Barbara over at Tidbits and Treasures tapped me for this “Ten Simple Pleasures” meme, which I think fits quite nicely into the theme for today’s Carnival of Beauty, “Rainy Days.” The hostess is Allison of The Autumn Rain.

Here are Ten Simple Pleasures for me, things that bring me joy and keep me going on those rainy days, when the skies are gray.

1. Our pets — five cats and a dog right now. I sat out in our backyard last night petting our white cat, Snowball, and thought to myself that life doesn’t get any better than this. Of course, he started purring, and it was even more fun because I let my one-year-old stroke his neck, teaching her how to be “gentle.”

2. Pure joy is when I get up early enough to drink a cup of coffee and read and/or write before anyone else in the house is up. (It didn’t happen this morning.) I love those quiet hours of darkness where I can dig in my roots and feel a sense of growth — it keeps me going all day. When I can read my Bible and meet with God, I’m as excited as Mary, the day she saw Jesus on the first Easter.

3. I’ve got three vases of wildflowers in our kitchen right now — brought inside by my kindergartener. She loves to hide the fresh-picked bouquet behind her back and say, “Mama, I’ve got a surprise for you.” I never get tired of her surprises — and now the wild dogwoods and pear blossoms look so pretty in our kitchen.

4. I love the moment when my husband walks in the door from work. He’s tall and handsome — and I realize I love him more every day. I’m not the type to be mushy in public — but this is one of my simple pleasures. I can’t believe how good God is to me!

5. The beach. Anything about the beach. The salty sea breezes, the feeling of sand under my bare feet, watching our children make sand castles and play in the waves. My stress unwinds completely when I can be near the sea. I feel God present there more than anywhere else — at the horizen of sky meeting the water — He’s there.

6. As I’m writing, it IS raining outside! My three-year-old is beside me playing with his Thomas the Tank Engines and saying, “Look, Mama. See the rain?” I love the quiet sounds of rain, especially when I’m in a barn with a tin roof, and I can smell hay at the same time (and be near horses).

7. My new pleasure of going to work out at Curves. It’s hard to believe I can relax while I exercise — but I’m having so much fun listening to upbeat music, talking with women about non-stressful things, and getting my chance to breathe (like on the airplane, when we’re told to give ourselves oxygen first before helping a child).

8. Encouraging words — it’s so refreshing to read or hear something nice, where someone took the time to reach out to me. When I’m feeling good about myself, it directly affects the six other people in our home, as well as everyone else I come in contact with.

9. Our Sunday School class. I’ll wait and post more about that on Friday for the Living Beyond Yourself group. We’ve been gone for four years, and we feel like we’re back home again. I love these people!

10. Being outside in the garden area with my family. We are really country bumpkins these days. Our baby playpen stays out on the porch — she is content to play out there for hours while everyone is doing yardwork. My husband is whipping the garden into shape and getting the kids to all do all kinds of chores. Soon, we’ll have cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, beans, and a host of other homegrown vegetables.

That’s it for today — I could keep going of course … but really, everything centers around my family right now. And I guess the neat thing is that I can blog about it — and maybe I should print this out and keep it somewhere for me to read when the sun is hiding behind a cloud.

I think I’m supposed to tap ten other people for this meme. I’d like to tap everyone in our LBY group — in the Blogroll. So, if you’re in the group and you’d like to share your ten simple pleasures, consider yourself tapped!

I’ve been noticing that my Travel category in this blog is a bit wimpy. I mostly focus here on books and parenting issues. But if you’re like me, blessed with little ones at home, you may have to do a lot of your adventure-seeking from your armchair (or should I say rocking chair? Or maybe I should even say laundry room, after seeing a picture of a mom tapping away on her laptop a la washing machine over at the recent contest on Mommy Net).

Did you know people all over the world are writing travel blogs? This technology did not EXIST when I did some international traveling in my late teens/early 20s. As I mentioned once, when I lived in Japan, I spent every evening writing letters, one by one, BY HAND telling my family and friends (and my special pen pal who later became my husband) all about my adventures living overseas.

But now the technology is here to be able to update everyone instantly — with words and pictures. This is also useful for anyone preparing for a trip somewhere. I mean — why read a guidebook that was written like two years ago when you can read about a traveler eating in a trendy bistro this morning?

