Outta Here

Have you ever wanted to pack up everything and move?

Start a new life anywhere? All by yourself?

And I don't mean before you got married. I'm talking about since you had kids!

I have! Or should I say, I am.

Do you ever feel like you are the only one in your situation?

The only one with a kid as hard as yours? Or ever get tired of discipline, correction and training? I have! Or should I say, I am!

Ever look at the next 13 years and think, "Oh, my word! How am I going to make it?"

Yeah, me too.

I'm sure tomorrow I'll feel better. But today, the white flag is waving. The towel is sailing to the middle of the ring. Today, I'm crying, "Uncle! I give up! I'm done."

Today, I see no light.

Probably because I'm not looking to the Light.

"Take every thought captive..." comes to mind.
"Momentary affliction..."

Hmm.

My rational mind says, "Get a grip! This is nothing. Did you already forget your last post about people being tortured and dying for their faith? You think you have it tough? Suck it up, lady!"

Hmmm.

Well, I feel a little better now. Nothing like a good kick in the pants.

Persecution

There's been this recurring theme of stories that I've heard or read lately. They are all related to Christians being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. It started when I read the blog of a woman who met another mom at swim lessons. The other mom and her family had been forced to flee Uzbekistan because the dad was in trouble for preaching the Gospel.

Then, of course, having the Olympics in China prompted discussions of their laws and treatment of Christians.

This past Sunday, Pastor David told several stories about martyred Christians.

Monday, before naps, I asked Sweet Pea to get a book to read. We have a set of 5 books titled, "10 Boys Who...Didn't Give In, Made History, Used Their Talents, Made a Difference, Changed the World." Each book has 10 stories about different boys in history. The first story in the one she brought me was about Polycarp. This was one of the stories Pastor David had shared but somehow I had missed his name.

Finally last night, my mom was telling me about a missionary at their church Sunday night from China. He shared how only by God's grace had he escaped being caught.

I don't know why my attention has been brought to the persecuted church so much lately. But I wanted to recommend some reading that will change your life:

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

Jesus Freak - DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs

Also, http://www.wearethatfamily.com/2008/08/getting-to-know-persecuted-church-part.htmlily.com/2008/08/getting-to-know-persecuted-church-part.html - I don't know how to do those fancy links but this is the website of the woman who met the lady from Uzbekistan.

We think we have it so tough when our AC goes out or rain comes in our house. We as Americans, who can worship freely, know nothing of suffering! It's good to be reminded.

Olympics!

Saturday we had an Olympics day with the Fittros. Since it was raining, we moved our couches and chairs out of the way and used our family room as the arena. The kids competed in the Long Jump, Discus, Volleyball (teams of 2), Summersaults and Cartwheels, Mini-Trampoline and a Bean Bag Toss.

We had the best time.

It was a Fittro sweep for the Discus.

I think our favorite to watch was Volleyball. Lead Dog improvised and made a net. We used a balloon for the the ball. Sunshine and Little R were on a team but Sunshine lost interest and LR had to hold his own. He had been watching the US team play and learned a few things about spiking the ball. He was quite impressive. He won the Gold all on his own. Of course, Sunshine was all too happy to share in the prize.

Mommy, there's Water in the House!

Not something you want to hear! But Thursday, after 4 days of rain, Little R discovered that TS Fay was moving in with us.

I had sent him to do his afternoon chores - one of which is dusting downstairs. As he went around the dining room table, he announced, "Mommy, there's water in the house!"

Thankfully, the Lead Dog came home right away and the vacuuming began. I highly recommend if you live in this state, getting a steam vac. We've used it on our last 2 houses. That night we emptied the canister more than 11 times. I lost count the next day. The carpet was wet 5 feet from the wall. See how dirty the water is? That's how it came in!

There was also water coming in the living room windows and under the baseboard.

The Lead Dog's ready to seal up the wall, put down wood floors and get rid of the carpet. Unfortunately that would be ridiculously expensive and probably won't happen. Oh well. I just hope the smell of wet carpet goes away!

2nd 1st Annual Butterfly Day

(One of our black swallowtails)

I was in denial that TS Fay was going to force me to cancel my second butterfly day. I waited until Friday morning to email and call everyone to see if they still wanted to come out. It wasn't the rain that I was worried about, it was the flooded roads.

Some of the moms chose to postpone and will come out September 2. If my calculations are right I should have more butterflies that day.

