Texas blizzard 2021

 Well this is one for the books.  In Texas we have 205 hours of below freezing temperatures.   Through this I learned a few things (as a girl raised in the cold north): 

Texas homes are not designed to keep warm

Days without electricity is not fun

It was good to unplug and play games and have no agendas

It was exhausting playing board games with three hyper boys for three days

We discovered potatoes keep reptiles warm and all our keys survived

I learned to appreciate even more being back inside a warm house at the end of this week

Through this adventure I was reminded of the fun of snow days and exploring the cold and doing all of that with my kids     It was honestly a relief to not teach for a week and stay in pajamas and just be a family.  At the end of it though o appreciate even more my routine and schedule.  Our home lost power for over 24 hours and became frigid cold.  Thankfully my parents had a gas stove and fireplace so we were able to stay warmer there and still have warm food and family close by.  The boys had many adventures of playing and off electronics and just being kids.  We all slept super early as the lights out reset our internal clocks a bit.  We huddled in the cold, relaxed when we could in the warmth, enjoyed family time, while also driving ourselves crazy.  This was a truly historic event for our area, and was a memorable experience I hope we never experience.  

It caused a lot of stress as well though being thrown off our routine, living with uncertainty, hearing and seeing horror stories from across our town and state as many had it much worse.  Today we were able to have our first normal day with friends, food, and clear roads

As our kids went through this relatively calmly it reminded me today how days of uncertainty show their trauma in other ways   We are constantly recovering and growing through our pain as it evolves 

I am looking forward to fitting back into a routine.  I am so thankful for the family and friends through it all that supported and loved us 

Stay safe   Stay warm  and keep those you love close by  

Here's a small glimpse of our week:

Hello 2021~!

 Hello ya'll!

It's been a hot minute, and I'm SO sorry, but our Deember and January have been INSANE fun and busy!

Life is just now starting to slow down, as we go with our amazing homeschool journey.

December we spent a week going back to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum.  After a long year of slowed down traveling and lots of disappointments with that it felt SO good to do a road trip where we could just reflect on God's amazingness in our lives and family, and be with friends.  The Ark Encounter had only magnified it's amazingness since the last time we were there three years ago.  They added in more animals, a playground, virtual reality ride, and still had the message of salvation in every area of the place.  We were able to stay at an AirBnb just a few miles away with lots of land so we were able to unplug and get away a little bit.

A big blessing of the trip was us being able to resume our Jr. Ranger badges again!  Earlier this year we lost out on over 15 because of closures, so it was fun to get another 8 for our collection and get to explore more battlefields and get a lot of insight to the Civil War from the Southern perspective.  It was something I had never been taught and it was interesting to see the different views and step out onto the battlefields where so many people lost their lives fighting for the freedoms they cherished.  So much of history is disappearing in our current days, so I am thankful we are able to teach this to our children while we still have the chance.

At the end of all of that my youngest brother got married, and we ended Christmas break by going to his wedding and watching him marry the most amazing girl!  I've loved watching how God brought them together, and so thankful for them both!

In January we also resumed our Pod School!  We have several new families, and after re-arranging the whole house, we were able to set up better classrooms, and give ourselves some more space for school.  We now live completely upstairs in our house, and our pod school operates 4 days a week downstairs.  We have it set to Monday and Wednesday we do Bible History and Science, and then Tuesday and Thursday we have less students to focus on Math and Grammar.  Some parents do all 4, and some only choose one or two classes.  It's great to watch homeschool families encourage each other, and support each other in our different areas.  We still keep our Fridays open for our field trips, and lately it's been more park days, board games, and a little more low key.  We are still looking for a building, and praying one will show up soon!

January has just been flying by!  So much traveling, rearranging, and growing!

We have also started REPTILES!  Our oldest son, Samuel, has been spending months researching and begging for a snake.  Now, he finally convinced his dad that this would be good to do, so we ended up with a snake for Christmas.  Since then, we have now, two snakes, a chameleon, three turtles, two fish, and now a leopard gecko!

It's been quite the adventure getting to know all these animals and watch how they all work!

Now, onto my "word" for 2021!

This was SOOO hard because I've done Rooted, Grow, Content, and some others in the past.  I've always been focused on rooting in the BIble, growing in God, and being Content with what he provided.  After losing our daughter I learned that GRACE has been needed more than almost anything.   We needed it desperately after our loss, and in 2020 we watched an entire nation fall apart and need the same grief love and grace that we needed back in 2018.  I've learned that beyond all, Grace is needed.  When someone else is hurting, suffering loss, confused, losing jobs, health, normal life, Grace is needed. 

