Mercy...

Why on earth does God think I need to learn this lesson? Have you ever asked yourself that? You know, when you feel like you're maybe being picked on? by God? What a dreadful thought!! Some days, when I'm particularly draggy, down, over the whole gotta-get-up thing, i wonder why i'm being picked on. Mostly, I'm ok. I'm not of such a victim mindset that I actually believe God is picking on me, but I am capable of seeing when God is working on me! This broken knee-cap thing--while I don't think God threw me down on the sidewalk (that was a scooter left by a hapless kid)I do believe God can and IS using this experience to teach me. I am learning just how difficult life can be when you lose one little ability--like bending one knee. How hard can it be ? You ask. Try doing laundry for five people in a two story house and putting clothes away and folding clothes etc. w/o bending one knee--ever. Try going to the bathroom while not EVER bending your left knee at all. Try putting a sock on your left foot. Try putting on underpants. I'm not kidding. I'll wait. Just try it. Now think about that elderly person down the road who lives alone. I can guarantee they are suffering from reduced mobility--the kind a hover-round cannot fix. Try running for a screaming, hurt toddler without bending a knee. It breaks your heart. Think about that person down the road who's hurt or just had surgery. Do something nice! Do all those things "church ladies" do. Even if you're not a church lady. Sometimes I get mad at people who say "I don't 'do' organized religion" because I wonder if maybe they prefer "disorganized" religion and I think about church and say, Hey! They really HAVEN'T been to church lately! There's not a thing organized going on here this morning! LOL! Sorry. anwyay, but for those of you who have had bad church experiences...I know you exist, I know bad churches exist, I've even been to some. You can be Christ's body in your community. Take a meal to a neighbor with small kids, just because you can. I can tell you, food is frequently a great way to make friends. Take cookies....just go visit! sometimes being a stay-at-home mom is lonely! New people in your neighborhood? Go visit. It's hard to make friends in a new community. Show the world Jesus' love. Let His light, His love, His concern, His mercy--show through you. That's what is meant by being a "witness". You live it daily. If you're not doing it well--you may just be giving a "bad" witness. No wonder people get mad at church folks. Aren't we often "clique-y"? Don't we have our little groups, and meetings, and studies, and ways we do things and we really DO NOT want that new person messing up a good thing, right? She dressses funny....her kids are loud...That is why we're here. God loves every single person the same. THE SAME!!! Can you believe it?? That's just incredible to me. I can name right many people He should love more than me! Afterall, I'm frequently unfaithful in following EVERY command. I get cranky. I don't love my neighbor as myself...hey, she's cranky too! RIght? No. That's not right!!!! Well, she may be, but have I asked why? Maybe she needs someone to talk to who won't judge her or her grown children for whatever....maybe she's scared....maybe she doesn't really believe the Lord is gonna heal her husband...or her...who knows. We really have to be careful to think of every HUMAN--born or unborn--as someone God dearly loves. Equally.
I love you guys. Keep us in your prayers, we need them.
J

John's Corner of the World: On the art of sacred-cow tipping . . .

Not sure if this link will work, but it's a cool post to read if you have time. J




John's Corner of the World: On the art of sacred-cow tipping . . .

Oweee!

