Wiped. Out.

This has been a tiring week in many ways. (physically, emotionally, health-wise, relationally, etc.) By 8:54pm on a Friday night I am just. plum. tired. We've just finished our third week of school and the kids still aren't back to their previously easy bedtime routine. (that's what a summer of loosey-goosey will get you!) I can see that starting Sunday night I'll have to get one of the books off of my To Read pile and park my butt in a chair in the hallway outside their bedroom door. Then I can pop them right back into their beds consistently, night after night, until they're back on track. I'll probably get in an hour of good reading time every school night for a week with this method. (and I'm so far behind on my books, that this will work out good for me!)

Days like today make me long for Daylight Savings Time. Once it's dark earlier, it's loads easier to get everyone on the straight-and-narrow for bedtime.

For now, I'll have to settle for the belief that if I have to do so much of this job of parenting alone, the very least I could do for myself is to make myself "Off Duty" come about 8 or 8:30 every night. Obviously, I'll still be here, so I'll not truly be off duty, but at least if I knew that once the magical hour appeared, I'd be able to have some peace and quiet, that would make things easier. Surely easier than this whack-a-mole process I go through for an hour or two every night since school began.

So, I'll be spending my spare brain space trying to psyche myself up for getting the kids back on the straight and narrow. For tonite, they're now all in bed ( knock on wood)(not counting the teenager) and I'm going to watch one of these Netflix movies that has been waiting for my attention for a week or more. I don't even know what it's about or why I added it to my queue.....

Something I'm pondering today

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of being selfish and of having ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It is never between you and them anyway.

(Harvard Student Agencies, 1968)

(Thanks to Lisa Samson, for posting this on her blog. That's where I found this.)

One more for Jaron

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith

Have you seen this interesting article about Mother Teresa?

It seems that no matter how fried my brain feels, I still manage to come up with compelling new ideas that I explore in my thinking time.

This morning's bright idea is that it would be fun to get together a book group with people from my church. Now that our oldest is in marching band it will be difficult for us to be members of a small group meeting on Friday or Sat. nights. But a book group could meet monthly at some other time.

Books I'd like to read and discuss include:

Lisa' Samson's Justice in the Burbs

Blue Like Jazz

Unto the Least of These (about the church's role in caring for widows and orphans)

If you were going to engage in a somewhat intellectual (she wishes!) conversation about spiritual issues, what books would you add to this list?

O Praise Him concert video

I enjoyed coming across this today and thought some of you might enjoy it too. Such a great song.

For all moms that have survived taking kids along grocery shopping...

you simply MUST go see this ebay auction. hurry!

Inspiring Posts and Resources

This post about homeschooling and creating the family culture you want was wonderful. I am looking forward to checking out this blog some more.

I think today is the first time i've ever heard about Ambleside Online. Looks like a promising curriculum choice for those wanting a Charlotte Mason-type education, but not wanting to spend a bundle. (I shall now admit that I have never once made my way through a single book by Charlotte Mason. I could never get into it. Though apparently I do have an actual appreciate for the style of education she recommended.)

My homeschooled third grader is both cursed and blessed to have a mind sort of like his mother's. The poor kid has so many ideas, and he gets pretty obsessed with them. In just the last two weeks he has been obsessed about

building his own hoovercraft ("..and I could hook up the vacuum cleaner and this fan to this board.....")

buying costumes

earning money (one business idea of his included collecting cast-off computer discs, and then trying to sell them....ugh)

spending money (on candy, on costumes, on an electric guitar, on a bass guitar, and today...on a pond. Why a pond? Because of his newest obsession...)

Getting an otter for a pet! I told him that you can't just walk into a pet store and get yourself a baby otter, and that without a pond or river here, we wouldn't be a very good family for it. "So...how much would it cost for us to build a pond???" "If I saved up the money for it, could we build a pond? and then get an otter??"

So....we found a show that you can watch online about some people that are taking care of a baby otter. Just in case someone at your house wants to have a pet otter, check this out!

Wonderful Quote!

I'm continuing to enjoy reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Today I came across this delightful quote (from Alice in Wonderland) in it:

"There's no use trying," Alice said. "One can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "when I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

That's my kind of quote! Seems that I need to put it on the wall somewhere around here....

Trial and Error

Finding a workable schedule for homeschool, homemaking, kids needs, business, etc. is a little tricky. As is usually the case, when I see a situation that isn't really working out, I come up with a new-and-improved plan in my mind. I had a great new plan ready to go for yesterday when Junior Asparagus went back to preschool. Ha! We didn't like it. We like to get our stuff done in the morning and have it behind us. So, back to the drawing board!

The good news is that today we have done all of our reading, discussion questions, etc. before it was even time to get our little buddy on his way to school. Once he's on the bus, we'll be finishing up all of our seat work in one burst. (math, spelling, timed test, language arts, etc.)

On my list of hopes for today:

Getting our Rosetta Stone Spanish program set up on the laptop so we can start using it!

Reading through our upcoming science lab book to prepare

Decluttering (I didn't get to stay on that kick as long as I wanted to, but I'm still working on it slowly)

Figuring out some solutions to a few business issues I've been struggling with.

Four hours til I head out to pick kiddos up from school. Looks like I have my work cut out for me!

Happy news: My husband has been working twice as much as usual lately, and although I am doing fine keeping things running without him, I do miss him. He was home with us yesterday and we had a very good time getting to be together. It was refreshing to have him around.

On today's agenda...

My four year old is back to preschool now, so homeschool here is now officially in full swing. Today the kids are dissecting owl pellets. It's very interesting, and something they enjoyed so much a few years ago that they asked to be able to do it again. So, we now have pieces of regurgitated fur, bones, and rodent skulls on the kitchen table. (On paper--not the table surface!) (Click here if you want to learn more about owl pellets)

Also, rice and lentils are on the stove top in order to make two different vegetarian meals today.

AND!! I even made veggie juice today! Organic carrots, celery, and beets! Ah! So healthy. :) And the chickens are appreciating the scraps.

More about toys

I was thinking about my post about toys and decided to share a little more about what toys we've found to be worthwhile for our kids. In no particular order, here you go:

Legos. Fun, interesting, educational. Boys or girls, when they're old enough to not try to eat them, start buying them.

Lincoln Logs. You can get a good deal on these classics here.

Wooden Train. Again, boys and girls both will love these. Brio ones are highly recommended. They are nicer and don't break as easily as some of the others. However, we got our kids a very large wooden train set from Mellissa and Doug last year and they have enjoyed it. Yes, some of the pieces have broken, but we have so many now that we would rather save the money on the original purchase than worry about keeping every single item safe and sound.

Wooden Blocks. Plain or colors, it doesn't matter. We have both. Lots of good, fun play with these. And of course you can use all your blocks, trains, and lincoln logs together to make great towns for your trains to drive through. :)

Dress Up Clothes. Imaginative play is so fun and good for kids. You can start a little collection in a large Rubbermaid container or laundry basket. Add stuff that you're about to part with in the Goodwill bag, like jewelry, hats, scarves, old tote bags or purses, etc. At yard sales you can often find groovy suit coats, silky dresses or shirts, shoes, etc. Many thrift stores have bag sales where you can pack a zillion things into a bag and just pay $1. That's your day to go and get lots of fun things for dress up, plus if you or your children like to cut things up and sew their own costumes, this is a great way to get cool fabric. Once my daughter and I stopped at a local thrift store on a whim. We walked in and found out it was bag day, and that we only had 15 minutes before they were closing. Ha! The bags they were handing out were huge black garbage bags! We took one and just went crazy going through the hangers, tossing in anything that looked like it would provide good material, trim, or buttons for doll clothes, costumes, and other projects. We paid our dollar and giggled all the way home. Later after we had more time to sort through our finds, we did return some of those items to the thrift store in the form of a donation, and kept what things we could use. My kids love to use the sewing machine, plus they hand sew pretty well. They make lots of fun things. (You can make many costumes out of pillow cases, so grab those when you see them at yard sales too!)

My one complaint about dress up clothes is that they make a mess. Kids will change into and out of costumes all day long, so you can end up with items from the dress up box all over the house. Every now and then I confiscate the entire box and hide it for awhile to give the house and my sanity a break.