This year I pray we are able to provide love, encouragement and grace to those who need it.  Grace which God provies to us so often, I continue to pray we extend to others around us.

I'm so thankful for the amazing year 2020 has been, and I am excited to see where God continues to bless and take us throughout 2021!

Our reads and why they are important!

 Welcome!

So, as most homeschool moms will say is that it's SOOO important to read books.  Yes.  Good quality, high literature, classic authors,  etc, etc.  

Our kids mostly like to read.  Our oldest is a super book nerd and would read ALL day if we let him, but the younger two prefer to be read to versus reading on their own.  Since they were babies, we have tried to read (3-4 nights a week) a solid 30-45 minutes a night of books.  Some months it was lots of Dr. Seuss, some weeks it was Mickey Mouse, and some weeks it was Peter Rabbit and classic kid books.  We have LOTS of Usborne books, so we get fun illustrations, good authors, and we keep finding more and more.

Lately though the books we have been reading have been impacting us on a new level.  Our homeschool curriculum (My Fathers World) uses and recommends classic family read alouds throughout the school year.  We have over the years read great books from it such as Little House on the Prairie, Farmer Boy, Sarah Winchester, and many more.  This year however was a handful of books I had zero backround with by Patricia St. John, and I decided to read it WITH my boys for my first time through as well.

We started off with Tanglewood Secrets.  This book surprised me with some of the rich storyline and hard topics.  Spoiler alert: a main character dies at the end.  Now, for us who have first-hand dealt with the loss of our daughter; and the boys, their sister, this opened up a door for them to discuss it in a way they never had before.  It's been almost 2.5 years since she passed away and I still struggle to get them to open up.  What I truly loved about this book through was how it presented the hope, truth, and love of Jesus Christ for children, from the perspective of a child.  Even when these children faced the loss of a close friend who was also a child, and they see the unfairness of life, they are still taught the unaltered truth of God's constant grace and loe through it all.

Now, this last couple of weeks, we have been reading Star of Light.  This book was harder for me to get into with them because it took place in Morocco, and it took me a little while to really understand the cultural and religious differences.  However, this book constinually discusses an older brother who has to protect and help his 2 year old sister.  This has been an avenue for our oldest son to deal with and sort through his self-seen failure of not protecting his sister.  It has allowed us to bond with a character who goes through some very serious life struggles, but to also discuss what it is like to feel afraid for the safety and future of a younger sibling.  It has allowed me to go through some of his trauma with him and discuss even better why our daughters/sisters death was in NO WAY the fault of our son.  He has spent two years blaming himself constantly, and nothing we have said or counselled him through has seemed to help.  This story has been healing as he sees the adults and children in the book navigate some hard situations.  Several times our son started becoming worried for the sister in the book, and trying to find ways to save her.  I was moved to tears as we read about the love of a missionary nurse, and the perspecttive of others around her, and how they loved these children through their trials.  However, my favorite part of this book, once again, is how simply and gracefully they incorporate the truths and blessings of Jesus Christ.  From a child's perspective who has NEVER heard of Jesus, it has spoken deep truths to our children from a perspective that most kids won't hear in children's church or "regular" Bible time.  

We will have one more of her books to read this school year called Treasures in the Snow, and I have NO doubt that it will share the same amazing truths and importance that the others have.  I have discovered the writings and stylings from the early 1900's are showing us rich storylines and new perspectives we normally would not.

I am excited to read more of Patricia St. John and add even more to our collection!

I will post another day about our 40 book challenge, and just WHY reading is important, but tonight as I tried not to cry as I watched my children heal through their struggles, I am so thankful for rich Godly truths and authors who wrote it in a way that our family (over 100 years later) desperately needed.

When life feels hard, find the rich and uplifting stories, and snuggle in together and read through the comfort together.

Grace and truth

 In a day and age full of disinformation, manipulation, fake news, and overall a lot of fussing, I was greatly encouraged this week from the Bible and Paul

In Acts 18, Paul was able to speak to some of the greatest minds of his day.  He saw philosophers, atheists, humanists, polytheist, and also some of the most educated religious scholars.  What I noticed throughout all of this was the grace.  

He didn’t mock people, shame them, attack them, or get mad they didn’t think like he did.  All he did was present his truth which was the truth of God and the gospel. He told them what he had learned from the Bible and gospel of his life and explained it in a way that they all understand 

Did everyone agree?  No. Did he win big awards? No. But he did point people to God and give them the choice

Even though many did not agree he didn’t take it personally. He kept sharing the gospel.  When people in Corinthians tried to honor him more than God he rebuked them but also encouraged them back to God and His word!

As Christians there is a LOT to fuss about with politics, masks, opinions, preferences, news media, social media, etc. At the end of the day, are we pointing people to Christ, or are we trying to get everyone to think how we think?

