Yes, I am STILL alive but have had nothing but trouble with my computer and specifically with getting on here to post. Now, tonight Andrew finally had time to work on it and LOOK--I'M IN!!!!!!!!!
It's a strange feeling not to be able to get into your own blog--kind of like being locked out of your car. I am soooooooooo blessed to have such bright children with each one adding so much to my life.
Now for another frustration. I used to have to add the pictures in backwards order so that they'd come up here in the correct order. After I spent 15 minutes picking pictures; waiting for them to load; and then checking if they all made it over here, I see that they are in reverse order. Now, if you've ever tried to switch a bunch of pictures around inside a blog post, you'll know what a pain that is.
This is when the perfectionist in me said, "Oh rats, now I have to start all over again." Then I thought, "Shoot, it's all old news anyway, just say that it's in the wrong ordre and post it as it is." I'll let you figure out which voice ended up winning. Oh yes, all of the pictures are in the middle of the page, instead of against the left border like they SHOULD be, so this whole post is imperfect--but hey, IT'S A POST!
This is what I looked like after 4 days of radiniocs course and a 9 hour drive home. I never could have guessed that Andrew was standing inside the door with his cam-corder or I'd have stopped to comb my hair. ):
You can see here that Millie was the first one to welcome me home from class which was held the second week in March.
Right before we left, the truckers FINALLY came and took away our organic wheat.
This is taken right after the home school convention on Cora's birthday. Being we were all gone at the convention before this, Robert had the idea of getting her an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Good idea, Robert!
This is Cora and her good friends, Crystal L and Miranda G. The convention was GREAT!
This is a group of ladies who sang for the open mic time. They said that they were old and worn out home school mom. Jacob leaned over 4 people and said in a loud voice just then, "Hey, Mom, why don't you go down and join them?" THANKS A LOT, JACOB!!!!!!!
Our dear friends, the S family, opened their home to us and allowed us to spend the weekend in their home when we weren't at the convention. Here Curt is making breakfast for Andrew and 2 of his kiddos. I was just coming off my 5th master cleanse, so I had my lemon aid. Later in that day I had my first solid food in 16 days.
The first day of the convention, we had a table at the used book sale. I have not parted with any of my curriculum or books in 18 years, so there were a bunch. We made about $100, even with offering half price half way through the sale. I also put some of the items which didn't sell on the free tables which were available throughout the entire convention.
My main purpose in going to the used book sale, though, was to collect signatures for the Parental Right's Amendment. I am very happy to report that I collected 2 pages full of them. I also sent many people to the website which is: parentalrights.org. PLEASE if you haven't signed the petition to keep parents in charge of their children's lives yet, go to the website and do so. Andrew took this picture of me holding some of the information from parentalrights.org.
This picture was taken almost the moment that we arrived at the home school convention. We had gone early so that Andrew could help the vendor folks carry in their books and set up their booths. Being he was helping with GENERATION JOSHUA all weekend, he had hoped to be able to spend time with his friends beforehand. It worked out well as they had a table next to ours at the used book sale.
One other thing that pleased me this year was that Andrew sang in the home school choir. I took a picture of their performance but it was too dark to see as my camera was being stupid just then. It was my most special moment of the entire convention to watch my son singing praises to the Lord with other young home schoolers. To know that I've passed on my love of praising God with my voice is my greatest joy!! Of course Cora would have sung along too but she was too old--can you believe it?
Here is Dr. Bartlett setting up the booth for the North Dakota Home School Association.
Before we left, I surprised Cora with an early birthday present. This lady came to the house and I said to Cora, "Cora, this is Janet."
Cora looked at me with wonder.
Then I said, "Janet is a piano tuner."
Then she got this humongous grin on her face and said, "OHHHHHHHHHHHHH." Now her piano sounds sooooooooo much better and she is very thankful for that birthday present.
Well, that's catching you up to the time when we got home from class. Much has happened since then but I figured that I'd best at least get you caught up that far. It's nice to be eating food again but I am very thankful for the cleanse. One thing that God showed me through the cleanse is that part of the reason why I have had a hard time loosing weight, is because of all of the bubble gum that I used to swallow.
Not meaning to be gross, but half way through the cleanse I noticed that some very slimy stuff was coming out. I tuned in to my body and asked, "What is THAT?"
The words that popped into my head were, "It's some of that bubble gum that you used to swallow."
Can you imagine? Yes, I swallowed a lot of it but to think that it was caught up inside my bowels for decades. Well, it was and then I asked if it would all come out in this cleanse and got the answer that it will take 4 more cleanses before it will all be gone.
Why oh why didn't I listen when people told me, "Don't swallow your bubble gum--it's not good for you?"
I guess that's all spilt milk but you can be sure that I'll be doing another Master Cleanse in 2 months as that is the amount of time that the body needs before doing another master cleanse. I want to get rid of ALL the junk from my past foolishness!!!!!!
I need to get to work but I just wanted you all to know that I am alive and well. God has done some pretty awesome things in my life here lately but you wouldn't want me to tell it all in one post, would you?
Keep praising the Lord along with me,
Dawn
