The summer is off to a rockin' start!! We have been to Charleston for the beach and aquarium, Kevin took a trip out to California for work (3 weeks long!!), I was in a wedding in OREGON!, and we went to Atlanta for a week to visit with Kevin's family for the 4th. Kevin and Ruth both celebrated birthdays last week, and our anniversary is this Thursday.
The original plan was to school year round and just take off the month of July- BUT with Kevin's travel and the time we wanted to spend as a family, we haven't done any school since the end of May. We'll start up the first week of August, after our last trip out of town- Myrtle Beach with my parents. :)

Pics to come of the trips and birthdays!! Children are waiting to play!

 We're headed to Atlanta this weekend for a Kevin's brother's wedding.  There's alot to be done before we leave.  Add into that list of things to do a sick child and a recovering mama, and BLECH.  My list of things to do just grows. Extra things that got added to my list on Monday:

• Anna's BABW dog split open in the back, so I needed to take it to the mall to be resewn.  It could wait, but she likes to sleep with it.  And I was headed to the mall anyway...
• Trip to Sears to buy a filter for the refrigerator.  For anyone else, it could have waited, but I'm quite embarrassed to say how long its been since we replaced it, nor can I remember when, so off we went armed with the refrigerator model #.  Little did I know that the model # is useless, and there's a push button by the filter that I somehow missed.  Again, maybe if we replaced it more often, I would have known.  So I bought the wrong one while I was trying to wrangle my 4 children in the Large Appliance section of Sears.  An 8:30 pm trip to Sears was required to exchange the filter for the right one sans kids.  Next time, I'm ordering online. 
• The Dry Cleaners.  We don't generally use the dry cleaners.  But, the girls' Easter dresses are silk, and they're wearing them again for the wedding.  Wouldn't you know that Anna's had crayon on it?  And Ruth's still had a smudge of dirt from our Spring Picture session?  So off we go, to drop off dresses.  Thankfully for this mama, the dry cleaners has a drive thru.
• Call the hotel.  Not an easy feat when children are constantly vying for your attention, or fussing with each other.  Whichever comes first.  I decided to give everyone a firm warning and got on the phone to confirm a few things with the hotel.  Is there a high chair in the reception room?  Will we be able to check in early?  and most important- The rooms MUST be adjoining.  Normally when we travel, we just throw us all in one room, but these rooms are maxed at 4?!  So, Kevin's parents will have a rollaway bed in their room, we get a crib in ours, and HOPEFULLY, all works out as planned.   

This was one of those days that seemed to go wrong from the very start.  We had trouble leaving the house, getting Michael's school work done, and just plain being nice to each other.

Makes me think about what Francis Chan says in his book, Crazy Love. 
"I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns.  Thorns are anything that distracts us from God.  When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil.  A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it." 
Oh how this just screams how my life went on Monday.  My relationship with God suffered from my list a mile long of things to do.  My relationship with my children suffered because of my lack of time with God, and my list of distractions.  My children's relationships with each other suffered too.  Its humbling to see the effects of what can happen when we choose to allow thorns into our soil.

Revive Our Hearts posted this to their Facebook page yesterday:
Jesus' prayer from John 17: “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You gave Me to do.” Jesus didn’t try to do everything, and we shouldn’t either. All we have to do is the work God assigns us. What a freedom it is to know that there’s enough time to do everything that’s on God’s to-do list for my day!

What an amazing insight.  How many times do I get frustrated with myself that I can't DO more?  It was a beautiful day when I accepted that my home, my husband, and my children were MY ministry for this season in my life.  Sure, there will be times when I minister to others outside of our home, but these will be my priority.  I still struggle with my inability to help/volunteer more at times, BUT  I can't do everything- and that is a beautiful thing. 

God has called me to a purpose that will glorify Him.  He has called each person in the body of Christ to a different purpose- some will minister as missionaries evangelizing both home and abroad, some will pastor, some will teach, etc.   My purpose, for now, is to teach and love my children, love my husband, make my home a safe place for my family and my friends, and to do all those things to HIS glory, not my own. 

I never thought that I could get worked up over a dog. I was wrong.  Coming back from the True Woman conference I had a new resolve to be intentional in everything I did.  From organizing and keeping my home clean and hospitable, to spending time alone with God and studying His Word, to being bold in sharing the truth that God has been teaching me.  Along about Friday, I was home from the conference less than a week, and things started to unravel.
A little background.  Snickers, our ShihTzu, is 8 years old.  We had some problems with his eyes getting ulcers when he was a puppy, maybe twice. Never anything serious.  Fast forward to this New Years Eve.  We had been in NJ with my family for Christmas, and had arrived home the night before, but not in time to pick up Snickers from the kennel, so Kevin went to get him that morning.  I had been washing dishes, and my shirt was already wet, so I went ahead and took Snickers upstairs to give him a bath as soon as they walked in.  It turned out to be providential that I did, because that's when I noticed the ulcer.  It was 11:20 and the vet closed at noon for the holiday.  We made it in time to save the eye, but we spent a good part of the next three weeks treating it.  Then in the beginning of March, conjunctivitis in the same eye. 
This Thursday night/early am, Kevin was up working, and I was trying to figure out details of whatever.  Decided to head to bed, and Snickers couldn't walk straight, something was up with the eye again.  Took him in Friday morning.  Another ulcer.  He was checked for glaucoma, but the #'s were high normal.  Our directions were pain meds, a new antibiotic drop and bring him back on Tuesday.  We didn't make it to Tuesday... 

