MY reality show - Homeschool Blogger

Is There Pee in Your Tea?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:31:00 -0600

I know it's a disgusting title, but bear with me. I've been watching Todd Friel's "Wretched" for a couple weeks now. Let's see if I can work my way through his "process" with you, my friend - whoever you may be reading this right now.

Let me ask you a question. Do you consider yourself to be a good person? (Typical answer is, "Yeah, I'm pretty good. I mean, I'm not perfect, no one is, but I think I'm mostly good. So, yeah, I'm a good person.")

Okay, then. Do good people go to heaven? (Typical answer is, "Yeah. Like, if their good outweighs the bad, then yeah.")

By your own admission, you are a good person, right? Okay. Are you familiar with the 10 Commandments? ("Yeah.") How many lies do you think you've told in your lifetime? (Typical answer is, "Too many.") Okay, I have too. So, people like you and me, who have told lies, we are what? ("Liars.") That's right. I'm a liar. You're a liar.

Okay, what about stealing? Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? (Typical answer, "Yeah, like when I was a kid. And I took some of my roommate's cookies in college.") Okay, you've stolen. That makes you a... ("thief").

And what about lust? Because the 10 Commandments tells us not to commit adultery, and Jesus judges our heart, if we've lusted then that's adultery in our heart. Have you ever lusted before? ("Yeah.") Okay, then you're an adulterer, too.

So, by your own words, you're a liar, a thief, and an adulterer. That's three of the Ten Commandments right there! We didn't even check the other seven. If you died right now, and God laid out all your sins, because He knows them, everything you've ever done in private, in the dark, or when you thought no one was looking, and God judged you as a liar, a thief, and an adulterer, would God allow you into Heaven? Can God allow someone who's admittedly a liar, thief, and an adulterer into the gates of Heaven? (Typical answer is, "No. I guess He can't do that.")

At this point, if you realize that you, too, are a liar, a thief, and an adulterer, then you must understand... there is NO chance for you to get to heaven by yourself. Nothing you could possibly do can ever get you there.

I explain it to my kids this way: At dinner tonight, we're having iced tea with our meal. It's sweet tea, a whole pitcher! Yum! But, I just want you to know, I peed in the pitcher. Just a little. I mean, it's mostly sweet tea, with just a little pee. Can I pour you some? Invariably, they wrinkle up their noses at me, disgustedly, and say no way. That's how it is with God. He wants NO sin in His perfect heaven! Just like we want NO pee in our tea. Now, we can get clean tea, no problem: just dump the pitcher and start new. But we can't do that with our lives, we don't get to start over, and we're not perfect, because we have ALL sinned. Not a single one of us has ever lived a perfect life.

Except Jesus.

Now, because God is good, he loves all things holy and righteous. Justice is good. God loves justice. If he didn't punish sin, there would be no justice. He demands a blood sacrifice for the punishment of sin. Sin is paid for with death. That's where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God's Son, He is wholly God and wholly man, He was born into a sinful world, but He lived a perfect life. Jesus never stole, lied, or lusted like you and I have. He always honored His parents, He worshipped only His heavenly Father, He kept the Sabbath, never used God's name in vain, never murdered anyone even in His heart, never was jealous for Himself what someone else has... He was absolutely perfect! And He, as a perfect man, allowed Himself to be put on a cross and unjustly killed so that all your sins, past, present, and future, could be cast upon Him, and He paid the price for YOUR sins. He died, so you could live.

But He did so much more than just die for you. He conquered that grave, and rose to life again. Because of His sacrifice for you, you get to go to heaven. The bible says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." And that "Me" is Jesus Christ, our Savior. There is no amount of good you can do that can qualify you for heaven, because all your good is tainted with whatever sins you've committed. Plain and simple. To "get to heaven" you must repent and put your trust in Jesus, believe that His death sacrifice was sufficient to pay your way to heaven.

Do you know what "repent" means? It means to "turn from." Acknowledge that you are a sinner, repent from your sins, and accept that Jesus paid your bill, your debt is covered by His blood, and you, my friend, can "get to heaven." That's all there is to it. Christianity is the ONLY "religion" in the entire world whose God paid for you to get to heaven. ALL other "religions" require the believer to earn their own way through works, but the Bible tells us no one can earn it, that Jesus paid it. Jesus - fully God and fully perfect man. He did it for you! Rely on Him, and Him alone!

