First Day of Homeschool

These are just some photo highlights from our first day. And no, I didn't mean to dress them in the same color. The irony is that I didn't wear green myself!! Sarah did pretty well, but daddy was home today to help distract her. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

playing around with photo booth

Today was a pretty great day. I had a dark moment with Sarah, but it's just her twoedness. We survived our first day of homeschool (woot, woo!). Eli loved it. We were done in about an hour and a half and that rocked. He read the entire first chapter of Genesis to me. Amazing.
Had a fun Walgreens run today. Love that store, especially now that my rebates are flowing back in. That makes it even more fun! CVS is still my favorite, but that's ok. Really got SIX absolutely free deodorants today. Can't beat that with a big stick in my book. :)
I'm tired. I need to go to bed, but I'm uploading Rob's videos to Expo. We are all working as a family towards a Wii. We think it would be a great family activity.
Oh, so we were in subway (had a coupon) and did a few videos for expo. (free food is the best food). Anyway, Rob finished filming me and Sarah says, now do me! She picks up her juice box and says "This is my juice. I like it..." Unfortunately Rob wasn't filming. But it was the cutest!! Like mother like daughter, I guess!

Whew... sunday.

I love sundays. I really do. But they leave me wiped out!! I really look forward to plopping on the couch with my coupon inserts and calling it a night. I'm headed there, but I realized I wanted to blog first.
Sharing a couple of pictures tonight. One is a picture of my cool new black shoes. I bought the brown ones and the black ones cause I couldn't decide on one pair. Pretty crazy of me, but they were both on sale 33% off, so I'm glad I did. Also, a photo of me on the phone with Lori today. So thankful for that relationship, she always keeps my head screwed on straight, know what I mean? And the last picture is of some new salt and pepper shakers my mom sent me. They are my fun fiestaware. thanks mom!!
Tomorrow is our big day to start homeschooling, but Eli is running a temp tonight, so I don't know. We may not start until Tuesday. We were all exposed to Scarlet Fever a week ago at Craig and Tricia's, so I am hoping this is not it!
Anyhoo, just really thankful for what we are doing. I love our job so much. Love our kids. Feeling really, really fulfilled tonight. Just a happy place to be.

Going Home

So glad to be going home today. This conference has been amazezing (in the words of Katelyn), but my brain feels like it is on overload. We are actually leaving this morning (after a quick run to Target - I have some coupons that will expire today). There is a huge blizzard system coming in and we don't want to get stuck in it. I miss my babies (I always do by day 3) and we have church all day tomorrow. Lots of stuff to do since we start homeschool on Monday. (yay!)
My mind is whirling from all that was discussed. And I am again amazed at how God links it all together, what's good for youth ministry applies to homeschool and homeschool to marriage and marriage to relationships. Make sense? I first discovered that in college and have found it to be true over and over since then. I love how you can learn on different levels and it's all interconnected. I have always tried to make learning a lifestyle and I think it keeps you passionate about life. Anyhoo, that's just my two cents.
I am a little bewildered by all I have to do at home, but I'm more excited by the challenge. I think homeschool will be an entirely new adventure for our family and I am ready for the first day to be here already!
Well, be praying for us as we head out, we've got a long drive and it's pretty poopy. Looking forward to being home sweet home.

PS - I cleaned up at Target the other day. Just for the record. I *heart* Target!

Experience 3

Earl Kreps from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary
(this guy is incredibly funny!)

