Church?

I'm posting a link to an article sent to me by our friend, Jay Mitchell, who is starting a church in the Greenville, SC area. It pierced my heart, and I'd love to hear what some of my blog readers think. So, I found the article online and am posting the link here. The article is by Francis Chan and is entitled A Gathering Force.

My New Theme Song

I LOVE this song, and the chorus is SO good that I've made it my new theme song. I'm putting the words to the chorus below the video. You'll have to go forward to about 1:14 for the beginning of the music.



CHORUS:
I've gotta couple dents in my fender
Gotta couple rips in my jeans
Try to fit the pieces together
But perfection is my enemy
And on my own I'm so clumsy
But on Your shoulders I can see
I'm free to be me

Blog Award

I was blessed with this award by my friend Michelle whose blog is lovely and deserving. It's funny. We were first irl friends through our church and homeschool group in Florida, but I feel like I know Michelle much better now (she moved to north GA and we're url friends) through reading her blog. It's one of my favorites. Now, I am to pass this award on to 7 others, and that's a tough one. I peruse many blogs. Some I mainly look at the pictures and skip the writing, but there are others that I get so much from so often that I must read every word! I'm listing these in no particular order.

1) DeEtta - I've known DeEtta through a homeschool email loop for 10 years now! I finally got to meet her in person this past April. Her words both on the loop and on her blog are so often an encouragement and a challenge to me. She shares about her life as the wife of an AF chaplain and the mom of 9 children (3 of whom are grown and living outside their home now). She is REAL! That is the best thing about her.

2) Danielle - Like Michelle, I knew Danielle in real life first, getting to know her through her sister-in-law whose husband has cut our hair for YEARS. Their family became good friends of ours, and I first met Danielle at their house. Then our relationship grew when we volunteered at a church together for awhile. I've gotten to know her better through her blog. She is a relatively new homeschool mom with lots of wisdom from her counseling practice and her life experience. Her blog is always a thoughtful read that makes me think.

3) Dorothy - Dorothy is another friend from my homeschool loop who lives in England. I learn so much from her blog as she lives her life as the mom of a teenage daughter who has high-functioning austism and a teenage son as well. She is another woman who is unafraid to share her struggles with her readers. Her writing is also very witty and usually good for a much-needed laugh.

4) Jodi in NH - Jodi is another friend from the loop, and she is a relaxed homeschooler. She does all sorts of fun projects with her kids, and I read her blog with envy! :) I am not a project person!

5) Kristine - Kristine is another friend from the loop. She and I have similar curriculum tastes, so I often get good ideas from. Kristine lives in rural Virginia and always has her camera with her, so she has beautiful pictures on her blog.

6) Debbie - I have enjoyed reading Debbie's blog this year. She is a mom of 5 adopted kiddos in two sets, one older and one younger. She shares honestly about the challenges of parenting, especially with a husband who is gone for work quite a bit. She is a great homemaker, too, always having a sewing project or a quilt or something like this going.

7) Julie - Julie is a friend from my local homeschool group. I have enjoyed getting to know her in person as well as on her blog. She decided to start a blog after reading mine! I feel like a parent. It is fun to watch her baby growing up.

Word of the Year

Well, I have been putting off this post. I don't like my own posts without pictures. I don't consider myself to be much of a writer. But I wanted to post on my word of the year since I did it last year for the first time. I got this idea from Becky Moews, an e-devotions writer at the Church @ the Springs and a real-life person I really look up to as someone who's ahead of me on the path of life in relation to her children's ages, etc. She has asked God for a word to use each year rather than making a list of New Year's resolutions for four or five years now. Several of my url friends have done this already this year. Some mentioned getting the idea last year from Ali Edwards (I think). I actually have no idea who that is, and I'm not sure she asks God for a word. I think she chooses something she'd like to focus on herself, but I can't swear to this because (as I said) I have no idea who she is! :)

Anyway, last year I felt God telling me to focus on "rest". I didn't a very competent job of it, so God decided to take over. Ha! Isn't that just like him? Last year, I suffered terribly from exhaustion (which I'm finding was due to my thyroid issues), but still I struggled on, refusing to slow down or rest. Then, I began having problems with plantar fasciitis in my left foot (just about 5 months after finally getting over this same thing in my right foot). I simply am unable to stand for very long at this point. This began to slow me down and force me to at least sit down, even if I didn't rest much! Finally, God took us through a situation that made us reconsider our involvement with our church. Well, when you take out the hours of driving back and forth 2-3 times a week (the church is 1 hour from our house) as well as the many hours spent serving in 2-4 services each weekend, you have more time to rest. I NEVER would have chosen to go through the circumstances that I did. In fact, we couldn't believe we were going through something like this again, but God used it to create more time for rest in my life.

