School Assignment

This was Kevin's school assignment.

An Unknown Fate Has Befallen the Chipster

I haven't seen the chipmunk for about two weeks now. Turbo goes to the door everyday to see if his friend will show up. But not.

It's Time to Stand Up Video

A very powerful video headlines Opaque Transparency. Be sure to visit and watch.

Is Anyone Home?

Look at this guy sitting up and looking in the back door to see if anyone is home. He's so cute.

Another Beautiful Ride Home

I tweaked the hue and saturation on this photo. It was another beautiful sunrise on the way home from work. I wish I could pull over on the side of the road and get this just coming over the hill past Weaver Furniture. The sun was huge and orange like a fruit. I just can't seam to capture the true beauty on film. I'll keep trying.

God's Country

I recently got a job as a night auditor at a local Amish Country Inn. I work from 10:30 PM until 7:00 AM. You would think that at 7:00 AM I would need toothpicks to hold my eyes open during the drive home, but the glory of God's creation is so evident at 7:00 AM that I just had to stop by NewPointe's parking lot to take these photos. They don't do the beauty justice.

When I accepted this job, I was just looking forward to some extra income. God, your so great to give me this extra bonus on top of everything else.

Do You Ever Get the Feeling You're Being Watched?

Interesting Picture

Hunting for the Local Eagles Nest

My Mom and I went looking for a local eagles nest. We didn't find it, but we had a good time.

Turbo Is Not a Car Part

Chippy (we call him that) the chipmunk has taken to scratching on the door when he wants some cracker crumbs. Our cat, Turbo, has begun to look forward to his visits. He stares him down while the chipmunk sits defiantly and stuffs his cheeks with crackers.

Animals are so human sometimes. Turbo likes to get combed daily while he eats. If I don’t take it upon myself to do so, he struts and dances and meows under my feet until I do it. The other day I followed him to his dish and sat down to comb him. I did so for several minutes. I thought he was sufficiently combed. Having other stuff to do, I got up and started walking up the stairs. Apparently he felt differently. In a huff, he came after me up the stairs swiping at my legs with his clawless paws. Then he ran back down the stairs and resumed eating. If it weren’t so funny, I would have been offended.

My Home School Blessing

It’s been four years now. I remember sitting at my computer. I just got done listening to David Jeremiah do an online sermon on Genesis 22, when God tested Abraham’s obedience. This was an appropriate message at the time because I was having my own ongoing battle with God. He wanted me to take Kevin out of public school. School was unbearable from the start. I, like every parent, wanted the best public school experience for Kevin, one full of accolades, honor rolls, sports trophies, tons of friends, everything school wasn’t for me. God had other plans. Kevin had a learning style not supported by a public school classroom. For him, there was no distinction between an “A” and an “F”. He wasn’t the least bit motivated by an honor roll. Every year from Kindergarten on was a bad experience. I kept telling myself, “Next year will be better.” Then next year would come and go, more horrible then the last. There were a few wonderful teachers who laid a good foundation for Kevin that I am eternally grateful for and I always let them know how much I appreciated them. However, if it wasn’t a bad teacher, it was troublesome peers, or inappropriate curriculum, or multiple teachers assigning too much homework or a combination of all the above.

During those years, God would introduce me to people that I was unaware even existed until the day I met one, a home school parent. What in the world is home schooling? I didn’t know you could do that.

I met a few more home school families on several occasions throughout Kevin’s public school duration. Days after meeting and having conversations with a home school parent I would find myself thinking about how great they made it sound, this home schooling. I was beginning to feel drawn in that direction. Then came the internal debate. I could never do it. I played around in high school. I never took the hard stuff. I barely passed Algebra Half and General Science. There’s no way I could do it. I just can’t. Can I? No, I can’t.

Then came seventh grade. I dreaded the start of the school year as much or more then Kevin. All year long there were endless hours of homework, sometimes six hours a night. God would continue to bring more home school parents in and out of my life. As time went by He whispered to me through introductions to home school families, he nudged me with ongoing bad public school experiences, and convicted me through caring friends. That year he used a hard-nosed, school principal and one, I’ll be gracious when I use the term, misguided teacher to bring me to my knees. That was the day I sat at the computer and said, “Okay God, you win. I’ll do it. I don’t know why You want me to do it, but it’s obvious to me that You do. I never felt His presence more strongly then I did at that moment.