The best site I’ve found so far is one called Travel Blog: Live Travel Journals. Have you heard of this site yet? I recently went to Rome — and before that, I climbed a mountain with a traveler somewhere along the coast of South America! The pictures are stunning. Of course, since the blogs are not edited, you never know what you might read. But for the most part, I’ve been interested to hear people’s fascinating stories.

You can choose any continent in the world, and hundreds of countries. The site owners pick different blogs to feature on the home page — I’m not sure if they’re updated daily or maybe weekly. Today’s front page features:

— On March 30th, a traveler named Keith took pictures and wrote about seeing humpback whales off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

— An explorer dubbed Honest Abe reports on sheep herding and eating curry on the island of Fiji.

— A traveler shared views of life on Penang, a large island off the northwestern coast of Malaysia.

— An April Fool’s Bike Ride through Pittsburgh (I suppose exotic to someone).

— A duo who call themselves “Cumberland Sausage” share pictures of a Holi Festival in Udaipur, India. You won’t believe their pictures. And they close their brief post with this: “No more blogs for a month I’m afraid, we’re off trekking in Nepal.” Ughhh!!

You gotta love it. I can travel the world for free via reading these people’s blogs — and you can too.

With two more months until summer, I’d love to hear back from you readers who don’t live in America. I know you’re out there! You may not realize it, but your home is very exotic to me. I know where a few of you live, but I’d love to learn more. Can you write me and tell me what it’s like? You don’t have to send a picture — I can probably find one on Google.

Do you live on an island? Anywhere near the ocean? I don’t. So in my opinion, you’re on vacation year-round. I want to know what the ocean sounds like for you. What color is the sand? Do you eat fish from the sea, and what kinds? Do you cook it at home or eat it at a restaurant?

You don’t need a blog to write — and you can email me, and I’ll use only your first name or initial. I just think it would be so interesting to use this blog technology to bring the world to my home — and yours.

If anyone else knows a good travel website, I’d love to hear about it.

(Sigh … bigtime sigh.)

Edit: (after much sighing) — If anyone reading this happens to live on an island and is in need of a family to herd your sheep for a while, we’d be happy to consider your offer. I think I’m kidding, but I might not be.

I’m clinging to this one today. Anyone agree?

It is no great matter to associate with the good and gentle; for this is a naturally pleasing to all, and everyone willingly enjoyeth peace, and loveth those best that agree with him. But to be able to live peaceably with hard and perverse persons, or with the disorderly, or with such as go contrary to us, is a great grace, and a most commendable thing.

Thomas a Kempis
Thomas a Kempis Biography And Works

Here’s a note to the other 29 ladies in the Beth Moore group — and to anyone else who’s joining along with us in our endeavor to study Living Beyond Yourself. Don’t give up! I’ve been to many of your blogs over the weekend, and we ladies have a lot of stuff going on in our lives! This is only the second week of the study, and I know some of you are already behind and feeling bad about it.

It doesn’t matter! Whatever you have going on — kids demanding your attention, a house full of company, spring break, suitcases full of dirty laundry from returning from trips, earthquakes (someone in our group blogged about an earthquake last week!) You don’t have to do every bit of the homework — and you don’t have to blog about anything profound. It’s very intimidating to be “on” every day you post something — especially when there are hundreds (thousands?) of people who are reading your words and criticizing you (good or bad).

If you can just turn on the video or audio and listen to Beth Moore’s teaching, that’s the most important thing in this study, I feel. Because she’s in the Word so much while she’s teaching, and she’s digging deeper than many of us have been in a while. Even if you can only listen to one segment, it’s still better than nothing.

We’ve got nine more weeks — we can do it! This group will go until June 2. Now what would be more fun than getting dressed up in a cute new outfit and going out with your friends to hear a speaker like Beth Moore? We’d of course go out for dessert afterward and laugh a lot, right? So that’s what we’re doing here, when we download the video onto our computers — in our own time, when the kids are napping or asleep (or crawling all over us…)

Here’s a verse for you [with my interruptions]:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses [the other members of this LBY group!], let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles [worrying that we’re behind], and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us [the next nine weeks, until June 2].

Hebrews 12:1-3

It’s all about JOY!

