Autumnal favs

I love the vibrant color of my dehydrated tobasco peppers (if I could be a color, this would be me):

I love watching daddy/daughter talks:

 I love that apples are huge this time of year:

I love that I found coconut m&ms:

My kids love that I found peanut butter m&ms:

Thank You God for favs!

Creative Sludge

I am feeling it.  That time of my life when I have put my creative bursts of energy on hold long enough that I'm about to explode!  I want a new sewing machine, because I've never been able to thread mine the right way to sew with it and it ticks me off.  I love to sew.  I was in the costume department in college for my work/study program and I miss my sewing machine!  My poor boys, I used to sew clothing for them.  I will NOT post pictures for their sakes.

But every now and again I just have to do something for the creative center in my cerebellum.  My fine motor skills must be honed with bouts of crocheting and buttons and bows and some sewing and wall art and something, for heaven's sake.

I found an excellent pattern for the cutest baby booties, crocheted, and have knocked out a few of those, but now my appetite has been whet and I need more, like a crack addict.  I need my art.  I need my creative juices to flow.

I think I shall decopauge the dog's food bowl.  Laters.

God bless your creative spirit!

Elk Mountain, Wyoming

This is where I want to go.  I don't know why.  

The only job opening in the area is putting up 290 lineal feet of fence.  Hmmmmmm....

Who wants a field trip?!

Me, me, me, me!

God bless Elk Mountain, Wyoming!

Your Average is a C, making you average

I hate taking tests.  Hated it in school, don't like it now.  I don't like to make my kids take them either, but since I have homeschool high schoolers then I have to have a grade or something for their transcripts.  

Not too long ago my church decided to ask all of its members and chronic visitors, you know who you are, to take a test online at assessme.org.  It's a spiritual gifts sort of test.  I took it, albeit I didn't like it.  It gave some quite humorous results.  Instead of pinpointing my strengths were I could plug-in more easily to church activities and ministries it just muddied the waters.  You see, apparently I have not one, but four, personality types.  Now, this could come in handy if you need to adjust to many situations because then I'm your gal!  Whatev.

Friends of ours and my hubby and I were talking the other night about the book "The 5 Love Languages" and how it cleared up some questions for how couples relate to each other in their marriages.  We all decided to take the "survey" (cute word for evil test) and see how we should all be relating.  I suck at tests.  Did I tell you that already?  Upon scoring my results I scored the same on four out of five love languages.  No wonder my husband can't ever figure out how to communicate with me!  JK, we do fine, but really?  Seriously?  So I decided to take it again.  Ya'll pray for me.  

I know the most pressing question on your mind is which love language did not make the cut.  "Receiving gifts" is not a language I speak.  So true!  I know which love language I don't speak, but apparently am pretty quad-lingual in the rest.  Yea, I made that word up cuz I can.

Maybe that's why I blog so as not to look funny talking to all of my personalities with all of my love languages at the same time in public.  Cause really, let's be honest, most of us are just talking to ourselves here, right?  No, I'm not, yes, I am, shut up!  No, you!  Poo-poo head.  Oh, I gotta go, I'm getting out of hand!

God bless you and all of your many personalities today!

Spunky for Jesus

I love homeschooling.  Yea, yea, yea for the obvious reasons that I feel I'm doing my children a huge service by providing them with a discipleship rich education, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Yea that too, but even better, you get to meet some really cool people.

Today, I had the privilege of coming in contact with a lady with three kids and a great sense of who she is right now.  Why I say right now, is because she strikes me as human enough to be able to have a breakdown next week and be ok with it still.  The whole time these pearls of wisdom and reality flowed from her animated face I just stared at her.  Thank goodness I was wearing shades so as not to seem creepy.  The wheels were turning in my head on how I was going to afford to build an addition onto my home to accomodate her perky self so that she can be there to shake like an eight ball and ask those hard to ask questions and wait for the amazing revelations like, "so you're telling me that God doesn't care about you, is that what I'm understanding about the words coming out your mouth?"  Ok, not quite like that.  She was much more eloquent and funny.

She is raw, rare honesty wrapped up in one little spunky momma.  I loved it.  I want to be spunky for Jesus like that.  Another friend of mine was picking her brain as to the questions she had about our bible study and lil miss spunkinator was rattling off her answers as we sat around waiting for the next hilarious moment of honesty to drop to the park playground floor. All this, while calming screaming children and tattle tailing and boo-boos, etc.

