So I admit, I got a bit bored of keeping up with the blog. Also, life is MUCH busier now, and it is difficult for me to complete a post in one sitting; if it doesn't get completed in one sitting, I end up throwing it out altogether. You can imagine that would make for a lot of wasted time, so I partly decided the blog was...well, wasting my time. And is anyone reading this, anyway?
But then I reminded myself that my blog is not entirely for keeping people updated on our family; it is as the name of the blog reads: Chronicles. This is an opportunity for me to record the serious and fun facts of our little family, so I can read them later and reminisce with tears in my eyes. ;)
So let's get to it. What's new?
1. Lara goes to a class at our church every Wednesday night called "WOW" (Worship on Wednesdays). They provide dinner, worship time, crafts, lesson, and game time. Lara loves it and does very well in her class. She listens well and is making new friends (this I observed when filling in as a substitute helper).
2. The girls and I also participate in MOPS, and have been making friends. The girls do lesson, music, crafts, and snacks, and really like going. Us moms do various activities-a few days ago, we had the opportunity to hear Kendra Smiley speak on Strong-willed children.
3. Halloween was just this week. Lara was none other than her usual alter-ego: a fairy princess (this time we shook it up a little and she was a RAINBOW fairy princess). Claire was Snow White, wearing the dress Grandma made a couple of years ago. We did a few Halloween activities. We went trick-or-treating at the mall, went to an Autumn Festival at Homer Lake, and the traditional trick-or-treating on Halloween night (then went to my parents' house the following night to show off costumes again). Girls had lots of fun. Beg for candy all the time now.
4. Dustin continues working at St. Farm in Blm (3 nights a week: W, R, and F), as well as getting the bee business up and going. Nothing really different there.
5. Lara continues doing physical therapy each week in Champaign. She really likes her therapist. She is still taking her baclofen medication, which proves to be effective with no side effects. She has new braces coming in this week.
6. We are still working on potty-training Claire. I thought we pretty much had it done, but she goes through phases in which she just does not pay attention.
7. We are continuing to love, love, love our country home. It was especially gorgeous out here with the autumn colors, and the fallen leaves on our driveway. Everything is going very well. We've had a few bumps, an explosion, and some unfinished projects still to complete, but it is a great place for the four of us. We just love it. We've had a couple housewarming parties to show off the amazing transformation of this old house.
8. Speaking of which, Lara turned 5!!! We had two parties for her (to minimize the chaos of having too many people in the house). The first was with our immediate families. We had a dinner of sandwiches, vegetables & dip, chips, and cake. The second party was a combined housewarming party/birthday party for friends. We had friends from our previous church, current church, old neighbors, new non-church friends (one of the friends Lara made at "WOW" and insisted we invite, but despite that I barely knew the mother, they came). We took hayrides and had fun hanging out. And now we have a daughter who is 5. I can't believe it. Lara is so beautiful and smart. She is truly beyond her years, compassionate, compliant, and sweeeeeet. She is an amazing blessing to us.
9. We are homeschooling now. I'll talk more about that in another post. I'm afraid to admit that we have had little school over the last couple of weeks due to busy-ness, but we'll start picking it up here again soon.
So that is us, for now, in a nutshell. We have been attending a Church of Christ in St.Joe, but we have a lot of doubts about it now, and have had discussions on whether to stay. A major component for us in the beginning was to really feel connected in the community of the church we are attending. While we are feeling that to some extent at SJCOC, I think my perspective on this church was muddled by my need to make new friends in the area. I have been making new friends, and now I am analyzing some other, more important, issues. I realize that I will find issues with any church I attend. But, ultimately, when I go to church, I need to know that this place is really, truly a place of communal worship per Biblical scripture. And I am NOT saying that SJCOC is NOT this place, but there has to be a deeper meaning to church life than programs, events, modern songs, media clips, Sunday School classes, feel-good sermons, hierarchy of leaders, newsletters, etc., and I am searching for that in this place. Christ wanted it simple. Just worship together, eat a meal, disciple each other, and do it a lot. Most American churches are a-biblical...meaning that there is nothing in the Bible to deal with the type of church organization we have set up today (pls note am not saying unbiblical). And that is a very confusing road for Christians to travel. But it is the norm, so everybody does it. I'm saying that I am ready to erase all this stuff from my slate, look at the Bible, and go from there. If this is true, what I am doing at SJCOC? Am I getting sucked into normal, a-Biblical church?
That is what is on my mind today, so you read it. ;) Now, internet is really slow out here in Illini country, so you will see a lot less pictures than normal until that is rectified. But I will close out with this one:
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