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How many of you want to be weak? Our culture/world views weakness as something not good. No one wants weak tea or coffee. No one wants to be the weak player on the team. But did you know that the Bible says that weakness is good.
Read II Corinthians 12:1-10
Paul had a reason to think of himself as special - caught up to heaven and given special revelations.
But God made sure that Paul would remain humble. A "thorn in the flesh" came into his life, a messenger from Satan. This could have been a physical ailment, maybe false teachers, or even division in the church. Notice that even though it was from Satan, it was part of the direct purpose of God. Paul prayed for relief but this was not in God's purpose and plan. Paul found himself in a situation that was testing him significantly. Have you ever found yourself in that place?
"my grace is sufficient for you" God is the source of grace. Grace is God's favor on His children which expresses itself as the sufficient supply/resource for the need. Hebrews 4:16 It is sufficient, all you need.
"power is perfected in weakness" Perfected carries the idea of fulfilled or realized. Paul boasts in his weakness. When we experience situations that reveal how weak we are, it opens the door for the power of God to be demonstrated.
"so that the power of Christ may dwell in me"
The Christian walk is to be one of complete weakness. Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:2-4
Weakness brings dependence, trust, reliance. We do not live for God, Christ lives in us and through us. He does not help us. He is the very life in us.
God's desire is not for relief but for resilience, perserverance. When we see our weakness and Christ's sufficiency in us, then we can rely on Him, and His power and life will be manifested. Weakness becomes strength.
"well content"
Paul saw the purpose that God had in these things that would expose his need. He was content with them because God could use them powerfully in him. Are we ready to be content in things that expose our weakness? If we do it can be the stimulus, the avenue for the power of the life of Christ to be revealed in us.
This is a devotional email from my husband, Mark. If you would like to be put on a list to recieve them, just let me know. |
Posted in Bible Bee
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Here are three videos of verses. We used a Karaoke machine that someone generously loaned us. My friend, Misti, got a kid's CD to go with the machine and I put the verses to the songs. We have Romans 5:7-8 to Bingo, I John 4:14-15 to Grand Ol' Flag, and Romans 10:10-11 to Farmer in the Dell. Be aware that this is not official Bible Bee material. It is taken from their Bible verse cards. |
Posted in Bible Bee
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We are working on Bible Bee material daily. There is so much to learn! It is very challenging. I am trying to come up with ideas of how to best memorize the verses and other material. I learn better when I see and hear and interact with things so I am trying to do that for the kids as we study. Here are some of the things we have done to learn the Bible verses:
*Writing the verse on a chalkboard or dry erase board and erasing a couple of words at a time and trying to say the verse.
* Making up signs for a verse using American Sign Language or just some made up signs.
* Make up a slap-clap to a verse( see example video).
*Make a rebus of the verse.
*We have posted the verses for the day by the kitchen sink and in the bathroom.
*We are meeting on Wednesday nights to go over material and encourage the kids. Last week, we had all the kids try to put a verse to a song they knew. They did a good job and it was fun. Here are some ideas:Romans 12:2 to Old McDonald had a Farm,Isaiah 26: 3-4 to Mary Had a Little Lamb,John 1:1-2 to Yankee Doodle, Psalm 34:4-5 to Amazing Grace.Sometimes even if the songs are not that good the child still learned the verse while trying to make it a song.
 *This week the homework is to draw a picture of a verse and try to incorporate the verse reference. As an illustration, I drew a picture of a thief with a shirt on that said his name was "John". He was carrying a "10-10 " rifle ( I know there is no such thing but it gets the point across) The thief was saying, " I come only to steal and kill and destroy." Then on the other half of the paper Jesus said " I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
* I made up some online games to review the Bible Knowledge Quiz Cards:
Thanks Misti for helping me with the videos. http://elearning-games.umcrookston.edu/InterGames1/KnowMill.asp?GameID=biblebeegames_000 http://elearning-games.umcrookston.edu/InterGames1/KnowMill.asp?GameID=biblebeegames_001 *Dr.Lim also has a fun site to play. It is not an official Bible Bee site but it has good review games on books like Matthew: http://www.tagnet.org/grandforks/flashgames.htm I have 3 videos that show some of what we have done. |
Posted in Gardening
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The garden is coming along. Now is the part of gardening I don't really like- weeding. We have been weeding and mulching the last few weeks. Mark is trying to mulch everything really well this year to cut down on the weeding. Since we don't use weed killers this can be a big job! We used old hay mostly for the mulch. We found out the hard way not to put hay around the melons, squash and cucumbers because those plants like a drier hotter growing climate. Also, the hay acts as a habitat for the cucumber beetle which spreads powdery mildew on the cantaloupe. We are using landscape fabric around these.
We had to replant cantaloupe,cucumbers, and watermelons and some of the corn.
We staked the tomatoes and beans. We have tried different ways to stake the beans and tomatoes. This is the way we like best. It is easy to pick the beans with this set up.
