Friday, July 18, 2008 - International Teens Involved
We had a wonderful time at WOL International Teens Involved Youth Camp! It was not extremely hot, but hot enough! We did have thunder showers about every afternoon or evening.
The kids from our church, including my daughter, had a wonderful time. The Lord worked in their lives and hopefully there will be lasting changes.
My daughter won third place in the Vocal Solo Category! She did a wonderful job! I have included links to picture of the teens who partcipated in it.
This is WOL International Teens Involved Vocals/Instrumentals/Quizzing:
Well, I cannot believe how long it has been since I have blogged here! I will be starting again now. I will try to blog at least a once a week! Surely I can do this!
We are on our summer schedule in school. I am trying to keep our routine for chores and a little school work. The kids are both working on Math. I bought Teaching Textbooks for both of them for next school year. My son just loves it (and he hated math; we spent a couple of years battling multiplication!) He wanted to start it NOW instead of waiting for our new school year. One day he did 4 lessons! So he is working on this on his own with no prodding! That's what I love to see!
I keep trying to do some summer organizing and decluttering, but keep getting interrupted by normal, always-needing-done "stuff". I do my husband's business bookkeeping, and there seems to always be something to do. My mother-in-law visited with us for a week a couple of weeks ago. (It was nice that she was her on our 16th wedding anniversary, so we got away for a night for some couple time!)
In a couple of weeks, I am traveling with my daughter to Hudson, FL for Teens Involved. She is singing a solo by Chris Tomlin, entitled "Enough". She made it to the International Level along with several others from our church! So we will enjoy a week together there. We pray for the Lord's blessing and traveling mercies.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - I am Thankful for . . .
I really like this picture of my son. My daughter took it of him early one morning at the beach.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a Lord and Savior who loves me and wants to fellowship with me. I want to draw nearer to him and love him with all my heart.
I am thankful for my husband and family, and that we are all together. I know some families whose mate is overseas serving in the armed forces. I appreciate the sacrifice they make to keep our land safe.
I am thankful that I can homeschool my children - that we have that freedom. Some countries don't have that.
I am thankful for our home, our vehicles, our business. Thankful for our good health; some people don't have that, either.
Dear Lord, I am so thankful for all these things that I have mentioned and others that I haven't mentioned. I know that without you, we would have none of these blessings. You are so good and so kind to us, even though we do not deserve any of it. But thank you once again for your blessings on me.
Count Your Blessings Instead of...
Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Love your neighbor as much as yourself.
I haven't written for a couple of weeks. We have been very busy! First we went to the Outer Banks for a field trip. We visited the Wright Brothers Memorial, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Bodie Island Lighthouse, went swimming, watched sunrises and sunsets on the beach.
We had a wonderful time. We don't get away like this very often. Usually when we travel it is to our familes who both live out-of-state.
Then I had to travel up to Tennessee when my father was in the hospital with chest pains; he has several blockages, but is very weak and probably could not stand surgery. So he is between a rock and a hard place physically. Please keep him in your prayers. Pray that the doctors will have wisdom how to treat him.
Today has been a quiet day. My dh took me out to Golden Corral for breakfast. Then I got to have a quiet day here at home. Dh took dd13 out to a prayer walk and visitation with our church. Ds10 was supposed to go too, but did not have his chores done when we got back from breakfast. We had told him specifically that if they were not done, he would not be able to go. So he got to stay here and do his work.
I worked on dh's business bookkeeping. Grateful to get it done. I use Quicken to keep up with things. I have used it for years. Until about a year ago, I did bookkeeping and invoicing from home, for a Chrisitan Publishing company, Harvey Christian Publishers, Inc. (Check out their site.) I worked for them for about 16 years. I used the Quicken program with them.
Tidbit: If we could earn our salvation, Christ would not have died to provide it.
It has been almost a year now since I made an entry on this blog. It has been a busy year, but it has been a good year. I would like to take this blog up again, writing about my spiritual life, my family life, our school "stuff", etc. Lord willing, I will try to blog a few times per week.
