I spent the entire month of December making Christmas gifts for friends and family. Here are a few samples that I gave away:

In total I created 50 drawings in 23 days. A lifetime record for me.  That also means that I did not get much of anything ELSE done during the month of December (no, I didn’t finish writing the novel I started in November either). And I’ve spent the month of January trying to catch up on all the things that didn’t get done in November and December, plus still trying to keep up with the demands of the New Year that January has brought with it.

Two of my boys are in Shakespeare again.  My 16 year old got the role of Orlando in “As You Like It” and my 13 year old got the role of Adam in the same play.  I love that they have this opportunity to experience a live performance and learn some good acting skills from an experienced director. This also means that from now through March we are extra busy! So I can’t guarantee there will be a lot more posts from me. Life is busy! Don’t always have time to write.

And of course I’m still working on Visions. We are in the process of making a big decision right now. And we have a huge workload ahead of us. Please keep us in your prayers.

Thanks for being interested enough in my life to read my random ponderings!

God bless you,

-Laurene

But then I had several friends who were participating. And some of them would ask me “Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year?” and I kept telling them, “No, I don’t have time.” And every time someone would ask me that question, and I would tell them that answer, this quiet little voice in my mind would ask me “Well, when are you going to have time?” And I would try to ignore it. Then they would ask again, “Are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year?” and I would say again, “No, I’m too busy.” And the voice would ask “When do you think your life will slow down enough you can do it then?” And I would think to myself, “Well, not December for sure because of all the Holiday things that come up, and not Jan-Mar because of Shakespeare, and April is the Script frenzy, and then the summer is always crazy, and then there is Fall with school starting up again…” and I realized the answer was, “Never?”  That’s when I realized that if I was ever going to write a book, now was as good a time as any.  So the next time someone asked me that question, the only answer I had left was, “Well, I don’t have an idea for a story that’s long enough to be a book.”

By this time, one of my friends had introduced me to the NaNoPDX facebook group and everyone in there was talking about their progress on their book. It was already 4 days into November and the 2011 NaNoWriMo challenge. Someone mentioned these “dares” as topic ideas that had been listed on the site. I never actually looked at the list of dares. As soon as someone mentioned it, I remembered a “topic dare” that had been posed as a challenge to me over the summer. And I remembered the story idea that I had for it.  My last excuse for not participating in NaNoWriMo had been erased.

It is important to note here, that all semester in our homeschool I have been trying to encourage my children to use their unique gifts and talents for God. And I have been trying to teach them that they don’t have to wait until they are grown up to start using their gifts for God, they can start right now!  And I’ve been telling them that they don’t have to be perfect for God to be able to use them, they just have to be willing, and God will take care of the rest.  I’ve been trying to use my art skills and game design skills for God by making Christ-centered and family-friendly games. And while I’ve written over 300 pages of game design documents, and countless emails, blog posts, web articles, and quest dialogs for the game, I haven’t exactly been using my writing gift – creative story writing – much at all.   And I knew it.  Too many failures had made me gunshy. I was afraid to try again. But here were all these people encouraging me to try, encouraging me to do it, encouraging me to take the challenge of NaNoWriMo 2011.  It seemed like God was telling me to do this.  If I have learned nothing else in the last few years, I have learned I should not ignore God when He tells me to do something. Every time I have ignored the voice of God, I have regretted it later.  And every time I have heeded His call, I have been overwhelmed with amazement at His work in my life through simple obedience. So if God really did want me to do this, I sure didn’t want to miss it! And besides, I really do need to set the example for my children by actually using my own gifts and talents for God, just like I’m telling them to do!  Even if they aren’t perfect.

So, 4 days and nearly 8000 words behind schedule, I started out on this NaNoWriMo journey. You can see from my chart that in addition to a late start, I also had a slow start!  By day 11 I was 15,000 words behind. I was officially a NaNoTurtle and garnered support from my fellow #NaNoTurtles on Twitter. I also was introduced to the #NaNoWordSprints on Twitter which turned out to be very entertaining and helped me get past some writer’s block moments a couple of times.  There are now turtles in my story because of the #NaNoWordSprints and #NaNoTurtles on Twitter. That was fun to write! I finally caught up the second weekend with a 9100 word day followed by a 4600 word day.  I experienced the strange phenomenon that many writers experience after an intense day of writing: I ran out of words. My responses on facebook went from my normal wordy commentary to smiley faces, or sad faces, and very few words at all. That was kind of surreal for me. And if you are one of my friends who wondered why I didn’t post much on my FaceBook during November… now you know why. I ran out of words. I used them all up in my book.

