My Favorite RedHead Turned 12 Today!

JT celebrated his birthday at the YMCA with a swim party. It was lots of fun! Hard to believe that he's already twelve. It's gone by so fast!!

Time for Some Sea & Tea

Here's another blog (if your list isn't very long yet!) written by interesting people...Tori and Caleb, my neice and her husband. They came through here two weeks ago. They managed to make us sound interesting on their blog. Tori and Caleb are making their blog a travel journal as they make their way across America.

Lucky them!

Saturday in the Park...I think it was the 4th of July

No, wait...it was the day after the 4th of July, and those are lyrics from Chicago's hit song!

We had a busy day. First was Luci's first ever swim lesson at the YMCA. They won't let ya take photos inside the Y, so here's Luci before. She had a blast! But "they make me put my face in the water. I not like that!" This type of swimsuit is called "Rash Guard" but I'm not sure why--the only places my kids ever get a rash when swimming is where their suits touch their bodies.

Afterwards, John took Luci to the park to meet up with Audrey & Thom and Heath & Shanna and kids. I took JT to pick up Bryan from a friend's house, but by the time we got to the park John and company were gone. Maggie and Haley are Audrey's daughters and Sophia and Sara belong to Heath. (Audrey--there was not a picture of you today! Get in front of the camera next time, ok?)

Haley, 1 year
Sophia, 3 years

Sara, 1 year
Maggie, 3 years
Aunt Luci, 3 years (2 1/2 months younger than neices Maggie and Sophia! I always think that's funny.)
Maggie and Thom

Shanna and Sara

Shanna and Sophia
Sophia, Maggie, Heath and Sara
Haley
Luci

Homeschooling?

This week I've had the pleasure of taking the boys to "a Good Work" (another post) with the church's youth group and enjoyed my time with just Luci...doing some household chores, going to get groceries, and just cuddling Luci. (Here's how the days went: bicker, squawk, fight...drop off boys...peace peace peace...pick up boys...bicker, squawk, fight. Sounded a lot like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom show on predatory birds.) It was very seductive to this homeschooling mama. But sending them to "regular school" is not what we believe is what God wants us to do for these kids. And that trumps everything: doing what we believe God's will for us is.

On Thursday, as I was having these thoughts of "what if...," I received this email from Alpha Omega Publications. They send this out daily, and it has proven to be right on target for me several times just in the past month alone. If you are considering homeschooling, this is a Daily Focus for you!

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Daily Focus is from Alpha Omega Publications. You can receive the daily emails through a link near the bottom of the page listed here.

The Homeschooling Fight

Thursday, July 3, 2008

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)



Christian education is a spiritual battle which must be fought by every homeschooling parent. The desire to see our children raised according to the standards of God's Word requires more than wishful thinking. We must ever be alert to Satan's schemes and the world's ways to suck our children into the main stream of ungodly learning. We must be willing to risk popularity and acceptance to lead our children down an educational path that declares God is at the center of all things and the beginning of all creation. Most of all, we must declare our own love for Christ and be willing to crucify the flesh and its selfish desires in order to win our children's hearts to the Lord.



The great men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 are listed as our inspiration to hold fast to God's truths. Like Abraham, we must be willing to follow the Lord wherever He leads. Like Moses, we must be willing to give up the pleasures of life to serve a higher purpose. Like Rahab, we must have faith to believe that what the Lord says is true. Like Noah, we must face opposition daily, even if it takes years to complete the task that God has given. Like countless others who never saw the results of their faith, we must cling courageously to the future promise that God will bless the work of our hands in the lives of generations to come (Psalm 112:2).



Are you feeling the temptation to give up on homeschooling? Sending your children to public school next fall may seem appealing, but it's simply taking the easy way out. If the Lord has led you to teach your children, pray for the courage and wisdom you need to stand firm and fight. Raising your children in the Lord is as much a spiritual battle as resisting temptations for yourself. Don't give in to the lies and harassment of those around you. Fight for the hearts and minds of your children and for the work that God can do through their lives in winning countless souls to Christ.



Lord,

Renew Your passion within me today to homeschool and teach my children Your truths. Guide us as we prepare for schooling in the fall and show me how to hold fast when taking an easier road seems much more appealing.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Four Freedoms

as taken from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941, speech, and interpreted here as Freedoms Luci now has that she did not have as a birthright in China.

What a great country we have!

First: Freedom of Speech and Expression

Second: Freedom of Every Person to Worship God

Third: Freedom from Want

China, March 2005

USA, May 2008

Fourth: Freedom from Fear

July 3rd~Lightning Bugs and Important Stuff

Some silly photos. Luci and I played with the camera today. Mostly, I was celebrating that the thing still works! John got the camera wet on Sunday and it took several days to dry out (so now he's out of the dog house). It's supposed to be waterproof, but not when the battery latch is un-latched.

It was almost completely dark when this was taken, with the night vision thingy clicked on. JT and Luci were chasing lightning bugs. If you look hard (or click on the photo to enlarge) you can see several fireflies (I can find 4). Luci's almost a ghosty in this photo. She ran as I clicked.Luci thought this was important. Mom, it's part of the tea party dishes you gave her. And John's foot.

Good Works

For we are God's workmanship (masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Bryan and JT have spent the last three days working for others. Our church's youth group spent Tuesday working on lawns of families who can't do it themselves; Wednesday painting at the Children's Home in our county, which is sponsored by local churches, and today they are having a play day and lunch party with the children at the home. So thankful that they have exhibited Christ to those who are in need this week.

