Raising Sweet Savages

Curriculum: High School

2011-08-30T17:05:00.000-05:00

And last but not least....our 10th grade curriculum.

We let him play a big role in choices this year and here is what he is using.

His main curriculum core is My Father's World US History through 1877.
It is supposed to be for 11th grade, but he covered world history last year, and their world history covers 9th and 10th grades...we chose to go a different route though.
So, this curriculum covers, US History and Government this year and next year the other 1/2 of US History and Economics.
It also includes Bible, Language Arts, American Literature, and a great class on Developing a Christian Worldview. He is on week 4, and we are very impressed by the curriculum so far!

Along with that, he is using Life of Fred Trigonometry for math.

He just finished Apologia Biology using DIVE into Science. They have him finishing Biology then also cramming Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Apologia (Their advanced Biology course) into 2 months. I chose that because he had no interest in the human body (GASP--with 2 medical parents.) but I wanted him to learn it and he was willing to do that route. Turns out, 1/2 way into the book, that he wants to study the body the whole year cause it's so interesting and he would like to learn more and not rush, so we are changing our plans from finishing it quickly and moving on to Chemistry, to taking the whole year to study Advanced Biology and taking the Biology CLEP. I would also like him to read through Where there Is No Doctor, and maybe go to work with Chris a few times to see how the medical field works. Don't get me wrong, he still has no interest in the medical field, but it will be beneficial for him all through life. Grin.

Electives:
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Piano
Soccer on Sunday's. = )

Curriciulum: Middle School

2011-08-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

I have 2 middle school students this year. A 6th grader and an 8th grader. They are both extremely independent workers which is great for me!    We are a few weeks into school and they seem to be really enjoying their curriculum, especially some new choices we went with to add some new excitement.

Here is what they spend their days working on:
Bible
They both spend time first thing reading through the Bible on their own. Later, at naptime or in the evenings with Daddy, we are going through a Bible Curriculum Foundations 3 that has us reading a chaper every day. We also have Sword Drills twice a week, and memorize a passage of Scripture every week.   They write, illustrate and act out their Bible Memory verses to help them remember them more easily.

Language Arts
6th grade
She is using a new curriculum for us called Intermediate Language Lessons. I love it immensely and will likely use it for all the children below her in the years to come!     It is a very fun curriculum that doesn't have any "fluff" or (in my opinion) unnecessary grammar stuff that is impractical for the real world.
This is her first year using a spelling curriculum. She is an excellent speller, but the book she is using Building Spelling Skills 5 covers many of the countries of the world, states and geography. It also has a lot more practical words too.   It's much more than just spelling. She seems to like it.
8th grade
Noah will be using 2 Total Language Plus guides this year: Swiss Family Robinson and the Yearling.
He is also finishing the 2nd part of Jump In writing curriculum. They have him do a 10 minute "Writing Plunge" every day with a story starter. It is a lot of fun for him. He is also using Easy Grammar Ultimate 8th grade, that is a 1 page review every day of all grammar concepts.

Math
They are both using Life of Fred. Hosanna will be doing 2 books this year: Fractions and Decimals & Percents.
Noah is finishing up Keys to Algebra that have helped him review some Algebra concepts and will be starting Beginning Algebra Life of Fred soon.

Science
They are both using Apologia this year. Noah is using Apologia Physical Science, and Hosanna is using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. Hosanna's comes with a really neat notebook that makes it so much more fun too!
We also just signed Noah up for a really neat, 2-day lab intensive science camp in February. It sounds so fun, and will help make his Freshman year of Biology much easier.

History
They had an intense year of history last year, so this year is a bit easier. They have studied all of history except modern history. They are reading through Story of the World 4 and doing just the map exercises in the activity book. They are also reading books 6-10 of The Story of U.S.
I have also assigned 8 more books to read to go along with that time period. (Across Five Aprils, Courage to Run, Hudson Taylor, Sergeant York and the Great War, Twenty and Ten, Hiding Place, Number the Stars and Brother Andrew)

Spanish
Rosetta Stone

Electives
Typing with Mavis Beacon (both)
Thinking Toolbox for Logic (Noah)
Homemaking (Hosanna)
Feed My Sheep Art Curriculum (Hosanna)
Piano (both)
Guitar (Noah)

I think that about covers it. = )

Curriculum: Elementary

2011-07-17T15:29:00.000-05:00

This blog will cover my 3 elementary-aged children in grades Kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd grades.
We will start the home school day going what we call "together school." This year we have a bunch of fun things lined up.
We will work on Bible Memorization using the CD's: Sing the Word A New Commandment and Sing the Word God the Provider.
Other things we will do in our together time:

Memorize the Presidents using the book Yo, Millard Fillmore!
Memorize the States and Capitals
Memorize the Sign Language Alphabet
Read through the book Our American Heritage Abeka 3
Work though Our American Heritage Map Study skills 3
Watch all episodes of Liberty's Kids through Netflix
Read real books about topics covered in Liberty's kids and Our American Heritage
Read through the Bible storybook The Jesus Storybook Bible

The together school takes advantage of their incredible memorizing ability at this stage and covers Bible and History.
Daddy loves to teach science, so he will be teaching Science to the elementary crew using God's Design series from Answers in Genesis. This year, they will be studying the Blue series that covers "Our Planet Earth," "Our Weather and Water," and "Our Universe."

For Math, we will be using Horizons Math Kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grades. (Josiah is a year ahead in math.)
I see that Life of Fred is also coming out with Elementary math this month, and since that is, hands down, our favorite math for the older kids, I will likely order those books and include that briefly in our together school, just cause Fred is so stinking funny!

Praise (Kindergarten) will continue with Explode the Code Online and Explode the Code workbooks. We were able to find it online for $32.50 for a year subscription, which is great! She started back in February.
She will be finishing Explode the Code book 2 and working on through book 3 this year. She also reads to us a lesson of her phonice books. She is using Christian Liberty Press readers now.
All 3 of them will continue with the next Handwriting Without Tears book.

Jubilee (2nd grade) will be using Abeka Language 2 book, Explode the Code books 4,5 & 6 and English for the Thoughtful Child Volumes 1 & 2. She also reads out loud to us for 10-20 minute per day from Abeka Readers 2nd grade or other equivalent levels.

Josiah (3rd grade) will be using Abeka Language 3 book, Building Spelling Skills 4, and Primary Language Lessons .
He also does 30 minutes per day of reading (currently reading through the Boxcar Children) and also does personal Bible time.

Hosanna and Josiah will also be using an Art Curriculum this year called Feed My Sheep.

I think that covers the Elementary Curriculum for the year....stay tuned to my next blog that will cover my 2 Middle school students.

Curriculum: The Little People and Bible

2011-07-11T13:30:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the summer, when all my homeschool buddies and I eat, sleep and think about curriculum and planning for the next school year.
I have prayed, planned, changed my mind and finally know what I feel will work best for our family this year.

I wanted to incorporate some teaching time for Hosanna this year as part of her school to better prepare her for motherhood or wherever God might have her teach in the future. (The Bible makes it clear that all women are to be teachers...to the women younger than they are.)

So with that in mind, I found a really fun curriculum for Gilead (and Praise will sit in too even though she has her other kindergarten school to do.) It only takes about 30 minutes a day. Hosanna is very excited to teach it though.

She will be using Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven for Gilead.
It includes 2 books and music CD's (you have your choice of 2 for the Bible and devotionals.)

New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor

Big Thoughts for Little People

It also incorporates the Singing Bible to help your kids sing their way through the Bible.

Along with that, he will continue his little workbooks that he is already doing from the "I Can" series...

I Can Cut
I Can....Paste, Color, Trace, Draw

Gilead and Hosanna are excited to start their year and may not wait until August.

Moving on to Bible.
Since we just finished up our 6-year Bible curriculum with Student of the Word this spring, we are ready to start something new as a family. It was really awesome to read every single verse of the Bible with my children....we have seen so much fruit from it. We are not up to starting the cycle all over however. Grin.
With that in mind, we found a neat, well laid-out Bible curriculum to keep us on track that we will be starting soon as a family in the evenings when Chris is home.
It is called Foundations. We will be starting with Foundations 3 covering the New Testament.
It includes memory verses, daily reading, links to coloring pages for the younger kids on that particular Bible story and twice a week Sword Drills (races to find a verse to learn the layout of the Bible better.)
They have you illustrate the Memory Verse, write it out, act it out and do games to learn it. Effortless.

Foundations is mainly for the benefit of the younger kids who can't read since my 8 yr old and up have daily devotional times by themselves. It still is a great opportunity for us to get into deeper conversations with the tweens and teens. We're excited to use this since it's so well laid out and looks fun for the kids as well.

That's all for now. My next blog post will cover the early elementary curriculum that we will be using Kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Are you a 1st, 2nd or 3rd line Christian?

2011-05-18T11:01:00.000-05:00

I recently read a book that was pretty good. Not as good as Radical by David Platt, which is my recent favorite, but still, worth the read.
The book is called The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel. My favorite part was actually the Afterword. The author shares a testimony of how God gave him a picture or vision of the Christian life.
I wanted to share an except from that here:

I saw a picture as clear as the words on this page. I stood before three lines in the sand. Somehow I knew what each line represented. Line 1: I believe in God and the gospel of Christ enough to benefit from it. Like so many, crossing the first line was easy. Sadly, many who call themselves Christians live here. If there IS a God I want to be on his good side. I want to go to heaven. I want him to bless me with good health, good relationships, and a happy life. Like the 9 ungrateful lepers in Luke 17, once God has helped me, I forget about him.

Most wouldn't admit that that is all the faith they can manage. We want God's benefits without changing the way we live. We want his best without our sacrifices. At the first line, we don't fear God or share our faith. We still love the world. We'll pursue happiness at any cost. First line believers get what we can from God without getting much, if anything, back.

Is first line Christianity REAL Christianity? Is believing in Jesus enough? I'm not sure simply believing in Christ makes a person a Christian...I'm tempted to say "No, I sincerely don't believe it is real Christianity." Even demons believe in Christ....I worry about how many people will be deceived. Instead of truly living as followers of Christ, many lull themselves into a sense of false comfort. I don't point my finger at others only myself. For way too long, I've claimed a belief in God, but my life didn't reflect it.

Line 2: I believe in God and Christ's Gospel enough to contribute comfortably. Past the first line are people who believe in God, not only enough to benefit but also enough to give back--as long as it doesn't cost too much. Many first-line Christians eventually cross the second line. If I don't have to change too much, I'll do some of what God asks. If it doesn't hurt too much, I'll get more serious about God. But everyone has their limits, right? Like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, I wasn't willing to go along with the religious rules as long as it didn't hurt too much....I realized I was a second line believer. I'd serve God in ministry but I didn't want too many critics. I'd given up some things for Christ....I'd follow Jesus anywhere as long as the job included insurance for my family. The third line was just inches from me. It might as well have been miles.

Line 3: I believe in God and Christ's gospel enough to give my life to it. Although most people I knew were line one and line two believers, suddenly anything less than line three didn't seem like real Christianity to me. Could I give my whole life to Christ? Verses I'd read dozens of times suddenly flooded to mind:

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it , but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" Matt 16:25-26 Am I willing to lose my life?

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer life, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20 Could I sacrifice my desires, my hopes, my dreams?

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I many finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel." Acts 20:24 What would it take to make my life nothing to me, existing only to do what Christ wants me to do?

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Phil 3:8 Could I truly count all my earthly possessions a loss, making Christ my greatest treasure?

I knew in the deepest part of myself: I had to be a third line believer. With unquenchable thirst, I pursued living water above all substitutes. I started praying like never before. I started pursuing God in the morning and continued through the day. Jesus was on my mind when I fell asleep and when I woke up. Scripture started to become my bread of life, nourishing my soul. I surrendered one thing after another, until one major hurdle stood between where I was and where God wanted me. I can't tell you what that thing is. It's simply too personal. My battle to cross the third line lasted almost two years. I prayed daily, quoted Scripture. Though spiritually exhausted, I wouldn't give up...finally, one very normal Saturday afternoon, by faith, I gave this last part of my life totally to God. I sacrificed a fear that had held me hostage since I was a child and made a promise to God that I'd never take it back.

I crossed the third line. I believe in God and Christ's gospel so much that I'm willing to give up my whole life to this cause. Nothing in this world is more important to me than my treasure in heaven. No fear in my heart is greater than my fear of God. I desire nothing more than I desire all of God. Tears are filling my eyes as I type this. I cannot put into words what God has done in my heart. I am a different person. You can be too.

He goes on to say how every day the world will try to push us back over the 3rd or 2nd lines. It's a constant decision to live out what we believe about God instead of the world. Every day we need to choose the third line.

That was a great word picture for me. It helped me to see things that I was still holding on to that keep me behind that third line. It's when God shows you those things that we are forced to make a decision. Do we keep those things in our life that hinder us, or press forward as the author did, not content until we know we aren't holding anything back from being totally surrendered to Christ.

It also applies in our marriage....are we giving our all for our marriage or holding back? How about our parenting? I pray that this was an encouragement to you as it was to me. To focus on the Christian race we are on....for eternity...and not getting distracted by the things of the world that don't satisfy and don't bring true happiness.

Christmas Play

2011-01-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

In December, our church put on a Christmas play called If You're Missing Baby Jesus. 6 of my family members were in the play...Chris and the oldest 5. While most of them played characters fairly close to their personalities, I got a kick out of Aslan who is not typically real dramatic. He's more of an intellectual bookworm. He was a shopkeeper in the play, and his costume was this....

While the glasses probably technically fit his personality of a smart geek...it was really funny to see him dressed up like this.
It was a fun play, and they all did a great job!

A bit behind on blogging...

2011-01-02T22:00:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't done too well blogging these last few months...with our crazy birthday season, followed by National Bible Bee, then Thanksgiving, 8 of 9 of us getting Influenza for a full week, Christmas, vacation it has been a wee bit hectic, not to mention dealing with my increasing inability to bend from a growing little fella inside.

Life will be (sorta) returning to "normal" tomorrow with re-starting school except we will add potting training to the agenda starting tomorrow as well. This will, no doubt, be a great character-building week for me....along the lines of all 7 kids plus me with influenza a few weeks ago...or maybe along the lines of what Sunday mornings are like...getting all the kids dressed and trying to shove food down mouths of little girls who eat S L O W L Y and like birds. I'm thankful for it all though...thankful that I HAVE 7 kids who can get sick...thankful that we can go to church and worship without fear of persecution, thankful we have dresses to choose from and a breakfast to eat...we are much more fortunate that most of the world.

