CHRISTMAS IN MAY

I absolutely love the day that our school curriculum arrives for the next year. It really does feel a little bit like Christmas. The kids' faces always light up and they have to look through everything. I had two separate orders, and they BOTH arrived today. Now comes the work...planning for next year. It's usually not such a chore, except that I'm pulling from many directions for Myah's stuff next year, and want to be really organized with it all before the baby comes. Between the baby and a possible trip to MI the end of the summer, I NEED to plan ahead this year! I am really looking forward to our year next year as I found a lot of things that not only will stretch Myah, but also that I think fits her personality really well. Joel's stuff is very well laid out, which is nice. As I tucked him in tonight, he said to me, "I can't wait to start my new school!" Kiana was pretty excited about her stuff as well. We're sticking with preschool activities, as she is just 3, but she just was thrilled to be in on it all. I actually can't wait to get started on the planning!!! As I get more organized, I'll try to share more of what we're doing next year.

A BEAUTIFUL MASTERPIECE

I was just glancing through an old journal that I had written in just about one year ago. I found something I wrote one evening out of some frustration with the stubbornness I was dealing with at the time with one of my children. I felt led to share it thinking maybe someone else out there may be blessed by it.

****************************************

Just got a vision of a painting. It's in the beginning stages. There are parts that don't make sense yet -- splotches of color that don't go together and haven't formed a picture. To anyone other than the artist, it looks like a mess. But the artist knows what He is doing. He will take all the things that look so terrible and turn it into a beautiful masterpiece fit for the finest of His rooms.

There are some parts already so beautiful, you can't deny them. The yellows, oranges and reds that are already coming into focus. I love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when your eyes fall on this part of the canvas. It all takes time and patience. It takes consistency to finish the artwork. It takes discipline. Sometimes you might have to paint over a color not fit for the end, but blended together with just the right color, the perfect color comes to the surface.

The end product -- something so exquisit, no one could even have pictured it along the way.

God, thank you for making us all into masterpieces. Help me to see beyond the dark splotches that you are working on and see the beauty already painted on the canvas. My hope is in you, Lord, the artist behind the canvas of each of my children. I trust that you will turn them all into beautiful masterpieces fit for the finest roles in your kingdom.

SPRINGTIME PICS

Here are just a few more spring pictures I couldn't resist posting. The weather is deceiving in some of these. We go from 85* one day to 50* the next -- most of our spring has been on the cooler side.

GARDENING

PART 3: VIDEO

I'm not sure why the video is showing up sideways, but I still wanted to post it. (I ran out of time trying to figure it out, sorry!) You may want to pause the music to hear the sound effects. That's what makes this so cute!

Kiana helping to shovel...

GARDENING

PART 2: Photos

Enjoy a little taste of our gardening life through these photos.

(I'm still working on getting a video posted.)

GARDENING -- PART 1

(I'll add part 2 when I get some pictures off my camera.)

This week has been full of planting. We finally got everything planted in our garden last night, the size of which is quadrupled from last year's garden. (What were we thinking????) Corn, peas, beans, potatoes, squash, zucchini, about 10 tomato plants, peppers, pumpkins, radishes, lettuce, spinach, watermelon and cantelope covers the list of what we are hoping to reap this fall. Thankfully, a friend and I hope to do some canning and freezing together so that none of it will go to waste this year. I sure hope that works out!

Yesterday, the kids and I stopped at 2 different green houses. We were looking for cherry tomato plants, something that has been difficult to find this year, but a requirement for any garden that Myah helps out with. We finally found them (6 plants for $1!), but still hadn't found all the peppers we were looking for. So, we headed to one more green house. We did find the rest of our pepper plants, and also took home free flowers for each of the kids. (I was actually able to restrain myself in the flower category! I limited myself to 2 pots of flowers this year, but boy was that difficult!) Kiana was more interested in the ladybugs flying all over the place than she was the flowers, so the lady who owns it, caught one for her and gave it to her. About 5 minutes later, after heading home, Myah asks, "Kiana, where is your ladybug?" Her response? "In my pocket!" She was trying to keep it safe. Unfortunately, that ladybug "fell asleep" as Kiana calls it. :)

One more cute story to share about coming home from the green house yesterday. Myah was pretty excited about all our pepper plants. Remember, this is my horse lover.... When she saw daddy she said, "We even got a palamino pepper!"

WATCH YOUR PURSES!

This story really happened to a friend of mine who lives in the same small town as we do. She was shopping in Billings last week with her mother-in-law and her 3 cute kids. They stopped for lunch at Olive Garden where some strangers stopped to chat and show attention to her kids for a bit. If I have the story right, on her way back home, she got a call from her husband asking her to check for her credit cards. They were missing. Not only were they missing from her wallet, but somewhere around $17,000 had been racked up on them within less than 2 hours. She told me the whole time she was at Olive Garden her purse was sitting next to her right leg and she had no idea how they got her cards out. Just an FYI of how quickly something like this can happen. They were not liable for the charges, but have been through quite a bit with the whole ordeal, so wherever you are...watch your purse...and even closer...watch your kids!

Guess I'm not the only one confused about what season it is!!!!

THEIR SOULS

This came over our local homeschool loop, and I wanted to share it.

**********************************************************

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), a profound and faithful pastor, wrote a timeless book, The Duties of Parents. In it he sets forth this admonition: "Train with this thought continually before your eyes-that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered. Precious, no doubt, are these little ones in your eyes; but if you love them, think often of their souls. No interest should weigh with you so much as their eternal interests. No part of them should be so dear to you as that part which will never die....This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?"

Further on in his booklet J.C. Ryle says, "...He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth,-for God, rather than for man, -- he is the parent that will be called wise at last."