Mar. 27, 2007 - Why I Moved

Someone asked me to share why I moved my blog to blogger and I've taken way too long to answer!  I thought I'd share that while I had it on my mind. 

I've really enjoyed HSB.  It was my start in the blogging world.  I met alot of wonderful people here and I think the people who run HSB do a wonderful job.  The reasons I moved here are just personal preference really.  I think the ease of use between blogger and HSB are about the same.  Blogger is quicker as far as uploading things.  My husband was also able to custom design a site for me that I could use with blogger.  I started blogging mainly to keep in touch with family and friends.  I found that many of them had difficulty accessing HSB, especially at night.  I experienced this many times as well.  Having said that, I am very thankful that HSB is here because I think it serves many and will continue to do so.  I still enjoy reading the blogs of many with HSB! 

If you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by and see me at My Thousand Loves!

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Mar. 8, 2007 - Moving......

I've decided to move and I hope you'll come visit me here: http://mythousandloves.blogspot.com/

I'll be moving posts over the next month so hang with me while I do this.  I'm sure it'll be annoying at times but I'll try and get it done quickly!  I look forward to seeing you at my new place!

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Mar. 4, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #4

My weekend reflection is a day late but you know what they say....better late than never!  LOL!  The week has been full of activities and posting simply slipped my mind!  Shame on me!  One thing I DID NOT do was head over to Judi's and get the new weekend reflection logo she created.  I WILL get it before the next post!  I WILL!

The first of the week was pretty normal.  We were successful in getting our scheduled school work completed, which is good for us!  I continue to work with dd#2 on endings.  She's having some trouble with adding ing, ed, and when you have to change y to i and add es.  She's doing better but we'll keep working on that this week!  DD#1 is doing fine with her SOS. She's not looking forward to starting her new Saxon math but that's life!  She doesn't have to like it....she just has to obey her parents.  She is having a bit of trouble writing.  She tends to write like she is having a conversation with you.  She reads good literature so I'm kind of stumped at why she writes this way.  It seems to have become really bad this year.  I don't remember her having trouble with this in the past.  She is seventh grade level now and this is something that needs to be corrected right away.  I'm in search of any tools or suggestions of things that might help.  She needs to work on having better flow to her writing, organizing her thoughts on paper, and using better words.  If you were to read some of her stories, they are mostly boring.  The language is boring. If you have had problems with your children in this area, please let me know what helped them overcome this problem. 

Thursday, my dishwasher door handle broke.  Friday was spent running to the appliance store to get a new one.  $27 later, it's now fixed!  Sheesh!  A handle costs $27!  That's crazy, especially considering that I was able to get a discounted rate since my FIL used to work at this store.  He got the best discount you could possibly get!  We checked on the internet first and this handle sells for about $47 everywhere we looked.  I can't complain too much since I got it at least $20 cheaper.  This is something that really should cost about $10.  That's reasonable!  LOL!  Anyway, my FIL was gracious enough to come over and help DH fix it.  Afterwards, we invited him and my MIL to stay for dinner.  I served them soup beans (pintos), cornbread, fried potatoes, and weiners with cheese.  My MIL brought some chow-chow that her sister made and we ate some of it too!  It was great!  This is one of our favorite meals.  I don't know many Southerners who don't like soup beans and corn bread!  After we ate, I served them some vanilla pudding dessert that the girls and I whipped up the night before.  I have the recipe if anyone wants it (I couldn't find it on the internet and I got it out of a magazine).  The girls helped me and we had a blast.  I love when they are in the kitchen with me.  It makes cooking so much more fun and I find that these are times that we really talk alot.  It's great!

Poor broken dishwasher handle......

Jeff and his dad fixing the poor broken dishwasher handle!  LOL!


Caroline offered to wash all the dishes while the dishwasher was "out of commission".

Logan's job when making the dessert was making the pudding part.

Caroline's part was crushing the vanilla wafers.

My job was cutting the strawberries.  While doing so, this is a strawberry we found in the batch.  It's the biggest one I've ever seen!  I put it in one of my hands and took a picture of it with my other hand!  LOL!

The girls were stunned to see our finished "masterpiece".

Saturday was a busy day for me.  I went through alot of my craft supplies and tried to throw out or donate some things that I just don't use.  The house was a disaster!  Every room was filled with plastic storage bins and loads of material, markers, scrapbooking supplies, yarn, unfinished quilting projects, and lots of craft paint!

This is only half the mess in my bedroom right now.  I stored everything in there for now because we were having more company this weekend and I had to get the rest of the house cleaned up fast!  LOL!  To get into bed, you have to wade through the other craft items that are in containers all around the bedroom floor!  That'll be my Tackle-It-Tuesday project! 

