Homeschool Diva

I love homeschooling, but know there are some pitfalls with it, as with anything.  My oldest would tend to be an introvert, so we are making sure he has PLENTY of chances to be with his peers, work with other constructive, authority figures and do something that requires a little discipline.  Our middle needs something were she isn’t lumped in with her brothers all the time.  She also needs to be around other girls and strong female role models that are not me.  Our youngest is super physical and needs something to keep him moving.  The more he can get out and move, the more he can sit down and focus… so what do you do that doesn’t have me at 3 different place and 3 different time? Trust me I have been pulling my hair out with it.

We do a homeschool PE co-op once a week, so they are getting all the traditional team sports, soccer, flag football, tennis etc.  They all love it. I wanted to give them an individual sport to help them build their confidence and discipline WITHOUT me running all over kingdom come so they could do it.  I know…. tall order but I am a firm believer if you keep asking, you will find the right thing.  We did dance, and karate and gymnastics and they were enjoyed by all, but it wasn’t like they were dying  to go and do it again.  With all of my swimming etc, they have been picking up stokes, and the town Olympic pool is  a 5 minute bike ride from our new home. Our kids have been water bugs since birth. I taught them all to swim before they were 2 and we have lived in the water ever since. Funny side note, that was the first thing I taught them myself that actually gave me the confidence to homeschool.   I have been looking for an individual sport for them to try.  Maybe you remember my post about how my daughter didn’t really like the traditional dance thing for little girls and I was looking for something for her.  I think we have found it.  One day it hit me like a brick, swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Presto, we can ride our bikes there, it isn’t crazy expensive, they are around constructive authority figures and kids their age.  It is a physically challenging sport without being super hard on their little growing bodies and did I say THEY LOVE IT? My daughter is seeing older girls who are strong and feminine at the same time without trying to be Barbie, and my boys are getting their niche fit.  I almost gasped when I realized it hit all of my hopes and desires for what our kids needed in the way of  extracurricular activities at this point in their development. Not to mention, I can swim a few laps during their workouts.  Isnt’ that crazy?

So for now, we are a swim family…..my daughter is begging to do diving and can already do a beautiful back dive off the low board, so we will see if that may fit in down the road. Right now, I am tickled silly and wanted to share it with you all here. We are prepping to move into our new home this weekend, so I would guess the next slew of pictures will give you a glimpse of our new space.

Grace and Peace to all who are finding just what they have been looking for~

I am experimenting in the kitchen and made this recipe for a protein shake this morning.  It is super yummy and my new favorite and quick breakfast before I hit the road running.  If you need a little foodie inspiration get the clean eating magazine.  There are tons of great ideas that are lite and healthy.

Chocolate Mint Protein Shake

8 oz fat free milk

2 Tbs. dark cocoa powder

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

crushed ice

a handful of fresh mint leaves

blend until smooth and frothy

Enjoy!

Grace and Peace to all those who need a little pick me up!

that is what I call it when Mike and I  sit down and hash through all of the “things” going on in our life.  I remember when we were first married and an older married couple made a mention that they hadn’t talked about some given event that happened a week earlier.  They just had not had the time.  I thought it was strange then, now I understand completely.

So, I thought I would give you all a SOU on my life so you are in the loop.  I will do this via bullet points as I don’t have a ton of time this am before our day starts with a BANG! Rest assured, I am thinking of you, as this little blog space keeps me energized most of the time.

• I have a stress fracture in my hip and it is hurts like mad.  A common sports injury and will only heal with time and rest and that is it.
• I am not doing any training, I can only swim with a pull stoke and no kick which is a serious bummer.  I had to postpone my races reluctantly.
• I am learning how to rest and be still. (I am always learning that one!)
• We are still bunking with my parents for another week before we move yet again in to our own home.
• My Mom has had knee replacement surgery while we are here. Wow is that one wicked painful thing to recover from.
• All of my techie stuff is in pieces sitting on my parents dining room table, which doesn’t really call me to be creative with it. My camera is forlorn, my ipod is rarely charged, my computer has some dang virus and we can’t find the cables for my disc drive and can not burn discs without a lot of maneuvering, which has been a serious thorn in my side.
• I haven’t uploaded to flickr in about a month and my blogging is spotty at best.
• I realize I miss them, they help me keep my mental life sorted so to speak and my creative life on track.
• Our children are doing well without their own space and their own things although I am seeing signs of weariness around their little edges.
• I had to spend a junk load of money for dental cleanings and then a cavity filling on our kids teeth.  Dang make sure you floss your kids people, heck floss yourself too while you are at it.  I have been a bit tardy on that for various reasons….I will leave you to guess what.
• Then I had to spend a junk load of money on figuring out my hip.  Here is a tip, never get attached to money or things….they never last only Jesus does.
• Homeschooling schedule has been crazy but  thankfully we are getting it done.
• Our older 2 are joining a local swim team and my  youngest is learning the strokes so he can do the same.
• I have been praying about what to do with our oldest as he needs some new things in his growing life, so I am signing him up for a local co-op next year for 2 classes.  Latin, possibly Art Appreciation and definitly Learning with Legos.
• I am moving into the season of parenting that causes me to be in my van non stop.
• I want to travel overseas again…….like mad.  I am itching for us to go on a little “walk about”.
• Mike and I are seriously overhauling our schedule in the new house….to carve out room for dormant things.
• I am in need of a silence and solitude retreat, like yesterday.  I understand why Dallas Willard plans his out for 5 years that way NOTHING gets in the way of him getting away to be alone and silent with the Lord.
• I still love photography and am starting to clear the decks enough to start some photography  projects I have been wanting to work on.  Maybe June will be the month?
• I believe I will do this tomorrow with my dear sweet kiddies. Today I will prepare supplies and make them guess at what we are doing.  I love making them guess and be held in suspense.  It is the right of every mother, no?

