Homeschool Diva

My dear and amazing husband, gave me a day off yesterday.  I got to go do what I wanted, come and go as I pleased and not worry about anything at home, or the kids, or cleaning and getting ready for church or doing anything but play. I finished work on some photo edits on Sat. and turned the computer off. I didn’t even look at my “to do” list yesterday.  I went for a dive, I went and saw a movie by myself. I turned the phone off, I went “dark” as my brother says, which is a navy term meaning you can’t be found. It was crazy.  I feel re-energized.

I don’t do that enough.   I need to go back to the way we lived our life 5 years ago.  We scheduled out silent retreats, and alone time, and date nights and weekends away.  Shoot, Dallas Willard schedules that stuff out for 5 years in advance so NOTHING ever comes in the way of it.  Having a hour break during the day where the kids and I all have alone time, and set standard bedtimes are good at keeping you sane day to day, but they don’t do what they need in terms of deeper soul care.  God is all over me about that right now.

I did start to do the blog redesign and as I stated  I love/hate css.  When you crack it you love it, when you inadvertently erase some bracket or essential word like <center> and don’t know where it is at or how the heck to get it back, then you have a jacked up tool bar like you see to the right, or should I say the very bottom of this screen, you HATE it. Note to self, copy all the code on a note-page before you begin fiddling with the original so if you mess up you can fix it quickly.  Oh well, I will figure it out…one of these days.   I also started to upload new WP software, and design some new headers.  FYI - I am so NOT feeling the one above, but it will have to do for now.

Grace and Peace to all wanna be web designers today.  Seriously, if I could just get over the need to conquer this, I would hire this mess out, because the fun of it was lost on me about 36 hours ago.  Don’t worry, I will move through that eventually and will most likely say in the next post at how enriching the whole dang experience was after all.

I’m out! Paz all!

Firstly here is something pretty to look at.  Why you ask?  Because, I feel the urge deep within my being to change some things around.  I think it is the right of every woman to want to redecorate, and the cheapest and fastest way to do that, is by moving a few pixels around online. Namely, a blog redesign.  I know, I know I can’t help myself.

So, I will be back to the drawing board, with my blog design and basic CSS.  Trust me I have a love hate relationship with that but I will not let it conquer me.  The problem is, I wait too long between redesigns that I can’t remember what I did last time, and have to learn it all over again.  Nice. I also need to update my linky love because it is terribly out of date and sparse, so I will work on that too.

I think I am finally laying to rest my thoughts on moving this blog to a different domain name. It’s gonna stay right here. Other then that, my kids are doing some art at the table, my son is reading through Robinson Crusoe and I am packaging stuff to send out from an ending eBay auction.

Have a great weekend everyone…..look for some changes coming shortly.

First a few disclaimers.  #1 none of these pictures have anything to do with money but I thought they were so RAD I went for it anyway, and #2 This is a subject every family has to come to on their own before the Lord. Hopefully a few of these words will inspire you to do what God leads you all to in your own family life:-) #3 I have to get a mountain of laundry done today, but that really doesn’t have anything to do with this either so we will just carry on.

The 2 BIGGEST enemies of the gospel of Jesus are consumerism and individuality. Well, I must say we have that in SPADES here in south Florida. I think money, and the topic of money really deceptively weaves those two enemies of the message of Jesus and the gospel right into it.  Save for you, you, you so you can spend, spend, spend and then play, play, play and where the heck did the whole gospel of “prosperity come into play in western culture”?  I say this politely when I say that that crap is from the PIT for sure.  I mean when God told his people He wanted to see them prosper, he didn’t mean with monetary wealth, he meant with his Presence so that they could be a blessing to a broken world so that ultimately HE would be glorified.  That whole thing has gone awry in our culture don’t ya think?  Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.  Man, that junk will come in and mess you up on so many levels.  I will just hint at saying that even saving, 401k’s, college funds, etc. etc. could be a tiny bit out of balance in our hearts and minds as Christians. AND I only say that because I have fallen head long into that trap in my life.  Thankfully I am blissfully free of it, and have never been more content with much less stuff in my whole life. I love Burkett, and financial responsibility but ummmm, how do you “teach” that stuff to those in other cultures who are making do with day to day?  Just asking the question is all.   I think the message is the same across cultures and circumstances.  “Don’t worry about tomorrow, seek His kingdom and all of the other details work out”, or something like that. Sorry.  Am I being too simplistic?  I do that some times, anyway moving on.

I also think Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink, or your kids college or what you are going to do when you get old, just worry about today it has enough crap of its own to think about.”Okay that was my paraphrase, but you get what He was saying right?  So how do we responsibly teach our kids about money and saving and giving and so forth without letting those two enemies we talked about in the beginning creep in?  Good question…glad you asked.  Like I said yesterday, we don’t give our kids a weekly allowance for a few basic reasons.  #1 our budget. Even a small weekly allowance X 3 X 4 weeks a month adds up to a lot, and really how much money do little kids need to learn how to be responsible with it? #2 I think it devalues me as the Mom who does all this junk around here all the time, with no thanks and no money.  I mean what the heck?  Do you think these clothes just magically wash/fold themselves and put themselves away.  Okay, they don’t always get put away right on time, but lets not split hairs. Nope, we work as a team, and we get it done together.  I think it helps build character AND life skills all at once which are JUST as important as learning how to rightly manage money.

Here are a few practical things you can do for your kids to help them get prepared for God to move on their hearts in regard to money.  Because ultimately we sow the seed but God will make it grow right?!

• Open a bank account.  $5 bucks will get you going.  It was a big “Ahha” moment for our kids when the realized you don’t get money out of the bank without putting money into it. Plus if it is harder to get to, it will be harder to just get spent on Bubble gum if you get my drift.
• Ask some family members to give them a few dollars at Christmas and birthdays.  Think about it.  Say they get 10 bucks for Christmas and their Birthday, that is $20 a year for a 5, 6 and 8 year old. I mean come on, how much do they need to really learn how to use money rightly? The last thing I want is them day dreaming about how much money they are amassing so they can go buy whatever the heck they desire.  Remember consumerism and individuality?  It can creep right in, right there, and I well tell you right now I am going to guard the heck out of it here in our own home.  That is also the reason we stopped playing monopoly right now.  I saw a little greedy seed crop up, when they all were reveling in owning the world.  Oops, I saw that and in my heart, I was hearing, “ABORT, ABORT like fast.”  I quietly put it away and will take it out maybe later.  Hey better yet, maybe I will invent one based on giving instead of amassing wealth.
• We offer a small monetary fee for jobs above and beyond their normal chores, if they are really wanting to work towards getting something that we have said isn’t in our budget.  It isn’t an every week thing, just here and there.  I think it is good to makes kids work towards what they want.  I don’t buy them every new thing that comes down the pike.  I mean I really don’t buy them much at all. Would you be shocked to know we didn’t buy or kids a single thing for Christmas last year? Really, not one single thing and you know what, they still got more then they could ever use.
• Once they have an account, take a day, where you sit down together and talk about what money is.  Nothing more then a tool.  We spend it, we give it, we save it, we don’t hoard it.  That’s it.  Jackson realized the other day, that at one point in history money had no value, you traded what you had.  Hey I will give you a bushel of apples if you will give me a slab of meat, and it all came together.
• Then pray with them about how much they should give and where they should give it.  I think that helping your kids begin to hear what God is saying in their heart about the poor and marginalized will give them deeper joy in giving then in just making them do it.  I did this with our crew a few months ago, and it was crazy what they felt lead to give to.  Jackson was lead to a local migrant community, Chloe’s was sent to Africa and Hudson wanted his to go to Old people. I also don’t make them do a certain percent at this point.  I tell them, it is all God’s and He gives it us so we can steward it correctly.  Listen he will tell you how much to give.
• A little business isn’t a bad idea either.  Our kids have a lemonade stand.  They pull it out from time to time to make a few bucks.  It is cute and another real world math example that REALLY sticks in their minds let me tell you what.  They have also made some cash by dog sitting and walking while friends are away.  Hey, win/win in my book.  They get to see what it is like to have a dog without out us actually having to,you know, buy one.
• This year for the first time, we gave them all a clothing budget.  Here they sat, at this computer, and shopped at old navy for some new clothes for this school year.  They had to put whatever they wanted in their bag, with the right size and color without regard to cost. Kind of gave me an idea of what they like in regards to style.  I said you must put in 2 shirts, 1 short, 1 pant, 1 dress etc.  They had to follow the task.  Then we saw how much it all cost and how FAR it was outside of their budget.  Then they had to think it through and figure out what they really needed and what they really wanted, and what to put back.  It was fascinating to watch them.  Our youngest who is 4.75 GOT this with no problem.  Now this year, they will have to take care of the things they budgeted and spent for. We also said, you can’t get this until the tax free week, so they are having to WAIT. Did I say waiting was a good thing.
• Well it is, teach them to wait…..and that will flow over into every area of their life. Delayed gratification is a very, very good thing for little guys and Mommy’s and Daddy’s too.

So there are a few of my thoughts on money and kids and apparently laundry too.  Be blessed all of you out there counting the cost even when it comes to a silly little piggy bank.  It is a bigger deal then we think.

I am heading out today for a 3 day photo shooting frenzy.  I have a friend who booked me  like crazy a few clients who are donating money to our Costa Rica trip. Pray for me, as I have back to back to back to back, well you get what I mean,  shoots on Monday and Tuesday.  Our children will be with their grands. So, to make a long story short, I wont be around for about a week.  I will be shooting, and editing and creating until my little eyes pop out of my head.  Then I will be back next Monday.

So until then,  pretend you are at the beach watching your kids play.

Grace and Peace to all~

Does anyone else get sick and tired of thinking up new titles for their stinking posts?  I hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July.  We had a fun, family weekend together.  My dear husband had to deal with two flat tires and a car that wouldn’t start but that is another story.  For the most part our day was wonderful.

I wonder at how the summer seems so  frantic.  It is always so much busier then the rest of the year.  Is is that way for you all too? The kids and I are steadily working our way through school very gently this summer so as not to loose any of their competency in any area.  I took a large break last year and realized it wasn’t a good plan for us.  They get plenty of breaks through out the year, and it is so hot here mid-summer that our time is better spent schooling then playing.

I’ve had several emails and facebook comments lately about how I homeschool  etc. that I thought I would write a little post tomorrow at how you can implement these methods with your family whether homeschooling fully or just supplementing your child’s traditional school schedule.   I think life is learning and “we” as parents are responsible for making sure our kids get what they need to be ready for life. Anyway you slice it, that doesn’t just deal with making sure they can read, and write and do their arithmetic. It is a whole lot more then that.

As far as where I am at right now…..what I said the other day, still holds for me today.

Grace and Peace to all those testing the waters and learning something new! See you all tomorrow.

It is fun isn’t it people? Dealing with yourself before the Lord.  Good and hard stuff.  Taking each thought captive is one battle of wills I tell you what.

Read my post on this flickr stream.  Click each picture in sequence to see what is up with me.

Grace and Peace to all those who are punching their flesh in the eye, and telling it to sit down and junk because the King is in charge around here!

I’ve spoken before about this little collective of artists and musicians.  Maybe you remember about a year ago I made a call for artists.  Funny thing is, I thought I needed to network with them around the world.  Turns out they are right in my own back yard.  Sat. night we had a few friends over.  Actually people I hadn’t even know yet walked through our doors.  Young and old, conservative to liberal backgrounds, church staff, para church staff, different ethnicity, different backgrounds, different churches all represented.  A beautiful collection of God’s people. I am still ticked I didn’t get to sit and talk with every person I didn’t know there.  So sorry.  I want to know their story, their song, their dreams.  Really I deeply do.

So many people worked to pull it off.  We all just pushed a little.  No on person pulled the wagon, we just played and prayed along and before you  knew it, our home looked like a tea lounge.  Actually it still does.  We finished so late, no one wanted to break down, and because we didn’t have to , we said, oh just grab it next time you are over. Our kids were HOT because they missed the celebration. We sent them to sleep over at Grams and G’pas house as we knew it would get a bit loud.  Somehow they have it in there little minds that they get to play and participate in this whole expression of faith too.  I have no idea where they got that wacky idea? I laugh, because even in my wildest dreams or best plans to pull something like this off, it never would of happened as beautifully.

We did have one surprising and unfortunate casualty in the whole thing.  We killed our fish.  Yeap we “rocked” him to death.  It was so sad, the rhythm and sound just shook him right out of his mind.  The kids still do not know.  I am breaking it to them gently tomorrow.

Grace and Peace to everyone seeing their dreams unfold before them~

PS - pix taken by our friend Shawn who is handy with a camera too.  Thanks man!

We are leaving for a blissful stay-cation while Mike’s parents tend the young ones…

We will be going to my FAVORITE local place for a little R&R married 14 years style.  I will kill the pictures and leave a tiny peek….

Grace and Peace to all those who know that life just keeps getting better and better!

See you next week.

We had a fun weekend.  Our oldest had his first swim meet.

I did a little diving. I took some pictures but they are not nearly as good as my Dad’s.

Now, I am off to upload some pics to flickr and finish up some school work.   This week, we are celebrating our wedding anniversary, with half of the rest of the married world:-)  So, between, school and play  I may be spotty on posting here.

Grace and Peace to all those celebrating life with those they love.

I for one play around with my light-box.  I made this little guy out of junk in the recycle bin and some kid’s painting paper.

I love to sit and click to just relax.  It is one of my few non physical ways of relaxing.    I have been dreaming about upgrading my camera equipment but have been struggling with that for a few reasons.  Firstly, I feel like God is drawing us into a place of being content, resting in him.  I have everything I need.  We have all the money we need.  We are able to give generously and save.  I sit in the place of justifying is this a want or a need etc. etc.

The other factor is this.  If you think you need crazy expensive equipment to be a good photographer, a great photographer even, well good luck with that one.   You need to shoot more, learn more, and stay in the mode of being a student.   I have fallen head long into the flickr community and all of its amazingness.  You want to learn how to shoot better….poke around there and see what there is to see.  Right now I am fascinated with light in all its forms.  I hope to work on some HDR stuff this month and kick the strobe into high gear. This stream will make you want to work with strobes ALL THE STINKIN’ time.

The longer I pray about it, the more I feel like I am to just park it.  I felt like I had a certain number in my mind that had to be saved and given before God gave the green light for a new body.   So, I am back in the “Danielson” position again…..thankfully.  I am “waxing on and off” with the best of them.  It is all about working with what you have. Amazing artists in their day, painted over old canvases and just kept working away.  They didn’t let resources get in their way, they just kept creating and improving and having fun. So, I thought it would be a good idea if I just followed their lead.

Here is my light box set. I am sure it will grow steadily as the days and months progress…. follow my learning adventure.

Grace and peace to all those out there counting the cost~

Last year a girlfriend asked me to paint a picture for her house.  I said “No”.  I know I am a great friend.  What I actually said was, “No, why don’t you come over and paint it yourself.”  she said “I don’t know how to paint.”  Well, sistah neither did I until I picked up a brush and started playing around. I told her I would teach her.  Then another girlfriend came over, and another and another and every week we gathered to love and laugh and create together all immersed within the presence of the Creator.  Then I guess the guys got kind of ticked and started asking if they could come or if it was only for the ladies.  Well, you know me, I hate exclusion including gender exclusion so we said, heck ya, come on along and join our song.

We started kicking around the idea with a few friends about creating an artist collective and the Proskyneo Collective was born.  Initially we felt like we should do 4 ecumenical worship gatherings this year and see what God was doing with it.  Now it seems weekly, we have like minded kingdom peeps showing up at our house to eat and sing and create.  A community of God’s people that would create beauty in the world.  A space where everyone gets to play regardless of what church you go to on Sunday morning. Where worship and creativity are blessed.  Where people are encouraged to think about their life and express themselves through art. A place where dreams are sparked and mission developed.

Now a days we are praying about producing a cd of all original worship songs and a possible gallery showing of  original photography and paintings. I hear rumblings that a pottery wheel will be showing up soon.  Wow isn’t that cool. I would love to see how art and the poor intersect.  Can we bring beauty inspired by the CREATOR into the poorest in our community and by doing so usher in a deeper level of God’s kingdom among them?  I for one would like to see what God could do with something like that.

We have taught many people how to play the guitar and now they are debuting leading worship in their own small groups as I type. Those who have never picked up a brush before in their life, are playing around with color. People are starting to pick up cameras and shoot the beauty that the see, and others are literally having dreams of art installations that are sparking all of our imaginations.

I guess this doesn’t even  tip the scale in any church growth demographics.  We are just a bunch of friends who want more of Jesus and each other and want to create beautiful things as we do it.  Actually I think it says somewhere in the bible that the Church is made of God’s people and when 2 or more are gathered together in his name, He is there.  Kind of blows the pews right out of the water doesn’t it.

One of the things that will fry you faster then anything is living a hurried life.  It doesn’t matter in what way you live it….full time ministry with no time to stop and think, or a stay at home Mom who is always going and never sitting still to just be.   Being hurried will tear you up and spit you out faster then you can wink.

One of the things Mike and I have learned and have struggeled worked on keeping in our family life is a rhythm of inward and outward. A time of loving, and living and giving and serving and laughing and being with those we have been blessed to have in our life, and a time of being still and quiet without a ton of running and going, and talking and moving.  Just still and quiet.  We are making sure to give that gift to our kids as well.  I will be the first to say, it isn’t easy, but it can be done.  You can be busy without being hurried.  You can have lots to do and be at peace doing it if you keep a few VERY important things at the front of your mind at all times.  It is all about an inward/outward rhythm.  I am writing this whole post as a bit of a reminder for myself.  I thought if I need reminding, maybe some one else does too.

Our family has moved into a season full of fecundity. I use that word in honor of Heather Spring, a dear friend in Gainesville, who really ushered us into a season of understanding spiritual disciplines in a deeper way when we were starting to feel pulled to that.  We found some resources and then she just solidified everything the Holy Spirit was leading us into with a 12 week class on spiritual disciplines right before we left to move here and plant. If you don’t know what it means look it up:-)  I say that in a deeply grateful way. We absolutely love all that God is moving us into but I also know that in times like these it would be very easy to just go, go, go and never stop, stop, stop which would be bad, bad, bad. Yo, I sound like Henny Penny.

Jesus is a very good teacher.  He had a beautiful rhythm of being with people and then alone with the Father and the two never ever seemed to get out of balance.   Always one and then the other.  He was never stressed.  Sad yes, but stressed no.  He slept through storms, he taught when there was no food. He was never hurried by other people and their problems.  Dead people didn’t even rattle him.  He even walked past sick people and didn’t stop to heal them.  It wasn’t part of what he was supposed to be doing at the given moment. He just did what the Father was doing.  Imagine telling a pastor to not go and help someone who was in their path with some issue.  Sounds kind of counter intuitive doesn’t it. But Jesus only did what the Father was doing and I think that is a good life lesson to hold onto. He was present with the people he was with and always modeled through his actions.  To me, that sounds like the most peaceful way of living that could ever be had.

