HIS Gotcha date!

Many things the past few months have led up to this day - the born again date!!  Both our children accepted Christ as their personal Savior with their mommy and daddy by their side!  So precious is today!

A few key things that I can recall...sorry for any typos or lack of details...so excited and typing fast.

In the spring, my uncle Jerry passed away of cancer.  We decided to take both kids to the funeral since they knew him pretty well.  This started the conversations about death and why our body is still on earth - in the coffin - but our spirit and new body leaves the earth and goes to heaven.  This was a very confusing time for them but I knew their wheels were spinning.

A few months ago, a man from the soup kitchen that the kids fed there, was hospitalized for cancer and at the same time Brock's Grandfather, was given a short amount of time to live, also due to cancer.  I remember giving the kids a bath and Reece asked me if they would die.  And I had to say "yes" and that everyone dies.  After I said it, I wanted to grab it and take it back.  Both kids mouths dropped to their chin and they said "I don't want to die...am I going to die too?" I of course had to answer honestly that yes, they would die too.  They both were crying and saying they didn't want to die.  I reminded them of all the things we had been learning at Awana and church...that when we die we can go to heaven if we believe in Jesus...that is why he died on the cross for us.  That still didn't help much and they persisted on asking if they were going to die TOMORROW.  I had to tell them that I didn't know when they would die, that only God knew this.

Then we experienced a tornado in August.  This along with our sick friends (Brian from the soup kitchen and great Grandpa) caused them to pray alot more.  I would shut the doors to the rooms at night and I could hear them praying...praying about people being sick, to have good dreams, and to keep bad weather away from them.  With death around them and upon them, they were asking more questions and more fearful of things.  This was a very anxious time for them and we prayed whenever they asked or wanted.

One day last week during homeschooling, Reece was being stubborn and prideful...she was NOT going to do this one assignment even though I had told her she would be doing it.   This caused me to talk about the sin and pride in her heart and explain what was going on with her.  I could tell she knew that is what it was and she broke down crying over it.  She asked how she could change it and I said she needed to trust Jesus and needed Him in her life to help her with that.  She cried even more...like there was a weight that she needed lifted.  I asked her if she believed in God and she said yes.  So I asked her if she wanted Him to live in her heart and help her to do the right things.  She said yes.  I told her I thought we should wait until daddy got home and that way we could pray as a family.  When he got home, we talked about it, but she said she didn't want to pray the prayer.

It might have been this same day/night, that when we tucked in Brody he said he wanted to pray for Grandpa.  We hadn't told him how bad he was getting but we prayed for Grandpa.  When we were done, I gave him a drink of water because he asked.  He then said "this water is good for us.  I think that if Grandma gave Grandpa some of this water, he wouldn't die".  I had to explain that, that's not the way it worked unfortunately and that Grandpa would probably die very soon.  But I told him we didn't have to be sad because we knew he was going to Heaven.  He said "I don't want Grandpa to die because I still want to see him and I don't want Grandma to be alone...she needs a husband to take care of".  This of course made me cry because he was just so sweet.

A couple of days later, their Great Grandpa Rader did pass.  I waited for Brock to get home and we told them together.  We again talked with them about Grandpa going to Heaven...that his body would be at the funeral like uncle Jerry but that he was actually in Heaven having a grand ol time.  Brock and I were teary eyed over it and Reece said "Don't cry...he's in Heaven".  I told her I knew that but was still sad for family and for grandma too.

During this time was the first week of Awana.  Reece's verse that she had to memorize was John 3:16 "For God's so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have ever lasting life".  We talked about what that verse meant a lot!

For a few days, there were lots of questions and good conversation.  Before the funeral, the pastor took all the kids into a room and explained again what happens when we die and spoke the gospel to them.  His theme or verse during the funeral was John 3:16!!!  Reece heard him say it and whispered "mom, that's my sparks verse for this week".  I think this made her listen even more.  God's plan is perfect so this was all no surprise to me...not a coincidence!!

