The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

Happy Sunday!!!  This is the day that the Lord has made.  My mind has been filled with Bible verses today.  Yesterday was my Fathers birthday.  I am so grateful for my dad.  He has been a wonderful daddy and a good example.  Growing up I can always remember his joyful attitude in the morning.  He would be humming songs or singing songs as he would shave and off to work he would go.  I can't remember him ever speaking negative or critical to us children or my mom.  I basically grew up in an Ossie and Harriet home and I am very, very thankful to God and my parents for that.  Learning to hold my own tongue is not as easy.  I have had a hard time not wanting to let my husband know if there was something I disagreed with or areas I felt he needs to improve.  God is gracious and is continually helping me to grow.  I have seen how "big" things at one moment are and then are so insignificant in the next moment.  I am grateful to my parents for their example.  It was 23 years ago on my dad birthday that I started dating my now husband.  I can hardly believe it. 

Yesterday was such a productive day.   I was able to get vacuuming, laundry, ironing, and sewing caught up and even wash a few blinds.  Then we had time for a walk and games.  My last couple weeks things just haven't been getting done.  That can overwhelm me.  A couple great verses have been "the joy of the Lord is my Strength,"  and "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."  I have to remind myself when everything is stacking up that God is my joy and strength and He cares about the things I care about and those things that are stacking up will get done as he provides me with the time and energy I need.  I know they need to get done and have such a feeling of satisfaction when they get done.   Thank you God for productive days.  I love a clean home and we try our best to keep it pick up and clean.  But it is rewarding to be able to get a couple other projects done.  The joy of the Lord is my strength.  Well God bless you all and off to church we go. 

Everyday

So everday at our home is an adventure.  It is amazing all you can get done one day and then struggle to get anything done the next.  We start each day with a schedule and do our best to do it all and on time.  Rarely a day goes by that it is all done on time. But it gives us goals.  I tried out homeschooling when my son was 4.  It was fun.  I wanted to homeschool all my kids but as time went by it got harder and overwhelming.  I saw other people who homeschooled and seemed to have it all together.  I wished I could go be a fly on their wall and see how they did it.  I must have been doing something wrong because I didn't have it all together and wasn't sure how it was possible to homeschool more than a couple children.  I watched several families throw in the towel and I doubted my own ability.  I found strength through God and he showed me others that I could see as examples.  But most of all he taught me how to homeschool my kids.  It is not easy.  Each child has their personal struggles and each day brings its own challanges.  I do it with God's grace for each day and I seek joy in all things.  Although each homeshool family schedules are different today you can be the fly on our wall.  Here are some pictures of our day.  I hope these bless and encourage.



DADDY OFF TO WORK



FINISH BREAKFAST

BIBLE TIME

BEGIN WITH SINGING

READ BIBLE THEN PRAYER

DANIKA AND SIERRA WORKING ON SCHOOL

LATISHA HARD AT WORK

CASSIE WITH BLANKET TIME

ALEXANDER DOING PIANO LESSONS WITH SIERRA

LATISHA DOING TEACHING CASSIE ABC'S & 123'S

MOM WOKING WITH DANIKA

LITTLE ONES PLAY TIME
NO WE DON'T HAVE IT ALL FIGURED OUT BUT WE DO OUR BEST TO GROW IN GOD, FAMILY AND LEARNING EVERY DAY.

My First Post

Hello.  I feel  inspired to start a post.  Basically, just for fun and for hope that I might me an encouragement to someone out there.  God has blessed us with a wonderful life.  I have a wonderful husband who encourages me to stay at home and be the wife and mother God wants me to be.  I have gone through times in my life where I have felt less of a person for wanting my "job" to "just" be a wife and mom, and to teach our children.  I know that this is a honor and privilege and to be a career woman is not God's best for me.  I am living my dream, the dream God has placed in me and I am excited to share with you.  My husband and I have been married almost 21 years.  We got married while still in college.  A couple years later we had our first son, Alexander.  A beautiful healthy baby boy.  We were so blessed and I was stretched in ways I had never been stretched before.   I was getting my degree in Early Childhood Education so thought I was prepared to be a mother.  God has taught me so much more than my degree could have ever.  A couple years later we were blessed with a beautiful little girl, Latisha.  She came with a new set of rules and I could never imagine leaving my babies with someone else.   3 1/2  years later we had Sierra, followed by Danika.  Then we thought we were good.  But God placed on my heart a strong desire for another child.  I would pray asking God to take this desire away or let us have another.  So here came Cassandra and now we have Isabella.  What a blessing they all are.  With our oldest 17 and our youngest 9 months our lives are blessed and we stretch from diapers to diploma.  We are about to graduate our oldest and I am already feeling pain in the entering of a new stage but God is good and we are excited to see what is ahead.