Play Kitchen. When my kids were younger they loved having a play kitchen, little plates and cups, play foods, shopping carts, etc. Those were a lot of fun and I highly recommend them. It's kind of sad that my kids are too old to appreciate those now. :)


As we've had more children, we realized that getting more and more toys for gifts and Christmas would end up with a mountain of toys in our house. So now we are very strategic about what we ask for. This year the five younger children agreed to ask their grandparents for a group gift of money for a new swingset. That works out good for the gift givers and the giftees, and there's no clutter from a gift like that!

We have received a lot of outdoor fun items over the years, such as our Easy Set Pool, sandbox, wagons, Big Wheels, bikes, etc. All of those keep the kids happy and playing, but don't add anything to the house.

Not that our house is perfect in this regard, but a long time ago we realized that the kids rooms got way too messy if they kept their toys in their rooms. We have some cabinets where all of our blocks, puzzles, games, and art supplies go. There are very few items that the kids keep in their own rooms. It helps keep things a little more under control. (This is the same reason why our kids don't keep their clothes in their bedrooms. We have all of their clothes in our laundry room.)

Toys and Safety

Kat asked in a recent comment how I feel about toy safety now that there have been recent recalls. Since my kids are all past the age of putting toys in their mouths, I don't worry about it. But I will tell you about my favorite toys even from when they were small.

Wooden toys.

You can get some absolutely beautiful wooden toys that are made in the USA and are created with safe, natural, non-toxic materials! The longer I have been a mom, the more I have realized how few toys children need or enjoy. More is not better when it comes to toys. Less is more!

When I was a first-time mom we got a lot of hand-me-downs, and I kept just about everything because I didn't really know how many things to have, etc. Eventually we had loads and loads of odds and ends toys and books, and most of it got dumped out and strewn around the house daily. The little joke my husband and I had was that our kids were destined to be extremely agile, because of the messy array of toy items that covered our floors.

Eventually I figured out what we did and didn't like as far as toys go. I realized that although people may be tempted to buy 4 or 5 cheap plastic toys from Walmart for $25 to give a child for Christmas or a birthday, we much preferred to get one beautiful and well-made wooden toy for the same price. Eventually I reduced our toy collection way, way down, and had mostly toys that the kids really liked, and that we felt were really worth playing with.

It takes some time to figure out what you want. And with fifty bazillion toy options available, and your tiny tot being so new, you have no idea what she's going to like. I think it's very normal to have to take some time to find your groove with toys.

I highly recommend Melissa and Doug brand toys. I hope to have many of their items available for sale in time for Christmas. We love every Melissa and Doug item we've ever bought, and that's been the case for over 12 years.

Long ago I used to get the Natural Baby Catalog. It's since been sold to a bigger corporation (it had started out as a small, family-run business, which I liked) and so a lot of the genuine enthusiasm for the products has been lost. Still,you can see some natural toys from them here.

I remember once going to a La Leche League play group at a member's home. She had a one year old, and they had this long, low shelf of beautiful wooden toys, arranged in a way that would make it very easy for a young child to see what was available and choose something. The contrast between that beautiful display, and my many, many baskets of cluttery toys, was quite inspirational to me. While I never did have anything quite so perfect as that gal did, by the time I had my 4th-6th babies, I was really happy with what we had. Several of the items are so lovely still that I use them for Christmas ornaments, or save them for someday when I have little visitors in the house, or eventually grandchildren (!!). :)

Here's a funny story about natural toys, though. When my first child was about 3 or 4 I started reading books like Rahima Baldwin's "You Are Your Child's First Teacher" and from there read other books about Waldorf educational philosophy. From there I got a bunch of catalogs (because way back then the internet was so new that most people didn't have it, so there were only catalogs in the mail to show off wares) and fell in love with Brio wooden trains, Stockmar wax block crayons (We actually still have some of those floating around the house!), and Waldorf dolls.

I got this brilliant idea that I wanted my little girl to have one of these Waldorf dolls for her second Christmas. I was all enraptured with the idea of these simple, classic dolls and their organic cotton insides and outsides. I choose a doll that you could have custom made with the hair color and style and eye color of your choice. Of course, I got one that looked (as much as a Waldorf doll can) like my daughter. The thing was something like a hefty $80, and I ordered it in early December from a small, family-run business.

Well, I guess that family got really, really overwhelmed with orders for Christmas, because we not only didn't get the doll in time for Christmas, but I think it came around the third or fourth week of January.

So the doll arrives, I open up the box and show my little 21 month old daughter her new toy. She takes a look at the doll, holds it for a minute. And then she notices something.

Not only was the dolly all natural, but she had this "natural" kind of yucky smell.

And that's when the doll got her nickname.

Stinky Dolly.

She dropped that doll and went on with her life. I kept that stinky dolly for quite a few years, thinking that the weird smell might wear off, or that my daughter my gradually appreciate it in all of it's Waldorfian all-natural splendor. But she never did. (too bad there was no ebay in those days!)

Eventually I gave it to a friend that was newly enraptured with Waldorf dolls. I don't know if they ended up liking it or not.

What doll did my daughter like best? The one my mom gave her, that had a plastic head, hands, and feet, and a cloth body. My daughter tattooed the doll on the face, hands, head, and feet with her first initial. In pen. I guess just to make sure everybody knew whose doll that was.

And she carried that doll around for years, named her Kindia (very exotic, no?), and loved her well.

So, sometimes the all natural toys don't work out quite as well as you think they will. :)

(but do you know what I'm getting for my baby great-niece for her first Christmas? A rather Waldorfian-looking dolly from my friend Alana..... I still love those dolls!!)

Thanks to reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I was reminded of the Seed Savers Exchange. You can get heirloom seeds of a huge variety of amazing veggies, herbs, and flowers. These are seeds you can grow in your garden and then keep the seeds from your harvest to plant the next year. (and share with your friends!) You just can't find wonderful items like purple tomatoes or multi-colored swiss chard in most grocery stores.

Inspiration!!

Article about Jaron's service

You can read about Jaron's Home-going Service here.

In the dehydrator this morning...

There are a lot of raw foods that I make with my dehydrator. If you dehydrate items at 105 degrees or less, they still maintain most of their enzymes, which means it's still very good for you. :)

In the dehydrator right now:

Chili Lime Un-corn Chips

Chili Lime Salad Sprinkles (a yummy little treat that I always make with whatever buckwheat sprouts are left after making the chips)

Garlic Naan Bread (which uses the same uncorn chip recipe, but includes olive oil, salt, and loads of fresh garlic. I've never made this before, but it sounded very good. Today's the day!)

Sweet and Sour "Fried Chicken" Nuggets (which are made with shredded carrots, not chicken. I've made this before and liked it a lot both as a dinner item and for snacks and to break up and include in salads)

Now it's time for school. Bye!

He's another year older....

He's 15 today. What's up with that?! One minute you're 21 and having your first child....the next thing you know you've got gray hairs and the kid is looking like a man. Weird.

Honestly, though, I have a secret to tell you. Those early teen years were rather sullen, but for the past month or so he has been the most delightful that he's been probably since he was 8 years old or something. He's happy, friendly, seems to enjoy his younger siblings more, voluntarily talks and hangs out with both me and my husband quite a lot, brings his friends around very often, handles his household responsibilities without a problem (mostly), and is just a really cool guy. I always knew he was cool, but it's nice that he's so friendly lately. I hope it lasts...

We'll be celebrating his birthday tomorrow with friends coming home after school to play Halo 2 and have one of their ADHD jam sessions. (They all bring their guitars and amps, then proceed to crank it up, each playing the few bars of whatever song they know, over and over again, with no rhyme or reason to it. I hope that someday they will all learn to play the same song at the same time, but I am enjoying my chance to witness their progression. It's some good people-watching, from the comfort of my own home.) Pizza and homemade ice cream cake are on the party menu. (no health food, though. I'm sure they'll be heartbroken.)

Since I know someone will want to know about the homemade ice cream cake, here's the info on that. We adapted this from the Duggar's ice cream cake recipe.

In a 13x9 pan put ice cream sandwiches side by side to cover the bottom. Spread chocolate cool whip over these, then sprinkle oreo cookie crumbs, and drizzle chocolate syrup on that. Then do another layer of ice cream sandwiches, cool whip, cookie crumbs, and syrup. Freeze until ready to serve.

Super easy, and VERY yummy!

