I put out a monthly newsletter for women. The main emphasis is Bible study. If you'd like to view a sample of the newsletter, please send an email to the email address below and put "free newsletter sample" in the subject line. If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, send an email to the email address below and put "subscribe to newsletter" in subject line.
"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." Titus 2:3-5 (NASB)
~ 2009 Theme Verse ~
"Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass" I Thessalonians 5:24 (NASB)
"If you would like to join me in having a theme verse for 2009, click below.
•Praying God's Word Day By DayBy Beth Moore
•The Bible
•For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and SchoolBy Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
•Munich SignatureBy Bodie ThoeneFrom The Zion Covenant Series
Recently, there have been some things that have been heavy on my mind. God's been working on me in some certain areas and I've come to the realization that some things need to change. One of those things is that I feel like this blog has had it's purpose and season but that season has ended and thus this blog needs to come to a close. I may begin posting again in the future but I just don't know. For now, I just know that I need to stop this particular blog. I will continue to post on my ministry and cooking blogs of which you will find the links below. However, in the blogworld, my primary focus will most likely be on my ministry blog. I have this intense desire to just draw closer and closer to God.
I will leave this blog up for awhile so that the archives can still be viewed. For any of you out there that have read this blog, I say thank you. Please know that you can follow my ministry blog. May the Lord bless you all as you strive to live lives for His glory.
Tonight, I spent some time working on the newsletter I put out for women. Right now, we're studying the book of Ruth. I love writing Bible studies. If they get published one day, I do not know. But one thing I do know, God teaches me so much when I write them. I delve into the study of God's Word and He woos me with treasures in His Word that bring me back for more. He also shows me things in myself that need changing. God's Word is so amazing. And I sit here just so thankful for how God speaks to me through His Word and shows me all kinds of things.
Good morning to all. The sun is shining through my living room window right now and it cheers me up. It's been an interesting week already in respect to the weather. Who knew that you could have near 50 degree temperatures AND sleet! We sure did. Yep - the day before yesterday. Then yesterday it was warm enough that I didn't wear a coat. The wind was a little brisk at times though. Then this morning, I woke up to it snowing! Strange weather for sure.
This week has been the same story of our rollercoaster routine. My little Sugarplum got vaccinations last week and she has seemed to be more tired. So she has slept off and on a little more than usual. The last few nights she has stayed up later than normal - just didn't seem to want to go to sleep. She has typically gone to bed around 6:00pm - which is when she would be tired. Last night, it was about 9:30pm before she went to sleep! Big change. I have actually been wanting to get her to going to bed at least around 7:00pm (even 8:00pm) instead of 6:00pm. So actually her staying up later will hopefully help make that transition. It's just been hard to make any routine stick right now. My best friend encouraged me (she has 8 children - two of which are under 2) that routine will come. I guess routines are not as easy to come by during these infant months. I spent some time in prayer this morning just asking God how He thinks our day needs to go. I'm just going to keep this in prayer and seek God concerning routine, our schedule, and how our days should go. All families are different and God knows exactly what will work best for our family.
I love this stage Sugarplum is in. She just babbles on and on and on. She tries to say her name and does a pretty good job. She says bye-bye and mama and dada, talks on her baby phone, talks to her baby, it's just so cute.
The sun has creeped behind some clouds now and I see overcast skies. I know today is going to be a wonderful day - routine or no routine. It has to be because this is the day that God has made. May we all rejoice and be glad in it!
This has been an adventurous week! Early Wednesday morning (5:50am) we lost our electricity due to a major winter storm that came through our area bringing snow and ice. Our entire town lost power. We headed over to my parent's house because they had a gas fireplace. It was quite interesting. We were without power for almost two days. However, we were very blessed as others could go without power longer! I learned that snow can make a great refrigerator alternative. I also learned that making coffee the old-fashioned way is much more time consuming. My first go at it turned out pretty good according to my parents. Which is a great compliment because they are avid coffee drinkers. However, the second attempt didn't fare so well. It turned out quite weak and left much to be desired. I am surely thankful for my coffee maker! Our electricity came back on Thursday early evening. Let me tell you - it felt so good to be home and warm! My bed felt so good that night and so did the nice warm shower I took! I am so thankful to the Lord for keeping us all safe during that time!
