WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS???

No one is allowed to mess with my antique tea cart and my tea things. NO ONE...Not Marci, or Jennie, or Becca, or Gideon, or the grandkids...especially the grandkids...not Roger (well, maybe Roger....)
So who does Miss Harmony think she is? This is her new favorite place...when she is not on my computer chair...She loves to look out on her world.
She does make a pretty picture, though, doesn't she?

Blessings!
Beth

A Week of Earnest Prayer!!

Many years ago, four or five at least, when I was a little girl....ok, ok, I said four or five years ago AT LEAST!!! Perhaps it was a few more years ago than that. Anyway, when I was a young girl, my brother and sister and I would sometimes take our bicycles and ride several miles on our local country roads to get to "Smith's Service Station" in the closest "town" that there was to us. This was a very old fashioned gas station...it wasn't old fashioned because they thought it quirky or quaint, it was just very very old. There was only one aisle in the little store where you could purchase necessities and CANDY and Mrs. Smith stood behind the counter. Mr. and Mrs. Smith owned the store and I was terrified of her. However, as I became a teenager, I discovered that Mrs. Smith had a very cute grandson who sometimes worked in the little gas station. (Her grandson has nothing to do with this story and had nothing to do with me, by the way.....)
Anyway, that was a wonderful bike ride for summer days. I'm not sure why we would ride miles and miles just to get a coke, guzzle it and return the coke bottle for a few cents, and ride those same long miles back to our house. I think it was just fun to do something all grown up without our parents!
The service station and little store is no longer there but the house we have been looking at is just a hundred yards or so beyond that little corner. The house wasn't there then since it was built after those eventful summer days. There is nothing really in that "town" so I'm not sure why it is a "town". There are two churches but I'm not sure where the congregations come from because there are probably less than 20 houses in that "slow spot in the road." No schools, stores, post office...nothing. But I think it's cute! Hey, it would sure help me to stop spending, right???
We are still asking for God's leading in this decision. I am getting kinda nervous, though, because I am afraid someone else will buy it before we do! My honey wants to spend this week in earnest prayer before we make the decision. I think it is a wonderful idea and we really want to do God's will. We both just don't know yet what His will for us is!
I told Roger last night that if the house sells this week, we will take it that God didn't want us to have the house. Last night as I was taking my turn praying with Roger, I asked for God's leading in this matter...and I almost added..."PLEASE PLEASE LET IT BE YOUR WILL!!" I didn't do that, however, partly because God already knows what "I" want...I just don't know what HE wants!
I feel like this is a turning point in our lives. He could be calling us to do something completely different than what I want...or Roger wants...Or He could be calling us to go ahead and buy the house He has provided for us!
I have some good news, however! We have been worrying (I know, worrying is a sin...ok, we've been "concerned"...) about how our finances will change when our children get older and right now we have had some financial answers to prayer. I can't really go into details about it but just know that we have recently been blessed in ways I didn't expect. The Lord is good even when we aren't!
I hope you all have a lovely day!
Blessings,
Beth

Too Old for this Kinda Stuff!

We went on a 11 or 12 mile canoe trip yesterday with our church family...mostly teenagers and those crazy enough to still think we ARE teenagers! I am still exhausted from all that paddling on Whitewater River! It was a lot of fun, though, and it started out rainy as we drove for about 2 hours to get to the river. It soon lightened up and we enjoyed the water and beautiful scenery.
It all went pretty well until I (insane person that I am...) decided to try the rope swing and jump/drop into the river. I climbed up on the rock and was really too much of a chicken to climb up into the tree that other people had jumped from. So I grabbed the rope as high as I could and jumped and held on for dear life...for about 1 second...when my hands slipped off the great big knot in the rope...and I fell/plummeted into the large boulders submerged at the base of the river.
I survived.
However, I have a LOVELY big bruise on the back of my leg. I was not thinking very clearly as the teenagers shouted "do it, do it" when I jumped into the river because I still had my life jacket on...which forced my head and neck into a terribly painful/uncomfortable position as I bobbed back to the surface. My life didn't exactly flash before my eyes but I stayed down long enough to wonder if I was going to die and to think about the poisonous snakes we actually DO have in the rivers of certain parts of Indiana and the fact that there might be MANY of them just waiting to nibble on my chubby body.

I think it is time to realize that I am NOT as young as I think I am.

However, if I have to die sometime, I think I would rather go having a great time rather than languishing forever...making my life and everyone else's miserable.
I just don't want to do it for a while.
Maybe I will wait for another 25 years or so to act like a teenager again.

