Nolan and I went to the big centennial celebration at WT this past weekend. And so enjoyed catching up with several friends. It's amazing how you can jump right back in with people you haven't seen in a decade.
At the football game we sat with some friends who we've kept in better contact with, but haven't seen in almost a year. Somehow our conversation turned to running. Nolan was a runner in high school and can still run further/faster than I ever dreamed of. I have only tried running once in my life. After the birth of my third baby, I decided to try running to shed a few pounds. I was doing well - running fairly consistently for a couple months, when I began to get dizzy on my runs. For me dizziness is a sure sign of pregnancy.
Sure enough, the test came back positive, and the dizziness kept me from returning to running. After the birth of baby #4, I considered running again, but somehow I now associated running with getting pregnant - and you couldn't pay me to start back up. I seriously had issues!
A few weeks ago, I convinced myself to try again. But lacking motivation, it didn't last long. All that to say, our friends convinced us to run a 5K with them on Thanksgiving morning - so now I have the motivation. I seriously doubt that I'll be in race shape by Thanksgiving, but I guess I'll be closer than I would have been without the motivation. Tonight, training day two, I ran a full mile without stopping - and continued a walk/jog combo for almost 2 more miles.
**Let me add this disclaimer - when I say "run" it is relative. There are probably a lot of people who could walk faster than I run.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Neighborhood Kids
A few days ago I was talking to my mom on the phone, when like every mother of young children, I had to interrupt the phone conversation with several mini-conversations with the children in my care. This particular day, in addition to my own brood, the neighborhood kids were also playing in my yard.
Mom had been listening to me call out instructions to each of the kids and laughed again at something that has been funny to us for several years now...
"Jeremiah, take that dog home. He's scaring Benjamin."
pause....
Abraham, you are going to have to help your brother.
Caleb, can you and Isaac please make sure little Nehemiah doesn't get in the way.
Seriously, we have half the Old Testament represented on our block. Willow is the only one who doesn't evoke thoughts of camels and donkeys and old cities and deserts. But rest assured, she's got her place too - check out Isaiah, he says, "Children are a heritage from the Lord, like Willow trees planted by streams of water."
I wonder if I would fit in with the Old Testament mamas.
Mom had been listening to me call out instructions to each of the kids and laughed again at something that has been funny to us for several years now...
"Jeremiah, take that dog home. He's scaring Benjamin."
pause....
Abraham, you are going to have to help your brother.
Caleb, can you and Isaac please make sure little Nehemiah doesn't get in the way.
Seriously, we have half the Old Testament represented on our block. Willow is the only one who doesn't evoke thoughts of camels and donkeys and old cities and deserts. But rest assured, she's got her place too - check out Isaiah, he says, "Children are a heritage from the Lord, like Willow trees planted by streams of water."
I wonder if I would fit in with the Old Testament mamas.
Well Behaved Women
"Well behaved women seldom make history."
I first saw this quote on a bracelet that my mom was wearing. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. When I think of women who aren't behaving, history-makers aren't exactly what come to mind.
Fast-forward a year and I'm looking over a midwifery school website and lo and behold what do I see, "Well behaved women seldom make history" attributed to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize winner, Author: "A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary 1785-1812.
I am definitely okay with keeping company with these kinds of history makers!
I first saw this quote on a bracelet that my mom was wearing. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. When I think of women who aren't behaving, history-makers aren't exactly what come to mind.
Fast-forward a year and I'm looking over a midwifery school website and lo and behold what do I see, "Well behaved women seldom make history" attributed to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Pulitzer Prize winner, Author: "A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary 1785-1812.
I am definitely okay with keeping company with these kinds of history makers!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Busy, Busy, Busy
I really hesitate to talk about how busy I am because I think we often use busy-ness as an excuse. I can always find time that could be better used. In fact, this weekend in Sunday School in our discussion about the book, "How to Stop the Pain" we talked about how we use 20% of our time to produce 80% of our results. That means 80% of our time could be better spent.
And, that little rant was not even the point of this blog.
Actually we've been in a season of more activity than what I'd consider normal for our family. We started year two of Silvey homeschool in mid-August, and Nolan kicked Mpact (youth ministry) off for the fall semester around the same time. And we've been running since then.
We celebrated Isaac's 6th birthday at the end of August with a family party at my brother and sister-in-law's house, and then Nolan and I along with Caleb and Isaac went to Wonderland Park for the afternoon while Benjamin and Willow went to spend the day with Nana and Grandpa.
Mpact had it's 8th annual "Operation Reality" weekend retreat in September. It is always a lot of fun. If you are familiar with "Disciple Now" retreats it is essentially the same idea. College students with a group called Glowing Heart come to P-town for the weekend and lead small groups in Bible based discussions. More than 70 junior high and high school kids attended this year's retreat. They stayed at host homes in our community and were grouped by grade/gender. In addition to the Bible studies we made time for attending the football game Friday night, big group rec time Saturday morning, and a concert Saturday night. The college students went on and on about how much they enjoyed our students and how much potential they showed this year!
The Wednesday following Operation Reality was See You At The Pole - a student led prayer gathering around school flag poles before school. That evening all the community youth groups got together and blitzed the community with prayer. I was inspired to see 140-160 teenagers show up at the high school gym with no incentive (like free food or a concert) to be put into groups of 3-4 and given an area of town to go door-to-door to pray with people. It was the most moving thing I've been a part of in a long time! The testimonies they had when they returned an hour later were amazing. And the town is still buzzing about those "sweet kids" who came to pray with me! It was also good for our kids to see that even in small-town America there are people with real, material needs and people who want nothing to do with God - even if it means slamming doors in kids faces. Way to go teenagers - you truly made a difference!
