Almost done!

Things are progressing nicely at our new facility. The sanctuary is almost done. This past Sunday we had our highest attendance at 30! We also had our first missionary come and speak at our mid-week service on Tuesday night. Brother Nathan Haifley has a ministry that helps churches get into the prisons and jail to preach and hold services. He preached a tremendous message to us about fear; that fears generally fall into one of three categories: Failing, Faces (people), and Future. He used 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

About a month ago (right around the time when we got the keys), things seemed to start becoming overwhelming. Things in our personal life and in church seemed to just be falling apart. It may sound a little dramatic but things always seem bigger than what they are when you are in the midst of it. We knew satan was going to attack, yet I was unprepared for some of the ways he did it. Being in the valley certainly brings me closer to the Lord (sad to say). I am ashamed to admit that when I cry out to Him most is when the troubles arise. I need to seek the Lord in EVERYTHING I say or do. That message was the perfect one for me to hear...I have all three of those fears-failure, faces, and the future.

I asked the Lord to forgive me for not trusting Him completely. We know that this is what He called us to do, so I don't need to worry about how it all gets done.

I am happy to say that the Lord is good, all the time. But we all knew that, didn't we?

Look what we found...

We think they are cardinals. Aren't they cute?!

Help Save Ohio Libraries!

I just heard about this today, and if you live in Ohio, could you please click this link and let our legislators know that we want to keep our libraries just the way they are! Or copy/paste http://www.columbuslibrary.org/save_our_library . You can also call the Governor's office at 614-466-3555.

Our family greatly benefits from our local libraries, as many others do. It would be sad to see the #1 library system in the country go down.

I'm still here!

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. After my laptop crashed, my computer time has been somewhat limited. In all honesty, it hasn't necessarily been a bad thing. Just different. Since all my homeschool tracker stuff is on my laptop (and not backed up to an external source), we have really modified school, especially since it is so close to the end of the year. We are concentrating on math and English, and just tying up some loose ends, yay!

Our little church is more than a month old now. We have been averaging 20ish people on Sunday morning and 15-18 on Sunday evening and Wednesday Bible studies. Not too bad. We are still looking for a permanent place. We are renting an enclosed shelterhouse at a local park for the morning service and meeting in our home for the evening services. I think when we have a place of our own, it will give some stability. We are currently looking at a storefront that is close by.

As a family, we did start our no sugar "diet" a few weeks ago. It was much later than I first thought but you know how life goes.... We finally just had to do it. We are eating mostly fruits and vegetables & beans, a little meat, milk & eggs for some additional protein. Next week, I will share some of the books & recipes that I am using to put together our "lifestyle change" ;o). The main thing is that we eat mostly salads for our dinner meal. Not just an iceberg lettuce blah salad, but really yummy, healthy salads with spinach, romaine, butter crunch lettuces, broccoli, fresh tomatoes, cauliflower, soy nuts, sunflower seeds, cranberries, the ideas are endless. I have even tried my hand at homemade dressings with olive oil (a superfood!). I have already seen a change in my blood sugar levels. My fasting sugar this morning (which has always been my worst of the day), was 88!! My plan is to eventually wean off the medication I take for my diabetes. My doctor will be so happy lol.

Now that I have my desktop up and running, I will be posting a little more frequently.

Backing up is hard to do...

Let me tell you about my fun experience this weekend.

I turned on my laptop, waited, and then waited some more. Nothing happened so I turned it off and tried again. Something wasn't right. I tried off and on all day Saturday (my birthday of all days, lol) to get it to boot up Vista (of which I am NOT a fan). I had some work to do on the church website and I needed to be online. I finally gave up and unhooked my modem to bring to our desktop computer downstairs.

After doing some research, I think I may have lost all my files. All. Of. Them. Pictures, ALL my homeschool documentation for the whole school year, all my church software, everything. I thought I had backup my homeschool stuff on a flash drive, but can't seem to find the file. I meant to back up all my pictures, but just hadn't got around to it yet. The church software was fairly new, but I had everything set up and ready to go and was using it for our new church. Since it was so new, I didn't back that up either. I am sick.

