Dreaming of a White Christmas

Ever since the first day we arrived in Texas, Faith has told us it would snow for Christmas.

Fort Worth does get snow...but it's not a guarantee, and it does not arrive every year. It's kinda similar to Vancouver...you get a day of snowfall and then watch it turn to slush and melt away.

So as Christmas was approaching, and the temperature was still hanging out in the high 60's...I began to lose hope that the kids would have the white Christmas they so desired.....

But then....3 days before Christmas....I was watching the news and the weatherman told me there was a chance of snow...on Christmas Day! A cold front was on the way, dropping the temperature low enough to generate some snowfall! WOW!!! So I said some prayers that the cold would be sure to hit our area (there was a risk it would not hit us and we would just get rain)

Christmas Eve....Midnight....I am woken up by thunder and lightning...oh no...and then again at 6am...another thunder storm came through the area...the kids woke up and opened their gifts to a storm roaring outside. Our hopes were a bit dashed as I thought for sure it was too warm to snow.

By mid morning the storm passed through, and it was just raining. I decided to check Jake's weather app on his phone to see how long the rain was going to last...then I saw that the temperature was about to start dropping and SNOW was in the forecast for the afternoon! WOOT!

I decided to get the kids through the tub and as Faith was having her bath, the rain turned into snow...Jake yelled it's snowing! Faith screamed from the tub "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" She was soo excited her little dream of a white Christmas was coming true!

Faith and Sam watching the snow start to fall

So once we got a bit of snow sticking to the ground, we dug out all the winter gear and went outside to play!

 Faith making a snow angel.

 The kids enjoying the snow.

The snow stuck around for another day, so we had 2 days of playing in the snow. Now it's gone and all that remains is the body of the little snowman that Faith and Jake built.

It ended up being a very fun Christmas day and it was so nice to have the kids little dream of a white Christmas come true.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

Can you believe this guy is 6!!!

 

The day started with our traditional breakfast in bed! Sam had requested Chocolate Chip Pancakes.....Yummo!

This year Sam has asked for a Lego Birthday. I do a theme every year and I love that he choose Lego. He loves to build, and it's a great toy. You can be so creative in your building, or you can follow directions and create the things on the box. Either way, it's a great learning tool.

Of course, you do have the stepping on Lego's issues...I have stepped on those pesky little pieces quite a few times and have had a few yelps! The best was when Jake got one right in the middle of his foot, I have never heard the man holler so loudly...it was pretty funny.

Anyhow, back to the birthday. We will be doing a party in a couple of weeks. With his birthday the day before American Thanksgiving it made it a bit tough to do a party right away. So we will celebrate with a Lego Party at the end of the month.

Jake had Sam's birthday off, so we went to enjoy the day at the Legoland Discovery Center and Sealife Aquarium in Grapevine. My kids affectionately call it "Little Legoland" since they have been used to the big amusement park in California. But even though this one only has a couple of small rides, the kids have a great time and they love it there. 

I also had to include this pic of Sam. I just love it. A couple of weeks ago we went on another "Discover the area" day and checked out Cowboy's Stadium, 6 Flags, and the Baseball Stadium. Here is a pic of Sam checking out some Cowboy's merchandise.

**Don't worry football friends back in California, we are still die hard Steeler Fans!**

  

I am so thankful for my sweet, tenderhearted little man. He is a joy and I am so blessed to be his Momma. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Back To School!

Well, our school year has been interrupted by a big move, but we are getting back into the swing of things around here!

Here is a look at the little students for the 2012 - 2013 school year!

                                          Miss Faith

                                          Sweet Sammy

 
                                          Hurricane Nate

This year I have been using the Spectrum workbooks (I found them on sale at Lakeshore Learning) so I have decided to just go with something completely new since both Faith and I weren't really feeling it with Abeka. I do make more work for myself though, having to do lesson planning now when last year Abeka did that for me. But hey, the great thing about homeschool is seeing what works best, and trying new things. I find that the kids prefer these workbooks, along with other stuff I find online.

For Pre-K I am still using 1+1+1=1 letter of the week. I used it with Sam and had great success with it. And I know Nate will enjoy it too (when he sits still long enough to do a lesson)

I do though need to find some great Bible, and character building materials. So any suggestions would be wonderful!

