Thank you everyone for your prayers. My brother was released today and is at my grandma’s recovering. His white blood count has gone down considerably. We are praying that the stuff he’s taking will work and help him to heal and have complete healing. God is good! Thank you so much everyone for being there when we needed you the most.
Here is my thank you card to my wonderful friend, Sarah.
You totally ROCK!
The awesome gifts:
Notice the adorable handmade hat and booties! (The onsies say, “Man in the making” and “I’m new here”… too cute!)
Words can’t really say how it feels to know that others are thinking and caring for you and your family. Thank you so much Sarah:)
I don’t know about you, but I have this overwhelming need to be perfect. I have a hard time not being critical about everything that I do. Especially when it comes to being a mom; and a homeschooling one at that. I was writing an ad for our newsletter not too long ago; it came out just recently and I read over the blurb I placed in there - God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
If I could remember just that, life would be good. He said that He would equip us for every good work. If my good work is to raise and train children for the glory of God, then He will equip me to do so.
Looking back over this first year of homeschooling and listening to all the hub for the new one approaching, I have learned much. It definitely is not an easy path to choose, but it is one that God has dealt with my heart about and one I know He has placed me upon. So, with that in mind, I know that He will equip me to do that job. Last year, was the first time I taught my own child how to read, how to do his math facts, and how to write his own thoughts on paper. But that is not the big accomplishment in this life. It is not about the academics. With small children it’s about the heart, the attitude, the spirit. There was more for him to learn about God and what He expects from this little 6 year old, than there was to learn about the ABCs. Disciplining issues and training sessions were what took place most days. That is what God has commanded me to do. To train up my child in the ways of the Lord. I need to remind myself of that on days when I feel we didn’t “learn anything” academically, so it would seem.
Doing focused attention teaching was not the easiest some days, with little ones needing attention constantly. But I found that we didn’t have to do academics on any one else’s schedule, but what fit with our day. Being an active boy, I divided up his schooling into bite sized chunks. With the most focused time during nap time, when I could give him my undivided attention.
I have been wanting to do a more God-centered approach to our schooling; with more of a chronological line up of history and Bible woven together. I love the RC method that we utilized last year. I have found a few things that I want to add to it. I want the kids to be able to explore what they’re learning more on their own and to retain the information they absorb from their classic living books. So, I am going to try notebooking this year, as well as incorporating some of the Veritas Press classical education aspects - mostly the history and extra literature books. I am also looking forward to checking out the Institute for the Excellence in Writing program for my oldest 3. I am hoping to be able to connect their Bible-centered learning with our everyday life and how it applies to today. Making sure that they view their world from a biblical perspective I know will help them make decisions based on God’s truth, rather than the world’s “wisdom”.
At any rate, this is an encourage myself in the Lord post:) Once the baby gets here, and I have all our curriculum in order, I am hoping I won’t feel so disoriented and disconnceted. Life is so much better with a schedule for me… though there is always the huge flexibility factor, I need a guide to my everyday schooling and every other wife/mother aspect to keep me sane. Hopefully, my next post will be about our newest little blessing:)
Thanks everyone for the comments:) Aaron did the site for me. I am so not IT literate. I had complained to him how I couldn’t put what I wanted into the sidebars and how the themes were limited; so he got me into another side of wordpress. I don’t know much about it… but he’s pretty sweet taking the time out just for my blog.
Well, our trip to Tennessee was really great. On the way down we stopped in Jerseyville and enjoyed a Saturnight service with the church family there. Jessica was so sweet to keep us in her home that night and we had a great time of fellowship with Gina and Sam and their 3 little cuties.
Breaking up the trip was really nice on the way down. We then on Sunday stopped in to see the Hunts. That was really awesome. They invited us back and made us some super yummy smoothies (which I had been dying for this entire trip - I was going through withdrawal). It was really nice of them. And Hannah actually had a great time and played with Bro Hunt like they were old friends. This is quite a pleasant change from the anti-social little thing she was when they came to stay with us in May.
Off to the Massie’s we went then from there. They were so gracious to keep us for our entire stay. The kids all felt so at home and had a great time with their children. They all got along so well. It was really a blessing to be able to be there. We had many wonderful talks with them. I hadn’t really had a chance to get to know them before, and I am so thankful now that we had the time to fellowship. They are such a wonderful couple. They compliment each other so well. It was really encouraging. My favorite was the atmosphere in their home. It was very relaxed and joyful. Julie always had a smile to share, which made me feel so comfortable. I normally am really worried that we’re being a burden on people when we stay with them, since we have so many people in our family and take up so much space. But Julie really made me feel welcome and that it was really no big deal. It made me enjoy my trip that much more.
VBS was neat. The kids enjoyed the crafts and especially making so many friends. They were sad to have to leave, but I am glad they had the opportunity to meet so many like-minded youth to be encouraged by.
It was really cool to be able to hang out with our friends on various evenings. I had a great time talking with everyone. Thanks Janelle for the books! I am LOVING the book by Vickie Farris. Her chapter about how the Lord dealt with her on family size and birth control was really inspiring and made me want to research it more in depth. The history of birth control was something I had not really dug into and now I am really interested in learning more about the why’s and politics behind it. I can’t believe it was illegal in our country until 1960 when Planned Parenthood was in the works. Anyways, that a whole other blog:)
Only 3 and 1/2 weeks to go! I have the urge to get everything in order before new baby gets here. I have decided to re-work our homeschooling schedule to work Nathaniel in (he really wants to read and write) and to spend more time conferencing with the older ones on their subjects. We are still going with the Robinson Curriculum and Saxon math; but I would like to try and squeeze in some extras this year, now that I have the “hang” of the basics. I decided to break out the Managers of Their Homes guide on scheduling and get things worked out. Even though we don’t always adhere to a schedule, it is definitely less chaotic and less stressful to have the outline and general guide for the day to day homeschooling/chores/housework/and QT with each child.
Most importantly, I have been wanting to get back into the habit of studying/reading/praying during the day. I have been doing little snippets here and there throughout the day, but it’s not been enough. I can tell when I am “running dry” and have lost focus in the midst of the everyday hub. So, this time I am going to try and break up “quiet time” into smaller chunks of like 10-15 minutes and try and do them throughout the day. I want to invest in a good study Bible to keep me motivated and I was going to get the books “Experiencing God” and “My Utmost for His Highest”. I have been wanting to read those for a long time.
I also wanted to organize my house to better fit our everyday lives. Since we had moved into our new area, I have more space than I was used to. I wasn’t quite sure how to use it all efficiently. We have a formal dining room and an office on the main floor. The formal dining room was more being used for a sewing room than anything and the office was kind of unorganized and not really utilized. I hate having anything not being used efficiently and if there is a better way to be doing things, then I am all about it. So, I had Libby over to help me move things around yesterday and she was a great help. We brought up all the arts/crafts stuff from the basement and put them in the formal dining room. We rearranged all the books so that the artsy ones were in the formal dining room, homeschooling ones in the office, and everything else in the living room. We rearranged all the furniture so that there was an art table for the little ones in the sewing room; a table for sewing; and the hutch is holding all the arts supplies in baskets. The office now has 3 desk/tables for every size so that I can do preschool with Nate and the kids have a place to organize and store all their academic supplies/books. I feel so much better! We can still use the formal dining room if needed; I will just put away all the sewing and craft stuff into their boxes and store them away. I also created a little diaper changing area in there so that I didn’t have to keep going upstairs every time. I think I will do another all-day potty training excursion with Hannah next week to see if she is ready to move on to the next step beyond “recognition”.
I also wanted to say how awesome my neighbor Jodi is once again for sending her boys over yesterday with the most delicious raspberries! Everyone ate them up within minutes. lol And yea, you can buy strawberries that yield fruit 2 times, once in the early summer and then again in early fall. I can’t remember the name of them, but those are the kind my mom’s is bringing next month:) So, when we get some, I will definitely be sending one of the boys over with them.
So, there’s the Webb update. I will post some pics as soon as I can re-locate the camera:) I am also going to start sewing Hannah and the new baby some new cloth diapers… I will take pics this time, S:) You’d be so proud of me, I actually bought a book and supplies on how to knit! That will definitely be a cooler weather project… More later!
Alrighty, I got “tagged” for another fun round of get to know things about Gina you could have lived without knowing:) I was tagged by my nice homeschooling neighbor, Jody, who I am glad is across the street. So, without further adieu, I will list 6 things that aren’t all that important about me:
1. I have a mild tendency to do something just because someone else says that I can’t. (Not exactly sure what I have to prove… but I have been like that for as long as I can remember, can be a good and bad thing, I guess.)
