Run the Earth, Watch the Sky

Palin and the Pulpit

2008-10-03T16:24:00.001-03:00

Who's walking who?

2008-06-05T22:09:00.001-03:00

Greetings from Watchthesky family farm! :) It feels like forever since I have found the time to say hello in blogland... almost a week!

#59 is doing good. She is a very nice cow and I am growing fond of her. Shocking, I know. Me, the animal hater actually thinks having a big moo-ing animal in the backyard is a good thing. The dog on the other hand... we're trying to get rid of her. No takers yet but I'm still hopeful. :{

Anyway, back to Twink. She had enough of her fenced in pasture and thought the grass on the other side was much greener (which it was) and tried her ~~hand~~ hoof at getting to it. To make a long story short, she broke the fence, hubby noticed what was going on from a window upstairs, and the whole family took action to get her to chill a bit.

1st step in keeping a cow from pushing down a piddly little fence is to spray water toward the broken part. I guess cows don't like to be sprayed. It worked for us anyway.

Secondly, the whole family starts cutting long grass wherever they can find it, for a good 1/2 hour, to throw to the cow to keep her busy and happy and away from broken fence while hubby digs a hole for a new post. ( You only do this if you do not realize you could have just put her in the barn until hubby was done).

Thirdly, once hubby has a post to chain her to out in the new pasture, you take her for a little walk & hope she doesn't have a mind to run. (Turn your volume up for this spell binding video). :)

Did you hear my humble and wise suggestion? Yep, I'm pretty smart... and helpful.

Fourthly, when the cow gets two legs all caught up in her chain while grazing in her new pasture and you think she's going to break a leg or have a nervous breakdown, you forget you have neighbors and start yelling like a crazy lady for you hubby to "COME RIGHT NOW..... PLEASE!!!" I'm sure I sounded very calm, cool, & collected. I'm sure we put on a good show for all our neighbors and passerbys as well.

And lastly, holding a large container of grain you just lead your cow back to the barn and lock her up until you can get a proper fence in place.

Life on a farm when you don't have a clue what you're doing can be very interesting....and make for a few good laughs at the supper table.

WIll you join me??? Please!?!?!?

2008-04-11T11:56:00.003-03:00

I decided to move sooner rather than later. Once I get something in my head it is hard to ignore. I have posted a Mr.Linky of sorts at my new home on the web for anyone who cares about BRF. It's a little funky but I'll get the bugs worked out sometime.
My new address is....

www.watchthesky.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!

double dog dare

2008-04-10T14:04:00.002-03:00

Tomorrow is Book Review Friday ladies. I am DOUBLE DOG DARING YOU to write a review to add to Mr.Linky tomorrow. If you haven't read Romans 14-16 yet go do it RIGHT NOW so that you actually have something to say. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my sidebar to see what BRF is all about. To be able to link to my Book Review Friday post all you have to do it read the chapters I chose for the week and write something about it. Your favourite verse from those chapters, a 'light' that came on as you read something, a verse you chose to memorize and why, all of those being very good ways to write a review. Hey, Even if you just link and say, "yep, I read it!", I'll be so excited. Short & sweet or long & deep, its up to you. :)

Also warning y'all that I just might be switching my blog back to wordpress in the near future. Will you all be willing to follow me around?

Left undone

2008-04-09T21:49:00.003-03:00

I left my little guy at the kitchen table to finish up his math drill sheet. When I came back from doing some laundry (or checking my email) I found this.

Notice half of the math problems left undone beside his cuisenaire rod masterpiece.

My little guy was out by the barn with daddy by this time having a great time and I didn't have the heart to call him in to finish. It was the first beautiful no-jacket day of the season.

We'll work on the math tomorrow. You're only 6 for so long ya know. :)

Dyslexia can be cute :)

2008-04-08T15:25:00.005-03:00

We have come a long LONG way since realizing that my daughter has dyslexia, that was almost a year ago. Up until just a few months ago she didn't even want to try writing anything. She just couldn't read or write, too frustrating. After just a week of doing our reading differently in school we saw drastic improvements and she enjoys things much more now. So glad!

I found a story she had written on her own one day. You'll notice that although I'll tell you she can read pretty good her spelling is way out there. :) Too cute.

My favourite part is the beginning word(s).

And the words all drawn around that cutie little clown.

Maybe I should give you all the interpretation?

"Once upon a time there was a clown. The clown had big feet. He always thought there was always rain so he always went with an umbrella. He always did funny shoes. He even had a toy clown."

And then yesterday I was also proudly presented with her newest drawing of our favourite cow Twink, otherwise known as #59.

I think these are frame worthy and will be putting them up somewhere sometime.

Spring has come to Watchthesky!!!

2008-04-05T12:41:00.004-03:00

Book Review Friday: Romans 11-13

2008-04-04T19:17:00.003-03:00

If would like to know what Book Review Friday is please see my sidebar. Each Friday (or Saturday....or Sunday, if I'm busy) my book review will be updated and I'll let you all know what we're reading for the next week.

My mother called me today begging me to get my book review post up for you all. Begged I tell you. I have hundreds of desperate ladies emailing me everyday wanting to know about my Bible reading system and all that its done for me.

Okay, so I've never gotten an email with someone asking me about my study time, and my mom just casually asked me what we'd be reading this week. Actually she thought we were reading 11- 16 this past week, so she's good to go. I told her she was off the hook this week and didn't have to pick up her Bible at all since she did double duty the past 7 days. But moving on... moving on...

First things first, we'll move on to finish up Romans this week. So Romans chapters 14-16 until next Friday ladies.

I shamefully realized when I read to the kids at bedtime I had only read chapters 11-13 once this week. How can a person get so sidetracked?!?! Especially when they are the host for BRF!? So I promptly read 11-13 to the kids and then again before writing this review. This coming week I will be more diligent. I have a plan. :)

I loved all 3 times I read this passage!!! Love it.

I totally see election in the first few verses in chapter 11. "but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded." vs.7 I also saw a bit of free will in there but can't remember where. It amazes me how there can be both, but I see it all through the scripture. Someday I'll understand. Someday.:)

Also in chapter 11 in all the talk about the branches, roots, and grafting I was humbled. Even when i do something good. Even when things go well with me, it's all because of my root system, not me. If God hadn't chosen to graft me into His amazing root system I would be capable of nothing. What can a branch do just lying on the ground beside a tree?? That would be me without Christ. But then the Ultimate Grafter comes and picks me up and decides to use me. How could I boast of anything that is accomplished through me. I'm just sitting on the tree showing what kind of tree I'm on.
In chapter 11 Paul also reminds people that they can be chosen or thrown away. God is One to be feared, so tread lightly. vs 22 says to 'consider the severity of God.' Another Romans reminder to live like God is God. Don't be a fool that does not 'glorify Him as God'.

After considering all that we are and all that God is, how we are indebted to Him for everything, and the fate of our eternal soul rests in His hands, we are to offer ourselves as a sacrifice to our God. After reading those chapters how could we want to do any less. But it goes back to the 'doing what I will not to do, and not doing what I will to do' situation. When push comes to shove it's hard to follow through on this. If I give myself to be grafted into His tree in the way He wants I will prove what is good, holy, and acceptable just like the verse says. All that because of the roots I'm drawing from. I cannot think of myself more highly than I ought to think, because there is nothing to think highly of obviously. These verses are a great reminder of that fact.

Now verses 12:9-13:10 were even more humbling. All the evidences of a branch that has sacrificed itself to be grafted. I don't see much of those evidenced in me here at Watchthesky. And I'm thinking that the grafting process probably hurts. But nothing good comes from a branch laying on the ground. No pain no gain.

And quickly because this is long and hubby is ready to sit and chill... I loved the last few verses. I just might have to find time to change my blogs theme verse. "...it is high time to awake out of sleep...The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." 13:11,12 Love it.

I have to run. Might not even have time to spell check. Please add your review to Mr.Linky if you did one. I'd love to check it out.

Keep reading.

$2.00

2008-04-01T21:09:00.004-03:00

Here is a little something I found at a second hand store.

Love it.

I'm glad he likes it.

2008-04-01T20:48:00.004-03:00

It is no secret that I am not an animal lover. If you ever drive by my place and see our chickens, cow, and dog, do not assume that they are there because I enjoy them. I was grossed out by the fact that I had to touch our dog for the first time today. Almost made it 24 hours without needing to make contact. I washed thoroughly directly afterward. I don't even touch her leash if I don't have to. :)

So, I don't like animals. But my hubby and children do. They have been in heaven almost all day chasing, patting, wrestling, feeding the dog. It was even a group effort to walk her out for her bathroom break. The birthday boy is lovin his life big time with his new responsibility.
But there was a few moments of heart ache this evening. My son proudly got the leash down to take Chica out for a walk around the property alone. Hubby was away and b-day boy was so excited to be strong enough to keep her from running away all by his onesies. Well, something happened to the collar and she got away. I had an almost 10 year old boy who finally got the dog he wanted for so long, running through the township with tears on his cheeks begging the dog to come back. He thought she would be gone forever. That made me sad. But brave young sister finally got close enough to grab hold of the collar once again and saved her brothers heart from being broken.

Oh the drama.

All is well yet again. I still have a dog. Ewww. But I have a very happy family.

Keep your dreams to yourself.... please.

2008-03-31T21:40:00.010-03:00

Since we moved into our country home on all both of our acres much of our lives has changed.
Have you ever heard of the book

Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow

? We got it from the library on our last book run.

I am Mrs. Wow. Totally. It is a silly little story about a woman who never wanted a cow but found out that a cow would actually benefit her in many ways. (That is a totally paraphrased version and I suggest you looking it up for yourself if you would like some light reading sometime.) :)

I never wanted a cow. In fact, I always said that I would never marry a farmer because of the stink I would have in the backyard. It's true. And here I am with 24 chickens and a cow. Fancy that. And after telling all of you out there in the blogging world about our great #59, I had many people let me know that we were living their dream. Well I have one thing to say about that: Apparently I am living your dream cuz it certainly ain't mine!

We are getting a bit better with the routine. I still think a cow is a great addition to our little Watchthesky farm adventure. #59 is supplying Seven & her clan along with our family with more than enough milk. We all think its great.

Now I'll let you in on something new. I have officially lost my mind. I caved and gave the go ahead to hubby to get a dog for our son who is having a birthday this week. I, the submissive wife that I am, let my husband bring a dog home.
Here she is.

Her name is Chica. She was named by her former owners and the birthday boy likes the name so it stays.

As soon as she walked through the door the training began. I am a newspaper trainer.

Again, the submissive wife that I am, let hubby know that his newspaper training wasn't good enough for me and I took over. I've been down the doggy road before and I will not repeat the same mistakes. No no. Chica isn't allowed past the kitchen and this rolled up newspaper is serving as a little reminder for her. I love it when things are black & white. :)

So here we go again. I'm sure I'm living someone else's dream. :)

Book Review Friday: Romans 7-10

2008-03-30T20:58:00.003-03:00

If you do not know what Book Review Friday is and would like to check it out, you can see my sidebar for all the details. Feel free to jump in and join us where we are. :)

First things first, we will read Romans 11-13 until next Friday. Please forgive me if you have been waiting to see what chapters we would all be on. This really is the first moment I've had to let you all know. If you would like to be reminded of all my woes and complaints as to why my timing is off for everything in life please check out my 'Confessions of a milk maid post' and you'll hear it all. :)

I'm so glad that as I read these few chapters this past week that I had a pen and paper beside me. I didn't know that I would be just as squeezed for time this week as last week, and that means that book reviews can get lost in the shuffle. This won't be anything special but here are a few points I pondered in chapters 7-10.

(I would like to say flat out to y'all right here that I really have no clue if I'm understanding all this law stuff right. If there are any Bible scholars reading this please understand, I am just a regular wife and mom reading her Bible, excited about it and desperately trying to learn much. Forgive my lack of spiritual understanding if I'm getting it all wrong, please!)

Glad to get that out in the open. :)

Romans 7:6 "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."

When we are saved the law becomes written on our hearts. The law doesn't change, it becomes part of us so that we don't live by it, we now have the perfect law with in us. We are the law. (Romans 2:14,15)

Romans 7:25 "I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but wit the flesh the law of sin."

The 10 verses before this all talk about knowing to do the right thing but always ending up doing the exact opposite of what you know you should, and want, to do. I can so totally relate. It is one thing to know what is right and talk about it and tell other people, and a completely different thing to live it. It is just like 1:21-23. Did I mention that one before??? I loved it so I'll tell it to you again.
"...although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to b e wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man"

We can know who God is. And then we can live like it.

And because of verses like these I am humbled. I get caught up in my own wisdom and knowledge forgetting that I have it all yet to learn. My heart is deceitful and we cannot trust our own wisdom. Remember 1:22 again and how we 'know' who God is and therefore think we've got it all figured out, but we do not glorify Him in true belief. We take things into our own hands and do not live like God is God. We do not submit to His righteousness because our righteousness has overtaken.
We aren't so smart as we think we are.

And after that lame review (but I finally did one) I would love it if anyone else had a review to add to Mr.Linky 2 days late. I doubt it since not one soul mentioned it at all even though it was sooo late. What do you think girls, is it going to take a while for Book Review Friday to take the world by storm? :)
Here's Mr.Linky.

Perfect harmony.

2008-03-24T18:55:00.007-03:00

I love country music. I love harmony. I love The Martins. Enjoy!!!

Good music, good words.

2008-03-24T18:55:00.006-03:00

Confessions of a milk maid.

2008-03-22T14:55:00.004-03:00

Since purchasing #59 life has taken on new flare.
Would it be extreme to say that life is out of control??
No, I think not.

Something has to change and I've been desperately trying to think of some other way to change besides what I know is necessary. No, I'm not quitting blogging. I don't do that much anymore anyway. Really I'm the one that should quit and

the one who really knows how to write and spell

should be blogging instead. But we've got it backwards. :)

When we brought that cow home everyone told us how much work it would be. It is true that it takes a chunk out of your day, but taking care of a cow is not that hard, especially if you are sharing the work between two people. It is the consumption of time that I'm having a hard time dealing with. Here's a list of things that are falling by the wayside just because life is busy and I'm getting tired:
*Early risers are not known around here anymore. I love the idea of being up and my day started by 6:30am, but I'm just lazy in the morning. That chilly winter morning air doesn't help either.
*Housework is becoming more and more of a chore. Would someone please tell me where I can get some very cheap help for household duties!? I already know the answer to that one and my next problem will explain it.
*I've lost my ambition to keep my kids busy and train them in their jobs around the home.
*School is very hard to get started each day. The mornings that I take care of the cow means that school may not start until just before lunch.
*I've been getting lazier and lazier with meal preparation. Cooking is not one of my favourite things to do in the best of times, when time is limited and there is already a mess in the kitchen from lack of housework being done I really don't feel like pulling out the pots and pans.
*Reading the Book Reviews Friday Bible reading with the kids hasn't happened for a while. Daddy reads Proverbs with them each night, but that's all they are getting. Not good. I also am reading less and less. I just get tired.
*And of course, because of all of the above we are seeing really bad attitudes making their way into our home. Everyone is grumpy because mommy is tired and grumpy and not doing all the things she should.

Happy happy thoughts eh!? It hasn't been all misery. I'm just noticing these things are starting to take root and I'd like to nip it in the bud. All these things were there, and I knew it. It was in reading Romans that I saw things even more clearly. (See previous post).

Now the things I know that have to change is this:
*Mommy needs to get up early and get right to work whether she wants to or not.
*Mommy needs to do her Bible reading with the kids, and not only will they be learning Scripture as they should but mommy will get her reading done at the same time.
*Mommy needs to make a game plan for each day. Give each child the chores they need to do and see to it that they are done properly.
*Mommy needs to plan ahead and get back into the habit of bi-weekly menu's and grocery lists.
*Mommy needs to plan ahead for school and have lesson plans all drawn out the night before.
*Mommy needs to have a great attitude and pass that same attitude on to her kids.
*Mommy needs to get really fast at milking #59. Hubby can do it in 13 minutes flat. Mommy hasn't timed herself but is sure that she can do it that quickly too. :)

Life is busy. I'm not complaining, its a good life that we've chosen. #59 is just another way God is stretching us and preparing us for future use. I just need to get orgainized so that I learn my lessons from God faster.

Book Review Friday: Romans 1-6

2008-03-22T14:23:00.003-03:00

If you would like to know what Book Review Friday is please check out my sidebar and feel free to jump right in where we're at.
If you have a review of your own please add your link to Mr.Linky at the bottom of this post.

But first things first, we'll move on to Romans chapters 7-10 until next Friday. I will be reading 6-10 because I never did make it in any of my reading all the way to chapter 6.