This year, I heard a word immediately. Last year, I struggled between two. This year, my word is relationship. In this technology-driven age, I struggle with not letting the computer (bills, lesson plans, digital scrapbooking, as well as url friendships) take the place of actually living life face to face with the people God has blessed me with - first of all my husband, then my children, and then my live-and-in-person friends. I have become more and more aware of this lately, and I believe God was preparing me to focus on this word for 2009.

So, there you have it--my n0t-very-well-written, no-picture post on the word of the year. I can check it off my to-do list!

No Pictures but a Prayer

I have a few pictures to post, but I'm on the wrong computer!  I did want to tell you about a God thing today.  I read the Living Proof Ministries blog pretty frequently.  Beth Moore and her daughters write this blog.  Today I was reading a post Beth made last night (I believe).  At the end, she asked for prayer for herself and the ladies she is ministering to this week in New England.  Then, she said, I'll pray for you, too.  Here is what she wrote:

My faithful Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Ruler of Land and Sea, I lift Your elect to You. I pray this week for You to grant them clarity in a very specific area where they are confused and not sure what to do next. As You said through Your prophet Ezekiel, You have put Your Spirit in them and You will MOVE them to follow Your will. Remind them that they are not stuck. Not without choices. Not without leadership. Whisper in each ear, "this is the way, walk ye in it." Cause them - and me - to cease beating on doors that are closed and walk through the one that You Yourself left open even if it's not our personal favorite Door #1. Bring confessions to their lips - and mine - of Your gracious providence and Your worthiness to be trusted and praised. Tend to their hearts. Where they feel battered and bruised but too busy to stop long enough to be healed, hem them in Your faithful hands, hold them still, and rejoice over them with singing. Tell them again how You love them. How You've called them. How You don't make mistakes. Grant them - and me - spirits of wisdom and revelation that we may know You better and recognize You when we bump smack into Your Presence. And more than anything else, circumcise our hearts to love You and to love that frustrating person in our lives as we love ourselves. Teach us what the Apostle Paul meant when he told the Galatians that all that matters is faith expressing itself in love. We want to be Godly women, Lord. We cry out to You for help. We cry out to You for You. 

In the saving, delivering, empowering Name of Jesus, 
Amen 

Can I just tell you how this spoke to me this morning?  It was exactly what I needed to have prayed over me, exactly what the cry of my heart was!  Isn't God awesome?  You can read Beth's blog here.  Also, you can watch many teaching sessions Beth recorded for Life Today here.

What's Up?

Well, I've decided I need to spend a little more time keeping my blog updated. I like Facebook for keeping up with what my local friends are doing in little snippets of time without having to read long paragraphs. However, it's not a great way for my family members and homeschool loop members to keep up with the details of our lives, pictures, etc. We had a family meeting about fall activities today and how to get it all done. One of the things we've decided to simplify this year is Christmas cards. For years I've written and published a newsletter. For the last two years, we did a fun Christmas quiz. However, these are a LOT of work on me. Most of the information in the newsletter is stuff I wrote about in detail on my blog. So, I found this place where we can order Christmas postcards, put a picture on the front and a message on the back. I can even upload my address book and they'll print those on the cards, too. Much less time consuming. I plan to refer everyone to my blog on the card. This way it won't be a long, boring newsletter filled with old information for our local friends and family who already know what we're doing.

Not much exciting has been happening here this month. In September, we attended an event at the boys' Civil Air Patrol squadron. An artist had given them a new painting he did after 9/11 called Wings of Freedom. Gerren was promoted to Cadet Airman and Landon had his Cadet Honor Society induction announced to all present. Here is a scrapbook page I made of the event for Landon's album. This is a Smilebox layout, by the way.



It's been an emotionally tough month for me because of some half-truths told to manipulate me by a leader of a ministry I'm involved with. The funny thing is that, even though I have told details of this situation to almost no one, many others at church have noticed that I've been hurt and have been an incredible source of love and encouragement to me. What a dichotomy!

