Wellspring Weekly - week three!

Welcome to the land of sickness ... I am the worn out Mama, and I will be your tour guide ... hehe!

In all seriousness though, we have been battling cough and fevers all week around here and this weekend found out that my oldest has pneumonia. So ... the only day we actually got any school work done was on Monday before we took a field trip to a local fair. The fair was fun, but wore us all out, and that was the night my oldest started her fever {which has since lasted all week}.

So nothing much to report on the homeschool front this week. I wish I could tell you that I take sick days to sit and read endless books to the girls, but I confess that I have not. They have watched {way too many} hours of movies and TV and I have taken advantage of the time and have completely re-organized all the rooms in my house and those sadly neglected closets.

I know you all thought I was some kind of organization guru, but the truth of it is that even though I love organization, life gets in the way most of the time and my closets take the brunt of it! They become cluttered, overcrowded, can barely open the door spaces ... but now, they are clean and organized again and all is at peace in my world. Here are some pics from the fair ... then my shameful clutter pics! haha!






This is what my kitchen island looks like on MOST days!
My hall closet ... what a load of junk!
My pantry closet ...
Everything just thrown in there ...
Oh the shame - my dresser is ALWAYS a mess! It's dusty, full of clutter and usually piles of clean laundry that I simply need to put away!
Piles of laundry and shoes on the floor ...
The school room gets super messy! We use it for so many purposes that it's always a cluttered mess!!


Here is my hall closet after! Nice and neat!
Pantry closet after ...
ahhh! much better!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! We pray that our house will get healthy and we'll have a much more productive week around here!

Do you have Hope?

I really want to share something with you. It's a blog post from my friend Angie who will have surgery tomorrow to remove the cancer in her tongue and her lymph nodes. I was just going to link you to her blog - but wanted to be sure you could read what she wrote.

I too would love to talk to anyone who is unsure of where they would go should they die today - I don't have all the answers and you won't find me pretending to be a Bible scholar who knows it all ... but I do believe that I will have eternity in heaven with God someday and I do have hope because of that. And if you don't, but would like to, please email me personally or if you don't know me well enough to have my email address please leave a comment here and I'll get it to you. Here is Angie's post ... {and don't forget to PRAY for her surgery tomorrow!}

Monday, September 21, 2009

The Reason For My Hope

I think the world stopped for a brief second last week when the doctor told me I had cancer, followed by the words aggressive, dangerous, and surgery. Those were words that I never thought I’d hear.

Now tomorrow I am facing a major surgery, and even though we have received favorable test results, we still don’t know what the future holds.

Our pastor reminded us yesterday that I am not any closer to death today than I was one year ago, or five years ago. Everyday on this earth is by the grace of God.

Despite this scary diagnosis, I have already shared that I’ve never felt closer to the Lord. I want to share with you how you can feel the same peace and hope that I feel, no matter what trials you may face in your life.

Don't get me wrong...I get scared and I grieve for the unknown. I grieve for my little boy, because I want to be there while he grows up. I grieve for my husband, because I want to grow old with him. Thousands of “what ifs” have crossed my mind. What if the cancer has spread further than the tests indicated? What if the cancer comes back?

Even though I grieve, I grieve with HOPE.

HOPE that can only come from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Do you have this HOPE?

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin when He died on the cross. He offers you eternal life.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Salvation is free. And it’s simple.

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9, ESV

That’s it. That’s all you need to do. If you have questions, ask me. My email address is ahubbard @ emmaus . edu (take out the spaces). I would love to talk to you.

I know that most people who read this blog already have this same hope. But I still feel the need to share.

This is probably the most important blog I have ever written. I don’t normally campaign for comments, but if you are reading this, and you too believe and have the same hope that I have, please leave a comment…with a simple statement such as “I believe” or “I have HOPE.”

~Angie

Wellspring Weekly - week two!

This is the post that could also be titled 'my longest blog post ever!' ... haha, so bear with me, I have lots to say tonight!

This week ... the girls enjoyed swimming on a nice warm day - then drew with chalk all over our driveway. I'm not sure how many more pool days they will have as we will probably close it for the season soon - so it was great that they have still been enjoying the warm days.

