Monday, March 31, 2008

Easter Photos

Here's a picture of Evy at Easter... more to come. :)




Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Little known facts about Easter

as we were driving to church on Easter Sunday, Gideon decided to tell Zachary some of the story of Easter. when he got to the part about Jesus being crucified between the 2 thieves, he said, "and when they put Jesus on the cross, they put 2 Roberts on crosses next to him. That way, if he tried to escape, they would get down & stop him." Chloe concluded the story with the resurrection. Explaining how the ladies found the tomb empty, she said, "And the women went hunting for Jesus but couldn't find him. And Jesus represents the eggs, and that's why we go hunting for eggs on Easter!" :)

Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a happy Easter. :)

Instead of dying eggs, i spend 6 hours on Saturday, dipping 300 strawberries in chocolate for the church service on sunday. But they tasted way better than eggs would have. :)

After church on Sunday, we drove up to my Mother-in-law's house, where we met the family for Easter festivities. We enjoyed having an easter egg hunt & a fun diner w/everyone. :)

Got some cute pictures. hope to have them up soon.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Lindsey

Had some fun with my friend's daughter a couple weeks back. Thought i'd share some of the photos. :)



Tuesday, March 18, 2008

a happy birthday, and other things

what a crazy busy month we've had! sorry i haven't been posting much. i've started several posts, but never had the opportunity to finish them. Last Thrs. was Chris' birthday. He worked part of the morning & then took us to Diseneyland w/some friends. Came home late that night. lots of fun, but tiring. Sunday evening, we left right after chruch, for a track day. we brought our same friends with us and enjoyed a nice mini-trip with each other. here's a photo of chris:

Mom's been in town for the last few weeks. My grandma was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. The doctor doesn't expect her to live more than a year. But Grandma's praying that God will heal her. Mom canceled her flight home last Monday to stay an extra week with Grandma.

In addition to all that, we've had a few very fun game nights; lot's of VERY late night talks with our new friends; lots of prayer and seeking God for his call on our life; and lots of time serving at church (those of you who know us well, understand what a miracle that is, in itself!).

I could probably write a novel just about what's been going on with us in the last month, but that's a very brief summary in a VERY small nutshell. feel free to call or email if you'd like more details. :)

Monday, March 10, 2008

more on the homeschool ruling

For those of you who are interested in all the the homeschool hubbub here in CA, I thought i'd give you a little more info.

On a personal level, after a few days of panic, we haven't changed anything we're doing.
We're members of a few different homeschool groups ranging from our local city group, to the national Home School Legal Defense Association. The HSLDA is basically our lawyer, should we need one for any reason. Before this time, California has been very homeschool friendly. it was one of only 12 states that have NO homeschool laws in place ... which meant that we were free to teach how we wanted. All we have to do is register as a private school, & follow the same guidelines that any other school has to follow (attendance and vaccine records, etc). So it's been pretty simple. So far, nothing has changed for us. We've recieved several emails from all our different groups. Here are some clips from one of the latest - including a statement made by the governator:

***** ***** ***** *****
Current Situation
Nothing has changed in California regarding your homeschool.
HSLDA maintains that the advice they have given home school families for some twenty-five years is still accurate and that filing a private school affidavit, or enrolling in a private school independent study program (I.S.P) are valid options under the law in California....

***** ***** ***** *****
Governor’s office press release Friday, March 7, 2008
Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement Regarding Court of Appeals Home Schooling Ruling
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the recent Second District Court of Appeals ruling on home schooling:

"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what’s best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will.”
***** ***** ***** *****
Background
This ruling resulted from a Juvenile Court case on allegations of abuse or neglect, which originally had nothing to do with homeschooling. When the Juvenile Court judge would not prohibit the parents from home schooling their children, the court-appointed attorneys for the children went to the California Court of Appeals. The Appellate Court went further than they needed to, and essentially ruled that State law does not provide any options that allow parents to teach their own children at home.

Future court action on this Appellate Court ruling cannot occur until after March 29th. This ruling is a very serious matter but not a cause for panic. There are legal options still open to pursue in the Courts. HSLDA is working to overturn this decision in the courts. In other words, this Appellate Court ruling is not the final say.

It is important to realize that no laws have changed that affect private schools whether in one’s home or on a campus. California is still one of twelve states where homeschoolers can operate legally under the private school provision. See our
Legal Fact Sheet. The Court does not have the power to change the law but only to interpret it, and this court has made critical errors in their interpretation of private school laws as they apply to private home education.

