So here we are in Florida again. Fun, fun.

Actually, Hubby is here on business and I’ve just tagged along with the family. We’re having a great time on the weekends though.

We’re spending a lot of time at the beaches. Last weekend we drove from Pensacola to Mobile, AL and took Nyomi and Zoe to the Exploreum. Now that was a lot of fun. We’ll have to get pictures of that soon.

On a personal note, I have quite a few things going on.

First of all, I’m going through some metamorphosis. My body is changing, or attempting to get back to normal (that’s the “body after baby” syndrome) and I’m not liking the amount of time it’s taking to get back to the way it was…and I wonder if it ever will. So there’s a little insecurity there, but I’m working through it.

Secondly, my hormones must be going mad because I keep tearing up over nothing. It’s just one of those things I suppose that we women have to deal with in life. I certainly don’t want it to affect my family, though…so that’s another thing in my life I’m having to keep in check.

Thirdly, I’m going through a business transition. I have part of hte answer already about what I am to do with Faith Media, and it may take some time to get things settled, so I took down the website. I’m putting a hold on all techie coaching and product info. Everything WAHM University related is also on hold.

Fourthly, I’m finally doing something I ALWAYS wanted to do. I’m writing my 1st book!

Well, it’s not my first book in actuality. I’ve written several manuscripts and novels since I was a kid until now. Many of them I’ve lost over the course of moving and what not. I’m finally writing a non-fiction book which I intend to have published.

I can’t say much more about it right now, but I will in due time.

Okay, off to bed.

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

I can’t believe it’s been what seems like ages since my last post.

Since then, I’ve had an anniversary (7 years of a beautiful happy marriage!).

We’re also back in Florida again…this time for some official business with my husband that I’m not at liberty to discuss, but it’s work related.  The kids are with us, and meanwhile we’re having a great family time also.

There’s a beach here at the place we’re staying and I take the girls down to the beach and the playground every morning.  Nyomi decided this morning that she didn’t want to go down to the beach anymore for a while because “it’s too sandy and I just get too tired”.

It’s been a long summer break.

However, we’re officially back in school now.  We began our school year early, the second week of July.  (We’ve been on break since April).

I’m finding our second year of homeschooling to be easier in terms of knowing what to expect…but I’m also finding it a bit more challenging because with each increasing grade I realize the groundwork that I’ll need to cover exceeds the year before…and as much as I love teaching, sometimes I do get nervous, I’ll admit.  It’s only 1st grade, but I do want to make sure she’s learning all that needs to with no gaps in her learning.

That’s just a personality thing.  I like to cover all my bases.  It can be irritating to some people, but that kind of  reassurance makes my life flow smoother to me.

I’ve been following the guidelines for each grade’s curriculum from  a certain book…If I get a moment to locate the book later, I’ll post it.

And about little Zoe…she’s nearly 8 months old now– standing up hands free for seconds at a time, clapping, giggling and laughing, playing shy and coy, flirting, fussing, and loving.   Yes, she’s growing fast.  And I’ll have to post a picture of her soon too.

Okay, off to bed…

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Today we had a great family meeting. We discussed our overall vision for the Zinga family, including some things we want to see happening in our family soon.

ONe of the biggest deals for our family would be scheduling.

God is really dealing with me about both creating and keeping a schedule of routine for the kids’ peace of mind, and also for my sanity. We’ve created schedules in the past but never kept them. We are such a laissez faire group that at times it’s hard to really pin ourselves down, but I’m learning to see beyond being “pinned” down and embrace the opportunities that regular routine bring.

Which leads me to the point that I’ll actually need to be home more to make this work for us. Currently our schedule leads us out the door every other day and sometimes every day. As a homeschool family, I’m finding that most of our schooling is being done in bits and pieces, small chunks and increments here and there…and it’s working for me, but not necessarily for Nyomi. She’d much rather stick with a topic and explore it into full depth until she tires of it, while I’d rather hit and miss, touch on the topic lightly and break it up into interesting tidbits to chew on a little at a time. In homeschool, I’m learning that if my teaching style differs from my child’s learning style, then I must adapt to meet her needs.

So that’s what I’m doing now…

Anyway, the family meeting went well and we’re set for some changes in responsibilities (how we can all pitch in and help each other out), respect (how to honor one another more), and “visioneering” (how we can set the tone for the future of our family by creating a vision applicable to us).

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Wow…I’m 31 today.

Thank you, Jesus for giving me life, health, strength and a beautiful family.

