It is early in the morning and everyone but me is sleeping soundly.  So far this morning, I have had fellowship with Him in prayer; fed the chickens and gathered eggs; gave breakfast to the dogs, cats, and kitties; taken the garbage out;  put a little one that had gotten up back to sleep; and  prepared our Sunday lunch (baking now in the oven and in the the crock pot).

It is raining steadily outside (an answered prayer) as it has been for the last 72 hours.  And although there has been no sunshine and a lot of wetness around here, it has not stopped our family from having an excellent weekend.

We had got the house clean on Friday, as our custom is. It wasn’t perfectionism, but good enough.  Dad was home on this day so we did not do all that we might normally, but I at least accomplished the things that would have driven me in part to insanity,  had I not.  I always find it amazing how my spirits can be lifted as my house gets cleaned.  It is amazing.

Early in the evening, we went out to eat with Matt and Kristi.  Afterwards, we came home and staying in the family room together, we each did what we enjoy.  Saturday morning was more of the same.  As it rained outside, the two boys sat on the family room floor and played Uno; Dad and the girls sat at the dining room table and put together a neat puzzle we had just gotten.

We got a surprise phone call from our Amish friends, Gerald and Darla.  They had attended a wedding in Illinois – no, they did not go by horse and buggy, but rather, hired a driver.  They would be driving right by our home on their way back to Shipshewana, and they wanted to know if we would mind them stopping by.  They had Maria with them and were hoping to leave her with us to train and then to sell.  We welcomed them as we always enjoy their fellowship and friendship.

I had run out for pizza and when I pulled into our driveway, I seen that our guests had preceded me.  Rachel, Joshua, and I hurried into the house, and were pleasantly surprised to see that our Amish friends were comfortably sitting on the couch chatting with my husband.  It was a wonderful sight to behold.  We had an “Amish Prayer” before eating our pizza, and chatted for well over an hour.  It is always so interesting to talk with Gerald and Darla about their Amish style of life.  I learn something new every time.  I often find that were really not that  much different.  Sure, they travel by horse and buggy and have no electricity, but our values and Christian faith are very much in tune with one another.

Our Sabbath was truly one of rest and fellowship – with each other- and with friends.  Thank you, Jesus, for giving us this day that is set apart from all the rest.  Thank you, for filling our lives with love for one another and for fellowship with friends.

It was a most unusual Friday.  Friday is our usual day to clean, but having done it on Thursday already, it felt really nice to be teaching my children and having a regular homeschool day in such a just-cleaned-to-perfection environment.  If only every day could feel and be like that!

It would have been a great day to catch up on a lot of misc stuff that hadn’t been done yet.  I did get a few things on my misc. list, but, I wasn’t feeling all that great, so I worked at half the speed I normally do.  I kept thinking, if only I felt better, with my house already cleaned, I could get so many other things done that need to be completed. 

Around 4:00 p.m. I left to get a few errands done.  Now, if you have been reading my posts you know already that I aim at honoring the Sabbath, going by the Jewish traditional day of Friday night to Saturday night.  I say, “aim,”  because I don’t always succeed and I fail because of lack of poor planning.  When I went on my errands, I picked up more than I had planned at the grocery store.  When I got back home, past dark and the Sabbath evening started, I found myself with a “job” of unpacking groceries.  I compromised.  I put away the perishables, but left the rest in plastic bags on the den floor.  I made a mental note to myself to plan better – don’t do grocery shopping of any sort on late Friday afternoon.    I also had started washing my own laundry and had not finished it when I left to do my errands.  When I came home, I remembered I had sweaters and clothes in the washing machine, and things in the dryer to fold.  Another mental note – be more on top of the laundry throughout the week so I don’t find myself in this predicament on Friday evening.

When I first started to try to honor the Sabbath, I would give myself a grade.  If I planned poorly, I’d give myself a score of “D”.  Every week, I would analyze how good or poor I did, and grade myself accordingly.  I found this to be really weird - I’d never given myself a “grade” in anything my entire life, but I just naturally did this and couldn’t seem to help from grading myself.  Honoring the Sabbath has actually increased my appreciation of His grace.  Yes, I fail.   I do not always do everything right or plan accordingly.  But God's grace is so abundant.  He is so rich in love.

I don’t try to honor the Sabbath because I have placed myself “back under the Law”.  No, I try to honor the Sabbath because I believe that He gave us this day for our own good, for our own blessing.  I have found that by resting this one day a week, I find myself more renewed, more filled with energy, and more ready-to-go another week by Saturday evening.  I have also found that by resting this one day a week, by choosing not to do jobs, I have become more organized and have a better system of cleaning my home.  I also have found that it is a great blessing to stop my jobs and just enjoy all that God has given me and blessed me with.  It is my day that I stop, and smell the roses.      

It’s late Sunday afternoon as I write.  I am sitting at my pc facing the window although the blinds are closed to insulate us just a tad better from the bitter cold that is outside. The fireplace has a good fire going, although when I began to write this I looked over at it and I can see that it is time to go add a few logs.  I love the crackling sound and sparks of a good fire as well as the warmth it can give.  The lights are all turned down except for some soft lighting above the fireplace and a free standing light next to my desk.  There are several guests taking a nap on the couch beside me and I am trying to be as quiet as I can. 

It is my custom on Friday’s to clean our home and to not save any work for the weekend.  We did not always live like this.  In days gone by, Saturday was our work day.  Then, a decade or more ago, I was reading from a children’s Bible story book to my children and we read the Ten Commandments together.  I’d read those commandments a hundred times in my life time, but at this particular reading it just sunk in that were to Honor the Sabbath and to keep it holy was part of the Ten.  I had always taken the other nine very seriously – no stealing, killing, adultery, or lying.....  but somehow, my entire life,  I had not rated the   Honoring the Sabbath one  as important as the rest.  That reading with my children was like a seed that was planted and began to grow in the meditations of my heart on how I could actually do this when our Saturday was our work day.  

