Monkey Bread

I made it with my Mom. And now I make it with my grandkids. Monkey Bread!!

It was so sweet and delicious! We love the process and we love the eating too🙂

 

Dear Homeschooling Momma,

 Dear Homeschooling Momma,

They say, "The days are long, but the years are short."  That can be true sometimes in a homeschooling family, can't it?  As the kids are little you spend your time working with them hoping they will learn that "A says aaaa as in apple.  A says aaa aaa aaa."  Soon enough they learn their letters, numbers and even put them all together!  You go to bed exhausted physically and dream of an uninterrupted nap. Believe it or not,  I miss those days.

  I now have a middle schooler and two high schoolers.  There is a lot of talk about raising teenagers and don't even think about homeschooling them!  But, I want to encourage you...the years really are short, so enjoy those moments. But also know that the moments ahead can be some of the best!  Having teenagers is mentally exhausting, but incredibly rewarding, too.

 As I looked around my table this morning, while we worked on an Elections Unit, I realized that there really is hope for our next generation.  We often hear the negatives about Generation Z and Generation Alpha.  But, don't fall for that trap.  Just as our generation (and our parent's generation) wasn't entirely lazy and unmotivated, this new generation isn't either.  If we stop and listen and look them in the eye, we can realize that they are people with great ideas, interesting thoughts and are a joy to be around.

But to realize that you have to be:

~Willing to listen to them and their ideas.  Our adult minds can often want to interject all that could go wrong with their line of thinking.  But, sometimes they can think through a process out loud and come to a great conlusion on their own.

~Recognize they won't listen to us if we don't have their hearts.  We, as Mommas, work hard at many things.  We keep our home running smoothly (or try to), we do laundry and dishes.  We arrange car pooling and schedules, and lessons and sports.  We can work hard at doing all those things, but we often forget to work hard at winning our children's hearts.  You can speak sweetly.  You can listen to them, even if it's not your favorite topic.  You can do what they like to do.  It is possible!  But it does take work.

~Flexible.  As we sat around the table this morning discussing voting Democratic, Republican, Independent or any other party....my mind was trying to worry about how much time we were taking that wasn't supposed to be on politics!  I was thinking about dishes to be done, math needing to be completed, and outside chores.  But, I had to take a deep breath and recognize how much they were learning in this moment.  They were so interested in discussing that they want to make sure and find out their Dad's viewpoint during lunch!  They were intrigued and their minds were working....and I had to be flexible to allow that to happen.

~Remember that you won't always have a perfect schoolday.  (or maybe ever!)  We are always readjusting our schedule and our subjects to fit each kiddos needs.  And mine, too.  We will make mistakes right along with our kids.  Be willing to forgive, adjust, and move forward.

~Cherish the moment. The clock is ticking in the Gimenez Household.  My kids are growing up.  I am cherishing this time with them.  

The days can be long.  They can be tiring and exhausting.  But let me encourage you, the time you invest in your children really is worth it!

My helper

I love serving in the ministry.  And serving with my family is a true delight.  I've had my hubby and kids by my side as we've served our Lord together.  Blessed.  So blessed.

Now, I am enjoying serving with my grandchildren!  I am so proud of the lady that Liberty is becoming.  She has a quiet, cheerful meekness and wants to help me however she can.  

Recently, I needed to be behind the scenes and organize a meal for after a funeral.  Liberty was my helper.  She did so much!  Her Momma has been training her right!

Asa on the other hand may need a little more work. :o)  Although someone has to be the cookie tester, right?

 

New babies!

 Silas and Micah are so excited to start seeing her little rabbit hobby/ business takeoff!

We were so excited to see Charleigh start preparing her little nest for her babies!

She delivered five!

Miffy, on the other hand only had one baby. We are praying that being a singleton it will still make it.

They're an ugly sort of cute right now, but in a couple weeks they will be a cute kind of cute🙂

 

Goose Hunting and a new office

My sweetheart had a wonderful opportunity.  A friend of his wanted to take him goose hunting in New York with a Hunting Guide. 

He was very excited to go on this adventure!

Since he would be gone several days , I decided to surprise him by redoing his office. What a project!!

First we took everything out. And I mean everything!! The desk was so big we had to take off the door. 

I'm thankful for some strong boys!

All the books and office supplies took over our living room for a couple of days.

We shampooed carpets and hung new curtains. 

Then was the task of putting new desks together. 

They came in a million pieces!!

We enlisted Josh's help for this one. 

The finished project is one that made my husband have tears in his eyes. He is so thankful for a clean organized space. I'm so glad how well it turned out!

 

New Faces

Goats can be addicting. That's what I tell people when they are thinking about getting their first goat! 😉

We've been able to add 2 great goats to our little herd this past month and we love them! 

First up is Moby. I just couldn't pass this guy up. He's so friendly and cute, a high generation mini Nubian and comes with great milking genetics. I love him!

We also got his herd mate, Ophelia. When we bought Calliope a while back, we saw Ophelia. We told the owner that if they ever sell her, we are interested. We were excited when we got the message she was available. She's also a high generation mini Nubian. But I love her gold color with moon spots! That's my favorite part 🙂 She's super sweet and really rounds out our growing herd. 

Did I mention goats can be addicting?? 

 

We are safe!

 Thank you to those that prayed for our family as Hurricane Helene approached our area.

As the storm approached, it looked like it was going to be quite close to our area. It's always hard to know exactly what to do. We live in an older mobile home that isn't really rated for high winds. After watching the forecast, we all decided to head to my mother-in-law's since she has a sturdy brick home.

It made it even more comforting for this momma's heart to have all of her adult children evacuate there as well. It was nice to be all together.

We got there right after dinner time. At first it was a breezy evening and we all laughed and played and just spent some time together. It was really quite nice!

Then the wind picked up and the power went out. We put everyone to bed and tried to rest.

It got quite loud as we heard lots of wind and debris flying around. We were praying pretty hard!

But Helene was very fast moving. Whereas other storms seem to move very slow and stall and wreak a lot of havoc, Helene moved through very quickly. After a few hours it was done. And my husband grew very antsy. About 1:30 in the morning he said he had to go check on our home. So I jumped in the van with him and Josh to drive and look at our place. Looking back we realized it was way too windy for us to be out and about. As we drove to our house there were several trees down. They brought the chainsaw so they could cut our way home. Once we got closer to the house we had to pull the car over the side because they were trees blocking that we could not cut with our little chainsaw. We were thankful to take a quick look at our house and Joshua's house and see all standing and well. Praise the Lord!

After we saw that all was well, We jumped back in the car and went back to Denise's house. There we slept for a couple hours and as soon as the sun came up we went back home.

We have lots of debris and branches on the ground and a couple trees that fell but no damage to our home, our property, or animals, Praise the Lord! It's amazing!

Since we were without power for several days, and our church building as well, we had church in our yard.

 It was a very sweet service as we all came together to praise the Lord for protecting our families. 

Patrick preached a message about being thankful for protection and safety. But also remember to trust God even through the storm. Sometimes storms cause damage and loss of life. We don't pretend to understand at all. But we do choose to trust in God through the storms.

Clean up has begun and we've been trying our best to help our community as well. Our church has started a gas and gospel ministry and delivering trucks of free gas to areas still without power and with more destruction than we have. Our goal is to present the gospel. Praying for lots of fruit!