For the Beauty of the Earth

Review: Charles Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers by Christian Timothy George

2012-03-19T14:17:00.001-07:00

First, I believe I am supposed to issue a disclaimer to the effect that I received this e-book from Christian Focus 4 Kids in return for a review. I hope that’s legal enough.

Second, this is my first review of a “dramatic” biography. I do not usually review this type of book, or fiction for that matter, so bear with me.

JJJJ (out of 5)

Charles Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers by Christian Timothy George is a very good “dramatic” biography for children. It covers key moments in Spurgeon’s life and career and gives the reader a good understanding of one of the greatest Christian preachers of recent memory.

Spurgeon’s life story can be an inspiration to young people today who think they must wait until they are older, perhaps graduated from seminary, before they can be of any service to God. It’s also a great example of complete trust and faith in the will of God. This biography conveys these points clearly.

I think the format of a more dramatic style will help the story become more engrained in the reader's mind as opposed to a simple factual telling of things as they happened as is more common in biographies. Dramatic style helps the young reader to better connect with the characters and understand them as fellow human beings, not simply pieces of history to be researched.

After the story there are many helpful resources available to the reader, including a section entitled “Further Thinking Topics.” These encourage the reader to think more about what he or she has just read in each chapter. It is a very helpful section; however, I would have found it more useful if each of these was immediately behind its respective chapter. This is especially due to the content of the first chapter, the only chapter with which I have a major problem.

The first chapter begins the mythical account of Queen Victoria’s desire visit to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. This account is then finished in the tenth, and final, chapter. Since there is absolutely no proof that this ever occurred, I was surprised to find it written in the book as fact. There is an author’s note at the end of the book that explains that it may not have happened (and that, in fact, there is no evidence that it did), and it is also discussed in the Further Thinking Topics section. But it adds nothing to the story, and instead could possibly detract from belief in the rest of what is written. Since this is a book for children, the mythology of the visit should have been pointed out in some way immediately. If a child were to read the typical one chapter a day (what I would require of my child) with weekends off, he or she would spend nearly two weeks thinking that Queen Victoria did indeed go to see Spurgeon preach.

Aside from a few typos, the worst (or funniest) of which being “ninetieth” written instead of “nineteenth” to describe the century, the rest being rather inconsequential, the content is good enough to make me highly recommend it with the qualification that the child be advised to read the Further Thinking Topics section for Chapter One immediately after reading the chapter. Most children will not do this sort of thing of their own accord but by and large read books sequentially from page one to page 100. This is particularly true of e-books.

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Thanks to CF4K for making this offer available. I really appreciated the chance to do something I don't normally do. :) To read more reviews of this book, visit The Blog Tour entry on CF4K's blog site.

Five Minute Friday: Brave

2012-03-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

Brave.

Change is brave. Staying the same is cowardice. The man given 5 talents making them into 10 is brave. The man given one and hiding it is a coward.
Change is terrifying. Staying the same is safe. People don't like it when you change, because that makes them uncomfortable realizing they too need to change. People like you to stay the same and keep them happy.
But we are not here to please men, are we?
Change is good. People change their clothes, their hairdo, their shoes. But people don't like to change their attitudes and preconceived notions. It's easier to stay with the same thought patterns that our parents and grandparents had. Why think about it? It's always been this way. If we change it we don't know what will happen. If we stay the same, everything will be as it always was.
Paul changed. What if he had thought, gee, you know, all my friends are Pharisees and I really like hanging out with them at Passover and Barmitzvahs? What if he had decided the change was too much? Too radical? It was radical. But can we expect anything less than radical change when Christ takes over our lives? If we are the same as we've ever been, shouldn't we be more worried about that than we are about what might happen if we change?
Five minutes up.
Go to The Gypsy Mama to read some more, possibly more sensational, Five Minute Friday entries.

AWANA Grand Prix--Take 1

2012-03-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our first round of AWANA Grand Prix. I say first because we have four kids in the lower levels so we get to go to all the races. :)

On this first night, Braniac and Thing 2 were racing.

Thing 2 with Sparky before the race.

Braniac with Cubby and Puggle. It will be interesting to see if Babycakes lets me take his pic with Puggle next week. (Don't hold your breath.)

Checking out the awards table. (We got Honorable Mention. Everyone basically got Honorable Mention. :D)

There were a lot of cars. I thought I estimated 50, but I think I guessed wrong. :)

Braniac raced first.

His car is the second from the left.

Waiting for his car at the end of the track.

Back to the holding area for #21.

Waiting to go another round.

Rewarded for participation. That's OK, he'll get High Honors at Bible Quiz when he's in T&T. ;)

Next up was Thing 2

Racing #54.

He was sure he'd at least get something. He always does in class. But racing ain't like using your brain. So we got a nice ribbon instead. We'll have to study up on how to make the fastest car. He did come really close, in his heat, but close, well, you know. :)

All in all it was a great night. I know a lot of work went into it. I'm sure that's why I'm exhausted...I've been thinking of all the work that went into it. ;)

Just about 2 mos left of our first year of AWANA. The kids are still as thrilled as they were at the beginning (if not as obsessed. ;)). It's been a great experience. We are so fortunate to live near a church that has all the levels from Puggles through Journey. The kids think so, too. They plan out when they are going to be in each group (T&T, Trek, etc). I asked Braniac, who loves to run around the house singing Christian rock songs at the top of his lungs (current fave is God's Not Dead by Newsboys), if he was going to be a Christian rock star some day. He replied, "Yes, but I have to be in Trek first." :D

We've been making some really good friends. And have even decided to make this church our home. The whole thing has been one huge blessing and we are very grateful to God for bringing us into this situation. :)

Can you really make a difference?

2012-03-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will re-learn her name. The woman who made the biggest difference in my life, one that will matter for all eternity, not just to me, but to my family. I knew her only briefly, just a matter of weeks, once a week. But she was so different from anyone I had ever known that she has lived in my mind for years, though her name has long since gone...of course, if you know me, the name thing shouldn't surprise you. ;)

Yesterday, after I hung up from a conversation with the leader of the PSP we are joining, I realized that this woman would know her. I remember only three "facts" about her. She homeschooled through this PSP. She had long hair (I think it was blond). She moved to HI. That last thing is significant enough to make her memorable to the group, I'm sure.

Honestly, it had been a long time since I'd thought of her, and definitely never with her significance really registering.

Last night, I listened to a rather old sermon by the pastor of our new church in which he pointed out that Christians underestimate the difference they can make in the lives of others. I thought of her. She was different. She was, absolutely, different. And that stuck with me.

I knew why she was different. She was a Christian, but more than that. Lots of people these days say they are Christians, but what difference does it make in their lives? Have they changed? Can people tell without knowing that they attend church that they are Christians? Most Christians I've known have mostly been just "nice" people who attend church and probably won't kill you or steal from you. She was different. She lived it. She meant it. Her faith rolled off her in waves. I was ashamed to call myself a Christian in her presence. I knew I didn't have faith like hers. It was in every pore of her being.

When she moved I asked God why. I had known her just a few weeks, but I knew she was someone I wanted to be around. Someone I wanted to learn from. Someone who could change my life. But it wasn't God's time. Now it is. And now I hope that I can thank her properly for being so different that I couldn't help but be forced to think about what my faith really was. Especially what it was lacking.

The time is now, and I cannot, will not, go back.

And it's all because one woman lived her faith so fully.

Toward the end of the sermon the pastor asked how far we were willing to go to make sure people we loved were ready to go to heaven. I wonder, how far are we willing? Are we willing to change our lives so radically that people must sit up and take notice? Are we willing to offend our "friends" who are comfortable in this world?

We can make a difference, but we must be willing to be different, be cast out, be looked down on, be gossiped about, be insulted. (Had to throw the hard part in there, just in case I started thinking this was going to be easy.)

But what is all that in light of eternity? Our eternity. The eternity of those around us.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

2012-03-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sure Thing 1 would like to point out that I stole that title from Scarecrow & Mrs. King. :)

So, I learned something this morning...searches on my phone are not the same as searches on the computer. I don't know why. You'd think if it's the same search engine it would render the same results. At any rate, after a bit of research on the big box, I found a good posting board to ask my questions at and feel much better. I will keep plugging along, and just try to stay on top of things for Braniac.

So, having a boy genius in the house is certainly something new. And, as I said about school, some kids will be going in the fall. Things 1&2 and Braniac will attend a private Lutheran school about 15 min from our house. This will give me time to help The Teenager, who will be staying home and taking classes through a local PSP. He's looking forward to it. My hope is to have him ready to take a few classes at the Christian High School by 10th grade, and work our way up to 4 classes by 11th & 12th grade.

I suppose the biggest change is that we are in a new church. And man am I happy about that. I won't go into the gory details, I have a private blog for that. :D But, as I was talking to the PSP leader today I realized that things are so different around here than they were just a few months ago, and I definitely know it's getting into our new church. We have been taking a marriage class for Sunday School which has really helped. The kids are in AWANA and are loving it. For those of you who are not on my FB and Twitter, Thing 1 took first place AND the only High Honors of the competition. The Junior High ministry is great and really helping The Teenager grow much more than anything previously did. The middles love the Elementary Sunday School and Babycakes is always thrilled to get into the nursery.

The preaching is good, convicting and encouraging. The focus is always on living our lives completely for Christ out of gratitude for the work He did for us on the Cross. The church desires to equip people to do so as well. It is a large church so there are multiple bible studies. There are opportunities to serve in many different capacities, but there is no feeling that you must serve in everything that comes up, only in what you can do and feel gifted/called to do.

I could say more but that would put this blog into the category of my other and I don't want to do that. There's a time and a place for everything. This isn't the place. :) Suffice to say we are grateful to have found this new church so quickly after only a minor bump in the road (sts) on the way.

I'm Too Confused to Think of a Title :D

2012-03-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

OK, so I haven't been blogging lately, something I plan to change over the next few months, if for no other reason than the hope that I can find some help for my latest "malady." What is this problem, you ask? Gifted-child. Yep. I seem to have one. Not sure how gifted, haven't had him tested yet. But he's basically taught himself to read (with a little help) and is doing 1st grade math. He's 4.

Now, if I planned to homeschool him for Kindy, as I have his brothers, this would be no big deal. However, the middles will be going to school for at least a year in the fall, possibly 2. When we toured the school for open house last week and I looked at the work, I knew he'd already done most of it, what he hasn't done he will before he starts. Sure the history & science will all be new, but the reading and math, possibly the Spanish, if he pays attention when Thing 2 is working on his, will not be.

I am perfectly comfortable advocating for my LD kids. Been doing that for years. Know it inside and out. But advocating for Braniac might be problematic, not just coz it's uncharted territory for me, but because I was just like him at his age, and school killed me. Seriously, I died in school. I knew how to read, they forced me to relearn. I knew simple multiplication, they told me I was too young to possibly know that. It's the #2 reason mine have been at home all these years.

I had hoped by sending them to private school there would be less of this, and there may be. But right now I'm at that overwhelmed stage and I can't find an online group to get info from. Sure there are lots of organizations, but no place I can simply ask, "How do I communicate with the teacher?" "What should I ask for?" "How much home supplementation is acceptable?"

Well, I will now return to my search for an active group. Wish me luck. :)

Thought on the 39th Anniversary of Roe v Wade

2012-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

It's been about three-and-a-half years since I left Target with a pregnancy test and a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Three-and-a-half years since I took the test and confirmed my worst suspicions.