No court has the authority to universally order every homeschooler into a public or private campus school. ......
***** ***** ***** *****
What can homeschoolers do right now to help?
(1) This court's ruling could provoke well-meaning individuals to seek a legislative remedy. Legislation at this time would be detrimental to our current freedom to home school privately in California . If you become aware through first hand knowledge of any such attempt to have a legislator introduce legislation addressing or dealing with home schooling,
please contact us at contat@pheofca.org immediately!

(2) Please encourage your home schooling friends to
join HSLDA now for two reasons! (a) Membership in and contributions to HSLDA will help provide the financial resources needed to carry on this complex and lengthy court process for judicial relief from this current ruling. This will benefit all homeschoolers. (b) HSLDA membership will protect your family should you be contacted as a result of this Appellate Court ruling. This will also give you the piece of mind that, whenever you might need it, you have immediate support from the only experienced highly successful team of attorneys specialized in defending private home schoolers in California and our Nation.

(3) In all situations, it is the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our refuge, provider, and protector (Psalm 50:10-15). He is sovereign over all. Our Lord reigns! We are asking that you pray daily and also consider some kind of periodic fasting during this protracted battle that is shaping up. Pray for:
* those in authority, especially the judges involved in this case,
* the Long family involved in this case,
every fellow private homeschooling family
* HSLDA as they prepare to not only handle this situation but as they respond to all future legal contacts,
* for us here at Family Protection Ministries that God would sustain us and that we will be able to intercept every legislative proposal that could further erode our freedoms,
* CHEA and every other home school organization in California , and
* all other individuals and groups supporting this effort to defend home education.

(4) Continue on with a peaceful heart in your homeschooling and family life
********

also, for those of you who think that online petitions are useless (Glenna ;~) ) . I don't really know, since I'm not a lawyer, but i'm told that if you give all the important information, they they hold up. The one that i asked you to sign is put out by the HSLDA... they're experts in the law, so I figure they would know, & they wouldn't ask us to do something that would be useless.
Thanks to all of you who signed! :)

And, i thought you might like to know that I just checked the petition site, & it now has 184,500 signatures!

Friday, March 07, 2008

News Flash...please pray!

When I went to the homeschool convention last year, my eyes were opened to the battle that was fought for our freedom to homeschool. Just like people died and suffered and fought for my rights to be free as an American, people before me have fought and been imprisoned for their rights to homeschool. And i am able to glide with ease, through my homeschooling process because of those people who fought before me.

Well, just last week, a homeschooling family was challenged in our state, and a judge basically ruled that homeschooling is illegal. Needless to say, this ruling has HUGE consequences in regards to education in the state of California. One article I read estimated 166,000 California students who are home schooled! If that many people want to choose homeschooling as an option for their children's education, you would think that a government "of the people, by the people an for the people" would allow their people to do it legally!!!

anyway.. I could rant and rave about the government and the school system, but I don't think there's any need. this is a big deal for our family, since we have, thus far, chosen homeschooling as the best option for our kids' education. It would be very sad to be forced to do something that we don't consider to be the best option for our family.

I'm not usually a political activist, but this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. So...whatever state you are in, if you homeschool, and would like to keep that right; or if you don't, but think that children belong to the parents, not to the state, and that parents should be allowed to choose what's best for their children; you can go here to sign the petition to keep homeschooling legal. It only takes a couple minutes to type your name and give a voice to The People.

Monday, March 03, 2008

okay, okay...

alright...for those of you who are anxiously waiting to hear what God's been working in our hearts, this post is for you. :)

it's a very long complicated story that probably wouldn't make any sense if I tried to type it out, so i'm just going to summarize. Most of you know that when Chris & i were first married, we were planning to go into missions. But after Chris didn't get into med school, we stopped pursuing that life-path. Through the years, I've gone through being sad, to annoyed, to bitter, to content; and Chris has gone through his own stuff.

anyway, after a series of maturing events in our lives recently, we met a young couple at the end of January. They're here in the U.S. until mid to late March, when they plan to join his parents in England as missionaries. After our first meeting together, I walked away feeling like God had taken me by the shoulders and turned me from the direction I was heading, and said, "stop being content and start praying." so i did. I've been praying for God's calling and purposes in our lives. and for breakthrough, & for us to hear clear direction from him. And the more time we spend with these friends, and in prayer, seeking Him, the more we're feeling a greater call to move. (not like move from our house but move in his calling). we don't really know what that looks like, or what it means, yet, but we're excited and expecting!! Personally, I think God is calling & preparing us for missions... but we'll see.

So...that's kind of vague, because it's hard to explain heart things in writing. but whatever it is, it's huge, and i'm really excited. :)

pictures

Zachy & Evy asked to pose for some pictures the other night. so fun! :)