Homestead In The Pines

I Lift Up My Soul by Charles F Stanley

2012-01-24T06:19:00.000-08:00

This review is so long overdue...my deep apologies to the Author and the publisher.

This is a great standard devotional. For people that have been in the faith for a long time as well as for new believers. It is organized by date at the top of each page but you could also do a topical devotion study with the categories at the bottom of each page. Those categories are; Pathways to His Presence, Seeking His Face, On Holy Ground, and Into His Presence. So once you have spent a year doing the daily you could then do the topical study by going to each one and going clear through one then moving to the next and so on. This Devotional has a lot to offer such as Personal Intimacy with God and being Joyful, finding your power within and such. This would be a great present for those in your life that are seeking God and for those who are struggling with issues in their life. I find myself Lifted up each time I spend time in this book and in Gods Word. Thank you Mr Stanley for your wonderful compiliation of scripture and thoughts.

I have been provided this book free from Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation has been made.

The Ultimate Prescription~ A book Review

2012-01-24T06:02:00.000-08:00

Well everyone its that time again...I finally have some book reviews to catch up on so bear with me please as I post them all in the next few days...

The Ultimate Prescription By Dr James L Marcum MD
This is my most recent review book its newer on the market and I enjoy most of what the Dr has to say and gleaned much from it about rest, oxygen intake etc. However I do not fully agree with his views on food consumption. Dr Marcum indicates we should for biblical reasons eat a plant only diet. The bible does mention this in the very beginning but continues on later in Genesis to give us other instructions on eating and further in the New Testement as well to include meat in diet. Dr Marcum only goes as far as Genesis 1 in his instructions for us and there is much much more in the bible. That said his other instructions are very helpful. In the section that he discusses our society's lack of oxygen due to our lack of physical exercise, staying indoors and so on I do agree. When we are stressed if we sit and take in clean oxygen outside in slow deep breathing patterns I find that stress does in fact melt away...does it return if I let it sure...but then go back outside and repeat. So this book is a middle of the road for me, I like much of it while take some of it with a grain of salt. I struggle with several health issues and am open to reading anything that may help me feel better and having a biblical perspective is also a plus.

I have been provided a free copy of this book for my unbiased review by Tyndale Publishers.

The Gentleness Challenge..Won't you join me!

2012-01-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

This is one of my Resolutions for 2012 is to improve my communication with my kiddos and truly Shepherd their hearts to Jesus...with Kindness and love while being firm but patient...a doable Goal I think but only with God by my side as I could not attempt this on my own!! Won't you join us!

Obedience Confirms Our Standing in God - Desiring God

2012-01-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

Currently reviewing my previous bible study in the book of 1 John next week my Good Morning Girls group heads into Ephesians excited greatly for that! Happy New year!

Obedience Confirms Our Standing in God - Desiring God

2 of the 5R's of Godly Womanhood

2011-07-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

What a Beautiful product I have reviewed for Eternal Encouragement as Part of The Gabby Moms program!
I listened to the mp3's for this product more than once and will continue to in the upcoming months. You will get more info on the full product next month as we complete the review of all 5 Rs...the first two are Refresh and Rekindle... those sound like good things dont they?? Some of you may know that I have fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What does that have to do with this review you ask, well... having these two syndromes tends to negatively impact me in the area of Godly Womanhood. Why you ask, well I am always in pain and I am always exhausted...somedays more than others and sometimes I feel ok, it makes it hard to keep my positive attitude sometimes. This product that I reviewed this month gave me so much encouragement to keep my head up and continue(the REFRESH Part) to be what God put me here for and ways I can show my love to my husband in little ways (the REKINDLE part) that take really no effort at all. I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me but I truly believe that God brought this program and Lorrie Flem's wonderful products into my life this year to keep me moving forward as I adjust to my new normal while I strive to live for God each and everyday through everything I do. Do I succeed all the time? Nope...but I keep Trying to be the Wife, Mother, Homeschooler and Woman that God would have me be and with these products I am able to listen to Lorrie encourage me to be that woman and remind myself constantly of Lorrie's words and advise to keep me on track. I love her writing and her speaking. If you need encouragement for womanhood, homemaking, homeschooling or being a wonderful and connected wife to your man check her out, she has great stuff at Eternal Encouragemnt!

A Great package

2011-07-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

Attitude? Do you have a good one or not so good??

2011-06-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!! Its time for this months review as part of My Missions from The Gabby Moms!! I love being a Gabby Mom Check us out right Here

Oh my attitude...isn't it one of the easiest things to have go south when things get tough? Did you know that it is one of the most important things we moms can contribute to the family? Where can you recieve a healthy attitude makeover? Of course daily time with the Lord is most important, but sometimes I need someone inspiring, someone that exemplifies a true proverbs 31 woman to encourage me to makeover my bad attitude and help me gain perspective on what my true role really is. The one God assigned me, Wife, homemaker, homeschooler and mother! "Where can I get her to help me out of my attitude slump," you ask? Well right from your own computer, ipod or such whenever you have some moments to listen and be encouraged. All from Lorrie Flem the publisher of Eternal Encouragement Magazine. She has put together some great MP3 packages and I just love listening to her voice encouraging me to be what I truly in my heart want to be, but often fall so short of, during the daily messes that naturally happen to us mothers don't they? They derail us even when we have the best of intentions to stay positive all day, and loving our family like the Lord would have us do. When I was feeling frustrated I relistened to these wonderful MP3 recordings.

I was refreshed and able to give my all to my wonderful Hubby and my awesome Kids that I am so blessed to have in my life! You too can be refreshed, encouraged and inspired at Eternal Encouragement any time you need it. Please check out all the other great products Lorrie has put together to encourage and inspire us in our God Given role each and everyday!! Thanks for stopping by...Until Next time God Bless!

Until You Get Your Halo....

2011-05-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wear One Of Our Hats! How about that for a slogan?? What do you think? I am working on setting up an Etsy website or figure out how to implement a selling portion here on my blog for my crocheted hats. (I admit to a little techno challenge sometimes lol) Below you will see samples of some of the hats I recently sent off to snuggle a little one of God's angel's who is battling brain cancer and some hats I made for her siblings. Then also some of my other hats that I have made for my kiddos and myself. Enjoy and please let me know any ideas you have and tips on the selling things homemade you may have in your hat! God Bless

My Marriage is just fine...I don't need a bundle to help me...

2011-05-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

OK so now you know what I originally thought when I received my recent assignment from The Gabby Moms and Eternal Encouragement Magazine from Mrs. Lorrie Flem. Boy was I wrong. You know the assignments you always waited till the last minute to do in school and then found you enjoyed them and wish you put more time and effort into...that's about how I feel now!
I procrastinated...yup I sure did!~ Now I will be daily going over more of the info and getting all out of it I can. I just listened to the first mp3 session included in this download, which let me tell you IS HUGE!! I thought it would be a few items from the magazine I didn't realize it would be so much from Eternal Encouragement. Collections of Marriage goodies from the years with TEACH Magazine and great stuff from Lorrie Herself. Things I am hearing like "a happy content marriage is a defense against the evil in the world" really hit home. I need to put my time and effort into keeping my defenses against the enemy up and one way to do that is to keep my marriage strong, growing and fresh. There are so many great things in there, I was so skeptical going into the assignment now I feel foolish!! I should have been studying this for the weeks that I have had it, imagine the things I could have accomplished or benefited from!! There is a monthly plan for praying for your hubby which I am printing out to post somewhere I will see it daily, there are frugal and fun date tips and things to keep your spark alive. There is also Lorrie's personal bible study with all the references to marriage she has come across, I am going to take this scripture reference and study my bible, writing out each passage next to Lorrie's scripture list. Just so much good stuff I can't even list it all you have to check it out!

Here is a link to the Marriage bundle itself MARRIAGE:TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Trust me if you need a fresh outlook for your marriage or even if you think you got this in the bag, you won't regret this purchase. I am so blessed to be reviewing this for The Gabby Moms Program and cannot wait for all the great things to come from Eternal Encouragement and Mrs Lorrie Flem!

***I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review from Gabby Moms and Eternal Encouragement Magazine.***

Exhaustion

2011-05-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

I really was hoping this week I would feel so much better...however I didnt think it was possible to feel this tired...LUckily I know the cause... the fever night on Sunday with little princess and then last night we developed an ear infection that left her crying for hours in the middle of the night so no sleep for the weary again for me lol. Our Wonderful Nurse Practitioner was able to see her first thing this morning and we now have antibiotics to take and hopefully we will have no sore throat by thursday so she can participate in soccer and swim lessons (with earplugs) she is not thrilled about that part but its either that or no swimming so she is begrudgingly submitting lol. Anyway I think a nap is in store for both of us this afternoon while my wonderful friend takes little prince to swim lessons and we stay home to heal and sleep. I am so blessed with such great friends! Well I am off all love and hugs,
Blessings,
Tiff

Had mostly a wonderful Weekend How bout you?

2011-05-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend enjoying hubbys companionship and had a hike with some great friends! It was so nice...then we got home and little princess spiked a high fever yesterday and so here we are heading into another week with a sick someone in the house. My poor baby she has a very sore throat and has run over 102 for 24 hours this morning we have it down to 100.5 so thats a blessing. Will be monitoring her today and see where this goes hopefully away! Little prince will be attending swim lessons with our dear friends thankfully she can give him a ride today. I am blessed with really wonderful dear friends. I cannot thank God enough for all of my friends. IRL or Webland :) Anyway, Just wanted to post a little note to update you all on how things were going around here. I have been a bit behind on my routines since, well, lets see....months lol... It seems to go along with the Fibromyalgia I have developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome officially. I told my doctor..."I refuse to have that!" she laughed at me she is a very wonderful faithful woman so she giggled at my comment. I am very tired however most days to the point my body feels heavy and cant seem to function but I am working on a whole foods way of eating and supplementing with raw vitamins which seems to already be helping. I recently found a book at goodwill (love that place) that was written by Jordin Rubin called The Maker's Diet (see my side bar for a link if interested) and I am going to work on following it closely. He recovered from Chron's disease after nearly dying. It says diet in the title but I am calling it my new healthy eating instead of diet. My goal isnt to lose weight (although it will be a welcome addition to the plan LOL) but instead to get healthy, truly healthy and to feel better. Thats all. So I will keep you posted. So far I am feeling a bit better its only been a few days. I am not being as strict as I could be since I tend to not keep up with something if I start out full force all at once instead I am slowly making changes and shopping differently as I go and as we replace things in the house I am working towards chemical free, all organics. People that struggle with health as I have can really benefit from the change to whole foods, and chemical reductions in their homes. I havent in all honesty ever paid that much attention to these things thinking it almost a bit on the crazy side for many years but now am realizing how much stuff has really be chemically or fake produced I used to think if we could buy it in the store it was real stuff...not so much anymore. Anyway we shall see how this works and how I feel I will blog updates from time to time. Well little princess is calling me so off I go hope and pray you all have a wonderful day and you are well...God Bless

Eternal Encouragement What exactly is it?

2011-04-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

What exactly is Eternal Encouragement? Well to me it is being inspired to be all God would want me to be. It is doing the things to honor and cherish my husband and to serve my family and the community to the best of my ability. It means doing everything I can to be the best God has for me each and every day. Do you need this same kind of inspiration? Where on earth can we find it? Well one source aside from my bible is a little magazine by the name of, what else, Eternal Encouragement. I was blessed to review it this month as part of my membership with The Gabby Moms! You can check it out yourself at the link above or by typing www.EternalEncouragement.com into your web browser! You wont be disappointed!
It is a great little thing that has oodles and oodles of things like REAL Words!! Words we can actually use to become the hands and feet of Jesus each and every day! How cool is that! One awesome thing is its size! It fits in my purse for those moments of time where you are sitting, waiting on soccer to finish or waiting for the doctor to actually enter the room, which we all know they make you wait sometimes for what seems like an eternity! Having something useful to read, that uplifts your spirits for the day, and encourages you to really make a difference is a great way to put that time to good use dontcha think?? It's motto line is "Inspiring Women to Become More Like Jesus Every Day". Now that is something I want and can read with integrity, not the junk you usually are left with to read in the doctors or random other offices you visit. I hope you will all take a look at this wonderful magazine, check it out, subscribe if you want or need to be Inspired to be a Woman more like our Jesus!
God Bless all of My Sisters In Christ
Tiff

"I received this product for honest review from Eternal Encouragement Magazine as a part of The Gabby Moms blogging program. All opinions expressed are solely my own."

Bronchitis battle

2011-03-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well everyone sorry I have been away, I am hoping very soon to implement my new schedule. I just finished reading Managers of their Homes by Teri Maxwell I love it and cant wait. Currently I am praying about how our schedule should go, chores that the kids need to handle and so on. I have been battleing illness now for close to a month or more it seems. I had a routine checkin with my Doctor and she said my lungs were wheezing and I have Bronchitis..oh joy thats why I havent gotten well yet. So hopefully now I will get well and my kiddos too they have both had it Little princess is fighting an ear infection and Little Prince has the same crud I have only its not full blown Bronchitis his lungs are clear Praise God. Hubby was so sick he ended up home sleeping for 2 days which is so rare I can count the times it has happened on one hand! Anyway thats a brief update on the happenings around here I am working on an If/Then Consequence chart for diligence with our chores and other character behaviours I am noticing popping up lately... If you use one leave me a message and let me know if you purchased or made your own? Where did you locate the scriptures you use to reinforce the behavior you prefer and so on. Hubby and I discussed this and throught the weekend will be putting it together and take effect with it as soon as we lay it out and discuss the expectations with the kids. Blessings to all of you Take care
Tiff

A wonderful Post from a fellow blogging Homemaker- Enjoy

2011-03-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

Ladies I really enjoyed the following blog post at a sister in Christ's website. She has encouraged me many days and I really enjoy this post.
Are you losing your True Treasures? Please read the following blog post.
Your Sacred Calling

Check it out I pray it will bless you!

Reviewing Encouraging Moments

2011-02-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

You may remember that I am now a Gabby Mom!! I love being a Gabby Mom. Encouragement I receive from other homemakers and friends in The Gabby Moms has been a true blessing for me! I became a Gabby Mom through HomemakingwithTEACH.com and I am so glad I did. This month I was blessed to review Encouraging Moments Newsletter from Mrs. Lorrie Flem and I gotta admit, I normally don't even read some of the emails that hit my inbox( loud gasping here I know LOL) but, I am going to be looking forward to this one each and every week! Just look at the beautiful welcoming sight when you open the email...

I love it how about you? :)
Well, the last couple of installments were the ones we focused on for our review, and I got great insight from both. Do you feel happy in your marriage? I am blessed to say that I do however, I have many girlfriends who have not found a way to be content with all they have been blessed with even if it doesn't seem to be that much. Finding ways to be content and happy no matter what is truly a gift when you can accomplish that this was the focus of the first newsletter I read. It gave me tools to reach out to some of my friends with and also share this newsletter with them to hopefully encourage them in their daily walk. How about keeping your thoughts in check and filtering all through Jesus? I struggle with depression as many of you know and one of the newsletters specifically focused on that, and It came the same day I was really struggling with negative thoughts...God's answer to my prayers in the second newsletter I read! As Homemakers, Homeschooling moms, and wives there are many things we sometimes just need a bit of encouragement from someone who has been there, done that, you know what I mean? Parenting is tough sometimes isn't it? Where is the instruction book for these things? LOL oh yes they did come with one did you know that? Its the BIBLE!! :) Thank God for that! If you need encouragement please, please, check out this wonderful research and try it out for a few weeks to see if you don't find the encouragement you need! You can find at at all of the links above! The first page you come to will have a pop out window for you to subscribe to the newsletter yourself! I hope you will try this out as I feel you will find encouragement and be blessed in your daily walk just as I have been! Have a blessed day all and I will Gab at ya' laters!

