On My Heart

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), ¹⁰ finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. ¹⁴ Therefore He says: 

      “ Awake, you who sleep,
      Arise from the dead,
      And Christ will give you light.”

¹⁵ See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, ¹⁶ redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
¹⁷ Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:8-17

He has chosen me, equiped me, and walks with me in His calling on my life as wife and mother and homemaker. Yet, this is the area where I need the most refining. I was in darkness but now the light makes all the dust ad cobwebs in my thinking as well as around my house visible. Asleep…for too long. I’ve been sleeping in, going to bed late, napping too long. sometimes I’m just disconnected through busyness, phone or computer.

But, my God is patient and faithful. I am waking to the warm glow of Jesus’  shining His truth on my ways. I forsake all the foolishness and will seek to make the most of my time; morning, noon and night . May the lifetime he has given me bring glory to Him and peace to my Heart and Home.

He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. PRAISE THE LORD!

Psalm 113:9

To be barren is to be fruitless. I want to bear fruit within my family life and as I serve Him outside the home. My prayer is that He show me what is hindering my joyfulness and productivity.I am surrendered to His will and trust he will lead me gently to His truth for my life.  I will focus on the fruit of the spirit which is:

¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

 ¹⁹The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-25

love

joy

peace

patience

kindness

goodness

faithfulness

gentleness 

self-control

Homeschooling is good for America and our family!

This article was written in 2001, 8 years ago. At that time I had a newborn baby girl and had my oldest in first grade in public in Miami, Fl. I had taught him to read and we had lots of fun but I believed the lies and succombed to the family pressure that I could homschool and had too much on plate already. I enrolled him in the second semester of Kindergarten and he only did the first semester of 1st grade. His teacher were lovely but the herd of cattle, oops I meant children walking in line form one classroom to another and then to lunch in a cafeteria made me sad. I missed him. His brothers missed him. I was in the car for 30-45 minutes each way morning and afternoon to take him to a good school not the one in our neighborhood. I wa not a happy mommy and wasn’t able to give the best to my kids , home and husband. but what put the icing on the cake for me was an incident of bullying and HOMEWORK. What were they doing all day? When do we get to just relax and play and be a family? There were evenings when it was 10 PM and we were still working on homework! He was tired and cranky and this made it take longer. ENOUGH! I’m taking my boy back and that was that! 

The amount of time it took us to drive there and back is the time that it took us to do our school work at home. the younger ones had te benefit of never stepping in a classroom. We love to be together. It has made my kids best friends. We talk around the dinner table. We volunteer together. WE encounter many people from the grocery store to piano lessons and baseball to the museum docent. They behave appropriately and  learn while having fun as a family. They are growing into mature and responsible adults. They do not live by a peer driven standard.  They are normal people that have to deal with peer pressure too.  The difference is that we deal with issues as a family and they are not esposed to things before they have a strong foundation in our christian belief system. It is our responsability not the gov’t or teachers to teach my child.

We make many sacrifices to do this. We don’t go to movies much (as if anything out there were that good anyway). We don’t eat out often (no thanks we rather eat good for you food anyway). We have only one older van (helps with gas prices and currently were graciouslu given a second car, God provides!). We don’t have cable (don’t miss that junk box either). We don’t travel (for now). We don’t ever feel alone. We like each other. And my husband and I will never say on our death bed, “I wish I had spent more time with my family” What a blessing and priveledge to be an important part of these four kids lives. I love being their mom, teacher and friend.

I can see all the benefits to homeschooling in this article but they don’t. They seem to be arguing within themselves trying to deny the clear evidence and benefit to society for the children that coming out of homeschooling and into theirt communities. Why? Because, they have a different worldview on family and gov’t.

 

Our homeschooled children enjoy their childhood, and aren’t little adults! They are polite, articulate children and young adults. Is having a childhood sitting in a classroom for 8 hours (some eat breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria too) plus the time of transportation to and from the institutional learning facility a childhood. How about those how also stay in aftercare? That is not having a childhood.  

 

It has been discussed a lot lately about the gov’t getting too involved in our freedoms to homeschool. This article confirms it. This time article offers lots of flattery to homeschoolers, riddled with sarcasm to get us to sacrifice our God-given rights and responsibilty. For me it has meant continue strong and stay away from any of their generous offers.

