You hear them whispering about the greek gods Zeus and Hera an hour after they were tucked in.
Seriously!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Randomness
Just a hodge podge of daily stuff lately....
Our daughter's pet mouse died this morning. I think this is mouse number 7 or 8 in the last four years since she started keeping mice. Our memorial flower bed is getting pretty full of shoe boxes, so I cut a shoe box down to make a small mouse sized casket. When G was laying her mouse on soft bedding inside the casket, she asked that we not seal it shut with tape yet because, "I want to have a viewing first, before the funeral." She seemed okay, but Little Man cried and cried. It's hard to learn about death, and yet it's so much a part of life.
I have an appointment to talk with two Jehovah's Witnesses next week about whether or not Jesus is God. They have come to the door three times already and we have had brief conversations. If it were up to me I wouldn't do this, but both my husband and the Holy Spirit have urged me to do it. I can argue with my husband, but it's pretty hard to argue with the Holy Spirit!
The main lady asked if I would give her a few minutes to show me scriptures that prove Jesus was not God, and I told her I'd be willing to listen to her proof attempt as long as I got equal time. She loves to talk and is a bit of a railroader, so I will have to be assertive with getting my equal time in. Really not looking forward to it. The practical side of me thinks that since I will not be persuaded, and she will likely not be persuaded, we are just wasting our time. But the Holy Spirit chided me ~ how do I know she will not be persuaded? And it's not a waste of time for the five young children who will be watching and listening and learning how to defend their faith without fear. Please pray for me! My husband is much better at this type of thing than I am, yet the Holy Spirit has given it to me to do.
One of my husband's two contract jobs ends this week. We have not yet heard back from the company that my husband interviewed with twice. "I trust you, Lord. Help me to trust You more."
I paid my daughter to scrub the kitchen floor last Saturday. On her hands and knees. Every corner and crevice. The water was black when she was done, and I am so happy that the floor is so clean! Just looking at it makes me smile. She also washed the doorwall. Need her to do the windows next. :-)
Thanksgiving is next week, and I love Thanksgiving!!!!
Three days after Thanksgiving I get to visit with a dear online friend who has become a real life friend. She and her four children will be passing through and are going to stay with us for a couple nights. Can't wait to see you Guinever! I even figured out where you are all going to sleep!
REAL moms is tomorrow night and it's our fall craft night. We will be making beautiful Christmas ornaments and I'm really looking forward to it! Craft night is a good opportunity to visit with the ladies as we work on our craft, and I love building friendships with so many interesting women.
The children and I went to a Veteran's Day ceremony at a local Memorial Park last Thursday. It's the same one we went to last year. My plan is to make it an annual event for our family, as I really want to be intentional about building in to the children an attitude of gratitude for our veterans and all they have been willing to sacrifice in order to obtain and secure our freedom. The more we feel the weight of all that has gone before, the more we appreciate what we have and are willing to do our part in preserving it. I almost didn't go, but I'm really glad we did.
Afterward I struck up a conversation with an elderly WWII veteran, and after I thanked him for his service to our country he began sharing memories with me. He talked and talked and talked. The children climbed on all the statutes until they got tired of climbing and wanted to go. Still he talked. I began to inch toward the parking lot, he followed me. He is a widow and misses his dear wife terribly. His children don't live nearby. His house is very quiet. I felt sad for him. He obviously needed a listening ear that day, and I was happy to provide it. Listening to the stories of the old is a way to honor them. And man, do they have some stories!
I love my church. Love our new teaching pastor. Love the people. Oh, the people! So many of them special to me in different ways. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord, for my church.
I have a new tutor student (now I have two) who met with me for the first time this afternoon. We had a GREAT start to our working relationship! I'm so thankful.
The kitchen is clean and I am going to bed.
See how random this is?
Good night!
