Happy 4th of July!

I'm so excited to blog today about our 4th of July crafts we did. I found all of these (except for the free form fireworks) off of Pinterest and just couldn't wait to to have Thing 1 and Thing 2 try them out. They we're just as excited as I was!


American flags

Supplies
Constuction paper in red, white, and blue
White pompoms

Directions
Cut white paper into strips and glue onto red paper.
Cute a square from blue paper and glue in upper left hand corner
Glue pompoms onto blue square for the stars

Pipe cleaner Sparklers

Supplies
Red, white and blue pipe cleaners for handle
Iridescent, gold, red, and blue pipe cleaner for sparks

Directions
Twist together red, white and blue pipe cleaners, set aside
Fold in half, pinch loop, and then open into a V the sparkler pipe cleaners
Take all the V pipe cleaners together and fold over the handle into the ditch of the V
Twist handle to secure

Hand print Eagles

Supplies
Paint in brown, off white, yellow, and orange

Directions
Paint each hand brown and place together on paper = body and wings
Make fist and paint side of hand and pinky finger off white = head and neck
Dip finger in orange paint and draw legs
Use brush to paint eye and beak

Free Form Fireworks

Supplies
Paint of all colors and some fingers

Directions
Dip fingers in paint and make a firework show. Don't forget to make the sounds!

 Thing 1 used one finger and explored what color the colors would turn as he mixed them all.

 Thing 2 used one finger for each color to keep the colors pure.

Mama had fun doing her own decorating too!

I hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as we did!

With Love,

Emily

Jesus Wept

Photo Credit

 John 11:35: “Jesus wept.”

The shortest verse in the Bible; Jesus wept. 

Throughout my tweens and teens I was a avid poet. I love poems and the different ways we can write the exact same words, but just a slightly different format, and the meaning is completely different.

So as we taught the story of Lazarus the the 3 year olds today in Sunday School, I couldn't help but wonder why would Jesus weep when he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead? And why was it emphasized in it's own verse that Jesus was crying? 

There's lots of different opinions out there, so if you want to do some research on it, I promise that it's very fascinating, but I have three different points I'd like to share with you.

1) Jesus was not just the Son of God, He was also fully human.

The fact that Jesus was God in human form means that when he fell down as a child, he hurt.  When he celebrated their holidays with family and friends, he felt happy. When he got sick, he ached. So why wouldn't he cry when he saw his friends grieving?

He felt our pain and sorrow, and felt our joyful and happy moments. He experienced them as we have! Even more so should we rely on God to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly feelings and situations we find ourselves in. He's been there. He knows.

2) Jesus knew that even though he was going to perform this miracle, people were still not going to believe that he is God. 

It pains me to think that when Jesus walked among us, performing miracles completely unfathomable today, people still didn't believe that he was God. In fact, the very fact that we today have to rely on more faith because we haven't seen with our own eyes, seems like it's even more blatantly obvious that if the people of Jesus time saw and did not believe, how blind and hard hearted they truly must have been.

3) Just as poems emphasize on certain phrases, God wrote it this way in the Bible to make a point.

And what exactly is that point? I believe the point was to make you stop and think about how powerful those two words are...

Jesus wept

The Universe is Gods throne and the Earth is His footstool. In the vastness of space and time  each one of us are nothing more that the tiniest blip in the grand scheme of the known universe, and even smaller than that in what is beyond the edge of space. 

And yet, God sent his only son to become one of us. To experience the pain and devastation we go through, to die for us in the most painful and tortured way, just to repair the bridge between us and God and restore what Satan had destroyed when evil entered the world. 

All because He loved us. The human race. The little, simple minded, undeserving of a second glance, and completely lost in darkness, sheeple. 

God repaired what once was broken and all we have to do today is just ask for salvation and it is done. But even though it's in His book, in black and white, simply put,

People will still not believe.

So

Jesus. Wept.

With Love,

Emily

No Cook Play Dough

Today the kids decided that since it was too hot and humid, not to mention the low lying threat of thunderstorms, to go outside today, that today was a good day to battle to the death with each other. Oh my goodness gracious, God help me.

I tried every thing that I could think of, school work, movies, ringing the bell to make them go back to separate corners. Absolutely nothing was working.

So I called Dad and asked for some ideas. He suggested to make something with them, even if it was just cutting up paper and gluing it on another paper.

Not feeling up to making a giant mess, I decided that making some play dough was the way to go.

Here's the recipe that I used.

No Cook Play Dough

4 cups plain flour

2 cups salt

4 tbl veggie oil

4 tbl cream of tartar

3 cups boiling water

food coloring or kool-aid for coloring

Stir all together and play!

I wanted to make mine with an added element of interest, so I made them..

MYSTERY COLORS!

Grab a handful of dough and a packet of kool-aid.

Use the whole packet!

Or use 5+ drops of food coloring

Carefully fold over the dough around the color.

Let Thing 1 and Thing 2 choose a mystery color.

Start mixing kiddos! Thing 2 is checking out how big brother does it first.

I'M GONNA WRECK IT!

Explore different ways of making the color mix... poke poke. Love how he sticks his tongue out in concentration; just like his daddy.

Show mommy how much fun this is!

Thing 2 just poked her finger in to peek at the color instead of mixing. Cheater. :o)

Despite the Cinderella Blue color, she was not happy she got blue. She wanted pink.  