 Here are the beans starting to climb up their stakes  Here are the tomatoes. Some have little green tomatoes. We pinched the blooms off the strawberries. These are the peppers The corn looks kind of scrawny. Mark replanted some of it. |
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Well, I had an exciting afternoon starting when Elizabeth called and said , " Mom bring a fire extinguisher quick the truck is on fire!" I grabbed the one in the laundry room and sent Anna for the one upstairs. I raced in the car to where the truck was on the side of our road, envisioning flames leaping from the truck.
Now you may ask, "Why was the truck on the side of the road?" Good question. It was sitting where it ran out of gas while Mark was driving it to work this morning. The girls were suppose to have put gas in it last night. Someone forgot.
Your next question might be " How did it catch on fire?" Another good question. The girls were trying to start it by putting gas in the carburetor. Mark has shown them how to do this ( you have to teach some "boy" things to girls when you have all girls) The girl, who will remain nameless, evidently wasn't listening too well. She didn't hear the part about not getting any gas on the air filter.
So, one of the girls is cranking the truck while the other pours the gas in and the air filter bursts into flames. Elizabeth yells to Miriam to get out of the truck because it is on fire. Miriam remembered that we had a fire extinguisher in the van, which is parked a few feet away ( I knew that would come in handy one day!) They unload the extinguisher but it is still smoking. This is where the phone call to me comes in . When I get there they spray the extinguisher I had on it too. The smoking stops.
It didn't look too bad but the air filter was toasted. Now we needed to call Mark and tell him. Good thing he had just asked yesterday at church for prayer for patience with the girls. (seriously, he had) He handled it really well, not knowing how much damage it would have. The good news is it needed a new air filter and some hose but he was able to drive it home.
I am so glad the girls remembered we a fire extinguisher in the van- they are homeschooled, you know... of course they are the ones who caught the truck on fire in the first place, but most girls probably wouldn't try to pour gas in the carburetor to start it ... of course they are the ones who let it run totally out of gas... . Lots of lessons learned and nobody was hurt in the making of these lessons... my kind of learning- real life. |
Posted in Gardening
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Well we got most of the garden planted!! Here is what we got in:
-6 rows (approximately 65 ft long) of Blue Lake Pole Beans. These are actually planted in beds of 3 rows each.
-6 rows ( approximately 50 ft long) of Incredible Corn
-40 pepper plants ( combination of Big Bertha and California Wonder)
-cantaloupe ( Ambrosia, Athena, and Hales Best)
- Dark Green Zucchini
-Jarrahdale Pumpkin
-New England Pie Pumpkin
-Crimson Sweet Watermelon
- Yellow and Crookneck Squash
-Winter Density Romaine Lettuce
-Sweet Slice Hybrid Cucumber
Planting notes:
We have planted Blue Lake Bush Beans and Roma Beans in the past but we don't like picking them. Of course, Mark doesn't like staking the pole beans... but he doesn't want his labor crew to mutiny, so he plants the pole beans for us. Last year Earliqueen Cantaloupe did very well for us but we couldn't get seeds for those this year. Hales Best Cantaloupte is an open pollinated seed which we would rather plant ( so we can save seeds ) but they had a lot of mildew problems. We love the Jarrahdale Pumpkins they cook up thick and aren't watery. Mark just wanted to try the New England Pie Pumpkin this year. We have tried Kandy Korn in the past but it was too sweet for us. We put up a 6 foot fence around the garden to keep the deer out.
In a few weeks we will plant several rows of Silver Queen Corn and Georgia Jets Sweet Potatoes. Now we get to fight weeds until the harverst. |
Posted in Gardening
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Planting season has gotten underway big time. We recently planted close to 200 Guardian strawberry plants. I will give you Mark's step by step instructions on those. We also planted several rows of white potatoes. Now Mark is tilling to plant the rest of the garden. He hopes to get some of the tomatoes in today then plant the rest of the warm weather things Monday night and Tuesday when he is off. Potatoes: The Kennebec potatoes we planted in hills. I know some people don't spend too long planting their potatoes but Mark wants things done right ( read "his way"~ smile) After tilling, he digs a trench with a hoe pulling the dirt to one side. Then he ( or his slave labor) sprinkles a bone meal/blood meal fertilizer in the trench. Next the potatoes are placed in the holes about a foot a part. Last the dirt is hilled back up over the potato trench. The rows are about 3 ft apart. When the potatoes start to come up, more dirt will be hilled up around them. Now for the strawberries: Mark tills the area. Bone meal/blood meal fertilizer is sprinkled in before the last run of the tiller. After tilling, we dig a small hole with our hands. In the middle of the holes we make a little mound of dirt.  We carefully put the strawberry plant on top of the mound and spread out the roots, making sure the plant will be buried up about halfway on the stiff part where the "crown" is. The plants are about a foot apart with rows 3 ft apart.  