Summers Here!

Happy Spring! … Oh wait… maybe not… kinda feels like we missed it all together, doesn't it? Or maybe it was just that the winter felt like spring, so now spring feels like summer? Either way, it’s hot out there already! Which is the key signal for the news that Braden’s Holiday World season is in full force and there are people flooding into Santa Claus, Indiana. It is amazing to live in such a sleepy little town all year with a population of around 2,000, only to wake up one morning to find cars pouring in from all directions with well over 10,000 people coming out of them (up to 20,000 a day by July). This nuclear spring weather has brought water park crowds earlier than usual. Braden and I went to the park a few days ago so that I could finally ride their awesome new water ride, Mammoth, only to find that the line had shut down because the park closed in an 1 ½ and they didn’t think they could get the people through in time. Yikes – and that just in May! I hate to see the line for that in July!!!

Braden is really enjoying his job. He will be taking a Human Resources certification test next June so that he can officially be an HR guy! He has been super busy working on New Employee Orientation (he spent most the winter revamping the online orientation - it looks great now!), Hospitality Training, and Management Training (have you figured out Bradens job description yet). Soon he will also get to plan some neat employee events like the Holilympics! That was really fun last year. His hours are crazy (back to the 50+ work week we both loved so much) but it is helpful to remind ourselves that it is just for a time then it will be back to normal. 

Oh, and it was my birthday! And our 2 year anniversary. The hubby brought be home a beautiful bouquet of roses and we had a wonderful weekend together. We played minigolf and laser tag to our hearts content. My husband just totally gets me... *lost in blissful thought*...Then for Mothers Day he replaced our gross chipped porcelain sink with a broken hose with a stainless steel beauty. I am swooning as I think about it.

Working on my baseball swing?

I love this man...

Who knew mini golf could get so scary?

At the in-laws!

As for me, I have been more than busy at home (who knew that being a Homemaker was so time consuming - oh wait... everyone who has ever done it). I usually have to focus on 1 or 2 rooms a day and one special project (like this blog post). It is hard to imagine what it will be like with a bunch of kids! Having one kid takes so much time already! Who knows what it will be like when we have 8 kids!!! Just kidding... probably...

I have been trying to get Asher up to par on all his developments - he is a little slow on the uptake. For example, kids start rolling over in the 3-4 month range. While Asher did once or twice during that time he didn't start consistently rolling until 7 months! Some kids can crawl at 6. haha. He is sitting up well now, but I still think we may be a month or 2 away from crawling. I don't even have a guess on how long it will take this kid to walk! But he is wonderfully healthy and as happy-a-baby as I have ever seen. He sleeps great now! About 11 hours a night and 2 naps during the day. The Lord has been soooo good to us!

We have had crazy busy lives! The biggest event was earlier this month. I left for a 2 week stint to Pennsylvania for my sisters home (Jenny). I flew out to go to conference on homeschooling with Jenny, but it ended up turning into a 2 week adventure because they needed my help with with their big move and getting their cars getting to Akron, OH. This is where Jace will be pastoring an already existing church.

The conference was excellent and instilled within me a final resolve to homeschool our children. My degree is in secondary education, but I have worked in the classroom setting now with kids from ages K-12 (with the exception of 10th grade - but you'll forgive me for that). I know what the public schools our like. It is a setting so devoid of any of the teaching of the Lord, the kids are often (though I agree not always) unkind, rebellious, and insubmissive to their teachers, not to mention that the curriculum is significantly slowed down to cater to the large class sizes. I don't blame the teacher, they do the best they can with a class of 30+ students! (Hey, I was one of those teachers!) But, looking at the freedom of the homeschool curriculum - how you can tailor it to the specific needs and interests of your child. It is so appealing to me. The kid likes science experiments. After lunch can be totally dedicated to that. Do they love to read? They can spend the whole afternoon reading biographies (on missionaries or presidents, etc), historical fiction, or any other topics that interest them. Do they want to study abroad - let them have a skype language partner! Do they love agriculture? Let them have a garden in your yard and learn about plant life. 

