If Jesus had a SLAMBOOK.

I don't normally write blog posts like this and I'm not exactly sure how this one will turn out. 

I felt like The Lord laid something on my heart a few weeks ago. 

Do you all remember having Slam books in school?  I think the fad started when SweetValley High published a book about it in their series. 

  It become a craze and soon everyone had their own slam book. 

What is a slam book?

1. A slam book in United States schools is a notebook (commonly the spiral-bound type) which is passed among junior high school students. The keeper of the book starts by posing a question (which may be on any subject) and thebook is then passed round for each contributor to fill in their own answer to the question.

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

A slam book sounds well enough and kind of fun. 

That's not what always happens though. It usually turns up hurting someone's feelings. For example, some of the subjects were:

*Best Dressed

*Prettiest Hair

*Most Prettiest

*Snobbiest

*Meanest

*Most Ugliest

*Most Dumbest

You would write your subject on the top of each page. Then you would pass it around to your classmates and they would write someone's name under each subject whom they thought was most fitting to that subject. 

This was usually done anonymously so no one would know who wrote what. 

Imagine how happy a person would be when they seen their name under the subjects such as Best dressed or Most Prettiest. 

Then imagine how the other people felt when they seen their name listed under Most Ugly or Most dumb. I'm sure it didn't feel very good. 

Pretty soon most schools banned Slam books because it was causing so many problems. 

All this came to my mind one morning when my pastor was up preaching. His sermon was about meekness. Meekness is one of the fruits of the spirit. I got to thinking about if I was a meek person or not.  I wasn't happy with the results. Probably no one I knew thought of me as meek. I'm sure abnoxious or loud came to mind before meekness ever would. For some reason that message got to me. Like it should of course, but it's really been eating at me. 

During that message the "Slam book" came to my mind. 

I imagined the different fruits of the spirit listed as a subject on each page of a Slam book. 

Love

Joy

Peace

Long suffering

Gentleness

Goodness

Faith 

Meekness

Temperance

Would any of my friends, family, church members, or neighbors think to put my name under any of those subjects???

Then I thought about the 17 works of the flesh. The subjects would be:

Adultery

Fornication

Uncleanness

Lasciviousness

Idolatry

Witchcraft

Hatred

Variance

Emulations

Wrath

Strife

Seditions

Heresies

Envying 

Murders

Drunkeness

Revellings 

 

Of course some I'm pretty sure my name wouldn't be there. I'm mean I've never tasted alcohol or murdered anyone. But what about hatred or envying?  What about wrath or strife?  I'm pretty sure we are all guilty at some point in our lives. I don't want to find my name in anyone's slambook for any of the works of flesh. I'd feel a lot better seeing my name on the fruit of the spirit subjects though. 

Well we all know that Jesus doesn't have a slam book. He does have the Book of Life though. That's a book I want to know my name is written in. That's the only way I'll make Heaven my home is to have my name written in God's special book. 

I will continue to pray and ask god to help me acquire the Fruit of the Spirit and resist the works of the flesh. 

Galatians 5:16-17King James Version (KJV)

16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

I hope y'all enjoyed this post. Hopefully it made some sense. If it didn't help you, it's helped me. 

Feel free to leave a comment. 

Breakfast is the most important meal!!

I am not a breakfast person. If I eat breakfast foods then I prefer it at supper time. 

Maynard and the kids love breakfast. 

This summer the kids and I slept in a lot. It took awhile to get them to sleep past 7, but they finally broke the routine. Late nights finally took it's toll and sometimes they slept past 10 a.m.

More times than not, we had somewhere we needed to be by 11 so I usually rushed them out the door with promises that I would feed them lunch ASAP. 

Sometimes if we were just home I would put them off an hour and say "it's almost lunchtime so I'll fix ya some lunch here in a minute."

Then at the end of the day I would get quizzed on, "Did we eat lunch". I would reply, "Yes, we had such and such."  

"No. That was breakfast."

