We hung back up our bird feeder and refilled it. It had fallen down.
A few little repairs and we’re back to our bird watching from the front window.
It’s just plain lovely!
Wordless Wednesday: A Lot of This
It always starts like this
Then it quickly moves to this
this
this
and then this
Until this happens.
(Sigh) My climber.
She’s going to give me an early grave.
Losing
I absolutely LOVE this song. Now I’m one that can’t dance. And the bounce looks nothing but foolish running through my veins, but this song… oh people, this song puts a little rhythm in my step that I pray never leaves.
I do not believe that you can lose your salvation. You see, if you can lose your salvation that there is something out there stronger than Christ. If you can lose your salvation, then the cross did not overcome ALL. The Savior is not ALL-Sufficient if he cannot hold you for eternity through salvation. See where this poses a problem? Take it to Scripture, WHOLE Scripture, and decide for yourself.
That being said, there is a Daily, minutely, every second battle for our minds. We can either be focused on Christ OR ourselves. NOT BOTH. Oh, friends, this one is so hard. See, I want to glorify myself. That’s what the flesh does. It begs distraction from Christ. But the Spirit within us, oh that beautiful Spirit that Christ implanted within us when we fell to the very raw of ourselves begging for forgiveness of sin… that Spirit directs us to the Father. That He would receive glory from my words, my actions, my thoughts, and my everything.
It’s so easy to become tempted. Lead astray. And this song reminds me that it is a fight worth fighting, CONSTANTLY fighting. No, my salvation in Christ is not in question, but my fruitfulness in Christ IS constantly combatted. For if I can be distracted, hindered or swayed from walking a faithful walk in Christ, then through my testimony others can be equally turned off to Christ.
No, no one’s perfect, dear friends. But we can accomplish NOTHING of eternal value without showing up for the fight, armed in the Word.
So today. In this exact moment. I don’t want to lose my soul to this world’s distractions. Here on this side of the cross, I don’t want to gain this world’s values and lose my soul. MY SOUL!
We all have to come to that choice, be it here in this world or when we meet Christ face to face and have run out of time to choose. And it is my prayer that my life, my walk and my faith would push others to ponder Christ. And I pray lead them to His feet.
Please, Lord, in this moment and every moment help me. Please, help me to focus on your world view. Your eternal thoughts. And Your Kingdom above all that I see before me. It IS such a challenge that I will surely fail without falling at your feet. I must decrease that You may increase.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ec6xT9ixGE&oq=toby%20mac%20lose%20my%20soul%20lyrics&gs_l=youtube..0.5j0.285997.287458.0.289920.6.6.0.0.0.0.202.841.0j5j1.6.0.eytns%2Cpt%3D-30%2Cn%3D2%2Cui%3Dll.1.0.0…1ac.1.11.youtube.MM9bwLYCxFw]
Wet Concrete
We received word about the boys. We’re in full-blown reunification. This Saturday they will start Saturday visits for 4 hours at their home. The plan is to do that for 2 weeks, then bump it to 8 hour visits on Saturdays for two weeks, then over-night visits for 4 weeks and then they will move home for good.
There’s not a current court date set, so the time frame is a bit contingent upon that date. Hopefully that date can be set this week and then we will have a date “set in stone” for the boys’ return home, provided that the bottom doesn’t fall out on this case.
It’s a mixture of nerves and excitement here. “This is good for them”, “we tried to assume they wouldn’t stay”, and “we will all be fine” I have repeated in my head. And many times I even believe them. I think about how much calmer it has been around here with Big Guy at school and try to picture the beauty of that norm. I want that norm. But many times the uglier sides of this case refresh themselves in my mind. Who will these boys most likely become physically and mentally as a result of the family environment? And other statistics pop into my mind. I try to shake them, but sometimes they just hit my stomach.
I knew this would be a bit messy. Sin always is. And I can imagine it’s going to continue to get a bit messy as this family tries to mesh back together and forget that the good part of a year has been the byproduct of extreme brokenness. Their family needs to heal.
And so does ours.
I only briefly pictured them living here forever when others said it at the beginning of this case. But even that felt like playing dress-up. Wet concrete is so pliable.
And there are moments that a little hurt hits me as I put away the boys’ clothes or walk past their room.
