Whispering Pines | |
Hopeful Farm BenefitJill emailed me today and asked me to spread the word about the Hopeful Farm Benefit ... so here is the info in case it interests anyone! Dear Kris, Here is a post from today, too. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JillNovak/597002/
Thank you so much, Jill Novak
Weekend HappeningsHello All! I hope you had a great weekend! PC (our oldest child) was home overnight on Friday. Unfortunately, it was NOT one of our better visits with him. *sigh* On Saturday, we took the children to a Settler's Celebration which was really neat. The kids got to do a lot of hands on things that was pioneerish. They got to try a Native American game and play with some pioneer toys like a hoop and stick and walk on stilts. They got to press apples into cider with an old fashion press and then sample some of it. We took a wagon ride and then they got to pet the horses. PC even got up on one of them, but LO didn't want to. They got to watch a knife and tomahawk thrower hit targets and the guy explained a lot about it. They got to shave wood with an old tool. LO had lots of help from daddy!!! They got to make a toy like the pioneers had. It was one of those cups with a small ball tied to it that you try to get the ball into the cup. They also got to dip wax to make candles. It was a REALLY cool trip and the weather was lovely that day. The best part about it, it was FREE!!!! We paid a $5.00 parking donation and the rest of everything was free except food and trinkets. Even the activiites like candle dipping and toy making was FREE! LO wants to go back next year and I think we will definately try. I took lots of pictures, but I have not uploaded them yet. I hope to share some later this week. Sunday, Hubby started to try to fix our fence and we are kinda worried now. He couldn't get the posts to budge and they are cemented in. I really hope we don't have to hire someone to do it. Unfortunately, LO can't really play in the backyard until it's fixed because our neighbors have a big dog that is scared of strangers and doesn't know how to act with the little ones (LO and his friends) and they also have a pool that the little ones could get hurt on. So we are kinda bummed that this is going to be a lot harder job than it seemed. This week, I'm got a lot going on, but I will try to keep you posted! Have a great week!Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder......They Say that Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder....... Yet sometimes our vision becomes obstructed.......  But if we stop and take the time to look and smell the roses..........  It is a beautiful way to regain our focus..........  And a reminder that this beauty was created for our purpose......... Dearest Lord, Thank you for the beauty that surrounds me. It blesses me each and every day. Thank you for caring enough to demonstrate your love in this way! In Jesus name I pray! Amen~ Show and Tell- Ike's Fury! In Ohio????Well, I had planned on writing a whole bunch about my experience over the last week, but I just can't get it all out. Every time I think of writing something, I realize I am forgetting something or skipping something and it just doesn't sound right! So, I'm going to keep my summary short and show a lot of pictures. The first several pictures are pictures of our backyard. We had a tree go down during the storm and crash through our fence. At first the damage didn't look too bad until Hubby started clearing the tree away from the fence!!! The other pictures are just random pictures that I took through out the area. Please keep in mind this is only a very small sampling of what all happened!!!! The damage was all across Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and beyond. I think it was something like 3 million people lost power in Ohio. This storm was HUGE! We were fortunate. We only lost a tree, part of a fence and food. There were trees that fell on houses and cars. There were people's houses that burned down. There were people who died in this. My mother has a friend who's elderly mother stepped into her doorway during the storm to see what was going on. She lost her balance due to the gusts and was thrown out. She tumbled head over heel. They don't know if she is going to make it or not. Luckily, most stories are not like that, but most people were effected in some way or other. There was roofs that were damaged, LOTS of trees and large branches down, guttering damaged, sheds destroyed. Quite a few people without power lived in rural areas. Many of them were on well water and they had no electricity for their water pumps. Some people were complaining about not being able to flush their toilets!!!! Many people's water heaters were electric, so they had no hot water. We were lucky because our water heater is gas and that did not go out. My parent's power was out for just slightly longer than ours and they did not have hot water. Poor PC had to take cold showers!!! There were also rumors flying around. News is REALLY hard to get when there is NO TV, internet and the local newspaper was damaged too and they had to print at another site and it was VERY limited. We heard rumors that the water pumps were being taxed and they may have to shut them down. I have know idea if that was true or not. Luckily, we never lost water. We also heard rumors that Dayton's water and several other communities water was not safe to drink. As far as I know there was only one community that had to boil their water. A few other places were on water restrictions. Like I said, it could have been worse. So, what did I do with myself? I got up, ate a couple Granola Bars (feed LO a Nutra Grain Bar) then got myself ready to leave. We spend a lot of the day (LO and I) hunting down news and getting food and supplies. I would go to the library to use their internet for an hour (or less), go out to lunch and go shopping for things like