Category Archives: Just My Thoughts

Sights of the Season

The PREZ surprised Momma big-time this year … with an iPad air! Whatsupwiththat!!! What did I get him? Um, myself! 😉 You know the gift that keeps on giving!

Here is the Prez himself (photo taken with that iPad).

Now I can’t get into my MacBook laptop but it is nothing a Genius Bar dude or dudette won’t be able to navigate (iCloud seems to have a steep learning curve for me anyway). So in the meantime I do have some photos that appeared on my iPad from my iPhone? At least they are communicating!

I thought I’d go back and share some sights from the Christmas season at our house. Continue reading →

This Christmas

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I love Christmastime. This year though, my heart hurts. I don’t recall a Christmas like this one where I honestly am looking forward to it all being over. If not for my little ones especially, I think I would just skip it. Thankfully, the Prez and some of our children decorated one afternoon while I was gone. I came home and found many things already out.

We all decorated the trees together, but a lot of things just haven’t been the same. You see, I had this wonderful dream that this home would be so special because it would be the first home where all eight of us have lived from the beginning TOGETHER.

But now, that dream has died because in all honesty so much sorrow has happened here already. The vision I had of this first Christmas in our new home, the one we dreamed of for years, didn’t work out. Since just before Thanksgiving, everything we knew to be true has been clouded with the reality that more was broken here than even we already imagined.

I know Christmas isn’t about family times only, far from it, but since 2008 and especially since 2010 it has felt like we are trying to be the family God has brought together through birth and adoption … and we just can’t quite get there.

But now I realize I can’t force it. The Prez can’t force it. Sure we are a family, but the roots I had hoped and prayed … oh how we’ve prayed (yet people will say “if you just pray”) would develop … so many of them that appeared to be there were not rooted as I thought and then others … have never taken root. I love all of our children so deeply, and that is why it hurts so much I think. When our children war against one another in one form or another, oh how it breaks a Momma’s heart.

I don’t know about anyone else, but if you like me, have dreams that have been dashed, a heart that feels like it has been broken in multiple places, a home that just is filled with reminders of all that is broken, a grief that seems almost too much to bear ... just keep holding tight to Jesus and never, never let go.

If you are suffering from a broken heart, maybe one or both of these songs will be a blessing to you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF2rsDHOZc&w=420&h=315]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSMjgNMdzEI&w=420&h=315]

I do sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas. May 2014 be filled to overflowing with HOPE for you. I know I’m hopeful for the sun to rise and I will continue believing in Jesus’ promises, particularly that His mercies are new every morning.

Anyone Still Reading? I’m Still Here!

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Wow, where did the last month go since I posted?

Life has been busy and blessed and broken.

I look at the following photo taken one day while driving on one of the many country roads we now traverse. I can see far ahead in this particular part of the road, but the VAST majority of this road is curvy and I cannot see around the next curve until I go through it.

Isn’t life like that much of the time? We can see far ahead. But as the following photo shows, a curve is usually not far away. And we have to take it slower and not try to figure out what we’ll do too far in advance.

By the way, my front seat passengers took the photos for me in case anyone is wondering. The Fall leaves here have been magnificent! They are now mostly fallen and the temperatures suggest winter is marching into our area sooner than later.

I love all of the seasons, but I must admit the falling leaves and approach of winter make me long for warmer and sunnier days that I know lay ahead.

I don’t know where life has taken you or your family in the last month, but if like me, you’ve waded through muck and mud and made it through to the other side for today, that is cause for celebration.

I have wrestled literally with the Lord over what I have perceived to be unanswered prayers, one in particular. I have come full circle in wanting to understand why He in fact does forsake His children when His Word says He will not, and in coming full circle I have accepted that my definition and perception of His promise is sometimes vastly different than His providence in my life and in the lives of the ones I love the most. I have also come to accept in this wrestling deep within that I just can’t understand who He is in entirety because He IS the I AM, the God of the universe.

I saw this saying this weekend. On Pinterest I think.

If God was small enough for you to completely understand him, he wouldn’t be big enough for you to completely trust him. Rick Warren

Did you really read that??? That sums up where I’ve been. Maybe you’ve been there too. Today I’m going to choose JOY. Someone told me this past Friday that my face exuded joy, and I was completely dumbfounded. She knows a bit of what our family has been enduring, and she said that Joy is usually seen most in those who are choosing it amidst troubles. Happiness of course is easy to find, but joy is often not. I can’t argue with her thoughts on me, but I really was surprised.

