Falling farther and farther behind all of you, my friends, in the blogging world.  I don't know what I do all day, but I don't seem to have the time to cruise around and see what everyone is up to.  So if you are in the same boat I am, I won't blame you at all for not going back to take a look at my post about loving the desert, which continues to grow, or the one about the ESV, which has generated a few more comments lately.  Just wanted to let you know there is activity going on there, just in case you are interested.

Emily has the BIGGEST smile on her face most of the day today since this is her last day of being four years old.  Tomorrow we will have chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, decorated with yellow icing by Emily herself.  And some fudgsicles -- those are more fun  for a little kid than a scoop of ice cream is. As for me, I'd rather have a bowlful of Moose Tracks!  I am so relieved to have switched to this plan.  For 362 days this year Emily insisted on another popcorn cake for her fifth birthday, and then suddenly she matured and asked for chocolate.  Yea!!  Oh.  Maybe that is not a good thing.  We already have two chocoholics in this house...

Pete Falcon (see previous post) is under the attack of mega doses of antibiotics, and after a week of being on them his digestive system is finally rebelling. Yogurt helped for a while, but no longer.  We might have a now-you-see-him, now-you-don't preacher tonight if he is running to the bathroom between scripture passages.

We are doing out best to wrap up our first quarter of the school year, so we can go to Grammy and Grampy's for a few days for a combination birthday celebration and trip to the San Diego Zoo.  This trip was supposed to take place this week, but Pete Falcon couldn't walk around the house, let alone the zoo.  He has a few days left to heal, and we're praying for a very quick and complete recovery now.

Seems like I had something important to tell you all... sorry, the brain is kaput.  There's nothing left!

Well, that's the news from the dry and thirsty land.  Have a great weekend, everyone!


O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
Psalm 63:1-4

WARNING: NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS!!

We Arizona blogging gals were recently discussing the fact that we are more than ready for fall to get here.  I told Kristy and Shani that I have given up waiting, and that I have already begun my winter cooking -- soups especially, and baked oatmeal. "Baked oatmeal??" they said.  If you have never had baked oatmeal on a cold morning, you are missing out.  It is so good and satisfying, and so easy to make!  Try adding chopped apples, walnuts, dried cranberries, or raisins. Top it with warm milk or cream, or hey, even rhubarb sauce!  Enjoy.

Overnight Baked Oatmeal

2 eggs 1 C brown sugar 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla  6 tablespoons butter, melted 1 C milk 3 C oats optional: walnuts, chopped apple, raisins, dried fruit, chocolate chips??

Yum!!!

Not mentioning any names, of course. Enjoy the winter. We'll be thinking of you!

A couple of years ago I started this very easy, simple, anyone-can-do-it afghan.  Believe me, if I say anyone can do it, anyone can do it.  Because if I can do it, anyone can do it.  This is my very first crocheting project. Nothing like overkill.  A wise woman would begin with a dishcloth or something a bit smaller than an afghan. Because I never seem to get much done at one time, I plan to finish it in about the year 2057.  But what I like about this pattern is that I never have to go back and reread the instructions to remember where I am or what to do next!  Very simple.  DC10, ch10.  That's it. When you get to the end of the row, ch3 and turn. The real instructions are below.

My dear, faithful, and wise husband left this comment on another pastor's blog this afternoon.  If you are thinking about getting the new, highly-acclaimed English Standard Version of the Bible, you might want to think twice.

Do your kids get tired of the same old lunches each day?  Mine do.  We go from sandwiches to Top Ramen to quesadillas and back to sandwiches again. Lately, though, since I have been allowing making my girls prepare their own lunches, the quesadillas have been more popular with all of us.   This is something we do frequently, but if you are not from the southwest, maybe you don't think of eating refried beans for lunch?  Here's how to make a very un-authentic quesadilla:

Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Butter one side of either a flour or corn tortilla. (There is a big difference in taste between them, and we all have our preferences here.) Lay it buttered side down on top of a second tortilla.  Slather the top with refried beans. Place a layer of lunch meat ham or turkey on top of the beans.  Make the top layer a generous amount of shredded jack, cheddar, or Mexican blend cheese. (You can also make this with cheese only.) Carefully place the top tortilla with its toppings into the frying pan. Next, place the other tortilla on top of the cheese, with the buttery side up.  Cook it for a minute or two, until the underside is golden. (Check by lifting the edge with a spatula.)  Flip the quesadilla over and cook the other side.

