Random

I came up with an ever-so-clever title for this blog entry but decided "Random" fit the bill a little better. There are several things on my mind right now, one of which is this Sabbath month. I am so stirred by all that Yahweh is revealing to me. Two weeks ago he introduced me to a group of lovely ladies who are reading through the Bible in 90 days and impressed upon me to join up with them. So, I did, not knowing how in the world I was going to find an hour a day to read in light of everything else going on right now. I am so grateful that He sees a bigger picture than I do!

Last week we were reading in Genesis and Exodus, learning about being delivered out of Egypt into the promised land, the 430 years of slavery to Pharoah, etc. One thing that stirred me greatly was when Yahweh didn't take them straight through to their promised land, instead taking them around, the long way. His reasoning? If they went straight through, they would have come up against war, and they would have questioned it and retreated. HELLO? This spoke volumes to me. I've felt so much that this month, our Sabbath rest, was to be our rest before entering into our harvest, our land of promise! Yet, why the sudden struggles?

Point two for today's entry... Can someone please tell me something? How is it that many who aren't working have all the latest and greatest gadgets: iPhones, iPods, laptops, new computers, iPads, new clothes, eating out at restaurants, etc. and those of us who are working, paying our bills, etc. don't even have enough money to buy groceries sometimes? I don't get it. Where do these people get their money to buy these things? Why do my husband and I work so hard and barely scrape by? An iPod Touch? Please, I could only dream of having enough (extra) money to buy one of those. Sure, we could swing it if we did without paying our rent or electric or phone. But to have extra money to be able to spend frivolously like that?

This week we have found ourselves without grocery money. Again. Normally this would not be a big deal because we could use it as a pantry/refrigerator/freezer cleaning out week. Unfortunately, we've already done that, and we truly have next to nothing. So we took our $30 and went to the store. We got bread, beans, rice, peanut butter, jelly and milk. $30 doesn't go very far these days.

This week is our sacrifice, just like the Passover Sacrifice. It is the blood upon our doorpost. We are being obedient to His word and will reap the harvest of our obedience. This is a "sign on our hand and a symbol upon our forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with His mighty hand!" I am so excited about this! We will NOT retreat. We will NOT back down. We will take the long way around, the way He leads us, and will receive our harvest!

He said in one place in my reading, "The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still." Once again, He confirmed what He's been saying to me for a couple of months: be still. Wait. Don't move unless I tell you exactly what to do. So that is what we will do. We will continue pressing in, doing what He has said. And we WILL reap the harvest of His obedience!

My last point for today. Weight Watchers works. I just have to take the tools they've given me and apply them to my life daily. I'm trying. I'm really trying. Six weeks off, and I'm finally back on. Even without having the right foods to eat, I'm doing what I can. I weigh Friday. Here's hoping for a great report!

xoxox

Entering the Sabbath Month

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Sabbath month for our house, The Rock of Central Florida. During this month, we will not have any services. An entire month of no church activities?!?!?! Yep, that's right. Yahweh has ordered this time for us to rest our land. When we return August 1, we will offer our first-fruits. Our soil will be crazy-fertile and ready for seed. And, boy, will we plant then!!!! We have been instructed to sow no seed during this month of rest but to allow the rest to prepare us for our new place in August.

I realize it all sounds so odd. But you know what? We are called to a place that isn't like many. Truly, Yahweh has us on the move all the time. Our walk with Him is exciting and new daily! We wait to hear from him before we make decisions or change courses, and when we do, it's rightly orchestrated. By our own design, things we have accomplished would have failed miserably; Yet, by His design, we are walking in a place that far surpasses our wildest dreams. His ways truly are far greater than ours. I know this is cliche in "the church", but it's so true once you get a real grasp on it and experience it in your own life. We have such favor that we would never have known had it not been for walking in the Kingdom with Him.