I think the Lord did bless my desire to do this because He has helped me over the years to come up with different ways that have enabled us.  Sometimes it has been because we had  a plan that we broke our work into bite size pieces throughout the week; at other times it has worked well for us to just take the entire day Friday to split the work up between us and get it done; at other times He has provided help in different phases of our life, whether it be with the house cleaning, or with the farm work.  When the help has been given, it has always been by an act of Providential Blessing that He has provided.

I am grateful for God’s grace.  I am not under His law, in that, if I should break a commandment that I would be sent to hell.  No, Jesus blood covers all my sins, past, present, and future.  But He has told me that He has given this day “to” me, as a gift.  It is a day of rest, a day of reprieve from all our toils.  It is a day that I celebrate everything that He has given me.  I enjoy my children, husband, and my home.  We enjoy our extended family and friends that come to join us on the weekends. 

Our home needed an extra dose of cleaning this past Friday.  It seems that after Christmas and into the month of January, extra misc. piles of stuff accumulates and it takes time to sort through it all to figure out what to do with it.  This year seemed to be a bit worse than usual.  On Friday, I attacked the job as with a vengeance and by Friday evening, the house looked really good.  No, we are not ready for Good Housekeeping pictures for a photo layout in every room of our home.  There are several areas that still need attention:  the den has a big plastic box of “stuff” I need to sort through.  The “dinette” area that we had been eating in during our remodeling stages, has become a clutter keeper.  And then there is the upstairs second floor that things got put when the kids cleaned their room and didn’t know what to do with them. 

I do feel good about a long term problem area that is almost corrected.  The two boys that share a bedroom were also sharing one dresser. There always seemed to be a problem with clothes being stuffed into drawers and not enough space for everything.  We also don’t have a basement, just a cellar.  There is no place for their toys except for in their bedroom.  To add to this, my own bedroom has a very small closet built into an angled wall.  Translation: There is no room for my husband’s clothes.  He has shared the boy’s closet.  Their room was very full with clothes and toys. 

 (This picture makes it looks as if there are spots on our new dressers, but there is not. 

The one on the left is Jacob's, and to the right is Joshua's. )

After Christmas I was on a mission to fix this messy problem.  If I could get a grip on the boy’s room, then the hallway wouldn’t have stuff overflowing into it.  I went shopping for two dressers with a picture inside my head of exactly what I wanted.  I’d been looking for quite a while and then decided that the image I had created of what I needed did not exist, so therefore, I would just get the standard five or six drawer tall dresser.  When I had given up and almost placed our order, I found the “perfect” dresser, the one I’d been desiring.  They have drawers for their clothes and roomy space for their favorite toys.  I was elated (and still am). And they didn’t cost that much more than the inexpensive standard one I’d almost ordered.

The bottom drawer (left) is for p.j.s and the right bottom drawer is for his cow-boy

dress-up stuff he got for Christmas (this is Jacob's dresser).  In the middle drawers,

there is one for his undies, another for socks, one for his t'shirts, and a few drawers

for personal items.  I love the big open areas.  He can see what shirts he has to wear

without digging through a drawer.  And the same for his pants and jeans.  On the right

side, he keeps his special toys. 

We spent a lot of time Thursday night and Friday organizing their new dressers and their room is looking good.  But now, I want to paint.  A new project....

This is my kind of Saturdays – lots of resting and relaxing.  It is freezing and cloudy outside.  I see no rays of sunshine coming.  Inside, it is warm and snuggly, and the fireplace is crackling.  My children are all at home nestled around me.  There is no company expected today.  It’s just a family day destined for enjoyment of each other.  A few have colds and are sipping tea brewed just for that with herbs such as eucalyptus and peppermint leaf, licorice root,  passionflower herb, and elder, linden, chamomile, and yarrow flower. ,

In the winter it is always a precarious situation for the water trough.  We check regularly to see if it’s frozen and deal with it if it is.  We have an electric heater that has been made just for keeping the water dethawed, but sometimes it comes unplugged, or the electrical source is not working, or the horses themselves have thought it to be a toy and yanked it out of there.  This morning, I started thinking about my horses and then looked out my front door.  Sure enough, there they were, all standing around the water trough, and one of them was kicking it.  I grabbed the closest pair of snow boots, and put a big coat over my p.j.’s and robe.  I walked out to the trough only to find it empty and the hook-up to fill it inoperable.  I struggled with it.  I couldn’t get it to work so I went back to the house and got Rachel out of bed to help with it.  She figured it out and now they have water.

Since there are no neighbors that view our home, I can get away with going out looking a bit silly – pink pajama pants – the  hem line stuffed in oversized snow boots, and my baby blue robe sticking out from the heavy jacket.  Even now, it’s after noon, and I still sit snuggled on my couch in front of the fireplace adorned in my pink jammies and blue robe.  There’s no where to go today and no one coming over.  This is my kind of a winter Saturday.

For breakfast, I pulled blueberry pancakes from the freezer.  I had made  a banquet of food for an army last weekend, and froze the leftovers.  I sure was glad that I had done that this morning.  I did fry a few eggs, but I also had some leftover turkey sausage to go with.

It was a good week.  Life is back to normal now that the remodeling is mostly done.  Instead of loud noise and the sound of an electric saw, there was happy Christmas music playing.  The massive dental appointments are behind me, too.  I had no appointments to rush to, except for Rachel’s guitar lessons and both of our riding lessons.

