On Saturday, November 7th, our family met up with Gwendolyn and her family and we hit the corn maze out in Hondo, TX for some good ol’ fashioned family fun.

If you’ve never been to the corn maze, you should definitely take some time to go check it out. We have gone in the past during the daytime on home school field trip days because it’s a LOT cheaper. But this year, since our kids are all in school and Gwendolyn’s oldest daughter goes to public school, we decided to take a weekend NIGHT trip so the husbands could come along and have some fun with us.

We also took my niece, Alaina and we met Gwendolyn’s brother and his children there as well. I think, all together, we had 16 people in our group – only 5 of them were adults. It was awesome. The kids had SO much fun… and so did we. Gwendolyn and I totally needed to decompress after our both equally stressful weeks. We, two, had a lot of fun being completely obnoxious and out of control hyper at the corn maze. I love to make people laugh – it makes me laugh and helps me to decompress as well.

Gwendolyn and I had in mind to film our trip to the corn maze and make a stupid movie out of it. I’ve included it in this blog post for your enjoyment! It’s about 10 minutes long.

Here are some other pics from the Corn Maze:

The girls set their table/chairs up outside so they could pass out candy. They were SO excited about Halloween. They kept yelling "Customers! Customers!" in an effort to attrack any attention.

This was our first year to participate in Halloween. We let the kids “dress up” and go knocking door to door begging for candy…er…I mean “trick or treating.” They dressed up like 2 little ballerinas and 1 goofy 12 yr old. Ean stayed home and helped pass out candy. He was still recovering from the flu and I didn’t want him running around the neighborhood. Passing out candy while sick with flu was simply a better option. HA!  (Note: he wasn’t contagious! I’m just being sarcastic.)

I have been so disconnected from Halloween that some years I actually forgot about it entirely and have spent many an “October 31st” wondering why everyone has costumes on. One year we actually had a Dr. appointment scheduled late the afternoon of October 31st and it wasn’t until I got to the office and the receptionist said, “Happy Halloween!” that it occurred to me the significance of October 31st. I was a good Reformed Christian. October 31st was the day we celebrated The Reformation – October 31st is the day Luther hung his 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic church and changed the course of history. It’s a significant event. Now we never had a Reformation Party but Truly Good Reformed Christians teach this to their children and they dress them up as reformers and they cook foods that the reformers might have eaten and they get together for a “Pot Providence” meal and they tell stories about the reformation and maybe even re-enact important historical events. They have fun. Their kids have fun. They enjoy spending time with their children and hanging out with other “like-minded families” and there’s really no harm in it at all. Like I said, we never actually did this – but it doesn’t mean I didn’t WANT to do it – we just never planned out a party. Back then I did think it was a fun idea. And HOW coincidental that it fell on Halloween!

A few years ago we defected from The Village. With this defection came a tossing out of the baby-with-the-bathwater so to speak. I’m so disconnected from anything remotely related to The Village that I had actually totally forgotten about Reformation Celebrations until the other day when someone posted something about it on Facebook. I thought, “What?  Oh yeah!” and then “Really?  People still do this stuff??”  Ha!  I guess I’ve come full circle. Thank goodness!

So anyway back to the story.

Come on baby, light my fire. Try to set the night on fire. The time to hesitate is through. No time to wallow in the mire. Try now we can only lose and our love become a funeral pyre!!!

Ean had gutted a pumpkin at school that week and had brought it home. SO it was already ready to be carved and lit up. I mean – it was sitting there primed and ready so WHY NOT? So they carved it. And lit it up!  The lighting part was really funny. Remember this was all very impromptu. And we didn’t have any candles to put in the pumpkin. So – we settled on some wood, lighter fluid, and a match. It was awesome!

Later that night some kid knocked on the door and said, “Um is your pumpkin supposed to be smoking?”  The fire had been put out but it was still hot and “smoky.” I thought it was funny that the kid noticed it!

The kids had SO MUCH FUN trick or treating. It was kind of fun to roam the neighborhood and just hang out with the kids doing something free and entertaining. Yes, there were some scary things to deal with. Some were really over the top. But then there were some fun things to get to do – like the one guy who rented an inflatable castle for the trick or treaters to jump in. He said it was his contribution to helping the kids “deal with the sugar rush!” And the one lady who was Korean and couldn’t speak English and the entire outside of her front yard was decorated for Halloween, and the entire INSIDE of her house was decorated for Christmas!  I was cracking up.