Three-and-a-half years since I cried for weeks at what couldn't have been worse news.

I didn't want another baby.

I had four already.

I was content with what I had.

Worst of all, I had miserable pregnancies. At three weeks pregnant I was already morning sick nearly 24 hours a day.

Then there would be the post-partum depression.

It was always bad and I had just come out of the darkness following the birth of my fourth.

I didn't want to go through that again.

I didn't want to put my family through that again.

If you've never been through PPD, you can have no idea just how terrible it is.

The darkness can be overwhelming at times.

Sometimes it's like someone else has taken over your mind making you think things you'd never think.

Acting ways you'd never act.

Its effects on your other kids is not pleasant either.

My kids deserved better than to have to suffer another two years, maybe more.

But I knew there was an out.

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it was well within my rights to terminate this pregnancy.

No miserable nine months of morning sickness.

No suffering through post-partum depression.

No one needed know.

We'd all be happy and my kids would be better off.

Right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post is dedicated to all the children who's parents opted to take that out. May God be merciful to their parents and bring them to repentance. But more, may He bring about an end to this heinous crime that robs the world of children like my son.

First Day of Basketball, and a New Codename

2012-01-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

Been trying to figure out a new codename for H-F since, well, he really doesn't look like a hippie-freak anymore. At this very second I'm thinking Mr. Whiny might be fitting. ;) But, the kid's a genius so I guess I'll go with my first thought, Braniac. The Teenager was quick to remind me that Braniac is a robot and that instead we ought to call him "Big Head." But Braniac has a nicer flow to it. I promise, though, I'll never root against Superman as a result of this decision. :)

Sooooo...

Today was Braniac's first day of Basketball. He's wanted to play for a while but, for some reason, last year they did away with the 3yo program. This year it's back, but we're 4 so who cares? ;) Of course, after such a long wait I think I was expecting a better response when we got there than this...

*SIGH*

After much cajoling, threatening, promising, etc., I finally got him out on the floor...The price? A donut from 7-11. Hey, it's cheaper, and closer, than Chick-fil-A so I'm happy. :D

Finally on the court.

Finally in line.

Finally smiling.

Finally participating.

Finally behaving normally. :D

Over for now...until baseball...

Thing 1's Birthday...finally

2012-01-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

OK, so it wasn't as exciting as the Air Show would have been but he did finally get to eat something...and keep it down. :D Not to mention open his birthday cards and have some cake.

Breakfast comes mighty early on Sunday so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as a Saturday. ;)

After a long day of church and video games we finally got down to business. (Yes, that is, in fact, Lawrence Welk on the TV. It's how we swing at our house.)

A true sign of aging...you're presents get smaller. ;)

We discovered, too late, that we really need to buy a few more candles. We had a few individual candles and one '6' so we just added 4 + 6. :D

Babycakes finally found something he likes to eat. In this picture he's saying, "Finally they're not trying to make me eat veggies." (Yes, that is Guy Lambardo on the TV. We swing that way, too.)

CDH videos for Thing 1's B-Day

2012-01-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Sadly, Thing 1 is sick today so we won't be taking him to the Cable Air Show as planned, so no real pics today for that. He'll have to pick something else later. As a result it could take years before we do anything for his 10th birthday. :D

Instead I found some YouTube videos from CHOP discussing modern treatment of his birth defect. I was interested to see that, while some of the diagnostic tools have improved, actual outcome is around the same. 70% survival rate is basically a 0% improvement over the past decade. And, of course, we can't forget that the 70% is only counting babies who are allowed to be born. A huge percentage of CDH babies are killed by abortion every year.

January 7, 2002

January 7, 2012

Last post for today, probably a while...until Saturday when we have the next birthday. :D

2012-01-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

OK, for the surprise I mentioned on my Facebook earlier...

It was a day over 2 years in the making....

A day I both hoped and feared....

For those of you who guessed "pregnant" I just want to say....

There's no need to call the psych ward and prep me a room...

Coz I'm not...:D

OK, now that I've tortured everyone who's made it this far...

Yep, that's exactly what you're thinking. H-F's hair coming off.

And so it goes into the envelope and off to Locks of Love. With no intention of ever doing it again...sniff. ;)

Finished product. :)

PS Anyone need a bottle of de-tangler?

Happy 15th

2012-01-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

January 3rd marked The Teenager's 15th birthday. He chose the San Diego Zoo for his happy day. That made mom overly happy. (Shh, don't tell him. ;))

Breakfast at Chick-fil-A.

Things 1 & 2 with the giraffes. (It was awfully bright yesterday.)

Visiting the flamingos.

Happened upon a cat walk. ;)

Thing 2 convinced us we should take a bus tour. He was right. H-F enjoyed it.

Pic of an elephant, by Thing 2.

On our way to the sky buckets.

Gorillas from the sky buckets.

Learning the difference between getting eaten by a grizzly bear and a polar bear.

T1 flying the helicopter. The kids were bummed that it wasn't more like the Palm Springs Air Museum where we can spend hours playing inside, not just stop for a picture.

Inside the seal cave with our new friend, Otto.

Back down to the bottom of the zoo.

'Twas a wonderful day. Is there anything less in the most awesome city in the whole universe? Um, that'd be San Diego. :)

New Year at Hume Lake Christian Camp

2012-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

After trying to upload all of Thing 2's pictures on Facebook on his birthday two weeks ago, I decided it was far less a headache to do it on the blog. (Isn't that why I started this in the first place?) So here are the pics from our very enjoyable family holiday up at Hume Lake.

Our posh digs. 4 sets of bunks, a pull-out queen mattress (seen here under the bunk), but, most importantly, our own bathroom. :)

View from our balcony.

Obviously we didn't swim. :D

Or play volleyball...much to The Teenager's chagrin.

Or do any boating.

Another view of our room. Fortunately there were plenty of electrical outlets to keep our phones charged so the kids could play video games. That's about all phones are good for up there. No internet or phone connection. Talk about a retreat.

H-F and Babycakes. BC's jacket made him look like he had his shoulder's hunched up all weekend. Too cute. :D

Prepping the snow.

Playing in the snow.

Going for a hayride.

Going skating for the very first time ever. (The Teenager is a pro. But don't get me started, I'll start sniffling. ;))

Babycakes with a very concerned look. Not sure why. lol.

Grateful for the wall.

After dining activities.

First song we sang.

That made Thing 2 very, very happy. Mighty to Save is his favorite song. He loves Jeremy Camps version best, for obvious reasons. ;)

Snow building.

While The Teenager went off to play broomball with the other JH & HS kids.

End result. A red and blue castle. BTW, we were supposed to make an animal, but try to convince a 4yo. :D

A little climbing.

Finally, NYE. H-F & The Teenager were the only kids to make it through.

Fortunately my dh likes this sort of thing so I stayed in the room and slept.

A view on the way down the mountain.

Here are two of the pics the pro took on Saturday afternoon.

Day 2 of 180

2011-09-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

The second day of school was a bit slower. I got bogged down checking all my important websites' passwords after my email was hacked. :/

It's also terribly hot here. I know we've had it easy all summer but it picked a bad week to warm up. :D It's supposed to be cooler next week so hopefully it will be easier to concentrate. I haven't been sleeping at all. Last night I couldn't even force myself to finish grading papers and putting the grades in the grade book I was so tired from lack of sleep. So I slept for a bit, but was up far too early again. It's been a two-cuppa kinda week. :)

Babycakes officially, finally started the Mommy & Me class at the same community center HF has his preschool & reading classes. The first month we tried it was cancelled due to low enrollment. Then, last week, the teacher forgot it started. But now we are in and he had a great time. It's easier to do a Mommy & Me class with Babycakes than HF. HF was easily bored with just sitting & singing songs. He always had to have his hands on something, exploring, etc. Babycakes loves to sit and watch people sing and play. He likes toys too, but he doesn't mind the sitting, especially if I'm sitting with him.

Finger painting from the first day of class. Babycakes preferred to paint with the q-tip, though. :)

On Thursday, HF takes a reading class at his preschool. It's just an hour but he's already impressed his teacher with his reading skills. ;) I credit Signing Time with that. He learned to finger spell when he was three so it's really helped his reading already.

The only other really exciting news is that we received our Emerson String Quartet tickets (I originally typed "stickers." Go figure. :D) in the mail. Thing 1 absolutely loves them. I took him to see them in LA earlier this year at Disney Concert Hall. Sir James Galway was with them so I got to fulfill a nearly lifelong dream myself, to see Sir James in concert, at the same time.

1 Down, 179 More to Go

2011-09-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

We finally had our first day of school here. Most everyone else we know has already started, even if they just started Tuesday. I intended to start Tuesday, but a few weeks ago I finally found a homeschool friendly, daytime women's Bible study on Tuesdays about 35 minutes from the house. Couldn't pass that one up. :) It's been great. We met some other homeschoolers, one who is around The Teenagers age and a boy to boot. :D They hit it off great. My poor Teenager hasn't had a homeschool friend his age in years.

Our first day went pretty good considering the 109 temp and lack of a/c. I sat between our two fans in the kitchen and anytime I had to get up I was reminded that, yes, it is hot. XO! (Anyone else think Blogger needs to input smileys?) Everyone was able to get all their scheduled work done except HF for whom I will be scheduling less work on Wednesdays. He has preschool in the morning so he was only able to complete Art and Bible. We had to race off to Ballet at 3:30 coz there was no class on Monday. Normally that won't have to happen & we'll be able to work up to dinner if need be coz we won't have to be anywhere until 6 when The Teenager's AWANA club starts. (The other kids start at 6:45 which I'll get into next Wednesday when it actually starts.)

As I've previously mentioned (I'm sure, and too lazy to go look) we are switching almost entirely to Christian Light this year. Thing 1 and Thing 2 really love it. HF is just getting used to the math and art. He likes his math book so much though that he took it for Share & Tell last week for school. :) The Teenager is still out on whether he likes it or not. He chose to stay with Saxon Math, which I would have found surprising if it wasn't just like him to complain about the difficulty of something but to actually love it. (The mind of the child, who can understand it, for it is full of fluff & stuff...or something that makes no sense to adults. ;))

This is a pic of the Middles practicing their blending skills. You can't see it but I colored too. I don't get the cool pitures from the Artpac, though. I had to use an old Power Rangers' coloring book. Now I understand why the kids don't like coloring books much. It's nicer to color on the white paper than that nasty, cheap newsprint. Bleh!

Learning Our ABC's

2011-08-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

We've been so busy (& and sometimes under the weather) that I've had time for Facebook only. Hey, what can I say? I know where my priorities lie. ;)

But I promised a friend I'd post some pics of this project H-F is working on so it's a good excuse for a blog entry. :) H-F already "knows" his ABC's but this is a fun book to put together & learn more about things the letters start with.

We are using the free Alphabet Lap-n-Note from Homeschool Share (my all-time favorite site).

I buy binders in bulk at Costco. For the school year (I suppose) they actually had color binders so I splurged. The white are cheaper I think. Anyway, I found an ABC coloring page for our title/cover page. Just google it and you'll get a lot of options.

While most of the pictures are, of course, apples. There were a few that weren't.

H-F had to write ABCDEF after his name. That's apparently his ABC book name. :) He also realized while we were putting the book together that the word "answer" starts with A so he wanted to include that.

This coloring page is from A Bible Alphabet Activity Book by Alison Brown. There is a story book that goes with it.