One big moment this Thanksgiving was cutting Gilead's hair for the first time. Chris doesnt' mind long-ish hair on toddler boys, but he does like them to look like a little boy by their 2nd birthday. I loved his long curls, but in one of my more painful acts of submission, knowing he didn't like his hair long, I decided to cut it a full 3 weeks early. Not too many tears were shed, and now I'm used to it....it helps that I have another little fella coming along in 10 weeks to enjoy long toddler locks on again. grin.
Here are Gil's before and after pics...

Praise Turns 4

2010-10-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

Well, we just finished up our biggest birthday season of the year! WHEW.
It all started with Miss Praise turning 4. What a blessing she has been to our lives.
She came out with a bang, 6 days late weighing 10 pounds exactly at home. (read: no epidural)
She has won many sweet savages awards including: biggest baby, latest baby, LOUDEST baby,
most humbling toddler, most calls required to poison control (2) in 6 months time.
She has made us eternally grateful for child training books and epidurals.
She has turned into a very sweet, sometimes still loud, but compliant petite 4 yr old.
Sometimes the kids that try you the most you are the most thankful for when they mature and turn out "okay."
We're on our way!!
Here are some pics from her September birthday...

Helping the Poor

2010-09-15T15:31:00.003-05:00

Did you ever feel like helping the poor, but just didn't know what ministry was honest and would use your money wisely? Do you ever REALLY look at the way we Americans live and compare it to how most of the world lives in the rest of the world? Did you ever think, that while we are buying bottled water "because it tastes better" and $4.00 coffee, our brothers and sisters in Christ are trying to decide which pond or ditch has the less contaminated water in it to drink? Do you ever stand in front of your frig, and can't choose what to make for dinner cause there are too many choices? These questions and others have been haunting me lately. I think about them all day. I think about then when I wake up at night to take care of a restless toddler.
I recently read a quote by Mother Teresa that said, " I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world."

Are you allowing your "lead" to be used by God? If so, what is God writing through your life?
It is so easy to feel convicted and burdened for the poor, the orphans and the widows...but then not know what to do or how to help and in a few days, the burden wanes and we go back to feeling comfortable again.
There are many ministries you've heard about but for many reasons you don't feel like getting involved:
1. How do I know the money really gets to the poor and not to lining some pockets of the company president?
2. I don't like how much is taken out for administrative costs..I mean, if I give money, I don't want 13% (or more) going towards administration/fundraising fees.
3. There are so many needs that my small donation won't even make a difference so why bother?
4. There are needs right here in America.

I used to struggle with those questions myself. It wasn't a big deal though because, although the thought of helping the poor crossed my mind, it seemed too complicated for ME to somehow help the poor across the ocean.
It was easy to rationalize it away and forget.

Until God started working in my life. First, He sent some friends to us for us to meet to teach us God's heart towards the poor. Not only did they have a burden, but they lived it.
God also led me to read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan...and now the book The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. I'm only on page 96 of 332, but am feeling so strongly the call of God to see the poor as He sees them, that I was compelled to blog before even finishing this book.

I really wanted to tell you about 2 3 ministries that I believe are honest, making an impact in the world the way God calls us to, and uses the money wisely.
The first, is my favorite, because we are close friends with the family who started the ministry, and I know the whole story behind how God led them to do so. It is called Hearts of Hope. Their website is www.shareministries.org
Because we are great friends, I know their character, how the ministry runs and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every cent is used the way they say it is. They take no money for fundraising or administrative costs. The only fees that don't make it to the mission field are the small wiring fees they pay to Money Gram the money, usually from Wal Mart.
It is about $8.00 per transaction.
They are great about asking which ministry partner you'd like your money sent to. If you just tell them "the greatest need" they pray about it and always let you know where every dollar went to.
I am so excited about this ministry that I just wanted everyone to know. I know there are many of you that would love to give, but just wasn't sure WHERE. May I encourage you to email Hearts of Hope and ask for their latest newsletter? heartsofhope@shareministries.org
You can even donate through their website using paypal so it only takes a minute. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them!

The 2nd ministry that we support is Compassion International.
It has been a blessing to our family to allow each of our children on their 7th birthday to choose a Compassion Child as their very own.
They love their child, they pray for their child and they love to write letters and send pictures to them as well. It has really helped to open their eyes to the poor in other countries and realize that we truly are overly blessed here. We've been impressed with the ministry and how great they are at sending our letters back and forth to our 4 children...2 in Ecuador and 2 in Dominican Republic. We hope to be able to visit them all one day as well, and Compassion will set up trips to make it so easy to do.
http://www.compassion.com/

I know I told you I was going to tell you about my 2 favorite, but we also have been very blessed by partnering with Gospel for Asia
http://gospelforasia.com/

If you aren't too excited about this blog post, may I encourage you to get a copy of The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns?
If you read the book, and it doesn't do much for you, I will personally buy the book from you and pay shipping to my house.

Don't let the conviction wane...click on http://www.shareministries.org/ now and at least request their latest newsletter..that's all I'm asking you to do now. They only email once a month so you won't get tons of email...I promise!!

"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.....whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers of mine you did it for Me." Matthew 25

God did it again!!

2010-08-24T16:56:00.001-05:00

I'm overwhelmed with God's goodness and just have to blog!!
If you ever wonder if God truly loves you...if you ever wonder if God really cares about the little things you care about....then quit wondering...the answer is a resounding YES!!!

God has shown me time and time again how much He desires to show His children His love. The reason I'm excited, is that He did it for the 3rd time this summer. Actually, He probably showed me thousands of times this summer how much He loves me, and, I'm ashamed to admit, I likely missed many of them in my focus on "life" and not seeing the blessings in the midst of "life." But, what brings me to post this time, is that I am awed and tickled at how God can use US to show someone else how incredibly MUCH He loves them....

I won't go into the other 2 stories, but TODAY God did it again.
It's a bit of a long story, but I totally want you to see that God was all in it. It has nothing to do with me at all...I was mearly the one God chose to use to bless someone far away in a country called Bolivia.

To backtrack...there are 2 precious sisters in Bolivia who are in their early 20's. They live at home with their dad (a Bolivian pastor) their precious mom and 2 sweet, younger sisters. These 2 girls could choose to do anything with their lives, but Sara and Eva spend a good portion of their lives in ministry. They minister to poor children in Bolivia. They minister to mothers who are trying to save or earn money to help feed their children as poverty is rampant there.
I found out about Sara and Eva though a ministry that our great friends run called HEARTS OF HOPE.

Hearts of Hope is an amazing ministry that reaches out to help the poor in many countries around the world. I will have to blog just about the ministry in the future cause it is our favorite!

Anyway, I was wanting to build a relationship with Sara and Eva so I asked our friends (and the girls as well) what sort of things might bless them to send them from the US that they can't get in Bolivia.
One thing was mentioned that their father had wanted a brass colored offering plate like he saw in the US when he came a few years back. He loved the shine of it and how nice it was to collect the Lord's money in.
I heard about this need a year ago. I searched and searched and the prices for one of those are ridiculous (to my frugal mine perhaps, but still.)
I kept checking ebay, but they usually had "Buy it now" auctions for $40-60. I just didn't feel right spending that much money. I didn't have a peace. Finally, in May...a year after I first started looking, an auction came up with the brass colored offering plate.....and a communion plate....and a brass bell....and a set of candlestick holders.
The auction was for $9.99 and with shipping was right around $20. BINGO.
I was thinking "What in the world will they do with a bell and candlestick holders?" I didn't have a use for them, so I felt led to send the whole set to them along with some cloth that my mother in love bought, as they had also requested material for sewing.

I received an email from them today, and had to laugh out loud at God's goodness. See, I had no clue that they really NEEDED candlestick holders...but God, who loves a beautiful, Bolivian family on the other side of the world, worked it out to have them receive the candlesticks they needed! It may as well have been me that He lavished His blessings on because, you know, being blessed by God and used by God seem to bring the same, great joy!!

God keeps doing this! He keeps showing me and using me to bless others when I have NO CLUE that what I'm doing is really that big of a deal. I LOVE that because I can't get prideful about it when it wasn't my idea, that I had no clue what I was doing and that HE so totally orchestrated the whole thing. See, when God shows me how much He is crazy and passionately in love with a Bolivian family, He is showing me that I'm his daughter too and His love doesn't stop at the South American border.

In case you missed it...God loves YOU just as much too! He WANTS to tickle you with small ways to show His love. It may be with a brass candlestick set, or an unexpected letter or check, it may be in an amazing sunset or a gorgous bird on your porch. It may be that you just need to look into your husband's eyes or watch the children sitting around your table to realize your blessings.
And I dare you...if you don't have a relationship with God where you just enjoy His presence in your life, where you don't just thrill at serving Him and being His child, then invite Him to take over your life. Seek to bring God glory in everything you do....and you will discover that you cannot enjoy life fully until you are in a relationship where God is where your joy comes from. Where just thinking about the cross of Christ and what He has done brings a lump in your throat. Where something so small as a candlestick or a flower makes you overwhelmed by the love of God that because something is important to you, it is important to Him...your Daddy God.

Here is the email that blessed my heart today:
Dear friends,

Once again thank you for your love, it was a surprise we receive the box, we annex the pictures to this mail. Our Parents are very happy for this wonderful gift and they feel very dear. Every time that a baby is consecrated in our Church, our mom and we take charge of fixing the Church with candles and flowers, but the things that sustain the candles they always broke because they were made of mud and when we seeing those supporters of candles gold, truly it was a joy. We wait that soon we can use them in baby's consecrated, we are sure that the brothers and sisters in our Church will also be surprised.
Mom is also happy for the cloth that we receive, she will be made a dress and also new shirts for the children of the choir. We also receive the book of games it is a challenge for us because it is in English, but we understand very well some and they are very amusing to carry out them with the children.

Thank you to all, we are very blessed when we calling you brothers and sisters

With love

The family Mamani

Curriculum Time Part 2....the 5th-9th grade

2010-07-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

I have a few minutes to jot down what the older 3 will be using this year.

For Bible, we will finish our 6th and final year with STUDENT OF THE WORD. I can't believe we've been at it his long. It has been such a fruitful, wonderful journey reading every word of the Bible with my children! We even read the geneologies and the Levitical laws. Grin.
These 3 are currently working through the Bible Bee study memorizing about 5 verses a day as well.

My 5th grader, Hosanna, will be using:

Math- Teaching Textbooks 7

Science- Sitting in on Answers in Genesis' science with the younger kids that daddy will teach as well as study Apologia Astronomy (her choice) and a Child's Geography

History: she will be going through a great looking program with Noah from Heart of Dakota called "Renaissance to Reformation" I will have them read and work through it together. It looks like they will have a lot of fun with that!

Language Arts: Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (the last book)
Abeka Creative Writing 6
And a combination of Total Language Plus and 1/2 of the Abeka Language C (6th grade) book. (I didn't love the look of the 5th grade, so I decided to spread the 6th grade out...TLP is her main LA's but Abeka has a few things that we've never covered and she is a workbook lover and will enjoy the variety)

Reading: I assign one long book per week for her

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

Music: Piano

Typing: Mavis Beacon

Homemaking: Lots of stuff...cooking, housekeeping skills etc. Lots of mommy time. = )

For my 7th Grader, Noah:

Math: Life of Fred Pre-Algebra 1 and 2

Science: Abeka 7 Order and Reality

History: Heart of Dakota Renaissanse to Reformation as above with Hosanna

Language Arts: Total Language Plus; Student of the Word Creative Writing

Writing: Jump In by Apologia Press (This looks like a FUN way to learn to write especially for boys!)

Art: Book of Many Colors

Logic: Fallacy Detective followed by Thinking Toolbox

Spanish: Rosetta Stone

Music: Piano, Guitar and Drums (He's our musical lover)

Typing: Mavis Beacon

He also spends a bit of time latey studying fish and aquariums as that is his insterest.

And finally, the 9th grader..our first year of High School:

Math: Life of Fred Advanced Algebra
We are planning on him studying for the College Algebra CLEP test after that and take that test next summer sometime.

Science: He will be using D.I.V.E. Biology CD-ROM studying both Apologia Biology and Advanced Biology (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made) and the plan is to see if we can take the AP Biology Exam in May. He's excited about all the dissections and microscopy that entails: frog/fish/worm/crawfish/sheep eye/sheep heart and fetal pig. (Seriously..we love science here...we're weird that way. Grin)

History: Exploring World History (Notgrass) Will possibly have him prepare to take the Western Civilization CLEP test next summer ... still researching that.

Language Arts: Exploring World History covers all of 9th grade Language as well as it includes a lot of writing and reading 13 complete books of literature. He will also be doing some Creative Writing assignment with Student of the Word year 6 and 2 Total Language Plus guides: Pride and Prejudice and Animal Farm.

Spanish: Rosetta Stone level 2

Logic: Introductory Logic by Nance and Wilson (his request not ours..grin)

Music: Piano.

Reading: Participating in the Generation Joshua Book Club

I'm sure he will continue researching and practicing Horticulture and Botany hours a week which is his passion as well.

It probably sounds like a lot, but many of the "extra" subjects are only done a few days a week so they have variety in their school week.

Curriculum Time! (the 8 and under crowd)

2010-07-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

It's curriculum time and, after weeks of praying and researching, I finally have all the curriculum chosen. It's not simple, but I'm excited that it looks like a fun school year.

My goal for this year was to spend time doing Bible with everyone and allow the 3 older kids to be more independent and spend more time with
the younger crowd.
Here is my plan for the 2nd, 1st and K4 year olds (and the 1 yr old when he sits still..smile)

For my together time with the younger 3 or 4, I will be using a combination of things. One that I'm excited about is Five in a Row volume 3 with the Bible Study supplement and the Cookbook supplement.
FIAR is a program for younger kids where you read 1 book every day for a week and each day touch on different learning aspects: Social studies, science, nature, math etc. We will be tying in the Bible and the cookbook to each story as well.
I will also alternate that with History for Little Pilgrims... a Christian Liberty press that covers basic history and has coloring pages you can buy to go with each day's lesson.
I will continue with read alouds that I implemented this summer as well. For now we are reading through some of the Sonlight Kindergarten and 1st grade books I have from the older kids. 30 minutes before naptime, we have snuggle time on the couch and I read a longer type book to them. It is one of my favorite times of the day as well as theirs.
Since FIAR doesn't have Bible every day, I will be reading a Bible story every day and using a coloring page. We will use The CHildren's Illustrated Bible by Hastings.
My 2 favorite Bible story coloring pages are
Calvary Chapel

and THIS ONE.

