Bye bye 2009! Don't let the door hit ya on the way out!

Break out the games and enjoy the party - It's New Year's Eve! Soon it will be the start of a new decade with the ringing in of 2010. Are you happy to see 2009 go bye bye, or would you like it to stick around a bit?

For us, 2009 brought disappointments, health concerns and falling deeper into debt despite working our tails off.

2009 can best be described as a year of rejections and stabs at our hopes and dreams. How we will fare is yet to be seen. I hope we end up putting a smile on God's face.

In the beginning of the year, my husband was attempting to be brought on board as worship leader for a small church near us in north county. The pastor loved him and wanted him to jump right in. The young worship leader he was to replace, however, was not so excited. Unbeknownst to us, we jumped in the middle of what could have turned into a family dispute. Instead, my husband's hopes to become worship leader at this church came to an end. He quickly pursued another option where the pastor was very excited and told him he was very welcome. They even had a welcoming overhead sign for us upon our arrival to lead worship one Sunday morning. As days went on, however, the promise of how much we would be paid kept changing. Then, it came to our attention that one of the young girls in the congregation who expressed no desire to lead suddenly wanted to give it a shot. Not wanting to be in the middle of another family pursuing the spot light for their child, my husband bowed out.


Around this time, we had purchased a brand new van with brand new car payments thinking we would have the salary coming in from the first church. It was not a frivolous purchase as the van replaced a 1994 Ford Escort hatchback with 200,000 miles and happily stuffing 3 children in the back seat.

Time went on, and my husband went back to a church he was playing guitar for occasionally. He enjoyed playing very much under the leadership of the worship leader. But, it was volunteer and no pay. This is fine, but he wants to provide for his family. After awhile back playing at this church, he found out that the worship leader was leaving to start a new church. So, he approached the pastor about the possibility of him leading worship. After a few conversations, the pastor never returned my husband's calls. This was not a stranger. This pastor had held hands with my husband during pre-service prayer circles. He was always cordial and complimented my husband often on his playing ability. This left my husband very hurt. But, a friend told him of a local church that was looking for a worship leader.



It seemed perfect. He met with the pastor, and they hit it off. He led worship and it went great. He was continuously asked to lead Sunday after Sunday and met with the pastor with happy moments. But, the pastor kept saying that he was praying to make sure he hired the right worship leader. One Sunday, we were told a young man (all of the ripe age of 22 or 23 at best) was going to try out for the position. He did. We heard nothing. My husband played at Christmas Eve service bringing his extended family and filling up two rows. The pastor said nothing until the following Monday. He called my husband while my husabnd was at work teaching guitar to tell him that he was giving the job to this young man - Not my husband. What? This kid has only led for 6 months after graduating college. The day he led worship was nothing more than what my husband was offering. Ouch!

A song he wrote:


We are now facing a New Year with the need for more finances, and a husband who is hurt and angry. This man is so talented. He played music on the road touring with a band in the Midwest. He came back home to play music in bars & was successful. He laid his guitar down when he came back to the Lord with his full heart & didn't pick it up again until this teaching job opportunity opened up out of the blue in 2002. He decided to teach only if he could choose to not teach the songs that are "garbage." He loves teaching praise and worship music. He has a humble heart and seeks to do what is right at all costs. So why do the doors keep slamming in his face?

Today, he even humbled himself and walked into a Salvation Army shelter to see if he qualified for help. They gave us a cart-full of food.

Also 2009 brought about health challenges for my dad. Many hospital visits indicated that a heart valve surgery was necessary. Thankfully, they were able to repair two heart valves, but the recovery is long and rough.

Yes, welcome 2010 and come quickly - But, not with the financial hardships and not with the poor health news. Come 2010 with pennies from heaven that don't fall into our pockets with holes.

Hope this Christmas finds you happy & soaking in all God’s blessings!

