Windows 7 or 8? Help!

We have two desktop computers, one 7.5 years old and another that's 10 years old (both have Windows XP). Curriculum I'm interested in for the boys this year requires an updated operating system. I've decided we'll keep using the 7.5-year-old computer because it can still be used with their Math CD Rom program, Teaching Textbooks, and it's located in a quite bedroom. A quiet room is a necessity for their math program.

For other curriculum requiring an updated operating system, I'm looking at laptops and noticed that Windows 8 is not particularly liked? As in...it's not user-friendly at all, especially for non-smart phone users (who aren't used to touch-screens)?

Has anyone updated their computer lately? Can you tell me how you adapted to Windows 8? My boys like technology and would probably enjoy learning a new system. But the mom here? Not so much. Should I try to get something with Windows 7? How did you adapt to Windows 7 after using Windows XP?

Any recommendations on laptops for $550 or under? I've never owned a laptop, and only briefly ever used one. Thank you!

My Blessing List (during influenza)

1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.



Influenza made its way into our home last Tuesday and everyone but my husband fell sick. Isn't it ironic that we all got a flu shot last December, except him? He had shingles at the time and decided to wait to get it--then he forgot.

This is miserable and it does take time to recover, with the cough, congestion, and headache lasting a long while. I just hope husband doesn't get it because his will be worse.

So far we've stayed out of the doctor's office and I pray it stays that way. Flu shots make the illness less serious, even if they don't get the strains just right.

I skipped Beth's Sunday methotrexate dose to avoid suppressing her immune system again this week. Her only side effect from this chemo drug (so far) has been one canker sore in her mouth. I've never had one but I can tell it's painful. Folic acid helps avoid them and other side affects so I got permission to give her an extra half-serving of vitamin gummie, since none on the market have more than a 50% daily allowance for folic acid.

I have to dig far to come up with some blessings right now, but I'm determined to try:




Dear Father, thank you....


~ for pretty snow falling for a few days. I'm celebrating snow today with some beautiful pics found here.

~ for wholesome library movies to keep everyone resting and drinking fluids.

~ that though I'm weaker, I'm still able to do laundry and dishes and meals, and a little sweeping. That's God's grace in action.



~ my once-a-year perm time finally arrived and life is sweeter without straight, limp hair. The curls also hide the white, forty-something hairs a little better. I have to wash my oily hair once a day, and the bangs twice a day. My face stopped breaking out for the most part at age 43, but the oily forehead appears to be here to stay, despite the witch hazel applications. When I think back to the acne (starting at age 12) and all the damage it did to my face and psyche, I ache for my four children and pray so hard they'll not inherit it. Modern medicine just hasn't been able to help this sad condition.



~ gingerbread pancakes (the ginger helps settle stomachs a bit too. Kids can get nausea with the flu, but adults usually don't.)



~ for psalms that soothe the heart and the aching body.



~ the kids are too weak to do school, but I've been reading the next biography--The Wright Brothers--and loving it. My boys will hang on every word of this book. They're both entrepreneurial in spirit, like the Wright boys were at this age.

The Wright boys' father was a minister but he also liked to make things. His shed full of tools really gave his boys a great start. The first thing they ever made? A sled--one that was longer and narrower than all the other boys' sleds, because their mother taught them about wind resistance. She drew a picture with dimensions and explained about the wind resistance. Her sons never forgot her lesson about wind resistance, and that if the drawing is right, the object you make will be right.



~ for prayer and that while I care for sick little bodies at night, I'm awake for extra prayer time and prayer always makes life sweeter.

~ for picture books about snow. I love books about the different seasons because they point to God's glory so often. Snow books are always a lot of fun.




What are you thankful for today?

Schooling vs. Education

 Tom started school. The schoolmaster, Mr. Engle, had a terrible temper. He didn't like children very much. Most of all, he didn't like Tom Edison, who asked so many questions.

