The extended family situation is getting much worse.
Money issues are getting worse. Checks that have been promised, the ones that pay the bills, are not forthcoming.
So many others are struggling, so much. And prayer is all I can do.
It is good thing that when I am weak He is string because I am awfully weak right now.
The following is Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest for February 14.
Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him.
Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2 ). “Whatever I tell you in the dark. . .”— pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet.
If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.
After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.
This is a repost from last year. With 3 sick kids and all the other stuff I have going on this is all the energy I have.
Honestly I am more likely celebrate it being Friday the 13th than Valentine’s Day–at least Friday the 13th is interesting and different. But since I am not a pagan and not the least bit superstitious I don’t really celebrate either. Once upon a time I did, I longed for someone, anyone, to give me a nice, romantic Valentine’s Day gift and was always devastated when no one did (even if I got something it never lived up to my romantic aspirations.)
About 5 years ago, maybe more, God dealt with my heart on this issue. Honestly, there is no way ANYONE or ANYTHING can live up to such romantic twaddle as the world would have us believe and get all caught up in. And honestly, if it weren’t for the world telling you it was important, would you REALLY care? We are loved and cherished beyond anything by our Lord and Saviour, and HE never runs out and buys us flowers, chocolates , and a romantic card. Instead He blesses us with beautiful wildflowers, incredible sunsets, His wonderful Word, and all sorts of small daily blessings–so many that if we just open our eyes to see we are amazed at His love for us.
And so, nowadays instead of moping about not getting a gift I don’t really care about on a designated day that I don’t really care about, I realize how blessed I am to have a husband who loves me every single day and shows it, and a God who loves me even more than my husband, and who goes out of the way to show me every single day. And I challenge you to do the same. Even if you don’t have a great relationship if you are a child of God then you are LOVED. I challenge you to find women in your life who have no one, who struggle, who need to know that they are loved, and go out of your way to show them your (and God’s) love for them.
And I offer you a Valentine’s Card just from me to each of you, and offer it to you to share with whom ever you feel needs to know that they too are loved.
My Valentine’s gift to you. Have a blessed day regardless of your circumstances and relationships and know that you are loved with everlasting love that goes beyond that of any mortal (John 3:16).
There is a lot of stuff keeping me from the computer right now. And I really don’t know how long that will go on.
Otherwise we really are all doing great. The house is getting cleaner, the kids are happy and other than Rachel, healthy, Shamus’ work is going well, and God is blessing us in amazing ways.
Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Job 2:10
Yes, we still unschool. Yes, it is still working. Yes, we still both work from home though it has shifted even more from me working to Shamus working while I hang with the kids and keep the household running smooth so he can focus and be productive. Yes, I still love our life and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Shamus is working, a lot. Things are financially stressful but that is another post (and one I have been pondering for a while but which may or may not actually get shared. All I can say right now is that God is amazing and much more reliable than any paycheck.) On that point I want to mention mint.com– if you are having a hard time seeing the big picture of your finances, suck at budgeting, or just like seeing everything in one place then it is well worth a look. It is working great for this financially challenged family and being free helps. We had recently discussed the possibility of me taking on a part time job to fill in the current gaps, but various factors nipped that in the bud. Mostly the fact that me being here facilitating the children’s learning is key (they would learn anyway but Shamus cannot field their constant questions AND write 3 comics a week, 3 articles a week, and do 30 hrs a week programming not to mention keep up on his blog and several side projects.)
The kids are happily occupied talking to fellow unschooling friends on Skype and text chat, interacting on FamilyRUN, playing Build-a-Bear (their favorite game to play? School–”except we know most of the answers already, but we get to learn new things too”.) They are also occupied playing Plants vs. Zombies, a lot. Talk about an educational game that you don’t realize is educational. Essentially you could think of it as a fun way to learn financial planning and organizing your resources— of course you could say the same thing about Star Craft and other strategy games. 
Due to the snow, snow, and more snow they have been avoiding going outside (especially now that there is no ice to skate on). The kids are also very involved in a new Lego Quest weekly challenge run by a friend on Twitter. 
Rachel is thrilled to have made friends who can talk when she can, Essie is reading her way through multiple series of books (having read all the Gregor the Underlander books in a week and moving on to several other series I can’t remember) , Issac is building all sorts of things and intent on beating Mario Galaxy on his own. We are spending a lot of time listening to audio books together, playing games together, talking together.
Picnic at the pond
Me? Aside from all the cleaning and rearranging going on (lots of re-purposing and getting rid of which I find a quick way to beat the urge to go buy something new. ) Now that the website issues have been dealt with I have been free to work on painting (trying acrylics still. It is interesting but maybe I am getting somewhere?) I am doing less reading and spending time on the computer (due to eyesight issues) and more listening to audio books which means I am being more productive– I feel like I need to be doing something if I am listening to audio books. And since the cd player is in the kitchen and we are being VERY frugal in our meals I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen cleaning, rearranging, and baking. Yesterday it was no-bake cookies (naturally sweetened, carob, peanut butter, coconut, and oatmeal), homemade granola bars (naturally sweetened with oatmeal, cranberries, peanut butter, cocoa nibs, coconut, flax seed), and lots and lots of bread dough. The day before I chopped all the raw veggies in the house, making a nice salad mix and freezing the rest. Oh, and I finished a painting–a commission by my sister-in-law for her employers. 
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The Hobbit
Dragon spell