We will continue with memorizing 1 verse a week using the CD called "Sing the Word from A-Z" We started this summer a few weeks ago and are up to "D".."Do to others as you would have them do to you for this sums up the law and the prophets and this is Matthew 7:12" I can't type it without singing the song.

Chris will be tackling elementary science again using the curriculum from Answers in Genesis called God's Design for Life studying the World of Animals, World of Plants and the Human Body.

We will also try to fit in art a few times a week using I CAN DO ALL THINGS from the company How Great Thou Art.
We started that book last year and they always begged for more than I could find the time to do. grin.

They will each have their own level of handwriting using Handwriting Without Tears...their own Math using Horizons 1 and 3. I also have them do 10 minutes of FLASHMASTER every day to work on math facts.

Praise is continuing to work through ANSWERS FOR PRESCHOOLERS that is by far my favorite preschool curriculum yet! She is about 1/2 way done having started it when she turned 3 and doing it slowly at her pace.

For Language Arts, my 2nd grader is using English for the Thoughful Child along with Abeka Language 2. I also have him email a few times a week to friends and family as that really helps them to learn punctuation, capitalization and spelling in a non threatening way.

My 1st grader will be doing Abeka workbook Language 1 with Critical Thinking Press' Language Smarts B (Language arts that incorporates some critical thinking skills)
She also has phonics books that she reads out loud to one of us a story a day that gradually gets harder and harder. She is a good reader already though.

I think that covers our early elementary/preschool plan.
Stay tuned next time when I share what we're using for 5,7,9th grades.

Crazy Crazy Love

2010-07-10T16:34:00.000-05:00

I recently heard about a book called CRAZY LOVE by Francis Chan. I immediately pictured something like this....

Then, I saw the book cover and heard some amazing reviews from friends like, "This is the BEST book I've ever read!" "This book should come with a warning label saying it will totally change your life!" Well now. How can you resist recommendations like that....Not that I don't LOVE my current life, but I'm always all about changing to become more like Christ. So, I slapped those words on my birthday list and VOILA, my favorite teenager in the whole world bought it for my birthday.

I finished it this week and WOW is all I can say. If I could buy a copy for everyone who calls themself a Christian, I would do it...but I'm too cheap, I mean frugal. I am nowhere near as articulate as Francis Chan, but let me just tell you that he challenges us to realize that there is no such thing as "lukewarm Christianity." Using the passage of the church at Laodicea, "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Revelation 3:16
he shows that you cannot be lukewarm if Christ dwells in you. Being spit out of God's mouth is not exactly descriptive of one about to enter the kingdom of heaven. He is very clear that it has nothing to do with our works, our salvation is totally about what Jesus did for us. If we have accepted the gift of salvation, thereby having the Holy Spirit in us, lukewarm is not a word that CAN describe you.

Oh, there were so many great quotes and examples. PLEASE go get yourself a copy. I'd be glad to loan out my copy too, but there is already quite a waiting list. grin.
It has challenged me more than any man-written book that I've read in a L O N G time. It has totally helped me to focus on what truly matters and what being a Christ-follower looks like.

God's protection of 1 year olds

2010-07-07T11:28:00.000-05:00

It's so easy to see a situation that could have been "bad" but turned out okay and think "Whew, that could have been a mess...how fortunate that it turned out so well," and totally miss God in the equation.
Yesterday, Gilead was VERY ONE. I was doing a Bible study with the older children that goes along with Bible Bee, when Gilead disappeared for a few minutes to another part of the house. A few minutes later we heard a crashing sound like metal or glass.
Aslan went to investigate what the stinker had done now (he had already bitten the tips off of 3 makers, pulled off 2 of Aslan's pitchers on one of his favorite pitcher plants and dumped over a huge glass of water and it was only 10am).
Aslan returns with Gilead to report that he had gotten into my bottom dresser drawer where I keep birthday gifts hidden.
I had 4 glass "goblets" in there that my 5 yr old requested for her 6th birthday later this month. She wanted "fancy goblets to drink out of like princesses do." So I found 4 at the local thrift store for 50 cents each.
Well, Gil had gotten a hold of 2, completely broke them on our bedroom floor and hallway. There was glass everywhere.
Despite his chubby, little, bare feet...he had NO cuts. On top of that, when Aslan brought him to me, he was chewing on something.
I checked his mouth and he had a dime sized piece of broken glass in his mouth! There were no cuts or blood and he had been chewing it for almost a full minute, likely.
So, at first I was thinking, "Whew, that could have been a bloody mess." But later, thinking about Sunday's sermon about how we get ourselves into habits of thinking about or not thinking about God, I realized that this truly was a God-sized miracle. He should have had glass cuts on his feet and mouth but he didn't? Why because God was protecting Gilead's body and protecting my sanity after the crazy morning we had had with him. Grin. Don't miss God in the day to day victories. He's absolutely IN THEM!!!
Thank you God for loving us enough to protect us from ourselves, even if we are only 18 months old.

Summer and fun with the little people.

2010-06-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

We officially finished our school year last week. We have a few straggling books to wrap up, but for the most part, we are in "summer mode." For summer, we typically do 2 days per week of math and Spanish, because those 2 subjects don't fare well by taking 3 months off.   Bible Bee also started last week, so we are in full swing of reciting Bible verses around here.   For those of you who didn't sign up yet, you have til June 30th. Even if you don't want to compete for the national bee, I highly recommend you signing up just for the great stuff you get!

This year, each child gets their own Bible, their own pack of nice, laminated Bible memory verses, a Bible Bee t-shirt, pin and a 3ring binder with a 12 week Bible study of Colossians geared towards their age level. (3 different levels) Not only that, but if you sign up a child, you also get 2 parent binders to do the study with them and they tell you how to meet once/week as a family to talk about what you are learning.
Last but not least is a Bible CD-rom Sword drill game to help you learn your verses and compete with other Bible Bee participants. All that for $25/child. Go to biblebee.org if you want to sign up!
This would actually make a great Bible curriculum for the school year too, if you want to get serious about Bible memory and dig into Colossians....

I have really been wanting to spend more time with our younger children doing more with Bible memory as well, even though they aren't signed up with Bible Bee.   I started something Monday that is going really well so far. I have a CD that I used when the older kids were little called SING THE WORD FROM A-Z.
It takes one BIble verse that starts with each letter of the alphabet and puts it to song.
Yesterday we learned the song for A: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
Today, we reviewed A and added B: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. Acts 16:31.
I'm pleased with how easily the 3,5,7 yr olds are able to memorize when it's put to song.
I push "repeat" and we listen over and over for about 20 minutes.
I also type out the verse and put a picture on it to color while they listen or print it out in a font that is hollow inside to color the actual words. They love it!

I also wanted to tell you about the best set of preschool workbooks I've used yet. ANSWERS FOR PRESCHOOLERS.
They are perfect for 3 and 4 yr olds. The set has 2 workbooks, 2 teacher books and 1 CD, and a Resource packet. I personally just bought the workbooks and CD of music. I don't like to be told what to do by a teacher book cause I tend to get legalistic and stress myself out. Grin.
The workbooks are cheapest at CBD.com   $18.99 per workbook.
We just do as many pages as Praise feels like doing every day. It teaches numbers up to 12, all the ABC's and counting, colors, shapes, writing skills, Bible stories and crafts.     That is all we are using this year for preschool (3 yr old) and the Sing the Word CD and Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.    We do a lot of fun reading before naptime every day too and have a Bible story book.

I've been asked a few times lately about preschool, so I thought I'd take a blog post to just share what I am doing with my 3 yr old. Hope it's helpful to someone.

Oh, and on a side note, I was at a fundraising event this weekend for a local women's shelter, and a volunteer there working one of the bouncy rides, got my attention and asked me if I wanted to sign up my 3 yr old for Head Start. I smiled and said that I homeschooled and that she already had a head start.
The lady had never met anyone that homeschooled and seriously believed it wasn't legal to do that. She was shocked when I said that there were over a million kids homeschooled in the US and that it was, in fact, legal in all 50 states.    She asked me what kind of credentials I needed and what paperwork I needed to fill out to do such a thing. I told her I had to simply write a letter to the school board to tell them I was homeschooling and my credentials was just giving birth to them. lol    Funny how society is thinking that Head Start is better than a mama for teaching a 3 yr old and that a parent is not capable of teaching their children to read.   I am so blessed that I get to teach them all the things they learn and get to learn right along with them. I wouldn't want a stranger getting all that fun!!

Silver Dollar City

2010-05-31T17:41:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, we took a fun, family trip to Missouri. We started in Branson, where we met King Kong. Then we headed on over to Silver Dollar City. For most of my younger kids, it was their first time on small roller coasters. They were so brave....

The highlight of the day for us, um, I mean, them, was this really cool ball room. The room was FILLED with THOUSANDS of tiny squishy soft balls. All throughout the room were these long flexible tubes about 4" in diameter that had SUCKING ACTION going on...like giant vacuums!! You move the tubes and suck up balls to your hearts content, or bring the balls to the hose monster and stick them in it's mouth. It was so fun. (for them of course). You would work really hard to "clean up" your little ball area, only to have hundreds dump from the ceiling or be shot at you by older kids in the towers up above. We stayed there for a LONG time.
I was thinking how cool it would be to have a room like this at home...but them I thought more and realized it wouldn't just suck up balls, but school papers, hair ties, food, legos...so maybe we'll just visit SDC now and then. I'm tellin' ya...if I lived closer, this fun place makes it almost worth the price of a season ticket right there....for the kids of course....it is VACUUMING at it's finest!!

SAM TAKES A STROLL

2010-05-31T17:11:00.000-05:00

SAM
SAM IS A CHICKEN.
SAM THINKS SHE IS A DOG.
SAM LIKES TO COME INTO OUR FRONT DOOR EVERY DAY AT 2:15 TO CLEAN UP THE CRUMBS ON THE FLOOR.
MOM LOVES SAM.
KIDS LOVE SAM.
SAM POOPS ON SCHOOL ROOM CARPET.
DAD DOES NOT LOVE SAM.
SAM HAS TO STAY OUTSIDE NOW.
THE END.

Prove what?

2010-05-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

I just got finished mowing the goose pasture. (How many of you can say you did THAT today?) grin.
I love mowing because I can look outside for a few days and actually see that I did something that LASTS more than one meal or one diaper.   So many things in motherhood feel like they don't matter. A reading lesson here, a spelling test there, a clean diaper, another dinner on the table. It can seem so trivial can't it?   If we focus on the minute by minute things, sometimes it can seem like we are accomplishing nothing or even going backwards. But I usually get some deep insight while mowing...
Why...probably because I had 30 WHOLE MINUTES with no brain interruptions!

For those of you with all littles....it IS tough to see results. Short of taking the first steps, pooping on the potty and learning the letter sounds, so much seems so repetitive and like there are no measurable results.
But now that my older kids are getting older, I am SO enjoying seeing those minutes and seemingly "unimportant" things add up to see that YES, they WERE important and worthwhile!

For homeschooling moms, I think this is even magnified. It can be a tough job, especially when I spend a good part of my day teaching one child to read, correcting another's math, giving another spelling test and grading a geometry exam...often simultaneously while changing a diaper. (Insert Superman theme song here.lol)   The days truly can be long, but as I'm seeing with 2 middle school boys in my home, the years truly are short.

I remember the day well. The day the school bus came and picked up the neighbor kids in Florida and then kept driving away. It was the first day that Aslan SHOULD have gone to school. I remember the panic I felt watching that bus drive away, thinking, "Yikes, I'm really homeschooling now." Not only did I have my own apprehensions, but, as all homeschooling parents deal with, we constantly deal/dealt with questions and accusations by those unfamiliar with the concept. "What about socialization?" "I can't imagine being with my kids all day." "What about the prom?" "Is it LEGAL?" "But you're not a certified teacher?" "I can't imagine teaching my kids to READ!" "What about high school/college?"   "What curriculum do you use?" etc etc etc.

As the years roll by, I've seen the results of homeschooling. I no longer have to prove anything to myself. I no longer have to prove anything to others. I am confident that it has been the absolute best decision we could have made for our family.   I'm not talking about the educational aspects, though study after study has proven that homeschoolers score higher on standardized tests and colleges are bending over backwards trying to get homeschool graduates.  I mainly mean the relationship that I have with my older children that is priceless.  Seeing their walk with the Lord as they seek Him for answers, feel conviction, and sometimes see the Holy Spirit being harder on them than I might be.

Sometimes, though, it's easy to get our vision clouded by what is not important. Sometimes, I actually freak out at the thought of figuring out curriculum for 6 grades next year. Freak out that "we" are starting high school this year.   I lose sleep about, "Should I use this history curriculum or that one?"    I prayed a few days ago for wisdom because I KNEW I was making a bigger deal of things than I should. God so obviosuly and clearly showed me 3 things:

1. I need to focus #1 on teaching the Bible and focusing on their walk with God and character.
2. Some of those subjects just don't need a big deal made about them. (History) Just do what needs to be done, but don't let it overshadow what really matters.
3. High school is just a continuation of what I've already been doing...which IS ENOUGH.

How God really solidified #3 for me is through Aslan's ACT score. He is my clone, as many who knew me in my teen years can easily see.   I asked him if he'd like to take the ACT test "just for fun" to see how he's doing. (what I really meant was to see how IIIIIIII was doing) Most of you can't understand how an ACT test could be "just for fun" but some of us are weird that way. I loved those standardized tests so I figured Aslan might enjoy the challenge as well.) Smiley with wild, mad scientist hair.

Right in the midst of my panic attack about high school, we got the report back that he had scored REALLY well on the test.   Most of you couldn't care less, but for you number types, he got a 30.
That helped me so much to see that we just need to continue right on with what we are doing. (Focusing on their spiritual walk.....putting more focus on their passions, and covering the rest as stress-lessly as possibly.)
Isn't God good to show me so much in one weeks time?

If you are stressing about things or not sure what to do....PRAY. HE will clearly and definitely do the same for you!! He will re-align your goals, your methods, your curriculum choices or whatever else you need realigning.

I truly don't have to prove that homeschooling is a good choice academically. Am I happy that he scored well...of course, but truly, if my children grow up to be highly intellectual, rich and successful and that is what they are known for, I HAVE FAILED.

The Bible says that what should bring us joy for our children should be, "I have no greater joy that to see that my children walk in TRUTH." 3 John 1:4

So being smart is good....being musically talented is good...being good-looking is good...but what should bring us the absolute MOST JOY?   For our children to walk in Truth.....

So, fellow moms (and dads).....when thinking about parenting...try to focus on 100 years from now.

