Month: September 2024

No, not in the traditional sense. And no this is not about Doug and me! LOL.

Nope.

Tatum ordered a reborn kit. I told her not to look at the “parts” before bed as not to have some creepy nightmare. HA!

Next step: Hobby Lobby to buy stuffing and weighting beads.

She did such a good job stuffing and making this baby come to life! Such an analogy for life. With such care, she created this beautiful baby girl.

She is so happy! And now sleeping soundly.

Welcome to our family, Stella.

Well, it’s a question the disciples asked when Jesus calmed a storm. Jesus is supposed to calm all the storms in my life, right?? Isn’t he supposed to make my life calm? Isn’t that His purpose in my life…

*Eye roll*

When the storm was raging, the disciples had fear, BUT when He stopped it, they experienced more fear wondering who He was!!??

Oh ye of little faith! Their faith was in the wrong place. It was in the storm, not in HIM. What is your faith in? HE wonders, is your faith in ME or is it in your circumstances...because storms are going to come and go ALL THE TIME.

Their faith was in what they understood…what THEY thought was best…not what JESUS thought was best.

I’m a huge fan of Jesus when He does what I think is best. Yes, He is the object of my faith in doing what I LOVE… He calmed the storm, BUT he then asked them where is your faith!? What about when HE doesn’t calm my storm!!? Then is my faith still in HIM?

Look at these FOUR passages about FAITH:

1. Isaiah 41:10: Fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

It says FEAR NOT!! I will change your circumstances! NOOOOOO! HOWEVER< I will be WITH YOU. (BUT JESUS don’t you care? (I say) He says: FEAR NOT FOR I AM WITH YOU! OK, Well what are you going to do??? I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU! (through the storms).

He is not going to fix things but instead strengthen my INSIDES not fix my OUTSIDES (ouch)

2. Romans 8:28. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Can’t you do my purposes GOD? NO! He is doing HIS purposes.

3. Romans 15:13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

May the God of hope FILL YOU (KEY WORD: FILL!)! You may abound in hope! He does work in me (FIRST) so He could do work around me. I get filled with the joy/peace which looks totally different than my circumstances.

4. Proverbs 16:9: The heart of man plans his way,
    but the Lord establishes his steps.

Hey Lord..let’s go over there…..there’s lots of sun…beauty …let’s go there! Not the storm area. (THIS IS MY PLAN!! MY PURPOSES!!??) No, HE establishes our steps. The Lord wants to work IN US not in our circumstances.

He wants to calm the storm that the storm created. He wants to calm US not the surrounding storm. He wants us to be WITH HIM. We can’t become TOO independent. God’s purpose is to create DEPENDENT children (us!). If Jesus loved me, He would….no. Instead I say, Because Jesus loves me, I am FULLY KNOWN. FULLY LOVED. period.

They were filled with a GREAT FEAR once the storm was calm!? WHY!? Well, as humans, we want control. The group of fishermen had no way to control this storm. The CREATOR fixed it! THEY couldn’t. We need to ask, “WHO IS HE!?”

HE is my Lord. He is my Rock. He is my Savior. He is my Redeemer.

This was preached today by Rustin Russello at SBC> I have wanted Jesus to calm my storm for so long. I say WHY WHY WHY? Well, now I see. He wants me to know I am fully loved, fully known. He gets it. I am to change and grow THROUGH this storm. And so. I hear you, Lord and I love you. I repeat:

HE is my Lord. He is my Rock. He is my Savior. He is my Redeemer. I have faith in HIM. Not my circumstances. He will work in me through this time. AMEN!

AMEM AMEN AMEN.

We love school! Well, Coyote this week went off with a bang for Tatum. She presented her chapters of Adam of the Road to the group. (my lovely class!)

Then she had her “Celebration” today with me at home!

I’m testing her on the about 20 stems and words, Grammar, and math.

For grammar, we are doing the four levels of a sentence from Royal Fireworks Press….I LOVE TEACHING THIS since I did in my years at Tesseract.

Bible verse!

I think we like this.

She’s able to focus on her many hobbies, rest, enjoy school, and just learn with fun involved. She learns so much more this way, and I see her really just soaking it all in.

Coopy?

He’s just along for the ride.

Bless his little doggie soul.

I love you, Tot. I’m so proud of your efforts.

We joined this new COOP, Coyote which is…Christian Youth Together in Education.

Our first day was today!

Tatum will be taking Science, History/Literature (which I’m teaching), Riches (Humanities) and Bible.

When we got there, she saw so many friends!

We will be delving into the Renaissance period, studying Shakespeare, DaVinci, Galileo, and Newton, and Michelangelo to name a few.

At home we continue to do Saxon (7/6), Grammar (with the Magic Lens MY FAV!!!…4 levels of grammar), English (stems!!! She’ll know 500 by 8th grade), Reading, and more Bible. AND MORE WRITING!
She also is taking a Creative Writing class online from Royal Fireworks Press. (it’s for gifted writers which is my Tot!)

What a great year it is starting out to be. She already has produced a great story using her new vocab words. I love practicing what we learn.

One thing she does REALLY well is make a great balanced snack. Oh, and it’s pretty. (crackers with nut butter and sprinkles, beef stick cut up, and cashews.

Thank you, Jesus, for this group. Tatum feels so welcome and accepted here.

May you continue to heal me so I can be the BEST for Tatum!
AMEN!

The death of our glorious tree!

When something becomes a bit lopsided, you have to ask, will it fall?
We all get a bit lopsided at times. We get pruned on one side and then we start to go way too far the other way becoming unbalanced. This poor tree was doomed to fall as we will as well if we don’t get trimmed (usually by HIM). Gratefully, this tree was taken down today.

and the beauty of this tree was demolished and turned into dust. YIKEEEE!!

We better watch out so we don’t get turned to dust!
And so, the good news?

A new beginning. A new start. Jesus, did this FOR US! He did not turn us to dust, but He renewed and replanted….

Just like Tatum’s new babies! They came the same day.

Alix and Alice.

And now they are one big happy baby family.

May we be renewed day by day. Thank you Jesus for standing in the GAP for us.