Reconciled

As of February 12th of this year my husband and I are ♥♥reconciled♥♥, only by the grace of God!

I considered continuing this blog because I would love to be a blessing to single parents everywhere.  However, as you can see, I’m having trouble finding time to post to this blog along with all that comes with running OUR home ♥, homeschooling, and staying involved in church(which is an hour trip, one way).  I am also trying to get another blog Redeemed Reconciled Restored up and running.  

I will be popping over here every now and then when something is laid upon my heart to share 🙂  I’m sorry to say that it probably won’t be on a regular basis until we find our new routine.

I have to admit I didn’t have much success with this blog.  I’m sure it’s because even though I thought I would be a “single homeschooling parent” God KNEW otherwise!  I am so thankful that God’s ways are much higher than my ways and His thoughts higher than my thoughts! Isaiah 55:8-9.

We serve a perfect unchanging God who is able to do above and beyond anything we can ever imagine!!   I praise and thank God EVERY MORNING for this chance to do His will in my family, the family which He single-handedly picked out for me.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU Jesus for being sooo good to me!!!!

Please visit my new blog ,keeping in mind that it is still “under construction”, and know that I am praying for God’s will in every single-parent’s life.  I know the struggles you are going through.  I also know that our God is bigger than all those struggles.  Stay focused on what is most important and God bless you!

Much Love!

Teresa

 

Looking Up

Some days it’s so hard just to get through the day.  I’m finding these days are occuring more and more frequently.   I go to work, usually before the sun is up, not to mention my children.  I spend my day going through the motions, wondering if that promotion is ever going to come through.   I am regularly checking my phone to see if the children have text and TRY to parent through a cell phone, missing those stay-at-home mom days. All the while knowing this is NOT what God had in mind for our lives.

This past week the two youngest kids went to Florida with their dad.  When they got back, 9 days later, we were sitting at the diningroom table catching up when I asked my 10 year old son if he had any pictures on his phone from vacation.  He searched through his phone and finally handed it to me only to find myself watching my husband slow dancing with another woman.

It’s days like these that I feel like I am a complete failure.  I have failed at my marriage, some days I feel like I am failing the children, and yes there are more days then I care to mention that I feel like I have completely and totally let God down!

It’s on days like these that I have to stop and LOOK UP.  No, this probably wasn’t what God had planned for our lives.  But, what I need to remember is that MAN HAS BEEN GIVEN A FREE WILL.  What I also need to remember is Romans 8:28  ^“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

So, I may not like what is going on in my life right now, but this certainly wasn’t a surprise to God.  He has me and the children in the palm of His hand.  He knows our past, present, and future.  What I need to remember is that my God loves me so much that He gave His Son for me! (If you would like to talk about this further please message me).  God has promised that He won’t put more on me than I can bear, and I know something great is going to come out of this.

“There hath no temptation taken hold of you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful; He will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which ye are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”  ~  1 Corinthians 10:13

So when those days come, and they will come, I can’t look out at my circumstances.  I have to look up to my Father.  The One who loves me more than I can even imagine.  The One who knows the number of hairs on my head.  And I have to stand on the truth of Romans 8:28 and the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13 and know that my God is working everything together for good and He will provide a way through.

So friend when you find yourself having one of those days, look up and know that no matter what your circumstances happen to be you have the Creator of the universe working on your behalf!  And if you would like to, message me.  I would love to pray for you ♥

Here is a free printable for you.  I hope you like it.  It’s my first attempt at a printable pdf.

Much Love & God Bless,

Teresa

Organization and Goal Setting

With the start of the new year, people have made a lot of resolutions.  Did you know that only 8% of the people who make new years resolutions successfully achieve them?  I stopped making resolutions a few years back. Besides, it has been my experience that new years resolutions do nothing but add stress to my life and are the very definition of insanity, in my case anyway.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

This year I will be setting goals, goals which will improve our way of life. There are three main areas in my life on which I am focusing.  These areas are first and foremost my spiritual life, then my family life, and finally my work.  I don’t want to say my career because I don’t actually have a career. I am currently working to maintain.  The kiddos and I are still trying to find our way in this situation.