We are dealing with two kinds of students. The haves and havenots. How do we minister to two radically different tribes of kids? The haves are the kids with the ipods and the pink razors. (hee-hee) All the latest and greatest. (the book Brand Child) These children can managed 5-6 media channels at a time. They are constantly searching for more information. Mark 10 - the rich young ruler. Our response? To crank up the cool factor with them. (doesn't sound like it would work) The problem with that is that it turns christianity into spiritual attainment. Have students are not impressed anyway. The havenots are just so disappointed. They have a very different lifestyle, no family, no built in moral system at home.
Jesus hung out with the people outside of the cultural box. (translate that into today) It's not the healthy people that need a doctor.
Our young people are crying out for a new law, that is transcendant to everything they have already experienced. Our havenots don't need pat answeres. They need love and encouragement and real relationship with Jesus.
The way to move people is to model with your own life. The first person in your church that becomes the soul winner becomes the leader.
Two kinds of graduates. The disciple generation - the stereotype of christian young people. Turning christianity into an ideology. This is our church's dirty laundry.
The other face of graduates is the disappearing generation. After students leave the shelter of home only one of three stays in church. They have been there for relationships, but when the relationship fails, but they don't maintain the presence in church. These pre-adults (twenty to twenty-five) sometimes resurface, but sometimes don't. Faith has become just a life stage. Christianity has become a religion for children and older women.
The Holy Spirit is the only agent of permanent transformation. No program or small group is going to change people long term. Only God can do it. But we can do is create the environment to give the Spirit of the Lord a better opportunity. (warming kids up for what God's going to do) Consider assigning an elder to a student in eighth grade all the way up through high school. Keep in mind with your mentorship relationships that you are not God, remind your students that it's about Him and not you. We don't need to be the celebrity model. Make sure you publicly deny that.
Students aren't taking us seriously, but it's just their life stage. Don't take it personally. What we do for a living is create environments where the Holy Spirit can reach students for Christ. For people with trouble with institutions, it's going to come down to how we live our lives. (integrity, witnessing, living Jesus in front of them) Be inexplicable.
A new model for us, a new perspective. "Christianity" Go back to the basics. Know God the person, really well. Don't try so hard. Students are just looking for a spiritual person. Corinthians 12:1 Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. Are you Christ-like??

Critical Issues Session

with our pal Steve Pulis.

8 out of 10 kids who graduate from our youth ministries will never set foot into a church again.
What do we do??

National Youth Alive Missionary, Professor of Youth Ministry at CBC, Steve Pulis.

How do we keep kids involved after they graduate? How do we help them with dicipleship?
Luke 9: Luke gave us God's discipleship model. Gave the disciples power and authority to go preach the gospel. Who is this Jesus?? after seeing Jesus perform miracles, the disciples are still overwhelmed at the job before them. They still didn't understand who Jesus was and what He could do.

Your commitment level to Jesus is equal to your understanding of Jesus and who He is as Lord. 'Jesus is my homeboy?' It's convenient to hang out with him, but I can take him or leave Him. If Jesus is truly LORD then you are a slave to Him in every area of life. We are missing the mark in communicating this to our students, therefore the level of commitment isn't what it should be. How do we communicate who Jesus is to our students? {open discussion} not being afraid to go deeper. be a model of living under Jesus' lordship. talking about that with the students, more than just modeling it. Discuss what lordship means, what it means to be sold out for Jesus. (find images to back this up, to share this idea with students) Grow in our own understanding of who Jesus is. Research it more, ask for God to show you more of him. Think Moses on the mountain, seeing God and how it changed him and he in return changed other people.
{back to lecture}
Who do you say that I am?? (Jesus asked) We need to understand that He is the messiah. Jesus defines discipleship. deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Jesus calls us to this.
Deny Yourself. Give up your identity. Walk away from how you are known. Thinking about the cross pre-Jesus, the cross only meant death. Jesus was asking a lot. The cross was for condemned criminals. He called for a change in identity. A shift takes place in your spiritual identity. When people see you, do they see Jesus? That is the commitment level Jesus is looking for. Radical self-denial, daily cross-bearing. To be discipled means to be with Jesus. Luke views discipleship as a journey. Jesus takes his disciples on a journey, geographically random, but spiritually intentional. This journey is not an event, but a process that you go through.
How do we emphasize process and not event in youth ministry?
As God uses us we should see the opposition in the world around us. It will cost us. To gain your life, you must lose it. God's economy and justice is different than the worlds. Following Jesus requires everything. Do we make that clear to our students?? Do we effectively communicate what it is we are asking students to do?? We need to ask for a real commitment. Otherwise we are pushing people farther away from God by not asking for a real commitment. Instead of me leading people to Jesus, training students to ask their friends for real commitments.
You need to be able to define 'take up your cross' in a way that a teenager understands. Often times our students won't understand what we were talking about until they've moved on. When things level out a bit, then they will get it. Think about the disciples, when they combined the mission with the things that Jesus told them and they get the big picture. Involve students in the ministry, so it can grow fruit in their lives and get passed on to others.
What you do to reach students is what you should do to keep students. Focus their discipleship on flushing out their faith at school. Their world is their school. Live for God in their world, while still under our covering.


