Why Doesnt Prayer Work?

Why doesnt God hear us who pray? Why aren't the sick always healed. I am having a semi- faith crisis. I am very sad for a family who has had a lot of people praying and their child is only getting sicker. I am sad for another family I prayed for and their child died. Why? If God answers us who ask....then why? If anyone can help me with this very important question, it would be appreciated. Thank you, just having a  rough day.

Excited

For a few things......first, IM BLONDE AGAIN yayayyay. Second, we finished 2.5 weeks of homeschooling thus far and public schools havent even started back yet, woop woop. Third, I am excited for how much fun we have gotton to have this summer with friends and family. Jaxxon started crawling 4 days before turning 9 months(not bad for a preemie), I got a new camera, we have been doing lots of riding and Nate's training his horse for bow hunting! Nothing feels better than being off the mountain:)

Had to Blog About It!!!!

We started our first day back to school yesterday and went to dinner last night to celebrate our back to school. Its been a fun week so far and I just wanted to say, My Fathers World Creation to Greeks is SO...MUCH....FUN!!!! Let me tell you what a perfect balance it is of reading and hands on, but not junky and boring hands on. This is fun stuff. We have tried, Rod and Staff, Abeka, Five in a Row(LOVED), and Sonlight along with unschooling and just doing our own thing over the years. This is our 7th year homeschooling and I cannot beleive how much we are loving My Fathers World(Delux pkg). I am already thinking we will use it again next year. Its just an amazingly Biblical based curriculum that really goes in depth and brings the Bible to life through experiences, art, science and captivating books like Dinosaurs in Eden. I love doing Bible study each morning with Daddy involved also because the place in the Bible we are reading pertains directly to things we will do that day in school. Its neat because he knows around about what we are learning each day, leaving him feeling more involved. It is my prayer that each family has/could find a curriculum that they love as much as we love this one!

What we are currently using for the year:
My Fathers World, Creation to Greeks Delux package with all children, Notebooks and student sheets with 6th, 4th and 3rd grader. This package includes a timeline we hung in our homeschool room and will add to all year, notebooking sheets for the 4 oldest kids, vocabulary(latin/greek/hebrew) program, Creation science, read alouds, Bible feasts and Victor Journey through the Bible, and fun project books about Egypt and other places mentioned in early Old Testament times. I love the Bible really being the backbone to our education!

Kayla 6th grade: Abeka Language of God series for LA, Singapore math, Abeka Spelling
Wyatt and Everett(3rd and 4th grade): Abeka Language arts and arithmatic
Tanner(K/1st): Horizons math, Hooked on phonics 1 and 2 Kindergarten, My Fathers World little readers series.
Kenna(Pre K age almost 4): Rod and Staff preschool workbooks, PreK hooked on phonics
MaddiMae(2yo): Joins big sis Kenna in workbooks, coloring and listening to hooked on phonics PreK CD rom!
Jaxxon(9mo): plays with a big box of fun baby toys!
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When is your......Back to School?

We start back July 5th and I can't wait! We have been out since May 1st so I am aching for routine and I am super excited about our curriculum this year. We will be doing My Fathers World, Creation to Greeks. We plan to work for 4 weeks and then take 1 off work 4 then 1 off all year with the exception of 2 weeks at Christmas and finish again around the begining of May. How do you ladies do your school years? We enjoy May/June off because its nice weather and I notice by July we become so overheated that we prefer to be indoors anyhow. So back to school is RIGHT around the corner for us. :) yay

On a side note, I am asking for prayers. 4 of our 7 kids have chicken pox(including baby Jaxxon), 5 of us have just finished passing around the stomach virus and now a cold is also going around all at the same time. Some of the kids were puking while covered in chicken pox. Its been a really rough week and yet I am so thankful I was first to get sick because I got better fast and have been able to care for my family, including my poor husband who is now on his second virus in 6 days.

Completely Random

Um I totally had a moment of baby fever today. Totally random I know. Someone slap me. I am def not pregs. I just wished I was......for. a. moment. Okay had to get that off my chest! xoxoxo

My New Love

This is Hank, our newest addition to the horse clan! He is about 9 and his owner, a 76 year old man, passed away on Thanksgiving so we became his proud new family this weekend. He has completely stolen my heart. As huge as he is(about 16.2 or 16.3 hands), he is the biggest lovey baby:) I am so excited for all the riding I will get to do with him!

