This year has been a year of entertaining strangers. We have hosted an author and her husband. Yesterday I lead a team that hosted 3000 RAGBRAI riders as they rode through our town. We hosted our pen pals from Minneapolis whom we had only met one of them one time! Each opportunity we have to meet new and exciting people, we have taken this year and it has been good for us. There is a whole wide world of interesting people around, why not get to know them? In each instance we were able to visit and show hospitality and generally love people whom we may not have ever come into contact with. Each time we have been given greater opportunities to connect well (or to continue connecting), and even opportunities to try new things or travel ourselves to new places.
I used to think I could only meet interesting people while travelling, but now I see that there are interesting people all over, including close to home.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Review of 4 years
This is my review time. Tonight as I lay down next to my daughter putting her to bed, I was amazed at the fact that she was just 2 years old when I started homeschooling her oldest sister. How could 4 years be done so soon?! I remember how afraid I was to what God was calling me to do, and how I resisted the first year! Now, tonight, we ended our 4th year.
Now I stand on this side of the coin watching in anticipation as something great has happened in our family. We have become...a family! We are doing things together that I have always dreamed of! Like having the relationship with my girls to discuss the "hard stuff" as it comes up in conversation as we approach puberty and body issues and relationship worries, and working through things in our family dynamics that cause a hiccup every now and then.
As we speak my two oldest are sitting at the dining room table hanging on every word that my HUSBAND reads to them about a "gang" of kids in merry old England (The Secret Seven) solving crimes. This is big, considering my husband didn't like to read out-loud and couldn't concentrate when he was read to out-loud, but that has changed and he has grown in the last 4 years. We continue to visit with our neighbors and elderly acquaintances throughout the week to spread some cheer. And above all the habits we are creating and teaching our kids, they are learning of things near and far!
Isabel learned to read and tie her shoes in the same week! We celebrated with ice cream, of course!
We have learned multiplication tables, division rules and old kings of Europe. We learned about mammals of North America of all sizes and shapes, and have learned to dry brush them into our Nature Notebooks.
We have begun our timeline book! We have read fantastic books that are vital to my kids being able to live out adventures through mighty brave courageous heroes! We continually discuss faith, and hope, and love and what it looks like in our family, in our neighborhood, in our town, in our church, in our state and in our nation. This is an on-going discussion that delights my very soul.
We are watching opinions rise up and change before our eyes! Our girls are growing up into their own beautiful beings. They are responsible, caring, capable, smart, sweet, giggly little girls and I count myself
BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE.
I love to learn and teaching my girls is an excellent way for me to continue my love of learning! As these 4 years have changed our whole family we wouldn't trade it for the world! God has given us a beautiful network of friends who are at all stages of homeschooling, and encourage us when we are down and help us to work through our issues with school as they come up. I am so excited for the next couple of years as I move on towards secondary education in the high school years! In 7-8 years my oldest will be leaving Walnut Street School for the Big Wide World and I am glad to be able to give her the best start in life possible!
PGFWABF
Now I stand on this side of the coin watching in anticipation as something great has happened in our family. We have become...a family! We are doing things together that I have always dreamed of! Like having the relationship with my girls to discuss the "hard stuff" as it comes up in conversation as we approach puberty and body issues and relationship worries, and working through things in our family dynamics that cause a hiccup every now and then.
As we speak my two oldest are sitting at the dining room table hanging on every word that my HUSBAND reads to them about a "gang" of kids in merry old England (The Secret Seven) solving crimes. This is big, considering my husband didn't like to read out-loud and couldn't concentrate when he was read to out-loud, but that has changed and he has grown in the last 4 years. We continue to visit with our neighbors and elderly acquaintances throughout the week to spread some cheer. And above all the habits we are creating and teaching our kids, they are learning of things near and far!
Isabel learned to read and tie her shoes in the same week! We celebrated with ice cream, of course!
We have learned multiplication tables, division rules and old kings of Europe. We learned about mammals of North America of all sizes and shapes, and have learned to dry brush them into our Nature Notebooks.
We have begun our timeline book! We have read fantastic books that are vital to my kids being able to live out adventures through mighty brave courageous heroes! We continually discuss faith, and hope, and love and what it looks like in our family, in our neighborhood, in our town, in our church, in our state and in our nation. This is an on-going discussion that delights my very soul.
We are watching opinions rise up and change before our eyes! Our girls are growing up into their own beautiful beings. They are responsible, caring, capable, smart, sweet, giggly little girls and I count myself
BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE.
I love to learn and teaching my girls is an excellent way for me to continue my love of learning! As these 4 years have changed our whole family we wouldn't trade it for the world! God has given us a beautiful network of friends who are at all stages of homeschooling, and encourage us when we are down and help us to work through our issues with school as they come up. I am so excited for the next couple of years as I move on towards secondary education in the high school years! In 7-8 years my oldest will be leaving Walnut Street School for the Big Wide World and I am glad to be able to give her the best start in life possible!
PGFWABF
Monday, February 22, 2016
The Impossible and Holy
God is Sacred.
Worship is Sacred.
God's name is Sacred.
God's time is Sacred.
Family is Sacred.
Life is Sacred.
Sex is Sacred.
Ownership is Sacred.
Words are Sacred.
Your neighbor is Sacred.
Worship is Sacred.
God's name is Sacred.
God's time is Sacred.
Family is Sacred.
Life is Sacred.
Sex is Sacred.
Ownership is Sacred.
Words are Sacred.
Your neighbor is Sacred.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Country Churches
Where have all the COuntry Churches gone?
Where have all the Country Churches gone?
Those days of families and friends gathering to shout halleulujahs,
To meet each others dark days with prayers and tears and comfort,
To rejoice in births and deaths of saints, where have they gone?
Oh churches in small communities who are just playing church,
where are your saints? Where are those people coming out to ease pain with prayer,
with advice, with the blessed Word of our Beautiful Lord Almighty?
Where have they gone?
The confusion in our towns, our communities, our countryside,
is overwhelming and seemingly roaring against the quiet truth of God.
If we are living in a Mayberry of sorts, where are the real people?
The real Truth? The Real God? Who is the imposter who sits in His place?
Country Churches, rise up! Rise up and take what God has given you!
God gives a harvest to the ready and willing.
God gives fields of willing and broken and hurting whose hearts are ready to turn to God.
Country Churches take the lead!
You may sit alone on a hill in the countryside but God is for you!
God is calling the willing in heart to follow and obey in humbles submission!
Remember He Called You! To Seek Justice!
To Love Mercy! To Walk Humbly With Your Lord!
Where have all the Country Churches gone?
Those days of families and friends gathering to shout halleulujahs,
To meet each others dark days with prayers and tears and comfort,
To rejoice in births and deaths of saints, where have they gone?
Oh churches in small communities who are just playing church,
where are your saints? Where are those people coming out to ease pain with prayer,
with advice, with the blessed Word of our Beautiful Lord Almighty?
Where have they gone?
The confusion in our towns, our communities, our countryside,
is overwhelming and seemingly roaring against the quiet truth of God.
If we are living in a Mayberry of sorts, where are the real people?
The real Truth? The Real God? Who is the imposter who sits in His place?
Country Churches, rise up! Rise up and take what God has given you!
God gives a harvest to the ready and willing.
God gives fields of willing and broken and hurting whose hearts are ready to turn to God.
Country Churches take the lead!
You may sit alone on a hill in the countryside but God is for you!
God is calling the willing in heart to follow and obey in humbles submission!
Remember He Called You! To Seek Justice!
To Love Mercy! To Walk Humbly With Your Lord!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