Just a personal aside - I am so amazed at all I am learning this weekend. This is probably the most intelligent conference I've been in so far - and I've been to a fair share of conferences! Anyway, I am super impressed - very excited about taking all that we are learning and taking it home and implementing it.

Navigating the Maze

with Jen Deweert and Melissa Kossack

(women in ministry)

How to Thrive Rather then Survive

How do you find balance with parenting, ministry, as a wife?
look to God for encouragement. adjust as you go along. make time for your babies, they are your first ministry. pick and choose your areas of responsibility. the Lord is not going to punish your kids because you are in ministry. your kids will get through it. the other people in your life are good for your kids too. you can’t compare yourself to any other mom or any other women in ministry. look at what God has given you, and what He requires of you. just be obedient with what you have already on your plate. honor Him with it. realize with small kids, this is just a season. we need to be purposeful with our relationships with kids, because our time is limited. be specific in the ministry that you have. you can stay home and still be involved, find that happy medium. moms tend to either stay home and only stay home, or stay home and barely stay there. find the balance between the two.

How do you minister to teenagers without destroying your kids character??
open dialogue with your children. find a way to ask for help. (it’s ok) helps us teach our kids that we have a mission in this world. look for a balance between spending time with teenagers and with kids.

What about my ministry??
bringing your ministry in line with your husband. finding satisfaction in what you are doing.

Target Session Two

When Your Church Doesn't Want to Change with Eric Lawson (from OneEighty)

Youth Culture (including youth pastors) are passionate for change. We have a God-ordained craziness, working with youth. It's a positive thing, but it can also be our greatest weakness. Consider the statistics on youth pastor. Only one of ten yp's will still be in ministry at sixty years of age. Let's turn that statistic around. God is looking for leaders who have the depth of character to be relevant for the next forty years.
How do we navigate a culture that is constantly changing? Our number one job is to serve the pastor of the church. Your job is to get behind the pastor's vision. If you will be faithful to that which is another man's, God will give you your own. God is looking for people who can lift up the hands of Moses in this time. (transparency without nakedness) How many of us have considered quitting??
You can feel like God has left your church because no one wants to change. (ouch) Some of us are in a dry season, feeling frustration. We need to realize that God is still in this place and He will give us a vision and fresh infilling. It is not an accident that you are in that church. We need to wake up and say "God is in this place" and plug in where we are at. God does not lead by opportunities because Satan can manufacture opportunities too.
(Sometimes you don't hear God because you don't want to) The integrity of the upright will guide you. God will never lead you outside of integrity. God's will is more important than ours, He's more concerned about what is happening in you than what is happening around you. Rather be in God's will in the dessert than in the promised land without Him. Don't follow opportunities, follow God's will. You can't have a long term ministry without Him. He is more concerned with your longevity and your legacy than your current status. God used an imperfect father (Jesse) to position David to become king. David wouldn't have found his destiny if he hadn't been in submission to an imperfect leader. You need to know how to honor the authority of the people God has placed us under. Jesus put his Judas in the seat of honor at the passover meal. Know how to love them, honor them, put them in the seat of honor in your life. People don't follow what you do, they follow who you are. God is most concerned about who you are becoming. We need to be more concerned with character. It's hard to draw more people if you are resistant to change. Why do we want the numbers?? (numbers of kids, people) We are way too hung up on numbers. We put our identity in our numbers. We will always struggle with this, it's our pride. Numbers matter to God, but we have to go beyond them and measure the health of our church. Anybody can get a crowd.
Key Performance Indicators for youth group:
1.) Attendence - how many of the kids come from a ten minute radius. Know and understand your numbers and where they come from?
2.) Visitors - where are they coming from? Are you retaining them? People bring people to things they love. That's how you get visitors. If your kids aren't bringing friends, why??
3.) Decisions - how many are new decisions, how many are rededications?? Gotta go beyond the decisions.
4.) Dicipleship - can't leave these spiritual babies in the gutter. Need to have a system in place.
5.) Student Involvement - everyone is created to serve. Are you involving your students?
6.) Giving - track giving. If giving is growing their heart is growing.
7.) Volunteers - how many adults can you get to volunteer. Do you have workers that are older than you? If you can't attract older people, than is your maturity level too weak.

