Another 2 weeks have gone by.....

Geesh! What has gotten into me???? Oh wait.....I am busy with my kids during the day and there is really not anything exciting going on in this household these days. School, church, volleyball, voice lessons, piano lessons. and just the busyness of life in general. Have left me literally EXHAUSTED!!! We are getting set to go camping one last time this up coming weekend. Except this time we are renting a nice size cabin (spending the extra money to have some fun together as a family) and heading out Friday afternoon and returning Monday around lunch time. The kids are excited to stay in a cabin that has a bathroom and beds to sleep in. We are staying down in Inwood, IA at a campground called Inspiration Hills. It is going to be a great time. We are planning on bringing games for the whole family to play, my kids have gotten hooked on this game called Payday that I had as a kid (this game is OLD, copyright is 1975.....they LOVE IT)!!!! We will be bringing the kids' bikes so that we will still be able to bike/walk. The weather should be fairly decent for the weekend. Cold at night but that is what the cabin is for. I am planning on taking my camera and taking TONS of pictures. Jason and I will celebrate 11 years of marriage on Saturday the 3rd so we wanted to do something together as a family and we wanted to camp one more time this season so we decided to go the extra mile and get a cabin instead. It will be a mini home away from home. I will post pics hopefully next week but none the less we are excited. We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Just working around the house trying to get the shed completed before winter. The siding is slowly going up a little at a time but it will be done before the snow flies, which the way it is feeling the last couple of days should be soon......UGH!!!
Yesterday we had 2 picnics to go to at the same time. That was a treat. We split our time between both and we are soooooo glad that we did. The first picnic was held by the pastor of the church that we are attending now and it was for new people. We went to meet the senior pastor and his family and some of the others in the church. It was such a blessing! The pastor's wife.....get this.....homeschools her kids and we had met at a mom's meeting back in May......no wonder she looked familiar!!!! It is AMAZING how God has put it all together for us! The other really cool thing is that the pastor and his wife are really good friends with the former pastor of the church that we left. That was cool to find that out. It was just nice to be able to meet the pastor and talk face to face with him. Very nice, down to earth, easy to talk to guy and his wife is totally cool cuz.....well she homeschools her kids!!!! What is better than that!!! Then it was off to our new friends Paul and Anita for the neighborhood potluck! It was so much fun to meet neighbors that we hadn't previously met. Met a couple that live just around the corner from us, they have 2 small girls. Way cool! It was almost 9pm before we got home last night. Good thing that the kids are homeschooled and have a pretty lienent schedule! Not sure we would have stayed out so late last night otherwise....but it was such a great Sunday and such a blessing. God has shed a lot of light on things for us here and we just know that where we are at is where he has us for a reason. It is so cool how it has all come full circle for us! Okay well I suppose, I have to get a kid to volleyball practice! Until next time, have a wonderful week!

Cathi

Okay so again it has been awhile....

