13 for Summer

Taking a page from my dear friend Dana 

Thirteen Things to do this Summer

1.) Walk 3 mornings a week.
2.) Finish my Narrated Bible
3.) Create a new saving/spending plan for our family.
4.) Save $500 in our emergency fund
5.) Come up with a daily routine that involves walking, talking, and less but more engaged time online
6.) Finish 4 baby blankets, 1 wedding afghan, 5 pot holders (for a swap) and several other crocheted items to equal one large and at least 3 small finished objects a week.
7.) Organize our family's books (with as many books as this family has that is ONE LARGE PROJECT)
8.) Reorganize my pantry and kitchen to better suit our needs (an fit the appliances that will be coming into our kitchen)
9.) Plan and gather materials for school next  year. -- I'll have a 1st, 3rd and 6th grader
10.) Do more baking/cooking with the kiddos
11.) Blog consistently, on interesting topics
12.) Finish at least 5 books on my TBR stack.
13.) Have fun with kiddos this summer.

Sunday vs Monday.

This week has been a classic example in my life.  And today God has been bringing it up again and again.  I believe He wants me to learn a lesson from it.  Since, as an educator, I believe that more ways you experience a lesson the better you learn that lesson, I will also be processing and writing out my experiences.  Hopefully it will make sense and maybe you will get something out of it too.

Sunday wasn't a good day for me.  You see I was on that sinking sand.  I was believing the lies the enemy was speaking into my ears.  But as Cheri pointed out so eloquently, believing that perception was coloring my view of everything.  I was not a happy camper nor very pleasant to be around.

Yet after a good night's sleep, one in which the baby slept through the night, I had a whole new perception on Monday.  I made the choice to have a better outlook and day, and guess what I did.  I made a choice to lean on that Solid Rock and believe Him. It was a much better day.  Things that would have been over the top for me to handle on Sunday, didn't bother me on Monday.   And I didn't just survive the day, I enjoyed it.

This morning presented yet another choice and I am choosing a similar path to Monday's and it is working out well.  The principal at the last school I taught paraphrased this popular verse in this was "This is the day that the Lord has made and I will CHOOSE to rejoice in it"  It is all about choice people, all about choice.

Finished Blanket

I made this blanket for Little Man -- I started it around the time he was born and finished tacking all the ends in today.   It isn't the best in the world but it is done.



Here are close ups of the squares - the heart square



-- and the solid square

Solid Rock vs Sinking Sand

My husband is one of those people who only has to hear a song once or twice to be able to sing it again, from memory. Our daughter has picked up the same tendency.  I have a better memory for the tune than the words, but that is a different story.  

Regardless of the above fact, God has always spoken to me through song lyrics.  That isn't the only way He chooses to speak to me, but it is one way He uses quite regularly, for me.  This past weekend at church we sang two very old hymns of the church and each of them was a sermon in itself to me, which was good because I missed most of the actual sermon due to a fussy baby.  I will blog on those later.  Tonight I wanted to touch on one of the first hymns God used in my life.  

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

Read those words again carefully. Go over them slowly.  It is basic theology, He is our Rock.  If we lean on that, believe in that, trust in that, we will not be disappointed.  Our everything truly does lay with Him, not in what man sees or says.  But how often, we (I) forget that, how often I find myself believing other things, resting in other things or worse my self.  What happens then?  The refrain reminds us "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand"  because "All other ground is sinking sand" and to get the point across, that line is repeated, and if sung with the traditional tune slower and lower to really bring emphasis to the words "All other ground IS. SINKING. SAND."  (emphasis mine) 

Have you ever been caught up in quick sand, or seen someone caught up in it.  I have seen it in the movies and it doesn't look pretty.  In fact it looks like one of the ways I would least want to die, you see I have this intense dislike of feeling like I can't breathe, and when one sinks in quick sand, it doesn't appear you breathe very easily.  And lest you say, "But that is just the movies, it doesn't really happen like that"  You are probably right but the illustration is pretty powerful indeed.  And that is what really brings me around to the realization that I can not depend on what others say AT.ALL.  Because as the hymn writer puts it "ALL other ground IS sinking sand"  

Now someone (and you ladies know who you are) remind me of this next time I start getting moody because likely I have started to listen to and believe someone else, and usually that person is myself ;-)  

Our days have settled down into somewhat of a routine.  After getting up and eating breakfast. We work on chores around the house and pick up school work.  The kiddos are pretty much ahead of schedule so we don't really push it hard.  Pumpkin has state testing next week.  I don't particularly like that we have to do this but, it is better than the requirements in many other states.

Little Man has been eating a lot lately. Can we say growing spurt?  He seems to be doing really well.  He has pretty much set his own schedule that works really well with the family.  The only thing I wish is that he would last a little bit longer during the night.  But since I don't have to punch any one else's time clock, that doesn't matter as much either.

I have been working very closely with our budget and bills.  I am determined to stay on top of it and begin working in Dave Ramsey's principles for us. That being said and that determination made, I have been able to resist some temptations in the last week which would have been my downfall.  God is really showing Himself faithful to keep me on the straight and narrow.  I am striving to stay obedient to that.  I know life will be so much easier on us if I do this.

With that in mind I have also been working on our meals and grocery list.  I am working to develop a recipe binder.    It is a work in progress but it also makes me organize and use my cookbook and recipe collection.  Hopefully I can share it soon.

Buddy being silly

Buddy is in his room for disciplinary reasons.  I am sitting out here at the computer when I hear this mechanical whirring noise.  I look over and see his motorized lego truck stuck against the rocking chair with a paper sticking out of it.  I go to investigate.  The paper is a note which reads (spelling is his)  "Please send me a diffrint book to read.  Your old pal E.."