Needless to say, we didn't stick to any routine. It simply was not possible! However, little Sugarplum did wonderfully well and is already getting back to the routine we were working on before the winter storm hit.
We also didn't stick to our normal way of eating as we had to eat what we could given we had no electricity. The first day the power was out, you couldn't go to stores or gas stations in our town because they were all without power as well. So many had to make due with whatever food you had on hand. Thankfully, I had all that ground beef in the freezer from several weeks back when I stocked up. We pulled that out of our freezer and my hubby cooked hamburgers on my father's grill.
Some changes are taking place. One change will alleviate some major stress for me in that particular situation as I seek to let it go and just leave it in God's mighty, capable hands. The other change will be huge and will require adjustments for us all. More on that when details are confirmed and we have more direction as to what we need to do and when. In the meantime, I am trying to take things one day at a time.
For all those who are interested in healthy recipes and information, be sure to check out my cooking blog. I have redone the blog to reflect our new way of eating and am sharing not only healthy recipes, but hopefully information on healthy eating.
As we enjoy our last week of the holiday break, I am focusing on planning our second term of school and building some basic routine not based on clock time but on order.
Term 2 School Planning
In Term 2, my high schooler will be adding some new courses to his schedule. Among those are Latin and American History. He will have new memorizations as well. His new literature selections are:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Robinson Crusoe
For Shakespeare this term he will be reading Romeo and Juliet.
My 11yo will begin some vocabulary/phonics workbooks. I plan to also have her begin Simply Grammar. She will continue her two current literature selections which are:
The Little House on the Prairie Series The Chronicles of Narnia Series
Both children will continue their other course as outlined in their syllabi.
Routine
As I have mentioned before, in this season of life, routine has been hard to find. I have concluded that during this season, a timed schedule may not be our best fit and flexibility is key. Yet to develop routine, one has to have a determination to stick with it (in my opinion). What I'm working on this week is simply some very basic steps. When Sugarplum wakes up (usually pretty early in the morning), she has her morning feeding. After that, I try to switch out the laundry (I'll explain that in a minute). Then it's floor time with Sugarplum. This is when I get on the floor with her and read books to her and play. I also do my floor exercises during this time while she's right there with me.
Sugarplum usually lays back down about an hour after her morning feeding. At that point, that's when I have my prayer time and do my in-depth Bible study. If I'm hungry, I may get something small to nibble on to hold me over until breakfast. When Sugarplum wakes back up, it's breakfast time.
My other goal for this week is for me to get to bed between 10:00p.m. and 10:30p.m. That's the bedtime I'd like to stick with unless of course I'm tired enough to go to bed earlier. I just don't want to go to bed later than that.
That's it for now. Very simple, very basic. Once we get that going well then maybe I can add something else.
Laundry
I am trying to help us save money where and when I can. I'm trying to get us all turning off lights that don't need to be on - we have to work on that one. And I've started hanging dry most of our laundry. Our laundry room has regular doors that open outwards. I went to the local dollar store and bought a pack of door hangers that you put on the top of doors to hang towels and such on. I bought some clothesline rope and a pack of clothespins. My hubby rigged the laundry room doors so that I have a clothesline to hang our laundry on. I try to do a load of laundry each night. I hang as much laundry on the line as I can and let them dry all night. I leave the remaining wet laundry in the washer at night with the washer lid down. The next morning when I get up, I take down the dried laundry and hang up the remaining wet laundry. If I don't have any laundry remaining to hang up the next morning, I try to throw a small load of laundry in that morning and then hang them to dry during the day. It's working pretty well and I hope to see the fruits of my labor on our electric bill!
On average, we also only use our dishwasher once a week. We wash dishes throughout the week and then Friday night or Saturday we run the dishwasher. Saturday is our rest and relax day so we utilize that dishwasher to give us a break from handwashing dishes. The dishes are one of my older daughter's chores so this gives her a nice break. I do some dish washing during the week as well but it is primarily her chore.
