Elena loves her dance classes.

She, as the Chinese say, Iron dances.

OK, maybe it is just the Chinese person who lives in this house if you needed to get technical.

Everyone else calls it Irish Dancing.

And she loves to practice till she drops.

Reilly comes over to see if he could help her out in anyway.

And it just starts a giggle fest.

  You know, John and I are not what one would consider minivan people.  We are more truck people.  And I rather have a station wagon then a minivan. Nothing agaisnt minivans, it's just not us.

Why am I telling you this??

Because this weekend when we went to a flea market in the city, a minivan with three different 'aisles' sounded like a FANTASTIC idea.

One never has to wonder if they have bonded as siblings.

They have.

Thankfully, we got there and we didn't buy much, but we sure enjoyed the wares offered.

Except for maybe this one.  :P

Scattering

We are painting the dining room.

We have a small house.  It is okay; it is what we could afford and are thankful for it.  The dining room is the heart beat of living here.  It is where we eat, school, do projects, talk, make plans, just about everything.

 SO, that being the case, our house is in c.h.a.o.s.

Life is good.

It will look nice when we are done.

I hope.

The color is called Laura Ashley Chambray.  A serene blue.  A little darker than I would have thought to consider, but I was at my sister's house this summer, and she had a paint chip on her wall with this color and I instantly fell in live with it.

I will post picutres when we are done.  :D

Samuel wants a punching bag for his birthday or Christmas.

 We only get the kids this age and higher one big present.  Sometimes they may get little things on the side, but this is their time to ask for something big.

SO, as we were talking about boxing, karate came up.

And who can talk about karate without this wonderful quote:

Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world.


True story.

Anyway, this was one of his options.  He gave me a small list.  Now it is time to start pricing stuff.

And since I am so scattered today, going back to the previous topic, the kids from our church are coming over this weekend for a wiffle ball tournament/man hunt/ general hanging out this weekend.

I hope we finish painting.  :P

If we don't ... well I suppose there are greater tragedies.

I pray you are having a good week.

Or at least you know HIS presence in your life.

Because in the end, that is all that matters.

I Need to Live More Simply.

I need to live more simply.  My husband is a minimalist.  I am more of a pack rat.  :(

Pray for us.

I started reading the Minimalists essay, and I love them.  My place is just way too much maintanace.  My life is too much maintanance.

STUFF is killing me.

SO, I got rid of yet more bags full of *stuff*.

I will let you know what happens.

It all started with this page.  And this page.

And though I don't think I can go this small, it inpires me!!

And let me tell you, unless it is people living their faith out radically, not much else inspires me.  Anyone can live out the 'Christian American Dream', but few live out the Biblical Christian Life.  My self included.  I am working on that, too.

ANYWAY, on another more beautiful note.  We went to VA this past weekend.
And I would like to say I got my fill of kisses, smelling that little neck, holding that little boy, rocking him, walking him, kissing him ( did I say that already?) and generally looking at him...

I didn't.

It was so hard to leave.

But such is life.

Elena with her brother in law.  :)

And she is loving hearing her daddy play.

No one, not even my oldest son could get enough kisses.

OH!  We all went, I mean both families and even my parents, down there becaue it was his dedication.

The 2 little aunts.

Dedicating him to The Lord.

CHEERS!  With soda & water.  lol

Oh how this little boy loves that shirt on his aunt.  He spent alot of time trying to eat it.

Me thinks maybe he is teething.

And now we are home.  And as I look around me, I STILL have loads of stuff I want to get rid of, and I will.  

And I will become an almost minimalist.

Slowly but surely.

And maybe then we can live IT out better, because stuff won't get in the way.

wOw! What a week!

Have you ever seen Home Alone 2?

Ok.  Confession.  I love the Home Alone movies.  Well 1 & 2.  Just like It's A Wonderful Life, Elf, Charlie Brown Christmas are a few very select movies that are a must watch, so are the Home Alone movies.

True story.

And everytime Marv says " WOW!  What a hole!"  I still crack up.  

The thing is... I am not even a fan of slap stick movies!!  In fact, I could be said, I detest them.

I KNOW!

Anyway,

 I may be know to say that when something amazes me.

This week, my oldest son turned 26.

How on earth I am old enought to have a 26 year old?  Fine. I feel it every morning.  

