Creating and Building Fun!

One of the homeschoolers in our area announced a week or so ago that Lowes facilitates a program for kids every other Saturday. The children build exciting and fun creations that they have prepacked and also have directions to follow. They provide all the necessary tools and support help needed to complete the project.

So guess where we proceeded to this morning! Yes, you guessed it, Lowes! We arrived right on time and journeyed our way through the store before we found the area they had set up for us to build our designs. Sarah, Zech, and Isabella were handed aprons, goggles, hammers, and a prepackaged bundle of our project. They set about to work and all of them were fairly stubborn when it came time for help. So I stepped back and allowed them to work on their projects. They made Tabletop Tetherballs. Very cute and very inventive and they finished the instructions and stood back to observe their design. They DID it! All by themselves and that created a proud moment for them. All of them remarked on how they had fun with their creation and build toy! We will repeat this opportunity again!

What's up?

I know most of you are asking, "What is up with the Roberson Family?" Okay, not really, but your checking the blog anyway to see anything new. This week and next week are actually down weeks for us. I am still in the planning mode of school. Looking through each subject thoroughly and seeing what plans I need to make for books to be checked out, for copies to be made, or for any unusual school supplies to purchase (science does require some unusual supplies). I'm also gearing up for the first week and what we will start to accomplish. I start early in August almost always so that we can get a jump on things before the rush of all the extracurricular activities start and also so we can begin slowly!

Although I'm still planning, I've still gotten a chance to spend time playing with the kids, cooking yummy breakfasts (I baked homemade bisquits this morning), read a book and started on another one (its the new sisterchick's book, "Ooh, la, la!"), and more things that are relaxing. I had a friend of mine join me yesterday for some yummy ice cream sundae's! Both our mothers went to be with Jesus within a month of each other and we encourage one another along this new journey God has us on. The kids are waking up late still and generally enjoying their day kicking back, playing video games, legos (they are creating something BIG!), and board games. The kids had and are having some activities like birthday parties, swim parties, movie parties, and sleep overs! They are all catching up on some missed reading this summer and other crafts and such we just haven't gotten to.

So with all that being said, we are just hanging out and enjoying one another as a family. Mike is still in the thrawls of his disertation and has learned lately that he is farther along than he thought he was and was encouraged by that fact. He is still working hard shepherding God's people at our church. God is working in our lives too and continues to show us wonderful answers to our prayers and reminding us to yield more and more to Him in the process. I read in my bible study last week and I'll leave you with this scripture to meditate on. "He must increase, and I must decrease." John 3:30

Contentment

We all struggle with this word, Contentment! And yet the bible in Phil 4:11 tells us that Paul had learned to be content in whatever state he was in. He was shipwrecked, beaten almost to death (many times), imprisoned, hungry, rejected, snakebitten, and so much more. Yet he was able to say, "I'm content." Amazing! My children and I had a bible discussion yesterday on this word. You see after many days of being at Grandma's (thank you Grandma!) and Aunts and Uncles (thanks to you too!) my kids come home to a house without a Wii, Xbox, pool, and cousins and many of the things that kept them occupied for the last several weeks. And the saying that is going on around the house is, "I'm bored!" "I miss my cousins." "I miss Grandma." and so on. I understand this and can sympathize with them. It is hard to go from vacation mode to being at home and having to clean our rooms or not getting special treatment or not being entertained but having to use their own God given imaginations! However it is necessary and so we discussed how to be content and what should we be content with.

Even as an adults we struggle with being content. Contentment in our everyday lives, in our salaries, in our gifts we've been given, and yes even in our walk with God. We struggle with never seemingly having enough. I never seem to have the right outfit or my hair doesn't look right that day. I always seem to find new recipes because I'm tired of the old. And so on and so on and so on. I should be content with all that God has given me but I don't seem to be. When I'm hungry I complain, when I'm feeling fat I still complain. I've never been imprisoned, beaten (although my brother hit me plenty as I was growing up), shipwrecked, or a lot of things Paul went through. However maybe that's the key. You see he said he LEARNED how to be content. That means that there were times in his life when he wasn't. At this point in my life I feel it to be a lifelong lesson that I'll keep learning.

One place I hope I never have contentment and that is my walk with the Lord. I hope I always want more. More knowledge, more wisdom, and more time spending talking with Him, walking with Him, and enduring with Him! I want to always want more of Him. In John's gospel, chapter 3, John the Baptist clearly defines this by saying, "He must increase and I must decrease!"

So my lesson on contentment, did it work you ask? Yes and No. It is a learning process and we are all in my household learning to be content in whatever state we are in. (Yes that even means if we live in a different area of the state of Texas than our family.) Is it a hard lesson? One of the hardest, but as He increases in my life, contentment is one of the best lessons to be learned!

