first day of school

They made it! I'm so thankful right now because of how good God is - He answered our prayers! McKenna was declaring this a.m. (dramatic, but dead serious) that she was beginning the worst year of her life. But she bounced out to the car this afternoon and talked non-stop about her day. She did spend several sometimes miserable hours on homework tonight (her teacher doesn't allow them to use "be" verbs in their writing...this rigorous classical thing felt a bit too rigorous tonight! :)) There is no doubt that she misses Eden, but as we were praying over last p.m. I really sensed that God is going to fill the void this year and she's going to grow in intimacy with Him that she couldn't otherwise experience. So she left the house uninspired this a.m. - you can probably tell from the pictures - but returned her bubbly self this afternoon. Praise God!
Josiah and Luke had great first days as well. They both have new teachers (new to CCS) and they both seemed to like them.

Randy wrote about the 60/60 experiment in his post, but I just have to comment on it also. It has been amazing so far. Jamey preached on "practicing the presence" of God on Sunday and talked about this church that did this experiment in which they turned to Jesus (prayed, worshipped, etc.) every 60 minutes for 60 days. We've been doing this for a day and a half and my spirit is more refreshed and expectant for God to move than it has been in a long time. Our kids are doing it too and there is a different atmosphere in our home. Makes us all so aware of our dependency on Him for EVERYTHING!

Oh yeah! I also started "home school" this a.m. with Moriah and Isaac. She won't be going to any kind of pre-k so I decided she had better at least know how to do something when she starts kindergarten next year. It was kind of a breakthrough a.m. for me because I woke up (at 4:30 a.m.) and I knew that my only job today was my kids. That may sound silly, but often I'm trying to do too many other things (chores, phone calls, etc.) and I get frustrated when I can't seem to "accomplish" anything. Well today I "accomplished" a lot of reading, playing, and focused attention on my little ones that they haven't had in a long time. That included a lot of training (SPANKINGS, esp for Isaac), but it was good to actually be consistent and calm about the whole process. My BIG prayer during this season is for CONSISTENCY! This is a character issue I REALLY struggle with. I long to do my family as well as I did today on a consistent basis. That's the other great thing about this 60 minute prayer thing - reminds me to be thankful for the grace during the previous hour and the available grace for the upcoming hour.

Better go to bed - this whole deal starts over again tomorrow!

Anda