Heave duty book. There is A LOT in here and most of it I do not understand. I really really wanted to read chapters 1-6 again. I need to. So I guess I'll do my best to make some time to study it out some more while doing this weeks reading as well.

I don't understand much of what was being said about the law. It seemed to go in circles as I read. I followed it so much better when I read it aloud to the kids, so that will have to become a habit again for me. There was something that stood out to me because of a conversation I had just last week about the law. I had remembered all that we had read in Leviticus and knew that the law was very important, heavy duty important. But that was Old Testament stuff. Now in Romans we are seeing that the law was just as important, but in a different kind of way. Or is it different? This is where I get hung up. I really don't understand. But that verse 3:31,

"Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law."

tells me that we still live by the law as Christians now. I'm understanding that it is through our obedience to the law that our faith is made known. Man, I really need to do some more studying!

I was very convicted with 3:10-18. For quick reference this is what it said:
"As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one. There throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

These are things that I have noticed are growing within my own family. I could make myself feel a little better by convincing myself its just a case of the winter blues, but I know better. We have been turning aside, getting sidetracked. We've been liking each other less and less. I hear hateful, frustrating words from one child to another or even from mom. We don't 'curse' per se, but we might as well in the looks I see going around. Never having a good thing to say or do. We are getting very swift at doing our own thing without thinking of our family first. And because of it all I see the destruction and misery taking root and making for some long and unprofitable days. Folks, we have work to do here at Watchthesky!

I know there is so much more to Romans and so much more to be convicted by, but that's where I'm at right now. God wants me to get the family back under control so that Daddy will have a nice place to live and he'll want to provide for and protect us.
Also, forgive me for not getting the Book Review going yesterday, I took the day off. I went to the Good Friday service at church, watched The Martins on Youtube, played Sorry with the kids, and took a nap. Priorities you know. :)

Here is Mr.Linky for anyone out there brave enough to use it. :)

Contest worth entering.

2008-03-20T13:59:00.000-03:00

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!

This is a $219 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they’re included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

To win this most excellent program — in the language of your choice — copy these paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post – then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

Happy Spring!

2008-03-20T10:42:00.008-03:00

It is the first day of spring and of that I am tremendously glad. I find each new winter the hardest. I am cold. I am always cold. I am tired of being cold.

To celebrate this new day full of hope of the warmer weather to come I will share a couple of pictures of what our first day of spring looks like here at Watchthesky.

Not looking so sunny and warm, but Happy Spring to Y'all anyway!!

book love

2008-03-17T15:01:00.004-03:00

Seven allowed me to borrow her book. I love it!!!! Mister Man it is a good one and I want every lady I know to read it. Seriously.
The book, So Much More by Anna Sofia & Elizabeth Botkin, is amazing. Just to wet your appetite I will give the following quotes from their book. I wish I was reading my own book so I could underline, highlight and write notes in it but for now I have to settle for putting sticky notes on some favourite pages. Here are a few, and a very few, great quotes from So Much More:

(Page 75)But so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either, for that matter. We believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife, than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old-fashioned, than to be ultra-modern. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.
~U. S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall

(Page 119)We should not be asking ourselves, "How unbiblical is it for a woman to get a career?" or "In what circumstances would it be permissible?" These questions amount to "How far away can I get from God's perfect will without crossing the line into technicalities of sinning?" Isn't this kind of "testing the limits" the course of passive rebellion in itself?
Rather, we should be asking, "How can I run further and further from the fire into a realm of greater godliness? What decisions can I make with my life right now that will encourage God's blessings on our society instead of curses? How can we retake this culture for Christ?"

(Page 124)Rather than a sign of "progress" for a nation to have women rulers, it is a sign of God's judgment and displeasure with that nation! Women holding seats of authority, whether it be in business, church, family, law, or politics, is one of the distinguishing marks of a society under God's curse.
Rev. Einwechter again: "It is weakness and a sin (on the part of the men who allowed it) because it is an abdication of their responsibility to be the leaders God has called them to be...it is a sign of confusion and judgment. It is a sign that men have utterly failed to exercise the leadership required of them."

(Page 154)Close reading of tough-minded writing is still the best, cheapest, and quickest method known for learning to think for yourself...Reading, and rigorous discussion of that reading in a way that obliges you to formulate a position and support it against objections, is an operational definition of education in its most fundamental civilized sense...Reading, analysis and discussion is the way we develop reliable judgment, the principal way we come to penetrate covert movements behind the facade of public appearances.
~John Taylor Gatto

(Page 160)Besides, home education is not about schooling, it is about education. It is about helping your children learn to think, about "treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning." Home education tends to follow the Smithsonian Institution's recipe for genius and leadership: "Children should spend a great deal of time with loving educationally minded parents; children should be allowed a lot of free exploration; and children should have little to no association with peers outside of family and relatives."
~(quotations take from "The Public School Nightmare." & The Well-Trained Mind)

(Pages 166)C.K.Chesterton likened wifely duties to those of a monarch, a powerful merchant, and a teacher of theology, manners and morals - all performed simultaneously. "I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it," wrote Chesterton. "How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about (arithmetic), and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs.Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."
~ Cheryl Mendelson

That's all I'll pass along right now. The book is full of the real truth behind the whole feminist movement and if you read it you'll be shocked that you are undoubtedly a feminist. I was.

Read it.

Book Review Friday: Nehemiah 11-13 (Edited)

2008-03-14T21:13:00.004-03:00

First things first, we'll move on to reading the book of Romans. A mega book, I know. :) Let's start with Romans 1-6.

Edited to add:
As for my review, there really won't be anything new to report. Since it was 'one of those weeks' I was only able to read the last chapters of Nehemiah 1 1/2 times. I found out that it did end the way I was hoping it wouldn't. The Israelites messed up again and Nehemiah remained faithful and led them through it. Of all of this I have no further comments, its just too bad.

But more came to mind about the story as a whole while I was laying around moaning this week. When Nehemiah and the people started rebuilding the wall they had no idea how it would all really turn out. They didn't know that God's plan was to let them finish it and also be saved from their enemies. Maybe God would choose to kill them off and have others come and continue rebuilding. Maybe God had other plans. Maybe they would fix things up only to have others come in and tear it down again and again before they succeeded. They had no clue how the great book of Nehemiah finished. They didn't know they were even going to be in a book! These people dove into the work through faith. They made their hands busy with what the believed God wanted them to do and let Him deal with the results. If God wanted them to be okay, they would be okay. If God wanted the wall to stand, the wall would stand. As if they could do anything about it anyway.

Now for the 'me & and the Israelites' comparison. There are those things in my life that are just way larger than me. (If you want to be annoying, everything is out of my control, yes I know.) I mean that there are those spots in each of our lives that we have a hard time giving to God. What may be easy for you to leave in the Lords hands may be very VERY hard for this girl here at Watchthesky. Thinking of building the wall at Jerusalem was encouraging to me. I need to set my hands to work on what I believe the Lord expects of me and let Him secure the wall. The work I do is given by God, the strength to work is given by God, and it is God who allows to wall to remain and the enemies to be kept away.
That's what struck me. We do the work, God keeps the wall up. We trust God, obey His leading no matter how crazy and dangerous it may seem, and trust Him to defend us. He is our wall. He is our defense.

That is all I shall write this time around.

I have actually be very ill for the last 5 days. This is my first day (Friday) that I could be off the couch and away from my many blankets. I am thankful to be getting around a bit again, but my review will still have to wait for a bit.

Please put up a review of your own if there is anyone out there who is reading with me. Remember ladies, this doesn't have to be an essay or anything. If you read it once or a million times -if you have just one verse out of the whole book you'd like to say two sentences about, or if you just can't seem to stop writing about everything you read, do it! Either way, its a good thing. :)

If you don't know about Book Review Friday just check out my sidebar and join in with me and a few other girls. :)

Here's Mr.Linky for y'all.

The best things don't come easy.

2008-03-08T20:56:00.003-04:00

All tuckered out.

What we are attempting here at Watchthesky is a good thing, of that we are sure. Its just that I'm finding out how hard it is to get it all done. Sunday morning was a little difficult. It was my first Sunday that I would have to get up and milk #59 myself. We also lost an hour because of the time change. And we ended up having no hot water. Fun.
But its not just Sundays that are hard, every day we are starting school as late as 10:15 or later because of the chores. Much too late for my liking. We are still working on simplifying and creating a good routine and work habits with the children. We will get there someday.
Nothing worth anything is easy, at least that's what I've heard. At Watchthesky we think that learning to work hard is worth something. We also think that whole milk is worth something. We think that purity, strong character, self control, strong family bonds are worth something. None of these come naturally to us and it is a constant struggle to keep our priorities where they should be, and some days it is a constant painful sacrifice to work at desiring the life we are attaining to. We're human, the good stuff isn't always fun.
But we're working on having a mind to work and loving the results of the small amount we've done so far. God is good and we're thankful for His blessings (no matter how tiring they may be). :)

My in-laws sent this little story to us this week. Hubby and I both enjoyed it. It reminded me too, that the best things don't come easy. :)

Many years ago, my father was visiting America, from Europe, for the very first time. He said he wanted to go with me to the supermarket, so I invited him along. As he went up & down the aisles with me, at the local Giant Food Store, he constantly asked me questions about products he saw. "Vas diss?? Powdered orange juice??" asked my dad (pointing at Tang). I said, "Yeh, Dad. You just add a little water, and you have fresh orange juice." A few minutes later, in a different aisle, dad blurted out, "Und vas dis?? Powdered milk?" (pointing at a box of Carnation). I said, "Yeah, Dad. You just add a little water, and you have fresh milk!" A few minutes later, in a different aisle, my dad yelled out, "Und give a look here!! Baby Powder!! Vat a country, vat a country!"

Smiles.

2008-03-07T16:42:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago this nice lady I know and I had a conversation about makeup. I've been hating my makeup since the last purchase (no one normal likes orange skin), and she was telling me where she purchases her stuff from. Well, that was a couple weeks ago. Then last night at church she just smiled and handed me this and walked away.

When I opened it I found 2 new eye liner colors to try out, and at a fraction of the price I've been paying for my usual stuff.

How cute is that!?! This nice lady has lots of cool ideas, and I haven't heard of one yet that costs more than $5 total. :) Gotta love it.

Now don't y'all want to go out and make a cute card and pass a smile along to a friend real soon?!

BRF: Nehemiah 7-10

2008-03-07T16:00:00.004-04:00

First things first, its the last part of Nehemiah for this week. We'll read chapters 11- 13 until next Friday. Nehemiah has been a big-time blessing this week. I've needed it. I was all gung-ho to get my stone wall started on. We have a lot to work on here at Watchthesky, if you'd like to hear all about it come on over some afternoon for tea, and hopefully I won't depress you. :) I really had no idea it would be so hard to work with my one hand and hold my sword with the other. No idea. The thing is I didn't fall apart, I could have, but I didn't. This is a good thing. Some of the last words of my review would come to mind every time I was on the breaking point.

"I need to remember this when I get to the tough spots in life and hear less than encouraging words from others. I need to remember Nehemiah when I'm called to build and everything seems against me and no one thinks its possible. I need to keep one hand on my sword at my side, and continue working with my other. I need keep plugging away and trust God with the results. I will remember. I must.
The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build."

Oh yes, I had my moments. It was a busy week with many things pulling for my attention. And yes, I cried and wanted to forget it all and just pretend my wall wasn't that important, but I couldn't. God is faithful, and He always will be. I'm so glad to be getting to know Nehemiah. So glad.

As for this weeks reading, it was hard to concentrate. I wanted to continue reading the first few chapters, but here goes for chapters 7-10:

Nehemiah had reorganized the Israelites and sparked their faith again. God was accomplishing great things through Him. Go Nehemiah Go!
The Israelites are always brought back to the law. God's law. It was important that they be brought back to the basics every time they repented and this time was no exception. The people repented and confessed their sin and showed great signs of changing their ways. They showed interest in the law and promised to obey. I do have a feeling though that the story will remain the same and they will fall away yet again before the book is over.
Although the Israelites ALWAYS fall away there are those few in all of our reading that give me tremendous hope. The very first time I read the new chapters this verse hit me,

"that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many."

It is a great encouragement to be able to find the Nehemiah's and Hananiahs in scripture. It is possible to live out a deep unwavering faith. Though this verse also says that you will be alone much of the time. Hananiah feared God more than many. It means that when He trusted God on that level everyone else thought he was a bit crazy, overboard, intense etc... A faith like that will separate those who think they let their faith make a radical difference in their lives and those who actually do. Their are those who believe, and their are those who live it. It's true. Nehemiah and Hananiah are those people. I hope us BRF ladies will turn out that way too.
These past 2 weeks of Book Reviews have been so good. Hard but good. I can tell that there is a battle going on with me and I am so going to conquer. Oh yes I am. I still say 'bring it on!', I'm just saying it a little softer than before. :)

And now, here is Mr.Linky for any reviews that make their way into blogland.

If you don't know about Book Review Friday please see my sidebar for all the details, and then join in with us.

BRF Take 2

2008-03-01T08:15:00.005-04:00

Nehemiah has been going through my head ALL THE TIME. I just keep seeing things in the story more and more. The Lord must want me to learn a lot with this one. :)

Its so easy to let things slip and slide until they are in a state of disaster. That wall that is to be my protection can be ignored until I am left defenseless. Just like the Israelites were compelled through God working in Nehemiah's life to start rebuilding and getting back to the basics, I need to take a look at the wall around my heart, my family, my church. I have work to do. Its important. We all have a part to play and we must take it seriously. If I could literally see the state of my own heart, my own Jerusalem, would it bring me to tears? Would it bring me to my knees? Would I be driven to fasting and praying and then to action? This will be the test, for now I cannot plead ignorance. I know better, I've read Nehemiah.

Jerusalem was demolished, defenseless, and the work would be cumbersome and exhausting. It was a huge job that looked impossible. Nehemiah very wisely told them all to just work on what was in front of them. If every family did their best right in their front yard it could be done in record time. I love how it gave a run down in chapter 3 of the whole affair. It starts telling who worked where. The first ones named are Eliashib the high priest with his brethren working on the sheep gate. All the names follow through telling what part of the wall they were working on right to the end. The list ends at, "And between the upper room at the corner, as far as the Sheep Gate,". All the way around, right back to the sheep gate where they had started! Every part was taken care of with Nehemiah's plan. :) I'm putting a plan like this into action on Monday. I'll be drawing up a game plan for the family. Each member will be given their own part of taking care of our home. We will build new habits and character, and learn to care for our home as a family. I know, not terribly spiritual but its exciting to have a new approach to 'get it all done' taken from a Bible story the kids love. Good lessons in a very practical way.

Another picture in the story that I loved came when the enemies, Sanballat & his crew, decided to attack, kill the workers and stop all that was being done. Nehemiah told all the Israelites to remember just who their God is and all that He had done so far. God is in control. He can handle it. Nehemiah got them ready for battle but didn't stop working on what God told him to do. You see, God has different plans for different circumstances and times. Sometimes he calls people to be still and wait, sometimes He calls for people to go to battle and fight to the glory of God. Nehemiah was ready for whatever God planned, and continued working. I would have been scared silly, gone back in my house and waited to see what happened. I love it that the people set one hand to the work and one hand ready on their sword. I need to be ready, we need to be ready like that. We are always one step away from attack in our relationship with Christ. Satan is ever watchful for part of our wall left untended. Many of us, too many, leave ourselves wide open wondering through the streets of life aimlessly, never worrying about the shambles we're surrounded by. Meanwhile we should be like the Israelites, getting to work at what God has put in front of us, our sword/Bible at our side ready for action, and ever watchful and ready to fight the enemy for our brethren, sons, daughters, and homes.

Nehemiah was a man like Daniel who 'believed in his God'. He is one of the rare people who actually knew God on a different level, trusted Him with all his being, and led others to do the same. Don't give up, don't give in, do what God requires of you and trust Him with the results. Also there was never any doubt as to whom all the glory was due. Nehemiah understood that it wasn't about him. He knew that he was just a tool that God graciously used for His plan. A humble man leading the people to do what is right and constantly pointing to the Lord, not himself. When the wall was finished and the enemies looked on with their poor defeated little faces they knew all along why it was the way it was.

"And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God."

I need to remember this when I get to the tough spots in life and hear less than encouraging words from others. I need to remember Nehemiah when I'm called to build and everything seems against me and no one thinks its possible. I need to keep one hand on my sword at my side, and continue working with my other. I need keep plugging away and trust God with the results. I will remember. I must.

"The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build."

I'm gonna pray for a 'mind to work' and start buildin me a stone wall.
BRING IT ON!!!

