Following In His Footsteps

A picture of homeschooling

inhistiming — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:48:11 +0000

I came across this ‘pin’ today that my friend, Mimi, has on one of her boards over at Pinterest. It’s a great blog post about homeschooling. I really enjoyed reading it and it served as a great reminder to me as well, as it is easy to forget sometimes just what homechooling is and can be. Enjoy!

Family and missions

inhistiming — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:43:51 +0000

We’ll begin Family Fun Night in just a couple hours. Chicken Fajitas is on the menu tonight, along with an Italian Wedding Bar Cake that I picked up from Publix….so good! I don’t know what we’re doing after dinner, probably playing a game. We did not receive a Netflix movie this week that was on the schedule for the kids, so not a movie night.

karl and I took the little girls out to the grocery store just before lunch today since I had to gather a few things for tonight. You wouldn’t think grocery shopping would be fun (I don’t mind it, especially if I can go alone, but it would never be on my ‘Fun things to do’ list!), but we had a really good time. The girls were very well-behaved and it was nice to just relax and enjoy our time shopping together.

We all spent quite a while outside yesterday evening before dinner. We were having leftovers so I didn’t need to be in the kitchen. It was so nice to sit in the cool breeze and just watch my little ones play. Corbin and Emma enjoyed some sword fighting, Elle climbed up and down the slide, Hailey played a game with Corbin then took some pictures with the camera she got for Christmas. I was able to get a couple of cute pictures and some sweet videos of the littlest girls, too. I’m so glad we stayed home yesterday and didn’t have to rush out anywhere. It was the perfect afternoon.

I’m looking forward to some more time with my family this weekend, plus a little uninterrupted time to write. I have an article due next week that I really need to finish, and it will definitely take some ‘quiet’ time to get it just right.

We are thinking of going to visit Indonesia….some family members are in missions there. It’s been on my mind again lately. I saw a beautiful video today of just a small part of the country, the people. Our newest sponsored child lives there. It would be so special to go be a part of what the family is doing there, as well as try to see our child while there, to see some of what Compassion International is doing there. I’m praying that we will be able to make a way to go, that God will make a way. I believe it would be life-changing for us.

Wednesday already?

inhistiming — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:29:52 +0000

It’s been a relatively busy week already. We’ve had our normal activities and some book work, but I have been working on some new things. Besides the work I’m doing each week with the restaurant supply company blog, I am also now doing some volunteer work for TOS. I’m a member of the Schoolhouse Writer’s Group, doing just my small part to create content for the Teacher’s Toolbox, which is a part of their magazine. It’s fun and creative, and I’m really enjoying it. I am honored that, after submitting my application, I was invited to join. I also have an opportunity to write an article for them, due next week, so I need to get it finished soon. That one I will actually get paid for, which is really cool and exciting, too. These are just two of the things that were ‘afoot’ here last week. I didn’t have confirmation yet that I was going to be able to do either, that’s why I was keeping it quiet.

I’m learning so much in the James study I’m taking through my church. We met again today, and I never come away from there without a few new nuggets of truth that were meant just for me! The ladies in my group are wonderful, speaking encouragement into my life and I’m trying to encourage them, as well. I’m so blessed!

We had a special family Valentine’s Day dinner last night. Karl grilled steaks and seared some in a pan with a special sauce he made. They were so good! I baked sweet potatoes and roasted some asparagus, tossed together a salad and we were ready to go. It was all great, and of course we enjoyed some of our favorite slices from The Cheesecake Factory after the kids went to bed. Don’t worry, they got to enjoy plenty of sweet yesterday, too. We all went to Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast ( a real treat because we rarely go out for breakfast and never to a donut shop!), and then they got to have the ‘treats’ I got them (a chocolate-covered strawberry and a cake pop each) later in the day. Elle is the only one who has not indulged yet, but I’ll probably let her do so tomorrow. Karl got me a sweet card and some lovely chocolates that I haven’t tasted yet….maybe tomorrow, since I have the 2nd half of my cheesecake left for tonight.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to stay home. We typically go to the library on Thursdays, and maybe we will, but we’ve been out of the house the past two mornings and I think the little ones need to just be here to play instead of running the roads. We’ll play it by ear, I guess.

How did you spend your Valentine’s Day?

