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Friday, June 28, 2013

The Honey's Last Day At The CIA

Well it's the moment we've all been waiting for.  Well, at least it's the moment THIS family has been waiting for.  You probably couldn't care less.  Regardless....The Honey is retiring from his post at the CIA today.

His new mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to solve the world's problems by day and grow corn and beans by night.  All from the comfort of his 1st floor office in this farm house we call a circus home. 

And I couldn't be prouder of this man. 

Not just for having the courage to take on a new job.  Because lots of men do that.

And not just for turning his heart towards home and believing that his work here stores up eternal investments.  Because some men do that.




One child was so beside himself with emotion that he couldn't compose himself in time for the picture.  And also, don't be hatin' Little Middle's mismatched pajamas.


Nope, the bulk of my pride lies in the fact that he refuses to be a slave to complacency and comfort. 

Complacency and comfort.  Two definite strongholds in my life.  But not The Honey.  The Honey...he's got drive.  I'm sure Kanye had him in mind when he pinned his immortal words:

He got that ambition, baby, look in his eyes
This week he mopping floors next week it's the fries
 
 
Doesn't that sound just like him?
 
This man of mine is so good to get out of his comfort zone and work hard in his pursuit of excellence.  In whatever he does he truly does want to do his best.  From farming to fathering, he settles for nothing less than 110% from himself.  I admire that so much.  Because we are all fairly familiar with my tendency toward mediocrity.  And how as a child I would always request that they hand out 75% awards, because 110% seemed awfully demanding. 
 
I can't tell you what this next season in our lives will look like.  But I'm excited.  Excited for him.  Excited for his kids.  And excited for me.  Because honestly if he is working from home now maybe I can squeeze in a nap twice a week. 
 
We shall see.
 
Well done, Honey, on eight years of hard work, persistence, and excelling at your work.  I can't wait to see what God wants to do through you in the years to come. 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, June 27, 2013

My Death Crawl


This morning I managed to get in a workout.  I have to be pretty desperate to get up early to sweat.  My body doesn't usually look alive until after lunch.  Regardless, I pulled myself out of bed and went down to the dungeon to sweat it out for a few miles.  To help me forget the pain  make the time go by faster I stuck in an oldie but goody....Facing the Giants.  I'm a sucker for feel good sports movies. 
 
And I love how God can use something so ordinary, something we've seen or listened to a million times, to say something new and fresh to us.
  
I have to admit that lately I have been struggling.  Weary and worn and worrisome.  My attitude has been less than pleasant.  I've been focusing a lot of my circumstances.  Task oriented, not relationship oriented.  You know the drill.  And most of it centers around my occupation....Motherhood. 
 
I'm going to be real here for a minute.  There are days this job is hard.  Where I feel outnumbered and out of ideas on how to control this circus I'm running.  And I had those days this week  month.  I felt defeated.  Before I got out of bed in the morning I had decided it was going to be a bad day because I knew I was going to have to face whining kids, or referee more arguments,  or answer the same questions about size and strength and girth of all the Avengers that I have answered for the past 176 previous days. 
  
So there I was this morning. Trying to escape from my calling.  When Jesus up and showed up in the middle of a movie right as I was crossing the 2 mile marker on the elliptical machine.  Take a watch and see if  you find Him.






  Some days I wish I had a coach to walk beside me and scream in my face.  Most days I do have someone screaming in my face.  But he is 3 and small and too demanding.  Not the coach I'm looking for.  No, I wish I had someone screaming at me not to give up  To force me to do my best.  To leave it all on the field.  Some days my Still Small Voice needs a megaphone.
 
And I know when I get to that point....when His voice is drowned out my by self-pity....that He hasn't stopped coaching.  I've just stopped listening.
 
The grand total weight of all my children is 160 lbs.  And like Brock doing his death crawl, I am carrying these Yahoos across the field....hopefully to the end zone.  And just like Brock, I am blindfolded.  I can't see the hurdles I am going to have to eventually cross of how much longer I have to go.  All I have are these hungry souls clinging to me and the Holy Spirit coaching me on.
 
So today I am putting my game face on.  That, and singing this hymn:
 
I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford
 
I need thee every hour, stay Thou nearby
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh
 
I need thee, oh, I need thee, every hour I need Thee
I need thee, I need thee, I need Thee every hour 

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Bringing It Home

Girls and boys.  I have hopped on this train called Crazy Busy Life and it is a nonstop ride.    We quit school in May so we could creep out from the basement school room to get a glimpse of some sunshine and fresh air and pollen.  Lots and lots of pollen.  I will not go into all the maddening events that we filled our calendar with.  Because I know you know.  Because you are doing the same thing.    But I will touch on a few highlights of the past month.

Holiday World.

Waterslides.  Roller Coasters.  Friends.  Enough said. 

This is the only picture I have because we were too busy having crazy fun.




This place is awesome.  It is close enough that we go up and back in a day. It's a full day and we are all dead dog tired the next, but it is worth it.  Tickets are reasonable.  And we took along another family and some other kiddos to get us up to a party of 15, which allowed up the group rate.  Hua!



