To Save a Life

Last night I went to see the Movie "To Save a Life". Basically, it was the tell-tale story of a popular boy and an unpopular boy who were friends "once upon a time." When disaster strikes, the popular boy is left with a lot of questions of how he could have lived his life differently and begins to make strives to make a difference in the lives of others. All this week, I have been studying the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). I have spent each day reading the passage and then picking a person to reflect upon. My first day was on the robbers, second on the priest, third on the Levite then today, I thought I would focus on the Samaritan but something stopped me. After seeing the movie last night, it struck me this morning to question myself to see why I hadn't started with the guy that was robbed and left for dead. I don't know why I didn't, but it bothered me. I went to pull out our commentary to see what ol' Vernon McGee had to say about the traveler. He said that the traveler represented humanity. Humanity that found itself helpless, hopeless, and unable to save itself. Ultimately, the world today is like the man that fell among thieves and needs our help. The world needs Christ. A real, genuine Christ not a lofty, judgemental, harsh religion. If you look further, you see what the Samaritan did, he cleaned his wounds, he carried him on his donkey to the nearest town, paid for his room, found someone to care for him until his return. I am sorry, but that was way more than handing someone a track, telling a person down on their luck they need "Jesus", or inviting someone to church. It was involved, it was time-consuming, it was costly. Our Sunday School lessons for the past 6 weeks has been focusing on the greatest commandment "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind AND, Love your neighbor as yourself." I think we have to stop and ask ourselves a few questions:
1) Who are our "neighbors"?
2) Who am I best represented by in this parable: the traveler,
the robbers, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritian?
3) What/if anything, am I going to do about it?

A New Year

Well, this crazy blog has made my break one of the few resolutions I made this year. I said I wouldn't go longer than a couple of days before posting and here it has been days and days. Sorry. However, I guess if this is the worst thing I do all year, I will be doing okay. Anyway, I am sitting in the parking lot at Owen's gymnastics place on my laptop in the car. If I can park close enough, I don't have to actually go in. Normally, I leave and run errands but his gym has called the dreaded "parent's meeting" to discuss how the meet season is going and the plans for the rest of the year.
January has been very busy so far. Ryan has gone back to tax season, Upward's has begun, meets are in full swing, Alexa's birthday, our anniversary, are just a few things we have been up to. Alexa's birthday was a great success "the best she has had in years" according to her. We let her have 3 other friends over for the night. We had a great time; we went to the movies, made pizza, made bracelets, had cake, opened presents. We gave her a guitar along with guitar lessons. She has had two lessons so far and has loved every minute of it. Her guitar teacher asked who she wanted to play like and of course, she responded "Elvis Presley" she said he sort of looked at her funny so she said "Taylor Swift". She left a little concerned that her guitar teacher may not know who Elvis Presley was. I have assured her that he did - he just wasn't expecting her to say that. In the meantime, she has been working on her lip curl! :)

Back to School

I had said awhile back that I was not going to use this blog as a whining forum. However, I have decided to make today an exception. First of all let me say, I love my life. I love my kids. I would not trade our experience for anyone else's and (most of the time) I love homeschooling. We actually took a break over Christmas. I mean a true, the school room could be full of spiders, break. It was just time. We break over summer but usually still have several projects and math looming over us. We do "mini-projects" or finish books that we had started during the school year. My kids have done "summer school" for most of their lives. This year (2009) has been draining. I cannot exactly put my finger on why - it could be the pressure of homeschooling a junior, it could be the pressure of the outside activities, it could be the pressure of finishing up getting that last one to read well, maybe I have just grown weary or lazy. Anyway, I decided to break over Christmas. I told the kids this and they gave me a "yeah right" look and waited for the famous "well, we are going to break everything but ...". It has been three glorious weeks. We played games, we ate dinner together, we watched movies, I read pleasure books, we got together with family and friends. It was a lovely time. I guess it was too lovely because now I REALLY don't want to start school tomorrow. In all of that fun, I really did nothing - no planning, no plotting, my calendar even still says December and I don't care! I should be in there moving it around, filling out their charts but instead I am blogging my whine. I knew that tomorrow would come and like I told my kids before bed "We just have to put on our big kid panties and deal with it!" And I will - tomorrow morning! I am going to go to bed praying for a better attitude. It will be great once we get going... but I can tell, it is going to be a painful start!

A New Year

I decided for a new year, I wanted a new look for my blog. Last night (or rather this morning) we were thinking back to our favorite things from 2009. I decided I would share some of them.

