I know I have not been posting consistently the past couple of months. We have just been living life to the fullest here-very busy as always. Working, learning, laughing, playing, praying, seeking what the Lord has for us.
One thing I haven't posted very much about here is a little trip to Cambodia that is coming up. I am going with a medical mission team, sent by my church, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 9 days. This will by my first mission trip and I am so excited to be used by the Lord in this way!
The past 6 months have been full. Our life has been incredibly busy. Our teenage daughter is now a freshman in high school and has been active in the school musical, went to her first homecoming dance, is busy making friends, and working to keep her grades up. I am continuing to homeschool the Littles (5 1/2 and 7 in two weeks). Rob has been working hard at his job, and has been an incredible source of strength and support for me as I homeschool and prepare for this trip.
Preparing for the trip has involved many things. I needed a new passport and crazy immunizations. We have had many meetings with the mission group to bond and exchange information about the trip. I sent out sponsor letters and watched as the Lord moved in people's lives. I have never done anything like this before and the process so far has been humbling and has grown my faith more than I ever expected. I am already in awe of Him, changed forever, and I haven't even gotten to Cambodia yet!
As the days count down in these final two weeks there is a sense of quickening. Emails are flying among the group with lists of supplies needed and received, information about the trip itself, airplane seats and itinerary to share with family, and prayer requests for those suffering from sudden illness, injury or stress.
Amidst all of the Cambodia flurry, Christmas is coming in a few short days. It has arrived much quicker than I anticipated this year! I am finding myself struggling to focus on my Savior, His birth and making sure that my girls don't get lost in the "presents" mania that our society encourages, but rather get lost in His Presence and what the birth of Jesus Christ means for us. Salvation, forgiveness for our sins, mercy, love, hope.
I heard myself talking with friends the other day about our Christmas plans. We were discussing that our church was having a Christmas day service at 11am and I found myself saying, "I don't know if we will make it to church that morning. It's just too much and will make our Christmas morning too crazy with opening all the presents and breakfast." Later that day it really hit me. What was I thinking? How did my priorities get so out of whack? Christmas is about Jesus. Period. The rest is all fluff and hype that the world has convinced us is more important. I forgot that for a second. Lord forgive me!
After sitting down and talking it over with my husband and family, we are doing things a little differently this year. It's nothing big, just rearranging the days that we are celebrating. It was an idea that one of the other moms that I was talking to that morning suggested and it stuck with me. We will do the family dinner and opening presents on Christmas Eve, then get up Christmas day and have a nice breakfast and go to church. Afterward we will go to grandma's house and hang out together. It will be so nice.
Next comes my middle child's 7th birthday. January 3rd-three days before I leave for Cambodia! She and I planned a small celebration with 2 of her friends to go rock climbing on Dec. 30th. I am relieved to have that all planned out and set. I would be in such big trouble if I somehow forgot her birthday!
I am writing all of this because I believe that the Lord wants me to share my journey with others. Part of that journey involves prayer and right now I need some prayer support! My heart wants to focus on preparing for this mission trip and to spend my time in prayer, fast, and pack. However, my life is so full with other very important activities that must happen before I leave. My girls are also nervous about me being gone and ask a lot of questions every day about it. I have things planned for them for while I am away to help pass the time for them, but I know there will be days that they will be sad and miss me. Please pray that God's peace will be upon them. That they will remain healthy and that Rob, my mom and step dad will also remain healthy as they are all going to be caring for my girls while I am away.
I am so grateful for this opportunity to be used by God in such a tangible way. I don't know exactly what is coming while I am in Cambodia or when I return home. I am walking by faith for probably the first time in my life. It's scary, thrilling, humbling and amazing all at the same time. My hope, beyond God moving in the hearts of the Cambodian's we will be working with, is that my children will remember their mom going to Cambodia by faith and in obedience to the will of God, and that it will awaken in their hearts a desire to walk by faith, in obedience to Him also. It's taken me a long time to get to this place in my walk with the Lord and I pray that it won't take them as long!
Blessings and have a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
Kim
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Week 4: Honeycomb, evaporation, beans, and caterpillars!