I had been feeling over the holidays that I was not doing well at these lessons.  That unpleasant thought kept coming to me at the least expected moment – it would just kind of float into my brain.  I was feeling discouraged about it.  This weeks lesson was just what I needed.  My instructor had chastised me the last time I had rode that I wasn’t “tuning in”.  So true – I’m sure I do that about a lot of things, riding was just an extention of my usual mental processes.  So this time, I was concentrating on “tuning in”.  I thought about everything I did and therefore the lesson left me with the feeling that I had done well.  I could see a lot of improvement from when I first began. 

On Thursday, we looked at the proofs of our pictures for our Christmas cards.  They turned out nice.  Not our all time best, but nice. 

Thursday night, we went to dinner with a business associate and his fiancé in down town Chicago.  The company was pleasant enough, the food was a-w-f-u-l.  I think it was only me that thought this, though.    The city was pretty all lit up with it’s Christmas lights everywhere.  I couldn’t help but think, while waiting at stop lights watching the people crossing the street in front of me, that I was very happy not being a city girl.

Friday was a highlight of the week (except for the riding lessons!) when Rachel and I went to the cottage to pick up some things we left had left there. We made a day of it and went shopping at Shipshewana.  It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone shopping “just for fun” and without the company of little children.  Perhaps it’s been almost fifteen years.  We didn’t buy much, but I sure had a delightful time with my teenage daughter.

My mom was here this week and helped with school and laundry.  What a blessing. 

It was a wonderful week.  Good riding lessons, help from my mom, a fun shopping trip with my daughter, a dinner in Chicago with my husband, and a peaceful week at home.  And it all has culminated with this blessed Saturday with my family, snuggled by the fireplace and still in my robe and jammies.  

I spent this Saturday in the most delightful way.  The weather was beautiful.  It was one of those awesome autumn days.  It was sunny, and there was a gentle breeze.  I spent the entire afternoon, outside, sitting on the grass, harvesting my herb garden.  I cut the herbs with scissors, and after bundling them, tied each grouping of herbs with a pretty pastel ribbon, purple, green, or blue.  I took the garden markers identifying what herbs they are and attached them to the ribbon. 

I was in no hurry to do this.  I’ve been meaning to do this before the frost hits, and decided that today would be a good day to do this.  I moved slowly, just cutting my herbs at a snail’s pace.  Meanwhile, Rachel had friends over to go horseback riding.  I enjoyed watching them ride, taking a picnic, and sitting under the willow trees by the lily pond.  The little ones played on the swing set and I could hear their voices chatting with one another.  For a while, my niece, who came for the day, sat with me and kept me company.

I brought my herbs up to the house and decided to celebrate my harvest with pictures.  They looked so pretty.  I laid out each bundle and took a close-up picture.  I am thinking that I will post my pictures for next Friday’s Show and Tell, Mary/Canada Girl.

 If this wasn’t a perfect weekend, I don’t know what is…..

Saturday morning we leisurely got up as  we felt like it.  It was rainy and cloudy outside so we stayed inside until late afternoon.  I stayed in my jammies for just about  as long.  I read a book and played around with my laptop, all while sitting on the couch, enjoying my children playing around me.  I thought about our first day of school coming up, the day after Labor Day in September.  I wrote out a goal list for each child, writing out what I wanted to see accomplished for each child for the coming year. Then I wrote out a schedule of our school days.

In the early evening, we left the cottage to go out to a restaurant we were just told about that day.  It sounded kind of interesting.  It was called the Barbee Hotel (on the Barbee lakes).  Ruthie was all excited when she heard where we were going.   Barbee, as in “Barbie” is what Ruthie heard. In her mind, we were going to Barbie’s real life Hotel, on the lake that Barbie lived on.

When we got to the restaurant, it was less than spectacular.  It looked as if it was from the ‘80’s. They seated us in an area that was closed in on two sides.  It was a very narrow seating area, and there was this huge stone wall dividing us from the rest of the restaurant.  Although it was not an impressive atmosphere, the food turned out to be very good.  Because we were kind of seated in isolation from the rest of the restaurant, we got a little bit on the silly side and had a lot of jokes and laughter. 

We didn’t go straight home.  My husband is the exploring type, and we drove all around the Barbee Lakes. We found other lakes on the way home and explored those too, and drove through a lot of country roads.  It was a very pretty drive.  We got a little bit silly on the drive home, too.  On the country roads, the little ones wanted daddy to drive “wiggly”.  Not the safest thing in the entire world, mind you, but I lived to tell you about it.  We turned on country music – it seemed very fitting as we drove around the Barbee Lakes – and then dad turned on stations that played ‘50’s music.  Dad and Mom, just to be silly, started snapping our fingers and shaking our heads, as if being groovy hippies.  As cars drove by the other way, the little ones laughed hysterically, and the big ones, especially Rachel, suffered from terminal embarrassment.

God created the world in six days and on the seventh He rested.  He told us to do the same.  I sure am glad that He did that.  I was having so much resting this past Sabbath, so much fun, that it almost seemed wrong for me to be enjoying myself this much.  But I reminded myself, “It’s o.k. to rest this much – God created this day for this very purpose.  

 It's a rainy Saturday morning. We left for our cottage late Thursday night, after my husband and all three of our boys had returned from  a boat show in Michigan City at the marina. 

 Friday morning our friend, Jeff, came to visit with us for the day.    Jeff has gone through some really difficult health issues and although healed in apparent physical form – he can hold a conversation, walk, drive, and even return to his job - he is not the same person.  He seems to be devoid of his previous sparkle and energy in spirit.  He smiles rarely.  He doesn’t make a lot of eye contact and lacks response in conversation.  It was an interesting day because I was unaware of in which way to pray for him, knowing that his physical abilities had all been returned.  This morning in prayer, I brought my friend Jeff to our loving Savior.   Jeff was the first person that was brought to my mind.  I thanked Him for his healing and the answered prayers in Jeff’s regard.  But then I talked with Him at length about our day with Jeff and petitioned Him for further healing, in spirit, mind, and soul. 

