He will make a way.

tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I just can't believe it. this last year seems like just a few weeks, and yet light years have passed. there wasn't one mediocre stage to this past year, it was stretching on all sides. 

I bet we can all agree. yes, nod your head. 

but looking back, so very good. God made a way, where I couldn't see clearly. I see that in some things. and others, that way is still dim with no light, no answers....yet I cry for more faith. more faith, where there is none.

at the end of this year, Emmett and I have begun the process of respite foster parenting. . giving foster parents a break, so that they press on in love and strength and do not give up loving the unwanted. during the Big Interview Day where the lady comes and asks deep probing questions from our Big Bad Past....a stranger, wanting to know it all....and after hearing of our Present Life, he with two vocations (which, I detest the term 'bivocational' as that tells others he has one full time job and one part-time, when it is in fact two full-time jobs, but isn't that life? full to the brim. Jesus has no calendar, nowhere do we clock in and clock out. a willing spirit, He says..)...she thought for a minute and said "I'm not sure I would recommend you for full time foster parenting. I think respite is a good start." I nodded, Emmett nodded, we seemed to agree..and yet as I thought about that more, as Christmas drew near and this burden of children remained on my heart....I'm not sure she understands.

you see, <em>nobody</em> would recommend us to embrace strange children into our home...our quite small, 3 bedroom, one-level home. our elbows are rubbing against each other. the kids sprawl in every available nook and cranny to construct race tracks, create worlds for dolls to play, I am constantly stepping over a checkers game....our living room is a wrestling pad. while I read outloud, I also ask Jonathan to please make car noises softly, as there is simply no quiet nook to escape to. there is great beauty here, simplicity and ease...but more children? I wouldn't recommend us either.

and yet....He promises to provide. I believe we serve a God who is bigger than space, schedules, vocations, ideas, opinions, fears, and even common sense. And guess what...we know He uses us, His children. broken, sin-filled, creatures. why can't He use a small house with 3 little kids and two busy, filled-to-the-brim parents to love on and care for one...or two....of His unloved? 

may I never...ever...limit Him. may I never hesitate to obey.

pressed out of measure and pressed to all length.

pressed so intently it seems beyond strength.

pressed in body and pressed in soul.

pressed in the mind til dark surges roll.

pressure by foes, pressure by friends.

pressure on pressure til life nearly ends.

pressed into loving the staff and the rod.

pressed into knowing no helper but God.

(unknown, not Jenny long)

Merry Christmas, dear friends. expect great and mighty things!

Christmas Thoughts

Hello everyone,

I read this article just this morning and really liked it.  I very well could be the only one who is struggling to keep afloat this week, but this post puts it into a Gospel perspective:

http://www.girltalkhome.com/blog/what-to-expect-at-christmas/

Merry Christmas...and may our hearts be filled with joy even when it's not easy!

Introducing Lynne and her family!

Hi!  Just a little house cleaning before I get started. This is my first ever blog post. Since I am a big ole introvert, this is difficult for me, but for you........my readers.......all 5 of you(for now anyway)........I do this for you in the hope that I can offer you something, whether it be a giggle, a smile, a new idea, a new recipe or just a bit of encouragement. May everyone who reads this blog be uplifted in some way. I apologize that my entry is so long. Short and concise, I am not! Go ahead and grab a cup of tea to sip on as you read.

I am the mom of these two precious children and my name is Lynne. Marissa is on the left and Joel is on the right. 

This next March my husband, Patrick, and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Before you start calculating how old I was when we had our children note the date on the above picture. :-) This is what my children looked like in July 1999, the year BEFORE we started our home school journey.This may be a good place to go ahead and say it, I am the oldie of the authors of the blog. It has to be somebody. :-/

This is Marissa and Joel's school pictures from last year. At that time, Marissa was a senior and Joel a junior. Sadly, I really don't take pictures any more. I don't even have a semi current picture of Patrick and me. I will get one soon and post it. Based on my inability to have current pictures of our family, you probably will not believe that I am a scrapbooker. Yep, I have pretty much all of our pictures in nice photo albums up until about 3 years ago. Soon I will knock those 3 years out. The beauty of being a scrapbooker - you have nice photo albums. The ugly of being a scrapbooker - you realize how behind you are so you just stop taking pictures! Problem solved! Well, sort of ....

