Spiritual Gifts Inventory

Earlier today, I was listening to Cindy Rushton and Kathy Butryn at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008 (yes, it is over now, but you can still buy a ticket and get in on the fun and goodies). The teaching was on helping your child discover their life purpose. Cindy certainly has a heart for mommas. Every time I listen to her, I am encouraged in a way that no other speaker has encouraged me. I believe that she is good for all mommas, not just homeschooling ones.

Kathy gave a link to a spiritual gifts inventory and I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you go take that inventory. It might be interesting.” And I did. And it was interesting. Astonishingly, my first gift is administration. I would have never guessed that about myself. However, in retrospect and after conversation with Mr. Nutt and Mom, I believe it is true. Amazingly enough, I also see God moving me into a role of greater administration in my new church. I’ve seen it for a while, but haven’t been willing to step out and take the action necessary. I’m actually glad that I took the test. I somehow feel more equipped to handle the role that God is placing me in, knowing that He has already given me the necessary gifts to fulfill His work. My next three gifts were all practical gifts of helps, service, and mercy. That made more sense to me. Except for the part where the mercy gift makes a person enjoy activities like visiting shut-ins, hospitals, and nursing homes. I do not enjoy these activities. It hurts me too much. Perhaps, though, that is because I have not allowed God to take over that aspect of my life. Maybe, if I hand that over to Him, He will make me able to bear that burden for others. On equal footing with the practical gifts was the communication gift of exhortation. I thought that was pretty on as well. I love encouraging people and I think I am good at it.

What do all of you think, who know me personally? Do these gifts seem to be reasonably on, or did I answer some questions wrong? Have you taken a similar test? What were your results? Did you act on those results? What was the outcome?

New Blog For Homeschooling Stuff

I’ve created a new blog. Mostly because I’m silly. But also so that I can keep my homeschooling/kid stuff separate from my emotional rantings. If you scroll down the side…keep scrolling…past the pictures…keep going…stop! Right there. Two rss feeds. One is for Simple Letters to Great Minds, my classics blog, where my intention was is to write about the things I read, look at, listen to, etc and hoped to foster discussion about said items. The other is for Harvest Home Academy, my highly interesting homeschooling blog, where you will find me waxing eloquently on the wonders and vagaries of educating my family. Enjoy, and leave me a comment (or many, I like company).

Trusting God Isn’t Always So Easy

Have I mentioned how hard it is to trust in God? On the surface, I say things like, “I’m not concerned about our job situation. God has taken care of us before and I know He is taking care of us now. He’s got it all in His hands.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yeah. Why is that I can say things like that and know that they are true, but to really know…that is a different story.

The fact of the matter is God doesn’t always do what I want, or even what I thought He wanted for me. We thought He wanted us to buy this house, we prayed and prayed, had peace, had forward-motion, everything fell into place - but now here we are, unemployed, coming to the end of our resources, two houses to pay for and nothing on the horizon. Sometimes God lets us go through some pretty darn difficult circumstances for reasons of His own.

That is where the hard time trusting comes in. Sure, I can trust God to bring us a job, provide house payments and groceries and diapers. But do I trust God enough to know that though He may allow us to go through a scorching fire, He will not only bring us out of it, but be with us in the midst? While these past three months haven’t been easy, they haven’t really been hard. They’ve simply been a continuation of life for us, with the knowledge hanging in the background that life may soon become very, very rough.

I feel sort of like a child must feel when getting a broken arm reset. Why do I have to go through this pain?!? What did I do to cause you to want me to struggle like this? But all I can do is lean of my Daddy and take comfort in Him. Because I trust Him that this is what needs to be done, painful and incomprehensible though it may be.

Perhaps that is my lesson to be learned. That He is here; He is who I should be seeking; I must learn to trust in Him even if He doesn’t give me what I want.

So, if you ask me, how are you guys doing while Mr. Nutt is out of work, I’ll probably say, “We’re just trusting God.” Know that I don’t just mean on the surface, expecting God to hand me the desires of my heart. I’m really trusting that God will adjust the desires of my heart to meet His will and protect me from the flames in the process.

What Flower are You?

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

“You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that.”

Hmmm…I think it’s pretty close to the truth. How ’bout you?

Outdoor Hour - July 8, 2008

I’ve found this wonderful blog by Barb (aka Harmony Art Mom). How many of us purchase The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock after perusing the CBD catalog, yet don’t have any idea how to implement it in our homeschool? I know I did, and it sat on the shelf for eight years. YES! EIGHT YEARS! I had no idea what to do with it. Our nature studies were woefully inadequate. Even though I was convinced of the importance. Even though I thought it would be fun. I was stuck. Well! I am stuck no more, thanks to Barb’s hard work and generosity. She has put together a weekly challenge to meet with our children. The following is my first time what I would call a real-live nature study with the children. As is my usual - I kind of went over board. We’ll try to tone it down a bit next time.

This week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge is a Tree Study. It is actually the second in the series, but since we’re just starting, we followed Challenge number 11, not 20. Each child picked their own tree (in retrospect, I recommend picking a family tree, especially when you have five children who are choosing trees).

Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

F3’s tree

F3 doing a bark rubbing

F1’s tree

F1 doing a bark rubbing

F2’s tree

F2 doing a bark rubbing

F4’s tree

F4 doing a bark rubbing

F5’s tree

F5 doing a bark rubbing

They also recorded observations about the trees in their nature journals. They had a really good time, although F3 was a little grossed out about the idea of touching the tree with the ants crawling all over it, and F4 complained incessantly about the heat.

Here’s a couple of lovely little pictures of my Yucca plant.

Not sure if you can see it in this one, but there is a tiny white moth in this blossom. They just hang out in the blossom all day long. Big red/black ants crawl all over these flowers, too. They are very, very moist blossoms.

Thankful Thursday…hee hee, a day late

1. A garage. I’m thankful for my garage, because even during a thunderstorm, the fruit are able to play out there and have a blast. They have currently developed a game called “The United Kids of the Garage”. They have stores, charities, money, services to render (such as bike repair), and homes to live in. They’ve gone a little outside of free market, though. F2 really wanted to buy a stick sword that F5 had in his possession. F5 really didn’t want to sell, but when F2 made him an offer he couldn’t refuse ($65 UKG), he finally capitulated. They both went happily their separate ways, F5 much richer and F2 more well-armed. When F1 and F3 got wind of it, however, they demanded that F5 give the money back and F2 return the stick sword. They said the sword wasn’t worth it and so couldn’t be sold for that much money. Sigh. Too much governmental regulation.

2. Baby animals. We have twin fawns that play in the yard day after day. They look absolutely adorable. I have told the kids to keep their distance for three reasons: 1. Deer carry ticks, which carry the dreaded lyme disease. 2. Mama is probably watching, and she has sharp hooves. 3. If Mama smells people on her babies, she may desert them. But we do enjoy watching the little ones frolic around in the yard, munching on grass and weeds. They startle sometimes, but don’t know where to run, and so essentially jump around in place for a moment before settling down. My only fear in this is that they are getting very used to humans and our smell. They will learn they have nothing to fear from us, but there are plenty of other humans to fear. This doesn’t bode well for their future. I am thankful, still, that the fruit are having this chance to view nature up close and personal in their own backyard.

3. Independence Day. I’m thankful to God that I have been born in this country, where I am free to believe in Him and worship Him in the open. I’m thankful for the sacrifices that have been made for us. I pray that God continues to bless America and that we turn to Him in repentance and accept the love He has to offer us.

Thankful Thursday

1. We have moved back into the new house! Mom decided that she can handle the stairs until her room is finished. She told me Tuesday that she wanted to, and I had us packed and ready to go within three hours.

2. My garden is growing! My broccoli has recovered from the attacks of some ravenous creature and seems to be growing well.

3. F7 is rolling from back to belly!

4. I have been able to move my walking workout up a notch and it wasn’t too difficult to get there. I’m still taking it pretty slow, but my hips are getting into shape.

5. Mom found a new doctor. He is an internal medicine doctor, so he should hopefully be able to take care of her entire health needs instead of only being able to treat one tiny portion of a thing at a time.

Giveaways, Meme’s, and Other Web Stuff

Here is this very cool giveaway to win a set of Biology 101 dvds at Heart of the Matter. Three ways to enter and if you do all three, you get three entries! Yippee!

The Homeschool Lounge. I have to be very careful here. I found the too cool Homeschool Toolbar at my friend Traci’s blog. This of course led me to the very too cool Homeschool Lounge. This site has awesome giveaways, too. You have to sign up to the site in order to get in on the giveaways, so I did. Now I have to be very careful to not let myself get sucked into the checking messages incessantly thing that I tend to do. But, if I can use the site with care, I think I’ll really like it! If not, it’ll be gone in a heartbeat.

Memes. How do you pronounce it? I always said Me-Me. As in, I’m talking about myself. Robin Sampson has written a cool meme primer on her blog. I’ve never really taken the time to go through all the memes available, but I think I might take a little bit of time to do so. I’d love to become a bigger part of the blogging community, as well as sharpen my writing skills. So, be on the lookout. I’m going to try to get some of these going. Me-me’s, Meem’s, or Mem’s. However you say it.

Habits Update

So Barbie, you ask, how is that walking going? Have you been keeping up on your habit-forming? Have you, indeed, stayed away from your beloved message board???? The answers are: okay, sorta, and YES.

