Last week, while my littles were napping, I was feeling generous and gave my big kids a piece of licorice - something rarely done during the day(Yes, Mom, it is the same batch you gave me from Valentine's Day).  All of a sudden, I heard Boy7crying hysterically.  After much deciphering, I figured out that he had bitten into his licorice and his tooth became very loose, to the point that a little blood had come out.  The taste of blood in his mouth completely freaked him out.  He would not let me touch it and wasn't even wild about me looking inside.  He was crying that he didn't want to lose his tooth.  I explained that it was part of growing up, his older sister has lost 2, that it isn't painful to lose them.  He continued to cry and asked why God didn't just put in his big teeth right away.  This made me giggle as I pictured how he would have looked as a baby with adult teeth!  Nothing I was saying could console him or calm him down so I could look to see how loose this tooth actually was.  He even said that he would never eat licorice again!

He was so inconsolable that I called BW to see how far he was from home and prep him for what he was walking into that evening.  I thought that his father would have words to console him, but while Daddy used all the same encouraging words that I did, the wimpering continued.  At dinner and at breakfast an at lunch the next day, he complained about everything he ate saying that it was hurting his tooth and he didn't like that it was wiggling. 

I offered to tie a string around his tooth and slam the door(completely joking).  A few minutes later, he asked if we did the door thing if it would hurt - he was seriously considering it!

That night, during his bath he called me in.  He told me that he had just prayed that God would help him to be brave about his loose tooth.  I told him that I knew God would answer that prayer. 

Fast forward to Sunday night.  We returned from a trip to Northern California for BW's Grandmother's funeral.  It was his turn to brush his teeth.  As he brushed, his tooth just popped out onto the sink!  BW happened to be in there brushing Boy2's tooth.  Boy7 was so excited!  He was jumping around and showing off his tooth to everyone.  So now my guy looks like this:

The next morning, he was in our room to wake us up.  He was excited that God had helped him to be brave, that it didn't hurt and that he received $2 from the tooth fairy.  He also loves sticking his tongue in the empty space and grossing out his sisters. 

Never a dull moment around here!

-J

We spent 3 weeks studying the character trait of Honor to include the culture of Japan.  Boy7 really liked learning about samurais while the girls enjoyed making maps and dressing in "kimonos".  I had a minor mutiny with the Japanese dishes I made.  We were blessed to be able to pray for a missionary family in Japan and talked a great deal about Buddhism and Shintoism and how it differs from Christianity.  The only bummer about that is that Girl4 started to announce that when she dies, she wants to come back as an ant!  Apparently, I hadn't been as thorough as I thought in my discussion of reincarnation.  So, I explained it again and now she says she wants to be an ant when she goes to heaven!  Maybe it's time for Daddy to talk to her...

We are now studying the character trait of Orderliness and Animal Classification.  So far, the kids are pretty disappointed as we've been spending a lot of time on invertebrates while Boy7 wants to study mice and Girl8 wants to study horses.  Jessica Hulcy, creator of the curriculum, encouraged us to pray that God would provide us the different specimens we would need if we couldn't afford to pay for science class quality specimens.  I was hesitant to pray for this as I wasn't sure what would show up in my bathroom, but in the name of my child's education I began praying.  Within a day, Boy2 dragged me over to see a beautful moth that had died near our sliding glass door.  I bagged him up.  The next day, dh found a spider and was quite surprised when I told him not to squish it, but to put it in a snack bag with a cotton ball of rubbing alcohol.   Another spider has built a web and has been catching bugs outside out front window - and I'm going to let it stay there for a little while longer.

Last week, we were discussing the group Annelida including earthworms.  After reading to them from a library book about earthworms, I sent them outside to try to find some that we could study.  Since it was a pretty cold day, I really didn't know if they would find any and if they did, I expected them to find the small worms I had remembered from my youth in the suburbs of Los Angeles.  Nothing prepared me for this:

They kept digging and found lots more including a nest with about 20 baby earthworms!  Here is a picture of all of my budding scientists with Boy7 holding his prize on a stick - the only one willing to do the task - so good to have a man around!  I decided that it wasn't quite necessary to dissect them even though we had lots of specimens - have to save something for high school biology (or for Dad to do), right?

The next day, we went on a "field trip" to the grocery store where the seafood guy showed us mussels, clams, oysters, crabs and lobsters.  Hoping to find some tadpoles and frogs next week, but after that I think I need to pray that God would stop giving me specimens as it's freaking me out!

Blessings!

-J

BW's almost 13yo Saturn's (140,000+ miles) clutch had been giving him trouble and then finally lost a couple gears on Sunday.  We immediately talked to people in our church for recommendations of mechanics.  Monday, he was able to get it seen, but needed to wait for some parts.

So, he took my van with almost 200,000 miles on the two hour drive to seminary on Wednesday.  The plan was for him to stop at Costco on the way home, pick us all up, drop the kids off at Awana and then I would take him to pick up his car.  On his way home the transmission on the van went out!!!!  This left him stranded an hour and a half from home and leaving us without much food in the house as he was scheduled to make a Costco run on the way home. 

But...We are praising God for the following reasons:

1) For the entire time we were in seminary (almost 3 years) and had a low if any income, God saw to it that our old cars did not break down!  Someone I relayed this story to today likened it to the Israelites wandering in the desert without wearing out their sandals.  I guess now that we have had a full time position for a month, God must have decided it was all right for us to have this inconvenience:)

2) When the van broke down, BW was in a city where he could actually get to the national chain from which we had bought the warranty on the transmission - there is no such chain in the city we live.  Also, part of the 2 hour drive is through desert where he could have been stranded!  It also didn't happen when I was driving with 4 children in the car as is usually the case.  AND he had not stopped at Costco yet where lots of food would have been spoiled - I had quite a long list(I do miss Costco...).

