My Reality Check from the Lord!

Typically I only post on here once a week. Therefore, this post is a freebie. Something happened yesterday and this morning that I just had to share.

I was in that place where all moms get to eventually. I'm sure you know the place. Homeschool moms are especially familiar with this place. It's the place where you are just absolutely and completely FED UP with your kids and in DESPERATE need of a break. I was about ready to run screaming from my house, or call in the guys in white jackets. So this is the mindset I was in. As you can imagine, I was crabbing all over everyone in my family.

My hubby had brought home the DVD copy of "The Hunger Games" so we sat down to watch it as a family. If you've seen the movie or read the books, you know that there are a couple of very sad scenes. It was after one of those sad scenes, that had been causing me to tear up, when I needed to take a bathroom break. While I was in the bathroom, the Lord tapped me on the shoulder and asked me a question that totally changed my mindset.

He asked me, "When was the last time you cried because you were sad?? Not because a movie was making you cry, or you were empathizing with a friend's pain, but because YOU were hurting?" It caused me to take a step back. I honestly can't remember the last time! WOW! Talk about a reality check! It made all the things that my kids had been doing to bugg me seem insignificant. I realized just how blessed I am!

I have to admit here that my next thought went something like, "Oh, no! What if something happens to one of my kids or my husband since I'm due for some pain????" I'll just have to trust that to my Lord. They belong to HIM and even if He should decide to take one of them or even all of them, I will remain faithful to HIM. However as a side note, isn't it just like the enemy to butt into a wonderful moment with the Lord, and insert some doubt to try to shake our faith?

Anyway, this morning during worship at church one of the songs we sang really hit me. It spoke to me of how my Saviour calmed the raging sea I was in yesterday. He walks with me through the fire of raising children. He heals my disease of bad attitudes. He holds my world in HIS hands!

By the way, I'm getting that much needed break from kids. My hubby took them all out for the afternoon to allow me to have some quite time alone at home! Thank you, Lord for a husband who is willing to do this even though I'm sure he would rather be home relaxing.

It's a New Day With a Clean Slate!

I was thinking yesterday about how each new day is a chance for a fresh start. I like how Anne says it in "Anne of Green Gables", "Each day is new, with no mistakes!" I may not have gotten that quote exactly right, but you get the jist.

Each day is a chance for me to make a fresh start in my weight loss journey. I don't want to get caught up in the mistakes and slip ups I made yesterday. I want to keep moving ahead with new vision each day. One of my dear friends posted something in Facebook this morning. I love this perspective!

This is an excerpt from "Running with Joy" by Ryan Hall, Olympic marathoner and professional runner:
I’m excited about what God is doing in me right now, and I’m feeling freebecause running isn’t the most important thing in my life. Intimacy withGod is so much sweeter than running fast. But ironically, as I get closerto God, apply His principles to my life more consistently, and allow the
Holy Spirit to guide me more, I run better and enjoy my running more.
I’m always tempted to feel as if I can use God to run faster, but I know
this is shortchanging God’s best for me. All I want is God. All I need is to
receive His love. I need to continually ask myself, what is giving me joy
today, my accomplishments or God’s presence? “In Your presence is fullness
of joy.” The key to joy is continually being in God’s presence—running,
working, eating, or even sleeping.
After all, what is it about winning or running fast that is so great? It’s the joy
that such an experience releases in us that makes us hungry for more. We
were created to experience joy. The key to unlocking this daily, lasting, and
more fulfilling joy isn’t winning or setting personal bests—it’s being with
God as we run or do whatever we are doing. Sometimes our performance
brings us joy, and we shouldn’t feel guilty about enjoying those moments.
Still, we must realize that we can’t perform like that every day, but we can
experience joy every day if we remain in God’s presence.

Last night I had the privilege of attending our local homeschool support group meeting as a representative of Time4Learning.com. It was wonderful to chat with old friends as well as brand new ones. I was able to tell people about this great curriculum and how it can help them in their homeschools. There were a few parents of  preschoolers who came to my table. I was able to tell them about Time4Preschool.com. I was even able to tell some of the parents about Learning Games For Kids. This is a site that has all kind of fun educational games for kids. They even have educational videos which are fun for even parents to watch!

I'm taking a little step back from working so much so that I can get some homeschool planning done. I think I'm finally nailing down what I want to do for my 9th grader in each subject this year. I've gotten so spoiled having every subject covered while using Time4Learning. Sadly, they only teach through 8th grade though. I feel like I'm having to re-ajust my teaching hat for the high school years!

I was sharing with a friend last night about how terrified I am about this upcoming year and teaching a high school kid. She gave me some great encouragement as someone who has been there, has graduated a student and has another entering 9th grade. She said to me, "Remember how terrified you were when you first started your homeschooling journey? You discovered that pretty much everything you were worried about was not an issue. This is the same thing. You'll get to the end of this and wonder, 'What was I so worried about?'" I so needed to hear that! Maybe you did too!

Spinning My Wheels

Do you ever feel like you are just spinning your wheels in life? That's how I'm feeling with my weight loss and homeschooling right now.

