Prayer Changes Things - Homeschool Blogger

Changes in Life

Sun, 4 May 2008 22:55:00 -0500

It's been over a year since I last blogged. Someone from my homeschool group mentioned that she came across my blog. It's one of those moments when you cringe and wonder, 'what did she read?' I wish I wasn't so exposed. I decided that I needed to see what she read so I'm back for a momentary update.

It's been a very busy year to say the least. I have had many guests, but that is normal. What keeps me busy besides being a wife and mother, is working and going to University. I decided to send the kids off into the world and get an education myself. We all love school and wouldn't miss it for the world.

I'm studying accounting. I know how it sounds (boring) but I am really enjoying my work as treasurer at the church we attend and I also am the accountant at a small Bible College so the knowledge is put to use very quickly.

My husband and kids walked the 8.4km marathon "Around the Bays" again. Rick is loving his work and the boys are happy at school. They love their Sunday School and sports activities too. It's amazing how we fit it all in. They are getting so tall. I think they're going to tower over my 5'3" stature in a very short time.
I should be writing an essay right now but I'm procrastinating. It's about ethics.

I heard a great message on Friday night (Elena Hood from Tauranga, NZ) about stress. I realized that my life is very full and I don't give myself much time to just relax and detox from the exhausting job I have. My knitting group is a wonderful relief from the pressures of life. The problem is I love my work so much that it's hard to recognize the signs of exhaustion sometimes. The message about stress reminded me to stop and dream a while. Think about my friends and family and pause to be thankful for all that God has blessed me with.

A Quick Hello

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:14:00 -0500

Life is so busy sometimes. I love life but sometimes I wish I could do nothing for a whole day. I have two minutes before I have to leave to pick up my husband from the train station. He ran/walked a marathon today. I'm so proud of him for doing it. 8.4 km. around the Bays of Auckland.

I'm getting ready to move again; to a warmer, more economical house. Fall is setting in. As we changed the clocks today, I thought of my family and friends getting ready for Spring. Seasons are great, aren't they? I think I need the cold weather for a while. Like a flower that needs to die before it can come back refreshed and beautiful in the Spring. I need to have a rest this winter.

Making up for lost time!

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 01:28:00 -0600

We went to two church services last Sunday and again this Sunday. I wanted to go to the church where I work (Pentacostal) and my husband wanted to go to the Presbyterian church which is close by our home. The kids wanted to go to the Chapel. What a mess! The services were all good. No complaints. I do prefer the music at the Presbyterian but being the "leader" that I am, I know what I believe and I don't believe in baptizing babies. They had a baby baptism last week. It was more like a dedication, but still, it was contrary to scripture.

The service at the Pentacostal church was on being salt with saltiness. I'm challenged to be responsible for my own spiritual growth. I'm challenged to spend time in the garden, like the Lord when He went to pray with to the Father. I'm going to do this. Meditation is good.

The Lord is good. Tonight, as I was filling a pot to boil for spaghetti, the tap ran dry. I ran out to the shed and tested the tap and looked at the pump (we're on tank water - rain water) and I thought "no way, we're out of water." The ironic thing is that we live in a valley where the rain is horrendous. We live near the water catchment for the whole of Auckland is. How could we be out of water? We have one shower a day. The kids less. We wash clothes but don't water the garden. It's unbelievable. We get so much rain here. It's going to cost a couple hundred dollars to get water trucked in. The landlords are going to check the drain pipes to see if there is a blockage. I just have to laugh, and thank the Lord for enough water for the spaghetti! The kids are horrified to have to haul water from the creek. They are so spoiled.

Be thankful for water.

