You'll have to forgive me

I know I have been annoyingly religious lately during the few and far between times I have even been here, but I'm still going through some stuff and the lord is helping me through. Therefore, you'll just have to forgive me :). When life starts to make more sense I will be more balanced.
Some of the keepers of my sanity:

The Casting Crowns

Tenth Avenue North

The Gospel of Matthew

Carolyn Arends- They'll Know We Are Christians 

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love

Lisa Harper's book Stumbling Into Grace

Side note: I picked up this book after reading a bad review...

I have got to do that more often!

Honestly though, I am again indebted to my friends that push me in the right directions... no matter if I want to be pushed or not :) and my amazing kid who keeps me moving and living and praying for better things. If not for me, then at least for her.

Having a job I love helps too. The best thing about having babies around is free hugs and happiness whenever I need it! 

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

Happy Birthday

When I look at the Nativity, I wonder. How many of those people really had any idea what was happening? How could a teenage girl fully grasp what she had been given? What kind of faith would the lowly shepherds have needed to have that would enable them to know what was happening right in front of them? And poor Joseph...

Holiday Crafts part 2

I posted about our Halloween Crafts back in October. Well, here are some of the things we've been doing since then! Alot of them are either prepackaged or bags of supplies from Oriental trading.

Little Angels

Gods Greatest Gift Wreath

Snowman Stockings

Button Ornaments (Good for hand-eye coordination)

Buttons and Bells Ornaments

Suffering

“Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is ‘yes’? You see, I don’t think that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. You see, we are like children who think that our toys bring us all the happiness there is, and that our nursery ...is the whole wide world. But something has to drive us out into the world of others, and that thing is suffering. Put simply, pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. We are like blocks of stone from which the Sculptor carves a form. The blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.” - CS Lewis

Quality time

OK, I know. I spend ALL my time with Gwen, but is it 'quality' time? Is it good memory making, giggle and laugh, getting to know you, happy to play with you, tell me anything time? Or when the boys go home at night am I so spent and exhausted that I'm barely here at all? Is 'watching TV together' just a way for me to get out of being a parent for an hour or two?

I have really been trying hard to make our time together more meaningful lately. Which means taking a break from stalking reading everyone's Blogs and Facebook posts (and I have come to realize that while I like you and care about what is happening in your life, I will survive not reading about it until the next day or *gasp* 2 days later).

We've been eating breakfast out, listening to loud music and discussing the meanings of the lyrics, tree shopping, wrapping presents, playing card games, eating chocolate together and having an outrageously fun time. If the day comes when we don't have all this time to be together, at least we will have good memories and an understanding of each other that comes from 'quality' time.

Spiritual Sunday- Trust

Listen

I just picked this up at The Way Station

#1 Courageous... It really, Just wow. I'm not a big music person, but I think I've been spending too much time with my friend Dana who has a song for every occasion... Very similar to the way I have a book for almost any occasion :)

They're coming to my area in March and I might have to go see them. That's how much that song said to me.

lazy post

I haven't the energy to say anything. The kids sucked my sickly self dry of all energy today... but I'll share this with you:

Yum!

How much is too much?

Gwen recieved Just Dance Kids for the Wii for her 8th birthday and I was not looking forward to it... but it is actually really good! There are songs like The ants go marching, Pop goes the weasel, Funkytown, Who let the dogs out, and ABC 123. Not only do I like the songs, I like the dancing too. It's not crazy pop music sexy dancing, it's just fun kid dancing. Gwen and the boys danced for hours yesterday! Definetly 5 stars :)

Anyway, to make room for four or five kids to dance in my livingroom I had to pull the furninture to the edges of the room and I noticed... WOW! There is a lot of baby equipment in this house! A swing, playpen, floor gym, bumbo, rocking chair, stationary entertainer, johnny jumper, high chair, two slings and a baby bjorn front carrier.

      

My baby is EIGHT YEARS OLD!! The baby I watch IS here 3 days a week, 11 hours a day, but it still seems a little excessive.  

Stress

Oh, Stress. We all have it in our lives. It comes from work, home, family, friends, holidays and even religion. Sometimes we are dealing with a lot and sometimes we are blessed with only a little. Some of us are happy-go-lucky and (almost) everything just rolls right off of us and some of us take it all in and analyze it and worry about it.

We all deal with it in different ways too: Yoga, music, exercise, sports, shopping, reading a lot, sleeping a lot, eating or not eating, talking or not talking. We never know how much stress a person has in their life unless we are with them at all times and can feel what they feel.

I hope you are all dealing with small, easily managed portions of stress right now. I seem to be overloaded at this time, so I apologize for my lack of consistent blogging... Past, present and future. Until I get my life under control I may be a little unpredictable.

She IS The Class

Some of you may remember my sick day post where Gwen was watching movies in my bed and pretty much spreading all her stuff all over my room. Well, It was strep (ouch, no wonder she was miserable), so there went a whole week of school. I planned on getting back on track on Monday, but she still had a fever and a cough that wouldn't let either of us sleep. After some back and forth with the Doctors office we came home with meds for pneumonia :( not only was it scary, but there went another week of school.

Over the long Holiday weekend I worried and tried to plan for how we were going to 'catch up'. How much math, science, geography, history, and language I can squeeze into each day. How quickly I can expect her to memorize spelling words. If I can get her to practice an hour of music a day.

I looked at timetables and schedules for days and then I realized that we don't have to 'catch up'. We homeschool. She doesn't have to try to cram as much in her brain as she can to keep up with the other kids in class who weren't sick for 2 weeks... she IS the class. This class moves at HER pace. If she learns something quickly, we will move on. If she needs more hands-on, or books about, or lessons pertaining to a subject we will continue with it until we are confident in her knowledge. (A little extra leg work is something that is a parent's responsibility whether they homeschool or not. Teachers are amazing, but they can't be one-on-one-ing with each child all day... They are only one person)

And remember all those in service days and ridiculous holidays that the kids in public school don't have to go in for? We don't have those. You know what we do on Martin Luther King Jr day? We learn about Martin Luther King Jr. The books we read and activities we do on that day might not be our regularly scheduled stuff, but there's no reason to do nothing, after all... we're in the building anyway (LOL). I am not a state employee who is guaranteed certain days off. I am a mom. I don't get days off!

We have plenty of time to make up for those weeks. It may take us awhile, but that's why my lesson plans are labeled Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, etc. and not with specific dates.

We'll make up the time... eventually