I am so sorry I haven’t posted the promised photos! I will do my best to get that done this week. I would love to show you around the wonderful house God has loaned us here in Hope. It is beautiful! We have a deck where I have a few potted flowers and some bird feeders! (I sure have missed being able to have flowers and seeing song birds!) We have five bedrooms and two bathrooms. We have a master bedroom, Laci has her own room, Lauren and Leslie share a room, Mitch has his own room and we still have a room left over for school/home office! It is a wonderful blessing! I have a window over my kitchen sink, so I can look out at the lovely green grass and the TALL pine trees!! Yay! We have trees!!! It is all so fabulous, I really can’t do it justice just trying to describe it to you. I will post photos…someday! ;]

Anyway, now that we are starting over again, I have had a new opportunity to re-assess my priorities and my goals in life. I unpacked Lauren’s fourth grade books and was really overwhelmed at what we will be doing this year. Well, I have to just show you.

These are only Lauren’s books. I have almost as many for grading and teaching. As I looked at all of this, I realized that fourth grade would be unlike any other. I will be doing a lot of grading and checking to make sure she is getting everything completed. While Lauren does the DVDs, I’ll also be teaching Mitchell myself. He will be doing first grade. My hands will be overflowing this fall!
I love working in the church ministries. They are very important to me. I enjoy what few hobbies I have, they too are enjoyable and even necessary. But my first ministry is to my family. If I lose my children to the prince of this world, what good will my church ministries be then? I will lose my credibility and my testimony by placing my children tenth in my list of priorities.Terry and I have decided to make adjustments to my life this year. I am going to be involved in several ministries at church, but I will not allow them to take over my life. They will stay in their proper place, if they start to swell and take over, then I will ask for help.
I will not be blogging as much as I did on my last blog. I really cannot afford to take valuable time from homeschooling to spend on the computer. If I live long enough, then there will come a day when I have more free time to do the things I enjoy. I will still be taking time to relax and refresh, but I hope it will be time spent with my husband! 🙂
If you are in the ministry, then you understand how Satan is after our children. He can literally destroy a Pastor’s entire ministry by stealing his children. My husband is our leader, and he works hard to keep our family headed in the right direction. But usually, it’s the Mom who spends more time with the children. The Dad must work, and Mom is there to keep the home fires burning. As I am home most of the time, it is up to me to stand guard over my children. Even if I must sacrifice what I enjoy on the altar of family. Mothers are often gentle and caring, and rightfully so! But if a Mom is to succeed for Christ today, she must also be strong and courageous. Motherhood isn’t for wimps. My own mother is small in stature, but within, she is tough as steel. She can stand when others would fall. That’s what I want to be.
I would appreciate your prayers as I try, more than ever before, to be the Mother that the Lord wants me to be. Pray that I can be selfless and that I’ll have the wisdom I need to know how to answer my children. Please pray that I have the strength to keep going when my flesh, and the Devil, would like me to quit.