A trip to the mall

I took my kids to the mall yesterday partly to go Christmas shopping and partly just to spend the day with them. I am sad to report what I saw. Although it didn't surprise me it saddened me. All around us were people rushing around, grumbling, being rude. I saw no Christmas cheer. One store display ever said Christmas Greedy. What has our world come to. Christmas has become a time to fight it out for the toys your kids want or the things you think you have to have. we as Americans have gotten so far away from what Christmas really means. Even Christians have fallen into the trap of commercialism. Why has this time of year become a time for us to expect to go into debt. To SPEND SPEND SPEND. Christmas is NOT about Santa... it is about the birth of Jesus!!!!!! We are supposed to give gifts to express the love God showed for us in sending his son to earth. I hope we as Christians will take Christmas back and get out of the commercialism trap. I plan on limiting Santa more this year and focusing more on Christ. I would rather fill the kids with Gods word and love for us then a bunch of toys that will be lost, broken or forgotten with time. Toys and things are temporary... Gods love is forever!

The joy of adoption

I know that God is in control of all things in our lives. About 12 years ago I was facing life as a women who wanted children very badly but could not have them. It was a time of great sorrow in my life because I could not understand why God would give me this great desire in my heart but take away my ability to have children. I never doubted he had a plan. I just didnt understand it. Fast Foward 12 years, I am the mother of not one child but 4.... when God blesses... he blesses big! Not only that but I have fostered an additional 4 children. Thats eight children that have been in my home and I have "mothered" back 12 years ago I could not have imagined I would be so blessed. I believe God calls some of us to the wonderful process of adoption. It is after all what he does for each of us when we accept him as savior.
My family has once again been blessed. My brother and sister in law are in the process of adopting a sweet little 4 year old boy. God has chosen them to be his parents and us to be his family. I am so excited about the common bond of adoption that our children will share. I am so happy to have a new nephew.
I praise God for the blessing and priviledge of Adoption.

Homeschooling year 2

Last year I decided to bring my kids home and educate them. A series of events finally led me to make this decision for my family. I was scared out of my mind that I would not be able to do it sucessfully. I am thanful for the homeschooling friends that helped me and listened to me all year long. I made lots of mistakes my first year but we made it! I learned more of what works for each of my children and for my family. We have been able to grow closer as a family through this process. I have also seen the frustrations of dealing with public schooling disappear!
Now we are entering our second year. Lots of changes are upon us. My oldest child will be a 9th grader. Luckily he is very smart and has a desire to learn. In fact he has already read through all of his textbooks and he cant wait to begin. I am so glad I will do my first time homeschooling high school with him. I also have two 7th graders and one 5th grader. I have chose My fathers world curriculm for all of us this year. Dylan will be doing the High school version- Old testment for his history and English. Electives will include High school health, Spanish 1 and God and the history of art. He chose the Life Pac for Math and of course Apologia Biology! He cant wait to do his disections-- yucky
The rest will do Exploration to 1850 for History and Music. They will also do God and the history of Art, rod and staff English, spelling and math and Apologia General science.
It will be a full and fun year for us!

Tim's tree

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were moving into out apartment in Louisville Ky. It was a day of unpacking, taking boxes to the dumpster then unpacking some more. In the mist of it, Tim came through the door holding a small dead looking twig in a busted up pot. It Looked like its former owners gave up on it and put it in the trash. Leaving it there to die. Tim could not stand it and brought it home to nurse it back to health. It was the twigs lucky day because if it had been me taking the boxes to the dump it would have been left there. I have never been much of a plant person. I laughed at him for bringing it home. I could not imagine that it would live. It was practically dead. All brown and dried up. Despite what I thought, it lived and thrived under Tims loving care.
Then came time for Tim to graduate from seminary and for us to move to Georgia. The small tree as it had become now was use to the colder, milder climate of Kentucky. I really did not think it would go well for it. First it had to survive the move then the climate change. Tim loaded it carefully into his station wagon. When we arrived in Georgia, it slowly began to loose its leaves over the next few weeks and look "sick". I thought yeap this is it. Tim however never gave up on his little tree. He gave it extra nutrients in the soil and nursed it and it began to thrive again. It grew and thrived year after year.
After five years in Georgia it was time for another move. This time to a little milder climate in SC. I knew this would not be a great climate change for the tree but still could it really survive another change. He Loaded it in the back of his truck and we were off again. As it had before, it lost all its leaves over the next few weeks. Tim nursed on it again and once again it begin to grow its leaves and thrive. I marveled at this amazing little tree.
Then the time came for us to move again. This time it was just me and the kids. Tim wasnt with us anymore. I carefully loaded the tree in my van as tears rolled down my face. I will take care of you little tree. The tree must have know that I had little knowledge of how to care for it because it did not loose its leaves in this move. It never looked sick.
I was repotting the tree again today for the 3rd time in 5 years. Oh little tree what you have seen. You were rescued from the dump. You were saved. You saw our laugher in our first years of marriage. You saw our joy in getting our first baby KC our cat who still lives with us.You saw our tears over not being able to have kids. You saw the joy of the adoption of the boys, then Caitlyn. You have seen the highs and loves in our lives. I just wonder what you will see in the future.

