Apr. 11, 2007
Family and friends
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I had a really great weekend! To begin with we got all our cleaning done Fri. so I just relaxed Saturday. I spent all morning and half the afternoon in Steve's recliner. He works Sat.'s. I finished up The Spanish Brothers, a Lamplighter book by Deborah Alcock i absolutely LOVED! Then I caught up on the last 3 weeks of World magazine. I did get my Hummingbird cake done for the next day, despite the discovery that my dh had eaten my bananas and I had to run to the store for more. Sunday a.m. I got up, turned on the water to brush my teeth, no water! We had forgotten to cover some pipes back up and they had frozen, just a few days after 85 degree weather! My hair was in a state that was not fit for public viewing. I am not the kind of person that has to look perfect at all, but it was too much even for me. We stayed home. It was decided that we would have a family service. So we had prayer, read the story of our Lord's death and resurrection and sung hymns acapella. The last one we sang was Christ The Lord Is Risen Today , minus six of the verses cyber hymnal is showing you! You must understand, though he is very enthusiastic, Steve cannot carry a tune. Normally he can follow me ok, but the allelujah's were just too much for him. I have a very low voice and normally sing alto, and even some of that is too high for me. This time, however, I had to sing melody to lead my family. I tried to start low enough to compensate for those high notes, but was unsuccessful to say the least. So between Steve trying in vain to hit the right notes, me squawking out the high ones and the kids just trying to make some sort of sense of it all it was cut short in the middle with us all rolling around on the couches amidst gales of laughter. That afternoon we had mom2fourtreasures and the Carpenter, some other good friends over for dinner and an egg hunt for the kids. We are so blessed to have such good friends to spend time with, especially since our real family is on the other side of the U.S. They are our adopted family. Here is a picture of us all on the porch steps that Geanine's hubby took. He used the timer so he could get in too.  In Christ, Amy |
Apr. 2, 2007
Raw milk morph
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This was originally a reply to a comment below under "Raw Milk", then it got out of hand and morphed into this huge long thing so I thought it should be it's own entry. ...................Yes pasteurization does kill all the germs. Problem is it kills everything thats good for you too. Raw milk does have it's own enzymes that, after sitting for awhile after milking, kill bad bacteria that may be in the milk. It also causes people to have allergic reactions to it, because it is missing the things that help your body digest it properly. Isn't God awesome? He just thought of everything, we didn't have to wait around several thousand years for Louis Pasteur to come up with a flawed plan! There shouldn't be any problem anyway as long as the person cleans the udders well before milking and keeps the buckets etc. bleached. The only documented instance of this possibly happening was in the 20's I think it was, but it was from workers who handled it improperly and passed on some TB. Also, when they homogenize the milk, it makes the fat molecules bigger and our body can't process them like it is supposed to. So it causes us to gain weight, raises our cholesterol and all the bad stuff you hear about dairy. Goat's milk is actually a LOT better for us than cows, and historically what people drank the most of. As far as that calcium that the dairy council promotes in all it's ads? In pasteurized cows milk in particular your body really isn't able to absorb much of it because it is such a complex calcium. There are many much higher sources of calcium than dairy. Your body can absorb 100% of the calcium in plant foods in contrast with only 15% in cows milk, Here are some of them from a book I have. Leafy greens like parsley, kale, collards, watercress, turnips, romaine lettuce, broccoli and even mint. Legumes-beans, peas, lentils, especially raw sprouted Sesame seeds, especially the unhulled brown kind. Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, filberts and almonds. 1 glass of fresh carrot juice contains 6 times the calcium a glass of milk does. Also, the protein in milk is very complex, and it actually leaches calcium from your body. This book I have sites a study where they found that with the consumption of 75 grams of protein a day more calcium is drained through the urine than is absorbed from the diet. The average American consumes around 120 grams a day, and may point to the calcium deficiency so prevalent here. This book is a vegan raw food cook book, so they are coming from a more radical point of view than a lot of us. There is another book I want called "Nourishing Traditions". It presents scientific nutritional reasons why we need meat, milk, etc. This can all get so confusing! I am somewhere in the middle. We have hugely increased our intake of raw foods. Decreased meat intake to maybe two times a week, and very little red meat unless it is organic, no hormones etc. Absolutely no boxed foods, premade anything, spice packets, mixes etc. We do occasionally have Annies natural mac and cheese, and we sometimes buy chips or crackers for treats, but preferably organic. I don't buy soda to drink at home, but I don't mind it at restaurants, birthdays etc. Very little juice at home even, and when I do get it I make sure it is only juice, no corn syrup and other junk. I do only eat Hellmans mayo(Best Foods for those of you west of the Rockies) even though it has that bad EDTA in it, I'm a mayo snob! I occasionally make awfully bad for you desserts, usually when we are having dinner with friends. A lot of people say they can't afford it. It can definitely cost more, but you can shop around and find good deals. Most normal grocery stores are selling it now and have sales. Also, foregoing one family sized bag of chips will off set the cost of better meat. Don't buy the soda and you have payed for some organic produce. Frozen foods are very expensive.......cook from scratch. Don't buy premade snacks, even organic, make your own healthy snacks. Ask people who you know eat organic, chances are they are part of a co op or bulk buying club where you can get natural organic products for the same or less than normal. I think it is a life long process. It is overwhelming at first, but you can just gradually add or get rid of one thing at a time, and it makes such a huge difference in your health. Sometimes we may not notice it, but in the long run it will give us a much better quality of life. Ok I'll be quiet now!! Amy |
Apr. 1, 2007
Look what the cat drug in!