And then there was the stray child we picked up who went trick or treating with us. It was dark. And there was this girl walking around by herself. That’s not safe. Hello!  This is San Antonio – not some little safe small town (are there any anymore?) USA place where a kid can walk around in the dark alone! Anyway she was a total delight and I was fascinated to find out she is one of 13 children! They live right here in our neighborhood. As soon as everyone in this house is well I’m going to go meet her mother. I can’t wait!  I LOVE SUPER BIG FAMILIES! Even the ones who are not very normal (and you know who you are) I still love them!

Adri, digging for the gold!

The kids raked in SO MUCH CANDY!  The amount of candy we brought home was UNREAL. We probably ended up 10 pounds of pure chocolate. Amazing.

So what have the lasting effects of this been on our (Christian) Children?  I put Christian in parentheses to emphasis the UNimportance of the fact that they are children being raised in a Christian home.

NOTHING.

They are fine.

I didn’t find any of them converting to the occult.

I didn’t find any of them casting spells on others.

I didn’t find any of them renouncing our family values.

I didn’t find any of them rejecting God.

So I guess, all in all, they are still O.K.

Practically speaking, however, Claire has been on the Sugar-Induced Super Highway all week. She got FOUR “folder marks” today in Kindergarten for just being out of control and in la-la-land. Every day this week she’s gotten a folder mark and that means she has gotten into trouble. I think the sugar build up has sent her into overdrive.

Tomorrow ALL the candy is going to Royce’s office.

Halloween was great. I guess next year I’ll buy the kids real costumes.

I won’t say that the battle for Clean Safe Vaccines has been won. We are far from it. But the following information gives me great hope that one day, in my children’s future, they will have access to clean, safe and effective vaccines.

In the article below, the CDC admits that cleaner, safer flu vaccines were produced this year in direct response to the concern over adjuvants and thimerosal. The news article is a little biased in stating that the need for cleaner, safer vaccines has directly affected the slow production of the vaccines. But I’m not buying it because it’s just a scapegoat of an excuse.

I hope this begins to set a precedent for future vaccine production. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and keep the pressure on the FDA, CDC and the Vaccine Manufacturers themselves!

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Feds_release_last_liquid_Tamiflu.html

The government’s attempts to soothe concerns over the vaccine’s safety have contributed to the slowness of its distribution.

Factors include the federal government’s decisions to request vaccine made without adjuvant, and request that some of that vaccine be made in single doses.

Adjuvants act as boosters, making a smaller amount of vaccine do more work in the body, and are being used to make much more vaccine available elsewhere. CDC officials said the adjuvants don’t have a known risk, but there’s enough uncertainty that they decided that the American public would be more receptive to a swine flu vaccine without them.

“There are no adjuvants (such as squalene) in either the 2009 H1N1 or seasonal flu vaccines used in the United States,” the CDC Web site states.

Nonetheless, rumors abound both on fliers and the Internet that the vaccines contain adjuvants.

That goes double for thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative commonly used in multi-dose vials of flu vaccine. Multiple studies have failed to find a link between thimerosol and autism, but faced with rising autism rates and no clear answers as to why, many people remain unconvinced. Thimerosol was phased out as a part of most early childhood vaccines several years ago, but continues to be used in influenza vaccines.

Health officials at all levels continue to get questions about the risks of thimerosol, said Dr. Bryan Alsip, assistant director of the Metropolitan Health District.

“None of the data have shown any causal link between thimerosol and adverse effects from thimerosol,” Alsip said. “Many groups have looked at it – it hasn’t been done in isolation or by one individual body.”

But because of continued public concern, U.S. officials have requested that some of the vaccine be produced in single-dose syringes so that people can request those, slowing the speed of supply.

The controversy of the day! I’m reposting an article that was emailed to me. I verified the sources, websites, etc. It is legit (in that this article has not been fabricated out of thin air. I can’t vouch for the actual material IN the article.)

So give it a read and leave a comment. What do you guys think about this??

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Former Wiccan and Self-Proclaimed Witch Explain Why, as Christians, They No Longer Celebrate Halloween.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Posted in The Way Less Traveled

Many Christians embrace and celebrate Halloween either in ignorance of what the holiday truly means or in deliberate rebellion, ignoring Scripture that speaks on the subject or justifying their actions based on feelings. Since many Christians do not see Halloween for what it truly is, I decided to hold a simple Q&A session with two women who have a very unique perspective on this holiday. Both women are now Believers in Jesus, but these women were previously involved in the occult – either as Wiccans or as self-proclaimed witches.

