Teenager?

"Do you know what today is?" That is the sentence that Ben woke up to on Friday morning. "Our son's birthday?" he said. "No, this is the day that I have to start using phrases like, I have a teenage son... my oldest son is a teenager now.... now that BJ is a teenager... oh, you know how teenage boys are... and open a window, this room stinks to high heaven!" I kid you not when I say that I really honestly feel about 17-18 years old. My brother will gladly add that I act like it too! I wouldn't disagree with that at all. It is now oh so obvious that my son and I cannot both be teenagers and so I am at a total loss as to how to handle this!

As if it all wasn't hard enough already I bought balloons and streamers to decorate for his party with and he didn't want to decorate. My son, the one who always wants streamers and balloons... this is all happening way too soon and way too fast. He is so sweet and loves the Lord so much that I cannot help but be proud of him but... oh, how I wish he would grow all the way up at once!

My mom and dad spent the evening with us and I am glad. My mom totally understood how I was feeling (she raised four boys and then me) and I think your first one becoming a teenager is pretty universal. She had a little fun laughing at me too!

This is my son's favorite dessert, Peanut butter cheesecake! I bake the peanut butter flavored cheesecake with a Nutter Butter cookie crust and then put it over a fudge brownie bottom layer and cover it in Nutella or in this case more peanut butter.

We've left the straight and narrow....

Spiritually you can't beat the straight and narrow but for driveways... we've gone for the wide and easy! Ben finally got to play with a real Tonka and took out about 14 large stumps from all over the property. Then they re-graded the driveway and broadened things out a bit!

This is from the top of the driveway looking up toward the house.

Before....

After!


This is looking down the driveway from the same place.
Before...

After!

Those of you with two wheel drive are going to be very thankful we did this! We just about doubled the width and it is not nearly as steep.

Quick Change Weekend!

Our weekend started out with an old family friend Lee (he was close friends with my g'ma and g'pa McCoy) coming over with his tractor to help us regrade our driveway. He let the kids sit on the blade to be the weight and take little rides. He was so sweet and fun to be with. I didn't get to spend much time with my grandparents before they past so it was fun for me to hear the stories and find out more about them.

We are the proud owners of a brand new dented BBQ! We were going to get one that was not as cool (but substantially better than none... which is what we had currently) and found one that was marked down $100 because it had a dent in the back of the lid! Stayed in budget and landed an even better BBQ than we planned!

We have the sticky tiles in the kitchen and some of them were starting to come up. When I couldn't find a match... I went another direction all together. The tiles there now are grey and so I went with black and replaced the damaged ones. Then I did a few more interspersed throughout and tada!!! It really gives the floor a fun punch and cost under $10!

I have started on my garden set up and will keep you updated! I am going with a "fruits of the spirit" theme... uh, yeah... you can totally decorate a garden... watch me! LOL!

Faithful...

God gave me a very interesting word picture last night and read it or not... I am going to share it with you.

Imagine that your husband, whom had never given you reason to doubt his faithfulness or love reveals to you that some of his closest friends have been cheating on their wives and lying to cover for each other. Although he does not agree with their behavior he has allowed it to go on. He has decided to show them grace and wait for them to repent in their own time and now asks you to do the same. He assures you that they will be caught up in their own web and reminds you that he has been faithful to you and so you need not worry about what is going on in their marriages but to focus on him and continue working on strengthening your marriage with him.

Perhaps you would not have any questions at all... but I would. How can I be sure of his fidelity if they are lying to cover for each other? How can he continue to be close to these people if they are behaving this way? Don't birds of a feather flock together? How can I trust him now knowing what kind of people he chooses to associate with and care for? Isn't there a line where giving grace is code for being weak and prepping me for when I find out that he has not been honest with me?

I have had some major disappointments with some of the people that God loves and has a marriage relationship with. They are part of the bride of Christ. These are people who genuinely love the Lord and yet they have cheated and lied to protect each other. They have hurt me deeply and caused me to question my relationship with the Lord. I have asked these questions of Him in the quiet of my heart and suspected Him of all these things and more because of the way they behaved. I have treated Him like I would a human husband in the same situation, full of suspicion and mistrust. There is one BIG problem with this however. He is GOD!!!

It was like I could hear as clearly as someone sitting next to me say

"He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind". " The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". "God is love". "He will never leave me or forsake me". "God is Holy". "His Faithfulness endures from generation to generation" He has proven Himself to be just and true. He is not a man and yet I have treated Him as though it was He who broke trust when it was not. Men and women, who will never need me to forgive them for more than what Christ has forgiven me for, broke trust with me. I cannot hold Him accountable for what they have done. I must leave my worldly wisdom behind and put my faith in Him who is worthy. My mistake was not in trusting; it was placing my trust in people rather than in God. I have held the Lord at arms length and then wondered why I cannot feel the warmth of his embrace. Father forgive me.

