We joined the battle

Tuesday night we jumped out of the boat and physically joined the spiritual battle for our kids' schools by standing on the front steps of the schools and praying for them. There were only a handful of people at each school, but I'm not in the least disappointed by the turnout. The prayers that went up to the Throne of our God came from the hearts of parents and other community members that believe mighty things will be done in and through our children, and through our involvement in the school system. Satan's footholds will be weakened. Our children will be stronger. I walked away from the 45 minutes or so we spent there knowing, without a doubt, that I obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Can't wait until November when we can do it again.

Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children.

Lamentations 2:19

A few favorite things...

A few things that have made me smile lately:

After completing the summer reading program at the library, Ethan picked out The Magician's Nephew from the Narnia series as his free book reward. He read all but the last few pages in about a week, and refused to finish it until we went to the library to get the next book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. He just didn't want the story to end.

A crazily true quote from my younger sister about Natalie while Ethan, Karis, and Natalie spent the weekend with them: "its funny because when she is totally exhausted is the only time she actually acts like a real 3 yr old. the rest of the time its like she's 25."

When you ask Levi a question his response is often an innocent "uuhhh...no".

Taking the big kids out on school shopping dates. I love seeing what kinds of things they pick out (whether I approve and let them purchase is another story :O)).

Trusting God to provide and stretch our paychecks each week...and not giving into the temptation to worry about whether it will stretch far enough.

Spending a long weekend with extended family at Oglebay Resort in West Virginia.

Meteor Showers.

Levi going potty on the toilet on a random, but almost daily basis.

Skunk {and other fun} adventures with our friends the Butchers. (and, no, the irony is not lost on us that when we hang out together we are the "Hunters" and the "Butchers")

Running 800m repeats and bringing back some memories of high school and college.

The dryer choosing one of the hottest, but also breezy, days of summer to break down. And my amazing husband who figured out the problem, bought the part, and had it fixed in less than 24 hours and for less than $20.

How much Karis' attitude has changed in the past 6 months. She's far less emotional, cries/whines much less, and smiles much more!!

Mandy's E-book

If you've been reading my blog for a while you might remember about a year and a half ago when my friend, Mandy, created an online life group called Angry Homemade Noodles. It was a bunch of moms connecting online and seeking to allow God to help us overcome some hangups and sins we were struggling with. Mandy is a wonderful writer, and has put all of the teaching/learning from that group into an E-Book that you can purchase.

If you are struggling with something over and over and would like to find freedom from it, you are not alone. There is freedom in Christ, but even if you know that (as I did), sometimes you need some help finding it. If that's the case, I encourage you to check out the book at the Messy Canvas bookstore on Mandy's blog.

Gasp...Gulp...Splish...Splash...

That's the sound of me trying to keep my head above water for the next three months....

It all seems to start with Mark going away to Cross Country Camp, which happened this past week, and my first students enrolling, which happened Friday. I like some busyness for short periods of time, but, the past few years, the end of summer/beginning of the school year seems to have the potential to drown me.

Mark is coaching cross-country, I'll be getting 35ish online students off the ground {read: insane amounts of phone calls to be made/received, emails to be sent/received/responded to, questions to be answered, and papers to be graded} in their American History class, a family reunion trip, Ethan and Karis will be playing soccer {on separate teams}, MOPS steering team planning gets busy, and this year I'm leading a 2nd/3rd grade small group on Wednesday nights at church and running my half-marathon training. September is also Ethan's and Karis' birthdays and it's Ethan's turn to have a party this year. Throw in there all the typical things like school shopping, orientation nights, picking kids up from school, grocery shopping, laundry, packing lunches, and helping with homework and things are going to get a little crazy!

To help maintain sanity, I'm taking a break for Bible Study and Karis is taking a break from gymnastics. We had thought about sending Natalie to pre-school one day a week this year, but I think we'll hold off another year. I think I'll probably give up cleaning the house, too...it'll probably just be too much ;O)

I know we'll survive and have some fun amidst all the craziness...but if you see me going under....throw me a life preserver!!

Poundin' the Pavement

Well, I'm 5 weeks into my half-marathon training, and I'd have to say, so far, I'm really enjoying it. Yes, I enjoy running. I'm a little weird like that.