I am grateful to all that You’ve done for me.

Thank you, family, for being my backbone, my support, my joy and my reason for keeping on every day of my life.  To my husband, for being my best friend and loving me for all that I am and despite all that I am not.  To my daughter Nyomi for bearing with me as I strive daily to be a godly momma, teach her, and love her.  To my baby girl, Zoe, for giving me many moments of joy and contentment as I watch her blossom and grow.

Thank you, friends, for being my prayer partners, my confidantes…

Thank you, partners in the ministry, for being ready and available to serve God with me and support other Christian women around the globe.

Heading out to Red Lobster in a bit…

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Notice anything different?

Yep, I’ve changed the look of my blog yet again.

The older template just wasn’t working for INternet Explorer, and of course I never test it in Explorer because I’m a Firefox user.

Well someone (actually my husband) pointed out to me recently that one had to scroll midway down the page to begin reading my posts and I had no clue how to fix that in the old template…

so here we are. On to new and better things.

I hope it proves more organized and easier to navigate too…

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Here’s a link from Christian Ladies Connect — an online study of the women of the Bible.

Enjo– http://christianladies.net/2008/06/18/lets-study-the-women-of-the-bible/

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

We’ve taken periodic breaks from school this summer but are still officially homeschooling off and on throughout so we don’t completely forget stuff…

Nyomi has been doing lots of reading (mostly Beverly Cleary books and one classic “A Little Princess”).  We’ll start our study unit on butterflies as soon as we get the butterflies ordered, that is…and we’re mostly just spending lots of time outdoors at parks, visiting with friends, visiting museums and the library for special programs, puppet shows, and classes.   Nyomi also just had a birthday a few days ago and is now 6 years old!  We’re really excited about this upcoming year of adventure.

Zoe is now 6 1/2 months old and is crawling, flipping, and pulling herself up to standing positions.  She’s growing quickly, as they do and I’m having a blast watching every minute of it!  She gets into everything her eyes can see.  Already I can see that she’s a handful, but I wouldn’t have it any other way

My husband is wonderful as always.  We’ve been having interesting discussions lately about politics and this upcoming election.  I’m still undecided about who to vote for, but it is becoming clearer.

Christian Ladies Connect is getting back on track with new conferences, with our latest starting no later than June 23.

Prepare ‘08 is the theme for this summer’s Christian women’s convention, and is completely and virtually online.  If you’re interested in registering you can do that here:

http://christianladies.net/prepare08/signup.html

Okay, on to get some sleep…

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Yesterday I wrote a post about the Christian marriage and submission…

Check it out here…

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

This weekend we attended CHEF (Christian Homeschoolers Education Fellowship) Convention in Birmingham.

It was really nice, though not nearly as crowded as last year…so there ended up being less vendors in the curriculum hall…but it made for a quieter and less crowded events and workshops. More for me.

I really enjoyed many of the workshops. I especially liked Kay Ness who did a few workshops on the neurodevelopmental aspects of learning math and reading. She has a very scientific background, which I think really helps to explain learning pathways to the non-scientific person like me. She had a few good pointers that helped me understand how to really teach math — what I should or shouldn’t expect my daughter to learn at this age and how to actually go about teaching her. It just made a lot of sense to me. I like my info bottom line, cut and dry, to the point…and she had that really meat-y information I was looking for.

Some of the other speakers were inspirational, fun, or entertaining…all of which made the whole conference a well rounded experience for me.

What I really liked about this year’s conference (besides getting a chance to meet so many cool homeschooling families across Alabama) was that Integrity Music was there, and their children’s worship instructor (Annette Oden) facilitated a children’s worship workshops and Nyomi got to participate. They got to practice a few choreographed worship songs and perform the following morning during the main assembly. IT was beautiful! The children were so free to worship, jump, praise, and dance. Those kids made me proud. It was the highlight of my daughter’s time there and she had a blast!

It was so good my husband bought the 52 week children’s worship curriculum (SPK 52), and I plan to use it in our homeschool this coming school year.

I got some good used science curriculum at the used book sale. Then in the curriculum hall, I ran upon some good grammar material (Shurley Grammar). I purchased it after another homeschool mom gave me raving reviews on it. I also got a few books on motherhood, biblical womanhood, and all those topics that mean so much to me in this phase of my life. Not just the typical self help books, but books that show me the good ol’ ancient ways of womanhood that WORKED. I want the real deal. I want real advice that worked in the past and will work today for every woman who loves God. I don’t ever want to go back to the “good ol’ days”, but I have great respect and reverence for the way women honored their families back then. There was none of the selfishness that modernization has brought upon today’s typical pop culture family. I could write a whole post on that…but I’ll save that for another time.

