Womack/Lewis Engagement

Seth and Andrea are getting married in October, and we got to go out a few weeks ago and take their engagement pictures. You can go to my PHOTO BLOG for more pictures of them! :)

Prayers of The Stress Impaired

Click HERE for another funny blog article on prayers for the stress impaired! :) Too funny!

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

I ran across THIS funny post while randomly searching blogs this morning. I have to wake up before I get going! :) Enjoy.

The New Miley Cyrus

I have to admit, I am saddened. I was hoping this day wouldn't come. I was hoping we were just being over-protective...but here we are. I'm sure some of you have heard about the new upcoming Vanity Fair spread with Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus. In one of the pictures, she's wrapped in a silk bedsheet, exposing her back. It's just too risque, and she's only fifteen. But, if you look further on the internet, there are pictures of her in even more risque settings. I won't link to them, because they are linked to worse stuff. Here's a bloglink with a picture from the Vanity Fair spread and one other from Myspace-with a warning that she is pulling down her shirt and showing her bra in one picture. You can do a google search for yourself for the rest, if you need. It's really disheartening for me. I've heard so much about her strong, Christian family...so much about her strong upbringing...so much about how sweet and pure she is. She's young, and there is so much out there for her right now trying to pull her in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, she's not continuing to uphold the wholesome image she shows in her Disney show. Let's keep her in our prayers, but let's continue to be wise as serpents when it comes to who we have as role models for our children.

York Wedding

Well, I'm finishing up my pictures for the York wedding that took place on March 29, 2008. What a blessing it was to be able to photograph their wedding day. They are a fun, young, Godly couple. I've got some sneak peeks posted here on my photo blog.

If you are in for a tear-jerker, then read:

Confessions of a Pastor: To Seth, on His Wedding Day

It's a blog post to Seth, the groom, from his father, Dr. Hersael York. I just read it and still can't stop crying! What a beautiful insight to a father's love for his son.

Working on my photo blog

Well, if it's not enough for me to keep up one blog...I'm trying to keep up two. And, I haven't been doing too great at keeping up either! :) Sorry, folks...contrary to popular belief, us homeschool moms DO have a life! (so many jean jumpers to sew...so little time!) :) Anyhow, I tried updating my photo blog a bit today. I'll keep working on it and getting everything on there I need to.

All's good here. Overall, we had a good day. Started out doing school, then the neighbor boys showed up to play. (they are off for TWO weeks for spring break!) So, we played most of the rest of the day. The kids did come back in and finish English later in the afternoon. Shane decided to take the kids to Dairy Queen when he got home. I opted not to go for fear of bowing to the god (little "g") of the blizzard, who-by the way-hates my back side! :) (or loves it, whichever way you look at it) So, Nehi and I stayed home and ate a 2-point ice cream bar. It was good! Then, I worked out later to burn if off, since I am following the Core program this week. (basically, fruits, veggies, lean meats, and ww pasta) Why can't carbs be better for you? They are just so doggone good! Kids are in bed, Shane is laughing hysterically at something he's watching on his laptop, and I'm in here trying to catch you all up on our lives!

Well, I got my "Desperate Housewives Passionate for God" book the other day. Look forward to reading it. I'm sure you'll hear more from it soon. My friend, Cari-who comes over on Tuesdays, and I are going through "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace together. I did this study before I was married, and was even convicted then. It's been good this second time around, too. So much to learn. So many areas to grow in. Thank God for his grace!

By the way...yes, that is my son in a dress. But, it was my dress when I was a little girl, and he does look pretty cute in it! I know he will grow up with "issues." But, like my friend Kathleen said to me once (and she has six kids-she should know!), "If you don't give your children a reason to go to therapy when they are older, you haven't done your job as a mother." Truly, it's a motto I try to live by! :)

Okay, I'm gonna go pop some popcorn and have a diet soda. Yes, I know it's 11:00pm, but it's 94% FF popcorn. Hardly a splurge! :)

A little Easter Humor

Ode To Manwich

So, today we were reading our chapter in "Leading Little Ones To God." It's a great book for the kids that I highly recommend. We use it in our Bible time, reading it one chapter a day. In each chapter, there are words to a hymn. I rarely recognize the hymns, but Shane always makes up his own tune to sing to the girls. They always get a kick out of that. Well, this morning, I decided to sing the words of the unknown-to-me-hymn to the tune of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." I was singing and Myra said, "Hey, I know that song." Then, she began to sing, "Manwich, Manwich, we adore thee..." :) Gave me a good laugh! Maybe we need to start singing more hymns? :)

I Love My Sister...

