He is Our King

This summer Kasie had to be back at camp on Sunday mornings at about 10:00. So it was near impossible to go to church. It was very hard for me not being able to go to church. Once we are out of a routine it is very hard for us to get back into what we should do (and what we need).

Well camp is over, the big girls have moved back into their dorms and our life is on it's way back to normal (as normal as our life is, LOL!). Kalie and I were able to go to church and the message was just what I needed to hear. God is so GOOD!

At the beginning of the service we sang:

He is Our King
He is our king. He is our love.
He is our God who's come
To bring us back to him.
He is the one. He is Jesus.

This song touched me. I do not know if I have ever heard it before or not, but today this song stayed with me for most of the day.

The sermon was titled God Is Alive: The Book of Acts (Acts 1:1-14).

Toby (pastor) said a few things that made me think all day ...

He (Jesus) died the death I should have, after he lived the life I couldn't.

There are no spectators in the Kingdom of God, only participants.

I do not know why these quotes were so profound to me as I have heard them before, but today it struck me as very important. I typed them up and posted it in our dining/school room. I think it is something I should read every day.

Park Fun!

A group of us from church went to the park to play. We had so much fun!

Kasie and Carissa. I wonder if she knows how much she is loved?



Kalie and Caroline are eating lunch together, alone as "big" girls.



Josiah and Caleb conquering the wilds. LOL! These boys are so funny, cute, smart and we are very glad to be part of their life.



I am very thankful to have this "church family" they have been a wonderful support to our family.

Friday ~ Babies

I love babies! Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE babies. I hold them, love them, kiss them, read to them, sing to them (not well), .....

I wish it had been in the Lords plan to give me lots and lots of babies. I always wanted to get married (to Prince Charming, of course) and have lots of babies. Being a mom is my dream job (and some days I do it very well, others not so much). Well the Lord had other plans for me, so ...

I have to love other people's babies. This is my mostest favoritest little baby girl in the world ...
Carissa!



She belongs to Chris and Melissa, the hosts of our community group. How could you look at that baby and not want to kiss her cheeks? I love her boys Caleb (almost 3 1/2) & Josiah (almost 5)as well. They are so smart and funny! Totally energetic boys (which scares me, LOL, as I have only had girls). They are having a joint Spiderman/Batman party next month for their birthdays! How fun is that!

Well much to my delight and joy. I have 2 new babies to love. Will and John, 3 month old twins! Yea for me, double the love and babies! They belong to Ryan (Mr. music man) and Becky, who are also part of our community group. Melissa has been helping take care of the boys on Fridays until Becky finishes the school year (she is a teacher at the high school). This past Friday Kalie and I went to help.

Caleb is helping me feed Will. John is in the background.



Kalie feeding John. (She loves babies too.)



Both boys. Aren't they so adorable? John is on the left and Will is on the right.



My three babies ... Will, Carissa and John.



I love homeschooling because it gives us the opportunity to love others. Kalie and I had the best day. It is always so fun to hang out at Melissa's house. She is the best hostess, always making you feel as if her home is yours. She is very kind and gracious! We spent the day: feeding babies, holding babies, visiting, playing and we had a great lunch. It was an awesome day!

ps. Do you think Becky would notice is one of her twins went missing??? LOL!

The Greenville Zoo

Our entire family went to the Greenville Zoo today! It was so fun! We also went with our extended "church" family. Meridith came, with two borrowed children. (LOL!) She was babysitting Anna Catherine and Colin Beachy (our asst. Pastor's 2 oldest children). Melissa was there with Josiah, Caleb and Carissa. Katie, Kasie, Kalie and I were there. Someone asked us if we were from a daycare, Kalie said "No, this is our family!" In her almost rude sarcastic way. Mer said we should of had matching shirts. LOL!

Colin, Kalie, Josiah, Anna Catherine & Caleb.

Kalie, Josiah, Katie & Caleb.



Kalie & I.



Katie & Caleb (her buddy).



Kasie & Colin.





Kasie planned this excursion (she loves the Zoo). When we were leaving Kasie said, "What should we do next Tuesday?" I said I don't know, what are you planning? LOL!

Community Groups

Our church has a Sunday evening worship once a month, on the other weeks families meet together in homes in Community Groups. Our group has a meal, sermon discussion and then the we split up (boys and girls) for prayer time. The groups are set up with a diverse population of young and old, single and married, couples and families. These groups are usually bases geographically. Well being the troublemakers that we are ... we meet with a group that is 20 minutes away.

Actually the reason is that this group was a better fit for our family, because of Kalie's anxiety issues. Meridith, one of the members, is also one of Kalie's Sunday Worship teachers. (The teachers rotate on a six week schedule.) She suggested that we visit her Community Group, we did and haven't left. LOL!

Our group is pretty diverse a few young single girls, a few newly married couples, one church elder and his wife, an older single woman, a couple with new twin boys (I can't wait until the boys are old enough to come to CG and they can come back. We miss our music man!), a family with 3 young children and our family.

Community Group has given Kalie a "safe place" to make friends and develop relationships. She is the oldest of the children by almost 3 years. Kalie has really opened up to the group and will talk to almost everyone with out fear. She prays for the members of CG without prompting and talks about them throughout the week. This HUGE accomplishment has allowed me to have new friends! YEA!