I am reviewing Encouraging Moments as an official member of The Gabby Moms blogging program for Eternal Encouragement magazine. I did not receive compensation for this post and all opinions are solely my own.

Listen and Obeying 2 different things??

2011-02-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I have been struggling with pain, partially making me depressed and several other outside things that I have let affect my heart, mind, soul and daily walk. Have you been there friends? When you just dont open your bible, when you dont want to get up early for your quiet time, when you just feel lost to a point? Some of you may be able to answer no to this question but I would guess that as mothers, wives, homemakers and women we have all been there at least for 1 day somewhere along our walk with Christ. Now I am not going to claim it is over and done for me however GOD shows up when we listen and obey it is such a blessing I dont want you to miss it! Last night I had much on my mind, toooooo much. But I didnt go to my comforter on my own ( I am a bit stubborn sometimes just ask wonderful hubby lol) however God kept calling to me and at first I was actually sure that it was my own mind making up the scripture chapt and verse I kept dwelling on, I was positive I was making it up and "if" i did get my rear out of bed and check on it in the Good Book I would find that it was just my mind as I was "sure" it wouldnt apply to my current situation since God had been so "Silent" lately right! LOL well finally I couldnt take it anymore and I submitted and said Ok God this is it I am getting up but I still think its all in my head your not really going to give me this at 2 am right ?? Doubt is the enemies first line of Defense then fear and yada yada how often do I let him into my mind (too often but am growing) thats the point of this blog right I want to be an encouragement and its about sharing my "learning to Live FOR God Day by Day!" amazing when we listen what happens, so I got upthat I got up, went to my bible and it says in Romans 6:19 oops wait first the one I have memorized due to my little ones AWANA scripture (Thank you Jesus) I was repeatedly focusing on Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God" I was like ok God what is your point I know that and Know my need for Jesus but I am feeling Lost right now what next then came romans 6:19 " I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness." WOW I can not explain what that meant to me at the moment at 2 am I was immediately released back to sleeping soundly the rest of the night however going back over it I was blessed by this. In human ters I am weak to my Flesh! I used to be slave to my evil desires and temptations now I strive for righteousness however loose my way sometimes God was calling me back to him saying Focus on striving for righteousness let go of temptation to be emotional in the present situation or angry or distressed "Be still and know I am God" I shared with my husband which if you have been a reader you know that my hubby is not yet saved however he joins me at service most weekends and is attending our small group with our Pastor as the leader. God is using this group to grow me so much! sometimes Growth is painful however I know that the choice to press in to Him and Press on for the righteousness he desires will overcome all in the end. Hubby was willing to share with me this morning and I asked what he thought and instead of the previous dismissal of night time scripture gifts to me (only happened 2 other times) he used to look at me like I was weird (oh I am weird but thats ok with me) however today he had insight that hit home for me and discussed it with me Praise God he is working in ways that I have no idea about. How often do we want God on our terms God if you would only do this for me and so on...its so hard to turn this around and say "ok God what is it that will be a blessing in the end if **I** would only do this for** YOU**"? I dont know where I am heading however I want to be a slave to the righteousness that leads to holiness not the other way around. Thank you Jesus for having mercy and compassion for this sinner and Knowing how to reach me in my darker moments. Lord you are so wonderful! Thank you for sharing in my journey I will blog more soon I just had to share and I hope that you will join me in becoming SLAVES to something so awesome it will blow our minds I am sure if we will just remain focused on our ultimate goal! God Bless and enjoy your day!

What Exactly Are "TRUE TREASURES" ??

2011-01-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well friends let me tell ya! "True Treasures" are many things for each woman but its also a book, yay for me and for you too hehe!! In this wonderful book there are 6 Chapters each with the most wonderful and inspiring articles I have read lately! This book, where did it come from you ask?? Well it came from our friends over at TEACH magazine Now Called "Eternal Encouragement Magazine" and it is presented to us by Mrs. Lorrie Flem. It is a compiliation of the Best of 10 Years of TEACH Magazine! Its like a whole bunch of awesome magazine articles without all the ads and junk just awesome inspiring article after article!! I am so blessed to have been asked to become a Gabby Mom blogging associate where I will get to review a product once a month that encourages, leads, and helps us homemaking, homeschooling, "can do it all but need fuel in our tank" Mama's LOL! I hope and pray you will enjoy reading about whatever they have in store to send us to review~! I know I am excited (as if you couldn't tell Lol!) So do you want to see what this book looks like?? Ok here it is...

Looks can be decieving because inside this modestly designed package awaits articles that will encourage each of us in some way or another with whatever you may be struggling with as a homemaker, or a wife, or homeschooling mom, or you daily walk with God. Sometimes Parenting isn't easy but when we equip ourselves with tools to help our heart, soul and mind grow the task becomes so much easier and that is one thing this book defenitly brings to the table. Each chapter has a beautiful name and even more beautiful content:
Chapter 1: Jewels That Make the Heart Sparkle
My favorite article was "I'm a Homemaker...Period" so much encouragement to do the best I can each day and be what my husband so needs me to be His Help Meet.

Chapter 2: Marriages of Solid Gold
Just from the title you know there is good stuff in it. "A Time to Be Silent" that one is my fav here... I tend to overload my husband with words when what he really needs me to do is listen or just be sometimes! I am working on this with the help of the Lord and this article really encouraged me!

Chapter 3: Parenting Pearls: Practical and Priceless
Here is the one that spoke to me...be ready to giggle... "Do Your Children Rise and Call you Blessed, Or Grouch?? HA...this is so me each day and this article brought to light some of the things that I really struggle with. From the title can you figure it out LOL!

Chapter 4:Homemaking That Dazzles Like Diamonds
I Love the "Principled Housekeeping" article it starts with Keeping house is such a blessing, a ministry to the most needy and helpless among us- children. Wow I had never thought of it that way maybe I should have, maybe you already do but I know I didn't and now I do and it is helping my attitude towards my homemaking duties that I don't necessarily enjoy all that much I mean most of us dont look forward to some of it do we like endless folding laundry, or the toilet duty, or litter box beacon lol... anyway you get my point lots of good stuff in this one.

Chapter 5: Homeschooling Nuggets of Wisdom
Nuggets?? It should say Boulders of Wisdom! There is no way I could even pick my favorite in this section I read each and every one of them more than once and will keep going back to it for a long time to come I am sure about that! 9 Awesome articles= a very encouraged homeschool mom!

Chapter 6: Godly Living that Glitters
"The Jewel of Contentment" I love this one how many times when we were young mothers, maybe before you came to the Lord maybe after has the ugly head of discontent with your overall circumstance come to the surface. You found your self saying the nasty words "if only" "I wish it were different" "if he was like" "when will I get" these types of statement starters only serve to tear us down not help us out of the pit. This article has some great "get out of that pit" tools. Well I guess its one big tool...GOD.

If you’d like your own copy of this wonderful encouragement, use the coupon code GabbyMom at check-out at http://www.homemakingwithteach.com/ for a $4 discount. At the same address, you can download a free PDF of TEACH magazine. If you like the freebie, you’ll love True Treasures!

I am just awesomely blessed to have been picked to be a GABBY MOM! You can be one too check out the link at the top right of my page for more info.

I received this product for honest review from TEACH Magazine as part of The Gabby Moms blogging program. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

HaPpY NeW YeAR!!!

2011-01-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

Happy happy new year everyone! May the Lord Bless this New Year with greatness, peace, love and Joy this year. I am going to be working on making my blog pretty and exciting soon as well as I have some new things to blog about and my priorities for 2011. God Bless you all and "see" ya soon!

Snowy Saturday

2010-12-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

Well its been a rough few weeks around here since our best friend(doggy) past away but we are getting back to normal. I went threw a bit of depression recently however I figured out I had accidentally been forgetting my medication for the fibro which has an effect on my emotions as it is also an anti-depressant. Now that we are back on track with that it is better however I am having a very difficult time with the holiday season this year. I don't really know why I just am. Normally this is my favorite time of year and we have plenty of snow for a white christmas(more than enough actually!) We currently have almost 2 feet I think. we received another 6 inches so far overnight up to now and it is still coming down hard giving us currently about 2 feet. I will have to go measure for sure soon :) The kids enjoy knowing exactly how much we have lol. I think I may put some lights on our porch today so that may help my spirits. Also today I am going to put up some curtain holders (the light duty white ones) they were inexpensive and a way to put up some curtains without thumb tacks that we have been using currently lol. I would love pretty wood curtain rods however those can be fairly spendy even if you do thrifty and use closet rods we will upgrade to those slowly later for now I am going to spray paint these metal ones with a copper hammered look spray paint and call it good :) actually for today I am going to just put them up to hold in the heat I will worry about painting them later:) Then the rest of the day will be spent working on laundry and the kitchen. Both have been neglected due to illness of myself and both the kids this whole week. I am finally feeling a little better still coughing but better. The kids are finally feeling better too Praise God. Well I better get with it. I am also going to be working on the home management binder soon and getting things back in order spiritually and in the home. Things are going to be scaled back that are done out of the home and focusing in on Christ and our Relationship with Him who can carry us when we are struggling if we will but turn to Him for help. Blessings to all of you at this time of year and praying you have a wonderful CHRISTmas...
In Him,
Tiffany

Its looking a lot like christmas

2010-12-04T07:30:00.001-08:00

Wow we have a lot of snow here. 15 inches and more coming! It has been cold cold but with a nice warm fire going in the house it has been so nice. It makes me sad though since so many are without heat or houses. I try to do what we can but we cant save everyone all by ourselves. I am a sappy type who would love to just gather everyone up and bring them home with me to be warm and safe but that just wont work out for me so I pray. I pray for direction on how God would use me to help people and I pray for their saftey and health in these winter months. The children and I will be going down to the local soup kitchen in the coming weeks to volunteer and donate childrens clothing and some can goods. Oddly enough this was not what I planned to post but what God placed on my heart today so there you go lol.
Today we are going to go down to the Christmas Bazaar in town and then the lighted parade is tonight then My children are going to some dear friends house to spend the night with their best friends while hubby and I have a date night! yay it has been a long time. spring I believe. so excited! We are going to grab some burgers in town then come home to snuggle and watch a movie. Sounds exciting doesnt it lol.. well for me it is:) Anyway I hope you all have a great Saturday. I know times are tight for all of us but lets think of some way we can help those in need is the season of giving. God will bless us for our efforts even if it is just praying for those in need if that is all you can do. Most times this is all I can do there is nothing to small in God's eyes when you are wholeheartedly trying to help those around you. Blessings all...

Sad Saturday

2010-11-20T05:23:00.000-08:00

Today we are feeling very sad here. We had to put our oldest man's best friend down last night he was in to much pain. Today we Remember the life of our dear friend
God Bless you Whiskey Dog

1997-2010 You will be greatly missed

Tired but so Thankful

2010-11-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Today I am exhausted and extremely sore. However through that I am oh so thankful..why you ask because yesterday I determined through my extreme pain to go ahead and work on a log pile we needed to get put inside before it was buried in the snow this weekend and my husband has had to work his days off so will only have Sunday off this week. Why does that make me thankful? Well you see I mentioned my goal on to my friends on my social page and one of my Church members sent her wonderful husband over here to help me with the big logs and stacking which was such a huge blessing then to top it all off she came by with Potato soup for dinner as she thought I would be too sore after all the logging :) She was oh so right and we are so so blessed to have such a wonderful "family". We were also able to bless some dear friends with wood as well and it feels great that even though I am hurting physically and may not contribute to the church in some of the more physical opportunities right now that are available I am still able to help others! So I guess my point of this post is to encourage that we lean on God and our friends when we do need it (instead of hibernating and not asking for help like I know we all try sometimes or at least I sure do) and look for ways to give cheerfully no matter what we ourselves are dealing with because It helps the physical pain so much more then I could have imagined to 1. know I am not alone (even though the enemy tries to make me feel that way sometimes) and 2. be happy that I was able to help someone who needed it even though I myself hurt so much! Joy helps pain but I know how hard that is in the midst of deep pain I am there and I have been there so stay strong my friends that are struggling, persevere and ye shall be blessed! Have a great day I am off to clean the house and get ready for a friend to come play with my son while the mom and I chat then tomorrow more kids coming to play with our kids and spend the night then Church on Sunday and small group time sunday night really looking forward to that we have missed 2 weeks trying to get the logs put up before winter really hits. Now its done! Yay it feels so good! Hopefully that will help my hubby feel a bit more relaxed this weekend too he is so tired! He works at a tire store and when the snow hits they work 11-12 hours a day and work their mid week day off. We love the extra $ it brings in and that is such a blessing but it sure takes alot out of him physically so I am just praying for strenght and endurance for him and a restful day sunday with our Church family to rejuvinate his body.

Hello World!!

2010-11-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone so sorry I have not been better about posting!~ I have been struggling with the pain and headaches and trying to keep up around here. We are hoping to get the pain under control and that the headaches will go with it. Just trying to keep our head above water around here. I will try and do better about posting more meaningful posts very soon! In the mean time I covet your prayers for health restoration or just God's overwhelming presence in the pain. I know he is using it for his Glory and I just have to hang on and Pray.
Growing in Him
Tiff

A book Review

2010-10-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hi all I am trying to catch up on everything and one of those things is a book review for a Devotional with my 11 year old son that we are absolutely loving~!

This has been a great conversation starter for my son and myself. My son Was BAPTIZED On Sunday!! It has been an awesome month watching God work in my family I am so very blessed! Every Morning we get started with this Devotional and the stories in it are fun and interactive to get him really thinking of how to apply God's word directly into life, which at this age is a big thing I think. I know the reviews I have done recently are mostly good but this one is AWESOME!! I LOVE doing this with my son each day it is drawing us closer to eachother and to God. Even though it is designed for kids I am getting a lot out of it to and the conversations with my son are a huge plus! I hope that anyone with pre-teen to teen children will look into this one if you are searching for something that can really get into conversations with your kids while applying God's word to their life. Most devotionals are kind of read and think type this one gets you really talking! Enjoy!

Please Note:To comply with regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or ARC to Review and keep no other compensation has been made.

Weekend update on a little of everything

2010-09-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

So excited tonight we go see the band Elliott play as well as listen to motivational speaker Nick Vujicic from "Life without Limbs" Should be a wonderful night. Today has been extremely difficult for me emotionally. I dont know why for sure thinking it is a hormonal swing... uuggg we women have to deal with things that guys have no idea about dont we LOL... anyway Have a blessed weekend everyone. I will be working at posting our homeschool schedule next week. Things have been tough lately my health has not been good but I am praying that things look up soon. We ended up not doing much official book school the last 2 weeks as I was really ill. But luckily for Christmas my son got a bunch of learning games for the computer that have all subjects included. So he has worked on those and the mathletics website and little princess has worked on Starfall.com as well as her kindergarten games. Looking very much forward to getting back on routine around here with a healthy mommy. Please keep my health in prayer if you would as I could really use it. I am now on blood pressure medication along with my fibro meds and I dont like being on so many. I am working at getting healthy weight wise and hope/pray that my weight reduction will help the blood pressure so I can get off that med. Take care all.

