Christine Caine! (Part 1)

WOW! Last night I had the privilege of hearing God's word through Christine Caine! She was AMAZING! One thing that struck me like lightening was

James 4:13-17 (NASB)

¹³Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."

¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

She hit on the fact that we are here in this moment in time, in this place for a mere vapor when compared with all eternity. I've heard it plenty of times and in fact it's such a cliche when you hear people say live like you were dying yada yada yada yada. But, truly last night it hit me. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Our life, however short or long is just a blink! SO what am I going to do with the small vapor I have? So many of us, including myself, have plans! Good plans and good goals and then we try to fit God into them! So we have our nice house, car, kids, life and check off our church box on Sunday etc. But what are we (me) really DOING for the kingdom of God????? NOTHING! We are satisfied with being comfortable checking off our church box living our mundane day to day life while the world around us is hurting and dying!

I mean really! In light of eternity, does it matter? Do I have to have the latest and greatest "STUFF" this material world has to offer? When all is said and done, do I want my legacy to be Jessica-A good mom, who loved Jesus, her family, and the Bachelorett but offered NO hope or compassion to hurting or lost friends, neighbors or the world. Her faith was silent without works. Her Children don't know Jesus because she only spoke of Him and did not SHOW them the example of Jesus! NNNNOOOOOO! That is NOT the legacy I want to leave with my vapor of life!

I want to be a daughter of the greatest king who is fully abandoned to HIM and HIS WILL for my life! I want to be selfLESS and giving! I want to "cross the street" and be the compassionate follower! I want to set the Jesus example for my family! I can't do any of that if I'm okay with being comfortable with my easy life!

Well..... I am challenging myself to let God be the GREAT and AWESOME God He is! Who has great plans for my life (if I will let Him lead) who wants to give me more (not material wise) than is beyond my comprehension. I want to really mean the words in the song "Awesome is the Lord Most High" when I sing "Where you send us, God we will go!" Whatever that means and whatever that takes. Whether here, there or somewhere I want to see His plan unfolded in our lives!

There is SO much more to this life than just living and dying!

First Day!

Well...Today was our 1st day of school! I can not believe we are starting our 3rd year homeschooling! CRRRAAAZZZY! I'm amazed everyday at what God has done in our lives and in our family! If you don't know our homeschool story, you can read it (short version) here. Trust me when I say we were NEVER going to homeschool because "those people are weird"! LOL!

Anyhow....my plan has been, (I made a great "schedule" with the help of Managers of Their Homes) to wake up at 5:30AM to have quiet time, exercise, shower, brew and drink coffee, all before the children wake up. So you ask..."How did you do today?"....I FAILED!!!!! I woke up at 7AM (but I do get bonus points because the kids were still sleeping) and I had quiet time. NO exercise, NO shower, NO coffee was brewed or drank before the children woke up at 7:30 BUT at least I got the most important thing accomplished:-)

After everyone woke up and got dressed I made the kids take "First day of school pictures". I decided to start a new tradition this year and made tiny posters that had the date, grade, height, and weight written on them. I'm planning to take me picture at the end of the year to see the change. Here are a couple of our pictures.

Our day started with the kids favorite place to eat...

Then we got home and got to work ;-)

Here are a few pics from the rest of the day.

It was really a great day!

2010-2011 School Year

Our Curriculum...

My Father's World (Bible, Science, Reading, Geography, Art, and Music)

Math U See -Gamma-Elijah

Saxon Math 1-Abi (one example how one math program can be perfect for one child and not so perfect for the other)

All About Spelling

Primary Language Lessons

Rosetta Stone Spanish

Finally various read alouds! I'm obviously excited! LOL!

A New Beginning

It's almost the end of summer and we are gearing up for this next school year! It is so hard to believe Elijah will be in 3rd grade and Abi will be in 1st. This will be my third year homeschooling. Oh how the time passes so quickly! I'm starting this blog to record our year. I was so blessed that Kim Schroter introduced me to My Father's World in 2008! Exploring Countries and Cultures begins August 2nd so get your passports ready! Here are some of the books we will be using!

I Disappeared!

Honestly, I just haven't been motivated or inspired to write anything so I have not. BUT, I have something today!

Of course, most of you know, I'm homeschooling for the second year now. In April after a new baby, and toddler and craziness in the house, I was not really excited to homeschool. (By the end of the year it's normal to be burnt out;-) ) But, I annually go to NCHE conference expecting to be encouraged and refreshed and to hear from the Lord about the future education for our children! I went. It was AMAZING. I was soooo ready to start school again! Getting closer to the end of summer, though, I started having doubts like "Is this really the best thing?" and "Do I really know what I'm doing?" and hearing things like "What gives parents the right to think he or she is a better teacher than the teachers with the actual degree and certificate?" etc. Well, I started 2 wks. earlier than I originally planned b/c the kids were ready for summer to be OVER.

It has been so awesome for God to confirm what I already knew he called me to do! During the first week we talked about Leif Ericsson. Also, during that same week, the kids turned the tv on to Spongebob (which we NEVER let them watch) and Spongebob was dressed up as Leif Ericcson and was pretending for Leif Ericcson Day (in the cartoon)! The second confirmation came during the second week of school. We started talking about Indians. One day for lunch we went to McDonalds and I purchased 2 kid's meals. (This is a BIG deal b/c most of the time we just get a bunch of nuggets to share to save $.) In the kid's meal was a book about an Indian girl from the same tribe we happened to study and look at the previous day! AWESOME!

So, here we are, finished with our third week of school and life is great! I'm sure by May I will be ready for the conference again but, for now, I'm overflowing! I LOVE My Father's World (the curriculum we use) which I know the Lord directed me to! I also, love that when I may have doubts about what the Lord has for us, we just trust in Him and he will direct our paths! The same is true for you! Not that I believe everyone is called to homeschool but, that God will direct you in every area of your life if you allow him!

Freedom

I'm am super thankful to live in such a GREAT country! We are so blessed and many times are blinded to how lucky we are to live in this nation! Remember today that FREEDOM is never really free! Many have sacrificed themselves to pay for us to be FREE!

Reminder

I know everyone is talking about the "news"! From Jon & Kate, Sanford, Farrah, Ed Mchanon, Jackson and Billy Mays! My heart is heavy only because all of the news serves as a reminder!

First, I'm reminded that we are all human and all miss the mark and fall short of what God requires which is perfection! Thankfully, Jesus gave himself up for us so we could be seen blameless and pure in God's sight! It's very unfortunate that so many people have to hurt because of bad choices.

Second, I'm reminded that we are ALL terminally ill. We do not know how much time we have left so we need to live each day in light of eternity! There is more to this life than just living and dying.