Oh my goodness, my youngest child turned 12 years old today.  I’m not ready for this.

We often joke by saying that if our youngest DD would have been the first, she would be an only child She is definitely full of life.  The things she comes up with will amaze you and keep you in stitches at the same time.  She got the creative bug more so than anybody else around. 

She is, on the other hand, very loving and compassionate.  She may be 12 and as big as me, but she still likes to come and sit in my lap and just love on me.  Really, all my girls are like that.  I don’t know what I would do without all their “lovings”.

We had a party last night for her.  We had a house full of kids and adults and played some really, really funny games.  We tend to have a reputation to live up to when it comes to party games.  They aren’t usually boring, let’s just put it that way

My DD and I will spend the day today shopping together and “doing” lunch.  I always look forward to this day.  I really enjoy just having one day with each of my girls doing whatever they want to do and just listening to them talk about the things that are going on and letting them decide what they feel is important conversation.

She is a delight and I feel proud to be her Mother.

Happy 12th Mal!

I have a confession to make.  I think I love Jesus more than God.  I know that sounds weird, doesn’t it?!?  Maybe not.  I have noticed that when I hear songs about Jesus, especially songs that mention His name, or read about His walk here on earth, I feel a bit of a prick in my heart.  That doesn’t necessarily happen when the word is “God”.  I know what you are thinking, “They are the same person, 3-in-1.”  I know that, but my feeble brain can’t really comprehend the whole Trinity, I can’t really understand how that all works.

I can, on the other hand, understand that there was a man that loved me so much that He willingly left His glorious home and came to walk on this rotten earth only to die a horrific, painful death.  And He chose it, He did it all for love.  That I can wrap my head around.

I know, God set the whole thing in motion, and again, they are 3-in-1, but when I think of GOD, I think of this magnificent being that is so powerful that He merely spoke the universe into existence.  A God that is all-knowing, all-seeing and ever-present;  all those “omni” words that I can’t even figure out how to spell.  All of that is a little hard for me to get a grip on.  I can in no way relate to that.

Don’t you think that it is so precious that God, in His all-knowing way, knew that we as feeble mortals would have a hard time relating to Him, God, creator of the universe.  He knew we would need something simple, something down on our level, something that we could relate too, someone that we would know felt our sorrows, our pains.  Now, before you misunderstand me, I know that Jesus’ purpose was to die a sinless death for our salvation.  I know that.  I am in  NO WAY diminishing that.  I am just looking at the other purposes that He served by becoming human, becoming “like us”.

I am so glad that God knew we would need to see an example, He knew that we would need a tangible figure to look to.  He knew that we are so weak and frail that we would need to see a Man physically enduring our same sorrows and pains in order to be able to turn our life over to Him.  I love this song that speaks about how Jesus has been through the same trials that we have to endure, that He understands our sorrows.

I guess when I think about it, They are “all three” pretty awesome!

 

The other Sunday at church, we sang this song about being the difference in the world.  The next day, I was having a devotion time with my girls and I asked them what they thought it meant by being different.  How can we be different than the “world”?  I was expecting the usual, by not drinking or smoking or taking drugs, not using bad language, etc.  But the answers I got surprised me.  They said, showing love to people, not judging, being honest when we deal with others, by being willing to give what we have to those in need, by spending time together as a family and keeping our bonds strong.  I have to say that I felt a little bit of pride creep in at that moment.  It made me feel so good that they went the way of the positives and not the way of the negatives. 

I think sometimes we focus on what Christians are NOT supposed to do and not on what we ARE supposed to be all about.  If we teach them how to have the attributes of Jesus and how to let Him lead us, then I think all the negative things, the “NOTS”, will take care of themselves. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

My daughter got this in an email and I thought it was cute.

Ever Wonder Why?

Banks leave both doors open, but then they chain the pens to the counter.

We leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway, and put our useless junk in the garage.

The sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin.

Women can’t put on mascara with their mouths closed.

Doctors call what they do “practice”.

The man who invests all your money is called a “broker”.

The time of the day with the slowest traffic is called “rush hour”.

They sterilize the needle for lethal injections.

They don’t make the whole plane out of the same stuff that the indestructible black box is made out of.

Sheep don’t shrink when it rains.

They are called apartments when they are all stuck together.

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal.

In a perfect world, I would have written some long eulogy yesterday all about how mother’s change the world.  You know the whole “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”, kind of thing.  But, these past few days have been so crammed with activities that I have not had time for anything, so I guess my great words of wisdom will just have to wait til another time.

Good Morning fellow-bloggers!