To cut down on weeding-since our slave labor crew is getting smaller every year-we put down landscaping fabric around the plants.  Hay mulch will be also put on top of this. It is good to do a thorough job on this since the plants will be in the ground several years and keeping weeds out is important. Around the outside of the strawberries we put down black plastic then put our fence up. We use the landscaping fabric close to the plants because it will allow water through, unlike the black plastic. And the tomatoes: We planted Early Girl, Celebrity, Better Boy, Amish Paste, Brandywine , and Mortgage Lifters. The Celebrities have consistently done well for us and are good for our planting zone. They seem to be pretty disease resistant. Mark is equally meticulous about planting the tomatoes. First he tills, then we make holes with a hoe about 1 foot apart.  In the hole we put old, dry chicken manure.  We sprinkle a little dirt over the chicken manure and place the plant in the hole. Next we liberally water the plant and put more dirt around the plant up to the first big leaves.  Mark likes to cover about half the plant even if the first leaves are covered with dirt. The tomato rows are around 4 feet apart.  All this will be mulched heavily with hay. The less weeding we have to do the better. Since we are doing things organically we won't be spraying any weed killer on our garden. Mark doesn't really stake the tomatoes. Along each side of the row of tomatoes at about 10 ft intervals he puts T-posts. Then , as the tomatoes grow, he tightly stretches 3 levels of nylon twine down each row of T-post . This works well for large quantities of tomatoes. We planted about 120 plants. (In Georgia one time we planted around 700 tomato plants ! Glad we didn't have to do that tonight.)I hope this isn't all too detailed. I just figure if you haven't done this before it might help. |
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Anna and I have enjoyed Bible Drills at the Baptist Church. This group is for 4-6th graders. The kids had to learn 25 Bible verses, the books of the Bible, and 10 Key Passages. It was good for Anna and for me. As I worked with the kids I had to refresh myself on the books of the Bible and learn verses along with the kids. Bible memory has always been hard for me, probably because I am not as disciplined as I should be. Even if I remembered the verse I still had trouble with the reference. Well, I still have trouble with that but it was challenging for me to keep up with the kids. Wish I could go back to 6th grade and memorize all this. I guess I didn't do too bad for an ol' lady. Debbie was the main teacher and I was the helper. We made a pretty good team. We weren't sure how many kids would make it to the church drill but seven of the kids qualified.  Last Wednesday night we had the church drill. All seven of them did really well. They are all going on to the Associational Drill. To go on they had to get at least 12 calls out of 24. That may sound easy but they were up in front of the church, which makes anyone nervous. They had to say the verses with the reference and with no errrors. Then had to find whichever book of the Bible was called in 10 seconds and tell what book came before and after it. Next they had to find Key Passages in 10 seconds. This part was really hard. It was hard enough just memorizing the key passages. Do you know where to find the Baptism of Jesus ? The Prayer of Forgiveness? The Model Prayer? The Parable of the Prodigal Son? AND can you find it in 10 seconds... in front of lots of people? Three of the kids got all 24 calls- way to go Anna, Sierra, and Christian! Next week is the Associational Drill. It's at 6:30 at the Baptist Church if anyone wants to come. Hopefully we will have several kids going on to State! After State the Drills it will be over but then Anna and I will start the Bible Bee. I am really looking forward to that challenge! |
Posted in Gardening
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This is turning into just a gardening blog. I will have to get on this week and write about something else too. Here is what is happening in our garden this week and Mark's grow light set up. We're still having rain and the broccoli is growing.  The pepper and tomato seedlings are looking good. The lettuce seedlings are small but coming along. This is Mark's grow light set up for seedlings.
 After the seeds germinate he puts them here. He keeps the lights as close to the plants as possible. He has a chain with an "S" hook so he can adjust the height of the lights. You can probably see he used PVC to build this. He uses regular florescent bulbs .He keeps the lights on 12-14 hours a day. You can use more expensive grow lights and not have to put them as close to the plants or keep them on as long. This set up has worked for us. Mark usually chooses cheaper over more convenient. :) Mark waters the plants as needed and feeds them. He uses natural liquid fertilizer from Peaceful Valley called Omega 6-6-6. It contains equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. He feeds them about every week and a half after they get their secondary leaves.
 I thought you might like to see part of how we fertilize in our garden. This is Mark's portable chicken coop. We move it around in our garden area and the chickens fertilize for us. Mark just built a second one for us. The back open part is where the chickens nest and the eggs are easy to get out.
