A Time For Every Season....

Contentment, Mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are. (Webster) Strong States: 1) a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed 2) sufficiency of the necessities of life 3) a mind contented with its lot   Gulp.... I've never been satisfied with the way things are. In fact, I'll be honest, I am rarely satisfied with anything. Sad, but true statement. I am a recovering perfectionist after all  - in my mind nothing is ever perfect so there are always things to change in every realm of my life. When I was 6 I went to the Rogue Valley musical and told my momma I was going to play the violin because it played such  beautiful music - I thought all about it and when I was in 4th grade I started lessons and played through my college years. When I was 6 I also told my momma I wanted a horse. She mistakenly said if I saved enough money then I could buy one - oh the hopes and dreams I gained by that one statement. So, I s...

 My little book worm - I think she might take after her momma when it comes to loving books. I just love this little girl and all her spunk!

 "Be like a postage stamp, stick to one thing until you get there." 960. We made it safely to Colorado and back - stuck together in the van for 30+ hours, we truly grew as a family in faith, in love and grace and maturity. We had a  blast! 961. First family road trip - the books on tape were great, momma's singing  was fun and the fast food was tempting! 962. Family time at the park in Colorado Springs - we saw tons of  homeless people and it just broke my heart to see them watch our family running all over the park looking at trains and chasing squirrels. What must their childhood been like? I am so blessed by God to have been given three little blessings and a husband who would conquer the world for us. God has bestowed on us a great blessing and with it comes great responsibility. 963. Playing at the Focus on the Family visitors center ~ we spent hours playing in the rooms and going down the slide. Abby loved the toddler room with lots of room to p...

What a wonderful vacation we had! I think Colorado is as beautiful as Oregon. I greatly enjoyed waking up most morning and sitting out on the deck, spending time with the Lord over some Joel Clarkson classical music and the magnificent snow peaked Rocky Mountains towering over me. The boys were so spent most nights that they slept well past 9 AM, which gave me some quiet mornings to set my pace for the day. Certainly  getting together with family is stressful and it was so difficult to get 13+ people to decide on a  common plan for the day, but overall we had such a great time. The evenings were spent with cards and cribbage and canasta! The days were relaxing with a few adventures thrown in. Our vacation began on Thursday afternoon, we drove to Amarillo and spent the night, then on to Colorado Springs for  two days. We visited the Focus on the Family visitors center and we all played at Wits End! Then on to Breckenridge for a full week in a 4 story cabin - thanks to Gr...

We're back from our Colorado Vacation - but I feel like I need a vacation! As a friend told me today - vacations are when you don't take children, otherwise they are called trips! We had a wonderful time in Colorado - so many pictures, so many memories, so many adventures! There is so much I could share, but I feel totally overwhelmed with my mail pile, bills that need to be paid, sickies all over the house, and tons of laundry. So I thought I'd share a few pictures from our trip and write a little more later, as the house gets back in order, my sleep improves, our sickies heal and life gets back to its calm normal. Pool time at the hotel Dressing up before we left for Colorado. Playing in the forest with sticks on a wet and cold day at 10,000 feet. Time with Grandma! Time with Aunt Kessa getting very dirty! God's character just sang from the mountains in Colorado, everywhere I looked creation sang of God's glory. Playing in the sno...

We love this hands on, base 10 math approach. I did not received a great Math education, the teachers were always boring and typically my middle/high school math teachers also taught sports, so Math was their secondary job. I did not had the privilege of learning math holistically and at my own pace, having one skill build upon another. Often I would get lost and couldn't keep up with the new skills because I didn't know how to implement the materiel from the prior week. The years I  was in school, curriculum changed often, so it was hard to figure out what I was suppose to be learning. It wasn't until college that I discovered the uses for math, I went back to the basics and gradually built one skill upon another. I ended up loving statistics and felt like the college years truly taught me the purposes for math. I hope my son discovers that long before college!  Both John and I researched the Math U See curriculum for a year before we purchased it.    ...

First, they imagined they were on a ship in the middle of the ocean. They needed sleeping bags, a gun, walkee talkee's, and hats... oh, couldn 't forget Puppy! Then we did Art and Math and made a big mess ~ this is what the table looks like most afternoons.  We made owl's and learned about being nocturnal and owl pellets! Abby Had many questions! Mommy's completed Art assignment, Drew is going to glue his owl on my drawing. I'm learning along with them, since I flunked Art in 7th grade, Outside for Nature fun -  Drew found a frog and inspected all its parts. Said Frog wasn't enjoying the experience and escaped. But... Drew re-captured him and had a great time showing him off to his siblings and watching him swim in the water - then mommy made Drew put the frightened frog back. Then Drew journaled about it in his Nature journal and drew a picture of a frog - which he named "Jumpy.

I journaled a little bit about the lessons God has taught me these last few years, the lessons that brought me out of being luke warm and into the furnace of refinement: It all begins with Prayer - radical prayers bring radical change! * Not only radical change in you, but in those around you. My husband would say he grew more in the last few years than his entire Christian life put together. Getting to know God is a journey that grows through experiences and faith lessons. Be prepared for a great ride! Diving into God's Word is more exciting than I ever imagined, each precept builds on another and the scripture is illuminated with new discoveries about God's unwavering character. It is like falling in love one page at a time. It just takes time, prayer and daily renewing of the mind. Each passage can be read over and over and yet there are new treasures to be found. Left to my flesh and my own feelings, on any given  day, I'll fall into the happiness cul...

Four years ago I sat humbled after a convicting sermon at church - I wasn't growing because I wasn't consistently reading God's word. I wasn't seeing life change because I wasn't madly in love with the Lord. That day I remember committing to the Lord, out of my helplessness, to renew my mind daily, I determined to grow more intimately with the Lord and meet Him regardless of whether He showed up or not. I didn't want the mundane, I didn't want the duty, I didn't want the guilt - I just wanted to know God. Jesus says, " “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”  ~ John 15: 7 All I wanted was intimacy with the Lord - I knew I had salvation, I knew I had eternal life, but at that moment all I wanted was to know God more deeply. I wanted to want to read God's word, I wanted to want hours and hours just Him and Me. I knew there was more to be had and I was finally ...