Hello Texas

The Snowden's have moved!

We have been blessed with the amazing opportunity to serve with Harvest Church in Fort Worth Texas! It was a very emotional decision to leave the sand and surf of Southern California, but we feel that God wanted to put us here...so here we are!

Once our decision was finalized, it was a quick move. I had to pack up the house and then set off to Canada for my parent's 50th anniversary. While I was in Canada, Jake and the kids set off on the 4 day road trip to Texas! I flew in the evening they arrived and then the house hunting began!

We are now getting all settled in, and are now adjusting to Texas. It is a different place, that's for sure! But I think I can really fall in love with this place.

Off to the Mountains!

I am excited! Right now I am getting the house all cleaned, suitcases are out, and I am almost all packed for a weekend up at Yosemite!

I am longing for my hotel room that overlooks a river bed....for hiking in Yosemite and just connecting with nature and admiring the beauty God created!

I am going expectant of a reconnection with my Lord...you know when you are out in nature and you just feel more connected? I'm looking forward to that.

It's been a rough season with Jake's job loss...a lot of confusion and lack of direction. I'm hoping a get away will help with focus.

Cute Moments of the Day...

Today we took a little family picnic down to Newport Dunes...the kids rode their bikes along the trail, then we played on the playground and had a picnic.

During the picnic, a bird was hanging around us....seemed he was just waiting for a piece of bread to be tossed his way. So after one of the kids handed me a piece of crust, I tossed it to him. Then suddenly about 30 birds came out of NOWHERE and started flying over our heads and landing on the grass beside us. The kids were squealing in delight and/or fear. I was having flashes to that movie "The Birds" and cringing, fearful that huge seagull may relieve himself while flying overhead. Once the birds landed, we said to the kids, chase them! The kids were so excited to run around and shoo the birds away! Cute moment. :)

After coming home I was cleaning and listening to Faith and Sam discussing sign language. Faith asked me if I knew what she was signing. I looked up from sweeping the bathroom to see her doing the sign for Jesus.
I reply "Oh hun, that is the sign for Jesus"
Faith to Sam "How did she know that?"
Sam "Mom knows everything, she's the teacher"
Cute moment. :)

A cute moment everyday comes from Nate...who always asks at some point of the day in his little 3 year old high pitched squeal "Oh, How'd you do DDAATT??

I love the cute little moments in the day....and I need to record them and treasure them more. The kids are growing so quickly...Faith will be 7 on Tuesday....7. Where did the time go? I find I ask myself that question alot during birthday season (November thru March) But it just hits a bit more with the oldest...7. Wow.

My Thoughts on the Teacher Strike in BC

So up in Canada, in BC where I am from...teachers are going to go on strike on Monday...full walkout I believe...

Now being in the States, I really do not know alot about the why's and all that stuff...but I do know that seeing what I see and hearing what I hear AGAIN makes me happy that I am a homeschool and do not have to deal with all this stuff.

For the entire school year there have been no report cards given..so parents are sending their children to school, and are have no idea if they are passing, failing, excelling. For your average student who always passes and gets good grades, no biggie...but what if you are struggling? My nephew has a hard time with school, and my sister has NO IDEA if he is passing or failing his courses. How stressful not only to the parent of struggling students, but to the students themselves!

I just saw on facebook a sign a teacher was holding up...claiming that if teachers only worked 8 hour days, students would not receive tutoring, letters home to parents, report cards, concerts, etc. I simply ask...then why are you a teacher??

I know in every job I held there were times I worked on projects, had deadlines for reports, etc that had me working beyond my 8 hour time...did I go on strike? No...I realized it came with the territory...when you become a teacher, I'm sure you already go into it knowing that yes, you do work extra time and do work funky hours to do extra activities and programs for kids. And THANK YOU FOR THAT TEACHERS! You do amazing work for kids.

But you also get spring break, christmas break, summer holiday....do you work 8 hours a day during those times?? People in regular corporate positions can only dream of having so much holiday time. (now I could be totally off and maybe teachers do work during that time...but I do not know...so I'm just assuming they do not work during all of those school breaks)

So really teachers, is it so bad?? You have an amazing job! You are educating our future! You are having direct influence in our next generation of police officers, firefighters, artists, political representatives, etc...that is huge! What an honor!

