Christmas break is the time to...

re-organize to the point of forgetting the new "homes" for things. I think I am a perpetual "nester".

pray about and reflect on the previous school semester and tweak our routine.

clean exotic, rarely visited places like the top of the fridge.

have the pre-semester mini panic attack b/c I know how disciplined I'll have to be every single day in order for life to run smoothly around here.

put pictures in picture frames! Third child still hasn't made it in a picture frame past her one year birthday.



clear out the garden now that I'm pretty sure all the wasps and snakes have gone to sleep for the winter. I don't know this guy, but this is the kind of nest I always imagine is lurking just yonder of the compost bin.

fuss over The Chicken Project. Nesting boxes are the next project.

color many pictures with the girls with their fancy Melissa and Doug colored pencils and coloring books.



stay up and watch the lunar eclipse with the oldest child. We were so tired...but it was pretty neat!

teach Paige to write her name. Again.



do seemingly endless fun Christmas projects and crafts (cookies, gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, chocolate covered pretzels, making ornaments, and more cookies).



(and this is the most important of all) be purposeful about celebrating the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift ever given. Christmas is a great time for reflection and soul searching. I always get very emotional when I think of the humble surroundings of the birth of our Savior. The movie "The Nativity Story" brings me to tears every time I see it. How merciful of our Lord that Mary and Joseph did not know what that precious little baby would endure as a man. What a beautiful story that God has written!

December Highlights

Right now our family is recovering from what will be referred to as "The Christmas Flu". It was a nasty stomach virus that ended up taking the entire clan down. God was merciful though--the night that three kids came down the virus within three hours of each other and spent the night repeatedly throwing up was not the night that Jason was out of town this week. Also, Jason and I did not get sick until after the kids were doing better and as soon as I was somewhat back on my feet, Jason fell ill. And...if there was a week to be down with the barf bug, this was the best week for us. My mom had left last week, Jason's sister had moved out a few days before, and Christmas is next week! So, things could have been a lot worse! Praise the Lord (in all things!!)!



As I said, my mom was here for a visit. We had such a nice time. She didn't feel well but she was quite a trooper. Our house isn't the quietest place but Mom didn't seem to mind. The girls were sweet and helped "take care" of her. And it was nice for our schedule to slow waaaaay down. The only bump in the road was that our water heater went out so we had to make trips to accommodating friends' houses to shower.

My mom got some troubling news from her oncologist the other day. She has been experiencing some terrible pain and her doctor is concerned that the cancer may have spread or that the lining of her lung has filled with cancerous fluid. She has a scan on Dec 29th to see what the story is. One of the things that The Lord has taught me through my mom's cancer battle has been not to be consumed with worry and despair over what might happen. My mom wasn't supposed to live six months even with treatment and here we are 14 months later. When she came out here in May, I was convinced that I would never see her again. So much that I was consumed with sadness when she left. And yet, God gave her enough time and strength to make it to our house six months later. So, I'm not going to get depressed over what this lastest issue could mean. He has helped me replace sadness and worry with joy and thanksgiving.



Chicken news: over the Thanksgiving week Jason and I came up with our great chicken coop idea. We looked at the cost and time of building a coop and were a little surprised at how complicated and expensive it was going to be. Not to mention that neither of us is really all that handy. I joked about just fencing in the bottom of the kids' play scape--wow, what a ghetto idea, right?! My husband recognized a life preserver when he saw one. So, a few days later we had a chicken coop at a minimal cost and managed to avoid any trips to the emergency room!



Lastly, Penny turned 18 months old at the end of November. My biggest wish for Christmas is that time would slow down because I love this season of life.

The Chicken Project

The Chicken Project is moving along with few complications. Who would have guessed that raising baby chicks could be so much fun? Certainly not me. The girls have been begging for chickens for a few years now and all I could see was more work for me and crushed chick corpses strewn about (we have a lot of predators around here: toddlers, cats, etc). Miraculously, everyone is still alive though the cats have made a few attempts on the little nuggets.