Ok, so last time I asked if anyone had ever been hurt. Ok,now I have a new hurt!! Dear me! I tripped over a kid's scooter and landed my 2000 lbs. on my left knee-cap. Owee! No joke!! So, needless to say, when I managed to hobble carefully into the dr.'s office the next a.m., I got an x-ray and found out my patella is fractured. Not sure how bad, not sure what they're gonna do about it. I had the "grace" (HA!) to hurt myself too close to a weekend, so I'll see an orthopedist Monday. I'm afraid he's gonna hurt me! I HATE physcial pain!! Oh well, maybe it'll be quick. Anyway, we've all found out that I'm apparantly a really bad patient. I don't like being unable to "do" for myself. I am in total reliance on others. Not cool. Bathing is scary. Going downstairs...double scary. So, I can't help feed the boys, I can't dress the boys, they now run up and down the stairs for me. I have discovered that while my five yo loves to help, he still hasn't figured out it's bad to climb over my leg when I'm in bed. EEEK! He's so sweet. Rob gave me a book to read, called "WHY?". It's about handling the "bumps" life throws you and understnading "why" God gives you these things. I found it amusing that he gave it to me....I'm not a bad patient in that I am laying around crying....I'm just annoyed that I can't do what I want!@!I think he just figured I'd read it in self-defense against boredom....maybe HE needs to read it...you know to find out why God saddled him w/a broken wife! LOL! My arm muscles are very tired from dragging myself around for a half day until I could put some pressure on that foot to walk....I'm not even gonna tell the story on myself about WHY I tripped on the sidewalk....I'll save that for when I can really laugh too. :)
Well, I need to lay down and go for the pain meds again....so, all too soon....bye for now!!
J

Ever been hurt? Ever had a family member attack for no apparent reason? You know, recently I was shocked. I guess the Lord wanted me to know that not every agrees with me....I thought I knew that already, but now I REALLLY know, don't I ! I was having a conversation with a family member and was verbally accosted by another. Hmmmm. Why? Was I saying anything particularly troublesome or strange or unsettling? I didn't think so. We were just talking about homeschooling. My family member proceeded to denegrate not just homeschooling, but me, how I do it (how would she know?), and the results. The thing is, I don't really care if shes likes homeschooling or not. Or even whether she likes me or not. But what gave her the idea she knew anything about any of it/?? She didn't homeschool. She sent her kids to private school. She's never visited my home to see what or how we do it. She just hears stuff 3rd and 4th hand coming through others who dislike it. What's up with that/?? How should we respond to that sort of attack? That's what it is, you know. It's an attack. An affront. I really wanted to be smart, and clever and be able to just argue her down to nothing. You know what I did? I tried to explain my convicitons and was talked over by her. I tried to explain the normalcy of homeschooling and how many people (all sorts of people) are doing. She didn't listen. I was then informed that homeschooling is a uniquely Baptist thing and we only do it because Jerry Falwell told us to. Hmmm. I wonder if she knows he's dead? I wonder if she's ever met anyone else who's home-schooled? She is trained as a lawyer...you'd think she'd know about research. Anyway, my final response was tears. I left the room, the house, found my middle boy and walked, talked and cried. He didn't know why Mom was so upset, but then he didn't need to. I cried and asked God what that was all about. I finally got myself together and went back in and shortly after left. Strangely enough, she told my Mom she was sorry she had spoken to me that way. Wish she'd have told me. Oh well. Why is it such a surprise when someone who doesn't understand us, is not a Christian does something like that? I don't know either. Seems like we'd expect it. The Bible says we should. The Bible basically tells us that we're to be in this world and not of it. We're NOT the same as everyone else.
Lord, I pray that today, you touch those who need you. Lord use me to reach someone. Be with those who hurt whether it's physical or emotional. Help us to forgive those who hurt us just like you forgave us...even though we keep hurting You.
In Jesus' sweet and Holy name I pray...
Amen.

ROad trip amusement...

Next time you're stuck in a car w/your kids for an extended ride...try making up rapper names. We laughed ourselves to tears last night on the way home from the inlaws. How 'bout Saran 'Rap to get you started? "Gum 'Rappah"? Zebra Cakes? Make sure your kids get involved...they're very creative and sometimes funny!!!

books...

Can I just say I love Sonlight? They have picked the absolute best library of books ever. We read entire novels, you know. Well, w/two in core 1 and one in core 5 we're reading some great stuff. For our read aloud, I'm reading to Carter and Roger "Charlotte's Web". I know, standard fare, but hey...when's the last time YOU read it?? I think I was probably 8 or 9. I am LOVING it!!! it's even better than I remember. It's great. The boys even love it!!! We just finished "Mr. Popper's Penguins" ( a bit early) because Carter got it for Christmas (how cool is that/? My Mom didn't even know it was a school book!). That was really cool and I'd never even read that one before. Penguins are a family favorite, so the book was an instant hit.

