June Joy Part II

I had very high hopes for June, and it came through for me! I read books, did crafts, cleaned house, completed several projects, went yardsaling, had fun. It was a very good month. We finished it in fine style last night by going to dinner with Ken and Debbie, who are about to leave on a Big Adventure. Their chicks have flown the coop and Debbie accepted a job in England! They are very excited, but we will miss them. We ate dinner at Logan's and then came back to our house and played dominoes. It's a good thing I cleaned this week.

Yesterday we spent much of the afternoon mulching (finally!). I love freshly mulched landscaping. We ran out of mulch before we finished, but it's enough to look good if you don't go around the corner.

Becca is at a Safe Sitter babysitting safety course at the hospital today and the boys are helping me clean and pack. Yes, we're going out of town again BUT- this time we're leaving the kids there!! John's brother and sister-in-law have offered to keep the kids for a whole week! Yes, they're crazy, but we love them for it. We're driving them up tonight. Then John and I are celebrating our Fifteenth wedding anniversary in fine child-free style.

July is looking like a really good month too!

And There Was Much Rejoicing

Philip was baptized by his Dad tonight. It all began last year after VBS, and he asked his dad then if he could be baptized. John was concerned that the age of 8 was too young for him to really understand, so he told Philip they would study more about it during their morning bible studies. Well, this year after VBS, Philip came to John with tears in his eyes and said, "Dad, I need to be baptized!" And it was time.

John asked Philip to tell the assembly why he wanted to be baptized and Philip explained the gospel for everyone to hear. He understands! It was a great moment to watch. Andy led the church in "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and "A New Anointing" while Philip changed and then Terrell prayed. Philip was a little overwhelmed by all the attention afterwards and was glad to escape to go play video games. We went to get ice cream at Sonic later, and invited the Williams' to join us. It was a great night and there was much rejoicing.

Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner

Unfortunately, this is often true in my house. It's not really that I can't cook; it's that I get distracted while I'm cooking. It happened again tonight. One of our favorite meals is an Asian Stir-Fry and you're supposed to saute garlic and red pepper flakes for a couple of minutes before adding the meat. I put the garlic and lots of red pepper in the pan and went to find pasta. We didn't have the pasta I needed. I needed a Plan B. After staring into the pantry and finally deciding on a Plan B, I returned to the stove to find my garlic and red pepper flakes beginning to burn. Ugh!! That's potent stuff! The kitchen was full of kids doing their chores and we all began coughing and hacking. John yelled from the living room: "Get out of the kitchen- mom's trying to kill everyone!" He was kidding... I think. So we had to start over with new garlic and red pepper, but we rescued dinner.
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We are enjoying the firstfruits from the garden. John has already picked a couple of tomatoes, which he immediately ate, much to the kids' dismay, but yesterday he found a nice cucumber which he did share, and today he brought in a zucchini and several tomatoes. We have beans ready to pick too. Unfortunately, we might not have too many more tomatoes because one of the kids (you can guess who) picked all the pretty yellow flowers off the tomato plants. Do tomato plants recover from that kind of vandalism? I have no idea.
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Philip went to Mission Specialist Training at Space Camp today and John Mark and Becca worked at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. I stayed busy today running Mom's Taxi service.
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I have been doing serious cleaning. I didn't start out to do it, but it happened, so I figure I'm on a roll now. I cleaned our bedroom... you know, really cleaned it- not just make-the-bed kind of clean. I moved all the piles out and cleaned our bathroom, the closet and my purse. You wouldn't think my purse should rank up there with the closet, but there you go. Tonight we cleaned the kitchen- even on top of the refrigerator- and the microwave too. It was really yucky. (Don't snicker at me... I know yours has been like that too!) I'm pretty sure John and the kids do not cover anything in the microwave unless I am there telling them to do it.

John says that it's a scientific fact that this cleaning is a lost cause because of entropy. The basic theory of entropy is simply that everything is always proceeding toward a state of greater disorder. Definitely sounds like our house! He also says that since I am cleaning our house, somewhere, someone else's house is getting messier (There you go, Janice. Now you know what to tell Erik!) I explained to him that you didn't have to look in someone else's house. For each room I clean, some other room in the house is getting proportionally messier, so it balances itself out. It's a never-ending cycle. At least I'm moving the messes to the less-visible areas of the house this week, and that's my definition of "clean". So there, Martha Stewart!