batteries, an oil lantern, and battery operated lanterns. The evenings would usually consist of going out to eat and then either shopping or going to something fun like a movie. Yep, we saw 3 movies during this time because we were so bored!!! I know, I know, we should have been reading!!! And yes, we did do that a lot, but let me tell you it is NOT as romantic as it seems!!!! Reading by flashlight is difficult and not to mention we had a real reality that we REALLY had to conserve batteries!!!! By Thurday, we realized our batteries were getting weak and it was next to impossible finding more. We had flashlights that used 6V batteries and everyone was sold out!!! Hubby finally found some, but they were about 2X the amount we had bought them for at Walmart. At over $6.00 a battery, lets just say, we weren't too eager to tear into them.Update... After I wrote this, there was a report of yet another victim of the storm. A high school boy stepped into a roadway to avoid debris and was struck by a truck last week while on his way to school. Unfortunately, he died today (Thursday). Did I say short summary???? Hummmmm...... Ok, here are the pictures....  Moving stuff around   What was left standing  After more was removed    Another view  The branches spread out across our yard   After most of it has been cleaned up    After the trunk had been cut down  Random damage through the area Branches on the ground  Tree fell over  Broken branches all over a yard  Tree Down  Lights out at a major intersection (Tuesday- 3 days after storm hit!)  Pole down  Gutter falling down  Branch hanging from tree (we saw this alot!)  Pile of branches waiting for the city to pick them up. (There are piles like this everywhere! Our pile was about 30 feet long and ranged from about 3 to 4 feet tall.)  Tree uprooted  Either a tree or a large branch down  Pole tore off and top part hanging  Transformer down  Tree Split  What we found laying in front of our van on the first night when we came out of a movie.  Traffic light tore in two  Beautiful weather we were having (a couple days after the storm)  The bags of food we had to throw out due to spoilage.  For more Show and Tells, go to Mary's blog. Goodbye Summer and All of the Beauty that it Holds......Goodbye Summer and All of the Beauty that it Holds........ Pretty soon summer will be a memory of the past. The beauty that it holds is slowly slipping away. The look of life is slowly fading away. Winter is around the corner with the look of barreness that it holds.....            Winter arrives.......  Winter months hold their own unique beauty, even if the look of life is not one of them. It holds a look of being clean, crisp and pure. It is a vision of serenity and peacefulness. It is a good way of visually seeing how the Lord Jesus takes our crimson colored sins and makes them as white as snow......  Within each and every season there is a message that it holds within itself. A message of beauty, hope, love, joy and peace. Messages to us from a loving Creator, who strongly desires to give us a total and complete rest within Him and all that He has created. When I take the time to look upon and within the creation that He has surrounded me with, I never have a problem finding peace and harmony amongst the daily stresses of my life. All I have to do is go grab my camera and start capturing whatever beauty my eyes behold within their lens. Then I capture that moment within the lens of my camera to be remembered by me always. It doesn't seem to matter what season we are in, I can always find something amazing to capture in the moment. Whenever I am done I always find that a calm has been washed over me. God speaks to me about the love He has for me throughout the beauty that I love so much and enjoy.  I have said this before and I will say it again. If you find yourself stressed and worn out, go grab your camera and soak in the beauty hidden within the seasons. When you do that it would be impossible to walk away not feeling refreshed, renewed and completely loved. As if the Lord Himself had given you a big hug. Don't take my word for it, try it for yourself. Please do share with the rest of us what enjoyment you were blessed with!Dearest Lord, I pray that you will forever touch each and everyone of us as we stop and take the time to enjoy the beauty you have placed around us. Teach everyone to soak in your creation as a natural tranquilizer to the every day stresses of life! Speak to us and let us forever feel your love with every flower we behold and every sunset we soak in. I pray you will bless each and every one that reads this post. In Jesus name I pray! Amen~ Sunset, Sunrises and Contrite Hearts.......Sunsets, Sunrises and Contrite Hearts........ At the end of the day when all is said and done, I look out at the skies that the Savior has given to everyone. The beautiful colored orange skies can settle an anxious heart. I cannot help but thank the Lord for the joy that fills my heart. His sunsets are a small reminder that he loves me and truly cares. And whatever may of happened that day He never allowed more than I could bear.  The silhouetted hills remind me how the day is coming to end and how the night is about to start. It is then that I remember I have been given another start. Another opportunity to seek my Saviors heart by asking for His wisdom with an open and contrite heart.  As I look out into the distance beholding the miles and miles of beauty. My heart can't help but grow closer and closer to my precious Lord His truly.  Then I take the time to stop and look before my eyes. No longer peering out into the distance, that my eyes were once able to see. My heart feels so warm inside, because of the suns beauty. It's rays that shine, have taken the time to stretch out across the sky. They peer at me through the leaves upon the trees as my heart can't help but wonder why. And I know that in my heart His beautiful creation only brings me closer to Him. So I know that when my Lord stops to look within my heart, a love for Him and all His beauty is exactly what He will see within.  