This is a list of the books we read for the letter A. I found the form at Donna Young (of course). I just cut it to fit our book.

Tomorrow H-F goes back to preschool. It's just a one-day a week class but he loves it. This year it's 3 hours. We also signed him up for an hour long reading class on Thursday mornings with the same teacher. He's dying to back to see his favorite teacher. :)

Getting ready for the first day of preschool consists in covering your bucket with stickers earned at the library's summer reading program. :D

Summer Weather in My Heart

2011-07-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

I love the book The Valley of Vision. It's a great prayer tool. You can use it when you know what to pray and especially when you just don't. Organized into different sections such as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Penitence and Deprecation; Approach to God; and so on, you can easily find a prayer to inspire you to go deeper with your communion with God.

My reading today ended with "...and when I am restored and rest in thee give me summer weather in my heart." That might elicit a silent guffaw with folks considering how hot it can get in summer. But when you realize what used to happen in winter, the heat of summer was probably a welcome relief. When the prayer was written, people still contracted pneumonia with no hope of recovery. Disease during a winter that was often long and miserable wasn't the only depressing thing. Lighting was not what it is today. The nights were long & dark. A candle or oil lamp would be the only light in a room of most common people. Houses often burned from logs falling out of open fires or candles carried too close to draperies. And if you've never lived somewhere that gets truly cold and snowy in winter, and where people use wood or coal for heat, you probably don't know about the smell. It smells of smoke, always. The air inside the house, the air outside the house. Everywhere you go it smells of smoke. Your clothes and your hair always smell of smoke. When the first sniff of spring comes it is truly a breath of fresh air.

Life is like that. Especially life in the darkness of mental illness. For those who don't know me I have suffered for the most part of the past 14 years with post-partum depression, with occasional bouts of post-partum psychosis. It has only been within the last year that I have finally been released from this. There is no feeling like it in the world except, perhaps, the feeling one has when they are first born again. It is truly summer in the heart.

"...then take away my mourning and give me music;

remove my sackcloth and adorn me with beauty;

take away my sighs and fill my mouth with songs;

and when I am restored and rest in thee

give me summer weather in my heart."

Lots of Swimming

2011-07-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

The middle boys started swim lessons today. They were very happy...mostly. HF decided a few minutes into his lesson that he wanted to be afraid. He acted like he'd never been in the water before. Fortunately, he's the lowest level & there are only 1 or 2 swimmers allowed in that class....and he's the only one in it. :)

Then we came home and, because we had surprise company, got to swim some more instead of do our chores. I haven't heard a lot of complaining. And, since the chores involved dusting and vacuuming, two chores Thing's 1 & 2 still like, I won't hear too much tomorrow. :)

Saturday, July 16, Whereon Babycakes Finally Has a Birthday Party

2011-07-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

Where Were You at Midnight?

2011-07-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well I, along with The Teenager & his buddy, C, and about 1,000+ other folks, was at the local Edwards Theater waiting to watch the long-anticipated HP7.2.

We arrived to the line about 7:30 but still ended up in a pretty good spot. We got great seats, all the way in the back so no one was behind us and I could lean the seat back as far as it would go. :) We did have to wait outside this year; but, aside from the wind and the cold (yep, it's cold here in SoCal--stupid "global warming"), it wasn't unbearable. I took an old pillow to sit on this time, instead of a blanket. When we figured out we were going to be outside until right before the movie I did call my dh and have him bring a blanket to wrap myself in. A sweater wasn't cutting it anymore.

The best thing this year was the people in our line were much more sociable than last year. We were in a weird situation where our part of the line had the same 8 people for a long time before anyone else came and none were people opposed to engaging strangers in conversation. I like that kind of people. :) Eventually there were three of us who were avid readers of all books so we discussed books made into movies and what we liked and disliked about them. Yes, I brought up my disgust with The Lord of the Rings movies. :D

The Teenager & C played with some older guys who had a hacky sack and, fortunately, these guys were not far enough removed from their teen years to forget when they were annoying and obnoxious and took it all in stride. The Teenager learned a new "game" that kids are taught on the playgrounds these days that involved hitting people when you saw a certain type of car pass by. Needless to say I will not encourage it. LOL.

As for the movie, it was better than the last. I always have issue with even guys changing shirts in film because I know it is only for the exploitation of the person they include it so I find it disgusting. Hey, what can I say, I just don't think anyone ought to be exploited. I'm so narrow-minded that way. :P But that's about all I had to say negative (aside from the things they changed from the book but I think that should go without saying. ;D)

COURAGEOUS Movie Trailer

2011-07-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Saw this on Mom Life Today this morning. I didn't watch Fireproof (not a big Kirk Cameron fan) but this one looks good.

And So the Week Is Finis

2011-07-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

As I watch the sun come up through the trees across the street I realize...Oh, my gosh, it's Friday!!! Already?!? Oh, and, I had better go shut up the front of the house coz it's gonna start getting hot now.

OK, we're safe now. Well, at least until it gets so hot it doesn't feel like it made a difference. :D

Basically this week, and it's goals, was affected by the heat. It's darn hot. It's not a little hot, it's way too hot. It's so hot I was considering air conditioning. 8O! Yep, sinuses be, um, darned. I'll take a sinus infection over this heat. OK, so I've already forgotten how horrible a sinus infection is, but seriously, how bad can it be compared to not being able to move? :D Yes, I was thinking how much easier housework would be with a little (or a lot, rather) a/c. I probably would have emptied far more boxes, cleaned far more dishes, etc. I think I only made the bed one day the whole week. Ugh.

I did realize though, that I need to get started at least on a Morning Routine. I've put it off waiting for the normal school year to start but I think it would be far more effective if I got that part going now. I can probably even get a basic evening routine going, though, let's face it, I might have to throw the whole evening part out as soon as August arrives.

I *did* get one important thing done. I cleaned off the dreaded corner on the kitchen counter. Honestly, when I went through the 31 Days Challenge I didn't have a problem with the counter, but it's since started to bug me so I went through everything in the drain and got rid of half of it. 8O!! Now I have to wash up all the sippy lids we are keeping (that's the main component of the corner) and match them with cups. So I got half the kitchen done.

So here's my view of my goals:

1) eh, not so good. I did do it several times but I think 10 minutes is too short a time for me. It gives me an excuse to take a break too often. :D But I think it is good to show me just how much I can get done in 10 minutes.

2) um, slow and steady wins the race? Well, I got the kitchen started. I think it might be easier this coming week when there is not even a threat of triple-digit temps.

3) uh, well, I uh, it was HOT, OK?!? hehehe. Oh, and there was a holiday weekend. We actually weren't home much. Yeah, that makes me feel better. :) This one is going to be more difficult than I thought. Even three boxes a day, when trying to maintain everything else and get everyone where they need to be when they need to be there, is daunting. I will give it another go this week, though. It really must get done. And swim lessons start the following week...**wimper**

Independence Day 2011

2011-07-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

Make a free digital slideshow

Stars

2011-07-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

So I found this somehow. I never remember how. It's usually one of those six-degrees-of-blog-separation things. :D It looked like great fun. I bought some sticks & glitter & decided to save money using fingerpaints we already had, which means they didn't turn out red, white, & blue. (Take that UO Style Guide. :P)

Thing 2

H-F

Thing 1. For those who don't know, and those who don't remember: Thing 1 has NEVER used finger paints. He has tried twice and both times he refused once he touched them. He did still talk about how weird the paints felt but he did the whole project. :)

In true Thing 1 fashion, though, he had to use a different finger for each color. Good thing he used only two colors, that might have been a bit confusing. :D

The finished products.

I'm "Challenged"

2011-07-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I couldn't think up a spiffy title. At least it's not the date again. :D

This month I was led (via Apologia's Facebook) to 3 in 30 Challenge. I've been trying to figure out how to mix this with the Homemaker's Challenge ever since. So here's my go at it.

1) Clean a messed up area for 10 min 3x/day.

2) Incorporate the new cleaning "challenges" from 31 Days to Clean.

3) Clean out the garage by cleaning out 3 boxes/day.

Yeah, I'm good, I know. </sarc> After this I will not be clicking on any more links to cleaning challenges. :D

Giveaway, & Other Stuff

2011-06-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

They are having a particularly wonderful giveaway over at Sally Clarkson's blog, I Take Joy. Please do not enter, though, since that detracts from my entries (as if the other million entries won't). ;D

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I have started my clean-out-the-garage project. I have another project in the works. Between the two, I may have to cut back on my Treasure Isle time. 8O!

The Teenager & Thing 2 have started Summer Intensives. I need to figure out a schedule that will work for us, having two out of the house all day, and having to drive back & forth several times a day. I should get that all together right about the time they finish the 5 weeks. lol.

Gee, that's all the excitement around here. I'm good with that. :)

Texas 2011

2011-06-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

This marked our 2nd annual trip to Wichita Falls, a place I only visit because my grandmother is in an assisted living facility there. Last year the trip went smoother than anything I'd ever planned & executed in my entire life. The trip itself was the final break, imo, of the horrible false teaching I had received at the hands of certain people that God was only a God of hate looking for a reason to pour out his wrath. My theological education since then had brought me to the head knowledge that God is faithful & loving to those who are his, the trip gave me the heart knowledge . It was pretty amazing.

This year, it was a test of my metal. :D

As my previous post indicated, we didn't get off to a glorious start. Thing 1 was sick the night before we left so we cancelled all the reservations and my dh took him to the Urgent Care. It was his gut that was in pain and we don't mess around with that with Thing 1. His innards are pretty jumbled up and he has a higher risk of intestinal blockage than a normal child. It turned out to be nothing serious so when I woke up the next morning I suddenly found myself feeling that I must leave the next day, not wait until August. So off we went with a still woozy 9yo. Poor kid.

Our first stop was McDonald's in the pass to eat breakfast and watch the trains go by. Woozy kid scarfed 3 pancakes. Should've ordered some to go since that was pretty much the last thing he ate for the next 2 days. I understand though. When I was preggo with Babycakes all I could get to stay down was MD's french fries.

At the rest stop outside some town in the California desert that exists only because it has a DQ & a gas station.

On the second day we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park to eat lunch in the parking lot & watch the large ravens. (That's one flying there in the left of the picture.)

This is going into NM from AZ.

Sky City, NM. It was probably more pleasant before the confusing off-ramp was built to accommodate the casino.

Day 3. Welcome center in Amarillo, TX. Here, let me help in case you've forgotten the words to the song you are now humming...Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone. Everything that I've got is just what I've got on...I'm sure you feel better. :)

H-F was so excited to see all the metal cows. :)

At one of our favorite rest stops in TX. It was a bit hot so they played in the shade more than on the playground. Yes, TX rest stops have playgrounds. :)

Outside my grandma's "villa." H-F loves this perpetually empty bird-feeder cuz it's shaped like a barn.

Walking back to the hotel from my grandma's. That was one of the cool things that happened last year. Without knowing my grandma's address, I picked the Hilton-brand hotel (I prefer Hilton) right next to her place. :)

My grandmother's hair hasn't been this long in about 50+ years. My uncle took her to get it cut Tuesday after we left.

H-F loves his grandma and prays for her every night.

Getting up close & personal with my uncle's horse. You know, for a kid who desperately wants riding lessons, he sure has no interest in getting near a horse. :D

Thing 1 was much less nervous.

Thing 2 & the Teenager with my aunt and her horse.

Babycakes probably would have been far more interested if the wind velocity was not upwards of 40mph.