He didn’t care a hill of beans what other people thought of him.   None of the things that rattle us, ever seemed to rattle him.  The more I study his life and ask that he would reveal more of himself to me, the more I am in awe of what a great teacher he is.  I mean really, really great.  As I think about how he really lived his life, I am compelled to follow suit to the best of my ability.  So, I am instating a few disciplines into my own life just to make sure I guard the “inward” part of my formation and not let the outward part run me into the ground.

Here are a few things I am moving into.  I leave them here for 3 reasons, firstly maybe some of you may need to add these into your life and secondly, any of my local friends or family who happen to read this little blog will have a heads up and not be hurt or ticked that I am seemingly not responding and thirdly, Mike reads this here little space and it saves me 20 minutes of talking when he gets home.  I can just say…did you read the blog….and we go from there. I lived a season of 18 months of running like a chicken with my head cut off, responding to everyone elses needs in a crazy business I had that ran out of control.  God literally stepped in and rescued me from that mess and ever since then, I have promised to never go back to that kind of slavery every again.  So here are my few little things.

• First, I wont text until after school hours…or answer the phone or emails, or comments, or flickr mails or tweets etc.  Ever. Period. Wow that sounds harsh…and extreme. I stayed home to homeschool and be with my kids…and if I am answering calls and texts all morning, I am not present with them and they need me.  The only person who will ever get through is my hubby.  Trust me he is busy enough that he rarely calls during those hours anyway, so when he does it is for a darn good reason.  The point is for me to be quiet enough to hear what the Father is saying as I work with our young brood.  So you can text or call or email or comment etc. etc.  but I wont’ respond until after 3pm Eastern time.  Good gravy I know that sounds pretentious, I am not trying to be, I just seem to have a lot of people all over the place touching base.  I am honored and love connecting with all of you local and abroad.  I will connect with you it just won’t be between 6am and 3pm eastern time.:-)
• Second, I will give our family a day of rest in between days of non rest.  Today for instance, we quietly worked, played, cleaned and ran a few errands.  Yesterday, we were moving all day, so today we just parked it.    It has been refreshing day.
• I have been vary consistent from the outset of our homeschooling journey to make sure we all get some time to ourselves most every day.  We all get crazy if we don’t.  I think we do children a disservice, if we constantly cater to their needs, telling them what to think and how to act, making sure they are not bored. All this activity forms their little minds in such a way that they have never ever had time to be still and think.  I think we deal with a whole culture of people who honestly can’t do it.  It is a crying shame.  People have looked at me like I am a lunatic when I say we need our quiet time.   I don’t mean super spiritual quiet time either like we are all off reading our Bibles or something.  I mean QUIET.  Think, pray, create, organize your space…whatever. I believe God will show up in that space, and it must be guarded for myself and our children at all costs. Give your mind time to stop racing and just see what comes up.  It also models to our children that Mommies are people too and we respect ourselves enough to be away from them and work on ourselves.  Maybe just maybe they will keep up the practice when they move on from our home.
•  Lastly, I will kiss my husband every day like I mean it.  Okay that one was just for me, and like I said before Mike reads this here blog and I just want to make sure he knows what to expect when he walks in the door tonight.

Grace and Peace to all those guarding their inward time…and those who are gonna kiss their spouse like they mean it.

I know I am in a good place when I have the space and time to think.  I also know I am in a good place when I have the space in time to create.  Overall, everything about this season in our life is good.  Space to breath, think, create, and be with those God has put in our lives.  I have so much rolling around in my head about so many things.  Here are just a few.

• Creating an environment where deep and authentic Christian community can grow is a slow process. Slow growth is good growth.
• Thinking about how brilliant Jesus is to use agriculture as a symbol in so many of his teachings. Really just thinking about how brilliant Jesus is in general.
• Thinking about how long things take to bear fruit, but once they do, there is fruit all over the place.
• Big picture concepts direct my day to day “doings”.  When I lose the big picture I fall flat in my day to day.
• I am so inspired by Luke 10 and Psalm 24. All day long I am just thinking and praying through both of them.
• This is the year I will learn Spanish fluently and not just piece meal.
• Being content with what you have and where you are is a good, good discipline.  It heals a weary soul.
• The more I let go, the more I see God move.
• It is true, worrying about anything will not add one hour to your day.
• My top all time 5 favorite theologians that influence the way I think and live out my faith are all old men. I am in search of a woman’s voice to add to my mix. Any thoughts other than Phylis Tickle?

It is so beautiful this am, we are taking school to the beach.  We will run and play and gather and read and do all sorts of life learning.  Show me what you are learning today! I need a heck of a lot of drift wood for an idea I have…so I am putting “los ninos” to work.

Grace and Peace to all thinkers today~

My baby girl is 6 today.  Life is moving along and I always have a bitter sweet day on their birthdays.  Happy for all the time we have had to grow together.  I am excited to watch her grow and mature and learn new things yet sad at the little pudgy hands that I don’t get to kiss anymore.  Enjoy every single minute. Even the sleepless, messy ones.

She is reading and writing and working her math facts like a stellar little six year old. She is growing into quite the little artist.   I am so blessed to have her as our child.  She is a tough little scraper who has such a sweet tender heart.  I am off to take her on a special birthday outing…as we give experiences over just a flat gift.  So it is a mini-pedicure and a new dress at target.  Gotta nurture her feminine side. As you recall, she broke her arm wrestling with 4 boys all bigger, stronger and heavier than her.  She needs a little girl time.

Happy Birthday Chloe,
child of love,
[God bless you].
And blessed you are, beyond telling,
to be born to parents
who love you
and love each other
servants of the
great King Jesus.

Grow gently, Chloe in love of God.

We bless you,
and pray
Christ be near you,
now and each hour
of your life.

As you grow
may faith grow with you.
May you find the presence
of Christ your clothing
and protection.
And year by year may the
knowledge of His presence
be greater for you,
that daily you may put on Christ
and walk as His own in the world.

Chloe, May God make clear to you each road;
may He make safe to you each step;
should you stumble, hold you;
if you fall, lift you up;
when you are hard pressed with evil,
deliver you -
and bring you at last to His glory.
Amen.

I let her eat cake fore her breakfast too.  Isn’t that fun, she was tickled silly with that. Later today we are off to Gainesville. I have a few shoots booked, a family get together and some quiet time in the car with my honey.  We always have such good talks in the car.  4 hours of driving help to foster deep conversations.Here is praying you have a deep talk today with someone you love.

Grace and Peace to all those twirling like a six year old today,

So Pulled Pork Tacos are as easy as a food network recipe.  I gave it a try and MOMMY they are good.   I pulled together this spread for about 15 bucks and fed about 10 peeps and had leftovers.

The secret to the cost saving factor in this recipe is using pork shoulder.   I am experimenting with different ways of cooking more for less and using unexpected things to keep it all fun and healthy and different. We feed a lot of people a lot of food a lot of times every week, so I have to put my thinking cap on.  I mean you can only do spaghetti or beans and rice so many times.  I did leave the cilantro out and added it for garnish on the side as I knew someone eating it doesn’t like the taste of it. I also used shredded cabbage instead of pickled onions.  Other than that, it was easy, tasty, cheap and quick to clean up.  I always have a empty dishwasher ready to go, and instruct everyone to rinse and load as they finish…..that way the mess is done even after having a house full of guests.  I know I am rude, I make my guests clean but hey……I am building community and not my cleaning resume;-) Give it a try and let me know what you think.  Here is the original link to the food network video that gives you all the details.

Grace and Peace to all those stretching a buck~

Yes, I just found a banana leashed to my cabinet door in our kitchen.  Earlier, it was a stuffed puppy that had been chained to the door so it wouldn’t run away.  I come back to find fruit chained to the door and I am wondering, did she do it, or did the boys do it as a joke?  You never know with this crew. I half expect to see a dish of water and some food setting there for it next.  Not only this, but I have rescued a toy off the roof-with a fractured hip I might add, picked up unending “things” left at odd places all over the place, swept up 4 different times,  closed a million cabinet doors, and yelled  said at least 10 times….”We shut off what we turn on, and we close what we OOPPEEENNNNNNNNNNN!”  I am not sure they are getting that….. yet.

After schooling, we watched The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe today as a family (with a few fast forwarded sequences for the littles…don’t worry honey:-)).  I love the scene where Lucy pulls the sheet off of the wardrobe.  The entire sequence is breathtaking.  It encapsulates childlike wonder like no other.   I can just watch it over and over and every time I get goosebumps.  I will tell you a secret.  Our homeschool is like my own little wardrobe.  I get transported to a secret world where I get to be a little kid every day with these guys.  I am learning all over again, and it is crazy fun.  What a special gift to do this with them.  I know this isn’t for everyone, but I am sure thankful it is for me.

In other news, I am doing a little research and really stretching my cooking expertise at finding new and creative ways to cook healthy meals for many people for little money.   Trust me, it can be done if you are willing to do a little research on the food network.  Yo Peeps… I made a crazy good meal last night for a crew for only 15 bucks.   I am a “delivered” organic snob.  I was delivered from buying organic food when I realized that is was not a good fit for our budget.  I figured that we are a “Missional family” living in a suburban context, why not do what I do when we are in any other country.  PRAY! You can’t eat like a foodie in other places in the world, so we don’t do it here.  Kind of a solidarity thing with God’s people who are thankful for a plate of beans in other places on the globe.  I just pray over it, and realize that God will cover the rest.  Please, the kids drink milk and water, we watch the sugar in take, I don’t do homogenized oils or corn syrup if I can help it…..I think we will survive if we don’t by organic apples at 6 bucks a bag.  My kids eat 3 bags of apples a week, you do the math.  Even with all of this my grocery bill is WHACK!  These boys are eating machines and they are not even close to being teenagers.  Oh Mommy!So tomorrow I will give you the recipe for my pulled pork tacos that will feed 8-10 for only 15 bucks.

Grace and peace to all those praying over it, whatever it is,  and trusting God~

Well, Hi there neighbor.  Maybe you havn’t noticed  but our whole lives have been in an upheaval the last 2 months.   I know you all have been losing sleep at  night due to our families displacement. You will be happy to know we are settled nicely into the new space that God has so graciously provided for us. I’ve kind of missed you but my computer has  a deadly virus and I am about to throw it away and say they heck with it so my online time is nill to say the list

My stress fracture is healing away, and is barely painful except when I do too much and our homeschool is back on track and flourishing in our new conditions. I will say that, I could not of even thought of how perfectly this house fits our families needs.  It is always mind blowing how God does what he does when you throw you hands up in the air.   There is too much to this deliverance story for me to type here in this one small space, but rest assured that I wake up daily, and go to sleep nightly with a song of thanksgiving on my heart.  I actually cried when I heard we would get this house.

I have NEVER been unloaded and unpacked as quickly in all our 11 moves as I have in this house.  Maybe something about being on one level and having storage space has something to do with it.  I do have curtians and a few more pictures to hang but other then that, I can put my finger on everything I need.  Isn’t that amazing? In one week.  God is so good and I have had so many dear friends pitch in to help me out.  Maybe it is because they couldn’t stand my whining any longer, or maybe they just love me.  This whole move has solidified to me my love language as “acts of service”.  Tell me you love me by helping me out.  I have some people who REALLY love me. 

Here is our family room and the piano is finally tuned and ready for some lessons with a much better curriculum solution.  The one  I started with we all hated, so we stopped.  Now that it is tuned and I like the new curriculum, we are starting again.  I leave The Art of God book open to different pages every day.  My kids just sit and stare at the beautiful images contained within that book.  They typically play a little tune as they do.  Isn’t that sweet?  Our family room is cozy and bright and looks out onto a lake.  A LAKE…What the HECK!  I would of been fine…FINE I TELL YOU with a yard but a yard and a view it just overwhelming. I would of been more then fine but this house has a living room too. I don’t even know what to do with a living room.  We have lived in tiny town-homes with one space for eating and living for the past 8 years.  I am kind of lost with this place.

We don’t even have enough furniture to fill it.  It is like a big bowling alley that the kids run their cars on.   I am sure there will be more pics to come, as our life grows into this new space.  We just have the space to invite more and more people into our lives. That is what a house is for you know…..letting people in.  So, now I will sign off a little embarrassed at the house we have been given.  I almost hide my eyes when friends walk in and gasp.  I tell them it was God.  I swear I didn’t’ have ANYTHING to do with this one and I must say I kind of like it that way. Thanks to all our dear family and friends who helped us arrive here.  We did not do this alone.  This is your house too.  Our doors are always open, stop on by, I will have a nice refreshing drink waiting for you!

 Grace and Peace to all of you waiting…rest assured He will deliver you in His good and complete ways!

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 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~

I am “on fire” so to speak.  Man, moving can really put a crimp in your life routine. I am finally getting back into a “normal” swing. Just dropping by to say a quick hello.  I do now have a computer put together, and am making some cash on eBay by selling some junk I actually packed and moved because I did not have time to do it prior to moving.  I am saving for another lens, so de-cluttering on eBay will help my little lens fund!   I am running a Spring promo until the end of April.  I will post  a bit more about that a bit after vacay.

Now, I am off to pack, wake my dear sweet chickadees, drop off our taxes (I know no matter how hard we try, we never get them in before April 1st), leave my bike at the bike shop to get tuned while I am away, post some photos to flickr(finally) and last but not least stop by the hospital to visit my Mom before we head out. She had a partial knee replacement yesterday and is doing splendidly, do to all the prayer.  I bet she is up and walking in half the time the Doctors are predicting.  Oh and guess what? On Sunday a friend and I got prayer from our church family for  some physical stuff.  My pulled hamstring and his water on the knee.  Well, my hamstring is doing splendidly and his knee is totally healed.  Isn’t God cool! I love how when we ask God to come into the midst of our brokenness either mental, physical, spiritual or relational….He heals.

Grace and Peace to all those who need a little healing today~

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with all of this packing and sorting and pitching and cleaning.  We have gone much slower this time, paced ourselves and tried to not get overwhelmed. All the other 10 moves in our 14 year marriage have been fast a furious, so this has been nice and leisurely and relaxed.  I feel like it is going on forever in fact.  Oh well it is one or the other.

In other news, I am seeing the value of micro blogging via twitter.  Now that I have that sucker synced to my facebook and blog via my phone my online life is much easier.  Ha that is funny isn’t it? Not only that but I get the news headlines texted right to my phone so I am in the loop as much as anyone ever needs be.

We are fasting sugar for lent. That is good.   I pray for God to change me and mold me and form me into his image about 700 times each day.  I really love the practice of fasting from things.  I am getting that back into my overall rhythm as it is soooo good for me.  Keeps me in touch with the reality of my life and my deepest need for God and His changing work in my life.  I love how the process of telling yourself no to something over and over again, opens you up to hearing God in a way that nothing else really does.

I am LOVING my tri training.  Just waiting for my bike to be put together by my dear bro.  I did an early morning swim this am instead of a run in the rain. Nothing says hardcore like training in the rain. The reality is, it was fun and relaxing and invigorating all at once.  Schooling is moving along, as we finish up the last few things in term 2 and get prepared for term 3.  We get to study Joan of Arc.  I let the kids watch a nest video on her yesterday.  It was ok.  Chloe said, “Mom that girl was a knight?”  I said, “Yes”.  She said, “Wow she is brave.”  I said “Yes” and then she giggled like she never thought of being brave like that before.  I think it gave her a new imagination for what women can do and how God can use us in very powerful ways.  Hey it isn’t all about running the children’s church people! Wow that is another post for another time.

So that is it for today.  Just a general “state of the union” for all my dear readers.  Life is good.  I am embracing change, and mess and not being in control and accepting help and all of those good things that are good for your character.  I hope you are embracing them too!

Grace and Peace to all those who see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have little to say today that is inspiring or encouraging our even interesting.  All I have to say is that the Tortoise was right…”Slow and steady wins the race.”  This whole thing is such a great  exercise in my overall formation.  Hold things loosely, die to your own plan, keep everything in perspective, and most of all hold on to tightly the only thing that never changes….Jesus.

So, here are a few inspiring things to look at and read today. If you are wanting to get really radical then watch this.   Come back tomorrow, maybe I will have an inspiring wordless Wednesday image up.  Maybe…we can all hope right?! See you then.

Grace and Peace to all those who need a little power today~

We all sat at the red light waiting to turn.  We were heading to a dinner play date with friends at our local family friendly food stop.   As we waited, first in line to turn, we saw a man standing to our left holding a sign like this.

This is how the rest of our evening proceeded:

J:  “Mom that man says he is hungry and needs help.”

me:  silent

J: “Do you think he has a home?”

me: listening

J: “He is old and scruffy and he looks like he hasn’t had a bath for a very long time.”

me: acknowledging the situation to the best of my ability

Some time passes and we are now entering into the restaurant.

J: “Mom can we help him?”

me: “What do you think we should do?”

J: “Can we bring him some food?”

Me.  “Sure, when we leave remind me and we will buy him a sandwich to give to him.”

The kids play and eat and we are getting ready to leave.

J: “Mom don’t forget, we need to buy that man some food.”

me: went to purchase some food and then loaded the kids back in the car to take them to their next desitnation.

C: “That man needs help, we should pray for him.”

J: “Yes, God can help him.”

Me: “We can pray that God will give exactly what he needs.”

C: “Like a home, and some food and a family.”

Stuck at a red light.

J: “Oh I wish this light would go faster, we have to hurry to get to him. Mom what do we do if he is gone?”

Me: “We will pray for him.  God loves your heart to help.” as we get closer I can see that the man is gone.

C: “Mom we have to go find him.  We have to search for him. God goes to find lost things.”

Me: Speechless. What does a rational adult say to a passionate child in such matters? It is dark, we are in a very busy congested area. We can’t get out of the car and go look for this man, and I am left having to explain this dichotomy to a 5 year old who knows that God goes out to find lost things.

After this whole experience, I am reminded how much our children want to help those in need and how we rarely have opportunities as tangible as that one.  So, this week, I am praying through ways that we can be intentional about helping the truly poor in our area. Even if we just buy a bag of apples and some bottled water and go and pass them out at our local immigrant worker area.  Just a simple act.  A small way to say that you are loved and valuable.

Blessing to all those who want to be like a little child today~

The kids are off to their PE co-op class today.  I have laundry to fold, a gallery to put up for a photography client, a kitchen to clean, a floor to mop, a bookshelf to put back in order and some stones to move out of the courtyard. Don’t ask, but they are driving me nuts.