Bible
Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones
This week our focus was on speaking goodness into each others lives. One of the activities involved 2 spoons, some honey and some garbage. Each girl got to choose between eating a spoonful of honey or garbage. Hm, I wonder what they picked:-)
Math/Calendar/Weather
This week I implemented a new way for Ava to get her math done on her own without as much prompting from me. I was inspired by another, far more organized, MFW mom - Mary Lou (thank you!). I put together math packets for Ava to grab each day out of her math folder. She takes one with her to the breakfast table and works on it while she eats breakfast. The packet includes:
Number of the Day 1/2 sheet
A "Today's Date Is..." page that I made
A worksheet from the Complete Book of Math
She is able to start this packet over breakfast and then while I am cleaning up the breakfast dishes she finishes it up and then goes about her morning chores. This works out really well because she wakes up fresh and ready to do school every morning, and I can say -"get your morning packet" and she knows exactly what to do without any further direction from me. I can be in the kitchen doing breakfast and dishes, close by to answer questions, yet she is also learning to work on her own. It's a win-win!
Science/Exploration Day
We spent a lot of time outside this week due to the unusually warm weather we were having. Although both girls enjoy science, I think Sophia especially loves this part of school.
Here are some picture of our adventures:
Here are some picture of our adventures:
We started an ant hill
planted our bean seeds
found a new fuzzy yellow friend
fuzzy yellow friend's new home
Interesting things about our caterpillar:
He loves apple tree leaves
He buried himself in the dirt a few days after this picture was taken.
Now there is a little bit of silk on the dirt around the edge of the glass.
Is he dead?
Hibernating for the winter?
We aren't sure. I am not sure what type of caterpillar he is either. If you have any thoughts, please let me know! We are in wait and see mode right now...
He loves apple tree leaves
He buried himself in the dirt a few days after this picture was taken.
Now there is a little bit of silk on the dirt around the edge of the glass.
Is he dead?
Hibernating for the winter?
We aren't sure. I am not sure what type of caterpillar he is either. If you have any thoughts, please let me know! We are in wait and see mode right now...
These are our beans after one week!!
We also learned about evaporation and will be keeping a close eye on our water level over the next week
On Exploration Day the TM said to draw some illustrations from p. 2 from Things Outdoors. This selection discussed rain, clouds and evaporation. We were having a lovely, partly cloudy day, so we went outside to draw.
We discussed evaporation and I asked the girls to copy the word and draw a picture of what evaporation looks like. This is Ava's picture:
And here is Sopha's picture.
Our next experiment was the Cloud/Rain Model
Patiently waiting for water to boil...
Ice cubes to make "cold air" clouds
drum roll please.....
Ta Da! We have tiny droplets of "rain" forming under our "cloud" Very cool!
Read Aloud
This week we read among other things:
Alice and Wonderland
Selections from Prayers and Poems
God's World News
Ava also finished her Animal Tales book
In other news...
Dad took the girls to Grandma and Grandpas to pick more apples and tomatoes!
Aren't they beautiful!
More soccer was played...
I lounged by the pool for a few end of summer sun beams...:-)
...while Ava was being bendy in Tumbling
The horses were BIG
and a little stinky:-)
but the girls had a blast! At the end Ava said she wants to take care of horses when she is older and Sophia made a new friend!
Another busy week done:-) See you next week!
Blessings,
Kim and the girls
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Week 3 First Grade and Kindergarten
Bible
Proverbs 21:23 He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.
The first questions the girls asked was: What does calamity mean? I looked up the verse on Blue Letter Bible Calamity in Hebrew is Tsarah meaning straits, distress, trouble.
Well, yikes! The girls looked worried. We talked about how God wants us to be careful what we say because our words have the power to hurt others and to hurt ourselves. What a wonderful lesson for two sisters to learn!
Sophia working on her play dough letters
The girls learned that the Bible is comprised of 66 separate books. We gathered 66 skinning books and stacked them up. Then we separated them into an Old Testament stack of 39 books and a New Testament stack of 27 books. The girls counted and compared the stack with how tall our Bible is:-)
The also learned what a Table of Contents is and how to use it. In a couple of weeks we will begin memorizing the books of the Bible!