I pray for my honesty to step out of the closet and show itself more often.  The witnessing that can take place in a moment like that is quite amazing.  It's not that I lie, it's just that I hold back and am not quite as vocal in my honesty.

Dear God,
I want to be spunky for you.  Help me out.  Amen.

What have you done for me lately....ooo, ooo, oo, oo, yea!

It's like a contagious, icky viral cold.  It starts and then someone else is sneezing it out then it gets on you then you're afraid you'll get it so you pray it off.  It hurts, it stings.  What do you do?  Believe me, I used to be one of those "closet trashers".  You know, the one who hides behind trash-talk, calling it a prayer request.  No more.  I don't take part in the tearing down of others anymore.  Thank you God!!!!!!  It was with his help that I rid myself of that nasty virus.

But, yesterday, I was subject to it once again in conversation with some awesome Godly ladies.  Now, I know what you're thinking, that maybe they weren't so Godly....not true.  They are two of the most Godly women I know.  You see, the trash talkin' came from a woman I dearly love, but she was trashing herself!  No, let me explain.  The things she said about her life and her spiritual journey, had they been said from a different person about her, I would've laid somebody out with a right hook and a little booty kickin'.  I found myself getting all up in a tizzy about what I was hearing.  I was offended on her behalf, but she was talking about herself.  So, you see the weird spot it puts me in.  Wanting to kick butt, but realizing that I would be kicking her butt and it would be the same person that I was defending.  Odd, I know.

I wish she knew this about this person she was talking about:

1.  She is one of the most awesome mothers on the planet!  Your babes love you so much and are such a testimony of how God works in their lives through you.  I've seen those other schoolers, really God has done a work through you.

2.  Her marriage is one of inspiration, and God did that, missy.  Yep, mark that down on your "what has God done in your life list!"

3.  Her devotion to her education of God's Word is remarkable.  Where were you a few years ago with that?  Yea, that's what I thought....God, again.

4.  Your home is the heart of your family.  It's not the edifice, its the spirit of who you all are together.  You could be anywhere and this would be true.  Again, God has worked that through for you, remember the job offer in Alaska?

5.  I would do anything I could to make the pain and the crappy times go away for you.  I would take them on myself.  I know it sucks big time, eventhough you say you're good.  I'm sorry for how you go through this time and time again.  I would take it, no, really, I would.

So, here's the thing, sista!  If you don't stop trashing my friend's life and her dignity, I will take  you to a dark alley and bring my thug friends (Jen, that's you)!


Worth.  It's what God tagged us with when he created us.  Worthy of his love.  Worthy of our role in his will. Worthy people.  Worthy of relationship.  Worthy enough to have peace.  Worthy.

Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. 1 Peter 5:7 (AMP)

Her Royal Highness

I am the queen of making excuses!  I have walked the catwalk, won the contest and wear the sash that says, "Queen of Excuses".  I would love to say that I wear this proudly, but not-so-much!  I have spent my life and now, most of my kids lives, saying, "we can't because ______________".  We don't have the money, we don't have the time, we don't have the right car, I'm not physically able, I'm not skinny enough, I'm tired, I'm yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah....  I hate this trait about me and I'd like to change it.  I think of all of the things I've never done or I won't do, if I keep this up.  I will continue to live my life vicariously with most of the rest of the world going and doing.  

This year is really going to call me on the carpet about this because we are homeschooling all of our school aged children and we don't have the restraints of the public school schedule.  We have been excited about not being under anyone's schedule so that we could go and do, but then out come my excuses.

It's fear.  It's complete and total fear.  What if.  

Will you continue to pray for me and my family as we stomp out this bad habit we have?  I do not want to pass on this particular trait to my very adventurous children.  I want them to have an exegesis spirit.  Learning about things with their own minds and bodies and having opinions about them because they have experienced things in order to have an opinion.  No more vicarious living, unless it's skydiving, because I don't have the right outfit for that.  Just sayin'.

God bless your experiences today!

The Living Bible Studies

I have been involved in "women's bible study" before and have quite enjoyed my experiences with each of them. I always love diving into the Word of God with a bunch of crazy for Jesus ladies who hunger to learn more about God and their lives.  Many come for the company of other adults, as they are usually stuck at home with kiddos most days and start to forget how to talk "adult", I remember those days....... Oh, where was I?  Oh, yea.  There's nothing like a deep down spiritual scrub to get your waterworks flowing and hearts to break and then to grow and then want more.