Boys, I don’t know where you’re going to be. Or what you will become. And it’s hard to smile with you, sweet Big Guy, at your excitement of going home knowing what I know. And seeing the challenges before you. It’s hard to hold you, Little Man, as you struggle through the effects of visit knowing your life is just going to be hard. And we’re handing you over to that.
You were never ours to begin with.
But love still hurts.
We’ll just bring you to Jesus, on our knees… again and again.
He is more than enough in all of this.
Lord mold us.
We are moist and ready.
I trust the Potter’s Hand.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-W7Md6mv74]
Wordless Wednesday: Noted
Likes Jelly.
Noted.
The Medium of Homeschooling
We’re getting ready to start the homeschooling season again. We have taken the longest break ever from directed teaching due to the boys arrival being mashed in with summer. We moved from more focused academics to more play and discovery. But I have to be honest, I’m really excited to start back into a more directed study time.
Big Guy started school last week so that forced us to become more regulated and routined. Honestly, I am really happy about that. I love Big Guy, but the entire dynamic and hyperactivity level of this household takes a shift back into our discovery norms when he’s at school. Our days kind of slow down and become more natural feeling to me. It becomes less about burning a kid out and more about discovering our world together. I feel more calm because there are more opportunities for quiet in our household and for this introvert that is really important to me. Odd that four kids can feel quiet, but it really is true – especially during the babies’ morning naps. Things allot themselves more naturally to sit-down teaching in the morning and hands-on learning in the afternoon.
But one of the things I look most forward to during this school year is returning to reading. Reading a book on my own. Our missions reading before nap times. Oh our snuggling reading on the couch has stayed consistent throughout the summer, but just the calm of enjoying a good read – that I look forward to so much.
It was nearly impossible to instill missions reading over the summer, sadly. Big Guy’s attention span is very, very short. And reading to the girls before nap time always left Big Guy out since sitting in the hallway between the boys and girls’ rooms rocking my nurser created a very fussy nurser that I nearly had to yell over to read. Yeah… less calming.
Rachael actually leapt for joy when I returned to my rocking chair with a missions book in hand at nap time. “YEAH! Mommy’s going to read missions novels to us again!” She couldn’t contain herself. I love that she remembers that about me. I love that she, at such a young age, is already enjoying longer chapter books. And I have noticed that since I stopped reading to the girls at nap time, my Abi’s vocabulary hasn’t built as quickly… and her annunciation just flat-out needs work. Funny but reading aloud to her will help a lot with those things as she is more accustomed to broad vocabulary and listens to my sounding out foreign city names.
But really, even if it had no educational piece to it…. I just love sharing that time with them. I love talking about what God has done in and through people. I love learning, myself! And it’s also a helpful gauge for telling if Rachael is ready to transition from naps. If she can stay awake for the full chapter, then she may not need a nap that day. See, reading has MANY benefits. 😉
I’ve decided to begin homeschooling after Hannah’s first birthday. Summer has been a little hectic and draining, quite honestly, despite the large amount of fun as well. So I’d like to feel ready. I’d like to include Rachael and Abi in decorating the homeschool wall. I’d like to solicit their ownership of their portfolios this year, decorating the cover and putting the dividers in. I’d like to settle into a routine of reading and more consistent morning naps for the babies and in many ways healing from a wonderful, but long summer of greater demands on me for the enjoyment of the kids. I’d like to read ahead in our curriculum, get hyped up and have everything settled really nicely before day 1. And the beauty of homeschooling is… we can do that. We can afford to start our school year whenever we’re ready. Truly ready.
I love homeschooling. It’s a passion of mine. No it’s not for everyone. Yes, it’s draining, but the investment is really an utter delight. I LOVE sitting beside my children and soaking in their worlds. I love discovering life with them. I love hearing the Scriptures return without void. I love praying over their math problems, piano lessons, and puzzle play. I just love doing life with them. And I love knowing precisely what they are learning, from the books to the social interactions to the Scripture. No, it’s not for the purpose of controlling them. It’s for the purpose of training a child in the way they should go… that God would bless their paths to be more straight. I just love being a missionary to my kids. Oh and I pray that light would overcome their darkness, in turn allowing them to be light to the world and sisters in Christ.
So thanks be to God, for this season of preparation. Preparation of our minds and our hearts and our souls for all that He will teach us this year
through the medium of homeschooling.