You know, I have pictures galore on my camera…but I’m having a hard time getting my camera to sync with this PC.

Once I get it working on my laptop I’ll have pictures of Nyomi dancing on stage during the worship session. That was fun

While we were away at CHEF this weekend, Nyomi received her new Strawberry Shortcake dolls (which her daddy ordered for her when she lost her other one in our luggage at Delta the week before last). She still misses the old one dearly, but is beginning to enjoy the new doll, although it does look a little different from the one she had before.

Update on Zoe: she’s a strong baby! She’s now 5 1/2 months old, scooting, flipping over, pulling my hair, squeezing my nose, shoving her fist in my mouth, and verbally fussing or happily squealing depending on her mood. She’s eating pureed pears, apples, carrots, squash, sweet peas, sweet potatoes, and of course her rice and oatmeal cereal. She’s still nursing. It’s sad to know that it won’t be long before the use of my beloved nursing cover and sling will be over as she’s getting older. I so enjoy the feeling of having my baby receive her nourishment from me. Breastfeeding is so intimately beautiful. I’ll really miss these days when they’re gone…which is why I want to purpose to live in the moment as often as I can and enjoy Zoe being a baby. I have no complaints — she’s a really good baby. Nevertheless, I know she must grow up. I’ve learned with Nyomi that they grow really fast, and when they do I must transition along beside them. I am learning to embrace Nyomi’s maturity and her growth, knowing that it is a process in life that is inevitable. Part of me just wants to reject it…almost as if I am afraid of her growing up. Each time I look at her it seems that she’s grown another inch and it almost scares me– but I have to constantly remind myself that yes, she will get taller and wiser and older, but it just means that I as mom will need to adjust to her next stage of life and parent her from a new perspective with each new phase of her growth.

Motherhood…

Speaking of that…there is another transition that I feel happening within my spirit about the direction of my business/ministry. As I’ve been praying about direction for Faith Media the Lord has shown me a few things already…

It seems that I’ll either be completely phasing out tech help to work at home moms or adding on a new business venture that will be a family based business - a publishing company. Ebooks, audios, and curriculum will be in the works…

Meanwhile, anything that compromises my position as wife and mother will have to go out the door. My time is so valuable and precious, and tech coaching isn’t exactly my cup of tea these days. I love teaching it, but just don’t have time for all the one on one stuff. I have SOOO many more projects and dreams and visions that need to be brought forth and I can’t hold it within the box of my degree (tech degree = life calling/career). It’s really not true.

Women’s ministry is still definitely very important to me, and is part of my calling. Therefore, Christian Ladies Connect will continue on. MOre word about this year’s summer convention soon.

What about my programs on internet marketing, podcasting, etc.?

I don’t know. Times are changing and in order to truly sell reputable online courses I’d have to continue to revise and update my video courses which is something I actually dread doing for my Podcasting Basics 101 (bootcamp). I put so much time and energy into creating it only to watch new methods of podcasting unfold and new services and companies online which offer different platforms (that make even more sense to me than what I’ve offered in the course). I’ve also seen companies go obsolete and disappear online after I’ve created a course based on how to use their services. That’s really bad. Internet marketing…same thing. What works today may not work tomorrow. Today’s Google algorithm may get me that much-needed traffic…but next year the algorithm may change and I may be back to #4 or 5 instead of #1 under a key term in Google…and to be honest, I don’t have a team of experts working for me in Faith Media to help me keep on top of the internet marketing game, and I obviously don’t have time during this phase of my life to stay on top of Google or any other search engine marketing for new strategies, etc., nor do I have the desire to. So that phase of my business is over.

It hasn’t been reflected on my website yet, but is something I’m redeveloping with time.

Okay, time for bed…

I’ve got to get some rest and think about my goals for the upcoming 2nd half of this year 2008.

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Our trip to Orlando was crazy and fun!

I can’t even believe we went to Disney World, after so many years of talking about it..but we finally did it.

So we arrived on Sunday, April 27th by plane…and Delta lost my luggage at the airport. Don’t know what happened and we’re going through the claims process even now…but I had packed away our whole life just about in that one suitcase (my stuff, and the kids’). All of our summer/spring stuff was in there - shorts, shirts, designer dresses, perfume, hats, shoes, bathing suits, underwear and socks — EVERYTHING… not to mention some other pretty important items like cameras, a Video Now Jr., my daughter’s special Strawberry Shortcake doll that she’s slept with every night since she was 2, and my most favorite study bible of all time.