True gospel and Bible is not about making people agree with you, it’s not about mocking people, it’s not degrading people who don’t think like you

True gospel is showing people the mercy, love, and truth of God.

In an age of chaos, stay close to God so he can bring the peace.  In the age of madness, show others the joy of Christ. In the age of depression and anger, show others what love and grace truly look like.

Spend more time reaching out with the truth of the Bible, not the opinions of man 

School year update for 2020!!

 

Boy howdy ya'll!

This school year has been crazy to plan!!  As many of you know, we do year round schooling, and it's constantly changing and varying year to year.   Some years we have friends with us, some are with private school, some have been with co ops, and others have been quiet and just us!  This year, however, was a HUGE change and it happened all kinda suddenly.  This is definitely not something we would have thought a few months ago, but God has truly brought together an amazing group and plan, and it has been coming together so smoothly!

So what is it we are doing??

Well, the closest things I can come up with is a pod school, or university model school/co op intense/momschooling as a group!

Thankfully we all live in a state where we have a LOT of flexibility with homeschooling, so we have more options to us than in other states.  A few weeks ago a mom asked me for help with homeschooling.  Now, this is nothing new, because over the years, I've offered a LOT of moms help.  What was different was they were willing to school WITH us a couple days a week.  This way we could share schooling, our kids could still socialize, and it evens out the burden on the moms, and we can encourage each other!  At first this was pretty awesome, but over the days, it quickly became more and more families.  In the end we ended up with multiple families and LOTS of kids! :)

I know a lot of people are looking at homeschooling and asking for help and ideas, etc, so if you have a group of encouraging mamas, this is what we are doing as a brief outline.

Twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) for us, we meet at my house and we split up the classes.  One mom teaches Bible, one teaches history, one teaches science, some do the prek/K, and the rest help with kid management.  We all use the same curriculum (I use primarily www.mfwbooks.com and www.masterbooks.com for math and grammar) so in that way it's more of a school than a co op.  We do ALL the subjects together, except math and grammar which are done one on one.  So also in this sense, it is more intensive than a normal co op. We are also not quite a private school because all of the moms are teaching it, and we meet twice a week.  On our off days (Tuesday and Thursda) we all do math and grammar at home.   For the kids who need more assistance I tutor them individually, and as a team we work through all the subjects.  On Fridays, we open a group event/fieldtrip/playday to the community.  We keep it mainly outdoors at parks, pools, splash pads, etc.  This allows for any moms to socialize and play and get encouraged who aren't necessarily needing the full time school help.  

As a team we have quickly developed some great friendships, and the children have been so much happier having friends over more!  They love learning together, they challenge each other, and they also have the connecitons they have been missing since the shut down all summer.  The bonus of this is having the off days with just our family, so we aren't burned out with people over 5 days a week!  For our family this is HUGE.  I teach music all day Tuesday and Thursday, so the kids have been doing their math and grammar quickly in the mornings, and then they have been playing and relaxing and having chill time the rest.  Friday we aim for the FUN friend day or a family day, whatever is more needed that week.

This has been a dream of mine for many years, but to watch it happen without us planning ot trying has been incredible!  It truly has all fallen into place quickly and smoothly, and it has been so encouraging to find a bunch of other mamas who all mesh well without drama!!  

I couldn't ask for a better group, and I cannot wait to see what further dreams and opportunities this presents to us!!  

Adventues in Florida!!

Hey ya'll!

I know this blog is kinda eclectic, but it IS all about our life.  Our adventures, our travels, and our homeschooling!

Covid has his my travels HARD!  Our trip to Big Bend had to be cacelled, then our epic two week road trip got downsized, but we still ended up with a great weekend in Florida!

My brother has an AMAZING fiance who is FROM Florida, so we went and spent some time with them and her family for a few days.  The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed time at the beach, sand, seashells, jet skiing, dolphin watching, and lots of family time!

Every vacation my kids beg to please stay home.  These boys are homebodies, and definitely don't like to disrupt their routine.  The sad thing for them is they have a mama who LOVES to travel!!  The gypsy soul in me runs deep, and although they don't love the idea of vacations, they always enjoy them while we are on them. 

Sadly we couldn't do Junior Ranger Badges as planned, which is our current obsession, but we did end up going to see the crystal beaches and ocean for the first time with the kids.

The family down there also took us on a dolphin cruise!!  This was a couple of hours of a very spacious boat, seagulls, dolphins, and amazing views!!

I am forever thankful for the opportunity and flexibility we have to travel and explore the world and make incredible memories as a family.  Memories made on salty air, high waves, clear oceans, and digging for seashells.  These are precious moments that we will have forever now!