Please welcome Kimberly Eddy from JoyfulMomma.org and Jennifer Bogart from QuiverfullFamily.com.

As always, compare all human thoughts and opinions against God’s Word. However, do take into account the unique aspect that these two women bring to this discussion on whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween.

Q. How did you get involved in Wicca or witchcraft? What was the attraction to it in the first place?

A. After my family left the Mormon Church when I was around ten years old, I continued attending with a friend until I was twelve or so. After stopping, I quickly adopted my parents burgeoning New-Age worldview. My father was heavily involved in rune magic at the time, and it didn’t take long before I was happily dawdling down the road to paganism behind him. **Jennifer**

I was raised in a very nominally Catholic family (though part of the extended family was Jewish)…we went to church periodically, and I went to both Catholic school in early elementary and later Catechism when I started attending public school. Unlike my family, I have always had a strong desire and hunger for spiritual things. My parents and brother found this to be quite a joke, and they teased me over it mercilessly as I grew up. I started to also be disappointed in my faith. I didn’t really understand why Jesus died at this point; I was just saying I was a Christian because I thought I was from going to church. Around this same time (mid 80s I think?) the whole televangelist scandals happened, with preachers found to have mistresses and million dollar homes, and that made me cynical. Added to this was the drive by groups to ban or censor music, and it seemed like Christians were always protesting something… and it made me think, “If Christianity is always about being uptight and grouchy about other people having fun, I want nothing to do with it”. This was my 15 year old, unsaved mind’s reasoning. To this day I guard my involvement in political activities carefully, as I don’t want to be a stumbling block to someone else.

At this same time, I had an assignment in an English class. We were reading “The Crucible”, which was about the Salem Witch Trials. We were each told to pick one part of the trials, such as “Puritanism” or “Salem” or “Massachusetts colony”. I drew my card out of the hat and drew out “Witchcraft” . Being a thorough, studious sort of kid, I did some research. I actually went to a Wiccan bookstore that had just opened, and bought a used book on Witchcraft. I had been curious about the bookstore, especially since all of the Christians were protesting it, so this gave me an “excuse” to go there. I became friends with people there, and started to embrace Wicca.

The book I bought and the people I met compared and contrasted the stuffy, boring, uptight, judgmental Christians with the loving, sweet, nature-loving, and tolerant Wiccans, and used that to really suck me in. I need to repeat that though I grew up in a church, I had never heard, understood, or received for myself the saving power of God through the Blood of Christ, and so I was still a “natural man”. I was only looking on the outside. After I asked someone at our Parish why Witchcraft is wrong and all she could say was “It’s Satan worship and you’ll go to hell for it!” or something to that effect…and I knew that the wiccans did not (directly) worship Satan, I thought, “Ok, so Christians really are ignorant, knee jerk reactionists! Sign me up for Wicca!” **Kimberly**

Q. How long did you practice Wicca or witchcraft?

A. I was involved in pagan/magic- working practices from the time I was a young teen until I was saved. I didn’t self-identify as a witch until three to four years before my conversion. So In total I’d been involved with the occult for approximately 13 years. **Jennifer**

From about 1985 until I got saved in August 1990. **Kimberly**

Q.When you were practicing pagan religions, what did you do on Halloween? What was significant or important about Halloween?

A. As a young child it did seem just innocent fun until I started investigating the roots of modern witchcraft for myself as an adult. Even as an occult-involved teen I never gave much thought to the underlying meaning of Halloween and just enjoyed myself. After becoming a practicing Witch as an adult, I recognized Halloween as the high-holy day of the Witches Year. It is referred to as Samhain – Soween – within the Celtic pagan community. It is identified as the time period where the veil between the worlds is thinnest, this time of year is revered as ideal for communication with the dead, heightened ‘spiritual’ awareness, and so forth. Pagans often chortle about the secularization, and even Christianization of pagan holy-days, and Halloween is amongst the most obvious. The fascination with death and spirits that continues to surround Halloween is evidence of this connection (think of the traditional costumes: ghosts, skeletons, witches, demons, murderers, etc.) Here’s an interesting wiki-listing http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Samhain that points out how Halloween is directly linked to the practices of Celtic-polytheism (workshop of many gods). **Jennifer**

The only thing that I loved about Halloween is the costumes, because I love costumes. I worked in a theater as a costumes seamstress, so this was my “thing”. Before I became a Wiccan, it was just about dressing up and getting candy.

