God is with Us

Do you find that it is difficult to let go of your children at different times? Perhaps it is difficult for you when the school year begins and you hand your child off to their teacher for 8 hours a day. Summer camp approaches and you can hardly imagine not seeing your little darling for 2 weeks. I have this fear of letting go at different times. In the end, my fear is really sin, because it is a lack of trust in our Lord. I am afraid to let go for fear that something could happen. Our Sunday School lesson yesterday was really powerful. I cannot do it justice, so I will not try. However, one of the points was that a disciple is called to let go or give away EVERYTHING we have. We have to be willing to give the Lord all that we own, including our relationships and loved ones. We must love Him above all things. One of my fears is that I will lose my husband or one of our children. In reality, they are not MINE but HIS. I have to trust Him to provide and care for them, and if He calls them home, then I will trust His plan but grieve mightily. Even as I write this I fear that it is foreshadowing. Isn't it funny how Satan tempts us to not trust? He plays mean mind games.

I am sure you wonder why I am telling you all of this. It's a bit heavy for a Monday morning, isn't it? Well, our youngest daughter was invited to library time today with a new friend. She was so excited, and I was very excited for her. We arrived early so that I could get my library card before telling Hurricane goodbye. Story time began before I was finished, so Hurricane went in with a friend. Once I was ready to leave, I could not get in the room to tell her goodbye without interrupting the whole story time, so I left without telling her goodbye.

At first, I was excited to shop alone for our groceries, but then my mind starting playing tricks on me. I started missing our youngest. Sometimes she whines and keeps me from concentrating, but she is my precious constant companion. She was not with me on a day we are normally together and I missed her. Then I began to worry. What if yesterday's lesson was meant to prepare me to let her go? What if she is in an accident on her way to her friend's home? We live on a steep mountain, and accidents do happen. I trusted my new friend, but I still began to worry, so I prayed for Hurricane's safety. Again, I had to confess my lack of trust. I kept praying for her as I ran my quick errands. Finally, I was ready to climb back up the mountain.

Just as I started my car, a huge firetruck came whizzing past me in the general direction of the library. I worried a little more. What if my fear was justified? Would I see her in some awful accident? I drove forward, hoping to find out why the fire truck was called. Again, I was troubled by my worry. We are told that the Lord takes care of us. Why can't I fully trust Him sometimes?

As I rounded the corner to go up the mountain, I saw in my rear view mirrow a car that I believe was my new friend carrying her daughters and my Hurricane. My eyes welled up with tears as I praised God for showing me that HE is real. He ALONE is our Great Protector. He loves Hurricane much more than I do. I climbed the mountain and watched her car climb behind me. I will pick up Hurricane in a little while, but the Lord allowed me to see her safely up the mountain! He hears our prayers, even when we are not full of faith.

Tuesday's Tip!!!!

It's that time of year where we sadly take down all of the joys of the Christmas season and pack them in boxes to be reused next year. While living in Tampa, we would merely switch our Christmas wreath for a Gasparilla wreath and the decorating of pirates and beads would commence. I am tempted to break out our pirate gear just for a little winter fun. Nonetheless, our company is gone and so is our tree.

I carefully packed away each ornament and admired them for the last time until next Christmas. Which are your favorite ornaments? Mine are the ones our children have made through the years, especially those with their sweet pictures on them. I treasure them!

When I pack away our ornaments, I pack them in the box labeled with the child's name on it. EACH child has his or her own box of ornaments. When we decorate the tree, they can put up their very own ornaments that they have made or been given through the years. One daughter's godparents give her a sterling ornament each year, so I write her name on the small ornament box along with the year and who gave it to her. This helps us remember her godparents each year and we are able to remember and pray for them:). Then the ornaments all go back in the large rubbermaid box at the end of the Christmas season. I have DH and my ornaments in their own box too. It keeps all of us happy and organized. Happy Tuesday's Tip!!!

YOU guessed it!!!!

Mama Henley's family is enjoying our new adventures in CHATTANOOGA!!!! We never expected to move around as we have the past three years, but it is always great to be in God's will. This move came about unexpectedly and has allowed DH to have a great job with an incredible boss. We are very thankful for the Lord's provision in all of this!

So.... we have left the beautiful Florida beaches to live on a mountain!!! We are enjoying life in a small town with all of the resources Chattanooga has to offer. Chattanooga has been greatly revitalized with fun shops and restaurants. Some new favorites are Public House, St. John's Restaurant, and Taco Mamacita!!! Life on the river is beautiful and the crisp winter days create lots of occasions for warm snuggles inside! Our children have enjoyed all kinds of adventures climbing rocks and playing in the creek. I have enjoyed our wonderful new kitchen where I have been able to experiment with lots of fun recipes. It is not easy to eat fast food here which is a good thing. Hopefully our waist lines will thank us! Unfortunately, it seems to be more of a license to enjoy more dessert at home! Ha!