Bryan and JT--we are proud of you!

Rethinking Retirement

John is looking to retire in the next twelve months or so....

After spending a lovely breakfast with our crew, John is rethinking this retirement thing. He says he's going to have to do something to stay busy (and I guess he means out of the house to not hear the bickering boys). I just said, "Welcome to my world."

Chuck E Cheese Invitation!!

Friday, July 11, meet up with us at Chuck E Cheese in Huntsville.

11:00 am

Several of us with Chinese children will be meeting for lunch (and the kids will be meeting to PLAY!). Denna is the ring-leader! So please come join the fun.

I'd especially like to meet Katie-bug's Mom, Lily Mei's Mom and Katie Lin's Mom.

And the rest of you reading this, I want to see you, too! YOU are invited, too!

Please leave a message on this post if you can come, so I'll know to look for you.

Click here for MAP

The boys are coming, so please tell your older siblings that there will be older kids there, too!

Address:
1220 Jordon Lane NW
Huntsville AL 35816
(256) 534-2415 (Chuck E Cheese's phone number)

Idaho's Discovery Museum

The kids and I made a trip to the Discovery Center of Idaho while we were in Boise. The cousins had a great time playing and learning (but don't let them know they actually were learning). This is our second-most favorite hands-on museum that we've been to (and we've been to quite a few). Luci tried the bed of nails. I didn't tell her what it was beforehand. She calls it "that bed that goes up and down." If she knew it were nails, I think she would have run from this exhibit!
A "traits" quiz...I am always trying to figure out anything from Luci's past. This is the page that came up after answering many questions about physical traits. Only 245 other people (out of 39,899 who have taken this quiz) had the same traits as Luci.
Cousins! Suzi, Luci, Laura
A wall of bubble. Bryan poked his hand through, and the reflection of his thumb surprised us in this resulting photo!

More Painless School Review...Part 4

I found this package at our local Bible book store. There are two beach balls, one for reviewing the Bible story and one for the memory verse. I love this! JT says he's played with these in his Sunday School class and it's fun. He said that where ever your right thumb landed, that was the question/review that you had to answer. Sounds like a good weekly review kind of thing!

Sweet Words

Today I peeked into Luci's Sunday School class before it began. Luci has a 3 year old friend in there named Piper. Piper's parents were at the same informational meeting we went to the day we started paperchasing for Luci. They decided to go the state-side route to adopt and now have an adorable little girl. We (as you know) went the foreign route for Luci, going to China. I don't ever think about Piper's being adopted because she "matches" her parents--Caucasian. Could be their biological daughter. Luci, however, is in this Irish-looking family! Very obvious.

Piper's daddy was in the room with the girls, waiting for the teacher, and told Piper that Luci was adopted, too. When I peeked in, the two girls were bouncing around the room, singing, "You were adopted, I was adopted!" over and over. So sweet, to know these girls will have this bond throughout their growing up in this church family.

Kalyn!

Kathy and Kalyn came over on Friday. We all had fun. I love talking to Kathy! And it is so nice to see Luci and Kalyn becoming friends. I loved, loved hearing Kalyn running around, calling, "Lus! Where are you?" She sounded much older than 2 1/2.

Luci learned that she's not supposed to lock the door on a friend (hmm, big brothers, where did she learn that trick?!) and Kalyn and Luci both showed us how they can jump and squeal. [Ha! Greg (Kalyn's daddy), if you want to stop it, you have to be here to do it in person! We had a ball watching them.]



Kathy, here's that cute outfit. Luci wore it to town today. Thank you!

Water Girl

Luci chasing me with the hose last week. (sorry two of the photos are blurry--she's a fast one!) She's a little stinker. She had way too much fun trying to soak me!

The Square Root of 2,304

That's how old I am today. Need more clues? When Bryan has his birthday in 12 days, I'll be 3 times older than him; when JT has his birthday in 11 days, I'll be 4 times older than him. I am now 16 times older than Luci. (Can you tell I was raised by an engineer/math teacher?)

John totally floored me with my birthday present. He's been working overtime and used that to get this--a laptop computer! Wow! I was totally shocked. I can use this at the table while the kids work on schoolwork (blogging and studying--they do go hand in hand, don't they?), and use it for looking up things we need to study online. So handy! Thank you, John!!

Idaho Highlights

Cousin Katie Luci and JT loved this piano! If there were a way to sneak it out of Nana and Papa's house and tie it onto the roof of the van (or drag it behind), I think JT and Luci would have figured out a way to bring it home.

Bryan used every spare minute to play his video games.
We had to get the oil changed before the trip home. JT thinks he looks cool in this car on the show floor at the dealership.
Luci at the car dealership. They had a pretty neat play area. Janet and I went out on Sunday afternoon, for some girl time. (Luci came along, too.) We went to Cheesecake Factory--it is gorgeous in there! Luci took some pics of Janet and me, but they all turned out blurry.

Tetherball was a big hit!
Guess who won this game?! Luci!
Helping Dad fill the squirrel feeder. Wait--I may have put this on the blog before. I can't believe Mom and Dad actually encourage the squirrels to come around! This still makes me laugh. At our old house, we couldn't get rid of the smart, hairy beasts. They even figured out a way to get into our attic and make nests. Yuck!
This is about as close as Luci would let Papa get. I'm sorry, Dad!