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.

Fall is in the air today!  I love fall, but I don't want it to come until Monday because we are going to have a yard full of people this weekend, Lord and weather permitting.  It is a family tradition to celebrate birthdays at a time when it isn't actually your birthday.  So we are having a birthday party for my three middle girls on Sunday.  Elisa and Fiona's birthdays were in April and Irene's in August, but we were too busy then, so here we are.  I hope it goes well. 

Lately I've been spending a lot of time talking with Forrest about his plans for the future.  He has developed quite an interest in economics.  I guess the fun of having older kids is that they become interested in things you never would have investigated yourself and you get to learn through them.  We are trying to decide where he should go to college, when, etc.  Community?  Distance learning?  There are so many options, all of them costing lots of $$$$$ and I don't want to make a mistake and waste said $$$$!!!

But I also want to trust that God will make a way and provide and not shrink back from something just because it looks impossible at the beginning.  *Sigh*

But I hate the thought of him going away to school.  I hope he won't need to too soon.  I guess it depends on what he wants to study.  Economics is a pretty broad subject.  But he wants to do something that will make a real difference, somewhere, somehow.  I guess if you come from an Austrian economics  point of view it is harder to get a good paying job because it's the government that really pays the economists and they don't like the Austrian view.  It doesn't give them anything to promise their constituents.  But I can't tell him not to go into something just because he's not going to get rich at it-I mean if he feels like that's really where the Lord is leading him, can I?

But we toss around college names like Hillsdale, or Patrick Henry.

Bah.  I want him to stay here.  I want all my kids to stay right here.  And I want at least 100 grandchildren.

And thats that.

We have a new family member floating around the house these days.  This is Hercule Poirot.  (Since the rat is named Miss Marple we thought we'd continue with the Agatha Christie theme.) He just came into the house one day and stood there looking at me.  I thought surely someone would be looking for him.  We put up signs, did Craiglist, took him to the vet to see if there was a micro-chip.  But to no avail.  The vet said a lot of pet owners have been simply turning their pets out when they are evicted from their homes, so I think that must be it.  He was well taken care of, nails trimmed, fixed, etc.

He's a very sweet little fellow.  The children just love him.  He just blends right in with them.  I wasn't too fond of daschunds and never would have thought of getting one, but I don't think I could have found a better dog for us if I'd gone out looking for one.  I'm glad he came. 

I cannot, cannot believe how long it's been since I last posted! This summer has been such a whirl of activity, I don't even know where it has all gone. But it's been a good summer, I think. It seems like we got together with friends a lot, and that is good. Some sad things, too. My father in law has died. So familiar things change, phases of life go from one thing to another, and nothing seems to be the way you expect them to be, but God is good.

Lately I've been reading a book by Susan Wise Bauer, "The Well Trained Mind". Rather than a book on the kids' education, it's a book for educating myself-for a change! I used to read a lot but that has dropped off in the past few years. I get frustrated because I can never seem to get beyond a certain surface level in anything! I felt like I could read fiction about at the Jane Austen level, but anything more complicated would elude me. And the nonfiction I read seems to go over the same information over and over because I could only get one level of a topic and not a whole lot further. I can read what other people tell me I should think about a topic, but not really get a grasp of the source material for myself. Also my lack of memory gets frustrating. Like I can't organize my thoughts and tell back what a book was trying to get across in a coherent way. Why bother to read something if you won't remember it! It's just felt like I've been on a level of mental stagnation that I just can find my way out of.

I want the children to see me reading, trying to improve myself, enjoying knowledge and trying to be a better person, because I want them to see the value of it for themselves. But I run out of time, energy, and lately, motivation.

So I was happy to read in Susan Wise Bauer's book that it isn't that I'm just an air head, it's that I've never actually learned to read! No, I don't mean phonics, I mean how to really read a book! I'm excited to start learning the way to consume more difficult books, and pass this on to my older children! (My son would greatly admonish me for my over use of exclamation points there. But I am exclamation point excited!)

I want to really learn how to do this. She suggests one starts with Don Quixote, but I don't have that on hand, and I have always wanted to read Lorna Doone, so I think I will start with that. I'm just so tickled with this whole thing.

I think it will help me with my Bible study too. I have been frustrated with that for the same reason as with my other reading. I can read the Bible, I can read other people telling me what to think about what I read in the Bible, but I'd like to be better able to know what I think about what I read and why.