Lesson for the day. BACK UP EVERYTHING YOU MAY WANT/NEED *frequently*, on another form of media, JUST IN CASE!! You never know when you may need it.

I have not decided what to do about it yet. We have some friends that may be able to help us. We will have to see. If they can just get those particular files off and safe, I will be one happy camper and will not procrastinate backing up again!

Unexpected blessings

At our missions conference last September, my husband met a missionary from Bearing Precious Seed, a printing ministry that prints tracts, Bibles, and John & Romans booklets; in various languages. This missionary told Jason that when we get closer to our start date of our church, to let them know and they would give us some John & Romans booklets to pass out. Since then, we have been in contact and they had 5,000 of these booklets ready for us to pick up at any time. Bearing Precious Seed is in Milford, Ohio, about a 2 hour drive.

Jason got off work early yesterday and decided to call and see if it would be a good day to go and pick them up. He was planning on just him and a friend to go and pick them up but his friend had plans yesterday. So he said we could all just go and enjoy a little drive. One of the beauties of homeschooling...you have so much flexibility. They said it would be fine to pick them up and he told them we would arrive around 1:30 p.m. I packed a few snacks for the kids and we were off!

When we got there, they loaded our van with 17 boxes of John & Romans booklets and asked us if we wanted a tour of the place. SURE we would! It was amazing to see how the Lord took this small printing ministry back in 1973 and grow it and use it to reach the world with the gospel. They print in so many different languages and send Bibles free of charge to missionaries all over the world.

After our tour, the director asked us if we had ever been to the Creation Museum, which is located only 45 minutes from BPS. Well, no, we hadn't. He said they have free passes and we could use them anytime we wanted, we could even go today! Jason looked at me and said, how about today? Like right now? Well, SURE, I would LOVE too! So off we went to the Creation Museum and it was fabulous. If you have not been there, it is a must. We really only had about 2 1/2 hours to spend there since they close at 6, so we flew through there trying to see as much as possible. I am eager to go back when we have more time to look at everything.

On the way back to BPS (we had to take the passes back), we discovered that their midweek Bible study was on Thursday instead of Wednesday. We looked at each other and thought, why not, we'll just stay for church too! After a quick call to my mom to let the dog out, we were ready to spend the evening at First Baptist Church of Milford, Ohio. The pastor was out of town, so an assistant pastor gave the message. At the end of service, the pastor announced who we were and that we were planting a church in Columbus and to make sure to stop by and say hello. What a huge encouragement for all of these people, whom we have never met, come by and let us know that they would be praying for us and our church plant.

When our church is able to start supporting missionaries, Bearing Precious Seed will be one of the first that we support.

What a wonderful, wonderful day. God is just so good.

All
the
time.

Spring is teasing me ;o)

It is 78 degrees here today and we are sooo loving it! I was going to make potato soup for dinner tonight but I just can't when then weather is this warm. We decided to have a salad-y dinner instead. Fruit salad, cucumber salad (if anyone has a good recipe for this, I would MUCH appreciate it. My great-grandmother used to make it with sliced cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, vinegar, and a pinch of sugar. With all the pinches of this and that, I am not really sure how to do it...I know it will never taste like hers! My kids said maybe she used a secret ingredient that she didn't tell anyone about, lol. I think I just might give her a call this evening and ask her ;o). Oh yes, we are having baked potatoes too.

The potato soup can wait for another day this week, the weather is turning cooler again. This is typical weather around here. It's nothing for it to be 20 one day and 70 the next during this time of year. I do know for sure that spring is on the way to stay though....my allergies are starting already :o(.

Have a wonderful day on those warm days, get outside and get some fresh air. Take a walk and enjoy the day that the Lord hath made!

Change those clocks tonight!

Beautiful Day

Don't forget to change your clock tonight....it's time to "spring ahead"! It will be nice having that extra daylight each evening. I'm not real excited about losing the hour though :o( Have a wonderful weekend!

Frozen!