This is especially for you Geanine!   One of the cats brought this Black snake in yesterday while I was out working in the yard. I didn't want them to kill it so I took it away and put it in a pile of boards........hope it was ok, it had quite a few bite marks in it! I am certain it will eat more mice than those lazy cats! But first Willow took pics of it. I know how much you love snakes Geanine, I was sure you would like to see this one. Probably not as big as your friend the other day :). I had a productive day yesterday. Cleaned the kitchen really really well, though you couldn't tell by evening. The house smelled fresh and clean all day because I put orange and lime essential oils in the mop water. i stained the lattice that we finally got put up under the big porch. Got the twine up for my peas to climb up, on time for once, I usually wait till they are big and all tangled up with each other. Put the lasagna layers in my two little swimming pool gardens and planted kohlrabi, spinach and lettuce in one of them. Tried to teach a chick a friend gave me that it is supposed to eat bugs. It has only been around humans in it's short life and has no clue what a chicken is supposed to act like! Transplanted 24 of the baby parsleys into six packs. Did a couple loads of laundry, they are still waiting to be folded. Collapsed into the recliner and spent the rest of the night on the internet trying to find accompaniment tracks that don't cost a fortune for the youth choir at church. Crawled into bed and passed out. Today I had a two hour nap, but I think I'm about ready to crawl into bed yet again! Have a blessed week! In him, Amy |
Mar. 26, 2007
Raw milk
We drink raw milk at our house and LOVE it. I don't know what we will do when the cow has to be dried up pretty soon. We won't have it for a couple months, till she calves! My source sent me this article.....I'm afraid to mention her name after I read it! It talks about the crack downs on the sale of raw milk. One poor guy was delivering a truck load of it to a co-op which was the pick up point, was pulled over, handcuffed and his milk confiscated!  This was the result of a "sting" operation where an undercover  agent "infiltrated" that dangerous co-op. Apparently a lot of us have been living perilous, exciting lives and didn't even know it! I feel fairly confident in speaking for my source in saying that she doesn't care for that much excitement in her life. Amy |
Mar. 25, 2007
Gardens and parsley salad
 These are a few of my birdhouses. I LOVE birdhouses! This was a beautiful weekend, yesterday my car's thermometer said it was 85 degrees! Actually I would prefer it about 15 degrees cooler. You would think I would have got a lot done in the yard, but I didn't do anything out there but wander around looking for perennials I forgot were there, poking up through the ground, reaching for the sun. Some of them i found were bleeding heart, comfrey, echinacea, hosta, lilly of the valley, and a new shoot on the hydrangea I planted last year that I was afraid hadn't made it. My peas are all up and about an inch high. In my kitchen window I have planted several things. Sweet peas, German Chamomile, Four o clocks, and some new plants. Something called Ground Cherry or Husk Tomato that was a freebie with a seed order a couple years ago. Hopefully the seed is still good and will sprout, since i neglected them at the time. A friend shared a packet of Stevia seeds with me, and they sprouted right away, even though the germination time listed on the packet was considerably longer. I'm wondering if i labeled the trays right. And I have what must be a couple hundred parsley seedlings. At the rate we have been going through parsley we may need them. We have taken to eating it in salads instead of lettuce. It's better than you think! I got this basic recipe from an Above Rubies newsletter, this is how I make it. Parsley Salad 2 bunches parsley, coarsely chopped 4 boiled eggs, chopped 2 tomatoes chopped 1 red pepper diced A handful or so of pecans, chopped For dressing, a couple good splashes of Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce, about 1/4 cup olive oil, a few dashes of salt, a few rounds of the pepper grinder and if you want a few dashes tabasco. Toss, taste, and add more to taste. Here are my seedlings, I don't know how well you can see them in the pic.  Once they get their first two true leaves I'll prick them out with a pencil and put them in six packs, move them to the porch where they will hopefully grow strong untill I can put them into their own little patches of good dirt. Aligirl commented below on the egg post so I visited her blog. She has some great links to websites with free curriculum and neat pages to print off and shows a pic of a great example of her kids notebook pages. Notebooking is a great way to school, and a lot of fun. My kids love looking back over all the things they have worked on. Have a blessed and productive week! Amy |
Mar. 22, 2007
Look at this egg!!
