Two posts in one day. Hmmm, what DO I do all day?

Confucius say:

"To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right."

I just wanted to add this wise saying in tangent with my previous post and on the eve of my departure to spend all weekend with my family in the middle of nowhere hunting dove in West Texas.

Have a wonderful "family fun" Labor Day Weekend

Warning....political viewpoint expressed here.......

Can I get a hallelujah to the pick for the Republican VP nominee!! How exciting is this moment?!? John McCain actually made a wise and responsible choice for our Republican ticket. Sarah Palin is a conservative that not only believes in family values but lives them. She is not a staunchy left-winged femi-nazi that believes children are a burden and women deserve the right to be a man. She actually looks like a woman while in the meantime enjoys her husband and children by hunting and playing hockey with them.

I know that not all of will agree but I have been burdened by the Presidential race. Obama scares me and the idea that he may be the leader of the free world , our commander in chief, makes me think of end times prophecy. Call me a radical but he screams of deceiver and liar.

Although McCain was not my first choice, Huckaby was ours, he definitely aligns more with our values. Now with Palin on his team, I feel as though hope is renewed once again in the Republican party!!

" I am pro-life and I believe that marriage should only be between and man and a woman."
Sarah Palin, November 2006

Words to Live By

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."

~ Elisabeth Elliott ~

A Great Cause....

This year, our family will be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $100 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people--a large and growing percentage of them children.

Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

That's the bad news... and yes, it's pretty bad.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.

We are asking for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference

Won't you please give to JDRF as generously as you're able?

Together, we can make the cure a reality.

I hope you will consider donating to this wonderful event. Our best friends, Billy and Stacey Neal and their beautiful, spirited daughter Suzannah, deal with disease every day. We pray for a cure for her and the millions of other children that live daily with diabetes. Our family goal is only $500 in hopes to be only a small part of the effort to find a cure. Please check out the Neal's family blog( team Suzy Q) to either get to know them or to check out updates of their life;


Thanks for your consideration and God bless you!

Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87052564

Thanks for the prayer!

I just wanted to update everyone out there that has been praying with us concerning our housing situation. We have felt a big burden deciding whether or not we should build out here or move back into Longview.

Well, after much prayer and consideration, we have decided to stay out here on the "family farm" and have a home built. We feel a real peace about this and know this is the best decision for our family; ours and my parent's.

We are told after all of the financing is secured, we should be able to start in September and hopefully finished around or a little after Christmas.

We are excited and the boys are ecstatic!! They love country living. The are most excited about having some animals like chickens and maybe rabbits. We are looking into 4H for next year to help with some motivation to help take care of the animals once we have them :)

Again, thanks for the prayers and encouragement!!

I Have to Confess.....

After yesterday's post, I guess this one seems a little selfish but I just had to share. Days like today are a little hard for me as a homeschooling mom. Today is the first day of school for Christian Heritage School (where Ethan went last year). It's 8:30 am and I can' t help thinking that I could have just dropped my kiddos off and have the whole day to myself. Even as I read back over that last sentence it seems so incredibly selfish but the carnal part of me thinks how fun that would be. I could come home and clean with out interruption. I could grocery shop without complaining. I could have lunch with husband and actually complete an entire sentence. I could come home, read my book and take a nap, wake up refreshed and begin dinner without incident. I could pick up my kids, who would have had a wonderfully perfect day ;), and spend the rest of the evening enjoying their company and spending QUALITY time with them.

Doesn't that seem all so wonderful?

Then reality creeps back in and slams me in the head. I would have done all of those things without the joy of my children's laughter, wonderfully inquisitive questions & comments and most of all their presence. I have to keep encouraged because to be perfectly honest, I LOVE BEING WITH MY CHILDREN. For the past few years I have been so focused on trying to "school" my kids, I have forgotten that the reason why I homeschool in the first place is because I love spending time with my two precious boys. God has truly given me the desire of my heart, I just forget that sometimes.

All of that to say, even though spending a day by myself doing all of those things above would be a pleasant reprieve from my life, I would only enjoy it for that one day. When I really think about the fact that they would actually be gone for about 36 weeks, I realize I would be totally miserable for the rest of the time.