The chickies are getting big. They are five weeks old and are starting to look like real live poultry. Recently they spent their first night without the heat lamp on (and I was out there twice in the middle of the night to make sure they weren't too cold--they are dainty little girls you know.)



These little birds make great playmates--they don't have a problem with being driving around the yard as long as they are together. Apparently "safety in numbers" is a strong belief of chickens.



Hopefully The Project continues to go well. The chicks will be ready to go to their permanent home in a few more months. We are probably going to keep two of them--if we can build a coop (Jason and I aren't the handiest of people...we may just chuck the whole keeping-a-few-chickens idea if we can't put a decent coop together. We would have been the worst pioneers.) The thought of fresh eggs is so appealing. Plus, I think it would be neat for the girls to have childhood memories of pet chickens. Since we've said no to ferrets, hamsters, mice, parakeets, countless kittens, snakes, more lizards, monkeys. Pretty much anything you can buy at the pet store or on the black market.

Fall Fun

October might just be the most beautiful month of the year in central Texas. The hot semi-humid weather is whisked away by cold fronts and replaced with sapphire blue skies and crisp dry air.

With the change of weather comes one of my most unfavorite tasks: breaking out the cool weather clothes. Bins upon bins of clothing rise up in stacks through out our living room. Sometimes the family toddler succeeds in prying off a lid and merrily distributes the clothing here and there and everywhere. I have to admit that it is pretty funny to see her tearing out of the living room with an arm full of clothing!

The girls are looking forward to diving into some candy this weekend. Or I guess I could call them "Ariel", "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer", "Snow White", and "The Butterfly Baby". Jason and I are looking forward to robbing their stash after they are in bed. They are pretty cute little kids and people just can't help but fill up their buckets with tasty treats to rot little teeth (and their parents' teeth).

School update: we began our study of Classical Greece this past week! Life in ancient Athens has been a focal point and the girls are appalled that Greek women were not allowed to do a lot of the things that men were permitted to do. Oh boy is it fun to see the reactions of my girls when it dawns on them that life has not always been the way it is now. Today I told them that we didn't have cel phones when I was kid. They were floored. FLOORED. Then my 6 year asked if taxis were pulled by horses when I was kid. Parenthood is endlessly entertaining :)

4 week update

Jason is watching a creepy apocalyptic movie ("The Road") so I am holed up in another room with classical music blasting through my ear phones. Blog time...:)

We just completed our fourth week of school. We've settled back into the routine nicely. The biggest challenge has been trying to mother the littler two girls. They like to be right where the schooling is going on and while I love them nearby sometimes it's a wee bit distracting. Often times it goes like this:

Me: Ok, Reese, let's read your book."
Reese: "Gus and the---"
Me: Paige, don't draw on the table.
Reese: "bug hut. Gus is a-"
Penny: BAA MAAAAAAAA EEEEEE
Reese: "bug. He lives--"
Me: Penny NO! (pulling Penny off the back of the couch)
Penny (lying on the floor protesting being saved from herself): AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Paige: Momma I poooooooped. Can you help me wipe?
Me: Reese, just go on reading. I can hear you in the bathroom.
Reese: "Gus is a bug. He lives in a"--MOOOMMM!! Penny took my book!!

And so it goes. And by the way, if you are wondering where the oldest child is in this little story, there is an even chance she is either working independently (what she is supposed to be doing) or has settled into writing one of her many stories of the adventures of The My Little Ponies (what is not supposed to be doing until she is finished her independent work).

Wow, does that sound like I am complaining? I'm really not! Or I'm not trying to. It's not always rainbows and butterflies around here but it's good. These girls won't be 8,6,4,and 1 forever. I'll take having to walk around the pile of books (every single book off the bookcase) and listening to my kids fight over gets to the baby deer this time (why can there be only one baby deer?)over peace and quiet. I am so grateful that The Lord has placed me here with these specific children :)

Well, the creepy movie is still on and it's after midnight. I guess I'll do some lesson planning--I'm sort of trapped by the two foot cord on my headphones.

