Perspective

Perspective. People play a big part in my/your perspective of things. Your past plays a big role too. How your family life was, your friends, school, church and of course all those involve people, not just experiences.

Over the past few months my perspective of my life has shifted. For the better of course. :) But I was thinking about this the other day and thought that it would be good to share my thoughts. If you've known me more than 3 years, then you probably know that I'm not a super positive person. In fact, my nickname was "Debbie Downer" for quite a while because all I could see was what was wrong with situations or what could potentially go wrong. I wasn't sympathetic towards other people's problems, and I wasn't very friendly. I would usually say the first thing that came into my head (which was NEVER a good thing) and usually ended up offending or upsetting someone. I just didn't care. I didn't care what people thought or said about me. I wasn't like this my whole life though. I'd grown bitter and apathetic from years of people talking bad about me to my face or behind my back and basically just being ugly to me (but thats not an excuse, don't get me wrong, I acted the way I did because I chose to, nobody "made" me that way).

Over the past few years I've gotten to become good friends with some really awesome people (you know who you are!). And thanks to them, and their honesty and loving and friendship, my perspective of people, the world, has changed. I've changed the way I see new people. I don't see new people as people who will just turn on me, stab me in the back and destroy my trust. They're just people. People who may need a friend or someone to say something nice to them. I've learned not to say everything that comes to mind. I've learned to hold my tongue (trust me, its a good thing). I don't necessarily lie to people when they ask me things (so don't start thinking I'm lying all the time!), but I'm not as blunt when I speak to people. I've learned to cushion my words if that makes any sense. Sometimes, not saying what comes to my head means not saying anything at all. A lot of times people take my silence as me being angry or upset. It's not. Silence for me means I'm being "nice" by not saying what I'm thinking. Trust me, if I'm angry or upset with you, you will know!

So with all this in mind, I've started to see problems and trials in my life as good things. Do I enjoy them? No, of course not! Who does?! But I've started to see them as growing and learning experiences. We've recently come out of a very long period of trial. We've had a very rough 6 months and its been very difficult. Not one big thing, but tons of small things over a long period. We've made it through these times and its made us a stronger family,  a stronger me, stronger friendships. :) I am so thankful that I have a God who loves and cares for me so much that even when I'm being stubborn and angry with Him, that He would still be waiting when I'm done acting like a 2yr old and come to my senses. Something else I've learned through the past few years is that when you ask God for things, be careful what you ask for! When you ask for patience with your kids, you may get more than you bargained for! Sometimes God gives you things in ways you don't expect. Like patience through dealing with your kids over and over and over again on the same issue. Patience through practice. Not exactly what you think when you sit and pray that God would give you patience. lol. I'm very thankful for my loving husband, kids, and friends who all show more patience with me than I deserve. I'm a slow learner sometimes, but the love, patience and kindness that they show is amazing to me. Thank you all!

Finally I'd like to end with a request for prayer for my friends/neighbors Brian and Jamie. Their almost 3wk old baby boy Caiden is in the Pediatric ICU (NICU) at the Children's Hospital here. The left side of his heart isn't working properly and because of this the right side of his heart is being overworked. They've run blood tests, hear catheters and an MRI. So far blood work is clean, heart cath didn't find anything and the MRI did show some spots/scars on a part of his brain which may be from blood clots. Please pray for them, for their baby boy, for their 3yr old daughter and that God's perfect will and timing in all of this. Thank you friends!

<3 to all!
Mya

First Day of School!

Today was our FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Yes, thats 6 days sooner than I had said. But the kids were SO excited that we just couldn't wait until next week! And let me tell you, it went GREAT! Amara had a little trouble getting back into doing math, but I'm the same way. I know that we'll get into the routine of things soon enough. Amara did her math and writing today. We didn't get to her Reading/Phonics work,  or Geography, but I think half of the planned stuff is pretty good for day 1. ;) Tay however did get everything done. She did her math (which is WAY too easy right now), writing, reading (she read her first story today!), and letter work.

Needless to say, I'm really happy at how well our first day went. It's quite a relief to get that first day out of the way and know that its all going to be okay. :) So here's a few pictures from our first day. We are heading out to Busch Gardens to enjoy the rest of Jon's vacation, so this is a short post. Thank you everyone for all the prayers about school and everything. I appreciate it very much.

<3 to all!

Jon and Amara doing math.

Tay's letter work. Tracing the letters on the Playdough mat.

Tay's letter work. Playdough mats! So fun.