I was playing at Shani's the other day enjoying one of her latest posts, about how we women are so good at finding things NOT to like about ourselves.  Shani challenged her readers to come up with ten things that we DO LIKE about ourselves.  I wasn't even going to do this one, because she is right -- for every one thing I do like about me, there are probably a hundred things I don't like about me.  But that slave-driver encouraging woman, Shani, wouldn't leave me alone.  She insisted that I play, even if it takes me a week to come up with ten things. Under dire mental duress I came up with two.  And then I realized that everything I really like about me is really not about me at all -- it is something that Jesus Christ has done IN me or THROUGH me, or in SPITE of me!  So, at the risk accusations of false humility, here are my ten things:

1. I am eternally saved.  Once and for all.  I received God's gift of faith in the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, in my place.  Every one of my sins was forgiven 2000 years ago, and they are under the blood of Jesus. Praise the Lord! Jesus paid it all.

2. I have absolute peace about eternity. The Lord gave me that.

3. I have been blessed with spiritual discernment, from reading the Bible for many years.  The Lord gave me that.

4. I am reasonably content with my material possessions.  The Lord did that.

5. I am comfortably frugal, a trait that is sometimes necessary in the ministry, but not one that all people in the ministry have.  The Lord did that.

6. I am more practical than romantic, which is a good thing for a woman married to Mr. Dominant/Steady.  Sometimes I'm a little romantic, but I think I suppress that side of me.  God made me practical, and I need to be.

Okay, now for some more carnalish things:

7. I have always liked the color of my hair! People have asked me since I was about eight years old if I dye it.  God made it that way.

8. I had three babies with no meds, and one with an epidural just to reward myself for the other three.   God gave me the grace for that, and a body that has babies easily.

9. Once in a while, I have the presence of mind and the mind/hand coordination to be a good writer.  God is preserving what's left of my brain and has given me the talents I have.

10.  I ran out of things. 

I asked my kids, and they couldn't think of anything, either!  LOL!!! Okay, wait, here's a contribution from Alizona: Even though I say it's time to go to sleep, I stay in their room and talk with her and her sister. (Oh good.  I'm glad there was ONE thing!)

Okay, Shani, I did it! 

Many years ago -- it doesn't seem like many years ago to me, but it was -- I bought a nice set of three nested ceramic bowls from The Brickyard, outside of Shell Lake, Wisconsin.  I loved that place!  The Brickyard is an old two-room brick schoolhouse which a couple bought, remodeled, and converted into a home on one side and art studio on the other.  The owners were potters and they opened the studio to local artists to display their talents. It was a few miles from the beautiful countryside where I spent my last days as a single woman, and I bought the bowls for a lasting souvenir of the wonderful days  when I lived in northwestern Wisconsin.  In time, I dropped the largest of the bowls, the one that would have been perfect for mixing bread in, and sometime later I broke the middle bowl, too. The big bowl was a total loss, but the middle sized bowl still sits on top of my kitchen cupboard, next to its little sibling, barely hanging on to its broken piece with Elmer's Glue. I never use it, because washing it will dissolve the glue. But I still enjoy the memories it brings.

And now?  Now I have a new memory to associate with that special, mama-bear sized bowl.  Booklover used it to mix her dry ingredients for chocolate chip cookies the other day.  And if you know what kind of a housekeeper I am, you can guess what happened.  When I grabbed hold of the edge of the bowl to give the flour, baking soda, and salt once last stir, an inch of dust fell into my hand. I stopped mid-stir and gaped at the gross collection of fuzz, desert dust, and dead human skin cells.  "Um, Amy," I said, "You didn't happen to wipe out this bowl before you dumped the flour in it, did you?" "No, Mom, why?" I showed her why.  "Oh... do you think anyone will be able to taste it?" she asks.  "We'll just tell them it's a secret ingredient," I answered.    So we did.  The cookies are almost gone, except for some unbaked dough in the fridge. No one has mentioned a funny taste, and no one has died, so I guess they're okay....?  I now have another cleaning item to add to the chore schedule I have been working on for weeks, the one that never seems to materialize...

Really.  The cookies aren't bad!  (Chocolate can cure anything.)  But Mary, let this be a lesson to you.  Be careful what you ask for, LOL!

Are you a Coke addict?  I enjoy a diet Coke once in a great while, mostly when we are at a restaurant that doesn't have filtered water.  Being a diabetic, I am pretty careful not to drink sugary stuff. (But I'm not very careful not to eat it -- there's chocolate, you know. It just seems worse to pour sugar directly into my bloodstream.  If I chew it, at least I'm burning it off, lol!) For the most part I just drink water.  I am not a health nut, but I do know that I feel a lot better when I eat real food.  Anyway, here's an eye opening bit of research on what colas do to your body. 

It is true, from 1886 - 1903 Cola use to have cocaine in it!  In 1903 they removed cocaine from Cola, but it still does not make Cola any less of a drug. Cola, like all soft drinks, ravage the body within minutes of ingestion!  You MUST consider "banning" carbonated beverages, whether they are diet or regular, after learning the following facts!