Once more for the Hollidays

Tauna Len was actually able to take part in the American Flag Honor Guard for Jaron's funeral on Monday. You can read about it and see her photos here.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but Jaron's mom Kelly is also battling breast cancer. Obviously, your prayers are needed.

Wild hair

It's funny how quickly the old hobbies and fascinations creep back up on me.

Just a week back to homeschooling, and I'm already trying to eat a whole foods, vegetarian diet. And I'm reading all of these back-to-the-earth resources and getting inspired in everything from happily turning off the water while brushing my teeth, to buying local produce, to collecting eggs from the back yard.

Now I'm seriously thinking about getting the materials to make our own square foot garden boxes, getting back to composting, and giving every kid their own 4'x4' garden square next year. I tried to get the ball rolling on this last fall and it didn't work out. Maybe this year I will manage to make it happen. What do you think my chances are?

I found an extremely inspirational photo here that offers a little show-and-tell of a hydroponic garden growing inside a high rise apartment in Los Angeles. It looks so beautiful, artistic....living art! My husband and I were trying to figure out where we could build some shelves to incorporate a hydroponic garden into our own life. Of course, with eight of us to feed, indoor hydroponics is probably destined to be more of a novelty than making an actual dent in our food consumption. (unless I made it an herb garden or something that could be small-but-very-useful) We should probably consider a greenhouse instead. Still...I want that room filled with books and food plants! Don't you??

I'm about to go pull out my Encyclopedia of Country Living to remind myself how to build a proper composting box, and of course for the info I need on chicken coops. I don't want my chickens freezing to death in the winter, if we do end up keeping them. (also, mental note has been made to resubscribe to Mother Earth News, which I love.....I guess I stopped subbing when everything they talked about was frustratingly beyond me.....)*

I was telling a friend earlier today that pretty much everything I do gets done because I get on some wild hair about it. Passion is the main fuel in my life. Which explains why I'm regularly hyper about greatly varying things. (My kids laugh when I tell them I have a great new idea. It's probably both fun, funny, amusing, and weird all rolled into one for them. The up side for them is that if they don't like my latest kick, they just ride it out because they know soon it's likely to fizzle out...) I know that life would probably be more even-keeled if I could just do each thing I'm interested in or need to do in 15 minute increments throughout each day. But I'm just not wired that way. And it seems like life would be too boring and predictable, although some elevate that to the status of Disciplined, which may be true. I don't know. I'm (predictably) all up and down with the whole scheduling thing too.

I don't fold one load of laundry at a time as it comes out of the dryer. Instead I let 10 loads of clean laundry pile up, and plan a night when all the kids are in bed early to watch a good movie while folding, folding, folding. I like that! (I'll be doing that tonite. I have about 4 netflix selections sitting here waiting for my attention, plus I just discovered today that netflix now offers instant viewing on their site, so you don't even have to wait to watch the movie you're in the mood for, which is great for fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants girls like me!)

I don't work on writing my book one hour a day like another disciplined future author might. I go hog wild on it for hours or days, and then take notes on my percolating thoughts for a few more days, and then let it all sit and wait for weeks or months until the next time when I can afford to go crazy with a big burst of time to spend on it. I like to get swept away with my ideas and excitement for a project! (but I'd also like to get the darn book finished sometime this year!!!)

The stuff on the perimeter of my businesses gets done the same way. One hour spent posting a month's worth of business blog posts or putting together future newsletters. A couple of hours spent adding new products every month or so. An hour or two spent researching something I need to do and working on it. And then the whole thing rides for awhile until the next time around.

Raw foods diet? I can do it! And I love it. But I can only manage to do it to the exclusion of almost every other project I've got going. Which only works for short bursts of time. (and I'll still keeping having my bursts...I'm always glad when they come around. I just know it'll probably be short-lived.)

Fortunately, I can manage to homeschool and do all the basic household chores plus mothering items on a regular basis. :) And I have no trouble filling orders super duper quick, which I enjoy and it manages to keep my customers happy. But for bigger projects, it's mostly all or nothing with me.

So, will a garden plan work out? Can the passion for it be sustained through an entire growing season? What's the worst that can happen if it fails? Can I manage to make it an ordinary enough part of life that it becomes habit that requires none of my passion? (those items are the ones that we stick with the longest and most successfully!)

What part does passion play in your life?


*I went to the Mother Earth website and signed up for their newsletters. I got a free ebook about composting, which is just what I needed. They have 3 or 4 freebies that you get when you sign up. If you're also getting back-to-the-earth, you might want to check it out. :)

Chili Lime Uncorn Chip Recipe

Alana wanted to know how to make the homemade raw tortilla chips I mentioned. You can go here to read all about it.

Today's food project has resulted in:

9 pints of organic vegetable stock

many containers of garbanzo and black eyed peas in the freezer

one container of bean dip in the fridge

good composting materials out in the yard where the chickens pick through it at their whim (it composts one way or another, thanks to them...)

Now I just need to figure out what's for dinner.....

Odds and Ends

Yesterday was a busy day. Had to run errands all over the place almost an hour from here. To the bulk food store, to the bread store, to the health food store, to visit daddy at work since we were nearby. We also stopped at a book store because the three children in tow wanted to ride the escalator. :) We had some art appreciation time by looking in the windows of a very cool store that sells art in various forms. Everything in the place is breakable and expensive, so we appreciated it all without going inside. :) Much less stressful that way.

At Wild Oats...oh. my. lands. Everything there is ridiculously expensive. $7.99 a pound for organic red sweet peppers. Right. Two peppers equaled a pound. I am sorry, but I am not willing to spend $4 per pepper! What nonsense. Hopefully now that I have started reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I will be inspired to have a garden next year and get my organic peppers for free in the back yard. I would like to do the Square Foot Gardening idea, and have a notion to give each child a square and just one or two items to grow in them.

We've been having a debate about our chickens. To keep or not to keep. That is the question. My daughter wants to start a pet sitting business and thinks the chickens will hamper her ability to get dogs to care for. (hard to accept dogs that like to eat chickens....) She said she wanted to get rid of the chickens, I found a potential home for them, and then she burst into tears. Methinks she's feeling a little conflicted about this whole thing. Eh? Personally, I love having the chickens although they are very messy and I think we should have a family project of getting them set up properly in a bigger chicken house and with their own fenced in area instead of having them running all over our yard making a mess. (it's amazing how much poo four chickens can produce!!!) I told her now that I've started the book, the chances of getting rid of our chickens dropped dramatically. I love getting those eggs every day, and seeing how bright and orange the yolks are. Superior eggs! From our own back yard!

I think my daughter is trying to protect her heart. Our long-lived hamster Napoleon died last week. She had taken a turn for the worst in her health, and because of her age (well over the average for a hamster) we figured she would not be with us long. We did everything we knew to do for her, gave her lots of extra TLC, and within a week sent her off to hamster heaven. It was really sad, actually. Napoleon (later renamed Napolea when they realized he was a she, but the new name never really stuck) was one of the sweetest hamsters we ever had, and the one that lived the longest. It always stinks to have a pet die, and my daughter knows that having raised her chickens since they were tiny little chicks means it will be terrible when they finally kick the bucket. I guess she's already learning that vulnerability lesson about loving your children ....

I'm loving Sonlight for all the same reasons I loved it before. Good stuff! Today the kids asked me to keep reading because the book was too good to put down. I love it when that happens.

Yesterday my son had two tag-along friends when I picked him up from marching band practice. One needed a ride home, one needed to hang out at our house until his dad could pick him up. Again, I'm loving being at this stage of life. I love my kid's friends and having them in our home. We have a new high school being build very, very near our home. I am already looking forward to the kids getting into that school. Not only will that mean they can walk to and from school, but that stray friends can come on over here any time. This is the kind of real life ministry opportunity I have been waiting for. I can hardly wait. :) And, I don't just mean that as far as trying to get people to come to church with us or whatever, although we did enjoy taking our son's friend to church last Sunday and I would happily load up with car with anyone that wants to go along. I'm just talking about the opportunity to get to know my kid's friends, and the opportunity to really love and like (!) these kids, and give them some TLC in the form of healthy ice cream, unhealthy :) brownies, a welcoming place to hang out, whatever. The more I get to know people, the more I'm becoming convinced that I may have a larger-than-average capacity to just love and care for people. (now that I've said that I can hardly wait to see what unlovable soul comes into my life! hahahahaha) So maybe that's some sort of special gift. Whereas some people that are Christians see others as people to care for in order to get them to see things their way, I just see people that I really care about. I don't think of people as a missionary assignment or a project. I don't do fake relationships very well, and have no desire to improve.