Last night Reece said she felt sick to her stomach and took a bowl to bed.  I wasn't home so I didn't know much about it.  When she woke up she told me she prayed to God that he would not let her get sick and that He answered her prayer.  She said that she had prayed the longest prayer ever and that she asked Jesus to come into her heart and make her be a better person!  I couldn't believe it!  Brody said "I want Jesus to live in my heart too!".  So we sat down and talked about what it meant to do all that and they all seemed to understand.  So when daddy got home from work, we sat up on Reece's bed before nap time and all prayed the prayer together!  Praise the Lord!  I had been praying that this would happen all as a family because I just thought it would be such a neat memory for us.  I couldn't be happier!  Praying now to see fruit in their little lives.  I know these two are going to do BIG things for God's glory!!

See you in Heaven Grandpa Rader!!
Taken exactly 2 weeks before he passed and 3 weeks before Reece accepted Christ:

Homeschooling thoughts...

This morning wraps up week 4 of homeschooling.  It has been a really good 4 weeks.  There have been some tears from both mommy and daughter a couple of times, but overall it has gone really well.  We have a very good routine and we are both getting use to it.  We are using mostly Sonlight Curriculum and I must say I can not see using anything else.  Everything I need is all there and I have really like nothing to plan.  We just head down first thing in the morning and follow the schedule right out of the teachers manual...it's really a piece of cake.

Although we have had some tears and some tough days, those tough times lead to really good conversations that led to us being closer and building character in us both!  This is what I really wanted out of it.  I still have some very mixed feelings about it...partly because I live partly in the world and partly in the Word.  Not sure I will ever get around that part.  When I hear my friends saying they did such and such by themselves, that makes me want to send her.  I think that has been the hardest part for me - selfishly giving up things I wanted to do with my time.  I have to keep telling myself that I only have them like this for a short time and only once and one day I will have more time to myself.  The end result is building a Godly character in them so that they can go enter the "real" world knowing how to make good decisions, despite what the world around them is doing.  This is something I need to do for my self also!

Just when I feel down about it, I hear words of encouragement from people I didn't really expect to hear them from.  This week I heard from a guy (who was here looking at properties to place trees) and he told me he wished his wife would home school his kids.  He told me the things (burdens) his children bring home with them.  I heard from another lady that said if she could go back and do it again, that she would home school. I read the following things this morning: that so and so was mortified when someone asked her children what the capital of France was, and they didn't know!.  She was told that "kids can look that up anytime. In the total scheme of things, it is not that important for our kids to know what the capital of France is! How much better that they learn how to get along with one another. . . ."

I have thought about this a lot lately.  How much my kids have been fighting lately is driving me batty and how much easier it would be if Reece was at school.  I hear how kids get along better when they are away from each other and then return...but isn't this just a temporary fix?  I realize that kids won't always get along but shouldn't we be teaching them to get along whether they are with someone all the time or not?  Whether they know someone or not?  Whether they heard bad things or good things about them?  What they wear or what they look like?  We have been talking a lot about compromise, listening to one another, and doing to others as we would want done.  I know that if she can get along with her brother, she can get along with anyone else applying those same principles.

Obeying authorities has also been brought up the past couple of weeks.  I have personally witnessed other children who did not obey me as an authority and that really bothered me.  Then I witnessed my own children not obeying someone else.  I feel that if my children learn to obey my authority, they will ultimately obey God and other authority.  They have not mastered this yet.  The more we work at this with them while they are young, the better and easier it will be for them.  I have heard the saying and do believe the saying that children obey better for other people.  While this might be true, I do believe that is also a temporary fix/thing.  They will only obey for as long as they can, but if those skills aren't built into who they are as character, they will eventually not obey others either (teachers, babysitters, etc).

Those are just some things I have been thinking about lately.  I haven't read about them anywhere...just witnessed them and thought about it a lot.