Another good week has come and gone.  I hope yours was as productive and fun as mine!  I pray  you were not sick and that you enjoyed your children.  Have a blessed week this week and I look forward to hearing about it this Saturday!

Check out more reflections at Judi's place!

 **Disclaimer**  I totally stole the expression "sheesh" from my good friend Jenny! 

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Mar. 1, 2007 - Rudolph Club Meeting

My good friend Jenny recently starting hosting "Rudolph Club" meetings in her home once a month.  A few friends get together and work on crafts while we catch up.  The idea is to work on crafts that we will give as gifts for Christmas or on Christmas crafts to decorate our homes.  So far, none of us have stuck to that guideline :-o)  What we have done though is caught up on each other, shared homeschooling stories or asked questions, knitted, quilted, mended shorts, scrapbooked, and crocheted a little.  We have eaten pizza rolls like mad, enjoyed a chocolate creme cake, and let our kids enjoy each other for a few hours while we craft.  Each of us are doing something different and I love that.  I love that I can watch my friends work on something that I have not yet learned to do.  It inspires me to want to learn.

Jenny has inspired me to do alot of things.  She was teaching me to quilt at one point, she got me hooked on my Knifty Knitter, and now she's sucking me in to the latest thing she's taught herself, crocheting.  I'm not sure how she does it but she always gets me interested in things that I say I'll never pick up.....just like crocheting!  Jenny is such an easy going person and it's easy for her to convince you that you can do something.  She can just pick up material and see a quilt.  Then she can whip it up in no time.  She can make lesson plans that are so good that you want to ask her to make yours!  I think she's invincible.....really I do!  The other day when we got together for the monthly Rudolph thing, she showed me a book that she had picked up from a used book store on crocheting.  She had already whipped up some dish rags!  I am continually amazed by her craftiness and I hope that it continue to rub off on me!  I met Jenny when our oldest children were in public school together.  This was about 8 years ago when the kids were in kindergarten.  The following year, about two months into first grade (her oldest son and my oldest daughter were also in the same first grade class), we pulled our daughter out of public school and started homeschooling.  After this, I didn't see Jenny quiet as much for a few years.  Jenny eventually started homeschooling her kids and that's when we touched base again.  It's amazing really.  I love this gal! 

Our friend Mary, who refues to blog, was also at the meeting.  This time Mary worked on cutting out felt letters for the Letter of the Week class she is teaching at co-op.  Mary is also a very cool person.  She is a consultant (I think she still is) for Creative Memories and I've seen some of her beautiful scrapbook pages.  Mary is very thoughtful and I think she likes to listen to the crazy stories Jenny and I share!  Maybe she just thinks we're crazy! 

Another friend, Cathy, was at this meeting.  Cathy goes 100 miles an hour.  She's always doing something.  Her kids are in public school right now, although she did homeschool for a little while.  Cathy has the heart of a servant and wants to help everyone.  She's always busy, busy, busy, but Jenny did force her to sit and crochet for a little bit.  Cathy used to crochet but had forgotten how because she can't force herself to sit down and take time to practice anymore. 

This is our little group and we've gotten together twice now.  I think we'll get more motivated to do Christmas stuff as the year goes on.  It's hard to get excited about that kind of stuff right now.  Hopefully more friends will join us and we'll be able to learn even more things from each other!  Here are a few of the things we accomplished at the meeting this month:

I finished dd#1's scarf while I was gabbing.  She loves the scarf and has worn it everyday since I finished it.  I didn't get a picture of it but here's the hat that it matches....

Here's the dish rag that Jenny whipped up while we gabbed.....she gave it to me so it now graces my kitchen!  Woo Hoo!


And Jenny gave these to me while I was there....a real treat!


So much fun!  I can't wait until next month.  See you then girls!

Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

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Feb. 24, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #3

Ok, so I know I need to visit Judi and get the new button she made for Weekend Reflection but I haven't taken the time to do that yet!  After the week she's had, I almost feel guilty that mine went so smoothly!

School: Things went pretty well all week.  DH and I have discovered that dd#1 needs some help in the area of writing. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for something really good that will help her become a better writer.  I'm also on a mission to find a Saxon 87 test booklet so that we can start that this coming week.  I checked out our local homeschool bookstore but no dice.  Hopefully I can find it in the next few days.  I may have to break down and order it (and pay full price for it).  DD#2 continues to blaze through all that I give her.  She's having a bit of trouble remembering some language arts things (when to change y to i and add es, when to double consanants...like when you change mop to mopping).  I am confident she'll master it soon though.  I think her biggest problem is that she zooms through things so she can get it done and go play!  I was also able to get her back into ballet class with her old teacher.  She'll start again next week.  We are also trying to find some music classes for both girls. DH plays just about anything you can think of (bagpipes, banjo, guitar, mandolin, some fiddle, some button accordion) and he's made a new rule.  It is mandatory for the girls to be involved in music in some way!  So, we'll see what I find in the way of lessons this week!

