Posts Tagged ‘family’

Praying for Your Family is Crucial

Friday, February 26th, 2016

praying-for-your-familyWhy is praying for your family crucial? Because if you do not pray for your family members, maybe no one else will.

Do you think your spouse and children will become the godly people that God requires them to be if no one prays for them? Maybe the enemy has convinced you that your prayers will not make a difference, so you’ve purposely decided not to pray.

Consider that God commands us to pray throughout Scripture, and that our prayers are a sweet aroma to the Lord (Psalm 141:2). God delights in answering our prayers (Proverbs 15:8). If we ask God for bread, will He give us a scorpion? (Matthew 7:9) No! He gives good gifts to those who ask. And who better to bless than the members of your own family, the ones living under the same roof with you?

Pray for each of your children by name, along with their character weaknesses. You will be surprised when God begins to work in those weak areas because you have committed those areas to God. Ask God how your child can overcome those areas, and if you are struggling with the same sin (like anger, for example), ask God to purge it from your life first. Then your child will see how God transforms lives in a tangible way. You can explain exactly how God set you free from the same sin, so that your child can be set free as well.

Why Praying for Your Family is Crucial (Video #8)

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Rachel’s Surgery

Wednesday, January 14th, 2015

rachel's-surgeryI’m relieved that Rachel’s surgery is over and that we will not be needing a coffin or a wheelchair.

For those of you reading this for the first time, you can read here about how I handled the news of how serious the spinal surgery was going to be. Bone would have to be removed from her spinal column permanently to open up the spine itself and remove a lump that had been growing since birth. The lump was fused to her spinal nerves. If she didn’t get surgery now, by the time we noticed anything wrong with our daughter, it would be too late. So we made the decision to get the surgery.

Rachel has always had a strong and confident character. She’s 9 years old, and she has three older brothers. She loves cracking jokes. Before she left to the hospital on the day of the surgery, she struck a pose and said to her brothers, “Farewell, cold, cruel world! I’m off to meet my doom!”

When we arrived at the hospital, they put us in a pre-op room. Our pastor, worship leader, and another elder of our church came and chatted with us for several hours while we were waiting. I’m so grateful that they were there because it made the time pass faster, and they were able to pray with her.

pre-op

“Even if the worst happens, you will be with Jesus, and that will be wonderful!” I said to her. She answered, “But Mom, I still have to tell Kendra more about Jesus.” It was as if she was saying, “I’m not done with my work on this earth.” She regularly would teach the neighbor girl Bible stories.

They hooked her up to an IV, and even though she had been cheerfully cracking jokes while waiting for surgery, the moment they started wheeling her away, I saw sheer terror in her eyes. It was hard for me.

Then it was just a lot of waiting.

My husband’s parents arrived as well as some members of our church. We chatted in the cafeteria, waiting for the long surgery to be over. We were initially told that the surgery would last four hours, but on the day of the surgery, they said it would be three hours.

We waited.

surgery-2

Finally the surgery was over, and she was in the ICU. My dad took the picture that you see at the top of this post. I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t want to remember it. In fact, I had to look away because I didn’t want to have nightmares of her on the breathing tube.

My husband Alan didn’t sleep the night before the surgery. People must have been praying for me because I had a full night’s sleep, miraculously better than I’d had in the exhausting months preceding the surgery. Alan refused to go home to get some sleep because he had promised Rachel that he would be there when she woke up.

There were black circles under his eyes. He was an emotional wreck every time she became semi-conscious and tried to tear the tubes out of her face. We had to calm her down, and she obeyed everything we said. The nurse had her move one foot, then the other. Finding out she was not paralyzed was a huge relief!

I decided that I needed to stay with Alan so that he could endure the night. My mom and Alan’s mom both agreed that I should stay. So Alan and I each sat on opposite sides of Rachel’s bed, hearing the beep…beep…beep… of her heart rate and the steady, regular noise of the breathing machine.

breathing-tube

Looking across the bed to Alan’s face, I saw relief. We were both so glad that the surgery had gone well and that she could still feel her legs.

One time when Alan was alone with Rachel and she was semi-conscious, she made a motion with her hands for prayer and pointed upwards. She was asking her daddy to pray for her. She couldn’t speak because she had the breathing tube rammed down her throat.

Her stomach had to be pumped.

It was a long night. There was a room with a bed in it down the hall, and we tried to take turns sleeping, but it was difficult to do. Finally light dawned and I texted my mom to come. She said she could take a long shift, and that we should both go home and get some sleep.

Alan and I took turns for four days. I was there during the days and Alan was there during the nights. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. We had to help her turn over in her bed at first, which was easier for Alan than for me. When Rachel cried in pain at something I did to turn her over, it was hard.

The nurse asked if she wanted to listen to music, and what kind of music did she like. She said, “I like Christian music. Are you a Christian?” The nurse laughed, said yes, and that she was a little evangelist!

The breathing tube was taken out on the second day, and the catheter was taken out on the third day. That third day was the hardest for me because Rachel was in despair that her body would never work properly again, to go to the bathroom, etc. She wasn’t supposed to cry because of the pressure on the spine, so I had to continuously be cheering her up.

surgery-recuperation

She walked briefly on the third day. The first time she was so wobbly and dizzy. The second time she hardly needed any help. The third time she was walking on her own. Later in the afternoon the physical therapist had her walk down the hallway. She did well but needed pain killer afterwards. The physical therapist said she did not need any more therapy.

We were released on the fourth day. The surgery was on Thursday and we were released on Monday. She walked to the car. When she got home, she was even able to climb stairs!

