Love Languages

It amazes me how from birth, or really even for me, even before our kids were born, it was very easy to tell the differences in each of our kids personalities.  They are all born with their own likes and dislikes, their own temperaments, and their own love languages.  For those who may not be familiar with what the love languages are, there are Five main love languages:  Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Acts of Service and Receiving Gifts.  Each of us has a main love language, and may also have a couple of secondary love languages.  Our Primary love language is the way that we want and need to be shown by others, and also the way that we tend to show love to others.  There are a couple of different books about the love languages.  It's something that Rob and I have tried to be aware of with each other.  My main love language is Physical touch, and we joke (well...half joke)  that my secondary one is a little bit of every other one!  :)  (Which is one of the reasons that Rob teases that I'm high-maintenance)  And Rob's main ones tend to be Words of Affirmation and Acts of service.  We try to make an effort to show love to each other in in the ways each of us wants and need to be shown.  Since having children, we've also tried to be aware of what each of their love languages are.  Even with as young as our children are, I feel like I can tell pretty easily what each of theirs is.  Alia, I believe is most certainly Words of Affirmation.  She is the one who is CONSTANTLY needing praise and approval.  Many days, I feel like half of my conversations with her go something like this:  "Mom, did I do good on this?"  or "Mom, Look at this!  Look what I did! How did I do?"  or  "Mom, look at my outfit.  Do I look pretty?  ....Really Pretty?  ....Really, Really Pretty???"  She needs a LOT of praise!!!    And Ethan, I am already pretty sure will be Physical Touch.  From the day he was born, if he was upset or tired or fussy at all, no matter what the reason, if you would lay your hand on him, or pick him up, snuggle him, hug him, etc...he would calm right down.  And he still does.  He LOVES to snuggle, and since my love language is also physical tough, and I also LOVE to snuggle, this makes me very happy!  :)  Lately, it has become very apparent that Karaline thrives on Quality Time!  She LOVES when she gets to go somewhere or do something alone with one of us.  She especially loves time alone with Rob.  It's SO sweet!  With Rob being a lot busier lately with Harvest and work, Karaline hasn't had as much one-on-one time with either of us.  So, tonight, Rob took her out for some "me and you"  time.  She was SO excited!  When Rob got home, we went outside to greet him, and she told him, "This is the BEST day EVER!"  Then, she ran back in to get her shoes, rushed back out by herself, climbed up in the truck and started getting buckled in.  When Rob when over to help her, she gave him a big, sweet hug.  And when they got home, she was beaming.  It can be a bit exhausting at times to make sure you are doing your best to show each person love in the way that they need to be shown it, but it is also so rewarding when you see in their faces that they know how much you love them! 

My Passport to India

It's not what it looks like to most of you-  I'm not planning any trips to India right now...not literally.  A couple of months ago, we got an email from Sonlight (the brand of curriculum we use,) saying that they were going to do a 5 week program called My Passport to India.  They have 2 videos a week, along with devotions, extra information about India and it's people.  So for 4 weeks now, we have been learning about India, and saving our extra change to donate to help send children from India to CBC's (Children's Bible Clubs).  It's  been a really fun learning experience for us.  The girls love learning about different people, places and cultures, and they love getting to help other people.  One of the things we learned was about the capital city of Mumbai.  It's supposed to be the richest city in the country of India, yet HALF of it's people live in slums!  One particular slum has ONE MILLION people living in a 1 square mile area!!!   One million people.  That just blows my mind!  We also learned about Hinduism, and how the vast majority of people in India are Hindus, how they believe there are millions of gods...statues, elephants, cows, etc.  Alia is such a tender-hearted little girl, and one day she wanted to write a letter to send to India.  She drew a picture on it, and wrote "Cow is not your Savior," and told me she wanted to mail it to the children over there.  I told her that was very sweet, but that they probably wouldn't be able to read it-  partly due to the illiteracy of the people in India, and partly because of the different language and alphabet that they use.  So, she then turned the paper over, and wrote the ABC's on the back, so they could learn the alphabet.  It's been a great opportunity for us.  The girls love getting to put any change they see laying around into our "India bank."  We have two more videos before the program is over, and I'll be a little sad when it's done.  If you want, feel free to check it out for yourselves.    http://www.mypassporttoindia.org/  

Character Training

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.


