Dear God ~ The Heavens & Earth Are Yours

"The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours, The world and all it contains, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name. You have a strong arm; Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. How blessed are the people who know the jouful sound!"                                                             Psalm 89:11-15a

This was my view from the front porch as a storm approached from the west. 

Dear God,

     This could not be a more perfect morning. I am sitting outside listening to the thunder in the west and watching the sun disappear behind the increasing clouds in the east. Your handy work is truly more beautiful than I can describe! Your glory is manifested in the splendor of wildlife. From the stars down to the earth worm, I am amazed at how nature "works". You are phenomenal! How can we look around and not know, not believe, that You created everything? I scan the horizon and all I want to do is sing Your praises!

Who is like the Lord? Who is like the Lord?

Creator of the earth, ruler of the universe

Who is like the Lord?

Who deserves the praise? Who deserves all praise?

Creator of the earth, ruler of the universe

Who deserves the praise?

There is none above Him! There is none beside Him! 

There is no one like the Lord...  No one like the Lord!

10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I was able to cross off 7 out of 10 last week! 

Last weeks goals:

*Reorganize the children's toys.  I just didn't make it that far. 

*Take a brisk 20 minute walk at least 3 days.  Technically, I walked only 1 day, however, all the walking and swimming we did over the holiday weekend, I will consider this goal to have been met! 

*Plan dinner menu for next week  I'm just going to see what we have in the kitchen and take it day by day. 

*Look over K5 curriculum for next school year.... list necessary supplies and make prep work to do list.  

*Rework daily schedule routine.  I've got to get this done this week!

*Catch laundry up by Friday (Who wants to do laundry on the weekend?)

*Clean out the van - vacuum and wash windows

*Pack for holiday weekend camping trip. (to the beach!!)

*Get up at 6am at least 2 days this week. I got up at 6:15 one day and 6:30 the 2nd day.  That's close enough to mark it off, right?

*Write and mail thank you cards.

My 10 goals for this week:

*Reorganize the children's toys.

*Take a brisk 20 minute walk at least 3 days.

*Plan dinner menu for June. 

*List needed school/crafts supplies

*Rework daily schedule routine. 

*Catch laundry up by Friday 

*Clean the van inside and out.  I'm actually halfway done with this one. :-)

*Declutter my bedroom dresser. 

*Get up at 6am at least 2 days this week. 

*Mow the grass.  I like doing this chore!

A Mother's Day Miracle

Writing about Adelle's birthday yesterday got me thinking back when she was still in my womb.  I have a very interesting story (I think it's interesting anyway) about her birth date and time that I'd like to share.  Don't worry, this won't take long. I promise!

My paternal grandfather passed away about a year or so before Adelle was due to enter the world. She was due May 15. I was close to my grandpa and I thought it would be fantastic if my first baby could be born on his birthday, which was 5/14. I cannot tell you how much I wished and prayed for that to happen!  

Being that I had absolutely no control over Adelle's arrival time or day, all I could do was make my small request known to God and then cross my fingers. God is in control and He always has a plan; usually it's better than our own plans! 

On Mother's Day, May 13, 2007, I began to have contractions in the very early morning hours.... say about 2am or so.  I labored and worked all day! After enduring the majority of my labor pains at home, with the help of my dear husband and best friend, I finally had to get to the hospital. It was around 3:30pm or so when we got to there.  I had no drugs. Laboring and pushing and pushing; I had no more strength left. With one final push, Adelle Marie took her first breath!

Not only did God Almighty walk me through a pretty good pregnancy and bestowed upon me the best Mother's Day gift ever! He also honored my grandfather and delivered Adelle at 5:14pm!  Do you see it?

Is that cool or what?!?

Rainbow Birthday Party

     We just celebrated Adelle's 5th birthday! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. I know this sounds so cliche' but it seriously seems like she was born just YESTERDAY!  We don't go all out for birthdays, but we decided when she was a baby that there would be select few birthdays that we would celebrate big. Turning 5 years old was one of them.   

The Decorations:

       

We started by deciding on a theme. Adelle choose a rainbow theme.  Yay! That theme is pretty easy to plan coordinating decore, food and games.  Then I started to make my own decorations.  I began the process about a month ahead of time, using the few minutes I have in the evenings to wind down.  I cut up one-inch strips of construction paper, different colors, to make paper chains.  One sheet of each color made for a pretty long chain.  We saved some money there because I already had the paper and this would take the place of crepe paper. Then I bought a couple of sheets of poster board ($.30 per sheet at Walmart) to make a couple of signs.  