If you are in a desert, just know that God is there. The greater the change inside - the greater the change outside - long term.

PS - the pictures are Eric Lawson (in the green shirt), our fearless leader Jeff Kossack (DYD in cowboy shirt) and Rockford Masters Commission kids doing a super cool human video type thing. Love this live blogging thing, don't you?

Target Session One

Hey everybody. I'm posting live from Target here. Yep, as my brain expands, so can yours. Pretty exciting, huh?

Worship was amazing. I honestly came in overhelmed and tired. We've just had a crazy busy couple weeks - you can tell because I haven't blogged hardly at all. Worship alone recharged me soul and now I feel ready to learn and grasp new.

We are talking about signs of the times, and where this generation is going and what to do about it. cool.

Well buckle up, tonight's speaker is Leonard Sweet. enjoy.

Jesus's catch phrase was "I tell you the truth". Jesus wanted us to know how to read the sign on the times. Semiotics. the ability to read signs. What hermeneutics is to text, semiotics is to context. We use semiotics all the time. New car syndrome - see the car you bought everywhere. Semiotic awareness. Kids get bored, it's a state of semiotic breakdown.
Helping us get into a state of semiotic awareness. The ultimate in spiritual illiteracy is the inability to read the handwriting on the wall.
We can complain about the culture, or we can deal with it. It's like the weather, we can complain about it or we can adjust to it. (think ministry)

Five Areas we will deal with in the next ten years in a significant way:
(these are the best of times, these are the worst of times)

1.) Size does matter. But the next big thing is the next small thing. Can you do little large?

2.) There is a digital skin that is covering planet earth. We are going to see digital everything, everything digitalized. GRIN technology. Genetic Robotic Information Nano Technology. The way GRIN frowns on the future.

3.) Crusades 9. We are looking at a whole new crusades. The difference is the previous 8 crusades were confined to specific areas of the world, but this one is global.

4.) EPIC Rules. Experiential. Participatory. Image rich. Connective. Anything that is working is getting more epic.

5.) The Bell curve has been replaced by the well curve. A normal distribution curve - big middles and little ends. New distribution curve - the well curve. All middles are bottoming out. The chasm between opposites is greater, but they are not contradictions.

Let's talk.

EPIC rules. Postmodern Pilgrims. (check out this book) Also, the gospel according to Starbucks. Anything that is working in this culture is getting more EPIC. It's not how churches are programed. We've all sold out to modernity. The struggles that are happening in your church are not over preserving christianity as much as preserving modernism. (ouch) Our culture is participatory. Think about PS2 verses Wii.

Digital Onionskin covering the earth. Only going to increase. You need to integrate this into your ministry. Technology is now a utility. (not optional) This is the reality of the world we live in. New connections are possible all the time. The third generation of the internet is here. Fusing of web tools with human intelligence, the beginning of the web to reason and interact with us in real time. We need to communicate to this culture who Jesus is to this culture. Jesus is God's avatar. (eventually your avatar will be more important than your social security number) Change is not incremental, it is exponential. (the only people who are still doing cassettes are churches) We need to authenticate what is real and what isn't real. A world that connects people. But the web makes promises it can't fulfill. People are hungry for the real thing. Technology makes people hungry for the real. To get real in the future, you need to get virtual. You also need to be real. How can we use the internet in this way? Make an investment in your internet life. (I'm thinking more time on myspace, connecting with students) But you need to bring the internet and face-to-face together. Highly relational communication is key. Bridging the two is key. The primary culture currency is not words, it's images.

Cognitive Neural Linguistics. The key to anyone's information is reframing - giving them new metaphors. Jesus gave us an image and then gave us a two to three minute narrative. He stacked them. The power is in the metaphor. You think you dream in words? Your mind is made in metaphors. Our culture thinks in metaphors, in images. We are still preaching in words. (postmodern culture is extremely like the first century culture)
How do you bridge the cultural gap? how do we do missions on myspace?? Be in myspace but not of it. Make your top 8 your prayer list for the week. Find out who's not in anyone's top eight or top ten?? Get the church to think missionally??
Symbol of the future. Concerts. You don't sit in your seat anymore. You don't sit and listen to music. The highest moment is when the performer allows the audience to participate. (unleashes the spirit in them) Multi-tasking is the way we learn. Our students are yearning for the multi-generational family of the church. Our charge is the youth group, not the whole church. Storylines in postmodern culture are getting more complex. Everyone's brains are being rewired in this way. (think about tv shows: ie LOST, 24) The only way you aren't rewired is if you are disconnected. ADD is the result of cultural rewiring. Drugs are forcing our kids into the modern way of thinking rather then the postmodern they have been programmed. (millions of kids on a class two substance currently)

