Our First Day of School

Well, it’s over!  All the kids are asleep, I’m prepared for tomorrow, and I can breathe!

Our first day was okay.  Hero, McAwesome, and Sweetheart Girl were all excited, and thankfully they maintained their enthusiasm throughout the day.  About 20 minutes into the morning, all three little ones suddenly demanded my attention, and I could not seem to get them occupied with anything!  I admit, I spent a few minutes berating myself in my head for even attempting this this year with practically all new materials.  I did send a text to my husband telling him that I was going to need a Coke by the end of the day!  (He took my oh-so-subtle hint, by the way!)

Eventually, the littles calmed down and I was able to focus some attention on the big kids.  It felt a little disjointed, as I didn’t figure very well how much time some subjects would take, but I suppose that will work itself out as we get into a rhythm.

My biggest disappointment of the day is that I didn’t take any pictures!!  They all dressed themselves so nicely, but then the morning took a bad turn for a while there, and by the time I thought about it…well, they all had lunch leftovers on their faces :)  Guess I’ll have to get some later in the week and pass them off as the “first day of school” pictures years down the road!

10 Things I Love About My Husband!

Ten years ago, I married a wonderful man!  I was young (18), but I knew the Lord had brought us together and had planned something great for us!  Maybe sometime I’ll write about how we met (we don’t actually remember!) and fell in love (I knew I loved him when I was 16!), but today I just want to share 10 things that I love about him.

In no particular order (except for number 1):

1.  He’s saved AND following the Lord.  Needless to say, in the ministry we see often the struggles when this is not the case!  Marriage takes work for even the most faithful Christians, and I can’t imagine going through it with a man who did not have a heart for God.

2.  He WANTS to be a good husband.  I mean, he is, but he is because he makes an effort to love and care for me like Christ loves the church.

3.  I never fear talking to him.  I know women who do not feel welcome to open up to their husbands, so they instead share everything with everyone else!  Even if I’m not always sure how to approach a matter, even if I’m fairly sure he won’t agree, I know I can talk to him.  I rarely feel a need to talk about my husband to anyone else because I know I can just talk to him!

4.  He’s an incredibly involved dad.  He changes diapers, he gets up during the night, he’s willing to take on the majority of the discipline…that doesn’t mean he likes to, but he does them anyway!  He plays Parcheesi, Red Light Green Light, wrestles, gives hugs and kisses, and…he’s not afraid to take all six kids out by himself!  Which leads me to number 5-

5.  He’s understanding to my need to get out every now and then.  Even aside from being a stay-at-home mom, my personality is such that I like to go out and do things!  He is willing to let me go out by myself for a few hours and often will tell me we have 20 extra dollars this week so why don’t I go look for something to buy.  That’s the best :)

6.  He’s funny.  We share a sarcastic and mostly nerdy sense of humor.  Those of you who know us, know that we’re nerds and we’re okay with that!

7.  He works hard.  And I mean hard.  I’ve never been under another pastor who has shown so much effort, time, and study when he preaches.  He’s always making a visit, calling a church member, and praying for someone.  He puts his heart and soul into the flock that God has given him, and it shows. 

8.  He’s hot- and he keeps getting better looking every year!

9.  He’s very discerning.  I appreciate that he knows the Bible and has the ability to interpret a passage accurately.  He can see things about people, about why they may be acting a certain way, about what the real issues are behind it, and he’s bold and caring enough to address it.  And if I see something differently than he does, he is often discerning enough to listen to me :)

10.  He is proud of his family.  I love it (and somehow am embarrassed at the same time) when we go out somewhere, especially to a pastor’s fellowship meeting, and he introduces the whole family by name.  That’s quite the list to get through…

Of course there’s more, but I’ll pace myself.  There’s always next year!

Spelling Practice Ideas

As I continue preparing for the school year, I’m continually on the lookout for other’s great ideas.

One area I knew I wanted to put some effort into was spelling practice.  We’ve always just copied and say-spell-say (said?) the words every day, and quite frankly, it’s boooring!

I read an article a while back with some great ideas, and I just found it again this morning!  Here’s the link:

http://www.hsclassroom.net/2010/08/making-spelling-a-lot-more-fun/

The Homeschool Classroom is a site that I visit often, and even when I have no intention of putting something into practice, I still enjoy reading about what others are doing.  It’s often full of encouraging words and sometimes points out the not-so-glamorous struggles homeschooling often entails!

I hope the boys enjoy their spelling drills with some of these new ideas!!

