Lighting a Fire...

Struggle is an opportunity

2009-09-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

A friend posted this on her facebook page. I'm not sure who wrote it originally, but it had a timely message.
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The emperor moth is the most majestic species among all the moths. It has wide wings spanning out majestically when it flies. Before it can become a full grown moth, it has to be a pupa in a cocoon. Now, the interesting fact about the moth’s cocoon is that the neck of the cocoon is very narrow.

In order that it become a moth, the pupa of the moth must squeeze its way out of the narrow neck.

One day a man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. He sat and watched the moth struggling to force the body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck.

Then the man being kind decided to help the moth. So he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He expected that the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. A few days later, it died.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was the way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight. Once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived the emperor moth of health.

You see, the struggles of life, heartaches and pains are necessary if you want to be great. Instead of cursing them, understand them while you are experiencing them. They are part of the making of a man.

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Romans 5:3-5

Double Hospital Rooms!

2009-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Children's is such a great place! Even though the boys were in such pain, they had distraction therapy in place. The boys had Rosalie, the Art lady, come in to see them and work them. They were also able to have a gaming system thanks to Starlight foundation. The hours went faster with all the distractions!
Josiah and Joseph had surgery to take out some extra bones. Josiah had three taken out of his shoulder blades, and Joseph had one taken out of each of his legs. We have a bone disease called Multiple Heredity Exostosis. There are extra bone tumors all over, sometimes they are bothersome and have to be taken out. The bone tumors are usually benign, however, my brother's bone tumors just came back cancerous. That kind of ups the stakes as to whether the boy's tumors will be as well. They have been sent to pathology. I have one in my hip that I have been thinking about having removed, as it is very painful, but I don't want to lose the "lift" of my leg. They said they would have to unattach the muscle in order to get to the bone tumor, but they would not be able to reattach it. So I have to decide what would be worse, the pain or no lift to my leg...

Congratulations Kaili~

2009-06-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

She did it! Kaili has graduated! I'm so proud of you, girl! Congratulations and good job!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

The kids decorated this cake for Mike for Father's day. We ended the day by going to the theater to see Star Trek. It was a great movie! Mike really enjoyed his day. Happy Father's day!

A friend sent this link to me. It is pretty funny. We spent waaaay too much time this morning watching the videos! Enjoy!
http://theguysmanual.msn.com

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2009-06-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

For Dad's birthday this year, we went to their house for a bbq. We are so blessed to have my parents living close by. Happy Birthday dad! We love you!

Happy Birthday Patrick!

2009-06-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great treat! Patrick came home from Afghanistan for a visit! We were abe to go to the park and have a bbq and play horseshoes and just hang out and enjoy having Patrick home for a bit. We love you Patrick!

Catch up....

2009-04-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Once again I'm behind in my blogging! I'm trying to get things caught up. So, just because the top post hasn't changed, doesn't mean that there are no new posts. I'm still catching up from February!! ugh. I hate being behind!

Happy Easter!!!

2009-04-12T21:38:00.000-07:00

Happy resurrection Day!! We had a quiet Easter this year. Christalin and I were very busy memorizing lines for the Easter sketch. Christalin and I did a sketch where the little girl finds out that the Easter bunny is not real. It was a good one. It had a lot of lines and Christalin did such a great job. The sketch was kind of serious, but she played the crowd and had them laughing. It was pretty funny. She really loves acting! I enjoyed being able to do it with her. I just wished that I had her knack for memorizing lines! She picked them up so quickly. I had to work like anything to memorize my lines! I hope we can do more plays together. We probably reached about 2,500 people over Easter weekend. It was really neat.

Surprise Picture - Watch it until the end!

2009-03-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

One of the ladies in my FIAR group shared this with me. I was amazed and wanted to share it with all of you!

AMAZING Art!Christ Painting! - video powered by Metacafe

Science Fair

2009-03-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

The kids decided to do animals for the Science fair this year. They did a great job. Christalin did horses, Joseph did frogs, Joshua did tamarins and Josiah did chameleons.

Quote to Ponder...

