No TV

So, I have this love-hate relationship with the TV. I can easily plant myself in front of it for hours on end - I know, it's terrible. I enjoy watching various TV shows and love movies! But I also know it eats up so much of my time, time away from God and time away from getting things done that need to be done. In my effort to cut back I have gone cold turkey - NO TV! It is hard as one show I enjoy watching is on right now as I type. I am in the school room, so that I will not be tempted to just turn it on. The kids are not thrilled with this event! But I can already see it is good. There is a bit more peace and the kids were more ready for bed tonight than they have been in a long time. It would be easier to just get rid of them, but I need to learn self control in this area of life. I am hoping one day to be able to just watch one show, without it turning into three!

One saving grace has been a new CD I just received. I LOVE Michael W. Smith's music. Have since I was a kid. He just came out with a new CD "It's a Wonderful Christmas". It is absolutely beautiful! He is so incredibly gifted in music! It has a lot of instrumental, which I am very into right now. So, as I grade papers and clean, my MP3 player has been tagging along so I can listen to the beautiful strains of symphony. MP3 players are really an amazing invention! I really wish they would have been around when I was a kid!

Andy has been incredibly busy these days. Saturday and Sunday nights he spoke at a church in DE. Today he left before 9:00 am today to go to Philadelphia Biblical University for their Freshman Student Ministry Day. Tonight he is at God Squad. He has Family Night at Kids Club tomorrow night, Teen Club Thursday Night and Saturday he is going to an all day inner-city youth seminar. In between all those events he has food bank runs to collect the food needed for the big Thanksgiving food give-away this coming Monday, November 12th. Thankfully, we see him at dinner. We'll also have family fun night this Friday. We all look forward to seeing him on Friday nights! Me, because he'll put the kids to bed - the kids because he'll play games with them.

Today was an okay day. Matt still continues to struggle on Monday's. It's a funny story - it had been a hard morning and while I was making lunch I was praying that God would give me some answers on how to handle homeschooling Matt and Sarah. I was even thinking along the line that maybe we needed a change in scenery (read: to move!). Maybe Philly wasn't where we were to raise Matt. Maybe we needed to move back out to the country - away from city life. Move to a place where Matt could run, get energy released, join a sports team, go to a Christian School that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg, work outside on a farm, etc. Anyway, my thoughts and prayers were everywhere. Before I was even done praying the phone rang. It was a supporter calling out of the blue to say how much she and her family appreciated the sacrifices we make by living here. She continued to say how much the church appreciated us and the work we continued to do and how they loved reading Andy's prayer letters and prayed for us continually. I was blown away as you can imagine. God is so good to give us the answers we need when we need them. I have to trust that this is the place where Matt is suppose to be. I have to trust that until we get confirmation otherwise, I am to homeschool Matt. I believe Matt and I are learning some important lessons in this journey. It is not easy and at times brings us both to tears, but God is good and will continue to grow us through this experience. Please continue to pray for us as we homeschool our kids and struggle to be the parents God wants us to be.