Great first day of school and then...

Today was our first full day of school. The girls did great. All of them. The baby played happily nearby. The 4 yr old entertained herself by sticking Wikistix all over the bottom of the school table creating an elaborate playground for her Littlest Petshop Pets. Hailey and Reese enjoyed their lessons and had great attitudes. Hailey even played with and read to Penny while I worked with Reese. And most miraculously of all, we stayed on schedule to the minute. I have no idea how that happened and I fully realize that it may not happen again for quite some time!

After lunch all of the good behavior, positive attitudes, and sibling comraderie was sucked out of this place like the last bit of Dr. Pepper in a styrofoam cup. Fighting, whining, complaining, arguing with Mom, COMPLAINING, and MORE WHINING is what our afternoon looked like. It was truly a "Help me, Tom Cruise!" few hours. When Jason called and informed that he was running about 15 minutes late I could have sobbed. Not even an episode of Veggie Tales would calm the crew. And I couldn't throw them out in the yard b/c of the wasp nest near their playscape that I discovered the other day. It's no small victory that I did not yell at anyone or go hide in my closet.

So...hopefully tomorrow will be better. Right now, Jason (MY HERO), is upstairs patiently putting them to bed. I have no idea if they were better behaved for him or not because I have tuned out as best as I am able to. If anyone were to ask me a question right now my answer would be "Huuuuuuuhhhh?" accompanied by a slack jaw.

I hear Jason making his escape so I'm going to crawl over to the couch and try to be some kind of a half decent wife to him since the majority of the afternoon and evening were a bust on the motherhood front.

Back to School

Summer break is just about over with. This week the girls and I had half days of school where we mostly worked with our new curricula. Hailey has a new spelling program (which she loves!). Both girls are having their first official math lessons and drawing lessons (also huge hits). So far...so good :)




I need to get down on my knees and thank God that Reese remembers nearly all of what she learned in her phonics lessons from last year--I did not have her read to me very many times over the summer. Hailey probably helped her more with her reading than I did. Often I would be downstairs after the girls had gone to bed and hear Reese reading to Hailey and Hailey lovingly encouraging/correcting her. This was nothing short of amazing coming from two girls who spend a good portion of their days irritating each other. Moments like that warm a mom's heart.

On Monday we will incorporate our Tapestry of Grace lessons and our science lessons into our day. It is going to be a full load and we will be busier than ever. Hailey will being doing gymnastics once a week and Reese and Paige will have soccer practices and games and then they will have AWANA (except for Penny of course). I'm sweating it a little--all of this running around we will have to be doing. I am no stranger to slammed packed busy days--I have four small children at home, afterall! But I don't like to spend my life rushing around. If I am super busy and running from one thing to the next then I tend to not be as patient, consistent, and availabe. My mothering suffers. We'll see how this semester goes though. "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me..." :)

Regarding summer: too short, too quick!! Can't say it was the best summer we've ever had either. Our sweet old dog, Summer, finally had to be put down. It was definitely her time, which did make it easier, but I miss her more as time goes by. She will always have a special place in my heart--my first big dog and my best dog ever. Probably kind of weird/morbid to have taken this picture but this is the Garrett ladies biding our sweet old girl goodbye.



This summer also had its fair share of family drama. The long and the short of it is that my beloved younger sister and her husband were busted for growing pot in their home. They are facing some very serious charges and I hope and pray that the judge is merciful and recognizes that rehab and probation are what these people need. I'm not going soft--I know they broke the law and they need to face the consequences, etc. These are two very hurting and damaged individuals and I'm not sure prison would do much besides harden them and damage them more.

That's our update. We are looking forward to a blessed fourth year of homeschooling. It blows my mind that I have a third grander and a first grader(and next year Paige joins us a kindergartener!!!) !!

School is out, summer is in!

