The life of a stay at home homeschooling mom

I have exactly 26 minutes before Isaiah's piano practise starts.....


I have been reading this awesome book lent to me by "flowerlady" . It's called 'Home by Choice'. She was right, it has been very encouraging to me. There is such a battle for the mommy's these days. The media called it the "mommy wars" in the nineties. The well educated, ambitious moms were off to pursue their careers, while the women who were less fortunate had no choice, no ambitions, no goals, no joie de vie to leave the home. They were the ones that were usually unfulfilled, unhappy and depressed having to change poopy bums, make kraft dinner and sing ABC's with little people...
Not me. Even before I started this book (which was only a few days ago) I have been in such awe with my calling. I love my kids! I love that they are little people to talk with, share, grow and love with. I love watching how they learn, love eachother, and get to know God. I'm at a place where I actually crave to be with them. If I'm out shopping, or with family, at appoinments, I just want to go home so we can paint, read, listen to "jungle boogie"!! great CD by the way! LOL
I can't imagine missing these moments in their lives. When Noah plays his piano and glows after a song well done. When Isaiah puts her words together and reads, she gets so excited. When Faith (not yet 2) puts her laundry away, throws her diapers in the garbage without being told, helps wash the table after meals....it's priceless and I'm so grateful that God has blessed me to stay home!
I am not depressed, unfullfilled, or bored. I do not feel that there is some bigger greater life waiting out there for me. This is it! this is where I want to be. I see fruit in my kids everyday and I wouldn't miss that for the world!!
I want to make it very clear that this is NOT an attack on any working moms or anyone else for that matter. This is my story, for my home. So if you work, please, don't feel judged by me. I know that every family and circumstance is different. These are just our own personal convictions.
Noah and I are making our first lap book on wolves this week. Click here to find out what a lap book is. I'm very excited.
Well, I have 9 minutes left to gather my thoughts and get ready for an afternoon with my best friends. The little ones I disciple....

no time

no time....these days.
I have no time to blog. such a busy season for us.
that's it. gotta go cook for my kiddies again.
bath day
laundry day
school day
planning day
basement work day

when is the rest???

I will admit that even through the busy, I have a secret place. I need to go there a bit more often, but I have been getting there during the week. It's with my God and there is always peace and rest there.....

The pics are finally here!!!!

Christmas at my auntie's house....boxing day

I can't see the difference, can you see the difference???
Best sisters!
Take a stab as to why nin and I used to call her "granny with the cracks"....we still do!
My sister's wrist splint. Continue praying as the Lord leads
My uncle John needs constant reminding that he's 40!!!!!!!!!!
My son got a game boy.....sigh.....
New years eve!!! Uncle John bought fire works again. these ones, you had to hold! super fun!
I screamed the whole time.
The greatest babysitter in the whole world. She does crafts, cleans more than she needs to, and plays games with them....and not just wacthes TV and talk on the phone, (like I used to)
Faithfulness and I watching the fireworks.
Pretty good for our first homemade from scratch gingerbread house heh????
My white tree....I'm starting to feel alittle out of place, since it's still up, and still don't want to take it down. But people are reminding me that it's over!! it's just so beautiful.....
Our new school schedule, working well, having fun....this is only till noon, but it goes ALL the way down to bed. I can follow it quite rigidly up till 5 pm.
Color of our bathroom
Our new banister
color of our family room
The best for last.....color of Noah's new room!! slime green and baby blue!

Do not be decieved

God cannot be mocked
A man reaps what he sows. If he sows into the sinful nature, he will reap destruction
If he sows into the spirit, he will reap eternal life.

I had a dream last night. I had slept with a native man. From conception to birth is 9 months. So logically, if you truly did commit adultery, you would have 9 months to deal with it, get ready, repent, make right....but you may still reap a child that is not your husbands 9 months later...
In my dream I sowed into sin and immediately was faced with the concequences. I was in labor with Joe by my side, I realized that this may not be his baby! I had to confess it to him. I was so broken with the thought of having one of my children not joe's. the consequences of having a blended family can be very complicating....
At this point, I was reaping what I had sown.

I talked to God about this dream this morning. I could hear his spirit speaking to me about choices. Today, He led me to Galatians 9:6. DO NOT BE DECIEVED, GOD CANNOT BE MOCKED, A MAN WILL REAP WHAT HE SOWS.

There is no way around this. This truth, this part of God that speaks justice, love and discipline, is very comforting. It goes both ways. Good seed, bad seed. Sowing sparingly, sowing generously. Sowing cheerfully, sowing reluctantly. Sowing compulsivly, sowing with God's wisdom.
What does God want us to not be decieved about? That God cannot be mocked. You cannot live a secret life of sin and expect God be glorified. You will be humbled, your seed will bear ugly fruit. God will remain true and you will be a liar!
Satan wants us to think that when we sin, we will not reap anything. Or if he can't get that one past us, he'll try to tell you that the consequence is so far down the road that you may be able to steer clear, or fix it later...he'll tell you that you still have time before it gets too bad.