One day Mr. Engle lost his temper. "Tom Edison", he thundered, "all you do is ask silly questions. There is nothing I can do with you--your brains are addled!"

When Mrs. Edison heard what the schoolmaster said, she was angry. Addled! Weak in the head! Her son was not addled. But she could not say as much for Mr. Engle!

Mrs. Edison took Tom out of school. She would teach him herself. Tom never went back to school. In all his life, Thomas Edison spent only three months in school.

Tom Edison didn't go to school, but he was a great reader. He read all kinds of books. When Tom was nine he read a science book. It told about chemicals and carbons and electricity. Electricity. How Tom loved that word. This book changed Tom's life. He decided to become an inventor.

Excerpt from The Story of Thomas Alva Edison Inventor, pps. 13-14, by Margaret Davidson.

When Thomas Edison reached 12 years old, he needed money for his science books and experiments. He went to work on a train, leaving his home in Port Huron every morning at seven o'clock. He sold newspapers on the Detroit express, along with molasses candy, apples, sandwiches, and peanuts. He made money, but not enough for his books and experiments.

What could he do to earn more money? Tom thought about this for some time. Then he had an idea. He would put out his own newspaper. He would write it, and print it, and sell it.

But where could he work? There was plenty of room in the baggage car on the train. Tom bought an old printing press and put it in the baggage car. And he started to work--writing, printing, and selling copies of his own newspaper, The Weekly Herald. 

Tom didn't spell very well. Sometimes he forgot to put periods at the end of his sentences. So they ran on and on and on. But people bought his newspaper. They liked the stories in The Weekly Herald. And Tom's spelling made them laugh.

Excerpt from The Story of Thomas Alva Edison Inventor, pg.16, by Margaret Davidson.

We read this Thomas Edison biography in our homeschool this week. The book is short, simplistic, and written for a younger audience than my boys' current ages. It expounds on Edison's questioning nature, his hard work, and his pioneering technology, but it speaks nothing of his heart. Perhaps Sonlight chose it merely to inspire students to believe in themselves, to work hard, and to think outside the box? 

Finding the book lacking, I read more extensively on my own this week and found that Thomas Edison was a practical atheist, and in some respects he was mean-spirited. Now I see why Sonlight chose such a simplistic book to portray him. They didn't want to leave him out of the historical survey, but they also didn't want children to admire some of the more selfish, unbalanced aspects of his life and heart.

Thomas Edison offered George Washington Carver, God's Scientist, $100,000 dollars a year to come invent with him. "Together, we will change the world," said Edison. One of Edison's fancy-suited assistants went down to the university and presented Professor Carver with the proposal. 

But Carver? He was a man after God's own heart, and I think he knew Edison wasn't. Also, God had plans for Carver to continue to bless his people through crop education. Carver fought poverty and gave glory to God by teaching the South--and the rest of the world--how to cultivate food. 

Edison? He fought for patents and became a very rich man. Carver made $3,500 a year as a professor, and he didn't even cash most of his checks. He had no use for money, he said; God provided everything he needed for free.

Henry Ford, the motor-vehicle inventor, was a friend to both men. I am curious to know how Henry felt about the Lord? He befriended a fellow inventor who gave God the glory for everything, and another who thought mostly of himself. What did Henry Ford make of these men? I want to know more.... 

Simple though it was, this Thomas Edison biography spoke to me as a homeschooling mother. 

I'm so grateful to be educating at home. 

Staying home to disciple and educate my children is worth every feminine skirt I can't buy, every fancy dish I'll never own, every trip to Washington D.C. we'll never take, every hair cut I won't get, every clean and stylish throw rug our floors won't see. 

God has taught me value...true worth. My children are free to live and laugh and think outside the box. They don't have to conform to what an overly-busy teacher--concerned about test scores--expects from them six hours a day. They have many hours a week to spend reading and interfacing with ideas. They have time to experiment, to invent, to play. 

This week alone they invented a new card game, a boat that floats, and they thought outside the box to use their toys in new ways.