Science and Nature
We started our week with a nature walk hunting for pretty flowers with brightly colored leaves to press. We also collected flower petals to make ink out of.
The pressing and the ink making turned out ok. We will be checking our pressed flowers in a couple of weeks. The ink really just ended up looking more like dirty water, but they sure had fun destroying the pretty petals!
We also did a bean experiment this week to learn about the components of a seed. We used pinto beans. Early in the week they observed and drew pictures of the dry pinto beans.
We discussed what they are made of: The outer covering or Seed Coat and the two halves or the cotyledons (they struggled with pronouncing that one!) and then the tiny plant inside.
We then soaked our beans and placed them between two wet paper towels and wrapped the whole bundle up in tin foil. Then we set our packet on the window sill to wait, and wait and wait!
We discussed what they are made of: The outer covering or Seed Coat and the two halves or the cotyledons (they struggled with pronouncing that one!) and then the tiny plant inside.
We then soaked our beans and placed them between two wet paper towels and wrapped the whole bundle up in tin foil. Then we set our packet on the window sill to wait, and wait and wait!
After 2 days we checked the beans. They were wet, a little larger (swollen from the water) and the outer shell was separating from the bean. All of this was interesting, but not terribly dramatic.
Then we waited a few more days...or rather, mom forgot all about checking that little tinfoil packet on the window sill for 4 more days:-)
I took a peek at it yesterday and was thrilled to see that big changes had occurred! I got the girls and we sat at the kitchen table for the big reveal. I reminded the girls what the beans looked like six days before by showing them a dry bean. Small, hard, oval, brown.
Then we opened the foil and voila! We had bean sprouts!!! They gasped and squealed enthusiastically to see the change that had taken place. So cool!
Here are their science journal papers:
Ava's
Sophia's
Their work area
Other activities
We rode our bikes into town to Jamba Juice. The ride was a great opportunity to practice road safety and get some outside exercise on a nice sunny day while we still have them!
The girls chose Skittles smoothies and I tried the new Pumpkin Smash. We all really liked the Pumpkin Smash smoothie, although Ava's favorite was the Skittle smoothie:-)
Tumbling and swimming happened as well, but no pictures to post. I will try to remember to take some this week. Ava is becoming quite accomplished at gymnastics doing her first round off this week and completing both forward and backward walkovers, among other things. Sophia just started her swim lessons up again and is loving every minute in the water!
I hope you all are enjoying this late summer weather!
Love,
Kim
Friday, September 9, 2011
Cambodia Here I come!
Hi everyone!
I am so excited to share with you all a new adventure I am going on. I have a tremendous opportunity in front of me. Horizon Community Church (my home church) is sending a medical team to Cambodia. Cambodia is a desperately poor country where access to medical help is out of reach for most of the people. The team will be going to serve these wonderful people with medical and dental help and the love of Jesus Christ. I will be going with the team in January 2012.
According to Ken Huff, the missionary we will be working with in Cambodia, one of the leading causes of child slavery is the inability to pay medical bills or the selling of children to raise the money for needed treatment. Providing this type of help does more than any other single method to help eradicate this atrocity.
Many illnesses that are very treatable, like diarrhea, are fatal in a country like Cambodia. Simple infections are life threatening because of a lack of proper care. We will be able to bring some relief in the name of Jesus.
The team will be leaving January 6th 2012 and returning the 15th 2012. The flight is 23 hours there and about 25 hours back. Our destination and home base will be in a province outside of Phenom Penh. We will be serving five different villages in the field. In each village there is a church that we will be working with. Every believer will be prayed for and every non-believer (most of those we will see) will receive the gospel message from our Cambodian partners. Once we leave, the church then will have a connection with the patients we have seen.
Our focus will be simple, to bring the healing power of Jesus Christ through hands on medical treatment, prayer and the truth of the gospel.
Not everyone can go but all are called to help. Please pray for the missions team, their families, and the people of Cambodia. The deadline is fast approaching when the first portion of funds will be due to cover the costs of airline tickets. If you are feeling led to give financially to the mission team's efforts, please do so. My goal is to raise $2000 to cover the cost of my trip, with $1300 being due by October 20, 2011. Thus far $675.00 has been sponsored! That is so awesome! Missions trips like these are not possible without prayer and financial support from friends and family like you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sponsorships!