This may be hard to understand, but the way society celebrates Halloween and the way the Wiccans celebrate Halloween are two different things. You could say that it’s like the way our materialistic culture has morphed Christmas into a selfish spend-fest where everyone is stressed out and excessively busy, and we as Christians bemoan the fact that the real observance — the remembrance of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us — has been lost to society, Wiccans feel the same way about “their” holiday, and frankly, who can blame them.

Wiccans see Halloween as one of the most sacred holidays on their calendar, as it is associated with the rise of the “god”, and the going down of the “goddess” (signified by it becoming colder, darker, leaves falling off the trees, shorter days, etc.). Society (originating in England) celebrates it as dressing up in ghoulish (or worse) costumes and begging for candy, with some emphasis on the evil side of it, characteristic of witches riding broomsticks with pointy hats and green skin and other “spooky stuff”.

Initially as a Wiccan, I practiced as a solitary Wiccan, as there was not covens open for new members at the time in my area. I did meet with a more experienced Wiccan woman often. I once went to a Halloween celebration as an observer only (they need a specific number for the magical practices inside of the circle). Later I was in a coven, but still only observed the circles.

[On Halloween] I mostly prayed incantations regarding the “rising of the god” and coming of winter, and later was an observer of coven circles. The things that went on there are not printable on a family blog. **Kimberly**

Q. When and how did you come to know the Lord?

A. I have such a hard time sharing my testimony in a short form! Briefly, God began drawing my heart towards His son through nearly every circumstance in my life. He combined my burden of sin with external promptings that pointed me towards Jesus continually. This was a slow process, and after two years of this torturous drawing I told Jesus to take my life, that I didn’t want it anymore, and he could do with it whatever he wished. If you’d like the long version, you can read it here: http://quiverfullfa mily.com/ 2008/05/03/ my-testimony/ **Jennifer**

The primarily tenet of Wicca is “As is none harm done, do it”. In other words, everything is permissible if you are not hurting anyone else. Of course, no man is an island, and we may think we don’t hurt those around us but we can and do hurt them by our sin. In obeying this tenet, I started down a path that eventually lead to a cynical hedonism while in my later years of college, some of this related to a roommate I had who introduced me to some things that I took a liking too. I basically went off the rails with anything and everything. By the time I finished college, I was not even invited to the coven (and didn’t care), though I still self-identified with Wicca. I was drunk and high and everything else imaginable.

I will have my testimony actually published on Boundless.org on November 9th, but essentially, I took off for Eastern Europe, hitchhiked and traveled, chipped off pieces of the Berlin wall, and partied everywhere I went. I met a girl who was singing in a park, and though we didn’t speak a common language well, she drew me pictures and witnessed to me in broken English. I left her, and later found myself stumbling into a Campus Crusade for Christ open air revival in Jan Huss square in downtown Prague, where somehow the Gospel penetrated my heart, and I got saved. **Kimberly**

Q. Why don’t you participate in Halloween any longer?

A. So many of our Western ‘holidays’ are secularized/ Christianized pagan holy-days. As a one-time pagan who mocked Christians who took part in these adulterated holidays, I can in no way celebrate them with my family. Halloween is only one on a list of holidays that have been co-opted from pagan belief systems: Christmas, Easter, Halloween – they may all be widely accepted, and the former two have had Jesus thrown into the mix, but their origins and symbolism remain largely pagan in nature.

I believe that reading these scriptures and applying them to any area of occult influence, whether it is a pagan holiday, or reading fiction that portrays witches and wizards in a positive light – these passages are broadly applicable for Christian living and remaining separate from pagan practices.

Ephesians 5:8-14 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[a]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’
‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’” **Jennifer**

There are several reasons. The first one, I don’t see the point as to why we should. To me, it originates with a very directly pagan observance.

I find the emphasis on being “afraid” and promoting fear, scary stuff, etc. to be contrary to the fact that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1). Why emphasize death? Christ conquered death and the grave! I also feel that this “fun” exposure to the scary, terror stuff can inoculate young children to violence and evil. It’s like how violent films desensitize us to violence.

