Bathroom Project Finished

Well, we've finally finished our bathroom.  We are so tired.  We plan to take a break from projects for a while.
  Next weekend, we hope to go on a backpacking trip--just one night.  I hope that will be a good break for us because after that, we'll have to get started on the next project: the boys' room.
 

Answer to prayer

Well, the problem isn't exactly fixed, but it is far enough along that I could shout and cry "Thank You.  Thank You so much, dear, dear God Who Hears."  Since I hardly ever cry, I take notice of when I almost do.
  Almost cried today when the insurance guy said he could probably help us out some.  I almost cried the other day when the tile guy said "This can be fixed."  I almost cried when Greg said, "ok. Let's call someone to come over and help us clean this mess up."  I almost cried when Mercy Me sang "God With Us".  Oh and I almost cried during The Ultimate Gift movie, but that's another story.

So now the clean up has begun.  It has been a prayer concern deeply embedded in nightly fears when I've heard my daughter's asthma cough and when I've had sinus headaches.  These may not be symptoms of having mold in the house; I don't know, but that has been my concern.  People have told me this and that, giving me wise advice I'm sure.  I just couldn't make it happen; it had to be from the Lord Himself, His own timing, and His own speaking to Greg.

I'm just completely thankful that we've started on our newest project.  Hopefully, it won't be that long, but it looks like it will involve a complete bathroom remodel of our bathroom (we did the kids' last year) and a remodel of the boys' room.  We have already torn out the shower tiles and backerboard.  Next is the wall behind that.  Then we'll check the wall and studs between the bathroom and the boys' room.  We'll need to tear out the carpet in their room.  Get that bleached out and dried out, then we can fix all that.  We'll also have to paint both rooms.  It's a lot of work, but at least it is underway.

Oh, and Christmas giving is severely diminished unless you can give us paint or paint supplies.  :)

Institute for Excellence

So I've been watching these DVDs about how to teach composition.
After watching them, I'm not sure I'm a very good writer myself. I feel very ill-equipped to handle this co-op class. I might could do this with my own children, but other homeschool moms are putting their children in my care for an hour and a half a week for me to oversee their 7th-9th grader succeed in writing. AAHAHAH.... I sure hope I can do this. At first I was confident enough and was thinking, "The Lord will help me." Now, I'm only thinking, "Please, Please Help. Help. Help. Please. What have I gotten myself into??"
Pros: The program itself is great. I think the children will be successful right away. I enjoy children in this age group, and I feel pretty sure I can encourage them to do well.
Cons: I can't close my eyes and remember everything from the DVDs on how to teach this. I don't believe I can recite or come up with on-the-fly strong verbs and cool adverbs and different adjectives to help the children out. My thoughts are not that organized which would help in my writing as well as helping the children to get through their own writing. Also, I'm not confident with this age group about where goofing around is ok and when it is not. My past failures don't seem to want to release their hold on me. It's been 12 years. *sigh*
We will see how this goes. May the Lord be with me. May I be up to the challenge.

summer

As the celebration of America's Independence draws closer, somehow I am humbled by the freedoms we have and the people who have been used by God to accomplish this.
Maybe it is the reading of American History to the children this summer that has caused me to think about this. Maybe it is the "current economic times" that have turned my thoughts towards my blessings. Perhaps it is getting ready for another year of schooling at home and talking with moms of preschoolers about the wonderful benefits of homeschooling that have so impressed me about our heritage.
I'm very excited about what the '09-'10 year will bring and somewhat apprehensive. There is a mixture of "what if"s that swirl around in my mind. What if we don't have enough to pay the bills? What if they take homeschooling away and force our children to go to school? What if I don't know anyone who will share food with our family if we become needy? What if we are persecuted because we love God even to the point of taking away food or family members? What if this is the last year on the earth as it looks now? What if I get to personally witness the return of our Lord?
Instead of worry, there is prayer. Instead of money, there is family. Instead of fear, there is Refuge.
During the Great Awakening, Edwards spoke of a God that was angry and the people accepted and wept over the grace of God. Out of these people that had a love and fear of God, America was formed. God sets up kings and deposes them. It is all in the Hands of God.

added a new poll

I've added a new poll to my blog. It is about what state should we visit next year for our anniversary. I gotta start planning now.

My lesson from Psalm

I read this last night and really wanted to type it out.

Psalm 119:49-64

Zayin

Remember your promise to me; it is my only hope.
Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles.