I am so excited to see what the Lord is going to do for the people of Cambodia! Thank you for partnering with me along this journey.
Thank you and God Bless!
Kim Spalding
I am so excited to share with you all a new adventure I am going on. I have a tremendous opportunity in front of me. Horizon Community Church (my home church) is sending a medical team to Cambodia. Cambodia is a desperately poor country where access to medical help is out of reach for most of the people. The team will be going to serve these wonderful people with medical and dental help and the love of Jesus Christ. I will be going with the team in January 2012.
According to Ken Huff, the missionary we will be working with in Cambodia, one of the leading causes of child slavery is the inability to pay medical bills or the selling of children to raise the money for needed treatment. Providing this type of help does more than any other single method to help eradicate this atrocity.
Many illnesses that are very treatable, like diarrhea, are fatal in a country like Cambodia. Simple infections are life threatening because of a lack of proper care. We will be able to bring some relief in the name of Jesus.
The team will be leaving January 6th 2012 and returning the 15th 2012. The flight is 23 hours there and about 25 hours back. Our destination and home base will be in a province outside of Phenom Penh. We will be serving five different villages in the field. In each village there is a church that we will be working with. Every believer will be prayed for and every non-believer (most of those we will see) will receive the gospel message from our Cambodian partners. Once we leave, the church then will have a connection with the patients we have seen.
Our focus will be simple, to bring the healing power of Jesus Christ through hands on medical treatment, prayer and the truth of the gospel.
Not everyone can go but all are called to help. Please pray for the missions team, their families, and the people of Cambodia. The deadline is fast approaching when the first portion of funds will be due to cover the costs of airline tickets. If you are feeling led to give financially to the mission team's efforts, please do so. My goal is to raise $2000 to cover the cost of my trip, with $1300 being due by October 20, 2011. Thus far $675.00 has been sponsored! That is so awesome! Missions trips like these are not possible without prayer and financial support from friends and family like you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your sponsorships!
I am so excited to see what the Lord is going to do for the people of Cambodia! Thank you for partnering with me along this journey.
Thank you and God Bless!
Kim Spalding
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The end of summer is looming as we prepare to ring in the next new season.
All of us at Yellowstone in front of Old Faithful. What a super fun summer trip!
We have been off from school for a few months now. The girls and I needed the break, and we have used this break to the fullest doing all kinds of really fun things. However now, we are all getting a little tired. A little cranky, a little bossy. Ok, let's be serious. A LOT bossy!
It's time for us all to get back into school.
Slowly, slowly the wheels have started to turn in my sun exposed, play overloaded, television warped brain. I can almost here the squeak of the rusty wheel:-)
So, I am dusting off book shelves and books too for that matter. We have hardly opened a one this whole summer *gasp*
I am looking up paint colors on Home Depot's website to put a fresh coat of paint in the school room.
I am dreaming about workboxes and white boards and timelines.
I am planning first day of school activities and thinking up new ways to make it extra special for my Littles this year.
I am preparing to send big sister off to high school in a few weeks with volleyball tryouts around the corner, extra practices and registration days looming!
Soccer, tumbling, creative dance and swim...Oh my!
And we haven't even started school yet.
Truly, truly, my favorite time of year is the end of September, early October. I dream about those weeks when all this craziness is behind us and we are into the groove of school and activities, spending time in God's Word every day while we learn to walk with Him.
I love that season of hunkering down and settling in for the winter after playing hard outside and inside all summer. Summer is fun. Play is fun, but cozy autumn days by the fire with something yummy baking in the oven is just about the best thing ever.
So, eagerly I dream and I plan. I organize and I clean. I prepare for the coming year, praying over my children, my husband and all of our friends and family too. I thank God for this season of preparation and pray that I will use it wisely and not squander the time with idle worry and stress.
I will trust in the Lord for all of my needs and for those of my family. And I know that, although I dream and plan and organize and clean, I do this so that I may walk a little more by faith, knowing the Lord has it all figured out and I will be prepared to follow wherever he leads.
