Can we say “CHEAP?”

These shoes were black this morning!  HONESTLY!

Earlier this week Jubilee said she needed new shoes for church and so I went to my storage room and found this pair of shoes that Jolene used to wear; only they were black!  There were a couple places that the black had started to wear away, but not too bad.  When she came to the baby room after Sunday School I was horrified, and a little amused, to see her shoes look like this.  They were obviously made of cheap construction and the paint, being old, wore away quickly as she probably sat on her knees.

On the way home I envisioned someone taking up a collection for the poor Plattners that couldn’t afford decent shoes for their little girl.  :)  We are SOOOO BLESSED!  In some places they would be glad to have a pair of shoes that fit and here we are going to get a new pair and not think twice about it.

P.S.  The toes weren’t covered in dirt this AM either!

It’s not always so easy to count your blessings

Lest you think that life is just a bundle of roses here I thought I would share a little from the deepest parts of my heart. We are really blessed and our blessings come from the living God, the creator of the universe, and the Savior of my soul. The trials he allows into our lives are to help us to grow, some things are easier to be thankful in the midst of than others.

The year of 2010 I diligently prayed for 7 people with cancer. 6 of them died. 3 mothers were left with children to care for. One couple lost a mother on one side, a father on the other side, and a year and a half prior had lost the other mother. The trials seem to be so great for some, it just doesn’t seem fair. But as I watched the heartaches and the battles fought and lost (the battle to cancer was lost but they each won the victory in Jesus) each of them stayed true to God and He was glorified in their lives. Their testimonies touched the lives of many.

As I was touched by their lives, read their blogs and caring bridge posts, the thought would come to me “if I ever face such a trial, I hope I can glorify God in my response in the way that these brethren have.” I heard God gently speak to me that the true test isn’t in the great trials of life but in the little ones. How do I respond to the day to day irritations? The BIG things quickly draw us to our knees, even non-believers often call on God in such a life-crisis. But what about the little things? (I don’t want to sound like I am belittling the big things here that I observed others go through. God forbid! I clearly saw God at work and families being faithful to Him – I just want to show how God was speaking to me, we shouldn’t wait for the big things to glorify Him).

O.K. back to my heart. It is easy for me to count my blessings when it comes to material things, I’m not really a materialistic person. We have the mindset that it’s all gonna burn someday (II Peter 3:10-12), and we need to just do the best we can to take care of what God has blessed us with. God allows things to happen to mold our character, how are we going to respond? It’s all God’s anyway, it’s His money He has allowed us to use, His home He has allowed us to live in, etc. etc. What have we that God has not allowed us to have? He could very easily decide to take it all away and cause us to live in poverty; would I glorify God then?

Following is the greatest trial God has allowed in my life, I have never counted this situation as a blessing from God, my eyes overflow with tears even now as I try to share it with you. Perhaps you could pray for me that I can truly rejoice in the good that comes from it.

I am blessed with a son that is different from most.

I am blessed with a son that requires a special diet to keep him emotionally stable.

I am blessed that I have seen how this diet really works and when I get overwhelmed and think we can just handle it without being so strict he has an emotional melt down and God reminds me that it is worth the effort it takes to help him be free of anxiety.

I am blessed to have a Christian nutritionist that became a nutritionist because of a difficult trial she faced with her own little girl. http://www.karenhurd.com/poisonous_rug.html

Here’s a fresh example of emotional meltdown. Over the last two weeks I have relaxed the diet even allowing a couple desserts. Monday night he had a meltdown but I thought perhaps I caused it by not handling a situation well – see *below for another blessing. Tonight he had a major emotional meltdown, I’m confident it wasn’t because of me this time. He screamed and cried for probably an hour, I don’t know though because Chad finally put him in the van and just took him for a ride.

