Do you ever feel LOST?

Do you ever just feel LOST when it comes your child's interests? 

Boy I do! 

In recent years we've gone through Skateboarding, BMX biking, Minecraft, Xbox, Playstation, Painting, and now Photography...

Gone are the days when he would he turned to ME for all the answers. Now I find myself turning to him most days. 

When did these roles change? 

When did Google become my new best friend when it comes to just carrying on a conversation with my son?

Well I am choosing to embrace this season in my life. To stretch myself in areas I never thought I would. You'd think with a boy, I might have had an idea about a few of these, but things are so much more technical these days. It's not JUST riding a bike... 

...it's gears and bearings and grips OH MY!

I encourage you to jump right in there with your children. Get some grease on you hands, paint under your fingernails and learn a few terms that you'll NEVER use in conversation with your peers.

Your kids will love you for it and you'll have spent some truly precious time watching them learn about things they are passionate about if even for just a month or two (as is often the case in my home).

Empty Schedule, Full Heart

As I pull into the driveway last night around 8pm, I was reminded of how long it's been since I was out after dark for something other than dinner or a movie.
There was once a time when our nights were filled with sports practices, PTA meetings, grocery runs and things of this nature. Our days were so full of doing life that our evenings had become just overflow of that. We were always running around trying to catch up and never slowing down to enjoy the life we were racing to catch.

The last three years have taught me so much about myself, my son, our family and what really works for us. More on this in my nest post, but for now I'll just say that I have learned alot! The most important thing that I think I have learned is that this is the only family I will ever have and I will only have them for as long as the Lord lets me. Why would I want to spend my time rushing through each day just to get ahead on the next when I could slow down and learn everything there was to know about these gifts that God has given me?

How did we get so caught up in things that bear such little fruit? Well, we just went with the flow, like many of you, we just did what everyone else was doing. Breaking away from that was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Removing myself from circles that didn't agree with the changes I was making, stepping down from positions I held in groups and clubs, putting God back into the center of our family and changing our view of education for our son. Collectively, all of the changes brought so much joy into our life.

Nowadays we spend our evenings chewing our dinner together as a family as apposed to inhaling it on the way out the door. We enjoy weekends working together around the house or running errands instead of rushing to and from sports games. Most importantly, Braydon and I spend our days together, we have lunch with my husband every single day, and he is learning how to live life at a speed where it can be enjoyed.

I'm so grateful that I made these changes when I did, before it was too late. Before Braydon had already learned the patterns of a crazy, worldly lifestyle that he would carry into adulthood.

When Randy and I got married I didn't understand "family". I thought our job was to grow up, leave our homes, have a career and get married. Children would come or they wouldn't, parent would be visited or they wouldn't. Even after Braydon was born it was several years before I realized what a precious gift family truly is.

I regret the time I missed with my mother-in -law, I regret not having more kids for Braydon to have a large loving family, I regret alot of things... but what I DO NOT regret is changing my life so drastically for the sake of family!

Love your family and don't rush through life. The only thing better than today is eternity with our Father, so slow down and be blessed by today.

Alot Can Happen In A Month!

Wow, I knew I was busy, but a whole month since my last post? Sheesh! I gotta get on the ball here!! Well here's a recap of all the great things God has done in my life in the last 31 days... and boy has He been busy! 

We have completed the Ultimate Back To School Blast and are gearing up for the Ultimate Special Needs Blast. I got all of this years curriculum lined out and even got a couple of weeks planned (which is good since we start in 10 minus SIX DAYS!!!). We kicked off the new school year for the youth group and Randy and I serving as Lifeguards (youth coaches)! We are both so excited to be working with the amazing group of kids!!! Plus Kay is in the youth so that's going to be a pretty neat experience for us!! Randy has started work on the Permian Basin Fair and we'll probably only see him in passing for the next couple of weeks. And we're about to embark on an awesome experience through our church called The Tabernacle Experience. 

This is a life-size interactive Tabernacle of The Wilderness. I am so excited to be a part of this! If you are within driving distance, I urge you to make a trip to visit this exhibit. It will be open Friday, September 30th through Sunday, October 9th from 9 am to 8 pm everyday. And if you're a homeschooling mom I think this would be a great opportunity for your kids! We don't have many "field trip" destinations around here and this is a an excellent chance for them to witness something they can't see anywhere else!! 