My personal favorite part of our home school curriculum is the Sing the Word A to Z cd.  How easy it has been for us to memorize key verses that they will always have in their hearts.  We have learned so far "All have sinned", "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved", "Children Obey your Parents in Everything" and "Do to others as you would want them to do".  If they just have those 4, I think they would be pretty great kids.  I constantly find myself singing these back to them when they aren't obeying or aren't treating each other right. My hope is that they will sing these in their head when they are away from home and have decision to make (on how to treat someone, on whether to make a right or wrong choice, etc).

We do most of our school work from 7 to 9 in the morning.  We have even done some on the weekend - for catch up or just because.  One Saturday we did "Science Saturday" where we did 3 science experiments that we didn't get to during the week.  We do our bible story at night.  We have also included our Sparks (Awana) book and cd this week as part of our school day.  She really seems to be enjoying our school time and I am too.  I love watching her learn and ask questions. We had some problems with writing a while back but this week, she finished her writing a day early because she worked so hard!  We have come a long way! She finally realized that if she works ahead, she will have more free time later!

The other evening we were outside, I noticed one of my roses had come back (since the storm).  I remember we need a rose for one of our science experiments for this week so I ran inside and grabbed my book and we did it right there in about 5 minutes or so.  This week we talked about all the parts of the flower, why insects need plants, and why plants need insects...I learned sooo much - ha, ha!!

We also talked about the ground and dirt and discovered that you can find lots of insects hidding under rocks and boards.  We found a whole bunch of ants under a rock and they had hundreds of eggs too.  We inspected an ant hill too.

We have also been talking a lot about sin, (pride mostly), death, and heaven...more on that in another post!

Dance

Reece started dance!  She disliked t-ball so much that we let her pick what activity she wanted to do for the fall.  She picked dance.  She loves it so far!

School Daze

After our trip, we had a lot of catching up to do when it came to school.  I did take some school stuff with us and we did some of our reading in the car.  I also do some stuff on Saturday mornings if we are free...just to keep in the routine...plus she doesn't really know yet that kids don't go to school on Saturday!  And we probably do stuff on holidays too...like Monday is labor day and I plan to keep working on.

This week we added math, science, and history/geography.  She is loving the math and science so far as it is so hands on.  We learned about rainbows, the rain cycle, thunder/lighting, and snow.  Writing has been a chore this week and think she just gets bored with doing it...she knows it's long and she knows how to do it so I think she just doesn't want to.  After a couple of days, her assignments change and they will hopefully be more fun.  She cried most of the day yesterday and that was frustrating for me.  I think she has just had a lot of changes plus lack of sleep do to roofers and vacation.  We also implemented a "no blankie" rule.  Her blankie has to stay in her room at all times.  I think that is the biggest source of her emotional-ness.

During math we have been using shapes to make patterns.  She has pattern sheets but the last two days she was required to make something on her own in 5 minutes.  I was surprised at what she came up with.

 After school was done in the morning we went to the Miller park with some friends and ate lunch and played.  I like to call that lunch and recess.

 Her science paper...learning the cycle of rain and also rainbows.

 Her official Kindergarten pictures.

Wisconsin Dells Trip

We took a little vacation over the weekend and came home Tuesday.  Just wanted to post a few pictures of it.  We had a good time but I was a little on the edgy side, just because we have so much going on at home...still in the clean up process from the storm, school, and other activities starting.  Lots to think about.  Everyone is overly tired...the day after we got back we had roofers who started before 6am.  There hasn't been a whole lot of catching up and school work has been more difficult.  We will prevail!!

On the duck ride in the dells

 Brody is really into picking flowers...here he takes time to stop and smell some.

 Brody really enjoyed his duck ride!

 Going down the river on the duck ride.  So pretty.

 Daddy and Brody on the ducks

 Reece at Moose Jaw Pizza Pub

 Brody playing hide and seek while we wait for a table.  He's counting...love his dramatic faces!

 This is where we stayed - Hotel Rome at Mt Olympus

 Brody getting tired of waiting for his go-kart race.

 Reece and mommy on their go kart ride!

 Part of the awesome water park

 First bigger roller coaster ride...the loved it.