Now with Branche, he does his own reader (novels), I read aloud to him (more novels) and history is FULL of great historical novels. Needless to say, it's much easier to discuss these books if I've read them too...so...I have to read a lot. i feel like my education is improving daily!!! But, today I finished his current reader..."Water Sky". Oh man. I cried. It's about Eskimos and whaling. I cried for the seals, I cried for the boy, I cried for the girl, I cried for the whale!!! I HATE books that make me cry!!!! But I loved this book!!! Our read aloud is also a cloud burst waiting to happen "The House of Sixty Fathers". Man. Little boy lost w/his lucky pig. I'm just waiting. I already had to stop and pull myself together once!!! It's awesome. Oh--and did you know, that in public school I never studied Ghenghis Khan and the Mongol Horde????? That is the title of the most WONDERFUL book. And I just read that...and readlized I knew absolutely NOTHING about him!!! I devoured the book (Thank you John Holzmann!!!). Man. What a hole in my education!!! How cool is that??? (Not the hole, but that kids won't have that problem!) I LOVE homeschooling.

Oh did I mention Carter is reading??? I told him today, "Write hat" and gave him a wipeoff marker and white board and he said as he wrote, "H, A, T. HAT!" I almost cried then too! LOL!!! Yea!!! Roger was doing great too--I had written hat, sat, cat on the board and he read them, and I erased the 'c' from cat and said, "what if he was 'fat', how would you spell that?" and he said, "I'd put an 'f'!" and he did!!! We went through every 'at' word I could come up with and could NOT trip him up!!! YEA!!! We're loving it!!!

Ok.....we're still waiting on the church...hoping for news by Tuesday. Not sweating it,...more like excitement.


Not sure what God's doing to me...but, I've started watching "Adoption Stories" just for personal torture. Gotta stop it. Making me cry. LOL!! Doing enough of that w/o the show!!!!


Love you guys...keep praying for us and we'll pray for you!!!
J

Just Stuff....

Ok. So. I'm really slack about posting here. I'm sorry to the two or maybe three people who like to read what I blather about on here. : ) I'll try to do better. Anyway, we're anxiously awaiting Sunday. I feel like the countdown has begun. Of course, often when you're doing something to serve or honor God in a new way, or making a move in the right direction....KAWHAM! Here comes a spiritual attack. So, our latest attack is on the heat at church. Since Sunday is terribly important to us....committee coming and all...the heater at the church works everywhere BUT the sanctuary. So. We'll see what God and our Pastor work out. : ) I have great faith in both of them! I know it is relatively unimportant...we'll still have the service, they'll still come, the Word will still be preached...but wouldn't it have been nice for it all to come off w/o a hitch?? Oh well! You know, Bill Gaither wrote a really cool song about this kinda thing....it's called "Through". It talks about all the trials that come, and we expect God to just remove them, but sometimes we have to rely on Him to just carry us through the pain, or challenge, or whatever. I'm gonna put the lyrics over there----> in the box i use for quotes, read them they're really cool and can occasionally make me cry.I guess that's why we have prayer, right? Any of you who would like to join me in praying for God's will and praying for a great Sunday and praying for our future...please do!

So, on facebook I've been finding tons of friends I had lost years ago...high school friends, college friends, weird. Really weird to so easily be back in touch. It's nice. I can instantly chat w/someone I haven't seen or spoken to in literally 10-15 yrs or more. Weird. What a world we live in!!! Anyway, I'm having fun over there, but it's probably to my detriment, in that there are really cool word games to play and I LOVE word games!!! It's causing me to be behind in my seminary reading. Not good. Well, that's not the only thing, but it's certainly not helping. I've posted a bunch of photos over there if you're wondering why not here...well, they seem to load quicker over there and they're slow in both places...so any minute or 5 I can save is good! <<>>>

WEll . Have a great weekend, have a great evening....and feel free to "follow" this blog if you like...the button is over there=====> :)
J