I'm officially "OLD"

I'm officially "OLD".  This week I picked up some cotton yarn at WalMart that I found on clearance. I love crocheted dish cloths and pot holders.  I taught myself how to do some basic crocheting (with the help of youtube) a couple of years ago.  I've been crocheting some new cloths this week.  My kids told me that I looked like an old lady because I was sitting around crocheting!!  Ha ha! I even took it to a Dr.'s appointment this week!!  Annagrace was so embarrassed that I was crocheting in the waiting room!  (I think Mark was too, just didn't want to admit it to me)  I've enjoyed my crocheting projects, even though I've been told I look old!  I'm by no means a good crocheter, but as I was making the stitches, I thought of my life.  I thought about how I started out as a baby, sorta like the ball of string.  You know if no one ever picked me up and loved on me, I would not have ever developed.  Just like a ball of string, if it just sits on a shelf or in a sewing basket it never turns into anything useful.  Thinking about the stitches, one at a time, little by little, eventually that's how my life has been.  My wonderful parents loved on me, taught me things, saw that my needs were met and even disciplined me when needed.  Here I am 35 years later.  I know that I'm a project that's not complete.  God has used my parents and many wonderful people in my life to help to make me and mold me into the person I am today!  I could name countless people that have had an awesome impact on my life!  Helping to stitch me into the person I am today.  I am thankful that God has allowed me and blessed me with some really awesome people through out my life.  Many wonderful family members, friends, etc...  Some were allowed to stitch many stitches, some only a few.  I can remember things and events that made a lasting impact on me!  I am so thankful for each and every person that has helped make me who I am today!  Whether people were in my life for a short while or for a long time, I am thankful.  I understand seasons change, even in life.....  So to everyone that reads this you've probably helped stitch me together in one way or another!  Looking at my life and other peoples lives that I am a part of , I'm praying that the stitches that I make be lasting!  Just like when I'm crocheting, sometimes I make a bad stitch and have to un-stitch some of the stitches, and it causes my entire project to unravel.  Even times in my life I've come unraveled due to people or circumstances, but little by little I've been able to be "stitched" again!  My prayer is that I'm making lasting stitches in lives of people that are a part of my life!  My challenge to myself and everyone else, what kind of stitches are you making?? Are you causing life to unravel for one reason or another?  I am asking God to help me and show me how to make strong lasting stitches in lives that I am in contact with... not cause life to be unraveled.........

ADOPTION....

My husband preached an awesome sermon yesterday about adoption.  I'm gonna blog a little about it today!  I have such a passion now for adoption.  God really began to speak to my heart about adoption over a year ago.  I knew God was leading our family down this path, just not sure how.  I began to read blog, books, etc..  I began looking at types of adoption, adoption processes etc.  Still not sure how or what, I just kept praying.  I would mention it to Mark, and he was always in agreement.  I was really afraid to actually say, "Mark, I really think we are supposed pursue adoption, not just talk about it."  He was in total agreement.  God had been working on him all along too!  We really began looking at God's heart for adoption. 
Eph. 1:4-5 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”
We begin to see how we as Christians are adopted by God into His family!
When we are adopted into his family we are;
Given his name
Given the spirit of his son
Heirs and joint heirs with Jesus
Entering his household
Receiving his welcome
Possessing his image
Receiving his discipline
Receiving a future to live forever in his presence
How AWESOME is that?!!
We are all born as spiritual orphans, until we accept Jesus, then we become His adopted child!!  Just as we began to see God's heart for spiritual orphans, we began to see His heart for orphans in the natural (the world around us). 
You know the truth is that there 143 million orphaned children and 11 million who starve to death and die from preventable diseases and 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and 2.3 million who live with HIV which all add up to 164.8 million needy children. At first glance that appears to be a big number, but to put that into perspective 2.1 billion people proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for just one more child, there would not be any statistics left.  The truth is He loves these children just as much as he loves you and me! We began to see these statistics, and began to look at God's word.. James 1:27..
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Many other scriptures relate to this as well...  We know that we can't change the world, but maybe we can change a child or two's worlds for them!!  We aren't perfect people, don't have it all together, just want to follow God's heart for our family!  God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things, David- a Sheppard boy that killed a giant....Mary- a young teenage girl, carried our Savior in her womb... Paul- a young man with a violent history, wrote close to half a the new testament & spread the gospel all over the world.  So you see just ordinary people..... 
So you say, what can I do?
 First realize God's heart for adoption... have you been adopted by God into His family?
 Second, is God calling you to help spiritual orphans to become adopted into God's family too?
 Third, ask God what can you do in the natural to help care for the orphans, No, not everyone is called to adopt, but we can pray for the orphans, become part of a ministry that helps care for the orphans, don't remain silent become active in sharing the real need for orphan care, donate to families that are adopting (international adoption is VERY expensive).  Just pray and ask God to give you direction.....  
This journey for us continues, we don't know what God has in store for us, we are just walking this journey out one step at a time!!!