Now, do you know how much more God loves you? He not only sent His Son to die for you, but He wrote you 66 loveletters so you can get to know Him. Imagine if you have a love-interest, and you wrote him 66 loveletters, and he never read them. Would you feel loved by him? No, you wouldn't. God's loveletters to you are His Holy Bible. There are 66 books in there. If you are grateful to Him for saving you (if you've repented and put your trust in Jesus), then read His loveletters to you! You can find out so much about God! And you can talk to Him, too! He wants you to pick up the phone and call Him every minute of every day! That's called prayer!

Friend, if you have questions about all this, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail right here on HSB, or leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Jesus loves you. He loves you enough to have paid your debt. Amen!

Blessings! ♥♥Christi

Our Summer Project: Raising a Baby Robin

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:04:01 -0600

This past summer, we raised a baby robin. I put a cute video on YouTube describing our adventure. Here it is, and under it is the sidebar-info I wrote. Enjoy!

Okay, this has been the BEST homeschooling project we've done in a LONG time! The kids have done a LOT of work on this, and I'm so proud of them and how it's been going.

We found "Robby Ray" out of his nest on July 2nd, 2009 in our yard. His nest was in the gutter above, 2 stories up. After looking him over and figuring him to be about a week and a half old (based on web-photos of other robins), we decided to go ahead and try to raise and release him. This video is of day 12, so he's roughly just over 3 weeks old (maybe 23 days or so). You can see that after raising him for 12 days that he's really imprinted on my daughter. It's the sweetest thing ever!

And, everyone will be happy to know that we've been in contact with a rehab center, who looked him over and gave him a clean bill of health (except for a tiny bubbly sound... he's been a little sneezy, but no other symptoms) and remarked at what a wonderful job the kids have done with feeding him and raising him. He has good muscle tone, good hydration, good grooming, good active level, he's even been learning what to eat, etc. The ONLY thing they worry about is his socialization, that he enjoys people way too much, and we all agree. (However, I must point out that my hubby said, "Socialization? Didn't you tell them that Robby Ray is homeschooled?" Socialization is a big joke with us homeschooler-types. ^_^)

Anyway, the rehab center has five aviaries in its backyard. They said that the other robins Robby Ray'sage are just about old enough for an aviary, that as soon as an aviary opens up they will put that group in. After talking it over with my kids, we all agreed that as soon as that group "graduates" to the aviary, we will relinquish Robby Ray to them. Since we're raising him out-of-doors, with no cage anymore, we don't feel it's right to give him to the rehab center until the other caged babies are out of the cages and enjoying the freedom of flight. In fact, Robby Ray threw a big fit tonight being in a cage again just to take a trip to the rehab center. He didn't like it at all! Can't say that I blame him.

So, later this week, off he'll go to the rehab center to play with the other robins his age... a "Fifth Grade Camp" or "Senior Trip" if you will... ^_^. Heh heh. AND... the center is so impressed with how well the kids have done raising him that they're going to keep us on file for next spring to help with the Starlings, maybe some Sparrows, too! Won't that be fun!? Homeschooling is the BEST!

Blessings! ♥♥Christi

Update: 2 days after I shot this video, I went into labor. 2 days after that, Stewart took the kids and Robby Ray to the rehab center and relinquished the bird to them. It was a hard day for the kids, but they were champs about it. Robby Ray, we were told, did a fine job adjusting to the other robins and was later successfully released into the wild.

Why X to the zero power = 1

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:51:00 -0500

Have you or your student[s] evered wonder why x⁰=1? I've illustrated that on my HUGE chalkboard (see photo below). Use it if you need it, friends. Need further explanations? I'll be happy to oblige. Just leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail. BTW... I love, love, LOVE my chalkboard and am VERY grateful to my dear friends, the Gaffneys, for giving it to me. It's a 4ft. by 6ft. bit o' heaven!

Blessings! ♥Christi

Benjamin and Grandma Talking

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:27:00 -0500

Too cute NOT to watch! Notice how his expression changes when Grandma laughs at him. LOL. Enjoy!

Blessings! ♥Christi

Elimination Communication, or How We're Beginning Infant Potty Training

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:55:00 -0500

You may remember several months ago my saying that I wanted to try Infant Potty Training once Benjamin got here. Or, perhaps, you don't remember this. Either way is okay. I did promise to keep this blog updated on what I learn and how our progress goes, if we do indeed utilize it.

So, this is the update.

I decided at the start that I didn't want to actually hold my son over a potty until he had good head-balance. Benjamin is now three months old and doesn't quite have the strength in his neck to hold his head steady; he's still a bit of a bobble-head. However, there's more to this Diaper Free Babying than steady-head. There's the whole communication part of it, too. So, that's where we're beginning, until I feel comfortable with his neck strength. I mean, I don't want to have to worry about his head toppling over while I'm trying to balance his little bottom over the toilet, aiming his elimination into the water, ya know?

Anyway, here's what we're doing right now. Of the two "eliminations," I can only (so far) pick up on his cues of when he's having a bowel movement; I have no idea what his cues are when he urinates. But for BM's, he kind of blank-eyed stares, sometimes he'll hold eye-contact and chit chat, but he always grunts. So, what we're doing, all of us, is repeating back to him his grunting, followed by the words "Go poop?" The hope is that we're teaching him that he can communicate to us what he's doing, which will hopefully lead naturally into his ability to communicate to us that he has to go and we should take him to the potty. By grunting at him and saying, "Go poop?" we're attempting to give words that we use as well as sounds that he already orates to help him to be aware of this bodily function of his.

So far, when we grunt and say, "Go poop?" at him, he makes eye-contact and grins. It seems like a positive sign to me, like he knows that we're talking to him about his pooping.

Here's hoping it works! I'd love nothing more than to have him potty trained by his first birthday! Wouldn't that be dreamy?

Blessings! ♥Christi

First Giggles

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:38:00 -0500

He finally did it. He giggled - for the first real time - to the game "Peekaboo." Those first baby giggles always make the previous months of diapers, crying, and late nights all worthwhile! And... we caught it on video. Let's see if I can embed it from my YouTube account (disclaimer: I do not endorse the videos that pop up after my video plays.)...

Enjoy!

Blessings! ♥Christi

3-Month Update

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:38:00 -0500

Please forgive me; I've been neglecting my blog. The reason is trifecta.

The baby came. He's beautiful, just beautiful, healthy, but takes up a lot of time. Mostly, if I'm on the computer, it's while I'm nursing, and I HATE one-handed typing.
I discovered FaceBook. I spend a lot - okay, a loooooooooooot - of time there, and I can do most stuff there one-handedly. (I'm at http://www.facebook.com/christi.waterman if you'd like to friend me.)
I didn't realize I had any readers here on HSB, but have recently been told by a certain few readers that they - in fact - do read and would like an update. Thank you for that, friends. I didn't know anyone read this. It's easy to let fall to the wayside that which you think doesn't affect anyone but yourself, know what I mean?

So, here I am. I'm about to give the low-down on the what's up. ^_^

My previous entry was dated July 14th. I spent that day very actively! I should've known what was to come of it, but - alas! - I never do! It always surprises me!

The Day Before Benjamin - It was a Tuesday. That day I made an entry in my blog, wrote and sent my Thank You cards, finished making and addressing the invitation cards for Benjamin's Meet & Greet celebration, threw the kids in the car, and ran to Quik Trip (cheap fountain drinks), McDonald's (dollar menu), Worm's Way (for our Baby Robin), our neighbor's restaurant (dropped off some organic produce), the Post Office (stamps for the Meet & Greet), PetCo (b/c Worm's Way didn't have worms - who'da thunk?), and someplace else that now eludes me. There were 7 stops total, THAT I clearly remember.

Anyway, once home, it was time to feed Robby Ray (the afore-linked robin). Feeling like we were possibly not taking very good care of him, I called the bird-rehab center (2 miles from my house!) and spoke to a volunteer there (Hi, Bonnie! ^_^). She HIGHLY recommended we turn Robby over to them, but I refused, and I asked if they'd give him a once-over and let us know how we're doing, and that if we weren't doing well we'd hand him over. Bonnie agreed to see Robby.