Gosh, golly gee! Where in the world does time go? I have some down time right now while the kids finish up lunch chores and then go outside for some "recess" time and then back in to finish up the "school" day! It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Life has been clicking right along and our children are adjusting BEAUTIFULLY!!!! I am always excited to see them get excited about things with school, but also frustrated when they don't "get" something that I think is so simple. That is where my patience comes in, patience that I lack so much! I am praying about it and hoping that God will show me it soon!!!! After much thoughts, praying and struggles with our church situation we have finally landed at a church we feel will grow and stretch us more as individuals and as a family unit. The children are in AWANA (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed 2 Timothy 2:15) at this church, this is a program that I have wanted my kids in for a long, long time. I had this as a kid and I found it to be a great program. Writing scripture on your heart and living it out in your daily life is very critical to the Christian walk. I see that holding true with my kids as we work daily on our memory verses. It is fun to see the excitement in their eyes when they have finally memorized a particular verse. We talk about the memory verse and as we really get going we are going to also take it a step further and figure out how we can "live it out" in our day to day lives. We are listening to the New Testament on CD everyday in our schooling and the kids are always excited to listen to someone else read scripture. I am amazed at the things taking place in our household. God is here and He is in the midst of each day! We still struggle and we still have our fighting moments but we are working through them daily. I am excited to see what He does with this family over the course of this school year! It is always something new daily.
This past weekend we had the opportunity to go camping with new friends. I can't even begin to describe our weekend with them. It was AMAZING how God has brought our families together! This is both our first year homeschooling our kids. They have 3 kids, we have 4. Their older two are the same age as Mikayla and Colby and their youngest is 2 years younger than Keara. Great Christians, and I know that there is a reason that God placed this family in our lives. Our kids got along and had such a blast together even though they have never been together before. Our husbands have LOTS in common and the cool part: they only live 4 miles from us. YEAH!!!! We had some bible time around the campfire Sunday morning and then a discussion and then prayer. What an awesome experience to be in the wide open and feeling God's presence. Our oldest daughter was a completely different person all weekend. She hung out with the adults, played games with the adults and had a totally different personality! I was in awe of this new person. She was the most wonderful, awesome, personable, engaging young lady. She played bean bags and crochet with the adults, hung around the campfire with the adults and yes she did even play with the kids. It was cool to watch her. Anyway....life is busy as usual! Volleyball is in full swing, voice lessons for Briana just started last week and she is loving them, AWANA is underway and the kids are loving that. Piano lessons are underway and I am enjoying them. I placed an ad this week for more students so we will see what the Lord does with that. I am not worried about it any longer. What He does is up to Him, I will follow His lead. If it is His will, I will get more students, if it is NOT His will, I will not get more. Either way....it is up to Him and I have to be okay with whatever He brings my way! For now.....that is all.....busy, busy, busy! But I wouldn't want it any other way.....

my goodness.....

it has been a few weeks since my last posting. Today's posting is going to be short but hopefully will be able to post later in the week with some pics from our AWESOME weekend. Life is plugging along in the Bottelberghe household. We are still trying to iron out tweeks in our schooling, but each day does seem to get easier. The kids are loving the relaxed schedule, with the exception of my youngest child, who is still adement that she is going to go to BIG SCHOOL!!!! Hopefully that will change soon, the other 3 have told me they DO NOT want to go back to school! YEAH!!! So anyway....even though this is SO HARD, I wouldn't trade it for the world, and while we have good days, really good days, bad days and REALLY BAD DAYS, I know that this is exactly where I am suppose to be! I started teaching piano lessons last week again. And until we get into the swing of that, money is VERY VERY VERY tight right now. We have been dipping into our savings to get by the last month and a half. Thankfully I have 4 students so that will help once that gets rolling on a regular basis. Every little bit helps. LifeLight was this weekend and it was a glorious time as usual! Love the fact that we can hear great music and also hear great messages of what God is doing and how He is working in people's lives! I have some good pics so I will be posting those soon. Today we have family coming over to help get the finishing touches on the shed that we are building so that we can finally have a garage back. This coming weekend, we are hopefully going to be able to go camping one last time this year with a family who live about 3 miles from us and also homeschool there children. God has placed this woman in my life for a reason and I am forever grateful for that. This is both our first year as a homeschoolers. Her two oldest boys are the same age as Mikayla and Colby and her daughter is a couple of years younger than Keara. We are excited to not only go camping but to also hang out with some new friends. Briana is getting into the swing of volleyball and is enjoying that! Doesn't miss the school but does miss her friends. She will start voice lessons this week and she is very excited for that to start. Her voice teacher is a homeschooled graduate and a college graduate with her music degree. I am excited for her also. Church activities get under way this week, and I am super excited for that to start, excited to see what God has in store for my kids this coming year! Not only for the younger 3 but for Briana also as she embarks into youth group! God is going to do some AMAZING things in this family over the next several months and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds!!! Anyway....better get off the computer! Have a wonderful Labor Day and God Bless each and every one of you!!!!

Cathi