I didn’t walk for awhile, because of one useless excuse after another, but I’m back on board and eager to get going again. (Part of this is motivated by the fact that I haven’t lost any weight in about two months and I’d like to get back to pre-F6 weight if I can. Obviously, I’m no longer 25 years old, and it is actually going to take some effort on my part to make that happen. Also, my hips are really, really weak, so I added walking sideways (at 1 mph) on the treadmill for a minute on each side and backwards for a minute. You would be amazed at how badly one’s hips hurt after about thirty seconds of this. Especially if one had birthed seven children.) Between Mr. Nutt and I, we realized that I could take my computer down to the treadmill and set it on the shelves next to the ‘mill. I have a Jabra USB bluetooth thingy and a bluetooth headset for my phone, but it also works as a headset to listen to stuff. I have downloaded a lot of teachings by Joyce Meyer and also a bunch from Cindy Rushton’s Mom to Mom show. But it was a pain the neck to convert them to .wav’s and burn them to cd. I don’t have an MP3 player and obviously no money to purchase one right now. So I took my ‘puter down this morning and just used it as my MP3 player, with my bluetooth headset as the headphones, and listened to Cindy Rushton’s show this morning. It worked great! I really like to listen to talks while I’m walking. So this was the perfect solution. I love it when the technology that I purchase works for more than just one thing. So, one excuse bites the dust, and I am really motivated. I’d say this habit is beyond in progress, but not quite established.

The habit forming in general is going okay. I’m not on the computer as much, although still too much. (It is amazing how many times one can check her email, especially considering the fact that she never gets any!) My next habit is to have a daily quiet time established. This will include the fruit, because there is almost no such thing as quiet in this house. They will need to learn that Mom is filling her cup and they need to wait to have me. So not only is this a discipline for me, but a discipline for them. Quiet times will include Bible reading and prayer (although not be limited to that, and if I get to praising out loud…might not be too quiet). I have started this and I try to read my Bible in the morning and at night right before I go to bed. I’m following the read the Bible in a year plan in the back of my NASB Study Bible. I like it because rather than an amount to read per day, it gives it by the week. I also didn’t start at the beginning, but figured out approximately what week I would be at if I had started Jan. 1. I’ve started this Bible in a year program so many times in the past, I have read Genesis a bazillion times. I’ve made it through the OT before, so I thought I’d just pick up where I would be if I had done it right. That put me in Nehemiah. I’m now a bit over halfway through Job.

I was asking God a few weeks ago why I don’t hunger for His Word. I love Him and I worship Him and I believe in Him 100%. So where is my hunger for Him and His Righteousness? I questioned a while and requested of Him that he fill me with a hunger for Him and His Word and His Passion. Then, having not been immediately filled up with a burning desired to open my Bible, I did anyway. That is when I decided that a quiet time was becoming absolutely necessary in my life. I still didn’t have a hunger, but I had a determination that God wants me to read His Word, so I would do it whether or not I felt like it. Then, last Sunday, our pastor preached an excellent sermon. In a nutshell, he said that we don’t hunger for God’s Righteousness because we are so full of junk that we don’t even know that we are hungry for it. Our spirits are craving God’s presence, but our flesh has filled us up with the things of this world and we don’t know that that is our problem. It was an absolute DUH! moment for me, and my pastor knew nothing of the struggle I’d been having over this. God is awesome, and He will answer, in His time. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the more I read and spend time with Him the more I will hunger for Him and not the junk that I’ve been hungering for (like checking my email incessantly).

Then, I’ve been reading at Cindy Rushton’s website again. Cindy is the self-proclaimed “Binder Queen” - a promoter of notebooks and the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. I’ve flittered in and out of CM style of homeschooling, doing copywork and narrations sporadically, my whole homeschooling career. But I’ve never really gotten into the meat of the ideas. Anyway, as I was reading along at Cindy’s site, I remembered that I had purchased a book from her a couple of years ago and never read it. Out it came, along with several of her articles that I’ve downloaded and printed off. What do you think caught my attention? Habits! That was one of CM’s most important ideas for education. We must form good habits, otherwise, we’ll form bad ones. That sounds so simple doesn’t it? But then, if we fail to form the good, it is much harder to erase the bad and replace them with the good. That is where I am at. Trying to dump the bad and replace with the good.

So, habit status:
Treadmill walking (?established?)
Daily quiet time (in progress)

Some Pictures of the Yard and Garden

The apple tree in the side yard. If the number of blossoms is any indication of the amount of apples, the tree may well collapse under its own weight. It didn’t bloom like this last year.

May 14, 2008

The garden plot. It is about 12×16. Really too small, but I was trying to keep my weeding needs down, since I’m not there to take care of it on a daily basis.

June 5, 2008

Some plants: Tomatoes, Green Bell Pepper, and Broccoli. Notice it only took a couple of nights for something to get a hold of my broccoli.

June 5, 2008

I also planted carrot, onion, green bush bean, and cucumber seeds. The beans and cukes have started coming up.

June 8, 2008

The tomatoes also are getting some blossoms already. There are tomatoes here bought from two different places. One store covered there ‘maters when the frost came in, but the other didn’t. The ‘maters that were covered aren’t blossoming yet, and the unhealthy looking uncovered-when-frost-came ‘maters are blossoming. I think it is really too early to blossom as the plants aren’t very big yet, but we shall see if the plant can handle it. (Oh yeah, and that’s Mr. Nutt in the background watching me diligently take pictures.)

June 8, 2008

And then I saw this pop up in the garden…my favorite kind of produce.

June 8, 2008

F5, after I told him not to smile.