It was a terrible weekend.  One in which we should have been rejoicing in our Risen Savior.  Instead I spent 3 hours at the Emergency vet, on Sunday, and got little sleep.  Monday morning I found myself again at the vet, with a dog with a perforated eye.  They are removing the eye today. 

It bothers me that I could be so easily distracted from my Lord.  I spent a better part of Saturday night quoting Philippians 4:6  to myself.  "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God".  and Phillippians 4:8  "Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."  Striving to renew my mind, and not think about how bad Snickers' eye was and how much pain he was in.  I got little sleep, but the verses helped to quiet my mind and rest in the Lord's will in the circumstance.  My emotions have been on the verge of escape all weekend, and as I type, they emerge yet again. 

It reminds me that sometimes it just takes something little to distract us from our purpose- to Glorify Him. Other times, a traumatic accident or sickness takes the life of someone you love, and you are swept up in the emotion of why God let this happen.  I expect small distractions to take my focus. Some are short lived and I make adjustments, others are so subtle that I have gone for months or years without realizing that that particular thing was the source of the problem.  I expect that someday we will have those traumatic instances that bring us closer to the Cross.  This was one of those times that I was taken completely off-guard.  I wasn't aware of how my mind would handle the news about his eye, or that my heart would be so pierced by his pain.  I guess in a weird way, the Cross became more real to me this year, as I felt the pain Christ experienced in a more real way than ever before.  Physically, I ached for Snickers and the pain he was in that took away his happy self.  Spiritually, I ached for the Lord to be near.  Jesus cried out to God the Father, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34.  My pain will surely never be as great as what the Lord Jesus felt on that day, because we will never be forsaken.  Christ has sent us a Helper, the Holy Spirit, that we will never feel that emptiness of being forsaken by the Father if we are His.  It has given me greater insight and a deeper hunger for His Word.  For that I can be thankful.

John 14:16-20 " I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  After a little while the world we see Me no more, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."

James spilled almost an entire gallon of lemonade all over our kitchen floor this morning.  My first reaction was to get upset, because it was a HUGE mess.  There was lemonade in the cabinets and under the fridge, Dripping from the countertop.

He had disobeyed and I had to clean it up.

Isn't that what our Savior did for us?  We sin and He paid the Ultimate price.  It brings me to tears just thinking about how I got a little lesson in perspective today.  Our perspective must remain on the big picture- on Eternity. Our lives are not about this moment, this circumstance, this season in our life. Sure they are hard sometimes, but complaining or looking to the next season won't get us where He wants us to be. It is about bringing glory to HIM, and we can not achieve that in ourselves, but only in close communion with Him. The worries and distractions of this world just take our focus away from the Eternal.

Returning home from the True Woman conference last weekend has me thinking. I could have come back from a conference on Biblical Womanhood with a million different lessons, and somehow I'm sure that I still haven't processed it all. But the one that sticks out and keeps coming to mind is intentionality. How intentional am I? The Lord calls us to be intentional with everything we do from ministry at church, our ministry within our homes, and in the relationships we share with others- from those we know well ( and know us well) to the stranger that we meet at the grocery store to the homeless person that stops us on the street. What are our intentions to be? To bring absolute glory to HIM. To think with an Eternal perspective and act on those thoughts.

Two things Nancy Leigh Demoss said on the first night of the conference. She was speaking from Titus 2. So many times those verses are quoted to show what we should be as older and younger women, but this time, Nancy pointed out WHY. "The reality of the Gospel is lived out in our lives and in our relationships."
v. 5 "so that the word of God will not be dishonored."
v.8 "so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us."
v.10 "to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive"

WOW.

The second thing that really touched my heart: "All believers should be above reproach, distinctive, not because we purpose to be- but because the GOSPEL transforms." It never has been about us and what we can do. It is what HE can do through us. Will I be intentional about spending time with Him, so that my life will be transformed? Or will I waste the opportunity to live my life as an example of Christ to my children, to my neighbors, to my friends?

We finally took the plunge and bought what will hopefully be our main curriculum for the next 17 years. Sounds crazy? Not really. The curriculum we chose consists of 4 "years", that will increase in difficulty as we spiral through them. We kept coming back to Tapestry of Grace every time we took a step back and looked at other curriculums out there. I believe that it fits my philosophy of teaching in unit studies, and yet gives a very classical, challenging education academically. Most importantly it is wholly based on the Bible. Our first unit is on the Books of Moses, and for 9 weeks we'll be studying Egypt! I'm so excited about everything the children will learn academically through this curriculum, but most importantly, I'm excited about what God will show us about Himself through this series. If you'd like to learn more about Tapestry of Grace, you can check out their website: http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php

We're still using MathUSee www.mathusee.com for math, and we'll be using Apologia astronomy for Science https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1