We had a rough day a couple weeks ago with loving each other here at The McGrath Homeschool. One of us was having trouble with selfishness, the other with our words, so we did a little project! :)

Home

I was reading a new post at a friend's blog this morning. She's been reading a book by Voddie Baucham and posted this quote from the book. It really ministered to me. I want my home to be this way, and I know I have oh so far to go.....

"Our homes must be rife with the aroma of love. Those who visit us should notice immediately that they have left the world of self-serving, egocentric narcissism and have entered a safe harbor where people value and esteem others above themselves. Outsiders should enter our homes and never want to leave. Our neighbors should find excuses to visit us just to get another whiff of the fragrant aroma of love. The brokenhearted should long to be near us. The downtrodden and the abused should seek us out. Families on the brink of disaster should point to us and say, "Why can't our home be like that?"

Homesick!

When I was pregnant with Nehemiah, I struggled with car-sickness more than normal, and was always chewing mint gum to help. My kids caught on to this, and began to mysteriously have "car-sickness" every time they rode in the car, so they could have gum!

This morning Lizzie was sitting at the kitchen table working on her math and asked for a piece of gum. I told her "no" and she said, "but, mom, I'm homesick!" :)

My husband has talent!

So, my husband goes to Seattle, and he gets me this wonderful gift! Yes, Nunzilla was a gift for me, his wife of almost eleven years. Girls, I am a lucky woman! He and Andrew made this wonderful video, and it's just so amazing, I had to share! :) I'm so proud...

Good Article On Homeschooling

Here's a good article on homeschooling and the California decision by our good friend, Brad Mills, who currently lives in California.

Day In The Life...Photos...Baby Boy!

Day In The Life...Photos...Chores!

Now, you have to admit that it takes talent to make your bed this way! :)

Yes, folks this is my laundry bin...and I have three...and they always look like this! I am never caught up. Laundry is the bain of my existence! (okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I really always have so much laundry to do). There, I've confessed.

Day In The Life..Photos...Fingernail Painting!

Well, it's a cold, snowy day here in Kentucky. We are supposed to get up to 6 inches of snow...I'll believe it when I see it! It's never as bad as they say here. I'd say we have less than in inch now. Anyhow, thought it would give me some time to finish posting my pictures from our "day in the life" series...yes, it's a series now! :) Hope you all are warm and dry and comfy in your pjs like we all are here. I'm still trying to get the kids to get some math done, but that's going rather slowly! :)

An 18 inch miracle

I found this story off of Amy's Humble Musings blog. A 28 inch woman gave birth to an 18 inch baby. I didn't cry til the end, when her husband started talking. Life is beautiful!

So funny...Mom my van!

Okay, one of my dearest friends, Carrie, in California has succumbed to motherhood and gotten a minivan...which she swore she would never do. In honor of this, her husband posted this video to his blog. I laughed so hard I cried! I have to admit...I have seen a few like this in person! MINIVANS ROCK! It's really helped me to not get "hit on" so much since we got one.....or the fact that I haul around three kids with me all the time! :) Actually, I never really got "hit on." I'm going to stop now. I'm starting to make myself all insecure.

He's Home....and I need to grow in sanctification!

He's home. My Shane is home! After a long, hard week without him, he is a breath of fresh air to me! He walked through that door, and I just fell into his arms. I love being married to a Godly man.

While he was gone, I did not do so well. I struggled-hard-in so many areas. I didn't even know I missed him so much (apart from missing help with the kids!), until I saw him. It melted my heart! I may be accused of being co-dependent...that's fine with me. I admit that I need my other half.

I hate struggling. I hate failing. I hate being depressed. I hate giving into sin. I hate feeling defeated and giving into my emotions. I want to grow in sanctification. Romans 6:11 says, "You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." To give up and feel defeated is the same as denying the truth of the scripture.

