.Bulleted Thoughts.

• I am still here. {grin} Almost all of my computer time right now is having to be reserved for editing photos. I have (praise God) had a lot of sessions lately!
• School is going exceptionally well. I cut Scotty's AM nap for the first time last week starting Monday. It made for some rough mornings, but by Friday he was getting the hang of our new schedule. And as of today it has been smooth as butter during school time.
• We are earnestly praying that we receive our finalized & approved home study this week. Our home study coordinator has been out of the country. He returned on Sunday, but so far we can not get in touch with him. Please pray!
• I am the least stressed out and the most joyful that I have been all summer right now. We are crazy busy, but my life is back on a schedule, and I feel so much better!! I guess this has taught me that I will have to write a summer schedule for next year. I just cannot function well without one.
• I love facebook these days when I am so busy - to open up my email and find encouragement that was written on my wall or sent privately in a message is such a blessing! I have been able to connect with several women from our adoption agency lately on facebook too and I love that! I have some very faithful prayer warriors who send me messages of typed out prayers that they are praying over my days. Wow. There are just some things about technology that God has used to bless my heart in amazing ways! We live in such a neat time period.
  
• Jim and I have been busy, busy, busy with church ministries. He has been preparing all summer to launch two major ministries this fall, plus we are preparing to host a Beth Moore simulcast at our church September 18th. Wow has that been a lot of work for us!
• Things are good, really, really good. I fall more in love with my family and my Savior each day. I love my role in our home, and am trying to cherish every precious moment of these days at home teaching and training my children. The only thing that could make life better is getting our Ethiopian prince home. Soon. {grin}
  

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.Home Again.

We are home again, and are re-acclimating to normal life. We had such an amazing time away, but oh how I missed my kiddos. That was the longest I have left Scotty. I guess it was good practice for when we travel to Ethiopia and leave them behind {gulp}. I have nothing to share from our trip. I just want to keep it between Jim and myself.

While I have nothing for a post today- I have a few in the making for later, maybe next week. I have quite enjoyed this respite. However, I do have three posts that I read this morning that resonated deep inside of me. I pray that you take the time to read all three, and that you are as excited as I am regarding how God is opening people's eyes. That is my earnest prayer for each person reading here and for myself - that my eyes would be opened and never again blinded as they once were.

This post talks about the many children still left behind in orphanages. The statistics that she sites were enough to make me sob.

Is Jesus enough? Read here and find out.

Does God ask us to obey even when it is inconvenient? Click here.

I know you're busy. We are all so busy, but I pray you find the time to read these three posts.

And then let me know what you think. Let's chat.



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.This & That.

We have had such a lovely weekend together as a family. I think we are finally getting into a rhythm with our new ministry, and I love that. We spent our Saturday together as a family. First a slow and easy breakfast listening to The Pond on our local Christian radio station. Is anyone else into that? We LOVE The Pond! We have a few of the dvds, but I so love sitting around our kitchen eating breakfast, listening to a radio show! It's like "the good ol' days"!

Cadi had swim lessons, and we all went along like usual. Then we stayed for a bit at our YMCA's Healthy Kid's day and participated in some of the fun. A quick trip to Walmart (for some fabric to make Roxy a fabulous strap!) rounded out our morning. The children took a loooong afternoon nap. Jim and I napped for a short bit, and then we had a little competitive fun in an edit-off! We both edited 2 photos. And then put them on facebook for our friends to vote on their favorite edit! I won, but just marginally. Phew. {wink}

One of my favorite Saturday night traditions is bathing the children. Yes we bathe them during the week, too! Ha! But it is more rushed. Saturdays are usually relaxed, and Jim and I tag team. I love working together and being together. Scotty just adores his bath, and throws quite the temper fit when he is pulled out of the water. Oy. He is just darling, though, isn't he? I cannot even describe what this boy does to me. Oh boy, am I captivated.





Oh yesterday I was featured on Monica's blog at Pixel Perfect, too! That was fun. You can click here to read my interview if you are interested.


This morning Jim preached a phenomenal message. Wow. It was dynamic, and right on point. He talked about I Corinthians 9 - how Paul was "all things to all people". He made me think so much about evangelism, and what it means, and church programs, and "sacrificing people at the altar of those programs". Just wow. It was such a blessing to sit underneath the teaching of my husband today. Every Sunday is a blessing - our lead pastor and my husband are dynamite. Yes, I may be a bit biased, but I really do think God is doing some amazing things at our church!