But more than school, I can teach my kids character building at the ages where it matters most. They can learn how to lovingly serve their brothers, sisters, and friends as well as the community. They will be taught the value of hard work for the sake of getting the job done right. Not just in school, but hard work in the community and with neighbors. So many things that you just don't have to time or opportunity to do throughout the day without having your kids at home. If you do not influence them, someone certainly will. I am just not too excited that it could be there peers in the public schools. So many people say that it is too sheltering and they need to understand the real world. They WILL! But that doesn't mean they need to be exposed to 1st and 2nd graders who swear like college students. Or listen to countless 4th graders be openly and unapologeticly defiant and disobedient toward their teachers. Not to disrespect ANY who choose this. I do see the benefits, but if I am able to stay at home, why not use it for my childrens benefit. 

Or about socializion. The reality is, public school really is a relatively new development. Kids 100s of years ago turned out ok when there parents taught them at home - I am sure mine will be just fine. One of my dearest friends was homeschooled and believe it or not - she is totally normal. I never would have guessed she was homeschooled when I met her. I don't know if I will go all the way through high school - but I look forward to this new adventure! ... Hmmm.... maybe I will have to do a post solely on this... 

Oooo this is getting long as usual. Well, a quick sum up of PA. It was wonderful to spend time with Jenny and Melissa and our adopted 3rd sister Happy Kidwell (I mean, no one would ever argue Jeff and Nick arent brothers)! We talked and packed and chatted and packed and ate and packed then chatted when we should have been packing. It was a long week but it was wonderful. I am savoring the time with my twin sister before she heads off to China or Japan or wherever in a few years. It was a wonderful and encouraging time of love and fellowship. What amazing, Godly woman I have for sisters (yes, I mean you too Happy). 

Then, after and short quick 1 1/2 weeks, we were on the road to Akron, OH. The 3 days there were so wonderful! Braden and I were so encouraged by the church members giving and loving hearts. They felt like a family that just cared so much about each other and about taking care of Jace and Jenny. Braden and I talked about how thankful we were that Jace and Jenny would be a part of such a wonderful ministry as Sovereign Grace. Akron itself was nice! We liked the community and they live by lots of things to do, as well as a few organic health food stores (score!). Though one store was charging like $4.50 for a box of pasta and $10 for Nitrate free bacon. Yikes. My guess is Jenny will NOT be shopping there. 

My dad just came to visit last weekend and dropped off his kitty cat for us to take care of while he is in China. It is so nice to have people come see us here. Luckily Holiday World does the trick for many people. ;o) 

And at the same time, a mother abandoned 3 kittens on lawn. I tried so hard to keep them alive! I got up every 2 hours in the night to feed them and tried to keep them clean and get them to go to the bathroom, but in the end 2 died after the 1st day and the 3rd 2 days later. They all had something called myaisis (you can look it up - it is too gross to talk about). In the end, they all did pass away. It was very sad! 

That about sums it up without going on and on too long (Too late?  *sigh*). Keep us posted on your life and happening as well. 

Sarah (and Braden)

A truly GOOD Friday

               Once again, we have failed to update as promised. But we (as of next Monday!) will officially be getting the internet again, so updates will actually be possible. I must say, while we have enjoyed not paying for the internet, not having it has been significantly more difficult than initially imagined. It is hard too communicate certain things with certain people, it is nearly impossible to know anything that is going on in the world (especially since we do not have cable), it is hard to research things that I want to look into at this time in my life (things like homeschooling methods and curriculum, games and traditions for the family, ideas and examples on blogs about how to train and disciple your children, recipes, I have been trying to compile a homemaking binder, working on my other family blog about memories, traditions, and ideologies, etc).

               I do believe however, that this experience has taught me how much time I wasted in the past on the internet. Particularly on things like facebook and my email. I have been significantly more productive without them. Hopefully now that I see how much I don’t need facebook or my email, I will stop checking them incessantly and start remembering that I should honor that Lord by “making the best use of my time, for the days are evil”. Hard to see how I am bringing the Lord honor with my time as I facebook creep people I hardly know, or haven’t talked to in over 5 years.

At the petting zoo

               Things are great here in Dale. Braden is about to start the summer Holiday World season in a few weeks (and he has been putting in the hours to prove it!) and we have been very busy with life in general on top of that! At the beginning of March, we were able to go to South Carolina for vacation! My sisters, my mom, and us all met up at Hilton Head Island. It was so nice and relaxing and we had absolutely wonderful weather. Low 70’s most of the time. It was great to spend time with Jenny and Jace and their children Joshua and Adali (they are too cute!) and Melissa and Jeff and there raspberry sized blessing in her belly! The baby was only a sesame seed when we were in SC though. We were all there when she got to find out! Praise the Lord for His blessings!