"No, we didn't eat breakfast, that was lunch."

<Insert whining and tears>

I can't help it. I would rather eat lunch than breakfast any day. 

So apparently since over the summer and actually a little last school year, Amelia has developed a "not eating breakfast phobia". 

She will not leave the house without eating. Even on school days I promise her we will come right back and eat. She will have no part of it. 

Check her breakfast out. Honey Puff cereal, PB crackers, nutria grain bar, and 2 waters.   

Heaven forbid this child not get her breakfast. 

I do make sure the boys eat breakfast on school mornings. It's just the summer got us all out of wack. 

I went from worrying about Amelia not eating to worrying that she won't ever stop!!!

Back to school

Well before we knew it our summer was over. 

Our late nights and late mornings was officially a thing of the past. 

Back to reality.....

Back to a normal routine. 

My boys couldn't wait for school to start back. They were ready to go back after their first week of summer vacation. I for one loved the break of not having to iron uniforms or pack lunches. I rather liked not worrying if they had done their homework or staying up way too late studying scriptures. But then they start fighting continuously and are just bored to tears. If I went a day or two without doing something exciting with them, then they would be just so bored. I'll be honest. I have spoiled them. I always try to do things with them and keep them busy. Somedays I just need to be home and they think I have forsaken them if I don't have anything planned for them. 

Monday morning, Aug 11, 2014 came early. Really early. Like before 6 a.m. early. Josiah and Titus came barging in my room wanting to know if it was time to get ready yet. I sent them back to bed. I have a strong belief in not getting up before my alarm clock tells me to do so. I kid you not. They came back to my room  every 10 minutes from 5:50 to 7:00 a.m.  Finally, it was time to get ready. Titus was so proud of himself because he completely dressed himself without any help. I think Josiah finally completed that sometime last year in the second grade. Ha ha. He was my first baby so he was babied a lot. I still catch myself doing things for him that he should be doing himself. 

Titus refused to eat breakfast. He said his belly was thumping. (Butterflies, I guess). 

We took a few pictures and then headed for school. 

Josiah has recently decided to act like he is in pain in every picture I try to take. 

Titus has the cheesey fake grin downpat. 

And Amelia. Well...  She's all about posing. 

 I had them recreate their same pose from last year. I can't believe how much taller they have grown. 

Aww. Look at Josiah. I just can't believe how fast time flies. 

 Titus is losing that baby face all too soon as well. I like doing these collages to see how much they have grown. 

We got to school and I got out to walk with the boys to their classrooms. And yes, Titus asked why I had to go in with them. Because isn't that like a law or something that you have to walk in with your child on the  first day of school?!?!  Titus ran inside on ahead of us. Then he put his brakes on. I told him to go ahead to his classroom and I would be there with him in a minute. I went in to help Josiah get settled first. I left his classroom 10 minutes later to go help Titus. Titus was still standing in the hallway with his backpack still on. He was so nervous. You see, 1st grade is a big deal. Kindergarten was only half days, but 1st grade was the real thing. I coaxed him into his classroom and helped him put his things away. I explained to his teacher that his belly was thumping. 

Oh let me add here that Titus has Miss Bowman for his teacher this year. He had her mother, Mrs. Bowman last year for kindergarten. The good thing was that Mrs. Bowman helps out in the afternoons in his class and that made him feel better when I reminded him of that. 

Josiah's teacher is Sis Schooley. He had her in Kindergarten and now will have her again for 3rd and 4th grade. She is a great teacher and will be good for Josiah.

The bell rang and Amelia and I headed for home. She wanted to stop for breakfast or at least go get her a slush. Ha ha. She loves being the only child. Last year we thought she would be sad when both boys were at school. We pulled up to Speedway and she leaned up to Maynard and said, "I'll take a coke slush, Dad."  So I guess she thought I was gonna keep the tradition going, but I refrained. Once u do something like that she will never forget about it and bug the fire out of me everyday. 