I've always thought this was a great way for women to pump a little more Jesus through their tired veins to take them through another day, another temper tantrum, etc.  But, this school year has brought us into the outskirts of a homeschool group that has been a blessing in our lives.  They will most likely never know, because this "group" is that "group" that doesn't acknowledge those of us on the outskirts, but we can still take advantage of any opportunity that comes down the group pike and this is one of them.

My boys, the teenagers and their dad, have been attending a bible study for young men and their dads.  I don't get to hear ALL about the actual meeting and the biblical entree they feed on there, but I do get to reap the benefits of the "dessert" when they return.  My children have the most wonderful father.  I know they love him and they respect him, but they also enjoy being with him and listening to his stories about the wild, wild west and the crazy days of his youth.  They always laugh and say, "Yea, whenever dad gives us one of his talks we all know how it's gonna end, either with talking about God or sex or both!"  My husband is a very laid back man.  The guy in the Mountain Gear catalog, yea, that's him.  He's out of his element here in this strange world of concrete and gas guzzling automobiles and lights that hide the night-time stars.  But he loves me and his kids and knows that this is where God wants us for this season of our lives.  He continues to fill my boys' toolboxes with what they will need when they are building their own families.  Yes, God comes up every time, and how God feels about sex and God again, then there's a little God thrown in.  One day, when they aren't teenage boys the subject will most likely be God and money and what God thinks about money, but for now, here we are.  One day my boys will be able to understand in full how absolutely lucky they are with the dad that their Heavenly Father picked out for them.  They will remember these life moments and what God had to say to them through my husband.  Not, "Eat your vegetables," but, "Don't ever forget to praise God for your daily provision of your vegetables."

My dearest best friend in the whole wide world is my sweet darling husband.  He is truly a Living Word of God everyday of his life.  I love these bible studies.  I feel so blessed to be able to commit to memory the scenery of them laughing and talking as they walk in the house afterwards, or stay out in the driveway til all hours of the morning still talking......

May God bless your life with Living Bibles!  Amen!

P.S. Sorry for all of the "quotes", I just noticed how "annoying" they all are.  I can see my "hand" gestures as I "read" this......

Things I have loved and learned about this week

My first full fledged homeschool week was especially blessed.  Let me explain.  We didn't start adding in ALL of our curriculum until after Labor Day this year.  Older brother is being homeschooled first year his sophomore year of high school and I wanted things to ease into a schedule.  It seemed to work well.  I was having a minor melt down on the first day mid afternoon, but the sexy, hot principal stepped in and took care of my unruly pupil.  I love that man!  Shhhh....don't tell my hubby......

So here are some of my favorite first week memories:

1.  I love it when I hear this from one of my teenage boys, "Hey, mom, listen to this and tell me what you think!"  I hope I hear that a lot.

2.  My daughter after her first day (granted we did a herpetology study and read books this summer, but that wasn't technically school for her), "Mom, this is the best day ever!  I loved school today, I loved soccer practice because everyone was encouraging everyone, etc."  It helped that she spent the afternoon with Eagle and his sis and their wonderfully talented teacher-mom.  Also, soccer, her fall love, helps the attitude, as well.

3.  And finally, a fact I wasn't aware of that I'm sure will come in handy for one of my readers, is this:  Did you know that if you have a pet python that you need to get rid of that your best demographic for selling that bad boy is to the exotic dancing union?  I'm checking out the ebay store now......... What you can learn from a herpetologist talk at the public library is amazing, but what you learn from his wife about the "behind the scenes stuff" is what I went for!  She's going on our next girls night out because she's a funny lady!

4.  What I knew, but was ever so gently reminded of is that God has gifted me with wonderful children and a wonderful husband and He will continue to care for us as we walk in His will.

^{I Corinthians 16:13-14}

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

Isaiah 41:10  

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Homeschool P.E.

So, I asked my 18 y.o. high school graduate to help out with the kids p.e. this year since I have some high schoolers now that need to have actual documented physical education.  

So, this is what he picked:

It is now all set up in the backyard:

Yep, that's the motto on one of the braces.  I thought it was quite ingenious.  My hubby has tried it and said, "If I was 20 years younger, I would be all over that!"  Which pretty much means, "wow, that hurt."  My boys have all learned to stand and walk a little.  Sarah is just getting the hang of standing while hanging on to a brother or two...... I must admit, it's pretty cool.

We're homeschoolers, we slackline with no head gear and no health insurance.  Yea, that's just how we roll.  Video to follow later........

School Bus Envy, not so much.