But despite the rain, we still had 15 children and 5 moms come out. I actually forgot to take pictures for this one until Heather and her family were getting ready to leave. They obliged me and posed with their Life Cycle Craft.

1st Annual Butterfly Experience at the Wagners'

Today I hosted a little Butterfly Experience for some of my friends. We had 9 children (+ my 5) who participated. Friday, I am expecting 20 children (+ my 5) -- unless I pawn my little ones off on my sweet friend, Christie, down the street.










We started out with a cool craft (thanks to Rebecca G. for the idea) that showed the butterfly's life cycle. Sweet Pea, Little R and Handsome did a great job being in charge of a station at the craft table. I couldn't have done it without them.

Then, we were supposed to have story-time, but because I wanted to beat the rain, we did a little butterfly hunting in the woods.


Now, yesterday when I was out there, there were tons of butterflies fluttering around. But I guess because of the wind and soon coming rain, they had taken cover. We did get to see some host plants and caterpillars.















We also got to see a couple of my captive butteflies in the gazebo mating. I'm sure some of the mom's are excited about explaining that one!












After a little story time, we put our snack together (another great idea from Rebecca G.) and the kids ate on pretzels while I talked about the life cycle of the butterfly.












It was my first time doing something like this. I felt like I had so much to share but not enough time to get it all in. And I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with too much info. So I hope they walked away with a good experience. I hope the kids learned something new.


I mostly hope they remember what I said about having a God that loves them way more than butterflies and caterpillars. And how if He takes care of those little creatures, surely He will take care of His little ones who are created in His image.

Kids in Church

Stef had a great question about her Kindergartner who will soon be sitting in big church with her. So, I thought I would blog my advice to her:

I do not expect our kids to sit perfectly still. However, we did talk to them about the reason for sitting as still as possible (remembering their ages) and being quiet. And the reason is so they don't distract others who may not know about Jesus from hearing what the pastor is saying. So we show love to our neighbors in church by trying to be quiet and still.

I try to keep what I bring for them to do as simple as possible just because I don't like bringing a bunch of stuff with me. I also think it's not necessary to make the church service about how many activities they get to do. So we used to bring a spiral bound notebook and crayons. They always bring a Bible and we help them look up the Bible text if they want and need help, but we don't make it an issue of something they have to do. There are times that the kids look up the Scripture and sometimes they don't.

On a side note - during Bible-time every morning I have the kids look up the Scripture we're talking about to get them used to finding things in the Bible. I also have taught them the books of the Bible and we review them often.

We bring a simple, non-crumbling, snack for them to have between SS and church and always make them go to the bathroom before.

It does take some time of adjustment to be in church for that long of a time. We role-played and practiced at home what we expected - like how to stand for singing or reading the Bible. They don't have to sing but I encourage it.

This is a personal preference, but we don't let the kids sit between us. The Lead Dog and I like to sit together. So they can sit on either side of us.

I love having them in church wth us, though, because I get to snuggle with them and love on them.

Be sure to encourage and praise them when they do participate and are quiet - even if it's with a whisper and a squeeze in the middle of the service. But don't bribe them with treats afterwards if they do well. They should be doing what is right because it's right and it honors God and others, not because they get something for it.

Service

Matthew 20: 26b-28

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

This morning I talked to the kids about how Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. And He did this out of love for us. So if we want to be like Him, we should look for ways to serve others. I told them that in everything they do, they should look for ways to serve others. They can pick up after themselves so Mommy doesn't have to. They can surprise someone by making his or her bed. When they go to get a cup for themselves, get one for someone else.

Philippians 2:3-5

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

So the older boys surprised the youngest boy by making his bed for morning chores. Then later that morning all the boys made our bed.



For lunch the girls made mac and cheese with cut-up apples on the side for all of us. The boys set the table.
There were lots of little things that they did, too. And no matter how big or small, I made a big deal about it. I want them to know that showing love and kindness through serving others will receive much more praise and attention than a good score on a test or in a ball game.

I Think I Smell a Skunk!

My mom used to jokingly say, "You guys are going to drive me to drinking." Now that I'm a mom, I have thought the very same thing!

I have also, at times, blamed my children for the way I have acted toward them.

Today in class we watched the last video in the Love and Respect series by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. He talked about how conflict or life in general with our spouses does not cause us to be the way we are. Our spouses just reveal what we are inside. They expose our inner properties.

