#AtoZChallenge – A is for Attitude

Welcome to the start of my April 2017 Blogging A to Z Challenge posts.  Since today is my first day writing this series, the letter is “A”.  “A” is for attitude.  When our oldest son was in the fifth grade, we ran into a teacher that made it necessary to change our expectations for schooling our son.  We decided to pull him from public school and start homeschooling instead.

At the time, he was developing a bad attitude towards his siblings and just life in general.  Several people had horrible attitudes towards our decision about homeschooling including my mother.  Within a few weeks, the attitude of my oldest son began to change tremendously.  All of a sudden there was a closeness between him and our daughter, the youngest as well as improvements in attitudes with our other children.  It was definitely worthwhile.

Even though some of his public school friends did not share his views in regard to their own siblings, it did not negatively impact his attitude towards his own siblings.

Over the course of time, his attitude towards schoolwork and having me teaching him improved.  It took time to find the right curriculum to use, but it was worth it.  We were also were blessed to become part of an amazing homeschool group.  The ladies in the group overwhelmingly had an attiude of helpfulness and were always willing to provide information.  Nothing was too much trouble for them.

Our son’s improved attitude led to positive actions as well.  When he finally took his end-of-the–year tests, he scored above average in many areas.  This was incredible to me.

The actions we took to change our schooling plans definitely had a positive outcome for our son.  While in public school, his grades began slipping in second grade.  By the time we reached the end of fourth grade, we knew something needed to happen to help him.  Unfortunately, he was not doing poorly enough for the school to provide any assistance.  This definitely impacted his attitude.  After all, no one likes to feel as though they are not being successful.  But once we began homeschooling and he started experiencing success, it really helped to improve his attitude.

So what comes to mind when you see the letter “A”?  I would love to hear from you.

#bloggingatoz

 

 

Almost April

Well, it is hard to believe it is almost April 1st.  April is the month for Camp Nanowrimo, Blogging A to Z challenge and another round of the Ultimate Blog challenge.  I plan on participating in all of these, so expect quite a few posts over the next few weeks.

I may try to incorporate some of these into our homeschool plans as well, especially the Blogging A to Z challenge.  I will probably call it “Writing A to Z Challenge” for my children, however.  I look forward to sharing how this goes over the next few weeks.

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

#bloggingatoz.

A New Year and a New Blog Challenge

So another year has passed and yesterday, we said our fond farewells to 2016.  Today, a brand new year began – full of possibilities and opportunities.  One of those opportunities for me is participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge again.  I love participating in these challenges because it causes me to focus more on my blogging.  I love sharing different things that are going on with our family and in our lives.

This time last year, we were still living in Pennsylvania preparing for a move to Texas.  Shortly into 2016, we finally received notification we had orders.  If you are joining from the Ultimate Blog Challenge, let me tell you a little about our family.  I have been married to my husband for 24 years.  We have four children ages 20 – 14.  The older three are all boys.  The youngest is our only girl.  Since our oldest was in fifth grade, we have homeschooled our children.

My husband is an ordained Primitive Baptist preacher and currently serves in the United States Army Reserves full-time.  I enjoy reading, blogging, Bible study and spending time with my family.

This was our first Christmas in Texas and I really enjoyed the quiet nature of our holiday.  Time and distance did not allow us to go home to my husband’s family for Christmas.  So we spent the time with just the seven of us.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention that my mom lives with us.  She has for several years now.  It leads to interesting experiences and excitement.

Today we enjoyed a traditional southern New Years Day feast – including black-eyed peas, collard greens, ham and deviled eggs.  We also enjoyed beets, olives, pickles, and cornbread.  I was blessed by my husband preparing our meal today.  He enjoys cooking sometimes and I enjoy eating his food.

So what is going on with you today?  How did you spend your holidays?  I would love to hear from you.

 

Canning Food

So yesterday we spent the day putting up vegetables:

We canned tomatoes, blanched and froze green beans, canned bread and butter pickles, plus started the process for 9 day sweet pickles,with yesterday being day 1.