They pretended to be real train operators on the playroom couch, marking their destinations on a US map they drew up. They announced each city stop as they pulled up to the "station". 

My Peter still doesn't begin all his sentences with capital letters--yes, he knows the rules--and although his spelling is improving greatly, it isn't entirely conventional yet. He can't print well without a dotted line. 

But he devours books and talks about his ideas. 

And he dreams. 

He dreams of soil experiments, of beautiful gardens, of the natural pesticides he'll invent. He dreams of crops and harvest time. He dreams of family working alongside him. He dreams of bouncing babies on his knees and reading the Bible to his family.

There's so much more to an education than the schooling. Just as cleanliness is not next to godliness, proper punctuation and instantaneous retrieval of multiplication facts are not the gold standard of a great intellect. If they have to think for five seconds, that's okay. If they always need another draft, that's okay.

Thomas Edison didn't spell well at age 12? Oh, well. Spelling proficiency isn't indicative of a sharp mind. By the end of high school most well-read children will spell well enough. I do spelling lessons most days of the week, but sometimes I don't know if my son is improving in spite of them, or because of them.

Thomas Edison's intellect and aspirations weren't limited to what a teacher thought of his skills, thank goodness.

He once wrote of his mother:

"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint."

As homeschooling mothers we mustn't get distracted by skill acquisition. Skills are merely a means to an end. Our goal is a well-trained mind--one that first meditates on Him and on His Creation. The mind is a gift to be stretched--to be exercised by the meditation of ideas and the solving of problems. 

Educating our children should be about exposing them to all of God's gifts. For hasn't God given us what we need for fulfillment, both through relationship with Him and through Creation? In his graciousness, he's held nothing back.

Here are a few gifts to share with our children:

~ The gift of beauty in the natural world--flowers, trees, rivers, lakes, mountains, insects and other animals. 

~ The gifts of the arts and the written word--music, painting, sculpture, dance, novels, poetry.

~ The gift of natural resources for our basic needs and for ingenious invention.

~ The gift of patterns around us--in math, in art, in music. 

No, I don't admire Thomas Edison's heart, but I see how his mother did right by him. 

"My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me." 

• Teach them to go to the only source of Truth--to measure everything against God's standard.
• Believe in your child's potential.
• Set your gaze on what she can do.
• Don't be the anxious teacher, bent on checking off skill-mastery.
  
• Be the inspiration for a mind that's always stretching.
• Clear the calendar to allow time for nothing, which really means, give them time to invent and explore and play. A too-busy schedule is not the father of creativity, but the killer of it.
• Let them make messes.
• Let them fail and start again.
• Champion their God-sized dreams.
• Buy few toys and stick with classics. Pre-made toys, like commercial entertainment, can stunt the imagination.
• Teach them not to remember facts, but to acquire the tools of learning.
• Teach them to ask questions and find answers.
• Teach them that God has provided more than enough for their physical and spiritual fulfillment, and if they covet more, let it be more love in their hearts, not more things. The acquiring of things is a waste of the time God so graciously gives.
• Teach them that the world rarely chases what is good, and that God provides an abundance of good, all for free.
• Teach them that sin ruins and holiness blesses.
• Teach them that God's love never ends, that his faithfulness never wanes, that his comfort is ever-present...just a quiet time away.
• If traditional school crowds out the time you need to teach all these things, then follow Mrs. Edison's advice and think outside the box. Get rid of the school.

Ecclesiastes 7:12

For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Proverbs 9:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Deuteronomy 11:19

You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Proverbs 4:13

Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

Proverbs 16:16

How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

More on what the Bible says about education here.

The Ordinary Life

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
- Tim Kizziar

Francis Chan quoted this in his book, Crazy Love. I thought about it as I shifted laundry, dictated paragraphs, loaded the dishwasher, swept the floor.

After reading biographies like these from our homeschool curriculum, the boys and I inflame with desire to make our lives matter. 

