Frozen Strawberries

It's strawberry season again. Sophia is chomping on some frozen strawberries. Lauren calls them shawberries. It's really cute the way she says it. You say tomayto. I say tomato. Let's call the whole thing off. Once again, I don't know what I am talking about. There's something about doing this blog thing. Some people get on here (actually there...over there at their blog) and have lot's to say and write it well. I have little to say and write it horribly. Tisk, tisk. I'll say I'm glad I have this beautiful, strawberry juice-filled face to enjoy life with. Ain't life grand?! Don't you think that little curly cue snippet of hair is just precious or what? Her hair is like poker straight and then this cutesie little curl in back. Ah, well.

So, how are all my peeps out there in blog a do land? We are faring well despite all the busyness. I don't know about you folks, but April is hopping and talk about gorgeous weather. It's like God knew just what I needed and gave it to me in the weather. It's been gorgeous almost every day this month. Oh, and we've been blessed above measure. We had this refund check from our mortgage company sitting in our bill box for months now and I just figured out that it was there. I popped that in the bank account thanking God all the way to the bank. Oh, wait, Mr. Paul went to the bank. I lost my head recalling the whole wonderful event. Another blessing, is that after much deliberation over getting a highly expensive riding lawn mower that we couldn't afford, my husband bought a cheap push mower at Walmart that we could afford. Well, he was thinking he could use a second mower and attach it to the one he bought. He found a pretty nice self-propelled mower on the side of the road and picked it up. It works just fine. Thank you, Lord, for that.

Unexpected money and free stuff. It's easy to thank God for the blessings. Trials are another thing. I have to pull myself past the way I feel to get to the gratitude I should have for something that is difficult to deal with. But they're kinda' like frozen strawberries, your trials. Once you get past the cold hard texture you begin to taste the sweetness of the strength that comes as a result of enduring the trial God allowed you to go through. "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory will be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." I Peter 4:12-13 Hmmm... I'll have to keep those two in mind for future reference. Until then, good night and good luck.

Quotable Quotes

I love quotes. Here are some good ones:

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
-Phyllis Diller

"Parents have become so covinced that educators know what is best for children that they forget that they themselves really are the experts."
-Marian Edelman

"What the vast majority of American children need is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
-Ann Landers

"Well done is better than well said."
-Benjamin Franklin

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom."
-Richard Henry Dana

"We are always too busy for our children; we never give them the time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them; but the most precious gift- our personal association, which means so much to them- we give grudgingly."
-Mark Twain

"The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists."
-William Jennnings Bryan

To Everything a Season

I don't know about you all, but this month so far has been super, ultra, way too busy for me. I am trying to start somewhat of a garden and it takes some doing for a new timer like me. My homeschooling needs to be vamped up a bit and also more simplified at the same time and we need to be getting five days in a week done instead of three. Yikes! Oh well, they are all progressing and that is the key to teaching. When a child becomes stagnant in their learning then you need to be concerned I think.

Yeah, progress. As homeschooling progresses our house and some of life's things have deteriorated. Our van is in my husband's shop. Yeah, he fixes our cars and has since day one in our marriage and figures out what he doesn't already know. I'm a little nervous seeing a fourth of our engine in peices all over our driveway. He figures it's the water pump or the radiator. The clincher...it's buried beneath three layers of parts. He can do it, I think. He's saved us thousands over the years. I think that's darn near neat.

Our fridge is acting strange. Cools when it wants to. Not good, I know. We have a pestilence in our yard and under our house that defies understanding. If we spray any more chemicals we're all gonna' hafta' be admitted to the ER. You think I'm kidding. Well, we try to keep it all under wraps. My nephew Matthew, who I haven't seen in years, has been stationed in MS and not too far from here, so I'm trying to persuade him to let us pick him up and stay for a weekend. That'll be nice if we can get it all worked out. Sarah broke our front living room window just by pressing on it a little too hard. It's an old house, but we like it. It has these neat old windows that are due for a changing out anyway.

Broken old windows, distant relations, a smart husband, falling behind, growing stuff...it all has a purpose, doesn't it? To every thing a season. This is a busy season. It's Spring and the big fat bees are out and my cherry plums are in full bloom. The Azaleas came and went so fast this year. The nasty torrential rain stamped them out before their time. Ah, well. All things work together...for...good to those that are in Christ Jesus. I've been thinking about a season a distant cousin of mine has been going through. She had her dear little boy three months early and the ride to save his life seems to have been a rough one, but he is coming out shining for now. The every day heartache and hope of her season of life has a purpose. To everything a season and a God in the midst of it all in whom we can trust and even cling to and depend completely upon. Wow. What more could a child of God ask for? I wonder if there could be anything better than that. Nah, no never.