 We got our strawberry plants in but it will be hard to find a dry time this week to plant them. We will have to coordinate planting them with Mark's work . Also, this week we are watching Mark's dad while his mom is out of town. We won't get much done in the garden this week! |
Posted in Gardening
 I know some gardeners have been frustrated by the rain we are having this week because they want to plant. Mark watches the weather closely even in the winter but in the spring and summer he really watches it. If he sees a dry time we plant, or he plants, even if it is inconvenient. Since he works a full time job, we have to plant when he is off to supervise. The garden is his baby and we don't want to mess it up.  Mark planted around 30 Premium King Broccoli plants last weekend and Walla Walla Onions. Our spring broccoli never does as well as our fall crop and this year is no exception. Mark thinks the Premium King variety is more susceptible to the cold. One day when he was hardening them off ,he put the plants out early before he went to work. The plants looked kind of wilted when he came home.( Packman Broccoli is usually what Mark orders but he wasn't able to get those for spring planting.)So our broccoli is off to a slow start but hopefully we will get a good crop. I was very happy this week when Miriam noticed we had several bags of frozen broccoli still in the freezer at my mother in law's house. ( She lets us use part of her freezer and we give her fresh produce all summer ) Now on this rainy afternoon Miriam decided to make broccoli soup -Yum! Over the next couple of weeks we hope to plant some Kennebec Potatoes. We usually get those locally at Potters where Mark works. Mark says there is a potato shortage this year, according to their suppliers at Potters, so better get your potatoes soon! I don't know if it will affect the price of potatoes later this year or not. If our Guardian Strawberries that we ordered from Simmons get here, we will plant those this week-200 of them! This is a good resistant variety for this planting zone and they have a good taste. Some of you may want to know that Mark orders our seeds mostly from Fedco and Shumway. Fedco has good seeds and cheap prices. They are more organically oriented. We got our onion plants from Steele plants in TN. I know Mark should just write these gardening blogs but he doesn't have time. I can get him to dictate them to me so I can post them on here. Guess that will have to do. I love eating the produce but I don't love the gardening part. Too bad you can't eat flowers . I like flower gardening! Sorry there are no pictures again. Maybe next week... |
Posted in Gardening
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This week we will be planting broccoli plants- 50 of them. I can taste it now... Here is step by step what we do: 1- Mark tills the plot. We plant the broccoli seedlings about 12-15 inches apart in rows. The rows are about 2feet apart. 2-Dig the hole with a hoe 3-Use a spading fork and loosen the soil 4-Toss in a handful of chicken manure ( We let Mark do this part and yes he uses his bare hand-yuk) 5-Toss a little dirt over the manure ( so the manure doesn't burn the plant) 6- Plant the seedling 7-Water the seedling and press the dirt around it. 8- Pray it grows and produces We are also planting around 150 onion sets. Mark isn't as picky about planting the onions so I won't explain that. Misti asked about hardening-off- Hardening -off is the way to acclimate seedlings to outdoor conditions. A few days before transplanting into the garden we leave them outside in the yard to get toughened up. The seedlings are still in their trays to they can be brought in at night and if the weather gets bad.The seedlings have been in a controlled environment and need to gradually get used to being outside. I will try to get pictures when we plant. |
Posted in Gardening
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Some people have asked me about our garden. I am just the slave labor when it comes to gardening. Mark is the brains behind all our gardening endeavors. I questioned him to make sure I got this right. We have been planting a garden for about 20 years- that sounds like a long time! Some years were more successful than others. Weather, of course, is a big factor in each year’s harvest. Oh, I should mention that we do things organically- read that “the hard way”. Generally this is what we do this time of year. I will try to keep you up on what we’re doing. Mark usually plows our garden spot in early March. (He says it is better to do it in the fall but he usually doesn’t get it done then) He starts our spring crop of broccoli by planting seeds inside around February 1st. He uses seed starter potting soil from Bonnie Plants. He plants them in Styrofoam seedling transplant trays from Mark also started cool weather lettuce(Romaine) around March 1 to be transplanted toward the end of March. Onion sets could also be put out the last half of March. Potatoes can be planted anytime from now to mid-April. Mark started tomatoes and pepper seeds inside the 1st week of March. These warm weather crops will be transplanted around the 1st of May. The average last frost here in southern KY is around April 15th. There have been some years when we have had to cover all our plants because of a frost warning so don't plant too early. I guess you are wondering when the slave labor comes in since Mark has done all of the seedling planting. Well, we get to help when we put them in the garden. |
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Wow! I haven't been on here since Christmas! Well, Anna and I had a great trip to South Dakota. It was very cold and at the Cutlers they had lots of snow. We got to ride snowmobiles- a first for us southerners. Anna got to sled behind snowmobiles, 4 wheelers, and horses. She also got to ride horses which was one of the highlights of her trip. We did have fun visiting with Grace and Jordan and seeing their place too. And we got to play Whist again. Must be a northern or northwestern card game. They all love it up there. I had never heard of it. I am finally catching on to it but nobody down here knows how to play. Since we got back it seems I have been going through a few minor trials. Our van got hit from behind while I was stopped to turn left. There was only minor damage but I got whiplash that is still a nagging problem. A massage therapist visit and my physical therapy friend ( who I think likes to torture people ) have helped.Our family is still recovering from the flu . It is weird I have never seen homeschoolers have a flu epidemic but this was. We all went to a funeral and it got passed to almost every family there. It has been a rough sickness. I don't think we have had a the flu in our family for about 16 years. We all got it except for Mark. Glad he missed it so he could still work. Here are some things we learned about having the flu. Others who have gone through it may have more to add : 1- Have lots of Kleenex, lots of fresh citrus fruit, lots of different juices, Ibuprofen,and lots of videos on hand. 2- Make sure everyone drinks a lot of liquids. 