George Washington Carver and William Wilberforce are both famous because during slavery, and after, it took courageous, tenacious people to move our world forward. Fame never mattered to these men. Just justice and freedom for all--freedom from slavery, and then from poverty--so that everyone could have the opportunity to lead an ordinary life.

I don't know why some are chosen for greatness, and some for the ordinary, but I'm awfully thankful for the opportunity to be ordinary. Throughout history, it wasn't always this way; it wasn't always this easy to get up in the morning and live.

War and disease ravaged lives. Injustice pierced the heart here at home, not just abroad.

I am safe, well-fed, with shelter over my head and people around who love me and need me.

Sometimes I wonder if circumstance doesn't make an ordinary person great? Would these two men be in our history books if not for slavery? Or would Harriet Tubman, another giant? Are role models few now because life is too easy, stateside?

Most of my current role models do their work in the third world, like Katie living in Uganda, parenting 13 orphaned girls as her own and starting the Amazima ministry--all before the age of 22.  She went to Uganda as a teen hoping to enjoy a summer in ministry, and she never left.

And like Maureen, who runs a Kenyan non-profit for orphaned, abused, pregnant girls, and like Kristen, who founded the ministry and handles the planning and business part, stateside.

I am ordinary. Maybe you are too.

But God.

He has plans for our hearts...and the plans are anything but ordinary. When we truly follow him, trusting tomorrow to Him, the path is life-changing and bold. Even great.

Maybe it takes God, not history, to transform an ordinary person? 

Do ordinary people maintain the status quo? They go to church and put a twenty in the plate each week, making meals when someone has a baby or a surgery? But they stay in the driver seat of life, not giving Him the key? 

No person in history is as great as Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our God.

To live a great life, a radical life, we only have to do one thing. 

Wake up every morning and say to the Almighty Living God, the creator and author of the universe, "What will it be today, God?"

Before we can say this and mean it, we have to decrease so He can increase. That's become cliche, I know, but is there a better way to say it? 

Lay down your life. 

Give up what you want.

Give up your image--your desire to look good to others, either physically or through your deeds. Be willing to forgo that image for something humbler. The more you look like the next American woman, with her salon-manicured nails, her hundred-dollar hair job, her SUV, her spa membership and her busy schedule, the less you look like a Christ follower.

Don't be like everyone else. Everyone else is chasing the ordinary, and they don't even know it. 

Everyone loves themselves, and that's part of being ordinary: to love yourself more than you love God.

To live greatly, radically, we need heart change. We can raise a family, love and serve for the rest of our lives, and appear ordinary to the outside world. The Lord evaluates our life not on our accomplishments, but on how much heart change there's been. 

The giants I began with, George Washington Carver and William Wilberforce? 

They loved Him radically. They loved his Word. No, not from the beginning, but they trusted him and let their hearts be changed. As the Lord worked, their hearts fell more in love with Him and their lives reflected Him more. 

As I read, it struck me. These giants were really just shrimps. They bowed down to a great God. They bowed low. 

The Lord shined, not these men.

On my gravestone and on yours, let that be said of us. That we were just shrimps.


Writing about radical with Ann and friends.

The Blessing of Hospitality

John Frederick Lewis - Highland Hospitality, 1832

Three times after our guest left last night, and four times this morning, at least one of my children commented, "He's so nice, Mommy." 

"I can't believe how nice he is ."

And Peter offered this, "It's so nice to have a Christian visitor, isn't it Mommy?"

We have non-Christians over frequently and pray for them and try to be Christ to them, and that is nice. But nothing compares to fellowship with another Believer. When you share a love for Christ there is a special joy, a special peace, a happy energy. The time goes by so fast and when the inevitable goodbyes come, they're bittersweet.

Satan knows that alone, Christians are more vulnerable to his attacks. The Bible encourages us to fellowship and build one another up. We are strength for one another always--especially in difficult times.

