free spirit

Yesterday we went to a craft class at the local Michael's. They have these demonstrations on how to do certain things and I decided to take The Girl to see them do painted glass ornaments. They did then allow the five little girls to paint an ornament to take home. My Girl did hers slightly differently. Shocking, I know. The rest of the little girls followed the exact directions to make a sweet little Christmas ornament. They decoupaged on sweet little snowflakes and glitter and such. My girl? Well, she decided that she wanted to make an Autumn ornament. So, she painted it red and she then painted green leaves on the ornament. The green leaves happen to also look like chicken feet, but she was quite happy with her creation. Though, I will admit that the other little girl's ornaments looked quite a bit more polished and "finished," I will also admit that My Girl's ornament was all HER.

She is a free spirit. She doesn't typically care if you are not supposed to read books on the bench during soccer. She reads them cause she wants to.




She creates games that get little girls running and all using their imaginations. During her brother's soccer games she would rally the troops and lead treasure hunts using maps drawn on her little sparkly purple etch a sketch. Then all the little girls were asking their moms for etch a sketches for Christmas.

She is often in another world. Sparkling and dancing and moving and doing her own thing.

Her own world is different. The only problem is when it collides with someone else's world. Or someone else's desire to actually play baseball and get people out... rather then pick clover.

Free spirits may not actually make good second base players. Frankly free spirits don't bother much with baseball. Free spirits enjoy other pursuits like finding those sneaky little fairies that hide in the clover.

I hope she does not lose her free spirit. Ever.

new letter from brayan-- my compassion international child

I wanted to share this letter with you...

Dear Anna *******,

Beloved, it is a great pleasure wishing that our God fill you with blessings. The tutor Mary ****** writes you because Brayan still doesn't do it. He finds very well and he sends you thanks for everything and for being a blessing for him. He tells you that his dad is restoring the house and it is looking like very pretty. His granny was operated of a hernia, but now thanks to God he is fine. At school he is doing well and he will learn to read and to write the letter soon by himself. Brayan wants to hear: how is your home? Do you have garden? I ask you that you pray for him. He says goodbye with kisses. May God bless you.

Brayan ************

He drew me another sweet picture on the back of the letter. It is translated from Columbian Spanish to English and so there are obviously some translation issues, but really they are minor. I am always SO excited to hear from my little Brayan and since some of you had expressed interest in the sponsorship program I wanted to share this letter with you. I look forward to getting new pictures of Brayan soon. He reminds me quite a bit of my own little boy and I really have such fun sending him letter and pictures and things like that.

I am going to try to resurrect this blog and start writing again. We had an insane fall with so much going on, but I think now things may hopefully slow down slightly and I am hoping that I will have more time to post.

If you would like to sponsor a child, please go to this link and look at the needy children. If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

camp

I have been a naughty blogger. I am going to try to catch up with life here just a little bit. BUT there are likely to be large gaps. First of all, this blog is really more of a random picture and writing blog and here I am sharing kid pictures. Sneaky though.

We attended our first cub scout camp this year and it was all they said it would be and SO much more.

Shooting Archery!

Shooting BB guns!

Fishing!

Fun campfires!

We took our Boy and one of his fellow cub scouts with us and had such a fun time. Every day there we would rotate through six different stations, which we hiked to around the camp. So, everyday we did BB guns, Archery, Fishing, Crafts (like making a worm home), Science (like making a bug catcher, with wood burning included!), and Games (like Tug of War). On the last day the boys in our group did a fun song together with our other scouts and we had such a fun time. Our boys were filthy and completely worn out everyday. I have tons of pictures and you should probably keep an eye out for them on our family blog page.

This was how we spent just a portion of our summer...

reminder... sometimes i need these

****Updated to add that I just found that this is not quite correct. This is actually
by Dr. Kent M. Keith (often falsely attributed to Mother Teresa)
The last line is not one from Dr. Keith's original Paradoxical Commandments
it seems to have been added by.... anonymous. HOWEVER... I still like it. A lot. Enough to swipe it from a favorite blog of mine Quiet Life... and when she fixed who she attributed it to, then I had to do the same.

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."

such a bright light shining

There are some people in this world that my spirit rushes when I see them. It is as if my spirit yearns for what they have. Their stories and their light shine so bright that I want to bask in it one moment and then another moment I am convicted to go and preach at every street corner.

I am trying to make sense here but I have a feeling that I need to start with something more concrete.

This is Cott and Shus. Those aren't their real names really but that is what everyone knows them by. This is a couple that have poured out their lives for God.



I first met Cott and Shus around 8 years ago when my son was just a baby. I can't believe it has been that long.