January - Alexa turned 8 - she had a princess tea party. She was not feeling well - it was a tough day. We went skiing for the very first time with our friends the Carrows and Huffmans. It was a lot of fun - Owen nearly gave me a heart attack on the slopes.

February - Just an ordinary month - Upward was still going on and Owen had tons of gymnastic meets. We endured February.

March - Owen turned 12. He had a couple of friends over to celebrate. We were pressed to get it in around Upward, gymnastics and Ryan's work schedule.

April - Owen made it to Regionals in gymnastics. Owen and I flew to Miami for him to compete. He came in 12th overall. Driving all over Miami in a rental car was an experience I will never forget. Tax season ended. We normally go on a trip but skiing counted as our trip - we just went before tax season started rather than when it ended. We decided we liked it better at the end.

May - Emily went to her first prom. She went with a couple of girl friends and had a great time. We finished our second year of Tapestry of Grace. We went on an impromptu trip to Williamsburg with friends. It was a great time. We hadn't been there for years. We did something different for the homeschool conference this year. I went with a few girl friends and stayed one night. I came home early and Ryan and I went camping. It was a lot of fun and made us feel 20 again.

June - Alexa, Ian and myself participated in VBS while Ryan, Emily and Owen did TaeKwonDo's sports camp. I taught the 5 year olds. Alexa and Ian didn't remember ever participating in VBS. It was a lot of fun and felt good to be back.

July - Alexa went to day camp at New Life Camp for the very first time. She went with two of her good friends. They had a great time. Ian had "Camp Fun Nemitz" at our house with friends. It was a lot of fun as well. However, now he is thinking we need to do that every year instead of him going to camp! Ryan, Emily and Owen went to Texas with Taekwondo on a missions trip. This was Owen's first missions trip. He did very well.

August - We went to Topsail Island for the week. It was a great time of relaxation with family and friends. School started back and there went August.

September - Emily turned 16. We had a big bash and then Emily, Ryan and myself went to New York. It was incredible. I don't think I would want to live there permanately but I don't think I would ever tire of visiting. We went to see Wicked. It was awesome. I never got to read a book in Central Park - that is on the list for next time. Ian turned 7. He had a Scooby Doo party. I am still in shock that he is a legal homeschooler - where did the time go?

October - I became an aunt for the 3rd time. I love it - I try very hard to be a good aunt. AnchorSoul was back at our church. This is one of Emily's all time favorite activities. She and Ryan did Sr. Anchorsoul and Alexa and I did Jr Anchorsoul.

November - came and went in a flash. Owen's meets started back up and Upward practice began again.

December - Ryan and I started December off with a mini-vacation. We went to Pilot Knob and stayed at a bed and breakfast there for two nights. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done which took a lot of pressure off of me. It was wonderful and I hope will become an annual event. My dad and Emily were in charge of the kids. It was nice knowing they were home. We celebrated a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends.

Looking back over our year of highlights we can see how truly blessed we are.

A Baby Changes Everything

This is one of my favorite new Christmas songs. Last Sunday our church had it Christmas musical/drama. The very last scene was Mary and Joseph in the stable cuddling and loving on Jesus. The "Mary" was a dear friend of ours, a girl that has just completed her first year of college. She was holding that baby so tender and the "Joseph" was lovingly stroking the baby and gazing into Mary's eyes. (They are very good actors.) "Mary's" older sister has recently gotten engaged and as they were singing, my mind went back to when we had all first met. Suddenly, as I was having heart-palpitations that this "Mary" really could, in fact, be a mother. My mind instantly heard the Faith Hill song "A Baby Changes Everything." Ryan and I were young (by today's standard) when Emily was born. Clueless does not even begin to say how we felt. We were far from home, didn't know anyone with kids, all our friends were as clueless as we were. I had read every volume/magazine available on child-rearing. I didn't want to get this wrong. Imagine the pressure Mary felt. She was a very young girl, had a confused husband (who wouldn't be), had to leave home, couldn't even find a place to rest yet she was called to be the mother of the babe that would change the world forever. I cannot begin to imagine the feelings of doubt and inadequacies she must have felt. How in the world could you mother a sinless baby when our own sins are so great? Luckily for us, Joseph and Mary stepped up the the plate and completed the task they were called to do. "My whole life was turned around I was lost but now I'm found A Baby changes everything." Amen, sister!

