My Georgia Life

#1 The request: " Give us this day our daily bread." -Matthew 6:11 #2 The answer: "... y our Father knows what you need  before you ask him." -Matthew 6:8 August 5 - First day of home school in the Smith house. September 3 - Breaking point.  I almost made it a whole month! :) It happens...I get tired, overwhelmed, a little stressed, and a lot discouraged.  I want to quit. This was the day before our new home school co-op with the Rays for Christ group was set to start.  We hadn't even had our first day yet and I was already planning how I was going to drop out next semester.  Bad. On top of that I was thinking of our ever present financial woes.  You know how people always say kids are expensive?  Yes, 'tis true.  And let me take this moment to say that the next person who says to me, "It's just $5 a kid!" is going to get a major stink eye from me.  ;)  Anyway... When it all piles up like this I realize it's time to just lay ...

#1 Every new day brings lots and lots of tiny, seemingly inconsequential, choices. #2 Many, many times I have made the wrong choices, but I have usually been able to gloss over the mistake. #3 Sometimes, though, it can't be glossed...Sometimes, I just really, justifiably, deserve a punch in the face. Thankfully, no one has ever physically punched me in the face, but I think it might feel better than that gut wrenching feeling you get when you've screwed something up and there's absolutely no way you can take it back.   I hate that feeling.   I had that feeling recently. Outwardly, the whole situation is really no big deal.  It's what it exposed in my heart that made me feel like a squished jelly bean...on the bottom of your shoe...being smeared into the ground...over and over.  Broken and dirty, and a big, fat mess.   Over the past few months my prayer life has been really disappointing.  I didn't really feel like praying -  it ...

#1 New ATTITUDE (because that's really the best place to start): Our homeschool year is about to take off!  I'm still in the planning phase, which is always kinda fun for me.  There's always this hope that the excitement will carry on throughout the year, but thus far it never has.  So, I'm praying that this year I'll at least be spiritually, mentally, emotionally prepared to handle the ugly, bad days.  And I'm praying that our first day (please, oh please) will not be one of those days (as it was last year...bad).  So, here's to a new attitude! Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another  in love.  Ephesians 4:2   (gotta remember this one. :) ) #2 New CO-OP: Last year, we joined the Rays for Christ homeschool group , and it's been nothing but good for my kids. We've had field trips, archery club, art classes, field day, and much, much more.  It's been fun for the kids and a great support group for me as we...

  #1 I started to write this blog last week but just couldn't think of a title to sum it up. My friend from Bible study unknowingly helped me out when she shared that she is "hitting the reset button" on her professional life. That's exactly what I've been doing too. Of course, my "professional life" is officially home making and home schooling, but it's all the same. #2 Sometimes when God closes a door (or doors) He turns around and helps us see the room we're occupying in a new (and better) light. He is, after all, THE Light. (John 8:12) This is what He's been doing for me. First, as some people know, I hit a real hard spot with home schooling last fall. I was ready to hang it up. That, with a pressing need for extra cash lead me to go out and look for a "real job". Long story short...didn't happen. Phew! :-) Then, as some people also know, IV and I have been looking (for a long time) for a house that h...

"' A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,' 34  Then your poverty will come  as   a robber And your want like  an armed man." Prov. 24:33-34 #1 I was self-inflicted with "poverty" of the mind.   #2 "You reap what you sow" is more than a cliche. Snow days...they affected all of us Georgians in perplexing and embarrassing ways. IV got four days off of school/work, which made for a nice winter break for our family. A little break is nice, but I got a little more than lazy... I'm part of a Precept Bible study at our church and in order to keep up on the homework I usually spend 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week getting it done. However, during our "winter break" I totally stopped studying the Word at all. I skimmed a Proverb every other day or so to make myself feel good, but that was about it. I'd obviously forgotten this important warning: "Be of sober  spirit ,  b...

#1 Everyone carries a little fear. (or a lot) #2 The choice is, do we feed it, or release it? IV and I just started teaching the 9th and 10th grade Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday School) at our church. I'll admit I was a little nervous the first Sunday.  I hadn't been around high-schoolers in a long time, and I suddenly felt very old, and very uncool.  BUT, I had a grand feeling that this was just where the Lord wanted us to be.  So far, I think I'm right.  It's fun, and we're all learning a lot. My first realization is that I'd forgotten the weight and worries kids carry over things that seem really unimportant to me now.  I know I was the same way, and it made me think about all the weight and worries I carry still that simply will not matter in a few years (or tomorrow). Why do we fear?  Why do we doubt God? He loves us.  He's with us. ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I wil...

#1 Never give up reading Scripture...even the passages you've read a hundred times over. #2 You'll always find something that you may have missed before. Unreasonable Grace I've read the same Scriptures to the kids as part of our Christmas countdown for the past three years.  I use the Advent booklet by Ann Voskamp as a guide.  It basically walks us from Adam and Eve to the birth of Jesus in 27 days. (It starts on November 29.)   This year I discovered a common thread throughout the story that I never noticed before.  It has to do with the preservation of the line of Jesus when all reason would have ended it time and time again.  It starts in the beginning... Adam and Eve :  They ate from the forbidden tree, God could have killed them then and there and started over, but he didn't.  He allowed them to live (for a while) and multiply.  Grace. Noah :  He was spared when the Lord saw fit to wipe out everyone else.  He ...