All gone, just like that.

What’s up, Delta?

But moving on…

We had a great time that week regardless of the setback. We ended up at Walmart for a good bit of that Sunday after arriving to get more clothes, camera, shoes, and basic necessities that were in the bag which was lost.

Well we slept on it…it was going to be okay. We stayed at the Shades of Green resort , which was relaxing…so I got better quickly.

Monday morning we got up, boarded our rental SUV and set toward Sea World after eating at Olive Garden. We spent the whole day there and got to see Shamu!

 And here we are with little Zoe fast asleep…

A little water fun…

Sea World was a ton of walking. Walk, walk, walk. With no shuttles or lifts to transport you around the huge campgrounds you’re really glad to have strollers for the kids and wish you had one for yourself.

Day 2 we set out for Magic Kingdom at Disney World. This is where Nyomi had her most fun. she enjoyed dressing up like Aurora and getting a princess makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. (Pictures coming soon).

She also got to take pictures with Belle at storytime by the castle. (picture coming soon).

There were so many attractions there. She loves the Merry go Round, visiting Minnie’s house and hanging out in Pooh’s playground.

We also hung around a bit at Epcott Center where she rode on a spaceship thingie with Fabien. Zoe and I just strolled around in the sun and I grabbed cheese filled pretzel. Fattening but good.

AFter her makeover we attended the big show (I can’t remember what it’s called) but it’s the main attraction of Magic Kingdom.

The next day (Day 3), we missed breakfast for sleeping in too late, but drove out toward Tampa to Busch Gardens.

Now THAT was my favorite place. There, we got to see attractions like Jungala, wild animals, the African “safari”, a cool show with African dancers…and we even rode the cable cars high above so we could see the view below. It was breathtaking!

There were face paintings, drummers, and lots of cultural sites to behold. Not to mention the variety of artistic shops set up to sell native African garb.

Nyomi rode on the bumper cars there with Fabien, but she didn’t like that her car was actually being “bumped”

Not to worry, her daddy made sure little Princess stayed clear of all mean little drivers.

We cut our time at Busch Gardens in half so that we could make it out to Adventure Island before it closed (and boy did they close early at about 5 or 6). I didn’t much there since it’s a water park and I don’t swim. Fabien went on just about every water ride while I stayed with the girls in a cozy beach like area near the sand and shallow water to splash our feet in. I took some vidoe footage of this and lots of pics. I’ll be sure to add pics when I can.

That night we took a detour by the airport to see if we might find our luggage (still no success), got sidetracked on the side of the highway while we waited on our GPS system to boot up so we wouldn’t get lost, then found our way to Cici’s Pizza for a late (and I mean really late) dinner.

That was our last full day in Orlando. The next morning we awoke to a beautiful breakfast at our resort’s restaurant in the downstairs lobby.

 Meanwhile my husband was secretly rushing me around so he could get me to some surprise that I had no clue about.  Before I know it we’re roaming around the golf course of the resort, circle the swimming pool, and end up right in front of a massage table!  So that was my surprise — my 1st professional massage.  Thanks, Hubby!  (and thanks Angela from upstate New York!)

we then rush upstairs to get our stuff out of the room and check out before 11 a.m.

Next was lunch, a quick stop at Disney Downtown for the last time (and while there we caught a movie - College Road- and ate a jumbo popcorn) and ate at Haggen Dazs from which I fell sick the next day by the way.

Then to Walmart to return some items, to the gas station to fill her up, to the airport, boarding the plane and off in the late evening sky back toward Birmingham, Alabama.  Through all of this, Zoe was AMAZING!  She wasn’t fussy at all on the plane rides and pretty much enjoyed being strolled around during the whole trip.  Nyomi, as usual, was eager to ride the plane for the first time and she just totally dove into all the new sights, sounds, and experiences.

We drove home from Birmingham that night and the kids fell asleep, exhausted from such a long trip.  We arrived home an hour later (around midnight) and tucked Nyomi in her princess bed with Disney ears on and fully clothed (except the shoes).  She was knocked out for the night.  Zoe went to her crib and it wasn’t until an hour later that Hubby and I finally got settled in for sleep.

What a trip!!!  Oh, but it was so much fun!

Exhausting, but fun.

Twitter This

Usuario: Password: