New Resource

Good morning y'all! Hope this finds everyone well, warm and getting along in being ready for Christmas! Around here we are warm (staying inside) and Christmas plans are coming along. Just yesterday all the indoor decorations were put up so that leaves the outside for the husband and kids to do this weekend.  A few more presents to make on my end and I'm totally done.

Before I start rambling on I want to share a resource that my friend Pam sent me. It is super cool! The entire Bible (NIV) can be found on one page here: http://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm

Getting to a specific verse, book, or chapter couldn't be easier. Thanks, Pam, for sharing this!

Oh, this was added to the Bible resource page here on the blog.

Now to ramble...

Along with the busy-ness this time of year brings we've faced some tough mental things the past few weeks. It started with a tremendous praise report...which, of couse, is not tough mentally...my father-in-law has been healed by God! (He had lung cancer.) Right on the heals of getting this awesome report and praising God we find out my husband will need back surgery to fix a herniated disc. Disappointment at the MRI result is an understatement. God is faithful and we fully believe Jesus already bore stripes on His back for my husband's healing two thousand years ago! So we've been seeking God for answers to tough questions regarding this and some of the questions He's answered and some He is just wanting us to trust Him instead of giving clear cut answers.  My husband's first appointment with the surgeon is early February so we'll just be going from there as to when the next step takes place for him.

On top of this I personally am facing one of the hardest times as a Mom that I've faced to date. My youngest bundle of joy has decided to start to make her own way in the world by going to public high school for the rest of her 10th grade year and on through until the end. The school God has chosen for her is a charter public high school located on the campus of a local state college. This is a huge, positive step for her. Not only will she graduate with a high school diploma she will graduate with her AA. Right now she's working on finishing up the first semester here at home and is all ready to start there in January. It was a painless process over-all. The doors to this opened and we stepped effortlessly through them. With all that positive stuff said...here's the kicker...MY emotions. Before I go on I must say that homeschooling has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I thoroughly LOVE IT! Love everything about it! I strongly believe in it, especially in the young, formulative years. We've spent eleven years doing this and in this time I have taught my girls to be strong women and independant thinkers. Backing up even further...for the past twenty-one years of my life I have not made a single decision about how to spend my day/time without taking into consideration how it will effect my girls. For the past eleven of those years schooling has been first and foremost in my mind on daily activities/choices. Now abruptly that all ends. The only consideration I will now need to make is what time to drop her off at school and to make sure I'm there to pick her up. As this realization hit I have grieved over the loss of homeschooling. I have shed a few tears along the way while talking to God and asking Him "So now what do I do with myself since I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up?" I have struggled with feeling useless...though thankfully that struggle did not last long. God spoke very clearly and very quickly and straightened my attitude right on out. Though that thought tries to creep back into my mind I have to cast it out and replace it with the knowledge that I always knew this day would come...it is as it should be for kids to grow up and move on with their lives...and that God is not through with me yet and the sweetest years with Him are yet to come. So I have been working through some serious emotional ups and downs and felt I needed to receive more from God than I have had to give to anyone else...thus the reason for neglecting the blog lately. With all this behind me now I can begin to move forward again. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be some more sadness when reality sets in again as I drop my baby off at school in January...and then watch my other baby head out for her first day of college a few days later. But you know something? Seriously...all my junky feelings aside...it really is with great pride and joy that I watch my girls step out into their own lives with God. He can take so much better care of them than I ever could/can. And now, on a selfish personal note, it will be with great expectancy that I wait to see where this journey leads me next...