It's a Boy! party

Our usual course of action is to tell the other children, in an interesting way, if the coming baby is a boy or a girl. Last time, we had a pink party with streamers and a strawberry cake and strawberry frosting and pink candies on top that spelled out "GIRL." This time we wanted to do something different...Daddy came up with the idea to fill our entry way with blue balloons sometime while they were gone so that when they came in the door, they will be greeted by a sea of blue. Daddy never does anything halfway, though! He also got a large banner, made a curtain of blue ribbon, added blue color to lemon-lime soda, and got a cake with enough blue color in the icing to make us all have blue lips and teeth.

Only 5 months since the last one...

We've been busy around here lately...okay, not really, I just didn't know what to write. :o) I couldn't post anything before I told my mom we were going to have a baby, and I couldn't think of anything else to write about for a while. And now, I don't have anything to say, really...but I did add a ticker to the top that shows where I am in the pregnancy. I may get around to adding an ultrasound picture, once I get it scanned. The thing is, we haven't told the other children it's a boy yet--and that is fairly obvious from the pictures--so I will have to scan them after bedtime and I am usually in bed then!

One of the great benefits of homeschooling my children is that they love to be together and they are actually helpful to one another. When we went on an Easter Egg hunt recently, my twelve year old daughter was the helper for the 15 month old. It is so joyous to see what the world considers a "teenager" interacting so cheerfully and gently with a very young child, when she could be rebellious and annoyed by her instead. Another mom took this picture and sent it to me. She was as touched as I by her actions.

Worship

My oldest two children are in high school. We usually talk while we drive, generally about the happenings of whatever was going on where we just left. During last night's youth time, they had a message about worship. The youth pastor had talked about how so many of them would "worship" during the music time at church and maybe keep worshipping until they went to sleep that night, but that when they woke up, it would be back to "normal life" and they would forget all about worshipping.

I had to disagree with that pastor on one tiny point--we are always worshipping, it's just a matter of WHAT we are worshipping. Our marvelous Creator made us to worship. Everyone worships at all times.

People tend to call the time we are praising God with music "worship" and so we forget that in everything we do we are worshipping...something. If you lose yourself in music that is talking about a cheating husband, your eyes are closed, your body is swaying...your are worshipping the thoughts and actions glorified in that song. If you are so caught up in keeping your house clean that you forget yourself and act in an unseemly matter, you are worshipping your clean house. This applies to educating our children at home, driving a new car, being debt-free...everything that we do every day of our lives.

So how do we worship God, every minute of every day? Does it mean we never clean or teach our children or buy a new car? Does it mean that we don't work, don't eat, don't sleep? Of course not. It means that everything that we do should point to our Creator. That people who see us, including our family (maybe especially our family), should look at us while we go about normal life and KNOW that we are different from the world. When I drive around in my big 'ol red monster, with the little boy (you know the one) bowing to the Cross, people should see me let someone out of a driveway instead of cutting someone off in traffic. If I choose to be debt free, it should not be the driving force in my life, but rather a choice that I make so I can give more to the "least of these" who are in the world with me. If I am choosing to educate my children at home, the world should see a difference in my children that they cannot explain. That is how we worship God every minute of every day.

What are you worshipping today?

Naming puppies

We have a name for our cute little corgi. She's called Gretel...and yes, we have Hansel, too. :-) Friday my husband needed to go pick up more dog food. (Corgyn need more food than Chihuahuas apparently!) He joked that if her brother was still there, he might buy him and call them Hansel and Gretel since then we could at least have a name for her...

He was there. We now have three dogs in our home. Horatio, our chihuahua, and Hansel and Gretel, pembroke welsh corgyn. Who knew naming puppies could make them increase?

:o)
I'll post a picture once I get one taken.

(picture added April 27)