This week I ... made my famous apple crisp which we enjoyed with friends who came for dinner one night ...
This week... we babysat our friend's baby two days and she watched as the girls made themselves a little afternoon tea party one day ...
This week ... our little R {who we babysit} was all about trying to get close to Casey ...
This week ... Casey was all about snuggling up to little R's babydoll ...
This week ... our firstborn turned 8!!! We always cover their door with streamers when they wake up on their birthday ...
This week ... the birthday girl got lots of special treats on her special day including a menu with all her favorite foods and fancy dishes for meals ... We had Mama's famous Pumped-Up pancakes for breakfast with strawberries ...
This week ... little R just got cuter and cuter by the second ...
This week ... Hope got something she was really hoping for for her birthday - I love the looks on their faces as she's opening it!
This week ... we made her favorite Peanut Butter Cookies on her birthday and invited some friends over in the afternoon to share them with us ...
This week ... we wore our favorite aprons for baking ....
This week we made time to be silly together ...
This week we worked on cursive handwriting ...
This week we had some chilly nights and mornings and my poor old pup just couldn't get her old bones warm!
This week ... hubby got my bin of fall stuff out of the attic and I had fun decorated my house for the season ...
This week ... the girls played so nicely outside together ... oh can't this gorgeous fall weather just stay all year??
This week ... the poor old pup enjoyed the sunshine ...
This week ... we did our Science work outside and enjoyed the warmth of the sun as we talked about insects ... then went on a bug hunt to find some ...

This week ... we found some really neat creatures ... {there seem to be a ton of Dragonflies around here lately!}

This week ... we scratched our heads about what kind of bug this could possibly be ....
This week ... the girls found some friends ...
This week ... we found a lot of insects ... and yes, my children did get showers - ew, check out those filthy hands!
This week ... we admired this beauty - cool mohawk!!!
This week ... they sat on the driveway in the 'house' they drew with chalk and looked at their bugs, played with their frogs and just simply talked about whatever sisters talk about ...
This week ... they had a great soccer game {which they won!} and this little teammate got a little to close to my girl while waiting on the bench! Oh the things a Mom can see with her zoom lens! I took heart in the fact that she clearly was annoyed and paid him no mind ... but I also told her 'next time give him a little elbow in the ribs and tell him to shove over!'
This week ... I thanked the Lord that she's an athletic, sporty, competitive girl who could care less about boys .... yet.
This week ... we had Grandparents over to celebrate the birthday girl ... and in this family both kids get something on birthdays ...
This week ... the girls enjoyed having their two Grandmas to snuggle with ...
This week ... I tried a different hairstyle which got rave revues? reviews? {???} from everyone .... maybe I'll have to try it for awhile ...

This week I also cherished my two girls more than ever before ... read below to see why ....

So as great as our week was ... people all around us have had extremely difficult weeks, some of them facing situations that they probably never thought they'd be facing. I say all this because there are three families I really want you to pray for with me.

This week one of my best friends had her house broken in to. Thankfully no one was home, there was little damage and there was not much taken. But understandably they feel scared and violated. So please pray with me for the safety, peace and protection of the Wallace family.

This week my friend Angie is facing cancer. In fact, this coming week {this Tuesday to be exact} she'll undergo a very serious surgery to remove the cancer from her tongue and her lymph nodes. She's a young wife and Mom and needs our prayers.

This week my friend's daughter Lily was in a serious ATV accident in which she had to be life flighted to a trauma center. She's already undergone surgery for internal injuries and will face more surgery early this week for injuries to her leg and foot. Lily is only 9 and she has a long road of recovery ahead of her - please pray for her, her twin brother and her parents as they go through this difficult time.

This week I finished the Yada Yada Prayer Group book number 5 and started on book number 6 and I continue to be amazed and thrilled with all I'm learning about prayer. And the Lord sure has been stretching me and giving me plenty of things to pray about lately! One night I was up almost all night - something that would almost always annoy me to death - but now I took all those awake hours and used them to lift people up to the Lord in prayer. And instead of feeling grouchy in the morning I felt so at peace that it didn't feel as though I'd been up most of the night.

This week we had our first Bible study small group of this new year. We prayed over some friends who are moving to England for a couple years. It was a bittersweet time of fellowship. They will certainly be missed.

And finally ... I leave you with this ...

Great is Thy faithfulness
O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not
Thy compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever will be

(chorus)
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed They hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me

(verse2)
Pardon for sin
And a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence
To cheer and to guide
Strength for today
And bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine
With ten thousand beside

(chorus)
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed They hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me

Lamentations 2:3

Love you my friends! If you have something you want me to be praying about, please email me or leave it in the comments!

When girls share a room ...

This seems to be a daily occurrence ...




Just when you get it all cleaned up and beds made ... you come back an hour later and it's trashed again! Any Moms out there have any good tips for keeping their rooms picked up for more than an hour?