 This is the biggest chicken egg I have ever seen. The middle one is your average every day egg. The one on the left is a strange long skinny thing. Then there is the chickenasaurus egg. We were a little afraid to crack it open, but it turned out to have two perfectly normal yolks. I've had double yolked eggs before, but they were just a little bigger than normal. This thing is humongous! You know, I could kick myself, but I should have had the kids blow it so we could save it. Steve wanted to know if the hen needed stitches................. Amy |
Mar. 20, 2007
photo test
I found I can resize these on my kodak program so I don't have to upload them to photbucket, which takes a long time. However, am I right in that they are now on my HSB photo album, and if I delete them from there they won't show up on my entry? Cause I think I just did that! And am I right that the HSB album won't hold a whole lot of pics? Does anyone know how many it holds? Sorry, I know technical q's are boring! Here's a couple pics to make it worth your while! This is part of my walk -in -progress, seems everything is in progress around here! If you are a Third Day fan you will recognize the words.  This is on our back porch, which is really the main entry and should be called the front porch, but the other porch is technically the front of the house, so we are always confused as to what it should be called. Amy |
Mar. 19, 2007
Try, try again!
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I wrote a big long entry earlier, hit the button, came back later and it wasn't there! So I will summarize, it's probably better than that windy post anyway! I was talking about: 1) How very lazy I was today, which led to boredom and grouchiness. I'm only bored when I'm lazy. This causes the bad attitude as I look around at all I am not doing but should be. 2) Reading the book "Sojourner Truth Ain't I A Woman", which is Willow's next assigned reading for history. i try to read them all before she does so I can point out and discuss the diffferent world views with her in light of scripture. 2) What a scary, awesome responsibility the Lord had given us in raising our children in the "nourishment and admonition of the Lord". How I sometimes, well, a lot of the time, feel totally incapable of this assignment. However, I know that as long as I keep looking to the Lord for help, and listening to what he says, then doing it, I will be successful. 3) Then I added some pictures..............  Willow hanging out on the porch with Dad. We spend just about every morning out here if the weather is nice.  Daffodils and bird feeder  The view from the porch. See my daffodils and crocuses in the lawn? I love those flowers!! Now let's see if this will work now. |
Mar. 16, 2007
A productive evening
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We had a great time tonight working at the local food bank with the local homeschool 4-H club. We had kids from 9-14 doing jobs such as bagging rice and pasta, sorting canned foods, bagging oranges and lemons, filling bags for different sized families, breaking down boxes and other things I can't rememb er. Us mom's bagged a LOT of lettuce, cabbage, chicory, and even a little fresh rosemary! I sorted and bagged 5 garbage bags full of breads and pastries from the Atlanta Bread Co. Boy was my stomach growling by the time I was through with that!! I wish we had remembered the camera. The kiddos also had a lot of fun with the man who runs it. He is a neat guy and really enjoyed them. He treated them to lemonde, ice cream bars and donuts. One of the women who volunteers there always makes meals for the other volunteers, and made a bunch of hot dogs for the kids. My kids are begging to go back, they really had a good time. Geanines sweet son wants to start a club with the purpose of serving others in that and similar ways. I think it's a great idea! I am up waaaaay past bedtime-it's daylight savings, I just can't adjust to springing forward. Can't go to bed at a decent time, can't wake up at a decent time! Amy |
Mar. 15, 2007
ok, I'm figuring this out!