Essentials For Life by Marcia Ford (a book review for booksneeze)

2010-09-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Follow the link below to get your own copy of this great little book!
Essentials for Life: Your Back-to-Basics Guide to What Matters Most

I love books it just seems I have not had as much reading time in the summer months.

I recieved a free copy of the book reviewed here in compensation for my review that is all that has been provided from the publisher.

Essentials for Life by Marcia Ford

I really enjoyed this book. It is not a novel type which is nice for short bouts of reading time. Its like a little instruction guide when your getting off kilter with your bible study or in your daily walk. When you are in need of Inspiration on digging into scriptures deeper or getting Closer to God it is a great resource. I found the brief 2 page inspirations and instructions to be a great way to dig deeper into my daily bible study. This book would be especially helpful for new believers and those returning to Christ to boost thier walk with the Lord and get them jumpstarted with some great short reminders and instruction. Overall I really like the book and will keep it on my bible study shelf to reference back to when I need to.

To my regular readers I will return soon with more regular postings... we have had some illnesses here and a sick piggy is taking extra time right now. School begins offically ( I know I already said that however the last 2 weeks we have done light schoolwork) Heavy scheduling has been completed and we are ready to hit it hard this coming week. Will post some more soon on all that. Have a blessed Lords Day everyone

11 Years ago Today

2010-08-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

11 years ago today my first born wonderful beautiful awesome little Prince entered the world! Today we celebrate his birthday with a cake, icecream a couple friends and Sprinklers under the trampoline :) Going to be a most wonderful day! I will write more soon from my previous post I had planned on getting a ton of things done last week while the kiddos were gone however I ended up staying with my parents also as Little Princess' anxieties kept me with her last week at my parents house. She needed me and so did my mom. It was wonderful to hang out and just chat with my mom I havent had much of a chance to do that in the last couple years life has been crazy for both of us. They built their dream barn last year and they are working on their house that is being built this summer and into next summer should be finished by sept of next year and my mom is really looking forward to that. It was a wonderful week but I now am a bit behind around here. I still need to finish the painting in the living room and get the finalization on the homeschool plans written up by the end of next week. Some dear friends are getting Married this weekend and Little princess is one of the flower girls so this week is wedding details after the birthday details :) busy busy never a dull moment at the end of summer is there lol! have a blessed day all I am off to finish the cake making and get the house ready. Blessings to you all!

crafty things

2010-08-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did some cool crafts to give the grandmas and grandpas (my parents live with my maternal grandparents) when the kids go to stay. We made pencil holders out of green been cans covered in fabric with Decoupouge? glue then we added magazine cut out pictures to each one that were things that grandparent likes or things they do covered it all with more decoupouge glue and let them dry. Also the kids made some foam crafts with the foam stickers for each one. It was a fun day! Today is finishing getting the kids ready and then we are heading to the museum for the day. They have history reenactments from homesteading to an old sawmil as well as some other neat displays. Should be a great day then my kids are off for the week! I will miss them. I will be away from the computer till Tuesday as hubby and I will be busy busy. Take care all and have a blessed weekend!

PS...Tuesday I will post some pictures of things :)

Fabulous friday

2010-08-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Hope you are well... Today we are just going to keep things plugging along here. My wonderful husband revamped a room in the shop to make my crafting room! Yay so now all my fabric and craft drawers that were taking up ALOT of space in our bedroom can be moved out to the shop as well as this means when I get time to work on a project I can for a few min and not have to drag stuff out and put it all back out of the way! Yay I may actually get the gift scrapbooks worked on for xmas presents this year! woohoo! also going to work on another dress for myself and little princess soon. This coming week I will be kidless :( as they are going to grandma and papa's for a week. while I will miss them I have a few projects that I am going to tackle while I dont have to get distracted during. Going to finish painting the main living room ( I painted when we moved in Jan however the paint was not brown enough it turned out rather grey) I had purchased 5 gallons at home depot of what normally cost $100 but it was mixed wrong color or something not sure it was off white which was great and it only cost $15!!! so i did that and bought a quart of chocolate brown thinking that would make it the right milk chocolate color...well it turned purpley gray lol! so I have bought an inexpensive gallon of dark coppery brown and it came out a beautiful tan! I will post pictures when I am finished luckily we had only done one coat whne we moved so we still had most of the bucket left! Also going to finish my homeschool planning and post on our choices for the year :) Going to get the homeschool supply area all organized and gone through since I wont have kiddos saying "mom can I play with that" as I go through things makes it hard to organize when things keep getting moved around by others doesnt it lol... ok off I go today is just keep on top of things and get ready to drop kids off. Tomorrow we are going to spend the day at the local Museum with one of our cousins that will be fun! ok have a blessed day all!

MT WASHMORE TACKLED!!!!

2010-08-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

I did it! yesterday even with intense pain in my back and all the way down my leg I got all the laundry folded! I had several loads that had backed up for a while now (clean but not folded) and a couple new loads washed yesterday. I was not feeling good due to pain so I was down most the day but instead of doing nothing while I sat here (as I normally would have done when I hurt this bad) I folded slowly and carefully taking breaks as I needed and got it all done by the end of the day. I cleaned up the kitchen before the day began and the house is starting to look normal again. today Hubby is off work so we will work together on a few things (he is awesome about helping when my pain flares up like this knowing I will do more when it subsides) and then we will enjoy some kind of fun with the kids maybe go to the lake and swim or something. Here's hoping you all have an awesome day! I am babystepping my way to a clean organized house! Yay! Next week the kids will be at their grandparents for the week so I am going to get the homeschool planning finalized and the corner organized as well as finish a couple household projects that never get finished it seems. Praying the pain will subside by then and I can tackle lots. God Bless all...tata...

Not much going on today

2010-08-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Pretty quiet day around here... just yard work and housework catching up with things from the weekend. I have been struggling lately with a lot of pain which has not helped with the housework at all but hopefully it will calm down very soon. Been also struggling with a lot of spiritual struggles lately not sure why but just felt really blah about things. Could be all the pain and the fact that I was not taking care of my daily feeding with my bible study. Today I read the entire book of Hebrews and it really gave me a jump start. Praying that this helps my energy and drive a bit and going to focus in on the Lord more as I struggle through this spiritual canyon and make it to the other side. Thank you for praying for me if you will as We are all sisters who need eachother Right?!! Have a blessed day all,
T

Friday already?? where did the week go lol...

2010-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

I cant believe it is Friday already... This week I havent gotten a ton done but i did get on top of some things. The kitchen got a good cleaning my bathroom got organized and we made some cookies...all and all a good week lol. Today We are going to get the laundry all folded (i have been procrastinating on this! that is the one thing I struggle with I feel so good when it is all done and put away yet I let it pile up. It is all clean but not put away when will I learn lol.) I also need to reoganize my side of the closet but may do that tomorrow. Thinking we may go play in the water later today at the lake but not 100% sure we may just play in the sprinklers :) Well I am off to get going on the day...suppose I should eat somethin! Have a blessed day all

Monday Monday...

2010-07-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend was wonderful with hubby having both days off we enjoyed it immensely... Today is errand day for me and that means I will be out and about in the heat of the day blah.... oh well when we get home and get groceries put away maybe we will kick on the ac in the house and do some cleaning or we may head to the water for a playtime we shall see. I dont generally use the AC unless it really heats up in here usually if I open the house in the early am like at 5am then close it by 8am then it stays nice however last night we didnt cool much soo we may need it later it is nice to have for the occasional day that it is super hot. anyway enough rambling need to go get in the shower and get ready for the day. Going to clean the kitchen while the kiddos are still sleeping then get some homeschool books ordered and get ready to leave. I am actually looking forward to getting homeschool going again soon but the kids have different thoughts lol.... they are enjoying our break thouroughly. I am considering taking them camping soon on my own except for hubby coming in the evening I havent decided yet... thinking relaxing for a short time by a river close enough to home to feed the animals sounds nice. Anyway off I go take care all have a great day.

Hello world

2010-07-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all, its been a very long time...Sorry about that. Between business of kids activities at the end of the school term in June then I was very ill and then the Fibro was really acting up and I just had not an ounce of energy left to do much with writing wise. Part of me was not sure if I would blog again for a while however I have checked in on all of you so even though I wasnt writing I was stopping in on all of your blogs :) I was up early this morning so finally had some energy and time to drop in on here. So much is going on around here between the garden, we currently have 3 pigs we are feeding and last month little princess had a big accident, she was attacked by a dog and ended up in the ER with 8 stitches to her buttock groin area. It was very scary/tramatic and she is still dealing with dog fear every morning just to go outside our own home. This didnt happen here and it was not one of our dogs however just going outside with our pooches gives her fear daily it has been a rough month. However I am on a new med for the Fibro and it is helping with energy and overall mood too so that is a bonus. I have been on it before but it was with a mix of tons of other meds and I didnt do well now it is just one med I am dealing with and trying to exercise and eat right to get a handle on this once and for all.
This weekend we are going to enjoy a river float, church on sunday and then a barbeque with my life group after service which will be fun! Looking forward to a fun relaxin weekend with my wonderful family. Still trying to get back on a schedule around her hopefully in the next 2 weeks we will have that handled and have it tweaked to the right timing for us to fit things in. I am considering taking the kids camping close to home here for maybe a week or two we shall see...and then getting the final things ordered for school work this year little Prince will be in 6th grade studies this year and little princess will be doing K/1st grade work thoughout the year. I am looking forward to it we did school with both of them last year but I was way more flexible with little princess and her "want" to do school this year its for real and I am thinking how to do both of them they are a bit too far apart to really combine much so it will take some time to get the schedule revamped when we get going to see how it will work with both of them. Well I am off to water the garden and feed the animals hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will try to post more often...Hugs,
T

I have not fallen from the Earth (I promise)

2010-05-13T08:47:00.001-07:00

LOL...hi all just a quick post letting you know I will be returning to more regular posts in a week or so I by not paying close enough attention to detail LOL signed my kids up for 2 activities while one was still finishing (ya know I probably wouldnt change a thing though we dont do this often so it is a small sacrifice for a short term and the kids are having a blast) so this is the last Day for little princess' ballet and then this week is their first soccer games and we had a homeschool swim lesson session that runs daily for 2 weeks. Thank goodness for crock pots lol. And last night I was very blessed as a friend had made dinner for the church's youth group and there were leftovers which she had me pick up for our dinner! Yay! I am very excited for June to get here! We are going to take our first real family vacation in 3 years (I say real as it is not camping for hunting season lol) and we are going to go tent camping with some dear friends! I cant wait. We will be having fun in the water, catfishing, and just enjoying eachothers company. Our kids are very similar in age and the best of friends. The whole family is very excited! Well I better run gotta get rolling for the busyness begins now!

I did survive...LOL

2010-04-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Candy commented asking If I survived and I realized I needed to post an update LOL..
I am dealing with a good deal of pain recently and had some xray's that showed the vertabrae above my surgery is now pinching my disc somewhat moderately. But I am not gonna let this get me down! I will Survive with the Grace of God however I have had to focus to get the things done that are the basics around here which has meant I forget to do some of the fun things like Update my blog LOL... Right now I am in the midst of pre-planning for next year and looking at curriculum that may or may not work and deciding if I want to try a package such as My Father's World or just use some of Ambleside Online with some of the other things I do around here.... decisions decisions lol... anyway Also a new job opportunity may/or may not present itself to wonderful hubby please be in prayer for that as he could really use it It is with the same company but would relieve so much stress off of his bad knee that we could really use that to come through for him. We wont really know anything on this for quite some time as the position isnt officially open yet and may not come open until sometime between now and 12 months from now. It would mean travel sometimes being gone for a whole week from home however I just ask that if this is God's plan for hubby then this will work and the feelings I have toward the being gone part will be replaced with Joy and peace with Jesus by my side. I thank you for praying with me over Hubby and my pain. Take care my sisters in Christ I will try and update again soon.... I still am reading blogs even when I dont update making sure you are all doing well! Hugs...

Survival day

2010-04-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Today I am just trying to un-bury myself here in the house, after a few fun filled days as a family we let the house go...so today I dig out and regroup for the rest of the week. I am feeling ok the pain management is going well with minimal doses of medication. I hope and pray for further relief and renewed strength/energy however I am going to keep living in the midst of pain. I refuse to give up and give in. I enjoyed the weekend being active. We took a walk up a butte and what a beautiful view we had it took us longer than normal to get up the hill I had to take it slow even resorting to walking backwards at times lol... going uphill backwards seemed to help the nerve pain a bit(kinda hard to see where I am goin but what a beautiful view I had of where we had just been~! lol...so nothing spectacular happening today I made a big list of what to do today however am revising it and going to go room by room and tidy up...so if I finish tomorrow that will be ok with me! Have a blessed day all!

HIS GRACE IN MY PAIN

2010-04-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have Ah-Ha moments when studying your bible?? I sure hope you do cause they ROCK! And you so know that God is speaking to you through HIS Word! Yesterday I was almost positively diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I have been struggling with severe pain for a few weeks again as I did in the past since I started this Blog. To say I was bummed is correct but also relieved that I wasnt losing my mind with this nerve pain that is showing up in a bunch of areas in my body instead of just one leg like it used to be after my back surgery. For those that dont know I had a full fusion at my lower vertabrae to my S-1 joint in 2006 and it has been a long road. Today I am reminded of why I named this Blog Learning to Live for God Day by Day~! I have struggled with pain since before my surgery and after. Today in my journaling I was in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 and I had a lightbulb moment between reading the scripture and the study notes in my bible.

2 Corinthians 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The notes from my Life Application study bible say this
12:7-8 We do not know what paul's thron in the flesh was, because he doesn't tell us. soe have suggested that it was malaria, epilepsy, or a disease of the eyes Whatever the case it was a chronic and debilitating problem, which at times kept him from working. this thorn was a hinderance to his ministry, and he prayed for its removal; but God refused. Paul was a very self-sufficient person, so this thorn must have been difficult for him. Three times paul prayed for healing but did not receive it. He recieved however, things far greater because he received greater grace from God, a Stronger character, humility, and an ability to empathize with others. In addition, it benefited those around him when they saw God at work in his life. God, according to his sovereign plan, doesnt heal some believers of their physical ailments. We don't know why some are spared and others aren't. God chooses according to his divine purposes. Our task is to PRAY, TO BELIEVE, AND TO TRUST. Paul is living proof that holy living and courageous faith do not ensure instant physical healing. When we pray for healing we must trust our bodies to God's care. We must recognize that nothing separates us from his love and that our spiritual condition is always more important than our physical condition. 12:9 Notes: Although God did not remove Paul's physical affliction he promised to demonstrate his power in Paul. The face that God's power is displayed in weak people should give us courage. though we recognize our limitations, we will not congratulate ourselves and rest at that. Instead we will turn to Giod to seek pathways for effectiveness. We must rely on Giod for out effectiveness rather than simply our own energy, effort or talent. Our weakness not only hlpes develop Christian Character, it also deepens our worship because in admitting our weekness we affirm God's strength. 12:10 notes, When we are strong in our abilities or resources, we are tempted to do God's work on our own, and that can lead to pride. When we are weak, allowing God to fill us with his power, then we are stronger than we could ever be on our own. God does not intend for us to seek to be weak, passive or ineffective- life provides enough hindrances and setbacks without us gcreating them. when those obstacles come, we must depend on God. Only his power will make us effective for him and will help us do work that has lasting value.

