Cooling Off!

Yesterday the kids were outside helping Mike clean the truck and the van. In the middle of that focus time, he lost them to a water gun fight amongst themselves. After that fun in the water, the neighbors down the street was out and filling up there pool for their 2 year old boy and my kids went down to check out the fun! Well fun is what they found and they got themselves thoroughly wet and my neighbor too! They had a lot of fun as I'm sure you see from the pics! Have a great weekend!

Proud Mama!

During the summer, my children have an opportunity to show off their memorization & listening skills on Wednesay nights when they do Wacky Wednesday. "What is Wacky Wednesday?" It is a program that our childrens department has that encourages the children through the summer to memorize scripture and listen to bible stories and answer the questions. Each scripture, each answer, and just being there earns them points! Because this is summer, I'm usually out of any kind of prodding for my kids to learn any of this. There are rewards that motivate them though and throughout the summer they've received water guns, water sprayers, candy, girly stuff, boy stuff, and more!

Well this Mama is proud of my two youngest (Sarah is too old to be in this competition but I am very proud of her too!)! My two youngest learned all their scriptures, answered all their questions, and made it to Wacky Wednesday when we weren't on vacation (well I helped with that because we go to church every Wednesday and they can't drive just yet, Hallelujah!) all on their own! I never proded, poked, nagged, nothing, nada! They simply always knew the scriptures and the answers to the questions (I wish this would happen in school, but it doesn't).

Anyway the reason I am so very proud of them is they won 1st and 2nd place of all the points and earned themselves a brand new bicycle! I couldn't believe it but was so excited for them. They really had earned something for themselves and something that I had no part in other than bringing them every Wednesday to church! Way to go Zech and Isabella! (Isabella's bike is 24 inches and she has to stand on the curb to get on, but insist she is keeping it because she will grow into and have many years on it!)

Sounding off!

There comes a point in all of lives when we tend to step up on our soap boxes and start sounding off! For me and my soapbox is about church and Sunday School. I became a believer in Jesus Christ at the age of 20 and have never looked back since! He is an awesome God, the only true way, and my Savior and Lord for almost 20 years now. I say all that to let you understand I wasn't raised in church. However when I accepted Christ as my Savior and He entered my world, He rocked it! Completely on its side and He is still showing me things that tumble my life all over again! I love it. I love studying His Word and can't seem to get enough some days. There in lies my problem, why aren't more Christians like this? I can't understand why Christians don't want to come to church, to Sunday School? Yes, I know there are hypocrites there, but your one too! I'm one! There are times in my life when I say one thing and do just the opposite. It's called sin. The Lord is so gracious though and if I repent He restores me back in my fellowship with Him. People should never stop us from going to church. We are supposed to be going because of God, not people. However its His people that He uses to help us along our way.

Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we are not to forsake the assembly of ourselves . . . but exhort one another and so much more as you see the Day approaching. The Day is the Day He comes back to judge the world! The Great Tribulation and such. I don't know about you but the Day is coming soon. And because of that aren't we supposed to be meeting more, not less according to the verse above? Churches today are dropping their Sunday night services and their Sunday School services and Wednesday night services and just basically one service all week on Sunday mornings. Even then people still don't come regularly. Why is that? People say we are too busy or I just want to sleep in! Guess what, I'm busy too! But when it comes to the Word of God aren't we to obey it? Aren't we supposed to Love the Lord our God above all things and that includes how "feel" on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings?

What about Sunday School? Sunday School is supposed to be a time when you spend time in a small group bible study. It is supposed to be a time when you really dive into the Word of God and support one another. It sounds good to me and in fact it is good! I love Sunday School, but why don't others? I just don't get it. God wants us to learn more about Him and to give everything over to Him, not just what we want.

Please understand my heart, I just want to learn more about Him! I get that more in Sunday School than in just a 30 min sermon and my husband is the Pastor. He would agree with me here. I wish everyone out there would want to learn more about Him, and want to help others in their struggle of living this Christian life here on earth. That's what Sunday School does and is. Be doers of His Word and assemble together more as you see the Day approaching.