In 100 years, will it matter what your kid got on his ACT, or what his GPA was, or how handsome/beautiful he/she was? Will it matter that they were the CEO of this company or made a 6-digit income? No...what will matter is that you raised your kids to WALK IN TRUTH.   Jesus says, "I am the Way the TRUTH and the LIFE...."

So as we start planning out the next year of curriculum, or how our family will spend their free time over the next school year, let's focus on what truly matters....we have nothing to prove to anyone but God.
Now, while I didn't THINK I had to prove anything to myself, as a human, it is nice to see that something I've invested my life in really does work. God allowed me to see, maybe for Aslan's high school, or maybe for my 3 that are 5 and under, that just doing my best with the Lord's help is all God expects from us. Moms...those little "moments" DO matter....they all add up to create a piece of art.   It may take 14 years or more to see the full impact of the results...but you WILL see results of what you've invested in your kids.
Don't look back and wish you gave more, or sacrificed more or hugged more, or trained more or exampled more.....with God's help, give 100% knowing that even if you feel unappreciated, God sees and you are doing it as to Him....stop trying to prove something or please men....100 years from now, you will realize how silly that was!

Competition is good for the SOUL....literally...

2010-05-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

We got a Wii back in December. It's a lot of fun, and even the big savages like it. (us)
There are very few games, however, that fit our family standards of what we are willing to use our free time on and what we are willing to buy that doesn't have negative elements in it, or time-wasting games.
We borrowed Wii Sports Resort from a friend and liked it.   However, since we don't parent by giving our children anything they desire (they have to work to earn money for all their "wants" ), I was brainstorming a different twist on "earning."

I had been wanting to memorize more Scripture. I have recently been addicted to the book of Philippians...especially chapter 2 that talks about doing everything without complaining....remember...the passage that God worked and worked on me about all of 2009?   Despite having been a Bible Quizzer in high school and memorizing a chapter every month, lets face it....trying to memorize ANYTHING with 7 children about is daunting.

So God gave me this idea to challenge my 4 oldest children to a competition. I told them that if the average of how many verses they memorized was more than how many verses I memorized, then I would buy them Wii Sports Resort.    I threw in an extra perk. If anyone memorized the WHOLE BOOK of Philippians, I would buy them their very own extra Wii Motion Sensor. ($20 value)    Sports Resort comes with 1 already, but you really need at least 2 to play against each other.

The competition started 2 1/2 months ago. We had chapters of Philippians taped all over the place.
My bathroom mirror (that helped the most), their bathroom wall, and on many tables.
The deadline was May 1st.

Aslan memorized the entire book, messing up on only about 10 words total out of 104 verses.
Noah and Hosanna got around 30-35 or so...Josiah...5 and Me...drumroll......31 verses.

Now, despite the fact that I lost....their average was 41 verses to my 31.....rats, I could have squeezed in 11 more somehow.....I am really proud of how many I DID memorize.    It's harder with age ya know...and add lots of little kids who never stop talking, well, it's downright amazing that I even did one. They say that with each pregnancy and with nursing your brain shrinks slightly....I've been doing one or both of those continually since 1995...so I think it may just be the size of a peach pit...but I digress.
Overall, it was a great experience.....except I'm out about $60.

Oh...you're wondering what I would have gotten if I had won...well, I would have saved $60 and they would have had to buy me a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream.   sigh.   I'll just imagine how good it would have been...that's my fav.

So....the take home message....bribe your kids....it's good for their souls and yours!!
(but it sure would have been nice to dig my spoon into one of these...)

If this sermon doesn't radically change your life...

2010-04-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

Sunday Night Soccer

2010-04-10T08:47:00.000-05:00

I wanted to tell everyone about Sunday night soccer. If you live near us, PLEASE come out and play. If you don't, then consider starting something like this where you live.
We meet at the city park's soccer field every Sunday night at 5pm. It is a family thing...not just kids. All or most of the dads play and some of the moms too. We divide into teams and play for about 2-21/2 hrs. Last year, I played everyday, but payed for it on Monday, and Tuesday. It was fun though.
We had our kickoff week last Sunday as the weather is beautiful again. For our first week, we had about 25 people playing, I was the referee (see photo above with my apprentice on my back--photo courtesy of Peterson Photography) which was a nice change that I appreciated immensely on Monday morning.
Along with the players we had about that many other people (moms and smaller kids) playing and talking on the sidelines or visiting the playground.
We really want to see it become a way to reach out to those who don't have a relationship with Jesus though. A way to integrate more of the unsaved into our lives and build relationships. I recently read a book by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room. It was a great book all around, but the one thing that jumped out to me is when he described that one of the best evangelistic tools his church had done was to organize a Friday Night Kickball night and invite unchurched friends. I pray that we are able to make lots of new friends through soccer and have a fun family time while doing it.
SO, come on out one Sunday and bring the fam. Invite a friend. There is also a walking track 1/2 mile long that goes around the fields and a playground and baseball fields as well, so there is something for everyone.
Why not start up something similar in Florida, Alabama, Ohio, South Carolina, Missouri or whereever you live!

HONK HONK HONK

2010-04-09T12:04:00.000-05:00

Our 2nd oldest son, Noah, has wanted geese for quite a while. Back in October, for his birthday, he asked for a goose house and 4 geese.
The boys and Chris recently got the goose house complete and it was time to get geese. They found a lady through the internet that had a flock of 20 geese she needed to get rid of because she has health problems. We only wanted 4, but Chris figured we'd just sell the rest.
We had a BUNCH of geese for 2 weeks, but were able to sell them easily and now Noah has his 4. We have been getting a few goose eggs every day and those are Gigantic! One egg is the equivalent of about 3-4 chicken eggs. Here is a picture of one egg filling up my small cast iron pan! WOW. They taste almost identical to chicken eggs too in case you were wondering. So now, we have just a little bit more noise on the farm!

New Mennonite Friends

2010-04-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that last week we were able to have 2 couples in our home for the Esh/Gingerich funeral. The day of the accident, I called and got my name on a list to host any families if needed. I was excited to find out we would get to.
Both couples arrived in the evening time. The first family, the Millers, were from Ohio. They were SO friendly and nice. They were excited to hear that we had a daughter named Hosanna because they did as well! They used to be Amish, but converted to Mennonite about 15 years ago. I was able to talk to them about the differences between the two and ask them some questions that I'd always wanted to ask. Grin. The first 2 pictures are of the Millers. The top one was taken about 6:45am. Gilead has woken up early when I did so he was pretty sleepy. I was making eggs for the families and Gilead just stood there for about 10 minutes watching Mr Miller. Finally, Mr Miller held his arms out to Gil and Gil RAN as fast as he could to him and just sat quietly in his lap for 15 minute while I made breakfast. That was really unusual because he usually doesn't like strangers. Maybe Gilead wants to be Mennonite one day. = )
The 2nd picture was of them before they left for the funeral.
Later that night, the 2nd couple came....the Stolzfus' from Lancaster County PA. They were really friendly too.
The thing that made me chuckle the most is that as soon as they arrived and sat down, the 2 Amish turned Mennonite men had a long conversation comparing their Blackbery phones with regular phones and why one changed over to Central time and the other didn't. Mr Miller also got out his imac computer to show me a picture of his 4 beautiful children. Nothing wrong with that...it just busted up my paradigm expecting them to live simpler than we do and with less technology, only to find out they were hi-tech Mennonites. I don't even have my own cell phone and up til last summer, I mistakenly called those phones BLUEberries not BLACKberries. LOL
I DID feel like I fit in, however, over breakfast when Mrs Miller and Stolzfus and I were exchanging homemade bread recipes and I had the same grain mill and used the same wheat as they do. I actually taught the older Mennonite some things she didn't know. LOL.
Below (3rd picture) is Moses Stolzfus as they were leaving. I never did get a picture of his dear wife.
What I really appreciated is how we felt like brothers and sisters in Christ despite our denominational differences. We all love Jesus and we had so much fun, even though I didn't own a blackberry or a head covering. Grin.
I loved these Mennonites...they live what they believe!!

HOME by the Esh Family

2010-04-02T21:31:00.000-05:00

Not the same

2010-04-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

I'm not the same as I was a week ago. Ya see, last Friday, a van from our small town carrying a precious family and some of their friends who were headed to a wedding was hit head on by a semi truck that crossed the median about an hour from our house. Of 12 people in the van, only 2 survived--3 and 5 year old brothers who were in their car seats.   The 10 who died included their mom and dad, baby brother, grandpa, grandma, 3 aunts, and 2 friends.   We knew all but 1 who was in the van. We got milk from one of the couples, another young man put in our driveway and concrete a few years back with his dad and brothers.

The funeral was a few days ago, and 3,500 people showed up...mainly Mennonites and Amish. The family who died was Mennonite.   When you add that many people to a county that has a total population of 6,800, it changes things!!   Since we have exactly one motel in Burkesville, it required many of us to open our homes to the influx of friends and relatives of the Esh family.
We were very honored and blessed to be able to host 2 couples. One from Lancaster County, PA and one from NE Ohio.   They were both Amish turned Mennonite.   They were such sweet, friendly people and we were so happy to have gotten to know them.
All across our county, denominational walls were broken down and the whole area came together to help and support the Mennonite community who was grieving the loss of about 10% of their people. It was so neat..a glimpse of what heaven must be like.
As things like this have a way of doing, they force you to realize that we are not immortal. None of us will escape life alive, unless the Lord returns first.
The accident claimed the life of a baby, and a few young people as well as 2 in their 60's. Death is no respecter of persons.    While I totally believe that it did not shock God, that somehow it is part of His bigger plan that we humans can't always grasp, it still takes us by surprise. It rocks our "perfect little world" where we are fretting about what to make for dinner or why are the lines so long at the supermarket, or why does the baby need a diaper change when we're already late for church.   It rocks us into realizing what is TRULY important and what stress really means.
I'm not the same this week....I am much more patient with my family, I pray a lot more over small things, I have much more of a passion for sharing Jesus with others, I know what it means to "weep with those who weep" and I have a stronger faith in God that He is totally in control of my life and I need to trust Him through every up and down.    Our pastor asked the question on Sunday, "If you were in that van last Friday, do you know for sure where you would be today?"    I'm so thankful that I do without a doubt know where I would be. But so many in church, in the grocery store, on the street answer that question with a definite "No, I don't know where I would be." or worst yet...they do know and it isn't with Jesus.

If you can't answer that question with a definite YES!!! Then please do nothing else until you do know. I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.   Life is short....we aren't guaranteed tomorrow. The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. The Bible also says that you don't have to wonder if you have eternal life, you can know FOR SURE!

I thank God for what He has done this last week in me and many others. I don't understand it all, but I choose to trust my Savior that He is in control.   It's easy to praise God when everything is going great but I choose to praise God when things are not as well. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

I will close with the lyrics of the song BLESSED BE YOUR NAME.

Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's 'all as it should be'

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be Your name

Meeting God in the produce aisle

2010-03-23T11:28:00.000-05:00

When you take a mission trip, invariably you ask yourself what God wanted to teach you or show you through the experience.     I'll share a few things that I learned from our trip to Honduras...

1. When you feel God leading you to do something, even if it seems crazily hard, do it. There is no better place than in the center of God's will.   We had dozens of people tell us that we were a little bit crazy to even consider taking 7 children to a foreign country.   Dozens who thought that sounded impossible...dozens who said they just couldn't even imagine doing it.    When we think about it now, we can see why people would react that way. Heck, if we dwelt on it too long, we could have easily dismissed the idea as crazy and not considered it. I mean, who would have blamed us for saying, "We'd love to take a mission trip, but we have....too many kids...it would be too much money...it would be too hard to travel with all those little kids and suitcases." I guess it encouraged me to "Do Hard Things" as the book by the same name says. I am so glad that we did.

2. Because I don't speak Spanish, I wasn't able to share the Gospel with anyone in Honduras. What it DID reinforce to me is my responsibility to share the Gospel where God HAS called me to be a missionary....right here in Burkesville.    It is so easy for me to think that I am willing to be sent across the world to share Jesus with others, and what that would look like, but lately God has had me consider a different angle. I am called as a missionary to Burkesville.   We are all missionaries where we are until God calls us someplace else.   Am I living like a missionary here like I would be if I was being supported to be a missionary in Honduras? Am I free with my time, my family, my house to show love to others.   Or do I live like a non-missionary, focused only on me and accomplishing MY goals.   I'm afraid I'm guilty of the latter, but with God's help hope to start living like a missionary.
I read a verse in Philippians 2 this week as I was attempting to memorize the chapter to beat my kids in a competition (grin) and it was talking about Timothy.

19I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. 21For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

Those verses were convicting to me because I realize that I often look out for my own interests.   It's so easy to say, "I'm too busy." "I don't have time." "I'm too tired."    But if I were truly looking out for the interests of Jesus Christ, all my excuses would go away. I'm praying that God work on me in that area this year.

Before our trip, I started reading a book called Just Walk Across the Room. By Bill Hybels. I was able to read a good portion of it during the trip when Gilead was having his naps and I finished it after our trip.
The book talks about how evangelism doesn't have to be hard. It is as simple as "walking across the room" and saying "Hi" to someone and building relationships. It's stepping away from your comfortable circle of friends and greeting a new person, or one that might not have many friends.
On thing jumped out that Hybels said. That is that every morning when he wakes up, he prays "Lord please open doors today that I can share You with others."

I tested this out last week and almost failed miserably.
Last Thursday, I was going to the orthodontist and Wal Mart with only 2 children...my oldest and youngest.
I prayed that prayer as we pulled out of the driveway. I asked God, "Please give me 1 open door to share your love to someone."   After that I kinda forgot my prayer.
I sat with a waiting room full of parents in the orthodontist office....then we went to Wal mart.
We were almost done with my list.   You know "THE LIST" that your whole goal is to cross off everything as quickly as possible so you can check out and go home!    I was totally not even thinking about looking for open doors or even thinking of "the interests of Jesus Christ." I had a mission.