*I am blessed with a son that doesn’t respond to guidance/discipline like the other children

It’s really hard to make a child obstain from all the goodies that all the other children get to have (we don't allow the goodies at home but he's around them often at church and other social gatherings). It’s hard to follow the diet away from home, always needing to plan ahead. An occasional meal without all the requirements is usually o.k. if we stay away from the “No” list. But if we are going to be gone for more than a couple meals I have to plan ahead and take food along which is really hard to make him eat when others don’t have to (I eat what he eats to support him, but he still feels left out).

I realize you may be interested in what this special diet is.

First the required list -

• a palm size serving of protein at every meal
• 1/3 cup legumes (like kidney beans, black beans, lentils, etc) at every meal – we were doing this 6 times a day for awhile
• 3 (1/3 cup) servings of vegetables a day – usually try for one at each meal
• a required amount of water per day – can’t remember how much off the top of my head
• 1 1/2 cup nuts / seeds or 3/4 cup peanut butter a day

Then the no list -

• no sugar
• no fruit
• no scented anything, lotions, soaps, candles, perfumes, etc.
• no dairy
• can’t remember the others off the top of my head, these are the biggest issues

This makes for extra effort (stress) to make the meals enjoyable, or a very boring diet because it takes time to be creative and make good meals that include beans. Thankfully we like beans with Western dressing as the sauce but this gets old after awhile.

I am blessed with a son that doesn’t learn like the others

I am blessed with a son that takes you VERY literally – causes me to learn how to communicate better

I am blessed with a son who has kept me from being proud.

I am blessed with a son whose love language is physical touch (sweet hugs) and time (lots of it) – I like this, but it’s harder for me to meet his need in his way because I was never a boy and don’t know what to do with all those cars, trucks, and tractors in front of me! Let’s go play with our hair!

I am blessed with a son that as much as any other child is fearfully and wonderfully made. (I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14)

I am blessed with a son that God has a purpose for and I have the privilege of helping him to become the person God wants him to be.

I am blessed to not know of anyone in my area that has similar challenges.

I am blessed to have received encouragement from others with children that don’t fit inside the box.

I can count all these as blessings because though I don’t know the answers to all the issues we face, and my local friends can’t advise me from experience, I know *personally the God who created my son WITH a purpose and He has used bringing up children to bring me to my knees and near to Him. I would much rather go through my trials that I might learn to fast and pray and draw near to God than that everything would run smoothly and I would never have the awesome privilege to see God’s hand in our lives!

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
(2Co 12:9)

Yes, even my weakness is turned into blessings! Thank You Lord! Pray for me that when I become discouraged I can recognize these struggles as blessings. AND not wait till I'm overwhelmed to go to God in fervent prayer!

* When I say I know God personally I don’t mean that I know about Him, I know what the Bible says, I said a prayer, etc.

* When I say I know God personally I mean, I am in communion with Him, I talk to Him and He talks back. I will try to post some answers to prayer in future posts to encourage others of you that don’t have this communion with God to draw near to Him.

David Michael Carillo This is a man that grew up with ADHD and now encourages parents and educators around the world. I have an MP3 CD with a couple of his talks if you could use the encouragement. Click on his name to go the his web-site to learn more about him and his ministry. This video is him singing a song he wrote "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made."

I thought I should add that some of the lyrics don't necessarily apply to my son, but it is still an encouraging song. A reminder that even though he doesn't fit in with the norm, he is still "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!"

More Blessings

Yes, we can count our blessings every day.  It is helpful when things don’t go smoothly to help us recognize how blessed we are!

Today the children found another area where water came in.

Chad was not home, so I was blessed that there was enough man power among my children to help me unload the baskets out of the deep freezer and push it away from the wall so we could clean up the mess.

There was a 25 or 50 # bag of wheat and another smaller bag of rice on the ground.  I was blessed that though the bags got damp, the grain did not get wet.

 

I am also blessed with eyes to see the ants trying to invade my kitchen, I don’t have to find out they got in my food by taking a bite of one.  (I am blessed that none have found the food!)

The water logged soil must have sent them looking for a dry source of food.

I am blessed with a vacuum sweeper; a flip of the switch, a good aim and ZAP no more ant!