Okay, I'm done sounding off now!

3rd one goes to camp!

Yes, we started school and now we've had to hault it a little while my baby goes off to camp. I thought it a very late date for camp, but it is happening and she left yesterday to go to the 1st-4th grade camp. She went last year and so she was familiar with it this year. She will be swimming, eating, recreation, and learning about God and her relationship with Him at her camp. Giggling, whispering, skipping, and more little girl stuff will happen as well as getting to know her friends a little more. It is a local camp and I could go and visit her if I wanted, but we will leave her to our Childrens Minister and pray for her while she is gone.

The house is quiet without our chatty little girl. We enjoyed a little bit of one on one time with the other two last night though. We played marble chase and Risk (star wars version) with them and then took a walk while they rode their bikes. God blessed us with some rain while we were playing games and eating dinner, so our walk/bike ride, was spent splashing in puddles and wading into ditches with lots of water. We all had fun. It was a great family night but I missing my baby already. She will be back tomorrow and I'm sure the noise will begin again. It is amazing in our family with our three children how when one is gone the noise level goes down once again. They are all three such good kids. I'm very proud of them although I can't take credit for them. I believe by the grace of God alone they are who they are! And the vote is still out on us, Mike and I, as parents because they are not fully grown and we don't know how they will turn out. I am trusting in my prayers and belief in God on their behalf they will be serving our Great God somewhere, somehow! Just a little rambling . . . !

Fruits!

The Word of God in Galatians 5:22 tells us that Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control is the fruit of the Spirit. In many other verses of His Word tells us that we are to produce this fruit abundantly and the purpose is the glorify Him! Most people say "Impossible". I can't do that! Ah, you are so right, we can't! But God can. If we cooperate with Him! In John 15 the bible tells us that if we abide in Him that we will produce His fruit abundantly. So what does abide mean. Abide means to dwell. When we dwell with someone, we live with the, we get to know them on a continual basis. Think about that. We know our husbands, our children, and even our relatives who stay with us occassionally because we've been with them for a while. We've stayed with them, remained with them, laughed with them, cried with them, and supped with them. That's exactly what God wants from us! He wants us to remain with Him continuously talking with him, laughing with Him, crying with Him, and even eating with Him! I've been teaching this in Sunday school for the past 12 or so weeks now.

What have I learned? I have an incredible selfish nature that wants to compartmentalize things including God. I have my quiet time in the morning and every morning. I can't remember when I have missed having my quiet times. They are usually very good and very informative and I love spending this time with Him. Unfortunately I seem to mentally check that off the list and proceed through my day and my List, per say, not remaining with Him. Now He didn't go anywhere and yes the Holy Spirit is helping me, but I don't visit with Him but occasionally throughout the day sending up short and little prayers here and there. I don't always invite Him to my meals. I tend to sneak in meals without Him, like He wouldn't know I just ate that chocolate chip cookie when I wasn't even hungry. I'm not continually abiding with Him all throughout the day. If I was to this with my husband or my children or even my relatives, it would make for a very poor relationship with them. HMMM....

What am I to do? The bible tells us that we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. Meaning I'm not to just read what it says and listen, but to absorb It and live It! So, my prayer to Him today was to not check Him off at the end but leave my prayer open ended, praying to Him visiting with Him, and inviting Him in all things that He wants me to do today!

You ask me how I'm doing? Well I'm posting this, so He has reminded me of Himself today several times. I did eat a chocolate chip cookie, but I was hungry and I had thanked Him for my meal. I'll fail many days, but His mercies are new every morning! Thank you, my Heavenly Father!

M.A.R.S.

Maniacs Attempting Robot Science is the name of our group! Yes!, the Roberson's have joined in the mad scientist of our town and fellow homeschoolers to undertake a momentous opportunity and build a Robot for the BEST Robotics competition. The group consist of kids from 9 on up to 17! We have taken on the new challenge of the theme for the 2008 challenge of "Just Plane Crazy". Apparently the robot will need to resemble something of a plane and our objective is to build a robot that will move something from somewhere to another somewhere and place the something there! Clear as mud? (Yes, I know mud isn't clear).

