Gateways to Joy

Hey y'all — I am so tired, I got up too late.  My daughter is in the kitchen making breakfast and I'm headed to the Home school store to get a few things I can't find.  I don't know about you, but whenever I go to the home school store, I find it so difficult to leave.  And I always end up spending way more money than what I intended. Don't you hate when you put something away so that you can find it when you need it, only to not be able to find it when you need it? So frustrating and it just reminds me of the frailties of humanity. How are y'all doing with finding the rhythm of your routine again?  I feel overwhelmed, but I'm not stressed by it because I have been living in the Word. Trying to stay so close to it in fact I sleep with it under my pillow. Silly I know. Anyway, there is a lot that I want to say, but I have a foggy head and people pulling at me from various directions, but I did want to say, "Hi" to you all :-) Today I wi...

It's cold out.  Dark.  He's up with me, on the computer.  He asks about breakfast. We start school today and I'm so excited of the new . . . of the "what's to come." Pretty soon the house will be singing with the beautiful noise of our family.  The washing machine and drying will add to the chorus as will the still sleepy children ... shuffling to the bathroom to get dressed before coming to the table. Then the house will smell of pancakes, bacon and eggs... the bread of life. I prefer making them homemade or from Bisquick mix.  I like the box Bisquick mix. Melted butter on hot pancakes with Steen's syrup.  Priceless of course. Then we will start with spelling rules.  Most of my curriculum teaches grades 1 through 12. The children will sit at our dinner table as I stand at the white board doing what God has called me to do.   Doing what I love best.  Doing what brings me the most peace and gives me the sweetest joy.   Carin...

Are you vulnerable, transparent or do you have a wall of protection around you? Today, we will look at another Women of Faith Conference speaker, author and child actress Lisa Welchel. Lisa has authored numerous books,  Her latest being, "Friendships for Grown-Ups: What I missed and learned along the way." Here are a few practical steps, Lisa gives, in developing and growing friendships: Drive to see an old friend or reconnect with a childhood buddy. Dare to share a doubt or question about life you have with an old friend. The next time someone calls to connect with you, unless it is simply not possible, try to make time for this. Make a list of your three really close friends and twelve close friends.  Don't attempt to have twelve really close friends.  It really isn't possible, and it will only frustrate you and them. Keep in touch with old friends.  Facebook is a great way to do this. Pay attention when you start thinking of ...

I feel really silly and embarrassed to share part of what I'm about to share with you all today. I share much about myself on this blog: the good, the bad and the very ugly. In writing and sharing, I find help.  I find help in ways that better me.  I find it in ways where I learn more about me, and in finding these things, I am able to make some conclusions about myself which helps me work on me. Yes.  I am a work in progress. Knowing how I am "wretched" and knowing that God loves "even me anyway" causes me to love Him back. Knowing that God loves me anyway makes me wanna give myself to Him more, to keep getting up even though I fall. Knowing God loves me makes me want to live my whole life for Him. Yes.  Today I can say that Nancy Leigh DeMoss' ministry blog "Revive our hearts" is one of my favorite, but I couldn't always say that. Once upon a time I was upset with Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Back to the Bible , but neither knew...

Yesterday I read an alarming story.  The title was written in a way to be elusive.    Mother's tell!  Mother's tell their "deepest, darkest, secrets???" The secrets ... well they are probably not what you would think them to be. Nor will you be surprised, if you are a mother, by them.  These are not the revealing of secret fantasies.   In these tales mothers do not tell of their fantasies of  staring into space, dwelling on make believe stories of how their lives could have been better if they would have married Tom, Dick or Harry. No these stories are alarming, a cry for help.  Proof that everyone needs someone to lean on, to carry them when they become the weak and weary.  Sadly they were nothing knew to me. I am a mother of seven.  I home school my kids.  I've been known {as you all can testify to} to become frustrated.  Overwhelmed by it all. And I've learned that it's okay.   No longer do I try to hid...