Well, time is still an issue, but to try and not to do as much as one would want to is better than to not try at all. I feel like I must keep trying.

And when I start to feel like I've got this more under my belt I will get started learning the other skill I am so frustrated with my lack of-Writing. Which that sentance is probably proof us, but hey, it is 5 in the morning, and I have been up since two. But I do also have a Susan Wise Bauer book on that subject too, that I can't wait to tackle. I think I will owe that woman an enormous debt. :) I hope so, anyway.

Ahh, nothing like having to reeducate oneself at 41. But such is the world we live in..

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

William Cowper, from the Net Hymnal

I love this hymn.  I love how it reminds me to look for God's providence in all circumstances.  I love how it depicts God as smiling at His children, so often I am afraid He is frowning at me. We are so tempted to think God cannot not work now, I've made too much of a mess.  This is to complicated, to big, my enemies are to strong, etc.  But God is not thwarted, and just because He is taking His time doesn't mean He isn't working. He's just very thorough.  How much trouble we could save ourselves if we could just trust Him and be happy!

Turn of the Wheel

We live in a time where everything is feeling rather unstable. I no longer wonder to myself about where we will be in ten or twenty years. I wonder where we will be next year. Sometimes it feels as though the very ground is moving. I have to admit we've been shoring up a bit. And I'm wishing I was a more talented gardener. But mostly I'm looking around wondering how to interpret these days? Could these be the "last days" as the premillennialists say? Are all our efforts as moms and families to come to naught, plowed over by the careening train of socialism and government take over? I know that some days while I am busy training children in not only the Word, but "worldly cares" like political theory and career ideas and that sort of thing I can be a bit over come with a sense of futility. I am one that runs on vision. I need to feel like I am doing something meaningful, not just in the lives of my children and family, but for the good of the world, for the building of the Lord's Kingdom. And while I can't say I have an inside line to the mind of God, a though has occurred to me that this could be "a turn of the wheel" when those who are on the top will sink to the bottom and those who are on the bottom will be rising to the top. Right now it is very difficult for the righteous to break into any are of government, media, journalism, and more and more it is becoming so for the medical fields and higher teaching. Perhaps for the sake of His people the Lord is rotating the wheel? So that which is at the bottom can come to the top and that which is stifling the top will be broken up and brought down? I pray it is so. I know things are not going to get better tomorrow, maybe not for a very long time. But I must encourage myself and my children that the Lord does take care of the righteous. He knows how to tilt things in time of famine so His own can still be blessed. He is in charge of this wheel.

The Headmistress at The Common Room has an article up about the long forgotten by most of the population FLDS case.  Really amazing how that all happened.  We can't forget to pay attention to these things.  What was done to these people was unjustifiable.

Books

I tried to do a book entry a couple of weeks ago. It took two hours to do and I lost it due to link tag problems. Very discouraging. But my son and also my blogging friend Mrs. Darling said it was because I did it on the laptop and so I will try again on the desk top. If it works you will know because the entry will be up. If it doesn't work you won't know because I will smash this thing with a baseball bat and end my blogging career forever!!!

Anyway. I love reading to my kids. It has always been one of my favorite things about homeschooling. I love to share all the books I loved as a kid with them, and also finding new treasures. My boys now are 8, 6, 5 and 2. The Eight and six year old are really starting to be more interested in being read to and being able to follow chapter books. It is so much fun! It is also fun because as little boys thier interests are so much different than the girls. But we have been reading a lot lately. Here are a few offerings...


OK, this was for me. Some picture books just are. I loved it.


Lately the kids have been very interested in Japan. They also used these comics to teach themselves a few kanji characters.



And a few chapter books for the boys...

"Henry and Ribsy" is an old friend. The boys loved it. And I think it was my third or fourth time reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". But the boys were a fresh audience and so it was just as fun as the first. "Viking Adventure" is out of print, I got it from the library. But it looks like Amazon has it used. It was a good live history book for the boys. I would pick it up again.
Another great find is the LibriVox site. Oh, if you haven't discovered this, you simply must check it out! We are listening to Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall It is a wonderful recording. Owen especially requestsit-even in the evening for entertainment. Definately worth incorporating into a day. The chapters are very short, too, though like potato chips we don't ever consume just one.

