Walking Therein

This page is in GREAT NEED of editing! Unfortunately, I just can’t do it right now!

Here is a bit of an update:

We are Torah Observant followers of the Messiah, Yahshua. Walking Therein reflects our Journey. We have been Believers for 21 years, and it is sometimes a bumpy road. I have a hard time blogging transparently, because I am actually a very private person. However, this is our Journey. It is what it is, and you are welcome to join along.

I wish I had time to write more posts dedicated to journaling our family times, but photo editing seems to get in my way. I am trying to remedy that! Instead I usually focus on encouraging others to live life walking in the narrow Way of Scriptures, presenting what we have learned in 15 years of home schooling, natural and home remedies, and occasionally sidetracking of contest and giveaway announcements.

We are looking for Yahshua, our Messiah, to return soon, and are devoted to Yahveh, the One True God, which you will see reflected in my posts.

Please feel free to comment and let me know you were here!

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This bio below is from 1-2009, but you are welcome to read. We are preparing to move to another home, and have sold our beloved animals and will soon leave our beloved home, starting our path to our Beloved Land. We do not know at this time, on Jan. 27, 2010, what path this will mean for us, but we are going home. Please join us as we walk, run and sometimes crawl this path, always looking to Scripture and listening for his voice to lead us.

SHALOM~

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I have been a Believer for 21 years and married for 21 years. My children from oldest to youngest are Miss Amanda, Miss Jocelyn, Miss Rachel, Sir Eric, Miss Hannah, Isaac, Caleb, and LucyLillie. We now also have our little Samuel, born Nov. 2009. With the exception of pre-school and kindergarten at the Church I worked at, we have always home schooled our children.

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

My passions are my faith in the Yahveh-God, my family, and home schooling. My husband and I train their children up in the Yahveh home schooling on a small homestead in Indiana, raising goats and chickens in our large almost 100-year-old barn. Many times of learning have been spent in the barn, building stalls, measuring out feed and birthing baby goats.
Living on our small farm has provided much-needed space and time to allow the him to work in our lives in ways we could not have asked for. Training responsibility through chores and gardening and a love of home through cooking and baking and caring for family and home are the short list of blessings.

Some of my interests include blogging, reading, home birth, homeopathic and natural remedies, gardening, canning, sewing, and reading Beatrix Potter to my Littles.

I am happy to be the owner and publisher of Training Sons to Be Men and Training Daughters, Teaching Wives.  I am also a founding member, and former columnist and Sr. Executive Editor for Growing in Grace Magazine (02/08-06/09). I am blessed beyond measure for the opportunity to use our publications in our home schooling and for spiritual growth. My position as Sr. Editor of GGM was a wonderful experience for our family to learn to run an online magazine, and we are grateful for that time.

Today, we also have a couple of other educational blogs, including our Bible Study blog, Studying the Word, and a history blog for home schoolers, States and Countries Exploration.

Gleaning the Harvest

We are blessed to be the founders of Gleaning the Harvest, a mission to the widows and fatherless in the admonition of James 1:27.

James 1:27
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

In searching Scripture, we find that God’s people are to take up for the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger. Deuteronomy 24 tells us

“19When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. 20When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. “

On Home Schooling
We are a homeschooling family and definitely fall into the Eclectic category. I love unit studies and also the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach. The Bible-First just clinches it for me. I am not able to sit down and use all of the HOW curriculum, but that is the beauty of this method: It uses other methods like Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, Child-directed and a few others. You will find us homeschooling in the barn, outside siding our house, researching our animals, finding how to care for the and mixing their feed… just about anything around here is a lesson. We love history. I am blessed to have children who love to read. And write. I say homeschooling is an adventure, and I don’t know how else to describe it. Really. It is an adventure for everyone, Mom included. It’s part of this adventure called life.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

Our Home Schooling Journey

I have wanted to be a wife and Mother for as long as I can remember. As a little girl, that was my dream. When I was in high school, I still thought that was what you did when you graduated: you got married and had a family. I was so disappointed when I went to live with my Dad my senior year of hs, and he told me I had to go to college. I just really wanted to get married and raise a family. Grades were easy enough, but the rest was a train wreck. Enough said. So, I spent a couple of years there, and eventually moved across the country to live with my Mom and Dad in NM, where I met my future husband. It was a few short months later, and my dream of being a wife and mother was now my life.