Thing 1 feeding the horse a carrot for a treat.

A pause from the footage to explain how things went directly south after this. Triple-digit heat aside, it hadn't been too bad a visit up to this point. That night, the night before we were supposed to leave on our return trip, the Teenager became more sick than I had ever seen him. I would have taken him to the emergency room if I hadn't suspected the cause. About 4 years ago he went GF to help with his hyper-activity and his growth. See, he hadn't grown in 2-3 years. I convinced him to try the diet by reminding him how Thing 2 also didn't grow for a year before he was dx with Celiac. I suspected his behavior problems were related to gluten after all the reading I had done. Sure enough, in less than a month everyone began noticing a difference in his behavior. His teachers noticed he was able to sit still longer & focus better. He's never truly gone back on gluten before. However, I told him that if he could control himself I'd let him have some, including pizza. By Sunday night it had done it's damage, I believe. I will probably have to call the Celiac center down in SD to see if we might not have to have him scoped. It's possible it's not just a sensitivity he has. :(

So, I was up most of the night with him. Then the baby was up with a cold. By 4 am my allergies (I'm allergic to whatever the heck is in a/c) had turned into a sinus infection. We didn't get out of WF until after 10am. It was only by God's grace I even was able to stay awake all the way to Santa Rosa. After getting the kids in & fed I let them know we'd not be swimming that night but going to bed. Thankfully, they all slept all night. Well, Thing 2 tried to crawl into bed with me twice but I booted him. It's hard to sleep with a 7yo's feet in your back. ;)

Anyway....on the way to SR, we saw the Billy Elliot truck. This is probably only significant to us. The Teenager auditioned for BE a few years ago, when I was pregnant with Babycakes.

Another great TX rest stop.

Give Babycakes a room full of perfectly good & safe things to play with & one dangerous thing and he will immediately go to the dangerous thing.

At the AZ Visitor's Center checking out this relic. I'm sure the kids are thinking, "50cents? Why don't they just use their cellphone?" :D

Again, BC wants into the janitor's dangerous closet. He can probably smell the toxins a mile away.

Finally we were home & I was still sick. So I opted for the carwash. I mean, who wants to deal with millions of dead bugs when they are sick? Not me, that's for sure.

Ah, that looks much better. :)

We arrived home to a few open sunflowers. My faves. :)

I have some pics on my phone that I might get around to publishing later. We'll see how that goes. Gotta go see Cars 2 tomorrow morning with our good friends N & D. Then Summer Intensive starts Monday. If you're not into ballet that means nothing so let me just say that two-a-days are probably the only thing in sports that comes close. :D

So Complicated

2011-06-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went from going to Texas, to maybe not going to Texas, to going to Texas, to maybe not going to Texas, to definitely not going to Texas. This morning we went from definitely not going to Texas, to maybe going to Texas, to definitely going to Texas.

Hey, I told you it was complicated. :D

So off we go to Texas in the morning. When I told H-F I explained we were not leaving right now, but we would sleep here then go when we woke up. He wanted to go to bed right away. I think we'll at least eat dinner first.

Sleeping Beauty 2011

2011-06-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

If I said I was sorry it was over, I'd be lying. I'm glad. It was fun while it lasted, but it will be nice to have my weekends free for a few months...until Fall Term starts & Nutcracker rehearsals start and... :D It really wasn't as stressful this year as we took turns on weekends instead of me driving the whole thing. That really helped.

Here are a few pics. I forgot my camera on Friday night. (Where's the "bang-head-on-wall" smiley?)

Um, no, H-F was not in the recital. *sniff* This is Thursday morning outside CB&TL. Haven't been there in a while. I miss my Pom-Blueberry.

Thing 1 having fun jumping the fountains.

If you really want your hyper active 7yo to sit still, give him your iPhone. Works like a charm. A lesson the moms of those kids behind obviously need to learn. ;)

The Teenager dragging Little Red Riding Hood offstage.

Wolf mask. The violin teacher came by to work with him on his posture for the mask. She helped him with his pain & injury using something called Alexander. She uses it with Thing 1 during his violin lessons. It works. Some day, when I have the extra money (cough-cough) I'd love to learn it.

Babycakes is getting ready to leave for Texas. I don't think will pass for a carseat even there.

The Teenager with his classmates.

With his bud, N, who will be leaving us for a year. *sniff* We're going to miss them.

After the show.

We went to CFA for dinner afterward, as always. It was a real treat now that we don't eat out anymore. I think we all enjoyed every last bite. This sweet ride was outside when we went to leave...nearly 3 hours later.

Here's a close up of The Teenager. He's adorable. :)

Happy Second Birthday, Babycakes

2011-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

The following happy moments were brought to you by pro-life parents who got a little surprise but wouldn't think of doing anything but look at it as a blessing. There's a lot to that, but it is enough to say that today is a happy day millions of Babycakes' peers will never get to see.

With Mom

With Dad

With The (now) Teenager (age 12)

With Thing 2 (age 5)

With Thing 1 (age 7)

With Cousin H (age 13)

With all the kids. Had to put my dh in there coz H-F (who was obviously not H-F at the time) refused to go voluntarily near his usurper. :)

With Tia

With Grandma

On the way home. He was sooooo tiny. He was our smallest baby.

This morning at breakfast.

Poor Babycakes has a bad day for a birthday. June just is so busy. He won't get his party until some time in July. As he gets older I'll make more of an effort to do something in the morning coz the rest of the day is just too busy.

Blogging Award

2011-06-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Amanda at Tales from a Mother for giving me this nice award. :)

So Here is How It Works:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award by linking back to them in your post.
2. Tell us 7 things about yourself. (Becasue I know you're dying to know more :) )
3. Award 15 or 16 recently discovered bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news!

Seven things.

1) I can find the humor in almost anything. A lot of people don't like that. OK, a couple don't, and they don't talk to me anymore. I find that really funny. :D

2) As for what I don't like in a person...I don't like people who complain about everything. I don't like people who keep a list of wrongs done. I don't like manipulators. Other than that, I like everyone I meet.

3) I am a rebel against the establishment. Not against God & the Bible...that would be stupid, but against convention and traditions of men. (See any photo of H-F for a recent example of how that works out practically. lol)

4) I like how being a Christian enables me to be joyful in all circumstances. I may not be happy, but I can always find joy & a peace that passes all worldly understanding.

5) I'm learning ASL so I can help my kids, who want to learn it. My 4yo is still better than me, though.

6) I used to want seven children. But after having five, none easily, and all with PPD, I'm good with just five.

7) I really wish I knew how to sew. I used to, but I neglected my fledgling skills & am sorry.

That's all I could come up with...and I had to clean the kitchen to come up with those. :D

As for blogs...there are many newly discovered if for no other reason than that I had taken a long sabbatical from reading blogs & blogging. These are in no real order, just picked about every other new one on my blogroll, from the bottom to the top. Very scientific, or something like that. :)

A Defrosted Calvinist
Let's Be Self-Sufficient
The Tomato & the Duck
Homeschool Creations
I Take Joy
Heritage Booktalk
Lane's Blog
Rumohr Has It
TinkerLab
Totally Tots
Poetry for Children
Our Normal Chaos
The Chocolate Muffin Tree
hands on: as we grow
Joyful Mothering
The Crafty Classroom

