six.

Sometimes, out of the blue, it hits me. I was sexually assaulted and raped at a tender age, 13. That boy didn’t just rape my body, he ravaged my mind. He filled it to the brim with hate, self-loathing, and insecurities. Late night phone calls with one sided conversations. His words seeping into the delicate folds of my still growing mind, spewing hate. I was told I was worthless, no one would ever love me; I was damaged goods. Right after hurtful words like those were said to me I’d hear, “But always remember that I love you. No one else in this world could ever love you, but I do.” Love? Love doesn’t knock you to the ground, knocked unconscious, to wake finding him yelling at you because he doesn’t want to have to get help. Love doesn’t threaten suicide in front of you, with a butcher’s knife at his throat, tiny specks of blood starting to form. Love doesn’t take your house key and throw it out of your reach so you can’t return home. Love doesn’t chase you around your house trying to punch you while you’re grappling after the phone, trying with all your might, to make one single phone call to your best friend. Hoping, hoping, hoping he doesn’t catch you. That is not love. Oh, but he’s so popular! He seems so sweet! All the girls want to be with him. Yes, those kinds of boys are cool and collected on the outside but once they’re alone with you the unthinkable emerges. How do I know this so well? Well, 8 years after this I married someone just like that boy. In between the time of the first and last abuser I struggled. Struggled with who I was, who loved me, who didn’t, where I was going, where I wanted to go.

five.

"I know what it's like to praise God one minute and in the next minute yell and scream at my child." - Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst

A sentence in a book has never hit so close to home and that's only on the 3rd page of the first chapter! I can't even fathom how many times in my life, especially as a mother, that I've become unglued. I had multiple moments today when our 10 year old was acting more like the 3 old. I don't want to be an unglued mother which is why I joined the online bible study for Lysa's new book. I'm 2 chapters in and I've highlighted what seems like every other sentence. The pages of my copy are filled with highlighter yellow. I've made notes in my notebook, cried like a baby, and looked up bible versus. Knowing that I'm not alone in the way I have behaved and felt is freeing. The stories Lysa uses are stories I could have written! My heart feels a little lighter knowing I'm not alone, knowing that I'll be working on imperfect progress, and knowing I'll get to the point where I won't be an unglued mom.

four.

Our favorite day of the week in this family is Sunday. God has done an amazing job of having W home on Sunday's since we started regularly attending church. If you know anything about W's schedule you'll understand how awesome it is that he's home to enjoy church with us girls. We have found a church home that we love... It lifts our spirits every Sunday and leaves us wanting more of God and His Word. I love getting up before the kids in the morning and spending some quiet time reading daily devotionals. When W is home we'll sometimes go sit out back together before the girls are up and we'll pray together or just sit and read our bibles in silence. I will happily admit that our faith has brought us closer than we ever thought possible. I never knew it was possible to love my husband more than I already did but God has shown be otherwise. Our relationship is not only growing in Christ but it's also growing with each other and our children.
Yesterday we began our Sunday like most other Sunday's... me scrambling around thinking I have plenty of time to get myself and three girls looking presentable. Ha! I never seem to have enough time. W is helpful but there's only so much a guy can do to help girls.

three.

Today is what homeschooling is all about! I got up early, ran to the grocery store, everyone was still sleeping when I got back so I spent a few minutes enjoying the quiet house. Little Love was the first one up soon followed by Big Mak and then finally Mess about 20 minutes later. W had a show last night and was able to sleep in just a little bit but I'm glad the girls were up early enough to see him since they didn't see him yesterday. It was just a quick kiss good morning before he headed out the door for another long, hot day at work. While the girls ate their cereal we had a science lesson brought to you by Bill Nye the Science Guy. Mess and Big Mak think he's hysterical! Yes, science was taught today using a DVD from the library. Hey, whatever captures their attention, right? In fact, the big girls have enjoyed his DVD and have learned things that we've implemented at home. The series their watching is about ways you can be greener within your home, like using less electricity (unplug the tv's at night), how to use leftover food in the kitchen (we save W's coffee grounds and put them in the soil of my plants and outside and plan to start a composting bin in the backyard) and we, myself included, have learned about many chemicals found in every day things that make a large and negative impact on the environment. Big Mak especially thought that the coffee grind idea was great since she's the one who helped distribute the coffee grounds to the plants. The large ferns we have loved them and have several new growths coming up already! After that 30 minute show we quickly did our chores and decided on going for a walk. That walk ended up lasting nearly an hour with some playtime at a park in the middle of it and Little Love gathering rocks and acorns to bring home. Big Mak wanted to do some fraction worksheets while Mess downstairs doing her own thing.

two.

Mess is nearly another year closer to being a teenager; she turns 11 in November. How time flies!! People say all the time how the older you get the faster time goes. Not to sound like a cliche but time does seem to go faster the older I get. It seems like yesterday I was a scared and nervous 20 year old about to give birth for the first time and now I have a preteen. God knew what He was doing when He blessed me with Mess, my first beautiful daughter.

As of late Mess has started thinking of her birthday party. She has been giving me ideas and asking questions here and there about what would be okay and not okay. She worries about how much money things cost, and how many friends she can invite. I love seeing the ideas she has and all the questions she asks when deciding if it'll be a good plan. She has been having such fun with the ideas that I think I'm going to turn all of this party planning into a math lesson. What I'm going to do is give her a budget to work within, say $150. From there I'm going to let her do her own researching into planning her party. She has a pinterest account and has been finding ideas there. I'll have her make lists of what she wants and/or thinks she wants and then let her search out the costs of everything. Mess does have a pretty good understanding of money so this should be a beneficial and fun math learning lesson for her.

one.

Haven't you had a blog before? Yes, yes we have. Did you update your previous blog often? No, no we didn't, in fact it's been about three years since the last time. I could have started posting on that blog again but I feel like we'd all like to start anew. In fact, lately we have started some very important new adventures. W and I have both been saved recently as we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We've started attending a wonderful church regularly and definitely feel the Spirit of God working within us both. The other major adventure and change we're all embarking upon is homeschooling the three girls. Mess, Big Mak and Little Love are extremely enthusiastic about this change. I'm pretty sure that the big girls are excited about homeschooling because they can wear their jammies all day long if their mood strikes and because they get to sleep in until whenever they feel rested, but they do like the idea of mom helping them learn all day long. Little Love is enamored with her big sisters being home all day to help entertain (annoy) her.

The decision to homeschool didn't come lightly. The idea was actually sparked within me after watching a news program on a large family who homeschooled, and no it wasn't the Duggars. Anyway, I was amazed at how well this large family got along and how everyone seemed to help out everyone else. It certainly got the wheels spinning in my mind. I rolled the idea around my head for a while before really considering it an option. I mean, come on, the kids can really drive a woman crazy! However, the more I thought about it the more I was warming up to the idea. All of this homeschooling business really started happening around February of this year. I tossed the idea around to W and to a few friends of mine. They all thought I was crazy... no doubt, but they all said they'd support me in my decision. I read books about the subject to educate myself. I wanted to see what all would be involved and how difficult this task might be. What I found was surprising! I was overwhelmed at the amount of information out there! It reminded me of when I started researching midwifery during my pregnancy with Little Love. The more I read about homeschooling the more and more I became convinced this is what we should do.