We've been running around like crazy trying to deal with medical issues this month, too. My left foot is really bothering me now that the right foot is better, of course! I really believe this plantar fasciitis is exacerbated by my thyroid issues. Anyway, I've been running to the chiropactor 1-2 times a week for this. It helped my right foot immensely, but I'm not getting any relief for the left one. Chase had 2 baby teeth pulled last week (under anesthesia) to prepare for braces which both she and Gerren have put on October 20. I have been referred to an endocrinologist probably to have a fine needle biopsy of a thyroid nodule I have which has grown in the past 6 years. I am being torn between traditional and alternative methods of dealing with my thyroid. I would have thrown over the traditional methods long ago if it wasn't for this nodule. So, it is a source of worry.

Of course, all these medical issues bring a big financial burden, too. We really like our insurance policy/HSA. However, all these expenses are just too much for any family to bear at one time. We're only allowed by law to put $5800/year in our HSA. This is $483/month and $330/month of that goes automatically to braces. $153/month isn't much for a family of 6 for medical, dental, and vision care. We were putting $416/month and basically spending all of that before orthodontics. Help, Lord!

Well, that's the nitty gritty update for now. I will try to take some pictures and get more regular about posting again!

Scrapbooking

I managed to find a little bit of time this weekend to play with my relatively new Storybook Creator Plus, a digital scrapbooking program from Creative Memories. So, I'm going to try to post the layouts I created here.

This is a miscellaneous August page.


This is a two-page spread from our timeshare week.


I've used mostly pre-made pages and then made a few changes. I'm pretty happy with the ease of the program and can't wait to get some pages printed to see how they look.

What Year Do You Belong in?

I found this fun quiz on Kristine's blog!

You Belong in 1982

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

To All the Moms!

Blogging or Facebook?

I have been drawn into the world of Facebook through the worship team at my church. There are things I LOVE about Facebook. It is easy to find friends from the past by searching on the year you graduated from high school or college or an organization you belong to.  It's easy to put short, snippets of what's happening in our lives.  This appeals to me because I'm not much of a writer.  I don't think I'm extremely articulate in writing, so I hate the pressure to say something well.  It's fun to read a little bit of what's going on in my friends' lives without it taking as long as it does to read blog posts.

There are also things I don't like about Facebook.  I don't like pieces of flair, muppets, lil' green things, etc., etc., etc.   Sometimes I think Facebook is almost like stalking someone, and I wonder why people want to tell every tiny detail of their lives to others.  

I've been thinking about the reason I started this blog (perhaps I should call it the "excuse I gave myself for spending more time on the computer").  It was to take the place of the journals I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to keep for my children over the years.  I decided to replace 4 journals with 1 blog.  So, I have been copying my blog into a Word document monthly so that someday my kids can print it out if they choose to.

Now, the problem is that there has been a lot of overlap in the things I'm doing on the computer and the ways I'm recording memories.  This summer I took the plunge into digital scrapbooking.  Loving it, but it requires more time at the computer.  So easy to copy pages, though.  However, when I post something on my blog, I usually include pictures, too.  It's easy to put "photo albums" on my Facebook page, too.  I don't need to do all these things, and there's a lot of overlap in what I'm doing.

So... here's is what I've decided.  I will be drastically cutting back on the pictures I put on my blog.  I'm taking my blog back to its original purpose, a journal of our daily lives.  I may put a copy of a digital scrapbook page that I do on the blog as separate posts.  That'll be fast and easy and I won't have to copy that page into the Word document.  I'll be able to posts pictures and snippets on my Facebook page pretty quickly. 

I'm hoping this will cut back on my computer time.  I have four children!  I need to get off the computer and on with life.  :)

I Will Survive!

This video is dedicated to all my homeschool friends out there, some of the most incredible women I've ever met!

Drowning in a Sea of Work!

It seems so long since I've blogged after the every-day blogging I did on our trip out West. I have been busy, as usual. School is in full swing now. We did a rolling start this year, and it worked much better.

Landon is studying Pre-Calculus, Chemistry, Church History, Latin II, and Literature. As well as doing some test preparation studies and his Civil Air Patrol work, which I count as Aerospace Science. We've discussed how this will probably be his last year to do math and science at home. It just doesn't make sense. He will probably dual-enroll at CFCC next year in those areas. He's already CLEPped 2 history courses, and we'll try to do the same with the English Composition stuff.