Of Laundry and Other Things

2011-06-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Before I start with Day 26 of the 31 Day Challenge, I'd like to direct you to this post at The Homeschool Village. As a bibliophile I'm not sure if I can part with any books, but I think I can probably send some school supplies. :)

~~~~~

So, after a hectic weekend during which I was basically home to sleep, I finally finished my desk project today. The most difficult part is always the top of the desk. I don't know why. There really isn't a lot to find a place for, just a lot to dust.

Here are some of my files that actually have labels.

Today's topic was laundry. I'll be doing a lot of that this week, at least what my dh doesn't get done. We'll be travelling next week so we need all the clothes we have. I don't want to spend an entire day of the trip in the laundromat. :)

There were some really great ideas in this chapter on getting the laundry done, folded, and put away. One thing we'll be doing differently when we return from Texas is having each of the older three children do their own laundry. I actually got this idea from a conversation a few moms were having at ballet a few weeks ago. One woman, who has less children than me (I always assume around here...I think I know all the ones that have the same or more. :D), said she has been having her kids do their own for years. They each have their own basket and their own day. Well, how about that? I have five kids, and there are five days in the week. (We are not home on weekends so Sat & Sun never count as real days of the week here. ;)) So when we return each child will get a basket, a day, and, definitely, a Tide Pen. I'm looking forward to it, though not as much as my dh will be. (Obviously, Babycakes will not be doing his own, but I do plan on teaching H-F.)

Now, all our kids share a room. It used to be the Master Bedroom, but the kids outgrew their room as soon as we found out #5 was coming along. It's worked out really well. We even found a five-man bunkbed for them and got it mega-cheap on clearance at Christmas. What an incredible blessing that was. Our big splurge this year, though, has been on wardrobes for each of them. With the bunkbed, a lot of space was opened up so we have room for the furniture. We saw them at IKEA and figured they'd work perfectly. Each child has space for plenty of clothes...not all they own now, but all they need for a week. Here is a link to everything they have in this particular system: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/18835-2/. Anyway, now there is no reason to argue about whose clothes go where, in which drawer, etc. They each have their own space & can, to a certain point, organize it the way they like.

This Week

2011-06-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: Spoken For by Mercy Me (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: John 14:1 Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, it's certainly been busy since I started the 31 Days challenge. Things look a lot better around here, too. :) It's a little harder to remember everything done by the end of the week as opposed to blogging each day about it, but I've been taking some pics each day which will hopefully jog my memory.

Let's see, Tuesday we received a nice box in the mail. It contained the six-volume Matthew Henry Commentary, Christians Are For Ever (an abridged version of The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance Explained and Confirmed by John Owen), and a gift for a friend. It is nice to have MH in book form. I'm sure that young people don't mind reading everything on their iPhone or on the computer, but some of us old folks like pages that won't strain our eyes the way staring at a TV (essentially) for hours does.

On Wednesday I found this great "craft" we can use to countdown for our trip to Texas, which is in less than two weeks. (In all honesty, I found it at that link via 2 more links I can no longer remember...hence the reason I was blogging daily. :D)

We were going to take Babycakes to get his hair cut that morning but put it off until Thursday. And what fun that was. </sarcasm> Rather than say anything, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Before

This pic makes me regret not getting it done on Wednesday. Would've made a truly great Wordless Wednesday post. :)

This was so not worth it.

Thing 2 ready for his cut.

H-F wasn't ready to cut his hair. Fine with me, I have a bottle full of de-tangler.

Thing 2 doesn't mind haircuts as much as his brother.

He really didn't seem any worse for the wear.

Here's another one who hates to have his hair cut. At least he doesn't scream anymore, though. :)

A little shorter than I wanted but we'll deal.

So we're done with paid haircuts again for a while. The Teenager is just going to have to save his money and pay for his cuts since he no longer wants the clipper cuts I give.

Today is the last day of school for Things 1 & 2. Next week they have Space Camp all week, then we are off to Texas. On the weekends we have ballet rehearsals (this weekend) and the show (next weekend). I'm ready for June to be over and it's only the 3rd. :0)

MercyMe~Spoken For

2011-06-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

Facing the Cold, Hard Facts ;)

2011-06-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I finally posted the link to this blog from my old blog. I guess that makes it official. I have accepted that H-F just isn't going to dance. :D Seriously, though, it was a little weird. But Blogger has a better platform. I was getting a bit tired of WordPress. I know they will keep my stuff up forever though so I don't worry about it like I do my HomeschoolBlogger blog.

Hmmm, if I'm taking blogging this seriously, I probably should go to bed and get some rest. haha. (OK, but just one more file drawer.)

31 Days to Clean--Day 23

2011-06-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Dealing with distractions is the topic for today. I have a lot of them...OK, mainly one, the computer. I like to read & research and the computer makes it so easy (compared to the old days spent driving around to different libraries hoping they might have what I was looking for). I also find it a very nice way to relax. What to do about it? Well, I liked the encouragement to not always deny your kids if they come and ask you to read to them or something. Maybe I'll let my kids distract me from my computer. :)
Did the carpet yesterday, though not the cleaning the book asked because I haven't the time & money to rent a carpet cleaner for each separate cleaning assignment so I'll wait until the end to do that. Instead, I just did a very thorough vacuuming & cleaned the baseboards. That's boring so there are no pics. Today I am moving on to the next assignment of cleaning the desk. That's a two day job for me anyway coz I never really know where to put everything & need to get my file cabinet in order (which is also part of the assignment).
Well, off to violin & the kids' haircut place today. It's not all fun & games, ya know. ;)

31 Days to Clean--Day 22

2011-05-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

"If you’re priority is to keep your house in order and pay attention to your kiddos,
but you find yourself on the computer more often than not, you may have to regulate
yourself by setting a time limit."

Ouch! That hurt. Nobody said this much pain would be involved. :D I have to say, the days I've been able to do the "assignments" I've dug for much less treasure on Treasure Isle. :)

Today was very simple. Clean the window in the office, etc. My "office" is a corner of the family room where my awesome roll top desk is located. I love my desk. Some probably think I love it too much. ;) This week I'll be showing it more love. Anyway, The window was easy to clean. As was the area surrounding. Of late it had become a collection area that didn't get cleaned even if company was coming. Now I've thrown all that in the garage (I'm dealing with it this summer & it's stuff to store there so it's not purposeless). I'll probably go on to start the other office assignments due to the busy-ness of the rest of the week. We have violin tomorrow morning since there was a holiday yesterday & I need to get the kids' haircut this week as well. It's time for their annual paid haircut. I usually cut it myself, but before recital I pay to have it cut so it looks really nice. It will be Babycakes' first haircut. Now he won't have hair hanging in his eyes in his birthday pictures. :)

As for the scheduling, I will have to put this off until a later date simply because our normal routine is about to be thrown out the window for Summer Intensives. Our normal routine revolves around ballet classes but in July the kids participate in Summer Intensives which, for The Teenager, is an all day, every day event, similar to school.

In the meantime, I used this site (http://www.dltk-cards.com/chart/) to create a list of chores that need to be done by everyone each day. We will post it and the kids will write their initial in the square if they do it. Guess I should thank my dh now for not letting me give them all "S" names. :D

Here's our "command central." I use the wipe off weekly calendar for events that happen every day. It stays the same most of the year, until Summer. There are a few things missing because I have already started updating it for Summer. I use the monthly, traditional calendar for things that are different each day, like doctor's appointments, field trips, special rehearsals, etc. I post other information like the ballet annual schedule, upcoming concerts we might want to attend, reading lists (though those will eventually end up on their own school boards once the Summer Reading gets started at the library.). I try to decorate it seasonally. At Christmas I bought cheap ornaments from Target and hung them up. This Spring and Summer we got various flowery decorations from the dollar bin at Target. Not sure where I'll find room for our schedule. This was the biggest board I could get so it's not going to grow anymore. :D

31 Days to Clean--Day 21

2011-05-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

"The important things in life require us to step up and carefully consider the cost. I
can’t imagine driving my car across a bridge that was thrown together by someone
who said, “Let’s see how much weight it can take before this thing breaks.” But I can
drive my car over that bridge with confidence when I know that it was carefully
planned out and designed with endurance in mind."

Today's topic was planning. As the quote from the book shows, planning is probably a good thing. I've never been particularly good at it coz I wasn't raised in a family that planned in great detail. It wasn't until my oldest son was in his first Nutcracker that I even bought myself a calendar to put dates in. Now, I'm a calendar addict. I've been trying to transfer that over to list-making. It hasn't gone well until I read this book. I would get very frustrated because with five kids my list always seems to get interrupted but never seems to get done. But realizing that it's one thing at a time has helped.

I do have an app on my phone that is great for those lists that get interrupted. It's call Do It Tomorrow. The great thing about this app is you can either forward to tomorrow things on your list that don't get done, or it will automatically forward it for you, just in case you forget about your list completely. :D

I worked on all the bathroom tasks today since the other days were just too busy to get much of anything done. It had been so long since I'd cleaned out the cabinet under the sink (I want to say at least four years) I was able to condense our medicine box and our bandage box to one. We used to have quite a bit of medicine around when Thing 1 & Thing 2 were younger because they were very sickly due to their respective conditions. Two grocery-trash bags later the cabinet was clean. Now we'll be able to find something again. :)

I decided to go ahead and replace the rugs since their non-skid backing was gone. That stuff goes quickly. :/ I also got my flowers in. I bought some vases at Target with some rocks for the bedroom vase & shells for the bathroom vase. I've never used these things before so the flowers in the large vase look a little off to me. In the photo they look blurred because of the shadow. I didn't notice it until I uploaded the pics.

Here's a floor you won't worry about fainting on. ;)

The Weekend

2011-05-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: No Not One by Brandon Heath (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can't believe it's Monday already. So glad for the holiday. It's nice to not HAVE to be somewhere. I did go to the "plant store" this morning to get a few indoor plants and to the grocery store for our normal shopping. Doing the bathroom cleaning assignments today for the 31 Days. I finished the bedroom assignments yesterday. Getting the closet cleaned was huge motivation, I just kept going from there. Now all the room needs is grown-up paint (it was the kids' room before we had Babycakes) and maybe a nice chair & lamp for reading. :)

Saturday we went to the book sale at the library. Got a few nice things including a DVD of The Wizard of Oz. The little kids have never seen it. It's weird to think how, when I was their age, nearly everyone at school watched it on TV once a year. It was such a big deal.

They had to watch it on our portable DVD player since we hadn't hooked up our new one yet.

This is the view from my clean room. OK, the screen's not so clean (neither is the window) but I won't have time for that until August or September so I'll just have to deal. :)

I was trying to read yesterday afternoon in my clean room when H-F brought in one of his Kindy workbooks. He used the number chart to help him count to 100. I'm very proud. :)

You can see our changing closet in the background. I suppose some day it will be a real closet...or maybe I'll make it into a reading nook. *longing sigh*

Since we bought the boys wardrobes for their clothes, we had two empty cubbies where they used to put their clothes (in baskets). Now we had empty floor and wall space since cleaning up our ~~storage closet~~ bedroom so we put them here. These are some of my theology & Christian books. I'm trying not to get sidetracked trying to figure out how to organize and catalogue them. That's what happens whenever I re-organize my books, which is why I don't like to do it often.

Here's the first wall. You can see what the indoor plants are for. I need to find my vase, or maybe I'll find one at Target later, and I'll put some roses from the garden on the side table there. It will at least make the room more colorful. Oh, and the rabbit was a gift from my dh so I think he's OK with it there. :)

Here's the second wall. You can see the other plant I purchased. The cubbies are not empty due to a lack of books (I have around 3,000) I just had enough dust for one day and had to give it a rest. Dust starts to make me sick after a while so I'll work on the rest of these books later in the week.

Here's the last wall (the rest of it is just window).

Looks like we'll get some blackberries this year. My fave.

I've been practicing taking pictures holding the camera (or in this case, my phone) backwards. This was a fairly good result.

Happy Memorial Day and Blessings to the families of our fallen soldiers.

No Not One - Brandon Heath - with lyrics

2011-05-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Book Giveaway

2011-05-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Raising Homemakers is giving away a stash of Clarkson books to commemorate their blogiversary. If I win I will certainly never forget them. :D

The Five Pieces by Emily Bontrager

2011-05-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

My friend's daughter has published her first book. Check it out, check it out-ers. (My apologies to Greg Gutfeld for always stealing that line from him.)

31 Days to Clean--Day 18

2011-05-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Making Your Personality Work for You.
I have to confess, I peeked yesterday. ;) While I look ahead at the assignments, I don't generally read ahead. I just don't have the time, what with Treasure Isle and the kids wanting to play Petville again. ;D Anyway, when I took the personality quiz yesterday I wasn't really sure it fit me so when I had a free minute yesterday I read ahead to find out what it meant as far as the challenge went...it was right on.
"The “I” StyleYou would rather do practically anything than clean! You’re super fun and verypeople oriented, so cleaning your home, with no one to really talk too but little ones,is extra hard on you. If only you could have someone over every day to talk and cleanwith you, this whole cleaning thing wouldn’t be so bad!"
That's the awful truth. If someone would come help me and we could talk while we were cleaning, then repeat at their house, I'd have an awesomely cleaned house. Everything else was spot on as well. So, I've decided to reward myself (I thought maybe forwarding the information to my dh would be either un-submissive, or an exercise in futility. :D). Tonight presented me with the perfect opportunity to figure out how to do that. At first, I was going to buy cute decorations for the house, but that gets costly. Tonight, at the last ASL class I realized it would be a reward to get together with my classmates & continue working on our signs. That way I can get out with people & grow, or at the very least, maintain, my skills.
For our other assignment...the cleaning portion...I cleaned the closet out, and good. No before & after pic coz I forgot to take a before and I'm too tired (lazy) to get up and take an after. It really wasn't as difficult as I've been telling myself it would be all these months. It's not like there's a lot to it, or a lot that needs to be in there. Our closet is actually used for our baby changing station. We have a dresser that is low enough to be used as the changing table. We've used this dresser for all our kids this way. We've never actually owned a changing table. We are in the midst of moving all the baby stuff into the big boy room so I just took everything out of the closet. Only the diaper bags are hanging. Now it's nice and neat again & we can actually find the wipes & the lotion, & reach the diapers without leaving the baby unattended. ;)

31 Days to Clean--Day 17

2011-05-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Your Cleaning Style is the title of today's chapter. "Style" seems to be a bit of a stretch of the definition in my case. :D There were a couple of important sentences in today's reading that I'd like to share. 1) "'if only I were like so and so, I would be such a better wife, homemaker, mother…' These are thoughts from the enemy!" This is so true. We are not to model ourselves after others, only our Savior. If we find ourselves thinking this way about anything, I think it's safe to say these thoughts are not from Him. 2) "DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP! I don’t care how many times you “fail,” don’t quit, press on, and know who you are in Jesus." It is so important to remember our place in Christ. It is He who will help us, He who will be with us and give us strength. Today's verse from the GMG study said, "And I am with you always, to the end of the age." He is with us if we are in Him. He will transform us into His image, the design He has for us, how He wants to use us for His glory & our good.
Today's assignment was another simple one for me. We have only one shelf in our bedroom. It is in the closet. There's today's assignment and part of tomorrow's all in one. Hooray for small rooms & large families. :D

Before

After

All that lovely space will sure come in handy tomorrow when I clean the closet. :)

Review: Sunshine through the Storm

2011-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

When we couldn't get the recommended book for our tornado lapbook through our local library, I decided to order this book from Christian Light Publishing. Obviously, I've been spending some time on their site as we have recently switched to their homeschool program in an effort to make Christ more central in our education experience. To that end, this book was very helpful . This is a nice story you can read with your children in one sitting. I liked the way prayer was so central in this Christian family's life. Their hope during their difficult time was in Christ. It was a positive book that portrayed the good that God causes to come from the bad. Exactly the sort of thing I'm trying to instill in my children.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

2011-05-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: It's Just Like His Great Love (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Rom. 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever have a day when things just don't go the way you planned? I have about 7 of them, every week. :D Oh, well, at least I had a nice time with Babycakes at the farmer's market & library this afternoon. It's good to actually go one-on-one with him. He doesn't get that much, as you can imagine. :)

It's just like His great love

2011-05-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

The three oldest and I had worship at home this morning due to their rehearsal. Thing 1 requested this song. I have to admit that, though I grew up Baptist, I don't remember ever singing this. As I read through it I found I really loved the words. I have found them to be true throughout my life. Jesus does roll the clouds of all kinds away, enabling us to see him & his works better. It may not happen when we expect it, but it always happens when we need it.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

2011-05-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Another crazy, busy weekend. Learned a lot of little things so far...like don't forget to check that your alarm is set the night before a busy day. :D Won't forget that again for a while.

Make your own free digital slideshow

Thursday, May 19, 2011

2011-05-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: Word of God Speak by Mercy Me (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Ps. 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yesterday Thing 2 finished his first reading workbook. Yikes!! That was fast. Basically 6 school days. I got online and ordered the rest of the level 100s for him so he could finish them as quickly as he'd like. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the fact that he was going to finish his first language arts workbook today. Fortunately, they hadn't shipped it yet so I was able to add on the next four & two more of the social studies workbooks, just in case. :D I was so glad that I hadn't used expedited shipping. I thought about it so he could get his reading done, but decided to save the extra $2.

Later we had another "small" Providence at ballet. DH called to see if H-F wanted to be picked up, which he did so dh was on his way. I waited outside in the parking lot and chatted with a friend whose son is in Thing 1's level. DH arrived, we transferred carseats & kids, but before he left The Teenager came out having opted not to take his second class because his leg was hurt. I had already made an appt for next week with the accupressurist, but my son felt he couldn't wait that long since he has two long rehearsals this weekend. My friend (whose wife is an osteopath--is that the right term, I can't remember) said that she'd had a cancellation for tomorrow morning so I will be able to get him in to be worked on tomorrow. It really just worked out so perfectly. I am a very blessed person. :) Now if we can figure out the park day we were supposed to have with our friends who are moving out of town...

"Word of God Speak" by MercyMe (lyrics) (excellent quality)

2011-05-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

Since Last Monday (pt. 5)

2011-05-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Normally Sunday's are our slow day...our only slow day. Not so this last Sunday. The ballet academy decided to have Thing 1's & Thing 2's Level Placement exams on Sunday afternoon. So the three of us stayed home from morning service and read the bible, sang songs from their new hymnals, & prayed. Then, after a sandwich, we went up to ballet.

We went to Starbucks in between LP's. I had already taken Thing 1 to his favorite place, Coffee Bean, where they observed that they hadn't seen us in a very long time...that's what happens when you are busy.

An interesting thing happened over night on Saturday...it rained. Now, I suppose in most of the world this is normal, but in SoCal it's unheard of. To top it off, it was a cold rain, so it snowed in the mountains. That's impossible. ;)

Some of what was left by the time the clouds lifted.

Babycakes at church Sunday evening.

A couple of pics from Monday.

H-F decided to ride his trike to school on his last day.

Here he is with his fave teacher. I think it's going to be a difficult two months explaining over and over and over that he won't be going back until mid-August.

Since Last Monday (pt. 4--in which we played some more...and made it, just in time))

2011-05-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

So Thing 2 had his level dance rehearsal, at the same time The Teenager had his Red Riding Hood rehearsal (he's the wolf). Dad stayed home & bathed Thing 1 who, after all his later rehearsals, would also have a violin recital. (I did mention we were really busy last weekend, right?)

After the first rehearsal we went to 7-11 for a snack & drink, then we ventured into a plant store we have been driving by for the last 8 years. The did have plant stands, but they were all the same style. So we looked around a bit & bought the basket I'm using now.

Then I took the kids over to the park to play while we waited for them time for the next rehearsal.

Thing 2 worked the swing all by himself. I was very proud. :)

Then we were back to the studio for the boys' dance rehearsal. I haven't seen it in a long time so I stuck around and read Dance Magazine & watched. I found this way cool dance-mom dream item.

As soon as the boys finished, Thing 2 had to throw on his dress clothes and we had to race off to his violin recital. We made it just in time...meaning, technically we were late, but not too late to be in it. We had barely sat down in the pew when it was time for him to go on. I can assure you I never want to do that again. I didn't even get a good picture coz I didn't have time to set up my camera. :/ But I did get a little video. (hopefully it'll work at some point)

Afterwards we went up to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. We were very excited that H-F opted to play in the playground. He doesn't do that often since he broke his leg...a year and a half ago. :)

Since Last Monday (pt. 3--where we dumped a lot of pennies..and played some more)

2011-05-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

Friday night was the annual MCC Sale in Upland. My dh is from a Mennonite family which is how we learned of this fun event. The kids love it. But The Teenager loves ballet more. He wouldn't miss it this year. I did pick him up after his rehearsal and bring him over so he did get to go for a few minutes.

I really hoped to find at least one or two CLE books but didn't find any. I found a few biographies, and a couple of old wildlife encyclopedia's to add to my set. Thing 1 & Thing 2 found hymnals & Thing 2 found a nice KJV. There weren't as many books there that I needed like last year. I bought about 50 or more last year so I can't complain. :)

The kids save pennies through the year and them dump them into the box via a very noisy "slide."

The Teenager was at rehearsal this year so didn't get to drop any pennies. I doubt he would have anyway. I saw several moms dumping their kids' pennies in while their teenagers stood on the side watching. Truly, the best thing in life to be is not-a-teenager-anymore. What a waste of fun times to be had insisting on being "cool."

On Saturday morning we were back, though not as early as we had planned. Someone woke up in the middle of the night, I can't remember who, and I decided that it might be better to let Thing 1 sleep a little later than 6am since he also had a recital that night. In hindsight it probably would have been fine, but better safe than sorry. :)

Here are some interesting things you can buy at the sale.

I really wanted one of these rotary phones, but they had the old wires and I don't know if you can convert them.

Some old political cards.

The middles waiting for the kids' auction. They didn't get the first thing they wanted to bid on so I let them bid for something else.

It's pretty cool, radio controlled truck with MP3 player. They could argue whether they were going to listen to Brahms or Jeremy Camp while driving it. But they didn't get that either so they have to find something else to argue about.

I bought this at the book sale. I also got a Theodore Tugboat video & an 80s version of Grammar Rocks. Basically it's the Grammar Rocks videos only in between it has kids & Cloris Leachman singing & wearing 80s clothes. It's painful, I gotta tell you.

Here's what my dh did when he got home. I took Thing 2 and The Teenager back to ballet for more rehearsals. But that's enough for another entry.

Since Last Monday (pt. 2--where we played at some parks)

2011-05-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Friday came in like a lion, and pretty much left like one too. :)

Got up & headed for the park to meet with our Catholic friends at their homeschool park day. (We're not Catholic, just a lot of our friends are...and since Calvinists and Catholics don't usually kill each other in this country... ;))

When we got there no one else was there. That's unusual for us at this group, so I thought maybe I'd misunderstood and the day had been cancelled. So we went to check out another park up the street.

Had to add this last one. Thing 2's face is too funny. :D

While we were playing I saw one of the folks from the homeschool group drive by so we packed up (meaning we got back into the car) and drove back to the other park.

Since Last Monday (pt. 1)

2011-05-18T03:11:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm going to start this entry as I have insomnia and not a whole lot of Treasure Isle energy. ;) With the title I can just keep it going until I catch up. :)