Then, once Kari and my niece Kirsten got to Grandma Sandi's and Pappy's house for a sleep-over, Kari called me and told me she forgot to pack her "unmentionables." (I didn't mention them on my blog, okay?) So, I packed up Robby Ray to visit the rehab center and packed Kari's "unmentionables," and off Beth and I went, first to the rehab center, then to bring Kari her "stuff." Robby Ray got an A+ evaluation, Bonnie was very impressed with how we were doing with him, and she put our family on a list of volunteers so she can call us to care for baby birds next spring. How exciting! Also, we took Kari her "item."

At home, it was now late at night, and I still had to upload the Robby Ray video and send a link out to everyone I thought might be interested (I'll embed it later in an entry all to itself; in the meantime, you really MUST look at it in the link above). Just when I clicked "Send," I noticed something...

A CONTRACTION!

The Labor - It was no ordinary contraction. It was the MOTHER OF ALL CONTRACTIONS, AND NOTHING LIKE ANY I'D EVER HAD IN ANY OF MY FOUR PREGNANCIES! It started low and in front, and over the next couple hours it grew in size and intensity to cover my entire abdomen and lower back, AND IT NEVER STOPPED! You can't time something that doesn't end, friends. It was WEIRD! It was one, ceaseless, 3-hour contraction!

I called the doc. She said to come in. By the time Hubby and I got in the van, with bags and all, it was almost 4am, and my singular contraction turned into timed contractions, coming every 5 minutes. By the time they had me hooked up on monitors, they were at 2.5 minute intervals. After several hours of this, they stopped.

Weird, right?

Well, since I was already hooked up and admitted, and the baby was considered "full-term" (12 days early, yes... but full-term none-the-less), they went ahead and gave me the dreaded Pitocin. Ugh! I made it all the way to contraction level 60 (out of 100) before I accepted the epidural. I was GONNA try "au naturel," but nobody told me the Pitocin made the pain come on like a race horse out of the gate! Man! Painful! Let me tell you, ladies... if you decide to deliver without an epidural, but they give you Pitocin... TAKE THE DRUGS! Trust me on this, okay? Your body doesn't have time to build up its endurance and natural endorphins when you're on Pitocin. Okay?

Baby Benjamin - Anyway, my beautiful baby boy came at 5:10 pm on the 15th of July, weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces. He's named Benjamin ("son of my right hand") David (his Uncle Shawn's middle name).

God kissed him all over the place, too, in honor of each child. It's amazing. Here's the blessing-run-down:

He has the same Superman swirl in his hairline that Alex does. I'd never seen a cowlick like this before - or since - except in my own son. Now, whenever Alex looks at Benjamin, he can see a bit of himself.
He has just one dimple, like Kari. She was the only one of the kids to receive my dimple, but Benjamin has one, too... and it's in the opposite cheek as Kari's. So now, when Kari looks at Benjamin, she can see a mirror-reflection of her own dimple looking back at her.
Beth was the only one of my children to have a big, red strawberry birthmark on the back of the head. Of course, her long red hair covers all evidence of it, but she can now look at Benjamin and see a small way God kissed him just for her.
All three of my other kids have crooked fingers just like I do - they bend backwards at the second joint. Benjamin has wonderfully straight fingers, like his big brother, my stepson Stew. It must be hard for Stew to be the only one not from both parents in this house, but now when he looks at Benjamin, he can see a definite link to this little guy and know that God kissed Ben's hands just for him.

I know, sappy and sentimental, right? But those are the thoughts that go through a new-mom's head, all the new observances of holding her new baby.

Here's a link to his hospital photos (hope it works):

http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=3aed5169-c141-47ea-bf60-0f70d974702e&babyid=0b85022c-a6c8-49a0-9a6a-f04f35774b6d

Yeah, we think he's pretty cute! ^_^

Since then, he's battled - and won victoriously - a bout fighting jaundice. It took six weeks to overcome, which was on-target for his "type" of jaundice (late on-set of milk production made the bile stay in his system too long, had to overcome jaundice by feeding, feeding, feeding until it was all washed out).