Safety. It’s hard enough to keep an eye on active young children, but put a costume on them, go for a walk in the dark with hundreds of other young kids in similar costumes on the street, in neighborhoods that are more often than not full of sex offenders (check your communities listing).

Is it a good precedent to teach children to essentially “beg” door to door? The Bible says that God’s children don’t “beg” (Psalm 37:25)…we have a society that is always looking for a handout and while I don’t think that this is because of Halloween and trick or treating, I don’t like encouraging kids to be beggars.

Essentially, I found trick or treating to be like a washed out version of what the real holiday was about for a Wiccan, so I didn’t participate in that any more, and I was older anyway by that point. I’ve not gone trick or treating at all since that time. **Kimberly**

Q. Are there specific experiences that you had as a Wiccan who celebrated Halloween that led to your decisions as why you don’t celebrate it any longer?

A. I can’t say that there is any specific experience I can point to, but rather the general understanding of Christianity and the holidays Christians celebrate that I held as a pagan.

Brothers and sisters, know that there are pagans watching you and laughing. That may seem harsh, but it is true – the adopt of pagan holidays into the life of a Christian has in no way strengthened the faith or made it more palatable in the eyes of unbelievers, it has only weakened it, and made it seem derivative. I can so clearly remember explaining to others that Jesus is just another manifestation of the sacrificial Summer-King who dies to ensure the well-being of his people – that this is evident through his portrayal in being born at Winter Solstice (as the sun-god is), dying and rising again at Easter (Eostre) as the green-god, the consort of the goddess does in the Spring as he is planted into the ground and dies only to be born again as the grain crop.

As a believer I know that nothing can be further than the truth – I always knew that the gods I worshipped were the creations of man, false gods, and now that I belong to Him I know the deep, everlasting reality of His life, His truth, His love. It breaks my heart to know that pagans misunderstand Jesus because of tacking him onto pagan celebrations – but that is a post for another day! Even holidays that are still primarily pagan are in no ways appropriate for Christians to celebrate, as it mars their witness to partake in a pagan celebration.

I have to make something clear – I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with candy, or wearing princess dress-up clothes, we do both of those things in our home. However, when we do these things within the context of a pagan celebration, we are in essence behaving like the un-Godly culture that surrounds us. Both in the Old and New Testaments God carefully shepherds His people, asking them to abstain from pagan expressions of faith and celebration. Unfortunately, Christians who partake in Halloween are partaking in a pagan celebration.

I realize that there are many sincere brothers and sisters in the faith that celebrate Halloween out of a sense of family tradition, or culturally normative – I’d like to encourage you to examine the scriptures in light of this celebration, to seek God’s face, and to pray His will be done in your life. I hope you’ll read these words in the spirit they are intended – I have no desire to condemn you and yours as you continue to grow in your walk with the Lord.

Do our actions really matter in relation to Halloween or is it just innocent fun? Yes, unreservedly yes. As parents we are responsible for planting seeds in the lives of our children. Halloween and its emphasis upon the dark spiritual world may unknowingly plant a seed that later blooms into a fascination with the occult.

As previously mentioned, our Christian witness before pagans is marred due to our involvement with their ‘holy days’

Most importantly, as the above scriptures make clear, God wants us to walk in the light. As His children we should not seek to partake of the works of darkness or to commune with them. All children seek to emulate their father – having been adopted into God’s family, we are no longer children of Satan, and we should no longer walk as such.**Jennifer* *

Not really, other than knowing where it originated. What I mean is…not directly. Because of my involvement in [things of the] occult in the past, I avoid things that just “feel” demonic to me. It’s hard to say, but my spirit just cringes this time of year. It’s like putting a smiling, happy face on the demonic.

I think you’ll find this to be true in most of us who were once Wiccans…it goes beyond Halloween, to a greater sensitivity in this realm in general. It’s the whole Romans 14 argument about the weaker brother. I am a weaker brother when it comes to anything that has occult overtones because I know the draw that once had on me, and in a moment of weakness it could possibly be a stumbling block again. **Kimberly**

Thank you to Jennifer Bogart and Kimberly Eddy for sharing your hearts on this subject of Halloween. Please take some time to read the below verses and meditate on how these verses relate to celebrating Halloween. Also, remember to be a WITNESS amongst the lost, but also remember that Jesus worked AMONG the heathen, but he did not take up their customs and practices, which is exactly what one is doing in celebrating Halloween. You can be AMONGST the “heathen”, without IMITATING them in their pagan rituals.