I never looked back. The dread Kevin and I felt at the beginning of every school year was gone. We had our ups and downs and power struggles. Overall, there was no comparison. Home school was a monumental win. Here we are four years later. Kevin has passed his Ohio Graduation Test and qualified for Post Secondary at Stark State College. He will be going to college his senior year of high school. How’s that for a blessing? Somehow I think it’s just the beginning. I told Kevin that God worked so hard to get you out of there, he must have really big plans for you. I can’t wait to see what they are.

Kevin has turned out to be a great young man who gives freely of his time at New Pointe Community Church. At the same time, New Pointe is blessed to have some really great sound and computer technology at their disposal along with some fabulous mentors that have generously given their time to teach Kevin about this technology. God’s gain has been Kevin’s gain. In return Kevin has decided to pursue a degree in commercial music technology. I can’t imagine having missed all this had I continued to have it my way.

Rod Shares a Boat Ride

Our good friend Rod took us to Atwood and shared an enjoyable boat ride with us.

Lowering His Cholesterol

The chipmunk did not like the Cheerios. So the squirrel said he would partake.

This is a coffee table I purchased. It had a pie edge on it. The edge was cracked. Dave and I thought maybe we could repair it, but decided instead to remove the pie edge, put a bevel on it, and refinish it. It came out great. It is for sale for $65.00. I will have it at my garage sale on the 18th.

This is a picture of the original state.

Priceless

Happy Birthday Wyatt. Don't ever grow up.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

These are all first grade girls from Sunday morning Velocity at New Pointe Community Church. I really enjoy seeing them on Sunday. I made them a card using these photo arrangements because they will be moving up to second grade when school starts. Their personalities are wide ranging. I have one who makes hardly a sound from the moment she steps in the door until the time she leaves. Sometimes we sit quietly together and draw, small talk not required. I have another one who brings an energy to the class never before seen. When she is there, the whole dynamic of the class changes. She makes me work harder because she won't settle for boring. If I don't make it fun, she does. I think she will be president someday. Can you tell which one is which? They are all precious in their own way.

My New Little Friend

He lets me slip walnuts under the storm door. He teases the our cat.

Volunteers

The Right to Life booth will be at First Town Days. They're always looking for volunteers to operate the booth a couple hours in a day. Let me know. I'll get you in touch with the right people. It's a good time. See you there.

Kids with a heart for God

Pause my IPOD by clicking the bottom arrow on the IPOD before playing these, or they'll play simultaneously.
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The second appearance from New Pointe's High School Worship Band. This is team B.
Big applause due for these for kids.
They did a great job! Again, my digital camera fails to take good videos. My apologies

Something uplifting

As always, turn off the IPOD by placing your curser on the bottom arrow of the IPOD to pause it so that it is not playing the same time as the video. Enjoy.

Music is back

I lost my music for awhile. I'm happy I got it back again, for now.

Chocolate lovers rejoice!!!!

Walmart lowered their six pack Hershey bar price from $3.64 to $2.50. Chocolate lovers rejoice!! I bought two.

Stop the music

DON'T FORGET TO PAUSE THE MUSIC ON THE IPOD BY CLICKING THE BOTTOM ARROW BEFORE YOU PLAY THE NEWPOINTE WORSHIP BAND VIDEO. OTHERWISE, YOU'LL BE HEARING THEM BOTH PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY.

A great day

Today was an awesome day that I think I will remember for a long time. We have to be at church on Sundays at 7:00 AM because of the areas we are serving in. Most days I love being there early because after I get my classroom ready and pray, I go and watch the bands rehearse. It’s just a great place to be. I try to get to bed early on Saturday, but this Saturday I was unable to do so. I was really tired and my brain was in a fog. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to teach my Sunday school class well because I was unable to focus well. I passed our lead Pastor, Dwight Mason in the hallway on the way in to church. He asked me how I was and I said that I was a bit tired. He stopped in his tracks and prayed for me. I prayed again before class started because I knew I was in for a struggle. On top of that, the computers went down and we had to do manual check in. The girls poured in and we got started. I felt the Holy Spirit take over and class went amazingly well. In fact, it was the best class I had done in weeks. Without the Holy Spirit I would never have made it.

