Spiritual Warfare

We've had a busy month... seems like only yesterday we were at the pumpkin patch! Now our home is almost completely decorated for Christmas! I'll post some pictures when we finish decorating outside. I much prefer Christmas celebrations to the ones that occur at the end of October!

I wanted to share a prayer that Adie prayed last night as I was putting her to bed. For a while now, she has had some trouble sleeping, or just calming down to go to sleep. Bryan put her to bed one night about a week ago, and just sensed that there was "interference" in the room. Adie was restless and wouldn't rest in his arms while he rocked her. So, he prayed against it - outloud for Adie to hear. As he prayed for protection for her, her bedroom, and our home, Adie calmed down and rested comfortably in his arms, and slept the whole night through. Last night as I was rocking her, we said her usual prayers, her "night-night" prayer, the Lord's prayer, and then usually whoever is putting her to bed prays for her. Well, she decided that she wanted to pray for me last night.... I was surprised! Her prayer was the sweetest thing I have ever heard... here is as much as I can remember... "Dear God, please keep your big hand over our house tonight, keep the devil away so he can't touch Mommy, or Daddy, or Pili, or me. Keep him out of our house, because he can't be here because we all belong to You. Help Mommy to get some rest, and help me to stay in bed all night and not do bad stuff tomorrow. Thank you God, Amen."

I just wanted to share.... this little girl understands much more than I have been giving her credit for. We continue to pray for her daily, especially against any ancestral issues that might be there, and we speak peace, love and gentleness into her little heart. I have prayed for God to work in my relationship with Adie, and He is answering in mighty ways! Please keep us in your prayers... there is certainly a spiritual battle going on in our home, and we all are fighting it. My wonderful husband is taking the lead, and prays for each one of us individually, and for our entire home, room by room. We KNOW that God is faithful, and that we are His, and no one else has any right or authority in this home. As we move forward in faith and grow closer to our Heavenly Father, our enemy tries all the more to distract us. Praise God - we know the end of the story - and We Win!!!!

Here are the cutest two Ohio State Buckeyes fans in the state of PA! We always get lots of "interesting" stares when we go out and about in our OH State clothing. It brings fun conversation! It was a sad day when Penn State beat the Bucks in OH this year..... but we're still faithful fans!

More pumpkin patch pictures

A large slide - Daddy goes down with the video camera!

John Deere tricycles!

These goats were looking for food!

Our favorite girls!

We took a field trip on Oct. 31st (which is Reformation Day for us) to get pumpkins to decorate our home for fall and Thanksgiving. As you can see from the measurements - the girls are almost the same height! Adie is actually heavier - by about 2 or 3 pounds, and Pili is taller by maybe an inch. We had a great time there, it was a beautiful fall day and we walked through the pumpkin patch, played in the play area, and found a 40 pound pumpkin to bring home! Now the challenge is to get the seeds out and roasted!

Pili Witnessed History!

While we are a few days late (Mommy's schedule just doesn't seem to ever quit!), I did want to share the history and Pili and I witnessed a week before the election. Sarah Palin came to Shippensburg University, and we were fortunate enough to obtain tickets and be there. It was freezing that day, and Pili and I will never forget standing in line for 2 1/2 hours, shivering! It was a time of great learning for both of us. Whatever your opinion of Mrs. Palin's run, or the outcome of the election for that matter, this was a time in history for which I am thankful. It led to fantastic discussions with Pili about leadership, who is qualified to lead, what God says about leaders, our government process and elections, and Who is REALLY in control (despite of who is elected to office). Our family is resting in the knowledge that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He will work all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. We now pray for our newly elected president, knowing that God has indeed allowed this for His purposes. Lessons about submission to those in authority, even when we don't necessarily agree with them, will be ongoing for our whole family - and have applications from the highest elected office in our nation all the way down to parental authority, and all the way back to our highest Authority, God Almighty.

Aahhh, the long gone days of summer.....

As we start to see temperatures dip into the low 30's and 20's just about every night now, I thought I would post one picture to remind us of the wonderful summer we had. Our family has started a tradition of going to Raystown Lake at least a couple of times each season. It's a beautiful man-made lake that actually covers what used to be a large town. There are plenty of places to camp (which we'll be doing next year, if God allows), swimming, and boating. David took his kayak this summer, and he and Bryan had a great time paddling around and trying to avoid the speedboats! We were blessed to have some dear friends of ours go with us a couple of times, and they have a boat! Bryan was able to ski, and the girls and I all tubed - great fun! David is still trying to get his confidence up to get those skis under him - he will next summer for sure! Adie decided that swimming was the thing to do here at the lake, and she took off like a fish without her swimmies! We all look forward to next summer, and making many more memories at this beautiful spot.

