And They're Off!

Josiah and Levi are off to camp for the week and I am so curious as to what my home will be like for the next six days! I am sure I will be very ready for them to come home by Saturday, but I think they will wish they could stay there for another couple of weeks!

Mt. Lou San is a Christ centered, God preaching, fun-time-having camp in PA. I cannot think of, in my memories, any place the Lord got a hold of my heart at a young age more than at camp. So many things bombard kids. And especially in the early teen years (my boys are 13 and 14) it seems that is when they will make decisions for Christ or for the world. While at NYC (... I know... I will post on NY! I am still recovering from it all and need to have a clear head for it...! ) I met a young man who was 22 and his testimony was... at 14... he was exposed to drugs and the partying lifestyle and it looked so much better than his current goody-two-shoes, hypocritical family. Now I am not saying that describes our family, but kids see things the way they want to, and our family may not stack up favorably in their eyes compared to whatever the lure of the world! The wicked one has one goal... to destroy my children! We pray and do whatever we can to prevent that.

This is possibly the last summer we will spend in our quiet Suburban setting and that thought has rattled in my head more than once these past few weeks! Though Deputation is at least 12 months away, we are living in preparation all the time. In our heads we think of all the things we should be and slowly are doing, and in our prayers we ask God to be ever leading in our actions and also prepare the trail for us! We also think of how it will physically flesh out. Will we travel North first? Or maybe go south in the fall and then head back here? Where will the Lord have us to go? So many questions! And...the fact that I am a little glad to have the house quieter for the week goes in direct conflict with my previous comments on how I will be so happy to have the whole family spending time... a lot of it .... together on Deputation.

I would like to say I am obeying the verse in whatsoever state I am in and being content...!

It's Hunting Season!

I love venison! My children love venison. My husband is a hunter.


This sounds like a great working relationship. It's all about supply and demand.

And, thanks to the tireless efforts of my husband and two of my sons, we have a freezer full.

The only problem... this is what it is full of!


Needless to say, only my hubby and this Field and Stream caliber fisherman are eating well these days! It was a nice catch! 14 lbs and 35" long. Pretty good for the equipment he had to use.

While at lower falls here in our great city, there was a professional there who works for ESPN, and he had a bunch of "special recipe" Salmon eggs. (hmmm, should I include them on my Thanksgiving table?) Micah had no problem going right up to him and striking up conversation. The man asked how he was lucky enough to be fishing on a Thursday morning when all other kids were in school, and M. said this was a field trip with his dad and that we home school! It turned out the man was a Christian, and was very generous with his special recipe bait. Micah hooked on a glob of eggs, and with his "Mickey Mouse" pole (that is what Mr. ESPN called it!) and 20 lb test (sounded good to me, but again Mr. ESPN informed him that was WAY TOO HEAVY...!) proceeded to reel in this beauty! (again Mr. ESPN's title... definitely not mine!)

Salmon are some of the ugliest fish in the world! They have teeth that look like they were transplanted from a shark- much better suited for survival in the great Ocean of Life, and not the rinky dink streams they find themselves in! Now to be fair, they do quite well in those huge rivers, too! I think when they are muscling their way upstream they are just chomping all the water up and that propels them forward!

Anyhow, I am putting out a plea. If anyone out there in blogdom has a surplus of venison... I would be glad to take it off your hands!

"All the Days of Her Life"

To finish the thoughts from the 31st...

One evening after Bible Study in our home, four of the teen girls were sitting at the table talking about God boys. Two of us adult ladies were at the table listening to these vicious precious young ladies give example after scenario about "this boy did this", and "she should not take that from him"... It was unbelievable! They were 12, 13 and 14 year old girls!! To be truthful, only two were talking, the others were "uh huh"ing, and "oh My!"ing! I was none-to-little panicked! This was my home, and I needed to have an intervention- and FAST!

The Lord really performed a miracle that night! I went to my home school hutch, and got out four blank dollar store journals. Now, mind you, I do not usually have these things on hand! I "just happen" to see them a few weeks before, and they were just so neat- I had to get them! (Think "Jesus made me"!) I tossed the journals onto the table and said to the girls... "pick one!" They had no idea what I was doing, frankly I was unsure where this whole thing was going! I began to ask them if they thought they would marry some one younger than they were. They all replied "no", and then I began to make them realize that their husband, if they were to marry, was born and living somewhere in the world... right now!

