Catch Up....

I have been a little behind this week on my posts. We have done a lot! First, I will recap from last Tuesday night from The Ladies Tea at church. What a fun night! Each year, the church hosts a Ladies Tea, open to the public and other churches with reserved tickets only. Probably about 300 women attended. Each table seats 8 ladies and each table is decorated different. There is a host for each table that is responsible for decorating and hosting each lady at their table. Every table could have been in a magazine. I was completely amazed at how beautiful each table was decorated and the thought and planning of each. We were served on beautiful china and served by the men of the church. So fun! The speaker this year, Candy Wood Lindley, a survivor of a baseball-sized tumor in the center of her head. Amazing testimony to see the work of God's hand throughout each step of the way of every surgury she had to endure. WOW! I was so blessed to have been able to go and enjoy listening to her share God's amazing love.

My girls beg for craft time in school. Sometimes it is hard to work that in, but we did that day and they loved it. I found in the clearance section at Wal-mart these cute Martha Stewart puppets for $3.00. Cute too!

Okay, to avoid germs as much as possible, this is now how I go to the grocery store. I put Lydia in the stroller and one of the girls pushes her while the other helps me gather items off the shelves. No touching the buggy or anything else for that matter.

Then, I was able to attend a wedding of a girl friend of mine. Such a sweet couple and beautiful wedding. The reception was outside in the freezing cold weather. Burrrrrr......

On Sunday, we were able to attend a beautiful service in a Primitive Baptist Church in The Cove. God is so good...Worshipping Him in an old church built in the 1800's, with fingerprints still on the ceiling and walls of the men who built it back in the day. Simply amazing. The kids had a blast afterwards playing in the leaves and laughing and playing for hours. So fun!!!!

Camping for the First Time...

We decided it was time to take the family on an adventure and camp. We have had this camping trip planned for several months and of course, when the time came and it was our weekend, it was one of the coldest weekends we have had this year. Oh well, we had to go anyway because we have talked about it and talked about it to the kids. They were not about to let it go! The anticipation and excitement was at its high!

We borrowed my dad's camper which has heat and air, kitchen, bathroom, and two beds. So, we were able to come in from the cold and stay warm. We spent the majority of our time in the camper because it was cold and wet outside. We did grill out hamburgers and hotdogs on the campfire and had our "all time" favorite, s'mores. So good! We brought a few games for the kids and just enjoyed being together as a family.

All of us had the best time! On Sunday, we were able to have "church in the camper". You can praise and worship our precious Lord anywhere. It was great!

Silliness in Our Home...

Madelyn Loves building tents!

I made some yummy chocolate pudding and the girls loved pretending it was lipstick!

Emma lived in that Tennessee Cheerleader dress up all day until bed time. She's such a cutie!

My sweet Lydia....ummmm gotta love that chocolate!!!

Halloween or No Halloween...Santa or No Santa....

That is the question in our household...The Lord has been doing amazing work on mine and Steve's hearts this year. We look to Him in every decision and will for our lives. His hand is at work in our home. He has completely changed both of our hearts in all areas of our lives. He is doing some amazing work spiritually in our hearts. He has us both in "sync" with His. When our heart is on the Lord, we are at peace. A since of peace that is so calming. He is guiding our family to see Him in all areas of our lives...
Halloween is our first change in our family. Yes, growing up and celebrating Halloween with our girls has been all fun and innocent, but if you really examine and truly define the true meaning of Halloween-NOTHING glorifies God in any way. He did not invent the holiday, actually, the pagans did. Well, if you research the holiday, you will see everything that revolves around that holiday, innocent or not, does not bring glory to our Lord. Our oldest is seven and looks forward every year to picking out her costume and trick or treating around the neighborhood and even does trunks and treats at the church. No where in the Bible does it talk about celebrating Halloween. So, we ask ourselves, are we going to be "of the world" or be "set a part". God wants us to seek Him in all that we do and how we are to live our lives.
With that said, we sat down with Madelyn last week and explained exactly what Halloween is and that in no rhyme or reason does it bring glory to Him. She was sad at first, but understood as we pointed out bibically our reason for not participating in this holiday.
Many changes are in our home this year as His work is at hand.
Next, is good ole' Saint Nick. That dicussion was today. The Lord placed it upon my heart to tell the truth about Santa. As He prepared my heart to tell her, He prepared her heart to receive it. WOW! Again, when He is at work, we are at peace. I explained the concept of it's fun to make believe there is a Santa, but Christmas is not about Santa. Santa takes away from the true meaning of Christmas. We do not want any distractions from "why we celebrate" Christmas. The first thing kids think of is Santa when you ask them about Christmas. Writing what we want Santa to bring us, having our picture made with Santa, etc...
Christmas will have a "new" meaning for all of us this year as we are making "major" changes in our lives and our children's lives.
What we implement now is what they in return will they will implement with their family.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" Luke 10:27