This year seemed to go by fast in both good and bad ways. We replaced Tere’s 1994 Ford Escort hatchback sporting close to 200,000 miles & a newly broken valve cover bolt thanks to a water pump repair gone bad at a local Dobbs. After much research, thought & prayers, we purchased a brand new Kia Sedona minivan. Quite a shock, in a nice way, as to all the extra room we have inside as well as the other shock of taking on a car payment. When we considered the safety aspect, it was a done deal. Still, it was sad to watch the Escort that we brought home 2 of our babies in, being towed away to donate to Kars4Kids. In June, Tere’s dad had open heart surgery after several tests & a hospital stay revealed he needed heart valve surgery, which ended up being more than one valve that they were, thankfully, able to repair. It’s quite a long recovery. But, we’re so happy to report he made it through and is on the upside of recovery. In September, the kids took part in a Bible Bee competition which they studied for starting in the beginning of May. It was quite an undertaking (more than we thought we had signed on for) and a lot of work throughout the summer as they studied to learn over 150 scriptures to recite in addition to Bible facts to take a 200 question written test. Many days we considered dropping out. They didn’t make Nationals, but very few competitors did. We’re just happy with how much scripture this put into their hearts and hope to keep building upon this knowledge of God’s word. Here’s a little update on each of us:

John is still teaching guitar lessons at Mozingo Music and owning/operating Joyful Sounds Christian Disc Jockey service, though business has been way down for Joyful Sounds. John has been pursuing a position as a worship leader. He currently is the interim worship leader at Harvest Chapel in Chesterfield and hoping it becomes a permanent position. John also still enjoys playing guitar and singing alongside Kent Henry and the worship team of Destiny in a prayer room each week and has become part of the Brandon Salter Band whom John was thrilled to join as they opened for Christian bands Todd Agnew & Building 429 this year at an outdoor festival. John has also been offered the opportunity to be part of a musican’s mission trip this coming June to the Czech Republic, Poland and possibly Scotland. We have enclosed a separate letter explaining this venture. We hate to ask for help, but need to.


Tere continues to be a stay-at-home mom and teacher of her homeschooled crew of 3. Tere is still selling on Ebay. In addition to this, in May she became the St. Louis Homeschooling Examiner and writes for an online publication at Examiner.com. She also became the online Parenting Mentor at Factoidz.com and writes parenting articles as well. She loves the chance to put her writing skills to good use for pay, albeit a small start, as well as using her platform to share God-inspired news. She’s learning a lot of new information about Socio-Networking which keeps her brain hopping, and in the process discovered how fun Facebook can be.

Graham turned 9 (4th grade) this year & continues to amaze us in so many regards. Anything computer related appeals to Graham. He is teaching himself HTML and JAVA Script computer languages and writing his own programs just for practice. He has also enjoyed working with John on the Easy Worship software used at churches when leading worship. And, he loves designing short videos and editing them on his computer. But, the newest development that mom is most excited about is that Graham has decided he loves to load and unload the dishwasher. This is wonderful and might just earn him a special Christmas gift!

Jale’na turned 7 (2nd grade) this year. She is still our little dancer now dancing only twice a week. She continues in Kingdom Dancer dance ministry that performs for nursing homes and such. Her team competed in a Christian dance competition in June and brought home some first-place trophies. She is also taking tumbling because her goal is to learn how to do a cartwheel. She loves to read and takes chapter books to bed with her. She also amuses us with her ability to imitate characters from movies and never fails to bring us silly faces just for fun. She enjoys the new Wii with her brother & sister that they purchased with their own money by selling some of their toys they no longer play with. But, she still loves her little ponies and Barbie dolls and is trying to learn how to sew. So far, this has included fixing her cloth doll & Graham’s Webkinz dog!



Eliana turned 3 in September and is our ball of energy & curiosity. Her sense of humor and ability to understand jokes at such a young age keep us laughing. She keeps up well with her older brother and sister and creates her own adventures to keep mom & dad hopping. She loves Dora the Explorer, and one of her favorite things is her “letters.” She plays with any and every letter–Her magnetic ones, her Leap Frog letters, & even asks for “letters with milk” (Alphabet cereal). She also absolutely loves drawing pictures and attempts letters. She can make the letter “E” the best, which is great because that’s what starts her name.

