Our Summer 2008

I don't know about anyone else and their summer but mine has gone by rather quickly. JC asked me the other day "Mom, how can it almost be Christmas already?" I had to tell him that time passes so quickly and that is why we have to make sure that every day is spent doing the things that are truly important. Now as the world grows darker we have to shine Christs' light even brighter so those who are lost will see.

We did get to do some fun things this summer. I don't have pictures yet of all of them but if I wait for that I may never post! I love to post and share things on here but life gets so busy sometimes. I will try to give brief descriptions of our summer activities!

One of the things we have done a lot this summer is go to Hawaiian Falls in Mansfield. It is newly built and really great for families with younger children. We got passes and went every weekend in June and part of July. We have not had a chance to go in the last few weeks due to our many activities. But that has been a major source of fun in our summer. Both the younger kids have turned a beautiful golden brown as their skin tanned in the summer sun. Mine on the other hand, has not! My darling husband questioned me one day as to why I wasn't as dark as them since I was out there the same amount of time. I just DON'T tan, that is it, cut and dry. I did get a little bit darker but still look very fair next to them.

JC went to Preteen Camp for the very first time this year! He loved it, as I knew he would. He enjoyed every aspect of it. He enjoyed the camp pastor, which was also a comedian/storyteller of sorts. He had a wonderful wolf puppet that he used to tell stories and get the kids drawn into it with. He came home with the CD of it and we listened to it all the way home from the church, with a couple of stops in between. I don't have his film developed yet, I know bad! What can I say? I am so busy! And... I forget!

Jenni also had her first experience with camp this year. She went to GA camp. Her big sister went in my place since I had no more vacation time to spare because we used up five days for our honeymoon in April. The girls had a wonderful time, all of them. It was one of the best years the girls had at camp. She really grew up during that trip. I talked to her on the phone a few times but she didn't want to come home. She wanted to stay there and have fun with her friends and her sister. Last weekend she got invited over to a sleepover and I could tell she really had grown up a little from camp when I told her I would miss her. Her reply was "Mom, it's not that long." Too true, it was only one night, not 5 days like camp was. My sweet baby is growing up! That is a very good thing!

In between church camps we went on our vacation to...you guessed it...Colorado! We sure miss it when we are not there. We spent the 4th of July with our dear friends in Idaho Springs.

We watched the fireworks from the same spot we did last year.

The next day us girls had our day, as you can read about in the previous post.

We headed for Montrose to camp the following day. The views along the way were wonderful. We hadn't traveled that way before so it was nice to see some of Colorado that we hadn't seen. We camped there for two days. The weather was nice. We drove up to Ouray and that was a lovely little mountain town. There were shops there and I found a collection of Angels that I adore! I want to collect them but can't find anyone who sells them. So I guess I will have to make trips to Ouray periodically. We may camp there someday.

We headed to Westcliffe, our town, after that. We spent two days there. We put markers on our land where we want our house built. We also went bowling (our favorite thing to do there) and played pool one night. We also got to eat at our favorite pizza place. It was like being home for just a bit.

Then we went to Durango to camp a couple of days. This is a view we saw while driving from Westcliffe to Durango. It was fun.

We got to make s'mores at the camp ground in Durango since we could have somewhat of an open fire. We didn't get to do that in Montrose. Then we drove home in one day! LONG DRIVE!!!

The day we got home from Colorado we slept for half a day then got up for Vacation Bible School. We had a wonderful week of VBS! The songs were so fun this year. I had been working in the preschool area the last 9 years so I really missed the music time that the older kids got to do.

I helped out in the first grade class. We had a lot of fun doing pretend water activities in the classroom!

We have done the summer movie day several times this summer. The kids have been great at that. We went to Chuck E. Cheese one morning to visit with some dear friends from the school the kids went to the last two years. We have gone to get Slurpees many, many times this summer to try to withstand the heat that comes with Texas during the months of July and August.