The Well Curve. A normal bell curve, everything bunched up in the middle. Huge classifications. Middle class, mainline religion, middle management, average. The digital culture has made everything in the middle bottoming out. All middles are in trouble - the ends are growing. (screens are getting bigger and screens are getting smaller) Rich are getting richer and poor or getting poorer. The world is getting more global and the more global it gets the more tribal it becomes. (tribal - what are your stories, your ancestry) Living in a culture that opposite things are happening. Connect the extremes to survive the culture. Think about a battery, connecting the positive and negative and it's explosive - you have power. Christianity doesn't like middles. It doesn't like lukewarm. Christianity is this way (polytheistic/monotheistic) - living the mystery. We hold both extremes. God is truly transcendent. My two pounds of brain can't wrap itself around the mystery that God is. (gives me hope for this generation and for my ministry)
We have an image statement that brings together these two extremes. The cross. Never separate the vertical and the horizontal. Lightning is formed by negative ions in the cloud and positive ions on the ground. Bring the two together. The cross is the lightning - the power. The key to this ministry is not to play it save in the middle, but to bring the ends together. You don't build a bridge starting in the middle. God is going to spit out the average middle of the road church/christian. (barf, hurl) "You make me sick, church". If your church is afraid of change, movement, motion - time to get out the barf bag. The more your kids do online, the more they will hunger for the real. High tech, high touch. Church needs to become a relational space. Currently the church is not designed for relationships, it's designed for principles. Make church more relational, add your stain to everyone else's. Make it messy, relationships are messy. There is going to be spillage. Worship should be relational. Odd numbers are key - three, five. (trained to write a sermon, not to design an experience) We need to think individually, connectively. Our shift should be more experiential.
Examples for youth pastors:
churches are going to get bigger and smaller. Our churches are looking more like warehouses, our houses are looking more like churches. (interesting) house churches. Increasing decentralization. The soviet union broke up into smaller entities. Success of Habitat for Humanity, bringing extremes together. It's EPIC. The poor have a house, the rich have an experience.

We are still teaching kids about word ethics (don't say that word, cleansing traditions if you did) but we need to teach our children image ethics - images we should never see, cleansing traditions to remove them. We need to challenge those images. Our kids face a grim future and they know it. We don't live in a 'great time' as those who have gone before it. The challenge - be EPIC. God has chosen us for such a time as this.

Ok - so these are my notes from this guy. Now, just to give you a little background. He claimed to be methodist. He knocked the pentecostals several times. I thought this was a little arrogant, considering he was in a sanctuary filled with AG youth pastors and leaders. He was VERY liberal in his thinking. Some of it I found interesting, challenging, and possibly true. But, I definitely need some more time to think about all the ideas he proposed. His talk left me feeling very overwhelmed and under-prepared. But I can definitely see the beginnings of a lot of things he's talking about, even at HAG. I am personally excited and challenged to take some of these thoughts back to our group. I want to spend more time with kids on MySpace - I see that as a much greater (and absolutely essential) tool than I did before. I also feel like we are doing a lot of things right - in the relational way our services are right now, almost by accident. A lack of leaders has really changed our structure on Sunday nights, but I'm not seeing this as a negative any longer. I am super excited to see how Rob and I can process this information and the changes we will instigate in the near future.

Happy Mac Day!!

What a great day! Forgive me, my typing will be short and sweet as to me adjusting to a new non-ergonomic keyboard. Yep, our new Mac came today and I'm thrilled. Totally lost, I have no idea how to use it, but the more time I spend on it, the more familiar with it I will become, right?
Anyhoo, in a total moment of insanity I bought a cell phone today too. Just really thrusting myself into 2007 I guess. I just got so sick of not having one. Oh, and it's pink, how fun is that??