3) Because he had taken the van, he decided to drop some wardrobe boxes to a friend that wouldn't have normally fit into his car.    This meant he had taken out all of our carseats before he left!  He didn't have to worry about how to get them home.

3) The national chain owner was a Christian who had sent his children to the seminary's sister college so he was willing to work hard for the warranty confusion to be sorted out(see below)  AND the warranty information happened to be IN THE VAN and not 2 hours away in our file drawer! 

4) Because he was closer to the seminary, he was able to find a family who extended hospitality for him to spend the night on almost no notice - Thanks to Jay & Julie, Aiden & Corbin (for giving up his bed)!  And Happy Birthday, Julie!

5) He was able to get a rental car to come home and stopped to get our much needed "provisions" from Costco on the way home.   God had also stretched what we did have in our pantry so no one went hungry:)

6) A family from our church has a Suburban that they will let us use until the van is fixed and we can get it back.

7) That the chain is going to honor the warranty.  Apparently the chain we bought the warranty from doesn't offer 5 year warranties.  The guy we bought it from was selling these 5 year warranties (without company approval) so he could get money up front and then sold the business.  This caused quite a bit of confusion as to who was going to pay for the new transmission the van now needs since the owners had changed.  So it has taken a couple days just to determine that the transmission was originally from a company in Oregon.  The company in Oregon will honor the warranty, but will only send the transmission to Sacramento which is where the warranty was purchased.  So we have to wait for it to be shipped to Sacramento and then driven down to Southern California and then for it to be installed.  So it may be a while before we see our van again. 

8) We are getting a pretty large tax refund that should just about cover the cost for both vehicles to be repaired. 

9) Just when I was really starting to have that "I've been cooped up with no car with 4 kids and I could really use a little break from them" feeling, a dear Christian sister from our church called (with no previous knowledge of how our week had gone) and offered to watch my kids for a couple hours if there was any errands I wanted to run!!!!  Ummm, I took her up on it:)

So... even though it's been a hard week , I want to offer praise to my God.  And that leads to another praise - God has really changed my perspective and I see all the reasons to praise Him when in the past I really would have seen it as a reason to complain and be pretty grumpy (to put it lightly) for several days.  So wonderful when God gives us glimpses of the progress we are making in becoming more like Him.  It really does make a difference when we make the CHOICE to be thankful even in the midst of trials. 

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thess 5:16-18

Blessings!

-J

I was recently given the book Practicing Hospitality: The Joy of Serving Others by Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock and I it has really opened my eyes to a biblical perspective of hospitality.  I have found it to be both extremely practical and also feeding(and sometimes convicting) to my soul.  There are many things that I am learning from it, but one that I have really taken away from it is remembering to pray before, during and after we have people to our home.  I have to admit that most of the time when we entertain in the days (and especially) in the minutes preceding guests arrival prayer has not been on my list of things to do and it really needs to be! 

From the book:

PRAY BEFORE I EXTEND HOSPITALITY BECAUSE I

• should have a sincere heart when I extend the invitation(Phil 1:10)
• know that for the event to bring glory to my heavenly Father, I must have His strength(Phil 4:13)
• want to have a heart that submit to my heavenly Father's instructions(Rom. 12:13b)
• need to approach any opportunity to minister with a "hearty attitude" (Col 3:23)
• have a desire to wear "the garment of humiity" to the occasion (1 Pet 5:5)
• desire to have a gracious spirit in the midst of unforeseeable circumstances( Prov 11:16)
• wish to glean from the wisdom of my guests (Prov 1:5)
• seek genuinely to meet the needs of my guests( 1 John 3:17)
• long for my extension of hospitality to have far-reaching implications(Heb 13:2)
• need to be excited about allowing others to catch a glimpse of my character where it is most graphically displayed - in my home - especially if I am in a position of leadership (1 Tim 3:1-2; Titus 1:7-8)
• desire to stimulate conversations that are edifying (Rom 15:1-2) and encouraging (1 Thess 5:11) to my guests

I have realized that this translates into my day with my children as well.  As we make each transition during the day, am I taking the moment to ask God's blessing upon it? Change my heart/mood towards this child? For graciousness and patience? Realize that interruptions were allowed by God to make me more like Christ? Etc, etc.

I also loved the chapter on Hospitality and Family as it really convicted me to "treat my family as good as guests".  We extend hospitality to them too and model it when we show love to them through it.  Do my children see a different person in the moments preceding the guests' arrival than they see two moments AFTER my guests' arrival?  Do I show more kindness toward strangers than I do to my own family members?  I occasionally wonder what kind of mother I would be if I treated my children in the way I treat children who visit our home or children I might minister to at church. OUCH!  Areas to grow...

If you are looking to grow in this area and see that Hospitality is not all about serving some gourmet foods and bringing out your china, I highly recommend it.  There are some great recipes too!

Blessings!

-J

Wanna know a secret?  Planning my curriculum choices is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling!  For others it may be enough to tear their hair out, but I just love looking through catalogs and trying to find just the right fit for our family and individual children. 

Now I haven't always been this way.  When I first started hsing, I wanted a strict regimented system from one company where I could check the boxes so that I could prove to anyone who asked that my kids were learning and "all the bases were being covered".  Eventually, though, I learned that the flexibility was one of the pluses of hsing.  If something is not working, I can toss it out and try something else, something that's not as much of an option in a traditional school setting.:)  Of course, I try NOT to toss out if possible and choose wisely because I do want to be a good steward.  But I'm at the point as I am finishing up my 4th YEAR (Wow!) of hsing where I actually get excited to pick and choose.

So here is what we have planned for the coming year:

All Kids

Konos Volume II Co-Op - I've written before about how wonderful the online co-op has been for us this year.  It has been such a blessing to really learn how to teach from a veteran homeschooling mom and have an online network of other moms who are all teaching their kids the same topic at the same time.  The Volume II Co-Op will include Explorers, Weather, the Revolutionary War and Government/Constitution and, as important if not more important, the character traits of Inquisitveness, Responsibility, Courage and Wisdom. 