3-Just fold out the sofa bed and put everyone in one place. It is easier to keep up with them. 4-Make sure everyone gets enough rest. This wasn't too hard to do because we were all wiped out. Some peope I talked to who have had this flu tried to do things too early and then crashed again. 5-Have garlic oil on hand for ear aches. It really does work! 6- Have a sinus headache remedy on hand . I gave Miriam one that I had mixed up a long time ago and it worked. I can't remember exactly what it had in it but I remember it had cayenne pepper and Golden Seal. It is a little painful to use but opens you up. 7-Have something on hand for sore throats. Mine was so sore it felt like strep. I used Chloroseptic spray and lozenges. Warm apple juice mixed with orange juice felt good too. 8-Don't leave the house until you are not contagious so it doesn't spread to other people. 9- If you have have insurance and don't want to go through all this, get your doctor to order Tamiflu. It worked for my neighbor's family. It is expensive though. 10- Be thankful you won't have to ever have this strand of the flu again... of course there are many, many other strands of the flu. Oh , well next time you will be prepared, right?  PS. I have another blog www.veryhelpful.blogspot.com. I set it up to encourage others in homemaking especially in cooking. There are lots of good recipes on there. |
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I got the best Christmas gift a day early. My daughter, Grace, and her husband, Jordan, are expecting!! I am going to be a grandmother! Grace was going to wait until I got out there on Sunday but she wanted us and Jordan's parents to know at the same time. Well she and Jordan were driving to the Cutler's today and Grace was throwing up this morning. She knew they would figure things out pretty quickly. ( They already have 10 grandchildren) So she sent us a picture of her positive pregnancy test by email. My husband, Mark, wondered why I was sitting at the computer yelling and telling him to come here quickly. The picture was a little fuzzy so I wanted a second opinion about what I was seeing. He confirmed it. So we called Grace and Jordan ... just to be sure. ~ smile. They are excited but Grace is feeling kinda yuck. After we talked to them I called lots of other people and emailed others. Yes, I am excited. Anna and I fly to South Dakota on Sunday. An anonymous, generous person gave us the trip.I can't wait to see Grace and Jordan. Now the trip will be extra special. Guess I need to think of some fund raisers so I can make another trip to SD in August. I have to figure out a grandma name too. |
Posted in Courtship and weddings
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We have two married daughters, Dating is the way my husband and I were brought up. Somewhere in our parenting journey Mark and I read about courtship. We read, talked, and prayed about it. We decided we did not want our girls to go through dating the way we had. We wanted to raise our girls with a different standard. We started when the girls were young talking to them about the idea of courtship, in kid’s terms, of course. When relatives or friends asked the girls, “Who’s your boyfriend?” we encouraged them to answer, “We don’t have boyfriends.” When we watched a movie where unmarried people kissed, we would say, “They will have to get married now”. I know it is corny but it made an impression. As they got older, we talked about what they would look for in a husband and how they should just think of boys as friends until they were old enough to marry. We talked about how when they were older if a boy was interested in them the boy needed to talk to us, the parents. We didn’t hide the girls away and never let them interact with boys We invested in books about courtship: I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl by Josh Harris, When God Writes Your Love Story and When Dreams Come True by Eric and Leslie Ludy. We watched a video about it, “Pamela’s Prayer” and a TV special. If I read a good courtship story, I shared it with the girls. We discussed how neat it was that God brought the couple together, how special it was that they waited for the person God had for them, and how exciting it would be to wait until your wedding day for your first kiss.
My oldest daughter, Then in February 2005 Quinton’s family came to the church we were attending to sing. Afterwards, we enjoyed catching up with his family over a covered dish lunch. The kids especially had fun. (Quinton is the second of 12 kids) Late in February For the next few months our families did things together like hiking, playing volleyball, playing games, singing, and having meals together. At this point, we didn’t know Quinton was interested in In April, Quinton called Mark and asked for permission to get to know So now Quinton could call and talk to
Now I will tell you Grace’s story. Remember Grace’s fiancé, We met the Cutler family briefly in November 2003 at our friend, Annalisa’s, wedding. Annalisa was marrying In May 2005 We didn’t see The Cutler family planned a trip south in August 2006 and asked if they could visit us. They spent a few days with us and we loved their family. In February 2007 In May we got a letter from Mark decided we would plan a trip to Our families spent time riding horses, playing at the lake, working together putting up fences, putting up corn, making applesauce, more volleyball and games. I could see Grace and Jordan struggling and suggested that At the end of their trip to
These are my girls’ stories but I have read many others. From these stories you can see how courting looks different from dating. In case you missed it…. there is parental involvement, they don’t spend time alone, they spend a majority of their time in groups working and playing, they don’t start a relationship until they old enough and ready for marriage, and they get insight and advice from others. There is no step by step formula. Each courtship will look different but there are guiding principles. While your kids are young seek to instill in them a heart of dependence on God. Seek to develop a trusting, solid relationship with them. You need to have their hearts. Develop in them a commitment to the truth of the Word of God. If these aren’t a reality it will be a struggle. Your husband has to be in agreement with you about this and he must take the lead in it. Pray for your children and with your children about their future mates. Pray for wisdom. Help them to evaluate young men’s character qualities. One more thing for those of you with girls: Don’t allow your girls to dress to attract guys and call attention to themselves. Encourage them to concentrate on seeking God instead of seeking a boyfriend. Encourage them to spend time preparing for marriage by developing spiritually, in character, emotionally, and financially. Teach them practical things they will need to know.
