School Days with the Family!

Blowing the shofar to begin our year.

Yesterday was the first official day,  in the classroom, of our 2013-2014 school year. This year is our fifth year of homeschooling. Homeschool is such a blessing to our family because it gives us flexibility to travel, to go Tuesday to Saturday instead of Monday to Friday. Most of all, my sister and I are able to be taught Christian values and lifestyles in addition to, and sometimes included in, our regular traditional academics. We also get to have much more family time than if we were in public school.

Posing with our new books and, of course, hot cocoa!

The first day of school is always a lot of fun. We traditionally will begin the day by going outside and blowing our shofar. The shofar is a horn used in Israel to anoint and bless things. Also we pray and bless our property, animals, and the school year. Then, with hot drinks in hand, we parade to our classroom. On our desks are most of our new books and our supplies like pencils, erasers, and other equipment for art, etc.. We go through our new books and start the day.

This year I am in seventh grade and eagerly looking forward to this school year. At the same time I am nervous because junior high is a BIG change. More work, longer days, more homework, more responsibility, and more chores. I hope to, this year, grow closer to God, my family, and be a better example for my sister and everyone else who might be watching. I don't want to be as selfish but more willing to give. Pray for me brothers and sisters! Pray that I may be God's hand and feet in everything I do- from school to simply being a witness. Thank you!

"Phew! I'm pooped! How do you girls do it?"

Riley, Our Long Awaited Dog

Riley and me.

God has so blessed our family! I have been wanting a dog for what seems like forever. At the end of last month, we got a dog. We don't know exactly what breed or mix of breeds he is but he is an awesome dog. I've known him longer than anyone else in our family has known him and from the start I knew he was meant for us. His name is Riley.

He showed up, as a stray, in Lockwood one day and a friend took him in temporarily. She had Riley for a while before giving him to our neighbor. Does that sound like God or what? Often, Riley would come down to visit us. Then, our neighbor moved about 4 months after getting Riley. Our neighbor returned Riley to our friend and left. However, what I think is the most crazy part is that in the 16 going-on-17 years that my mom and dad have lived here, they have never been offered a bag of dog food. Well, when we were at a friend's house, as we were leaving our friend asked us if we had a dog. Mom looked at Dad and said, “We might have one in about a week.” (Because we had been offered Riley and we were considering.) :) So, you can guess what happened, he gave us a LARGE bag of dog food. By now we are thinking that God is making it pretty clear to us “GET THAT DOG!” So when we returned from the homeschool convention we unloaded and, the same day, went to pick up our (big) puppy.

My family giving Riley a bath.

The first thing we did when we arrived home was to walk him around, but other than that, “Bath time!”. That night was a rough night because he was restless and the only one who slept well was my sister. The rest of us hardly slept at all. That night he also ripped our screen door. By morning, neither my mom nor dad were sure we could keep him but we had thought that God had brought him to us, I mean, we prayed, the whole dog food thing, our neighbor getting Riley, we just thought God had wanted us to have him. :( It didn't make sense. Finally, after much prayer, Dad said that we would give him another try. Phew! Our next step was to set aside an area where we attached a cable to two poles and then made him a leash out of cord as well. This way Riley can run but not have complete access to our yard. We call it a runner or “zip line”. We put a large tarp over half the area so that he has lots of shade. That completed, my sister and I played with Riley for the greater part of the day. That night, he was WONDERFUL! Thank you, Lord! Yesterday, we (my sister and I) played with him again and trained him and had a blast! He is a very good companion. Riley is smart and powerful. Last night, again he was a charm! Today, I spent some time with Riley and I am convinced that Riley was meant to be our dog.

What's wrong with this picture?

Thank you Riley family for letting us keep his name “Riley”! Thank you EVERYONE who played a part in us getting Riley! Especially, I want to thank, with all my heart, you Lord! It is because of you that we have Riley. :)