So, I know it's been awhile, but I'm gonna pick up like I never stopped blogging for a month or more :) LOL
I've been listening to Mandisa!! Girl!! I LOVE her!! :) I love her music, I love her testimony, and I love what GOD is saying to my heart through her...
I was asked to "teach" our Devo group at church this week (13+ youth kids), and I am wondering if the Lord isn't leading me to share with them "True Beauty" & how we are not to be defined by anything other than Christ...Or maybe that's just the message He's been speaking to MY heart, especially the last few days...
Steve surprised me with Mandisa's new Freedom CD (it came in a box from Christianbook.com, and, yes, was addressed to him, but I *thought* I knew what was in there!! :)), then, yesterday, after a very tough day (Eli's teething...apparently he's getting a mouthful all at once!! UGH!!), he brought home her 1st CD that we didn't have, and I escaped to the shower with the CD player & CRANKED IT UP & cried & praised in the shower...I was a happier Mommy after I stepped out of the bathroom :)...
Anyways, there are other ways He's been speaking to me about "True Beauty" lately, too... Too many to count, though!! :)
On the homeschooling front, I have been devouring any kind of books that have the word "Homeshcool" in the title!! LOL I have a few homeschooling friends who are quick to tell me, "Seriously, it's not that big a deal!!" But, it's kinda like when you're pregnant for the first time, and you check out every pregnancy book that has ever been published, and maybe a few that haven't, and are just obsessed about being the "best" pregnant woman in the history of pregnant women...Until about the 2nd month, when the only thing that sounds appetizing is Taco Bell!! LOL
But, I am a perfectionist, and the perfectionist in me wants to know everything... And the "take it easy" side of me is saying, "Sesame Street is very educational...I wonder if that counts as Kindergarten?!?" LOL See? I'd LOVE to be somewhere in between...
All right, that's it for me, kids...I'm at the library today, and I can't share photos or anything, and it's almost time for Abbey to get out of storytime...
LOVE YOU ALL!! :)
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE LYNNE BIG GIRL!! :) I can't believe you're getting so big!! :)
Katie's birthday isn't actually until Monday, but I thought I'd go ahead & share that today while I had a minute!
3 years ago, I had a 2 year old!! Can you believe it? Abbey was a little princess & had everyone's undivided attention...then came Katie!! :)
3 years later, and they're bestest of friends...The older they get, the smaller their age-gap closes....It's so fun to see the 2 of them playing & making each other giggle....
Okay, better go...Just had to share that!! :)
Love you all!! :)
Katie's birthday isn't actually until Monday, but I thought I'd go ahead & share that today while I had a minute!
3 years ago, I had a 2 year old!! Can you believe it? Abbey was a little princess & had everyone's undivided attention...then came Katie!! :)
3 years later, and they're bestest of friends...The older they get, the smaller their age-gap closes....It's so fun to see the 2 of them playing & making each other giggle....
Okay, better go...Just had to share that!! :)
Love you all!! :)
Sunday, March 01, 2009
I'm Either Called or Insane...
That is a joke, of course!! :) LOL I feel confident (at this moment in time) about the decisions I've made for our future...Starting this fall...
First of all, I have decided to homeschool Abbey. I think in my heart I knew all along I would do it. I think that I wasn't totally honest with myself because of fear...lots of fear. I have a friend, though, who told me that I would not be a failure if it didn't work out, and that I won't scar her for life!! LOL So, we're "officially" taking the plunge.
That is a huge undertaking, especially since we want to do it mostly for free...that means lots of research & study time for Mommy, as well as Abbey...and it will only become more so the older she gets...
ANYWAYS...
Second is this...I plan on heading up our Awana program for the next school year. I have a bigger vision than just the Awana program itself. I would LOVE to expand into Family Ministry. Maybe this all sounds wierd to you all who are in a church that has these things in place, but I go to a church that does not. SO, here goes!! LOL
We had a huge problem with Awana in the past at our church. Poor leadership, and that leadership tended to focus on the incentives (the kids earn Awana Bucks and that equals prizes), and I guess they became so outlandishly ginormous, and the kids needed so many Awana bucks to buy these prizes, that turned into crazy memorization time, with little emphasis on LEARNING the verse, not just memorizing them. There are more issues, but they largely point back to leadership...The leader wanted to have a "bells & whistles" start, instead of starting small & growing from there.
Well, this cheapskate is all for Oriental Trading-type prizes, with maybe a few "big ticket" items being a lunch box or something like that...Maybe an Awana T-shirt, stuff like that that's not way over the top...
I will have a busy summer...
PRAYERS ARE NEEDED!! Not just for me, although, I will need plenty of them!! I would like to start recruiting teachers this summer (like July & August) so that we can start training & stuff in August. I'd also like to get the congregation to praying & understanding that it's not going to be as dramatic as it was...Learning scriptures are the key principle here, and that should stay the main principle (remind me of that when I'm worrying over which pencils to choose for the Awana store!! LOL).
The second phase to the vision (I sound like a villain giving away his "evil" plot!! LOL), is to get parents involved. A LOOOONG time ago I found these "family day" activities on children'sministry.com & filed them away for future reference...And have recently been thinking that now is the time...to get started...
So, quarterly, we're going to have a Family Day at church, with there being a main focus for parents to be encouraged & equipped to be examples & influence their children by their lives with Christ. That sounds all deep & heavy, but I can assure you that these principles are laced with LOTS of fun!! :) First would be a day about prayer!! There would be a workshop for parents, a seperate workshop for the kiddos, and then they would have free rein to explore different developmental stages & ideas of incorporating prayer into their familial lives (ie. what to pray about, from toddlers praying for their families while holding & looking at pictures of them, to a station set up with a TV newsreel loop & newspapers to open up dialoge with their teen children on praying for current events.) Families would have time to explore these different centers & then there would be lunch (of course, we're Baptists!! LOL) .