WHY

I know everyone has things in their lives that they wonder WHY. I read it everyday in my news feed. I see people fighting cancer, children going through diseases, people dealing with injuries, operations that dont work and so on. The sad fact is that it is a fact of life. If you are not dealing with a why now then you will one day. I have found that the best way to deal with a why is to see how God can be glorified by the situation. This is not always easy.
In my own life, as fathers day approaches we deal with our BIGGEST why. That is why God took Tim. I have my own theories mostly that his work was done. But I also see all the people that came to Christ because of him. We may never know the real reason but what I do know is that I am not the only one that goes through a why and I can use my situation to help others.

FADS

My children have joined the recent crazy fad called Silly Bands. My daughter has an armful of them. It has made me think about fads and fashion. Who is it exactly that decides what is "in" and "out" as far as fashion goes. Why is it that in my teenage years that members only jackets were the thing to wear but today that are OUT. Even more dramatic is that what was acceptable last year is not so this year. It is crazy. My children tell me all the time that i am out of style. I refuse to buy into all that. I dont buy it for the kids either. No way am I gonna buy $100 shoes just so they can be in style. My daughter actually saved here money to buy a columbia jacket but I would not buy it for her- she has five perfectly good jackets in her closet. The funny thing about that is though she waited until they went on sale and bought it.
The sad thing is that it is not just our kids that are buying into all of this. Many adults are going into debt so they can be in style and keep up with their friends. It is a sad fact of our Country. I just think my money would be better used in other ways then buying too high fashions and supporting that whole industry. I refuse to pay out hundreds of dollars for things that will be considered "out" next year. I hope I am able to teach my kids what is actually important in life and help them escape this cultural need to keep up.

MAY

May use to be my favorite month. It is the beginning of spring, the month I graduated from high school and college and most important my birthday. Now however all that has faded and May is just the month my whole life changed. I feel the sadness fill me as May 1 st comes. I thought aftrer all this time the pain would have been lessened but it hasnt. It is just as strong as ever. It will be 5 yrs this May that Tim left us. In a way it feels like it was yesterday but then again it feels like is was so long ago. I have now parented my children alone as long as we parented together. Everyday I learn more ways to survive as a single mom. I have learned how to fix things and do things I never thought I would. I have found strength I never knew I had. I have survived and that in itself is a miracle.
For the first few years I was in a panic about being alone. Like I was less of a person because I was alone. But now I have come to accept my aloneness and find the good in it. I have had the best gift in having Tim in my life and if God never choses to bless me again then that is ok. He gave me more then I deserved. I am not even sure anyone else could measure up anyway. I dont know what the future hold and I am glad I dont!

A tough decision

I have toyed with the idea of cutting off the cable for a long time. I know we live in this world but do we have to poison our minds and our children's minds with the influence of television. Lets thinks about what is offered on television. As time as gone on it has gotton worse and worse. Even cartoons are not safe with the rise of adult cartoons that are offered. Kids are naturally drawn to cartoons but it is getting to where more and more cartoons are not kid approriate and even those that are suppossed to be kid friendly are often violent and have underlying non christian themes. Channels once thought to be for kids now offer adult related shows.
The idea that having sex outside of marriage is now showed to be normal and if you arent doing it you are thought to be abnormal. These ideas are shown in almost every show offered on TV. There is also a rise in homosexual friendly shows. This is becoming a more accepted way of life and anyone who disagrees with it is seen as intolerant and stupid. christians are more and more shown as idiots. These are messages I do not want my children to be feed and I am certainly do not want to pay for it it be channeled into my house and poison our minds.
I want my kids to be influenced by other things. So on Wed the Cable will be cut off. Yes the kids will be mad but they will get over it and one day they will understand.

