Happy Secession Day!

What are people celebrating this 4th of July? We used to call it Independence Day. But now it's just a number and a month. Do people really know what they are celebrating? When you say the word "Secession" to people ..most people just give you a blank stare. But that is what we are celebrating. It's our secession from England in the 1700s. Why do we celebrate this? It's because we won! If the colonists hadn't succeeded then they wouldn't have seceded. We'd be singing "God Save the Queen"!

Nationalism as described at dictionary.com is the "devotion and loyalty to one's own nation". Nationalism is rampant in the church today. Most of us sat through services today where there were American flags waving. Patriotic songs sung. Allegiances recited. Is this a form of idolatry in the church?

I'm not saying it's wrong to celebrate our country. Most of us celebrate our birthdays without going over a list of our own sins. But when does a celebration become an obsession? When does nationalism slip into idolatry. When do we put our allegiances to country and flag over our allegiances to the Lord?

The Bible has much to say on this subject.

Isaiah 40:15 No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket.They are nothing more than dust on the scales.He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.

Psalm 72:11 All kings will bow before him, and all nations will serve him.

Psalm 87:6 "When the Lord registers the nations, he will say,“They have all become citizens of Jerusalem."

Isaiah 40:17 The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth.

When we get to Heaven there will be people there from every tribe and tongue and nation! Revelation 7:9-10 "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”"

My allegiance is only the the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of the Universe, the one that gave His only Son for the redemption of my soul! Nations come and go. Our country is relatively young in the scheme of the world. The only thing that is eternal is the Lord God Almighty.

So as we have our barbecues, watch fireworks and celebrate this weekend..let us not forget where our true allegiance lies. Who is the true King of our Hearts? What do we proclaim as the center of our lives? Whose flag is higher in our lives? Our nations'? or our Lord's?

Hebrews 13:14-15 "For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. "

Learning to love where I am

The Last few months in our new place we've been busy...

Biking. Hiking. Exploring. Meeting. Seeing. Sitting. Reading. Talking. Waiting. Growing. Learning. Helping. Loving. Watching. Going. Doing. Resting. Sleeping. Crying. Laughing. Kayaking. Swimming. Eating. Fighting. Watching. Slowing. Growing. Worrying. Trusting. Playing. Volunteering. Cooking. Missing.

Nothing ever stays the same

Everything changes. Sometimes for good. Sometimes not. But just when you get cozy with the way life is...it changes. I guess that's a good thing. It helps us grow. It helps us change. Would we change or grow if life didn't change around us? I'm not sure I would. I might get too comfortable with the way things are. But change can be a good thing. It's a time to start anew. It's a time to clean out. It's a time to change attitudes. It's a time to meet new people. It's a time to rely on the Lord. Things are about to change big time in the life of me and my family. I am praying more. Reading God's Word more. Cleaning out so much junk.. physically and spiritually. I don't like change too much. But God knows me best and I'm glad He doesn't let me stay the same.

A life in tune

Here's something you may not know about me... I used to play the violin. For about 4 years back a long long time ago. Like 25 years ago! It's something I wish I would have continued. (Note to all you kids out there whose parents make you practice an instrument--keep it up! It's something you will always have with you! and music is beautiful!) Anyway, I had a thought the other day and got a wild hair. I thought I should get a cheapie violin and try to play again! Thank goodness for ebay!

Well, in my mind I knew I couldn't just pick it up and play it again. I knew it would take a lot of practice. But one thing I didn't think about. Tuning the thing! When it came in the mail it came untuned of course. I bought a tuner and began to mess with it. Up..down..sharp..flat..wrong note..too high..too low.. UGHH! I had to go out a buy a tuner to help me get the pitch right. It has a needle that points if the note is too high or too low, and it has a big letter that flashes what the note is. Also..you have to understand how a violin works. It's got big pegs on the neck where you can adjust the strings. This is for changing the note drastically. But it also has small tuners down at the base for fine tuning. When you just need to tweak the string a little bit up or down.

Well I kept messing with each string. And just when I'd get to the last string ..I'd go back and listen to the first one..and it was out of tune! How'd that happen? I just fixed it! So I'd start all over again and tune each string. Then I noticed that the pegs were slipping. Every time I got the string tuned..the peg turned and it was out of whack again! So I had to buy some peg compound to give the pegs more grip so they wouldn't slip.