So while I am off working away, you all can stare at this lovely little flower.  Don’t feel a bit guilty that you are here, looking at this, and I am on my hands and knees scrubbing junk off our floor and moving little pebbles, one by one, off of our courtyard.  Just say a little prayer for me and we will call it square.

Grace and peace to all those trying to get it done while their kids are out of the house for 3 hours~

Do you see anything new on my page?  I wont tell you, you have to see if you can find it yourself. Stay tuned, as I add fun tips and facts on everything from homeschooling, marathon/triathlon training and of course photography.  Life long learning is our hope, prayer  and dream for our kids, so what better way to instill that, then to model it day in and day out for them and, of course,  leave a digital trail on this blog for you.  Come on learn something new with me.  It is so much fun!

Grace and Peace to all~

Here is another silly installment of 5 little things about me.  Today I am taking our kids to their homeschool PE co-op in the morning, shooting a newborn session and then brainstorming with a friend for a bit and finally trying to squeeze a run in.  So quickly before we head out the door for a day of organized play…

1. I have worn that toe ring for about 16 years.  Isn’t that interesting? The other night, someone said to me, “That toe ring is so cute.” I said, “Oh thanks, I have had that for a long time.” and then I counted the number of years I have had it and I realized time is moving much faster then my mind and body realize.

2. I have moved 10 times in almost 15 years of marriage.  Yikes that is about every 1.5 years.  The longest we have ever lived in the same home is 4 years, so I don’t know why I think I will be in any one home for more then that.

3.  I drive a minivan - but trust me, I AM still cool.  It is paid for and we will drive it until it is dust. Then I secretly want to get an old school open top land rover like our friends in Peru.  Only I want mine to be red and beat up.  Sand from the beach will rinse right out of that one.  Hey it isn’t eco friendly but I don’t drive a ton, and I recycle, use cloth napkins, never use paper plates and eat organic as much as possible so give me a break.

4. I hate doing puzzles, because I get addicted and can’t stop trying to figure it out.  We have a 550 piece one right now under the couch and I am the only one doing it? Nice.

5.  Last night I laughed so hard, I feel off the couch and starting rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes.  I just couldn’t take it.  I was truly one of the best and funny moments I have had in a while. Laughing is good medicine, it keeps you young, and clearly rolling on the floor makes you look young.

Grace and Peace to all comedians today.  Go have a good laugh!

1). Go to the park - your house will be too messy for you to relax anyway, so get out in the fresh air. You might start feeling better. Better to feel the fresh breeze than get overwhelmed with all the mess that has grown up around you, in your demise.

2) Read a book, it may just take your mind of how your head is throbbing.  I suggest Outliers.  It is a fascinating read.  I wonder how homeschoolers fit into all that junk?

3) Give your kids tons of responsibility.  They will really enjoy being the boss for the day.  You shouldn’t be surprised at how well they all work together. You may, however, vacillate between being disturbed and proud at how well your oldest can do your job as teacher, how your middle can do the job of  a Mommy and how well your youngest listens and narrates to his siblings…..Really mind blowing stuff.

4) In risk of milking it….take a day where you don’t speak..at all….to the kids. Heck I would be sick again just to do this once a week.  It was fascinating and so calming at the same time.  Only motion, do a ton of hand clapping to get their attention, write cryptic notes on scrap paper and make your oldest be your runner. It is amazing how quiet you will find your children, when they have no verbal cues to go on.  Little tip, 7 year olds can not read short hand….so write the whole thing out neatly, or you will have to write it 2 times.  Do the job right the first time and it will save yourself time in the long run. Isn’t that what we tell the kids about a bagillion times a week?

5) DON’T…I repeat DON’T get overwhelmed with what you have fallen behind in in regards to your homeschool schedule.  Take a deep breath, take another Tylenol, drink tons of water, and then right when you are feeling about back up to speed, just do the basics, reading, writing, math…then put it all away. Take your book “Treasure Island” to the beach. Read a chapter and then “play” like you are on the real treasure island and you just found Ben Gunn.  Tomorrow will be another day, and you are waiting on the next level of math to arrive in the mail anyway.  Relax…life is short…and even real teachers get sick too.

Grace and Peace to all who were sick, are sick or will be sick in the next 24 hours the way this bug is running around~

Wow, I should get some weird hits form that heading…..

Anyhoo, we are making our glittery and gooey Valentines to send out to friends near and far.  I have seem to hit a nice homeschooling rhythm lately, it just takes longer than it used to.  I figured it out.  My youngest wants to sit and participate a lot more then ever before.  It is tons of fun for all of us, but it is taking me much longer to get through a typical day of school. And three times as long to paint, color, glue, glitter and anything else you may do in a typical day.  With homeschooling you are always adjusting here and there.  Heck,come to think of it, you are  doing that with parenting as well so I am adjusting to slowing everything down and taking a deep breath and enjoying this.  The big kids seem to love helping our littlest make connections.  They nurture him well.

So a little disclaimer about the above Valentines. These little glittery bad boys cost 42 cents a piece to mail and took 3 days in a row to make, so if you get one in the mail…you better keep it until you are old and gray.  Frame it, put it on the mantle, pin it to a cork board…I don’t care, just DON’T throw it away. If you don’t get one in the mail, don’t be offended.  We realized mid stream that these were way labor intensive and stopped when the glitter was gone.  Know we love you anyway, we just couldn’t do the glitter thing one more time. Correction..I COULDN’T do the glitter thing one more time, the kids could of done it well into summer time. Okay, disclaimer over!

Happy love day to all~

Awwwww, nothing like some free balloons to get a kid to really be a kid.  Of course there are tons of adorable images on my flickr.

I am also switching some things up around here for a few reasons.  Firstly, I love the process that Blogging moves me through.  It has been a blessing over the years to see that my little meanderings have been helpful for a few.  But as helpful as my words have been, I am hoping that my lack of words will help as well, in a round about way.  Now I am going to practice a little virtual silence.  Relax, let me explain.

I will keep blogging regularly, but want to throw a “Wordless Wednesday” component in.  I will just post a pic of something I shot in the previous days or weeks that is NOT on my flickr.  I will not say a word.  I will let the image speak for itself.  Maybe it will be deep or whimsical, maybe I will just like it just because, I don’t know. Kind of mysterious isn’t it?  If you want, you can say a word, comment, laugh whatever, but I will practice the discipline of silence, at least in the post.  I still have not decided if I will respond to comments.  I am kind of thinking of Wednesday as fasting from words day, so I need to feel that out.  I am steadily working at weaving this space together into one seamless expression of who I am and where I am at, and being silent is one of those things.

Shocking I know, but silence is really a good thing. Maybe this will inspire you to carve out some time where you can just be silent and listen to the Father instead of always asking, asking, asking….moving, talking, fidgeting and filling your life and mind with noise, noise, noise that never lets you hear, hear, hear and be still, still still.  Ummm, sorry that was just for me. So I will see you tomorrow, silently!

Blessings~

catches the worm….Didn’t Benjamin Franklin say that?

Somehow, with all of the running, I have learned to enjoy waking early.  IF it is of my own volition, I enjoy it. When I am forcefully dragged from my bed against my will, I am grumpy nearly the whole day.  It is a character flaw I know.

This  year, I am beginning to think towards finishing a local mini triatholon.  I have started running alongside the kids as they ride their bikes and instead of sitting on the side of the pool while they splash and play, I decided I would swim a few laps.  Throw in some intentional bike riding in and there you have it….triathlon training.

It is a great way for all of us to get out and enjoy the great weather, and for me to be with them while I am getting my run in and they are getting some exercise.  Serious multitasking for sure, but it is working for us.  I am having so much fun now that all of our children are at the stage that we all can get up and go together.  Hang on all you Moms with those still crawling at you feet.  It 0.2 seconds they will be riding their bike right next to you. I realized the other day that  swimming, running and biking is what makes up 90% of a child’s life so maybe me training for this is in a way helping me be like a little kid again, getting to play.

Heaven knows that grown ups need to play a bit more and stress a lot less!  So that is my prayer this week, that I will play every chance I get, enjoy the kids right where they are at, and let God handle all the rest.

Join me wont you?

 and the pool is heated!

I think one of the hardest things for young Moms to reconcile, is the passing of their old life and the demands of their new Mommy life.   Little break, little sleep, lots of thankless unseen work. I remember thinking “What in the heck have I gotten myself into?” when I had a 2 year old, a 9 month old and was pregnant again, throwing up constantly.

I did a ton before I had kids, and then I had our children one right after the other, with little rest in between. We planned it that way for various reasons.  I love our children, I LOVE being with them and homeschooling them. But, I will be honest in saying that I have often wondered if my pre-Mommy life and my amazing post Mommy life would ever synthesize or would one give way to the other.

Then an amazing thing happened about a year ago.  I started to breath again because our youngest was then 3 and the infancy/pregnancy years were subsiding.   Now we all move along splendidly.  Like today, I took the boys on their bikes with me to the beach, I ran and they road along side for 3.5 miles like we had done it our whole lives. I am here to say to all you younger Moms out there, your old life will come back in time but better and more robust.  Actually right on time, if you are open to letting it.  Don’t make your children an idol in your life.  Love them, nurture them, care for them, learn for them, don’t get your identity from them, or from being a Mom. You know why?  Because one day they will toddle right on off and your role will be shifting and morphing and if you haven’t sewn into yourself along the way, you will be in bad shape.

One of the things that is re-emerging in our family life is music above and beyond just kids music.  But a 4 piece team, with 3 part harmonies and thick rhythms, working out transitions type of music that was so much a part of Mike and I pre South Florida.  It is so strange, because about 6 months ago, I was talking to a long distance friend about music/worship and saying how fun it was to play in that way I just described, and how that wasn’t a part of our life anymore.  And as I said that, deep in my spirit I heard God whisper, “I am going to give that to you again.”  I kind of laughed and thought “whatever?”.  And now 6 months later, Mike and I turned around, and here it is, in our living room, just growing up, right in step as if it has always been there, without us going out and looking for it.

Kind of like a flower blooming right in our own little garden.  I have often felt strange here, like the real me hasn’t yet come out.  That so many of my friends here, don’t really know me. Isn’t that strange?  So much of us went into hibernation upon moving and birthing our three marvelous offspring.   The new improved synthesized us, is waking up and saying hello.  It is kind of like hugging long lost friends that you have not seen in a few years, but can just pick right back up with as if no time has passed. I remember talking to a friend who had raised his children when we were just starting down that road, saying how lonely it was, and he said, It won’t always be like that, it moves quick.  He was right.

Grace and Peace to all those reconnecting and praying that reconnection will one day happen~

This particular connection  has been inspired by worship. We received a Seeds Family Worship CD for a gift this Christmas.  If you don’t have one, I would say you should grab one or all of them.  You know me and worship. I am always working on ways to expose our kids to great worship.  There is nothing more tender, then hearing and seeing your children sing the words to deeply powerful songs to our King.  These are all scripture verses set to music so we are all memorizing away as we listen.

They may just like the beat, or are absently saying the words.  But, most days, there is a word or two, that they ask me about, like Mom what does sacrifice mean? or Mom why is it saying “fear God”?  We are not scared of Him?

Kids put it together if you feed them enough good stuff in order for them to do so. I was telling you yesterday how I am seeing all types of fruit in regards to connections with the kids. Remind me to tell you Chloe’s response to her Dad about government a few days ago.  A few months ago, Jackson heard the word sacrifice in a worship song and asked about it.  I explained what it was and related it back to some things we had been learning about pagan peoples in world history.  Then about a month later we read a story in Trial and Triumph about a “craazeee monk” who went “postal” during the crusades inciting zealous crusaders to start killing Jews in Germany on their way to the Holy land, because they killed Jesus.   Jackson stopped the story with a frank statement,”Mom these crusades were not a good idea.  You can’t make people follow Jesus?” I agreed and continued on with the story until he stopped me again with an incredulous, exasperated statement, “Mom, this makes no sense. They killed Jews because they killed Jesus? Didn’t they know that  Jesus had to die, to be the final sacrifice?  If he didn’t die, then none of this would of worked.” I said you are right buddy, people do funny things sometimes, our history is a strange thing. Then a few weeks later, during our advent celebrations and reading he set a small lamb on my desk.

It is a little, wooden lamb I made 4 years ago when he was  3 in order to help him meditate on the Good Shepherd Parable.  He had taken a red marker and colored a huge red mark on the lamb. I was just about to “pop off” because he had colored on this work when he said….”Look Mom, the blood of the lamb.” and walked away. I bit my tongue, guess he was thinking about sacrifice and many other things that the Holy Spirit was whispering deeply in him.  This was all over several months time, but I could clearly see the thread working away.  The connections happening one by one. I am passionate about exposing our kids to great things, not just things they like.  How will they know if they like it or I know if they like it, if I don’t expose them to lots and lots of varied things both historically and culturally.  Jackson loves Shakespeare and poetry particularly Shel Silverstein, I wouldn’t of known that if I just gave him things to look at and read about having to do with legos and karate.  Chloe loves painting and Monet (she loves his flowers), and Hudson is mad for U2 and Handel…who knew.

All of these things, are tools that point right back to God and relate to our life in Jesus.  It is amazing for me to go through this with them as an adult.  I have a deeper understanding, and connectedness to our whole story through me working through it with them. So after school, I crank the tunes and let them play and clean and work with an environment soaked in worship.  Not to mention it keeps me right in tune with the one who called me and the one who is calling them. So go look for a few connections in your home today.  They are so fun to find.

Grace and Peace to All~

Well, you know what they say “it pays to save”.  Yesterday we opened the kids savings accounts.  They all received a gift of money for Christmas and have been saving change.  So, I offered them a deal.  You know me and deals.  Well maybe you don’t know me and deals, but I love a little incentive to do something I wouldn’t push myself to do otherwise. Remember, I ran a half marathon just for the goal to keep working out even when I did not want to. (Little tip, it works…for me at least.)

Did anyone else read the report on children who were trained to save early?  It was fascinating.  Money management and saving is actually a skill that can be learned and learned early. So I am attempting to impart that to our  dear young ones.  They were sitting at the dinning room table thinking of all the stuff they would buy with their loot.  Well, there is not a thing in the world they really need in the way of toys right now, so I threw down a gauntlet.  I said, “You can buy whatever you want, or I will pay you $10 right now to save it and put it in the bank”.  They all slowly sat for a moment thinking about it.  They did the math and added up how much that really meant, and then like dominoes, they all went for it.

With great ceremony we went to the bank.  I took pictures. All the tellers oooed and ahhhhhd and told them how smart they were.  Then I handed them their ten smackers as they deposited their loot, and counted their coins out loud to the lady.  They even signed their names on official paper work….4 times.  They were so proud.

My next real world math plan is to give them 5 bucks in various types of bills and coinage.  Give them a list of 3 things they need to find, for something we need to create or build, then take them to our local good will and let them shop and buy for real with real money.  I just need to think of something we can make together, that we can buy items to work with. Any ideas?

Well the day is too pretty to be wasted, we are off the beach to collect some shells.  See you tomorrow.

Peace to all savers today!

Things are changing! Life is not what it once was…carefree and gluttonous.

I am sullen, and sulky…and groggy. I am cranky and unmotivated….

I have a headache and I feel a little sick……

I feel like the opening paragraph in the terrible no go horrible day book……

I am detoxing from sugar…..Great Scott it is the scourge of the earth.

Pray for me….First week is a bear. Why do I do this?  I get off sugar and caffeine and feel great, and then slowly I say, oh it is no big deal, and then one day I realize I want dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner, and then here I sit having to control myself and say NO, NO, NO.

Paul, I am getting you man…”do what you don’t want, don’t do what you know you should” stuff is discipleship 101.  So I am submitting what I put in my mouth to the master King and asking for help.

A good discipline for sure.

Peace to those conquering their addictions!

Why spend gobs of money on fancy toys that fall apart 3 days after Christmas? Here are the best tried and tested gifts that will give them hours of imaginative play.  Trust me, they are all kid tested and Mother approved, at least in our house.  Give them a try, you will be pleasantly surprised.

• an empty box
• a box of band aids
• a roll of tape
• a ball of string
• a bag of balloons

There you have, an amazing day for under 5 bucks.  Now, don’t say I never gave you anything.

apparently I have nothing pithy to say, so here are 5 little things about me, you may not know…..

• I never watch Oprah. Nuf said.
• I have gone years on end without watching tv.  Currently we are on a tv/video game fast “round he-ah” and it is oh so good. We did rent Robin Hood yesterday to correspond with Our Island Story Ch 33 reading. That Errol can act.
• I totally love Over the Rhine and am still pissed Nickle Creek disbanded. I know, I know, I have to let it go. On the up side, we just scored tix to Death Cab. Mute Math,Public Enemy and others are opening for them.  Oh yeah - SCORE! (Anyone want to go with us…it is in March?)
• I love leading worship via guitar, but am back to playing the drum and I can’t take it anymore.  I just want to beat that thing all day long. Anyone want to come over and jam?
• The funniest thing I heard this week from our little ones after watching Robin Hood, “The Normans have no manners.”  Seriously hysterical coming from this crew, you’d think they are first generation descendants of the Vikings.

Okay now your turn, tell me 5 little things about you and leave em right “he-ah” in that little old comment section. Oh you know I am silly today, I am even typing “slant”.

Peace to all Vikings and wanna be Vikings this day~

The older I get and the older our children get, the more I remember how much I LOVE to play.   I got my SCUBA diving license when I was 10 or so and started my private pilots license when I was 16. I worked my tail off in high school to pay for those two things. I still need to finish my private pilots license. College, then marriage, then kids have taken all the extra funds needed to accomplish such a feet.  There is still time. Some golf when they retire, I will fly…and I think it will be a lancair when I do.

One of the things I love about homeschooling, is how it gives everyone room to dream.  Even Mommies who are relearning along with their children.  We get a big do over, and we get to do it with our kids.  It is just such a beautiful gift for those called to it. After watching this today, and seeing a lady tear it up, I thought, I want to do that.  So I think I will. What new thing do you want to learn in 2009?

Peace to all dreamers today~

So I did it.  I survived, I never looked back.  I didn’t walk a step, I just  started and never stopped until I saw the finish line and then I sprinted the last 100 feet to make it before the time clock clicked another minute,  finishing at just under 2:25 minutes. Not quite 10 minute miles but who cares. At about mile 10 my knees were a little sore, but I knew at that point I am just training my feet and joints for longer runs.  I just buckled down and pushed on, and by 12 they didn’t hurt anymore. I felt really great and strong the whole way.

