How dare I use God’s name in vain!

You say you love, you say you care

Now you don’t love? Now you don’t care?

How dare you use His name in vain

Love is His name. His name used too much

God is His name. His name not used enough

The same! Are both these names!

No one knows the same, Are the names

Without God there is no Love

Without Love, God would not be God

Stop your Lying! Stop your Cheating!

Stop your Cursing and Stop your Killings!

Love is a promise, Stop breaking it

God is Love. Stop forgetting it

Cold. morning by Jillian Feeley

Cold. morning grey sky looks down on you.

Gloating as if the sun shall never shine again ,

The fronst bitten earth so stiff & hard as rock

A ray~ of sunshine comes around a cloud  ,

Ice crystals slip.away in HOPEs to come back

Another day.

Music by Megan Atkinson

music holds

memories

music tells

stories

music bringspeople- Together

Music

Can

Bring

People

Down

Up

People

Bring

Can

Music

But

Music never leavesyour

Heart

Music Never Ends

The girls record for the season was 5 wins/5 losses.  The boys lost 82 to 63.  The boys record for the season was 4 wins/6 losses.  One team record was set.

Sam Calhoun swam another personal best in the 50 freestyle and this time broke the team record!  Zach Watson swam a personal best in the 50 freestyle.  Zach also swam a personal best in the 100 freestyle by dropping four seconds off his time!  Daniel Schea swam a best time in the 100 breaststroke by dropping three seconds off his time.  Timmy O’Sullivan swam a personal best in the 50 freestyle by dropping a second off his best time.  A near personal best was achieved by Chip Moore in the 100 freestyle.

Ethan Edge and Nathan Hunter earned four first place finishes.  Sam Calhoun earned two first place finishes.  Daniel Schea and Timmy O’Sullivan each earned a first place finish.  Second place finishes were earned by Sam Calhoun (2), Chip Moore, Zach Watson, Daniel Schea, and Timmy O’Sullivan.  Third place finishes were earned by Timmy O’Sullivan and Daniel Schea.

Caroline Plummer swam a personal best by dropping two seconds off her 100 Butterfly and making a state consideration time in that event.  Caroline also swam a personal best time in the 100 Breaststroke.  Abby Plummer swam a personal best in the 500 freestyle by dropping five seconds off her time.  Julia Close swam a personal best in the 50 freestyle.  Abby Pepitone swam the 200 IM for us for the first time.  Near personal best times were achieved by Kaysa Lammers in the 100 freestyle, Gabriela Poletaev in the 500 freestyle, and Abby Plummer in the 50 freestyle.

Gabriela Poletaev, Emily Hunter, and Caroline Plummer earned four first place finishes.  Abby Plummer earned three first place finishes.  Jillian Feeley and Kaysa Lammers earned two first place finishes.  Second place finishes were earned by Jillian Feeley (2), Caroline Plummer, Abby Plummer, and Kaysa Lammers.  Third place finishes were earned by Abby Pepitone (2), Kaysa Lammers, and Julia Close.

Sam Calhoun, Nathan Hunter, Emily Hunter, and Caroline Plummer will be swimming in the Last Chance Meet on 2/14/11.

Thanks to our managers: Megan O’Sullivan for scoring and 500 pacing, Nate Heil for lane timing,  Kyle Friedline for split timing and 50 counting.

Thanks to our adult helpers:  Henry Schea and Jake White for timing and Jen Lammers for scoring the meet and collecting attendance forms.

Coaches Hunter

On Fridays we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com and “stop, drop and write” for five minutes.  The idea is to refuse over-thinking and over-editing, and just write for the joy of it, using a prompt word she picks.  My extra goal is that I try to connect her prompt word to our blog theme for the week.  This week at 7 Sisters we’ve been looking at Elementary School.

Lisa-Jo’s prompt word today is TRUST.  Ready, set, go!

