Encouraging Your Family’s Dreams...at Tuesday Tea

 
Welcome to another morning tea time chat!  I’m SOooo pleased that you’ve dropped by. :o)  Do grab a pretty cup..or a handy one..and pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee. I’d love to have you join us today! If you’d like to show off your pretty tea things, just link up at the bottom of this post. I’ll be sure to drop by soon to visit. :o)   

 Today I’d like to chat about one of the most important roles that a wife and/or mother plays…The Family Cheerleader. I think it comes naturally for we women to encourage our family members in the pursuit of their dreams.

My mother was always my biggest fan! Years ago, I went to the county spelling bee confidently armed with a ‘good luck’ hanky (made of white fabric and covered with shamrocks) and green necklace (homemade by mom) and the assurance that she would be sitting on the front row rooting for me.  :o) PS. You're the best, Mom!

 And she was the one beaming next to me, when I went to our country's bi-centennial poetry contest in fourth grade too. By then I had written many poems. How special it was to share that anxious and enthralling moment when we heard them announce that I’d won first place! with my poem, On that Dark and Dreary Night (recreating Paul Revere's lonely ride).  There were many such moments…and all are cherished memories with Mom by my side.

'Nanamom' on the right

To this day, she finds ways to cheer me on in my creative pursuits.  (She's my most faithful reader!) She’s also rooting for my three sisters, and our many children. She’s the family expert on all of our likes, dislikes, and passions. Is it any wonder that we adore her?   If it hadn’t come naturally to me, I still believe I would have been my family’s cheerleader just by the sheer force of her loving example.  That’s what mothers do.

 

The best way to become your family’s cheerleader, is to figure out what they are good at..at a very young age.  For some of my kids this was an easy task. For some, I had to dig really deep! I wrote all about that on this post, “Discerning Your Children’s Natural Gifts”.  Once you understand their giftings, you can help equip them so that they can begin pursuing those things. 

For my oldest, Matthew, it was flying gliders (no engine in the plane!) and languages.

He’s now a Russian/Pashtu translator for the Marines.

     

For my next son, Andrew, it was a gift for nurturing…which started a never ending procession of pets and babysitting jobs. He wants to be a counselor for autistic children and is pursuing a degree in Psychology. Picture at left with a friend's baby and at right with his OWN cutie pie!

   

  Rebekah wanted to be a homemaker..and adores horses. She rode for years. She bought her own horse last year and designs her own clothes! 

          

Jacob with sister,  Rebekah at Right to Life Banquet

(Jacob won first place in the oratory contest held a couple of weeks ago.)

Jacob..has always loved adventure. He’s writing Catacomb Tales  as we speak. He’s always been sort of ‘armed and dangerous’ :o). He also loves to tell stories and talk…I had to learn to listen..ALOT! Just this week, he spoke before 200 people giving a speech at the Montgomery County Right to Life banquet.  He’s a preacher at heart. He was magnetic..and charismatic. The politician who stood up to speak after him seemed almost at a loss for words.

Afterwards, Jacob told me that he finally knew public speaking was his gift…he just doesn’t know yet where it will lead him. After driving him all over the country for speech and debate tournaments, his real dream is finally beginning to emerge. (Inside, I was secretly dancing a little jig!!)

   

Christian, our youngest, is a gifted musician... and he loves to sing…. and he loves to play sports… and take unusual photos. We have been having a lot of heart to heart talks about what direction he wants to pursue. Tim's teaching him to program...because he loves that too! Most likely, next year will see us buying a better camera and driving from choir rehearsals to classical guitar lessons…with an occasional sports days with friends thrown in. It’s ‘his’ turn at last! :o)

And Dear Hubby was not to be left out either!  After years of Tim paying for the kids’ lessons and driving them all over the place, I decided it was his turn. I secretly bought him a cello for Christmas the year before last. You can read about it here. 

