"Drop seeds everywhere; you never know which ones will sprout up."

Wow!  It is hard to believe sometimes...13 years!  And to see where we've been and where we are and to look ahead to the next 13...amazing.  I so do not deserve the husband God has given me.  He is so wonderful and good to me.  I have my moments of frustration with him (and he with me!) but I hate it when we are at odds with each other.  I love him so much that I want everything to go just perfect between two imperfect people...go figure!  I am so blessed to be married to him.

I am slightly excited...and mostly just nauseated so far.... about the fact that we are almost positive that we are to have another little one added to our family!  I will get excited....eventually.  Our 5 will soon be 6!  I hope for Stan's sake that it is a boy, and if God keeps doing it like He always has (not that He has to) then it is the boys' turn this time.  I will do a pregnancy test tomorrow morning just to confirm, but I am quite sure that this is the only reason I have felt sick since the moment of conception!!   I am not sure that I want to tell everyone this time.  Maybe I'll just let them figure it out when we announce the arrival at church.  I really don't want to hear "ANOTHER ONE?!?!" from anyone.  Mrs. Bosje would probably know the feeling, with the "time out" sign they got on the platform.  She just smiled and looked so sweet.  I'm not sure I would have been looking so sweet.  I am still perusing the idea of just disappearing for a few months.   God, please fill in the gaps for me and for my children.  I am not being what I should be for them...they are being left to themselves way too much.  Speaking of that, I need to go put them in bed....more later!!!

What a helpful and practical class today!  Teaching Special Needs Students with Miss Siebenhaar is my absolute favorite class this semester.  Today she taught on dyscalcula and gave some very practical ideas for helping Zech with his math facts.  First, though, some of the ideas she gave in the class included:

The first one was a simple visual to teach precursor to fractions: fold a piece of paper in half to make a square.  Color one side, then open...1/2.  Fold in half again, now 4 sections, 2 still colored...2/4 etc.

1. Use games in creative ways

       - dominoes: have the students a/s/m/d the two numbers

       - bingo: fill in card with multiples of 9 (for ex); use food as bingo chips

       - matching games with associative properties  (ie 2 dimes, 3 nickels, and 4 pennies = 39 cents; put each half on a card, with "questions" on one side and "answers" on the other, match them up)

      - One that I just thought of would be to use different coins to come up with the same amount;

      - Jeopardy - use different categories of arithmatic (ie rounding up, a/s/m/d with creative names,

      - a trip wherever (even around the room) to find shapes

      - Her favorite memory of math class was the teacher taking them to the small cemetery next to her school and giving subtraction story problems with the names and dates on the grave markers!

      2. Use food!

          cheese crackers - area/volume

          pretzels - shapes

          graham crackers - fractions to 1/4

          oyster crackers - they are hexagons

          twizzlers - I didn't hear what she said for those, but I will ask her tomorrow

Another idea she gave for Zech and Liz specifically re: math facts: Use a yardstick and starting with +1, point at each number and have them give the answer.  Do it in order as well as mixed up. Then make a chart with 1's thru 12's across the top, and when they can "pass" each one in 20 seconds (work down to it) they get a sticker under that one.  When they have passed all 12, they would receive a prize;  I'll have to ask around about what the prizes are that they use in a classroom setting.  For mine, it could be something like going to Dollar Tree/WalMart and choosing $12 dollars worth of "stuff". 

Those are the practical answers that I need to learn to help him and others like him that struggle with drills...they need to SEE something like that.  Stan also mentioned about putting up those sort of things in their desk cubbies, the stuff they are working on, so that they can see it all the time and have it available.  I need to get some corkboard to put up in there and some wood cut to make the dividers for them. 

I will keep adding ideas to this post as I hear them or think of them or find them.

The BIGGEST thing of the day was Zech's story!!!  HE WROTE A STORY!!!   This is so awesome!  I gave them each some words with which to write sentences, and LIzzy wrote hers quite creatively and with very pretty handwriting.  Hers is getting better and better all the time!  But when I gave Zech his words, he said that all he could think of was "stupid" stuff.  His first word was "rabbit", and he came up with "The rabbit hopped across the yard."  I said, "Yes!  Like that!  The rabbit hopped.  That is not stupid, that is what I want."  So he wrote.  And wrote....and kept on writing!  His last word was "eagle".He wrote a whole page worth of story about an eagle.  I told him that I wasn't worried about spelling or anything but that he could ask me if he wanted to know how to spell something and I would tell him.  So....he wrote!  I think I will frame this one!  I plan to take it in to Miss Siebenhaar's class tomorrow and show it as my "blessing of the day".  At the start of every class period, she gives opportunity for us to tell of something good that God has done for us since the last class.  Her life's verse is "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah."  Psalm 68:19  Zech's writing like this is a major breakthrough...a "loaded" blessing!! 

Thank you, Lord, for what You have shown us today. 

I have learned (finally) that, as good as copywork is (and we will continue to do it to learn proper cursive writing) Zech with his right-brained self(!)  much prefers to CREATE something than to COPY it!  He didn't mind writing a bit when there were no restrictions and he could make it up himself!  So here goes!  A new breakthrough method!  What is interesting is that just today Miss Siebenhaar told us that she is 80% right-brained...I wonder how much of that she has studied and how she found that out about herself (and when) and some other ideas of how her mind works.  An incredibly smart lady!  I hope to be able to take one more education class with her next semester. 

"...praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"

"Drop seeds everywhere; you never know which ones will sprout up."