At mile 3 Mike kissed me and said, “Go for it honey, I will see you at the end.”  He slowed down to find our friend who was also running and then I was all alone, in a see of thousands, just plodding along one foot in front of the other. Some funny things I saw, heard and smelled along the way. A man behind me for about mile 4-6 I believe had turrets.  He talked randomly to himself the whole way.  It made no sense.  It was strange.  2 women wearing pink lingerie on the outside of their running gear, someone else in a tiara,  a European man who must of bathed in colon in case he was going to pick his next date up at mile marker 8.7’s wacky water stop, and lastly a whole crew of friends who ran and talked the whole way.

The running skirt was wicked fabulous.  I will never run in anything but that again. The ipod tunes were nice but I almost didn’t notice, my mind was racing along and there was so much noise the whole way. Oatmeal was a winner, ibuprofen was super helpful and running with your own energy drink on board saves you time at all those water stops. Some people wear crazy belts that hold your bottles, I just carry mine in my hand, it feels better to me.  Plus their gatorade mix was way too strong.  The last mile, almost on cue the lost by cold play started its rhythmic tune, and I hustled in.

I wasn’t lost, I was right where I was supposed to be. I will race again, that is a given.  It was way too much fun.  I have no picture for you today, just imagine me… a hot mess, running along in my snazy skirt.

Peace to all athletes today!

• Set list prepped and ready to play. (I can use an ipod in this race although some you can’t)
• ipod charged, enough juice for 2+ hours of running.
• proper shoes, broken in yet not worn out.  These kicks will get me through at least 2 more months.
• Energy drink, ready.  One to drink pre-race, one to bring during the race.
• One energy bar to carry in my amazing running skirt.  If you are a lady and you like to run or are thinking about running any amount of mileage, get one of these bad boys.  You will thank me. If you are a dude and you really want to wear one, I wont stop you, but peeps may think you are a bit strange.
• Ibuprofen out and ready. One pre race, one post race. (my brother who runs triathlons recommends this to keep inflammation down during the race. I will trust him on this one and just do as he says.)
• Oatmeal cooked and ready for the am. Supposedly oatmeal gives you energy to run, and is still soft and light enough to run with in your tummy. Trust me…it ROTS hard core to run on a full stomach. Again, my bro recommended this, I hope he is right.Thankfully there are many porta-johns along the race course in case we may need them. Kinda gross but a common issue during marathons. I have heard of dudes running with TP in their pocket. YO! That is too much info I think….moving along.
• Running numbers pinned on jersey with emergency info written on the back in case something bad happens along the way then they can find my Mommy. Does any other adult still, by reflex when asked for emergency contact info write down their Mom?  Ummm, at 4am tomorrow, I will want my Mommy to tell me I can do this.  What they heck am I THINKING????????????
• Microchip is tyed to my shoe and will give me my final numbers.
• Alarm set…4a.m.
• Temperature slated for 50 degrees, so I have a trashed sweatshirt that I will wear until I can bear it no longer, and then I will throw it on the ground along with thousands of others.  They will then all be collected, washed I hope and given to charity. Mike is just gonna be cold. He does not want to mess with the sweater deal.  He is tougher than I am, I hate being cold.

Race begins at 6am, we should all be finished by 9 at the latest, hoping for 8:20 although with 15k people running this race, the first mile will be a fast shuffle so that may slow our times down, but honestly who the heck cares.  We just want to finish.  Mike and I were talking about tomorrow.  “Are you nervous?”he asked.  “Ya a little are you?”… “Honestly, it will be relaxing to just go run without anyone yelling at me, or deadlines to meet, or people wanting anything from me.  I can just zone out with my ipod and run.” So now I am wondering, what kinda crazy life we live that we have to go run a marathon to chill out.

It has been so much fun just working towards this and even more fun that I get to do it with my husband.  I have wanted to do this for almost 15 years, and just now I have the courage to give it a try again. Last time I started training, I got injured, then tried again and got pregnant, and tried again and got pregnant again and tried again and got pregnant again….well you get the drift.  Now, a full marathon will be on the slate for next year and maybe a tri.  Yeah I know I am nuts, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you are up at 4am tomorrow, pray for us, we would really appreciate it. So never give up on things you want to do.  Just keep shooting for it, one day you will hit it.

See you all at the finish line~

Today, I woke a few minutes before my run to get my head screwed on straight. I mean come on when you wake up at 5:20 what is the big deal waking up at 5. Really is 20 minutes more sleep all that helpful?

20 minutes early to just breath deep, pray, lay my day at the one who made me. Quakers call it “centering down”. Dang new agers co-opted the term and now you say that and people think you are chanting omes or something. For the past few months I have been up early, running, listening to worship music and praying all throughout my run, but it just isn’t the same as taking the first 10 minutes before your do anything else to sit still and listen…lay it all down before you ever pick it all up.

I have a fun day planned and a neat Advent activity. The kids are settling down, I am settling down, life is good, all is well, cinnamon is simmering on the stove….You’d almost think it is getting close to Christmas around here.

Peace to all who need to “center down” today!

Enjoy your family and friends today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are home from a long weekend away, reconnecting with extended church family from our sending church in Gainesville, FL. I am cleaning, and restocking items from suitcases, creating grocery lists for Thanksgiving meals and feeling that tender feeling creep over my whole being. Maybe you know the one. There is something in the air…underneath all of the lights and tensile, under all of the consumer junk that is flashed before our eyes urging us to buy, buy buy….. underneath the cookie exchanges and the overeating. That tender, new hopeful thing that is birthed every year, as God’s people remember who they are and in whom they are made and held together.

So, now we prepare, our hearts and minds with all the turkey blur. We traditionally set up our tree on Thanksgiving day, and I begin the Advent calender with the children. I did not grow up with a liturgical background, but somehow I LOVE the Advent tradition. I love what it does for me, and hopefully some of that slips off onto the kids. Maybe not, maybe they are just full of expectation for glorious gifts.

That’s okay. I expect the Holy Spirit to ignite a depth of love in them in due time, as he has done in me. I can’t explain it, but I truly am like a little 5 year old full of awe and wonder at this most glorious gift. I will probably post a bit less this next few weeks, and keep my flickr stocked full. There is so much to see and inhale in the natural and in the spirit that I am at a loss for words and can only respond with an artful response.

Song to Listen to: Sing to Jesus by Fernando Ortega

A little meditation on the wonders of God to start the week out right. I left 2 translations. I always love reading scripture in a few translations. It gives me a deeper hold of its beauty. Have a great day all! See you tomorrow.

NIV

Psalm 111

1^[a] Praise the LORD. ^[b]
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

2 Great are the works of the LORD;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.

3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.

4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.

6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.

8 They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.

9 He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

The Message

Psalm 111

1-10 Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I’ve got—
Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.
God’s works are so great, worth
A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment!
Splendor and beauty mark his craft;
His generosity never gives out.
His miracles are his memorial—
This God of Grace, this God of Love.
He gave food to those who fear him,
He remembered to keep his ancient promise.
He proved to his people that he could do what he said:
Hand them the nations on a platter—a gift!
He manufactures truth and justice;
All his products are guaranteed to last—
Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof.
All that he makes and does is honest and true:
He paid the ransom for his people,
He ordered his Covenant kept forever.
He’s so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.
The good life begins in the fear of God—
Do that and you’ll know the blessing of God.
His Hallelujah lasts forever!

Our middle child is a girl bookended by brothers. She is tough and can throw down with the best of them. I work hard at taking her on “princess” dates and doing special little things so she can see through modeling that being a girl is great. I understand that she will learn about her femininity through watching me. She does like to wear dresses and look pretty, just not overly girly in anyway.

We enrolled her in ballet, so she could have girl time, and be prissy and wear pink etc. You know a break from all this boy stuff around here. The testosterone, drowns us out at times. Guess what. She could care less. In fact, she doesn’t really ever want to go, and would rather stay home and play soccer with her brothers. I do have a loose game plan on things that I am exposing her to, and working with her on in regards to the wonders of being a woman but I am now seeing that ballet doesn’t have to be one of them.

Here is the reality. She is just like me. She doesn’t really like pink, she told me the other day she doesn’t like princess stuff. It is “dumb”, a word we don’t use so I am sure she really meant it. The other night we were sitting outside playing and she asked if she could get the skate board to skate. The hysterical thing is, it is her brothers and he never touches it. She is rockin’ on it. Honestly, she is a total athlete, even over the boys. The boys are athletic and do well at athletic things, but she is a natural at almost everything and has crazy spacial awareness.

So I gotta say, I think it is totally RAD to have a skater chic for a daughter. We are discontinuing ballet. I agree that we should require children to do certain things even if they don’t like it because it is good for their character training…like cleaning their room, and eating their vegetables, not something that we are stretching to pay for and she isn’t really diggin’. We are rethinking something else I can get her involved in that would nurture her feminine side, that she will be down with.

Any ideas for an athletic, rad, little 5 year old who thinks she is invincible and can do anything she puts her mind to.

Dang, I want to be like her when I grow up!

I just love it. I get to stand outside, another person or families life, and capture their story and then show it back to them in some of its simplest beauty. I’ve been a little busy with some post editing work, and schooling and training for a marathon. I am moving through my to-do list. I hope to finish much of it tonight and then get back to some real writing.

Until then, just relax. Imagine what it feels like to not have a care in the world, not worrying about what you would eat or what you would wear, or if you had any money, feeling completely safe and loved with the ability to explore endlessly?

Imagine you could live your life just like her. Well, that is what I am going to do anyway. I am going to go play at the beach with my kids. I may just play with my camera and tell my own story……my poor flickr has been neglected.

Peace to you,

Today, is a day that I wanted to experiment with words. With so much attention over the significance of this day, I wanted to say a few gentle words as a small hope filled act.

A letter to God’s called and sent people who happen to live in the United States:

Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our king, our leader, our hope in all situations. Grab hold of all of the things you have been given through his death and resurrection. Live a life, full in Him. He is our daily bread, our 401K, the author of our domestic and foreign policy and does not waver even when the economy does.

Rise up, you precious one, and embody the life and calling of our King. Feed the hungry, adopt an orphan, take care of a widow, give generously to those in need. Really, I mean you do it, not the government, not the leaders of the church, or organizations. Don’t wait for “someone else” to do it. You do it… now, today. Go find one of these and do that..do what Jesus did and calls us to do. If we all decided to do this, then days like today would be held in their proper perspective.

Do your civic duty, as one that is prayerfully asking for guidance from God on high. The one that holds countries in His hands, the one who seats kings and rulers up in power. It is interesting to me, that I know and love people, who love and follow Jesus, in all three camps, who feel deeply called to act in the way they are acting in regards to all of this political stuff; Democrat, Republican and Conscientious Objector. It is a mystery to me, and yet I know the God who sits on high, is not confused or in fear about our future as His people. What a beautiful hope, to be a part of the people of God around the world. That our hope is in Him in every season.

What if we did more than vote? What if we lived our vote with our lives? What if we gave so generously that government programs wouldn’t need to exist, and what if we did such radical acts of counter cultural things that we would really start to see some change move at the grass roots level?

So go ahead today, and check your box, but do not stop there, keep going. Keep voting with your life and your words and your actions. Vote all over the place in word and thought and dead.

In Him we will see lasting change,

Signed by a little homeschool Mom who’s voice does not even break out against the roar of the parties, but still believes that Gentle Words spark life in the Kingdom of God.

a comedy of errors. Long story short, we have a salt water fish tank in house….as we speak. So far we are all super thrilled with our new ecosystem and our one little domino fish. The children have already bonded with the little guy. Can you believe they are bonding with a fish? It is so sweet. They check him every few minutes to make sure he is okay, and were a bit sad to take him away from his friends at the fish store. Really! We had the water tested and it was fine for a fish to dive right in on day one. In a few weeks we will have a few more join him. I will post more pics then. You can check the flickr to see the other pics of our day.

On another note, I am working on reworking and reorganizing the tabs up top and my blog roll list which is a separate page and is different from the links next door. So if I have linked to you in the past and you don’t see yourself up there, don’t worry, I am working on it:-) If you want me to link to ya, send me an email and I will be happy to do so.

The collaborative Etsy site is moving along with some group input and content it is going to be better then I even originally envisioned. If you are an artist or know an artist who may want to participate then just drop me a line. I also have 2 new photography blogs being created as I type, a few face books fan pages and some personal photography work in the works. So get ready to click and link in the next few days. All right hope springs eternal, it may be like the next few weeks, but you get my drift.
Peace to all~

Oh to be four!

I’ll be back tomorrow after a little birthday fun.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 16:23-25 (in Context) Proverbs 16

One well placed word, can spark such unbelievable life. This week, I am going to write a series of posts, maybe 2 or 3, on words and how the Lord has been teaching me about them. One can never know how another perceives ones words totally, but if you commit to allowing the Father to season your words and ask that He will flow through all that you say, you will be well placed to bless those around you. I actually want to challenge you to do a study on words, and see all of the things the Father says about them. You may be healed from the inside out and be totally changed in your thoughts on it.

This also goes for not responding to one in anger, or calling people out on their stuff unless you are completely sure the Holy Spirit is saying for you to do so. I try to keep this in mind with my children, with my husband, friends and acquaintances. Lately, I have had a few people say some unbelievably hurtful things to me. One of the things I have learned over the years is to separate the person from the words, and in all situations try to see them as Jesus does. See them as broken as I am broken, see them as needing healing as I need healing, having compassion for them instead of wanting to defend myself, allowing space for Jesus to be with them, and not throw my issues into the mix. Some times I retreat from certain people because I don’t want to say something that will derail them from what God is doing with them, because I know in my own flesh and pain, I may say something that would bring more wounding then health and healing. I will say this is not easy and I am not perfect in this. There are times in my flesh I want to nail someone to the wall, and call it all out. It is part of my training in Christ likeness to not respond until He sets it up in a way that is helpful on all fronts with His words not mine.

Proverbs 10:19
When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

Some time ago I had a hurtful email land in my in box. Unbeknown to this person, it was a full on frontal attack to my very core. Our calling, our vision for church, our deeply held God called and inspired DNA that has been printed on our heart. It was so deep, that I knew it wasn’t about this person, it was about being sifted. It was about me going to God for all my healing, self worth and wholeness and not in any ones affirmation. Since then, a few closer people, have unknowingly, in their pain, done the same thing on different levels. It has almost laughable at a certain point. With each time, God has been calling me not to respond and to speak a blessing.

In all of these instances, God has been calling me and drawing me into him. Showing me His goodness to me and for me and our family and what he has spoken into being with our church here. Trust me people, we didn’t’ come down here and decide to do this because it was cool and hip. I have wanted to quit so many times it is embarrassing how little faith I have. If I had my way we would be someplace completely different, but His ways are so much better and I have grown to love being here, and have fallen in love with those he has called to be with us.
Last night, I got a gift. It was the gift found in my in box. It was very dear and sincere, from the originator of that email, asking for forgiveness. First I was stunned, and then I was still stunned because it was so unexpected. OF COURSE! Not only were those words life giving to me, I know that they were for the sender as well, in only the deep and abiding ways that the Holy Spirit can work with someone. Behind the words, I heard something more. I heard a gentle word from the Father, affirming me at my core. I have so many thoughts on all of this, and what the Lord is stirring in me, but I will stop here. This post is already too long…more tomorrow.

Peace to all~

There are so many things in bloom for me right now. Training for a marathon and really taking my health seriously. I think you really get on this train the older you get. Man, 34 has been a rough year on one hand and an amazing year so far on the other. On the rough side, I can’t drink anything with caffeine past 2pm or I am up all night, a small glass of red wine makes me sick, fried foods are no longer my friend, and I MUST take a vitamin everyday twice a day to keep up with this circus around here or I am so tired at 2 that I could cry. Yeap, we all do it…age that is, but I am hoping to do it as gracefully as possible.

On the amazing side, I am running more now than I did in college, I am enjoying developing deeper and deeper relationships here. God has really opened up a season of new life in that area for me. One of the new things I am doing is working “the steps” with a few girlfriends here locally and it has been amazing so far. I will write a little more on that later. I am also really finding my artist groove and realizing how much it makes me feel like a little kid, in all the good ways. We grown ups are WAY to serious at times…okay, well I am too serious at times. I am learning how to lean back into life a little. If you are a musician or a dancer maybe you understand that idea. Just leaning back into a piece of music, letting it breath, being just a breath behind the life of a song. I can’t explain it in words, but I know just what is feels like when I am expressing myself musically.

So, I wanted to introduce you to another blog friend/artist friend of mine who is learning how to lean back into life in new and exciting ways. Her name is Leah and she lives in Canada and she has started a new photography project that I think is smashing. You will want to link to it for sure. Maybe I will ask Beth in Prague to do this with me. But shhhh, don’t tell her:-) I want to ask her first myself.

So that is all for today. I am off to shoot some photos of teen sisters who want an “artsy” Christmas card to send out. I am glad their Mom booked me cuz I got artsy in the bag:-) (a good dose of positive self esteem is good before walking out the door to any paid gig) I will post a pic or two of them later in the week.
Peace to all those “in bloom” today.

It is amazing to me, to see how God gives you such wonderful things to think about with your own children. This one is my “mini-me”. God knew what he was doing for my overall formation, when he gave me the care of this little pixie. I see myself so clearly in her. You know those parts of you you don’t really look at or can’t see and those parts that you hope to be again one day? They are perfectly illuminated in our children, well they are for me at least.

Not just the things I need to work on, but the things that I have forgotten about me. Those child like, spunky, fearless things that this wee one hasn’t learned to stuff yet.  So right now, I am finding a deeper, more authentic me who feels really safe right now. Kinda like a kid, kinda like her up there playing.  I know most of you wont “get” what the heck I am even saying, but I know the shift that is happening in me and I am liking it a WHOLE heck of a lot!

I gasped in shock as our little family minivan made a slight bump-bump only moments after we saw a squirrel run across the road and turn back sharply to avoid an oncoming vehicle. It missed the other car and ran right under ours.

I put my hand to my mouth in shock, the kids asked “Mommy, why did you put your hand on your Mouth? and What was the bump bump sound?” We both remained silent. Mike then averted their attention to a kite flying off in the distance.

Poor little fella~

I told you earlier I would give you a tour of our kitchen. Well, here it is in the early morning light. All of the family are gone. I have a relatively clean and quiet house. It is always good to have a full house, and then have a quiet empty house. Both are necessary for happy, healthy home life.

Jack’s Mommy is going to help me work through a new blog skin. I am excited to get a few things weeded out, that I keep getting stuck on. She is super savvy with all of that stuff, and kindly offered to help me. What a great gal!

