Track Meet 8

According to Rose Bud there were only 7 track meets, so I'm not sure where this one came from, but here it is.

Rose Bud did not compete because she twisted her ankle climbing a tree the day before.

Bummer, because the winning long jump was 12'2" (she's jumped farther twice) and the winning 400 m time was 1:12 (she's run faster)

Oh well. She had a great season and she had fun. I was so proud of what a good sport she is and how she cheers on everyone on the team. She worked hard, challenged herself and improved over the course of the season.

We love you, Rose Bud and we're proud of you!

I did NOT steal this idea from Leslie

No, really, I didn't! I have been tossing and turning it around in my mind for a week, but since her latest comment, it's going to look like I did.

Well, folks, great minds worry alike! Here goes:

How do you justify spending $4000 to travel to India to help out Sarah's kids?

What I mean is, think what $4000 would do in India! Cash. Dinero. Rupees. 190, 373.5 rupees, to be exact.

So what if Rose Bud and I stayed home and just sent the money? What if our whole group of 15 people did? (ok, THAT thought I DID steal from Leslie)

What justifies going as opposed to just giving?

Is this just selfish wanting-to-go-to-India on my part?

I'm a bad user-of-scripture to support my position. I tend to think I "get" God and know what he wants.

Isn't there something in the Bible about being his hands and feet? I can't find it on Bible Gateway.

I always feel a little wicked (ooh, I just accidentally typed "wicken." Wonder what that Freudian slip means??? I know. It's not spelled "wicken" so probably it means nothing)

Back to my thought... I always feel a little wicked searching out Bible verses to support what I want to say/think/do. Like I'm manipulating God. I could probably come up with a verse to support whatever position I want to take. I'm sure that's not how it works. After all the Bible is there for God to talk to us, right?

I am way off track. This tangent has gone into outer space.

Anyway, go vs. send. I'm sure there are some Bible verses to support going. I know God loves a cheerful giver.

I do have some coherent thoughts in answer to my conundrum, but that is for the next post.

The Devil is in the Details

From the first, this trip to India has just felt right to me. So many things came together in such quick succession. Like I said, there were a bunch of God things that seemed to confirm that we should do this. It didn't really require any pondering.

I trusted God and said, "Yes" to this trip.

And then the thinking begins. How will I get that much money? Will God really come through on that? Am I trusting him if I wonder if he'll come through? Should I earn all the trip money myself or rely on donations? Should I earn the money for the trip and use the donations as donations for Sarah's kids? What if I don't earn enough? Will I have enough by August when we need to buy tickets?

And then it hit me. When I am thinking, I am not trusting.

The DEVIL is in the details.

God wants us to look at the big picture. HE wants to take care of the details.

1 Chronicles 28:18-20 (New International Version)

18 ...He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

19 "All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan."

20 David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

So I am trying really hard to let God work out the details while I listen for his direction in carrying them out.

Can I Read in My Head?

Banana Boy has become an amazing reader! It has really just clicked for him, effortlessly. And he has also discovered the joy of reading.

Rose Bud, Daisy and Pepper are all bookworms, Daisy and Pepper are crazy obsessive bookworms.

BB sees that, I guess and just knows that it's what kids around here do. So he is becoming a bookworm, too.

The other night I was at work and he wanted to read in bed before going to sleep, just like his sisters do. Mr. GT informed him that he needed to go to sleep. Or that it was too dark. Or something. I wasn't here, remember?

But he COULD put his book next to his bed and read when he woke up in the morning, Mr. GT said.

Still hoping to get his way and read before bed, BB asked, "How about if I just read in my head like the girls do?"

Huh? What?

Ahh! Then Mr. GT got it. BB wanted to read silently, rather than out loud, which is all he's done so far.

My boy is growing up.

Track Meet 7

Rose Bud jumped 12' 6" (twice) and 12' 3" This got her 2nd place (the winner jumped over 13'!) This was Rose Bud's best jump yet!

She was 3rd in the 400.

She's not sure how she did in the 100m. She was first in her heat (that's a first--Good job!), but it was the 2nd heat.

One meet left.

India Trip Fundraiser

Leslie's group is doing a buncha fundraisers and here's a cool one.

I'm unabashedly stealing her blog post, text and all because a) I'm too lazy to rewrite it myself and b) she did such a beautiful job plugging the CD's! oh, and c) because I think you're more likely to read the actual text right here than if I link you to her post.

So there.

Here it is.

Have you heard of a really cool award-winning storyteller named Jim Weiss? He's the guy who did some of the Harry Potter audio books. You may have heard him talking on NPR. Or maybe you've bought some of his audio CD's from his company, Greathall Productions.

