Happy Valentine's Day!

A few more

Growing Family

We think about posting far more than we actually post on this blog.I just wanted to catch you up a little bit by including some recent selected pictures. I love my growing family. It is so fun to train them up in the way they should go. No greater joy. There is only one place in the bible where it says "no greater joy" and guess what; it has to do with children.  III John 4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." It is true. I plead with you parents to not merely be pleased with how cute or brave or smart your kid is, but pour into them that their praise would be a direct glorifying of God in Heaven. Train them up to honor God. It is a full time job of consistence and persistence but remember that they are the ONLY thing in your life that has any eternal value. "How priceless is your Word, O God that you would give it to us to follow you by. Thank you for speaking so clearly and precisely concerning life and godliness. Help us stay true and not compromise in any area of our lives."

Enjoy these pictures of my family with me.

Fun in the Snow

Snow in Columbia is a very rare thing, indeed!  So, when it snows everyone (who is not from up north) gets excited!  Northerners just think we are crazy!  :)  Recently it snowed about 1/2 inch, and the kids were thrilled.  They ate snow, gathered up snowballs to throw, and we made strawberry snow ice cream.  This was the first time that the girls remembered seeing snow.  Timmy had a great time being outside and teetering around.  He was a bit top heavy in his big jacket, so when he fell over he needed help to get back up.  A fun time was had by all!

Cutie Pies

A Family Christmas Picture

We are so thankful for our family!  God is so good!!!

Hannah is 4 1/2, Lauren is 3 1/2, Timmy is 14 months, and James is 1 month.

All blessings from the LORD!

Timmy loves his brother, James

A little update since the last post.... Timmy was warming up to little James when I last posted pictures.  In the past week Timmy has more than warmed up to James.  Almost every time he sees James, Timmy wants to give him a kiss.  He leans into James and makes an "mmmm..." sound and then kisses his head or his face.  Timmy also likes to point at James and "talk" to him.  They are precious together!

Baby James is Born!!!

Please rejoice with us over a precious new life the Lord has given our family!  On Wednesday, November 12 at 12:51 p.m. baby James Stephen Reed was born, weighing 7 lbs. 7.5 oz., and he was 20 inches tall.  James is named after his Grandpa Jim (Tim's dad) who went to be with the Lord 14 years ago.  His middle name is after Stephen in the Bible who gave his life willingly to follow the Lord Jesus (Acts 7).  Hannah and Lauren love the story of Stephen and look forward to seeing him in heaven one day along with their Grandpa Jim.  

James was born by way of c-section due to him being breech in his mama's tummy. This was Allyson's first c-section and in some ways she felt like she was having a first baby all over again.  But, praise the Lord the delivery went great.  Recovery is also going very well.  We went into the hospital at 10:30 on Wednesday morning and were able to leave the hospital at 9:30 on Friday morning - a little under 48 hours.  

Hannah, Lauren, and Timmy are all thrilled about their new little brother.  Hannah and Lauren can't get enough of holding him.  They are great helpers with James and Mama already.  The first time they came to visit us at the hospital, Hannah and Lauren brought a poster they had made that said, "Happy Birthday James!  We love you!  Love, Hannah, Lauren, and Timmy."  Hannah wrote the whole thing by herself in different colors, and Lauren cut out shapes to paste on it and put stickers all over it as well.  Timmy likes to point at James and say some "words".  He's come close to kissing James several times but hasn't quite gotten close enough - probably tomorrow.  :)  Just this afternoon, Timmy got really close to James and was studying him when James all of a sudden spit up a little bit.  Timmy burst out in tears, not sure what had happened.  It was precious!

Tim and I are so blessed to have four precious children who we have the privilege of raising in the fear and admonition of the Lord!  Even more, we are thankful to have a wonderful marriage and to give the gift of loving parents to our children.  God is so good!  Thank you for rejoicing with us!

Happy Family of SIX!!!

Why Do We Home School? (Part 2) - Character

  "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."  (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

 The Lord commands parents to teach their children to love Him with all their heart, soul, and might.  This takes place as we intentionally spend time with our children - when we sit, walk, lie down, and rise up.  This encompasses all day every day, and we are responsible for what is going in our children's hearts and minds.  We believe this to be such a blessing of home schooling - being able to pour into our children from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed.   When they wake up in the morning, we are able to greet them with a hug and say, "Good morning!  This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  When they go to bed we are able to pray and sing together as a family.  And as we go throughout our day together we are able to praise the Lord all day long and bring attention to His handiwork in everything they are learning.

   Above the education we can give our children - the facts and the different subjects - math, reading, history, science, etc. - the most important thing we can teach our kids is about the Lord Jesus Christ and about CHARACTER.  In teaching these two things, we really can cover all the different subjects as we go along.  It's beautiful how it works!!!  

