Lori from Miry Clay ~ A Work In Progress. She has changed her blog to be private, so unless you are a friend of hers already, you won't be able to read her great blog.

Please remember Lori and her family at this time in your prayers. Her mother has passed away recently and I think it was rather sudden. Bobbie at Encouragement Along The Way can provide more information. Please take a few moments to read what Bobbie has said here.

I have a number of pictures to upload of all the wonderful gifts that Lori sent to me. I will get them posted for all to see what a great Secret Sister she was to me.

As much as I'd like to say it was the disposals fault, I wouldn't be honest.  Let's recap the last 2.5 years in this house. It's an old house, but not as some of the old historic houses in our town. So here I am trying to get the kitchen ready so I could begin making rolls to go with our leftover chicken and rice soup. Joshua is sick and well, nothing is better than chicken soup, right? Only problem is he isn't a big soup eater when he's healthy and his appetite isn't the greatest now that he's sick. We'll try again tonight for more soup for him.

So back to the disposal ~ while cleaning the kitchen I realized that I had some "science experiments" growing. In and effort to get them outta here, I put them down the disposal. That's what it is for, right? As soon as it was apparent to me that it wasn't clearing the food, I stopped. You see, I've been down this exact road THREE (yes, 3) other times before since moving into this house. So keeping up with the temper tantrums of this disposal has now cost me approximately $350. Not a cheap disposal.

I called a different plumber today. The other two were local and well ~ I wasn't impressed. So let's try someone new. And I do believe I've found the right plumber for us. Hopefully, I'll never have to use them again.  He showed me the "plumber's secret" to unclogging the sink/disposal. Yes, I'm filing that one away for future reference. And $85 later, my disposal and other sink were unclogged, and the plumber was on his way. Life is grand again.

Before the plumber arrived, I was at the point that I wanted the disposal outta here. Take it and give me back a normal sink. But the plumber has informed me that my disposal is actually the biggest that is made, with a 7 year warranty and normally they don't install ones that large. Oh my, so apparently it's not the disposal's fault, but the operator.  Isn't it wonderful to know that I have now clogged up this horse of a disposal 4 times since moving into this house 2.5 years ago. I'm on a roll ~ look out folks. Beware if I come to your house and you have a disposal, I just might clog yours too.  

Oh ya, because we eat pasta and rice and sometimes they become a "science experiment" that is then put into the disposal, most likely our pipes are becoming "caked" up with pasta and rice. Um, so pasta and rice isn't necessarily good for your arteries to your heart nor your plumbing lines. Just thought you might need to know this for future reference. Happy Disposaling

Not sure how I ended up at this blog, but I did. I've been thinking about having a small garden this year. Of course about this time of year I always think about a garden. Um, maybe after reading this link, I should rethink my thoughts of having a garden.

And here's the story of this wife's of "How to eat fresh worms as opposed to fried worms". So you will either laugh until you cry (so be sure to have some tissues handy) or you'll go eeewww and never read my blog again. As we say in my house, YOU have the CIRCLE of control, so I trust I'll see you back here real soon.

A fellow homeschooler in our local group has done the devotions when we have a small group meeting. I've been really blessed when she shares the devotion from what she's received from The Proverbs 31 Ministry. If you haven't signed up for their Daily Devotion via email, you should hop right on over there without delay.

Yesterday we had church at home. We listened to our Pastor on the radio. I did this because we ran out of time to get ready and my boys needed some serious "practice of sitting still". Caleb was very good in the beginning, but with about 15 minutes to go, he had to be excused to his bed. Joshua was quite the fidget master most of the service, but he did make it until the end. I have some of our Pastor's sermons on CD, so we'll be practicing the art of sitting still this week, and next week, and the week after that, and three months from now ~ well I'm sure you get the picture.

The message yesterday tied into Part 2 of our building program ~ "Arise and Build", to build a Family Life Center next to the church. We've been in the book of Nehemiah and it's been interesting to learn about this man Nehemiah and how it applies to our lives today. Yesterdays sermon was on PRAYER. Am I the only one that absolutely struggles with prayer? I am beginning to believe that it's a pride issue. Yes, the sermon yesterday seriously made my feet hurt.

Nehemiah 1:5-11 

• Nehemiah praised God
• Nehemiah confessed his sins and the sins of the Israelites
• Nehemiah talked to God about the promises God had made
• It wasn't until the last half of the last verse that Nehemiah asked for anything for himself

After we finished listing to Pastor on the radio, Joshua began to line up all their stuffed animals (Caleb was allowed to help) and Joshua was going to "preach" to them. I just asked Joshua what he preached about - "Nehemiah" (of course). Well duh on me!!!!

So how does this relate back to the daily devotion from Proverbs 31? The story is of a woman working in a grocery store and she is always so happy. A customer asked what her "secret" was. She had to be to work at 6:00 am, so she was up at 3:30 am to spend time with Him. In the email was the following quote:

R.A. Torrey once said: "The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came...Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory."

Have a blessed day!!!