I needed to read this verse today — because I’m weary. There’s something funky going on in the April atmosphere around here, and I’ve lost my voice (it sounds all scratchy), and I’m behind on all the yukky, boring things I need to spend my time doing. So, I’m going to write out this verse and hang it up on the wall in three places in my house: over my kitchen sink (where I’ve got to spend a lot of time today), in my laundry room (which is not really a room, only a closet; I’ve got to spend a lot of time there too), and over my bathroom sink (because I’m feeling really, really discouraged about my weight that is never going to come off. Now that my baby is turning one, can it still be called postpartum?)

I’m looking forward to what Beth has to teach me this week — and although I may not come up with anything profound to write, I know I’ll be blessed for at least digging into the Word.

How’s it going for those of you in the Beth Moore study? I hope you’re able to find a chance to dig into the homework. It’s not easy, is it? I’m loving every minute I can sit down and really pore through it. And my thoughts are with you today. I know I want to keep it up so I’ll be able to join in the discussion over the weekend.

Last night, my husband was showing our kids a video of a camping trip he and some friends took to a lake in Minnesota about 15 years ago. It was a beautiful spot — quiet and peaceful. At some point, one of his friends filmed him sitting beside the lake writing in his journal. I was so jealous just watching that! I said, “I can’t even imagine how much fun that would be — to sit beside a lake and do my Beth Moore homework!”

While I do mine, there’s a swirl of noise around me — and last night my 11-month-old daughter kept grabbing at my Bible — I have the NIV Life Application Bible — which I love! She was fascinated watching my pen scribble across the workbook pages. And you know how those onion-thin pages sound when you flip them back and forth — as we do in our homework. She loved that crinkly sound and wanted to flip pages with her little chubby hand.

I kept giving her other toys to play with or another book to read — but within a couple of minutes, she was right back where I was, wanting to know what FASCINATED me about that fun BOOK I was reading!

And I realized — this is the start for her! She’s only a baby now, but as she grows up, I want her to keep seeing me read my Bible. It’s the Book that matters most — full of relevant, life-changing words that will build her faith and give her life a purpose. Even just a few minutes ago, I was listening to James Dobson on the radio as he shared about abstinence education for teens. It’s in the Bible! It can give teens something to hold onto during those years as well.

One of my favorite bloggers is Carmen of Full-Contact, Christ-Centric Living. I remember a few months ago when Carmen just started her blog, and she said she wasn’t sure what exactly to focus on. We emailed back and forth about it. I told her something like, “Mentor people like me! Teach me how to raise godly kids! How do we do this in our culture today?”

Carmen (a mom of six) has some great advice in her blog for moms raising teenagers. Her recent post, To Hunt or Not to Hunt is inspiring for me. A mother asked her a question: “Christian guys are so timid today, and my daughters are asking if it’s OK for them to approach guys. How will they meet the right guy? Should they call guys or wait to be called?”

And here’s part of Carmen’s answer, though I encourage you to read all of it!

I’m raising a house full of boys. I’m in a position to tell you what the kind of boys I’d want to get hitched up with for the rest of my life are looking for in a girl, and it’s NOT a girl who’s chasing after guys. My sons are learning to prepare their fields first, then build a home. In other words, they aren’t looking for girls, and are hoping to avoid entanglement until they’re prepared to provide a home for a family. When they do begin to look for God’s will in a wife, the pursuers, hunters, chasers, flirts won’t be on their lists.

My advice for teenage girls? Learn to be beautiful in God’s eyes (I Peter 3:1-6). If you’re good at something, get better at it (sure wish I had been serious about art or writing when I was 17 or 18!) If you’re not good at anything, learn. Learn to write, learn to crochet, learn about hospitality, learn about horses, learn to sew and strive to excel at it—in other words, do it as unto the Lord. Enjoy being a single young woman in the Lord now. When you get married, you’re married for life. That’s a long time!

Can you see why I like “hanging around” Carmen? We live on opposite sides of the U.S., yet she’s mentoring me through her blog, and she’s also become a parenting columnist for The Dabbling Mum magazine.

