Thursday, January 31, 2008

Funschooling

Photobucket In keeping with our strategy of strewing interesting things around and waiting for one of the children to take the bait...err...develop an interest.....I purchased a tie dye kit. Take one kit, add one creative daughter, and wait a few weeks....

Wala - Arielle made a tie dyed napkin (I think I may do this to all our white napkins! LOL) and this cute shirt.
Photobucket
I've been wanting to find the time to learn how to tie dye for a couple of years. Arielle will be able to teach me. LOL
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

COOL GIFT

Photobucket

It is so FUN when friends get new things such as Air Hockey Tables and want to find a home for their old toys.
Photobucket

Thank you Deja and family. The kids love it. It's been getting lots of use....I haven't got the room organized yet to hold it well - but that isn't stopping them. LOL
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Airports, Spreadsheets, Promotions, and Cobwebs

Photobucket There you have it - my day in a nutshell.

A friend stopped by this a.m. to show me what she wanted to order from United. All in all - fairly painless...just a tad time consuming but it will be quicker each month as more and more items are already on our order spreadsheet. I thought it would be much easier to do her order if I hid columns so she'd be right next to the items. Worked great - until I went to put it back and couldn't unhide my columns...then the whole computer froze. It turns out that I "lost" our whole group order....but ROY (big grand poohbah United Coordinator) was able to load the orders we'd inputted yesterday in. ugh. I felt sick. I've done this lots with a normal spreadsheet. It has to have something to do with googledocs. LOL

I hurried from that catastrophe to the base for one of our chaplains promotions.

Then to run boys around.

Cobwebs? Cleaning. This is the dusty area I have ever lived. The kids like to tell me, "Mom, it IS the dustbowl". ::snort::

I ate out with friends tonight at a Country Club that I didn't know existed. ::snort::
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

DREAMS

Photobucket In one of the Bible studies I've worked on (maybe I or II Samuel?) we did a quick topical study on pride. Folks like to throw around snap judgments these days, "she's prideful" etc and it was eye-opening to see how Scripture REALLY talks about the issue. There is nothing wrong with taking satisfaction in a job well done or in the blessings or work that God has done in and on our behalf. The problem comes when we COMPARE ourselves to another to make ourselves feel better about ourselves or when we become arrogant. I share that because I'm about to share an odyssey that may well lead some to say "well - she's prideful this a.m. " - but I'm willing to run the risk.
There are times when your children simply amaze, awe, and bless your socks off. Jamin has done that to us lately. He began writing a novel when he was 12. He finished it when he was 16. He's spent the past year revising, polishing, and editing that novel.

We encourage the children to dream. I must say here that we also force them to take ownership of their dreams. When they say they want to do something, *I* don't go find all the info, drop it all in their lap, and then PUSH them towards the goal. We pray with them and for them. We let them know what we know - but they pursue it.

A couple of years ago I heard about the Christian Writer's Guild. I passed that info on to Jamin. He wanted to join their program. He was worried about the $. We told him that many homes spend more than $50 a month on music lessons or sports lessons and that if this was his dream - we didn't have a problem investing in him. (I also explained that with so many of the kids heading to volunteer ministry careers we need SOMEONE to make some money and care for mom in her old age. ::snort::) He took the first year. He was assigned a mentor, T. Suzanne Eller, and he flew. I do not grade his assignments. I do not schedule his assignments. This is HIS dream. He finished the first year with flying colors.

THIS year, money was tight, but we wanted to allow Jamin to continue. HE PAID FOR THE CLASS! We didn't suggest this solution.

In his first year in the guild he heard about an annual conference hosted by the Guild in Colorado Springs. He dreamed of attending. We encouraged him to dream. We said nothing about $, we began to pray and work towards it. Mike was deployed last year at this time and he simply couldn't attend.

Jamin PAID for his conference fee and, when he found out that since he is a minor the conference wanted an adult to attend, he PAID for Mike to attend. He bought the plane tickets, he paid for the hotel. We sprung for the rental car and we are still discussing the fact that we would like to pay for Mike's ticket.
Yes, I'm very proud of this young man. I'm thrilled and deeply satisfied at the character that I observe being formed in him. God planted a dream and he WORKED for it. He took ownership of it and pursued it. We were tempted at times to make it easy, to push, to give as much of the dream as we could to him - but he NEEDED to learn to press hard for dreams. Nothing can rob him of his sense of accomplishment. He's nervous. He's humble. He's excited. I sat at Mom's Night Out on Monday and the speaker said that often times we moms get our egos tied up in our children and that we need to pull back and allow them to own their emotions, their dreams, their accomplishments....and I smiled inside because this once, someone GOT why we allow the KIDS to work so hard, rather than chasing after their dreams for them. LOL

Jamin and Mike left this a.m. We are proud of his drive in pursuing his God planted dream. Regardless of the outcome of his interviews with publishers etc.... we are proud of HIM and who he is becoming as the grace of God forms his character and ambitions.

