Blue Skies

Love has long patience, is kind; love is not emulous [of others]; love is not insolent and rash, is not puffed up, does not behave in an unseemly manner, does not seek what is its own, is not quickly provoked, does not impute evil, does not rejoice at iniquity but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
     
Love never fails;

(from 1Corinthains 13)

I have mentioned on several occasions how much this passage has meant to me over the last year or so. Like a treasure hidden in plain sight, but somehow I was blinded to it.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. - 1John1:5

This has been a great year...really a great year. I can't imagine what lies ahead, nor do I really want to know. We are told to take it one day at a time.

Matthew 6:34 You should not, then, be worrying about the morrow, for the morrow will be worrying of itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil.

Happy End of 2011!

Christmas Party Tips

I was thinking about some of the ways I have learned to make Christmas gatherings a smooth(er) thing. 


Things I wish I would have been doing all along, but hey- live and learn.



We usually have three or four Christmas gatherings per December with our extended family. All of these are at places other than home, so all the goodies have to be packed up and taken with us. This seems like it would be pretty simple, but it is surprisingly not.




1.) Bring bags! I found the large shopping bags work well. I try not to bring trash bags in fear of getting them mixed up with trash in the clean up process.  As the kids get older I have started to give them  their own bag to carry their own stuff.

I haven't stepped foot in a Toys 'R Us in years, my MIL gave me this bag.

2.) Try to keep them from opening every single little plastic accessory until getting home.....if possible. 




3.) Don't be too quick to toss the box and instructions to something. I found this out firsthand this past weekend. Hold onto the things needed to return an item at least until you are sure it works. 

SHARPIES!!

Perhaps the greatest thing since sliced bread

Everyone must have a Sharpie at all times. I now have one that has made a home in my purse so I'll never be without one.





These are a great way to mark identical gifts or most importantly, plastic drinking cups.

Oh red plastic drinking cup, how you look exactly like the other 40 red plastic drinking cups half full of room temperature corn syrup based beverage. How I wish there were a way to know who you belong to!

 When the kids get their first drink at these things, I mark their cup and that cuts way back on the get-a-new-cup-every-ten-minutes thing.




Also a routine for us is to decide about 1/2 hour out when we are going to be leaving. It's then time to gather, I make sure everyone goes to the bathroom and the Mr. starts loading the car.



Last but not least, in the hustle and bustle we should all try not to forget to say thank you. To thank the hosts, not only for the gifts, but all the planning and preparation that goes into hosting.  They spend a great deal of thought and possibly expense, and we should show our gratitude!


I hope you all have a great Christmas weekend and that we can show the light that is within us to those who may not know that LIGHT yet!




I would love to hear your tips.

Our Great Big Weekend

Two family Christmas gatherings


One completely trashed house (even though neither gathering was here)


One huge hand-me-down TV that the Mr. didn't want to bring home, but did, he is good to us:)


Two fridges stuffed with various leftovers (again, we didn't host...I'm not sure what happened)


And.....a new camera for me! I wasn't 'specting it at all, but it is sure appreciated. I'm so totally spoiled.

It's much different than my old camera...but I tried to get a shot of this superbly cloudy sky this morning.

 I'll be using today to play with my camera get the house back to normal.

You're a Mean One... Mr. Grinch

My shift in thinking started about this time last year.





There were little nudges along the way, of which I have or will get to telling about, but since it's Christmas time, I'll do this one.





I found out that someone in my little world was involved with sin. And this is one of the "biggies" in the evangelical Christian world...okay so it's biblically a sin, too, but that is really not what this is about.






What was I going to do?






Well, at first I kind of freaked out. And then I made it my personal mission to turn everyone around.



I'll save them all!




That didn't last long. I informed all involved parties that they were on the way to you-know-where and that God wasn't at all pleased with this...I may have been a bit nicer about it, I'm not sure.  Of course, God is not pleased with sin, don't get me wrong, but isn't that what Jesus was all about?.....



But I digress.





Back to Christmas.




So this person (the sinner-you understand) was at our family Christmas party. When opening gifts, the gift from this person was so personal and thoughtful....not expensive or anything, but just downright thoughtful.



I felt like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes.

Google images

What a butt I had been. Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.





I still knew what was going on was wrong, but I had been handling it all wrong, too. I was afraid. Afraid I say!





How many times did Jesus say don't be afraid?






I got to thinking about 1Corinthains 13 again, a real turning point, how Love BEARS all things, it BELIEVES all things, it HOPES all things.





And some things started snapping internally (not in a bad way). GOD IS LOVE. I am not showing love, internally or externally. I'm being a big religious sourpuss and I don't want to be this person!!!





I'm asking the Lord to change me.