   Character is not taught out of a book.  It is taught out of the Bible, yes, but mainly is it taught through parents just living life with their children.  Tim and I are always aware of teaching our children about character.  Recently, I was able to introduce the word "perseverance" to Hannah and Lauren as we persevered in a task together.  Just yesterday, Tim and Hannah made beef jerky together.  We have a dehydrator and especially like to made jerky and dried apples.  We can stack 10 trays high on our dehydrator, which makes for a lot of work to get the meat or the apples on the trays, and our girls love to help us do this.  Tim and Hannah worked together diligently and raced against the clock yesterday to get all the ground beef on 10 trays in less than one hour.  Having this time limit forced them to stay focused on their task and forced Hannah to persevere.  There are many details involved in jerky making - mixing the spices in the meat, loading the jerky gun and cleaning it out often during the process, squeezing the meat out of the gun onto the trays, stacking the trays, etc.  Hannah had her sleeves rolled up and was working hard to help her Papa complete a task that we then could all enjoy the benefits of later. It turned out that the clock beat Tim and Hannah by a few minutes, but they were still encouraged to have persevered through the task and enjoyed much good, meaningful conversation and Papa/daughter time during the process.  Not only did they talk about perseverance, but Tim modeled it before Hannah.  Beautiful!

   Our children can recite well the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  But, what good is it for them to recite these things if they cannot live them out?  And how can they live out these things without first seeing them lived out in their parents (Tim and me)?  And how can Tim and I live these things out without first living in complete dependence upon the Lord Jesus, which is what we really want our children to learn to do?  Quite a process, indeed... but, it is so simple.  There is no formula.  It is all about dependence on our Savior.

   Do we make mistakes as parents?  Oh, yes indeed.  But, what better way for us to teach our children about humility and forgiveness than to humble ourselves before them and admit our flaws and ask for their forgiveness, which they willingly give every time.

   So, how do we teach character?  First - dependence on the Lord to live in and through us as parents.  But, second, we are extremely intentional.  We are always looking for ways to teach about pride, humility, love, forgiveness, patience, perseverance, encouragement, etc.  Every moment is a teachable moment - whether we are sitting at a meal together, riding in the car, taking a walk, or working on a project.  

  Now that is true education that will last right into eternity!  :)

Why Do We Home School? (Part 1) - Yard Work/Garage Sale

  I get asked quite a bit, "Why have you chosen to home school your children?"  Sometimes this question is asked out of genuine curiosity and sometimes it is asked out of defensiveness.  I am always eager to share why we have made this choice as we seek to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6).  As our kids are drawing nearer to school age, I thought I would take some time to write down all of our "whys" and will therefore share some of those reasons on our blog.  I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts and will be able to see more of our hearts as well as a bit more into our home life.  

  As I start out with Part 1, it seems most fitting to start by describing an actual event that is a common type of day in our home and how we teach our children.  I will not seek to answer the question, "Why do we home school our children?" in this post, but you will see quite a few answers start to develop.

  Recently, Tim and the girls were working in our backyard together, and they were helping him rake leaves.  They love being great helpers, and they love to please their Papa!  When they finished in the yard for the afternoon, Tim told the girls that the next morning while he was at work he wanted them to each fill a red wagon full of sticks from our yard.  When they completed this task they would each receive $3 from him.       

   They worked hard in the yard the next morning, and we even had a little competition going to see who could finish filling a wagon first.  Hannah finished first and won a Hershey Hug as her prize.  Meanwhile, Lauren praised Hannah for her hard work (they know well the verse, "Encourage one another and build each other up").  So, instead of Lauren being disappointed that she had not won the contest, she was excited for her sister.  We have taught them not only to praise others but also to be excited for others when they win, such as in playing a board game.  After Lauren finished picking up her sticks I treated them both to a little cup of vanilla yogurt on the back steps.  But, this was only after I had "ooohed" and "ahhhed" over all the sticks they had picked up!  :)  They couldn't wait to show Tim the job they had accomplished when he got home and also to receive the money that he had promised them.   

   Then, the next morning there were quite a few garage sales in our neighborhood.  We took the girls to 5 different sales, and they had a great time shopping with the $3 they had earned. They bought baby dolls, purses, stuffed animals, a baby doll stroller, and even had money left over.  During the sales they had to interact with the sellers because if they wanted to buy something it was up to them to talk and negotiate and purchase what they wanted.  I was looking at other things and could totally trust them to do their own "business," plus we want them to know how to interact with people of all ages and not just rely on Papa and Mama to communicate for them.   In order to do business, they used their knowledge of money that we have been working on together at home.  They each had a bunch of change as well as a $1 bill that all added up to $3.  They couldn't always make exact change, but the sellers were always happy to help them.

   The last garage sale we stopped at was a sweet time because Hannah bought a rocking horse for Timmy.  We made a big deal about her using her own money to buy something special for her brother.  She worked hard to earn her money and then chose to use it to show love to someone else.  Both girls even had money left over after the garage sales.  Now that's what I call smart shopping.  :)

   Then, we came home and enjoyed looking at all the things they had purchased, and they could appreciate their hard work and the contribution they had made to our family.  They could also enjoy the rewards of their hard work and learned many things in the process.

   To Tim and me, that is what home schooling is all about.  It's not about education in a box or at a desk.  It's about teaching them in every day life situations.  They are learning so many things without even realizing they are learning.

