Life at Oak Grove

341. the weather – though we had a lot of freezing rain lately…

342. The back of our house facing south which means we have the sunshine in the kitchen/living room throughout the day!

343. Supper with my husband at a  new restaurant.

344. Getting free books in exchange of reviews – the best part is that I can request anything I want with that publisher!

345. A husband willing to help when one of the kids is sick – together we were able to clean up in 30 minutes which would have taken MUCH longer if I had done it alone.   At 11:15pm – it was a gigantic blessing!

346. A lunch with another family from church

347. Seeing my kids having fun with the kids of the other couple.

348. Having a beautiful sunny day so they can go play outside.

349. Great conversations between the adults.

350. Netflix and the series MONK.

Honestly I think I am the luckiest woman in the whole wide world.  My husband is just the best because he is there no matter when I need him.  I seriously think I got the jackpot when he entered my life.   But I also know that God knew what was best for me.   Even after 14 years being together, I am amaze how we complete ourselves in various ways.

Let me explain.

In the past two days, I had on and off pain in my lower abdomen.   Thursday was the worst for the pain was constantly there.  Not a bit pain but it was bothering me.   I prayed about it and it seemed to somewhat disappear because on Thursday evening while we were having our date (the kids having Awana) I barely noticed it.   Compared with the afternoon sensations it was better.

On Friday morning I didn’t feel anything.   I thought it was gone.   But in the afternoon it was there – on and off…   I could feel it at times while other times I was fine.   That morning for some reason I woke up at 311am and couldn’t go to sleep.   No reasons in particular.  Just insomnia I guess.

So in the afternoon I took a cat nap for a short period of time.   I got up at 4pm because I needed to prepare supper.   At some point before we sat down to eat, I asked the kids to pray for mommy’s pain because I could feel it again.    We ate and my daughter kept complaining that her belly hurt.   We both knew that she dislikes the mixed vegetables she had in her plate so we encouraged her to finish her plate to get dessert.   We have a rule in our house – you can’t finish you plate then you don’t get dessert.  

After supper time, she kept complaining more again.    I thought she was doing so because I asked for prayer for my own abdominal pain and sometimes she copies other on that.   So I told her to lay down on the sofa and rest a bit.  She took off to play instead.

We went to bed at 9ish…   at 1115 or so I heard crying – more like whimpering.   We don’t have a dog and I knew immediately that it was Jasmine.

I got up and she talked to me with a whining tone saying something like “You didn’t give me a bowl.”   What is she talking about?   But before I opened the light the stench smell hit my nose.   NO!  Opening the light I saw the mess on her bedroom floor (which is carpeted by the way) and in her bed.   Even one of her Barbie's is dirty.

Poor sweetheart… her belly was REALLY complaining.   But at this point in time, maybe because I wasn’t in my plate myself due to the pain and the lack of sleep and also because of the smell, I felt overwhelmed.  Almost borderline going to cry.    I didn’t believe her…  Where should I start?   Somehow my brain was not thinking properly.

So I did something that usually I wouldn’t do.   I woke up my husband and told him I needed help.   You see my husband has trouble to fall asleep.   Oh he can but if I wake him in the middle of the night it can take hours for him to get back to sleep.   I knew he went to bed after me but I didn’t know at what time (he was working on his computer as he reformatted it).    So unwillingly I woke him up.   He got up rapidly and came with me.  He couldn’t believe his eyes.  I mean the floor was covered with it.   The bed, her favorite pink blanket, one Barbie, the bed sheets, even her PJ.   (For the sensitive hearts reading this I am sorry for the details… but it was overwhelming!)

His reaction was “Oh my goodness!”   We immediately kicked in geared both of us.   I took care of the bed sheets while he took care of the floor.   We picked up the mess, vacuumed, and even washed the carpet.  All this at 11pmish.   There was no way that she would be able to fall back to sleep with the odor in her room.    I gave her a shower, changed her pajama, put some clean bed sheets in her bed.   However I had to tell her she couldn’t get back her pink blanket yet has it was dirty.  She understood and asked for the one with princesses on it.   Within 30-45 minutes, we were able to put her back to bed.

At 12:15 her door closed quite loudly.   I went to check and she only had to go to the bathroom.   

It took a while for me to go to fall asleep.   But at 715am I was awake again.  Thought that I heard her calling me again but she was playing downstairs with her big brothers.

She seems to be fine right now.   She is back to her normal self.   Me?  Well I am a bit tired but happy that I had help to clean up.

Before going back to bed, I apologized to wake him up but my husband told me “Don’t worry about it.   I’m glad you woke me up.   Besides I had just went to bed.”    I told him I felt overwhelmed and he said “No kidding.”   

