Son G starts sophomore year

After moving two of our children *away* to school, it was time for son G, who goes to college locally, to begin his sophomore year.  He very reluctantly allowed me to take this "first day of school" picture......

......but later he was all smiles when posing with his cousin, who goes to the same college he does!

Happy sophomore year, son G!

Vacation Bible School - 2018 Edition!

Myself and three of our boys served at our church's vacation Bible school this year.  I LOVE serving at VBS, as I get to be the first and second grade story teller, and it is such a privilege to teach children about Jesus.  Son G and son C both served on the worship band (son C was also a small group leader), and Little Man was a small group leader of first and second graders.  One of the unique things about VBS for us this year was that son C had recently sustained a fracture of his fibula (smaller of the two bones in your lower leg) during his last soccer game of the season, and he served the entire week on crutches and while wearing an immobilization boot!

Son C is on the piano, and just behind him you can see son G in the drum cage.

Little Man was greatly loved by the kids in his group, and ended up "wearing" one during every large group session!

I love serving God alongside my children!

Here is a video of some of their music.  It is the "canned" music that plays as the children are entering the auditorium for the closing session at the end of the morning, but it shows the worship band guys on the platform "dancing"....my boys are on the far left and the far right.  And you can see Little Man near the back of the auditorium at the end of an aisle, singing and interacting with the boys in his small group.

Milestones!!

Since I last blogged, this beautiful young woman turned 21,

this handsome young man turned 19,

this handsome young man turned 18 AND graduated from high school!, and

last but not least we remodeled our family room from this:

to this: 

just in time to host son L's grad party!  Whew!!

Busy spring with lots of wonderful milestones.  My heart is full.

Christmas Eve 2017

If you have been a long time reader, these pictures will look familiar.  They are just the 2017 version. :)  We started our family Christmas celebration at the Christmas Eve service at church.  I always love the Christmas Eve service!  We end it every time just with candlelight, while singing Silent Night.  So special.

At home we ate our traditional Chinese food for dinner, and then had our own worship service, with sons G, A, and C helping to read the Christmas story this year from my grandfather's Bible.
     

After prayer, we began opening our gifts to one another.  Daughter H was able to join us for the evening, and we had fun being all together!  She gave my husband this Keurig for Christmas!

Little Man is obsessed with this show.  We watch it with him....it's a little edgy (scary)....but we are all enjoying the very good acting by child actors, and can talk about each episode after we watch.

So happy that two of my boys still want legos!

Son L received these cool water speakers (behind him on the bookcase).  They light up and water spouts up with the beat.  We had fun trying out different songs to see how they would affect the water.

These are daughter G's feet.  She has long wanted Chaco sandals, and this was her year to get them!

We faked son G out with this gift....it was so fun!  He had wanted the battlefront 2 game (Star Wars, for those of you who may not know), but we packed it with a heavy book in a bigger box so that he wouldn't guess what it was by the weight and shape.  He opened it from the bottom and saw the book first, and was kindof confused....it was a book on eschatology!  Haha!  The rest of the evening, while all the gifts continued being opened, he loaded it on the xbox so he could play some before bed.  He LOVES this game.

Daughter G gave hubby and I light sabers, so we could have a light saber battle for date night!

Kyle Ren's tie fighter.

Daughter H got to open her stocking that night as well, since she wouldn't be with us the next morning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

New Jobs!

Our two oldest boys got jobs just before Christmas at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Yes, the same restaurant, and they sometimes work the same shift!  So thankful that our college boy in particular (on the left) has steady income now.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Week in Review

Did you know that the Alamo and the events depicted in Les Miserables took place during the same year?

Yep, they did.  1832.  We studied both of them and for Friday night movie night we introduced Little Man to the wonders of the 2012 Les Mis movie (we had him cover his eyes for two scenes).  His siblings had all seen it previously and go around singing the songs quite frequently, so Little Man could sing along with almost all of them even though he was seeing the movie for the very first time.  We are big Les Mis fans here, so it was a delight to share that with our youngest.

Do you have a favorite Les Mis song?

I am so in love with home schooling!  God has been renewing my home schooling joy this year, and I am so, so thankful.  There are always new things to learn, and it is such a delight to learn together with my children.  I am doubly thankful that after 17 years God is giving me fresh excitement for the task of teaching my children at home.

When looking at the big picture we are definitely in the home stretch.  Only 5 more years after this one and Little Man will graduate.  I know these next 5 years will fly by.  So my focus has shifted from active teaching to facilitating and cheerleading as my children take on the responsibility of learning for themselves.  Our days (and my priorities) have changed so much over these past 17 years.  It's kindof surreal and awesome and humbling to reflect on this journey we embarked on 17 years ago, and see God's faithfulness to us in so many ways.  He is good!

