Sunday Scrappin':August 29

It's Sunday again and that means it's time for Sunday Scrappin'. This is a GREAT way to get inspired, meet other crafters and share your creations, so please drop over and join today!

My TA-DAs this week are:


Abby @ 13 Months

Never Too Young For Hot Wheels

Love You Crazy

One Moment In Time

My TO-DOs this week are just to keep scrappin' with the flow!

Faith in Homeschooling

School starts here tomorrow. Not just here in our home, but in the public school system too. Tomorrow would be the day Aspen started Kindergarten if she was attending public school. I find I have mixed feelings about that.

I am comfortable with my decision to teach her at home. This has been the plan since she was just a baby and my desire since before she was ever even born. In my heart I know it is the right thing for her. We started our Kindergarten in June. Academically she is right where she should be in some areas and miles ahead in others. I know homeschooling is the right thing for her.

A recent rash of comments to the contrary from several people has thrown me for a bit of a loop. A few weeks ago Kelly, my oldest daughter, went on a whole tangent about how she thought public school would be good for Aspen. This, from the child who hated school with a passion and dropped out, went back, and dropped out again. A few weeks ago my MIL made a few comments to my husband about were we sure we didn't want to let her attend public school, as though we were taking away something good from her. I know my MIL feels that way, but I thought we had established that it was our choice, this is what we were doing and the matter was closed to discussion. Even my hubby, who has been supportive and even praised me as a home school mom to his coworkers, has made a few comments lately about whether we should put her in school. I realize this is a big decision and that the fact that we're now doing it officially is probably a little bit intimidating, and that's probably the reason for his sudden uncertainty. Still, it was a bit unsettling.

I find that other people's negativity can really impact my confidence in homeschooling if I let it. I'm sure this is a common thing home school moms run into. I've learned that I can't count on the support of others to keep me going and inspired. I have to fall back on my faith in God and the knowledge that this is what He wants me to do for my children. I believe that with all my heart. I know that the only way to truly raise my girls to know Christ the way I want them to is to teach them at home and lead them by example. I also know, that when I am feeling low, and every one's negative input threatens to derail me, I have only to look to the Lord and He will give me all that I need to accomplish this task He's set before me.

2 Corinthians 9:8 says it all: "God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work"

What do you do to regain your footing, when the opinions of others make you question your parenting choices?

Sunday Scrappin': August 22

It's Sunday again and that means it's time for Sunday Scrappin'. This is a GREAT way to get inspired, meet other crafters and share your creations, so please drop over and join today!

I love Sunday Scrappin' because it motivates me to try to do at least one layout each week, even when I'm super busy and life is hectic. This week I got a lot done, largely due to inspiration I found from participating in The Big Idea Festival over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It's free to join and I've gotten so many terrific ideas, I'll never get them all done! Here's what I was able to do this week:


Rainy Days

Abby at One Year

I Laugh At Your Childproofing!

Beach Fest 2010, 2-page layout

Sisters

I Read My Bible

I read my Bible, and Proverbs 22:3 tells me: “The prudent man forsees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”

I read the news. The economy is improving, they say. It's what they want us to believe. I watch the things happening around me and I know that isn't true. If it gets better it will get worse first. I grocery shop a little more. I store away canned goods and beans and rice and spices and so many things I take for granted now.

I read the news. Floods compromise drinking water, and over and over again grocery stores run out of water, and otherwise rational human beings scrap over it like wild animals over a fresh kill. I buy an extra case of it each time I stop at the store, and I learn how to purify questionable water with filtering, boiling and chemical tablets. I learn how to dig a well.

I read the news. North Korea threatens us with nuclear retaliation in response to naval exercises we're conducting there. I learn that my family and I could survive nuclear fall-out, and I scribble down sketches of how we could live in our laundry room for several days.

I read the news. Violence is on the rise. Homes are invaded, people are killed, or worse. I remind my husband to clean the guns, and we spend a day at the gun range. He teaches the girls about firearms safety.

I read the news. The Grid Act is dumped by the Senate. I set out to learn all I can about EMP. I read One Second After by William Forstchen, and I am afraid.

I read my Bible. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells me: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

And I am no longer afraid, but strengthened and comforted, and I go on reading, and learning, and preparing.


Enjoy more...

The Heavens & The Earth

We'll be starting school again soon. We took a break after our ocean unit and will be doing an Astronomy unit for September. For Bible we're studying Genesis and the two subjects go hand in hand really well. I'm planning to introduce both with this video from the Apollo 8 lunar landing. I never knew they recited verses from Genesis during that momentous event, but this is so neat. Enjoy!

Sunday Scrappin': August 15

It's Sunday again and that means it's time for Sunday Scrappin'. This is a GREAT way to get inspired, meet other crafters and share your creations, so please drop over and join today!

I love Sunday Scrappin' because it motivates me to try to do at least one layout each week, even when I'm super busy and life is hectic. This week I squeezed in this page with one of my favorite pics from back in March, shortly after we moved here. Aspen plays with the two boys from upstairs on almost a daily basis and this is a snapshot of the three of them enjoying the shade of one of the park toys. I used the Hopscotch kit again. I love this kit!

As usual I don't have any particular To-DOs this week, just to scrap when the mood strikes. Have a great week!

War

There is war on my TV. It invades my home and I cannot stop it. Violence and blood and killing and evil, right here in my living room. I watch his hands on the controller, fingers moving swift and sure, taking simulated lives. The baby gazes at the imagery as she toddles his way, ball in hand. She rolls it his way, expecting him to return it. He ignores it, gunning down bad guys and dodging digital bullets.

