Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tough love sucks.

Thanks for praying for me, friends. Thanks for pointing me to the Gospel.

Strugglin'

Struggling to see God's hand in my life.

Struggling with my stupid pride and unbelief.

Struggling with trusting Him with the things I don't understand and can't control.


God, I repent of my arrogance, un-righteous indignation, distrust, and selfish need to defend myself. I am completely loved and forgiven in Christ. You delight in me and claim me as a daughter. Demonstrate your perfect love through my horribly imperfect self--whether it be through compassion and/or tough love. Help me to preach the gospel, first to myself, then to those around me. Help me to trust. And Lord, help my unbelief.


I know the Lord is nigh,
And would but cannot pray.

For Satan hears me when I try,
And frights my soul away.

I would but cannot love,
Though I endeavor oft.

The stony heart can ne'er relent,
Til Jesus makes it soft...
Til Jesus makes it soft.

Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief--my help must come from Thee.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

fun

We went to Burt and Anita's for lunch to host visitors at our church. It was a lot of fun and the first time I've ever really visited the Boykin family. (I had been once before but only to the pool). Well this time I got the grand, 3-hour tour--thanks Anita! It was very cool and the company was good too. We got there and Laura was already chopping veggies, so we all just jumped in and helped, made ourselves right at home. Anita is so laid back--she was handing us stuff to do and somehow we got lunch on the table for about, oh 30 or 40 people including children. Or that's what it seemed like, anyway. I made coffee cake, brownies, and bread. Laura and Anita did salad stuff, fresh garden vegetables and dip, and Crissy did mac/cheese and hotdogs for the kids. We talked about the education system in St. Clair Co vs. Jefferson Co., the book "The Catcher in the Rye" (strange, btw), the probability of starting a group of CPC'ers in Springville, being a firefighter, and the rising cost of gas. Think we covered just about everything.

Well, now that Camp Cornerstone is over, I really must get down to business. Time to start thinking lesson plans and teaching schedules.
Now that it is the 2nd year of homeschool, we are adding to the list of subjects. We'll see how well I do with that, much less Frankie. Steven will be going to ClearBranch's k-4 program. We've decided to let him experience school--he is so social, and we want him to have a fun time, like Frankie was able to do in CA. Also, it will help me be able to focus on Frankie and get some structure established. Last year, being the first year, was a teensy bit challenging with the whole 2 kids in 2 different learning ages/grades. I am hoping (*wink, wink* fingers crossed) that I can get Frankie trained to be more independent this year and then be able to start homeschooling Steven next year. We'll see. It would be nice in a perfect world.

Got another gift from my secret pal. Wow, whoever you are, you sure are generous! 3 gifts in 2 weeks! 2 last week and 1 today! 'Course it could be that I always forget to check the table and those gifts may've been sitting for a while... Really good gifts to0--a great cd, cookies, tea, 2 shirts(!) that I really like and some other stuff that I can't remember!!! Wow! thank you secret pal. Agh. trying to assuage the guilt of not being nearly so thoughtful to mine. Must try to do better.

Tomorrow Frankie has a dentist appt. Poor Steven is sick. Again. That poor boy, he has been doing so well for the past 3 months or so, but here we go again. I thought it was allergies, but thinking now it may be a cold. Probably something he picked up at CC. I swear he has no immune system. And Frank looks at me and says, "and we want to put him in school 3 days a week?" ugh. I say to him, "well, maybe it will help strengthen his immune system". To which hubby replies, "yeah, so's licking the floor".
sigh.

I am tired. Got up today, early, and excercised. Had not excercised since Monday of last week. Darn it. I was doing real well with the whole eating and excersing thing. Made it all the way through the 1st day of CC without being bad, but went down hill from there--shot to you-know-where. Probably had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I helped with the food for CC... Oh well, back on track starting yesterday, with a video workout this a.m. I like videos the best, because I can excercise in the comfort and privacy of my own home. I find that as hellishly hot as it is right now, excercising outdoors is NOT going to happen. I do also like the treadmill if I've got a good movie that needs watching.

Speaking of good movies, stayed up til 11 the other night watching Jane Eyre with Kim and Melissa. Who are now my Jane Eyre buddies, along with Crissy Sharp and all Sr. High girls.
Yippee. Just about the best chick flick ever made. Even if it is 4 hours long. When we were watching it at the pool house, I did feel the teensiest bit guilty for keeping Kim H up so late past her 9 bedtime--I kept watching to see if she was falling asleep. But she never did! Then I felt completely guilt free when at the end, when it was almost 11 p.m., she said, "That was a really good movie." Sweet. You know it had to be good if Kim stayed awake through it. It was a lot of fun.
Speaking of more good movies, Crissy and I watched "Girl with the Pearl Earring". Strange but pretty good. Although, she had to keep stopping the movie and explaining what was happening. She calls it the girl version of "the Good the Bad and the Ugly." I agree. Not a lot of dialogue happening in that movie. Although it does have Colin Firth, who does very well playing a spineless man with very little character. I do like him better in Bridget Jones. Then Kim came over and we talked about co-op. Which I may do this year as it is our 2nd year of homeschool. But I have to be careful not to commit to too much--I do have a regular job, I have to keep reminding myself. And I am real good at over-commitment.

Well, speaking of over-commitment, this post is done. Must needs go to bed now.

new blog link

As most of you know, my mom and I have a garden. Well, that is, she has a garden and I help. (Look mom, it's "shake 'n bake" and I helped!). Anyway, she is always telling me neat gardening tips that I will never remember, and I am always telling her she should start a blog w/all her good info. Well, she did! So I added her link to the left. Check it out when you get a chance. Now I am trying to talk her into doing a gardening workshop at our next ladies' event.
Like, "Beginner gardening" or "How to have a garden if you don't have a lot of time". Or something like that.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Good Times

Remarks heard between my child and the pastor today at Camp Cornerstone:

Set-up: John W. had asked Burt how to get to heaven. From what I could tell, Burt was explaining to all the 4-year-olds how Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. To which my son piped up and said loftily, "Oh I've already seen that movie." And Burt, without missing a beat, replied, "Well there was a book first."

Guess I might better get that one for him from the library huh? chuckle, chuckle.

I love Camp Cornerstone.

This is my first experience with it. I am helping Kim P. with the food. It is very fun to do the food. I think our job is the best. Here are my reasons why:

1. Elizabeth comes to see us and brings us funny email print-outs to make us laugh.

2. We get to see and talk to everyone.

3. Kim is so good at organizing. She has me, Mary Gill, Melody, and Tanner running around getting it all done--and she makes it fun!

4. We get to hang out with Mary Gill. She is cool.

5. We got to choose the food for the kids.

6. We got to choose the food for the teachers and helpers--even better.

7. We get to man the teacher table, and run off hungry teenage guys who like to eat too much. All the brownies got gone in the first hour.

8. We get to see all the kids play the games at game time, and we get to hear them all sing at opening assembly and closing assembly.

9. We get to eat.

10. We get to serve.

I love my job.

And for those of you who might be interested in the food job for next year--too late, Kim and I have already put in the bid--we get first dibs, hehe.