Bible Study Guide for All Ages -  We have really enjoyed using this curriculum for our morning devotionals this year (when there wasn't a specific Konos related Bible lesson).  We will just continue with these and I'm excited that within 2 more years we will have gone through the whole Bible as a family.

3rd Grader - 1st off, I have to say that I can't believe she's already going to be a third grader! Where is the time going?

Character Quality Language Arts - This is a new curriculum we have already switched to because she had finished the 2nd grade Learning Language Arts Through Literature in January.   I came across this initially after a review in a homeschooling magazine where this woman said she had created a language arts program using models of all of her favorite Language Arts Programs (which all happened to be curriculum I have been impressed with and was thinking about using) - Learning Language Arts through Literature, IEW and Easy Grammar.  I had really thought I was going to have to piecemeal Language Arts until I found this one.  (As a side she is having a sale through April 30th.  There is also a month of free samples on the website so you can try it before buying it). 

Spelling Power - We have already started using this as well.  I love that I will be able to use it for all my kids and that instead of spelling lists each week with some words she already knows how to spell, she only has to study the words she misspells. 

Making Math Meaningful - We've struggled with this curriculum this year, but dh who is a former High School Math teacher has promised to be more involved with Girl8's math and we are going to try sticking with it - mostly because we haven't found anything that we really like better.

Handwriting without Tears Cursive Success - Girl8 REALLY wanted to learn cursive this year, but fizzled out in her excitement for it.  Right now, we are doing it 2-3 days/week.  We will continue that(maybe up to one more day/week) in the coming year.

2nd Grade

Language Arts - Boy7 has required quite the eclectic Language Arts compilation this year, but has made huge improvements in his reading from a year ago.  I've made the executive decision to hold off on formal grammar or spelling until his reading is just a little more fluent - probably mid-year.

Explode the Code - For a kid who I never thought would be a "workbook" kind of kid, he has really come around this year and is able to do much work independently now, though he prefers mom to be sitting there for moral support and to see what he's doing.

Abeka Readers - Someone in my homeschool group had blessed us with the 1st & 2nd grade readers and they have been a hit.  He likes that they are short stories(1-2 pages) and there are often boys in them - something that annoyed him with some of the other beginning reader books.

Handwriting without Tears Printing Power - Just continuing with this.  His writing has improved this year, but there are still several letters that he forms from bottom to top rather than from top to bottom - probably something only mom would notice:)

Making Math Meaningful -  Boy7 has really done well with this curriculum this year and, and will be very close to the same level as his sister soon(Shh! don't tell her).  Amazing how each one has their strengths and weaknesses!

Kindergarten - This is another one that I can't believe is old enough to be where she's at, but she is more than ready and really enjoys school (could it be because she has the choice each day to do workbooks OR just be read to for her school time and it will change when she hits the age where she HAS to do the work?  We'll find out...)

Explode the Code - She completed the primer series this year and has already started Book 1.

Everything for Early Learning - This is a workbook that covers all the major kindergarten themes including phonics, math, and critical thinking. 

Abeka Readers - She's one reader behind her brother right now, but the silent e/long vowel sounds have started slowing her down a bit.

Making Math Meaningful Level K - I really enjoyed these activities (almost no workbook pages, but learning math concepts through everyday things around your home) with my older two kids and I think she will have fun with them too.

Preschool 2/3 - My 2yo has one of those dreaded September birthdays - what will we do with him - should we start him early or hold him back someday when he is Kindergarten age?  Well, for now, I think we will just stick to reading his favorite books during his "school time" which right now include Green Eggs and Ham and Goodnight moon.  He will also be soaking up information from the other kids' schooltime.  I really think my younger two are going to have the best education of all when it comes down to it! 

There are still a few unknowns that we are praying about right now.  I really want to find a homeschool support group and Independent Study Program in our new area to take care of the record keeping end of things.  I also need to figure out when we might be taking some breaks this summer and when our "new school year" will officially start.  But it is nice to already have everything ordered and have new things to get excited about.   Now I just hope that no shiny catalogs come in the mail...

Blessings!

-J

(picture taken during first snow day)

BOY2 WANTED: For household troublemaking

Today's schooling lasted a little longer than usual.  Boy2 was quiet, but I knew that other kids were in the back of the house so I figured (well, if I'm honest I was pretty engrossed in school with the others and didn't think about him much since there was no crying or loud crashes) that he was playing with the bigger kids.  After finishing school, I became a detective and re-traced numerous crime scenes to determine Boy2's activities throughout the morning:

1) Based on the evidence of cat food all over the laundry room floor and in the cat's water dish, I have concluded that Boy2 started his morning in the laundry room.  It seems he was originally trying to feed the cats, but then found that mixing the cat food and water was pretty fun.

2) His next stop was my bedroom where I found the linen closet door opened and pretty much every towel and blanket pulled out.

3) Apparently looking to see what trouble he could make in other bedrooms, his next stop was his sisters' room where he completely took apart two 100 piece puzzles his older sister had completed.  She may forgive him one day...

4) His final activity was in the kids bathroom where he had pushed a stool over, climbed onto the counter, opened up the medicine cabinet(which fortunately contains no medicine!) and pulled out and unpeeled EVERY bandaid we own - a total of about 3 boxes!   

The very curious thing is that he did not seem to spend ANY time in his own room!  Checking his room, his bed was still made and everything looked to be in perfect order!

I have a feeling I am going to be in trouble because he is just so cute that it's really hard to be mad at him!  When I showed him the messes room by room his defense was "Oh my goooooodnessss!" to each one in a way that made it really hard not to laugh.

