Telling Her Story

Dry times.  Thirsting for activity or an idea or love or something that you can't quite put your finger on at the moment, and even though you don't know what it is you are looking for, you instantly recognize it when you stumble across it. 

Tonight in my fellowship group we were given a Personality-Based Evangelism Assessment to complete and then analyze.  (This assessment is used as a guide to help us understand better how we can use our personalities to relay the Gospel to others.  We're not all Billy Graham's, although we--the Church at large-- sometimes thinks we have to be.)  My husband and I enjoy taking personality assessments of any kind.  Often after we finish, we swap papers and answer as the other person.  We'll circle differences and discuss them.  Sometimes we are a little tickled.  Other times we are surprised.  We like to discuss our results and as anyone can attest who lives with an engineer, sometimes the discussions last for days as all of the data is processed. 

At any rate, I was initially surprised at the results of the assessment of my evangelism style.  As we sat and processed and reviewed and shared our styles it was brought to my attention that the story of the Woman at the Well (found in John 4) was a Biblical example of the style that I have--Storytelling.  Her example is found in vs. 39  Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony... (emphasis mine). 

Immediately after hearing that example, I knew that my thirst had been quenched.  You see, I had been itching to write/blog and couldn't think of anything that I wanted to write or that I should write.  It occurred to me in that moment of surprise to hear that I was a Storyteller, my thirst was taken away.  I had been thirsty to write. 

The wonderful way that God speaks to me though is that years ago when I came back to Christ, having wondered off the path, He used the message of the Woman at the Well to bring me to Him and to let me know that I would never thirst again.  He is the Living Water.  It is confirmation from Him, you see, to use her testimony once again.  I am still relating to her.  I do have a story to tell. 

I know that Jesus is the only person who will NEVER let me down.  I know that God is a loving Father who will never leave me.  I know that when I don't know which way to turn that the Holy Spirit is within me to guide me.

Billy Graham I will never be, but I will always have time to tell you the wonderful things He has done for me. 

Fill in the Blank

Desperate Teachers Cheerfully Astonish Lovable Dummies

If you were to ask any of my children what their favorite class was, none of them would answer Language Arts.  After today's lesson they may have changed their minds or at least moved the dial closer to the "like" mark.  The scheduled lesson was to correct a previous paper for redundancy and wordiness.  I felt like sleeping just reading the description.  I am a firm believer in editing one's own work and I realize the importance, but we needed a break.  I chose the optional lesson today. 

Each student was to write an article based upon something that happened this morning.  As every good journalist knows, they were required to include the 5 W's and an H.  To their relief they only had to write one to two paragraphs.  Next they identified each noun, adjective and adverb.  From that point they were allowed to create their own skeleton for a Mad Lib from their original article.  What fun! 

To wrap things up, I broke out my Mad Libs card game.  Each card has either a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.  For each round, players are asked to use their cards to create grammatically correct sentences.  The sentences do not need to make sense.  Each round requires different sentence lengths.  For example, round 1 requires one 4-word sentence and one 6-word sentence.  The game is similar to gin.  The first to lay down all of their sentences wins a bonus for being first and the other players get a point for each card that they used to complete a sentence.  There is also a "Ten Card Rule" that states any sentence using all ten cards in your hand for one sentence automatically trumps other hands and scores double.  We didn't have any ten card sentences, but we did have some impressive and very silly sentences.

These are the days that I love homeschooling.  I am so very blessed to be able to spend this precious time with my children.  What better lesson to teach than the love of learning.

Day Late but not a Valentine Short

C's Valentine Card

Hubby is out of state on business, so the kids and I celebrated Valentine's Day with him over the phone.  I did get to capture some good times with the boys in the fresh snow before school started and I sent some pictures to B to enjoy.  I never did get around to sharing them with all of YOU!  (Daughter Dear opted to spend the morning in bed instead of playing with us.) 

Two smiling faces.

It is hard to see in the picture, but C formed a heart with snow.

Hope that you all had a very special day.  And as H says, "I heart you!"

2nd Sock

Left sock is the 1st sock.  Right side is the 2nd.  See the ridge on the first sock?

 I finished my first pair of socks yesterday afternoon.  How comfy!  I would like my next pair to be patterned, so I am practicing using a chart.  I'll keep you posted!

1950s Social

Last night daughter and I went to an American Heritage Girl Mother/Daughter Ice Cream Social with a 1950s theme.  (WHEW!  What a mouthful!  Title.  NOT ice cream!) We dressed up in our best 50's attire (see picture) and spent the evening having fun Splishin' and a Splashin' to period music, sampling many toppings on our ice cream, making a fun craft and competing for best outfits.  We did not win the contest, that prize went to a mother/daughter team that had matching tops and poodle skirts.  They ended up having a 50's dance-off, so I'm kind of glad that KR and I did not make it to the final round.  See if you can tell what the craft is from the photo.  I'm not telling since some of you may end up with one in your mailbox come Valentine's Day!