The Test

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

I've been mulling over this testing thing for a while; who knows why. When I think of a "test", I think of a teacher giving a student a test to see if they've learned what they were supposed to learn. Or maybe a parent might test a child to see if they're mature enough to earn some sort of privilege or new responsibility. And that's the way I've always viewed God's tests. It just doesn't seem fair sometimes, like life isn't hard enough already without all these "tests"!

So I began thinking about it. Why in the world would God need to test us? After all, God is omniscient, all-knowing. He knows the past, present and future. He knows every thought I make before I make it and every breath I take before I breathe it. He knows exactly how I will respond to every situation of every moment in my life. What's the point of the test? That's where I've been for the past couple of weeks while I turned this over in my mind.

And finally, I had the biblical "duh!" moment. Did everyone know this except me? (I have lots of moments like this.) Anyway, here's my first conclusion: the testing isn't for God; it's for us.

God knew exactly how Abraham would respond when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac. But I wonder if Abraham knew. God's request was absolutely unthinkable. I bet if someone just walked up to Abraham one day and asked him if he could slice open his son's throat and offer him on an altar of fire, Abraham would have said, "You're out of your mind!!" I bet Abraham didn't think he had it in him- "God, I'm willing to do all these things for you... but not this!" And then God asked- for that. That one thing that Abraham held most dear to his heart. Could he give it up?

He did. He did the thing he didn't know he could do. And Abraham not only pleased God through this demonstration of faith, Abraham's own faith must have been increased dramatically. He had found God to be absolutely faithful, naming that place God-Yireh (God-Sees-to-It) Gen 22:14.

And God's response to Abraham?

"...I'll bless you—oh, how I'll bless you! ...because you obeyed me." (Gen 22:17-18 MSG)

Here are my humble conclusions (feel free to disagree):

• God tests us so that our faith in him can increase
• God tests us so that he can bless us.

Somehow... that makes me feel a lot better. God isn't throwing these things at us just to see how we'll respond. He already knows, and he promises that we will not be tested beyond what we can bear (I Cor 10:13).

I know things don't always seem like they're working out so great during times of testing (just ask Job). And I know people a lot smarter than I am have probably written volumes on this subject. (Maybe if you've read them, you can let me know what they decided.) But for now, this is working for me. Strengthened faith and a blessing in the end. Works for me. What do you think?

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed... Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Rom 4:18-21)

Blue Ribbon Day

We finally made it to the fair last night- a family of our size has to wait for McDonald's discount armband night! It was hot and sweaty, but still lots of fun. The kids look forward to the fair for weeks and this year, they even made lists of all the rides they were going to ride. (But there was no Umbrella ride! What happened to the Umbrella ride??) We rode all night and ate junky fair food for supper. John never did get his funnel cakes, but the kids brought home a JUMBO bag of cotton candy to eat after lunch this afternoon.

Becca and I spent some time perusing all the Craft and Food exhibits (none of the guys are ever interested in this). We all won blue ribbons on the items we entered: My pink Mother's Suitcase and the red outfit I sewed earlier in the spring both won blue; Becca won blue and purple champion ribbons for her shirt, quilt block, and chocolate chip muffins, and John Mark won a blue and champion on his fabulous Colossal Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies (in fact, there were none of John Mark's cookies left... his ribbons were lying on an empty plate. Someone else must have thought they were pretty good too!). The kids also entered clippings from our Japanese Maple and Hosta plants in the Jr. Horticulture division... that was easy money!

So we all had lots of fun and we have a little fun money to look foward to when we pick up our items next week. Definitely a Blue Ribbon sort of day!

A Godly Man

I Love a Godly Man
A man who has postponed his plans to fly planes and sail to exotic places
So that his children will have memories of a dad who taught them to fish, swim and change a bicycle tire

I Love a Godly Man
A man whose strong hands handle the greasy, dark, and dirty jobs that no one else wants to do
And gently pat a fussy baby to sleep

I Love a Godly Man
Who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders during the day
And carries small children on them during a game of “Horse” at night

I Love a Godly Man
A man who understands that real Success is not found in the boardroom
But in watching his children grow and learn and love

I Love a Godly Man
A man whose character is sterling and velvet, whose handshake is better than gold, and whose word stands for honor, integrity and trust.

I Love a Godly Man
A man who is creating a spiritual legacy that will affect generations to come
And who knows that his real treasure is stored up in a better place

I Love a Godly Man
A man who knows that real strength is not found in the gym
But on his knees

I Love a Godly Man
and I am proud that he is my husband and the father of my children.