In Him,
Kim
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
my plans vs. His Plan
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29: 11- 13
I like to plan. I used to think it made me organized. However, now I understand that it makes me feel in control. Hm...
Funny thing about my plans: they often get "messed up". Of course by "messed up" what I really mean is that my plans don't always jive with God's plan. That's when things get "messed up".
I used to get very upset by a change in my plans. I would resist with all my strength and move on in my own direction determined that it was the right way, only to come up against wall after wall of resistance. Sometimes the Lord would allow it. He allowed me to have my way. Sometimes everything was fine, not great, not terrible. No harm came to me or my family. At least not that I could see right away. Other times, there was a great deal of pain and trama that took us a long time to recover from.
But here's the thing: I have never regretted "giving in" and leaning into God's plan for me and my family. I have never once regretted doing things His way instead of my way. Oh don't get me wrong, I have worried and fretted about it plenty! However, once I put my trust in the Lord and seek His will, there has always been peace, sureness and blessing.
I still make plans. A lot of them. however, over the years I am learning to listen to His voice. I recognize it more often now. Sometimes, I still get really invested in doing things my way without seeking His will. During those times, He is there. He sends friends and acquaintances to me to remind me of His will and to seek Him. He points me to His Word and reminds me of His plans for me and His love for me. Sometimes, despite all of His gentle nudging and guidance, I stubbornly try things my way and I fall flat on my face. When I seek Him and His forgiveness, He picks me up every time, loves and forgives me and shows me the way. Then I grow and mature in my love and faith in Him.
You see even when we fail (and I mean epic fail!) God loves us and uses those experiences to illuminate His love for us and His plans for us which are infinitely better than any plan we could come up with on our own.
I am so thankful for that!
In Him,
Kim
I like to plan. I used to think it made me organized. However, now I understand that it makes me feel in control. Hm...
Funny thing about my plans: they often get "messed up". Of course by "messed up" what I really mean is that my plans don't always jive with God's plan. That's when things get "messed up".
I used to get very upset by a change in my plans. I would resist with all my strength and move on in my own direction determined that it was the right way, only to come up against wall after wall of resistance. Sometimes the Lord would allow it. He allowed me to have my way. Sometimes everything was fine, not great, not terrible. No harm came to me or my family. At least not that I could see right away. Other times, there was a great deal of pain and trama that took us a long time to recover from.
But here's the thing: I have never regretted "giving in" and leaning into God's plan for me and my family. I have never once regretted doing things His way instead of my way. Oh don't get me wrong, I have worried and fretted about it plenty! However, once I put my trust in the Lord and seek His will, there has always been peace, sureness and blessing.
I still make plans. A lot of them. however, over the years I am learning to listen to His voice. I recognize it more often now. Sometimes, I still get really invested in doing things my way without seeking His will. During those times, He is there. He sends friends and acquaintances to me to remind me of His will and to seek Him. He points me to His Word and reminds me of His plans for me and His love for me. Sometimes, despite all of His gentle nudging and guidance, I stubbornly try things my way and I fall flat on my face. When I seek Him and His forgiveness, He picks me up every time, loves and forgives me and shows me the way. Then I grow and mature in my love and faith in Him.
You see even when we fail (and I mean epic fail!) God loves us and uses those experiences to illuminate His love for us and His plans for us which are infinitely better than any plan we could come up with on our own.
I am so thankful for that!
In Him,
Kim
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Graduation Day!
"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world , and all who live in it." Psalm 24:1
The Lord put on my heart a while ago to have a celebration at the end of our school year. And so today was our first ever Kindergarten Graduation Day! (We get to do it again next year with Tigger). It started out as this small little idea and then, well, it seems God had other plans for us:-)
Initially, I decided to have a graduation day for several reasons:
1. I needed some incentive to organized the school work the girls did all year long.
2. I wanted the girls to be able to see how much they have accomplished and grown.
3. I wanted them to share with the family all that they have done and are proud of.
4. I wanted them to know how proud Dad and I were of them.
5. It gave us closure for the year, so that now we are all ready to move on to the next thing.
To prepare, I went through all of their lessons and put them in a binder for each girl. I had started out doing this at the beginning of the year but got out of the habit and by the end of the year all of their lessons were paper clipped together and stuffed in the binders. Then I pulled out their best art work and put it up on the school room walls. We also had up all the words to remember badges and the memory verse for the year. I put up for each girl, their 7 days of creation art work, 100's chart, life cycle paperwork and few other things that reflected their work from the year.