We're on a new kick, trying to cut out as much meat from our diets as possible. So, it's all vegetarian all the time for this two weeks. Last night I made homemade calzones, using my own whole wheat bread dough, and a filling made of Ricotta cheese, shredded zucchini, chopped tomatoes, onions, etc. Very good, and the recipe ended up making more than twice what our family could eat. So now I have a meal in the freezer plus leftovers in the fridge. Bonus!

Lunch today will be spinach cheese somethingorother. Looked yummy. Is in the oven right now.

Also in process:
4 kinds of beans either soaking or now into the crock pot. Hopefully all the beans will be cooked and ready to turn into lunch and dinner by tomorrow night.

Soaking buckwheat so that we can sprout it and make some raw Chili Lime Uncorn Chips, which are very, very yummy.

On the stove top, a large pot of simmering vegetable stock that I'm making from scratch. I even used leeks, which I believe I probably never used or purchased before today. Leeks are cool. :)

More on the Hollidays

Thanks to those of you that prayed for the Holliday family yesterday. You can go here to see photos of Jaron's body arriving in Oklahoma, the family, etc. The photos were taken by a member of the Patriot Riders. This group of bikers goes around to funerals for fallen soldiers and insulates the family and friends from the cruel and irrational attacks by the protesters. I love bikers---hearts of gold!

I couldn't help but think as I watched the photos roll by that Jaron is every mother's son, every child's big brother.

Parenthood launches us into the most emotionally vulnerable role of our lives. It's terrifying, really.

Pray for the Holliday Family Today

Today will be the funeral for Pfc. Jaron Holliday at 11am in Tulsa, OK. You can see a photo of this wonderful family here.

As most people could imagine, this is probably going to be a surreal day for the Hollidays. What will make it worse is that there are actual protesters expected to show up outside the church where the service will be held.

I cannot imagine what kind of warped perspective would cause people to think that there was anything right about crashing the funeral of a beloved son in order to cause a ruckus. I'm just horrified to know that people like this exist. It never amazes me what horrible things people manage to feel alright about doing.

So, please, please pray for this dear family and all of their relatives and friends that will be celebrating Jaron's life today. And maybe we could all pray for the sad souls that would do anything to hurt or discourage these dear people.

Matthew 5:44-45 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.

Additional links of interest:
Interview with Jaron's parents
Details on being part of the flag honor guard if you're in the area

So yesterday it happened. Someone asked me, "So do you hear from _____ any more? How is she?"

Well, um, no. As a matter of fact I do not hear from her any more. Because she decided that our 12 year long friendship was no longer valuable.

How do you have these conversations with people? How do you admit that someone considered you so worthless after you invested so much?

And even after a year and a half of living with this reality, of being able to sort out the reality of that relationship, to see the negatives as they were and know that it is good for me to be free of those.....even still, it's shocking to me. Even though it wasn't even surprising behavior for her. I watched her carelessly and selfishly toss aside her own parents, sisters, friends, and acquaintances for 12 years. I knew my day was coming. When I mentioned my concerns about that to her once, she didn't even offer to lie to me and tell me that she would never do that to me.

So. Yeah. You know. Not that surprising.

So, is it my pride that's hurt? Maybe. Or maybe it's just that I understand that when you get to know someone really well, you learn about the unlovely things in their personality. And if you want to have the benefits of a deep relationship, you have to deal with those warts. I knew about many of her flaws and dealt with them. But to me, the value of having a shared history with someone was worth sticking together even though it wasn't always smooth sailing.

Our children were life-long friends. Our firstborns met as one year olds, and all the rest of our children knew each other from the get-go. Many times I heard our children referring to each other as their best friends, even though they ended up living almost 3 hours away from each other.

We still have a photo of her kids on the fridge. Every now and then one of my children will ask, "When will we see those people again?? Our friends??" And I have to say that I don't think we will be seeing them. Mercifully, as time has gone by, they forget more and more, and they don't mourn their loss like I mourn it for them.

**Disclaimers, since it'll bother me if I don't clarify:

1. Yes, S, I know you still read my blog. Oh well. I'm tired of editing myself because you're lurking around, feeling entitled to knowing about my life while I've been shut out of yours.

2. By mentioning unlovely things about others, I did not mean to imply the she was the only one with unlovely aspects of her personality. I am well aware that I have many of those too. I don't know if it was my "warts" or hers or something else that caused her to no longer consider our relationship valuable.

3. It's very sad to me that through this situation my children are getting one of the many lessons life teaches you: "People in your life: Easy come, easy go." I had hoped to create a different culture for them, where they could have something that most people only dream of. Something that I thought I had found and felt immensely blessed by. I had hoped to give them an example of something wonderful, that I thought was possible. And now I think it's nearly impossible, and I feel somewhat crippled by it. And even more than for myself, I wanted to give that to my kids. Of course, they still have me, their father, their siblings, and our own family culture. And I have faith that this is going to be a sustaining force in their lives. But it would have been a real blessing to give them friends that aren't biologically obligated to them, so they can see what can be, when people are willing to stick together and care about each other in a deep, meaningful way.

Owlhaven Adoption

If you haven't had a chance to get over to Mary's adoption blog, go now! Mary and her husband are currently in Ethiopia to pick up their two new daughters. As always, Mary is such a talented writer, and has some amazing and emotional descriptions of her experiences there.

Good day...

So today was day three of our new school year. We have figured out a good schedule for our home school which has us completing all of our Sonlight schedule plus a couple extras in about 3.5 hours. Quite nice! The children have many other educational-but-fun items to choose from at their whim for the rest of the day. It's a nice combination of structure and unschooling that I like. Sonlight is proving to be a good thing for us again, both from the standpoint of not having to plan much in advance, to giving us interesting ways to learn about things without being boring. We are actually ahead of schedule on two books right now, which ultimately doesn't matter, but it feels kind of nice to get slightly ahead of the game in case we want to go apple picking or something some day. (when it's not 100 degrees anymore, as it has been all week!!)

This evening one of my oldest son's friends came home with us after their marching band practice. As I've probably mentioned before, I have looked forward to the day when our home could be a good hangout for my children's friends. (particularly teenagers) It is very rewarding to me to be able to say yes just about every time that a friend needs a place to hang out until their parents can pick them up or whatever.

Tonite has been especially fun. Somehow an impromptu race came into being. My 11 year old daughter had the digital kitchen timer and got all of her brothers plus the friend to take turns running from our living room, down the hallway, and back. As they got their times, they would work harder and run faster to get the times lower. They were all laughing and cheering for each other and having a great time. It was so fun to have all that laughter in the house, and to have all the children, from 4 to almost 15 year old, playing together.

Interestingly, almost every friend my children have is either an only child, or one of two siblings with a large age gap between them. So coming here is very, very different for all of them. But they always come back again and again, so I think they get a kick out of it. My littler boys think my son's friend's name is Bob, even though it's actually John, and so it's now a big joke for the older boys to have the younger ones calling him Bob (or now we even refer to him as Bobby-John for a good Kentucky flair). What a hoot.

I get to see my son's friends most days of the week, between picking up from band practice, having them over here, and now I'll see most of them at all the football games and band competitions. It's just so fun to be getting to know these kids and have them around, get to know them, etc.

Another fun thing about having other people's kids over is that I get the to taste test all of my healthy foods. I like to see what "regular people" :) think of my healthy concoctions. Tonite Bobby-John tried my healthy lemonade (said he liked it but I think he was not that convinced), Teeccino (said he liked it and seemed to be serious), and healthy ice cream which he definitely liked because he had seconds. :) Pretty much every teenager that tries anything healthy I have here loves it. That seems like good research to me. :)

Movie/Show Recommendations?

My Netflix queue is getting perilously small. While I usually have a list of almost 100 movies that I'm looking forward to watch, I have now gotten down to less than 50 movies in the queue, and every time I look through the list I have a hard time finding anything on it that I actually want to watch.

What's become of me?