So look for a few changes around here in the next few weeks. In other news, I am moving along with my marathon training, and oddly have a crazy inkling to train for a mini-tri sometime next year. I enjoy working out when there is something I am shooting for. I am kind of wired like that.

So, I will keep you posted on all the outward and inward changes that are being birthed in me, our family and our community as we roll along.

Peace to all~

I am currently scowering all blog skin sites looking for a new blog skin. I am SOOOOOOO over this one. I want a larger phot blog all white type formate. I am tired of my images being all grainy and sqwinched up. I know what I want in my mind, but for the life of me, don’t know how to make it happen.

I am working on learning all the background inner workings, to pull it off, if….it….is….the last…..thing…..I…..do……….. ( said with an exasperated exhale) .

Painting walls and moving furniture is so much easier.

Peace to all frustrated web designers today~

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands….”

1 Thessalonians 4:11

So, I’ve been working with my hands today. I already determined not to school this week, because tomorrow, we have 6 family members arriving that we will efficiently pack away in our little space for the next week. We are all excited because we usually never have family in to stay with us. We typically go to them.

Like I said earlier, we have been cleaning and washing and rearranging. I love leaving for a good space of time or having people in for a space of time. Both situations cause us to deep clean, weed out, and organize. I have gotten some things done that I have wanted to do for 5-10 years now. REALLY….I am not joking.

1. See those candle sticks on the pass through? They were wedding presents, hand made by my great uncle about 75 years ago. Guess what, they don’t hold modern candles worth a darn, and I am not making my own for these bad boys. So, I finally dug them out, and re-purposed them, so I could use them and enjoy them. I attached (semi-permanently) little candle dishes on the tops of them and now they can hold pillar candles. (I’ve wanted to do this for 5+ years. Having nursing infants derailed my plans a bit:-)

2. See that hutch to the right of the photo. That was my husbands baby hutch when he was little. My dear father in law, refinished it and gave it to us. I love it, and it too has been in our bedroom collecting dust and junk. I moved it here by the dinning room table, and now store, china (that i never use) and cloth napkins, hand towels, our tea set etc. (I’ve wanted to do this for 2 years. I am just now getting to it.)

3. I rearranged some art in our home. Above the previously mentioned baby hutch is a new piece I just shot last week. On the pass through wall, is a collection of our art. Some made by me, some by the kids, some we have purchased on our travels around the world. I’ve always wanted a funky, eclectic gallery wall. Well, now I have it. You see the violin hanging? That was mine when I was a wee tyke. 10 years ago, when Mike and I lived in Gainesville, we were/are friends with a young/their kids are gorgeous well adjusted teenagers now, family about our age now, who home schooled etc. Super cool, super funky and non traditional that helped lead worship at our sending church. The wife had her violin hanging this way in her home, and I have wanted to hang mine the same way ever since. (To my Gainesville readers, can you guess who that is?)

4. We rearranged some area rugs, and I now realize after shooting this picture that the table is not centered under my light, so I will fix that. My dearest girlfriend gave me that light for my birthday present some years ago. I tricked it out with some trim and shells. It is just a little bit of me hanging right over our dinning room table. That dinning room table was given to us by dear friends who pastor a simple church in Michigan. They have little guys and home school too. When Brian left our home, he gave us a gift of money saying it was a blessing from their community to us and that we had to buy something made of solid wood. Well, we did and we LOVE that table. At the time we needed a dinning room table but couldn’t swing it and were eating off of plastic patio furniture. (Thanks Brian and Amy and your crew in Michigan. I promise we will get up that way soon!) I pray for them often when we sit around it. If you look through my pass through you can see into our kitchen and right out into our front walk way where it is windy and rainy today. I can take you on a tour of that tomorrow.

I lean towards a modern design aesthetic with a little bit of eclectic punch. I don’t like a ton of matchy-matchy things, and get a serious high on reusing what I already have, or things I find or have been given. I LOVE Amy Butler design and drool over her mid-west modern book. Did I say I drool over it? Now, I am thinking through a paint color for downstairs. I want something cool (because we have dark furniture) and a little unexpected. The original color I wanted isn’t flowing with this vibe so I am back to square one.

Any Ideas?

for about a week.

I need to rest and recharge…think bout stuff. Anyhoooo….

See you all latah~

Today I made something new for lunch.

Wilted Spinach with left over chicken. I am so sorry I have no picture for you. The pic I took was yucky and I was too hungry to adjust my settings and take a better one. So use your imagination:-) I did find an interesting version here that I may try tomorrow.

I cooked a crushed clove of garlic in some sesame oil in a frying pan, added some leftover chicken to warm it and then threw a bag of fresh baby spinach on top until it wilted.

Cheap, healthy and YUMMY!

In other news, our mail/pool key is missing….and we can’t find it. They are “spendy” to replace, so pray with us that we find them.

Thanks~

or at least that is what they think. Let me explain.

Lately, I’ve been PULLING my hair out over the issue of food with our children. The reality is, if I let them, they would stuff them selves on goldfish and pretzels all day. We do not eat out a ton, and I don’t have tons of junkie snacks in the house, so I had the false idea that they were eating a balanced amount of all food groups. I was wrong. Now, I have 2 choices, roll over and give up saying what is the use, or rethink our previous plan so that our little guys start to get the reality of this. I will be honest and say, I was about to roll over and throw my hands up in frustration because the simple “Eat whatever is put in front of you” family rule, wasn’t producing the actions we wanted.

My friend uses a chart for her son, to keep track of his snacks during the day, so I took a cue from her, and modified it a bit for my brood and have come up with a mini science lesson all in one little task. I told the children that I was going to teach them how to manage themselves when it comes to food, because one day, Mommy wasn’t going to be right next to them to show them what to do, so they needed to learn a good plan so they could stay healthy and strong as long as they live. I sat down with the children, giving them a detailed description of what are good foods to eat, what they do for us, and not so good foods we can eat and what they can do to us, along with a little talk about what it can do to our teeth. I then presented them with a little experiment that we were going to conduct for the next 30 days, to see how we feel and how we act based on what we are giving our body for fuel.

We created a foods chart, that they must monitor what they are eating by checking off in each column, fruits, vegetables, proteins, snacks, along with any observations they discover about how they are feeling during the day. Now when they say , “Mom, I am hungry I need something to eat.” , I say “Go look at your chart and find something appropriate.”(I help our youngest with the chart but the older two work at it mostly on their own)  My daughter who is the picky one of the bunch, is eating everything with joy and a twinkle in her eye because somehow it hasn’t become a battle between her and I, it is simply a decision she has to make based on guidelines I have given her. (Note to self: remember this as life moves along with this one!)

I have noticed a huge change in their overall attitude. They are not as cranky or seemingly as hungry all the time. They are still required to try new things I make, and do the best they can to eat what has been put in front of them, but somehow a shift has occurred among them that makes the whole situation much more enjoyable. I know as an adult, for me, there is a HUGE correlation in my attitude and how I feel based on what I am eating, so it must be true for them as well.

Sometimes, it is just a little tweak, and a previously challenging family exercise becomes fun.

Peace to all “tweakers” today~

This week, I enter with a thankful heart, my head bowed low, my arms ready for the work before me. This week, I will stay present to the kids, I will stop and play Lego’s and ponies as if I were a kid myself, and I will remember what it is like to be “like a child”.

I will open my eyes to the beauty all around me, I will cherish every phonics lesson and math problem, and conflict resolution session I facilitate between our growing brood. I will deal with myself before the Father. I will stop ignoring little things that He keeps talking to me about and pretending they are not there. I will say, “Yes Lord”.

Because after all, time is the only thing I own, and relationship is the only thing I can buy with it. I want to spend it extravegantly.

Peace to all~

I just finished reading Jesus for President. I read it on my way up to Green Bay and finished it on my way back. I will be honest when I say, that I wept all the way home. I challenge you to read it and maybe you will weep too. I was seated among several large business men, on their phones with their coffee, and I tried to control it, but I just couldn’t. Tears and snot just started flowing and flowing. I didn’t care. It was beautiful.

I will say that I am pretty weepy right now. I was cleaning the floors today, and I just wanted to break down and cry and cry and cry at the faithfulness of God. He is so good, and loving and so many other things I don’t have words for right now. I have been living on worship music right now. I want to say a hearty thank you for the commenter who recommended Kelanie Gloeckler. I wanted to leave you with the lyrics of one of her songs.

Responding
VERSE 1
Anticipation comes up with the sunrise
You’re here again, waiting for me
Relentless love is the rhythm of Your voice, drawing me closer…
I wanna worship ‘til Your heart is satisfied
All I am, I give You gladly
Letting my heart overflow to adore You, beautiful Jesus…

CHANNEL
I will not miss this moment to… tell You I love You
You are the song of my life

CHORUS
I’m weak in the heat of Your glance
And I resonate under Your hand
Responding to the One that my heart loves
With the breath that You breathed into me
In the fire of intimacy
Responding to the One that my heart loves

VERSE 2
Today’s another day to obey and surrender
Bending to hear the secrets You breathe
And You delight to see how I respond to each new revelation…
So I’m searching for language to capture Your wonder
Fold You in worship as You consume me
Ev’ry cell of me sings when I see You, beautiful Jesus…

BRIDGE
When I see the passion in Your eyes
You make all my senses fly
In Your presence I am alive
You make all my senses fly

Aren’t road trips grand?

I am back from a few days away with friends. I had a great time of reflection. My journal, my heart and my mind are full.

While away, I had a few wonderful ideas of how to more deeply communicate the kingdom of God to our kids. I will be thinking those things through and if you are good and very polite I may post them here:-)

I am also preparing to leave for a few days to go to Wisconsin and visit a blogging friend in person for the first time. We have developed a wonderful friendship through each other’s blogs, face book, emails and phone calls. Now, we will get to do it real time in person.

Life is good and the weather is feelin’ fine.

We had a great 2nd week at school. Time moves along steadily throughout the day.

The kids finished up today, with a little loud joyful worship dancing. (Their idea, not mine.) They have seemed to gravitate towards Matt Redman’s song “You Never Let Go”. I just realized as I was adding this link, that this song echoes the 23rd Psalm that we are memorizing this month. I don’t think that is a coincidence.

So I thought, I would leave you with a few questions I received this week:

• Mom, how come if I have 2 eyes, I only see one thing?
• Mom, can I paint?
• Mom, why is the sky blue?
• Mom, can I paint?
• Mom, why are there always dark colored people riding in the back of trucks and never white people?
• Mom, can I paint?
• Mom, can we have a dog?
• Mom, why are there starving people in the world? Can we send them some of our food?
• Mom, can we worship, and I sit in your lap while you hold the guitar and I do the strings?
• Mom, can we read some more of Pilgrim’s Progress?
• Mom, what does “redeemed” mean? Mom, what does “deemed” mean?
• Mom, the wind is really strong right now, can we fly the kite?

Can you guess who asked what? So I am off to fly a kite.

Peace to all kite flying enthusiasts today~

in a very loud voice!

“I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR YOU ARE WITH ME!” over and over. Our youngest was having his quiet, alone time and was acting something out with a play sword. I have been working on the 23rd Psalm with the children. Each day, we go over another portion and find a beautiful photographic image to go with each section. Then we recite the portion we have memorized.

It is true, that if you feed your children good mental food to eat, they will grow big and strong. Oh I am sure the Charlotte Mason says it much more eloquently and flowery, but that is the basic concept. I think it is interesting that our youngest is resonating with this portion of the Psalm. He is very brave for his young age. Really people you have no idea!

We tell him often:

• Yes son, I know you are big, but you can’t work with matches. That is very dangerous I don’t care how many big kids (teenagers in our church) you saw doing it at the fourth of July.
  • (Matches and all flame starting devices are now banned from our home. Some of you may find it cruel that I pulled up stories on the computer, thanks to Google, about how children burned their houses down, and killed their entire family because they played with matches. My older 2 were crying their eyes out. For them, all I would have to say is, they are dangerous and no problem, with Hudson I have to go 500 extra miles for his little brain to get it.)
• Honey, we know you are very big, but you are still only 3 and you can’t use sharp knifes yet, no matter how well you think you can use them.
  • (Knives are now hidden on the top shelf of our cabinet and even I have to use a stool to get them. )
• Honestly child, I know you are very, very brave, but you may never, ever ride your bike away from home looking for your Mommy.
  • (Mommy was upstairs taking a shower, and then realized you were gone. I went out frantically looking for you, not ever thinking to check the gated pool. This was a big mix up in communication. Mike and Chloe went out for the morning and left the boys with me. Hudson assumed I left with Mike, and since he knows he isn’t old enough to stay home by himself, he decided to go and try and find us- dear child. I am now coloring my gray hair)
• I know you are strong and brave, but you can’t prop your bike up against a 6 foot high fence, then climb up on your bike and jump on top of the fence, in order to get a better view of the whole neighborhood, in search of your Mommy, who is now calling 911, hyperventilating, screaming your name like a maniac. Thankfully, you jumped down into the gated pool area, were contained and then found by a neighbor because you couldn’t get out again. I knew, I knew, I KNEW what I was doing when I started you in the pool at 6 months and started teaching you to swim. By 2, you could swim like Michael Phelps.
  • (I had an all points bulletin search going, with several cars canvasing the neighborhood. Our dog walking neighbor found him in a place I would of never thought to look. Inside a child proof gated pool. Ha - so much for child proofing.)
• Yes, I know you think you can handle watching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe because you are very brave, but you are not old enough to handle CS Lewis’s epic. You have your whole life to see it. Let’s wait a year or two shall we?
  • He sees the cover of the DVD and sees the young boy with the sword the shield and is ready to fight and thinks it is all for him.

  

So we felt we were to name him Hudson Taylor for a reason. This child talks about seeing the world all the time, is obsessed with maps and randomly speaks of China fondly. Trust me we NEVER brought this stuff up to him. It is just coming out. Out of all our children, Hudson is the one who speaks of Peru often and wants to return, today as a matter of fact. I think that portion of the Psalm is God’s way of reminding me, that he is covering this child, and that I am digging my heals in and hanging on for dear life.

Seriously, I have a MAJOR problem that I can not remedy. Please give me some tips if you have any.

I have two young men in our home. Okay let’s be honest, they are little boys and they are both independent in the restroom. I think they are training to become fireman or something as they are experimenting with spraying. They must “miss” often because the smell of urine has slowly been escalating the past few weeks. With the summer heat and my need to keep the door always closed, because it is located in a walk through area and if it stays open it blocks the path, the smell intensifies.

I drench it in pine sol and wipe it down and, and, and…… NOTHING! I am disgusted and have to apologize to guests as the walk in to use the facilities. We are leaving for the weekend, and I am literally leaving raw pine sol on the floor the entire time, in hopes that the smell will be gone already!

Any Helpful de-stinking tips? Please….anyone…… help!

(7 fresh bluberries on my white plate.)

It’s been seven years since we left Gainesville. I think it is funny, it was also 7 years of training, between the time of hearing God call us into ministry, specifically church planting, and leaving to go to parts unknown. I remember distinctly sitting with a few friends praying and waiting on God in Gainesville about moving forward. We knew that we would be moving soon, but were newly pregnant and were not sure of when to actually pull the trigger. In our best thinking, we thought we should stay in Gainesville, have our first baby, and then move with a new born. Knowing what I know now, I am so thankful God moved us when we were 7 months pregnant. At the time, I couldn’t see that but now I do. Do you see a pattern?

(Mike and me at 7 months pregnant. With our first child, that was my favorite dress, by the third baby,I hated it.)

As I was saying, Mike and I were sitting and praying with friends and I got the very vivid picture of the number 7 etched into a large rock. At this time, we were wondering what to do. Do we recruit some from Gainesville to move with us as is conventional church planting wisdom, or do we go, by ourselves and trust God? I felt like God impressed upon me that 7 would be the number of people that we started this little church with and that they were here in South Florida waiting for us. And, I am here to say, that 7 it was, and yes they were, our new born baby being one of them.

It became radically apparent that we were to move, and within 2 weeks our house had sold, we packed all of our belongings in a little Uhaul truck, or church family laid hands on us, prophesied over us, ordained us, cried with us and then in a bitter sweet moment, sent us out. Just the 2 of us, pregnant with not only our physical baby, but this hope and vision that God had so deeply sewed into our hearts. It is sewn so deep, it causes us to limp. It has forever changed us and who we are. I think that is what calling does. It wrecks you for normal life. We had no idea what we would be getting into.

(Our first home in Gainesville, FL. Those trees dropped some wicked leaves.)

Upon settling into temporary quarters (did you know we have moved 7 times since arriving here-I know it is getting strange), Mike felt deeply that we were to wait until the baby was born before we did anything formal. And so, we began to detox, from the business of ministry we had always known. We read, we prayed, we slept, we were introduced to ancient church mystics, we asked for guidance, and one by one, those 7 dear friends were drawn together and we started asking, “What is church?”. What does it mean to be the sent and called people of God. How do we help people actually become a student of Jesus in their real lives. How do we reach the world where they are at, instead of asking them to come to us? What is really essential and important in being the church, and what can we just chuck by the wayside? So many questions, so much unpacking, so much unlearning and relearning.

Last Thursday we had 2 birthday celebrations in our home. Our physical baby turned seven. He has moved into a level of growth a maturity that is new for us all. He has lost teeth and grown adult ones, he has learned to read, write, speak intelligently, have an opinion and take care of basic needs. God forbid he ever get lost somewhere, he would have the ability to find his way to help and then home. Now, he is at a place that we can deeply call out and instill values that will take him far in this great life. It is a fun stage of parenting. Much more of what I had envisioned when I was dreaming about being a parent. I just didn’t realize you have to go through all the messy, sleepless stuff to get here:-)

Well, our little church, or faith community as we like to call it, turned seven too. It too has lost teeth, painfully I might add, and grown new adult ones. Learned to think and respond and take hold of what it means to be a called gathering of Gods people. God has called many people to come along side of us, to take hold of what God has placed in their hearts and dig in here. It has been a hard and rewarding process for all of us. It looks a bit like what we hoped it would in the beginning, and yet, just like with our little 7 year old boy, we only have glimpses of what it may look like fully matured.

Last week, I had not thought of any of this, until I was doing dishes and God showed me that rock again. Mike and I call them anchors and we have many of them in our journey of faith. We write them down, remember them, review them often. Those little moments that you are sure that God is saying something profound, and that for some reason you must remember them. Encouraging words from friends that were straight from the thrown room of God, personal visions, dreams, particular verses and passages in the Bible, all things that God has been speaking and saying to us for years now. We were told early on, by our church planting assessor, that these anchors at times would be the only things that we could hold onto in ministry. At the time, I thought it was a bit morbid, now I understand.