And while I'm talking about "his cuteness", he transitioned from the crib to the boys room bottom bunk when we moved.  He's been pretty consistent about going to sleep in his bed, but coming into our bed(with pillow) before morning.  I have been sleeping pretty soundly because most of the time I don't notice he's there until morning(when my back is all tweaked!).  A couple weeks ago he started waking me up with a smile and saying "Mommy, you are my su-shine"...and then he wants me to sing the song to him.  It took me a while to even figure out where he heard that song though one of the kids finally helped me to credit a Veggie Tales movie.   Now, usually when he's in trouble, he will look up at me with the eyes in that picture and say "Mommy, you are my su-shine!" and put his little arms around my neck!  How can the manipulation begin so early?

Blessings!

-J

I have always battled with Girl8 in completing writing assignments.  Part of the problem is her(and maybe my) perfectionistic attitude toward writing - thinking that it has to have good handwriting, everything must be spelled right and grammatically correct as well as communicate the idea.  I have had the pleasure of participating in the Konos Online Co-Op this school year and benefitted from getting input from a veteran homeschool mom, Jessica Hulcy.  Jessica has really been stressing (especially in the younger grades) PROCESS over PRODUCT in writing all year.  And you know what?  I finally got it! 

Here's what we did.  This week, the writing assignment was to write a paragraph on one of the biographies we read this week(Corrie Ten Boom, Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King, Jr).  I received the normal resistance.  Until I told her that she could dictate all that she could remember to me!  I wrote down the sentences as quickly as I could - I could hardly keep up with her!  Then I asked her if she could narrow down what she had written into three parts.  Once she did, I gave her 3 highlighters of different colors.  She grouped together by color what happened first, middle and last.  Then we went through each color and she ordered the sentances further.  The end result was several paragraphs and a very cohesive report on Corrie Ten Boom!!  We copied the whole thing on "good paper" and then she drew a picture at the top.  Wow!  Writing without tears!

Boy7 didn't have much to report on Martin Luther King, Jr. but did draw a touching picture of some white boys playing while a little Martin(with some tears) and some friends looked on.   He explained to me that the white boys weren't allowed to play with the black boys, but that Martin taught people when he grew up that blacks and whites are the same and can do things together! 

Some of you may get a picture from my blog that my kids are always doing really well and I'm this really great teacher -  Well, I don't really write about all of our struggles at schooltime(like the fact that right after the writing assignment went so well we had actual tears over Math!) and I often have the homeschool mom plague of self doubt .  So when my kids show me that they are actually learning something and I'm not messing them up forever it is such a blessing!   

We have also been studying kindess and manners this week.  I am so thankful for the dedicated time to focus on this subject.  There have been numerous training opportunities to re-do conversations so that they are said with Honor(kindness and respect).  Today we will be focusing on how to properly set a table and practice good table manners - very timely now that we are the "new pastor's family".  I guess the test will be at the next meal we are invited to:)  Tomorrow afternoon we will be making some goodies to share with our new neighbors. 

Blessings!

-J

Konos is having a great sale on their Electing America's Leaders Study.  You can get the whole study for only $15.00(regularly $35)!  And this summer they will be offering an online teaching co-op at www.homeschoolmentor.com so that you can hear from creator Jessica Hulcy herself the best way is to teach the study.  I am planning to do this timely unit during the height of this very important presidential campaign.   

Blessings!

-J

We started back to school yesterday.  After a 3 week break that included a major move and a camping trip, I was ready to get life back to normal despite my kids' protests.  We are studying the character trait of Honor and yesterday we looked through the Bible to see to whom we should show honor.  At dinner, they reviewed the list with their dad and I cracked up when Girl4 said that we should honor the President of the bushes.  Her older sister told her matter of factly that it was the President of the United States whose name was President Bush! 

We also went through the fruits of the Spirit and made a "Fruit of the Spirit Tree".  We read a book on Corrie Ten Boom and talked about how she honored the Jewish people even though she didn't believe what they believed.  They really loved the part of her story where she had hidden her Bible and the German soldier skipped over her during the searches.  And they laughed out loud when they heard that the fleas and stench kept the guards away from the womens' barracks so that they could study God's word undisturbed.   

We are also reading through the Great Brain series at night.  Although we often don't agree with how the adults (and many of the kids) in the books handle situations, it has been a great source of conversation starters with the kids.  It also gives some great historical background on life in Utah at the turn of the century.  I recommend them with a lot of adult interaction.

Blessings!

-J

Camping is one of those things that if I think about it too much, I would probably never schedule into our calendar.  It's exhausting, takes an enormous amount of preparation, isn't all that comfortable,  and results in many loads of laundry BUT my children love it so I think it will be part of our family memories for years to come. 

Pictures of our trip with our seminary family from last week are now in my slideshow.  I unfortunately didn't take as many pictures as I usually do - the cold air must have done something to my brain!  After our 3 hour drive down to Pt. Magu, we set to work setting up our area of the campsite.  We have the appearance of very experienced campers since we have so much nice camping equipment thanks to our families who granted our request of camping equipment for Christmas one year.  Since BW is mainly responsible for this task, I got to chase Boy2 up and down some hills and through some bush for quite a while.  It has been 8 months since our first ever camping trip and I was amazed at how much different it was camping with our little guy this time.  For one, he is much more surefooted and fell a lot less.  He was able to get up more trails and this meant that I was pretty constantly on the go.  Conversations were started to be interrupted as I saw him heading for the hills.  Also, since he is out of a crib we didn't bother to take the Pak-n-play on this trip.  He got his own sleeping bag!  Not that he actually slept in it.  Both nights, he wormed his way into sharing my sleeping bag with me!

The wind whipped up early and I pulled out my kids' winter coats, hats and gloves that I had recently bought because we were moving to the snow!  On night two I was glad I didn't have a thermometer to make me feel any colder than I already was.  The kids slept in their coats that night.

I will say that it is definitely more fun to camp with a group of other families.  Not only are there built in friends for my kids to play with, but the cooking is shared!  Each kid found one or two other friends to play with.  Girl4 latched onto a 4yo boy who she only knew as her "camping friend".  She never did find out his name, but just called him her "camping friend."   Boy7 found plenty of other boys who were really good at finding sticks and coming up with all sorts of games with which sticks were required.  Girl8 found a group of girls to go "hiking" with, collect flowers and find secret hiding places. 