I am blessed with an abundance AND a variety of food to protect from these scavenger little creatures.

I am blessed with plastic containers and ziplocks to seal the food from hungry little ants!

I am blessed with food cabinets that have been spring cleaned – had to make sure there were no crumbs or jars with sweet stickiness run down the side to attract the ants and send them back for helpers!  (Need to do the pantry next!)

I am blessed to be able to consider the ants without venturing out of my own home!  (I AM willing to go outside to consider them but I will consider the lessons to be learned as I battle against them!) 

(Pro 6:6-8)  Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:  Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,  Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

I am blessed with other rooms that I wanted to get cleaned today that will just have to wait for another time.

 

We are blessed with a comfy-mobile and a cozy-mobile.

The comfy-mobile is so named because it is large (15 passenger) and roomy for our family of 9.  It is much more comfy than sitting so close to another person – see below.

The cozy-mobile is so named because it is a minivan (8 passenger) and the children have to get cozy to fit in.

Last Sunday we were blessed with the opportunity to remember to be thankful for the comfy mobile when it broke down and went out of service for awhile (we can be thankful we have a large van to go out of service) AND we were blessed with the opportunity to be thankful for a cozy-mobile to squeeze into when the comfy-mobile is out of service (yes, you can squeeze 9 into a minivan when necessary).

We are blessed with a husband/daddy that is able to work on vehicles to get them back in service.

We are blessed with a daddy that is wise to keep the replaced belt (used but not broken) in the van in case of emergency (he was able to quickly replace the broken belt and we were able to make it home – but the repair was more than a broken belt.)

We are blessed with warranty’s that will replace parts that wear out before the warranty is up.

 

I am blessed with a new laptop.  It is much more convenient to blog when I can do it while I take a break from caring for my many other blessings.  The other laptop is no longer a laptop since the battery died and we determined that it is not worth purchasing a new battery when it will likely have more things go wrong since it is old in laptop years.  That computer will become part of the school system now. 

There are no pictures in this blog because my files and programs have not been transferred yet.  I am blessed with a computer-savvy husband who will help me with that tonight!

P.S. There is a new feature on my computer than I REALLY like, it’s called sticky notes.  I just type myself a little message and it’s stuck to my desktop till I delete it!  I’m gonna love this feature! 

We are so blessed

We are blessed with a nice house to call home.

We are blessed with trees to supply leaves and whirlybirds to fill our gutters.

We are blessed with nice flooring to care for when the gutters overflow and the heavy rains pour into our kitchen.

We are blessed to have a family to help us clean up the mess.

Yes, we are blessed indeed!

Thank You Lord!

p.s. we also may be blessed in the near future with gutter guards!  :)

Puppies!!! pictures and post by Jesse

Monday when we got home from a shopping trip we found that our dog Jamie had six black puppies.

   The proud mother.  Notice the pup snuggled between Jamie’s tail and the rest of her body.

    Up on mama’s back 

Two tired siblings.Between mama’s tail and the rest of her body.  See above.Aren’t they adorable.

Time for bed puppies.That must be relaxing.

P.S.  Do you want one?

Midwest Homeschool Convention 2011

Three letters

WOW!

This was a great convention but I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginning homeschooler unless you know what you are looking for!  The size of the Exhibit Hall was amazing!  A newbie would about have a panic attack if they easily get stressed out!  It made APACHE look like a preschool exhibit!  Following are a couple pictures of the exhibit hall.  There was a glassed catwalk across the center of the room, so there is a picture from each side.  I could not get everything in so it is only a portion of the side, but I think I got the majority of each side.  One thing that made it easier was knowing what I was looking for and what I wasn’t interested in.  I don’t like the bookstores that you just dig through used books looking for a deal, I’m not looking for a college, and most of my subjects I am content with what we already use; so it made it pretty easy to tell if I should look at a table or not.  I still spent more time shopping than I did listening to speakers because you spend a lot of time asking questions and learning about the curriculum before you can make a wise decision.