The next week our church hosted Dr. Art Mathias of Wellspring Ministries out of Anchorage, Alaska for a four-day conference. His scripture based healing ministry is powerful. If you are in need of physical or emotional healing, I'd encourage you to check out his ministry and book, "Biblical Foundations of Freedom."
I also found time to finish up my midwifery course in mid-September and am trying to finalize my decision on which school to continue my studies through. This has been one of those times that I'd really like some real clear direction - like writing on the wall or something of that nature. But, no such luck, it seems like it's been more of a waiting game.
I'm also continuing my midwifery apprenticeship and have had the pleasure of working with Rebekah Dorsey, CPM, LM for the past several months learning how to do prenatal appointments. I'm looking forward to attending my first home births as her apprentice in November when we have three mamas due - and many more in the months after that.
Home school is keeping us on our toes this semester. We had quite an adjustment this year as Willow isn't napping through school anymore. That means Willow and Benjamin need a little more attention and our school schedule had to change a bit to fit those needs. What we figured out was that Caleb and Isaac have several things that they can do with minimal input from me - such as handwriting and spelling words - that they do while I keep track of B&W. We save the more teaching intensive stuff for the afternoon while the little ones are asleep. We've had to give up some of our afternoon activities, but we know it is just for a season. We also started a new curriculum this semester - Sonlight. And, I am very pleased with it. One thing that I've really enjoyed about home schooling is being so involved with what my kids are learning. It's amazing how often things come up in coversation and/or activities outside of our "scheduled school time" that allow for reinforcement of what we learned about in school. I love it.
Caleb and Isaac are also playing fall sports through our local activity center. Isaac is in soccer, and Caleb is in flag football. That means practice two days a week and games in the morning and afternoon on Saturdays. It's been a lot of fun, but I, for one, am glad the season is just four weeks long! Caleb and Isaac probably feel differently, as they have had so much fun! I'll just remind them that basketball season is just around the corner.
Well there's the update for the past few weeks in the Silvey household. I hope all is well with each of you!
And, that little rant was not even the point of this blog.
Actually we've been in a season of more activity than what I'd consider normal for our family. We started year two of Silvey homeschool in mid-August, and Nolan kicked Mpact (youth ministry) off for the fall semester around the same time. And we've been running since then.
We celebrated Isaac's 6th birthday at the end of August with a family party at my brother and sister-in-law's house, and then Nolan and I along with Caleb and Isaac went to Wonderland Park for the afternoon while Benjamin and Willow went to spend the day with Nana and Grandpa.
Mpact had it's 8th annual "Operation Reality" weekend retreat in September. It is always a lot of fun. If you are familiar with "Disciple Now" retreats it is essentially the same idea. College students with a group called Glowing Heart come to P-town for the weekend and lead small groups in Bible based discussions. More than 70 junior high and high school kids attended this year's retreat. They stayed at host homes in our community and were grouped by grade/gender. In addition to the Bible studies we made time for attending the football game Friday night, big group rec time Saturday morning, and a concert Saturday night. The college students went on and on about how much they enjoyed our students and how much potential they showed this year!
The Wednesday following Operation Reality was See You At The Pole - a student led prayer gathering around school flag poles before school. That evening all the community youth groups got together and blitzed the community with prayer. I was inspired to see 140-160 teenagers show up at the high school gym with no incentive (like free food or a concert) to be put into groups of 3-4 and given an area of town to go door-to-door to pray with people. It was the most moving thing I've been a part of in a long time! The testimonies they had when they returned an hour later were amazing. And the town is still buzzing about those "sweet kids" who came to pray with me! It was also good for our kids to see that even in small-town America there are people with real, material needs and people who want nothing to do with God - even if it means slamming doors in kids faces. Way to go teenagers - you truly made a difference!
The next week our church hosted Dr. Art Mathias of Wellspring Ministries out of Anchorage, Alaska for a four-day conference. His scripture based healing ministry is powerful. If you are in need of physical or emotional healing, I'd encourage you to check out his ministry and book, "Biblical Foundations of Freedom."
I also found time to finish up my midwifery course in mid-September and am trying to finalize my decision on which school to continue my studies through. This has been one of those times that I'd really like some real clear direction - like writing on the wall or something of that nature. But, no such luck, it seems like it's been more of a waiting game.
I'm also continuing my midwifery apprenticeship and have had the pleasure of working with Rebekah Dorsey, CPM, LM for the past several months learning how to do prenatal appointments. I'm looking forward to attending my first home births as her apprentice in November when we have three mamas due - and many more in the months after that.
Home school is keeping us on our toes this semester. We had quite an adjustment this year as Willow isn't napping through school anymore. That means Willow and Benjamin need a little more attention and our school schedule had to change a bit to fit those needs. What we figured out was that Caleb and Isaac have several things that they can do with minimal input from me - such as handwriting and spelling words - that they do while I keep track of B&W. We save the more teaching intensive stuff for the afternoon while the little ones are asleep. We've had to give up some of our afternoon activities, but we know it is just for a season. We also started a new curriculum this semester - Sonlight. And, I am very pleased with it. One thing that I've really enjoyed about home schooling is being so involved with what my kids are learning. It's amazing how often things come up in coversation and/or activities outside of our "scheduled school time" that allow for reinforcement of what we learned about in school. I love it.
Caleb and Isaac are also playing fall sports through our local activity center. Isaac is in soccer, and Caleb is in flag football. That means practice two days a week and games in the morning and afternoon on Saturdays. It's been a lot of fun, but I, for one, am glad the season is just four weeks long! Caleb and Isaac probably feel differently, as they have had so much fun! I'll just remind them that basketball season is just around the corner.
Well there's the update for the past few weeks in the Silvey household. I hope all is well with each of you!
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