We have gone to see full price movies a few times. We enjoyed Dark Knight and Kung Fu Panda. It is so hard to take the kids to the movies when it is new because it costs so much now. I would rather wait till the movies gets to the dollar show to pay less but it is hard to make them wait for something they want to see so badly and others they are close to have seen it. Of course, Sami saw Dark Knight the day it opened! She does that a lot.

I have been doing school all summer. I have done very well at keeping my grades up, even through vacation! Yes, my laptop and text book went with us! I am in the process of getting licensed instead of registered with the state so that I can watch more kids and carry more kids on my food program. I am very excited about what that can mean towards our goals to pay off things and build our house so that we are debt free and have a place to live when we get to Colorado. We have sat down and made our lists of things we need to do in the next few months and it is so exciting!

We could no longer afford our old school so we had to make some hard choices. But with prayer they have not been hard at all. Much to the contrary. Nick is studying to take his GED. The younger two will be homeschooling. We are all excited about our school plans and look forward to an exciting year. Nick is also working on starting his own rock band. He is so talented. He taught himself how to play the piano and bass guitar and sings very well. He is now learning to play the drums for certain songs. He is gifted with music in a way I have never seen before. I am amazed and excited to see how he lets God use him through it.

My daycare, as I said above, is doing very well and we are making some big changes. The Lord is already laying the foundations of it as the time draws near to turn in the paperwork. I am trusting Him to bring who He wants here as always. He has been so faithful to do so all these years.

We are doing well and staying busy as we take each day and do at least one thing to work towards our goals to move. It takes time but we will get there.

Until next time...blessings to you.

Mother/Daughter Day In Colorado

We had a wonderful Mother/Daughter day with our friends, Michelle and Caroline. We had been planning it for months since I told her we were coming for the fourth of July weekend. We watched the fireworks with our friends, the Hillman's, like we did last year. Then on Saturday, July 5th we went on a Mother/Daughter picture and fun day. (We ended up taking Michael with us but that ended up OK) The guys went fishing and had a good time.

We wanted to take some mother and daughter pictures since we are both nuts about pictures. I think we both got some really great ones. I love this one of Jenni and me. She is such a special little girl and I am glad we were able to capture this moment in time. I am going to put some of them in a special frame when I get the time and find the right frame.

Michelle and Caroline got some really good ones, too. It was so much fun spending the day together in the mountains. She took us to a small mountain town and we looked in the shops and ate pizza and ice cream. We went to the mall after that to shop and eat dinner. The kids rode the carousel.

Of course, the girls had to get their pictures done together. They were always right next to each other so it wasn't hard to snap quite a few pictures of them. They had such a great time together on our trip.

We "big" girls had to have some fun, too! Jenni did a great job of taking pictures of us! I got both of us a frame that says friends and holds two pictures. So we are putting these two pictures in those frames. That worked out perfectly!

Our day was a blast and I am so grateful that God sent this precious friend into my life. He is so good and knows who and what we need all the time. I love you, Michelle! You are the best ever! Thanks for always being there for me!

Until next time...blessings to you.

Happy 4th of July

I am going on vacation on July 3-13 and will not be doing any blogging (not that I have been doing much lately!). I found a wonderful poem and thought I would share it with my visitors, too. We will be in Colorado for 9 days and enjoying the great outdoors and the company of our friends that live there. We need a vacation so badly! Please pray for our safety and protection while we are on the road. We will have lots to post about when we return!!! Happy 4th!

We gather 'round to celebrate

On Independence Day

Pay homage to our country

As the children run and play.

With barbecues and picnics

And fireworks in the air

The flag we own is proudly flown

To show how much we care.

The stars and stripes spell freedom

She waves upon the breeze

While bursts of colors can be seen

Above the towering trees.

This is all quite wonderful

We revel in delight

But God above in divine love

Has brought this day to light.

With just a stroke of liberty

A touch of His great hand

He gave democracy to us

And helped this country stand.

The stripes upon our stately flag

Were touched by His sweet grace

Each star of white that shines so bright

Reflects His loving face.

