Mom's Brunch

Yesterday, the area homeschool group had a mom's brunch. Several moms were assigned a different topic and asked to speak for about 5 minutes.

Tong Hui reminded us that love must be our motivation in seeking the Lord. She also reminded us that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, and our reward is being filled with the Holy Spirit. As we spend time with the Lord and seek the Lord, He fills us. When our hearts are not full, they can't overflow... if our hearts are not overflowing, we are not able to minister to others the way we would wish.

Ginger talked about hospitality. Her definition of hospitality was entertaining guests in a friendly and generous manner, and she stressed making people feel welcome and comfortable. Using 1 Peter 4:8-11, she gave an encouraging talk about hospitality- using your given abilities, allowing people to see Christ in you, and enjoying the "good part" as Mary did.

Roan talked about making children's birthdays special. She had some great ideas about setting the table using things from home, sources for getting great wrapping paper and ribbon, and my kids' favorite... no chores on birthdays! She also spoke about social opportunities for our children, and I need to do a better job of having some times set up for kids to come play.

Yonnea's talk about menu planning was very helpful. I am one of the people she described as, "Would rather eat a bowl of cereal or go hungry than cook dinner." It is very unfortunate, I know... It's not that I despise cooking, it's just that I can think of about ten million things around the house that I would RATHER do than stop everything and cook dinner.

I have done a good job of menu planning and grocery shopping in the past, but I need to do a better job coordinating meals with days that I know are going to be crazy. The trouble is, it seems like every day is crazy... and I have practice every afternoon! I need to follow her advice and gather a good solid list of easy, quick fix meals and a list of my favorite crock pot meals.

Kitchen tip of the day: Did you know that you can brown ground beef overnight in the crock pot? You can also do this with chicken, but you need to add broth to prevent drying out. In the morning, you can allow it to cool and then package it in freezable portions!

I would love some comments or emails about super fast dinner ideas (other than taco salad, spaghetti, and regular salad... we are in a rut!)

Easter Pictures

Will and his friend Ben outside the church
Hannah and I after service
Josh and Scott
Sarah and her good friend, Ruth
Josh wore his first tie! He looked so handsome!

I know that I am lately WAY behind the times with my posts and pictures... bear with me, and maybe I will get my time management skills figured out one day!

However late, I wanted to post some pictures from this Easter Sunday.

Galatians

Scott has been (and will continue to be) preaching through Galatians at our church on Sundays. The sermons have been so very helpful and clear... I am very fortunate to be married to one of my favorite preachers! If you would like to listen to any of his sermons, click HERE!

In chapter one, the three divisions were "God's Gospel," "A Different Gospel," and "A Convinced Apostle."

In Galatians 2:1-14, the divisions were "Liberty," "Slavery," and "Practical Legalism."

Liberty:

• Is not the right to rule over self
• Is not liberty to be lazy in our seeking after God
• Is freedom from the law FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS! He used the example of how the law WAS a burden on our backs, but NOW in Christ, it is a guide in our hands.
  
• Is freedom to know Christ as Mediator and obey him out of love

Slavery or Bondage:

• Deals with the externals... the outside of the cup. It does not deal with the heart... Slavery says change your heart from the outside in... WRONG!
• Biblical Christianity says we have hearts of stone, and God must change our hearts... change begins within and works its way outward!

Practical Legalism:

• When our focus gets off Christ, we lead self and others astray.
  
• Think of a wagon wheel with a hub and spokes. If we replace Christ as the hub and put one of the spokes in the center, the wheel will never work properly... and yet, somehow, we are so proud of that spoke that we stick in the center! So proud, in fact, that we often deny Christian fellowship to someone who has not placed as much importance on that spoke as we have!
  

Mito- What? 5K

Yesterday morning, the kids and I got up very, very early and drove to Millington, TN for the Jackson Culley Mito-What? 5K. Jackson Culley is the son of my first cousin, and he has Mitochondrial Disease. It is a disease that creates weakness in all of your cells, and there is currently no cure. The 5K was an effort to raise money for research... All in all, I think they raised almost $20,000!!!

My cousin is the son of my father's sister.... so most of the Crosier clan was there to run, walk, or support the family. It was a beautiful morning, and the Duleys showed up Ready to RUN!

My Aunt Gwen and the kids B4 the race

Josh did the one mile fun run with my dad... he came in third place! They think it was only one QUARTER of a mile, though! Oh well... Josh was offering no complaints!

Sarah and my mom after the awards- mom has her BMC shirt on!

Sarah doesn't know what her time was, but she got first in the 0-14 girls! Hannah got third in 0-14... this was great, considering she got her cast off on Thursday and hasn't been running! Will got third for the 0-14 boys, and he ran under 30 minutes! I got second over all female, and my time was 21:13.

We all wore our Spartan shirts, even though we couldn't race with them in Pontotoc. My dad even had his Spartan colors on! (It was not planned, but it made a good picture... except for my goofy face!)

Dad and I with the kids after the awards

F/D pics and Catching Up

Well, it is a little later than I had planned, but here are the Father/Daughter banquet pictures from a few weeks ago!






Things have been really busy around here!

BMC is going well- I really, really like the group of runners I am working with! I think it is going to take a little while to feel like I am situated and have a system for things. All at once I had to come up with recruits for next year, a training plan for this spring and summer, a brochure and plan for a summer running camp, and several other things!

This would be no problem, but because I am trying to do this IN ADDITION to all of my other duties, it has been a bit of a challenge! The kids have all been a tremendous help around here. Hannah has taken over laundry, Sarah helps in the kitchen, and the boys are doing a lot more as well. I am going to have to learn to be even more disciplined with my time and my organization.

Last week I spent a day working on getting my school organized. That made school go so much more smoothly... we actually did all of our work this week! (Even geography!) Although we had a great school week, I realized that my next project to work on is going to be DINNER! I did not do such a great job of having dinner ready for us all when I got home, and I need to get a menu my crock pot meal list back out!

Hannah got her cast off last week, and now she is in therapy twice per week for a few more weeks. She can almost straighten her arm! Boy, was she glad to get to play the violin again on Friday!

Friday night we got to go to the wedding of Emily Riley to Tyler Upchurch. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I hope that their marriage is a wonderful, God-honoring relationship!

Sarah/ Hannah-ism

We were driving the other day and talk radio was on. Something was mentioned about Hillary Clinton, and this was the following conversation:

Hannah: Didn't Hillary Clinton go to work for Obama or something after the election?

Sarah: Yeah, I think she is his secretary or something.

Mom: LOL, no, she is called the Secretary of State... it is different from a secretary.

Hannah: Wouldn't that be funny if she was the secretary of OUR whole state? She never would have certified ANY Personhood signatures!

Sarah: Yeah, she would've said, "Sorry, that name is spelled with only one e... he doesn't count!"

The mental image of Hillary Clinton answering the White House telephone has made me chuckle several times over the past few days!

Spartan Blog

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