The tie breaker baby (we’ve got 2 boys and 2 girls) has revealed that the GIRLS are going to dominate the household!!!

The PINK announcement to the kids was a celebration complete with balloons and silly string.

Super Mario Brothers

Toad. Princess Peach. Mario. Yoshi.

We are MOVING!!

from Texas… to Portland, Oregon.

Why Portland, Oregon?

To answer that question we need to take reflect on the last two years. Knowing the Lord was preparing our family to spread His Gospel further, we began praying where and what that looked like. Through months of praying, God cultivated in our heart a passion to see the Gospel go forth in a very unreached, unchurched, and liberal minded city. As we tried to sort out what that meant, we came upon the town of Lawrence, Kansas and immediately fell in love with the community and desperately prayed for the Gospel to take hold in that city.  We moved forward with preparations to move our family to Lawrence and plant a new church. However, the Lord began to reveal that He had something else chosen for our family. While unsure of what the Lord was going to do, we waited patiently. We continued to pray the Lord would bring the Gospel to Lawrence, even if it was not us that would specifically be the ones to see that manifest. We continued to pray the Lord would open doors for the exact place He chose for our family to fulfill His mission.

We spent many weeks in prayer and reflected on how the Lord had grown us through the past few years of ministry. God had placed us with specific churches, ministries, and people that have helped us refine our gifts and passions. In particular, we have witnessed several struggling churches close their doors for various reasons. Over time we began to feel a burden for churches that lacked strong pastoral leadership and were on the brink of closing their doors. Not only this, but our hearts became passionate for “replanting” or “revitalizing” a church, which essentially is taking an existing culture and morphing it into one that is focused on the Gospel.

As God was doing a new work in our hearts, He was also doing much work with a church in the middle of the Portland metro area. Through only what can be explained by the hand of our sovereign King, God connected us together. While on vacation in Portland, we visited with a church that is located in the Southeast area of the city and has been pastor-less for 2 years. The church is located in an area known as “felony flats,” which from the name alone you can imagine that it is not located in the best part of town. The church is also located 2 miles from Reed College, the infamous anti-religious university that was made famous in the Christian world through Don Miller’s book, “Blue Like Jazz.” Most of the congregation consists of older believers, middle to lower income families, and even a few near homeless individuals. The building is tucked in between two declining elementary schools, but no young children attend the church, nor does the church have a presence in the city. The leadership of the church shared their desperation for the city, for the lost, and their desire to stay relevant. They also expressed a need for strong leadership that would revitalize the church so that they could go out and revitalize the city in the name of Christ.

A few weeks passed by as we continually asked the Lord for clarity. During this time God evidently burdened our hearts for the people of this church in Portland. He developed within me compassion for the lost in this area and for the current congregation who has been fighting the good fight without a pastor. Little did I realize that the Lord has been preparing our hearts for Portland, Oregon over the last 18 months. Drawing our hearts to a city of extreme spiritual poverty. In the last month I have taken two more trips out to Portland and this past weekend, I humbly accepted the position of Lead Pastor of Flavel Street Baptist Church.

I have been amazed by the beauty of God’s timing through an 18 month journey to reach Portland, Oregon. We are going forth as missionaries to a completely different culture, one that we have already fallen deeply in love with. We are asking God to go before us and draw the city to Himself.

We will be moving to Portland in December after I finish out my semester as a Professor of Political Science at North Central Texas College. Soon we will be posting ways in which you can get involved in helping us replant this church in one of the least churched cities in the United States. We have already began to formulate a non-profit organization called, “Reach Portland,” which will serve as a fundraising organization to help raise support to share Christ with the city of Portland, serve the needs of the church and it’s members, and provide salary/insurance for our family in order to do the full-time work that the Lord is calling us to. Our hope is that Reach Portland eventually serves as an organization that helps support other pastors and teams to come plant or replant churches in the Portland area.