Our last fall outside project!

So here is our newest outside project! We had a rather boring front yard, rarely used... The girls never play in the front - since all the toys and the fence are in the back. Bryan and I worked on this for about 3 days - planning the shape, killing the grass (lots of fun for Bryan!), and then raking and shoveling LOTS of topsoil! We built the rather eclectic rock wall... mostly to hold the dirt up! Neither of us are engineers (should've had Pili build the wall!) so we'll see how long it stays up! Then we planted about 150 bulbs - various wildflowers, tulips and daffodils. The two mums down in the tip will be replaced by a Japanese red maple tree next spring, I hope! Twenty bags of mulch later, we are "almost" done! We have a friend who is going to deliver a large "sitting rock" that will go where the tiny little rock is now in the middle of the garden (to the left of Adie). I'm praying that this will turn into a beautiful spot for some spring pictures!!

Go Mommy!!!

I just got back home from running a 5K!! Now, for some people, my time might be better described as a slow jog... I did 3.2 miles in 37 minutes. Those of you who remember the length of my legs will understand, that speed is not-too-shabby for someone who is not described as a "runner"! It is only the second time I've run a 5K and not stopped to walk during the race! The first one was earlier this year with Bryan. I finished 3rd in my age group.... just don't ask how many people were in my age group!! HA! Next year I'll move up an age bracket, so maybe I'll improve my standings!! A dear friend of mine (we went to high school and college together) and I have committed to running the Air Force half-marathon next Sept. We'll see how that goes. I'm trying to convince Bryan to run it, too, since he was in the Air Force for 7 years. A pretty cool accomplishment for a 50 and 40 year old (next year!).

We had a great week this week - I had my birthday celebration that lasted almost all week! I love birthdays! I'm probably the healthiest I have ever been - and it's exciting to know that the best is yet to come, if God allows me more time!

The girls continue to excel in school - Pili is breezing through her studies, and Adie is picking up bits and pieces as we go along. She is not quite ready to sit down and do anything "formal" but we do lots of learning while moving - Adie is quite the dancer! Pili continues to make great strides in her gymnastics. She is amazingly strong!

Today Daddy and I are going to dig a new flower bed in our front yard, for all the new flower bulbs! For a woman who whined through every summer of gardening - I am becoming a gardener! We even tilled a garden for vegetables next spring! It's about 10 feet wide and 24 feet long. Hopefully we'll get lots of fresh veggies out of it! It is also a school project - Pili and Adie will share in the work. We'll keep you posted. Speaking of growing things - Pili and Adie planted apple seeds from a Fuji apple - our snack one day. And guess what - we have 4 little sprouts coming up in the planter!

We hope everyone has a wonderful fall weekend! God's blessings! The Meckes'

Not all experiments come out exactly right.....

Yes, for those of you who are giggling already... let me just tell you that bread does not always rise just because you put yeast in it! Pili and I had a wonderful time mixing some cranberry crunch bread this morning. I covered the dough and set off outside for a relaxing jog while the girls rode their bicycles along side. I checked the dough in about 45 minutes, and found that it had not raised one little bit... then I remembered that you should have the dough in a warm spot. Yeast likes warmth... so, I turned the oven on low and placed the bowl on top of the stove. Our house is a little on the cool side - the nights have been dipping down into the upper 40's, and Mommy loves a chilly house in the fall! The only warm place for that dough was on the stove! Well, that did the trick, and we happily dumped the now risen dough into the bread pan, punched it down, and waited for it to raise again so we could actually bake it! Well, that whole second raising thing never really happened. It tried, but I think it just decided that it was too much work! After waiting an hour - I actually went out and mowed the backyard!! - I decided to just put it in the oven and bake it and see what happened. It came out ok - a little flat, but it tastes pretty good! We are going to have it tomorrow with our lunch when our friends from VA get here. Our dear friends, Mark and Patti, and their two children are coming up for a visit this weekend. The girls are thrilled!

We did one other experiment that turned out better! We made butter from heavy whipping cream. You simply put it in a jar and shake it for about 15 minutes. We each took a turn shaking the jar, and Pili said it was hard work! Adie was just about in tears at the end of her 5 minutes. I explained to them that back in colonial days, women couldn't just run down to the store and pick up butter when they ran out - they had to get the cream from the freshly milked cow, and then churn it. Pili said she would rather do without! HA! We added a little salt for taste, and it is pretty good! We'll use our freshly made butter on our flat cranberry bread tomorrow!