~~~~~~~~~~

On Tuesday we received our new curriculum orders. The kids wanted to start on their CLE workbooks right away. I think that ended up being a bit too much for Thing 1 but he got back on it on Wednesday. That night I went to a help a friend clean her new house to get it ready to move into. Our piano teacher was there and she got a call early on that her daughter had fallen and broken her arm. Such a fun night. ;)

On Wednesday we did something but I have no pictures to prove it. We never got to ballet. The Teenager was sick & I wasn't too well off myself. I did get to my sign language class but had to leave early due to some serious pain. I was bummed coz I wanted to take a look at the curriculum she had made up for a previous student's son. I thought it might be cheaper than buying the videos we use for our class ($45/tape).

Thursday was piano. The Teenager has been doing so much better since we told him he could add electric guitar to his music lessons if he shows marked improvement in his piano by the end of the year. The kids played with our teacher's daughters. It's always a lot of fun.

Here's Babycakes. He's always so serious, except when he's doing something naughty. :D Poor kid, it's rough to have four older brothers.

Here are all the kids playing in the water.

H-F ready with his water gun.

Here's Babycakes getting wet in his new outfit. Glad I put the shorts on him. I was just gonna take him in his onesie. That'd been a pain to clean. :)

While Thing 1 was in class we took a trip to the garden store to find a plant stand. They are apparently not popular enough to carry at a garden store. They didn't have a single stand. They did have this nifty dragonfly bench, though. :) (I ended up buying a round basket later, turning it upside down and setting the plant on the bottom.)

Well, I was starting Friday here but it is sooooooo long, coz we were soooooo busy all weekend, that I'm going to have to do another post for that, possibly several posts. Yeah, we were that busy. 8-O!!!

A Small Update

2011-05-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to blog now for several days, even started twice (you can tell coz I posted videos--I almost always do that first) and cannot have a moment to do it. I've wanted to post about the kids starting CLE though. Thing 2 is just cruising through the workbooks. He works mostly on his own with minimal corrections needed. Thing 1 is another story...as usual. He's trying to adjust to this method of learning. I think he'll do well eventually. He did about half the work on his own today. He still needs a little assistance with anything creative. I hope this will help him in that area. The Teenager will not begin until we start back in August. He has his work to finish I had already laid out for him. H-F is still finishing the preschool workbooks from (technically) R&S then will start the "pre-K" books in August.

Here are a few pics of Things 1 & 2 working.

Thing 2 did this drawing in his Social Studies workbook. It's him & H-F (respectively) with their wardrobes. :)

Thing 2 working hard.

This is a drawing Thing 2 did for Reading today. Two boys & a girl eating lunch under a tree. :)

Thing 1 working on Language Arts. He did a few drawings today as well. I'll have to look for them tomorrow and take pics. I was very pleased that he did them and didn't put up an argument. I think he's more interested in doing what is requested because the books are "Christian." Both my middles are very motivated by their faith. What can make a mom happier? :)

Hopefully life will slow down so I can at least post a daily gratitude. I have spent the past two days recovering from the previous four days. :D Tomorrow we should be completely back on track. (Well, as long as I don't make anymore lists. LOL)

Psalm 147:1-11 - Scottish Psalter 1650 (ACapella)

2011-05-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

Giveaway

2011-05-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Crafty Classroom is giving away a Weekly Homeschool Planner. Go to the entry & follow the directions. :)

INT.ZONE*David NevueIt Is Well With My Soul

2011-05-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Part of our Weekend

2011-05-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Just a short bit of what we've been doing the past several days. This is at the MCC Sale. The kids saved penny's through the year and put them in the "penny machine."