I haven’t had a lot of time for blogging this week.  Isn’t that kinda weird, I write something about packing too much into your life, and then mine suddenly becomes “stuffed”. Oh well, “Hakuna Matata”.  I might would have used selavie there, but I have no idea how to spell it, obviously.

It seems that just when I really wanted some down time to just sit and really ponder all my purchases from the convention this past weekend, other obligations just took over.  All those new books are just sitting there on the shelf calling my name, urging me to just stop what I’m doing and spend some time with them.  But that will have to wait.

We have planned a yard sale for this weekend with a few other families and we have been super busy trying to get all of our junk priceless treasures ready to be sold.  It is amazing to me how we can accumulate so much stuff in just a short period of time.  I know, that is a huge lead into a great analogy about how we allow our lives to accumulate stuff that just needs to be weeded out, so we can be all that we need to be, but to be honest, I just don’t have the energy right now to pursue it.  Aren’t you glad! We now have a garage full unwanted toys, shoes, clothes, tools, etc. just waiting for someone to come along and realize that they can’t live without it.  We have decided that whatever doesn’t sell, it does not come back into the house or storage building.  It will get donated somewhere.  I guess that is the beauty of yard sales, that you do get to empty your house and storage of things that you don’t use or need and then there will only be the really necessary things left inside. 

Along with planning for the yard sale, my daughter’s birthday party is next week, so we have been trying to get the decorations and eveything ready for that.  FYI, we ended up not having to order from Oriental Trading at all, we were able to find most everything at the dollar store, which saved quite a bit of $.

Also, we are leaving for the beach next weekend and we are trying to figure out how we are possibly going to fit everything in my car.(Remember, this will be the first time for us without our camper)  The 80 lb. Golden Retriever pretty much takes up the entire back part of my car, so where is everything else supposed to go?!?  I actually drive a Durango, not a car.  I didn’t want you to think that by “back” I meant “trunk”. We love our mutt precious pet.

Oh, and of course, school is still pushed somewhere in the middle of all the madness.  We only have a little bit left and we are trying to get most of it done before leaving on vacation.  It is a nice plan, but probably not going to happen.

Well, that is about all the time I have for now, I am sure once we get on the beach and those soothing waves start lapping at my feet and the constant wooing sound of the waves and seagulls start lulling me into a state of sheer peace, all the hectics of these next few days will simply disappear

 

A few days ago, we saw a commercial saying that David Blaine was going to be attempting to break a world record on the Oprah show.  Now, before you blow a gasket, we are not huge David Blaine fans by any means, as a matter of fact, I find some of his absurd magic and illusions to be quite disturbing.  But, he is very interesting and breaking a world record was something that we wanted to watch.  He was attempting to break the record for holding your breath under water.  Apparently the record was 16 minutes and 32 seconds.  That alone seems astonishing to me.  But of course, David Blaine broke the record and made the new world record 17 minutes and 4 seconds. 

 Before the stunt began he had to breathe in pure oxygen for 20 something minutes and at the last second, he did what the doctor there called “lung-packing” where he takes short gasps of air and physically shoves them down into his lungs forcing them to expand beyond the normal capacity.  I have a sensitive gag reflex and this alone was making me feel nauseous.  The doctor stated how dangerous this move was.  That when the lungs are forced to expand and take on more than they were meant to take in, that it could result in immediate death.

Well, I have been thinking about that whole “lung-packing” thing every since he did it.  How many times are we like that.  Not over packing our lungs of course, but our lives, hence, “life-packing”.  We try to extend our life beyond beyond what we are capable of keeping control of and try to cram all that we can into it, until it is so extended that we aren’t even able to function and we sense impending doom.  I try to keep the perspective of, “It is better to do just a few things really well, than to do a lot of things half-way.” 

I think so many times we think that “more” is really better, when sometimes “more” is just “more”.  I know I start to get stressed and things that are important get left undone or either done half-hearted, when I let too many commitments and too many involvements move into our family.  We don’t have alot of outside activities right now and it is really nice to just have time to just hang out as a family and play games or just sit and watch old home movies and not be in a hurry because we have to be somewhere.

As I start to prepare for next school year, I have to keep reminding myself, that 8 subjects aren’t necessarily better then 6.(Sometimes I tend to go overboard in the learning department).  I think I’m starting to realize that learning 5 or 6 subjects really well is FAR better than just barely scratching the surface on 8 or 9.  I’m sure my kids would give a hearty “You go Mommy” to that one!

Thanks for visiting!

Fun Learning is hosting a Monday meme on Homeschool Hi-Lights from the past week.  I decided to participate this week because last week’s highlight is very evident this time.  It was the annual Homeschool Convention.