So as you turn to face the flag

For battles that were fought

Be filled with pride for those who died

And freedoms that were bought.

But don’t forget to thank the One

That gives the bright display

The reason why we paint the sky

On Independence Day

Copyright © Marilyn Ferguson 2003

Until next time...blessings to you.

That You May Have Peace-In Him

Jesus said in John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

Isn't that a wonderful promise from Jesus? In Him we can have peace even though we are in the world and going through tribulation because he already overcame the world. He beat death and we are victors with Him! So no matter what you are going through in this world, take heart because He is there for you and has sent His Holy Spirit to be with you. No matter what mistakes we make or what comes against us. He loves us. We are chosen by Him.

I am on lesson 4 of the Ephesians study and enjoying it very much. God is speaking to me about so many things that I have gone through, am going through and will go through, for I am still on this earth for a time and the tribulations and trials will not end until He either comes again or I go home to be with Him. Since I know neither date, I just have to walk in faith and trust God to be there for me.

There are so many temptations out there and one of them is to get wrapped up in the worlds ways of doing things. And having bad attitudes towards others that may not agree with us. But I desire to be different and to fight those temptations. I only want to feel towards others the way Jesus does. The only way I can do that is to allow the Holy Spirit to move in me and show me the way. He has been doing that in an amazing way this last week. I could be feeling very upset about some things but I'm not. I am just praying for peace in other peoples lives because I have peace in my heart about things. I know that although I make mistakes God is there for me and He knows I am trying to do His will and trying so hard not to mess up. (but I do anyway) And He knows that my desire to change comes from Him. I have been seeking Him more and more to be close to Him and have a more personal relationship with Him and through that I have grown in many ways.

Does that mean I am saying I am perfect and become all I can be? Not by a long shot. I will not be made perfect until I see Christ again. So I will keep struggling along desiring to be more like Him in all I do. I will falter because I am human and make mistakes. But Christ knows my heart and loves me no matter what.

We, as humans, have a hard time with that concept. We expect people to be perfect. That is an unrealistic expectation. And we judge and condemn those we say we care about in the process because they don't live up to our expectations of them. How sad to put that heavy weight on others. It may be that this happens when we have a heavy weight on our own shoulders that we really don't want to look at and take care of. Like the Bible tells us to remove the plank out of our own eye before we try to remove the speck from a brothers. We see the other peoples faults as unbearable when the plank in our own eye becomes too large to bear. Even if it is something that is hard to deal with, God is there and will see us through it. We must address every issue He brings to our attention so that we can have that peace He desires for us to have. I have been trying my best to allow God to remove the planks from my eyes so that I see others from His loving point of view.

I pray for peace in all of your lives and in my own. Life on this earth is hard. No question there. And each day we have a choice to make. What will we do today that has eternal value? Will we make a difference in other's lives? If you have children or children in your life, what will you give them that day to point them toward the Father above? Towards Jesus who showed us how to live and be light to others? That is something I try to ask myself each morning. I am not always successful in starting my day the right way, but it is my desire to do so. I desire a closer walk with the Lord, daily. I desire to spread His love to others and to point the way to Christ in doing so.

What will your day hold that is eternal? When you are doing your normal everyday activities what can you put in the middle of it that will contain eternal value? Think about it, and share it with me, if you want.

Until next time...blessings to you.

Life In The Spirit: The Spirit and It's Fruit

I just finished up a 15 lesson study on Life in the Spirit with Kay Arthur online. We looked at many verses in the Bible where we see the Spirit and marked them. Today's lesson was on the Spirit and the fruit that is produced when you live in the Spirit instead of the flesh. Kay stated: Life in the Spirit is to have Christ in you by the power of the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you until you see Him face to face.

2 Corinthians 5:9 says: Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

That should be what our lives are like, pleasing to Him. As a human being that is a hard thing to accomplish. But if we live in the Spirit is becomes easier. If we are listening to the Spirit tell us how to act and react to things, then we are on the right path. Yes, we will slip up but it should not be the habit of our lives to follow that other path.