And for me..

I love the vision Andrew Murray lays out for prayer. I go off and on with prayer, sometimes I seem to be praying all the time and at other times... alas... But this book is very encouraging and inspiring.

So... what's on your book shelf these days?

So what's been going on around here lately...

Rand and Forrest climbed Mt. Hood. (pictured in the header above) Well, they didn't make it all the way to the top. About an hour from the summit they encountered a blizzard, so they decided to come back down. I mean, what's the point of going up if you can't see ANYTHING? (I'm actually probably not a good person to answer that, because I can't see why I would want to climb a mountain anyway. As much as I do love Mt. Hood, I think everything that is interesting about it is to be seen below the timberline. I mean look at those photos. There are no trees, no moss, no pretty little creeks.. I digress..) But look at that grin on Rand. He eats this stuff up. Every picture of the climb he is grinning away like that. He so loves those mountains.

Forrest on the other hand I wasn't so sure of. At first he didn't seem so interested. More like, "Fine, yeah, if you want to climb a mountain, I'll go with you." But as the day approached and the guys watched videos about it (ones with helicopters crashing during rescue attempts, no less) he perked up a bit. Toward the end he was more like "I really wanna climb this mountain!" Well, he made it to the end-that is, guys older and bigger and stronger than he turned back before he did and it wasn't until everyone turned back that he did too. So he came home with a smile and a straight back and that is a very, very good thing in the life of a 15 year old boy.

We went to the "Apple Pie Day" event in Salem (capitol of Oregon, in case you haven't covered that yet.)

We climbed to the base of the golden pioneer.

There it is more off to the distance.

Every Oregon child climbs the golden pioneer. And visits Enchanted Forest and roller skates at Oaks Park, at least once... (Well, maybe not if you are from Burns or something, that is a pretty long way to go, but otherwise, no excuses!)

We also visited our representative, Bill Kennemer, who was very receptive and cordial. He talked about trying to get prayer meeting going and no one showing up and feeling alone down there in Salem. Well, that's probably so, here in liberal land. We shouldn't under estimate the power of encouraging our government leaders. They are people just like us, and it can't be very easy to withstand the tides they encounter. So I thought we should do more of this sort of thing as we can.

There we are on the capitol steps. I didn't get a picture of us all together-a friend took this one and I lifted it from his facebook page.. But, there ya go..

We also have another teenager! Three of them all together now, can ya believe it?

Elisa is the kind of kid that would make any parent smile. She loves babies, her church, her friends..

We've also been dealing with allergies and headaches this last year and she's endured discomfort like a trooper.

So, that's what I have time for today. Hope you are well and happy!

"The sons of Rueben and the Gadites and half the tribe Manasah, of valient men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow and skillful in war were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore, that went to the war....

And they were helped against then, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand and all that were with them: for they cried to the Lord in battle and he was entreated of them because they put their trust in Him."

Sometimes it can get so discouraging when we look around at the world around us!  Christian America has been declared at an end and it seems like we are losing on every battle front.  But we must not get discouraged or turn back or lose our heart for the Lord and His kingdom.  The thing is, we women are the ones with the power of tomorrow in our hands.  We are the ones raising the sons and daughters who need to be trained with sword and buckler and arrows.  Not physical weapons of war, but the word of God used skillfully, a preparation in their world view, protection from the enemy of our souls establishing strongholds that will weaken them later in life, and a habit of dealing with trouble by turning to the Lord in prayer, crying out to him.

What a big task this is!  And how myriad the distractions!  And how weak we are in the work!  I pray that God will help all of us to have wisdom in how we spend or time, the entertainment we chose, the prayers we pray... I pray that as we look at our children today we will not see them as a responsibility that we need to tend to, not someone to be kept busy so we can get our 'real work' done, but the opportunity to train the valiant men and women of tomorrow.Men and women that will be skillful in war. 

What's going on around here..

Since Noelle was born we have had so much trouble getting back on schedule!  I've tried re instituting it and staying on track for a day or two, only to have it completely fall apart after a few days.  Very frustrating!  Part of it was sickness, which finally seems to be clearing up, but I think  lot of it was just that the old schedule wasn't fitting our lifestyle anymore.  I started using the old schedule when the basic ages of our children were "School Age" and "Baby/Toddler".  Now we have teens in there too. They like to stay up late to work on projects or read while the house is quiet.  They just don't go to bed at 8:30!  Go figure.  Anyway, here is our new schedule-

8-9:00 Get up, get coffee, get dressed, chat etc.

