Counting my blessings

This is just one of those days when I don't feel like counting my blessings- so I think I will. Indulge me...

I am married to a man who is not too proud to say "I'm sorry."
My kids are healthy and they love their mama.
I have no broken bones.
My bank account is in the positive. Yippee!
I have new tennis shoes paid for by my mother in law and they are comfortable. Really comfortable.
Chocolate is cheap, loads cheaper than therapy.
The sink is clean of dirty dishes. OK, one side is clean of dirty dishes.
God loves me. The Bible tells me so.
My van is clean.
I have the kind of friends that will come when I call them and need them, no matter the hour or how trival the meltdown I am having actually is.
My mama still treats me like I am her little girl.
My little house ( I prefer cottage) is warm, and it is really cold outside.
There is clean running water in all of my bathrooms, all one and a half of them!
I'm not in jail, I live in America, my teeth are all mine, I can pray and worship and read my Bible, and for now, it is still legal.

OK- I feel better and life is good. Sometimes I just need to remind myself.

Doctor visit

Went to the doctor today for a sore throat I have had since November and he said what you are probably thinking- why did you wait for so long? Well, I have 4 children and that is enough reason right there. I kept thinking it would get better, and it would for a while, then it would get worse again, you know how mothers just ignore their own health. Anyway, the aggravating thing is not the soreness, it is larangytis- my already low voice is now lower and scratchier, and singing is getting to be more and more frustrating. So I came home with prescriptions for allergies, which is apparently the source of all this, and another "unwritten" prescription to take a break from singing and to cut down on talking as much as possible. Now, this doctor also has 4 children, and he is fully aware that I homeschool them, so even as he was speaking he started laughing, I guess at the ridiculousness of that statement!

So, I have to take a little break from leading the Praise Team, which I love, and have to try to use crazy hand gestures and whispering to talk to my children. Not the news that I wanted, but just something that is annoying to deal with in order to heal and not cause permanent damage.

I love to talk. I love to sing. I need to talk, I need to sing. So I am asking God, while sitting in the cafe at Ingles eating a salad (alone, can you believe it?!), how do I do this?! And here is what I heard, "Choose your words wisely and you won't have to use so many." Very clearly, very simply, those were my instructions. And while I processed them, I started thinking about how so many times I have let my mouth be like a faucet that runs with no shut off valve, and how many times I have prayed "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips." Psalm 141:3 and yet have pushed the guard aside and said, 'This one's OK to get through." It was pretty convicting, and I am praying that while my voice heals, my heart will learn a lesson. If you don't mind, add them both to your list for prayer!

Looking at the lists

Every year it happens about this time: the routine gets old and the kids begin to wear out of our normal schedule and we need something to spice it up! A normal day for us starts with breakfast, chores from the rotating chore chart, then Bible time and on to core subjects, lunch and then unit studies. Yesterday we mixed it up (and this is big for me!) and went to Ingles for lunch- yes the grocery store. We got salads and fruit and sat in the little cafe area. It's a perfect place to go because it is quiet and cheap and when we finished lunch we did Mystery of History, Phonics Pathways and our current read aloud, Wayside School is Falling Down. Maybe it seems to be a little change, but learning about Ramses II takes on a different perspective in the middle of the supermarket!

So this morning as I was trying to figure out what I could do today to make things a little different, it led me down the road to why I am doing what I am doing anyway. Now anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE a list and I love checking them off. At one time (God has done a work on me!) I would make a list that included things I had already done so that I could check something off! Sickness, I know, and I am being healed! Anyway, it is really easy for me to look at school as an extended list of things to accomplish. Joseph has done writing, check! Miriam is working on grammar, check! Lydia drew 3 red circles, check! Benjamin is riding his skateboard...wait a minute!

But the reason that we are homeschooling our children is more than to make myself feel better by filling in all the spaces in my lesson planner. It is so that they will be life learners, so that they will have a Godly worldview, so that we will be unified as a family, so that they will have a say and an interest in their own education. These are things that are far beyond a checklist and far beyond my own efforts. I need my Savior to accomplish them, I need His wisdom and His grace, I need His guidance and His patience, and I need the people around me He has put there to give me support when I feel like I am failing.

So I don't think I will throw the schedule out of the window, after all, an insane mother does not make a very good teacher. But it's good for me to hold up the things that we do and evaluate them in the light of the purposes for doing them, to take a look at the over all picture and see how they fit. Today: a movie first, then unit studies, and maybe even no chores. Maybe even no spelling! Ok, well, maybe that's a little too much...

Power of Agreement

Ever wish you had a million dollars? Me too! Many times, especially when the month has been shorter than the money, or my children want something that our budget can not provide. I taught children's church today and used this analogy to explain the power that we release when we agree with God and the thoughts that come from Him. When you have any amount of money, a little or a lot, you release it as a source of power. For example, on the first of every month I release my mortgage payment because I agree with the mortgage company that I owe them the money and I like having a roof over our 6 heads! I also release a tithe each Sunday because I agree with the work of the Church and want to be a part of it in obedience. But there are certain things that I do not or would not release the power of my finances to, like an illegal activity, or something that would harm my children even though they wanted it. ( My Benjamin with a dirt bike at age 6? No!) This is a common sense concept.

