Sleeping

I love watching these two sleep. They pretty much sleep together every night. So cute.

Palin Rally

This Sunday we took Kayla to, what you would have thought, was the greatest place on earth. According to her at least. No, it was not Disney World, it was a Sarah Palin Rally.

What We've Been Up To

Getting bigger




The Army Dr. and Cowboy hanging out during school time.





Cleaning up water intrusion in my dining room. It is lots of fun living on concrete!




School time! Kayla loves Astronomy.




And history. She is very proud of her pyramid.







Doing the timeline is the highlight of the week. Except for when Daddy does the history reading with her. He pulls out the laptop and shows pictures. She told me yesterday, in a very sweet way, "Mommy, I like it when you do history, but Daddy is way better." Oh well, Daddy is heroic in all sorts of ways that I am not. Taken for granted once again!

School has been going very well this year. She is enjoying it a lot more than last year. Probably because I am attempting to do a lot more of hands on stuff that she enjoys. She gets through math and handwriting and the "not so fun" stuff to get to the history and science.

Besides that we have been painting our house to try and help with the water intrusion, praying for enough money from the insurance to fix the dining room, getting ready for Joey and Lauren's wedding, and looking forward to my cousin and his family to come to town in a couple weeks. Life is busy, but we are having fun! Most days at least....

Babies at 5 Months

Now all my babies at five months. I love doing this, so I am sorry if I am boring you. Actually, I really do not care if I am boring you. You are the one checking out my blog when you probably should be doing something better with your precious time!! :-) I am one to talk because I probably read yours earlier today. Anyway......

Yes, Wyatt was unfortunate looking as a baby. I told you so, Erin, who always says he was not.

Happy Birthday Kayla

My baby is 7! Where does the time go? I love you baby girl.

Today we are off to the beach for the week for vacation (or diversion as mom likes to call it since mothers do not actually get a real vacation).

Kayla's 7th Birthday Party

Recovering

I wanted to give an update on my family for those who have heard of our recent drama. Thank you to all who have been praying for us.

For those who did not hear, we spent Thursday mid morning/early afternoon at the ER with Wyatt. I decided to take him after watching him pass out in front of my eyes and proceed to vomit everywhere for what seemed like forever. He became a rag doll, white as a ghost, very feverish and I could not get him to keep his eyes open. So......off like a crazy woman to the ER I went thoughts flying through my mind of parasites in his brain or meningitis and other terrible ailments. The diagnosis? Pneumonia. I was grateful because I had come up with many more terrible problems in my mind!

Friday morning we were off to the Dr. again because of more vomiting. I also had the girls checked out. Here is what we have.

Wyatt - Pneumonia.
Kayla - Crackling in her lungs. She was put on a nebulizer and it got better, so they prescribed her a inhaler.
Annie - Double ear infection, but nothing in her lungs. Thank God!

Now Mommy feels terrible, but the important part is that the kids are doing much better. Wyatt is becoming his normal self again today.

Our dramatic week is over, my babies are feeling better, and my house is clean thanks to Mom, Janelle, Julia, and Lauren. A clean house makes EVERYTHING better!

Have a great weekend.

Anniston Janelle is 1!

What would our life be like without our sweet Annie? I found out I was pregnant with Anniston 
when Wyatt was barely 7 months old. This was even a bigger shock due to him getting over colic the month before. I felt somewhat normal for one month, only to find out I was pregnant.

Oh, but the joy she brings to our life! Yes, she has that Herron personality.....loud, rowdy, temper, and oh so cute! I love watching Kayla and Wyatt hug and kiss on her. I love how much she loves her daddy, Papa and Granma, and all her aunts and uncles. (Yes, especially Janelle!) I am so grateful to God that he is in control and not us. He knew we all needed the baby girl!

Pictures

Just wanted to let those of you, who care, know that there are pictures from 4th of July and Kayla's 6th birthday at our picture blog.

Happy Birthday Kayla!

My baby girl is 6 years old tomorrow! (Thursday the 19th). I cannot believe I am the mother of a six-year-old little girl.

