Update on our Homeschooling Adventures

First of all, I wanted to share with you a section of this month's Home Educating Magazine...because our homeschool classroom was featured!  Very exciting for us. This makes me feel so very official now.

Second of all, I wanted to share with you some changes we are making to our daily format.

Originally, when we began homeschooling, I had no clue what I was doing.  I attended a conference and talked to several homeschooling families to get their advice and then I clung to our first set of curriculum like it was my life blood.  Things went well for a little while.

Do you know what happened next?  We added more kids into the homeschooling routine.  Then life -- outside of homeschooling -- continued to happen.  Suddenly, we were weeks behind in the curriculum and I got so stressed out.

In The Beginning: 2014

Here we are in a new year and I have yet to stop by my own blog to say anything.  Hmm.  I don't get it either.

As usual, I'm living it up over on Instagram.  I'm involved with a great photo challenge this month as part of the #knittogetherbyadoption "group."  It's been really challenging me to readdress some of the things I've learned over the years through our adoption journey and giving me a lot of material to write about.  If it wasn't an Instagram challenge, I'd probably make better use of my blog space writing it out here.  Anyway, if you click the square camera button on the right, you can check out some of those posts if you're in the mood for reading more about our adoption experiences.

2013: It's A Wrap, Basically

I know there are still a couple days left in the year, but those are bound to be busy days, so I decided to jump on this today in case I don't have another opportunity before 2014 happens.

This year!  There is so much that comes to mind from this year.  Perhaps because I'm a photographer, I remember 2013 in snapshots of time, like squares of memory in a quilt that has been slowly coming together over time.

Some of those squares have bright colors and fancy patterns and others are dull, worn and gray.  But together, they are stitched together into a warm and beautiful cover, large enough to protect each of us in this family from the cold.

I'm not a quilter.  I barely know how to replace a button when it falls off something.  But the image of memories bound together is a striking picture in my mind.  Besides, how many times this year did I want to hide under my covers until a tough day had passed this year?  Quilts, blankets, woven cloth... clothes.

The Christmas Season

My most favorite time of year.  Things have been super busy over here lately, so my blog is getting a little neglected again.  However, I've been doing some daily writing on Instagram if you want to come check that out.  You can find many of these (that I'm referring to) under the hashtag #praycember.

The whole Praycember idea was the genius of one of our pastors who asked us to pray every day this month for our church and for the whole Church (body of believers, bride of Christ).  This has been a great challenge for me and I feel myself being stretched in new ways through the course of this AND Advent Bible readings I'm doing sort of alongside Praycember.

This month has been a real blessing to my heart and soul and I can't wait to hopefully share some specifics with you soon.  But, I shall wait for now.

Thanks for continuing to check back to see if I've posted.  I apologize for the irregularity, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to dedicate more of my time this month to time with the Lord and celebrating the Christmas spirit.

I hope all is going well for you this merry season.

A Stranger in Santa's Clothing

(Source)

While we were out running errands today, we stopped by the mall.  We've had O's keepsake ornament to commemorate his adoption (it matches those that the other kids have) for years now and still had not made the time to get it engraved for him.  His six year adoptaversary is coming up and so I figured it was high time.  Anyway, the ornament came from Things Remembered, a keepsake store that pops up in most normal American malls.  So we were headed there.

We were given a pickup time of 11:30am, which was perfect, because I needed to run to the nearby Target for prescriptions and then we'd be back to the mall just in time.  However, at 11:27am, we checked at the store and it was nowhere near done, nor was it at the front of the line to be completed.

We decided to do some mall walking while we gave them an extra fifteen minutes or so.  We were not shopping, mind you, because A) I really do not enjoy shopping at the mall and B) I had two of my gift recipients right there with me and they're too old to stick things in the cart that they do not notice.

You moms of younger kids know what I'm talking about.  Embrace and enjoy this time when you can Christmas shop with your kids right there with you and still surprise them on Christmas morning.

While mall walking, besides the shoe shine guys who asked me three times if I wanted my old tennis shoes cleaned up (no, I did not), we kept passing by the Santa booth.  You know the one where kids in pretty clothing line up with their parents to get the official Christmas picture for the year?  Well, we were actually on the second floor and the Santa booth was on the first, but we could see it down below every time we passed that section of the mall.

Finally, I was convinced that I wanted our kids to get a picture with Santa!  They agreed that this sounded like fun.

In The Aftermath of Thanksgiving

(Source)

I totally wanted to write a special Thanksgiving post, but obviously, it didn't happen.  I have so many things for which to be thankful and often, I write about them here in this blog, so doing a specific post may not always be necessary. 

We were blessed this year that my parents came out from California to spend the holiday with us and with my sister's family.  They arrived here safely and as I type, they are stopped for the night after the first half of their drive back home. Time with them is a precious commodity and while we've had a few opportunities to spend time with them in the past year -- which is more than some years -- their visits are never long enough.

What's the Date Again?

(Source)

I realized today that Thanksgiving is only a week (and a day) away.  This was completely shocking news.  I was giving myself an extra week somehow, extending November further into December.  With Thanksgiving coming so quickly, I realize now that Christmas won't be far behind.

I have many things I would like to accomplish and many things I must accomplish in a short amount of time and I thought I would just share some of these here:

Request for Guest Posts: Tales of Motherhood

(Source)

I don't think I ever shared with you how Mama Flock came to be and came to be named.  Today, in my Bible reading, the Lord brought me to Psalm 100 (a great passage of thanksgiving if you need a good starting place for this season) and I was reminded of the early days of this blog.

Thank You, Blogger, For Not Deleting My Account

One of my favorite captures from the other evening when I went treasure hunting in the desert with J.

 
I know I'm more of a stranger here these days.  Maybe you've read the past posts and know what a challenge this year has been for our family.  It continues to be a daily challenge that I face one hour or one minute at a time.  However it comes at me.  Through enduring these challenges, I know there is deep, blessed joy.

Some days are better than others.  Sometimes it's hard to see the good through the difficult.  This week, has been particularly challenging, but I feel myself emerging on the other side.  My hope is that this week was just another wake up call to get my head back on straight and to reprioritize God as the leader of my life and not just an afterthought.  A sidekick.

Guest Post: Manifesto

The zombie is dead. I don’t recall the moment when it happened. There was no last clawing gasp, no dramatic wrenching away. Somewhere during the quiet of our time away on the Pacific coast, amidst the ocean breeze, the peaceful strolls and the fantastically brilliant fish tacos, he simply stopped serving a purpose and left. I am grateful for this. My breath seems to come easier, my exhales feel deeper. My thoughts can find moments of stillness. Even though my sunburns still ache a bit, for the first time in months, my heart feels at peace.

I am truly grateful for all of these things but I am not who I was. I have not been restored. Through all of this, the troubles and the moments of peace, I have instead been refined into something new. It’s as though a fire has blazed through my life leaving behind only the essential parts that cannot be consumed, that cannot be reduced. The purpose of this post is to document what remains and to establish a manifesto for how I intend to move forward.