Gerren is taking Chemistry and Church History with Landon. Although he's only part way through Algebra I, we felt he needed to be challenged. He's also taking English I, Literature, and Test Prep (slightly different than Landon's). He's continuing drum lessons and doing an introductory Latin course as well. He's technically in 8th grade, but is doing mostly 9th grade work.

Chase is studying the second half of American history and all the general education subjects that come with 5th grade. She has been working diligently and finishing everything by 1:30 or 2:00. She is continuing guitar lessons and piano and is quite gifted at making up her own music.

I have been attempting to keep it all together while feeling exhausted all the time. God finally hit me over the head with a 2x4 during my quiet time this summer, and I realized that this was exactly how I felt 5 years ago when my thyroid began acting up. So, I've had a ton of bloodwork and a thyroid ultrasound done and am waiting to hear what is going on when I go in this Friday. I am praying for answers as I don't think I can continue at this pace much longer. I go through most days feeling like I've taken too much cold medicine. My head is in a fog.

I have done a very tiny bit of exploring with my new camera and have taken a few pictures. Greg found me an online tutorial, but I haven't been able to look at that yet.

I am slowly but surely reading Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier and One-Minute Answers to Skeptics' Top 40 Questions by Charlie Campbell. Last night I started The Shack by William P. Young. I've given up on keeping my Library Thing current, and I don't even read as much as many others I know!

Here are the few pics taken with my new camera:

A Very Superior Wife

I saw this test on my friend Dorothy's blog. Too funny!

92 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I would have made a great wife in the 30's... by today's standards, who knows? At least I don't wear my stockings with the seam crooked. That counts if I never wear stockings, right? LOL! You get counted off for wearing pajamas instead of a nightgown. I didn't say I wear pajamas since I usually wear a nightshirt which is LIKE a nightgown, right? This test was FUNNY! (I can't figure out how to change the font color, but if you move your cursor in the box under where it says "Very Superior" it will highlight the "Take the Test" link. It's in a beige color on a white background and doesn't show up.)

Too Busy to Blog?

Since it's summer, I should have all this extra time to blog, right? Ha! We are still working on school. We're done with some things, but all the stuff that has 180 days (mainly Sonlight stuff) won't be done until July. I am thinking I'll just begin the next levels then, so we'll have some breathing room next year.

I've also been working on some "big" projects that require more time. I've been catching up on my scrapbooks. I've been learning a lot about digital scrapbooking from my SHS sisters, and I am ready to take the plunge as soon as I finish the pages for which I have already printed out pictures. I'm getting close to that point. I plan to create 12x12 digital pages, then have them printed like a huge photograph to put in my existing Creative Memories albums. That way, I can still do regular 3D pages when the need arises (like studio pictures on the kids' birthdays) and when I choose. I am seeing the advantage to digital, though. Yesterday, I was scrapping the Spring 2008 page in all four kids' albums. I had purchase a Spring Page Palettes kit from Creative Memories. However, there wasn't enough of one particular thing to do four identical pages. So, I had to come up with two different designs. With digital pages, that wouldn't be a problem. I could just swap out the photos for each child's book.

Here's one of my first Smilebox creations. I intend to save up and have a bunch of these printed at once.



I am also busy in the middle of evaluation season. I used to do one evaluation each afternoon. This took up our whole summer last year. This year I decided to try something different. I am doing 2 evaluation days each month. I scheduled the evaluations one after another. I had my first day this past week, and I liked it. It seems like it is going to be a good thing for our family.

I am also in the middle of planning for next year's school. I just placed my curriculum order today. Now, I will start writing course descriptions (high school courses only), making new schedules for each child, planning any new curriculum, etc. There's a lot of work involved in all of this, but it makes the school year much easier!

Here's a picture of Chase and Carys all dressed up before Chase's choir concert. The girls choir is under the direction of my longtime friend, Laurie Dodd. They were fabulous! Greg took some pictures of the concert, but... well, Greg took the pictures. Two of them were fuzzy and the other had all the girls looking like aliens with white eyes. Oh well!



Finally, I have to include this video of Carys spinning. It's so funny! Whenever we hold up the camera, she says "cheese" and then wants to immediately "see cute?" which means look at the screen of the digital camera. This doesn't work for a video. It was all Landon could do to get her to keep spinning while he filmed!