Then, we invited the grandparents over, prayed, had brunch, and invited them to sit for the show. Oh, also this morning I sat down with the girls and we came up with a name for our homeschool that they love. This is something that has been on my heart all year to do. We chose Stars of Grace Academy. That was so exciting. For the first time in a long time both girls agreed completely. They want to make t-shirts this summer, How fun!
Winnie recited all her Words To Remember for the year (all 26 lessons), sang the Days of the Week song, the Months of the Year song, the B-I-B-L-E song and the Water Cycle song. Tigger was supposed to sing with her, but got cold feet at the last minute:-) This was so weird and unexpected. It really showed the maturity difference between the two girls and how far Winnie has come this year. At the beginning of the year I could hardly get her to speak up to just me when she was reciting things. Today she sang out loud and proud!
After the singing and me talking about My Father's World and how awesome it is, we let everyone walk around and view the girls work and look at their binders. The girls were so proud of all that they had accomplished, it was such a wonderful moment for Winnie. Her confidence soared, and she just seemed to grow up right before my eyes. sniff, sniff. It was kind of awesome and I am so thankful to God for allowing me the opportunity to homeschool my kiddos, teach them about His love for them and this beautiful world He has for us and about Jesus sacrifice for their salvation.
As I said at the beginning, I initially had my 5 reasons to hold a Graduation Day, but, again, God's plans for me and the girls were a little different. As usual, His plans involved our hearts instead of my task list. My heart is so full for my girls and our school, and so was my husbands. I love that he was there today, he signed their graduation diplomas, and considers himself the "Superintendent of Schools". It's been a hard road of several years of prayer to get to this point and I just want to hold on tight to it. At the same time, I also want to shout from the rooftops that God is amazing and so good and patient and awesome and loves us more that we can possibly know.
It was such a wonderfully sweet culmination of the year's work. My hope and prayer is that this is an encouragement to you. Maybe someone can use these ideas to create their own end of year celebration!
In Him,
Kim
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
For God's Glory
A friend of mine stopped by the house tonight to drop off some items for our bible study tomorrow morning. She was supposed to bring them to the study, but found out that her favorite Aunt had passed away and my friend and her family are flying out to Chicago tomorrow morning last minute.
When she stopped by the house I was so thankful she was able to come in for a minute so we could talk. I listened to her, hugged her, let her cry and talk, and did my best to encourage her. It can be really hard to know what to say to someone who has lost a person close to them.
Then, God reminded me of my Dad. I lost him almost 7 years ago suddenly and it was devastating. I shared with my friend about my dad's death and how my mom, my brother and I all dealt with the loss. I shared with her my sadness at not knowing for sure about my dad's salvation because he and I had never spoken about it. I shared with her how we all laughed and reminisced about old times with dad at his funeral, and made every effort to continue talking about him even when it made us cry. I shared with her about how Pastor Roger did an alter call at my dad's funeral and a couple of hands raised. God was being glorified at my dad's funeral!
I asked my friend about her Aunt, their relationship, her mom and their relationship, her family and whether or not they new the Lord. I reminded her that God uses all thing to glorify Him. Then as we were talking, God showed me how He used my dad's death to glorify Him.
When my dad was alive, he and my mom only went to church when I was very young. After I turned 9, we moved and my parents never went back to church and my parents walked away from the Lord. I rarely spoke with my parents about God, even after I was married and my husband and I began going to church together. Our conversations were very surface level about God and church and mostly between my mom and I. I was a baby believer and pretty insecure about my knowledge of the Word and sharing it.
Then, my dad died. I dove deep into the Word as a way to cope with the loss and I shared everything I read with my mom and anyone who would listen. Every day mom and I spoke I would try to encourage her with something I had read in the bible or something I felt the Lord telling me.
A year and a half later my mom met a recently widowed man and they fell in love. He and I disagreed about God, and church and I stood my ground with my mom about them being unequally yoked. I prayed and had others praying about their relationship and asked mom to ask him to leave his church before she agreed to marry him. He agreed! However, he still held on to his beliefs. They were married soon after. I continued to pray.