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I am still trying to figure out all this "blog" stuff, but until I do, I will keep these here.

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"If mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their children when these are overdone, we should have happier households. Let the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a day, out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, without the children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents”  ~Charlotte Mason           (Vol. 3, p. 34).

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" Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts, bright fancies, faithful sayings: treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb nor poverty take away from you, houses built without hands for your souls to live in." ~John Ruskin

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"A mother must cultivate her soul so that in turn she can cultivate the souls of her children."                 ~Billy Graham

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I'd Rather

 I'd rather be a mommy

than anyone on earth,

Raising up a child or more

of unpretentious birth.

I'd rather be in the kitchen

with my children all around--

than sit at a desk the day long

without one childish sound.

I'd rather have a home

with dirty walls, broken china and piles galore--

than I would a show house

and an empty heart which reveals that indeed I'm  very poor.

I'd rather teach my children

of all God's wonderful works--

than teach a class of strangers

of man's many strange quirks.

I'd rather wash a smudgy face

with round, bright baby eyes--

than paint the pageantry of fame

or walk among the wise.

I'd rather raise up warriors

and maidens for God's Kingdom--

than build up fame, and much claim

in the world's wide regions.

I'd rather wait awhile

and receive the Lord's "Well done",

I'd rather give my life for Him

and be His and His alone.

I found this poem on another blog and loved it!!

How good to be reminded of my purpose and priorities in life!

I am so excited about this idea of keeping something of a record of our lives as well as all my Bible studies, ideas, thoughts, quotes, readings, songs, inspirations,  motivations, exclamations (!) and anything else I find to enjoy, all in one place and organized so that I can find them again!  This is going to be a very practical and extremely "delightful thoughtful spot" for me, and anyone else that would like to read along as I go is very welcome!  I am very much looking forward to meeting some of you wonderful folks whose blogs I have been reading for quite some time...ya'll all are the very reason I have been inspired to start one myself!  Thank you!

Just a bit of an introduction to us...

I am extremely thrilled and delighted to be one of God's children, and I tell Him often that I will do absloutely anything for Him.  Jesus is my Best Friend, and I love to talk to Him;  He never tunes me out or seems preoccupied when I talk to Him.  He is always listening, He LIKES to listen to me talk, and He is truly "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."   He is AWESOME, and I love Him with all my heart.    I am working on learning to love Him with all of my "soul, mind, and strength" as well!  It is my heart's desire to glorify Him with my life...and I love the way a friend of ours puts it, "Glorifying God is simply making God look good!"

I am wife to and very much in love with my amazing and incredibly handsome sweetie, Stan...a fact that reminds me daily how very much God loves me, to give me such a wonderful man.  I don't deserve him, but he loves me and takes care of me...puts up with me, too!   AND he helps me with the laundry!! What more could a woman want!

I am mother to my five "Rewards"~ Elisabeth Grace (11),  Zechariah David (9), Bethany Joy(7), Josiah Daniel (5), and ChloeAnna Faith (2).  Yes, I know...."I have my hands full!"  Don't you just love hearing that?  Like I need to be reminded!  Like...who wants to go through this life with empty ones?  I happen to LIKE having my hands full!     Yes, I get tired (especially when I stay up until 2:30am...AHEM!!) and I get frustrated and aggravated with mine sometimes, about like everyone does at some point (especially when they are downstairs making a mess while I am upstairs cleaning one up!) but I thoroughly enjoy the privilege of training and educating God's own young'uns whom He has entrusted to us.  It is our hope and plan to be able to do so until they are grown and glorifying Him.

I love to read good books, (especially God's Book), home magazines, children's books, and anything else through which I can grow and learn and help my children to do the same.  I am always on the lookout for new book titles to check out and have gotten some great ones from ya'll!   I love music that glorifies God~the kind that makes Him look good~both playing it on the piano and listening to it.   And although I have had very little success, I love gardening and the whole process from planting to enjoying the harvest...here's hoping I can learn more about that from some of you folks!    I also enjoy sewing simple clothes for myself and my girls and am working on getting better at it.  I have "tons" of thing I want to learn and do, not the least of which is learning this whole "blogging" thing!  "So much to do, so little time"...only one lifetime!  Priorities....priorities!  I have to keep telling myself that!

The biggest "going on" in our lives at this point is our family's preparation to go with a Mission Team to the country of India,  and we very excited about the future!  We are slowly learning the Telugu language, the primary language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.  The target date to leave is March 2009...only one more year!!

Our family attends the most incredible church in the world, and my husband and I are both serving in the 4th Grade Sunday School Department as well as in other ministries in the church.  We so enjoy being a part of such a great ministry that is reaching people with the Gospel and giving them a place where they can meet and get to know God.  Our pastor is a phenomenal preacher who is very good at not only reminding us to continually invite God into our everyday lives  (which invitation He loves to receive and accept) but also teaching us to get in on God's Life!  "I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly."  God loves to come to where we are, but even though we will never get all the way there, we ought to strive every day to get up closer to where He lives.  It's a whole lot better up there where He's at!!  And can't you just hardly wait til we get all the way there!

I am mostly just an ordinary kind of lady with my ordinary, day-to-day life with a hardworking husband and five children, my ordinary laundry to do, a few ordinary messes to clean up per day, several ordinary crises to handle per day, and an incredibly EXTRAORDINARY God Who gives me "grace to help in time of need" and is the One I desire to know more than anything in the whole world!