I know; I know...it is ridiculous how I have neglected my blog. I am still alive and kicking, but have been finding it hard to find time to write something here. At least I am finding it hard to write something coherent. Most days I crave just a few more hours and a bit more energy so that I can get more done. My intentions are good, but I find it difficult fulfilling all of the roles I am required to play in life.

What's happening in my corner of the world:

My baby is almost 9 months old. I blinked and he went from a helpless, squishy little newborn, to a busy, boy who is crawling, pulling up, and putting anything he can get his chubby little hands on into his mouth. He, alone, could be a full time job just making sure he doesn't hurt himself at this stage. He is also the cutest little thing!

The rest are busy with lessons and learning in various degrees each day.

My oldest is now taking a rifle class ans seems to be doing well. Just a warning, I guess, that no one should mess with her.

We have officially joined a homeschool gym class this year which meets each week. The kids seem to be enjoying it.

I am now a 4-H leader! Ya' gotta do what you gotta do to keep the club alive. 4-H is such a good learning experience for the kids. I was already participating as a parent anyway. Now there are several of us moms that have stepped up to run things since our former leader has stepped down. She will be missed, but we are looking forward to keeping things going great.

We have been attending a new church. The whole experience of deciding we needed to do this, church shopping, and feeling a bit lost has been quite an experience - one we are still in the middle of. I can't even begin to tell you what it has been like and how many emotions I have gone through. To sum things up, we have attended the same church for about 10 years. Its members feel like a second family to me. Then God nudges us out of that comfort zone and into the unknown. ( I won't go into the details. That is a post and a half in itself.) It is a challenging thing to try out new churches with 6 kids that range from baby to high school. We forge into the unfamiliar and have to figure out where everyone needs to go. Thankfully, we have found a place that we think we are gonna stay at least for a season. In certain aspects, it is a bit out of our comfort zone, but it just feels right to us. I think that is all God's leading. For the time being, however, I am still involved in things at our old church; in particular bible study, book club, and the girls and I are still doing liturgical dance. because that is where my friends and my connections are. The church we are now attending on Sundays is rather large and it is going to take some time and effort to make those same personal connections there. And also, I don't want to lose those connections that I have from our old church. That is what really makes this such a difficult thing. [sigh] And that is enough about that.

Let's see...what else?

I have cleaned my house like 850 times since I last posted. Sadly, the kids have messed it up 851 times.

I have made several gifts in the past couple of months which include two custom monsters for my nephews, a nightgown for my mom, an apron and two bread bags for my sister-in-law, a stuffed rocket ship complete with 4 little aliens that ride in it for my son, and a pretty little doll with a removable skirt, blanket and carrying bag for my daughter. I have quite a few projects in mind that I need to get started on for Christmas, too. One of these days, I will be organized enough to post photos here, but I am running out of time. You can see photos that I have posted on Facebook here.

If you are interested, more recent photos can be found here, as well.

I think that's all for now.

Faith and Facebook

You have probably noticed that I have been pretty quiet here on the ol' blog. I have started a couple of blog posts, but always seem to get interrupted by something before I can finish it and get it posted. I struggle when I am busy to organize my thoughts into something coherent that I can post here. I have plenty of ideas, just not a whole lot of time to translate those ideas into something more than a jumbled mess.

I am a little better at keeping up with things on Facebook. Yes, Facebook. When I signed up for Facebook, I thought it was pretty dumb. I had several people encouraging me to try it and I thought, "Why not? I can just join, check it out and that will be the end of that. Right?" Ha! I didn't realize how this little "social network" can suck you in. As it has been said, Facebook is like stalking - only easier. I suppose that it is just plain nosiness that makes me want to keep up on all of my friends' statuses, but I really enjoy knowing what they are up to and how they are doing. It is fun to see their photos of their lives and their kids. Many of my Facebook friends are people that I had lost track of in real life. Distance and busyness have kept us apart, but on Facebook, they are a mere click away.

There is more to this, though; something beyond the nosiness. Recently, I have had several Facebook friends going through some serious health issues within their families. I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to pray for them. Many of these friends have used this venue to keep all their friends and family updated on what is going on. This saves them much time and trouble getting information out and is a very easy way to communicate at their own convenience. I really appreciate knowing how they are doing and being able to pray in very specific ways for their needs.

I came to the realization this morning that Facebook has made me a better prayer warrior. I know this sounds a bit crazy, but hear me out. Usually, I have a little list of people that I am praying for. Sometimes it is an actual written list, but more times than not, it is just a mental one. During my morning quiet time, I go down my list and say a cursory prayer for each person listed and I am done. If, by chance, they are brought to my mind during the day, I will send up a quick prayer. Now, with Facebook, I am updated on what is going on with these friends during the day and find myself praying often during the day for them. I even notice when I am missing status updates from them and pray that everything is still ok.

So, now I am thinking about Facebook as a prayer tool and making an effort to pray for all of my online friends. What if I prayed for each friend as a read their status updates in my news feed? What if every praying person did this for each of their friends? What incredible things could happen? Would we have the power to change the world? It makes you wonder.