Blog Hop for Week 3 Stressed Less Living #Blessed

So I have just completed week 2 of my online Bible study - Stressed Less living.  One of this week's blog hop topics is "Hope from Upstream".  So today, I will be blogging about some ways our family tries to follow God's will for our lives.  

One thing we do is homeschool all four children.  This has been such a blessing for our family.  Instead of just getting into the word on Sundays, our children are surrounded by the word all day long.  Last year we joined the Advanced Training Institute and our children are now submersed in God's Word all day long.  Almost all the material we use is centered around the Bible.  We open our days with prayers.

We have just started back reading 3 chapters in Psalms and 1 chapter from Proverbs each day.  

We spend a lot of time just talking with our children.  Since my husband is a rear detachment commander with the Army Reserves, we have started going to the unit with him most days.  This lets him be engaged in what the children are doing.

We talk with them about their hopes and dreams for their future.  We talk about our expectations for their lives and we spend time in prayer.  I also spend a lot of time praying over them and for their future spouses (whoever that special person may be - if that is within God's will).  Mostly we try to just spend time engaged with one another and doing things we all enjoy.  I am hoping we get to spend some time camping this summer so we can get away from everything.

#Blessed Part 2

I have been working to complete my Week 2 assignments for my online Bible Study "Stressed Less Living".  For week 1, I began listing all the ways I am blessed.

Here is that list:

Today I want to make a list of things I am thankful for:

1) that Jesus was willing to die for my sins
2) My husband who is also my best friend
3) Our four wonderful children and my mother who lives with us and provides help and support
4) That my husband has a job
5) That we serve a God for whom nothing is impossible
6) That we are free to read our Bibles and attend church services along with homeschooling our children
7) Our family and friends who support us

Now today I want to add to our list:
8) That we have health insurance
9) That my children and I are able to go with my husband to work and complete our homeschooling there
10) All four of our children have now accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior
11)  That we found a house to live in when we moved last August and have our home rented out currently
12)  That 6 of us are participating in a Beginner Band at our church
13)  That my children will be able to attend Music Camp through the Salvation Army this summer - three will be going on their new to them Brass instruments while my oldest goes for guitar.
14)  That my daughter and I are learning Timbrels together
15)  That we are able go to the YMCA as a family to work out and take care of our bodies that God blessed us with 


So as you can see again this week, we are truly blessed.  Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the negatives all around us instead of looking for the good.  This week, I plan to strive to look for the good and concentrate on those things.

#Blessed and what I hope to gain from the Stressed Less Living Bible Study

I am participating in an online Bible Study for the book called "Stressed Less Living" and today I am participating in the first blog hop for this study.

Boy is this book coming at the perfect time.  There is so much going on in our lives right now between my husband's job requiring a lot of extra hours and a lot of extra travel time away from the family.  Add in my oldest still have stomach issues and joining a new church plus considering a possible career change and that adds up to a lot of stress.  I hope to improve my ability to turn this all over to God and let him be my strength, my comfort, my rock.

Today I want to make a list of things I am thankful for:

1) that Jesus was willing to die for my sins
2) My husband who is also my best friend
3) Our four wonderful children and my mother who lives with us and provides help and support
4) That my husband has a job
5) That we serve a God for whom nothing is impossible
6) That we are free to read our Bibles and attend church services along with homeschooling our children
7) Our family and friends who support us


As you can see I have a lot to be thankful for.  I am blessed beyond measure.  Even when there are hard times, we can rely on God to see us through.   I can look back at my life and see the one set of footprints where Jesus carried me through the trials.

Update on our family

Well we have had an exciting week.  On Easter Sunday, Dennis and I became Senior Soldiers in our Salvation Army Corp.  Rebecca and Nathan became Junior Soldiers.  The older two are taking the Senior Soldier class, but have not made a commitment yet.  

Then on Tuesday nights, I am attending Home League (their Women's group).  After that, Rebecca and I learning Timbrels (tambourines).  Finally on Thursday night, we attended the Beginning Band class at the Salvation Army.  Dennis, Nathan and Rebecca are going to be learning the coronet.  I am playing the Alto horn (similar to the French horn which I played in High School).  Joseph is learning the Baritone and Jacob is learning the Bass. 

Dennis and I are teaching the Young Adult Sunday School class (basically anyone out of high school up to our ages).

We are still working on homeschooling and our other activities as well.  Dennis is preparing for his AT in June.

This summer all four children will be attending the Salvation Army Music Summer camp.  So life keeps on moving here.