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. I went into the hospital sometime after 5am because of heavy bleeding. I was scared that something was wrong, but I heard later, my mom was even more afraid then I was! They checked me, but I was not in active labor. Apparently, a blood vessel had burst or something. Since I was five days late already, and they did not know really why I was bleeding, my midwife broke my water around 8am. Five hours and twenty minutes later, Kayla Sheree came into this world.

She had her daddy's dark hair and his side of the families eye color. She weighed 8lbs 8oz and was 19 inches. She was so fat! I remember just being in shock that I had a baby. She was such a good baby, but only liked to sleep in her carseat or swing.

She has brought so much joy into my life. God has used her to change my perspective on so many things. From homeschooling, to realizing my parents were right about pretty much everything, to me wanting my life/job to be raising her. She is growing up so fast. She talks constantly, wants to know why about everything, is a wonderful big sister, smart, absolutely gorgeous, fun and has a smile on her face almost constantly.

Thank you Lord for giving me my baby girl. Protect her as she grows Lord. I pray that she will continue to want to know more about You and will live her life to glorify You. Thank you for entrusting her to PJ and I and help us to raise her to be God fearing, to love the church, and to serve you. Please help us to be examples to her of what that looks like. Bless these wonderful childhood years she has and I pray she looks back on them with fond memories. Soften her heart towards the Gospel, Lord, this next year. I am a truly blessed woman! Amen

Contentment

Why is it that I so easily lose sight of the joy and privilege I have of staying home with my children? Well, I actually know it is because of my sin, but it concerns me when I get to a place of discontentment. Usually I know this is happening when I find myself getting frustrated or angry with them. Or, thinking that I "need" a break. And even having thoughts of what I could be doing, the money I could be making, and the recognition I desire from others about what I do (especially my husband).

It is hard when I get up every day to the same exact thing I did the day before. Annie wakes up, I feed her, Kayla wakes up after her, Wyatt wakes up last (mostly because it took him SO long to actually go to sleep the night before). I feed the older two. I put Annie down for her morning nap, try to get cleaning done while disciplining the kids for arguing, fighting, hitting, biting etc. etc. etc. I try to find fun things for them to do to keep them occupied and keep me from putting them in front of the TV. Annie wakes up, feed them lunch. Clean up and down for afternoon naps. After that I make any phone calls and emails. Kids wake up, start dinner, eat dinner, bathe kids and start the bedtime routine. Nowadays, that process with Wyatt seems never ending. Kids are down, spend some time with PJ, go to bed and start the same thing over again in the morning.

There are times I wish away this season of my life. The day Kayla can babysit her siblings, so I can go to the store by myself, or have a normal date night (without worrying and feeling like we cannot go anywhere because Wyatt might not go to bed!). The day they will occupy themselves and not want me to play with them all time time. Oh, and of course when I can actually drive somewhere without stopping to discipline for screaming in the car seat, or climbing out of the car seat.

The problem with all of this is that I am wishing away the time of have with my children. I cannot wait to put Wyatt to bed, but actually, I love it when he wakes up in the morning! He comes down stairs and does the same thing. "Hi mama. Time to wake up?? Kiss!" I love going into Annie's room to see her jumping up and down in her crib and laughing showing her adorable dimples. Watching six-year-old Kayla change her baby sisters diaper, or feed her lunch, or even just kiss on her.

Although I can be so discontent, would I trade what I am doing for anything else? No. But, I want to LOVE what I am doing. I want to have an eternal perspective about what I am doing. I want to remember that it is the greatest possible job I could have. I would not trade being able to watch my baby learn to walk for any job in the world. Or, sharing the gospel with my daughter and showing her how to be a wife and mother. Or missing out on the crazy things Wyatt says. (Yesterday he asked of we could go to Jesus's house. I said no baby, Jesus is in heaven. So, he asked if we could go to Chuckee Cheeses house) I get to teach my children to read, about how Jesus died for their sins, how to add and count to 20.

I pray that each day I will not take for granted, that I will not wish I was somewhere else, and I will thank God for how he has blessed me by allowing me to be at home with my kids. May all of us find joy in whatever season of life we are in, and not wish it away, because no matter what you are doing right now, we will all look back on this time as the season God has us in. May we not regret how we used it.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Fred Thompson and FPEA

Mom forwarded me an email this morning that said: "Signs Point to Fred Thompson Candidacy." This was a report from CBS news. Now, I know he is the guy from Law and Order, but I know nothing else about him.

I am just curious about everyones thoughts about him???

Well, I am off to FPEA (Florida Parents Educator Association) tonight. I find going to the conference (and curriculum fair) is always a lot of fun, but eye opening as well. There is such a huge group of homeschoolers in Florida with so many different opinions, thoughts etc.

Anyway, I will be offline for a couple days, so nothing new will be coming. When I get back though, I will be getting on with my series on public school. I am also starting a book by C.S. Lewis called The Abolition of Man. (Go to the link below to read about it.), which should make for interesting discussions.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abolition_of_Man)

Also, I will eventually post Kayla's gymnastics pictures. This has been requested, but I keep forgetting! Sorry.

A Little History

I realized today one of my first posts, about anything of substance, was about my opinion on the subject of homeschooling. I decided I would give a little history of how I came to my convictions regarding this subject to help you better understand my passion.

I am a second-generation homeschooler. My parents homeschooled me all the way through high school. If you had asked me back then if I was going to homeschool, I would have said NO! Why? The answer, more than likely, would have been lame. Something about how I wanted to play high school sports and how I did not want to deprive my children of that. I also was not going to be a stay-at-home mom and was going to marry rich. Those who know me know how that turned out. :-)

After being married for almost four years, we had our first child. That started my change of perspective about a lot of things. PJ and I made some hard financial decisions in order for me to stay home with Kayla. I stayed home with her while PJ continued his degree and was working full-time.

PJ was a product of the public school system; therefore, was extremely passionate about me homeschooling our children. I was not totally on board, but decided I would start researching the subject. To be honest, it was mostly to talk him out of it. I thought I could find enough information about why public or private schooling was a better option.

When Kayla was around one, I went back to school. My goal was a nursing degree. Thanks to the sacrifice of my mom, I was able to go back full-time while she watched the baby. I did not realize that, although my intention was a nursing degree, God had other plans for my continued education.

Due to the many years I had been out of school, I had to take some remedial math classes. Although I hated math in high school, much to my surprise, I soon found out I was pretty good at it. In these classes, I noticed there were a lot of graduated high school students. I wondered why so many graduates had to start over right out of school. As a matter of fact, a lot of them even dropped out half way through. (FYI, this class was probably the equivalent of what my 8th grade sister is doing right now). I was somewhat disturbed that while I was flying through the material, these kids could not even keep up. I knew that this was not a reflection on my own intelligence; though that would have been nice. It was enough of a shock that my research of education choices became even more of a passion.

Around the same time, I was in a speech class where one of the assignments was an argumentative speech. I decided I would do mine on homeschooling. To make a long story short, during that semester at college, I went from one extreme to another. I no longer was attempting to find a reason not to homeschool, but realized there was no way I was ever NOT going to homeschool. I came to this conclusion, at the time, because I was concerned over the quality of public education. Now I believe there are many more reasons to keep my kids out of public school, and I keep finding more as the years go on.

I never finished my nursing degree. I was only a year and a half away, but we decided to have another child instead of waiting until I was done with school and established in a career. Despite not actually having a degree, I know that I am more than qualified to educate my children. Some may say that you need a degree in order to teach. My mom is an example of that falsehood. She homeschooled (on her last right now) seven children while holding no official degree. So far the success of her children: business owner, computer science major, philosophy major, pastoral intern, stay at home mom/homeschooler, another daughter accepted to nursing program, and two more to go. The more important thing to my mom is not that her children are successful scholastically, but that they are all serving the Lord, serving the local church, and passionate about their family, God, doctrine and truth. She is reaping the benefits of her labors.

I am passionate about homeschooling because I know it is what God desires for my children. I know it will be hard and there are some days I look longingly at the yellow school bus taking little ones away from their home, and I think about how much easier that would be on me. That is why I still research and I love to write about it. It keeps me strong in the hard times and solidifies my beliefs about why I am doing what I am doing. Even if no one ever reads this blog, it has served its purpose.