It rained a lot on Friday.  While my husband and Jeff spent a few hours talking about the business, I sat on the couch with Joshua, who had taken an interest in all of my cottage, home, and architecture magazines.  He wanted to show me all kinds of things in these magazines, from the landscaping to details in the architecture.  We spent hours looking through pages and listening to all of Joshua’s ideas.  It was a sweet time together that I was enjoying, just listening to him.  I was thinking that this time is such a gift from God.  We will start school after the Labor Day weekend in September, and having one-on-one time, without school related subjects, is surely a blessing sent straight from Him. 

Friday evening was particularly enjoyable.  The television set stayed off, and the kids didn’t play video games.  Instead, the three little ones played together on the living room floor of the cottage.   There are matchbox cars still all over the floor, a reminder of last night’s evening game.  Before going to bed, Ruthie began to color and write poems, and Joshua started looking through magazines again. My husband was delighted in Joshua’s new interest in home design  and landscaping, as this hits close to what he does for a living (commercial building and land development.)

I am looking forward to this coming day.  It looks like it might very well rain all day, and the kids will be dissapointed in the lack of swimming fun.  But I look forward to just enjoying being with my children, nestled in our cottage, watching the rain through the windows of our living room.  I am hoping to go for coffee with my husband, as we often take Saturday morning as a time to go for a drive and talk.  I've brought some favorite homeschooling books with me this weekend. These books are one's I've read already but are filled with a bank vault of wisdom.   

 Time with my husband, my children, and lots of good reading materials - it looks like a wonderful day is ahead of  me!

...  we would be enjoying a beautiful sunset together.  I am sitting outside just a few feet away from the water.    The  lights  coming from the houses on the shoreline are twinkling as they reflect the water.  The sky has swirly clouds that are painted in a pink and purple cast. There is a sailboat   tied to the dock next to ours and the wind is rocking it.  Firecrackers are going off in the distance and they are beautiful with the setting sun in the backdrop. 

It has been a most wonderful Sabbath.  It started  Friday evening when my entire family was together.  It was the birthday of my oldest daughter, Becky, and that is a very special day for me as well as for her.  There were twelve of us and we went out to eat at a restaurant on the lake.  It was wonderful  to  have everyone together.  When I came home I wasn’t so tired as I was looking forward to laying down in my bed listening to the sound of the waves .  It is such a peaceful way to go so sleep.

I have spent almost the enitre day outside.  I  read the newspaper while sitting on the dock.    I have a tendency to save a week’s worth of newspapers and then read them all in one day or evening.    I floated around the lake on an inflated water toy.  I swam laps from the floating buoys and back to the dock.  I’ve spent the entire day just having fun in the water and enjoying the sunshine with my children. 

This morning I was greeted with this  comment from Tammy;

When I wasn’t  reading and playing, this comment gave me food for thought  for the day.  Early in the morning while I had my coffee, I looked up some Bible verses on this subject.  It is interesting because Jesus did not just sit around and do nothing on the Sabbath.  On one occasion, he was teaching on the Sabbath.   Other times, Jesus was traveling with his disciples and when they were hungry they picked some grain.  The Pharisees seen this and confronted Jesus and accused Him of not honoring the Sabbath.        

 For me, honoring the Sabbath is an attitude of the heart.  It is not trying to adhere to a cumbersome law.    I seek to honor the Sabbath by  striving  to accomplish all my work during the week.  I diligently lay out a plan in bits and pieces that sets a finishing time goal for Friday evening.   Then I rest and  enjoy what God has created.   I enjoy my family, the sunshine, and just time in itself to think. I enjoy my children immensely on this day. We cuddle, play, and relax together.

I don’t cook big meals on the Sabbath. For me, that’s “work.”  I have been known to cook something on Friday in the crockpot for Saturday’s meal.  But we have often had pizza on Friday nights, and sandwiches on Saturday.  I take advantage of this day to spend extra time with my husband. We might take a drive together and go for a coffee.

If at all possible, I try to plan leaving for trips or coming back from them other than during this time. I try not to go shopping and to plan ahead so I don't need to.  We have gone to a movie, watched some t.v., and played computer games.  Like you, Tammy, I was not raised with keeping the Sabbath.  I don't know what it looks like to other people, either.  All I know is that we used to work a LOT on Saturdays.  Work never ended at our house.  Every day was a work day.  There were no off days.  Stopping and enjoying what God had given us just did not happen.  Resting on a Saturday was absolutely something we didn't do.  And I didn't have a clue or even a thought that something might be wrong with this.

Since striving to honor this day,  I started managing my time better in order to be able to rest.   God has blessed immensely in ways I could have not foreseen.  I have found that time is like money.  It's a faith walk.  When we tithe, in the human realm, this would mean that we have less money for ourselves.  But our family has found, that the more we give, the more we receive.  Abundantly so.  And such I have found with my time.  In the human realm, again, it would seem that if I give up a day to get things done, I would have even less time to myself.  But I have never had more time in my life than since we began to seek to honor the Sabbath by stopping from work and resting and enjoying what God has provided and so abundantly given.

Ths is the verse that I recall often on the Sabbath:

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:26-28 (in Context) Mark 2 (Whole Chapter)

 He made this day FOR us.  

Check out BibleGateway.com for any verses that you want to find in the Bible.  You only have to know at least one word in the verse to give you all the verses that have that word. 

Saturday was just as enjoyable as Friday was.  My dh had a breakfast meeting he had to attend and when I woke up, he had already left. Before leaving, he had filled my bath water, lit a candle, and put my coffee pot and cup right on the jacuzzi surround.  He had put my oldest daughter in charge to keep the kids quiet as they woke up and instructed everyone to let me sleep.  I am generally always up early, but this morning I was out like a rock!!

