Living in Private

Can I just say I am SO thankful that my husband isn't a politician? Whenever I watch coverage of all the primaries on TV I always watch the wives and think about things from their position. I've even been thinking about Laura Bush lately and how she is going to have to organize a move out of the house they have been living in for the last near decade.

The main reason I'm glad we are not in the public eye? I don't always have to worry about my hair and make-up and clothes and weight and looking wonderful. Whew! What a load off my back!

We are not "important" enough for my house to be on display either. One of my best friends is selling her house right now and having to keep it perfectly picked up (with 3 kids) before she walks out the door each day. I remember living like that when our last house was on the market. It's terrible! Of course, I suppose if we were important enough, there would be household help...

In truth, there is a very small circle of the world watching me and my family. It's important, I know. We represent Christ to folks. But we aren't having to worry about living up to the world's standards.

In fact, there are a lot of things that scripture tells us to keep private. Prayer is one of them.
Matthew 6:6 says: But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Fasting is another thing. Read Matthew 6:16-18: "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

That's why I've been slightly confused about this event being announced in our worship program for the last month. But anyway.

The other thing Jesus teaches privacy on is giving to the needy. Here is Matthew 6:2-4: "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

When I started this post I was thinking of these things without even realizing they were in the same section of scripture! Here is the verse that begins the whole teaching, Matthew 6:1:

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

That's a pretty powerful statement, in my opinion. May we all learn to quietly serve the Lord in our own little corners of the world.

Un-Doing, Catching Up, and Other Thoughts on All These Revisions

I can mark the time in our life when it started changing. Our life, that is. You have probably read about it in my sidebar. I talked about it here too. God has made exciting changes to our family, to our lives. I would NEVER want to go back to how our life was 4 years ago. Never.

But sometimes I feel so behind. I mean, come on....a 36 year old woman just now figuring out how to run a house? Just a few years ago finally figuring out how God intends families to work? Still learning to cook? Someone who has been a Christian for over 20 years just now understanding really simple parts of scripture?

It's pathetic! I am SO far behind where I should be. How has it affected my daughters? What about those 4 or 5 years Sweetheart spent being cared for by babysitters? What about all the hours I spent with my children while my attention was on "ministry?" What about all the Bible teaching and training I did NOT do with the girls all those years?

How can I ever catch up?

And then I read a quote by Voddie Baucher in a post at Making Home. Jess spent a long time listening to a sermon of his in order to get this quote. She posted it on her blog and it just gave me such a new perspective I had to share it. (Thank you, Jess for your hard work!) Please click over and read his quote.

I was only thinking of my life and not the impact my children will have for God's kingdom. And their children.

So, it isn't too late. I may be getting a late start, but God can transform our family and use the members of this family for His purposes.

That, my friends, is good news!

Cuteness Abounds!

I know at the end of yesterday's post I swore off of inserting pictures....

...but I was excited and I just had to share! LOOK at what cuteness was found between the pages of the L. L. Bean catalog that arrived at my house:

The really exciting part is that they offer these dresses up to size 10! They are so simple, cute, MODEST, and little girl looking. I love them. I'm not about skimpy or short dresses. I'm not about dressing my girls 10 years older than they are. I'm all about them being able to play in what they are wearing. This will be just perfect thank you very much.

So my sister and I got to thinking, if a dress like this is featured in a catalog like L. L. Bean, then maybe this type of dress is going to be in style this year?

Score! Here's one from Old Navy:

Again, they go up to big sizes. Also, the Old Navy dresses can be added to some little leggings for another look. I'm not sure how long they are in real life...maybe the leggings are necessary?

And here is one more from Land's End:

Now I really like this one. By the way, my mom makes Sweetheart these little shorts to wear under dresses in the summer. They are skinny like bike shorts, but made of cotton. I had her make them in black so no one would think they were...unmentionables...should they happen to see them. (It is our goal to not let that happen, but ladylike mannerisms are awfully hard to catch onto when you are little.) Also, they are shorter than bike shorts, but they do the trick. Last year Little Bit was still quite content to wear the many pairs of eyelet bloomers my mom made. (They weren't puffy) I don't know how a 4 year old will feel about continuing that tradition--even though I bet they will still fit her!

