Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

I used to view Jesus agony in the Garden of Gethsemane as fear of pain. I mean, here was a man who knew the pain that He was about to suffer! He even asked His Father if there was any other way. The other day I was reading my Bible commentary and was struck by the statement that Jesus agony was not in fact over the pain that He would suffer, but rather the thought of coming in contact with our sin! How deep His love is for us! Not only that He would suffer the physical anguish of torture and crucifixion, but also that the spotless lamb was willing to take our sin upon Himself that we might live!

No matter how you celebrate this season, remember that there is a God who loves you deeper than you can ever imagine. Happy Passover, Easter, Resurrection Sunday..what ever you call it. Peace and blessing to you all!

Week 2. The bag that was once filled to capacity with chicken seemed to have shrunk today. When I took cluck out of the bag and dusted off the natren, I immediately noticed how much smaller she was. She has lost a lot of liquid.




Our mummy has 4 more weeks to go. She already feels hard and dry. Still no bad odors!! I am still adding spices to the natren every time I change the bag...I'm not taking any chances!!

This is just the kind of thing that warms my heart! I love to see my son "working" alongside my husband. Yes, I know he is just 2 years old, but I LOVE the fact that he wants to be just like his daddy! I am looking forward to the day when Micah can spend some time at work with Will. Not because I want to get rid of him, but because I think that all boys need to spend time with REAL men!

Here they are sanding the butcher-block top to the rolling island Will is building for the kitchen. Yes, it does pay to have a handy man around! Micah actually had control of the palm-sander for quite some time, and when they came in to show it to me Micah exclaimed "I made that!" Oh, my sweet, sweet little boy <3

Redefining the "norm"

My experience as a child in schools was not the most comfortable in the world. I had many hardships that I still think about from time to time. I had a hard time separating my "social" role as a student from my "learning" role as a student. For me the social part was much more important. I look back on that now with much regret, because I know I missed out on a lot of learning! Obviously, I cannot change the past, so I am just picking up on the learning process where I left off. That is the great thing about home education. Subjects like history that I either ignored, or never had, are very interesting to me as an adult. I truly enjoy learning with my kids.

One of the things that I hear frequently is that we need to strive, as home school families to appear "normal." I just laughed out loud when I typed that...LOL Normal is basically a matter of opinion. We are not striving to meet culture at the "norms." As a matter of fact, if normal was the goal of my life, I would have sunk into a major depression long ago!! So I strive to seek only what God expects of me. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I worry too much about what others think of me. I am not perfect. But, if I could just instill in my kids that their significance comes from being a child of God, rather than what others think about them, I will consider my job as a Mom successful. If I can shake the "self-esteem" monster myself, and rather focus solely on my relationship with my Savior, then I will have considered my life a success. Fortunately, God hasn't ever expected perfection!

"I know some day I will be free, the weight of sin shall be released, but for now He covers me. And though the trials never end, I've learned to take them as my friend, for each day He covers me..." Steve Camp

Welcome!

I love reading the Blogs of my friends and family! I really never thought that I would have my own, because I guess I thought I just didn't have anything interesting to say... Well, the truth is, I spend my days in deep thought over current issues, meditating, on scripture, and thinking through life. Often times I think about putting my thoughts on paper, but I never really got that far. Blogging seemed to be the next obvious step for me. I love intelligent conversation! I am constantly learning new things, and my hope is that I will always be "teachable." So, I hope you decide to follow my blog. Maybe you could teach me something :)