Best Teacher Moment Ever...

When you give your kids a painting to write about for art history and you totally miss the fact that Raphael's toddler cousins John and Jesus are showing their penises and the day care worker has to tell you.  ROCK STAR moment!

Song of Week

This song from my childhood was stuck in my head, so I thought it should be the next song the kids learn during devotionals.  So funny after looking up the words, I realized that while I knew the first verse perfectly the second verse was super shaky.  I love teaching them songs that I once was taught at Redeemer.  The love of Christ passed down from generation to generation.



Don't build your house on the sandy-land,
Don't build it too near the shore,
Well, it may look kind of nice
But you'll have to build it twice,
Oh, you'll have to build your house once more.

You better build your house upon the rock,
Make a good foundation on a solid spot.
And though the storms may come and go,
But the peace of God you will know. 

I like this Irish man's version of the song. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5sP9Fw3SAI

A sick baby

She seemed fine at AWANA and afterwards when they got to stay up as late as they wanted for winning the quiet game on the way home in the car.  But in the wee hours of the morning, I realized the little heat source that I was quite enjoying snuggling up next to me had a fever.  Poor little baby, her mommy is like umm, warmth, let me snuggle up to this and she's like yikes I'm sick.

So every two hours, she woke up crying, cuddling, rocking, walks around the room got her to settle down and back to sleep.  A little medicine, some water, and then an ice pack for the lip that was bruised days before, and I was rewarded with a sleeping baby.

She was resting on the sofa when Rowan and I went to ballet, but when we came back I had a crying baby who wanted to be picked up and held.  My mom thought it was a con, saying she had been sitting on the sofa chillin' before I walked in.  Could be a con, could not be?  I'll err on the side of caution and say it isn't, is that she doesn't feel good again or that as awesome as Omas are they aren't your mommy.

We stayed home yesterday and she was up playing, even ate a little, guzzled down her medicine juice, as she calls it, aka pedia lite, and some medicine.  We were on the road to recovery.  She didn't wake up once on Saturday night.  A little 24 hour bug thing, or so I thought until I noticed her left eye was a little bloodshot and yep, she felt warm, the fever was back.  It goes away, it comes back. 

So here it is 3AM, I should be sleep especially since we're back to waking up crying, like she is starting to do now.  I'm so thankfully that I have healthy children and this illness thing happens about once a year.  And I try to isolate the others cause I don't need a houseful of sick ones.

Though two years ago, God was so gracious and made us all sick at once.  What a blessing to come home from work with no energy, bathe people, and put them to bed cause everyone was too tired and too sick to eat.  I don't think I could have warmed food and cleaned a kitchen to save my life those days.  Oh, the things, we are grateful for.  Pre-mommyhood, I don't ever think I would have thought three kids being sick at once while I was sick as a good thing.

She's stopped whimpering, so I should rest in case at 4AM, she gets up again.  Let's pray I don't get sick and neither do the other two or Oma.  Let's pray, she's better tomorrow she can celebrate her birthday in style.  I'm thinking she might miss the MLK parade today, we'll see.

My Heart for Homeschooling Families From Sea to Shining Sea from Charlene Notgrass

I was blessed to meet hundreds of homeschooling parents last year between the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific. I am so impressed with you and your children.

I worry about you sometimes, though. I’ve been a part of the homeschooling movement for more than twenty years–long enough to see trends come and go, long enough to meet many people I respect, and long enough to be disappointed. I don’t want disappointing realities to discourage you.

No matter what anyone tells you, there is no formula for producing the perfect homeschool, for raising perfect children, or for building the perfect Christian family.

No matter how reputable a homeschool spokesman is or how popular a homeschool speaker is, not one of these leaders is perfect. You cannot swallow anyone’s words hook, line, and sinker (I have only held a fishing pole in the water twice in my life; how did that idiom get into my vocabulary?).

I am reminded of a hymn that our congregation sang as I was growing up. We could have sung it anytime, but we didn’t. We sang it after someone was baptized. Kentuckian Thomas Obediah Chisholm (1866-1960) wrote the words. It was published in 1905. This is the last verse:

Only in Thee, dear Savior, slain,
Losing Thy life my own to gain,
Trusting, I’m cleansed from ev’ry stain;
Thou art my only plea.
Only in Thee my heart will delight,
Till in that land where cometh no night
Faith will be lost in heavenly sight,
Only, dear Lord, in Thee!

