Weekend Happenings

Well if any one has ever been to a state convention for homeschoolers you will be able to relate to what I have to say. This past weekend was such a blessing for my husband and I. The support group that we are forming was offically voted upon. Armor LEAH is now an offical support group for homeschoolers. We are so excited. We have 7 families already growing by the minute. We were able to go to a number of workshops on a varitey of topics. We went to 4 by the same woman. She talked about how children learn, and different ways to teach them. We were so inspired by her and her research. She also talked about how what a child eats and doesn't eat plays a big part in how they learn and what they retain. It was a eye opener for us. Our diets in general in the US are mostly prepared foods with a lot of fillers and perservatives. Many children have allergies to certain foods that are not picked up in a simple blood test. Take dairy for example, many children have allergies to dairy and do not even know it. Check out her website for more information, www.dianecraft.org.

We were also able to go to a workshop on Biblical Parenting, presented by a woman with the National Center on Biblical Parenting. WOW what a difference a weekend can make. I could go on and on forever about this. She has given us a lot of information to help the children become all that God wants them too. Not only them but my Husband and Myself. We saw so many areas that we need to improve. When you are a parent a lot of times (I know in my own life) everyone wants to give you advise on how to raise your children. Everyone has a way that is better. We have learned that no parenting way is right or wrong, except for God's way of parenting! Like anyone who goes to a conference like this you have so much information thrown at you in a short amount of time it takes a while to sort out. When I do I will post more on each topic we learned about.

Next weekend I will be off to a ladies advance. I'm so excited about this. Its a time I look forward to each year for many reasons. One, is I get to spend a weekend with my Mom, doing what we love to do grow in Christ. Second, we go every year with some really good friends. I'm afraid that this will be the last year of her going with us. Her and her husband are in the process of interviewing at churches. I'm sad to say that not many of the churches are in this area. She has been such a great friend to me for about two years. We share many of the same hobbies, scrapbooking, sewing, cooking/baking, crafting. We get together once a week and do some of those things. Well its been pretty difficult to get to gether recently. With that said, I pray that they will find a church.

I've never been really good at changes that are all a part of life. But God brings on changes for reasons not known to us. The church that my parents have attended since 1981 had its final service today. It was a day of remincing and sharing a lot of memories. I had a whole "speech" in my head prepared. But when it came time to say it I was unable to talk. All I was able to get out was "thank you for all everyone had done for my family. The last 3 years have brought a lot of changes for my family, my sister had a brain infection and had to have a part of her brain removed, my Dad had a heart attack, he was forced into an early retirement at a job he had been at for about 25 years, my grandfather went home to be with Jesus, now the closing of the church. I know God does not close one door without many more opening. So my prayer for the members of that church are that they will be faithful and go where God wants them.