Last Friday we finished up our school year. What a GREAT year we had!! Rewind to June 2009 and you would find me very nervous about the 2009-2010 school year. It was my first year to teach two children at the same time, we were introducing new curriculum, and we had a brand spanking new baby! Not to mention a rambunctious 3 year old!

Thanks be to God a million times over for giving us a wonderful third year of homeschooling. I can say without pause that it was our best year yet! Of course there were many challenges. And plenty of days where I taught while bouncing Penny on my lap (or nursing her). And most certainly my house is not as neat as I would prefer it to be. And our dinner menu has been very simple (but still shooting for healthy). And we have not been as connected with our friends--this does make me sad but hopefully we can catch up this summer.

I am so pleased with my students' progress! Reese is a reader! Hailey has become more of an independant learner. We have developed good habits (morning bible study being the one I'm most proud that we have maintained). Paige did well entertaining herself either in the playroom or quietely in the school room. And Penny has been a reasonably good sport throughout it all--though she was the worst napper I have EVER had (really--her issues with napping were quite terrible).

I do believe that I've grown as Christian, mother, and teacher as well. I'd like to think I'm more patient. And that I've overcome my perpetual stress out fest over the house not being as neat as I'd like. God has really kicked some selfishness out of me too. I've been impressed even more to see things His way. I try to remember to ask Him what He would like me to do this day--what does He want me to accomplish? I might desperately want to clean out the closet but He might direct me to deal with a heart issue that one of my kids (or myself) is struggling with. Another thing God has revealed to me: when one of my kids acts up, see it as an opportunity to teach and train instead of an annoyance to just deal with.

I could also go on forever about how much I have enjoyed studying the Old Testament with the girls. I am impressed even more that training up these children to love the Lord, serve Him, and keep His commandments is my most important job as a parent. It was amazing to read how God time and time again told the Israelites that if they obeyed Him, He would take care of them. And how if they did not obey Him, He would allow them to be destroyed. God means business. He meant it several thousand years ago and and He still means it today! Imagine if every family in America brought up their children to fear (respect) the Lord? I hope and pray that Jason and I can accomplish that goal with our family(with tons of help from our heavenly Father!!).

Time to get ready to jet off to swimming lessons. :)

Another YAY for May!

Our garden!! Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers. We have some herbs in pots that have attracted swallowtail butterfiles among other creatures. Right now we have 4 swallowtail caterpillars getting fatter by the day. My girls (and I) are kind of hooked on the whole butterfly metamorphasis :)

The rollie pollies are attacked our squash and cucumbers big time. Not sure what to do on that. They get down low and gnaw on the roots. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd smush a cute little poly (when the girls aren't looking of course). I've also found some snails. The tomatoes and peppers are doing beautifully though. Those are our favorites anyway but still...I want some squash!! And some cucumbers!!

Happy May!

I love May! It used to be my most unfavorite month. We lost our home to a fire and my dad died in May in 1988 and for MANY years I dreaded the coming of May.

But God is so good!!

May now means "restoration" to me. In the Mays of the past I have been blessed with the birth of two babies and the conception of one! Mother's Day is in May. My birthday is in May and rather than feel depressed at adding to my years I have felt blessed to have made it around the sun yet again! So bravo for May! And thank you Lord for turning sorrows into dancing!

Here is my current favorite picture: my 11 month old sweetheart who is began WALKING two weeks ago! Yay for May!

Goddesses, Pupas, and Faithful Friends

The end of the school year is on the horizon. I'm really hoping that we can finish up our work by the first week of June. Right now we are studying ancient Greece with Tapestry of Grace. We've enjoyed spanakopita ("spinach squares") and will make a constellarium next week. There are so many cool websites on ancient Greece. Hailey and I have loved checking them out. We've read the kids' version of "Jason and the Argonauts" which the three older girls enjoyed immensely. We are also learning a bit about Greek mythology--the PG stuff at least :) Jason and I honeymooned in Athens so Greece has been of particular interest to me since our visit in 1996. The picture on this post is not mine but it could have been had our camera been working on our trip. One of the great tragedies of my life...broken camera in Greece. What a shame.