Psalm 39

I read this Psalm in the New Living Translation Friday, and this part really spoke to me.

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you. Rescue me from my rebellion. (vs. 4-8a)

Well, I am not heaping up any wealth, but I am doing a lot of busy rushing and sometimes a little rebellion, too. "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be!"

Happy Easter!

He is risen! He is risen indeed! I love this song which we performed at church for all six Easter services this weekend.

Where Has the Week Gone?

I can't believe it's been a week since I last blogged. Where has the time gone? Well, Friday was lost in the blur of a migraine for me. It's not often that I get one (once every 2-3 months), but when I do, wowza! Chase was so great and helped me so much that day.

That morning Landon was complaining that his jaws hurt. I could barely see through the fog of pain and told him it was probably his eustachian tubes that were clogged up from the 5 days of awful congestion he'd had. That night when I was functioning again, he complained again and asked me to feel his jaws. I didn't need to do that. When I looked at him directly, I could see that the right side of his face was grossly swollen. No wonder it hurt. We spent Saturday morning in the walk-in clinic to find out that he has parotitis, which is an infection of the parotid gland. This is his 3rd course of antibiotics in 2 months. His tonsils are swollen and seem to be a petri dish for bacteria growth. We had a consultation with an ENT who said they were enlarged but not grossly so, and it was pretty much a matter of his comfort whether we wanted to take them out or not. I guess we're going to choose that option before he becomes resistant to antibiotics!

Oh yes, when I went to fill Landon's prescription, I had them refill my Imitrex as I had taken the last one. The last time I had this refilled (10/06) the cost was $99 for 9 pills. Seventeen months later and a different insurance policy (we now have a BCBS HSA rather than Medical Savings Insurance HSA), the cost was $189 for 9 pills. That's enough to give anyone a migraine. Our wonderful local pharmacy, Brashear's, suggested that I get just 3 at a time since I take them so infrequently anyway. $189! Can you believe that?

Oh, here's a picture of my little fashion queen in her sister's jacket.

How Many of Me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

This was really neat, but the funny thing is that I know another Linda Meahl. Greg's cousin also married a "Linda" and we are both Linda Meahl living in the same town! She is a realtor, and every once in a while I will get calls for her!

Trip Planning

It's been almost a week since a blog post. Nothing much new but so many hectic little details to take care of which are keeping me busy. Every year I do testing for our homeschool group. Today is the deadline for registration forms and checks to be in my hot little hand. So far, I've had 3 people come to my house, and I don't think it's over yet. Sigh!

Well, I am in the midst of planning an 18-day road trip along the southern border of the US for the kids and me in April. Alas, Greg cannot get that kind of time off of work. He will be flying out to meet us in Phoenix and visiting the Grand Canyon with us, but that's about it. We are going to be visiting tons of friends and family along the way and hitting many historical sites as well. I am really feeling the pressure of time with Landon. He has 3 more years of high school left after this year, and there's so much we haven't done yet! To my friends with little ones, TIME FLIES!

Some of the places we plan to visit are:

The Naval Aviation Museum (Pensacola, FL)


The Alamo (San Antonio, TX)


The Voyage Church (Gilbert, AZ)

The Grand Canyon (AZ)


Frontiers of Flight Museum (as well as lots of other places and family and friends in Dallas, TX)



Vicksburg National Military Park (Vicksburg, MS)


These are our main interests and stops. We'll be stopping several other places coming and going and seeing whatever there is to see in those places as long as our energy holds up. We're so excited!

Book Tag

Dorothy tagged me for this and I decided I'd better hurry up and post something or everyone whose blog I read will have already been tagged!

Here are the rules:

~Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more
~Open the book to page 123 and find sentence number 5.
~Post the next 3 sentences
~Tag 5 people.

The nearest book to me is one I've actually read just for myself (GASP!) and is entitled Playing for Pizza by one of my favorite authors, John Grisham.

Here's the required quote:

...On Sunday night she gets booed by the beasts at Teatro Regio, and tonight she's having an ugly spat with her man.
Rick couldn't keep his eyes away from her.

...

He was learning.

Doesn't that make you want to read this book? LOL!

And now I tag:

Kathy

Emily

Lisa

Michelle

Cynthia