Good devotions!

I came across this website the other day...http://proverbs31.gospelcom.net/, and it has great devotions for busy moms. You click on the "Read Today's Devotion". If I had time on my hands, like the kind where you can do anything you want, I would love to spend it really studying the Bible. It seems like every time I try a new book, or study, I get about 1/4 of the way through it and then...life happens. I have about 6 of these books in my night stand. My goal is to finish every one of them. Some are boring, but I feel like I should trudge through anyway, there might be a "golden nugget" in there somewhere. I find myself praying a lot more these days. I definitely pray more than I read. As I'm wiping noses and cleaning up spills - when I really want to scream and say..."What were you thinking? Why did you spill that? I JUST cleaned the floor!" That's when I find myself praying, asking God to give me PATIENCE and sweet words on my tongue.
My boys love Bible stories. We read to them every night and now every morning too. Will's devotions come from a book called "Gotta Have God". They have different books so they are age appropriate. I love these stories. I find MYSELF really getting a lot out of them. Go figure...my 6 yr. old's devotional book is mine as well. The same people make the book in a girl version if you're wondering. Wesley's book is cute. For example: it will say..."Before God created light, everything was dark". "Now, close your eyes and see how dark it was!". Wesley really gets into it.


After much prayer and honestly, agony, we have decided to home school Will for kindergarten. Paul's schedule is so busy this year and we really need to have flexibility and family time. This was our first week and it's going really well. Let me tell you, if you ever go into a Schoolbox store, it's ADDICTIVE! I want to go all the time now. I want the sticky puddy for charts, the reward stickers, calendar cutouts, prize box toys, maps, craft books....seriously, I just about break out into hives out of excitement thinking about it. This is not a life long decision. We are taking it year by year. Here are some of our little school pictures:

This little table is in our kitchen. They called it the school desk.


Alright, so this is the obedience chart. Start out the day on green, if you disobey, you go to yellow, then red and so on. If you are OUTSTANDING, you get to go to blue. As you can see, today, they're both on yellow! YIKES, might not get treasure box!!!


This is the treasure box, may not look like much. It was $1.99 at the School box. But they don't care. They were so excited, it's as if I had stolen it off The Black Pearl!


I picked up some toys from Wal-mart's 88 cent section and from the dollar store. I had to put a time limit on picking out a prize, because they would literally sit there for 30 minutes...hmmm, do I choose the fake cell phone, or the squishy soccer ball???


Will gets reward tickets for helping me out. A reward is something like...play 30 minutes of x-box, pick something from the jar(our sweet jar), rent a family movie from Blockbuster, etc. He is VERY motivated by these!

I am enjoying the crafty part of this process, but the commitment is hard. It's only been a week and I feel tired. I'm with them all day. But I know it's what is best for our family right now. And, I need God's help more than ever. I do look forward to the day when they are both in school and I have more time on my hands, time to exercise, clean, decorate, go to lunch with friends and really spend time in God's word. But I know He will meet me, even in the small moments and short times. And I know He hears me every time I pray. It's so amazing to me how a really crummy, no, AWFUL day can be turned around while I'm tucking the boys in bed and we read and say a bedtime prayer. They're SO SWEET when they are snuggled up in their jammies under the covers. I wonder if that's how God feels about us sometimes..."Angela is so sweet when she spends time with me." It just makes me wonder.