:)

I used to watch probably 4 movies a week, turning around my Netflix within a day or two of receiving them. This week it took me two nights to manage to watch a cool movie (In America) (watched half one night, half the other night), and I've probably had it sitting here waiting to be watched for about 2 weeks. I'm too busy for movies now, it seems.

Between that and all of my favorite ABC shows that I watch online on reruns for the summer, things are getting kind of dry. Which is fine...not like I'm going to run out of things to do!

Do any of you have good TV shows, documentaries, or movies to recommend? I'm open to suggestions.

In the meantime, my To Read pile is getting bigger and bigger. Right in front of me I have a nice pile of books waiting for my attention.

I'm currently reading:

A Member of the Wedding (for book group)

Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson (started it a couple weeks ago, seems like a good book so far)

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd (This is the "dangerous" book I mentioned awhile back. Very interesting, challenging, thought-provoking. But takes a lot of my attention to work through, and right now I have set it aside because I don't have the brain space for it.)

Waiting to be read:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (recommended by Big Momma at Bodie Bunch)

The Self-Hypnosis Diet (I want to read this as research for my own book project)

On Becoming Fearless by Arianna Huffington (non fiction, is supposed to inspire me as a business woman, I think)

The Mists of Avalon

Crossing to Avalon (both of these are related to my reading Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Don't know when I'll get to them)

Thirteen Steps Down (I won this during a blog carnival thing. The blog owner sent it to me all the way from England! I have no idea what it's about, but I'm planning to read it sometime.)

Healing and the Mind

The Innocent

The Little Book of Letting Go (I suspect I could really use this one soon)

Sidetracked Home Executives (hahahahahahahaha)

More Creative Dating (thought it would give me some good ideas for cheap dates)

Creative Times With Friends (God has given me some new friends!)

Healing Children Naturally (my mom sent me this and I've not gotten to read it yet)

The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump

many other business books in a stack upstairs.....

plus a couple books my mom is sending on some investment ideas that sound very cool

and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on Hold for me at the library.....

I love paperback swap because it's almost like Netflix for books for me. When I hear about a book I'd like to read, I check to see if they have it. If so, I order it. If not, I add it to my Wish List. They automatically contact me when a book I want is available. (love that!) I just keep 'em coming and figure I'll get to 'em when I get to 'em. Much better than concerning myself with library due dates. When the book is mine I can ignore it as long as I want to. :)

Well, gotta get to school today. Happily, they didn't hate it yesterday! Hopefully it will be even better today.

Back to School...and Home School too!

So today we're back to school here. The adventure has begun!

I hit the ground running dark-and-early today, showering, making pancakes, waking sleepy children. Handed off paperwork and lunch money to my new high schooler. Drove my kindergartener and first grader to school, walked them to their classes and got them set up with their back pack cubbies and where to sit. Got to witness crying children clinging to their mother's waists in the hallway.... (fortunately my boys were happy and no tears were shed) Came home and ate a quick breakfast and then jumped in on the home school bandwagon.

Overall the day went well, with only a few bumps. I can see that it will be easier once my preschool buddy gets going to school later this month. We got to start reading a couple of good books, although unfortunately most of what we read were rather boring introductions that didn't thrill the kids too much. I am looking forward to pressing on and getting into the meat of the thing, which I expect will be more inspirational for all of us.

We ran out to do some errands/field trips and then came back home for some lunch, more school, and then I was out the door to pick up my school boys. And in an hour I'll be running back to get my marching band kiddo.

I'm actually all caught up on business, housework, laundry, and meal planning. If I can just keep that record going for another 179 school days that will be wonderful.

Ha.

Flag at Half Mast

One of my very favorite gals on one my my egroups (I've been with this group for over 7 years) lost her son while serving in the military in Iraq. I learned about this Sunday and have felt heartbroken for this dear family ever since.

I sure hope that whatever is being done in Iraq is worth the pain of all the families that have lost their husbands, sons, and brothers.

Here is an article about this young man.

Heads Up, Homeschoolers!

I wanted to take a moment this morning to let you know
about a very special event that is going on this week that
we would like to ask YOU to be a part of.

As you may recall, there was a benefit event to
help the Estes family last month, to help them with mounting medical
expenses.

Well, there is another event this week…
a true “Emergency Firesale” for another good friend you might know…
Tammy Cardwell.

Many of you know already know Tammy very well.
She is a prolific writer, editor, publisher and speaker,
and has volunteered countless hours of service to the
homeschooling community over the past decade.

Tammy’s situation is very different than the Estes family’s…
but is no less urgent. Just read it and you’ll see why we jumped
on board with this when we heard this event was being put together:

http://www.chirotoons.com/cardwell/

You won’t believe all the resources that have been donated for this.
(And they’re all new resources… none repeated from the earlier benefit!)
It is really an amazing outpouring of love and support that
shows just how much impact and influence Tammy has had amongst
her fellow homeschool publishers over the years.

Please take a look… YOU can be a real blessing to a family in need…
and in return, YOUR FAMILY will receive can also receive a blessing from
the wonderful selection of resources that you’ll find there.

This benefit will only last until Saturday, so take a look now…
and then please tell a homeschooling friend or two about it!

http://www.chirotoons.com/cardwell/

Thanks so much!

Once Upon a Family

As I've been working through my list of things that make me feel bad because I haven't tackled them yet, one that's been sticking in my craw is this one. I agreed to do a product review for Once Upon a Family.....almost a year ago. (hiding my head in shame.....)

I share that very humiliating fact with you only to explain what took so long. It's not how busy I was. It was more like this:

How often do you start looking through a catalog and find yourself moved to tears because of the beautiful products and vision that the company is offering? For me, never! Until Once Upon a Family came along.

OUAF rep Amy Gill kindly sent me their catalog and some of their products for me to look over. Right from the start I could see that this company has something really, really special to offer.

Not too many of us need more shoes, shirts, or toys. Our kids don't need more ballet lessons or soccer games. But one thing most of us could use more is family connections, family traditions, and a tangible way to remember our journey together as a family.

And Once Upon a Family offers that to you.

Wow.

Every time I've thought about getting started on this review, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it justice, so I'd put it off some more. And then, you know, nobody even hears about it from me. So, the time is now.

Once Upon a Family has some of the most beautiful, thoughtful products for building family traditions, cherishing childhood memories, staying in touch, family celebrations, family values, and more.

One of the coolest things they have that I think will especially appeal to scrapbookers, is their Live, Laugh, Love Club. This is a program where you can get together a regular group of women from your church, neighborhood, family, etc. and do a monthly project that will help teach family values and preserve family memories. What a great idea for an inexpensive and completely worthwhile Mom's Night Out hobby! (only $12 a month!!)

Here's some info from the web site:

Live, Laugh, Love I workshops focus on the upcoming holiday, a cherished family value and an important keepsake project. The January Workshop, for example, is about Valentine's Day and Gifts of Love. You will read about and understand the 5 Languages of Love, create a Love Journal for someone you cherish, and take home the Hearts of Loving Kindness tradition to start with your own family. You do not need to complete these workshops in any order. You may start with Level I or Level II. It's up to you!

Live, Laugh, Love II workshops focus on a cherished family value and an important family celebration: Weddings, Birthdays, New Babies, Graduations, Family Reunions, etc. The January Workshop, for example, is about Anniversaries and Respect. You will read a short article which will cause you to think about how to show and teach Respect at home; you will write a letter to someone whom you hold in high esteem, you will fill in a "Story of My Life" booklet to pass on to future generations, and take home 3 "Love Puzzle" cards to do at home with your loved ones.

Once Upon a Family is not only a wonderful company to support with your purchasing power, but it offers a wonderful consultant program as well. Rep Amy Gill shared with me,

I am looking for like-minded women to join my team to help me spread the mission that it is the little things that we take the time to do now is what is going to matter in 20 years.

My daughter was very ill and almost died (15mths) and I realized that all that I was busy with wasn't important. Once Upon A Family was just beginning and I heard their mission and signed before there was product. I travel and speak, do home parties, speak to moms, women's ministries, and teach PTA that we need to get back to the basics. I don't want a mom out there to have to go through what I went through in order to learn that. If I can help bring one new tradition into a home that will bring that family closer together than I have not wasted the gift God has given me.

Amen, Amy!
Honestly, after looking over this catalog and the product samples, I feel confident in telling you that this is one of the most worthwhile ventures I have ever had the pleasure of learning about. Spread the word!