 The kids got tired of mixing, so I did for them as they looked on. The bottom three are the kool-aid packets. They smell wonderful!

 Play dough was a big hit! They stopped their fighting, ok well mostly, and enjoyed playing with the play dough on and off throughout the day. Woo hoo!

Color recognition. Check.

Fine and gross motor skills. Check.

Social skills. Check.

Oh...

 Thing 2 made me the Earth. 

I think that's supposed to be Ireland. Lots of shamrocks.

Geography and Earth Science... Check.

We're done.

With Love,

Emily

When Breakfast Isn't Served.

Before I had kids I would have been mad at myself for making such a simple and stupid mistake that I happen to do once in a while when cooking; misreading the ingredient amount.

This morning I was going to make beautiful waffles for Thing 1 and Thing 2. I carefully read the ingredients and set every thing but the water out, because I knew at least one of them would want to help.

Now what makes me do a famous forehead slap is that I hear a voice in the back of my head saying, "ummm... Don't you think that's wrong?" and yet I completely ignore it each and every time.

This morning Thing 2 and I were measuring the oil (before the water, so the measuring cup gets a jump start on getting cleaned), and I read it as 1 1/2 cups.

Yep! Whole time we're doing this that voice is screaming in the back of my head, "NOOOOOOooooooo!!!!!" as I pour the volatile mix in.

I recognize the mistake when I started mixing it and realized I have not added water and the mix is a weird color.

Insert forehead slap.  

Oh My... dead. I just killed the waffles.

So instead of just throwing it out, I explained to the kids that I made a huge mistake and we weren't having waffles after all. I interrupted their beginnings of whining that sounds like a jet engine warming up, and about as loud too, and said that we were going to do an experiment. What happens to a waffle when you put in too much oil?

Now they were hooked.

(muahahaha)

I poured in the batter and started cooking. They waved their hands over the steam to draw in the delicious sent of waffles cooking, these smelled like funnel cake cooking from all the oil, and eagerly watched. We peeked in once in a while to make sure it was actually cooking. Once it was a beautiful golden brown I got the fork to remove the waffle. One child thought it would come out, the other thought it would fall apart. And the result was...

It crumbled! 

'

Victory! The experiment worked, and a hypothesis was quickly quickly formed from each child. Why did it fall apart? What is bonding? Can we still eat it? And a slew more of questions.

What was once a terrible mistake, out to ruin breakfast for very hungry tummies, turned into an experiment and life long knowledge (or at least an awareness) of why we follow directions exactly when we bake or cook anything.

And the fried eggs and toast wasn't a bad substitute either. 

With Love,

Emily

Photo Credit

The Eating of a Frog

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

― Mark Twain

This is what I live by day by day. Ever make a list, whether mentally or written down? Ever look at that list and think, "Yeah, I'm not going to do that right now" on a couple of things and they never seem to get done?  Those are the frogs.

The frog that's been on my list is cleaning out my bedroom. It's the catchall room. It's my "safety" net. It's the one thing of my past that has been trailing me no matter how many times I've moved, across country or nearby. It seemed that when I moved into a new home I'd vow that this would be the time that I wouldn't clutter the bedroom, this time would be different, this time I would conquer the fear the boogieman left with me. Logically I know that the boogieman is no longer real in my life and hasn't been for about 20 years, but the one part of my heart that felt like I still had control of, the control of the fear of the boogieman returning, being prepared to entrap him in my mess I carefully created around me. That was what I lived in. That is what my husband has been very patiently living with. 

Well, ever since I started this blog a year ago, I knew that eventually I would have to eat that frog on my list and deal with the bedroom and the fear that went with it. I kept putting it off and putting it off, until finally with my in laws visiting (my mil is great at helping me declutter and get control of my life) and my husband home for a couple of days, I finally started to eat that frog.

It started off ok, my mil was giving me jobs and lots of encouragement as we went along, and as long as I focused on one bite at a time, I was slowly eating the frog. A couple of times I would look at the entirety of the frog I was eating and would start to get discouraged, but that was just my demons clinging onto me to bring me down. 

Now don't laugh... ok you can laugh, but I would put on Christmas music to help keep me in an upbeat mood. It soon turned into IZ, then Beach Boys, and before I knew it the frog was more that halfway eaten by the end of the day.

Back breaking work! My sciatica was acting up the next day, but I had no clutter on the floor, many bags of trash and giveaways out of the room, and a bit of invertigo from just how big the room seemed to be! 

Thing 1 comes in my room to see what I had been up to all day, and he kept saying "Wow! It's all clean! Look how clean it is! I'm so proud of you mom!" 

That made it worth eating the frog.

With his encouragement I finished eating that frog the next day. This time with new vigor and excitement! I knew the frog was almost eaten and I would finally be able to check it off my list for good.

It's now been two nights in a clutter free bed and bathroom, and though I'm still surprised with the space in the room and not having to dodge things, I'm also surprised that the fear I had been holding on to was not as strong that I thought it would be once the job was complete. Yes, it was still there, and even this morning it gripped my heart, but honestly it was for a moment before I realized that there is nothing to fear but fear itself and fear is just an emotional reaction of the unknown. This was something that has been unknown to me for 20 years. For most of my life. This feeling of having a clear space in my "hiding place" is completely new.