Well life has been rather exciting around here.  Jacob has not been doing really well.  We have had a couple of rough weeks.  Around the first of the year, we found a church finally.  We are attending the local Salvation Army Corps.  Dennis, myself, my mom and our older two are participating in the Senior Soldier class, the preparation class to become members of the church.  The younger two are taking the Jr. Soldier class.  Both of them have made the commitment to become Jr. Soldiers - meaning they are becoming junior members of the church once they complete the course.

Two weeks ago, Dennis and I attended a couples' retreat for the Salvation Army.  It was such a blessing for us.  We learned a lot and truly were blessed by the experience.  We are investigating the potential of becoming officers in the Salvation Army.  We feel this is where the Lord is leading us.

Once a month we are serving lunch during the Corps' More than Bread program.  We have really enjoyed it.  The older three are involved in the Youth Group there.  Dennis and I are teaching an Adult Sunday School class together.  Dennis and the three boys have been invited to participate in their Men's Group.  I am participating in the Home League.  Rebecca and I are starting to learn the Timbrels (tambourines but very choregraphed and all).  Plus Rebecca plans on becoming part of their Mime group.  The Mime groups takes Christian songs and choregraphs movements to it.  We saw our first performance of it last Sunday.

We are waiting to hear what decision the Boy Scouts of America makes in May.  We will be leaving the organization if they change the standards for Boy Scouts.   The children are doing fantastic with Young Marines.  They are really enjoying themselves and really advancing.

Wednesday

     Well it is Wednesday - the middle of the week.  Jacob has a rough two weeks.  The pancreatic enzyme test came back normal, so I don't know where that means we go from here.  We go back to see the Pediatric GI doctor in April.  Hopefully, we will find out then what happens next.  It is just so frustrating to see him feeling miserable and not be able to do anything about it.

     Dennis and I are going to a couples' retreat this weekend.  I am really looking forward to getting away with no army or other things to distract us.  

    The four children have Young Marines on Saturday.  Hopefully, they will have a great day.  Jacob is in charge of the squad with the new recruits and he might get some new people this weekend.

Let. It. Go, Blog Hop for Week 5 - What-EVER

So we are now in Week 5 of the online Bible study - Let. It. Go. by Karen Ehman.  This week we looked at Soul Control and What-ever.  Soul Control means we give God sole control over our lives.  It certainly is not easy, but the rewards are tremendous.  Also, we talked about "What-ever".  

There are times when it is so easy to want what someone else has, does or looks like.  It is easy to get into a pattern of being discontent by looking others.  In these days of social media, television, and other advertising, we are bombarded with opportunities to compare our lives to others.  Often, I find myself wishing my life, my children or even my husband was like someone else.  But then God sends me a reality check.  God put me here for a reason and made me exactly as I am.  It is not for me to understand.  But I am to bloom where I am currently planted.  

This time last year, I was living in a different place under much different circumstances.  Fast forward a year, God moved our family a couple of hours from where we are living.  But I know now that God had a divine purpose for this move.  Just like He had a divine plan when He allowed our son 6 years ago to be put in a classroom with a teacher that made it impossible for us to leave our son in that situation.  This was the way He opened the door to us homeschooling.  The first year we just taught our oldest at home while our youngest got some teaching at home after preschool and her one day off a week.  That year we lived in military housing and our youngest three attended the local school on the installation.  But by the end of that year, we were moving off the installation and had decided to bring all the children home.  The road has often not been exactly what I wanted, but I have seen our family grow in ways I could not have imagined.  

Four years ago this past November, we moved from what had been home for over 16 years to me and all of my childrens' lives since birth.  We went from having an active homeschool group and a church that truly was family (all the members were related to my husband somehow - most were aunts, uncles and cousins, along with his parents and grandfather) to a new state with no real support system for homeschooling.  Yet our family blossomed and grew together.  Also, we eventually found a church that became our extended family.  It was at this new church that our oldest two accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and were baptized by their father with their grandparents and one of their aunts in the congregation (my husband's parents and his aunt came all the way from North Carolina).  Because we were faithful to what God would have us do, God blessed our efforts.  

Now we have moved again and had to find another church and find other new activities. Almost the moment my husband took command of his detachment, his unit was activated to go help with the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.  It was a difficult time for me.  We had no church, no family and no support system.  Our unit had no family readiness group to speak of and communication with my husband was spotty at best.  During those days, it was easy to doubt God's plan at times.  It was easy to compare my circumstances with others.  But instead, it brought me much closer to God along with becoming closer to my husband and children.   It was during those days I realized how much I needed to rely on God and Let. It. Go.  These have been my "What-ever" times.  God is faithful to those who are faithful to Him.  I know God does not make mistakes, so I just need to give Him control and realize "To everything there is purpose under Heaven".