I saw this chart somewhere else but I can’t remember where. If someone else know tell me so I can give them the credit. Dating Courtship Peer-oriented family-oriented For pleasure for marriage Alone with chaperone Self directed parent directed Any age age when prepared for marriage Hide faults discuss faults Come and go toward a committed relationship |
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Someone asked for help with presentations at things like our Science/History Night. I am no expert but with five girls and with home schooling for roughly 17 years we have had lots of presentations to do. Sometimes I have helped the girls be creative and sometimes it just didn’t happen. So what I am writing now are things that would happen when I did things the way I should. Also, since we only had four families participate this year in our Science/History Night, I thought I would try to encourage others to get an early start on next year. I like for my girls to have interesting presentations since I enjoy listening to them practice it more. ~ smile. I think the kids enjoy doing it more too. They gain more self confidence when they get positive feed back from their audience. My main suggestion, I speak from experience here, don’t wait until the week before the presentation to get your child to pick their topic. As you go through the school year look for topics. Allow your child to choose a topic in which he is interested. When you come across something that catches your child’s interest let him stay there a while instead of pressing on to finish your text book. Spend time reading and researching the topic. Get other books on the subject. Look up things on the internet about the subject. Talk to people who know about the subject if possible. Don’t let the topic be too broad. Like if my girls said they wanted to do a presentation on horses we would have to narrow that down. We could do breeds of horses or pick a famous race horse. Once you have your subject, how can you have a good presentation? The simple answer is- be creative. I know schedules are busy and there are other things to do. Just take 10- 20 minutes and brainstorm with your kids about how their presentation can be more than just a report that you read to the audience. I usually get my girls to sit with me and we just talk about their subject and how we can make it interesting. Some of our ideas may be a little off the wall but we just need to get them thinking outside the box. Sometimes our creativity just isn’t there or we just don’t have the time, I understand, but at least try. You can keep it simple and still be creative. One of my favorite presentations was when on of my girls, Anna, wanted to do a presentation on her insect collection. Just pointing to insects and telling about them can get boring, so we did some brainstorming. Several of the girls helped us think about it. After everyone started giving their input we came up with the idea for Anna to dress up like an insect and show off her “unfortunate relatives”. We had fun writing her speech about how her Aunt Monty ( aka monarch butterfly) was so beautiful and how she loved to travel. She told about her Cousin Twiggy, the walking stick and others. Anna got excited about her science project presentation and it didn’t take a lot of time or energy to do it. Dressing up like a historical character is always fun. You don’t have to have the perfect costume. Let the kids get it together. They learn more this way. It also helps to have props to go with your outfit too. Use visual aids to let your audience see what you are talking about. For example saying an albatross’ wing span is 12 feet doesn’t mean much until you roll out a string 12 feet long. That gets people’s attention. You can also use posters, diagrams, and power point presentations. Another thing my girls always enjoyed doing was making their presentation an interview. This can work for Science/ History talks or Geography Night. Have one child be from a certain country or a person in history and the other child the interviewer. You could even do this with science and have one child do an experiment that the other child questions him about. A couple of other suggestions are : have your child ask the audience questions in his presentation or in some way get the audience involved to make it more interesting. Using humor can keep peoples attention too. Keep the presentation short and to the point. Make sure your child practices his speech at home until he is comfortable with it. If you are pressed for time, they can give the speech to a sibling or dad or a grandparent. You can listen while you are cooking supper or doing other things if you are really busy. I am not always creative and I don’t always have my kids put the time into a presentation that we should but it sure makes a difference when we do. We all enjoy the process a lot more and they learn more. Please add your suggestions. |
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OK it has been a long time since I wrote on my blog and it is time to get at it again. We just had our 7th Annual Fall Festival at our house. This year we had ( the best we can determine) 114 people. It was a fun night but different from our other ones. Some of our favorite families were missing or parts of them.We especially missed the Hingles and Meyers. They have been coming to our Fall Festival for 5 or 6 years. We had several new families that had never been to our house before so it was fun to meet them. We didn't really get to talk to them too much since the Fall Festival is a crazy time for our family. For those who have never been to our party, I will describe it. We play volleyball, of course. Mostly the older kids and whatever adults want to join in. Some of the guys play football. I coordinate games for the younger kids. We do things like Marco-Polo, sharks and minnows, drakes and drums, freeze tag, and circle dodge ball. Some years we have played tug of war but the folks who brought the big rope couldn't come this year. We were suppose to do sack races and 3 legged races but I forgot. (If it isn't written down...) We roast hot dogs,roast marshmallows, and make s'mores over an open fire. And we talk a lot. As more of my daughters leave home it gets more challenging to do this. I have a hard time doing the games and greeting people who are bringing food. We will have to work on that- IF we do it next year. I say if, because I am not sure we will do it again. It is a lot of work especially when your work force is shrinking. It takes days to get everything ready and then there is the clean up. We had some friends who loaned us their kids for set up on Saturday morning and some folks stayed to help clean up which was nice. We do enjoy meeting everyone and getting to see friends we might not see very much. The kids enjoy the games, the hot dogs, and the s'mores. We were thankful for the nice weather on Saturday. Some of our FL friends thought it was too cold but we need it cold so the folks don't get too hot roasting their hot dogs. Maybe if I don't loose any other daughters before next fall we will try to do it again. Or maybe someone else will want to do it and we can be the helpers... what about it Misti? Carri? anybody?  