As I sit in my room, I look around and clear out the cobwebs in my heart and head. This is normal. This is what others have. This is healthy for me, for my husband, for my family. This is the final healing of my heart, my broken spirit. This is what God has been working on me for so long. 

My room is now a place of rest, not discomfort. A place of peace, not a place of ancient memories. It is my nest that I have carefully crafted with love and not with fear. 

I have come to the end of my journey with the boogieman. He has be conquered! He will not return in heart or home! I have vanquished the final battle and have won my war!

Praise be to God who has delivered me from evil. Who has taken what was meant for evil and turned it into good for His glory. Who has taken a broken and crushed spirit and not only healed but made stronger in Him. 

I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me;

Even the eating of a frog.

With Love,

Emily

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaniemassaro/2384310118/">Stephanie Massaro</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>

OOoo, Crochet

Did I ever tell you that I own a Crocheting Business? No? Well, I sure do!

I was introduced to Crochet at the age of 10, but my sweet Auntie who showed me how to make doilies. I was impressed with how a tiny hook and crochet thread can be manipulated into loops and knots and suddenly it's an intricate piece of artwork. 

I tried my hand at crochet for a little while after that experience, but even with the book she sent me, I just couldn't quite get the hang of it and ended up putting it down for about 13 years.

That's was when I was a newlywed and pregnant with Thing 1. I was suddenly unable to work, and bored to tears. Mom got me started in beading, which I still love to work with, but I needed something I can take with me to my appointments and not be afraid of spilling a rainbow of little glass shards into the bottomless pit of bead hell.... also known as carpet.

So I took up crochet again. I wasn't very good at it. I couldn't read patterns yet, my tension was terribly tight, and with no one to help me, I again put it down for a while. 

7 months after having Thing 1, we make our big move across country to where we live now. At this point we had move with my parents and, until we were on our feet, living with them. Confined to one bedroom for the next 2 years, I picked up crochet again. This time, with the help of youtube, especially this wonderful lady, it took! 

Suddenly the heavens opened up and angels started singing!

Now we flash forward a few more years and I have started my own business. I specialize in baby items, like hats and toys, but my newest adventure that I have trotted into this week is taking my children's drawings and making softies from their design.

 © OOoo, Crochet 2013

 © OOoo, Crochet 2013 

 © OOoo, Crochet 2013

The one in the middle is Thing 2's drawing and I got it finished just in time to give it to her on her birthday this week. She had been hard to part with it!

This I really LOVE doing. I just love how each is unique, each is an artistic challenge, and because I'm only making one of them, constantly changing! The artist in me is extremely happy. So happy in fact, that I would really like to just specialize in doing just this and be the Imaginary Friend Factory. Good thing kids like to draw!

So if you are ever in store for something unique or even just want to see more of my work, head over to OOoo, Crochet. 

I am having a contest right now! I'm trying to reach 100 likes on my page. So far we are a little more than halfway there. As soon as we get 100 likes, a random liker is going to win one of my famous owls! 

 © OOoo, Crochet 2013

Will it be you? HOO know!

With Love,

Emily

Pirate Unit- Flags

We are taking a break from the ocean, as we are heading out to sea with Marlin and about to meet Dory, and decided to learn about the Pirates that sail on top of these waters.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are really into this unit! In fact they have found every pirate movie and tv show we own or is on Netflix. After diving into a few pirate books from the library, we were off on an adventure.

First we made Pirate bandannas and eye patches.

The bandannas are a large square I cut from some fabric I had and then I got out the puffy paint (that takes me back to my childhood in the 80's) and painted on a skull and cross bones. To identify who is who's, for Thing 1 he also got a shamrock for luck and Thing 2 got a heart for love.

The eye patches are just black foam cut out to look like a patch, with two holes (diagonally from each other works best)  and black yarn to tie them on. The kids wore them for about 2 minutes and promptly hid them from me.

Also, today we looked at all the different kinds of pirate flags, discussed why the pirate would chose certain icons and why it would be scary to anyone hauling treasure on their ship, and also how the skull and crossbones are still used today as a sign for poison. Little safety lesson thrown in courtesy of the Jolly Roger!

After we looked at all kinds of pirate flags, Thing 1 and 2 made their own.

Thing 1

Thing 2 

Thing 1 is my minimalist. However, according to him the blob in the middle is a bloody red skull and the blob falling off the flag is a boot. 

I think it looks like a talking head spewing out jewels, but that's just me.

Thing 2, however, is my extravagant 'I-have-to-hid-everything-so-she'll-stop' artist, and she put on the entire booty on her flag. It's been several hours and it's still not dry enough to hang up yet. Sure is sparkly though!

Tomorrow I plan on having them cut out and assemble their pirate ship, which will float on top of the water on their doors, and sometime this next week we'll go on a treasure hunt! My in-laws are coming for a 2 week visit this Tuesday, so I know they are going to be helping out with the treasure hunt!

Arrr Matey!

With Love,
Emily

Alice Inspired Critical Thinking

As I was cooking eggs this morning, I was thinking about how to help my children learn and about how to make what we're learning fun. When I have my parent-teacher conferences, (to myself I think I sound like Rain Man and Milton Waddams smushed together, but thankfully my kids see me as Pooh going "Think, think, think"), it's when I come up with some interesting ideas.

Well, my brain blast this morning was how to help my kids with their critical and imaginative thinking. So much of today is just told to us, and not a lot of it expects you to think for yourself or even respond to what was said, so when my brain hatched this thought, I knew it would help or at least be an interesting experiment!

Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, when her and her father think of at least 3 impossible things before breakfast, I asked my children what 3 impossible and silly things could they think of. My example to explain was a hamster jumping on a trampoline chewing on bubblegum. That ensued a fit of giggles between the two, and I knew I had them hooked.

So here is their first attempts at thinking of 3 Impossible and Silly Things (Before Breakfast).

Thing 1 (6 year old boy)
A pig farting while breaking pictures in the mud.
Alive books dancing with pictures on the ceiling.
(realizing he's just looking around for his inspiration, I then told him to close his eyes and think of the last one)
Pigs jumping over the moon while wearing underwear and Gangam style shoes.

Thing 2 (4 year old girl)
A cow jumping on the moon while eating cereal.
A cow with circle feet getting eaten by pigs in the mud. (Uhhh...What!?)
(Get off of the cow hunny, think of something else)
A spider playing with spider babies in the desert.

Well, as you can see my children are completely nuts. :o)

I will be doing this again, at least try to do it every day, and write down what they said for my own journaling  I found that it really sparked some imagination and got them thinking, because they went off to play and it was some of the best role playing and pretend games I've hear them do yet!

So if you try this, comment below what they've said! I'd love to know that Thing 1 and Thing 2 are in good company.

With Love,
Emily

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

As part of our Ocean Study, we read about the fish that live in the coral reef. Inspired by a pin on Pinterest, made our version of fish!

Materials: For one fish
Paper plate
Giant googly eye
Sequins
Glue
Tape
Scissors

How to:
Have the child cut out a triangle (I drew it on first). This is the mouth!
Tap the triangle to the opposite side. This is the tail!
Glue on googly eye. Now the fish can see!
Glue on scales. Now the fish can swim!

You can use ANYTHING for the scales. Buttons, pompoms, feathers, glitter, or even just color the fish. I liked the sequins because they reminded me of the Rainbow Fish book we had read the night before.

I have found that Thing 2 liked doing the glue part, but got tired of making the glue dots. She wasn't done in putting on the scales so I would put on a bunch of glue dots for her and then she had the (more fun) part of sticking on the scales.

Thing 1 didn't really care for this craft as much, and I had to be creative in encouraging him to put more scales on so the poor fish could swim!

All in all, this was really fun, and kept them engaged for about 10 minutes in total.

With Love,
Emily

I've got to save what??

My in-laws are coming for a visit at the end of the month, so I'm inspired to go through the house and do an over all spring clean up. You know the kind; random decluttering, figuring out where you put the home for such and such, still trying to find a home for the things you got for Christmas, and general hot spot clean up.

Well, I ran into the pile of school work that Thing 1 has done, and even though we've only just started homeschooling this past Christmas, it's a big pile. I also just started teaching Thing 2 preschool, and we all know what a mess that can make!, so my pile of papers is going to start doubling soon.

So I called my mom. "HELP!" I yelled into the phone, and as soon as she got her hearing back in her ear, she asked what I needed help with.

Since my mom homeschooled me, she's always the first person I go to to ask my homeschooling questions. Things are very different when you're the teacher and not the student!

I wanted to know what I needed to save and what can I throw away. Where I live, homeschoolers are considered a private school, and I do not have to prove or keep records of what I taught, but I like to keep something so that I can go back to it if need be.

Mom advised I should just keep a sample of what each child is learning. Kind of like a scrap book. Then the idea popped in my head,

  LAPBOOKS!

I don't know about you, but I love a good lapbook. I was all excited and said, "Hey! Like Thing 1 is learning addition 1-10. I can make a lap book with him with samples of problems and his answers!"

Mom thought that was a great idea.

Lapbooks are not only just a good way to keep a "record" of what we are learning, but I can also pull it back out if Thing 1 or 2 needs to review! Easily stored in my green file bucket thingy, by using folders as the lapbook I can write on the tab what it is without having to pull out every single one.

Now my mission is to not only make the house presentable, but to also make a bunch of lapbooks. Now the temptation is which one do I do first?

How do you keep record of what your child is learning? How about grading? Leave your comments below, I would love some advise!

With Love,
Emily

**UPDATE** Heard a tip somewhere, can remember where sorry, but the tip is Duct Tape. Yes, take the Duct Tape (or packing tape in a pinch) and on the back fold of the lap book, make an extension the length of the spine of the book. Put tape the same way on the other side so that there is no sticky part of the tape. Then get out the ol' 3 hole puncher and punch in the holes. Now you can take your lap book and store it in a binder instead of a fine cabinet! 

Have you had your coffee today?

I don't know about you, but coffee is essential in the morning for me. If I don't get my coffee, I'm pretty much a zombie with the face that makes Grumpy Cat look happy. If I don't get my coffee in the morning, I will suffer headaches by the afternoon, and by that night I'm ready to be executed just to make the pain stop.

Yes, I'm addicted.

But there's something else more important that I used to struggle with; spending alone time with God. I see the things on Pinterest and my Facebook wall, like "Don't forget to thank God, because He remembered to wake you up this morning" and "Be the woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says 'Oh great, she's up'" and "God should be the first your morning and last in your evening". I feel the guilt trip that comes with it. Yeah, in the morning it seems that my coffee is more important that digging into Gods word and spending alone time with him.