Don't forget tomorrow is Monday, and that means another Momentous Monday!! Click here to see last week's blog hop. I was just blown away by the response to this new blog hop, and so touched that you ladies "got it". What an awesome thing to read over 20 blog posts of other women who were intentional, and purposeful with the moments God gave them. I was in tears reading many of the posts. Ladies, you are amazing! Thank you. I know this week's hop wil be just as big of a blessing - please join in and share with us! I will once again try to have the link up by 6 AM.

Until then, my friends, be blessed.




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.A Little of This, A Little of That.

Don't forget to go here and enter my Melissa and Doug give-away! The contest ends tomorrow, Sunday, January 10th at 10 PM!

Also, thanks for all of the fun questions on my homeschooling post I have started working on the post, and I will have it finished for next week. There is still time for you to ask a question if you haven't had a chance.

I have been getting so much email from readers - which is fun and I love it - that I opened a new account, so as not to bog down our family email. You can now contact me at amomentcherished(at)gmail(dot)com.

We are having a rather lazy Saturday here, which is so nice. Jim returned home from the camp retreat just a bit ago. I was going to take down the Christmas decor today (HA!), but am thinking I might just enjoy some time with my hubby this afternoon. I think we could use it.

Thank you to all of my sweet readers for the words of encouragement via comments and email lately. They have been such a blessing. And I cannot get over how many people are praying for us. I feel truly blessed. This whole blogging thing, is such a strange, wonderful phenomena. I feel like I know some of you so well, and yet we have never met. I think God intended the body of Christ to work like this. Thank you.

And lastly, my sister just started a blog. Will you go encourage her? I am a huge supporter of journaling and blogging and I pester the ones I love to do one or the other or both. I think it is important for us to write and to pass down our writings to the next generation. You never know how God will use our pencil strokes.

Have a wonderful Saturday, sweet bloggy friends!

. . . . And she's back.

I am back. Back from a wonderful two week vacation in Florida and then a week and a half of organizing and rescheduling our life to fit in the blessing of home school. I am officially a home schooling mommy! We have a week under our belt. It went so well. There were a few bumps with scheduling, and I am still not enjoying having to do my cleaning in the afternoon now, but over all it has been wonderful. Cadi is eager to learn, and she loves the special attention from Mommy.

I am using a wonderful curriculum called hands on home schooling. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to incorporate a lot of activity into their preschoolers education. There is not a whole lot of sitting or pencil work. It was exactly what I was looking for in a curriculum. We have a cooking class every week, a dramatic play class, PE, music, and the normal preschool classes such as phonics, math, basic science, etc.

My Cadi turned four last week, while I was away from blogging. I really cannot believe how quickly these past four years have flown by. It has been a blink. I hope to be able to sit down and do a nice birthday post and video for her. Scotty is changing and growing so much since returning home for the summer. He is finally crawling and pulling himself up. He is all over the downstairs of our house. He has really begun to take on quite the personality as well. Two of my favorites right now is his fake laugh that eventually completely overcomes him and becomes real laughter, and the way he has started wrinkling his nose when he smiles. He is a darling boy.

I am also excited this fall to continue pursuing my hobby of photography. However, I really need to figure out what to do with all of our photos. I am so behind in scrapping. Yet, I do love it. I am just not sure if I have the time. So I have been debating whether or not to print some photo books. Also this fall, I am determined to sew my window treatments for the kitchen and finish up the little house projects that remain. I would really like to make the small room that attaches to our bedroom a nice little nook for my quiet time. I have a few other sewing projects in mind as well. I want to try my hand at making Cadi a cute pair of bell bottomed pants with ruffles on the hem. I am no good at following patterns, though. I usually sew free hand. I am thinking the pants might be a bit too adventurous! I also am trying to figure out a way to craft the verse Matthew 22:37 for my childrens' rooms. Any ideas?

A big blessing in my life is my dear friend Bethany. She is the best girl friend I have ever had, and I thank God so much for her. The wonderful thing is the same is true for Jim and her husband. God has truly blessed us with their family. It is so nice to be moved back home and be able to spend more time with her and her family. We have even started a mini book club/ study and are reading through and discussing Crazy Love
The discussion part is a stretch for both of us being introverts, but we had our first discussion last week. It was such an encouragement to me, and I really enjoyed our time together. I am excited to see what blossoms from it.

Oh boy - two minutes until school starts. It felt good to write again.