So please, oh please, get your contract sorted out, get back to work, and help kids like my dear nephew. Please communicate with students and their families.

And I will remain here at my little private homeschool, thankful.

What to do, what to do...

So it has been aprox 2 weeks since Jake lost his job...not much response in the way of job leads...but really, Jake doesn't really want to get back into the Corporate world.

We have not been involved in Ministry since we left Faith Church in Norwalk. We left there a little deflated, since we worked so hard to grow the ministry with not much success. When Jake got the Oakley job and we started attending Saddleback, we decided to just attend for a bit and get connected with people through small groups...that was 2 years ago...

We have been doing a study called 40 Days in the Word...and I have been so excited about this simply because I have been longing to get a deeper connection with God, and to just grow, grow, grow....I have been loving the devotions and the lessons...they have been great!!

And what have I been getting the most out of this series?? SERVE!!! My longing to reach out to the body of Christ is rejuvinated! Our ministry itch is itching! We BOTH want to get back into ministry...but we also need to keep the roof over our heads, keep the children fed, and keep them up to schedule on school. So we are challenged with just HOW to go about a ministry...

Ideas from traveling in an RV and serving churches around the US, to starting a couples ministry have come to mind...and even returning to NY since our home there is without renters (again!)but we are now just looking for confirmation and clarity on what direction to go, and how to do this. Whatever THIS is....

So please say a little prayer for us today. Since sometimes that little thing called confusion seems to be weighing us down a bit at times. We are at peace with all the loss of work stuff, and are actually happy it happened...we were very comfortable, and I think we needed all this to happen to shake things up a bit!

When God closes a door, He opens a window

So today, Jake lost his job with Oakley...and I'm really OK with it.

Did I cry? Yes, for a couple of minutes...more due to shock than anything else. We knew job stuff was up in the air...but we also knew a bunch of people had gone to Jake's new boss, saying he is not one who should be let go...and we THOUGHT we were in negotiations for a new position...so when Jake came home, bags in hand asking me to take a picture to document the day Oakley fired him...well I was a little surprised.

But on this day, a day that should be filled with huge amounts of stress, of "what nows"?? I was blessed to witness the closeness in Jake's relationship with his brother Seth...you see, Seth works at Oakley too...they worked in the same department. Jake hooked Seth up with a job at Oakley over a year ago.

So when Jake got home, he called Seth to see about retrieving some files from his computer...and learned at that moment Seth was being escorted out of the building because he himself had quit. Seth had quit because he did not agree with the manner in which Jake's firing was handled...he simply said "family first". This brought tears to my husbands eyes. He could not believe his brother did that. Seth came straight to our house, where the brothers hugged it out and spent the afternoon on the patio, enjoying the sun and discussing all the opportunity they now had before them.

It truly was a beautiful thing to witness.

Yes, a door was closed today. But they always say, when God closes a door, he opens a window. I look forward to seeing what God does, and I look forward to seeing this relationship between 2 brothers grow even stronger.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Another Birthday! Don't have too many pics on at the moment, but when I do I'll post more..

One of the activities we did for Nate's 3rd Birthday (really?? I have all kids now...not babies, not toddlers, just kids...wow) was an evening at "Pump It Up" an inflatable playground. Uncle Seth and Auntie Emily joined us for some bouncy fun!

Faith and Sam in the shooting thing...


Nate spent some time in the shooty thing too....


But his FAVORITE was this MASSIVE SLIDE! So fun, and SO FAST!!!


We spent pretty much a full week celebrating...

More birthday pics to come!

SPARTAN RACE

So if you look a few posts back, you will see one talking about the Spartan Race Jake participated in in Malibu. The one in Malibu was a 3 mile run involving trail running, obstacles, hills, and lots of MUD!

The race we did yesterday was an 8 mile run. YIKES! Not something I would want to do!

Here are Jake and his brother Seth before the race. After the race was done, they both proclaimed that they would NEVER do that again! haha. Jake was on the course for nearly 2 1/2 hours. That is a LONG time to be doing all the torture obstacles!


We entered the kids into the Childrens race. A 1/4 mile run with balance beams, crawling in nets, climbing mini walls, and of course climbing through a mud trench!