So there's a few ways we try to save some money. Do you have any money-saving tips? Please share them with us! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
It's Saturday night and I'm almost ready for bed. I thought I'd quickly check in here and tell you how I did at our family meal today. First of all, let me say that I prayed and asked the Lord to help me today. I walked into my parent's house and there was an unexpected sight sitting on the counter. A container of just about my favorite store-bought cookies. They're the ones that you can pick up in the deli that just melt in your mouth- literally - they just kind of dissolve....probably because they are so fattening! So that added another dessert in the mix. I did well though. I stuck to my proposed eating plan for the most part. Here's what I ate:
a couple tbsp. BBQ beef with NO bread
about a tbsp. homemade cole slaw
about 1/2 cup fresh fruit salad
AND ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?
about 1/3 of a m-n-m blonde brownie
First of all, I opted for no bread because my Mom had put the homemade whole grain bread in the freezer and the only option was white store-bought buns. I initially only put about 1/4 cup of fruit salad on my plate. When I finished eating, after sitting there a few minutes, I was still hungry. So I ate about 1/4 cup more of fruit salad. I actually thought I would take a wee bit of whatever desserts I wanted to equal a small piece. So I started by taking about three quarters of one of those cookies from the store and the small piece of brownie. As the cookie sat there and I thought about it, I decided it was just way too fattening for me to eat no matter how much I liked them! So I put the cookie on my hubby's plate and opted NOT to eat it. So I ended up with just the small piece of brownie. I enjoyed every bite of it! I took a small bite of my hubby's pumpkin pie. And that's all I had! Woohoo!!!!!! As my hubby, litte daughter, and myself walked out of my parent's house, I told my hubby "I did it!!!" Yay!! Give God some praise! I also sent the remaining bon-bon to work with my hubby so that it would not be in this house. If it's not here, I don't seem to crave the sweets much or even really want them. Get them in this house and it might just be a different story. As I said before, who knew 'ole bloggyland would help me be accountable!
I've solved the mystery. It has lurked around long enough. The ultimate healthy eating, diet breaking culprit. Yes - the jury is back in and a decision has been reached! Chocolate - you are GUILTY! Guilty of enticing many to enjoy your scrumptous flavor and sabotaging their healthy eating habits! Yes - I have decided that chocolate can no longer simply reside in this home. At least not on an extended stay! I have been doing so well on changing our eating habits. And I particularly have been more picky with myself than the rest of my family. I quit buying white refined sugar and flour. We now have agave syrup, organic sugar (evaporated cane juice) and some turbinado sugar. Those are the choices. And there's not much of them. Even our natural sugar intake is limited. But I have been limiting myself even more - trying not to have much sugar at all in a given day. Maybe a little agave syrup in my oatmeal. I'm drinking my green tea plain and not using any sweeteners in my cooking (even in tomato based dishes). We've enjoyed some pretty yummy meals and I can sure tell a good difference physically since we've been eating healthier. But yesterday, we shared dinner at my parents house for Christmas and my Mom had no-bake cookies. I ate one but then found myself nibbling on a second one. They were sitting in front of me and I had a hard time resisting. Okay - I didn't resist that second one! But I did resist eating any more. That counts, right? Then my Mom made her wonderful homemade hot cocoa. And you better believe I enjoyed a cup of that WITH marshmallows. The big fat kind too! Now I don't feel bad about having that cup of hot cocoa for I'd been planning on that. But doggone it - I wished I hadn't ate the cookies too. Then wouldn't you know it - I've ate well today. Then this evening, my hubby, daughter, and myself made homemade bon-bons and chocolate covered Oreos (generic form of Oreos that is...) for a gift for my sister and her family. I couldn't resist. I took several bites of the yummy, creamy filling THEN nibbled on some of the hardened chocolate pieces THEN ate a chocolate covered marshmallow THEN ate bits of a bon-bon. And I just had to taste a cookie dipped in chocolate to make sure it would taste okay. :) Stinkin' Chocolate! I wasn't even craving any sweets or chocolate at all. You know, since I've been eating healthier, I really haven't craved chocolate or any sweets for that matter. If it's not in the house, I haven't really wanted it. It's when the stinkin' things are in the house that I have a hard time resisting them. And it's only certain things. Not all sweets. My hubby likes ice cream. But ice cream really doesn't tempt me much. So I don't have a problem having the ice cream in the house.