Well, there you have it. I am not happy with what I saw online from Target, Wal-Mart, or Kohl's. When I think I have accidentally searched the women's section--there is a problem. There were a few things that might have made the cut, but overall they failed. Let me know if you find any more great dresses out there for little girls!

And I hate that I struggle with the thought, "Am I making her look too young?" SHE'S 8 FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Eight! Do you remember 8? I was roller skating, playing with dolls, and reading when I was 8--not imitating teenagers. (Sorry--ranting again.)

While I Still Have Internet

I am going to the land of no internet connection soon (visiting family) and I am already mourning my loss. Nobody write anything too wonderful until I get back, OK? It's going to take me forever to catch up when I get home! And yes, that does mean a lack of posting on my part soon but honestly, with the way I've been posting lately, who would notice?

But today I am sharing pictures. I thought about entitling them "Homeschool Highlights" or something like that, but then I realized these are just pictures from our life. Our new life that includes home schooling. Home schooling that lets us have time to do the things in these pictures.

I highly recommend the lifestyle of home education.

Allow me to introduce you to our Indian friends. Little Bit (aka Small Deer); her cousin the Super-Sized 3 year old (who is 7 months YOUNGER than Little Bit), Pale Moose; her other cousin Gentle Sparrow (she really is gentle); and my Sweetheart, otherwise known as Twirling Arrow. Which really fits because she has a leaning towards being "flighty" sometimes. Or flitty. Anyway, it fits. And aren't they cute? They had a lot of fun on "Indian day." They strung necklaces, painted sticks, and even participated in a rain stick dance or something like that. There was a lot of banging of sticks and loud noises. They had a blast.

See? That circle of dead grass where our pool sat all summer came in handy. I think that's firewood they gathered in the middle there. My sister and I realized while watching them that when Little Bit and Pale Moose are 8 and 7 years old, that their older sisters will be 12 and 11 and probably not so keen on joining in things like this. These truly are precious times while they are ALL little.

Oh, and to the lady in the fabric department at that Wal-Mart where we bought Sweetheart's brown fabric for her costume? You know, you're the one who looked right at me with my daughter standing at my side and said, "This is for a girl???? This is way too dark for a girl's costume. You need to get lighter. This is for boys." And if I recall, I cracked a few teeth trying to smile and bite my tongue all at the same time while saying, "Thankyoushelikesthisone." Well Wal-Mart lady, the costume came out beautifully no thanks to you and my daughter was right, "I picked it because it looks like buffalo skin, Mommy."

End of rant.

OK, moving on...my sister and I also took the older 2 girls to see the play "Ramona Quimby" at a local theater. Sweetheart and I had read at least 4 of the Ramona books at the time of the play and she loved it! Here they are posing with the actresses who played Beezus (left) and Ramona (right).

We can't have a dog or cat right now because 1. S and I don't want a pet. and 2. We all have asthma or allergies in this house. We have promised the girls a dog in a few years and they are trying to wait patiently. In the meantime, they decided they would like to have fish. We had fish tanks for years so this was no big deal to me and S. But then we realized Little Bit was too small to remember our former fishiness, so it WAS a big deal to her! Here she is with her first ever pets.

Which is why I love the kitty that has wandered into our neighborhood. Our next door neighbor, Mrs. Peck, who Little Bit just calls "Peck" and refuses to add the "Mrs." which cracks me up, has been feeding this little guy and has a bed on her front porch for him. But he likes us. And he came to visit our backyard last week which just delighted the girls to no end. And please don't ask why my daughter has on mittens, a jacket, and a stocking cap....but flip-flops on her feet. JUST FOCUS ON THE CUTE KITTY, OK?