To him and all the Godly Men like him:
A Very Happy Father’s Day

Crafts, Camps and Cars

Here it is: My first big craft project of the summer! I still have a few small things to do, but it's mostly done. I'm going to enter it into the Fair next week. It's a Mother's Memory Suitcase, to hold pictures, cards and other mementos. I bought an old brown suitcase in a yardsale across the street, painted it, decoupaged and added lace. Unfortunately, I had some issues with my pictures "bubbling" when I began sealing it, which is very frustrating! Seems like everything I do lately has some sort of issue. It still looks nice, but might make the judges unhappy. Oh well.

Becca missed her last day of Quilt Camp because the brakes went OUT on the red van. I mean OUT! Something broke on the way home from Walmart and we were lucky to get home. It's just one thing after another with these cars. John is scouring the newspaper for another junky vehicle to drive. As our friend Dave observed tonight, "When you buy old vehicles to drive, you have to keep a driveway full of 'em!" So we're down to one van for now. Hopefully my very handy husband will be able to fix this so we can both get around again... but what a way to spend Father's Day!

John Mark is back from camp; he had a great time and lost his voice from yelling. As he headed off to bed, I asked, "Are you taking a shower tomorrow morning?"
"I took one last night" he replied.
"So....?" I ask.
"So I don't need another shower."
I tell him, "You have been at camp. Trust me, you need a shower!" He wants every hair in place before he leaves the house, but it doesn't bother him a bit if he hasn't bathed in three days. I figured by the time he was 13, we'd be past arguing about taking a bath! When does the hour-long-shower-clean-thing kick in??

Tonight we went to a graduation reception for Edwin, one of the kids in our co-op. Graduation is always an accomplishment, but when you're homeschool parents, it's definitely an occasion to celebrate! We gave Edwin the gift, but really, it should have been for Steve and Priscilla! They tell me it will be here before I know it... surely he'll be taking a bath on his own by then!

Lovin It

It's been the most gorgeous week here! It's been on the cool side, which is not great for the kids who want to swim, since their teeth chatter each time they get in their new pool. But it's been perfect for everything else. Last night we went to see "Cars" at the drive-in theater, and it was perfect drive-in weather: just right for a sweatshirt and a blanket, and no bugs! We got a great spot, second row center, where we could smell the cheeseburgers and popcorn in the concession stand. Mmmm! John and I laughed all the way through the movie- it's definitely a "Buy the video"!

Becca has been going to quilt camp this week, and every night, I get to send all the kids down the street to VBS. How great is that? John took us all out to Paradise Snowcones after we picked the kids up tonight. I had a Munkey Bar instead... oh yeah!

Summer... I'm lovin' it!

Pool Fun

Here it is- our new pool. In this photo, John hasn't hooked the filter up yet, but they couldn't wait to get in it, even though the water was freezing. (It's up to 75 now- still too cold for me!) This pool has occupied most of John's free time for the last week and has cost him way more than he thought it would. But now we have a way to blackmail the kids, which is always a useful thing when there is housework to be done!

We got John Mark off to camp yesterday and the gals at church and I scrapbooked until late at night. I got SIXTEEN PAGES completed! I was definitely on a roll, so of course I had to keep going. Rolls like that don't happen very often! It was also a good garage sale day, so there was lots of fun all around.

John took Becca to her first shotgun practice of the year with the 4-H shooting club. She is bigger this year and it's easier for her to handle the gun. She nailed one out of every three, beating some of the older kids (she's the youngest in her club). Her dad boasted that "She knows what to do with the business end of a shotgun!" He plans to take them to the state meet this year in September.

Nathanael had a birthday party to attend on Thursday for his friend Lilly. Nathanael knows he just does not have the social calendar that his older siblings have, so whenever he has an engagement, it is serious business! He was very careful about preparing for it, finding matching clothes, washing his face, combing his hair and carefully keeping up with his gift. And he returned bearing gifts of candy for his siblings, making him the star of the show (for a short while, anyway). Lilly's party is the highlight of his month!

I also took Becca to a crochet class on Friday, where she made a pair of decorated flip flops that are very cute. She says she likes crocheting better than knitting. While she was there, I took John Mark to get his hair cut, and this time he was very opinionated about the cut. He wanted what John and I call a "jiffy-bop" hair do, with it flipped up in the front and sort of spikey on top. He likes his new cut, but personally, I think he looks like he did when he was three and cut it himself. But don't tell him I said that.