Around 11:00 a.m. my oldest son and his wife came by to pick me up to meet him. We had an awesome breakfast in a most elegant of setting. His breakfast meeting was in a very new and most beautiful country club.   The food was great.  My son and his wife are always the most enjoyable of company.  It's a laugh a minute, often, because they are so funny together.   

When we came home, we took a walk on the property. There's 40 acres to roam of woods, pastures, several creeks, a lake, and pond.  There was eight of us tromping around in the mud with the dogs exploring how high the creek was as the snow is melting. It was fun to walk along the creek banks listening to the rapids babbling as the current was rather fast.  The horses provided a lot of entertainment as they were extra fiesty, chasing each other around the pasture.    The weather was so beautiful. It was about 60 degrees. Sometimes my husband and I would linger to the back of the crowd, with everyone in front of us on the paths, and we would admire all the children.  Two young adults, one teenager, one pre-teen, one 8 year old, and a 5 year old,   they all bring me so much enjoyment,

It is wonderful to have all of my family so close where we get to see each other often and there is a lot of love and unity.  I am blessed.

I planned for a great Friday and I got one. We did our general cleaning, but didn't go perfectionism style, just got the basics done. Around noon, I went and picked up my oldest daughter (25) and her two babies. When I got to her home, I went inside as she was still finishing getting ready to go. I so enjoyed being able to go into the baby nursery and scooping up baby Abraham out of his crib. He was so sweet just laying there peacefully sucking his thumb. He smelled so good...I love the scent of a baby.

We spent the afternoon at my home letting all the kids play and at one time taking a walk outside with the kids as the weather felt almost spring like.  We got to spend the entire day talking. I got to hold the baby and rock him a lot, too.  Toddler Seth, 2 years old, is just sooooo cute. And now we have just discovered that a new baby is on the way.

When Becky's husband got off of work (he works in the family business) he came to our house and they stayed and had pizza with us. Friday night is our family night and it was an especially sweet one. Last Friday night we almost had a disaster (see blog below), with an accident that took Becky's van sliding and then being thrown over in a snow/ice storm, with my other daughter, Rachel, and the two babies. It shook me up, big time. Now, this Friday night, we were all in our home together, the fireplace was blazing, Becky played the piano, Adam taught some of my children how to play chess, and Ruthie colored. It was such a sweet time. No t.v.  Just rest, relaxation, pizza, music, games, and fellowship.

It's been a great week! A lot of time at home and that's important to me. When I find myself running to and fro, appointments and errands, I find myself letting other things down. When I am centered at home, I feel more fulfilled in doing what are my priorities.

We had great school days. There are some weeks, for one reason or the other, the school schedule just gets hurried, or even totally bumped. This is not avoidable because it is just part of life of a homeschooler. To not realize this is to face burn-out and guilt. 

The house kept decent this week. The house is something that totally takes a dive if I find myself hurrying from one place or event to another.   Every week I strive to have my house in good condition by Friday night. Vacuuming, sweeping/mopping, dusting, and organization. When I first started doing this, Friday was my clean day and there were many times it felt positively overwhelming.  Now, I try to take it in bite-size pieces, and plan a job a day, delegated to the kids and myself, if time permits on that given day.

Now, on Thursday, I find myself really gearing up for Friday. I want Friday to be an enjoyable day, not a day that the children will remember that mom turned into a task-master. Yes, we all have to work, but it's the attitude in which this is carried off that matters. If I feel that  there is so much work to be done that we will be lucky  to finish by 5:00 p.m., well, I carry a desperate aura/demeanor around with me that is not exactly positive. I become  more like a drill seargent, and that's not my desire to be like that. (This can be my natural tendency and I try to not slip into this).

On Thursday, I am especially dedicated to the laundry as this also needs to all be caught up by Friday night. I don't want Friday afternoon to come and one of the kids tell me they have no clean clothes for the weekend.  I do laundry every day, several loads, but on Thursday, I keep the washing machine and dryer humming all day. Before I go to bed I do a load, and when I wake up in the morning, I start a new load. The goal is to be done by early afternoon, so there is no piles of laundry waiting to be folded and put away.

Yesterday we vacuumed the family room really good, getting under the couches. I am sure it will need to be touched up before the evening comes for the weekend, but it will not be a big time consumer today. I also got the den, my exercise room, completely cleaned, as it had taken a serious dive this week with the kids building forts in there, and also housing two cats (the kids felt sorry for one of our outdoor cats and had brought him in to keep him warm). 

So now, it's Friday morning and I have my day all planned out to be very pleasant. I have a few essential things to get done, some basic housecleaning, but then, I am going to pick up my married daughter and her two babies, to bring her over to our home for the day. She is without a vehicle to go anywhere and is feeling cooped up and I am guessing, just a little bit lonely.  I am looking forward to spending the day with her. I have some great books I have just recently got that I want to show her. I also am really excited about this new publication I have found (recommended to me from a friend/blogger that left a comment),

www.Lamplighter.com that I know she is going to just love. They are rare books that were written a long time ago, but are timeless in quality. Many are written for little boys, and I know she'll love these. These books are written to instill a vision for good character and outstanding virtues.  Like I said, I am so excited about them!

Have a great weekend!

It was a smooth week. No appointments, no business trips, just a week at home. I love weeks like this because at the end of  the week I feel very satisfied, with my home and our school.

A few months ago I had read the book  called Managers of Their Chores, by the Maxwells. I have not followed the book's plan of the numerous chore charts  or even the chore paks (as good of an idea as that was), but, I have been much more viligant about delegating chores to the  children instead of trying to do the majority of it myself. I also take special efforts to take the time  to teach how to do the given chore, and check it over when it's done. 