Christmas Cards

I got our very first Christmas card in the mail today. I didn't have the "normal" response - I cried. Then, I felt foolish and decided to get to the bottom of the matter. I didn't cry because I didn't like the person (I do very much), I didn't cry because it wasn't a nice card, it wasn't because I stayed up too late working on co-op/teacher gifts, it wasn't because my house is a wreck, it wasn't because my bathroom is so crowded by dirty clothes that you cannot see the floor. I cried because I have been slowly coming to the realization that I am not sending Christmas cards this year. In 1999 a friend of ours (an artist friend) sent out cards drawn by her kids. I was captivated. So, from 1999 - 2008 that is what we did. All of my kids (from birth on) has some sort of representation on the card. Last year, however, the card took a different turn. You see, we are not artists. My older two did not wish to have their artwork on display for all the world to see. So, my younger two did the drawing and my older two did the pennmenship. It just wasn't the same. In fact, we were even told that their decision was selfish and vain for with holding the joy our Christmas card brought. Well, I disagree.

I have wrestled with this the past few weeks and have not gotten a solution until today. Some years, we have done the card, the letter AND the picture (I know I am an over-acheiver). My motto is if you can't do something well (or the way I want it done) don't do it at all. So, for this year, this is where our Christmas card is falling.

Last night, while working on my stuff for co-op, I had to go into the "December" folder. There in a separate file were all of our cards - 1999 - 2008. I sat and marveled at each one and thought about how that card came to be. The reason I cried, I realize, is because it is the end of an era. We had a decade long run of our beloved Christmas cards. The kids used to joke that I was going to make them come home from college in time to work on our Christmas card. Yet, in a blink, that time has come.

So, Merry Christmas from the Nemitz Family.

Thanksgiving

Wow, it is been a while since I have posted. I almost couldn't remember my password. I have had a few posts come to me but I never got them transferred from my mind to the blog. I was lying in bed this morning considering the reasons I haven't "shared" in so long. The truth of the matter is I am not a very good "sharer." I never have been. I have noticed in the past few weeks - the more hectic my schedule become, the more out of control my life gets, the more I retreat. By nature, I am a wall builder. Luckily for me, Ryan has become an expert on noticing my building habits. It is not on purpose or intentional but I begin to hold everyone at arm's length. Everyone - especially the people I care most about. So, this is my apology and my acknowledgement that I am working on it! :) I decided in light of my discovery, I would share some of the things I am thankful for. This list is random and the order does not necessarily reflect the level of thankfulness.
I am thankful for:
* A Savior that can see all the way through me and still loves me enough to save me and have a relationship with me and always forgives me - no matter what.
* A most wonderful, handsome, hardworking husband that loves me and all my faults.
* A lovely, kind, responsible oldest daughter who shows the love of Christ through her thoughts, words, and actions.
* An incredible, handsome, athletic, strong-willed son that has a quick wit and a gentle, loving heart both for Christ and others around him.
* Another wonderful, funny, peculiar, beautiful, sensitive daughter who loves life to the fullest.
* Another quiet, handsome, sweet, gentle son with a heart full of love for those around him.
* I am also most thankful for my extended family. I still have 3 grandmothers and 1 grandfather living and very much a part of our lives. I have a father who lives next door and adores my children as much as they adore him.
* I am thankful for my parents (my mother and step-father), brother, sister, and their families. That we can rely on one another and enjoy one another company.
* I have some of the most awesome friends - ever.
* I am thankful for my house - it is truly a gift and a blessing.
I could go on and on and on. It is not hard to feel a since of awe once you start naming all the things you are thankful for. All of the "thanksgivings" are really blessings bestowed upon us. So, even though sometimes I don't acknowledge those blessings quite as I should - I am forever grateful they are there. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Against the flow

I think I should have been born a salmon. Truth be told, I have never been a very good "go with the flow" kind of girl. There have been various times in my life when I have tried, tried and tried harder. However, as I have gotten older, I have discovered that questioning things is my natural bent. Last week I had to take Owen to the doctor for a check up. This is the doctor Owen has been seeing for 10 years. When we got there, the lady spoke over me and handed Owen a 5 page form to fill out and said "Only you" fill out this form. Okay, that was a little odd. Then, we get to the doctor's office waiting room and she tells me I can wait in the hall during the appointment. Uh, excuse me? "Well, (she says - placing her hand on my arm)that is how we do it when they turn 12. They may have "private" matters they would like to discuss with "their" doctor that they wouldn't feel comfortable with a parent in the room." Yeah, right. That lady didn't know who she was talking to - my fight or flight response kicked in overtime! Let's just say I am sure I have a really big, really long note in my folder. It was so bad I think we are going to have to change doctors. You know, the crazy thing is, that doctor had the gall to praise my efforts. He went on and on about how flexible, how well spoken, how polite, what healthy habits he had but in the same breath tell me that I needed to "do it like everybody else." On the way home, it hit me like a ton of bricks - you CAN'T have it both ways. As a homeschooler, I realize I am already outside of the "norm". I don't look for ways to not fit in, really I don't. However, sometimes over somethings I just don't. I thought of this verse out of Philippians "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life - in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." I (We) will never reach that goal of doing everything without complaining or arguing and I (we) will never be blameless and pure or without fault. However, it is my goal to help give my kids the tools they need to shine like stars in the universe as they hold out the word of life; whether I get nasty notes in my folder or not. I do want to be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