So photos from the last few days:

Practicing his "spiel" in the garage - these interviews will be HARD for Jamin. He doesn't like change, he's an extreme introvert...but he's prepared long for it. I'm proud that he's willing to reach way outside of his comfort zone for the sake of the dream.Photobucket

The paperwork just KEPT coming. Yesterday he polished up all sorts of proposals etc. Mike bailed Jamin and I out by designing a COOL business card for Jamin...there was simply a LOT of paperwork. I'll clean the library today. ::snort::Photobucket

THEN we had to go shopping. This young man doesn't own "business casual". ::snort:: Shoes, pants, socks, belt, pants, shirts...Photobucket

Jamin chose ALL shades of brown pants. I decided not to push it - he needs to be COMFORTABLE with what he's wearing the next few days. He did branch out and try different colored shirts.Photobucket

The product of months of work! Each packet contains the first 3 chapters of, The King of the Reid, a synopsis of the book, a cover letter addressed to specific publishing houses, a business card, a proposal and synopsis of a new book (he's written 70 pages of it), a self-addressed, stamped envelope and more. He read a zillion books and researched on the web to determine what he wanted to have with him when he meets with reps from various publishing houses.

Photobucket

O Dark Thirty
Photobucket

They're off.....I'm praying this conference is all Jamin hopes it will be. Of course I'd love for a publisher to pick him up - but more than that I want him to drain every ounce of learning and satisfaction from the experience that he can. I believe God planned for Jamin to be at this very spot, in this very time.
Photobucket

They'll be home on Monday. If God brings Jamin to your mind in the next few days, please say a prayer for him as he pursues the call of God on his life.
I've not read Suzanne Ellers works - but here is a link to an interview done by CBD, and here is a link to the Dare to Believe and Real Teen Faith, ministries that she runs. (I am guessing her view of teens and my view of youth aren't going to mesh 100%, but I'm impressed with her interactions with Jamin. I also think it important to note that our children aren't the "typical" youth of their generation so maybe the issues she addresses DO talk to those issues - in fact I know they do from viewing the websites). Several of her books look very interesting to me and I suspect we'll be buying them soon. I love her emphasis on REDEEMED PASTS. Most of her books seem to be published by Harvest House Publishers. Her new books "The Mom I want to Be Rising Above Your Past to Give Your Kids a Great Future" and "The Woman I am Becoming" look like they may be helpful in Women's Ministry. Of course, I need to read them before I can recommend them. Maybe I should add them to my 2008 reading list...the ever growing list. ::snort::

PLANT STEROLS? Phytosterols and other such words.

Photobucket Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur. Here are a few highlights.

Tuesday I met with the base nutritionist/dietician again. She had ALL the cholesterol numbers and we charted them. We were able to see clearly why the alarm was raised this year and not last year. I've always had HIGH HDL (good) cholesterol. While my number has hovered at 250, they were content to let me manage with lifestyle as my HDL was high and my overall magic ratio was 4.

For some reason, and the only ones anyone are coming with are genetics, my HDL tanked. Big time. I continued my lifestyle and all expected it to be HIGHER which would have made my ratio LOWER.....but even with workout, limited simple carbs, 13 servings of produce a day blah, blah, blah.....my HDL dropped by nearly 1/2. This is not a good sign and it now puts my ratio at 5.68 - which is over 4. where they push meds.

Debbie is wonderful. We discussed what I was doing. She told me to continue with flax oil, she thought the fish oil could go as the flax oil is full of Omega 3. She told me about new studies into plant sterols. It seems that there IS research that shows that for THOSE WITH HIGH CHOL. adding CONCENTRATED amounts of plant sterol can lower your number 10-15%. These are found in small amount in produce and vegetable oils. She said that you can't get the concentrated amounts from produce consumption alone - and I didn't want to try to eat any more produce....believe me. She said that there are NO PREVENTATIVE benefits that they've noticed to plant sterols and so she is ticked at how fortified products are being advertised. She said if you HAVE high chol it often lowers it, but it will not keep you from developing high chol.

Debbie said that they've fortified margarine, orange juice and yogurt with this. It's expensive and should be my stash. She suggested I add this in addition to the cholesterol meds. My numbers need to come down at least 30%. I looked and could not find these products in the stores. I did find the FDA article on this....and it seems that they've made a "margarine like" product from soybean oil (which is high in plant sterols)....but I avoid soy. I'm looking to see what products or what form I can find this in that would be fairly natural without a lot of fillers.

Tuesday night was Bible study. I was excited to see women had done their homework and could discuss the book even when I varied from the written homework. That's a wonderful sign that they have spent lots of time in the book of Ephesians. I passed out books and we are well prepared now to use anothers work for a couple of months. In other words we took 3 weeks and I walked the group through doing a complete overview of the book - NOW we can use another's guidance and we'll be on better footing as to what the book is all about. The great news is that the group grew and we ran out of books. I'm hoping more arrive soon.

Wednesday was another blur of activity as we got ready for Mike and Jamin's big adventure. I'll write a seperate post about that.

In the midst of this, I'm learning our new United catalog and how to use spreadsheets, trying to help others figure out how they work (nearly blind leading the blind?), and trying to get 1/2 finished tasks off my plate....and transferring comptuer data from one to another. ::snort::

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket