Father's Day June 2011

One more time...

I've been mighty discouraged over these past couple months in my homeschool... struggles & challenges are getting the best of our "academics." Planning for the fall is on the forefront of each day as I search out what may be the best option/plan for the coming fall. Looking at what the world says... trying to hear God's voice in the midst of that - gets my mind in a tailspin! Some of the options look appealing & have the 'answer' to my weariness but really just add to my human nature in failing to rely more on God's strength.

This AM as I was finally "GOING TO MAKE DECISIONS!!!" browsing the options, Googling, looking at opinions & curriculum I knew I'd been on here long enough & decided to read my short "Live Loved" devotional by Max Lucado.
Here's an excerpt from it:
Give grace, one more time. Be generous, one more time. Teach one more class, encourage one more soul, swim one more stroke....
Sometimes it seems as if we have more struggles than strength. We are tempted to quit. When that happens, Lord, remind us to endure for one more day, to be patient one more time, to serve without reward for one more season. I have made, (i.e. our children) & I will bear (i.e. the load of homeschooling) even I will carry,( i.e. the weight of the future!) and will deliver you. (i.e. FREEDOM when we know He is our Deliverer!) Isaiah 46:4 (the examples God gave me in this devotional - you can insert your own!)

I share this with the hope of encouraging you today - whatever your homeschool for the fall may look like! I know each of our families is deciding different things but want you to know I am praying for you today in your choices. A saying Dan & I continue to ponder in our "wise" age: Today's choices WILL determine our tomorrow, & it reminds me that we can't go back - & at the end James 4 talks about our unknowns in 'tomorrow & being a vapor' - oh how I am praying our Lord's will over all our choices... curriculum, classes, school,...we shall live, doing this or that...

Spring bulbs and more snow in the forecast...

It's April! In fact today April 27th. With only 3 more days in the month, can the weather man be right about snow again tomorrow? We've had it twice this month.
Last Spring the kids and I went to Mt Vernon to see the tulips and we purchased some. Here are some of the beauties we picked!

5...0... just a number...

that's what people keep saying to me! It has a dreadful feeling/sound about it... Like life is more than 1/2 done. (My Gramp will be 99 in July and still lives and drives on his own!) This 50th birthday I just tried not to celebrate, is pretty tough. I'm asking myself, "Have you done it well?... only for Christ so that it will last?"

I know things in my life that look "Christ-like" but when thinking what I did and do that aren't, it gets ya in the heart! This reflecting is a normal part of growing old, almost as if I'm seeing my life pass by as watching a race in slow-motion. Dan continually reminds me there is no living in regret (a genetic trait I fight against.) But as I sit and do life in the same routine ways of teaching my children every day with still many more to go, the weariness gets the best of me if I don't look at God's Promises.

Yesterday while doing Bible & Anatomy with my lambs, (Oh - Apologia Anatomy ROCKS! ) completing our study of the eye, Psalm 32:8 was I will instruct you and teach you in the way your should go; I will guide you with My eye.

How awesome to think that God has been seeing my life pass before His eye! Oh He is so Faithful!
Thank You, God, for keeping your eyes on my comings and goings... my doings and wanderings that have kept me safe & secure from myself! Your Vision is so much clearer and knowing You are watching over me, baffles my tiny finite vision! Oh You are Good!