May Happenings

Sorry I have MIA. It has been quite busy around here, so it has been hard for me to get here very often. Here is a little update on what has been happening in our World.

Our 5th born and 2nd daughter celebrated her 14th Birthday. Victoria is beautiful and very sweet and sensitive. She loves all things girly. She also does not like to have her picture taken. This was the best picture I could get!

Happy Birthday Victoria!

The Hubby and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary. We have been through a lot together, but I am so grateful that God gave me this wonderful man to be by my side through all the ups and downs.

Twenty-six Years Ago

Taken about a year ago!

Rebekah and Victoria both participate in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz). I am so proud of all their hard work. Both of their teams went to the Regional Competition. At Regionals, Rebekah's team came in 4th. Victoria's team came in 7th. The top 5 teams are automatically qualified for Nationals. There is a certain number of teams that participate at Nationals. After all the Regional Competitions were over and some teams opted out of going to Nationals, more teams were invited. Victoria's team was one of them. So this year we have two quizzers going to Nationals.

This has been a bit of a challenge especially because the cost of going to Nationals has gone up quite a bit this year. We are hoping to do fundraisers to help offset the cost. If anyone knows of an effective way to raise money please let me know. I don't want to sell useless stuff to make a buck. I know I cannot afford to buy the stuff we all have bought to help someone out. Our group is working on doing a big yard sale and car wash.

I forgot to mention that I was able to travel with the girls to Regionals. This was my first trip with TBQ. I really enjoyed myself and hope that I get more opportunities to travel with them. It was fun being with my girls and also getting to know the others better as well. I believe it was a good break for me to be away from home for a few days. I felt a bit refreshed however exhausted (if that makes any sense) when I returned home.

My garden has been neglected so far this year. I planned on working on it this week. I still hope to get to it, but it is supposed to be hot all week long. High in the 80's. I am not a fan of the heat, but I really need to get things going. I should have made myself get out there when the weather was a bit cooler.

Last week we saw a beautiful rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but the second one was a little more faint.  It was raining and the sun was shining at the same time. It was quite interesting, I thought that it made for good conditions for a rainbow. A couple of minutes later Sammy looked out and saw it. Most of us went out to look at  it. It was only sprinkling at the time. Here is a picture. It doesn't do it justice one bit. You have to look closely to see the second one.

The children are working hard at their schoolwork in hopes of being done for the Summer. I too look forward to our Summer break! I think I look forward to it more than they do, but don't tell them that!

I really need to work on decluttering the house and reorganizing all of our school stuff. Sounds like I have a fun Summer planned ahead. It looks like our Summer will be very busy. Our church is doing 2 separate Musicals this year, so I will have 4 children in one for the 7-12 grades and 4 children in the other for K-6 grades. Their rehearsals are on different nights of the week. Yep, I think we are going to be a bit busy.

Well, that's all for now. Have a Happy Tuesday!

 

Discouraged But Hoping In The Lord!

Life takes so many twists and turns doesn't it? Without God in my life, I know that I would never make it.

I shared recently that I was dealing with some anger issues over Faith being gone. I wish I could report that everything was better, but it is pretty much the same. I also feel a bit discouraged with some things in my life.

After losing Faith, I have experienced different times that all of a sudden things just seem to get worse. It hits me like a ton of bricks. It just seems to come out of nowhere. Sometimes it last a few days, some times a few weeks.

School starting this year has been difficult. First of all, I really did not want to start, I am always really sad for summer to be over. Some of the children were excited to start and some of them were not quite as excited!

By the end of our first week, one by one, most of the children started coming down with something that resembles the flu. By the weekend, hubby and I were not feeling so well either. Fortunately I seem to have a milder version so I have been able to still function.

Today is the first day for most of the children to be back doing their schoolwork. I guess the beauty of homeschooling is that you can be flexible. I love that I do not have to wake up real early and get the children off to school. I actually enjoy having them all home with me(usually) and I would miss them terribly if I sent them off.

With that being said, I have lost my zeal for homeschooling. I believe we are called to do this and I want the passion back. I know God has called us to do this and I want to do it to the best of my ability for Him. Isn't that how we should approach everything we do?

Right now I am finding it hard to juggle everything that I need to do. I have 10 children ranging in age from 23 down to 4 with 10 unique sets of needs. I have a husband who needs me too. A house that needs to be cleaned and kept up. Meals that need to be fixed and the dishes cleaned. Mountains of laundry that need to be washed on a daily basis. I could go on and on!