Now, while you’re visiting her site, I hope you can take a few minutes and check out this survey she’s working on. You can cut and paste these questions into an email and send it to her. Do you visit your local public library? If you do, her survey and research may help make your public library a better, more wholesome place for your family. It took me less than five minutes to answer her questions.

P.S. These aren’t my hands here, in case you’re wondering.

Here’s an important article every parent should read from the Active Christian Media website. Actually, this is an article that grandparents should read as well — because when your grandchildren are in your care, you should also take steps to protect them from internet predators.

10 Things You Can Do Today To Protect Your Children from Online Predators Who Want Them

I know bloggers are supposed to wait until “Thankful Thursdays” to tell you what we’re thankful for, but I can’t wait until then. Today may read like a small-town society column, but I had a great weekend, and I don’t think I can function until I write about it! Plus, I found out my brother-in-law who’s married to my sister is a faithful Mom 2 Mom reader, and he said, “I like it when you write about personal stuff.”

So, the personal stuff is that my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary over the weekend. 40 years! My sister started emailing me right after Christmas about it. “What do you want to do for Mom and Dad’s anniversary this year?” We went back and forth, wondering if we should throw them some kind of big party. We finally decided to do a small, intimate dinner with just our family.

I can’t remember the last time we’ve shared a special meal together with only our immediate family invited. My mom can’t help but invite other people she knows to come eat with us — often it’s the lonely ones who don’t have anyone else to share a holiday with. She has a second dining table that sets up in the living room, so she can seat at least 16, and we usually have that many or more.

My sister ordered two dozen Tropicana roses — Mom’s favorite — and arranged them in vases around my parents’ house. We brought a two-tiered wedding cake, iced in buttercream frosting, with a bride and groom on top and tropicana-colored roses spilling down the side. (Thank you to our friends in the Publix Bakery!) My sister-in-law took over the heavy-duty cooking. She and my brother grilled shrimp and chicken on wooden skewers, as well as fresh vegetables, and potatoes. She also broiled the juiciest salmon ever, steamed asparagus, and prepared a cornbread casserole that was out of this world. My sister and I filled in with spinach salad, fruit salad, pasta and jello jigglers for the kids, and bread. (My sister also brought her special made-from-scratch, thrice-sifted pound cake, and her mother-in-law made us a million tiny chocote chip cookies!)

I have to say here how thankful I am for my sister — she was in charge of this whole deal, and it wouldn’t have happened without her, even though she lives the farthest away. She also brought a paper tablecloth and crayons which she put in little terra cotta pots for our kids to color while we ate. My girls and I put little chocolates in silver garden pitchers around the house like party favors. I forgot to say we’d been planning on hosting a “garden theme” party because my parents just added on a back screened-in porch with an outdoor fireplace — but it was TOO COLD to eat outside.

So, we all had a great time eating inside — and also the timing was perfect for me to give Mom the mother/daughter gift book I wrote. It was released last week from Nelson Books, From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom: 50 Reflections on Living Well. It’s like a huge-long Hallmark card celebrating how much a daughter is thankful for her mom. The photos, which I had nothing to do with, are absolutely stunning, highlighting moms and daughters around the world. What a joy it was to give to her — finally!

After our dinner, we of course had to get pictures of Mom and Dad cutting their wedding cake, and we also got a picture of Mom holding a bouquet of roses right next to her gorgeous wedding photo. Then we did something we always talk about doing, but never do — we set up the movie screen and watched my parents’ old home movies. Each reel lasts about four minutes, with no sound. It was so fun showing my kids how their grandparents looked when they were younger, bringing me home from the hospital, celebrating the milestones that make life rich — birthdays, vacations, Christmases, new pets, backyard picnics, etc.

We all spent the night, and the next day went to church together. We filled up the whole back pew in the church. During the service, our kids sat mysteriously still and looked cute — so this was another amazing feat for the weekend. Right before the sermon, we sang six stanzas of Amazing Grace, and I heard the words as I’d never heard them before. The fourth verse jumped out at me so much, I had to jot it down in my notebook!

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be,
as long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we first begun.