Like I said before, character must be something that God is wanting me to focus on right now!  I'm so excited about a new opportunity that I found out.  There is a lady from our homeschool group that found out about these "MATCH" kits.  They stand for "Mothers Actively Teaching Character in the Home."  Two women in Fort Wayne started making these kits for their own families, and it has turned into a ministry for them.  I have only briefly checked out their website   http://www.familyroomvalues.com/  but it looks like they have a great ideas for teaching good character to our children.  Each month they have a kit that focuses on a different character trait.  This month is manners, and there are a lot of different games and activities in the kits, along with a special family keepsake craft each month.  I'm so excited about this.  I haven't read through all of our materials yet, but already we've talked a lot about what things are good manners, what things aren't.  I can't tell you how many times at dinner tonight the girls would do or say something and ask, "is this good manners?"  It seems like everyone nowadays has gotten so relaxed with manners, including myself, so I'm really looking forward to focusing on this topic for the next month, and looking at the areas in my own life where my manners are lacking, and hopefully teaching our kids good manners along the way!  :)  I'm sure God is going to be revealing to me way more of my faults that I care to know!  ;)

Do you ever wonder if what you are doing matters??!!

I'll be honest, sometimes I wonder if my "job"  is important enough, if it matters, or if I should be doing "more."  It seems like society and the world do not place very much importance on being a stay-at-home mom.  By the world's standards, we are supposed to want something more.  We should want some high power, high paying job.  I have always wanted to be a mom, and when we were expecting Alia, we both knew that we wanted me to be able to stay home with her.  I'm not really sure though that I felt like God was calling me to stay at home, we just knew that for our family, we felt it was best.  As time has gone on, and as Karaline and Ethan have come into our family, I have realized more and more that God has most definitely called me to stay home with them.  I still have my days where I wonder if I'm doing enough, or if I should be doing more, but today is NOT one of those days.  Today, I had the privilege of talking with Alia and praying with her as she asked Jesus into her heart.  It was a moment that I will never forget, one that makes me realize more than ever just how important my job is.  Raising our children to love Christ is the most important thing I can ever imagine doing, and I am so thankful that I am able to be here with them for the big moments like these!!! 

Good Intentions

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.


James chapter 2
  What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save him?(vs. 14) ...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (vs. 17)  You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. (vs. 22)  

James 4:17 
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

Faith is something that has basically always come easy for me.  For me, it's easy to look at a beautiful sunset, or the smiles of my family  or basically anything around me and have no doubt that there is a loving God who created it all.  I try to "walk the walk"  and not just "talk the talk,"  but it is very easy for me to make excuses of things that I should be doing but don't.  I always had a really good example of doing things for others.  My dad was always helping old ladies at church who needed help fixing things, or taking a couple of brothers whose dad wasn't in the picture flying or to go play Putt Putt, etc.  My dad has always been good at that stuff.  I try, but like I said, too often make excuses of why I don't.  There is an older man a couple houses down from us whose wife passed away at the beginning of summer.  I met the man once or twice, but really didn't know either of them.  I meant to go down when I heard and take a meal or do something for him.  I really intended to.  But with the craziness of the summer, sick kids, and the rest of the excuses I could easily come up with, I didn't.  Then a few weeks ago I was talking to the neighbors across the street and they said that this man had been having a really rough time since his wife passed.  I commented about how I had been meaning to take a meal to him, and how I tend to have good intentions but bad follow-thru.  As the words came out of my mouth, I thought how pathetic that was, and how I don't want to be that way.  The good intentions part is fine, but I just don't want to have good thoughts.  I want to do good works.  I want to help others, reach out to them, show them love and kindness.  That night Alia and I took a meal down to him.  His daughter was there, and thanked us for bringing it for him.  When I asked how he was doing, he immediatedly teared up.  His daughter commented how it had been really hard on him.  We talked a little, then this past week, we decided to make some cookies to take down to him.  Again, when I asked how he was doing, he immediately teared up, and said "We were together all the time.  We were married 53 years."  We talked for a while, and he told us about how he fought in Korea, and how most of his family was gone.  I really believe the time was as much a blessing to me (if not more) as it was to him. I would hate to know how many times I have sinned simply because I neglected to do something good for someone else...not that I ever meant them harm, but simply because I didn't do good.  I hope I can set as good as an example for our kids as my dad did for me.  I don't want my faith to be dead.  I want my faith and actions to work together. 