Tomorrow I will post a testimony I did for a Debra Bell conference at our church about homeschooling.


(The picture is mom and dad holding Kayla in the hospital)

Public Education

I have started reading a book by Marlin Maddoux called Public Education Against America. It is not a book promoting homeschooling per se, but commentary on the downfall of the American public education system. I have found it very interesting and wanted to share. (With all two of you who actually read this). Perhaps I will make a series of this?

One of the chapters is about how textbooks are slanted toward denigrating Christianity and favoring Islam, and even the infiltration of Islamic doctrine. One woman told of a flyer sent home with her child (from a CA school) called "You and your classmates will become Muslims!" The book goes on:

"We discovered that the students at the school were required to attend an intensive three week course in Islam that mandated that they learn the tenets of Islam, study the important figures of the Muslim faith, wear a robe, and read verses from the Koran. In addition, they had to memorize twenty-five Islamic terms and learn six Islamic (Arabic) phrases, twenty Islamic proverbs, and the Five Pillars of Faith. They also had to study ten key Islamic prophets and disciples".

Can you imagine if any public school tried to teach anything about Jesus or have kids memorize scripture? Most public schools do not even call it Christmas break anymore! There are a lot of people who would send their children to public school to be examples to others, a light in the darkness, etc... I think Challies listed that as one of the reasons he was sending his kids to school. I would think it would be very difficult for a child to be exposed to, and forced to enter in to this kind of role-playing/teaching without becoming confused.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe it is beneficial to teach children about the different religions, teachings, and other falsehoods in the world, but I also believe this should not be expected of an elementary school student.

The book also says:

"The miraculous events leading up to the Koran, the holy book of Islam, and other "revelations" to Muhammad were presented as factual.
On the other hand, any reference of the miraculous regarding Christianity is always set next to the disclaimer, implying an absence of credibility about the stated event. It also emphasizes such things as the Inquisition, the Salem witch hunts, by highlighting in bold, black type."

Another amazing fact was that it mentioned a Jr. High School in CA (what is up with that state?) that had a huge banner on the front grounds of the school that said...."There is one God, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." Also, according to Dr. Paul Vitz (who has done extensive research on children’s textbooks), Muhammad's life gets considerable more coverage than the life of Jesus.

I believe it is obvious, even outside of what I have read in this book, that the public education system is steering children further and further from being taught anything about the Christian faith. What is being focused on is tolerance for all religions, all beliefs, and that all are good. Ironically, as this so called tolerance is being taught, anything about Jesus or Christianity, is either ignored, or put in a bad light. Due to a child’s trust in adult authority, and man pleasing attitude, is it not more likely they will be influenced away from Christianity as opposed to standing up for what they believe?

So, my question to the readers of this blog (if I have any), is this: do we need to put our children in public schools to combat the teaching of other religions? If the public school is teaching other religions as “good” and Christianity as a joke or “wrong”, will our children be helpful in teaching other kids the Truth? Are there any 1st-8th grade students who could process information about other religions, understand it to be false, and move on to share the gospel with others in order to make the public school better? Do people really believe that is possible?
Do you?

Don't get me wrong, I think it is a wonderful idea to believe that your children will be lights to the world, and lead their friends to Christ: however, I believe it is naive to think it will actually happen nor do I believe it is their responsibility at six, seven, eight, or nine years old. As parents, it is our job to raise our children and teach them right from wrong. Whether that be not to hit your sister, or to argue with mommy, or not to believe that there is one God, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.

There will be ample opportunity for my kids to be lights in the world, but for now, it is my responsibility as a parent to reach out to my neighbors (i.e. the parents of those friends of our children) and be examples to them, it is not my children’s job to do the leading. That time will come, sooner than I think. By the Grace of God, Kayla, Wyatt, and Annie will be strong in their faith, convictions, understanding of doctrine, and love for the Savior so that they are ready to go into the world and teach the Truth. One thing I know for sure, Kayla is not ready to be sent out.