If you had told me then where my life would be today, it would have seemed unreal. God has given me even more than I ever expected. He has given me such a great responsibility, and I am so blessed to be the Mother of these Little Ones… and the not-so-little ones. My oldest is 20 this month, Oct. 2009. I cannot believe it has already been 15 years since we started this homeschool journey. I remember the decision to home school.It was a no-brainer to me, because I never intended to put my children under the care of someone who would take their faith away and replace it with the equivalent of mush. Home schooling was a natural step. I wasn’t home schooled, but I spent my childhood learning real life while I attended private and public schools. When I heard about homeschooling, I was already teaching the girls their Bible songs and stories, so we just added in little things like numbers, phonics and reading. It wasn’t a far stretch. It’s funny to realize that we were homeschooling Living Learning Moments way before I even knew there were different ‘methods’ of home schooling. I have always been blessed to have the support of Matt, my parents and my sister. We have always been so blessed to be able to home school.

Thus began our adventure in homeschooling. We originally used all textbooks and did what was prescribed by them, but I felt like I was teaching in a school setting, and when we had 3 children that no longer worked, so I started reading all I could on the different methods. I also studied the differences between the Greek method of education and the Hebrew method through the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, and decided following our Hebrew Roots and drawing closer to the Yahveh through daily instruction in his Scriptures was his plan for our lives.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING:

Marital Status: Married to Matt for 20 years

Children: 8. Read about them below.

Homeschooling: We have homeschooled since Amanda was 3, in 1993. I was pregnant with our third little girl when I went to my first homeschool convention. I used to describe myself as a ’seasoned homeschool mom’, but the seasons keep changing, so I quit using that.

Faith: I am a Believer in the Yahshua HaMashiach. I believe the Scriptures.

Pets: 10 goats: Heidi and Chloe and their kids, Bella, Eamane, Keci + 5 NEW BABIES: Pictures HERE; 2 dogs: Blondie and Pemberley; about 65 58 chickens(we lost some when we went on vacation!): Crooked Beak, Dr. Spot, Angel Wings, Dr. Spock, Henny Penny, Rainbow…

Reside: On Dixon Homestead in Indiana on 2 1/2 acres.

From: I was born here in Indiana, but lived in NM for about 8 years.

Favorite Beverage: Water with lime; Cranberry or orange iced tea; Coffee: Iced is best, unless it is cold outside.

Bible Verse: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time for the days are evil. So then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. “Ephesians 5:15-17

MY LIFE IN GENERAL:

My Husband, Matt: It seems like we have always been married, though I know 20 years is not that long really. He has been with me all along in this homeschooling adventure and has not wavered in this decision.

Amanda: She’s my 19yo, and a very best friend. She is very organized and a deep-thinker, which is reflected in her blog-posts. Our first home school graduate and quite a young lady.

Jocelyn: My country girl. 18. What can I say about her? She is simple, but not simple-minded, a self-starter and flexible daughter. God has given her so many talents, and she is bold as she stands up in them.

Rachel: My 15 year old and my 3rd daughter. She really enjoys reading, cooking, baking and sewing and is the sweetest to serve her dear mother tea in the late fall and winter evenings. I am enjoying getting to know her as she etches out a place all her own in our family, and becomes a dearest friend also.

Sir Eric: My soon-to-be a young man 12yo boy, who never gets worn out. He is my young man, my becoming-knight-in-shining-armour. He has the tenacity and hope I can only dream of, and yet still struggles to take out the trash each day.

Miss Hannah:My little mother. Nine years old and loves to play with babies and can entertain them for HOURS… You will find her helping her sisters and brothers chase  and milk goats and working barn chores. She loves to cook, but not to clean, and, while working on that, she is becoming a lovely little maiden.

Isaac: 5 years old, very smart and lovable. We call him our little Einstein. Of course, he replies in his sweet playful voice, “I’m Isaac, not Einstein.” He is quite the young man now, at this age, and is no longer a baby…

Cbug: THE 4 year-old. Still my little BabyBoy. Loves to laugh, loves to cry and get into just about anything!! Is the sweetest little granite-head I ever did know. He is a snuggler and knows the words to many hymns. He is also such an awesome young man and helper.

Loolie: The littlest sister and growing too fast, like they all do. She is terribly sweet and rarely makes a peep, except to laugh and giggle. She is totally in love with her Daddy and her siblings. We all love her equally as much!

Walking Therein

I started blogging in June 2005 to keep in touch with family long distance on MSN Spaces. After finding a home school blogging community, I moved and began blogging at Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths in April 2006. I carefully chose the name to reflect the journey God was re-starting in our lives and our homeschooling to draw us closer to Him. Blogging, to me, is an extension of myself. It rejuvenates me and ignites my passions for both family and home schooling. It has not just given me a voice to speak my beliefs, but also one to hear myself and remind me of the love I have always had for writing. ~Not to mention all the friends I have found.

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

In April of 2008, I was happy to get my own url and set up a new blog home, Walking Therein. Walking Therein reflects a move from “Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths” to “walking therein them”. Thank you for stopping by and reading Walking Therein. I hope you have been inspired and encouraged during your visit.

blessings~