Then we entered the produce department...and that is where God taught me an amazing lesson.
A Wal Mart worker came up to me who was off duty and asked if Gilead was my baby. (He had been patient in the cart, but was over it at that point, so Aslan took him out and let him walk around while he followed him.) I told her he was and that yes that tall 14 yr old was also my son. She commented on the huge age span and I mentioned there were 5 children in between those 2.   She shared that she was a 4th born of 12 and how it's so nice to see a big family and how rare it is...yada yada yada.    Well, 10 minutes later, this friendly lady was STILL TALKING!!!!    About her family, her kids, and I was looking really sweet and friendly, but I'm ashamed to admit that inside I was praying emphatically, "GOD PLEASE LET THIS WOMAN SHUT UP SO I CAN FINISH THE PRODUCE DEPARTMENT AND GET OUT OF HERE!"
Just seconds later while I was having an internal meltdown at how talkative this woman was and how MY INTERESTS were not getting accomplished...I heard a loud voice in my spirit....totally a God thing cause there was NOTHING in me spiritual at the moment say...."HELLO? You asked for ONE open door...are you gonna walk through it?"
I knew that I knew that it was God....and immediately my intensity to leave, my selfishness, MY interests all calmed down and became not important.   I Listened to what the lady was saying, I mean really listened. Before that I was just hearing words.
She was talking about how God had allowed hard times to happen to her son and what a blessing it turned out to be because it turned him from a work a holic into someone that had time for family relationships. She talked about how she had given her life to God at an early age, but got off doing her own thing and God brought her back to a relationship with Him. She knew that God loved her enough to restore their relationship.
Then she asked if I could pray for the bread man who stocks the bread aisle every morning. His name was David and his wife of 31 yrs had just left him and he was devastated. I asked her if she had shared Jesus with him and she said that she had.   Then I felt led to pray with her and said, "You know the Bible says that were 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst, why don't we agree in prayer for David right now." She loved the idea so she grabbed my hand and I prayed for David and his wife, for restoration and for God to show himself mighty through this hard time."   When we finished Wal Mart lady had tears in her eyes and we hugged. We parted ways and I couldn't stop thanking God for His patience. Patience because if it had been up to be...I had prayed this sweet woman away in my impatience to accomplish "my own interests."   God could have easy answered that prayer....but he had a lesson to teach me.
I had asked for 1 open door...and without me trying to find it...in fact I was trying to slam the door...he patiently kept this lady talking and talking until I would finally hear the spirit of God in my life nudging me that THIS was what I had prayed for.
How often do we pray and then never look for the answer...or get it in our minds what the answer looks like and miss God completely.   I'm convinced that because I'm such a novice at this, God was exceedingly patient with me. And I thank Him for that. I thank God that not only did He love ME enough to be patient, but he loves David the bread man enough to cause me and a bakery lady to lift him up before God, the only one who can meet his needs right now.

I challenge you to ask God each day for 1 open door...and don't forget to look for which one God wants to open...and try not to be like me and pull it shut so you can accomplish your "stuff."
God is so gentle and good in His teaching us dumb sheep how to truly be His disciples.....if we make even a small effort, He will more than make up for our weakness......so just walk across the room....or across the produce aisle...you might just find God next to the bananas!!!

Miscellaneous pics Part 15

2010-03-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

The younger kids enjoyed ironing beads and doing crafts. = )

Gilead ready to fall asleep.

Konsavage and Patterson families on the day we left...we're the ones in green. = )

Forgot this picture earlier. This is a boy in Canculuncos who had broken his arm playing soccer the day before our clinic.
We were able to go to a pharmacy and buy a cast and cast his arm the next day when we returned for the 2nd day of clinic there.

MEDA Seminary-Honduras Part 14

2010-03-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

The place that our friends live and work and the place we stayed was called MEDA. It is a seminary for Honduran seminary students. It is really nice and pretty! Quite a contrast from just outside the barbed wire fences of extreme poverty. Everything was really nicely taken care of. Everything grows so well in Honduras too!

Inside of one of our rooms. Hot showers and everything.

Front Gate of MEDA.

Honduran Food- Part 13

2010-03-14T15:36:00.000-05:00

I can't say that we really suffered in the food department. The food was all wonderful! A sweet, Honduran lady, Saida, cooked most of our lunches and dinners during the week since Christy and I were busy many times. Saida has a housekeeping job where she makes $1/hour. She was happy to get a raise and cook for a week for the 18 of us! She is a wonderful cook!
In this picture, she was making Beans and rice and fried plantains.
Most meals included montequilla which is a white sauce similar to sour cream but much better even!
On Monday, we had Pollo Frito (fried chicken) arroz (rice) homemade tortillas and pataste (a really yummy green vegetable that is similar to broccoli)
Dinner was Gringas (tortillas, chicken, salsa and montequilla)

Tuesday- Bistec (steak) Ensalada de lechuga (salad) tortillas and Papas (like cheesy mashed potatoes)
Dinner- Baleadas (tortillas, smashed red beans with scrambled eggs mixed in and montequilla)

Wednesday we ate lunch at Canculuncos and had fried chicken, beans and tortillas
Dinner was Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice

Thursday we had Arroz con Frijoles, platanos won Mantequilla (beans, rice, plantains and montequilla--as shown below)

Friday, we went to a restaurant for lunch. (see 2nd picture) It was a fabulous, really nice lunch and there were 22 of us for that meal that cost only $70.
Dinner was Estufado (stew) Ensalada and tortillas

Steak on a stick, tortilla chips, plantains, Honduran cheese, rice and salad.

Saida with a stack of homemade tortillas. We had a friend from church give us money. She felt that God had put it on her heart to send some with us to give whereever we felt led. At the end of the week, we paid Saida for cooking for us and also gave the extra money to her. We received a letter shortly after about what a blessing it was to her family. Saida lives in a 1 room brick home with 2 children. (I think they are her neice and nephew) With the money that we gave her from us and from the donor she was able to buy a refrigerator for her home. She said it was the first time she could actually have fresh milk at home!! Lest you think we gave her thousands of dollars, the total amount was only $150 total (from us and the anonymous donor). What a difference you can make in the life of the poor, the orphan and the widows in the world. Where $20 or $50 might not seem like much to you, if you are willing to give it away, it is SUCH a blessing to the receiver!! If you need a great ministry to give to...we know one! Just let us know!!!

Yup...they have Wendy's in Honduras!

Various Honduran Houses Part 12

2010-03-14T15:19:00.000-05:00

More pictures from Canculuncos part 11

2010-03-14T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here is the outside of the church we had the medical clinic in.

These piggies were right outside the window at the back of the church...it was the highlight of Praise's day!

Pastor Omar was one of the sweetest people I've ever met. He is a pastor there and just loved Gilead.

View on the drive to the church.

Honduras-Canculuncos Medical Outreach- Part 10

2010-03-14T15:13:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday and Thursday of our week, we drove 2 1/2 hours to a remote village of Lenca Indians called Canculuncos.
Most of them had never seen a doctor. On Wednesday, we saw children only. About 100 of them. We had each child sign in with their name and what was wrong with them with a number. We took them one at a time by number. While the children were waiting, we projected Nest Spanish Bible Stories on the brick wall of the church.
The picture below is of our make-shift pharmacy. We had a lot of medications donated from friends, and local pharmacies that made up our "pharmacy."
The 2nd day in Canculuncos, we saw mainly adults. Another 100.

Nest Videos

Gilead was a hit with all the Honduras with his pretty blue eyes. Grin.

Driving Around Honduras Part 9

2010-03-09T19:48:00.000-06:00

There was a lot of construction going on around Siguatepeque. One area, completely stops traffic one way at a time for 30 minutes. It doesn't matter if no cars are coming or not, if the 30 min isn't up, you wait and wait some more. We got stopped about 3 times that week, where you just turn off your engine and wait. The local peddles take advantage of all the stopped cars to sell anything and everything. Here is one man selling something homemade.

Another funny thing about Honduras is their driving "rules." It was no doubt the most crazy driving I've ever experienced!! I imagine New York City taxi drivers might feel at home there, but that is about it. It is totally okay to pile people standing in back of a pickup truck.....it is okay that no children are in car seats....it was okay that for the week, because we had no larger transportation, that the Patterson's and the Konsavages drove everywhere by putting 18 people into an 8 passenger Expedition....but under no circumstances can you talk on the cell phone while driving. Haha.....their laws aren't consistent.

Here is a picture of what we drove behind on the way to the airport. There were about 6-7 men in the back of this little Police vehicle. At least 2 were in handcuffs. Not typically what we see roaming the back roads of Kentucky.

Police didn't seem to do much more in Honduras that pull cars over to make sure their licenses and registrations were up to date, hoping they could give a ticket for not having the required documents. I understand that if they try to give a ticket, it is much easier to "bribe them" with about $50. While I hear some police aren't crooked...most are.
2 weeks before we arrived, Mark P along with a bunch of church friends were robbed right in the church during a meeting. When asked for money and jewelry, he was reaching into his pocket, and they thought he might have a gun, so they put one to his head....They left with some money and jewelry. They didn't call the police because there is no reason to...they wouldn't have done anything anyway.
So be thankful that your town has police that respond and care about the law and justice!!! It's not like that all over the world!

Honduras-Boys Working Part 8

2010-03-05T20:11:00.000-06:00

Mark Patterson, the missionary dad we are friends with, is in charge of maintenance, and the upkeep of all of MEDA...the seminary in Siguatepeque that we stayed at. He did a great job of keeping our boys and his busy the whole week. (The neighbor boys who are also missionaries and have 7 children worked often too) Many days they worked from breakfast to dinner with a quick lunch break. Aslan, Noah and Josiah worked with their boys (Josiah (16) Caleb (14) Noah (12) Levi (9) Isaiah (7) and Elijah (5) )...as you can see, we had 2 Josiah's and 2 Noah's. Our Noah's are only 5 days apart in age too!
In this picture Aslan, Josiah P, and Jonathan Montoya is working (Well, it doesn't look like it but they were) by digging dirt to fill in a hole that needed filling on the MEDA grounds.

They also spent a lot of time sanding and staining doors for the dorm rooms.

Here Noah and Noah are taking a break from work to whittle with pocket knives.

Even though they did a lot of hot, hard work, they all seemed to really enjoy it because they got to talk and build friendships as they worked. They also got quite a bit accomplished!!

Honduras-Tuesday Clinic at Emanuel Children's Day Home Part 7

2010-03-05T19:54:00.000-06:00

Tuesday morning, we did a clinic at the Children's Day home that is run by Emanuel Baptist Church in Siguatepeque, which is the Patterson's church. We saw the 22 children that attend there, their families and many others from the neighborhood. Practically every child has lice. They have been treated many times before, but they just come right back because their homes are not cleaned from lice so they get re-infested. They also all have parasites. The children were all so sweet.
Here is Chris examining a boy that had a bad skin problem

Here is a lady that is 100 years old. She was remarkably healthy. Her main complaint was wax in her ears!!

I took blood pressures for all the patients as Chris was talking to them about their health in Spanish. Gilead "hung around" too for 4 hrs and never got fussy. He even took a nap for about an hour on my back. There were just under 100 people seen this day too.

The 3 boys stayed behind at MEDA to do some manual labor, so we brought the 3 girls with us. Don't they look so elegant with all their hair pinned up. = )

Honduras-Grocery Part 6

2010-03-05T19:44:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday morning, I got to go into a Honduran grocery store. It wasn't terribly different. They had a lot of brands that I hadn't heard of before, but many that I did. It was about as clean as a Save A Lot or Aldi's. It is very weird seeing all the prices that seem so high. The exchange rate is 19 Lempiras to 1 US Dollar. I had heard about a delicacy in Honduras (that fortunately we didn't "get" to try) called Huevos de toro...or "eggs of a bull." They apparently grill the "bull eggs."
If you aren't understanding what I'm talking about feel free to email me...grin. I got some funny looks when I photgraphed these bull "parts" in the deli. = )

As we were checking out, Gilead decided to do what he does at Wal Mart. He clicks any button he can find. At Wal Mart, it never causes any problems, but in Honduras, the checkout screen is a Dell Computer monitor and the keyboard is right there where our credit card scanner usually is....right within babies reach. Before I realized the set up...Christy was ahead of me and I was loading behind, the clerk had rang up a few items and then the whole computer went completely black. Of all the buttons on the keyboard, he clicked ONE that was "POWER." Sigh. The cashier wasn't too amused when it took 3-4 minutes to completely reboot the computer, re log in and re scan the items she had already scanned. I'm sure she was thinking, "Dumb gringos kids." When the whole bill was totalled, it was just over $1,800!!! That included $259 sunscreen, 62.50 milk and 10.50 liter of bottled water. = ) Here is the cash register as it was still being totalled.

Honduras-Monday Medical Clinic Part 5

2010-03-02T19:46:00.000-06:00

On Monday, Chris was able to work along side the local doctor in Siguatepeque. Dr Karina Aguilar at the Betania Clinic. It was great timing, because she was put on bedrest the week before 1/2 way though her pregnancy. She did show up, but it was nice that Chris could do the bulk of the work. He saw 98 patients that day. It is a very poor clinic. They charge only a small fee to be seen...I think it was $5. They also help provide medicines and transportation to the nearest hospital when needed as well. They are a ministry of one of the local churches there called Iglesia Bautista Betania (Bethany Baptist Church). The clinic runs on a budget of only $2,000/month that comes entirely from donations. They use the clinic as an evangelistic tool.
The first patient that he saw was an elderly lady that had severe burns on her body after falling into an open stove. Chris treated her burns and referred her to the local hospital.
The clinic is on the right in this picture...the church on the left.
c

Chris examining a little boy.

Me and some of the sweet savages meeting some new Honduran friends while they were waiting to be seen in the clinic.

The lady holding the little girl in the back thought I knew Spanish when I initiated a converstion by saying something in Spanish....I immediately realized my error when she rattled off in Spanish to me...thankfully, Christy came to my rescue and told me that she was wondering how many children I had. Whew...I'm sure I looked like deer in headlights for a few seconds.

The "Market"- Sunday- Part 4

2010-03-02T15:16:00.000-06:00

After church on Sunday, I walked down to the market with Christy and another Honduran lady who was familiar with bargaining in the market. The produce market was open on Sundays and Thursdays. It was so colorful and fun to look at everything. The prices were SO cheap too! Avacado's were 20 cents. Banana's 3 cents a piece. Pineapple and cantelopes for under $1. Everything was so much cheaper than in the US! I was wishing that I could pack suitcases full of fruit...but it's not allowed.

The Patterson's are in the process of adopting a sweet little 8 yr old Honduran girl named Iris...pronounced "Edeece", to go with their 6 boys. She took immediately to Josiah and Jubilee and they had so much fun together even though she spoke barely any English and my kids know barely any Spanish. She was also very helpful with Gilead. Here is a picture of Iris and Josiah.

Honduras-Sunday...Church..part 3.