Cola concerns: New York Times asks, ‘Can too much cola cause kidney problems?'

 01/25/2008 Noting that concerns about cola's link to kidney problems are largely based on anecdotal evidence, NIH researchers investigated the claim and found that drinking two or more colas daily --regular or diet-- was associated with a two-fold increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), the New York Times reports. For the study, which appeared in the journal Epidemiology, the researchers compared the behaviors of 465 people with CKD with those of 467 healthy people. After controlling for various factors, the researchers uncovered the link between cola consumption and CKD; there was no link between drinking non-cola sodas and developing CKD. The Times notes that the findings validate the longstanding suspicion that cola's phosphoric acid or its ability to "pull calcium from bones" may heighten patients' risk for renal ailments. The NIH researchers, meanwhile, say more research is needed (O'Connor, Times, 1/22 [registration required]).

 What happens to your body when you drink a Cola:

* First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons or 40grams of pure sugar begin to enter your blood stream. That breaks down to be about roughly 100% of the recommended carbohydrate intake allowed per meal!

* 15 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, the pancreas gushes out insulin, and your liver responds to the surge of glucose by converting excess sugar into triglycerides and ultimately body fat.

* 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is now complete. Your pupils are dilated, your blood pressure rises, and as a result of this complete caffeine upload which triggers stress related hormones, your liver dumps even more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are blocked, which prevents drowsiness.

* 45 minutes: As with all sweets or any of your "favorite foods" {Time may vary}- Your body up-regulates dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain.  This works in the same way that heroin and other addictive affect your brain.  Addiction is Addiction!

* >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid in the soda binds to calcium (which is pulled from your bones), magnesium and zinc increasing urinary excretion of calcium weakening your bones.

* >60 Minutes: Diuresis assures that you'll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to or located in your bones as well as sodium and electrolytes.

* >60 minutes: It's inevitable; you'll have a metabolic crash and you may become irritable, foggy headed, and sluggish.  You've also managed to urinate all of the water that was in the drink, but not before infusing it with valuable nutrients and electrolytes that your body could have used for hydration or building/marinating strong bones and teeth.  Not to mention - now you have a habit to kick.

Cola Facts: Everything in Moderation is a Myth!

Source: www.Truthorfiction.com

+To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Cola into the toilet bowl... Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.

+The citric acid in Cola removes stains from vitreous china.

+To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Cola.

+To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Cola over the terminals to bubble away corrosion.

+To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

+To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Cola into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

+To carry a Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the hazardous material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.

Copyright(C) 2008 Dino Pierce, CFT, CPT, RD, CDE
Used with permission.

About the Author:

Booklover met a girl at the local McDonalds the other day.  The other girl asked Booklover where she goes to school, and of course, Booklover replied that she homeschools.  To my gratifaction, the other girl said, "Oh, you are soooo lucky!!!"   That is the sort of thing that does good to the heart of a homeschooling mom.  If all those ps kids that Booklover meets said things like, "Oh, I feel sorry for you," or "Ew! I couldn't STAND to be home all day," then my daughter might begin to feel like she is being denied the better things in life. (But we know she isn't.)  Booklover said, "Mom, They probably think homeschooling means we don't have to do any school work!"  Well, just so that you can see we DO work here, I am posting this photo as evidence.

It is about time for me to post something again, and what a blessing!   Karen, of Old Paths Mom, wrote my entry for me today!  Thanks, Karen!  She is starting a series on Pure Words, the answers to all those questions that will be coming from her children -- Why do we do this?  Why don't we do that? etc.  You'll just have to go over and read it yourself.

When we first moved here, I hated the desert.  In fact, I had already decided BEFORE we moved here that I was going to hate it.  And that decision wasn't made when I found out we were moving here -- I already knew I would hate living in this wilderness years before, when, as my DH and I drove through Wikiup, Arizona and we saw a big billboard advertising forty-acre lots for $15,000, he says, "Sal!  Do you see that?! Look how cheap land is out here! We could buy forty acres and move here someday!"  He sounded like he was joking, but somehow, at that moment, I just knew he would jump at the chance if it ever came along.  If I remember right, I stared at him in disbelief, and when I got over my mild shock, with all my wifely submission having flown right out the window, I simply said, "NEVER."  I swallowed hard.  "There's nothing out here but rattlesnakes!  There would be nothing at all romantic about living in this hostile wasteland!"   I think I might have threatened to go home to Mother if he even thought about it. Sure, before we were married I agreed to go anywhere with him, told him I could be happy anywhere as long as we were together and all that romantic kind of talk, but I was assuming he would never want to live anywhere I wouldn't!

