Giveaway at InaShoe

They are hosting a giveaway over at www.inashoe.com. They are currently giving away the Baby Conference on audio! This is a seminar on the Biblical view of children, babies, adoption and many other things concerning the womb. Good stuff to think about. Convicting.

I have been gone awhile

We recently signed up for internet again after not having it for well over a year. Perhaps I will pick up the blog again during these long winter evenings! What have we been up to, you ask?
Good question.
Here's a partial list:
Laura and Chara have been trying to eat better(children too!) and Laura has developed some tasty recipes using dates as the sugar!
We purchased an eliptical machine to provide us with some exercise!
Laura has been sprouting her own wheat and grinding it with her own grain grinder. Soon she will experiment with sourdough.
We still use cloth diapers--do i need to explain how long this takes?
Laura has been trying to learn to knit socks.
We have four children--two of which are homeschooling--yeah--busy!
Chara has enjoyed attending amateur church sport leagues--basketball and volleyball.
We went north for Christmas to visit both sides of the family.
The biggest? Our dish washer broke, and we have had to do all our dishes by hand! (Big deal you may say, but 6 plates x three meals is 18 plates, and three pieces of silverware times six is 18 pieces per meal times three is sixy-four pieces per day, not including serving or cooking ones...or pots, or cups etc!)
And no, I'm not pregnant again--yet....but you never know?

They Are Not Convinced

I have heard lately that many children that have grown up homeschooled are choosing to leave the homeschool choice after they are grown. Many parents and homeschool leaders are puzzled by this phenomenon. They struggle to understand why their children do not seem to want to follow in their footsteps.
I would like to offer some reasons as to why this may be happening. The one that comes into my head most is this: we have somehow, unknowingly, made our children think we are keeping something better from them. Let's think about this for a moment. Most families who homeschool these days are one income families. One income families must live at a lower standard than most two income families. We take less vacations, we eat out less, we own fewer gadgets and toys, and our children may have to do more work themselves, because we can't afford help!! Somehow, I wonder if our own discontent and frustration with these things has rubbed off on our children. And in their narrow understanding, they somehow think that life is better on the "other side". The other possiblity is that we have provoked them to wrath and rather than upset the fruit basket at home, they quietly wait until they are free to pursue the freedom they never received at home.
There is also the possibility that it is just their rebellious sin nature at work and the realities of life will eventually bring them full circle. What are your opinions?

Quality Time

A while back i remember hearing about how the Duggars try to spend an hour one on one with their children each week. I also remember how everyone seemed to be disgusted with this, thinking that it was terrible that each child only spent one hour a week with their parent. It seems that people have short memories. How many families these days spend that with their children when there is only 2.3 children?? I would probably say many. there are so many families where both parents work full-time, and the kids come and go as they please and very little takes place in the way of passing on values or meaningful interaction/conversation. Those who are so hasty to pass judgement on the Duggars must have forgotten that Michelle is of the stay-at-home variety. The younger children are also loved and cared for by older siblings(how is this worse than full-time daycare?). Also, their lifestyle is one of working together, learning together, playing together. Besides, how many only children have looked wistfully at families with lots of siblings and said, "I wish I had some of those!"

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Ya'll know we have four children. In today's day and age that is a larger than normal family. There are other families that are even larger (like the Duggars). Many of the people concerned with overpopulation feel that these families use too much of the world's resources, and that they are selfish to do this.
I used to struggle with how to answer this...no longer.
Several months back, there was a news story about Nicholas Cage foreclosing on his mansion. Did anyone see the gaudy, lavish (and I think ugly) pictures of this money pit? People see large families, (who oftentimes are more concerned with recycling, buying used clothing/household furnishings, drive used cars etc) and assume they are gobbling up too much food, fuel, water etc. But what about these pro-athletes, actors, and musicians who spend grossly on lavish mansions and estates?? And all the fuel, food, and water to upkeep these things?? No one dares speak against those things, or about how fair or unfair it is.
Just an interesting thought.

Watermelons are a Miracle!

How is something that is made of about 85% water so hard?? Need I say more?? Some you have to hack into with a butcher knife! or pumpkins, or squash etc. How does it become so hard when it's mostly water?? I repeat, watermelons are a miracle.

Can We Let God Be God?

I have been pondering lots of things lately, one of which was about a combination of why we don't evangelize--why we frequently are kind of closed mouthed about our Savior, and the role of God in our lives.
It occured to me that many of us(myself included) don't allow God to be God in our day to day lives.
What do I mean? Here is an example. We live on a budget that is getting harder and harder to stick to as our family grows. However, I believe that financial conservatism is a Biblical teaching. So, when, after all I can do, we run out of milk money, do I simply go out and spend money that I really don't have and cause my grocery budget to go in the red? Or do I say,"Okay, Lord, I have tried to do what I can to stretch this further. I don't have any milk money left. You will have to provide the money, the milk, or give us the grace and creativity to go without."
And then wait for His provision. We all too often feel that our problems are ours to solve. We don't even bother approaching Him for answers.
We sing songs at church about God being our strength, our portion, our strong tower,etc. But when confronted with an unbeliever who is incredulous about our faith, what examples can we give of His being these things in our lives? Not many.
However, this requires a leap of Faith. A leap that many of us are unwilling to take.