WRAD Memories

I realized that even though I said I was going away camping with the kids, I never actually got around to posting anything about it- or some of the other adventures that we've had this summer. And then I was waiting on some pictures of the dog- so I STILL didn't post this. Well, hopefully it's better late than never, lol! This summer didn't turn out like I'd originally hoped because of the dog, but I think on the whole it wasn't too bad (I can't believe it's over already, though. It went by so fast!). We started our summer holidays a bit early because mentally I was just done. That, and we got our dog- which we eventually named 'Choco'. It's a shortened form of chocolate, which the kids thought was ironic since too much chocolate can kill a dog- but he's varying shades of brown, so I thought it suited him. And after three weeks of having him, he needed a name already. Anyone who knows anything about dogs knows that Airedales are N...

Have you ever had one of those days where you just feel like nearly every decision you make seem to be bad ones? Or maybe it seems like it's been weeks... or months... or even years! You think that you have all your logical reasons for or against something, but then after you move in that direction it no longer seems like such a great idea? It's kind of ironic some days that my baptism verse was Is. 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."." There are so many days that I either haven't felt like I heard anything or when I thought I heard something, somehow it didn't seem like it was really the right voice that I heard. My first foray into hearing God's voice was while reading the book by Bill Hybels "Too Busy Not to Pray" (I think). From that time on I've tended to live by the idea that as long as it doesn't contradict scriptur...

So, I've NEVER taken my kids to Playland. I've always wanted to, but the reality of having more than 1 or 2 kids means that getting into places gets REALLY expensive- REALLY fast. I don't even want to think about how much I paid for us to get into Disneyland (for a day and a half)- and I think Rebekah was even free! Anyway, I managed to discover that on Tuesdays over the summer, a local radio station was doing a promo. Now, not only would we be able to get in and have an all-day ride pass, but we were going to do it for $10 per person! That little deal saved me $100. So, I mentioned it to my sister-in-law and we figured out how we were going to ditch our 3 year olds and went. Okay, first thing to remember for next time (should they do it again next year)- come early. We spent an hour waiting in line to get in. I was SO NOT expecting that. Thankfully the line kept moving and we had snacks to occupy ourselves, but it cut into the time we had available. Second, dou...

Back in the spring, my husband bought a canoe from his cousin. After finally getting the roof rack purchased so we could actually take it somewhere and picking up the life jackets from my parents, we managed to get out to the local lake. Swamp would be a better description of said body of water. It used to be a mill site and when they shut it down, they just dumped all their leftovers in the middle of the lake. This means that in addition to a million geese doing their business everywhere, the lake is full of logs. Anyway, the first group went out and was back in a couple of minutes. My friend felt the canoe was too 'tippy'- worse than any other canoe she'd ever been in and didn't want to go out on it anymore. Elijah, Jeremiah & our friend in the inaugural voyage. By this point, Graham was back with the rest of the life jackets that I'd forgotten at home- so he took out the next batch of kids. Jeremiah, Samuel & Graham. Now, I grew up go...

Lately I haven't been feeling like I'm getting anywhere with things. I'm dwelling too much on what's NOT working (or getting done, etc.), than I am on what IS working. The laundry piles, the cluttered counters and dirty dishes, the 'still unplanned home school/day schedule', kids who've decided that they don't want to listen or do anything you've told them for the past 10 years! Yadda, yadda, yadda. It's easy to get dragged down into the dumps when you do that. This then becomes a catch-22 where you get so upset that you just want to numb yourself in some way: internet, Facebook, reading, hobbies, eating, drinking, drugs, etc. The list is long of things that we use to fill the hole that's there in our lives. Unfortunately, what they all have in common is that fact that the moment we turn to them instead of to God- they become our idols. As I've been reading through the Old Testament I've been pondering the whole 'heart att...

Just when I think things are getting back on track, they seem to fall apart all over again. Mainly it has to do with my 'to-do' list. Honestly, I wish I could clone 10 of me just so I could do all the things that I want to do as well as all the things I HAVE to do. But I'm realizing that really my problem is that I can't seem to say 'NO', and it's just making things worse. Also tied to that is trying to daily do God's agenda instead of mine. Can I let you in on a little secret? I've sucked at doing that lately. Thankfully, God's mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23), so I can hit the restart button and try again tomorrow. On the upside, I am trying to be more present with my kids and in everything that we're doing each day. Hormones have subsided (which I'm discovering make me really crazy), I'm hardly yelling at all and I'm slowly trying some new techniques with the kids in order to change some behaviours tha...

It's hard to believe that the summer break is almost done. As I was thinking about getting ready for the new school year, I actually had a fleeting thought that I wished I could send the kids back to public school, just so I could get caught up on all the half-finished projects laying around the house and NOT have to get ready to teach them. Honestly, I had been counting down the years till my youngest entered full-time school so I could do just that- finish all my stuff and clean-up/organize my house. Then I think of James 4:3 where it says, 'you do not get because you ask with wrong motives'.  Ah yes, God. Homeschooling it is, then. Die to self, take up His cross. Repeat. Keeping it real, by the grace of God... Tammy