Yes. This says, “Mom, you are weird.” Those of you who know me and love me realize that this observation can’t possibly be true and…Wait a minute…why are you looking at me like that?

Homeschool Tip: Buy these magna-doodle things (or ask for them as gifts). My seven-year-old and five-year-old love to find notes from Mom. Then, they often write me back. (And they don’t always say I am weird….Sometimes they say "I love you") Sometimes I leave just the beginning of a verse Tim is working on or just the reference. Kids need to practice their letters, phonics, and spelling and this gives us a great way. I love it when they say, “Don’t look, Mom, I am writing you a secret message.” Then they ask, “How do you spell ‘weird’?” hee. Hee. We also use them in the car. Tim and Sarah write notes to each other or spell out notes to me.

Four year olds love to play pretend. On Sunday, Timothy and Sarah had fevers, so Ryan stayed home with them. Marc and Luc and I were on our own. As I buckled them in Daddy’s car, the adventure began.
“Where are our sunglasses?” Luc wants to know.
“In the van.”
“But we are in Dad’s car,” says Marc
Luc adds, “How can we be secret agents?”
“You’ll just have to pretend your regular glasses are sunglasses.”
“Hey Mom, you can be an agent too!”
“You have glasses too!”
“Okay, secret agents,” I start the car and we are on our way to church, “what’s our mission today?”
“We have to rescue people.” Luc states.
“Mom, do you see that dot way down the road?” Marc asks.
Not really, but I will oblige, “I see it. What is it?”
“That is a T-rex!”
“A T-rex?”
“Yes!” says Marc.
“He’s going to eat up the church,” reveals Luc.
“We’ve got to stop him!” says Marc.
“Oh, how do we do that?” I ask.
“Drive faster mom!” shouts Marc.
“We have to get between the T-rex and the church!” says Luc, using his hands to illustrate.
“Okay, hang on.” We keep driving.
“Mom, there’s someone behind us!” Luc says.
“Who is it?”
“It’s a George, and he’s an agent too!” (George is our family name for a “squirrel”)
“oh really?”
“yes, the car did not squish him flat.”
“He made it to the other side,” adds Marc.
“and now, he’s an agent too!” finished Luc.
“Mom! Mom! See that tower?” Marc points to one of those large towers where electrical wires run.
“I see it. Are you going to tie the t-rex to it?”
“Nope. I picked it up and put it on top of him and now he’s trapped.”
“He can’t get out,” says Luc.
“Whew! The church is saved.” says Marc.
At this point we are pulling into the parking lot. I park and get my agents unbuckled. Inside the door, I remind them that they are secret agents and agents always walk in church. “We will hang up coats and then you can go to your class. Mr. Pete and Ms. Deb can teach you all about how to be a secret agent who loves Jesus.”
“God loves us, Mom!”
“yes, that’s right.”
“even if we get angry.”
“even if you get angry”

At this point our pastor says Hi and bends down to talk to the boys at their level. I love it when grown ups do that.
“Hi Marc and Luc, how are you?”
“We saved church from the t-rex!”
“We are secret agents!” Lucas reveals with a sly smile.
“A t-rex?” asks Pastor Robert, feigning concern, “secret agents?”
“Don’t worry,” says Marc, putting his hand on the pastor’s arm, “he’s trapped in the tower!”
“We’re safe!” adds Luc, “ He won’t eat the church. Marc slammed the tower on him.”
“He won’t eat the people, either,” Marc shares.
“We’re secret agents,” Lucas reveals again, “but we don’t have sunglasses.”
“They are in the van!” says Marc.
“And George followed us!” says Luc. They both begin talking at once.
“He DID not get squished flat!”
“Mom drove fast!”
“You can’t run in church.” adds Luc.
“But God still loves you.”
“Even if you’re mad!”
“Time for class!” shouts Marc, spotting his teachers and heading down the hallway. Luc takes off too. So much for no running. I hurry off, saying something about imagination and follow my “agents” down the hallway. They have thankfully stopped running and are again regaling their tale of adventure to their Sunday School teachers. I arrive in time to hear,
“and he’s in the tower, so he won’t eat you, Mr. Pete.”
“you get to teach us to be good secret agents.”
“A real t-rex?” asks Ms. Deb.
The agents are thrilled by her interest, and tell their story again, adding more details, both talking at once, and so they head to class while mom sighs and thanks the Lord for people who love and teach my secret agents, oops, I mean little boys, how to love Jesus.

You think I have the organization gene? True, I have a list of meals in the cupboard. I have a tiny whiteboard with “meals for the week” stuck to the fridge, and I have a basic weekly schedule. Most laundry is Monday, most shopping is Wednesday. But for those of you list-lovers out there (you know who you are), you have got to check out www.donnayoung.org This lady has a yearly house cleaning schedule, yes yearly… She has cleaning light fixtures and washing baseboards. There’s a link on her website to Martha Stewart. It’s a little scary…But she’s got some good home school resources.

I also have it on good authority that www.flylady.com can help you to get organized also. Not so scary…

Sometimes a simple list is all I need. Like today:
Bible before breakfast
School Kids
Laundry
Clean Bathroom
Make Dinner

I can’t decide if it’s the list that helps or the actual physical process of checking off each item. Is there something that helps you stay organized? Feel free to comment or email me.
I heard of one mom who had the “accountability phone call” at 9pm each night. A friend would call and she would have to tell her if all was done or not.

Sister Mitts

Have you ever adopted any of those helpful hints from Heloise? It seems all my helpful hints have been adopted from the people around me.