The proud hold me in utter contempt, but I do not turn away from your instructions.
I meditate on your age-old regulations; O Lord, they comfort me.

I become furious with the wicked, because they reject your instructions.
Your decrees have been the theme of my songs wherever I have lived.

I reflect at night on who you are, O Lord; therefore, I obey your instructions.
This is how I spend my life: obeying your commandments.

Heth

Lord, You are mine! I promise to obey Your words!
With all my heart I want Your blessings. Be merciful as You promised.

I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow Your laws.
I will hurry, without delay, to obey Your commands.

Evil people try to drag me into sin, but I am firmly anchored to Your instructions.
I rise at midnight to thank You for Your just regulations.

I am a friend to anyone who fears You--anyone who obeys Your commandments.
O Lord, Your unfailing love fills the earth; teach me Your decrees.

James 3

Reading with Children during Bible time
James 3 My own green thoughts.

My friends, we should not all try to become teachers.
Hm, that's weird. Am I doing the wrong thing--teaching my children? (nah.)
In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others.
Great.
All of us do many wrong things.
No kidding.
But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.
There's my problem.

By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions.
Think: Kentucky Derby
It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction. Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things.
Yes, I'm so guilty.
It takes only a spark to start a forest fire. The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself.
Hell. Not good.
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures (critters--if from the South) can be tamed and have been tamed.
Check out the Little Rock Zoo sometime.
But our tongues get out of control. Thy are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.
This is not good. I would like to change. I've always had trouble here.

My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses.
Isn't this so true for me??
We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this is not right.
It is so not right. I need help.
Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring?
Hot Springs.
Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?
NO

Are any of you wise or sensible?
I think so.
Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do.
Then I guess I'm not so wise or sensible.
But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth.
Ok, I'll try. I hope I haven't done that.
That kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things.
Hm, what kind of trouble have a caused for the children? I need some forgiveness.
But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere.
Yep, this is what I'm missing. I need Godly Wisdom especially in dealing with the children.
When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.
Oh I want to do that.

Psalm 97

The Bible Reading from the One Year Bible--April 27.

Psalm 97:1-98:9

The Lord is King!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the farthest coastlands be glad.

Dark Clouds surround Him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Fire spreads ahead of Him and burns up all His foes.

His lightning flashes out across the world.
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim His righteousness; every nation sees His glory.
Those who worship idols are disgraced--
all who brag about their worthless gods--for every god must bow to Him.

Jerusalem has heard and rejoiced, and all the town of Judah are glad because of Your justice, O Lord!
For You, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects the lives of His godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.
Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.
May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord and praise His holy name!

SING a new song to the Lord, for He has done wonderful deeds.
His right hand has won a mighty victory; His holy arm has shown His saving power!
The Lord has announced His victory and has revealed His righteousness to every nation!

He has remembered His promise to love and be faithful to Israel.
The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy!
Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song,
with trumpets and the sound of the ram's horn.
Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!

Let the sea and everything in it shout His praise!
Let the earth and all living things join in.
Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!
Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord.

For the Lord is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with fairness.

33 Miles

I had some thoughts on the song by 33 miles. While One Life to Love is not my favorite song, I got to thinking about the words in the chorus. They are:

You only get just one time around, you only get one shot at this
One chance to find out the one thing that you don’t wanna miss
One day when it’s all said and done I hope you see that it was enough
This one ride, one try, one life to love

Not many people ask me why I homeschool. Sometimes I wish they would. This song really hit me that the main reason I homeschool is because I only have one shot with my kids. I don't want to wish that I didn't spend enough time with them when it's all said and done.
I have gotten the feeling that folks think, "but why? when trained teachers can do it for you. Why? when you already pay taxes for the public schools. Why? when it's all set up for you and so easy to do. Why? when your child is obviously a social person."
Don't you see.... I would miss out on the very thing that I don't want to miss. Them--their life. When it is time for them to go, I hope I'll be happy to see them off. I'm not afraid of them being out in the world. I'm not afraid if they had to go to school. I'm not afraid that they might hear bad words or if their "friends" make fun or hurt their feelings. I'm only afraid if I look back and realize it wasn't enough.

and the search goes on.