This is his birthday dinner.  My 2 boys.  One 26, the other will be 13 next month.  Hoops was 13 when Samuel was born, so this is their year to be 1/2 their age/twice their age.

Yes, that is the map of the world in the background.  Elena is starting 5 in a Row, and it was necesarry to find a spot to put this ginormous map. so it is going up the stairs.

School is in full swing.  Samuel's music lessons are also back.  Actually he still had piano lessons all summer.  It is his first love.

I told him to drag out his violin after not having played it all summer.  He did and proceeded to play beautifully.

People like that are annoying.

The love of my life is 2 years older then I am. 

 I have been wearing reading glasses for years.  I totally own that fact that I am getting older, and yes we are grandparent for cying out loud!!

He refused to even give them a try.  For years.

This week, he finally tried them on, after years of suggesting it.  He was AMAZED!! He had forgotten how clear one can see!!  Now he has me on a mission to find cool ones.

Isn't it cool just to be able to see?  But lo & behold I am on my mission.

And the other day, this is what I found.

Yes, that is my daughter on his shoulder while he is doing some work on the computer.

Words escape me.

Again.

We went pumpkin picking.  We have this rule:  You can take it home if you carry it to the stand to pay for it and then to the car.  John & Samuel wanted to change that rule this year, so Elena could have ever she wanted.  

But since she is part of our family and it is a family rule for...oh...23+ years or when ever we started picking pumkins, the rule still stands.

So she went for the littlest pumpkin.

And for now...she is our littlest pumpkin.

This past week and a half I watched Return of the King.  I love that movie.  There are so many spiritual truths sprinkled all over.  But since it took me all 10+ days to watch it,  20 minutes here, 15 there, 1/2 hour here and 10 minutes there, until I finished watching all four-ish hours, it made me reflect more on what was going on.  It went past entertaining me, and made me stop and think.

I am not a fan of stopping a movie like that.  I rather sit watch and finish.  But who has 4+ hours??!!??!

Still it was good for this time in my life.  It was good to see the sacrife, to see the surrender, to see the battle, to see the victory that was never yours to begin with, to see one continue in spite of the turmoil.

And to remember that most battles of this world are fought on a spiritual level. 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12 NASB

Let's live there.  Let's battle on our knees.  Let's fast and pray instead of complain.

Let's live it out. 

Who Indeed?

~ from home frontier

I was listening to the radio this morning.

Yes, I love talk radio while I do morning chores.

They were talking about children and how much they cost today.  They talked about nannies, schools, after school care, extra curricular activities including all the sports and personal coaching/training, ect.

It got me thinking.



Who is raising the children?

Who indeed?

This morning, I was reading the story of the Samaritan woman.  Or also known as the Woman at the well.  No, it has nothing to do with raising children.  (Or does it?  Who raised her?) Anyway, it did get me talking to my son about how a whole lot of people in a town, albiet, small, followed HIM at her excitement and enthusiasm.  And her willingness to go and tell to get the ball rolling.

We discussed it along the way.

And then I got to thinking again, about the talk show personality, and how he had people call in about how much they are spendingon all those things.  Not once did it occur to him to ask, what is wrong with this picture??!!??!  Who is raising our children?

I am not saying that extra curicular activities are wrong, unless of course they over take your life.

But, I know this is not politically correct, how many hours are our children spending with someone else training them?  Training their thoughts?  Training their worldview?  Implementing their moral compass?

Please know that our chidlren are not locked up in our homes.  Yes, we find people to help raise and disciple along with us.

And please do not assume that children that are trained by their parents are perfect or make right choices all the time.

They don't.

But how tragic that we so willingly give up our children to others for such a long time, so many hours of the day...and what is the final outcome?  What is the goal?

I have heard the financial needs.  I get it.  There have been many times that we have struggled to put food on the table/ pay our bills because we are a one income family.  I have begged my husband to let me help him take some of the burden off of him.  He has always stated..."Not at the sacrifice of the children."


We can sacrifice in other areas, and trust me.  We do.

But in the end...when we face GOD HIMSELF, we will face our mistakes in raising them.  But by HIS grace, we tried to raise them for HIS glory.  It was HIS word to us we tried to obey.  It was HIS command we sacrificed for; and in our weakness, our prayer is that HE would be strong.

Who is rasing the children?


Who indeed?