Anniversary Time Again!

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 16th anniversary! For a photo, go see last year's post here.

16 years sounds rather....grown up....doesn't it?

Too Many Ideas!!!!

My poor brain.....

Every now and then I get a huge burst of good ideas. Right now I feel almost buried under them. Although I love good ideas, it does make it feel almost impossible to move forward because there just isn't time for all of them. How do I decide? Which thing do I do?

There never seems to be an easy answer.......

And the funny thing is, I've been purposely holding myself away from some things that I suspected would churn up new ideas in me, just because I already have a million ideas. In spite of that, here I am with my brain still chugging away.

It's not easy being brilliant.

hahahahahahahahahaha

Bridge Collapse

Wow. Have you heard about this??
We have to cross a bridge to get to my husband's job, to our church, and to the closest large city. I have one child that is always nervous when we go over the bridge, and I always assure him that our bridge is perfectly safe. Now this. Wow.

We don't even realize how many times a day we have faith, do we?

Small Town Living Magazine

I found out about this online magazine today. I haven't had time to check it out yet but plan to. I do love living in a small town. How about you?

Crazy Day,,,,,

Did you ever have one of those days that starts out all innocent and ends up kicking your butt? That was today for me.

I had a fairly busy day lined up, actually. My husband was working. Elementary school kids needed to be at their school at 4pm for registration and to meet their teachers. Then my high schooler had to be at his school at 5pm. I had a friend lined up to watch my younger kids while the I went to the high school thing.

And then my oldest son also had to get to book group at 3:30.

And then my two oldest kids wanted to have their friends over today.

And I had to run three errands.

So, errands were accomplished, friends were picked up, we got home, and I had great ideas of making homemade bread to go with a spaghetti lunch that I would make for all eight kids. But I got sidetracked, so there was no bread, so I made healthy ice cream for a treat (they loved it, as usual) and we had lunch.

And then my husband called, needing me to bring him something to work that he had forgotten.

No problem! If I would hurry I could get there and back before book group, with time to spare. In fact, I could even squeeze in a trip to Great Harvest Bread, which I've been wanting to do.

So, off we go, meet up with the hubby to give him the thing he needed, and then on we go for our fun! fun! trip to get yummy! yummy! bread!

And as I started to back out of my parking space, I noticed that the radio seemed to not be working right.

And then I started putting up the windows, and one of them seemed very, very, very slow to respond. And as I was exiting the parking lot there at the post office I thought to myself, "Hmmmm.....the radio has just gone dead and the window didn't want to go up.....I wonder if there is something wrong with the car......"

And then it died.

Right. in the middle. of the road.

With cars piling up to my left and behind me.

And it wouldn't go no mo'.

(It was *just like* this picture, except I'm not as young and cool as this guy, and I drive a big blue mom-mobile, and I had six kids hanging out with me.....)

I'll tell ya, it gets HOT FAST in a car when the windows can't go down and the a/c just went off!

Thankfully, my cell phone was handy so I called my Battalion Chief husband, "Help! Come rescue me! The car just died in the middle of the road in front of the post office!"

And then I sat there wondering what on earth I was supposed to do. I couldn't remember or figure out where the hazard lights were. Cars were piling up. I didn't know if I should attempt to get the kids out of the car or just sit there. Both seemed somewhat risky.

There was a real genius right behind me that was honking his horn. What a moron. I mean, honestly, did this guy think that as I was driving along that I just decided not to go any more, and that by honking he might help me realize that I should make the choice to proceed onward? Jeepers.

A nice man stopped his truck and came over to see how he could help. He motioned for the cars behind me to go around, and then he pushed my car back into the parking lot so that I was at least out of traffic. Thank you, nice man!

By then my husband had arrived to rescue us.

Thankfully we were right at the PO so I was able to take the kids into the air conditioning and wait until we figured out what to do next. As it turned out, we had the car towed up the street to a repair place, and the kids and I walked a couple blocks down the road to a friends house.

Funny "coincidence" was that as we were walking along, we got to a cross street and a car pulls up to the stop and rolls down the window. It's one of my kid's friends and his mom! She's like, "What are you guys doing?!" "Oh, just hoofing it to a friend's house because our car broke down!" She had us hop in her car and drove us the rest of the way to the friend, plus she took my one kiddo home with her to play with her son.

Meanwhile, we're missing book group, missing the elementary school thing, hungry, tired, and of course I can hardly wait to find out how much our little repair bill will be.....

But! They got the car repaired very quickly (new alternator and battery) and we were on our way before 5. I raced home to pick up my oldest, dropped off the younger kids with the friend that was watching them, headed over to the high school thing which was both boring and a madhouse in the way they "organized" it. (not) Then had to eat something (starving!!), tried to backtrack over to the elem. school to see if any of our teachers were still there (nope), then debated about whether or not to pick up my stray child at his friends house, or pick up the other 4 kids. Decided on the other 4 kids, but then plopped down there and started gabbing. Before I knew it two hours had flown by and it was 9pm. ugh.

So I hurried over there, apologizing profusely for leaving her with my child so long (she seemed fine about it), and finally made it back here a little before 10.

ugh.

And I didn't even get any yummy bread. :(

So, what did you do for fun today?

And why do school events seem to be geared toward people that are unable to read simple information for themselves, or for those that would really, really like to hear the same basic concepts repeated many times?! Mercy me! What nonsense....

Win a Flat Screen TV!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a awesome giveaway sponsored by Best Buy: a flat screen TV! You can go enter the contest here.

Decluttering Day One: Glasses Cupboard and Plasticware

So I decided to start with the cupboard where we keep glassware. I recently (in the last 5 months) bought a new set of glasses since our former grouping had been broken one by one over time. Since getting the new glasses, we've not been able to comfortably fit all of our cups and glasses in the cupboard. Duh! Time to pare down!

I decided to part with the entire upper shelf of stemware. I only use it once a year, and have something else I can use instead. I only kept the new matching tall classes and the coordinating small glasses, and enough mugs for our family if we all have hot cocoa together.

In late spring I decided to get color coordinated cups, bowls, and plates for the kids, thinking that this would be a fun and helpful way to organize. It is, but the problem is that each item came in packs of four. So, for the five kids that I got the new stuff for I ended up with 20 cups, 20 bowls, and 20 plates. Too much! I actually have had an entire large Rubbermaid container to keep these in. And, of course, only the top items get used again and again. Ha! So, I have decided to only keep one cup, bowl, and plate per color. The rest are going bye-bye.

Other decluttering steps I took tonite:

Visual clutter in the kitchen. I took down a loooooooong alphabet chart and number line that I made a couple of years ago. I also took down about 90% of the stuff that I had tacked onto a cork board next to my calendar. It's just amazing how much stuff gets into our regular landscape and then we don't even notice it any more! Now I just have my calendar and a couple of actually important items on the board.

I'm pretty pooped out by now, so I think this is all I will do for tonite. However, I'm on a roll, and my daughter loves to help with stuff like this, so you'll be hearing from me about this again!

What are YOU going to go declutter today??

Inspiration Brewing in My Brain

After discovering great and inspirational resources like Eyes of Wonder, Live Lightly, and Walk Slowly, Live Wildly, I am seriously considering doing a mega declutterization around here, and selling off stuff at a major yard sale day that is coming up in a couple of weeks.

For a long time I've had this thought that it would be wonderful to rent one of those storage containers and to box up everything we don't absolutely want and need, and see what happens.

You know the drill: When we have too much stuff, we can't even enjoy it. So. True. And since we've lived here (7 years) we've probably gotten rid of no less than 4 truckloads of STUFF, and I've never missed one item that we parted with.

Every time I get a little wind of decluttering energy, I run with it and get rid of as many items as I can. Seems like the time is drawing near again.....

Would you have stopped?

I found this interesting article today about an experiment that was done to see if people would recognize great music in a different environment than they would normally expect to find it. I really enjoyed reading about this, although it saddened me to see how people are so busy that they don't take time to appreciate serendipitous pleasures.

Personally, I love street performers and have listened to and watched many of them when I have had the opportunity to do so. I am confident that unless I had some serious deadline, I would have stopped and listened to this guy. What about you?

Have you checked out Eyes of Wonder yet? The combination of gorgeous photography and gentle, uplifting music was so relaxing to me today. Many inspirations here!

Recently Overheard...