Well, they have agreed to let us do a fundraiser for our upcoming trip to India. Remember how a group of us are planning to visit Sarah in January and build a playground for her kids? Yeah.. well, it's going to take some serious moolah. Just to get us over there... that doesn't include the playground.

For every CD that we sell at $15, we get to keep $4 of that to go directly into our India fund.

Not bad!

I really hope you all will look at the CD's and check out the samples online. You can view both HERE.

Seriously, this guy is amazing. I can't wait to get my grubby hands on a copy of Just-So Stories. Our summer will be packed with therapy treks to Dallas and this will be perfect to listen to in the car. I'm also planning on donating a few CD's to our local library, and saving some for our homeschool lessons.

If any of you are interested, please email me (Leslie) at recoveringnoah@yahoo.com and we'll sort out the details. Just let me know what you'd like to get and I'll send you our P.O. Box. If you are local, you can just give me the money or pass it on to someone from church.

This will be an ongoing fundraiser, but our first deadline is set for June 15th. Once the orders are complete, the CD's will be shipped via priority mail within 24-48 hours.

Thank you so much for considering this. We really appreciate it! Oh! And please pass the word. Seriously, blog it. Facebook it. Email it. Shout it from the roof tops. These CDs rock and every home needs at least one. Or ten. Or twenty. You decide. Just link them back to our Cornerstone India blog or this one right here.

And now back to me. I don't own any of these CDs, but I wish I did. They really are great and they are big in the homeschooling community. At least check them out. Your purchase will help to send our group to India and fund the playground project.

Please note: To participate in the fundraiser, you need to purchase the CD's from LESLIE, not from the Greathall website!

My Popstar

Banana Boy is my musician. Lately, he writes songs. (and he is SO adorable when he SINGS them!)

Here are today's offerings:

You can moov it!
You can groov it
How mach (much) loger (longer) can it take
How mach!
How mach!
How mach!
How mach loger can it take

And he writes Christian music, too.

Oh Jesus I need you right now.
How can I help you.
Oh Jesus I need you right now
I want to tell you a miracle.

Track Meet 6

Rose Bud had a great night!

She looked to be 5th in the 100 m. They only announced the first 3 places at this meet. She was 4th in her heat but there was one really fast girl in the second heat that I'm pretty sure was faster than Rose Bud.

Whatever, she ran 15.16s, her best so far. For kicks, we looked up the World Records for women's track. Florence Griffith Joyner ran 10.49 in the 100m, a record that has stood since 1988. Rose Bud was -10 years old then!


In the Long Jump, she had her best jump so far, 12' 4 1/4" and placed 2nd!!! (World Record: 24.67 FEET)

And in the 400m, she was FIRST! Her first win. Her time was 1:11.36

Go, Rose Bud!!!!

A Story

Once there was a family. Daddy, Mommy, Spider, Rose Bud, Daisy, Pepper, Banana Boy and Sunshine. They decided to go to Hawaii.

Grandma and Papa came. They had to take care of the chickens.
And Spider. And Sunshine.
Everybody else went to the airport.

They parked their van there

And flew away to Hawaii. (domestic flight seating isn't the luxury it once was)Here they are in Hawaii. (not as lush as we expected)

Every day, Grandma and Papa took Sunshine to school

Miss Cindy, Miss Kathy and Miss 'Nette can't wait to see Sunshine!
Every day Grandma and Papa brought Sunshine home from school again.

At night, Sunshine came out of his own bed and slept by Grandma.

One day, Grandma and Papa had to go back to their own home. Miss Janna picked Sunshine up instead
and took him to her house to stay with her family: Mr. Lilo, Miss Janna, Joey, Peter, Map, Momo, Mikayla and Maddie.
At night, Sunshine slept by Miss Janna. (Sorry, Mr. Lilo, looks like the floor for you!!!)


In the morning, Miss Janna took Sunshine to school and then picked him up again when it was done.

Meanwhile, everyone else flew home from Hawaii.

And when Miss Janna and Sunshine got home, there was a surprise!


Everyone hugged Sunshine.
And they all were home together again.

Just Filing This Away in a Place Where I Can Find It

Since it relates to my trip...

Bible Verse of the Day
“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10)

AWANA Awards Night

Banana Boy, Pepper and Daisy attend AWANA every week. They are all excellent memorizers (read: they can memorize long passages with very little effort). Daisy and Pepper are also extremely self-motivated. Every school morning, they get up and read their Bibles and practice their AWANA verses first thing, without being told.

Banana Boy--well, lucky for him, he is an even better memorizer than they are because most of the time I didn't remember to work with him on his verses until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

Did I mention they go to AWANA every Wed. night?

