To everything there is a season

Won’t you join me for the next eight weeks, as we walk through the heart of a homeschool mom?

One of the hardest lessons for a homeschool mom to learn is realizing how many seasons a she will walk through as she educates her children at home. Starting out on the journey, a mom has equipped herself with the best curriculum, dictionaries, art supplies, library books, and the most important thing, coffee. She feels empowered by her choice to teach her children at home, even if secretly she wonders if she is crazy.

To read more, please click on the link below.

To everything there is a season

Posted using ShareThis

You might be a homeschooler if...

Both me and my husband laughed many times while watching this video. There were many slides that that rang true for our family. In our household we spend more money on books than we do school clothes. Our kids can remember each time they set foot in a public school. We didn't have a TV for the first five years of Amanda's life. But I don't wear jean jumpers. :)

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer...

Our Annual Tea Party

This Saturday we are having our church's annual Ladies Tea Party. Being a girl can be so much fun. I am hoping to get some great shots this Saturday. This year's theme is on God's Creation. We have some very creative ladies in our church, I can't wait to see how they decorate their tables. And as always the Men of Jericho do a fantastic job serving us.

Marriage Monday- Traveling with my husband

Chuck and I met as traveling door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen. I was one of his trainers who helped him in the book business. I loved every aspect of the job, especially all the travel. Chuck liked the traveling part but not the sales part. So in the end we quit our jobs right before we were married to start a new life together. To this day, I look back on those times with great fondness. We were young, in love, and travelled all over the western United States it was wonderful.

After Amanda came along, Chuck was offered a position in Iowa. We packed up our little family leaving all of our friends and family behind, looking forward to a new adventure in a new state. I remember rolling down the highway looking at tall the bales of hay, corn, and cows wondering what I had got myself into. Settling into a smaller town wasn’t an easy transition for me, but it drew Chuck and me closer, for we were all we had. It helped us establish “us”. We celebrated our fifth anniversary there and we drove to Kansas City, Missouri for the weekend. That weekend was magical for us; it was the first time we left our kids. We had reached our first milestone, five years. We had survived the death of our daughter and his brother, the loss of Chuck’s job, which included our home and car. That trip brought us back to why we married each other. It enabled us to just have fun and enjoy each other without thinking about all the stress we had just come through.

We stayed in Iowa for about three years and then moved back to Denver. We have been here ever since. Yet, every anniversary he takes me somewhere. One year we went to Ouray, Colorado so I could capture fall colors. It was so romantic, just the two of us deep in the mountains of southern Colorado. As I look back on all of our trips with the kids or without I see that our perspective changed due to a particular road trip. We were able to regroup, pray, and engage in uninterrupted conversation. All of life’s responsibilities lay dormant till we returned.

I wouldn’t have wanted to travel with anyone other than Chuck through this life. With each valley or peak, he has been by my side. I look forward to entering the years of just the two of us and I wonder where the road will lead us to…

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely

TMV© 2008
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 82:3-4

I don't believe this mandate is seasonal or optional. Through the giving of our extras, the helping of our hands, and the voices of our prayers, let us as women, make a difference in lives around us.

Dear Father,
Help us as women pray for those around us that are in dire straits. Let us remember those that are less fortunate with extra meals and clothing. Let us really be Your hands and feet that make a difference in the world today. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and willingness of heart to walk with those who have burdens to big to bear. Give us the strength, joy, and love to look beyond ourselves to support those who are in need.
In Jesus name,
Amen

Please share how you are making a difference in your part of the world. You ideas may spur others to action. :)

Kindred to the woman at the well

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:13-14

A couple of weeks ago I heard a friend speak about how her walk with God dramatically changed from feeling like a guest to a daughter of the King. This was a woman who had walked with God for almost twenty years when this happened. Experiencing the God who chooses you, transforms your walk. As I listened to her compelling testimony, the Lord started to reveal how my heart was guarded just like the Samaritan woman at the well. Like her, I didn't want to get my life or water with everyone else in the cool of the day. But instead I went by myself, when no one was around.

Yet in the heat of the day, she stumbles upon Jesus. He is tired and thirsty and asks her for a drink. She is astonished that He would ask her, a Samaritan woman for water. But Jesus isn't like other men in her life who has abused and judged her, he just wants to give her life. Like her, I was in the intensity of one trial after another feeling isolated and alone. Marked by past authorities that had spoken words of judgment and condemnation, why would anyone really want to get close to me? My soul was too tarnished. Being cloaked in shame and fear, I didn't realize how isolated I had become. I chose not to get close to others for fear that they too, would judge me with harshness and disparaging words. Yet, my Lord didn't see me this way. How could my thinking change? This revelation almost overwhelmed me.
"Now what do I do with it, Lord." I asked.

For a couple of weeks this revelation stirred in me. I became aware of so many circumstances where I felt judged or slighted, even though, I didn't think these people meant to do harm to me. My feelings were so twisted, I didn't know which way was up. This roller coaster of emotions left me dazed and confused, which only added to my guilt and condemnation. I felt like I was sinking farther and farther into a hole that I would never get out of.

Then Sunday came, and during worship the Lord started dealing with my broken heart. He brought to me peoples faces and the angry, hurtful words that they had spoken over me the pain was so intense I felt like the tears would never stop. I told the Lord that if he wanted change in me, that Pastor Gerry would need to pray over me and break the deception off of me. As worshiped ended, they had an altar call for prayer. I went forward and Pastor Gerry prayed over me. As he started to pray about my control issues which had led to my fear of authority and how I had to defend myself for years. I was so broken I couldn't even look up. God had answered my prayer in such a powerful way. The words flowed straight into my heart and started to heal the breaches of the past, even to my early childhood. I was told I could lay down my sword now, for the Lord would go before me and be my rear guard. For once in my life, I felt safe and protected, like someone was looking at for me. Even now as I share this tears well up. For the road has been a long with many disappointments along the way. As I left the altar that day, I knew I would never be the same, just like my friend who had shared a few weeks earlier, His Love will forever change you.

God had chosen me. He loved me. He would protect me. He would guide me. Though these words seem to simple, they are so profound when they reach to the innermost part of your soul. Where others had spoken death- He spoke life and life more abundantly. I chose to take the living water that He offered me on Sunday and drink deeply to satisfy the longing of my soul.

How about you? Have others wounded you so deeply that it clouded your perceptions of the Lord and other believers, if so can I pray for you? God doesn't desire for us to be afraid of being vulnerable or afraid. He desires to set us free, to live the life that we were intended to live for him.