Even if my kids don't always remember these things, I will.  

One day, when they grow up and look back, I do hope they look back with fondness and happy memories.

When Church is hard

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So often in my blogs I write about the importance of my spiritual walk with God.  Yes, that is always true for me first and foremost, but sometimemeans not being in chuch. 

Wait.   Before you riot against me.  Let me go into more depth.  I in NO way am saying that church is not good or not helpful, but lately I've had to reform a LOT of what I learned growing up in church and how I needed to take care of me.  

Growing up we learned to never miss church ever, unless we were about to be hospitalized level of sick.  Suffice it to say, we rarely missed church.  Now this is not bad.  I don't think people who never miss church are good or bad, but you have to realize, that for some people during differeny periods of life, church is not always the answer.

Do you know what I learned from never missing church?  I learned how to fake being happy.  I learned how to be socially appropriate.  I learned to "say the right thing" but when I acutally needed help I didn't know how to ask.  I learned that everyone would pray for you, but rarely would they sit with you when you cried and fell apart.  I learned that the importance of living up to others expectations was more important than being happy and taking care of my own mental health.  

Did I learn about God?  Yes I did.  I ended up getting saved.  I learned a lot about the Bible, but sadly what I learned more was that Christians would judge, attack, and disown each other quicker than anyone.  Do you know when I truly learned about God's love?  When I lost my children.  When I had a husband with incurable auto immune diseases.  When I had friends talk behind my back and hurt my testimony.  When the "church" people deemed I wasn't good enough for them.  THAT is when I learned about GOD and His love and grace for me. 

My aim is to always teach my children to love others and show grace always.  Do you know what Jesus never did in HIS church??  He didn't trash talk those he disagreed with, He sat with the sinners, He reached out to those who were hurting, and He actually went against those that spouted the laws and legalism of the day.  Sadly I think that so many Christians focus so much on what others think and want to fit in with, that they forget to show love and grace to others.  When we focus on people instead of our BIble and God, then so much gets twisted.

I've had a hard year.  Hard due to anniersaries.  Hard due to really sinking in the fact I will never have more kids.  Hard also because several women I was VERY close to have stepped out of my life.  These women were the ones I cried to, loved on, and sacrificed a lot for.  What hurt was when they started listening to rumors about me, instead of coming to me, and allowing friendships to die because of it.  It hurts when people don't want to hear about Mira.  It hurts when people won't hang out because I have a husband with chronic health issues.  It hurts when people would rather walk away then sit and be there through the hard times.

I don't blame them.  My life is hard.  Every few months we have MAJOR crisis and emergencies.  I mean, really, our life doens't lead an easy one.  

Back to my original point.  Lately I haven't been at church because it's been hard.  Like, really hard.  Hard to show up when I know my husband's health won't allow him to be there too.  Hard to show up knowing that my ASD child is completely altered from COVID to be ina  good church routine.  Hard to see the ministries I've been plugged into be altered and changed to where I"m no longer needed in them.  Hard to smile and pretend it's okay.  Hard to not smile and then try to explain to 100 different people how much our life can take a toll on us.  

So I took a few weeks off, and you know what?  It was truly healing for me.  It let me spend extra snuggles with my kids. It let us watch church from our home without the hustle and bustle and stress of three kids mostly by myself.  It let me cry and praise and worship without worrying about what everyone else might think.  It let me really dig into my Bible and reset some of the hurts from my legalist childhood that I had to deal with.  It let me mourn the friends who have walked away.  It allowed me to truly REST on a Sunday and not be burning myself out with 10 different ministries and constant rushing of a Sunday.  

I still grieve friendships, even though I don't blame them.  I still pray for those who I know will follow the preacher over the Bible.  I still try to show as much grace and love to others no matter what happens to them later in our lives.  I will continue to nurture my children in the Bible and teach them to love their local church and people.

Yes, we are getting ourselves plugged back into church slowly.  We are readjusting routines, and we are learning to heal and grow as a family.  We are learning the importance of church, but also the importance of a break when it's needed for our mental health.

As a friend recently told me, "Church is for YOU, not you for the Church."  If the church only cares about you when you are doing for them, but they can't minister to you when you struggle, then guess what?  You are not in a healthy church.  Do you know what's healthy in a church?  What's healthy is when a church loves on you, ministers to you, and doesn't care what you contribute to them.

Find God's love.  Find a true church.  Find people who will love you for you!

If you have to change for a church or friends, then they aren't true friends or churches.  I hate how long it takes me to figure some things out, but I"m thankful that through our trials, that our kids can learn to heal and take care of themselves too!