A Journey in Motherhood

Life Lately

2011-05-17T13:43:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I have posted, so I thought I would update you all as to what has been happening in our lives. First of all, my dear husband painted our family room and I am working on decorating it. I started Square Foot Gardening. We currently have 3 4x4 boxes with lots of veggies growing. Since this is my first time ever gardening, we decided to keep it simple. Next year, we plan on more than doubling it to 8 boxes. It is so easy and a lot of fun. Everyone loves it! We are also experimenting with herbs. Our first herbs to own are lavender, pineapple mint, and peppermint. My husband has also been working hard on our yard. Finally, we decided to continue with Sonlight and ordered and received our curriculum. This next year, we will be switching to just 1 core instead of 2. We will be finishing the second half of American History.

We have completed through week 24 of Sonlight cores 1 and 3 (now B and D). Our plans are to continue through the summer. The month of May, I have doubled up on the lessons and then will go back to single lessons. We just wanted to have some of a break before we start back in late August. The kids are maintaining a great schedule and loving Sonlight and so am I!

Another thing that we have been working on establishing is a workable schedule. A few years ago, I purchased, read, and implemented a schedule from Managers of Their Homes. However, we have moved since (in September) and things were in real need of help. We are still in the process of making it completely workable, but it is MUCH better around here. The kids even know what to expect when and look forward to it.

Visiting the chiropractor has also been a part of our lives lately. My husband is also visiting him regularly. We have found a chiropractor that we love and highly recommend here in Amarillo. I can honestly say that I feel great and look forward to the day when my dear husband can say the same thing.

Exercise- I completed the Jillian 30 Day Shred and then moved on to The Biggest Loser Boot Camp with full intentions on completing it in the next 6 weeks. But other circumstances have put it on hold for a little while. I think that I will just be walking on the treadmill for a little while or sticking with level 1 of Boot Camp. However, I have achieved my weight-loss goal and am now back to 122 and feel great! Part of visiting the chiropractor, exercising, and over all health improvements also means improvement in the way we eat. We have switched to raw goats milk (and love it :)), farm fresh eggs, and will be picking up our half a grass-fed cow this week. I have also started ordering bulk food and grains from Azure Standard and including beans in our diets a whole lot more. We have switched from white sugar to Sucanat and I am even going one step further and completely going away from all sugar in my diet. This is hard especially when my husband brings home donuts for a breakfast treat. Instead, I happily cook eggs for myself and drink a spinach, strawberry, and banana smoothie. Funny thing about all of this is that when I returned home from the chiropractor today, everyone was in a sugar slump and I was not! I guess that is true motivation for me- a true sugar lover!

Breakfast Cowgirl Style

2011-03-24T11:19:00.000-04:00

The Good News

2011-03-23T11:26:00.002-04:00

My oldest son, Matthew, wrote his first song, The Good News. Our fantastic music minister, Steve, wrote the music to the song and brought it to us yesterday. Here are the words:

1. The gospel is the good news that Christ became a man to die for us on the cross.
2. The gospel is Jesus, who bore my sin and pain and died for me on the tree.
3. The gospel is the good news that, though they buried Him, He rose up from the grave.
4. Christ Jesus came and will come to take His children home. He rose, so we're raised with Him.
5. The gospel is the good news, that Christ became a man to die for us on the cross.

Refrain: Jesus is the Savior; Jesus is the Lord; the good news of the world.

Also, if anyone knows how to add a song from an I-tunes file please share so that I can share the tune to this song.

Exercising With My Little Ones

2011-03-14T22:07:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, my friend sent me an exercise video for a very belated birthday gift. The video was Jillian's 30 Day Shred. I immediately called her and told her thank you and asked if she was trying to kill me by sending me a Jillian workout video. She just laughed and said that she thought it would work well with my schedule to only have to exercise 20 minutes a day. Let's just say it sat upon my shelf for a few weeks because I was too intimidated to even give it a try and I did not own any dumb bells.

After thinking about it for sometime, I thought that I could at least give it a try and use what I had for hand weights- pint size jars of honey! Don't laugh they work :) So, this past Saturday I popped the dvd into our player and proceeded to exercise for 20 minutes with my honey. You may be saying that 20 minutes is easy, but I beg to differ- it was a WORKOUT! However, I still did not let that intimidate me, I continued on to day 2 and two of my boys decided to join me. They, too, went and picked out jars. One of them picked out 2 quart sized jars of peanuts and the other picked out 2 spoons. At this point, I found it hard to stay focused on my exercises because I was laughing so hard! If only I had a video camera in the background recording all of this I could have won a million dollars on AFV. After laughing so hard, I pressed on and so did they. They received LOTS of praise from me the whole time since they were supporting their momma exercise pursuit. Today was day 3 and they were begging me to put in the dvd so that we could all start exercising just after family worship this morning. Believe it or not, this time I had all of the children trying the exercise. The two little boys stuck it out the whole time. My oldest girl joined us a little way into the routine and so did our oldest son. My oldest son dropped out because he said that it was way too hard for him.

In the beginning, I wondered if I really had the endurance to stick this thing through for an entire 30 days straight in a row. Each day I am feeling it more and more. It is hard and my whole body hurts, especially my legs. However, I think that I will be able to stay with it. I have cheerleaders!!! They motivate and encourage me. Who says that exercise is impossible with 5 children? Not me any more!

Is It Possible To Eat Healthy While Maintaining A Limited Food Budget?

2011-03-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

This is the question that I have been asking myself a lot lately. While living in upstate NY, we had settled into a grocery routine and had bulk food shopping down to a science. However, since moving to Texas in September and living in a city, I became lax in my pursuit of bulk food shopping and have made many more trips to the grocery store and health food store just because it is conveniently located in the same town and not far from my house. Our food budget is $600 a month for a family of seven. I still make most things from scratch and have some favorite blogs that I get my recipes from and even get a menu mailed to me each month from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Stolen Moments. She also has a blog at Stolen Moments Cooking. That being said, I have been encouraged to look for places to order in bulk and save money.

This morning when I woke up, I decided to write out a spread sheet of all the food we regularly purchase, how much we go through in a year, and how much everything cost. The next thing that I did was to brake it down by the month. I divided that number by 12. Finally, I broke it down even further and divided that number by 4 giving me the total for the week. When it was all done, I was amazed that I had still had around $100 extra each month that I could spend. Wow!!! I encourage you, too, to do the math and see where your money is going and how far you can stretch it.

Here is a break down of what I did:

Nuts- $59 a month
Meat- $141 a month
eggs- $48 a month
Dairy- $80 a month
Bulk food order from Azure Standard- $175

Total Spending = $503 a month

Recently I discovered that Azure Standard has a delivery stop in my town. Boy, did I ever rejoice when I found out! My nuts come from Braga Organic Farms in California. This is a family owned business. I order the nuts and dried fruit in bulk, get a 10% discount from Heavenly Homemakers, and only pay $10 in shipping. This morning, I ordered 100 pounds of nuts and dried fruit and payed $708 with shipping. Also, a friend recently told me about a nearby farmer who sells beef, pork, chicken, eggs, lamb, and goat. His animals are grass-fed and are well taken care of with no hormones and plenty of sunshine. His farm is in Lubbock, but he delivers all over Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. He has a delivery stop here in town each month. The name of his place is Paidom. His egg prices are between $3.50 to $4 a dozen. Plus with all the other meats he sells our order with him will average around $1700 a year. We plan on buying 3 dozen eggs a week, 24 chickens, half a cow, and half a pig. Our bulk food order will come from Azure Standard and will cost around $175 a month in the beginning and then average out to around $100-$125 a month. Our dairy will either come from Braums Ice Cream and Dairy or from a private farmer (hopefully this will be the case). Vegetables will come from our back yard. I also plan on ordering my herbs in bulk from Bulk Herb Store and this is a place that I highly encourage you to visit soon if you have not already. The service is superior and the product is beyond amazing. The shipping is fast and the herbs are super fresh! Plus if you order from my side button, I get store credit. All the more reason to order from them. Olive Nations is also a great place to order things like olive oil, vanilla beans, and such. If you order through Heavenly Homemaker you can get 10% of your total order and shipping is always free.

This year we also plan on having our own garden. A friend recently loaned me The All New Square Foot Gardening. I will be using this method of gardening while using Heirloom seeds. Hopefully my garden will grow well and we will be able to harvest quite a bit of vegetables from it this year. This will be my first garden ever and I am very excited about it.

So to answer the question about eating healthy while maintaing a limited budget- YES it is possible. Just look around and ask others. Eventually, you, too will be finding lots of places where you can save money and eat healthy foods. Before I found Azure Standard, I shopped a lot at Natural Grocers. Their sales prices are amazing. I still plan on shopping there. In addition, there are farmers markets in the summer. Last of all, there is Swag bucks (points that you get just for searching the internet that translate into gift cards or prizes) that you can use to purchase groceries and other things at Amazon. If you sign up for their subscribe and save program, you can save 15% more. Plus you can save 15% more if you sign up for Amazon Moms. How do you save on your grocery budget while eating healthy?

Peasant Top Is Finished

2011-03-09T10:42:00.001-05:00

Last night I finally finished the peasant top. Today I get to start on the capri pants with ruffles at the bottom and then on to the kerchief. After that is all finished, I will start a matching outfit for my two year old girl. Sewing, even though it only happens in little time increments, is helping me to feel great. It has been the best decision to keep the sewing machine out in the open. Every time I walk pass it, it calls my name. When I have a few extra minutes I sit and sew even if it is only 10 minutes a day like yesterday. Yesterday, I used that 10 minutes during a very busy day to finish the top.

Highlander, Dress-up, Adoption, and Sewing

2011-03-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

Life around here has been much the same with the exception that I have not written a post in the past week. My excuse is Highlander. In the evening, after the children are in bed, my husband and I sit together and watch Highlander on the computer through Netflix.

The children have had some fun playing dress-up and the girls have had fun playing horsey and baby dolls. I have been thinking much about adoption and how that I can help others while God is working on my heart and it seems impossible for us at the time being. For now, I am just advocating for Celine. Will you join me in praying that God will place it on a loving Christian family's heart to adopt her? The selfish part of me wants someone in our church family to step forward to adopt her since it cannot be my husband and I. The other part of me just wants her to be in a Christian family where she does not have to spend her life in a mental institution.

The last thing that I have been doing lately has been sewing a peasant top and capri pants with ruffles at the bottom for both of my girls. When I am done, I will be posting pictures. I have finally figured out a way to add sewing to my schedule- keep the sewing machine set up and always in my view. If I have only a few minutes to sew then I sit down and get busy. This is motivation! It may take others only a few hours to make this simple outfit for their children, but it takes me days due to many small children and a busy schedule. At least, I am sewing a little each day.

A Day Set Aside For Olga And Celine

2011-02-28T15:29:00.001-05:00

Do you know what happens to precious children who are born with Downs Syndrome in Eastern Europe? They are cast off to orphanages. First it is a baby orphanage and then when they turn between 5 and 6 they are transferred to and institution where they will spend the rest of their lives strapped to a bed and un-adoptable. Patti, has chosen to set aside today to advocate for the Abell family who is adopting Olga and needs to raise $7000 to submit their dossier.

I have pasted the information to advocate for her today here and I ask you to do the same on your blog or on your facebook:

Dear friends,

So many of you already know this beautiful little face....

Olga turned five last month. She has spent the last five years in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, without the love of a mommy and daddy- simply because she arrived in life exactly as God designed her. One chromosome too many, and her fate was sealed from birth.

Sealed, because in Eastern Europe, babies who are born with Down syndrome are deemed unacceptable at birth. They are discarded as cast-offs of society, and when they turn five they leave the only home they've ever known...

And I wish I could say that for most of these children, leaving that home means going to a place of safety, a place of happiness, a place where they would finally know the love of a family...know what it means to be cuddled or sung to or read to, tucked in at night, prayed for, loved.

Instead, they are taken to a place that most people wouldn't leave their family pet.

A place of living hell, where they will never know the tenderness of a parent, never know the security of being raised in a family, and there they will stay, one ugly, pain-filled day at a time...until they die.

I read a post last December that stayed with me to this day. It was called from baby dolls to bedstraps.

The blog author wrote about Elizabeth, an orphan on Reece's Rainbow who had been transferred to a mental institution, waiting for a family to step forward for her. Her words still haunt me.

I wonder where she thought she was going as they led her out of the orphanage that day. Did she think that maybe it was finally her turn? That they were taking her to her forever Mommy and Daddy?

And when they instead took her inside that dreadful place, when they shaved her head and tied her to a too-small metal crib

when they turned their backs and

walked

away…

when they left her confused, terrified,

in a room where the wails of schizophrenic adults echo through the cold air

what was going through her young mind?

Did she wonder if she was being punished?

How long did she hold out hope that this was only temporary?

That any minute, they would come and take her back to the baby house

to her baby dolls and teddy bear,

to her best friend, Angelina?

Did she long to free her arms from the restraints

to cover her head with her hands to drown out

the scary noises

the scary sights

the scary smells?

That could be my Lily….

It could be your child.

And what if it were?

What if you woke up one morning

and by some hellish, twilight-zone twist of fate

your child wasn’t still tucked into that warm bed down the hall,

what if your child was trapped

across the dark sea

in that nightmare that is

the institution?

What

would

you

DO?

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. Proverbs 24:11

Elizabeth is being rescued today, thanks to the efforts of that blogging mama, and others like her.

Olga is being rescued today, thanks to so many of you...you gave so much and created such a large grant that a family was able to step forward and start the process of adoption.

The Abells have done so much already, towards rescuing Olga. I can't even imagine all the paperwork and prayer and emotion and finances that goes into an international adoption. They have done numerous fundraisers, and will continue to do so until they can bring Olga home.

Through the help of so many, a grant of over $13,000 has been raised for Olga's adoption. That grant is set aside for the final travel costs and fees that it will take to bring Olga home. It will take every penny of that and then some.

Right now the Abells are in need of raising the $7,000 that is needed to submit their dossier for Olga. Without that dossier we don't even know if Olga has been transferred yet. Here in America you just pick up the phone and ask these questions. But here in America we don't tie five year old girls to cribs to keep them from climbing out.

The Abells need to submit that dossier as soon as possible- at the very least to find out if she has been transferred already- because I know an army of prayer warriors who is going to want to know that piece of information as well. And at the very most, it could be able to hold Olga at the baby house until the Abells can rescue her. I wish I could say with certainty that she won't be transferred- truthfully we just don't know that.

Olga has been so heavy on my heart for months- friends, I want you to know that I DO trust that God has a plan here.

