Under His Wings

FOR TODAY (August 18th, 2008)...

Outside My Window...The sun is bright, the day is close, as my mother-in-law would say. It is definitely an August day.

I am thinking...of my daughter,Hannah, who left last evening on a long road trip to Spokane, WA where she and her boyfriend, Danny will be attending Moody Bible Institute for the next school year. We talked to them today about noontime and they had made it as far as Montana. My husband, son and I were all very teary yesterday when they left.

I am thankful for...wonderful, blessed friends who gave me a wonderful day celebrating my birthday today.  The ladies from my home fellowship group gave me a lovely breakfast tea on the enchanting sun room of one of the ladies.  It looked as if it came right out of a Country Living magazine.  They each took time to bless me and it was wonderful just to spend time together.  In the afternoon the ladies from the Bible study that I teach celebrated my birthday and it was a delightful time just to be with them also.  What a blessing to feel loved.

From the kitchen...My breakfast tea was served with scrambled eggs made with summer squash and parsley sprigs.  We also had a wonderful apple crunch made with oatmeal and granny smith apples.  Being gluten and sugar free makes for a trial when other people try to cook for you.

I am wearing...I am wearing a brand new pair of denim capris that are a size smaller than the ones I had on this morning.  They were on clearance at Fleet Farm.

 I am creating...strengthened relationships and a place of shalom for my family by the grace of God. Perhaps I will say more about this at another time.

I am going...to visit my mother on Thursday.  She will be having surgery on her back on Wednesday if all goes as planned.

I am reading..."The Committed Life" an inspiring book by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis who talks about walking out the principles found in the Torah and how this applies to all of mankind.

I am hoping...

I am hearing...the women's gymnastic competition on television since I am finishing this post at a later time than I began it.  The Chinese girl just finished her uneven bar performance and there is a tie for first place.

Around the house...my dear husband is playing Risk on the other computer across the room and my son has gone to bed.  Since the last few days have been busy with getting Hannah packed and loaded to leave for school and then today was spent celebrating, my home is a mess and tomorrow will be spent doing laundry and trying to get things back in order.

One of my favorite things...is spending time with the ladies at my Bible study like I did today.  They are all older than I am being in their 70s and 80s.  After our Bible study, which is currently in the Book of Acts, they have to have their social time in which we always have coffee and some kind of dessert.  Then we sit over our coffee and solve the worlds problems.  We do a pretty good job, too, if only someone would listen to us, lol.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: after getting things back in order, I plan to spend sometime recharging my batteries, spending some extended time with the Lord and preparing for days ahead which I will write about in the future.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

This is a picture of Hannah and Danny that Hannah took when they had just bought a new point and shoot camera earlier this year.

This post is inspired by my blog friend, Beth. You can read Peggy's original Simple Woman's Daybook here.

For His Name's Sake.

Last week was a week of change and mixed emotions at this white house.  Our daughter, Hannah, moved into her own apartment.   While this is a good thing and it was time and she was ready, it is also a bittersweet thing.  When you have homeschooled your children from birth and they have been in your home practically 24/7 it is strange to have them gone.  I know it is commonplace for me to say, "It seems like just yesterday she was just a baby, " or "They grow up so fast, "  but it is really true.   I remember all those times when I thought the toddler days would never end, when I had a strong-willed daughter and a baby boy with ear infections.  I thought I would never make it through.  My, oh, my!  Where did the years go?

Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple of weeks.

I wanted to take pictures of Hannah's last day at home.  My children weren't too keen on the idea.

Contemplating a decision.

Josh on his new moped.

I bless the LORD for my children.  They are a work of HIS grace in my life.  In their lives.  People keep telling me that it is because I spent so much time with them and poured myself into them.  But, there are so many ways in which I fell short.  I still fall short.   I just keep pointing them to Him and telling my children that one day their dad and I will have to give an account for how we raised them.

For His Name's Sake.

Well, you would think that after blogging for a year or so now that I would have all this technical stuff figured out, but alas, I do not. So I am sitting here juggling posts around to get several pictures that I took on Saturday into one decent post on what our day was like.

It was the state solo and ensemble competition at the university in our town and my son took his solo. So my mother joined us so that she could see him perform here are some pictures from that part of our day.

Hannah was Josh's accompanist and in this picture we were all outside the room waiting Josh's turn before the judge. I guess the children were trying to call my attention to Hannah's knee in this picture for some reason, but I really don't know why.

Here Josh introduces his Mozart piece.

I have no idea where this group was from. There were so many singing groups walking around with cool madrigal costumes on I just had to stop some and get a picture.

When Josh's solo was finished we left the university and headed to the high school for the annual cultural festival.

I think that I heard yesterday that the cultural festival has been in existence for 15 years.
There are approximately 1,000 volunteers and 13 - 14, 000 people who attend. These are various things that you can expect to see at the festival: ethnic food, performers who dance in costume, crafts for sale and a children's section where they have various performers just for the children and also crafts for the children to do.