Lunchtime Reading - Humility

I was doing a little blog reading on my "lunch break" over here and came across this article:



Go ahead and click over, it's short and to the point:)




How to be Humble

ht: http://doingmybestforhim.blogspot.com/


This is an area that is important for me to work on....the idea that I don't have the most interesting thing to say when meeting someone new or even talking to friends. AARGH! This is a hard one. I find so often that I just can't wait to blabber about whatever I'm thinking rather than actually l i s t e n i n g to another human being. 


I have been really impressed by some good listeners lately. I want to be a good listener!


Anyone else have trouble with this?

Glass Jar Picture Frame

I am a super glass jar hoarder. I just love them for everything.





So, when I saw this idea for using them for picture frames, I was determined that someone was getting one for Christmas.




Fortunately, I had the picture ready to give my grandma already, now I have a nice presentation.

This photo is fuzzy, not the actual one:)

I decorated the lid with a piece of cloth hot glued on and a ribbon.




The beauty of it is, that the picture comes right out, so if Grandma would rather put it in a traditional frame, she can do so very easily.


I had to contain myself from going crazy with this right now, but it will probably be used again.

I've linked my little project here:)

And it just kept Raining

Thank you Father that it is not up to me.

Thank you that it is by the faith of Your Son that I am complete.

I was beaten down yesterday, weak, selfish, irritable, whiny, grumpy, unforgiving.

Loud youngsters, messes that just kept on coming,

And outside, it just kept raining.

The light of the sun has not been shining, and that makes me a bit sad.

Knowing nothing is wrong, and I am so blessed, but just being discontent with the day laid out before me.

Inside, it was raining.

But I am thankful that You are God. 

You are patient, You are longsuffering. 

You didn't treat me the way I deserved. 

You remember that I am only dust. 

I can start again today, knowing that your mercies are new!

Thank you Father.

Frugal or Miserly?

I have teetered on the edge at times.


The gift giving season is here and as much as I have protested in years past, it's just not going away.


Maybe instead of stamping my feet and protesting the commercialism and pagan-ish holiday roots, I could just try to get something thoughtful for my family.



Here are my guidelines this year:

 I will not try to force my beliefs or lifestyle on someone with my gifts. No one in my family wants handmade soap or herbal teas...Oh I would LOVE such a thing,  but I'm not buying for me.


Homemade gifts will be limited to something that the recipient would actually want or appreciate.


I will do my best to remember that I am trying to express my appreciation for my loved ones, not spend as little as possible.       However...


Gifts don't have to be expensive, a thoughtful item is often much more appreciated than a pricey one.


I will try my best to buy local and non (you-know-what-giant-country-in-the-east) made things when at all possible.

 
In addition, I am trying to institute the practice of keeping my eyes peeled all year round for things that would make good gifts. I know people who do this and I am so jealous!

So now I need to hear from you all. What are some of the best given/received gifts you have given/received? 

What do you most appreciate in a gift? Tell me your favorites!

Conviction City

In our church service yesterday, one of our elders gave a message about the tongue and gossip. This is something that has been in my thoughts lately, too, as I have a difficult time with this.

I wonder why?

and the tongue no one of men is able to subdue, [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,  (James 3:8)

oh yeah...that's why.


Be that as it may, we are still told earlier in this letter that:

for we all make many stumbles; if any one in word doth not stumble, this one [is] a perfect man, able to bridle also the whole body;(James 3:2)

And this has been a wonderment to me. Jesus said that out of the mouth come what is in the heart. However, couldn't one have an evil heart and yet not speak? If one refrains from saying what one really thinks, that doesn't really change the heart.





Thinking on it further, I imagine that even if one does think something, but refrains from speaking, this is a good thing.





Words are powerful.

Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue, And those loving it eat its fruit.(Proverbs 18:21)

We most remember words that powerfully build up and unfortunately words that tear down. I know I do.



Paul writes:

Let no corrupt word out of your mouth go forth, but what is good unto the needful building up, that it may give grace to the hearers; (Eph. 4:29)

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. (Romans 14:19)

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips (Col 3:8)

 I've sure spent enough time tearing down, I would like to try to start building up! Why is it so much easier to complain or to criticize or to gossip than to say things that would build another up?

Eucharisteō

eucharisteō:

1) to be grateful, feel thankful

2) give thanks

(I'm not a Greek scholar, but I do love this site!) 

We have an awesome God and awesome hope and nothing to fear! From 1 Corinthians 15:

19If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

 20But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

 21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

 23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

 24Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

 25For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

 26The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

 27For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

 28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

God IS Good

Psalm 100

 ¹A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Shout to Jehovah, all the earth.
 ²Serve Jehovah with joy, come before him with singing.
 ³Know that Jehovah He [is] God, He made us, and we are His, His people -- and the flock of His pasture.
 ⁴Enter ye His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, Give ye thanks to Him, bless ye His Name.
 ⁵For good [is] Jehovah, to the age His kindness, And to generation and generation His faithfulness! 