A little bit more house hunting...

We looked at a house on Tuesday evening and I fell in love. (With the house-not the realtor...I am still in love with my husband as well...)

It is NOT what I thought we were looking for but it is what we NEED. (I think we have given up on the old farmhouses...lots of work and money!!)
It is a fairly modest 2 bedroom brick ranch. It was advertised as a 4 bedroom ranch but two of the "bedrooms" are in the basement. We can't use them until we add windows for a way to escape a possible fire. So it CAN be a 4 bedroom house but it needs some work to make it so.
I LOVE the upstairs and it is what we have come to realize that we really want in a home. Small enough upstairs to afford but it has a basement to have all the grown kids and THEIR kids come home to for holidays and celebrations.
It is in our price range. We wanted to be able to have a tiny mortgage and this will accomplish that! It is in a tiny tiny town without a stoplight or a store or anything like that. It does have two churches...one of which is right next door.
Roger isn't thrilled with the location...I'm not THRILLED with it but I am content with it. Since it is in the little town, the speed limit is, I think, 20 miles per hour but it is on a highway. However, it is still considered "rural" and we can have CHICKENS, GOATS, and MY HIGHLY COVETED CLOTHESLINE!!! The church is a nice sized one and Roger is worried about the traffic. It is also a Baptist church, though, and I told him that anytime there is traffic at THAT church, we will be at our OWN Baptist church so we won't even be affected! We would be 15 minutes from my parents, Roger's daughter Abi, my son Aaron and his family, my college student, Marci and 20 minutes CLOSER to policeman Danny and his family!
The kitchen is wonderful...kind of small but open and has lovely new maple cabinets and new appliances and counter tops! Oh my! There is a pretty living room with a fireplace and new laminate floors. All on 1.24 tree lined acres with the churches' rolling field behind it.
I asked Roger what he thought about all of it and he said, "I would be very content with the house!" It has a partial goldfish pond and fountain with a little path around it and I can just imagine him "piddling" around with that while I'm out with my chickens and other critters!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high. I know that there are a LOT of hoops to jump through and it might be that the bank will decide that it is going to be too much for us to handle until we get our house sold. We're going to pray for God's leading and would appreciate any prayers you might go to God with on our behalf.

I know that God has everything work together for good for us and if this doesn't work out, something else will come along. I am learning to TRY not to out plan or over plan God's will for our lives. I'm a control freak.......I can't control God. I need to try it the other way around.

Have a lovely day!
Blessings!
Beth

Whew...what a day. It's been about 97 degrees in nearby Indianapolis today and I was out in it doing grocery shopping for the assisted living home I work in. It doesn't seem too much to do but since I do not have a handicap license or hang tag for my van and I had a client in a wheelchair with me, I had to park waaaaaayyyyyy out there so that no one (hopefully) would park next to me and I could load and unload the wheelchair. And the little old man I had with me decided that he really couldn't make it to the van thus needing my assistance...all the time I was also pulling a shopping cart with $200 worth of groceries in it. It was loaded down. I am quite a shopper...

Anyway, I'm home now. Yay! I have six hours before I have to get up and go back to work. One of these days I'm gonna have to get a different job. But God is good. I think He wants me there for a while...if for nothing else but the insurance it provides our family.

Some of you know that we have been talking about adoption for a while now. I got a call from the adoption agency we had decided to go through. This was about nine at night on Wednesday and we had just gotten home from church. To make a long story short, they said...."no." at least for a newborn. "No birth mother would choose you and your husband because you are too old and you have teenagers." Ok, yeah, maybe we aren't in our 20's...or 30's...but we aren't exactly old. And they don't know OUR teenagers!! What wonderful big brothers and sisters they would make.

I'm a little bit disheartened but not terribly. I didn't really feel like God is calling us to take a newborn. It seems like everyone is fighting over newborns and to be honest, I remember the newborn time...FIVE times to be exact...and it wasn't always wonderful. Of course, I thought it was THEN, when I held my little baby during the night and did all the wonderful things I did.
But I wouldn't want to rob another lady of that joy. I can't imagine NOT having been a Mommy.
But a newborn isn't absolutely necessary to me.
A toddler or preschooler would be PERFECT!!

So, we may try foreign adoption or adoption from foster care. God is planning something for us, I know.
My heart is really burdened for third world countries and the orphans. However, parts of the United States aren't much better. Oh, of course, the CONDITIONS are better but there are so very many people without the Lord and they are raising their children without the Lord.

