A Time For Every Season....

My Weekly Life Summary:  This week will be fun, I’m traveling to Mississippi for a few days, and the kids are home with sitters while John works. The boys have Jujitsu Monday-Wednesday evenings this week and Abby has ballet on Thursday. The boys are hoping to get a yellow stripe – not sure what that means or how they obtain it, but they are excited.   John has his first week with his new students! We are praying he does not get any runners! Praying for:  Our house to be started/finished in God’s perfect timing – He knows we have family coming from China and Oregon for Christmas. Update: The final paperwork was signed for the final set of changes and the permits were ordered. Our French doors and covered patio is now in the plans and the pricing was very reasonable! Abby – she has been very naughty lately because she is bored in the mornings while the boys have school. She constantly interrupts and doesn’t play with what I’ve given her. It seems like whe...

We found this lizard in our backyard yesterday. We were working on school stuff and Drew saw it all the way across the yard.  I on the other hand  only saw the tail as it was running into my flowers when we approached. It was big! Drew was sad I didn't get to see the whole thing, so he drew a picture and we looked it up on the internet. It fit right into our lesson on classification of animals - the name in English is Spiny Olive Green Lizard! Artwork by Drew age 8

I was reading this morning in A Hunger for God and a chapter from last month just keeps coming back to me regarding the  Fasting over the course of History (Chapter 5). There were two assumptions Piper brought up that I confess I am very guilty of assuming. I keep coming back to these thoughts, so I thought I'd write them out so I can remember them. Assumption 1. "It is a mistake to think that God's way with one of his children will be his way with all." I found this statement refreshing and humbling. How many times have I shared how God spoke into my life and expected Him to work the same way with my husband or children or friend? Or I'd give a formula that worked in my own life to grow deeper and expected it to work with others instead of praying for that person to discover their own methodology which would grow true intimacy?   I also found this very intimate, that God and I have a special language that only I can hear. This powerful statement removes rules...

I've decided to write my own weekly schedule in my journal as part of the Sunday night routine when I prepare lessons for the kids. It will help me focus on my weekly goals/prayers/projects. My Weekly Life Summary:  I’m excited for a full week of homeschooling and finance work – all at home in our safe haven. Its funny how much I think about our home as a haven and cherish it more than I ever use to – it might be because we’re only going to be living here until Christmas John heads back to work after a fun and productive summer. I’m leaving for Mississippi on Sunday evening for a business trip, I’m not a huge fan of business trips anymore, but its only for a few days and I’m learning some new software so   I can manage the companies fixed assets. My camera is back from being repaired so I hope to make up for a lot of lost picture taking opportunities. Praying for:  Our house to get started/finished in God’s perfect timing – He knows we have fa...

We just completed two weeks of school and we're still on schedule, wow I  can't believe it! In these first two weeks we've worked through a lot of fun material. The highlight for Drew was his paper airplane experiment and the history reading - we're currently reading about The Phoenicians and Assyria. Fun times! Gabe and Drew are plugging along with their schedule and doing quite well - its fun to see them sit on the couch and read silently and then share about what they read. We're sad to see John head back to work on Monday - sniff sniff! I really enjoyed him home this summer. He is currently running around the house finishing up last minute projects like - molding around the mirrors and a new shed door. I'm painting and touching up things around the house, trying to make it look less lived in! We celebrate 10 years in this home in November - about the time we move into our new house that is being built. I was praising the Lord today when I realized how he d...

Vacation is officially over! (pardon the lack of pictures, my camera is in the repair shop so I didn't get to document most of it) Monday we started back to school! It was a quiet day since Gabe was still in Oklahoma with my mom. It was special to work with just Drew and Abby. Our first day wasn't too eventful, we've been working through Math and Reading and phonics for most of the summer so we started back with the basics.  Here is what the first day looked like: Drew stayed up with mommy and daddy to watch "The Hobbit" which is a super big deal in our house. In the morning he slept in so school didn't get started as early as I'd liked.... (what was I thinking? He was up until 11!). Not sure what he is doing? Maybe a lesson on if sand is digestible? So we hit the books about 10:00 and worked until noon on Math and Explode the Code and Zoology. We started our day with "The Big Dig" which is our Bible study in the book of Luke. The k...

 We vacationed in Oregon this summer, the kids and John spent three weeks basking in the PNW sunshine. I tagged along for the last 10 days. It was a great trip with trips to see grandparents, cousins, second cousins, aunts and uncles. We visited Grants Pass, Beaverton, Silverton, the coast, hiked the gorge and managed two trips to Seattle.  Gabe and Drew loved the ocean, there were not many pictures of them because they ran the whole time. I had a really hard time keeping my eyes on them, finally  I just gave up and assumed they would keep an eye out for us. They did. Man those boys burned a lot of energy!  The boys went canoeing with their Uncle David, they made some  great memories. They also went canoeing with their daddy but the canoe got stuck on the other side of the inlet and Uncle David and Papa Tractor had to go save them!  By the end of our beach day Abby was down to a sweat shirt!  We went to Oneonta in the ...