I remember those days.  I remember when the idea of homeschooling was preposterous to me.  Why would anyone want to keep their children at home with them ALL day long?  24/7 with your kids?  How do people do that?  Doesn't that just drive you crazy?  What about my job?  How would we even make it on one and a half incomes?  I use to love the adrenaline rush of the mornings, getting my kiddos out the door and to the door of the school on time.  The peace and quiet of the house......


I would laugh at those families that did that, like they were "weird" and somewhat off their rockers.  Then, deep in my heart, a seed was planted, fertilized with all the crap I used to say against it, fed by the warmth of the bright sunshine of those around me who were homeschooling, and watered by the tears of my eyes when they cried because I missed my kids.  I ached for their company.  It was a strange feeling for me to feel that passionate about wanting to keep them close.  For years I had followed the American Dream of raising your kids til they went to daycare then working your butt off to pay to keep them there til Kindergarten, then let the public school teach them all they needed to know about academia.  


What became so clear to me was that my kids are always learning, whether in class or out, therefore, the school not only taught them about the great American poets, but lots of colorful words that bounced hard off the cinder block walls of the institution.  The behaviors of others quickly became apparent that they were affecting or infecting my kids.  Yes, I know, they will need to learn to adapt to certain situations in society, but selling drugs in the boys locker room before basketball practice in 7th grade?  Really?  Or, how about the stories of teens having sex under the stairwell of the high school during school?  Or just the plain old-school problems of bullying (cyber and physical) and the favorite "my teacher hates me" and finding out she really does?  I am not trying to shelter them from life, but what I am doing is exactly what the bible teaches me to do for them.  I am reading the bible and implementing what it means for MY family to instill these principals and characters in their lives.  


There was no time when public school was our traveled road.  There was only time for extra curricular sporting activities, homework (that took longer than school) and oh yea, sleeping.  All of those just got in the way when we were supposed to be modeling our Christian discipleship to them.  So, we had to make a list and cross of what was not a priority for our family and what was a major priority and see if there was a way to make it work.  Public school did not make the cut.  Neither did satellite/cable tv, prime rib dinners, fancy hand soaps, trips to the Riviera, expensive cars, etc.  This is what made the cut: my children, their values, their salvation, their character, my husband and my ability to parent disciples. 


I cannot imagine my life any other way, now.  I love my noisy home and my kids still in pajamas.  I love that life is spiritually different now.  Our focus has changed from "keeping up" and "getting by" to purposeful, intentional way of life.  Mine just happens to include homeschooling my children.  It's the way we can fit it all in, together, laughing and enjoying each other's company.

John 15: 9-17:
⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

"Fall"ing in love, again

I love September.  

It's where Summer starts packing it in..She gathers her habanero days and eventually heads south for some anticipation of spending the rest of the year in the tropics. 

 It's when autumn promises to come for a visit and unpack her yummy days, made up of cool nights and brisk mornings, into the deep recesses of our dresser drawers.  Thus, coaxing those musty, dusty sweaters out of hiding.  She invokes dusk-time parties of roasted marshmallows by the billowing bonfires and days of sunshine that call serenely to you to lay in the grass and inhale the sweet scent of earthen hues falling on the trees.  Anxiously awaiting the fireworks of falling leaves to beckon in the woolen wardrobe to the front of the closet.  

It's when all the world comes together for me.  My heart aligns with my brain and all is glorious.  I'm a mountain girl living it out in the Piedmont for now, but my heart belongs to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the harrowing, yet symphonic song of the Rockies.  

It's the time of year when all of those ignored summer pounds go hidden behind over sized sweatshirts and you dig out the socks that have been neglected to don hiking boots and furry jackets with chin kissing zippers.  

Orange oozes through your veins with the smell of winter squash and cinnamon.  Why must I wait all year for this?  Oh, patience, sing sweetly to me.  Make this autumn last forever.  

Dear God, thank you for the cool rays of the autumn sun, the breeze as it tickles the trees and the wave of your hand placed ever so softly in the strands of my daughter's hair.

May you be glorified for your awesome creation!

The Holy Grail on my bookshelf! Imagine that!

My husband has been hoarding these books from me!  When we were perusing through them last night I wanted to pack up the wagon train and head to the prairie!  So, I have taken a few pics of my new obsession homeschool project:

Yippee Skippee!

Here we come!

I want to be

"In Harmony With Nature"

My house plans!

I love that, "Difficulty in the Beginning:  It Furthers One To Appoint Helpers" - so true, so true!