Can I tell you, they all were shocked at the thought!

I then asked them if they were a fly on the wall viewing him, would they like to see him doing what they were not two seconds prior doing? They were appalled at the thought, and thought he would be such a jerk, and they weren't really saying things that terrible... !!! You get the point!

Enter Proverbs 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

I explained the journal was to be a record of prayers to God for their husbands. Pray for him, his family, his salvation, his health. Pray he has a good education, and a good church, and youth group to attend. Pray he journals, and dates the entries. Can you imagine knitting together you lives even if you don't meet until after college?

Girl: "Hey, did you write around July 15, 2007?"
Boy:" Yeah! We went camping at Letchworth that week!"
Girl:"What? No way!!! So did we!"

The girls were so excited at the thought of praying for them! They felt like they could directly have an impact on their own future right now! Not only did it encourage them to think about the future, it made them realize that today they were "packing" their potential baggage that would be brought into the relationship! Whew! The conversation changed and quick! Thank you God!

I then told them this was to be looked at as a gift to give him on their honeymoon. What a gift! To know that he was prayed for many times over, and for years! Wow!

Relevance to others?

Do you have someone in your life that you care about? Would you think a journal filled with prayers for them would be a special gift? What about a Bible that was read with a certain child/friend in mind, and notes written on the side when the Lord impressed a passage in your heart? What a gift of time and love that would be.

Amazing how much one little verse can generate! I now know of about 16 girls that journal prayers for their husbands. Very cool!

Back to School!

Today marks the first day of school here at the "Jalowiec Academy of Excellence" for the 2007-2008 school year.

It is such a great thing to home school, because people will attach all kinds of SuperMom qualities to me and only I know they couldn't be further from the truth! I would love to be organized, have the unconditional respect and admiration from my children (which must be the case if they actually submit to my teaching them!), as well as an "always clean home" (due to the readily available child labor force I possess), and a divinely contented husband that has dinner waiting for him upon his return home from work served to him on china and crystal. To be sure, I have been meticulously groomed and primped for him, too!

NOT!!!

I sometimes think the real motivation for home schooling is to simply contain the chaos as much as possible. Could you imagine if I had to report to five teachers, three different principals, guidance counselors, bus drivers...! Yikes!

Truthfully, I would not trade these years for anything. There is an inexplainable joy in having my children with me all the time. I have an 12 year gap between my daughters, and even though one is 16 and the other 4, they really know each other! My sons' best play mates are each other- well, most of the time! (I have been told that physical violence play is a sign of affection...)

The kids benefit from being able to take advantage of Dad's free time, too. There are days he doesn't leave for work until 1:00, and the entire morning is spent with him. It totally wrecks the school day, but I need to look at the bigger picture! Dad is a vital part of our family, and he gets to have real quality time with them. If they were traditionally schooled, they would be gone when he is home, and I could have him all to myself... wait, that is supposed to say they wouldn't see him for the entire day!

That does bring up another point, though. We as parents need to be very creative when it comes to time with each other. Kids seem to have the ability to consume everything they possibly can- and I don't mean just the weeks groceries!

So, here we go plodding the course of another year of study. Another year of Biology labs, sentence diagramming, spelling tests, field trips, Algebra and multiplication tables. How the time flies! To think my O. has only two years until graduation! Class of 2009! She will share the pleasure with Dad, who will be graduating from NSBI. Not to let that give me much of a feeling of "I am getting done"- S. is only four... at least 13 more years to go!

p.s. Though the calendar said "First Day of School"- it was less than a successful day!

p.p.s. I don't even want to admit how many times I had to rely on spell checker for this post!

Fall as a Soccer Mom!

So will soon begin another season of Soccer!
We are a very busy family come the fall, but I cannot say I don't love it! Between the "Rapids" and "Happy 5", I pretty much live on a grassy, wet, or muddy field for two months! Its great!
The kids are a fun bunch of players, and I really enjoy the few hours of down time for each game. I forget how much I really like to yell and root for the Home Team! We bought S. a set of pompoms, and she acts as the lone cheerleader. She takes the job very seriously and often continues the "Go Rapids" chant well and long after we are home... OK so there are some down points!