I have noticed the promotion of several programs that will help you (me) get organized and teach you (me) how to set better goals and acheive these goals.  Some of these programs are free and some are not.  Some have free printables 🙂  I DO LOVE FREE PRINTABLES!

The following is a list of what I’ve come across in just the last couple of days.  I hope this will be a help and a blessing to you.

1. The Pomodoro Technique – A time management program that actually uses a timer to help you become more productive and procrastinate less.
2. 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever – A  “five-step process to help you get clear, get motivated, and get started on the path toward achieving your most important goals”.
3. The Best Year Ever Free Mini Course – “It will help you be a better goal setter, manage your budget, plan your meals, & jump start your mornings.” Free Workbook!
4. Make Over Your Mornings – “This14-day course is designed to help you revolutionize your productivity, streamline your routines, invest your time in things that truly matter, and find more joy and peace in the process.”
5. 52 Weeks to an Organized Home – 52 weekly challenges which “at the end of the 52 weeks you will have an organized home. Plus, your life and your home will run more smoothly, plus you’ll have gained the knowledge, skills, habits and routines necessary to actually keep it that way!”  FREE PRINTABLE!

Much Love & God Bless You,

Teresa

 

 

 

My Path to Blogging

This blog was created to help and encourage others who have found themselves in a similar situation as mine…

I have been married for 13 years, to a man that (in the beginning) I thought I absolutely could not live without.  What I didn’t know was that deep down inside of this man was A LOT of anger.  Over the years more and more of that anger began revealing itself, always directed at my oldest child (his stepchild) and myself.

A few months before we were married I got saved and baptised.  He proclaimed to already be saved and baptised.  We began going to church regularly and became members of an absolutely wonderful Baptist church.  When I became pregnant with our first child I became a stay at home mom.

When my oldest was four, we felt the Lord was leading us to homeschool.  We have two children together and all three children have always been homeschooled.  They are now 15, 11, and 10 years old.

After 13 years of marriage I finally got to the point where I could not handle his anger any more.  I took the kids and moved out, December 31, 2013.  I sought counsel with my preacher and over the course of the last two years and a lot of very cruel actions on the part of my husband I am now in the midst of a divorce. About a year after moving out my oldest son told me that he was at the point of suicide right before we moved.  I praise God that He got us out before that could happen!

You may be wondering why it took so long to do something.  I felt trapped.  I had not worked out of the home for 13 years and thought I had nowhere to go.  Without an income and a place to live you can’t just up and leave.  But, thanks to my oldest child, she was 30 at the time, we did have somewhere to go.  She is married and at the time had four children and one on the way.  She was going through her own battles at the time, but God love her she made room for me and three more children!

This has been a very difficult and challenging time in our lives and it’s not over yet.  But God has seen me and the children through everything that Satan has thrown at us and we will come out on top.  Our God is too big for us not to.

You see, that is what I have come to realize after the most difficult two years of my life, I am not battling my husband.  I am battling the devil himself.  He has worked long and hard to destroy my marriage, but he won’t get me and my children.

The single most difficult thing that I have had to do through all of this is forgive.  I won’t lie, it has taken a long time.  But I do forgive my husband for his abuse.  I won’t make excuses for him anymore, but I do forgive him.  It’s the least I can do.  After all God has forgiven me for so much.  Who am I to not forgive?

So, this blog was created.  I hope to be an encouragement and a help to everyone who happens upon Single Parent Homeschooling Adventures.

We will be covering a lot of good stuff like recipes, time management, field trips, homeschooling organization, and just for fun things to do and read!

To borrow a quote from We Bought A Zoo, “So, the adventure begins!”