We hope this Christmas finds you with lots of joy and happiness that only Christ can fully provide.

Love and Merry Christmas!

The Scotts
John –Tere – Graham – Jale’na – Eliana

Please please please keep in touch throughout the year:
2976 Wheatfield Farms Dr. – O’Fallon, MO 63368
Joyfulsoundsdj@juno.com – Tere / OR John@joyfulsoundsdj.com - John
Please add us as a friend on FACEBOOK – We would love to keep in touch throughout the year!

The great Santa debate and Welcome winter with edible snow globes

We recently saw the new move Santa Claus 3. We've now seen all three of the Santa Claus movies and thought each one was enjoyable even though Santa doesn't come to our house. Now, if you invite Santa to your house every year, we will certainly join in your shreaks of joy and early morning Christmas Day excitement. We will be the last people to tell you not to include Santa in your festivities. In fact, there have been numerous moments after observing squealing, jumping up and down children that we wondered if the decision we made was the best.

But, in the Scott household Santa is not invited on Christmas Eve. It's one of those parenting decisions that came up before we had children. Since we did not want to base a tradition on a lie leaving our children to wonder if we also lie to them about other things they were led to believe, we decided we would not "do the Santa thing." Having said that, we also did not want our children to grow up feeling as though they were left out of a childhood fun memory because of our Christian parental beliefs. Also, both my husband and I came from households that enjoyed the tradition of Santa. I don't know how my husband handled finding out that Santa really was his parents delivering gifts, but I took it well since my mother sat me down and lovingly explained the true story of St. Nicholas and how she and my dad wanted to carry on that tradition by giving their children gifts each year - Because their love was so great for us - Just like God's love was great in St. Nicholas' heart to give as he gave so many years ago.

So, we still have a living room filled with presents on Christmas morning. We still bake cookies and pretend to leave them out for Santa (after one daughter insisted) even though my daughter who insists upon doing this knows where the gifts truly come from. On Christmas morning, the children awake to a room filled with gifts, but they know who to thank and that the reason we give the gifts is because of the gift of eternal life that Jesus gave to us through coming as a baby in a manger, growing up, living a sinless life, dying on a cross and raising to live forever at the right hand of the Father, our God in heaven. That's what we believe.

Because of what we believe, we are left to be filled with joy, so we celebrate just about everything there is to celebrate. We celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6, we celebrate Hanukkah because we believe strongly in passing on our Jewish Heritage to our children and how it ties to the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus; and we celebrate Christmas. Though, there won't be any winter solstice dance, we do celebrate winter. Partially because it is the day my husband and children's daddy was born.

Today we celebrated winter and the coming of Christmas by making edible snow globes. Back to the mention of Santa Claus 3. In the movie, they portrayed snow globes as part of the magic. Only the ones we made, you can eat - Well, you can eat all but the actual plastic clear dome. And, if I had to do over again, I would choose different decorations for the inside.

But, we started with a chocolate snowflake circle as the base
We used edible glitter & an edible clear sparkly gel frosting to hold everything together. Inside we rolled out and colored with food coloring a mixture of gum paste that we purchased at a craft store in the baking section. The rest just included the children cutting out shapes and placing them inside their globes and then adding some snowflake sprinkles and putting it all together.

They were fun to think about, create and spend time doing with the children. But, like always, inside my head is pictured these beautiful perfect works of art. Here's how ours turned out:

Light of the World: Jesse Tree Devotion Day 23

For more on Jesse Tree Devotions, please check out my articles on Examiner

The Jesse Tree is based upon prophecies from the Old Testament and how they relate to the New Testament Christ. It is based on the scripture that reads: Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots."



Great for homeschoolers - These devotional lessons are a wonderful way to present Biblical history, Jewish heritage, art and reading together in 25 short lessons - One each day leading up to Christmas. It would also be a great topic for unit study lapbook or notebooking activity which develop writing skills.



