End of our school year....

Our school year started so much better than I had expected....I was so happy with all the energy and preparations that were actually used through out the year. I don't know about you but I tend to not follow through with all my plans....I somehow just like the idea that they are out there somewhere..LOL! So this year was a real treat :)

So with that in mind, I decided for this year to be more relaxed and focus more on my organization. I didn't try to mass produce lesson plans before the year started. I decided to have lesson planning Sunday's. I would plan out my lessons for each week on Sunday afternoon while the children played outside. It would take me maybe an hour to plan for 2 children (my third child just did the next page in her text book and I would read to her and my youngest). I put each lesson and child in a time slot. If you are wondering what I mean by that the book "Managers of the home" by Steve and Teri Maxwell gave me this idea. You can find there products at www.titus2.com .

I also set up a specific chore time and big clean up/declutter time. Which was a big improvement from last year. In the previous years, I would get so frustrated and stressed when I woke up to a huge mess of a house that school would be the last thing on my list to do. The cycle of that led me to feeling so guilty and like a failure that I would further slip away from school work and later try to push to finish the year without over working the kids. Which left me a very frustrated mama. I thought, "If God is calling me to this...there has to be a better way." And there was. Though I am still tweaking it all....I have realized that being a wife and mother to four kids organization is a major key. And while my house is not as neatly organized as I would like for it to be; we have clean and clear spaces to actually live in. 


And on another note :)



Guitar lessons have come along beautifully and he is still really enjoying it. We also decided to do American Heritage Girls for my Indya and she really enjoyed it, as well. She learned a lot and developed new friendships. We discovered that she really is a servant. When given the opportunity; she opened up.


........more to come on how we schooled this year..........

"You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you." 

Isaiah 26:3

Going natural.....

Wow! Let me say this....... In the beginning when i began transitioning May of last year; I was beside myself with so much excitement. Through out the year I walked the road of knowing my hubby was not to keen on my decision but settled, knowing that I had very little knowledge of how to care for my hair in this state, and really there was no one around me that looked like me. Okay i know what you are thinking.....

.....hello...!! 

why do you care what everyone else thinks?

Well apparently I cared a whole lot more than even I knew. God did though... and He knew exactly the liberty He was ushering me into. Not only was He leading me into a more natural lifestyle for myself through hair, cloth diapering my little one, and food changes; He planted me in a Beth Moore bible study that would eventually shake me to the core. He began a process of showing me how I truly saw myself and it was not how He saw me. Without going into all of that, I will say He is "...renewing a right spirit within me..."(Ps.51:10)

 After transitioning for 9 1/2 months, I decided to braid my hair up to push through the last 2 months. Since I wanted to transition for a year. Well, that was fine until I took them out with a month to go. And to my dismay my relaxed hair was all dreaded up and had to be cut. Leaving me with no choice but to do my big chop at 11 months transitioning. I discovered that I was no more ready to do my big chop at 11 months as I was at the first month. I literally cried. I had everything i needed for natural hair as I had been collecting all year. But that wasn't my problem......

Will I no longer be beautiful?
A question that rolled around in my head more times than i  can count.
I was about to discover that God had a different meaning for beauty....and I was far from understanding.

When we tell our children that they are so beautiful, we can believe it for them. We know and understand that God made them beautiful just the way they are.

But do we always believe that for ourselves??


To know that this is all part of the journey....a journey worth taking.










" In her chamber, the royal daughter is all glorious.........." Psalm45:13a


"Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines  have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. " Psalm 16:5-6

Trusting God in the unknown places....

Though we all have experiences times of closeness with the Lord; there are simply seasons that we journey through that are far from familiar and we don't know exactly which way to turn. 

Trust God!

It is where our constant peace and provision rest. 

He is with me...., 

I am reminded in a song or  in the Word often.

I've journeyed through a place of feeling completely ripped a part and the broken pieces can't be put together by me alone. 

Thank God that He is the master at rebuilding and putting the pieces together in a way that we are healed and restored. 

No longer shattered.
                                                            Beauty for ashes........

.

"....and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty  instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." Isaiah 61:3