On Mission to Guatemala

Soon, Todd and Anna will be leaving for a trip to Guatemala. While they are there, they will be ministering to the needs of the widows and the people of a particular village. We support a little girl, named Jessica, through World Vision. I wonder if she lives close to where they will be?

While they are away ministering to those needs, I will be at home, ministering to the needs of another once Guatemalan Orphan, now an American - McGuire. We are truly in love with the people of Guatemala, and the country.

While they are in Guatemala, Todd will be helping other men build a small cinder block home for a widow and her children. The home is something you might build out back to store your garden tools and lawn mower. But, for her, it will be home, and she will be most grateful! The home will then be dedicated to the Lord as the local Pastor (whom they will be working with while they are there) prays with the woman and her children. The other residents of the village will surely be looking on.

Anna will be working with the women, doing crafts and Bible activities with the children of the village who will show up to see what is going on at the construction site. Other women who are going will be teaching a ladies Bible study on the book of Ruth.

Last, but certainly not least, those going to work on behalf of Christ for our brothers and sisters in another Country will have the humbling pleasure of washing the feet of these villagers who will travel to be involved in the "Happy Feet" ministry. During this time, they will be fitted for shoes. For many of those who come this will be the first pair of shoes they've ever owned. This is almost unbelievable to me, but I have seen their poverty in person. It is heartbreaking. These people who can be reached in 2 and half hours by plane from Miami live in a way we cannot imagine. To those of you who are helping out by donating shoes for them to take with them, thank you so much!!

Please be in prayer for them as they collect shoes, travel to and from, minister to the needs of these people and share the love of Christ with them by meeting their everyday - practical needs.

And, pray for the little Guatemalan Princess and I as I meet her everyday needs here at home - because of Christ. Adoption is one of the hardest processes I've ever gone through (taking 16 months to complete), but it is one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced in my life. If it is something God has ever laid on your heart to do, DO IT!! Praise God that He adopted us and we are now Sons and Daughters of the King of Kings!!!!

To see what the mission trip will be like for them, visit http://www.impacto-luismartinez.org/ .

Abiding in His grace,
Lori

Homeschool books and supplies for sale

Hi Everyone:

The time of the yard sale this Saturday is 7:30 a.m. - 3:00ish p.m.
I've gotten most everything sorted and am beginning to price the items. This is a multi-family sale and I would guess we will have just about everything imaginable!! Specifically for those of you who homeschool and are looking for resources for the upcoming year(s), I have made a list for you of some of the items below:

I currently have for sale:
* Math U See - Beta (Includes: Teacher's Manual, DVD, Student Text with a few pages used and Student Test Book - unused), and Gamma (Includes Teacher's manual and DVD) Delta (Includes: Teacher's Manual, DVD, Test Booklet - used tests 1-10 of 30, Student Text - used lessons 1-10 of 30).
* Prima Latina - Latin Curriculum
* Veritas Press - 1st in the series Creation to ...
* Muzzy Spanish Program
* Power Glide Spanish Program
* Other miscellaneous Spanish programs
* Greenleaf guides
* Teacher's Manual for Modern Curriculum Press Math (C) which is 3rd grade.
* Some Bible items - Magnify New Testament for Kids, Bible Alive on CD, etc...
* Dozens of unused workbooks for individual subjects as well as Full-Curriculum workbooks for grades 2, 3, 4, and 5.
* Lots of miscellaneous children's books for reading level 3rd to 6th grade.
* A World of Adventure unit study for Grades 4-8 (This was fantastic and loads of fun to do!!!)
* Several Science Experiment boxed sets new/unused
* Math and language arts daily drills workbooks
* Educational games including 3rd grade curriculum game covering all subjects, puzzles, quiz cards, flash cards for several subjects.
* (2) Sets of hard back National Geographic children's science books (mostly about animals)
* And LOTS More!!!

Email me if you have any specific questions, or need directions to the sale - THIS SATURDAY, JULY 25th, 7:30 a.m. until 3:00 or so. The sale will be in the Chelsea/Westover area. On Highway 280, just passed Chelsea Park and Hwy 51. Left side of the highway, up on a slight hill. Sale put on by the Competition Team members at Dancing at Tiffeny's Center For the Arts, located beside The Appliance Doctor.

Hope to see you there on Saturday,
Lori

Children Have Their Own Angels!!!!

I have been reading through the book of Matthew recently. Having read it many times, I enjoy the familiarity of the passages, but I always love being reminded of something I'd forgotten or hadn't thought about lately.

Today, I was in chapter 18, one of my favorite chapters as it teaches us as Believers how to handle conflict with one another. I have referred to it on more occasions than I care to admit. I seem to find myself in the midst of my own conflicts often enough, but am also drawn into other's conflicts at times when I must counsel them. I always use the important principles found in Matthew 18:15-35.

That is not what struck me as I read today. Rather I was reminded of something we have told our oldest daughter, now 12, as she's grown up. When she was younger she would sometimes be afraid to go to bed, scared of the dark, etc... So Todd would always remind her of Matthew 18 vs. 10, which says, "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels, always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

WOW!!! Our precious children have angels who are currently in the presence of our God. Now that is amazing to me!!! Great news!!! What a relief that is to me - the worrier - that God has it covered. Does that mean nothing bad will ever happen to my children, or that they won't make bad decisions or do bad things? Emphatically, "NO!" However, I still know that God is watching over them, even during those times too.

When we were dealing with the nighttime fears, we took another scripture and framed it and it sits on her nightstand. Psalm 4:8 "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety."