2010-03-01T16:14:00.001-06:00

Our first full day in Honduras was Sunday. We were at church at Emanual Baptist at 9:30. It was completely surrounded by gates and barbed wire over the top.
2 weeks prior to our visit, our missionary friend was held at gunpoint there during a church meeting.
They hadn't locked the gate and a man came in asking for money and jewelry. Mark put his hands in his pocket to get money and they thought he might have a gun so they pointed it as his head. They escaped with money and some jewelry. It was a meeting of teachers so no children were there at the time. In Honduras, there is no need to call the police, however, because they don't help with crime. Most of the police there, we are told, are corrupt so crime, for the most part, goes unpunished.

They started the service with praise the worship. About 1/2 the songs we knew and tried to sing along in Spanish. The rest of the songs, we just smiled and did our best. Our friend, Mark preached that morning as his pastor was in the US that week. It was his 2nd time preaching without a translator (which was unfortunate for me as I didn't understand too much.) I told him over lunch that he wasn't a very good preacher because I had a hard time following and understanding him. He laughed.
During the sermon, we watched 3 little sisters in the row in front of us picking lice out of each other's hair. That was, um, interesting.

Sunday morning service. There were very few men there. In fact, our whole trip, we met very few Honduran families that had both a mom and a dad. Marriage and being faithful is not a strong part of Honduran culture.

We returned to church at 5pm for the Sunday evening service. Instead of sitting through another sermon that I didn't understand, I went to the preschool class with Christy. She spoke in Spanish but used Flannelgraph, so I understood. Haha. I told her husband later that he should use flannelgraph on Sunday mornings---we might understand it better.

Family Field Trip to Honduras, Part 2

2010-03-01T16:02:00.000-06:00

After 2 great flights, we arrived in San Pedro Sula airport around 4pm. We had a little over an hour of waiting in lines in Immigration at the airport that was very hot with no air conditioner.

This was the first sign that Welcomed us to Honduras....

We found our 16 suitcases and got them all onto a wheeled cart, but there were dozens of Hondurans there to "help" us. Despite telling them many times that we didn't need "help" they pretended not to hear and we had to tip them all $2 each. Our friend, Mark Patterson was there to pick us up as well as a friend of his with a pick up truck. We put Aslan and our luggage in the pick up and the rest of us piled into Mark's Expedition. We were about to discover some of the WILDEST driving we have ever experienced!! (Not our friend...grin...the Honduran way of driving...which is basically anarchy!)

Here is a picture of San Pedro Sula Airport.....not very big.

We drove 2 1/2 hrs to Siguatepeque where we stayed at a Christian seminary called MEDA. There was an area outside Siguatepeque where construction would almost always stop traffic for 30 minutes. While stopped, dozens of people come up to your cars trying to sell things

Family Field Trip to Honduras, Part 1

2010-03-01T15:51:00.001-06:00

We just returned from a week-long family, medical mission trip to Siguatepeque, Honduras. It all started about 9 years ago, when we were living in Florida. One Monday morning, I bought my 3 children at the time...Aslan, who was 5, Noah, then 3, and Hosanna, and infant to the Florida Aquarium to learn about fish and sea life. It wasn't a very crowded day, so when I saw another mom there with 4 children on a school day, I went up and asked her, "Do you homeschool?" She said that she did and we chatted a while. Christy and I became friends, and we would get together at least once a month to visit and for our children to play. (she had 4 boys about the same ages.) About 8 yrs ago, God led us to Kentucky and was leading them to the mission field. 2-3 yrs ago, they moved to Honduras as missionaries, and we have kept in touch through email. Last January, I emailed Chris with an idea to consider going to visit the Pattersons in Honduras. He liked the idea, so we began praying and planning.Finally, on February 19th, 2010 it was time for our adventure to begin...We began pricing plane tickets a few months ago. We were expecting to pay about $600-700/person from Nashville to Honduras.Very close to ordering them, God gave me the idea to check prices from Atlanta, GA instead of Nashville, TN (which is a 5 hr drive instead of 2 hrs to Nashville) It would save us $3,000 to fly from Atlanta...so we booked the tickets and decided to drive.We left Kentucky on Friday, Feb 19th to drive to Atlanta. We found a motel a few miles from the airport that would allow us to park our van there for no extra fee, give us a free shuttle to the airport and free breakfast to boot, all for $50/room. (We reserved 2).We woke up at 5am Saturday Feb 20th to head to Atlanta Airport.Here is a picture of us all in the ticketing and baggage lines at 6:30am. We had 16 suitcases, 3 carseats, 3 carry-ons and 7 children. We were quite a sight that morning....we also all had on matching lime green shirts that said, "He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, No one comes to the Father except through Him."

Here is the line up of suitcases ready to be checked in...

We actually had no problems with the whole process of checking in or getting on the plane...We had to switch planes in Miami....that entailed a LOT of walking, especially with carrying carseats, and carry on's and little one's but we got lots of smiles and people counted us whereever we went, so it was kinda fun. Here is a view from the airplane of Honduras as we approached San Pedro Sula Airport.

Her first airplane ride was really exciting, but 3 yr olds have their limits. = )

Pictures of the Week for the Sweet Savages

2010-02-15T17:31:00.000-06:00

Gilead, 13 months, loves to help me with laundry.

He pulls all the clean clothes onto the floor and climbs in.

As long as Praise doesn't decide to dry him, I think it's pretty cute...love that mischievous grin.

When he's not in the dryer, he loves to ride his horse. He rarely sits on the seat though...

he is usually found STANDING on the seat and rocking as fast as he can...occasionally knocking

the horse all the way backwards on his tail...so far, he's always been caught....boys!

Rusty...one of our sweetest roosters...he is so friendly....

Here he is sitting on our 14 yr old Golden Retriever, Cheerio to keep warm.

I say Cheerio has to be the most easy-going dog in the world..if it's not Rusty the rooster sitting

on him..it's Bliz or Fire (the cats) perched in his fur.

Baaathsheepbaaa and her new lamb.

I honored a coupon from Christmas that I would make sugar cookies with the

little girls with their names cut into the dough. They loved it!

This is a lot of arts-craftsiness for one week for me!

I always LOVE those $48 shirts I see in catalogs and online with kids' names appliqued on them.

I am too ~~cheap~~ frugal...so I figured out how to make them myself.

Total cost of shirt plus the one I pictured on my blog in December: $12 for BOTH!

Cha--ching!!!

14 years of God's goodness

2010-02-12T14:30:00.003-06:00

(Picture of Aslan with Gilead, who is wearing an outfit that Aslan wore 13 yrs ago

and who looks almost identical to how Aslan looked back then.)

This week, I am celebrating 14 years of God's amazing work in my life. It was 14 years ago this past Monday that I entered the world of motherhood.   It has changed who I am more than any thing else in my life, other than the day I told God he could have me and my life and that I wanted Him to be my Savior.

You see, on Febrary 7th 1996, it was a day like many other days.   I got up early, went to Bayfront Medical Center to do hospital rounds, rubbing shoulders with well-known surgeons and doctors and working right along with them.   I'd run down to medical records to dictate some discharge summaries and then stroll across the street to Dr Lefebvre's office where I worked as a Physician Assistant. (PA-C)

I would have a full morning of seeing patients: writing prescriptions, doing female exams, seeing someone for chest pain or belly pain, a kid with a fever or rash, take off a toenail that was ingrown, talk to a patient about her depression and need for God in her life, joke with my nurses, run something by Gigi, the doctor I worked with and then it was lunchtime. Often, I would run over to the hospital to eat in the doctor's lounge -- always great free food-- with the other doctors and PA's. Then an afternoon similar to the morning.
I remember working til 5:30pm that day.....knowing that I was scheduled for a different day on February 8th at 6am.   I was scheduled for an induction to have our first baby--a son.

I was really too busy to think much about it.   I had delivered babies in PA school all on my own, taken care of prenatal visits on patients...I was pretty sure I knew what I was getting into. The thing that I had totally not prepared for was the emotional and spiritual changes that happen to a woman when that baby that pops out happens to be her own child.

I left the medical office knowing that Chris had wanted me to stay home with Aslan, and that it would likely be my last day as working as a PA full-time.   That did bother me because I absolutely loved my job. Not to mention the huge paychecks that I was receiving, and I was only in my early 20's.   My heart knew he was right, but my self esteem, my mind had such a hard time.   Being a PA was who I was.....I was important....significant....got to write prescriptions and tell people what do to and they would (usually) do it.
"Important" doctors knew me. Nurses did what I asked them to do.
And then I woke up on February 8th, 1996.     I was at the hospital to be induced at 6am. Got the epidural at 9am.   I remember dozens and dozens of visitors the whole labor since I worked at that hospital and Chris was a resident at the same hospital.
Before I knew it, my doctor, Dr Raimer, said that I was ready to push and had to ask all the people to leave. We had praise music playing and she was singing right along with the music, because she was a neat Christian doctor with 6 kids of her own (now 8).

Aslan was quickly born and she announced, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASLAN!"
And my life would never again be the same!!

Chris had a month where he was able to study from home, which was so good because he changed every meconium diaper, knew how to tightly wrap Aslan so he would be calmer (I couldn't figure that out!), bounced him the right way and was such a calm daddy.   I on the other hand was a mess....teary, and engorged, and got mastitis at 10 days postpartum followed by thrush. I remember the first night at the hospital that he woke up screaming, I thought, "It's MY JOB TO SHUT THIS THING UP!!!!"   Sheer panic.   Fortunately he loved to nurse.

Overnight, I had gone from a really "important" PA with a great salary with patients that appreciated what I did, a doctor that thanked me every day, to a screaming baby, who never thanked me but screamed, spit and pooped on me as my "salary."

After about 2 weeks Aslan started screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming. He didn't stop for almost 9 months.   I remember vividly the Monday morning when he was almost 4 weeks old that Chris had to go back to the hospital to start up on rough hours with call every 3rd night again. I remember feeling like I wanted to grab both ankles and beg him not to leave me alone with this screaming fat thing.   I honestly couldn't imagine taking care of him all day every day BY MYSELF!!!

We survived.....which still surprises me....not him but me. I hated sleeping cause when I was sleeping I couldn't make sure that Aslan was still breathing.    I had lost my only brother to SIDS when he was 7 weeks old and remembered it as a 4 yr old, and it was just a sense of fear that Aslan would stop breathing too just like Chad.   Needless to say, that first year with Aslan couldn't have felt much rougher.   Poor thing probably just felt my stress.

At some point those first few months, I distinctly remember Chris saying to me, no doubt one evening time when he wouldn't stop screaming for hours, that "We just aren't cut out to be the parents of a lot of kids." As much as I didn't want to admit that, I absolutely knew that he was right. This one kid was almost too much for both of us.

He started walking at 9 months and did get a little cheerier after that.   It was probably the longest 9months of my life.    As if that wasn't character building enough, and to show that God truly has a great sense of humor, a few weeks before Aslan's 1st birthday, I found out that I was pregnant again!!!!
I still didn't feel like I could handle Aslan very well.....we were just beginning the training and discipline age and he really felt like he wanted to be in control....enter pregnancy #2.

ALL I knew was that if this baby wasn't sweet, peaceful and calm, I wasn't sure I could survive.
With that in mind, we found out that we were expecting another boy...and to show God how serious we were, we found a boy's name that means "peaceful and restful."     Since Aslan's name is the Turkish word for lion, and he was totally living up to that meaning, we figured we could accomplish the same thing in reverse.   So we decided at only 16 weeks that our 2nd son would be Noah Andrew "Peaceful and restful."
Fast forward a few months...we moved to a new city where Chris got his first real job after residency (at a rural health clinic taking care of Spanish farm workers)...Noah was born and was always happy and peaceful. ...that is except when his brother bit him....WHEW...

I could go on and on, but let's just say that by 2, Aslan was a well-trained toddler who obeyed fairly well. Noah stayed sweet and silly and joyful.....and the rest is history...we have 2 more brothers and 3 more sisters for that pair!

I can't even begin to put into words how God has transformed my character through these children. He has taken a very selfish only child, used to getting my way, and transformed me into someone who loves to serve and love others.     It is just totally God!   Nobody can transform themselves the way I've been transformed. God's fingerprints are all over me!!

So this week, as I celebrate Aslan's 14th birthday and my 14th anniversary of Motherhood, I just want to thank God and give Him all the credit and glory, because had it been up to me, I would probably have only 1 or 2 children.....put them in daycare.....and missed out on all the blessings that God had planned for me....blessings that have been acquired through LOTS of blood sweat and tears....and lots more tears....but I can look back now and see that my Father gives GOOD Gifts. I see how much He loves me...I see that even though sometimes life seems so incredibly hard.....like I don't think I can survive another day---God is right there in the midst...He is right there with me as I change diapers, train toddlers, teach yet another kid to read, deal with arguing, complaining, and issues related to growing up. It's not me and Chris alone, it is so totally about God working in our lives to accomplish His plan for our lives, our characters.
And it's about raising other souls that will no-doubt be world changers....not because they had the greatest mom in the history of the world, but because they have the greatest God in the world who chooses to work though selfish, only -children, to accomplish great things for Him!!!

Giving, and World-changing

2010-02-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

I just got done listening to an AMAZING, I mean LIFE CHANGING CD on the perspective we should have in raising godly children. It is just WOW! I would tell you what the CD was, but I learned that many of my friends went out and bought Eat to Live to be just like me (Big grin) and I would hate to cause ya'll to spend more money, though this would be so incredibly worth it!!

One tiny quote in the midst of over an hour of awesome insights was this:

Instead of asking, "What percent of my income should I give to God?" Ask yourself, "What percent of God's money should I keep for myself?" Now honestly answer that question and see what you feel you can live with.

Doesn't that just make you say, "HMMM." I love it. After reading the Treasure Principle last year, my view on "my money" will never be the same.
He went on to share that there are so many languages that don't have even 1 book of the Bible in their language, and that many publishers that do have translations partly done, don't have the money necessary for printing. He was explaining how his family started a business and everything earn and everything they do as a family revolves around giving as much money as they can to accomplish things for God. He wants his children to be world-changers...do you?

A Homeschooling perspective.

2010-01-30T21:02:00.000-06:00

Because I spend the majority of my weekdays running a 1 room schoolhouse...or in my case a few-room, schoolhouse, I am, of course, passionate about our decision to homeschool. I honestly LOVE teaching my kids everything they need to learn. What I love even more, is what I learn in the process. Not just academics but character-building--MINE! I don't consider myself a pushy homeschooler, or one who feels that everyone should homeschool. I do, however, think more Christians should at least consider the option and see if it might be something God would want them to do.
I recently received my favorite homeschool magazing in the mail--The Old Schoolhouse.
I bribed myself that I would only read it on the treadmill...and it is working. Grin.
Yesterday, when I was reading and walking, I read a quote that was just too good to not share. It really made sense and was an interesting new perspective on why some choose to homeschool.
I'm going share it here. It is from an article called The Princess or the Pack Mule by Denise Mira.