For science we are learning all about insects. My girls have had a lasting obsession with creepy crawly things so we've sort of had an ongoing study of bugs for the past five years or so. We are learning lots of new things though! And right now we have many containers lying around our house containing insects in their different stages of development. I think we currently have every stage except for the pupa and that should change any day now when our fat caterpillar decides to grow up :)

One thing I'm not cool with is strolling into my kitchen and finding dozens of inch worms spreading out from a container. One of the girls had apparently found a few eggs on a plant that contained a litter of inch worms. We'll never know what they grow up to be b/c I ordered them out the backdoor. I do have my limits.

Sad news: our 14 year old lab's days are numbered. Looks like the old girl has a mass in her abdomen. Breaks my heart. We've had that dog since before we had the kids. I've cried many tears into Summer's fur over the years. She's always been so patient. Content just to sit next to you. She's the best dog I've ever had. It's not hitting me yet--I'm not going there until I have to. We'll just enjoy her during her time left. We will always remember The Big Yellow Beetle :*)

To Challenge or Accept?

One of the neatest aspects of parenthood is getting a front row seat to your child's ever developing personality. I really like my children--of course, I love them but I also really like them as people. The younger two are just plain cute and entertaining as babies and preschoolers are. The older two, however, are constantly surprising me with their uniqueness.

Jason and I are getting a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses--the former being extremely exciting and the latter being downright frightening! I see character issues in them that keep me on my knees praying for them (I guess that's a good place to be--on my knees before the Lord :)) But sometimes I feel like I'm holding my breath--like I'm watching a movie and hoping with all my heart for a good ending! Will this child mature out of her laziness? Or despite her training will she grow up undisciplined and unmotivated??? One child has a tendency to blame everyone else for what goes wrong in her life (from a spilled glass of water to not being able to finish her sentence). Will she grow up never taking responsibility for her own mistakes??? AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's enough to make me bite my already too short nails to the quick!!!

No matter their flaws, I want my children to know how much we love them. And that we love them not for what they do but for who they are. They are precious gifts from The Lord and to be treated as such. They are not to be molded into what Jason and I desire them to be but into what The Lord designed for them to be.

So that brings to my dilemma. Is it my job as a parent to iron out these little wrinkles that they come with? How do you decide what needs to be "fixed" and what needs to be accepted? One of my kids is extremely helpless when it comes to age appropriate tasks. If pressed, she will make a pathetic effort. And then when I lovingly correct her she falls apart. Now, I believe that she needs to work on recieving correction and she also needs to persevere (and for Pete's sake...quite whining and complaining!!). But I also do not want her to feel like she can't do anything right and all that comes with that. I want to expect excellence from my children but when does that turn into creating children who "perform" well but have many grievious attitudes hidden in their hearts?????

We want our kids to grow up to be functioning members of God's family. They need discipline--desperately. They need to be taught integrity. So many valuable character traits to impress upon them and really, so little time (the years whizz by--I know this). They need to see these character traits modeled in their parents' lives.

Anyway, I'm just typing what is on my mind. I'm really needing some guidance and wisdom from The Lord on this issue. He's the Master Parent :) The kids are asleep now so I think I'll go upstairs and check on everybody. I love to see their sleeping faces :)

The view from where I sit ... the Dyson staring at me (why bother putting it away?), my handsome husband playing his guitar.

Outside My Window...eerie wind sounds--storms are in the forecast tomorrow

I am thinking...about everything that I would like to get done tomorrow. Also weighing very heavily on mind is the disolution of a friend's marriage. How can someone treat another person so terribly? How can a father's heart grow cold towards his children? How this must grieve our heavenly Father. How I'd like to be the one to deliver swift justice--not my assignment though. Too bad.

I am thankful for...the personal growth I've seen in mine and my husband's lives recently. So thankful that God is in control and that He is SO good!

We are learning...about ancient China for the next two weeks. So fun! We are also studying the courtship habits of birds and all about eggs and baby birds. A certain five year old girl is beside herself with joy. She and I are both wishing we could raise a few ducks. Maybe next year?