“When the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel followed it. And where the cloud settled, the people of Israel camped. In this way, they traveled at the Lord’s command and stopped wherever he told them to. So they camped or traveled at the Lord’s command, and they did whatever the Lord told them.” Numbers 10

How many of us follow God's lead the way the people of Israel did? Do you seek the Lord's guidance in everything? I'm afraid for some of us this is all too rare a concept! I encourage you to grab your Bible and LISTEN to what the Father is asking of you! LISTEN to what he wants to reveal! And LISTEN to where he wants you to go!! 

And remember to teach your child how to hear Him too!

I am so excited to get to travel through this intimate experience with my own child!

  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates" Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Well, that about wraps up the month of August! 

I hope you are all having a great start to your school year!!

Is that a snake????

Ever stop to think about the things we encountered as children that were just a part of life? I don't very often, but his morning something happened that made me do just that!
Braydon comes running in from the backyard, concerned about a sound he heard near our trees. He described it as sounding like a rattlesnake that just kept getting louder and louder then stopped. His poor little heart had skipped a beat because her thought we actually might has a rattler in the yard. I knew immediately what he heard and I'm sure most of you do too.
Yep! It was a locust! LOL
It had never occurred to me that he had never seen or heard a locust.
When I was a kid they were as common as ladybugs or ants. I even remember nap time on Sunday afternoons when they were so loud I could hear then INSIDE the house!
Once again, God has afforded me an opportunity to teach my child about his AMAZING creations AND tell him a little bit about my past.

A garden for fairies... a gift for me.

Last night Braydon and I planted a Fairy Garden. I'm sure you're thinking that's kinda silly or childish but I have to say it was tons of fun! It was actually MY project but he jumped right in with both feet and before I knew it he had taken over the entire planning and I found that the only thing left for me was the LABOR!! SHEESH!

It did give us an opportunity to research container plants together. So once again I learned that homeschool happens anytime and anywhere! I am still that mom that's trying to do schedule each and every lesson and make sure all things tie into each other nicely covering all subjects and all areas.

How lucky are we to have such a patient Father? You'd figure by now he'd have given up on me as a homeschool mom and lost all hope for Braydon (with me as his teacher) to become a functioning member of society. Instead, He takes my hand, one more time, and gently guides me back to the path He has laid out for me. The path that is PERFECT for ME! The path that is created for no other BUT ME! The path that I turn from from daily thinking I can do it on my own.

Be grateful for His patience! Be accepting of His guidance! And be aware of the times when He loves you enough to take your hand, one more time!

God Bless!

Are you FEARLESS???

The caption reads: "Just before it happened, I overheard the three most dreaded words a mother could hear: 'Hey, watch this!'"

This is how I feel on MOST days! Knock on wood, we haven't had to make a trip to the ER yet but I am sure it is inevitable. My child, like most, is without fear! He gets up every morning with new ideas of how to give me a nervous breakdown and test his own physical limits. Do you remember those days? When you just KNEW you could jump off of your house with an umbrella and slowly float to the ground unharmed like Mary Poppins? Or that you could actually DIG your own in-ground swimming pool in your back yard? Ok, maybe these were just MY crazy childhood examples of limitless imagination, but we all had them! We never stood back and thought through the possible ramifications of our actions or the damage we could do to ourselves, our friends or our parent's property. We were FEARLESS!

Well, as we grow we not only gain height, weight, maturity, knowledge, responsibilities and all the other things that separate us from our youth but we gain something else... something that separates us from so much more! What is it your ask?? FEAR! Fear is one of Satan's strongest weapons! He uses it to plant seeds of self doubt which prevents us from realizing our full potential in Christ's kingdom! Fear holds us back from building relationships, fear causes us to think we don't have the abilities to do what others do and most importantly, fear makes us believe that God could never forgive the things we've done.

As a mother I want to encourage you today to remind your child to hold on to that fearlessness! To believe that they really can do ANYTHING through Christ! It is our responsibility as Christian parents to do everything in our power to build our children up as often as we can so that they won't become timid fearful adults! I promise you, for ever moment you spend building them up, the world around you is working double time tearing them down!

As a homeschool mother I encourage you to remember that YOU were the very person God chose to love, guide, educate, and train your child. Don't take this mission lightly! It is the most important thing you will ever do in your life!!

Fear creeps in and fills the cracks of our insecurities, building them up and giving them strength. Teach your children to rely on their Father for strength and to pray without ceasing!! A solid and consistent pray life will become the manna that gives them life and they will thank you for it!

