With the arrival of nice weather, it seemed like a perfect time for a Grandma, Aunties, and grandchildren outing to the park to play and have a picnic. The girls and I packed sandwiches, apples, chips, cookies, and water for all. Since so many of the little ones are in car seats, we took Nathan and Christopher’s minivans.

It was a perfect day, with wonderful children, and everyone had a delightful time as you can see.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Children’s children are the crown of old men;
and the glory of children are their fathers”
(Proverbs 17:6).

We enjoyed the Love and Respect Marriage Conference. Before we went, we weren’t quite sure what to expect, because the book seemed fairly repetitive. So we weren’t sure if the conference would be the same way. Wow! It wasn’t at all. We found the live experience to be concise and amazing!

Steve felt Emerson Eggerichs was possibly the best speaker he had heard, both in the Christian and business arena. If you are familiar with Ted Talks, it was equal to and greater than those. 

The conference involved a reasonable amount of time. They packed an amazing amount of information into Friday night and Saturday morning, but the presentation riveted our attention. It was condensed and yet covered the key points, being highly practical.

This conference isn’t about breaking into small groups or couples having assignments to do together. It is all teaching time. Through out the conference we laughed, everyone else laughed, we saw husbands poking wives and smiling, and wives poking husbands and smiling.

There were 800 to 1000 in attendance at the Aurora conference, and the majority of couples were in their 20’s or 30’s although there were couples into their 60’s like Steve and me and even older.

Almost all went forward at the end to recommit their marriage to the Lord by implementing what was learned and asking forgiveness for past failures. Likely the ones who didn’t go forward weren’t going to try to move since the front filled up quickly and only the aisles were left for others.

It was clear that hearts were touched. Steve and my hearts were! After almost 43 years of marriage, we learned things that we are excited to put into practice in our marriage.

It was a simple, yet highly applicable, message that could transform a terrible marriage and energize a great one.

The proof in always in the fruit. We believe that the message was right—biblical and personal.  The fruit depends on whether those in attendance will implement it. From the stories shared, it is likely many will. That is exciting, especially with the number of young couples who were there.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
everlasting upon them that fear him,
and his righteousness unto children’s children.”
Psalm 103:17

Recently I did standardized testing for our 8-year-old homeschooled granddaughter, Abigail. It was a nostalgic time for many in our family.

As public schooled children, Steve and I received our standardized testing in our public school classrooms. Nathan and Christopher started standardized testing as homeschool students in the back room of a Christian bookstore. When we moved to Leavenworth and began leading the local homeschool group, my parents did the standardized testing for the homeschooled children at the Main Post Chapel on Ft. Leavenworth. Over time that facility was no longer available to us. Then my parents did the standardized testing for our children in their home – grandparents giving the standardized tests to their grandchildren.

Now my first grandchild has reached an age for standardized testing, and I am in a season of life where I have the time available to do that for her.

We planned four mornings for the testing, but with only one child being tested, we could go at her pace. Almost every test she finished in half the allotted time and that included double checking. In just two mornings from 9:00 to 11:15, she completed the whole Iowa Basic Skills battery. Of course, we had a break in the middle for a snack and some chatting.

For me it is a special season to move from the mothering tasks of homeschooling to the grand-mothering tasks of supporting the next generation in their homeschooling.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and
a word spoken in due season, how good is it”
(Proverbs 15:23).

If you have followed our blog for long, you know that periodically we polish the wood cabinets in our home. Several years ago, when we remodeled the home that Christopher and Anna Marie now own, we asked the lady from the cabinet making company, how to keep the oak cabinets in good condition.

She told us three things:

• Dry hands before opening cupboard doors.
• Use the handles. I thought we always used the handles, but she was right. When we watched ourselves we seldom did. We went for the bottom of the cabinet door rather than holding on to the handle.
• Polish the cabinets yearly using Guardsmen Polish (that’s our affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase it: you can read our affiliate disclosure here.)

We haven’t managed yearly cabinet polishing, but we do get around to it regularly. There were a couple of years when I expressed my inability to find cabinet-polishing time to Steve. He took a Saturday morning, and we all polished cabinets together,  finishing the project in short order.

My normal cabinet polishing plan is 1/2 hour a day until it is finished. You all know how much I love the power of 30 minutes a day! Several weeks ago, I started into that, and I was planning to do it myself, but Anna and Mary said they wanted to rearrange their schedules temporarily to help. With their help, obviously, the job took 1/3 of the time, and we greatly enjoyed our fellowship.

I must also say that I am blessed beyond measure to have girls who will volunteer to help me with a project. You young moms are planting now in your children’s lives, and the fruit is coming later. I know there are days when you can’t imagine that a child would choose to help without being asked, but I can encourage you it is coming!

If you plant the seeds of entertainment and self serving in your children’s lives, however, I think you will be disappointed with the fruit in their adult lives. On the other hand, If you persevere in teaching your children there is joy in serving and fellowship in working side by side, I am sure you will be delighted by the fruit in their adult lives.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing:
but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” Proverbs 13:4