 Fake teeth they won at the arcade.  Aint they the cutest thangs? :)

 Reece's big roller coaster experience...she went the first time with me and another time with dad.

 What I rolled over to one morning...he's such a character.

 Paul Bunyans cook shanty.

 Cheese heads!!!

 The candy store

The "1st" day of Kindergarten

While most traditional schools have a "1st" day of school, we have been easing our way into school but plan to go full speed ahead Wednesday August 29th.  About 4 weeks ago, I started giving Reece handwriting assignments.  Since she learned to write in preschool, this is basically a lot of practice in writing before she gets to her assignments this year.  She has been doing well with this routine except that it is taking a little longer than I expected.  She feels she needs help with writing but I know she knows it and it's more of a matter of attention.  This is one subject/assignment where I thought I could just have it laid out and she would just do it on her own.  It's been getting better over the weeks but still needs some work.  Having our "school room" set up, has also helped - not as many distractions.

This week I added reading and bible.  This consists of her reading a small book every day of the week, and me doing some read-alouds with her.  Some are from a nursery rhyme book and another is a chapter book. Right now we are reading Box Car Children - something I was required to read in 5th grade.  We are very much enjoying that.  She also listens to "Sing the Word from A to Z" focusing on a verse each week.  This week was "All have Sinned".  We are also reading a bible story each day.  Our Math curriculum doesn't start until September but she has been doing some things with pattern blocks and doing her calendar stuff each day - We did this all summer.  And then course she has her chores to do.  So far all of that has been taking about an hour and we start the moment she gets out of bed.  We have been getting everything done including chores, dress and fed by 8:30.  Next Wednesday we will start the other part of math, science, history, and geography so it will take a little longer.  I'd like to keep the routine the way we have now and that way when Brody goes off to preschool at 9, Reece and I can continue with math, science, geography, and history when he is gone.  Those are the harder subjects I think and will require more concentration.  Brody usually reads with us so that works out well.

Things have been going a lot smoother than I thought so far.  I really hope it continues.  She will start dance next Thursday (the 30th) and then Awana the week after.  We are also going to try and make MOMs groups every other Friday morning and we'll be watching a little girl a couple of days a week.

I saw the school bus come to the end of our street and wait (even though I told the school she would not be attending).  I got all teary eyed when I saw it there and then leave.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  1st...I was happy that it wasn't actually picking her up and that she will at least  have another year home with me.  I am glad to be her teacher this year!  But there was still another part of me that was sad she was not going.  When I THINK of homeschooling, I get overwhelmed, but when I am actually DOING it, it feels natural, and I think "what was I worried about".  I also have been thinking about her missing out of the kindergarten experience at an actual school which kind of gets to me.  I told her yesterday that most of her friends actually went to school today.  I asked her if she was sad that she was not going, and she said no that she liked doing school at home better.  Part of me says she doesn't really know what she is missing but the other part of me really liked her answer!

I have some  pictures of our school room and routine.

This is our "to do chart".  These are magnets just like her chore chart.  It has all the subjects we will be doing for the day.  there is another small magnet on the front of them.  When she is done with one, she turns it over to show that it is completed.  I thought this would better show her all we have to do for the day and make her feel accomplished when she is done.  Of course I have some fun ones to add, like field trips, computer time, play doh, etc.

 The ones that are all done...

 Our calendar wall...work in progress.

In her PJs reading her first book.

 Doing some work

 Brody singing along with the bible verse song.

Thoughts the day after the Tornado (8/9/2012)

(*written the morning after the tornado but things got busy and it wasn't completed now).

Laying in the bed this morning in the dark after a restless nights sleep, it was nice to hear some birds finally chirpping as they try to find new homes. It was a nice cool night and morning with our windows open. Shortly after the birds, I could hear chain saws and wood chippers going over the generator that supplied our electricity. Thoughts flooded my head of the events that took place a short 13 hours before. It was odd to look out the front door and see a full view of the neighbors house. The two trees that were there before were cut up and laying an the ground. All my landscaping and flowers were stripped and leaves add a green new paint to everything.