Why We Homeschool...

The reason that we chose to homeschool is because public school didn't work for my oldest son. It wasn't a good fit and we saw very quickly that if he continued we would have results in him personally and educationally that we didn't want for him. Don't get me wrong, there were spiritual concerns as well, but they were not our only concerns. After calling the private schools and realizing that was not financially possible... we looked at homeschooling as a last ditch option. God was faithful to bring so many homeschooling parents into our life to encourage us and help us in practical ways to get started.

Homeschooling is so different now than it was even 10 or 15 years ago. There are so many options now and even the public school systems are stepping into help. We study Math, English, Science and History at home. Two days a week the kids attend an alternative program through the public school system for enrichment classes. They choose 5 classes each semester and attend each class for 1 hour twice a week. They take things like, Pod casting, Flash Animation, Robotics, and Pioneer History. The list goes on and on. Even more amazing is that the state pays us to attend. We are re-embersed $550.00 per child for their educational needs. You can use it for so many things! We use it to pay for Piano lessons, Guitar lessons and art supplies.
The curriculum that we use at home costs us about $200.00 per year for each child. That is for the four core subjects. Some people use the re-embersment money to purchase curriculum but that is not an option for us because ours is religiously based and therefor doesn't qualify.

As time has gone on and we now have 3 school age kids we still take the time each year to re-evaluate their education. At this time they all attend the alternative program and study at home. Trinity attended kindergarten at the local public school. For her it was a good fit and we have been thrilled with that decision. As the third child she really needed at that time something that was all her own and separate from the others. My point is that there is no one way to educate and there is no way that may work for all your children all the way through graduation. It is important to look at each child, each year and make the best decision for them at that time. We have found that the freedom we have by homeschooling is such a gift to our family. We are able to vacation during the off season and midweek for less money and with less crowds. We can visit friends or spend the week with grandma whenever we want or need to. We really notice the difference when someone is sick, the weather is bad, there's a family emergency, or grandpa wants to take us sailing for a week because the weather is going to be perfect!

This is all just one humble women's opinion of course but I do feel strongly about it. Our children are our greatest treasure and I believe, our first mission field. The old adage is still very true, they are only little so long and it goes so very quickly. My children have a solid belief system and a feeling of family oneness that I truly do not think they would have had. There are days when I cannot see this clearly through my glazed over, sleep deprived eyes but it is still true none the less. My oldest is turning 13 this year and I can see now some of the results of these hard choices and I am so excited for him and relieved for me...Yeah, one less regret!

Puppy!

Welcome the newest member of the Kaeding family....

Beautiful Kaeding

She was born on February 19th and we adopted her April 24th.

We brought her home and as you can see the kids have been literally beaming ever since. Each of them have been taking turns petting and walking her. You should have seen how jealous they were when she fell asleep on my lap!

She is half Black Lab and Half German Shepard. She doesn't make much noise but she proved that she knows how to do the job when she barked (the first time we had heard her do so) when a car was less than half way up the driveway! Good Girl!!!

Great is my Joy!

Praise God! I have been delivered! After a season of darkness, loneliness and depression, my burden has been laid at the cross and my spirit restored! The pilot light of my faith has been ignited again to warm my heart and light my eyes! Thank you to all of the friends and companions who have prayed for me and struggled along with me as I have gone through this journey. Here are some of the things I have learned through my experienced these past months and even years.

1. I am loved. Deeply and truly loved by God.

2. No one and nothing can take that away from me.

3. I was created by God to be a unique creative tool for His use and purposes. I was not made to look, talk, walk or act like anyone else in this world.

4. I need to have compassion for people who have not yet realized these truths in their own lives and are still controlled by fear, anxiety and insecurity.

5. I will never have a genuine and rich relationship that didn't first require me to take a risk of being hurt. These genuine and rich relationships are worth the pain caused by the ones that aren't.

6. Those who are sold out for God and live out their love for others WILL be attacked spiritually. It is a compliment to our faith when Satan feels the need to knock us down over and over.

Certainly not last but enough for today...

7. God has been preparing me and patiently waiting for me to get back up on my feet again to take on an even bigger mountain. I have my armor on and a heart that is willing to follow... Lead on!

Uh Oh... Amy's back!!! I cannot even express to you the joy that is coursing through my veins as I type this... because it is true... all of it!!! Thank you for sticking with me on this one you guys. I wasn't sure I could get back up after that last knock out and in truth I couldn't. I needed God to pick me up and carry me for awhile before I even really wanted to. He used some of you to prop me up on and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your willingness to do so. I love you. Yes, I used the L word... now you know your in trouble! LOL