Book Review Friday: Nehemiah 1-6

2008-02-28T15:53:00.005-04:00

First things first, we'll move on to read Nehemiah 7- 10 until next Friday. So do your best to read chapters 7- 10 every single day, and more if you get the chance.

I have a new Bible hero!!! I want to have another son and name him Nehemiah. The first time I read these first chapters of the book I fell in love with it. It was a 'Mister Man' kind of thing. I can't even put my finger on one particular thing that was so awesome. It was all just so good. It made me want to tell people on the street corners about our awesome God. It made me want to start living my life in Christ with renewed vigor. I wanted to build me a stone wall! Mister man, what can I rebuild???!

bstone wall rebuilt. There is also a need for us as a body of Christ to gather together and get serious about rebuilding God's place in our lives. We have work to do. Do we have a mind to work??

These people, the Israelites, took such a difficult, labour intensive task and gave it their all. They had a lot on their plates and watched as God worked through circumstances to provide, protect, and give strength. I loved how many times Nehemiah called on his great and awesome God. I believe Nehemiah believed in his God the same way Daniel did. They knew God was in control. They knew what they had to do and that it had to be done whether it was dangerous or not.

Yes, after this weeks reading I wanted to charge hell with a squirt gun. Mercy! BRING IT ON!!! Go Nehemiah go! I can't wait to see what else is in store in this great book.

Due to busy days, Awana, homeschool outing in the morning, company coming for lunch and so much more, I only have time to write this short and not very deep review. It is Thursday night as I write this and I know I will not have time for writing tomorrow. I look forward to seeing names pile in on Mr.Linky.

If you don't have a clue why I'm writing a book review on Nehemiah but want in on the action please check out my sidebar and you'll catch up on all the latest BRF news. We are a small group, but oh-so-cool.:)

Now more than ever.

2008-02-28T08:02:00.002-04:00

Mister Man I love this song! Its a personal testimony of mine right there its words and in what Gloria says. I really hope and pray that in many years down the road that I'll say "Now more than ever I cherish the cross. More than ever I sit at His feet."
Listen to one of my all time fav's and be oh-so-totally blessed!

Singing along.

2008-02-27T20:09:00.002-04:00

The Booth Brothers are our favourite lately. We know pretty much every word to each song by heart and everyone likes to sing along. Including this guy. :)

To the lost lady...

2008-02-26T17:08:00.003-04:00

Hey lady that was lost last night. No problem that you chose our door to knock on and our phone to use, I just wanted to explain a couple things to you. I don't want you thinking ill of us.

*First of all lady, my sunporch is looking more like a mudroom these days. I'd like to say it doesn't always look like that.... but we've got a lot of junk to get rid of. It's only there until April, honest lady. (Oh, sweet spring clean up day!!) You see lady, all that stuff had to be piled there because there is no room in the barn to store it. That brings me to my next explanation lady.

*We bought a cow. She has taken ownership of all of our previously used storage space in the barn. Yes, its embarrassing that we have so much stuff, but we're workin on it lady, honest. But that tells you why our sunporch is piled high and, you also may have noticed a slight aroma. Yep, that's barn smell travelled in on many coats and boots. That brings me to another explanation lady.

*All those smelly coats and boots are my children's. I have 4, and they all like to help daddy in the barn. They had just come in from doing their chores a few minutes before you arrived, hence the muddy floor and... um... aroma. You see lady, we were out a little late yesterday afternoon at a homeschool thing and it made for a late supper and chore time. And yes, that brings me to yet another explanation.

*We homeschool. So while you were phoning all your friends to save you from this messy smelly place, and looking around my living room, and seeing the pile of books and container of writing utensils, that would be our homeschool materials that we had to leave in the rush to make it to our afternoon engagement.

*Also lady, I've got to tell you how pleased I am that my kitchen was cleaned up. Really it was! Honest! That pail and all those big jars had just been disinfected and set to dry for milking time in the morning. If you had come a little later they would all have been put away too. You just had a bit of bad timing lady.

*And as for me lady, I was upstairs reading to the kids. That's why I didn't come down, we're reading Nehemiah. We're really into it, very cool book. Have you ever read Nehemiah lady?? You should. In fact lady, you should join up with Book Review Friday and get saved and.... and ....Well lady, that's all the stuff I would have said to you if I had answered the door instead of hubby, or if I caught you before you ran out the door to escape our crazy home.

That's what I would have said. Honest.

A mind to work...

2008-02-26T09:16:00.003-04:00

I had to let y'all know that my sister over at

Seven Meadows

has finally posted again. She should post more often, she's good. She even knows how to spell and use punctuation properly. She is my idol. :) Seriously, go check her out. I'm even overlooking the fact that she totally offended me with what she said about my kids in her post. I'll get her back sometime. :)

Creativity

2008-02-25T21:06:00.001-04:00

We had a homeschooling bowling adventure today. It was fun. We were all supposed to bring a snack for a social afterward. I had nothing but a coffee cake. A very good coffee cake, but what kid is excited to see that on a snack table?! I had no other ingredients to work with so I had to make the cake look inviting and this is what I came up with. A pedestal plate (cuz I have a thing for pedestal dishes), and scrapbooking paper (cuz I never have those cutie little doilies on hand).

I cut out a circle of wax paper so that the cute paper wouldn't get soaked with grease spots and it made it look cute. At least I think so. :)

Production is good.

2008-02-25T20:55:00.001-04:00

Although her milk production is down just a bit from the beginning, which we were told would happen if we switched to hay instead of silage, we are still very pleased with all that #59 is giving us. She's a good cow as cows go. :) In fact I've almost stopped screaming every time I milk her and she moves toward me quickly. *hint* : not a good idea to scream when inside a stall with a big cow, they become a little nervous. But I'm making progress. :)

There is just so much you can do with all the milk a cow gives. Seven knows much more about it first hand. I haven't made my own yogurt and cream cheese and stuff yet, but I will. I've made butter a few times. Who can resist when you get this much cream????! Since the cream line is hard to see in the picture I'm pointing to it.

Yep, that's where the cream line is. Crazy.
And here is the one responsible for it all. Ain't she a beaut!

I deserve a medal.

2008-02-24T15:58:00.001-04:00

I took my children skating at the pond around the corner this afternoon. Be proud of me. I hate being cold. I hate winter. I am totally out of shape. I don't even have winter boots. Seriously, feel sorry for me. But I took the kids out, me in my sneakers and them in their skates, and let them skate themselves silly. They've wanted to go skating with me many times before but I always had an excuse. Today they didn't even bother asking. When I suggested it they didn't believe me.

"Did Dad tell you to take us?"
"Are the cousins going to be going?"
"Did you really think of it all by yourself???!"

I finally convinced them I thought of it all by me onesies. How could I resist doing something so nice for them when they're just so darn cute!?!

Book Review Friday Continues

2008-02-22T22:38:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. I finished up in Leviticus and I hope you did too. I enjoyed the last chapters the most out of the whole book. I learned a few things and understand a few things more than before. I also have way more questions than I understand out of most of it. I'll continue to do some digging for answers. I'm pleased as punch with myself that I can finally say that I have read the book of Leviticus a few times through. It took me a number of years being saved to get around to it, but it's finally done. :)

Lets move on to another Old Testament book. I'm starting into Nehemiah 1-6. I would suggest doing a light reading of Ezra before you begin into Nehemiah. We've done Ezra before and its all tied in together. Ezra was so good I just want to do that one all over again. I keep reminding myself that I'll get back to it, there's undiscovered territory before me and I won't want to miss out on that. So Nehemiah it is! :)

Please join me in Book Review Friday and reap the benefits that you can only discover by becoming a biblical bookworm. I'll have Mr.Linky back up and running next week for everyone. If you have no idea what BRF is just check out my sidebar and use the links there. :)

Check ya later.

Who can resist a tag?

2008-02-21T12:32:00.002-04:00

I've been tagged by Amy at www.ourdevinefamily.blogspot.com. I can't say no. :)

Here are the Rules: Post the rules on your blog, and then give your answers. List one fact about yourself for each letter in your middle name. Each fact must begin with a letter from your middle name. If you do not have a middle name, use your maiden name(or create a middle name).Once you are tagged, update your blog with your middle name and your answers. At the end of your post, tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Leave them a comment on their blog telling them that they have been tagged, and that they need to come read your blog for details.

E - Electrocardiogram : A machine to show how your heart is behaving. I've been hooked up a couple of times in my life. A small hole was found in my heart at the age of 16. While hooked up to the machine I was so proud that I could get that number on the screen up over 200 beats/minute. It's fixed now and sounds much more serious than it was. Fun times.
L - Lists : I am a list lover. I make many lists for all sorts of things. Whether I follow through on the items listed means nothing, it's the list that counts.
A - Arachnids : Deathly afraid of them.
I - Invite : I have been known to invite large crowds to our home. At one BBQ we decided to have there were a possibility of 76 people coming over. Since the church was invited why not invite the whole neighborhood?! Only half that came though.
N - Never : I once said I would NEVER own a cow.
E - Embroider : I want to learn.

I now shall tag 5 others to join in.

Sweet things.

2008-02-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

Making cupcakes is nothing new. I make them often. I like sweets and I usually have to do up a double batch of every recipe so that the kids will have a chance at getting some. Seriously.
This time when I made cupcakes I did some different stuff to them. I'm not creative so I have to copy all the cool ideas from you people out there. I copied this idea from the Nesting Place, www.nestingplacenc.blogspot.com , who copied it from someone else. I only had yellow and blue food coloring and I do not have any cake decorating stuff, so I put the icing in a plastic sandwich bag and cut a small piece out of a corner to squeeze the icing through. Here is my finished product. :)

Aren't they cute!?! I'm excited for the next baby shower or party to come along so that I can take some cutie cupcakes and cookies. But since there are no parties coming in the near future we packed some up on a pretty plate and shared them.

Maybe I should make another batch. Another double batch. :)

Passions

2008-02-19T11:22:00.001-04:00

I plan on posting a picture of Twink in all her glory soon, very soon. My she's a popular cow. :) But first I have to get this other post written. It's been going through my mind since we read Psalm 1 in Book Review Friday just a couple of weeks ago. Mom & Seven, you have no need to read further since I basically said it all to you two yesterday. :)

Psalm 1:2,3 "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper."

What do you meditate on? What is your passion?

There is no focus on reading and studying scripture much anymore. I know that we as moms and wives lead busy lives. We have a lot on our plate. Life is exhausting sometimes. Many women out there are looking for a great quick devotional book to use in those precious 15 mintues of quiet they might find during their hectic days.

My friends listen up. If you only have 15 precious minutes in your day to use in study do not make the mistake of reaching for a devotional book or 'The Daily Bread'. Use those 15 minutes to saturate yourself with the pure unadulterated Word of God! Don't waste time on reading what someone else got out of a passage (and a small passage at that). Open up your own Bible and just read, get to know it a bit.

Happy thought indeed.

And remember, you can't say that you don't have time to study your Bible if you read a couple blogs a day or slept in this morning, or chatted with someone on the phone for a few minutes. If you don't have time to read your Bible then you don't have time to do all those other extra things either. Its the truth.

There are a lot of older Christian women out there who have been saved for years and don't know the Scriptures at all. Many are knowledgable of basic Christian principles and certain verses here and there, but they wouldn't be able to point you to any of them in writing. I love it when I see a Bible open up and there are underlinings and writing all over its pages. They are getting to know the Word!

We also need to study to show ourselves approved so that when we are called on by others going through trials we know where to point them. We know whether its Phillipians or Exodus or Psalm 27 that our friend needs to read, because we've read and studied them. If we know our Bibles we also can't be deceived as easily by false teaching.

If Christian women continue to lean on everything else but their Bibles for their spiritual growth they will lose focus and be led astray without knowing it and their children will be lost as well. It's the truth. Even if they read every book by solid Christian teachers and teach what they read to their children, they have completely missed the mark. We and our children need God's Word, it's the only thing that convicts and changes hearts. It's the only thing with a godly lasting effect. As good as Andrew Murray, John MacArthur, Charles Spurgeon, and John Piper are (and I love them all), they are no substitutes for the real thing. Don't bother with them until you've taken the time with the genuine article. You'll be amazed at how God works through a simple little habit of reading scripture all by yourself.

A couple weeks ago my sister listened to a sermon taken from Leviticus 10. the sermon was called 'strange fire'. She loved the message and wanted to tell her hubby about it when he got home from work. She thought she'd test him a bit first and she told him she listened to a message in Leviticus and asked him if he knew what chapter. He figured it was probably chapter 10. The she asked him what he thought it would be about. And he knew right away that it was probably about Nadab and Abihu and their strange fire.

I want to be like that. I want to study and know. I want to be gleaning knew insights and giving the Lord lots of ammunition every day to win the battle in my heart. The prospect of really knowing God's Word is very exciting to me. I love my binder and my other notes from Book Review Fridays in the past. They are a testament to what I have learned and also a great resource to use in the future. (check out the sidebar for Book Review Friday information).

I want to be like that tree in Psalm 1, firmly planted, getting fed by the river of God's Word, alive and thriving, giving fruit, prospering no matter what weather comes my way. The only way to do that is by delighting in the law of the Lord.

That becomes my passion more and more every day.

I have conquered.

2008-02-18T20:59:00.000-04:00

I milked #59. Oh yes, I did. To all of you who thought I couldn't do it I took a picture of the finished product as proof.

I cleaned the stall, fed and watered the cow... and then it was time to milk it.
Really there was no problem getting the milk out, that was easy. It's my aim that I need to work on. That jar is supposed to be full and maybe a bit besides, and it would have been full but.... all the milk that is not in the picture is nicely soaked into the knee and sleeve of my coveralls and the shirt and jeans underneath.

Now don't roll your eyes at me too much over that, It's not entirely my fault. #59, or Twink I should say, has chapped teats that are causing multi-directional spraying while milking. It was as messy as it sounds.

But its done. My hands, shoulders, and legs are killing me, but the milking has been done 3 times in a row by yours truly.

John Piper on the prosperity gospel

2008-02-18T10:19:00.001-04:00

Book Review, or the lack of...

2008-02-16T15:44:00.000-04:00

Well ladies, I'm a day late and a review short. Just in case there was someone having a hard time coping because there was no Mr.linky to post a review for Leviticus on I thought I'd better check in and say hello.

I've been taking care of 4 sick chillins these past few days and there isn't time to think through and type a review. I'm not going to put up a Mr.Linky today, or for a while, but I'm going to keep reading in Leviticus 21-27 this week and finish that book up (phew!). I'll keep letting everyone know what I'm reading each week so you all can keep up if you want. I'd love to see reviews too, there just won't be a Mr.Linky to link to. :)

Please keep reading. It's sooo important. If you have time to read a Christian book, a magazine, watch TV, surf the net, then you have time to read your Bible. To read the amount that I usually put up here on my blog you only need about 20 minutes a day (if you're slow like me). :) Soon you'll find yourself engrossed and wanting more.

(I'm admitting to you all that my goal is to read the last 7 chapters in Leviticus at least 3 times completely this week. I'm not sure how this week will pan out and I just want to get this book done. Maybe that's my tiredness talking. :)

later gaters.

happy valentine's day

2008-02-13T22:27:00.001-04:00

Okay ladies, it is time for our second annual valentine's list, 14 things that spark your day. Are you ready? I'm even using Mr.Linky for something other than a book review! If you blog about 14 things that spark your day please add your link to our amazing Mr.Linky friend down there. I'd love to check it out! :)

1. clear & clean kitchen counters.
2. chocolate
3. kids that think they are in heaven because they got a chocolate bar on Valentine's day.
4. book reviews on fridays. they really do. :)
5. french vanilla cappuccino.
6. any of the martins cd's.
7. fresh milk sitting in my fridge.
8. hubby doing devotions with the kids.
9. watching old movies.
10. country magazines.
11. warm blankets.
12. blazing fire in the woodstove.
13. packages in the mail.
14. whatever treat hubby gives me for valentine's that I'm not supposed to know he has. :)

Well, there are 14 of mine. Now let's see what's on your list...

Party details.

2008-02-13T13:51:00.000-04:00

So, just how does one go about throwing a 'Have A Cow' party??? I thought you'd never ask!

If you ask my family to come to a party you really don't need to plan anything, they are the party. :) So we started by letting the Grandparents, cousins, & friends (the friends being the ones who informed us of a cow for sale in the first place) know when the cow was arriving, and then planning a potluck lunch directly after said delivery. The rest just took care of itself as you shall see.

The cow was due between 11 & 12. The cousins arrived around 9:30, no one wanted to miss a thing. Grammie arrived after 10 and the friends I mentioned made it just in time for the potluck to begin. I've already shared a couple pic's with you, but here are a few more. :)

Here is some dip that I whipped up before hand. Just beat 2 avacados, add a bit of sour cream to make creamy, and stir in 1 or 2 Tbsp of ranch seasoning mix. Mister man it was good!!