This is Faith and Sam at completion. Faith is all mud arms down from tripping in the mud trench..so she is rather upset and ready to change!

Ahh, all better now that we are cleaned up!

We were running behind and actully missed the kids race. But the people were so great and the kids ran the course all by themselves. Because of this, Nate was able to participate! The competition is ages 5 and up, so if the kids made their race, Nate would have had to just watch. So this was a super huge blessing because Nate wanted to race so so badly!

Here he is at completion. He was not bothered by the mud. Typical to Nate's nature, he dove right into the mud and loved it!

So I think for now we are done with the Spartan Race. We may do another 3 mile course next year, but for now, Jake and Seth are letting their bodies recover!

Why Did I Choose to Homeschool?

As I am attending more Home School group functions, and meeting more families in the Home School community, I often find myself answering the question "What made you decide to homeschool?"

Of course, my number one reason is that the Bible says we are to teach and train up our children in the ways of the Lord. I believe this is relevent to education, as well as your typical child rearing. That right there is reason enough really.

A lot of the Momma's in my current home school group are not Christians, so they would not really get my number one reason. So to them, I also mention my other reasons.

In the beginning, I was fully on board to public school education. Faith did 2 years of preschool and Kindergarten in the public school system. The day I "really really" began to considered homeschool was my first parent teacher meeting when Faith was in Kindergarten.

Faith had an AMAZING teacher. Mrs. Osborne. Lovely woman of faith who treated the kids with so much kindness and love. I was very involved with the class and was a parent helper once a week, so I developed a great relationship with Mrs. Osborne.

Mrs. Osborne made a comment that made my stomach turn...put a huge knot in it...made the "red flag" wave all around in front of my face...her comment was this:

"I feel for the Faith's of the world. The nice quiet children who obey and don't cause trouble, that are not at the top of the class, and not at the bottom of the class. She is a student that does very well, but is lost in the crowd."

No no no....Faith is too special to be "lost in the crowd" The thought of sending my child to school for 6 hours a day so she could be looked over is just not right. And with class sizes as massive as they are, I knew the problem would only carry on to the later grades.

More reasons are simple...class sizes in California are massive. We center our live on God, so that means our education is also to be God centered. Faith loves art, Sam loves music. I want a lot of focus on their personal interests and gifts. We are a family that loves to do fun things. If Jake gets an afternoon off, we can take off and have fun...not wait for school to get out to pick up Faith. So much more flexability.

So instead I decided to take on the education myself, with a lot of help from above! :) Because Faith, Sam and Nate deserve to be in the limelight. There education and character development is too important to send them off to an overcrowded school system where they are just a number.

Plus, I must say I have the cutest class around! :)

Stop and Enjoy the Blessing...

Don't you love it when your child reminds you to just stop and enjoy all that God has blessed you with??

I am a person who puts a lot of pressure on myself. I want to be the perfect Momma...I want my children to have an amazing childhood filled with lots of love, laughter, and good times. But with wanting to be a perfect Momma, and putting so much pressure on myself, it also causes me to stress out, and become frustrated over things that really don't matter at the end of the day.

Today was a day that was not going well. Faith and I have hit a bit of a wall in homeschooling. I am trying to keep up with cirriculum and lesson plans, and in the process I have overwhealmed my girl who needs to go a little slower in areas like reading and writing.

So now here I am revamping those areas of school, going back to where she is comfortable and taking it slow from there, on the computer, emailing my homeschool failure feelings to my dear friend who also homeschools so she gets it, and gives me wonderful advice and encouragement. Thank you Jesus for those people in my life!

So yes, picture me at my computer, working on how to be a better teacher, mother, all the rest.

Then enters this guy...who reminds me why I love being a stay at home Momma and homeschooling Momma in the first place.


Nate is turning 3 in a few short days. But he is a little guy, and can climb up onto my lap and fit perfectly...as he did today. I'm at my desk, he climbs on my lap, grabs my face and turns it away from the computer screen...he then burries his head into my neck and giggles. And that's all he did...he stayed in that spot, holding my head in his hands, fingers running through my hair. And he kept giggling.

And I just stopped. Stopped stressing, stopped feeling upset, stopped trying to be perfect and just hugged that little guy back. And thanked God for the blessings He has given me.