And on Thanksgiving day, I won! I hit 50,001 words the evening of Thanksgiving day. Yes, after making the Thanksgiving meal, but I didn’t cook it by myself, the whole family pitched in. And we had a wonderful meal together. We all sat around the table at the same time, the food turned out great, and we enjoyed each others company. I think it was the first time we did NOT spend Thanksgiving with friends or family that I really truly enjoyed our Thanksgiving day anyway. (Usually I feel sad if I don’t get to spend time with relatives or friends.) And after the meal, when everyone reclined with their games or TV shows, I went back to my book. And I won the challenge!!  In just 20 days, I wrote 50,000 words.  What an amazing feeling that was! It was a great day.

But my book isn’t done yet. By the end of November I hit 60,000 words, and it still wasn’t done yet. I think it is probably only about half way done right now. I have a lot more to write, and I want to write it well, I don’t want to just chop it off because November is over. And I do in fact have a lot of activities demanding my time for the month of December. So I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to fit in my writing into everything else I’m supposed to be doing. But I’ve come so far! I don’t want to quit now. For the first time in about 14 or 15 years, I am excited about writing again. I don’t know where this path is going to take me, but I’m looking forward to the journey. I think it’s going to be an exciting ride. Whatever happens, I know I’m doing my best to follow God, and use my gifts and talents for His glory and His purposes. I trust He will use them as He sees fit. And that’s what is the most important.

I had a great time today at the NaNoPDX TGIO party in Portland. It was awesome to meet the other writers from the NaNoPDX facebook group that have been supporting me, encouraging me, and motivating me to finish all month long. I am sure I would not have finished without that constant daily support and encouragement. And I am thankful that God placed them in my life. I hope I was able to encourage them as much as they encouraged me. It was an amazing experience!

Thank you NaNoWriMo organizers and everyone in the NaNoPDX group for rekindling my desire to be a writer. And for encouraging me to try again, so many years after I had convinced myself that it was not worth trying, that I was not good enough, and that I could not do it.  I still haven’t finished writing my book yet, I probably have about another 50-60k left to go on it, but for the first time in a very long time I really believe that I can.

(And for anyone who is curious, there are 1,452 words in this blog post, according to wordpress.)

3 John 1:4
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

For those who may not know, J.R.R. Tolkien invented several written languages for his stories, complete with an invented alphabet (one that is impossible to write in a Windows font because of the way the vowels work) and it’s own grammatical structure.  Quenya is old Elvish (but not ancient Elvish, there is a language older than Quenya) and Sindarin is 3rd age Elvish, though some elves do still speak Quenya in the 3rd age.  Also, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were both friends, and they belonged to a writing group called the Inklings where they would discuss their stories and help each other.  And finally, both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were once Atheists who became Christians, and their very famous books reflect their Christian faith in theme and overarching story. So anyone who is concerned about the ramifications of me teaching my children Elvish need not worry, one of the most respected Christians in modern history invented the language!

http://visionsgame.com

This is the official website of my Christian MMO that is currently in development. If you haven’t been there in a while, have a look around to see what’s new. It might surprise you!

www.devinedeliveranceministries.webs.com

Even their 15 year old son, Phelps, is passionate about praying for others and reaching out to people in need. Pray for them. They need spiritual protection and physical provision for all their needs.

I was inspired to write a short script with a pro-life metaphor about a year ago. I finished this script a few months ago and have been praying about what I should do with it. As chance would have it, I’ve found someone with interest in filming and editing the movie, so it seems that now is the time to make it. After some prayer and discussion I’m putting out a casting call to see if there are enough actors interested in auditioning to push forward with the production. These will be unpaid roles. The purpose of this film is ministry and to gain recognition. It is anticipated to be approximately 30 minutes in length, and the current plan of distribution is YouTube, Vimeo, Livestream, and other web sources. We have no financial support other than what the Lord provides!