The last few days, the Lord has been dealing with me about how I do not always walk in the strength of the Holy Spirit in my daily life. He has shown me how when I try to walk in my own strength and how little I can do as a result. If I walk in my flesh, what my flesh can do is all I get! If I let the Holy Spirit be my strenth, then I have what He can do! Which is a whole lot more and a whole lot better than my flesh! I really feel the need of His help and repent for how I have neglected Him. I am so thankful for His forgiveness and His drawing me to Himself. Without Him, I would not feel my need and would not run to Him in my desperation.
"Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you love me and care about my daily life. That you would want to fellowship with me and be the strenth and refuge of my life."
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom to worship here.” Patrick Henry
Monday, November 13, 2006 - Keith's testimony & Timothy's observation!
This is dictated by Keith to me:
Timothy (age 9) and I were having a heart talk. Timothy asked me if I had gone to church when I was a little boy. I told him we went to the Baptist Church when I was young. Then we got out of church for several years apart from going with Grandma Gorrell to the First Baptist Church in Marietta. Then we went to the First Congregational Church. Mom and Dad taught Sunday School, but we started drifting away from there and I later started going to the Calvary Baptist Church. My whole family ended up going there with me. Dad was in the bus ministry. My sister, brother and I all made professions of faith there. But I didn't truly come to faith until I was 19.
Then we got away from church there and were out of church for a while and later went to the Second Congregational Church. The same pastor preached at both congregational churches. This is where I was convicted that I needed to go to the altar to be saved, but kept thinking what my friends would say. I chose that I wanted to live for myself and "see the bright lights" of the world. I was about 14 years old then. I didn’t feel that drawing anymore until I was 17 years old on the run from the law and living a very wicked life. One morning, I woke up on the arch of the underside of a bridge, right on the edge, right over the water. I thought, "If I had fallen, I would probably have died and gone to hell."
Timothy asked me, Did you smoke?, Did you drink? I said, "Yes" Did you wreck cars? I said, "Yes, I am afraid so."
Saturday, November 4, 2006 - Thanksgiving Unit Study
I found a really neat Thanksgiving Unit Study. It is by Amanda Bennet. I downloaded it as an ebook. I had an older copy of the Thanksgiving Unit Study by Bennett, but this one in internet linked and has each day planned out for two levels, Lower level and Upper level. It can be found on the Homeschool Ebook Store site which I have linked here on my site. I have looked at it and I think we will really enjoy it. We are just trying to get into Unit Studies because I think it will be good for my 9 year old son. He has to be doing something, not just sitting still reading or writing! Typical boy, I think.
Homeschool Ebook Store also has a Christmas Unit by Amanda Bennett which I also bought. We are really going to enjoy these holiday studies. I'll probably be posting some of the children's work from these studies.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 - My Husband's Ordination Service
Sunday night, Keith, my husband, was ordained as a deacon. We had a beautiful service. Elisabeth, our daughter, sang a song of the Marshall Family entitled, "A Vessel Unto Honor", while I accompanied her on the piano.
Some of Keith's former church family came down, including his former pastor, which was a surprise. He knew a couple of them were coming, but there were two whole rows of them! I know Keith was pleased.
My parents did not get to come as planned, as they are both having medical problems and it is a 4-5 hour drive for them, although Keith was going to go get them and I would have taken them back home. My youngest brother had planned on coming also, but one of his children were sick. So none of my family was there. Keith's family lives in Ohio, so they couldn't come either. But it was good to have spiritual family there.
Pray for us as we start out on this new adventure. I feel that Keith has the qualification for this office. He is very outgoing, never knows a stranger and could talk to anyone. He is already doing the work of a deacon to some degree. Visiting the sick and shut-in and helping those who need help. But we need your prayers as we step out in this field. I know the enemy will not like it, but "greater is he that is within me than he that is in the world."
