Flash on or off 7

#AprilPhotoADay

9. Younger you

I look so goofy. Had to have been 6 here

10. Cold

Cold and rainy= michigan spring 🙂

Tried & True

Sharing is Caring

We have a pintrest and boy do we pin!
Well…I (Faith) do most of the pinning. But what’s more important in my opinion is showing how I take the things I learned and test them out/ review them!

So here is Tried & True where I will share my internet finds from Facebook, Pintrest, Youtube and other blogs or articles!

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FIRST UP: All Natural Cleaning Supplies

Source: Pintrest

I ran out and stocked up on some basic ingredients

And so far we have made the all purpose spray and the dusting spray!

We absolutely LOVE the clean feeling of the house without the harm chemicals! And it didn’t take long for us to disassociate those smells to clean. I use the dusting spray primarily in the living room and the all purpose everywhere else. I also mixed up and use the tub and tile solution of 1/2 dawn dish soap and 1/2 white vinegar. The scrubbing wand (not shown) comes in handy to just scrub and go after a shower.

With Stevens and Mison’s allergies we have seen a decrease in the irritants on surface and in air. As well as the security in eliminating all toxins from under the cabinets (with a lil crawler coming soon)

I have yet to buy borax, but that is next on my goal to take down bleach…

Let us know if you tried it and what’s on your list of cleaning supplies 🙂

Point of View 2- Discipline

Proverbs 22:15 KJV

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Discipline…
Its such a controversial topic nowadays. Society has shaped the thinking of many adults and now children to view discipline especially physical reprimand as wrong, unlawful and punishable. We see so many videos on facebook via sites like “worldstarhiphop” with fighting and kids all over the country pridefully recording activities worthy of some sort of discipline. Yet when that parent takes action there is ridicule and in some cases confinement to follow.

I was disciplined as a child, not a lot through my teen years (when I needed it the most) nonetheless, I discipline my children. Steven and I believe the word of God wholly and it simply tells us to take action with our children against the sinful nature. That’s how we show our love…and sometimes, a time out or loss of privilege just isn’t enough.

We had times in the beginning (and I’m sure still) that others didn’t agree with me allowing Steven to offer physical reprimand to the kids. But I was a single mother for 7 years attempting to do the job of a mother and a father. Why wouldn’t I allow him to assume the God given role? I was tired of doing all the yelling, and beating and punishing. (Yes I said beating…)

With anything there has to be parameters. We use a belt on the behind and thighs only. And if you knew our little ones you’d know how difficult that is. They, cut up. I’m just being completely honest. The screaming sometimes is worse than whatever we are beating them for. But if we let that get in the way not only would we be offering a not so good addition to society but we would then fall into disobedience to God.

With this recent posting about a father beating his preteen/ teenage girls for dancing suggestively (twerking) in church and recording it, that he has now gone to jail for, I felt the need to give my p.o.v on the topic.

Below are both Steven and I’s feedback via Facebook;
Stevens wall post:

My comment:

In the end times keep what is done in your home, in your home. Pick and choose what to broadcast and what to take a stand on. We as believers pursuing our relationships with Christ and adhering to Gods word will be persecuted for that. I heard a Pastors wife say once “If your kids have bruises from proper discipline, keep them home from school until they heal up” . I agree, although on the backside, no one should see those anyway. But in addition to that, teach your children why. Throw out the because I said so attitude and explain to them your actions. Show them the scriptures and have them read them if they can. By all means don’t go with popular belief or feel as if its too risky to discipline your child just because they (and others) don’t like it.

I’m not at all saying be a rebel and break laws, but child abuse and discipline are not equal nor are they parallel. Make the distinction in your home and pray the Lord gives you wisdom concerning the children he entrusted you with.

Vaya con Dios
-Faith W

Random: New Camera!

Now I thought I was excited about Steven’s digital camera on his HTC One smart phone I just found out today that the camera he was hounding his grandmother for was for ME!

Here I am telling him to lay off her (in my sweetest wife voice possible) and come to find out he had me in mind. Aren’t husbands the greatest?!

Here is our new Olympus 24mm, 14mp, 36x Wide Optical Zoom with HD and 3D

I haven’t taken any pictures with it yet but I can’t wait to take the kids for a walk and explore the neighborhood with the new lenses!

His Banner O’er Me is LOVE

Traveling in the car with children can be tough.

Its a rush to the car, get everyone settled and buckled in right, calm baby Kae down enough to focus and then head to the gas station. Most of the time we are too irritated to talk and it was so easy to push the radio button and zone out. Listening to the radio, we were coping out of socializing with each other. And everywhere we travel is 30 mins to an hour both ways.

Recently we threw out over 100 music CD’s/DVD’s, deleted the iTunes library, and refrain from listening to the radio. We kept 102.7 fm (local “gospel” station) on the dial but now the rides have reduced to silence. The transition is challenging but we come up with creative ways to keep ourselves entertained. The dreadful drive can be fun and Sunday on the way to fellowship we tried to keep the atmosphere light 🙂

The kids learned this from a CD we kept with songs I remember from my childhood. “His Banner Over Me Is Love” was a favorite of mine and I taught them choir style. (Footage of that would have been way more entertaining lol) Here Nen gets a little frustrated because ‘Mison and ‘Nee don’t remember the parts. But it gets better when Dad joins in.