Leviticus 20:23-24, 26 “You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them…I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations….You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”

Proverbs 4:18 ”The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” We are to be a shining light, a city on a hill. We are to be DIFFERENT!

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God…Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”

Jeremiah 10:2 “Learn not the way of the heathen.”

For More Information On Halloween

Please visit the ORIGINAL ARTICLE and scroll to the bottom. The author has provided tons of links to other information for your consideration.

// climbing onto my proverbial soap box //

Collectively, during the first 9 weeks of school, my children’s # of absences from school = 33 days. When broken down, the numbers showed that Adri missed 5 days, Ean and Claire both missed 8 days each and Hannah missed 12 days of academic instruction. Cross-reference the dates and this equated to 19 school days they missed all together. That is basically 4 full weeks of school where at least one child was home sick. There have only been three weeks, since August 24th, that all 4 children have actually been in school all 5 days of the school week. Only 15 days out of 43. Of the 19 days the children were home sick, 8 of those days fell on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays — the same days I need to be out of the house & on campus for classes. The other 10 days obviously were on M/W and or Fridays — the days I have designated to doing home work for the 18 hours of classes I’m responsible for, the days I have designated for teaching private ballet classes, and the days on which I was hoping to get some work done on the bathroom (a major renovation project we began in July….and has been abandoned due to our overwhelming schedule of school, doctor visits, and illness after illness.)

Apparently our transition into public schooling will include an all out assault on our immune systems!  When the children went to school in 2007/2008 we did not have to deal with QUITE this much illness. Hannah was then a Kindergartener and she did have her fair share of germ-sharing issues she dealt with. But my then 2nd grader and 4th grader were not this sick. In fact, Adri was in 4th grade @ the time and he only missed 3 days of school out of the entire year. SO – I don’t think their illnesses have anything to do with them being home schooled. Some people have naively assumed that their constitutions were weaker because they hadn’t been around as many germs as other public school kids. While I’ll say that yes, that is probably true that they haven’t been around as many germs as other public schooled kids, I can say that this rash of illness has not been because their immune systems are weaker because they were home schooled. The kids were home educated, but they did not live at home 24/7. They were out and about in public all the time, they had classes they attended with other (germy) kids, and they went to Weds. night church every week and were exposed to a multitude of germs there.

It is also true that our particular schools have experienced their worst attendance records during this first 9 weeks – ever. At one point, Adri’s middle school was down in the low 80% for attendance b/c when the flu hit it hit hard. And I heard that the kindergarten classes were down in the mid 70% for attendance a few weeks this past 9 week session. So it’s not just my kids going through it.

Equating weak immune systems with home schooled kids is silly. I’ve heard it from so many people now that I’ve decided to post something about it. Home schooled kids are no more sick nor more healthy than their public school counterparts. The only big difference is that home schooled kids are not sitting in contaminated classrooms for 35+ hrs each week – which obviously makes public schooled kids more susceptible to illness and home schooled kids less likely to worry with the same string of illnesses that public school kids are dealing with. In that regard – I’ll go on a limb and say home schooled kids are less ill than public schooled kids. But I don’t necessarily think they are more/less healthy.

// stepping down off my soap box //

It’s been a doozy of a month. And by that I do mean between October 1st and October 8th. If you add in the chaos that was September – you would understand why I was sitting in my grief last night. Perhaps that’s a strong statement as I have not endured the trauma that Job suffered – but my grief was quite intense last night when the totality of the job that lay before me seemed insurmountable.

But my friends have not responded to my personal trial by sitting quietly beside me. And for that my weeping Wednesday turned into a Thankful Thursday!