The start of our school year

Today was an exciting day.  We went to sign Alia up for classes at our area homeschool co-op.  She is so excited to get to take a music class, PE, and an art workshop there once a week.   Until about 2 1/2 years ago, I NEVER...and I mean NEVER thought we would homeschool.  I had absolutely zero desire to homeschool.  But one Sunday at church a couple years ago the pastor was preaching about being the primary influence in your childrens' lives.  They weren't a homeschooling family, so it wasn't like he was saying that you had to homeschool to do that.  But I sat there listening, and really felt God laying this on my heart.  Even as I felt this, I thought to myself, "I do NOT want to homeschool."  But God knew better.  It was on my mind a lot for several weeks, then I talked with a friend whose husband was homeschooled, and at the time, they were thinking about homeschooling.  After talking to her, I really started feeling like this was something I should look into.  So I got a book from the library by Lisa Welchell called "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling."  Not far into the book, I knew this was something I wanted to try.  I talked to Rob about it, and really expected him to say, "No way!"  But he was open to it.  He did waiver about it.  Mainly because at the time I was suffering from chronic fatigue and headaches.  His main concern was how I would be able to do this right when I was so tired all the time.  I told him I didn't know.  I just knew it was where God was leading me.  God later provided the right direction for me to figure out what the problem was, and now we are on our first official year of homeschooling.  We definitely have our challenging days, but I love it!  I love when we read about something and weeks or months later, something will trigger their minds and they will tell someone about it.  I love getting to spend my days snuggling with them, creating things with them, and learning things that I forgot, or maybe never knew.  I love watching the wonder in their eyes when we are learning about something that really interests them.  I love that with Rob's unpredictable work schedule that we can usually make ourselves available to go to the farm or be here at the house to see him for bits and pieces throughout some of the days when he is at his busy times of year, and I love that we can work on our own schedule, and at our own pace. Homeschooling really was one of those "never will I"  things, but I'm so glad that God knows better than me and that he laid it on my heart to do this.  I'm so thankful for this responsibility and this joy!

Tempted

Do you ever wish it was easier to do the wrong thing?  I don't mean anything really big, but yesterday and today were just long days.  Nothing really bad happened, but yesterday Karaline was scheduled to have an endoscopy done.  What started out as one test, turned into an endoscopy, 2 rectal exams, another thing similar to a colonoscopy, but I can't remember what they called it, a urinalisis/urine culture, and a pelvic ultrasound.  I went in feeling fine about things, but they had us go in with her when they put her under, which I think was probably better for her, but harder for me.  There is just something about seeing your little one fall asleep like that on a table in a hospital that is just really hard.  Then, about 2 minutes after we left the room, we got a call at the desk in the waiting area where the Dr. asked for our consent to do the first additional procedure.  I knew it was fine, but it freaked me out.  Rob had gone down to get something to eat and drink, so I sat there snuggling Ethan.  It was one of those times where I felt like I couldn't pray.  Part of it was that I didn't want to start bawling in the waiting room, because I really did feel like everything was fine.  So I sat there, tears in my eyes, and I just had that quiet time.  I knew that the Holy Spirit would speak on my behalf.  I couldn't think where the verse was, but I knew that my sighs would be translated for me.  After her the first 3 tests were done, they brought us in to meet with the doctor, who said as far as he could tell, everything looked fine.  It will be 2 weeks for the biopsies, but he felt something during the 1st rectal exam, which was why they wanted to do the colonoscopy-like procedure.  He still wanted to do another exam though, to see if he still felt whatever it was, which he did still feel it, prompthing the urinalisis and ultrasound.  Apparently it was just a very full bladder that he was feeling.  It made for a long day though!  So then today, we were all very tired from having to get up early, the driving, etc. from yesterday.  But Ethan had his 6 month check-up today, and we were getting pretty low on groceries, so we headed to Fort Wayne first thing this morning.  Alia and I both woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, so it just started off as another one of those days.  At the end of getting groceries, Alia asked if they could ride the pony at Meijer.  I told her they could if I had a penny for each of them.   They had been pretty good (for the most part), but Ethan was fussy, and to be honest, the only reason I said that was because I really didn't think I had any change in my purse.  But of course, I open my wallet, and there were several pennies staring up at me.  I was so tempted to close it and say  "Sorry, Honey...I don't have any pennies."  I paused, closed my eyes momentarily and dug out the pennies.  It's not like the rides are that long, but I just wanted to come home.  But I wasn't going to lie or break my word to them.  I was so tempted though! 