I am so grateful to be a Kingdom daughter, married to a mighty Kingdom son, joined to a Kingdom house, sitting at the feet of a Kingdom Apostle in whom I can hear the voice within the voice! I will be faithful to that voice. I will be patient when I don't have clear direction. I will move when He says move. I will stop when He says stop. I will be an obedient daughter because I want to please my Father.

I am SOOOOOO excited about life!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

Great Year!

It's been a fantastic year! Last week ended the official year, but our studies will continue throughout the summer. Ah, the joys of homeschooling. :) Living in Florida, the land of heavenly winters, we like to take lots of breaks in the late fall and winter, especially during the holidays. To assure we get our required number of days in for the calendar year, we'll continue until August when the new year starts. Of course, we've already attended our end of the year ceremonies and celebrations, and the kids have officially been graduated to their next level.

At the End of the Year Celebration, the kids received (lots of) various awards, but there is one in particular I am so proud of. Caleb is one of two kids to be on the Academy List - basically the Dean's List at The Rock Academy. He made straight A's all year, and I am so proud of him for this! For Millie, I didn't do grades with her, just gave her S's. She learned to read this year, and I am so excited for this new world that has opened up for her!

Here are a couple of pictures from our academic fair with The Rock Academy.

Oh! Before I forget... If you are interested in chickens, gardens or just want to giggle at our "farming" adventures (HA!), visit my husband's new blog. It could be interesting. ;)

That's all I have for now. We've started fostering a dog for Hound Haven, and I think it's time to take the dogs out. If anyone is interested in an AMAZING, smart, lovable black lab mix, please consider Duke. He's a precious, precious dog, and I know he'll make someone an amazing friend.

So far, so good!

So far, so good with the gardens unit study. Granted, we're only done with day two. But still. One thing I'm learning is that my perfectionist firstborn is very straight-laced. Everything must be in order and by the book. I feel a real stirring in me to mix things up for him, so I've been giving him more out of the box questions. I've changed up everything he is doing except math. I can see the struggle in him over it, and I hear (often) the whining and disapproval that he feels. But when I am directed by Yahweh, I will obey, and He has told me to mix it up for him. I have such a heart to guide my children to think beyond what they are reading and learning. Millie has absolutely no problem doing this. The child needs to be reeled in, to learn to follow directions. It is exactly the opposite with Caleb.


At church and homeschool activities Caleb is the one who has a hard time if rules are changed or bent. In his mind, rules are to be followed. Exactly. No deviation. And when the contrary happens, it shakes his world. As he is getting older, I'm feeling more and more compelled to help him learn to adapt and be more flexible. Guess that's why I felt so strongly about doing this Gardens study with him.


Oh, and he HATES to draw. Have I ever mentioned that? It ain't pretty. Today he was supposed to draw a picture of Monet's gardens, and that just about did him in. Because he isn't the greatest at drawing things *exactly* as they look, he has a meltdown. When I guide him to be more abstract, to not worry that it isn't exactly right, he just can't go there in his mind. It has to be perfect or nothing. So, we'll just keep working on it.


Things are going so well with my weight loss! I'm being very rigid with weighing foods and counting points, writing down every bite. The fruit of that is being down 9.3 pounds, 4.2 of it this week alone. Yay for me! This is it for me. Yahweh said to go back to the beginning, what He originally told me to do, and I did. He is so faithful!!!!!!!

Gardening

I am so, so excited! We're going to do a garden! We bought some little organic seed starter pots and fertilizer soil as well as some seeds. After we get the plants growing, we're going to use some old tires we have and fill them up with soil. Voila! Raised gardening. :)


Of course, being a homeschooler, I need to follow this rabbit trail, right? I purchased this Amanda Bennett unit study on Gardens and will row Miss Rumphius from FIAR Vol. 2. I am so, so excited! I think I'll do The Secret Garden as a read-aloud.


Caleb is going to plant and tend to the vegetables, and Millie is going to do the flowers. It should be fun to see how they do. We've never gardened in Florida, so it's going to take some researching and trial and error to figure out what works best and how. I think I'll let Caleb do some of that research as a project.