Let me explain. If you step on a rose and the aroma of the rose is released, you haven't caused the rose to smell like a rose. You just released what it is made of. The same with stepping on a skunk. It will stink, not because you stepped on it, but because of its inner properties.

In the same way, the scorching sun will melt butter yet harden clay. Same heat, different results. Why? Because of the properties of the butter and clay.

So when we react to our spouses, do we smell like a rose or a skunk?

Same with our children. When they "push our buttons", what aroma do we release?

Think of the skunk as our natural man and the rose as the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

(By the way, I highly recommend the Love and Respect video series! It will be taught again starting Sept. 6 in the Byrums' class, 9:45am, Sundays. Every couple should go through this at least once. Well, that is unless you're perfect. In which case, write a book and let me know when it's done. I'd love to read it, cause I'm so not perfect!)

Homeless

Yesterday we were making cookies for Christie to take downtown to feed the homeless with a group from church. When I explained to the kids what we were doing and why, they started asking questions. Questions about why the people didn't have homes, stuff like that. Then Handsome says, "I know what we should do. We should make a check for $1,000 and take it to the bank and get the money. Then we can take it to them and they can buy a house and a job. Is that a good idea?"

If it was just that easy, right?

The group meets every Thursday night. They feed 50-70 homeless people and then give a message. If you want to help out making food or going to minister, let me know. We're hoping to go as a family sometime soon.

Matthew 25: 34-40 Jesus' words:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"

Got Caterpillars?

We do!! I have 70 monarch caterpillars crawling around in our aquarium (in addition to 40+ eggs and babies that are still outside). I have about 25 black swallowtails, 13 zebra longwings, and a few gulf fritillaries and queens.

I need your thoughts/feedback/help. (This is an invitation for anyone who reads this) I have been thinking of having a science time where your kids could come and learn everything they ever wanted to know about these caterpillars and butterflies. When you leave you could take some of the seeds for the plants that the monarchs and queens eat and that attract many other butterflies - start your own butterfly garden.

OR

You could adopt a caterpillar (or more) if you want to watch at home the whole process of it becoming a butterfly. You would just have to find a good-sized milkweed plant for it to eat.

Let me know which you would be more interested in. I'm trying to figure out a way to feed these things.

My Little Mary

Whenever the kids have anything draped over their heads, they call themselves "Mary." Here's our littlest Mary with her favorite pink blanket.

Patience of Job

Forget the "patience of Job"! It should be the "patience of Mrs. Duggar".

Check out this clip...

http://health.discovery.com/beyond/?playerId=219475126&categoryId=219535198&lineupId=769921206&titleId=1618633062

Letting Loose

According to the KONOS lady at the homeschool convention, I'm one of "those mom's". What she meant was, I'm boring and uncreative. Well, it's kind of true - although, I bet if she knew I was a snake handler, she'd change her tune.

But I digress!

What was my point? Oh, yes! Tonight the kids were playing in the front yard with this sprinkler ball that my mom gave them. You hook up a hose and water sprays in all directions out of the ball. The kids were jumping over and running under the long streams of water shooting out of it. I was sitting there watching them and thinking, "I should just run over there and jump in with them." I often think these kinds of things but usually don't act on them.

Tonight I did. Fully clothed, I ran into the line-up of children running in a circle around this ball. If they didn't have such young, strong hearts, they may have had heart attacks.

But it was so fun! And I knew I scored major brownie points.

Amazing Grace

When did salvation become so complicated? The girls and I were talking this weekend about how to know when your child is ready to "get saved." Hubby and I went through this when the boys were wanting to get baptized. Our questioning came when we weren't sure if they would be able to answer the church leader's questions correctly. So it got me thinking.

Let's say you live in a place that has no churches and you've never even heard of God or Jesus. One day someone drops a Bible in your lap. If you simply read it (never having heard things like "the sinner's prayer" or “ask Jesus into your heart” or “pray to receive Christ”) what would you do to have eternal life?

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:14-18 (emphasis mine)

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Let’s go to a conventional church setting…A person walks the aisle and talks with a pastor. The pastor leads this person in the “sinner’s prayer”. Does the prayer save that person? Or was the person saved before he/she even took the first step toward the altar? That person believes the message of the gospel in his/her heart. The step and the prayer are works. Works don’t save us. Works are a product of our salvation. Works are a result of a love for God and a desire to please Him.

