Gotta Love it!

My mom just sent me an e-mail and the very first line was great! 

Be the kind of woman that when your feet

hit the floor each morning
the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

This is definitely a personal goal.

Random Happenings

I just got the feedback from my first writing assignment, and I was so nervous to read it! However, the teacher is great and did a good job at really building up what I did right before giving me some advice. I feel encouraged that this class will help me to sharpen my writing skills. 

I am in complete learning mode again. For a few months there I didn't want to learn anything new. My brain was in mid-paradigm shift and needed all its energy for that! Now it's ready to work again. I'm taking a writing class, guitar lessons, dance lessons, and reading Graham Cooke's book on developing your prophetic gift, all while the Lord is teaching me about who I am in his kingdom. Wow! A lot to take in at once!  I am excited as I feel like the Lord is giving my family some really great tools for worship. We are all learning music and dance, which can be such a great expression to the Lord. 

The Lord has also been bringing so many friends into my life, and it is so overwhelmingly wonderful! I am so blessed to be living right now.

Jesus said in Luke that he came so that we may have life and live it to the full! I believe him.

Tara

Democracy

Democracy is one of those things that is hard to maintain. You can declare freedom, write a constitution, fight wars for it, and sing songs about it, but you cannot control it. You cannot make people want to be free. You cannot make a nation act a certain way, because if you do, it becomes something other than democracy. Democracy requires a people that will take responsibility for themselves and their actions. It requires a certain amount of self- control.

I was reading “Little Town on the Prairie” to my kids, and came across a paragraph describing this. It reads:

She [Laura] thought: Americans won’t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why, she thought, when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn’t anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good. …This is what it means to be free….The laws of Nature and of Nature’s God are what endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God’s law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.

Right now we are facing a problem. Too many Americans have decided that it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them, to make their life good. It is the government’s responsibility to take care of and educate their children. It is the government’s responsibility to make sure they are healthy and fed. It is the government’s responsibility to make moral decisions for them. They have forgotten what freedom is.

Freedom comes with a price. When you are free, it means there is no one to blame but yourself. It means you no longer have someone to fall back on if you screw up. It means that you will reap what you sow. There is no floor and no ceiling. You can fall as far as you let yourself, and you can climb as high as you want.

This is exciting to those that intend to work hard and make something of their lives, but this is discouraging to those that want hand outs and unearned success. This feels right to those that want to do good, but wrong to those that are looking for excuses to be immoral. It feels great to the person that wants to take responsibility for how their children turn out and how much they learn, but it feels condemning to the parents that want to blame someone else if their children aren’t smart or behaved. It feels right to the retired couple that had delayed gratification when they were younger and saved for retirement, but it feels hopeless to those that spent every dime they had. This feels great to the family that didn’t take on a house loan for more than they could afford, but terrifying to the family that just foreclosed.  

The person we elect for president will not determine the fate of this country. The people living in it will. Unless our society decides to start taking responsibility for itself, we will head to the only option left. That option is having our freedom taken away for the sake of preservation. If our country cannot function because of the people, then the people will lose the right to decide.  

So on this election day, vote for freedom, not government control. The government will not save us. We have to save ourselves.    

-Tara Schiller

Something in the air

There is a hint of Autumn in the air today. Last night the air was cold. The temperature was perfect today. When I went outside I didn't feel hot or cold, just pleasant. There was a constant breeze like there usually is in this area. I just felt like being in the air was healing something inside me. I can see why people would go the sea to get well. There's something in the air. The mysteries the Lord has laid out in this world are many and I hope he will reveal them all to us in the end. I want to be able to read the book. Wouldn't that be great? 

I AM NOT IN A BOX!

Ok, so you know how I sent out the e-mail that I have another blog now for my homeschooling journey, well strike that. I don't know why I felt I needed to separate the two. I am always trying to categorize myself. Homeschooling is something I do. It's part of me. This blog is about my entire journey... so I am deleting the other blog and posting everything about me here. Take it or leave it. If homeschooling offends anyone, they can just not read my blog! Ok, I feel better now. Do I need to apologize? I was a bit harsh there. Sorry. Here is the post I made on my other blog. No need to read it again if you read the other one.

A Good Day

No matter what your philosophy or method, there will be good days and bad days. Today was a good day. The Lord was gracious enough to wake me up refreshed early this morning so I could have some good God time and go running. This is the second time He has done this in the past week or so and it helps me to see his intention toward me in a great way. After breakfast and everyone doing the morning dishes, I told the kids to have fun. I went into my room and started writing some letters to a few friends I wanted to send my blessing and love to. Cameron worked on her "Recycled Village" adding fish made out of buttons and string, ponds for them to go into, and people. Chloe decided to write some letters too. She made a card for my sister with a picture in it, then dictated to me what to write. Xander made cards too by cutting and pasting paper to his hearts content. Then, Cameron worked on the story she's been writing. She is typing this story, so she only does a few sentences at a time, as it takes her awhile. Sometimes she will do a whole page. After cleaning up our messes, we ate lunch and prepared for Sacred Hour (our one hour quiet time). I read aloud "The Little Drummer Boy" to Xander and then read aloud "Please Bury me in the Library" by Patrick Lewis. I loved this book and I put it on my list of books I want to buy. It is a whole poem book about reading. It has great illustrations too. Here is one of the poems:

Great, Good, Bad

A great book is a homing device

For navigating paradise.

A good book somehow makes you care 

About the comfort of a chair.

A bad book owes to many trees

A forest of apologies. 

Cameron read to herself during sacred hour and Chloe looked at books while Xander slept. After Sacred Hour, the kids played. Before dinner time, they got out the tangrams and made all sorts of shapes. Even my husband got involved. When I started taking pictures of the kids playing, they wanted to take pictures so I let them. Before bed I read aloud a chapter from "Little House on the Prairie".  All this stuff was done without me prompting them to do any of it. My only instructions were to have fun. So, here's to life learning and all the adventures there are to behold.  

Helpful Tips

I found this great list of helpful household tips that you have to read. I am definitely going to try out the ant killer one, because we have a major ant problem right now. Enjoy!

http://kopiaste.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-helpful-household-tips.html

Great Quote

I found this quote attached to the end of an e-mail and I loved it! Here it is:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.
- Christopher Morley

part of mE wanTs to live a life of chaos and traVel. a life where Nothing is predIctable bUt everything is aliVe with coloR.  

Another part of me wants to live a stable life of matching furniture and farm house hospitality. Gardens that thrive and are pruned daily, accompany my guests on my veranda.

Which one will win? Who will I become? Who am I really? ONly time will tell.

Proposed future development..

My dad is always talking about what technical advances to the human body we will have in the future and I thought I'd propose one. I would like to get equipped with a device that would project music from me according to my emotions, like a person in a movie. When I am sad, a sad theme song would play. When I am feeling crazy, maybe a rock or techno song...you get the picture. So if anyone out there in the void of blogging is considering creating this technology, you have my vote.