So there you have it.  Now you know why I have not been very good at blogging lately.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t read another blog in I don’t know how long….hope to get to that one day soon. Thanks to all you who still stop by even in my tardiness. I’ll try to show up a little more often;-)

Grace and Peace to all those muddling through~

Yesterday we had the rare opportunity to tour some historical replicas of the ships Columbus found the new world in.  Our first thought upon seeing these ships; handcrafted using 15th century techniques in Brazil was, “Wow they are small!”.  I meen really, really small.

Go to thenina.com and check out all of the cool educational info there.  We are studying Columbus this term so it will be fun to have such a memorable reference to draw on while we read through his life. I thought it was a little peculiar that you could actually charter one of these for a wedding reception or company party.  Hey, I guess everyone even needs to make a buck.

It was even more fun to think of the books we have read this year like Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island and Seabird.  These are ships similar to ones that we followed many adventures on.  I would stop to point things out and say, “This is where they kept all their livestock in Swiss Family Robinson.”, and “Can you believe Ezra climbed all the way up there to scout out for icebergs?”.  Each time I was met with an, “I know!” Like Mom, I have already put all of this together in my mind, you do not need to call it out for me.  I stopped after the third exasperated “I KNOW”.

If you are near one of their next stops you should take a tour and if you are anything like our family you might just say, “I can’t believe how small they are!”.

For this foto Friday I thought I would show you some of my recent work. I had a wonderful spring photo shoot yesterday.  All the flowers were blooming and the children did beautifully.  The light was gorgeous, the colors were intense and the kids had fun.  I couldn’t ask for more! If you are interested in booking a spring session for your family, drop me a line a here.

 Show me some of your most recent work.  Spring is in the air and everything is fresh and new.  Go outside and get inspired.

Blessings,

a

Yesterday we went with another homeschooling family to a wonderful local spot with all sorts of nature and history.

We took a boat ride, saw a local legend’s homestead, worked with microscopes

and made new friends. The day was glorious, the children had their imaginations sparked and I shot my camera like a maniac.

My friend has a very thorough post here and here so instead of rewriting it, I will direct you to her to read all about it.  I am working on a shutterfly book of our adventures.  (Between the two of us we have enough photos for a small novella;-)

As we slowly made our way down the river observing osprey, alligators, Spanish moss, air plants and other natural inhabitants of our local area, I said a quiet prayer at how thankful I am that we live here.  Get out there and see the world people…and please take a little one along with you…they will thank you one day 20 years from now.  Trust me it is an entire practice in delayed gratification.

Grace and Peace to all those “wondering” at the world around them~

Be prepared, I am going to tell a story on myself.

One of the best disciplines is one you don’t hear thrown around in most Christian circles. The uber spiritual will use words like “quiet time” and “prayer closet” and “I get up early to be in the word” or if you are a woman they will say things like “Beth Moore and inductive Bible study” to tip you off that they are super spiritual.  If you did a poll of most western evangelicals and asked them what are the primary ways they interact with God I am willing to bet they would say, prayer and reading their Bible. Those are good, great even…..but I submit that for a time you try something new.

I read a little book about ten years ago that radically changed my view of Christan spirituality. Its author is now one of my modern day heroes. The Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster.    This book walks you through various disciplines that you NEED to achieve spiritual depth and I will tell you there are a heck of a lot more then just reading your bible and praying.  Many of them you may of never heard before as they have been dead in western civilization. You know little things like silence, solitude and fasting.  What a great thing for pastors to teach on for some time.  Silence, solitude and fasting.  Ha, what if one Sunday, in a traditional Sunday service you had to be quiet the whole time and actually practice how to still your mind and focus only on the Lord and the pastor would actually lead you through how to do that!  I giggle just thinking about it, or what if you had to bring your day planner in on a Sunday morning and everyone mark off a weekend that they would go away by themselves for the express purposes of being with the Lord by yourself? What if you did a fasting experiment as a church family? Everyone committing to fast something fairly challenging, not as a means to pray for some building program or something like that but as a means to crack up all the hard places in your hearts collectively so that as a community you might see a deeper move of God on every level individually and corporately. Well it is something fun to think about.