Elisabeth L and Miriam getting things ready Volleyball warm up Getting food Roasting hot dogs around the fire Warming up with hot chocolate |
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A couple of my friends have blogged about this but it has been too hard for me to blog about until now. Our good friends, the Hingles, lost their 23 year old son, Josh two weeks ago yesterday. We got a call from one of Josh’s sisters saying her three oldest brothers had gone swimming after work. Josh went under and they couldn’t find him. That was all she knew and she asked us to pray. We thought at first that they were swimming in a river and he was lost downstream somewhere. We had hope they would find him alive. After not hearing back from anyone, I called my daughter, Elizabeth, who was working with the Hingle girls at their Café. She said they had closed the Café and were headed to where Josh went down. I decided I needed to go too. My heart sank when I got there. I saw, not a river, but the lake and I knew there was no hope of finding Josh alive. My prayers turned from Josh to his family. Many of the Hingle’s friends had gathered with them on the lake shore to be with them as the rescue divers looked for Josh. This was the beginning of the hardest week of my life. I am sure many people would agree. Grieving and watching others grieve is so very hard. At the lake we watched the divers go out trying to find Josh. We watched the family looking out at the lake knowing their son/brother was out there, under the water. We saw the pain of the brothers who had tried with every last bit of their energy to save their brother, almost losing their lives in the process. Friends too looked out at the lake not willing to believe this tragedy could be happening to someone they knew. No, this is something you read about happening to other people, not you. I saw Steve, Josh’s dad, weak with cancer reclining in his van seat looking so weary, so sad. Minutes dragged into hours as the divers kept searching for Josh. On the shore all we could do was watch and pray, hug each other, cry, and pray some more. We went to the store for food and drinks, though not many felt like eating. It was something we could do to try to help. We so wanted to help. We wanted to do more, to take away some of the pain this family was feeling. We couldn’t, so we prayed. Many people left as the hour got later but the family, a few friends, and two of my girls, Miriam and Elizabeth, stayed on at the lake shore waiting. I returned the next day to watch again with the family. Friends from out of state drove all night to be with the family. I brought food from friends, hoping someone would want to eat today. Again trying to help, feeling so helpless. Finally almost 24 hours after he went down they found Josh. It seemed even more real now. The coroner arrived. They brought Josh in and his parents went over to see him. Our hearts were breaking as they helped Steve to the shore to look at the lifeless body of his dear son. I sobbed as Josh’s little brother, too little to realize what was going on, said “I want to see Josh.” Brothers, sisters, and friends clung to each other as Josh was placed in the vehicle to be taken to the funeral home. Tears, so many tears. My girls and I went to the Hingle's home to try to help. What can you do for a family in a time like this? Will anything really help? We have to do something. Everyone wants to help in some way. We answered phones, made calls, straightened up the house, fed animals, started laundry, organized the food that was coming in, and prayed, always praying. If we can just keep busy we can’t think as much about what just happened. The week passed in a blur of trying each day to help in some way. The Lord just impressed us with the need to be there, to serve. It was so hard to watch my girls as they grieved for this precious young man who they thought of as a brother and to watch as they tried to comfort their friends who were hurting. I never knew grief could be so exhausting. Yes, we are still grieving now but in our grief we do have hope. That doesn’t seem possible and it isn’t, except for the Lord. I can’t imagine going through this without the Lord. We have been thrown into the Lord’s arms in total dependence, trusting Him to help us through each day. We don’t grieve as those who have no hope (I Thess. Josh loved the Lord. He was a man after God’s heart. He was one of the kindest, most joyful guys ever. He had this great smile and loved to tease. Oh, how we will miss him! |
Posted in Courtship and weddings
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Here are a few wedding tips from me and some of my friends/relatives. I hope they help someone who is planning a wedding to have a more stress free day. The most important thing to remember is that the wedding (and the marriage) should glorify the Lord. All the decorations and fancy dresses and food are nice, but if the wedding is stressful and costs tons it won't be remembered fondly.
So in no special order, here are the helpful hints. If you have some of your own, add them in the comments.
1-Freeze a few meals for the week after the wedding. You will need to relax. 2-On the wedding day, if you are getting dressed in your formal clothes at the church, wear button up shirts so your hair and make up won't get messed up. 3-See what is already at the place where you are having the reception and ask what you can use. 4-Label everything you take to the church and make a list of it. If others help you clean up it can be confusing.