I figured the holiday meals and treats might prove to be a little more difficult on the healthy eating scale. And I knew I would enjoy a few things. And really - overall - I've done pretty well. Tomorrow is our big family Christmas meal. There will be homemade beef BBQ, homemade cole slaw (and it's really good), fresh fruit salad, jello salad, pumpkin pie, some kind of peanut butter heathbar treats, and m-n-m blondie brownies. Okay - I could skip the pumpkin pie. I could skip the peanut butter heathbar treats. I might could even skip the jello salad. But the brownies????? Come on, those are like one of my favorite types of brownies!!! Not to mention, Mom probably still has some no-bake cookies lying around somewhere! I'm blogging about it now because maybe when I go over there tomorrow, I'll remember I blogged about it and the desire to come back here and say "I DID IT! I RESISTED!" may provide me with some accountability. So I WILL be back tomorrow to report on how I did. Thanks for holding me accountable. Who knew blogging about it might just give the accountability a person needs!
So here it is. Here's what I think I will try to eat tomorrow:
About a tbsp. or two of Beef BBQ on homemade whole grain bread
about a tbsp. of cole slaw
about a tbsp. fresh fruit salad
AND
1 small dessert - I won't promise but it would be good if I could just stick with the jello salad for my dessert. It's a lot less fattening and will have fruit in it. But we'll see.
If I get hungry after the meal (we'll be over there for awhile), then I need to eat the fruit salad if there's any left. We'll see what happens.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Until tomorrow then........
Wow is it ever cold today! Winter has definitely set in. It was supposed to be around 10 degrees last night - I think possibly a little lower than that even! I woke up this morning and I can tell the heater is having a hard time keeping the thermostat at its setting. Now that's cold! In the winter time, one thing I am thankful for is that the window in our living room is where lots of sunshine shines through and that heats up our living room more. It is definitely a sun-shiny day today and I have the blinds open to allow that warmth to filter into our living room.
So what kind of plans do you have for this holiday week? We have been quite behind in celebrating our Celebration of Lights this year. With so many changes and things being different this holiday season, I don't think we will be having our usual celebration. We aren't absolutely for sure where our menorahs are! Compliments of moving..... :)
So things will definitely be different this year. We will be spending Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after with my family. On Christmas Eve we will be going over to my parent's house in the evening just to spend some time together. I believe my Mom will be making her traditional homemade hot cocoa (hopefully a "clean" version to fit our healthy eating....yes, it can be done even though it's still a sweet treat). I can remember growing up, that we had a tradition of my Mom making her homemade hot cocoa on Christmas Eve. I look forward to sharing in that tradition once again. Then we'll go back over to my parent's house Christmas morning. I think we're going to have a nice breakfast together and open gifts and then have a lunch/dinner meal that afternoon. Finally, we'll head back over to my parent's the day after Christmas because my sister and her family will be coming to visit. We are going to have a big Christmas dinner as a family that day and just spend time together. This will be the first Christmas we have spent with my entire family in many years. It will be nice to be together after such a long time!
Today and tomorrow we will most likely try to do some straigthening up and cleaning around the house. My older daughter definitely needs to work on her bedroom. That will probably be her project today. My hubby will most likely be helping as he is off work today. He usually cleans the bathroom and works on our bedroom. The kitchen and living room will most likely be my projects as well as working on laundry and cooking. So we will each have our chores for project clean house. For now, we're just enjoying the morning relaxing. Sugarplum is playing and in a very good mood. Yay!
The ultimate goal of Christian home education is to train children to impact the world for God. We want our children to not only hear and learn God's Word, but also be doers of God's Word. Therefore, we strive to teach them:
SERVICE - How to serve God and others
ACHIEVEMENT - To do the best they can in all they do from academic subjects to chores to serving others and more
LOVE - To love God and one another
TRUTH - To live their lives based on the absolute Truth of God
The name of this blog is the acronym for these four areas that we strive to teach our children:
S.A.L.T. - Service, Achievement, Love, Truth