In the morning, I'm up at the same time as my kids. That's about 6:30. I've tried to get up earlier than them, but I'm a night owl, and mornings are so hard for me to get up, because the night before my brain is so active. I think best when the kids go to bed for the night. I can plan better, I work on my crochet orders, I clean the house. My nights between 8-12 is when I'm active! It's my second wind!

One day it occurred to me. My alone time with God doesn't have to be in the morning! There is nothing that I know of in the Bible that says that my alone time with God has to be between 5 and 6 AM. So when do I have my alone time? Well, if you haven't guessed yet, it's at night! Just like my coffee is essential in the morning, my alone time with God is essential at night. It's when the kids are quiet, I know I'm not going to be interrupted  or have to stop because the kids are up for the day, and it's when I'm the most awake and ready to listen.

I belong to the Bible Institute. It's free and there are lots of things for me to study. I'm being taught by some of the best scholars in the modern Christian world. The fact that it's recordings, means that I can do other things at the same time, like working on my crochet. While I'm cleaning the house and being away from the computer I have BBN (Bible Broadcasting Network) radio on. I've been listening to BBN all of my life, and it has fed me as a child and now as an adult. When I'm in the car BBN is on. When the kids go to sleep, if I don't put on a CD for them, it's BBN radio they fall asleep to.

But that's actually not the only time I spend with God. I spend time with him all day long. Did you ever have an imaginary friend as a child? Remember talking them randomly throughout the day? Kind of the same thing with me and God. I talk with him all day long, because he is always here with me. I envision him standing in the room with me, to make it easier sometimes, but basically it's the same thing as prayer, except that I'm not closing my eyes. Being home alone with Thing 1 and Thing 2 most of the time, I need to be able to vent frustration, voice my concerns, and bring anything that else that is vexing me to his feet. I believe that if the universe is his throne, and the earth his footstool, then my problems can easily be handled by God. How awesome is our God that he wants us to just talk it out with him?

Then there are, thankfully, many more times that I catch myself singing to myself. It's usually a hymn that pops in my head, sometimes it's just the tune, but when I stop and think about it, it has to do with whatever the situation is, or with what I'm doing. I just love how God brings exactly what I needed to hear with my heart through a song learned in childhood.

I don't feel guilty anymore about not having that alone time with God in the morning. It's great if you can do it, because for some people it's a great way to start the day off on the right foot. But if you find that you just absolutely can not get up in the morning to have that alone time, don't let others make you feel guilty over it. God wants to have that relationship with you all day long, not just a 5 in the morning for a squeezed in 15 minutes. God wants to you be ready to listen to what he has to say, so if you're not a morning person, obviously you are not ready. Anytime is the right time to spend alone with God. There has been many times that the 5 minutes in the bathroom is a few minutes of alone time with God!

Now that I have you convinced that alone time is anytime, don't be afraid to have some alone time with God in front of your kids. I know, I know,...

WHAT!?

No really! Have some alone time in front of the kids! They need to see how important it is to have that time with God. When they see you having a couple of minutes with God they are asking themselves, "Why is it important". As they see you spending that time, they learn that God is always there to listen to them whenever they are tempted, full of questions, excited about something, God wants to hear it all! It is so wonderful to be the model of how to have the most important part of your day. 

So just as I make sure that I have my coffee in the morning so I can function physically, I make sure I've spent time alone with my Creator so I can function spiritually. 

Have you had your coffee today?

With Love,
Emily

The Story of a Rose Bush

Once upon a time there was a newly married couple. As a wedding present to each other, they planted a rose bush in their front yard. Oh, what a beautiful rose bush it was. How excited they were to see the buds bloom to huge fragrant flowers.

As spring warmed the earth, the rose buds started to blossom and as sure as they had hoped, the roses were just as lovely as their love for each other.

Summer came and the roses were in their prime. The lady of the house loved to go out to her garden and cut a few roses to brighten the inside of her home. She had to be careful though, for the thorns were sharp, but surely as hard as she tried she still pricked her fingers more than once.

Autumn came and the rose bush was no longer blooming, but had quietly gone to seed. It wasn't as pretty as when it was first planted, and the couple were sad that it would be a long time before the rose bush would bloom sweet scented flowers again.

When winter came the rose bush lost all of it's leaves and looked quite dead.  Now the couple were sure that they had somehow killed the poor plant, and thought about digging it up and throwing it away. But something kept tugging their hearts, just wait. Wait and see what might happen in springtime.

It was truly a long winter wait.

Spring finally came one day, and the sun slowly warmed the earth again. The couple went to see their rose bush, and hoped upon every hope so see,.. yes? Is it true? The rose bush was slowly peeking out little green leaf buds! Oh how joyful the young couple felt!

The rose bush had spent that long cold winter growing it's roots to become a stronger plant. When spring finally came not only did the rose bush grow more beautiful blooms, but was a mightier rose bush than when it was first planted.

Every year, with much tender love and care from the married couple, that rose bush continued to grow strong and healthy, and produced many magnificent roses in return.

****

This story is not actually about a rose bush. It's about marriage. When we first fall in love, everything is beautiful, the future is bright, nothing could possibly go wrong and the couple believes that there is nothing annoying about the other.