So by working hard, both girls finished their book for the year and Pepper also finished her review book. She was the only one in her grade to do so.

Banana Boy not only finished his book, he also finished the review section and the review book! And let me tell you, we, I mean HE, earned that ribbon because the last two weeks, he had to learn 5 verses. Each week. And they weren't short.

Anyway, I'm a little proud of them. Here are the pictures from awards night.

(actually, now that' I'm looking through the pictures for the first time, there aren't any actual pictures of their awards. Banana Boy IS receiving his award in the picture.)

More About Sarah's Covenant Homes

You saw the video.

I urge you to go here to get an excellent synopsis of what this place is all about. This post from Sarah's blog is an interview of Sarah done by her daughter Simona. Simona did a terrific job with the questions and Sarah explains very well what is is that she does and why.

Of course, it is just like me to sign on to something I know nothing about. Today I've been reading about Sarah and her husband's ministry and all I can say is, "Wow."

This is way more than an American lady with an orphanage. It's not even an orphanage. This is God working in a big way.

You can check out their website on your own, but I'll be featuring bits of it in future blog posts.

Guess Who's Going to India??

I have always wanted to go on a missions trip.

I have always wanted to go on a missions trip to India.

I have always wanted to go on a missions trip to India and work with children.

The thing is, you have to be hooked up. I mean, you can't just fly to India and start wandering around looking for an orphanage to help in.

India's a big place, after all.

So when Leslie posted this morning that she was going to India to help out Sarah, I was really jealous.

And I wished it were me.

And a part of me wanted to go.

So I emailed Leslie, telling her how excited I was for her and asking about all the details. What are they doing? How long? How much? Can I come? (ha ha ha)

And she emailed back, saying, of course I could come: this is when, this is how long, this is how much. It's a bunch of people from her church and most of them are bringing their teenage daughters.

What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was when the God things started to happen. Well, that was a God thing. Because my second thought after "I wish I could go to India" was, "I wish I could bring Rose Bud, too." I just assumed the group from her church was adults. It is India, after all.

But no. Almost every family is bringing a 13 or 14 yo.

Wow.

So I showed RoseBud the video and asked her if she'd like to go. "Sure. Maybe." She's so low-key.

Then I went to talk to Mr. GT. I breathlessly explained the whole story. I looked at him. He looked at me. "Well??? Could I go?"

"Can you raise the money?"

"Well, no, but God can."

And then he said something that blew me away (because he's a think-about-it kind of guy). "If it weren't for this job thing being so up in the air, I wouldn't hesitate to say 'yes.'"

Which essentially meant, "Yes."

Thank you, God, for my faithful and missions-minded husband.

I went back into the house and emailed Leslie to say I could go. I could hear the screams all the way from Texas.

Next up, fundraising.

Leslie estimates the cost at $2000 each. I've been putting away $150 from my tips every week for the last 10 weeks or so, for Hawaii. Just for kicks, I put $4000 into the calculator and divided by $150.

Guess how long it takes?

26 weeks.

Half a year.

Six months.

June to January.

Guess when we leave? January 10.

Now that's a God-Thing.

Here is the video Leslie put together so you can see the beautiful kids we'll be meeting.

My Wild Thing

Tell me you don't see the resemblance!

Track Meet 5

100 m 3rd in heat, 15.2 seconds, FIVE heats (we didn't hear official places for this meet)

4oo m 4th in heat, 1:13, 2 heats

Long Jump 11'5" Probably 4th place

This is Exciting...This is Exciting...This is Exciting

Box o' chicks, front and center (and RoseBud's feet. I tried applying a blanket, being a Good Mom and all, but she kicked it off.)


Just a candlelight shot


Pepper and Banana Boy, only Pepper stepped out to powder herself


Sunshine and Daisy's bed. See the blue blanket? That's where Sunshine is SUPPOSED to be sleeping.


Still-life chicks with hot water bottle in a box


We came home from the AWANA awards night the other night and it had been storming. The power was out.

This presented a small crisis because of the chicks. They are still under a heat lamp 24/7 and should remain at 90-95 degrees. Their thermometer said 67.

Rose Bud, Pepper and Mr. GT immediately went out to remedy that situation. The chicks were all huddled in a small mass in their pool in the dark. Shivering. They (the humans) got a cardboard box and a blanket and put them (the chicks) inside, then covered it (the box) with a towel.

My first order of business was to light a couple of candles in the house. While simultaneously worrying about the chicks and racking my brain for ways to warm them up without electricity, I lit more candles and promised the kids they could all sleep in the sunroom.

Banana Boy flitted about nervously in minor panic mode, as he is prone to do. Sunshine was way beyond tired and was very crabby and naughty. Daisy, also tired, was slightly out-of-sorts as well.