And last but not least, here is one of the two pair of shoes I bought to replace my ten year old Doc Martens. Uber-cute, huh??

PS - notice our daft paper weight sitting next to our shiney new mac!! :)

because I'm sure you were wondering....

How I still felt about grocery game.

I LOVE IT!!!

This game has changed my life. I think about money and shopping totally differently.

Do you see this picture?

Everything you see here, I paid (hold on) $.50 for. Not kidding. Two quarters. The cashier was pretty impressed. Oh, and I will be getting $22 back in ECB's. (rebate type thing from CVS)

I love this, it is so much fun. It's completely addictive! I can't wait until next week to see what I can score for free!!

I need to take a picture of my stockpile just to give you a better idea, but it's a little spread out at the moment. Rob and I are in the midst of rearranging things to better accomodate my little habit. :) We also brought a freezer home from Springfield this weekend, it's all plugged in and ready to get filled now. Very exciting. It kind of feels like playing a video game, when you clear a level - gaining wisdom, experience, confidence and skills for the next series of challenges. Yep, I'm weird like that. But I'm ok with it. :)

PS - I love how, in the picture, you can look at those pink razors and see the price tag of $13.50
Yep, I rock.

My High

Every day we do 'hi-lo' with the kids before we go to bed. Well, today my high was after my kids were snuggled in for the night. I had a chance to video chat with my big brother, clear over in Iraq. It's the first time I've talked to him more than email since he's been over there. So, so, so cool. What an absolute treat! Rob took this picture of us chatting. (ignore the monstrously messy desk) My sister was in on the call, too, and my brother's wife towards the end, but the more people we added the poorer the connection got.

Modern technology amazes me. I love the internet. It was so good to see his face. I read and see terrible things in the news about Iraq every day. I pray for my brother every day, and for his safe return to his family. (he has three boys) Please, join me in my prayers for his safety and support our troops. Even if you don't agree with what's going on over there, our men (brothers, fathers, husbands) are out fighting their hearts out and they need our unconditional love and support.

Springfield

Good to be here. No, great actually. So low-key. I'm just enjoying the quiet and the easy pace. No dishes, no house keeping, no laundry. Eli's having a blast on Carter and Cameron's Wii. I actually tried it last night - pretty fun stuff! Had to laugh, the boys had me stand still while they made a character of me - so cute. Looked just like Jay's version of me from back in December. Adorable. I have to wonder if I'm that adorable in real life?? :)
We hit Gospel Publishing House Outlet yesterday. Very exciting. I found a great Math Curriculum for Eli - Bob Jones. I just really liked the way it was laid out, and the fact that it was all color. I think he's like me, motivated by style and flair. (tehee, we are a rare breed) So we bought that, and a new One Year bible for Eli. I think he's really going to like it. We also found some great readers for him - science readers and basic theology readers. Sounds advanced, but things like "Jesus is my best friend because..." Oh, and I found a handwriting book there too.
Then we went over to Redeemed. Oh my word. I just happened to be their bi-annual 40% off everything sale. We went nuts. Readers, textbooks, workbooks, you name it, we found it. Plus we bought a bunch of just fun books for the kids too. I think a person can never read too much. All the homeschoolers I have talked to have said you can't read too much!! I think that's the easiest way to learn. The more we look at this the more I see us doing a little more un-schooling than I had originally planned. Eli's got tons of ideas about what he wants to learn.
So my total was $124. But then after the discount it came down to $74. So that added in with the $64 I spent at GPH brings us to a grand total of $138 on books for this year. Not bad at all. I thought I was cutting myself short by having a budget of $200. But nope, we still have room to work with! Cool! The sale really helped.
Anyhoo, we came to Craig and Tricia's then and just crashed here, hanging out, talking. It was awesome. These guys have always been our mentors - they knew us before we were 'us' if you know what I mean. I love checking in with them, they have always been straight shooters with us.
So today we are just chilling, waiting for Cheddar's. Might hit a scrapbook store or two this afternoon, if I can talk the kids into it. Might go find an educational toy store or two. Might just chill for the rest of the day. Our life is usually pretty insane, so it's nice to just relax and let things happen for a change.
Also, I asked Tricia they would want me to photograph their family tomorrow, and she thought that would be awesome. Woohoo! This will be my first family to work with, and they are beautiful people, so it will just be super-fun. I hope the kids will work with, but I bet they will. Can't wait. It's so funny how excited I get to take people's pictures!!

