Graduation

Alexander the Graduate

The Prayer

Happy Parents

Thai food after gradation hit the spot.

Alexander's farewell as Youth Worship leader

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6.  What an awesome promise.  What is the way?  As a parent I am constantly asking myself that, or more accurately asking God for his help in showing me the way.  The precious life that God has entrusted we as parents is not to be taken lightly.  I hurt when my children hurt and when they are happy so am I.  When my children do wrong my heart breaks, but when they do right I rejoice as does our heavenly Father.  It has been such a joy to train up my first born, Alexander.  Saturday we attended his high school graduation.  As a homeschool parent it is with great joy, pride, excitement, and even a little sadness this day has come.  I always told people when they would ask "how long are you planning on teaching your children?",  "We'll see, As long as we feel we are supposed to."  I don't know if I ever really imagined teaching them through high school but I have no regrets.  My son is a respectable, delightful man who loves the Lord with all his heart and seeks God for his future.  "I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in truth," 3John:4

Our state has an amazing Home School Graduation.  They were very organized and had meeting almost every month to help things go smoothly.  The ceremony was amazing.  We had the Chief Justice and a couple State Senators.  They all spoke about God and the ceremony was God centered and prayer was not a question.  Each graduate received a Bible with their diploma and a word from their parents was read.  It made it very individualized and spiritual.  I want to thank all who helped in organizing the graduation. 

lots of food

They braved the weather for a little ultimate frisby

David and Kendall bbq over 100 hamburger and 40 hot dogs

Nathaniel, Alexander, and Ali

Then Sunday we had a party for Alex and his friend Nathaniel.  It was amazing how many people showed up.  I was very blessed to have my brother and his family join us from 8 hours away, my grandparents and Aunt and Uncle came from about 4 1/2 hours away, and several of Alex's friends from where we moved a couple hours away, also came.  There were people from Alex's little childhood friends on up, from each move we made to present and I was so blessed that we have been able to continue friendships.  Many of our church family was there also.  The weather was absolutely horrible but everyone was having a good time and our home was filled with those we love.  What a blessing.   I encourage you to always keep your focus on God and His Word as you Train up your children and then the mistakes you make and the mistakes they make will only be little bumps in the road.   Thank you Lord for this opportunity and I am grateful to this country to allow parents the freedom to homeschool. 

Road Trip

Well, here we are again.  We made it home.  Our family just took a trip in our motor home over many miles full of laughs, surprises, amazing landscape, and even a few tears.  One of the joys of homeschooling is being able to take off and go with your family off season and when it fits your schedule.  We had a great time.  We began our trip with a flat tire just a couple hours from our home.  Unfortunately the tire they put on was the wrong size so the next day we had to replace it too.  But other than that no major mishaps only adventure.  A family gets to bond a lot when confined in a motor home for 8 days.  There were laughs and games and poor little Isabella had a few tears but it was good.  We went to Zions National park where they asked how many where in our trailer.  We told them 8 and they couldn't believe there were eight of us in the motor home.  This became a very common response everywhere we went.  "You have how many in there?"  Seriously we were in Utah is it really that big of a surprise?  Zions was absolutely beautiful.  Although I thought it ridiculous to have to pay $15 to go through a tunnel because our rv was too big, in addition to the $25 fee to enter the park.  We went ahead and upgraded to the year pass to all national parks for $80 so now we need to get our money out of it.
From there we headed to the Grand Canyon.  It is so incredible silly to look at the pamphlet they give you as man tries to explain the Grand Canyon.  Why is it so hard so see this is just God being creative?  Life is so difficult when you try to ignore the Creator.  But what an amazing view.  Several years ago we went to the Golden Gate bridge.  A bus load of Asian people fell in love with Alex and all formed a line to take a picture with him and give him a kiss.  Well, the same thing happened to Danika and Sierra at the Grand Canyon, it must be the hair color. 
Next we went to Las Vegas to spend time with David's sister and family.  So good to see them.  Then on to California to stay with David's Uncle and family.  We had one day at Disneyland and one day at the beach where we also got to see a aquarium in Redondo.  When we tried to get a hotel in Anaheim we drove into the parking lot and found out there was no way out and no way to turn around.  So we backed out onto the street.  The local cars watched in awe as Alex and I tried to stop traffic and back David up.  Quite scary.   The aquarium was free but asked for $4 donation per family.  That was great.  The kids got to touch lots of sea animals and see sharks, rays, fish etc. 

Zions National Park

The majestic Grand Canyon

Disneyland

Cassie was quite shocked by Pooh Bear

We were so blessed that Cassie got to see her favorite princess, Belle.

Here we are at the aquarium looking at sharks.

Our family at the Golden Gate Bridge

Here's our trusty motor home that carried us through.

Lake Tahoe

Life inside the motor home

Dad and Isabella taking a break on the road.

From there we went up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It really is an awesome bridge.  It was a bit challenging driving through San Francisco to get to it but quite amazing.  We drove form there to Sacramento thinking we would stay there but had a hard time finding an RV spot.  So we drove on to Lake Tahoe.  It was dark when we got there and they had just got snow.  There was snow on both sides of the road and the road was damp.  Quite an adventure.  We found a campground and called it a night.  The next morning we went to the lake.  It was quite chilly so we didn't spend a lot of time there but it is so gorgeous.  As we were driving home I was just hit by the majesty of God.  How awesome is our God.  I am so grateful to spend this trip with such a wonderful family and share in the awesome creative works of our God.    What a mighty God we serve and his creation is so beautiful.  Hope you enjoy a the snap shots.  Have a great day and get out and see God's lovely creation.

Potentiality

My new arbor for my birthday present thanks to my husband, Grandpa Bill, and Alex

our garden full of potential!!!

Yeah, I finally did it.  I got my garden in.  The weather here has been so crazy.  One day snow then next sunny.  But it looks like finally we will have good weather.  As I was standing there watering my gently planted seeds I couldn't help but think of the old song from childhood.  I am a promise, I am a possibility, I am a Promise with a capital P, I am a great big bundle of potentiality.  It is so exciting to plant a garden.  My daughters and I worked on it together and they were concerned with how many seeds to plant.  I encouraged them to plant lots because not all of them will grow.  Praise God that is how it works.  We are all always planting seeds in life.  Some are very good and done purposefully and some are not so good.  I'm awed and saddened when I see my kids act in a negative way because of a seed I have planted.  But I am also very excited to see seeds that we have planted that are growing and they are good fruit.  Thank you Lord for good fruit, fruit that will endure. 

I think growing a garden is full of analogies and I am always looking for God in all things.  Weeding out the bad seeds and protecting the good.  Sometimes it gets confusing, is this a good seed or a bad seed.  But if you let it grow it won't be long before you will see whether you have a good or bad seed.  God gave us his word to help us weed the seeds in our own life.  It drives my kids crazy sometimes because I just want to get rid of all bad seeds.  "Change the channel,"  "is that appropriate?", "Maybe that isn't someone we should have as a close friend"...  But I don't mind being the big weeder, trying to protect my children's heart and my own.  We are a great big bundle of potentiality.  God has a plan and a purpose.  Let us keep the weeds out and may the promise God has for our future be fulfilled.    God bless you all. 
Alicia