5-Take lots of tinfoil, plastic wrap, and freezer bags for left overs. You may need to take your own trash bags too. 6-Take lots of safety pins, sewing needle and thread,bobby pins, hair spray, an extra slip or two and an iron . We have needed these at each wedding. 7- Make sure the main folks have each others cell phone numbers.Then make sure someone reminds everyone in the wedding party to turn off their phones for the ceremony. 8-Assign someone to make up a cooler of leftovers for the bride and groom. They tend to not eat much at the reception.
9-On the night of the rehearsal assign someone to make sure the rings get to the church. I have been to a couple of weddings where they were left at home.
10-If you have more than one child, make good lists of what you did for the wedding you will need to know again -things like how much punch and cake you needed.
11- A calendar with lists of what needs to be done on a certain day was helpful especially the week of the wedding. It makes it easier to delegate if folks ask what they can do to help.
(Pam)
1. Give a few reliable people short lists of jobs/responsibilities for them to do before, during, and/or after the ceremony. These can include lists of items to bring from home, items to pack up afterwards, things to put in place at the church, etc.
2. Think ahead to how much refrigerator room you'll need for food and flowers, and then plan accordingly.
3. Have a list of photo shots you'll want to make it easier for the photographer and for you.
4. Tell people ahead of time when they'll be needed for photo shots so you don't have to track them down.
5. Load up items in vehicles ahead of time as much as possible, rather than waiting until it's time to go to the church.
(Meg)
I think it's a very good idea for the bride and groom to put anything they are taking with them in a clearly defined place. At our wedding, Adrian ( the groom) and I just left our pre-wedding clothes in our respective dressing rooms strewn wherever, along with miscellaneous (purse, brush, etc.), and Hannah(maid of honor) and Lane(best man) had to scramble to figure out what was what afterwards, to get it loaded in the car for us. Hannah accidentally loaded Lane's dress shoes in our car, and by the time we figured that out it was too late and we were well on the road, and poor Lane had to find time and money to purchase another pair of dress shoes for church the next day :-P. A little more aforethought beforehand would have saved a lot of trouble. (Susan)
1. If you have limited refrigerator space you could make some "platform trays" to stack some of your "ready to serve" trays that you put together for the reception. These platforms will give you space under them for food plus if you make them right you can stack two of these platforms on top of each other and really make use of the refrigerator space. Researching your space for reception food is a MUST!!! Remember if you're making your own flower bouquets and boutonnieres etc you'll need frig space for them too!!!
2. I lived by lists and it was nice to have things to cross off. You can get these list from different wedding books and come up with one that is right for your family. I had list from 6 months up to the day of the wedding ~~~ I am a "list person" so it worked well for us. It helped my daughter stay on track too and gave she and her fiance plenty of time to decide what and how they wanted things done.
3. Cold food is definitely easier to do and easier to clean up after than hot food :-) But if you do the hot food you can keep things warm in large crock pots ~ just make sure the electricity in your kitchen will handle all of the extra cords etc.
4. As the mother-of-the-bride, take some time to think of special gifts that you want to give to your daughter at showers etc. This is a special time to share special messages and lifelong encouragements to your daughter.
5. For wedding decorations if you have a Michael's and/or JoAnn Fabrics around be sure to keep an eye out for their coupons. Michael's and JoAnn's in our area honored each other's coupons and it sure helped in buying things.
6. You may want to make up plates for the bridal party at the reception so that they won't have to wait in a line to be served. We had a menu made up ahead of time and had them choose what they would like and did their plates.
7. Realize that "things" can happen that are unplanned and be ready to smile and go with the flow :-)))
8. Enjoy the day and the months that went into this special day. Pray............pray.............pray :-)
(Terry)
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Posted in Courtship and weddings
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About Grace and
To prepare for the wedding, Miriam and Grandma Caroline (
notice the white flip flops they all wore.
Grace and Elizabeth the wedding party Anna, Hannah,Elizabeth, Miriam, Lydia, Grace , Jordan, Joshua, Jeremy, James, Lucas in front Jubilee, Hosanna, William
the happy couple breathing a sigh of relief that the ceremony is over
view more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/crkimmig/JordanAndGraceSWedding?authkey=ENH6RQW7yP0 PS Here is a song my sister in law, Terry, and I wrote and sang for the wedding Grace and Jordan (to the tune of Found a Peanut or O My Darling Clementine) Grace and Jordan Got married This very afternoon They met Just 3 years ago And boy Did Nana liked him He impressed Mark But Grace Was in the dark The only Real big negative Was they lived so far apart And he prayed A-bout his future wife Was Grace God’s chosen one That he would commit his life He talked to Loren And to Connie A-bout what he should do So they composed a letter To send to Mark True Mark and Pam read the letter And discussed it all with Grace They-took-a-trip to For them to spend time face to face Grace wasn’t sure When she got there at the start But it didn’t take him very long To win dear Grace’s heart THE courtship Was long distance But they kept The phone lines hot In December And the question he did pop Now it’s history And we’re all here To celebrate their day And we wish them All God’s blessings As they move So far away! |
the getaway
and they lived happily ever after....