She was excited about starting her school too. I decided to do the Abeka k-4 curriculum with her. She is 4 1/2 and really doesn't know as much as she should. To be honest, every day I'm noticing she's a tad bit ditzy like her mommy. Lord help her!!!!

Amelia hard at work. 

Prayer time

She's not real fond of coloring. She says her hand cramps. I think she's concentrating so hard on not getting out of the lines that she's holding the crayon too tight. 

Guess what is her least favorite class so far?

BIBLE!!!

I just can't even believe it. 

My boys love Bible class. They always have. It's their favorite thing ever. 

She's all like.........

"When's bible class over?  It takes too long!!!!"

So my boys have always won the bible awards at school. Amelia may never own one of those awards. Ha ha

Today is Friday and we have survived the first week of school. 

Everyone has woke up every morning and excited to get the day started. 

I was worried about Titus because earlier this week he wasn't interested at all in saying his memory verses. Some of the words were hard to say and he declared he didn't know Spanish. Finally he decided he was ready and now has memorized 2 verses already. Josiah is doing great on his as well. They are memorizing 1st Peter this year. 

Josiah is doing great in his class and loves everything about it. He even made it a whole week without any demerits. 

Titus has done well too. I only got one note about him talking too much. Titus is usually pretty quiet, but I think he's just happy to be around his old friends. Hopefully he'll hush soon or maybe move his seat around. 

Titus comes home from school in a near panic. He is literally starving. I can't fix supper fast enough. He has been shoveling food in his mouth so fast. The whole time he's eating he has his hand on the serving dishes ready to get seconds. We have to make him slow down and take his time. I guess it's where he eats a lot earlier than usual at school. Even if I give him a snack to hold him over he still will keep asking when supper is about ready. 

The weekend is here and we plan on enjoying it. All too soon it will be Monday morning again. Amelia starts cursive writing Monday and I'm curious to how she will do. 

Thanks for reading. 

Best VBS ever!!!!

I love Vacation Bible School. I'd let my kids go to one every week of the summer if I could. We went to one vbs this summer and my kids didn't want to go back. It was so modernized. Everything was done on big screen by DVD. Dancing to songs was their priority. My boys were embarrassed and Amelia..... Well, Amelia didn't care to boogie. We all know that. Lol

For craft time they were handed a plastic toy. Their lesson consisted of literature being passed out. There was no imagination or creativity to it whatsoever. So my kids, who beg to so something ALL the time, did not want to go back the next night. 

I remember VBS being amazing when I was a kid. We had our lesson, done a get your hands dirty craft, and then had 2 cookies and red koolaide. What was more to love than that? Lol

We were invited to another VBS here locally, but that very week our schedule was crazy and we didn't get to attend. 

It looked like the kids wouldn't get to attend a VBS this year after all. 

Then I seen on IG where Liberty Pentecostal was going to have VBS. I made a mental note to remember to take the kids. I could tell by the pictures they were posting that they were putting a lot of work into it. I knew that was the VBS we were looking for. 

We arrived on Wednesday evening and dropped the kids off. I knew most of the people there and knew my kids were in safe hands.  My IG friend Heather had already reassured me that her mother had a First Aide "backpack" with her and that she herself knew how to use an Epi Penn. The reason for all this is because my kids had 2 head injuries that same week. They had seen enough of my IG pictures to know that danger follows my children around. (Or vice versa)

I did a little happy dance when the kids were safely inside and Maynard and I had a few hours to ourselves. We went school shopping and had a nice dinner at a Mexican restaraunt we had never been to before. I did get a phone call while we were out. I won't lie. My heart did a flip flop when I seen Sister Wavelene's number across the screen. All sorts of things were running through my mind as to what in the world had happened already. 

She ended up only wanting to make sure Amelia was allowed to eat the snack they had given her. Wasn't that sweet??? Amelia has a few food allergies and they knew about that from IG. Amelia had 2 pink iced cookies with sprinkles. I guess to make sure they didn't take them away she quickly took a bite out of each one. Lol. I assured them that she would be just fine. 