Vicki had a terrific post about setting goals for our homeschools in the elementary grades.  She articulated goals very similar to my own when my kids were starting out:

1) Immerse them in the faith

2) Establish wonder

3) Develop creativity and imagination      

4) Learn perseverance

5) Learn academics

All of these goals are foundational.  They are things that WE as the homeschool parents want to do to lay a firm foundation for our kids’ futures.  But then comes the tricky part:

We have to TRUST GOD to take those seeds we have planted with stewardship and grow them into mature adult Christians who will serve God on their own.

OY!  That sounds like I don’t get to draw the blueprint for how it will go once the foundation is laid!

As parents we want such good things for our kids, and we have a responsibility before God to sow seed that is good into their hearts when they are young.  But as they get older, we have a responsibility before God to TRUST HIM to complete the process.

Our children will never mature in Christ simply because their parents love Jesus passionately.  They must pursue their own personal relationships with Him, and that is something we can encourage but can never do for them.

Trusting God as our children move beyond elementary grades….beyond middle school….beyond high school…and into adulthood: this is the challenge for me on more days than not!

I know He is trustworthy.  Will I TRUST HIM with my kids?

Both boys teams each had six team members so it was really an even match. Chichester has 20 girls on its team, while we only had 10.  The girls did great keeping the meet so close, especially since they got an extra six points from their diver (so we out-swam them but they out-dove us).

One team record was set.  Three guesses what it was…yes, the boys 400 freestyle relay.  (They want to make me print out a million record certificates again this year.)

Way to go in reaching out to the other team and winning/losing gracefully.  I was told after the meet by one of Chichester’s girls that we were such a nice team and showed really good sportsmanship.  (I think their team was one of the nicest we have swam against this year as well.)

While dropping nearly a second off her personal best time in the 50 freestyle, Kaysa Lammers earned a state qualifying time!  Gabriela Poletaev swam a personal best time (not to mention an amazing time) in the 200 freestyle by dropping seven seconds!  Sydney swam a personal best time in the 50 freestyle.  Sydney also swam both the 500 freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay right after it even though she was not feeling well (not that Sydney is ever determined or anything).  Swimming near personal best times were Caroline Plummer in the 100 butterfly, Abbey Close in the 100 butterfly, Emily Hunter in the 100 freestyle, Haley Hughes in the 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, Gabriela Poletaev in the 500 freestyle, and Abby Plummer in the 100 breaststroke.

Kaysa Lammers earned four first place finishes.  Caroline Plummer, Emily Hunter, and Gabriela Poletaev earned 3 first place finishes.  Jillian Feeley and Abby Plummer each earned a first place finish.  Second place finishes were earned by Jillian Feeley (2), Kaysa Lammers, Emily Hunter, Gabriela Poletaev, and Abby Plummer.  Third place finishes were earned by Abby Plummer (2), Caroline Plummer, and Jillian Feeley.

The boys 400 freestyle relay record was broken by the team of Ethan Edge, Timmy O’Sullivan, Nathan Hunter, and Sam Calhoun.  This time they took five seconds off the record.  Ethan Edge swam a personal best time in the 100 butterfly.  Zach Watson swam a personal best time in the 100 freestyle.  Daniel Schea swam a personal best time in the 50 freestyle, taking a big five seconds off his previous best individual 50 freestyle time!  Nathan Hunter swam the 100 freestyle for us for the first time.  Swimming near personal best times were Sam Calhoun in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke and Ethan Edge in the 200 IM.

Sam Calhoun and Nathan Hunter earned four first place finishes.  Ethan Edge earned three first place finishes.  Timmy O’Sullivan, Daniel Schea, and Zach Watson each earned a first place finish.  Second place finishes were earned by Daniel Schea (3), Timmy O’Sullivan (2), Zach Watson (2), and Ethan Edge.

Thanks to our managers:  Megan O’Sullivan for scoring and 500 pacing, Nate Heil and Julia Germack for lane timing, and Kyle Friedline for split timing and 500 counting.

Thanks to our adult helper:  Jen Lammers for collecting attendance forms and lane timing.

A big thanks to everyone for coming out and braving the snow to drive to and from Pennsylvania.  Looking forward to our last meet this Saturday against Pencader Charter!

Coaches Hunter