I am hoping, really hoping, to write up some posts that I’ll schedule to show up on here in the next week. They are from the past 6 weeks of learning here in our one-room schoolhouse. I don’t want to forget all we’ve done as life takes twists and turns in the future. I don’t know how long this one-room schoolhouse journey will last, so I want to record the moments. I hope your family is blessed this Thanksgiving week! I know we are!

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

A Different Sort of Post

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When I began this new blog, I knew it would be a lot less about the topics that seemed to be the meat of my other blog. I don’t talk about adoption on here for the sake of talking about it, promoting it, advocating for children or for any other reasons that I used to talk about it.

I also don’t talk about God much on here. I know that is probably a turn-off to some and probably welcoming to others. It is not that I don’t want to or don’t feel I should. I guess I’ve just been in a season where I didn’t have much to say. And I still don’t I don’t think, because I don’t understand a lot of what is currently about our family. Continue reading →

What Is On Your Desk?

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A recent thread on a forum I visit on a popular teacher site got me to thinking about coming clean (no pun intended). I am quite organized overall, BUT I have issues when it comes to my desk.

I thought it would be therapeutic perhaps and hopefully helpful to a fellow teacher with desk organization issues to write out a list.

5 Things I Don’t Want Anyone to Know About My Desk

1. I can’t actually sit there and do anything.

Well I do have a chair but there is absolutely no space on which to do any work, especially involving a space to perhaps lay a piece of paper upon it.

Continue reading →

‘Twas the Night Before …

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… the first day of school and all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring … except maybe a ~~mouse~~ spider!

The children were all nestled all snug in their beds,

With visions of glow sticks dancing in their heads!

When what to my sleepy eyes did appear …

A printer out of ink and a message that read “ERROR.”

Before Momma, the teacher, went fast asleep in a flash,

She decided to take one last dash …

To the library for a view of the place

Where growth and learning would happen in the coming days.

If you are racing and last-minute planning on the eve of the 1st Day,

Take heart and know that everything will be O.K!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Mathew 5: 14-16

Teachers Need a Day Off Too!

Lessons Learned While Packing

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1. We have way too much stuff.

2. No amount of whining (on my part or my kids) changes the fact that I have to get it done (with or without help from said kids or anyone else). I will add some of those said kids have been much more helpful than others, which is usually the case as certain ones think hard work is for other people. All we can do is present the lesson, right? We can’t learn it for them.

3. Jealousy (over those who actually have movers to pack their stuff) does not help my current situation.

4. I really am never moving again, but if I do, I’ll be sure to have my EASY button handy.

5. The pool and a pool party for a certain Li’l Bro’s 8th birthday earlier this week is a nice diversion.

6. The deeper you get into the endeavor, the easier it is to throw stuff in the “get rid of” pile (whether by way of the thrift store or the garbage can). And taking photos of the inside of a rose at close range reveals there is often more than meets the eye.

7. Little dates on the calendar such as one’s 40th birthday do not slow down the progress that must be made if we are in fact going to move a week from today (which is looking doubtful for the things that are yet to be packed).

Happy 40th Birthday to me today.

New Teaching Blog!

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I’m so excited about this new blogging adventure. 😀

If you’ve come over from my other blog, welcome! I’m glad you came over!

If you are visiting me for the first time, I’m glad you came by too!

I teach our children at home, and we have learners from ages 14 down to 3, officially in grades for 2013-2014: 9th, 7th/8th, 6th, 2nd, 2nd and tot school!

I hope to share many of our “homeschool happenings” here. I am moving away from a personal family blog for public perusal and will instead focus this blog exclusively on our learning pursuits, which are still going to be very family-focused and hopefully insightful to any educator (or student) who happens to stop by!

I have imported all of my “homeschool happenings” posts from my old blog to this site, and I will be adding new ones hopefully several times a week once we move to our new home and 15 acres in the country.

Again, glad you stopped by and hope you come back!

Living History: Presidential Election 2012

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I read it all. I rarely say a word. But this morning, my heart is SICK that a man in our state was re-elected ONLY because of the political party beside his name. He is a doctor, who allegedly* had multiple affairs and finally his wife had enough. They are now divorced. This all happened while he had young children as well. He reportedly asked one of his mistresses to have an ABORTION and yet people in our state re-elected him ONLY because he claims affiliation with a particular party. (*Divorce proceedings will confirm it all officially, but he admitted and multiple women share similar stories.)

This is the type of hypocrisy that I am so WEARY of. What in the world are people thinking?

Continue reading →