Muted Excitement!

Tomorrow is the big day...we leave for our cruise. Just William and I, no kiddos. I have been looking forward to this day for several months now and now it is all I can do to pack and force myself to go.

I know we will have fun. I know it is good to get away as husband and wife sometimes. I know that my girls are going to have a blast with grandparents and uncle Jeff. I know that we will all be better for having this experience. If I know so much, then how come my heart is breaking at the thought of not seeing my four babies for five days?

It just hit me this afternoon that I would get no Kalli cuddles, no being able to hear Emi squeal, no kisses from Tori and no precious teenaged eye rolling from Brianna. How will I survive??

I will get cuddles with my awesome husband, fancy dinners where I get to dress up, riding through the jungle in a jeep and a few hours scuba diving.

I am so excited to have the blessed time to spend with just William and I, but oh how I am going to miss my four babies!

First Day of High School

We don't officially start school until next week, but Brianna began her outsourced classes yesterday. She also officially moved up at church on Sunday. Though I have known for a few years that she would be going off early, the fact that it is so official now has been harder than I thought.

She had a great time yesterday in her classes yesterday, though she has a ton of homework already. She started Latin, Physical Science and Logic yesterday. Tomorrow she starts band (flute) and on Friday she starts her geometry and chemistry. She is soooo excited!! Her Latin teacher told them yesterday that they will have about 2 hours of Latin homework each night. Bri was thrilled as she has always enjoyed studying Latin. Sometimes I wonder if she really is my child!!!

Here are some pictures I took to record her first day :)

East to West....Casting Crowns

I heard this song last week on our way to the beach. I love how it talks about as the day begins we tend to lose our focus on God. I also completely relate to the line that says he is afraid that God will leave him as he is.

It is easy sometimes to get caught up in what we do wrong and forget that God wipes it away when He is asked to. I recently made a list of sins that I struggle with on a frequent basis. As I looked over the list I found that many of them were more my distorting gifts God has given me. For example, the ability He has given me to lead, I turn into being controlling. It caused me to think more about asking for wisdom in how to use the gifts He has given me to glorify and please Him. I hope that you are as touched by this song as I am!

Home Sweet Home!

We just got home from our girls only vacation and had a wonderful time. I loved the little beach town we stayed in. I have a new respect for Texas beaches. This one was perfect!! Clear water, no crowds and awesome waves!! We had fantastic fun, but are glad to be home. It will take weeks to get all the sand off :)

Please Pray

I would like to ask all of you to please say a prayer this morning for my brother. I can't really give out details online, but he needs our prayers right now. I would really appreciate it!

Thanks

Busyness

This past week I was feeling completely overwhelmed. Ever have days like that? I had began to let my time with God slip into the to-do list and not the finished list. In otherwords, I skipped it. Thursday night as things were going crazy with gymnastics from 2-6 with an hour break, Bri had a swim party and William worked late, I happen to quiet down enough to hear that still small voice say "Meet me tomorrow, no excuses!" Ouch!!

As I began my Bible study that next morning, I started by calling out for His help to get the many things done that needed to be done. I am not sure what I was expecting, I think maybe to be lead to drop some things, but what happened was not what I expected! My study took me to Isaiah 30:15 "This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it." Don't you hate it when you ask a question, having what you think is a pretty good idea of the answer, and get something that blows you away! That is where I was Friday morning. As I began to pray and reflect on this I realized that I was going about this all wrong.

There is only one thing in my long to-do list that I think I should not have taken on and it will take me about a day. The rest of my list I really feel are things that are God approved tasks. My problem was that I was getting so caught up in whirlwind of my life that I neglected to take the time to be quiet and listen. I began to rely on my own abilities to organize and plan that I failed to seek His guidance and His plan.

Somewhere this weekend I heard or read these thoughts about Psalm 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." If we don't take the time to pick up the light (Bible) to guide our path, we will waste precious time stumbling around in the darkness.

Isaiah 30 said that in quietness and trust lies our strength, but we would have none of it!

Father,

Help me to find my strength in You. You will provide the energy, wisdom and strength for me to carry out Your will. Help me to remember that in order to hear Your voice, I must listen.

Forgive me for my selfishness in believing that I am able to complete Your work alone. Forgive me for wasting a precious day that You have blessed me with doing work that I committed to without consulting the Master Planner. Forgive me for talking and being so much that I fail to listen to your whisper.

Help me fall deeper in love with you with each day I live and each breath I take. You are my all, my everything. You create with Your words, You heal with Your hands and You guide with Your whisper. Help me to be the creation, the patient and the listener that you desire me to be. All is for Your glory!!

Amen

Back to School Time

First let me say if any of you read the anatomical comment under my Get a Hobby post, I'm sorry! I guess my postings are just soooo interesting that people who are not capable of saying anything relevant just can't help themselves. They are so overwhelmed by my musings that they feel they must say the first thing that comes to mind. I have that effect you know!!

Now, to the current topic, I love back to school time! I loved it as a child and I think I love it more as a parent. Nothing beats getting to pick out new notebooks and pencils.

I am most excited about Emaleigh starting Kindergarten. I absolutely love this time in the girls education! Nothing beats teaching a child to read. Being able to see the whole process work is awesome. I feel like in teaching the girls to read, I am opening up a whole new world for them and giving them countless opportunities! I love it!!

Tori is dyslexic so the reading process took on a whole new meaning for her. It was so incredible to watch her take the mind and way of thinking that God has given her and slowly adjust the process to fit her.