I prayed like crazy for a way to help the Abells. I truly believe that there is a network of people who love Olga here in blogland...a net that is woven by God and is stretching out across this blessed country we live in, and even beyond to generous hearts in other nations. I really cannot express enough how thankful I am to be a small part of what God has already done for Olga, Peter and Kareen. But I don't think our job is done.

Olga needs us.

I don't want her to spend one more forsaken day in that place than she has to.

We're not doing a giveaway here today. I don't even think we need to do one- I know so many just have a heart to help and to give, and prizes were never the real reason we all gave anyway.

So I'm just asking- for one day- for you to do whatever you could to help Olga. Whether that's $10 or $20 or even a hundred...if you are able to help raise this money for the dossier, please do so HERE... This is the Abell's chip-in.

This is the link for the Family Sponsorship Page on Reece's Rainbow...every single dollar goes to the Abell's adoption fund, and every single dollar will help.

We're calling this A Day to Save Olga, because there are about 17 of us blogging mamas and one blogging grandpa who have set aside this day to blog, post on Facebook, pray, give and spread the word to SAVE OLGA.

Will you help us?

I know you will:)

One last request. Celine also needs a family.

She needs someone to step forward and start the process of adopting her. She currently has a grant available to any family wanting to step forward to adopt her. Will you be her forever family? Will you pray for Olga and Celine?

Gardening Season Will Be Upon Us Soon

2011-02-26T23:12:00.001-05:00

What will you be planting in your garden this year?

Stepping Out and Being Bold

2011-02-23T16:40:00.003-05:00

I am going to step out and advocate for a precious little girl who needs a family soon. Her name is Celine and she is five years old. She lives in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has downs syndrome. I found her through Reeces Rainbow website and she currently has a grant available toward her adoption. However, in order for her to come home, she needs a lot more money given to her grant fund. The Lord has been laying her on my husband and my heart lately. We want to adopt her, however, we do not even have the funds to begin the home study or to pay the agency fees. She needs a miracle. Very soon, she will be transferred to an institution in which she can no longer be adopted. We serve a Big God who is in the mountain-moving business and I know that if He wants her to have a family, He can move these mountains to bring her home. Would you prayerfully consider giving to her grant fund through Reece's Rainbow? I have put her picture and a link to her page on the side of my blog.

Getting Personal- For Women Only

2011-02-23T13:01:00.001-05:00

Do you ever struggle with cramps, heavy bleeding, irregular periods, or moodiness? If you do, I have a solution that really works. It is called red raspberry leaf tea. This morning, I woke up feeling very crampy so I made a pot of red raspberry leaf and spearmint leaf tea and I feel a TON better. My two favorite herbs for menstrual problems are red raspberry leaf and spearmint leaf and they are available from Bulk Herb Store. Plus, if you order from them from my link on my blog I get credit.

Here is how I make my tea: I use a coffee filter and spoon 1 teaspoon per cup of dried herb to be used into the filter. Usually, I mix different herbs. This morning I used half spearmint and half red raspberry leaf. Then I add a cup of water for each teaspoon of herb used. I choose to use our coffee pot because my husband has not been it and I am not a coffee drinker. If someone in your home is a coffee drinker this can also be made using a little stainless steel tea diffuser and adding hot water, letting it simmer to desired darkness and then removing the diffuser.

I could not just leave this post with no pictures, so I had to include our happenings today. The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day outside today. Yesterday, we also went to the library and my children are loving reading their finds. Plus, I found a few great recipes yesterday that we are making today.

It's Official

2011-02-22T23:21:00.000-05:00

Today was day five of Aaron being sick and struggling with fevers that would spike to 104.5, lethargy, stomach aches, and not really eating. I decided that it was time to call the doctor and see what in the world was going around. They told me the flu and strep throat. I said, "well, he doesn't have strep cause he is complaining of his stomach hurting and not his throat." They also told me that the flu was lasting a full 7 to 10 days with some patients experiencing post flu symptoms for up to 2 weeks after the 10 days. So, I decided to just call the doctors office back and schedule an appointment and boy am I glad that I did! The doctor was also suprised at the results. She thought for sure that he had the flu. He has strep throat! So, she gave him a big shot and hopefully he is now on the road to recovery. She also advised me to throw away all of our toothbrushes after 24 hours and get new ones. Tonight my husband was complaining of a sore throat. This time we will not be waiting 5 days. Tonight Aaron did go to bed with a high fever and chills. I hate using Motrin, but that is when I do use it. Thank you for the prayers for Aaron and I am so thankful that we went to the doctor and he got a shot. Hopefully the road to recovery for him is just around the corner and his appetite will return. Five days of not really eating is not a good thing.

These two pictures were taken today just after bringing Aaron home from the doctor. He is smiling because he had just finished a sucker from the doctor's office. This was the first smile I had seen in five days. Emily insisted that she get a picture too.

Please Pray For My Sweet Little Aaron

2011-02-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

Aaron has been sick now for four days. He has been running a fever, sleeping most of the time, and has no interest in food. He says his stomach does not feel well. I have been making sure that he is staying hydrated.

This is a picture of Aaron at AWANA taken several months ago.

When You Have To Stay Home From Church

2011-02-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

There will be time when sickness may come to you or to one of your children and you have to miss a Lord's Day service. What do we do on those days to still set it aside as a Sabboth to the Lord? We want to hear from the Lord and we are sad when we must miss, but there are many things that we can still do to make it a joyous day. We live in a day of internet access in which the opportunity to hear good, solid, Biblical preaching is available. I suggest to use this time to listen to a sermon online, spend an extended time reading your Bible if you can, listening to music that focuses our mind on Christ and what He has accomplished for those who are in Him, serving your sick child and loving on him or her, reading books that focus our mind on Christ. Set this day aside and be intentional to make it special even when you cannot be together with other Christians. It is only one day a week that we really get to do this and we ought to look forward to being with God's people and hearing from the Lord.

I say all of this today because I was looking forward with great anticipation to hearing my husbands sermon from Colossians this morning on the Colossian hymn: Colossians 1: For by Him and through Him and to Him are all things..." Our son has had a fever and a stomach ache for the past 3 days and I was really hoping that this morning he would be better. However, last night the fever was just getting the best of him and he was up a lot. He is just laying around, drinking water a little at a time, and going to the bathroom. My energetic little boy is just sick. It is my duty to serve him and love him through all of this and I wouldn't do anything different.

Counsel From The Cross

2011-02-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

This week-end I had the wonderful privilege to attend a conference with our secretary from church. She invited and paid for me to go and hear a recorded conference of Elyse Fitzpatrick speak on Counsel From the Cross. Wow!!! I was brought to the cross this week-end and I wanted to share with you some of my notes from her speaking. I know this is not the same as attending the conference, but I do hope that it encourages someone today. Plus, I would highly encourage anyone to purchase a copy of her book, Counsel From the Cross or Because He Loves Me.

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Ephesians 5:1)

- When we see this verse, our thoughts are often focused on the imperative (command) to be imitators of God. We either try to keep this command and fall into self-righteousness (pride) or into despair.
- Often when we read verses like these they become as "white noise" to us.
- Our christianity becomes what we should do instead of what God has done for us in Christ.

- Christ is wonderful and I am in Him!!!
- Are we beloved children or begrudging slaves? We are beloved children as the verse in Ephesians tells us.
- God is pleased with Christ!!!
- We can tell if we are a Pharisee if we judge others and expect them to hold to the law that we don't even hold to.
- Christ is making us into His image. I am an image-bearer of Christ.
- I am sinful and flawed, yet I am beloved and welcome!!!

- God loves me with the same intensity as He love the Son.
- Christ became man for me so that I could be beloved by the Father.
- We are beloved children, not houseguests, foster children, or slaves.
- The law crushes us and brings us to Christ. It is our schoolmaster.

- We see Christ in the Word preached and that is why it is important to be present in the Lord's Day services each week. Lean forward and engage yourself in the preached Word of God. It is Christ speaking to us.
- Don't shift aside from the hope of the gospel.
- When we don't witness to others it is because we are not in love with Christ. When we are in love with someone, we speak often of them and it is no problem because they just flow into our every conversation.
- Only the gospel can transform us!

- When we don't pray it is because we are not really sure what God thinks of us.
- Jesus is the wrath-bearer.
- We see God's glory in the means of grace that He has given us: preaching of the Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
- The Lord's Supper is Christ's hospitality to me. His blood cleanses me and His body was broken for me.
- Don't ever move past the gospel or think it too elementary!!!

These we only my notes from the first night of the conference. I want to put my notes from today on here also, but will have to do so on another day.

Home Schooling And Housekeeping

2011-02-17T22:28:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I was all classical education minded and nothing else. I was convinced that if I was to educate our children at home then we needed to use the classical approach because in my mind that was the best. Years went by and more children came into our lives. Life suddenly got busier and schooling was taking the majority of my day. By the time it was time for housework, I was tired. I was also either pregnant or nursing a baby during this time. Let's just say, I started looking at other options and reading all the different styles of homeschooling and was impressed with the Charlotte Mason learning style. My children loved to read and I loved reading to them. We were all about living books. During this time of questioning our philosophy of education, the Lord humbled me and taught me that it wasn't really about what style a person used to teach their children at home. It was about attitude and creating a love for learning. I was trying to impress and create a smart child with lots of rigorous work and ended up creating a dislike for most of our schooling. So, I tried several different things and finally ended up landing on Sunlight. It has been the best thing for our family. We all love reading and some days it hardly feels as if we are really doing school. The flexibility of the schedules is also what persuaded us. We had the option of choosing either a four day schedule or a five day schedule. We chose the four day schedule and love every minute of it. This also makes it easier to balance housekeeping. Our reading time usually takes no more than about 2 hours. Most of the rest of their schooling is independent work with the exception of spelling and grammar. For those two subjects we use Sequential Spelling and First Language Lessons and these both are so very easy.

Today, we were able to finish our schooling by lunch time for the most part and then make bagels, granola bars, practice sewing, and clean house, and cook dinner. Not all days are like today. Some days are still a struggle, but for the most part there is now a routine that we are satisfied with. If you are unhappy with your curriculum, I suggest that you look around and find one that will best fit your schedule and your families likes. One thing that I have learned is that it is not always about what learning style you chose or what curriculum you land with. You have to go with what works for your family.

The Story Of Don and I:Part 2

2011-02-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

Don went back to life planning his dad's funeral and I went back to life working as a summer camp counselor in Missouri. He regularly wrote letters and I wrote back all summer. He even came to visit me one time during the summer. Our relationship continued to blossom. When my job ended, I went back to school for the semester and so did he. Once back in school, he asked me to marry him. I said no because I wanted my family's approval first and I did not think that they would be ready. Our relationship still grew stronger in spite of the fact that I was just not ready for marriage yet. We both ended up not finishing the semester. He was not ready emotionally due to his dad's death and I did not have the finances. We both headed back to our hometowns. Just before we departed, he asked me to elope with him and I still said no. We both went back to work in our hometowns and planned on getting married in June.

About February, Don had had enough of being without me and he, in desperation, called me one last time and asked me to marry him now. I said yes and that I thought Valentines Day would be a great time. So, I traveled to Indiana and asked his pastor to perform the wedding on the 14th. He said that he could not do that, but could perform the wedding on the 15th. We took the plunge and had a tiny little wedding on February 15, 1996. His family attended the wedding. We had a total of 14 people attend our wedding. Also, he drove us both to the church building and walked me down the isle. It was a very non-traditional wedding, but worked great for us! We are each others best friends and the years just keep getting better.

15 Years

2011-02-15T23:48:00.000-05:00

Today Don and I got the privilege to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary. We chose to take a hike in the Palo Duro Canyon with our children. It was a beautiful day for a hike. Just a week ago it was -6 with a wind chill of -20 and today it was in the 70's.

The Story Of Don and I:Part 1

2011-02-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

The year was 1995, the month was March, we were in the same Bible history class and we also ate lunch at the same time in the school cafeteria, he noticed me! He asked others about me and I did the same thing about him. Who can turn down a handsome red headed man who was studying to be a preacher? Not me! The reason I even went to Bible college was to meet and marry a soon to be preacher. He began walking over to my table where I was eating lunch and asked me to go to the bank with him. In my mind, I was thinking, "sure, I need a ride anyway across town because I need to get a birthday gift for my sister." It was his first semester at Bible college and my second. I knew the town and he did not. I said, "yes". We hit it off from the very beginning! After that time, we went out again on an official date- to Lambert's: Home of the Thrown Roll and then later to Andy's Frozen Custard. I will never forget that date. He did not feel well but did not want to cancel for fear that he would disappoint me. Even though the did not feel well, we still had a great time getting to know one another.

We continued to date each other the rest of the semester. Then I went off to camp to work as a summer camp counselor and he back home. However, just before I left for camp, I spent a week with him getting to know his family in Indiana. This week proved to be a life changing week. His dad had a scheduled open heart surgery. He made it through the surgery and then we went out to eat breakfast with a pastor friend. While eating breakfast, we get a call telling us to come immediately because his dad was not looking good. By the time we made it to the hospital, we were called into a small room with a chaplain. We knew something was majorly wrong. Then the chaplain told us something no one wanted to hear. Don's dad had died during recovery. He bled out. The tears started flowing from everyone and everyone was in total shock. I drove the family home that day and then they began planning his funeral. My job was getting ready to start for the summer and I needed to fly out to get there on time. So, Don drove me to the airport and said his goodbyes to me and then headed back home to help his mom and plan his Dad's funeral. I wanted to be there for him in his pain...

Free Audio Book- Adopted For Life by Russell Moore

2011-02-13T21:58:00.000-05:00

Who likes free? I do! If you head on over to Christian Books.com you can sign up to receive a free audio book every month. A few of the selections that I have obtained for free have been C.K. Chesterton books, John Piper books, Jerry Bridges books, and this month a book by Russell Moore, Adopted For Life. If you have not had a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it! It will be a life changing book and change the way you think about adoption. This book is for EVERYONE! It is about adoption and the theology of adoption in Christ for the believer. It is a book that is hard to put down and will leave you walking away rejoicing over your adoption in Christ and ready to do something for the field of orphans all over this world. Then when you are done, I encourage you to head on over to Reece's Rainbow website and pray and advocate for these dear children who are created in the image of God and who need someone to be their voice and their parents.