When we stopped by to pick up the kids I was greeted by everyone and they were all so kind and welcoming. 

My kids talked nonstop on the way home about how much fun they had. 

The next night they were supposed to dress up in western gear. So instead of waiting until the next day, they all went straight to their rooms and began dragging out their western outfits. It took me forever to settle them down and into bed. It may have been a mixture of excitement and the iced cookies. Ha ha

From the time they woke up Thursday morning until it was time to go back to VBS that night, all I heard was, "is it almost time for VBS? "When are we going to VBS?  How many hours until VBS?"  They were driving me bonkers. 

Thank goodness. It was finally time to go to VBS. 

Here they are all ready to go in their Western outfits. 

Thursday night is actually a regular church service for us. We decided to go ahead and allow the kids to go to vbs because they are too young to go to youth camps and this was geared more for their age. 

After church was over we went to pick them up. A boy named Isaac walked Josiah to our car. He told Josiah, "I sure have had a good time with you this week."

My heart just about melted. They stood there all decked out looking like cowboys just talking and playing until it was time for us to leave. 

They had made slime that night, but I was quick to conviscate it. They've made that before and I know what it does to carpet. Just saying. Ha ha

Once again they had a blast and I heard all about it. I even heard how the boys were winning in the offering and how it was my fault because I didn't give Amelia enough money. 

On the way home Titus said he had left his handcuffs back at the church. I asked him where he left them and he said, "Last I seen them was down in the basement where I handcuffed a little boy to the table."

So to be on the safe side, I text Shawna to make sure she checked the basement before everyone went home. Ha ha

Friday night was going to be a special night. A fire truck was coming to let the kids play in the water sprayer and there was going to be a dunking booth. Oh, and there was going to be pizza. It was just a win win situation. 

It was family night so Maynard and I both got to attend. 

Welcome to Discovery City. 

 It was decorated so neat and their backdrop work was very nice. They had to have spent a lot of time on this. 

The kiddos turned in their offerings and sang their theme song. All I know is I finally figured out where "Searching Searching" was coming from. That's all the kids kept singing for 3 days. Apparently that was the only part they could remember. Ha ha

They went to class for awhile and then came back up for a skit and awards. 

The skit was hilarious and we even got see someone get a pie in the face. It was great. 

My award pics are dark and blurry, but oh well.  

Amelia was so proud of her "trophy". I think that was the first time she had ever been called up for an award and she was extremely proud. 

Here's Josiah and Titus with theirs. Sorry the pic is so dark. I was too embarrassed to stand up and get a good picture. Ha ha

Pizza time!!!!

After their pizza it was time to turn the water on. There was also a dunking booth, but my kids stayed right with the fire truck the whole time about it. 

I love love love this picture of Josiah. You can see the pure joy on his face. 

How cool is it to get sprayed from a fire truck?!?!?

They played for along time and loved every minute of it. 

Here's a pic of me and Heather. Heather posted on IG that my kids were even more dangerous than her own. I had to clarify that the fire truck was called before my kids even got there. Ha ha

Amelia's little class. She made lots of friends. Look how big she is compared to all the other littles. 

*We went to Steak and Shake Sunday night after church and Amelia went right over and set with that little girl she's sitting by in this picture. I loved it. Amelia doesn't have many friends her own age.*

We left VBS Friday night with three tired kiddos. Josiah cried and boo-hooed all the way home. He said he was going to miss Isaac and he just didn't want VBS to be over because he had a lot of fun. 

It reminded me of being sad when youth camp was over and you knew you wouldn't to get to see all your new friends for a long time. So I knew how he felt and tried my best to console him. 

So a big thanks goes to Liberty Pentecostal for not only inviting us to VBS, but also for making us feel so welcome.

A slight misunderstanding......