Thank you all you have been praying for our family and supporting us these past few years. I want to especially thank the leadership and people of CityView Church and Christ Community Church who has loved us well for the pat 3+ years. Their dedication to families, pastors, and the gospel in unmatched. Please pray for Flavel Street Baptist Church that God will continue to fuel their passion for change and for His Son Jesus. Also, pray we find a house soon, for our family to have a smooth transition to the Pacific Northwest, and that God will ignite people’s hearts to financially support us. Finally, pray for the city of Portland. It needs Jesus desperately. Pray that the Lord would send us very strong leadership that will support our efforts in bringing the Gospel to this city.

What an amazing journey the Lord is allowing us to participate in and we thank Him for all that He is done and will do. Glory alone to Him.

Kyle & Cassie

Finished our Creation Unit!
Each child made their own Creation Books filled with their artwork for each day of God’s creation.

Each school day was complete with a Creation Day snack.
I’m so not creative… I had to really stretch to come up with these!

Of the most precious gifts is when Daddy gets to join school.
Thankful for a father that teaches his children the Gospel, as well as their ABC’s.

VERY excited it was ‘warm’ and not blazing ‘hot’ in triple digits!

We learned about how the Bible was written on scrolls (also making our own ABC scroll) and stored in clay pots.
We had a great time getting our hands dirty as we made our own clay pots out of modeling clay.
Through the activity we talked how God is the Potter and we are clay, molded in His image.

The baby joined us for school. Excited, isn’t she?
She is a wild woman so we try to schedule our school (instruction time) during her naptime.
I have tried everything from toys, busy bags, feeding her a continuous supply of food…
all she wants to do is climb the table, rip the other kids papers, eat crayons, lick the glue sticks, ect.
Any suggestions on how to keep her occupied while the bigger kids are working?
Working on patterns.
Read “One Two Three Sassafras” and then acted out our own version.
The kids used their age and lined themselves up from largest to smallest number, then yell out “sassafras” to take a photo.
Very cute book and the kids absolutely loved making their own story up.

I think we are settling in to a routine and smoothing out some of the first days of school behavior issues. There have been some tough moments. There have been some amazing moments. There have been moments when I have thought it would be so nice to send them off to school and I could just clean my house! But then I realize that the sacrifice of my time teaching is priceless.

I’ve witnessed the Holy Spirit working on my children’s hearts so clearly these last couple of weeks through homeschool. I see that sparkle in their eyes when the master something they’ve been trying to understand. I see them tackle daddy at the door with their artwork from the day, beaming with pride. I see them learning to love each other unconditionally through daily friction. Living day in and day out with each other is hard. They get frustrated with each other. I get frustrated with them. But we are all learning to practice forgiveness and grace. Thankful for God is using this to refine me. He is changing me from the inside. He is using my children to change me. He is using the calling of homeschooling them to change me. I need Him more than ever. I need His wisdom, grace, and faith.
Thankful that it is abundantly poured out.

This past week FLEW by. We had so much going on that we were sad to see the weekend come. As our first official year of homeschooling, I’ve been anxious to see how all my months of planning and preparation would come to fruition. And I can honestly say that I was so so happy with our first week. We definitely had some behavior issues, whining, and competition between the siblings… but overall they were excited to learn and towards the end of the week began encouraging each other in their work. We learned a new hymn “My Father’s World” which we sang every day – my two boys put their arms around each other and swayed back and forth singing together. Precious memory forever.
Here is a bit more of a look into our week.

Using our fun FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL photos I made a “bio” of each kid that included grade, likes, personality, and goals for the year. I plan to do a similar page each year to place in their end of the year books. You can find the page I used here.

Each child has their own Calendar Notebook that will be the first thing we start off with each morning.

The Calendar Notebook contains:
1.  Monthly Calendar – write the correct date for each day of the month. (download calendar Meach Calendar)
2. Write the Date – write the day of the week, month+date+year, month+date+year in numerals (Mama Jen download)
3. Hundreds Tens Ones – as we count to 100 days of school we will work on place value. (download cards Mama Jen)
4. 100 Chart – counting to 100 days of school (chart included in My Father’s World curriculum)
5. Tally Marks – make a tally mark for each day of school; helps to learn counting by five (Mama Jen download)
6. Weather Graph – each day fill in the graph with the day’s weather (Meach Calendar)

The two links I provided you will be a HUGE resource if you are interested in making a Calendar Notebook for your child. Mama Jen and Mrs. Meacham both provide details and downloads to help you put on together. My kids absolutely love their notebooks and are becoming more independent each day with them.