I'm not talking about perfectionism, the view that 'sinless perfection is possible in this life.' But, I'm talking about reckoning myself dead to sin. Realizing that sin, even the sin of allowing emotions to control me, no longer has a hold on me. Sin is no longer my master. I know "God is at work in (me), both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13)

Sanctification is primarily a work of God in our lives, but we play a part, too. We must depend on God to sanctify us, but we are to actively take a role in which "we strive to obey God and take steps that will increase our sanctification." (Grudem) We are to "strive...for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord!" (Heb. 12:14) We are also called to "abstain from immorality" and obey the will of God (1 Thess. 4:3) We are to hope to be like Christ. "We are to continually build up patterns and habits of holiness.." (Grudem) This, as we all know, comes only through Bible reading, meditation, prayer, worship, witnessing, Christian fellowship, and self-control. It's about trusting God and being obedient to His word.

I desire to be conformed to the image of Christ in every area of my life. Boy, am I so far from that! And, I get so easily defeated. I've just been going through a really dry period of life in my personal walk. I have been learning, but I've felt so weak to the attacks of the enemy. I've struggled with depression and let it get the best of me. I've been praying alot about this, and I feel like the Lord just keeps wanting to teach me about sanctification and how it works. I can say it's nothing I do, but it is. I must be on my guard, staying in His word, building up habits of holiness...and yet it's only by His grace. "Sometimes the popular phrase, 'Let Go and Let God', is given as a summary of how to live the Christian life. But this is a tragic distortion of the doctrine of sanctification, for it only speaks of one half of the part we must play, and, by itself, will lead Christians to become lazy and to neglect the active role that scripture commands them to play in their own sanctification." (Grudem)

Motives for obeying God...(1) a desire to please Him (John 14:15) ; (2) to need to keep a clear conscience before Him (Rom. 13:5); (3) the desire to be a vessel for noble use/have increased effectiveness in the work of the kingdom (2 Tim. 2:20-21); (4) the desire to see other come to Christ by observing our lives (1 Peter 3:15-16); (5) the desire to receive present blessings from God on our lives and ministries (1 Peter 3:9-12); (6) the desire to avoid God's displeasure on our lives (2 Cor. 7:1); (7) the desire to seek greater heavenly reward (Matt. 6:19-21); (8) the desire for a deeper walk with God (Matt. 5:8); (9) the desire for peace and joy (Phil. 4:9/Heb. 12:1-2); (10) the desire to do what God commands simply because his commands are right and we delight in doing what's right (Phil. 4:8) (from Grudem's Bible Doctrine)

"The more we grow in likeness to Christ, the more we will personally experience the 'joy' and 'peace' that are part of the fruit of the Spirit, and the more we will draw near to the kind of life that we will have in heaven...This is the source of true joy...As we grow in holiness, we grow in conformity to the image of Christ, and more and more of the beauty of his character is seen in our own lives." (Grudem)

I look forward to Christ's return or the end of my life on earth, when my sanctification will be complete. "At his coming, we will be made alive with a resurrection body and then we shall fully 'bear the image of the Man of Heaven.' " (Grudem) For now, I desire to grow more in His likeness...maybe that's why it was so rough when Shane was gone. God had a lot to show me!

"So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves go God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will no longer have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:11-14

What's up with us?

So, I suppose I've been copping out a bit on the posts lately with the pictures and the videos, but somedays it's all I have time for...that, or our life is just not so interesting to post about! :)

Life has been pretty routine lately around here...just schooling, cleaning, work, nothing big. The baby was running a fever that last couple days, but seems to be okay today. We've just ended a week of the stomach bug...but are on the mend.

Shane left early this morning for Seattle to attend a pastor's conference at Mars Hill church. A group of guys went from our church. I guess they missed their check-in by six minutes this morning, though, and so are stuck in Louisiville for the day. According to him, they are at a hotel with a gun show and a group of Pentecostal ladies. Sounds like sweet revenge for leaving all us ladies home alone with the kids for a week! hee, hee.....

I might end up going to the salvage grocery store today with my friend, Cari. It's our new favorite addiction! Cheap groceries! :) Good stuff. If we go, we'll probably take the kids to McDonald's, which would bless my kids' socks off! To cut back lately, we haven't been taking them out to eat at all, and have told them they will have to wait until their birthdays for McDonald's. But, it's neat...this way it's special to them! We'll have to see about that splurge! :)

Church is going good. Shane is LOVING his new "job." He gets so excited with all the 'divine appointments' God keeps bringing him. And, he has such a heart for the people at the church. We continue to be blessed.

Well, folks, that about sums up my life lately. Other than all the pruning the Lord's been doing in my heart...but we won't get into that! :)