Gods and Generals, Liberty's Kids, and Ken Burns Civil War

2011-02-12T23:05:00.000-05:00

This year in school, the oldest is learning about American History and the other children are learning about Ancient History. In lieu of studying American History, we chose to watch a movie about the civil war today, Gods and Generals, and ALL the kids sat glued to the television with lots of discussion afterwards. Don loves anything about the civil war and has also been watching a great documentary called, Ken Burns on the Civil War. If you get a chance to watch either of these, I highly recommend them. Another great television resource on American History has been Liberty's Kids. Do you have any favorite books or movies that you have been able to enjoy as a family that are about American History?

Bagel Making Fun

2011-02-11T18:04:00.001-05:00

A few days ago my friend, Celee, posted a recipe for bagels on her blog. I decided to give it a try today and literally could not stop making them with the many varieties that my brain could think of. Our children now officially know how to make bagels. They each got to make a batch on their own. We made honey whole wheat, honey oatmeal, pumpkin spice (made with butternut squash), multi-grain (white flour, oatmeal, and cornmeal), and cranberry with walnuts. We also thought of chocolate. I suggest that you head on over to Celee's blog and find the master recipe and then when you are done go on over to The Fresh Loaf to perfect your skill at bagel making. I plan on making bagels that are bigger next time. Who knew that making bagels could be so easy and so fun? Now all my children have a fantastic skill that they can carry on with them throughout life. Another plus is that whenever I don't want to cook breakfast in the morning, I can just ask them to make some bagels. The best of both worlds. What skill have you been passing on lately? Please share. I love new ideas.

Then at the end of the afternoon, you just tucker out.

I'm Back To Blogger

2011-02-10T00:14:00.000-05:00

The break has been long but I never really got over the learning curve with WordPress and I cannot continue to justify spending $10 a month for a domain that I have not been posting on frequently enough.

Life around here has changed a lot since I was last blogging on Blogger. My husband accepted a new job back in September and we moved cross-country in September. I now live in the same town as most of my family. This was completely a work of the Lord. My husband is now pastoring a church in Texas. We also recently bought a house. Again, a work totally of the Lord! I am planning on sharing this story soon. No new additions to our household. Our cat that we did have in NY is now with my husband's parents in Indiana. I made the switch to SonLight curriculum back in September and am not looking back. I LOVE every minute of it! Thanks to encouragement from my other blogger friend, Celee, I am now doing the 90 day Bible reading plan (a little behind, but at least I am staying with it). Also, the Lord has been working on my heart in other areas for sometime that I hope to be able to share with you all soon. For now, it just feels great to be back on Blogger.

Speedy Family 2008 2010

2010-12-16T16:59:00.001-05:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

2010 Merry Christmas

2010-12-06T00:41:00.001-05:00

Mod Merry Ornaments Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

My Montage 10/30/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-10-30T19:14:00.001-04:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Montage 10/30/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-10-30T16:28:00.001-04:00

Pictures of our life while living in upstate NY.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Left Over Oatmeal? No Problem.

2010-04-28T09:45:00.000-04:00

We have come to love steel-cut oats and many days I will make more than enough. Is anyone wondering what I do with all the left-over oatmeal? Make baked oatmeal, oatmeal peanut butter balls, use it in breads or muffins, or make granola with all of it.

Basic Baked Oatmeal Recipe

After I have made oats from the previous day, I use all the left over oats (usually about 4-6 cups)

4 eggs, mixed well

2 cups yogurt, Kefir, or milk

1/2-1 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar or preferred sweetener

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2-1 cup chopped nuts

optional: fruit (this morning I added frozen diced peaches)

Mix all of the above ingredients and place in a 9x13 in. baking pan and bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-28T06:24:00.000-04:00

This is what I woke up to this morning.

Nothing Like Fast

2010-04-27T17:04:00.000-04:00

Our old washing machine has been on it's last leg for a while now, not spinning out clothes. I found an add in the paper today for a washer for $75 in the next town over, 2 miles away. I waited till hubby came home and asked him if we could purchase it. He said yes. I called and they need us to pick it up right now because they are moving out. So, I had to find someone to help with a pick-up truck. It all worked out and now the kids and I are doing a quick clean up while they are picking up our new used washing machine. Plus, God provided the money! That is the best part of it all!

A Christian Home

2010-04-25T22:11:00.000-04:00

O give us homes built firm upon the Savior, Where Christ is Head and Counselor and Guide; Where every child is taught His love and favor and gives his heart to Christ, the Crucified: How sweet to know that, tho' his footsteps waver, His faithful Lord is walking by his side!

O give us homes with godly fathers, mothers, Who always place their hope and trust in Him; Whose tender patience turmoil never bothers, Whose calm and courage trouble cannot dim; A home where each finds joy in serving others, And love still shines, tho' days be dark and grim.

O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master, The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung; Where pray'r comes first in peace or in disaster, And praise is natural speech to every tongue; Where mountains move before a faith that's vaster, And Christ sufficient is for old and young.

O Lord, our God, our homes are Thine forever! We trust to Thee their problems, toil, and care; Their bonds of love no enemy can sever If Thou art always Lord and Master there: Be Thou the center of our least endeavor- Be Thou our guest, our hearts and homes to share.

Barbara B. Hart 1965

Hymns are a vital part of our daily life and I could not resist posting this hymn that we sang tonight during family worship. The theology is rich. The words are powerful. This is my prayer and I hope that it will be your prayer too.

It has become a pattern of ours to sing our way through the hymnal that our church is using, focusing on learning one hymn a week. Then on Sunday evenings, since we do not have evening services, we have an extended time of family worship in which we pray, read our Bible, review catechism and memory verses from our TAG books, and have a hymn sing. Everyone gets an opportunity to choose their favorite hymn and we all sing along. Even our youngest, 19 months, sings along. We have come across many songs in which we did not know, so Cyber Hymnal has become our friend. If you go to the site, you can just type in the song and it is played for you with out the words. So, if you wanted you could all gather around the computer and sing along as the words are written out on the site.

The Sun Is Shinning Today

2010-04-24T16:41:00.001-04:00

Yesterday and today have been a much better day. Thank you all for your prayers recently. I took the children to Moss Lake hiking trails today and they had a blast playing in the water and in the woods. Also, we thoroughly enjoyed outside time today. The sun is out and we soak in every little bit of it that we can. It does not shine often, and when it does it makes for a glorious day outside. Right now we are enjoying a highly recommended movie: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Movie.

When Mommy Hits A Brick Wall

2010-04-22T20:43:00.001-04:00

Ladies, I am sure that many of you can relate. You reach the point of total exhaustion and feel that you can handle no more. You either start yelling at those around you, fall into depression, cry, sleep, or all of the above. I have hit that brick wall in my life today. Life around me seems to be happening so fast. There are financial struggles within the church that sometimes cause me to stress, children who argue and pick on each other all day long, many new things to learn as we have began a new journey in making all things from scratch (which I love doing), learning to be frugal, stress over having to prevent getting pregnancy due to health concerns (even though I feel strongly against doing things to prevent pregnancy, but trust my doctor), and trying to be a happy homemaker who is immersed in the Scriptures. Today I fell in utter defeat. I napped twice and still feel exhausted! I feel lazy when I take a nap. I feel like I am not using my time wisely. However, in order to be a better mommy, I need to be refreshed and take a break every once in a while. Since we do not have family nearby, my husband and I must rely upon each other to help take care of each other. He sees my weakness and gives me a break when I need one. I am rejoicing that the Lord was my strength today. The Holy Spirit carried me through the day today. Tomorrow will be a new day and the Lord's mercies are made new each and every day.

I have not blogged much this week and will hopefully get back on schedule next week. The week started with the absence of my husband. He was away in South Carolina preaching. We drove him to the airport on Friday and then picked him up on Monday. The airport is about a little over 2 and a half hours from our home. Then on Tuesday, we traveled to Utica for a doctor's appointment and a few errands. So, my reason for not blogging has been well justified. Also, yesterday, I posted about the struggles many pastor's wives face and received a great comment from Celee. However, after my husband read the post he felt that it was a good post (but a little too personal) and that it could offend others, so I needed to delete it. I appreciate all my readers and their comments. It is never my goal to offend others in what I write. I want to be an encouragement to others and to be real. I am not super-mom and cannot handle it all. It is entirely the Lord who enables me to do the things that I do. I am thankful for the Lord and His mercies.

Feeling A Little Discouraged

2010-04-19T11:42:00.000-04:00

We make our plans but the Lord directs our steps. No matter how hard we wish for, hope for, pray for, and desire certain things to happen if it is not in the Lord's will it will not happen. The Lord is teaching me to place my confidence in Him alone and not in my circumstances. He is to be my contentment and nothing else. But the reality is that every time I get my hopes up about certain desires being fulfilled they seem to just get deflated and the more discouraged I become. I truly desire the Lord's will and not my own, so I will just rest in Him knowing that He always does what is best. Right now I just feel like a child who desires candy and cannot have it because it is not what is best for me.

Canning Peach Jam

2010-04-17T22:13:00.000-04:00

In order to make fresh jam all you need is 4 cups fresh or frozen fruit, sugar-free sure gel pectin, 3/4 cup cold water or 12 oz apple juice concentrate, and 1/2 cup sugar substitute. In a sauce pan bring the fruit to a boil and then add the pectin and boil for 1 minute with either the water or juice concentrate. After it has reached a full boil for 1 minute add the sugar substitute and boil an additional minute. Pour into hot and steralized canning jars. Let it sit for at least 24 hours. Enjoy!

This is a picture of mushrooms, ketchup, peach jam, and pinto beans!

Frugal Friday

2010-04-16T22:44:00.000-04:00

Tip for today: Shop for great used children's books at library sales. Plan to take some time, money, and a box. Look up the libraries in your area and ask when their book sales are scheduled. Often, they will also keep a cart or a room in which they will keep the books until the sale. I have found that if you just ask, they will let you in to see the books and purchase any that you may find. My son came home a few weeks ago with a large stack of books that he purchased for only $5! Usually they will only charge 25 cents for paperbacks and $1 for hardbacks.

Guest Post From Sandy: Read To Me, Mommy #1 Biographies

2010-04-15T22:16:00.000-04:00

I asked my dear friend Sandy, who owns more than 9000 books in her library to write a few posts for me about books for children. Enjoy!

Ride along on Hudson Taylor’s first voyage to China...trek through the virgin forests with George Washington, the young surveyor....painstakingly sew a flag with Betsy Ross....suffer the grief of a mother dying with Abraham Lincoln....brave the dangers of going to a remote tribe with David Livingstone.

All of these adventures and more will be yours and your children’s as you read biographies aloud. But this isn’t the only benefit to reading biographies to your children. The true story of a great man or woman will set before your sons and daughters a wonderful example for them to follow. Most of the heroes of today’s society are not fit to be copied. But godly men and women of the past and present as well as the great statesmen and patriots of our American heritage are worthy of presenting to our children. Reading biographies helps us understand the backgrounds of these people’s lives that lead to the great feats they did usually in their later lives. Let’s raise our children’s dreams to those thing that are noble and good, that are unselfish and of pure motive, that are full of worthy character. All of this can be done by reading aloud biographies to them.

Reading the tales of great people also indirectly teaches history to your children. This is so much more effective than a straight historical account in a textbook. The people of history “come alive”. After all, what is history? God’s work in the lives of people involves in the circumstances of life.

Many series of biographies are available today at reasonable costs. Not everything you can sign out of libraries will be good for your children to read. Choose carefully. Remember that most of the public library books will not be written from a Christian perspective. So a great American who was a Christian will be presented without that important part of his life being portrayed. Those who opposed Christianity throughout history will be presented as worthy role models. So be careful when you are picking biographies. Listed below are some good sets of biographies and some good publishers, as well as some sources for finding these for your family. Grade levels listed are approximate and for your child reading the book for himself. Of course, these books can be read aloud to children younger or older than listed.

It may take awhile for your children to learn to really appreciate a good biography because this type of literature is rarely assigned in school work today. And when was the last time you read a biography? Perhaps I can challenge you to read at least one. I find the missionary biographies particularly interesting. When I read these, my problems become petty; my “sufferings” are meager; and my faith is found wanting. I need these giants of the faith to keep my life in perspective. We love biographies so much that our family has collected almost 2,000 of them! You are welcome to come by and borrow some for your spring and summer reading. We also have some excellent audio cassette and CD sets of great biographies. Wonderful for traveling time!

Biography Sets

Childhood of Famous Americans - This popular set was first published in the 1950's and some of the 200+ titles have been reprinted in paperback now. We have found almost 100 of the old edition at book sales. They are wonderful stories, telling about the childhood of famous American people. Our children loved them. Each book is close to 200 pages with black and white sketch drawings or silhouette illustrations. For grades 3-5. Not from a Christian perspective but do not mock these heroes for their beliefs and Christianity.

The Sower Series - Published by Mott Media, a Christian company, these biographies will tell of the true Christian character of many famous people such as Appleseed, Morse, Wesley, Handel, carver, Webster. For grades 5-8, about 150-200 pages.

Men & Women of Faith series - This set is mainly of men and women who were missionaries and portrays their faith in God including Carmichael, ten Book, Elliot, Stam, Muller, Kuhn, Slessor and Carey. Reading level is grade 6 through adult. Published by Bethany House.

Hero Tales - four volumes - by Dave & Neta Jackson. A family treasury of true stories from the lives of Christian heroes. Short biographical information and three stories that display the person’s character plus Scripture verses and thought provoking discussion questions. For all ages.

Biographies for girls by Tracy M. Leininger - Priscilla Mullins, Nan Harper, Sacagawea, and Dolley Madison. Available from Vision Forum. Other titles of biographies from this company as well for boys and adults.

Living Principles of America - Audio dramatizations of America’s Greatest Heroes. CD. Each set has 12 stories.

Your Story Hour recordings - Audio dramatizations of American heroes. CD.

Focus on the Family Radio Theater - They have produced many biographical audio dramas. For example: Squanto, Corrie ten Boom, William Wilberforce, John Newton, etc.

Voice of the Martyrs - Beautiful picture story books of famous people including St. Nicholas, St. Valentine, and others. Lovely!

The Reading Parent

I had a parent who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
Blackbirds stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a parent who read me plays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every child has a right to know.

I had a parent who read me
Tales of Gelert the Hound of the Hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness bent with his final breath.

I had a parent who read me the things
That wholesome life to the child heart brings -
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each parent of children were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold,
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a parent who read to me.

~Author unknown~

Frugal Friday Coming Soon...

2010-04-15T21:02:00.000-04:00

Be on the watch out for money saving tips on Fridays. I will be posting tips that I have been learning along the way on Fridays and hoping that others will join along and share your insights each week as I post a tip.