WOW!!! That is all I can say right now I have an excitedness inside that just woke up! I was beginning to be sad about my pain (yet again) and down that even though we have prayed and prayed and others have laid hands on me that the pain is returning. However this morning I feel God telling me that His Grace is enough...enough to get me through this and more if needed and that My pain will be used to minister somehow. I just know it with ever fiber of my being my pain has a purpose! Thank You God!!! Have a blessed day everyone!

My latest sewing Creations

2010-04-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

So last year I cut out this dress for little princess but life got hectic and lets face I just kept putting it off I do that occasionally but am trying to get better lol. This skirt for me was also cut out a year and a half ago LOL.. but this was the time to finish it so I just jumped in and did it! The skirt was actually all white material and I decided I did not want a bright white skirt :-) so I died it with Rit dye and it turned out very nice! I will be posting my planting video maybe tomorrow I worked all day today on seperating my plants into new containers and giving them more room to grow. See ya later! God Bless

Catchup day

2010-03-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hi there! We had an awesome weekend a childhood friend of my husbands came to visit us for the weekend (our weekend was Sunday Monday) so after church on Sunday we went out to what we call the desert and explored for a while Pics at bottom of post then Monday we went for a drive to show him some other lakes and things around here. Today is my monday and I have much to do. I have to clean up the house and later have some errands to run. Enjoy your day! It is snowing here! Spring is coming but today it is very cold.

Feeling much better today:)

2010-03-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a Better day~! I am going to accomplish things actually last night I had a bout of energy and did get much accomplished Praise God. Today we have done a good deal of reading already(studying Jamestown) and the kids just did some outside paper airplane flying :) now they are having some late breakfast..they really wanted to head outside so I let them wait till now for breakfast so we shall have brunch and then move on with our day. I am going to get some bread made and cookies possibly but definitely bread and then get the house in shape...I say that but as I look around it really is not that bad lol. just need a good vacuuming from the woodstove mess and put away some clothes keep laundry going today and then enjoy some nice weather outside today looks to be 60 but then we will have rain starting tonight for a couple days which may mean snow here you just never know they said no snow just rain this weekend and we woke to 1 inch here at our house. I think the town 30 miles from here where the news comes from has a completely different radar system that doesnt show us acurately lol! Anyway I am off to have a great day! God Bless

Motivation/energy where have you gone??

2010-03-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Oiy today I have just felt zapped of all energy, I did some things this morning but aside from that have not accomplished much all day. Sad to admit but I have those days do you? I am now going to get up and go clean up the kitchen and make dinner. Have no idea what to make. I have to say when I was planning out our meals and sticking to my schedule my days seemed much better. I shall get back on track. Praise God I have gotten back to craving my daily time wiht the Lord now I just need to get my schedule back in order and make it work for us. I have so much I want to accomplish but when I start I tend to feel overwhelmed and just dont get much done at all this has happened alot since moving into the new house. I must get better about that. Ok off to tackle the kitchen and then dinner tomorrow is a new day I think I will map out what I CAN get done tomorrow and just try to bring about order...I did manage to get all the backed up laundry that was clean folded and put away yesterday and today have been working on washing that needs to be done. That reminds me I need to switch loads. God bless you all and have a great night! See ya soon!

Catch up day around here and Thanksgiving... Yes Thanksgiving lol...

2010-03-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well hello all! Today is going to be a catchup day for me and the kids on housework and kitchen work. We are going to be inside for the most part as it SNOWED last night! AHHH so tired of snow but thats ok we will need moisture this summer so I will manage my frustration at not being able to dig the garden. I attempted Sat however things were still too frozen so I gave up before hurting myself trying:) Thought I would share a little of my reading from this morning. 1 Corinthians 1:4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
the footnotes in my bible say:
Paul thanked God for the Corinthian believers. During the Thanksgiving holiday we focus on our blessings and express our gratitude to God for them. But thanks should be expressed everyday. We can never say thankyou enough to parents, friends, leaders, and especially to God. When thanksgiving becomes an integral part of your life, you will find that your attitude toward life will change. You will become more positive, gracious, loving and humble. Whom do you need to thank today?

This got me really thinking. Those are all areas I would love to have more of in my life, positiveness, graciousness, love and humbleness... So my prayer is that today I dont overlook opportunities to thank those who have helped me grow stonger and those who are a part of me.
Thank you all of you who comment and read my blog. Having Sisters in Christ is a wonderful thing supporting eachother as we grow in Christ. Have a blessed day all and Thank God and others today and everyday!

I'm Back, Kinda...

2010-03-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to try and start posting again I feel that I have some heart issues worked through and will continue on my journey with God leading the way:) today I have one whopper of a headache, a dirty house to clean after having some friends children over for a couple days...actually the house really isnt dirty I just need to put away laundry, vacuum and clean the kitchen up that actually isnt so bad LOL... it just feels messy to me so anyway. We are currently mid reflooring project in our master bathroom after I looked down and saw mold creeping in we found a couple water leaks including all around the base of our toilet! Ah! so now we are down to one toilet in the house and are you ready..the other toilet is on my front deck LOL.. potty anyone! Oiy... oh well i say to myself it will all come together in due time. We were blessed to find lightly used carpeting and padding at the recycled building supply place close and that was enough to do both the childrens rooms as you may remember the previous owners it appears did not potty their pets outside all the time...so the kids rooms will be getting a flooring overhaul probably next weekend and tomorrow we will hopefuly get the potty back where it belongs as I seem to walk into my bathroom at night and then remember I have to go to the other side of the house LOL.. minor incovienance but oh well. I have to get some bread done today and other lunch snacks made up and I think todday will have meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.
My garden will get some attention today I am going to attempt some shoveling and turning in there we will see if it is defrosted yet. I have lettuce going on my garden rack inside, cucumbers are sprouting as of yesterday, cilantro, basil (this sprouted today) green onions which also are peaking this morning and tomatoes which have yet to peak out but this year will be my learning curve with a bigger garden area and this climate, sometimes we freeze mid summer so I am looking at inexpensive covering for the night time. Last year hubby built a small greenhouse but then I cooked my tomatoes... hoping to have some harvest later this year as I learn. Well my head is killing me so I am off to make some food and get ready to go outside later after a quick clean up in here. Sorry to ramble but so many things to update more to follow:) God bless you all have a wonderful weekend. I plan to update every couple days hopefully.

Taking a Break to Dwell with God

2010-03-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.... I am going to take a blog break for a short while. I may post some of my thoughts from Bible study time but am really feeling God directing me to focus on him right now as I am vulnerable to outside thoughts with some things going on here at home and in my mind/heart. I am going to instead of picking up my computer when I need short sit downs during the day, pick up my bible and dwell with Him who comforts me. Please continue to pray for Little princess as this week she has to have some uncomfortable testing done to ensure her system is functioning properly. (this situation is what has been causing worry and stress for me and instead of giving satan what he wants I am going to beat him with God!) Please pray for strength for my husband and myself as we walk through little one not being well. I will check in every now and then not sure how much of a "fast" from things I need I am going to let God Direct that as he sees fit. Please know that even though you may not see me as much I will return and I am praying for all of you as well!

Its Snowing!

2010-03-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

Ahhh.... Woke up to white ground this morning...I was really enjoying our spring like weather and since it is March was thinking Spring may have arrived however today it is snowing. Do we have a lot, No but still things are white with a skiff of new snow. My instant reaction was to be frustrated that its snowing however I am going to try and really enjoy its beauty and Thank the Lord for the provision of water for summer... Good plan I think yes good plan. I talk to myself if you havent notice either outloud or hear LOL. Today we have the basics on the plate as well as Awana's this evening. Tomorrow is Little Princess' trip to the specialist please continue in prayer that all we shall find was a minor infection that is clearing. Thank you for your prayers! Have a most awesome blessed day whether its snowing, raining or sunny in your neck of the woods:)

Living With confidence in a Chaotic World~ Book Review

2010-03-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, Most of you know that I periodically review books for Book Sneeze if you are interested in getting free books to read and review(you pick the book) then click on the badge at the side right for more info:)

I have had this book for some time now and finally am going to share it even though not a 100% finished but there was a part in it today that God is prompting me to share he wouldnt let me read any further till I stopped and shared,ever had that happen to you?? It doesnt happen often for me but I had that overwhelming feeling to share this with you so here goes.

Pg 109." To encourage is to "pour courage" into someone who needs it. Christians are blessing dispensers and hope ambassadors. Wherever they go, accomplishment and fruitfulness should bloom all around them because of the relationships left in their wake." taken from Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World by Dr David Jeremiah

This book has been such a blessing to me I hope some of you can read it either from your library or to have one of your own so you can highlight and go back to it when you are troubled. The other day as I was reading there were things in it that reminded me to do all I do as to the Lord and For the Lord..what was I doing that day, Folding Laundry! I was feeling frustrated because of the mutlitude of laundry that was not turned right side out(never happens right moms lol) anyway this book reminded me to serve as I would serve the Lord, with that new attitude I began folding as if these were Jesus' clothes...would I grumble if they were his and turned wrong side out?? Certainly not LOL! So today as I read the above quoted section I was really inspired...we are to encourage those we come in contact with daily...who are you going to be in contact with today?? Just your kids you say, well thats perfect they need encouragement as much as anyone let us find something or someway to be of special encouragement to those around us today. This book is perfect for today's atmosphere of fear and trepidation with all the uncertainties of daily living in our culture and world. It has reminded me to take a deep breath when the fears of the world try to creep in. Mind you it is not a cure all for that but it reminds me of God's promises and Love for us and to pick up my bible more and immerse myself in his words. If you have a chance to read this I hope you will take that chance I think you will really enjoy it as it is modern and references some things that have happened most recently that Made it hard to put down. Great book.

Disclosure: I was provided a free copy of this book by Book Sneeze to review. No other considerations were provided.

Its monday again! LOL

2010-03-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well I didnt even realize that it had been a week I thought I had blogged since last week but aparently not! Not a whole lot to blog about been pretty normal schedule around here cleaning, baking, homeschoolin and laundryin and such:) Today I need to tidy the house up and get some things organized. This week will be a bit hectic I have a couple children's ministy meetings at church one on friday is actually just decorating we are painting murals on the walls some of the Ladies and I. Wed have a meeting to work on VBS planning, I am the Special Events coordinator now for childrens ministry. I really hope to be a positive spiritual influence on some of the young ones that dont get as much of it at home or elsewhere... I enjoy working with the kiddos. Once a month I help in the nursery which gives a nice baby fix LOL..since I cant have anymore I really enjoy the hour or so of baby holding:) This weekend we had a lot of fun yesterday we did some logging LOL..well we used our jeep to pull out some of the smaller trees where my garden will go (getting ready to start the plants inside soon cant wait to see how it goes this year) that way we got the roots too then I played a bit and so did hubby in the back yard in the jeep did a lil muddin! What a blast. We drove around where my horse round pen will go..thats one way to till the soil LOL... the kids had a blast riding along we were mostly just spinnin circles but they had fun with the mud flyin everywhere. We so love having our little chunk of heaven right here!
I do have one prayer request... little princess is having some bladder difficulties that we have to see a specialist for this week please be in prayer that her little body can heal itself and that no further intervention will be necessary. I was born with only one functioning kidney so we are praying that this isnt the case for her and that it was just an infection that willl clear itself shortly. Deeply appreciate all my praying friends Hugs to you all and God Bless you all lets make it an awesome week for God's Glory!

Monday....

2010-02-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

Well hello blog world..other than being a bit on the sleepy side with a minor headache I feel great today... We already got a good bit of our chores done both kids rooms are clean and vacuumed now I just have Laundry too do and the kitchen to clean. I weighed myself this morning and I am down another 2 pounds! woohoo I have lost 2.5 inches off my waistline already! I am pretty excited about this. This is the lightest I have been in at least a year and a half! More to go but getting there little by little! By the end of this year I hope to be at my goal if not sooner:) Well I am off I really am trying to limit my computer time so my posts may be short for a while... I have a bunch to do to get back on our schedules without extra things to do in between. It will be time to start gardening before I know it and I want to have everything on schedule before then:) See ya all later...

Status Shuffle on Facebook | Shuffle

2010-02-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Status Shuffle on Facebook | Shuffle: "Sometimes you have to let God turn your life upside down so you can learn to live right-side up"

New Home Tour.... Enjoy

2010-02-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wednesday Well ok... lol

2010-02-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Its the middle of the week, as you read from yesterday its kindof only my tuesday..lol ok I have to quite that or I will feel like saturday is friday:0
So today I am going to finish what I didnt get to yesterday... I did get the floors scrubbed in the Kitchen and polish put on them...the linoleum is so old that I have to shine it or it doesnt look good so I polished them and they look really nice:) yeah! No baking got done yesterday my arms were too sore after scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees so I will just do the bread today, a big Roast is going in the crock pot this morning...have I mentioned I love my bigger crock pot! lol...
Then kitchen work and folding clothes...
I have more deep things in my head but no time to put them up here right now...stay tuned though I will be sharing some cool things and thoughts...well at least I think there cool...hope you do too I am still working on my schedule tweeking and changing and trying to get to where it works where I can stay on it weekly and not take a day to catch up...so probably the beginning of the week I will put up a printed version of my new schedule or at least by mid week next week. I am going to be taking pics for the home tour this afternoon or first thing in the am so should have that posted today or tomorrow morning... Probably tonight my hold the post for am we shall see... Ok I have a ton to do so hope you all have a very blessed day and I will "see" ya later:)

Watchout messes here I come!

2010-02-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

LOL...Today I have lots of cleaning to do and Kitchen work. We had a wonderful weekend well I know its Tuesday but our weekend was Sunday Monday as Hubby had those 2 days off! He normally only gets one day at a time Sundays and a day during the week so its a real treat to have him home for 2 days:) Sunday the kids and I went to church then when we got home we did clean up some played on the quads and then we made a wonderful dinner Steak, Shrimp, Salad and Homefries, then hubby and I listened to old music on the radio and snuggled it was really a great Valentines Day! No cost and we just really enjoyed eachother and were right here with the kiddos:) Monday we made a big breakfast and then we were off for shopping....I say shopping but we really did not buy anything. We were price shopping and comparing products the house we bought, the previous owners apparently had some pets that didnt use a litter box at all or very well.... Hubby is having allergy issues from all the pet Dander and I think that little prince is as well. Dander and pet deposits... So we are trying to find the most economical, frugal way to remedy this as we really dont have the funds to just replace it all but that is what needs to be done for health and smell. So we looked at laminate flooring, carpet, and other things but I think we are going to go with Laminate eventually we may just do the worst rooms right now and then more later but I think we agreed we are going to put it in all the rooms except our bedroom (the kids both want the Laminate flooring not carpet Lol) this way I can vacuum the edging and then use a drymop system we used to have this in one of our houses and hubby hardly had any trouble with the pet allergies even though we have inside cats. well we have cats now at the time we only had 1 inside now we have little princess' newest addition so we have 2 cats in the house. And with the dust from the wood stove it will be much easier to get it really clean. and much easier to move things around to clean behind them. Well anyway we did not purchase anything yesterday I told hubby now is the time that we pray for some option like a contractor having just enough at just the right price or something some option that is not the cost of the new stuff from the store. We found some great pricing but hubby and I are really trying not to touch the savings right now. This is not an emergency you know..is this a necessity..I am not sure sort of kindof if you as me as the little prince and wonderful hubby would feel so much better without this carpet that is urine soaked under it and pet fur ridden so yes it does Need to be replaced but we will continue praying as to what our right option is and what we are to spend on it. We will know when we are Okay with the cost and option right now we both freaked at the thought of the cost even though it was way cheeper to do what we found then to put new carpet in but still we had that bad gut feeling so we will pray and wait until we feel its right. When hubby is ok with whatever we find and says he's buying that thats when I know its the right thing:) So for now I will vacuum vacuum vacuum and open windows on nice days:) We thought about just yanking the carpet and painting the subfloor for now which we may do in the little prince's room as his seems to have the worst pet deposits that no matter what I use dont get better last week I spent hours with vinegar and rubbing alcohol and shampooing with vinegar in the machine but still odors... I tried my borax on it an vacuum no luck I tried borax with the machine washing it behind it but nope still there so we will just have to see. I have researched this a bunch and things like pulling the carpet and replacing the pad are not really an option cause there is just too much it would be a waste there are too many spots the carpet just wont come clean so the padding would eventually stink from the carpet so it would be a waste of money. Hubby's thought is he knows money is tight but it doesnt make sense to bandaid it if the bandaid cant be used when we finish the job ya know. no throwing money away just on a for now fix... He hates to do things twice so he wants to find an economical way to do it right the first time ya know:) ok gotta get going on the big cleaning day and make bread today:) have a beautiful Monday/Tuesday LOL...