The first year, Mike did not work conventionally, as we worked out this calling of ours. In time, we made the choice, to be just like everyone else. So he started working as an engineer again and currently works 50+ hours. How could we ask others to grab hold of their discipleship to Jesus in the midst of real life, a life that we would not be able to understand if we did not do it as well. So, no mid week pastors lunches, yearly pastor retreats, pastor appreciation gifts, or even the title pastor. And yet, it is hidden, and quiet, and not paid for, but he pastors and leads and assists with the best of them and doesn’t get one red dime for it. We like it that way. Guess what? God has led a few others who are doing it to with us. My dear sweet amazing husband has given up a lot these last 7 years. There aren’t many patting you on the back in this space. So I pat him on the back as often as I can. He is brilliant and humble and stubborn in all the good ways, always pushing past the good in pursuit of the best. I love living this thing with him. There isn’t anyone else I could do this with.

So, as I was doing dishes and God reminded me of that rock, I felt like He said, There are 3 periods of 7 here in South Florida and we have just completed the first leg of this 21 year experiment. It was almost like I heard the click of a door closing behind us and a new door opening in the spirit. Everything we learned the first 7 years of training, and everything we added, omitted and rebooted our second 7 years of detoxing will propel us forward into the next 7 years of gathering. Mike and I think it is interesting that Hudson will be 18 at the end of the third 7 years. So It will be fun to see, who keeps moving along with us, and who new may be added to the mix.

So what’s next? Stay tuned and I will keep you posted!

Yeah right! Are you kidding me?

A teenager in our church just invited us to her sweet 16 party. The invitation reads and I quote, “kickin’ it old school for a 80’s themed sweet 16 party”.

Seriously, I am old, and now there is proof that defies my beauty and good looks:-) Thankfully for me, I hear that 50 is the new 30. I lived the 80’s through elementary and junior high and the beginning of High school. I saw bubbles skirts, leggings, parachute pants and ray bans galore, and now, I think I am seeing them all again.

So for all of you out there who lived the 80’s for real, this one is for you! You know it had to be a great song if Jessica and Brittany remade oversexed covers of the classic. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek on that one! I worn you, don’t you tube these covers…no I said not to, Oh man I warned you!) Seriously, so many current artists have covered this that they must be rolling in royalties.

Peace to all those who wore jellies, bubble skirts and leggings the first time around, Congrats, you are old just like me:-)

(Happy Sweet 16 Savannah! Life moves fast. Enjoy every minute!)

This a.m. we had donuts for breakfast. Hey, it’s a birthday treat! It’s every 7 year olds dream don’t ya know:-)

And we did a little jumping, and swimming, and all around playing. Pool water helps clear a stuffy head.

And I watched from the sidelines and reflected on the lat 7 years. So many things have been born and grown in our lives the past 7 years and Jackson isn’t the only thing. More on that in a later post.

Peace to all who are stewards over growing, living things today,

Well, for many reasons, Mike and I are tightening the belt, and being creative with the resources God blesses us with. I am a big advocate of using what you have, buying used and not getting something because it is the newest or just because you want it. God is steadily delivering us, form poor financial choices within our control and hard circumstances outside of our control. Now we want to be faithful to both save and be generous to those who need it. We are coming into a new season on many fronts, but one of the ear marks of this time, will be how we learn to save and control our spending.

So, I am cleaning out and organizing our closets (again) and getting ready for school this week. Some how or another, I always find something I can list on eBay. So this week I am listing 4 or 5 things and also going through clothes. Not to donate but to scavenge from. I grabbed these bottons from an unused shirt and will turn the body of the shirt into interfacing for something else I am making.

I enjoy sewing and hate going to the fabric store with the kids, so I have given myself a new challenge. What can I make that is new from something I already have lying around. So I am creating “out of thin air” and excited. Look at how this women turned her old t-shirts into cute baby clothes. I need a wallet as I don’t have one, so I am going to make this one.

Pray for me!

Sorry Peeps. I have lots to say and many drafts not yet ready to go up. So you can have a glimpse of what I am reading. I have tons of photo editing to get out the door and I will not allow myself to finish these blogs until my “chores” are done.

Jesus for President by Claiborne and Bread for the Journey by Nouwen. They are kind of opposite ends of the spectrum and feeding deeper things in me in challenging and thought provoking ways:-) So go read them for yourself.

and on a random note, my girlfriend just recommended this site for sassy tips on going green. So check it out!

Peace to all~

1. What one thing could you do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

Worship. For me this is where the rubber meets the road. In years past, I have led all types of worship all over the world, but since having little guys, I haven’t worshiped as much until recently. Up until now, I would worship by taking a “holy nap”. You think I am joking, but I am not. How can you praise the living God, when you are barely living yourself. Now, I feel God gently calling me back to the heart of worship. A way of being in the presence of the Lord that is like no other. Worship is singing to God and not about him - so that kind of guides what I do sing. Read the words of some of your church songs, and see if you pick up on a difference.

2. What is the single most important thing to increase your family time this year?

As we all grow together, I find we need to be more places more frequently and I can’t remember it all. So a family calender will help us all stay together. This last year I double booked myself, and stood people up more times than I care to remember. Say no to more, and organize what I do have better. Mike keeps recommending an online calender, so I will nag ask him to do it again.

3. What one thing could you do to increase your prayer life this year?

Schedule 2 silent retreats within the next 12 months, where I do nothing but sit, and be still before the Lord. No body else, no agenda, just letting go of all my little plans, and letting God do some rearranging as needed. This is a must in the basic essentials of being a disciple of Jesus. Hate to be so blunt, but if you aren’t getting this in, you are missing something huge.

4. What one biblical doctrine do you want to understand better this year, and what are you going to do about it?

I think the historical narrative is what is calling me right now in understanding the deeper hermeneutical circle. I know that is a big term, but it is the only one I know to describe what I mean. Just click the link and it will give you the diggs. As in, when was each book written in relationship to the history of the world. I am going back to my history major roots and putting some ducks in order in my mind so to speak. I am using Winn Griffins, God’s Epic Adventure as I study and it is mind blowing. I encourage you to get it and read it!

5. What does your devotion time look like?

It is fluid and dynamic. Changing as needed. I think the biggest mistake Christians fall into, is doing the same thing the same way all the time. Think about it, if you were training for a marathon, you would definitely do your running, but stretching, strength training, rest, diet and nutrition are all important components of running a healthy race. It is the same with our time with the Lord. I practice silence, solitude, worship, Lectio Divina, read many of the late mystics, read the Psalms over and over and right now I am on a Paul kick. That Dude - Rocked IT! I read Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence in my college years and it radically transformed my idea of quiet time. I do have a time first thing in the am, where I dial down and ask for grace to be obedient in my work for the day, and that Jesus would reveal more of himself to me each day, and then my day starts, and I just keep talking and the Lord keeps responding, and we roll like that all day, until I lay down at night and I lay it all down again. Sorry it isn’t very black and white.

So whether you blog or not, I encourage you to play along. This was very helpful for me.

So if you are reading this~ officially, Tag - You are it! Leave me a comment so I can stop on by and learn from you, and give One Thoughtful Momma some love while you are at it:-)

Peace to all!

• building my Etsy shop for some of our photographic images. This has been on my “to do” list for almost a year now. So I am gettin’ it done!
• Meeting with some fellow artistic creative followers of Jesus and exploring what it may look like to start an artist co-op in our local area. Lots of ideas there!
• building my design portfolio and booking paying clients. I have done tons of free creative work, up until now. I am making the leap and beginning to charge for my time. People have no idea how much time editing and post production work it takes to make a brilliant image.

• writing out a plan, that keeps me centered and not working too much on being creative. I don’t want the tail wagging the dog so to speak. Just slow, steady consistent exploration. Some people watch tv in their free time, I run and create.

So - I will keep you people posted with links and other brilliant goodies as they are ready for the world to see! Until then, I will post one of my favorite images of recent.

Peace to all artists today!

Goodness - you hear the left say “It is the end of the world.” and you hear the right say, “Oh come on, the earth goes through natural warming and cooling cycles. This is all normal stuff.”

I respectfully say, “BS people!” To those lefties out there, I submit that “God is in control of when it is the end of the world, so pipe down.” and for all you conservative righties out there “Your smokin’ the good stuff, if you actually think that we don’t need to consider the way we live and how it affects the earth.”

We try and make little choices to recycle and live simply and sustainable. We have a long way to go. We have a lot to learn. There is more we could do, but I am a firm believer in baby steps. It is not an “idol” in our families life but for us it is a stewardship issue. We are supposed to be good stewards…right? Being thankful and respectful for what we have and learning how to follow Jesus in it.

All I am saying people is, do your part. Be a part of Jesus’ redemptive message to the world, subversively. One day, the entire earth will be renewed, and not just humanity ether. All of it.

Here are a few tips:

• Recycle your junk. (Is it that hard to have 2 trash cans in your kitchen, one for trash and one for recyclable things?)
• Stop buying every new thing that comes down the pike. If you have last years version of the i-phone do you really need this years version?)
• Think locally-buy things grown in your area, try to buy green. (Better yet hand made - sorry folks you can’t get that at Wal-mart - I am really trying to figure out how to do this in our town, because for the life of me I am not sure where to find anything grown around here.)
• Think about how much you drive. Consolidate all of your errands on one day. (Gas prices may force us to think of this.)
• Start a composter - (It ain’t that hard, and your plants will thank you.)
• Start a garden, or a pot at least. Grow a few herbs, start small.
• Quit using paper plates and napkins. (I promise a few dishes and throwing some napkins into the wash wont kill you. Hey, make your kids do it! My Mom started this when we were teenagers and it kinda stuck with me.)
• Donate your unneeded items, to local charities that help those less fortunate then you. (I promise hording your junk does you no good. - God will provide for you - not holding on to that one little widget that you are sure you will need one day, although you have not needed it in the past 5 years.)
• Make it a game with your kids. Go through you whole house, and create a donate pile. Pray that God will show you who needs all of that unused stuff and then go give it to them.
• Shoot, sell some of that stuff on eBay and use the money to pay of your debt! If you don’t have debt, then give it away yo!
• Dang - we even have a few friends who have gone all vegan. Willingly giving something up for a deeper reason. We aren’t there yet, but hey people are thinking about it.
• If you eat meat/animal products, think about how it came to you. Was it humane?

Here is the deal, our kids are the ones who are going to have deal with all of this mess down the road. In the west what we buy, consume and throw away, day after day after day, affects more then just how many times you take out the trash. Here in the states, we have nice little land fills that hide our dirty little secrets. In many other underdeveloped countries around the world, they don’t. So it just sits all over the place, and you step over it, and you pick through it and you smell it, in some cases you live in it. I was thinking the other day, how most of the world, still lives in a type of poverty that was prevalent when Jesus walked the earth. What would it be like, if we sent missionaries around the world who could teach agriculture and sustainable farming, conservation, how to have clean water, safe trash removal and infuse it all with the redemptive message of the kingdom of God and I am not talking the Peace Core here. Better yet, what if I could be a missionary in my own context. What if I could actually make little choices in my life, that speak volumes about what I really think.

Just sayin’ is all~ I’ll tell you what we are doing in this vein tomorrow, well, after we do it ya know:-) Pray I follow through.

Peace to all~

I am back into running - for like the 10th time in my life. Throwing kids into the picture puts a serious cramp on consistency around here. I am finally back at the “addicted and need to do it” phase. For me, it takes about 6 weeks of consistently hating every step, until you get in the groove.

The other day I ran an organized run down by the beach. A local run shop hosts it with water stops every so often. The run starts at 6am. You can run any length you choose, however, from the shop to the inlet and back is 13 miles. It was actually fun, to watch the sun come up over the water, and move along with so many different ages and abilities. All shapes and sizes were out to challenge themselves or train for the next marathon. I set my mind to pray through things as I went from water stop to water stop.

There were actually freaks elite athletes there, who were running the course 2x not just to do a marathon but to actually train for best times. I was spurred on when I began behind the 60+ year old grandma’s and grandpa’s. I thought, “if they can do this so can I”.

It got me thinking as I ran along, about discipleship to Jesus and discipleship within community. I actually thought how helpful it may be for Christians, who are physically able, to actually train for and enter a race. It doesn’t matter. Walk a 5k or something, it doesn’t have to be a marathon. But there is something about setting out on a course, and knowing that no one else can do it for you. There is also something equally as formational by seeing so many people doing it with you. You can’t be a Christian by yourself.

The idea of “running a race” is a common theme in the new testament. Paul uses it a lot in his letters. He likens the Christian life to that of running a race. I think that our culture keeps us detached from that idea. Everything is so fast, and instant. Not many people are actively training for anything, or willing to go through a little pain to finish something that may be hard.

So I am pouring over Paul’s letters again. They always have something new to say don’t they? I especially love 1 Corinthians 9. Paul doesn’t mess around about the honor and reality of his calling as well as his own personal discipleship to Jesus. Good stuff!

Peace to all those fellow runners in training today~

Yesterday we had communion at the beach, ate dinner and then did some good old playing. Our children are great swimmers and Mike and I feel like we have accomplished a major task by helping them not be fearful of the water. I literally started taking them to the pool at 6 months and going under water with them, shooting them to the wall and jumping in straight away with them. People at the pool thought I was whacked, but I didn’t care. Swim lessons here are CRAZY expensive and I knew if they were to learn, I would have to do it, because extra money around here was used for food. (Remember my 5 part home school schedule story? Money was scarce.) We never used floaties with them, and trained them quick on how to get to the wall. I got the book “How to Teach Your Baby to Swim” and by 2.5 they all had it down pat, no help, across the pool, getting their head up with no problem. I think I was happier the day Hudson could swim unattended then I was when he kicked the diaper habit. We don’t have a yard, but we have the community pool and the beach 10 minutes away so we use it like a tool.

Recently, we have been helping them get used to the ocean and the waves, as it is completely different than the pool. The sting and taste of salt water is a bit daunting at first, but once you are used to it, no problem. Last week we taught them “duck diving” and they have been learning the merits of the boogie board from the older kids at church. They know the life guard flags and how to get out of a rip current. Yesterday was windy and choppy. Mike and I didn’t want to get in the water, but they did, so off they went with some other church family friends. I was a bit nervous watching them navigate the waves, but I just let them go and learn a bit and kept calling them back when they got too far. (Great Scott, that is a metaphor for life).

One of our families dearest friends is a life guard. He has been a part of our faith community from the beginning and has seen our kids, from inside me till now. They adore him and trust him entirely. He has been saying how he was going to teach the kids to surf and yesterday was the day, and now they are hooked. He pulled out the long boards, and everyone was hangin’ ten. Well my little two were belly riding, but they took it in to the beach. Can I say I am jealous? I grew up here and never learned to surf. I am now adding it to my list of things I want to learn to do. The kids say they will teach me:-)

It’s all about wanting a long board now for Christmas. Sorry the pics are so grainy. Alas, our camera phone grabbed this historic moment as I didn’t bring my camera. What was I thinking?

Yeap - It is 3am and I am up writing a blog. I was “summoned” by a child to help change sheets at two, and I don’t know about anyone else around here, but when I hear “Mommy” being yelled from an offspring in the midst of a deep sleep, I literally jump 3 feet in the air and start running like an Olympic track athlete. Well you know, all that adrenaline keeps me from falling back to sleep. I am also making a serious mental note to have yet another conversation with my dear children about how they are to wake me if they need me at night. I was a mess with infants, as I never deeply slept for about 4 years because I was pregnant or nursing and never able to fall into a deep sleep. Oh God Bless my dear Husband.

Peace to all those who hang ten today~

(Sorry, this is a bit long and I don’t blame you if you skip it but it is my blog and my process so I write it my way. Live with it peeps!)

Little did I know that when I started this thread on Homeschool Scheduling, I would end up with a 5 part post on the topic. It has been very good for me to review all that God has done as I prepare to dive into our second year. There was no accidentally doing this, or just throwing things together. There has been an underlying process all along the way that has been shaping my thinking and my practice. So now you understand a bit more about our family and how we have come to this part in our journey and how I am able to do some of the things I am going to do this year.

Firstly, I have 3 children all roughly 18 months apart at 3 entirely different stages developmentally. They each need something different and because their abilities are so stretched out, one reading and writing, one staring to read and write, one just starting to hold a fat crayon, I realized a few weeks ago, that next year would need some sereious scheduling on my part in order to make sure that they all are getting what they need developmentally. I started to see, that I needed to be 3 places at once, and didn’t know how in the world to do it. I was falling asleep one night and had the thought, I wish I could hire someone a few hours a week to help me manage the three stages. So Mike and I had a talk about it and reviewed our budget and decided that that would be a perfect plan for this year.

I think as a child begins homeschooling, habit training is one of the most essential skills needed in order to move into successful life long learning. That takes time and focused attention, and to be honest, my youngest has not had enough of my undivided attention because our middle is starting to read, and write. Our oldest is reading and writing well, however, I am still doing most of his school reading because with AO you typically read several years above their skill level and don’t transition independent reading over to the student until about year 4. So I have 2 more years of having to meet three very different needs, and now because of the miracle of our budget, I am able to hire someone to come in a few hours a week, to implement very specific goals for my youngest, along side all the work that I am doing and overseeing with the others. We are also able to have our 2 oldest attend a PE program for homeschoolers in our area one day a week, while I have our youngest do a gymnastics class where he is working and interacting with his peers. So I will be running a 4 day week of schooling, with the 5th day being PE and doing art/music study and nature study in the afternoons after their quiet times.

Some of the practical things I will stick to, is morning schooling for our core work, done by lunch time leaving afternoons for “specials”. This ensures that we are all at our brightest and ready to move through our material. There are days we will have to do some things in the afternoon, as we did this year, but I am honest in saying it is not ideal for attitudes etc. so for our family, the morning is the best(getting copy work, math and reading out of the way first thing).

To make sure we all are having healthy boundaries (mommy included) as we all move along, we stick to a firm quiet time for all of us mid day. This allows us all to have some time to ourselves, to think and play without anyone else grabbing from us or directing us. We can sleep, or read, or pray and talk to God, or build or create, just as long as we are by ourselves for 1 hour each day. I am also making strong efforts to be up 1 hour before the kids so that I can exercise and be prepared for the day ahead. Getting each weeks materials ready before the week begins, so I don’t have to rely on the computer and the ringer turned off on the phone, helps us all stay on track. I am realistic that this is the ideal and that many days I will fall short of this, but I will just get back on my horse the following day, and get back at it again. There is no perfection in homeschooling, only trying to do better then the day before and you will stay the course.