The Noise is Back!

and yes, it sounds good! Thursday night around 5:40 or so in the evening my stepfather with all three kids in tow pulled into our driveway! Nine days away from my kids truly made me appreciate them so much more. I hugged and kissed all three of them until they were saying, "Okay mom, you can let me go now." We unpacked quickly and heard many tales of garage sale shopping and saw their treasures, and the stories of playing with the cousins, grandma, and Papa taking the door off its hinges because he locked himself out of the house. We talked with them and hugged them some more.

Since Thursday we've played, talked, tickled, wrestled, giggled, hugged, and kissed them all three. Papa was here yesterday and took them to the movies last night while Mike and I had a church dinner to attend and a hospital visit to make. He left this morning to go and do some fishing with my Uncle Johnny. He was grinning from ear to ear because he not only got to play and have some time with his grandkids but he was going fishing which he loves to do.

This morning as I was having my quiet time I heard all kinds of noises. Grunts, giggles, warnings, thuds, yelling, laughing, and more were heard down the hall from two of my children. I didn't mind a bit. Usually I like to have a "quiet time", however I just thanked my God for giving me these three amazing children. Yes, sometime today I'm sure someone will get in trouble, and sometime tomorrow I'll probably fuss at one of them, and sometime next week I'll wonder were they ever gone for nine days, but for now I'm enjoying them back and enjoying the noise that comes along with these three children God has allowed me to raise, nurture, and bring up in His training!

Plans, Plans, and more Plans!

Most of you who know me know that I'm a big planner. I plan lots of things. I plan chores for my kids and zone areas for them to work on. I plan two weeks ahead of time for menu's and do my grocery shopping with my planned layout of Walmart for every ailse. I plan everything in my little black book that keeps getting fatter and harder to stuff all my planning into.

That being said, guess what I've been doing since I have no kids! Yes, you guessed it, planning! What you ask am I planning? What am I organizing? I'm planning my 2008/2009 school year! I know all of you are excited now! I got it all down on paper and then I typed it up (still a little incomplete but getting there) and now I'm hopefully going to finish it today! I was amazed at all what I want to do with the kids this year. The subjects are Math, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, History, Science, Writing, Latin, Typing, Geography, Bible, and Reading! This is just their core subjects. We are also adventuring into or starting again the Robotics Team, Volleyball, flag football, Basketball, Enrichment, Piano, and PE! The planning of each subject takes time as to what you are doing in each one. Some I use curriculum for (these are easy to plan because they usually have it laid out for you already) and some just come from ideas from other moms or other websites (this is a little more difficult but fun!).

I love planning and getting it all on paper so that I can step back and look at all the thoughts that whirl around in my head all year! My children and their education are so important to me and I really enjoy planning it all. However where I struggle the most is getting it all done and keeping the "fun" in school. Mike looked it over yesterday and then looked at me and said, "Wow, this is a really busy year!" I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Most importantly though, that while I'm planning I'm asking the Lord to truly direct His paths in our lives. I can plan everything, but unless they are His plans, they are truly useless. The Lord helps me to organize, plan, and to accomplish His tasks before us! He will lead and hopefully we will follow! So for the 2008/2009 school year, I have a plan and hopefully, at the end it will be finished!

New definition of QUIET!

Many of you know by now that it has been 5 days back from vacation with no children. Technically you could say I'm still on vacation. Mike went to work on that Thursday and I was in the house all alone. I amazed myself thinking I need to turn on the television or something because it was so quiet. Although I didn't, I turned to my computer and got a lot of planning done for next years school year. My goal is to have my plans in writing, my calendar set, and my first month of plans typed out. I'm also trying to purchase most of our homeschooling books for the 2008/2009 school year. We always try and start out the first week in August with a couple of subjects and adding a few each week until we are on full swing with school by the first week in September.

I am getting quite a bit of accomplishments done without the kids here, it is just quiet beyond all my comprehension around here. Now anyone who knows me knows I like quiet. We've gone to a new definition of quiet. Quiet is good when you've had your fill of noise (people, TV, kids, etc) and you just sit back and enjoy it. However, I've had 5 days of quiet. Even though Mike has been here, we both don't make enough noise to replace the absolutely resonating sound we get when our kids are here. Nobody giggling, crying, screaming, talking, laughing, asking questions, or anything. Just me typing on my keyboard and with my hearing as bad as it is, I can't even hear that. I'm ready for the noise again, for the voices behind the noise, and for the beautiful faces of my children. It takes them being gone for a while for me to realize how deeply I love them and desire them to be around all the time.

My new definition of quiet is that I like it in episodes but not in a series! I like little doses and not the whole kit and kaboodle! But I'm going to enjoy the next three days and try and listen to the still small voice of the Lord and try and remember all this quiet when there comes a very noisy day and all I want is quiet around me!

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