We have punch at nearly every family get together. If you want a fail proof punch recipe look no further. Just combine 1 can frozen juice concentrate (I like raspberry) and poor in 1 1/2 - 2 bottles of 7up. That tastes great, but to really make it yummy add a few scoops of vanilla ice cream. It'll make it a sure hit. :)

We had lots of good food from everyone. My neice made the 'Have a Cow' peanut butter cake which you can see in my previous post. Soooo good! And, I flatter myself, my #59cupcakes were pretty good as well. :) Everyone was excited to bring cow-ish things....

Grammie brought some yummy squares decorated with a cutie cow. As everyone arrived she had them write their names on paper for a prize draw. The draw was for the cutie cow on the squares, which was really a 'grow a cow'. Shortly after our meal she drew a name out of our brand new milking pail and one of my little guys ended up winning. :)

Then #59's arrival is announced with happy yells and lots of chaos from 13 people trying to find their boots, coats, mittens and head outside so as not to miss any important happenings. It's not everyday a cow gets delivered to your door.

Then mysteriously all the cows on the cake disappeared. One cool aunt had planned a fun surprise...

...there were enough little cows for each of the kids to choose one to take home as a keepsake. Pretty cool I tell ya!

From that point on it was just tidying up, kids playing outside, ladies drinking tea, and visiting the afternoon away. All in all it was a very easy and relaxing day for most of us. Hubby on the other hand was shoveling his guts out just about the whole morning after the storm, and also getting the barn finalized, and milking the cow and everything else that goes with it.He enjoyed it all but... well...he was pretty tired by the end of the day. :)

Would you like to meet her???

2008-02-12T21:19:00.000-04:00

Isn't she a gem!? I know you're really jealous now. Don't you all want to run out and buy one of your own?

We had a good day here. We love partying at Watchthesky and this was definitely an excuse to party. Here are a few pic's from our 'Have a Cow' party. :)

A day of grace.

2008-02-11T20:44:00.001-04:00

We had a storm day. That's a good thing. It means that #59 could not be delivered until tomorrow. Although we were sorry to have to wait to have a 'cow delivery party', I am sure it was God's act of sympathy for me. Yes, that blizzard we received today was sent just so I could have an extra 24 hours to prepare myself for having a cow. I bet you didn't know it was all about me. :)

I am ready now. I spent my day cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, baking, etc...
Everyone knows that it is much easier to tend to a beast like we are getting if there are fresh cupcakes on the counter and the laundry is caught up, everyone knows.

We may not have #59 in our barn right now but hubby has milked her twice up at the neighbouring farm today. So we have had our own fresh milk today. It was great to open the fridge and see that jar with the cream rising. Love it.

Anyway, hopefully there will be a picture or two of our adventure tomorrow, which I am ready for.
I'm ready. :)

Til the cows come home

2008-02-10T21:16:00.000-04:00

It is our very last night as a carefree cowless family. Oh my.

It may not be a big deal to you, but it's not coming to your house! I'm not ready. I think I need to stop reading "The Family Cow" too. Reading how to care for a cow is seeming more and more overwhelming and so I think we'll quit for today & take er as she comes. :)

Hubby is going to the farm for a quick lesson in hand milking (which apparantly the farmer thinks is pretty silly) in the early morning. After that #59, and a couple bales of hay, is due to arrive around 11:00am. As soon as they arrive life as we know it will be changed.

I'll just keep praying.
I think I'll keep chanting to myself too.... "We can do it! We can do it! We can do it!"

Book Review Friday: Psalm 1-8

2008-02-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

First things first, it's back to Leviticus this week. Chapters 16-20 folks. Do not despair, we're a little over half way done the book. We'll come back to Psalm another week. :)

I am so glad we took a break and did a bit in Psalm. I loved it! I'm worried my review might end up on the lengthy side so feel free to skim or skip. :)
I've read Psalm 1 many times and memorzied it a long time ago. It's a good one. Something new came to my mind reading it this week though. It was what was written about meditating and delighting in God's Word day and night. That's what us girls in Book Review Friday are learning to do, really getting into the Word, and from what I understand we are all loving the process too. That's great and all, but then it talks about the product of the delighting and meditating. "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season." vs,3.

A tree planted by a river is going to grow. It has as much water as it wants from the soil around it, never lacking nutrition. As it grows it gets stronger and stronger and bears fruit. It withstands storms and droughts and the perils that nature throws at it. Although you cannot see where its strength comes from we know that its roots go deep. They know where life is found and they constantly grow reaching out for more. "It's leaf also shall not wither, And whatever he does shall prosper."

Then the verses explain what it's like for those who don't have a love for God's Word. They don't plant themselves, they just blow around wherever the wind takes them.

I got thinking about knowing God's will too. I can wonder about God's will for my life and just exactly what He wants of me each day. Or, I can plant myself in His Word and allow Him to direct. A tree doesn't gad about looking for the next best place to do a bit of fruitful exercise, it just keeps nourishing itself from drawing the water- getting stronger. Because it has stayed in one place and given its roots time to develop it can take the storms and droughts. It prospers because of the hidden strength. I want to be strong too and Christians literature, devotionals, and courses are not going to do it. Reading the Bible over and over and over again is what will make the difference.
Reminds me of a Proverb I love, 12:3 "The root of the righteous cannot be moved."

I also loved Psalm 3:5 where it said "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord." Many times in my day just doing the right thing is a tremendous sacrifice. It's hard for us moms to do good when our whole mind and body is screaming to ignore what God has laid in front of us, that we're tired..... or you've got a cow coming and so much to do... whoops! Got off topic there. :)

Anyway, I have to get going. Hubby is home from work and ready to sit and relax. I'll leave Mr.Linky here for anyone who hasn't given up on BRF for this week. It's been a busy day and many things still are not done, but I had to get a review up. It didn't end up being as long as I wanted. There are a bunch of other verses that I loved and wanted to write about. It's hard to keep writing with a husband behind you eating and waiting to use the computer. :) I hope you all enjoyed Psalm as well. :)

Choosing

2008-02-06T09:03:00.001-04:00

We are off to start school in 2 seconds but I just saw this and want you all to see it too. Please check out the link, it's short and worthwhile. I know there are some pregnant ladies out there, 3 of which are my sisters, that are feeling more tired than usual these days and I know you'll love what this lady says. :)

I Chose You

My spurt of the moment.

2008-02-05T21:15:00.001-04:00

Okay, I'm ready to sell #59. Any takers?? We haven't even officially paid for her yet and I'm tempted to throw in the towel.

I've been reading "The Family Cow" to the kids in preparation for Monday and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed again. I go in spurts. One moment I'm all set and ready for this adventure and the next minute I'm thinking we're insane. Usually the insane feelings come when I'm tired and life is hectic. Cuz, well, life is hectic... and now we're going to have a cow on top of it all! But lets think about the benefits shall we:

* Great character training for each of us as a family.
* Ultimate homeschooling adventure in our backyard.
* Kids learn the importance of working hard and doing a job well whether they feel like it or not.
* I don't have to ration milk anymore to make it last for a week.
* We will have all the milk and butter we want.
* We'll be saving a lot of money (if nothing goes terribly wrong) on milk & butter.
* Our gardens will grow very well with our own home grown manure. (ewwwww!)

There are more benefits but those are the main ones we're thinking of. I'm not going to list the disadvantages because I just might get depressed, and I'm thinking that the value of the benefits totally out-weigh them anyway.

One thing that worries me a bit is that in our book we're reading the author says no one should get a cow if they don't like animals, if you don't have dogs or cats already, and love the idea of having a cow. Mercy, I'm totally unqualified then. Good old #59 is a means to an end for me. I hate animals. They are dirty, smelly, hairy things that cost money and tie you down (just being honest). Hubby isn't excited about getting the huge bulky animal either, just the product she'll produce. That product being two-fold with milk and cream, and also hard working young men.

I have learned in the past few hours that we will be milking at 7am & 5pm everyday, and we won't be purchasing silage. Apparently silage isn't the best buy for just a cow or two, hay is... just in case you wanted to know. :)

#59

2008-02-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

I really never thought there would come a day when I would care whether a cow had weak udder suspension or was sickle hocked, but it did. We bought a cow today. Talk about shocking! Our little homeschooling family went down the road a ways to check out a few Jerseys. We were undecided between cow #65 & cow #59, but decided to go with the latter. She's nice.... I think. :) If you had told me a few years ago that I would have chickens, a big garden, and then a cow!!!! I would have laughed in your face. My how things change.

Actually it is a cow shared between families. My sister's troop is in on it too. Our plan is to supply both families with milk, cream, butter and lots of other good stuff with our shared ownership. Call us crazy, but we're doing it anyway. The only thing is that until last night we knew zip about cows. I mean nothing. Zilch. I've been reading up on them and asking a million questions. I've learned many interesting things in the past 24 hours. Things like:
*If you lift a cows tail up it is unable to kick. Good to know.
*They need about 15 gallons of water a day. That means we'll have to carry that much out to her since we don't have plumbing in the barn. Oh joy.
*They are unable to spit.
*They don't see colors.

Not that any of you are interested in cow trivia. :) But besides these facts I am understanding that this is a big undertaking for us and we need to get ready for lots of extra work around here. That means that mommy has to get life organized if she's going to stay sane. My, I have some things to put in order. It doesn't take much to stress me out. The thought of me and my kids and my home smelling like a barn yard is stressful to me.

To relieve this stress my husband and I have plans for the next week. Purging, organizing, and preparing. #59 is being delivered on Monday. I'll let you know how it goes. It's exciting.

I wonder if #59 is excited. hmmmm?

My lot in life.

2008-02-02T20:38:00.001-04:00

There is a problem with blogging. With the exception of the few close friends that read your blog and know you very well, you can seem to be something to your readers that you are not. I would never want anyone to think I am ignorant to my own faults, which are many. This is to remove any preconceived ideas you may have about me if you have read my blog but not visited me in my home. I'll just list a couple areas of less than admirable qualities shown in my day to day life, because I'm not humble enough to make any more than that known. :)

My sunporch is a mess 98% of the time. I usually have a couple loads of laundry waiting to be folded on a couch somewhere. I have a VERY hard time getting out of bed before 7am. My children do help around the house but it means that we end up with dirty dishes in the cupboard after they've washed them. They haven't learned to put their own clothes away yet... which means messy rooms most of the time. I'm very impatient. I only have 2 pieces of furniture that match.... and I hate them. My yard is usually a mess with toys and tools. There is always dust under our beds. My kids argue and are unkind at some point everyday. etc....

Lots of bad stuff about me, eh? :) It's the truth and here is a picture to prove my children's washing capabilities. What is even worse is that another one of the kids dried and put this glass away after it was washed!

Oh, and I forgot to mention one more thing. We seem to have a bad habit of losing 1 piece of every puzzle we do. We just finished this one and as you can see we are missing just one little annoying piece!

That's the bad stuff, but we have lots of good stuff too. So don't think too ill of me and my homelife. We are a work in progress here at Watch the sky. :)

Book Review Friday: Leviticus 11-15

2008-02-01T20:17:00.000-04:00

First things first, we'll move right along in our journey through Leviticus.... later. :) This week I'm totally throwing you off your guard and telling everyone to read Psalm 1-8 until next Friday. Is everyone breathing a sigh of relief?? I thought a break from Leviticus would be a great idea. Psalms has been on my mind lately but I've been diligent in reading our assigned book and not had the time to read Psalms. So Psalm 1-8 it is and I'm really looking forward to it. :)

Now for my oh-so-short review. I read it everyday. I did. I only had one thing cross my mind in my reading, and you all have mentioned it before I believe. There is no doubt that we cannot do anything to make ourselves worthy of Christ.If I get a disease, I'm out. If I get the runs, I'm out. If someone else gets the runs and I shake his hand, I'm out. If I am a woman there is a week out of every month that I would have the constant reminder of how unclean I am, and I'm out. In reading I was thinking that these guys must of listened to all these regulations and thought, "How in heaven's name am I supposed to keep track of all this stuff!?! I'm just one big fat sin all the time!!"

I'm glad that Christ is my mediator and all is taken care of. I'm still being reminded more and more every day of the cost each one of my sins is to Him. Every thought of impatience, every reaction in anger, my laziness, my selfishness, etc... I'm just one big fat sin myself all day long.

But God is so good to me.

Okay, that was it. No big spiritual revelations today. :) I'll look forward to reading anyone else's. As usual, if you have a review but no blog, just email me and I'll post it for you. Easy sneezy. :) Here's Mr.Linky for all you bloggers who would like to take part.

I'll apologize for the lateness in which I post. I'm a mom, and today was grocery & errand day. It's just the way life works sometimes. :)

Are You Discouraged?

2008-01-31T22:01:00.001-04:00

I don't know where this comes from. I found it in my old papers from a few years ago. I thought maybe it would encourage anyone who feels tired, or discouraged. :)

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin.
The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This, the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing it with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture by placing the thoughts into the man's weary mind: "You have been pushing against this rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure.
These troubling thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. "Why kill myself over this?" thought the man, "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough." And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his thoughts to the Lord. "Lord" he said, "I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even been able to budge that rock. What is wrong? Why am I failing?" The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. Your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."

Passing along the award :)

2008-01-29T22:46:00.001-04:00

I got home late this evening and had to check my 'Bloglines' listings before hitting the hay. Well guess what I found over at Buffaloes & Butterfly Wings?!?! She awarded me with this:

I was shocked... and then very excited to see my name in her list of excellent blogs. Thank you very much Amy!

And now I get to pass on this Excellent blog award to 10 more people. Love it. So here we go on 10 blogs of my choice, and the first one will be thrown right back at Amy. I've been keeping updated on her family's journey with her brave little boy. I forget how I found her blog, but I've checked it daily ever since. :)

Buffaloes & Butterfly Wings

and now for some others I really enjoy:

Amy's Humble Musings

Seven Meadows

There is no place like home

Peculiar People

Preschoolers and Peace

So, if you were awarded this Excellence award by moi then you get to pass it on.
and here are the rules for passing it on…

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people who’s blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10.

Now, I really must go find a pillow somewhere. Tomorrow is just minutes away! :(

Dreams of summer.

2008-01-26T13:50:00.000-04:00

It's freezing today. It took me a few hours to warm my hands this morning. They aren't completely purple anymore. Ah, the joys of older homes. :)

Anyway, I've been dreaming of summer and thought I'd share a few of my favourite summer photos with you. If you want to take part in dreaming of summer, post some pic's of your own and leave a comment so we can all dream together. :)

Book Review Friday: Leviticus 6-10

2008-01-25T08:17:00.000-04:00

First things first, If you have no idea what Book Review Friday is all about please see my sidebar and you'll learn really fast and want to join in! :) This week we'll be reading Leviticus 11-15. Keep faithful in your reading. It's those Leviticus type books that we often want to skip, but we're all going to stick with it anyway and give it our best shot. God has stuff in there for us! :) I noticed one of the titles in the upcoming chapters this week is 'The Law Concerning Bodily Discharges'. Hmmmm, sounds....... ewwwww.

Okay, now for my review on chapters 6-10. Again, I didn't get much to share but I have a verse starred and circled. :)

"By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified." 10:3

Mister man, what a verse! A shake in your boots and get down to business, kind of verse. Love it. God will be glorified whether it is through your life or by taking your life. He means business and we don't get it. We do not take time to consider who the God we serve really is each day. Yes, God loves me, and yes He cares about me and my family, I'm thankful. But I forget that we are here to glorify Him, not be blessed by Him. His ultimate goal is to be glorified, and if that means he must devour someone with holy fire for disobeying, even my own child, then so be it. I just don't want to be on the receiving end of that judgement.

The story of Nadab and Abihu is only a few verses long but they pack a might punch. Two brothers who had just been told exactly what they were supposed to in worshiping God as priests and immediately revert to doing what they want instead and are killed for it.

I can stand on the sidelines with my many different feelings in the situation. I can be horrified at the whole affair for the parents sake. Imagine watching your children burn to death because they profaned the name of the Lord, and then be told you are not allowed to mourn. That's horrible. But then I can totally be on God's side and say "They deserved it! How dare they directly disobey God's clear commands!" (Don't judge me here folks, I know everyone does that sometimes!). But that self-righteous feeling doesn't stay too long because I know myself too well to dwell too long on others faults. That's when my feelings of pity and self-righteousness turn to fear. Oh my, we don't fear God anymore. We down-right don't care much of the time. If the truth were known, deep down in our hearts we would much rather enjoy some 'strange fire' than do exactly what God wants us to do. Before long we are so mixed up in our own made up acts of spirituality we don't remember what pure, unadulterated, God-centered living is like. In fact, we don't even have a clue that we're mixed up. One major reason why I'm loving BRF with all of you is that it's getting us back to the basics. We're learning the Bible, just the Bible. We read, God works. It's awesome. He even uses Leviticus to teach me amazing things.