Undeterred she eases into his lap and smiles up at him. He lifts his arms to let her sit in his lap, but his eyes stay fixed on the carnage across the room. She watches a moment even as I am already moving to get her. Not finding the attention she seeks, she moves to get out of his lap, accidently bumping the TV remote as she goes. I hear him scold her as he snatches it up and turns the TV back on, searching for the right channel. She looks to me, confused and I see hurt in her little blue eyes. Angry, I scoop her up and in my heart I claim her as mine and only mine, and retreat to safer ground.

A long time later he comes looking for us, his eyes clouded over with hours of death and destruction. He gives report on his success, and I refuse to reward him with a response. The little one's face lights up though, and she makes a beeline into his waiting arms. They interact lovingly, the past forgotten by both. The young are quick to forgive and maybe I should be too. But I am unable just this minute and so I leave them to their affectionate play to tend to household chores.

Tears fall on soft, warm towels and I pray. I pray for this man, this husband and father who does not know Christ. I pray for me, I pray for the children. And I pray for our world, where such things are accepted, and glorified, and oh so pervasive.

And I secretly plot to break the TV.

Enjoy more....

Sunday Scrappin': August 8

It's Sunday again and that means it's time for Sunday Scrappin'. This is a GREAT way to get inspired, meet other crafters and share your creations, so please drop over and join today!

For Abby's birthday party pictures I decided to try putting more pictures on one page. I was inspired by the photo frames kit I found at Cottage Arts. I love how they went so well with the kit I got especially for her birthday pictures and some other projects I have planned. It's Hopscotch from Shabby Princess. So, without further ado, here's Abby enjoying her first birthday cake.



I don't have anything planned this week, just intending to scrap what I feel, as the saying goes.

Post-Modern Life: Are We Cheating Ourselves?

As a homemaker in post-modern America, I have it easy compared to my own mother. She had it easy compared to her mother, and so forth. Each new generation of domestic engineers has been blessed with tools that make our job a little bit easier, a little bit faster, a little more convenient. But lately I find myself wondering, does all that really make it any better?

My grandmother washed dishes by hand. I load them in and out of my dishwasher, usually twice a day. Grandma washed clothes by hand and hung them to dry. I load them first into my washer, then my dryer. My mother sat down and wrote letters on paper in her own handwriting to keep in touch with distant loved ones. I drop emails with digital pictures attached. Mom cooked simple meals with basic ingredients. I cook by browning meat and adding the contents of a box labeled "helper". When I needed to learn about something, I asked someone to teach me or did research at the library. My kids flip on the Internet, type in what they need and bam! there it is in a few seconds. Our post-modern methods are quicker and easier, but are they really better?

I think many of today's homemakers are missing out on something vital. There is therapeutic value in doing things the old-fashioned way. I believe the rhythm of hand dish washing is calming. Involving the children is more fun when there is sudsy water involved. Washing clothes by hand is tiring, but the exercise is beneficial, physically and emotionally. Cooking from scratch is more work, but what a warm and wonderful labor of love! There is also a certain grounding we get from simple activities like handwriting a letter or reading a book. We learn more when we research things for ourselves than if all the answers and reasoning are provided for us. These old ways of doing things make life more real and tangible than it has become today.

Perhaps more importantly, we have become so dependant on our modern conveniences, that we are slowly losing the ability to function without them. It's with this in mind and a hunger for simplicity in my heart that I am trying to turn back the hands of time in our home.

I have already begun cooking more from scratch and building a pantry of staples. We've dropped microwave popcorn and taken to popping it on the stove from plain seeds. It's so delicious in its pure form! I want to start drying some of our clothes on a drying rack outside and hand washing dishes a few times a week with Aspen. It's a small start, but I feel good about it.

What things do you enjoy doing the old-fashioned way?

In This Quiet Stillness

Life has been too noisy lately, every moment of every day abuzz with activity. Birthdays, projects, planning. Always something to do, someplace to go. I'm tired. Even as I write this it is neither still nor quiet in the house. But I need these precious few moments, and so I have stolen them, tucked them away under noise drowning headphones. Music plays, a beautiful melody: Mazzy Star's "Into Dust". It soothes me, calms my soul and helps me sit still with my thoughts. In the stillness they sort themselves out and I see and hear and feel them as I am normally unable to.

This music is mine and Abby's, music I softly swayed my hips to in preparation for her birth. Music I hummed to as I absently stroked that growing belly and tuned out the chaos around me. Music I lost myself in as my body labored to deliver her. Music that played as I met her for the first time. Music I rocked her to sleep to in a darkened room, her tiny body cradled against me. It's as beautiful as the dance we danced to it, the dance of mother and child.

We've said we've made the decision not to have any more. Practically speaking this is the best decision, for reasons financial and practical. Reasons of marriage and siblings and dynamics and how much work one mama can handle. Our heads say we're done. Our hearts say otherwise.

Days rise and fall with the boundless energy of my little ones, punctuated with chores and teen things and bills and laundry. Some days are beautiful, some days I pray for bedtime and fall into bed exhausted, a young child under each arm. And as I drift off, thoughts of the one that might still be hover around me, just as they do for most of those crazy days.

I still want her. Or him. Him would be really special. Either way the desire is still there and still strong. When the practical falls away, and I silence the voices of those who would gasp in horror at the idea, and I am left with only my bare naked heart, I feel that desire so strongly.

A stomach ache off and on this week almost made me want to test. Breastfeeding my little ones has always been reliable birth control for me, and as Abby is still going strong, the chances are slim enough that I've not bothered, but the thought stirs up all those wanting feelings.

I have no answers. I have only my faith in Jesus and my prayers for Him to take the wheel on this road. And I have this beautiful music. Enjoy...



Enjoy more Imperfect Prose here.