So, I am off to watch "Peep" with my youngest son who just about 5 minutes ago woke up, ran into my arms and is sitting in my lap while I finish typing this. Why would I want to miss a single moment of his life?

What does the Bible say about Christian mothers?

I have been told that I don't update my blog enough :) I guess since we have already started schooling, that's really going to be true.

I wanted to post this article that I read recently. I frequent a website (here)
that answers a lot of biblical questions. They have some great posts about what scriptures say about being a wife and mother.

I really liked this one. It gave me a little encouragement as I start this new school year.

I guess when I start thinking that my life has no ministry or maybe I am not doing enough at church or the community, scripture has to reel me back in. I have to remember that my children and husband ARE my ministry. This is something that our society does not value. Even in our churches!! If we as women could truly live what Titus 2 says.

My children are not like livestock that I only feed and care for basic needs. I have to constantly be aware of my role as mother. I have to care not only for the physical needs but emotional, psychological and most importantly their SPIRITUAL. NO pressure there.

God has blessed me, not burdened me. I need to remember that. I spoke to a woman yesterday that is in her mid-30's and is unable to have children. She ached for a child and felt like there was no hope to ever have one of her own. I will never know that pain. God blessed me even when I was not ready for a child. I need to take this responsibility seriously and not push to the wayside.

Praise God for children!! As mother's, we get a minuscule glimpse of God's love for us!


Question: "What does the Bible say about Christian mothers?"

Answer: Being a mother is a very important role that the Lord chooses to give many women. Mothers are told to love their children in Titus 2:4-5 which says, “Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” In Isaiah 49:15a the Bible says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” When does motherhood begin?

Children are a gift from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5). In Titus 2:4, the Greek word “phileoteknos” appears. This word represents a special kind of “mother-love”. The idea that flows out of this word is that of “preferring” our children, “caring” for them, “nurturing” them, “affectionately embracing” them, “meeting their needs,” “tenderly befriending” each one as unique from the hand of God. We are commanded in the Scripture to see “mother-love,” as our responsibility. Both mothers and fathers are commanded to do several things in the Word:

Availability – morning, noon, and night (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

Involvement – interacting, discussing, thinking and processing life together (Ephesians 6:4)

Teaching – the Scriptures, a biblical world-view (Psalm 78:5-6, Deuteronomy 4:10, Ephesians 6:4)

Training – helping a child develop skills and discover his strengths (Proverbs 22:6)

Discipline – teaching the fear of the Lord, drawing the line consistently, lovingly, firmly (Ephesians 6:4, Hebrews 12:5-11, Proverbs 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15-17)

Nurture – providing an environment of constant verbal support, freedom to fail, acceptance, affection, unconditional love, (Titus 2:4, 2 Timothy 1:7, Ephesians 4:29-32, 5:1-2, Galatians 5:22, 1 Peter 3:8-9)

Modeling with Integrity – living what you say, being a model by which a child can learn by “catching” the essence of godly living (Deuteronomy 4:9, 15, 23; Proverbs 10:9, 11:3; Psalm 37:18, 37).

The Bible never commands that every woman should be a mother. However, it does say that those whom the Lord blesses to be mothers should take the responsibility seriously. Mothers have a unique and crucially important role in the lives of their children. Motherhood is not a chore or unpleasant task. Just as a mother bears a child during pregnancy, and just as a mother feeds and cares for a child during infancy – so mothers also play an ongoing role in the lives of their children, teenagers, young adults, and even fully-grown children. While the role of motherhood must change and develop – the love, care, nurture, and encouragement a mother gives should never cease.

From The Mind of Ethan

Ethan: "Mom, I think I want to be a missionary."

Me: "Ethan, that would be wonderful. That is what we pray for you. What country would like to go to?"

Ethan: " Well actually, I like China but they don't like Christians that much. Does Chinatown count?"