~"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."~ Philippians 4:13

Stepping Out Into the Great Unknown

Recently I was blessed with a new job as a virtual assistant for a publisher in Florida. She is a homeschool mom and owns the Ultimate Homeschool Expo. This was one of those times that I felt God's hand directly guiding me in the direction I was to go. But that story is for another blog, I only tell you about it to explain how the new adventure Braydon and I will be taking this summer came about.
With this new job I have had to dive right into some web design and upkeep and this is an area that I know nothing about! Most of my computer knowledge is self taught and building a website just is not something I have been able to wrap my mind around.
Well this summer Braydon and I will be learning how to program TOGETHER!! Microsoft has this awesome area in their education resources called Kid's Corner http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx where they actually GIVE you the software you will need for FREE and then offer classes that teach you step by step how to build a website!
This is just a tiny piece of everything they offer. It is truly an untapped resource in my book. I can't believe more people don't know that this FREE information and training is out there!!
I hope you will take a moment to go over and take a look for yourself. They also have a site for older students as well but to be honest, with my limited knowledge of web-based material it looked a little intimidating to me!! LOL http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/US/default.aspx However, it could be something your teen would thrive at!!! Good Luck and hope you enjoy it!!
And wish me luck!!! We'll be learning this together so it should be interesting, I'll keep you posted! :)

*disclaimer this is not a paid review for Microsoft; just me, a homeschool mom, sharing what I'm learning with other moms along the way.

The Battle Is The Lord's

Today I listened to my first preview speaker for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo and WOW! She was amazing!! Her name was Lorrie Flem of Eternal Encouragement Magazine http://www.eternalencouragement.com/ and it was such a blessing!! She opened in prayer and used scripture like a mad woman!! And she really convicted me about feeling like my "little" job as mommy and homemaker wasn't enough!! I was blown away!!! I encourage you to take a look at her site but I also encourage you to grab your ticket for the Expo! even if you aren't a homeschooling parent, these speakers will encourage you as a parent in general. There's another FREE session today so log on and listen!! I'll be there too!! Here's the link to the site to listen for free:
http://www.ultimatehomeschoolexpo.com/?p=203

and here's the link to the site to buy your ticket if you decide to:
https://www.secureinfossl.com/affProgram/Ultimate-Homeschool-Expo-2011/52019

Hope you enjoy it!!!
Candie

Mapping Made Easy!

Now this is what I call learning about Geography and how to make/read a map!! We are studying about Kansas this week and the lesson came with these little single page maps to label as you go through the lesson. Well I decided it would be SO much more fun to make our own map to label with the lesson. So that's just what we did. We used 3 different transparencies of Kansas, one for the state itself with major cities and the capital, one showing rivers and lakes and another showing railways. Now we are going to work on a legend and continue labeling what the lesson calls for. We have had a blast and his retention of major parts of the state is amazing!! So much more effective than those silly sheets in his book that were difficult to understand anyway!! Not to mention, look at that face! He's having the time of his life. BTW this overhead thing also led to another (self driven) art project. Homeschooling has done amazing things for his creativity and desire to do more and learn more!! God is so good!!!

Renew, Reuse, Recycle?

So as I told you guys earlier, I was not planning to start school until after Labor Day. However, my kiddo is way excited and ready to start now! So I'm thinking that tomorrow we will go get our library books for the next couple of weeks and ease into some of the "extra" stuff I had planned for the first week that I was worried was maybe overkill. HA

We DID start on our first Character Ed lesson this last week though. I had not planned to start early but after we bought the buckets he was so excited that I just couldn't say "no". You see The Donner's are becoming a "green" household. I have never been much for recycling as I am a product of my generation and we by nature are a lazy people... But in the last few years my priorities are changing, as they usually do after you have children, and I'm worrying about the world my son and my son's children will be inheriting from us. Easy and speed have become such a necessity for our lives that what we leave behind is not often given a second thought. Originally I was just diligently praying that Christ would return before my child reached adolescence but I am now realizing that I should take responsibility for my big fat carbon footprint.

So we bought our boxes (recycled plastic no less) and started sorting our trash. I have to say it has been more fulfilling than I EVER thought it would be. And Braydon is PUMPED!! Everything he picks up goes to the recycle bins... even some things we are ready to part with yet... :) But the bottom line is that he is learning the importance and living it out. It's not something we just talked about and thought we could fix later. We are taking an active roll in keeping our little place in this world clean.

Now, if Disney would stop showing those commercials that drive my child to insist that I buy new light bulbs, I would be much happier!!