The Accidental Pastor's Wife

My friend Rachel and her husband have a sweet blog called His Treasured Possession. Rachel is expecting a baby any MINUTE now but her husband found some time to build a snow cave yesterday for their two little boys. Click the link for the hilarious how-to!

so sorry! i have tried and tried to hyperlink with safari and firefox to no avail! here's the website at any rate:

http://histreasuredpossession.blogspot.com

again! i've been up all night again!!!! what is UP? i suppose the only perk is that i'm losing weight without trying...down to 163 from 180 after sweet baby girl was born. the one good thing. sheesh. just thought i'd whine a bit about it...

I won't restate what a lot of others have said much better than I ever could, but a gal on the forum posed a question about the pluses and minuses of homeschooling, and I thought that might make a useful post, especially from someone like me who doesn't believe in sugar-coating it.

Pluses:
you can teach them from a Christian worldview
you're the primary influence in your child's life
you're able to get to know them best
you're able to learn stuff you should have learned in school again!
your kids get to spend time with their siblings (which in theory should strengthen their relationship)
you can tailor their education to their particular style of learning
you can set the pace, moving slowly through difficult concepts and quickly through easy ones
you can do field trips with other homeschoolers (if you're lucky enough to have some nearby!)

Minuses:
your house isn't as clean as it could be
you don't have as much time by yourself (on duty 24/7)
you might miss out on extra curricular activities (in our state, we can still participate)
your smaller kids don't get as much attention as you're schooling the older ones

sooooooo...i have the iPod working, but when we were straightening up our room we discovered the itty bitty metal rod that sticks up from the dock of the iPod, you know, where it sets to charge, BROKE OFF.

I am truly the KISS OF DEATH for all small appliances and electronics. I need to just give it up and join an Amish community.

The church replaced our old washer and dryer a while back a new high efficiency set (thanks!) and I was on a mission to find some detergent that would work. My middle kiddo is allergic to Tide and that's about all I could find that was HE.

After looking around at my local grocery store I found some stuff called Seventh Generation White Citrus and Bergamot laundry detergent. It smells great, cleans great, and is not petroleum based so it's better for the environment. I can't find it at Wal-Mart but I've seen it at natural foods grocers. COOL!

When one of my kids is sick, I'm the Clorox wipe, Lysol, hand washing warrior. And I pray, HARD that no one else gets it, especially sweet baby girl.

Well, my oldest had tummy trouble on Wednesday. My baby girl has had a fever off and on since Friday, and now this morning I'm nauseated and very unsure of my breakfast. So I might be staying home from church with sweet baby girl (who actually did sleep well last night, thank you Lord!) as I toss my cookies and bide my time until hubby gets home from work:church.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I bought the book Pillars of the Earth. I noticed that it had a sticker from Oprah's book club on it and I thought, "This is a huge book. With that sticker, it must be popular. I love medieval times and I've been to Europe and seen the great cathedrals. This could be GOOD!" I had high hopes. I read it like crazy, even under my blanket with my book light. Sure, the language was modern, but this was a modern book. I sympathized with the characters. I was intrigued by the woman who lived in the woods. What was she all about?? Hmmmmm...

Then I get to the point of absolute graphic sex and violence. A baby is left out to die in the wilderness. And I can't take it anymore. I was so totally disappointed that I just threw the book in the trash. And I always finish a book, even if I don't like it. What a fascinating story this could have been without it reading like pornography or some smutty Harlequin romance novel? Yech.

So I don't put much stock in anything Oprah says anyway, so why I thought this book would be any different, I don't know. But what I DO know is that Gladys Hunt has LOTS to say about good books. And since I've so enjoyed her book for children, Honey for a Child's Heart, I used a Borders gift card I received for Christmas to buy her book Honey for a Woman's Heart.

I will let dear, dear Gladys Hunt guide my book buying from this moment on. Thanks but no thanks, Oprah.

And I've watched it a million times since the kiddos got it from my parents.

"Keep your station clean-or I will kill you!" says Collette.

And if you haven't seen the short on this one called Lifted, prepare to laugh hysterically.

I was studying in Genesis this morning (I actually got up early and did what I should do for once before everyone else gets up!) and was astounded that such a familiar story would resonate with new truths for me.