Canning Mushrooms

2010-04-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

On our recent grocery trip, I ran across some great markdowns in the produce department. Mushrooms were marked down to $1.05 per 10 oz. package and bananas were marked down to 29 cents a pound averaging a little over $1 per bag. I bought 11 packs of mushrooms and 6 bags of bananas. Once home, I figured that I could just can the mushrooms. It was easy once I learned. In order to can mushrooms all you do is clean your mushrooms and trim off the end of the stems. Soak the mushrooms in cold water for 10 minutes and then rinse them well. Place them in a pan of water and boil them for 15 minutes. In the mean time, prepare your canning jars and lids in a pot of water. Place the jars on the counter and fill them with mushrooms, the same water in which you boiled them in, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pint jar filling them to 1/2 head space. Screw on the lids. Place the jars in a pressure canner and cook for 45 minutes. I did not have a pressure canner, so I just placed a rack at the bottom of my water bath canner, filled the pot to about 2 inches above the jars, and boiled it for 45 minutes. When finished, place the jars on the counter and let it sit still overnight. In the morning, it is okay to remove the ring while making sure your jar is sealed and place them on the shelf for future use.

If you want to know more about canning, I would highly suggest buying Homestead Blessings:The Art of Canning. I just purchased the complete set of Homestead Blessings through Vision Forum and received them yesterday. I have since watched 2 and highly recommend them. If you want to know more about Homestead Blessings here is their website: http://www.homestead-blessings.com/

Signs of Spring

2010-04-14T23:02:00.000-04:00

Last week we took a hike twice around Moss Lake. The first day it rained. The next day, we hiked the entire 2 and a half miles and had a blast. Our 3 year old ran almost the entire way! I took lots and lots of pictures and had a hard time choosing which ones to post.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T22:41:00.000-04:00

One of our sweet members at church came over just to read to my children today. Priceless!

Recipe Swap: Beef

2010-04-10T22:00:00.005-04:00

I am getting ready to purchase a half of a cow and need to be inspired with lots of beef recipes. We typically do not eat a lot of beef because of the price. However, we have a friend who is an organic farmer and has given us an amazing deal on beef that we could not pass up so I am hoping that a lot of people will join with me and post a link for their favorite beef recipe. If this all works out well, I would love to continue the recipe swap to include other foods on Saturdays. I am thinking of calling it Recipe Swap Saturday.

Ultimate Blog Party 2010

2010-04-09T10:02:00.003-04:00

Want to join me in meeting other mommy bloggers? Come on along and see what all the fun is about April 9-16th. There will be lots of great prizes and a chance to meet up with other moms who are on this same journey of motherhood. I think that it will be agreat time to expand your horizons and read new blogs.

Let me begin by introducing myself. I am Debbie, a wife to a wonderful man who is a pastor in Upstate NY. We have been blessed by the Lord to have 5 children here on earth and 1 precious little girl in Heaven. I home school our children and they are 9,7,5,3, and 1. We are reformed in our theology, see children as a blessing, and feel convicted that it is our duty to teach our own children. My husband pastors a small church in the Adirondack Mountains and our children stay with us during the worship service.

A few other things about myself that you may want to know is that being a pastor's family we make very little money so I am joyfully pursuing frugality! Any tip that I find I take note of and carefully consider it. I am learning how to make things from scratch and having fun. It is fun to see just how many things that you can actually make at home from very simple ingredients while saving money, teaching the children, and loving every minute. Recently, I have been making yogurt, breads, tomato paste, ketchup, dishcloths, and the list goes on. Frugality has been a journey for me since I did not grow up learning the art.

Growing up, my Mom and Dad both worked, have been married several times, and sent my sister and I to day care and public school. My Mom did try and schedule her work so that she could be home when my sister and I arrived home from school on the bus as much as possible. My Mom and step-Dad took us to church. I grew up Independent Baptist. After finishing High School, I went to community college and then on to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO in order to meet a husband. I met him in my first year and we married after a year in February 1996. It was the second best decision of my life. My first best decision was when the Holy Spirit drew me to HImself in salvation (which was entirely a work of Him and not myself) September 2001.

I hope that you, too, will join me in this journey of motherhood as I blog about life regularly. Comments make my day :) I love meeting new people and getting to hear what the Lord is teaching them on this same journey. Please feel free to leave a comment anytime or e-mail me with any questions that you may have debbiespeedy@gmail.com

What's A Woman To Do?

2010-04-08T09:11:00.000-04:00

I know that this sound silly. Being a wife and mom are the most important job in the world and many days I wake up and ask myself, "what am I suppose to be doing?" Does anyone else struggle with this? Just yesterday I installed a clothes line and I feel productive. Earlier in the week I completed a crocheted wash cloth and I feel industrious. When I make bread and yogurt I feel delighted. Growing up, I did not learn many homemaking skills, so this is all still new to me. However, I am loving every minute. This is all a big learning process and very often I feel as if I do not know what it is that I am suppose to be doing. Do any of you have these same struggles? Who taught you to be a homemaker? What books have most influenced you in homemaking skills?

A Crane, A Hike, and a Very Tired Little Boy

2010-04-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

This day started out with much excitement over getting to watch a crane being put together in our front yard driveway. The bridge has been taken out and workers needed to put together a crane, so after asking us we graciously allowed them the use of the church's parking lot. Yesterday, they promised us that after the crane was put together that the children could climb up into it and have their picture taken. Everyone was thrilled and anxiously awaited the wonderful opportunity. In the mean time, I decided to allow the children to play outside while I put up a clothes line. They finished the job and the children never got the opportunity to get inside the crane. However, we did get to see it up close and take pictures.

Later in the day, we got to take a hike around Moss Lake. It started pouring and we were deep in the woods. By the time we got back to the van we were all soaked. Everyone seemed not to mind, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are a few pictures that I was able to take. Had it not been pouring, I would have taken much better pictures. The hike was still fun and well worth every minute!

A very tired little boy

Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring (Week 5) No More Snow!!!

2010-04-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

Notice the green :)

Thankful Tuesday

2010-04-06T21:08:00.000-04:00

Please join me each Tuesday as we seek to give thanks for 10 things to our glorious God. It will be an amazing journey to look back upon if we list 10 things each week. We will be cultivating a heart of gratitude. Will you join me in this challenge this week? Just copy and paste this button on your website and leave a reply in the comments. I LOVE comments!

31. Little girls who are big helpers.

32. Big brothers who are brave.

33. Helpers around my house when it comes to chores.

34. Children who volunteer to prepare lunch and do a great job.

35. Getting to rock my sweet baby (now toddler) before she went to sleep.

36. A new laundry schedule that I think will work.

37. A clothes line that will be installed tomorrow.

38. Time to crochet a wash cloth and complete it!

39. Getting the opportunity to be a stay at home mom and loving every minute!

40. Hubby and I getting back on the treadmill after a few weeks of not being as faithful as we should have been and a plan to follow called couch to 5K.

Concluding Thoughts On Holy Week

2010-04-06T20:45:00.000-04:00

I want to take a few moments and quote from the Westminster Directory of Public Worship in regards to celebrating Holy Days.

There is no day in scripture commanded to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath. Festive days, vulgarly (i.e.- commonly) called Holy-days, having no warrant in the Word of God, are not to be continued.

Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for public fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God's providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people.

What are your responses?

What Do You Believe about Celebrating Holy Week

2010-04-04T17:57:00.001-04:00

While the rest of the world is waking up this morning to celebrate Christ's resurrection, I am asking a question. Why do we need Holy Week to reflect on Christ's death and resurrection? I grew up in Texas. When I was a child on Easter morning, I would wake up to new clothes, shoes, and a hat. Later in the morning, my family and I would attend a traditional southern Easter service. The choir would sing a special Easter cantata, and the pastor would preach on the resurrection. After the service, we would have an Easter egg hunt for all the children. People, who gave no thought of Christ throughout the year, would pack the pews, wanting to punch their spiritual time clock in order to earn their way into heaven.

This week I reflected on why many professing evangelicals celebrate Holy Week. It wasn't always the case. In a distant past, evangelicals would have felt that such practice was catholic in conviction. Why is Easter so special? Don't we celebrate the resurrection of Christ every Sunday? Why did the early church assemble on the first day of the week? Was it because of their Lord's resurrection? Isn't every Lord's day an Easter celebration?

What do you believe about celebrating Holy Week? Do you find it helpful? Have you given it much thought as to why you observe these religious holidays? Is it conviction or just tradition? How do these religious holidays affect people's view of the Lord's day?

Question About Milk Powder

2010-04-02T13:02:00.000-04:00

I am hoping that someone out there can help me. I recently called Hillcrest Foods (the place where I order all of my bulk baking supplies) and asked about prices for dry milk powder. They gave me the prices for both low heat and high heat milk powder. They could not explain the differences. I want to use it in making yogurt, baking bread, and in cooking. Does anyone have a suggestion on which one I should purchase? Also, could someone please explain to me the difference between the two.

Thursdays: From Scratch (Week 5)

2010-04-01T22:45:00.000-04:00

This week I continued my from scratch journey in making everything I serve from scratch. I tried 3 new things: finger paint, tomato paste, and ketchup.

The finger paint was 1/3 cup corn starch or arrow root and 2 cups water mixed and cooked on the stove top till thick like gel. Then I add 1/3 cup dishwashing detergent and a few drops of food coloring. Once finished enjoy with the children.

Tomato paste is made from 1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes boiled down till thick with 1 tsp. of onion powder and 1 tsp. garlic powder.

Ketchup is made from 12 oz of tomato paste, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup either maple syrup or honey, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. dry mustard, 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder and onion powder if not using homemade tomato paste, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 4 Tbs. cider vinegar. Combine and blend in blender till smooth. Store in refrigerator or pour in canning jars and process.

Don't forget to join Sarah on her journey in making things from scratch and writing about it every Thursday.

The Best Thing Since Wheat Bread- Shadow Drawing

2010-04-01T17:55:00.001-04:00

My children played outside for hours drawing shadows on our drive way. They were happy to show off their art work.

Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring (Week 4)

2010-04-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

Better late than never. Wednesday is just so busy and I don't want to miss this post so it will probably be late often. The snow is almost gone. It is not till the end of the season that it turns dirty. The rest of the year the snow is gloriously white and it is a winter wonderland around here. I can't wait to show you all how green it gets in the summer.

Thankful Tuesday

2010-03-30T21:49:00.000-04:00

Come and join me each Tuesday and post a link on your blog referring others to Thankful Tuesday. This is all being done to cultivate a heart of gratitude. Won't it be great to look back over the entire year and see how many things you were thankful for. I encourage you to try and list 10 things each week.

21. Jesus did not stay dead in the grave. He rose from the grave and is reigning with God the Father at His right hand.

22. The Lord's mercies are new each morning.

23. That I do not have to work in my own strength, but rely upon the Lord's strength.

24. New York Maple Syrup- 1 whole gallon of it in my refrigerator.

25. Food in my refrigerator.

26. A few more dollars than lately to spend at the grocery store this week.

27. Kind and generous people who are willing to pass on very nice clothes for my children (Two people shared with us this week).

28. We finished the Vos Children's Story Bible this morning for the upteenth zillion time and now a new start with the actual Bible in Genesis reading 1 chapter at a time.

29. A great foundation was laid with our children when it comes to the story line of the Bible as we read and continually re-read our favorite and highly recommended children's story Bible.

30. The salvation of one of our children and the growth I am seeing so far.

Is Your Confidence In The Lord Or Your Circumstances?

2010-03-29T21:27:00.000-04:00

Our lives for the most part are pretty ordinary, routine, and mundane. We get up each morning, get dressed, spend time with the Lord, and start our routines thinking that today will not be much different than yesterday. We do not plan on getting sick, caring for sick ones in our families, losing our jobs, losing our spouses, seeing others suffer all around us, or enduring other trials. However, trials are a very real part of our lives. For those who are repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ alone for their salvation they draw us near to Jesus. Jesus went to the cross for us and endured the greatest suffering of all. We are created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever no matter what trial we may go through in our lives. We are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and not lean on our own understanding, but acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our paths (Prov. 3:4-5).

Many times we plan our days thinking that we are going to do certain things and are confident that certain things in life will work out. We assume that all will always be well. We live as though we will never die or get sick. We think that we can decide on what our plans for life will be. We will graduate from high school, go on to college, get married, work for a while, and then have children. This is all what society teaches us. We are taught that we are in control of our destinies.

When I first married my wonderful husband we were in Bible college and decided to wait a little while to have children. After a time when we were ready we would start trying. All this time I was thinking that it would happen on my schedule. God had other plans. We ended up having to seek out an infertility specialist. Four and a half years later our first child was born 7 weeks early. Once again this was not my schedule. Didn't the Lord know that I had to work that day and that I was actually starting to like looking pregnant? I wasn't ready to deliver our baby yet. I still had another 7 weeks to go. It all ended up turning out fine, but had me petrified in the whole process. Then we decided to go to seminary and once again wait to have children. When we were ready we would try again (assuming that we would need to see a fertility specialist again) and low and behold I was now Fertile Mertile! Our oldest was 15 months when I conceived our second child and then again our second child was only 10 months (I was still nursing) when I conceived our third child. Still not totally convinced that I was not in control of all of this, we decided to try again for a fourth child and ended up conceiving after three months of trying. At this point we were starting to see that God was in control and we were really fine with that. Right on schedule we conceived our fifth child. I was starting to become rather confident that I was either going to deliver a child every 19 months or 26 months, so we were not surprised when I conceived our sixth child. I always had wonderful pregnancies and nothing was ever wrong. However, I was being prideful once again and living my life assuming that all would always be well and that one day I would have a large family with 7 or 8 children since I was only 35 and pregnant with our 6th child. Then on November 11th this past year my world came crashing down when I went to the doctor and had our sonogram only to find out that our baby was dead and that I needed to schedule a d&c because it was a partial molar pregnancy and that I had to have my hcg levels checked weekly then monthly for 1 year with no conceptions! That was all more than I could take. How could I, who always had picture perfect pregnancies, have a miscarriage at 10 weeks? I was suppose to be pregnant now and preparing for delivery around June 10th and not on birth control waiting to conceive for 1 year. Didn't the Lord know just how strong I felt about birth control and that I was Fertile Mertile? Didn't He know that both my husband and I had finally come to the conclusion that the He was in control of my womb? Where did this trial come from and was I ready to go through this kind of trial? It came from the Lord, who gave me the ability to say at the hospital and still today, "blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives and He takes away, blessed be His name." I said and meant that in all confidence. Two months later, I found out that I had glaucoma and I was only 35! How many 35 year old's have glaucoma especially when it is not in their family? 35 year olds are suppose to be healthy and not have these kind of problems. Din't the Lord know that this was an old persons disease and that I was not old? Of course, He did. I was placing my confidence in my vision and not in the Lord who is in control of my vision.