I helped bind the new songbooks on Wednesday and Thursday. It was not as easy a job as it was touted to be, but we got it done. When I looked through the book this morning, our first Sunday to use them, I found 5 songs where the song number was on the wrong side of the page. Arggh! When I compiled the book, I used some of the songs from the old book in the same song order, but sometimes the song got moved to the opposite page. It was very hard to catch with just a stack of loose music to work with. Sigh. You think anyone will notice?

John grilled hamburgers, hotdogs and sausage for us to munch on all day; Becca is sleeping at Lauren's house tonight; John Mark is at camp and John and the 3 little boys are out swimming. It's been a good day.

I have no profound thoughts tonight, just an update on our activities.

John took John Mark to his first Boy Scout meeting tonight. They have just enough boys (5) to start a homeschool troop and they're planning on doing lots of camping. John Mark looked pretty sharp in his uniform; I guess I'll have to start sewing patches now. They've chosen 271 as their troop number after Psalm 27:1:

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is
the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be
afraid?

John Mark is very excited about the troop and has been working on tying knots all afternoon. He is also excited about heading off to camp in South Carolina on Saturday. I'm excited about Saturday too- because there's an all-day scrapbook at church and I'm going this time!

Today I took both John Mark and Becca to the Jr. Ambassador orientation at the crisis pregnancy center. They will go every Tuesday for six weeks this summer to work at the center and attend classes taught by the counselors there. At the end of the summer, there is a Father-Daughter Purity Ball so dads can take their daughters on their first date and the girls can have a special time to pledge their purity until marriage. Pretty neat.

Tonight John is at Ken's house at the last men's bible study of the series the men have been doing and John Mark is at "Guys Night Out" playing Ulimate Frisbee. I've made "Real" dinner now every night (except Sunday... they had to resort to frozen pizza) and I've finished my first book of the summer, Jane Eyre. It was pretty good, in the 19th century Romantic sort of way. And I've even begun my lesson plans for next year. I have such high expectations for this month that I feel like I really need to stay on the ball!

And in all the hoopla over 06-06-06 and all the interviews of mothers who did not want their babies born on this date, our friends Rob and Reigh Anne had their 5th baby tonight. I don't buy into any of the superstition surrounding the date and I'm sure they don't either... but it's pretty funny! Babies are always a blessing, no matter what day they're born on.

I'm so glad it's June! I've been waiting for June for months now, and it's finally here! School is out for us until August, which means school is out for me. This past year was so impossibly busy with the amped-up schoolwork and all the activities the kids are involved in; every time I began feeling frazzled and frustrated that I never had time to do what I wanted to do, I thought, "In June, I'm going to do it!"

So I have a big summer list of things I want to do:

• Catch up on my scrapbooking
• Take tole painting/knitting/sewing classes
• Paint my gourds
• Read lots of books
• Sew the dress I began a while back
• Craft projects
• Make some decorating headway on the house
• Keep our garden from dying
• Get back into my healthy eating and exercise routines

And things I have to do:

• Finish the yearbook pages for the homeschool yearbook (I'm on the yearbook committee)
• Make my lesson plans for next year's Co-op history classes
• Order the kids' books that we still don't have
• Keep the kids on track in math (they still have summer math to do)

So that's our summer. The kids have various camps and activities, but I've worked hard to choose carefully and guard my free time this summer so all of us have lots of time to rest and prepare for next year.

I've been working on the yearbook pages this weekend, and for all practical purposes, the job is done! Now if I could just get my office clean. Tomorrow's project.

At the end of last summer, John purchased a giant inflatable pool, with a pump, filter and all that, so the kids could swim this summer. We have friends who have one, and they say their seven kids have not destroyed theirs yet, so we took a chance and got one. John hauled in sand and spread it in the yard this weekend so we're ready to set it up. I've not been a fan of this idea, but if it keeps the kids outside instead of inside all summer, I'm all for it!

Today I discovered that I put the wrong arrangement to a song in the new songbook- Arggghhh! The songbooks are already copied and collated and are ready to be bound this Wednesday. After a big debate on how to proceed, we decided it would be easier to learn the new arrangement than to change the songbook. This is terribly frustrating after the number of times I proofed that thing.

But I'm so glad it's June!