FALL

Changes have taken place that I never saw coming. Things are finally settling down enough for me to take some time to record in our online diary the exciting yet exhausting events.
The first was Kenny's desire to start a new career. He is now in the process of setting up a fire protection business and will be certified to maintain fire systems in restaurants, school, hospitals, and any business that is required by the govt. to have inspections.We have set up an office and built a supply room for this purpose. He believes this will be a great business to grow old with.
The next event was a shocker! We sent Joshua to public school for his senior year.The purpose being to see if there was a possible golf or academic scholarship to be had.So far so good. He will be going to the state level competition near Nashville this Tuesday and Wednesday. He is also doing well as far as grades and just heard he is top of his class in Calculus. I think he is seriously considering some type of major in Math. Engineering is a possibility. Another purpose was to allow him some type of transition year. Being homeschooled he has not had to deal with constant cultural differences being- aggressive girls, filthy talk, drugs, and so on. Of course every human being has to deal with their sin nature that we are automatically born with but it has been nice keeping our family in a "raised in a family not an institutional environment" and I believe in homeschooling more than ever but what is the point of training them at home if they as an adult cannot deal with all the glitter and lies of the world. Our goal has always been that our kids would be salt and that we would be a light and city on a hill. How boring to hide away trying to run from the world when we have the power in Christ to shake up and encourage the hopeless. With all that said..there is a time in everyone's life when a believer should be equipped enough to be in the offensive. I pray and hope Joshua is in this place but even if he proves not to be, I pray he will come to see his deeper need for God. Whatever the course, Kenny and I both felt seperately and simultaneously that this was the path for him.
Our other kids have activities also. Paul is taking physical Science, American History, and Algebra 1 in a co-0p setting. Paul and John are also playing golf and have both taken first place in their league. Kenny enjoys getting out with them several times a week. He knows he is blessed to have his sons love the sport he loves but has made it clear that he will support them in whatever interest they seek.
Lily is doing well and has had only one seizure in the last few months. The two little ones are happy and thriving. Sarah has a few girls come over for art and she and jOhn are part of a nature study class. The books we read are a joy in our lives and school is a source of pleasure not pain. I think Josh has realized this now more than ever and he has expressed thankfulness for all the "good books".
We visited a new church in Cleveland today as we have been unsure about where to go regularly.. but it has been an adventure and the kids say they are glad to have been around many different believers. Even I enjoy keeping up with several different groups of people here and there. After all, the body of Christ is worldwide. I do think it's important to have those who are really like family though and for this reason it is good to keep up fellowship. We really liked today...very casual and modern worship but all that matters is we are where we are supposed to be..we shall see.