Each of my girls learned to read so differently even though we have always used the same method. Brianna could not slide the sounds together to save her life! I tried visual games to help her, oral games, everything!! Then one day, poof, it clicked and on we went! Tori just could not process the images at first. I spent countless hours on the computer researching and reading about dyslexia, I read numerous books and studies! Most of what we read told us that if given the space, a dyslexic child will find their own way and own set of clues to help. So we gave her space! We read to her to instill a love of books and we s..l..o..w..l..y went through learning to read. Then in about late 3rd grade it kicked in and off she went!! She will still turn around an occasional letter, number or word, but she has learned to look over what she writes and most of the time can notice now that something is amiss and fix it! She is now reading great! She just finished The Hobbit and really enjoyed it as well as the Nancy Drew collection.

Quick funny story...dyslexics have a really hard time with left and right. Tori is able to distinguish left and right because she has a freckle on her right hand. I will see her in gymnastics when they learn a new beam skill looking at her hand! Well, the other day she had an hour lesson with just her and one of her coaches and they were working on a skill on the bar. Well, as I watched, I realized that she was having a lot more trouble than normal. Eventually it occurred to me that she was using the wrong leg! When she took a water break I mentioned this and she was like, oh, your right!! She was happy to know what the problem was. I asked her after her workout why she had used the other leg and she said that she just remembered that it was they leg that was closest to where the bathrooms were. This coach worked her facing the other side of the bar so it was a different leg! We all thought it was pretty funny!

Anyway, I love teaching the girls to read and I love the way you get to really "know" how they read and how different it works!

I am also really excited about Brianna's logic course this year. This is mostly because of two books she is using, Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ by Peter Kreeft and the Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundereds of Answers to Crucial Questions by Peter Kreefy and Ronald K. Tacelli. I have looked through these and they seem to be awesome books!!

I have spent this last week working on lesson plans, schedules and assignment sheets! It has been soo fun!

Are you guys ready for school to start??

Awesome Song, Awesomer Message (new word!)

"Bring The Rain"

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty

Get A Hobby!

You know, I am so annoyed by some cyber people. They get their thrills out of anynomously bothering people. My daughter and some of her friends have a little website that they communicate through and someone hacked into it and made it where they can't get in. Now, this person needs to find a hobby! I can't imagine someone who would waste precious time in their life doing this.

This goes for whoever is posting in my blog under other peoples names. Get a good book to read, go see a movie with friends, do something constructive. If you have something to post and don't want to take credit for it then post as anonymous, but don't post as someone else. Maybe get your own blog where you can say whatever you want and people that are interested can read it.

It just seems to me that cyberspace is an easy access for people to vent what is wrong with their lives out on other people instead of actually dealing with the issue.

Practice :)

Well, William and I had practice tonight for our 5 days together with no kiddos cruise coming up! We went out to dinner and to a movie. We ate at On the Border. We had great service, but the food was so-so. After dinner we went and saw the movie "No Reservations". We wanted a stress free, relaxing movie. It was pretty good. Definitely a chic flick and very predictable, but it was a nice movie.

It is so important once you have kids to continue to take time out of your lives to have time alone as a couple. Not only is it great for your marriage, but it is great for your kids. I think today too many kids observe how their parents put them,the kids, first and it makes for selfish kids that do not know how to have a healthy marriage.

I know that this is a really hard thing to do. It is easy when the kids come along to get so caught up in meeting their needs that you forget to meet the needs of your spouse. I am just as guilty as the next person.

How much better would our marriages and our children's life be if we eagerly anticipated our spouse walking in the door not to hand off the kids or talk about our day, but to give them a hug and a welcome and hear about their day?

HELP!

Okay, any of you who have an electric griddle and would be willing to let me borrow it for the Preschool Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, please, please, please email me at kristisblog@yahoo.com


Also, if there is anyone without preschool kiddos willing to help out on Saturday morning at the church you can email me too :)

Finally....any of you with kiddos birth through 5, please come to RE on Saturday morning for pancakes, fellowship and fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will have a pancake bar set up with chocolate chips, strawberries, whipped cream and more.

Sounds yummy!!!!!

Now tell me who would not want to wake up every morning to this!!

Many of you know that we are dying to get out of Texas and move to snow and mountains. We thought we had a Colorado calling last year, but it was not the right time. We have always wanted to move to Alaska, but it is such a huge jump from Dallas, city life, to Alaska. I have been reading a blog that I found I think on Heather's blog about a couple that live in Alaska and the other day she posted a list of the good vs. the not as good about living there. It really made us want to go. We have been talking about it for months and William has been looking at jobs and praying about it. Tonight he stumbled upon a great opening at a company there and....we applied! Part of me would love for this to go through, while the other part is a bit scared. I don't like bears very much!

Anyway, I know that applying is a long way from getting, but it is a step!!

Weekend Pictures!!!

Oh My!!

I can't believe that it is August already! I have so much to do that I honestly feel as if I am spinning. I really can't believe that another school year is about to begin.

A couple of friends and myself are going to have a once a month cooking club! We are each making three of 10 different dishes and packaging them to freeze. T took chicken dishes, I have beef and Stormy took misc. dishes like cheese, beans, ham, bacon, etc. We each have the next week to get them all put together and then we are handing off. I will have 30 meals stacked in my freezer and ready to eat. I am really excited about it!! It will also cure the dreaded.."are we eating that again's"!!

We all got together yesterday morning while the kids played and got everything planned and ready to go :)

William and the girls are at the park right now. He and Emaleigh found one yesterday that is obviously a frog breeding ground because he said that it was full of baby frogs. The girls were excited about going and holding the frogs.

I know this will come as a shock, but I don't really have anything else to say!!! Except to Stormy and T.....I am so not a control freak!!

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkkk

Due to some new information that I have obtained, my husband and I have decided that we feel okay stepping back into the blogging world!!! Man I missed it :) I have so much that I want to share and I know you are sooooo interested :) Well, at least a little interested or you would not be reading this (gotcha!!).

It's good to be back! I will post more later :)