9-9:30 Shayleen makes breakfast with Owen's help (He takes this job so seriously.  It's so funny.)

9:30-10 Eat

10-11:30 Clean house-I have the house on a simple rotating schedule.

11:30-2  Schoolwork

2-3:00 Quiet time (and oh, how we need it!)

3-4:00 Music practice (If it hasn't already been done) 

4-5:00 Shayleen makes dinner with Elisa's help.

6:00 Dinner

7:00 Family devotions

8:00 Little boys get their teeth brushed and have stories read to them.

Then the older kids get the run of the house.  :)  The little boys aren't too crazy about this, but they will just have to get used to it. They can still hear life going on from their room.  But it gives the older kids their time to watch more mature movies, get out games that have a lot of pieces and actually play on the floor if they like, cut out sewing patterns, etc.  We have been on this schedule for about two weeks and it seems to be going really well.

 Also, I used to not schedule the hour for wake up time.  I just scheduled the time when we needed to start getting things done.  I figured if one wanted time to sit in a chair and space out the window or time to check their email they should plan to get up a little earlier to do it.  But they didn't seem to catch up on that concept. They got up right when they had to and it didn't make for smooth mornings.  Also, it limits me, because if they are sitting spacing out or  spending time taking inane quizzes on facebook, I won't stress out on them about time use because this IS their time to do it and there is a stop time already implemented so I don't have to nag.  Whew.  So nice when a small simple thing can cure a problem!

Happy boys

We have a crack all along the length of our basement wall.  The wall is in serious need of repair and we have to dig out the dirt on the outside of the wall to fix it.  Well, some friends of ours had rented a backhoe and didn't need it for the whole time of the rental so they kindly let us use it the last day, and their son helped us for the day.

Having the tractor in our yard made for a rippin' good day for the boys!

Their room was right above the hole so they spent most of the day there.

Can you tell Scott has a few little brothers of his own?  He was so sweet to give Owen "driving lessons".

By mom!  He's off to work!

Carrying the chain to secure it to the trailer.

But oolala, the mud.  I didn't take any pictures of that though.

Well, we got pretty far down, but not far enough, so I guess there will be another "tractor day" for them to look forward to!

Noelle

March 28
Lead the Way
The Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail. (Deuteronomy 28:13)
If we obey the Lord, He will compel our adversaries to see that His blessing rests upon us. Though this be a promise of the law, yet it stands good to the people of God; for Jesus has removed the curse, but He has established the blessing.
It is for saints to lead the way among men by holy influence: they are not to be the tail, to be dragged hither and thither by others. We must not yield to the spirit of the age, but compel the age to do homage to Christ. If the Lord be with us, we shalt not crave toleration for religion, but we shall seek to seat it on the throne of society. Has not the Lord Jesus made His people priests'' Surely they are to teach and must not be learners from the philosophies of unbelievers. Are we not in Christ made kings to reign upon the earth? How, then can we be the servants of custom, the slaves of human opinion?
Have you, dear friend, taken up your true position for Jesus? Too many are silent because diffident, if not cowardly. Should we allow the name of the Lord Jesus to be kept in the background? Should our religion drag along as a tail? Should it not rather lead the way and be the ruling force with ourselves and others?

from The Spurgeon Archive

Heheh-the baby came and pushed a button while I was thinking, thus the non-post below.  Then I had to get up and do something and so I guess I'll just leave it there for humors sake.  :)  I am no writer.  I should do more blogging to practice.  It isn't that I don't have anything I want to talk about but I just look at that blank screen and freeze up!  Either that or the pictures I want are on another computer, etc. etc.  I guess there are seasons to life and this season (among other things) is the season of sporadic blogging.

So what do I want to talk about today?  I want to talk about Mark Driscoll.  Have you heard that guy preach?  I have to admit I was rather dubious of him to start with.  I like my preachers "classic", you know, with a tie at least.  I don't mind robes even.  Mark Driscoll wears jeans and tees.  And he even kind of has one of those "fo-hawks" hairdos.  And I remember back in the days when I was so into rock and heavy metal even and guys would dress up like us and to to fit in so they could "talk" our language or what ever (like teachers trying to act like they were cool) and well usually it just kind of seemed dorkey.  We called those guys posers.  