Crafting: I have started a scarf on my newest Knifty Knitter.  I bought the rectangular one and I'm doing the scarf on it.  It is to match the hat I made for dd#1.  It's going pretty well although it's not as tight as I'd like it.  I'll have to wait and see how I like it when I finish.  I'm about halfway through it....which is good since I've only found about two or three hours to work on it this week.  I should have had it done but I've been working on it while other things were going on around me and I have been distracted!  LOL!  The girls have each now made a couple of hats and feel pretty comfortable using the looms.  They are eager to learn to make other things and I'll make that a goal for next week.  I bought a new Mary Engelbreit scrapbook set and I cannot wait to use it!  I love ME and there was no way I could walk out of the store without this set!  I'm currently trying to get some of my pictures uploaded to walmart.com so that I can have them printed and start working on scrapbooking my photos from our trip to NYC back in December.  This is an area I have to get better with.  I have tons of supplies to scrapbook but not one single finished album!  I sit down to work on them sometimes and I feel like I'm not creative enough to make a beautiful page so I just put everything away!  Do you know how far behind I am with my photos?!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Around the House:  Hmmmm......what did I do around the house this week?  Oh, I remember!  My mom came in for a visit from West Virginia and brought me the cutest bench.  It was so cute that I decided to put it in my living room and use it as a coffee table.  It's cool because if we ever need extra seating in there, we can pull the stuff off the top of the table, swing it around in front of the window, and viola!  Bench seating!  My mom has a real eye for things like this.  She recently found me a cedar chest for $40 at a Goodwill store!  It's solid as a rock and in great condition!  I can't wait for her to bring it down to me but I have to find a place for it first :-o)  While mom was here, we had a great time.  The girls always enjoy having her stay with us.  She was here for three days and we spent plenty of time browsing through local anitque stores. Other than this, I didn't do much more around the house.  I was able to clean out our extra bedroom finally and now I just have our bedroom to go.  I did have a meltdown one day when I went into the girls' room after they "cleaned it up".  What that means is they picked the floor up and put everything on their bed!  So, we did have a little "cleaning session", which means that I threw out several things!

Mealtime:  I made a new recipe this week that was pretty good.  My goal is to make a meal each week using a new recipe we've never tried.  It wasn't as "wow" as I thought it would be but it was good.  I used all the meals from my Menu Plan Monday post except for two.  I switched one of them and made burgers since we hadn't made those in a long time. As I write this, I have to note that I did just return from getting a few groceries and I know I have the ingredients for at least three meals for this week.  That's good considering that I usually always forget one or two items on my list!  Don't ask me how I forget something that I put on a list.....Oh, I also made a new dessert (Cappuccino Mousse) while my mom was here and I baked her a fresh loaf of bread. 

Correspondence:  I did write out a card for a friend who had surgery this week.  I have to get it in the mail first thing Monday but this is good!  I returned all of the phone calls I got this week except for one that I received a few hours ago.....I'll get to that soon!  I had a brief conversation with a friend who lost her stepdad this week.  She called to request prayer for him because he had gone into cardiac arrest and she and her husband were making the drive to Morristown to be with her mom.  While they were in route, her stepdad passed away.  This made me sad for her because her father also passed away due to cardiac arrest.  And her poor mother....I can't imagine what she must feel.  She has lost two husbands to the same thing.  It has to be difficult for her. 

Another good week here and now it's gone.  I look forward to the next one!  I hope your week was a good one!  Hop on over to Judi's place and check out other weekend reflections!

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Feb. 17, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #2

Another week has come and gone and it was relatively productive.  Believe me, I had ALOT to do!  Earlier in the week, I made a list of "goals" that I wanted to complete.  It was a long list and I didn't complete everything on it but I did make a good dent in it :-o) 

School:  DD#1 completed her Saxon Math book!  Woo Hoo!  We have been about six months behind because of my grandfather's passing a few years ago.  It's been hard to get caught up but finally we have!  We can start the next level of Saxon next week and by the end of October we'll be right back on track!  Thank goodness we homeschool year round! 