As I was in the middle of this very frustrating process..I thought.. hey..there is a spiritual lesson in here. A few actually..

• You can't tune your instrument without a tuner. My life is my instrument. The tuner is the Lord.
• Sometimes my life is so out of whack I can't tell what the tune is supposed to be. I need to tune with the pegs. Make some big changes. Tune things in my life up or down in a big way to make a noticeable sound to others.
• Sometimes the string sounds pretty good to others. But there's some fine tuning that needs to be done. My life may look good to others. It may sound ok. But it would sound better if I did a little fine tuning. Just tweaked stuff a bit.
• You can't not play for 25 years and pick it up and sound wonderful. You need practice. If I had been practicing all these years imagine the songs I could play now! My life needs to be in continual practice to Jesus. I can't take a break for a while and come back to Him later. My life would sound terrible. I need daily practice. Practice in reading His word. Practice in praying. Practice in serving others. Practice in good thoughts and actions. The more I practice the more my life will sound better.
• Just when I think I've gotten all tuned up..I need to start over and retune. Each time I pick up my instrument to play I need to check and see if it's in tune. My life will slip in and out. I'll never be perfect. But I need to constantly check the tuner (the Lord) and see if my life sounds good.

This new year I hope to learn to play my violin again. Maybe I'll start practicing Christmas songs now so I'll be able to play some at the end of the year!

But I want to work more on my relationship with the Lord. Lord, show me where I need to tune my life with the pegs. Put the peg compound on so I won't keep slipping out of tune. Lord, show me where my instrument needs to be fine tuned. Help me in my thoughts, speech, actions toward others. Help me be a beautiful instrument for you!

2010 is over already??!

Wow! It is true..the older you get the faster time speeds up. I don't know if it's a law of physics or not..but it sure seems to be true. Remember when you were a kid in school and time went sooooo slowwwww. Summer break was about to start and you sat in class looking at the clock..just waiting for summer to begin. Tick, tick, tick.. it. just. seemed. to. go. so. slow. But now that I'm older I feel like I just blink and time passes so quickly! How are my kids so big now? How am I almost 40?? How have Larry and I been married 21 years?? Timejustgoessofastnow.

Well.. the end of the year is a good time to review and reflect. Here's some highlights of our year:

• Larry spent the first half of the year working in Pennsylvania. It was sad but we were thankful for the job!
• Scott started Community College in January and took classes through the summer. He learned alot..mostly that he doesn't like college.
• Renee quit her job at Sonic and started a new job at the mall. It's a much better atmosphere and she loves it!
• Sam spent part of the summer up in Pennsylvania with Larry.
• The whole family got to go on a Cruise to Mexico! Lots of fun!
• Val continues to work at Arlington Resale! She loves it!
• Renee turned 18!!
• Scott went to Youth with a Mission classes for 5 months!
• Sam lost his ipod and then worked and earned enough money to buy another one!
• We had a deck built out in the backyard. It's so nice to sit out there now!
• Renee & I took a short trip down to Surfside beach.
• Val memorized Romans 12!

The Lord is good. His mercies are new every morning! Thankfully! I have seen many answered prayers this year. He continues to bless. If I keep my eyes on Him I can see more clearly. I don't know how people do life without the Lord! He is amazing!

I read the entire Bible through this year. It is always such a blessing. I want to again next year.

That's what life is all about!

I pray next year will be a blessing as we continue to make Him widely known!

Luke 2:17 "Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. ^"

Homeschooling Journey

It's hard to believe we aren't homeschooling any kids any more. We homeschooled for over 15 years! I still get people asking me questions about it and I'm always happy to share our experience! God has taught me so much about myself through the journey of homeschooling! So if you are just starting out homeschooling or have homeschooled a while and need a fresh perspective..here's what I would say to you.

First of all let me say that there are as many ways to homeschool as there are people that are homeschooling! Everyone does it differently. There is not "one" way to do it. Every child is different and every learning style is different.

I would also advise not to spend a lot of money at first. Try several things. See which things work and which things don't. If it isn't working then don't use it. There is no use in banging your head against the wall every day just to finish some books! Use the library as much as possible! You also don't have to do "school" at home.