Peace, Be Still

Mark 4:35-40  And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.  And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.  And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.  And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?  And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

This was the main text of a session that I recently attended at Spiritual Leadership Conference at Lancaster Baptist Church.  The topic was surviving the storms of life, and, as usual, I was reading the notes ahead while I waited for the class to start.  As I read this very familiar passage, something stood out to me that I had never seen before.

Jesus calmed the storm before He taught his disciples a lesson. 

No kidding, huh?!

But I believe God was teaching me a little parenting lesson at that moment.  As you can guess, with six young children in the house, there is no shortage of storms in our home.  Someone hurt, something broken, etc. and the kids are frantic.  I realized that far too often, I am trying to scold and/or teach while in the midst of the storm.  And, big surprise, that’s when my volume level rises!  Soon I’m nearly as frantic as the kids, and when everything finally does calm down, I have to repeat everything I just said because no one could focus before!

Maybe this is overly simple, but I’ve been trying to watch myself very carefully these past few weeks.  And I’m making a point to be very quiet, soothing when necessary, until the storm has calmed.  Then we can all focus on what needs to be said.

After all, God speaks to His children so often in that still, small voice.  Why shouldn’t I strive to do the same?

A Funny Conversation

Last Sunday night, I was able to go out to dinner with a few ladies after church.  We had Japanese, in case you’re wondering- I declined the sushi!

Anyways, one of the ladies said something that got me to chuckling.  She was telling some story about friends of hers from her hometown, and in the middle of her story, she looked at me, and said:

“They have 7 kids, too- so you guys could be friends!”

And on she went with her story… I couldn’t help but laugh though.  This young lady meant absolutely nothing by that statement, but I had to throw in that I am, in fact, friends with people that have 1, 2, or 0 kids too!

 

Father’s Day’s a Comin’

I saw a really cute and easy Father’s Day card that the kids could make and thought I’d share!

Chances are you already have what you need to make this. 

You can find the directions HERE.

I’m going to have my Sunday School kids make one to take home.  If I pre-cut everything, it takes all of two minutes!

Now, technically the iPhone my husband got a couple weeks ago is his official Father’s Day gift (not to mention his anniversary gift!), but it seems that he should receive something from his children on his day, so we made this:

We just spray painted a wood frame from Michaels and some old puzzle pieces, add a little glue, and voila!  Just add a picture!  I’ve got the perfect picture waiting for me at Walgreens. I just love being able to order prints online and pick them up in just a few hours!  No more hanging around the store for an hour or making a second trip a few days later!

Back on subject-

Happy Father’s Day to the best dad in the world!

Catching Up

I’m still here!  But in a different place!  We’ve finally moved, and that’s one of the main reasons I haven’t been around here for a while.  We didn’t even have phone or internet for nearly a month!

So we’ve officially moved into a wonderful new home, to which my husband lovingly refers as a mansion.  It’s not that large, but we have nearly 3000 sq. feet of space to grow into!  We still can hardly believe we’re living here and are in awe that the Lord would provide such a home for our family.  Since the actual moving took place much later than we’d expected, we had only a few days before we had guests arrive!

My mother-in-law and niece came for a two week visit!  It’s been 4 years since we’ve seen them, so needless to say we were so happy to have them come, and we had a great time.  We didn’t really do anything too special, but even just being at the house was enjoyable.  All the kids got along well, and that always makes for a nice visit!

They left last Wednesday morning, and Thursday night my sister and her family flew in to town!  We had them with us through the weekend.  Their daughter is about the same age as my older kids so they loved having another playmate around! 

So this week I’m finally trying to get settled into the house!  We had all the important stuff in, but our garage is still full of boxes to be sorted through.  Little by little we’ll get it all done!

We have a busy summer ahead of us.  This week our church is having Vacation Bible School in the evenings, next week my husband will be away at Teen Camp, and then we’ll have two weeks of ‘normal’ at home.  I say ‘normal’ because those two weeks will be largely spent preparing to leave for the Spiritual Leadership Conference hosted by Lancaster Baptist Church in California, and from there we will be driving to Oregon for a vacation/family reunion.  All in all we will be gone for roughly 3 weeks!  By the time we get home, it will be time to prepare for our next school year and I’ll be in the final couple of months of this pregnancy!  I figure we should be all settled in just in time for this baby to make his arrival and throw us into another couple months of chaos!  I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Yes, I typed his on purpose!  We are expecting a little boy!  All of the kids wanted a boy, so I’m happy we could accommodate their wishes :)

Many of my friends and family reading this already know the name we’ve chosen, but I think I’ll keep at least that much secret from the internet world until the big day!

Okay, I think we’re all caught up!