I saved my money from sewing jobs to pay for not only the cello, but also five months of private lessons. I wish you could’ve seen his face when we brought out that cello! He ADORES classical music and plays the piano fairly well..but his dream..was to play the cello.    

Me? Well, my biggest dream came true when Tim paid to have my music CD produced and recorded. It’s called, “Let Your Children Dream”.  :o)

We don’t have a lot of money..but what we have…we have spent not on nice furniture or beautiful clothes or sporty cars..though the Lord has given us some of that. NO, we’ve spent it on the dreams of our children..so they can be all that “God has called them’ to be.

We can all be cheerleaders! 

One thing I want most to do, as a blogger, is to cheer you on as you pursue your dreams too!I know not everyone has a mom like mine. I CARE about YOU--really! If you need a cheerleader…well, I hope I can be that for you now and then.  :o)

How about you? Are you the family cheerleader?

I’d love to hear your story too…

I want to thank all of you who left comments on last week’s Tuesday tea post and all of my new tea drinking friends who linked up their tea parties'. It was so fun visiting your lovely blogs..and homes.  Your tea table settings were so lovely!

Natasha’s children taking tea in London, England

I so enjoyed Natasha’s post about tea times she and her family have celebrated around the world. She has posted some really lovely posts about tea time at her blog 5 minutes Just for Me.

And Wanda Lee and her friend Pam just blew me away! They’ve been hosting parties forever! Last week was their 72nd Tuesday Tea party! I was so blessed by Wanda’s sweet comments last week. I feel like such a newbie with these tea party queens! For some amazing tablescapes, you really must drop by their lovely linky party at The Plumed Pen.

Want to join in the fun? Just link up here..and drop be sure to visit all the sweet ladies who link up to see some lovely tea sets and posts.  Thanks again Rayanne for starting this lovely tea party tradition at Comin’ Home! Sure loved her fabulous photos from last week!

Linking with all of these lovely parties!

BTNOP Tablescape Thursdays

Raising Homemakers Homemaking Link up

Lady Katherine's Tea Time Tuesday

The Plumed Pen's  Tea for Two

Rose Chintz Tea Time Tuesday

Martha's Favorite Teacup Tuesday
Wanda Lee's Teapot And Tea Things Tuesday
Pam's Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday

A Delightsome Life: A Return to Loveliness

By the way, I'm linking with a really creative and unique party today at Jaime Ridler Studios. Her party is called Wishcasting Wednesday and it's there to share your dreams and wishes...seemed perfect for today's topic!

Substitute Teaching ~ A New Experience for a Homeschool Mom

 I've always suspected that it is harder to teach a whole classroom of other people's children..than just to homeschool my own--and I was right! Of course, I'm sure Aunt Joan could have told me all about that. I've always respected her ability to teach. Many classrooms full of first graders have learned to read under her patient and skilled teaching.  And now, my son, Andrew, is teaching homeschoolers in a group setting at a type of co-op school.  Elisabeth and He are visiting and sight seeing with Elisabeth's sister and brother-in-law from Germany, who are here for a week. Andrew needed someone to substitute and asked if I would be available. It is one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, but you don't have relatives from Germany every week, so of course, I said yes.  I taught on Monday and will have the whole family over on Friday evening for dinner.

I must say that although I was a little nervous, I really enjoyed myself thoroughly! I loved visiting with the kids ages 11 to 17 and teaching them. It was very similar to teaching my own five, as I have for 20 years, but there were more of them.  It was by no means easy..just familiar.  My job was just to supervise, but I answered questions, helped the children work on various difficult math problems and was pretty useless for the Geometry questions (not enough background after so many years).

The class I enjoyed most was the younger level anatomy class. Their homework was a creative writing assignment. I had a great time helping the kids aged 11-14 discuss digesting a spoonful of spaghetti and all the various organs and processes that were involved. The children were funny and engaging..and a wee bit energetic but seeing them feel a sense of accomplishment and/or relief as I helped them outline and verbalize  what they were about to write was very rewarding.  I've always loved teaching writing.