:-/

Let me tell you about Joel. He is 17 years old and a senior in high school. He has grown to be a man of great integrity. He is extremely goal oriented and tackles his school work and chores without hesitation. You will never see Joel's bedroom in a mess. Never. Ever. Once his feet hit the floor in the morning he is in "game on" mode. Right now, he has an interest in pursuing a future in engineering, possibly mechanical. Joel was able to play football with a local private school for the last 5 years. We are thankful for the opportunity as it was very important for him to have a physical outlet for all his male energy! Joel enjoys Georgia Tech football, Atlanta Falcons football, Nascar racing and playing video games. Joel never attended any school other than the one at his home.

Marissa is 19 years old and is taking online college classes through College Plus. She desires a degree in Christian Counseling. She has a huge heart for people that are hurting, especially children in the foster care system. I have enjoyed watching her go from a timid young girl to a lady that knows what she wants. Marissa loves creative writing, current events, piano and the internet. She is full of spunk and will not back down from a good debate. She loves working with small children at church and tutors and babysits regularly as well. You will never see Marissa's room straightened. Never. Ever. Well maybe a few times. No matter what time she gets up, once her feet hit the floor, it takes about two hours for her to be in "game on" mode. But once she is ready...she is ready! Marissa attended preschool outside the home when she was 4. She did the rest of her school at home.

Even at 19 and 17, Marissa and Joel still have their moments of frustration, but I can honestly say that they are the best of friends. Their personalities are like salt and pepper but they complement one another so well. They truly enjoy spending time with each other for which I am thankful.

I really enjoy lots of things. Playing cards, gardening, dealing with my chickens, and exercising. I love things from the past - crocheting, knitting, fermenting, medicine making, soap making, pretty much anything using your hands. I enjoy a good cup of tea, but not from a tea bag. I love the loose herbs steeping in the water. (strain before drinking, of course) I prefer cloth napkins to paper. I have a thing for canning jars. I love being outdoors from spring till fall.

Patrick and I have been tossing around ideas about what I will do after I finish up with Joel. With Patrick's support, I will probably be doing some volunteer work, but I will need to find a way to support my volunteer efforts. Despite my wishes gas is not free! We are pondering ideas and I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Patrick enjoys football too. Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Falcons, specifically. I am thankful for him and the long hours that he puts in at his office. He has been a great help with schooling Marissa and Joel. He ended up taking over drivers ed for me when I just couldn't do it anymore. It is scary out there, you know. Those mailboxes are just too close to the road. He was a much calmer teacher than me. Patrick is excellent help when it comes to Joel's physics program. I scanned a problem for him yesterday and when he got out of his meeting, he called and discussed it with Joel. Problem solved. Patrick is also our first line of defense with math.  (Everybody needs a game plan with high school math and physics.) Patrick has a great laugh. When we are out and about somewhere and he is away from me, I always enjoying hearing him laugh from a far. 

Well, this is my family. As our reader/writer relationship grows, I will have more to share. I look forward to learning from the other authors of the blog as well. They are a fine group of ladies. 

Until next time.....

Lynne

here's.... Jenny & Fam!

hi there! I'm Jenny! I'm so glad to have a chance to encourage each other, near and far, and I think this is the best tool we've got! yay for the world-wide web!

so I'm a thankful wife to Emmett and a silly-scatter-brained-distracted-sometimes-messy-homeschool mama to Natalie, Karis, and Jonathan. I've only been structurally teaching now for six months, so I will probably be gleaning a lot of wisdom and tips from this blog, too! I'm so thankful to be surrounded, literally, with mamas who have gone before me and who are more than willing to share their experiences. 

My Natalie is 7 and a second-grader. she loves creating ANYthing out of pieces of wood, paper clips, buttons, a LOT of tape, styrophone, cardboard....her creativity amazes me. so we have lots of art supplies on hand for her to enjoy whenever! she also will climb anything and everything. I've stopped telling her 'that's too high' because she enjoys tree climbing so much. I'm often called outside to see how much further she's gotten in her favorite tree. she is dedicated, a hard worker once she's gotten it down pat, generally reserved, cautious (except around trees) and loves 1 or 2 good friends.

Karis, Nat, Jonathan 

Karis is 6 and my kindergartener, except she's learning so much right along-aside her sister that I think she's somewhere between kinder and first grade. she loves building with Legos and creating massive car tracks in the living room with Jonathan. but I think her most favorite thing in the whole world is making mud pies, and cakes, and coffees, and most recently paint-colored drinks in the back yard with dirt and water! she is my resilient servant-hearted very active gal who is always ready for a party. she will be best friends with anyone and whenever I lose her in a crowd (kind of often), I can usually find her chatting it up with somebody new. 