In my first 5 weeks, I think my favorite run so far has been my 7 miler. It was a nice evening and I was able to keep a consistent, sub-10 minute pace. Although it was extremely hot, I enjoyed my 8 mile run, too. The big kids were at my parents' house for the weekend, so Mark joined me on his bike with Levi in the bike trailer. He was my travelling water station...how nice is that?? I tried my first energy gel pack on that run, too. Umm...that's some pretty gross stuff trying to taste good.

I have had two longer runs that have done weird things to my stomach/intestines, and I haven't been able to pinpoint whether I'm eating something that doesn't agree with running or if it's my pace. Both runs I've done with a friend and we've pushed the pace under 9 minute miles for 6 and 7 miles, which is a bit faster than I usually do long runs at. Hopefully, I'll get it figured out in the next couple weeks!

I love that I'm achieving a goal. {It's been years since I've had a specific goal to work towards, aside from just surviving with four small children and completing the typical motherly tasks of each day, all while maintaining sanity :O)} I love that there's purpose in my running. I love watching the training plan work. It's fascinating to me to see longer and longer runs get easier and faster. It's nice to see some more muscle tone in my legs, too!

I don't love that it usually requires time away from my family or that some days it costs us our relaxing dinner or bedtime schedule. I don't like that I feel like I'm being pushy with my need to "get my run in". Mark just had to reassure me last night that I'm doing okay. That I'm not being pushy. I'm still trying to convince myself that I'm not being selfish. I've got 7 more weeks to let go of that. Hopefully, I'll have time next month to keep you updated on how that's going.

Public School Parent Prayer Nights

Say that 10 times fast!! Seriously, though, this is something that has been on my heart for about two years...really ever since Ethan started Kindergarten. I actually made mention about starting a group like this over a year ago on this blog, but admitted that my own prayer life wasn’t where it should be, and nothing came of it. I have to say that, although I have been a born-again Christian for more than 25 years, I have never been a “prayer warrior”. I’ve lacked the intimacy and expectation it takes to pray with any sort of power until recently. I’m in the process of learning to allow the power of the Spirit to strengthen my walk, to pray in faith and open my eyes to the Lord’s answers, and be open to His call on my life. I believe that God has used the past year and a half to bring me to the place where I should be in order to do this with success and for His glory.

It has been an absolute struggle for us (mostly me) to send our kids to public school. My husband and I are both teachers, and before we had kids, we felt strongly convicted that our kids would attend public schools because we see them as mission fields. If all Christians pull their children out, who will be the light? (Don’t take that wrong…I definitely believe God creates some families for homeschooling, some for private school, and some for public). Kids often have so much more opportunity to witness than Christian teachers do. When it came down to actually putting our kids in the schools, though, I wondered if they were really equipped and if we were doing all that we could to ensure their spiritual, mental, and emotional safety. We want to do all that we can to protect them, so we pray individually as parents, but I also believe there is power in corporately covering our children as a community.

I have recently re-read Power of a Praying Parent, and it has reaffirmed the necessity of praying specifically for each of our children and using prayer to protect them from the Enemy that is lurking the halls of those schools. I feel like as a community of believers we have the ability to be much more effective in protecting our kids and breaking Satan's strongholds in the school if we join together in the effort.

At first I was thinking that this group would just be moms...and I was going to stick to those that lived in my neighborhood because that would be so much more comfortable for me, and we could just meet in each others homes, etc. I really feel like God has asked me step out of that area of comfort, though, and include any parent who wants to pray for their children attending our local schools. After the Life Action Summit at our church and the emphasis on the leadership of husbands and far reaching impact of revival, I don't think it should just be moms or just my neighborhood.


If you know me well, you know that initiating this group is truly the result of the tugging of the Spirit. I am a good assistant, not a leader (probably one of the reasons I keep saying I’m initiating and not leading this group). I rarely pray out loud around people, especially those I don’t know. I don’t even really like big groups of people, and I somewhat despise speaking in front of them. I was nauseous in the days leading up to emailing some friends about the possibility of this starting and had to force myself to hit the send button once I wrote the email. I was shaking yesterday when I called the Superintendant's office to get the okay from him. After each of these steps, though, I have had relief and peace knowing that God will take this out of my hands and make it what He wants it to be.

My prayer is that God is in the process of empowering us to bind Satan and his strongholds in our schools and empower our children in their witness and ability to stand firm in their faith.

What should I post about?

After reading my post on what I would have blogged about if I made the time, is there anything you (if anyone is even reading this after my long absence) would want to hear more about? Let me know, and I'll try to get some posts together in the next couple of weeks :O).