I found a Grammar, Expository Writing, and Creative Writing curriculum that I think we will really like.  I also purchased a Greek & Latin roots Vocabulary program that I’m excited about as well.  I’ve never seen either of them at APACHE so if you are looking for something in those areas I’d be glad to show them to you when they arrive.  Those are the two areas I wasn’t satisfied with in our school, everything else I was able to just order and be done with it!

 

 

Jolene looking out across the exhibit hall.

I read a report that said over 4500 families participated – I don’t know if that is actual participation or if it included registered families that may have no showed.  There were people everywhere.

 

I wanted to go to this conference for a number of reasons.  Homeschooling our children is such a big part of our life that more than anything else (except seeing family), I look forward to the homeschool convention each year.  I always come away refreshed from hearing encouraging speakers, perhaps finding answers to areas we need help with, or just the fellowship with so many others who have been led of the Lord or simply chosen to educate their children at home.

The convention allows children of all ages at no extra cost.  I was excited to share this with the children, APACHE only allows 12 and older to attend and I knew that more than Jesse would enjoy the workshops.  We allowed the children to have a say in what they wanted to listen to although they didn’t always get their choice.

The Mally family does work shops on encouraging children in their relationships with each other.  One of the children, who will remain unnamed, told me after the “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends” workshop “Mom, that was a really interesting session.”  To which I responded “yes it was, do you want to try doing some of the things they said?”  He didn’t hesitate with his reply, “No!”  Well, we’re working on it.

Here is Jared sitting on the floor watching a speaker.  He did have a seat, but he could see better from here.

The icing on the cake was having the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar family sharing in two sessions on Saturday.  It was also what kept the younger children excited about being there.  We did see the Duggars walking around the exhibit hall on Friday evening.  As Todd Wilson put it “the Duggars are the rock stars of the Homeschoolers.” 

For those who don’t know of the Duggar family, they are a family that has allowed the Lord to determine the size of their family and they homeschool them as well.  They currently have 19 children and one grand child.  The Lord orchestrated a series of events several years ago for them to be brought into the attention of the media and have since been asked to have a “reality show.”  It is a show that just records how they live and they are able to share with the world why the live the way they do and give God the glory for it.  We have watched old shows that have been uploaded to YouTube.  Oh yeah, they have all J names as well!

Michelle Duggar had an encouraging talk From One Homeschooling Mom to Another.  She started off with the question - where do you go when things are difficult?  The answer of course was to God.  She stressed the importance of being in God’s word daily even if it is only for a few minutes.  Our strength comes from God.  Then she shared her experience with God convicting her of responding to her children in anger and how God helped her to overcome that sin.  She shared how they go about teaching their children about character and encouraging them to develop good character. 

I can’t remember all that she said, I had to take someone to the restroom and I had other distractions as well.   It was just what I needed, I hope to order the CD so I can listen to it again.

The evening session with the Duggars started out with the family singing and the children playing their instruments.  They really should make a CD, they are very good.  The talk was mostly their testimony which I have already read in their book.  So when children needed to use the restroom I went so Chad could listen without distraction.  My first trip out I noticed some of the Duggar children out at the table where they were going to sell some of their resources.  So my second trip out I took my camera and tried to convince the child with me to take his picture with a couple boys but he was too embarrassed.  Later when someone else found that out they wished I would have told them, but I didn’t want to take unnecessary trips and distract those behind us.

The second highlight of the trip was when a certain child asked me to purchase a couple books he wanted to read!  How can the teacher not delight in the accomplishment of a child that has to work so hard!

Thank You Lord for a safe trip and providing the encouragement and resources I was looking for!

What a beautiful day!

Wow!  What a beautiful day!  I couldn’t wait to be able to go outside.

This afternoon we were all outside working and loving it!  We had so much to accomplish that I didn’t take the camera out and take pictures.

It is satisfying to know the landscaping has been trimmed back and cleaned out, some grass seed has been sown, the gardens are tilled, and we even got some things planted (lettuce, spinach, radishes, and some winter onions; we need to get our potatoes and some regular onions yet, perhaps this weekend).