Together they agreed to find a church they both loved. I prayed and God brought them to a lovely little church that preached the Good News about Jesus, just down the street from their house. They began attending and soon my mom became a member of the church. Her husband was not ready to renounce his previous church religion yet, but still continued to attend and grew to love the church that he and my mom went to together. The Holy Spirit was moving.
A few months ago my step-dad joined the church. I truly believe he is saved and knows the saving grace of Jesus. He is a very different man than he was 5 years ago. We talk about Jesus and the bible all the time. I love it!
My grandmother is also attending church with my mom after not attending church in years. She and my mom both attend weekly bible studies and are growing in their walk with the Lord. We are a totally different family than we were almost 7 years ago, and that is because the Lord took my dad home a little sooner than any of us expected, but right when He expected.
I shared all of this with my friend and it was she who pointed out all that God had done for my family since losing dad. I really hadn't seen it all put together until then. It took my breath away. He is so good.
My friend isn't sure where much of her family is at with their walk with the Lord right now, but she is sure of one thing: she will be talking about Jesus with them on this trip. She will be sharing how much He loves them, and maybe she will even take her older sister to church. God is already moving in my friends heart and I can't wait to see Him glorified.
When she stopped by the house I was so thankful she was able to come in for a minute so we could talk. I listened to her, hugged her, let her cry and talk, and did my best to encourage her. It can be really hard to know what to say to someone who has lost a person close to them.
Then, God reminded me of my Dad. I lost him almost 7 years ago suddenly and it was devastating. I shared with my friend about my dad's death and how my mom, my brother and I all dealt with the loss. I shared with her my sadness at not knowing for sure about my dad's salvation because he and I had never spoken about it. I shared with her how we all laughed and reminisced about old times with dad at his funeral, and made every effort to continue talking about him even when it made us cry. I shared with her about how Pastor Roger did an alter call at my dad's funeral and a couple of hands raised. God was being glorified at my dad's funeral!
I asked my friend about her Aunt, their relationship, her mom and their relationship, her family and whether or not they new the Lord. I reminded her that God uses all thing to glorify Him. Then as we were talking, God showed me how He used my dad's death to glorify Him.
When my dad was alive, he and my mom only went to church when I was very young. After I turned 9, we moved and my parents never went back to church and my parents walked away from the Lord. I rarely spoke with my parents about God, even after I was married and my husband and I began going to church together. Our conversations were very surface level about God and church and mostly between my mom and I. I was a baby believer and pretty insecure about my knowledge of the Word and sharing it.
Then, my dad died. I dove deep into the Word as a way to cope with the loss and I shared everything I read with my mom and anyone who would listen. Every day mom and I spoke I would try to encourage her with something I had read in the bible or something I felt the Lord telling me.
A year and a half later my mom met a recently widowed man and they fell in love. He and I disagreed about God, and church and I stood my ground with my mom about them being unequally yoked. I prayed and had others praying about their relationship and asked mom to ask him to leave his church before she agreed to marry him. He agreed! However, he still held on to his beliefs. They were married soon after. I continued to pray.
Together they agreed to find a church they both loved. I prayed and God brought them to a lovely little church that preached the Good News about Jesus, just down the street from their house. They began attending and soon my mom became a member of the church. Her husband was not ready to renounce his previous church religion yet, but still continued to attend and grew to love the church that he and my mom went to together. The Holy Spirit was moving.
A few months ago my step-dad joined the church. I truly believe he is saved and knows the saving grace of Jesus. He is a very different man than he was 5 years ago. We talk about Jesus and the bible all the time. I love it!
My grandmother is also attending church with my mom after not attending church in years. She and my mom both attend weekly bible studies and are growing in their walk with the Lord. We are a totally different family than we were almost 7 years ago, and that is because the Lord took my dad home a little sooner than any of us expected, but right when He expected.
I shared all of this with my friend and it was she who pointed out all that God had done for my family since losing dad. I really hadn't seen it all put together until then. It took my breath away. He is so good.