On Friday morning, everyone was geared up for a "kid friendly" hike.  It wasn't long before we came to a steep section of trail and we realized that we had taken the wrong trail!!!  We headed back down and I was all ready to say that I had completed my hiking duties for the trip.  But I dutifully followed my kids with up the correct trail.  The wind had died down and it warmed up.  I was surprised by how far my kids were able to go though I did eventually have to turn around with the younger ones.  We were able to see some beautiful wildflowers, lizards and butterflies. 

After a short nap, we headed down to the beach.  I knew it would be way too cold to actually go in the water so I didn't even bother to bring my kids swimsuits, but for some reason my kids couldn't get it through their heads that one COULD go to the beach without actually going into the water.  Eventually, they found something else to occupy their time - rock climbing.  There were some great rock formations and Boy2 thought he could keep up with all the other kids.   Amazingly, we came through without any major injuries.

BW eventually joined a group playing volleyball and the older kids were able to join him.  Girl8 was especially impressed with her dad's volleyball skills and kept bragging in the car about how he was diving for balls.  I just kept thinking about the hike from the morning and knew that my beloved would probably be very sore the next morning.

We heard some great devotions and had some wonderful worship time around the campfire.  Boy2 fell asleep on my lap both nights.  Girl4 enjoyed roasting the marshmellows but wanted to eat hers plain.  Our seminary family has been such a blessing to us and it was so fun to spend some time with them.  I kept myself busy enough that I didn't allow myself to think of the fact that I probably won't be seeing many of them on a regular basis anymore.  I continue to operate in a "see you later" mode since we aren't quite finished with seminary yet.  It will be a great joy to find out where God has planned each to serve - we may have friends all over the world someday! 

In the end, I couldn't wait to get home to my warm bed and a long shower - comforts that you aren't truly thankful for until you've been without them.  Then we looked forward to celebrating Sunday with our new church family and starting (finally) into a "normal" routine. 

Blessings!

-J

I have lived in a rural community for 5 whole days now and I do have to admit that it is quite a change from anyplace I've lived before.  Here a couple things this city girl has noticed/done/learned:

1)  It's SOOOO Quiet!  It hit me when I was laying in bed one night that I hadn't heard a helicopter or airplane flying by since we've been here.  And when I do hear something outside - someone's brakes squeak or a car going by I've found myself actually peeking out the front window to see who it might be because it is now such a "strange" sound!  So far, it's only been the meter guy and the UPS guy delivering to a neighbor.  I can see myself becoming that nosy neighbor that stands in front of her front window keeping tabs on all that goes on - kinda scaaarrrryyy.

2)  I actually dumped my own garbage today - completely new experience for me!  I've never not had a garbage truck make a weekly stop in my entire life!  BW put the trash in my van (ewwww!) and I "got" to take it to this area with big dumpsters.  Apparently Thursday mornings are a busy time for people to do this as I wasn't the only person there!  My children were absolutely baffled by the whole thing too!  They were full of questions - Why don't they just send a garbage man to pick up our cans?  You had to TOUCH the garbage, Mom? Make sure you wash your hands!  What happens if we have so much garbage that it doesn't fit in our car?

3)  Apparently if you have a little chip in your windshield and snow/ice is on it for a length of time, the chip can turn into a crack.

4)  When you drive by someone who is walking (or are walking and someone drives by), there seems to be some kind of obligatory wave - even if you have no clue who it is!  I kinda like it:)

5) There's really no way to keep my kids from getting dirty when they play outside anymore - and I can forget about trying to keep their shoes from getting muddy.

6) You have to really need something bad to go "into town".  I'm already trying to figure out how I can consolidate a weekly shopping trip when I take the kids to Awana or maybe just relinquish all shopping to my husband after work.  What has occurred to me today is this:  It takes about 20-30 minutes to get "into town" from where I live now, but when I lived in the San Fernando Valley to get to WalMart/Target/Etc, with lights and traffic it often took about the same amount of time, but now it seems like a REALLY BIG DEAL to go "all the way to town". 

7) The customer service is sooo good!  I asked a discount store employee where the step stools were today(my cupboards are high in this house and I kinda need one in almost every room:) and he escorted me(along with my 4 kids and cart) to the 3 different areas of the store where they were.  I'm not used to getting that kind of service unless I go to Nordstroms!

So, it's very different, but I'm still really enjoying myself.  Thought I might actually finish unpacking today, but there was an incident with the washing machine that needed urgent attention.  So, maybe I'll finish tomorrow.  I need to start to transition my brain from unpacking mode to decorating mode - and finding ways to do that with the stuff I've hauled up here and already own instead of the neat things I see in the decorating magazines.  My family will be visiting for a "pre-Easter" dinner on Saturday.  We also will enjoy a visit from one of our favorite seminary families early next week and then well, it's kind of like packing all over again as we get ready to go on the Seminary camping trip late in the week.  Then it's back to the books and "real life"(whatever that is) the following week. 

Blessings!

-J

It has been a whirlwind week and I thought I'd make my way past the piles of (mostly empty) boxes to share God's goodness.

On Friday, a good friend took my big kids in the morning on a 3 Mile Walk!  This gave time for BW to pick up the truck, for me to run some errands and then start the mad rush of just trying to get everything in a box.  It's cracking me up as I am unpacking about how specific I was with the initial boxes I started to pack almost 6 weeks ago.  They all had themes and were from the same space.  By the end, there were a handful of boxes that just said Miscellaneous.  My inlaws took my little ones and tired them out at the mall and by the time all the kids were reunited again, they were sufficiently tired out and either napped or sat quietly watching a movie.  A dear seminary couple expecting their first child came for our crib - 1st time our house has been without a crib in 8 years!  BW took apart the bunk beds and friends came throughout the day to help load the truck.