I do have the children help with some of this, but somewhere along the way I have failed to continue to train them to do more. I am praying for God to show me how to train them better and how to reshape their attitudes. By the way, Hubby does help out a great deal, so I would never complain about that!

I feel that I need to do a better job at my alone time with the Lord. Right now I actually feel that I need to work overtime on making this happen. I am nothing without Him and I desperately need Him. I am not morning person, and I find it very difficult to get up early. When I do, I hardly know who I am, so it would be very hard for me to understand the scriptures. If I do not get up earlier than the children, then it is very difficult to get it done. They sure like to talk a lot!

This blog has been a great outlet for me and I have met a lot of great ladies here. I appreciate your friendships. Many of you have experienced loss also, so we share a common bond that many others do not understand. I would actually like to be able to post more often, but that seems to be difficult. My family takes priority over everything else, besides the Lord. I am not planning on going anywhere, but if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know that I am very busy with my family.

My prayer request would be that first God would heal the anger that I am having. Second, he would renew my passion for homeschooling and give me some new energy. Also that I can train the children better and that I can go to bed earlier and get up earlier and have my alone time with Him, alone! That I can get my priorities straight!

If you are a mom to many could you leave me a comment and share with me how you spend time with the Lord.

I would like to leave you with 2 scriptures that I have shared with you before, but they seem to be the theme of my life! They really minister to me.

Isaiah 40:31 (New International Version)
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (New International Version)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

 

A New Year

Each Fall at the start of a new school year, it seems like New Year's to me! Each child is starting a new grade and new books. We buy new supplies like pencils, notebooks, crayons, markers, and anything else they might need.

I was hoping to start school today, but that is not going to happen. We have been a bit busy and I do not have everything ready. Hopefully I can get things ready today and we can start tomorrow. The children are definitely ready! All of the school systems in our area have already started . The kids have run out of things to do, and I believe getting back to a more structured day will be welcome.

Matthew 11, Samuel 9, Anna 7, and Luke 5 participated in "Moses, The Musical" at our church this past weekend. They had presentations on Saturday and Sunday night. They are a bit worn out to say the least. The week before they had practice every evening. Then there were dress rehearsals Friday night and Saturday morning. They have worked so hard and did a wonderful job!

This is the third year in a row that our Children's Department at our Church has done a musical. Last year it was on Esther, and the year before it was on David. Our Children's Pastor is Young, Energetic and FULL of energy! These musicals are done with a bit of humor added to them. Our Children's Pastor writes these musicals along with a team of people, most of whom are his relatives. They are quite a talented group of people!

My five year old son, Luke, was a little shy participating. Once they started practicing in the auditorium, it was a bit difficult to get him to participate. We even resorted to bribing him, which didn't work very well. We did learn if we dropped him off and left him he ended up participating better. The first night of the presentation he ran right in and got his costume on and went right at it. The second night didn't go so well at first. There were numerous people who were trying to encourage him, but he wasn't having any of it. Time was running out and he was not budging.

All of the younger children were plagues. Luke was supposed to be a gnat. He really wanted to be a frog. So the first night he was a gnat and did a great job! Here he is as a gnat.

Luke is on the far right

So the second night when he wouldn't participate and everyone was trying to encourage him , I was talking to the lady in charge of costumes about how he wanted to be a frog. She said well, we have an extra frog costume so he could be one! She told the Children's Pastor and he told Luke he could be a frog. Well, that changed his mind really fast! Here is Luke as a frog.

I bet you didn't know that plagues could be so cute!

Matthew as Buffalo Bill posing with his little brother Micah

My beautiful daughter as a mean guard. This is the part she wanted!

Unfortunately I do not have a picture of Samuel. My pictures that I took during the play didn't turn out. After the play, he changed out of his costume before I could get his picture and he refused to put it back on. At least I do have him on video.


It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it, but is also nice for it to be over. We have to drive 45 minutes to get to church, so we have been racking up the mileage recently. Dinner time has been chaotic and most nights we had to eat sandwiches or something easy. I look forward to a more normal schedule this week!

Well, I better be off to work on getting things ready for school to begin! I have a lot to do, and I need to get the children to help get the house picked up and in some form of order! Sounds like a fun day planned, doesn't it?

Blessings,