   So, in the whole yard work/garage sale event.... what did our kids learn or have to have a working knowledge of?

1- What a tremendous and valuable asset they are to our family

2- The value of hard work

3- The fun of competition as well as being excited for someone else when they win

4- Praising others and not yourself (another thing we teach: Let other lips praise you, not your own)

5- Money: how much coins and bills are worth and how to read price tags in order to make purchases

6- How to be friendly and sociable with people of all ages and how to negotiate and then be grateful by saying things like, "Thank you for your help" and "Have a nice day."

Most of all they are learning without even realizing they are learning, and that is priceless!

Stay tuned for more thoughts on home schooling...

Jumpin' Pumpkins

One day they will be as good at coordinated jumping as their Papa and Uncle John.  :)

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Every year around this time (for the past 3 years) we head to the "Pumpkin Patch" at my Grandparents' church.  The girls really enjoy running through the pumpkins, laughing and playing the whole time.  This year Timmy enjoyed playing with a little pumpkin and watching his sisters play.  When it's time to leave, the girls always get to pick out a little pumpkin to take home.  This year they paid for the pumpkins and then counted the change they received back from the sales lady.  Every day is a fun learning experience!

Precious Little Man

Tim reads about Nathan Hale to our girls

 Recently I bought a set of 20 American hero biographies for young readers.

They are for K-3rd grade age. Tim has started reading these books to the 

girls a few times a week, and they love them!

 Now, if you've ever heard Tim tell a Bible story... you know how into it and dramatic he can get.  

He captures the girls' attention for up to 30 minutes at a time - even Lauren.  

He doesn't sugarcoat or gloss over the hard parts.

 Now, knowing how he tells Bible stories, maybe you can imagine how he 

reads these American history hero biographies... not overly dramatic... 

but he definitely captures the girls' attention and imagination.

 Last night they were reading a book about Nathan Hale.

I was in the other room reading, but I could see them from where I was 

sitting.  As they finished the book, I saw that Lauren had her head buried in 

her hands, and Hannah was laying on Tim's lap looking down and sad.

Tim looked at me and mouthed, "She (Hannah) is crying."

I came in the office... where they were sitting on the couch... and knelt down

in front of Hannah.  She was starting to cry, and Tim assured her it was fine 

to cry. I asked her what happened.  She was able to get out the words, 

"Nathan Hale." Then, I asked, "Did you read about Nathan Hale?"  

She nodded, "Yes."  Next, with overwhelming emotion she said, 

"He died trying to save AMERICA!!"....and she burst out into tears for the next couple of minutes.

 Tim and I looked at each other and smiled... both thinking, "How precious."

My eyes filled with tears as I saw how sad my little girl was over a man who 

had lost his life to help her have freedom in our country... and she understood that.

 After a couple minutes of allowing her to cry, Tim made the comparison

of what Nathan Hale did for our country to what Jesus did on the cross... 

except Jesus' sacrifice was so much bigger b/c it was for the sin of the whole world.

 Then, Hannah wanted to share with me what had happened at the end of 

the story, so Tim went back and read the last few pages.

The book said how Nathan, shortly before he was hung, had asked for a 

Bible to read, but had been denied.

Then, it went on to say that as he awaited his death, "He could only think 

about his country, his family, and his God."

 We do not know for sure, of course, that Nathan Hale was a believer in the 

Lord Jesus Christ, but the book seems to indicate that he was devoted to 

His God. So, Tim told Hannah that we might see Nathan Hale in heaven 

one day. He said, "Maybe Grandpa Jim can introduce us to Nathan Hale."

That brought a humongous smile to her face!!!!!  :)  So precious!!

We often talk about people they want to meet in heaven.  Among their 

favorites are Abel and Stephen.  

And Hannah was happy to add Nathan Hale to that list.

 Tim suggested to the girls that today during school time that we start making

a list of the people they would like to meet in heaven since it's something we

talk about every now and then.  In fact, Lauren often says, "I can't wait to go 

to heaven."  :) They were excited about making this list this morning.

 We concluded that time together by praising the Lord for what Nathan Hale

had done so that we could live in America.

We all started chanting and clapping, "Na-than... Na-than.... Na-than......"

 Precious times with our girls!

More Fun Crawfordville Pictures

Pictures from our fun weekend in Georgia with YaYa!

Columbia Cousins at Krispy Kreme

A fun morning together with all the Columbia cousins, aunts, and YaYa!

Timmy is ONE

On Saturday, Sept. 20, Timmy turned ONE year old!!  Hard to believe our little baby is no longer a little baby.  We spent the weekend in Georgia with Tim's mom (YaYa) and had a great time!!  It was a beautiful day on Saturday - perfect weather!  We went out to a BBQ place for lunch and then had a fun photo shoot with Timmy outside on all the antique tractors and other equipment.  After lunch Timmy had his first cake.  He wasn't so sure about plunging into it as we cheered him on, but we were all glad to help him make a mess.  Notice the blue icing "T" on Timmy's chest above.  Hannah and Lauren helped me make and decorate Timmy's cake, and they sang "Happy Birthday" to him all day long!  What a fun weekend!

Papa and Son Pics.