PS - Sarah just handed me the wrapper from her tootsie roll and said "merry christmas!" She's so my kid!

PSS - aren't these some of the most beautiful people you have ever seen??

Happy Heart Day

As my Amish friends would say "It's been a wonderful -gut day!". So many good things have happened today, I can't even go into it all. Just lots of great things. I'm totally behind for tomorrow, but that's ok, today was worth it. Anyhoo, I'm sharing some great pictures I accidently took last night. Sarah had messed with my camera and changed the settings, I didn't realize it until after I'd taken a bunch of pictures, but I love the warmth and motion in them. Also, we took our traditional V-day photo, been doing this since Sarah's been here, love the tradition.
Well, off to pack and heat up some supper. Find someone you love and snuggle in on this cold night. So sad, no MOPs today or church, so I get to do just that!

Satan is under my feet.

There's a song, from back in the day at MAG. Sometimes PR sings it, but never with the gusto that Carol Kiel did. Anyway - the words are "He's under my feet, he's under my feet, Satan is under my feet!"
This is how I feel today. Except in modern day language - he's all up in my grill! Driving me crazy. I think we are experiencing a ton of spiritual warfare because we've just made this huge decision to home school. Makes me wonder why satan wants Eli in public so bad - but maybe deep down I know.
Anyhoo, Sarah is on my list. I think that the enemy of my soul can use her because she's not a christian yet. Can't tell you how many times Rob and I've looked at her and said "Sarah, you need to get saved!" I think I've even heard Eli say it! Today she has found trouble round every turn. Inventing new ways to sin. I'm going to tell you this, only because it is quite possibly the grossest thing I've seen in all my born days. I was on the phone with a homeschool mom, just asking a few more questions. I noticed that Sarah had number two-ed. I said my goodbyes and hung up. My plan was to bundle these kids up and let them play in the snow, wear em out, give 'em baths and get them ready for bed right after supper. (I know I'm cruel, but we all missed three crucial hours of sleep last night) So, I go to pick up Sarah and notice these birds outside our window, so cute. I literally run back to my office, grab my camera and take ONE photo before my excitement scares them off. I set the camera on the desk and notice that Sarah's hands are all brown.
Yep, you guessed it. She'd reached into her pants (like it was a back pocket), pulled out a lump of fecal matter and started playing with it as though it were playdoh. Seriously, her fingers were caked (that stuff dries fast!) and she had it on a student loan about to go into the mail, all over my desktop (don't worry, I've lysoled and re-lysoled since then) and all over her clothes. It's all I can do to keep from going ballistic on her. Remaining calm I scurry her off to the tub. So, a bath and a hair dry later we did finally get outside to enjoy the snow. Only because I am so determined to get a full night's sleep this evening!
I have turkey rice soup in the crockpot and a loaf of bread in the oven. Ready for a lazy evening with my hubby, cozied up in a heated throw. So sad, worship practice was postponed tonight. (awww...) Now, we'll just have to see about MOPs in the morning. ;)
Oh, and it is that bad here, while we were playing in the front yard we watched two trucks collide at the intersection. Not pretty. So glad I get to stay home and not go anywhere in weather like this!

Snow Day

Help. I've fallen and I can't get up.

I just feel so behind lately. And now, having made the decision to home school, I wonder if I will ever catch up!!!

Sarah was up all night last night. Literally. I went to bed at 10pm - just died in bed, asleep before Rob even made it to bed a few minutes later. Sarah woke up at midnight. She continued to get up every 15-20 minutes there after. She woke up Eli several times. At one point I think we were all crying. (at least on the inside) I just get really mean when I haven't had enough sleep. And I think I'm fighting a cold, so being up with a stinky toddler - not my cup of tea last night.
So fast forward to this morning, I DRAG both of my kids out of bed and scramble to motivate Eli to get him to school. Notice it's still raining. Rob takes Eli to school, and it's closed. For snow. (looking around for snow) Oh, but a major system hits here maybe a half an hour later. It will be totally white within 20 more minutes, I'm pretty sure. Beautiful.
And so I'm sad. I love snow days. but I am just SO not in the mood to be the fun mom today. I want to be the gritchy asleep on the couch mom today. Oh well, suck it up and do it anyway. I've got tons to prepare for before homeschool starts on the 26th.
This is perfect weather for scrapbooking. Maybe this afternoon during naps. And oh, there will be naps, let me tell you!!!