Boy2 just loved going in and out of the truck:

We had sent word out at our church and through the seminary's e-mail that we were packing up the truck Friday night.  I ran out to pick up some pizzas and by the time I got back, our house was swarming with activity and almost all the major furniture was already out of the house.  In fact, they were being so efficient that things started getting put in the truck that weren't really supposed to such as our sleeping bags that we would sleep on that night and my clothes for the next morning!  What a blessing to receive such an outpouring of love and service.  Amazing to think that less than 3 years ago we had moved down for seminary really not knowing anyone and God has blessed us in a mighty way.  It almost brought me to tears.

I slept horribly that night.  Between thinking of how much I would miss everyone to what I hadn't done to the fact that I may have to meet my new church family in the same clothes I worked in all day I don't know that I really slept much at all. 

The next morning at 7am, there was a knock at the door.  It was my dad & brother.  My dad has moved me every move in my entire life and was a man on a mission as after he moved us, he would drive to Northern California to move my sister.  Two men from our new church made the drive down to help us and brought a pick up to be loaded.  I emptied the refrigerator(throwing a lot out) and then packed up the car to visit a friend so the kids wouldn't be underfoot.  She greeted me with a Coke - just what I needed and such a treat:) and gave me some down time to visit and relax.  The plan was for us to visit a bit and then BW would call me when they were getting on the road, giving me a head start on the 2 hour drive.  The kids and I hadn't yet seen the house so I had planned to get there early so I could try to figure out where I wanted things before people started coming over to help unload. 

Unfortunately, my cell phone wasn't getting a signal at the place I happened to be sitting and by the time BW got hold of me, he was halfway there.  I loaded up the kids, went through the McDonald's drive thru and we were on our way.  When I arrived, I could tell which house was ours because there lots of cars and so many people unloading in and around the truck that they looked like little busy ants.  My first order of business - to find the bin with our winter clothes in it because it was cold! 

Then I blinked and the truck was unloaded.  Our Senior Pastor said a prayer and a few people stayed behind to help assemble the bunk beds while BW took the truck back.  God held back the snow just until BW got back.  Then the kids were begging to go outside.  I pulled out their snow boots and big jackets and they were out eating snow: 

What an awesome present from God welcoming us.  The kids, who have never been in snow much, were so excited that we had moved here!  Within a couple hours, this was the view from our front window

and out our back door:

I just couldn't believe that we had only driven 2 hours from LA - we had been in shorts earlier in the week!  We were brought dinner that night - Snowy Day Soup of all things!  Brent's mom was great about lining my shelves and unpacking my kitchen(though I have moved a few things, Barb:).  I was able to find everything we would need for church the next morning.  I was exhausted and had a great night's sleep, except for the fact that our older kitty, Tyus, whined much of the night.

The next morning, BW had his first experience with shoveling snow.  He scraped off our windshield with a plastic spatula while I tried to find a jacket/gloves/scarf for my mother in law(they had been on a cruise in Mexico earlier in the week and hadn't planned for snow either).  The kids would have been content to skip church and go play in the snow, but came along dutifully. 

As we drove to church, I just kept thinking "I can't believe I get to live here!"  Once inside, I had this amazing sense of peace and feeling of being home.  Although I knew pretty much no one sitting around me, I knew that this was home and just where God had planned for us to serve all along.  And I thought of the prayers I had occasionally lifted up to God for the church we would one day serve in full time and realized that these were those people and I was home.  BW was given a few minutes to explain his philosophy of Children's Ministry.  I loved the sermon as our Senior Pastor quoted some of my favorite authors - MacArthur, Puritan John Owen, John Piper and felt convicted and encouraged.

There was to be a potluck for us, but we wanted to take BW's parents back to the house quickly to pack up their stuff so they could leave from the party.  The round trip was a perfect "power nap" for our little ones(and a time of stress for Boy7 as he noticed the snow had melted significantly since morning).  When we arrived back, we found that everyone was waiting for us and as we opened the door, it felt like I was walking into my Wedding Reception with all the faces smiling at our family and singing Happy Birthday to BW.  Before we arrived someone noticed that the tables were all full and there was no place for us to sit.  They set out another table, but the only place left was on the stage/platform.  So we took our places on the stage which was a little bit like feeling like we were behind glass at the zoo as the buffet line passed by our table.  Fortunately, with the power nap and a wide variety of food, I was pleasantly surprised at how well my children behaved. 

After the food and yummy dessert(including a triple layer birthday cake for BW), we got to meet many wonderful people and said goodbye to my inlaws who I think may have had even more fun than we did meeting everyone.

Now, don't laugh, but I'm in love.  I'm actually giddy.  I have that same feeling I had when I first met BW.  I'm in love with this town and this church and I love the house BW picked for us and I love the great God who has orchestrated this whole plan out for us.  I guess this is the "honeymoon" phase that I have heard about during seminary wives-- I just didn't know that it would really feel like a honeymoon.  Oh, I know that it won't always feel like this and some days may feel like the opposite - which is why we can't trust our feelings and need to trust in the One Person that will never change.  But I almost feel embarrassed by how wonderful it all is and how much I've been blessed.  It certainly isn't because I have done anything to deserve it.  I am humbled and am in awe of God who was gracious to not give me what my sin deserves and instead given me the exact opposite, an abundant life.  "He does great things that we cannot comprehend." Job 37:5b I also thank God for all of our wonderful friends and family who have been praying for us.

All right, back to my boxes.  I promised the kids that I would open some toys today.

Blessings!

-J

I thought I would take a few minutes to rest from packing.  As my dear friend Robin says, we are moving as fast as a herd of turtles. 

We are officially taking a "break from school" effective today.  I praise God that He gave me the itch to start our school year back in July. We have already had 125+ school days so I don't have to fret about taking time off.  I am looking forward to starting Konos back up in a few weeks as we do a 3 week study of the character trait of Honor with a sub-unit on Japan.  It will also be a good chance to experiment with a different county's library system.