This tree is in my backyard and is coated in ice. Isn't it pretty?! We have had snow, sleet, freezing rain, and more snow. It is so beautiful to look at but a nightmare to drive in :o(. The kids love, love, LOVE to shovel and they have been keeping busy with shoveling not only our driveway, but some of our neighbors too. It really helps burn some of that energy. One of the neighbors insists on giving them a couple dollars. I have told the kids that they should not expect it but if they receive money, then be grateful. They have earned enough for a new shovel and then some ;o)

I hope you are all having a wonderful winter. I used to hate it (kind of like I hated summer). It's too cold, too much snow, roads are too icy, doors are frozen shut, can't keep hats, gloves, scarves, and coats together for 8 people, etc... but I am making an effort to just enjoy all the seasons that the Lord set in place. God's Word says in Philippians 2:14 to do all things without murmurings and disputings. This is probably been the best winter yet.

Back in the Saddle

We are finally in the swing of things again...organized chaos; thus the reason for no recent posts. We are on somewhat of a decent school schedule, but our household schedule is lacking. I heard from not one, but two friends this week about their new schedules...*sigh*...I guess that is confirmation that it is high time for me to get mine together too :o).

The schedule system that I like to use is a mix of MOTH and my Home Management Binder. I use them as guides because every family is different. You have to do what is right for your own family. In the past, I have ben caught up in trying to do someone else's schedule or method. I have finally figued out that I don't have to do what doesn't work for us.

The cold and the snow is not helping my boys with their craziness activeness. These boys just plain need to run. The weather will be better today so out they will go!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Proof!

Here is proof that our orthodontist did not take off Kayleigh's braces and put the same ones on Melissa.

Since my oldest was due to get hers off around the same time as Melissa was getting hers on, he jokingly told us that he could just take Kayleigh's off and put them on Melissa, ewwww!

Before After

The End of 2008 & Quilting

I can hardly believe that 2008 is almost over! As I look back on this year, I see so many ways that the Lord's hand was on our family. Sadly, I also see so many times that I have disappointed the Lord. I have to say that I just feel so unworthy of the grace He so freely gives. I want to do better in 2009!

I am so excited about my new "hobby"!! I have gotten the quilting bug! My great-grandma (yes, GREAT! she is 97) was the family quilter for many years. I always wanted to but felt a little overwhelmed. After reading Simply Susan's easy Invisible Nine Patch (in a previous post), and actually completing it, i got hooked! I have actually made five of them! And a Christmas lap quilt, and a quilted music bag for my oldest daughter for Christmas gifts. (thus the reason for no blog posts in December, lol) I love it, love it, love it. I am going to teach my daughters to quilt too.

Here is my lap quilt. I made it from strips of fabric that someone gave me. Quilting can be very frugal but can easily become very expensive! Buying new fabrics, all the cool quilting gadgets, etc... I am starting out small.

Here is the wall hanging I did for my bathroom.

If you want to see the tutorial again, here it is!

I'm Back :o)

I am back from my extended bloggy break. I not only took a break from here, but we took a break from school too. I have to say, it was so nice :o) We had family in for Thanksgiving and we were all able to get together for 3 nights in a row! We ate, played games, and just enjoyed one another.

We have done a modified school week this week, very modified, as in just math for book work and some DVD's from the library. This week got cold and it was nice to just stay in our cozy house and watch movies. We watched a National Geographic on Grand Central Station, a movie about the Great Wall of China, and a Frontline about Mormonism. Very interesting stuff :o)

I am making Christmas gifts this week too. Simply Susan had a Quilt wall hanging tutorial a few months back and I used some Christmas fabric to make one. It is turning out so cute! I will take pics next time.

Daylight Savings Time ending...

Three Children Break off from Their Game of Battledore and Shuttlecock to Admire the Cuckoo Clock

Just a reminder, we get an extra hour tonight! Set those clocks! We are using our "extra" hour for our family fun night. Perfect timing ;o) How will you use your extra hour?

Homeschool: Scheduling and other stuff

There are many different approaches to homeschooling, there really is no "one size fits all". We have tried several approaches within our own family over the last 10 years ourselves, and I am sure that we will try other things in the future. During the time that my husband pastored, we did a lot of work in the church. While this is good, our basic school suffered.