School is such fun - and it's even more fun when things don't work as perfectly as you've planned. Our whole life is for learning and teaching, and the most fun of homeschooling so far for me is that my little girls are learning life as we go along day by day. They interact with all sorts of people throughout the day, and they can carry on a polite conversation with anyone they meet.

I promise, one day soon I"ll post more pictures of the girls riding their bikes!
Love to all,
Mommy

Remember Old Yeller?

I do - well, sort of. I haven't thought of that book for years.... Our family had some excitement over this past week that brought that story back with a vengeance. Monday afternoon, the girls and Tucker (our 95-pound black lab) were in our backyard playing while I worked in the kitchen. Tucker isn't one to bark much, but he started having a fit, and the girls were yelling for me. I walked out the back door to see a black dog on the outside of our fence. Tucker and this dog were nose to nose through the fence posts, and Tucker was barking rather angrily. This is not his temperament at all - he's a big baby - so I walked over to shoo the dog away. It didn't run at my approach, so I told the girls to stay inside the fence, while I went out of the gate to run the dog off. After I walked out and closed the gate behind me, the stray dog turned, and I saw horrible damage to it's jaw. It was basically missing half of it's jaw, and I could see a gunshot wound to it's snout. My first thought was that the poor dog must have cancer or something that had destroyed it's jaw... but not having ever seen the dog in the neighborhood before, I decided that the best thing I could do was just get it out of my yard. It wasn't wearing a collar, so there were no tags to try and read (now I thank God for that... I might have tried to read them to find an owner). The dog wasn't aggressive towards me, but tucked it's tail and trotted slowly off, in and out of our garage, then across the street and into the corn field that is behind the houses directly across from us. I didn't think anything else about it until a few hours later.... my neighbor called me to let me know that the state police and animal control were out looking for this dog... it was rabid. My heart went into my throat! After saying a loud prayer of thanks for God keeping me safe as I went out within a foot of this dog.... I thought of Tucker. He was in this dog's face, pitching a fit.... of course, now I knew that he was behaving this was because he knew something was wrong. He was protecting us. I called the vet just to double check on the possibility of rabies being transmitted through saliva without a bite occurring.... to quickly put your mind at ease - Tucker is fine. However, our neighborhood quickly became a not-so-safe place to be. The dog showed up in several backyards over the next couple of days - and managed to escape police and animal control many times. We didn't let Tucker out without going with him, and the girls stayed inside for the most part. We did go bike riding on Tuesday afternoon, and twice saw the state policeman that was patrolling our neighborhood! Quite the excitement for this quiet, sleepy little farming community. As of today, I have not heard if the dog was caught or found... I can't imagine that it would be able to survive for long with it's injuries. Pili and Adie had to learn that not all dogs are nice. They also learned that Tucker would protect them if he needed to.... that made Mommy's heart happy. We thank God for His protection during this little episode, and it makes us even more thankful for the "normal" quiet that we enjoy here in Shippensburg!

First time with no training wheels!!

She finally did it! Our Pili, who will do cartwheels on a balance beam, finally decided that she could ride her bike! This was her first bike, the one we bought her when she was 4 years old! She has since graduated to a "big" bike.... we'll post more pictures of that later!

Our Schedule

Many people have called our home, and the first words out of their mouths are "Sorry, to interrupt you, you must be right in the middle of teaching..." The funny thing is, it doesn't matter what time it is when they call! Actually, that's probably very accurate! It seems that I spend most of the day teaching... and in just about every circumstance.

For your reading enjoyment, I thought I would write out our weekly schedule. While it is certainly not cast in stone, we do try to follow it on most days. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschooling!

On weekday mornings, we generally start schooling around 8:30 am. We have devotions first, then a Bible study. Then Adie plays "quietly" by herself, while Pili and I do work on math, spelling, history, grammar, and science. When Bryan is home, he does a wonderful job of teaching math and science. Pili and her daddy share a love of space, so they really enjoy learning about our solar system and going outside to look at the stars! It usually takes us about 2-3 hours to complete her work, finishing just in time for lunch! Adie joins us for reading time, which is usually a book related to the history lesson we are working on at the time. We have lunch together around noon, then Adie naps and Pili reads silently in her room until around 3:30 pm or so. After quiet time we are free to play and get some light housework done before dinner. We are home on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. Pili has gymnastics on Wednesdays from 4-6 pm, and then we all go to church from 7-9 pm. Pili also has gymnastics on Fridays from 6-8 pm.