The Activity:

     There were so many rainbow activities and games that we could've done! I ended up using a simple open-ended activity:  WATER COLOR PAINT!  I purchased a set of water color paint for each child that were present. The kids painted if they wanted to. They certainly didn't have to take part, but they still received a paint set.  That was our party favor; our thank you for celebrating with us.  

The Cake: 

         

     I saw so many designs and ideas that I seriously couldn't decide upon until the very last minute!  Anyhow, I ended up meshing 2 different ideas together.  You can find the tutorials here and here. 

     The square bottom of my cake is chocolate and I just used a box mix. I baked it in my long cookie sheet, so it was long and thin. I cut it in half and put it on top of each other layering the middle with a thin layer of homemade buttercream frosting and then frosting the top and sides.  Then I "glued" my rainbow cake halves together leaving the sides unfrosted. I picked up the rainbow shape cake, centered it over the square cake before setting it on top. I frosted the entire rainbow shape with more buttercream frosting. 

     Let me stop here and say that my frosting was back to room temp before I started to work with it again, but it was crazy difficult for me to work with! It just wasn't spreading easily at all, but it was the BEST part of the cake!  Ha ha ha!  

     Anyway.  I was so frustrated with the frosting that I used rainbow twizzlers to cover the top of the rainbow cake and used sprinkles all around the rest of the cake.  I made my letters out of construction paper circles glued to craft sticks.  

     I want to mention that the rainbow INSIDE the cake was a big big surprise! Everyone oohhed and ahhhed over it.  That was my favorite part.... it made me smile!  

 I consider this birthday party a huge success!  

10 Goals to Tackle This Week

I follow Jenny's blog at Get 'Er Done, Momma! and she has given me a great idea that will help me keep things rolling smoothly.  She posts her goals to accomplish for the week on Mondays and then does her best to get them scratched off the list throughout the week.  Thanks for this fab idea, Jenny!

Now, if you know me, you know that I am very forgetful and that is very irritating. Keeping a list in my head does not work at all for me. So, I have decided that I would give this a try.  I will list only 10 (my list could get very long!) goals to tackle every week.  I will not only post them here, but I will post them on my fridge so I can remind myself of what it was I wanted to accomplish during the week.  I am a visual person. Writing things down and looking back it will keep it fresh in my mind.  I will also not beat myself down if I don't accomplish every single goal listed.  

My 10 goals for this week:

*Reorganize the children's toys.

*Take a brisk 20 minute walk at least 3 days. (i hafta start somewhere!)

*Plan dinner menu for next week

*Look over K5 curriculum for next school year.... list necessary supplies and make prep work to do list.

*Rework daily schedule routine. (We need some changes.) 

*Catch laundry up by Friday (Who wants to do laundry on the weekend?)

*Clean out the van - vacuum and wash windows

*Pack for holiday weekend camping trip. (to the beach!!)

*Get up at 6am at least 2 days this week. (stop sleeping in, Cyndi!)

*Write and mail thank you cards.

Next week (on Tuesday since Monday is a holiday), I will let you know which goals I achieved and list some new ones.  

May "Break"

Blogging has taken a back seat these past 3 weeks. We haven't done anything that I haven't already blogged about. Who wants to be redundant?  I want this blog to be more than just merely tracking the activities we accomplish. I created this to record EVERY aspect of homeschooling; the good, the bad AND the ugly.  (Please forgive me, I must continue to remind myself of this) 

     To report all the details means to admit all my faults. That is one difficult task. However, being completely and most utterly transparent is vital to my spiritual growth. I would elaborate here, but I'd feel I would bore you with the same mountain I seem to continue to circle.  

Let me move on and report what we've been up to.  I had originally decided to use the month of May to plan and prepare creative games/activities/crafts for us to do in June & July while we still played games and spent time outside. I started to print more games from the Letter of the Week Curriculum. Then I remembered the Olympic Games are this summer!  I am no sports fan, but I LU-HUV the Olympic Games.... summer AND winter!  I will have the TV tuned in all the time!  So, my new plan is to find/create games and crafts with the summer olympics theme!  I haven't gotten very far on that idea, but I will keep on keeping on.  

Adelle just turned 5 years old and we're having a party for her complete with friends, food and an activity!  This is a big deal b/c we don't plan birthday parties every single year. We're going all out. There will be a future post about the party (or it's at least in the plan). I said all that to say that I've also been preoccupied making my own decorations and practicing making the cake this month.

We've also been working on our heart issues. Although receiving a top education is pretty important, living our lives that pleases and glorifies God is so crucial.  At the end of our lives, it isn't going to matter that we are filled with knowledge.  I just recently determined that while I teach my children their academics, I will put the majority of my focus on their spiritual growth. 

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." ~ Francis Chan.

 "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 6:4-7