 

I have a lot more to say but this is what comes to mind right now

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

Find this article at:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000631,00.html

Zelda Catnap

 

I awoke yesterday to find Lexie sleeping in the living room snuggled with Zelda. She had a look on her face that said she was biding her time to escape. Seth tried to gently release her without waking Lexie but she moved and Zelda got away. At least from Lexie but not from Seth. We just love her and she can never escape that.

Family Guestbook

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,

for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

My hope is to have everyone that stops by our home and stays a while to sign their name and leave a short (or long) message in our guest book. What a priceless possession this will be to open those pages in ten or twenty years and see the handwriting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, missionaries, our children’s playmates and cousins.

You can go to town with this. Buy a gorgeous premade guestbook or simple scrapbook and add embellishments and pictures to the pages. I bought a composition notebook. I embellished the cover with varied scrapbbooking supplies. I am going to glue pictures in different places along the book. The pictures and embellishments will add to the fun and give you the visual of that special dinner or birthday party. You may even add cards and postcards that have also visited your family via mail box and bought a smile to your faces. Outline the hands of our new baby nephew. How about a stray cats or lost dog paw print that you took in for a few days. You may even choose to add petals of flowers bought by a friend. The book will become a touch and feel visual feast for you eyes and heart.

I have forgotten to ask some friends to sign our book a few times. Keep it on the coffee table or by your front door or foyer. There is no reason why you can’t write in what they said during their visit, who was visiting and the date. I bought a date stamp. I thought it would give it an old fashioned look. Ask your kids to remind you to give the guests the book and you’ll never forget again. Have family fun with it.

Free Download: Family Guest Book

Now go make some memories!

Here are some ideas for you:

Scrapbook
Composition notebook
Store bought journal
Date stamp
Attach a ribbon with a pen for ease of use
Don’t wait until they are getting in the car
Take pictures
Add thank you cards, birthday cards, postcards or any special note

When your book is full tie a pretty ribbon around it and start another. Have a special dinner and prayer night with your family once a year and REMEMBER and PRAY for your friends and family.

Some beautiful scripture, poetry and quotes to add to your pages:

… there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18: 24

A friend loves at all times… Proverbs 17: 17

No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends. John 15: 13

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you
John 15: 15(NKJV)

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are lavish and deceitful.
Proverbs 27: 6

Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend’s counsel that comes from the heart. Proverbs 27: 9

As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27: 17(NKJV)

“A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) US poet & essayist.

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.
Before him I may think aloud.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
George Washington (1732 – 1799) US Statesman.

“Should auld aquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min’?”
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) Scottish poet.

“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.”
Epicurus (341 – 270 BC) Greek philosopher.

“Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. he whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”
Samuel Johnston (1709 – 1784) British lexicographer.

“My friends are my estate.”
Emily Dickinson

“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.”
Oscar Wilde

“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade.”
William Shakespeare

“Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
Mother Teresa

“… no man is useless
while he has a friend.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“A true friend stabs you in the front.”
Oscar Wilde

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
Mark Twain

“The best mirror is an old friend.”
George Herbert

“With every friend I love who has been taken into the brown bosom of the earth a part of me has been buried there; but their contribution to my being of happiness, strength and understanding remains to sustain me in an altered world.”
Helen Keller

“What is a friend? A single soul in two bodies.”
Aristotle

“The friendship that can cease has never been real.”
Saint Jerome

“I count myselt in nothing else so happy
As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends.”
William Shakespeare

“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
Helen Keller

“Ah, how good it feels…the hand of an old friend”
Mary Englebright

” ‘Stay’ is a charming word in a friends vocabulary.”
Louisa Mary Alcott [1832-1888], American writer, reformist

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”
-William Arthur Ward

“Friendship? Yes Please.”
Charles Dickens
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

Oceanogaphy

We began our oceanography summer studies with an illustration of Genesis 1:9-10. It sparked lots of conversation and research in Genesis to verify if the sun was made before or after the seas. A little debate ensued and I as their mom and teacher won becasue they are loving to learn and figured it out on their own.  I must admit, the first three chapters of 20,000 had my head spinning and tongue tied but we will perservere.

To follow along with us subscribe to our blog and check out G-Force Academy page above. Please leave a comment if you are studying along with us or what your family is doing over the summer. As time permits I will add more and provide you with a printable download of our lesson plans.

Happy Schooling!

Monica

To see a larger view of the drawings click on the thumbnail. When done hit the back botton.