Sweet Sixteen

I wonder why it is called "sweet sixteen?" In our case, it is fitting. Our sweet is sixteen. How does it happen? Where does the time go? I remember vividly sitting at our kitchen table in Boone, NC crying my eyeballs out that my mother was going to leave us with the sweet little girl I was certain to ruin. Ryan was 21, it was 11 days before my 21st birthday. We had no clue what we were doing. We didn't even know anyone in our zip code that was married, let alone that had kids. At first, our "friends" would come over to visit. However, after a while (and the fact that I would let very few of them hold her) they quit coming. It was quiet. It was Ryan, me and Emily against the world and the ASU campus! Looking back, I would not trade that time for anything. Until I met Emily, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had no idea the blessings of motherhood. God knew what type of child we needed. I had spent the summer reading every article and book on child-rearing I could get my hands on. (I was an elementary ed major - I had access to A LOT of books!) I know this may be hard for some of you to believe, but I was an "over-the-top" textbook kind of mom. I think Emily was almost two before her schedule was broken (which did not fare well to the schedule breaker, sorry, mom). Emily spoiled us. She let us believe we were good parents. She slept through the night at 3 weeks (none of our other kids did this), she potty trained herself at 20 months, she was such a talker our sitter missed her when she was out sick "because she had no one to talk to", she taught herself to read and write at a very early age. I think it was our 4th year of homeschooling when she thanked me for "teaching her something new." The reality of it is God blessed her with such a sweet spirit, such an internal sense of right and wrong, such a sensitivity to those around her, with a heart to love others and Jesus like no one I have ever met. She would stump us (and still does on a regular basis) with some of the deepest theological questions there ever could be. I often worry that I am going to fail her somehow, she is so much better and smarter than I ever will be. However, I know that God allowing me to be her mother is one of the best gifts I could have ever received. I am in awe that He chose me. Happy Birthday, Emily!

Chores, chores and more chores

Solid Rock Academy is officially back in session. We started Tapestry (our literature, geography, history) last week but started everything else on Monday. A few years ago we started having an "open house." I know that seems crazy since they know what their "school" looks like and they know who their teacher will be. Whatever - it works for us. Anyway, we usually always go out to dinner and then come home and go over the "rules" and contracts. This summer has been very different than most. I don't exactly know why but different - it felt like it never even happened. Needless to say, it feels as though I am already weeks behind and we have only been in session 2 days. So, we go out to dinner - in separate cars because I needed a few more minutes to finish up their contracts. We have a list of undesired behaviors and each child comes up with their own consequence for what their punishment will be for breaking it. It is sort of a personalized "if then" chart. Then, Ryan and I go over their suggested punishment, tweak it as we see fit and then the next morning it is waiting on their desk for them to enter into our agreement. (Every year Owen trys to refuse to sign it!) We have really cracked down on the kids over not completing their chores. Sometimes we also have difficulty in completing school work as well. With the school work, sometimes it is their fault and sometimes it is my fault - I just couldn't get to them in time. So I was explaining to them that they would not recieve the said punishment for not completing their school work if it was my fault. Well, Monday morning comes and Ian takes a look at his chore chart and then takes a look at his school assignments for the day. He says (as earnestly as possible) "Mom, what happens if it is YOUR fault we don't get our chores done." I say, "Why would I stop you from doing your chores? To my knowledge, I have never stopped you from completing your chores." He picks his school list back up and waves it at me with one eyebrow slightly raised as if to say "this is going to take me YEARS!" It didn't, he got his work completed and his chores done and still had time to play outside but I don't think I will ever forget that look he gave me like "what in the world are you trying to do to me!" Brainpower, Ian, brainpower.