Falling in love is easy. It happens TO us. It's like tripping over your own feet. You didn't plan it, it happened TO you. Same thing, except you probably didn't embarrass yourself over your clumsiness, or fell flat your face. And if you did, at least the relationship started off with laughter.
So falling in love, is like the rose bush being planted. The rose bush had nothing to do with it, it happened TO it.

What is hard to do, is stay in love. That is something you have TO DO. Just like the couple in the story, to take care of a rose bush you have to water it, prune it, keep bugs from eating it, cure it of any diseases, etc. In a relationship, you have to work at seeing each other, talking and sharing life's experiences, finding the boundaries, keep others from trying to sneak into the relationship, and support each other in good times and bad.

This is active work.

To keep that plant alive, you have to work at it. To keep the relationship alive, you have to work at it.

In every relationship there will be thorns. My husband has chewed with his mouth opened as long as I've known him. It's my biggest pet peeve and no matter how many times I have told him to stop, and he replies 'sorry I'm trying', he still hasn't stopped. That is one of my thorns. His thorn with me, well, he's told me recently that he tries very hard to fall asleep first, because apparently I snore if I sleep first and then he can't get to sleep.

Which brings me to this point. We as human beings are lumbering, slobbering, and down right smelly people. Yes, I know you're thinking right now, 'No I'm not!", but think about how you are when you are alone, and you know you are not going to be interacting with people anytime soon. You betcha sweet bippy that you are scratching in places you wouldn't in public, you pass just as stinky gas as anyone else who eats beans and cabbage, and since you know you aren't going anywhere or seeing anyone you probably are still in your pjs and hadn't showered. Yes? You're human.

Now if you have found someone who loves you in spite of all I have listed, that person is a keeper!

Marriages will always go through times of Autumn and Winter. Everyone has wondered "What if I had married that guy" or "What does so and so look like now?", or "OOOOoooo, look at that eye candy". That's normal. What makes it potentially harmful to your marriage is if you obsess over it, and look away from your mate. Yes, I know there are times you look at your mate and wonder why in the world did you chose them. I know that the thorn in your relationship is never going to go away and once in a while that thorn pricks you and it hurts more than anything and you think, if only I was with so and so, I wouldn't have to deal with that.

But let me tell you something. Everyone has thrones. They might be different thorns, but they all still hurt. What's important is being able to deal with the thorns in your own marriage. As much as I want to throw a screaming fit as I hear my husband crunching on each individual kernel of popcorn that I can hear more clearly than the movie itself, I know that if I do I'm not showing love to my husband. I'm not even showing Gods love to my husband. No, I would be showing every level of hell itself, because it's the most irritating thing he does to me. So what do I do? I protect myself from that thorn! If it's a movie I don't really care about, I'll play the computer with headphones on. I'm still with him in the same room, spending time, but I don't hear the deafening sound of popcorn snapping against my eardrums. Or if it's an actual movie date, I'll make sure to give him his popcorn early so he can get started on eating, while I'm in the kitchen making myself an equally crunchy snack that will, again, help me drown the sound, and by the time I get back the popcorn is half gone.

If you are working on your marriage, and you are going through a Autumn or Winter, know that Spring is soon coming. Know that as you both work at loving each other even though times are really hard right now, you are growing roots deeper into the ground and that makes you both stronger together, and as spring comes you will be a mightier couple.

My husband and I are going through our Winter right now. Because of the economy, he is working two jobs just to make the ends meet. He does this so that I can stay home and homeschool our children. It's important to us that our children are protected, and fully equipped with the armor of God before we send them out into this world. Our sacrifice to do this, is my husband and I only see each other three days out of the week. We've been doing for almost a year now. It's been hard acting as both parents and I have new appreciation for all single parents in the world. But this journey so far has tested my trust with my husband, his trust with me, the very foundation of our marriage and our love for each other.

In all honesty, last summer, when this journey started, I never thought I could handle it. How can I possibly sleep by myself? How can I deal with not seeing my husband everyday? How am I going to survive my kids!?

It was completely God. 

God is the center of our marriage, the center of our family, everything that we do is centered around God. It's only his strength that is keeping us going every day. It's only his love that keeps us in love with each other. It's only his peace that we know one day our Winter will be over, and Spring will be here again. That is a day I look eagerly forward to. I dream about my husband being home for dinner every night. I have a new appreciation for what my husband has to do to provide for his family, and I only love him more deeply because of his sacrifice. This is my root in the relationship growing deeper and stronger. Because of God taking care of us, I know that when our Spring comes, we will be a mightier married couple, more deeply in love than when we first met and we will bask in the treasures that are waiting for us.

Though Winter is a long wait, how sweet is the reward of Spring.

With Love,
Emily

Are you happy?

If you looked at me now, you might not guess that for about half of my early life I was a lean and graceful ballet dancer. Shoot. I look at myself now and think what the heck have I done.

This is the story of being on both ends of the body spectrum and learning about being happy; for all butterflies are beautiful, because they are all different.

*****

Growing up I was never the fat kid, nor was I the kind that are lighter than they look. You know what I mean. You swear they have bird bones. No, I was the child that had the round bottom and the cute chubby cheeks.

Then when I was just barely ten, I went through puberty. I shot up six inches, c-cup, 27 inch waist and mother earth hips. I was a very lovely and curvy young lady. I took on the family stature of my dads Austrian roots and not my mothers tall and slender English roots. This is when I learned that my beautiful hourglass figure is going to be capable of holding a lot more sand than I realize.