Cool pic, I can just see the horse in the snow now!

Be careful looking to hard at this one, you might get a surprise in the outdoor hottub.....

And last but not least, the instructions for a sauna with "beer bottle masonry"!

Life would be complete right?

How cool would it be to build your own log cabin?  You'd just have to keep it a secret from the building code enforcers because I don't these babies would pass code!  Sssssshhhhhhh.......  And Stacie, maybe we could work in some running water and a bathtub!

God bless your dreaming today!

I want

to buy this:

and put it here:

with these people:

and wake up to this view:

and drink this:

Please, oh please, oh please, can I?

Thanks for the blog post!

I love this and I'm going with number 1!

As a homeschool parent, I found this rather humorous:

Top 10 Things NOT to say when asked "What?! No school today?"

10. Well normally yes, but this time of year I need help with the planting and

plowing.

9. Goodness, no!!! I graduated 18 years ago, but thanks for the compliment!

8. No, we homeschool. We're just out to pick up a bag of pork rinds and some

Mountain Dew, then we gotta hurry home to catch our soaps.

7. What?! Where did you guys come from?! Oh my! I thought I told you kids to

stay at school! I'm sorry. This happens all the time. (sigh)

6. There isn't? Why, you'd think we would have seen more kids out then, don't

you?

5. We're on a field trip studying human nature's intrusive and assumptive

tactics of displaying ignorance and implied superiority. Thanks for the peek!

4. On our planet we have different methods of education. (Shhh! No, I didn't

give it away... keep your antennae down!)

3. Oh no! I thought that today was Saturday...come on kids, hurry!

2. Noooooope. Me 'n Bubba jes' learns 'em at home. Werks reel good!

And the number one answer we should NEVER give to the question: 
"What? No school

today?"

1. "The school said they couldn't come back until they're no longer contagious"?

When God Granted Me Serenity

Eleven years ago today, my life as a mother of four boys changed like I never expected.  They told me it looked like a girl on the ultrasound, but really, they told me my fourth boy looked like a girl on the ultrasound, too.  I was not convinced by their silly little machine!  My hubby, however, was totally convinced from day one of finding out we were pregnant that it was a girl.  I just said, whatever, and prepared for another little one.  She was the most beautiful thing ever!  Her brothers were instantly smitten by her good looks and darling little noises and petite fingers and toes.  She was born a wet baby, google it if you wanna, and we stayed an extra day in the hospital with oxygen close by just to be sure. I've never seen my boys quite so immersed in a little being for so long, going on eleven years now.  She stole all of our hearts from the moment she crossed into this earthly life.  Her brother, John, used to hold her when she was an infant and rub one finger back and forth across her forehead and lull her into a deep sleep.  It was heaven!  I would catch each of them at some point in her room being held hostage playing stuffed animals or whatever was on her agenda that day.  She idolizes those boys, even now that they drive her crazy sometimes!  From the time she used to carry in snakes at the age of 2 to now, when she "makes" them go throw the baseball or practice soccer with her.  My boys will make excellent fathers someday if God desires them to be just that.  My girl will make an excellent mother someday, because she can motivate a house full of boys to do whatever it is she wants!  

Eleven years ago, she was a week late!  My fifth child a week late.  What up wit dat?  My mom and dad had traveled to Colorado a week BEFORE she was due, knowing that she would already be here, being #5.  HA!  Sarah does what Sarah wants, kinda.  Anyway, my whole family accompanied me to my midwife appt 3 days before my mom and dad had to leave.  We were all going to spend the day in Durango, hanging out, but first things first.  I asked my midwife if there was any way to move this along!  After hooking up to a monitor for a few, she decided let's break your water and get this show on the road!  Mom and Dad took the boys to lunch and a long walk around downtown, thinking we'd be there a while.  Ha!  Little Miss was born about 20 to 30 minutes after the flood gates opened!

Their eyes were fixed.  Their hearts grew 10 times larger.  They were hooked.  Watching my babies grow is the most agonizingly painfully joyful, wonderful experience of my life.  I feel as if I'm standing in the midst with my body aging and my hair graying slowly while they spin around me in a blur growing so fast that I can't keep up.

She lays sleeping now, just as she did then.  Quiet in her bed as I stare at her sweet face and wonder what it will be like in 10 years with a girl in the house......... or out of the house.  (Excuse me while I bawl my eyes out!)

Happy Birthday my very special Sarah!  I love you so much!