I can't wait to share our new adventures with all of you. I have missed blogging. It was a tough spring with lots of change. Our prayer is that 2012 will be a year of little change and more of the SAME:).

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year from our new home!!!! I hope 2012 has had a wonderful start for all of you. The holidays are a happy time for most people but can be a very difficult time as well. For some reason, more deaths tend to happen this time of year. We lost DH's daddy just before Christmas four years ago. It is strange to celebrate without him. I am praying for those of you who have experienced loss in the past or this year.

This year we began 2012 in a NEW CITY!!!!! I will give you some hints about our new place of residence....

-Our city is the fourth largest city in the state where we now live.

-We are at a much higher altitude than we were before

-Our city is home to a great aquarium, a river, and many fun restaurants and shops.

-Miniature golf, the Krystal hamburger, the tow truck, and the Moon Pie were invented in our city!

-Bessie Smith, the most famous female blues singer in the 1920s and 1930s was born here.

-Our city is absolutely beautiful but it used to be called "The Armpit of the South".



Can you guess where we live?!

Missing in Action or Where in the World is Mama Henley or Did you Quit Writing Your Blog?

It is no secret. I have been quite remiss in writing on my blog. There have been weeks where I have completely lived without my blog world, and there are weeks I have missed it. I often think of things to write in my head, but seldom find myself sitting down to write. 2011 has been a huge year of change for us.
We watched our precious school close its doors for the last time in May. It had been an amazing Classical Christian school for 16 years. We mourned its passing. We mourned the relationships that were hurt or lost in the process of the closing. We cried many tears for our friends, our school, our students, and our own children. The Lord definitely knew our hearts for we spent a lot of time talking to Him. In that respect, it was a time of growth. He is always with us.

Our summer was spent praying over what to do next. We prayed about where to send our four oldest to school. We considered homeschooling since I am a former elementary school teacher. The Lord stirred up a group of people to start another Classical Christian school. That was our heart's desire. I followed DH's lead to help start the new school. It opened its doors just after Labor Day with an exuberant group of teachers and staff and a wonderful headmaster who had been there the last year of our former school. I was to be the French teacher. We LOVED the updated curriculum, the teachers, and everyone in the school. We bought new uniforms for four eager students and happily began a new adventure in Classical Christian education.

Just as I finished my first lesson plan for teaching French, it became clear that DH was going to have a new job. We rejoiced over the Lord's provision, though our hearts questioned why we had gone through the tears and efforts to start a new school that we would now have to leave. That's right. DH's new job would move us out of Tampa. We could not believe it!!!

While excited about this new opportunity and adventure for our family, the idea of leaving our friends and our church and our school was enough to undo us. We cried even more tears. Our days were spent trying to spend as much time with our dear friends as possible. We had gatherings and sweet dinners and lunches and playdates with friends. We cried some more. We prayed.

Just before Thanksgiving, the children took their last swim in our sweet Tampa pool. Our hearts hurt as we waved goodbye to palm trees, bay breezes, and sunny days. We are nesters. We like to burrow into our home and community and stay there. We lived in our Raleigh home for 8 years with no intention of adding on our moving. We were very content with our life there when we were moved to Florida. Our Florida home brought us so many sweet friendships and happy memories. Now we are off on a new adventure!!! I hope to live to tell you ALL about it!