In regards to  the house, it was an exceptionally great week. On Tuesday, I cleaned the upstairs bathroom thoroughly.  Every day in this room I clean the tub, wipe out the sink, swish the toilet and wipe it down with clorox, and change the  liner in the waste basket.  But, the dusting, sweeping the floor and mopping,hadn't been done in what seems like three weeks.  It was really bugging me so it felt great when I made it a priority on Tuesday.

On Thursday, we cleaned the family room.  In this room, we vacuum as often as necessary (every other day and often daily)  and do daily pickups. But this room has the fireplace in it,so it gets extra dusty, and crumbs and stuff often get trapped  under the couch. This room tends to take the bulk of our time on a given Friday to get completely dusted and cleaned to company perfection.So, this week, in order to have an easier and more enjoyable Friday (our usual clean day),  we made it a priority before we started school on THURSDAY and got it all done.

On Friday, we had our school until about noon. If our house is a mess for whatever reasons (too busy of a schedule to keep up with it during the week), we will do no school on Friday and just clean the house. But this day, things were looking decent so we had a half-day. Some Fridays have seemed like really hard work days and even a bit tense to get it all done in time. But today, it seemed  much easier than usual. A wonderful feeling!I focused on the den (where I exercise and where my daughter's huge dollhouse is). This room really needed a good clean. I had two of my kids in this room working with me. It felt wonderful to get this room clean.

I love it when that by the time 5:00 p.m. Friday comes, the house is ready for the weekend. No work. My most recent  plan has been to start putting meals in the crock-pot so that on Saturday there is no food to prepare, yet, there is  something really good to eat in the house. This Friday, I tried a new recipe.

This recipe is perfect to make the night before and then put in the oven on Saturday morning.

I call it a  Great Sabbath Breakfast, but it is really called:

Maple Sausage Breakfast Casserole,

from the book Fall Family & Friends, one of the Goosberry Patch cookbooks.

1 lb. ground pork sausage - except, we don't use Pork!!!! So, we substitute this with turkey sausage (free range)

1.4 c. maple syrup

1/4 c. butter, melted

7 slices bread

8 oz. pkg shredded Cheddar cheese

5 eggs

1 pt. half-and-half ( I didn't have this so I used just milk)

1 t. salt

Brown sausage in a skillet over medium heat; drain.  Reduce heat and stir in syrup; remove from  heat.  Spread butter in a 13x9 baking pan; arrange bread over butter.  Spoon sausage mixture over bread; sprinkle with cheese.  Blend together eggs, half-and-half and salt; pour over cheese. Cover and chill for 8 hours to overnight.  Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.

I made this Friday afternoon, put it in the refrig., and then, Saturday, Voila! Put it in the oven, and you have an eggs and sausage breakfast with no work and minimal dishes!

It was a cozy weekend.  I love weekends that there is nothing spectacular going on, no events to attend, just stay at home and cuddle with dh and the kids.  On Friday, we got the house clean, made Saturday's meal in the crock pot (so we wouldn't have to cook on Saturday), made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and froze the cookie dough in spoon size balls (also, so we could have homemade cookies with minimal effort), and got all the laundry pretty much caught up.  We observe the Sabbath, from Friday night to Saturday night.  On Friday night, we had pizza and our oldest son and wife came over to watch a movie with us. 

On Saturday, it was snowing pretty hard outside. We had  the fireplace blazing,  the crackling sound and aroma  just created the perfect atmosphere.  We had no company, stayed in our p.j's for the majority of the morning, and each family member did what they felt like doing, but all in the same room. I got a new book that I spent the majority of my time on.  Several played computer games.  The t.v. stayed off. At lunch time, we had beef stew from the crock pot and had minimal dishes.   We didn't go anywhere.  I fed the horses, spent some time with them, then walked the dogs around the lake and through the woods in my snow boots, coat, mittens, and hat.  It was a beautiful sunny day, albeit, lots of snow on the ground.

On Sunday, there was too much snow for people to travel to our home for church, so just Matt and Kristi came (they live right next door).  We read Scripture, talked about what it meant to each of us, and had prayer (each one present praying).  We had lunch together afterwards (tilapia, salmon, rice, and a new bbq recipe that turned out pretty good. 

It was a very resting, relaxing weekend. Just the way I like it!  But now, my dd, 8, just cuddled up beside me while I am sitting on the couch blogging (laptop/wireless), and I think it is now the perfect time to stop writing, enjoy my little one, the cowboy movie that's on, and the fireplace that's burning. I love nights like this!

During the month of December, as usual, any extra moments were spent going shopping or wrapping presents, and also many trips out of town for our company/business.    At the end of the holiday's, I felt as if my house was in a bit of unorganized chaos. My dh was off two weeks from work, and we just took it easy the week  after Christmas.   Last week, the week of New Years, I was tempted to have no school and just get the house under control and everything else that had been let go.  For various reasons, I didn't do that.

However, this week, I knew, for sanity's sake, that the most important thing to accomlish would be to get all the things hanging out there undone, done.
We had our Bible class, our history class, (both family reading classes) and English (independent writing).

I've made a new goal for the year, 2007.  It's the paperwork in my life that's my very loose end. I had no order, no filing system, nothing.  My checkbook was way behind in recording the checks, and my bank statements needed to be filed and put away.  I did it, the first step in reaching my 2007 goal, setting up a filing system. I got my checkbook up to date, and organized my used checkbooks and my bank statements.

We haven't taken down our two Christmas trees, yet, but we did get a lot of the misc. holiday stuff put into boxes. Still to be put in the basement, but now in the demolished kitchen. My big crumbling kitchen that sits vacant right now, has been hosting all my Christmas wrapping paper, and now my Christmas boxes of things that will be taken to the basement.  It's starting to be a holding tank of anything I'm not sure what to do with, but I'll deal with that problem at another time.

