GIA

A quick testimony of how God is at work in my life:

Homeschool moms can relate to the stress related to choosing a curriculum that will suit their children, their schedule, their teaching style.  It might only be a minor stressor, but the decision is an  important one.  My friend Kay, after providing a recommendation for a curriculum she enjoys with her children, admonished me to "first, pray and allow God to show you His plan."  What great advice! 
Sometimes, regarding school curriculums or any other decision, large or small, I forget to "pray first and seek God's will."  I don't think I'm being willfull or rebellious, but rather not thinking or not allowing the habit to develop in my life.
I took Kay's advice, and prayed over curriculum choices.  I thought I had the answers on most of them, but Math was a sticky wicket (a timely phrase!).  I want to change from our present curriculum series to another, more rigorous one.  I'd made a decision, but since math is not my strong suit and I want Hannah to have the best possible foundation in the subject, I was a little unsure.
Week before last we went saleing.  YARD sale-ing, that is.  I found a "Hooked on Math" box for $1 over on Douthat Road.  I was excited only because of the name.  I figured it was a sister program to "Hooked on Phonics."  Not that I know anything about the program, but it was marketing, baby, pure marketing, that sold me.
When we got home, I saw that it was missing much of the contents.  Oh, well, for a dollar, what did I expect?  I put it aside.
I revisited a couple math curriculum websites and tentatively made a switch.  I gave Hannah a pretest in the program and saw where she should begin.  Even though she passed the pretest, however, she wasn't strong in the basic skills.  I would put her where she would be according to her testing level, but I was a little unsure because the program stresses that the student be strong and proficient in each previous level before advancing.  This is the key to success in this particular program, as it is designed slightly differently than other approaches.
Cleaning off our homeschool bookcase, I opened the Hooked on Math box to see if I could toss the bulky box and keep the insides.  Upon closer inspection.....
(and this is the whole point of the post, GIA - GOD IN ACTION)
I saw that what was included in this program -
what was not discarded by the previous owner -
was the BASIC reviews of the first level of the new math program I'd tentatively selected for next trimester!!
In other words, it is the review, the preparation, the foundation for Hannah's math program that she'll begin in the fall!
Now, is that a "GOD THING" (I dislike that phrase, but it fits!), or WHAT?!
It is exactly what we need to prep her for this new curriculum.  The flash cards, the prompts, the games, etc., ALL of it is what I need to develop her confidence for our next roud of math!
And I'm giving God the Praise for it!

Blooming where you're planted

How can God use me, a stay-at-home-mom with a limited social circle and interaction with strangers?  In the grocery store, in lines at the pharmacy and over a couple racks of heirloom tomatoes at the local market:
After a conversation of how good that first summer tomato sandwich will taste, how Jackson River Road used to be called Cedar Creek and on why he chooses yellow 'maters over red, and "would you guess that I'll be 80 years old next month?" I asked him bluntly - 'where will you go when you die?'
Yup.  I threw it out there and didn't even flush.  I said it like the "how to witness" books tell you to, how the Sunday School lessons suggest, how I've heard of others doing it.
"In the ground, I guess."
'No, you know what I'm talking about, after y- - - '
"I don't believe in any of that mess.  Now, look, I can go through that Bible and show you where its wrong and there's nothing in it ~ for starters (holding up a bony finger), how can ONE being, ONE thing create all of this (waving his hand over the tomato patch and at the mountain behind us) in six days?  What about the fish in the ocean?  And the universe, too?  There's just no way that ~ why, we've even PROVED it that dinosaurs was here for millions of years and the Bible expects us to believe the earth is only 7,000 years old?  And people coming back from the dead after all that ~ they's just no way they was dead in the first place...now, I was baptized way back in the, the, I was born in '31, ya know; I was baptized and I used to believe all that but then I got to thinkin' how there was just no way the Bible could be true, what they tell you young people, its all wrong...."
"You've obviously given this a lot of thought, but see hear those two kids squallin in the car over there?  They're mine, and I'll have to get them home.  I'd been wondering if I'd be seeing you in eternity."
"There's no such thing.  When I go in the ground I'm staying there.  Now, I can see I"m making you mad with all this, but you just have got to know that you're wrong about all this.  There's no such thing as all that, you'll find that out for yourself one day ~ that Bible is, well, its just all wrong you know..."
"I'm not mad at all, in fact I am feeling pretty good right now, but my girls are getting louder, can't you hear them?"
"I know I made you mad, I make a lotta folks mad about this, but I know I'm right about it, you're mad..."
"No sir, I just have to get my girls home.  I don't get mad!  If anything I feel sorry for you because I know what I believe and I wish you the best yourself, have a nice day!"
"Waaal, I knowed I made you mad..."

I wasn't mad.  I was praying!