We had a difficult night.  Jonas woke up a couple times crying quite loudly, which woke Johanna up, which required Chad and I to both be up!  The second time it took Johanna awhile to go back to sleep!  I’m not sure if it was pink eye or just being over tired that woke Jonas up.  His eyes are still swollen and really red today, but he hasn’t complained.  Chad woke up with pink eye, so he stayed home today.

Can’t believe how nice it was, and yet it will likely drop down again!  We will enjoy each warm day as they come!  :)

Good night!

Catchin’ up

I was feeling pretty good about myself, thinking how much I have blogged lately, when I looked back to make sure I didn’t post something twice I realized the last time I posted was about 3 weeks ago, so it’s been longer than it seemed.  Time sure does fly!

So, here is another photo update of some of the sights you may see if you were a fly on our wall!  :)

I think they were reading blogs.

Duck?

He did this to himself by the way!

 

 

  I think she had a little help.

Jonas learning Pre-Algebra with Jesse.

Jolene using Piano Wizard ~ the children really enjoy it and are learning to play the piano at the same time!

We use an old Oxy Clean container for our dishwasher detergent and they scoop it instead of pour it into the dishwasher.  It helps with keeping a more reasonable amount of detergent.  Here Jared is refilling the container.

Intent on practicing.

As Jared was trying to push the stroller into the mud the other night I told him ~ “people can say a lot of things about you, but one thing they will not be wrong on is if they say you are ‘all boy'.’  If there is a puddle of water, you will walk through it ~ if there is a hill, you will go over it ~ if there is an alternative way to do something, you will find it!”  Javan piped up that he was all boy too.  I found a recent picture that proved it.  Regular old pushups just weren’t enough, he had to make them more challenging, and challenging it was!  You try it!

Jolene making mayonnaise. 

 

Jonas and Jubilee helped me mop the kitchen / dining room.  I have 2 mops for that purpose.  Having two mops works great, they are learning to mop, we are working together, and it doesn’t slow me down waiting for their turn to be finished! 

A couple weeks ago Chad and the boys took a hunters safety course so the boys can get a license to hunt in the fall.  Here they were getting a little target practice in.  Jesse was using his new semi automatic BB pistol.

 

The next three are all the same thing, but I liked them all so I decided to share them all.

This is my favorite.  May have to print this one!  :)

A week ago Friday Jared and Johanna came down with pink eye.  It went through 5 of the children and we thought we were through and the other 2 just got lucky but this morning Jonas woke up with pink eye and unfortunately his is a totally different case!  Perhaps being around it for a week he was building up the germ and it’s attacking with a vengeance!  The others was barely an issue, a little pink with some puss in the AM.  I have cleaned Jonas eyes out at least 3 times in the last hour.  He’s not acting too bad, but I think it is worse than the others.  Praying he didn’t pass it to his cousins last night.

March Birthdays with the Plattners

Saturday afternoon we met with Chad’s family for a couple hours on the River front in Peoria for March birthdays.  There are 3 birthdays but in actuality we only celebrated 1 – Jolene’s.  The others didn’t care to have any attention given to their birthday.

A picture of Grandma with most of her grandchildren.

The brothers l-r Kyle, Chad, Clint, and Kirk.

Grandma reading a story.

Walking along the river toward the playground at the Riverplex ~ Abrey, Bethany, Daisha, and Keri

Truitt, Grandma, & Kyle

Some crazy work of art, playground thing.

Another crazy work of art!  His name’s Javan!

Emily ~ top and Chelby

Tyler probably got tired of the camera pointing at him and Uncle Kyle,

but a still subject is a great subject for a beginner!

It was a bit windy so the children gathered close to try to keep

the candles from blowing out as Javan was lighting them.

Abrey

The little girls weren’t too thrilled about being in the picture.

This is the best one I got.

After this gathering we went to a Rumbold gathering with Mom Plattners family.  We enjoyed the evening visiting with people we don’t get to see very often.  I didn’t take any pictures to share.