Jon and Amara doing math.

Get Ready...Get Set...Homeschool!

Or something like that. :) I'm definitely getting ready (finally!). My head has been swimming with things that I have to prepare so that we can start school. And of course there's TONS of people who mean very well (I love all of you!) and keep telling me not to worry or stress about it. But, in reality, whats the likelihood that I won't stress out? Umm, none. Thankfully my wonderful husband is willing to give up part of his vacation time so that he can help me prepare....anything! In fact, he told me today, just to give him a list of what needs to be done and he'd do it. Thats great! Now if only I knew what needed to be done. Thats the real problem. So lets see, where I'm starting is this: getting my Notice of Intent to Homeschool done (which btw, what does your curriculum descriptions look like? not too sure about what I should or shouldn't put on that). That has to be sent in by August 15 (about a week away).

After that I have to look at all the curriculum and figure out how much of each subject we will be doing each day and for how many days. Oh yea, before that I have to figure out if we want to school 5 days a week or 4 or 3 or whatever. I also have to find out if there is a requirement on HOW many days we actually school (anyone know the answer to that one?). I need to set up our "school area" so that we have a place to work at and I need to go through the curriculum so I know how to use it before I start to teach it. Yep. I'm just a little overwhelmed by it all. Figuring it out though, and I WILL figure it out.

Just a little insight for those non-homeschoolers as to the things going on here right now. So if you think about it, say a prayer for my sanity and that I can get it all done soon so we can start school.

Hopefully this is the kids when we start!

Changes...

It's time to officially announce that I will not be taking over AWANAs in the fall. This makes me very sad, but after a lot of thinking and praying on the subject, I know that it is the best move for me and my family. I wanted so badly to be a part of AWANAs this year, but because of things going on at home, it wouldn't be a good idea. I am very sorry for any confusion this may have caused. But know that I am praying for all of you and the leader(s) God is raising up for the AWANA ministry. If you are at all interested in taking on a leadership role, let me know and I can definitely get you hooked up with the right people! Have a great year AWANA Leaders, Parents, and Students!

So other happenings in our household. Tay pulled her dresser down and nearly got crushed. Thankfully she is ok. Amara has had a stomach bug, but seems to be better now. Jon is getting ready to start his vacation, which is great! We won't be going anywhere like we had originally planned, but instead we'll have a stay-cation and maybe take a trip later on. And as for me, I've just been stressed out trying to figure out solutions to Amara's issues at church. But overall, its really been a wonderful time. We got to have a great night with my best friends the Day's without the kids. It was really nice to watch a movie and enjoy adult time. We were able to sit and talk and enjoy each other's company. I definitely needed that time and I'm soooo thankful that we have amazing friends like them! 

Sunday was the last Genesis service. As sad as I am to see this chapter of our lives close, I'm looking forward to new and amazing things that God is doing in the life of our church. Genesis has been a family to us. The people that we've shared that time with will always be close to us and we have learned so many things from that ministry. There was a time, not so long ago, that we couldn't stand the fact that we were "stuck in Virginia". Let me explain. When Jon got stationed here with the Navy, we couldn't find any good reason why we were in Va. We didn't like the state as a whole (the government) and we couldn't find any friends or a church home that we liked. The traffic frustrated us (wonderful I-64) and the Navy continually upset us with decisions that were made (like getting passed over for shore command so many times). The first time we went to Liberty, we liked the preaching (that was when Pastor Danny Forshee was here), but we couldn't get past how badly we were treated by the church members (no, I don't remember who they were, it was almost 10 yrs ago!). We actually left Liberty and went to other churches to try and find one that we liked. Well, long story short(er), we couldn't find anywhere else that was as good as Liberty's preaching, so we decided to go back and just deal with the people. I'd love to tell you that it was so much better when we went back, but it wasn't. But we did deal with it and I got involved in the band with Micah Watson (back when the night service was Ecotone). We got involved with the youth ministry and over the years we've been involved in several other ministries. Through each and every one of them, we have learned things. One of which being that God has placed us at Liberty for a reason! Do we LOVE Virginia like so many of our friends? No. But we've learned to like where God puts us, including Virginia. ;) We've learned to find joy in our hardships, to love people that we don't particularly like, to just shut up sometimes ;), and that even people who we don't spend a ton of time with can still be like family to us. We love our Genesis family and look forward to serving with all of you in other ways. :)

Well, thats really all the updating I have time for this morning. Have a wonderful week everyone!

<3 Mya