Our daughter's pet mouse died this morning. I think this is mouse number 7 or 8 in the last four years since she started keeping mice. Our memorial flower bed is getting pretty full of shoe boxes, so I cut a shoe box down to make a small mouse sized casket. When G was laying her mouse on soft bedding inside the casket, she asked that we not seal it shut with tape yet because, "I want to have a viewing first, before the funeral." She seemed okay, but Little Man cried and cried. It's hard to learn about death, and yet it's so much a part of life.
I have an appointment to talk with two Jehovah's Witnesses next week about whether or not Jesus is God. They have come to the door three times already and we have had brief conversations. If it were up to me I wouldn't do this, but both my husband and the Holy Spirit have urged me to do it. I can argue with my husband, but it's pretty hard to argue with the Holy Spirit!
The main lady asked if I would give her a few minutes to show me scriptures that prove Jesus was not God, and I told her I'd be willing to listen to her proof attempt as long as I got equal time. She loves to talk and is a bit of a railroader, so I will have to be assertive with getting my equal time in. Really not looking forward to it. The practical side of me thinks that since I will not be persuaded, and she will likely not be persuaded, we are just wasting our time. But the Holy Spirit chided me ~ how do I know she will not be persuaded? And it's not a waste of time for the five young children who will be watching and listening and learning how to defend their faith without fear. Please pray for me! My husband is much better at this type of thing than I am, yet the Holy Spirit has given it to me to do.
One of my husband's two contract jobs ends this week. We have not yet heard back from the company that my husband interviewed with twice. "I trust you, Lord. Help me to trust You more."
I paid my daughter to scrub the kitchen floor last Saturday. On her hands and knees. Every corner and crevice. The water was black when she was done, and I am so happy that the floor is so clean! Just looking at it makes me smile. She also washed the doorwall. Need her to do the windows next. :-)
Thanksgiving is next week, and I love Thanksgiving!!!!
Three days after Thanksgiving I get to visit with a dear online friend who has become a real life friend. She and her four children will be passing through and are going to stay with us for a couple nights. Can't wait to see you Guinever! I even figured out where you are all going to sleep!
REAL moms is tomorrow night and it's our fall craft night. We will be making beautiful Christmas ornaments and I'm really looking forward to it! Craft night is a good opportunity to visit with the ladies as we work on our craft, and I love building friendships with so many interesting women.
The children and I went to a Veteran's Day ceremony at a local Memorial Park last Thursday. It's the same one we went to last year. My plan is to make it an annual event for our family, as I really want to be intentional about building in to the children an attitude of gratitude for our veterans and all they have been willing to sacrifice in order to obtain and secure our freedom. The more we feel the weight of all that has gone before, the more we appreciate what we have and are willing to do our part in preserving it. I almost didn't go, but I'm really glad we did.
Afterward I struck up a conversation with an elderly WWII veteran, and after I thanked him for his service to our country he began sharing memories with me. He talked and talked and talked. The children climbed on all the statutes until they got tired of climbing and wanted to go. Still he talked. I began to inch toward the parking lot, he followed me. He is a widow and misses his dear wife terribly. His children don't live nearby. His house is very quiet. I felt sad for him. He obviously needed a listening ear that day, and I was happy to provide it. Listening to the stories of the old is a way to honor them. And man, do they have some stories!
I love my church. Love our new teaching pastor. Love the people. Oh, the people! So many of them special to me in different ways. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord, for my church.
I have a new tutor student (now I have two) who met with me for the first time this afternoon. We had a GREAT start to our working relationship! I'm so thankful.
The kitchen is clean and I am going to bed.
See how random this is?
Good night!
Oh Happy Day!
I am so happy for my friend Targetshopper, who got to pick up her precious, sweet, adorable, chubby, cute foster-to-adopt daughter today!!!!!!!!!
TS, I've been thinking of you all afternoon and continue to rejoice with you!
TS, I've been thinking of you all afternoon and continue to rejoice with you!
Monday, November 15, 2010
FIAR Co-op - A Pair of Red Clogs, Part 1
I had looked forward all fall to teaching this book! Some of you may not know that I lived in Japan for 2.5 years many moons ago (pre-marriage). It was an amazing and unforgettable chapter of my life, that I am so grateful for! And since A Pair of Red Clogs takes place in Japan, I quickly volunteered to teach it!
