Our days are numbered, what do we do?

"LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered--how fleeting my life is."  Psalm 39:4

I don't want to sound morbid but reality bites. So while we can, we live our life to the fullest. How?

Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Number our days 
Is it money? or number of houses?  Cars? women? Cities you have travelled? Luxury bags or apparel? Achievement or awards?  God will not look at these numbers.  How do we get the numbers?  Let us think of these:

How many years have you live?

How many years have you been -
As a daughter or a son?
As a sibling?
As a parent?
As a worker?
As an employer?
As a student?
As a Christian? (Have you learned about and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?)

So after determining the numbers, let us think of the past and present so that the outcome will guide us on how to live our future or until our brief time on earth ends.

1.  Blessings - in all these numbers, have you thought of how faithful and good our God is, even if we have not been good and faithful?  Have we been thankful?

2. Relationships - let us go back to each of the stages in our life and think about how fruitful and meaningful the relationships were. If there were not good or broken or even superficial, we might as well reconnect with them, say sorry and make up before it's too late.  There is a reason why  we were there in their lives, if there is an opportunity to start over again, do it and share God's love. It might be that our long lost friend is troubled and need God right now.  Let us be the channel.

3. Spending time with and for the Lord.  Going back to the questions above, in all the years you have been on this earth, how many hours have you spent with The Lord - Reading and meditating on His words, praising and worshipping Him, doing what pleases God and not men. Sharing your blessings, spending time, resources and talent for His ministry. To bring others to Christ and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).  Going back to number 1 and thinking about God's love and faithfulness, isn't it about time that we give back by numbering our days right?

I know it's difficult or we're probably in denial on how life should be lived because we are so caught up in the busyness of life and our web of worldly treasures. But they are all fleeting.  God is just waiting and we just need to respond quickly before it's too late.

The Parent is the child's first and best teacher

The title of this blog entry is a quote from my favorite homeschooling blogger Mariel of The Learning Basket.

I have not considered homeschooling an option because I want my children to enhance and develop their social skills in a regular school. They need that because of their introvert nature.  But I think I could use the freebies to further help my children in mastering the lessons they learn in school.  The idea of homeschooling still appeals to me because you will have control and you will know the progress of your children through the activities and evaluation/tests that they will undergo. I know it's going to be hard to find time to do this now that my parents went home, but I will try my best to juggle my work and home front and do my version of homeschooling (teaching them when they are home).

I found many sites on homeschooling and some of them are the regular sites that my children visit even without asking them.  Starfall.com is their favourite. I have come up with links to my favourite homeschooling resource and blogs.  This list is also for my sister who will relinquish her successful career to become a full time mom to Candy and Carlisle when they go to the US next year.

Homeschooling Resource and Freebies:
Free Homeschool Deals
IXL Learning
Thinking Blocks
Starfall
Life of Fred Mathematics
Time for Learning
Vocabulary Spelling City
Kids numbers

Here are my favourite moms whom I respect and admire for their dedication and hardwork in homeschooling, managing the home fulltime (something that I can't do without being insane) and updating their blogs regularly to keep me inspired and entertained.

Homeschoolers Blogs:
 The learning basket
Teach with Joy
The Mommy Journey
Our Family for His Glory
Filipino Homeschoolers

There are more sites out there but the above list are those I have tried using as my reference in my "homeschooling".

Next, our other favorite activity: Reading

Book Review: Tops and Bottoms

My kids love to read and I also love reading to them. It gives us both quality time and added knowledge on the books that we read even if they are for kids.  The latest book that we read is called TOPS and BOTTOMS by Janet Stevens.

The book is both for young and old as the story can happen in real life.

The story revolves around a rich but lazy Bear who owns a big land and poor but clever Hare. It shows how life can be turned around if you are lazy even if you are very rich. The Hare gives hope to those who are poor but are hardworking and smart.

Because Hare has a big family and Bear owns a land but only sleeps anyway, he asked Bear to become his business partner.  Hare proposed that his family will plant on the land and they will split the harvest based on tops or bottoms. The choices that Bear made between tops and bottoms were not  wise because at the time he is being asked, he is always sleepy. In between the pages of this book are nice illustrations that depict the story and sent my children to boisterous laughter.

I told my children that the story shows how you can be tricked when you are not focused and want only to enjoy life.  Life is not only about having fun and letting time pass without accomplishing anything. We are supposed to work and plan before play and enjoy.  I hope you will find a copy of this book and read to your children. Enjoy TOPS and BOTTOMS by Janet Stevens.

Pensive thoughts on blogging

I admit that I thought of removing my blog from the Internet.  This blog was not regularly updated it couldn't even pass for the word blog which means web log, a daily log of activities.  But then I thought that I will erase my digital footprint and I could still use this site to bring good news. Well, I started this blog with my stuff, activities and happenings, then my family's and I realized that I could use the journals for my kids to go back to and for my scrapbooking (another neglected hobby of mine).

My temporary absence in the blogging world does not mean there's nothing going on in my life.  It's been very busy actually that I didn't find time to put them in writing. My apologies to my followers if you are still out there. I hope I can still go back and blog the significant events of my life. I want to thank those who have visited this site.  I still find visitors to this site from all over and I hope that my entries have been helping in whatever you are googling about.

I promise to keep this blog updated and bring you the information you need or will be interested in.

Irmee