My friend isn't sure where much of her family is at with their walk with the Lord right now, but she is sure of one thing: she will be talking about Jesus with them on this trip. She will be sharing how much He loves them, and maybe she will even take her older sister to church. God is already moving in my friends heart and I can't wait to see Him glorified.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Home Education
I wanted to share a post a just read on A Heart Like Water, a blog I frequent from time to time. The quote is by John Holt. It is about home education and it really speaks to my heart on the matter.
Have a blessed day!
"I don't see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were. The proper relationship of the schools to home is the relationship of the library to home, or the skating rink to home. It is a supplementary resource." - John Holt
Have a blessed day!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Lesson 22: Ff Frog I Will Use My Tongue Wisely
What a week! The Lord has given us many opportunities to practice our words to remember. We are a family of talkers. We process our thoughts and feeling verbally. So you can imagine the trouble we all get into on daily because we do not choose to use our tongues wisely.
We have been plugging along in school consistently since September with only the normal breaks in schedule: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year. Praise the Lord everything has gone better than I ever expected. So much so, that we ended up way ahead of where I thought we would be at this time, which is great!
I am so thankful for the wiggle room in our schedule. The past 2 weeks we have really gotten off of our routine and therefore school has been taking longer than normal to get done. The reason?
I think it's several things.
1. It's been gray, cloudy, rainy, snowy, and cold since December with only a few days scattered throughout with some sun. We know we live in the Pacific Northwest and that this type of weather is to be expected up here; but we still get tired of it come March.
2. We worked hard the first 5 months of the year. Now we are all ready for a little break.
3. We are almost done and the girls and I are bored with the routine and are ready for something new!
Thankfully, we have the time now to relax and end the year in an easy-breezy fashion. Then we will take a break from formal school-type activities while I get reorganized for the next year. A good friend of mine has offered to help me organize our school room and gave me some great ideas (thank you Karen!) and now I am so excited to get started.
So these next few weeks we will be doing school, but we also will be focusing more on playtime, character building, and establishing good habits.
Blessings,
Kim
We have been plugging along in school consistently since September with only the normal breaks in schedule: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year. Praise the Lord everything has gone better than I ever expected. So much so, that we ended up way ahead of where I thought we would be at this time, which is great!
I am so thankful for the wiggle room in our schedule. The past 2 weeks we have really gotten off of our routine and therefore school has been taking longer than normal to get done. The reason?
I think it's several things.
1. It's been gray, cloudy, rainy, snowy, and cold since December with only a few days scattered throughout with some sun. We know we live in the Pacific Northwest and that this type of weather is to be expected up here; but we still get tired of it come March.
2. We worked hard the first 5 months of the year. Now we are all ready for a little break.
3. We are almost done and the girls and I are bored with the routine and are ready for something new!
Thankfully, we have the time now to relax and end the year in an easy-breezy fashion. Then we will take a break from formal school-type activities while I get reorganized for the next year. A good friend of mine has offered to help me organize our school room and gave me some great ideas (thank you Karen!) and now I am so excited to get started.
So these next few weeks we will be doing school, but we also will be focusing more on playtime, character building, and establishing good habits.
Blessings,
Kim
Monday, February 28, 2011
Butterfly and a new desk
Last week was Lesson 21- Bb Butterfly. God Can Make Me New!
As mentioned in my previous post it was a really fun lesson and a fun week. We had family visit, snow, a field trip to Bob's Red Mill, and lots of fun learning about Butterflies and how we are made new in Christ.
Here are the girls being silly at Bob's Red Mill
Our tour guide showed them how wheat is threshed and winnowed.
Today we wrapped up butterfly week with a discussion about how God can make us new.
We will capture a caterpillar when Spring is here and hopefully get to watch one transform into a butterfly. But for now, our mummy cocoons, and drawings of the butterfly life cycle will have to do. The girls seemed to really enjoy this unit.
Sophia's Life Cycle diagram
Ava's Life Cycle diagram
Finally, Ava got a new 1st grader desk today. She is so happy and can now write more comfortably.
She likes having her own space and a place to keep her books and school supplies (they go inside the desk.)Today we started our 22nd lesson: Ff Frog. More on that next week:-)
Blessings!
Kim
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