A Bumper Crop

Last week, we made these cute little pumpkins from Circus peanuts. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. Click here to find out how.

The kids loved making these! They were a great incentive for the kids to get their math done. Even Emily got in on the action and made a couple of them herself.

Here they are all lined up in our entry way along with a new flower arrangement I came up with. It's basically a vase inside of a vase. Candy corn lines the in between section. Then a few mums with water in the inside vase and a few preserved leaves and fake eucalyptus branches tucked in to hide the top. Amy decided that one of the pumpkins needed to be awarded 1st prize like at the fair!

Rejoicing Today

The Lord was not willing for the night time construction to end. It looks like we have many more weeks of this. So we will write a few more letters, then trust our good and loving God. I was encouraged by reading 1st Peter this morning.

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right."

1 Peter 4:12,13, & 19

A Rough Start

The week before we started school back in August, God really convicted me of my joyless attitude. I was hit with the realization that it would be more important for me to model cheerfulness and contentment to my kids when our schedule is knocked off balance than to "fight" to keep things in line.

I think there is a great value in schedules and it is worth putting time and effort into planning. So I'm not saying that these things aren't important. However, for me, I tend to place too much importance and more significantly, I tend to look for validation in how tightly we stuck to the schedule. Did I get (and my kids manage to do) everything I had planned for the day? I am so tempted to derive my worth based on what we accomplished.


God has shown me in the past, through good teaching mostly, that interruptions from outside are not to be seen as irritations, but as "divine appointments". So I am, through God's grace, mostly able to be cheerful when the disruption is from someone or something outside my family. But when the disruption is from my kids acting grumpy, lazy, distracted or my husband needing me to tend to something that I didn't plan for that day, my sin nature shines right through. And it isn't pretty.


So guess what God saw fit to send to us the night before our first day of school?

This from 4am to midnight. See that fence. That's our backyard. I edited out Amy's bedroom window, but it's right behind the fence.

Beep beep, scrape, CACHUNG, BOOM! Repeat. All night long. This does not make for happy children who are able to focus and stay on task.

We found out that the construction project they are doing on the road behind our house is in "emergency mode" and they have a nighttime permit to work 4am to midnight. Sean wrote several very eloquent letters to city council, the mayor and the head of the construction company. They modified their work from 5am to 11pm. This was something that God was allowing for our good and His glory.

It has put this area of showing grace to my kids in the forefront of my mind. Since we've been living with this noise for 4 weeks now, I have a constant reminder to choose to show cheerfulness and give grace. I haven't always done what I should do or want to do. Driving out sin is hard work. But God is good and He has helped me to grow in this area that I have struggled in for such a long time.

Last week, we escaped the heat and the noise and took the kids to the beach.

And Lord willing, tonight is the last night they have a permit to work at night!

Country Girls

This summer, Amy had the opportunity to take horse back riding lessons from a good friend of mine. She had been wanting to do it for a couple of years now, so my parents gave Amy lessons for her birthday present this year.

It was so fun to see her in a different environment. She loves horses, the country and her teacher. She donned her jeans and her boots and was in her element. Since my friend has three little girls, Emily had a nice play date while Amy had her lesson each week.

So now, were praying about whether or not to keep up the lessons. It's a bit of a drive to get there. It's always so hard to keep the activities in balance. We don't want the kids to be doing so much that they are over scheduled, but this seems to be something that Amy really loves. Our art teacher retired this year, so that's one less class. And with Sean's weird schedule, and homeschooling, we have some extra free time during the week that we wouldn't have otherwise.

Amy and Emily with "the kitty". (No name yet!)
Amy grooming her horse before a ride.
Emily, Kate and Rose pretending that they are horses. Notice the rope around them!
Amy was concentrating so hard on learning her new skills.
She looks so grown up in this picture!

Motivation

Last week, I had a scary episode where my throat closed up and I couldn't breath. I had eaten a couple of grapes from our back yard, and when the juice from the grapes hit my throat it spasmed. Evan was right there asking if I was OK. (It's always good to have a boy scout in the house!)

I was so scared, I peed my pants. Yes, I really did. And I didn't care, because all I cared about was being able to breathe. As I was about to call 911 everything calmed down and I was fine.

After seeing a doctor, it turns out I have a very uncommon form of reflux called Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR). I had no idea since I don't have any of the classic signs like heartburn. However, the acid from my stomach is making its way to the back of my throat causing it to be red and irritated. (I know this because the ENT specialist I saw put a little camera up my nose and into my throat!) Because of the irritation, the sweetness of the grape juice cause my larynx to spasm. Think about the zing you get when something too sweet or cold hits a sore tooth. It's also know as a larygospasm. Click here to see a video of what the throat looks like.)

The doctor gave me a list of things to do to help the LPR go away. And I'm really motivated to never have a larygospasm again!

Don't eat 3-4 hours before bed time.
Avoid fatty and fried food.
Eat small meals, slowly
Avoid chocolate, peppermint and carbonated drinks
Avoid Caffeine
Avoid Tomato and citrus foods

This list looks more like a way to lose weight. Back in January, I said I wanted to be eating more healthy this year. Now, I'm extra motivated!

Summer Highlights

Thanks for coming back after such a long break! I missed blogging, but definitely needed the break.



We started off the summer with Evan and Sean going off to Boy Scout camp at Catalina Island. They had a blast! The girls and I got to go spend some time with a friend whose husband was away on a mission trip the same week. It was lovely. Lots of long talks, a few horseback riding lessons for Amy and giggly girls.


Sean and Evan on a long hike, pausing in front of the bay.

Evan with his group's camp staff.

Evan earned his merit badge for shooting and also made it into the dime club (five shots into the center). He has really good aim!


The whole troop with dads and even one grandpa.

The kids entered art work into the fair again this year. Evan took two first place ribbons for his photography and two second place ribbons for his paintings. Amy took two first places for her art.

Amy's watercolor.Evan standing in front of his winning photo of Emily.

In July we went to San Diego. We went to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and the Midway museum.

The Midway Museum is an aircraft carrier that has been decommissioned and opened up for visiting. Here's Evan sitting in the cockpit of one of the planes.

Emily at the petting zoo. She kept wanting to hug this goat!

The kids at Sea World, taking a break in the shade.

We took our tent trailer and camped while we were down there. The kids loved being able to ride bikes and scooter when we got back from the day's activity.

One of my goals for the summer was to go through drawers and cupboards and clean! While I didn't get to all of them (or even as much as I had hoped) I did get a lot cleaned out. And when I went through the bottom kitchen cupboard, I found out that the whole shelf was sagging and about to break! Sean fixed it for me and then built me a nice sliding shelf so I could get into the back corner without having to lay on my stomach and blindly reach under the shelf.

The finished product!

Summer's harvest of lavender.