Two funnies by my 11 year old daughter...

The other night we were talking about her hamster, who appeared to have an eye infection. She was afraid that her pet could not see any more. Said tearfully, "It must be scary to be a blind hamster....."

(I had to stifle the laughter that threatened to overtake me)

And today, inviting her little brothers to relocate their play: "Come on up to my room, it's way more comfortabler."

Love it!

I found this and other wonderful posters here that describe many aspects of emergent church-type people's values and beliefs. The statement on this poster I love. It's been a theme at the two best churches we've ever gone to.

I think this is so interesting

I got this in my inbox this morning. I've seen it before, but it always amazes me....


fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 anc.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

Movie Review: The Road Home

We got to watch another sweet, family-friendly film tonite. The Road Home is a Chinese love story. Very simple, lovely, and innocent. It has interesting bits of Chinese culture from generations ago, too. And beautiful countrysides too! All the acting is in Chinese, so you have to read all the subtitles. My 11 year old daughter watched it with me and was able to keep up with most of the reading herself. I don't think I'd want to try to do all the reading for the younger kids, though. Worth watching!

I just found this cool blog this morning. He has some wonderful insights on parenting, politics, and American culture. Check it out!

A Tear To My Eye...

You know, I'm having quite a bit of fun at the stage of parenting I'm at. The kids are all able to pee independently and buckle their own car seats. Nobody needs my body parts in order to eat. (not that I minded that! I'm just saying...) Everyone is old enough to have interesting conversations with. And now, with my oldest nearing 15 years old, I'm getting even more fun stuff.

I've been looking forward to being the mom who always said Yes to having the garage band practice at her house. (we don't have a garage, but they come here anyhow) I just love the happy racket that comes from my oldest son's room now that he is playing electric guitar and bass. (teaching himself, and doing an amazing job at it! A great living example for us of how well people do when they are motivated to learn something.)

Today was another great moment. My oldest is in marching band now, and today was the end of their nearly 3-week-long band camp. So they had a little concert performance for the parents, so they could show off what they learned so far.

Now, let me just back up to say that my wonderful oldest son has a personality very similar to mine. He's very individualistic, for one thing. Up until recently he has mostly pursued things that he could work on by himself and do in a freestyle sort of way. He doesn't care much for conformity, and has had a bit of an adjustment being in school and learning that sometimes (a lot of times, for students!) you have to do what you're told even if you don't want to and it doesn't make a lick of sense.

Last year we started talking to him about marching band, hoping that he would be interested in it by the time he was ready to start high school. Other than the fact that my husband and I love marching bands, we felt like being a part of one would give our son an experience that he needs to help round out his personality and perspective about teamwork, hard work, suffering a little to achieve a goal, and so forth. When we first talked to him about it, his opinion was that marching band would be annoying and "too hard." We were wondering what kind of character deficits our child had that he would shy away from hard work in marching band.

Well, just like my other kids, he's a smart cookie. It didn't take long before he was not only doing his regular school band stuff, but added pep band and jazz band into his routine, and then wanted to join the marching band.

So, here we are. For over two weeks he's gotten up at 7:30am to go sweat and strain and march and play trombone from 8-5 Monday-Friday. He's now tanned and is sporting new muscles thanks to holding his instrument up for hours and hours every day. He's like a buffer, cooler version of himself. :)

And so tonite I got a little taste of the fun we're going to have with marching band this year. It was really exciting to see what the group has learned in such a short period of time, and it really thrilled me to see my kid doing his thing so well. Wow! Inspirational, I tell ya!

It was also great to take my younger kids. Believe it or not, it wasn't even stressful to take them along. How wonderful to be at the point where I could have them all obey, tag along, follow directions, and be able to see their brother in the group, and not have to stress out over little tots straying away from me. It's like a breath of fresh air!

So, life is good. What can I say? I'm chipping away at my Plagues and Nuisances list, my husband is doing a great job handling the money, and my kids are growing and thriving. I'm also reading a "dangerous" book that is interesting and thought-provoking. Maybe I'll tell you about it another day....

Declutter Challenge

I was just inspired by something I read, to do a little burst of decluttering. I gave each kiddo a Wal Mart bag to fill with junk to throw away. We are now all scurrying around the house to rid ourselves of six full bags of stuff we don't need. Yay!

A Little Drama

Well, yesterday I got to cross one more item off my list...I went over to the elementary school to pick up some paperwork and let them know that two of my kids won't be attending next year.

And then, just what I knew would happen, happened.

My daughter saw the class lists on the wall. And of course, she had gotten the teacher she wanted, and her best friend was placed in the same class.

And the tears began.

She managed to pull herself together while we ran a bunch of errands, but by evening she was ready to talk. "I changed my mind! I want to go to school!"

After a good little discussion with her it was revealed that her motivations for wanting to ditch her homeschool plans were....pretty lame! Mainly stuff about friends, and how she was willing to suffer through all the negative aspects of being in school all for the joys of eyeballing her buddies all day long.

I listened carefully, since it seems discussions with 11 year old daughters require ninja-like stealth to get through without causing the girl to burst into tears and declare you unfit for conversation.

Eventually I was able to ask her about the many *very good* reasons she had given me for wanting to homeschool, and pointed out that any time you make a big decision you will have some doubts.

I had to go give the little boys their baths, so she had some time to think on her own. Proving herself to be the smart little cookie that she is, she had already come around by the time I checked back in with her. Thereby saving me (and her daddy) from having to break the news to her that she *is* going to be homeschooled next year, even if she objects. :)

Life: Beautiful

Check out this gorgeous new magazine for Christian living! Looks like it will be wonderful.

Blueberries for Who?

I laughed and laughed at this post over at Sweet Juniper. Enjoy.

In Reponse to the “One True Church” as Asserted by Pope Benedict

(This article was sent to me by the author, Bob Evely. I thought it was worth passing on.)

In Reponse to the “One True Church” as Asserted by Pope Benedict

Surprisingly I found myself agreeing with Pope Benedict’s recent statements concerning the church. (I am not Roman Catholic.) There is only one church … I agree. The Orthodox churches are defective … I agree. Other Christian denominations are not true churches … I agree. But I would go one step further and observe that the Roman Catholic Church is also defective, and is not the one true church!

The one true church is invisible. It is simply the total collection of Believers in Christ Jesus around the world … regardless of where, or even if, they attend a “visible church.” Some may decide to attend or be part of a “visible” church, but this is not necessary. There are many other ways to fellowship with other Believers outside of these man-made “church” settings.

The one true Church has no required creed, nor are there articles of religion or other regulations to which one must consent in order to join. Water baptism is not necessary … membership of any kind is not necessary … attendance is not necessary. These various requirements are part of the many man-made churches, and are often based on mis-interpretations of the Scriptures. But they are not required by God to become a part of His one true Church.

Long ago God spoke, Abraham believed, and this was counted by God as “righteousness.” Through the Bible and through His Son Jesus Christ, God has spoken. We who believe are “Believers” and are AUTOMATICALLY a part of the one true Church, also known as the Body of Christ. We do not believe because we are smarter than those who do not believe. Nor do we believe because we are more obedient. If this were the case we would have cause to boast in the fact that we have believed. God ENABLED us to believe, not because He loves us more than others, but because He illustrates His grace and love through us, and desires to use us to serve as His ambassadors to the world. We are the example of how God is working to ultimately save ALL of mankind.

It is not necessary for all Believers to agree on all points. God has spoken through His Word, and we sometimes have differing opinions as to what He is saying. We who believe should be working together to better understand what God has revealed. Our agenda should not be to make up our minds about an issue and then seek to justify our chosen set of doctrines from Bible texts. All man-made churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, are guilty of doing this. Disagree and you are expelled from the group, which is controlled by the hierarchy (i.e. bishops, ministers, professors, etc). The goal is not to seek a better understanding of what God has revealed. It is instead to enforce the doctrines already determined to be correct by the individual man-made church or denomination.

Here is the root problem. The Greek word in the New Testament that is commonly translated “church” is “ekklesia.” The word means “the called-out ones.” This is a group of people “called out” from humanity. But the group being called out is not always the same. Bible translators make the assumption that “ekklesia” is always the “church,” and this is why we run into problems with Bible interpretation.