So from Leviticus I'm taking away one major theme: Do not mess with God! He made us, He saves us, He expects us to live by His rules. And He has every right to deal with those doing their own thing in whatever way He chooses, even me. Yikes!

Well, that's all I have time for right now. We've had a busy but very good day here at Watchthesky and this mommy needs some sleep. I'll be checking Mr.Linky out one last time before bed to see if anyone else was able to complete a review though. If you would like to post a review from the reading this week and do not have a blog please email it to me and I'd love to post it for you.:) But of course, if you do have a blog, here is Mr.Linky. Link away. :)

Links you'll love

2008-01-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

My hubby and eldest son are in the woods this morning snaring rabbits. We made this a reason to take a break from school and get a few extra things done around the house. I thought I would be able to have things taken care of and sit down with a cup of tea mid-morning and blog away. My, things take a long time. It's now almost time to get lunch started and many things still need to be done but I'm posting anyway, today will be busy and there won't be another chance... and I just have to post! :)

I have a few links I'd like to pass along. The first and foremost is one I need desperately! I was reminded last night as I did a bit of a grammar test online. I thought I was doing well and pretty proud that I knew what I did. The results actually told me, "You should be embarrassed!". That said, I remembered about a site that explains all I need to know. I'll be looking up some things later on. If you don't need to look because you actually learned it all in school when you were younger I'm jealous of you! :) But if you would like to improve read this site:

Grammar Girl

I also love the LAF website. I do not have much time to read all the great articles they link to but take time every now and then to catch up. Here is the Ladies Against Feminism website:

LAF

And here is one of the latest I've read from there and I would encourage any other moms out there to do the same (without tomatoes in your hand please!) :

The Me Time Myth

Now for those interested in learning a bit more about our Canadian geography and reinforcing all the info with your children check out this site. It's fun and can be easy or challenging for them (and you maybe). It also has a link to print a blank map of Canada and also more links to printable map pages.

Sheppard Software

Now for the jackpot. :) I have fallen in love with the Donna Young site. She is the fairy god mother for the homeschooling family. I was just using her cursive sheets but Seven told me to look around at all the other cool stuff Donna had on the site. Woo Hoo! There are some great things there and so I pass them on to you. Here is the homepage and a few of my new favourite links:

Donna Young's Homeschool printables & resources

Donna Young's printable Calendars

I have my 6 year old doing these penmanship sheets each day. I also started my older two doing them simply to learn the rules. It just so happens that it also makes their writing much neater along the way. :)

George Washington's rules of civility

And my absolute favourite these days is the little link for the math drill sheets. What a great resource for the homeschooling mom! I print myself the answer key and then some drills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, etc.. After just one week we've seen much improvement. It is meant to get all the basic math facts memorized so that thought isn't even needed. They just know that 9x12 is... um.... well, maybe I should do a couple of those sheets too. :{ Here's the link:

Math drill sheets

That's not all she has of course. There are even resources to help you organize your home and stuff. She's awesome. :)

Well, that's all I have time to pass on. I started 25 minutes ago and now it's time for lunch and I better have a quick plan. Tell me it was worth it. Tell me you looked at every link and totally loved them. Tell me Donna Young is awesome and you didn't throw any tomatoes at the third link. Just tell me so I don't feel guilty for updating my blog.

Okay it's now been 27 minutes and I'm very glad there are some leftovers we can scrape together. :)

Need a tutor?

2008-01-22T18:46:00.000-04:00

There are a few people out there who would like to know how to crochet. I happen to have found a great tutor for you. I'm thinking mostly of Seven & her daughter. :) Check out this gal and her very own technique.

Proper Crochet Technique 101 by Smockity Frocks

Check it out, you'll be glad you did. :)

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

2008-01-19T08:07:00.001-04:00

After entering Blockbuster yesterday to find a 'childrens movie' and having to weed through horribly disgusting images I am thinking I'll never enter a movie place again. I'll just call ahead and ask them to set the one I want aside. Who wants to look at extremely pervise things just to find Mary Poppins? Seriously. Now, once we've watched our latest purchase and join in on the 'Let's go fly a kite' song, I know what the next movie I want to see is. Check out this trailer and see what you think.

Book Review: Leviticus 1-5

2008-01-18T08:24:00.000-04:00

** If you do not know what Book Review Friday it just check out my sidebar and we'd love to have you join in with us!**

First things first, let's read Leviticus 6-10 this week. Stick with it girls! :)

Wow! I'm glad I live in the here & now. All those sacrifices given means that I would have needed to own some pretty big herds. I would have spent my days at the tabernacle door killing one animal after another and passing Moses & his sons some grain & oil every now and then.

This is the first time I've seen the need for confession and keeping short accounts with God as I read. That doesn't mean it wasn't there to see in the other books of course, I just didn't see it. These people would have thought twice before lashing out or speaking ill of another person, it would mean getting another one of your animals and going through that whole process again. And they were learning in the not so distant past that their God was not to be trifled with, so they had to do it.

I'm so glad that I'm saved and have Christ as a mediator. Although the thought crossed my mind that His own sacrifice to remove the need of all previously needed sacrifices has made me lazy. It's much easier to 'kill Christ' than to sacrifice as the Israelites had to. When I do something wrong I feel guilty and sorry, but that's the end of it and soon forgotten. If I had to kill a cow or wring the head off a bird every time I sinned or thought I might have, it would have more of a lasting effect.

The whole comparison with the need for sacrifices from the Israelites and the priest being mediator for the people, and my own sin and the need for it to be paid and Christ being my high priest, is amazing. Thank you Jesus for being my high priest, for all my sin shall be forgiven me!

"So the priest shall make atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him." 4:35c

I'll be praying that the Lord reminds me of His sacrifice on my behalf and also to remind me to confess & keep short accounts with Him.

Now it's your turn to add a review to Mr.Linky. If you would like to write a review but don't have a place to post it just email it to me and I'll post it. I can do things like that. :)

Beware

2008-01-17T11:57:00.000-04:00

Last week while we were at our public library & gym my 4 year old disappeared down the small hall that led to the sports equipment. I figured he was getting a ball or something. He was taking a bit too long so I checked on him. I had no idea that the hallway also led to a bathroom that my little guy had just used without my knowing. I was horrified! I let him know that he should never go to the bathroom without mommy or daddy when we are in a public place.

Today my oldest two were working away on their school stuff and my 4 year old came up to me and said that he's not supposed to go to the bathroom alone in public.
"That's right," I said, "It's very important to never do that."
Then my 6 year old asked why.
"It could be very dangerous. There could be someone in there that would be very mean to you." I said.
"Like what?" he asks.

I think all of us mom's have heard stories of kids being taken advantage of in these types of situations, but my kids haven't. I'm not quite sure when they will be ready to hear about such things. For now we'll go with my 9 year old's explanation. Picture a most serious tone:

"Yeah, they could start bashing you against the sink."

Reading to the kids

2008-01-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

I'm so tired my brain isn't functioning very well, but I'm blogging anyway. :) I've wanted to pass on our reading list to you for a while. We (we actually means I) read to the children each night after tucking them in bed. Many of the books we read are passed down to us from the cousins. We don't own many of the ones we've read including my list below. But we're well stocked because the cousins read through them faster than we do and we are just getting to the bottom of the last bag we were given since Christmas time. :)
So in case you are interested in some good clean reading for the family you can take a look at our list.

Ducktails by Janette Oke, the kids laughed a lot in this one. Silly little duckling! :) Some good lessons to learn about the importance of obeying your parents here.

Danny Orlis and the Old Mine Mystery by Bernard Palmer
Danny Orlis and the Dry Gulch Mystery by Bernard Palmer

There wasn't a picture of the right book for Danny Orlis but I'm sure the whole series is great. It's a Christian Hardy Boys type of book. Excellent for those boys of yours!

Shanghaied to China by Dave & Neta Jackson

This is the first of the trailblazer books we've read. We are pleased with this one but I'm really not sure about the rest. Be sure to read through them before handing over to your children to see if they are too mature or intense.:)

Jimmy Skunk by Thornton W. Burgess

My mom used to read these ones to me and she read them as a child. I'd love to own the whole set.

All of my children enjoyed each of these books. They range in age from 9 - 4. I can't really include the 4 year old I guess, since he is usually asleep before page one is read through. :)

Anyway, that's all she wrote for tonight folks. If you have any book recommendations to pass along please feel free. And if I'm not too tired in the near future I'll add a few more that we've read in another post.

Just one more. :)

2008-01-15T13:42:00.001-04:00

Found the song!

2008-01-15T08:32:00.001-04:00

Seven found the video and I figured I'd share it with you. And it just goes to show how much I know of celebritiys. I thought it was Billy Ray Cyrus that sang this one, it's actually Billy Dean and it tears my heart apart. I think the ending is different from the video I watched way back when. Doesn't he meet back up with her years later and she's married with a child and asking for his autograph??? What a sad song!

Happy thought indeed

2008-01-13T14:07:00.001-04:00

I'm not big on celebrities. Couldn't care less actually. So when I checked out CNN online the other day and read the latest on Hanna Montana and how she used a double (how dare she) during a concert it didn't affect my mood in the least. Now, if she could have run to the store this morning to grab a new pair of nylons for me to wear to church instead of the ones I have with 4 runs in them, she would have become a fast friend. But she didn't. And so life goes on around here without good ol Hanna Montana.

I'm working through getting my head wrapped around our school subjects for this coming fall. As the kids grow it's not as straight forward with the subjects as it was when they just needed to learn to read, add & subtract. I want to be prepared and know they are getting what they need. Off I went to my older sisters to look through her stuff and get her take on it. I went into her home stressed about schooling and came away relieved and with a list in hand.

Also a month or so ago I was commenting to the same sister about how hard it is to keep the house organized and clean. I was tired. She told me in a straight forward manner that the kids could be doing much of what I tried to take care of. Kids fold their own laundry!?!?! Happy thought indeed! So I've been checking myself much more to see if I can hand over a job to a youngster and get something else done myself. We are still in the works with this new idea but the finished product is promising to be quite refreshing. My children always washed & dried dishes, filled the wood box, took care of the chickens, made their beds... but there is a whole lot of day and job left when they are finished those little tasks.

So, now I know who Hannah Montana is (which apparently I should have known a long time ago,) but she wasn't the one to tell me about Zoology 1 & to check out the Timberdoodle site. But hey, maybe all hope is not lost in the Hollywood realm. Maybe I should check out some celebrity sites and see if anyone has tips on how to train a 4 year old to sneeze without holding their mouths shut tight when they have a cold. Maybe, just maybe they will have some advice that a decent stay-at-home mom could use.

Book Review Friday: Philemon

2008-01-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

First things, we will be starting off in Leviticus chapters 1-5 this week. I've never read Leviticus and am truly excited about it. I always avoided it thinking it would be a boring list of something or other. We'll see. :)

I struggled with Philemon this week. I didn't struggle in reading it, it's so short I was able to read it sometimes a number of times a day. But I read it and read it and still nothing was 'hitting' me. I was actually wondering why God chose for this book to be included in the scriptures. Part of me is still wondering and will be pleased to read what you all learned, and part of me did see a few things. Nothing big and new, but convicting still. Here are a couple points I've pondered:

vs)6, " that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." When people watch me they should see Christ working in me. That's what makes it count when I witness to them. Whatever I might say is backed up in action. When others see that action in me it really does show the power of the gospel. They don't just hear it, they see it.

vs)7, "For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother." By living out my faith and having that love for Christ and believers I am a tremendous encouragement to other Christians. It's refreshing to me when I see someone else passionate about their walk with Christ, so I can assume that others would be encouraged by seeing the same thing in me.

vs)8&9, "Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for loves sake I rather appeal to you..." The nice thing about when Christians live with Christ-like attitudes is that we need only to be asked. We see a need and we fill it. In a world where Christ is center Christians don't' have to be told or hounded to meet a need, because the love in them removes the need for commands and creates a willingness and desire to help.

vs11) " who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me." This perhaps was my favourite verse from the book. It's just another testament to the fact that the gospel changes everything. You could know a person for years and not really have anything in common. You just know who they are and that's about it, then they get saved and all of a sudden you have so much in common. Jenn of www.jennrambleson.wordpress.com is a perfect example of this. We went to the same school, my sister even played v-ball with her a few times but she was just another person in the hall at school or on the court. Now she's saved and we're friends and sharing notes and discussing verses, meeting up at church and different ministries. It's like night & day. Love it.
Also, as many of you know, I tend to talk to people I don't know when I'm out and about. For example, while at Frenchy's with a friend I met up with an older lady and she was letting me know how to get a stain out of a tablecloth. She had an accent so I asked where she was from. Well, she's from the Netherlands and she's been here for 30 odd years and is best friends with her next door neighbour of the full 30 odd years, etc... She was a great lady and we enjoyed our little chat but that's where it ended. When I mention something about the Lord providing the stuff I needed at Frenchy's there is no recognition of spiritual things it seemed. But, me and my little family eating out in a restaurant and praying before our meal has caused us to meet a few people. There have been a few times when another couple has pulled up a chair beside us and asked us point blank if we were born again because they saw us pray, because they were too. Well there's a conversation starter! :) Then we instantly feel a connection and proceed to have a great conversation and really get to know each other. Both the Frenchy's lady and the restaurant people were very nice, it's just that meeting one was more encouraging and more 'profitable' than the other.
I've walked into stores that were playing Christian music and made a point to ask them if they were Christians. When they are it's encouraging to them to be asked and also encouraging to me.
I've stopped a guy in the airport who was wearing a Christian t-shirt and asked if he was saved. He wasn't, he found the shirt in a second hand store, but he said he had been stopped and asked that a lot after putting it on. Not only does that open up a great witnessing opportunity but it also is encouraging to know there were others in that airport who were Christians and excited enough about it to ask someone else if they were too. Encouraging.
Onesimus was the same I guess. He left a non Christian and was returning home a completely different person able to encourage and connect with his former acquaintance in a totally new and meaningful way.

And finally vs 21) " Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say." As a Christian I should be giving %110 to the things of the Lord, not my leftovers. Often we Christians chug-a-lug along each day and use whatever steam is left to get through our 'ministries'. And to have it that people could count on us to give all we've got and more when asked to do something for the Lord is becoming a rarity.

Well folks, that's all she wrote. Maybe I thought that the theme of Philemon was 'encourage'. maybe. I'm just thinking that after writing all I did. Live for Christ like you mean to and you'll encourage others and be encouraged yourself. Maybe that's it. ;)

Here's Mr.Linky so you can add your own review. If you would like to write a review and do not have a blog please just email me your post and I'll post it for you on my second blog. I'll do things like that just to get more reviews on Mr.Linky. :) And of course, if you are new to the Book Review Friday idea please check out my sidebar for all the details and join in wherever we are! :)

Thoughts on prayer

2008-01-10T13:13:00.000-04:00

Well there are a few of you who have checked out the prayer link. I know this because you wrote and told me. :) It was good and now you know (if you read the link).

I've been thinking a lot about what John Piper said. I've thought about why I struggled with not knowing what the right way to pray is. I do pray, but in the past year or so have started to wonder if we as Christians pray 'okay'. Through a few different messages and in reading the Scriptures I became more in awe of just who God is. That happens the more you get to know Him. And because of realizing just who I am praying to and how shallow I am it brought me to thinking about my own prayer life a lot. It also had me listening more intently to others as they prayed. My conclusions were that most of the time we are just rambling to God and trying to sound spiritual and basically praying for our own good, not for God's glory. We're human it's going to happen.
What I appreciated in Piper's writing was how matter of fact it was. Prayer is simple. Not easy, but simple. What I cannot forget is that I am praying to an awesome holy God who demands my fear and respect, but I also have the awesome privilege of having a relationship with Him. A close and personal one.