I’m just so grateful to God for how well the surgery went. My sister is flying in tomorrow and will be with us for 10 days. Rachel gets her stitches out 10 days from the surgery date. She is not allowed to twist her back, run, or jump, all things that she normally does. Thank you to everyone who brought food, visited, or prayed for us!

 

Homeschooling Multiple Ages

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

homeschooling-multiple-ages

How do you homeschool multiple ages? Here is a webinar that describes what you can do when you are homeschooling multiple ages:

Is it possible to teach children of all ages at the same time? How do you modify assignments for different ages?

With unit studies, you can easily teach your children of multiple ages. This applies to history, science, literature, geography, and even writing. One time my kids were making a homemade botany field guide. A young child who could barely form his letters wrote the name of the plant under the cut-out magazine picture for each page. A slightly older child wrote one sentence under each plant picture. An older child wrote a full paragraph about the plant, using botanical terms that we had learned. So each child was able to complete the writing assignment on his or her level, and yet we were all studying the same topic.

I did a series on my blog about unit studies, where I explain how to teach all of your students at the same time, cutting down on the amount of teaching time for you and fostering family unity. You can find the 5-day unit studies series here: Unit Studies 101.

How do you keep babies and toddlers busy while teaching older children?

You can keep younger children occupied with age-appropriate activities at the table where you are working with your other students. If you can give them something that can keep their hands busy and keep them from interrupting your teaching, this is what you want. Here are some open-ended ideas for preschoolers: wooden puzzles, lacing cards, Play Doh, paint-with-water, coloring books, interlocking beads, tangrams, etc.

Another method that worked for keeping preschoolers occupied while teaching older kids was a fenced area with a CD with either my voice or classical music, or an educational CD. Hearing the mother or father’s voices or familiar songs can be comforting to babies and toddlers, and they are more likely to be quiet and listen. My toddlers and preschoolers were able to play quietly on their own for longer periods of time using this method. I always put open-ended toys in the room so that my kids could play for a while, not just for five minutes. If you need more ideas on how to keep babies and toddlers occupied while teaching older kids, watch the free webinar  A Routine for Young Children.

How does organizing your time help you to get all your homeschooling done with children of different ages?

You do need to sit down and decide how you want to structure your day if you want to homeschool with success. At minimum you need some sort of routine where you begin the day with math, for example, and then move on to your unit study. If you are doing 4 or 5 subjects in your homeschool, it’s easier if you plan ahead of time which order you will be covering the subjects so that your students can develop a natural rhythm to their day. This makes the day run more smoothly and enables your students to get everything done.

If you need help with organizing your day, you can take a look at my articles and videos about Homeschool Organization. You can also sign up for a free Homeschool Room Makeover video workshop, which will help you to feel more organized in your homeschool.

Cannon Beach Vacation

Wednesday, August 13th, 2014

cannon-beach-vacationWe just got back from our first beach vacation as a family, a Cannon Beach vacation! I loved the wide sandy seashores with the waves crashing against the sand. The iconic triangular Haystack Rock looks beautiful in the mornings covered with mist.

cannon-beach-cottageThis was our temporary cottage, two blocks from the beach. It was a miracle how we were able to book this on such short notice. It was as if God reserved this place just for us. It reminds me of the times I went to Panajachel as a kid (as a missionary kid in Guatemala). We would play games and look at the water and be disconnected from electronics.

cannon-beachI woke up each morning and had coffee on the front porch while spending time in prayer. The porch faced a couple of cottages with flowers. There was a huge tree in the yard across the street, and I would see blue jays, goldfinches, and hummingbirds as I sat in prayer before the Lord.

cannon-beach-2My kids always woke up earlier than I did. My husband sometimes couldn’t sleep, so he would sleep in the latest. One night he got up and walked along the beach. He stumbled upon gorgeous tide pools with gigantic star fish at 3 in the morning. I’ll talk about the tide pools in a separate blog post, since we took lots of pictures.

cannon-beach-3My kids would play games, make a puzzle, or build card houses while they waited for Alan and I to wake up. Then we would go to the beach, where we dug a huge hole, built forts, and flew a kite. I enjoyed sitting and reading a book about spiritual warfare. There was a juxtaposition between what I was reading and the peaceful ocean scene, but it gave me new insight to understand many events from the past few months. Spiritual warfare is all about fighting deception. It’s interesting how it all boils down to that.

building-card-housesThe kids buried themselves in the sand. I’m not sure why anybody would want to do that, but here they are. When we walked down the beach to look at tide pools one afternoon, we saw lots of sand castles, which I will post in another blog post. Apparently Cannon Beach has an annual sand castle contest in June, and the sand castles are even more detailed.

covered-in-sand

One afternoon we hiked through a rainforest and saw some beautiful scenery. I’ll do a separate blog post on that, since we got so many great pictures of the rainforest and the beach from above. (The three ocean pictures above were taken from the vantage point of the rainforest, where you have to climb part of a mountain.)

We found lots of jellyfish. This was the largest one we saw, about the size of two hands. We also collected sea shells and small rocks, and I might make a collage out of them and post it on my blog later.

jellyfish

The kids were wanting to play games, so here we are playing Settlers of Catan. The game went on much longer than it should have because of all the sheep jokes.

playing-gamesThe sunsets on the beach were beautiful. On a couple of the nights, Alan built a fire on the beach. You are allowed to do that, as long as you follow the rules. We dug a small hole in the sand and built our fire.

sunset-at-cannon-beachWe ate some s’mores with marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. We looked out over the ocean that reminded me of the majesty of God.

fire-in-firepitI sang some hymns to the Lord while the kids giggled and chewed on their s’mores. This was truly a vacation to remember!

firepit-at-cannon-beach