Make a photo collage

Friday, May 13, 2011

2011-05-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Just a real quicky post, maybe more tomorrow, I don't know. It's been crazy here. Blogger was down last night, but that's OK, I needed to go to bed. Got up at 3am today. Been going all day. Will be going all weekend pretty much non-stop. I'll be very glad when Monday comes. :) Got our reservations for our Texas trip made. DH is ordering me a laptop to take with me--with my Mother's Day money. :) Went to the park day with my friend's homeschool group today. Helped another friend pack to move. Will have pictures of all the weekend fun later...more likely Monday. Am behind on the 31 Days of Clean, but I'm OK with that. I did the first 8 days and I'll just have to cut myself some slack for these past two days. It's a good thing they are taking the weekends off so I won't get any more behind. :D More later. I doubt that "run-on" paragraph made any sense. LOL.

31 Days to Clean--Day 8

2011-05-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

Well, didn't quite get to the rest of the pantry portion (from yesterday) but I did do my two drawers. Boy, do they look better. I even found some things I'd been looking for forever...and some stuff I hadn't, like a packet of egg dye tablets from last year...or beyond. :D I almost begged off and planned to do it in the morning. I've been having a bit of pain today and I thought that would be an adequate excuse. I'm glad I didn't. It made me feel better to accomplish the assigned task. Not less pain, but mentally better. :)
For the "Mary" task, it was "suggested" to think of some time when God used adversity to refine us. Now that's a toughy. There are far too many to choose from starting with the moment of my conception. It took me a long time to get to a place spiritually where I could accept the early life God gave me. Fortunately, God gave me a positive outlook (though it probably wasn't always obvious to those around me) and a wicked sense of humor...meaning I learned early to laugh at the bad things that happened to me that were completely out of my control. As I struggled through years of confusion as to where God's sovereignty could be aligned with all the things I had gone through early on, I was constantly led back, in memory, to my grandparents, in particular my grandmother. God used them to save me physically. Their love held me together and, as they were Christians, I now can see that God was loving me through them. As I look back on those years now (thoughts I do not often entertain) I can see God's hand working. It is truly amazing how He held me back from worse. I should have, I could have, but I didn't, and not because of anything in me. It was always His work, His timing, His will.
There have been so many other things, as there always are in the lives of Christians. My oldest two children almost died at birth, each for a different reason. My second had "issues" related to a birth defect. My third has an auto-immune disorder. My fourth is perfect. ;) But that wasn't good enough for us. No, we couldn't end on a good note of perfect health and mental intelligence, we had to go for one more. :D So our fifth has his issues, whatever they may be. He's certainly a lot slower than his church birth buddy. Through all this I learned to fight for my kids, both in this world and through prayer.
In everything I've learned that it is not all small stuff, no matter what the popular book says. It's mostly big stuff, but there's still no reason to sweat it. There's a song that I can't remember the title of right now, but one of the lines says, "I guess we're all one phone call from our knees." That's what I've learned. It always blind-sides you, but God always has it under His control. Romans says that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. If we believe that, we will be able to have comfort & contentment in even the most difficult trials. Have I achieved this? No. But it is always a blessing (ultimately) to see God working His work through me & in me through adversity and, every now & again, calm times, to reach that place that all Christians should desire, contentment and peace in God's will for their lives.
My "six-list" for tomorrow:
Quiet TimeShower (seriously, if you understood my life you'd know why this is on the list. :D)School/housework/day 9Take the Teenager to get his hair cut (requested by the ballet head-mistress)Ballet/Library--pay fine :/Grade Papers
Gee, such a nice list. Now be a good list, and get done. ;)
~~~~
Addendum: well that took less than 15 minutes for the list to be disturbed. :D Seriously, it must be a new record. ROFLOL.

31 Days to Clean--Day 7

2011-05-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

...or, What Happens Every Time I Make a List. :D
Whenever I make a list, things happen that normally don't happen. My life is rather ordinary. I have my schedule (school in the morning, ballet in the afternoon) & it happens the same way every day. I have no real "list" to go by and that's because every time I've tried to get into list making, something happens to interrupt it. Fortunately, I know that now so it came as no "real" surprise yesterday afternoon when I received an e-mail from my friend letting me know we were still on for "tonight" for cleaning at her new place. It was certainly news to me that a date had been set. :D
That said, it was good to have a focus on what needed to be accomplished. I think a list is good, except when it is inflexible. When I told a friend at ballet yesterday afternoon about the six-list idea he, a former stay-at-home-dad, immediately said what I'd been thinking from the moment I read it..."That's for people without kids." LOL. With kids, lists can be good, but we've gotta remember to be really loose with it. If not, we will become agitated, even angry, when something interrupts our plans.
Last night, while we were at my friend's new house, cleaning, one of our friends got a call that her daughter had fallen off the teeter-totter and broken her arm. So much for her list of things to do today. ;)
~~~~
As for the pantry...
We really don't have one right now. We tore it out last year. We are slowly remodeling our kitchen. We do each little thing as we have time & money. The pantry originally went because we intended to move the larger refrigerator into the house from the garage and into that location, but once we tore it out we realized it made our kitchen so much bigger that we were loathe to give up the space. Now our food is spread out around the dining room. We have some on the sideboard, some on the air hockey table, some in a clothes dresser & some on a book shelf. :D I had already cleaned the dresser & organized it before H-F's birthday party last month & it's stayed pretty nice. I decided to start with the table & sideboard. I didn't make it to the book shelves, for obvious reasons, but today's task is easy enough for me (I only have two drawers to organize) that I might be able to finish it. We'll see. I have school tonight & I have to study today.
I didn't have a chance last night to make up a list. I pretty much went straight to sleep when I got into bed. :) I'll try again tonight.

Monday, May 9, 2011

2011-05-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: Screen Door by Rich Mullins (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: James 2:15-17 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Twas a weird kinda day. Two days of mostly overcast. I'll do better tomorrow though. :)

Good stuff from today: This article by Tullian Tchividjian. It's always good to remember that, while faith without works is dead, our works do not truly save us. It is only Christ's work that saves us and if we try to look even to our works of gratitude for our comfort, we will be miserable. We must always look to Christ alone for our hope and assurance of salvation. Then we can "go forth in grateful obedience" as our pastor says each Sunday. :)

Just a few odds & ends...

Thing 1 practicing for Saturday's recital. The teacher is pleased at his progress. He's only been at it a year and she says he's ahead of where most kids are. That's good to hear. :)

H-F took his new Zooble to school for show-and-tell. The teacher said he's starting to talk more in class, but not in a bad way. :) I hope the 3 mo. break doesn't confuse him.

Was really tired today, to the point that I actually went and took a nap. Then I got up and when Dad had finished "building" Thing 1's wardrobe, I put all his clothes in. Gee, they have a lot of clothes.

Ended the day with the sad news that Wouter Weylandt had died in the Giro d'Italia today. I only follow cycling through/for my dh, but this is a reminder that there are no guarantees. What are we doing for our families now that they will remember if we are gone? More importantly, what is our standing with God? Are we trusting in our own works, or are we relying on Christ's Work on the Cross?

Screen Door, Rich Mullins

2011-05-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

31 Days to Clean--Day 6

2011-05-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

OK, today's assignment is not my friend. :D I just can't see the point of being so inflexible that you *must* do the six list things in order, regardless. I cannot live my life that way, it's just too hectic. A list of six things that must get done, sure. But in order, not usually gonna happen. So I decided to put tomorrow's list in order of the way I'd like to complete them, but if a kid wakes up puking at 2am, or I sleep through the alarm, etc., it's gonna get done when it gets done. :)

1) Quiet Time.
2) Shower.
3) School/housework/Day 7 assignment.
4) Study.
5) Pick up glasses & shop at Costco.
6) Grade papers.

OK. That's as specific as I can get. LOL.

The cupboard assignment was a breeze. We have very limited cupboard space & we use almost everything in the cupboards every day, so it is easy to keep them organized. The only exception is my tea cupboard. It wasn't that bad but I figured since this was the assignment I'd go ahead and go through it. There was some old tea I had to toss and I cleaned the bottom of the shelf I can reach. Now I can fit my new teapot in it. :)

31 Days to Clean--Day 5...finally!!! :D

2011-05-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's a little late. I saw another person who just posted today too so I'm in good company. ;)

But, seriously, I've been so busy, what with "entertaining" and all. I was surprised on Thursday night that I'd be putting that into practice a little sooner than I'd planned. It was a great time, though. Then, of course, Mother's Day. We had my in-laws over to "entertain."

Before I get onto Day 5's specific task, I have to tell you about what happened with my refrigerator. What happened to my so-clean-it-was-blinding refrigerator was, somewhere between Friday afternoon & Saturday morning, someone wiped a chocolatey finger on it.

I don't know about you, but it looks like a child sized finger mark to me. Now, the reason I share this is that in the old days, if I had spent THAT MUCH TIME cleaning the refrigerator...well, pity the child who did this. But that's not what happened this time. I just looked at it, thought, "I need to wipe that off." Then I realized I didn't go ballistic over it & took a picture to remind me of this breakthrough, THEN wiped it off. :D

I've prayed a long time that I'd mellow out. It's happened bit-by-bit, but lately (I think) it's been happening a little faster. I believe God led me to this book/challenge for this reason...to remember that it is Him I am working to bring glory to, not to myself, my husband, my family. When I keep my focus there, these little things (and *really* these are such little things) don't bother me.

Now for Day 5....

This really was a day to think a whole lot about a whole lot of things. I'm not sure I've done it justice. I am not going to cover all the five things here as some are far more personal than blogging allows for.

Priorities

1) God--I really must give more of my time & effort to Him. He is the Maker of all things & the Author and Finisher of my Salvation. I need to pray more, and specifically that I'll find my rest in Him. To that end I will continue to read my book (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment) & have joined up with GMG to be held accountable to a regular time of reading & study of God's word, and prayer.

2) Husband--This is far too personal, suffice to say it requires a lot of prayer.

3) Children--I need to make sure I'm making time for each of them. I need more patience. I need to continue to show unconditional love so they in turn will have that to give to others. To that end, less time on Facebook. :D I was already half-way out the door, but held out when a certain circumstance seemed to necessitate. Now that that's over (it's a good thing getting rid of nasty people isn't as easy as de-friending them on Facebook) I hope it will be much easier. Of course, the risk is to give myself over to the blogging instead. Always a balance.

4) Home--I need to make sure I have my priorities straight. "God first" has made this a much more pleasant venture. I am so grateful to Him for His continued work on my heart. I will finish this "31 Days..." then I might repeat it. :)

5) Gifts--This is a toughy. I may have some but I don't know what they are. I think I will mainly focus, then, on trying to be a witness for Christ where He has placed me, regardless the circumstances. (Boy, is this asking for trouble, eh? I'll let you know how that goes. :))

6) Personal--To try to stay focussed on what I want instead of being distracted by something new & "shiny." I need to be diligent in studying for my sign language class. And equally diligent in continuing my reading.