Virtual Tour of Our New Home

 Foyer area to the front door

 Right inside front door and to the left is the entrance to the homeschool room

 Homeschool room is a work in progress but its coming along really nicely

 Homeschool room

 Got the easel at our homeschools curriulum sale this week for 5 bucks yay

 Nate just hung that fan and I love it

 Now onto the kitchen

 Where all the food is made

 My brother painted those saws!

 From dining

 The blessing of a huge dining area for our big family

 The living/den

 Its hard to get a good pic of this room, but its a wonderful and large yet cozy room

 The barn

 Hallway bath

 Hallway bath

 Girls room

 Boys room, 2 sets of bunks

 My room

 My bathroom

 a double showerhead shower yes I am way excited!

 front of house

 garage and extra house(rental)

Horses in pasture!

God is soooo gracious to make provisions such as our new home. I am so very blessed

To Answer a Few ???s

1. We are all moved in and almost done unpacking. Have a few things to do outside still.
2. While I think skirts and dresses can be(if worn correctly) more modest than anything else, we don't entirely wear dresses and skirts. I am trying to get myself and my girls to wear them as preference over other things, but I do think for horses, trampoline and a few other select things like gardening, bermudas or jeans are more modest/comfy for us.

That's all for today and I am just so greatful to God that we were able to get moved down the mountain safely and smoothly. Its wonderful to be back in our hometown. Getting to see family and old friends means the world. I have missed them all so very much!

Moving!

We made it just shy of a year up here in the mountains. We learned so many valuable lessons and most importantly, that we are not mountain folk! We will be moving tomorrow morning. I will post pics of the new house when we get settled in and for now I will be missing for a bit. Everything is packed and we are "camping" in our house tonight. We will start our move early tomorrow morning. Please pray for us that we will get everybody/thing off the mountain and to our new home safely. Thank you all in advance:)

Words Haven't Been Coming Easily

There's been a lot of stress. I'm not handling it well. I admit it. Moving again(3rd time in 3 years) is almost too overwhelming to think about. I am thrilled to move to our hometown again, yet the work involved and the logisitics of moving with 7 children, 3 horses, 2 dogs and a cat is not a picnic. I've literally worked myself up to the point of having full blown, nasty, panic attacks. I have struggled with anxiety on and off in my teen and adult years. My entire family battles this annoying problem and usually positive self-talk will do the trick but these attacks have been worse than anything I have ever experienced. I mean.....heart thumping, body parts going numb, profuse sweating, complete paranoia, insomnia etc. I have also completely stopped trying to lose weight months ago when I reached my goal weight of 125, WELL I AM NOW 114(way toooooooo bony/skinny) this is what I weighed in highschool. I cannot beleive I weigh this small of an amount as a mother of 7 who eats a lot and I am 5' 5".

I finally caved and went to see my Dr assuming I am under stress and this is just panic, I was admitting defeat and hoping for a medicine I could take just on the ocassion of a bad attack. What I found out instead is my TSH is almost undetectable. I am extremely hyperthyroid so that is why I have had such severe panic/weight loss and then add the stress of moving in there and its been a recipe for disaster. I am asking for prayers for peace and healing of my thyroid. I do not want to do anything radical medically. I just am praying fervently that it will right itself in a short time as I had this issue after my 3rd child as well and it just corrected itself on its own. Panic attacks are not fun and that is certain. I am just trying to medititate, pray and relax as much as possible as I beleive our mind-body connection is strong and I am guessing the stress through my body for a loop so I am working on destressing. Prayers are greatly appreciated though as I beleive strongly in the power of prayer. Thank you in advance.

Moving

           I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall off the map. We have been super busy and are getting ready to move off the mountain back to our old town and I am soooo excited. I miss our homeschool group, family, friends, church.........everything. Its a very busy time for us but I will be updating more once we are in our new place. It has 1.25 acres, the horses have already been moved off the mountain and are loving their new pasture and sunshine! We are working hard to get the house ready for move in. We are praying that we will be in by May 1st but there is a lot to be finished. Oh and for those who are wondering why we are moving, well the mountains have caused us way too many health issues including all of us being severely vitamin D deficient and our horses have had a terrible time keeping weight despite shelter and blankets so its just not for us. We made it 10 months but they were long, VERY long.