Yearly Snapshots

Grant 

11 years old

What are you good at doing? Playing video games

If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it?  I would save it

What are you afraid of? Being dragged on a rope by a car through a cactus field

Who are your friends? Ethan, Ella, Shiloh, Judah, William, Xander, John, Eli, Sawyer, Archer

What is important to you? The present that nana gave me (willow tree boy sitting on books)

Who is your hero? Jesus

What is your favorite book?  39 Clues series

What is your favorite food? pizza

What is your favorite subject in school? Heritage Studies

What is your favorite thing to do? Video games

How do you show your family you love them? I give them presents

What do you want to be when you grow up? Paleontologist Why? I think fossils are cool

What are you thankful for? My mom and dad

Tell me something about God. He loves me

What is your favorite bible verse? Ezekiel (valley of bones)

What is your favorite color?  Red and purple

What is your favorite movie? Avengers

Who is your favorite person in the bible? God

What is your favorite TV show?  Mythbusters

What is your favorite song? Perfect

What do you like most about our family? They guard our hearts and minds from inappropriate stuff

What would you change in our family if you could? That we could eat pizza twice a week

Eli 

9 years old

What are you good at doing? Building legos

If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it?  legos

What are you afraid of?  nothing

Who are your friends? William R and V, Grant, Sawyer, Archer, James, Jeremiah, John, Xander, Ethan, Ella, Shiloh, Judah

What is important to you? legos

Who is your hero?  Mom and Dad

What is your favorite book? Adventure

What is your favorite food?  Macaroni and cheese

What is your favorite subject in school?  Spelling

What is your favorite thing to do? Build legos

How do you show your family you love them? Hugging, saying sorry

What do you want to be when you grow up? Master lego designer

What are you thankful for? My brothers, my room, my parents, my house

Tell me something about God. He gives visions

What is your favorite bible verse?  Haggai 2:6

What is your favorite color?  black

What is your favorite movie? Avengers

Who is your favorite person in the bible? Moses

What is your favorite TV show?  Ninja go

What is your favorite song? Dynamite

What do you like most about our family? They are nice

What would you change in our family if you could? No more arguing

Sawyer 

7 years old

What are you good at doing?  climbing

If you had ten dollars, how would you spend it?  A stuffed animal

What are you afraid of?  Bad guys

Who are your friends?  Caden, Conner, Ella, Eli, Grant, Archer

What is important to you?  Bob the guinea pig

Who is your hero? Jesus

What is your favorite book? Peter Pan

What is your favorite food? Pizza

What is your favorite subject in school? Science

What is your favorite thing to do? Climb

How do you show your family you love them? Hug and kiss every night

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Explorer and a doctor

What are you thankful for? My family

Tell me something about God. He is faithful

What is your favorite bible verse?  Joshua 1:9

What is your favorite color?  Green

What is your favorite movie? Avengers

Who is your favorite person in the bible?  Daniel

What is your favorite TV show? Ninja go

What is your favorite song? Star wars theme

What do you like most about our family? That we are nice

What would you change in our family if you could?  That I could have candy everyday

New adventure

We have had a fun-filled summer of tire swings, climbing trees, and swimming.  We have one last trip to go on before we start school again.  The boys are going to continue homeschooling next year and we will continue using Bob Jones.  We also are doing the Basic Training for the boys to become ALERT Cadets.  

We are in the process of getting ready to move and we will be buying our first house!  This is so exciting and I can't wait.  I am ready to Pinterest my house!  There is an AMAZING church in the town we are moving to.  That is the best part of all.  

One of the new things the boys and I will be doing is gardening.  We have wanted to for years and now we will be able to.  I also want to learn to can our own foods.  The ultimate goal of all of this is to eat healthy and more natural, save money and pay off debt.  This is a good learning experience for all of us.  

Some of my favorite recipes are from The Pioneer Woman.  I have thought about cooking through her cookbooks like Julia and Julia.  I probably will. :)

Archer just turned 3 and Grant turns 11 this week.  Where does the time go?  That reminds me that I need to do their yearly surveys of favorites and such.  That will be in the next post. 

Bob Jones

It has been awhile since I blogged, but we needed to get our house in order which meant getting our homeschooling in order.  After much prayer, research, tears, pulling hair out and recommendations we decided to start using Bob Jones University Press for our homeschool.  It has changed EVERYTHING!  It is AMAZING!  The boys love it! I love it! Our days are so peaceful, organized and educational now. :) 

I have definitely learned through this homeschool journey that there are different seasons for everything.  It is not always going to look the same each year or each child. 

I love my life. 

Hope for the weary mom

I just read an incredible ebook called "Hope for the Weary Mom". It was so uplifting and it is so good to know that we are not alone in our feelings of hopelessness on this journey of motherhood. If you are like me then you pour yourself into your children in countless ways and at the end of the day everything is still not finished. That saying, "there is no rest for the weary" has just been proven wrong by this book. We can have rest. The best kind of rest. It is the rest that comes from being refreshed by the Lord in His Word and through prayer.

There are two ways two order this book. One is free~ click here for the free version or you can get it on Amazon Kindle for $.99 cents.

What is a leader?

We are constantly telling our boys that they are leaders. The other day we asked them who they thought were leaders in their life and I wrote them down. The list ranged from young to old. After that we asked them to name one thing that makes that person a good leader in their eyes. Here is the list:

Kind
Loving
Christian
Doesn't yell
Listens to authority
Gives instruction
Teaches
Puts God before everything
He doesn't smoke
Wise
Trusts in God
Listens to his parents
Puts others before himself
He puts God before himself
Humble
Not afraid to give honor to God
Bold
Lives the right way
Prays
Relies completely on God
Does the right thing even when know one is looking
Sets healthy boundaries
Makes family a priority

After we made this list I said to each of them "YOU are kind, YOU are loving, YOU ..." all the way down the list. I think it is important for my boys to know that being a leader is going to look different for each of them because of their personalities, but there are standards that good leaders live by that make them the same. We are all raising leaders. We need to nurture that in them. Some may lead in front and some may lead from behind. Some are quiet and some are loud. The mightiest leader of all is the humble man who seeks after God's own heart.

Running on empty

I feel further from God than I have in a long time, but I know it is because I am tired and running on empty. I have not rested. All day long I felt the Lord gently reminding me that He is there and telling me to read my "Jesus Calling" devotion for today...more specifically the scriptures at the end of the devotion. God gives us exactly what we need when we need it, but sometimes we need to make the extra effort to get it.

"And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not" (Isaiah 58:11 AMP)

"He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young"(Isaiah 40:11 AMP)

Thank you Lord!

I just need to be the sheep that I am and let my Shepherd take care of me.

Lessons of thankfulness

I love this time of year, but for some reason I am overly tired and grumpy. On one hand I feel sorry for my sweet family that they have to put up with my crankiness and on the other hand I blame them for it! These comments were made by me in the past few days...

"You are not allowed to use your imagination anymore! I am tired of you fighting over superhero powers!"

"Please stop asking for mommy and daddy. Can you just pretend like you don't have parents for 5 minutes?"

"I'm done!"

Then these sweet words refreshed and encouraged my soul...

http://www.itakejoy.com/the-gift-of-a-spirit-filled-mama/