OK, if you’re still with me — to top off the weekend, my husband and I met with a group of my high school classmates who are starting to organize our 20th reunion for next summer. We walked into the restaurant, and I was thinking about how everyone looked in high school. Then when I saw them at the table I said, “Hey, how come this is a table full of old people?” (haha). Really — I hadn’t seen most of the guys in 20 years. Only a few came to the 10-year reunion. The girls I’ve kept up with, but wait a minute — there are a few gray hairs on the guys and a wrinkle here and there. Of course, we had to pass around pictures of everybody’s kids. Our senior class president lives in California now, and so she “led” the meeting from a speakerphone PDA. We’ve all got a list of 25 people we’re going to start trying to find — and we decided we want to have a weekend-long reunion with several options for different budgets.

So, there’s my personal stuff — my weekend. I have to also add that my sister brought more clothes for my kids. She’s an amazing shopper, and she finds my girls the most beautiful smocked and embroidered dresses and outfits. I absolutely can’t shop like she does — she finds them at traveling wholesale stores and resales, all with the tags on them. I don’t know how she does it, but now our kids have classic Easter and spring outfits because of her.

So, if you’re my family reading this — THANK YOU, and I LOVE YOU! And if you have hung with me reading this, thank you too! It just feels good to share the blessings God has given me — friends and family — all because of His grace and love.

Our Carnival of Beauty topic this week is “The Beauty of My Life,” hosted by Sallie of Two Talent Living.

Since so much of my life right now revolves around my family and our children’s schooling, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you our educational journey.

It’s funny how the topics that interest me as a parent have changed over the years. Before I had children, there were ISSUES that I thought were truly life-and-death matters. Can you relate?

During pregnancy, I discussed with great passion these topics: will I use a midwife or doctor? Have a homebirth or hospital birth? Prepare for natural labor, epidural, or C-section? Breastfeed or bottle? Feed on demand or feed on a schedule?

Next, I headed into the baby development milestones and toddler years, which is where I still am with some of my children: bedtimes and discipline, what to eat and when, potty training, breaking habits like pacifiers or thumb-sucking, early educational ideas, etc.

Now, I’m deep in the trenches of this issue: how to educate our children. This is a HUGE topic of course — as it covers the ages of at least 3 to 18 for each child. Will we homeschool? Send them to a private school? Send them to a public school?

These are the years we have to do something … to make sure our children are raised to grow in wisdom which comes from fear of the Lord — and also to have the skills and knowledge they’ll need to get along on their own someday.

It used to be easy. There were fewer options. People let their kids all walk to the same school, which was down the street. Now the vast array of options is overwhelming.

Several people have asked me lately about why we homeschooled, and why we’re not now. Well, I don’t want to go into all that in such a public forum, so I’ll just say a few things. From the day our first child was born, I was drawn to homeschooling. I was surrounded by wise, godly families in our church and neighborhood who homeschooled. I hung out in their homes and knew that’s what I wanted for our family.

I read a million books about homeschooling. Well, not a million. But several dozen at least. I went to conferences when our oldest was only four years old! We joined a great local support group, and I went to all the meetings. So, we homeschooled for three wonderful years. But then I needed a break. I’ll spare you the details, but I had a lot of stress going on in my life, and I needed someone to help me out during school hours. The Proverbs 31 woman didn’t do it all either, you see. Our best option was public school, unless I went to work full-time to earn private school tuition, which we didn’t want me to have to do.

Our kids have wonderful teachers, many of whom read my blog, and I’m so appreciative of their sincere commitment to love our children and be a light in the world. I know many of them have strong Christian faith and do the best they can within the parameters of the system to teach our children God’s ways.

Yet … we still take things year by year. Child by child. I miss so many things about pouring my time and energy into homeschooling, and I miss being part of our homeschool group. I really, really, really want our children to have time to take music lessons and play instruments … and I love the Sonlight curriculum. But home educating is a consuming full-time job for me. If we ever did go back to it, I know without a doubt that I would not have time to do any writing from home. And maybe that would be fine. I’ve so enjoyed all the online friendships I’ve made in the past couple of years and working with editors and other writers … but we may be entering another season of change. I don’t know.

I try to think long-term, surround myself with positive people, and take it all step by step. That’s what we do every year. I have a ton more to say, but I’d rather not say it all here in my blog.

Raising children who want to serve God is a serious calling, one that takes constant thought and prayer. As parents, we want to do all we can … but ultimately we have to leave the results up to God and pray for His blessings upon our educational journey.