In a close relationship with someone I don't just concentrate on one aspect of that person. We as friends cover a whole spectrum of things, ideas, feelings, and even disagreements. Piper reminded me that prayer is another privilege God has given me to bear all of my heart, ask for His blessings, worship Him with all my heart, see God change things because I asked, and above all see God's name hallowed in my life. To me that last one is scary. God is God and He could cause anything to happen in my life, painful or pleasant. I'm not one to pray for painful things but by allowing God full reign in my heart through prayer, painful is just what I may get. But that doesn't exclude joy. Even in painful circumstances my joy can be full. I know, I've been there before.
Yes, I loved the article. And I really hope Seven does her prayer post soon too so I can read that. (hint, hint) :)

I really hope this isn't confusing. Before that article came along I really wouldn't of been able to make it even this clear. Prayer had become confusing for me. Always wondering if my prayers were pleasing to the Lord hindered them. Now I know that even my honest 'complaining' prayers are okay with God.
It's all about the relationship & giving God the glory for it all, not about the exact words I say.
So I'll pray on and leave it all in His hands because we know God is good, all the time. :)

Hallowed Be Your Name

2008-01-09T20:45:00.000-04:00

One of mine and hubby's favourite reads is John Piper. Hubby reads his books, I read his website. This week on Desiring God, John Piper's website, he had this article on prayer:

Pray like this

I wanted to pass it along. Prayer is something that I have struggled with a lot. Not only to be more disciplined with it but also to understand just what the point is, and exactly what is the right way to pray. When I saw his headline 'Pray Like This' it got my attention right away. I love how straightforward it is. Say it like it is, right? :) Here are a couple small quotes from the link I gave you just to wet the appetite again.

“You do not have because you do not ask” means prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen.

If your joy in God is small, this may be part of the reason. Pray . . . that your joy may be full.

The first thing that Jesus tells us to ask God to do—mark this! The first thing. The head of the list. Above all others. Most central. Most supreme. Most overarching. Most all-encompassing—the first thing he tells us to ask God to do is that God would cause his name to be hallowed. The first, and all-pervasive, all-influencing, all-controlling concern in prayer is to plead with God that God would make his name supremely valuable in the minds and hearts of people.

This stuff is important. I know that if I left a link to a gorgeous picture or an awesome recipe you would all check it, but I have my doubts for a link on prayer. That's the way it is most of the time. Let this not be one of those times. :) In this new year of 2008 let's get down to business and start pray without ceasing and just see what the Lord will do!

Reminder

2008-01-08T14:54:00.000-04:00

*If you read my blog but don't do BRF and don't care to, please skip first paragraph, but I may need your help in the second one. :)

This is a friendly little reminder to all of you out there who are part of Book Review Friday, or wish to be, that Friday is coming soon. Philemon is such a little book that even if you haven't gotten around to reading it yet you could still read it at least 6 times before Friday if you wanted to. Seriously. (For my others 'serious' statements see the previous posts. :) And also, if you read along with us but do not have a blog feel free to email a review to me and I'll post it for you, with or without your name as you choose. You see, I have this Wordpress blog that is just sitting there and they won't let me delete it so I figure it's still good for something. I'll just post non-blogger BRF posts on it... if you want. :)

Is there anyone out there in my little bloggy world that would have a clue about good math programs for children with dyslexia? Many dyslexics do well in math, we're not one of those people, and we would appreciate any help in pointing us in the right direction. Thanks so much.

3 Random things

2008-01-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

I don't have much to blog about but feel like posting something. So here are 3 random things I'll share with you all. :)

1. Last week we were waiting for the 'heavy snowfall warning' to actually produce some snow. The kids love snow. My daughter loves potatoes too, a lot. So when I told her it was finally snowing she asked me this, "Are the snowflakes as big as the hash browns I had yet?"
She was perfectly serious.

2. Today at lunch my youngest boy asked the blessing. His prayers always have a lot of 'And I pray that....' in it. The very last request of his was, "And I pray that daddy & Uncle J will shoot a grizzly bear. Amen."
He was perfectly serious.

3. Hubby took a trek up in the attic this morning and found a bunch of these....

Our home is almost 200 years old and this wood is the same age. It looks like the wood is wet but it's just got a bit of paint or something on the end. They were too long to try to get downstairs and out the door. He's thinking of making some cool stuff out of it.
Any orders???? I'm serious.

The Rebelution's latest post.

2008-01-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

These guys have more on the ball than most people. I thought I'd pass their latest article for ya'll to read and if you want you can go from there and read the previous postings from the series. If you've never heard of The Rebelution... where have you been?!?! :)
Here is a tiny little snippet from the post. I'm quoting a quote that they used. It's good don't you think?

This is what G.K. Chesterton was talking about when he wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”

Anyway, I hope that wets your appetite for more. Here's the link for you:

Why do hard things?

What's on your table?

2008-01-05T08:53:00.000-04:00

My daughter was the first one to claim my new puzzle table after Christmas. All the kids were given a puzzle in the stocking and we've been working on hers off and on since Boxing day.
Working on it....

And if you look very closely you'll see part of the wing missing on one of the birds.

Don't ya hate that!?
So we'll be cutting the vacuum bag open and sifting through all the dirt in there to see if we can find it. If it wasn't for the fact that it's a brand new puzzle and it is loved so much by it's owner I wouldn't go to such great lengths as that. But surely it can't be that hard to find a puzzle piece inside my vacuum.

Tell me, what's been on your table??

Book Review Friday: Exodus

2008-01-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

First things first, we'll read Philemon every day until next Friday. It's very very short so maybe we could even read it a couple times a day. :) I was kind of shocked to look at my list and find out we haven't done this book yet.

We have a sick little boy in the house and it's taken me this long to get to the computer. And even then many breaks in between typing to get a glass of water help the little guy in the bathroom and tuck blankets around him. But here we go with Exodus. :)

My, it's good to be back. Book review Friday is good for me. But as you will see in my review I really don't have very much to say. But I caught up with ya'll and read the whole thing.
I'm jealous of Moses. "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." 33:11 "Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai,... that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him." 34:29 Someday I'll get to speak with God face to face too. Meanwhile I'll be reading and praying and getting closer to him that people will see the glory of the Lord shining through in my life.
I loved how the book of Exodus ended. There were a lot of mistakes and sin throughout the whole story but it ends with the glory of the Lord filling and surrounding them. "Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 40:34 " Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys." 40:36 There was no doubting that God was ever present for the Israelites now. They had showed that this is exactly what they needed, just as a toddler needs to have their mommy with them 24/7 for teaching, training & discipline. They also knew exactly when to be moving along. Clear concise direction from the Lord and a constant reminder of His presence, care, and also judgement if they did not heed his voice. I have often wished for such readable signs to be put in place for me.
Exodus was good, I wish I had been more diligent. I will be looking forward to some reviews showing up on Mr.Linky as the day passes.

If you don't know what Book Review Friday is just check out the info on my sidebar and feel free to jump in wherever we are! :)

Getting prepared for the new year.

2008-01-02T14:40:00.000-04:00

It's a blustery snowy day out there and I'm glad to have an afternoon to just chill out. Our Christmas is every bit as busy as yours. :) Then New Year's eve is a big party at The Homeplace to bring in the new year. Games, way too much food, hot apple cider, The Andy Griffith show for the kids to watch, and waiting for the clock to strike midnight, and then lots of sparklers. It makes for some pretty tired kids on Jan 1st but we wouldn't miss it for anything (except the flu, which did happen one year, ewwww).
Growing up we didn't stay up to bring in the new year... ever. But Grammie & Grampie have everyone over every year now. We love reasons to party. And the very next day after the big bash is a birthday party for one of my chillins. Yep, he was the first baby born for our town that year. And I now have a birthday party to get ready for when everyone is sick of partying and gift giving, and concerts, and mommy just happens to be a little extra tired after it all. I could, and I say could because I would never do it for real:), go crazy and get a little overwhelmed with it all. You would think I'd remember to get prepared for a New Years birthday, especially if it happens every single year, but I haven't caught on yet.
Forget all other resolutions for this year. The ones from last year just didn't work out. They are dead and gone, and I'm okay with that. :) But this year I want to keep a close eye on my calander and be prepared for EVERYTHING, right up to that Jan.1st birthday for 2009. Oh yeah, and I also want to keep a close eye on the budget. My, we are seeing God's blessing on our attempts at being frugal. We want to continue down that road. So calanders & budgets are on the list this year.
So what have you got planned for the new year?

Differences

2007-12-31T15:59:00.000-04:00

* Another post taken from the archives of way back in the day, a whole 1 1/2 years ago. :)

The more God changes me (and He's done a whole whack of changing in this girl) the more I feel alienated from everyone around me. I will admit, embarrassingly so, that I do not really have any relationship on any level with a professing non-Christian. It's hard to when I'm always home with the kids or grocery shopping, not really a whole lot of time to make new friends. I do have 4 little people in my charge that I am responsible for disciplining to the end that they will know Christ one day, but outside of my little sphere I am not witnessing. That has got to change!
But I have also been on the other end and had many unsaved people I spent time with. My hubby and I spent lots of time just being around unsaved people over the past few years while he was pastoring and I didn't really notice that it made much difference to them and it certainly wasn't a good environment for the kids to be in. The times when we had opportunity to speak about Christ with them was usually one on one, helping them out with fix-it jobs, giving them drives into town, having them over for coffee etc. The times we 'hung out' with them on their own turf was a completely different story. Nobody was interested in listening to 'God talk'. They were drinking, listening to ungodly music, smoking, horrible language, and the stories they like to tell are not worthy of the "whatsoever things are pure" verse. After many years of trying to meet them on their own ground we realized that wasn't what God had purposed for us to do. He wants us to bring them out of it, not get in there with them.
And lets face it, if we were truly living the sold-out kind of Christianity that God calls us to they wouldn't want us around. "What fellowship has light with darkness"? Yes, Jesus spent time with sinners but He used every single opportunity with them to witness and lead them to Himself. Let's be honest, how many times have we as Christians sat down and really shared Christ with our unsaved friends? Not just a "I go to church on Sundays, would you like to go with me?", or "I'm praying for you", or even a "Jesus died for you". Do we take every opportunity to speak about Christ or are we talking about how much we love shopping or the latest movie we watched?
I'm not saying we have to walk around yelling on the street corners that people need to get saved, but I do mean that we do not live with eternity in mind. These people are going to hell, how can we be best buddies with someone who is going in the complete opposite direction as us? We should desire to 'spend' less time with them and desire to 'use' the times we have with them more wisely. God doesn't bring unsaved people across our path so we can have lots of friends, there's a much bigger picture here. He brings them to us so we can lead them to Him. That's very difficult to do when we do everything they do and go everywhere they go and look no different than them. If that is the case why would they think they have to change, if we're good they must be good?
I believe from reading about how the disciples were treated that when we are living for the Lord and we meet people, the will either be drawn to us because they want what we have or they will shun us because we aren't like them and we make them feel uncomfortable.
I am so thankful for my life. This new thought sprouts from an invitation my sister & I had from our new neighbors to their 'house-warming' party. We have enjoyed talking to them a bit and getting to know them over the past 2 weeks, they are nice people. But when we were invited to come over today I had forgotten that we were not going to a church function. Since we moved from Ontario I haven't really spent very much time around unsaved people and I had a wake up call all over again. I will not say any more about those we met and spent a whole 1/2 hour with this afternoon but I will say this: I am so thankful for my saved family. I am so thankful for my church family. I am so thankful that we know how to have fun without alcohol. I am so thankful we have 4 kids. (apparently it's 'sick' to have a lot of kids, as we were told today) I am so thankful that the women we spend time with know how much skin should be covered when in company with anyone other than their husband.
I found out that there are things that we have in common with the unsaved. We all eat, drink, work, and play, but we do those things completely differently. I must ask why anyone who is truly saved would want to spend time in the company of those who are not. They don't listen to good music, they like to go places that are ungodly, they think kids are baggage, they don't care about anything we should care about. If anything, spending time with unsaved people pulls us away from everything that's worth anything.
I think I'll just avoid communing with unsaved people and just keep chatting with them and throwing out the seeds God wants me to plant along the way. I am so glad I'm saved and I'm so sad that these people have no idea what they are missing out on.
When we get together with other Christians we get so excited. I know what I will see before it even starts. There will be my whole family there. Dad, Mom, all the sisters and cousins running around. A whole bunch of church family coming with a snack or two and lots of smiles. Probably a hug or two going around and punch bowls being filled a number of times over. Kids climbing in the fences and adults actually having conversations with the children from time to time. Women by the sink doing up some dishes. You may here a 'God has been so good!' or "I'll be praying for you." here and there. I can say all that, but there's nothing to describe the whole overtone of an event with a bunch of other Christians. There's just something special about it and I'm glad I can be part of it.
Keep near the cross.

A Friendly Pop Quiz :)

2007-12-30T15:56:00.000-04:00

One of our family gifts under the tree this year was a pack of Bible quiz cards. Hubby went through a bunch of them a couple nights ago before the chillins went to bed. I was surprised when the kids new many of the answers, and I was excited that I knew many of the ones they didn't. This book review Bible reading pays off in many different ways you know, you can look so Bible savvy when these quiz cards show up. :) And so now I pass on a few questions to you fellow readers. See how many of these you can answer (without looking it up!). They are all taken from books of the Bible we've read but in no particular order :)

1. What did the Israelite spies sent into Canaan bring back?
2. What creature ate the vine that gave shade to Jonah?
3. Who threshed wheat in a winepress to hide it from the Midianites?
4. Where were Abraham's family living when they first set out for Canaan?
5. Where did Sarah's slave girl, Hagar, come from?
6. Where did Moses flee to escape the death penalty after killing an Egyptian?
7. Where was the burning bush?
8. Who held up Moses' arms so that the Israelites could defeat the Amalekites in battle?
9. How many sons did Moses and his wife, Zipporah, have?
10. What were their names?
11. Where did the feeding of the 5000 take place?
12. Which disciple did the boy go up to with his food?
13. Where did Jesus tell his disciples to stay after his resurrection?
14. What were the tongues of fire a symbol of?
15. Which king believed in the God who had saved Daniel from the lions?
16. Who visited King Solomon with a caravan of camels carrying precious gifts?
17. Whose clothes were made out of camel's hair?
18. Which Canaanite commander did a woman kill with a tent peg?
19. Who rewarded Mordecai by letting him ride through the city on the king's own horse?
and finally,
20. What did Samson tie to the tails of 300 foxes?

If you don't know the answers to many of these take heart, I didn't either. :) But what is truly exciting is that I knew what story they were asking about and knew which book to look it up in if I had to. So even if we don't remember exact names at this point, we are doing well if we know more answers to these than we would have a year ago. Let me know how you think you did and I'd love to hear that someone actually got %100.
Once we go through more of the cards here at home I'll post some more questions for ya'll. :)

Book Review Friday Returns :)

2007-12-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I learned something these past couple of weeks. I need Book Review Friday! Without that accountability I totally lost the gumption to keep reading by the end of the holiday stretch. So whether you all are in on it or not, I must do it for me. If you are new to the whole idea please check it all out here:

Book Review Friday

One thing I noticed in Exodus as I was reading a while ago was how quickly the Israelites turned away from God. They were saved from being slaves in Egypt and saw miraculous things happen by God's hand on their behalf. As soon as Moses left them to go commune with the Lord they all melted their jewelery and started worshipping a golden calf and doing perfectly wicked things. Just like that! No backsliding bit by bit, they went full throttle into major sin. We can do the same thing. It scares me that I can not only become complacent in my walk with the Lord, but I can actually desire and enjoy sin, and become that way overnight.
When given their freedom the Israelites showed their true colours. As soon as they were on their own and the accountability of Moses was gone we see where their hearts really were the whole time. God can show us the true state of ourselves in the same way. I cancelled the book reviews for a short time and already started finding reasons that I couldn't fit reading in each day. I'm not proud of it. It's just one small/big step in the completely wrong direction.
And so with that all said I reinstate Book Review Friday and call on all ladies out there to join in. It's worth it.

For the next week I'll try to start things up where we should be (not where I actually am). How about Exodus chapters 35-40 until Jan 4th? I'll read through the chapters I missed to catch up and not miss exactly what's going on. :) I'm really looking forward to getting back to the basics and I really hope there are others out there who want to do the same. :) :)
Besides, when I told my hubby a couple weeks ago that I was considering doing away with the book review, my blog.... everything, he told me that really wasn't a good idea. I wasn't expecting him to encourage me to keep blogging, but since I always try to be oh-so-submissive I'll keep things going here at Watch the Sky. :)

Let's do another head count and see just who is joining us so far in this new year coming up with our weekly readings. Leave a comment if you're up for being a part of book review Friday, whether you have a blog to post your review or not does not matter, just let us all know if you are actually reading. :)

Hope you all had a merry Christmas and are encouraged for the new year to come!
~Shannon

Braggin on my men.

2007-12-26T11:35:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas again. Although things are still pretty busy around here I have to take a minute to let you all see what I was given for Christmas. You see, I had this dream of the perfect coffee table for us. It would be large and have a built in puzzle table. That was all I needed to say and for the past month hubby & my oldest son have been puttering away out in the barn. This is what they came up with....