The first time I met them I did my best to pay them great respect because my parents taught me well and I was trained to honor and respect and love those older then me. The aged in my world are some of the most amazing people ever. Their experiences and what makes people who they are today fascinate me. I would love to sit at the feet of the older generation and soak up all the stories and tales and remembrances that they could find to tell me.

Cott did most of the talking on that first day and I remember exactly what he talked about. He talked about sharing the Gospel. He talked about how he shared the Gospel and how he talked to people. He showed me the tracts that he would sometimes use. He showed me the scriptures and he asked me about my salvation. He asked me who I had shared the Gospel with recently.

His light was so very bright.

He was a country preacher. I can identify with that in a powerful way cause I grew up tagging along after my country preacher Daddy. I grew up listening to country preachers preach the Gospel over old oak pulpits with lightening bugs flittering in and out of the open country church windows.

Cott didn't stop at the old oak pulpits. I had the sense that he never stopped. He told me about the people he would see at diners and the people he would talk to at gas stations and those that he would share with everywhere he went everyday. He was so earnest in his zeal for God.

He didn't grow up in the church. He was not a Christian until he was married and busy working his farm but once God came into his life it was never the same.

Now Cott and Shus are retired. It was a long time in coming. I do think that they were technically retired before this but that they never really stopped. They kept right on doing God's work. They consistently filled in at small country churches all over the state. They consistently shared the story of Jesus.

Finally though, it was time. Shus was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he quickly realized that he needed to be there with her constantly and that it was time to pass on the torch of the hospital visits and all the other work to others.

They are living in an apartment in a community for retired ministers. Recently, we talked and he sat there telling me in amazement what an incredible wife Shus had been for him all these years. How she took care of all the finances and took care of all the things in the home as well as taught elementary school until her own retirement. He impressed upon me that he never understood all that she did, all that she was to him fully. That only recently had he completely realized what all she had done. Cott told me that now he would gladly care for Shus. It was his turn to do this work. To care for his beloved in so many ways.

His work for the Lord continues on in ways he never imagined.

His inspiration will go on in ways he may never imagine in this known world.

triple school points!

I have been meaning to get this posted FOREVER.... actually I have many posts like that. This post just happened to be the lucky one today.

I try to do the kids spelling words all different ways and cheap ways and fun ways and this is one of those ways.

We have this neat little portable desk thing that Discovery Toys once carried. I used to sorta sell Discovery Toys once. The key word is sorta. Mainly I bought Discovery Toys. It was an issue. Anyways, this came with neat story magnets which we still use. I was tempted to get rid of this little desk thing since we really weren't using it much, but then I found this use for it. One of the sides of the top which slides in and out is magnetic. The other side of the desk is all flat with a spot for a cup, but... goodness... I digress. Yet again. So, I found someone just giving away these scrabble tiles.

I put magnets on the back, and store them in the desk and use them with this for spelling. The kids love it. They look more like the real letters as opposed to those plastic colored letters and it just works well. They all store in the desk and we can even do spelling easy in the car.

The other fun thing... well sorta fun. Relative fun, is using the 100 pocket chart. One of the lessons in the Alpha book in Math U See is to write from one to one hundred each day for the lesson. Both of kids totally fell apart when they got to this. They feel that this is torture... SO much writing!!! Well, I know the point of the lesson and so I just did it a slightly different way. I was able to do this since I knew that both of them could actually write all the numbers that it was much more about making sure they KNOW all the numbers and how they go together to 100. So, I snag the pocket chart and pretend that a "number pirate" was caught at our house.

I do the voice when I tell them the story and the whole nine yards. The number pirate was caught but not before he had removed EVERY number from the number chart in an attempt to steal them. The kids them have to put all the numbers back in the chart. In order.

The love it. They have always been able to prove to me that they do know the order of the numbers and how they go together. It works great!!!

So those are things that work for us in school!

Can I have my triple word score now? :)

this and that

So, it is VBS week at my church which equals craziness for me and mine. My problem is that I can't leave the curriculum well enough alone. I decide to take it to a whole new level. I complicate things for myself. It works well on the drive to crazyville.

The kids are finally playing some baseball games, but we still have quite a few to make up with sporadic rain constantly coming as well.

Can I let you in on a little secret? I LOVE watching my kids play ANY sport. I am learning tons of things watching them and I find such joy in watching them have so much fun.

I have been busy with life during the summer which means that I run with kids here and there and there and here.

I have lots to do and not enough time to do it all in but it will all happen at some point.

I have temporarily set up shop outside fixing the neighborhood kids bikes. It is hard being a single mom in the military. I am so glad I am not one, but at least I can fix a few bikes and help them out.

I have been reading... big shock there.

I also found the most interesting video for crazy bibliophiles.