Galatians 2:16
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 10:9-13
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

We’ve made salvation complicated to fit our standards of protocol. So that we can look back and say, “Oh yes, on this day and at this place, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me.”

Eternal life (salvation) is based on faith in Jesus Christ who was sinless yet humbly gave His life to be mercilessly taken to pay the penalty for our sins.

So where does that leave us when it comes to our children? Romans 10:14-15 says, But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

We need to tell them of the gracious, unrelenting love of the Savior and their need for Him.

Luke 18:17
[Jesus said,] “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Weekend Away

Tiffanie invited some of us homeschooling moms to a weekend away at the beach. She thought it would be a great time of planning and getting focused and ready for the new school year. She was right! It was awesome.

Tiffanie, Edie, Heather and I spent Friday night through Sunday afternoon hanging out, getting to know each other better, planning, playing Sequence (I have to brag that Heather and I kicked butt! - Sorry if any of your children read that), hanging out at the beach and staying up way too late. What a diverse group of backgrounds and personalities were represented. I love every one of them and loved every minute of our time together.

Thanks, Tiff, for hosting this weekend! Hubby said, "Now you have to plan a mid-year weekend." I said, "Actually, Tiffanie's already working on it." So I'm in!!

How It Went...

So last week (Mon-Fri) we had no TV, Computer, Toys or Library Books. What did we do, you ask? Well I told the kids fasting would give us more time to read our Bibles and Bible stories. To which Handsome replied, "Morning, noon and night." I told him that was a great idea. So we had our normal morning Bible time then at noon before naps, we had another one and again at night before bedtime. Most of the noon Bible time consisted of reading Little Pilgrim's Progress. If you haven't read it, it's a must! We couldn't put it down and read throughout the day so that we were 3/4 of the way through by Friday.

We played cards and boardgames together. I had paper and colored pencils sitting out and they drew and traced. We had play-dates Wed and Thurs. We played in the backyard a few nights after supper. They reenacted parts of Narnia and set up a store in the guest room with stuff around the house.

Monday was the hardest day for me. I was a little cranky by the evening. The kids did great. Sweet Pea said she thought it was going to be boring but it wasn't at all. By Wed I was disappointed that we only had 2 more days.

I was better able to focus on little, yet nagging, areas of training that needed attention because we were all together so much. We are home all the time but if I'm on the computer or doing my own things here or there in the house, I miss a lot. Last week, I spent time on the basics that needed to be done around the house and spent more time playing. I've got to figure out how to schedule more of that in when school starts.

Our verses ended up being Ephesians 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

I mentioned to Hubby that if it worked out on the calendar, I'd love to do this every 7th week - kind of a week of rest. We'll see.

Fasting

We talked with the kids tonight about fasting. We told them ordinarily when you fast, you give up food. And the purpose is to help you focus on God. We're not giving up food but we are all fasting this week from TV, computer and toys.

We're going to focus on God by spending more time in His Word, by working on our mouths (if you know what I mean), by being responsible to pick up after ourselves, and by being thankful for all that we have.

It will be interesting. I'm excited about what God is going to show us.

Dinner For Two

One afternoon, Little R asked me not to come in the office. A little while later he asked if we could eat dinner upstairs. I wanted to say no because I could just see all the food scattered from the kitchen to the playroom table. But I said I'd think about it. Later I told him to ask Daddy. He said it was okay. After an hour and a half of secrecy and lots of trips from the kitchen, Daddy was home. Sweet Pea showed up all dressed and told us they were ready when we were. So I put on a dress and heals and she escorted us to the boys' room where the door was closed.

When she opened it, this is what we saw:

The room was decorated with streamers, and a sign that said, "You are The Best."

They had the table set for two with salad, name cards and menus. They served us leftover pasta, chips and pretzels and soda. Dessert was the best, though. All on their own, they made Starbucks Java Chip ice cream milkshakes!

They had their dinner in the office and checked on us from time to time to see how we were doing.

We gave them a nice big tip and told them it was the best restaurant we had ever eaten at.

Update on My Parents

They changed their checking account numbers and added alerts to them, but somehow the jerks (as I affectionately call them) tried to take out another $1,600. The teller asked for ID and they sent in Mom's credit card and DL. When the teller told them they would need to come inside, they sped off!

Waiting to hear more from the bank as far as surveillance goes.