So if you follow me on Instagram then you already know about this, but I wanted to blog about it anyway. I don't really mind if I have a lot of readers or followers, I blog because later on in life I want my kids to be able to read my old posts. I use it like a journal, I suppose. 

Anyway........

I was reading a chapter book to the kids a couple weeks ago. Part of the story was these 2 kid's dad was taking them to a cabin for a short vacation. En route to the cabin, they stopped at a store. Their Dad told them to grab a shopping cart and get whatever pop and snacks they wanted for the trip. 

So the nerd in me told my kids to go grab their notebooks. I told them they had 10 mins to write down their shopping list. We were gonna pretend we were going on a trip and they had 10 minutes to grab whatever snack they wanted. Only instead, they were just gonna write it on their list. 

I helped Amelia with hers. Most of her list was healthy items. She loves fruit!!

Josiah and Titus were extremely happy as they kept thinking of things to write down. 

When their 10 minutes were up I told them to start reading what they put in their shopping buggy. 

It was cute and a lot of fun. 

However, somewhere along the way Titus had failed to realize that we were only pretending. 

I'm not sure how he missed it. 

When he found out we were only imagining, he was furious. 

He said he hated that stupid book. He also hated the stupid library for letting us check out such a stupid book. Ha ha

He ripped up his list and continued to ignore me for about an hour. 

Here he has his fingers in his ears not wanting to hear me talk. He was so disappointed that he wasn't going to get all that junk on his list. 

Even though Josiah and Amelia knew we were pretending the whole time, Titus somehow missed that info, so it did kind of make me feel bad. I decided to ask them if they were allowed to get one thing on their list what would it be. 

Amelia shouted, "Watermelon."

Josiah shouted, "Angel good Cake."

Titus shouted, "Beef Turkey!" Lol. I have told him it's called beef jerky a blue million times, but he just can't seem to comprehend it. 

So I told them we would go to the store the next day and they each could choose their special treat. 

I know this is a horrible picture, but it was the best out of 5. The sun was killing their eyes. They were all pretty excited with their treats. 

Here I was trying to be an educational, cool Mom and ended up hurting Titus' feelings and costing me about $15. Next time I'm gonna keep my creativity to myself and leave that to their teachers at school. 

Our new swimming hole

I had heard that a motel here in town allowed people to pay to swim in their outside pool. Last Monday I thought we would go check it out because the rest of the week looked like it was going to be rainy. 

It was $6 a person and they could swim from 1-6. I thought that was pretty reasonable. 

When we got there we had the pool to ourselves except for two older women sunbathing. 

This was Josiah's 1st time back in the pool since his ear scare. I still made him wear ear plugs, but they kept popping out. Finally, we just gave up on them. Hopefully he won't get an ear infection from it. 

I am so happy with the Puddle Jumper we got for Amelia. It's like a life jacket and very trustworthy, unlike her blow up floaties she usually wears. Amelia was all over the pool. Her brothers were mad because they wasn't allowed past a certain spot. 

They took a little break for a picnic lunch. 

I had posted a picture on Instagram that we were at the pool. Soon after that I had some extra kiddos wanting to swim with us. Which was fine with me. My kids always have more fun with other kids around. 

These boys are the best of friends. 

We stayed as long as we could and then all too soon it was 6 pm. Time to dry off and change. Titus was the hardest to get out. He did not want to leave. 

I'm hoping we will get to go back before school starts. This week the weather has been too cool. Isn't that crazy?  The last week of July and it's too cold to swim. Amelia played outside today and came in and asked for her jacket. Last week she said it was too hot to play outside. 

Gotta love KY weather. 

When Jesus cuts it close

Back in May I blogged about the last of school activities and Titus' Kindergarten graduation. At then end of the post I mentioned asking for prayer that my kids would be able to come back to LCA the next year. We had been hit with a lot of financial strain when my mother in law passed away and Maynard had gotten laid off from his job so it was a tough year financially. We normally save our tuition ahead of time, but unfortunately had to live on it instead. Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful we had it because I'm not sure what would have happened otherwise. 