The best part about it is that it didn't cost a cent. Hubby just used old barn boards and leftover stuff from our almost 200 year old home. I love it. The picture is awful and doesn't show just how nice it is. My son was the one who built the puzzle shelf that so neatly slides in under the top to hide when we're not working on it. Mr.Man-let-me-tell-you, it's cool. :)

Another bit of news that I know you will all be so impressed with is that we didn't spend any money we didn't have this Christmas. It meant we couldn't do a few things that we normally would do, but we made it without bringing out the Visa. Woo Hoo! I would have failed the test big time, but hubby said a big fat 'NO!' when I was tempted to falter. :) Good thing. I feel better knowing that we pulled it off for the first time ever.

I'm off to clean up a bit and maybe find time to sit down beside my new table with a cup of hot apple cider in the new dishes I was given. Love Christmas! :)

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T08:24:00.000-04:00

It's finally here. My kids are saying over and over again how they can't believe it's here already. Tell me about it. But I think I'm ready. I'll spend today making a couple pies and those great peanut butter balls. I'll take care of the last of the gifts for the family, and then big time clean up time. I just can't stand the thought of tomorrow with dust or dirt anywhere and I simply must change all the bedding. Not sure why that's an issue for Christmas this year but it is. Gotta have fresh bedding for Christmas eve ya know.
I'll leave you with a couple pic's from our little Christmasy neck of the woods. And you all make sure you have a great day with family and friends tomorrow always remembering that it's because of God's perfect Son, Jesus Christ, that we have this wonderful time of year. Merry Christmas!

Go outside..... please.

2007-12-19T23:39:00.000-04:00

The kids are so excited to have a white Christmas. Totally white. (Watch, it'll rain hard and warm up big time tomorrow.) They are so looking forward to sliding at Grampie & Grammie's place on Christmas day. But of course we don't wait for that special day to take advantage of the cool weather. This mean mommy makes her kids go outside to play every afternoon. I don't really have to tell the older 3 to go out but little #4 would prefer the warm indoors to a winter wonderland. I don't blame him, I would too. But I'm following in my mothers footprints and sending them out. I now know why she wouldn't let us come in for a long time when we were kids playing in the snow.
"Hey mom, I'm coming in now."
"No you're not."
Out we go again to dig yet another tunnel in a snowbank.
Moms are smart. :)

Here are my 4 explorers today. We'll try to forget about the part when they were all walking back to the house and #4 decides it would be more advantageous to sit down in the snow and scream, yell, and cry about not being able to catch up to the others. Loved that part. Loved it SO much.

A bit of Christmas music for ya'll

2007-12-17T21:33:00.001-04:00

Found this video today on another blog. Love it. You'll love it too. Honest!!! :)

Sparrow's Nest Cookie Exchange

2007-12-17T13:05:00.000-04:00

Over at the

Sparrow's Nest

Mrs.Wilt is hosting a Christmas cookie exchange. I love cookies!? :) And just because I do love treats so much I'll put in two recipes. Woo hoo!

Graham Cracker Squares
1 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
30 Graham crackers broken into quarter size pieces

In medium saucepan, whisk together egg and brown sugar.
Whisk in cocoa and vanilla.
Add shortening and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Boil 1 minute. Immediately pour over graham wafers.
Put in 8x8 pan. Press down slightly to smooth top.

Icing:
1 Cup Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Flour
1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Tbsp Vanilla
Lump of Butter
1/4 tsp Salt

Mix with milk to make icing and spread over top of graham wafer mixture.
Put in fridge 1 hour or more to set.

* I must say it is very important to mix the egg with the sugar, cocoa and vanilla before heating!

Peanut Butter Balls
We love baking with peanut butter and this is so easy and tasty it's scary. No actual 'baking' involved. :)
All you need:

1 Cup Peanut butter
1 Cup Icing sugar
1 Cup Rice Krispies
1/4 Cup Butter softened

Mix the butter with the peanut butter and add the icing sugar.
Add the Rice Krispies and mix all up.
Roll into 1 inch balls and then roll in icing sugar to coat.

Another option if you don't mind a little mess is to melt milk chocolate chips and use spoons to dip and cover peanut butter balls and let harden on wax paper. That's the way I usually do them. These never last long around the kids and have become an expected holiday treat. Just remember that you may need to store them in the fridge for a while so they don't get too soft. All thanks to Grandma for this recipe.

Make that 3 recipes. :)
Melt in your mouth Shortbread
You may think you have the best shortbread recipe in the world, and I don't mean to be rude, but you don't. If you want total melt-in-your-mouth shortbread, just like the olden days, then we've got the recipe for you just in time for the holidays. It is pictured just under those yummy peanut butter balls on the cute snowman plate.
I took a whole big tin of this to a little gathering in Ontario and didn't get to bring a speck of it home. Everyone wanted to know who brought the shortbread and where the recipe was.
And believe me, you have to use your hands to do all the mixing. It really does make a difference. Once I was so energetic I mixed it for 20 minutes instead of 10 and it was even better.
Another must with the recipe is to use Splenda whether you need to or not. Using regular sugar just ruins it for some reason.

1 lb Butter, softened
1 pkg Rice Flour
1 Cup Splenda white sugar
3 1/2 -3/4 Cup All purpose flour

Mix all together with hands only 10 - 15 minutes at least. (The longer you mix it the better it is.)
Make into 1 ball and roll out to 1/2" thickness on floured area.
Cut into bars (just like you were cutting squares to serve) and place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
Bake at 225 F for about 40 min. Until top is dry and dusty. (It's hard to tell until you've done it once. Just brush it with your finger to see if it's dusty or damp.) It's another one of those times when you take it out when you think they aren't quite done.
Place on cooling rack and taste test as soon as your lips won't get burned. :)

~Shannon

As little hearts ponder.

2007-12-14T08:29:00.000-04:00

Warning** The following post is a reprint from back in the day, like last year.**
My daughter was quite deceived as to the man's work ethic.
It was just me and her waiting in the van for the rest of the family to come out of Canadian Tire (hubby's favourite store) and there wasn't anything to do. I had already put all the garbage in a bag, cleaned out my purse and organized a few things, then a man came out to gather the carts for the nearby grocery store. My daughter's comment had something to do with his hard work and I refrained from saying something to the effect of, " He's a lazy idiot is what he is" and tried to find a more suitable way of explaining that she was entirely wrong. Then, because I was feeling perky & organized and ready to take on the world, I figured why not bring up the subject of who she should marry. Boy, did that get her thinking.
My little girl is a very serious little girl, if you knew her well you would know that. She's shy and squishes up her nose if you talk to her and she can be very silly. But, I knew if I brought something like this up she will mull it over time and time again and take it all very seriously.
So we studied that man and how hard he really was working. She started noticing he didn't care about how quickly he got his job done (he was taking his sweet time that's for sure), and how many trips in and out of the store it took him to get the very few carts all put back in order. I started explaining to her about how she needs to study boys like that over the years to know what they are really like so that when she is all grown up and ready to get married she will know if the man will take care of her or not.
We talked about how if a boy works really hard at his job (& quickly), whether he enjoys it or not, then he will be the type of man that will work hard to take care of you and provide for the family. If he is very kind & caring to his mom, sisters, and other girls, then he will be kind and caring as a husband.
We also talked about being the kind of woman that a man like that would want. That part was a little humbling. I had to tell her we would learn together to be like that because I had a lot to learn too. I couldn't say like it says in Prov.23:26 " give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways".
And of course, I realized once again the huge job in front of me of raising 3 boys to be the kind of men that will be 'that good husband'. Oh my, I could get tired just thinking about it. It's terrifying! But one thing at a time. I had a little talk with my little girl and she has another 11 years (at least) to ponder on a few things, and learn to become a psychologist when it comes to finding the perfect man.

Gotta be one to know.

2007-12-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

There was one day I wished I weighed a bit more, or was at least 6 months pregnant. Because I'm as skinny as a rake and very un-pregnant I was called upon to ignore my fears and fix the dryer. Yep, I was scared. You see, the dryer won't budge from it's place in it's closet in the bathroom. Just enough space for it.... and me apparently.

It doesn't matter if you 'know' that being a mom is a big lesson in unselfishness, you have to become one to really know what that means. Motherhood has been one of the biggest struggles in my life thus far. The dryer incident being one of the latest trifles to deal with. I love motherhood but it's hard work. Sometimes it calls me totally out of my comfort zone. I'm claustrophobic. So me having to hang upside down in a very small space to fix the dryer while hubby handed tools down to me and explained each step clearly to this dyslexic momma took my breath away a few times. I actually was too panicky to scream most of the time. (Maybe this isn't the best example to give for unselfishness, after all I really wanted to have a dryer back again. But it's the only one I have a picture for.:)

It all starts when you bring that little cutie home and there are no more nurses to take care of it while you rest. It's all up to you. You have discovered a totally new level of tiredness and wonder if you will ever feel perky again. But even then you just don't really get it. I think you need to have at least 2 or three children before you really understand. Having a newborn to feed and diaper and hold and feed and diaper and hold and feed and diaper and hold, along with those other little kids that are old enough to walk around and get into things, and ask a million questions before lunch, and start potty training .... that's when you start to see that this is going to cost you something. It's going to cost you yourself.

My dream growing up was to get married young and have lots of kids and be the perfect family. Me in my apron getting gorgeous tasty meals ready, my kids all freshly bathed and in spiffy outfits waiting for daddy to arrive home for supper. Of course I would always be the epitome of patience and love ruling my little ones with tender correction. Oh yeah, that's me. Whatever. I did get married young, I did have a few kids, I do bath them, we do our best to find spiffy outfits at Frenchy's..... ummm as for the meals, I try to enjoy cooking. Patience, love, and tenderness are slowly becoming part of my life. All this after 9 years of having children to care for.

Big lessons come in ordinary experiences. Just learning to say 'no' to my wants and tend to my families needs instead is a lifelong thing. Most women today, including Christian women, have been brainwashed into thinking they aren't doing anything important if they just stay home and take care of house & home. We're told that you aren't living up to your full potential if a women chooses to hold her family more important than a career. Well ya know what!?!? It takes a whole lot more strength to stay home and stick it out than to escape from our responsibility and spend most of our time away from it. When you stay home you see all the housework that needs to be done and kept up with, you see more of your children and start noticing how much work there is to do with their character and attitudes. Because everyone is home most of the time it creates more housework, and naturally more cooking because there are 3 meals to make and then 3 meals to clean up after. Then we have to fit half a day of schoolwork into the mix and the list goes on and on. Do I sound like I'm complaining? I'm not. I love it. But a lot of my days I start out thinking I'm really not up to the challenge. I'm tired and just want to sleep in, I don't want to make lunch, I'd rather check my email or go visit someone for a cup of tea. I don't want to make sure there is a clean bathroom for everyone to use in the morning. But thats when I pray and the Lord reminds me that this life isn't about all the 'I's', it's all about Him. This is the task He has called me to. This is the life He has blessed me with. Those tired days are the days He will give me supernatural strength for.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well, I might trade it for a bigger closet for the washer & dryer. :)

92 year old says "No" to theif!

2007-12-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

My mother was telling me about a story she heard. I looked it up and thought I'd pass it along to you. I still want to read my Bible everyday and underlining it when I'm 92. And I want the courage to witness to the very people that put my life in danger too. Check out the video to see what I'm talking about. :)

News clip

The best turkey ever!!

2007-12-05T14:49:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd pass along the perfect turkey recipe from Smockity Frocks. She claims that your meal will turn out perfect every time.

Here's hoping!

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds really good. Check it out and let me know what you think. I'll be giving it a try over the holidays myself. :)

Exodus

2007-11-30T21:07:00.000-04:00

First things first, we'll be reading Exodus chapters 16-20 for the next week. I love Exodus. :)

And as for my review, I just can't do it. I want to and I am loving Exodus as are the kids, but I just don't have the time to write and re-write a review to try to get it to say what I want it to say. I was just a little stressed yesterday and today over the fact that life was busy and I was tired with so much to do, my review being one of them. I've had to start crossing things off my list of things I thought had to get done. I just realized that for the month of December it would be advantageous to slack off on my blog and reviews a bit so I can be less stressed over the holidays with my family. Yes, even something as simple as a Book Review can be enough to stress me out.

So, I'm still going to post what book and chapters we're reading each Friday if you are still doing it with us, I just won't be adding a full review. I'll just be keeping the regular notes with paper and pen. I'll even still add Mr.Linky in case any of you have a review to post because I could almost always make time to read them!! :)

I know you all are very busy as well. The month of December brings on extra pressures and lots of good times. Enjoy them, and I don't think it is too early to start wishing you a Merry Christmas!!! :)

New Links

2007-11-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

While hubby is chatting away on the phone after a hard days work I am updating my links. I've wanted to for a long time. So take a look and there might be something of interest to you. I've placed them under "Check these out".
I've been checking out ideas for Christmas trimmings since we are without those. On the Christmas craft site there are some very inexpensive ways to deck our halls this year, I just have to get up the gumption to get crafty. That really doesn't happen very often! And there are some great looking treats I'll want to try as well.
Now it's beddy-bye time and I've got a pillow calling my name. :)

Being frugal.

2007-11-27T14:11:00.000-04:00

I'm cheap, I admit it. Living on one income and having 4 growing children make it hard to keep the bills down. They need to eat, wear clothes, and be warm in the house. There are some things you just can't avoid that cost money, but it's all in how we go about meeting those needs that make it possible to still live cheaply. I'm one of those people who kind of rolled their eyes when someone said they just didn't have enough money for the bare necessities. After all, those same people ate out more than we do (that would be 2 or 3 times a year for us and a couple times a month for them), they bought chips and pop and other treats, they had a second vehicle, a cell phone, satellite TV, paid for child care, had call display and everything else going on the phone, had new clothes more than we do (that would be a couple shirts a year for me & the kids and a couple shirts, pants, coat etc, a month for them). Oh yeah, I knew what their problem was!!!

Now all my wisdom has come back on me. We are needing to be much more careful as the kids get older and grocery bills go up, they grow out of their clothes, and need glasses replaced and stuff, and school books don't grow on trees for the home schooled family ya know! Also the money from the government starts dropping just when the kids are up-ing their costs. I could sit around and bemoan the fact that we aren't living high off the hog, or I could get serious about it and start doing all those things I would have loved to suggest to all those poor poor people who owned cell phones and a couple cars and new clothes......

So here is what we've done. Slowly we've been working away at cutting costs and I'm giving the list of things to you. I would LOVE to hear any suggestions of yours to add to these. If it wasn't for doing all these things we just couldn't afford to live as we do.

* We do not use the Visa anymore.

* Using wood for heat. It really is the cheapest. Hubby even ordered the logs (they are much cheaper than having it split for you) and cut them up and chopped them by hand to save some money.

* I cook mostly from scratch. The more processed it is, the less likely it is that I will buy it. Hubby has been known to come home with 16 litres of ice cream from time to time though. I'm serious. :) I also go over all my flyers and shop around to get things a few cents cheaper.

* Our garden has produced lots of good stuff for us that is now in our freezer and will help with the grocery bill all winter.

* We cut down our gas bill by not going out very much. This bill is still crazy high but I don't see how we could cut it down much more.

* I cut all of our hair. My kids don't know what it is like to go to a hair salon. That's a lot of money saved if you can live with how you make yourself look. By me not going to my regular salon for a trim once a month I am saving $396 a year! (But there's still a chance I might get desperate soon). :)

* We don't eat out. We get a pizza maybe twice a year and go for Chinese food once or twice a year for a very special treat. My how the kids think it's cool to go out like that!

* Vacations are non-existent for awhile. At least until we are in a better position financially. All of our vacation-y kind of fun will have to happen close to home and we'll just hope people are able to come see us.

* I don't go shopping. I don't even bother looking at things unless they are in a grocery store or I know exactly what I am looking for elsewhere. If I go I'll just be too tempted to bring home everything I love, and I usually love everything!

* Hubby cancelled his cell phone.

* Hubby cancelled all of our extra features on our home phone. I thought I would die without call display but I'm fine. I don't answer the phone during school hours and let the answering machine do it's job.

By just cancelling those last two things we are saving over $500 a year!!!!!!

* We use those energy saving light bulbs.

* We use a cash system. I have envelopes for groceries, gas, diabetic supplies etc.. and it's easier to keep track of how much you have. You always know whether you have the money for something or not because you can see just how many 20's are at your disposal.

* This one made me sad. I cancelled my Typepad blog and saved myself a few dollars by going with Blogger which is free.

* I love this one. We buy all the kids clothing from Frenchy's. We really cannot afford to buy their clothes anywhere else. I can't remember the last time I bought something brand new. (actually I did buy Katie a pair of shoes a couple months ago at Zellers, whoops!) And (gasp!) I even buy presents at Frenchy's on occasion. I found a great Father's Day gift for last year and both of my niece's b-day presents. I got all three of them for less than $5!!