One thing that has been hard for me with Kalie's anxiety is the seclusion I feel. I like people, activities, going places ... Kalie does not. Sometimes I feel isolated and alone. When the big girls were little they did EVERYTHING, Girl Scouts, dance, summer camps, swimming lessons, etc. We were involved in a very large, active church. Kalie does Girl Scouts (and sometimes that is a struggle).

Community Group is filling my need for friends and acceptance. When we first started going we would leave right after dinner, then we were able to stay for part of the sermon discussion, it moved up to the beginning of prayer time. Kalie felt more comfortable and we were able to stay for prayer requests and now Kalie will actually participate and request prayers (usually about Kasie's knee). Now we are almost always the last ones to leave. Kalie loves going to CG now.

Not only has CG filled a spiritual need but they have become our family. In times of trouble and need they have helped our family. Days that I have been sad, they have lifted me up. Days that I need to rejoice with another, they have been happy for me. Days that I have needed a friend, they have been there!

We are truly blessed! I am very thankful for the love and acceptance that our family receives from our Community Group. They have become our friends and extended family. The Lord is good to me!

Where have we been?

Wow! It has been a month since I posted. So much has gone on … but mainly we were sick. I will try to recap most of what has happened in our life.

Health ~ Kalie’s allergies are acting up, but that is too expected with the time of year. Kasie caught a “cold” and brought it home to us. I guess because I have been under so much stress lately my immune system is decrease because it turned into walking pneumonia for me. I was pretty much useless for almost 3 weeks. So Kalie has had a very light spring schedule. LOL! We are better now and things are picking up for us. I told Kasie the next time she is sick, she needs to stay at North Greenville. I DO NOT want any more of their germs. I have been sick 4 times since she went to that school. Kalie keeps telling her that she needs to "do college online at home" so we won't be sick.

Girl Scouts ~ Our cookie sale ended with about $350 in profit for the troop. I think that is good since we only have 7 girls. Two weeks ago we had a new girl join the troop, Celeste. She is a friend of Lauren. So we are now up to 5 brownies and 3 juniors. Our service unit is hosting their annual encampment at Camp Wabak on April 18-20. We are so excited! I had a lot of down time when I was sick so I was able to plan lots of stuff. Our end of the year hurrah/cookie sale celebration will be at Build-A-Bear on May 31st. Our awards ceremony will be June 2nd. Our summer plans are almost finished with a meeting every 3 weeks and a field trip or activity once a month.

Izabel ~ She is one wild and crazy dog. We love her to death but she is worse than the cats or the girls. The pets wake me up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning to be let out. YUCK! I usually am up for the rest of the day after that. We had been letting her sleep with us but she was not very good. She would want to play at about 3:00 am. So now she sleeps in the crate at night. I checked into the AKC. We are going to register her with the AKC but I do not think we will show her. It seemed to me that the “clubs” in our area were a little too high strung for us.

School ~ Kalie has “learned to read”. Yea! A few weeks ago she read her first chapter book all by herself, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. She is now reading everything she can, mostly out loud. LOL! So things are changing around here. I am able to give her a little more independent work. When I was sick I had lots of time to veg out, watch TV and read. During that time I was also able to “research” and make decisions for the next school year. We school year round so our new year will begin June 1st. So … I think we will be a little more structured with things and will be adding in new subjects. I am going to try to “hold her back” and keep her in the 2nd grade range. I have thought about this for most of the year and I just do not think it will be a good idea for her to go to college 2 weeks after she turns 18, which is what will happen if she goes to 3rd grade now. I think I might phase in the new stuff one at a time to help with the transitions. We will notebook and lapbook most of our subjects. My plan is:
· Bible - Calvary Chapel (free online) to create our Bible Notebook (this is what we do now and it is working)
· History and Geography - Story of the World 1
· Science - Apologia (deciding between Zoo 1and Astronomy)
· Reading and Language Arts – Learning Language Arts Through Literature (trying to decide on which level to start her in)
· Math - ????? We did a textbook and that did not work well. We tried RightStart but I had the wrong level (too easy) and she hated it, I don’t think she will try the next level. I don’t know if we can afford Math U See, so… any suggestions? We have been playing Math games and using real life math for about 6 weeks now but I know we need something more.
· Art – Next year (September) we will take art lessons from Samantha Bell again. She is wonderful and Kalie loves it! (Not sure what day next year.)
· PE – I hope to be more disciplined and get her to homeschool PE every week. (They meet Mon and Thru, but we usually do Mon.)
· Music – I would love to get her piano lessons, but we would need to get a piano or keyboard so she can practice.
· Girl Scouts – We will continue on Mondays.

WOW! Now that it is all written out it seems like a lot. I am overwhelmed. LOL!

Church ~ We have not been to church in over a month because we have been sick. I am so looking forward to it this weekend! Hopefully we will be able to go to community group also, but that will depend on the older girls work schedule.

Katie and Kasie ~ They are to be finished with exams and will be moving back home April 30th. So, please pray that the transition will go smoothly. Kasie will be working at Girl Scout camp again this summer. She is very excited! Katie is trying to get a job as an overnight resident counselor at Camp Spearhead (special education camp) or the recreation center (day camp).

Well I think that is it. I hope you have enjoyed this recap. LOL!