Safe and Sound

Hubby arrived safely in Wyoming this afternoon after 17 hours of driving. He said it is 2 degrees there right now! Thanks so much for the prayers for his safety. He will be traveling again Monday.

A Little Girl's Prayer

Friday before last during our lunchtime prayer Abigail asked God to "Please let it snow...enough for me to play in." It started snowing the following Sunday morning, and we've had snow on the ground ever since, 10 days so far!



That first Sunday, Abby was SO excited and told everyone how God had answered her prayer, and she's still telling people, including the server at our favorite Mexican place. The server then went on to tell us some incredible stories of his own son's answered prayers!

That is a six-foot fence, and the drift is almost halfway up it!
It's hard to say for sure how much snow we actually received because we've had a lot of drifting, but we put the ruler in the middle of the yard and it said about 10 inches there. We have some drifts that are close to three feet high though!



We are really enjoying the weather and are hoping it will stay at least until Christmas Day! The kids will have their first white Christmas, and hubby and I will have our first in about 12 years.

Favorite Moment

In addition to Ryan's and Abby's posts about our camping trip, I was hoping to post a few pictures here too, but I have run out of time for today. In lieu of pictures, I'll share my favorite moment from our trip:

Unexpected Blessings

We typically go out to lunch after church on Sundays, and we almost always go to our favorite local restaurant, which happens to be Mexican. We know the server and he knows us, so much so that he brings us our drinks even before we order. Last Sunday we debated whether we should go out or just go dig something up at home since our finances are hurting a bit lately. We ended up going ahead as usual. We ordered, discussed the sermon, and quizzed the kids about what they learned in Sunday School and had a nice lunch. Then as we were waiting for the check, our server came over and asked if we knew the man who was sitting next to us. We told him we didn't and he said, "Well, he just paid your bill." What?! We were incredibly blessed by his generosity and kindness!

A second blessing came last Thursday. Our hubby called to tell me he won a $100 gas card from the local radio station! Now that is something that we definitely can use!

When we had to cancel our camping trip we had planned for next weekend, I was a little discouraged about our finances and even lost a night's sleep stressing over money, but by the morning I was finally able to turn it over to the Lord and have peace. Then these events happened and were just two ways I felt like the Lord was encouraging me to be anxious for nothing. "I own it all, your medical bills, car repairs, and rising gas prices aren't a surprise to Me."

I know that God is trustworthy even if we were to lose everything, that financial provision is not guaranteed, but this week I felt the Lord's tender mercy and grace toward us through these unexpected blessings!

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habbakkuk 3:17-18

Homeschooling

My husband and I have been considering homeschooling our children even before we had children, but it's only been the last six months or so that I've seriously begun researching it. I have spent much time this year on the internet and checking out books from the library about homeschooling. Around about April I started to feel panicky and overwhelmed and thinking there was no way I could do it. I even began checking on the private and charter schools in our area. As it turns out, none of the charter schools available to us are something we would consider sending our kids to, and the private schools prices were so very high that it seemed out of our financial reach.

I began praying even more about our educational options and seeking God's guidance, and then a neat thing happened. Beginning in May I was forced to spend two hours per day doing close-up work with my son to help him with a vision problem we discovered he had (amblyopia). Ryan has known his phonics for over a year and had been wanting to put them together to read, but the way I had been trying to show him wasn't clicking with him. So I checked out a book from the library called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," and we spent part of his two hours per day learning to read. Ryan ate it up, and I discovered something very valuable too: I LOVED teaching him! I realized I didn't want to give this joy to someone else.

I know the Lord has answered my prayers and given me peace about homeschooling at last. He even has lead me to the curriculum I believe I am going to use, but more on that later...