2. I can’t stand our media. It drives me nuts knowing how much influence ridiculous magazines, tv shows, so called “news” stations, and movies have on how we view life and all of its aspects. I refuse to succumb to the mindless reasoning that is so pervasive in this world.
3. If I could find another country to move to that wasn’t moving toward socialism, I would. I find it sad that our country once founded on Christian values and ethics has eroded away to “tolerance” for everything anti-Christian and where Christian-oppression is evident (at least we aren’t thrown in prison for preaching the truth - yet).
4. I like to have all my kids where matching outfits to church on Sundays. I am not sure why, I just think it looks so cute.
5. I took a personality test once and found that I was a perfectionist/fun-lover. So I guess I love to have a perfectly good time;) Which is why we travel hundreds of miles with our 5 kids loaded up in the van, in the middle of winter to go and have a blast with our friends down south.
6. I hate cleaning my juicer. I use it everyday, because I can hear all the reading I have done talking to me about the benefits of it, especially while being pregnant, all the day long; but I put off cleaning it until the absolute last moment possible (and sometimes beg my dear sweet hubby to do it for me).
So there you have it. 6 things about me, you really didn’t need to know. Now I suppose that I am going to “tag” 6 other people ( I will probably only tag a couple) so that the fun will continue.
I tag:
Rachel; Chrissy; Janelle; Heather; and Sarah.
Here are the “rules”:
This post just left me speechless.
http://togodbethegloryhomemaking.blogspot.com/2007/12/picture-of-year-picture-is-that-of-21.html
Okay, so here’s my WEIRD list just for Heather; because we are now instant best friends (hehe, check out her post) (funny, but it’s so true).
GINA’s ABSOLUTELY BIZARRE and RANDOM LIST you wish you didn’t know about her….
1. I could watch my baby play all day - the way they discover things and talk and walk, just fascinates me. I have had God deal with me directly about how much I am like her in my walk with Him and how dependent I am upon Him.
2. I am easily offended. I wish this were not so and you probably wouldn’t know it, because I am always like, oh that’s okay, it’s no big deal… but for some reason I tend to be oversensitive.
3. I overanalyze EVERYTHING. I sometimes keep myself up at night wondering if I offended someone and if they hate me now and reconstruct reality to figure out a way to get them to forgive me.
4. I am still trying to overcome being Italian. I know it’s no excuse to use your inheritance as a weakness, but I am loud loud on more than one occassion. We used to joke at my grandma DeLisi’s house that we Italians don’t talk when we have a conversation, we yell, because we’re passionate about just about everything. Though I like being passionate about godly things, I wish I could tame the ungodly ones - like getting upset over little nothings;)
5. I am a neat freak. Funny, I have 5 kids and I like everything extremely neat. HAHAH. This only pertains to cleanliness and organization. I swear I can feel bacteria around me in dirty bathrooms… ever see that movie, “The Aviator” (I think it was that one…); well you get the idea.
6. When I get in the spirit I speak in tongues at a pitch that is like 5 octaves higher than any normal voice. It can be very embarrassing, because I feel like am the only one in the spirit during worship service, when I may actually not be, just because I can’t hear anyone else. hehe. I do not know why this is. I guess, God figured since I used my big mouth so much out in the world doing my own thing, now He can use it loudly to proclaim His praises.
7. ANd last but certainly least of all: I typed a reminder to myself to: ”Trust in God” in the front of my cell phone to calm my fears and worries about the future of my children, remembering that God is in control of all situations and that He will answer my prayer for their adoption when it is His time to do so.
So, there you have it… more about me you wish you didn’t know;)
I happened upon this article that was on Rachel’s blog. It was really awesome. It confirmed to me so much of what I thought home schooling means to me, that I just had to share it:) Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
“All the graces of a Christian spring from the death of self.”
– Madame Guyon
Haven’t posted a good health book reading in a while, so here you go:)
My mom came to visit me last week. She is a Certified Natural Health Professional and always has some random informative books and such that she brings me to read. Well this trip proved no different, and so I read the newest materials she had for me. It actually turned out to be really insightful. It was written by a very good doctor of the medical field who is actually “blowing the whistle” on the bad advice and medicines promoted without even any real, truthful scientific data to back up their claims. Anyways, good read if you’re up for more on what’s really going on in the medical realm in America.
Bad Medicine by William Campbell Douglass