Organization is my "Middle Name"

I love anything that has to do with organizatin. I enjoy it so much! Being a homeschool mother of three, I believe organization has to be a top priority to accomplish all that needs to be accomplished throughout your day and throughout your school year. The past couple of months, I have attended several homeschooling conferences to learn the system. I will remind you that this is my first year and I love it! I love it because the Lord gave me such a love to embrace His will for my life. Romans 8:28 "And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him." And oh how I love to see Him at work....

One conference I attended, was the Maxwell conference (Steven and Teri Maxwell), an amazing family of eight children. The family has written a lot of books that offer wonderful knowledge to homeschool families. The first book I read of their's, is Managers of Their Homes. It comes with a day-by-day calendar time slot that you laminate and post where it is visible to the entire family to see and read. Then, you are given colored pages (a different color for each family member except for dad) and 30 minute and 1 hour time slots to fill in for each child. You are able to plan your entire day-bible study, family time, chore time, grocery time, all the things that require of you each day. I finally finished mine today. It takes lots of planning to time every minute of every day.

I posted mine in my hallway visible for everyone to read. It is also good, if I should be away, which I never am, but should I be away, the loving person watching my children while be able to see how our day looks. Another little note, you are able to move the boxes around if you want to add something different to your day. That is the nice feature!

"My times are in thy hand..." Psalm 31:15

"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." Proverbs 16:3

Next, Managers of Their Chores, by Steven and Teri Maxwell is my next book that that I am currently reading, but have already started the Chorepack system with my girls. I was too excited to wait!

The book gives step-by-step instructions to make each individual card for each child. So, each child is given a clip on pack(just like a name tag) with their chores listed #1-how ever many you decide each child is capable of, with their name and if it is daily morning/daily afternoon/or daily evening. My chore packs that I created, are for only daily morning and daily evening. So, I created different chores for morning and evening. The girls get so excited to have their chore packs clipped onto their pj's in the morning and love completing them. The packs cannot be turned in until completion.

Next, is my Sue Patrick workbox system. I had the priviledge of attending one of her conferences back in August and immediately started the next day with my children. All three do the system. My oldest who is 7, my middle child who is a month shy of 5, and my youngest who just turned 3. It works for all three girls. I totally reccommed it for any of you who homeschool. Each child is given 12 boxes each, labeled 1-12 with velcro. Then, the child is given this when entering school time:

The child matches the number to the box and velcro's it to the box. The system, you work from left to right. Once the materials in the box have been completed, then the box is then put into a large tub. They see the work disappearing and if you have to stop in your day, for a chore, snack, rest time, whatever, you come back knowing exactly where you left off and the other kids are not constantly waiting on you to figure out what comes next. Amazing and IT WORKS!!!

The above picture is a ticket they receive uponing entering school time (almost like a check in clock, but they love it!) in the morning, the ticket goes into beginning school and once they have completed their work, it goes into the finished homeschool envelope. All of this, comes with the kit you can simply order from her website, suepatrickworkbox.com (I believe) I will have to look at my book. Love, Love, Love it!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday To Our Sweet Lydia...

Our precious little girl turned three! And precious she is...She loves life and everything in it! She gets so excited to do just anything! This is our first year that we decided not to have a birthday party. One of our favorite things to do is go to Dollywood if you haven't already noticed. Great place to go and enjoy each other as a family. We started our morning off with smiley face pancakes, Dollywood, and then back home for some pizza, cake and presents. We had a blast as a family. I am so thankful for the time we have together, because as you can see, time goes by so fast. Our little girl is three!

        "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3

Happy Birthday Lydia, mommy loves you...