I told them I am going to make travel kits so they can learn as well as play in the backseat, although singing wasn’t a bad idea.

How do you keep the kiddos busy on otherwise boring car rides?

Flash on or off 6

#AprilPhotoADay

7. Shadow

The kids tried to help me with this one, since its been rainy out for the past two days

8. Inside my wallet

Plastic! (No credit cards though)

Point of View 1

I saw a link to a good article on my Facebook feed today.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech/stop-instagramming-your-perfect-life

All about the facade many post on social networks through statuses, check-ins and pictures that give an unrealistic view of ones life.

I have been guilty of this with my “waire it well©” philosophy that I turned into a blog and was pursuing a clothing line. I began posting a lot of pictures of myself portraying a lifestyle contrary to the one I was supposedly living. In what way, you ask?

Glorification of self.

True vanity at its best. Yet I was proclaiming ties to God. I have battled in the recent past with self esteem, one of the reason for wearing my hair natural and expressing myself through clothing. I put my all into a “passion” instead of being healed and restored by God. I even wrote a mini book about “self”…what I failed to mention is to deal and eventually eliminate self issues one must go to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In reading this article I agreed that most if not all of what we put out there on the internet isn’t the full view of ourselves, our lives or our situations. I hope to completely approach this blog in that way. To tell the truth, be transparent and all the while be respectful to my family and pleasing to God.

We are real…and we won’t try to appear perfect just to convey the loving family that we are.

Here is the link : http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech/stop-instagramming-your-perfect-life

Read and Feedback! 🙂

By the way; I would like to start giving Steven a voice through our posts by including a Marriage 101 category. All about what we learned in our first year and let you in on some of the topics we discuss. Yay or nay?

Random: UNO therapy

We absolutely enjoy spending time together. Movie night (when Steven comes home from work before the kids bedtime) has been completely replaced with “game moments”.
We have a collection of various family games we pull out when the mood strikes…

Usually the mood needs to be lifted and our favorite game is UNO!

If you want to see how a family truly feels about each other, watch them compete!

We play, every man for himself, tournament style. We play until we can’t laugh anymore and all the cards are bent outta shape!

The even better part is for kids of different ages it helps them learn/practice numbers and colors, sportsmanship, teamwork (when applicable) and most important strengthen bonds.

Steven and I find ourselves playing Uno without the kids quite often. Modified rules of doubles and triples (where we can play multiple cards on our turn) hours later whatever ought we had is settled and we are back in love 🙂
I believe there is a therapy when you refocus the mind from something negative (disagreement, offense etc) to something positive. Learning how to put priority on mending rather than keeping the bad mood in the forefront. I don’t think issues should be left unsettled but after time to think, calm down and even laugh; the outcome of an argument is 100% different!

What is your family therapy?

The Holocaust Museum- An eye opening reminder

The time, the people, the tragedy always intrigued me..and today I was able to revisit the Holocaust Museum here in Michigan.

To begin to put into words how I felt looking at the pictures and reading the accounts of survivors as well as the historical aspect of the Jewish eradication by the Nazi Party; is almost impossible.

I spent two hours trying to understand what that amount of hatred feels like. Why someone had been successful in killing almost 6 million people because of that hate…

At the end there were a lot of factors my cousin and I discussed that never even occurred to me my first visit many years ago. One being how great of a leader Adolf Hitler was. Whether or not one agrees with his views wasn’t important. Of course neither one of us agreed with the thought of a “pure race” of humanity but looking at what he accomplished we had to give him credit. Eloquent speaker, rallying the masses, persuading the followers to take action against the “wrong”… qualities of which we want our leaders to have. A dictator who didn’t have to wait for votes or anyone to oppose his decisions, that was the dangerous part. Absolute power.

The second resounding aspect was the realization that a lot of other groups of people spanning the decades, over the globe have suffered some form of intense tragedies that brought on generational curses. Africans weren’t the only ones. Why do we (black people) feel so prideful owning our history but don’t acknowledge history as a whole?

I am torn at times on my opinions regarding my race, culture and heritage. Some of which I don’t know much about and most of which my “religious beliefs” trump. I have more pride in being a mother than I do being a woman. Sounds backwards since I couldn’t be the former without first being the latter. But I feel the same way about being black. I am a born again Christian so I put less emphasis on my nationality. I correct people all the time saying ” I am (an) American” not ‘African American’. I couldn’t imagine slavery nor would I want to but mankind has gone through more together than we have separately.

I can only be grateful for the time in thought and conversation that visiting the museum with my cousin offered. I will go back soon to teach my children the very things I learned.

-Faith W

Waire Learning: Command Center

The place that is essential to our Homeschooling is what I like to call our command center!

This is where all info is gathered/obtained.
We have a whole wall in the dining room full of various boards. Chalkboards, bulletin boards and dry erase boards.

We even hung a few awards and certificates from when the boys used to be in public school.
We have a desk for independent work and a bookshelf for all the books as well as other educational items we use to keep the kids occupied during the day.

Although its still a work in progress its so easy to shift and move things around as we add to the wall. Frames/shelves will be added for decorative and organizational purposes and we have room for the home pc to go with our wireless printer!

I found command brand hanging products perfect for this ongoing project since we didn’t want to add any holes to the walls being renters!

Having a designated place like this, is so vital to the success of Waire Learning!
ABC’s & 123’s 🙂