The Roberson's have consented to take on this challenge and joined the MARS team. We will have a few more meetings before the kickoff day. The kickoff day will be topsecret until we get the project. A few of the team, mainly the older ones, will drive to the distribution area and pick up the box that will contain our top secret assignment. They will drive home and meet all of the team and we will party, scheme, plan, and plot our way to making the best of the BEST Robots! We will have six weeks from that time to complete our robot, our display, and our speech. This contest is amazing because it contains so many levels of the kids intelligence. They learn engineering, planning, organizing, decorating, marketing, speech writing and making speeches and so much more. They also are coming up with their own T-shirt designs, which my children have already made two or more revisions of their idea for the T-shirts!

Oh, and did I mention one of the scores they receive is in the category of Spirit! Yes, the chant, "We've got Spirit, yes we do, we've got Spirit, how about you!" comes to mind. Yet again, did I happen to tell you who is in charge of the Spirit? Have you guessed by now? Yes, it's ME! I'm the mom in charge of helping the kids display our spirit in a way that brings us the best score! You ask me how? I don't know yet, but my mind is going to the movie Remember the Titans when they come in vocalizing their warm up by a dance and a song! Can you see me, the Baptist Preacher's wife dancing and singing my way to the BEST competition! Too funny, I know, but it is just a thought. I'm sure whatever the Lord leads me to do, it will glorify Him!

So are you ready to join us on our journey to the Robotics world! Come along and I will journal for you our new adventure! Yes, our school seems to be going well and we are having fun! (I'll keep reminding myself of that when it gets really hectic during this 6 week adventure.)

Summer has gone, First Day of School!

We said goodbyes to the long, resting days of summer and said hello to, "Good Morning, it's time to get up and start our day! It's the first day of School!" Yes, and I received a, "Ah, mom turn off the light," "Nooooooooooooo,"and "OoooohAaaaaghUuuuugh!" Thankfully I didn't take any of that personally. I simply said, "It's a beautiful day, get dressed, make your beds, and come to breakfast, we are having are specialty!" With that being said they actually jumped out of bed and started moving. We always have a wonderful special breakfast on special days called Chocolate Gravy and Bisquits. Yes, you heard me correctly and I did spell that right. The kids came bounding in, lined up and received their treats and drinks and sat down happily eating. I gave them all their new chore charts and discussed some new chores with them. We had our morning reading learning all about Queen Isabella and Ferdinand and Christopher Columbus. They did their chores and I did mine and we started our school at 8:30 on the dot.

We started with our morning Character sketches. They sketches a bible character and an animal in nature that displays or rejects certain character traits. We are studying hospitality. We went right on into history learning all about US History and Christopher Columbus and the American Indians already in America. Our annual pictures of the first day of school and measuring took place all to everyones surprise that they all grew about an inch just in two months (we measure them at the end of the school year too!) After that it was time to split up. One went to read, the other started geography on the computer, and the other did their math drill. And so went the morning changing from one subject to another. Actually the only other subject was spelling. I start off very slow the first week and add harder subjects as the weeks go by. Usually by the last week in August we are in full swing of our school sessions, learning all subjects with a gusto. Psst. . . don't tell the kids but we add their math lessons next week!

And that my friends was our first day of school. Now I have to tell that because of certain computer difficulties we were not without our frustrations and stresses on our first day! They all three took things way slower than they should have, but we just finished our summer break with is nice and slow and relaxing (you really couldn't have figured out that we were slower this summer than school season, but we tried!). Although our first day might have gone on without a hitch, it didn't and we still survived and thrived.

My kids are amazing kids and learning all the time. We are off and running towards the 2008/2009 school year and running in mind of Phil 3:14, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Our goal is Upward and Onward.