Well, you know what they say.  Never say never.  A few years went by, and we were living in Kansas.  Once in a while I would see my DH poring over the Arizona page of the atlas, and I would give him one of those looks we women use.  Little did I know he had actually been praying about moving out here!  That's cheating, don't you think?  Well, the opportunity did come and when it did, he was mentally ready to go.  It was one of those "Honey, while you pray for us to know God's will, I'll start packing" sort of things. 

So you see, my mind was already made up a long time ago.  I just wasn't going to like it.  ...Forward five years.  Here we still are.  Living in the desert has been exactly what I expected, except for the fact that we have not seen one live poisonous creature since we moved in. It's hot and it's dusty, it's brown and it's hostile, and, well, it's just men's territory. Men and boys love this stuff for playing in.  I think it makes them feel manly.   My DH gets on his mountain bike and climbs a grueling mountain "just because it's there", and I think maybe when he finds a wild and lonely place out there, he becomes Terrell Sackett (you have to know Louis L'Amour) until he has to make his way back down the mountain and back to his definitely non-Sackett wife.

But you know what?  Something life-changing happened recently.  I had a recollection of a day long, long ago, when I was maybe ten years old, when a missionary visited the church where I grew up. I remember hardly anything about her and nothing of what she said, but I do remember that I told the Lord I would go anywhere he wanted me to serve him -- except AFRICA!! Oh God, please don't send me to Africa!  And the Lord was faithful to answer my prayer.  He has not sent me to Africa.  (Well, almost.  But we don't have lions or  hyenas here, and we don't have termites devouring everything made of wood.)  When I thought about that, I felt very ashamed that  I had come here with such a bad, unwilling attitude, in the very place where I knew he wanted me to be!  Here I have been in rebellion against his will for nearly five years.  No wonder I didn't like the desert.  No one can be truly happy or content when they are in rebellion against the Lord.  As much as  I love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to be used of him, my heart simply was not submitted to his authority over me as his child. 

I decided that I had to find some things about the desert to thank the Lord for, or else I was going to shrivel up and die out here, and it would be because of my own selfish attitude.  I confessed my willfulness to the Lord, telling him I was sorry for my hard-heartedness, and immediately I felt a weight lifted from my heart. When I began to make a list of the good things about where I live, I could only think of one positive thing. LOL! (How pathetic!) Now I'm up to ten eleven  twelve thirteen oops, I have one listed twice. Okay, seventeen. The desert kind of grows on you. (I can't believe I'm saying this.) Here is my list so far, and as I come up with more things, I'll add them to this post:

1•  We have no mosquitoes!
2•  We have no grass to mow.
3•  The climate is comfortably dry, at least after you get used to it.
4•  Lots of sunshine.
5•  No mold or mildew!
6•  We have a clean, clear, algae-free lake.
7•  No hurricanes/blizzards/earthquakes!
8•  No snow, snow-shoveling, snow tires, salt-induced rust, heavy winter clothes.
9•  My clothesline is the super, extraordinary rapid-dry model.
10•  Gorgeous sunsets (due to all that nice dust in the air)!
11•  There are people I love here!
3 again•  The dry air really is comfortable after you get used to it.  The cracked lips learn how to stay moisturized,  and that sharp, pointy booger sensation in your nostrils goes away. And you quit drinking a gallon of water every half hour.
12•  When it is -40°F in Minnesota, I will be enjoying 65° F! LOL!  (Thanks for reminding me, Jane!)
13•  Glorious fall mornings.
14•  No neck ache from hunched shoulders, to keep the cold wind from blowing down my jacket. 
15•  No jacket!! (yet)
16•  This time of year, all the windows are open at night.
17•  Some interesting spiritual applications can be made here:
 ~"The rebellious dwell in a dry land" Ps 68:6.  Oh me!  (There are lots of rebels here besides me.)
 ~"But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert." Ps 106:14  Oh me, oh my!
 ~" Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work;"  Job 24:5  We have quite a few wild asses locally, and I do mean this in the literal sense, lol.
 ~"For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water:" Is.35:6,7  We're definitely parched around here.
 ~"Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:"  We have lots of rough and crooked places around here (it's all rough and crooked!), and we have mountains and valleys, too!
 ~"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited."Jer 17:5,6   It's definitely a salt land, and mostly uninhabited.  I'm thankful to have a city here!
 ~And last, this one is a fright! "They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.  And HE GAVE THEM THEIR REQUEST;  BUT SENT LEANNESS UNTO THEIR SOUL." Ps 106:13-15.  This is why I never ask God to move us away from here -- I'm afraid he'll answer my prayer and give me something worse! lol!

I don't mind the desert so much any more.   Heh heh, actually, I'm kind of glad to be here!