Random Updates

Yep - I did it again. I disappeared. Things have just been hectic! Why?

I'm babysitting again. He's adorable, but he's ONE and he's walking. ;) We're having a ball with him but it's made for a busier day than I'm used to so I started cutting down on my internet time. Way down.

I've also started taking two classes online. I'm having the time of my life! I'm homeschooling myself. :snort: I was a student when I married and through life timing I needed to be a mom instead of a student when my little one was born. Then, because of additional timing, when I was in school a second time I needed to be a mom so I left school again. And... yet a third time after my husband and I were married and I was homeschooling our older girls I was taking classes for medical transcription. Because of some health issues that we had to deal with for one of our girls I needed to be a mom and not a student. I'm hoping that FOURTH time is a charm! These classes aren't to provide me with any certificate, diploma, or job. They are to feed my mind and my soul. I'm currently in my second unit of the Family Herbalist course through Vintage Remedies. Jessie Hawkins is an amazing Christian woman who teaches herbalism through a variety of topics such as prevention, holistic nutrition, anatomy, traditional herbal remedies and preparations, and more. It fits with my nutty-crunchy side perfectly. And, it is taught from a Christian perspective rather than the typical slant that ignores the hand of God.

I'm also taking a class called Understanding Differing Worldviews: An Introduction to Philosophy taught by Tim Hegg through Torah Resource. Mr. Hegg is a wonderful author, and I have several of his books on my shelf. (I'm ashamed to say that some I haven't read just yet!) I've just started it but it looks very promising. I have to admit that I'm slightly behind in listening to the audio portions of the class, but with only two weeks behind me I'll be able to listen tomorrow afternoon and catch up easily. The Consequence of Ideas by R.C. Sproul is the text used as the base, though we are also reading various source documents such as Plato's Republic. I originally thought that this would be something wonderful to use as a base for any worldview education that I might start with our daughter now that she's 11, but I'm finding that it's really helping me put my foundational thinking into words. I'm having such fun using my brain! Now, if I could only get my memory to kick into gear! The classes at TR seem to be great quality, and as a perk they are offered free if you choose to audit them. You don't receive the certificate at the end of class, but you don't have the term paper assignments and tests to complete either! Since I'm feeding my own mind I don't mind not having a certificate. I'll believe myself when I say that I completed it. :)

In theory I hope to update as I move through both of these studies. We'll see what it looks like in practice!

We've also had such a blessing recently as we've begun to observe a seventh day Sabbath in our home. I'm having such a great time spending time with my family in study and prayer, and we've really seen a true blessing in short order simply from setting aside time to intentionally stop and turn ourselves to the Lord. We've struggled with whether or not we should take this step for a while, but we've actually made purposeful steps towards it over the last two weeks. I'll write a separate post on this, but just so I don't have concerned folks sending me notes that I need not be legalistic, I'll share that we don't feel it necessary to maintain Rabbinic tradition. We are receiving the blessing that the Lord made for us through the Sabbath, not feeling led to do so for any requirement of salvation.

27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

I hope this update finds everyone well - and that there are still people out there checking on my blog every now and again. In a hope to be more organized I'm going to try to start using the draft function here so that I can spend a few minutes working on one post rather than feeling like I can post if I don't have time to enter a complete note. Again, we'll see if I can keep up with it!

There's more to update everyone on, but we can't throw it all out there at once, now can we?