Even though we may plan our days, the Lord directs our steps. He knows all things and has all things already planned out. He is in control of all things. Trust in Him. He uses times like these to draw us close to Himself and to glorify Himself. Hide yourself in the shadow of His wings. The Lord is full of mercy and compassion. If you are going through a trial that seems too difficult to bear cast you burdens on the Lord, for He cares for you. He loves you and is conforming you to His image. This trial did not take Him by surprise. He is controlling all things. This life that we are living is not about our comfort, but His glory. Rest in Him today and every day. It is okay to weep and to be sad. There are still many day where I still find myself wondering why this had to happen and watching other bloggers pregnancy's progress. Sadly to say, I sometimes find myself jealous that I, too, am not pregnant. This seems to happen when I take my eyes off of Jesus and place them on my circumstances. Fix my eyes on Jesus, He is the author and finisher of my faith, is what I need to do. Find your rest, comfort, and solace in Him. He cares for you like no other.

Guest Post From Sandy On Dying To Self

2010-03-28T07:03:00.001-04:00

I Corinthians 5:7b says, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” The story of the Passover, which is when the Israelites celebrate the story of their deliverance from the death angel sent to convince Pharoah to let them go from slavery in Egypt, and the story of the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, are beautifully intertwined. This verse brings the two together, Jesus, the Lamb of God (John1:29 “...Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.”) willingly laid down His life as a sacrifice for our sins. Just as a perfect lamb was killed for the Passover and its blood was put on the door posts of the Israelites’ homes, Jesus’ blood was shed to cleanse our hearts from sin and save us from sure destruction and judgment.

In the hours before Jesus’ crucifixion, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He laid down His will to do the will of the Father. He would go to the cross to die in my place and yours. It was for our sins that He died, not for His because He has no sin. He would do as His Father had said; the whole reason He had come to earth was to be the sacrificial lamb, to die once to pay the penalty of death for the sin of the world.

The apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Really Paul is saying that just as Christ laid down His will to do the Father’s will, we have the privilege of following Jesus’ example by laying down our own will to allow Christ to live through us. Our needs, our wishes, our hopes, our desires, and our dreams are all surrendered to do the will of Christ in our lives. This sounds so noble and most of us would say that we are willing to do this, but how does it work out in our day-to-day lives? How do we “die to self”? How do we put aside our pride and willful ambitions? How do we in actuality “take up our cross” and follow Jesus? The following poem tells us how. This was an eye opener for me to realize how much I still hang on to my will for my life and how far I have to do in learning how to die to self.

Dying to Self
author unknown

When you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set as naught and you do not sting and hurt at the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ,

that is dying to self.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself but take it all in patient, loving silence,

that is dying to self.

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, or any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensitivity, and endure it as Jesus endured it,

that is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God,

that is dying to self.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown,

that is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising in your heart,

that is dying to self.
~ * ~ * ~

Five times in my life I have had the experience of giving birth to a child. Perhaps you have had that privilege, too. In a sense, that is also dying to self. Your own comfort, plans, and wishes are set aside in order to give life to another person. Then after the birth, you get up nights to feed this little one, change endless diapers, and basically take care of his every need no matter how you feel or what you were doing or trying to do. You die to self in order to care for the needs of another. But what a joy it is! Just as Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, so we as mothers also endure the demands in order to have the joy of bearing a child and caring for him.

When you have a moment, read Proverbs 31:10-31 and look for ways this godly woman demonstrated dying to self. She worked hard, reached out to the needy, got up early, brought her family’s food from afar, and learned skills with her hands. And she did all that with strength and honor, not demanding recognition for her labors.

I first found the poem “Dying to Self” almost 15 years ago. As I read it again now, I wonder how much better I’ve learned its lessons. Have I truly died to self?

Lord, help me to follow your example.

(all rights reserved)

Our Sweet Girls Are Not Feeling Well

2010-03-27T17:02:00.001-04:00

This is how our daughter is looking today. She is always full of energy and loves to serve others. However, today is a different story. She went to bed with a bad headache and still has one. She does not nap and today this awful headache has her down napping most of the day.

Our other daughter woke up at nap time covered in vomit! Cuddle time is necessary tonight. Please pray for our girls that the will be back to their normal selves tomorrow. We often forget how wonderful it is to have healthy children in our homes. It is hard to see our children sick. We would take their pain for them if we could.

Helpers in the Kitchen

2010-03-27T16:12:00.001-04:00

Some of my favorite moments this week was spent with family in the kitchen doing what we always do and loving every minute.

Kitchen clean up after dinner.

Cooling yogurt on the back burner and stirring syrup on the front burner.

This was our first attempt at making pancake syrup. It looked great, tasted great, and then it hardened in the bottle. We will go back to square one on this project. Any suggestions on how to keep it looking like pancake syrup?

Thursdays: From Scratch (Week 4)

2010-03-27T16:02:00.001-04:00

Making things from scratch has become an everyday part of my life. Just about everything that we eat is made from scratch. I am thankful to Sarah for leading us in this challenge. It has been a learning experience and challenging at times. There have been times when I have been stressed out because of all the time involved in making everything from scratch. Many days we have just done school work in the kitchen on the floor while waiting on something in the oven or something rising. The children have learned how to cook right along beside me. In fact, 2 of my five children now have homemade aprons made by me. It makes me feel like a proud momma when I see how excited they are about cooking and about wearing their aprons with confidence. Just this week, my seven year old daughter made scrambled eggs with turkey for breakfast and my nine year old son made pancakes. Our youngest loves to sign cook with her hands and knows right where her apron and step stool are being kept.

This journey has been a tremendous help when it comes to saving money. All you need to do is buy the basic staple items and be amazed at what all you can make with just the basic items. I would like to give you an example. My mother-in-law brought lots of trix yogurt for the children. I have been making our own yogurt for some time and looked at this as an opportunity to stretch the yogurt and make it last a lot longer. I have a yogurt maker and I poured 7 of my glass containers full of milk and brought it to a boil where the milk was coming up the sides of the pan. Then I let it cool down to 110 degrees and took out about 1 cup of the milk and mixed it with 1 of the 4 ounces of trix yogurt and then poured it back in the pan. Next, I mixed it and poured it into the individual cups and let it warm at 110 degrees in the yogurt maker for about 10 hours. When it was done, I screwed on the lids and put it in the refrigerator and ate it for breakfast the next morning. I now think that I have 8 cups of trix in the refrigerator which will made 56 cups of yogurt.

Chocolate oatmeal cake and stromboli were also big hits for our family this week. I found the recipe for chocolate oatmeal cake over at Phoebe's blog and the recipe for stromboli was Grandmother's bread that I just rolled out and added american cheese slices and turkey slices.

Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring (Week 3)

2010-03-27T15:38:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know it is Saturday and I am just playing catch up!

Thankful Tuesday

2010-03-27T15:33:00.001-04:00

I am going to take a few minutes here on Saturday to play catch up with a few of my posts since we had family visiting this week. I would be honored if others would join me in this challenge of cultivating a heart of gratitude. Just copy and paste this button to your blog and list 10 things each week that you are thankful to the Lord. It will be an amazing thing to look back upon as our list continues to grow longer as the weeks pass.

11. Our family made it safely here to visit and then safely home again.

12. One of our members gave us their old H.P. printer.

13. The Lord once again met our needs when it came to food. My mother-in-law brought us some food.

14. I was able to spend $27 this week at the grocery store and it is more than enough food for the week.

15. Everyone cooperated for the family picture on Tuesday and they all turned out great.

16. I was able to have a great conversation with Sandy today.

17. My laundry is complete (all done) for the week.

18. I did not have to change eye drops again for my glaucoma. The doctor said the medication is working out just fine.

19. I am thankful that I get the wonderful opportunity to be a wife and a mother and I get to stay at home full-time.

20. Blogging is one of my favorite things because it keeps me connected with the outside world since I live in a very lonely place. I don't feel so all alone when I blog.

A Very Valuable Lesson

2010-03-25T16:13:00.001-04:00

Today I learned just how important it is to put away all harmful chemicals. We had company early in the week and she asked if she could borrow my fingernail polish remover. I said yes and told her where I keep it. It was never put away and in the midst of cleaning house today, my oldest child came and was panicky as he told me that his little 3 yr. old brother had drank the fingernail polish remover. I questioned him and smelled his breath. Sure enough, he had indeed drank 5 oz. of fingernail polish remover. His breath reeked of it and so did his skin. I quickly called my doctor and they told me to call poison control. The nice lady from poison control assured me that my son would more than likely be okay and that he would probably just experience irritation in his throat. She told me to sit him still and have him drink a glass of milk to dilute the fingernail polish remover and if in 30 minutes he was complaining of stomach pains, vomiting, acting drunk or weak to call her back. Well, we all stopped what we were doing and watched him for a long time. My oldest son was scared to death that he would die, so I called them back for reassurance that he would be okay. They were patient, thorough, and great people to deal with.

If you ever have an experience like I did do not hesitate to give poison control a call. 1-800-252-5655 Keep their number posted clearly and warn your children of the dangers of chemicals in your home. Put all chemicals out of reach of your children's hands. Teach them the importance of telling others if they see their siblings ingesting these kind of things. This could have been life threatening today! It scared me enough to walk all through out my house making sure that all chemicals are put out of my children's reach and teaching them of the dangers of ingesting them. I am thankful to the Lord that He preserved the life of my son today and that He gave me a real wake up call.

Family Is In Town

2010-03-24T09:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry about not being faithful to my daily posts. We have family in town visiting this week from Indiana and we were out of town yesterday for family pictures and various other things. I will try and write my Thankful Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday posts sometime this week. For now, I am going to thoroughly enjoy family being with us.

Blueberry Pie Filling Made From Apple Juice Concentrate

2010-03-22T14:36:00.002-04:00

Just this morning I made the best blueberry pie filling from apple juice concentrate. I had no sugar and had read that you could use apple juice concentrate as a substitute for sugar in some recipes, so I decided to give it a try. I added 1/4 cup of apple juice concentrate to a pan on the stove under low heat and then added about 2 tbs. of corn starch to thicken it. It made a paste and then I added about 2 cups of frozen blueberries along with a little water and stirred it with a whisk until it reached the desired constancy. It was absolutely delicious! I plan on trying this also with my frozen diced peaches and my frozen whole strawberries. The possibilities are now endless!

Making The Sabbath A Day Of Rest When You Have Energetic Little Children

2010-03-21T16:49:00.002-04:00

How can you make the Sabbath a day of rest and worship of the Lord when your life is full of little ones to care for and your husband is a pastor?

My husband has been pastoring a tiny church for 4 years now and it has been our conviction that they should worship the Lord right along beside us and that we need to teach them that the Sabbath can be a day full of joy and not a list of don'ts. So, you may be asking what are some of the things that we do to make this day a special day? I want this to be an encouragement to other moms, so I will just list a few things that we do and greatly encourage others to share what you do to make this a special day.

First of all it is our goal to have all the children sit with us throughout the entire worship service. However, I have found that the more children I have with no other help sometimes it means that I am taking the two youngest with me to sit in the nursery and listen to my husband preach through the speakers while the older ones hopefully sit still upstairs. Sometimes, despite your own convictions, you just must do what works best for your own family.
We try and begin the morning with a reading of the scripture that my husband will be preaching through (currently it is Titus) and we sing a hymn with the help of cyber hymnal (this morning it was Follow On).
Once everyone has eaten breakfast, I make sure that everyone is fully ready and we listen to music that focuses our mind on Christ. I prefer hymns, Getty music, Sovereign Grace music, Andrew Peterson, Bob Kaufman, Indelible Grace, and others such as these.
We all try and walk out the door together as a family to go on over to Sunday School.
After worship service, I encourage the children to play outside to release a lot of energy. If it is terribly cold, then they will watch either a Moody science video, a creation science video, or a Veggie Tale.
We eat lunch together and talk all about the worship service.
I will sometimes read a special book that focuses our minds on Christ and then the little ones will lay down and nap while the older ones will lay down in the front room usually with a book while my husband and I either nap, read, or write letters.
After nap is outside play again, walks, or just play inside while listening to music. We also sometimes listen to sermons online, watch t.v., or go hiking as a family.
We then have dinner together. We do not currently have evening worship.
Everyone does a quick pick up. I give baths to the little ones. We then have an extended time of family worship in which everyone gets to request their favorite hymn and we all have fun singing together. This is followed by catechism questions, verse memory, prayer time, Bible reading, and the closing Doxology.
At this point it is bedtime and the children will read their Bibles in bed.

There have been other things that we have wanted to do like have special toys that are only brought out on the Lord's Day, special books only read on the Lord's Day, and maybe do things like plays, but for now this is what is working. It may look a lot different during the summer months since we all love being outside then. The key is to make it an enjoyable and a restful day for everyone in the family and to not feel bound by a list of do's and don'ts. I want my children to look back and say that Sunday was their favorite day of the week. What are some of the things that you do to make Sunday's special and restful? Next week I would like to talk about some of the books that have been most influential in our lives.

Children And Chores

2010-03-20T21:39:00.000-04:00

At what age do you start teaching children responsibility and assigning them chores?

As for us, we start as soon as we see understanding in our children. An example of what is currently happening in our family is that our 18 month old daughter completely understands what it means to throw her diaper in the trash, so we tell her to throw her diaper in the trash. She also knows how to put plates on the table, put the silverware in the silverware drawer, help knead dough or stir things, and put her dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Our 3 year old son helps to empty the trash cans, picks up his toys, place his clothes in the laundry basket, helps to carry in wood (one piece at a time), helps to load the washer and unload the dryer, take dishes out of the dishwasher, washes the table, and can help in setting the table. Our five year old son can clean his room, make his bed, empty trash, carry in wood, dry and put the clean dishes away, help with laundry, help to cook, set the table, and vacuum. Our seven year old can clean bathrooms, clean her room, vacuum, set the table, help with the laundry, help cook, change diapers, sweep and mop, and help to bathe little ones. Our 9 year old son can clean the front room, clean the school room, sweep and mop, help with dishes, make pancakes and a few other foods, clean out the van, carry and stack wood, and various other things.

Now you may be asking how do you start teaching children chores?