So why must we pray about whether or not to send our kids away to be trained by institutions for the best forty hours of every week? Most parents won't share their car keys or pin numbers with anyone, yet they'll give strangers complete, unsupervised access to their most valuable treasures--their offspring--without a second thought.

I just thought that was some good food for thought. I know many will disagree...that's okay, but I pray that it causes some to consider their options and re-assess their lives.

Mid-Week Musings

2010-01-27T17:03:00.001-06:00

Here is what's going on in my brain this week, in no logical order.

That picture is my favorite breakfast this month. Today I made it for the oldest 6 sweet savages and they devoured it with no complaints...here's how it works:
1. Slice 1 banana into bowl.
2. I use an apple corer and then cut those pieces into bite size pieces..add 1 apple to bowl.
3. Add 1/2 c of raw uncooked rolled oats.
4. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
5. Add a handful of walnuts or other nuts if you like them.
6. I also add 1T of ground flax seed and 1 T of melted virgin coconut oil but if that is too weird for ya, it's optional. I've made it without both of those and it doesn't taste much different. I just try to get the healthy Omega 3's in my diet to help with breastfeeding...and my loss of brain cells from teaching 6 levels of math..but I digress.
7. Mix everything together, Thank God for your food and chow down.
It's super fast to make...even 7 bowls of it..and super healthy too. It actually satisfies me til lunch as well!
For the younger kids, I cut that recipe in 1/2 for their bowls.

I just finished reading the biography of George Muller yesterday to the sweet savages for the 3rd time in 6-7 years. He is my favorite missionary to read about because he trusted in the power of God and the power of prayer more than anyone I've ever heard of. He has again motivated me to ask my Daddy God for even little things, knowing that because they are important to me, they are important to Him.
Muller also is inspiring in his determination to not let the things of this world clutter his life or ablility to serve God. I feel SO cluttered in my life most times and truly desire to move towards what Muller describes in his life. It's a process and I'm continuing towards that end.
We read the biography from YWAM Christian Hero's series. I highly recommend you getting a copy and reading to your family. Even just 1 chapter after dinner or before bed. We LOVE our read aloud time every day....even the big boys don't miss it. = )

I have spent a lot more time in prayer this week than I typically do. Not prayer like you picture kneeling for hours at a time.....but the kind of prayer where I just chat with God off and on all day long. I've had some friends going through some stressful stuff, that I'm always thinking about and bringing them before my Daddy God. I have a class that I'm co-leading on marriage and the topic tonight I feel very burdened about and have been praying all week for God's words to flow through me. And I have had an overwhelmed feeling the last 3 days...not overwhelmed in a bad way, but absolutely, wonderfully overwhelmed with God's goodness. I think of all that God has changed and worked in me in the past, say 16 yrs and I'm so humbled and thankful for what God has done in my life to transform me more and more into the image of Christ. It has not all been fun, some has been downright scary and the majority of it has been through these 7 sweet savages running around my kitchen and my amazing husband! I sometimes (not often enough) get a glimpse of who I was/am apart Christ....the prideful, sinful person that God chose to draw to Himself, and I am so humbled that he would choose ME to give these 7 kids and husband to. I truly see them all as precious gifts with a To and From tag from God and everything. It's not that I've had a particularly smooth week here in savageville....on the contrary...it is quite like a 3 ring (or 7 ring) circus often enough. But in the midst of that, God has allowed me to choose thankfulness and to see the blessings in the midst of the chaos.
I'm thinking that the extra "chat time" I've had with God this week has been so amazing. I literally feel the presence of God in our home and feel the joy of the Lord all over me like baby lotion on a baby. It's awesome. Like the song says, "Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere."

My mom in love made my 3 daughters the cutest dresses recently. I wish I was as talented as her. My superpower is laundry and breastfeeding, not sewing. Haha.
She asked me to pick out 3 shirts when I was shopping for them and I wasn't quite sure what she was going to do, but knew whatever it was would be great. I LOVE these dresses...they are so cute!! (Thanks grandma!!)

Well, that's all I have time for now....bean soup and wheat bread is ready to serve up for din din.

10 1/2 down...8 1/2 to go!

2010-01-26T18:30:00.002-06:00

I finally got motivated since Gilead hit his first birthday. I was sick of the extra weight and decided to just get rid of it. I've done this post partum weight loss 7 times now, some more successful than others. It is not on my list of things I love to do. I really prefer to eat whatever I want, have daily cappucchino and chocolate and pretend my treadmill wasn't sitting there in my living room calling my name. Thanks to an online friend who offered some of us to do a 6 week weight loss program with her, I bit the bullet and started the EAT TO LIVE plan on 1/1/10.

I had never heard of it before, but when she told me that it is centered around just eating super healthy fruits/veggies and beans, and that she typically lost 20-25lbs in 6 weeks, I knew it was for me. I truly do like to eat healthy.

The first week, I lost 5. By 3 weeks, I had lost 10. I'm on day 26 now and have lost 10 1/2. I'm pretty happy with that amount so far. My goal is 8 1/2 more pounds--that would put me at the weight I was when I found out I was expecting Aslan, almost 15 yrs ago.

I'm already less than I have been in 6 years now. It feels so good.

Those of you who are like me and know you need to lose weight and know you'd feel better, let me just encourage you to DO IT. Use any method you want, but DO IT.

I think back at if I had made 1 more excuse 26 days ago, I'd still weigh 10 1/2lbs more than I do now. It hasn't all been fun, but it's been worth it. I'm motivated to get the last few pounds off now! I see results!

The book as a whole was very motivating to read. It really re-opened my eyes to the fact that what we eat truly determines our overall health. So many of the diseases American's deal with are not a fluke of genetics, but a shoveling of the fork.

High blood pressure, diabetes (type 2), many auto immune diseases, many cancers, anxiety, hormone imbalances etc etc.

My theme verse for this month has been:

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Super Gil....

2010-01-20T15:25:00.006-06:00

This little fellow is so cute and sweet. HOWEVER, he is actually hardly this calm except when he's a sleep. He has 2 speeds Sleep and Fast.

My kids had to write a poem as part of school today. Aslan chose Gilead.

Here goes....

My Baby Brother

I have a baby brother
Who is usually called Gil.
He’s cute, but boy does he
Destroy many things at will.
He splashes in the toilet,
He climbs up in the sink.
He goes into his diaper
And makes an awful stink!
He rattles and he bangs
All the pots and pans.
If he wants to make some noise,
I’m sure he probably can.
Sometimes I think this fella
Will drive us all crazy;
With him around, we’ll never
Be idle or lazy!
Though Gil is quite a handful,
We all love him a lot,
And he will never be sent
Back to where he was got.

The Mysterious Eggs

2010-01-18T15:44:00.003-06:00

There was a contest in Backyard Poultry Magazine this summer to write a mystery story about the mascot of the magazine, Gertrude McCluck.
3 of my kids entered and we found out today that Aslan came in first place!
He wins a year subscription, a stuffed chicken and a book on chickens. Woo Hoo!!

Here is the winning story...his teacher is very proud of him!!

The Mysterious Eggs

Hi! This is Gertrude McCluck, and I’m going to tell you about the most unusual
thing that has ever happened here. The day it started was most usual: usual food, usual
bigoted crowing roosters, and the usual need to lay an egg. “What else could be
UNusual?” you might be thinking, “after all, chickens don’t do much, do they?” Well, you
overlooked one detail: Chickens take baths. Not in water, but in dirt, and this is exactly
where the unusualness starts.

On that most unusual usual day, I was taking a dust bath with one of my hen
friends, a White Leghorn named Thelma, who is just plain normal except for being
easily flustered and having a wild imagination. We were trying out this bathing spot near
the creek that runs close to our place. All of a sudden, Thelma scratches up some of the
weirdest things! They were kinda leathery, ovalish, and the size of a goose egg.
“MAYBE THEY’RE ALIEN SPACE CAPSULES!” Thelma said excitedly.
“Thelma, they look like eggs,” I said in my calm, usual voice.
“We should try hatching them, to see what comes out.” Thelma decided.
“Who’s we?” I asked. “It’s your idea.”
“Well, it’s the least we can do for scratching them out of the ground,” she argued.

I relented, so we cleared all the dirt from around the eggs, and Thelma sat on
them. Somehow, it became my job to bring scratch from the coop for her to eat.
Well, after three weeks, those eggs didn’t hatch, and Thelma was tired of the
whole ordeal. Don’t be too hard on her, though, since chicken minds are programmed
for only three weeks. But she didn’t want to let the eggs die, so we asked a Muscovy
duck who was broody to set on them. Five weeks later, the Muscovy’s ducklings
hatched out, and those eggs STILL didn’t pip!

So, being the faithful friend that I am, I promised to sit on them for two weeks,
even though I thought it useless. One week later, nothing. But on the ninth day,
something came out!

They were thirteen of the weirdest birds you ever did see. They had four legs, no
feathers whatsoever, a long, scaly beak (if it was a beak!) and a snake-like tail. They
were all black with yellowish stripes, and had a taste for toes and anything else that
crawled. Thelma was horrified and pleaded with me to take them back to the creek.
Needless to say, I was relieved, and we promptly brought them back. While we were
watching them swim away, I saw another one of them, but it was gray and twenty feet
long!
Thelma said, “Goodness! We’ve hatched thirteen ALLIGATORS!!!”
We scuttled out of there as fast as we could, and never dust-bathed near the
creek again!

Just wait til they are teenagers!

2010-01-16T14:03:00.002-06:00

I was thinking about how many times over the past 14 yrs I've been told, "They are sweet now but wait until they are teenagers." I honestly never believed what they said though. I just have always felt that if a chld had truly given his life to God(and not just says he is a Christian) then it wouldn't and shouldn't be like "the world" where teenagers and parents just don't get along.

Aslan will be 14 in a few weeks and Noah is quickly coming upon 13. I just have to say that I think their ages is the absolute most fun yet! I LOVE having teens in the house! I can finally hold deep, meaningful conversations during the day without waiting for Chris to come home. They make me laugh, tease me, help me open jars, love our babies as much as we do, ask deep spiritual questions that I too wonder about and don't have all the answers for. They still kiss me good night and tell me every day that they love me. When the little savages are complaining about food, they are forever complimenting my cooking and Noah never fails to tell me that "it tastes like it's straight from heaven!" LOL

I love seeing them contemplate things God is showing them. I love hearing them wrestle with their futures and seeking God to see if His plan for thier lives is the same as the thoughts they have. I love talking them through a frustrating time where God seems far away, then rejoicing a few months later when they come downstairs late at night cause in their quiet time God just opened their eyes to a spiritual truth they had never seen before and suddenly God seems so real and near again.

I love when they pull me aside because something in the movie Pilgrim's Progress really jolted their spiritual eyes, and they ask me to pray that they don't become like Indifference did walking off the narrow path and taking the wide one.

I love that their legs are getting hairy and their voices cracking but they still wrestle each other like they did when they were 3 and 4 yrs old.

I truly do love all ages, but I never imagined that having young people in the house could be such a joy. I love that we can have teens who have their own minds, yet there is no arguing, attitude, disrepect or rebellion. I love that I can see them now as fellow brothers in Christ who are walking along side of me in our pursuit of God.

I'm also thinking that it's a good thing I DO Like them, because before Aslan's 20th birthday, I will have 4 teens in the house, and it will remain that way for years to come!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T20:41:00.002-06:00

Trouble with the In-laws

2010-01-12T17:16:00.004-06:00

Because this week is both my father-in-law's birthday and their anniversary, I thought I'd pay a tribute to them. I mean, how many people blog about the dreaded "in-laws?"

The trouble with my husband's parents is that they forgot to read the rule book on how to be an in-law. They are terrible with the following "in-law" rules:

1. Criticise your daughter in law at least once every week.

2. NEVER compliment your daughter in law...she might get stuck up.

3. Give your grandkids tons of junk food, then leave them for their parents to calm down.

4. Complain to your son about how she runs the house.

5. Complain about how she cooks, cleans or trains the kids.

6. Don't spend time teaching the girls sewing or the boys how to shoot...that is only the parent's job.

7. When you take nature walks, don't teach them every tree name, bird name, wildflower name...it is too educational...who needs that anyway...

8. Don't ever sneak dark chocolate to your daughter in law...gotta watch those hips ya know!

9. If your daughter in law asks for help with sewing cause she stinks at it, tell her to take a hike and buy a book "Sewing for Dummies." You have better things to do with your time.

10. Never tell her that you are glad your son married her...she might use it against you.

Those are only the beginning of the rules that my in laws are TERRIBLE at. Either they forgot to read the book or think they are smarter than that......either way, I'm so happy to have in laws who rebel and just act like the world's best mother and father in law!! They come over every Sunday just to talk and play. It's always such a fun, relaxing day.

Thanks Mom and Dad! Happy Birthday....Happy Anniversary...love you!!

Finding Holiness on the Treadmill

2010-01-11T17:38:00.002-06:00

One of my New Year's goals is to get back onto the treadmill again. Our tiny city just starting a walking club. It's not one that you have to show up someplace and walk (though you can.) You can just log your own miles and turn it in. So, I've gotten back into the routine of doing a few miles on the treadmill 3-4 days/week or so. My favorite part of it, is I love to download sermons to listen to while I sweat. http://www.sermonaudio.com/ is my favorite site since they have all of Paul Washer's sermon's, and I never finish one of his sermons without feeling ministered to.
The last sermon I listened to was called "Offering Your Bodies." He spoke of holiness and articulated some aspect of holiness that just blew me away. It, in some ways, sums up the whole message of the Gospel. I was in the middle of exercise and couldn't write it down on Saturday when I heard it, but today, I went back through the sermon and transcribed those few minutes because they were so powerful to me.
I wanted to share it with you...

Holiness
By Paul Washer
Taken from the sermon “Offering Your Bodies”

Be very, very careful if your child’s idea of holiness is just not doing what the rest of the world is doing. You’re not teaching the child holiness. If you’re just teaching them that they shouldn’t dress a certain way, they shouldn’t watch certain things, they shouldn’t do certain things, and on and on, which all are true but that’s all you teach them, you’re not teaching them about holiness.

Holiness is not just and not even primarily being separate from all those things that contradict God. Holiness is running TO God. It is cleaving unto Him. It is God being THE most important person in your life bar none. To teach your children holiness it to teach them that God is absolutely everything, and to cleave to him as the most important person or thing that there is.

