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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day

We had the best day today. I planned to post about it tonight and then it got late and I decided I would wait and do it another time. AND, then I learned I have a fan!!! I am really doing this blog more as a journal for myself so I really mind if people read it or not, or maybe I do. When I checked my email tonight, I saw a message from a sweet friend of mine who I rarely get to talk. She said she had been reading my blog, and I got so excited!! It motivated me to go ahead and post tonight!!! So, here's a shout out to Dawn! Thanks Dawn for your interest and encouragement! Now on with the story...

Sometimes homeschooling can be really hard and I think, what am I doing!! But somedays I think, "thank you, Lord for letting me do this!" Today was one of those "thank you, Lord" days. I planned a fun filled unit study on the new President and Inauguration Day. It included a lesson in everything, phonics, math, art, history, geography, you name it, we covered it! We had so much fun and learned a lot. All three older kiddos were into it all day! They even enjoyed watching the speech. We did things like make math problems that went like this...their are two parents and two children in the Obama family, how many family members do they have. We worked on ordinal numbers since President Obama is the 44th President and reviewed ordinal numbers beginning with the 1st President. Luke was so proud that he could sound out "President" as it's the biggest word yet for him. The girls had fun with it too! They enjoyed coloring sheets that we printed out, and they could not wait until tonight to see some coverage of the Inaugural Ball. They put on princess dresses and heals and fought over who would dance with Luke. We even had snacks and took our meals in the living room (snacks, tv, and eating in the living room all very special treats in our family) so that we could watch coverage on TV. It was really a fun day for us all!

I must share this really funny story. My kids act out everything, I mean EVERYTHING in their world of pretend. So shortly after Luke watched President Obama give his Inaugural speech, Luke took the stage. (The stage in our house is the fireplace hearth. All of the kids use it as such daily!!) Luke had watched and listened closely to the speech. So he cleared his throat and prepared himself to speak. This is what he said, (in a deep voice, with a serious face) "Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here on this special day to talk (putting his hand on his chest) about me" !! I cracked up!!! That's what he took from the speech!!! Is that not soooo funny! It was really so funny! Oh, out of the mouths of babes!

This brings me to one other story. I also took advantage of election day and took all 4 kids with me to the polls. Yes, that's right, all 4! Wesley had offered to let me go and vote before he left for work, but really what kind of a homeschool mom would I be I missed the opportunity to take them to the polls with me. So after a lot of talk about the importance of the day, with great excitement, we headed to the polls. The kids just soaked it all in! When we were there, Luke had a million questions. (Luke always has a million questions.) This day, he kept asking over and over is, "is our guy winning". To which I answered (because we voted for an independent and I knew only God himself could bring a victory), "no honey, I don't think our guys is winning." (Maybe if I ever get time, I will write one day about why we voted that way.) Everyone in our little volunteer fire department could here him ask this over and over. Finally a different question, "Mommy, whose our guy again?" It was so funny. Everyone laughed.

Later when we were watching coverage at home that night, he could not get the fact that "our guys" picture was not being shown. When looking at pictures of McCain and Obama he said, "so is our guy the brown one of the one with white hair". Also so funny!!

Well folks, our guys did not when. Frankly, the fact that Barak Hussein Obama is now the President of the United States of America scares me a lot! But guess what, he's our guy now. Not because we've had a change of mind or heart, but because he was voted in by our democracy and scripture commands to respect and honor those in authority over us. So we are teaching the kids that the 44th President, Barack Obama, is "our president". We are also teaching them that we need to pray for this man daily. Please join us in praying for our nation. Please pray that God would have his way in the heart of Barak Obama and in all of those in positions of leadership in our county.

As usual it was long, but hopefully it made to laugh.

Love,
Jennifer

Monday, January 19, 2009

A Blizzard in New Market

That's right, folks! We had a blizzard in New Market today. It has been snowing and snowing hard for hours. We even have some accumulation. I have pictures to prove it, just look!


Ok, this is sooooo funny!! I am having computer trouble and I cannot post these pictures!!!! That's so funny to me, b/c the pictures are the punch line!!! You can not even really tell it's snowing at all and the accumulation is a few flakes on the windshield of the car! So I guess the real laugh is on me for trying to be cute and funny!!!

Love,
Jennifer

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Getting Back to Normal

I think things have finally settled down from the holidays and are getting back to normal for the Minor family, maybe even better than normal. In addition to the holidays, we've been busy celebrating Luke's birthday. He turned 6 years old on January 2, and we had a great time celebrating with him. We have lots of other exciting things going on including losing teeth (Luke) and getting teeth (Bella Peace). It's been fun, but I'm glad to get back to the regular routine. We took off from homeschool almost the entire month of December, and it was hard to start back. We actually got started back even later than we had planned, because my uncle died expectantly on New Year's Eve. He was young, only in his late 40s. Our entire family was shocked and devastated. I'm afraid his family may never know normal again. He left behind a wife, 3 daughters (1 married, 1 engaged, and 1 still in high school), a grandson, and lots of other extended family and friends. He will be greatly missed by all. We were blessed to spend some good times with him on Christmas day. He was being silly and having a good time with our kids. I'm glad our family has these happy memories of him.