But there is an equal spiritual principle. We possess a power that is far greater than the power of our finances in the bank, and as I told the children today, it is the currency of agreement and the bank is our minds. When we agree with God and His Word, when we agree with the things that He is doing and working in us and through us and around us, we release the power for Him to continue to work. And just like with our finances, we have a choice that we release that power to in our lives and the lives of others. If I agree with the thoughts I might have that I am no good, that everyone is better than me, that God is displeased with me and does not care about the situation I am in, that it will never change- then that I release the power for those things to become a reality in my life. But if I begin to reject those thoughts, to refuse to agree with them and instead to agree with God's Word that I am greatly loved, that I am the head and not the tail, that nothing is impossible with God, then I am releasing power for the Holy Spirit to work those things as reality in my life. It is really just another way to explain faith, which is used so often as a "church word" that we forget what it really means.

It was great to see the "light bulb" go off as the kids begin to grasp the concept, and of course we read lots of Scriptures showing examples of this : Moses, Abraham, Noah. I encourage you to look those up for yourself and find out how lives ( including yours and mine!) can be changed as we agree with God and what He says to become a reality in our lives.

Curriculum List

Last nite: Children's Ministry lock in- the usual pizza, snacks, games, movies, deflating air mattresses, and very little sleep! Today: being lazy on a rainy day and lesson planning for the week ahead. This week we continue on our snow theme moving from Snowflake Bentley to finish Katy and the Big Snow and then to Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. That leads us into our big poetry unit- I love it when a plan comes together! I get so excited when I start lesson planning and think of all the fun ways we can learn together. For those of you who homeschool, maybe you are like me and are always looking for what someone else is using to get good ideas. So here is our list for this year:

Bible: reading thru the Living Bible a chapter a day
Growing with Grammar
Sequential Spelling ( Love love love it!!)
Phonics Pathways
Hooked on Phonics- 1st grade
Math U See
Writing Strands
Mystery of History
Five in a Row
KONOS
Homeschool Share website

After 5 years I feel like I have finally " hit my stride" and have found what fits for our family. God is so faithful- this is truly a creative endeavor with Him, as He answers my questions, leads me in the right direction and provides for the things that we need. Sometimes it is as small a thing as going to the thrift store and finding a book for a quarter that fits right in with our unit study that week, or Him leading me to an awesome website with a lesson plan or an activity that will help me teach a topic. Teaching my children is the most difficult and most rewarding thing that I have ever done! So since I need to get back to planning, enough blogging for today! Happy Schooling!

Out of the Shallows

Luke 5

Studying this Scripture this morning God opened my eyes to some great truths-hope they challenge and bless you like they did me!

V3- Jesus asked Peter to use his boat to take him out a little into the water so that he could speak to the people. In that moment, Peter's "workplace" became a platform for the Word of God and was elevated from a simple fishing boat to a place where words of power were spoken. What about our workplaces? Will we let Jesus move our cubicle, work truck, classroom, home, from more that just a place to accomplish tasks and get a job done to a place where His Words transform lives and the Truth is spoken? I am saying "Yes, Lord! Get in my boat!"

v4-5- Jesus asked Peter to go out deeper and cast out the nets for a "haul", as the AMP states it. That sounds almost Southern! Peter had his excuses (I am exhausted, I already tried that), but he obeyed and wow what a "haul", just as Jesus had said. Here is the spiritual truth: the Word was spoken in the shallows, but the supernatural event happened in the deep. We have to move out of knee-level faith to see the incredible happen, we have to be in over our heads. The crowd stood on the shore, but Peter experienced the impossible by heading out to the deep. As Stephen Curtis Chapman says, "I'm diving in!" Come with me...

Suspicious of Grace

Suspicious- "to suspect; a feeling or state of mind; to distrust; to believe to be bad or wrong"
This is how I spent so much of my life viewing grace: can I trust it? My feelings said that grace was too good to be true and did not fit in with my mindset that as long as I did what was right, followed all of the rules and made sure that everyone thought of me as a good little girl, then grace would come my way. But I found that what seemed right is not always right, the rules change, and what one person thinks makes me a good girl doesn't fit for everyone. In short, I could not make grace a part of my life, no matter how many checklists I completed! But Grace found me, and now I am living out the learning of what Grace looks like on a daily basis with 4 children, homeschooling, being a wife, a daughter, a friend, a worship pastor, cleaning toilets, doing laundry, cooking meals, wiping counters, potty training toddlers... on and on! So I am hoping to share with you this journey from "suspicion" to "trust", where sometimes I take several leaps forward, and sometimes I go several steps back, but always am held by His right hand. Blessings!