Since October, we've been looking for a vehicle. In November, the bathtub faucet broke, and the fallout from that was an entire bathroom redo. We just finished that. Now our search intensifies.
Our "dream" vehicle is a Sequoia. Why? It's built well and holds enough people and pulls enough weight. It is also out of our price range.
The other choices are Pathfinder, Armada, and Pilot. Each of these has at least one thing that we wish it did or didn't have. Now everyone does something different and no one can make our decision for us. So many things to think about:
**do we get what we want, have it a long time, and stretch out huge payments f.o.r.e.v.e.r....
** do we get one less seat and lose the ability to carry both mom and dad when visiting
** do we get one that can't pull as much while we're trying to get to CA or later when we're camping
** do we get one that doesn't have the 4x4 whenever we're going over the ice and snow to get to CA and later when we want to go on a waterfall hunt
** do we care about mpg and luggage capacity.
** what if we really both don't like white and that's the only color we EVER find.
** should we care about "looks"--will people think such 'n such about us if we get one kind of car over another
** should we look for a miracle, wait for a miracle, or just go ahead and get something that seems like the right deal

It's almost too much to think about.
I really want this ordeal to be over so that I can pack or think about what we're going to bring and where we will put it. I want to stop driving down the road and saying, "There's a Tahoe, there's a Sequoia, there's a Pathfinder."
I was afraid to drive the Sequoia today because of hopefulness. It's a little like dating. You go around town wondering who looks the best. Then you see someone you like and have the courage to make a date. Then you go out with someone for a test drive and your emotions get all out of order and you think "Is this the one? It handles well. Torque is cool." If the offer isn't just so, then "no" right? Well, what if the salesperson is REALLY good and convinces you this is the best deal. Are you strong enough to walk away?
Marriage is much better. The payments are incredibly difficult at first. You really have to work at it. Then you get it paid off--it's yours. But you still don't treat it ill. You take care of it. Regular maintenance. Sometimes major surgery. It might be easier to go out and get a new one, but what would that solve?

1st support group meeting

Tonight held the first meeting this year for Parent/Teacher Meetings.
We had an ice storm warning come out about an hour before our meeting was to start. Since I live only 2 or 3 blocks from our meeting place, I decided to go ahead with the meeting. I had about 3 people call saying they couldn't come because they lived too far and in this weather it's a little dangerous. We did have 3 other moms beside myself that came. These moms also lived very close to the meeting place. We just had time to pray and they told us they were closing because of the weather. When I got home, I had 2 different emails saying they were going to try, but because of the weather, they didn't.
While it seems like it was as much of a failure as a meeting could be, it actually was very encouraging to get so many moms saying they had planned to come. There would have been at least 9 there. Wow. That seems like a good turn out for our group.
I'll try again next month. Hopefully folks will still be in the mood and have the evening available. I hope it is an encouragement to them. That's my main objective in having yet another meeting. I hope it will be worth their time.

Planning for long trip

Well, today we got Ashley's wedding invite in the mail today. I wonder if I HAVE to RSVP if I'm in the wedding and we're all traveling there. I suppose for etiquette sake I should.
Today, I've started a table in Pages to keep track of what we all are going to bring.
At this point I have everyone bringing a suitcase for use in CA, a travel duffle for the days on the road, and a "to do" bag for, well, for things to do on the trip. So far, the bags all equal 18. 18 bags! That's not including a make-up box, diaper bag, purse, etc. We're also planning to bring a tent, 6 sleeping bags, and a box of camping gear.
This brings me to my next point: we need a vehicle and a trailer. So in every free time (which--thanks, Greg, I'm wanting to look at that blasted "facebook" all day long :) we have to be searching the car sales for a car we're looking for and hopefully someone out there has a covered trailer for us to borrow or we can find one real cheap. It's very nerve-racking and patience-testing.
That brings me to my next point: a point of frustration has come up in the bathroom. We are so close to being done, yet the baseboard and quarter round won't cooperate. Should we use the bathtub or not with the caulking not complete and glue not dry? Makes us all very tense and frustrated.
So in all this, Greg brought up the fact that we've got to get the tree limbs trimmed before spring, which would be before we leave for CA. And we better clean out the garage or all the sawdust from the bathroom work will cause trouble, beside the fact that we won't be able to find the supplies we need to go to CA (like the tent). AND We only have a month. AHHAHAHAH. It's too much, it seems.

Facebook now

Guess what? I finally gave in and am doing the "facebook" thing.
So today it looks like I've got all kinds of friends.

I guess I do. I guess I don't normally think about them all at the same time though.