Crafting:  I purchased some yarn and an extra hook so that both the girls and I could be working on our knifty knitters at the same time.  DD#1 is just finishing up her first hat!  DD#2 finished her second hat a few days ago!  We're hoping to start some matching scarves by next weekend!  We're making Christmas gifts and also crafts for the Reformation Day Celebration at our church in October.  **This was a big accomplishment because I actually had to leave my house to go buy yarn and the hook!  I love being home so it took some effort to get out!  LOL! 

Around the House:  Got my carpets cleaned (I did them myself!).  DH fixed the sprayer on our kitchen sink (it was broken).  DH also got our cable hooked up in the upstairs of our house.  We recently moved our TV and we found that the people who lived here before us had cable in every room of the house!  LOL!  DH had to sort through all of the cables and splitters hanging in our garage so that he could find the cable that actually went to the room that we moved the TV to.  It's kinda funny because we rarely watch TV!  I also bought and replaced the flourescent light in our laundry room (DH broke it when he hit it with the base drone on his bagpipes!  LOL!)  I am halfway through hemming DH's kilt.  He needs it tomorrow and I'm confident that I'll get it finished tonight.  My sweet MIL did most of the hemming today.  I can only take credit for pinning it and pressing it. 

Meals:  We ate out more than usual and I hate that.  But, Valentine's Day was this week and my BIL's birthday also so that's our excuse for those two times.  The third time was just because we wanted our favorite Mexican!  LOL!  This is not a usual practice in our house and we will be eating at home more this week!  My Menu Plan Monday will be strictly adhered to this week!  (I'm actually whipping up some homemade spaghetti sauce for supper right now....I also have a homemade loaf of bread in the works....it's rising now!)

Correspondence:  I didn't do well in this area.  I didn't return the call of a lady who called me because I forgot.  I'll do better next week!  I'll just have to apologize to her 100 times over when I do finally call her!  (I hate to talk on the telephone).  I have talked to my mother everyday this week so that's good!  She lives alone in West VA so it's nice that we've talked so much.  It almost makes me forget that she lives 3 hours away. 

It was a great week!  I am looking forward to next week and all of the things I want to accomplish!  For now, I'll sign off and go enjoy my spaghetti and french bread.  If I can find some heavy whipping cream, I'll even whip up some cappuccino mousse!  Mmmmmmmmm......my tummy is growling!

Visit Judi over at Mommy of Two for more reflections!

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Feb. 16, 2007 - My Funny Valentines

Valentine's Day was a real treat for me!  My 8yo dd made me a special card that she was so excited about!  She pulled out our latest copy of Family Fun Magazine and tried to make this magic message card.  Of course her project was "top secret" so everytime I walked into a room, she promptly made me close my eyes until she could put her things away!  This one is a keeper!  It's one of the most special things she's ever given me!  She's a lefty so that's why the card looks backwards! 

While dd#1 was making special heart shaped pancakes for their breakfast, I was able to slip into their bedrooms and tuck their candy under their pillows.  After breakfast, I sent them to make their beds and they discovered their little treasures :-o)  Along with their candy, I included a special certificate.  For dd#1, the certificate allowed her to sleep in on a morning of her choosing.  For dd#2, it was a chore free day!  Of course they were both thrilled as you can see:

Even my favorite kitty, Mr. Tumnus, got into the Valentine spirit:

I don't have pictures to post of dh's gift to me but he did REAL good!  He gave me the sweetest card and a copy of Pride & Prejudice (the version with Colin Firth)!  Woo Hooo!  Now, I think I have copies of all versions of P&P!  I could watch that movie (any version of it) over and over and cry every time!  LOL!  Here's the way the card dh gave me reads:

A Little Love Story for My Wife

Once Upon A Time, on a day that looked like any other day, someone like no one else came along and made life into something that would never be the same.........That's you.  That's my life.  That's why you'll always be the only one for me.  I Love You.  Happy Valentine's Day.

Awwwwww.......ain't he sweet!  Now, if I can only figure out a way to get him to sit down for 5 hours and watch P&P with me!!!!  LOL!

**I finally took a minute to snap a quick photo of the card and (my favorite) gift dh gave me for Valentine's Day.**  My mom's coming in from West VA this weekend so I'm thinking........if dh won't watch P&P with me, I'll recruit my mom!  Woo Hoo!

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Feb. 10, 2007 - Weekend Reflection

I found this at a friends blog and I thought it would be perfect for me!  I need some time to recall the good things that happened this week!  So, here is my first post for Weekend Reflection!