Last night I learned two important lessons.

Lesson 1:   When one of my kids complains that he/she doesn’t feel well – believe it.   I mean they don’t have the habit to complain so there might be something to investigate.   Though I have taken her temperature but she was fine.

Lesson 2: Don’t hesitate to wake up the husband when these kind of situations happen.    After all we are one and we can support each other through health and sickness.   We worked as a team last night.   It took less time than if I had to do it myself…  

So my question today for you is simple.   How does your husband rock your world in challenging times?

Today in the mail I got a nice surprise…

My certificate has finally arrived!   Yeah!

The first thing I saw was this nice folder which contains the certificate.

And voilà – Graduated with honours from the Social Media Certificate Program.

Sweet!

I am on a journey.  A journey to discover more of what God wants from me, what He planned in my life, and how He will speak through me on a daily basis.

Walking with Him is like taking a stroll on a beach and listening to the waves coming to crash on the sand.   

Earlier this year, I had decided to read through the Bible chronologically as well as going through the a devotional book titled Quiet Time Bible Guide.   I also had planned to do this with my French Bible.   But within a week or two, stress engulfed me and I was on hedge with homeschooling.   I knew I had too much on my shoulders and I needed to make changes.

Changes can be good.    I was disappointed not to read through my French Bible this year but honestly it was wise to realize early in the year that my objective was too much for me to go through.

I prayed about it.   I have numerous devotionals in the house but I wanted to take one that God will use to speak to me in various ways.   When I looked at my bookshelves in my office, I saw one devotional book that grabbed my eyes immediately – One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms by Jackie Wellwood.

I had purchased this little jewel a couple of years ago – had started it but with life being crazy and getting lots of reviews, somehow I didn’t pursue the reading of it.

From the first devotion, it spoke to me.   Made me ponder on how I am.   A main scripture is also at the top of the devotion.   I could read it directly from the book but I take my French Bible and discover the Scriptures in my mother tongue.    Somehow, I get ah-ah moments when I do this.   It’s as though I obtain a new understanding of the Scriptures.   It might be silly but that how I feel when I read them in French.

For example, the very first devotional was about have a meek and quiet spirit.   Ah!   Reading the devotional I learned that meek signify to not easily be provoked or irritated.    Mmmmm!    This is definitively something I need to work on.   There are times when I will respond to circumstances.   I need to be patient, to take a deep breath and rely on God.  Plain and simple.   Simple?   Not all the time but feasible anyway.

At the end of the year, we discovered that one child is apparently strong will.   Somehow this child of mine knows how to push the buttons to get me easily provoked and irritated.    I am slowly learning on to stay calm and respond to the arrogance and the testing. 

Through the first couple of weeks of January, I have learned that flexibility is necessary for my well-being.    There was a battle in me about my first decision for a devotional this year and the realization that it won’t work out after all.    I am also learning that it works as well for dealing with a strong will child.   I need to identify the battles that are worth fighting for and be flexible for the rest.

If you are a homeschooler and would like God to speak to you on a more personal level concerning your homeschool, I suggest that you consider One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms.  It is available at any bookstore, even amazon.ca.

331. Being of service for some friends who needed a lift to the airport last Wednesday morning.

332. Awana re-starting on Thursday after the Christmas Holidays and a cancellation the previous week due to freezing rain…

333. Reaching the half-way point in our Math Curriculum!

334. Spending a great supper with friends and having a great time on Saturday.

335. Trying pavlova for the first time and LOVING it!

336. Finding pavlova recipes on Pinterest….   (I want to try to make one…)

337. My oldest son, who was out last Wednesday morning before 6am, to remove some ice from the drive way – though I find him a bit young to be out that early and we had a chat about it…

338. The kids helping each other and helping around the house.

339. Sledding after the swimming courses though the snow was an ice rink.

340. Being part of a church family!

Some of you might be wondering what I am talking about. So before I explore the numerous possibilities with this innovative social media board, I will tell you what Pinterest is. Simply enough, Pinterest is a vision board sharing website (and app) where users can create and manage theme-based boards. Essentially, think of it as a corkboard where you pin you notes and photos but visualize it as going global. Being on Pinterest permits you to discover other people around the world who has the same taste as you.

Now how can Pinterest be interesting for a homeschooler. This website has gigantic possibilities for someone like you and I. By doing searches on a specific subject you can discover numerous sites and other homeschoolers who have already pinned/studied/explored the said subject in the past. You simply re-pin it on your own board for future references. It is as easy as saying your ABCs but way more addictive – ask anyone who are on it already!