I've also ordered the Spring Hill Nursery catalog. My mom used to let my sister and me pick out plants every year to order when were still living at home. I think I'll continue that tradition and let my kids choose one or two.


Just wanted to give a quick update. I'll try to take some pictures this week while we finish up Ping and maybe some of our Mystery of History projects.


Thanks for reading! :)

Choices

I've learned something key to life. It's all about the choices. Standing in front of the pantry, I can choose to snack on processed, nutritionless junk or I can choose to eat fruit. Or cottage cheese. Or vegetables. Or hummus with whole grain crackers. Even then, the choices are there: I can grab a handful of something and eat mindlessly without knowing what I'm putting in my mouth, or I can measure my food, write it down, and take control of how I am fueling my body.


It's not easy. Sometimes I just want to crumble. It's as if I can literally feel my soul crying out for love when I make the right choices. In those instances, I have to turn to the One from whom my love comes. I have to know who I am and what He wants of me.


Apostle Steve spoke something a couple of weeks back that I received as truth in my life. It has caused me to make some changes. When Yahweh speaks something, when a direction is given as word and spirit for my life, why would he change that direction the next week? Or the next year? Or....? If the goal is not met, why would He tell me to change courses?


I've known for a long, long time that Weight Watchers is a key for me. Yet I get full of myself, or perhaps I fall off the wagon and am ashamed of what the scale says, and I leave the program self-righteously, as if it's the "right" thing for me to do because I can do it on my own. (Sure, how is that working out for me?) But is that truly Word and Spirit to me? Or is that my own free will? Yeah, it's not rocket science.


So I've repented and have gone back to the beginning. Sometimes we have to go back to the beginning and take the right path. I was able to join WW Online through Dave's work for a fraction of the yearly cost, and I am back at it. Yahweh also brought to me an amazing online group of ladies to join myself to for the journey. We weigh in on Mondays. Today, I weighed in, and I've lost 7.5 pounds so far in the 10 days I've been doing it! When it's right, it's right. And this is right. It's life to me. And I choose life. Because it IS my choice.


I'll do an update later on how homeschool is going (very, very well!), but for now, this was on my heart so I wanted to share.

End of the First Quarter

It's been a fun first quarter of school. I haven't been able to keep up the blog as I had hoped, but I still have faith that this will change. We've made some changes which have been so gentle and purposed. I started out very structured which I needed to do in order to develop a routine, and as we went along, we dove into the kids' individual needs and wants. This was purposed by Yahweh, and I am grateful I obeyed because we are really seeing the fruit of this. We are making much better strides this year than we ever have.

We have completely dropped Heart of Dakota. It was too, too structured for me. Although I appreciate the curriculum a lot and enjoyed what we did in it, it wasn't fulfilling our needs for right now. Caleb was ready for a lot more than what it offered, and Millie was beyond the material in hers as well.

I am doing unit studies with both kids now and using Five in a Row for Millie and Beyond Five in a Row for Caleb. We are doing a lot of reading and field trips. I am still using Astronomy for Caleb, and it was very cool to be able to go see a shuttle launch while we were studying space.

We also had a great field trip to The Reptile Discovery Center in Deland, Florida where we got to watch actual venom extraction from several snakes. It was unbelievably cool. Both of my kids have wanted a snake for awhile, and now Millie REALLY wants one. I was stretching myself by letting them get a bearded dragon. A snake might be a bit more than I can handle. ;) I highly recommend this place as a homeschool field trip if you are in the Central Florida area. They are extremely accommodating and want you to have a successful and educational time.

Weight loss is slow but still coming along. I don't know how much I've lost because I had to quit WW for financial reasons. But it's all good. I've taken up walking with plans to eventually run. Right now I am doing two miles. The activity is good for me and the kids, and the fresh air does us good.

Everyone is asking for dinner, so it's time to cut this entry off. I will do my best to continue to update and add some pictures without taking months to do it. :)