Our pastor in the sermon yesterday (sermon linked here for any interested) featured this psalm saying about verse 5 that there is no qualifier when the psalmist says God is good. I really liked that.


He talks about why we should give thanks and shares some of his journey in faith. One thing I have been learning is that everyone has a story. God is good like that. He does what He has to do to bring us to the end of ourselves.

If He hasn't done this for you, He will. If He wants you, He will get you.



There are so many great people I have met at our local fellowship.


I wanted to link to this very special family from our church. Take time to read their story. 

There are also those who are fighting secret, private battles. Stories that are not told. We never know who might be in pain, pain that we cannot see on the surface. 

Let us try to be gentle with everyone, since people we meet may be in the midst of a trial. We may never know what kind words will do or what unkind ones may do. 

But HE is good! His Mercy endures forever.

Popcorn!

I was wanting some popcorn yesterday and we happened to finally be all out of the store-bought stash.

That meant time to start using our garden produce.

Back in September we harvested.

My handsome fellers

What beautiful colors!

I took a few cobs out of storage yesterday.

Taking it off the cob can be a bit tedious and painful...

But very very yummy!

It was great, and it worked, and I think we shall have delicious popcorn through the winter.

My stove top popcorn method: Cover the bottom of a pan with oil. Put in a few kernels, once those testers are popped add enough to cover the bottom of the pan (I don't measure). Wait until popping resumes and shake pan to make sure none of it burns..burnt popcorn isn't so great. Once popping slows considerably, I take it off the heat and wait another minute or two. Transfer to big ol' container and salt and/or butter as desired.

This post is linked up at This Good Steward!

Warm November Rain

I got a better picture than this at first but then lost it:(

I walked outside this morning to this. It looks so thunderstormy..I love thunderstorms.


As I recall, there was a thunderstorm last November, too.

Happy 11.11.11!

Hey it only happens every 100 years:)


Here's a fun song about 11. We could all brush up on our multiplication tables.

The Plant and Me...At Last

Any of you reading this summer know of my plant saga.

memories

After extensive research on the net and in various books here at home, I decided on a particularly brave day that this was indeed stinging nettle and I was going to use it!





I am happy to say that after drinking several cups of it I'm still here and will be inviting our volunteer to share the box with my motherwort.



The stinging nettle in this short video looks exactly like what I have:

Hooray!

Check out the video and see if you have any treasures hanging around at your house:)

Thoughts on a Possible Nonapocalypse*

An old picture, but pretty awesome, no?

I thought I may do some writing in the next few days or possibly weeks about some of the ways my mind is being renewed (I hope it's renewing and not malfunctioning..lol).



The main theme for this line of thinking is that Jesus may or may not be coming back very very soon, but that is okay, either way. It is now becoming more important to me what I am doing to show His love in these last or maybe not so last times.



Eschatology is something that I have always been very passionate about, right from the very beginning of my walk. The thought that we were in the final generation and Christ could come back any second was something that never really disturbed me. Others would say things like they wanted to see their kids grow up or they were not ready and such and I couldn't imagine why.





So here is me, little miss end times, making sure all my loved ones know that Jesus is coming back any minute and they had better be getting it together. Meanwhile, Lazarus (proverbially) is lying outside my gates.





Not that there is anything wrong with being prophetically minded, but something was certainly lacking in my spirituality. I was becoming a big noisy noise. I had no love. It was about this time last year that the Lord started to shake things up, force me to think about how I saw Him, my family, and people in general.





And here is something I found out:

Upon listening to some teachers who focus was on love, it just so happened that a couple are not premillenial (gasp!) and even though I don't agree with them, I was able to give their eschatology a hearing and discovered that they (this man was a preterist) aren't scripturally illiterate monsters, but have taken what they honestly feel the text says. The verses they have to explain away are no more ridiculous or numerous than the ones we futurists do.

I'm not ready to jump camps at all, I just realized that we are all imperfect, we are all trying to make sense of it, and we are all His children.



Paul says:
...for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;  and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.



more to come...perhaps.

*title disclaimer...I do believe that Jesus will physically return to this earth, and that there will be an end times scenario...just maybe not as soon as I once thought.

Tree Fun

Remember the drum set from last summer?

Mr. Invention (my second-born: this is now his bloggy name) built this on a super-hot Sunday afternoon

It soon moved into the garage to keep him out of the elements





 Then it's pieces were dispersed for other things.





It's back baby!

Behold the tree drums!

Clouds XVII

 

Upon looking outside, my six year old exclaims:

"Wow! Blue Clouds"

Wow:)

Cleaning FInals

The final day of my cleaning weeks was a very nice one.  After Thursday's day of rain and gloom, here comes sunshine.

It is easier to climb this way.

I got some of the windows done, sunshine and all, and gave the dining room chairs a good scrub and dry outside.