I like to eat healthy and I even grind my own wheat, but my hope is in “the living bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:51, NASB).

Modesty is important to me, but I don’t like arbitrary rules about it. When we are “clothed . . . with Christ” (Galatians 3:27), we don’t need people’s rules.

I believe that children need godly training, but it must be based on Scripture which is “inspired by God and profitable . . .  for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Don’t let the successes or failures of leaders distract you from the most important things. Don’t let them stand as your judges and make you feel inferior or like a failure. Fall at the foot of the Cross and entrust your children to the One you trust. Lead them to Him.

Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
Psalm 146:3, NASB

Rowan's memories

We were sitting on the bed after AWANA, preparing to go to bed, when suddenly Rowan said, " Mommy,
I miss Mr. Will."

"I know.  I miss him, too."

"He used to say to us, 'Good job!   High five?'  If water got in my nose or my mouth, he said, 'Raise your hands and say, Hallelujah!'  He would say, 'Good job.  See you next week!'  He said, your kids are good swimmers.  They are good kids."

"Yes, he did say those things."

Memories...

I love helpful, compassionate children

We were doing school and I decided it was time for a break.  So I went and took a quick shower where I tweaked something in my upper back (man, I'm getting old).  I was in pain.  I slowly made it back to my bed and collapsed.  I thought we can finish school, I can read while laying down I tried to lift my head and knew that wasn't going to work.

Jory asked what was wrong and I told him my back hurt and he jumped into action.  Bony elbows, karate hand chops, deep nine-year-old massaging.  I was able after a bit to turn my head to the side and we practiced Bible verses.  I thought about doing more but the pain was too much, so instead I told the kids they could watch a movie.

Rowan raced to her room to get Strawberry Shortcake, which I knew Jory wouldn't be down with.  He came back with Cars.  I convinced my big girl that since Jory had chosen a movie for a while, we'd let him choose the movie this time.  She agreed.  I instructed them, to stay on the bed, not to get in front of the pillow which was their barrier to being too close to the laptop monitor, not to bother a sleeping Oma, and to not leave the room.  I painfully moved myself to the other side of the bed and went to sleep.  Older kids who know how to turn on DVDs on laptops rock my world!

I woke up to an argument about which movie to put in next.  I looked down at my glow in the dark Swatch (greatest watches EVER) and saw it was 11:30.

"You can't watch another movie it's 11:30.  Go to bed," my voice startled them.

"Mom- -" my big girl began- -

"I love you, night night," I said lovingly, then little bodies got off the bed and tucked their own selves in.  Though I did wake up with a head on my chest, so I'm not sure if Layla ever left or she left and came back.  A queen size bed is just not big enough for her and another human being.

I love kids who follow directions and let their in pain mommies sleep.

Russell Kelfer

I needed to hear this on Sunday.

You are who you are for a reason

You are who you are for a reason.
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what He wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones He chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into his likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason,
You've been formed by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God.


Nice to hear, to be reminded of, after reading this:


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-man-charged-jefferson-park-stabbing-death-20131231,0,6585479.story#axzz2pemt6QZD


A 44-year-old Los Angeles resident has been charged in the fatal stabbing of a man in Jefferson Park on Dec. 20, officials said.

Michael Allen McGilvery was arrested Friday after he walked into the 77th Street Community Police Station to turn himself in, said LAPD Det. Supervisor Sal LaBarbera.

McGilvery is suspected of stabbing William Jennings, 35, with a knife multiple times in Jefferson Park. Jennings was on his way to the store about 10:15 p.m. when he got into an altercation with McGilvery, LaBarbera said.

After the stabbing, McGilvery grabbed Jennings’ wallet and fled from the scene, police allege.

“We don’t know what the motive was. It was some sort of dispute,” LaBarbera said.

Jennings leaves behind a wife and 11-year-old daughter, according to a news release from the LAPD.

After police released surveillance video of the stabbing, people who know McGilvery tried to persuade him to turn himself in.

McGilvery has been charged with one count of murder and one count of second-degree robbery, according to a felony complaint filed by Los Angeles County prosecutors. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday and is being in lieu of $1-million bail.

The police are asking anyone with additional information about the case to call Det. Paul Funicello or Det. Matt Courtney at (213) 485-4341. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.