The rest of the week is a bit of a blur. I'm not sure why, I am sure I accomplished a lot, I just don't remember everything (or almost anything) at this particular moment.

I do remember, though, this week just seemed so overwhelming, as in, there's so much to do, where do I start? And even after I'd worked several days, it seemed as if so much more to go. I kept  remembering a blog I'd read, I couldn't tell you who's it was, but there was this blogger that went and took a vacation at her sister-in-law's (SIL), and her SIL amazed her because she had so much to do but never came unglued about it all. She finally asked her SIL, "How do you do it?" Her SIL  didn't think she was doing anything exceptionally amazing, but being pressed to answer the question, she said, " Well, I just do one thing at a time."  That's what I kept thinking about this week, this blogger's SIL that said, "Just one thing at a time".  It may seem overwhelming, but just do the most important thing for the moment. 

Today, we cleaned the house. I didn't get it perfect, but it looks pretty good. It's my desire to honor the Sabbath, so it's Friday night, and this is a resting point in our week. It's like the period at the end of the sentence. The pause in the phrase of music.  It's time for me to just sit and rest, enjoy my family, read a book.  I try to not do that one more load of laundry. Clean that one more messy spot. Next week starts another week. No, it's not perfect, not everything is "done", but it's ok. We'll start again next week.

It was Ruthie's 8th birthday and Rachel had planned a surprise party for her. She gave invitations to all the family members and coordinated the wrapping paper, paper plates, cups, and the goodie bags for the children. She wrapped all the presents and was instrumental in choosing what toys Ruthie would like the most for her birthday (little Polly dolls).  She asked Grandma to make her famous angel food cake and rice crispies treats.  She got her little brother involved the night before with the  finishing of wrapping presents, and getting up early the next morning to decorate for the party.

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We had the party in the loft of the gym.  Ruthie was 'suspicious' that something was going on, but no one told her that her party was today.  Around 1:30 p.m. we told her that daddy and mommy wanted to take her on a ride around the property in the golf cart, but we needed to stop at the gym first. Once at the gym, we 'remembered' that there was something we needed to get in the loft. We climbed the stairs, and when Ruthie turned the corner, there was Becky/Adam/Abraham/Seth; Matt/Kristi/ Grandma; Katie; Joshua/Rachel/Jacob.  "Surprise! " they all yelled.  She was stunned.  We sang Happy Birthday, cut the cake, and she unwrapped her presents.  Before the party was over the children wopped at a piniata and had a lot of fun scrambling for the candy. 

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It was a great party. It was not the perfect weekend, though.  For about a year now, I have been trying to honor the Sabbath.  This takes a lot of planning in order to do this, so there is not a lot of work being left undone as of Friday night.  I bombed this weekend when it came to doing this.  Friday night, I was still out rushing around getting last minute things for the party on Saturday, and didn't get home until way after seven.  Saturday morning, I was up trying to make sure everything ran smoothly for the party, making a big breakfast, and then entertaining the entire afternoon and into the evening with the family.  It was not much of a rest. I also felt as if I'd not been able to enjoy my husband too much as this is usually quality time I spend with him throughout the Sabbath.

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I decided that I wouldn't do this again.  I've had a lifetime habit of celebrating birthday's on the weekend or when it was convenient to do so, not on the exact day of the birth.  I thought through this and decided that I would not do this anymore, and if at all possible, we would celebrate the birthday on the exact day, not save it for the weekend.

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I also decided I need to stop planning Friday as a shopping day because it often puts me behind schedule and I am either still out running around after my husband has come home from work, or, I am unpacking all the things I've just picked up.  I need to plan my week better in order to honor the Sabbath.

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Sunday we had church in our home and the William family joined us, as well as Matt & Kristi, and Grandma.  It was a sweet time of fellowship and singing hymns, reading Psalms, and prayer.

We had hamburgers cooked on the grill for lunch. I wasn't feeling well so I laid down to rest a bit while the hamburgers were being cooked. In the afternoon, after everyone had left, I took a nap with dh for several hours. It felt so good!

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When I got up from my nap, I picked some raspberries, and then went to see my horses. Rachel came out with me and we groomed them. I love spending time with my horses.

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In the evening, my husband and I, with Rachel, went for a latte at Starbucks with Matt and Kristi.  We had a very enjoyable time as we almost always do when fellowshipping with each other.

Got up around 6:00 a.m., the house was still, dark, and very quiet. Started my coffee, and sat down to pray.  This is my morning ritual. It is time that I spend with my very best friend.  I love having time that feels unhurried to pray because then I can just sit and meditate on things He has done for me and been teaching me.  I started this morning praising Him for what I have been learning with the children by reading the Narrated Bible with them.  I started this last year when I chose the Heart of Wisdom curriculum.  At the same time of reading the Narrated Bible, we studied what the world was like before the flood, (this study was guided by our HOW studies and reference materials it suggested) then moved to what the world was like after the flood. 

As I prayed this morning I meditated on this past history that He has shared with us through His Word.  It is told to us in the book of Genesis how the world was created, and how sin came into the world, through one man, Adam, making a decision to disobey his creator. 

 Mankind multiplied, but there was no government.  Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  At this point, I have often meditated during my prayer time what the world might have been like.  We think that our culture is the absolute worst, yet, just think if we were without government of any kind, and everyone just did what was right in their own eyes.  The world became so bad that God repented of making it, and destroyed it with a flood.  One family was saved, Noah's.

 I thought about Noah.  He was of godly seed, through the line of Adam and Seth and through the rest of the patriots the Bible lists to us in the book of Genesis.