Abiding in His grace as I travel this parenting road,
Lori

Mobilizing the Church to meet the needs of the hungry and homeless

Recently, Todd read a book entitled The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. Richard is the CEO of World Vision, and in his book, he explains our obligation as followers of Christ to meet the needs of the hungry, the poor, the dieing throughout our world. He read me pages of excerpts to the point that I had to ask him to stop because I was so overwhelmed by the vastness of the need, and the feeling of being unable to affect change that would really be of any help.

As a family, we are moving forward this year in an effort to "do our part", so to speak, to become more mindful of those who are hurting and less focused on ourselves, our stuff, and obtaining more stuff to fill up our already overstuffed house!

So, to that end, we chose a specific curriculum this year to use with Anna that focuses on the World as a whole and the varying cultures throughout it. The curriculum, published by My Father's World, is called Exploring Countries and Cultures, and will essentially take us all over the World to examine the people groups and their needs both physical and spiritual. The curriculum is written by former missionaries who are involved in Bible translating.

As God's Providence would have it, I stumbled across a non-Christian resource that was reviewed in the most recent issue of Practical Homeschooling magazine. The book, published by "Free Spirit", is called A Kids' Guide to Hunger and Homelessness - How to Take Action! At a short 44 pages in length, it is filled with ideas that children can be a part of in order to help those in need. Included are ideas such as - gardening, holding hunger banquets, clothing banks, emergency kits, building projects, food pantries and more. This particular resource is geared towards children in 6th grade and up.

I am planning to go through each of the different ideas and information and write in with colored marker scripture verses that would go along with the material. It's important for our children to understand that we don't do this because it is the nice thing to do, or because it is a good deed, or even because if is the right thing to do. We do it because we are commanded to.

So, I just thought I would share this with you all, it would be a fantastic resource for anyone with children, whether you homeschool or not, doesn't matter. This could easily be used along with family devotional time, or just assigned to your kiddos as "summer school" to do something profitable with their time off.

If you are a follower of Christ, who desires to make a difference for those in need, in your own community and around the world, you might want to give this resource a look. It's available through http://www.freespirit.com/.

Abiding in His grace,
Lori

Homeschooling and the "Work box" method

Hi everyone:

I just had to share a little something about our homeschooling journey here for those of you homeschoolers who read my blog. We have started a modified school week (M,W,F) until everyone else starts back up in August, so that we have extra time off at Christmas, tax season (because we have our own business and I have to get everything together) and for our annual trip to the Tennessee Mountains!

A few months ago, I learned about something called the "workbox" method. After reading the book about it written by Sue Patrick (and available online at http://www.workboxsystem.com/), following many blogs, and joining several yahoo groups (one especially for those using the system with My Father's World curriculum which is our curriculum basis this year) I was sold on the "idea".

Now, for any of you who know me, I can get sold on an "idea" pretty quickly, but my follow through - well that's another story :O). So, I decided I would tread slowly and carefully into buying what I needed to set up my "system"- yeah right - I run headlong into most EVERYTHING!! I got that trait from my precious daddy, he never did anything half-way either, and he and I both shared the "dreamer" gene. I miss him dearly.

So... I bought all the stuff, set it all up, sorted out our subjects and had it all ready for Anna's first day of school - 7th grade - can you believe it!??! Here's a little peek into our homeschool day and how it went - this is a post I left on the workboxes yahoo board.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This was our first official day of 7th grade, using Workboxes!!! I have a toddler (2-1/2) who didn't know what to make of "Sissy" being at the table with all of these interesting looking things today, but overall, she's behaved so we could get the work done. (Thank God!!!)

My daughter LOVES the workboxes! She says, "It's like getting a little present in each drawer." We are using the 12"x12" stackable scrapbook drawers (pictured above).

She got everything on her list done (and the 7th grade ECC load is quite a bit, with all of the supplemental stuff), PLUS all of her chores done! I made some file folder games for the little one and she did several of those with the her during the day today too. She's spent time on the computer emailing and im-ing with friends, watched a little t.v., had some down time, and more!!!

I am truly amazed at how smoothly this day went!! All of this while I tended to laundry, finished unpacking from our recent vacation, cared for the needs of a demanding two year old, and even took a short nap!!!

I'm sold on the workbox method (or in our case work drawers)! :O)

Abiding in His grace and enjoying our homeschool journey now more than ever,

Lori Mc.

Sarah's first year to "play" putt-putt, an annual tradition that

follows dinner out on our last night at the beach.

She had a solid par 2 on every hole.

First, she put her ball down and hit it with her club.

Then, she picked it up from where ever it happened to stop and took it straight

to the hole and dropped it in. Each one being followed by, "Yea!!!"

Anytime we putted and it didn't go in the hole, she said, "Aw!!!"

It was hysterical.

The McGuire's Annual Beach trip 2009

My Niece, Sarah and Anna enjoying

an afternoon in the pool!

A little one facing a big world.

This was a great year at the beach, each year is special in its own way.

Sarah has been given a new nickname by my brother, Chris.

To him she is "Little Brown Bunny." I like that.

Happy Summer to you all,

Lori

Just Back from the Beach!

Hi Everyone:

We've just returned from our annual family trip to the Gulf Coast.

It was relaxing and refreshing and an enjoyable time with my family, my mom, my brother, sister-in-law and niece.

We played games, watched movies, played in the sand and surf and enjoyed the pool. This was the first year Sarah really enjoyed all of the activity. We even braved a water park with her for a little while one afternoon.

Enjoy the photos,
Lori