As soon as the children are able we (my husband and I) have the children follow us around and watch us do our chores. Next, when they are about 3 or 4, we start working one on one with them. We will do the chore as they watch and then they will do the chore as we watch. Many days we will also sing a cute little ditty as we are teaching them how to clean. This continues for a long time until we feel that they are capable of handling a "zone" on their own, usually around 5. Then at around 5 we officially assign them a zone that they are responsible for cleaning and we give them a check list. They clean and then we check it with them. If it is not done properly, they redo it with our assistance. As the children get older and more mature in their cleaning responsibilities, they are assigned more work and sometimes different chores. It is our goal to equip our children to one day be able to take care of a home by the time they leave home. There is no better time and opportunity to teach the children these things then when they are little and all still living in the home. I also want them to be able to help others when given the opportunity.

Since the children have chores, what do I do?

I teach homeschool, take care of all of the laundry (with help of course), planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning the kitchen, bathing little ones (when my daughter is not eagerly volunteering because she loves this job), sweeping, mopping, and many other things that fill a moms day.

Does the training time ever stop?

No! Even my 9 and 7 year olds still need lots of training. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect them to do their work hardily as unto the Lord. Just recently I noticed areas that have been slipping. I have not been doing my job of checking my older children's zones and have just trusted them. They have been doing short-cuts and have found places to hide thing to make it look like they cleaned their zone. So, we go back to "boot camp" and watch me, I watch them, and then they do their job. If it is not up to standard then they have to redo their zone until I feel that they have done a thorough job as I have taught them. It is our rule that in order to play they must work first. However, many days when we get to the end of the day, the house is very messy. My husband and I have spent time talking about our plan of action. So far, we have decided to have "pick-up times" twice a day and a thorough clean once a day. During school in the morning, I have the kids take a 15 minute break and do a pick up. Then sometime in the afternoon, they do another pick-up. Lastly, at night they do a thorough clean up of their zones. The afternoons are usually filled with lots and lots of play for the big kids, while the morning is filled with lots of play for the little kids.

Cleaners-What I use?

Now you may be asking about my seven year old cleaning the bathroom and what kinds of cleaners she uses since cleaners are dangerous. We make our own cleaners out of safe products. Vinegar and baking soda are a staple in our home. They are safe for the environment and do not cause undo health risks. They also clean well and have been used for centuries. I will give our cleaning recipe in another post. It is far cheaper to make your own cleaners and a lot safer when you have little ones around. When it comes to products that could cause harm on my children I do not want to take a chance, so I just chose to keep it safe by using "green" cleaners.

Any other questions?

I write this post to hopefully be an encouragement to other moms who struggle with instituting chores with their children in the home. I am not claiming to have all of the answers. I still struggle many days as this has all been a learning process for me, but I would love to be a help to someone else out there. If anyone has any questions or tips when it comes to children and chores please feel free to leave a comment.

Home For A Muskrat

2010-03-17T21:51:00.001-04:00

This school year we have been reading through the Little House series and today we started book #6, The Long Winter. We read about muskrats and how they build their homes very thick if the winter is going to be long and hard. The kids were thrilled that it was a warm day and that when they went outside they would get to make a muskrat home. I told them that all they needed was mud, water, and pine needles. It got me to thinking that it would be great to take them out sometime just before winter next year and look for muskrat homes and see how thick they are.

Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring (Week 2)

2010-03-17T20:26:00.002-04:00

Notice no shoes on all the children. It was a heat wave in the 50's for us today!

See the tiny pine cones?

Just Spit It Out

2010-03-17T20:16:00.001-04:00

Tonight during family worship we were all taking turns saying what we were thankful for today and when it came time for Aaron, who is 3, to tell what he was thankful for he started stuttering and his dad said, "just spit it out." He literally did! He spit and then he continued to tell the things for which he was thankful. We all got a BIG and hearty laugh. Children are the best. They make us laugh often.

Thankful Tuesday

2010-03-16T17:54:00.003-04:00

Will you join me on Tuesdays in giving thanks to our God and posting this button along with 10 things for which you are thankful? If we can list at least 10 things a week for the remaining year, that will be 410 things at which we can look back over our blogs and see the things for which we were thankful. After you have posted them on your blog, could you please leave your name and blog in the comments.

I thank God for...

Sunshine and blue skies.

Bread baking.

Children playing outside.

Dirt, mud, and more glorious mud.

The woods to explore.

Snow to stomp barefoot in on an amazingly warm afternoon.

Taxes that have been filed.

Happy, healthy children.

A wonderful husband.

And time spent in the Word of God!

Headaches And Our Total Grocery Spending For The Past Four Weeks

2010-03-16T06:15:00.001-04:00

First of all, I have a headache that started yesterday and is still continuing this morning. I went to bed at 6:30 thinking that would make it all better and it is still present. I am thinking that my glaucoma medication is causing it because I have had it before and I ended up being allergic to the medicine and just switched medication 2 and a half weeks ago. I am okay unless I make a quick move or bend over and then it hurts very badly. I canceled my appointment with the eye doctor today and rescheduled it for next week so that I could get some bulk shopping done before my in-laws arrive next week. So, please pray that I at least figure out what is causing this headache. Motherhood does not stop because I have a headache. I am normally not prone to headaches.

Now, enough talking about myself and on to more important matters, grocery shopping. You may find your self asking, "how did she do for the month with the $25 a week challenge?" The answer is, "great!" The four weeks of the challenge I spend $19, $26, $19, and $28. Totaling $92! However, for me to be completely honest, I also did bulk shopping for baking supplies twice this month $25 and $89. Figuring all of the spending together, I spent a grand total of $206 this month to feed a family of 7! Not bad!

How did it all work? Stockpiling. Last summer and fall, I would spend an average of between $150 to $200 a week on groceries that would be valued at around $400 because I shopped sales, used coupons, and stocked-up. An example of something that I would do was to purchase olive oil when it was on sale for $36 a case. It normally cost around $18 a can and I got 4 large cans for $36 saving me $36. I also buy meat when it is marked down and cook and freeze it immediately. I found chicken quarters at 49 cents a pound and stocked up. I also found chicken tenderloins at $1 a pound and stocked up. No, I did not only buy chicken products, I also purchased a large variety of meats. I stocked up on pork chops, roasts, pork roasts, kielbasa, bacon, shrimp, salmon, chicken, and turkey. I did the same thing when it came to vegetables, both canned and frozen. As for fruit, I have recently found it to be cheaper to buy it IQF (individually quick frozen) in bulk at a commercial sales warehouse that usually sells to resteraunts but also sells to the individual (you must just be brave enough to walk in and place an order). Just yesterday, I purchased IQF diced peaches $29.95 for 22 lbs., IQF whole strawberries $33.95 for 30 lbs., and sweetened coconut flakes for $21.95 for 22 lbs. Usually I also purchase IQF blueberries $29.95 for 30lbs.

How can you do it? Just look around, shop around, and ask around. Now you may be saying that you live in a small town and do not have access to these resources. I live in a town of 200 people in the Adirondack Mountains and I had previously moved from a city of a million. I drive quite a distance to get our food, but in the long run it saves us lots of money. If you plan accordingly, then it is all possible and you can save lots of money. Just yesterday, we drove 4 and a half hours round trip to purchase our bulk supplies, but on average we usually drive 3 hours round trip (because of lack of grocery stores where we live and the high cost of the one that we do have).

Let it be a challenge to you to try and reduce your grocery spending this month, stock up, and then sit back and enjoy all of your hard work. It is best to plan ahead, because you do not know when the day is coming that you might not be able to do any grocery shopping for a period of time. Things might become tight financially, you might have unexpected medical bills, you or your husband might lose a job, paychecks might be reduced, unexpected bills may come in and it is best to be prepared. Start slowly and do not try all at once to do everything that I have suggested or you will find yourself overwhelmed and give up in the process. Take baby steps and maybe try and spend $10 less this week and purchase a few more of one particular item each time you go shopping and then overtime you will have a large stockpile.

I would be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. Please feel free to send me your questions or comments about grocery shopping, stockpiling, and saving.

Do You Find Yourself Worrying And Not Realizing That Is What You Are Doing?

2010-03-14T06:39:00.001-04:00

Do you wake up at the start of the day and stress out over how you are going to accomplish it all, have enough energy to get through the day, endure this heavy trial (sickness, or other things) that God has placed in your life, feel overwhelmed by sins that you are struggling with, worry about the salvation of your children, or any thing else? I do and I am sure that you do too. Please be encouraged today as you worship in your local church and then listen to Joel Beeke deliver a sermon about Anxiety. He is one of my favorite authors and preachers. His messages are so simple, powerful, and applicational. I highly recommend his book on Family Worship and then his wife's book on The Law of Kindness. The church's website where you can listen to his sermon, entitled, Anxiety Out Of Order, is http://www.hnrc.org/ . If you go to the sermons tab you can find that he preached this sermon on March 3, 2010.

Couldn't Resist

2010-03-13T11:25:00.001-05:00

Don't you just love a sweet and rambunctious little boy who walks out the door and says he's going camping and is wearing his big sister's shoes?

Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring (Week 1)

2010-03-11T23:04:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know it is not Wednesday, but I took these pictures yesterday and fully intended to post them yesterday. My husband suggested that I take these pictures every Wednesday.

Thursdays: From Scratch (Week 3)

2010-03-11T22:45:00.001-05:00

This week I have found my true passion in making things from scratch, baking. This was my week in pictures.

The bread that you see pictured above was from grandmother bread. The first loaf was a regular loaf of bread for sandwiches. The second loaf of bread was for french toast. The third loaf of bread was rolled out and had american cheese slices inside it. Making bagels and cinnamon rolls was also a lot of fun.

Grandmothers bread needed to be baked longer. I pulled them all out of the oven thinking they were done and sliced it all. This was a mistake because the bread was doughy in the center. We ate it anyway and ended up with tummy aches. So, the next day when I served the bread again, I sliced it down the middle and tried baking it longer and found out that it only got harder. Learning from experience is how I learn best.

Sewing- I was also able to work on one of my son's apron. It is almost finished. Maybe next week I will be able to post a picture of the completed apron.

Cleaning supplies- windex. Using one cup of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of dish washing detergent, and 3 cups of water I was able to make an entire spray bottle of window cleaning solution.

Don't forget to head on over to Sarah's blog and check out her progress and all the others who have joined her.

Do You Want to Know How To Buy Tide For As Little As -$2.03 for 3 Containers or get Pampers for Free Plus Overage?

2010-03-10T10:48:00.001-05:00

Just last night I was looking at the flyer that was sent to me through e-mail from Rite-Aid and noticed that they had a great promotion going on. If you purchase $30 worth of participating P&G products then you get $10 back in a prepaid Visa card. Plus, you can always find $1 off 1 Tide coupons in the newspaper. If you participated in the Olay Olympics program January and February and received either the $15 prepaid Visa card or the $35 prepaid Visa card, you can use this toward your P&G purchase. Also, Rite-Aid regularly runs rebates when you purchase certain products and this can also be applied toward your Tide or other participating P&G purchase.

Here is the breakdown on what I plan on doing: sending my husband to Rite-Aid and purchasing 3 containers of Tide each for $10.99. That totals $32.97. I also plan on using my $5 off $20 purchase through watching videos on Rite-Aids website. Then using my $15 prepaid Visa card earned through the Olay Olympics program, bringing my total down to $12.97. I also received a $2 rebate check and have 3 $1 off 1 Tide coupons. That brings my grand total down to $7.97 and that is before my rebate of $10 is applied from this purchase. My grand total for purchasing 3 Tides is better than free, -$2.03. So basically what I am saying is that Rite-Aid is paying me $2.03 to purchase 3 bottles of Tide. That is cheaper than homemade detergent any day!!! This is also how I purchase all of our diapers for so cheap. Once you get started in the rebates the money starts rolling and it is very easy, no paperwork and no mailing required. All you do is log on to Rite-Aid's website and type in a few things from you receipt and then in a short weeks you get your money. Couldn't be easier!!!

I also just saw that this will work well with Pampers diapers or wipes. However, because the diapers are $9.99 you will have to buy 3 packages of diapers and one "filler item like maybe a pencil or some candy or gum" and this will make the savings even greater depending on the value of the coupon.

Another great way to save is to watch for money given on prescription transfers. They just ran this last month and gave away $50 for a transfer of 2 prescriptions and $25 for a transfer of one prescription. All that needed to be done was to print off the coupon from their website and take it in the store when you transferred your prescription. This one I missed because I am currently without a printer. I am always looking for great ways to save, so the more I find, the more I will share.

Discussion Starter: At What Age Did Your Children Become A Christian And How Could You Tell?

2010-03-09T07:41:00.001-05:00

Having 5 children who are growing up in a pastor's home where family worship is practiced twice a day with Bible reading, hymn singing, scripture memory, and catechism can make it rather difficult to determine if your child has repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ alone. They know all the right words to say and the right actions to practice. How do you know if they have started repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ alone for their salvation? I would love feedback!

Pursuing Domestic Arts With Joy

2010-03-08T14:34:00.001-05:00

Recently I began making all of our own bread and am starting to feel resourceful on most days, except when I am stressed that things (like emergencies interrupt our schedule). I have found it helpful to read others blogs such as www.8-muddyboots.blogspot.com , http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com , and http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com as they have encouraged me in bread making and in storage of bread. One day, I would like to figure out how others are able to have bread making days only once a week without their bread going stale. That being said, I am also starting to feel like a helpful homemaker. Here are some pictures of our bread making journey today. It is a fun thing to get the kids involved in the whole process. We were making grandmother's bread. I had such fun making this bread that we decided to venture out and try some new things with it. I rolled it out and put white american cheese slices in it and then rolled it back up and baked it. It tasted like grilled cheese sandwiches minus the butter. Everyone loved it! Then I decided to make cinnamon rolls minus the butter (since I did not have any butter or margarine). I rolled the dough out and spread nutty peanut butter all over it (since I had loads of peanut butter and it is a butter that is oil based), sugar, and cinnamon. They were also delicious! I am also thinking that these would be tasty with a cream cheese frosting. The recipe is from the cooking section of http://suzannemcminn.com/ . Experiment! The recipe is versatile. The kids and I talked about all the different ways we wanted to make Grandmother's bread.

Another pursuit that I have recently rediscovered joy in is sewing. I have yet to find a permanent spot for my sewing projects that my kids will not sneak into and destroy. Four years ago, I undertook a huge job to make window coverings for my entire home that we would soon move into. I chose to make window valances that were all the same, just different fabric. At the time, I had some wonderful seamstresses helping me so that I could complete the job before we moved. It makes happy every time I look around the home and realize that they were homemade with love.