2009-03-22T20:06:00.001-07:00

Boy! Time is flying and I am getting behind in my blogging! We're working hard on the Science fair for tomorrow, so I don't have time to catch up on my blog, but I will try to in the next couple of weeks. For now, my dear friend sent me a quote that really touched me. So instead of having a whole bunch of quotes, I'm only going to have the one. It is really a good one that I'll be pondering and hoping to live up to! Enjoy!

"Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can."

John Wesley

We finished it!!!

2009-02-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

I am not a puzzle person. I, embarrassing enough, have a hard time doing children's puzzles! While we were up in Canada visiting My mom and dad, we worked on this puzzle together. The kids and I did it all by ourselves! We were so excited! Yay!

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a great Valentines Day. We're eating waaay too much chocolate, but it has been fun!! I took the kids out to Lowes and had them make their own treasure boxes. We were supposed to meet a friend there, but somehow that didn't work out. It was still great for the kids to make their boxes. It is a great place to put all their Valentine Candy!

The Sacrifice of Nyammah...

2009-02-12T21:05:00.000-08:00

Josiah and Joshua were in the teen's dessert theatre this year. The play was called "The Sacrifice of Nyammah. Here is Josiah's synopsis of the play: It is about this girl who lost her families’ corn doll. The evil druids wanted to kill her for it. N’yahmah and her friends go looking for the corn doll. They find out from an old woman named fawn that the leprechaun had stolen it. They go to Mount Knashega to find it. I play a leprechaun named Lord Seamus. In the end, we give her back the corn doll, the druids turn into bread and we all live happily ever after.

They did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it. The proceeds from the play went to their youth accounts. They earned money for summer camp this summer.

International fair

2009-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

The kids did a great job at the International Fair. They did Ancient Egypt. They had fun making mummies, pyramids and hyroglyphics. (how do you spell that word?!) I love having a venue where the kids can display what they have been working on. It is fun for them to tell others, as well as look at the other displays that other home schooled kids have done. Usually there is a taste of each country as well. We had dates with an almond honey paste rolled inside. They were very good!

Denny's Free Grand Slam Breakfast!

2009-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

My friend Lori and I went to Denny's for their free Grand Slam Breakfast. We took our kids along. It was a bit crazy! We had to wait in line for two hours!!! The kids did great though. They were troopers. They got to chat with their best friends for the whole time. Then we had a great lunch! We had come for breakfast, but since we had to wait so long, it ended up being lunch! My kids were starving by the time we were served. They ate everything on their plates and helped me with half of my plate too! It was crazy, but it was fun too.

Bunco babes!

2009-01-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

Every first Friday of the month we have Bunco night. We go to a different house each month. The hostess supplies a dinner and sets up three tables for playing. Bunco is a dice game that is pretty mindless. Meaning, we can talk all we want and not have to concentrate very much. Some nights we only get through one round! There are prizes for the most buncos, most wins, 2nd most wins, most losses, bunco babe (whoever has the "babe" at the end of the night), and even steven. Lately, we have been doing theme nights. One night we dressed "to the nines" another night we dressed all in black, as one of us was moving to another state. It's a great girls night out. My boys love it too, because they have a Star Trek movie on my Bunco nights. It's a win-win situation!

Knight Night Fight

2009-01-30T21:16:00.000-08:00

We bought some swords at the dollar store. Tonight we had a tournament. Two opponents; Area rug boundaries; three hits makes the winner. If you get out of bounds, or hit someone in the head you are disqualified. I fought Mike, but I lost 3 to 2. Everyone else ended up winning a tournament and were paid some money. They were then able to buy toys in Christalin's shop. We got P.E. credits and math credits in this fun exercise!! I love homeschooling!

The Weiner Mobile is in town!

2009-01-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is a trip down memory lane! Do you remember the Oscar Meyer Hot dog Mobile? I can't remember if I have ever seen it in person or if it was just on a commercial. I was taking my nephew to school the other day and we saw this driving down the road! Pretty crazy! Later on, my sister called me and asked me if I wanted a weiner whistle. But Of Course!

The nice ladies at the weiner mobile let us sing the Oscar Meyer song over the cell phone. She let my sister grab the weiner whistles for us. My kids did not know the weiner song. I had to teach them, but they are quick learners.