Here is what we are doing this year:

• Mostly textbooks, Rod & Staff (with a little Abeka for my high schooler)
• Non-fiction DVD's from the library
• no classes, field trips, gym days, etc...
• no homeschool group

Doing this has really helped our family to get back on track. Not that homeschool groups, gym days, etc are bad, those were just things that we had to cut out to get our family back to where we need to be. Maybe next year, we will add those things back in. We will see. We will be taking a week off at the end of each quarter to do some fun things. The important thing to remember (and it can be sooo hard at times!) is that you need to do what is right for your family!

Something else to consider is that for many families, the family dynamics are constantly changing. One school year you may have babies & toddlers (which puts a lovely twist to any one's school day), the next year, that baby will be a toddler and the toddler will be a pre-schooler. There could be a new pregnancy, your olders are maturing more, etc... Constant changing.

This year, we have no pregnancy, babies, or toddlers. I have to admit, it is a little odd. We have been able to get much more done. Something that I wish I knew then is: Don't beat yourself up for not getting "enough" done! Treasure the little times, make memories with your kids, don't say no to things just for the sake of saying no. A friend and I were recently talking and we both admitted we have done this. I have found myself saying no for absolutely no reason other than my own laziness. How sad.

A wise saying that I heard from MOMYS several years ago is "While the days are so long, the years are very short". How true! What is the goal? What is the bigger picture? What vision do you have for your children? Do you pray daily for each of your children? Do you want them to "do school" well? Of course, we all want our kids to have a good education, but we also want them to love the Lord, to be able to minister to others, to be compassionate to their siblings, to honor mom and dad, etc...things that you can't learn from a textbook.

If only I knew then what I know now...

Apple Pickin'

Pick Your Own


It's a yearly tradition around here to go apple picking. It's fun for the whole family, especially fun if you go with friends, and it's so much cheaper than buying them in the store. At only $16 per bushel (I got 2 bushels), we can make plenty of applesauce and apple butter this year; not to mention apple crisp, apple cobbler, caramel apple pie, etc... is your mouth watering?

I saw this sign in the market, my husband didn't think it was as funny as I did.

Another yearly tradition...a picture of my son Jonathan ;o)

Voting Reminder

American Flag and Declaration of Independence

If you are planning on voting in this year's presidential election and you are NOT registered, this is just a reminder that TODAY is the last day to register.

Anniversary weekend

We had a lovely weekend "stay-cation" for our anniversary. We took the kids to our friends house on Friday evening and took off to go out to dinner. The restaurant that we went to had a gift shop in the back so went browsed around there after dinner. I love those kinds of gift shops, especially in the fall. There are so many cute decorations for your home and it just smells so good in there! After that, we went shopping and bought some new clothes (found a GREAT clearance sale!).

We had looked for a bed and breakfast to stay at but we just decided last week that we would be going away for our anniversary and with it being peak season around here, everything was booked or very pricey. So, I got busy this week and got our house "bed and breakfast ready". Everything was cleaned and I decorated for fall so it looked beautiful too.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then headed to a bookstore (we both love books) before heading out to pick up the kids. The family that they stayed with have 8 children. They are good friends of ours and their kids are good friends with our kids and it just worked out beautifully. All in all, the whole family had a great time.

Update on IKE

Greetings from Texas

I posted about my family who lives in Texas, in the direct path of Hurricane Ike. My sister told me that 2 trees fell on her house and destroyed her daughters bedroom. For the time being, they are staying in hotels. As for my great-grandma, her building is right across the street from the seawall and the only damage is the spoiled food from the power being out! Amazing! As for my great-aunt & uncle, they only had flood damage on the bottom floor of their home...the beautiful thing about that is that their bottom floor is the GARAGE. There is much to be done in their towns/cities. The work has just barely begun. They still need our prayers down there.

Blessings,

Missions Conference...Last night

Tonight was the last night of the Missions Conference at our church. It is always a little bit sad for me...purely for selfish reasons. I just love, love, love meeting missionary families and the sweet fellowship we can have and it is always sad for me to say good-bye. It is exciting to see what the Lord has laid on the hearts of so many people. The family that we had over last night is on their way to the Arctic Canada. Just amazing to me. Here are a few pics that I took over the last few days.

Blessings,