It’s more than just dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s”. It’s a passion. Sometimes an uncontrollable passion for God… for HIM. If your holiness has any other definition, it turns into Pharasaical legalism. Separating yourself does not make you holy, unless you separate yourselves UNTO God in a love relationship- a passionate relationship.

I would rather my sons turn out to be like David rather than the very clean Pharisee. Then again, more important than both, I’d rather have them turn out like Jesus than David. You see, David was a mess but there was something about him. He had a heart…that beat for God…that loved God. We are to be holy.

That message spoke volumes to me. How often do Christians get so caught up in the "do's and dont's" that we forgot what our one passion should be? Or how often do we compare ourselves that, "If I'm going to be holy, I have to look like so and so or do such and such."
Religion (and I use that in a negative sense) can really mess people up. You can call me all sorts of things but I shudder when someone calls me "religious." Ick. Religion is about rules...praying certain prayers...doing certain things...not doing certain things...and feeling really good and proud of your effort. The Bible says that "our righteousness is like filthy rags." We can't be good enough to earn salvation. It's all about running to God and knowing by faith that it's all about what Christ did on the cross for us. Our sin separated us from God. The penalty for sin is death (spiritual.) BUT JESUS!! Because he paid the price for our sins, we no longer have to be separated from God...we can know that we have eternal life because we believe and accept Christ's payment on the cross!

So like Paul says, "dotting all the "i's" and crossing all the "t's" is not what it's about. That means that one person can wear long modest dresses and headcoverings and white underwear and read the KJV and use only white or cream paint in their home and be totally in a love relationship with God. But on the other hand, someone else can wear jeans and tie dye shirts, Birkenstocks, makeup, use wild paint colors and wear pink undies (grin) and be totally in love with God. Isn't that neat? It all really is about RUNNING and CLEAVING to God!

So....THAT, my friend, is how I found holiness on the treadmill.

How a 7th born celebrates his First birthday...

2010-01-02T16:24:00.003-06:00

When Aslan (Sweet Savage #1) had his first birthday, we had a big shin dig. All the grandparents came. There were mounds of presents all over the place. 2 cakes, the whole shebang! When we let him eat his cake...he stuck his hand in it, looked at how messy it was and cried and cried.
We washed his hand, changed his diaper and gave him a nap.
His favorite presents were a small football and an empty box.

Fast forward 13 years to our 7th born's birthday. We have learned a lot since then.
We had a small birthday with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Gabe. Homemade cake. A few pizzas from Pizza Hut (for us mainly not him since he just started solids and hasn't quite got up to devouring pizza yet.)
He enjoyed his cake more than Aslan did...no tears.
The only gift we bought him was a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Toilet Brush. His very own! That's right. $3.00 from the Dollar Store and that boy was one happy 1 year old!! See, he's spent the last few months stealing our dirty toilet brushes from the bathrooms and carrying them around the house, only to be told, "No Gil, yucky!" Followed by tears of sadness. So....when his birthday rolls around, do we get him more toys (let's face it...he has SIX KIDS worth of toys to play with every day.) So we got him his hearts desire---his very own blue toilet brush. Out of 7 kids, this gift was the most treasured...more than empty boxes, Duplos, balls and even stuffed animals. So there ya have it.
Go against the flow....being a great parent isn't equal to spending tons of money on our kids' birthdays. It's making memories, eating cake and unwrapping beautiful toilet brushes!!!

The Invisible Woman

2009-12-29T08:01:00.000-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS- Our annual letter

2009-12-24T10:58:00.004-06:00

Howdy from Kentucky!
We’ll do our best to summarize the highlights of 9 people’s lives in only 2 pages. God is so good. We feel blessed beyond measure—so much more than we deserve!

Last year’s letter announced the soon arrival of our 7th blessing. He was born December 17th after a wonderful labor, weighing 8lbs 1 oz. His name is Gilead Courage. It seems so long ago now, as he is almost a year old already, climbing, walking and smiling. He is such a sweet baby. We have never enjoyed a baby as much as we have him!! We usually call him “Gilead” but sometimes he gets called “Gil” or “Gilly” or “Silly Gilly.” What a blessing he is to our family. We are so happy that God chose to give us another baby! EVERYONE in the family just adores him, even Praise!

Praise “Praisey boo” is 3 years old already. She has gone from a wild toddler that caused us to call Poison Control twice within 6 months as a 2 yr old, to a sweet, cute, “only sometimes mischievous” 3 year old. She still reigns as loudest Sweet Savage, but we’re sure this cute thing will develop meekness soon. She excels at being able to suck her fingers and pick her nose at the same time with the same hand! She is very smart and we know God will do great things through her, once He can get her to listen to His voice. She also got the record this year for catching the biggest fish. A 7lb catfish on the smallest pole you’ve ever seen with the smallest hook we’ve ever seen. That’s how it goes though, huh?

Jubilee “Jubi” “Jubi doo” is 5 yrs old. She started kindergarten this year and is already reading easy books and zooming through math. She fits her name so well. She is almost always joyful, skipping, bouncing and making cute faces. She and Praise have become such good buddies. Nobody can make Gilead laugh easier than she can! He thinks that she is hilarious. She played soccer this Spring, and, while hesitant at first, she did great! She also took swimming lessons this summer. After a few years of asking for a “kitty,” mama finally gave in, and we surprised her with TWO for her birthday as long as they stayed outside since mama is very allergic to them. They are: Fire and Bliz.

Josiah “Siah” is 7 yrs old and in 1st /2nd grade. (His birthday puts him in 1st grade but he does 2nd grade work.) He is amazing at school. There is practically nothing he can’t read. He came in 1st place in a cowboy costume contest in our town this year. He is the cutest cowboy we’ve ever seen! He has the calmest and most sensitive personality of the bunch. He loves babies and is so helpful with Gilead, even offering to change wet diapers at times. He started piano lessons last year and is learning a lot. He also took swimming lessons with Jubilee this summer.

Hosanna “Sanna” “Green bean” is 9 yrs old in 4th grade. She has such a servant’s heart to help mama. She loves to cook, hums while she does dishes, entertains the baby, and is patient with the little girls to explain school if mama is busy. Her favorite things are horses, butterflies, flowers and reading books about horses. For her 9yr old birthday trip this year, her and mama went to a horse ranch and took a long horseback ride in the Smoky Mountains. Grandma K went with us too to help with Gilead. She looks so sweet, but when it’s time to play soccer on Sunday afternoons, she runs as fast as the boys! She is also taking piano and loves to make cards for everybody with her art skills—lots of colors and flowers! She is also on the puppet team at church ministering to the younger children.

Noah “Owa” is 12 years old in 6th grade. He is the artist of the family and the musician. He’s not crazy about academics like math or science, though he’s good at them, but he will spend hours drawing or painting. He is so good at it too. He won 2 blue ribbons at the county fair this year for his art. He takes lessons in piano and guitar and is the youngest member of our church Praise Team. He plays the Conga drums and percussion 3 Sunday’s per month, and 1 Sunday per month plays the big drums. He has natural rhythm! He has also asked to learn bagpipes and accordion, but we told him to master the piano, guitar and drums first. (grin) He is a “people person” and can make anyone feel welcome and accepted. He says, when he “grows up” he wants to be a UPS man so he can meet all sorts of people---he loves people!

Aslan “Azi” “Az” is 13 yrs old in 8th grade. He hasn’t stopped growing this year. He passed up Mom this spring in height. He is 5’7” but only for a few minutes probably. He wears size 12 shoes and is so tall and thin! Along with his regular home school classes, he took a 12 week class this fall through Answers in Genesis called “Creation Apologetics.” He is continuing with the other 4 advanced classes they offer as well this next year. He is passionate about defending his faith and carnivorous plants. Unknown to us ahead of time, God allowed his teacher to be a man who gives lectures on Carnivorous Plants at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati! God is so sweet to do that for Aslan. He has been a great mentor for Aslan as they have built a friendship and enjoy discussing Carnivorous Plants and Creationism. On his 13th birthday, we had a big surprise “welcome to manhood” party and invited a small group of godly men to encourage him into the next phase of his life. We also collected a scrapbook full of letters written from men who have impacted him throughout his life. Chris presented a sword to him with the inscription “Know the Word, Obey the Word and follow the Holy Spirit.” It was a special day.

Our 3 oldest children competed in the first annual National Bible Bee. It was a wonderful motivation to memorize a bunch of Scripture as a family. They all did really well. Aslan placed in the top 100 in his age group. 17,000 kids originally entered, and they narrowed it down to the top 100 in 3 age categories. The finals were held in November in Washington DC. Because of the apologetics class and other factors, Aslan chose not to compete in the National Bee this year, but is planning on competing again next year.

Misti has had a busier year than normal with another little toddler. It’s worth every bit of the extra work though. It’s easier in some ways with so many older kids to watch out for his mess-making. Homeschooling takes the majority of her time with grades: 8,6,4,1,K and Preschool. She also leads a monthly group at church called “Mom to Mom” to encourage younger moms in their high calling of motherhood. She was asked to present a workshop this summer at the state Assembly of God Women’s conference. It was called, “Training Children to Know and Love the Word of God.” Hosanna came along to assist in the talk. She helped show how you can incorporate karaoke in memorizing Bible verses. (Grin) In her “free” time she still enjoys blogging. www.homeschoolblogger.com/sweetsavages

Chris has had the busiest year at work yet, both in the clinic and the ER. He sees some pretty amazing country accidents and is becoming more popular with the Mennonites here as we have similar views in some areas. He and the 3 bigger boys are building a larger chicken palace coop right now. It will be pretty impressive and our chickens, ducks, guineas and (soon to buy) geese will officially be spoiled. He is great about teaching himself what needs to be done around the farm, whether it’s how to build an outbuilding, tube feed a dying calf (which ended up living!), or installing a wood stove to pipe into our central heating system. He teaches the boys right along with him!

Our family vacations this year included a trip to Hilton Head, SC in May for a medical conference on the beach for Chris’ job, a trip to a horse ranch in the Smoky Mountains in September, and a trip to Niagara Falls in early November with stops at the Columbus Zoo, Great Wolf Lodge and the Creation Museum.

Our animal count: 3 dogs, 2 kitties, 2 fish tanks, 4 cows, 1 pony, 8 fainting goats, 4 katahdin hair sheep, 5 guineas, and too many chickens and ducks to count.

We’re looking forward to a family mission trip in February with the whole family to Honduras, Lord-willing. We will be doing some medical missions and other projects around the city of Siguatepeque.

More than wishing you all a great year, we wish that whatever this next year has in store, that you would come to realize your need for a deeper relationship with Jesus…and then seek HIM! (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Blessings in 2010.
The Konsavage Family

Chris, Misti, Aslan, Noah, Hosanna, Josiah, Jubilee, Praise and Gilead Courage

2009 Sweet Savage Funnies
One day while doing hospital rounds with Chris, Josiah was watching him write in a patient’s chart. The nursing station, full of nurses, overhears Josiah say, rather loudly to Chris, “Daddy, how could ANYONE ever READ that?”

Overheard while Chris, Misti, Aslan and Noah tube a calf to save its life:”Noah, you can pass out but just lay on the cow to keep it still while we put the tube down its throat.” (He turned white and almost did, but the cow survived!)

As a side note, last year, when Noah went to do rounds with Chris before church one day, he had to do a procedure in the ER. While draining pus from a patient’s knee, Chris heard a big “THUD” behind him. Noah had passed out cold. He has no plans for medical school….grin.

“Mommy, when I was a little boy, I wasn’t afraid of ANYTHING. But now that I’m big, I am afraid of a few things. I’m not afraid of bears though…maybe because I’ve never seen a bear.” Josiah, age 6

“Mommy, thanks for all you do…even cook food that I don’t like.” A note from Hosanna, age 9.

A conversation at our dinner table one night…you never know what to expect.
We were eating lettuce from our garden with some trout that we caught at a fishing derby that day and some noodles. I had given each kid a few big leaves since we didn’t have too much salad stuff to go with lettuce. Noah asked if he could give one of his leaves to his sister, Hosanna, who LOVES lettuce because he thought I had given him too much. I told him that I was making sure that he never had colon cancer. The discussion went to, “What is a colon?” (Can you believe doctor’s kids asking that?)
So I explained that a colon is the same thing as a large intestine, and that it stays healthy if you eat lots of fiber like fruits and vegetables like lettuce.
Aslan then said, “If I have a colon, then Gilead (5 mos old then) must have a SEMI-COLON.” The homeschool dinner table is never dull.

Awesome Site to see how dozens of things are Made!!

2009-12-22T18:51:00.003-06:00

We just spent a long time watching little 2-3 minute clips on how things are made.
That sorta stuff always fascinates me. We watched how bowling balls, tortilla chips, popcorn, diapers and a bunch more stuff are made...check it out!

http://science.discovery.com/videos/how-its-made/

Vacation! Accomplishing things...

2009-12-22T16:56:00.005-06:00

It's Christmas vacation at the Sweet Savage household which means NO SCHOOL! That used to only excite the Sweet Savages, but now that I homeschool 6, nobody looks forward to a day or week off more than I do. I've had some projects that I've wanted to accomplish for a long time. One is to catch up on my kids' scrapbook pages. (Everytime one has a birthday, I do a 2-page spread of the best pictures of them for the year) This week, I did Hosanna and Jubilee's pages. I still have my 1 September kid and 2 October and now 1 December to do, but I'm making progress.

Here is a shot of Jubilee's I finished this week.

Another project that I've wanted to try. (My friends IRL, no snickering)....is a monogrammed and name shirt for my little man. I saw shirts online for as much as $40+ for 1 t-shirt with a kids initial or name on it w/ applique. I'm way too cheap, um frugal to spend that, and despite my totally pathetic sewing skills, I decided to give it a try. With less than $10 invested for 2 shirts, ($3 shirts from Wal Mart and $3 in Heat n Bond and $2 in scrap material bin) I figured I had nothing to lose. I did the easy, first initial shirt today. Nobody would ever consider spending $40 on it, but I think my sweet, new 12 month old will love his new "G."

My next attempt later in the week will be a tan shirt with red letters with his whole name actually spelled out. YIKES. Sounds a lot harder.

Here is the finished product.

Welcome to my new place on the web!

2009-02-26T10:50:00.001-06:00

Thanks for coming on over from my old blog.
Check it out if you want to read some older posts, otherwise let's dive in for some new adventures in the life of "RAISING SWEET SAVAGES!"