A recap

inhistiming — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:55:01 +0000

We’ve been busy over the last few days:

SAINTS and my bible study Wednesday morning. I am loving the time with these women!
Boys’ group Wed. night
Thursday we all went to the library, then brought lunch home from Firehouse. Their 2nd week in a row getting our orders wrong, so we may have to go somewhere else from now on.
Friday we did a bit of school. It was a gray, rainy day, sow e lounged in jammies a while. That night Was Family Fun Night with just Corbin because the oldest went to Nerf Gun Wars at church.
Yesterday we did a little work, then I went to the grocery store and out to lunch with my husband. Karl and I are catching up on House, so we had a 2-episode marathon last night.
This morning, church. A really good service, as usual. We woke up to some ‘winter’ weather we’d been wishing for just a day ago. It was 45 degrees and windy this morning. It felt good to put on winter clothing. Today we’re just enjoying one another before we start a new week.

How has your weekend been?

Guest-post for Beautiful Mommy Feet

inhistiming — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:16:01 +0000

My guest-post for Beautiful Mommy Feet is up today. Please click on over to read our story. I am honored. Thank you, Melissa!

Goals for 2012

inhistiming — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:29:42 +0000

I am finally going to write out my goals for this year. I’m stripping it down to the basics, the most important things.

Love God.
Love people.

I will be working on spending more time in the Word, as well as being more intentional about time spent with my family and friends. If I truly want to Follow in His Footsteps, this is where it starts. I’m sure there will be many things I’ll do this year, but in all of it I want to be God-honoring and loving. Praying that by the end of the year I (and others) will see real evidence that I have become a little bit better at these two things.

Do you have any goals for 2012?

Something is afoot……

inhistiming — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:54:11 +0000

So, there are a few things going on in our lives, some ‘up-in-the-air’ stuff. We will need to make some decisions sometime soon. We don’t have details yet, so nothing much to share more than that.

We covet prayer….that we will do whatever we do in a way that will honor God and put us on a path to growing ever closer to Him, and also as a family.

Thank you! And I will share details eventually.

Ahead of the pack

inhistiming — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:38:45 +0000

Yesterday evening I decided to do an ‘experiment’ with Emma. Occasionally, we have used her little writing board (I don’t actually know what it’s called?) to write a word and then help her ‘read’ it. I have not done that with her in quite some time. While we were playing on the floor yesterday I decided to see if she remembered the words from before. She did! She can read the words cat, dog, and Emma easily. We immediately went outside, where Daddy was playing with the other kids, to show him. He and the other kids were duly impressed with her ability to read. We then introduced at and bat. This morning Logan showed her the words Logan, cup, and cap. She remembered those in the short-term, but we’ll see if she does the next time we practice. I’m proud of her! She’s not even 3 yet.

I could feel myself last night, though, beginning to get all ‘school-ish’ on her. I wanted to start planning for how I’m going to teach her to read, and what words I need to teach her, and then my thoughts turned to math and shapes and….

Wait! What am I doing? She is not even 3 yet! She has learned these things without ‘doing school’ and there is no reason to start now. We have plenty of time for that if we decide to go that route with her. I am not the biggest fan of workbooks, textbooks, tests, and the like, anyway. I really love the learning through living thing we already have going and I would much prefer that she never have to enter the separate ‘school’ world unless and until she chooses to do so. So, I stopped thinking of all the things I need to do with her, put down my markers that I was using to busily write words to teach to her, and decided to just continue to be happy that she can read three words. Wow!

As my oldest son pointed out this morning, “Well, she’s already ahead of the pack, anyway!” I agree.

A Fun Friday

inhistiming — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:10:19 +0000

This morning, I declared us ‘off’ from required book work, since it IS the day after Groundhog Day. The kids were thrilled and spent their day completing chores, reading lots of good books, and playing a few games.

Elle and I went to pick up a couple of things for our Family Fun Night that I had forgotten when I made my grocery trip on Monday. I chopped more cranberries (to keep in the freezer for one more batch of cranberry bread!) while the little girls napped this afternoon, and now I have banana bread in the oven. I completed about 1/2 an hour of my writing work today, but plan to do a little more Sunday night during the game, as I doubt it will keep my attention the entire time! I will participate fully in the planned snacking activities, though.

This weekend I plan to put together a few lasagna casseroles (2 for Place of Hope) and maybe others for my freezer. I really like being able to pull an already assembled meal out in the morning to thaw, knowing all I have to do is put it in the oven at the appropriate time. I love to cook, but some days are tough, so these will be great for those times.

I have been asked to write more radio spots for TOS, which is a great honor. It’s volunteer work and I really enjoy coming up with ideas for this. Perhaps one day I will do other work for them. What a dream! I can hope, right? That would be so cool!

A lovely truth

inhistiming — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:52:04 +0000

“Birds fly, fish swim, man thinks and learns. Therefore, we do not need to “motivate” children into learning, by wheedling, bribing, or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do, and all we need to do is bring as much of the world as we can into [their lives]; give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for; listen respectfully when they feel like talking; and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest.”
~ John Holt

Love this, and it’s something I’m working towards!