Maynard has since then found a pretty good job with Fed Ex, but hasn't gotten a full time route yet. We are surviving, but not thriving if that makes sense. We thought a route had opened up and were very excited. Not only did it mean more pay, but also Maynard would only have to work Mon-Fri. At the very last minute someone pulled "seniority" on Maynard and instead they were given the new route. We were really disappointed, but I know God has it worked out. 

After much prayer and worry, we finally decided to homeschool the kids. It wasn't something we were excited about, it just seemed our only option. We simply couldn't afford to send the kids back to school. 

We broke the news to the boys and it didn't go over very well. Josiah's heart was broken. He cried and cried. Titus was disappointed too, but he's so hard to read. Titus adjusts well to anything so he was ok with it, but he still preferred going back to school. 

I began to tell Josiah all the pros about being homeschooled. Before long I almost had us all convinced that we were going to love it. 

We went to an Abeka Homeschool Display to order our curriculum. As I walked down the hallway I felt a feeling a doom in my stomach. I couldn't explain it. 

Here we go. This was it. 

We walked in and the kids sat down and each watched excerpts of their class on DVD. Josiah walked over to me and said it was boring. (That's not what I needed to hear)

I was filling out all our paperwork. 

Still worried about if I was making the right decision. (My cheeks are kinda red here)

Time to pay. 

As I handed over my checks I could feel my phone vibrating in my purse. I checked my phone and Maynard had called me 5 times. I was scared something was wrong. We walked towards the door of the meeting room and I called Maynard back. 

He said the kid's school had been trying to contact us. Maynard had talked with the principal and they were trying to make arrangements for the boys to come back to school. 

Maynard told me it looked like The Lord was making a way for the kids to get to back to school. 

"Big problem, Maynard. I already ordered and paid for their homeschool stuff."

"Well, go cancel it right now."

"I don't think I can.  That's embarrassing."

I was still standing in front of the meeting room door. It was up to me now what I was going to do. 

Then I got excited. 

I walked back in and motioned for the Abeka guy to come talk to me. Yes, I pulled him away from another table. Yes, I knew the people he was meeting with. Yes, it was embarrassing, but I didn't care anymore. The Lord just answered a prayer for my family. 

"Sir, you probably won't believe this, I need to cancel my order I just placed  minutes ago. My kids are going to get to go back to school. We just recieved an answer to prayer."

I held my breath as I watched him go and get our order forms and checks and as he handed them back to me. He looked at me and smiled and said, "Sounds like God had other plans for you."

I walked back in the hallway and pulled Josiah and Titus to the side. I told them I had something to tell them. 

I said, "Looks like y'all are going back to school this year."

Josiah: "Really?  You mean it?" <Insert big smile and a very happy dance>

We went straight to school and got them registered. 

It's still going to be a sacrafice to send them, but it's a sacrafice that is a great investment. 

I'm just amazed at the timing. The Lord worked it out perfectly. Sometimes He knows best at how well He can increase our faith. 

**Homeschool Disclaimer**

For all you homeschool mothers out there, I am not dissing your decision to homeschool your children. It's whatever is best for your family. Clearly we agree that public school is not an option for our children. 

If it came my lot to homeschool my kids then I would have given it my 100%. There's no doubt that I could do it. I rather enjoy school and teaching. Sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling. 

However, my kids love their school. Most of the time I tap them on the shoulder to wake them up for school, only once. They love it and look forward to going every single day. 

I do not doubt the administration or teachers there. I completely trust them with my children's education and the spiritual teaching and guidance that they receive at their school. 

One main reason I want my kids to attend their beloved Christian school is for the social reasons. We attend a small church. There's pretty much 1 other child, their age, that attends. If I homeschooled them they wouldn't really be around any other kids. My kids need their friends and I think it's important for them to have friends. It would be different if we went to a larger church with a big youth group, but we don't. 

Until then..... The back to school countdown is on!!!!!