It's hot, very hot here in Texas!  To make matters worse my Suburbans air has went out.  Not only is it hot in the car, but after being home a while it seems to get rather warm in there too. What does hot equate to over here? FRUSTRATION! I am frustrated and so are the kids. I am a home-body.  I don't care for going out much at all.  And when I must go out it's early in the morning or when most people are working.  Rarely do I ever go to the malls and places like it.  When I do it's always during a time when the crowd is to a minimum, and I can stroll and take my time. When out I usually stay to myself and not chat much.  Usually I'll just give you a faint smile and or glance. I do love going out to dinner, lunch and breakfast, but again it's not doing peak hours. A few of my kids are like me in this area, but a few are not.  One being my oldest girl.  She likes to go. Last night I told her, "If you want me to take your brot...

{ a repost from the archives ... a remeberance for me as I began planning the new school year} Last night when talking with one of my children I wanted to have a big old fashion hissy-fit.  Quickly, words of Elisabeth Elliot's ran fluid in memory.  Words that began to resonate within.  Words that quieted the flare-up that wanted releasing. Don't train your children to respond to your frantic gestures, rants and threats . Instead we mothers should be sure to have their attention first before we began to instruct.  I've found with some ... especially my boys, I do best to have them repeat to me what I've just said.  This method for me causes less feelings and emotions to flare. So mothers lets be sure that we have our children's full attention and speak in a calm normal tone of voice. Warning mothers:  Say what you mean and mean exactly what you say.  If you don't mean it, then by all means don't say it. Fo...

That's right.   I'm doing "Woman's Work" today!  I do it everyday, but just wanted to shout it out today. Some women become offended by the term: " Woman's Work" when it means simply caring for the home and the family in the way most of us do.   I'm not offended in the least bit. I've learned many years ago that my work, be it " Woman's Work" or White House Work, is not what defines me.  It's just work that I do. What defines people is the content of character. It is our character ... that which decides our steps that defines us. It decides our right and wrong choices.  And it is the revelation of the choices that tells the truth about you and me.  Those choices reveal the hearts true condition. So I say that it is our lifestyle of choices. . . not one choice, but our overall decisions that we should use to monitor our depth of soul.  The monitoring of choices will reveal the integrity or the lack of...

What plans do you have for yourself? Goals? Has God placed a longing ... a desire in your heart?  For many of us mothers, God has given us plenty of desires, goals and dreams. Desires goals and dreams that we, for now must put on hold. I remember my Pastor telling the story many times of his stay-at-home mother.  She was a mother to eight children, they were poor, yet her   desire was to travel the world. Her longing was finally fulfilled years later in her eighties.   Her daughter married a man,  Anthony Evans, who would go on to have a very successful ministry.  But not only would his ministry flourish.  Because of he and his wife's commitment to raising Godly children.  Their children would grow up to be a success in their own right, needing to travel. Guess who traveled with them?  Mother-in-law and grandma. In her eighties, Mother Cannings was reaping the benefits from her years of sacrificial service to her family. ...

"I'm glad I didn't leave him."  This is my thought as we make smoothies for our family.  As I watch this 6'3" man with broad shoulders take the fruit out of the refrigerator. He's talking, smiling handing me strawberries, blueberries, ice, Greek yogurt, organic apple juice, this and that ... all the while being oblivious to my long stares, stares of how my eyes are watching him ... tracing the outer curves of his body. I wash the fruit.  The kids are all there looking on, listening and smiling. There, in our kitchen, we all stand and talk ... laugh and I do my usual: interrupt so I won't forget my words ... my thoughts.  They all laugh.  Their Dad tells them about our daily Wheat Grass routine.  He likes it and I don't!  But I do love the many benefits so I partake daily, consuming the horrible! The kids laugh and tease as we tell our tales. I think back to doctors saying they—my children would never be.  But God saw fit to...

I know that I write and speak an awful lot about Ann Voskamp here at Angela talks ... . What many of you don't realize is what drove me to blogging ... journaling online.  I was dry.  Dry and parched was the state of this soul.  I had once tasted and saw that the Lord was good, but through life experiences I had become solemn and hard within.  My writing in the form of this online journal was just another outlet of my soul's anguish.  The soul that held on for dear life.  The lost soul trying to find the life she had once had.  I was searching for the "me" that I use to be.  The me that I'd once loved. My heart was clenched and closing down! As I began to blog I could feel myself coming alive again, but I was still pretty tight.  Thanks to the reading Ann's blog ... reading it as if it were a book, clinging to it night after night, falling asleep with it on screen even.  In this I'm relearning.  Being  retaught and I'm sl...