One of the things that have contributed to a good week for our family is a new Bible study I've just started called "Downpour". I am loving it!!! I'm sure I will write alot more about this study at another time. A study like this helps me to be accountable. I've been more faithful this week in my prayer life and bible reading. I love how when you invite the Lord to visit with you, he's always eager to come. In fact, he's been waiting on the invitation and sorry we've not spent time with Him in a while. He's never too busy or never has something else to do. We had a few really hard days after the holidays, but this week has been so much better. The difference is that He has been ever present in our days this week (more than normal for me), and I am very grateful. When we accept it, he offers us a peace that passes all understanding. I pray that my uncle's family might know this peace as they search for a new normal.

Christmas Letter

I had planned on posting my Christmas letter here this year and never got around to it, but I really don't like not doing things that are on my "to-do" list. I like to put a check mark by those things. So even though I know that anyone reading this has already read this letter, I am going to post it anyway. It's for me, because I want to and this is my blog. So here it is, our 2008 Christmas Letter:

Our cup runneth over…

…truly this is the way Wesley and I feel about the life God has given us. We have so much to be grateful for and want to give God the glory for it all! Here are some highlights from 2008…

For Christmas last year, Wesley and I got the kids a puppy. This was our first family pet. We had no idea that puppies were so much work. I think they are at least as hard as newborns, maybe harder! It has been worth it though. The kids were so surprised and have loved the black lab mix we named Buddy. I share this highlight, because caring for another living creature has been a big deal in our lives this past year!

After losing two baby boys (Samuel, Oct 31, 2006 and Isaiah, March 18, 2007) and having a difficult pregnancy, we welcomed another beautiful baby girl into our family on May 10, 2008 at 3:16 AM weighing 6 lbs 8 ozs and 19 ½ in long. We named her Bella Peace. She is named for her maternal great grandmother Jennie Bell Garner and for scripture the Lord gave us as we grieved the losses of our baby boys and anxiously anticipated the birth of another child. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Bella Peace means beautiful peace. Her name fits her and is a great reminder to us of the peace that only the Lord Himself can give. I wish I could say her delivery had been peaceful. It was actually the longest, hardest labor of all! But once again, totally worth it! Of course this addition trumped the addition of a family pet; I’m just going in the order in which these events occurred. 

In August, Luke started kindergarten and the whole family embarked on a journey we call homeschool! Luke is doing very well. Grace and Mary Ruth were so excited and eager that we ended up starting them on a preschool curriculum a couple of months later.

On October 14th after we read a children’s devotional at naptime, Luke said he was ready to ask Jesus into is heart. We talked about it for a few minutes. Wanting to be sure Luke understood everything and not wanting Wesley to miss out on this big event, I suggested that we wait for Daddy to come home from work to talk about it some more. Luke went into the bathroom and came out a few minutes later saying he couldn’t wait and had decided to ask Jesus into his heart on his own. WOW!! From then on, he couldn’t wait to be baptized. Two months later on December 14th, Wesley had the great honor and privilege of baptizing Luke in our church, Whitesburg Baptist. 3 John 4 says it best, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” Grace and Mary Ruth have been very excited for their “Bubba” and can’t wait for their day to come. It’s so exciting to see all of the children eager towards the Gospel.
We enjoy watching all the kids grow as each year passes. It’s neat to see how God has created each of them uniquely. These days, Luke loves school, hunting, guns, and dogs. Grace is our “domestic diva” and loves to cook. She also has a great love of nature and animals as long as she doesn’t have to get too cold or too hot. She is a big help to Mommy. Mary Ruth remains our little song bird and sings her way through each day. She can be rough and tough, but is also very affectionate and nurturing. She gives the best “Mary Ruth hugs”! And, Bella Peace has been the most content baby yet. She is so tiny and petite and has such a sweet “peaceful” disposition. All of the kids really love, love, love their “hero Daddy” (name given to Wesley by Grace a while back), especially Luke who wants to be with Daddy and be like Daddy in everyway at all times. In addition to being our “hero Daddy”, Wesley continues to enjoy work for Huntsville Hospital as an Athletic Trainer serving at Madison County High School. I continue to enjoy many, many roles as wife and mother and am so grateful for the husband and children God has blessed me with.

If life in our family is starting to sound just a little too perfect, let me clarify it is not! Most of the things that have made our year great have also made our year hard. It is hard having four children and homeschooling. We face many challenges each and every day. At times it feels like the cup didn’t just runneth over, but spilled out and made a great big mess! However when we take time to really evaluate things, it’s not the hard things that come to mind. Instead it’s God’s rich blessings and tender mercies that come to mind. Lamentations 3:22-23 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness!” We pray the coming year will be filled with God’s rich blessings and tender mercies for you and yours!

In honor of Luke’s recent decision to make Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior we leave you with this…

“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:4

Wishing a Merry Christmas and much love from our family to yours,
Wesley, Jennifer, Luke 5 yrs, Grace 4 yrs, Mary Ruth 3 yrs, and Bella Peace 7 mos







For more Minor family pictures and stories visit our blog entitled “Our Cup Runneth Over” at: https://wesleyandjenniferminor.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

After Holiday Blues

I have lots of pictures and lots of blog ideas in my head waiting to take form. But, I lack the time and motivation to do them. I am suffering from a bad case of the after holiday blues. Do you know about this condition? It's when you don't feel like getting back to the regular stuff. It's especially bad when the regular stuff soooo needs attention. If anyone is actually out there reading this then throw something encouraging and motivating my way!

Love,
Jen