Now, we will move on. OK, I'll actually throw in a picture of myself here because most of my body fat is concealed and what good are little children if they can't help mom hide the flab for a few pictures every now and then, right?

And obviously chronological order means nothing to me because here is a shot of Little Bit's 4th birthday back in November. She had a Dorothy the Dinosaur party. This was her THIRD Wiggles birthday in a row so we were desperate to change the theme up. Although, I must say, I have really gotten my money's worth on that Wiggles candle there. And I know I'm going to just get flooded with requests for my decorated cakes but really, I don't have time. So sorry.

End of sarcasm.

Sweetheart's sewing lessons have been going quite well. We made a bunch of cloth napkins using the sewing machine a few weeks ago but what she really wanted to do was to use her sewing kit she got for Christmas. Here she is sewing up one of her "silkies." They are satiny on one side and flannel on the other and she has been addicted to them since about 5 months of age. She probably has 10 of them. I never thought when I gave that little thumb-sucking baby a lovie to hold on to that 8 years later she would be learning to sew with it.

And this is the end of the pictures because you know what? I just remembered I HATE inserting pictures.

Have a great Monday!

It Was Easier Before I Started Thinking

I think it all started when I cracked open my Bible and started looking up all these verses that homeschoolers always site as their reason for homeschooling. I was so against homeschooling before that. Reading the scriptures kind of changed how I was thinking. (If I was thinking at all!) Then I read some books written from a Christian point of view on the subject. See, this isn't about academics for me. It's about what I read in those scriptures.

It changed how I think about parenting.

A lot.

Apparently, we aren't through with revisions around here.

So I went through a time of feeling like, "I am SO not up for this task!" to realizing I needed the Lord's help, to asking for that help, to feeling hopeful...that He would do a good work in my children through my willingness to obey.

It's just that now I can't quit thinking. I'll give you an example.

I heard at Sweetheart's (very large national girls' club) meeting about how moms couldn't go on the camping trip with their daughters because one of the big goals of (aforementioned club) was to make the girls independent. Towards that end, we are having a sleep-over in order for the girls to practice being away from their parents overnight before camping.

Hmmmm. My first thought as I was listening was, "I'm not sure it's one of my parenting goals to make my 8 year old independent of her mom and dad. " I mean, eventually...she will be more independent of us. But I'm not rushing to send her off with near strangers while we just sit at home and trust. WE are responsible. I think that's the big thing I learned from my studies...God holds us accountable...not anyone else. And I take that very seriously.

That got me to thinking about the aforementioned very large national girl's club and what else they are going to be teaching my daughter. I looked into it before she joined (at the request of S) but didn't see anything to object to.

Guess I didn't look hard enough! I sat down a few nights ago and googled "Christian" and "name of club" and found lots of interesting articles. It seems a lot of Christians dropped out and even boycotted this organiztion after finding out some things they didn't like.

1. They had (have?) a partnership with Planned Parenthood.
2. God is optional.

The pledge that the girls say at the beginning of the meeting has the word God in it--with an asterik afterwards. It seems that the manual states girls can choose not to say the name God, or they can substitute a different word or name there. So, these parents questioned whether they wanted their girls wearing the badge/vest/pin of an organization that believes God is optional. It would be like giving their approval to that.

But OUR troop does say the name of God. They are mostly Christian. I haven't seen any of those problems in our troop, so what's the big deal? Are we really guilty by association?
I mean, I didn't sign her up thinking this was a Christian organization. We can't only be involved in Christian groups all the time, right? (There are alternatives, by the way). If we huddle together against the world--never interacting--that almost seems to lean toward being Amish in a way.

On the other hand...we are her protection, both physically and spiritually. As with homeschooling, I have to ask myself, "How can I protect her if she isn't with me?" How can I protect them if I am throwing them to the wolves in the name of "independence"?

How can I raise them to be godly if I am parenting just the way the world is?

And why do I have to make everything so difficult?