Do you want proof? Look at Acts 19:32 where the “ekklesia” is an unruly mob. Here most translations agree that “church” would not be a proper translation, so they use a word like “assembly.” Or look at Acts 19:39 where “ekklesia” is a legal assembly, and is not translated “church.” So clearly “ekklesia” is not always referring to the “Church.”

Now to go one step further, how do we know that the other times where the Bible translator has rendered “ekklesia” as “church” that they are correct? Could “ekklesia” in these various instances refer to DIFFERENT groups of called-out-ones?

Pope Benedict believes the “Church” was founded in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus said to Peter, “… on this rock will I be building My ekklesia…” But is this ekklesia really the “Church,” and is it right to require a succession from Peter for church leadership? Consider this. Throughout the entire book of Matthew, Jesus and His twelve apostles went only to the Israelites. Look at Matthew 10:5-6, Matthew 15:24 and Matthew 19:28. When Peter spoke in Acts 2:22 he addressed the Israelites. Look also at Acts 4:10 and Acts 11:19.

Think about this. There were twelve apostles, and only twelve … just as there were twelve tribes in Israel. When one of the twelve departed (Judas) he was carefully replaced with just one replacement apostle, returning the number to twelve (see Acts 1:15-26). But then along came Paul who was also an apostle … in ADDITION to the other twelve. How can this be? It is because Paul was ushering in a new thing that God was doing. In the past God had worked through Israel, and the twelve apostles were the apostles Jesus had selected to go to the “sheep of Israel.” The ekklesia (not yet the “church” of our day) was comprised of Jewish believers. It was not until Paul came along that God began working directly with the Gentiles.

Paul was not just one of the twelve apostles … he was a different kind of apostle. He was the apostle to the nations! So why do the man-made churches of our day insist upon tracing their roots to Peter or the twelve? Paul did not simply learn doctrine from the twelve. What Paul proclaimed came through a revelation directly from God (Galatians 1:11-12). This was not the same gospel the twelve were proclaiming … it was Paul’s gospel (Romans 2:16 and Romans 16:25). Whereas Peter was proclaiming, to the Israelite believers, the gospel of the Circumcision … Paul was proclaiming to the nations the gospel of the Uncircumcision (Galatians 2:7). This was not the SAME gospel going to two different groups of people. Through Paul God had begun doing a new thing!

Paul was the first to speak of the Body of Christ … of being new creations (not just born again). He was the first to go directly to the nations … the non-Israelites. This was unheard of in Paul’s day, which is why he faced so much opposition.

Pope Benedict insists that the “church” must trace its succession through Peter. But the Body of Christ was not initiated by the words Jesus spoke to Peter in Matthew 16. Most “churches” today, including the Roman Catholic Church, improperly focus on the writings of Peter and the twelve, when in fact Paul was the apostle to the nations … and Paul brought to us the gospel of the Uncircumcision. The church (ekklesia) Paul spoke of met in homes and was non-bureaucratic. There were no articles of religion. There was no membership. There was no required succession from Peter. This church had some who were leaders (elders) because God called them as such, but they were not appointed by bishops or popes. These leaders were simply those that had certain gifts from God that prepared them to serve a specific role such as preaching or teaching.

Some may dispute my conclusions, doubting that the huge majority of Believers within the visible church could be wrong in how they have formulated the doctrines and structure of the “church” in our day. But read 2 Timothy, which is the last thing the apostle Paul wrote. Here you will find that he was largely abandoned by other Believers. He and those select few that followed him were a small minority. When did Believers who understood truth wise up to become the majority? Biblical truth has ALWAYS been understood only by the minority outside of the traditional religious community. Consider the Old Testament Prophets, or John the Baptist, or Jesus Himself. Consider Paul even as he concluded his apostolic career. The majority have always distorted truth. Beware of the majority (i.e. the traditional, man-made churches of our day). Study what God has revealed in His Word, and think for yourself!

There is a huge difference between the many visible man-made churches we see in every town and countryside … and the one true Church that God has created. Let us not be deceived by those within any of the man-made churches.

- Bob Evely (7-18-07) -

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Bob Evely is a business man and an independent minister, teacher and writer. He and his wife Jill have five children (two married) and reside in Wilmore, Kentucky. Bob has an M.Div. degree from Asbury Theological Seminary. For 8-1/2 years he served as a bi-vocational pastor within the United Methodist and Free Methodist denominations before stepping down due to theological differences. He writes, teaches and leads a weekly small group in his home. More information can be obtained through his web site at www.GraceEvangel.org

Shall We Have a Countdown??

I have a little list....it's sometimes an actual (but missing...can't find it anywhere) list, and it's always a mental list. I call it

Plagues and Nuisances

What's on the list? All the terrible things that are hanging over my head.

These are the things that cause me to have a tight, scared feeling in my chest. Sometimes I'll be going through my day and realize I feel scared and stressed out, and I can't readily figure out why. I have to stop and ask myself, "What it is that upsetting you, dearie?" (OK, I guess I don't call myself dearie, but maybe if I started it would feel soothing....ya think? Maybe I should also offer myself a cup of herbal tea and a cozy blanket....))

Usually it only takes me a minute or two to figure out what it is that's stressing me out. Right now my list includes:

I am late on filing my business sales tax for December and June. It would only take me a couple of minutes if I would just dig out the papers and get it done. (my paperwork is very disorganized)

UPDATE: Finished the December filing. Now I have to find the form for the first half of this year...

I have to contact my children's school to let them know that my 3rd and 5th graders won't be attending there this year. I don't know why I feel sick about this. After all, I have 4 other kids in local schools, and a good relationship with everybody there. I guess I make up this idea in my mind that people will think our decision to homeschool is somehow specifically because of a gripe with the school. Stupid. They aren't going to care either way, probably. And I could even just write a letter. And still, I'm a weenie.

I need to tackle my filing. (See item #1) Finding any sort of paperwork is a headache for me. If I spent one evening on it, I'd probably be all set.

I have to call an office person where my husband works to ask for some paperwork. I put it off because I feel like a dork to bother her, even though part of what she does in her job is give people like me this paperwork. (I'm an idiot! What can I say?)

UPDATE: Weenied out and asked my husband to do it. If he doesn't do it by Monday I'll bit the bullet...

Money used to always make me sick, too. Our money is organized almost as well as our paperwork. Thankfully my husband saw my distress and decided to take over money management and bill paying. In the past I dissuaded him from this, I guess because I wasn't sure he's have time to do it well or something. This time...I'm like, "Here's the bill folder! Thanks!" I already feel better to just say, "Do we have money for this?" and have him say yea or nay. Much better! Plus, now he's more in touch with the financial reality of our life, which is important for him, methinks. So, one plague down...

I have several more P&Ns that I won't bore you with. I'm tired (tired!!) of feeling this subterranian dread all the time. I'm thinking of just making a list (where can I put it that I'll see it but not lose it?!?!) and working my way through it. Truth be told, I could probably do it all in a day. (or a week if I thought of several more things)

Do you have a mental P&N list? shall we declare a holiday to tackle the junk? Tomorrow is my 5th kiddo's birthday...maybe one day next week. Anyone want to join me?

Movie Review: The Greatest Game Ever Played

I added this movie to my Netflix queue simply because it was recommended since we had liked something else. Once it got here I found myself feeling a little bit apathetic about watching it. I mean..how good can a movie about golf be?? (can you tell I'm not a golf fan?)

Well, let me tell ya...it was a great movie! Clean, family-friendly, inspirational, and historically and geographically interesting. My little guys enjoyed watching it too. Check it out!

My Husband's Fire Department

This video was done by a guy on my husband's shift. The BC Johns gear that you see at the start of the video belongs to my hubby, and the Tahoe is what he drives while at work. (He's the Battalion Chief) I just thought you might enjoy a little look at what he does.

Time for a smile

In case you're not one of the 9 million people that have already watched this ingenious and fun music video, check it out.

Movie Review: Children of Heaven

Today we watched a delightful movie about an Iranian brother and sister. The little sister's shoes are accidentally lost, and the parents are too poor to buy new ones, so the children hide the fact that the shoes are lost and figure out a way to share a single pair of shoes by relaying back and forth with a single pair of shoes.

The movie gives an interesting view of Iranian (and Islamic) culture, and the children that act as the brother and sister do an excellent job. Recommended as a great family film, both for depth of the story, and for the glimpse into another place and culture.