In order to follow scriptural mandates for hospitality, we can't have our own agendas. He must rule our hearts and lives. We can't fill our lives with worldly fluff and still hope to have the time and resources to offer hospitality.

Oh, I know hospitality isn't easy, especially for busy moms whose children make messes on the quarter hour, daily. On my first spiritual gifts inventory, I scored lowest on hospitality and mercy and helps. My highs were knowledge, discernment, teaching, and faith.

Unbeknownst to me, God set to work on my lows and thankfully, they're climbing higher. I don't think my scores would be the same if the same test were given to me now, eleven years later.

Glory to God!

Hebrews 10:24-25 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

1 Peter 4:9 

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Acts 2:42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Hebrews 3:13

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

I enjoy every church fellowship, but I have my four young children to look after and conversations must be short or not at all. Little people aren't prone to sitting still long, letting Mommy and that nice lady have a lengthy conversation.

When Christians come to my home, however, the pressure of looking after the children subsides for the most part. The children are fully part of the fellowship and I love it.

I encourage you, invite Christians over.

Last night our old California friend, D, came over for four hours. He married a couple years before we moved here, but neither of us cared for the match, believing the woman wasn't a strong Christian. She had been married twice and had three kids, so we didn't have much hope for the marriage. Moreover, D suffers from severe Bipolar Disorder which wasn't well-controlled at the time, and he didn't have full-time work.

The woman wasn't altogether truthful about the past, blaming her divorces solely on her two ex-husbands. To me that indicates an unteachable heart. Every married person is a sinner and every marriage problem is the result of sin, so even if a divorce filing isn't mutual, both people must go to God separately and ask Him to search their heart. Secondly, they need to acknowledge and confess sin and ask for forgiveness.

And sometimes, they are called to live the rest of their lives alone, depending on the circumstances. This is a devastating thing and these people need our love and fellowship, not our condemnation.

During the Christmas season, hearing they moved to Ohio, I looked up their names, hoping to find an Ohio address. I wasn't surprised to see D listed alone, in an apartment, but I hoped for the best as I sent out a Christmas picture and letter. When a reply came in the form of a Christmas card, it listed only D.

On the phone, D told my husband the woman remarried for the fourth time six months after their 2009 divorce. I knew I'd heard enough.

If you know a single person especially, whatever age, invite them over for dinner, or for lunch after church? They need fellowship badly, before depression or despair have time to set in. Fellowship and love help fight those emotions off and keep a single person's eyes on God, not on themselves. God designed Christian families, I believe, to fulfill a single's need for fellowship, to a large extent.

Singles' groups are okay, but pairing off frequently occurs and the goal becomes to meet and marry someone, more than to fellowship or grow in Christ. Courtship is better than dating and when the whole group stays together, these groups are a more positive thing. Group fellowship prevents physical attraction from taking over, reducing emotional intelligence.

The Biblical version of emotional intelligence is spiritual discernment. Discernment is a spiritual gift--not something everyone readily accesses.

I wish we could have helped this couple think through their decision to marry, since my husband is pretty discerning as well, but I was at the end of a complicated pregnancy when they became engaged, confined to bedrest and trying to watch over my twenty-month-old toddler. Also, I worked part-time as a homeschooling facilitator, mostly from home. My husband split his work day as much as he could, working early morning and evening, when our toddler son was asleep. We had no family anywhere in the state.

We were overwhelmed and thought the pastor counseling them could take care of the situation. But, what does a pastor know compared to a person's friends? Our friends are placed in our lives for a reason and they know much more about the flavor of our lives and hearts, than do pastors conducting meetings in their offices.

It takes bravery to tell someone what they may not want to hear, but twice now my husband and I felt we failed some friends in this regard. Over time, our commitment to serve others with our lives has gotten stronger, and I pray we'll make better choices from now on.

One side thought here as relates to hospitality: When offering fellowship to singles, there is one caveat--the same one I'd advise in the workplace and everywhere else. Avoid being alone with a person of the opposite sex, if you are married. And keep phone conversations with them short. Emotional bonding (too much sharing) is often the beginning of adultery.