After the world was destroyed by the flood, Noah and his 3 sons and their families, dispersed into the land of Mesopotamia.  Now here is where my HOW study from last year has really helped me visualize what the world was like shortly after the flood.  As the families multiplied and grew, the world quickly became godless again.  This totally amazes me.  One would think that after Noah and his 3 sons seen the world be so utterly destroyed, that they would be sure to tell their children about the one and true God, and try to teach them about His ways, in order that a catastrophe like they had experienced would never happen again. 

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But, no, history does not seem to reflect that at all. All over the Mesopotamia area is evidence of worship to false gods through the manifestation of the ziggurats. The Bible tells us of the story of the Tower of Babel, where mankind rebelled once again against God. Before this time, the world had only one language. There are many that have speculated that this language was the Hebrew language.

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The world expanded out into the area of Egypt. Here again, history reflects the worship of many gods. Archeologists and anthropologists tell us that they worshipped the created rather than the Creator.  Through studying with the children last year our HOW resources, I came to a clear visualization of what the world was like during this time.  It wasn't until the call of Abraham, in the region of Mesopotamia, that he was called out. He traveled the way of the fertile crescent. 

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Abraham, like Noah, was of godly seed.  God chose this line of people and they were different from all the rest of the world.  I meditated on this thought this morning, how God chooses people and what it means to be of godly seed.

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Skip ahead of the story to Joseph, how he was hated by his brothers. They hated him so much that they wanted to kill him. They sold him to slavery instead, where he was taken as a young boy away from his family, into a foreign land, sold as a slave. Here he was blessed, but at another point in his life, he went to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Here he was blessed again. I thought about all of this, how Joseph's hard times were really of God.  How my hard times, are really of God.  I thought about how Joseph ended up being on top of everything in the end. The #2 ruler of all of Egypt.

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Joseph's brothers all came to live in Egypt eventually. Here they multiplied and became a nation, the Israelites.  God called out the Israelites through another one of His godly seeds, Moses.  They went and lived in the dessert.  This is where the children and I are reading in the Narrated Bible together, how God gave them laws for everything, even their food.  We have learned so far that God is very organized. We learned this by reading how He gave particular tasks to the Levite family, and how the Tabernacle was to be set up and taken down, how the Israelites were to disperse when the cloud moved and tabernacle was to be taken down.

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We've learned how much God hates complaining.  They complained because their was only manna to eat. I explained to the children that they would probably complain to me if all I ever bought them was Cheerios, or a better analogy yet, was crackers.  Manna was like coriander seed. Doesn't sound really delicious.  But even if it was, it would get boring if that was all we ate. After they complained, God did give the Israelites something besides manna to eat, but He was ticked off too, about it. Sure, He gave them what they were complaining for, but He gave it to them in His anger, and in the end, they had so much meat to eat, they became sick, and some died. 

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This week when we were reading about this in the passage of the Narrated Bible, we talked about how God controls the winds. When God told Moses that He would supply the people meat, Moses doubted this. There wasn't enough fish in the entire sea to feed this amount of people, there wasn't possibly enough cattle to feed them.  God's reply was, "Is My Arm too short?" to do anything?  My son seemed to get a kick out of that reply. And then, God showed them that His arm is not too short for anything.  He controls the winds, and He made the wind blow in such a way that it brought the quail in from the seas to the desert where the Israelites camped. He brought so many in, the Bible tells us that the quail hovered the earth 3 feet from the ground, with a distance as far as you could walk for 24 hours.  That's a lot of quail!  God's arm was not too short!

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The next day with the children, we read about Miriam, how she was not happy with Moses new wife and began to complain. Again, God hates complaining, I pointed out to the kids. He was angry that Miriam had complained about His anointed one. He gave her leprosy as a result, but her brother, Moses, mediated for her, and God relented. After seven days, she was healed. But He made her stay out of the camp for seven days to pay a consequence for her complaining.

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During my prayer time, it occurred to me how this all relates to me.  Compare Joseph to the Israelites and to Miriam.  Joseph never complained.  Yet, he sure had a ton to complain about. But God had a plan, and everything Joseph went through was for His ultimate glory. When I complain, even if it is not orally, about my situation, about things that I view as unfair, I am complaining against God. He has allowed my circumstances, He has a plan for my life.  

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It is during this time of my prayer, when I meditate on things I have been learning through His word, I often hear Him speaking to me about situations in my life.  Through His Word, meditating on it, I can hear His thoughts on matters I may be dealing with, and these thoughts then will stay with me all day, they will penetrate within me, long after the morning prayer time has transpired. 

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When I finish meditating on His Word, on Who He is, I then will begin to thank Him for things that have happened since the last time we met in this way.  As I go through the previous day, I might thank Him for how homeschool went, and at that time, I will begin to pray for each individual child, thanking Him for areas that I have seen improvement in, yet, also at that time, praying for needs that I see in the life of this particular child. 

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When I finish thanking Him and praying about the daily events and people in my life, I then pray in a wider circle, praying for those that are not involved in my day to day life. Today being Saturday, I prayed for churches all over the U.S. having service tomorrow morning, that God will bless and His presence will be there, touching lives.  I prayed for missionaries, personal friends that I have, I prayed for their Sunday morning church service, in particular.  I prayed for our own church, and our members.  I often at this time, pray for our president and his family, that God will protect them, and guide him with wisdom.  I pray for protection on our homeschool liberties, and the laws that govern this. 

When I finish praying, I read passages in the Bible. This morning, I read in the book of Proverbs, because it seems that I have been needing a lot of wisdom. I mean, we always need wisdom, but in the past month, I have had  incidents happen that I felt displayed my own lack of wisdom.   I need the reading of His Word to guide me in daily situations. I need the refueling of His Word for faith, to keep me from worrying and fretting about the things that I cannot control in my life.

What a great way to start my Saturday!  Spending quality time with Him before a soul wakes in my household. This energizes me and gives me peace within