When the night is over and a new day begins. I awake to a new sunrise that I know is from Him. I cannot help but realize the smart thing to do. Is to graciously accept this wonderful new day as His precious gift meant for both me and you.  So why does it seem so hard to choose and decide which road I will take. My heart desires to stay on the straight and narrow completely for His names sake. Doing the right thing is not always easy to do. Because I am still flesh and blood and just another sinner like the rest of you.  When I take the path that seems greener to me it does not always make me a winner. Because if the path is not what God had intended for me to take it means I will only grow more into a sinner  So with each and every day I need to make the right choices. Grower closer to God means following His direction and tuning out all the wrong voices. My heart belongs to you oh Lord, I know you know my heart. But because I am a sinner each day I need to begin with a new start. My souls cry to you of Lord is that you teach me all your ways. Help me to grow more and more in your likeness with each and every day! Dearest Lord, May you fill my heart always with your love, direction and wisdom. Keep me pliable, obedient and genuinie in my heart to you. With each and every moment my heart wants to always stay true! I praise you and I thank you for all you do! Thank you dear Lord Jesus for loving me as you do! In Jesus name I pray! Amen~ Walking Through Life with Anticipation and Excitement ....Walking Through Life with Anticipation and Excitement.... When I was at the store, picking out a birthday dress (the one in the picture above), for my little girl, I spotted these boots and I just couldn't resist getting them. They are a shiny purple and the color just happened to match the dress perfectly! When she awoke, the morning of her birthday, she was so excited to find, on her table, her new outfit . It was just waiting for her to put it on. Needless to say she fell in love with the dress and boots instantly. Now here it is weeks past her birthday and those are what she chooses to put on her feet everyday! She wore the dress every day for a week after her birthday. I finally had to peel it off of her body and make her take it off but she was happy that she was able to still wear the boots! Every morning that we wake up and open our eyes to another new day, it is another precious gift from God. He has given us another chance to do His will and another chance to follow what it is He has created us to do. God wants us to awake to our new day in the same way that my daughter awoke to hers. He wants us to awake with anticipation and excitement because we know that He has given us the gift, of another day. We have been given the opportunity of another chance. A chance that allows us to follow more closely behind Him as we walk out our lives stepping and following in His footsteps. We have been given the pleasure of living for Him, as we serve Him, our families and friends in all that we do. He has given us another day to reach out to those around us, including those who are strangers to us. When we touch the lives of those, whose paths we may cross as we walk through this journey of life, we are demonstrating the love of Christ. We allow God to use us as His vessel. A vessel that He uses to reach those who may not yet know Him. It gives someone else, an opportunity to know Him and accept Him as their Lord and Savior just in case their tomorrow never comes. So don't take for granted that we will wake up to another tomorrow. Because I am learning more and more with each and every passing day that tomorrow may never come for some of us. Whether we're young or old is not what decides the length of life. God has numbered our days and only He knows what that number is. We should live each day to the fullest as if it was our last on earth. I know when I get to heaven I want to hear.... Matthew 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. God wants us to be excited about waking up. He wants us to anticipate the gift He has waiting for us. The gift of dressing ourselves in the full armor of God, after we have read and soaked ourselves in the His Word, the Word of God. Once we are fully clothed in His armor He wants us to keep it on forever and to never ever want to take it off. Just as my daughter did not ever want to take off her dress God wants us to feel that way about His gift too! He yearns for us to seek Him in all that we do! Asking for His wisdom, guidance and direction in all of the paths that we may walk on in our journey of life. He needs us to step out of the way and allow Him to step in. We need to learn how to put ourselves and our desires aside in order to let Him guide us in where it is He wants us to go. God never promised us that life would be easy. But He did promise to never leave us nor forsake us as we embark on our journey through this earthly life. He has also promised the gift of Salvation to all of those who simply ask for it. It is a free gift for everyone and it is awaiting for you whenever you stop and ask Him for it! If you haven't done so yet, would you take a moment to do so now? Do not put it off until tomorrow for as I said previously said tomorrow may never come. The next minute or hour may not come, we just do not know. So the time to do it is NOW!! Please don't wait! Say the following prayer and enter into the most precious relationship you will ever know! Jesus said....... Revelation 3:20: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Say, Dearest Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I do not deserve the precious gift of eternal life that you so generously offer to all. I know that you died on the cross for my sins in order that I may