In Which the Children Plan Easter Service

Bethany and Trenton spent most of the afternoon planning a Good Friday Service. It was so sweet. They changed into dress clothes, made bulletins, set up the school room and practiced songs. I'll let the pictures and captions tell the story. 

All dressed up

I love these sweet faces.

Can't leave out the elements for Communion

Taking offering (with money they gave us). Bethany is in the background getting the games set up for us. Yes! They had games with prizes. Really creative and cute!

Bethany teaching a lesson. She had places marked in her Bible and she asked Daddy to read them. The vacuum piece Trenton is holding is their microphone and Bethany is standing behind the podium. :)

Trenton playing the worship music.

A visual aid of The Last Supper. Trenton is holding it up as Bethany tells the story.

Trenton did a reenactment with his knights and people.

Trenton closed in prayer.

A Day at the Park

 We had beautiful weather yesterday (and today for that matter.) So a trip to the park was in order! The kids had a great time and I loved watching them.

With so many rainy days, we were all very excited to get outside and play. In the morning, I weeded some flower beds while the kids played on bikes. Then a friend stopped to pick up her little girl that we were watching. I pulled her aside and said, "Hey, what do you think about taking the kids to the park?" She was all for it! Fun Times!

 

 The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing?
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

 Robert Louis Stevenson {stanza 1}

tulips

I love tulips.

The fabulous colors, the bending stems, the soft petals


ahhh! I love tulips!

The place of seeing God....

I have been reading a wonderful, thought-provoking book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Her writing draws me in, holds me, twirls and swirls me around and begs me to read more or begs me to re-read what I just read. She is deep. So, in all my reading (and even taking the book to India with me--picture to the right, book is on the end of my bed), I'm yet on chapter 6. Not to worry as I see this as God helping me ponder and ruminate on thoughts and concepts that I am still working on grasping. This afternoon as I finished chapter 6. She talked about seeing a huge marvelous moon on evening. Eloquently, she details her thoughts about God, our Creator and our Righteousness. As she turns to leave the field and lovely moon, she ponders this thought:

The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy--before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet? how do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral? Could I go back to my life and pray with eyes wide open? 

 Oh, my goodness, this strikes me to the core. I am so there with the loudness and blurriness, the forgetting things, the failing and so on. I must cling to God, see His divine holiness in His created beings (us) and in His creation. I must give thanks to Him for it all, for in giving thanks, is "to move into His presence and listen to His love unending and know the grace uncontainable."

Life Imposed Blog Break

Well, March, April and half of May have flown by....I didn't mean to stop blogging; it just happened that way. Something had to give and it was the thing that can't talk. :D

So, I'm here to start journaling the happenings of Heather again. For starters, we are plugging away at school. We are working hard at doing what we are supposed to do everyday. (Why are the "dailies" of life so difficult to keep up?) Tonight is our homeschool group's annual 'fair'. Participants can display science, history or art projects and performers can play piano or other instruments, recite a poem, sing a song, etc. It's a fun evening, but extremely busy. My now 9 year old Bethany is doing "Panda Bears" and my now 15 year old Marissa is displaying her photography. {Yes, you read right--both girls have had birthdays since my blogging break!} We are busy wrapping up final details on these projects today.

My biggest news is that I went to India for 2 weeks in March! God taught me more about Him and showed me more of His majesty....it was amazing. My plan is to share pictures and bits of my journal and lots of pictures in the next couple months. Really amazing and wonderful and I'm so grateful to have been able to go.

Babies beginning to crawl and walk sure change a gal's life....I babysit 4 extra kids and two of them are babies. One just turned 1 in March and the other is 8 months old. The 1 yo is starting to walk. She is EVERYWHERE! The 8 mo is doing the army crawl and gets most anywhere she wants to! Talk about busy! Thankfully I have my girls to help, but it sure is a busy time for us. The other two are 4 and 5 year olds. I do preschool with them along with Kindergarten for Trenton. Here are some sites I like for printables and ideas:
Homeschool Creations--You know I love me some Yolanthe!!
Confessions of a Homeschooler--another favorite of mine
Mama Jenn and her other site Education Cubes
I know there are other sites I like. I'll have to jot them down as I come across them.

Here are some sites I've been reading for my own growth and encouragement:
Home Sanctuary 
A Holy Experience
Again, I know there are a few more and some I read sporadically.

Thanks for sticking with me and hopefully in the upcoming weeks I'll be back to regular blogging.

 

Standing on the Promises

This week I read Granola Mom 4 God and this post. It's so good you have to go read it!
Here is a list of the verses that I copied/pasted from her post.

1. It is the Lord who goes before you.  He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.  (Deuteronomy 31:8)
2. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)
3. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
4. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.  God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.  (1 Corinthians 10:13)
5. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord.  (Isaiah 54:17)

 So encouraging!

A Pictorial Update

My Hunny's birthday cake--Blueberry Muffin Cake

Much to our happiness and joy, we recently purchased a new camera. We got a really good deal on it and it takes marvelous pictures! Our old camera didn't have much zoom to speak of and it had stopped downloading to the computer. So, in celebration, I'm posting pictures of our recent happenings all captured on our new camera.

Our sweet dog, Bailey

The courageous firefighter

The fabulous picture taker!

Playing Little House on the Prairie