Indoor Recess

Below zero wind chills all day means indoor recess at school. Here is a sampling of the "fun."

Happy Birthday Zack

Then and now

Today Zack is 11. Time goes ridiculously fast. We did not celebrate too much this weekend. Since he was in a basketball tournament all weekend, we could not have his friend birthday party. We were able to go to one of our favorite restaraunts for dinner last night, and today I made chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and a cake, and we ate before Jerry left for work.
As I mentioned earlier, Zack had a basketball tournament this weekend and in all they ended up playing one game friday night, and three games Saturday. He was also able to play a lot in all the games since there were so many missing players due to illness, injuries, or academic restrictions (report cards came out Friday). He did pretty good in the games, creating a couple steals and a couple turnovers. He was proud and it is just what he needed for his self-esteem.
Speaking of report cards, I have to brag on my kids: Zack had four A's and Two B+'s (and the two B+'s were both 89%). C.J. got three A's, two B+'s, and a B! I'm so proud of them and I still think pulling Zack back to fourth grade was the right decision, regardless of his report card.
We are beginning to look into some testing for Zack for something called Scotopic Sensitivity Disorder. It is a vision disorder that would explain much as to why he cannot cut on a line, writes with all different sized letters, cannot cursive write or tie his shoes, why he did not ride his bike till he was 8.5 years old, why he cannot walk a stright line, and why he has so many small and gross motor issues. The correction for this issue is - color! I also think Jon has this as well since he also cannot read or write cursive, and continually complains of headaches when he reads. (And I just thought that was a copout and he was lazy). Testing costs $50.00 and I have a call in to the lady who does the testing. For now, I am just going to get Zack tested but, depending on the outcome,I may have Jon tested as well.

The End of His Year

For reaons I do not want to get into here but having nothing at all do to with his academic ability, Friday was Zack's last day in his fifth grade class. Tomorrow he will be in my room again as a fourth grader. Possibly next year if I home school him, I can catch him up again. But, for now, I am confident that this is the right decision. He took the camera to school on Friday and snapped some pictures of his classmates.

Ollie: aka Big Baby; the Sequel

Faithful is the Word of the Month!!

In the book of Job in the Bible, Job has to endure much hardship which includes the death of family and losing his livestock, animals, and property. Finally, he is striken with a terribly painful disease which makes him wish he were never born. All the while his "friends" were operating under the impression that suffering and hardship were a result of sin. Job is suffering = Job had sinned. They go to great lengths to get him to "confess his sins" - everything from kind encouragement to yelling at him and calling him a hypocrite. What they don't realize is that Job is blameless in the eyes of the Lord but that Job is being tested by Satan to gauge his faithfulness to God. Despite evrything, Job refuses to curse the LORD and remains faithful. He is rewarded with seven times as much as he had before. The point I am trying to make is that suffering is NOT a result of sin or a punishment. Sometimes bad things happen to good people for reasons we do not understand. When these things happen we can do one of two things: 1). We can turn away from God and curse Him or 2). we can remain faithful and obedient knowing that He has reasons that are beyond our understanding. Even through our heartbreak we can praise God because we know that he holds every tear we cry in His hand. Now, I must confess that I have lived a fortunate life so far. My true faithfullness in face of severe suffering has not had to be tested yet. But I am so thankful for those God put in my life as living examples to me. Namely my pastor who lost his 3 year old son this past summer in an accident, and my good friend, Shawnee, whose life now is extremely different than it was last year - or than she ever thought it would be! You see, last year she had a perfectly healthy 12 year old daughter who this past summer suffered sudden and severe brain damage after fighting brain swelling and lessions brought on by a simple childhood virus. Mikayla's prognosis is unknown since she is the only one who has survived a severe case of this illness. As of now, she remains in mainly a comatose state. The unending faith her parents have shown is amazing to me. As is understandable, they have had a variety of emotions from sadness to anger but throughout everything they remain committed to the LORD and expecting a miracle for their daughter... they will never stop believing that it can happen... and I will never stop praying for it. Whether healing is slow, one cell at a time, or sudden, we wait on God's timing with unending faithfulness!

More Christmas and 2009 Wrap-Up

A couple more photos from Christmas Day.

I took Zack swimming on New Years Eve day and he found two little boys to play with. They were visiting from New York. They even came over later in the evening to play.












































The drive home was uneventful and we pulled into our driveway at 3:45 Monday. Another great Florida Christmas with my family.

Christmas Lights

One of the great things about being in Florida for Christmas is the elaborate light displays that you can walk through - without freezing!!! This one was in Holly Hill.























This display in Palm Coast wasn't quite as magnificent as the one in Holly Hill but it was still nice to walk through.