Classical Conversations Practicum.

You might be asking yourself  'What the heck is Classical Conversations Practicum?'  To which I would reply...."An intense 3 days where I get up at 5:30 every morning, pile my Yahoos in the car and drive 1.5 hours to learn how to teach my children classically. "

I won't go into what teaching classically means.  If you have absolutely nothing else to do or you are trying to find a reason not to do the dishes, you can click here to read more about it.

But practicum was a highlight of the month not only because it was 3 hard days, but also because it was the beginning process in our family as we begin Classical Conversations next school year.  CC, as it is called, is a community of homeschooling families that support each other as they teach their kids a solid foundation. 

What I love about CC is that they tie all of what their doing back to Christ.  Their whole mission is to know God and make Him known.  So the point of learning something isn't just to know a lot of information, but that we find truth and beauty in that knowledge, which leads us to a deeper love and gratitude to the Truth and Beauty.  After that we can learn to share His goodness with those around us.  And that is a beautiful thing.   Because it gives a strong purpose to my days when the days are long and hard.  And when the kids just don't want to do another multiplication table and they ask what the point of all this is, I can let them know that God is in math and in history and nouns and adverbs and cursive copy work.  Yes, even  cursive copy work.

What I hate about CC is accountability.  Because I hate accountability.  There, I said it.  I  mean the idea of having people around you, supporting you,  helping stay on the straight and narrow....it sounds good.  But actually doing that....well, it's less than comfortable.  And I love comfort.  I've been doing this homeschool thing for 5 years now.  I've gotten into my groove.  And if there are days I don't feel like doing all of our spelling words, I wouldn't.  Because I had this completely misguided idea that I had to answer to no one.  But I was wrong.  Because I do answer to Someone when this day is said and done and I do need others around me to help me and my Yahoos do their best job.  So as much as it will challenge me, this accountability thing just might actually be what we are needing.

Still interested after my poor pitiful shout out to it?  You can check them out here


The Honey's New Assignment 

We all know that The Honey has loved his current post at the CIA.  But recently we have felt a prompting that he might move out of his current line of work into something equally as thrilling and covert, but more local.  Like down the hallway local.  So after much prayer and wrestling and waiting and listening The Honey decided to take a job where he will be able to work from home.

Give me just a minute while my heart takes in that last sentence.

For years I had been praying for him.  Praying that God would help change his circumstances or his ADD so that he would be more present in our home.  In the past two years I have seen God work on his heart, helping him to bring into focus the eternal over the temporal.  But now, I see He is changing our circumstances.  Literally bringing him home. 

Some people have asked if we are worried about that.  Us all being here together.  All day long.  Every day.  And honestly...yes, a little.  I am concerned the kids will see their daddy and want to be with him but can't.  And I'm worried Baby will yell 'Someone come wipe my butt!' real loud while The Honey is on a conference call.  But I know working out all those hiccups are just layers in this story that is yet to be told.

 And I am certain this story will be a good one.  Because we do love each other in this family.  And I see in our family, our culture, that children need their father more than we realize.  And I also know that The Honey being home is another way God is bringing accountability into our lives.  I'm guessing this accountability thing is really important to Him or something, because it is all up in my face these days.




There you go.  A look back at where the Crazy Busy Life Express train has taken us this month.  I'm looking forward to the destinations we reach down the road.  I just hope we get there at a slower pace.





Wednesday, June 5, 2013

My Life In Pictures

I know, I know.  It's been forever.  I get it.  I'm sorry.  Let's move on.


Because life doesn't stop, and neither does this blog, I thought I would post our life in pictures over the past few weeks.


We hosted field day at our home with 30 of the greatest kids I know.  There was food, water balloons, and prizes.  Doesn't get any better than that.

 
 
 
 


Then, The Honey and I celebrated our anniversary watching Sweet Yahoo in her piano recital.  She was magnificent.  As always.

Here she is posing with some great friends that also participated in the recital.  They were fabulous as well!





We've been enjoying the fruits of our labor.







And a little culture as Sweet Yahoo was the star of the local middle school production of The Little Mermaid. 


What?  You thought Ariel was the star of that show?  Well, you haven't seen my Sweet Yahoo.





 
 
We dealt with some minor allergy issues as we got our crops in the ground.



And waited in the ER for what turned out to be a major sprain.


 
**Please take note.  It was Little Middle with the sprain and not Sweet Yahoo.  She just liked wearing the bandage for the attention and because she can sport an Ace bandage like nobody's business**
 
 
 
 
 
Finally we were able to take our annual family trip to Holiday World.  It was fab.u.lous.
 
 
 
We were also fortunate enough that some of our favorite people joined us.
 
 
Ok, that sums up most our last 3 weeks. Aside from the 5 days a week we are at the ballpark, the occasional roasting of marshmallows around the fire pit, and the sleepovers at the grandparents' house.