We would like to produce this film start to finish before the summer’s end this year. We are anticipating 1 to 2 days a week for filming each week, probably on Thursday evenings, and possibly some Saturdays.

For the cast we need primarily adults and young adults for most of the roles. Roles include college students, a baby, thugs, doctors, parents, police officers, and a member of the clergy. No small children are needed with the exception of the infant which is in 3 scenes. There are a total of 19 roles including the infant to be filled. We will also be seeking some technical staff for the crew, if you are more interested in gaining credit for behind-the-scenes film production.

Pending sufficient interest, auditions will be scheduled for either a Thursday evening or a Saturday within the next month. Please email me if you are interested. Laurene@tinyzoo.com

Thank you,
-Laurene Wells

Fall: Sep-Dec 2010

All
Story of the World
50 States Under God
Harry Potter (last few chapters we never finished last year)
Save The Cat
Herbs Of The Bible
New Answers Book 1
Spit & Polish For Husbands
Saving Our Teen Drivers
Color and Light in Nature
Art & Craft of Christian Fiction
Ancient & Medieval History
The Odyessy
The Runaway Pony
Drawing Dragons
Oregon Trail Stories
Spanish- on LiveMocha

+Senior
Basic American Government
Book of Order

+Freshman
Basic American Government
Algebra Unplugged

Spring: Jan-May 2011

All
Oregon Trail Stories
Theology School
Daily Life at the Time of Jesus
How to write a movie in 21 days
Pawn of Prophesy
Who’s Who/Where’s Where in the Bible
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist
The Millionaire Mind
Complete Book of the Dog
Christ in the Feast of Pentecost
Princess
A Street Through Time
Mammals of Israel
New Answers Book 2
Greek-on LiveMocha

+both High School students
A Profile of Mathematical Logic
Game Programmers Guide to Torque

+ Cooking class & Gym Day on Tuesdays

Of course, we always reserve the right to make changes as the need arises. That’s the greatest thing about homeschooling. If we decide something isn’t working, we don’t have to wait until next year to fix it! But for now, this is the plan. We’ll see how it works. I’m excited to get started. We got all our books on the shelf, ready to go!

We first started seeking a scout troop for our oldest son when he was in first grade. We wanted to get him into a Royal Rangers group but there was none in this area. We looked for a Cub scout troop but were told they were all full. A year later we contacted boy scouts and asked if they could help us find a troop for him and were told he was too young, they directed us to Cub Scouts, who never returned out call. It was many years before our oldest son finally got involved with scouts.

Our first real introduction to scouting was with our youngest son. We discovered that a neighbor who had a son his same age was the Den Leader for a cub scout den, and they had room for more cubs. My boy wanted to join so I got him involved with that pack. He loved it. I didn’t love the extra strain on our schedule so much, but he was making new friends and people kept telling me how scouting helps to build strong leaders. So I kept him in. Later that year we learned that there was another local Webelos den that had room for our middle son. So he joined Cub scouts for half a year the last year he was eligible to be a Cub.

My youngest son continued in Cub scouts while my middle son started Boy Scouts, and after a couple months, I decided to get my older son involved also. I knew a couple of the boys in that troop, and I knew them to be good Christian boys, and hoped they would be friends for my son who at the time was rather shy and reclusive. He didn’t want to go. After a year, neither one of them wanted to go. I kept making them go, because we had paid for the dues, and I wanted them to follow through with what they had started.

During this time, my daughter always wanted to go with her brothers, but of course she couldn’t because she was a girl. She could go with me when I went to the pack meetings at Cub Scouts, but she was not allowed at boy scout meetings, campouts, or any of the fun outings.

When she was finally old enough, she got into American heritage Girls. She loved the sewing crafts, but sometimes complained that the other things weren’t fun, or just didn’t like sitting down for an hour and a half. We were kind of on again off again attendees for the first year, but the next year she was more interested in attending regularly. She wasn’t so much interested in the badges, as she was interested in the friends. Although when Court of Honor time came around, she did notice that other people got badges she didn’t get. One summer we went to Horse Camp and she completed all the things she needed to finish the Horsemanship badge, but because no AHG LEADERS were there, AND because her papers blew away in a wind storm, she was not allowed to count any of those achievements in horsemanship toward earning the badge. Photographic evidence that she completed the exercises was not enough. She has made some friends through AHG but none that actually invite her over for play days or anything.

Two years ago, my youngest son crossed over into the troop with his brothers also, and he was sad because his friends were going to a different troop. He felt alone, even though he was with his brothers. He technically could have gone to the other troop with his friends, but I did not want a 3rd night of scout activities in my schedule, not to mention trying to coordinate opposing scout camp-outs and events that might conflict with the other troop. I had been feeling quite overwhelmed with running 3 different directions for scouts every week and really wanted to get that off my schedule. I hoped that he would make new friends in the troop. He soon began to complain that Boy Scouts was not as fun as Cub Scouts however, that they never did anything fun during the meetings, and he also wanted to quit.

Last year, after a series of blood boiling shenanigans in their boy scout troop, culminating in a Chicken BBQ Fundraiser where the boys were forced to work 9 hour shifts with no breaks in the hot sun, I decided we would not return to that troop at the end of the summer when it was time to re-register. We would either start a Christ Centered troop, or we would quit entirely. I prayed about it a lot, and then started the process of finding a Charter Organization to establish the Christ Centered Boy Scout Troop. It took them a long time to get back to me about the approval process. By the end of summer I was rather leaning toward just quitting, and using that time for our family instead. But then, seemingly at the last minute, in September the petition was approved, and we had enough people to start the new troop. So we immediately filed our transfer papers and joined the new troop. It was small but we had hopes of it being more fun, less political, and more Christ Centered than the old troop had been. More like AHG for boys, since there is no AHB organization available. And The troop itself is meeting most of our expectations. It is very small, but much more friendly, and the boys have a direct say in what happens, and when, and the whole planning process.

One problem though, it still is exclusive to boys. Thus the term Boy Scouts. And maybe it would be fine if it was a Father-Son bonding time, but my boys’ father doesn’t go with them, he stays home playing on the computer while I take them to their various activities. So I am gone Monday nights to AHG, Tuesday nights to Boy Scouts, and at least one weekend a month, and one week a summer, someone is going somewhere with a scouting troop. Never do we go together as a family. It’s always divided. Boys here, girls there, one parent stays home with the siblings. With every week, I am feeling more and more and more like scouting is pulling our family apart, not building us up.

Scouting has advantages, yes. Scouting teaches children new skills. It teaches them some introduction to leadership. It teaches them about honor, integrity, justice… sometimes.

But then we have incidents like happened at my daughter’s most recent AHG campout where we experienced the opposite of “justice” from the camp leader. My daughter was falsely accused, the camp leader made her ruling and carried out her sentence with nothing resembling a fair trial, and issued her decree before I was even informed of the incident! I found out from my crying 9 year old at the breakfast table. I talked to the leader for what felt like nearly an hour, only to be told that she is in authority here, and where the camp begins, my authority as her parent ends and I have no right to know what is happening to my daughter, what the ruling is in regards to her behavior and no authority to appeal her case for review. She made the decision and it is final. I learned later that the accusers are the same family who are responsible for arranging the campground, and that the leaders are afraid of offending that family for fear that they might lose use of the campground the next summer. (I’m wondering here why they don’t trust that God will provide a campground for this Christ Centered troop, as long as they are leading in a Christ centered focus?) So it seems to me that my daughter was falsely accused, and unjustly punished, to appease the demands of a family that was demanding blood be spilled (in a proverbial sense). I’m thinking, this doesn’t exactly depict the kind of atmosphere that I was hoping my daughter would experience in her Christ Centered toop.

