Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Beatrix & JOY!


Yesterday as many of us began our homeschool 'schedules,' some of us just weren't ready to go at it with all our hearts. Great joyfulness each AM, is how I wish to start each day, so looking for new ways to inspire my weary hands and old 'homeschool' mom mind, God does give small incentives - if I open my heart to them.
Over the holidays, I "re-fell" in love with Beatrix Potter as I watched the movie, Miss Potter. (Oh, she was a grand woman!) Then yesterday our local homeschool newsletter came and had her following quote below.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school;
it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
Beatrix Potter

- I will face today with joy in each one of my originals God created!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Resolutions, intentions, a new year...


No new resolutions: Having a new month with a new year change just doesn't prompt me to make them. Goals can be a good motivation but when we don't meet them, do we beat ourselves up with our failings?
Daily, and maybe it's why I love mornings, I recall the scripture and love the verses in Lamentations 3:22-24:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

LIFE Verses...

How I love the Living Word of God! So over the years I've taken scripture and called certain ones MINE. I love to give scripture in different ways to family and friends in small and big ways. I've found and purchased or created wall signs, T-shirts, mugs, embroidered, made up great posters from Costco like this one with pictures of my kids and Grands taking Ephesians 2:10 we're God's workmanship, created in Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do. It's a super and inexpensive gift for the person (parents) who have everything.

My life verse that I want to live out is found in Micah 6:8 where NIV says: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. I love that His Word tells me just what He expects me to do in this life! Have I wrestled with living it out? You betcha! But I can sing it (as it's been put to at least 3 tunes that I know) and remind myself how He calls me to live. This is a "primitive" sign that I made and hangs in our reading room.


When I began to homeschool 20 years ago, I placed this scripture in a few different places and we memorized it, quoting it as a heart check often. We call it our family verse: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31
What a challenge to just live it out among the immediate family of 4 then adding more children, kids spouses, plus extended family... WOW - who is our neighbor? Can we love God even more than we do? It's been stenciled and moved it and last year I found a vinyl cutter to order "my" words, sayings and verses on Etsy at

Some would say that a life verse should be something you're living out, not something that you try to walk out. I'm just thankful that these verses make us mindful how ALIVE His Living Word truly is!

So for our marriage, I tried to figure out the one that did speak our relationship. It feels one-sided, and that wouldn't be MY side. Dan has lived this one out in a HUGE way over our 28.5 years of marriage. We had a lovely sign made up by Nestlings on Etsy. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=23140 I ordered one of these as a gift for my parents' 50th anniversary with their "marriage verse" on it too. (It says the year established thru the name in a lighter font if you can't see it here.)
It is taken from Ephesians 5: 1 & 2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Dan has been the sweet aroma when I've been absolutely foul rotten stench!

For years I have loved Colossians 1:9-12 for my sweetest of friends and Eugene Peterson in The Message put it into the perfect words:
Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

To find the verses that you hope and pray to speak "your life" are a great way to begin 2009. I want to walk in the Living Word. I want to speak the Living Word. I want to live out the Living Word! It is LIFE!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Simple Pleasures in Life...




RiceKrispy Treats & hot air popped popcorn (with REAL butter) ... &

nothing is better when having a GRAND-daughter help you make them and EAT them!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Over-Indulging parents...

Yes we are! But Daddy set up a contract to make the commitment concrete...
and Grace paid for 1/2...
Macy - is a 9 week old doll of a pup, only 1 week home with us - so the chewing, picking up messes, and repeated "DOWN!" and "NO" as she greets our precious GRAND girls is just beginning to feel like "haven't we been here and done this a few too many times!"
Why do we make more jobs for ourselves as parents?!
Oh for the love of giving to the ones we love...

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thankful for homeschooling FREEDOMS!!!

This fall we began a new program for our boys that is funded by the public school system. Since we've been homeschooling for 20 plus years, there was a dramatic war that went on inside of me deciding to do this.
We'll begin to lose our freedoms to the government because I'm entering into this.
We haven't...yet!
Our 13 year old is what the program calls "off-site" - not taking any classes they offer. We have to reply (report) to an advisor via email each week, along with the other curriculum planning/reporting of hours/progress reports. It hasn't been too much of a biggie except they do try to "suggest" what you should do, how to "grade," how to etc....

So in light of this month's Social Studies focus they are asking us to email about,I must share how God orchestrates our homeschool. (I can't really share that with the district office!) We very loosely study where ever our read alouds take us. We began an adult biography last spring called Nine Lives & Running and will be finishing it this week. This fall, I got an excellent Christian kids historical fiction titled Escape to Liechetenstein at a convention because a little girl at a vendor said it was good. (She didn't tell me what it was about.) We just finished that terrific book! As we looked at Grace's curriculum in August, we found it calls for her to read The Hiding Place this year, which I'm very eager to read for the 4th or 5th time.
Now this past Tuesday before Thanksgiving day, we were privileged to hear a local Jewish woman speak of her life during the Holocaust; being taken as a young girl; losing her mother, baby brother, younger sister, and grandmother to their murder as they were separated and she was pointed to the Auschwitz line; her life in captivity; escaping; then her escape from Hungary with her husband & 2 boys to freedom in the U.S.
This is a God-given opportunity & blessing we get to experience time & time again as homeschoolers. It's not coincidence that our natural studies and being open to flexing our schedule are reasons we are thankful for homeschooling today - learning everyday.

Friday, November 14, 2008

"Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus..."


just to take Him at His Word; just to rest upon His promise, and to know, Thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I've proved Him o'er and o'er! Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust him more! Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease; just from Jesus simply taking life and rest, and joy and peace. I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee, precious Jesus, Savior, Friend; and I know that Thou art with me, wilt be with me to the end." Louisa M. R. Stead, c. 1850-1917


Wikipedia says :Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises. Trust does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. Persons engaged in a criminal activity usually trust each other to some extent... Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown --


Can you imagine life without a relationship of reliance? I certainly can't.


In these uncertain times of national and international uncertainties to think about what trust means - I am so glad I can sing that hymn with great confidence in my relationship of reliance upon Jesus!




~ To know that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is in control


~ His position is NEVER up for a vote


~ He holds the future of my life and the family and friends I hold dear


~ He cares about all the details of my life


~ He will NEVER leave me or forsake me


~ He loves the WORLD!




My trust in Him is KNOWN by His character because He fulfills His Promises... His Word is our reliance.