1. Thank God for Mother-in-Law’s willing to take the kids for the entire weekend, all the way through Monday afternoon!!
2. Thank God for husbands willing to take off time from work so he can drive the kids to and fro.
3. Thank God for the fact that, starting tomorrow at 7:45am and running through 2pm on Monday afternoon, I will have 50 hours to devote entirely to homework.
4. Thank God that while I am severely behind in my academic studies, I have the resources available to pull me through (read: unlimited supply of caffeine, a quiet house, a clean desk.)
5. Thank God that when my neighbor learned of my plight (get caught up with school or drop out Tuesday morning) she promptly offered to take the kids off my hands and provide us with a meal. The meal she delivered tonight was above and beyond what we needed, and I can Thankfully say that Royce and I are fed throughout the entire weekend which means I don’t have to cook, nor do I have to bother Royce with food prep.
6. Thank God that I will not lose the $4k investment that is this fall semester of college credits.
7. Thank God for children who are willing to roll with this curve ball. Ean is gracefully rescheduling his birthday party so I can do home work. His sacrifice is such a blessing.
8. Thank God for self-discipline and perseverance. I totally want to throw the towel in and be done with this silly idea I had to go back to school, get the degree, and get a job.
9. Thank God for praying friends, listening friends, and friends who have said, “Yes, I can help.” They are ALL equally important.
10. Thank God for 24hr Starbucks, if all else fails.
11. And lastly, Thank God for Him. Without Him this would not have worked out. Every obstacle I saw before me last night as I tried to figure out how to complete the incredible amount of work that lays before me has been cleared away and the door for success is opened and I’m walking through it. I will be just fine come Tuesday when I will be able to put this horrendous possibility behind me. (The possibility of having to withdraw from all my classes due to circumstances outside of my control that mushroomed this week.)

So, I now pronounce this Thankful Thursday. What, about your Thursday, can you be thankful for?

I have posted a review of the book on my book blog. You can read it there.

http://wp.me/pfZto-1u

Well this week has been a bust. Thankfully I didn’t have TOO many important academic deadlines. Just a mid-term I had to reschedule, an important lecture on Plato I needed to hear and a Public Admin class I really needed to be at since we were dividing into groups for our final project. *SIGH*

The week started off so well!  I was going to run everyday and get all caught up on my academic reading that needs to be done, outline some chapters in Biology, work on my final paper for Public Admin, take my mid-term for my other correspondence course, etc. so on and so forth.

Instead it quickly dissolved into a week full of nursing sick children back to health. Which really means I spent a week snuggling in bed with two girls, watching kids movies and wasting time on Facebook. I had tried, several times, to start home work but the minute I would get a school book out or try to work on an assignment, one of the girls – or both – would start fussing, or need something, or whatever. So, out of frustration, I gave up.

I’m looking forward to next week. If ANY children get sick next week, Royce will have to stay with them and I’ll be hittin’ the library every day so I can get caught up on work!

And, for what it’s worth, at least Claire is feeling much better today and is staying busy. She spent 30 minutes reading her favorite books to Happy the Cat and was going to play Pretty Pretty Princess with Happy but Happy decided she’s not into board games. Smart cat. I especially like that Claire has decided to wear her swimsuit today and stack the books on the windowsill – she said she was building Happy a library.

This school year has taken me by storm!

School has been in session for 23 academic days as of today.

Of those 23 days, there have only been 15 actual days that all four of my children were present for the attendance check. There have only been 10 actual days where all 4 children went to school from start to stop without having the day interrupted with a doctor visit of some kind.

So far, for this year, we have battled:

• Pink Eye
• Double Ear Infections
• Strep Throat X 4 kids
• Flu-like illness
• Upper Respiratory Illness
• Laryngitis
• Asthma Cough left over from the Upper Respiratory Illness
• AND….this week…a Stomach Virus
• Not to mention: Sprained Ankles

Yeah. It’s been a really long and somewhat exhausting start to the year.

On the bright side, life has kept moving forward. I haven’t had to miss any of my college exams. Although I think taking 18 hours was a little excessive. I won’t do THAT again!! I’m still keeping up with teaching ballet and continue my training for my next ballet teacher’s examination. It’s rigorous – much more difficult than any of my college courses! I somehow have also found time to enroll Ean in a Karate program (he’s so proud of himself!!) and commit to a (much needed) Bible study. My life is very full right now. That’s an optimistic way of saying I’m totally overwhelmed at the moment!!

You will laugh at this – but I also took a part-time job hoping to help bring in some much needed extra cash to get medical bills paid down before Christmas. That lasted 1 night. Literally. I’m sorry but Royce is going to have to pick up the slack in that area. I am already working like 10 jobs. What was I thinking?  And before you Royce-bash….it was MY idea.

Like a good friend once told me – the burdens I tend to carry on my shoulders are usually self-inflicted!  I was annoyed that he had the gall to say such a thing to me – but after thinking on it for a while I realized he was dead-on. I hate to say it but he knows me better than I would care to know myself.