But the more I listen to Mark Driscoll, the more I really do like him!  He is so direct and right on!  He has tons of free sermons on their church website.  I have been listening to hours of them.  I will have to send them a donation for the service because I really do appreciate it.  I found the series on spiritual warfare VERY helpful.  Also the series on 1 & 2 Peter.  Shayleen has been listening to the ones on Revelation and she absolutely loves them.  He really makes the Bible alive for the younger folks.  

If you haven't listened to him, treat yourself.  But give yourself a good 45 min -hour to listen because he isn't short winded!

 

I thought this was an excellent overview of the pubic education system and the reasons why government intrusion in the area of education is NOT a good plan.


With Obama in the white house we all are expecting some sort of an attack on home school freedoms. These attacks will come from various corners and we will have to vigelent about watching what our govorment does. However, I do think we ought to use caution in providing links to individuals who have set themselves up as advocates in some way or another. Providing links to their websites just gives them greater visability and moves them up on the google searches etc. We can answer their arguments with out giving them promotional benefits from our own sites.

Just a thought.

A quote I wanted to hold onto..

Believers must repent for being discouraged by their sins
“Their being discouraged by their sins will cost them many a prayer, many a tear, and many a groan; and that because their discouragements under sin flow from ignorance and unbelief. It springs from their ignorance of the richness, freeness, fullness, and everlastingness of God’s love; and from their ignorance of the power, glory, sufficiency, and efficacy of the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ; and from their ignorance of the worth, glory, fullness, largeness, and completeness of the righteousness of Jesus Christ; and from their ignorance of that real, close, spiritual, glorious, and inseparable union that is between Christ and their precious souls.
Ah! Did precious souls know and believe the truth of these things as they should, they would not sit down dejected and overwhelmed under the sense and operation of sin. God never gave a believer a new heart that it should always lie a-bleeding, and that it should always be rent and torn in pieces with discouragements.”
- Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices
From Of First Importance

I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted!  Well, I guess I knew that would happen if I went and got Facebook.  Facebook is like internet instant snack food.  It's quick and easy and you can pop in and out and it gets you in touch with people fast but it's all little chit-chat stuff.  Poke this person, make a quick comment on a photo, but there isn't really any depth to it.  I resisted getting it for that reason, but it has been fun to get in touch with people from high school and so forth.  It's amazing the people that come out of the woodwork!  My kids think it's very funny to hear me gasp over some old friend I haven't heard from in twenty years.  It's such a hoot. :)

Noelle is getting bigger.  Babies change so fast.  She is a very coddled baby too.  She is held for most of the day.  The kids just can't bear to leave her alone!  I did start putting her down for at least a morning nap in bed so it would be uninterrupted.  But she is very easy going and goes from shoulder to shoulder, lap to lap quite agreeably.

I love the baby phase. I enjoy it with relish.  It goes by so quickly.

We also have a new member of the family!  

A rat.

Is anyone going to congratulate me?  Heheh.  It took me about a month to touch it.  But she actually a pretty sweet pet.  She jumps up and down at the slightest sign that someone might pick her up.  And she loves to ride around on the kids' shoulders.  And plays with a teeny little stuffed bunny the kids gave her.  It's pretty cute to watch.  And it relieves me of the guilt of not having any pets around here.  So as long as I'm not the one cleaning the cage I guess it's a pretty good deal.

There have been some really good posts up at Your Sacred Calling and Deputy Headmistress about comparing ourselves to others and also about being frustrated about not meeting your expectations as a mom.  I know I can really get bogged down in that slough.  When things are less than perfect around here and my kids are quarreling and the kitchen is a mess and the boys are running through the house like banshees sometimes it is very natural for me to have a knee jerk reaction of despair rather than returning to work in faith.  It is good for me to remind myself that God is the one working here and it depends on His power, not mine to keep this boat afloat.  He has been faithful so far and I need to remind myself of His goodness rather than my weaknesses.   Thankfully!

I hope all is well with everyone out there, and you are avoiding all the flu bugs and if there is any snow in your area it is very moderate. :)