First, I will elaborate on what I mean about my weight loss. I ended up having to take nearly 2 weeks off from working out due to a raging sinus infection that I developed. Took the last of my antibiotic last night and I'm feeling much better. I started back with my workout routine on Monday and Tuesday,  but now I'm having menstrual cramps (sorry guys) and just can't get excited about working out today.

I gained 2 pounds during my sabbatical from working out. I'm actually thrilled that I didn't gain more! That 2 pounds could even easily be period weight. So here's what I'm thinking. Perhaps I needed that 2 weeks away from working out in order to get past the plateau I had hit. It seemed like nothing else that I was doing was able to do the trick. I guess only time will tell.

As far as homeschooling, I've been feeling the back-to-school pressure. With all that I have to do for work and as a wife and mom, I've not been able to make the time or find the energy to finish my homeschool planning. There is still a LOT to do! For instance, I still have to find a language arts curriculum for my 9th grader. Let's Homeschool High School is helping with that. I'm helping to put together a directory of high school curriculum that will soon be published on this site.

As I understand it, whatever curriculum I choose for ManBoy will need to be literature heavy. The boy is a good reader, but he tends to be very picky about what books he chooses to read. He is going to have to start learning to read what is assigned to him or he is going to have a tough school year!

Well That Figures!

Almost as soon as I made public my resolve to reach 145 lbs before I turn 45 years old, I came down with a nasty sinus infection. I've been unable to work out for a little over a week. Not sure what the Lord is trying to teach me in all this. Perhaps it's a continuation of the lesson in relying on Him and not my own strength. I'm on antibiotics now but still have this nagging cough.

We survived our week of VBS day camp. I have the kids back to doing their math. Soon we are going to have to get back to doing full scale school. I'm still trying to round up curriculum for ManBoy now that he is starting high school. I know that one of the curricula we will stick with is Spelling City. I'm going to be quite busy with work responsibilities in addition to learning how to teach a high schooler! One of the things that will be a big help to me is that I will be able to have him take his spelling test online each week. Anything that our curriculum can do for me, so that I don't have to take time to do it, is a huge bonus in my book!

My Newest Goal!

Yesterday while I was working out, for some reason I started thinking about my birthday which is coming up the end of September. I will be turning 45 years old. Then I got a cool idea! Why not make it a goal to try to reach 145 lbs before I turn 45! Right now I am hovering at 157 lbs so that would give me 10 weeks to loose 12 lbs. I'm thinking with some determination and discipline, I can do it! I had a really tough workout yesterday that left me hurting last night. I backed off a bit today, but still got a great workout.

I'm also going to be extra careful about what I'm eating. I've gotten into the habit of eating ice cream and junk like that again. Keep telling myself, I had a really great workout today so I can do this. However, workout or not, that ice cream is probably part of what is holding me at 157!

This is the week that my kids are all at VBS Day Camp. It's a long day for them starting by having to get up around 6:30 every morning and not getting out of the church till around 3:30. For that reason they are getting a break from their online math.

As for me, I'm getting to enjoy having a quiet house for a few hours while they are away!

When Will Things Slow Down?

Busy, busy, busy!! That's me right now! Next week is VBS at our church. The two older kids have been going to help with decorating during the day. Since we only have one vehicle in our family, this means that I have to get up early enough to drop MyHero off at work. I also get to drop the kids off, go back and get them to bring them home and go back out later to get MyHero from work. All this running everyday is exhausting me! Yes, yes, I know. Many of you run like this everyday! My body just isn't used to it and my personality wasn't built for it. Being an Aspie, I'm much more comfortable just staying home.

I'm still hoping to get more homeschool planning done. It's been so crazy the last few weeks that I haven't managed to get any done for a while. One of the things on my list to do is set up spelling vocabulary lists for ManBoy's Biology course. I think it would be an excellent activity for him to play matching definition games using his biology words. But first I have to figure out which words to use and get them set up. Shouldn't be hard with the system SpellingCity has set up.

I also have projects I'm doing for work and a big project that is being prepped for me to start soon. I finished the afghan project I was doing for my Brother-in-law. He had ordered 3 crocheted afghans from me. Now I have an order for 2 sets of Star Wars figures. Yep! I'm going to be busy for a while yet!

Award!

I got an award! My new friend over at Learning 4 Keeps nominated me. Now I get to nominate 15 other bloggers. Well, we will see how many I can come up with.

The Rules for accepting The Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you. 

2. Include a link to their site. 

3. Include the award image in your post. 

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself. 

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

6. When nominating, include a link to their site. 

7. Let other bloggers know they have been nominated.

So for the 7 random facts about myself:

1. I can't smell. When I was a kid I would try to learn how to smell.
2. My favorite color is purple.
3. I'm a geek. It took marrying one to bring it out of me!
4. I have Asperger's Syndrome aka high functioning autism
5. I'm learning to love working out.
6. I love to crochet.
7. I gave my life to Jesus Christ when I was in 4th grade.

My nominees:

1. Five in Training For HIM
2. Little Farm in the Big City
3. The Family that Likes Each Other
4. Shapes of Angels
5. Pandahoneybee's Homeschooling Adventure

6. 3DLearners

That's all I can think of right now.