We will start our school day at 8:30 with everyone doing a little poetry, memorization work and bible immersion (I hate the idea of bible stories. It seems so trite and contrived so instead we are immersing them in a thread of theological and biblical content. I’ll post on that later) . Before that, we will have breakfast, and do general chores before the day begins.

From there the older two will have a little copy work at the table. I am teaching them both cursive at once, and then back track and refine Chloe’s print skills the second half of the year. My youngest will do some patterning work/sandpaper letter or tracing work on the floor with our “helper” .

Jackson will “watch”/do his math lesson with “Mr. Steve” with Math U See (Golly I love this program - it takes all the stress out of it!) The littles will go to the kitchen and have a math lesson while preparing snack. Counting grapes, plates etc.

Jackson will do 20 minutes of out loud reading to our “helper” and I will do 20 minutes of reading with the littles using 5 in a row curriculum. Then a snack break and a quick bit of outside time. After that, I will move on to reading with Jackson some of his lessons that require narration and the Hudson will do some fine motor skill work with some of our Montessori materials and Chloe will watch her math lesson. I will then do a phonics rotation cycling them all through a 10-15 minute time of one on one time with me as the other two work on putting lunch together with our helper.

Before lunch we will all clean up our school work, say good bye to our helper and then have lunch and quiet time. In the afternoons I will teach them as follows: Monday piano lessons, Tuesday art study, Wednesday Nature Study Thursday Latin lessons and Friday library outing to get books for the next week.

There you have it. I’ve decided it is too blooming hot here in the summers, so we will probably do a yearly rotation of 3 months on one month off, because honestly, more then one month off gets boring for all of us. That way we have break months during the most beautiful weather all year. So, I will give this a good dry run starting in August and tweak and adjust as needed. I’ll keep all you good people posted!

(Hey don’t let any of this stress you out! If you are thinking of homeschooling or your kids are younger then mine relax. You grow into this for sure. Your first year is just trying things on and getting in to a good habit and routine. I always say, if you can read a recipe and bake a cake, you can homeschool. It just takes a little discipline and you grow right along with your kids. Deep breathes, excellent resources, patience with yourself and your kids and a strong support network will get you on the right track.)

Okay class, any questions? Anyone, anyone, Behuler?

(OK - who are we kidding here? I will get to the schedule when I get to it. If you haven’t yet, read the other 3.)

At the beginning of this year, we began preparing to go to Peru for 5 weeks. Through a combination of people giving spontaneously, and inventive money raising ideas(we rented our home out as a vacation rental for 5 weeks), me homeschooling and Mike telecommuting, we were able to go to South America for several weeks to be a part of a conference that friends of ours were preparing for national pastors there. We had no idea how this time would go. God sharpened our vision, renewed our hope in what He is doing here in South Florida, and spoke some new things.

Once home, we finally did our taxes dreading the outcome. We thought we were going to owe thousands of dollars and were not sure of how in the world this would all work out. I was actually dreading it. However, much to our shock and amazement, we received a refund that paid off almost all of the remaining debt we held. A few weeks ago, we were also contacted by a lawyer advising us of some mortgage relief that we are eligible for that we had no idea was possible. Our van is one payment away from being paid off, and it looks like by the end of the year, the last bit of the debt will be gone, our current home will no longer be upside down, and our family is right were we always wanted to be. Me at home, with a peaceful, non- stressed environment( well as non-stressed as 3 littles underfoot all day can be) and living well within our means, so that we can afford to be generous. It looks like it will take 2 full years of faithfully taking one little step in front of the other, following Jesus, to get us back to square one on paper but light years ahead in the kingdom. Really and truly being obedient one day at a time, leads you into greener pastures and beside still waters.

In all of this, God has been calling me to be even more available and present to the kids. Things like setting up boundaries and schedules that will protect our schooling time are a must for us. Little things like no computer and no phone calls during day time school hours are simple little tricks I throw into the mix. The reality is, if I am not able to be present here, listening to what God is saying each moment here in my little homeschool, I will not be able to minister anywhere else with any authenticity. The kids and myself for that matter, do really well with morning scheduled time, so if it works why mess with it? I am also learning, how to have guidelines, to help myself get alone time, insist on each of our children having their own alone time, and rediscovering what I was made to be, outside of kids and homeschool. I wont be a homeschooling mom of 3 littles 15 years from now, so I keep working on me outside of them. (Shocking I know but Moms must have something other than their kids and home to occupy their time.)

So, now you see why the schedule I will give you tomorrow has been a long while in coming. This schedule was bought with a very high price tag and it is very dear to me. As always a work in progress, changing and morphing to fit our needs. It is very specifically a tool to keep us moving forward, allowing me to observe our children and listen to the Father while staying connected and present the entire year as we move along in our sweet little God given homeschool.

My first year homeschooling was all about observing. Trying on a few things, seeing what fit and what didn’t. Watching the children interact, and learning what they need emotionally, spiritually, physically and cognitively. No one else will do that with as much love and passion as Mike and I will. Now, as we move into our second year I feel like I know right where I am going and how I am going to take us there. I have found some lovely resources that line up perfectly with our families overall schooling plan, and I can’t wait to see where we go over the next few years. Follow along~ it is going to be a wicked good ride!

Really cross my heart a schedule will be on tomorrows post:-)

Peace to all this day~

(Read the other two people!)

So, it was almost the minute we picked up the clue phone, said we missed it, asked for help, took responsibility for how we had gone wrong and were willing to make drastic changes in order to be obedient, the cloud began to lift. Mike and I could almost feel it. It was if we were back in the flow of God’s good graces, and the wreckage around us wasn’t a big deal. We knew, somehow God had good plans for us, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a positive checking account. Nothing changed with our finances. But we stopped trying to make it all work. We just said, this doesn’t work and what ever it takes Amber is staying home and pouring into our children. Heck - homeschooling wasn’t nearly as scary as possible bankruptcy. I called our Montessori school and said, we wont be back. They were gracious enough to work a payment plan out with us. This was in Feb. I had three months to start working out what the heck I was going to do with homeschool that was authentic to us and our story. (a VERY important part for any homeschooling family). We put the Mercedes up on a lease trader site and waited to see if anyone else would take it off or our hands.

I was praying one day and I just got this impression that within the week the Mercedes would be gone. I told Mike at lunch and he said, “You know it is funny, but I got the same thing today.” Later that day we got a call and within a week it was gone. I had to pay them 4k to take it off of our hands, but trust me I was happy to do it! Mike and I tease and call it blood money. The clouds were lifting and all I could think was “IT IS SO GOOD TO OBEY!” No matter what obey people it always ends up right.

Our other town home was still rented, and leaking, the kids were out of school so we now longer had that payment we did not have the Mercedes any longer. Our budget was starting to come into alignment but we were still leaking and upside down everywhere. But I started to school our kids in May. It was then that we met our Realtor who gave us the tough news about the reality of this market and what stood ahead of us. She was the one who taught us about short saleing, why we needed to think about it and why holding it as a rental was a bad idea. We drastically reduced the price and within a few weeks had an offer that the bank accepted and we were able to get rid of that part of our budget.

We still had the debt but at this point Mike got a raise and we were happy to only have the 36k in debt and nothing else. We were starting to be able to breath and for the first time in almost a year we were living within our budget and not leaking onto a credit card. In the midst of all of this, whenever I got stressed about where we were at, I would think, “This isn’t my job.God said he was rescuing me. He will do it.”

For the previous 18 months, I was rarely present with our children. And previous to that, I was too infant/pregnant tired to be available to anyone. I was always somewhere else, talking to someone else, doing something else other then being with them. I was there in body, but never in mind, or heart. I was ether striving or trying to escape. They felt it too. I was too stressed to enjoy them. No matter what, I was going to be with them and no where else. When Mike and I went into “ministry” we made a conscious decision to never put our kids on the alter of “ministry” and after this whole episode I was now convinced that I would never put them on the alter of building a business ether. They are our kids and our most precious resource and I wont hand them over to any else to shape or mold them and I wont do anything that doens’t allow me to be present enough to observe what they need. No matter what.

So it was then that we decided, in order to balance our debt load that we accumulated over the previous 18 months, we liquidated our kids college funds in order pay off half of the balance. It was one of the hardest and most freeing things we have ever done. We skrimped and saved pennies to put into those funds, and it was now, that we realized, God will cover them every day of their lives. They will be okay and when we need money for college it will be there. Right now, we needed to get rid of this debt so that we may pay it off in 5 years instead of 10. That brought our debt down drastically, our budget was solid and in the black and I was learning every month how to weed out bad parenting habits that crept in over our time in the barrel, and how to build a little home school that nurtured what God was doing in our family.

So at the beginning of this year we were down to 16k in debt, only a few months left of paying off our van and living within our budget for several months. A strong pattern of financial discipline was forming. One of the things that happens when you are that far gone in debt with no way out, you tend to not care at all. The thinking being oh well what is another 100 bucks on top of mount everest. Now, we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We still live in a townhome that we bought at the hight and it has now dropped 150K from what we purchased it for, but we are a step closer to getting out of debt, and then God surprised us again.

Honestly, tomorrow I will put up a schedule. I am on a roll now!

(If you have not done so, please read my previous post. Or not, you can do what ever you want but this one will make a heck of a lot more sense if you do!)

So when I finally came to grips with the idea of homeschooling, I realized that I had been gently led to this point. I honestly don’t think I would of ever gone for it, if I hadn’t been forced to. You see, 2 of our 3 children went to a very prestigious Montessori school in the area, that I was able to work a “deal” on barter to get them in there. Basically, they owned me and I was their slave but that is another story, and I henceforth have determined to never enter into another situation like that again. I now know, I can give my children every bit as developed and appropriate education as any private or public school for that mater, but I could not see that then.

We live in a very affluent and expensive region in the country. Bottom line, we didn’t make enough to live on, since moving here 7 years ago. So I have always worked up until 18 months ago. There was no option, and some of that time, my business income was our only income, as ministry work in our field does not pay. So, I worked during all of our pregnancies, up until the day before delivery, had c-sections all three and went back to work 2 weeks later. Every time. When you own your own business, you don’t work and you don’t eat, so I just put on a happy face and was happy to have the work. At that time I taught music classes to moms and young children and had tons of families that I was servicing. Somehow along the way, I realized that everyone else’s children were getting the best of me, and our own dear children where getting the bottom of the barrel so to speak. So I was open to doing something else but what?

We also, were moving, and moving and moving. Playing the leap frog game, working our way towards moving our family into more than a 2 bedroom which doesn’t work well well with three kids and one that was hurricane safe. So in the past 7 years we have moved 5 times, heaven help us. We hope to be here for a good long time. The almost laughably ironic thing is, our children all still sleep in the same room because that is what they have done since birth. Even though we now have a 3 bedroom no one actually sleeps in it unless we have overnight guests.

In the midst of this, another business came along. Out of left field really, but after Mike and I prayed about it, we decided to give it a go. Now for all of you skeptics out there, we felt like God lead us into it. It was very important training in how the actual culture we live in here works. I have whole new perspective and compassion for the masses around here and a deeper way to pray but I am getting off topic again. Sorry. Anyway, It was actually a network marketing business with a company called Arbonne. As far as business goes, I am pretty good at building things. So, before I knew it, I had a huge business and made close to 50K a year and drove the company car which happened to be a white Mercedes. (OK - really I drove our mini-van and Mike drove the Mercedes) Honest to Pete people, I just looked around 12 months later after starting the business and said, “How the hell did I get here.” Yes is did say hell, actually I may of said something else but I digress! Just because you are good at leading and good a building doesn’t necessarily mean you should do something. We only wanted to make a few hundred a month with this thing, and then it was bringing in as much as my husband, and you know what - “IT OWNED MY LIFE”. My phone rang off the hook, the end of the month was a stressful day every month and I had the pressure to bring in X amount to meet all of our bills. I wanted to stop one business so my kids got my best, and now I was giving them even worse then before - not to mention I felt like a consumerists sell out and the high maintenance aspect of our lives made Mike and I SICK - SICK - SICK! You know what, I wouldn’t trade any of it. I learned so much about myself, about good business, about what I really want that I wouldn’t trade any of the past several years.

Remember I said 18 months ago I was in the midst of watching a business dying a miserable death. My entire Arbonne team were Christians. All of us almost simultaneously felt like God was calling us to lay down our Arbonne businesses. It was actually quit hysterical when we all started comparing notes. I am not sure many people knew how bad it really was. They saw we drove a white Mercedes, lived in a new town home, our kids went to private school and thought we had all the money in the world. 18 months ago was the peak. We hit the glorious wall so to speak and we were asking for forgiveness for being duped, and thankfulness that we unlike many others had Jesus to fall back on. So Where did we go from there?

I said “Wow -God we have made a real mess here. We moved before you said go on some things, and now we are stuck. I was trying to provide for us, instead of trusting that you ALWAYS give us exactly what we need.” From then on, I let go and said, “I will trust you.” I knew somehow that as Mike and I began to work through this horrifying mess, we would learn so much, and gain so much out of it. I knew we would be paying for our mistakes for many years to come, so we just prepared to take our medicine like good little children. I some how deeply knew that pain, although hard, isn’t bad. I knew this is also part of our training and formation into Christ likeness.

So just in case you are lost, 18 months ago, I was left with a business that instead of bringing in 4k a month was bringing in 10% of that, my children were in a high priced private school that was killing us with tuition, we had a townhouse that hadn’t sold and were floating 2 mortgages and, 36K in credit card debt and oh yeah, I was stuck with a Mercedes lease that I couldn’t get out of. Remember God said “He was rescuing me.”? He wasn’t kidding.

So, I know, I know, you are saying - enough already - when do we get to the blessed schedule already?

Tomorrow friends, tomorrow.

Wow I kind of feel like Mr Miyagi. Peace to all Daniel-son’s this day.

I have had a few requests recently on how my typical home school day goes. The first thing I would like to say is that, nothing is typical in homeschooling. That is what is so great about it and what makes it equally as hard. I thought I would spend some time writing a few posts on the very thing, so that I may more completely “own” the reasons why I feel we should do and not do the things we are doing in our sweet little homeschool here in sunny south Florida. If you have read my blog much at all you know that we use the Charlotte Mason method for homeschooling via Ambleside Online and I am heavily influenced by Maria Montessori. For those of you who know who those people are, you may understand me a bit better, and if you don’t know who those people are, no big deal. Google them and you can learn a bit but it isn’t important for this story necessarily. After having a full year under my belt, there are some things I have learned and many things I have unlearned. This little exercise will give you a bit of a glimpse of that from my view point.

As I began thinking about this, I was thinking about the road that brought me here and how it has shaped and continues to shape what we are doing as a family that schools non traditionally. The story starts many, many years ago, but I don’t need to start there for you all. I only mention that to say, there is always more to every story then these few inscribed lines. I distinctly remember 18 months ago, sitting here at this very computer, feeling the most depressed, stressed and overwhelmed I had ever felt. (I will tell you about that in a second.) I was crying out to God again for Him to lead me and guide me. I remember shifting slightly in my seat to grab something on the floor, and felt like God said, “I AM RESCUING YOU!”. It was not audible but it was as clear to me as my own breathing. Have you ever read the story of CS Lewis and how he came to faith in God through Jesus? He said he went out for a bike ride to the zoo. When he left his home, he did not even believe in Jesus Christ and when he got to the zoo He did. Just like that. I love how the Holy Spirit can give you almost instant understanding of something that up until the point of his supernatural working, it is fuzzy and unclear, and then in that moment it becomes as clear as crystal. In that moment, I realized some how I had gotten lost and off track. I was out in the thicket somewhere and the Good Shepherd was coming to find me. (Oh how I love the parable of the Good Shepherd. I am always that little lost sheep who is being found. Maybe you are too.)

So why was I overwhelmed you ask? Well to make a long story short, we were in a state of utter financial disaster. Firstly, the town home we are now in, we unfortunately bought at the highest point in the market, without having our other home sold. We took some time praying about it before we moved to this current home, and felt like God said to move, so we did, and then we continued to wait for him to deliver us. We continued to try to sell as the prices fell and fell and fell, and then finally, because we had no way of covering 2 mortgage payments any longer, we rented it out and hoped the market would somehow rise again. Well, we all know were the market is now. A few tenants later, and a marvelous real estate agent who really educated us about the market and were it was going, and how we may move forward in our current situation, we “short-saled” that home and were free from the financial burden of it. I know you are thinking, “What does this have to do with homeschool schedules?” You will see!

At the time of sitting at the computer we where unable to sell the now seemingly “cursed” previous home, and I was sitting with a business that was in the throws of dieing a miserable death. (Maybe I will tell you about that business some time, and how that story shapes what I am now doing, but not today dear friends. Read on!) We were in so deep, I saw no way out. We now had 36K in credit card bills (thanks to trying to hold the house) and I had a business that was no longer “viable” and our budget was all based on my income coming in. When I no longer had an income coming in, we found ourselves leaking 2k a month in our monthly budget. Now you know why we had the 36K in credit card bills. No we were not buying boats or Prada shoes or anything. It was in the midst of this reality, that I heard God say he was rescuing me and that I needed to just let go and stay home with the kids. I knew down deep that we all would be better for it and that the next season we were entering into was one of discipline.

Wow this is getting good. I love how God makes “beauty out of ashes”.

See you all tomorrow~

Today Mike and I have been married 13 years. He has taken me away for a few days just the two of us. I highly recommend it for all you married couples out there with a few kids running around.

We have been reflecting on who we are , where we have been, where we are and where we are going. To be honest, if feels like we are just getting started. Can’t wait to see what the next 13 years hold.

I will be back home later this week, and hope to be back to regular blogging.

Peace to all those with wedding anniversaries this month! I know there are a ton of us.

Gardens are always in some state of growth, even when dormant, there are vital things happening to promote overall health to the garden. It is true that what you put into a garden, in the way of care, is directly proportional to what you get out of it. There is no “low maintenance” garden. They all need tender loving care. Here are a few fun facts that I found when I was studying about gardens and gardening. (I also read through Genesis 1-6 several times. That however took me another direction that I will post about another time. Read it for yourself and see what comes up for you.)

• To have a healthy garden you have to have healthy soil.
• You must always prepare and fight against weeds and pests.
• Water deeply, regularly and infrequently to promote a strong root system.
• Use companion planting to help all plants to thrive together.
• A healthy garden produces good things for those around it, clean air, healthy food, visually stimulating.

So the other night, as I was falling asleep, I started seeing all styles and types of gardens run past my minds eye. Each one had someone walking through and working on the garden. It was then that I thought “Gardens are not low maintenance. They take consistent work.” Even when they are dormant, they need some form of care. Lately, I’ve been relearning the idea of baby steps, consistent small things adding up over time make long lasting results. I’ve been thinking about how a garden is a great metaphor for life. Good gardens, beautiful gardens are ones that are well tended. Those are the gardens that people are drawn too, they want to sit down and stay awhile, enjoy the stages of growth contained within.