Quite an Education OR Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures

Our children have been receiving quite an education this summer. I mean, QUITE an education. You may have read about all of the school work we've been accomplishing this summer. Perhaps it made your stomach turn and thus made you not want to be my friend. I understand. I can't believe it myself. Well, lemmetellyou about a little education. Five children and no nanny or babysitter or long lost grandmother means 5 children go everywhere Mama goes. And I do mean EVERYWHERE.
Dear DH and I are going to have a little getaway this weekend. It is long overdue. There are some other, um, unmentionables that are long overdue as well. SO... I asked the children to please go to the bathroom, gather their DSi or a good book, and hop in the car. Mama Henley was desperate. I know your minds are racing, "For what in the world could I be so desperate? Did Mama Henley take the children to the liquor store?" No! I would never do such a thing as that.
Mama Henley simply stated, "Children, we need to run an errand. You are going to wait in the waiting room while I do something and then we'll leave." Well, Mama Henley has not raised any fools. They don't overlook details... not even the tiniest one. Once we were all in the car, our son asked, "Mama, what are you going to do? Does Daddy know?"
"It's okay, darling. Daddy will understand. It won't take long," I replied.
"Mama, what are you going to do? It sounds inappropriate," our attorney son stated firmly.
"Honey, it's none of your business. It's private," I calmly replied.
"Well, Mama, it sounds inappropriate. I think you are doing inappropriate things. It's giving me the creeps," the judge offspring let me know with disgust in his voice.
At this point, I can hardly drive because of our conversation. Now where do YOU think Mama Henley was dragging her offspring, ladies? Well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I was overdue and I had to be all fixed up for my trip and that was THAT.
We drove to Melt Out, a darling walk-in day spa that allows children in the waiting room. I set up not one, not two, not even three, but FIVE children in waiting room chairs. I read the board to figure out that my treatment is called the Fine Tune. I signed in and waited. Finally, Miss M called my name and I went back into a quiet room, leaving my children to wait. Let's just say that I was not having a massage. You guessed it. I was there for a bikini wax. Before you call DFACS, the children were safe and well-fed and had no idea what I was doing back there. They thought I was having a massage. Honey, after the interrogation, I NEEDED a massage. For the first time ever, I think I laughed my way through the bikini wax hearing our conversation from the car in my head and wondering what they were thinking now. Thankfully it didn't take long.
I walked out of the room to find our children calmly sitting in their chairs and eating lots of Dum dum lollipops. Don't worry; they had lunch later. I decided to go ahead and have my brows waxed while I was there. They do such a better job compared to my over-tweezing self. As I reclined in the chair, I happened to sense people watching me. I opened my eyes to see not one pair, but SIX PAIRS of eyes staring at me while sounds like, "Ooo.... ouch... yuck" filled my ears. All 5 children and Miss M were looking at my poor eyebrows being waxed. I started laughing uncontrollably at the visual of them trying to watch my OTHER wax this closely. It was too much. I am sure Miss M went home to tell her family about the crazy lady who brought her FIVE children to a bikini wax. But you know what, that's okay. I haven't had a good story in a long time, so I am happy to share, even if it is TMI and I vowed never to talk about such things on my blog. You just can't pass up a good story now, can you?

Tuesday's Tip

By now the golden days of summer may have turned a little bit long. Perhaps you have taken all of your fabulous trips, the children have been to camp, and the grandparents are no longer offering respites for Mama and Papa. School looms around the corner, but it's just far enough away that the whines and daily doldrums are getting to you. We have our moments at Mama Henley's house, and they are not always pretty. I can't tell you how many times I have walked into a room that I had recently organized for the 100th time only to find it completely destroyed. That scenario often happens multiple times a day in the Hurricane/Nature Girl room. Those two are more than a little to contend with at times! :)

To combat summer fights and boredom, we have adapted a summer schedule. I encourage the children to sleep in the mornings. They are all awake by 8am, and we have breakfast and clean up our dishes. Then, I do math or reading with one child while the others read, do math problems, practice typing, or practice piano. Everyone has to brush teeth and hair and make their own bed and straighten their room. Some mornings we have a morning Bible story time but sometimes that happens in the evenings or even the afternoon. Our children are not perfect. The Dsis and tv are a constant battle. It never fails that some of the children are not doing what I asked. However, overall, we have been able to accomplish a lot this summer. Everyone has completed their summer reading so everything we read now is just gravy. We are reviewing an entire math curriculum with one of our children, and it has been going remarkably well. Piano keeps us disciplined as well.

In the afternoons, the children play or swim or sometimes we run errands. The children use their imagination all of the time and it is wonderful to hear. I have been trying to do most of my errands at night once they are going to bed. A trip to Publix or Target is much easier solo than with 5 children. Keeping our days fairly organized makes them more enjoyable. I have been able to work with the children individually but I have also taken the time to clean some closets and cut coupons, etc.

Another great advantage of summer is the time to teach life skills to your children. Since we try to eat most of our meals at home, I have been able to let the children help me cook. Today I taught Tiny how to peel and devein shrimp. She took off all of the tails and arranged them on a baking sheet so that we could roast them for our shrimp salad. I didn't plan to have her help me. Rather, she came in the room and asked. So I stopped trying to rush and I taught her what to do. My inclination was to not let her hands get stinky with the shrimp smell, but I am so glad I let her do it. She learned a lot. Then our Nature Girl asked to shuck the corn. Again, I slowed down and taught that baby some life skills. Summer should be slow and enjoyable. Children need time to play. It's also okay to help them keep up the skills they learned during the school year.

I have learned that our best days are the ones that are loosely organized and I am interacting with them and not just living near them. What about you?