Day 2: God separated the water and created SKY
(water and marshmallows for the clouds)
Day 3 – God created LAND and PLANTS and SEEDS
(grapes for the fruit and crushed oreo for the dirt)
Day 4 – God created the SUN, MOON, and STARS
(orange, blueberries, pretzel sticks)

Day 5 – God created all the animals in the SEA and SKY
(blue jello for water, swedish fish)

And now for some snap shots of our week in action.

Our first week of homeschool was a blast! Definitely learned alot (myself included!). Looking forward to getting into a better daily routine. Thankful for the opportunity to teach my babies. As a mother, the most amazing sight to see is my children’s eyes light up as they are learning new wonders.

Thanks to our library’s Summer Reading Program the kids received free Ranger tickets. And boy, did we have a great time! They each were given a free Ranger jersey, ate lots and lots of cotton candy, and had the time of their lives. Noah couldn’t take his eyes off the Jumbo Tron… he was it heaven with a TV that big. Jude shoved cotton candy in his mouth for 8 innings. Evy snuggled in my lap while Piper ate a bag of suckers to keep her occupied.

Today marked the start of a new school year… and our first official year of homeschooling. We will be using My Father’s World curriculum for both 1st grade and kindergarten (our preschooler will get to join in the kindergarten work). My kindergartener is 4 1/2 years old so we will be doing K twice with him.

My Father’s World is wonderful. I fell in love with how the Bible is infused throughout the entire curriculum, it’s not just a subject taught. It allows me to teach the children together, giving individual attention to their own math and phonics. One of the biggest reasons I have chosen to homeschool is that I want our children to develop deep sibling relationships with one another – I pray that learning and living together strengthens their friendships.

After a special breakfast made by Daddy (gluten free french toast), we all went on a quick photoshoot to capture their First Day of School photos.

Noah. 1st grade. 6 1/2 years old.
Loves video games, computer, drawing, music, trains, puzzles, reading, swimming.
Pure adrenaline junkie. Sweetest heart you’ll ever meet.

Jude. Kindergarten. 4 1/2 years old.
Loves baseball, superheros, digging in the dirt, jokes. Addicted to sugar. Sensitive to others. Kind, gracious.

Evy. Preschool. 3 1/2 years old.
Loves to play dollhouse, read books, snuggle, back rubs, dates with daddy, being a little mommy to her sister.
Vibrant and sassy. Full of grace and compassion.

The three big kids. Thankful for each of their distinct personalities. Such a joy being their momma.

Happy school year to us!

Sweet mercy. This is GOOD.

Lasagna that is good for me. Yes! Love filling my body with healthy, TASTY food!

• 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 red onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 15 oz can pizza sauce
• 1/2 c roasted red peppers
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• couples leaves of fresh basil (leave it out if you don’t have it, just freshens up the sauce a bit)
• 1 small butternut squash

Get your oven to 400ºF. In a saute pan crumble the sausage and brown it, along with the onions & garlic. While that’s going, cut the top and ends of the squash off and peel it. Split it into 1/4′s. What I mean by that is, right where the squash starts to turn bulbous, cut it in 1/2, width-wise. Split those two halves in half, lengthwise. This will make it much easier to cut into planks. Pull out the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out all the strings, as you won’t even notice those when they’re cooked. Slice the squash into the aforementioned planks.

Make the sauce by pureeing the pizza sauce, red peppers, olive oil and basil. If you don’t a contraption that will puree (blender, food processor, immersion blender), chop up the red peppers and just whisk everything together.

Using a 9×9 oven safe baking dish, put down enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the dish. (This keeps the squash from sticking to the pan.) Next add the squash, trying not to overlap the pieces, then spoon on the sausage mixture, followed by the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna.

Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify.

Snow fell from the sky. The first flurries of the winter. And just hours before Jude’s 4th birthday. He woke in the middle of the night and so we snuck outside to see God’s gift of snow. Happy birthday sweet boy.