Simple Saturday

2010-02-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well We did get a kitten on Wed! she is absolutely adorable she is actually more of a cat than kitten as she is 9months old but little princess just loves her and they have had so much fun playing together:) Little Princess' birthday was yesterday so we had a few friends over and it was nice to chat while the kids played then we had a cake I made and it was yummy but my tummy was so upset I couldnt indulge too much but did have a taste:) I am excited with my weight loss as the time I am really down! Partly due to the upset tummy I have experienced lately and I dont know if I did something to my back or if my kidney is giving my trouble(I only have one) so I am eating carefully and pushing the fluids to help my system heal and try and avoid going to the doctor. But if it doesnt get better I will go if I need to. Today we have just taken it easy I painted a few of the doors and trim that needed a new coat of paint now I just have 3 more doors to do:) Yay! I am also contemplating my new schedule that I am slowly developing here at the new house and going to make a few changes and put it in print in my Home Management Binder :) Then it is just discipline to use it daily and stick with it:) Well I am off to make some dinner and get ready for hubby to get home:) He will be off Sunday and Monday it will be so nice to have daddy home for 2 days in a row generally he has split days off so its a nice treat:) Tomorrow we are going to enjoy a nice home date making a nice dinner for all of us with Steak and Shrimp...its a real treat we have steak every now and then but with the shrimp is special occasions. I will probably make up a salad and then I may make a cheesecake for dessert but I am not sure yet as the Cream cheese seems to upset my stomach so maybe I will make some other dessert...we shall see but I may not blog again until Tuesday when Hubby is home I dont get on Computer very much. Take care all and "see" ya soon!

Wednesday

2010-02-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havent updated since my parents visit. I had a migrane all of Sunday to the point my wonderful hubby drove me to Church where I was prayed for by my friends and felt a bit better with just a lingering headache. Monday I had a small headache they are like residual headaches after a bad migrane. I almost didnt go to Church as I was feeling light sensitive had blurry vision and felt sick to my tummy however I was picking up a teen girl to take that morning and I had some things at the church I needed to do so I went ahead with hubbys help.
Monday we just did homeschool and laundry around here and played outside for a while the weather was warm so the the snow and Ice have been melting more and more each day I am hoping that it all melts off before we get anymore (if we get more) I am kindof hoping we dont but know we need it probably for summer water. Yesterday I reshampoo'd my son's room carpet and part of the living room. Something we have struggled with is previous cat urine in the carpeting. Having a cat ourselves (old male cat no less) we struggle with him finding the old urine that was not his and depositing more what is funny though is he wont go just on the carpet something has to be there for him to go on top of something I can wash, its like he thinks he wont get in trouble if I can wash it LOL...so not true if he keeps it up out he will go! even with the 12 years we have had him hubby says he will be out if he keeps doing it. So yesterday I shampoo'd them with no shampoo- just water and lots of vinegar...yes vinegar so far it is working well I will post later as to weather it fixed the problem all the way. I pre-treated the spots that smelled the worst with straight vinegar and then used vinegar in the shampoo receptical of my machine, and some vinegar in the water too...lots of vinegar I know. I opened the windows while I shampoo'd and stoked the fire up nice and hot with the ceiling fan going didnt take long for the vinegar to disipate quite well from the house while we went outside and played :) well I am off today is shopping day as it is payday and we are going to look at kittens today( I know another cat) however little princess' kitten died in Sept and she has been so sad ever since...you would think that she would forget and go on after so many months but at some point every week she gets teary and says "i miss ruby momma" and so for her birthday this is her one request...a new kitten so hopefully the new kitten will not deposit lots of new smells in the house LOL... ok gotta run and make my shopping list/menu for the next 2 weeks then get showered dressed and get some schoolwork done and off we go. Have a blessed day!

Friday Friday

2010-02-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yeah its Friday that means my parents will be here tomorrow to visit :) I have so much to do not much time today I have a meeting at church (I am on the administration team) do any of you suffer from Yesitis?? I do but its ok I love helping with Church things just seems sometimes everything happens at the same time... lol.. I have been sick all week with another cold seems that I cant get well and stay well but I am feeling better today sort of. I think that when I feel a little better I just jump back into my routine too soon so I never get all the way well maybe..just my theory hubby says I have been sick way to much lately so hopefully I can get all the way better soon:) Then its home to tackle todays to do list which is(things may spill into tomorrow but here is what I need to get done by tomorrow afternoon):
Clean Kitchen
Homeschool
Fold all clothes put away..Its almost all clean but didnt get folded Hate it when I fall behind on that but at least its all clean:)
Make bread
Work on finishing organizing all homeschool Area
Unpacking the few remaining boxes in Living room
Hang Pictures in Living room
Clean both Bathrooms
Vacuum
Put away things in my room and bathroom (things migrate dont they) I am sure of this LOL
Tidy Kids rooms tomorrow morning so they are ready for grandma and papa's visit:)
Plan meal for tomorrow night
Well that is most of the things and now I am off see ya all probably Monday and I will update you all on things more:) Take care! God Bless!

HOMESTEAD BLESSINGS DVD SUPER GIVEAWAY!

2010-02-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Found this Giveaway that will occur this Saturday! I have been wanting these video's and let me tell you what a blessing just one of them would be:) There are six ways to enter and you can enter all 6 ways! woohoo! I dont know about you but I am on it! :)

this and that:)

2010-02-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

Hi all not much to post right now I am not feeling all that great have a touch of a cold and I think my monthly hormones are flairing up a bit LOL... so today we are unpacking some more and I am going to try and get the homeschool area all organized. We just did a 5th grade math assesment with my son online to see where we were at for what he understands and what we need to work more on and I have to say I am quite pleased for the middle of the 5th grade year he really has a good handle on things and the things we need to work on seem like the harder end of year things. I dont place a lot of weight on these but Oregon does require testing 3rd, 5th, 8th and 10th grade end of these years so I like to make sure we are on our way so to speak:) They test in Math and Language arts...so we will be working on that next. Right now for homeschool we have been a bit lax with the move relying on worksheets and online sites to get us through till we get back on our schedule plus since the curriculum we started with didnt work out then we have kind of found what works for that particular thing that needs to be learned. I am learning too that with homeshool one of the blessings is there is no exact right way or wrong way as long as we are moving forward.. I love homeschooling! No one ever thought I would be a homeschool stay at home mom and I absolutely Love that! God is so great and can change your life so tremendously if we will but let HIM! well I am off take are all and keep growing!

Wonderful Wood Stove:)

2010-01-29T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday wonderful hubby took us to the ranch and home store and bought the family a new wood stove! Yay! the previous owners of the home decided I guess that they would take that item with them! LOL... anyway now we have an alternate heat source which I am really greatful for. We have cold hard winters around here and if the power went out we would get a bit cold so now I dont have to worry. It was something we had set aside some money for when we bought the house so now we just have to cut wood which is such good exercise and there are several really dead trees on the property that need to be thinned:) God is great! Well today is a busy day we will be off painting at our church today a mural on one of the Children's room walls and then the shoer is coming to trim my horse's feet then we will get homeschool finished and prep dinner while unpacking some more. My parents have said they will be in town next weekend so I want to try and get all organized by then or at least mostly. For the most part we are pretty close but ther living room and my room need finished. The kids rooms and kitchen are done bathrooms are done but with my shoulder pain I havent gotten as much done as I planned this week with keeping up with the normal run of the day housekeeping:) Well I gotta run ya'll stay warm in the areas getting lots of snow and have fun with it while it lasts for you. here it doesnt really melt till May or so sometimes we get a brief melt of before more comes just depends on the weather systems the Good Lord has for us:) Take care!

Hello Blog World! I am Back!

2010-01-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone it has been a crazy week of moving and unpacking! Then add in the fact that I can really only use one arm for the last few days! Why's that you ask?? Well ok...a little secret from me to you... I am the least coordinated person you are gonna meet unless I am on the back of a horse then I am steady and balanced, wierd huh! Anyway Saturday was moving day as you know, well I was carrying our kitty food and cat bed our to a truck, slipped on the ice and landed full force onto my right shoulder on my friends truck fender! Then as if once were not enough (hubby says I must have needed to perfect the art of falling and injuring myself) Monday as I was unpacking (since my shoulder was feeling ok and lets face it I had things to do so I sucked it up and moved on) well Monday as I unpacked I tripped over a box while carrying something went down again and caught myself on the floor by only my right hand! Can you believe it! my shoulder took the full body weight force of both falls so now I have a sling to wear when it really hurts and pain meds to help me get some rest as I could not get comfortable enough to really rest that I so needed! Thankfully I had friends that have come and helped me unpack and I have been able to putter with the kitchen and laundry areas as well as some other light things. My wonderful hubby has been helping with the heavy things as has my Little prince! Yesterday my small group leaders(who are some of my dearest friends as well) came and helped me completely set up and unpack both the kids rooms! I feel so very blessed! I will be thinking up some frugal posts and getting the home tour posted after we unpack the frugal posts will come over the next few months as we are going to pinch every penny and save save save! We have to save up for our property taxes and ins which the taxes are quite high in this county plus there is some regular income that will cease in March that I have to remove from the budget however these will be the testimonial times that I look forward to sharing how God truly does provide! Well I am off my shoulder gets irritated with too much typing just the muscles getting used you dont realize how much your shoulder is involved in everything you do until it hurts to do them lol! God bless and "see Ya" soon!

Tomorrow is the Big Day

2010-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the official moving day, am I ready Not 100% but closer my neighboring teenager that call me momma Tiff helped me pack 60 boxes yesterday!~ Praise the Lord for friends! and kids.... I call her my teenager :) Today I will be taking a load over of food and things and unpacking some then bringing those boxes back to repack and finish up the preparations for tomorrow everyone will be here at 9am so will be busy busy. I wont have internet at the new house until the 20th so when I am over here at the old house cleaning I may have time to check in and update ya'll but if not I will return as soon as they turn on the internet line at the new house. We are not going to have tv installed at the new house and I am looking forward to re-instating game nights and movie nights and overall just spending more time talking as a family and less time zoning in front of the ol tube. Well I am off Prayers for saftey of all the movers helping would be appreciated and overall sanity on my part:) Take care God Bless

Wednesday...almost moving day...aahhh

2010-01-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

Well we are halfway through the week and moving Day is almost here! I am so not 100% ready with all the painting at the new house it has been busy yesterday was errand day and bill day (those still have to get done dont they LOL) and today I am going ot paint at the new house and try to get that almost 100% done but we shall see there is still a lot of painting to be done but if I end up having to do some next week before I unpack that will be fine just easier to do before the big move in of stuff.
I am really excited I have two paid sewing jobs lined up for as soon as I unpack the sewing room which will be a side heated room out in the shop! God is Awesome! I was praying I could bring in some extra just to help a bit offset what we need and He is Providing!
Homeschool in the chaos has been going pretty good! I have a workbook that has tons of subjects in it it is from BrainQuest and I have just pulled about 10 out each day for him to work on while I paint or what have ya And he has been doing wonderfully with the lack of real structure this week. Little princess is not feeling well again so a bit whiny there and clingy but thats ok we will get through it. I am really looking forward to 2 weeks from now when the everything is moved and that is my goal date for getting all unpacked and settled...(praying I can keep this) As I am really looking forward to implementing our homeschool scheduling and get back on track but for now we are managing to get some learnign done daily so that is great!

A big decision has been made we are foregoing the tv cable connection at the new house! Praise God I have been wanting this for a while but we were not both ready if you know what i mean and now we are on the same page:) one more thing I didnt nag about! Praise the Lord for helping me be a better Help meet! Ok I have so much to do I have to run I will Post more right before the move but then I may not have internet for a couple days so I hope to be up and running really soon after that:) God Bless!

new layout

2010-01-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Yes I made a new layout that is springy! i needed some sunshine to look at so here it is I can dream about spring:) Enjoy!

Clean, clean clean..Yay!

2010-01-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

Am I excited that my arms are going to fall off (This I am sure of!) NO but am I excited as to why they are going to fall off...YES!
The New House is almost all clean YAY! Today I have to finish scrubbing the kitchen with a brush and soft scrub (yes it is THAT DIRTY!!) and then I will put a polish on it, the laundry room still needs clean and then to finish the kids Bathroom and wipe down the walls. We are going to paint some of them as after hubby got in there more and I cleaned the carpets (they are officially a mauve color not Tan) Which is what he thought they were so having mauve carpet and mustard yellow living room walls is not his cup of tea so he would like to paint! Yay! Thank you God for doing that without me saying another word! I love to see how God Works when I step back and Honor my husband by following what he says amazingly without me pushing or asking I still get the things my heart desires! Yay! I finished the master tub and surround yesterday and started the kitchen floors today I just have to finish the center of the floor I went around with an old toothbrush and scrubbed out the dog and what have ya dirt from the edging of the kitchen walls an boy am I glad I did that~! Well I am off to pack a couple boxes while the kids are still sleeping amazing they are sleeping I shall take advantage of that! Talk to ya soon! Take care God Bless

Wahooo!

