Seems I have a knack for letting time slip away from me before I post again.  It isn't that there is no news or that little wonderful moments to share don't happen or even that the Lord shows or teaches me something that I want to share.  I guess life gets busy.  The typical deployment "monkey wrenches" have been thrown out there, too.  Most are mundane dealings with the house but one has been most exciting.  Seems someone (or some bodies), put a BB shot (per our kind deputy), through the back window of DH's vehicle shattering it.  Add in a few lovely shots into the body of the vehicle requiring some more body work and you have a wonderful learning experience for DS on how our sin choices always affect others. 

We have passed the two month mark of DH being gone.  Time is honestly flying this deployment.  I know the holidays helped and now we are back in the saddle again with school and a revised schedule at that.  Our new schedule has also brought some additions to our school day and the days seem to pass right before my eyes.  I love what we are doing and DS does, as well.  I have been seeking God's ideas to help our school flow through our lives as I believe living is learning (and really, vice versa).  I turned to some books of Ruth Beechick's (this site is a personal favorite of mine), I have had for a time now and have instituted some of her ideas for DS.  I honestly like her idea of a more gentle way of learning.  She just plain makes sense.  And her ideas speak to DS's heart.  A nice side effect of our new additions to school is that DS and I spend more time together interacting and I have enjoyed watching his journey of late.

I have also been reading Teri Maxwell's, Homeschooling With a Meek and Quiet Spirit.  I wish I had read her book before now.  Not just that it is written for a homeschooling Mom's heart but that, as a Christian woman, the words are needful in that area of my life.  Not that the two are really different women but that I know the Lord has been desiring to work on me in some of these areas and I have been resistant on some level.  Truly there is nothing like a deployment to bring you to your knees and lift your face to Him. 

The Lord has been talking to my heart on many issues lately.  I have been pricked by recognizing that I should love my DS (and DH), with a brotherly and selfless love and seek to"be holy as He is holy."  We are always kinder to those who aren't in our family doesn't it seem?  I should strive in my daily life to love the Lord with my whole heart and allow Him to fill me with the grace I need to move through each day's journey.  From that grace I can be more loving, tender, quiet, and wise.  I see that need for my heart to be tender to the men in my life.  The Lord has allowed me to see the downcast look in DS's eyes when he comes to share something with me and I am on the computer.  Confession.  I had been using the computer lately to escape honestly.  I used all so many noble reasons for doing so like researching lapbooking and such.  But honestly I was convicted that my son needed me right now.  I don't want anything to stand in the way of building that relationship with him.  He will be 8 years old soon.  In 10 more years, he will possibly be moving on out into the world.  I can't imagine, and really don't want to, how it would feel to look back on this season of life and wish I had grabbed more moments with him.  Is it easy?  Nope.  It is a conscious choice of my will to sign off and push away from the computer desk.

Yet in those moments when my heart awoke to my sin (yes it is all sin), the Lord reminded me that  "I will restore to you the years that  the swarming locust has eaten." (Joel 2:25)  He can and will renew my relationships.  But what I have been struck with and digging into is that really, if you look at it, all sin stems from pride and selfishness.  Really selfishness is pride.  Wow look at those "I's" in there.  "I" want/"need" some Mommy time to work on the computer.  Why don't you get finished so "I" can go do....Well, whatever.  Honey, "I" am too tired to read tonight.  "I" "I" "I."  My pride and selfishness spilled over into every area of my life.  Homeschooling by its very nature goes directly against pride and selfishness.  It is a conscious act of my will to choose to do what I know God has called me to.  He always equips when He calls but we can also expect that most times it won't be easy and it generally will push us to our perceived limits.  However, in that growth and maturity, a new creation blossoms.  That act of will is simply obedience to His call.  Even obedience to open His Word and ask Him to show you what He wants to work on.  Like I said, nothing like a deployment to put you on your knees eyes lifted heavenward. 

Let me share some of our recent moments with you.  Enjoy.

Forever a military kid.  Even his toys do the Pledge of Allegiance.  I love the elaborate setup.  The fan blowing the flag, the light on the flag, shone through blue colored glass for added effect.

This one is terribly funny.  DS as a butterfly.  I am jealous of his tongue-curling talent.  The discussion that led to the idea of acting out being a butterfly was quite interesting, too.  And, yes, we called the cup the flower, the hot chocolate the nectar, etc.

Our first nature journaling in some time.  This is a holly bush outside our house.  DS sat inside the glass door on a rainy day and drew some up close views and then "faded away."  Though difficult to pick up on in a picture is that he used a lighter color of green for the newer leaves.

Hot air balloons that flew over our house last weekend.

Sharing because he is just so darn cute!  Dusty, needless to say, lives in the lap of luxury.  He could care less about learning about meerkats like Sadie  or really anything else except when the next meal is.

This is Sadie's bed.  Bed made for a small 8 lb. cat with a l-a-a-r-r-g-e 25 lb. cat in it.  Basically the fat and extra fur are in the bed and his body is just laying along the top of the bed.  He should have stuck with the recliner.  Oh yes, you read correctly.  25 lbs.  We call him Arnold Schwarzen-kitty.