First day of school

Here are my big guys on there first day of  school.... when they went to meet their teachers at the Charter school..... Wasn't it just yesterday that they were these tiny guys in my arms.... It really does go so fast.

Our school year has begun

We started our school year on Monday. Micah started Kindergarten and Ethan started first grade. My eager learner is Micah. He is starting way ahead of where Ethan started in K. He loves organization and patterns and orderly processes. Ethan just wants to "get 'er done". He works really fast and he's usually pretty accurate, he just doesn't want to waste time with the monotony of school. 

Micah wants to sit and take his time (usually) and he loves pouring over a maze or taking time to color a picture or making crafts etc. Since I am homeschooling both of them the major adjustment has been on my part. Trying to get myself organized enough to be able to devote adequate time to each.... It's been so fun to see them "get it" and understand a concept.

Anyway, we are a part of a homeschooling charter school and the boys met with their teachers yesterday and they are both the most wonderful ladies. The boys really love both of them, so we are in full swing. 

I am so blessed to be so fulfilled in getting to pour into my children and nurture them body, soul and spirit. Such a gift!

A bit o wisdom

I have heard that when you get a bee sting you  should take a penny and tape it to the sting and leave it for a while. The copper in the penny will pull stinger out and actually make the affected area feel much better.

So yesterday I had a chance to test this out. I was in the pool with the boys and I felt something on my back and went to brush it off and realized it was a bee and it got me just as I got him off of me. So I went and got my penny and taped it on and the pain stopped immediately and then I left it on for 15-20 minutes and then when I took it off the stinger was stuck right there to the middle of the penny!

Amazing. Just a handy bit of wisdom

A Snoodle Tale

Once again I have learned a valuable lesson about myself from...... VeggieTales. My son Micah would be so proud that his addiction has ministered to his mommy.

If you haven't watched the Veggie Tale called "A Snoodle Tale" I would highly recommend it. It starts out very silly with a great lesson about loving yourself in a parody on Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde (not as dark as the original story) then it kicks it into high silliness mode with the silly song about a couple of people and their SUV's..... Ethan's favorite silly song. But the last part of this episode is a touching story along the lines of Dr. Seuss that talk about a young snoodle that learns how to love himself while he lives in a society that is constantly reminding him how worthless and uninspiring his life is.

Everytime this young snoodle gets an "epiphany" about what he was created for he tries it out (flying, then he tries his hand at art, finally music) all of which he "fails" at miserably because he is a beginner. Instantly he is surrounded by older and "wiser" snoodles that tell him he failed and paint him a picture about his miserable failure that they stuff in his backpack and make him carry with him to remind him of his shortcomings so that he will be sure not to try that silly escapade again because it will most definitely turn out horribly.

I am an eternal optimist. I love living life out in the open. I love to be on stage. Out in the open, I don't mind people watching me...... when I succeed, when I do well. Lately however (the last 9 years or so) this whole "living life boldly in front of other people" hasn't worked so well. I say "Hey, look at me, watch me love Jesus and step out and He will heal me, you can live like this too"...... I get people's attention, they watch with excitement..... 11 months later the crowd is getting thin and most have lost hope, walking away quietly, dismissing me as a looney or stepping up to give me the advice that maybe I missed it and should just pack in the battle and quit living such a freaky existence. I feel like my backpack is full of painful reminders of how living life on the edge, loudly, boldly shouldn't be done because it makes other people uncomfortable.

So what is my job? My job is to empty out my backpack on a regular basis. The young snoodle in our story climbs a mountain thinking he is going to remove himself from society so that he doesn't have to be painfully reminded everytime he falls.... believe me, that thought has been tempting ;o)..... but instead to climbing up to the top and being alone he discovers that the creator himself lives at the top of the mountain. As they visit the creator helps the snoodle get rid of the pictures others have put in his pack to make it heavy and he replaces them with a picture that the creator himself has painted of who he has created the snoodle to be. Instead of weighing him down it sets him free to fly.....

So here I am, on my way to the top of the mountain. I find that I have to go there daily now because the longer this adventure takes, the more weighed down I feel, not because of Him, but because my expectation of how this adventure would pan out look totally different that what has really taken place. Today I feel like I just got to unpack my bag and I'm feeling amazingly lighter and free-er and more hopeful than ever before.

I'm grateful our creator hasn't created us and left us out there to just "spin" but He is wanting to be involved in our everyday life, loving him, letting Him love us. That is how I want to live.

cuteness

Just a couple of quick cute things our boys have said lately......

Daniel is in the middle of  an extended fast, it always tweaks the boys when daddy doesn't eat what they are eating, mostly because food is such  major focus for the boys and daddy loves to "feed" (pun intended) that focus...... Anyway, every night at dinner time I will pull down 3 plates intead of 4 and Micah always looks at them and says "is daddy still starving?"...... A very fitting thing to call it.

Last night as we were eating I was discussing with the boys the new schedule for our school year. One of the new things we will be doing is being involved in a co-op on Friday's with the homeschooling group. I was asking the boys which class they wanted to be involved in and as I described each they had various looks of interest or disinterest. Finally they decided they wanted to be a part of a bird class where they will be studying various birds, doing projects involving birds etc. When they had made their decision Micah looks up with bright eyes and said "Are we going to get to eat them when we are done?".......