2010-01-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

I didnt realize I hadnt updated my blog sorry everyone things have been rolling fast around here and I have been so exhausted daily:) We signed on the house yesterday and Wed I finished shampooing the carpets then yesterday scrubbed away inside. The house is very dirty so we are cleaning and there will be some painting in the kids rooms done before moving as well as a wall in the kitchen. Wonderful hubby alotted me some extra cash just for paint and said there you go if we can do it for this amount I am ok with it! Yay! I thought we were definitley going to have to wait but he squeezed me some Yippee! (for those wondering no he doesnt do the monthly budget and bill paying we do that together or go over figures after I work on it but on extra things I go to him and ask if we can do something then I have been letting him have the final word and man has it been a blessing to me and to us)
I used to push for MY way or this or that but I am working hard to submit to his will and the amazing thing is when you truly do this the freedom that it really brings! I am not saying that I let him walk on me Ladies for the critics out there but It is really a God thing and it is amazing when my old ways creep in the way things will noticably change in the way things are done around here but when I follow God's plan for the wife how much happier we all are! Anyway that is a blog to plan out and write up another day as I feel very strong about that but cant put it all into words right now:) anyway, he left the money on the counter this morning and said to me as he kissed me goodbye "i left some money on the counter for you" and I could tell he loved being able to say that to me versus when I controlled everything now I just trust that we are ok and it will all be ok. I loved hearing it as i really didnt want to move everything out of the rooms later to paint or paint around things and the kids rooms well one of them is very different from my color palette the other is doable but the one leaves me wondering:) Anyway I am off for the day ladies I have to find the best deal I can on paint and continue scrubbing on the house today we started moving outdoor things yesterday and will move some more this Sunday I am taking little things but until the cleaning is done havent wanted to take much yet then Next weekend the 15th and 16th is the official move it all weekend, all the house, the dogs, the horse and everything and start officially Living there! Yay! Praise God he has come through so strong in this situation. Thank you all for your prayers during the uncertainty. Take care and have a blessed day!

House Update

2010-01-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

I think all is going to work out on the house which I am just so relieved and thankful to God for. We will know for sure today or tomorrow I will keep you posted.
Today looks like it is an unplanned errand day as Hubby accidentally left the movies on the counter they go back to the town 30 miles from here so I need to take them they are due back today and to stay in my budget we need to not have late fees.lol... I also need a couple groceries that are less expensive there so I will grab them while there and go to the bank. I was going to do those on Thurs when little princess has ballet but Being flexible seems to be the name of my game the last week here. With the house thing up in the air my plans have had to change a couple times at the last min. I dont roll with it all that well usually but I am working hard on that. I have prayed hard for some extra energy as without any sunlight lately I am feeling very lethargic... We havent had a sunny day in a while had an hour this weekend but that was it. Usually this area gets sun alot more in the winter and it really helps with the winter blahs but this year is much more dark it seems. Ok I am off to finish the checkbook/budget then get ready to go. Take care all God bless...

Monday Update

2010-01-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

I lost 5 Lbs!!! Yay I am so excited. I actually took the weekend off from exercise as I was so sore from last week but I watched what I ate over the weekend a little or should I say just wasnt able to eat much since I didnt feel very good. Today I have a lot to do around here to get back into our routine. We are all working out right now on the Wii I already finished and the kids are doing it as I type to get some exercise for them. I love that they are bycicling without being outside in the freezing temps and ice..loads of fun! Anyway then it is Barbershop morning for little prince his hair is a bit overgrown lol... showers and cleanup house, homeschooling then trying to come up with a low cal dinner for tonight:) I was feeling really down due to the uncertainty of the house situation right now and Last night was our monthly evening worship service at church we call this our Elevate service. After some prayer time with one of my friends then just sitting in the presence of the Lord really helped me last night and I am feeling much better today. Well I gotta run...take care see ya later

2010-01-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

I had big plans for today but my tummy is really upset for some reason so I ended up just hanging out doing nothing. I did get my room cleaned up not 100% finished but much better. I will keep working on that room. Now I am off to make dinner and then just hang out with the family for the night. Have a great Saturday and Enjoy the Lords Day tomorrow. I am looking forward to church tomorrow since I was unable to go last Sunday with the creepin crud that we had. Take Care and God Bless

Happy Saturday!

2010-01-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you had a most wonderful New year! I sat down yesterday and wrote out a fairly long post before we went out sledding as I was about to publish it I hit something and the whole thing disappeared! I was so upset but I didnt have anymore time to retype it as I had to capture memories of Snow Sledding behind the four wheeler that could double for water skiing! It was load of fun got very soaked and came in to hot cocoa and more movies :) was a wonderful day with my awesome family. Today I am going to Clean the house up and re-organize my bedroom it has apparently been attacked by the "it doesnt go in this room put it in Mom and Dad's room" Virus! LOL... I hope you all had a wonderful New year and I am looking forward to 2010 Its gonna be a great Year! Later today I am going to sit down and work out the homeschool plans for next week and my home management binder. We are going to get better about our planned out chores that are in my notebook actually getting done each day so I am going to schedule the cleaning Team into the notebook a bit better then the trick is to ACTUALLY put it to use LOL..I am bad there Great with the planning bad with the follow through! Going to get better with that this New Year! Happy Day all and God Bless!

Whatever Will Be Will be

2009-12-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

Well I am home, did i finish the carpets no..... apparently there was some wording in our contract that went unnoticed that could cause a big problem so I sit here at home waiting impatiently for a call from the realtor to tell me whether we are going to move forward or not... Please pray with me that what ever God's will is will be done here and that My heart will be at ease with this.. I know the Lord will work this out one way or another I just cant believe I missed the wording of this particular item...I usually read everything so carefully however luckily we discover it now and not next week when we sign everything. Ok I am off to nurse a severe headache I will update you all later

Time to Clean, Time to dance

2009-12-30T07:21:00.000-08:00

LOL...just thought since today I will be cleaning cleaning cleaning but all at the new house I would Dance for Joy!
We dont get to move till next week but I do get to go do some scrubbing and shampoo the carpets today so I get to spend all day over there and imagine where I will put everything and have a good time...
I am packing the computer for dvd's for the kids and lots of coloring and legos so that when they are done helping me scrub things they will have something to do while I shampoo the carpets:)
I consider what hubby brought home yesterday part of my Christmas...a new carpet shampooer..we loaned our old one out and it came back broken isnt that so nice. I couldnt believe it as when I borrow something If i break it I replace it but alas not everyone thinks like me (but the should) LOL...just kidding!
Anyway I am off to work out a little on the wii and then shower and get ready to go! See ya all real soon

The New House

2009-12-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome Come on in!

Here is the Living room~

My new Laundry Room

Welcome to the kitchen!

Hope you enjoyed the Glimpse of the new house, I will be posting more pics after we get moved in Some of the colors will change some we will keep for later, the kids will get new paint in their rooms and the really green wall in the kitchen is going to get toned down other than that we will save up and do later:)

Still Recovering

2009-12-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Hi all! We are still recovering from the creepy crud around here Little Princess is pretty sick still I am starting to feel a little better. Luckily hubby and little prince have not come down with it, Praise the Lord. Today we are going to rest and regroup. Maybe pack some things up a little but for the most part just rest and try to get back to 100% Wednesday we go to the new house to shampoo the carpets and scrub the cabinetry down (it is a bit gross right now) and then we are officially closing on the 5th so painting the kids rooms that afternoon and starting the moving the next day after that I think the official full move will occur that Weekend the 10th as that is my hubbys next day off for the week then finish cleanup over at this house and things that didnt get moved that day. We will need to be out of here by the 1st of Feb or before so it will be busy busy this month.

I am excited for so many reasons! One being the big move to the new house of course and another is we got the Wii for Christmas and the Wii fit system as I mentioned earlier but now that I have had 2 days on it I am so excited. It is just what the Physical therapists ordered for my back the balance board measures your center of balance and makes you really focus on your core muscles which are the weakest for me since my back surgery when they went in my stomach and my back so this is so cool. I am sore already and I have just been having fun! Winters are icy for months on end here so outside activities are hard for me because if I slip on the ice we have huge problems so working out outside is not much of an option here at the house. This will be great! I am joining in with Candy's on her weightloss goal however I have about 70 lbs to lose...a tad more than she has but it will be fun as a lot of the ladies on board have a similar amount to lose! We can do it ladies! Looking forward to a whole new year, a whole new house, a new way of doing things ( i am looking to be more back to basics, homesteading type, make do or do without type) and A much lighter me by the end of all of it...
Pics to come of the new homestead I promise,
God Bless have a wonderful day!

I am so Blessed

2009-12-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! I did! The kids had such fun! We had a very basic dinner just the kids and hubby and me last night. I prepared a ham, sweet potatoes in brown sugar and apple juice, and baked beans. Simple, sweet and so much fun to just enjoy the family. I would have loved to spend the day with my parents or his or both however luckily we did not as I was given the gift of a Christmas Cold as was little princess. So we are laying low today and just trying to get well. I am feeling pretty cruddy right now and my asthma is really taking this chance to jump into the mix since I already cant breathe through my nose lol... oh well chance to legitimately rest for me and not be needing to do other things since hubby ordered me to take it easy:) awe i love him!

I am so excited to move to the new house I cant hardly stand it. We will close on the 5th. This wednesday I am shampooing the carpets over there and scrubbing the cabinets and such. Pray I will feeling much better by then! I will work on the photos soon...

Today I rest and right now I am going to take a mommy nap while the kids play the new wii we got~ That thing is so much fun and it is really good exercise! We purchased this as the family gift and the wii fit plus system I worked a bit on it till I got to winded this morning and i can tell we are going to love having htat. Our winters are long and hard here and we cant be outside much for exercise just for fun stuff like sledding (which can be exercise depending on the hill lol) but anyway the kids are enjoying that and my arms already are sore! We all had a family game night of bowling with it last night and hubby and i were surprised how our muscles are out of shape lol.. hubby cant really bowl in real life with his bad knee (very long story) but he had a great time with the video bowling. so many good things and blessings have come our way lately I feel like such a lucky girl I dont know what to do with myself LOL...
Praise the Lord!
have a great day!

The Eve of Christmas Eve :)

2009-12-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

So today is the day before the Christmas event really begins...:) The kids are so excited that tomorrow is Christmas eve, they get to open 1 present each which last year I made the tradition that this present is a new pair of pj's to snuggle into for Christmas eve slumber:) Last year I made the pjs this year we found some clearance deals that I could not pass up. This year we are so blessed! We have tons of presents...I am not even sure how that happened! Family members sent many of them and I am in awe! many of the ones we got for the kids when hubby and I went shopping are clothing items this is going to be a new tradition as well. We found some great sales and some clearance things on summer clothing like some shirts for $1 each! and shorts for $1.50 so we got those and wrapped them. Along with many things they can wear now. There are a few toys under there but we discussed this with the family as well we are very blessed to have an abundance of toys in our home. So really we felt that they did not need anymore. Just a couple small ones cause lets face it...I am soft and had to get them a couple LOL! We did get the family a Wii this year and the wii fit system for it. We have hard cold winters here and the kids love our friends wii, I have watched them play and it is way more activity than some other things we do in the winter. I purchased a couple christian music cd's for little prince as he loves to listen to it in his room on the boom box Grandma gave him last year for Christmas. I know of several homeschool related presents that are under the tree from family members and I am so excited to open those! Is it bad I am as anxious to open them up as the kids as I want to USE them right now LOL... My grandma got my son a globe:) One of my wishlist items for school! without me asking:) My mom got the Oregon Trail new version Computer game and my son just loves to play that! It is so much cooler than the MS Dos version I played in school on the big ol floppy discs lol... He has been playing the MS Dos version online he laughs when I tell him that is how all video games looked when I was a kid...its like I was a caveman or something I can see it in his eyes LOL...
I got a new coat for hubby in his favorite color...can you guess....CAMO
the kids were able to purchase gifts at the Awana store night and they got some things for us and they were so happy to be able to do that. Little Princess even thought on her own accord to purchase a little coloring gift for her best friend...it was so cute! Thank you God for My wonderful thoughtful children. There is so much more down there I cant even list it all! God truly does provide I am seeing it more and More everyday!

The biggest Christmas Present Ever~~~ We are Moving! I keep thinking this cant be real something is going to happen to stop this just when I get excited but it hasnt yet and We have opened escrow, they pumped the septic and I am going over to shampoo the carpets next week so they will be clean and dry when we start moving on the 5th of January!!! Praise the Lord! We will have our own little 5 acre chunk of heaven on earth! I am so excited ..... Things will be a bit tight financially we wondered if we should do this but we know it will work so be looking for frugal tips and tricks to come from me shortly after we get settled as I will be looking to save save save even more than I do right now:) This particular house wasnt even on our radar for possibility so we really feel we were Led to check this opportunity out as we wouldnt have thought of it. We were merely taking the kids down the road I lived on before meeting their Daddy and There it was...God is so Great!

I cant get the pics attacher to even open arrggg....i have some and will get those posted but cant spend any more time trying to figure this silly thing out right now got lots to do today to prep for christmas:) Have a Blessed Day "see you all soon"

I WON SOMETHING!

2009-12-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

I never Win anything but yesterday afternoon while driving around with hubby we were listening to the country channel (I usually listen to KLOVE but when hubby is with us he prefer's country most of the time) anyway he was running into a store and I sat there listening, I heard an anouncment for caller 9 to identify a santa clause saying from a movie...It was Tim Allen in the Santa Clause movie so I tried to call in (it Rang! that is unusual...then it said I was caller 4 please try again...) so I called back it Rang again! Amazing then she said "hello your caller 9"!! Wow REally! I told her the movie and I get to go into a cash box you know the one where the money is flying around you with a fan and you grab as much as you can! I am so excited so tomorrow Morning the kids and I are traveling to a town a little over an hour away to participate and then go visit family that lives in that town since we will be there anyway! I cant believe I actually got through to the radio Twice even and that I was Caller 9! Praise God the extra cash will be more than welcome! I will let you know how it goes! I guess there will be 5 seperate contestants and there will be 3000 to start with in 100's 50's 20's and lower bills too so Pray for big ones for me! Yay! I am so excited can you tell! other than my headache I am ecstatic!

My head is absolutely pounding, for the Second Day in a row. Not sure what the cause is but praying it subsides soon. Today I am going to try and get the house in order a bit. I have not felt all that well for probably the last few weeks so I have had a clean house on some days and not on others when I felt really crummy... I dont want to have a messy house so I am going to fix it!
Tonight is my hubby's Christmas Dinner for work and they are having it at a local pizza parlor with a huge kid playarea and the kids are allowed to come I think that is great I will miss the fancy "free" dinner with hubby all to myself but a "free" family meal is much appreciated~!

TUESDAY

2009-12-15T08:19:00.000-08:00

10 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!

Woohoo...I love Christmas, I am not quite all ready for it but I do love it. Today as I look outside the snow is coming down hard and hopefully by this afternoon we will have quite enough to sled behind the four-wheelers which is a winter time fun thing for us to do:)... Still no definite news on the house thing we are negotiating and checking into some options (one of which the person to check with wont be in till tomorrow~!) The waiting kills me I struggle with Patience lol... however I feel God has been using this to grow me some as I have had some internal struggles with the decisions to be made and I have turned to prayer and just trusting my husband's final decisions which generally I dont have any problem with at all but this time I was feeling a little stress and unsureness so yesterday I made a decision that whatever he decides is going to be ok(sometimes it takes a concious effort and realizing the doubt was not from God) and we will work it out I trust his leadership always and we are always fine (if we arent fine then maybe God will be using it to grow my wonderful Hubby so I just cant worry about it) I saw the enemy trying to creep in through Doubt and I say NO Be Gone with you! So that is where we are... I am growing and learning and we are still in the negotiating process so I will update you when I know more... Thats all I have for today Have a blessed Tuesday!