The story of Jacob stealing his brother's birthright seems like another example of one of God's people totally blowing it. Rebekah appears the ultimate deceiver, Jacob is weak-willed, Esau threatens violence, Isaac helpless and clueless. But there's more to it than that, as my homeschool Bible curriculum, Suffer Little Children from Covenant Home Curriculum, pointed out.

Isaac knew all along that God was going to bless Jacob, the youngest, and not Esau. Yet, he couldn't imagine that his youngest child could be worth anything. Esau, red and strapping, brave and fierce-he should win the birthright. Of course, Esau had married two pagan women who brought great bitterness to his parents. Rebekah's motives, in a sense, were good but her methods deplorable, as my Reformation Study Bible reminded me.

Yet, it was God's will that the promises and blessings of Abraham would continue on through Isaac and Jacob, not Esau. So God used sin, namely deception, to accomplish his greater purposes.

To me, it's a perfect example of how God uses base and terrible things to give himself ultimate glory. It makes me wonder what else he might be using in this life to display his love and goodness in the next. It reminds me that ALL THINGS means ALL THINGS in Romans 8:28. It reminds me that I should be reminding myself daily of this truth.

Take the Quiz here!

Thanks to friend Rachel for this fun quiz. I wish I was as cute as Emma! ;) I just watched Mansfield Park the other night and LOVED it. If you haven't seen it, make haste! Get it from Netflix!

Thanks to thatmom for directing us to this very funny parody of homeschooling families.

Hubby decided to charge it for me, just to see what would happen. And he made it work! So thank you for praying for a Christmas miracle. We'll see how long it lasts.

Also, if you're a fan of the pastor's wives forum, know it will be down for a few days.

Guess what I found in my dryer. My most favorite birthday present: my purple iPod shuffle. *sigh*

I can't. As a homeschooler, anyway. I am very optimistic every morning that my eldest will listen, obey, be enthusiastic about learning together. I have planned a semester ahead of time, checked out the necessary books from the library...

But each day it's the same story and I feel at a loss. I have literally read every child rearing book out there. I happen to have a kid who doesn't appear to respond to spanking, loss of privileges, isolation, or tomato staking. He can be as good as gold, then completely ridiculous, disrespectful and downright annoying to the rest of his family. I know I have written about slandering my children, but truly I feel so hopeless in what else to do. I have been much better about keeping my voice controlled and my anger in check. Yet, the struggles remain.

I keep waiting for it to get better. Waiting...

Since my friend asked:

My husband was stuck in the nearest major city due to bad, bad snow. My parents are here. I sent my kids to a friend's house so my mom and I could get pedicures. Then I did all the normal cleaning, cooking, and tending to kiddos that I do every other day.

Birthdays are not as special as they were when you were a kid. But hubby did get me the movie Amazing Grace, which is excellent, an iPod Shuffle for when I run, this cool picture frame that has all your downloaded digital pictures on it so that it changes periodically, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the book Made From Scratch, a memoir by Food Network star Sandra Lee. So I got cool stuff, but our plans were slightly altered since hubby was seriously stuck.

I have found the funniest book by Simms Taback. It's called Kibitzers and Fools. Taback has written many excellent children's books, including There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. Kibitzers and Fools is based on tales his Yiddish grandfather told him growing up. It's full of clever sayings, hilarious pictures, and great stories.

At the end of the book is a glossary of Yiddish words and what they mean: klutz-blockhead, (and my personal favorite) kibitzer-someone who knows it all and offers advice unsolicited.

I have a few kibitzers in my family who are currently visiting. The book has helped me to laugh about it instead of getting angry when my every move is scrutinized and suggestions are made as to how to do whatever I'm doing better or more efficiently.

He he, KIBITZERS. :)

A quotation from the book: Just because you can speak doesn't mean you make sense.

http://www.goingjesus.com/cavalcade1.shtml

Thanks to friend Joann over at http://joannsblogadventure.blogspot.com for this little tidbit. Oh boy.

p.s. now I have an icon for a hyperlink here in blogger on my Mac, but it doesn't seem to "take" when I go to publish the post. Sorry, sorry, so sorry.