Just catchin' some rays

I see a helper in the background

For all of you keeping score:

• Wash all living room/ dining room/ kids' room curtains (DONE)
• Ditto on the windows (MOSTLY DONE)
• Clean all living room and dining room upholstery (DONE)
• Wash down all furniture (SORT OF)
• Dust (or wash if needed) the walls and baseboards in these areas (KIND OF)
• Mop all area floors (SOMEWHAT)
• Organize the linen closet (CHECK!)
• De clutter, give or throw stuff away. (YES)
• Get fall/winter clothes ready to go for the kids. (FINIS)

Yay for cleaning.

The Whole Yard is Getting Lazy

I was discussing my lazy basketball hoop the other day.

Slacker

Mr. (or Mrs.) Tree thought he/she would also have a lie down.

Wind and rain did it in Wednesday night.

I'll just put up my roots and some of your yard, too.

It will be easier to climb this way.

The "pine cone" tree is threatening to strike as well.

One good gust and I'm outta here!

Curds and Whey

whey and curds

Take off the whey and it's cream cheese, who knew?

That's all the "yogurt" left after straining out the whey

I got this crazy idea to use whey to soak grains and such (see here).




Whether I actually do it or not, we'll see.  At least I can make some cheesecake:)

I see you over there...I'm getting to you.

Don't Sit There I Just Cleaned That!

I'm thankful for removable cushion covers and a nice line-drying day!

Just kidding,



I won't say that;)



I decided not to clean windows yesterday as it was sunny and I remember from last year's window washing that it is best to clean them on a cloudy day. So I'm hoping for some cloudiness this week without rain for just a little bit.



Instead I removed what could be removed from the other two couches and threw 'em in the machine. I will clean the rest the hard way later. 


I also seem to have an awful lot of kitchen work that is keeping me busy, but I guess that just goes with gardening, and /or buying fresh food in bulk. Whew!

Hello wheat spout-lets

So far the week has started on a good note, and I'm taking some advice that it isn't important if everything is super clean! If my whole list gets done and I lose my peace, or neglect to show the love of Christ (i.e. giving my children the impression that clean windows are more important than they are) then it is definitely not worth it.

Our neighbor's fire pit. An inviting area for the kiddos to roast weenies or just sit and talk to him....a great neighbor.

Monday Facts

Fact: I'm lacking motivation to keep posting about my two week fall clean.

Fact: I didn't get much done on Friday.

Fact: I still have about half of my list to do and I wanna do none of it!

Fact: It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days after today, so I guess I'm going outside to clean windows.

Good Morning world!

Fact: I will take baby-steps, set my timer and go.

Fact: We went to the apple orchard yesterday after church.

Fact: I bought a bushel of apples.

Fact: That is a lot of apples.

Fact: My dear family is expecting me to make some apple butter.

Fact: I don't like apple butter, applesauce, or apple pie.

Fact: I did have some warm apple crisp at the orchard that was topped with ice cream. (I also suspect it was drugged since I wanted to sleep immediately after eating it).

Fact: I had to wash caramel out of my two year old's hair upon getting home.

That's only about half of them..and FACT my fridge needs cleaning.

Fact: I've linked up my Monday Facts here.

Distracted...but Still Chugging Along

Still blogging away about my adventures in fall cleaning here. 



'Twas kind of a strange day yesterday...rainy and blah (not complaining) after being spoiled with several days of unseasonably warm and sunny weather.

See?...blah. About the basketball goal on its side...don't ask.

I lacked...the motivation.  Plus, seeing as it were rainy, I chucked any and all window washing plans and just decided to go with the flow.





On a break, I popped on over to one of my fav-or-ite blogs which led me to this blog and several subsequent youtube videos and I kind of blew some of my afternoon project time...but that's okay.






We are on break after all. I have been pondering about some food preservation ideas (more later) and this went right along with it, so I'll count it as home-economics research.





Actual WORK done:


I washed up one of the couches (we have three) and got one of the boys outfitted for the winter.  I also found a few boxes of clothes that everyone here has outgrown and marked those for giving away.




And the research.;)

Big Box O' Weeds

Or as I see them, very useful and beautiful plants.

Ahhh, my lovelies

Very useful and also overgrown  and neglected plants that the Mr. was asking me to do something about. The motherwort is taking over the box. Hubby keeps assuring me that we can take a whole bunch out next year (and I would never miss it) to make room for other things... I don't know.

Remember me? I'm still here ya know.

Sure, it's more than I will ever use, but still. She's so happy there and that makes me happy, but a new friend has joined the box (more on this later) and I'd like to give it some room.





So I took a detour from my fall cleaning to deal with that and some tomatoes (more on that later too).  I did get the window and curtains washed in the girls' room.  The dining room curtains took a ride with them in the washer and are now clean as well.

Clean curtains and trimmed-back weed plant box.