 Me Finally! Now I know how to put more than one pic on at a time. That had to do with me figuring out this mac. It's a little different and I am no tech genius so it all takes me a long while. Give me a nice load of manure any day! An hour in the garden, or an hour on this thing is no contest in my opinion! Now I'm off to finish moving my compost tumbler. Hopefully I'll remember what I've learned here, but I wouldn't bet on it! AMY |
Mar. 15, 2007
Shovelin', shovelin', shovelin'
 This load was piled high! In this pic we already have a lot of it off. Boy did we burn some calories and build some muscles that day! I know you are all green with envy.......see isn't it a pretty color? See post below for more details! |
Mar. 15, 2007
Where I went
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T.C. commented below asking "where did you go?" so I'll tell ya. Out in the yard. It's that time of year. I have thought of several blog topics while out there, but by the time I get in at night I've either forgotten them or am too tired. We still haven't finished that chicken fence, it's just like it was the day the pump quit. But I got a lot of leaves mowed for the lasagna gardens. We, well the kids have to rake them into tarps in the woods, haul them across the creek (it's little but it's bank is about 5 ft. high) and dump them in the grass. This time of year is perfect to do this. The grass has started growing, so as you mow the leaves you get a lot of nice fresh spring grass mixed in. It's a great mix of carbon (the leaves) and nitrogen (the grass) for lasagna gardens, mulch or compost. Anyway, we filled up the back of the pickup with mowed leaves. I also brought up a huge tarp load of unmowed (is that a word?) leaves. The unmowed leaves I put down nice and thick as a first layer in place of newspapers, to avoid the chemicals they use in the making of any paper. I did use newspaper and cardboard for years, per the advice of even organic gardening books, but have learned new things lately. Gardening books warn not to use whole leaves as mulch because they mat and your plants can't grow through, so I figured it would work the same way with weeds. After I put them down I wet them really well with water and stomped around on them for a couple minutes. Next a layer of straw, then peat moss, manure, mowed leaves, peat moss, manure, and a final layer of mowed leaves. They are beautiful as a mulch. Then I made little holes in the top layer of leaves to plant peas, 8 per sq. ft. (as recommended in Square Ft Gardening) in the top manure layer. I've also been out to Geanine's uncle's farm twice for two huge pickup loads of manure, one for her and one for me. I like the smell, it reminds me of my horses growing up. I have some lovely pictures of Geanine and I shoveling that my daughter took, I planned on posting them here and have tried several times. It seems no matter what I do, they end up huge on here. And yes I sized them on photobucket. I'm sure there is something I don't know, though my dd has put them on her blog and showed me how to no avail. Anyway I have put a layer of that wonderful stuff on all my existing beds and maybe today will use more up on some new ones. I must say this is the prettiest manure I ever saw......it's a beautiful shade of reddish brown. I wonder if they use red clay in the bottoms of the stalls.......... or maybe a red sand, the sand we used to build our house was that color. I can't figure out any other way it would get that color! Speaking of horses, I got to go riding one day with Jen, the anonymous commenter below. That was so much fun. It's been years, and I really miss it. I love their smell, sounds, personalities......they are awesome animals! I thought I would be really sore the next day, but other than my rear end feeling a little bruised (I really thought there was too much padding down there to bruise!) I was fine. So that's the gist of where I've been. Have a blessed week everyone! Amy |
Mar. 1, 2007
Water woes
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UGH!! Yesterday we spent the afternoon pounding posts in for the aforementioned chicken yard. Got them all in and about half the wire up. It was actually hot-I went in and changed into a tank top. I came in with just barely enough time to jump in the shower and get to church on time. Got my hair half way wet and the water quit. Not a big surprise, it happens every other year or so. So I finished with the only gallon of water in the house, which by the way was not warm! We are hoping it is just the pressure switch on the pressure tank. Of course we had to go buy a tester to see of there is electric running through it. If not it's easy to replace that. If it's fine, we have to pull the pump. This is not a fun thing. We have done it several times. First you have to pull the hundred and fifty feet or so of pipe full of water, very heavy, by hand. Then you have to search the entire hundred and fifty foot or so of wire that goes to the pump looking for the place the wire was rubbing