20 things about myself

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:59:00 -0600

1. I dislike blogging.
2. I compromised my homeschool by working part time.
3. I do this by bringing my kids to work with me and working from home.
4. I do bookkeeping which has given me a new sense of purpose and I love it!
5. I wish I had more children 5 years ago. Now, I feel too old and this will be a regret I will carry with me as long as I live. I know there are women in their 40's still having children (and I'm not there yet) but my husband is 10 years my senior. He's just not into it anymore!
6. I love homeschooling but I secretly wish they could go to school now. Just once a week would be nice.
7. I have a sweet tooth. I made chocolate cake for my family last night and forgot the sugar! What a disaster that was, so I poured kirsch over it and made hot custard and poured that over it, then covered it with strawberries and kiwi fruit, whip cream and chocolate sauce. They still tasted the baking soda! Ha!
8. My brother makes me laugh. I forget to laugh sometimes.
9. I was born in New Zealand (where I live) but I belong in Canada where I grew up. I thought I was special being born in a sub-tropical place like NZ, but now that I've lived here, I get more points for being Canadian! Ha!
10. I love to knit but I get bored with most projects I start so I rip them out and try something else. I do finish projects but they usually take a year! Knitted socks are my latest thing and I finish them in weeks. Lace knitting is my current challenge but I've not mastered it yet.
11. I'm not usually organized but when I get busy, I whip myself into shape.
12. The NZ Ministry of Education did not send me my Certificate of Exemption. They said I needed to read the application form again and fill it in properly. Ie. they need to know which school my children are registered at. I filled the application form in correctly AND one for each student as they requested. The answer they didn't like is that I put "Homeschool" in the blank where it asked what school they were registered in. My children have never gone to school. They also politely reminded me that the children must be in a school pending my acceptance letter. I feel very angry about their narrow-minded take on my application. They should photocopy my 6 page covering letter outlining my Broad Curriculum Areas so they can file one with each child's application and Detailed Outline of each child's education plan. I'm very mad at them right now. I could spit.
13. I went to a leadership conference today. Apparently, I'm a leader. I fit the category leader rather than "minister."
14. I'm healthy and thankful for my good health.
15. My husband wants me to run/ walk a marathon with him. Ha! Not a chance. I don't like exercise. I do go to the gym once in a while or the pool when I feel the urge but generally speaking, I don't exercise.
16. I still love hymns. They sometimes make me weep. I miss "sings" at the McKillops.
17. I play the violin with my son. He's better than me but we have fun together.
18. I love my kids and my husband of 11 years.
19. I enjoy a good novel once in a while but it consumes me when I get into it.
20. I indulge in a coffee and cake when I'm out by myself. It's sneaky but I do it because there is no one to judge me.

A new year is so refreshing!

Sun, 7 Jan 2007 17:07:00 -0600

This is Sunday, January 7. I'm on NZ time but I haven't worked out how to change the date on my blog. Today, we went to a local Presbyterian church in Clevedon. My husband asked if we could go and contrary to my wanting to resist, I agreed. It was an amazing Sunday. More than I could have expected or asked for. The pastor was Canadian! It was a real answer to prayer. I felt so refreshed and alive. There was beautiful music and worship and even quiet time to pray. We sang hymns and read the Word aloud together, and even prayed the Word together. It was different and I think that was what made it so refreshing.

I've been working on my exemption from enrolment for the NZ government. I'm determined to get it done before the school year starts. Since my children are NZ citizens we are required to file for an exemption, so I thought it would be good to obey the law of the land. I've been organizing my resources and making lesson plans and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and more complex. I don't know how I'm going to get it all done, to be honest. It just seems so much to accomplish in one year. I'm trying to integrate some of the studies and yet it still seems like more than I can get my head around. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier to send them to school. Why do we torcher ourselves?! My boys want nothing to do with a public school so I'm going to press on and put my faith in my heavenly Father that He will go before me and lead me because I feel so blindfolded at this moment. It's "in the basket," as my sister would say... the "too hard basket"!

Thanks for your messages and prayers. Thank you, Lord, for blessing of a new year and for each one of my friends in Port Alice, Christina Lake, Tauranga, Vancouver, Abbotsford and Calgary. Thank you for the blessings they've bestowed on me, for their encouragement and love. Amen.

Happy New Year!

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:47:00 -0600

What a blessing to start a new year with friends. We are enjoying the visit of Abigail and Joseph who moved to NZ from England one year ago. They are expecting their first baby in February so everyone is very excited about the little bump Abby is carrying around with her. We also have Paul Hardy with us, one of the boys friends from Tauranga.

It is sunny and warm today, January 1st. It's a great day for a sleep in and late breaky. I will have to catch up the last 2 months of activity as we have been blessed by another visit from Rick's parents over Christmas and have so much to share.