What happened anyways? Some say they saw funnel clouds and rotations, others say 65+mph wind shears.
Photo taken by a friend somewhere off of route 9...

 Around 3:45 on Thursday August 9th, my kids and I went out to pick some tomatos. It was getting dark and started to sprinkle. Brody said he wanted his rain boots. I helped him find them and thought it would be a good "Kodak" moment since he was wearing shorts and a pair of rain boots - no shirt. We saw the neighbor moving some crafting projects inside of his garage to save them from the rain that was on its way. His wife was away to Hobby Lobby getting more wreaths for her craft. We head over there to say hi and have our usually 4pm snack. We grabbed a few lawn chairs and sat in the garage watching the rain. I remember looking up to see the clouds and saying "wow, look at those clouds...they are moving so fast...this will be quick storm". The neighbor then said "look at the neighbor's trampoline...I think it's going to go".

Then the rain picked up and it started hailing...so hard and fast at an angle that we were getting pelted in the face. And then all of a sudden, the wind gushed through the garage pushing us back. The neighbor yelled "Get in the basement". We rushed to the back door, tried to shut the garage, but it was too late - no electricity. I rushed the kids downstairs with a flash light and the radio. The neighbor said he saw the rotation hit the pavement of his driveway. I went back upstairs and looked out the window and it was already over...in a matter of 5 minutes. Trees uprooted...shingles scattered...leaves and hail plastering houses and littering the yards. I couldn't believe my eyes as I looked outside. I stepped out into his garage with water and hail up to my ankles. Everything was pushed back in the garage and the foundation of the east side of the garage was pushed/bowed out.

I immediately went home and grabbed my camera. I tried several times to get ahold of my husband. Three times we were cut off and all he heard me say was "everything is gone". What I actually said was the trees were all gone. Imagine driving home for 30 minutes thinking your house is gone.

Meanwhile the dog was at the vet. I took him there in the morning to have some teeth cleaning procedure thing in which they had to put him under for. Brock was to pick him up on the way home. Given the circumstances, he had a guy in the office go pick up the dog for us. An hour later, the vet called to tell us that they gave him the wrong dog! Turns out the owner of the other dog lived close to him and walked down to exchange dogs. He brought the dog to town and met my mother in law who picked him up. My poor dog will never want to go to the vet again! Gets put under, wakes up to 2 different owners and his territory as he knew it was completely destroyed.

We had lots of help cutting down things and moving things around. My sister in law and mother in law brought food and drinks. We very well taken care of and supported. Clean up begins or continues. We are so thankful that we were not harmed by this event. It sure felt like a close one when we saw all the damage that happened around us. It sure looks different around our neighborhood. I love seeing all the community support.
Neighbors 80 foot tree that was uprooted and laying on their roof.

View out my garage when I ran to get my camera.  That steam is from the hail and the heat hitting.

Our front yard tree.

 Neighbors trees

One of our back yard trees...view of neighbors.

 Front of house where the tree fell on it.

All last week we continued to make progress.  On Monday, Direct TV came out and replaced our battered dish.  The air unit guy came and cleaned out our air units from debri and fixed the fans that were pelted by hail.

On Tuesday Brock stayed home and took in all our ripped screens from the windows and had all those replaced.  He also put back our broken retaining wall that fell due to heavy trees laying on it.

Brody ran to hug BeBe (the neighbor) who was sad that her trees were being cut down.

 Checking out their new territory

 Watching trees being cut down.

The empty neighbors forrest where the kids use to play.  This was full of trees...they lost 13 50-80 footers!

 The dump pile from our street and the streets around us.  It was at least 40 feet high and 50 feet wide.

We still have to replace our roof and gutters along with a few other things.  It has slowed down a bit and we are hoping for a less busy fall...probably won't have as many leaves and things to prune since everything is wiped out.  No canning for me since my garden is gone! :(  There are still some clean up things to do and we will replace a couple of trees in the fall we hope.  Eventually I'd like to see some before and after pictures...just have to dig around to get some befores.