Conversation overheard on Saturday morning:

Girl4:  Where are we going today?(trying to decide what she should wear)

Girl8:  We have another "Go Away" party to go to.

I had to go into another to laugh myself silly picturing a group of people throwing us a party to tell us to "go away". 

We were indeed blessed as we said goodbye Saturday to the Bible Study BW has led for the last 15 months and then at church yesterday.  We are so grateful for all of the prayers being lifted up on our behalf and are so encouraged with the kind words, gifts and love expressed to us. 

BW took a van load up to the new house and is completing some small errands(putting some shelving in the garage) today.  Tomorrow afternoon will be my last big shopping trip as I attempt to spend some gift cards in stores that we won't have in our new area and BW is watching the kids so I will have an afternoon all to myself:)  Will be a nice break from hanging around cardboard all day:)

Blessings!

-J 

I'm starting to hit that point where I have packed just about everything that I can't forsee us using in the next 10 days.  Which just means that I will still have a lot of packing to do next week!  We must also get through some goodbyes, to our Bible study groups and to our church.  I am so thankful that we will only be about 2 hours away.  It makes leaving so much easier to think that it is more "see you later" than the finality of goodbye.

BW's seminary was really smart this year.  They placed the Annual Seminary Banquet the week before the Shepherd's Conference(annual pastor's conference) so that the Shepherd's Conference "widows" couldn't complain too much since we just had a fabulous date night with our husbands.  The Seminary Banquet has been one of the highlights on the seminary calendar each year because you get to get dressed up, have one of the most delicious dinners ever and great fellowship with other seminary couples and, frankly, no children are invited:)  So I get to actually TALK to other adults and I don't have to cut up anyone else's meat (what joy!) and don't have to worry about where our kids may have run off to.  This year we were additionally blessed with our speaker, Dr. Will Varner from the Master's College, who helped to remind us who it was who called our husbands to ministry and that once one has heard "the call of the lion" (Amos 3), what else can one do but preach God's Word.  It helped to give me further understanding that the call on my husband's life (and therefore the call on my life) is not merely a career choice but a call from God.

By the way, this year's Shepherd's Conference can be heard/viewed via Live Streaming Audio so I started our morning after our Bible time with my 4 kids huddled around our computer screen to try to see BW as the seminary men sang the opening hymns to start off the conference.  Our computer was quite fuzzy so our kids were arguing over which man in the blue suit was Daddy(all the seminary men were in blue suits).  Then, when John MacArthur came up to start the opening sermon, they were very disappointed because they wanted to see their Daddy preach instead!  I've been trying to listen in between doing school and packing today.  What a blessing that I will actually have some background when BW comes home all excited around 10:00 tonight. 

Blessings!

-J

This very scary news story was brought to my attention.  A judge in my own county of Los Angeles has ordered some homeschooling parents to put their kids in public school.  The entire court brief can be found here.  This family was enrolled in an Independent Study Program(umbrella school) just like my own children are.  We had been told that being part of an ISP was one of the safest ways in which to homeschool under the law. 

What is really scary is that the court has ruled that  "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting."

"Nor did the family's religious beliefs matter to the court.  Their "sincerely held religious beliefs" are "not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California's compulsory public school education law to them violates their First Amendment rights." "Such sparse representations are too easily asserted by any parent who wishes to homeschool his or her child," the court concluded."

The family is appealing the ruling, but it is definitely an instance where the courts are trumping the laws that are in place (In California, there are no actual homeschooling laws.  Homeschoolers can either join an ISP or file their own Private School Affidavit with the state) determining that the state knows better how to raise our children than parents do.  Please join me in praying for the homeschooling children in the state of California. 

-J

For most of us sharing and giving does not come easily.  In fact, the Bible has a good explanation for this truth!  But my Boy7 has always really struggled with sharing, holding onto his toys a little too tight.  He's the kid who the day after his birthday was planning what his next birthday party theme was going to be and what kind of toys he was going to get.  He will spend hours pouring through a toy catalog that comes in the mail and want to go through it with me listing all the things he wants to get.  As we have been going through Proverbs in recent weeks during our morning devotions, we've been touching on a lot of Proverbs that discuss the importance and benefits of giving. 

As I've talked about below, we are moving again (we are down to 15 days! Yikes!  I need to get busy!).  And, as always during a move, I try to "consolidate", particularly in the area of clothes and toys.  In the past, I would bag up some toys in a bag they couldn't see through when Goodwill would come out to pick them up(because I had one experience where they saw the man taking their "prized possessions" through the front window and, oh, the tears that were shed! and another where they saw the bag ahead of time and by the time they were done going through it the bag was empty). 

Well, yesterday I was going through toy bins and trying to make it so that they were not overflowing, but that the tops could actually be put on!  Anything that was making it overflow was going to be given the next time the charity truck comes or given away on Freecycle.  Well, I was particularly working yesterday on our Rescue Hero bin because an e-mail on Freecycle had come through asking specifically for Rescue Hero toys or videos for a 7yo boy. 

BW had taken the kids out yesterday and I wasn't quite finished when they came back.  "What are you doing, Mom?" asking innocently but accusing at the same time.  I'd been caught!  I explained that we had lots of Rescue Hero toys and that there was a little boy who really liked Rescue Heroes but didn't have very many.  They looked through my bag and did pull one or two out but for the most part realized that we did have many duplicates.  I was expecting a showdown with Boy7 and had my list of reasons why He was being selfish and trying to wrack my brain to remember the Bible references in the book of Proverbs, but he said nothing!

I mentioned to BW during dinner that I had consolidated both the Rescue Hero and Thomas bins down to one bin each, feeling quite proud of myself.  He asked if we were getting rid of the Command Center too.  My instinct was "of course not", but as I started thinking about it, it is this HUGE toy that often has been put in the garage because it takes up sooo much room(sorry Aunt Kelly).  And the house we are going to has less living room area than we currently have. 