Now we're the proud owners of 5 weinie whistles! Just like what that guy wanted on the movie Santa Claus, remember? I did have to have the kids give the whistle chorus a break as four whistles going at once was giving me a headache! I wonder if I could count this as "Music Appreciation" for school?

Pine Wood derby Champ!!

2009-01-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Joseph had his Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby race. He had a fast little car! He won first place in the Webelo 1 den, and third place overall in the pack. It is fun to see him winning, as his older brothers brought home a few first, second and third place medals in years past. It is almost sad that we will only have one more Pine Wood Derby. Next year will be Joseph's last one. Congratulations Joseph!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have a new tradition that I have been trying. I belong to an online forum for my kid's curriculum they use for school. They are a great bunch of ladies. Anyway, last year they had a "Word for the Year", something that we want to work on for our lives. Last year my word was "Anticipation", I wanted to look at each and every thing that came in to my life and anticipate how it could bring glory to God. I wanted to be open to God working through my life and be excited about it, even if it seemed to be a negative aspect.

How is God going to use my family and me to bring glory to Him? That's anticipation!

Did I do well last year? No, I wasn't perfect. But, Yes, I think it did help me to focus on it throughout the year.

So, I'm going to try it again this year. I have been praying about it and I think I have ended up with two words. The first being: "Perseverance." I need to finish what I start. I tend to get great ideas for school, or home, but then I peter out after a couple of weeks. I need to get better at that.

That was going to be the only word for the year for me. However, the Lord placed on my heart another word as well. The word is "Gratitude". Being grateful for everything I have, either negative or positive. I like the quote from Melodie Beattie about Gratitude: "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."

What would your word be?

Finishing Strong

2008-12-31T13:59:00.000-08:00

Quotes to Ponder...

2008-12-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

My friend R.J. put together these great quotes on COURAGE. As we enter a brand new year, I thought it was a great theme for my Quotes to Ponder post!
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It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt

Half of the failures in life come from pulling one's horse when he is leaping.
Thomas Hood

Go back a little to leap further.
John Clarke

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare

Failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives.
Newell D. Hillis

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard.
The fearful are the failing.
Sarah J. Hale

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich

We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.
Samuel Smiles

I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best.
John Keats

It is foolish to fear what you cannot avoid.
Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes.
Publius Syrus

He that is down needs fear no fall.
John Bunyan

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
George Herman "Babe" Ruth

One who fears failure limits his activities.
Failure is only the opportunity to more
intelligently begin again.
Henry Ford

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
Elbert Hubbard

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.
Washington Irving

Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Oliver Goldsmith

Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.
Nelson A. Rockefeller

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent van Gogh

Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.
James A. Froude

It is the want of diligence, rather than the want of means, that causes most failures.
Alfred Mercier

A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed--I well know.
For it's a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
Georges Clemenceau

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
Napoleon Bonaparte

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
Elbert Hubbard

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard.
The fearful are the failing.
Sarah J. Hale

Disappointments are to the soul what thunderstorms are to the air.
Johann C. F. von Schiller

Failure teaches success.
Japanese Saying
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Happy 12th birthday Joshua!

2008-12-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

We had everyone over for Christmas this year. It was great. In the evening we have a birthday celebration for my Christmas "baby", Joshua. He had a great time. We had cake and ice cream for his birthday, but we never did get into the four pies that we made for Christmas dinner. Everyone was too stuffed! Joshua is becoming a very caring, sensitive young man with a huge imagination. He keeps us in stiches a lot of the time. He has a tender heart, and best of all he loves the Lord. Happy Birthday Joshua! We love you!

Christmas Tour...

2008-12-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've heard of other bloggers giving a Christmas tour of their homes. Last year we were in the hospital, but since this year we are home, I thought it would be fun to participate! So welcome to our home! As you come in the door, the bells on the door will ring. We love nativity sets, so I have a few around the house. The little grey nativity is made out of Mt. St. Helens ash. Our poor little Joseph got broken over the year in our nativity by the front door. Fortunately, Mike was able to piece him back together. I'll have to keep my eyes out for a replacement. :( Only three more days until Christmas! We're still snowed in. The neighborhood looks beautiful! Thank you for visiting our home this year! Have a very Merry Christmas and the very best of New Years!