Today is Day 23 of the Advent Calendar Jesse Tree devotions. This time of advent is when we anticipate the coming of Christmas when Christians celebrate the birth of the Messiah who came to fulfill prophecies.



The symbol, or ornament, for Day 23 is that of a candle or light.



The scriptures are Isaiah 42:6 - "I, the LORD, have called you to do what is right. I will take hold of your hand. I will protect you. I will appoint you as my promise to the people, as my light to the nations," and Isaiah 60:1-3 - “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn;" and

Luke 1:26-38, 2:32 and John 8:12 - "Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have a life filled with light and will never live in the dark."

The Old Testament and New Testament tie the prophecy together to show that it has been fulfilled in Jesus. It tells of a world that had become dark because of sin, but now there is hope. When we open our hearts to believe in Christ, a "light" shines on us. Our eyes are opened to understand the scriptures, and we begin to go about doing good and loving kindnesses for others. We then spread a light of hope to those who are stumbling around in the "darkness" and hurting.

Activity: Turn off the light in your room, then as you proclaim: "Jesus is the Light of the World," turn the light on suddenly and watch how light floods the darknesss. The same activity can be done with a candle to illustrate how Christ's light truly shines and overtakes kthe darkness. Sing "This Little Light of Mine." Or even make some sand candles.

Today's ornament for the Jesse Tree is the symbol of a candle or a light. You could recycle some old lightbulbs (make sure they're not the new green, energy-efficient ones since there is a hazard if those break). You can simply string some candles (the kind that have wick still attached and dangle on each side of the Christmas tree branch, or you can find an old fashioned candle holder (just don't truly light these as they are a fire hazard). Use them for your ornament only. Or, even make your own lighthouse ornament.

Jesse Tree explained Jesse Tree Day 1-22 Holidays

Homeschool Bible Lessons History Lapbook a Polar Christmas

If you like the article, please hit the Digg button below

If you would like to see more articles from this writer, subscribe FOR FREE through the button at the top of the page:

Outdoor ice skating rink St. Charles Historic family fun

Outdoor ice skating rink St. Charles Historic family fun

How did I get here homeschooling mom of 3?

Hello - let me introduce myself. I am Tere Scott. I am so excited to be able to report on my favorite subject: educating my children at home. Hopefully, you will find my blogs interesting and encouraging. This one is simply an introduction.




I am thrilled to have the gift of raising 3 children here on earth. I know in the world of homeschoolers, with families of 12+ children, 3 children is not even a number you begin to count. So, let me share with you that I have 3 children here - I also have 3 who for unknown reasons to my doctor or me, ended their pregnancy and arrived too early for me to enjoy holding a viable healthy baby in my arms. So, they are now with their creator in heaven. I hold them only in my heart. Each of my children are so precious to me. But, after so much loss, God granted me the most wonderful gift in child #3 - a miracle I never thought I would receive. The scripture that refreshed me during her looooong pregnancy was from Isaiah 41:18-20 that reads "i will give them fountains of water in the valleys. In the deserts they will find pools of water......on barren land. Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is the Lord, the Holy One of Israel who did it." So, because it was the Holy One who gave this baby to me, I give back with refreshing water via Samaritan's Purse clean water project. I give half my proceeds from Ebay sales to this mission on my daughter's behalf.



My husband is supportive of the homeschooling decision, though he was raised in strictly private Lutheran education. He is a master musician who loves to praise his God. He is currently serving as the interim worship leader for a church near us, but is hopeful to make leading worship a full-time adventure. We also jointly own a Christian Disk Jockey business that plays wedding receptions and other events and a solo musician. He started this the year before we were married because his heart ached to see how the music of this generation was, well, bringing corruption. He wanted to share God's music and uplifting lyrics in the receptions he worked. So, that's what he still does today, along with teaching guitar to approximately 70 students at a local music store.

So, here I am - a homeschooling mother of 3. I knew from before they were born that homeschooling was for me. Maybe it had something to do with my rides on the public school bus that helped me make my decision. But, I prefer to think it's deeper than that - that God placed it on my heart to follow.