I went all day on Friday and Saturday  with some friends and it was a great time of shopping and just being with all those other homeschooling families.  I met some great people and had a chance to talk to several colleges and get a lot of information.  There didn’t seem to be as many vendors there this year, I’m sure the price of gas and the economy as a whole has kept some from making the trip, but it was still great. 

I had been looking for a reading program from my daughter that struggles in reading due to dyslexia, and I was able to find a back to basics reading program that I think will help her a lot.  It is Teach 4 Mastery.  The man that does it took a lot of time and really explained the program to me and I was very impressed with it.  I also found a very interesting geography book to do with her. It is called Geography Through Art.  It is a very hands-on geography and it incorporates art into every lesson.  I know she will love learning that way. 

Before I went to the convention, I sat down with each of my girls and went over my plans for the next year and asked them if they had any specific requests that they wanted me to look for.  My youngest daughter said she would do anything I got, but she wanted a science that was nothing but animals.  She said, “I don’t want to learn about space or energy or the body, I just want to learn about animals.”  So, because I always try to do exactly what my kids want , I set out in search of a science that was only animals and I found a great one. It is from Apologia, of course, it is Zoology 3, The Land Animals of the Sixth Day.  She has already spent some time going through it and is already excited about starting it. 

My older girls were a little easier to shop for.  Most of their things have already been set and I pretty much am using alot of the same things with my middle daughter that I used with the older daughter.  I did find a  good art appreciation book that I think they will enjoy.  It is Discovering Great Artists.  It breaks down some of the famous artists from the past and gives examples of their work and then leads the student to create their own “masterpiece”.

I also attended a session with Jeannie Fullbright, on “Notebooking”.  It was very informative and I plan on incorporating some of that into our homeschool.  We have done some notebooking in the past, but I think it will be a great way to add more hands-on to our subjects.  And will be a great tool for future portfolios.

Overall the convention was a great time of fellowship and just absorbing all the energy that homeschoolers exude.  It is always the end of the year event that I look forward too all year.  Even though this one was a bit of a disappointment because some of my favorite vendors weren’t there, it as still great and I got so much accomplished, and gained some very helpful insights.

I usually like to buy most of my things from Rock Solid, but they weren’t there this time, so I had to look around at some of the others.  I discovered Solomon’s Secrets who seem to have some great prices. The people at The Faithful Bookshop were very helpful and always offer free shipping.  And as always, Rainbow Resources has about anything and everything you could possibly want to look at.

I enjoy seeing all these small, family-run businesses all in one place and I am happy to give them my business. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week

 

We spent some time this past weekend going through our storage building and we came across the box labeled “Home Movies”.  We brought them home and have been spending afternoons enjoying a bit of nostalgia. 

I had almost forgotten how sweet and precious my kids could be. Just kidding girls!  We have watched our many trips to the beach, our even more trips to Disney World, unlimited birthday parties, Christmas mornings and even just moments around the house laughing and having fun.  Sometimes, it is those little moments, those times of serendipity that you catch some of the most precious things said by a child.  Today as we were watching, my 11 year old said, “Man, we sure did have a great childhood.”  I just had to smile. 

It is amazing to think that those were taken over 10 or 15 years ago.  Where has the time gone?  As I was watching the videos, I kept having a recurring thought from one of my favorite films;  It’s a Wonderful Life!  We have truly had an amazing life of adventures and so much love. Of course, we have not been nor are we now perfect parents and our home is not a perfect model home by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing is certain, we have a home full of love.  My husband and I have truly given all we have to make sure our girls know that they are loved and that they will always have that love, unconditionally, no questions ask.  They also know that their parents love each other.  We joke sometimes because they will come into a room and their dad and I will be kissing or hugging or something and they will say, “Get a room.”

I think it is so important that children feel total security in their home, and what could give more security than knowing that you are surrounded by love, knowing that there are people that will always love you and that no matter what the world may throw at you, you can always come home to a house of love, a fortress if you will. 

 I have always truly believed that as long as a child grows up with total love and acceptance and in a home where the parents are still in love as well, they will already have a huge advantage in their life ahead.  It is a very rare thing now-a-days to find a home where love reigns supreme, where there is not constant bickering and where the parents and the kids actually enjoy each others company. 