I got the three of them into pajamas and under blankets on the floor. I began to sing to them and stroke Sunshine's head, all the while fielding interruptions for reassurance and still wondering how to keep the chicks warm. At our old house, we had a gas stove, which could be lit with a match in an emergency. Here we have our (stupid) flat-top electric stove which was of no use to us this night.

The 3 chick rescuers came inside to get ready for bed and I questioned the wisdom of keeping the chicks out in their box in the coop. I finally convinced Mr. GT to bring them in the house.

And then I came up with the solution! The hot water bottle and the camp stove! I urged Mr. GT to set the stove up in the garage and boil some water.

The chicks moved into the sun room with us. BB, by now, was more than wound up and kept nervously chattering to himself, "This is so scary. I'm so scared."

I finally said to him, "BB! This is not scary! It's just dark! Look. We are sleeping in the sunroom, Mommy is right here. The chicks are camping in the house with us. THIS is an adventure! THIS is exciting!"

"Ohhhhhh!" he said, lightbulb coming on in his head (if only he could have shared a little of that electricity with the rest of us!)

I finished getting Pepper and Rose Bud settled, and I heard BB whispering to himself under his covers on the other side of the room, "This is exiting! This is exciting! This is exciting!"

Epilogue:
The chicks loved the hot water bottle--two of them even perched on top of it. They settled down nicely in their box.

Spider had to be banished from the sunroom, as he kept sniffing the chick box.

The power finally came back on at 9:45. The chicks, who by now were thirsty, went back out to their regularly-scheduled digs in the chicken coop.

Banana Boy finally fell asleep at almost 10:00pm.

Happy Sunshine Day!!!!

Breakfast in bed: Crepes and Chai Tea


Rose Bud, I SNEEZE on you! Achoo! I mean, Thank you! (bottle of Coty Wild Musk-yes! I still wear the same perfume I wore in high school, thank you very much.)


Thank you, Daisy, for the beautiful potted plant! (thank you, Sunday School teacher !) What's up with the weird shadow in my room?


Thank you, Pepper for the pretty flower (thank you Sunday School teacher)


One, Two, Three, Four. All my beautiful children. Wait! don't I have FIVE children?


Ah, yes, my sweet Banana Boy. He didn't get to help in the kitchen the way he wanted, so he was having a pity party on the couch. So, if Muhammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain (that would be me) must come to Muhammed. We had our own little Mother's Day celebration downstairs, he and I. Then he was happy and joined the rest of us upstairs.

See?


And Sunshine gave me a funny little book about 31 Things Moms are Good At. Or some such title. It was cute. He thought it was his book. And his bag. And his wrapping paper. And his breakfast in bed.

Happy Sunshine Day!

Track Meet 4

This was an invitational and there were 9 schools there. Coaches picked who participated in each event.

They never announced the official standings, so we don't know if she placed. But here's how she did

100m 4th in her heat. Time 16.23 seconds. This was the first time they told them their times. There were 4 heats.

400m 6th in her heat out of 2 heats. Her time was 1:11, her personal best time!

Long Jump We were watching the jumps at the pit and watching the measurements. Rose Bud jumped 12' even and as far as we could tell, only one other girl jumped better. 12' was also her personal best jump!

So while she might not have placed, she improved on her previous attempts.

Even more importantly, she is such a good sport! She was never frustrated or upset by how she did. She cheered on all her teammates and congratulated her opponents at the finish. Her whole team showed great sportsmanship.

It was a very fun meet!

Please Pray for Noah

Please pray for sweet little Noah now. He is very, very sick.


I have been following his blog a long time. His parents own a homeschool company from which I bought things many times.

They all need your prayers now.

After the Rain

More Awww

Here are the details you all been waiting anxiously for....


Hello, Chickie! I will SQUEEZE you!
Meet Comet, a Golden Comet hen
Iris, another Golden Comet hen (thanks to Mr. GT, my girls have all inherited the non-ability to have their eyes open in photos)
Lilac, a bantam something, won't know if it's a hen or rooster for a while
Banana Boy's White Wyandotte hen (no name as of yet)
Lily, an Aracauna hen (see the eyes???)

first column on left, from bottom: Lily (Aracauna), Comet (Golden Comet), no name (White Wyandotte)
middle column of 4, from bottom: Baby Violet (bantam), Little Lilac (bantam), Iris (Golden Comet), Hushinski (Rare breed, straight-run, some sort of Polish)
Last 3 on right, from left: Caffe (Aracauna, belongs to Rose Bud), Elle (or El, depending if it turns out to be a rooster, Bantam, also belongs to RoseBud), Chipmunk (some rare breed)

Awwwwwwww!