My first big DIY project is complete!!

This is my first big DIY project!!!

I have wanted a bench for my kitchen table for a long time, and have seen them all over the internet and pinterest.  I've looked at them for a long time, and well if you've read my blog you know that I started this project Monday. I didn't have any intructions to follow or really know what I was doing, I just went out and started measuring, cutting and screwing!

  Nathan and I worked really hard.

He was helping me to distress it here! 

He worked so hard and diligently!

Now finally our project is almost complete!!

Look at those red cheeks from all the hard work!!

Yesterday I sanded and began the painting....

This is before staining, I just used some turquoise, celery green and a little red paint, that I had on hand...

After staining and polyurethane.....

I had fun, really had no idea what I was doing, and... it turned out!  It seems really sturdy and I think it's gonna serve the purpose!  NOW, I want to build a farm table to go with it!!  Think I will wait on help with it though! 

Power Tools!!!

What an experience I had yesterday!  I got an idea that I wanted to try and make something.  So off I go.  I worked very hard, with my Nathan right by my side.  This was the first time I used power tools by myself.  I was having so much fun!  I called Mark to ask him a question about his drill. He sounded worried, I've often threatened to build stuff before, and he's politely told me not to, because if I didn't know what I was doing, I'd get hurt.  Well to make a long story short, I got "my project" almost complete.  I didn't get cut, I didn't saw my arm or leg off!  The only thing I did do was get a little bit of friction burn on my finger, because I didn't have the drill bit in correctly!  But mind you , I got my project done.  There was a price to pay though.  It was probably around 95 degrees or so, nice and warm.  So in went a lot of sweat equity, my back was a little tight last night when I went to bed!  I am not gonna post any pictures yet, because I want to wait and post the finished product.  I've still got a little bit of finishing work to do.  But I did make a sign with some of the scrap wood that I had left over.  Again inspired by the wonderful world of Pinterest, I came across  this post and thought I'd give it a try.  You see I'm not the best at coming up with ideas, but if I see something that I like, I'm not afraid to give it a try.  Here's what mine looks like.

This pretty much sums up my day yesterday.  I had to pray that what I was doing would turn out, and imagine, dream, work and of course laugh!!  Mark did come home and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually built something with only the help of a 3 year old!  Just hard headed and determined. I will hopefully finish my project later this week and post the finished project.
 While working on this it reminded me of my faith.  God has given me "power tools" in life.  Have I been determined to use those tools, or am I afraid to use them?  Good question.  I think at times I've used them, maybe kinda like I did the drill with the wrong bit.  God gives us gifts and talents how are we using them? Some of those gifts maybe like a few of the tools I used yesterday, they hadn't been used in a while, and their batteries needed charging, or some of their pieces were missing, and I had to search until I found them, and some where even misplaced all together.  My prayer today is for God to help remind me of the gifts and talents that He has blessed me with and to help me use them for His glory!

DIY maxi skirt

I came across this post on pinterest a couple of weeks ago.  I LOVE long skirts and I instantly said "I want one".  So off to Hobby Lobby I go searching for jersey knit.  I found some grey and this lime green!  I will confess, I had my mama help me with my grey skirt, (I don't have any pics of it yet).  We also made one for my daughter.  I'll try and get her in hers and post some pics...  This Saturday morning I pulled out my sewing machine and went to work....  I did modify mine a little, I didn't add the ruffle.  I love it, but just didn't think I could get mine to turn out, drum roll please...................

and another shot......

I am by no means a sewer, I've made a few things in my lifetime, usually with my mama right by my side, she sews a lot better than I do. 

Trail Guide to Learning Arrives!!