Sweet Saturday

2009-12-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well we got a bit of snow last night however we are supposed to get more soon. I decorated more of the house yesterday:) The kids really like what we put up. I think today hubby and I are going to have our neighbor watch the kiddos and head off to do some shopping. Yeah lunch and shopping and I will have that wonderful man all to myself LOL.. doesnt happen often so I really enjoy it:) We will call it Date Day instead of Date night even if it is for Christmas Shopping! I love it! anyway I am still having some breathing issues and having to use inhalers so please continue to pray that this will all resolve soon and I will be left able to breath without the inhalers help.
Update on the house news, we are really excited it looks like it may all work out! Praise God! But alas we will not know for sure until sometime this coming week so pray for my patience as I am really excited to know "For Sure" if you know what I mean. Well I am off to do the shopping budget and get ready to go:) Have a blessed Saturday everyone:) Enjoy your family and Praise God for each moment:)

Feelin a bit better:)

2009-12-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well I am feeling a bit on the better side. I do actually think I have had a bit of a bug causing this as with Antibiotics and inhalers I am feeling more able to breath and there is some stuff breaking up in my airway, chest area and coughing a bit more. So I am glad I went in I may have had the walking pnemonia afterall.
So while it is -15 degrees currently outside I am staying in and warm. We do have Awana Tonight so I will venture out very bundled up to go to that with the kids. Later today I may run into town and chat with the gentleman we bought our tree from as we have only had it for 3 days and the needles are falling something fierce and I havent even put on lights yet! So we may venture into the woods to cut our own this weekend as it is supposed to warm enought to be finally snowing again! Funny it has to warm up to Snow LOL!
We still havent heard back on our house situation we did here they were considering our offer and would get back to us soon...the anticipation is killing me LOL!
I do have to make 2 dozen cookies for our Homeschool Caroling/Christmas party tomorrow along with Frosting then tomorrow after that happens we have Julie's Ballet class...going to be a busy day tomorrow and a warm baking day for me today. The house should smell yummy! I will probably make another loaf of bread today in my big aluminum tin pans. I found 5lb loaf pans at a restaraunt supply store here locally and I love them they were only a couple bucks so I thought I would try them before ordering real ones that werent foil. I havent perfected the perfect amount of dough to put in them yet to make just the right height bread yet. It is comical to see last week was to short but still usable this week it was HUGE! hubby said "Wow! Have some bread!" LOL... So we will use 3/4 of what i used next time and make a bread round out of the remaining dough for maybe a dip or chili bowl:) Talk to you all soon...

2009-12-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

So today I did finally go to the doctor. She happens to be a friend of mine from church she is a local Nurse Practitioner actually and we just love her. Having someone who listens is so nice. Well she took a listen to my lungs and without an xray cant tell me if it is pnemonia or not but I am wheezing a bit. She said it could be pnemonia or bronchitis or just my asthma flairing up. We opted no xrays due to the cost right now. I am not super sick I was just feeling like I couldnt get a good breathe in so she gave me some new inhalers as mine were expired. Havent had problems with my asthma in years but with the super cold temps and what have ya that may have triggered it. It has only been 10 degrees all day here at the warmest. brrr!!! anyway she also gave me some steroid packet which I am not big on but she also said it will help with the increase in my back pain I have had recently as it will help with any inflamation I have there. I have been trying to stay away from meds but when I couldnt breathe today I was willing to try. Not breathing or take someting...hmmm let me think... I'll try this. Anyway, I do have a bit of a cold that I cant seem to kick..which could actually be a bit of bronchitis or the walking pnemonia type thing. Anyway hoping to be back up to full speed ahead here shortly. Hubby took us to the tree lot yesterday, Normally we go in the woods and spend the day when we get our tree however since I can't walk from here to the bathroom without feeling tight in my chest we opted for a simpler ooption this year... Anyway I am just laying low today and tonight., We covered the basics in homeschool today and that was good. Tomorrow I hope to feel good enough to do some crafts I have for the kids. Well I am off to clean up the kitchen and make some dinner. God Bless and please if you wouldnt mind keeping me in your prayers as I hope this goes completely away by the weekend. Talk to you soon and Thanks a bunch,

Thank you

2009-12-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

thank you ladies for praying with me yesterday I did not end up having to go to the doctor they said on the phone if I dont feel better or it gets worse to go to the ER but thank the Lord that has not been the case. We are thinking it is the cold I have that is causing this as the day wore on yesterday I felt worse sickness wise and could really feel the illness coming through and think the symptoms were caused by that. So today per Doctors and Hubby's orders I am completely resting. I will be back to normal soon I pray so thank you again for praying in my moment of need. As a result of me being sick I am thinking of holding Cyber Church tomorrow in my Meez room I am not going to be leaving the house this weekend just going to cozy in with my kids, hubby, computer and good books. Have a good one! God Bless Let me know if you are interested in Cyber worship tomorrow. Going to start at 10am Pacific Time 1pm EST take care.

Prayer request

2009-12-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hey ladies,
I could really use some prayer right now, We dont currently have any medical insurance but all of a sudden I am light headed, with a headache feel short of breath and my fingers feet are freezing and a little tingly feels like my heart is racing. Please pray this will stop and everything will feel normal. I dont want to go to the doctor unless it is an emergency but if i dont feel better soon I will go. Thank you for praying.
Tiffany

Finally Friday

2009-12-04T09:19:00.001-08:00

Well I am am excited it is Friday it means I made it through the week and our good news or not good news should come on Monday afternoon. We too are hoping to have a home of our own soon but whatever God has for us will be and I am just anticipating what that is with much excitement. If this one is not the one then maybe the next we look at we shall see and I will keep you informed:) We have owned several houses in the last 10 years only when hubby lost his job due to his permanent disability Which thank the Lord is not 100% disabled but he was unable to do all the job duties so they let him go after his family medical leave timed out then he went to work doing something he used to do and we are now back on our feet. But during that tranistion time of the last year and half we rented we have this beautiful home we are "borrowing" and our owners and landlord are awesome but I am really looking forward to picking my own colors of things and decorating the kids room sometime in the future...hopefully the first part of 2010. Stay tuned for more on that later and please pray with me that Whatever the Lord has for us will be shown to us :)

So today is Friday we are going to finish up our homeschool lessons for the day then do some house keeping and probably some art this afternoon. Actually the kids are nicely and quietly! Coloring as I type...I love that they enjoy art so much that they turn to it in boredom...

This whole week I have again been fighting illness...just basic run of the mill cold but please pray that this will exit as I would love to feel 100% by Sunday to enjoy worship and the day with my wonderful hubby.

Off I go to get rolling today is a late start for me My body must have needed sleep as I slept till 8am which I only do if I am exhausted or sick usually my body wakes up at 5:30-6:00 am my mind now that is another story LOL...
Have a blessed day!

A good few days :)

2009-11-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

It has been a wonderful few days around here while I have been mia in blogworld. Thursday was just absolutely wonderful. Even though I didnt ask him too Hubby (who loves to cook) helped me in the Kitchen all morning cutting veggies and getting things ready It waas awesome to share that time with him. Then in the middle of the day my family arrived we enjoyed fun time with them and then a wonderful meal I was really tickled with the way everything turned out and my mom was really impressed with things...(that makes me happy) My dad who loves apple pie as does my hubby and grandpa all enjoyed thier treats so it was a most wonderful day and man did the house smell good. Friday I was so exhausted I stayed in my jammies half the day (ooohhh shame on me LOL) Saturday we went shopping with my mom I dont do black friday shopping in person but I did get some great curriculum from CurrClick on Friday! Yay, some great lapbooks and other unit studies all for free it was great. Saturday night we went to chinese food with my parents..yum and no cooking yay! Then yesterday we had a food festival (we dont call them potlucks lol) at church and we had some wonderful fellowship time after service. Hubby Joined us at church yesterday! YAY!!! and may actually go again this coming weekend! some friends of ours are thinking of attending next weekend and encouraged him to be there plus the kids had already asked daddy to come again next weekend! I love it when God works through others and not me and my wants! Its awesome to watch where things are going in regards to Hubby and the Lord... I am just watching and praising... and feel so happy it is unreal!
anyway right now little Prince is working on Mathletics we went ahead an purchased Mathletics after the American Math challenge and I love that he wakes up and wants to Play MATH! Its awesome and you can assign certain curriculm for them to work through before they compete/play online in the challenges so we are actually using that for math right now he picked things up so quickly like area and perimeter that we had been struggling with in the books! Little princess of course now wants her computer play time too so I have some preschool things for her to do when brother is done.
Today is laundry day and overall cleaning day as I take weekends off usually sometimes I do saturday cleaning while hubby is at work but I tend to try and keep up with things during the week so off I go to clean the kitchen and then My room needs some attention and reorganizing we moved some things in that had been floating around the garage and now I need to reorganize and put some things away finding homes for others. Have a blessed day everyone and "see ya" soon!

Thanksgiving Preparations

2009-11-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hi all, I have got to get better about posting so sorry:)
So my Thanksgiving preparations are underway as well as I am sure many of yours are. A friend at church needed someone to care for her 2 boys this week as well so I am squeezing in preparations to my afternoons as they get here at 4:45am and stay till 2:30-3 today I am going to make either my bread rolls or my pies maybe both. The boys are good kids however I need to closely supervise the interactions to maintain age appropriateness and appropriateness for my house so some of my time I would normally work into cleaning and baking during our mornings is taken by supervision. I think I probably shelter my kiddos but I am ok with that! Im the mom they are mine and I CAN~! LOL.... ya know what I mean!
Also we were fully going to do school Mon-Wed however we are going to just do a thanksgiving craft and study the origin of thanksgiving and Pilgrims today and tomorrow :)

My menu for the big day is:
Roast Turkey (got a 24 lb turkey yesterday hope its defrosted by thursday morn)
Stuffing maybe with apples in it havent decided yet
Sweet Potatoes with brown sugar and a splash of oj on them before baking
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Homemade Cranberry sauce
Homemade rolls( I hope) I do have some storebought backups if I run low on time
Pumpking Pie with homemade whip cream
Apple pie with the same
Strawberry jello with banana's in it (this is abnormal for my menu but my fathers favorite and since my mother father and grandfather are joining us I will ablige my dad:)

Going to make appetizer plate that consists of homemade feta cheese balls with sundried tomatoes and greek seasoning with Cracker variations
Celery with spray cheese(i know its not good for ya but I love it and so do my parents lol)
Crackers
Carrot sticks
Artichoke Dip bread bowl with baquette slices

Well thats my Menu plan and today I start some of the prepping as well as on todays to do list is :
all laundry fold put away
Kitchen cleanup
Make bread
Sweep and mop
Vacuum living room and dining area
Dust

Tomorrow's to do list:
Kids room Straighten up, Dust, change sheets, Vacuum (all together make pretty for grandparents:)
Pick up my room and vacuum
Wipe up bathrooms ( I do a cleaning on these every couple days so they dont take long at all)
Make the appetizer plates up and make cheese balls do whatever baking I dont get to today I may make the potatoes and put in microwaveable dishes to reheat on thursday thinking I may not have the oven to work with since it will be full of turkey

Thursday:
Get up early get Turkey Prepped Make stuffing get in oven
final cleanups wipedowns before parents arrive set out appetizers and enjoy the day with all the family:)

Have a blessed day and I will take pics of my pies and such as I make them and try to post them online:)

What day is it?!!

2009-11-18T17:12:00.001-08:00

Ahh..been behind on my blogging as I was babysitting a friends 18 month old for the last 6 days...Whew...I am exhausted I dont know how you all do it with larger families! But I think having them as your own children makes a difference as you dont just jump into an 18 month old busy phase (unless adopting of course) you are able to acclimate to the business of them being everywhere!~ It was a lot of fun and I am missing the little one a bit but The kids and I went to a play today and did some grocery shopping yesterday so we are getting back to normal schedules. We saw the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe today preformed by a local art/theatre company and it was a lot of fun even little Princess enjoyed it. We had front row seats I felt like roalty LOL... We attended with the local group ofhomeschoolers then afterward I went to a pizza/play place locally with one of the moms and her 2 kiddos what fun we had. Nice lunch and I stuck to a salad! My new resolve to lose weight stick with me on that we shall see how it goes ever since my back surgery I gained a bunch of weight as exercising was hard with the pain however now I am better pain wise so its time to get moving and watch what I eat more. Tonight will be chicken and salad:) More on this later gotta run and get the kids to Awana Usually I would be teaching as I am also an Awana leader however tonight I stay home. I have been fighting a sore throat and with all the sick little ones at Awana I am going to steer clear of there in hopes of warding off any furthering of the sickies....we shall see Take care and "see" you all soon

A tour of my humble abode....

2009-11-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the New home:) This was updated with the new house on 2/17/2010 Enjoy

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wisk Away Wednesday

2009-11-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

LOL...I always like to come up with fun titles and that one stuck this morning, I am wisking away clutter and messes around the house today. Tonight starts a 5 night/day run of babysitting for some friends. I am excited as I will get to see how my house would really run if I had 3...I keep praying that we may adopt some time in the distant or near future. Hubby is not on board with this Idea so I am just praying that God speak to his heart if this is meant to be or speak to my heart to change the yearning for more if it is not his will. Either way I would be fine if in the end I know Gods will is where we are You know what I mean? I cannot physically care any more than my 2 perfect blessings as after my back surgery they said no more but I really feel a tug on my heart to give a youngster that needs a loving christian home a safe place to be. Hubby and I have had long talks on this and for now I am content to babysit and wait on the Lord to answer this one....but I just thought I would share...hehe
So today I will go around and make changes that will help keep little man safe for the next few days as having an almost 5 year old and a 10 yr old is way different than having a 2 yr old around daily:)
Little Princess is still not feeling 100% so please pray for her and for protection for 2 yr old to not get what she and little Prince Had. I think we are on the last legs of the cold and that is all it is as she and little prince did not run a fever much past the first day and that was low grade even still so no high fevers and not severe symptoms just coldish symptoms. She is down to just having sniffles and sneezes and congested head. She wants to feel better it was so sweet when she said "mommy when am I going to feel better" aahhh my heart broke for her and I prayed with her that she would feel better very soon. Well I am off to get things going I am going to try and post my home tour later today if I get time but right now gotta run...
By the way Little Prince is loving the Mathletics challenge ....for elementary aged kids this has been so fun see top of my right sidebar for the link:)

Where have I been?