Again, PRAYERS, please? These are some big ideas, and I obviously won't be able to do everything by myself, so it will take a team of volunteers (can I just hope for positive-attituded ones?LOL) to carry everything through.
OK, love you all, and if you made it this far without skimming, thank you!! LOL :) I appreciate you wading through my craziness!! I needed to blog about it...
First of all, I have decided to homeschool Abbey. I think in my heart I knew all along I would do it. I think that I wasn't totally honest with myself because of fear...lots of fear. I have a friend, though, who told me that I would not be a failure if it didn't work out, and that I won't scar her for life!! LOL So, we're "officially" taking the plunge.
That is a huge undertaking, especially since we want to do it mostly for free...that means lots of research & study time for Mommy, as well as Abbey...and it will only become more so the older she gets...
ANYWAYS...
Second is this...I plan on heading up our Awana program for the next school year. I have a bigger vision than just the Awana program itself. I would LOVE to expand into Family Ministry. Maybe this all sounds wierd to you all who are in a church that has these things in place, but I go to a church that does not. SO, here goes!! LOL
We had a huge problem with Awana in the past at our church. Poor leadership, and that leadership tended to focus on the incentives (the kids earn Awana Bucks and that equals prizes), and I guess they became so outlandishly ginormous, and the kids needed so many Awana bucks to buy these prizes, that turned into crazy memorization time, with little emphasis on LEARNING the verse, not just memorizing them. There are more issues, but they largely point back to leadership...The leader wanted to have a "bells & whistles" start, instead of starting small & growing from there.
Well, this cheapskate is all for Oriental Trading-type prizes, with maybe a few "big ticket" items being a lunch box or something like that...Maybe an Awana T-shirt, stuff like that that's not way over the top...
I will have a busy summer...
PRAYERS ARE NEEDED!! Not just for me, although, I will need plenty of them!! I would like to start recruiting teachers this summer (like July & August) so that we can start training & stuff in August. I'd also like to get the congregation to praying & understanding that it's not going to be as dramatic as it was...Learning scriptures are the key principle here, and that should stay the main principle (remind me of that when I'm worrying over which pencils to choose for the Awana store!! LOL).
The second phase to the vision (I sound like a villain giving away his "evil" plot!! LOL), is to get parents involved. A LOOOONG time ago I found these "family day" activities on children'sministry.com & filed them away for future reference...And have recently been thinking that now is the time...to get started...
So, quarterly, we're going to have a Family Day at church, with there being a main focus for parents to be encouraged & equipped to be examples & influence their children by their lives with Christ. That sounds all deep & heavy, but I can assure you that these principles are laced with LOTS of fun!! :) First would be a day about prayer!! There would be a workshop for parents, a seperate workshop for the kiddos, and then they would have free rein to explore different developmental stages & ideas of incorporating prayer into their familial lives (ie. what to pray about, from toddlers praying for their families while holding & looking at pictures of them, to a station set up with a TV newsreel loop & newspapers to open up dialoge with their teen children on praying for current events.) Families would have time to explore these different centers & then there would be lunch (of course, we're Baptists!! LOL) .
Again, PRAYERS, please? These are some big ideas, and I obviously won't be able to do everything by myself, so it will take a team of volunteers (can I just hope for positive-attituded ones?LOL) to carry everything through.
OK, love you all, and if you made it this far without skimming, thank you!! LOL :) I appreciate you wading through my craziness!! I needed to blog about it...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Trying Not to Eat Everything in the House...
I just had a bad week...
We've been fighting THE COLD here...and I don't mean the weather...
Poor Eli & Abbey just got over stuff, and last week, about the middle (I've forgotten the days of the week, and am moving into where all the days kinda mush together...) Eli started coughing in the middle of the night...that barking/croup-like cough that scares me to death! Then, this weekend, Abbey started it.
The good news is that I think Eli's starting to get better, so that means Abbey will start getting better soon (although, she's older, and it doesn't seem to be hitting her as hard).
Between sleepless nights (I've been exhausted, just not able to sleep! ARGH!!), coughing/whining/grumpy babies, I about lost my mind last week...
Then I got a breather...the weekend...
Abbey stayed with Mammy & Papa (she was feeling OK), and Eli slept much better this past weekend (especially since Steve was here most of the weekend to help).
So there it is...I'm just hangin' in there, trying not to eat every scrap of food we have in the house out of stress & raging emotions...
Love you all!! :)
We've been fighting THE COLD here...and I don't mean the weather...
Poor Eli & Abbey just got over stuff, and last week, about the middle (I've forgotten the days of the week, and am moving into where all the days kinda mush together...) Eli started coughing in the middle of the night...that barking/croup-like cough that scares me to death! Then, this weekend, Abbey started it.
The good news is that I think Eli's starting to get better, so that means Abbey will start getting better soon (although, she's older, and it doesn't seem to be hitting her as hard).
Between sleepless nights (I've been exhausted, just not able to sleep! ARGH!!), coughing/whining/grumpy babies, I about lost my mind last week...
Then I got a breather...the weekend...
Abbey stayed with Mammy & Papa (she was feeling OK), and Eli slept much better this past weekend (especially since Steve was here most of the weekend to help).
So there it is...I'm just hangin' in there, trying not to eat every scrap of food we have in the house out of stress & raging emotions...
Love you all!! :)
Friday, February 13, 2009
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