"Do not fear death but rather the unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live."

-From Tuck Everlasting

Moving Old Blog Posts

When I started this blog, I guess it's been a couple of years ago now, I had planned on gradually moving all of my old blog posts from HomeschoolBlogger over but never really took the time to do so. I'm afraid my old blog will soon be deleted at HSB, so I will be moving all my old posts from there to here so I don't lose them.

Feel free to read them or skip them, whichever you prefer. LOL! I just don't want to take the chance on losing a bit of our family's 'history' should my old blog get deleted. So, without further ado, here we go.

(You may actually never see the posts I move over unless you have my blog listed in your Google Reader or some other type of feed because I plan on dating them with the same date as when I originally posted them, so they'll be pages back).

Our Newest Family Member

We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, Molly.

Molly was found in the field behind our church's Family Life Center last Thursday night after Bible School. We asked the family of the closest home about the little cutie and they said that she had been hanging around for the past two weeks but they couldn't keep her, so, she has now taken up permanent residency in our hearts.

She's a very good little pup, sleeps peacefully all night, uses the bathroom outside, and loves nipping at our 4 year old beagle, Skip, who tolerates her and sometimes even 'puppysits' for us.

We're not sure exactly how old Molly is nor what kinds of dogs she might be made up of. What do you think?

Great Lessons from VBS

As I mentioned in my last post, I taught Vacation Bible School again this year and I'm so glad I did.

This year's theme was 'God's Big Backyard' and the children learned about serving their family, friends, neighbors, and community. With the Poison Ivy itching me to death, the two main air conditioner units not working in our church's gym, my house being a disaster area and knowing my brother was coming from Illinois and bringing his new fiance for us to meet the final night of VBS, well, 'excited' was not exactly the word I would use to describe myself when VBS week started. On top of all of that, the Scene Setter I used to decorate my room had fallen by the time I got there Monday night AND again on Tuesday night. UGH!

Monday night went ok. Then came Tuesday which brought a few new little girls, one which was just the exact thing that about drove me over the edge. I tried so very hard to be patient and loving towards this little girl who obviously had not been in church much. And with God's help, I made it through Friday night without being one bit unloving toward her! In fact, she insisted on sitting right beside me that final night and even layed her head on my arm and said, "I don't want it to be over. I want to go home with you and YOU be my mom." Oh my goodness! All this while one of the other little girls that came with her was sitting on my lap singing and smiling as big of a smile as I've ever seen. Talk about being blessed! I nearly started crying because I just wanted to hold on to these little girls forever. Oh how they need the teaching of the Lord and I'm afraid I may not see them for a whole nother year! I did invite the family to church and told them about our Keepers at Home group we have that I lead. I pray God works on their hearts and they come some time.

Likewise, Baby Girl decided she wanted to be a helper this year instead of a student and she also had one particular little girl that was VERY trying to her nerves, except hers was only 4 years old where as mine was 12. But by the end of the week this little unchurched girl was clinging to Baby Girl's neck telling her that she loved her and would miss her so much and to not forget about her. Is that not precious?

Sometimes we lose the true vision of why we're doing what we're doing and it becomes more of a chore than allowing the Lord to use us to reach out to others. We stress ourselves out trying to get everything perfect and making everything fun and exciting instead of just simply focusing on what the Lord wants us to do and doing just that. Oh what opportunities we miss out on trying to do everything oursleves instead of allowing the Lord to direct our every footstep.

I'm so very, very honored the Lord saw fit to allow me to spend a week with those precious, precious young ladies. I look forward to what He's going to do at next year's VBS!

Yawwwnnn... Anyone Still Here?

I can't believe anyone would still be around to see if I was ever going to blog again, but, here I am! What has caused me to stay away from my beloved blog for so long you ask?

Well, does the above picture tell you anything? In case you don't know, like I wouldn't have, that is a picture of Poison Ivy. Any further explanation needed?

Yes, I got myself into a big ole' bunch of the nasty stuff nearly a month ago while cleaning out our back fence line. I had no idea what the leaves of Poison Ivy looked like, nor that it would take nearly 10 days for the blasted stuff to manifest itself. Too late to wash off the oil from it then.

To my knowledge, I've never had Poison Ivy before and I hope to NEVER have it again! I have been downright miserable for going on three weeks now. I did finally call my doctor and he was kind enough to call in two prescriptions for me. However, both of them made me ravenously hungry, then knocked me out like a light! I was to take the 'may cause drowsiness' one FOUR TIMES A DAY! I did take it for a couple of days, then Bible School started and I was teaching, so the medicine went on the shelf for that week.

The night Bible School ended my brother and his fiance came from Illinois to visit, so the medicine continued to sit on the shelf. When they left this past Monday I couldn't stand the itching any more so I began taking the Rx again, only to be knocked out for hours on end. Then I would wake up and take more (remember the 'four times a day'?) and would be back out cold for a couple more hours.

As any mom knows, you just can't sleep all day long when you are the only one home with the kids. So, after a couple of days of not being able to function without dropping dead asleep, I am once again swearing off the medicine and just praying for God to continue to heal the rest of this Poison Ivy.

So that's the main reason I've not been around lately. It's kind of hard to type when your fingers are busy scratching and scratching and scratching!

Oh, and I will NEVER even go close to that back fence line again! If you aren't sure what the leaves of Poison Ivy look like, there are a lot of pictures here along with other articles on treating as well as getting rid of Poison Ivy. Please don't learn the hard way like I have.