From the kitchen...scraping by with what is left from our grocery budget. Brinner tonight, chicken tomorrow. Challah bread too! Our family consumed 11 eggs with our dinner tonight. Jason and I each had 2. The girls polished off 7 eggs between the three of them!

I am wearing... my standard day time uniform: jeans and t-shirt.

I am creating... a plan for tomorrow.

I am going... to vacuum out the car tomorrow if it doesn't rain. I'm trying my best to include this in my monthly chore routine. It must be timed perfectly though--baby napping, weather decent, older girls not needing anything.

I am reading... "A Painted House" by John Grisham. Read it once, did not care for it but I don't remember why so I'm giving it one more try. 100 pages in and not much is happening.

I am hoping...that Penny sleeps all night long tonight.

I am hearing...the same song over and over again while Jason learns it. I'm guessing that this song will be in the background of my mind for the next 3 or 4 days.

Around the house...diapers hanging to dry on the back of our kitchen chairs, seedlings meandering out of the seed tray, pencil marks on the wall that have an appt with Paige and Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser.

One of my favorite things... my husband playing the acoustic guitar. Very relaxing!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: library tomorrow, sort baby clothes, mail thank-you notes.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Trust and Obey

"Trust in The Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding." Proberbs 3:5

Boy that is a tough one, especially in today's culture. So many of the things that God tells us to do are completely opposite of what the world says. Tithe and give when you should be saving up big time for the retirement fund you started a decade later than you should have. Don't reply harshly when someone REALLY deserves it. Pray for your enemies. It all goes against the super strong (weak) human nature.

That's why Proverbs 3:6 is so comforting:
"in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight."

He WILL make your paths straight if you seek Him in ALL of your ways. I love it! All of your ways!

These two verses in particular have been racing through my mind night and day recently for it's been on my heart to trust God in areas that I had not really considered handing control over to Him before. I wasn't conciously disobeying--I was following what the world tells us is just plain good sense! Most definitely I was leaning on my own understanding though--and had never before thought to see if my ways were lining up with God's thoughts on the subject. And if I'm completely honest I will admit that the reason I didn't want to seek God's approval was because quite frankly the issue was too scary to inquire about! And by the way, I'm not quite ready to go public with my struggle and subsequent submission yet. But let me say that I feel like a burden has been lifted--a burden that I had not even thought was there!

I'm going to enjoy my current "so light I could fly away" feelings because I know that soon i will be tempted to question my obedience. I've actually been wrestling with those temptations already but by clinging to God's promises have been able to beat the enemy back. I know what God wants me to do and I'm going to do it.

Butterfly update

These aren't our caterpillars (b/c I STILL can't find my camera memory stick--the Iphone pictures did not come out very well) but this is what our caterpillars did before they went into the pupa stage. Did not know this but when caterpillars decide to change they do it FAST! In a matter of hours (less?) our little guys went from hanging upside down like this to this:




We should begin to see some butterflies hatching over the weekend. We are on butterfly alert :)

Rare Central Texas Snow Day

This week's surprising snowstorm was such a fun event. It's been an unusually cold winter here in central Texas and we have heard several snow predictions. So far they've all been a bust. So when the weather was calling for snow the next day I didn't pay much attention.





Tuesday morning brought the screams of four (myself included) happy girls who didn't even wait for breakfast before venturing out into the winter wonderland. We had but a dusting and I figured what we were seeing was all the snow we would be getting.



But no! We received shower after shower of big fat snow flakes! The day went like this: we'd suit up and run outside and play until our warm-weather-loving selves were soaked and freezing and then troop back in and throw all of our wet winter gear into the dryer. Another snow shower would blow in and the race to get outside and experience the falling snow would begin.



I must add that the snow was a fun opportunity for the the girls to learn more about God. That He is a kind, loving, creative, powerful God. They learned new things about the beauty of His creation (snow). We also talked about how nice it was that God gave us all of this snow to enjoy! And that if God wants it to snow in central Texas then well, He has the power to do that! Pretty neat!