It was almost like Christmas in July yesterday.   The UPS man arrives with our package from Geomatters (Trail Guide to Learning, Paths of Settlement) yesterday around 6:30!! Annagrace and Nathan were soooo excited (I was too).  We took the box to the kitchen table, Nathan literally crawled onto the table and was digging in the box like it was Christmas.  I told him this was school books for Will and Annagrace, he said they are for me too!!  He's 3 and thinks he's as big as his 12 and 10 year old brother and sister.  We took everything out of the box, the books were separately wrapped, so it was like opening  a present!  I couldn't get any pictures because they were opening them so fast!  We looked through all the books and resources, it looks like it's gonna be an exciting year!  This is just a little snip of some of the books and materials we received.

 

 

I got up this morning first thing, made my coffee and lit a candle and sat down with our POS materials...

I as able to really get a good look at what our year will be like.  I'm very excited.  I am sure that I'm gonna need to get the middle school supplement for my 7th grader.  I'm just going to spend a little more time digging through the materials.  Just gonna try and organize my materials for now. 

 

Summer Fun!!

Oh what to do on a rainy summer day.. ??  It seems that every afternoon this week we've managed to get a bit of a thunder shower.  Annagrace had a couple of friends over today,  we were planning an afternoon trip to the pool...... well the clouds rolled in, and what did I have on my hands... 3 young ladies...."we're bored"....... Watching it rain for a bit, noticing that we didn't have any thunder or lightening.... They come to me, "Can we go outside and play on the slip and slide, it's not thundering or lightening."... Sure go for it....  Well I take a peep outside looking for the girls on the slip and slide, so I could send Nathan out for a while. Well they aren't on the slip and slide!  I look out the back window and they've found the mud!!   They started their fun in the mud!  Well it just happens that the mud is on a bit of an incline.  It was quite funny watching them try and climb the hill in the mud!!  I grabbed my phone and snapped a few shots of them in the mud!  They all had a great time as the rain came down while they splatted in the mud!  When the rain stopped, they made their way to the slip and slide to "clean the mud off"!  The joys of being a child!  Playing in the rain and mud, what a carefree way to spend a rainy summer afternoon!! 

While writing this, it reminded me of how in life sometimes, all we can see is the rain and the storm.  Sometimes even in the middle of the storms of life, we need to find the mud and stop and enjoy the moment!  Knowing how God loves us and wants us to be joyful.  Sometimes in life we have a hard time finding joy!   A challenge to myself and others; Where is your joy?  Is life hard right now, are there somethings in life that seem really difficult?  Are you feeling alone?  What storm are you walking in right now?  Take a moment and look for that little mud pile!!  Sometimes we do have to let go and be childlike in some ways!!  A favorite verse comes to mind... "The joy of the Lord is my strength" Nehemiah 8:10... So maybe we need to muster up some strength to make it through our storm!!  Oh.... where is that mud?  

Getting school together

I've had the opportunity to download the 1st Unit for Trail Guide to Learning, Paths of Settlement.  I chose to just order the e-book format for the 1st unit.  Since this will be our first year doing the unit study type approach, I didn't want to go overboard and order a lot of books and materials.  I'm excited about what I'm seeing so far.  Will not really know how this will fit for our family until we actually start school this year.  I know it's going to be a challenge for us, because with change there always comes challenge.  My UPS box with the books and core materials should be here tomorrow!  I'm excited, of course it's always exciting to get a box from UPS!!   I will keep you all updated as I go!!

Curriculum 2012-2013

Just placed my order for next years curriculum.  We are going to try something totally new this year for us.  We are going with Geomatters... Trail Guide to Learning, Paths of Settlement.  This is a unit study approach! This is an all inclusive curriculum, only have to add Math.  I'm really excited about this.  I will keep you posted as to how it works for my family.  With a 7th and 5th grader at this point... and a 3 year old in the mix.  Click here for more info about this curriculum. 

On a journey....

I decided to begin another blog, since it's been almost a year since my last post.  I'm now going to try and include my homeschooling adventure along the way too.  Much has gone on with our family...  Will is knocking on the doorway of 13, Annagrace is 10 and little Nathan is 3 and full of energy.  We are in the process of pursuing adoption with Alabama DHR. That's another story within itself.  I will blog about it once I can. Our homestudy is in progress now.  I will not be able to elaborate much on that subject once we have children placed with us, due to the privacy of the children, UNTIL we officially adopt them!!  We do not know who we will be adopting, we are in the "waiting" process now!  Once our homestudy is approved we will be matched with child(ren).  Once they are placed with us, we cannot legally pursue adoption until they are in our home for atleast 3 months.  So due to legal issues I will not really be mentioning our adoption until it's all over... so hang with me!!  It may be several months before I'm able to really mention it in web land!!!