I work in a VERY rough part of Indianapolis. A few weeks ago there was a shooting about a block from the house I work in. In fact, at the end of the street where I turn into the neighborhood, there were ambulances and police cars all over. (This is 5:30 a.m.!!) Evidently, there was a shooting at the gas station down the road and the victim drove home to his house and called the ambulance. (There is an armed guard at the gas station all the time and the workers stay in a bullet proof "cage" to do their transactions! I know this because I bought gas there today. Oh dear, I think I am CRAZY!!!!! Scary place! It's not too bad during the daylight but when I leave work during the winter months, it's very dark out and I am not very comfortable with it!
But people are raising their dear little ones in this neighborhood. All the time we see little "memorials" for children killed on the street in gang or drive by shootings. And this is Indianapolis...a reasonably safe city!

I feel that I would be doing the same amount of good for the Lord by adopting from foster care if I could take a child or two from this kind of environment and love and nurture him or her. We have our own "mission field" in our back yard! (Well, not exactly OUR back yard...thank the Lord! Did I sound like a snob?? I didn't mean to!)

So, anyway, that's where we are now. I think we need to talk to an adoption attorney and ask around. We are also planning to take "foster parenting" classes.
Keep us in your prayers, if you think about it.

Blessings!
Beth

Incredible Answer to Homeschooling Prayer

Wow...it seems like forever since I've been in blogland! The 4H fair has taken up most of our time. The kids did well in it. Becca was able to get blue ribbons, Honor ribbons, two reserve champion ribbons and a champion ribbon along with it's trophy! Trinket kitty was awarded one of the reserve champions in her "short haired cat" class in the cat show. Becca got a champion trophy for the "most beautiful cage" contest. You would NOT believe the effort these kids and parents put into the cat cages! (Every cage has to be totally covered except the front to keep the cats from fighting.) There was a "Chalet", a "Haunted House", a "70's" house just to name a few. There were probably 60 or more cages entered. Becca's was an Asian themed one.

Now for the really cool thing that has recently happened in our homeschool! Becca has been listening to her friends from church and her older siblings telling her that she needs to return to regular public school. (This conversation has not made the momma of the house very happy...)
Anyway, we had a long talk (Becca and I) and I promised her I would keep an open mind about it and we would pray about it. I told her that I wanted to explore some other options in getting her out with people more often. This is MOSTLY what she has wanted. She has stayed home almost every day and has only recently made a couple of good friends. (Who are nice girls and a blessing! But they go to public school and Becca wanted to go to school with them...One is her age but the other one is several grades ahead of her!)
I called a local church that I heard had a large amount of homeschooled children in it and a woman I talked to told me about a program/school run out of the church. It is a ONE day a week school (with tuition, dress codes, etc...) but they spend the other 4 days of the week at home doing their homeschooling! Her particular class (8th grade) would have about 14 kids in it.
Math would be done on our own time at home as well as a foreign language. They teach History, Art History, Language and Literature, Science, Speech and Drama, Bible and Philosophy, Latin, Choir...possibly some other things I have forgotten.
They have a "mission day" each month outside of school with a lecture, lunch and then a "servant's heart ministry." Isn't that just the neatest thing??
She is so very excited about it and I have heard no other talk about her going back to Public School! This seems to be the very thing I was hoping for!
I know that there are other "co op" kinds of homeschool activities but the one that is fairly close to us has been "cancelled" every time we have tried to be involved. I want it to be a well run program that we can count on. I just can't believe that God has shown this to me just when we really needed it. He's awfully wonderful, isn't He?

I understand that it is a pretty difficult curriculum with reading and studying based in history. She's pretty excited about learning Latin! (Strange kid...)

Yeah, she's pretty excited...we had to go out and buy a backpack.

I'm excited about it, too, because even I might get to know some other like minded people. We live in an extremely "upper crust" town and there are not many homeschoolers here. I don't even know of one other homeschooling family although I am sure there are some. We're not "upper crust"...we buy most of our belongings from Goodwill. (Just thought I'd make that clear...)

That reminds me...a few months ago I was just finished working out at a local gym and I was standing there blow drying my hair and I overheard a conversation nearby. A woman was talking about her husband who was the Head of Surgery...or some such title...at a local hospital. The ladies were all dressed in their finest work out clothes and looking expensive and skinny. I looked down and noticed that I was using my hair drying that I was so thrilled to have purchased....at the local Goodwill Store...and it still had it's big black and white price tag on it.... ( $2.99 GOODWILL)...
I wonder what those ladies thought!! Probably wondering how they let me in there!! Haha!!