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Now it's your turn to roll your eyes at me because you know exactly what my problem is, and give me your ideas, I will be very grateful!

Book Review Friday: Exodus 6-10

2007-11-23T20:21:00.000-04:00

First things first, we'll be moving along to chapters 11-15 until next Friday. I know that there are still ladies that are doing this reading but not many reviews. I'm not here to put a guilt trip on you over the lack of names on Mr.Linky, it really doesn't matter whether there are reviews for everyone else to read,that's not the point. The fact is I really really really hope you are writing down somewhere what God shows you in the scripture you read. We miss so much by neglecting that. So please ladies keep on reading and learning and writing. Whether you have a blog to post it on, or a handy notebook to help you concentrate and remember all that you see as you read, keep writing. :)

As for Exodus 6-10. I am no scholar and I know there are many very mature Christians out there who would disagree but...... I really don't understand how anyone could read these chapters and not see 'election' written all over the place. It's totally a black & white issue to me. But I'm willing to be shown if it isn't. Like I said, I'm no scholar. :)
The fact that God made a covenant with the Israelites way back when and chose them as His special people would be enough to convince me. They were no more deserving than the guys next door. They were sinful humans who God had mercy on. They didn't choose God, God chose them. But the BIG thing was reading over and over about how God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God hardened Pharaoh's heart! Pharaoh really didn't have a choice in the matter from what I can tell.

"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt." 7:3
"Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord." 10:1-3

And it always comes back to giving God glory.

Seeing how this bit of history unravels and the fact that God so blatantly chooses some people to bless and others to harden against Himself makes one like me overcome with thankfulness that I am not Pharaoh! It's not that I don't deserve all that the Egyptians got, I do, I really do. I deserve for God to show His judgments in my life. But God chose me to be one of the ones who saw who He is by blessing me instead of through His judgements. I don't understand why but it certainly brings a deeper meaning to the word thankful. I was completely dead in my sins, even at that tender age of 5 or 6, and God chose to open my eyes and give me life. I am totally & completely dependant on Him and could not of understood to even make a choice for eternity had He not worked in my heart in the first place. God is in complete control of everything, including my salvation.

"I will take you as My people and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." 6:7

From now on every time I hear the stories of people like the Egyptians in the scriptures I hope it makes me thankful instead of self-righteous. God's mercy is great, and I'm just another Pharaoh that God took pity on. Please God, don't every harden my heart towards you!!

Okay, now if anyone had a review to post here is Mr.Linky for you. We would all love to read them no matter how long or short. :)

Fall Pumpkin Squares

2007-11-22T13:56:00.000-04:00

Really, this recipe is more like a cake than bars. These are delicious whether you use pumpkin or squash but my favourite so far is using our very own squash from our very own garden to make this wonderful cake. I've got a pan in the oven as I type this. YUM!!!

In bowl sift together: (I don't have a sifter big enough so I just use a whisk to stir it. No baking soda clumps!)
2 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt

In large bowl mix:
1 Cup Oil
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Cooked Pumpkin or Squash

Mix dry ingredients into the wet and pour into 9x13 pan.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). It took all of the 30 minutes for mine to be done.

Icing:
2 to 2 3/4 Cups Icing Sugar
8 to 11 oz Cream Cheese softened
3/4 Cup Butter
2 tsp Vanilla

Spread on cooled pumpkin squares. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy! I know we're going to love dessert tonight.

Thanksgiving Forecast

2007-11-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving is long gone for us Canadian folks but since the US is celebrating here's a little something I found on

Buffaloes & Butterfly Wings

for all you anyway. It's cute and I laughed. (If anyone knows how I can add the link in Blogger without it seperating itself like that please let me know!)

Thanksgiving Forecast:
Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190F. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.
During the late afternoon and evening, the cold front of a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to two inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other. Please pass the gravy. A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway.
During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34 degrees F in the refrigerator. Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established.
Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. We expect a warming trend where soup develops.
By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you American folk out there! :)

Book Review Friday: Exodus

2007-11-16T09:21:00.000-04:00

First things first, we'll be reading Exodus chapters 6-10 until next Friday. It's proving to be a great book so join in if you aren't already with us! :)

Exodus is nothing like I remember from my Sunday school classes as a child. My how all those facts of the story of Moses got mixed up and lost their meaning. One of the most amazing stories I've ever read and one of the most amazing women I've ever heard of is right here in these first couple chapters of Exodus, and I still don't even know the lady's name!! All we know is that she was a Levi and gave birth to a son and did all she could in very hard times. I'm a mom, so her predicament really stood out to me big-time this week. After you have your own little baby to hold the words 'giving them up' take on a deeper and more difficult meaning.

I likened this mommy's predicament to situations we could face today. What if I was faced with the choice of either trying to hide my child in the safety of his home until he was finally found out and then killed in a few days, months... years maybe, or handing him over to the very people who were seeking to kill him in hopes that they would have a little compassion? It was highly probable that if mom let her cutie little abandoned baby pass by Pharaoh's daughter that a woman's heart would take over and be drawn to taking care of it. But, who could guarantee that Pharaoh would allow for such a thing and not just kill it right away?!
And if her plan worked out and baby was accepted, how would it feel to give your baby up to be raised in the midst of a false religion? You would know they would grow up learning about and taking part in the evil that Egypt was involved in. I couldn't have done it and up until this week I would have thought it wrong to do anything of the sort.
In talking about it with hubby I started to realize that everything isn't always the same with God. In each situation He is working something different. It's not that things are black & white all the time. It all comes down to how much faith you have in God. Do I believe that God is God? Although we are human and constantly think that much depends on us, from reading scripture we realize that it's not true at all. Moses would have been fine and God would have worked His purposes through him whether mommy was good at hiding him or not, whether he was placed in a river or not, whether Pharaoh's daughter found him or not. It's just that this woman did as best she could as long as she could and then just trusted God to handle it. And we get to see her example and take heart in the here and now.
I need to work hard while my children are with me doing all I can to make them safe and then ready to take on the world when the Lord brings that time around. The tremendous sacrifice that this woman made is shocking to me. But look at all that God did through Moses for years and years. All the amazing things he was able to witness by God's hand through the years. All the people he lead and the difference God made through him. Moses story all started with his mom who had a big faith in her God. I like her. I like her a lot!
Throughout the whole 5 chapters the fact of just how powerful and in charge God is becomes a major part of the whole story. There are many points to ponder, it's just that I've taken up most of my time thinking of that one. I loved the whole thing and can't wait to read more but I don't have time to type any more about 1-5. I'll just go read any reviews that show up on Mr.Linky. :)

Sleeping Cowpoke

2007-11-14T14:00:00.000-04:00

Cowboys are supposed to sleep with one eye open... unless of course they're just too tired. Then mom can watch out for bad guys until nap time is over.

Another good quote.

2007-11-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

I read this quote last night and loved it. (Not sure who to give credit to for it though.) I have been reminded lately by everything I read and hear that we just don't live like God is God. We should be shaking in our boots each day, praying that we live the way God wants us to. He has struck men dead and brought down whole nations for smaller sins than I have committed. I have a much higher goal each day than just continuing my own comfort & happiness. There is a holy God behind the visible that wants me to "Give all He asks: take all He promises."

Strive to be one of those - so few - who walk the earth with ever-present consciousness - all mornings, middays, star-times - that the unknown which men call heaven is "close behind the visible scene of things."

So I'll try to live today for the invisible. :)

Put up with me please :)

2007-11-12T22:03:00.001-04:00

Over the next day or two I will be adding a bunch of my older posts to my blog here. Blogger would not let me do any importing so I'll just do it all the slow and monotonous way. :) So unless you are new here none of these posts will be new to you. But of course you are all welcome to read them as many times as you want to. :)

Trust the instruments???

2007-11-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

Now, what's a girl to do when yet another warning light comes on in the van? Since we got our van a few years ago we've had a couple lights pop up. First it was the engine light. We thought that to be a pretty serious one and had it checked out. Just a wiring glitch, ignore it. Okay, but what if the engine has big-time problems someday and we wouldn't know? No answer for that one.
Then a little while later the brake light came on. We didn't bother getting it checked, hubby thought they were okay. Ignore that one too. The third warning was the telling us there was a door ajar somewhere. We spent a few minutes slamming every door and finally decided to ignore that one too.
Well, tonight the 'light' light came on. Apparently there is a light out somewhere. I didn't even bother to check. It's probably just a stupid wiring glitch again.
All this to say.... If you see a woman driving a navy blue van erratically, it's probably because the engine died, her brakes quit as she was speeding down the road trying to get her door closed, all while she couldn't see where she was going because the lights went out.
If I get a vote,(which I doubt), I say to get the wiring fixed or sell the van and let someone else worry about it.

Gimme Gimme never gets..... or do they?

2007-11-12T21:44:00.000-04:00

Everyone is raising money these days. I enjoy giving money to a worthy cause. Missions, Diabetes Assoc., Compassion Canada, etc. But whoever started the whole "Sponsor me so we can go on a cool class trip." or "Would you buy some apples so our scouts group can do some cool stuff." or even "I want to play sports but don't have the money, could you sponsor me a few dollars?". Where did that whole mentality come from??? There was a response in our home for times like this. Dad always said "Go pick apples!". Does no one know the meaning of the word 'work' anymore. If you need money, get a job. Simple. Don't go around begging loot off of others so you can pursue a fun past time. If you want to play hockey you will have to get a job to pay for all the gear, ice time, weekends away, dentist's visits etc. That's just the way it is, or should be. If your scouts or Brownies group want to go camping and do neat projects, then all those little girls and guys should be filing into those apple orchards and getting to work.
Or, if this mentality is truly acceptable can I run with it in my own personal endeavors???? You see, I really want to have more flowers. I would love my dooryard to be full of wonderful colorful blooms. The fact is it's just too expensive to go crazy at the local garden centre so could you sponsor me? I really am excited about it and I would water and weed them each day, I just need $150 or so. I might even become famous and be in a magazine someday. Do you want to be in on the deal?
Or how about scrapbooking. It's my passion. I have some great ideas for a whole new page to work on. If you could sponsor me $60 I'm sure I could do a great job. Would you like to be part of my creative hobby in a financial way?
Doesn't really make sense but that's what kids are being taught to do. Everything they want handed to them and they grow up thinking they deserve for people to hand their money over anytime they feel a need to do something new but don't want to dig into their own pockets to do it. I've got 3 words for all of them, "Go pick apples!". :)

I love to simplify.

2007-11-12T21:40:00.000-04:00

I love simplification. We really do have too much. Too much stuff. When it comes to toys, our house it too full! Today it seemed that everyone wanted the toy the other person had. Nothing was fair. No one wanted to share. So I quickly came up with a plan. Boy, it's a good one. :) I packed every single toy away. The only thing I left out was the box of lego. There's enough of that to keep 4 chillins busy I think.
We had some crying and pouting as I packed it all in my wonderful Rubbermaid bins but I was unmoved. Vicous I know. I want us to learn to comunicate kindly to each other. No more grabbing, mean looks.. or whatever else they do that they shouldn't. If we take away all the toys they have nothing left to play with but each other and (in my plan anyway) learn to get along. There are other benefits as well. There aren't a million distractions all over the floor, the apartment stays much neater and I don't have to deal with the arguing over toys all day.
For a while after I packed everything up the kids walked around like lost puppies. I then suggested to them to play 'otters' like the cousins did the other day. Well, that seemed to spark something. They didn't play otters but they made boats from cushions and from there turned into beavers building dams. We ( I should say, they) had chicken fights and played a couple crazy games of hide and seek. At one point there was a game of Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tag going on around the van.
By the time we sat down at supper everyone was getting along. They talked together more and also had conversations with me more than usual.
At supper I told them to tell Daddy what they had been doing all day. One started to say, "Well, it wasn't any fun without toys!", but the eldest cut her off and said, "Yes it was! We had the best time ever!".
I am looking forward to tomorrow to see what great strides we make towards having fun together.
As I was reading a story to the kids before bed I was assured that it was a good thing I had done. People have too much nowadays and it makes us greedy and unthankful. The story was about a family building their one room home on the Prairie. Here's what was going on 'way back when'"

...they had time to make a wooden door. Ma could hardly wait to have it fastened in the doorway. "It'll be so nice having a real door," she said. "And if we could just have a wooden floor-why then I reckon I'd have nothing more to wish for. Do you think we could?" she asked Pa.

I'm sure we can survive without a few toys around. And do it quite satisfactorily I'm sure. At least I'm loving it so far and it appears the kids are far happier and it's only been a few hours. The imagination is a grand thing.

Want to be like Elijah!

2007-11-12T21:35:00.000-04:00

I do want to pass along another quote I found. I thought it fell into the Proverbs 25:11 category. "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."
I love the "Streams in the Desert" book that mom gave me a couple years ago. As per usual with all my books this one has many things underlined. The past few pages of it has been on prayer. Doing it more, deeper... then yesterday this was part of the reading....

"We cannot create the wind or set it in motion, but we can set our sails to catch it when it comes; we cannot make the electricity, but we can stretch the wire along upon which it is to run and do its work; we cannot, in a word, control the Spirit, but we can so place ourselves before the Lord, and so do the things He has bidden us do, that we will come under the influence and power of His mighty breath.

Now here's my favourite part...

"Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Where is the God of Elijah?
He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him."

That makes me excited and sad all at the same time. What have I missed on the journey so far because I haven't taken more time to talk to the Lord? And it's exciting because my journey isn't over yet and you just never know what may be in store when I get on my knees.

Scripture Reference Book

2007-11-12T21:33:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I was given a copy of this book and right away thought it was great. Though it says 'For Counseling Women', I know this book to be of value to moms. It gives a list of subjects including things like abortion, death, fear, marriage, temptation, unsaved spouse and includes 75 topics in all. Under each topic you find simply scripture dealing specifically with that subject. No ramblings from an author on their opinion on the matter, just verses. It's nice to be able to look up quickly what verses you need to help explain something to your children. Of course, that's for people like me who don't have the whole bible memorized and ready for all those deep questions kids have.
It is available at

CBD

. But if you live close enough you are welcome to pop in and borrow it. :)

Book Review Friday: Colossians

2007-11-09T21:13:00.000-04:00

First things first, let's read Exodus 1-5 for the next week. It will take us 8 weeks to get through the whole book with reading 5 chapters each week. :)

I really really really liked Colossians. It's right up there with one of my favourite books to do a review on, but I'm afraid I won't do it justice to how it spoke to me this week. There was a bang!! in the very first chapter. This is one of those oh-so-good but oh-so-hard verses, "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;" 1:10,11.
Now pretend you are having a hard time wanting to do the right thing. A very hard time. In fact you just don't know if you can keep doing the right thing and remain sane. I've been there before and those feelings come and go sometimes. Reading these verses at a time like that is both bad and good. It's bad because you realize you have to keep doing the right thing anyway, and good because of that verse 11. 'strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;" All within the time it takes to read 2 verses my heart can go from the depths of despair (I just can't keep trying to please Him!!!), to realizing that He is the one giving the strength to do it. It's totally supernatural!!! And the thing is that when I do what this verse says and trust God to give me the grace to handle anything that comes my way there really is peace and, believe it or not, joy! Though I was surprised to find out that the 'joy' mentioned isn't a bubbly happy kind of outlook on life. It's more of a quiet understanding and contentment knowing that God is in control and you have a much greater closeness to Him because of your present circumstances.
How can I expect to live life constantly hoping for my own happiness in my own way when I was created for another purpose? "All things were created through Him and for Him" 1:16. For Him, we were created for Him. I have to keep eternity in mind. No matter what He plans for my life and all that I may have to deal with there is a much greater purpose than what I can see. Many times I am completely blind to all that He is doing and I only see either problem days or those good days and just put one foot in front of the other, discouraged or with a spring in my step. When my focus shifts from the problems or being happy to trusting God and what He is doing, that calmness and joy comes.
Practically speaking verses 3:17 & 3:23 show me what I need to do to stay on the right path. "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." "And whatever you do, do it heartily , as to the Lord and not to men," Pretty self-explanatory verses. They should convict us all in many areas of our lives. If I started taking notes of just how I spent my time in 5 minute segments each day all day long, I would probably be shocked at my misuse of the time God gave me, and just how many things I did that I couldn't really do 'in His name'.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this long. I need to get some shut eye before my little chillins are awake and rarin to go for another whole 12 hours! I'm going to need some of that 'might' and a little of that 'glorious power' before 6am tomorrow! :)

Well, here's Mr.Linky. Please link your review if you did one and I'll love reading them tomorrow. I'm sorry I didn't get my review done until such a late hour. Sometimes life just doesn't work out the way one would expect. :)
If you are new to the whole Book Review Friday thing just check it out, the links to the info are on my sidebar. We'd love to see a new name pop up!