It was especially nice for my mother and I to be able to attend together because there were several booths that were marked with Czech-Slovak/Bohemian. My great-grandfather came from Bohemia. My mother was able to purchase a Bohemian cookbook and pick up a couple of flyers of Czech events which take place in Wisconsin. My family has a couple of letters written by my her grandfather in Bohemian which she is hoping to get translated.

Dancers and more dancers

Crafts

Carding wool
Slovak lace making
Hand painted eggs
My Favorite--Polish Ceramics

Let's see, what do I show you next?

Food? Sweet and sour chicken from Cambodian booth

At a Polish booth
At the Jewish booth

A little girl painting water colors

You can see more photos of the Cultural festival here and you can see all of my flickr photos my clicking on the flickr bar at the right of my blog or by going to this link.

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Another meal with extra teens. What a happy place!

I love this! Since there is a huge storm predicted, my son decided to clean off the driveway some more from the last storm we had. He hates to have his picture taken. But, I caught him taking a break while listening to a favorite tune on the CD player.

Edit:: After Josh came in and I told him that I took this picture he asked me, "You didn't get one of me using the shovel as a guitar, did you?"  Now that would have been a picture! lol

I really have been trying to update for awhile. I have about 5 posts half-written that have either gotten interrupted or I just haven't had the words to finish. Right now I am waiting to see if my dear husband is able to settle down enough to get some sleep. He was called into work early tonight. He went in about 6:30 pm and about 9:00 pm he came home whiter than a sheet with a migraine and vomiting. I gave him some pain medication, but he can't keep that down. I am waiting to see if he can get to sleep otherwise I will be making a trip to the ER with him yet tonight.

After my trip to the neurologist last week I found out that not only do I probably have sleep apnea, but I am anemic as well. No wonder I have been tired all the time. I thought I was just lazy.

Let's see what else has been happening here? Not a whole lot, I guess. Hannah went to a bridal show today with the photographer that she shoots with. They had a good day. Hannah will be going up to see another photographer friend in the next couple of weeks who also does weddings and this friend is going to teach Hannah some more things, technical things regarding photography so she is looking forward to that. She will attend a bridal show with her also.

Josh has finished driver's ed so he is back on his normal schedule which we like because we don't have to get up as early. He's still plugging away at the Book of Acts for Bible quizzing. He and his dad recently bought a foosball table.

In Bible study we just finished Acts 15 where the Gentiles have been brought into the covenant with the Jews without having to go through a ritual conversion. What grace God has given to be in covenant relationship with Him. In Chapter 13:38 we read, "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you..." This would have very different meaning to a first century Jewish person than it does to us today. It would entail a national forgiveness. It speaks of the character of God. He is a forgiving God. It is part of His nature. And in order to be in a covenant relationship with His people He has to forgive. He promises that when there is repentance and turning back to Him then He is willing to forgive and restore the relationship.

We reap the benefit of that. When we embrace the God of Israel we reap the benefit of that forgiveness and that restoration. We reap the benefit to some extent now, but there is much more coming in the future. He does this all for His Name's Sake. Those of us who life for His Name's Sake must reflect His character and seek to forgive those with whom we are in relationships with. Modern psychology tries to tell us that it is for our benefit and to some extent that it true. But, more importantly is the fact that it reflects God's character. It shows the world who He is when we seek to forgive and restore and live for His Name's Sake and not for our own.

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

New foosball table

Hannah playing with her dad

Josh found a warm, quiet corner to read in

Well, it's quiet here so I don't know if I will be going to the ER or not.......Hopefully, my dear husband can sleep this one off.

A few weeks ago I posted the views of many moms concerning the pros and cons of homeschooling.  I would like to add one more view to that list.  This happens to be the view of my 19 year old daughter, Hannah.  Last Monday night she attended our local mom's support group.  The speaker that night was a local homeschool graduate, now attending college, who gave a presentation on preparing for college and homeschooling during high school.  There was some discussion as to whether homeschooling during the high school years would adequately prepare a child for the "real world".   I had not attended this meeting because I was down with a sore throat.  Last night Hannah mentioned to me that she wished she had had her thoughts together enough to share that night and so I suggested that she send an email through the group online forum.  She did just that and below you will find what she wrote to the group.  I am sharing it with you in hopes that it will encourage you today.

Dear Homeschool moms,

Life is scary and hard.  I'm not trying to say that it's not.  My parent's haven't done everything perfectly and neither have I.  But I know that what God has planned is going to work out, we just have to obey Him.  As you consider whether or not to homeschool your child through high school, I pray that you would be seeking His face above all.

Even though my children are both homeschooled and have been from birth they each have had the opportunity to be involved in the music program at the public school. This past Friday Joshua played his baritone and marched in the homecoming parade. I just had to share pictures.

By the way.....I am just looking out the window and it is snowing here. Not enough to count, but snow just the same.