Here are some pictures:

in some of the pictures there are items we bought from some of our local Amish farmers – including Pepper &Onion Strips, stuffed peppers, Chow Chow, Applesauce, honey and some jellies.

   
    
   

Journalling and Connecting

Today I spent time connecting with God’s word through bible Joirnaling.  I am currently participating in an online Bible study for The book of Ephesians.  Our first assignment was to do a page with the title Ephesians on it along with a page that showed an overview of the chapter.  Because I had a Bible with chapter titles, I used those titles for the overview.

Here are the two pages I created.

   

#blogboost #NaBloPoMo

 

Creating and Connecting

So in the past 12 months, I have been trying to strengthen on my faith and my involvement with my faith.  Some of the things that I have been doing include: participating in Online Bible Studies, being a Facebook Small Group leader for an Online Bible Study, spending more time in prayer and in the Word, plus I have started to become involved in Bible Journaling.  Here is a piece I did earlier this year.

I went on Amazon and found quite a few books on Art Journaling and Bible journaling to assist me in my journey.  I also have found quite a few blogs and Facebook groups to participate in as well.  Moreover,  I am making wonderful connections with people who are able to inspire me and give me ideas.

So I invite you to come on this journey with me.  I will be sharing my endeavors here.

So how do you express, show, demonstrate or enrich your faith?  I would love to hear from you.

How We Do Church at Our Home

So for the last several months we have been having church in our home.  Being a military family living away from our home church presents some unique challenges.  My husband is an ordained Primitive Baptist preacher and has been preaching for over 23 years.  We are used to being actively involved in whatever church we attend.  So we look for churches that will permit us to do so.  While we had found one to attend in our current duty station, we discovered that ultimately it was not the right fit for our family.  With homeschooling and everything else going on in our lives, we made the decision to hold church services in our home.

So here are some photos of what it looked like during today’s service.

Our message for today centered on Matthew 5:13.  It was interesting to hear the remarks regarding salt and its various uses in Biblical times and current days.  Because of the situation, our services tend to turn more into discussions and thoughts rather than a typical sermon.

In addition to a message, we also sing songs from the Lloyd Hymnal (used by many Primitive Baptist Churches).  We sang “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, “Come Thou Fount of Many Blessings”, “Alas and did my Savior Bleed” in addition to a couple of other songs.

So that is how we had church services today,  How did you spend your Sunday?

Day 1 of the July Ultimate Blog Challenge and NaBloPoMo Challenge

So today is the first day of the blog challenges for July.  The goal is to blog for 31 days straight.   I have completed several months of blogging in the past.   So I am praying for success this time.  I am preparing for our new school year.  So I am working on lesson planning.  Since we don’t truly take summers off, the children are finishing up some books from last year and getting prepared to start fresh subjects.

What is going on where you are?  I would love to hear from you.

#blogboost, #NaBloPoMo

Z is Zeal

So today is the final day of the Blogging A to Z challenge.  I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in this challenge.  When I see or hear the letter Z, only one word comes to mind.  The word that comes to mind is “Zeal”.

Several years ago, we were participating in a Christmas Eve candlelight service at the church we were attending in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  The pastor provided various members of the congregation with different verses to read from the Bible.  At the time, our second son was given a verse that contained the word Zeal.  He was uncertain of what the word meant exactly.  So I explained to him that zeal meant showing excitement or enthusiasm for something.   Well he proceeded to read his verse with quite a lot of “Zeal”.  From that night on, zeal or zealous became frequent members of our conversation.  The following year, when the Christmas Eve service came around again, my son made sure he once again got the verse with “zeal” in it.  And once again, he read it quite zealously.

Because, it has been about 4 years since he last read the verse, I am trying to remember the exact verses he read.  I believe this should be the correct passage.

So what comes to mind for you when you see the letter “Z”?  I would love to hear from you.  And so this entry concludes my participation in the Blogging A to Z challenge for April 2015.  I pray you have been blessed.