Thanks to Pinterest I can now transfer all the homeschool sites I had included in my favorites and that I always forget about in a specific board and have them under my eyes if needed be. Having the link and an image together is very helpful for a visual person like me.

Once you are on Pinterest (whether by requesting it or getting an invitation from someone…) I would suggest that you think about how you want to be organized. I saying this because at this point in time, I am rethinking and reorganizing my own boards because I found that they were too – how should I say this – vague. For example, I had a board called recipes and one called homeschool (I have since decided to name my boards in French for personal reasons). But everything linked to recipes or homeschool would go there. Now when I wanted to find the recipe for Starbucks Pumpkin Scones or an activity in mathematics, I had trouble finding it in the board. So I decided to split my boards so now I have my bread recipes in a separate board and all my links for mathematics in a different one.

Every now and then, I spend a little bit of time on Pinterest to discover new ideas for homeschool, new French links, new recipes, new social media awareness, new activities for the kids depending of the period of the year and more.

And now when I make a new recipe my husband would ask where I got it and I usually say – Pinterest. It permits me to explore new tastes with my family as well as have some blogging ideas.

You can find everything for anatomy, science lessons, English, French, art, astronomy, Bible lessons, mathematics, geography, history, and more. I recently found a link on how to make worms out of Jello and straws, how to make your own superballs, found templates for super heroes logos (which I suspect will be a BIG hit in our household) as well as learn to optimize a garden (which I hope to have one day!).

There are numerous homeschoolers/teachers on Pinterest and you will definitively find something interesting for your taste/homeschool/kitchen/… I would strongly suggest that you explore the possibilities with Pinterest and let it provide you numerous ideas to explore with your children.

Oh! And if you decide to join Pinterest, feel free to follow me - https://pinterest.com/canadianladybug/ !

321. Participating to the Ladies’ Prayer Night last week – it was a nice experience to pray for each kids in the church we go to.

322. LivingWatersCanada.org – the ministry that bring relational healing.

323. A snow storm though it meant that Awana was cancelled… to the disappointment of our kids!

324. Having written the previous statement I realize that I am delighted to see my kids loving the Lord the way they do and wanting to spend time with Him.

325. Grand-parents willing to come and babysit on a Saturday so we can attend a day session of LW.

326. It might be silly but I am thankful to watch Monk with my husband.   It is quite clean and fun to watch…

327. A supportive husband.

328. Letting go of some things in my life…

329. Developing self-control especially in the social media realm.

330. Scripture Journaling

311. A new year starting

312. my French Bible which I am using this year

313. a great devotional that helps to dig deeper in the NT and the Psalms –> Quiet Time Bible Guide by Cindy Bunch

314. my husband buying skates for himself

315. going outside the whole family together to explore skating

316. looking forward to growth in Christ this year

317. free apps for the iPod/iPad

318. Snow falling from the sky when it is sunny outside.

319. decluttering a bit with giving away the VHS tapes we had.

310. Shopping outing with my 4 years old daughter.

291. My sweet daughter turning 4 years old.

292. My husband officially turning 40 on Winter Day.

293. Free French books for our homeschool.

294. Awana Store where the kids purchased Christmas gifts for others.

295. Reflecting on Jesus birth.

296. My husband who did a treasure hunt for the kids on Christmas Day.

297. Good food. Great company. Laughter.

298. Friends coming to visit.

299. My kids who bought me a MOM ring.

300. My brand new KitchenAid Mixer – red empire – Do you think I should put black spots on it?  *grin*

301. Family get-together

302. Watching Captain America with friends

303. the flexibility of homeschool

304. SNOW – we almost didn’t have a white Christmas…

305. People slowing down and stopping so you can cross the street with your little girl.

306. An invitation for New Years lunch from another family at our church.

307. Free potatoes – thanks to another homeschooler who had too many of them after forgetting she had purchased some and had some at home!

308. My kids who are very helpful around the house.

309. Goofy gifts

310. The new year starting – HELLO 2012!

The other day, I was reading about the three words for the new year that someone has written on her blog.  I liked the idea and started thinking of what words I could use for 2012.

Immediately there three words came in my mind.   

Trust

The Webster dictionary of 1828 define trust as

TRUST, n.

1. Confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person.

He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Prov.29.

Over the years, since I became a Christian, I have learned quite a bit about trusting the Lord.   2012 will also be a year of trust I think.   Many opportunities could open up for us and I need to trust Him more than ever.    And this could be done in every aspects of my life.

So as 2012 starts I am telling my Lord that I will trust Him completely.   I know He is with me and that in the end I can go through anything with Him.

Joy

The Webster dictionary of 1828 defines joy as

So I am praying for restoration and a new level of relationship.   May God be with me during this journey.

So what would be your three words for 2012?