We spent the month of December with them mostly in Clevedon and Auckland. They were content to hang around the local area rather than travelling like last year. It was good for me because I had to work but Rick took 2 weeks of holidays. One week was spent in Pauanui again. We went to Hot Water beach where you take a shovel and dig down about half a meter to find hot water on your feet. I mean boiling hot water created by guysers under the ground. It's incredible. People dig big pools in the sand to sit in. I'll have to post pictures. Such fun. The kids went surfing and Doris and I sat on the beach and totally relaxed in the sun. This was boxing day, Rick's birthday.

Well, I must go for now. Breakfast and guests... Blessing to you, my friends. Marilyn

Working Girl

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 22:30:00 -0600

Hello again,

It's been a month since my last entry. I've been hard at work doing bookkeeping and getting ready for my mom to visit. Work has been more of a challenge just finding the time to work and be a mom, a wife, a chauffeur, etc... I've been really enjoying the challenge of thinking in a new way. I love the job and love learning. I'm not sure how I have managed to keep up but thanks to mom coming, I've had a break from homeschooling. She's been great; she's a natural teacher.

I really enjoyed having mom over. It rained most of the time, but we definitely made the most of the dry hours in the day. We planted a vegie garden, and weeded. We visited friends, went to Tauranga, Orewa and all over South Auckland. She even helped with an inventory count on the 31st! We tried to get some stitching, knitting, and quiet time in but making meals and doing laundry took precedence over all that. Today, she went to Australia for 2 weeks. I will miss her but she's coming back for 6 more days before going back to Canada.

God's many blessings!

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 14:02:00 -0500

Where do I begin? I had a very busy month. I don't know if I can recap without looking at my calendar. Well, I have to admit, that I love to be busy. It's so much better than wallowing in self pity! Ha! I think that I'm good at relaxing and appreciating the quiet times after the hectic busyness of family, school, work, visitors, etc.

On the 13th of Sept. the kids and I joined other homeschoolers in the area to sing and play instruments to the elderly in a resthome. This was Ben's first time playing his violin in front of strangers. We sang hymns and the old folks said it was the best!

On the weekend of the 15th, we went to a resort town called Pauanui, where the hospital (Rick's work) staff society own a house for everyone's use (at a nominal cost). It is so sought after, they have to have a lottery for holidays. Rick managed to get it for the weekend when someone cancelled. It was a special weekend for us all, especially given that the weather has really warmed up. We played at the beach, sat in coffee shops (The Chocolate Pretzel was my favorite), and browsed through kitchen and clothing stores. We drove to the golf course and went through "open houses" that we couldn't afford, walked and walked around the village for hours, and painted, knitted, and read books back at the house. It was such a nice weekend. Oh, and then we drove for 5 hours around the Coromandel which was the very long way home. (The Coromandel is a peninsula off the East coast of Auckland). Pauanui was only 1.5 hrs away from home.

On the 18th, we went to Precept Ministries Workshop/Bible study. It was mainly an introduction to Inductive Bible Study which I have already been to. I thought it might be good for Rick to go to but we both enjoyed it. It's good to meet new people and there were teenage homeschoolers there too. It was great.

On the 19th, my dad arrived but I didn't see much of him. We met him at the mall for a few hours, then he came to pick up the kids to take them to Russell, in the Bay of Islands where Dad's brother lives. It was a nice quiet weekend for Rick and I. Then Dad brought them home on Sunday and stayed for dinner. He came to NZ to escort his friend back home. His friend was visiting him in Canada and had a massive heart attack while he was there. So Dad had to stay with him to take him to doctor's appointments etc. Too bad for us, not to have Dad stay with us.

That same Sunday that Dad came for dinner, we had our friends' kids come from Tauranga. They stayed with us for a week while their mom was in England. This was a fantastic week. I was mother to 5 kids (one 2.5 y/o little boy, one 6 y/o girl, three boys 8, 9, and 10). We did the beach, the wave pool, the petting zoo, the park and had a blast all week. It turned out that I also had to start my new job at the church that week, so I had a babysitter come for 2 half days.

The church, where I am now doing accounting, is really exciting. There is so much going on. We don't actually attend this AOG but it's really neat to see all the people in action. What a beehive of activity!

The sewing has slowed to a halt but the owner has asked me to help him set up his books. I put him onto Rick!