And all of this came crashing down and amplified the ongoing annoyance at the “Scouting Requirements” for earning merit badges. These badges are supposed to be emblems of accomplishment, visual awards depicting skills the boys and girls have earned, and they work the same way in both Boy Scouts and in American Heritage Girls. The kids follow a prescribed recipe of activities to achieve an award called a badge or patch that they wear on their uniform. It shows their achievements. But the thing is, children who come into the program with knowledge of particular skills they learned outside the program, do not get any recognition. Also, skills they learn WHILE IN the program, but not in the witness of an approved Scout Leader ALSO do not get recognition for their achievements. Even if they can demonstrate that they accomplished the thing through photos or other means. Many times it is implied that they can’t earn badges unless they do them with the group, or unless the group starts the craft or activity together and their instruction is received from the group, then they can finish the project at home. This creates an ominous cloud of frustration around the family who is trying to help 4 children earn their badges, and who has a lot of interesting skills to contribute but is continually hampered in progress because they have to meet stupid little requirements, under very particular circumstances that may not even be realistic to daily life.

How does this strengthen our family? Parents aren’t allowed to be mediators for their children. Parents aren’t allowed to be instructors for their children. Parents are perpetually divided while one child goes to an event and the other stays home. We don’t even get to go camping together as a family any more because all our weekends are planned for us ahead of time. How is this helping to build strong families? The only real benefit that I see to scouting is the building of friendships in a safe environment for the children. One could argue that Scouting is for families that don’t have time to teach their children these skills on their own, but that would be a fallacy because the only way scouting can ever be successful is through the contribution of parent volunteers. If the parents don’t contribute time to the troop, then the troop fails. Period. So now parents are investing their time and energy into Scouting instead of investing it into their family.

Maybe, if we could schedule the same amount of time every week that we spend on scout functions, on doing things together as a family instead, we would see stronger families. Maybe if we spent an hour and a half a week working on a new skill or project together as a family, we could see our children growing in skill and knowledge from their elders, learning generational knowledge, family trades, or even going to local events together to learn about the community together as a family. Maybe if we spent one weekend a month camping together as a family, or going on a family outing, we would build stronger bonds within our family, rather than straining the bonds by stretching ourselves too far trying to do too many things at once. Maybe if we went on one family vacation a year, together as a family rather than sending children off different directions with other people who think they know how to raise children better than their parents do, we would see stronger families with deeper respect, loyalty, and love for one another than what we see today. I’m seriously wondering if maybe we were to spend the money that we spend on scouting, on our family instead, if maybe we could invest in our family more directly. Right now it kinds feels like paying a farmer to grow hay and hoping to get some beef come harvest.

So what would we do if we weren’t doing scouts? My kids have already come up with some suggestions, and I’ve come up with a few ideas too.

Horseback riding lessons.
More trips to the Zoo.
SCA events.
-Merchanting wares at SCA events.
-Taking Ithra classes through the SCA college.
Model Rockets.
Lego Mind Storms.
Huckleberry Picking (and other wild fruits.)
Learning Ancient Arts (like making vinegar, and cheese)
Camping on the beach.
Camping in a Camp Trailer in the mountains.
Fishing.
Hunting.
Driving to local places of interest, historical sites, landmarks, etc.
Playing games together.

As it is right now, we’re always too tired or too busy to do these things together. I would like to free up some time in our schedule to be able to do these things. Scouting never wants to include the whole family on these fun adventures. I really want the whole family to go together, and do these fun things together. Let each learn from the strengths of the others. Maybe this doesn’t sound like the best way to raise children to other people. But it is what I always wanted, to travel together with my family. I never wanted to do fun things alone. I want to do the fun things with the people I love the most. My family. And I don’t like other people telling me that we have to do other things that divide our family apart instead, because it’s “important” for them to get the next badge.

I saw at Champoeg that they have cloth patches you can buy for $2. Maybe we should just start our own family adventure sash, and buy a new patch or pin each time we go somewhere. Answering only to the rules of our own family, not some arbitrary force who feels they need to replace us as parents and insert their own method of training up children instead. I think that is the best way to raise children, is to spend time with them, have fun with them, and be there when they achieve their accomplishments. After all these years of seeking a Scouting group for my children, and telling them all this time to follow through with what they started when they have wanted to quit, it feels a bit uncomfortable to be telling them that maybe they were right and we should have quit a long time ago. But maybe it’s better to quit now, and focus on the future, rather than perpetuating the mistakes of the past. Unless of course… the children have finally decided they prefer going to scouts rather than doing fun things with their family. In which case… I may have already lost the war in the fight for recovering my family. We shall see…