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A friend of mine had shared this with me and I thought it would be a good thing to think on today………..

I did not create you with batteries. 

I designed you to be directly plugged into ME. 

I did not create you to hold a charge.

I designed you to stay plugged into ME.

  A part from ME, you can do nothing because you have no power. 

Stay connected to ME, your Source of everything through prayer and awareness of MY Presence.

  You will find a drastic difference when you live plugged into ME verses coming to ME for a quick charge.

John 15:5

I know being a Mom with a list a million miles long, it can be soooooo much easier to hit the snooze button and just forego waking up and spending some moments with the Lord.  I can tell you from personal experience, how much more my life has been enriched by spending those few extra moments with the Lord each day.  Just when I THINK that there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I could find any more spare moments into my life, its amazing how the LORD will help you prioritize and FIND the time to do what is important.

Being plugged into the Lord helps with communication errors.  I have prayed many of times in my life and just did not get a clear response from the Lord on daily issues.  Sure I felt like He answered, but it was more of a static like response—from using my “charged” batter power.  When I have been plugged in directly, when I ask of Him things that I need in my day, He answers them when I need them—- right then and there.  This has helped hugely from me not WASTING unnecessary time thinking through things in my day.

Let me give you an example…..I was recently trying to find a dentist for my children.  In the area we live in, it has been very hard finding a dentist that takes new patients and accepts our insurance.  I have tried on my “office” days to take the few hours in the afternoon that I dedicate to it, to be on the phone, contacting every dentist office in the area. Mind you, we are new here and I have no idea if Black Mountain is 5 hours from us or 12 minutes away.  Oh and then I had to do an internet search on the reviews of the dentist, because I did not want to take my children to someone that would scar them for life.  Aghhhh was getting frustrating.  Most were NOT accepting new patients, MOST were not child friendly, and some accepted insurance but you had a year long waiting list!!! What??? Finally I said, enough is enough, hmmmmm turn to the Lord, first!!!!!  I said okay, Lord I need some clear direction as to where to go.  I had gone out to hang some laundry up to dry and then when I came back in I sat at my laptop and did my internet search for dentists.  I typed in a town and hit search.  The first dentist that came up, I called.  The receptionist said that they were not accepting new patients, the story of my life, BUT she had a number for me for another office that was new.  I could not find a listing for this office online, I called and they were extremely friendly and guess what??? They cater to children and take our insurance.  We were able to get in right away within a week with zero problems.

I smiled, how much easier is it when we turn to the Lord and ask for direction. This episode today has helped me to be reminded to turn to the Lord for even the smallest of matters in my life.  Sometimes I tend to think they are insignificant BUT the Lord cares about all the matters in our life.  What He wants is us to turn to Him for EVERYTHING.

No matter how many things we THINK we need to do today, nothing is more important then spending time with our Lord.  Take time to get into the word of God today to become “plugged in.” Apart from the Lord we can do nothing.  Life is hard, how much easier it becomes when we stay CONNECTED.

When I had first heard from some friends that they had an actual school room in their homes–I will be honest, I was a little jealous.  To think of having ONE room in the home that would hold all of our homeschool items.  One room where all the learning games with their little pieces would stay put and not get all over my home.  A place where the craft projects lined the walls along with learning posters just as I had in school…ahhhhhh the jealousy.

But then I had babies.  Lots of babies and most of my school time was done sitting on a couch nursing the little one.  Sometimes I did school from my bed because it was the only place to get it done that day.  Sometimes my children did their schooling on the countertops as I was preparing dinner–because it was the only time I could have to help them.

My dreams for a school room have since faded, do I miss them??  No, not at all.

Why not??  Wouldn’t you appreciate a room where everything was contained?

By homeschooling over the past 20 years, I realized that I NEED to do this:

• I need to create a learning environment for my children in our home.  I want them to view LIFE as a learning experience.  I want them to know that learning does not just come from a classroom it comes when you interact with people and learn things in uncommon ways.
• I need to be able to multitask.  I don’t believe in the last 20 years of homeschooling that I have EVER got to sit and complete school straight for 2 hours.  It just does not happen.  I am usually in between preparing meals, flipping a load of laundry, or tending to screaming toddlers.  I need to be able to move about the home and having the children in a centralized location works best for me.
• I need to be FREE from the temptation to collect stuff.  I am not a hoarder by nature, but if I had a room that could be filled with LOTS of school items, I might not think twice about accumulating things I don’t really need.

So what is one to do who does not have a designated school room?  You use what you got.  In our current home, we use the dining room table most of the time.  In our old home, we did most all of it in the living room.  It is just based on the location of the room in our home.

You find a shelving unit to hold your books and supplies.  I like to use a bookshelf to hold books.  I prefer my filing cabinet to hold all of our crafts, and folder games.  I have a shelf in the kitchen that I hold all of the school supplies.  It is up out of the reach of little ones vying for a new box of crayons.  I keep a small container available for them to use and refill as needed.

I like plastic dish pans to hold the games and puzzles that we store inside of plastic freezer bags.  As soon as we get a new puzzle or new game, I empty the contents into a bag.  I don’t even mess with a box, it will just get ruined.  For all of the individual learning sets like lacing cards, and wooden beads, those go into a plastic shoe bin, labeled on the edge.

So instead of feeling guilty or a little jealous because your friend has a school room, use the rooms that the Lord has given to you.  Think of education in an uncommon way.  Be grateful for less clean up and enjoy these moments because they go fast.