the pipes and rubbed through. Of course it is pouring rain today, and of course the water is draining down under the porch exactly where the pressure switch is. The switch itself was covered with a bucket and insulation to keep if from freezing, so it was dry but it really isn't safe to work on it with the whole area wet. . The good thing about the rain is that we can just stick buckets under the down spout for water to flush with. Normally we have to haul water out of the creek at the bottom of the hill. Moral of the story; don't be so cheap that you decide to put your own pump in when you have never done so before. It's not worth the savings at the time to learn. And it's pretty much impossible to get anyone else out to fix it when they weren't the ones who put it in. Amy |
Feb. 26, 2007
Brownies
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Here you go Maria! This is the Breadbeckers chocolate variation of their Rich Peanut Butter Bars recipe, with a change in the amount of flour. 1. Melt 1 c butter. 2. Mix together: 2 3/4 c. cane juice crystals or sucanat, probably could do less than that even. 4 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla Melted butter 3. Add to that : 3 c. hard white wheat flour 3/4-1c. cocoa 3 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt Stir till just mixed. Spread in a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake just like that, or spread with this cream cheese topping before baking. Beat cream cheese till smooth. Add 1/3c sugar and blend well. Add 1 egg and 1 tsp. vanilla, mix until just blended. Spread on brownie batter in pan. Bake either option at 350 degrees for 25 -30 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out mostly clean. Cool and cut. If you can wait. I never can, I cut as soon as they are cool enough to not burn my mouth.........does that show a complete lack of will power or what? |
Feb. 23, 2007
The next best thing to goats
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Chickens!! For clearing. Yesterday was a great day. It was sunny, windy, warm, just downright springy. As soon as i got the kids started on their school schedule Steve and I headed off to Lowes, a favorite place to deposit a large portion of our income. We bought supplies to make another chicken yard. At least a third of the 25x50 former garden area was overgrown with blackberries. We took turns taking the hedge trimmers to those bushes, then raking the canes into a pile to burn. We found a bunch of wire that was used as a pea trellis several years ago before the weeds won. It was held down to the ground with thousands of tiny twining honeysuckle tendrils, and buried in thick grass. Steve was overjoyed, because this meant he got to use his truck to pull it out of there. This is the plan: of course the current chicken yard is a barren wasteland. I would love to have free range chickens, but at my house a free range chicken quickly becomes a dead chicken due to our own dogs and the multitude of neighborhood dogs that await, salivating, for one of our hens to fly the coop. So we are constructing another to move them into for awhile. I plan on using straw bales with plywood on top to construct a temporary shelter inside. By the time they lay the new yard to waste the old one should, in true TN form, be full of weeds and bugs. I will then have a good sized area to plant corn in just waiting for me, completely cleared of those nasty weeds. I am really a lazy person and will go to great lengths to avoid weeding. I do enjoy a little weeding. BUT in TN, and I'm sure the entire South, the weeds are actively and efficiently trying to engulf any speck of bare ground, all the more so if you are trying to grow something there. Once the corn gets a few feet tall I will let some of the chickens back in to keep the bugs down for me. And once again, to weed for me, scratching up all those unsuspecting thousands of baby weeds just waiting to pop out of their seeds and choke my corn. I'm also hoping the fence will keep the raccoons away from my corn. I think they speak English. They must hide in the bushes, listening to me(I talk to any object I am working on, in this case to the corn) as I pull back the husks, peeking to see if those golden ears are ready to be picked. When I tell that corn "yep, tomorrow you'll be in my pot come dinnertime", those varmints hear. They wait till we are all snoring in our soft beds, then pillage and plunder. What greets my greedy eyes the next day?? Corn stalks pulled down and broken while those rodents labored at their nighttime harvesting and delighted in their midnight feast. But I digress. Boy did I ever digress! We got the area ready for the fence to go up. I am actually looking forward to this because there are more than 3 inches of dirt on this part of our property, and it won't take John Henry to pound the fence posts in. If all goes well, those chickens will be happily scratching away in their new abode some time next week. Amy |
Feb. 23, 2007
What I'm eating right now.....