have Salvation through your death. Through your Crucifixion you bore the sins of the world. I know that without you there is no way into heaven. In your Word you say....... John 14: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. So I am asking you dear Jesus please come into my heart and transform me into who you have created me to be. I ask that you stand before me at the throne of God and proclaim me as yours! I thank you for the best gift of all! In your precious name I pray! Amen~ If you just prayed this prayer and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior. Please post a comment in this post, or leave me a message in the chat box on the side bar or email me privately! I would love for you to share with me about the beginning of your new journey!! Welcome to the kingdom of God! You are now a precious child of the Lord's! See you in heaven one day! Lentils and Cheese, Pile it up Please...Lentils and Cheese, Pile it up Please..... One day I was in a hurry and it was lunch time. So I dug through my pantry and found some canned lentils. I starting concocting and I came up with a recipe my family loved! I have made this many different ways. I usually use Black Heirloom beans (black lentils) but this time I used just regular brown lentils like in the picture above. I will post both recipes. You can try one or both. This recipe is very healthy, and very fast. Do share if you enjoyed it! I always enjoy the feed back. As usual I always use organic products whenever possible! Lentils and Cheese, Pile it up Please 2 Cans of brown lentils or make your own use approx 4-6 cups of cooked beans 4 Heaping Table spoons of Dehydrated garlic granules (more or less to taste) 4 Heaping Table spoons of Dehydrated onion flakes (more or less to taste) 1 Can of mild Rotel Tomatoes (you can use mild, regular or hot, but I warn you even the regular is pretty hot) 1 Can of Mexican Corn 1 Container of Feta Cheese crumbles (or use a block and crumble yourself) Celtic Sea Salt (to taste) 1 Package of Whole Wheat English Muffins Unrefined Olive Oil Put approx 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a pot or pan. Open the cans of lentils and drain out the juice. Take the drained lentils and add them to the pot. Now open the can of corn and drain out the juice also. Now add that to the pot also. Now add the garlic and onions. Open up your can of rotel tomatoes and add them to the pot, (Do NOT drain them). Add salt to taste. Heat all the way through. Open up your english muffins and lightly toast them. After they are toasted pile the bean mixture on top of them and spread it out. Then put the feta cheese on top and drizzle with Olive Oil. Serve and eat. That's it, that is all there is to it. Here is the other recipe. Black Heirloom Lentils and Cheese Pile it up Please 2 cans of the Black Heirloom Lentils 3 Tbsp spoons of garlic powder (from the healthfood store) 3 Tbsp spoons of onion powder Celtic Salt to taste Freshly cracked Pepper to taste 1 Loaf of whole grain bread (homemade makes it even better) 1 Container of Feta Cheese crumbles (Or use a block and crumble it yourself) Unrefined Olive Oil Add about 1 Tbsp of olive oil to the pot or pan. Heat up. Then open cans of lentils and put directly into the pot. With the Black Heirloom beans there is never any juice that I have come across. Now add the seasonings and heat through. Put the bean mixture on top of the bread and spread it out. Now top with the feta cheese and then drizzle with the olive oil. That is it! It is tasty and healthy! I hope you enjoy it! Try it sometime when you need a super quick but healthy meal! Dearest Lord, Thank you as always for such amazing tasty whole foods! In Jesus name I pray Amen~ Hurricane Ike!Hello All! I'm finally back! We have had a REALLY ROUGH week. I'm sure you all know that hurricane Ike hit Texas, but did you know it also hit Ohio???? lol! Seriously, remnants of hurricane Ike combined with a cold front and upper air currents dipped down (or something like that!) and hit us with "hurricane force winds" that had gusts up to about 70- 80 miles an hour!!! This happened LAST Sunday (September 14th) and we lost our electricity and I JUST got it back today!!!! I am wore out from stress!!! We lost ALL our food in the refridgerator and both freezers. It has just been a REALLY ROUGH week. I hope to post a whole lot more about our week soon and I have some amazing pictures (trees toppled and such) that I hope come out well enough to get the gist of this very FREAK windstorm!!!Hand Made Flower Wreaths and Growing Birthday Girls.....Hand Made Flower Wreaths and Growing Birthday Girls...... My little girl is growing up so fast I just cannot believe it!! She turned 7 this year. WOW, where did the time go??? We had 5 boys before having our first girl. We thought we would never have a girl. Now we have 4. Someone later told me, be careful what you ask God for, you just might get it LOL. We did and we got more than we ever imagined we would. So for a special crown this year I went outside and cut some of our wildflowers and some of our japanese honeysuckle flowers and made her this wreath out of them. She loved it. Of course it didn't last more than a day. But the pictures will keep the memory! This wreath was so easy to make. I just took some long vines of the japanese honeysuckles and twisted the ends around each other and then I tied it together. Then we went out and picked a few different purple wildflowers and stuck those in between where the vines were twisted together. Wahlah, that was it. There are more pictures below, including a close up picture of the japanese honeysuckle flowers I mostly used in the making of this wreath. Happy Birthday my sweet precious girl!!!!         Dearest Lord, Thank you for my precious little girl and for all of my children! I am blessed beyond measure! In Jesus name I pray! Amen~ 
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