Sometime between 12 and 14 I went from a thin 120 lbs to 170 lbs. I realized something was wrong when I couldn't make a single pirouette that I have been easily capable of since walking age. It was then that I learned about my weight gain and started walking everyday and eating salads for lunch. After two years I seemed to have lost all of the weight, but the scale would continue to scream at me 155 lbs.

I finally went to a doctor. He took one look at me, looked at a chart and said that for my height I should be 120 lbs and being 155 lbs I am morbidly obese.

Yes. You read that right.

Morbidly Obese.

That crushed me. At 16 I was labeled as the fat girl in my mind, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was working out upwards of 20 hours a week, eating extremely healthy (I don't think chocolate had passed my lips in those two years) and there was no more change whatsoever.

It wasn't until I went to college and took a weight management class. When asked how much I weighed I ashamedly said 155 lbs. Everyone was shocked, including the teacher. "No, that can't be right, you must 135 lbs at the most." Yeah, I heard that a lot before. 

BMI testing was pretty new then, so we all took a BMI test. I came out as 11%.  

That's 11% body fat.

Under 10 is unhealthy.

I was considered the healthiest student in the class! 

Was I happy? Yes and no. I was happy to learn that I was NOT morbidly obese and I wasn't happy, because my body image was permanently changed from what I looked like a 120 lbs. 

The world is such a mean place. We are bombarded every waking moment with the label of if you have curves, if you are more than a waif of a body, you are considered fat, ugly, and have no part of the beauty culture.

Thank goodness things are starting to change! Curvy women everywhere are starting to stand up and say 'Hey! We're here, we're beautiful, and we will never look like a "Top Model"'. 

Am I still 155 lbs? Ha! I wish. No, after meeting my hubby we grew fat and happy together. It wasn't until I had Things 2 that I realized how fat I got from being happy. I weighed 240 lbs. Wow. I was a size 8 at 155 lbs and at my heaviest I was wearing a size 20/22. 

Have I changed myself? Yes. I realized that I wasn't healthy. I was happy, just not healthy, and in my head I am still that ballet dancer able to run after the kids, but my body told me other wise. So that's when I decided to get healthy for my kids. They needed a mama who was able to chase after them, not watch from the sidelines. 

It's been 2 years since I started up the old regime of walking and eating salads again. This time around it's taking me a lot longer to take off the weight and I have learned why.

For one, when I was in my teens I didn't have my own business to run, I didn't have children to raise and teach, I wasn't married, I didn't have anything to look outward to. All my focus was on myself. Nowadays if I squeeze in walking time I have to take the kids, we don't walk as fast as I want to, we're always stopping and exploring something, and that's all right with me. The fact that we are out and about together as a family and discovering life is more important than me looking like I did in high school. 

And two, Thing 1 and Thing 2 are still very young, so we all kind of eat like 5 year olds most of the time. I'm a master at peanut butter and jelly, by the way. 

So 2 years and I'm down to a very nice size 16. I can squeeze into a 14, but honestly the number doesn't matter anymore. What matters is the fact that I can chase after my kids during a round of Dragon or Zombie Mommy. I can sit down on the floor and actually get up again without Thing 1 pulling from the front and Thing 2 pushing from behind. I look at myself and I don't think fat, I think healthy. Sure I can lose more weight, and if I do great! All that matters is that I'm healthy and I can make memories playing with the kids.

So my question to you my dear readers...

Are you happy?

With Love,

Emily

Why are Children God's Blessings?

My response to a wonderful article I read this morning on Women Living Well about Having Babies {in Opposite World}.

*****

Ever since I was a tween, all I wanted was to get married and have kids. 'How many?' Mom would ask me and I simply replied "As many as God will let me". I wanted a big, big family. Maybe not Duggar size, but bigger than the family of six my family was.

I, too, had met my husband in high school, and we married the weekend after he graduated college, and a few months later we were having our firstborn. We almost lost our son that day, due to dry birth and a plethora of things that made his heart rate almost stop and my body not even responding to get ready to give birth in the first place. But thanks to modern medicine and an emergency operation, we now have a healthy 6 year old laughing at the tv right now.

2 1/2 years later we had our second child, this time a girl, and though this time was not exceptionally horrifying giving birth, it was still through surgery. Oh, how I pined to have a girl. I wanted my firstborn to be a boy, and was happy that came true, but we come from large family of boys, so it wasn't a surprise. But a girl, that was a rarity. Oh, how I pined for her, even when the ultrasound claimed every time that the baby was a girl, I still wouldn't believe it until the doctor showed me as soon as she removed her from my numb body.

A boy and a girl. I was happy. I knew I couldn't, shouldn't, too difficult to have more. So a boy and a girl was an answer to prayer.

But still, deep down I felt terrible that my dreams of having a lot of children seemed like an impossibility, and that I felt less of a woman because my body wouldn't give birth the "right" way. I got a lot of negativity about not only having children younger than the world thinks we should, but also slack about how I shouldn't have had them (or have more) because I can't do it natures way (and extra kudos if it without medicine).

If the world was right, then they wouldn't be heading to H.E. Double Hockey Sticks in a hand basket.

(Now, I'm not saying that those who can give birth the natural and medication free should feel bad about their experience, or even more superior. I think that no matter how the child comes into the world, the fact is that a little bit of eternity now exists in the world.)

