Captured Moment

One of the great side benefits of home schooling is the relationship that can develop between siblings. All of my kids have a great relationship ( of course, we don't really allow them not to) but recently during a family portrait session this was once again dispayed. Caileigh and Collin arranged themselves for these shots and I love them. I love the sweetness between the two and the way Collin cares for his sister. I think much of their relationship harkens back to the training we gave them when they were little, Collin as the Knight- Protector and Caileigh as the Princess. Click on the title, "Captured Moments" to go the original blog on this subject.

I love these pictures and the moment in time they captured.

Categories: parenting

Learning Eternal Perspective

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliott

The kids and I are reading "Christian Heroes: Then and Now - Nate Saint" in school and is an amazing reminder of eternal perspective. These five men knowingly and willingly gave up their lives to bring the gospel to a tribe in the Amazon who lived in the stone age. They purposefully did not use their guns on the men who killed them because they did not want to kill men who did not know God. They died to give these men life - eternally.

Reading real stories of missionaries is a great way of encouraging kids to do great things for God and teaches great lessons in eternal perspective. "Christian Heroes: Then and Now" have a huge list of missionaries to choose from.

Categories: parenting

Harvest Festival

So, I thought I would update you on how the Harvest Outreach went. It went no where at all. We set up games, planned candy and had all our kids waiting but no one came until it was too dark and even then not a ton of kids came to the door. So, this means I get to go back to hiding! Yeah! I'm pretty happy about that! We did have a great time with our friends, who are willing to play along with my crazy schemes. They are are very patient and long-suffering friends. We pulled homemade taffy, bobbed for apples and made yummy caramel apples topped with chocolate, heath toffee, almonds and sea salt. We drank a gallon of spiced apple cider and had wonderful baked mac n'cheese supplied by my friend who can REALLY cook. I love having friends that can cook. It means I don't have to.

The real blessing of the day came unexpectedly. Our pastor encouraged us to do a "flash mob" to the grocery store to buy canned goods for the local food bank. After service, everyone quickly went to the store to buy some groceries and brought it back to church. We have over a thousand people at church - the grocery store was a zoo but it was such a treat to see everyone at the store doing something for others. The lines were long but it didn't seem to matter, except to the people who were there to do their weekly shopping but most of them got into the mood when it was explained what was happening. Several people handed money to people from our church to go buy more. Our friends ( previously mentioned), had stayed at the church to help (and because they are better Christians and go to the early service) to pack up the food so we decided to go inside and see if any other hands were needed. There was bags and boxes of food everywhere and they needed sorted, checked for out of date items and packed, so everyone jumped in and started helping. 2.5 hours later we finished but it was such a blessing to be a help. None of the kids whined about lunch or that they were tired or didn't want to help anymore. They were as thrilled to be helping as we were (it didn't hurt that their best friends were there too). I love my kids, they are amazing. To top it all off, someone anonymously sent pizza for all of us to have for lunch!

So, the outreach I planned didn't go anywhere at all but God had a different outreach planned. What I loved about the day was that we were all in the mindset of outreach and putting God and others first so we were able to jump in and be the hands that He needed us to be. It was a great lesson that we need to be willing to be the blessing that He wants instead of being focused on our own efforts.

Categories: parenting