Family of 6

Friday, September 2, 2011

Happy 12th Birthday, Magdeline!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Encouragement for the new school year from Deborah, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Senior Editor

"New school year? What new school year? Oh, is that what we are supposed to be doing?" Like me, maybe you find yourself lacking motivation for this new school year.

I have so much I want to do and share with my children and yet lack either the time or motivation or energy to do it all or fit it all in. That's when I know I need to cry out to the Lord.

"I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me." Psalm 57:2

God will perform all things for me. All things? Wow. And the kicker is, He often wants to perform those things through me.

"For it is God that is at work in me both to will and to do His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13

So, I guess it's ME that's the problem in this equation. I want to do everything I want to do and nothing God wants me to do. I know that if I seek His kingdom first, everything else will fall into place. This is why I desperately need Him. I need to get back to first things first and then the rest will come into order.

What should be first? When Jesus questioned Peter about his love for Him, he told Peter three important things: Love me, keep my commandments, and feed my sheep. How hard can that be? I say I have the Lord first in my homeschool, but do I really? I recently had to change my schedule to reflect that. I now have morning devotions first thing by myself, and then with my children, before any schoolwork.

Now my part is being obedient to what He gives me the desire to do and then make it happen. We want immediate, complete, and cheerful obedience from our children, yet lack the wherewithal to give the same to the Lord ourselves. It's a wonderful thing that His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

Are you feeling confident about this new school year? You can have confidence that you are doing the right thing if you are doing the important eternal things, and that God will be in you to perform it.

"For in Him we live, and move, and have our being . . ." Acts 17:28

"Be confident of this very thing: that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

We desperately need to pull our hearts back in line, so that we not only honor God with our mouths, but in daily reality with our lives and homeschools as well. We want to teach the fear of the Lord, not just the precepts of men.

"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men . . ." Isaiah 29:13

My new goals for this year: Love God with all I've got, keep His commands, and feed His sheep!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Ponderings...and 2 Peter

I realized I haven't written a lot in a long time. I have the thoughts and desire...often thinking, "I should write that in my blog." But alas, often I don't find the extra scrap of time. And...I'm always in pain. My knee is hurting badly. It has been off and on for longer than the 4 months since I had surgery. In fact, I can't remember the last time it didn't hurt. I think I was able to walk almost with pain at some point in my life...but it's hard to recollect at the moment. Yesterday the Lord gave me such a great passage of Scripture. There I was, waiting for Hanna and Maggie to audition for the orchestra, and I opened my Bible somewhat randomly. It opened to 2 Peter and I read verses 3-4:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Chew on that for a while! His divine power (and I had already intended to start a study on the Holy Spirit this week) had given me EVERYTHING...He called me to his own glory and excellence...He's given me great and precious promises...I may partake in the divine nature...I have escaped from the corruption because of sinful desire. I was greatly encouraged. I can only praise God that he continues to lavish Himself, His power, His glory and excellence, His divine nature, His righteousness, on ME...a sinful wretch, a total mess, nobody of any consequence except by His grace and mercy. Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). He who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)! His divine power has given us everything for life and godliness!

Firefighter Trey...and in a pot...and Firefighter Lily

Our friend, Jeff, came over and dubbed Trey "Junior Fireman!"

Such a silly boy--here is Trey in a big pot on a hot day!

Lily also tried on the hat!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Maggie's Candy Birthday

Maggie enjoyed having a candy/ice cream sundaes birthday celebration.

Everyone came up with their own lollipop designs and wrote "sweet" letters to Maggie using as many sweet words and candy names as possible.

We played suction M&Ms.

Ellen and Lily enjoyed their ice cream sundaes.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

August Friends

We enjoyed a visit from the Chows: Chi Wah, Lisa, Alexander, Daniel, Eden, and Miriam. It was great to get to know them and visit some local sights.

Bryce and Trey (or at least I did) enjoy dressing alike!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

New Jersey 2011

We landed in PA and saw this beautiful sky.

We got to go blueberry picking. They were so big and so delicious!!! I like picking/eating...eat some more/pick some more.

All these for $11.

Lily went in the sprinklers at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Time to color

I made blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream--delicious! Everyone had purple tongues so we had a great laugh.

We love Grandpa and Grandma.

The kids wanted me to take their photo on the stairs by our condo.

Grandpa and Grandma thought their grandkids are pretty funny!

The beach was one block away and we went in the morning and afternoon...and sometimes again in the evening.

Sand is grand! And so are jellies.

Grandma helped Carl count, add, and subtract.

Everyone came over for dinner--Carol and I went shopping and cooked up a delicious pasta with meatballs, garlic bread, and salad dinner. Uncle Steve and Aunt Cathy joined us.