A New One's Just Begun...

Another year of our educational journey began this past Monday.  We are steadily plodding along, which is a really good way to describe my approach to education.  It's more like plodding and less like sprinting or coasting.  Homeschooling isn't easy.  It takes discipline. 

I said it.  That "d" word.  DISCIPLINE.  This is our children's education I'm talking about here.  If I sluff off, they suffer in the long run - being less prepared for real life and its challenges. 

I'm doing more with Blossom3 this year.  She LOVES school, as did all my girls at that age.  They were just dyin' to learn to read.  Prior to Monday, I thought that if I spent more time doing preschool with Blossom3, I'd actually spend less time trying to occupy her and convince her that we'd do some schoolwork later.  Thus far, that has entirely proved to be true.  She's very content to occupy herself with toys and such wherever I decree, because she's happy that her turn is plenty long and she gets lots of learning time with Mommy.  She has big plans for this year.  She believes that if she learns to read, she can start her Kindergarten stuff... that's what she keeps telling people anyway.  I think we'll just take it one day at a time. 

 

And Blossom4... you can guess what she's doing the whole time.  She's learning to play in a designated area.  She's never been a big toy baby-child.  Household items and sisters' belongings have always held much more appeal for her.  So, I'm striving for balance.  I strongly believe in free play AND I believe in learning to obey for the benefit for the entire family.  Peeling her off of the top of her sister's lampstand is necessary because climbing on that distracts the family.   There are other harmless exploratory type of plays that she can perform quietly.  We're making progress there.

 

I wasn't dreading another year and I'm still not dreading it.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here.  It's a privilege, not a burden.  That being said, I have been really, really tired by the time bedtime rolls around. 

 

Blessings,

Dominique

The Memory of the Righteous

The value of living for God day-by-day, day-after-day is immeasurable.  I can't tell you how priceless it is.  Holiness day in and day out can only be achieved by steadily plodding along with the Holy Spirit helping us in each moment.  Only then can a person's final home-going be beautiful and peaceful. 

Think of it like saving for Christmas.  You put a little money way, every day and then, Christmas shopping is a joy.  However, if you shirked squirrelling away funds all through the year, Christmastime won't be so pleasant for you.  You can't make up for the lack of saving.

Similarly, you can't make up for the lack of a Godly life.  Rejecting Christ over and over becomes a lifestyle stemming from a hardened heart. 

Living for God is much like a long term investment.  The eternal dividends pay rich returns of peace and eternity with God.  Those eternal dividends lack the pain of regrets.  They leave behind a rich legacy of righteousness and Godly character.  It brings to mind Proverbs 10:7.

"The memory of the righteous is blessed..."

May the Lord help me to live for Him every day, day after day.

Nice People Make Great Victims

I was seated in the Poultry/Rabbit enjoying the company of my friend, Gwen and her grand-daughter, when I man approached us and started yakking.  He was somewhat elderly and I do try to be friendly to the elderly.  I think it's what Jesus would do.  They're usually lonely people.  I was sitting on a bench, fully covered, nursing Blossom4.  Only her shoes could be seen.  He stopped his friendly chatter about the delicious French fries he was eating and began to make off-color remarks about me nursing.  Now, the man did mumble a lot, so it was kinda easy to brush it off, even though I was appalled at what I was pretty sure the tenor of his remarks were.  The conversation stretched on and on, ranging from a very distant mutual acquaintance we had, to now flirtatious, crude, off-color comments toward Gwen and me.  We just kept thinking this man would go away.  We were trying to be nice.  It just kept getting weirder and weirder.  Then, he began talking to our children, especially trying to find out their names.  Gwen and I were telegraphing our alarm to each other with our eyes and verbally calling the children to stay close to us.  Abruptly, Gwen blurted out, "Isn't it time for us to be over there?" while motioning to the other side of the fairground.  The whole, long, creepy, awful conversation came to a complete halt.  The man left. 

My friend, Red, was running a garage sale with her beautiful baby daughter and preschool-age niece.  An older fellow came to browse and doggedly proclaimed how beautiful the little girl and the baby were.  He just kept saying it over and over and over... AND, he wanted to take pictures of them to take home with him.  He wanted to buy a camera and batteries and the garage sale to do so.  Red had no place to go.  She was manning the sale herself.  Eventually he just left.

These two seemingly harmless, yet decidedly creepy, occurrences have caused me to think a little about situations I'd rather not dwell on. 

Nice people make great victims. 

Yes, Gwen, Red and I, in our individual situations, all were concerned about our children and kept them in eye sight, but why didn't we take it a step further?

We were too busy being nice.

There is a place for wisdom, a time that trumps kindness to strangers. 

If you feel uncomfortable, remove yourself and your children from the situation.  It can be done as gracefully as loading up your stroller and heading to a busier part of the park or something (or leaving).  It doesn't have to be graceful though.  Don't stick around just to be nice.  If you can't be removed from the situation, if the situation becomes a confrontation, that's when it's time for other options, but

my point today is that I'm done being so nice that I forget wisdom and common sense types of solutions.

Mindful of us

Friday dawned foggy, but nice.

We journeyed to a local State Park that the girls and I had never visited before.  Daddy had a day off and so we made a day of it.

It's rare that you find a hike with a difficulty level of THREE and a scenery level of EIGHT.  Those kinds of hikes are gems, in my opinion.  I actually can't wait to do this particular hike again. 

"When I consider Thy heavens, the moon and the stars, which Thou has ordained...

"What is man that Thou are mindful of him?..." 

God's creation puts it all in order again.  We're little.  He's big.  We're just a tiny part of the ginormous picture, and it's good for us to know that... even from a young age.

Foggy morning beauty...

This is what our mornings look like lately.

 

 

Not many things are prettier than a dewy web.