Well We Survived

Well our first week of the 08-09 school year is over. God truly blessed us with a wonderful week. Not only did the boys have wonderful attitudes( we had only one melt down) the weather was perfect. Warm but not HOT!! We had several rainy days perfect for snuggling up on the coach to read about the countries we are praying for this year. Ethan and Isaac love the new math we chose and I didn't have any crying about grammar!!

We had enough time after school to go to karate, piano, Chick-fil-A, the Neal's and even to some new friends to swim. We did start out slow this week and it will quickly pick up to become a longer school day as the year wears on but I didn't want to overwhelm them at the beginning. I figured the first week of school really is just adjusting to being in school again anyway.

Thanks for all of your prayers, emails and phone calls! Each one boosted my confidence a little every day!

I have such great friends!!


Here are some pix of the week:

These are all of our books for this semester.
There are more for next semester! {sigh}

Isaac loves his online phonics program.
It also gives me a chance to work with Ethan on math.

Ethan has not complained once about being home again!
That is such a blessing!!

Our first hands on project was making a paper mache globe.
It was very sticky and gooey. We still have 2 more applications of paper
and then we will be able to paint!!

Our Last Week of Summer

Well, this past week was our families official last day of summer. Tomorrow we begin our school year with Ethan in the 3rd grade and Isaac in the 1st. I can't believe my boys are as big as they are. This year is REAL school!! I guess I have to start thinking of myself as a REAL teacher right? (that's a little homeschool joke :0)

Anyway, I decided last week that because we were going to start school a little earlier than everyone else(we are going to Florida in September and I wanted to have a little school under our belts before we go. How many more days Aimee?) so I wanted our last week of summer to be fun-filled. I planned small activities everyday that we could either do by ourselves or with friends and sent out a mass email of our itinerary to all of our friends. We wanted as many people as we could to join us in the fun. I let the boys pick out most of the activities, so of course they were very excited.

This is what our week looked like:

Monday:
We went to the Mud Hut to make gifts for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary and then headed off to our first day of karate.

Tuesday:
We had karate before lunch and piano after lunch and then we went to the $1 theatre to see "Prince Caspian".

Wednesday:
We had our weekly lunch club at Chick-fil-A and shopped for school supplies. The boys were so excited to get Trapper Keepers. It made me feel old because my sister and I lived for school supply shopping and were so excited to get our new Trapper Keepers each year.

Thursday:
We went to the Skate Plex and dinner with the Osterloo's. Of course, I wasn't feeling well and didn't join the boys and Steve for dinner. I hated to miss because the Osterloo's are leaving for Indonesia soon :(

Friday:
It was raining all morning and the boys just wanted to stay home and play Wii. I was able to clean the house from top to bottom and get ALL of the laundry done. That never happens. The boys also got a little creative and made their own Mario and Luigi costumes. Can you say Super Mario Bros. obsessed. At least they expressed a little creativity!

The week ended with dinner at Mom and Dad's and then Steve and I were able to sneak away to Jefferson for our anniversary weekend. That was such a great way to end a full and busy week!! This weekend left me feeling refreshed and ready to start our new schedule.

All and all I would say we had a wonderful week full of fun, friends and family!! I hope the kids are ready tomorrow to begin our school year. I know I am!!

Here are some pictures of our week. Of course my battery ran out about midweek and I couldn't find my charger until Friday.

Isaac painted a Peep family plate for Nanny and BB.

Ethan made 2 love birds on a platter.

The Mud Hut Gang: Charity and Taylor,
Stacey, Molly B and Suzi and Aimee, Andrew and Abi.

The boys were so excited about Karate.

Isaac wants to take Karate so he can
punch and kick and not get in trouble.

This is what happened when I told them to go to their room and "Be Creative".
They made their costumes out of construction paper.
Ethan was a great big brother and
let Isaac be Mario while he was Luigi

They are saying " Mama Mia" in their best Italian accents

See how happy we are to be away just the two of us.
Can you believe we have been married 14 years? We look so young ;)

My Life in a Wordle

I found this on Stacey's sight and thought it was neat. I realize now that it only takes the last few blogs and condenses them into a few words. It was cool to see which words I used most though. It made my mind wander to, what if God put my life into a "Wordle" which words would stand out the most?