It wasn't until I spent some time alone with God that he healed my broken heart, and taught me how my two kids are a reward.

The fact that as I lay shaking on the operating table, with my arms stretched out, crying, and listening to the calming voice of the anesthesiologist telling me that it's going to be alright in one ear, and my husband giving me a play by play in the other ear, that moment was when I was completely vulnerable and completely not in control of anything. 

In that moment I went to God. I knew God was the only one who really was in control, and I was going to the source to make my plea. My plea for peace, for strength, for my baby. I remember praying in my head, telling God that I give all control to him and all I want is my baby, but because I know that he knows best for me, that if he took him home, it would be ok, because I knew I would see him again one day. But I really really wanted my baby with me.

As you can imagine, my son lived. The nurse came to me later and asked if they had told me the baby's APGAR score and was surprised that they didn't. She said he had scored a 9 1/2. She said that it really was a 10 (the best it can possibly be), but the hospital had a policy about not giving out 10s.

Translation: Not only did God give me my baby, but restored him to perfect health!

I also learned in my alone time with God, that in order for my son to have life, I had to sacrifice my body, my control, my every thing. I certainly would have given up my life to save his and it wouldn't have even been a blink of an eye to make that decision. God revealed to me that what  he allowed me to experience was the tiniest of tiniest fraction of what Jesus went through on the cross. It was then that the tears have not stopped flowing. The realization of how awesome, holy and pure our God is, and only seeing the smallest peek of all his glory, I can still scarcely take it in. Every time my mind wanders over there, or hymns that talk about salvation, even writing this post, tears spring up and I can not hide them.

Then came the lesson about my daughter. He knows my future. He knew that my husband was about to lose his job as a teacher and would have to struggle to find two jobs that would make our ends meet. He knew that my son would be exceptionally bright and unchallenged in school. He knew that one day I would be homeschooling my children and only seeing my husband three days out of the week. He knew my dreams, but he also knew what I can handle and that two children would be more than enough for me to handle. More. Than. Enough.

So God gave me the girl I wanted so deeply in my heart, so I wouldn't torment myself with the "if only" and "what if", or continue down the path to try to have a girl. Perhaps that would have been the wrong path for me to follow on my quest to have a girl and I would have suffered great losses. I won't know until I meet my maker, but I am sure of one thing; God spared me, and gave me my girl.

So why would the world say that children are a curse to young adults? Simple. Simple as simple can simply be. It's a huge secret that the world itself doesn't even know it's keeping, but I'll tell you, because I like you...

Satan doesn't want us to have more children.

Surprised? 

More children means more of Gods blessings, more of Gods rewards and goodness on the earth, more opportunities for God to show his love to us, and more people to spread Gods word to others.

How devastating would it be if no one in the world could have children? What would people do if they realized that the entire human race was to end in 100 years tops, because everyone was suddenly sterile?

There would be no hope for humanity! 

That is how children are a blessing from God, they are our future, they are the hope in the world.

This is why people get upset when a child is abused, or worse yet, killed. Why would anyone want to kill the only hope we have in this world that we can physically hold in our arms? Satan and his demons of course.

I love my kids. They are my life. I look back as what my life was before them, and it was nothing and empty compared to how filled and blessed my life is now. So many times in just the few short years they have been alive have my children amazed me, made me laugh the deep laugh, and showed me glimpses of Gods love. Sure my kids frustrate me, they make me mad, and they don't always do what they are told, but what am I fighting against? Bingo we have a winner! You're right, Satan and his demons.

Fight the good fight. Love on your children. If you and your spouse are feeling the yearning of a child, know that God will take care of you. Go watch In the Womb and be amazed at life and how it's a miracle that the body can even get pregnant. If you unable to have children, consider adopting, or even just being a foster parent. There are so many children in the world right now who are tossed aside and need stability and love. Maybe your home and your heart is where they need to be?

Be the light in the world, give the world God's hope.

With Love,
Emily

Plant Study- Part 2

So let me tell you about the rest of our plant study! 

Week 3: Stems and Trunks

In this week we talked about the different kinds of stems and tree trunks. There are special stems like the dandelions plants whose stems have that icky sticky white stuff called dandelion milk or latex, woody stems like roses, and then there are vine like stems that run along the ground and grow a new plant every few inches like the strawberry plant. There are other kinds of stems too, like the underground tubers, crawling vines, and even cactus (also known as a succulent)!

With the tree trunks we talked about the tree rings and how you can not only count how old the tree is by counting the rings, but also know when there was droughts or an abundance of water by how thin or thick the ring is! We also talked about the different kind of bark on the trees, how some is really thin like birch, or scaly like our oak and mountain ceder, and how cinnamon is a very tasty and spicy bark!

Craft: Leaves and Stem

The kids cut out their own two leaves and a stem and we added it to our growing plant on their doors. Looks like the two baby leaves that you see when the seed first sprouts!

Week 4: Leaves, Flowers and Fruit.

Yeah I know I said that I was going to have my plant study take up 5 weeks instead of 4, but the kids blasted through so much so quickly we finished it a week early! Ah the joys of homeschooling. Schedules are flexible!

Craft: Flower

I cut out their circles and petals, but they got to glue it all together. Don't you just love the bead "seeds"?

Added it to their doors with some more stem.

And we are done with plants! 

Doesn't it look great?

We sure had fun with this study and I hope that we have inspired you!

With Love,

Emily