Little Man, checking his math with dad one evening.

And me, on a college planning lunch date with son L.  We had a very productive time, gaining clarity on a direction to pursue, if not a specific college yet.  I love him so!  He wants to be effective for God's Kingdom, and I love that about him.

We also got to attend another wonderful wedding this past week.  I love weddings!  They are such a beautiful picture of God's love for us (which of course is what God's Word says they should be!).  When I am at a wedding I spend as much time looking at old married couples in the audience as I do at the young couple up front.  Young love is beautiful and exciting and sweet, but old love is deep and rich and has gone through intense heat to make it more pure.  Older couples who have lived out their vows through "richer or poorer" and "in sickness and in health" inspire, challenge, and bless me.  I am thankful this beautiful young couple has such good examples of marriage to pattern theirs after!

In other news, son C's winter soccer season has begun.  This is not indoor soccer, which is played on a smaller field and you can hit the ball off the walls.  This is outdoor field sized soccer which happens to be played inside a big dome.  His select team is playing winter soccer for the next 4-5 months, until the outdoor fields are ready to be played on again in the spring.  So....in some ways it will be a long winter. ;)  This is a new team for son C, and he has lots of new things to adjust to.  But he is excited because this is a dream of his, and I just want to support him any way I can ("facilitate and cheerlead", remember?).

One day this week I looked out the kitchen window, and there in the back yard were Little Man and 18 year old college man (son G) choreographing a light saber battle with two lit up light sabers.  I just stood at the window and watched them for a long time.  It was something that probably wouldn't have happened if we weren't home schooling (and hence Little Man being home during the day around son G's college schedule).  It made my mama's heart very full and so, so thankful.  We are rejoicing that son G has TWO part time jobs now!!!  He had experienced quite a few closed doors of employment before these two opened, and we are (again) thankful!  So very much to be thankful for.....

What are you thankful for this week?

College Readiness

Within hours of returning from our wonderful TN vacation, we helped son G buy his first car, and in the next couple of days went to parent day at his college orientation, and moved daughter G in to her dorm at HER college, for her junior year.  It was a busy few days with lots of "firsts" (yay!) and lots of "goodbyes" (boo).

Son G and my hubby, watching the family of geese that lives in the pond on campus.  There were also some carp swimming in this pond!

After convocation, all the freshmen met together in groups of 15 or so, and they stayed in these groups for the next days of orientation.

Son G is in the green shirt and grey pants, waiting for the rest of his group members to show up.  He bonded really well with his group leaders (one guy and one girl), and they were really great at showing him the ropes every day.

Meanwhile, the rest of us moved daughter G to her college dorm for the third time.  Hard to believe she is half done!

Love her so much.  So hard to say goodbye.  So happy that she loves her college and is thriving there.  That's my heart in three sentences.

Back home, her vacated bedroom, which used to look like this:

...now looks like this!  Son G moved in to her room to begin his college experience.  It's bigger and brighter, and.....he doesn't have to have a roommate.  First time since infancy that he has his own room!

Worship

There is almost nothing better than seeing my children worship God, and when they get to do it by leading others in to worship it's a little piece of heaven.  Last Sunday Little Man played a piano prelude right before our worship service started!  It was his first time to play in "big church," and he was nervous but did a great job.  I videotaped him during rehearsal, at which time he made several small mistakes (no biggie!), but when he played it for real he absolutely nailed it.  So proud of him!

Immediately following this, son G led the congregation in the opening worship song.  He has played guitar in big church before, but has never been the lead singer.  He also did a fantastic job!  I am both proud and humbled, and so very thankful that my children love Jesus and want to worship Him!

Mission Trips

Three of our boys participated in two different mission trips this summer.  The first one was a week in a local inner city, and you can see from this commissioning service photo that it was a big team!  Three fourths of the team ran a VBS style day camp for children who live in one of the poorest zip codes in the country.  Son C was in this group of kids.  The other one fourth of the team did physical labor type work projects in the same impoverished neighborhood, and Little Man was in this group.

When we dropped them off we prayed AGAIN!  (can't ever have too much prayer!)

The man in the red shirt and baseball cap is one of our two wonderful youth leaders.  Son C is in the foreground.

Both our youth leaders.  So thankful for these godly men who invest in the lives of my kids!

One week after this mission trip ended, sons G and C went on a similar mission trip to Puerto Rico!

They partnered with a local church there, putting on a VBS program for children, doing work projects at the church, a community center, and a local nursing home, but also participating in outreach events to give the church a greater presence in the neighborhood.

Even though the work was similar to that done on the previous mission trip, it felt different because they were working in a different culture and there was a language barrier to work around.

All three boys were greatly impacted by these mission trips, and I am so thankful they had the opportunity to go!