2009-11-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

I have been not on the bloggy sphere as my computer was just running so slowly that we couldnt do anything! In a big surprise hubby had been going to give me a new one for Christmas so he gave it to me early. I had a hint of it when he really didnt want me to get a new one as he had said we may get a new one this year but then was really adamant about me not going and buying one on my own lol. This all started last week when I was trying to post my videos of my bread and it wouldnt upload the last videos as my hard drive was full...for those out there with computer knowledge ( I dont have much but a little lol) I had a 2006 that only had 80GB of total hard drive space between the two drives the new one is a Gateway with 500GB hard drive and a Duo processor. I have plenty of space for all my photos, videos and my bible study stuff which I discovered was hogging 19GB of space lol..i really need to watch the videos and study what I have downloaded so I can decide to keep or discard lol.. need more hours in my day So for today's post I have posted the bread I made last week and now it is time to make more bread today lol.
Here is my recipe for my whole wheat yeast bread with oatmeal the original recipe is for 6 loaves which my mixer just cant do all at once so if I cut it in half and that actually makes 2 of my big loaves since I have bigger than usual bread pans so this recipe makes 2 big loaves in 10X4 pans or 3 of a regular loaf pans
1/4 cup warm water
1.5 packs of yeast that are .25 of an ounce or if you have a jar of yeast like I do then i go a bit over a .25 oz on my measuring spoon
1/8 cup wheat flour
1/2 Tablespoon white sugar
1 cup oatmeal quick or regular (I use regular)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 cups warm water
3/4 tablespoon salt ( I use sea salt)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted sweet cream butter (very soft)
5 cups white flour
2 tablespoons or a bit more Flaxseed Meal (Optional)
1-2 Tablespoons of Pure Maple Syrup (optional)

In your mixing bowlstir together the first 4 ingredients let grow for about 5 min
while growing I measure out my other ingredients and chop my oatmeal to a finer consistency Does not need to be perfectly fine just chopped to your liking
Add oatmeal, Water, whole wheat flour, salt, brown sugar, softened butter to mixer/ or mixing bowl stir together well
begin adding white flour 1 cup at a time and completely mixing in dough will be slightly sticky when finished if using a Kitchen aid mixer set timer for 2 min and let it kneed this mixture together for 2 min
Place dough into oiled bowl (I use butter on my bowl and my bread pans) turn to coat cover with clean cloth place in warm spot
let rise 1 hour
Punch down, kneed for a min or 2 by hand divide into 2-3 balls kneed by hand a couple min then form ball place into bread pan punch down into pan then flip to coat other side and leave ugly side down Let rise in warm place again for 1 hour covered with clean cloth
When fully Risen bake at 350 degrees F ( 175C) for about 35 min until tops are golden brown let cool for 10 min in pans then turn out onto wire cooling rack Let cool completely before slicing.
I place these loaves in large 2 gal ziploc bags with a paper towel in the bag to absorb the small amount of sweating they produce the first night when they are fresh,.
Enjoy:)

UPDATE: YOU MAY NEED TO LET IT RISE LONGER DEPENDING ON THE TEMP OF YOUR HOUSE MY HOUSE WAS COOL YESTERDAY AND I HAD TO LET IT RISE ON THE SECOND RISE FOR ALMOST 2 HOURS I PUT IT ON TOP OF THE OVEN IN THE PANS WITH A TOWEL UNDER THE PANS SO THE BOTTOM DOESNT GET TOO HOT AND I COVER LIGHTLY AND HAVE THE OVEN ON TO KEEP THE AREA AND AIR AROUND THE BREAD WARM WHEN YOU CAN PUSH YOUR FINGER IN AND IT DOESNT SPRING BACK OR FILL IN THE SPOT IT IS RISEN...

Whole Wheat Yeast Bread 11/4/09 at OneTrueMedia.com

2009-11-10T11:54:00.001-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Math Challenge link

2009-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

I am posting the Link to the Math Challenge here as well as on my sidebar to the right:) American Math Challenge

Sickies Sickies Everywhere

2009-11-04T07:10:00.000-08:00

Well, Little Prince is feeling better today still stuffed up but feeling better overall praise the Lord! However little princess is just beginning as of yesterday so I expect a few more days of mellow/house quarantine for us. Wonderful hubby is not doing so well either please pray for him, he is experiencing severe stomach pain when he eats I think it is an ulcer and so does he. We are treating him with prilosec right now and he is modifying his diet to help. He has gone through this before and since we dont have insurance right now he is adamant about not going to the doctor. For his health I would spare no expense I keep telling him however if he won't go I will just keep a close eye on his health and try to cook to help his stomach. He is lactose intolerant and this really makes it more so so I am working on cooking without irritants. However even his plain ham sandwiches upset it so this is proving difficult. Anyway off I go to get rolling for the day both kids are up now and it is time for breakfast and then hopefully today I get to baking, and get my pictures taken for a home tour too. Will update you all later on the sickies:) Thanks for praying for them. God Bless

Update on today

2009-11-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well after this morning's post Little Prince is starting to feel a bit better we relaxed and got things done today and just let him recuperate I actually got a project completed I deep cleaned my bedroom vacuumed the edges and under the bed, fully dusted and got a big pile of stuff...yes I have stuff in piles here and there...oh my! I never claimed to be a really great housekeeper LOL...hence themessymommy.blogspot name lol... I am getting immensely better however with prayer, encouragement from all of you through your blogs and since getting off all the pain killers after my spine surgery I am doing so much better:) Yay! I am working to get each room re-organized and then my goal is to keep up with it through actually using my HMB...I put it together a year ago however whats the old saying..things only work if you use them LOL.. I am kind of bad at that however I have really been talking with God about giving me the right attitude about housework, and it has improved so much. Isn't God amazing I prayed hard for a couple of days for him to re-ignite my soul in some areas and to help me have more energy to go about my days and he provided Praise the Lord.

One prayer request as the day went on a sore throat and fever came for Little princess Please pray for protection as with little prince that this is just a standard cold and not anything more severe. thank you for your prayers and your friendship all those who I communicate with on here and any new visitors:) God bless and I will update all in the morning.

I didn't bake bread today with all the project work and little princess really not feeling well today put this off till tomorrow since I will not be going out of the house as planned. That is one of the things I love about homeschool, sick days dont bring near the stress they did when you know they are falling behind at school and you can just catch up when they feel better, also they can learn when not feeling well with reading and playing educational games on the computer and such. I signed little prince up for the Mathletics challenge this week is practice and next week is the challenge He actually asked to do this today even though it was the dreaded MATH and had fun:) Here is a link American Math Challenge you register on here then when you go back to the main page after registration click on the mathletics link I had to search forever to figure out how to get into the practice session so if you have questions let me know it is aimed for middle elementary grades and up:)

Do you have a scheduled week?

2009-11-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I accomplished much of what I set out to do! It was awesome. Homeschool actually got put mostly on hold however as Little Prince had been sick since last thursday it started out mild then hit hard over the weekend Sunday and Yesterday being the worst he was feeling better last night so hopefully we can get back on track today with schooling. I have our homeschool block time planned out and chores worked into the schedule so hopefully we can have another productive day around here. Today I have much to do in the kitchen it is Bread making day and I may post a video. I have to sit down and do a schedule for Wednesdays and Thursdays as these 2 days I leave the house for scheduled things so I need to revamp the schedule to fit these days. So nothing much exciting here when I get my schedules actually running smoothly for more than one day in a row lol, I will share them with you all as I know I love to see other mom's schedules...why is that?? I think we all enjoy seeing other moms days to glean ideas maybe I know thats why I enjoy it I like to see how others plan out their days and sometimes I have gleaned the best ideas from others. Thats what Titus 2 is all about right teaching other women from our examples:) I am far from being a mentor type I have a long way to go but I do hope that I can encourage other moms/wives along my journey to be the women God planned for them. Well I am off Have a blessed day and I will post my bread hopefully later today along with photos of the lapbooks I talked about last week:)

Do you have a schedule already in place? Post a link to your schedule page so I can share on here if you like:) God Bless

UPDATE: Little Prince just woke up and he is feeling just awful this morning still so we will have to see how today goes Thank the Lord he is not running a fever just all congested and feeling crummy. Light day again today for schooling probably he just cant focus on retention if he feels crummy. Please pray he will fully recover soon And the rest of us will not get what he has had.

Monday Time to get organized

2009-11-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Well over the last 4 days I have re-organized both my pantry and my laundry room storage areas and yesterday wonderful hubby, little prince and I reorganized and decluttered little prince's entire room I am going to work through the other areas of the house this week and plan on finally doing a tour of my house by the end of the week. This morning I worked on my home management binder schedule section and planned out the timing for homeschool today so I need to get rolling I am already behind a bit lol... Over this week I will be adding to and adjusting my schedule and really trying to get it rolling and organized. Catching up on housework isn't a ton of fun or very exciting but when it is all done doesn't it feel good! Ok all off I go I will post more later about my schedule and hopefully update that I have gotten everything I dream of doing today done LOL...tata..

Save My Sanity Saturday

2009-10-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

I dont know why I like that title but I do LOL...

I feel I need to save my sanity today by getting to work. I had a horrendous migraine last night to the point it had me in tears and if we had insurance I very well may have gone to the doctor. My wonderful husband got the kiddos to bed after a late dinner (he had to work late) and then he also helped me to bed I couldn't even see straight to walk down the hall, the light hurt to even have my eyes open. My eyes were watering from the pressure and pain all on their own let alone when I started to cry from the excruciating pain. I went to bed and prayed really hard. I then drifted off to sleep waking feeling much better however I still have a slight pain in my head so My computer time will be short today. Today I woke to my little prince running a 101 degree fever and then the dog puked on the carpet...now do you see why my sanity is pressured today lol... anyway today is cleanup day and I am making like 8 quarts of soup and transporting it down to my church's community service project tonight. We are handing out hot soup and bags of groceries to those in need tonight while others are trick or treating.... I was looking forward to serving tonight in hopes of telling more people about Jesus but that is out of my hands now as kiddo's health comes first He is feeling ok now with an advil in his system the fever came down but I am still not going to take him outside and let him get chilled...no way. Anyway off I go my head is starting to hurt looking at the computer have a blessed day today all and enjoy fall:)

Friday?? Already!

2009-10-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday already! AAHH feeling like this week just whizzed right by. Yesterday we had a wonderful day with hubby despite the fact that I had a monster of a headache. We went to Little Princess' Ballet class and Daddy got to watch! That was great fun and then we were off to do some shopping and stocking up on some things. We are working to just get some things laid in for winter time as I do not like to drive into town as much to shop and also I hate having to ask hubby to stop after he has worked all day. I dont mind asking for a gallon of milk or something he stops at the store up the road but not for laundry soap and things as I like to use my coupons and pick my scented things myself lol... We also got some other things we needed and I have recently stocked up on some coffee and some other things. I will try and post pictures later as today is Re-Organize the storage areas. I have a huge closet in the laundry room that I use for overflow from the pantry on one side and laundry stuff on the otherside however recently misc random items from here and there around the house have managed to find their way in there! I dont know for the life of me how that happens lol... house elves I think! hehe... So off I go to organize, do laundry while I do this and just try to restore some order. We are not doing school today as little prince has a headache, low grade fever, sore throat Please pray he feels better very soon:) So far little princess is feeling good so hopefully she wont be getting what I had last week I think this is where he got it. Ok off I go...if you dont here from me sooner or later send help I am under the coffee, pantry goods and misc items in the laundry room LOL....have a great day God Bless

CBN News: Worst Cereals Marketed to Children

2009-10-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

This caught my eye and after watching reinforced what I already felt and knew. We have always watched how much sugar were in the cereals we buy...now I am not saying we are a strictly no cereal family but my kids love their eggs/toast, baked oatmeal, pancakes and such but we do allow cereal however our choices usually are Cornflakes, rice krispies, cheerios. On special occasions I do allow the specialty ones but this is a treat and I treat it as I do all candy that comes in our house it is not an everyday occurrence. I loved her parenting outtakes in this video it made me smile this morning as this is how I am in the store and my kids know there is no point in begging for something it will only assure they do not get that item:) The correlation at the end when he said he remembers the marketing for this stuff for years...Well we have seen a rise in Obesity in the same number of years he mentioned have we not?? Have a Blessed Day today is hubby's day off so already today he is out bird hunting with little prince who was so excited to get to go with daddy this morning as he is old enough to finally go! Little princess and I are going to do some fun learning stuff while they are away. Later she has her Ballet lesson and then we do our errands today in the bigger town 1/2 hour from here. I have a horrible headache today that the excedrin does not seem to be helping yet so if you could please say a little prayer I would greatly appreciate it. I seem to not get as many as I used to however the ones I do get lately usually turn into full blown migranes and I would really love to not have one of those on hubby's day off they usually put me down in a dark room for the day as I am sensitive to light and sound however right now it is just at the bad headache stage....Father God Please take this pain from my head Amen.

Tuesday's Plan

2009-10-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a Kitchen day so math will be somewhat measurements and fractions as well as part bookwork. Science today will also be covered partially by this and we are going to start our Moon Lapbook today. The Mystery of History has us working on Creation Booklets which we need to finish up today I will try to post a picture of these when we finish:) Language arts today will be the Well-trained Mind language lesson we did not get this done yesterday I am still trying to figure out if I want to do some things everyday and others alternate or what and how.... I know we do math everyday and I think we need to do language skills of some kind everyday even if it is worksheets to reinforce things. I just got a brainquest workbook at target that has some good reinforcement skills of things he has been learning in all subjects in it. There is even mapping and such in the social studies section and moon things in the science got this at Target~! I was pretty excited LOL... little things right little things bring excitement:) Anyway Well I am off to start the day How do you all do it do you do history and science on seperate days? Math and Language Everyday? And do you all use a specialized spelling program? This is one area I am really still undecided on... Whether to get a special spelling program or do what I did last year and just assign 20 words off of the US Sitton?? Spelling list The words are numbered and there are 1200 on there that are standard words starting in the first grade with words 0-100 or something to that effect last year I assigned words in the 300-400 range and made worksheets off of spellingcity.com it worked rather well but not sure thats how I want to go as he gets older... Any ideas? Have a great Tuesday God Bless

Catching up:)

2009-10-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry to have been MIA for so long wherever does the time go? Well last week we had a busy busy week after I finally felt better I spiked a fever last Saturday night and had a low grade temp up to Tuesday. So I hunkered down and stayed in. Then Wed was hubby's day off and those are always fun days but busy busy going places and getting things done:) He was able to go to Awana's with the kids which they really loved. Thursday little princess had a ballet lesson, one of the homeschooled teens in the area is doing preschool/kindergarten age girl lessons for $1 a week! Its awesome and so cute to watch. It is the Christian homeschool group in our area which is rather large and it is great to chat with other Christian moms while the girls learn:) Then Saturday we had my small group with Church this was our day to collect food for our food drive we are doing. My church is handing out bags of groceries and hot soup to people in town on Saturday evening while others are out getting candy. Its our way to be out there sharing the love of Jesus with others on this evening. Many in this town are struggling with being able to provide food for thier families at this time so we are hoping to bless many during this. We met a gentleman during the collection time that is struggling himself financially and is battling cancer however he still gave a couple cans! God is so awesome and we are going to stop back by and take him some groceries to help him out this week:) Also we are all praying for him as he is alone so hopefully we will really be able to help him out in times coming.
It has been a good week for homeschooling we are trying out the Mystery of history for history/creation study and the kids can both do this mostly together so it is seeming to be working. Math I am flucuating between the computer lessons and worksheets to reinforce things. Language arts is an area I havent fully decided what I am doing I think we will finish up the First Language lessons for the Well trained mind 4th level and then go from there with the computer maybe and supplement worksheets. Science...mmmmm well I am working on this the past week for science we built a slinky brand electric motor that I picked up at Bi-mart and also little prince worked in the Garage on Dad's day off giving my suburban a tune-up! Auto shop science this week:) And we studied liquids/solids when we made cookies so we are learning and living. I love that about homeschool. This week I am going to work on getting a better schedule in place and getting things flowing smoothly. I dont feel nearly as flustered since I gave myself permission to find something else since what we thought would work wasn't I think I stressed out more because of that but after all the emails I recieved and reading some things I realized just because I thought i would work and paid money for it doesnt mean I have to fight with it all year when Its not completely working...try something else! What a concept! I want learning to be fun not a struggle at this age now when we get to high-school there will be just buckle down and do it but if we have some fun now maybe it wont be such a fight then. We are going to do a lapbook on the moon for science this week. My main goal this week is to keep learning going, have some fun, and then get a plan laid out on paper for subject goals for the rest of the year. Have a great day all I will try and post more regularly now that I am feeling better:) God bless!