I just can't sleep tonight. 
Tell me, what is it with us women?  Why do we seem to constantly need to pick and criticize each other?  It seems to be a trait particular to us. Why do we seem to take the ministry of getting everybody else straight onto our own shoulders and set about to take everyone else to task?  Why can't we be more kind?  What is it about us that makes us want to sharpen our tongues?
We women are very good at chit chat.  But it's very few friends that one can feel like they can let their guard down and be at home with.  These people are precious.  I want to be more like that. 

Men with tools..

Forrest with a jackhammer.  This is my basement folks!

                                   
                                         Joseph is carefully protecting his ears-good boy!

Scott lets the boys climb around his truck.

                                     

                                  Scott pushing our wall into place..tons of dirt... and all that..

                                              

Joseph and Scott.  Joseph loves Scott.

                                               
                               Papa working in the ditch.  This is where our basement stairs will go.

                                                     

Owen.

                                          

Bible narration

I don't follow any of the educational routes religiously.  But the one that resonates the most with me is the Charlotte Mason approach.  I wish I had done it more with my older kids when they were young.  I especially find her method of narration to be helpful with my boys, to make sure they get what we are reading about.  I will often read them something and then ask them to tell me the story back like I was someone who never heard it before, or tell me all you know about so and so.  I use it a lot with our Bible reading.  Owen especially enjoys narrating back to me.  He is very particular that I write down exactly what he tells me and disputes with himself the best way to put things.  It's fun, except sometime he can go on and on.

We are reading the book of Joshua for our Bible reading, and the other day I asked him to tell me all he knew about the cities of refuge.  Here is what he told me.

You go there when you accidentally kill somebody.  And then the people who had the brother that you accidentally killed go to the city of refuge, then they talk to the gatemen and they say "This guy is in there and he killed my brother."  and the gatemen say "Whoa, whoa, whoa, this guy killed him on accident.  Go back to your city whatever name it is." and the elders of the city give him a place.  And when the high priest dies the person who accidentally killed someone can go home.

I just get such a kick out of that!  Sometimes being a home schooling mom can be such a hoot.

The older kids went to a costume party the other night, for a friends birthday.  We don't celebrate Halloween. Our church has a Reformation Night Party, which the kids really love, but it does limit the costume choices.  So they had fun dressing up in something other than historical garb.

Shay was a gypsy, Elisa Wednesday from Adams Family and Forrest was Tracer Bullet from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. 

This picture cracks me up.  Shayleen looks like she's having a blond moment there.  Shhhh.  Don't tell her I said that.  She hates blond jokes.

Our digital camera gave up the ghost.  About a month after the warrenty expired.  Grrrr.. So I'm saving the change jar for a new camera, but in the mean time all we have is Rand's phone.  It works, but it isn't the greatest for picture quality.

In other news...

Remember when we were digging up all the dirt on the side of our house?

Well, it's still all dug up, even more so.  There are little trees growing out of that big pile of dirt, and it's pretty much been sitting there all summer.  When your husband is a contractor you learn to wait and be flexible with things being torn apart.  Summer is really busy for him so our house has to take a back seat.  But we also need to get it done before the rain really sets in, so Rand and Scott have been working on it for the past week.  If it wasn't enought ot have the side of the house dug out they are now digging up lines in the basement (For the plumbing for the bathroom we are going to put down there.)  Forrest got to use a jack hammer today.  We took a picture, but it hasn't been uploaded yet, so I'll post it later.

Now my basement is full of little piles of rocks and rubble.  And the boys just can't stay away from the dirt. We've only been getting the bare bones of school work done.  They just have to see what is going on.  Scott is so patient with them and lets them crawl all over his truck and see what he's doing and EVEN took them to Home Depot.  What a guy.  The other evening I came downstairs and Owen was down there helping Rand.  I asked him if he was working hard.  He said "Yep, you know why?" 

"Why?"

"Because Scott showed me how."

Awwww.

Well, I just can't seem to get far into Lorna Doone. Maybe my life will still be complete if I never do read that book. Ya think?




But I have been reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I want to read it slowly because I feel like I really need to get all I can out of it. In recent years I just haven't felt the closeness with Christ that I used to. I feel dry and tired on the inside a good amount of time. I know the book can't give me refreshment back in my life, but I want to really practice what I read.



But I came across this quote today:

"If we are to progress in the spiritual walk so that the disciplines are a blessing not a curse, we must come to the place in our lives where we can lay down the everlasting burden of always needing to manage others. This drive, more than any single thing, will lead us to turn the Spiritual Disciples into laws. Once we have made a law, we have an "externalism" by which we judge who is measuring up and who is not. With out laws the disciplines are primarily an internal work, and it is impossible to control an internal work. When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God's work and not ours, we can cut to rest the passion to set others straight.



We must beware of how quickly we can latch onto this word or that word and turn it into law. The moment we do so we qualify for Jesus' stern pronouncement against the Pharisees: They bind heavy burdens on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger" (Matt. 23:4) In these matters we need the words of the apostle Paul embedded in our minds: "We deal not in the letter but in the spirit. The latter of the law leads to the death of the soul; the Spirit of God alone can give life to the soul." (2 Cor. 3:6 Phillips)."

Oh isn't that so true! As soon as I tell one of my boys something the first thing they do is to say "Well, so and so did that." The last thing they want to do is address their own behavior! It's always so and so!



But the flip side of that is that we can also be on the receiving end of another person who feels like it is their ministry to set the rest of the world in order. They don't approve of your clothes, schedule, TV watching, standard of education, etc. etc. etc. And if you even maybe have two or three people in your life like that if you don't set yourself to protect yourself that can get very burdensome indeed. Especially if the advice conflicts!



Sometimes I feel like I walk around with one big guilt trip. But I feel like the Lord is telling me that the reason I feel guilty is because I haven't been spending enough time with Him. So He can speak to me about the things that aren't actually His will for me and also the things I really ought to feel guilty about. I need to spend more time with the Lord. That is just the bottom line. It is good to spend time with others, get work done, all of that, but with out His sweet presence we can work ourselves to a fury going in entirely the wrong direction. We can use our time of fellowship leading others in the wrong direction as well-maybe all the while thinking we are helping them get their life together! I need the Lord. I am looking forward to some time of quietness with Him.

Note to self...

I have this situation in my life that I am continually rehashing in my mind.  First I want things to go one way and I build my ideas that support this desire and why it would be good, etc., etc.  Then, no, I think of all the drawbacks.  And then I think I want it to go some other way and I think of why that would be better, build my arguments... and on and on.  At times I can get quite tied up about it.  But tonight I felt the Lord speak to me and say "You're acting like this is your desicion."  Which, of course, really ... it isn't.  It's His.  I need to just rest in that.  He will perfect that which concerns me.  If you see me walking around with my brow furrowed, could you please remind me?  Thanks.

I don't really usually do blog contests or give aways and so forth, but KimC @ Life in a Shoe is doing a cloth diaper give away.  And mostly all I have are the plastic pants.  So I would be really happy to get one of these Thirties covers. :)  And I get another entry by linking it all here.