the Arch

Finally.
I have gotten around to posting Monday's pictures. Yep, it's just been that kind of week. Can't help it, sorry.
We had such a great time. In my mind it was kind of a test run on the home school thing, seeing what I could teach him in a day. He did fabulously. He loved the arch, despite the fact it was 9 degrees and a long walk to and from the car. For the record, the place was deserted - it was a fabulous time to go!
I took some cool pictures. Unfortunately, when I handed the camera off, they tended to be blurry; we can thank low light, swaying arch and cold little fingers for that. :) Oh well, it was still an amazing memory.
Eli was so funny going up in the pod, it really made him nervous. We did math to help calm him down. Aww... math calms his nerves, too cute.
He was super excited to hug Merriweather Lewis too, just like Daddy did when we visited back in May. Te-hee. Anyhoo, it was a great day. We topped off our trip with some shopping at the Galleria (love that mall!) and supper at Panera. Yum. Char and I had a great visit. She brought me a bunch of t-shirts and cropped pants from Old Navy, so nice. I actually feel like I have enough clothes for once!
Well, now I really need to get cleaning. More later, I'm sure.

PS - looking back over these photos, you can totally tell which ones I took and which ones I handed the camera over on. interesting.

I said hey, what's going on ??

I'm sure you are dying to know. I've just kind of left everyone hanging the last couple days. Life has just been busy. And I keep thinking how much home schooling is going to change our life, and adapt with us and our lifestyle. It's pretty exciting. So yes, we've officially decided, we are doing this homeschool thing. I'm breaking out my long skirts and growing a mullet and it's off to homeschool we go. Just kidding. :)
Actually, when my sister was here the other day she said "Man, you're such a hip young mom." Awww. I try to be relevant, I really do. :)
So...
I talked to his teacher yesterday. She took it really well. I just wanted her to know that it had nothing to do with her, she does an amazing job with him and if she hadn't been so wonderful we probably would have made this choice a lot sooner. There are a lot of factors that have played into this decision and they all kind of came together to lead us to the choice to pull him out.
I also spoke with Eli's principle yesterday and he was also extremely supportive. I was very surprised by that, but I guess it's 2007 and the world has changed in the 20 years since my parents originally homeschooled us. (thank goodness)
And I was just in a telling mood yesterday, because I told the women's ministries group at church last night - just figuring it would be better for everyone to hear it straight from me rather than the rumor mill and it was a good opportunity.
So now the question is when. I'm leaning towards Valentine's Day being his last day. His teacher is very sad to see him go, she said they would miss him a lot and all I can think is "I know, we miss him now!". I just can't wait to see how he comes around at home when he's well-rested again. I'm so excited for all the things we will learn and do together. I'm starting on a daily schedule for us, but I have some details to hammer out. The book I'm reading suggests fridays as field trip day, but I think we'll do Mondays instead, so daddy can join us.
I know this is going to be a life change - drastic, but I think I'm ready. Please, if you think of us in the next few weeks, be praying for us as we make this transition. Especially me. :) Still not sure what I'm doing, but my confidence is growing daily. I've found a lot of helpful books and a few people too!
What else is happening? I've played a tiny bit - the page I posted. We had this picture taken back in Ozark and it's a terrible picture from a really horrible day we had. We ate some moldy cheese on our tacos (not knowing, of course) right before this picture was taken. I was counting down to a throwup party basically. :) And Sarah wouldn't smile for anything, she looks like a zombie. And we won't even talk about my hair. gee whiz. Then after the terrible picture the Olan Mills guy tries to wrestle me to the ground to buy a print. I'm like, are you looking at the same picture I am??? Anyway, I ran across this picture the other day and decided to scrapbook it, cause at least I can laugh at it then.
Oh, and this is the potato I exploded in my oven the other day. Isn't that funny? Rob didn't think it was quite as funny as I did. details.
We have Cribs tonight. Looking forward to it, but I need to get off this computer and get my house clean. So, ta ta for now!