Nature Center

Dawn and I took the girls on a 2 mile Hike at the Nature Center this weekend. We got some Fall photos and they turned out so pretty! Great idea Dawn!!!! You can click the photos to see the larger view.

Ending Your War with Yourself

For my daily devotionals with God I'm reading a devotional book right now that was passed down to me from my mom. It's titled "His Thoughts toward Me." Author is Marie Chapain. I love it so much because it's verses of the Bible actually made into short letters from God. Today's reading really touched me and I wanted to share it.

Ending Your War with Yourself

How often I've called you in and love and and in tenderness. How often I've sung over you in the night and rejoiced over you in the day. And yet, how often I've heard you curse yourself. How often I've heard your private battle cry against yourself!

Why? Have I waged war against My beloved? Have I instructed you to hurl rebukes and angry insults at My chosen? Am I to wear the uniform of the enemy and take sides against My own? Never! I am He who calls you to the glorious kingdom of peace and righteousness. I am the One who gives you new life, who yanks sin and hatred from you. Would you acuse Me of sending you that which I have freed you from?

When you came, holding your heart out to Me, I lifted you up into My own heart.

I see you as a rare and precious gem fitting perfectly in the Father's resplendent heavenly crown. I am making a gem out of you. I am creating a new heart in you. And now you war against that very heart. you devalue the jewel of God.

Peace I give you my dear one. Peace to be yourself, and to enjoy being yourself. To speak kindly to yourself is to humble yourself. To hold yourself in esteem is to humble yourself. To be gentle with yourself is to hold Me in esteem. Because you love Me, end the war with yourself.

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This really made me realize how terrible it must make God feel when I put myself down and curse myself. How disappointed he must be when, at times, I let my self esteem sink. I really tried to take this passage in and understand how it must affect him. I can relate to it in that I know how I feel when one of my girls is upset with herself or complains about how she looks. It's very frustrating to know how beautiful, intelligent and special your child is and yet to hear them say something negative about themselves. I want nothing more than for my children to have high self esteem, and postitive and loving thoughts about herself. I want her to be herself and be happy with being who she is. I want this more than anything else for them. God feels the same away about all of his children....... about me! I definately have a new outlook on how I relate to myself now and want to please God with my high esteem. : )

Another day....

Casie, D'arrica and I went to Halloween Express and Halloween Headquarters this weekend. (Shelby was at church camp) D'arrica picked out a cheerleader costume and Casie picked out a vampire...errrrr..... Rose Vampiress costume. (She gets mad when I don't say it right)

The costumes are very cute. I have pictures of D'arrica already but Casie wouldn't dress up for me. She said the pictures won't look good without all the makeup (which has to wait until the 31st) so I'll post her costume after that. Sheesh....... she's getting so picky. Here's D'arrica.......



















I know! Awwwwwwwwwwwwww..... isn't that cute! She has had the costume on for days now. She gets up in the morning and I get her dressed and an hour later she has changed into her costume running around the house doing cheers and flips! Her daddy looks at her and just rolls his eyes. I even heard him gigglie and say under his breath, " Knobby little knees. " LOL He wouldn't dare say it to her face. : )

Shelby had a ball at Church camp this weekend. She went with her friend Savannah. And of course I had to take pictures before they left.......













The kid is never serious..... I don't know where she gets it.....















Finally....... a real smile. : )

And of course.......... more pics of Snuggling Kitties














Cat Nap














Get a room!

Kids and Cats

This is my life..... : D













Casie and D'arrica at the homeschool table this morning.













Casie is studying Figures of Speach-- Today she wrote ten Personification sentences using Nouns and adjectives. It was a little difficult but her creative talents helped. While I'm posting this she is working on Math. She is learning to multiply with regrouping and every day we are making the numbers a little bit longer. Today she started multiplying thousands. For example:
4526
x 3
____

She's doing a worksheet of 30 of these and she's pretty ticked off about it. LOL She's very good at multiplication though...... just doesn't like the time it takes to write it all out. She's doing it though and I'm so proud of her!!














Today D'arrica is learning the letter Qq. She enjoys writing the letters and finding the hidden Q and q in the picture.













Oh......... and while these 2 were studying so hard, Jada, Juby and Jazz were enjoying "Kitty Playground". Little Rats!!

The Watering Hole

Who ever said cats don't like water?

New Blinkies I've found.

I didn't make these. Just found them on the web.

Finally, Survivor Heats Up!!

Survivor was so good last night! The season had a slow start and was really just downright boring until LAST NIGHT!! I loved the tribe switch. I especially love the way they did it this year with the 4 "most deserving" tribe members away on their reward picnic only to come back to a new tribe waiting for them!

I have, since the beginning, been intrigued by Gary's strategy of hiding his Pro Football Career. I think it's a stupid strategy. It may be working for now but if he gets further along in the game, there is no way Danni will be as nice and quiet about his little lie. You could tell by her mannerisms that she KNEW it was him and that he was lying. Ha!

Judd is a DORK! Alpha Male? More like PeaBrain Backstabbing Trader! (Ok, I have issues with this guy.) What is his strategy? Doesn't he know that he will be the least on the totem pole with this new tribe he's teamed up with? What a dumb move. It does make for very interesting Survivor though! LOL : )

I have new cat pictures to share. :)

Not much to write about today........ same stuff different day, really. Casie's improving in multiplication. We worked on a multiplication cross reference chart yesterday and I showed her all the tricks to recall the 9's table. She thought that was pretty cool. She is writing a story right now about a cat and mouse who live in the same house. It's a really good story and when she finishes it we are going to "Publish" it and make copies to send out to the family. She loves writing stories and I could very well have a little author on my hands. I am so proud of her!

D'arrica is still working on the Alphabet. She has mastered the letters (recognizes, knows sound and writes) from A-J plus O and Z. Yesterday, I shuffled up the letters she knows and had her put them in Alphabetical order. She did it perfectly up to the G and then needed help. I am so proud of her too!

Shelby brought home her progress reports yesterday and is making all A's and B's. Report cards come out next week. She also informed me yesterday that she wants to play Powder Puff Football. Oh Lord, help me. Ha Ha!

I've still been playing with my software and have created more blinkies and animiations. Enjoy! :)