Finally we have trained our boys to do the killing of the flies in our house, something they are very willing and capable of doing. Micah is especially eager and quite good at killing these pests, not only is he accurate with his aim, he is incredibly powerful with his swat resulting in quite a mess when he is done.... often he will run into the kitchen out of breath and ask excitedly "Mommy, quick, I need the fly whopper"...... if he doesn't get it fast enough he will go after it with his bare hand..... not a pretty sight.

Boys are so fun!

Do you like it?

New blog look...... you like? It's more me.... I'm finally getting this blog thing and learning how to make it my own. I also wanted you all to know I welcome comments. From those of you I have heard from I hear it's a little hard to comment. Let me know if that continues to be the case. Otherwise I continue to thank you all for keeping us in your lives.

Please pray for me as I get ready to begin schooling the boys again. This year it is both and I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed. Micah is very hungry to learn and it shows... he'll begin Kindergarten in a week and he couldn't be more excited. Ethan is not such a voracious learner, but he is still excited to start first grade in one week. Really looking forward to this new adventure... it seems like the one thing in our lives right now that is going well and that we feel we have some "control" over. We'll see how long that lasts......

Anniversaries

Today is my parents anniversary.... I wish I were a good enough daughter to be able to tell you exactly how many years they have been married, but I figure it's about 41 or 42......  Daniel and I are getting ready to celebrate 9 years and I as much as I love my husband and as well as I know him I look forward to knowing more, and more, the way I would know him after 40 years of marriage. I can't wait until I can say that I've been married to him longer than I haven't.

My parents love each other like few others I have seen. I have always been inspired by their love. They are more peaceful when they are together, they know that they complete each other and it shows when they are together. There are some couples who just get on each others nerves and you can tell they make everyone around them nervous or worse yet, miserable.... Thankfully that is NOT my parents. 

Dad and Mom have weathered so many storms in these 40+ years. The greatest storms have seemed to come in the last decade. The loss of parents, a battle with cancer, they have seen their children suffer illness but instead of fear they face each battle with the skill of trained warriors. They inspire each of us to be stronger, braver and better than we ever could be on our own without such inspiration. 

Their legacy includes 3 children who love the Lord with all their heart. 3 children who are all happily married, and serving the Lord alongside our spouses. And of course they are the very proud grandparents of 10 grandchildren, all of whom adore "Sabba and Safda" the Hebrew names for grandpa and grandma. They are also the spiritual parents and grandparents of dozens and dozens of others, the extent of their legacy they will not realize on this earth.

Happy anniversary Dad and Mom, I love you.

Weeds and Seeds

I am a frustrated gardener. I can't have house plants because it is dangerous for their health. I always kill them. My mom gave me a plant to take to college, you know, the kind that you "can't kill"..... yeah, that's right, I found a way! I had a plant that sat on my desk at work when I was in College and the janitor would come up to our office and look at my sorry plant and say, "Wow, I've never seen one of these look that bad"..... It really is a talent.

So I thought when we got our own home, our own backyard, I would try my hand at a garden. Perhaps outdoor plants would do better under my specialized care. Last year I had quite a garden. It wasn't spectacular, but for me it was quite and accomplishment. We actually ate the stuff that we grew and some of it tasted ok...... some of it didn't.  

One of the things I discovered about the ground in Santa Ynez is that it is unlike the ground in other places. It is rock hard! Even the "top soil" is just super hard. It is maddening. If you want a garden to thrive you have to own a rototiller or know someone who does and then put tons of topsoil on top of that. Unfortunately I don't own one nor do I know someone who does, so I do the best with what I've got, children and water. I send the kids out there to "dig" in the garden area and then we put water all over the ground and play in the mud, hoping that will stir and loosen things up.... unfortunately, when it dries it's just as hard as before.

So this year I was sailing on the success of last year and planted again. This time I guess I didn't plant deep enough. Our above ground pool flooded our lawn and garden a couple of times  and I guess washed away many of my seeds. The funny thing is I didn't know that so I just keep watering and waiting, watering and waiting, watering and wait.............. Finally I realized after about 3 weeks of nothing popping up that there was something wrong.

Then one day I started to see some green. I was so excited. Then I realized there was actually quite a lot of green. I was ecstatic..... So I watered all the more. Eventually the plants began to take shape but they didn't look like the leaves of a squash plant or the shoots of a pea plant or the furry leaves of a carrot...... I knew weeds would come, that is the nature of a garden, but because I had planted some new items I wasn't sure which were weeds and which were seeds, so I left them all and decided to pull the ones that didn't produce any fruit.

Last night I was awake late, couldn't sleep and the Lord reminded me of my garden and how I have weeds but there really isn't a way to tell if they are weeds just by looking at them. They are green like my squash, they need sunlight and water, but they suck the life out of plants if left to stay. On the other hand seeds produce plants that produce fruit that has seeds that produce fruit etc..... It's just like life. I may have a lot of foliage, a lot of green, but sometimes I wonder if there is ever going to be fruit. I have to ask myself is it bearing life or sucking life. Sometimes it's both. I do know that the discipline of the Lord is like a gardener coming in and pulling the weeds so that the plant can survive and then thrive.

I feel like my garden is getting a work over..... I think that is good, but it sure feels like a lot of disruption. I'm thankful He isn't content to see me grow a weak garden. I welcome the pruning.