The Love of Friends

A little over 30 years ago, my Dad and Step mom met a couple who introduced them to the Lord. I woke up thinking about them. I just "found" their son on facebook--I can't explain the feeling I had when we became Facebook friends! I've thought of them SO often over the years. They truly have never been far from my mind and heart. The husband, Tom has been with the Lord for years now. I remember his smile, his somewhat unruly beard, but most of all I remember his heart. He loved the Lord and I can still picture him bent over his Bible underlining Scripture that spoke to him. He and his wife had two kids--a girl and a boy. We had SO much fun playing with them when we were growing up. And they had a German Shepherd named Shadow.

I honestly don't know how my parents met them, but I'm so thankful God, in His sovereignty, saw fit to bring our two families together. I came to know the Lord because of this family sharing with my parents and then my parents taking us to church. I was 9 years old when I asked Jesus into my heart--and it was on Tom's daughter's birthday...July 6th.

As I've experienced friendships over the years, I realize that people enter your life, stay for the God allotted time, then leave, or stay (according to God's perfect plan). Even though I had lost touch with this family, they've remained dear to my heart. I'm eternally grateful for their friendship and influence on my parents and our family. I suppose we don't know what God is going to do with our efforts to love others like He does, except that whatever it is, it will be to His glory.

So, "R" Family--thanks for sharing Christ with us so many years ago. {I look forward to the day when either God calls me home or He returns and I get to hug the man God used to bring me to Himself.}

May I be faithful to love Christ and share Him with others He brings into my path.

It's time for SCHOOL!

This week was our first week of Kindergarten (for my youngest, T) and Preschool (for a 3 yo and 4 yo that I babysit.) Honestly the week didn't work out like I'd dreamed it would (you know, in my head it all works out GREAT!) I made the plans, cut out the shapes, bought the supplies and prayed for good days. The other thing I have to confess is that it was MY boy that made the worst trouble--whining, pouting, arguing. I felt like each task took 3 times as long because he wasn't going with the flow! I did not give up and the Lord indeed gave me strength. It's Friday and today was better!!

Our theme for this week was the sun.
Our color for this week was yellow.
Our shape for this week was a circle.
Our Bible story emphasis was Creation.

Here are some of the things we did: (and hopefully I can get the pictures to download from the camera and add them to this post)
I made suns, with Marissa's help, and I hung them from the ceiling with fishing line.
I bought small yellow plates and served their snacks on them.
Snacks included round ritz crackers with cheddar cheese, bananas, and lemon jello.
I took a lemon and cut it in half. I had the kids smell it and then taste the juice (I squeezed some juice onto individual spoons.) Then they used half of the lemon to dip in yellow paint and stamp onto a piece of paper.
They painted their own suns after tracing a circle onto their paper.
We went on a "yellow hunt" around the house.
Today they ran outside in the yellow sunshine and played! =)

Each morning we have also incorporated the calendar, the pledges, and other morning work. I've used Homeschool Creations ideas and once you go to her site you'll see that she links to other creative moms. Our morning work has been fun this week.

On the days when I don't have the extra babysitting kids, I'm doing more kindergarten work with Trenton. This week we read The Napping House and are working on this lapbook to go with it. T loves this book and enjoys hearing it over and over again. He is also doing Pathway Readers (he is on "Before We Read") and Math-U-See Primer.

Head over to Homeschool Creations to read more from Preschool Corner.

The older I am...the harder I fall

Goodness me...wait till you hear what I did! Just so you aren't speed reading to the end...nothing is broken and the story has a happy ending.

Bethany and I were walking across the long soccer fields from her practice back to her older sister's game. I was carrying two camp/sports chairs in their bags, an insulated bag with our water bottles and my purse (complete with book stashed for reading between quarters.) With the sun setting and blazing in my eyes, I squinted to try to catch a glimpse of my girl on the field. That's when it happened...along the bike path, a rather large hollowing out of dirt had occurred. My foot went in that hollow, ankle twisted, skin scraped off leg, hands tried to cushion my fall and yep, I'm sure it was a sight!

I've never been graceful. It's a fact and I've tried hard to accept it. Sure I try not to fall and make a spectacle of myself, but sometimes it's unavoidable!

Thankfully Bethany [aka "Nurse Nancy"] was there with me. She surveyed the damage to my leg and hands, told me to leave all the goods with her and hobble off to the bathroom. I washed myself up the best I could and emerged from the bathroom pining for the moment we could go home!

The next couple days my sweet hunny and kids have been compassionate and sensitive. Trenton asks about my leg and pulls up my pants leg to check out the "blooding!" He even brought me a pillow to prop my leg up on. Bethany apologized for not carrying more of the stuff and for not warning me about the hole. She insisted on carrying EVERYTHING for the rest of that evening. And the two of them had a conversation about being the "scout" looking for holes and not letting momma fall in them. :) Isn't that sweet??

My hunny cleaned my "wounds", applied antibacterial cream and gave me an ice pack to help with the inflammation. Marissa helped with more than her share of chores. All of this sweet, tender attention made falling worth it...well, almost. Astounding, really, at how sore I've been and I didn't even break anything or fall completely flat on my face (thank God!)

I'm so thankful for my family and I love how we take care of each other. A true gift from the Lord.

So that's my story...watch out for holes...and have a great weekend!