Well, as I stated in the Farm Blog, it's been way too long since our last update. So although this one will be a bit of a hodge podge, you will at least be up to date with what the Wagar's are up to.
Baby on the way! Most of you are well aware of this fact but just in case you live in a cave somewhere far far away, Jennifer and I are pregnant and due in early April of 2010. God is So AWESOME!
New Small Group at Church. Nathan Cecil, a great man of God, and friend of mine from church/Seminary, and I started a new small group at church called L.I.F.E. The acronym means Living by Intentionally Faithful Encounters. It's a group of 5 families who are intentionally living life together (the good times and the bad). We have a website where you can go and see what we're up to, read and review our prayer / praise list and you can even get in contact with me through it as well. Check it out at http://lifeaticcc.weebly.com
Homeschool.. Jennifer is busy as always with homeschool. B started his first year of formal (well homeschool isn't always formal but you know what I mean) year of school. With it comes new complications of teaching and training both D and B while at the same time trying to ensure the C and W don't get into too much mischief (which by the way C is really good at, she must have gotten that from her mother....LOL). With the challenges comes learning for both Jennifer and I. Jennifer has her days of saying "What are thinking when we decided to homeschool" but those thoughts are quickly dismissed when we realize how much more our children are learning and how much more time we have with them.. It is really a blessing!
Camping.. Yep we went camping. The family was invited to a family campout at another homeshcool firends home. It was quite the campout, out of the 6 families that were there we had the fewest number of kids.... You read that right, we had the fewest... In total there were 5 families and 43 children... There was one family with 9, three other families with 8, a family with 6, and ours with 4. We were also the most liberal family there.. and yes we're very conservative compared to most other families.... Oh and for the record... We're not Obama supporters.. Where did anyone get that idea..... No one that clings to their religion and guns can be an Obama supporter....
Politics: Well since we went there, let me say this.. The Wagar family is not real enthused with any of the candidates this year, so our voting will be based on the lesser or two disadvantages. So why McCain / Palin? Here you go... They are: Pro-Life, They will double the Tax Credits for those with children, they will choose more responsible and conservative Supreme Court Justices, They are against strict gun control (we can talk about this later if you would like), They want to drill now and also invest in alternative fuel sources (i.e wind, solar and nuclear), They want to stay in Iraq until Iraq is built back up and can fend for themselves (I fully agree that we went in for the wrong reasons, but now that we're there we cannot back down or it will end up on our soil), and much much more. Now please understand me when I say that Promises are Promises and most of what we here will not actually be completed during the term of a president, however if it does make it, I am more for what McCain / Palin stand for than Obama... Go McCain / Palin!
Family Vacation: That's right in about three weeks we will be going on a family vacation, and to make it even better, it's not just my nuclear family but my parents (from Florida) and my sister and her family (from Michigan). We're all going to meet at the Splash Universe in Shipshewana, IN. The family is so looking forward to this vacation and spending some time with Aunts/Uncles and grandparents. Oh and we'll be celebrating my mom's 60th Birthday!! AWESOME.
Well, that's all for now, sorry for the long post and we'll try to me more prudent about getting this site updated.
I was thinking over my day as I was scraping plates in the kitchen and remembered a tender moment in the car with B. Feeling that noting that in a blog would be much more desirable than continuing at my current task, here I am at the computer. We had a very full day today: dragged the kids out of bed at 6:30 to head to Franklin and we returned, tired and bedraggled at about 4:45 this afternoon. In the car, on the way home from Walmart, I told the kids what a great job they had done all day. They were patient (mostly!) and pleasant to be with. I could return the looks of raised eyebrows (meaning to convey exasperation at the sheer number of children hanging off my cart) with "they're a good handful" with all sincerity. And B. returned with, "You did a good job too, Mom! You are the best Mommy in the whole world!" Oh, very nice. Because it is days like this when I do feel a little frazzled: dragging everyone in and out of a bazillion stores (one of them being a pharmacy where I met the utmost in humiliation as a college aged, not so bad looking young man had to measure my not-so-well shaved legs, itchy and red from varicosed veins, pale from lack of sun and topped off with cute little black ankle socks for my equally lovely support hose...oohh, sexy prego mama!) and everyone hungry and tired most of the day (including me!) that I often lose my cool, say things I often regret. But today was a really great day! It was so kind of B. to notice too! But, as I realized, it was not in my own capacity. Christ surely fills in the rough edges, being what I cannot be on my own. And He gives my the chance to let my little boy see me as the best in the world. Hopefully, I can point him in the direction of who really is.
And by the way, I will get back to those dishes...or the fruit flies may take over the kitchen!
Farm mama
I was looking through my thesis written for PT school (got distracted while trying to organize homeschool stuff for the year!) and happened to flip to page that held a quote that I profoundly remember hearing during the interview with the person who spoke it. This person was paralyzed from the neck down from multiple sclerosis and in spite of this challenge had an incredible positive focus. I was inspired by him then and enjoyed revisiting his wisdom. Here is the quote from, "Lane":
"LIfe can be so full of both good and bad times, you know, you can remember if you want when you went out Saturday night that you got your girl, Suzy, to kiss you and that was the big event of the night. Or you can remember how on the way home you ran into a tree and dented your dad's fender on his car. And [it] seems in life we get alternatives like that and one of the things I've somehow managed to do, and I'm not sure the mechanics of this function, but during the course of my day, certain good things and bad things happen to me as well. And I've had a tendency to sooner forget, mentally be able to eliminate from my mind, many of the bad things that happen while at the same time, sort of making it a point to recall the good things that happen. So I forget the bad, remember the good and underline the good by recalling it yet once more. And it tends to elevate my mood in general or on a continuing basis." 6/18/99