. My parents have their own camper there as well. So we had a little family time with everybody. We had a lot of snow for about three or four days. It was beautiful, the place is out in the country and it is so very quite there, sigh. Anyway, we took the kids sledding one day, the next day my mom came with us. Well, that day was a little tough on everybody. Dh took our son, Jeremy, down the hill. Quite steep, by the time you made it a little over halfway down one was doing about 15-20 mph ! Anyway husband and son had a blast. I stayed at the top of the hill, because I don't like the speed much and I like it even less to walk that hill up again and again. Well, one time after Jeremy went down the hill with his dad I heard him cry. My two guys went into the greenery and rolled the sled. Dad ended up on top of the four year old . Jeremy's face was scratched up a bit and his nose was a little wider, shall we say? But he wanted to go down the hill again with dad. There were also some people with their dogs and the dogs ran up and down the hill. One of the dogs nipped into Jamie's thigh, enough that it broke the skin and it bled. My mom and I thought we give it a go - and down the hill we went, well half way anyhow, then we hit a tree head on and my mom who was sitting in front of me hit her head on the tree. It looked really bad and scary . I was afraid that she had hurt herself badly, but she pulled her head out of the snow and laughed ! Now she has a most beautiful shiner to call her own . Dh has to go to the doctor tomorrow to get his shoulder checked out, which has been hurting really bad since he rolled in the snow with his son. We will see what is going on there. But so far God has been protecting us from ourselves . And yesterday I thought that now somebody got really hurt when Jeremy went outside sledding with his big sister Nina. He fell and hurt his shoulder. He didn't use his arm and everytime he moved it, to get dressed or undressed or leaned too heavily on it, it hurt. So this morning I went to the emergency room with him. While him and I were waiting for our turn in the x-ray room, we prayed that God would take all his pain away and make it that the shoulder isn't broken. But if He decided otherwise we would like some patience and courage. Well, God answered our prayer ! Jeremy's shoulder is not broken, just bruised. And it didn't hurt him to get the x-ray done. Which I think is unusual in itself. Our wonderful God carried us right through this.

So, since we are obviously under God's protection we enjoyed ourselves and had a good time. Now it is back to reality. The kids are back in school, for three weeks at least. Then we are free again for about two weeks. We then go to visit my special friends, who will go to a missionary school in the US for six month. And for absolutly egotistical reasons I hope the Lord will place them right back in Germany again , just good the Lord has his own plan <g> But they will be missed - by a lot of people!

I have to end for today to put my little tyke down for a nap.

My daughter's birthday party and this and that

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 16:40:00 -0600

We had the birthday party. My daughter had to push the date back to yesterday. We thought we could celebrate last weekend, but of the invited 6 children only 2 were able to come. So we changed to date to the 22nd, since all the children are on school vacation. So we had 10 children to celebrate my daughters 11th birthday with and 8 children ( including my three) to sleep over. They had cake and juice, by the time they were done it was dark outside and I send them out with flashlights while I cleaned up and preped for the next activity. My dh had to work late, so I was on my own. When the kids came in I gave them white t-shirts and markers, you know the special ones that don't wash out. And they all had fun and drew very beautiful pictures on their new ' night gowns'. It was great, but it took much longer than I thought. The food almost burned. After french fries, hot dogs and jello and over a gallon of juice, we watched some movies. Flubber and Madagaskar. Shortly before midnight I turned the lights off. And the girls were giggling and talking and telling each other jokes until 2 in the morning!!!!!
Well, on the upside I think that the parents had very quite children today who wanted to go to bed early -lol !

After they all got picked up I tranlated my pastors sermon outline for tomorrow into german. That was fun!
After that I got my list ready to go and buy the last things tomorrow. At the spur of the moment we had decided to go to our camper and stay there for the week, right after Christmas.
The camper is about 45 minutes away from the house, in the country. It is just far enough so one can go often, but too far to come back to fetch things you forgot too often. And it is very quite! I always enjoy these times in the country.

On the downside of things I must admit that I didn't have any time to get to my studies I really miss it and can't wait until I have time to get back to it!

I started reading about spiritual warfare, does anybody want to share any insides about that? I read about speaking in tongues, casting out demons..... what are your thoughts on that?

Have a wonderfully, blessed birthday party for Jesus!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all !

Blessings,
Michaela <><

Wow Christmas already....

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 07:45:00 -0600

It was a very busy time! The children had all kinds of recitals in school, piano, choir, drama. Same in church, phew. It is slowing down for today. Saturday we went with our church carroling in nursing homes. I organized that and it went well. I was very surprised that there were 3 homes that wanted to stay in contact with us. Which I like because I think it is also very important for the youth. They need to take their focus off themselves and shift it to others ... this may be the way to accomplish that. And the older generation has so much to pass on, the youth can bring joy and new life with them. So everybody can benefit. But this will have to wait until January...

On the 19th it is my oldest daughters birthday, she'll turn 11 years old (already). She wants to have a sleepover party. I hope we can get it all organized. We will have the party on friday. I am getting excited for her...

The family.....

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:25:00 -0600

I have told my parents and sister about my college studies. They were not very impressed. The first questions asked were, how much money I would make doing this and how the employment situation is. I tried to explain that this is not of importance to me, that I never thought about 'making money ' or 'getting a job '. After this statement they were really baffled. If anyone would know my family, you would know that it was next to impossible to get a word in for the next 10 minutes. My wonderful husband came to my defence like a night in shining armor! How much more did I love him at this moment than I already do ! He managed to make them understand that with a BA I could become a pastor and always make a living even if something would happen to him. Especially if we were to go back to the States. That a BA is always good to have. Well, now they really started on TV preachers who only want to rob poor people and so forth....It was amazing. After about 20 minutes of them beeing very flustered and telling me just how silly it is to spend so much money in something that is so unstable, meaning that I didn't think it through, I told them in no uncertain terms what I thought about it. I told them that I feel the Lord is leading me this way and since I am not earning any money now , that I am really not worried about earning money in four years either. As far as a job goes, well, we live in times where the majority of people are in dire need of the gospel. And that I am very sure that God will provide, just like He always did and just like He promised to do.

That sort of left them speechless. They probably think that this sort of sillyness is beyond help and they left it at that.

I am sad about the outcome of this talk, I had hoped for just a little more understanding. But as one of our pastors would say, ' pagans will be pagans ' and you can't really expect them to act any other way.... Though the wonderful, heartwarming thing was to see how my beloved hubby stood right next to me even though he doesn't believe. That alone was worth all the trouble.

I thank the Lord for showing me once again what a wonderful man I am married to!