But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Gal 5:22-26

How are we to do that if we are weak? The Bible tells us that Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

That should give us hope because it tells us that we can't do it by our might or our power but by the Spirit of the Lord! Wow!

Well, what about peace? How can we have peace in all things? That is a hard one, right? Nope, same as the rest. Romans 5:1 tells us that Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace through Jesus. He came and gave us so much and much of the time we leave it "on the table" and say "oh, I don't need that, thanks anyway. I am doing just fine on my own." How much we miss out on in our lives when we do not take ALL that Christ offers us. It is a packaged deal, we get it all, not just some of His wonderful gifts.

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ does that mean life will always be easy and we will never have trials and hard times? I am afraid not. Life will not be perfect because we are human and we still have that sinful nature that we have to suppress each and every day that we walk this earth. But the power of the Spirit will give us the ability to overcome the flesh and live in the Spirit and produce those Fruit in our lives.

If you are lost and don't know what Christ did for you, I would be happy to share it with you. How Christ came to earth taking on human form to die for our sins. He died on the cross a sinless man. He rose on the third day and was seen by many. Then he ascended into Heaven and will return one day for all those who choose to believe in Him. He wants all to come to Him. If you know Christ but are still confused as to how you are to live in the Spirit I can give you my notes from the Bible study and we can talk about it. I, like minded with Christ, want none to perish and be lost. The world is getting darker and darker, we need to be that light in the world for others to find so that they, too, can be with Christ in Heaven when He comes again.

Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 37:5

Our Homeschool Focused Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend! It was very full but very productive and positive. In Texas last week is the "official" Homeschool week. Six Flags has a Homeschool day on Thursday (we didn't go to it this year but might next year!), the book fair is at the convention center for Friday and Saturday and the Rangers Ballpark has Homeschool night at the Ballpark on Friday night. 

We went to a few conferences and the kids were very good! They took something to do while we were in there. When we were in between looking at the curriculum and going to a conference we sat in the lobby and talked and laughed with each other.

On of the conferences we went to was on Peace Treaties in the Living Room. It was by the three siblings that wrote Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. Towards the end of the session they did a visual presentation. The oldest daughter did a chalk drawing while her brother did the talking and her sister played the harp. There were times where both girls would stop what they were doing to talk, too. It was amazing to watch and hear them. Pirate Lad made me take a picture of her picture. He is very into art and drawing. That is why he got two small art sets while we were there, water colors and drawing.

John was "in charge" of finding our Science since he is the one teaching science. He will be helping me in other areas but that is one of the things that will be his only. He is also in charge of our family devotions. He found a great resource for that. In the picture above they are at a science booth where that car was going around the circle on that table. Jenni was watching that while John and JC were watching their computer demonstration while the man explained the program to them. "Dad" took finding the right program very seriously. He looked diligently both days before he found what he wanted. He thought once that he found one but then as he looked closer he found that it was full of evolution. He was disappointed. But God led him to the right one and he is very excited to get started. We found just the right things for each subject and are very pleased.

Since we were going to the Ranger game after the book fair they told us at the Ranger office to park in that parking lot early so that we wouldn't have to pay for parking. So we did and walked to the convention center on Friday after lunch. The kids liked telling people how they had to walk so FAR! It was only down the street a block away. We have a tradition when we go to the book fair, we go in the morning and don't buy anything. Then we go to lunch and talk about the things we saw and liked or didn't like. This time we went to Chili's and it was so good! When we got back there were several things we knew we wanted but there were also many things that we needed to think about over night and look up on the Internet for more details. There was also a conference the next morning on the Accountable Kids so I wanted to check it out first before I purchased it. The conference sold me! It is a wonderful program that they kids learn to remind themselves to do things instead of me hounding them all morning to get their list of things done and then wondering if they really did do them. We will start it next Sunday. More info on that later!