That's it, in a nutshell. Of course, while the girls and I are on this "normal" schedule.... Bryan is on his shift that no one ever seems to understand! He works 24 hours, then is off for 2 days, then works another 24 hours, and then is off for 4 days. It really works out quite nicely - and he is home during the week, which is nice! Of course, he also has to work on weekends and holidays when his shift falls there - that's the not-so-nice part. But we take the challenges with the blessings, and in all we are thankful that he is back on shift and not working M-F anymore.

Today we spent the afternoon planting a tree - a 14 ft. red maple - in our backyard! We also planted some Rose of Sharon shrubs, and a butterfly bush! The girls were napping, and woke up just in time to help with the planting of the shrubs. They were quite helpful - and it was nice to spend time together outside working on a project that we will all enjoy.

After the planting, the girls rode their bikes for quite a while. Pili has now mastered the "big" bike, and she looks so grown up riding around! We put the training wheels back on the smaller bike for Adie, and she took off! They are now both mobile - and I am so proud! If it doesn't rain tomorrow we are all going riding on a nice, flat bike trail! What a joy to get to ride without having to pull them in the trailer! Bryan will enjoy that the most!!!

We send everyone our love. We pray you are enjoying these beautiful fall days as much as we are!

The Meckes'

Crazy Wednesdays!

I am sitting here, just finished talking with Bryan on the phone (yes, he's working 24 hours today... he'll be home around 9 am tomorrow), and thinking that I need to put another post on our new blog. I'm supposed to be keeping everyone updated, right?

Wednesdays are very full for the Meckes family. We have school, of course. That takes up the morning. Then, Pili has gymnastics from 4-6 pm. We are so proud of her, she is advancing through the classes, and she is now in the "pre-team"... basically an in-between step from the classes to actual team competitions. She loves gymnastics, and is progressing very well. Then, right after gymnastics, we go to church, eat dinner at church, and have Bible study from 7:00 -8:30 pm. I lead a First Place study for women, and the girls go to Lion's Mane - the children's midweek Bible study. After all is said and done, we don't get home until 9:15 or so, and we are all quite tired! The girls are troopers though - and we have designated Thursday as "sleep in" day! We start our day a little later on Thursday, and we don't go anywhere! No errands, no other commitments outside of home. It gives us a chance to rest!

I have to admit I am really excited and quite pleased with how our whole "schedule" is going so far - God has blessed us with flexibility and two girls who are okay with changes to routine! Pili is doing beautifully with school, and Adie is picking up quite a bit as she tags along! I thought I would be pulling my hair out about now, having given up my "free time" and having the girls with me 24/7. While it is certainly difficult at times, I am loving having them home. We are getting to spend time with each other, and I am learning so much about each of them. What they really like, how they learn, what interests them, and what special ways God has for me to reach out to them as individuals. They both have such precious faith - and I am so thankful for that.

Pili learned just the other day to ride her "two-wheeler"!!! There was much cheering, let me tell you! I'll post pictures soon - but she is now mobile and lovin' it! Adie has now decided that she needs to learn, so the process is starting all over again! We had a great time outside today, and Pili rode probably 4 miles on her "big girl" bike while Adie and I did 2 miles with me holding her on her little bike. It's times like this that we would miss if I weren't homeschooling.

I'm off for bed - maybe tomorrow I'll get it together a little earlier and post some more pictures!

Just starting!

Hello all! Yes, we are joining the ranks of those who keep their journals, pictures, and calendars and weekly goings-on on the internet! I have no idea what this will look like as we progress, but I know that while our family is spread all over the country, we yearn to be closer to each of y'all. Therefore - I'll do my best to keep this updated as I can... I'm learning to take and download pictures, and am trying to get back into the discipline of writing. We pray that this will allow our friends and family to keep up with us, even when we can't seem to find 15 free minutes to call you on the phone!

The picture on the left is Pili, now 7, with her first project of homeschooling - a first pass study of Native Americans. The red figure in the center is a wigwam, and the two teepees on each side were all handcrafted by Pili. She really enjoyed this section of study....

The picture on the right is Adie (3) and Pili in the midst of enjoying a late summer day rainstorm! It was a welcome rain, and the girls wanted to play in the "lake" that forms at the bottom of our driveway. AAhhhh, youth!

We pray that each of you is healthy and full of peace!