Thank you for praying for my friend, Teresa; she had a masectomy on Wednesday. Keith and I went to the hospital to see her before she went to surgery and stayed with the family a little while. Our pastor went also and got to pray with her. Then tonight we went to see her and took some pizza for the family so they would not have to cook. Teresa's mother is staying with her for a while to help her out. Teresa was very tired and is still worried. She is waiting the results of the tests to see if they got all the cancer. She is afraid she will have to have surgery again. Pray for her as she waits for the results. She is in a lot of pain right now, too.
I would like you all to pray for my friend, Teresa. She just found out that she has breast cancer. She is about my age, maybe a year or two older. She used to be our neighbor when we lived at Holly Brook. She is Anna's mother. Anna is the little girl that we take to church with us on Wednesday nights, and sometimes she spend the night on Saturday so that she can go to church with us on Sunday.
Anna does not yet know that her mother has cancer. I took Anna home Wednesday evening after church and got to see Teresa. She is very upset. She asked me how do you tell your 10 year old daughter that you have cancer, that you will have to take medicine that will make your hair fall out, etc. I told her I did not know, but that they should tell her the truth and not let it surprise her later if something does happen.
Please pray for her as she is not a Christian, although as a young person she was in church and even taught Sunday School, but now is not living a Christian life. She did ask me for prayer and said she knew God had a purpose. But she believes she has been good and is always good to people; so she feels she is all right. I told her the other night that the most important thing is to know that you are ready to meet the Lord. I have been praying for her and I feel this may be the way the Lord has to bring her and her family to the Lord.
I found this poem today, that I had gotten sometime back off the internet. I felt it summed up my feelings perfectly. I printed it off on beautiful stationery paper that has the sky with clouds and a rainbow in the corner and then framed it for her.
Share By Prayer
The path you tread is strange to me,
And so you walk alone.
The pain you feel I've never felt;
Your loss I've never known.
Yet still I long to sympathize,
Your burden try to share;
Some how, I know, I'll walk with you
Part of the Way in prayer.
And though my lips may silent seem,
No tender words they form,
My heart, it beats in one with you,
And with your grief is torn,
For you are suffering, and I
Your suffering would bear,
For I would love to lift the cross
Part of the way in prayer.
Perchance, this little aid I give,
Will ease the heavy load,
Will be a tiny spark of light
To brighten up the road.
Then when you reach the darkest part,
And I must leave you there,
You'll feel more strong because I've been
Part of the way in prayer.
--Madeline Coull
"We also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you." Col. 1:9
"Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." Rom. 1:9
The children did very well in their swimming lessons. They received their certificates last night. We had some thunderstorms that cancelled a couple of lessons. So we had to have a make up day. We were to have two make-up days, but another thunderstorm cancelled one of those! We have been having a lot of storms lately, along with some hot, hot weather. But today and the next few days are supposed to be about 10 degress lower with decreased humidity. That will make if feel sooo much cooler.
The children want to do more swimming lessons, but I think we will wait until a later date for that. It just takes up all of our evening time together.
School is going well. We are taking a short break this week instead of next week, so that I can get caught up with house work and other things that demand my attention. I am asking the children to think of something they want to learn about, and we will get some library books about these subjects and let them make a small notebook about them. They are to do this own their own while I am working. We will see how that goes. I will post their notebook pages when they are finished.
The children began swimming lesson last evening. They did very well. They started in Level 2. Elisabeth especially was swimming well. Timothy has a little more fear of the water, although he did very well. They seem to have a good teacher. The lessons will last for two weeks, Monday - Thursday of each week.
We are doing the swimming lessons in the evening because we started school last week and I did not want to miss any school time. Keith also wanted to be there with them. I will post some pictures of them sometime this week.
my family!
Keith
If I let the Holy Spirit be my strenth, then I have what He can do! Which is a whole lot more and a whole lot better than my flesh! 
I really feel the need of His help and repent for how I have neglected Him. I am so thankful for His forgiveness and His drawing me to Himself. Without Him, I would not feel my need and would not run to Him in my desperation.