It took a little convincing and you could see the war going on in his little heart.  But finally, he said, I guess I could draw a command center out of paper and tape it up in my new room!  Girl8 thought that was a great idea and offered to help in this new project.  So, he said that he'd like the boy to have it.  We put it out before he had a chance to change his mind.

Later that night, he was just beaming!  He just kept talking about how excited he thought the boy was going to be with his toys and Command Center.  We received an e-mail from the mom of the boy this morning and I read it to him.  She said her little guy was more excited than he had been on Christmas morning and included a thank you typed in by her son.  Boy7 keeps talking about how good it feels to make someone else happy. 

I am putting this story, not because I am trying to say that my kids are perfect --- so far from it --- but because for this particular boy he got a glimpse, for what may have been the first time, that doing things God's way doesn't always feel good at first, but in the end gives us great joy and peace.  Also, there are so many times when my thoughts send me down the road of all the ways my kids aren't where I would like them to be that I am trying to be more intentional about recognizing the progress they are making and to remind myself that there is a process to their maturing.  The process can be painfully slow from a mother's view, but when that "light bulb" goes on it is truly God's gift.  I praise God for working on my little guy's heart through His Word and that we parents are not in this all alone, but have the Creator of the universe to help us in this journey of parenting.  Now, if He could only help me teach Boy7 how to tie his shoes!

Blessings!

-J

My seminary wives leader shared this with us earlier this year.  Two weeks ago, I put it on my refrigerator so I could be reminded of it.  Last week it got moved to the window in front of the sink so I could read it while washing dishes because I realized I don't really just stand in front of my refrigerator often enough to read it.  I wish I knew who "Ella" was to give her credit for this, but since I don't I'll just say that I look forward to meeting her in heaven because she seems to be a very wise woman who I would like to get to know better.

Ella's Prescription for Contentment

Never allow yourself to complain about anything - not even the weather.

Philippians 2:14-15 - "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe...

Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Never compare your lot with another's.

Psalm 16:5 - "LORD you have assigned me my portion and my cup."

Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

Psalm 16:8 - "I have set the LORD always before me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

Never dwell on tomorrow - remember that (tomorrow) is God's, not ours.

Matthew 6:34 - "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own. (see the whole passage 6:25-34)

I haven't posted in a while because details about the following statement have made for quite the roller coaster ride over the last several months, but it is official:  WE ARE MOVING...AGAIN!  God has once again done something "far above all we could ask or think." 

BW was scheduled to finish seminary this May IF he took a monster load of classes so intense that when he met with the dean of the seminary he questioned who had approved it.  Last semester was very hard on our family and with added duties of ministering at church, leading a Bible study, etc it was a semester where we survived by God's grace, but we really weren't looking forward to doing it again.   Furthermore, the money in our savings has continued to dwindle and we were pretty sure that our funds were not even going to make it until May. 

Other men who were planning to finish seminary in May had begun posting resumes and putting "feelers" out and so BW did the same.  God was so good to close many doors and leave just one open.  Our heart's desire has been to live in a more rural area, a city with a slower pace that had more of a community feel than the greater Los Angeles area.  Even before we had decided to come to seminary we had been looking at properties with acreage, but it never materialized.  Over the course of seminary we had talked about what our wish list might be, while still being open to the fact that God could send us anywhere we wanted.

Well, next month we will be moving to just such a city about 2 hours north of Los Angeles.  BW will be the Pastor of Children's Ministries at a church of about 600 people.  The city is as close as we could ever hope to get in between the two sets of grandparents.  It is a smaller town, but has the basic things we would need to live - a couple stores, a McDonald's and a public library:) 

But BW isn't finished with seminary.  Well, since it's only 2 hours away he has dropped his class load the church has agreed that he will commute in 1-2  days per week until he is done!  And we will not have to go in debt to do it.  Additionally, after 3 moves in 3 years, we will be in a community where we feel very comfortable raising our kids. 

We are planning to rent for the first year to try to determine what neighborhood we'd like to live in as we get to know the community and see what housing prices do.  What's amazing is that if housing prices continue to drop, we may end up owning a house of similar size as we did when we left seminary!  Only God could have come up with a way to make that happen!  Here are some pictures of the house we will be renting:

Back Yard - Yes that is snow!  This So. Cal girl is going to have to learn how to drive in the snow and we are hitting clearance sales now looking for snow items for next winter!  We went up a couple weeks ago for a "snow day" with the kids and they are so excited!

What's not pictured is that we won't have 4 kids sharing one bedroom anymore - we will have a "girls" room and a "boys" room.  The community also has a 9 hole golf course(and boy7 just got a small set of golf clubs for his b-day - he's so excited to learn to play with his Dad!), a swimming pool, equestrian center and parks to play in and make friends!

Like I said, it's so much more than we had asked for and I feel so undeserving of it all.  I pray now that God is preparing our hearts to minister and serve the people, and children, He has entrusted to our family and that He will be glorified. 

I have to admit that it's also bittersweet as we will be (kind of) saying goodbye to many of our seminary friends and the church we've been serving for the past year a little earlier than planned (and won't be able to carry out the plans I had been making for his graduation party just yet!).  But even in that God is gracious as I have been able to attend most of my seminary wives' groups this semester; we will be able to attend the Seminary Banquet and camping trip that we had planned.  There have been moments in the past few weeks when I am just so in awe of His goodness!  Especially because I can be so ungrateful and so bitter and throw temper tantrums when things aren't going just the way I planned and, yet, He remains good all the time and in every way.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.  The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing." Ps 35:8-10

All right, off to packing!

-J

Here is a link to a free unit study on Charlotte's Web offered this week at the homeschoolestore.  It looks really great if you are in the doldrums of the school year and want to change things up a bit...

Blessings!

-J