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Feb. 8, 2007 - The Grocery Game

Today's post is to enlist the help of all you frugal moms out there.  I am looking to reduce my grocery bill by 1/3 each month.  I hope to reduce it by 1/2 in the future, but for now, I think 1/3 is reasonable.  I recently saw The Grocery Game featured on a news show.  The broadcast was fascinating.  Seeing people save 50% or more on their grocery bill each month was very inspiring.  I am curious to know if anyone has used this service or anything similar.  If you have, can you share your experience with me, please?  I'm eager to spend our money more wisely and to start saving some money for an emergency fund.  Currently, I live two minutes from a grocery store and ten minutes from Walmart.  This is great....but it's also bad.  I am able to run out anytime I need to in order to pick up things I forget and I'm not utilizing what I have in the pantry.  Planning a weekly menu has helped tremendously!  My ultimate goal is to make a weekly trip to get groceries (and get all that I need for the week!) and to save money on my grocery bill to save or spend in other areas.  If you've done this or can point me in the right direction, please comment and share the love!  LOL!

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Feb. 7, 2007 - Weekend Fun!!!

DH's homemade salsa.....YUM!

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Feb. 3, 2007 - Weekend Stuff

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Feb. 1, 2007 - You Know You Depend On Walmart Too Much When...............

Last night, we had breakfast for supper.  It was such a big hit that I wonder why I hadn't done this before!  DH loves breakfast food but doesn't eat breakfast very often so this was a real treat for him.  He was excited all day in anticipation of this meal!  So were the girls!  Can you believe that?!!!  I never imagined something this simple could bring so much joy to my family!  They've all requested that we do this at least once a week and that's fine by me because breakfast food is EASY to make!  Plus, dd#1 loves to make pancakes so she is in charge of that part!  Here is a picture of the pancakes she made last night......half of them were made with fresh blueberries and the other half were swirled chocolate chip! 

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Jan. 30, 2007 - Ahhhhhh! How Sweet!!

What a sweet message to find!  I was thrilled....thrilled at her use of dominoes, thrilled that she had kept herself busy so that her big sister could finish her favorite Saxon Math, thrilled that she had been so creative in making the exclamation point at the end of the message (broken crayons and a ping pong ball), but most of all thrilled that she was thinking about me while she went about her daily routine.  I can't express how special this is to me.  This is a picture and a memory that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  I am so thankful to the Lord for placing these children in the care of myself and my husband.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful children!!

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Jan. 29, 2007 - My New Obsession!!!

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Jan. 27, 2007 - Visit to West Virginia

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Jan. 25, 2007 - Go Vols!!

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Jan. 21, 2007 - Saturday Evening With Friends

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Jan. 17, 2007 - Absolute Security

by Pastor Timothy S. Adkins

"Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns?  It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." (Romans 8:33-34 NKJV)

Paul has abundantly shown that God is "for" His people: loving us before time, predestinating us to son-ship, effectually calling us to Himself by the Spirit and the gospel, justifying us by faith in Jesus, and promising to glorify us for the eternity to come.  "If God be for us," Paul reasoned, "who can be against us?"

In order to make our salvation a reality God gave up His Son to die on a cruel cross, not sparing Jesus, but pouring out on Him the suffering due unto His people-He suffered as no other could.  Through His complete atonement the God of grace spares us the judgment of hell.  Gospel grace is entirely free for the receiving, but it was far from cheap.  The price of free grace to us was the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God loved us from all eternity and Christ died for us.  In light of this Paul asks, "Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?"  What enemy will be able to stand in the Day of Judgment and bring a single charge against any one of God’s elect people that might disqualify us and ban us from heaven?  The God who loved us and sent His Son to suffer for our offenses and redeem us has declared us righteous through the imputation of Jesus’ perfect righteousness as we trusted in Him.  So, since it is God who justifies the believer, no one could bring a valid charge against one of His own, for Christ died for all of our sins.

Further Paul asks and answers, "Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."  The only One who could condemn one of God’s elect is the very Christ who died to atone for all of their sins.  How shall He condemn any one of those for whose salvation He Himself suffered and died?  Our Christ, who was condemned as the Substitute for God’s elect, Paul says, has utterly condemned sin by His death-sin and death are defeated enemies. 

Hell cannot arise against any of those for whom Christ died.  Condemnation can never swallow them, for their Savior bore their iniquities and carried their sins to their death.  Then our Lord Jesus arose as death’s Conqueror and as the Champion of all who trust in Him.  Now our Champion intercedes for us, moment by moment, on our behalf pleading the merits of His own blood and righteousness.  The believer’s safety in God’s grace is absolute.  - TSA

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Jan. 14, 2007 - More of the good life.....

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Jan. 11, 2007 - What Good Would God Now Withhold?

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