Be a true blessing to a single person by keeping the fellowship pure and lovely, and whole-family oriented. Of course, avoid tight or otherwise immodest clothing when opening your home, both to avoid wrong thoughts in a man, and to encourage single and married women to also dress modestly.

Sometimes, things don't go as planned with hospitality. The strangest thing happened last night.

For dinner I served shepherd's pie, fresh fruit, and salad. The conversation was lively and fun, then suddenly, our guest held his hand up to his mouth, as though in pain. He excused himself and went to the bathroom.

He was gone for what seemed like an eternity. We all stared at each other, wondering what on earth...? My insecurity about being a hostess took over and I feared it was the food. Was there a hair in the meal? Did my 4 year old put a small toy in the salad or something? Were the mashed potatoes in the shepherd's pie lumpy and he liked them smooth?

What was it? And how could I ever apologize enough?

I began to regret the whole hospitality thing, thinking I was the absolute worst at it. After all, we use jars for drinking glasses and our dishes don't match, neither our flatware. I don't own nice tablecloths or anything fancy or expensive.

The offerings are humble, and though I know this doesn't matter to God, it suddenly began to bother me while our guest sought relief of some kind in the bathroom.

What was it?

Thank the Lord, it had nothing to do with my hospitality.

He bit his tongue pretty badly and it bled a lot and was quite painful for an hour or so. But still, he stayed until 9:00 PM and had a nice time. We sent some chocolate cake and more dinner along home with him, since he couldn't finish due to the bleeding and pain.

When I heard he bit his tongue, I was so relieved I almost cried. Yes, I'm sympathetic that way.

I noticed that his bipolar disorder seemed well-controlled now, and later that night I thought about his twitching eyes, a tic he didn't previously have, and I wondered if the tongue and cheek biting (which he told my husband about) weren't a strange side effect of a new medicine, along with the tic? Bipolar can often occur along with Tourette's Syndrome and OCD, just like ADHD can. Perhaps he had the tics before in a different form...I don't know.

Chronic neurological disorders are heart-wrenching, to say the least. I know God placed D in our home as a guest on purpose. We live this reality on a daily basis and we understand it with our whole hearts. My Peter's ADHD is well-controlled now, but the OCD and the Tourette's tics are not, much to our dismay. The new medicine incidentally helped the ADHD, but was given to him for the OCD. Full therapeutic affect is supposed to occur by the third month.

Two months in, we pray for the best, and we're thankful on an hourly basis for the ADHD improvement.

All this to say, I suppose, that God has a perfect plan for our lives, including with whom we will fellowship?

My Lord is so faithful and so compassionate. He amazes me every day. He truly, truly loves us.

There are so many parts to His beautiful, divine puzzle. How thorough he's been in loving us, how wise in guiding us. How it behooves us to trust Him!

Giving Thanks Today:

Thank you, Lord, for...

~ a guest for Peter to share his birthday hamster with. (D happens to like hamsters, too.) No asthma from the hamster this time for Peter.

~ a Christian husband to share triumphs and hardships with.

~ the cousin who fixed our slow drains.

~ four amazing children to warm my heart and home.

~ wisdom and comfort from the Word.

~ online friends.

~ Peter's improved spelling.

~ George Washington Carver, a wonderful Christian man who inspired us greatly as part of our homeschool. He was a botanist and professor who helped black farmers in the post civil-war era learn to diversify and rotate their crops, leading to successful peanut crops, cotton crops, and sweet potato crops--even in poor native soil. He helped rebuild and strengthen and revolutionize the southern farm economy, and he kept his people from starving as they sought to make it on their own after slavery. He also invented peanut butter and other things derived from peanuts and sweet potatoes. His work and research helped farmers all over the world, but most of all, his heart for God was amazing. I can't even type about him without tears. Every child should read about him, especially every Christian child--role models are few in these insanely worldly days.

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