I used to stuff these mitts in the same drawer as my dishtowels and dishcloths. However, since I only have three shallow drawers in the kitchen, I use the verb “stuff” quite literally. It’s actually more like fighting the mitts in and out every time I use them. It was during one of these such fights (the mitts were winning) that my dear sister intervened. “Why don’t you hang them?”
“What?” I asked without looking as I fought the mitts. I realized I couldn’t remember if I was trying to get them in or out of the drawer. “The mitts,” she replied, “I hang mine. It’s much easier.”

“Huh.” So with the help of a couple magnetic hooks, I now hang them, and she was right, it’s much easier. Don’t tell the mitts, but I think that means I won the fight.

Just add water

Can we raise Christians? Can we turn our kids out in molds like little faith-replicas of ourselves? Of course not. Have you noticed how parents of adults seem to take the credit for their child’s salvation and good choices? But if the kids made some “bad choices”, then… “he’s an adult and those were his choices to make”…Hmm…
If someone compliments your parenting, do you take the credit, or do you give it to whom it’s due? (Ouch)

Wow! Their kids turned out great. They must be great parents. Hmmm…always ask the why…what made them good parents…can good parents have kids that turn out bad? It’s not the parents that are the point. It’s the GOOD God they serve. I know that if I had not given my life to Jesus, my world-view and my parenting would be very different than it is. Am I a good parent? That’s not the point. I serve a GOOD God.

I don’t think I have ever met a true follower of Christ who could not point to a time or a moment in their life when they made the choice to give it all to Jesus. I have a couple of those times in my life, as a thirteen year old girl and again, at fifteen. Choices. I cannot manufacture those experiences for my child. God made my children; He knows them best; He knows what experiences are in store for them. He even knows, ultimately, what choice they will make.

So I can pray, prepare, but never presume they are “Christian” because I am. I will follow my Christ, and pray that those life-changing moments aren’t too painful for my children. I pray they will make the right choice when that moment arrives. I also recognize I may not be a part of that moment or even know about it until they are older. My parents raised me in a Christian home, made me go to church when I didn’t want to, but my moment was all my own. They didn’t even know about it until years later.

Still, I knew they loved me unconditionally. I knew they prayed for me. Ultimately, however, what mattered most was GOD’S love for me, his grace for me, his sacrifice on the cross, his plans for my surrendered life. So parents, be encouraged—pray, prepare, but never presume.

The Perfect Date (in three parts)

My husband is sooo good to me.
The first gift. Last evening, I had the wonderful privilege of meeting an artist as his own studio. This was very exciting to me. I love to look at great art. Paintings of intense, accurate color and depth where the artist has captured the impossible and now you, the viewer, get to see it. It’s like stopping a waterfall or actually holding fog in your hand.. Artists capture something. I loved looking at his work.

The lighting was so perfect. You can tell this is NOT his hobby, it’s his passion. That kind of experience is refreshing, and exhilarating. I think it’s why people like art museums. It’s like that tall, cold lemonade after mowing the lawn in July. It’s like that first shower after a week of camping. It’s like riding your bike for the first time in seven years. It’s like spring after winter…(oops, I’m getting carried away….sorry).
It’s a unique experience to look at a piece, comment and compliment it and have the artist say “Thank you.” It was great to hear him talk about his work. You could tell it was his heart, and his God-given passion.
Artist Details

The second gift
They live in a beautiful old school house. Yes, it’s one of those places you drive by and wonder what it’s like to live there. I actually got to go inside! (my mom is going to be envious of that one). They originally had a 30 foot ceiling in there. It still has the original chalkboards, flooring and walls. They have even had older persons stop by and ask to see inside, mentioning that they went to school there. Karen even said, “They always go right to their own spot and say, ‘this is where my desk was.’”. Her current goal is refitting the ceiling with pressed tin as it was originally. It was a real treat for me to be there. They homeschool their children so she has been able to teach her children in the same room where the children of Civil War soldiers learned their ABC’s.

The third gift (yes, I saved the best for last)
It was simply listening to this couple’s faith in the Lord. They told story after story of Jehovah-Jireh, God our provider. Randy shared how God broke his pride, gently prodding, “Will you let ME bless you?” Karen shared how they ate the last dinner in the cupboards and gathered the children together to pray for their next dinner, asking and believing God would provide. An hour and a half later, a family knocked on their door and brought in bag after bag of unasked-for food. They filled the couch and beyond with food. While Karen and Randy were in tears, the children took it right in stride. They prayed, God provided. A simple faith. Ryan and I also shared many of the ways God has taught us through the years, and it was a very encouraging, uplifting, and edifying evening.

So, thank-you, man I married, for my date. I adore you.

Things kids say

Sarah’s version of This is the Day ….. “I will be glad, and rejoice in HIM!”

Marc, after sneezing twice in a row, “Ohman, I really got the bless-yous!”

Lucas is watching me make pancakes, “Whatcha making?”
“Pancakes.”
“I don’t like pancakes,” he comments in a high squeaky voice.
“Oh, really? Why is that?” I have known this boy to down 4 pancakes in one meal.
“Cuz I’m a BBAAADDD princess!”

Marcus, after I put on his “cape”, “Mom, Mom, we are superheros!”
Lucas, also wearing a “cape,” “Yup, we’re Batman and John!”
“Oh really?” I know they have never seen Batman and I’m curious, “Batman and John?”
“Yeah, I’m John, and he’s Batman!”.
“What about Robin?”
“nonono, mom! I’m JOHN and he’s BATMAN!”

Tim, “Mom, could you explain maturity level?”