Day 26

Todd is sharing about orphans in Mexico.

Rodney shares about a brave ministry called To Write Love On Her Arms. You need to check this out.

My latest discoveries

I have not shared some of the things I have been reading on line lately so I thought I would throw some of them out there to share.

This blog has been inspiring me to make little changes when I can. I am slowly working on the one garbage can a month. We need to cut our garbage about in half to make it. One of the things that will help a lot is when we can compost which we will be doing in the new house. Also cutting out disposable diapers would help. I am working on that. It is a hard one for me. We will see how that goes. I did get rid of paper towels and paper napkins. I already buy the flour sack towels and so I took a few of those and cut them into smaller squares and I use those for wiping my babies face and hands and the counter tops. I have other rags for the floor and dirtier things. So far,so good. I also put in the recycling cans in the bathrooms (super easy). You should check it out. The other thing I found out about on her blog was the book Hungry Planet. I just got it in the mail and I am really excited to read it with my kids and learn so much more about the world and how they eat.

This is a video for making your own laundry detergent. I have everything now to make it so I am looking forward to trying it out. I will let you know how it works for me. I got the link from this web site, also a favorite.

My son made this granola all by himself and it is really good.

If I had a girl crush, this would be it

And last but not least this is my good friends blog about their journey as a family in India. It is lovely writing, interesting people and we love and miss them.

Day 24

Jacquelynne is sharing about World Vision and all that great things they do. My family has done this around Christmas time and it is a great thing. Go see what she has to share.

Day 23

Natalie Grant is sharing about the home foundation and Kjaere is sharing about martyrs.

A breakthrough

We started swim lessons last week and my son has hated it. He has cried and pretty much freaked out when we talk about him going anymore. He says it is to hard, he doesn’t like it, he already knows how to swim and on and on. They are only signed up for two weeks so I felt like he should push through and finish the classes. This morning I said that we would be going to class and he fell apart. He was really upset. I sent him to his room to calm down and I prayed that God would show me how to handle this. I know that swim lessons are not that big of a deal but it was more a matter of him giving up. I wanted him to get past that and be able to be proud of himself. So I went upstairs and spent about an hour talking him through it. I explained that it was important to work through hard things because we are thrown lots of hard things in life. I also explained that it is important for him to be strong swimmer. He understood and agreed to do it. So, we got there and he was pretty nervous. He told me his heart was beating really fast. I just kept telling him that he would be fine and he would do great. And he did! He did the whole class with no problems and with a smile on his face. At the end of class they go down a slide and he had asked if he could not do that. I figured we could let that go but by the time class was ending he wanted to go down the slide and he did it twice. I am so pround of him for pushing through something that is hard for him and he was able to see that our additude really effects how we do.

Day 22

Go see what Brody is sharing about UNICEF and then go to Lori’s site and what she is saying about God giving us the strength we need for everyday life.

Day 21

Today Jonathan is sharing about a group called Give Grace and Jeanine is sharing from her heart.

Day 20

Pete is sharing about the international justice mission and Brent is sharing about teen pregnancy.

The smoky air

We are kind of going stir crazy around here. The air outside is thick with smoke. It is summer and we can hardly go outside. Yesterday we decided to go ahead and go to the lake with my mom and sister. We had a good time but it is just weird to be out swimming and it is dark and kind of yucky. I am having a hard time keeping the kids busy inside. This is the time that we would usually be at the local pools or the lake or the river. I am very thankful that my house is not being threatened like some people but it is hard to stay inside all of the time. They are saying that all of the fires might not be put out until October. I hope they are wrong but if they are right it is going to be a long couple of months.

On a high note, I was asked to go to a meeting at the adoption agency that we used to adopt our daughter and share our story. It was a lot of fun and very encouraging to see all of the families there looking to adopt. I hope to have more opportunities like that in the future.

Day 19

To learn more about work being done in Cambodia check out Truevyne and then Valerie is sharing about migrant workers.