Jonathan and Emmett fishing

Jonathan is alllllmost 4 and is spending his days playing with cars, trucks, and airplanes. he does love to learn, though, so I've enjoyed stretching his little brain when i get a chance. he loves fishing with 

Emmett, riding his bike too fast, making mud pies with Karis, and bugging the girls when he needs some extra attention. he is very silly, loves a good joke, and he talks almost non-stop!

our school days mostly revolve around history. the girls have really loved learning about Indians these six months and we just recently started learning about the Revolutionary War. they both love to write stories, and I love to read them! all other subjects aside from math, spin off of what we're learning in history. after spending one year in public school, I am really loving these flexible free days to learn as we go. 

except of course the really hard days, and we all know what those are like!

I love gardening the most, I grew up in the country and it's sort of in my bones. digging in the dirt brings me great joy! I also really love sawing and hammering on some good wood, so I definitely like to get my creative juices flowing over a jig saw and sand paper. a good day is dirt under my nails and sawdust on my jeans!

 you can usually find me walking around the yard with a hammer and a ball of string!

Emmett is a bi-vocational pastor: insurance agent by day, pastor by night and weekends. we're always being stretched, as God loves to do with His people, and I pray we are being faithful and purposeful with the time we have. homeschooling has added a lot more peace in our home, and for that, I am so thankful. 

As a family we love being in the great outdoors! we've been camping with the kids since each one was potty-trained (our only rule, ha!), and I think this is our favorite. there's nowhere to get away from each other, there are no distractions, and the food is fantastic! :) we also love simple bike rides, random picnics, and we excel at creek crossings and crawdad-catching.

  

so that's my little intro! thanks for hanging in there. next time, maybe you can learn something really great from me! oh who am I kidding, it'll probably be my favorite playdoh recipe. get ready!

Welcome! And Family Introduction

Hello Friends!

Welcome to Homeschool Helpers, the blog where we hope to share and encourage new ideas for everything for running your home...and homeschool!  We can all take turns posting ideas about crafts, education, playtime activities, fitness for kids (and adults!), health, recipes, and any other good homemaking idea we particularly love or think others just might love!

To start off, we thought it would be fun to do a family introductions, so we all know a little bit more about who's posting.  I'll start:)
                                   

I am Lindsey (the female in the picture above), wife to Jeff and mom to three boys, Jacob (7), Thomas (3), and James (1).  We currently live in Georgia, but neither Jeff nor I are from here.  I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia and Jeff was born and raised in Pageland, South Carolina.  We met at Clemson University in South Carolina and have been together ever since.

Jeff was the first one to decide that homeschooling was a good option for our family, when Jacob was just 2 years old,  but after much prayer for several months, I got "semi-on board" with the idea as well!  Since then, the main thing that describes what we adhere to for our homeschooling is reading.  Lots of reading.  And mostly reading aloud, either me reading (which has gotten less and less frequent since the addition of James last year!), or an audiobook doing the reading:)  Jacob does do a good bit of reading on his own at this point, but still prefers to be read to.  Jacob really likes history and science, so we do most of our reading in those areas at this point.

I am still adjusting to being a mother of three, and so for now, our craft projects are simple:)  We do lots of painting with different things (cottonballs, plastic forks, q-tips,etc.) for Thomas, while Jacob just paints with a paintbrush.  We like clay and shaping things out of play-do.  Cutting and stickers are always fun.  So, yes, we keep it simple these days!  The boys would honestly rather build with Legos than do crafts anyway!

When I find the time, I am a craft lover!  I LOVE to sew, however this has also taken the back burner more and more this last year...hopefully to reappear soon!  I like home decor projects, not just for sewing, but for other crafts as well.  I also like to bake...and when all is right in my home, I actually ENJOY cooking as well!  At this point in my life though, cooking is done our of necessity, and so my favorite recipes are ones that are EASY and taste good, and preferably don't dirty up too many pots and pans!  I am THRILLED when I find a simple and tasty recipe!

I don't know what exactly I will be contributing to the blog, probably whatever strikes me at the moment, if I know me!  I certainly hope to find some simple recipes that will work in places where ingredients might be limited, and maybe I'll have a super simple craft idea too!  Anyway, I'm excited to see where everyone goes with this blog, and I am expecting to learn a lot myself!