And now he's a whopping 13+ pound 3-month old baby, and he's the joy of the whole house! Every single one of us loves to look at him, hold him, interact with him, and laugh at his cuteness.

God has so richly blessed us, way beyond anything we could have ever hoped for!

Anyway, friends, I do plan not to neglect this blog anymore. And I do plan to upload photos. I have LOTS to share! Plus, FaceBook doesn't have much of a way for me to really express my thoughts on those things God's been teaching me, except in "Notes," but - I dunno - it's just not quite like a blog. Ya know? And I do miss my writing.

Take care, and blessings to all of you! ~Christi

13 Days to go!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:52:00 -0500

We're almost there. The baby has almost completely filled up the space I have to give him. LOL. I mean, he is WAAAAY up in my ribs! Heh heh.

On a very positive note.... we're getting through a lot of the stuff on my TO-DO list. Hooray!

About that list, there are several things which have decreased in importance to me since I wrote it. So, several items will NOT get crossed off before Benjamin gets here. And I'm okay with that. ^_^

Blessings! ♥Christi

Almost here!

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:06:00 -0500

It won't be long now. ^_^ I've been dilated at 1cm for 2 weeks now. And there's only 2 weeks to go! It's amazing how quickly this pregnancy has just whizzed by! We found out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and when I think about it like that, it seems forever ago. But when I think about only having 2 weeks until he's due... WOW! I just can't believe it!

We're almost done getting ready.

And we have so much to be thankful for! Our church gave me a "Blessing Shower" a few weeks ago. It's where the ladies of the church write messages of encouragement, Scripture, poetry, give gifts, brush my hair (^_^), and feed me lunch. It was wonderful! And they all seemed led by the Spirit to speak to me exactly what I needed to hear! We've also had lots of friends give items of clothing, seats (car, bouncy, etc.), and even service (painting, planning, cleaning). My hubby's work threw HIM a baby shower, too! The items were mostly "daddy" related, which I thought was awesome ("My daddy can outcode your daddy" bib, "Daddy's little speedster" jammies, etc.).

The most thanks goes to God for opening my womb, providing a healthy pregnancy, healthy ultrasounds, and bringing me full-term. He also answered prayer in giving us a son (so far as we know, anyway), which we prayed for. Personally, I've been believing Him for this baby to have green eyes, in honor of both grandmothers who have green eyes. Both grandfathers have brown eyes, and that's all we've been able to have so far is brown-eyed babies. ^_^ So, I'm praying for green eyes. I'm also praying for a mellow child, one whose emotions run pretty even-kieled, like Beth. That would give me 2 and 2 for temperament. Plus, since this one is "slated" to be Kari's little buddy (Beth and Alex are buddies), and Kari is a high-emotional child, she would bond well with one whose emotions were not so easily wound.

Anyway, as I've said, he's almost here! And we're so excited!

Blessings! ♥Christi

Say it ain't so, Jo-Bros!

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 08:02:00 -0500

I adore the Jonas Brothers.

They stand for so much that we believe in. They are a band of brothers who love performing and traveling and just being together. Awesome, because we love family-togetherness! They were homeschooled (for a time). Awesome, because we homeschool! They are professing Christians. Awesome, because so are we. They wear purity rings and are committed to that purity. Awesome, because that's our mindset, too. And they're boys. Awesome, because I have daughters.

I've long told anyone in ear-shot, "Look! It's my future-son-in-law!" whenever the Jonas Brothers were on. The girls and I have had many discussions about which one would suit them best, based on personality differences, age gap, birth order and so on and so forth. Okay, most of it's been in jest, but that's beside the point I'm trying to make.

That point being that the eldest Jo-Bro has gotten engaged!

NOOOOO! Say it ain't so, Jo-Bro!

Actually, I'm happy for him. Getting engaged is the first step in that coveted happily-ever-after longed for with another person. May God grant them many, many happy and productive years together, years that bless and honor the Lord and their own parents, too.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/kevin-jonas-is-putting-a-ring-on-it-singer-is-engaged/24679?nc

Blessings to Kevin and Danielle. And blessings to you out there in the blogosphere! ♥♥Christi