Over the years I have fasted many things for different reasons for different lengths of time.  Recently, I had been hearing a little knock about laying something down for lent.  Mike and I decided we would lay down refined sugar for lent. No desserts or sugar in coffee or tea. Seems like no big deal right.  Read on!  I wanted to do something that I would have to look in the face everyday several times a day. And every day, several times a day, I asked that God would be God in my life and that I would not be in charge or in control.  Here is a little story.

So first let me tell you about my sinfulness.  During the move, with all the stress, I WILLFULLY took a sweet treat, went into a corner and turned my back like a 2 year old and ate it and in my heart I said, “I DON’T GIVE A DAMN!”. Yeap, sorry….. that is what I said in my heart.  I told you I was telling on myself.  Then I justified to myself about it all day. I am stressed, this move is ridiculously out of control, I need to relax. I think I said every thing in the book. And then I did it the next day and the next day, until on the third day, I was so convicted by the Holy Spirit that I confessed to Mike and we prayed, and I got real honest before the Lord. The reality was, I wanted to be comfortable more then I wanted the presence of God in my life and I got sick to my stomach.  I cried and I cried and I cried. I talked to a dear sweet friend who always speaks deep truth to me as I was right in the midst of the guilt stage and she told me rejoice.  It kind of threw me on my  butt for a second.  What rejoice?  You have the presence of God so deeply right now that you feel so deeply convicted, be thankful that he is here and calling you to him.  It is a horrible feeling to know in the depths of who you are, in the midst of challenging circumstances that you could choose comfort over God. Oh how I need Jesus.  In a flash, I  felt Peter’s pain. Oh I know you say it is only sugar…. relax, calm down.  But I will say to you I denied God in my heart just like Peter did  and you know what He came and rescued me, pursued me anyway in my willfulness. Isn’t’ that what this whole resection thing is about?

Now I will say there were 2 occasions we specifically  ate dessert in a relational situation that we felt we were supposed to, but other than that we told our ourselves “no” over and over again for 40 days.  Mike seemingly sailed right through.  I crawled through on my hands and knees begging for grace every day. I will say last night, we had a piece of birthday cake to celebrate my birthday and it was a bit sad for me.  Sad because I knew that our fast was ending.  Isn’t that interesting!  It was such a struggle for me in such a good way over and over again over the last 40 days and then it was over. I will say I am going to miss the constant awareness of how much I need God on every level of who I am. Fasting takes you out of the center of the universe real quick and squarely places Jesus on the throne in such a deeply tangible way. Well it did for me and maybe it will for you too.

Which brings me to think that I am moving into a season of learning through fasting.  Every Christian really goes through seasons of learning at different levels with different disciplines.  I thought I would throw out a few new ones and see how they may bring you into a deeper place with the Lord.  Now I am waiting to see if God tells me anything else I need to lay down so I can pick up more of him.

Let me know what he is whispering to you.

The tomb is empty people!  Let’s throw a party……

my blogging mojo that is.  I am not sure if and when I will get it back. It makes me kind of sad as I have so enjoyed all you dear friends I have met along the way through this blog.  I sure would hate to not hear from you any more.  I think, I am on overload from my whole life right now, and I just don’t have it in me to be thoughtful or interesting.  I have just enough to be “with” my dear kids and husband in a helpful way….and then a bit left over to get some training in and be with my local faith community.  Above and beyond that, I am toast.

Don’t take it personally.  I am sure I will get  it back sooner or later, as blogging has been so good for me on so many levels.  Maybe you could just pray me through it.  I bet I will be out there swimming or running or biking and have something run across my brain that I want to tell you all about but not today.  Maybe I will come back and have a whole new look?  or a new something?

I will miss you while I am gone, but will think of you often and fondly.  Any wagers on how long I am gone?  a day, a week, a month…gulp…for good?

Wow, now when I say that I have something very interesting I want to think through by way of writing.  Actually, I could write about it and it would actually be refreshing to me.  It will help be grab hold of something deep in my discipleship to Jesus.  I am inspired to think of a way I can photograph it.  Isn’t that funny?  Maybe I am not done.  Maybe I am just beginning.  Maybe I am one Hot MESS! Excuse the incoherence….blame it on dehydration….carry on everyone!

Blessings to you all!  May you know the kindness of God even when you are tapped on every level~

Wow my blogging has been spotty, so if any of my 2 readers are still left…we are on a little family vacation.  We have rested, relaxed, played, did the touristy thing (minus the Disney theme parks) and just enjoyed a break from the normal schedule.  It is good to relax and detox especially after our super busy season of preparing a house to sell, then actually having to move out of it.

In the spirit of family vacation’s show me something fun today.  Here is a twist, show me something of your own, because you know I love to see you shoot your own stuff.  But if you do not like to take photography, but like to look at it, go to flickr, find something you really love and link it here. I love to find new photographers all over the world.  It is always good for inspiration.  So join the fun I know that some of you dear readers don’t shoot like I do but you can still play.

I will start.  Here is my fun shot. I grabbed it with our point and shoot and edited it online in picnic through flickr. So you don’t need a big girl camera to do some great things.  Just start shooting!!!

and here is one I found from a contact on flickr that I LOVE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heleens/379162902/in/set-72157607732950662/

Grace and Peace to all~