what I'm thankful for, day 5

Today I am thankful for the Gladiator Reading Program. So are the kids. Reading three books earned them free tickets to a hockey game. We all had a great time.

We homeschooling moms have to stick together.


He was trying to decide which team to cheer for.



Sweet Shaun.

why I'm thankful, day 4

Today I'm thankful for my husband. When I said I'd marry him 13 years ago, he said he'd always make me laugh. And he has. Even during the rough times, at the end of the day, he can always find some way to make me smile. He keeps me grounded. He challenges my faith by refusing to worry. He is our family's spiritual leader. While I may be the kids' academic teacher, Chris teaches them the really important things- to love the Lord, to serve Him, and to worship.

He works very hard to make sure our family has what we need. He is faithful. He prays over us and he anoints my head with oil while I sleep when my depression gets the better of me.

We balance each other out nicely...his exuberant zest for life is the perfect compliment to my quiet awkwardness... and vice versa.

God was looking out for me even during my rebellious teenage years when he allowed our paths to cross. He knew what I'd need in a life partner. My Abba Father even used my boyfriend to introduce us way back then. I love that God has a sense of humor!

Here he is. The man I married. I think this picture captures his personality perfectly. I'm so thankful for him!

why I'm thankful, day 3

Today I'm thankful for my friend Claire and her sweet spirit. I had a really stressful day today that included lots of tears. She took time out of her busy day to sit with me while I cried and somehow just knew I needed to hear the song How He Loves by The David Crowder Band.

And so she sang it to me before she prayed.

What a blessing she is to me.

why I'm thankful, day 2

Today I'm thankful that I was able to sit on the couch with this little boy while he read his first book to me.

why I'm thankful, day 1

These people.

I don't even know their names, but they blessed me today.

Shaun and some friends were given the chance to minister at The Guest House today. The Guest House is an adult day care center here in town. I had never been there before, but hope we get to go back. At the end of our "program", a lady took hymn requests from the audience. Everyone was singing away and Jordan was getting antsy so I took him out into the front room to sit in some rocking chairs.

The precious lady on the right was giving it her all, belting out the words to the songs. Sometimes she was a little mixed up, but it didn't matter to her at all. I just sat there and took her in as she sang about one day getting her robe and crown, and then she got happy! "Whoo! That line gets me every time", she said.

Here sat an elderly woman who was losing her memory and probably her sanity as well. She was obviously unable to care for herself while unsupervised... but she still had her Jesus.

How thankful I am that even on my worst days, I still have Jesus- and that He cares enough to remind me no matter how many times I forget.

The Twilight Saga- Stephenie Meyer

I love to read. Always have. I've been wanting to keep track of exactly how many books I read in a given year for awhile now, and figured this blog was as good a place as any to do so. And I don't want to wait until January, so I'm starting now.

Actually, I'm starting back in September. That's when I started reading The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer again. I became hooked on Twilight 2 years ago, right in the middle of the craze. My sister is to blame. She rented the movie and told me how good it was. I think I made fun of her just a little bit for being so trendy. A few days later I was in Books a Million with the boys and saw that Twilight was on sale. So, I bought it. And I read it in 2 days. The day after I finished reading it I was in Wal-Mart with my mom. She's anti-vampire, so I tried to sneak a copy of New Moon into my cart without her noticing. No such luck. I received the "roll of the eyes" that she's been giving me since my childhood days when she's frustrated with me. I finished New Moon really quickly, as well. And then I became thankful that I didn't read these books as they were being published because it would really stink to have to wait for the next one to go on sale.

By this time, the Hubs had started in on giving me a hard time. He's never understood my love of reading. We were out running errands and I told him I needed to stop in at Wal-Mart for a few things. With a knowing look, he asked me what I needed. I listed things like toothpaste and toilet paper and he said he'd wait in the car with the kids while I went inside. When I came back out to the car he pulled Eclipse out from the bottom of the bag and said, "Are you kidding me?". I just snatched the book back and began reading it in the car.

Eclipse is a long book, so I thought it would take me longer to finish than the others. It didn't. I finished it at 10:00 p.m. one night. Chris was pulling an all-nighter at work and the kids were in the bed but not sleeping. I debated for five minutes whether I should just wait until the next day to go purchase Breaking Dawn before I called to the kids that we were going on a little trip. Late-night trips are just one of the perks of homeschooling! Jordan was ecstatic. Shaun just gave me the "Are you serious" look that he had learned from his dad. I promised them each a small treat and we bundled up set out for Wal-Mart. Thank goodness the new Wal-Mart in Cleveland had opened up a few months before. The Cleveland Wal-Mart is a lot closer and less scary than the Gainesville Wal-Mart.

So we bought Breaking Dawn and came back home, where I stayed up all night long reading. I seriously could not put it down. I really thought it would take me a while to read this book. It's huge. But I think it actually took me less time to finish than the others had. After I read the last line I just sat there for a minute thinking "Wow!". Then I took a little nap! Then I re-read the entire series, taking my time this time to catch anything I'd missed during my speed-reading routine.

I now read this series once a year and my family has come to love Twilight, too. Not as much as me, but they do really like it a lot.

For all my friends who think I shouldn't be reading or watching anything pertaining to vampires, I have to say that I honestly do not feel one bit convicted about The Twilight Saga. These books and movies are some of the cleanest that I've ever read or watched. They present values such as abstinence, self-control, and unconditional love. This is the way I feel. And it's probably not going to change, so we just need to agree to disagree. Can you tell I've taken some scoldings? :)

At church the other day someone asked me what "we" were going to do next year when Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters and Twilight is over. He was including himself in "we". I just laughed and said that it would never be over for me. And then he asked, "What are we going to get into next? Harry Potter?". Wink, wink. I think I'll have to draw the line at the one! I don't really know too much about Harry Potter, but I just can't get addicted to another series again.

And there you have it... 4 books!

our low-key halloween

Halloween was tonight. I used to love Halloween. The dressing up and being scared... I got all into it. I haven't really been feeling it the past few years, though. The Hubs and I even agreed that we would pass up trick-or-treating and go to a friend's house for a get-together instead. At the last minute we realized that he was on-call tonight and that our friends lived more than 30 minutes away from the hospital, so we stayed close to home.

To take the sting out of missing the party, we took the kids trick-or-treating. My mom blessed the boys with their costumes for the Fall Festival at church last week. Shaun was a ninja and Jordan was Darth Vader. They both loved their costumes, so I was quite surprised when the time came to get dressed and Jordan told me that he wanted to be a chef instead. He had made an apron in his art class before our co-op broke up (that's a post for another day!) and his teacher brought it for him today when we met with our new co-op for lunch and a planning meeting (again- that's a post for another day!). Jordan fell in love with this apron and wanted to be a chef. I gave him a spatula from the kitchen and he was set.

Then Shaun informed me that instead of being a ninja tonight, he wanted to be "himself with a sword". He's eleven and beginning to go through changes, if you know what I mean. Maybe he thinks he's too old to dress up. I remember being that age and feeling too old for some things and not old enough for others. Eleven is a hard age, so I didn't push the issue. We were only making 3 stops, anyway.

We went to visit my parents, my grandparents, and Chris' parents. We all had a nice time at each place. The kids wracked up big-time at Nana and Papa's. Shaun scored a twenty dollar bill and some Fuzzydoodles. Jordan got a few bucks and some Bendaroos. After that, we had dinner at Wendy's.

As I said, very low-key. I liked it.

And no- I didn't even take any pictures.