Gotcha DAY

I cant believe it has been 10 yrs. Where has all the time gone. I remember it like it was yesterday. We had taken the required 10 week class to become foster/adoptive parents. We were so excited to welcome our new addition into the family. I had thought we would get one child.. maybe two. I decorated the bedroom with noahs ark. We had two twin beds ready for our babies. Then the call cae. The social worker said we have 3 little boys that need a home. I couldnt believe it... 3 boys. They were 4 yrs, 3 yrs and 13 months old. We were so excited when we went to pick them up the next day. I will never forget meeting them. They were so small and so scared.
Just look at them now. Dylan is 14- and very, very smart. He amazes me! Christoper is 13- and has such an engeeirs mind- he can put anything together. William is 11 and soo outgoing. He never meets a stranger.
I am very blessed to have them in my life.

Homes for hope

Our church has started a new program called homes for hope. The emphasis of this program is to provide homes for the children in our world in need. This is something near and dear to my heart. I was moved to tears Sunday morning as Travis talked about a child in Ethopia that his family is considering adopting. It made me cry with joy because this child will get an awesome Christian home and it moved me to tears to think of all the children in our world that will not be as lucky. There are children in OUR country, in OUR town that will never experience the love and joy of a family to call their own. They will get "lost" in the system and age out when they turn 18 yrs old. We as Christians need to step up and provide for these kids. I know not everyone can adopt but we can do SOMETHING to help, There will be a informational meeting at Northside on Thursday night and we will be there. I know I am not in the position to adopt another child- my hands are pretty full as it is- but there is something I can do. I just cant stand the fact that there are children out there that no one loves. Tim always said we would take as many as came along because there is no limit to Gods love. I plan to continue his dream.

One of those days

What a day. Ever woke up and you just knew it was going to be " one of those days?" Well today was it for me. The alarm went off and I rolled over for what felt like 2 minutes but was actually one hour. Now here I am running late- what a way to start the day. I jump up, shower, go fix my coffee and wake the kids up. Then it begins- my endless list to them- get dressed, eat breakfast- no not cookies or cake breakfast food, brush your teeth, is your bed made? Ok now lets start school- yes we have to do math today- yes I know you hate it. Lets start with history- stop hitting your brother with the pencil- yes you were- ok go to time out for back talking. Now its time for math yes you have to do your math. Stop playing with the toy and do your math. And that is how my morning went. I am tired just recapping it.
Then gymnastics class, grocery shopping, back home to cook dinner. Now clean you rooms while I cook dinner. CRASH - Mom he threw shoe at me and broke the window. Great just
what I need. I run upstairs to find glass all over the floor and top pane of the double paned window shattered. Good news is that we can make it through the night with the one pane intact. Ok clean up the mess- be careful and dont cut your fingers. Now dinner is done, mess is cleaned, Children are bathed and quietly in their rooms. I praise God for the gift of my kids even when we have "one of those days."

Being the young widow

I wish it didnt still hurt and after almost 5 years I didnt think it would but it does. There I am in church with my children and the marriage conference video/advertisement comes on the screen. It hits me like a ton of bricks. It makes me realize my situation. I am alone. I am a single parent. I am no longer married. I didnt choose this. I didnt want this. It wasnt the life I planned. My life was perfect. I had the perfect husband. I had the houseful of kids I wanted. I was the preachers wife. I had it "all" then it was gone. In one day it was all gone and my life was turned upside down. My perfect husband was gone, my marriage was no more, my kids lost their dad, I was no longer the preachers wife. I was left to pick up the pieces and start over. Find my way in life. Make a totally new path from the one I was traveling. I felt SO lost for so long. Just going through the motions of life. After the kids were in bed at night I was alone. Half of me was gone.
I have come a long way. I have found a new path. I have made peace with it all but still there are times like today when the bricks fall and my pain is exposed but I know it is satans way of hurting me. Whispering in my ear "look what God has done to you" Satan finds our deepest pains and uses then against us. I know my God did not do this to me. He is the one that gives me peace. So I wipe my tears away- look at my four kids and know what a blessing they are- and hold my head up high and face it knowing God is in control!

coupon clippers- getting started

I started a group on Facebook called Coupon Clippers. I did this because I hated to throw away coupons I did not need. I also did not like to waste time trying to find someone who might want the coupons. I know that some coupons that I do not need- may be pure gold to someone else. So if you have not joined the group- please consider doing so- it is a free group with NO obligations.

Help!!!

When I wanted to set up this website I had NO idea where to even begin! Thankfully God has blessed me with a son who knows alot about computers and is setting up this site for me! Thanks Dylan- you are a blessing

Birthday Craze!

On Friday, Dylan turns 14! Next week, on the 12th, William turns 11! I cant believe my babies are growing up soo quickly!

Gymnastics Competition In Tiger Paw

Caitlyn has a gymnastics competition on Thursday! We are going to Tiger Paw to support her.