As for the physical task of cleaning the window, that was fairly easy, except the part where I have to climb almost into the sink to accomplish it. :D

I am striving to make my workspaces as cheery as possible. I use an old flour jar with sunflowers on it for my dish brushes. I try to have at least one plant by my open window. It's hard to place things on the ledge outside since our area is prone to high winds. I'm nervous I'll lose something. I've been thinking of gluing some stuff on. ;)

I bought colored spray bottles last week at IKEA for my window & counter cleaners. They look much nicer than the old Home Depot-style bottles. I need to find something for my dish-soap and hand-soap now. I also have a couple of the rocks H-F brought me from the yard. As you can see by the one-item-per-square thing, I'm a bit weird. When we get rid of the tile, it won't look this neat. Hope I can handle it. :D

I have no window treatments at the moment. I'm thinking of ordering this: http://www.bedbathstore.com/chchprkicu.html It has to be something with whimsy or it won't fit. :)

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: There Will Be a Day by Jeremy Camp (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Rev. 21:4 "...He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Mother's Day all. No, really, I mean it. ;)

We had a very nice day. My in-laws came to church then over to our house for lunch. While waiting for the pork chops to grill the kids played with bubbles, which made our dog very happy...

Here she is, trying to catch a bubble. She caught a lot. We have to put her in her kennel after a bit coz she'll keep on chasing & eating until she drops.

Our little dog prefers to lick the bubbles off our hands. It's too complicated to catch them, I suppose. :)

Here's the Teenager with my fil, watching the kids. It's always sad when teenagers think they're too old to have real fun. Then you have to wait until they get in their mid to upper twenties before they're interesting again. ;D

The table. My dh got me that nice bromeliad. I love them. :) The gerbera is for my mil. And there are the eggs H-F decorated.

We celebrated my mil's birthday today as well. It was last month but we were always too busy to get around to it.

Here's the Teenager trying to get out of the picture. I try to tell him his pictures would look less dorky if he'd just stand still but you can't tell teenagers anything. LOL.

We bought her some candles & holders from Bed, Bath & Beyond. Thing 2 & H-F love the candles there. H-F helped me pick these out.

Next I opened my cards and gifts. It's not shown, but I got a purple silky pillow with "LOVE" attached to it. I think I'll put it all back together tomorrow and take a pick. It was obviously from Thing 2. He is the biggest lovie-dovie of them all. :) I also got some nice lavender feetie things you heat in the microwave then put on your feet to relax them, from my dh. I love the smell of lavendar. There is also cream. I guess you put it on your feet if they are dry, then put them into the slipper type things.

Thing 2 also got me a funny card that had absolutely nothing to do with reality, but it cracked him up and he knows I like to laugh so he bought it. :)

Here's the cake. I used Gluten Free Pantry's Dark Chocolate Cake Mix with homemade buttercream icing. The candies are obviously store-bought, but I prefer them to trying to write the words myself. I'm too out of practice, but I hope to rectify that...after I'm all done with the sign language classes.

Thing 1 took this pic of my mil.

Then it was back to church. Afterwards we played outside with the other kids, as per usual.

Babycakes is really getting around these days. :)

H-F was very proud of the "flower" he found and picked inside the slide.

Thing 1 is getting around these days too. It always makes me smile to see him so active...some never thought he would be.

And then, after that, we went to McDonald's since we didn't after church. H-F was so glad to see "animal" toys again. Something called Zoobals, or Zoobles. I've never heard of them but they are animals from the zoo so we must have them. Which reminds me of something H-F said today that he meant seriously but made a funny joke. "Where is the animal store?" "The zoo." Poor kid was not happy when we all cracked up. :D

Guess that's all. Still haven't gotten around to the 31 Days Challenge post yet. I think it will have to wait until morning. It's 11 pm and we have violin at 9am.

Jeremy Camp - There will be a day

2011-05-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Troubled soul don't lose your heart, 'cause joy and peace he brings.

And the beauty that's in store outweighs the hurt of life's sting.

"Happy" Mother's Day

2011-05-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

I planned to post something about post-partum depression today, but it'll have to be done at some later date. I forget that holidays are hard now. Each one, I call my grandmother (for those who don't know, I consider her my mom). Each one she remembers less. Since she was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's a little over a year ago it has been more and more difficult. She doesn't remember what happened five minutes ago. On the plus side, she remembers what happened years ago so she hasn't forgotten me...yet. I guess that's the moment I dread. I guess that's what makes holidays so hard. Growing up with my grandparents I went through many deaths. Deaths of their parents, siblings, friends. It always bothered me that someday it would be them, I just never foresaw this long goodbye.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

2011-05-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: Say It with Music by The Lawrence Welk Orchestra (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Ps 101:1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will make music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today was a very good day. Got all my Target shopping done during the boys' first class. Got all my grocery shopping done during the second class. Came home & rested (read: vegged in Treasure Isle), then played with H-F & Babycakes the rest of the day.

I picked up a couple of seed pots out of the dollar bin at Target for H-F, basil & parsley. We planted them after the big boys went back to ballet for rehearsals. Here they are with his other plants, getting some sun.

H-F is really into egg dyeing right now. We've had to dye eggs every weekend since his birthday party on Easter weekend. It's worked out well. Last week we took his eggs to the open house, this week we'll use them for Mother's Day lunch. Next week might be a problem, but I'm sure someone around here will be glad to eat them. :)

When the boys came home they went straight to the trampoline. Guess they needed to work off steam from rehearsals. Things are getting close now. In two weeks we'll start run through rehearsals so they'd better have it all down now.

H-F looking like a biker dude with the wind in his hair. :D

GF pizza was on sale at Sprout's today so we splurged. Made a nice easy dinner.

Thing 1 helping to mix the batter for the cake for tomorrow.

Thing 2 had to get in on it too. He loves to help in the kitchen. He'd better learn to cook for himself since he's going to be a missionary who has Celiac Disease. Not many foreign countries are GF diet friendly. :)

I'm currently contemplating transferring all the entries from my old blogs over here. But the thought is overwhelming. I don't think they'd be deleted so I suppose I'll just leave them be. Easier that way...and I like easy.

The Lawrence Welk Show: Say it With Music

2011-05-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

We love The Lawrence Welk Show & try to watch it every Saturday night. :)

Friday, May 6, 2011

2011-05-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: You Are More by Tenth Avenue North (see post below)

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Heb 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another day late. I tried to start last night but I'd been up since 2am and couldn't keep my eyes open.

Yesterday was a fun day. Our friends are visiting from Seattle and came over. The boys' friend, D, stayed to play & swim.

Here are Thing 1 & Thing 2 swimming in the very cold pool. Everyone went in except the Teenager. He didn't used to have a problem with it but I guess his body is getting older and us old folks feel cold more than little kids (or so I've read).

This is our crazy dog. He would like to get into the pool but he can't swim.

Here's our oldest helping H-F swim. It's pretty nice to watch your older kids help your younger ones. :)

Our other dog, L. She isn't allowed in the pool area. OK, neither of the dogs are but the little one can squeeze through the fence. :D

Tenth Avenue North - You Are More

2011-05-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the ads and the video following but the main video is too good to substitute.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

I remembered to change the text this time. :D

Picture collage personalized with Smilebox

Thursday, May 5, 2011

2011-05-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

Song of the Day: Come Thou Fount by Jadon Lavik

Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)

Verse: Isaiah 38:17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, it's not really Thursday anymore, but I was very tired last night for some reason and called it quits early. It's bad to do that since one of the reason's I started blogging again was to try to remember what we do each day. By the next morning, I forget. :D

Let's see, I know we did school at some point, after picking up a bit. I am sure we worked on our lapbooks (I have the evidence right here, next to me, on my desk) and I know we painted our clay hearts. (I have pictures.) They dried even faster than I thought they would. Guess air dry clay does that in 90+ heat & >10% humidity. :)

We were painting while BizKids was on and H-F wanted me to take a picture of this guy. :D

31 Days to Clean--Day 4

2011-05-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Today's assignment was rather simple though it will take longer to accomplish than I planned. I have a self-cleaning double oven but I can only clean one oven at a time. 3 hrs for the top, 5 hrs for the bottom. I'll do the last one tonight.

We were also to think about hospitality. This is not a thing I really struggle with except as regards time. I had already planned to have a couple of friends over during the next few weeks, if they can handle the heat (we have no a/c). :) I clean as well as I can, but I know I always forget something, whether it's cleaning the mirrors in the bathroom, or cleaning the front of the dishwasher. But I never really worry about it coz I'm just not wired that way. When I go to someone's house I barely notice if there's a mess. I notice the way the person makes me feel. Do I feel welcome & comfortable? Or do I feel that if I (or one of my kids) so much as drops a crumb on the floor the hostess will freak out. I have always tried to have a more relaxed atmosphere in our home...I probably go overboard sometimes. :D

I think the thing I'd like to focus on as regards hospitality is keeping things Christ-centered. This is such a difficult thing in the West and I rarely see it done either in my home or in friends' homes. I pray that I will be able to find ways to do so.

For the Beauty of the Earth

Review: Charles Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers by Christian Timothy George

Five Minute Friday: Brave

AWANA Grand Prix--Take 1

Can you really make a difference?

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I'm Too Confused to Think of a Title :D

Thought on the 39th Anniversary of Roe v Wade

First Day of Basketball, and a New Codename

Thing 1's Birthday...finally

CDH videos for Thing 1's B-Day

Last post for today, probably a while...until Saturday when we have the next birthday. :D

Happy 15th

New Year at Hume Lake Christian Camp

Day 2 of 180

1 Down, 179 More to Go

Learning Our ABC's

Summer Weather in My Heart

Lots of Swimming

Saturday, July 16, Whereon Babycakes Finally Has a Birthday Party

Where Were You at Midnight?

COURAGEOUS Movie Trailer

And So the Week Is Finis

Independence Day 2011

Stars

I'm "Challenged"

Giveaway, & Other Stuff

Texas 2011

So Complicated

Sleeping Beauty 2011

Happy Second Birthday, Babycakes

Blogging Award

Of Laundry and Other Things

This Week

MercyMe~Spoken For

Facing the Cold, Hard Facts ;)

31 Days to Clean--Day 23

31 Days to Clean--Day 22

31 Days to Clean--Day 21

The Weekend

No Not One - Brandon Heath - with lyrics

Book Giveaway

The Five Pieces by Emily Bontrager

31 Days to Clean--Day 18

31 Days to Clean--Day 17

Review: Sunshine through the Storm

Sunday, May 22, 2011

It's just like His great love

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"Word of God Speak" by MercyMe (lyrics) (excellent quality)

Wordless Wednesday

Since Last Monday (pt. 5)

Since Last Monday (pt. 4--in which we played some more...and made it, just in time))

Since Last Monday (pt. 3--where we dumped a lot of pennies..and played some more)

Since Last Monday (pt. 2--where we played at some parks)

Since Last Monday (pt. 1)

A Small Update

Psalm 147:1-11 - Scottish Psalter 1650 (ACapella)

Giveaway

INT.ZONE*David Nevue**It Is Well With My Soul**

Part of our Weekend

Friday, May 13, 2011

31 Days to Clean--Day 8

31 Days to Clean--Day 7

Monday, May 9, 2011

Screen Door, Rich Mullins

31 Days to Clean--Day 6

31 Days to Clean--Day 5...finally!!! :D

Mother's Day 2011

Jeremy Camp - There will be a day

"Happy" Mother's Day

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Lawrence Welk Show: Say it With Music

Friday, May 6, 2011

Tenth Avenue North - You Are More

Happy Mother's Day

Thursday, May 5, 2011

31 Days to Clean--Day 4

INT.ZONE*David NevueIt Is Well With My Soul