You can do it however you want to during the day. Some days it's playing at the park and going to the zoo. Other days it's writing stories together and baking cookies. Some days it's playing monopoly and learning to make change. Some days it's teaching them to drive and letting them figure out how to read a map. Some days it's building a computer out of other broken computers. Those are the good days. The bad days are not so fun to report.. It's yelling and screaming to "finish your work". It's crying that the house looks like trash and nobody cares. It's disciplining the whole day because we need to work on character and listening. The bad days are yucky but it's part of learning and growing for both the kids and myself.

It's also not about cramming their heads full of knowledge. I liked to teach my kids to love learning. I still love to learn myself to this day! Just because you finish school doesn't mean you stop learning. I liked to teach my kids to learn how to learn. How to find out the things they were interested in.

The other great part about homeschooling is you can teach them Eternal things. Things that really matter-- Bible verses, Bible stories, stories of great heroes in the Faith, stories of great missionaries!

The thing I learned most the 15+ years of homeschooling my kids was this... 
I learned who I was. I learned how I taught, what I expected, how much patience I had or didn't have, I learned that I could change and grow and learn too.

So all that being said... here's some links of several different "schools" of thought.

First of all a good network of people is a must!

Sacc Home School Co-op  This is the homeschool co-op that we belonged to for many years. Lots of great knowledge in this group. Call early..there is usually a waiting list to get in!

The Texas law on homeschooling

http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Texas.pdf

It's pretty easy to homeschool in Texas!

Curriculums:

Several friends I have use http://www.sonlight.com/ especially first starting out

Abeka is a big one..it can be expensive http://www.abeka.com/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Lots of people I know use this for math http://www.mathusee.com/

We used the Switched on Schoolhouse for a while (computer based) They have other books too http://www.aophomeschooling.com/

With the internet there may not even be a need to buy a curriculum! There's lots of sites available for printing worksheets, lessons etc. Just google free homeschool stuff. Here's a great site we used for a while.. http://www.everythinghomeschooling.com/

Different thoughts on homeschooling:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/methods/Methods.htm

Unschooling:

http://www.unschooling.com/

What is Unschooling?

There's tons of info here:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/

Arlington Homeschool book fair in the spring

But don't let all this overwhelm you!  

You don't have to know everything at once!  Just pray and ask God for guidance and peace, then get in the boat and enjoy this wonderful ride!

Hopefully this will get you started on your journey! 

 There's lots to take in! 

Pray about everything and God will direct you!

Proverbs 3:5-6 

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. "

Yummies!

It's not cold outside yet...and it's almost Thanksgiving! But I'm getting in the cooking and baking mood anyway!

I love baking and cooking lots of goodies when I have the time. I was recently inspired by a friend of mine. She has a house full of blessings (kiddos) and I don't know how she does it really but she cooks alot. I recently read on her blog about baking and freezing. Wow! Why hadn't I thought of that before. Bake a whole bunch of goodies and put them in the freezer for later use. I know, it seems obvious.. but I hadn't really thought of it before. I tried the once a month cooking thing...way back before I had kids. I haven't tried it since.

But this made sense to me because my son doesn't like to "fix" anything. Not even a sandwich. He likes to pull stuff out of the freezer and microwave it. So it's easy to buy him those cheap frozen burritos, frozen dinners etc. But I never have liked all the junk that comes along with them. They aren't the most healthy choice! So I spent my day off yesterday baking and baking.

I made about 4 batches of muffins..and put them in freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer! All he has to do in the morning before school is pull one out and microwave it for 20 seconds. Voila! Homemade convenience foods! I also cooked up a batch of taco meat and beans and made about 2 dozen burritos. He loves them! I'm in the process now of making a few loaves of bread in the bread machine to freeze for Thanksgiving. This is so easy! I'm so thankful for friends that show me things and train me in ways I'd never thought of before. Even if they never knew how much they influence those around them. Recipe links below!

Titus 2:4-5 "These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God."

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Chocolate Chocolate Chip muffins

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/chocolate-chocolate-chip-muffins

Oat applesauce Muffins

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oat-Applesauce-Muffins/Detail.aspx

Applesauce Bread

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/healthy-treat-for-today-applesauce-bread

Applesauce in the Crockpot!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-applesauce-recipe.html

Granola

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/stovetop-granola/Detail.aspx