I left Christian, my own child and student, at home working under Dad's supervision. But I'm very glad I was able to experience teaching in a classroom setting. It gave me a deepened appreciation for teachers every where..and made me realize that I really do love teaching. Hmmm.. maybe.. someday?

Happy Homemaking!

Oh..and don't forget to enter my giveaway! There are only four more days to enter! I'd love to have you be a part.

A Peek into the Lives of Bees and their Keepers with Videos!!

I’ve always wanted to see how bee hives work and on the way home from Austin a couple of weeks ago, I got my wish!

Wildflowers on the roadside on the way to Austin

Thanks so much to Elizabeth Exley and her boys, Paul and Nathan, for inviting our family to stop by before heading back to Houston.

Their family hobby is beekeeping and it was fascinating to get a peek into how their bees live and what it’s like to keep bees!

Meet Paul who is the official beekeeper of the family, though his brother Nathan is very involved in the work too, as is his mother, Elizabeth.  They greeted us with dewberries straight out of their fields!

First, his mother, Elizabeth, took me to visit the bees in their natural habitat while doing what they love best--looking for nectar and bringing home pollen.

How Honey Gets It’s Flavor…explained by Elizabeth Exley.

It was quite a windy day when we went to check out the bees in the pomegranate blooms!

Here we visit a brand new colony of bees. It was a swarm that they collected and brought home. They put it in the hive, but weren’t certain that they had captured the queen bee. Without her, they colony would not survive. We didn’t get dressed up for them as we were just looking at them from a safe distance. However, they did let us know when they were bothered. One of them bumped Elizabeth. Their way of letting you know that they consider you a threat. So we scooted back!

After visiting a while, Elizabeth asked Nathan to go check this new hive and make sure everything was going well and to smoke them so we could actually look at the bees and their combs in the hive.  Elizabeth helped me get a head gear on to protect my face from bee stings. She didn’t think there would be a problem, but she wanted to be certain.

In this video, Nathan demonstrates how the smoker works. It’s the most important tool for keeping the bees at bay!

Now they get all geared up. It’s important that there are no openings where bees can crawl into your clothes.

Nathan explains what the tools he’s using to check on the hives.

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! A peek in to the hive. You will learn a lot of interesting things while watching this last video which is a little longer than the rest.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of life in a bee hive and the beekeepers who care for them. It helps us to appreciate our honey just a little bit more, when we know how it is made!

Have a great weekend!

Donna

Readers’ Q & A: Family Devotions

Q.How Do You Do Family Devotions? 
Trudy at Sewing with Trudy asked me to talk about this…so here it is! 

A. Ever since the children were very young, we have taken the time to teach our children about God and the bible. We always pray together during these times and I sometimes play the guitar and we sing a worship song together. The singing is optional for those who feel hesitant about that though. We usually sit in the living room but sitting around the dining room table and reading and praying together after supper or breakfast is a great way too… It helps to establish the habit of family devotions if you have a set time.

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Everyone’s family has a different approach to family devotions, so I could never possible say that any one method was the best. We have changed many times over the years!
When the children were small, we used devotional books geared to their age, sang simple songs and said very short prayers. :0) Tim always read a bible verse or even short passage to go with the devotional book.
When they were little older we relied on Our 24 Family Ways. It allowed more study and had a color page, memory verse, suggested activites, etc.


In middle school, we used the Character Sketches Series series which is just fantastic! You learn character qualities through nature and through famous people in the bible. The kids especially loved these books! They are pricey but worth every penny and include phenomenal drawings and amazing science facts too. They are really almost encyclopedic in size! Each one would last a year.

And in their early teens, we have read chapter by chapter through the  in their Old Testament, and then we switched to the New Testament when they were in high school. That’s when we got into apologetics in a more serious way.

Sometimes, I lead if Tim can’t, but most of the time Tim leads.  We always ask them what they think and when they are done, we share what we feel they need to understand about the passage as well. I have to say we have some very interesting theological discussions!  This is a great time to teach them why they believe what they believe.