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Is sooooo good. It's half raw a possible way to trick your family into eating some raw stuff. I was just making a rather large single serving so you can adjust for more. 1. Cook some rotini noodles 2. Pour in some alfredo sauce (I cheated and used Classico, which for a pre made sauce isn't too bad for you) 3. Heat sauce/noodle mixture up. 4. Chop a tomato up, finely chop 1/4 cup(before chopped) of fresh parsley, mince 1 clove garlic. 5. Add all that to noodle mixture, drizzle olive oil in, sprinkle with seasoning such as Spike or Herbamare, or just salt and pepper. Stir, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and enjoy. You get a warm meal but not so warm that it kills all the good enzymes and nutrients in the raw stuff you put in it. Some possible additions could be: Olives fresh basil red bell peppers mushrooms cooked diced chicken If your family doesn't like pieces of tomato just puree it in your blender, they'll never know it's there. |
Feb. 19, 2007
Lucky for Maria
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ok here it is. Websters 1828. Luck; The sense is that which comes falls, happens. That which happens to a person: an event, good or ill, affecting a man's interest or happiness, and which is deemed casual: fortune. Luck respects persons and their proceedings. We never say, in a literal sense, that a plant has the luck to grow in a particular place: or a fossil has the luck to be of a particular form. We say, a person has the good luck to escape from danger: or the ill luck to be ensnared or to suffer loss. He has has good luck, or bad luck in gaming, fishing, or hunting. Luck, or what we call chance, accident, fortune, is an event which takes place without being intended or foreseen, or from some cause not under human control: that which cannot be previously known or determined with certainty by human skill or power. Lucky: 1. Fortunate: meeting with good success: as a lucky adventurer. 2. Fortunate: producing good by chance: favorable: as a lucky adventure: a lucky time: a lucky cast. This is a word I avoid too. I don't think anything happens because of luck. We serve a sovereign God, who "foresees" all. I don't think he moves us around like dolls, but if we escape danger, or if we have the "ill luck to be ensnared or to suffer loss" there is a purpose in all of it. So I guess I feel using that word is denying that sovereignty. But what is the purpose in how many fish we catch? I think that "cannot be previously known or determined with certainty by human skill or power". Amy |
Feb. 18, 2007
Couldn't think of one
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a title that is. Just a bunch of aimless chatter. Plus I am really distracted by the weird movie "The Westing Game" put out by Feature Films For Families. Wasn't that a book or something? I now have cooking, or maybe I should say uncooking, in the dehydrator, some yummy veggie burgers! Now come on, I know you are jealous! A little carrot pulp, parsley, flax meal, almond meal, onion, and a couple other things I can't think of right now with this blasted movie on. You may laugh, but I will say that Steve's blood sugar has been excellent this week with only half the meds that weren't keeping it completely under control with a full dose. I'll let you know how the burgers turn out. The kids were excited to finally get snow this morning. They were out at first light sledding their little hearts out. They have learned that in this state you don't wait for any reason or the snow will be gone. Then they had to come in at 8:30 to get ready for church, since Steve was teaching the adult Sunday school this morning and it was my week to teach children's church. I won't name all of you heathens who stayed home from church because of a mere inch or two of snow................but at least one of them has been brash enough to post pictures on her blog, I won't say her name but her blog is MySmokyMtHomeschool.  Well, the servants, I mean, children, just finished filling the wood box, and I am off to build a crackling hot fire. Ta Ta! amy |
Feb. 17, 2007
Weird
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At mom's night last week the fact that we as Christians didn't fit in this world came up in the course of conversation, and that even in the Christian world we really only felt at home with other homeschoolers. Someone made the comment we were too weird. One of the dear ladies there (you know who you are, I know you are reading this. Don't get to inflated over this :)) but you are so wise and have such great insight that I think you really need to start your own blog!) said "NO! we are not weird. We may be strange but NEVER weird!" or something to that effect. That made us wonder so we asked and she told us to look it up in the dictionary and this is what we found: Weird as a noun; 1. fate, destiny 2. Soothsayer Weird as an adjective; 1. of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural 2. of strange or extraordinary character I looked it up in Websters 1828 and it says "skilled in witchcraft." I never realized how much I used this word but now every time I say it I check myself and change it to strange. I looked up strange by the way, just to make sure, and I love the 1828 definitions; 1. Foreign; belonging to another country. 2. Not domestic; belonging to others. 3. New; not known before, heard or seen. 4. Wonderful; causing surprise; exciting curiosity. 5. Odd; unusual; irregular; not according to the common way. 6. Remote. 7. Uncommon;unusual. 8. Unaquainted. (This one makes me ask if I am as unaquainted with this world as I should be) I love being a strange Christian. My version doesn't use the word strange, but here are some verses I like. Hebrew 11:13-16 All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised the, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promised of God. They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth. And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had meant the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a heavenly city for them. 1 Peter 2:11 Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very soul. Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world. Amy |
Feb. 12, 2007
My valentines day present
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was a day of thrift shopping! I would rather have that than jewelry or roses any day! I got a really neat antique lamp for my kitchen, 5 skirts for $20, a really funky set of curtains, and a few other odds and ends I just couldn't live without. Some other favorite valentines day gifts were a compost tumbler, and a load of manure for my gardens :)) Now that is true love!! Amy |