We got done at the book fair a little before 5 so we waited outside the Ballpark for it to open. A local Homeschool resource store and the Ballpark had arranged for a comedian and illusionist to come perform for the homeschool kids before the show. 

Since it was a special day we did splurge on a few things that we normally wouldn't. The four of us got an Icee! It tasted so good because it had gotten so hot. We were on the very top of the stadium and you can see the new Cowboy Stadium being built in the background. John planned it that way!

JC also got nachos, John got a hot dog, I got an ice cream cookie sandwich and JC and Jenni got Dibs. Yes, we spent far two much but we had a good time and that is what counts. We don't do this on a regular basis so it was special.

They had a really, really hard time staying in their seats! They were all over the place. We were almost at the top of the bleachers so it really didn't matter much. For the most part they were super! They were excited when the Rangers got a hit and when they struck someone out. The Rangers got a home run and fireworks went off but the guys were in the bathroom so they missed it! Too Bad! But the Rangers did win! 4 to 0! Sami said that we should go more often maybe they would win more often. I don't know about that. But it was a good game.

Even John was in a playful mood as I tried to take our picture. He was quite proud of himself for putting rabbit ears on me! We got home and they crashed. We got up at 6 that morning. We went to IHOP for breakfast before the book fair. On Saturday morning we got up an hour later but still got to the book fair on time. Sami decided she wanted to go on Saturday so we picked her up. My two younger kids spent the whole day walking around with her. They had a blast and were so good. I was proud of them!

So as our weekend came to a close I felt so good about things. I spent half of Mother's Day cleaning out cabinets and throwing things away. We have started organizing our Homeschool cabinet. I am so excited to get things cleaned out and start this new adventure with a new frame of mind. One that is focused on Christ and His plans for our lives. More to come.....

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

He Speaks to Me

"I'm your servant, ready to listen."

1 Samuel 3:10

On Saturday, May 3 at my church we had a ladies spring luncheon. The theme was "He Speaks to Me". As you can see from above the verse is out of the book of 1 Samuel. We had a lovely morning of fellowship with one another and good food, salads from Sweet Tomatoes. I had never eaten there so it was nice to get to try it. One of the ladies sang a song and then we had our wonderful guest speaker, a dear friend of mine. She had many wonderful things to say about how God speaks to her. And advice on how to listen to God speaking to us straight from His Word.

The focus to her talk was John 14:15-26.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. Judas said unto Him, not Iscriot, Lord, How is it that thou wilt manifest theyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

She taught us a really neat trick to help us remember verse 20. She gave us three different size envelopes and one small bright colored square. She told us to take the largest envelope and write God on it. The second one we wrote Jesus on it. The smallest one we wrote our name on it and then we took the small square and wrote Jesus on that one, too. We put them all inside of one another smallest to largest. So It reminded us that Jesus is in God. We are in Jesus. And Jesus is in us. Isn't that a neat little trick to remember it? She had really cute decorated envelopes and told us that we could take ours and decorate them when we got home if we wanted to. She is such a crafty person! 

She also talked about the words in red in the Bible. We know they are Jesus' words. The whole Word of God is very special, no arguing that. But it really peaked my attention when she would refer over and over to the Words in Red being Christs' Words. The Words He spoke to His followers and to us, all of us from then to the day of His return. Wow! We are so fortunate to have His Word. Some do not have a Bible. I find that so sad. I try to make sure that all the children who ask for one, and any adults for that matter, have one if I know they do not.

Some of you may know and some may not know the struggles my family has been going through. As we have been seeking His will and guidance through it I have had to listen very carefully to what He was saying and the timing on that. When the doors were opened so quickly that I could hear God speaking through that. God is using this to bring our family closer and to work through so many things. I am excited to see what God is going to do through all of it.

So how do you hear God speaking to you? How do you speak to God? Prayer? Song? Through service? Through friends? If there is a certain way that God has spoken to you lately, please share it with me.

Until next time...blessings to you.