It's been a busy week. A pretty good one too. I got a chance to go to the CHEO (Christian Home Educators of Ohio) conference this weekend. Heard some great messages and was greatly encouraged. Have you ever had a message that you knew changed your perspective on a topic when you heard it? Not a temporary change, but an overall adjustment to the way you think. I've actually had 2 life-changing messages in the past week. A rarity, I know. One of them was at the conference. A speaker by the name of Voddie Baucham spoke about "Harvard or Heaven". My homeschooling perspective has been largely focused on academics. Obviously, a big portion of homeschooling should be focused on academics, right? That's the purpose of school. But it shouldn't be the sole focus. I pulled my children out of the public schools because they were being bombarded by opposing thoughts and world views before they were old enough to handle it. Obviously, I want my children to grow up and love the Lord too. With 4 boys, my goals are certainly that they will go to college to get good jobs to be able to provide for the families they will hopefully eventually have. However, what God calls us to, as I was reminded by Voddie, is to prepare our children for heaven, not college. His other big point was if you are going to send your child to college, do it wisely. Make sure they are "college material" and are getting a degree in something that requires a college education, not jewelery making or other "fluff" degrees.
The other life-changing message I heard last Sunday was from a man named Norm Wakefield. His message entitled "Live to Love" was different than anything I've ever heard I think. To love as Christ loved means to love expecting nothing in return. So many of our relationships have expectations of the other person and when they don't live up we get frustrated and even find them 'hard to love'. When our children don't listen, I find myself getting frustrated because they aren't doing what I want them to do. He makes a point that the more 'useless' a person is to you, the more valuable they are to you because you have the opportunity to show them Christ's love and grow that character in yourself. I've been trying to keep this in mind when my children push me 'over the edge'. I need to love them not expecting ANYTHING in return.
Last year, God really worked on my faith. Leaving my job was a big step for me because it went against everything I logically could think for life. This year God has been pruning my character very strongly. While it seems like we are often reminded of sins and faults we have, I feel God pushing me to repent and make big changes in the way I view life and others. I feel very blessed! God disciplines those He loves!
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In other news.....
I've been scrap booking again. I love to do it. It is probably my #1 hobby. Unfortunately though, right now I'm totally loving digital scrap booking. The problem is the cost is all deferred to the end of the project. When working on traditional books, you can buy paper and supplies a little at a time as you work on the book. It spreads out the cost and is usually overall cheaper anyway. My kids have been begging me to go back to the traditional scrap booking because they love the way the books look. They said it means more. I'm glad that it means anything to them at all, really. They love looking at their individual books. So I've been perusing my pictures getting ready to print some out to do some pages with my good ole scissors and punchers. I've also found some sites on the web that I can print 12x12 pages for around $2-3 a sheet instead of the $4-6 I've seen before. This way I can mix traditional pages and digital pages in the same book. We'll see how it goes.
One of the twins dropped their play Nemo phone in the toilet today. Lucky for me, it was pee filled. Ew! I tried my best to get it out with another object to no avail. Yep, had to stick my hand in the toilet. Ranks right up there as one of those loveliest mom moments.
This week is baseball filled. We have games Mon-Sat this week, alternating between our two oldest sons. Luckily, my husband is going to make a point to be available for some of them so I don't have to attend them all. I've attended over 20 games so far this season, so I'm kind of baseball'd out!
I hope you all have a blessed week!
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