After class my son Kevin played for the first time in the Praise and Worship Band. Earlier in the week he got his braces off. I still feel like crap but today was a great day anyway. Thanks God, you’re awesome!

Praise and Worship

I have two videos to share of the premiere of NewPointe's High School Praise and Worship Band. The videos are taken with my digital camera and are quite fuzzy. The kids did really well for the first time. Don't you think?

Update on last blog

I've been poking around some more on how to determine how much house a person can afford. Apparently that 30% of your income amount should include your real estate taxes and insurance. When I take those two items yearly total and divide them by 12 and add the two together, they nearly equal my current house payment. The house payment, insurance, and real estate still only equal 25% of our gross income. If your looking to buy a house I wouldn't dare go higher than that.

Home Sweet Home

I heard on Fox News that our government would help people refinance their mortgages to get a more affordable payment, if your payment was over 30% of your income. That’s the same figure our bank said Dave and I could afford way back when we got our loan in the 90’s. We looked at what 30% of our income was. It was more then double what we knew we could afford. The banks were telling anyone with good credit back then that you could afford a house payment that did not exceed 30% of your income. Maybe if you don’t eat, don’t have any utilities, don’t buy gas or own a car at all, etc. It’s totally unrealistic. I can remember sitting across the desk at the bank when we were told that figure and the look on Dave’s face. We still had time to talk it over, so we went home and discussed it. We were building a house, so we could have made it bigger. We chose not to. We’re only high school grads, but we knew that a payment that was 30% of our income was way too high. We had several friends who were building at the time. I can remember conversations with them about the amount the banks were saying they could afford. I’ll admit it was a boost to our egos to think we could afford a payment that big. I had visions of Jacuzzi tubs and marble counter tops dancing in my head. Dave was envisioning a four-car attached garage. Then the Holy Spirit jerked us back to reality. I’m so glad we didn’t get caught up in that. Twenty percent is more realistic, if you have a weakness for…… say…….food.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank map at the following website http://data.newyorkfed.org/creditconditionsmap/, most states in American are showing only an average of 1% to 3% of mortgages are 90 days delinquent. Only Southern California and Florida rates are higher, coming in at 6% to 7%. That means that about 95% of American mortgages are current or less than 90 days. Why the government intervention? If they're gone to refinance loans to get a lower payment, I surely hope they get their payment down to 20% of they're income or they will just default all over again.

View from my back door for sale

I decided to list one of my paintings on wood on Ebay. Item # 320340079691. I'm also for hire to paint anything and everything. Times are tough. We need to use our gifts for God's glory first. Then he may allow us to use them to survive. May God bless your gifts.

Update on Helen

My friend Helen made it through her surgery. She will be recovering at Walnut Hills Nursing home and will anxiously await going home to see her beloved dog, Ginger. I recently had the flu, so I won’t be able to visit her for a while. I will continue to pray for her recovery.

Pardon my Dust

When I have anxiety about talking to people, is it a sign that my heart is not in line with God? When I was younger every time I opened my mouth I would offend someone. After I had Kevin, I was too busy chasing him around to even have a conversation with anyone. I noticed that the amount of people I usually offended dropped dramatically. Not because I had better things to say, but because I didn’t have time to say anything. I had this mini-revelation that if I talked little I’d offend less. So then became my mission to say as little as possible. It’s funny how I deceived myself into thinking I had discovered this great way of getting along with everyone. I still had this unresolved question. Why do I make people mad when I do open my mouth? Maybe its because I have this critical, judgmental heart. I wasn’t saying it, but I was still thinking it; critiquing, judging, assuming the worst. When I would say something all that ugliness just came spewing out.

Like a master sculptor, God chips away at me. My heart is softening. My anxiety is lessening as I look at people and respond to them differently. I react with more compassion, grace, and understanding then I did before the Holy Spirit moved in. Sometimes I have to talk whether I want to or not. I still have anxiety when I do have to say something, but it is lessening. Thankfully He never tires of this work in progress. Maybe I should wear a sign that says pardon my dust.