Homeschooling with Joy & Misc.

I guess I'll start with the misc. First, I did my first maternity shoot last night! It was so much fun! What a blessing to be able to document the miracle of being pregnant! I will be doing the newborn shoot on March 5th, Lord willing. I also have two more maternity shoots in the next 3 weeks with their newborns to follow! I just LOVE this! Ashley is my helper and we have alot of fun. I still have not been able to do a wedding yet but am praying. First and foremost, I am a keeper at home and I LOVE that the most!
Another thing is my thoughts lately. At times I am tempted to play over my Dad's last day of life. If I really start thinking about it I have SO many regrets. If I had only known, things would have been so different. But we don't know, only God does. Then I have to remember that I had nothing left unsaid with my Dad. He knew how much I loved him and I had told him several times about the Lord. He also saw me live out my life in Christ. I told him two weeks before he died that I could not pray him into heaven, that no pastor could pray him into heaven. It had to be between him and the Lord. He had to pray and tell the Lord he wanted Him. I don't know what happened that day or the next two weeks. I have hope. I DO know that the Lord knows and I DO know that He is good. That I can trust and rest in. Also the Lord gave me so much more than a perfect last day with him. As I look at old pictures I see and remember how close to death he was when Dylan was 2, 8 yrs ago. And again when Paige was 3 months, 7 yrs ago. When Paige was 3 months I was a new Christian (a little over a year) and I prayed Lord please don't take my Dad now. He gave me 7 more yrs with him. So when I am tempted to say why not just one more day? I stop and praise the Lord for the 7 wonderful years! He was the best Dad and Grandpa EVER.
Now Homeschooling with Joy instead of tears! I must admit that there were some tears this last week. I became impatient with my little learner. I hate it when I do that. But I did realize it so much quicker and correct it. That was a blessing.
I wanted to share about our children being arrows. It is our job to sharpen and straighten our arrows. That way when we send them out into the world they will fly straight and be mighty for the Lord! The battle begins on the field of our children's hearts and moves out from there into the fields of a dying world. This one statement from the book I'm reading confirms my decision that schoolbooks are not the most important thing. I'm not training up my children to be math whizzes or to win a noble prize. I am training them up to go into a dying world and tell people about Christ. Both with their mouths and their lives. Yes, we do learn some book work but character and love one to another is so much more important than that. I want to have strong arrows to send out for the Lord. Nothing is more important than that!