The final snowfall total was 2.25 inches for our yard. Oh--one precious picture that I failed to capture: Penny sitting in front of our glass backdoor, absolutely mesmirized by the falling snow. :)

Winter Butterflies

Reese: "Little smooky caterpillars grow bigger every day"
Hailey: "Yay! They are bigger and there moving!"
--excerpts from the girls' butterfly journals

Observing caterpillars has been one of the coolest things we have done this year. At the moment we have five Painted Lady caterpillars crawling around in a little jar. Since we received them in the mail (bugs in the mail--who'd a thought??) they have nearly tripled in size. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are visibly larger with each day that passes.

The two oldest girls each have a little notebook where they are keeping track of their daily observations of these little baby butterflies. This is one "assignment" that I do not have to remind them about! Any day now the little creatures should begin to tuck themselves into their chrysalises. Super exciting time around the Garrett household :)

So frustrating--I am without a camera right now. The memory card for our camera is M.I.A. I really don't want to drop $30 on a new one but if another week goes by and it doesn't turn up I'm going to have to. Caterpillars and butterflies be darned--we have a little human who is going thru plenty of changes herself. I don't want to miss too many photo opportunities. We already struggle with the "fourth child syndrome" where there is far less video of Penny than of the other three. Don't want to follow suite with the photos!

What else we have been up to...

Wow. Clearly I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to this blog here. Let's try this again...

We have had the best school year yet! We have found the right curricula for our family. Everything is "working". This is a fantastic feeling. As a mom and a homeschooler I am overcome with thanksgiving to our Lord for the happy home we are enjoying.

I had purposed to update this blog with our school experiences--a sort of record. School has been great and we have done many fun and interesting things but that stuff has not made it to our blog. I'm out of practice with writing and just plain BUSY wifing/mothering/teaching. I read what I have written, don't like it, and decide not to post it. I'm going to try not to be so picky from now on.

We are nearing the end of our first unit of Tapestry of Grace. We are planning an end of unit celebration. My plan is to do our school update around that time. And then when we begin unit two I'm going to update regularly (I will!).

I can't believe my last entry in this here little blog was nearly four months ago. Life was different four months ago.

If my life was a newspaper then in mid October the headline would have read "My Mom has Cancer." Sometimes I still can't believe it. It was so hard to face the possibility of losing both my parents just as I had crossed over into my thirties. For heaven's sake--my mother is only 53 years old! But cancer doesn't care about that kind of stuff. And lung cancer is especially brutal. Without treatment the doctors gave my mom 6 months. Mom was not sure she wanted to endure chemotherapy--I can't say I blame her. I get wickedly sick and exhausted while pregnant and that has made me appreciate my health more than most people my age I believe.

Mom chose to undergo treatment and as of right now she has two sessions of chemo left. Her tumor has shrank 50%--somethign her doctor did not expect to happen. Her doctor has been happy with her blood counts--another miracle. I don't know if its possible for her to go into remission--its very unlikely she will be "cured." But she is fighting the good fight and hanging in there. I'm so proud of her--she has faced this with amazing bravery and has kept her sense of humor. I know she has terrible days--she doesn't say this to me but I know they have to be there. But above all she has concrete faith in the Lord and His plans and has surrendered herself to his will. This has been an incredible blessing to me--I know she is in the Lord's hands. We will see each other some day! When she gets Home she will have so many waiting for her--my dad and the baby Jason and I lost are two people who come to my mind.

My Mom and I have had more than our share of mother/daughter conflicts. We are both incredibly stubborn people. I think she might actually be worse than me and that's pretty amazing! I love her so much though. She was the best mother ever when I was a little kid and I always felt loved. I hate the thought of losing her but I am ever so grateful that we've all been given the gift of being able to say goodbye. And who knows--we might not have to say goodbye as soon as we think! Who knows what God has in store?!