Singing worship songs during a break at an NCFCA tournament.

Honestly, to tell you the truth, they no longer all agree with all of our ‘particular’ doctrinal positions nor our standards. As far as we are concerned, by the time they are older teens, that is their decision. Of course, they had to respect our standards at home, but we allow a lot of freedom for them to listen to what God is saying to them. We want it to be their faith…not ours.  There’s an old saying that I find to be very true…

God has no ‘grandchildren’…only children. We want them to ‘own’ their faith!

Suggestions for How to Do Family Devotions:
Any or all of these things could be part of your family’s group devotional time just as they are or have been in ours.

• Start by praying and asking the Lord to help everyone listen to what he is trying to say to you through this passage. 

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  Sing a worship song appropriate to your kids’ age.  Like Wee Kids Tapes or Videos, music on the radio, hymns that you play on the piano, contemporary music you play on the guitar…etc. (I even write worship songs which you can find here.) I loved to let the kids ‘help’ play sometimes. Get instruments that they can use to join in. Now my kids are old enough to lead the music themselves, since they play guitar too—all five of them in fact!

•   Read a devotional story geared towards your children’s age group. 

This was our favorite devotional book when the children were Pre-School age…this 1971 version uses real famous art masterpieces in every picture! For those of you wanting to introduce your children to art, this adds an extra benefit!

Some suggested devotionals: The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon...online, Max Lucado Daily Devotions

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  Read a bible passage and discuss it. Ask the children what it means to them.  Most good devotional books will have questions you can ask. Ask the kids how you can DO the things you just TALKED about.
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  Ask if anyone would like you to pray for them today. Discuss people you know who need prayer especially friends and family. Ask each child to pick one person to pray for. You and or hubby, pray for the children as a way to close the prayer time.
   

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  You can start a family prayer journal to record requests and God’s answers as they have happened! It will build their faith in a way that nothing else can. We’ve yet to have an unanswered prayer!The miracles God has done in our lives are a huge part of our family’s history and heritage.

Our favorite resource when the children were school age!

• Memorize a verse and write it down. Tape it to the fridge for everyone to see and work on.

If you are married and don’t have children, or if you have young adult children preparing for the day they will get married, then the very best book for daily devotions I have ever read is The Love Dare. It will help you really learn how to build your relationship with each other. 

I wish they would write it for families!! We’ve been using it for our teens and I just paraphrase it as I go, to make it as applicable as possible. It’s really helped me kids understand how to treat each other  and others the way they should. It spells out what Love, the heart of real life in Christ, is supposed to be and how it should look as you live with those around you.  Jacob, my 17 yr. old, said that the best devotional he’s ever read to help him through the struggles of older teen life is Every Young Man’s Battle. They also have Every Young Woman’s Battle as well. These would be good to do one on one with a parent and child, especially since the go into some very adult topics. You might want to pre-view these before buying just to make sure that is the direction you want to head.

There are many other things you can do, but these ideas should help you get started. 

There are so many good resources that I’d love to have you guys comment with your favorites so that others could get them too. We are only one family and our kids are older. Tell me how you do family devotions!



Another Answer to Why Do You Home School?

Country Mama of Life and Love in the Country wrote..

This is one of my favorite sites and there was an article in this week's newsletter I thought you might like to read. I really enjoyed it.
http://www.homestead.org/SheriDixon/Homeschooling/HomeschoolingfortheHomesteader.htm
Country Mama
Country Mama is the reader who asked my why I home schooled with prompted the long post I wrote in response.  You can read that post here. But I have to say her link leads to a really good answer with some other angles to the question. Check it out if you have questions!  She also writes very interesting articles that I think are very hopeful to new homeschoolers on her blog, like this one about their first trip to a home school book fair.

 

Just a quick reminder, that I'm gone to a tournament with the kids and can't get to the internet except to check emails via my Ipod..maybe...   I'll be home Sunday evening. :o) This is a previously scheduled post. :o)