At the beach... Asher had some breathing problems because of the wind, as you can see...

Joshua giving Asher a kiss

On the beach again

 What I never realized was how difficult vacations can become when you have little babies! You always are worrying about if you have time to do something before they are going to be screaming for a nap or you are waiting for a nap to get over, deciding when and where you should nurse, trying to find a place where you can change them. Yikes. Always the adventure. But, how wonderful it was to have Braden and I’s first vacation with the start of our family!

               Asher is such a joy! He has truly lived up to the name we prayed over and chose for him. Asher means “Joy or Happiness”. Everywhere we go he is always smiling at someone or kicking his feet in his spastic, excited way! He is always such a happy kid (unless he has a pretty good reason not to be). As for how well he sleeps… eh. That is still something we are working on. A lot of times he will sleep a good 9 or ten hours. You suddenly started to feel like you are always going to be getting a good night sleep and maybe the nighttime spells are over then, BAM, he is waking up every 2 hours and making the nights very miserable indeed. It isn’t so bad now, I can always take a nap when he does (and a lot of times Braden will take him in the morning and let me sleep for another hour or so), but I must confess being a little nervous when we have more than one. Regardless though, I can’t wait to have another! (Cross your fingers for a girl!) Motherhood has been so much more wonderful than I could ever have imagined. I pray that the Lord would continue to give me a heart to grow and nurture my family and not resent what I have had to give up, but to delight in the precious gifts I have gained! Now I just have to get up the courage to brave pregnancy again…

               I am continuously reminded in this season of new life of the goodness of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Today as I write this post (though it will be posted later), it is Good Friday. And, oh, today is Good! Jesus Christ gave up his life on this day 2000 years ago. Satan rejoiced that the Son of God had been killed by the very people he came to rescue. Even Jesus’ disciples had abandoned him in the garden where Judas betrayed him (well, all but Peter and another, but Peter would deny that he knew him at all before the end of the night). These are the same men that saw him feed thousands with a few fish and bread, the same men who had seen him raise Lazarus from the dead, and walk on water, the same men who had themselves been given the power through him to cast out demons and heal lepers and paralytics. They had fled in fear of their own lives and abandoned the one who gave them life and purpose. Yet Jesus, even though he could have commanded a legion of angels to come and rescue him from this horrible fate, chose to die for these pathetic, hopeless sinners. Sinners just like me. He suffered the agony of a painful crucifixion, but what was worse, on that cross he bore the wrath of God for the sin of every man and woman who would ever come to call upon him as Lord and Savior. Jesus: A man who had never done anything to merit anything but eternal love and devotion. Praise God for his faithfulness to us hopeless sinners.

               And then, in 3 days, he would do what none ever could. He would raise himself from the dead and crush death forever. Now, death is but sweet relief for those he came to save, those who would call upon his name to salvation. What wonderful news!

However, scripture teaches us that it is only good news for those who have come to accept Christ as their Savior and allow Him to be Lord over all your life. In order to be given Life and Life Eternal, we have to let go of our own life. We must die to ourselves, as Christ died for us. The resurrection is only good news for those who willingly give their lives over to Christ and walk in obedience to God and his Word (the bible). For those who don’t, for those who continue to live how they choose without a thought to their own sin and blindness, I plead with you from the bottom of my hear today to understand that accepting Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for the atonement (or reconciliation) of your sins the only way to heaven and salvation. Your good works are “as filthy rags” to God (Isaiah 64:6). We can never be good enough to earn your way to God. In Galatians 2:21 the bible says, “If [salvation] could be attained to attained though good works, than Christ died for no purpose!” Jesus would not have had to die if you could have made a way to heaven on your own. But he did, and without him, we have no hope to be with God in the kingdom of heaven.

               Thank the Lord that he has given me the eyes to see his goodness and the heart to savor the

 sweetness of his mercy and love! Without him, I cannot imagine the person I would be. So remember, Good Friday is so much more that a day off school or a time to attend an evening mass. It is the day that God himself said “It is finished!” and removed the stone barrier that stood between God and mankind. What a way to go out, eh?