Well, that sums up my busy life over the past 2 weeks. I could have started back in August but that would have taken me too long to get through. (Roger came to visit in August, we went to an ice cream factory, had Nick's birthday, and went to Tauranga again for a visit...) I'll try to keep up from now on.

Overall, we're enjoying life in New Zealand once again. I'm so thrilled to have a job that I can take the kids to. I can also work from home and keep my own hours. It's the kind of job every homeschool mom needs! I have learned MYOB accounting software, and I now use Microsoft Outlook to keep track of my tasks. I keep lists in categories; homeschool, personal finances, work, Girls' Rally (oh yeah, we're doing a play for a Sunday service in October. Pharaoh, Pharaoh.), and our home life.

Blessings,
Marilyn

A new job

Sun, 6 Aug 2006 15:14:00 -0500

We had a wonderful time in Omokoroa with our friends. I didn't try to see everyone as the kids just wanted to play in the backyard sandbox. They built a fire and ate their dinner out there. What fun!

One of the conversations my friend and I got into was about confession and penance. She's Catholic, I'm a Christian. It was a futile discussion because I don't believe in the basic premise of the Catholic church structure, with priests, etc. and I don't see the need for penance? Salvation is by grace alone. Forgiveness of sin is through Christ alone. Nothing we do can help or make ammends for our sin. Yes, we need to confess our sin... but... "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Yes, we need to confess, yes we need to be sorry for our sins. It has brought my attention to the study of confession and the priesthood of all believers. Any comments on this subject would be welcome.

I have just had an answer to prayer with regards to a job. I had applied for several part time jobs that I didn't really want but my husband urged me to apply. With only two children, I have a bit of time on my hands but I didn't want to work outside of the home. The Lord brought the perfect job for me and it wasn't in the papers or on any website!! I met this man at a local craft marketplace where we got talking about his business. I offered my talents and he took my number! I'm now sewing for a cottage industry garment manufacturer, in my own home, in my own time! The owner of the company delivered an industrial machine to my home and bags of work for me to do. I'm so pleased! The product is a super fine merino wool jacket for women. It's sold primarily in tourist shops around the country. I'm so thankful. Now to discipline myself to sit down at the machine for hours on end!!

Must get to work!

Friends and Family

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 01:47:01 -0500

Oops! It's been almost 2 weeks since I posted. I have been feeling a bit better emotionally/ spiritually. It's interesting how friends play such an important part of life. We had friends from Whangarei (3 hrs north) down for the weekend (last weekend). We celebrated Christmas-in-July together without gifts. It was such a fun time, cooking a turkey with all the trimmings. We even put up a bough at the front door and the fake Christmas tree with lights. The children played Christmas carol on their instruments. The weekend was sunny and warm (about 17 deg) so we had breakfast out on the patio. The idea was to have something to look forward to in the middle of winter. It worked! The children loved it and the boys/men went fishing while Abigail and I went shopping. It's amazing how much more fun shopping is with a girlfriend (and without two little boys to stand in the way of Crabtree and Evelyn). We have several malls here in Auckland, but none of them are anything like Guildford in Surrey. Our friends are pregnant with their first child. So exciting!! We planned a baby quilt and went maternity shopping as Abigail is anticipating a hot summer in her 3rd trimester.

This week has been encouraging as 2 women have reached out to me. I realized that to gain a friend, that person must first need a friend. And if one is too busy to be available for a new friend, one may miss out on the gift of that friendship. Both these women sent me a simple email which told me that they were thinking of me. It meant so much. The Lord knows how much I need relationships to keep me going. I met Karen for breakfast at the farmer's market before church this morning. It was a lovely way to get to know each other without children around to pull on me, pointing at their watches. We talked about getting to know our husbands, moving to NZ (she's American) and living life in NZ. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks this country is a little behind the times. (Propane heaters in the living room is just not healthy!)

Tomorrow, I'm planning to take the boys back to Omokoroa to see friends (a 2 hr drive south). We'll stay the night and visit with all our buddies. Can't wait.

Other good news: My mom has booked her ticket to visit my sister and I. She is coming for a month in total, split between here and Australia. October 23 -November 23! Yay!!!! Praise the Lord!