Please don’t take this to mean that our home is one of those “Norman Rockwell” paintings.  Sometimes we yell, and sometimes we have huge disagreements.  We have siblings that do not get long quite frequently, and we have our moments where timeouts and restrictions are enforced.  But for the most part we enjoy having each other around and we spend a lot of time together.  I hope that my girls have been able to see what a home filled with love looks like and that they will have a model set for themselves to establish their own home one day.  But most importantly, I hope that they have been given the love that they need growing up so that when they are old enough to start looking for a mate, they will in no way be longing for a love that could cause them problems down the road.  I hope they will be so secure in who they are as a woman and as a child of God that their relationships will be just what they need to be.

I guess there really is no better security system for your home than to cover it with the “Ultimate Security Blanket”;  Lots and Lots of LOVE.

Thanks for stopping by

I never ceased to be amazed at the lengths that kids will go to to keep from having to clean their rooms.  The other day my youngest DD was talking on the phone to her BFF and I told her to go upstairs and finish cleaning her room.  She quickly mouthed to me, “Mom, today is the anniversary of the day we met and we need to be able to talk in peace.”

A few days later that same DD was walking around with an Oriental Trading catalog and she came up to me and said, “Mom, I need to know what my budget is for my birthday party so I can get my order ready for Oriental Trading.”  I didn’t even know that she knew what a budget was, and we definitely have never had a birthday party budget for an 11 year old.  Well anyway, I told her the budget would be around $2.  She didn’t appreciate that at all.  She quickly said, “No, it needs to be around $35, because I have already found the things I need to order and it totals $34.”   Maybe I should add accounting to her list of subjects next year. Oh and by the way, apparently we are having a luau birthday party. 

I heard this song for the first time the other day on the radio, The 21st Time, my first thought was that the tune wasn’t really that catchy and I reached to turn the staion, but something stopped me.  As I began to listen to the lyrics, I started to cry.  The words were so moving and they touched me in such a way.

During basketball season, we go into the city a couple of times a week to go to the local college’s women’s basketball games.  We always pass so many homeless people in the city that we had kinda just tuned them out.  But there was this one particular man that always stood in the same spot, we called him “chicken man”(a long story), we would pass him each time and he would tip his hat to us and we would smile back.  We decided to put together a goody bag of sorts and take it to him the next time we went into the city.  We got together some nonperishable items and a small bible and a small amount of money and put it in a bag.  We went into the city several times over the next few weeks always with our goody bag in tow, but we never saw “chicken man”. We thought that we had missed our opportunity, and now something had happened to him.  A few weeks later, we had a car full of kids and we were on our way to the game.  They all knew the story of “chicken man” so we were all looking to see if we could spot him.  He wasn’t in his usual spot, but as we made a turn, we spotted him on the opposite corner.  My husband quickly made a u-turn and we pulled up next to him.  There was alot of traffic, so we weren’t really able to stop for very long, but we handed him the goody bag and went on our way.  We all watched out the back of the car as he tore into the bag with such excitement.  It was such a moving moment.  I think we all barely spoke a word the rest of the way to the colliseum. 

Well months have passed now, and we barely go into the city this time of year, and I guess we have moved on and have forgotten about the “chicken man”.  I was reminded this morning about the story of the good samaritan in the Bible.  Wasn’t that someone that just stopped to help a “homeless” person on the street?  We all are quick to criticize the ones that didn’t stop and looked down on him from their lofty posts, but aren’t we those people?  Don’t we pass by those who are not quite up to our standards and look down on them, or hold our children a little closer as we quickly pass by pretending not to notice them?  I know that people have mixed emotions about “less fortunate” people and some may say, “They should get a job.”  And maybe some of that is true, but I know that there have been times when things have not gone our way and had it not been for the generosity of others, we might not have made it.  What about times in our lives where we have relied on the help of others in certain situations? Don’t we all have that testimony?  What if there weren’t “others”, what if we didn’t have anybody?  What might happen to us then?  I guess I am just naive enough to believe that God loves all men equally and who are we to decide who is worthy of our help and who isn’t?  A movie that I love is, The Pursuit of Happyness.  It is a very moving story about a man that ends up living on the street, through not really any fault of his own.  The obstacles he overcomes and the triumph that he finds in the end it extremely emotional.

I had some thoughts today as I watched the 21st time video.  How hard would it be to make up some goody bags and just carry them around in the car and share with those we see all around that are asking for help?  It would only take a little time and who knows, it might just be “Jesus” that we are helping.

If you started the video at the beginning and saw it was about a bunch of homeless people and thought, “I don’t really have time for this”, please watch it and really listen to the words.  Everyday we have the opportunity to change lives all around us, shouldn’t we accept the responsibility?

I just realized that I had posted a little about this burden back in February in The Other Side.  Maybe God is trying to tell me something, you think?!?