So what do I need to be tending in my garden? I think it is good practice to always be asking the Father what he is working on in you, so that you can be more aware, working with him instead of against him. For me I am going back to the spiritual disciplines. Disciplines are kind of like tilling the soil of the garden, they don’t really produce anything in the moment of doing them, it is more like they create the environment for good spiritual things to grow. They create space for fruit to naturally occur.

One of the things I will do this summer, is take a day away, by myself with my journal and a calender to map out a “soul care” plan with God. Then I will block things out in the calendar that I must do for my own spiritual development. One of the challenges of homeschooling, is the fact that you don’t really get a break to think about other things. I need to do that for myself. Things that are vital to my spiritual health. I heard Dallas Willard say once, he blocks his calender out for 5 years at a time, otherwise life just happens and you have never put your hand to the task of taking time to ponder. Pondering is good for my soul.

So what “disciplines” do you need to throw into your mix that will help your garden grow well?

Peace to all gardeners today~

Journaling is one of my favorite things.

I have journaled off and on since I was 18 years old. (It is interesting and kind of “trippy” to go back and read yourself as an 18 year old.) This blog is a simple form of my journaling. It doesn’t go as deep and raw as my hand written journal, but it does help to guide me along in my process. That is why I don’t have a certain theme I cover on certain days of the week. I need to keep this about right where I am at in the process. The trick is to stay present, caring only about what God has set out for me this day, with the confidence that He will take care of every tomorrow. We do have goals and plans of where we want to be in 5 years, 10 years etc. but I never want to live there today, I just want to take a tiny step today and trust God for all the rest.

I have always been an advocate for journaling when people tell me they can’t slow down, or their mind races a million miles a minute, or they need direction on something. Culture doesn’t allow for us to be still and silent. Even when we do carve out time for this, our mind has been conditioned to fly a million miles a minute. It takes discipline and consistent training to cause our minds to stop thinking about ourself and start thinking about someone much bigger than ourselves. That is why I so dearly love theologians like Foster and Willard who promote the disciplines of silence and solitude. I have so far to come in this regard. But I keep taking tiny steps forward.

Somehow the act of writing out your thoughts helps you to organize, process, throw out the unneeded thinking, hold onto the precious pieces, make since of the hard ones. It gives you a big picture view, a clean sweep every day that allows you to get rid of you and take in more of Him. Well you can’t hear what God is whispering to you when you are full of you. It also allows me to see the finger prints of God in my life, shaping, guiding, forming, correcting.

So tonight, I made myself some tea, lit the candles, and wrote out all my cares, my thoughts, my failures, my dreams out on paper, again. Almost like an act of getting rid of me and sitting silently with the one who knows me better than I know myself. Sitting with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a favorite thing.

Sometimes I draw, sometimes later I come back to find that they have drawn. I used to get angry and say this is Mommy’s journal. If you want to draw I will get you a piece of paper. Now, I just enjoy the little tiny fingerprints left here for me to remember years from now. Now, Chloe will ask me to sit and sketch with her, in her own journal. It is her favorite Mommy/Daughter time, that and doing dishes - go figure.

In the past I have seen a little bit of me, that needs a little fixing, a deeper healing. A piece that keeps running ahead of God, thinking the grass is greener, the sky is bluer, and that there is somewhere else I should be. Now, when I journal, I see a deeper understanding that the grass isn’t greener and that I am right where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing, and that He will provide for every day in this life and in the life to come. Funny thing is, I would of never seen it, if I hadn’t looked back at my journal and witnessed all that God is doing in me and all that He is leading me into. If I would of continued to look to being somewhere else I would of missed all that He is doing right here.

Peace to all that are working on being present to what the Father is doing in their lives, even if it is kind of painful, and you don’t get it all, but you refuse to run away and hide like it isn’t there etc. etc. etc.~

Yes - today is the day!

From steam to stern, I will call my little troops and myself into a cleaning battle.  With Daddy gone the past few days, the house has become less then tidy.

Plan of attack.

• Jackson strip beds and sort laundry.
• Chloe help with unloading and loading dishwasher.
• Hudson - take out the remaing trash.
• All - pick up and tidy bedrooms so Mom can vacuum etc.
• Mom - sweep, vacuum and clean the bathrooms, generally oversee little troops making sure they are cleaning and not recreating the mess.

So here we go.  We’re gonna’ rock out to The Decemberists, Shins, Deathcab for Cutie, KT Tunstill and Worship Circle. It’s going to be a wonderful day!

 is family day! That is what our kids call Sat. and Sun. The day where we all get to be together.

Today we spent some time outside down in Palm Beach. They have their gates and hedges trying to keep riffraff like us, out. We sneak in anyway.

This Banyan tree has to be hundreds of years old. It is right next to the water and its roots creep up out of the ground like some underground snake yards away from the trunk.

A sweet older woman on a bike, stopped and asked if she could take our picture. That was sweet of her. You get an idea of just how big this tree is. You could hide among its roots.

Mike played candy land with the kids under the tree. As you can see, Hudson was not interested. He wanted to explore some, so I followed along. One of the things I have come to observe this first year of homeschooling is how unique and different each child is. What sparks their interest and what does not. It is fun to tag along and think of ways to nurture those things that are blooming within them. I think that is good parenting, it is also good pastoring or leadership too, but that is another post.

I have had a hard last 3 days with Hudson. He hasn’t been very “able” to listen to Mommy. Whenever he gets like that, I have to look back at what has been happening the previous few days. Too much stimulation, not enough sleep and no outside time will make him and me nuts. So I got his little system back on track and today was much more pleasurable.

I highly recommend family days.  They are the highlight of our week.

my kids were that is, and then I proceeded to fall right off with them.

Have you ever had a moment where you just lost it? Does the phrase “screaming like a banshee” mean anything to you? Well, I just did it about 30 minutes ago and you would never know it based on these photos. It was normal children issues, but I found myself in a dangerous situation by a busy road and NO ONE was obeying the first time and on top of that they ALL were whining. Great Scott people. It was bad, bad I mean real bad.

They are all now having quiet time in their rooms, I am venting online to all of you dear people and PRAYING that God will always continue to cover my obvious gaps, and trust me people there are many of them. There are moments when there isn’t enough of me to go around, so I have learned to TRUST God at all times because otherwise I would go crazy. Honestly, our youngest easily counts for 2 children and at times 3. He runs FULL speed ahead, my oldest takes his SWEET time and the middle one is marching to her own drum, quit efficiently I might add. I can’t be 3 places at once.

On the up side, just prior to said breakdown, I got some great shots. And if you are really good, and ask nicely(I am serious you must ask or I wont do it:-)) I will post some rockin’ shots I did of friends over the last few days. It almost looks like I am a photographer:-)

Peace to all those who wish they could clone themselves today, so that their children each had a personal chaperon at all times~

It has been a full week.

Having the teenage kids of our dear friends this past 10 days has been a blast. Seriously, everyone acts a bit shocked, but they have been marvelous and we have loved every minute of having them. My kids have been in “hog heaven”.

We also had Chloe’s tea party and that was a fun moment for her.

We also are hosting our house mate Shawn’s girlfriend from Vancouver. Very cool lady.

Plus walking our neighbors dog who are in Albania for the last 2 weeks and we just picked up the family dog of our teenage friends until their parents get home Tomorrow night.

Good Times. I love a full house. We can still sleep 2 more in the house, so come on people, what are you waiting for.

Honestly, it gave Mike and I a little glimpse or taste of something we have dreamed of for awhile but never really sure how it may work.  Dear friends of ours live in intentional community in Ohio in various forms. We would love to see this type of togetherness develop here in this area.  Small buds are even now forming. It will be fun to watch God bring it about.

Peace to all Zoo Keepers today!

Today our sweet pea is 5. I can’t believe how quickly time moves along.

The other day I was laying her down for her nap and we had a little snuggle. She began to play with my cross necklace around my neck and we had the following conversation.

C - “Mom this is a cross but it isn’t the real cross that Jesus died on right?”

Me - “Your right it is just a symbol.”

C - “What is a symbol?”

Me- “It is a little sign that reminds me and other people that I made Jesus king of my life.”

C - “and king of my life too?”

Me - “No, just my life. He can be king of your life if you want him to but you have to ask him. I can’t ask him for you.”

Thoughtful silence.

C- “I am not ready yet. I will wait until a few days after I am 5. Because he is so big and I am still so little. When I am 5 I am bigger.”

Me - “OK- you tell me when you have decided because it is a very special thing. If you listen very carefully when you are still and quiet you will hear him calling you.”

C - “What does he say?”

Me - “Come, follow me I have amazing things to teach you.”

We went on to talk about ponies and flowers and exactly how big God really was and how is it possible that he can be everywhere. So pray that Jesus will reveal himself to Chloe in a way that she sees his accessibility and not that he is so big and she is so small, but that she is loved and protected in his “bigness”.

Peace to all 5 year olds and want to be 5 year olds today!

Many blessings to all Mother’s Today, including my very own special Mom and Mother-in-law.

I pray you find a quiet place to rest,

Maybe a place for you and a dear friend to sit and share some soul talk.

And enjoy something simply beautiful today.

(I took these photos in our courtyard experimenting with shadow and aperture settings. I am really unhappy with the graininess that all of my photos appear with this skin. Any helpful pointers would be much appreciated.)

Peace to all artful Mama’s today!

(Please read previous post)

I had Hudson recap the story to his Grandfather this evening and he revealed one tiny bit of info that he had not shared with me this morning. He exclaimed, as he jumped in mid air “To infinity and Beyoooonnnnnndddddd.” Wow -three year olds are literal, and maybe he has seen Toy Story one too many times, which trust me people isn’t that often.

Honestly, my parents are laughing their backsides off, because I am getting my paybacks. That is OK, it is only a matter of time, until I will be laughing my backside off watching our dear children parent their young ones through the maze of this life.

In addition to the now infamous jump, I found these.

I know, I now know better. I thought it would be cute and festive as well as a reminder to our children to eat healthy snacks by placing them in these super cute, orange bowls on our kitchen pass through. See them in the back of this pic? The only problem is, they can be easily reached by little hands without my knowledge. Let’s be honest, I know they are dong it. But hey it is fruit how bad can it be for them? If it keeps them busy while I am finishing up school, then all is well, or so I thought. As I cleaned up the mess of a room after the jumping incident, I found these 6 half eaten apples all over the place. Almost as if, little chipmunks had been eating them for sustenance during their rambunctious play. Then, being all hopped up on natural sugar they felt super human and able to overcome the affects of gravity. As they found out, THEY CAN’T!

So, no more chair, no more apples out in plane site (tomorrow we will make applesauce from the remnants) and a huge helping of laughter makes life interesting. Just as long as we enjoy each moment, laugh at ourselves, pray for grace to cover the inevitable gaps and keep falling forward, everything will turn out all right.

This morning, I was finishing up a narration with Jackson downstairs while the “littles” were upstairs “playing”. I hear Hudson, our adventuresome daredevil, say “la la (his nickname for Chloe) if I get in trouble with this, run downstairs and get help.” (At least he had the forethought to think of possibly needing help and that what he was about to do might tun out badly. I am still not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.) Before I even had time to find out what was going on, I hear a loud crash and Hudson crying hysterically, while they both run down stairs.

While I put ice on a slightly bloody, goose egg sized knot on his head, I found out that he put their desk chair on top of the dresser and then proceeded to climb on top of it and attempted to jump the three feet across the room onto the top bunk. It obviously failed miserably.

After he had calmed down he said, “Mom I have a good idea, we can go to the grocery store and show the cookie lady my bump and she will give me a cookie and then I will feel all better.” I decided I wouldn’t tell him about the time that Mommy climbed a tree and swung a garden hose over the limb in order to swing around like Tarzan. My youthful zeal had the energy and lack of fear to conquer said task, however my three year old mind didn’t have the logical thinking skills needed to know that I must grab both sides of the hose so that gravity wouldn’t have its way with me. I ended up in the ER with a sprained ankle. Good Times People. I am reliving my childhood.

One cookie later, we are all off for quiet time.

Peace to all furniture jumpers today.

Today we did a little exploring.

We took off our shoes and headed down to the rocky shore.

Three brave explorers were after shells, and this is the perfect spot to find just the right ones.

These holes in the rocks capture the most beautiful shells. Little pools of joy reflecting the light like jewels for the taking.

A rocky crag overlooking the gentle surf entice them forward, onward and upward as they faintly hear their mother cry “GET DOWN FROM THERE!!!!!!”

Moving forward, through the rocks,

we find the most beautiful arch carved in the stones by years of wind and rain and surf.

Well, we did find some beautiful shells, among many other things.

Teeny, tiny ones and great big ones.

It almost felt holy.

Peace to all~

We will “school” through the summer. Let me explain. Life is learning and we never stop that, and our kids like to do things with me and with each other all the time, so I will keep doing what we have always done and some people may call it school. I just call it lifestyle learning.

So - we will work on building beautiful art together this summer. Develop team skills by playing tons of “together” games, that sneakily use math and reading skills in order to play. Learn a bit more about map reading with an around town treasure hunt and develop real world math skills be creating a small store and selling items in the store. We will find little objects around our house, price them and use play money to buy them from each other. Oh boy we may even do it under the dinning room table and add the fort component in. (People it is HOT here in the summer and we need tons of indoor things to do!) In addition we will reread some of our year one favorites out loud again, like Pinocchio and King of the Golden River, and work on our writing skills by corresponding with our compassion children. All fun, all learning, all school.

It is getting very hot and sunny during the mid-part of the day, so we need to do indoor activities to stay our of the sun. Anyone have any other ideas?

We are off to have our quiet time and then make banana bread this afternoon. The kids have asked me for the last time, “What are we going to do with these black bananas in the freezer Mama?”.

Peace to all bakers today!

I have been saying for 7 years that I wanted to take an adult ballet class. So I finally did it. I signed up at our local rec center. The other night was my first class. Our babysitter is super into ballet, so I asked her what she thought it would be like. She said it would be like free movement, so I showed up in a pair of jogging pants. I realized immediately that I was NOT prepared.

There were about 15 women in the class of all ages, rehearsing for a RECITAL! WHAT! I did not anticipate this. They had the full get up on, and the best dancers in the class where those who had been dancing all their lives and continue to do it to stay limber and in shape. I was comforted by the other Moms who never danced when they were little and wanted to give it a try too. I am not alone in my feeble experimentation. That is comforting.

So, they pulled out the bars and away I went, never having taken a ballet class in my life. I must say that more then once I thought, “What am I doing?”. I tried to stay in the back but they kept pushing me to the front. “You can see better up front” they said. “Yeah” I say better all right. I saw I had no idea what I was doing. The women, however, were so nice and encouraging. Around here, women tend to be a bit clicky. It is hard to break in, and when you do it is usually based on your neighborhood, your children, or your job. Within those circles the “keepin’ up with the Joneses” is rampant. This setting felt different. No one was trying to be the best or have the best kids or anything, they were just wanting to have fun.

So I did. I had fun. It is much harder than it looks. I think I will go back. So what do you think of that?

I was painting out my canvases. I like to use oils. I set my brushes to clean out on the front step overnight, making sure to remind myself to move it in the morning, so as to not have little hands interact with said brushes. I forgot! I know you are completely shocked.

You will be proud of me. I took a picture. He came in with a brush in hand saying, “Look Mommy, I paint just like you.” I knew what I was going to find before I even walked over. So I kilzed it and painted it out.

My evaluation went splendidly. I was happy about that. For some reason my son read better for her, on and on an on then he ever has for me? He is a turkey. I did something new for me too, but I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

Peace to all~

Well, We did get the garage cleaned out. Well, about 97%. The remaining 3% are the three boxes I need to sort through before I bring the stuff back in the house. They are sitting in the center of the garage so I can not park the car in the garage until I get it done. So maybe this week it will happen!

We did get our family pics rehung after Peru and added a few new ones. I found some frames for a great price at goodwill so I am adding all the fun family pics that you are supposed to have around the house. I also am painting out my re purposed recycled canvas frames.

For my birthday, my father in law painted me a Peru door picture that we have a photo of. I am happy to have a piece of his art in our home. This is it!

Today, we go for our home school evaluation. My portfolio is together and looking oh so organized. It actually looks like I know what I am doing. Pray for me.  I will keep you posted.

Peace to all today~

We started our week enjoying a lovely little lagoon by our home with close family friends. It feels a bit more like a lake except for the gentle current. It is actually a tidal creek, so lots of natural marine life can be found there. We even saw a Manatee swim through. A large sand bar in the center, mangroves surrounding the exterior, it is a little slice of paradise. Think “Gilligan’s Island” with bathrooms.

I work very hard to have school work completed by lunch time so that we can go and enjoy all the beautiful things we have around here. Outside time is so important for all of our sanity:-)

All three of our children are roughly 18 months apart. They do almost everything together and are becoming close friends. It is fun to see and at times, Mike and I refer to them as the “three amigos” or “the brat pack”. Make no mistake. There is a reason we call her “scrapper”!

Book ended by two boys, she has to be tough to survive! I shudder to think of the things these three will think up to do together. It doesn’t help that our daughter has no fear. We are training the boys now to protect her and take care of those who are smaller and weaker then they are, hoping and praying that it will run through their minds at different points in their lives.

It was a beautiful, sandy, wet and breezy time. Great memories! Wish you all could of been there!

Peace to all beach rats today!

I am becoming like my Dad!

There are 3 things we heard as kids growing up more than once from my dear Dad.

• I wish the house had a floor drain, so we can hose the house out after you kids eat.
• Just give me a yard of cement and paint it green. Yard work is the pits.
• Humans are not meant to live with animals. They need to stay outside.

I have on more than one occasion said each of these things to our children. Heck, we bought a townhouse so we didn’t have to keep up with a big yard. (That and we couldn’t afford a house here.) Weekends are for playing NOT doing housework or yard work. I do wish I had a floor drain or maybe lived on a house boat. Spills and crumbs would just be hosed right out and now, our daughter asks daily, several times a day for a dog and a cat. She even tries to pet our Beta fish, and all I keep thinking is “Humans are not meant to live with animals. They need to stay outside.” That and, I surely don’t want to add that into the work mix, at least not right now.

I will go take her over to our neighbors to walk their dog and see if that pacifies her a bit. Better yet, maybe I should send her over to Grandpas, because even though I never got it when I was a kid, Lord knows, he would run her down to the first pet shop around and buy her the first puppy she saw.

Anyone else out there, ending up to be just like their parents?