Isaac plays Jesus

Hannah turns 13

I have never thrown a surprise party. But I did it! I pulled it off. We invited some of Hannah's friends to meet at THE FACTORY ADVENTURE in downtown Greeneville for a fun afternoon of pizza and cupcakes and hang out time. It was great! I now, officially, have four teenagers. 

Nala and Brianna (two new friend)

The surprise group team: Braianna, Ezri, Zoey, Nala, Genevieve, Hannah, Jada, Piper, Marley, Quinn, Annabell, Avalynna

Liberty Camp

From Adam Young

 

Every person has been wounded—and your wound is not only in the past.
The ways your heart was harmed—through cruelty, absence, or the silence of someone who should have shown up—didn’t simply disappear with time. Those wounds have shaped the way you learned to live. Your drivenness, your walls, your need for control, your inability to rest—these tendencies have grown in the soil of your pain. 

Your wound can become the place where you are held captive.
Isaiah 61 draws a direct connection between a broken heart and captivity. Whatever you have built your life around to protect yourself from being wounded again can slowly become the thing that keeps you bound. Jesus was sent to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free. That's very good news for people with a history of trauma. 

Healing begins with naming—and then grieving.
You cannot heal what you will not acknowledge. Naming your wound is not about blame; it is about honesty. And once you name it, healing requires something that is often harder: to feel your unfelt feelings. To enter the grief. To sit with the sorrow instead of running from it.  

Our farm beauty

Mannn ...

.... too much time is going by when I don't post! I'm really going to try and post more often.

I think the hard thing continues to be that my kiddos don't want me telling all about their live. So then it is like, what do I tell about. 

Here are some highlights of our recent life:

• Isaac got his wisdom teeth out. Needed to do this at the hospital due to his allergy.
• We are about to start Week 3 of homeschool. The two classes I am teaching are taking a LOT of time for me to grade all the things.
• The boys start their college classes on Monday. Sidge is taking 16 or so hours at Walters State. However, they will all be at the Morristown campus. Isaac is taking one liberty class and one Walters State. They are both doing Algebra II with John at home.
• The girls are now taking all their classes, minus math, at the co-op. I am teaching their English classes. (And for Hannah, I am teaching an English/History/Bible combo). 
• I am still the Vice President of the Heritage Board. 
• Work is chugging along for JB.