This Little House

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Countdown to Cambodia: 16 days

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, 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:

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...

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.