The Wages of Sin

Our dishwasher that is a little over a year old mysteriously lost power yesterday causing Katie and I to hand wash the dinner dishes.  

Our system was-I washed and she rinsed and set to dry.  We chatted about things and were genuinely having a good time. Naturally, I am a little faster than her so her side of the sink still had a few dishes to rinse by the time I was finished washing.  I stepped away from the sink as she rinsed and began wiping the counters. 

Not long after, Katie turned around standing on her little stool with the water running and called to me sobbing.  "Mom, I have been so mean to you.  I feel so sad.  I just feel so sad inside. Please forgive me, Mom."  I rushed over and held her while she cried so hard.  

School and life can be frustrating some days for us and parenting is not exactly a science.  So her and I have days that don't go smoothly.  Mostly last week and this past weekend has been a bit of an attitude struggle.  It seemed she was getting spanked quite often.  

Why we spank: 

There are a lot of negative views about spanking.  Some people were spanked as children and remember a fed up enraged yelling and angry parent.  This is by far the absolute worse way to spank your child!   There is most definitely a difference in effectiveness when you spank out of love and correction.  When you speak calmly to your child, you show them your ability to exercise self control.  A controlled parent will ensure the child they have no need to fear the parent loosing control.  Instead they fear the punishment and not the parent.  

The Bible says "Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Proverbs 23;13-14 Something happens to her when I teach her constraint.  Not only is it a settling of the matter between us two, but it's also teaches her that negative action has consequences. The world us adults live in is full of consequences.  We don't get spanked anymore as adults, our consequences are much worse.  I would choose a spanking any day over dying in a car crash because I didn't obey traffic rules. 

We are their only world.  

Dooty Mitt Romney

Hey! We're back! 

Lot's of fun stuff happening lately!  

At completion of 6 weeks, we decided to take last week off to do some much needed visiting and outings! 

We visited Aunt Kelly and Katie's cousins, Jude had a sleepover, visited Katie's elderly friend George suffering from a fall, took a trip to a Mennonite farm in Kemp,  hung out with the crazy Genung clan, went on a field trip to Dallas Heritage Village with Paideia Homeschool Group, went to the Farmers Market in Dallas,  and had dinner Mormon style at Chilis!  Te he  Jeremy Fortune was the only male among a group of 9 kids and 3 women! We had some funny looks.  

What a great time we had spending with family and friends!  Now, we are winding down from a week full of energy and getting focused back on school!  

Sit by Me

Today was one of those 'let's take a holiday and get outta the house' days.  We decided on eating lunch out together.   

So we ordered our food, we made our drinks, collected our condiments, and chose the perfect place to sit.  Having the terrible habit of watching people, I usually scout out a seat where, if at all possible, I can have no one in my  view. It helps me to pay better attention to my company at the table.   

This particular side of the restaurant had only 1 lady sitting by herself so I choose to sit her toward my back so I could focus on Miss Katie.  I put Katie's food in front of my chair and she said, "Mom, can I sit by you?"  I began to reason with her sweetly, "Katie, I would rather you sit in front of me so I can see you."  

"I know Mom but pleeeeease?"  

Sheltered

Raise your hand if you ever thought homeschooled children are sheltered!  If we were on webcam, you would see one guilty woman in front of the computer.  

I used to think homeschool was lame and so were the dorks who were homeschooled. 

I assure you, I don't anymore.

Yes Katie is sheltered from harm. But from real life, hardly.  Let me tell you why. 

Since Jeramey and I went through a separation and attempted divorce, we have been provided with a constant stream of wonderful couples with failing marriages. Just when I think we've earned only a friend, it turns out the Lord has given us not only wonderful friends, but a marriage in need of the God's intervention.  When God gives you something special, you know it's because He has a purpose.  We are just rubble God has somehow used for building.  He doesn't need us, but we are useful for those doubters who need to see to believe.   

That being said, Katie has witnessed a lot of struggling marriages that at some point were separated.  She has seen success and fail. Praise be to God for the success! 

Katie is my faithful prayer partner that I am constantly reaching out to with specifics on these couples for prayer. She rides the up and down roller-coaster with us during the most critical times of prayer for divorcees.  Katie has a pretty long list of answered prayers and her faith is great. Hence, I always turn to her.  


I've said it before, I'll say it again!  Life always correlates with our curriculum lesson for the day. Our memory verse for this week is "Bear ye one another's burdens"  Galatians 6:2 

Flower Soup and Useful Weeds

Katie, Jeramey, and I love to ride bikes together.  Katie will spot pretty weeds and flowers while riding, stop to pick them, and place them in her bag attached to the bike.  This requires much patience from us adults!  We don't particularly like stopping.

Remembering back to my childhood, I used to make what I called "flower soup".  I would capture beautiful weeds and flowers much like Katie, put them all in a bowl, and pretend to cook a soup.  So I mentioned this to Katie and she thought it was a splendid idea!  

We added some bugs (for protein) since Daddy was helping ;)