Water Fast

Well, we made it through Easter.

I don't mean for that to sound terrible.  Really I don't.

But for ministry families, holidays can be a tough time.  Especially when you are in a new area, and haven't really established yourself fully yet.

But I didn't start this post to complain, so I'll stop!

I do have some great news.

The week of Easter our church decided to do a water fast.  They asked those who wanted to participate, to abstain from all beverages other than water for one week, and give the money they saved to help dig water wells in Uganda.

So, Mike and I decided that we would participate, and asked our kids if they would want to also.

They said "YES!"

We explained to them, that it meant, only water.  While I know other families made exceptions for their kids and allowed them to have milk, Mike and I asked them to abstain from all drinks except water. 

That meant not even milk on cereal!

They all agreed.

They did great!  I am so proud of them!  They really thought a lot about why they were giving up these other beverages and were so excited to give the money we saved to those who need it much more than we do!

Really, it is such a small sacrifice on our part, to give something life saving to someone else.   

I can't wait to find out how much money we raised as a church for clean water!

Kristen

Epic Fall

So, as I mentioned on Monday, the last couple of months I have been in funkville.

Not just one big long funk, but really two consecutive funks.

The first, the home schooling funk, was over pretty quick, it only lasted about a week.

That one ended just in time to be followed by the I-hate-my-birthday funk.

Now that I am on the tail end of that funk, I decided to start running again.

(I'm pretty sure that while you are in a funk it is unheard of to exercise, so I didn't)

Faith and I got up Monday morning and decided it was time to start running again.  And we weren't taking the sissy run either.

This particular run I speak of is three miles.

It goes uphill.

And when I say uphill, I mean UPHILL.

It also goes downhill, which is where I make up my time, for walking on the extreme uphill part :)

So Faith and I were running this morning and we had gotten past the uphill part.

And we were past the downhill part.

We rounded the corner and we were on the home stretch.  I was feeling a bit winded and was ready for a walk break, when we came up to a man walking a dog, going in the same direction as us.

He pulled over to the side, which I wasn't thrilled about, because that meant we had to speed up to get past him, then stay running to stay ahead of him.

We ran past him, and I started to imagine the dog was a big scary dog, so I would run faster.

***side note*** You know those little kids that have no sense about animals.  The ones who will go running up to the snapping snarling dog and try to pet it?  Yeah, that's me. ***

So you can imagine, that I was having quite a time trying to imagine what kind of scary dog was following me.

Well, right in the middle of my imaginative dog chase, my shoe caught on the uneven sidewalk.

I wasn't expecting it, and therefore didn't have time to get my hands out in front of me to catch myself.

I went down on my right side and continued to skid down the sidewalk, banging my head as I went down.

Luckily, we were running alongside the golf course, and I mostly fell in the grass.

It was a pretty epic fall.

I am pretty sure that it was even in slow motion.

I jumped up, not because I felt great, but I was super embarrassed, and the big dog was boring down on us.

And now I think I am officially a real runner.

Or, I'm that little kid I call "the little falling kid".  You know the kid I'm talking about, the one on your kids football-soccer-basketball team that falls during every game.

Come on you know the one I'm talking about.  

No, I think I am a runner.

Kristen

Time For a Change

Well, it's been kind of quiet around here.

And when I say "here" I mean, blog-here, not house-here.

Lots going on,  not sure where to start.

And... I've had a bad attitude, so I thought I would keep it to myself.

So, now that I am mostly out of my funk, I thought I would write a little.

I think I will start with the home schooling situation.

So, a few months back I said we were going to go and talk to the principal of the local high school about potentially sending Faith to school part-time.

We did.

Unfortunately the offer they had for us wasn't good.  Part-time was really full-time, with no diploma at the end.

Mike, Faith, and I decided to pray seperatly about whether she should go, full time, not-part-time-part time, or stay home. 

Then I went into a funk.

I couldn't put words to it, but sending her full time just didn't seem like the answer.  But I knew something needed to change.  And I realized, through the whole move thing, that California-homeschool-Kristen, hasn't been the most fun home school mom. 

I have been really focused on getting us set up here.  And on top of that, it was also Faith's first year in high school. 

So just like I freaked out when Kylee started kindergarten, I kinda freaked out. 

Okay, I totally freaked out. 

No kinda about it. 

I over loaded her with work, and provided very little fun, excitement, or opportunity for love of learning.    

Anyways, all this to say it was a major wake-up call to me.  I changed up our school schedule, still challenging, but with more hands on activities, shaped it to fit their interests and skills, and I am looking into co-op type groups for the fall.

One cool thing in the middle of all this was, I got a call from God.

Yeah, I said God.

See I was praying and crying and feeling like a pretty lame-o mom, when I finally just asked God to give me a call and tell me what to do about my Faith's schooling.

That's when the phone rang.

I kid you not.

A lady called me.  Faith's friend's mom.  She called to ask me about one thing, but started the conversation out about home schooling.  After she told me how great she thought it was that I home school, I felt compelled to tell her about our week, about the school visit and the decision we were trying to make.

After listening to me she said,"Kristen, I am telling you, don't send her to that school."

I about started to cry.  I told her I had asked God to call me and tell me what to do, and this seemed like an answered prayer.  She told me some things that I really needed to hear, and since her daughter goes to the school in question, it meant a lot.

Anyways, long story, long, we are going to continue schooling all our kids at home, with some changes for the fall.

And I learned an important lesson:  I am not perfect.

There, I said it! 

I try really hard but, I make lots of mistakes.  And the cool thing is, there is no "too late".  Sometimes you just have to acknowledge your mistake, ask for forgiveness, make the change, and move on...

Kristen