You have seen many pictures like this one, on this very couch, all of us reading together. But I never get tired of them (sorry if you do!), since reading with children has been one of my favorite things to do since I was barely a teenager, and it yields so many wonderful benefits!
We thoroughly enjoyed the book together and then discussed some of the cultural aspects of Japan, just whatever the children asked and what stood out to me as a memory that I wanted to share.
In the story, the main character, Masako, and her friends play a weather-telling game. So we talked about weather words and used this old chart from my days as a classroom teacher to describe what the weather that day was like. Each of the children took home a weather picture sheet to fill out during the week and bring back the following Friday.
A big part of the story is how Masako initially makes a decision to be deceitful in an effort to get a new pair of clogs, but how she becomes ashamed of her deceit and purposes to always be honest. We looked up verses in the Bible that talk about honesty, and then put the references in our FIAR notebooks.
We also played a clog-matching card game (similar to Go Fish) and looked at a few of my Japanese souvenir type things I had brought. It was a fun morning!
You have seen many pictures like this one, on this very couch, all of us reading together. But I never get tired of them (sorry if you do!), since reading with children has been one of my favorite things to do since I was barely a teenager, and it yields so many wonderful benefits!
We thoroughly enjoyed the book together and then discussed some of the cultural aspects of Japan, just whatever the children asked and what stood out to me as a memory that I wanted to share.
In the story, the main character, Masako, and her friends play a weather-telling game. So we talked about weather words and used this old chart from my days as a classroom teacher to describe what the weather that day was like. Each of the children took home a weather picture sheet to fill out during the week and bring back the following Friday.
A big part of the story is how Masako initially makes a decision to be deceitful in an effort to get a new pair of clogs, but how she becomes ashamed of her deceit and purposes to always be honest. We looked up verses in the Bible that talk about honesty, and then put the references in our FIAR notebooks.
We also played a clog-matching card game (similar to Go Fish) and looked at a few of my Japanese souvenir type things I had brought. It was a fun morning!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Fun Weekend
We had lots of fun family time last weekend, starting with our end of season soccer awards ceremony and the wildly popular "coaches vs. players" soccer match. There were 9 adults playing against about 40 children, no refs, and virtually no strategy on the part of the kids, who forgot everything they ever learned about playing their position and just chased the ball all over the field! It was pretty hilarious to see this long string of kids running across the field one way and then the next. Normal matches have two 35 minute halves. This game had no halftime and they just played until the coaches' legs gave out, which turned out to be an hour and a half. My husband came home very sore! (technically I think the coaches won, but they say it was a tie)
After church the next day we went on a family date to a corn maze! We enjoyed the hayride out to the corn field because there was actually HAY involved in this hayride! (most "hayrides" we have been on were really "bare wagon rides"). Isn't this a beautiful picture of our daughter?
And all of our handsome boys!
Our whole family, before starting out.
For most of our time there we were the only ones in the maze and it was a blast to have the whole thing to ourselves! We played Marco Polo in the maze and it was SO much fun! The boys paired up in twos, daughter G got to go by herself, and hubby and I were the seekers. We gave them about a minute to go hide and then we began looking for them, calling out "Marco". They had to respond with "Polo" and then we followed their voices to find them. I will say that Little Man is an excellent hider! So good in fact, that a couple times his mama got a little nervous. :-)
All five of the children are in this picture. Can you spot them?
I'm so thankful for the fun that we had and the memories that we made. And for the beautiful sunny weather!! We are having such a glorious fall!
Update to the Job Interview Update!
My husband thinks the second interview went well. He was especially thankful that he felt at ease and was able to be himself, and represent himself honestly (tough sometimes to be true to who you are while at the same time trying to sell yourself). So we continue to wait and watch to see what God's plans are!
Thank you for your prayers!
Thank you for your prayers!
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