Character

It must be something that God is wanting me to focus on right now.  My character as a wife, a mom, and a child of God.  And my children's character, and the job of raising them to love God.  Today in Sunday school, one of the passages we read was in Luke 16.  The story of the rich man and Lazarus and how when they died, Lazarus was by Abraham's side, and the rich man called up to them and said "have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue..."  One thing our teacher today asked, was "How did Lazarus and the rich man know that it was Abraham by Lazarus' side?"  Abraham had died hundreds of years earlier.  They had obviously never met him, so how did they know it was him.  It was by his character. 
Maybe I'm vain, but I don't want to be considered an ugly person.  I like it when I get dressed up, have my hair and make-up done and Rob looks at me and says, "You are so beautiful."  It makes me feel good.  But I know that it is far more important to be beautiful on the inside.  Did you ever see the movie "Shallow Hal"  with Gweneth Paltrow and Jack Black?  If not, I'll give a quick summary.  Jack's character is shallow, and will only date women who are tall, thin, and gorgeous women.  I don't remember how this happens, but something happens to him, and he starts seeing women according to their inner beauty.  I'll try to keep it short, but basically, he falls for a woman who is very large and "unattractive," but since he only sees her by her inner beauty, he thinks she's a supermodel.  Thinking of that movie made me wonder what my character says about me.  If others saw me only by my character, if God sees me only by my character, what would they see?  What would Rob see?  What would my kids see?  I hope that the larger portion of the time, my character would be beautiful, but I know there are definitely days, where my character would look much more like I do on those far to often days where I'm lucky to get my teeth brushed, let alone have my hair and make-up done. 

Where do I begin???

Wow, so my first posting!  I'm new to blogging.  Not just for my own, but even to other people's blogs.  It has really just been in the last year the I ever looked at a blog, and just in the last few months that I read any of them regularly.  I became an official follower of a friends blog just a couple weeks ago, so this is new.  My mind is racing, and going a hundred miles a minute with things I want to write.  I tried coming up with a cool name for my blog, but I'm not very witty, so it was kind of a struggle.  Rob suggested "Musings of a Domestic Goddess," which I thought had a cool ring to it, but didn't want it to sound like I thought I was some sort of goddess, so I prayed, did devotions, tried to come up with something that went with Schuman, or mom or wife...something, but couldn't find anything I liked.  I went to my Bible for direction, reading about parenting, discipline, blessings.  Then I found the passage in Proverbs 31 about a wife of noble character.  Being a wife of noble character is not always something that comes easily to me.  Rob and I celebrated our 7th anniversary in July.  I try my hardest to be a godly wife and mother, but I know I fail.  I hope that this blog will help me grow, help me reflect, hold me accountable.  Even if noone else in the world reads this, I'm excited to have a place to write down my thoughts, emotions and the things God is laying on my heart.  I liked the background I chose for this blog...partly because of it's title:  "Ready to Learn."   I thought it was fitting for a couple of different reasons.  One is that with us homeschooling the kids, learning is a daily process for all of us.  I'm learning fun new facts with them all the time.  The other reason is that I thought about how often we have lessons in life that we need to learn, but how many times it takes us to be ready to hear, how long it takes us to listen, and be ready to learn.  Seven years of marriage.  I've tried to be that wife of noble character, but think I'm just now in that place of truly being ready to learn.  Better late than never, I guess!