With my recent pursuits in the kitchen, the need for aprons was of great necessity and I had lots of extra fabric. I had five willing helpers all with no aprons. So, as of late, I have been making aprons. Only two are complete so far. I plan on continuing my work on aprons and then moving on to other well-needed projects, like mending clothes. My grandma is a great seamstress and made the pretty apron that my little girl is wearing and another apron for my big girl. I plan on using these aprons for future aprons for my daughters and a different pattern for my boys. I have not yet taken pictures of the second apron that I made. I plan on finishing it up this week and taking pictures and posting them on Thursday's from scratch post. My question that I do have for those with many children is, "how do I make sewing a part of my daily routine with so many little ones to care for and teaching my children to sew?" Amy over at http://www.raisingarrows.net/ has been a big encouragement when it comes to sewing things. Just yesterday, I made a moby wrap and am loving it! My back has been hurting lots and my little girl loves to be cuddled lots, so when I found out that I could make this moby wrap I was thrilled. There are many places online that teach how to use the moby wrap. I listened and learned and she loves it. It is so comfortable. I love to swaddle my babies in their miracle blankets when they are newborns to about 3 months and to cuddle them in the moby wrap or my arms as often as I can.

Another blog that has encouraged me when it comes to sewing is http://www.smockityfrocks.com/ .

Last of all laundry. Mindy has an encouraging post about organizing a laundry system. Click on her name and it will take you to her site. After reading the Duggar's book, Twenty and Counting, I was inspired to have a laundry room that was centralized. We moved all the kids drawers downstairs and put up a clothing rod with a shelf above it. Now all of my laundry is on the same floor. We have a folding table and laundry baskets are placed under them. We also have a chest that we keep our blankets in and a large rubbermaid tote that holds all of our sheets. I have yet to constantly stay on top of all of our laundry. This is a constant battle. Laundry is a journey just like motherhood is a journey.

This final picture was taken just before I cleaned the tops of the drawers.

Spring Cleaning- Main Bathroom

2010-03-08T09:04:00.001-05:00

This week's focus will be in the main bathroom. For all who are joining me on this adventure I would encourage you to go on over to Sarah's blog http://beautiful2god.blogspot.com and join us in making our homes a pleasant and clean place to dwell. Next week, I will be posting the before and after pictures. Please share with me how your progress is going.

Spring Cleaning Update...Last Week- Entry Way

2010-03-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

Before Picture.

After picture.

Sara over at http://beautiful2god.blogspot.com had a challenge last week in her spring cleaning to work on the entry way/mud room.

After Picture.

We are still in the midst of winter, so cleaning the entry and having it all organized was a bit of a challenge. I still plan on doing a few more things to this entry way/mud room when winter is over for us sometime between April and May. But for now, I am satisfied with having all of the boots on a shoe rack and the coats hung up on either the rack or in the closet. I would also like to hang some kind of welcome picture or Bible verse above the coats. When I figure out what I will do, I will update this post with more pictures. Until then head on over to Sarah's blog and check out her progress as well as other's progress in this area.

If you do not want to join Sarah in her challenge then head on over to Janelle's blog http://financiallyfree4ever.blogspot.com and check out her challenge to transform one room at a time.

Tips For Success When Using Whole Grains And A Recipe For Blueberry-Corn Pancakes

2010-03-05T16:29:00.001-05:00

Have you ever found that by in large wheat flour is usually heavier and generally produces weighter bread? I have until just recently when I purchased stone ground whole wheat flour, fine grade. In fact, a friend just asked me why her whole wheat hamburger buns did not turn out light and fluffy like mine did. At the time I had no idea, so I ask another friend who had also had good success with her bread products.

When using whole wheat flour, the secret to lighter and fluffier buns is in the grade of the flour. The finer the grade the lighter and fluffier your bread will be. The texture of fine stone ground whole wheat flour is that of white flour. I usually purchase stone ground whole wheat flour with a fine grade and my products turn out great. Another thing that I have read and tried is allowing the wheat and warm water to sit for at least 15 -30 minutes before adding the remaining ingredients. For example, if the recipe calls for 7 cups of flour I will add 3 cups to 1 and a half cups of warm water and let it set for 15-30 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. This allows the grains some time to start working and the flour time to absorb the liquid. When using cornmeal this same method applies. Just this morning, I tried this when making delicious blueberry corn pancakes. Also, when I thought that I had purchased 50 lbs. of white flour this week, I opened it and discovered that I will be cooking using all whole grains for a while as it was enriched, unbleached, unbromated wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, folic acid, riboflavin, and thiamine mononitrate. It did not affect the flavor or how the bread rose.

Blueberry-Corn Pancakes (from Whole Grain Baking)

(I doubled this recipe when I used it for my family of 7)

1/2 cup whole yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup boiling water

3 Tbs. butter, melted

1/4-1/3 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tbs. sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Place the cornmeal in a medium bowl. Pour the boiling water over it, stir the mixture thoroughly and let it sit for 15 minutes. This allows the cornmeal to absorb the liquid, and it will be quite stiff at the end of 15 minutes. Stir the melted butter to loosen the mixture. Measure the milk; use the smaller amount of milk if your blueberries are frozen. Beat the egg into the milk and stir the mixture into the cornmeal. Combine well to be sure there are no lumps. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the cornmeal mixture and combine with a few swift strokes. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes, then stir in the blueberries.
Heat a nonstick griddle or a cast iron skillet and brush with oil if your pan is not non-stick. When the surface of your pan is hot enough, drop 1/4 of a cup of pancake batter onto the skillet for each pancake. Let the pancake cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the edges, about 3-4 minutes (since it is whole wheat bubbles will not form across the whole surface). Flip and finish cooking about 2 more minutes on the other side. Serve immediately with maple syrup and enjoy!

Thursdays: From Scratch (Week 2)

2010-03-04T22:09:00.001-05:00

This weeks from scratch journey led me to making brown sugar muffins, 2 batches of whole wheat hamburger buns, 4 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, cinnamon raisin bread french toast, dried cranberries, 2 batches of yogurt, part of an apron for Joshua, learning to patch holes in jeans, and window cleaner. I will be posting pictures at a later time.

My dried cranberries were an utter failure. I had the crazy idea to set a pan with waxed paper and cranberries cut in half on top of our wood stove. When I saw that it was too warm, I set it on the counter for a while and then in the oven at 200 degrees for a few hours. Needless to say, I burned them! After talking with a friend whose mom dried all their fruit, she said that she put them on a pan and set the pan in the attic for a few days because the air was drier up there. I will persevere and keep trying until I get them right and then I will try my hand at drying grapes. The idea of making my own dried fruit is very impressive to me because of the high cost of dried fruit. If anyone else has had any luck drying your own fruit without paying for a food dehydrator I would love to hear how you did it.

Making things from scratch saves a lot of money and is totally worth the time. The children love it just as much as I do and they are learning right along with me. This week I plan on looking for a recipe for homemade ravioli. If anyone else wants to share of their journey in making homemade pasta, please share. Also, I would like to venture out and start sewing more, but I have not yet figured out how to fit that into the schedule more then about once a week. Any suggestions?

Don't forget to hop on over to Sarah's blog http://8-muddyboots.blogspot.com and read how others journey from scratch went this week. She would love to have more join her on her journey. It does not have to be a lot of work. One recipe a week or one thing made from scratch a week is a big help when it comes to becoming a frugal mom.

Feeling A Bit Ambitious And Overwhelmed

2010-03-04T14:18:00.001-05:00

Okay, I have to admit that diagramming Romans was a bit ambitious for a 9 year old boy. We finished our grammar book about 6 weeks ago and have not spent time reviewing it at all. Today, when I set down with him he had trouble with diagramming. For now, we will be spending time reviewing and then we will try diagramming Romans at a later date. Getting back in the swing of things after being gone all day yesterday is also a bit overwhelming with my very long to do list today.

How Home Schooling Can Be Simple

2010-03-04T07:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the kids and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with him and stay a few hours at a friend's home while he made a hospital visit. We had a great visit. The children got to play with another home school family out in the woods in the snow on a rather warm day and see maple taps on the trees. I had an encouraging visit from two other moms, one who had already completed her home schooling journey and one who was in the thick of it with her 6 children. It is rare that I get to sit down and visit with other home schooling moms. We shared what was happening in our families and some journals of what home schooling looked like when another mom was teaching her children. Getting to see the journals was very helpful to me because sometimes I get discouraged when I want to spend lots of time in the kitchen baking and cooking with the children and not working on our "lessons" for the day or spending time on other homemaking skills such as meal planning, laundry, or sewing. She taught me that homemaking is schooling. She taught me that going to see maple taps is schooling.

Just recently we finished our grammar book with our oldest child and was not planning on starting another for a little while, but in the mean time feeling as if he still needed to do some grammar (just because that is what we do). While looking through my friend's journals I saw that she made grammar very easy by having the kids diagram sentences, write summaries, write out vocabulary words with their definitions, and copy Bible verses. That all got me to thinking, "I could continue to teach Grammar without an "official textbook" especially since the curriculum I had been using had been teaching him how to diagram sentences. So, my husband and I talked on our long drive home and decided that we were going to have our son keep a notebook of his diagramming and that we would start by diagramming the book of Romans. Then we would have our daughter, who just finished her handwriting book, copy Bible verses from Proverbs. What better way to teach your children than to use the Bible as your "textbook"! I was so excited that I had to share.

Lastly, my sweet friend whom I went to visit, knew of my journey in making things from scratch and also knew that my husband was picking up a few of our bulk baking supplies (50 lb of white flour and 50 lb of wheat flour) and lent me a copy of King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. She also recommended and let me look at More With Less. I LOVE cook books!!! When I got home, I immediately opened the book and started reading it. I am very excited to share with you in future posts my journeys through Whole Grain Baking.

The day ended by my husband and I sitting down and watching Julie and Julia. If you have not gotten the opportunity to watch this movie I highly recommend it! It is about Julie taking on the challenge of blogging about cooking for a year through Julia Child's cook book, The Joy of Cooking in a small 900 square foot apartment and about the story of Julia writing her cookbook in American while living in France. It is two stories in one that is based on two true stories.

Later in the day, I will be posting of my journey in cooking from Scratch. I would love to hear from you, too. How was your week? Did you venture out and try making something from scratch (it does not have to be food)?

Another Great Blog To Check Out

2010-03-02T15:05:00.001-05:00

How am I doing on the $100 challenge for a month? The first week, I spent $17. This week, I spent $26 plus tomorrow I will be spending $23 on a 50lb bag of white flour and a 50lb bag of wheat flour. Not bad! In my journey to save money on groceries and to make everything I can from scratch I ran across another very helpful website http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com/ It is her challenge to feed a family of 6 for $60 a week. Amazing!!! On Thursday, I will be posting pictures of my journey in making new things from scratch. Let me know how you are doing? Are you, too, learning to save money when it comes to meal preparation? I love to read comments.

Come and Join In On the Spring Cleaning That Sarah is Hosting

2010-03-01T21:33:00.001-05:00

Sarah over at http://beautiful2god.blogspot.com is hosting a spring cleaning of the entire house. Each week we will be cleaning and focusing on decorating a different room in the house. This week's focus is the entry way. Go on over to her blog to read the details.

The Bible Podcast

2010-03-01T20:54:00.001-05:00

The Bible Podcast, I have linked in my side bar, is a great way to read through difficult sections of the Bible. If you ever get to a certain spot in your Bible reading and you feel as if you are walking through swamp land and moving at a snail's pace while losing motivation to continue in your commitment to faithfully reading all the way through the Bible, listen and follow allow with someone else reading the Bible. At the start of the year I had decided to read through the entire Bible in 90 days and write posts about summaries of each book as I finished reading each them. However, as time past, I came upon certain sections in Joshua that I was just having a hard time wading through and was losing motivation due to the many names that I was unable to pronounce and the repetition until I came upon The Bible Podcast. I love it! It got me over my hump and renewed my excitement as I was able to listen to the entire book of Judges yesterday and today. While listening, I was reading along in my own Bible and encouraged to keep going. I also learned how to pronounce certain difficult names. So, I write this post to encourage others to persevere and give The Bible Podcast a try.

I have also been wanting to share this hymn written by Julia H. Johnston

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss; grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Dark is the stain that we cannot hide- what can avail to wash it away? Look! there is flowing a crimson tide; whiter than snow you may be today. Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within! Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!

The Snow Finally Came...

2010-02-27T19:11:00.001-05:00

It was wonderful to have peaceful, heavy, wet lake effect snow today. We got a lot of snow and the kids had fun outside all day building tunnels, snowmen, and shoveling. The temperature was warm enough that even I enjoyed playing outside with the kids some of the day. My husband commented just how beautiful it was.

How To Can Fresh Veggies and Fruits When Having A Garden Is Impossible

2010-02-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

I live in an area that is full of wildlife, especially deer and black bear, making it very hard to have a garden. In addition, we have little sunlight because of the many pine trees on our property, little land because our parsonage and the church building are on the same property, no spicket, and very short growing seasons (due to long winters). Put all of this together in addition to a husband who says no and the answer is no to gardening. So, I ask the question, "how do I feed my family fresh fruits and veggies year round while maintaining to be a frugal mom?" After talking to a dear lady in our congregation who owned her own farm for many years in central NY (2 and a half hours away), she suggested that I could still can and freeze fresh fruits and veggies with out having a garden. She said to find a local farmer (even if I must drive a little ways a way) and support him or her and buy large quantities from them. So now, my plan is to find a local farmer and support them, pick wild berries in the summer (our favorite summer activity), try and learn how to hunt or find a farmer who will sell us meat, buy local maple syrup (in about a month it will be tree tapping time), and just be thankful that God has placed us here to bloom.

What Came In The Mail And Why We Were Excited

2010-02-27T11:17:00.001-05:00

The day our mail arrived it was like receiving Christmas presents when Dad walked in the door with this letter and 2 small packages.

A year ago, our oldest son wrote a letter to the President of the United States about why they let the bomber of the U.S.S. Cole go free. This letter made his day!

My husband, being a pastor, loves to read books. He recently has been preaching through Titus and has covered the roles of deacons and elders. Hence, the thought these two books would be helpful to him in his studies. His favorite company to order through is Reformation Heritage Books.