I got up this morning and Joe has been leading our kids in devotions since school started. He sat down and said, "okay kids, today we are going to learn that we reap what we sow!"
HMMMM....I love God's timing. I love how God does that.
For me, a huge trial hit. My son died. Grieving was now the road set before me. It's been super bumpy, hard and confusing. But this, I'm realizing doesn't need to be so. Grief does not mean your life turns into a big ball of sin. A ball of uncontrolled anger. A ball of eating out the fridge because "I'm grieving"
I have been struggling with giving into sin (emotional eating, anger, resentment, gossip, negative thoughts, expectations on certain people....)
A spiritual mother once came to me in tears last year to confront my gossip tendencies. She cried out of love that she didn't want me to reap what I'm sowing. But she knew that I would.

God has given me ALL grace to do All things at ALL times to do EVERY good work.
Do I believe that?
I do. I really do. But if I don't act on this abundance of free grace, then it is like I do not believe.
God has been faithful to pull me out of this muddy pit. I'm getting the big cleaning. And I'm forever grateful for the God that I serve. His love endures forever. It is unfailing. It's full of justice, discipline and the greatest desire for me to mature into the likeness of his son. A preacher said last week that He wants his son to get married. He needs to make me spotless, pure and holy....and I want to do that for Him. it's the least that I can do.

song in my heart today

You are all I need when I'm surrounded...
You are all I need when I'm by myself...
Fill me when I'm empty...
there is no one else...
You are all I need...

in my heart Psalm 139:6 continues to echo
Your Knowledge oh Lord is too WONDERFUL for me
too lofty for me to attain....

God knows all. While I'm trying to put words to my thoughts, God knows the whole heart-COMPLETELY.
I don't need to know why. I shouldn't know why. it's WAY higher than my humaness to understand. Trusting God is a walk by faith and not by sight thing. By faith, I want my walk to model this trust.
Death
Life
Sin
Past
Future
Money
Children
Family
Destiny......
God knows. And I can rest in that. I can trust that by following him and not always needing to know why is the walk he's called me to.

He is all I need

Still no pics......but they are coming

Even tho we've only had ONE day of school, I was very happy and relieved to start our routine again. It went really well.
I even took some pictures of our schedule on our wall to show you, but I can't get the pics off the card to the computer....agggghhhh, technology!
I had a pic of our tree, the new colors going up in our basement.....

Ryan is downstairs AGAIN, helping us....he is such a good friend. painting with Joe. I sooooo want to help and go down there, but I guess in this regard I feel stuck upstairs with the kids while Joe gets to have all the fun. Of course, when they were all doing hard labor, I was more than happy to be cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids upstairs. It's just all the fun colors are going up and I just can't leave them upstairs unattended for an hour or more.

I will have pics soon.
By the way, my new favorite movie is "cinderella man" with russell crowe.
It's not the boxing story that gets me. It's their marriage. It's how much respect she shows him, how much love he shows her. It takes place in the great depression and it challenges me to be grateful, and to be there for Joe no matter what. Our men thrive on us rooting them on, believeing in them, dreaming with them.....One line in the movie, she says to him, "you are the champion of my heart" That is my new thing that I've been saying in my spirit and in my heart to him.

Sorry for the lack of pics these days

I hope people still come read here even tho it's pretty much just text, no pics, no real color....

Today we saw happy feet. stuuuuupid. written by enviromentalists, made to make us feel guilty for eating fish and with major sex appeal for our young children. booo
read the reviews, but somehow missed that it would be bad...

tomorrow is our first day back at our homeschool! I'm very excited. I feel washed by God to start fresh and feel carried by God to make it through. He has restored my passion for home teaching and for thriving with my kids! I have redone my schedule to fit our new lives. Caleb is still on our schedule, I just couldn't take him off. But the rest of our blocks are redone.

I'm sad that the holidays are over already. mostly that I love the atmosphere of my white christmas tree and I don't want to take it down. I love sitting in my living room, sipping chamomile tea with my new addiction...glade scented candles. (those ones that turn into oil and fill the room with a beautiful aroma)

I have 7 or 8 weeks left until baby. Nesting is still always there, and I know my home isn't ready for our baby yet. I like to be ready by this time. crib up, clothes put in drawers....even tho babe sleeps with me for 4 months, it's funny that I want the crib up. I'm so thankful to my sis and bro that we can still use jonah's old crib.

Does anyone have a baby gate that they'd like to sell? we need one for our homeschool. Faith, bless her heart, loves to "get right in there" when the others are trying to work. Any homeschoolers out there with any ideas on what to do with toddlers while teaching?
Joe works evenings, so I have officially put him on the schedule while he's home in the mornings to take care of faith for some chunks of time so I can do my teaching. other than that, I have a couple of short "play dates" with each of her siblings and a trip in the tub to keep her occupied and happy.

So, I'm off to finish tweeking all what I need to do tomorrow. I guess public schooled kids are still off this week, but I just wanna get started since they've missed enough.

blessings.