I have been looking at Sonlight curriculum for a while and could never justify ordering it because of the price. We are a family who loves to read. In my journey to find a supplemental curriculum, I have discovered a blog http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/ in which she uses Five In A Row and highly recommends it. After much examination, I decided to take the plunge and order this curriculum. It was only $35, so I figured I could be happy with that. Most of the books are available through the library and I can also purchase them through used book sellers. I also found a book crossing site that enables me to basically swap books like paperback swap with just the cost of postage. The basic concept behind FIAR is to use a book a week and to teach through literature, art, science, social studies, and math while reading the same book every day for the entire week. Heather over at http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/ says that the main difference between the two curriculums (she has used both) is that Sonlight devours through books (creating a love for many books with quick reading), while FIAR savors the books the children read (creating a love for great books and teaching them how to deeply read a book). Needless to say, I am very excited to get started in FIAR with my 5 year old. If there are any other FIAR mommies, I would love to hear your feedback as I am brand new to FIAR.

Thursdays: From Scratch

2010-02-25T20:30:00.001-05:00

This week I took on a challenge from Sarah over at http://8-muddyboots.blogspot.com/ to make as many things from scratch as I am able and then post about my progress every Thursday. For the first time ever this week I made homemade whole wheat hamburger buns. My family liked them so much that I made them 3 times this week. I also made whole wheat buttery pan rolls (with the little bit of butter I had left), whole wheat tortillas, and navy bean and ham soup. My sewing machine was also brought out this week. I decided that it would be a fun thing to make aprons for all of my children. The only apron that I was able to finish this week was for my oldest daughter. I used material that I had left over from the curtains that I made for the girls room several years ago. I am still planning on stitching on her name. This is my favorite material. Lastly, I am learning how to patch jeans.

I've Got Helpers, Yes I Do! I've Got Helpers! How About You?

2010-02-25T09:27:00.001-05:00

On Having A Grateful Heart

2010-02-24T17:45:00.001-05:00

This week my husband was scheduled to go on a missions trip to Mississippi for construction work with most of the other men in our congregation, but one of our members who has cancer has been in and out of the hospital. After spending much time in prayer and talking with the other men the decision was made that it would be best for him to stay. It ended up being a very wise decision because our sweet member is back in the hospital again and my husband may be driving to the hospital to see her. He is currently taking care of their home while they are away. I am very thankful that I have a husband who spends much time in prayer before making decisions and that he is home.

Another thing for which I am thankful for is our well stocked freezer and pantry. Because the Lord has blessed us with an abundance of food that I was able to stock up on this past summer and fall, I only needed to spend $17 on groceries this week for our family of 7. It is my goal to not spend more than $25 a week at the grocery store over the next four weeks.

I am thankful that the Lord has allowed us to be able to purchase our I-Mac. We had our hopes set on purchasing the Flip this week, but because of bills that needed to be payed we were unable to purchase it. However, I am okay with this. I am learning to be grateful for the things that I do have. The Lord is supplying our needs and I am grateful for this.

So many times, we see things that are around us and desire them above all other things. We should treasure Christ above all other things. Our thankfulness should flow from a heart that is overflowing with Christ's love. What really matters in life? Is it that we get the latest technology available or is it that we love Christ more and more? Are we making the most out of the things that we do have or are we complaining about the things that we do not have? This week, I could have spent time complaining that I did not have butter, but instead I was thankful that I had shortening. In fact, I was thankful that I have been reading, By The Shores Of Silver Lake, to my children during oral reading time. I just read about how that the Ingals family had surprise visitors for Christmas and how that they made due with what they had and ended up having a grand time and had more than enough. Mrs. Boast had just asked Laura how she managed to make such good sour dough biscuits when she had no butter and very little milk. Laura went on to explain that she took a little flour and a little warm water and put it in a bowl and covered it with a cloth and then placed a plate on top of the bowl. When the dough was sour, it was ready to use. She then proceeded to take out a little sour dough, soda, salt, and flour and roll them out on a board to make sour dough biscuits. She places the scraps of dough back in the bowl with the extra flour and the starter continues. The Little House books are full of ways to use what you have and always have a grateful heart no matter what trial comes your way.

How are you handling the trials that are coming your way? Are you secretly angry at God that he has given you more responsibility than you think that you can handle? Do you think that by living in a certain part of the country things will better for you and you will be content? If so, your contentment is based upon outside circumstances and not upon the finished work of Christ. Delight in Christ! Make Him your true joy and contentment. Whatever trial is in your life right now that you do not feel as though you can handle, ask God for wisdom. He gives wisdom liberally to all who genuinely ask of Him without exception. Just as He gave my husband wisdom on whether or not to go to Mississippi, He will give you wisdom in your trial that you may be going through now. He is the God of all wisdom and knowledge, look to Him today and rejoice. Be thankful for this day today.

Granola Bars, Yogurt, and Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

2010-02-23T21:57:00.001-05:00

Today, I decide to search and see if I could find a healthy recipe for granola bars using steel cut oats. Steel cut oats have become a favorite around our house lately since I bought 50 lbs. and we eat them most morning for breakfast since I can cook them in the crock pot. Anyhow, I found a recipe that is very versatile. It is also tasty, healthy, and economical (using only ingredients that I already had).

Granola Bars

21/2 cups rolled or steel-cut oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup flax seed meal

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup dried fruit, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup water

2 tsp. vanilla

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten (I used the whole egg)

In a large bowl, mix together everything except vanilla, eggs, water, and peanut butter.
Add beaten eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter. Mix well.
Add water a little at a time until mixture is just moist. Be careful not to make the mixture too moist as it will not bake correctly.

While I was busy cooking, I decide to use my yogurt maker. It was very easy. I brought 7 jars of milk to boil on the stove top and then cooled it to 95 degrees and mixed in 5 Tbs. warmed home made jam with 5 Tbs. plain yogurt. Then, I poured it all back in the individual yogurt cups and let it warm for about 10 hours and placed it in the refrigerator. We will enjoy yogurt with blueberries for breakfast in the morning.

The final thing we made today was home made whole wheat flour tortillas. I got this recipe from my friend Janelle over at www.financiallyfree4ever.com This was my first time to make tortillas and they were a big hit! I just need to figure out how to roll them out thinner with out having a tortilla press. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to take them.

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

2010-02-23T21:30:00.001-05:00

These are pictures of how beautiful the homemade hamburger buns turned out. I shared the recipe yesterday.

On Saving Money And A Challenge For The Next Month

2010-02-22T20:32:00.001-05:00

Last week, I took the time to write out a food inventory. I wrote down everything that was in my refrigerator, freezer, and chest freezer. I did not need to write down everything in my pantry because I visually see what is in the pantry daily. It helps to keep things organized neatly inside the cabinets. My list was very long and I showed it to my husband. The conclusion was made that it was time to just eat from the stock that I had worked so hard at building all last summer, fall, and this winter. I didn't want any of it to spoil because I simply did not use it. I have a large variety of foods to chose from. So, my challenge for the next month is to just eat from what I have and only spend no more than $25 a week at the grocery store for a family of 7. Do you think that I can do it? I started this challenge this week and only spend $17 today for our entire week. I would love to hear from others out there who are willing to join me and see how little you can spend on groceries in the next four weeks. My grand total last month was $320. I chose to try freezer cooking the past 4 weeks and loved every minute. I plan on doing more freezer cooking this time also.

Some tips that I would love to leave you with is: shop for items only if they are on sale, on sale with a coupon, buy your baking goods from a whole sale food supplier (it is much cheaper), eat more whole grains, make your own foods (such as salad dressings and breads), buy fruits and veggies in season if you do not have a garden, can and freeze your fruits and veggies (even if it must be purchased from the grocery store), and eat more frozen fruits in the winter months (I purchased 30lbs. of frozen blueberries for $29 from a whole sale food supplier and my kids LOVE to eat these for a snack). Also, learn the art of making your own things. Experiment and have fun! You would be amazed at all the products that you could actually make from your own home. The internet is a great resource for finding out how to make things in your own home. If anyone else has other tips that they have learned along the way, I would be happy to know.

Just the other day, I found this amazing recipe for homemade hamburger buns. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out absolutely beautiful. All the credit goes to a wonderful mom over at www.heavenlyhomemaker.com Please visit her website as she is very helpful.

Homemade Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

5 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cup warm water

4 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons salt

1. Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups warm water. Rest for 30 minutes.

2. Mix 1/4 cup of water, 4 1/2 tsp. yeast, and 2 Tbs. honey. Rest for 10 minutes.

3. Melt 2 Tbs. butter, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 tsp. salt in a small pan on the stovetop. Do not let the temperature get above 120 degrees.

4. Pour yeast mixture and milk mixture into flour mixture. Add 2 cups of whole wheat flour and knead for 10 minutes, until dough looks shiny.

5. Put dough back in bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour.

6. Knead dough to get bubbles out and roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut in circles with a large mouth coffee cup. Place in a well buttered baking dish, cover, and let it rise for 30 minutes.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Another recipe that I am looking forward to trying is for whole wheat flour tortillas. You can find this recipe over at my friend Janelle's website www.financiallyfree4ever.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to much feedback on your plan for being frugal on groceries. One of my favorite blogs has a challenge to to make from scratch. She is a frugal mom! http://8-muddyboots.blogspot.com/

Follow Up...

2010-02-21T20:42:00.001-05:00

The kids and I walked over to worship service and who did I find on my way over, but two visitors, very welcome visitors who would change my day. We live in a vacation community and never know who will show up on any given Sunday. So, this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see some dear friends from Ballston Lake Baptist Church, the Reids. You may not know them, but they are special to us and surprised us. They stayed for the afternoon and enjoyed a nice meal while we had a wonderful time of fellowship with them. The funny thing about all of this is that I had just tried a new recipe out yesterday from www.heavenlyhomemaker.com for homemade whole wheat hamburger buns. They turned out picture perfect and I was thrilled to be able to get to serve them for lunch with some barbecue beef and salad to our unexpected, but very welcome, guests! You never know what the Lord has already planned for your day, so be prepared. Life is a journey! Enjoy the ride.

The Lord's Mercies Are New Each Morning And I Will Chose To Not Be Crabby Today

2010-02-21T07:20:00.001-05:00

Do you ever wake up on a Sunday morning and suddenly realize, after walking down stairs, that you don't have things all together? Your kitchen floor was not swept or mopped the night before, kids do not have clean socks, a shoe is lost, your husband's socks are not clean, you decided that because the day before your body was hurting to stay in bed for an extra few minutes and you missed your Bible reading time, you forgot to turn on the crock pot last night (which was your breakfast), you wake up grouchy because you stayed in bed a few extra minutes and now it is the Lord's day and you are unprepared? Well, fear not! The Lord's mercies are new each and every day! It is your decision as to whether or not to continue with a bad attitude, therefore putting everyone else in a bad mood. Put on some cheery Sunday music, pray asking the Lord to change your heart and attitude and ask Him to help you to rejoice because this IS the day the LORD has made, I will chose to rejoice today!!!

Our Plans Are Not Necessarily The Lord's Plans

2010-02-20T15:34:00.001-05:00

This morning I woke up and literally could not stand up and walk to the bathroom. I had to crawl. The lower right half of my back hurt so bad that I could not put any weight on my leg as I tried to walk. It is funny how much we fully depend upon our bodies to do their jobs. It is just suppose to work right all the time. Didn't my body know that I had plans to read my Bible and run on the treadmill before getting the kids up and starting our day off great and that my plans did not include a hurt back? My husband also had plans to prepare for the sermon tomorrow, not to care for his hurt wife. Well, the Lord sure has a way to show us our dependance upon Him and not in our bodies or our plans!

After crawling to the bathroom and back I humbly ask my husband for help and he so graciously helped me and recommended that I take an advil and go to the chiropractor when he opened. I followed his advice and am now able to walk and carry on with my day, just slowly. The chiropractor adjusted my back and said that I needed to be taking calcium and that this was not just something that happened, but that it had been building up for a while and just manifested itself when I got up out of bed this morning. My husband decided to stay at home and help me as I needed it. I have come to the conclusion that just because there may be detours in the road, motherhood does not stop or even slow down. It is still just as demanding and I just have to work at it at a slower pace today. For now, I will just be thankful for the Lord, my husband, my body, and the chiropractor.

A Successful Mom Is Genuinely Loving

2010-02-18T06:47:00.001-05:00

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gang or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." I Corinthians 13:1-3

What is the definition of love? Many people have tried to define it, but upon reading I Corinthians 13, Paul tells us what love is and what it is not. It is not rude, envious, boastful, arrogant, selfish, easily irritable, resentful, does not rejoice in wrong doing. Love is patient, kind, and rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and it never ends. True love is from God and is genuine. Love acts in self sacrifice. Love is totally giving of myself to meet the needs of the other person without expecting anything in return.

Moms, do you genuinely love those children that God has placed in your life? How about your husband? Is what you do motivated out of a heart of genuine love or self praise. Do you clean your house so that others will say, "Wow, she has a clean house and she has it all together." Do you teach your children at home so that others will praise you for doing a good job? Do you chose to be quiver full so that others will look at you and say, "she must be a godly woman because she is choosing to obey scripture."? Do you submit to your husband so that others will look at you and want to follow your good example? Do you read your Bible, pray, and memorize scripture because it is your christian duty and you want others to think that you are a godly mom?

All of these are good and godly things to be doing, but we must examine our motives behind the things that we do. Do we do all of these things mentioned above because it is our job as mothers? Are we doing them out of genuine love? If not, then we are noisy, clanging symbols that amount to no good. Today as we go about our day, let us hold one another accountable. Let us pray for one another and encourage one another because without love our life is meaningless. Let's check in on each other and encourage each other as the scriptures teach us to follow in godliness and to do everything we do in genuine love which comes from God alone. Let us ask Him for help today to love our families and to have much joy in the sometimes mundane tasks of life.

Love will mourn over sin. Love will speak well of others around us. Love will be willing to absorb the wrongs done around us with out wanting to get even. Love will be willing to give of yourself to your husband even when you are tired. Love will build each other up. Love will yield certain behaviors if it causes others to fall into sin. Love will seek the best interest of others. Do you have a child who easily irritates you? Genuinely love him today! Ask God to give you the grace to do be filled with genuine love.

If we can speak great truths to others around us, teach home school with eloquence, teach other ladies with out love it is a noisy symbol. There were two prophets in scripture who were sent to proclaim God's Word who are a great example of teaching in love and teaching without love, Jonah and Jeremiah. Jeremiah had genuine love. Jonah did not really love the people. He was just doing duty. Amy Carmichael said that you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Love involves much sacrifice. What motivates this sacrifice that you make daily? Is it genuine love? Love is not only the act, but the heart of the matter. If I do good to others around me, with out love, it profits me nothing. No matter what "good" we do, if it is not done in love, it profits us nothing. Follow God in love. Ask Him to give you the grace necessary to genuinely love today without expecting anything in return.